Stimulating Reads

Can you figure out what I'm trying to teach myself for work?

I just love the library!

September Baby Knits

Every so often, I do actually finish a project... or two.

Last month, I knit this striped baby bib for a college friend who is due with baby #2 in September. She and her husband want to be surprised about the sex, so I went with gender-neutral yellow and white. The button is a cute little sunshine from Mom's stash of random clearance items.

Last night at the weekly knitting group (which I attend monthly or bi-monthly, but that's not the point), I finished up a set for the first child of a former co-worker and his wife who are also due in September. I had fun striping a yarn called "Patio Pinks" with white, which drew out the pattern made by the variegation from pink to purple to white. The button is a cute little white flower.


I was also reminded again while knitting these baby items that some people may assume that you are making them for yourself.

Um... that would be a definite "NO."

That's A Wrap!

"It is a peculiarity of knitters that they chronically underestimate the amount of time it takes to knit something."
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

This past Christmas, I had finished about two inches of a tote bag that was supposed to be my mother's Christmas present. I knit another inch or so after Christmas, and then decided that I did not like how that particular yarn looked as a tote bag. So I ripped it up and found a pattern for a shawl that used that particular yarn. I finished knitting late this spring, then finally got around to weaving in the ends back in June. Last month, I presented the finished Christmas present to my mother as a birthday present at our monthly PINS meeting. She loved her shawl, which she has watched through its various stages of creation.

After all, it's the thought behind the gift that counts, not the fact that it's seven months late.

"I love deadlines. I especially love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
Douglas Adams

Twilight (Finally!)

I finally saw Twilight all the way through at Girls' Night this week. Yay.

Do I have to go to the New Moon premiere with the fangirls now? Isn't it enough that I read the books and watched the first movie on DVD? *whine*

Maybe it won't be that bad--after all, Dr. Cullen is dead (literally) sexy!

Friday Eve Funny

I needed it a day early, so here is the funny of the week...

Wacky Weather

It's now hurricane season, which means the atmospheric pressure is wreaking havoc on my sinuses. It also means that there are random thunderstorms. Dave and I thought we might end up victims of a summer downpour at the G-Braves game this past weekend...



Fortunately, the unpredictable weather decided to hold off so we could enjoy the game.

Friday Funny

I can't believe it's Friday already
(though I am thankful that it's here!)

It made me think of my niece puppies :-)

First Day of School

It's the first day of school for most schools systems in this area.

Hahaha teacher-friends! Your vacation is over!

Friday Funny

Aim for the head, right HistoryDiva?

Recent Reading

I haven't been reading much this summer since I flew through the "Spiderwick Chronicles" in July. HistoryDiva loaned me her copies forever ago, and Dave read through the series before I finally got around to them--and then finished all five within a week.

So yesterday at lunch, I was happy to finish a book, which is the next book club pick, "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie. It was a fast read, for which I was grateful (and a good book, too!)

At the same time as both Spiderwick and Agatha Christie, I've been slowly making my way through an interesting non-fiction book that I started after the "Twilight" book club in June. It's the story of the trial of one of the first females in America to actually be mentioned in history books as more than so-and-so's wife. Anne Hutchinson was a radical Puritan who was banished by the leaders (all men, of course) of the Massachusetts colony because she was a threat to their civic and spiritual leadership. FYI--She ultimately died in an Indian raid, and the only survivor was her red-headed daughter, Susanna, who was taken captive by the Natives for many years. I actually found "American Jezebel" after reading the fictionalization of Susanna's captivity in "Trouble's Daughter" (another good book!)

Harry Potter v. Twilight

I saw the new Harry Potter this weekend on IMAX 3D!
I had forgotten a lot that happened in Book 6... but so did the movie, according to Dave.
It was still a very good movie (except for the part where the Deatheaters are flying through London--in 3D--and I got motion sick and had to look away).

I still haven't seen Twlight... so my favorite remains Harry Potter.