BBB Contest

I'm starting my own contest tomorrow, May 1st. In an effort to "Be A Better Blogger" I've decided to enter myself in a "Post-a-day-in-the-month-of-May" contest. My rules for myself are simple:

1. Post a blog entry every weekday during the month of May.
2. Weekends and Memorial Day are not included: I can post if I want though - cuz it's my blog!
3. I can post about anything I want on my weekdays.

My hope is that I can develop the blogging habits of so many of you to whom I turn every day for a dose of humor, knitting talk, cats, life talk etc.

I'm the only entrant in this contest - so if I'm successful and become a better blogger - does that make you guys the winners? Because if it does, I'm not inclined to send prizes out to all of you!!

Wish be luck, encourage me along the way, and if you have an tips on how to be a good daily blogger, please pass them on!!

See you tomorrow.

The Ins and Outs of Knitting

ALERT: If your name is Monica and you live and Columbus, Indiana, please move along. There's nothing to see here today. Come back in a few days. Say, after a package has arrived at your home. Move along now.....

This just in.....

and this...

I really should get these guys together!

It embarrasses me to say until a few minutes ago, like when I opened the package, I was a complete Socks That Rock virgin. Never owned any at all. Now, I own two precious skeins: one in "Foo Foo" the other in "Titania". And two new sock books. The possibilities are endless.

And this just out....

... on its way to Monica for winning the contest way back in February. I tried to make up for the fact that this was so long in coming by sending lots of fun stuff. I included some alpace yarn, hand-dyed by me, Misti Alpaca and Addi Lace needles for a Swallowtail Shawl, a mini-keychain sock blocker kit, a Lantern Moon black sheep tape measure, Minnesota-made cranberry chutney with rosemary crackers, a Frabjous Fibers felted trinkets pouch, and some beaded stitch markers. If I could just get myself to drop this off at the post office ....

Sockerella

Before heading off on our spring trip to Florida I had some time to kill one afternoon so I wandered through the bookstore looking for some good poolside reads. I spent a a good hour or so, going from section to section and finally landed in the Memoirs Section with two books: The Glass Castle and The Year of Magical Thinking. I'll just let you know that I loved one and strongly disliked the other but since this is not a book review post, that's all I'll say.

I paid for my books and set off into the huge parking lot and ... no keys. I've never lost my keys. I've lost my car (a lot lately) but never my keys. Back into the bookstore to ask the cashier if I left my keys at the desk. He tells me to check at Customer Service. The gentleman at the Customer Service desk says that, yes a set of keys has been turned in and asks if I know where I might have left the keys. "No, because that's where I would have looked first you idiot" is what I want to say but, I really need these keys. He laughs as he tells me that they were found in the "Memory and Brain Teasers Section". I laugh as I think to myself, I don't even remember being in the Memory and Brain Teasers Section.

Mr. Customer Service retreats to the back room to fetch my keys (had I really been gone long enough to have them locked up?). When he returns he asks if I can identify the keys. "Uhm, I think so. I mean, I guess so. They are keys, and they.... "

Suddenly. I smile as I whip this out of the pocket from which my keys must have fallen:









If the sock fits!

OK - Break Over

Here's a tip for bloggers: If you take a really long break from blogging, you'll have a lot to say when you come back. In all truthfulness, the break didn't start out to be a break, but then - life happened. First things first, there was a contest in the last post to guess the projects I worked on during our winter retreat. Since no one guessed all of them correctly, Monica from "Monica Knits ...A LOT!!" was randomly selected, by my able canine assistant, as the winner. She'll be receiving a terrific prize package in a much more timely manner than this notification. For the record, the projects were, the KISS bag from Sally Melville's third Knitting Experience book, Cookie A's Monkey Socks, and the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits, Fall 2006. The KISS bag is 95% complete at this point, 1.5 Monkey socks are complete. Swallowtail is finished and was given to a friend for her birthday.

But so much else has happened. Jon and I went to Mexico for 5 days. Most of the time it rained; when there was sun, we took plenty of advantage of it. When there wasn't sun, we took plenty of advantage of that time too.

We celebrated Valentine's Day in our usual manner complete with the homemade, heart-shaped pizzas. The tiny one in the middle is Holli's. Valentine's Day is a big deal around here..

Jon's company announced it was being sold to it's fiercest competitor. When you're in telecom, everyone is you fiercest competition.You never want to be purchased. We have no idea what this will bring for us but we're looking forward to the adventure. After four years at the yarn store in town, I decided to take a break and am now a full-time stay-at-home mom. Lots of closets have been cleaned, refrigerator has been scrubbed, laundry is clean, dinners are planned and balanced. Kathryn and Jon are hiding for fear that will be scrubbed or thrown out with the old clothes. It's an adjustment around here for all.

Also on my mind is my dear friend and neighbor. She survived Hodgkin's Disease 12 years ago only to discover she had breast cancer last fall. A routine scan last week, followed by a needle biopsy, confirmed the presence of breast cancer cells in her liver. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

There's a lot more but not that I really want to bore you with or blab about here. Suffice it to say that our spring trip to Sanibel, Florida was a treasure this year. Ten days - 85 degrees, sunny, old friends and new ones - it really was something I needed this year.