Shiny Hair!

Kristin o the floor
Originally uploaded by Liz K Austin.

Kristin and I decided to dye our hair brown. She did hers this morning. It looks amazing and really brings out the blue in her eyes. More photos of the process if you click on the photo.

The school bus

Today Kristin, Gus, Lulu and myself drove to Buda to attend the Wiener Dog Races. We took a shuttle bus, which was actually a school bus, from the Cabela's parking lot. The last time I was on a school bus was probably about 20 ago. This was a fancy bus...seatbelts! And this box, above the drivers head.


Frankly, it scares me a bit to think about why that box would need to be used.

What kind of sleeper are you

It scares me a bit how accurate this is, despite the goofy questions with answers that didn't really describe. This is how I like to sleep with Lulu. (yes, I like to touch her when I'm sleeping)

Find your own pose!

Take the test and post in the comments about your results and their accuracy!

Ramblings

For most of the afternoon and until 8pm, I thought today was Wednesday. So imagine how bummed I was that Lost wasn't on. Thank goodness I hadn't taken the trash out yet. That would surely bring me a fine from my HOA. But since the bag of mowed grass I put out there was very heavy (ow! my back) it can just stay there. Maybe someone will steal it.

The blogs I read are written by some witty, articulate, inteligent women. In my head, I'm all of those things, but getting it from my head through my fingertips is a challenge.

Tonight I watched a preview of a new television show that is currently titled "Brothers and Sisters". It stars Calista Flockhart. It was okay but I don't think I'll be watching it in the fall. Being asked to watch it and give my opinion was pretty cool though, but all the phone calls reminding me to watch were annoying. I wrote it down people! In fact, since I thought it was Wednesday all afternoon I was going to call the LYS to ask for sock advice since I couldn't go to the "Sticks with Chicks" meeting.

Sock update

Heel flap only has like 2 more rows to go. Then I'll have to figure out the next step on my own!

Tag...I'm it!

Trudi hit me with my first blog meme

10 things that bring me joy:

1. Watching Lulu play with Gus or her toys
2. Listening to a jammin' song on my iPod
3. Knitting
4. Cold showers on a hot summer day
5. My divas...they are some awesome women
6. When comments are left on my Flickr photos

I can't think of 10 things.

Projects in process

I'm a multi-tasker. Just sitting still and watching tv or a movie doesn't work for me. If I'm not flipping through a magzine, I'm knitting, or picking on my fingernails (such a hard habit to break). So of course it should come as no surprise that I have several projects going on at the same time.

Here is a list:

• Sock: nearly done with the heel flap from hell
• Boss's scarf: 1/4 done. Not a huge rush seeing as it won't be cold here for another 6 months
• Sew I Knit?! bag: began cutting out pattern tonight
• Back yard garden: Ivy has been trimmed and needs to be bagged up

What this should tell you is that while I'm really great at starting things, I'm very bad at finishing things. This is something I'm working on. But now I'm going to go finish cutting out the bag pattern and then I'm casting on new hat!

Home Improvement

Lulu has become very interested in this dead tree. You might not be able to tell from the photo, but when I bought the place last August, the tree had bark. Since then, most of it has come off with a lot of help from Lulu. She can get around, pretty much all the way behind the tree on the left side. It scares me a bit to stick my hand around there...what Ms. Possum is hiding in there and bites me?!...but I think she's about to break into the tree. So yesterday I went to Home Depot and bought this temporary fencing to keep her away from the tree until I get around to having it removed.

As you can see from the second photo, more work needs to be done before it is Lulu-proof. She's a smart cookie. Gus isn't all that interested in trying to get under the fence. Right after I took that photo, Lulu did get under the fence and nearly make her way back around the tree before I was able to haul her out.

Lulu the Possum Killer

Tonight, Lulu brought a gift into the house for a us. A baby possum. A bleeding baby possum. It was larger than the last one, but still young.

I guess her hunting instincts have kicked in. Perhaps there won't be many possums left in my yard much longer.

Not much to say

Isn't this the cutest picture of Gus. You know, despite his shedding, I will miss him when he and Kristin move out.

MRI update: my neck is normal (notice I did not say my head...because they haven't examined it yet. Hah!). The doctor is going to have me do some physical therapy and take a med that is supposed to help with nerve damage and sleeping and hopefully that will clear it all up.

Knitting dreams

Last night I had a dream in which I had moved to California and was attending my first local stitch 'n bitch. Wendy, from Knit and Tonic was there, as well as someone who blogged under the name ShowJen. This ShowJen person was very nice to me and even drove me across L.A. to take me now. Now I need to google and see if there really is a blogger named ShowJen or if I've just been spending too much time on the computer again.

Oh! Yesterday when I was at the imaging center to have my MRI, the guy that took me back asked if I was making a quilt. No, that's not a bag of fabric in my hand. It's a ball of yarn. I'm making a sock.

On blogging

Okay, so I lay in bed at night and thing of things I want to blog about while I'm trying to fall asleep. I thought that if I actually made a list I might be able to quit thinking about it so much. Right this very second though, I can't remember any of my topics! How's that for a kick in the head?

It's raining here, which means I have a fabulous tension headache. If that weren't bad enough, I have to drive across town in the rain to go see a doctor at the Spine & Rehabilitation about my neck. I've been having neck pain, sometimes severe, since February. It started one Friday morning as I was walking across my room to put on my shoes. Suddenly, there was pain so bad that my neck was stiff and I could not turn my head.

Despite seeing my chiropractor and making ergonomic changes to my work station, my neck continues to hurt. Last week my regular doctor gave me the referral. Apparently I failed some little neurologic test. Her hand writing is a bit tough to read (surprise, surprise), but the note looks like it says "failed connavative tx". I'm assuming tx=test.

Well, off to the doctor I go. I'm taking along my knitting in case I have to wait for a long time.

Sock in progress

Knit in progress
Originally uploaded by Liz K Austin.

Say hello to my little sock. It looks good (if not a little blurry) in this photo. The other side of the cuff has strangeness going on. The first couple of rows are ribbed and then it goes into something like a seed stitch. Not sure how I did that, but I decided I wasn't going to rip it out yet again, because I just needed to get on with it already.

First World Problem

Just a quick post from work to say that I have a First World Problem. My cousin gave me a $50 gift card to Target for Christmas and despite the fact that I shop at Target at least twice a week, I have yet to find anything to use the gift card on.

What if I buy the wrong thing? I don't want to have shopper's remorse. What if I buy something not special enough? I can't use it to buy stuff like toilet paper or cereal.

What happened to spring?

I think we had maybe 2 or 3 nice weather days and now we're going into the hot days of summer. I'm sorry, but it's just not right for it to be over 100 degrees in the middle of April! The thermostat in my car said it was 106 when I was driving home this afternoon.

Netflix

Finally, I watched the Oscar winning film, Crash. I thought it was really well done and it gives me mixed emotions. I'm thankful that I don't face the problems that being a different race can cause. But I'm also very sad that people are treated differently because of their skin color.

Easter Memories

Happy Easter Ya'll!!

This little cartoon cracks me right the hell up. When I was little, and maybe even not so little, my dad would ask if he could have a bite of my chocolate Easter bunny. Being the good daughter that loves her father I let him take a bite. Only he would bite the ears! Mayem would ensue. There would always be yelling and sometimes even tears.

I don't get chocolate bunnies in my Easter baskets anymore, mostly because it's not the best chocolate and I'm always trying to watch my weight (watch it grow right on the scale, but whatever). My dad still does though, but only because he bought a "Mr. Big Ears" at the after Easter candy sale at Wal-Mart a few years ago. Mr. Big Ears spends 364 days a year on the top shelf of my dad's closet, all wrapped up in cardboard and cellophane goodness. On Easter morning, Dad puts the chocolate bunny in front of his plate at the breakfast table and declares how good it is that the bunny has visited once again.

Dad is a bit off if you haven't already guessed.

I have more dad chocolate stories to share, but they'll have to wait for another time.

Sock update

It's been started. I've got maybe half an inch of cuff going. It's not great, but I am going to continue so that I can get better at the magic loop techniqure.

Today I had a horrible tension headache all day, so when I got home I slept for nearly 2 hours. Now I'm headache free but feel funky.

Third Time's a Charm

This is my third attempt at blogging tonight.

So today was kind of a sucky day. One of those days where I hate everything and everyone. Not really, but when your neck hurts it makes you hate. I iced it when I got home and it feels better, but now a tension headache is coming on. Can I get a break?!

Sock update: there is none. See below for status.



Bag update: I bought the fusible interfacing. Other than that, nothing else has happened.

See I am lazy!

You have got to be kidding me.

durvasasana
Originally uploaded by bindifry.

This is why I love Flickr. You can find all kinds of photos, from cute kids to crazy yoga poses.

Sock class update

I was hoping to have a photo to share of my sock. But since I'm really sucking at this sock knitting, I had to frog it and have not started over yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Gas, fresh cut grass and dog shit

That's all I can smell right now because this afternoon I mowed the back yard. For the first time in 20 years or so, I mowed the grass. Last night Kristin and I went to Home Depot so I could buy a lawn mower. It's really belated Christmas gift, as my folks gave me a gift card to HD for Christmas. Funny, I got a belated Christmas present last spring as well (a new tv).

It's a good thing Kristin has more experience mowing the lawn or who knows what might have happened. Thankfully, my yard is tiny so it took maybe 5 minutes to mow. Even after taking a shower, my hands still smell like gas and the scent of dog shit lingers in my nose.

Here's Lulu enjoying not having to walk through a jungle to get to the fence to bark at menacing squirrels.

Bag report

I now have the fabric and pattern for my Sew? I knit! bag. The pattern is from Simplicity and is part of their Sewing for Dummies series. I'm not real jazzed about that because I ain't no dummy, but whatever.

The fabric is from Amy Butler. If it weren't for blogs I probably would have never heard of her or her fabrics and patterns. As you can see from the photo, the exterior of the bag is going to be the pink & green floral and the interior (not an Amy Butler fabric) is the green dotted one.





This other fabric is one I found at the same store and it's by Alexander Julian. I'm not sure what I'll make with it, but it was so cute I just couldn't pass it by. The needle case from the Stitch 'n Bitch book is calling out to me. I have a needle case but it's just a roll of fabric with elastic inside it and the needles tend to fall out.

Oh the whining

Or whinge-ing, as they say in the UK. Who is being the whiny-butt? Lulu. Kristin just left to take Gus for a walk. I'm tired and my feet and neck hurt so I don't feel like going. So I get to listen to Lulu whine and cry and run around the house from the back door to the front door until they get back.

Sometimes, she's such a pill. But how can you not love this cute face.

Poor Gus

Gus is sick. The intestinal sort of sick. So Kristin took him to the emergency vet, but she was worried he'd get sick in her car.

A blanket wrapped around him was her solution.

RIP Baby Possum

This morning the dogs found this baby possum in the yard. I figured it was playing possum so I put it on top of the a/c unit. It was still breathing, although quite heavily. Then I noticed the blood. I don't know if Lulu did that when she first picked it up or if it was already injured. Anyway, this picture was taken this morning, but when I got home the thing was still where I left it and covered in flies. Poor baby. It was kinda cute, although you can't tell from this picture.

Here we have a hat

My first hat! It's done. Yay! Kristin was kind enough to model it for me. Last night, as I was working on it, I thought I was running out of yarn so instead of knitting for 7" to 8" before starting the decrease it was more like 6". So it's a bit short but I still think it looks cute and I'm very happy with it.

Next up is socks. I'm taking a sock class at the North LYS this next Saturday. I'm very exicted.

psst. ...I figured out how to make a link. dur!

Lulu with her grandparents

Lulu with her grandparents
Originally uploaded by Liz K Austin.

Lulu has been spoiled this weekend. Not with treats but with attention. Mom and dad have been cooing over her like crazy. Telling her she's so sweet and cute and soft. Of course these things are all true, but really, we don't need to give her a big ego.