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.

things to check off...

• little big planet. i beat it last night. this is the second video game i've beat. now, i usually only play games i can pick up and set down whenever i want. but this one, ohhhhh this one was great! i loved it. but i was sad that i didn't get some big huge production when i beat it. oh well. i enjoyed it and will keep playing all the little games and trying to collect more items.

• the true meaning of smekday. i finished this one up today and it was so good. really funny and fun to read. i love books like that. today i went to the library and got some books and am looking forward to reading those.
  
• running. because that's what i'm going to go do. i'm thinking of posting all my runs online so you all can see how i'm doing. i don't know if you're aware, but i want to run 12 races this year and then make a quilt out of the shirts. it's a strange reason to run...but whatever works right? also, i'm starting to work out again in the morning with my friend. this is going to be rough because i've been having a REALLY hard time getting up at 7...and getting up at 5 is going to be really rough. BUT knowing someone is waiting for me is good. plus i'll be able to start getting to school on time. and my little dogs will hopefully be getting walks again since i'll have spare time in the morning.
  

that's all on my to be checked off list.

other good things: i ordered a new computer. this was a rash decision, but the price was right and i've been wanting a lap top so we can turn our small room into a guest room without having to sleep wall to wall to desk. so this will be exciting. AND ITS A MAC! this is really nice because i prefer macs...so i'm going back to my roots. i am thinking i probably should have bought a new sofa instead...but that's life right? i had a great list of things to post...but i don't remember any of them now.

i'm in a reading mood lately, so thats why there isn't much knitting going on. i did rip out bella and am to the thumb on the left. so hopefully i'll just sit down and get them done real soon. i bought yarn for a february lady sweater, but have worked on knitting it a couple of times so i'm debating about using the yarn for something else...or just biting the bullet and trying again.

anyways...i'm off to run!

good day sunshine!

cross country skiing...it was -7...can't even tell :)

running update: monday 2.6 miles in 30 minutes. wednesday 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. need to get up to 3.1 miles by march...and hopefully improve that slow ass time. f.

reading update: sweet god all mighty it is taking me forever to read the true meaning of smekday. but it is incredibly enjoyable and pretty hilarious. it's the bright spot in my working day. love it.

work update: to the bastard who created science fairs...let me send you all of the students who are needing help with excel spreadsheets...on the day its due. then i'm going to send you the other 200 students who also need help. but left their data at home!!! god all mighty do they think i can create a graph from thin air. damn my abilities...because it turns out i can! it's sweet! on the plus side...i have made it into multiple students acknowledgement pages...at least they remember that i do help them...and somewhere in my heart i do love them. just not all the time!

knitting update: well...it appears i am suffering from half-assdom. now it would be great if my ass did shrink down to half it's size. but it turns out that i can only do something half way. i thought i had photos of half finished projects. but i don't. so here is sarah's mittens that she made. she's the best knitting student ever! i'm still working on the stupid bella's mittens. they're so fast...except when you don't use the right size needles so you have to start again...then you lose a cable stitch somewhere...AND you don't have a row counter. oh well :) i'm thinking of making something quick and fun...like my dinner which is getting cold. i'm having a baked potato and carrots and hummus (my new favorite food).

it's too late for this!

its 10:06 montana time and i'm up making valentines for my advisory class. by making valentines i mean i'm making snickerdoodles for them because i couldn't think of anything better. last year i made really cute valentines that looked like fortune cookies. but this year, i just don't have it in me. and they're a rather ungreatful class, so i don't want to waste too much time on it/them. i will also start bobs tomorrow. hehe nothing like waiting until the last minute. but i think he'll like it. i love valentines day. unfortunately, i'm really bad at sending them...so to all my family <3 to you! the rest of you, i'll see this weekend, so ignore that ;)

today i went to butte and went to walmart. it's crazy. i hate it. i'm reminded of why i don't shop there anymore. plus it's hard when you're shopping for someone else and you aren't sure what exactly they want. but i winged it and got candy for the carnation sale and some candy for chocolate bingo tomorrow. it should be fun and exciting!

now i know this is a knitting blog. but i haven't been knitting. But i did find my camera. so this weekend i'll take some photos and do some posting.

take that lexie!

and here is a picture of crackers all cuddled up with my sackboy :)

it continues...

my crabbiness just won't end! but i'll post to you today anyways.

i started reading the true meaning of smekday which is really hilarious! i'm really digging it.

i'm going to my friends house for dinner tonight. i haven't been home for dinner yet this week. i have weeks like this, where i won't be home at all, then i'll have weeks where i'm home constantly. it's strange. but i enjoy that.

how sad is it that craftzine isn't going to publish on paper anymore? i love that magazine. its where i get all my ideas. plus it helped me reduce my coffee runs completely! i love that cold press coffee. it did spoil me :)

that's all for now. two posts...doing good. :)

things that piss me off...

a bulleted list because i'm pissed off

• stupid girls
• stupid girls on my treadmills
• stupid girls and one man on my treadmill when i go there right after school to make sure i get my run in today because today is a big run day to prepare for the st. patricks day race
• having to use an elliptical machine in exchange for a treadmill run
• my job when students think that i love to be cranky and mean
• my dogs nails that scratch me because they need to be clipped
• my filthy house that has my piles all over
• my inability to 1. throw things away and 2 put things away.
  
• me being cranky
• losing my row counter. to the cats. or dogs. BRING IT BACK CATS OR DOGS!
• being hungry but not having anything to satisfy my hunger
• baby carrots that look like fingers

now that that's off my chest! oh wait, one more

• me not being able to say no

anyways. here is my links i promised. and also, i seem to have lost my camera. i know, i'm shocked too. it must be in one of my giant piles of shit that's laying from one end of the house to the other. i read an article about people bartering things with the economy being bad. no it wasn't an article, it was oprah. oops. anyways, i'm willing to barter something in exchange for someone to come and help me clean up my crap and organize. any takers?

back to knitting. links. here we go. and i'm not going to stick ravelry links in there because some don't love it. i do. i'm late to it. but i love it. it's great.

• thorpe--i'm thinking the adults and baby versions
• lady february sweater...still
• and the beautiful bella mittens

thats all for now. take that lexie!

and dad...new killers album...awesome. track 7 sounds just like the talking heads to me :)

it's on like donkey kong!

it's on lexie brundin of http://brundinblog.blogspot.com/! you better be afraid, very afraid. I'm ready to kick your blogs butt!

so my sister seems to think that she is far superior than I am in the blog updating business. well i'm here to show her that she is living in a dream world. so fans, I'm back!!! they might not all be knitting posts. but they will be excellent posts that lexies blog can only dream of! so bring it!

on the knittng front: sack boy, another pair of bellas mittens, a baby hat...and thoughts of thorpes for me, babies, and other people who deserve them (not lexies blog). Links to come tonight...yep that's right. two posts in one day. take that!

on the reading front: not a whole lot. just some young adult from the library. I did read The Juvie Three and What I Saw and How I Lied. I loved the first one, liked the second one, and it's the national book award winner. It got good about half way through, but wasn't phenominal.

but i'll be back tonight. sleep with one eye open http://brundinblog.blogspot.com/

DEPRESSING!

well i made it to kalispell to go on my knitting retreat that starts in...45 minutes.  but due to the 20+ new inches of snow that this town got last night, we just didn't think it would be safe to travel.  i had a generous offer for a ride, but i unfortunately don't call the valley my home, so on sunday i would have had a 6 hour drive to make.  which would be okay if i had monday off.  but i get a little nervous with this much snow and all that driving.  so i had to cancel.  i am soooooo sad because i was really looking forward to it!  but here are some beautiful photos from the storm and all that jazz.  again, i promise pictures of hand knit things soon.  

yes, it really is up to my thighs (though this is the snowblower blowoff)

that glow is the consumer center north of town.  

the sauna and the foot+ snow on the roof

west of our house.  you can see the snow falling.  it's just barely avoiding us right now

dan dan the snow blower man.  this really is up to his thigh.  the swings were below the snow.  i swung on one and my butt was a draggin'

and rain in anaconda.  stupid anaconda!

it's like working out...

i was doing so good! multiple posts in one month! oh well. hope everyone had a fantastic christmas. I had an AWESOME christmas. i got new shoes, winter boots (that aren't kid sized!), cross country skis, and a gift certificate to camas creek in kalispell (over half-way spent, fyi). with all those great gifts, why would i buy myself one? okay, because I really wanted to go on the winter knitting retreat put on by camas creek. I am so excited! 2 days, three classes, at a cross country ski area. it's perfect! so i'll let you know how that goes!

so my little sister came with me to spend some time down in beautiful anaconda. so far we've gone bowling. when we had left kalispell it was a winter wonderland. lots and lots and lots of beautiful new snow. by the time we got to anaconda it was 34 degrees and what snow we had was melting. talk about a feeling of defeat. by the way, there were two brand new pairs of cross country skis and a brand new snowboard in the back. talk about depressing! so we went bowling last night. and this morning we're...going skiing because we're sitting on 8 new inches of snow!!! how exciting! so leah and i will take advantage of it and hit the hill (half day because we are worried we'll be too tired with a full day, we can go again :)) then tomorrow, cross country skiing, and then i think a trip to beautiful fairmont hot springs. it is going to FUN!!! hopefully i'll have some pictures with my beautiful christmas knits and some new things i've started for myself :)

why did it take me so long to figure it out?

I finished the Twilight series. So seriously good. like crack. i don't even know what to read next because they were so incredibly good that everything else will pale in comparison. and i finished the last one last night. it was good. but let's think about this for a minute. each book was at least 500 pages long. The last book was over 700 pages. that is a lot of reading. now at the same time i have a large amount of knitting that MUST GET DONE. so i have been torn for the past two weeks. do i want to knit or do i want to read? what to do? well i sat down to do some knitting. i have to watch tv when i knit. i just need that background noise to keep me somewhat focused. otherwise i just get bored. but at 6:30 the tv was turned off and i was going to read. but i still wanted to knit. bob said he wouldn't turn the pages for me (i thought that was rather rotten). but i opened my book to see if i could read and knit at the same time. OH MY GOD! it was the best knitting and reading breakthrough of my life. forget learning to cable or the first time i cast on. i can read and knit at the same time! my life has gotten exponetially better. i'm satisfied now. :)

so i'm working on a blanket and need to start my christmas list. i'm looking for a sweet toupee pattern, does anyone know one? thanks :)

what have you done this week?

Bulleted list for me because that's how busy i've been!

1. Reading completed this week

• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
  
• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• and to be honest, I think there was one more in there

All of them were so good! But twilight was superb. so superb in fact, that i went to my library (that i'm the librarian of) on sunday night to get the next book. but it was checked out. so i did what any librarian would do...i ordered it! hahahaha anyways, the next two should be here on wednesday. A long way gone was for book club number one, and it was depressing, but a good story. The Cay is for book club number 3 (!) I had a group of girls who wanted to start a book club and they opted for that book. They meet every two weeks and are really a fantastic addition to my day : )

But wait! There is more! I also knitted this week. A lot!

These are bootie pair number one finished like 7 days ago. They are for a brand new baby and are waiting patiently to be put in the mail. Unfortunately, I cant find a good card to go with them.

These are booties number two almost finished...they need buttons. These are for a friend who is having her second grandbaby this december. I have one more pair to make for her. And a white pair to make for a coworker who wants them for her grandbabies baptism. Then another pair for Camas Creek Yarn :) Those need to be done by Thanksgiving and I'll drop them off.

This is my sister's scarf that I made for her. She has been waiting for this since July (though not needed until a month ago). I didn't knit this all this week, but I did finish it. So I am counting it.

And finally this scarf from here. I used...uhm...some sort of big yarn :) it was brown sheep i think. i started friday night, finished saturday. a fun easy knit. it's okay. i'm giving it to a special person. ehehehe what am i kidding, she doesn't know how to use the internet. it's for my mom.

So that's my week. It's been great. I start a book fair tomorrow. Cross your fingers it all goes well. I am terribly stressed about it. but super excited too. And happy birthday lex! here is your gratuitous bad blog photo :) miss you.



i'm also getting my haircut on wednesday. think i need it???

happy halloween

i am still alive. i do still knit. and read. it's been hectic here. this is the first weekend i will have been home for the whole thing since before school started in august. i'm pretty thrilled to be honest. we're having a quiet halloween here with scary movies and handing out candy. we live in an area of town with hundreds of children, but i bet we won't see more than 25 trick or treat-ers. they all go to the other end of town where it's not so creepy and people give out BIG candy bars. i don't blame the kids or the parents either. but it means we'll have a ton of extra candy again. but i'll use it in my library as prizes.

i have been knitting a ton. i'm working on a scarf for my sister using sublime yarn. it really is beautiful but i think it's going to shed a ton. i'm also working on some baby gifts. i made a sweater last weekend and it turned out perfect. of course i forgot to take a photo. so maybe mom will send me a picture when baby is born. i'm also working on some beautiful booties that i LOVE (pattern on the right hand side). i'm going one color because i realized that one of the two yarns i planned on using was a little too girly and these are for a boy. so i'll hope and pray that there is a girl baby somewhere in my knitting future. also, i have cast on for the ladies february sweater three times now and haven't been happy with it yet. after reading over at ravelry some suggestions, i'm ready to tackle it again with better plans. i would much rather have a sweater that i made and LOVE and am satisfied with, than one that is just okay, so i will keep casting on until i cast on right!

dad...this post is for you :) and i will try to get back to blogging more. i have exciting news about my library and great things i'm trying to do this year so i am really thrilled about that. and knitting has me feeling really good...when i sit down and knit i am constantly amazed at what i am able to accomplish. i feel like i am quite successful at it...makes me think i should be doing something with knitting for a living :)