it was going to be mean...

the trip to seattle is going well. we've done lots, seen lots, and eaten lots. tonight we went to the game to watch the mariners lose. again. you would think that i would be able to see someone win. but we had fun seats above the bullpen. until we decided to sneak downstairs. now they must go to the senior citizen center to get people to volunteer to check tickets and we had an eagle eye senior watching the seats we decided to sit in. she told us we couldn't sit in the back row...we had to go back and sit in section 184. so we just stood. well that eagle eyed senior finally at 9 let us sit down and watch the rest of the game. so here is to you eagle eyed senior!!!

more to follow!

blogging from afar...

currently in kalispell...about to go to seattle for three or four baseball games.  we'll have fun.  

even better news.  i've been knitting.

even better news than that:  I went to a camera store (Shout out to the camera store in kalispell uhm....photo video plus i believe) and they have a charger for my camera.  therefore...photos of seattle while i'm in seattle.  AND knitting photos soon.

by the way, i'm out of school for summer.  yes!

*gasp* i think i was kicked out

so apparently my procrastinating got me kicked out of the knitting ring i'm in. that really is a sad day for me. dang it anne...get your knitting shit together!
****whew! i wasn't kicked out, it's now defunct! thank god i'm not such a failure. i'll have to find another blog to join.
well, i'll have to do some investigating when i'm not feeling so hard on myself. i have two days left of school...with only 3 hours of actual educational time left. which sounds really awesome...if i hadn't deleted 75% of my fiction collection. so i have to enter that all in. i have lovely girls who are helping me and i think they're doing a pretty good job. one even said she wouldn't mind being a librarian...except you have to be quiet. she struggles with that. so do i. :)

knitting, i do still knit. i actually have some baby hats i'm trying to work on because i have 5 friends having 6 babies within like...4 weeks of each other. but again...no photos because i don't have the camera charger. my dad said he would buy me one if i worked for him. but apparently i didn't work hard enough. dad? yah? huh?

what do you have planned for summer? i have baseball with my dad and sister, sister time, laying tile at my sisters house, working, swimming, and kayaking with my mom. oh and camping around anaconda and yellowstone. hopefully that all will work out. i haven't found a buyer for my kidney though so i can afford gas. ehehehe just kidding, i can't sell my kindey, that would get me into all sorts of legal problems. and health issues too. so i do exhist and i'm going to try to post more regularly now that summer is here.

books, blogs, and back gammon

i read like 20 blogs most days. i do this by venturing up into my favorites. scrolling to knitting, then to blogs and then reading each one. sometimes i open two browsers so that i can have one loading while i'm reading another blog. i do that when i'm in a hurry. today i took a new route. don't worry it's not rss or rrs or whatever it is. (although one of my library professors would have a heart attack because she loves it, or suggests it at least). today i went from the bottom of my list up. it sort of weirded me out because i didn't know which blog was coming next. have you noticed that blogs have tastes? like some...they're strong knitting and i like that about them. some are just a hint of knitting mixed in with life (that's mine). some are familiar...because i know the people. and some i read because i'm addicted. i'm not particularly fond of the writing style or what the person has to say, but i feel like i need to know what that person is doing. like looking in windows at night really. and i love those blogs too because there is something that i do enjoy and it keeps me coming back for more. but anyways, i went backwards today so i wasn't prepared for what was going to come next. do you do that? it was rather refreshing.

tonight: i had bookclub number one. book club number one is the first one i belonged to. they are my first anaconda friends and it's been really wonderful. we were supposed to read angry housewives eating bonbons. i didn't read it because, of course, i forgot i had book club this week. i belong to a second book club that i started this year. it's rather intense because i feel like i'm reading one book for bookclub (the sooner meeting) and then i rush through the second so i can be prepared. this usually works out because the meetings are two weeks apart. but i have noticed that my reading has decreased because i'm feeling rather...forced to read. i keep buying books to read, but i can't make it through them. really, it's a pity. so i'm down to two books a month + whatever book i'm reading at school to keep up to date in my library (mainly so i can find some kid that NEEDS to read that book). it's like a came of matching. find the book that matches the kid. some kids have lots of matches...some don't. it's great.

my husband loves to play backgammon. i've never played it. lex, remember the board at the north fork that we tried to play with...but it turns out we didn't know how to play so instead we made designs with dominos? i'm thinking i should learn to play it, but often when bob teaches me a game i get frustrated and it's added to the list of games we can't play. such as canasta, phase ten, and monopoly. too bad, so sad.

if there is some amazing chance that someone out there reading this is a librarian who blogs with their students, i would love it if you would contact me about doing it. i'm thinking of starting a blog of book reviews because students are WAY better at convincing each other to read books than i am. so i thought that would be awesome! or if you know someone. :) night!

spring is in the air...

ooooh hellooooooo! spring has sprung which means...spring cleaning time! wooohoo! so i've been busy doing one little spring cleaning bit at a time. this will come as no surprise to my parents because they know i'm a terrible cleaner. when i was little and i shared a room with my lovely sister we would have to clean our terribly messy room. and lex would get her side done and i would still be looking at the filthy sock i had picked up an hour an a half ago. i would still be deciding whether it was just covered with cat hair and i could shake it off and put it in the sock drawer, or if it really had been worn two and a half months ago and i should clean it. so i would start crying about how i can't clean and i'm overwhelmed and in two and a half minutes lex would have cleaned it all. this worked well into my adult life until it was time for us to get married. turns out, i still need her to come and clean my house. lex, are you here yet? but i digress. i've been working on it and am rather proud of myself. now if someone walked into my house, they wouldn't really think of it as clean, but i know that to me i'm making a difference.

also since i have last checked in, i have achieved a goal of mine, and that is to run a 5k. i'm going to preface this with a story about my 1st grade teacher, mrs. a. mrs.a, if you're out there reading this, this was in 1987 in whitefish mt and i was the short, thick girl. now, in first grade we were out on the track running the mile (i still don't think 6 year olds should be made to run the mile) and after we finished we were walking back to the school (muldown school--i'm giving lots of hints as to who i am incase mrs. a is reading :) ) and as i was huffing and puffing because i had to walk a lot of the mile mrs. a looked at me and said, "anne, why can't you be more like your aunt lexie?" well, my aunt was phenominal runner, ran in college and set lots of records. and i just kind of looked at her thinking, "uhm....because i'm not her" so this is for you mrs. a! i may not be a big track runner, but damn it i finished the race and i'm proud! so i ran in the st. patricks day race here in anaconda with my sister lex who has been training with me (but apart from me) and my mom and baby sister came down to join us. they walked it with my husband and everyone finished. i'm terribly proud of everyone. next year dad, you're joining us! but the best part of the race...it ends at a bar. where they proudly serve green beer to the race participants...at like 11:15 in the morning. it was great. so now lex and i will find races every few months to meet up and run together. we're cool like that.

also, i have been knitting a most kick ass project. however it can't be shown because a reader of this blog will be the recipient. funny thought though...only like 8 people read this blog, so they're all thinking its them! hehehehe

so that's my life in a nut shell. camera charger: still broken. weather: changing slowly to spring. family: all good. and possibly big changes next year. woohoo!

uhm...if my dad didn't read this, it would have swearing

so. i'm a big fat failure. i don't remember if i let you in on my little new years resolution. it's what i call "low pressure" as in, do it if you can, if not, don't worry! it's to cook one new thing a week this year. so i should have 52 new recipes...if i hadn't of skipped a few weeks, and if i hadn't screwed up some recipes. now don't get me wrong, the chili turned out awesome. and i owe it to me. really, i do. the original recipe, boring and awful! so i experimented and it turned out great. not once, but twice! i even made it for my dad and mom and my mom and dad have mad cooking skills (dad not so much in the chili department though). and they both thought it was great! me too. i was amazed. cumin and tomato sauce need to be added. note to self: try blending the nasty onions into the sauce next time. and the other successes include a roast chicken which was so good i didn't mind eating it for the next three days. i'm thinking i should switch to roast turkey breast though because i really only like the white meat. also a success the most amazing brownies with peanut butter icing. holy moly were they good. and also (i forgot) my pulled pork sandwiches on sweet potato biscuits. i did also make the white bbq sauce that was supposed to go on them...that was a failure. which brings me to the whole point of this.

i failed twice this week at two new recipes. number one: salsa. now, how can you go wrong with salsa. it all begins with being afraid to chop things small. i can't chop my onions and tomatoes small enough. but don't worry, i come up with a really really great idea. i'll just blend it! i don't like the chunks in salsa anyways! yeah, well it looks like green cat throw up. green you're thinking...but i thought you made salsa. yes, well apparently when you blend up three jalapeno chilis it will greatly influence the color. and the heat. that is some really really hot salsa. but it's okay tasting. tomorrow i'm going to mix some into my hamburger meat and see what i come up with. should be good. you would think after that i would be done with failing this week. but i'm an overachiever (or would i be an underachiever?) and i thought i would try to make porkchops. porkchops and cassaroles are dishes to me that anyone can make. it's such an...american food that i thought if you were born in america you could cook it. well, i can cook them, just not well. i dredge them in egg, then breadcrumbs then flour. i think the flour was my mistake. and then i put them in a pan with some olive oil. now let me also add i bought the thin cut ones (seriously, i haven't found a recipe that calls for these. someone help me out with that). and i started cooking. i thought it shouldn't take very long so i went to flip them after like four minutes. well wouldn't you know that all the olive oil was gone and after i flipped the chops, they started to smoke...and set off my smoke alarm. which truely did surprise me because i only seem to do that when my inlaws are around (they must wonder why dear husband married me). so i thought to myself what should i do? and i knew i couldn't add more oil to the pan because you never add cold oil to a hot pan (thanks food network). so i got another pan. perfect. and this time i put in LOTS of olive oil. well, that fried the hell out of them and they finished cooking in record time. i ate them anyways because i was starving. they were okay. but bland. SALT! that's what i need to add. good to know. so they weren't a complete failure. but not really great.

so i need suggestions on what i did wrong. or if you have an awesome pork chop recipe (especially one calling for thin ones) please let me know. and i'll try it! hell, if i ate the ones tonight, it can only get better!

and finally. when the recipe says medium high, what does that mean? i assume it means halfway between medium and high. yellow-orange is the color half way between yellow and orange, so it only make sense to me.

knitting funk: still in full gear. another 7 inches of snow fell today. no end in sight.

for next time: lactose intolerant? or just some sort of virus?

february 7, 2008

this is for my sister who asks me why i never blog anymore. the short answer: i broke my camera charger and i can't take photos until my cheapness goes away for a few minutes and i buy a new one. and since knitting is sort of not fun without all the photos, it's hard for me to blog.

BUT i have been knitting and i will describe. my favorite knit piece in my absence would be the fingerless gloves that i made my dear husband. because this is the first thing i've ever knit for him. first. thing. ever. after five years! i have friends that i've knit for who haven't been my friends for five years! i have knit for coworks that i've only known a few months and i've knit them something. so he was due. and i tell you, they're beautiful (well, minus the strange purple hue, i swear they were grey!) but the pattern is dashing and i loved it. it's the first time i've done a thumb this way and it totally rocked my socks off! i think all mittens from now on will go this way. it seemed to help me not get that obnoxious hole in the side, so that was an awesome learning experience! the yarn i used was a hemp/wool combo. not at all what the pattern called for or suggested, but they turned out just perfect anyways. i'm a bad knitter: i pick the yarn i want and then the pattern and i make the pattern work, even if it shouldn't. because i live so far from yarn stores or anything, i usually just wing patterns with what i've got.

speaking of yarn stores, my friend melanie cross opened up camas creek yarns in kalispell. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!! it has to be the most incredibly yarn store i've ever been in. like...let me die here wonderful! please stop in and visit her. you won't be able to leave empty handed. and you might go back three times in one day and buy something each time. and not because you forgot something but because you love it so much you don't want to go back home. it's really spectacular--i can't say enough about it!

other than that not a lot is up here. we've had wacky weather. as noted in november, part of our roof blew off due to high winds. well today we've had a blizzard dropping 12 inches since 8 this morning and winds well over 40 miles an hour. you could see a block and a half and that was it. so we've been sticking close to home for the most part and enjoying quietness and the wonderfulness of LOST on dvd. no commercials, no writers strike, and no waiting for a week for the next episode. it's awesome :)


happy les? when do you leave?

there is time...

i think blogging is a lot like exercising for me...i sort of need to force myself to do it. so today i am while my dear husband is napping, it's nice and quiet in my house. my litter boxes are clean, my house is...not too messy, and it's snowing. i LOVE the snow. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I miss the days of when Montana got lots and lots of it. a few inches here and there does not satisfy my needs. sometimes i think of moving to alaska because they still get snow. plus i like the thought of moving. the first photo is out my front window. this is my daily view and the reason i wanted this house. well a reason...and not the view...but the corner windows. it makes my day and is the perfect place for our christmas tree. and the third...that's crackers in the snow. he's just so darn cute!

i have been not super busy, but it seems like always on the move. last weekend i went to gillette to visit lexie for her birthday. it was a big surprise and let me tell you, i almost pushed the car so we could get there faster. i was so excited! we had so much fun! our friend john drove me down and friday night we got there and hung out and chatted. we also played "scene it." it's way more difficult than we thought it would be. then on saturday we went down town to do some shopping, lex opened her gifts, we had a nice lunch prepaired by her husband and then the festivities began! it was a mustache party. here's lex with her mustache! we played battle of the sexes--glad to report the girls won both games, we had delicious dinner--steak, asparagas, blue cheese mashed potatoes, bread, and birthday cake from dairy queen. it really is our favorite! then sunday we layed around, went and got frozen custard as is customary, and got back on the road. it really was perfect! thanks les and nick!

i HAVE been knitting. but i gave almost all of it to lexie for her birthday! she got a pair of mittens and two hats. guess who forgot to take photos. but lex said she would send some to me. if not, i'll take some when i'm there for thanksgiving. i'm working on another pair of mittens for me, a pair for a cousins daughter, and now i'm ready to start christmas knitting! oh and i have an order for three pairs of mittens for christmas...better get started on those soon!

but lest you think i'm making knitting up, here is some yarn i've purchased in the past...WEEK! the two white skeins are buffalo that i got in gillette. i can't believe how soft and wonderful it is! the grey also came from gillette, and i think it will be a hat...or cabled scarf. the multicolored yarn is for a scarf for me. and all the other...for christmas presents...hrmmm...strange acrylic...what could it be??? who knows!

so that is the short of it. i have a knitting date tonight and am still deciding what to be knitting. we shall see i suppose!

we're alive!

okay this is a very strange random post, but i will most more this week about my knitting (lets just say 5 mittens and two hats in like 8 days...wow!) but more impressively is the storm we survived. we've heard between 70 and 90 a mile hour winds. that's impressive considering we're at 5000+ feet nestled in the rocky mountains. trees were blown over, power was out for 6 hours, ice was frozen, roofs blown off, and our shingling blew off our roof. now this is quite fine by me because behind my house is a 40 foot tree that could easily have fallen on our roof like the 30+ trees that fell down. but i will post more later. these funny photos are for my dad who is the best dad in the world because he's going to come down and help me fix it. thanks dad!

and...lexie's birthday photos too. fun times in gillette

(dad, the last photo is the piece of roofing that blew over on its self. i folded it back but it cracked in places. the other photos are my patch job...i am no quilter that's for sure!)

twice in one month!

here are the photos i promised. still no sign of the camera charger.

in other news...my new dyson vacuum came today. dang i love it alread. i want to vacuum everything.

also, one mitten is almost finished. yay me :)
this the path through washoe park. we were riding bikes. if you look real hard you can see bob riding ahead of me.
our gaggle of cats. sorry about all of the laundry :) it looks like fatty gus is trying to squash aggie. perhaps she is.
this is philipsburg. and that nice shiny building with the hose in front is for rent. i think my yarn shop needs to go there. it's beautiful. and there is a park next to it :)
there's bob riding ahead of me. yes. i took photos while biking. it was exhilerating! but i couldn't let bob see me do it!
i LOVE the colors of this goose. i think everything needs to be dark grey with yellow orange and white. like my house. grey house. yellow orange door and white trim. ready dad?

oh my gosh!

well i hadn't realized it has been so long since i've posted. i knew it was a while, but i hadn't realized over a month! thanks for reminding me lexie!

since i can't find my camera battery charger, i can't post any new knitting photos. but let me tell you, i was flying along with my sitcom cardigan. and i had up to the arm pits done, and i started working on sleeve number one. i had done all of my increases and it didn't look right. it's about five inches to short. so what should i do all you accomplished knitters out there? should i just knit without increasing for those five inches? should i rip it back (boohoo)? can the sleeve be salvedged? it put me into a funk. a serious serious funk. so i quit knitting for a while.

then last week i went to MBI training. i found with school training stuff, there is a lot of down time, and i need to make a baby hat, so i brought the first inch of one with me. it's my usual baby hat with a jolly roger knit into it (is that so unusual? i'm young and somewhat hip, but i got a lot of weird looks when i showed people). so in all the down time...i finished it my first day of training. it turned out okay, but i'm not happy with my color work, so i'm going to reknit it. darn it, i should have picked up yarn today in butte.

so with my confidence back, i went to the scrap booking store on friday to just look at yarn. you know how looking turns to buying. i said i wasn't going to buy some sock yarn. why make mittens with sock yarn anne? you have enough problems knitting two things that are the same, why exasterbate it with two small gauge projects? but i did. i bought myself some pretty yarn that has found it's way into 1/2 of a mitten. i am incredibly picky about my mittens. they can't be too big and flop around. so when i realized my thumb was way too big i bit the bullet and ripped backwards and made my thumb smaller. and i'm really happy with how it is progressing. it's giving me the confidence to work on lexies mittens. see lex, i haven't forgotten, i just want them to be perfect for you!

in other news, my cousin lisa nominated me to be a Rockin' Girl Blogger. which totally blew my mind :) now i'm not sure if i'm supposed to nominate anyone or how it goes (i should read into this), but i will admit that i am a total lurker with blogs. i have twenty or so that i read everyday but have only left like three comments on peoples blogs (for those of you who comment on mine, thank you so much, i will try to overcome my shyness and comment on yours too! i really do appreciate it!). so that is so very awesome! but there are some blogs that i just love to read...like...LOVE and i don't know if it would be weird if i just nominated them without ever once letting them know i read it.

in other news: fall has come and i want to take some pictures of beautiful anaconda (it's the one time it really is a beautiful place), but no camera. also last friday, first snow in town, but it's been about 1000 feet higher for a few weeks now. also the husband and i went to they might be giants concert in missoula and had an awesome time! last year we saw the rolling stones, this year it was much smaller but a great concert. there were probably 400 people there and by the end we were...15 feet from the stage. there was no security fence or anything. it was great fun.

in kitty news. they have been accepted by the other cats. even anti-social gus loves them. she's become a mama cat and takes good care of them. but...they have been horribly sick with the "pintler pet illness." apparently it's quite common for the shelter kittens to get this disease where the cats sneeze and get gunky eyeballs. so for three weeks they've been on antibiotics. it really is horrible. but they've quit sneezing blood and seem to be a little better. if any of you are vets or married to them, please see if you can find out more. i'm trying to pick a new vet for the kitties because this vet didn't even give me the name of the disease. now i know i could have asked, but the vet doesn't have very good bedside manners and i don't feel comfortable asking him questions.

it's taking too long to upload pictures, so i'll post them tomorrow.

and GO RED SOX! ahhhh yes, life is good :)

no weiners...

well, i had no takers on my contest. so grey kitty is called rory. this is embarassing, but i don't know if it's a boy or a girl. so i figured rory would work. it's kind of fitting. he/she has this roar when meowing. i was thinking that nutters would be a really great name too, but i think rory just fits.

so i figure i should talk about knitting. like i said, i knit the cabled scarf in the one skein book. i tried to work on cables at the beginning of summer, and then this weekend it clicked. in my head i knew what needed to be done to make a cable, and voila, a new scarf! i really like the scarf, but i have to say, i'm not really fond of the yarn. i used blue sky alpaca. i've had this yarn for over two years and another skein for three! the reason i hadn't knit it was because i didn't like how loose it knit up. and if i tried using smaller needles, it just ended up getting knotted up. plus, the yarn breaks and it gets too fuzzy. but it's sooooo luxurious that i just love it :) i'm thinking of making the assemetrical hat next. this photo is a pretty crappy photo of the scarf, but it gives you an idea. i need to block it and weave in the ends. i'm thinking of giving it to a friend. she is one of those people who is always so nice and warm towards me. she's a knitter and i think she would love it as well.

next in line is the sitcom sweater. i'm buying the yarn for it tomorrow in missoula. i love making sweaters, but i'm too cheap to buy the yarn. this sweater shouldn't be too expensive though so I'm looking forward to starting it. it will be a good addition to my sweater shelves. i want to keep knitting lots and lots of sweaters, but i have so many it's hard to justify more. but i'm sure i'll keep going. i need to take a knitting class to learn more about the technical stuff...increases and decreases, just so i can start learning to adjust the sweaters to fit me perfectly.

other news...i got a new job. instead of being the elementary school librarian i am the junior high library. it should be a really great job. the staff in my building is really amazing...they're always trying to improve things! i think it will be a much better fit than the old building. dear husband also started a new job a few weeks ago working as a high school teacher in a school for emotionally disturbed children (i don't think that's what i'm supposed to say, but its a school for...very difficult children). he's really starting to enjoy it and is loving using his degree now. it's a good thing to be doing.

on tap for the weekend: back home for another wedding, a griz game, and hopefully some kayaking. hmmmm how can i steal them and bring them down here?

oh...also needed to add to my last list: second anniversary for dear hustband and i. yay for us!

contest...

well...tomorrow is the last day for the contest...any takers? grey kitty has yet to be named. although we are leaning towards rory.

dad...don't tell mom

so i know it's been longer than two weeks. sorry scott. life gets away from me. plus, i'll be damned if i can knit. this post will be horribly short and not very well written because i have to get this done before my dear husband gets home and needs the computer.





what i've been up to:





lexies wedding--fun

starting school--not fun

knitting a scarf--fun

so the scarf i knit is from one skein. now it may not look like much...that damn alpaca that i used the wrong sized needles on. but...it is my first ever cableing. i am so proud of myself that i wandered around for two days showing it to my husband. i can't wait to knit more things with cables! i need to block the scarf and weave in the ends, but hopefully it will turn out nice.

cleaning the house--not fun

going to movies--fun

playing with my dog--fun

renee's wedding shower--fun

playing with me...two new kittens--super fun.

we got two new kittens last night. we were thinking of getting one, but at the shelter there were two kittens that we couldn't decide between. and wouldn't you know it, they were buy one get one free! so bob got one. his is the black one with a white mustache (called the great mustachio) and mine is the grey one. he doesn't have a name right now, so uhm...lets have a contest! if we pick your name, i'll send you an old shoe! no....i'll send a nice little package with...yarn and chocolate and maybe a few other goodies. if you don't like yarn...then i'll keep the yarn and i'll send you something instead! so help a girl out here with the naming of her kitten! as a reminder we have: francisco the white cat, gus the fugly cat, the great mustachio the black and white cat, and crackers the dog. :)


this is from a fire that started out by our house. it stayed under 10 acres.


anyways here are some photos of my life for the past three weeks (i hate to be so super selective, so perhaps i'll post them all on my flickr account and you can go look at everything!)
this is the 50th anniversary of mooses saloon. it was so much fun!






(more tomorrow)

it's august, already

i can't believe that it's august. it seems like summer just started. it's been real, real hot here. so i haven't been knitting much. but thank goodness my great cousin lisa sent me the needle i needed, so the hat is coming along. thanks lisa! that's about all.

it's fire season here in montana. so every conversation revolves around the smoke, where the fires are, and who is getting evacuated. i'm getting ready to leave to kalispell for two weeks, and the fastest route is closed due to a fire. they're getting ready to evacuate the town of seeley lake. so instead i'll be going through missoula on i-90 and highway 93. i-90 has been closed on and off due to a fire, so i'm crossing my fingers that i'll make it. my parents lake place is smack in the middle of two fires, so last weekend we spent the time in a smokey haze.

but i'm off. i'll be in kalispell for two weeks. one week working for my mom and another week spending time with my family. it's my mom's business (mooses saloon) 50th anniversary party and my little sisters wedding. so we have family coming from all over, some i haven't seen in 10 years, so i'm super excited. i'll be back with pictures and all that fun stuff.

failure...

i've been wrestling with knitting decisions. still. still no idea what to knit. maybe i'm one of those winter only knitting people. i donno. i like small projects. yet i LOVED making my sweater. it really was wonderfully gratifying and amazing. i didn't get bored. i was excited! but something i keep trying to make myself knit is socks. damn i hate those things. and it makes me feel like a knitting failure. i talked about it with my moms friend who is opening a yarn store (i'm going to plug this store to no end so that it succeeds!), and she too doesn't like to knit socks. i really think it's the whole attaching thing heel and the side together. i can't get it pretty enough. okay and i can never get a really good fit. but it drives me crazy! i look at all these blogs with people finishing socks day and night. really, come on folks! knit something big and ugly damn it! i sure do. so i'm sitting on like six skeins of sock yarn (i love to buy it, hate to knit it) and just think "i'm a knitting failure!" i kind of feel the same way about mittens too. they irritate me, thumbs...always too big. i want a nice secure thumb. and not too floppy of a top. i donno...

now...i'm not knitting. i'm embroidering. kind of enjoyable. it's different. i'm working on a dishcloth for me. it's really hilarious actually. i'll take photos tomorrow and then post them sometime. ehehehe i lie. sometime it will get done :)

anyways. i was laying i bed last night and realized i forgot to put my links in. so here is the hat. and here is the wedding gift.

enjoy the hot hot summer days!

procrastination...

i know that i promised pictures. and i had every intent on doing so...but then i went to kalispell. twice. well..the first one is the one that matters because i didn't upload my pictures. and then we had a great storm and i took really wonderful photographs. holy moly was i glad to have really amazing photos (sometimes i amaze myself). we came home and the night before we were supposed to go back I went to print out some of them for my mom with our new printer. damn how i should have read the directions! well...apparently you're supposed to use an adapter when you put my memory card in the printer. and it got stuck. for an hour. i finally used some tape and a butter knife to get it out, only to find out i had scratched the memory card and lost all of the pictures. pictures of the storm. pictures of las vegas. last snowstorm pictures. really really important photos. so i am still so sick over it, i haven't even put in my new memory card (i did however by the damn adapter too, which might make my digital picture frame work better).

also, i am incredibly discouraged. i'm knitting this. and i've been working on it for...oh four weeks now and have three inches done. why is it taking so long? well cotton and my needles aren't being really friendly. it's a really tight gaige and it keeps getting stuck on the end of the needle. really slowing me down truthfully, so i don't even want to look at it. i went to buy some addi turbos, but the stupid yarn store in kalispell didn't have the right size (they might have, but the owner is so snotty that i didn't want to give them ANY money). so it's on standstill. i also did knit this for my sister. it was nice and quick and fun to do. and really hilarious at her bridal shower. it made my day. so in short, i don't know what to knit right now. i'm thinking of working on some baby hats just because they're quick to do, don't take much thought and certainly don't heat me up. but we'll see. i'm itching to do a sweater again.

a friends mother of mine is starting a yarn store in kalispell (it's enough to have me move home, she even offered me a job). she was showing me what she ordered and some of her knitting. she makes the most amazingly beautifuly sweaters. amazing. so i'm thinking of starting one soon. she gives me the guts to do it. so we shall see.

hopefully i will get some knitting done and will be able to face my camera again for pictures. i'm thinking of giving a digital tour of anaconda. really is a strange little town. so we'll see.

It's been a long time comin'

done lately:
gillette, wy/ rapid city/ deadwood
vegas
internship at Hearst Free Library
jaywalker socks
cotton summer hat
The Talented Clementine
The Bell Jar
Hattie Big Sky
summer
new job at the junior high
talk of moving away


my dear sister reminds me that i haven't updated often. so here is a quick update. she told me she likes to just read it, she doesn't care if it isn't knitting related (okay, she would prefer it if it wasn't). but i have been knitting. i'm just too lazy to take pictures. i need/want to make a little cover for my sisters wedding. her colors are blue and brown so i wanted to make a little brown shrug or even a shawl (but i don't know about that yet). i haven't found any good easy patterns yet, so i'm still debating. we shall see i guess. but i will post lots of pictures tomorrow with what i have been up to, i promise.

WHERE IS MY CELL PHONE CHARGER????

so i bought myself a graduation present (yes, two a's and a b and i'm now graduated--with the exception of my internship) the new envy phone. and i'll be damned if i can charge it because i lost the stupid charger! and did i mention that we don't have a land line here at my house. and my husband is out of town. and my phone is dead? AND i can't check the messages from my school phone because it's a long distance call? i'll tell you i'm pissed. so if you have seen it mom, dad, leah, please let me know and send it asap so i can call you and thank you.

on to less depressing things...

the school year is almost over. 9 more days. i am pleased as punch! i may have the option of moving to a different school or even a classroom (please god let this happen!). i've found that this option gives me a much calmer piece of mind and i don't have my students nearly as much. yes, some teachers hate students at this time of year, and i am one of them. i adore each and every one of them on an individual basis, and i would probably bring home two if pressed. however when you get 25 of them into a room in the spring and it's snowing (yep, 8 inches) something goes wrong with them and they get crazy. which makes me crazy. and we yell and scream and throw things. okay not that bad, but it could be!

but the really great news...i finished rusted root in time for Montana Tech's graduation. i think my sister was a little embarrassed, but mostly proud. i can't tell you how many compliments...the best being little johns: "oh! i thought you bought it at a cute little store. i didn't know you could make clothes." thanks john, you warm the cockles of my heart. however, there is no photo yet. they're on my sisters camera, or moms, or soon to be brother in laws. so someday soon.

in the mean while, i've been working on some swatches from uhm...a book that i can't remember the title of. you know, the one with a bunch of stitches---Stitchanary...or something like that. and i'm lazy and i hate to swatch, so instead of making swatches that can't be used...i'm making dish clothes. so that's my life, i will really start posting soon, i'm in a knitting funk right now. this weekend i'm thinking of painting my kitchen cabinets, but i should do some knitting with some photos. until then!

p.s. how great is the new draft autosave? no more lost posts for me!

p.p.s. k lex, i wrote a blog entry. now you have to post pictures of your house with your stuff in it. can i come visit/live with you soon?

if you could only see me now...

oi i know! i know! but i only have one and a half more weeks before I am a real true librarian. which means i am gearing up for finals. i've had one hell of a semester that makes me want to quit and become a gas station attendant. if you want particulars, e-mail me. i can't say too much--it is a public forum ;)

anyways since i've been gone:

MLA (montana library confrence for those of you who don't know) really great, did some good networking with other librarians and even made a few friends. however, i have realized that perhaps my calling isn't school librarian, but public librarian. so that is to be considered this summer when i do my library practicum at the hearst free library. yay!

end of school: enough said. as mentioned i will be finishing up my classwork FOR GOOD!

beautiful weather: that's right, it's been beautiful here and we've bbqed twice (and for a later post, the wonderfulness of grilling vegetables)

with the beautiful weather, cleaning the yard: i don't know how the snow melts and then three days later my lawn is 8 inches high. now don't worry, not all of my lawn, just the front. i don't have lawn in the back, just dead sod. thanks ARCO (photos later because really, it's hillarious).

and the husband and brother in law took out a big (almost) dead lilac tree. thumbs up scott!

here's a photo. my husband didn't want his picture associated with this, so this is my brother in law.

and finally...

RUSTED ROOT! look at me. doing a sweater. with lace. i'm so proud of myself and cannot wait to sit down and get it done!

until next time (probably after i finish my classwork. yay!)