New Yarn and Settling In

I'd like to show off the latest offering from the Mind's Eye Yarn Sock Club.







Very nice and springy. I'm so behind on my knitting, but hopefully I'll get to knit this up soon.

I can't decide if I have a cold or if I got super-hit with seasonal allergies. I was believing it was allergies until last night, when my nose started to get raw from blowing it. I just took a hot bath with some herbal eucalyptus bath gel I got as a free sample from C.C. Bigelow, and that helped a little. I didn't want to be sick, but at this point, I hope it is a cold, because that means it will go away, unlike allergies. I would hate to feel like shit all spring.

The pets are settling in nicely. Zelia stays on the bed all day:



Those flannel pjs with the butterflies on them are mine. Zelia sleeps there most of the day, which is no different than what she did at our old place. She is, after all, over 15 years old. I was hoping she'd find a warm sunny spot in one of the other rooms, but she likes the bed. She sleeps there at night, too, with us.

Solvie really digs the windows and all the birds flying by:





These are just the kitchen windows too. Wait until we have the windows in the front room open -- that's where the trees are that the birds live in. These kitties are going to go ballistic.

Okay, now I'll give those of y'all with a phobia fair warning and let you know I'm about to post snake pics.

Sunny is in our living room now, not upstairs by the computer. It's great being able to see her all the time, and every evening around 8 p.m. she starts to get warm and active (partially because she's nocturnal, and partially because she's near the radiator).

We don't have a sofa yet, but we made up one with our extra futon mattress and a few afghans. We let Sunny on the sofa the other night:



I impressed myself here:



Okay, so it's a fairly nice day and maybe I ought to get a move on. Well, it's only in the 40s, but it's sunny and Karmellah is on her way over. It would be nice if I ordered a pizza or something.

Coming Soon!!!!

Coming this Fall. . .




No, I'm not pregnant!!! My niece is. Do you know what that means?

I'm going to be a great-auntie!!!!

I mean, I'm already a great auntie. Now I'll have the title of Great Auntie Zanti. I'll be a great Great Auntie!


But coming much, much sooner than that:



Thanks to Pam at Lick My Sticks (another Masshole!) for making this cool-ass button!

In case you are wondering. . .

I am alive and well. We've moved, and everyone seems to be pretty happy for it. Of course, the cats were freaked at first but I think they are settling in. It was nice out tonight so I opened a kitchen window for them so they could get a breeze and hear how many birds we have outside our house. Once they get a chance to sit in the window for a while, they'll be really happy.

I've taken pictures but I'm too lazy to get up, get the camera, upload the pictures, etc. etc. I do plan on flashing my stash this coming Sunday, so there will be pictures then, if not before.

My knitting, and my spinning, have been neglected. I resumed knitting on my sock, and hopefully will be done soon.

I still have to figure out my commute to work. Monday I was really early, today ten minutes late. Gotta find that happy medium. I think earlier will be better, because the later bus got caught up in lots of traffic. The bus coming home has been interesting. On Friday, the bus nearly got into an accident when someone in a car cut off the bus driver, causing a couple of passengers to go flying. Nobody was badly hurt, however. Tonight there was no accident except for maybe in someone's pants. There was an old guy in the front of the bus with a trash bag filled with empty plastic bottles, the seats next to him were empty, and the WHOLE bus was all stunk up. Picture, if you will, the smell of a dozen ferrets in a cage that hadn't been cleaned in a month. Yeah, he had a bit of ferret-odor to him, but worse than that, he had a human poo odor too. At one point he shifted in his seat, and the smell got so bad I gave a little gag. He must've been shaking one out with that shift. I had to get off the bus. At least I was only 2 stops from home.

Oh, yeah, and the T station my bus brings me to is known for lots of little hoodlums hanging out. Joy. Oh well, the T station I get off for work has had two stabbings in the past months. That's life in the city, I guess.

Where I live seems to be really nice and reasonably safe. It's considered a neighborhood of Boston, but it feels more like a suburb. You get here either by train + bus or by commuter rail (or drive, obviously). I'm looking forward to visiting the Arnold Arboreteum for the first time ever this spring.

So, boring post today. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something better to post about.

So . . .

Brittany, the girl with the giant forehead and giant chin, got eliminated from CW's "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the New Doll" for being "too stripperish". Uh-huh.

You know how when babies are born, they sometimes have smooshed pointy heads from the birth canal? She looks like that, except she's 20 years old and her head never lost that smooshed pointy shape.

I'm not rooty for anyone, really, but I think the prettiest ones there are Anatasia (the Amazon!), Melissa R. (tiny!) and Marissa (is that her name? The girl with the almost afro hair, smokin' body, and eyes like Paul Stanley from KISS).

Random Observation

A few people seem to be pissed off when I get on the train with a couple of empty boxes.

A few peole can just FOAD.

Secret Pal 8!

I got a package from my secret pal last week.

What do you think this is?



Or this?



If you guessed Noro, you might be correct!



It's Noro Silver Thaw. I forget what the colorway number is, and I don't have it with me. My lovely Secret Pal o Rama sent it to me from the Netherlands.

I never even knew this yarn existed!

It's an angora/wool/nylon blend (I think), and it is oh-so-soft. I have two skeins of it, so I'll have to figure out something nice to make with it. Hmmm...two skeins...

Here's most of what she sent me:



The notebook is a cute little blank journal. The fabric cover is oh-so-me, down to the colors and the op-art-edness of it. There is also a little Dutch lady designed like a Russian nesting doll. I wonder what the background story is to it? There were also some yummy candies (which at at work) and a box of incredible good black tea (in the cupboard right now).

THANK YOU SECRET PAL O RAMA!

This wasn't from my Secret Pal; it is my souvenier yarn from the knittyboard yarn store crawl last Thursday night:



It's Art Yarns Supermerino in a lovely blue colorway:



As an aside, I just saw my Flickr folder of "Finished Objects 2007" and noticed there are only two photos in there. Wow. I'm really slacking, aren't I? I did make my dad a scarf (which I haven't given to him) and made ZMrK a great cabled hat (no pics of that yet), so I shouldn't feel so bad. I'm about 1/2 way done with the second in a pair of socks. Hopefully in a week or so I'll have another FO to post.

In the meantime, enjoy that pr0n.

Progress!!!

Remember the lonely, empty hutch in my dining room?

Well, it's not lonely anymore!



(I know, I know. . . some of those have to come out of shopping bags and into clear ziploc bags for viewing. ZMrK already told me that!)

I did that while ZMrK was making some shelves for our library. We can't attach them to the wall, so he is making a free-standing shelving unit.

I have more pictures of our place, if you care:



The stained glass window in the living room. I love that it is purple, white and green.

Piles of boxes in the bedroom:



I'm sure others can relate!



The kitchen, with half of the chairs there. That little nook beyond the chairs is where the fridge lives. I like that.



This is the view from the back porch. It doesn't look like much now, being the end of winter, but I bet in the summer it will be gawgeous!! Yeah, there's a closeline which will be covered with drying skeins of hand-dyed yarn. There's also a picnic table, which I hope to utilize as well (grilled corn, anyone?).



Here I am, holding up some groovy vintage fabric that I've held on to forever. Last year I thought about making a bedspread with it. It may be nice. I have shitloads of vintage fabric that I bought off eBay nearly 10 years ago, when I decided I was going to sew lots. I still have most of it untouched.

I'm going to post some SP8 goodies and yarn pr0n under separate entry.

New Digs!

As many of you know, we are moving. I didn't go into details on my blog, but those on the knittyboard and some IRL friends have gotten the full scoop (Phil, I will email you the whole story, if you'd really like to know.). I'm over the initial drama of it, but we will have stories for years to come about this particular landlady.

Speaking of landlords, I had to go to the City of Boston's website when I heard that Mayor "Mumbles" Menino was posting the names of the top 20 trash fine violators, and lo and behold! One of my former landlords made the list!!! Go Paul!!!

I hit Craigslist and found us a really nice apartment within a week. We're not familiar with our new 'hood, but know three people who live there and love it. We're excited about exploring this neck o' the woods.

My lovely stepdaughter, Karmellah, took pictures when she helped us move some stuff in last week. Here they are:



First impressions!! This is the front hallway. There's a huge closet to the right, to the left is the living room. The doorway straight ahead goes into the bedroom, and there is another door on the far side of the bedroom, leading to the hallway to the 2nd bedroom.



This will be our bedroom. The futon is the "guest futon"; we're still sleeping on our bed at the current apartment. The ceiling fans are a nice addition; most of the rooms have them.



The second bedroom will be the library. It's painted a really pale purple.



This is the dining room, with a double-doorway looking into the living room. Notice the stained glass window in the living room! Classy! I love living/dining room combos.



This is the built-in hutch to the dining room. What do you think I've already unpacked into it? :-)

We still have lots of things to move over, and lots of cleaning/unpacking/arranging to do when we get there. I think it's going to be an awesome place to live.

Coming up next: Secret Pal pictures!

because I'm too lazy to do a real post. . .

I give you my Celebrity Boob Twin.

Your Celebrity Boob Twin:

Angelina Jolie

Who's Your Celebrity Boob Twin?