Here is a pic of the put together and blocked sweater. So far, I like the sweater. I'll have to wear it to give it my blessing. It is so cute and will need a cute body to wear it successfully. Lucky for it, I'm on the South Beach Diet. I love the acronym for this diet - SBD. In 4 days, I've lost 4 pounds and feel great! I like what I'm seeing.

I got to see my friends from Lake Charles, LA. Remember Robin and her roommate, Claire, the sheep? They are evacuees and lucky for me, they're staying with friends in Leander. I got to hug both necks and visit for a few hours on Wednesday. We met up at Chicks with Sticks - full house! I knew Robin would be smart enough to stay at the hospital during the hurricane and that is what she did. I was just so worried about her knowing she'd have to evacuate at some point. It was so refreshing to see her and know all is well. Her house is standing but that is all she knows.

I finally found a baby blanket pattern that works with the variegated blue/green/white yarn from stash. This blanket will probably go to the Linus Project. I received an e-mail from them saying they're hoping to add many more blankets since a lot of kids were displaced by Katrina.

Got lots done over the weekend. Cleaned out the pantries, part of DH's closet, Dining Room, got DH to rewire my vintage lamp, and cooked a yummy supper last night. I marinated chicken strips and then wrapped them in bacon. When DH got home from hunting he grilled them up for us. Pretty good for a quick/easy fix.

I had to be bus rider on the road home yesterday. DGS decided to stick a rock up his nose and I got this frantic call from the school nurse telling me she couldn't track down his parents. Here I am at work with no car and the only one they can reach. I called his other GM and she located his Dad. It worked out good since he is the closest in proximity and DD got notified and met them at McDs. The Dad was able to get him to blow it out. No, we haven't figured out why a kid would stick something in his own nose. I guess the justification is because it fit? I don't think he'll try that again.

On Friday I finished the final piece of the Lacy Pullover Sweater. It awaits me zipping it together. On Saturday I pulled out the punch embroidery and got with the program. I do have to say, "I'm hooked." I drew on the back of the fabric and pumped out a secret project for DSeester. It is something I had sent DMom about a week prior to her having a massive stroke. Needless to say, she never got around to it. Over the years, DMom made a lot of cute things with punch embroidery. Some of the cutest were nursery rhyme characters for DB's kids. I've been wanting to try this and it was a lot of fun. I will show off one of my projects tomorrow.

Work is still extremely busy. We hired an accountant and she is supposed to start coming in tomorrow for a few hours and then be here permanently on the 21st. I'm hoping this will be a good thing - I don't know yet about all the personality clashes that I hear will ensue. I just hope to keep out of the way.

This is where I was at with the sweater on Wednesday evening. Now I am about 80% finished with the 2nd half. Zero mistakes on this one - so far. Guess you learn the pattern after frogging a gazillion times. I should be zipping this together over the weekend.

DFIL is hanging in there. They had him up and scooting around his room yesterday and today he is to walk out into the hallway. It is amazing how different things are done compared to just a few years ago. They may send him home as early as Saturday. I'm hoping this goes real smooth so he'll be excited to get his 2nd knee traded out. DH cracks me up - he told his Dad to ask for the bone so we could make some soup. I'm looking forward to soup weather but think I'll pass on the DFIL soup.

Here are the pics of the Halloween bag I made. The one pic shows the two sides where I put Halloween fabric pockets. I think it turned out cute and I think I'll start using it in July, when they bring out the Halloween candy in all the stores. Around August I'm thinking of wearing all my Christmas sweaters. What is up with stores doing that?

Work has been so busy with school starting last week. I've been thoroughly exhausted but still making sure I hit Curves for my 3x/week. I also headed to church on Sunday to see Angela, from Curves, perform with her band. She's such a cutie and I've been wanting to see her play. Saturday we had a friends/family get-together and had to be up super early to get the brisket cooking. That was a fun time and not much running around for me since we only did brisket and beans. Everyone else brought a dish. I had almost all the laundry finished and put away by the time guests started arriving at 2. UT whipped some butt and that was a great ending to the evening - 63-3. Hook 'em!

I also kicked out some cleaning. I have this portable phone that I got from work and I've been wanting to get it hooked up in my office. That takes a bit of work since I have papers and boxes stacked under the desk plus no extra holes to plug it in to power. I also refiled all the pattern magazines and books. I found two huge azz folders of recipes. I need to go through those and see if there is something yummy in there for us. I also worked on the sweater - the sleeves are complete and I am about 5 inches into the armholes. Getting there. It has been slow going since I zone out and have to frog. I don't care - one step at a time and I can't wear it in this heat anyway.

Did I ever show you my friend Claire? She's the cute, black one in the picture. Her Mama hails from Louisiana and we met on-line. Mama has friends here in central Tx and I invited them to join us at the yarn shop. Claire is a very spoiled girl. Her Mama has clothes for her, she goes to work every day with Mama, she rides in a car seat and has her own bedroom. I hope they hurry back to visit - it was such a good time when they visited. Discussion ranged from farts to pot smoking. I think that was the most I laughed in a long time. It lightened up the group - a lot!

On the knitting front: I frogged sleeve #1, finished another rendition minus the weird-looking rows and started a duplicate. It ended up being a good thing that two weird-looking rows showed up on sleeve #1 because it also ended up being way too long. I corrected both problems and I'm really glad that I started with the sleeves instead of the body. I was able to get a grip on the pattern, frog and not be disgusted with the project. I may be taking 3 classes soon. MK gave me a Ginger's flyer yesterday and they're offering needle punch, x-stitch with large stitches for a stocking and a Debbie Mum oven mitt class. They have b/w pics of the needle punch in the flyer and I've been wanting to try that anyway. I inherited all of DM's np yarn which, is no small amount. I've seen many cute projects and would love to punch out a few gifts I've got swirling around in my head.

Classes start here tomorrow. Today I have to head to a work study recruitment event and since I'm looking to hire 5, should be productive. Busy days ahead of me.

We'll be celebrating my birthday this weekend. Saturday is UT's first football game of the season and DH thinks it would be fun to throw a party for me. I love any excuse to have people over. I doubt DFIL will make it since he's having knee replacement surgery tomorrow. Brave man.

Worked our butt off on DS's football website and then they (booster club members) went in and switched it all around. That didn't bother me as much as having the front page as promotional ($ making) links and one of the links is an ad to stop child porno on the net. Sorry but I just don't think it is appropriate and is in very bad taste when that is the first thing you see. I'll be stepping down on this project.