more stitches for my...friends hehehehehe

okay, so i've been knitting. i love this hat. it's the thorpe. i used nashua yarn (the same as my bella mittens. i made this for my moms coworker. she had requested a hat with ear flaps and a pompom. i thought this hat would fit the bill. i added the pompom but everything was pretty much the same. well, i ended up way off gauge in length so i had to cut out a few rows. however i don't think a lot was lost. it was quick knit and i will definately be making one for myself. the only downfall, damn crochet edge. i hate to crochet and it makes me want to poke my eyes out. but i think the crochet edge turned out okay. i'm calling it good enough. by the way, sorry about the photos. i'm not really wanting to find the camera.

in other news: another 8+ inches of snow today. in case your wondering, that makes it about 30 inches in three weeks. its no gillette, but it's not too bad. luckily it melts during the week and then snows on saturday or sunday night. i'm sad because there is no bike rides yet.

whoa, did you say sassy?

oh, well i did! i got a new hair cut and it is sassy! i love it. LUV IT!i'm starting a thorpe hat today. cross your fingers and hope it turns out okay..and i have enough yarn ;) that's all for today.

really? REALLY?

ha! bet you all thought i was stoked about this. but i have to say, martha i do love your cooking. and i refrence cooking school constantly. baking...i love! but crafting...nope. not going to purchase this. however i did hear that needlework is next years book. THAT i will look forward too :)

yeah, i'm like a professional...

bowler that is! actually i'm really awful at it. however i do enjoy it. i wish i had more friends that did. then i would bowl often! but until then, i will continue bowling as often as possible. which is what i did this weekend. my youngest sister, the lovely leah, turned 12 this week. and she had a birthday party--a bowling birthday. and a sleepover. but she didn't mention that! bob, sarah and i and a bunch of 6th graders. it was like i was at work, but i could swear! it wasn't bad. we had lots of fun together. we ate cake and cinnamon rolls, did each others hair and painted our nails. well, we did the first two things mentioned, the girls did the rest. and we went bowling at the new bowling alley in bigfork (i believe it's called picks). this is time number three on this blog that i will mention bad customer service (and bad mouth crazy folk to be honest). this warrents a new paragraph because the guy was such a nutter!

as mentioned, this bowling alley is new. and we got there and it was PACKED! it was really rather surprising. and my mom had made a 2 hour reservation for 2 lanes (there were 9 of us there). we figured in that amount of time two things could happen: the girls would bowl and tire themselves out OR one of them would punch another and we would have a full on tween brawl. turns out, we just had some bowling. but i digress. nice bowling alley...not even the slightest wiff of smoke. but being as it's new, it was lacking the general warning signs, "put balls back," "no smoking," and "no street shoes beyond this point." if i had been a good blogger, i would have taken photos but i forgot. we all sat down at the tables and took our shoes off and started bowling. within minutes there was this leprechan man telling us to move our street shoes off the tile (NOT anywhere near the wood lanes). so we did. we thought it was weird and he wasn't very pleasant about it. but we keep bowling because we're cool like that. Then pretty soon he was behind me again. this time telling me not to sit on the table. apparently i have a fat ass that just leaning on the table will break it along with the electronics. that's what this man informed me off. oooooookay...it's new...whatever. 10 minutes later he's back!!!
"you all only have a few more minutes left."
my mom lets him know that she had made a reservation for two hours and that we would indeed like to continue bowling. and i get ready to continue bowling. now apparently i look angry and am ready to bash his head in (this is only what i can guess) because at this point he tells me to wait to bowl my turn until this matter is settled. now what the hell? i am here to bowl...if i only have a few minutes left, i'm gonna bowl damn it! so i refrain until he and my mom have a heated discussion. turns out my mom was right, she HAD reserved the lanes for 2 hours. so we got moved. with 1/2 of a frame left (!?!?) down to the kid free section. i can only assume that's what it is because there are couches to sit on instead of tables. YES! couches! bowling alley with couches! and coffee tables between them so you can sit and chat. i think this is how all the lanes should be...who wants a stinking picnic table? that part was awesome. at this point i was so paranoid the leprachon man was going to jump out from behind me i quit bowling. he takes his job incredibly serious. and i guess if i could have a couch in my bowling alley i would too!

i got you now st. patties day run!

i did it. i really did it! i ran the whole st. patricks day race...in less time than i hoped too! i am so excited. we had lots of fun this weekend. my friend renee came from helena, our friend cc came from havre, lex came from gillette and my mom and leah came from kalispell. we all stayed out at fairmont and soaked lots and relaxed after our run. the day was absolutely perfect! there was a slight bit of wind, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with. being as this was the second time i raced this course, i felt much better about it and was much more prepaired for it. i think this helped in my wanting to quit running. I had made a deal with myself to run the first two miles, and then at mile three i knew i was able to do one more mile. then as soon as i could read the clock, i kicked into high gear to finish below 35 minutes. it's not the fastest time in the world for sure, but i am so happy with it. my next race is in three weeks and should be nice. my goal is to knock off 2 minutes. this is quite the stretch because the st. patties day race is all down hill, which probably helped with my time. so even if i end up staying the same (assuming its a hilly race) i'll be okay. by the way, there were 600+ racers at this race. we were on the 8th bus to take people to starting line. i wish i had taken pictures at the starting line. it was really awesome. and i saw so many people that i enjoy in anaconda. it is such a fun race.

some of the racers :)
blarney stones for leah's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LELE!

And after that beautiful day for running, we got a foot of snow today. not over night, not the past two days. but from the time i went to work until 2 o'clock it snowed. and snowed. and snowed some more! it was really unbelievable and beautiful! i got home today and shoveled the walk and let the dogs play outside. they don't particularly enjoy this weather because they have to burrow through the snow to go to the bathroom. it should all melt quickly...unless more is coming. here is a nice view of it:

discombobulated

that really is a fantastic word :)

but i realize that my post yesterday was rather halfassed. so i'll rewrite it :)

i went running yesterday and did 2.5 miles. I was on the easy treadmill again. our gym now has 3 of the 6 treadmills not working. as i was running i was trying to figure out how months gym memberships it would cost to buy a new treadmill. at least i would have one that would work! but for anyone who hasn't been in our house, we are heard pressed for space for a new book, let alone a treadmill (we have only one closet in the whole house!). but i really really love our house. i was bored this weekend and spent some time looking at houses in anaconda, and i finally told bob that our house is the nicest one i saw and i would rather put improvements into it then have to move into a cruddy house. not to mention the prices were outrageous for the ghettoness that some of the houses are. so...we will continue to live here for some time :) now if there are any volunteers to come down and refinish my wood floors, i would be more than willing to do a trade :)

but back to running...we have the AOH st. patricks day race this weekend. its the same one i did last year. it's 3 miles and 90% down hill. this is going to work out in my favor. unfortunately i feel a nasty cold coming and it's settling into my chest. i'm hoping and praying that i can keep it at bay until sunday. after that i really dont care. i just really want to run this race and do well. i spent some time researching last night and am picking out some more races to run. i think as long as i've got some goals i'll keep with it. then once school is out, i think i'll join a womens running group that runs here in town. that should be some excellent motivation. and i just can't wait for the sun to come out.

now that is a little more coherent. i should take more pride in my writing!

food now

well, no knitting. well i started knitting a cowl last night and i've lost the yarn label but let me tell you, it's a silk/alpaca blend. I purchased it at a big sale at camas creek! it's awesome! i'll take photos soon and post them. hopefully it turns out because i've frogged it twice already. so we'll see what's going on.

these are the hand pies i made on sunday. they were really awesome! they're from the martha stewart baking book. i will definately make them again. also, the crust is homemade and i think i'm ready to start experimenting with pasties. i'm thinking some sort of sweet potato type thing. any suggestions?
i really need to work on my photography skills. hrmmm add that to the list.

also...ran today and only did 2.5 miles....CRAP! oh well this is the first race of the season...it can only get better right? big race this weekend :)

let there be knitting!

they're done!  i have finally finished my bella's mittens.  this was the second time i've knit them.  i have to say, it's not my finest knitting.  there are some mistakes, but nothing that i really want to go back and reknit.  plus i had frogged them three times already.  so one is two stitches smaller.  and the other one is slightly longer.  it's pretty hilarious.  but they look good and the only person that will notice is me.  so it's nothing that i'm going to worry about.  here they are.  we finally have some sunshine so i took some photos outside.

i was also working on a scarf for my mom.  she had started this and didn't like it.  also, so wanted a scarf that you was flat but wasn't a garter stitch.  i tried to teach her how to do a ribbing but she just had me do it.  so its just a 1 x 1 ribbing.  nothing too exciting.  it's long and skinny like she wanted.  so that's checked off.  

i also have another birdie hat to make for leah.  i need to make it a little bit bigger than mine still...so i've been meditating on that.

and finally...a picture from last weekend.  lex was here (she claims she'll update her blog) and we went skiing and did some swimming.  it really was lots of fun.  and she'll be here this week too.  YAY :)  oi vey...it's taking fooooooreeeeeeeeeeeeverrrrrrrrrrrrrr to load photos.  so the photo of skiing is just going to have to wait.  hopefully the other photos will post...soon

it's another day

yesterday i went running. it was really great. i got in 2.68 miles on the treadmill. the easy one. but i ran a lot faster than i usually do. for longer. now a lot faster isn't like track speed. but i felt really great when i got it done. so i'm really excited to run tomorrow. and i've added another runner to the race. sarah will be joining us and it will be awesome. we'll have lots of fun. the race is next weekend, and i'll start planning for the next one.

my bellas mittens are all done except weaving in the ends. i'm really thrilled about that. and now i'm sitting on what to do next. i'm thinking that I want to make o.w.l.s. i started the february lady sweater and really didn't live it the three times i've done it. but i have enough yarn to make it. so i'm thinking i'll just wait a while and think it over. and i should reswatch it. but back to owls. i LOVE this pattern, but i don't know if it's the best fit for me. but it's just so cute! i'm thinking i'll make it in knitpicks so that it's really affordable. but should i wait since spring is right around the corner?

anyways, that's all for now. when i'm at work, i think of all these really great things to post about for the blog, then i log on, and have forgotten it all! twitter perhaps? thoughts to ponder!

yay yay yay!

me trying to figure out the computer while on the phone with lele
it's here!  my new macbook is here!  it's like a little bit of heaven in my lap.  the bad thing...instead of running i'm playing on it...

strange thing...i can catch someones wireless connection.  but no fears, i'll get ours up and running sometime soon so that i'm on ours.  plus then i can go to any room in our house!  hehehe

there will be more later.  should be cool.