No knitting last night but I did work on the scarf over the day. I ended up with GB cuz DD headed to Arlington to a Yankees game. Once I got him home I had packaging to do so I can hit the post office today. I shipping out the vacation picture discs to family plus sending off the *broken* XBox in exchange for a reconditioned one. DH has been wanting to do this for GB. It was stored in my office - see, I am cleaning out! Too bad it cost me $80 to get it outta there.

Tonight is "Chicks with Sticks." I look forward to giving Jenny her top. I also look forward to visiting with the girls. I haven't been since 6/22 and I'm missing all the knitting chatter. Hopefully my Louisiana friend, Robyn, will be heading this way soon. I need a Claire fix.

Oh yeah. This picture shows the curtains I picked up at a yard sale. It has one valance and two, small side panels. I'm going to make pillowcases for DD. I thought these butterflies were pretty and DD loves butterflies. Maybe I'll get to it this weekend along with the neck coolers that DH has been bugging me to finish. Sad, all I need to do is add the stuff and zip up the end. Why do these mini-projects languish? May I borrow some time?

So, what else am I working on? Today I brought the scarf with me....pattern: Dayflower Lace Scarf. Another lacy project. I'm working it in a vintage yarn found in a bag of yarn purchased from the thrift store. Label: Marianne: Fashion Yarns "Grand Prix" Fluffy. Content: 55% Acrylic, 25% Mohair, 20% Wool. It is in a pink/peach color and turning out very pretty. The grad student who is covering the front desk for me over the summer is teaching herself to knit. She's already whipped out a scarf. Over the weekend she purchased a "teach yourself to knit" kit which has two sets of needles, a book and some gadgets. She's extremely creative so it'll be interesting to see where this takes her.

So, what did I do over the weekend? Besides modeling the shawl, you say? Hehe. Yeah, it turned out really nice and I'm really proud that it turned out as well as it did. Accomplishments: 1) I made a big dent in the cleaning out of two closets, really three. Since DSIL moved out, I had some remnants of winter clothes residing in my every day closet. Those got moved into the storage closet in GB's room and the remainder of DS's clothes got moved back into his closet. Big accomplishment even though it sounds small. 2) I put two bags of yarn (a kit and a lot of Christmas yarn) on eBay ---- yeah, is hard for me to release any sort of yarn but I really do want to downsize the yarn and the amount of Wannabes. 3) I freecycled the fabric paint and acrylic paint stash. 4) As the pictures show - I washed the new-to-me vintage Pennsylvania tablecloth and ironed the new-to-me vintage Pennsylvania doilies. The tablecloth is on the formal dining room table but the doilies have yet to find a spot in the house. Some things must marinate in the brain first. 5) I cleaned out several cupboards (PA talk - cabinets for you Texans) - what caught hell? plasticware cupboard, drinking glasses cupboard, coffee cups cupboard, roadie coffee/drink cups cupboard, and the pots and pans cupboard. I also cleaned up the window seat that holds the mass of cookbooks. Oh yeah, lest I forget, the large pantry got rearranged. Nice! 6) DD, DH & I canned 20 pints of tomatoes! DD & DH were such great help. They peeled the majority while I ran around lidding everything. Funny - lidding. 7) I used up all the Noro yarn on Jenny's top - unfortunately I ran outta yarn and will have to stop by the yarn shop and ask her for another skein so that I can finish. In honor of finishing (as far as I could) two projects, I started three more. I started: a scarf and two X-stitch projects. Pics to come on later blog dates. 8) Through all this cleaning/rearranging - I put a load of things on Freecycle and they should all be in their new homes today. That is a feel good. The lady picking up the craft paints and supplies is a fellow Freecycle moderator with me and I've picked up some great things from her. She has 5 kids and watches a few more during the day. I never said she was sane. I'm glad these goodies are going to a good home where they will used. Much better than sitting in the closet taking up valuable space.

Through all of this, I did get some time alone both Saturday and Sunday! Since I live in a Grand Central Station reproduction, this is a very rare occurence. I booted out DD and DGB both days that DH was heading out. I get a lot more accomplished when I don't have someone(s) stuck up my azz. Yesterday DH and neighbor headed down to the new Cabelas that was having its grand opening. DH bought a cast iron griddle for the fire pit and neighbor bought a (smaller than ours) dutch oven that DH is now coveting. Neighbor got it for $7.50 because of some scanning glitch at the new store.

DS is back in PA! He and his Dad hopped in the truck and took a road trip. He shows up on my brother's doorstep and I wish we'd staged his entrance by having him crying saying that he ran away from home cuz we're so mean to him. It woulda been hilarious to hear of DB's reaction. I'm sure DS is enjoying life right now. Good for him!

This morning I downloaded all the KnitCast Episodes and burned three discs for my car listening pleasure. Burning CDs is something new for me - I learned while copying all the reunion/vacation pictures for all the relatives. I got so inspired with the Knitcast CDs that I dragged out the CD Labeling System we bought years ago (copyright 1999)and made labels for them. Dang, I'm just a learning wild woman.

All this energy and a clean house. 'Sup wid dat? I can give you a no smoking update - been without since Sunday. This morning was the first morning where my chest didn't hurt when I woke up. When smoking, I do not get a good night's sleep and when I wake up, the lungs feel on fire. The first cig tames them down and I feel the poison seep through my system - from my neck and down my arms. Feels like the burning sensation when the doctor is injecting you with burny meds. Anyway, it has taken this many days without smokes to finally wake up without my chest hurting. Do I want one? Yeah. How badly? I don't have REALLY BAD cravings to where I'll do anything for a smoke but I do have mild yearnings.

Check out my bargain hunting abilites: after work yesterday I met DD over at the new Office Supply Getting Place. We shopped around for the cheapest CDs for me to burn pics for the relatives. I ended up with the store brand which is 50 CDs for $18.99. As the clerk is handing me the receipt, I realize the ad in front of me says I can get 3 boxes of the Phillips brand for $22.99. "Uh, excuse me. Can I return these?" The clerk is so bored out of her mind that she doesn't even bat an eye and says, "sure." Of course, the manager who is two days older than the clerk has to be the one to make the return. She plugs in the coupon code and it brings my total down to where I owe $1.19 more for the extra two stacks of CDs. Ok, thanks! Now, top that!

What projects am I going to tackle next? I am going to finish Jenny's crocheted top. Last night I started a surprise x-stitch project. I ain't diggin' the way DH laughs at my Granny seeing glasses. I noted a few more WannaBes while digging around the office this morning so will be updating that list.

I'm on the major, downhill slide of the shawl. I've been in a knitting lull and a cleaning high so guess what is happening at our house? Before work this morning, I cleaned out the dishes cupboard. I get discouraged with the knitting at times and tend to lean toward other projects. Really and truly, though, this project requires concentration because it is *super* easy to mess up the row. On the knit side, you have to follow pattern. On the purl side, you have to watch to make sure you don't purl 2 together since some of the stitches sit close together. That is a little discouraging since the *entire*frigging*project* requires all your attention. I'm almost through so who really cares?

I cleaned up the office on Sunday. It wasn't a major cleaning but it does look and feel a lot better in there. I have a "freecycle friend" who is coming over tomorrow evening to look through my fabric stash. I'm looking forward to sharing with her and everyone knows I have more than enough to share. My goal is to get the huge azz entertainment center out of there. Maybe some day.

While cleaning up the office, I found a bunch more projects I want to get started on....soon. I need to add them to the wanna-be list. The never ending list. I bet I'll find more wanna-bes as I clean. Jeez.

Today's Words to the Wise is in honor of me being smoke free sans patch! Since Sunday! You go, Willpower Girl!

Work is going well....a 4% merit increase helps the ol' morale. Every little bit counts. Too bad I won't see it until October.

Wish me luck - back on the no smoking patch. Since my chest and lungs already feel dead I thought I'd give them a break and hop back on the wagon. I become more productive anyway so it is a win-win situation in lots of ways.

DGB is heading to a casting call tomorrow. I guess they're looking for kids 3-15 or sumpin' and since he is Mr. Personality.... DD asked me to go with them but since DS can get him to do almost any trick imaginable, I have a call in to him to see if he can go instead. It would be cool to have a movie star i the family.

My friend is having another casino party at her house on the 23rd. I'm looking forward to that! We had a great time last year but had to leave early for some reason.

Words to the Wise: Always be smarter than the people who hire you. Lena Horne

Did we have fun? Oh yeah! I can't really speak for everyone but I know that most of us demonstrated happy facial expressions. We saw loads of Amish things/people/area, we visited with tons of friends and family. We avoided a potentially dangerous fireworks display problem. We spent lots of money, ate lots of food and suffered through the intensely high levels of humidity. DH now calls me a liar, that he no longer believes anything I say. He says that it does NOT get cool enough to sleep without A/C. I guess he took away all the lying fun - at least I can tell him that he did not suffer any more than I as a kid when we have that discussion. I proved it to him.

I am 59% finished with the shawl. I always count 5% for finishing. I'm almost finished with the 9th repeat of 12 and then have the edging to do. It is the only thing I worked on while on vacation. I took two other projects but never picked them up. I did very little on the shawl...we didn't head over to Philly as planned. Just as well...I don't need a distracting project. Maybe I'll get a chance to get some pics.

On a much lighter note, last night I went to the Chicks with Sticks at Bluebonnet. We had a large turnout....some had to move to the 2nd table. I enjoyed myself and knocked out a lot on the capelet I'm making to match the Firecracker tank. It incorporates the two yarns used in FC plus a ball of matching squiggle which is used on the ends. Is not a capelet in the sense you've seen before but kinda like a smaller version of a shawl, a shorter but wider version of a scarf and kinda like a capelet. I wanted to use up the yarn I have and add squiggle to the mix. I really like what I've come up with. Plus, it'll be a little warmth while I'm running around in PA.

Summer of Lace Shawl, you ask? I only picked it up long enough to show it off and finish a purl row. My goal is to knock out the capelet today and then hit the shawl with gusto. BUT, I picked up a project while at CwS. One of the instructors at Bluebonnet is crochet inhibited and was griping last week about a project she was trying to do while teaching herself to crochet. She said "I hate it" about 3 times, becoming more emphatic each time so I offered to make it for her. She reminds me of my XSIL and I love to just look at her. She's a doll. The pattern is British or sumpin' and although it gives a glossary of Brit/US terms, I think it is already converted into American crochet. I think this because the first row says to single crochet and there doesn't appear to be such a thing in British crochet. I may not have to convert at all. That would make it so much easier which, in my life, causes me to doubt what I'm looking at. I hope to run across a crochet blog where I can talk with someone to be sure. Oh and I gotta tell you this, the yarn that Jenny (sp?) picked out for this project is way yummy. It'll be a pleasure to work with. See? I'm thinking positive already. I told her I'd "try" cuz I didn't want to feel too bad if it ends up being something I can't come through with. She said she'd gladly trade me for yarn or labor. What a woman. Wonder if she'd loan me her tiny, taut body for the weekend? If she's wise, she won't. Boy, that thing would be rugged when I got through.