Knitamazoo(tm)

At least I hope they can’t get any worse. The countdown to family arrivals has begun. My brother and his fiance are arriving tomorrow and my parents will be here on Thursday. Will I have everything ready? Well, if hubby completes the “honey do” list then the answer is yes. (I think.) Anyway, I lost 3 days of preparation last week. Thursday I went home early from work with a migraine that lasted until around 10 pm. I couldn’t even knit. Friday I came back into work and the entire building smelled like natural gas. I had another horrible headache and was so sick to my stomach by the time work ended. Then Saturday . . . Saturday was the worst. I got up with a nasty case of Montezuma’s revenge. Not a good morning.

Saturday afternoon my hubby wanted to take a drive up to Grand Rapids and show me where he worked the temp job he did, check out the covered bridge in Ada, eat at the Macaroni Grill and go to the mall. I was doing much better (no running to the bathroom) so I said ok. By the time we got up there I had pain building in my stomach. We managed to drive by where he had worked, stop for 5 minutes at the covered bridge (it was way too cold to be outside long) and eat dinner. I begged off the mall and we came home and watched hockey while I knit. The covered bridge (click pictures to make them bigger) was great and Ada is a really cute town. As we drove through Ada, hubby tried to show my this really cute little house that had been for sale. I was to busy looking at the yarn shop, Clever Ewe, across the street. Can you imagine living directly across the street from a yarn shop? I would love it but my wallet probably wouldn’t.

Sunday I was able to get quite a bit done around the house as well as knitting. I scrubbed the floors in my two bathrooms as well as my kitchen floor. Plus it was Kitty Spa day and both cats got the works. We started with pedicures for both cats and ended with aroma baths. I’m not sure the cats enjoyed it so much (the bruised bite mark on my forearm bears witness to that fact) but after baths and a good brushing, both cats look (and smell) wonderful. They were a little camera shy after their baths but I managed to snap a couple of pictures. Poor Roscoe looks like a big fat porcupine. He tolerated the bath fairly well but managed to bite me while I was trying to towel him off. It was worth it though as his fur is soft he smells nice now. Isn’t he just adorable? Cosmo howled through most of his bath. He doesn’t bite or scratch but tries to escape every chance he gets. Poor thing has so much fur that it takes forever to get him wet and lathered up. It takes twice as long to rinse him. He tolerated the toweling off but after I released him, he hid for several hours. I finally found him and placed him on the loveseat for a picture. He wasn’t too happy with me but after he had dried off and I started to brush him, all was forgiven.

I did get some knitting done this weekend. Hubby’s scarf is coming along nicely. I’ve started on the second ball of yarn and should have it done by Christmas. I finished up the first ball on Sunday afternoon, used up what was left from him mittens and started the second ball. It’s an easy pattern to do and not as boring as garter stitch. It’s a two row repeat. Start with a 3×3 rib row followed by a 1×1 rib row. It makes an interesting rib which lies nice and flat. I’ll block it a little wider so the pattern shows better and the scarf will be wider for him to wrap around his face and neck. It’s knitting up really quickly and it’s keeping me on my toes. I’ve had to tink back a couple of times because I did two rows of 3×3 rib.

So bring on Christmas! I’m ready! Cats are clean, house is clean, presents are done (almost)! So I say again . . . bring on Christmas!