Books Galore!!!

Yes, my friends, it is that time again. The only thing that surpasses this on my list is Stitches. It's the St. Louis Book Fair. I usually pick up about 6 months worth of reading material in one weekend. I've come up with a strategy to the whole book fair thing. I go on Friday night to try to get books on my reading list before things get too picked over. This is tonight's haul:

The two shorter stacks are for my aunt. (I'm so nice). The taller stack is mine. I finally got a copy of the Nanny Diaries and two Susan Vreeland books that I've been looking at. I'll make my second foray for miscellaneous paperbacks on Sunday afternoon once they start dropping the prices. Yippee. Just in time for my traveling month.

Tomorrow is girls day out. We're going to lunch and to paint pottery and a mystery event that Beth has planned. Mmmm... I'm very curious. I'm going to try to remember to bring my camera so I can take some pictures.

The Soleil shines...

Well, the sun sort of shone today, but it was freakin' cold for this time of year. I insisted on wearing sandals to work though and the office was like a meat locker. Froze my little piggies. It's supposed to be mostly cloudy, rainy and chilly all weak long. Yuck. It will warm up just in time for me to go to Tampa on Monday, I'm sure.

So, here it is. The first round of the pattern at the bottom of the Soleil tank. I'd show a close up, but the pictures all turned out blurry. I'll post another update soon.

The Dark Side

It's been so long since I've had to cast on more than 100 stitches, but I did it today. Yes, I cast on for the Soleil tank from Knitty.com. More pictures once I start knitting. I had to come get on-line to see the picture so I can try to figure out the lace pattern so I decided to blog while I had time.

I had a great weekend. I did absolutely nothing. Yep. I did the couch potato thing. I took a nap. I did bestir myself to knit a dishcloth, but it was really procrastination so I didn't have to clean the kitchen. I also went to Target and look what I found.

Yes, I found them. M&Ms, The Darth Mix. Dark Chocolate M&Ms. Mmmmm. How cool! Everyone should get some.

So, I got to work this morning and my cubemate and I were the only ones on our side of the floor. No kidding here, we have this 2 cube thing at one end of the floor and we were the only people there. So, I took half a day of vacation. It was wonderful! I feel so relaxed. I sent my secret pal her last package, since I could actually get to the post office when it was open. Yippee.

I tried knitting a guage swatch for my Soleil tank and discovered I need to go buy smaller needles tomorrow. I went through two old project bags that I've been storing all of my half used yarn in and put it into an orderly fashion. I did the dishes. At this point, it was only 3pm and I was tired, so I took a nap. I slept until 6pm. It was great. We've been having these thunderstorms every night, so I haven't slept very well. I still miss my afternoon naps that I used to take in college. You know the ones where you would be out half the night, sleep for 3 hours, go to class, take an afternoon nap and start it all over again. Yep those are the ones. Of course, now that I'm old, I just need the nap, no staying out to all hours...

Had a bad day again...

I seem to have something against working this week. First forgot the power cord to my computer (still haven't returned it and IT guy noticed today...). Tuesday, forgot the computer and had to turn around and drive back home. Today, made myself a big glass of iced tea and proceeded to spill it in my lap...in white pants. Yes, you can only imagine. My boss who sits right by me thought I puked. Which would have been only slightly less embarrassing at that point. So, needless to say, took an early lunch, drove myself back home and changed clothes. UGGHHH! I think my subconscious is telling me I need a vacation. Unfortunately, that is not in the cards right now. The closest I'm going to get is next Sunday evening in Tampa because I can't get a flight out of St. Louis that gets me into Tampa early enough to make the training class.

What is it about spring and travel? I traveled to Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbia (MO) and New Orleans in a four week span last spring. I was in Chicago last week, Columbia (MO) last weekend. I'm going to Dallas the second week in May and DC (yes, actually vacation this time) the last week in May and I just found out today that I have to go to Tampa, leaving next weekend. Somewhere in the midst of all of this training, I'm going to have to fit in my regular job. This might push me over the edge. I might have to break down and get a Blackberry. Oh No!! This from the girl that up until a year ago didn't even own a cell phone. That is quite a distance for a techno-phobe in a year.

So, the only good part about the whole day, and in fact the whole week so far is I got a package from my secret pal!!!!! I only hope she knows how great I felt upon receiving it after my crappy week so far. Hurrah!!!!

We have a skein of pretty angora yarn in a silver browny color that is absolutely stunning in person and so, so soft. It's sitting on my lap and I'm petting it as we speak. There is some shiny black yarn. Two strands of these blue-black glass beads that I know exactly what I'm going to do with. Some tea, coffee and hand cream. Yippee! I want to sincerely thank my secret pal. This whole exchange has been so much fun. Mostly because of her. Yeah!

Guilty pleasures...

God Bless them for putting old TV shows on DVD. I've been indulging in my guilty pleasure of watching the old 21 Jump Street. Young Johnny Depp. He's aging so well. He looks exactly the same. Well, I was indulging this evening and I noticed that one of the shoes had not only Pauly Shore, but Jason Preistly. How weird is that???

I really needed some escapism today. I was driving to work this morning. I was about 23 minutes into my 45 minute drive. I'm mentally going through all of the things I needed to do today. I looked at my computer (we all have laptops we take everywhere with us) which was sitting besides me...yes, you have correctly guessed that my computer was not sitting it it's customary seat beside me on the way to work. It was instead, safely ensconced at my apartment. So, I got off at the next exit, turned around, drove all the way home and then drove to work. Ugghhh! Kind of defined my day today. I also got sunburnt. There was a margarita involved there somewhere... Yesterday, I had forgotten my power cord to my computer (which by the way remained plugged into the outlet by the couch today...Ooops!) and had to go beg for one to use from our IT people. I had to sign my life away for a power cord. It's unbelievable. Quite possibly I should return that tomorrow before they send the lynch mob after me.

I'm having issues with my MP.3 player. Once upon a time, my computer recognized it. Now, it no longer recognizes it when I plug it in. It's one of those with a flash memory card. I want to load some more songs on it. So far, no one has been able to figure out what's wrong. I would think it would be a port problem, but the port recognizes my camera and I can download pictures from it. So, I'm puzzled. If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes

So, I finally snapped and went shoe shopping. I couldn't stand all of the cute new summer shoes. First, we found these awesome socks. How cool are these. They were on the clearance section. My mom bought them for me.

So, here's part of the loot from the shoes shopping extravaganza. 1 pair brown loafers (no shown), black sandals, cream sandals and red loafers.

Yeah Me!!!! Now, that I've gotten that out of my system, I need to get back to the knitting.

A new Project....Finally

Well, I think I'm finally getting back to life. I've decided on a new project. I'm going to start Soleil from knitty.com. I even bought new yarn. Hurrah! I had to search through all of my circular needles and surprise of all surprises, I actually had the correct size.

So, more pictures to follow as I start knitting.

This weekend was rather relaxing. I actually got some stuff done. I actually changed out my summer and winter wardrobes today as well. I feel like I have all new clothes to wear.

The April 15th Fairy

I got to play April 15th Fairy today. We left gifts for all our employees this evening after most had left for the day for them to find tomorrow am. It was a lot of fun. On the other hand, I'm exhausted. Putting together 125 gifts, filling with candy and delivering to everyone's desks on 2 floors in under 2 hours. Exhausting but fun.

Back home again

Got out in time to catch an earlier flight home standbye. Hurrah!! Got to love that. I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm getting old and any iota of hipness that I had is gone. We went out for tapas last night in Chicago. One of the dishes was octapus and potatoes. I didn't try that one, but I did try the one that was ground chicken and ham, formed into a finger shaped and then fried. Yuck. It went downhill from there. The only saving grace were the bottomless pitchers of sangria.

We also stayed in the W hotel downtown. Good points for serving us sparkling water and then wine and cookies as we waited in line with all our co-workers to check in. Halls were lit by black light... Showed eerie pictures on lobby walls that looked something out of the psychadelic scene in Charlie and the Chocolate factory to techno music. They even have "intamacy convenience" packets in the rooms (which I didn't open, by the way, just wondered what the funny box was, there's a reason curiousity killed the cat)... Yep, I'm not hip enough to stay there anymore...

We had to have roommates. I threw my fate to the wind and ended up with a pretty good roommate except for one small thing. She is one of those people that is always cold. I got into the room after our late dinner. She was in bed in flannel pajamas, under all of the covers and blankets. The room was a sweltering 74 degrees. I on the other had, usually sleep in the tundra. I like to cuddle under the covers. Needless to say, I did not sleep a wink all night long, I was dying of heat. I had a nightmare at one point that I was being smothered because I was so hot. Ugghh. I should sleep pretty well tonight.

Lethargics are us

So, I finished the Flower Basket shawl and have absolutely no idea of what to do next. All I'm working on are socks at the moment. They spoke a lot at the STL knitting guild meeting about charity knitting. They played a little clip about Project Linus and I think I might work on a Linus blanket until I figure out what I want to do next.

My poor baby is in the shop. Yes, I sent the convertible to the shop. It was having acceleration issues as in when attempting to give it a little gas going up a hill, it would kind of hesitate a little bit before giving in. I personally think in that split second, the car was going "Na Na, I can do what ever I want whenever I want," which of course, we know is a problem. So into the shop she went.

I'm going to an HR training in Chicago for work tomorrow and Wednesday. We do this every year. Last year, my car was in the shop while I was at training getting the brakes fixed. This year the car is again in the shop. This is not a good habit for my car to get in. So, the blog will be silent for the next few days. I'm bringing a pair of socks to work on during the plane ride and wait at the airport. I'm working on the second sock. I had it almost to the point where I could turn the heel when I compared it to the first sock and realized that on sock #1, I used 60 stitches and on sock #2 I used 64 stitches. Ooops. So I spent a better part of the knitting guild meetin ripping it out...

Finished Flower Basket Shawl

Huraah! Here is the totally finished Flower Basket shawl on a red background so you can actually see it. Sorry for the pictures with no text yesterday, but blogger went down last night so, I was not able to add text. Below is a close up of how the lace looks.

I am so happy with it. It looks awesome!!!!! In the post below, you can see the step by step blocking update from last night.

Blogger wasn't the only ones having computer issues. My e-mail server was on the fritz all day today, so I got like zero work done. I watched a little of the cards game through the holes in the stadium. Tickets were scarce this year. I spent a lot of time chatting with people today and then left early. Not a bad day if I do say so myself...

blocking

A sight seldom seen on Shoes and Yarn...

No, your eyes do not decieve you, I have finished the knitting on the flower basket shawl. I'll block it tomorrow night, but I couldn't wait to show it off. I knitted the last four rows and started the cast off at knit nite tonight. It was a bit slow going because there was a new group that met at Barnes & Noble as well as us. They were very loud and it was hard to listen to our conversation, follow the pattern and tune them out. It was very weird, they had a skull out at one point. There were all different generations. I never was able to figure out what the connection between them was. We're a multi-generational group as well, but the knitting gives us away. So, hopefully, I'll get this blocked tomorrow night and will present at the Knitting Guild on Saturday if all goes well.

Hurrah me!!!!

She said it would wear off in 2-3 hours

I called for an eye doctor appointment to get new contacts this morning and they had a cancellation and we able to fit me in this afternoon. Hurrah!! The bad thing is, everytime I go to the eye doctor, I get my eyes dialated. So, I look like I'm high, am sensetive to light and everything that has light has a halo around it. Gives me a headache. Of course, they always tell me, "Oh, it will wear off in 2-3 hours." 2-3 hours Uh-nuh! It's been 5.5 hours at this point and my pupils are still wide open. I'm kind of staring at the screen from an angle otherwise, it's too glaringly bright. It is, by the way, the only light on in my apartment. I did the dishes by fading sunlight with the blinds closed. I've been doing laundry by fading sunlight and now by computer screen light. So, I did get stuff done, but unfortunately, due to the lack of light, no knitting. I'm almost to the heel on my sock and didn't feel up to turning the heel with no light, so even though it would have been something I could have worked on, no joy.

I did watch disk 3 of season one of 21 Jump Street. The slight halos around everything on the screen was annoying, but I dealt with it for my secret vice. I've decided Johnny Depp has a weird ear. I don't normally just watch tv. I normally read and watch or knit an watch, so I was all kinds of attentive tonight in the dark. The ear is not ugly or cauliflower ear like a boxer, but just funny. I'm weirdly turned off by his ear. He is a beautiful, beautiful man, but since noticing the ear tonight, I think my imaginary love affair might be over. Pity. I also watched Bridget Jones 2 this weekend. Totally in love with Colin Firth. Now there's a man and his ear appears normal to me.

It's been a busy weekend. We had a surprise dinner for my dad yesterday. He hit the big 60, so the family met at a local mexican restaurant to surprise him. Dinner was a lot of fun, probably helped along by a lot of margarita's. Did I mention we had a lot of margarita's?? Got to love a family that loves margaritas... Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today I made dinner for my dad. Tortilla soup. Big thanks go out to my bro and SIL for the wonderful food processor I got for x-mas. It made short work of all of the chopped veggies that go into the soup and I swear cut off an hour of the prep time.

In spite of my busy weekend, I did manage to fit in some knitting. I finished secret project number 1. You'll get pictures after it's sent off to it's intended recipient. I also made a lot of progress on my Flower Basket shawl. I'm at a cross roads now. I must decide whether to add on another repeat of the shawl or do the edging and block. I added one repeat and it would now be about 5 feet accross. Another repeat would add another 4.5 inches approximately. Any advice from the readers out there before I proceed tomorrow night?