Feelin the love

I just want to thank all you guys for all the well wishes (Welcome to the blog, Mira!). It looks like things may get better soon since T is headed to Colorado to visit his sister for a bit. When is he going? No idea. How long will he be there? Not a freakin clue. But that's not the point. Even if he just flies up there for the night, it's peace and quiet time for me. It's all about me, baby! ChristinA, (psst, Christina, the poking wasn't so bad. He doesn't poke hard. hehe) thank you for the words of wisdom on the Soleil. I'll have to pick it up and give it the ol' college try again. Is it considered a WIP or a UFO if all I did was cast on, get confused and shove it in a bag somewhere?

So we made a decision about the Demon Dog. There is a place in town called the Woodstock Animal Foundation of Texas and they do some wonderful work with animals that they adopt out. Yes, it is breaking our hearts to make this decision, but honestly, between work and the 3 other pooches, we just don't have time to get her the training she needs. And even if we did, or we made the time, this is a big dog. She weighs close to 60 lbs and we have her in a house that is under 1500 sq ft. It's just not fair to her. She needs a home with a huge ass backyard to play in and kids to romp with and throw toys for her. She was never supposed to be a permanent addition to the house, but we wanted to try because we adore her. But, we will be saying goodbye to her soon.

This will actually alleviate some of our stress because she likes to chew things. She has an insatiable curiosity that lands her in trouble all the time. She is either pulling things out of the trash, the dirty clothes, the kitchen sink, bathroom trash cans, off the dining room table......aarrrgggghhh! And it's not like she tears it up, she just wants to drag it around the house for a little while until she sees something else fun to tote around. And I really, really want it stopped before I come home one day to find my panties in the backyard for the whole neighborhood to see. Chain link fence, you see. Yeah. Not to mention that our backyard is right across from two (2) day care centers. With Children. Children find underpants funny. I will not be the neighborhood panty lady. It's bad enough when I'm on the phone with my mother-in-law and T yells (so she can hear, obviously) "Baby, you left your panties in the living room again." Yep. You know me. I'll strip anywhere. *sigh*

Hope everyone has a great day!

It's all about peer pressure.

Ok, so I get the hint. I'm getting the pressure about not updating again, and it's not even from someone with a yarn addiction! Ms. TMK herself has applied the thumbscrews with full backing from the Blog Mistress. Then last night I am innocently watching TV because I need a small break from GW and my hubby walks up and pokes me in the shoulder. Twice. Then proceeds to tell me that it's from my GW/knitting/blogging buddy, Christine,(Update #2: It's Christina you twit. ChristinA. If my head weren't attached....) because I need to update. Has she updated recently? No, I don't think so. Granted, her last post was 2 days after my last post so she now has 2 days to update before the poking begins in earnest. Ya hear that? There. Will. Be. Poking! (Update: Christina has felt the force and has narrowly escaped the Poking Finger of Doom by updating as I was writing. I'll get you, my pretty. And your little half nekkid Ranger, too!)

I do have a good reason for ignoring the blog, and no, it's not the game. Ok, it's not only the game. The game is just my way of escaping and hiding from the men in my life. It's been an absolute shit storm of stress at Chez Stalker here lately. My dear darling hubby, love of my life, has Multiple Sclerosis. Now he was diagnosed a few years back so don't go thinking this is a recent development. It's still stressful. And his medication causes mood swings. Not fun, I tell ya. Imagine, if you will, a menopausal woman who has simultaneously quit smoking, quit drinking and has decided that her crack addiction has to go at the same time. Multiply that by about 20. That's what I live with. His doctor has given him 6 weeks off from work to deal with some stress issues to keep from having a relapse because my hubby's new supervisor is a dick. I would be nicer about it, but I don't like the man. He gives me the creepies.

Now, while I am happy that T is being taken care of, I still have to deal with angry hubby, people at work asking me all sorts of questions (we work at the same business), sad hubby, dirty house, green-eyed monster cuz I have to go to work and hubby gets to stay home, blah blah blah. I need a break. Enter weekend at the parents house. I am a Daddy's Girl through and through. I once broke my brother's nose because he said something ugly about my dad. I didn't mean to break it. I did mean to punch him though. So off I go to be a princess and not have to deal with anything. When I get there, Mom is still at work so I get a few hours with Dad. Cool!

Me: Hi Daddy! How ya been?
Dad: Oh feeling better now.
Me: Better?
Dad: Well yeah, I just got out of the hospital. They think I may have had a heart attack. They said they may do that balloon thingy in my arteries or something. That or open heart surgery. Have you had dinner yet?
Me: Guh.....

Now folks, I should be used to this. I'm the youngest of 3 and the only girl. My family keeps everything from me because I just don't need to worry myself over it. Grrrrr. So I pumped my dad for information once we got inside and found out he had an appointment for Monday morning and made him promise to call me and give an update. He's fine by the way. The doctor found very little blockage and gave him some meds. Extra white hairs anyone? Then as Daddy and I are talking, I realize it's too quiet in the house. My parents have a bird and a big, fluffy Husky dog. They have had these 2 since I was in high school.

Me: Daddy, where's Snowball (the dog)?
Dad: Oh he died, honey.
Me: What happened???
Dad: Oh the vet says he had a stroke and he was bad off so we had to put him to sleep so he wouldn't suffer.
Me: When did this all happen?
Dad: Must have been 2 weeks ago now. It was about a week after Elliot (the bird) died.
Me: Do you people know how to use a freakin' phone??

Thankfully (or so I thought) Mom got home soon after so I could pump her for information on my dad's health.

Me: So when exactly did Daddy go into the hospital.
Mom: Well, I guess it was Thursday, cuz it was the day after your Grandpa went into the hospital and he went in Wednesday.
Me: Guh.......

I gave up. Luckily on the way out of my house on Saturday I checked the mail and one of my packages was this:

I hid in my parent's guest room on Sunday and read the entire thing. It was almost like getting to be an angsty teen again.

On The Yarn Front:

Not much. Nothing really. I have a shawl started but I'm just not feeling it. I also have a tank for my mother-in-law started but I'm confused by the graph. Just the first line. It's the Soleil tank from Knitty. That first line is just knit. Here's my question. On the first round, does my cast on count as the first line of the graph and I skip that first knit round?? Or do I cast on and knit a row per the graph? Help! I'm gonna go crochet an ugly doily or something. Guh....

There are no lemons here.

Short post today, my dear Stalkees.

Sometimes life just goes ahead and hands you the damn lemonade without all the muss and fuss and it quenches a thirst you never knew you had. Sometimes, things just happen and you're not sure how or why, you're just, I don't know....Relieved? Excited? Content? Blown away? I feel this way every time I see this. This is the final numbers for The Dulaan Project. We were shooting for 500 items. Go have a look. Accept the warm fuzzies that come with realizing what was accomplished and then go hit your stash and go ahead and start a hat or a scarf for next year. Make a sampler scarf out of squares to improve your stitches. Let's see what we can get done for next year, shall we?

Hope everyone has a great day!