Punkins!

There was much pumpkin carnage this evening at the pumpkin party this evening thanks to the lovely sharp pointyness of my new favorite carving tool. Many a pumpkin lost its top and guts for the festivities. Mmmmm pumpkin guts! Nothing like the sticky goodness of cleaning a pumpkin to whet your appetite for pumpkin seeds. Lenore.... I am waiting on my share of toasted yummy seeds!
















This was Wild Bill's pimped out pumpkin. Notice the lovely pimp hat and gold tooth. Stylin!

































Before I got to sleep (because pumpkin carving is tough business!) here is a picture of our hideously scary pumpkins.

Happy Birthday Jan!

43 years ago today! Hope you have a Happy Happy Birthday and many more to come!

I think this cheerleading picture is my favorite! Go Jan!!

Panic!

Since I have now decided that I need to complete the Noro bag that has been languishing it would seem that I would have to run out of yarn. And run out I did. Emergency situation! For anyone that does any kind of fiber craft, which in my world would be cross-stitch and knitting, you then know that dye lots can be very important. Different dye lot can mean no real noticeable difference or it could mean, "Hey look, I added a whole 'nother color over here and now it looks ridiculous." Lucky for me, when I called my local shop (Charlotte Yarn), they not only had the same color, but the same dye lot as well. Considering that I bought the original yarn in July in a California shop, I count myself lucky. On knits the Noro bag... I will post some pictures in the near future. Or, maybe not, the new piece looks a lot like the other pieces I have shown but a different shape. Not all that exciting.

Also on the knitting front, I have discovered the world of podcasts. The first knitting podcast I have been listening to is Lime & Violet. Fun and interesting! Once I get current I will start on a new one. Yeah!

Off to work a bit more on the bag and then clean up a bit. MIL will be here tomorrow for a charity auction that is sponsored by NASCAR.

Happiness abounds

Good news today! We finally found (and purchased) an entertainment center for the living room. I am so relieved and excited that this search is finally over. We were told that the delivery time is 6-8 weeks, but we are crossing our fingers that it does not take quite so long. I will absolutely post pictures when this wonder boy arrives!

On to some knitting news. Here is the partially completed square for the Lizard Ridge Afghan. I have almost completed one of the many squares that will be needed to complete this project. What I found amusing is that you knit from the inside and the outside of the ball, which is supposed to mix the variegation of the ball of yarn. Unfortunately, it seems that my ball had green on both ends with all of the other colors being in between... oh well, I am sure it will look beautiful none the less.

Below is the Noro handbag that I have been working on. I am done with the second panel, just need to bind off. Then I will start the strip that will connect the two side pieces together. You may see me carrying this around soon!



Finally, the sock. My lifes ambition all tied up in this one item... it is going to be ripped back and started over now that I have completed the class and learned most of the techniques needed. I am starting over because the ribbing at the top is too loose and there is a hole in the leg of the sock where, I don't know, I perhaps can't keep the stitches together. So, again the sock is to be no more and will, hopefully, start a new life as a much better constructed sock in its second life. Then I just have to knit a mate for it.



Gotta run... DH (dear husband for the one who asked) and I need to ready for the beer tasting party that we were invited to by one of his co-workers. We are bringing some Lambic beer from Belgium. Lots of fruit flavors, really delicious!

Blech!

Welcome to the world of rapid weather change! 80 degrees one day 50 the next and with that comes the happy land of sinus congestion and PAIN. My head could actually explode right now... seriously, it could happen. I will be back to the blogging fun once the pain recedes to a more managable level.
For more interesting fare you should check out Lenore, she got back from her lovely trip to Italy today.

Komen Walk

Time for an update on the Komen Race for the Cure that ocurred this past Saturday. I am super pleased to announce that I was able to raise a bit over $700 this year. This beats last years fundraising of $423. Thank you to everyone that donated this year!!

Since I am on the subject I wanted to post a link here to an issue that I have long felt strongly about, but was really not able to explain this in a really logical fashion. Today I was searching for some information on breast cancer and I came across this website for Breast Cancer Action. Ok website, but what really caught my eye was their article on Think Before You Pink. I have long felt that companies may or may not be taking advantage of "Breast Cancer Awareness" or other such worthy causes so they can sell more of there product by making the buyer feel that they are really supporting said worthy cause. I am NOT advocating that these products not be purchased. What I am advocating is that you ask yourself why you are buying it and if you are buying it soley based on the pink ribbon on the box then ask yourself is this company really doing a service for this cause.

Disney fun!

Whew! We just got back from the fantastical Disney World yesterday. Can I just tell you how much I love that place?? I have been so many times as an adult and I just can't seem to get enough. The only downside this time was that I seemed to be so tired. Of course, Disney is all about walking in the heat and there seemed to an infestation of "lovebugs" while we were there. Has anyone ever been to Florida during lovebug season? It is a complete infestation! Seriously, I have never seen so many bugs in my life! The air was actually thick with these things! Luckily for us, they were only bad on the first day we were there, which was Wednesday, and they thinned out by afternoon. From what we were told they usually arrive later in October and they are like that for several weeks. Nice.

So, I should probably talk about the actual fun that I had and not the icky bugs, huh. Well, we stayed at the Beach Club Resort. Thanks D&R! We were there with my aunt and uncle, my brother Joe and DH. We had so much fun! I don't have the pictures with me, but we went to the Magic Kingdom first and Mickey met us at the door for a picture. I have so many pictures with the characters... I can never seem to have enough. The next day we went to Animal Kingdom, which is definitely in the top two of my favorite parks there. Animals are cute!

Here is DH and I posing in from on the new Expedition Everest. That's the giant mountain that they built with a really cool roller coaster ride in it... at least that's what I heard. I chickened out and waited for them in the gift shop.

Here is a picture of the Tree of Life.

Here is a picture of a cute littel bird that was kind enough to pose for DH in the bird of enclosure. As you can see my new camera rocks!


OK, we did go to Epcot the next day, which is my other very favorite park. They have a new ride called Soarin' that was really cool. Not only did you get to fly over California, but it included smell'o'vision as well! The other cool ride is Mission Space, this ride is so intense that they now have the easy baby ride if you don't want to go on the full force one... Joe, DH, and I went on the REAL ride!

Here is DH and I with Chip 'n Dale at Epcot.

Last, but not least, here is the super friendly squirrel friend that we made in France (Epcot). This guy knew how to get some pastry and cake from everyone. He would come right up to your shoe. I actually thought he was going to crawl right up onto one of my shoes while we were there. So cute! Of course, my luck he would bite me and I would end up with rabies or something. Suffice it to say, I fed the little guy, but there was no petting.

I think that's about it. We had a fabulous time and can't wait to go again!

Brand Spankin' New

You might notice some changes on my blog... I realized last night that, with the old template, that if you view the blog in Explorer that the side bar was on the bottom of the page. I am open to opinions.... let me know what you think.

House and Lottery

Sun is out today, so maybe I will get some things done outside. Things like removing the rest of the horrid pine straw… maybe I will get outside to take some before and afters. And replacing it with the lovely mulch. Have I mentioned how much I love mulch? LURVE IT! Pine straw could possibly be the bane of my existence, at least where outside lawn products are concerned.

Hopefully, when I get home the brick masons will have been there removing the brick from our front porch. To make a very long story short, when they cleaned the concrete off of the brick it removed the finish from it making it a completely different color than the house. You know that looked good. I did notice several weeks back that someone came by to “fix” it. What the fix looked to be was someone spackling some concrete like substance over it so it would blend with the house brick. Needless to say, this looked really poor. My ultimatum to the builder was Friday the 15th… we will see how that goes. Then we can work on the fixit things on the inside of the house. And they were doing so well up until the 30 day review.

And now for something completely different:
I guess the first thing that I need to say is that I really love to gamble. Since black jack is not available to me here I have had to make a substitution. Anyone care to guess? I know some of you know… it would be scratch off lottery tickets! Why, you ask? I haven’t the slightest, but I have been keeping track of my winnings losses on an excel sheet. Pretty interesting. At some point I would like to link the spreadsheet to the blog. Anyone know how to set that up?

Weather and knitting

Has anyone looked outside lately? It is yucky and nasty outside here (check out the poor weather pixie to the right). Rain, rain, rain, all day long. Plus, it is starting to get cold out there. Not freezing by any means, but it feels like the start of autumn.

On to knitting... I am really happy that I finally took that knitting class! Like I need something else to do with my time. Oh well! This is not the best picture as it was getting dark outside, but here is my completed scarf. I think Buddha really likes it.


Here he is modeling my new handbag. Ok, yeah, I realize it looks more like a reallly short belt, but I took that picture about a week and a half ago. Yes, I am that slow to put stuff on here. At this time I have one of two panels completed. I have just started the second one. I will try and get a nice daytime picture of it when I can.


Just to torture myself a bit more I found this today. Is that not gorgeous? I am actually kinda jealous of the setting of the picture as well. Wouldn't that be a nice back yard? I digress... the only problem is that this particular yarn is not only beautiful, but expensive as well. Hah! When has that stopped me? You may be seeing Buddha wrapped in an afghan before long...