Finished Project and a Free Pattern

Finished Robin's warm wool socks finally (as with all socks, the first one was knit in a couple of days, the second took a couple of months). They will be great to wear around the house on these chilly mornings.

Nothing fancy, but I wrote up the pattern for these which you can get as a .pdf here

Week 2 Results

I lost 1.4 lbs. Respectable! This week's goal is to cut out the glass(es) of wine. As soon as I finish the bottle I have ;-)

Steve Barton, Male Nurse!

I am so proud of Steve! He has decided to go back to school with the goal of getting a nursing degree! If you know Steve, you know he would be an excellent nurse, especially if he decides to work with geriatric patients (RNs DO have to wipe a**es sorry Skyn), and if he did that, he would become the second person in the history of the ICNE to choose geriatrics as his specialty ;-)

Anyways, if you are available to tutor him through chemistry, just email lol.

Yay For Befana!

Susna sent me a Befana gift: The Emergency Knitting Bag, with a darling little tiny tape measure and a teeny tiny wooden crochet hook. Now I'm all prepared for those dreadful times when I'm stuck somewhere with nothing to do (tae kwon do practice, waiting in the car for kids to get out of school, sitting in the doc's office etc). Thanks Lorene! You're the best!

Just An Idea...

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It Can Now Be Revealed...

At least I hope the B has received her Haiku Contest prize. If not, stop reading now Mary Beth!

This is the super appropriate Grand Prize for the Fluther Haiku Contest. Meet JOSEPH. I have a pattern for a knitted Nativity Set (Alan Dart, and I def. need to make it, it's super cute). Could this BE any better for the authoress of that timeless classic in poetry "Joseph"? I expect Joe to have a place of honor in your home Mrs. D.

And in further contest/prize news, I just came up with the MOST BRILLS idea for Katie's prize. As you may recall, she was the chief whiner about B-Z winning the contest with a non-haiku entry, so I threw her a bone and gave her 2nd prize.

I'm not at liberty to tell what the prize is, but let me assure you, it's going to be beyond great. It's going to take me a little while to knit it, but it'll be worth the wait Katie!

Nerd Alert

So I'm totally looking nerdy today. I'd take a pix, but you know how my pictures turn out and a self-portrait would be really not pretty.

My glasses had an unfortunate collision with Mikey's noggin. That thing is like a boulder. He came away unscathed, but my specs got broken. I had to put them together with tape until I got home (hence the nerd/Poindexter reference), then Skyn repaired them with some epoxy. I still look like a nerd, but at least I can see. Off to the optomitrist for new spectacles on pay day!

Maybe for something like this?:

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Pt. II

I won a free pattern for this darling "Evie" doll. I NEVER win anything so I'm pumped. My winning entry said that I had 4 great-nieces who love their babies and this dolly would be perfect for them. Guess I'd better get knittin'.

So True!

This was on "Go Fug Yourself" today:

I recently considered buying a Slanket to wear around the house. Until I realized that, for me, getting a Slanket was like the equivalent of taking out a television ad announcing to the world that I have just given up.

LOL, I might just have to buy one now!

Finished Socks!

My knitting seems to be in a bit of a lull right now. Need an exciting project (yarngina anyone?). I did finish the socks I am going to give Lorraine for her birthday (a couple of days late for the big day). Her ankles are much skinnier than mine so they should fit her just fine! Why the designer named these "Sequoia" socks is beyond me, my legs are like tree trunks and they don't fit me that's for sure...

Dream Job...

For reals! This was in today's newspaper:
SLEEP STUDY
WSU Spokane Sleep and
Performance Research
Center. 14-day in-laboratory sleep research study, pays up to $2,235. Must be healthy, non-smoker, 22-40 years old, with normal
sleep schedule.

I'm out because 1. I'm old, and 2. my sleep schedule in no way qualifies as 'normal'. But I totally would do this if I could!

Just What I Thought Today Before I Went Swimming...

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Week 1 Results

I lost 5 lbs! Yay!!! Amazing how well Weight Watchers works if you actually follow their plan

:-)

I'll Take "Potent Potables" for $1000...

OMG dream come true! I just got an e-mail saying on-line tryout tests for my FAVE game show "Jeopardy" are coming up. I have to try! I know if I ever got on, all the categories would involve math and geography and I'd be one of those losers who end up minus a zillion bucks, but if the categories were movies, books, or knitting, I'm in like flynn.

BOFB

When we were kids, B-Z and I sometimes ended up down at Rosaia Bros. together. In a desperate attempt to keep her grandchildren occupied so she could actually get some work done, Toddie let us use her typewriter. B & I created the fabulous newspaper "Bits of Fairy Business". God, I would give a million bucks to have an edition of this (I'm sure!) masterpiece of the news world.

I think it also involved a lot of glitter and whatever stuff we could find to paste on. I don't remember whether our news content was actually about fairies and their doings, which would have made a rather short newspaper since I don't think either one of us ever actually SAW any fairies around. But I'm guessing we made up a lot of fairy tales. No wonder I love reading The Star!

Rascal!

LOL! Logan has discovered Sharpies, evidently. At least she didn't color a pirate's beard like Alex did.

I Got Nothin'

To blog about that is. Same old same old here. Our snow is finally melting and it's at that hideous dirty stage where you just long for it to all go away. Do I need a vacation to someplace warm? No doubt.

I'm procrastinating on finishing my Advent Tree ornaments, but need to get them done so I can put the tree away till next year. Meantime, I'm making a pretty pair of socks and selling off a bunch of my stash as I decided I need money more than yarn right now. No wonder I'm depressed! I love my yarn stash like you wouldn't believe.

And I got in big trubs for letting the boys buy weapons at the dollar store. Call me irresponsible.

Get Em Home For Befana 2010

I'm just going to quit with the week # count, because it's too depressing to realize my weeks of clever blog posts STILL haven't gotten F&I back home! But the campaign will continue in '09!

This week, I remind our faraway Virginians that if they were at home, we could have celebrated the feast of Befana on Jan. 6!

All of us Sundstrom kids fondly remember going to Toddie & Baba's house for a great 2nd Christmas celebration on "Befana". We got all of our favorite eats (which included grissini [bread sticks] wrapped in Oh Boy Oberto Salami, celery sticks squirted with Cheez Whiz, olives to put on each finger, delicious roast beef with Toddie's to-die-for roast potatoes, and lots of homemade vino for the grown-ups). We got more presents too, absolutely the best part!!

For non-Italians, La Befana is a witch visits all the children in Italy on Epiphany, and gives coal to the baddies, candy and gifts to the goodies. And any day you get presents is a good day --- see what you are missing!

Here's a kind of crazy (but very Italian) poem/song about Befana:

(Italian)La Befana vien di nottecon le scarpe tutte rottecol vestito alla "romana"viva viva la Befana !!
Porta cenere e carboniai bambini cattivoniai bambini belli e buoniporta chicchi e tanti doni !

(English)The Befana comes by night

With her shoes all broken

With a dress in Roman style

Up, up with the Befana !!
She brings ashes and coal

To bad nasty children

To the nice good child

She brings candies and many gifts !

Now, if Fred & Irene manage to make it home this year, I PROMISE to revive Befana for them (and all the other good children in my family). Maybe even make those delish roast potatoes!

Back On The Horse

Pia, Katie and I all re-started Weight Watchers today. OK, they had to drag me there, but once I got there I got a little more enthused. And boy do I need WW! Here's to a healthier 2009!

BEST VIDEO EVER!

This is SO funny!

Lasik In My Future?

So I woke up this morning, looked at my alarm clock (which is old fashioned with hands not digital) and saw it was 6:10. Got up, made coffee, went in to check my e-mail and looked at the time down in the corner of my computer screen. It's not 6:10, it is 2:30! I may have been hanging with the boys too long -- they are just learning to tell time and don't always see the difference between the little hand and the big hand. Or maybe I just need Lasik so I can actually SEE the clock.

BFF!

Liam took this picture of Alex and me today. No school again! We are hanging out at my house. Liam and I made popcorn using Pia's old-fashioned stove-top popcorn popper. He was amazed, and explained to Mikey "this is how people made popcorn a long time ago". I guess pre-microwave WAS a long time ago, but the popper 'corn is def. the BEST.

An End to the Big Skid?

The Zags finally got off the schneid! Beating Tennessee in OT. Of course, I didn't get to watch the end, having given up on our team when we were looking rather sucky in the 2nd half. That'll learn me.

Super Yuk!

School is closed AGAIN today, due to super-icy side streets. It's like a skating rink out there! Roofs are collapsing all over town, luckily ours has a steep pitch so we aren't in imminent danger of cave-in. Pia hasn't worked in weeks, poor thing (I'm sure she's missing her students like crazy ;-) The boys and I are hanging around the house relaxing. Maybe I will get some knitting done, if the boys let me (usually they insist I put the knitting down so they can sit on my lap. This phase probably won't last much longer, so I try to take all the snuggles I can get)

The 2008 Total!

I managed to complete a total of 41 knitting projects in 2008! Plus the t-shirt quilt! My grand total was assisted considerably by the Advent Tree ornaments, which are still not quite finished.

My fave? So hard! I love Mikey's dog sweater, Piggy and Munchy the pig and penguin ornaments, my various 'mystery' knitalongs, and the Beer Sweaters were all a lot of fun to do, and turned out well.

What's on the needles in '09? Lots of stuff! I'm trying to finish the ornaments so I can put them away, I still have 2 shawls to do (the Halloween Mystery Shawl and Mystic Something or Other), I have tons of socks I want to knit, and I am going to make the Great American Aran Afghan out of CASHMERE!!! Woot Woot that is going to be the most fab blanket EVER. Oh, and I want to knit some cute sweaters for the little girls I happen to know and love, plus the boys have a long list of items they need (starting with a boat! for Alex, that would be a life-size boat mind you). I am also planning to knit a couple of sweaters for ME, as I never seem to have anything warm and handy to toss on when I get chilly. It's either that or buy a 'slanket' (never). Plus I need mittens!

As you can see, there's no shortage of projects in the offing. Yay for snowy weather so I can stay in and knit!

YMCA

the boys and I spent the afternoon at the Y. It's a super nice facility and we had a lot of fun. We swam for about 2 hours (and Shamu the whale aka Lavs even got in the water and didn't cause a tidal wave). The slide there is a blast! The twins are very daring, they can go down 'criss cross applesauce', laying flat, head first, etc. RJ hasn't quite mustered up the courage yet, but soon. And Mikey & I went together --- once. That was enough for our little swimmer.

They also have a rad climbing wall. Try to imagine these are good pictures:

Mikey aka Spider baby! He was determined he was old enough to go. I think Mama had a minor coronary when I told her, but it's pretty safe (I think) He must have gone up at least 20 times. At the end, the nice guys who man the ropes were on a first-name basis with him, and told him "See ya, Mikey" when we left. Cute!

Liam venturing up the wall on the hard side.

Here's Alex climbing. Note that all the boys were wearing snow boots, so it's even more impressive that they were able to climb the wall. They are all strong! And pretty fearless, though there were a few little tears when they got 'stuck' way up high. RJ naturally chose any activity which was as far away from us as possible. So no pix of The Invisible Man.

And here's our baby once we got home. It's fun to go to the YMCA!

Let Me Clarify...

Lorraine and our boy Jon Helen ARE 'an item'!!! We love having Jon here, the boys think he is a combo God/Power Ranger/Kung Fu Master/Builder of Anything/Dump Run Guru, and of course teacher of every cool thing a boy ought to know.

Now we just have to find more stuff for him to remodel so we can keep him here 4ever!!!

Yeah, That's Just What I Think

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New Year's Eve Fun!

Steve and I met up with Lorraine, Jon (as Alex whispered to me: "Jon & Mama sitting in a tree!!!..."), and the boys at First Night for some NY Eve fun. Spokane puts on a great celebration downtown on NYE for the whole family. We somehow managed to miss the entire kids' arts/crafts/entertainment venue but still had a great time and found plenty of stuff to do:

RJ checking out the crazy lady knitting with giant needles.

Spokane has a fabulous carrousel, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009. Of course, we had to take a ride. Liam and Alex were expert at snatching the rings! Alex rode with his light saber, never can tell when you might need to shout "Hi Yo, Silver!" and battle a bad guy when you are horseback riding.

The "Bubble Wrap Run" was our favorite. Great noise maker!

Jon and Mama enjoying the festivities.

Mikey with his light saber. He had to keep it out of Jon's clutches, or else he wasn't getting it back. We should have bought 5 of them!

Obi Wan Alex

The twins on the PF Chang's ginormous horse statue.

Our best New Year's Eve faces

Xmas 2008

Here are a few pix from our little Christmas Day celebration. The girls (Pia & Katie) came over and we exchanged gifts and had breakfast. We missed our VA-ers!!! The gifts given and received were perfect, Santa must have been listening this year.

I think Katie's favorite gift was the 'dog print' ornaments Cara sent from VA. They even had some authentic dirt and hair on them. Car said it took her about 10 tries to get Lois and Walt's paws immortalized. Good crafting, Car!

I went all "Martha" on the girls, and made them this basket using a favorite sweater of Pia's that had gotten felted in the washer. It turned out really cute! Then I loaded the sweater-basket with a lot of yarn so they'd have plenty of materials for winter knitting projects.

I knit Skyn a pair of fingerless gloves for snow-shoveling. Unfortch, I accidently made them both left handed, but he's so nice he didn't mention it. Or maybe he has two left hands? Kind of like Eugene Levy in "Best in Show"...

The girls feigning extreme excitement while opening their presents.

More excitement while cooking our breakfast.

Here's the cute new Santa they gave me. A fine addition to the collection!