If Elle can do it...

Last night was a big night for me. I left the house.
*cue shocking dramatic music*
I went to the S&B meeting at the Starbucks. At NIGHT. By myself.
I had to psych myself up to do it. While I enjoy meeting new people and having friends, I've very content to rely on the buddy system. I like to have a winggirl with me, just to keep the monsters away. But I have no knitterly friends who could come, so I had to go alone.
I was watching Legally Blonde (John bought it for me on DVD, because now that we don't have TBS anymore I never got to see it) and if Elle Woods can pack up and drive all the way across the country for Warren - even though he was a dipstick - I could pack my little knitting back and drive 20 little minutes down Hwy 55 to meet some people. Right?
And even though I didn't know quite where it was, I went.
And I got lost. Of course. I ALWAYS get lost.
WHO puts a Starbucks inside a Kroger less than a block from the other Starbucks? The Starbucks that you can't see from the intersection because of the monster Rite Aid that's in the way?
So not only did I suck up the courage to GO to this meeting, I even asked the guy in Kroger if there was another Starbucks around.
Determination, my friends. I had it in spades last night.

And I met nice people! Jackie, Jackie, and Beth were there. I will have to ask them if when I mention them on my blog, if I can link their blogs. I'm not sure of the etiquette there.
But they were nice. We admired each others' knitting. And I stayed until the end and got to hear the hilarious story of how Jackie found a 'possum in the tool drawer, set it free, and found another one later.

I'm going to go back next week.

I would post pictures of the project I took with me and worked on, but I can't. It's one of those secret things. I'll tell you about it later.

More gems from Rowan

I explained, for the hundredth time, why darts is a game for grownups and he can't play.
Rowan says:

Why do adults play games where they throw sharp items?


And then today, one of the great truths of life was revealed:

If you eat a candy cane and then drink V8 it's very yukky.


And finally, hear him read.

New chairs and some knitting

First the knitting. I've been waiting for someone to pick the Green Shadows colorway just so I could knit it up, and finally Jessica did!

This will be a soaker when it grows up.

And I finally broke down and bought the boys some chairs for at the table. Rowan was too big for the booster seat on his chair, but too small to sit at the table properly. And kneeling on the chair was making his handwriting for his homework not as good as it should have been.
I looked at the Stokke chairs, but holy cow are they expensive. I found another brand, Hippo Smile, on eBay, and could get 2 chairs and pay shipping for the same price as one of the Stokke chairs. So, I finally quit thinking about it and just did it. They arrived today and were very well received.

And it's nice to think that we'll have chairs for people to sit in when they come for dinner too.

I am a grownup. I swear

Really.

I'm keeping a blog with Jenn. It's so much fun to do a two person blog. And it's things like this that show how well matched we are.

hee hee!

'sup?

I've been doing stuff. We went to Atlantic Beach this weekend for a fish conference. Good times. LOVE sharing the hotel room with the boys. Oh wait no I don't.
We know that Mommy needs her downtime in the evening. She really needs it. And when two little boys are in her hair until 11, and then get up at 6... ya.
But we did have a spectacular view.

and we did get to go to the aquarium

I should have let it eat him.

I finished Chelle's pants before we left:

and need to get them washed and have their real picture to be in the mail when the post office opens on Tues.

And Rowan needed a new hat, so I did that today:

I really don't have any really great stories from our trip. It rained, a lot, and we swam in the indoor pool, ate at the 4 Corners Diner (twice) and just chilled with the fish-a ba-arn people a little. I like those guys. And ate yummy all you can eat fish. That was nice too. So aside from the minor irritation of being "on" for a while, it was a good trip.
But next year, we're farming them out and going on our own.

Video fun

Dancing kids!

Niall:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vwTC--5AQdI

Rowan:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pIQ8E3r8Bwc

Superglue is forever.

Especially when you get it in your hair.

Support your local business?

We had car issues over New Years.
John and Rowan went feed the fish and on the way home the car sprang a coolant leak of some sort. You would think that coolant would be unnecessary, even in NC in December, but apparently that isn't so. Picky engine...
Anyway, the options were limited, it being New Years Day and all, and USAA wanted to send a company from Chapel Hill. Why? They're 30 some odd miles away. And since we'd have to pay for it ourselves anyway, I hauled out the trusty yellow pages and we called a local guy.
Lucky for us, he was there, and willing to tow, and even had a garage and could do the repair. So John handed him the key and we all got in the car and went on our merry way home knowing that our Shegeki was in good hands. (Shegeki being the name of the car, which is a Honda. It's named for the previous owner, who went back to Japan, but was well loved by the boys even though they hardly knew him.)
John didn't hear from them the next day, but he was driving the work truck, so we really didn't worry. And they called yesterday saying that we could come pick it up, so all was well.
So... John picked up Rowan from school and they came home in the Big Green Truck so we could all go pick up Shegeki and have our little car back. I looked on google maps to make sure we knew where it was - right up the road! Local!
And then we tried to find the place.

Yep. We drove by it at first. It's in a residential area. I wasn't even sure that all the cars in the front yard were solid as clues. I mean, this is NC after all.

And it is a trailer. And no tow truck to be seen. But there was a high fence in the back, so maybe that's where they hid the garage... or the bodies...
I wasn't sure if we should stick around, because who knew if Festus was in there with a shot gun getting ready to come out and tell us to get offa his proppitay.
John tried calling them, and after a few busy signals got through. He found out that yes we were in the right place, but no one was there because they were out towing someone. Lesson learned, call before you come over. We decided to wait until today to go get Shegeki. Something about this place... after dark... I'm sure you understand.

Someone was there this time, and the high fence was open. So we got the full glory of the body shop.

It was kind of shady, being surrounded by all these cars, some in pieces, behind a tall fence, with a guy who wasn't sure if he could take a check (they normally wanted cash) but made a call to Willy and Willy said it was ok. Thanks Willy.
Sorry for the blurryness of some of these pictures. I was trying to be stealthy. I'm still not sure Festus wasn't lurking around somewhere.

But they fixed the car, and it made it home, and as long as something doesn't go wrong with it soon we might just use these guys again. I mean, you can't get much more local than Willy, and he did come out on a frosty New Year's Day to get Skegeki and fix him of his ills.

It was an adventure. Mildly scary when we weren't sure if we were in the right place yesterday, but fine today with dude there taking the check and giving us the key. It was almost as good as that one time in Atlanta...

2008 - The year of less slacking!

I'm calling it the year of less slacking instead of the year of no slacking, because I'm not a fool.
I know slacking will happen. It's nature. Or entropy.
Whatever you call it, slacking will occur. I'm just going for less of it.

Which is why, instead of just hanging around waiting for Chelle's remeasurements for britches (see aforementioned slacking as to why they're only now just getting on the needles) I decided to do something that I've been meaning to do since last year, and cast on Coronet for myself.

The yarn is from BFL, from Zenstring. I think the colorway is Lufaloo. How long have I had this yarn? *ehem* The lable says Cinnamon Stitches, so it's from before the name change. Ooops.

Coronet would work better for a solid yarn, yes, but that's what I wanted and I also wanted that yarn, so I did it anyway. And the cables don't photograph well, but you can see them in person if you look. And really, the yarn was too pretty for a plain old hat.

And it fits! Yay!

Be aware:
Yes I only finished it last night, and here I am uploading pictures already. See? Less slacking. But this level of I'm-on-it-ness won't last. Because there are things like laundry and 3 year olds to muck it up.
and that Santa stocking? ummm... we're glaring at each other from across the room. But I have a plan. I'm just waiting for Rowan to be back in school to try it out.