Oatknits

More socks- Day 4

2011-12-06T11:42:00.001-06:00

These are my Fire Socks. They have been in what I call the "dead sock" pile for awhile. Shortly after knitting them I wore a hole thru the heel but had no clue how to darn them. Well I got ambitious this weekend and google sock darning. So here is my handy work. Not perfect but wearable and practice makes perfect. I did a few other pairs and am thrilled to be able to wear these "dead" socks again. More to come!

Day 3

2011-12-05T11:57:00.001-06:00

These are the socks I wore today. I can tell you nothing about them. I'm sure they're wool. I'm sure they're from sensational knit socks. They're blue and warm. That's all I got for ya!

Day 2

2011-11-30T07:16:00.001-06:00

Welcome to day 2! I thought it would be easier to blog daily but I am finding that it is not. There are just not enough hours in the day. I'm afraid this is all going to be rambling with no specific order, rhyme or reason. A composition of editing and adding on my phone and re editing on the computer. Ahh well, whatever works right! These socks are my super green socks. I wish I could remember what the yarn is off the top of my head. I'm sure I have it somewhere. Maybe raverly... Here we go! These socks make me think of my Grandma. I knit these while she was in hospice. I love these socks because they are loud and comfy.

These are my latest socks that I am loving knitting so far! More info here. I'm getting close to wrapping up the first sock already!

Hey Hey, who' s that, that just learned how to knit and joined me for a knitting session this weekend. Why yes it is Tara holding her first washcloth.

Betsy and Jen were there as well.

We caused quite a sensation at Caribou, knitting. Geez you'd think that nobody ever saw 4 hot woman knitting in a coffee shop before.

Day 1 - sock of the day

2011-11-29T11:20:00.001-06:00

Well here I am thinking about blogging again... Last night I read thru some of my old blogs and thought maybe it was time to pick up my journal of life and knitting and start again. I rarely knit over the past three years and did not blog. With Facebook and Texting the blog went t o the wayside. I'm sure most of my Facebook friends could care less about my knitting and what not so I'm going to give jotting it all down here a shot again. Some posts, like this one, will come from my phone so please excuse my typos :). I thought I might get back in the swing of blogging by posting my daily socks.

Todays socks are the jitterbug socks. I think I bought this yarn in TN or finished them in TN because that's what they kind of remind me of.

Testing

2011-11-28T19:22:00.001-06:00

Testing, testing... Anybody out there?

Deer

2009-01-17T22:30:00.002-06:00

And Deer and Hawks, and Racoons

Tonight

2008-04-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight we get ducks. There was a male and female.
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Ya never know

2008-04-26T19:00:00.001-05:00

Ya never know what you'll see in the back yard. Today it was a pheasant.
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Saturday morning

2008-04-26T08:26:00.000-05:00

Its snowing! Can you believe it! Yuck !

Saturday morning is jazzercise time. I am a good girl and am here bright and shiney early for my work out. I need to eat healthy now too. I have not smoked in a month and a half now and have gained a ton of weight in the meantime. So I am on the healthy train now. Wish me good jazzer-vibes!
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Better now

2008-04-21T18:36:00.000-05:00

Still my bithday but I'm no longer at work.
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Happy freaking birthday to me!

2008-04-21T09:13:00.000-05:00

29...

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I am still alive!

2008-04-16T11:39:00.001-05:00

So some people have given me a hard time about not blogging so I thought I would try from my phone again, if this works check back soon.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Merry Christmas

2007-12-23T14:14:00.001-06:00

Finished and New

2007-07-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

Well well. I am one busy chica! I have been knitting away and actually even finishing up a few things. Small accomplishment...

I say this was a small accomplishment since this is just one square of many that will *someday* be an afghan. This was a really challenging little square. This has some of the most difficult cables I have ever knit. I wanted to get this one off the needles so I could start something new though. (more to come on that!)

Here is my big accomplishment...

I have been working on these little babies since the beginning of April! I was itching to start another pair of socks and since I try to not have more than two pairs going at once it ignited the fire to finish these up. Yeah!

So here are the new socks

Ok , ok, I know there not much yet just ribbing but they are going to be AWESOME! They are Dream in Color Smooshy Sock yarn and I am knitting another pattern from More Sensational Knit Socks. The pattern is called Faggot and cable stripe and I can't wait to be done with the ribbing so I can start on the pattern.

Ok and last but not least here is my other new project.

This is the Trifold Knitters Bowl from A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. This will be felted when it is finished and will hang out on the coffee table holding yarn and notions. I think this is going to be really really cool too. I started off by knitting the mobuis strip and then picking up stitches for the bottom of the bowl. Where the pink yarn is, I will pick up those stitches and knit 6 pockets. Eventually you pick up stitches around the top of the bowl that kind of close it up like an old fashioned coin purse. Very cool stuff, just wait and see.

A day in the life...

2007-07-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

Ok people no knitting in this post... As thrilling as it is here is my day in pictures!

My thrilling commute to work. It looks like the camera needed another cup of coffee before it wanted to work this morning also!

I think 20 was the slowest I went on 94 this morning, not bad.

Ahhhhh Minneapolis, sweet, Minneapolis!My real home good ole 215!

A few of the members of my extended family (co-workers), Matt...Shawn...

Oh look it's me! I look happy, obviously I have not actually started working yet!My desk, as messy as it is!

Roberto the werewolf, He comes in at 10.

At lunch today I walked around for a bit.

Then I walked around and annoyed my co-workers by taking there pictures. This is Mary.

Angela,

Tim,

Steve,

This afternoon I was working away when the contractor services department asked if I would take a picture of them. How could I say no? This is the picture they wanted me to take!

And my lovely commute home.

And this speed is very typical of the commute home.

I did survive the day. Well that's all folks! We will resume our regular knitting blog shortly. (aren't NEW digital cameras fun!)

Ahhh Like I Need Another Project

2007-07-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

Ahh like I need another project!

This is Laines Du Nord, Kiddy Print, 80% kid mohair, 20% poliammide. This will one day be the Firefly Mobius. I apparently have zero self control because this...

is going to be the Trifold Knitters Bowl. (you have to scroll all the way to page 21)

I am slowly but surely making progress on my other projects but they are not photo worthy at this time. I think I have been working on the stockinette stitch triangle socks too much when I am drowsy because I have to tink back many rows (again). It seems that knitting the two socks at the same time takes some concentration. When I went to do the gusset decreases I really had to screw around with my stitches and there placement on the needles. It was kind of a PIA because I would have to put them on holders to get them on the other needle.

Oversize Load

2007-07-09T20:08:00.001-05:00

Oversize
Originally uploaded by oatball

I just heard about a really cool photo editing website, picnik. I jumped on to see what it had to offer and fixed up this pic of my little Nannies. Notice how the only color in the picture is the little halo around my tiny angel? (man I'm a sap!!!) Cool stuff, go check it out.
It just wouldn't be right not to have my other little precious get his moment on the blog spotlight too, so here is my other little furry baby!

I don't want to work I can entertain myself fine w/o it.

2007-07-08T17:35:00.000-05:00

Well this week was a pretty productive knitting wise. I took a half day on Monday, all day Tuesday off and Wednesday was Independence day, so no work that day either. I had a lovely week all in all. Chris came home Tuesday and just left this morning. I spent a lot of time this week enjoying the company of my entire family, knitting and my new favorite thing , the pool!!!

Today after Chris left I headed down to the pool for some fun and sun. I packed a snack and lots of water, a book and some knitting and planned to make a day of it. I worked some on my tofutsie socks and am just about done reading Gone With The Wind (for like the 6th time) I think I am hesitant on finishing it because I know exactly what is going to happen and it makes me sad. Stupid Scarlett, I wish things could turn out differently for her. The D twins joined me later in the afternoon at the pool but the weather turned nasty and we had to retreat inside.

This week I finally really started Chris sweater. I could not remember his chest measurement so I could not start it until I measured him again. Now I'm off to a pretty good start.

This is a pretty mindless knit so far. It is mostly just K4, P4. I knew if would be and some time you just need to thank god for totally mindless projects like this.

I also finished my mobius basket. This was a super quick knit and if you just sat down and worked on it it could easily be finished in just a few hours.

I have my eye on so many other projects from A 2nd Treasury of Magical knitting but am trying to stay in control of how many projects I have on the needles at one time. For example no more socks can be started until I finish at least one pair of socks. I think that more than two pairs of socks on the needles at the same time is too many. If I want to ever finish things I need to control myself from casting on. Speaking of sock here are my stockinette triangle socks.

I am working on the heel and right now and my goal for the evening is to knit the heel, turn and gusset. Wish me luck since this takes twice as long when you are knitting them both at the same time. It's turned into a yucky rainy day and night now so it may happen.

MAGIC!!

2007-07-01T21:21:00.001-05:00

100_2206
Originally uploaded by oatball

With my new purchase of A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting, I just had to try something out. So low and behold her is the start of my Felted Mobeius Bowl. It took a little practice to get the mobeius cast on but once I got rolling all was well. Then I got to the binding off with Applied I Cord and I had some more learning to do. Hmmm, who'd a thunk I could learn so many new techniques in a span of an hour or so.

I love weekends!

2007-06-30T19:58:00.000-05:00

I love weekends. I think that song is dead on about working for the weekend! Happy Saturday!!!!

Today Besty, Nannies and I had a knitting kinda day. Betsy stayed over last night so we started our knitting kind of weekend Friday night. Actually it is a crochet kind of weekend for Betsy. She is going CRAZY on making squares for the Rebuilding Greensburg Project. I think she has made like 30 already.

Yesterday I came to the grim realization that I HATE this Mary Louis Lace Sweater. I guess I've really known it for years and that is why it has been in the works for years. Well I recently came to believe that I am on a finishing streak and that I can knit anything and finish it so I picked it up again. I've been working on the second sleeve for a couple weeks now and finished it last night. I then went upstairs to get the other sleeve that was knit about a year ago. WHOA! What a difference a year makes. Holy gauge difference. Well the whole freaking thing is getting frogged. I hate the stupid thing and will probably not work on it for another year so it's just going bye bye. I will stash the yarn away and some day it will find another purpose. Here is one last picture so we can all say bye before it goes away.

So on to my next knitting adventure for the weekend...

I realized earlier this week that I had a miscrossed cable on one of my Afghan squares. Well I had planned on fixing it Friday night but I did not feel I had enough brain power to do so so I successfully did that this morning. Here is my boo boo.

And here it is all fixed again!Yeah! Here's a little preview of this square. It has some killer cables in it and I am slow going on this one.

I also have started swatching for Chris' sweater. I made three (YES THREE) swatches for it and they are currently in the washing machine. I want to make sure that this sweater turns out since it is the first sweater that I will be making for someone else. Hopefully I will start actually knitting it this week.

Hey, BTW, If you are ever out and about and are looking for a really cool yarn shop check out the yarn garage in Rosemount, MN. WOW, I was curious as to what to expect from the website and it was awesome. The prices were great too! They had tons and tons of really interesting stuff. I will be back when I have some cash to blow. (now when will that ever be?) Anyways, today I was a good girl. I purchased some butterfly cotton yarn that I make the apple hats with and A 2nd Treasury Of Magical Knitting. I have had my eye on that book for awhile and now it is mine! Ah ha!

I've got to say that I am looking forward to the rest of my weekend. Then working Monday (not really looking forward to that part, but it pays the bills). Then when I come home Chris and Brownie should be home. Then I have Tuesday off and Wednesday! It's like a bonus weekend in the middle of the week!

Blogging again!

2007-06-24T13:59:00.000-05:00

Wow look I'm blogging again! With my invitation to raverly I have been taking lots of pictures of my knitting lately. I might as well blog about it also! I know not everyone can get into raverly right now and not everyone will have an interest in joining so I will blog here too. Here are my current WIP.

These are my newest thing to cast on. I've been thinking about this yarn a lot the past couple of weeks. Kari, Betsy and I dyed this at the sheep and wool festival last month. I am knitting both sock at the same time, toe up. I am using the a pattern from More sensational Knitted Socks called stockinette stitch triangles.

This is my little Fiber Trends Felted Hedgehog. I bought this kit at the sheep and wool festival last month. I have had him done for a couple weeks now but I just bought his eyes and felted him yesterday.

Here is another Fiber Trends felted sheep. Same thing with this guy, he's been finished for a couple weeks but just got felted yesterday.

This is me at my cousin Alex's Graduation party last weekend wearing my finished Roundabout leaf tank. (why yes that is a glass of wine in my hand. Why do you ask? Aren't you jealous!)

Yet another sock. A never ending sock at that!

These four squares are made for the Great American Aran Afghan. I started this YEARS ago and picked it back up a couple of weeks ago. I finished that last square a couple weeks ago and have another really challenging on the needles right now.

I am hoping to start a sweater for Chris really soon. I finnally ordered the needles I need from Knit picks and was hoping that I would have them by this weekend so I could have started it. Oh well I guess it will get started next weekend. Like I really need to start something new anyways.

test

2007-06-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

Maybe someday I'll blog again.

Knit Chat Patty Wack!

2007-02-07T06:35:00.000-06:00

Knit Chat Patty Wack...

What an action packed weekend! Saturday was out first Knit Chat Patty Wack meeting. I could not make it to the trip to the yarn store beforehand but was there for the meeting. We started this knitting group to get together once a month and knit and chat and apparently wack patty...

Look at Kari's finished scarf!!! Her first big project finished! She is working on a swatch for a hat that she is making for Brad.

And here is Betsy who is just casting on for a pair of yummy Mittens! I worked on these socks I am just about done with them. I can't wait! I should have them done tonight! I also cast on these socksSorry the picture really sucks. I will get a better picture when I get a little further along. These are toe up socks knit with Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I really wanted to make some toe up socks so I could try a different bind off that Wendy posted on her blog. I even went so far as to weigh and divide the yarn into two skeins.

Super Bowl

Sunday was The Colts vs. The Bears. Nannies really wanted to go over to Karis for the Superbowl party so mama whipped up this colts mane to wear so he could get in the spirit.

We ate lots of food and had a good time. There was never a doubt in our minds that Payton would lead the Colts to Victory!Kari even managed to keep her jersey on the whole game. (she doesn't usually strip during football games (that I'm aware of anyways) she just usually has to take it off because it brings bad luck to the colts)

Shoes

I have been on a quest for months to find clear shoes to wear with my socks. I finally found them last week. I ordered them from here and they arrived this week.

Here they are on my feet being modeled with my lovely carnival jaywalkers. I like them a lot. Although I wonder how big of a dork I am for buying them.

Socks socks socks!

2007-01-28T16:06:00.000-06:00

I finally finished these socks
I had named these "Spring Time in Missouri". Kari told me that she would have named them the NFC North socks. So needless to say I have been refering to them as the NFC North socks. I needed to finish these before Sunday becauce it would be wrong to work on NFC North socks when you want the Colts to whip the Bears.

I did not try in the least to make these socks match up and I succeded. They are about the most mismatched socks that I have ever made. I love them and am wearing them right now.

I am also well on my way with my next pair of socks.

These are the baby cable rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. The yarn is Brown Sheep Wildfoot. I also added a picot edge to these. The picture doesn't really show it but it's there.

Hey check this out!!!! I asked Wendy a question and she answered me and there is even the hyperlink to my blog. I feel cool. I am suck a dork!!!!!!!

I am a naughty knitter...

2007-01-25T15:38:00.000-06:00

I am in a surprisingly good mood today. I woke up bright and shiny early this morning with relative ease, today is meeting day, my new shoes are finally fitting well on my feet, Chris is on his way home and I am just in a good mood in general. So at lunch today I decided that I would skip the walk down to the coffee shop to knit and I would just sit in the lunchroom here at work and knit and listen to my book. I thought I would save myself two bucks and have a few extra minutes to knit instead of walking down there and back. Well I was listening to my Ipod and knitting away when I realized that there was no point in trying to listen to my book because everyone wanted to talk to me. So I gave that up. Well pretty soon one of my coworkers came in the lunch room and was very interested in my knitting. Well she wants me to teach her how to knit.
I don't want to teach her...
I am selfish, I enjoy my knitting time at work as just some time to knit with out dogs and other household distractions. Also this particular coworker drives me nuts. I can't see myself sitting in the lunchroom with her on my precious hour away from hell (that would be my desk) to instruct a girl who I don't really like and barely speaks English on how to knit. Like I said, I am a naughty knitter. I read books and blogs and everyone is always anxious to teach to anyone who is interested how to knit. Not me. Don't get me wrong, I will teach YOU how to knit if you ask nicely, but not at work.

Hello Again

2007-01-22T14:22:00.000-06:00

I know I have been absent from the blogging world for awhile. I am going to work on getting back on the blogging bandwagon. As you may know I have gone back to work and am no longer traveling around the country. Be warned that I am going to use this blog mostly to ramble on about my knitting and whatever random thing goes through my head.

Socks you have not seen

Well I was counting up the number of socks that I have knit since last April (18 pairs! 9 for me, 3 for Kari, 3 for Chris, 2 for my Mom and 1 for Disa) and realized that there are 3 pairs that are not on the blog! So here they are in all there glory!

These are what I am calling my fire socks. They are knit in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. This yarn is super stretchy. I also made the spring socks from this yarn. Well anywho, I ended up making these a whole size smaller than I was really getting gauge for because they really stretch once you've had them on your feet for a couple of hours. These fit great so I am pleased that I made a mental note and re sized the.

These are my bells and whistles socks. I knit these with Schaffer Yarns, Anne. The pattern is from the interweave knits Holiday issue. I love these socks but the pattern did have all the bells and whistles! There are even little cable crosses every couple of rows. You can barely see them but I was plenty aware of them when I had to grab the cable needle every couple of rows!

These are Kari's blue socks. She received one and one half finished sock for Christmas. I had to promptly take them back after she looked at them so I could finish them. I got this yarn at the 3 Kitten yarn sale when they were changing ownership. It is Happy Trails sock yarn. These socks are thick, I would consider them more of slipper socks than everyday socks.

These are some cute little booties that I knit up with some Angora. The pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. These were interesting to make since you knit them in one piece starting with some double knitting. A special little baby will be wearing these soon ;)

Other Things

I have also been working away on finishing things up that I have already started. I am working on getting my UFO's under control. I finished this bag...

I started this bag in 2003. I knew I was almost done with it and had gathered all the previously knitted pieces and the pattern together and had planned to finish it this summer while I was in truck. Well it never made it in the truck so I finished it the other weekend. It was kind of like getting a free bonus bag. I had about 1 hour of knitting left on it when I picked it back up. I popped it into the washing machine to felt it and then had a zillion hours of finishing on it. Well now it has turned into my work bag.

I also finished this butterfly shawl.

It is the same pattern as this one. I got this yarn at the 3 kitten sale also. That may be why I chose this funky colors (lack of choice). Well I ran out of some of that fuzzy yarn that trims that shawl and had to go buy more which is why this project was put on hold. Once I finished the shawl I tried in on and came to the realization that I would never really wear this. It is just a little too loud for my tastes. Oh well it is wonderful for sitting on couch when I need something to wrap around my shoulders.

Well that's all for now. I have 2 more pairs of socks on the needles and some other things in the works but I will save those for next time. Working has drastically cut into my knitting time so I can not crank things out as quick as I did this summer!

On the road again

2006-12-03T15:37:00.000-06:00

In case you didn't know I am on the road again. We are currently in Mebane, NC.

The weather is nice here. Thank god. I am hoping to stay out of the nasty weather the whole time I am in the truck.

Earlier this week poor little Nannies was not feeling so well. I am happy to report that he is feeling like his normal little self again. Let me tell you that a sick dog in the truck is NOT a fun thing. Yesterday we spent a good deal of the day washing ALL of the bedding in the truck. I will spare you the details.

Oscar is doing well. He has taken life in the truck back to his normal self. He has been snoozing all day long and chowing on his food and making a mess with the kibble right before bed. It's like nothing has changed.

HEY! I wrote a song this morning. We have heard tons and tons of Christmas music and it get stuck in your head and I have to change the words to suit me better. Ok here gos...

(in the tune of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer)

You know Oscar
And Nannies
And Marlie
And Mugsy
But do you recall the most famous doggie of all?
Lassie the Border Collie...

That's all I've got for that one. I also wrote one for all you cat lovers too.

You know Vickie
And Princie
And Sebastian
And Spooky
But do you recall the most loving Kitty of all?
Willie the black nosed kitty...

Ya like?

In the good news category, Chris found my Garmin Forerunner under the mattress in the truck. I was thrilled. I have looked all over for it and was really mad at myself that I could not find it. I kept hoping it would turn up and it finally did.

Well not much else new with us.

SMILE!!!

2006-11-10T10:45:00.000-06:00

Ketchup Blog

2006-11-08T14:03:00.000-06:00

This is the Ketchup Blog. I hope you like pictures because that is what this will mostly be.

Tom Kat's Halloween Party

Our Lovely Hosts Tom and Kat aka Kari and Brad

Kari "Katie I mean Kate Holmes" And Laura the Flapper

Steve The Hawian Dude and Betsy ready for the Slumber Party

Laura The Flapper with Little Sister Disa the Sex Kitten!!!

Everybodys fav celebrity couple! Starring Tara as Brittney Spears and Josh as K Fed.

Laura Again with Drew as Captain Spaulding. Scary!

That concludes our people section of this blog entry. Now we will move onto the knitting section.

Purplie Wurplie Sock (Yup I finnally finished these. It's been months in the process!)

The Autum Socks (they are the tallest socks I have ever knit)

Dishclothes galore and more in the works.

Scarf. I don't really have a name for this. I love it though and have another one on the needles!

Close up of the almighty scarf

My latest pair of sock. Thanks for the pattern Betsy. I am using the Sundra pattern you gave me!

That concludes the knitting section of this blog entry. Now we will move onto my random thoughts...

I wish Chris was home. He's been gone a month and still has not seen the house.
I miss my big brown dog.
I wish I could cook all the stuff on the food network and eat it and not gain an ounce.
I wish I could knit in my sleep.
I'm glad my cold is going away.
Why is Nannies such a little pig?

Greetings from Woodbury

2006-10-17T17:16:00.000-05:00

Well here I am. Sitting in the livingroon of our new home, blogging. Here it is...

You may be surprised to see that our house number is 2208. Well let me tell you I was pretty surprised myself when I came to walk through the house at 2375 and discovered that it had no breakfast nook.

The plan was to put the office in the breakfast nook. When I walked into the new house and there was no nook it through the plans big time. Well I went to the rental office and told them what was going on. I came back Saturday and talked to Dana (who we rented the TH from originally) and started looking at some of the other units. We ended up with this one. I am thrilled thrilled thrilled with this house. We did sacrifice our fireplace to get into this house but I think it is 100% worth it. We have a wonderful view of the woods directly behind our house. Here is a pic of the living room. Can you see the awesome woods right out the giant sliding glass door?

I would much rather have this beautiful view than the fireplace. Our rent will also be $20 less a month without the fireplace. Here is the kitchen...

We don't have a trashcan yet. Hence the wonderful trashbag by the dishwasher!

I got the keys to the house Saturday afternoon and moved the stuff that has been living in my car into the house then. Sunday my Mom and I moved 4 car loads of stuff in and gave the kitchen and bathrooms a little spruce. Yesterday, Kari came over to be there with me when the movers were moving the stuff in. Thank god for movers. It was worth every penny to have all of the stuff brought in the house. I don't think I would have survived yesterday without Kari though. Today I have continued to unpack. I have the down stairs in pretty good shape. I am ignoring upstairs so far. I will start working on that later this week. Here is another pic of the living room. This is taken from the kitchen into the living room.

Well that's all for now. I think it's time to veg in front of the TV for awhile.

Nannie Lion

2006-10-17T10:35:00.000-05:00

Disas Paper Bag Collection

2006-10-10T20:44:00.000-05:00

Apparently she has even more in the basement

Our Next Load!

2006-09-25T17:53:00.000-05:00

This is our next load. It is another lorax machine. It is a john deer clearing machine. We are bringing it to ashland WI. I am blogging this from my phone! How freaking cool is that?

Another Test

2006-09-24T13:40:00.000-05:00

Nannies

You have new Picture Mail!

2006-09-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

Another test of my mobile blogging

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PICTURES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-09-24T10:48:00.000-05:00

Pictures, pictures lots and lots of pictures! Lots of patients brings you lots of pictures. Lets start where I left off being pictureless. This is the Grove Crane that we brought from Shady Grove, PA to Baton Rouge, LA. It is 62,000 pounds and besides the wait for it it was a pretty painless load.
This is the scraper that we brought from Tulsa to Redding, CA. This beast almost killed us. It was 107 outside when we loaded it and it had no brakes. It weighed in at 67,000 pounds was 41' long, and was 11'6" wide. This is my wine tank. It was full of delish wine when we picked it up and I drank it all. Well I shared a little bit with Nannies ;) This load was pretty cool actually. This tank was 13'6" wide and 13' tall. We had to have escorts for part of the trip.Arrr arr arr. Nannies is singing to you. Arr arr arr. Good morning to you! Good morning to you! You look like a monkey and you smell like one too! Arohhhhhhh!!!!After the tank we hauled a Oshkosh truck back up to Oshkosh WI. I think I was so happy to be going home that I forgot to take a picture of that load. Opps.

This is the "lorax" machine that we hauled out of WI to CA. That attachment at the end grabs the tree and cuts it down. That's why I call it the Lorax machine. This thing was 69,000 pounds.Here's Chris yapping on the phone in Reno. I'm sure he's talking to Skip. Hi Skip! It was cold up in NV. Hence the long sleeved shirt. We even had to wear jackets.And that brings us to now. We picked up this Komatsu PC300 in Chino, CA and we are going to be dumping it in Grand Prairie, TX in the morning. This biggie was supposed to weigh 70,000 pounds but with that big ole' bucket on it it weighed in closer to 74,000 pounds. This is the heaviest thing we have hauled so far and we are probably pushing our luck.

We are in Weatherford, TX right now. We pulled in yesterday and selected a premo parking spot with Idle Aire. Yesterday we watched the Busch race then the truck race and today we are watching the Cup race, yipee, and tonight we will take off to camp out at the consignees doorstep so we can start the hunt for another load.I also have some knitting pictures. YEAH!!!!!! It feels like forever since I posted knitting pictures but I feel like I should have a lot more to show you. Oh well this is what I've got.

This is Chriss red white and blue socks. The yarn is self patterning so I just knit these around and around to showcase just the fun yarn. I'm sure the only time you will ever see these crazy socks on Chriss feet is if you are over at the house.
These are my autumn socks. I bought this yarn at depth of field in Minneapolis when I was still working at Admiral. I was with Betsy when I bought it. Remember Betsy???? I just didn't feel like knitting it this summer. Once we got up to Reno and it was cool and fall like I knew it was time to start these socks! I am working them from the toe up with Brown Sheep Wildfoote. I have two skeins of this yarn so I am going to just keep knitting until I run out of yarn.

Here is another pair I have been working on. I don't really have a name for these. I just call them my purple socks. I am working these from the toe up also. I feel like I have been working on them forever. They just aren't holding my attention. I wonder why some projects are like that? I have one done and slowly but surely I will get the other one done.

This is another pair of yummy mittens. They are going to be nice. The blue is the inner mitten and is baby alpaca and is super soft. The green is the outer mitten and is cascade quatro Peruvian wool. I like these because the inside will be super soft and the outside will be warm and durable.

Well that's all folks. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures. Sharing them with you ate up hours of my life. hehe.

PS. I think I'm going to look into this mobile blogging thing that blogger offers. I can take pictures with my phone and then send them right to the blog. So check back and don't be surprised if there are some blog entries that are just pictures with out any comments.

Another pictureless blog???

2006-09-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

Ok I will try to get some pictures to take in this blog. Let's close our eyes and pray to the blogging picture god. ******************* Did it work????

So we are in Sunny Southern CA. We loaded a big Komatsu excavator yesterday and Chris is currently trying to get the weights right on the trailer so that we don't need to sneak it through AZ. Fun times.

I have two small dogs on my lap right now that are both shivering like mad. We have the Idle Aire going and it is a brisk 65 in the truck. It feels good to me. Last week we were up in NV and it was COLD. It was in the 40's and perfect sleeping weather. We even had to take out the extra comforter.

I thought we were praying to the blogging picture gods people?????? It's not working!!! LEt's try again shall we? *********************************

Well in case you are out of the loop, Chris and I rented a town house in Woodbury! I am super excited!!! We will move in October 15th. So that means that we will be home around then for sure! It is really nice and I can't wait to cook in my own kitchen again.

I have been knitting away. I finished another pair of socks for Chris. The red, white and blue ones. I a currently working on two pairs of socks and various mittens. I have also been reading alot since we left the house. I actually finished Cold Mountain in about a week. I am sad that I don't have another book to read right now. I will be looking through the craptaculor selection at the truck stops until I find something. I really enjoyed Cold Mountain. It was very descriptive and there were a few things different for the movie. I guess that is a good thing when the book and movie are a little different that way it keeps you guessing.

Ok I guess our praying to the blog gods did not work.

Playing Catch up!

2006-08-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

Ok ok I know I have been a very naughty girl on the blogging scene. It has been weeks. I'm here now though. Since I blogged last we have done loads. This is the crane that we waited for out of Greencastle that went to Baton Rouge, LA.

After we left Baton Rouge we bounced up to Tulsa OK to pick up this beast.

This is a road scraper and it was a PIA. When we loaded in Tulsa it was 107 outside and absolutely horrible. This thing also had no brakes which made it that much more of a pleasure to load. After we finally had the beast on we took off for Redding, CA. Once it was on the truck it wasn't too bad and the trip was pretty. One night we spent the night in a National Forest in Northern California. It was quiet and there were about a million stars in the sky.

After ditching that load we headed down to Southern CA and loaded this.

This is an empty wine storage tank. It was the biggest load we've hauled since I have been on the truck. It was 13'6"wide and 15' tall. It's saving grace was that it was nice and light. This load was an adventure also. Right after we loaded we picked up a pilot car to take us to the AZ line. Then in AZ we were on our own. It turned out that AZ wanted us to have a pilot car for about 20 miles of the trip in the middle of nowhere. Well we made the executive decision to not get the pilot car. We were happily rolling down the road, hadn't seen an AZ cop all day when we come up on a convoy of AZ police escorting a super load down the road. One of the cops rolled down his window and wanted to know where our pilot car was. OOOOOOOppppppps!!!! He sent another cop after us to give us a ticket. We were expecting the worse. It ended up not being a bad deal though. The ticket was $95 and the pilot car would have cost $200. It probably made us grey though. After that the trip was relativly uneventful. We picked up a new pilot car in LA and had him until GA. He was a real piece of work. Then we picked up a another pilot in AL. Having a pilot car was interesting. We hit a nasty nasty thunderstorm in Birmingham and I was glad to have the pilot cars.

Well now we kicked that off and have set up camp at John and Kathis' here in Lithia Springs. We are on the hunt for load going to or thru the house. I promise we are trying to make it home again.

I must mention that I have seen many animal in peoples trucks, Cats, dogs, ferrets. Well we stopped one night and parked next to guy with a MONKEY in his truck with him. A monkey!!!!!!!!!!!! Could you imagine????

Yesterday Kathi and I went and got our toes painted then headed over to the mall for some light shopping.

I could update you on the knitting front but I'm not going to bother since apparently I can not upload any pictures right now. Sorry. This seems to be my new problem.

JACKPOT!!!

2006-08-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

Well we are still in Greencastle, believe it or not. We finally loaded our crane yesterday. This morning we ordered our permits and knew that we had the day to kill once again. Hopefully we will get out WV permit and get the heck out of here tomorrow.

Today I hit the jackpot. Chris took me down into MD to do a little shopping. First we went to Y2Knit in Funkstown, MD. Y2Knit was a nice little shop in a cute littlepart of Historic Funkstown. I picked up a couple of magazines and some sock yarn and went along my merry way. I really wanted some 40" addi turbos to knit socks in with the magic loop method so I was hoping that we could stop at another yarn store up in Hagerstown, The Knitting Cottage(sadly they are without a website). Well this was the jackpot. It was owned and run by a nice Mennonite woman. They have a large selection of yarn, tons of addi turbos and the prices were AWESOME. I got 3 skeins of Lambs Pride Bulky for 3.75 a skien. What a deal!!! The addi turbos were only 11.50 and 12.55 each. I also picked up a few more skeins of sock yarn and some books.

( I also had a pic of the rest of my stash but the computer will not upload it. GRRRRRRRRRRR)

So when the day was done I walked home with
Knitters', Crocheters', Weavers', and Spinners' Travel Guide
This book is a guide to shops all around the country. Chris wanted me to have this book which I find funny since I will now be able to look up yarn stores wherever we are without having to turn on the computer.
220- 220 projects for Cascade 220
I have looked at this book for months and months when ever I go into a yarn store. I really like 220 and I figured I could study this book a long time.
Knitscene fall 2006 magazine
knit simple fall 2006 magazine
Interweave Knits fall 2006 magazine
#1 40" Addi Turbo
#2 40" Addi Turbo
3 Skiens of Pink Lambs Pride Bulky
I plan on making a cabled felted bag with this
1 Skien of Fortisima Colori Socka Color
I am going to make my honey yet one more pair of socks with this. It is really cool red, white and blue self striping yarn. It knits up red and white striped alternated with blue and white flecks. It is really really cool!
and
2 Skeins of trekking XXL sock yarn
one in stripy (that's a Laura word!) black, pink, green and white and one is shades of purple. I love this yarn, I made Chris peacock socks with it also.

I am so all set for awhile. Ahh, happy knitting dreams for me now.

You'll find us in Greencastle PA

2006-08-01T10:33:00.000-05:00

We have been here too long... The people who work at the little booth in the truckstop who sell phones recognize me and chitty chat with me now. One guy says to me this morning "You guys are still here?"

We have resorted to doing things like this to entertain ourselves...

That was one of Skips contraptions. If you can't tell it's two forks balanced on two toothpicks on top of a salt shaker. The waitress was impressed, she said it was art even!

Since I blogged last we've sat around a whole bunch. Over the weekend we loaded a crane and brought it up to the Philly area. That was a really nice drive up and back. We went right through Lancaster county and I seen more Amish people than I have ever seen in a day.

Sunday morning was exciting. We were eating breakfast in the restaurant when we head some lady yelling at someone in the store. We turned around to see what was going on and a lady ran through the truckstop in just her underwear. Yup, just her panties. You never know what's going to happen next. After streaking through the store she broke a glass case before being hauled off by the cops.

Chris polished the truck one day. I've been knitting and knitting and knitting. I started another of these cabled bags. Here's a pic of it mid-way through. I am working on the lining now and then I just have the finishing and the strap.

I am almost done with one cabled sock for Chris. I think I am at the toe decreases but I really want Chris to try them on before I start the toe decreases. For someone who wants me to knit them socks getting him to try them on is like pulling teeth. Here it is so far. These really are some very nice socks.

Well I think we're going to head over to Grove and see if our crane is ready yet. Wish us luck. Maybe some day we will leave PA.

Just Hanging out

2006-07-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

Well here we are again just hanging out. We finally got our permits Monday afternoon and delivered that load on Tuesday morning. What a relief to get that off the trailer. After we delivered we headed over to the TA in Greencastle, PA (which is where we sit as I type). After a bit we headed over to on of the agents office to visit with them.

Yesterday we ran a shorty up to Johnstown, PA and back. It was a nice day yesterday and the drive up was really pretty. We skipped the toll road and took the backroads. We were up and down mountains and through little towns the whole way.

This morning we delivered the return load and headed back over to our new home here at the TA. We had the truck washed and did laundry and that has been out exciting day today. We don't have a clue what we are doing next. We are holding out for the agent we visited to load us but Chris is losing his patients already. I guess I'm ready to hit the road also.

Since I blogged last I have finished the lumberjack socks.

I have also knit 3 apple baby hats. I know of two unborn babies for two of them and then have one more already made for whoever should bet pregnant next. I took this picture while they were sitting on the dashboard when we were in line for the truckwash:)

I started another cabled bag yesterday and plan on starting a pair of cabled socks later today. It's time for a thinking project and a real cable project should do the trick.

I wonder if there is any yarn stores around here???? Hmmm. I may have to check that out.

Our New KY Home

2006-07-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

After delivering in Texas we booggied up to Texarkana to load a load to PA. After waiting for permits, and having A\C problems we arrived in KY. Well WV is a PIA. They have changed the way that they do there permits and we found out that they are really really behind issuing permits because they changed there system. So Thursday night we pulled into a Flying J in Cattlesburg, KY and set up camp. That's Skip and Mugs the Pugs. They are running one of these glorious loads with us! So anywho, we set up camp behind the trailers and whipped out the grill! We shunned the J and had some steaks and asparagus on the grill instead!It was really good and a nice night so we were happy.

Then Friday rolled around and we thought that surely we would have out permits in the morning so we could still deliver on Friday. 10 am was the cutoff for us getting our permits and still being able to deliver Friday. Well 10 came and went and still no permits. After twiddling our thumbs all day and discussing our options at length, Skip got his permit at about 4:30. It was too late to go for the weekend but at least he can leave first thing Monday morning. We thought surely our permit was right behind it and we would be getting the call soon. Yeah right... Friday came and went and we have no permit. We are still on standby. We will start the thumb twiddling again Monday morning.

Yesterday we checked into the Days Inn. The dogs are happy to be running around, I have been using the computer and watching TV. We even ate at my friend Bob's house last night. Bob Evans that is:)

This week has been a productive knitting week for me. I also have managed to locate a yarn store here in town. (Thanks Leslie! I used mapmuse.com) I just hope that they are open on Sundays. I will try calling them in a little bit here.

This week I started and finished this cabled purse. It is from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

It is a wallet sized bag made with Koigu. It was quick and fun to make . It's really hard to see the pattern in the picture but there are little mock cables (right twists) that run along the side the bag and in the middle there is a leaf motif. After working on the bag for a little bit it was really easy to read my knitting so that I had to look at the pattern minimally. It also has a stockenette lining so it won't pull and get stretched out. It look less than one skein of yarn which is also a big bonus. I had bought two skeins of the kouigu to make socks with but when I seen this project I decided I would like to make this bag since I am a sock knitting fool. I will probably make another one these bags with the other skein.

I have also been working on these socks. I am calling them the Lumberjack socks.

These are made with Lion Brand Magic stripes. They are just plain socks knit around and around and around. I like them. It's kind of nice to have a totally mindless sock project with no pattern to think about. I am working on the toe decreases now so I almost have one sock done.

Hopefully today I can hit up that yarn store in Ashland, KY and start cooking up a new project! Well that's all folks.

This post brought to you by Idle Aire

2006-07-16T13:56:00.000-05:00

Greetings from TX. We are currently holed up in the truck in San Antonio, TX. We will deliver this

tomorrow morning down in San Juan, TX. His name is Brutus. He is a 1963 Cat Wheeled Dozer. Brutus doesn't look quite as impressive with the canopy down. I could kick myself for not getting a picture of him before we had the canopy dropped. Oh well too late now.

I don't think I have mentioned lately how much I LOVE Idle-Aire. Friday night we hooked up to the Idle Aire in El Paso and had a lovely time watching TV and using the computer without worrying about it dying. Today we are hooked up in San Antonio watching the race in cool comfort.

Here is a pic of my finished butterfly shawl. Don't you just love the deck of the trailer as the backdrop?

I have also been working on socks like a mad fool which seems ridiculous since it has been 100 degrees outside the past few days. I felt silly putting these socks on to take the picture. Look!!! I finally finished these socks. I was looking back on the blog and they made there first appearance in April. I can tell that they were worked on for a long time since the second sock is a bit bigger than the first. Either I have loosened up my gauge in the past few months or I was really angry when I started them (hehe).

I am also making excellent progress on Chris' socks. I am calling these Chris' peacock socks. The picture doesn't do them justice but in the light the colors remind me of a peacock. I am a little worried that I am going to run out of yarn. I am just going to keep knitting away and hope for the best.

Well that's all folks. All is well in the big blue truck.

Vacationing in Oregon

2006-07-09T13:54:00.000-05:00

We are doing one of the things that we set out to do when I got on the truck. We are taking a little mini vacation here in Portland. We got into town Friday night and settled in and headed to the Ponderosa Nightclub that is here at Jubitz truckstop in Portland. We listened to the Honkey Tonk band, Kindling and had some drinks. Yesterday morning we woke up and got a bite of breakfast and got some laundry started. I decided that I had better call Linda and Bob Cole, one of the agents in Vancouver, and say hello since we were in town. Well we decided to go grab some dinner and then they were kind enough to show us some sites around the Portland area. Wow! What a great afternoon we had. They took us to the Columbia River gorge. We drove thru the beautiful Pacific Northwest forests and stopped to see 5 waterfalls!!! The scenery was fabulous and I'm sure that without Linda and Bob we never would have seen this area.

View of the Columbia River from Crown Point

I can not express how really really nice it was of Linda and Bob to take time out of there weekend to drive us around and show us the sites.

Chris, Laura Bob, Linda and Zachery at Latourell Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Chris and Laura at Multnamah Falls

Multnomah Falls

Up until 1995 Multnomah had the longest continuous waterfall in the world. In 1995 a 400 ton chunk of rock the size of a school bus fell from the falls from the natural erosion of the water hitting the rock. Now that that piece fell the walls sucks the water close enough to the rocks that it breaks the continuous fall.

When we got back to the Hotel we came back to the room and crashed with the boys for a little bit. After we had rested us for a little bit we headed down to the Ponderosa again. We listened to the band and had some more drinks. It was a very wonderful full day yesterday. Today we will be a much slower paced day! We are going to watch the race and do some "housework" in the truck.

Here is one of the pics of my shawl that I had been trying to upload. I did finish the butterfly shawl but do not have a pic of the finished shawl yet. I finished it just in the nick of time. The day after I finished we were in Northern Idaho (beautiful!!!!!!) and it was chilly and perfect shawl weather. I am predicting that shawls will be the poncho. Watch out fashion world!

I have also been plugging along on Chris' socks. They are turning out really nice so far. I finally had him try them on yesterday and they are fitting perfectly so far also. I have spoiled myself by knitting little socks for me and Chris has BIG feet. These socks will take longer to complete than the shawl!

Well it's time for me to get cozy, knit and watch the race!

I am a lazy blogger

2006-07-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

I'll admit it. I am a lazy blogger. I could rattle off why I am a lazy blogger but I'll save it.

We're in SSP right now. We will leave tomorrow morning for Portland OR. I am excited to be heading into the Northwest. I have never been to OR or WA (neither has Oscar!!!). I'll be curious to see what we can find to haul out of there since this is a Holiday week. Happy 4th BTW.

Oh and Happy Birthday Skip. I know this isn't the weekly message but it's the best I can do!!!

Well this week has been filled with truck drama. We were going to get a new truck then we weren't then we were again. Well we are not getting a new truck. We will continue to travel around in 3310.

Here is a pic of the load we took to NC.

This is our current load that's going to Portland. Well this is part of it anyways. We are in the middle of loading when I took this but the rest of it looks just like these crates.

I finished the counterpain bag. I am pleased with the way it turned out. If I had it to do all over again I would have sent it to Moe to have her do the sewing for the lining. I guess the good thing about me doing all the sewing by hand is that it is 100% hand made by me. You can tell it's handmade if you look at the lining though.

I also finished these socks. I drunkenly promised them to Kari. She is one lucky chica because these are some lovely socks. They are Mountain Colors Barefoot. The yarn is spendy but lovely and wonderful to work with.

This is my newest big project. It is a butterfly shawl that I am knitting me me, me, me!!! I was looking for a shawl pattern for me when I ran across this at Borrialis Yarns last time we were in town. I wanted a shawl for in the truck. Sometimes it gets chilly but I don't want to put a sweater on and the dogs are SUCH blanket hogs. (It looks like Nannie might turn into a shawl hog!) It's coming along nicely and I am thinking that it should be done by the time we get to Portland unless I get distracted by socks. I am over half way done already. ***This site does not want to upload these pics of the shawl. I will try later***

Today I swung by Three Kittens Yarn Shoppe to return the extra balls from my bag. ( I just don't have the space or money for a stash in the truck that does not have a plan!!) I picked up some (more) sock yarn. I got this really cool sock yarn that has aloe vera in the yarn. You really can't tell when you just pick it up but the lady at the yarn shop said that she loved knitting with it because it moisturized your hands while you were working with it also. It's supposed to last for 40 washings.

I also picked up yarn to knit Chris 2 pairs of socks. He was not feeling the knitting love. He is financing my knitting career and not seeing anything knit for him. Sorry about that babe. I'll get those socks started stat!!!

We're BACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

2006-06-20T18:46:00.000-05:00

Hey there! Once again I apologize for my lack of posting. I am just one busy chick.

We ended up deadheading home from Shelby and got home early Friday morning. I was lucky enough that Disa had the day off of work so we spent the day doing some running around. Friday night I fired up the grill and we had a lovely dinner.

Saturday I did some running around and went to the yarn store. (I'll talk more about that when I can show you pics! The digital camera was left at Karis, ooops. I'm afraid this will be a pictureless blog) Then Saturday night we went to Kari and Brads Housewarming party. Well we really warmed that house up!!! I had a blast! I got to see Moe, Karis mom and all my peeps. I partied like a rock star and felt it the next day.

Sunday I just mostly felt like carp and layed around. I remember why I don't party like that all the time now.

Monday we started the search for freight again. We were unsuccessful.

Today we re-leased on with Admiral Merchants. Ahhh, we've come full circle. We went into the office to fill out the paperwork. It was great to go in the office and see all my peeps. I could have spent all day walking around chitty chatting with people. I figure they will limit the time that I can come in the office because I will be a distraction as I talk to people and they are not working. hehe. When I was over talking to Ralph he asked if I wanted to answer his phone so I did. It was one of the drivers that I used to talk to a lot. He says " Laura! I haven't talked to you in forever! Where have you been?" I told him I didn't actually work there anymore and that I was just in visiting. We chatted for a few minutes then I ran some miles for him. I was highly amused by the whole thing.

Well I promise I will get ya'll another update soon. I will post pics when I get my camera back again also.

Still in Shelby...

2006-06-13T17:33:00.000-05:00

Well we are still here in Shelby. There is no freight around. That is NOT good. We checked out of our hotel this morning and we spent the day looking for freight. Well Chris looked for freight, I knit and took a nap:) Since there is nothing we checked into the other hotel in town. We're at the Crossroads Inn. It was cheaper and it is older. The boys are happy to be in a room again though.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

2006-06-12T20:04:00.000-05:00

Greetings!!! We are currently in SHelby, MT. Geez I need to update this more often. We delivered this

in Baltimore. Then we boogied down to NC to pick up this.

We just kicked this off the trailer and now we don't have a plan. We're camped out at a hotel for the moment so that is just fine with me!

Montana is really pretty. I think it would be awful in the winter though. I suppose people think that MN is nice but would be awful in the winter too. They have the biggest cows I have ever seen in MT. They also have tons and tons of sheep. I never really believed all that MT and sheep stuff but now I do... hehe... I have also seen Antelope. The first Atelope I saw I just thought it was a really old deer but Chris pointed out that it was an Antelope. There are tons of Atelope in MT also.

I have been knitting up a storm. Did I ever post pictures of this bag??

Well here it is. I've been done with this for awhile but figured I'd post a pic of it. Here is what I have done of Counterpain bag. I am rolling right along with this bag. It is going much quicker that I thought it would. Pretty soon I will have to go get fabric for the lining.

I also finally finished my jaywalkers!! The other night in SD it was chilly so I put on a pair of my handknit socks. Well I loved wearing them so much that they inspired me to put down the bag for a little bit and finish those socks. I started these socks this morning.

They are being knit from the toe up with mountain Colors Bearfoot. I love this yarn so far and am really enjoying knitting from the toe up. I am knitting these socks from the book Sensational Knit Socks. I am knitting them using the easy toe method. I was going to use the short row method for the toes from the book but it just did not make sense to me. I need to consult with another knitter about this pattern. (Betsy, do you have this book??????)

Well that's all folks. I will try to blog more often. I promise:)

I have nothing witty to say...

2006-06-04T19:14:00.000-05:00

I just want to give a shout out to my faithful reader Rob. Thanks for always posting a comment.
Hey Kari, I'm sure you read this all the time also but don't comment. Are you looking forward to Tuesday???xoxox???

Well we're in OH. We loaded Friday in IL and are on our way to Baltimore. The load is 12' wide so we have some restrictions and this is our stopping place for the day. I really should have a pic of the POS load that we have but it's really not much to look at. It's an old hopper of some sort. Someone bought this whole tar plant in IL and are shipping it overseas. We really can't imagine that anyone would pay money for what we're hauling but to each his own.

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Flying J? We had the misfortune of having lunch and dinner here. They were out of butter, ranch dressing, blue cheese dressing, hoagie rolls, anything that had marinara sauce, salmon, cream and real napkins (they were handing out cheap little ones that I'm sure they purchased in the convince store) And who knows what else they may have been out of that we did not hear about. Yah gotta love that flying J. It's always something!
Now that we have hit the road again I have dug into my knitting some. I am still working on my jaywalkers but they have turned into my project that is kept in my purse and gets worked on while I am in the restaurant. They are almost done though.

Ok so now I'll tell you about the new bag that I am making!! It is from Bags: A Knitters Dozen. (Have you noticed that I am crazy about the bags in this book?) This is what the bag looks like in the book. I am making it with a lovely cotton-linen blend. This bag is going to be FAB! You knit four diamonds and then they are pieced together. I had planned on lining this bag even before I started it but now that I am rolling along on it I know that it needs to be lined. The yarn is lovely but it I think I would have to be knitting a lot tighter to get the firmness that this bag needs. The liner will take care of that. When I was picking out the yarn I was having a hard time deciding on a color and it seemed that when I found one that I liked there were not enough balls for my entire project. So I am going to knit each diamond panel in a different color. Pink (of course!), purple, green and brown. I have not decided what color to knit the strap yet though. I think I have plenty of time to decide still. PS. Betsy, Did I ever thank you for the Magic Loop book???? Thank you!!!!!!

Back at it

2006-06-01T09:28:00.000-05:00

Well we are all moved out of our house. I'm glad it is finally over but was sad to say goodbye. We have set up temporary residence at the Homestead Studio Suites. I don't know if this is where we will set up camp next time we're in town. The hotel is OK but the only thing it really has going for it is it has a little kitchen with a 2 burner stove and a full size refrigerator. (This morning I made Eggs and toast for breakfast.)

I believe we are taking off this afternoon to go load in IL for MD. It is time to go back to work!! We are running low on funds so that is usually a good sign that it is time to work again. Hopefully next time we are in town we can spend some more time visiting people. This trip home was sp busy and rushed packing and moving. We have a ton of stuff that needs to get done today also before we leave. Geez, I can't wait to just get in the truck where I just sit there and knit and have no control over whatever and I can just relax instead of stressing.

In the knitting front I did manage to sneak off to the yarn store one day this past week. I needed something to organize my circular needles. That was my really good excuse for going. I also picked up some yarn for another bag. I will get you pics and details on that soon.

Well I may have more to say but I just don't have time. It's 9:45 and check out is at 11. That means I have 1 hour and 15 minutes to do about 30,000 things. tata.

Moving Sucks

2006-05-28T19:28:00.000-05:00

That's all I have to say about that!!!!

Goodbye Admiral :( Hello Bennett:)

2006-05-11T20:07:00.000-05:00

As you may or may not know we terminated our lease with AMMF and leased on with Bennett Motor Express.

I am sad to be leaving the Admiral organization but excited to start something brand new to me. Already Bennett has proven themselves by providing us with 2 good loads so far. Yesterday we delivered this communication building to NC.

It delivered to a jobsite that Chris was NOT going to bring the truck into so they ended up off loading it in a church parking lot and putting it on another truck.

I'm sure you're wondering if I'm ever coming home and let me tell you I am starting to wonder myself. (We will be home after this trip!!) This morning we loaded at the Port of Savannah, GA and are headed to Henderson (Vegas), NV. This thing is a BEAST!!! It is huge. It is 32' long, 11' wide and 12'7" high and weighs 64,000! I drove it on the trailer this morning... Just kidding! HA! It mades me nervous to stand next to the giant beast!!! ( I will post more pics of the beast when I don't want to kill the computer.)

Look this is what using this computer does to me.

See I am still really alive and it's not just some Laura clone blogging away.

Well that's all folks. I miss you all!!!! Call me!!!!

Sweetwater

2006-05-08T09:41:00.000-05:00

This morning I went on a fabulous run. John and Kathi live about a half mile from Sweetwater State Park. I ran down there and it was great! I started out running just on the streets in the park since I wasn't sure what the trails were like. I didn't have a GPS signal at all so I think that helped make the run even more enjoyable since I could not see what my pace or calories burned were. I did decided to venture down one of the nature trails and was pleased to find that the path was wide and easy to run on. I ran about a half mile down to the factory ruins. The factory ruins used to be a yarn and thread mill during the civil war. The Union came and arrested all the workers and set the mill on fire. It was a very cool run. Next time we are in Lithia Springs I will be doing my entire run on the nature trails. I seen another runner on another trail so it must be do-able.

Ok this is for you guys out there who need to see something besides my knitting. Chris took some truck pics yesterday and I think they turned out pretty nice.

Georgia on my mind

2006-05-07T11:04:00.000-05:00

Greetings from GA. We've been here all week and keeping busy. Not working but busy none the less. The highlights of my week was getting a pedicure! I have wanted one for awhile but it's not always easy to do things like that with the truck. Kathi and I both got pedicures. She had her toes painted with a French manicure with rhinestones and my toes are painted pink with flowers on the big toes. The big klutz that I am I smudged the one toe already though.

I've been knitting up a storm! I finished my spring socks.

I love them! They knit up suprisingly quick on size 2 needles. I've also been working on a pair of blue socks that are going to be really warm. For some reason I am not very enthusiastic about them but I am slowly getting the done.

Yesterday we went to Why Knot Knit. I was hoping the whole way there that it would be a big store. I was pleasantly surprised by the store. It was in an uptowny part of Atlanta and was in a madeover house. They had a very large selection of all types of yarn. I was hoping that they would have more than cotton yarn and they did. Being that we are in the South cotton yarn is a lot more popular. I had to control myself from going crazy there but I did pick up some things I really needed like the size 6 24" circular needle for what I am calling the cotton candy bag. This is what the bag looks like in the book Bags: a Knitter Dozen

I am not knitting it in those colors. I love those colors and maybe someday I will make that very bag. I am making the bag in with this yarn.

The whole deal with this bag is you are lining up the color to have it pool together like it does in the picture from the book. Well the yarn I picked out for my bag does not have long enough strings of color to have them line up and pool. I still like the way it is turning out.

I also picked up this Blue Sky Alpaca yarn.

It is 100% baby alpaca. It is soft and lovely. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it but I just could not live without it. Blue Sky Alpacas is located in Saint Francis, MN. I traveled to GA to purchase yarn from a MN company. Go figure!

I also picked up another needle I needed for the sweater, a cable needle and the new Interweave knits magazine. I am one happy knitter!!

Today we went over to Chris Grandad and Glinnels house for a visit. Jeanette and her kids, Mickey, Maddy and Tessa also stopped by. Today has been a pretty relaxing day again. We're about to have corn on the cob that was made on the grill and roast from the crockpot. YUM!!

Here we go again...

2006-05-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

Ya know I might update this blog more often if the computer or the sprint air card or whatever didn't make me crazy. I had a nice long post for ya'll when something broke and that was the end of that. Once the computer wipes everything out I just don't have it in me to re-type it all out again.

So anywho... Monday we started heading North and stopped in Wildwood, FL and got this done to the doors of the truck...

Pretty cool huh??

Vacationing???

2006-04-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

This morning I went on a fabulous run. I noticed that beyond the truckstop was a residential area so I decided to run down there. It was great. I ran in the morning so the weather was wonderful, the neighborhood did not have a lot of traffic and it smelled like Florida. There was a slight breeze so the scent of orange blossoms was in the air. Oscar also enjoyed the run immensely. He was happy as a clam. Since the temp was only about 70 he was enjoying it. We saw our fill of creatures also. We saw birds, dogs, cats, a rooster and goats! Yes, goats!!!! I think I also found the redneck section of the Tampa area.

This is the view from our room.

I don't know if you can tell or not but that is the TA truckstop beyond the parking lot. Now this hotel is lovely. It's a Hampton Inn and should be lovely but WHY would anyone want to stay here with this lovely view of the truckstop??? If I was vacationing in Tampa I would think there would be more seenic places to stay. Oh well it suits our purposes and now we have the truck parked where we can see it from the room so that makes Chris happy.

This afternoon I finally lounged aroung the pool. It's another beautiful day but breezy. When I got in the pool there was a chair in the pool! I swam some laps, read a magazine, knit on my spring sock and listened to my ipod. It was very relaxing. I may head back out there in a little bit but thought I better come inside and make sure I was not getting burnt. I wouldn't mind being a nice tan color but think that lobster red would not suit me well. I think I'm ok so far!

Here is my spring sock.

I've made a lot of progress with it and still love it!! I haven't thrown it across the room yet or cursed it out too much yet.

There seems to be some really great sounding yarn shops here in the Tampa area but I will be unable to visit any of them. The only 2 stupid truckstops here will not let you drop your trailer and talking the truck and trailer to go out be-bopping around town is not really an option. I told Chris we needed scooters or something for cruising around town during our downtime.

Have you ever been to Bob Evans? There is one in the parking lot of the hotel so we have been eating pretty much all of our meals there. Yum. I love Bob Evans. I wish there were Bob Evans in MN.

Sunshine!

2006-04-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Sunny Florida! The load ended up being ready Wednesday afternoon so we are already here in FL. We are in Sarasota as I type. Next I think we are running a little shorty here in FL and then we are supposed to have a load to TX. We are not so patiently waiting for the phone call on the next load.

This is the transformer we brought down here. It's not much to look at.

The boys are still happy as clams. I don't think they enjoyed the rain we had the past few days though. I think they are probably relieved to be in warm sunny FL. It was cold Wednesday!! I ended up putting on my jeans and I even wore my mosssy socks for the first time!

Well ya know my jaywalker sock?? It's gone. I ripped it all back. It is now just a ball of yarn again. I had read that other people had found that the pattern was very small and did not take it to heart. I had this much done when I ripped it back.

I could not get the darn thing around my heel. Oh well I will start it again soon in the larger size.

In the meantime I started this sock...

I love love love this yarn! It is Cherry Tree Hill super sock. It is awesome to knit with and I love it. I can't wait to pick up some more. I think the jaywalkers would have been great in this yarn also. I'm afraid that the variegated yarn obstructs the pattern of this yarn but I am still pleased with the way they are turning out.

Work is for the birds

2006-04-25T14:19:00.000-05:00

So yesterday we got called to do a load out of South Boston, VA going to FL. So we hit the road and started traveling North to VA. Well this morning we arrived at the shipped and the piece will not be ready until Thursday. Sooooooooooooooo, they are paying us to wait for it and we are checked into the Holiday Inn. When it's time to hit it hard we're not going to know what to do. We have been spoiled with easy trips and hotel rooms.

The only thing I'm bummed about is the hotel has a nice outdoor pool that is not open yet :( Oh well I am still going to sit outside with the dogs and work on my tan!

This is for you Rob...

Before we got the call on the load we had the truck washed. I've only seen the truck this clean one other time. It cleans up nice. I hate to step on the stairs because they are so shiney and nice. Here Rob, Here's another for you!

Well that's all folks.

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-04-23T08:33:00.000-05:00

Greetings!!! I'm back and I have pictures!! I just thought this pic was so cute. This is ALL of my boys! This is Santa Rosa, NM. We turned South from here and entered the boondocks. The Boondocks of NM.This is Jeanette and her son Mack. Hey did you know my middle name is Jeanette? Yup, sure is. We have that in common already:) Last night was the awards ceremony for the Terry Bramer Circle of Excellence. Here is a pic of Chris and I before Dinner. I tried to get some pics from when Chris was receiving his award but the lighting was bad and they did not turn out. I snapped this one when they were getting ready to get there pictures taken as a group. To the left of Chris is Greg Neal and to the right is Vernon Brobst. When Chris was getting his award everyone booed him for stealing a freight coordinator away. Poor baby! It was all in good fun though. I'm sure Chris is ready to get the heck out of NC and get away from all the people harassing him about taking me:) On the knitting side of my life... I finished the mossy socks. They are both done. I even ripped back the first one and shorted in up. They are now done and perfect. It's kind of funny that I am knitting socks like a crazy person but want nothing to do with socks right now. I am all about my sandal's! I finally started a Jaywalker sock. I actually started it twice. Well now we're rocking and rolling on it and it is very nice. I have read on other blogs that the jaywalker is very narrow and it is. I tried it on and it was a very tight fit to get it around my heel. This may be the nicest sock I have ever made though. The yarn is very fine and it is knit on size 1 needles so the stitches are tiny! This is another sock that I started. It is going to be a warm pair of socks. They are very different that the jaywalker!
This is the my other project that is one the needles right now. It's going to be a bag. I'm kind of at a stand still with it right now though. It is currently on size 6, 16" addi turbo needles and I need a 20 or 24" to continue on with it. We did check out a yarn store here in Charlotte yesterday and I was hoping to pick some up but they didn't have any.

The yarn store we checked out was baskets of yarn. It was very small. They didn't have a large variety but was an interesting store none the less. I got out of there cheap. I bought one ball of sock yarn to add to the stash!

I added a bunch of new Pics to "The Boys" if you need a new fix of cute dog pics!

Well I have to wrap it up here. I need to pack up so we can check out of the hotel.

Happy Birthday to me.

2006-04-21T09:45:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been almost a week since I've had a chance to blog. We have been very very busy and any chance to use the computer that I have had has been used for "official" business. Well we managed to deliver in El Paso and get the heck out of there. I loved driving thru NM, it was very pretty. I loved how most of the time you could look around there would be nothing but road and desert. I can't imagine what life would be like living in Eastern NM though. It is very desolate and poor.

After we delivered in El Paso we set up camp at the truckstop thinking we would be there for awhile. We found a nice parking spot and set up the Idel Air. (I am now a huge Idel fan now) Well Oscar and I decided to go for a run while Chris and Nanners chilled in the truck. We had to cut the run short because Oscar just couldn't handle to heat. I was ready to keep going but Oscar would stop and just sit down. Oh well I guess he's getting too old to be out running in the heat. When I got back from the run we hit the showers then took off to go load in Sealy, TX heading to Fort Bragg, NC (that's where I am as I type). I didn't think we were going to make it to NC for the awards banquet but here we are!

This load is just a stepdeck load but it got us where we wanted to go. I really meant to take a picture of this load too to post but just never gort around to it.

We have been kind of mosieing along to get here(surprise, Surprise) and have made a few stops along the way. Wednesday afternoon we rolled into Lithia Springs, GA and spent some time with Chris' parent, his Grandpa and Glinell and Jeanette, his siter in law and her son Mack. I have never met Granddad, Glinell or Jeanette and her family so that was cool. I thinkg it is so nice that now I am here with Chris when he is seeing his family instead of always just being on the other end of the phone

We had a blast in GA! We ate shredded chicken Tacos and yummy oatmeal cake. Micheal also called from Cuba so we all got to speak with him for a little bit. The dogs were suprisingly well behaved. We were very worried that they would be super brats and we would not be invited back. Chris had a heart to heart with them both before we arrived so I think that helped :)

Yesterday we cruised up to Fayetteville, NC (where Fort Bragg is located) and spend some time with Chris' Aunt and Uncle, Mitzi and Bobby. We also had a great time with them. I told Chris I would like to just drive around the country and visit people!!! When we arrived we just sat and chatted some with Mitzi then we went to Walmart. There were so many things that we needed! After Bobby was done with work we headed off to a fabulous Italian place for dinner. I had chicken Marsala and it was excellent! After dinner we headed off to the mall for some more shopping. Well my birthday started last night, let me tell you, since I was spoiled with all the stuff I got. I have a bunch of new clothes, Mitzi bought me a cute pair of pink flip flops, and Chris bought me a limited edition Dale Earnhardt Jr Leather jacket. We got an INCREDIBLE deal on it. It was far too good to pass up!

Last night we slept in the truck in front of Mitzi and Bobbys and this morning we got up and had coffee with them then went out to breakfast with Bobby. We just unloaded and next we will be heading to Charlotte, NC to set up camp and the hotel and drop the boys off at the kennel.

Ok. I started typing this us yesterday but now it is Saturday and we're in Charlotte. We dropped the boys off yesterday afternoon at the kennel. I miss my little guys. Our hotel room is awesome and the boys would have loved running around in this big ole room.

Last night was the social hour thing and this morning we had the meeting. We have some free time until 7 tonight now so who knows what we'll do this afternoon.

Well I'm going to post this since I have been hanging onto it since yesterday. I will post pictures later! I promise!!!

Time to go to work!

2006-04-15T09:33:00.001-05:00

Ha! Here is the purple tree! The computer still did not want to upload this pic so I had to do some tricky work to get it to work. I hope it's worth it!!!

We're still here in Joplin MO. We decided to stay another night since the room was reasonable and the weather was nice. Yesterday we spent a good part of the day working on this computer. It has been moving at snail pace lately. Chris spent two hours on the phone with Geek Squad yesterday trying to determine if we had a virus or what was making the computer so sluggish. Well after all that there is NOTHING wrong with the computer. Which I guess is a good thing. Well we finally checked the Sprint Aircard and there was an upgrade on that. It seems like maybe the computer is moving a little quicker.

Last night we went to dinner at Olive Garden. It was yummy. I'm sure I blew my points out of the water but it was so nice to not eat at the truckstop.

Yesterday the mossy sock and I made peace. I actually have a bit more of the second sock done than this pic shows. I think I have determined that the sock and I don't get along when we are rolling down the road. Tiny stitches and bumpy roads don't mix. I have also spotted some boo-boos in the first sock but they are mistakes that I can live with. They give the sock personality! Yeah, personality!

I also got quite a bit of the second mitten done also yesterday. I often wonder what I did before I knit. If I have a minute of down time I have time to knit.

This is the load we have now. It is an Oshkosh truck. It has been a topic of conversation. Lots of people have come up to the truck to take a lookie at the 42,000 pound military truck. They want to know what it weighs, what kind of engine it has, and is it an automatic? People have also told us stories of there military days.

BTW, it had a Detroit engine and it is and automatic.

Well I think we're going to get ourselves ready so we can go back to work. We're going to have to hit it hard the next couple of days. We've messed around long enough and it is time to get back to work.

Hi Skip!!

The Show Me State

2006-04-13T18:59:00.000-05:00

Hello Hello!!! We are currenty in a hotel room in Joplin, MO. Chris got called for a random drug test today so we had to make a pit stop here for that. We decided that we were not going to make it to El Paso Friday so we might as well hang out here for the night. That means using the computer without worrying about it dying! Yeah!!!! That also means that I will share some pics with you!

I took this pic last night as we were cruising thru Saint Louis. We were going thru the city during my favorite part of the day. Twighlight. I took some other pics of the the arch but this one was the coolest by far!

Since we spent all day today in MO I decided that the colors that make me think MO are green and purple. It is spring here big time. It's was 94 here in Joplin today. Anywho, everything is green and blooming. Along the roads there is all this green foliage and then these purple trees. They are so pretty and really bring out a spring feeling in me. (imagine picture here) I have a lovely picture of the purple tree but the computer does NOT want to upload it.

Well yesterday I had to give up on the mossy sock for awhile. It was ripping and ripping and finally decided that it was time to set it down and work on something else. I started a mitten last night and finished the first one a little bit ago. This is a felted mitten so it will be much smaller than it is now.

You would think that the dogs would be sick of me. Oh no! We're here in the hotel room and they still want to sit on my lap and follow me to the restroom. Geez.

Normal

2006-04-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

I know what Normal is now. Normal, IL anyways. That's where we're at for the moment. Chris is fixing lights on the trailer( his new favorite pastime!) and I made us a little lunch and decided to check my email. The weather is fab here right now. If it wasn't so breezy it would be perfect.

Eating on the road is challenging. I am doing my best to stay on plan. Yesterday I messed up at breakfast but kept the rest of the day in check. I ended up eating one flex point yesterday which I think is pretty darn good. I also get a gold star for getting in exercise. I jump roped for 30 minutes next to the truck.... In a truck stop parking lot. Well now I've done it maybe I won't feel so stupid next time!

My Mossy sock is turning into the hell sock. Yesterday I spent more time UNknitting than knitting. This morning was the same way. I think I have everything under control again. We'll see. I think I've decided that since I've spent so much time unknitting sock 2 that I will rip out sock 1 a little and make it a little shorter. It is really long right now. I got a little over zealous.

What should I start next? Mittens??? This is the cascade I have for the mittens. Or maybe a bagI have planned and the stash for???

El Paso Bound

2006-04-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

OK. I have found from past experience that we're never really doing anything until we are actually doing it. Well we are going to El Paso. The load is on the trailer and Chris is chaining it down as we speak. YEAH!

The dogs have been in heaven today. Mommys lap is the best place to be! I really think that out last trip to TX and back helped prepare Oscar. O-boy is not being a freak like he usually is in the truck. He's pretty much just rolling with it like a good boy. He probably watches Nanners and sees that he is not a freak and follows his lead.

I'm gonna wrap it up here since this computer doesn't last very long.

TX Bound (soon)

2006-04-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight we're leaving to go load in Oshkosh, WI. We're loading up and heading to El Paso,TX. We have a few more things to do around the house before we leave. It just wouldn't be right unless we had a major crisis to deal with first... The drier does not work. It sounds like it's working and it makes the stupid buzzing noise that Oscar hates but does not dry the clothes. NICE! So we'll be leaving shortly for the laundrymat and post office. It's always something. I think both of us will feel better once we actually get the load on the trailer and get going. Our next crisis will be getting out of El Paso.

I sucessfully packed up all my stuff and even got Chris' aproval on the amount of stuff I'm bringing with! SWEET! We'll see how many more things I find to bring at the last minute. Wish me luck.

Lazy

2006-04-09T11:33:00.000-05:00

I feel lazy today. We really should be doing stuff around the house but I think we'd both rather waste time instead. Chris is talking on the phone (surprise, surprise) and here I sit. Look what I finished last night! One mossy sock... DONE! I will cast on the second mossy sock sometime today, (I hope) I'm already thinking about my next pair of socks. Maybe some Jaywalkers, or maybe another pair from Sensational Knitted Socks. I guess only time will tell. I have plenty of choices for sock yarn. I've been hoarding it lately. I think I'm afraid that once I get on the truck I will never get to go to another yarn store. Check out my sock stash. I am rather proud of it!
I've got choices and that is important! I think Chris was a little freaked out when he seen how much yarn I wanted to bring with me. Hmmm, maybe we should get going on organizing the trucks so I have room for all my stuff!

This is my sleeve. It is Marie Louis's Lace Sweater from Knitter Stash. I started this sweater a long, long, long time ago. So long ago that what I had already knit I could probably fit two of the current me's in it. I bit the bullet and started ripping it apart and started over. The week that we went down to TX and back I worked on this pretty religiously. Check out that sleeve. That is a weeks worth of solid knitting. WOW! I haven't worked on this since that trip. I think I'm waiting to get in the truck until I pick it up again. Maybe next week I will start the second sleeve.

Well I think I will get something done now. Or maybe I'll go for a run. It's supposed to be close to 70 today so I really should take advantage of the nice weather.

Brits!

2006-04-08T16:13:00.000-05:00

Judy, Shirl, Bonnie
Brits was a blast night! We started off the evening inside but stepped outside for the smokers and ended up staying out there for a good part of the night! It was chilly but I figure that will make it that much more of a memorable experience.

Chris and My Mom

We did eventually move inside after we ate. We had the waitress take this picture of those of that were left or the ones I like to call the "Party People"

Starting in in the Back left: Rob, Bonnie, Judy, Chris, Shirl and Chris and Laura. Earlier in the evening My mom, Disa, Kari, Brad, Liz and Shawn were also there.

This morning we got up and were off to great start cleaning this house! We have to get it ready for our Landlord to start showing so she can re-rent it. We got a lot done this morning but it all went out the window after lunch. We took a break to go have lunch at Panera then stopped at the home depot. We were at the Home Depot for hours (ok that was a little sarcastic) and didn't get a thing then came home to watch the race. Well since then we have got nothing done. Hmmm, maybe I should get off the computer and get back to work.

I hate computers

2006-04-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

I had written a really nice post about my night last night at Brits. I went to publish it and an error occurred. Of course I didn't save anything. I am far too pissed to post any thing now.Geez.

My Last Day

2006-04-07T13:29:00.000-05:00

The day is here. Today is my last day in the office! I am so excited to start this adventure but sad to be leaving my co-workers who have been my extended family for almost 5 years now. Of all the things I will miss here it is definitely my co-workers.

My co-workers gave me a very nice card today. The front says:
"Success is loving life and daring to live it" Maya Angelou
And the inside says " You always dare to do more, to achieve more, to be more. Congratulations on living life so well."

(Sorry this pic is so bad. I look it with my phone because I just couldn't wait to share!)

They also gave me a "L" bookmark, a bracelet (silver and pink!!!!) and this book.

This makes me want to cry! They know me too well. Come on now, a knitting book and a pink and silver bracelet. You don't get much more Laura than that!

I went out to lunch today with Betsy at Hells Kitchen. And tonight there will be adult beverage festivities at Brits in Minneapolis.

Almost there

2006-04-06T09:18:00.000-05:00

This is my desk. It looks like something exploded huh? It does look a little better now than it does in this pic. I have started giving things away and putting things in my bag to bring home.

Tonight is meeting night. This will be my last regular Weight Watchers meeting. Teri, my leader is giving me my card so I can attend meetings elsewhere. Send me skinny vibes for tonight's WI. I've been pretty good this week but naughtiness with start tomorrow I'm sure.

Did you check out "My Boys" on the side bar? I was pretty proud of that!

Happy Hump Day

2006-04-05T10:48:00.000-05:00

Sunrise in South Saint Paul

I snapped this pic this morning from the back steps. Although daylight savings is really messing with my sleep I am enjoying the daylight later in the evening. I miss the sun already being up when I get up. I don't like getting up in the pitch black. I have been taking advantage of the light in the evening by going running. Last night Oscar and I ran 4+ miles. Oscar got chubby over the winter but I'm sure that will be melting off now that we've started running again.

These are Disa's felted mittens. I finished them last week and have already given them to her. I was going to wait until her Birthday (April 24th, people!!!) but just couldn't wait. They were knit up with Cascade 220. I really enjoyed making these mittens. They were quick and easy! I have since purchased enough Cascade 220 for at least 7 more pairs of mitten. (Guess what your getting for Christmas!) You will have a choice of some fabulous colors!

These are my stupid socks. I finished these last week also. I don't think you can tell from the pic, but the left sock is HUGE. I don't know what I did wrong with that left sock but I learned a lesson, If it doesn't fit rip it back! You would think that I would know that by now. I finished the left sock, which took FOREVER since it's so huge, then cast on the same number of stitches on the same size needles and knit a perfectly normal right sock. What's up with that? I have another skein of this yarn (which I really like) that I will make a functional pair of socks with. Someday...

I made this yesterday. I am still playing around with this HTML thing but have a plan for that. I just need to figure out how to do it. Be watching you may this again!

TTFN!

Laura

T minus 4 days and counting!!!

2006-04-04T13:58:00.000-05:00

Well I am down to 4 days left of work. It's kind of weird to think that next week at this time this will not be my desk anymore! I must say that I have had my fill of people that I have talked to this week that I will NOT miss. I really need to get my rear in gear and start bringing things home or giving them away.

These are my peeps! This is the Operations Department. Staring from the bottom left: Me, Ralph, Mark, Shawn. Next row: Debbie, Matt, Rob and Dennis. I guess Shawn isn't one of my peeps like everyone else in the pic since he's the permit dude now but I guess I can still call him one of my peeps ;) Well I'm still getting a hang of this blogging thing but I think I am starting to get it. Did you check out my side bar?---------->
Look! I have links and cool stuff on it now! That was a MAJOR accomplishment for me! I will be working diligently to update this blog and make it really spiffy. Word on the street is that Chris is going to have his own blog too. I'm sure his won't be as fluffy as mine, will have no reference to knitting and will have a whole lotta trucking talk on it. I will keep you updated on the progress of that!

Here is my little knitting update for you! This --> is the start of the soho sling from Bags: A Knitters Dozen. The yarn is Lorna's shepherds Worsted in Black Purl! It is 100% super wash wool and is knitting up quick. This bag is really mindless knitting. Just knit around and around and around. Sorry this picture is crappy. I took with my phone while sitting at my desk. The picture really doesn't do it justice. The yarn is a beautiful!

Before and Now

2006-04-03T18:11:00.000-05:00

OK. I finally have a place to put these pics for people to see. Here are my then and now pics. As I'm sure you know I have lost all of my weight with Weight Watchers and exercise.

Ok here it is. This is the BIG picture of me. I think this is Summer of 2003. Who the hell is that person?

This is Chris and I in CA. This picture was taken Labor Day weekend, 2004. I am down about 50 pounds here. I think.

This is June of 2005. We're at the Batman Begins 400 in MI. I am down about 120 pounds here.

Here I am November of 2005. This is a a mini golf place in Grand Prairie, TX! I am down about 140 here.

So there you have it!!! That's me and my weightloss so far.

I'm blogging!!!!!!!!

2006-04-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

OMG! Look Mom I'm blogging!

Now I have somewhere to type all this total random shit that is going thru my head. I can also spout off dorky knitting stuff and if you don't like it don't read it! HA!

I am going to be using this as a way to keep in touch when Chris and I hit the road. I can't wait to take a ton of pictures to share with everyone also.

In the meantime since I don't have really cool pictures to share here is what I am calling the mossy sock.

2006-04-03T15:40:00.000-05:00