Knitamazoo(tm)

my fat cat puking his guts out 2 feet from my bed! It woke me up from a sound sleep and I sat straight up in bed. I reached over and whacked the hubster and scared the crap out of him. He thought something bad was happening. I tried to explain to him that something bad was happening but he didn’t buy it. So at 2:30 this morning I’m flipping on lights and doing my best hurdler impression over the piles of cat puke to get something to clean it up with. Not only had the cat left a huge pile 2 feet from my bed, but there was more in the hallway and then the entire second step down on the staircase was covered. Try hurdling over that while still half asleep. It only took us about 10 minutes to clean it all up (we’ve had so much practice that we are possibly the fastest Pit Crew in cat puke clean-up). After all was said and done, I couldn’t get back to sleep so now I’m tired and cranky. Not a good combo.

In knitting news, I must rave about my wonderful hubster! Over the 4th of July weekend we went “up north” and he actually took me to several yarn stores, went in said yarn stores and picked out sock yarn for another pair of socks for him! Yarn pr0n can be found here along with some pics of finished socks. As I was browsing the photo album this morning before writing this post I realized that I neglected to photograph the cabled toe-up socks that I’m working on. So that will have to wait for another post (which will hopefully be sooner than later).

We’ve been on a few camping trips in the last month and you can see pictures of our trips here and here. I would have included pictures in this post but I didn’t get them uploaded to my server and I can’t do it at work. We don’t have any more camping trips planned until August when we will be visiting the hubster’s mom down in Indiana. Til then, I’ll be catching up on housework and trying to knit up some of that lucious yarn!

It’s time for the great Stash Flash of 2006! I didn’t participate last year as I was a total newbie knitter and had little or no stash to speak of. What a difference a year makes! Let’s get started with the yarny goodness, shall we?

First up, we have my stash of crochet cotton. I inherited most of this from my mom. I’ve crocheted a couple of doilies in the past and even used some of this to crochet snowflakes this last Christmas. I’m sure I could knit quite a few doilies out of this. (Stop drooling Monkee!)

Next up is kitchen cotton. Hobby Lobby had a big sale on this when I first started knitting. I love handknitted dishcloths and you can never have enough as far as I’m concerned. They also make nice gifts as well. Quick, easy and a great way to try out new stitch patterns.

I really wanted to group my yarns together according to fiber or some other really cool attribute when I took the pictures. It started off really well. The crochet cotton and kitchen cotton were easy. Sock yarn! Of course that all goes together. But after that my brain went on vacation and I just ended up taking pictures of odd groupings of yarn and then I have a couple of late entries as I’ve added to the stash since I took the pictures.

So without further ado, here is my mish-mash of yarn. In this group you will find several wools that I’ve used for felting, wool that is left over from mittens and some acrylic blends. (See, I told you my brain stopped working.) Most of this is Plymouth Galway that I used for a French Market Bag. The salmon colored ball is from a Zeilinger’s Wool Company in Frankenmuth, MI and is left over from my Clapotis.

In the next pile we find some Lamb’s Pride worsted, KnitPicks Merino Style and Wool of the Andes, and some miscellaneous ball of wool. The brown Wool of the Andes is destined to become Kepler. I have started it. Really, truely. I’ve completed one cable band for a sleeve and am almost done with the second.

In the next heap we find some Cascade Pastazza, Artful Yarns Jazz, brushed baby alpaca, Andean Silk, Noro Kuryeon and Debbie Bliss Soho. The Jazz is being used in my second Clapotis. The alpaca and Andean Silk were a gift from my SP. I might make a small felted purse from the Noro. I haven’t decided yet.

Our last pile of hodge-podge is just that. The Peruvian wool and the tweedy yarn were another SP gift. The two muppet heads in the front I won at the last Knitting Guild meeting. I’m not a big fan of novelty yarn but I’m sure I’ll find something to do with it.

This next picture

 makes me want to cry. This is Sonata in a really nice greeny color called pesto. This beautiful yarn was destined to become Soleil. I can’t even recall how many times I cast on for it, but it defeated me every time. It’s been lanquishing in my stash since last summer. Maybe this year will the the year I conquer it.

This wool also came from Zeilinger’s. (I couldn’t resist. How can you when all their wool was 95 cents per ounce? I paid the price of one hank for this entire pile!) I want to make a sweater out of it but I haven’t found the right pattern yet. But that’s ok . . . 95 cents an ounce!

Again for the Monkee, here is my small but growing stash of laceweight and mohair yarn. My first SP gifted my the knitter’s crack Kidsilk Haze, and the Kid Seta was a RAOK from the infamous Monkee. If I could tear myself away from socks, maybe I could get some lace knitting done.

I of course saved my absolute favorite yarn til last. SOCK YARN! I’ve added to my stash of sock yarn since this picture and have actually knitted some of it up already. (Guess that means that it never became stash. Something’s not right there.) Here we have Paton’s Kroy, Sockatta, Regia, Trekking, Lana Grossa, Lang, Lorna’s, Mountain Colors and Koigu KPPPM. Yum!

My latest additions to the sock stash include more Regia, Cascade Fixation and Koigu KPM. The darker Regia (under the green Koigu) is for hubby’s second pair of socks. Of course I guess that means I need to finish his first pair. The Fixation is for another pair of ankle socks. (You can find the pattern for them on my sidebar.)

Now for the grand finale. I had two hanks of Schaefer Yarns hand painted sock yarns that refused to be photographed with other yarns. So these divas were granted their own private photo shoots. The results are below. (The first hank is Lola and the second hank is Anne. Such yummy, rich, soft sock yarn!) Thanks for stopping by!

They gave me another laptop that needed the motherboard replaced yesterday. I had the thing broken down, installed and put back together in an hour and a half. A huge improvement in time over the first one I did. Plugged it in and booted it up . . . and walla . . . it worked! It didn’t fix the problem we were hoping it would fix but at least I swapped out the motherboard successfully for a second time.

Now that I’ve impressed you with my technical skills let me unimpress you with my everyday living skills. Yesterday morning I was on my way out the door to go to work. I grabbed my purse, knitting bag, put on my coat, walked out the door, stepped off the stoop and realized . . . my keys were still hanging on the wall by the door. DOH! I had opened the garage so I was able to put my stuff in the car and I tried calling hubby’s cell phone. No answer (apparently he doesn’t get a signal in his office . . . the jury’s still out on whether that’s true or not) so I had to call one of my co-workers to look up his office number since it wasn’t programmed into my cell phone. So 5 minutes later I get hubby on the phone and tell him he has to come home to let me in to get my keys. Another 25 minutes goes by before he gets home and I’m a frozen popsicle. So now I have a spare key in my purse so as long as I remember to take that with me I’m golden.

In knitting news, I went to knitting group last night and there were only four of us. We had strong winds, thunderstorms and were under a tornado watch so I think people just decided to stay at home. But we had a good time and I got almost done with the heel flap on my disco sock. I signed up for our instructor’s toe up class last night. She was so nice and only charged me for 2 sessions since I’ll be at Phantom the night of the last class. She said I would only need the 2 classes anyway. And of course I couldn’t walk out of there without buying more sock yarn. First we have this lovely Mountain Colors in the Painted Rock colorway. I can’t wait to see how this knits up! The colors are so luscious and the yarn is soft! I also broke down and bought some more Koigu. This time I picked a much brighter color than I have in the past and I’m really excited about it. I love blue and I think this will look great with jeans.

Have a fantabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend whatever you may be doing! I’m sure I’ll be cranking out more socks.

I’ve been so busy this week that I haven’t had a chance to breathe let alone post on my blog. I feel terrible that I haven’t gotten around to boasting about how wonderful my SP is so here we go!

I got my first SP package this past Saturday and all I can say is WOW! She blew me away with her first package. There was a lovely letter explaining everything in the package, Spongebob stickers, hot chocolate, point protectors, folding scissors, gorgeous buttons, a lovely heart shaped box, dark chocolate Kisses, Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls and yummy yarn!

My SP’s 79 year old mother handmade the dolls and I absolutely adore them! I’m not sure where I will display them yet but I want it to be someplace special. Right now they are sitting right next to my knitting chair so I see them everytime I knit.

She also sent some wonderful yarn. I’m excited to try the Andean Silk Twist from KnitPicks. I’ve looked at this yarn online but just haven’t gotten around to trying it yet so now’s my chance. The red brushed alpaca is so very soft. I just want to cuddle with it all the time. And the sock yarn . . . oh the sock yarn! It’s Trekking and it’s so gorgous I can hardly stand it! I’ve been toying with the idea of putting the socks I’m working on now on holders and knitting this stuff up. Decisions, decisions . . . what’s a girl to do? And then to make matters even worse, there’s the sock yarn that I bought last week at my class. This sparkly disco yarn is just taunting me from my basket. But I can’t seem to get it to shut-up. It just keeps calling me. I can’t get the voices out of my head.

So . . . to try to quiet the sock monster I knit up another booga bag this weekend. The picture I have here is the almost finished bag. I finished knitting it Sunday night and felted it Monday night. It is now dry and I’m using it today. No picture of the completed bag yet but hopefully soon. In the meantime here is the semi-finished bag. I can’t remember which Noro Kureyon color this is but I’ll try to post that info when I put up the new picture.

Well kids, it’s time for me to shut down the computer and go home for the day. Knit on!

Well more precisely a sock knitting rut. I just can’t stop. All my other projects sit languishing in my knitting bag while I crank out sock after lovely sock.

My last socks on 2 circs class was last night. I managed to do a couple of yo’s while doing gusset decreases (kind of defeats the purpose of decreases). So now I have a couple of nice little “holes” in my sock. I decided that trying to rip it back would be too much trouble and tinking that far is out of the question. So I decreased the extra stitches and will close up the holes when I’m done. It will be much better on my delicate psyche right now.

This week hasn’t gotten much better. Though I did beg off doing the moves today as my ankle is still sore and I’m hobbling around. And now I found out I have to go fill out an accident report for when I took the mirror off the side of the van. I’ll be so glad when this week is over.

To cheer myself up I bought some more sock yarn last night at my class. I had birthday money to spend, so spend I did! Lots of lovely sock yarn! And guess what . . . I got a belated birthday card with a check from my MIL so now I have even more yarn money! Whee! I’m even adding sock yarn to my KnitPicks wishlist for my new SP.

Well that’s it. Maybe tomorrow or this weekend I’ll be able to post pics of my finished socks on 2 circs.

Yay! More socks!

First off I was tagged by Helen so I guess I should play nice.

Four jobs you have had in your lifetime-
- packing tomatoes/greenhouse stuff
- music library
- secretary/receptionist
- computer tech

4 movies you could watch over and over-
- Princess Bride
- Shrek
- Chronicles of Narnia
- most musicals

4 places you have lived-
- Maryland
- New Jersey
- Hawaii
- Michigan

4 TV shows you love to watch-
- CSI: NY
- CSI
- Stargate
- Battlestar Gallatica

4 places you have been on vacation-
- Disneyworld, Florida
- Nashville, TN
- Virginia
- California

4 websites you visit daily-
- My Yahoo!
- Gmail
- Knitty.com
- wunderground

4 of your favorite foods-
- Taco Bell
- chocolate
- pizza
- ice cream

4 places you would rather be right now-
- home
- home
- home
- home

4 bloggers you are tagging-
- Shetha
- Kirsti
- Amy
- Choomon

Now for the promised yarn pr0n. My newest acquisition of Koigu KPPPM.

Well Christmas has come and gone and my house is now empty. Mom and Dad were the last to leave and they left Thursday before New Year’s. I didn’t move from the couch for a couple of days and managed to finish these socks. (I know this isn’t a picture of the finished ones, but I haven’t gotten around to taking it yet.)

I had a wonderful time over the holidays. My Mom, brother, his fiance and I did a special musical program for church. We even remembered to take some pictures while we were still dressed up. I just now noticed that my hubby was the only one not wearing dark colors. Guess he didn’t get the memo. Anyway, you can see that we did have a white Christmas. It warmed up and rained after Christmas day so all the snow is gone but I’m sure it will be back very soon.

Santa was very good to us. I couldn’t believe the amount of gifts under our tree. I don’t know how we got them all under there but we did. Cosmo was the only kitty who was interested in Christmas at all this year and his interest was limited to this stupid pink troll head that was in the stocking of cat toys that we bought.

My Mom did such an awesome job shopping for me! But really, how could she go wrong buying yarn and needles? It was so funny when I unwrapped the sock yarn. I bought the exact same color of Sockatta yarn earlier this year when we went to Frankenmuth. What was really strange was that the ball she bought was the same dye lot as the one I bought. Crazy! She also got me some Addi Turbos, some Inox (since I haven’t seen them around here), Fiddlesticks dpn’s in size 1 and Clover bamboo dpn’s in size 2. Now I can have both socks of a pair going at the same time.

My lovely future sister-in-law gave me a gift certificate to one of my LYS’s. Isn’t she just the sweetest? I spent that and some of my Christmas money on this yummy yarn. Three skeins of Noro Kureyon, a ball of Sockatta, 2 hanks of Koigu KPPPM, 1460 yds. of some yummy laceweight (and no I can’t tell you what it is as I’m at work and I can’t remember), and a 52″ (I think) Denise cable. The Monday after Christmas Mom, Dad, hubby and I went to Frankenmuth. While there we hit the outlets, Bronner’s Christmas store and I of course made them stop at Zeilinger’s Wool shop where I found the patterns for the Fibertrends Flower Basket shawl and the Sheep shawl. That laceweight is destined for one or both of these.

So vacation is over and I’m back at work. My new position at work keeps me fairly busy so I haven’t had as much time to update my blog or join chat which is a bummer. But my days are going by pretty quickly. And speaking of jobs, my hubby got a call yesterday and was offered a job that he had a phone interview for the day before. It’s a 6-month contract back where he was before. Even though it’s only a 6-month thing at least he’ll have his foot in the door and other projects are coming up all the time.

I almost forgot. Now that hubby is employed again, I signed up for my first ever knitting class at my LYS. I’m going to learn socks on 2 circs! I really want to be able to do them both at the same time and am really excited to be taking a class. It starts next Wednesday and I am about to burst!

Well that’s it for now. I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And now I think I’m going to go join Cosmo.

I had this wonderful plan in my head for a nice relaxing weekend. My kitty, Cosmo, had other ideas. It all started innocently enough Saturday night. Hubby and I were holed up in the rec room knitting and watching a hockey game. (Well, I was the only one knitting but that’s not important to the story.) Around 8:30 we decided that we wanted to have some ice cream, so we paused the game (gotta love TiVo!) and went upstairs. I got the ice cream out of the freezer to soften up a bit. A couple of minutes later we scooped out the ice cream and were getting ready to return to the hockey game when we noticed lightning and thunder. Hubby went to the front door and stepped out on the front stoop to watch the show. I didn’t want to step outside because the front stoop looked wet and I was wearing my fuzzyfeet. So I cracked the door opened and stood in the opening to block any escape attempts by the cats. We stood there for a few minutes and for some reason hubby looked down and the next words out of his mouth were, “The cat’s outside!” I never felt the cat go by my legs. As hubby bent down to grab Cosmo, he took off into the neighbor’s yard. I whipped off the fuzzyfeet and grabbed a pair of shoes from the kitchen and took off after the cat. This is not the first time he’s escaped, and his usual MO is to head for the neighbor’s back yard and hide out under their deck. Of course I couldn’t see him under there as I neglected to grab a flashlight but I knew he must be there. Then the rain started to fall. So I ran back inside our house and started to cry. Poor kitty is out in the rain, poor kitty will get hungry, poor kitty is going to get hit by a car, poor kitty is all alone . . . and it’s all my fault! Hubby just sat there while I blubbered and tried to tell me that the cat would come home. No way, I said, he’s free now. He won’t want to come back. By this time the rain had let up and I decided that I was going to go look for the cat again. So back outside I go, calling him like you would a dog expecting him to come running to me. What was I thinking? Hubby came out into our backyard with a flashlight and we’re looking for this cat. I hear something rustling in the leaves along our back fence and I’m sure it’s Cosmo. I tell hubby to shine the light back there and what do I see . . . a possum . . . walking on the top edge of the fence not more than 3 feet away from me. I hear the rustling again and it sounds like it’s coming from the back corner, so I tell hubby to shine the light there and what pops out of the leaves . . . a rabbit . . . his eyes turn red in the glare of the flashlight and he proceeds to charge right at hubby. (Later, hubby told me he felt the rabbit go right past his leg.) As hubby swung around to watch the rabbit I caught a glimpse of Cosmo in the neighbor’s driveway under their SUV. I yelled at hubby that I found the cat and he told me to run around the front of the house and he would chase the cat towards me. As I rounded the corner to the front, I saw the cat on the front stoop with his paws up trying to get in the front door. I cautiously approached but he spotted me and jumped down into the bushes along the front of the house. I tried to trap him between the bushes and the house but he was too sneaky (read: fast!) and managed to get by me. He took off around the side of the house, paused to look at the kitchen door, looked back and saw me gaining on him, then he bolted towards the backyard. As I rounded the house, I saw him on the little porch to the four-season room on the back of our house. I had him trapped but I knew he could easily squeeze through the railing. He looked at me and then at the railing. He stopped to think about whether or not he would fit through the opening and I pounced. I snatched him up and hauled him in the house, yelling to hubby that I had captured the cat. So he was home safe and sound, my white sweats had streaks of mud from his paws, and my ice cream had turned to soup. But the cat was home where he belonged!

Now on to the less stressful part of my weekend. After being tossed into the “attitude adjustment pile” for a couple of days, I pulled out my bed sock to see if it would behave. I compared it to the first one I made and wouldn’t you know it, I knit way too far on the foot before starting the toe decreases. I carefully figured out (read: guessed) how far back I would have to frog. I ran a lifeline, frogged, slipped the stitched back on the needles and finished up the sock in no time. AND it actually is the same size as the first one I made. I must be a good guesser!

I also worked on Kepler for awhile this weekend. I love making the cables! I finished one cuff and started the second one. Here’s a closeup of the cable pattern. The color is a little off in the picture but the cable pattern shows nicely. Once I get the cable bands done then it’s just a stockinette sweater. Hopefully that will make for some good tv knitting. I have to concentrate a little too much on the cabling to do it while I’m watching tv. It’s more of a throw in a movie that I’ve seen a thousand times and knit away.

I also purchased some new yarn Friday right after work. I finally had enough money in the “yarn fund” to get this yarn I’ve been drooling over for the last couple of weeks. So as soon as work was over on Friday, I zipped right over to the LYS and purchased three hanks of this yummy Artful Yarns Jazz in this lovely autumn colorway. It makes me think of changing leaves, apple cider and all things fall. The yarn is 50% alpaca/50% wool. It’s soft and warm and I’ve loved working with it so far. Oops! I guess I just admitted that I cast-on yet another project. And just what is this scrumptious new yarn going to become . . . why Clapotis II. I love the first one I made and this is great mindless tv knitting. It’s already to Kong Thong size but I will spare you the picture until it gets beyond that stage.

So, now before I bore you completely, I will stop rambling. Happy knitting!

I must be and after you hear what I have to tell you I’m sure you will agree with me. Look at the sidebar. See that section titled “What’s on the needles”? Notice anything? Yes, I started yet another sock yesterday. (sigh) I know, I know . . . how many socks can I have going at once. I just couldn’t bring myself to cast-on for the second Liberty sock right now. Those size 1 needles make me want to poke my eyes out. I needed to work on something with slightly larger needles. And yes, I have some projects cast on that use larger needles and I even have more Christmas gifts to do that require larger needles. But I just couldn’t help myself. I cast on the Elsebeth Lavold Angora yesterday morning to make another pair of bed socks from the Knitty Gritty pattern. This time I’m making the cuff a little longer (2 inches to be exact) so that it covers my ankle completely. So I sat down before work yesterday and cast on. Then on my break, I divided the stitches onto the other needles and did 3 rows of ribbing. After work I went to the UPS store to mail off the next package for my Secret Pal and made a detour to the yarn store (yarn pr0n forthcoming). I got home, had to feed the cats (I don’t know why I bother, they’re so fat), cleaned the litter box and gathered up the trash. By that time, hubby was home from work and I hadn’t even thought about dinner. Hubby wasn’t hungry so we drove down to MickyD’s and I grabbed dinner for myself. So finally around 7:30 I was able to sit down and knit. And this is what I accomplished. Four inches of 2×2 ribbing, the heel flap and turning the heel. I love how fast these go (worsted weight on size 7’s)! I picked up the gusset stitches this morning, knit the first round and am now ready to start the gusset decreases on my break today. There’s a hockey game tonight so I should be able to get in some good knitting time. GO WINGS! (Just had to toss that in there.)

I mentioned that I made a quick (read: lengthy) stop at the LYS on my way to the UPS store. I’ve been saving my spending money so I had some “yarn bucks” to spend. I didn’t spend them all but I spent a fair amount. I picked up 2 skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted in brown to make some Fuzzy Feet. I also picked up the Jamieson’s DK wool from the sale rack to make a pair of Voodoo wrist warmers. And to make those wrist warmers I needed some size 5 dpn’s as well. I’m sure I’ll be casting on soon enough for those as the weather is turning quite chilly and I know I’ll be needing them soon.

And will someone please remind me not to drink any caffeinated beverage after 3pm? Please? I totally forgot and had a diet Coke with my dinner at 7pm last night. That was enough to keep me awake until after 1am. It’s time to take a nap, right? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .

Let’s start with the ranting and get that over with. For those who do not know, my job is to get problem tickets from the company helpdesk and then assign techs to work on the issue according to the particular campus the client is located on. We have 5 different campuses spread out over about 30 miles. So I get a high priority ticket for a client who’s location is listed as a building that has been unoccupied for over a year. I send the ticket back to the helpdesk asking them to verify the location since that is their job. They send it back with the comment “Verified location. Please assist.” So I figure this guy is over there for a meeting or something. I assign one of our techs to the ticket and let him know since this is an emergency. He calls the client and finds out that the client is located on our downtown campus about 10 miles away. So they lied to me. Did they think I wouldn’t find out? Another tech did the same thing last week. What is the point? If you didn’t verify the location the first time, just do it when I send the ticket back. Don’t lie about it. I let their management know so we’ll see how that works out. I’m also shorthanded on one of our busier campuses so that has been a mess too this morning. I’ve been looking for a nice solid brick wall to bang my head against but I haven’t found one I like yet.

Now on to some good stuff. Let’s start with the promised yarn pr0n. First up, from Knit Picks, we have Merino Style in Hollyberry for my Dad’s Christmas gift. I’ll be posting a picture of that WIP later. Then Wool of the Andes in Cloud for my Mom’s Christmas gift. She already knows what she is getting but I’m not going to post any pics until after Christmas. Then I also got some Wool of the Andes in Chestnut for a sweater for myself. I didn’t want to dig out all the balls I bought so you get a picture of one of each. I’m lazy, I know. But the stash is upstairs and I take the pictures downstairs and well I’m just lazy that’s all.

Next we have some yarn that I picked up at one of my local yarn stores. We have some Cascade Pastazza in a rust color to make mittens for my hubby. I let him pick out the color. I also picked up some Elsebeth Lavold Angora yarn in a lovely green to make some house socks for myself. I love the last pair I made with this yarn but I wish I had made the cuff longer. The pattern was for shorter socks but I want it to go above my ankle. More boring 2×2 rib, but these socks knit up quickly and are soft and warm. I am resisting the urge to cast on for them until I get Christmas gifts done.

I did manage to do some knitting this weekend. I started the dickey for my Dad for Christmas. It’s only 6 inches of 2×2 ribbing. I was happy that I was able to get it on a circular needle so I wouldn’t have to use dpn’s. I started out with the dpn’s but because the circle was not small like a sock or sleeve, the dpn’s flopped all around and I was always worried about twisting it. So while I might like making a mobieus, I’m not sure my Dad would like wearing one. So after two rounds on dpn’s I quickly switched over to circulars and have been happy ever since.

I also did some work on my Kiri. I have now finished section 1 and the first of 12 repeats of section 2. My lifeline has been inserted and I’m happily knitting along. I didn’t get it pinned out too well for this picture. I took it this morning before work and I was a little rushed for time. But I at least put it on a solid background so you can see the pattern this time. You can see a larger picture by clicking on it.

I also have a finished project. This is a really, really old project. In fact it isn’t knitting . . . it’s . . . crochet! Yes, I used to crochet all the time. I’ve had this afghan in the works for probably two years. It’s made with Lion Brand Homespun. I’ve left it languishing in a basket for at least a year and a half now. I decided yesterday to see if I could finish it up when my hands began to hurt from the endless 2×2 ribbing on the dickey. I wove in the ends this morning and it is now sitting in the washing machine. It was rather dusty after sitting in the basket for so long. Not the best for my allergies. But it’s soft and warm and will get lots of use while watching hockey in the basement rec room.

Since I started this post with a rant, it seems only fitting that I end it with a rant. What is up with blogger? I started this post at 10:46 this morning and have had nothing but problems getting my pictures uploaded. It’s now 12:20 and I am finally able to publish this. And it better publish . . . that’s all I have to say.