I may be morphing into an insect

I have put several knitting items into the Ravelympics pool. That should be all fine and good, except they don't seem to show on the mater roster if they are tagged properly. However, if I don't tag them with the special "ravelympics2008" tag, they are there. They had all been tagged and didn't show up; this was a common bug problem and info on how to correct it was sent. I followed the info (which involved removing tags, saving, and re-entering tags); and "Poof!" when I had the tags off they were on the roster, when I put them back on, "Poof!" they disappeared!
This is what the Ravelmpics Crazy Moderator said about it.

Paging p______ and Casey to have a look-see at your persistent bug problem! Sounds like a new species has emerged!

I am a bit excited to know I am a new bug species (and that I might be getting personal attention from the code monkey himself!). I also think I might be a bit of a geek.

(I realize this whole post doesn't make much sense to some of you. I am guessing that most of you knitters know what I am talking about.)

Better late than never

Jenny tagged me awhile ago to answer the following questions (back in June, sorry to be running so late). Since I am doing my best trying to catch up with some part of my life, here goes. (Don't anybody go getting any delusions that I am going to get organized; especially not as much as some people thst some of us know. It hasn't happened in 46.5 years, it ain't gonna happen now.)


The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you've been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. They, in turn, answer the following questions. Here we go!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
1998? Well now there's a good question. Do I remember what I was doing last week? I was the mother to children aged 15, 11, and 9, all involved in multiple music events, sports, scouts, etc. Hubband was traveling several times a month for his work. I did volunteer work for schools and church. Need I say more about what I was doing? Is it obvious I spent a lot of time driving?

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today? (Well, I have more than five, but I'll stop there.)
Go to church for study group, and be Altar Guild person/Acolyte/LEM for noon service (done)
Call folks about donating Altar flowers for August and September
Pay bills
Clean knitting corner/organize knitting projects for Ravelympics
Go to knitting group tonight

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Ice tea; I guess someone is going to tell me that isn't a snack. Well, you can't convince me or some of my relatives.
Today I can think of gingerbread, peaches, hummus. I only have peaches hand. (Making hummus is on the to-do list.)

4. Places I’ve lived:
Missouri, Kansas, Idaho, Utah, Texas, Minnesota (Mom, did I get them all?)

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
(Not necessarily in this order) Pay off some bills, give some to family, travel with some folks, finish our basement, buy retirement property, donate to local/diocese/national church, donate to several other particular causes, save some.


Since I am so behind on emails (as well as house cleaning, to-do lists, stuff in general), I know several people have already been tagged and executed this, so I am going with just two; Judy and Karen, consider yourselves "got." Anyone else out there that wants to play, feel free to do so and let us know when and where to check out your answers!

Somebody has a new toy

I had several errands to run today, one of which was stopping by Wild Birds Unlimited. They happen to sell these catnip pillows that we had for our previous cats and I decided to get one for Oribel. One has the option of briefly heating it up in the microwave. I didn't have time for that.

 

 

I think it may be her new best friend. Well, at least until I move her box around too much. Maybe there will be another WoW post in the future about a heated catnip pillow.

No, it isn't a dream

After being worried that I would run out of time, abandoning housework for days, and knitting like crazy, I have a TdF report; today was my race of truth. I was running out of time, the trial was upon me this morning, I had no slipstream available anywhere.

They have no teammates to rely on, no others around to gauge their effort. It is simply the cyclist on the open road against the stopwatch.

Hubband and I spent several hours on the road today, with time limits on us, both there and back. Fortunately for me, Hubband drove and I was able to get a lot of knitting time in. (Hmmmm, I need to ask him if he was providing me with a slipstream after all.)

 

I made great progress and have crossed the finish line completely! This is actually a day early, which I had never guessed would happen a week ago.

 

Everything is done, including all seams and ends woven in. (Not to mention photographs and updates!) Well, everything, except for the trying it on Mr. A to see if it fits, but that part can't happen until August 9. If it doesn't fit, I guess I will be making another one in a couple of weeks.

 

FYI: No frogs were hurt in the production of this sweater and it was knit completely without the aid of any performance enhancing drugs. (No, caffeine doesn't count as a PED.)
Now comes the mountain stage of catching up on the housework.

A time suck; Make that a Major Time Suck

DTE went north to visit some friends this past weekend. She came back with a "new to us" web application. StumbleUpon has been added to my FireFox browser (though it does work in IE, for anyone still using that). This is just an innocent little button, sitting there, minding its own business (kind of like a cardboard box). You click on that button and it gives you random web sites from information you have entered (when you load it) based on your interests. There is also a button to give any site a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" as well as several other options.

Interested in Anthropology? You might get Stonehenge Rebuilt. Well, I suppose it could have been a checked interest in Archeology; or maybe something else. (Warning, it is a sub-page to a home page all about aliens.)

Here are some really cool bookshelves. I have some new ideas for our house.

knitPro is a web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns.

TasteSpotting, a site that shows great food and then when you click on a picture, it links you to where it was spotted.

This one is a "map" of a cat brain, with a link to "other cat stuff."

Here is a way to how to make roses out of maple leaves, but if you take off the sub-heading and go to the main page, there are some other cool things to see. (Or take of the sub heading down to /creative/ first and then take /creative/ off. When I did that I got some slightly different stuff.)
I will end with a video for a photography lighting setup. (Seriously, I could give you several more, but won't.)


I have stumbled upon several other cool sites since DTE injected this into my computer. I may be am falling down a deep rabbit hole. If you decide to fall down with me, we can all blame it on her. You can rest easy though, she is in the deep, dark hole with me.

There is a cardboard box

that lives in our kitchen. Most of the time it just sits there, near the pantry, minding its own business, staying out of the way; but sometimes it does something different. I heard a story about it after I came home from my travels this spring out west. Apparently one night Hubband was in the kitchen, getting ready to fix himself some dinner, when the box decided it needed to relocate. Apparently it motored about the kitchen and over to the stove.
It took up a new residency there, and then it seemed that it was a bit on the empty side. It grew an orange arm at that point, which reached out and up to grab the apron off the oven. The apron then disappeared into the opening of the box, which then motored off to a different spot in the kitchen. I asked if he was able to get any pictures of this event, but apparently he was laughing to hard to be able to get any.
This box winds up being used for all sorts of things that none of us can even begin to understand. We have tried getting rid of it, but it just isn't possible, any time we pick it up Someone comes dashing over to make sure it is going to be right back. The other day I had put some empty paper bags on top of it and it turns out that isn't appropriate either. I am not sure she ever figured out that you can't push/kick sacks off of something when you are standing on top of them.



(Oh, by the way, this is the previously promised WoW post.)

Still no WoW, just sweater pictures!

So here is the progress on Mr. A's sweater (please ignore all the yarn hanging down.) I am going to work on the neck and start the hood later today. I may actually be able to sew the hood together tomorrow. (I suppose I should be a bit careful about how cocky/confident I get about this progress.)

 

The frogs had to get a good look at the progress as well.

 

The little frog seems a bit concerned about the hole in the sleeve join. I told it not to worry too much as it will all be sewn together soon enough.

 

On Sunday I made another Wee Tiny Sock for a Ravelry swap. This was made out of some yarn I dyed last summer with cherry Kool-Aid. (Biggest Brother, I'm sorry it isn't an egg for St. MM, but it was the closest crimson I could give you today.)

It's Wednesday, but so far not Whiskers on

Nope, not yet. I had had big plans yesterday to come home from my class at the gym and take pictures of sweater progress (which is going very well), make fresh pesto for dinner, and write up my WoW post. Well, none of that happened. Instead I came home and spent hours on the couch. Why? Well, I got very, very dizzy during class and everything went down hill from there. Fortunately DTY is in the class too and she drove home. The general idea that we were able to come up with was that I was dehydrated and hadn't eaten anything all day except for a few blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Yeah, some days I forget to eat. It usually doesn't matter, except for the nights I go to the gym at six. (Somehow it never seems to be an issue in the morning. Go figure.) Anyway, my evening plans were rather shot down in flames. I have my weekly Wednesday morning stuff to do, but plan on getting you all a WoW post later this afternoon (and sweater pictures, if not for anyone else, for a certain young man in California). Of course, my plans have been known to be derailed more than once.

See! There is a pocket!

After some difficulties with starting the pocket (the words "crochet hook" were in the instruction, so that was not a good start and at least some of us know I can't count), it all worked out and the pocket grew up and became one with the sweater.

 

For some reason the little frog decided to make sure that it wasn't completely "One with the Sweater."

I have to admit I am still a bit nervous about the fit between child and sweater, but if it is too small, I do know how to make another one. I found a tip for the pocket that doesn't involve crochet hooks!

The daughters and I just got home

from the midnight movie premier. Very, very, good movie.

I do have progress on the "blob of black knitting," though it is no longer just black. When I did the measuring needed, it came out the way I was hoping for. I have no real idea if it will fit the intended recipient, as I was told a couple of weeks ago, "Auntie Barbara, Dad doesn't know how to measure me correctly. When he does it, it tickles." (I told him I wasn't sure that was all his dad's fault.) Well, we will find out in a couple of weeks if it fits as the sweater will be done, and the nephew will be here for his annual visit!!!!! We have big plans for all the things we will do and places we will go! I'll give you some sweater picture updates after I get some sleep.