Dinner time!

My Cairn Terror Elly's funniest trait may be her intense desire to have dinner at 7:00 every night. That's not 7:05, not 7:10, and definitely not 7:30. 7:00 on the dot. She'll give you 5 minutes, but after that, she will let you have it. She whines, she cries, she whimpers, she screeches, she slaps, she begs. She pretty much acts as obnoxious as her Terrier self can be until she eats dinner. She's never been a stray and never missed a meal in her life so it's not like she has any real fear of not getting her dinner. I have been out all evening and when I got in, watching a little of the game and came in to read my e-mail. A few minutes later, in came Elly. She did her sit up and beg thing and screeched. I knew immediately that I'd forgotten to feed her. Poor kid, it was 10:00! I ran off to the kitchen, with her hot on my heels. The food was gone within a minute of it hitting the bowl (chewing ruins the experience, ya know).

I have part of the Apricot sleeve done. I haven't even had to rip out a row yet. *knocks on desktop*

If you haven't already, you've gotta see Skylar's first socks. Aren't these awesome? And if you know me well, don't these colors just scream my name? I'm stalking Knit Pixie for this colorway of Vesper Sock Yarn to come back in stock. In the meantime, I'm really loving Midnight Knitter but will resist for the time being to see if I can be a Skylar copy cat!

She still knits!

In spite of the lack of actual knitting content over the past couple of weeks, I still knit. Some. I finished the Apricot left front and started one of the sleeves. Remember, I ripped out the left front a couple of weeks ago, down to the ribbing, because I purled instead of knitted and it was driving me crazy! It was much easier the second time around. Here she is (obviously not blocked yet):

Since the carpet is about the best background I have, sometimes I end up with funny things in my pictures. See Parker above. He laid right down by it but refused to look at me until I said "carrot." The boy loves carrots. I'm a cruel Momma. I taunted him and never did get him a carrot.

The biggest reason for the lack of knitting is because of working out so hard! I'm doing really well with it but by the time I get home from the gym in the evenings and eat dinner, I just want to lay on the couch and not move!

Which brings me to another issue, thanks for all the nice comments in my blog. I'm a little behind in visiting and commenting but will get around to that this week (just don't make any new posts and make it easier for me, okay? :).

Birdie Rescue

This morning, I glanced outside and saw a little baby bird laying on my driveway, as still as could be. A kid walked by and when he noticed it not moving (but alive and well), he tried to see if it was okay. That's when I went out to check on the poor thing. It let me get right up to it before walking away and flapping its wings some. It appeared that nothing was broken so I called the Humane Society to see what to do. They told me that as long as Momma bird was still around, Baby would be fine, that Momma would still watch over him. I was warned not to touch him though. I managed to chase the little guy away from the driveway and sidewalk. He ended up in my neighbor's bushes later on, a good thing because they are headed on vacation. I came home from a run and saw him on the driveway yet again but he disappeared soon after. Earlier this evening, he was hanging out in the yard, watching Momma bird and friend do whatever Momma birds and friends do. I hope the little guy will be okay! He's a cutie.

I've been out talking to him a couple of times today. The neighbors now think I've officially lost it.

I've been tagged again

I feel so popular. Okay, so I'm the last blogger out there being tagged but I'll pretend anyway. :) Skylar and Liss tagged me in the same day!

Here goes, the Book Meme. Like many other knit bloggers, I love to read so this one is fun.

1) Total number of books I own?
Really, I have no clue. Maybe 100, give or take a few? I just got rid of a bunch of paperbacks so it's not as bad as it was. I borrow most books now from the library and exchange with friends. I used to buy tons but this is a lot cheaper!

2) The last book I bought?
The Jane Austen Book Club. Bought it yesterday actually. It had been on my list of things to read, and Steph mentioned it in Target when we were in there yesterday so home it came.

3) The last book I read?

Derailed by James Siegal. Great mystery! I finally read it, after listening to my friend and her mother both rave about it.

I currently am reading 2 books, Winter Prey by John Sandford and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman. Winter Prey is okay. I'm not a huge John Sandford fan. The Spirit Catches You was recommended to me by someone in the medical field. It's about the child of Hmong immigrants to the US from Laos who had epilepsy. It's about the difficulties between her parents and the medical field, both groups wanting the best for the child but communication and beliefs being different. It's pretty good so far.

I tend to read a lot of fluff because , starting in law school and continuing today, I've had to do enough reading of depressing crap and heavy stuff daily that I read almost solely for escapism.

4) 5 books that mean a lot to me? (this is tough!)

1. The Bible: The book that's had the most profound effect on my life. I'm Christian though not particularly religious, but my beliefs and the beliefs of most of my family members have been shaped by the Bible.

2. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery: I loved this series of books as pre-teen and even into my teenage years! A couple of my friends also were obsessed, and we had a little mini-book club going on with as much as we talked about them.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: My alltime favorite book. The story is so simple but so wonderful. I re-read it every couple of years and enjoy it more and more each time.

4. Stitch N Bitch by Debbie Stoller : Knit bloggers won't laugh (I don't think) but I've gotta add it in here. I'd wanted to knit for ages and never managed to figure it out, in multiple attempts. This book was when it finally clicked.

5. Trail of Tears by John Ehle: About the forced removal of the Cherokee tribe from the east to the west. I honestly haven't even read all of this book but hwat I have is heartbreaking and particularly meaningful because my great-grandmother was Cherokee. I've been told that her grandfather or great-grandfather was a tribal leader. My brother took the book when he moved, and I need to get it to finish it and also read more about the topic itself.

5) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their blogs:

Again, I'm probably the last person in knit blog land to finish this. I'm going to tag Juls even though she's already been tagged. I'm just doing it to spur her into action. Steph, my favoritest learning to knit friend, I don't know if you do these kind of things on Livejournal but if you do, I'll tag you too.

Patience, my dear

Liss commented below about how she doesn't think she has the patience to knit. I thought I'd let the knitters respond! I'm definitely not known for my patience, and I get frustrated really easily when things aren't going my way. Learning was tough and sometimes even now, learning a new technique can be trying but I love to knit! It's so relaxing 99% of the time. I had a conversation with my LYS owner awhile back about Lucky (tiny yarn, tiny needles), and she told me to enjoy the process. Every knitter ends up falling into a groove about what they like to knit and what they don't like, yarns they like, needles they don't like, etc. I personally love knitting sweaters with thinner yarns on smaller needles. Others do nothing but quicker, bulky knits that they can finish off in mere days or hours. Instant gratification isn't a big deal for me, others need it. We just all knit what makes us feel good. Even in having to tear out hours of work on my Apricot Jacket, I've loved working on it, and it's so relaxing. So girl, get out that Knitting for Dummies book you got for Christmas and learn! It's a great stress reliever.

I've been tagged by Juls! (my first ever tag!)

Choose five things from the list below and complete the sentence.

If I could be a scientist, I'd invent a superduper basketball shoe that would let the player jump 6 feet in the air and give them perfect form on their shot everytime, from inside the 3 point line or out. I'd hold an exclusive patent, and ONLY the Kentucky basketball team would be able to wear them.

If I could be a farmer, my farm would be a huge horse farm in Lexington with acres of hills and miles of white fences.

If I could be a psychologist, I wouldn't even know where to begin. So many psychoanalysis, so little time.

If I could be a librarian

If I could be a professor

If I could be a writer, my books would be a wildly popular and very funny knockoff of Janet Evanovich's, only my Stephanie Plum would be a short blonde lawyer from Kentucky.

If I could be a llama-rider

If I could be a bonnie pirate

If I could be an astronaut

If I could be a world famous blogger

If I could be a justice on any one court in the world

If I could be married to any current famous political figure

If I could be an innkeeper, my office would be a cabana on the beach in front of my beachfront inn. And I'd hire a world class chocolate chef.

I think this one's been around! I'm cheating and tagging anyone who hasn't done it.I'm lazy. But you know who you are!

Extreme Makeover!

Getting tired of the "needs grooming badly" disclaimer in front of all of Parker's pictures and kind of feeling sorry for the wooly mammoth now that it's getting hot, I dragged the boy off to the groomer.

Parker before:


Parker after:

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

He looks 10 years younger.

Such a sweet guy! Cairn grooming can be such a nuisance. I don't like them clipped, I like them handstripped which is the traditional way to groom a Cairn. It involves pulling their dead hairs out. I hate doing it myself. Parker turns into rabid dog when I do. Not many groomers do it but I'm lucky that one in town does, and they do a great job too. He pulled him down to his undercoat, which makes all the tiger-like stripes. He's bright copper under there! His outer coat, when it grows back in, is dark.

Apricot's left front is STILL unfinished! I've been so exhausted in the evenings that I'm getting next to no knitting (or blogging and reading blogs!) done. I'm hoping I can get more done this weekend.

I think I'm exhausted because I'm working my butt off at the gym! I ran 6 1/2 miles Sunday night and could barely move my legs by the end of the day Monday. Not because they were sore but because they were so tired! I've been roped into kickboxing class tomorrow. I like this teacher, he walks around the room and lets you kick and punch him. Now that's fun! I'm going to take the plunge and run my first race, a 10K on the 4th of July!!!


I've been tagged by Juls but haven't had a chance to respond. Will do that tomorrow, I promise!

Apricot is still alive...

She didn't get a whole lot closer to completion since the last post but I did manage to finish the back piece. I've been pretty tired in the evenings this week and haven't gotten much knitting done. I've been lucky to do 2-3 rows. Last night, my plans fell through so I stayed home and finished the back piece while watching National Treasure. Knitting amazingly increases my super short attention span so I can actually sit through a movie without zoning out, getting up to do something else, or dozing off. I'm not brave enough to take my knitting into a theater yet.


It's two steps forward, one step back. That little purled instead of knitted in the 1st pattern row of the left front was bothering me too much and below is the result. Now I get to figure out the pattern yet again! Whee! It shouldn't be too bad this time through. The front piece knit up sooo quickly.



On the agenda today is to plant some flowers and a rosemary plant I got at the Farmer's Market yesterday, go for a 5-6 mile run, and spend the evening knitting to see if I can finish up that left front piece. I was all looking forward to knitting while watching the Pistons/Heat series Game 6 tonight but learned just a few minutes ago it was last night. Go Pistons! Hopefully I can get Apricot done in the next 2 weeks! I can't wait to wear her, especially after seeing Diana's completed sweater, done in the same yarn I'm using! I really love this piece, and the trials and tribulations of the pattern should be worth it in the end.