Lookie what I found while watering my garden today. Ick! I was testing out my watering timer and saw this lovely spider hanging about in my shrubs. That spider spray Dad bought me just doesn't kill on contact, but in about five minutes. Better than trying to stomp on it.

As for the timer, not so impressed. It leaks at both ends (from the house spigot and at the hose end so I have a nice puddle under the spigot. Otherwise, not too shabby. A little pipe tape and it should would just fine. I would have tried out my second timer, but the hose I bought over the weekend needs to be returned to the store. The end has been stepped on, and I can't shape it into a circle again. Grr...

Normally I wouldn't be so concerned about spiders. When my parents were here, my dad spotted a black widow outside. We were on our way out, left, and we have yet to see it again. So I'm being very cautious about spiders. Ick!

As for knitting news, I am about 90% done with the body of the pink sweater. I don't know if I'll work on it tonight. I'm in a spinning mood (I was in a spinning mood before I saw the spider, thank you very much). I might work an some more of the beautiful alpaca I received from the alpaca farm just down the road.

This weekend was the PINS (Purple Iris Teach Shoppe Needle Society) meeting. It completely slipped my mind! At school today, I asked Daye about it, and she had forgotten, too. Oops! Too much going on.

This week at school is Homecoming Week. I'm in charge of Student Council with another teacher. We have been dressing up all week for spirit week. Tomorrow is "When I Grow Up..." I can't decide what to wear. 1. I could be a professional soccer player and wear Miguel's stuff (jersey and shorts, shin guards, socks). 2. I could be a Mayfield employee and wear his shirt. 3. I could dress like a little girl and want to be a kid again now that I'm grown up. That one would involve pig tails and freckles. I'm not sure what I would wear. I would, though, have to carry a teddy bear around with me. :) What do you think?

Happy Saturday! It seems that this is the best day of the week for me to post. It's been another full week. Mom and Dad stayed from Thursday and left this past Wednesday. We got a lot accomplished (or rather, they did). I now have my garage door opener, and I LOVE it. It's so great to be able to just pull in and out. I have two tool organizers, two shelves, and a more organized garage. I also have shelves in both of my bathrooms and a couple more shelving units put up, but still pretty empty. My flag bracket has been remounted outside and they showed us how to best trim our shrubs up front (well, they're the ONLY shrubs we had). I also have a new bird feeder, but have only seen one gold finch so far.

Today I went out and bought some stuff. Wal Mart has their lawn care on clearance, so I picked up some watering timers, new hoses, and some drip/soaker hoses for incredible prices. At home depot I picked up three small fire power nandinas and three small silver king euonymus and put them on the left side of the house. It's supposed to rain today, so I'm glad I got them in this morning. I cleared out a few more boxes in the bedroom, so I'm ready to veg for a while on the couch and knit on my pink sweater.

Monday is Miguel's birthday and also my sister's! Happy Birthday. Christi, your present was mailed this morning, so it might not be there until Wednesday or so. I think I'll let Miguel have his presents tomorrow. I got him (no, he never reads my blog) a new electric razor (his is nearly kaput) and a croquet set. He fell in love with the game at my folks' house in Florida this spring, so I've been looking out for a good set since then. Target was the answer. I can't wait to try it out. Our highs tomorrow are supposed to be in the mid 70s, so it would be great weather to play!

What a busy weekend!

My parents are coming up from Florida to see our house for the first time. I've been doing some more unpacking and reorganizing around the house. I bought a garage door opener for Dad to install this coming weekend. I also bought some shelves for the garage, lining paper for the kitchen cabinets and drawers, and some thick plastic to go on the wire shelving in my pantry. However, there's still more to do. :) I need to finish the exercise room (where Mom will be staying) and our bedroom. Still too many boxes.

On the knitting front, I forgot my pattern/row count sheet at school on Friday, and I don't want to get my increase rows confused on the pink sweater. I'm halfway done with the back. Woohoo! In the meantime, I've been working on the Creatures of the Reef shawl again. I'm on row 45, and I'm nearly done with the crabs and seahorses. Too cute!

While working in the garage this morning, I found my ball winder. Yippee! I also found a box with needles in it. Plus, I now have my printer power cord. Very productive weekend.

I made it to the LYS to wind two of my hanks of Araucania into balls. So much better now! While I was winding them, one of the quilter's husbands asked me about the swift and its purpose. I explained how it worked and why I was using it, and he thought it was a pretty nifty invention. I would have to concur. :)

While at the yarn shop, I did pick up three balls of Noro in palatte 74 to make Booga's bag. Rob's email contained a link to the free pattern, and I loved it's simple style. I WILL, however, wait until I get the Vittadini sweater finished. I do have the front almost completed.

I did take it with me yesterday to our first teachers' tailgate before our first game of the season (need I say football?). I let Daye borrow my Socks Soar book a couple days ago, and she cast on her first socks yesterday before the tailgate. She and I grabbed our lawnchairs and found a shady spot behing our school (our school and stadium are connected), and started to knit. The temperature was perfect, there was a slight breeze, and it was the perfect way to cap off a pep rally crazy Friday at school. We knitted for about an hour before we were joined by John, the French/Spanish teacher who is in the room next to me. A couple more people drifted in, and the grilled hot dogs and hamburgers were ready by 5:15. We had a nice group show up, and they all smiled when they saw Daye and me knitting away. They know our love for this craft and passtime. Daye got about an inch done on her sock before she had to go and work the gate for the game. (When I visted her later, she said they had gone through 1000 $1 bills in about 20 minutes. The county set a new price of $6 for the football games, they ran through their ones that quickly! We must have had over three thousand people come, and I'm probably low-balling that figure!) We lost, but we did score twice against one of the best teams from last year. :)

Tonight I'm running errands with a friend. We'll probably grab dinner somewhere, and we might even take in a movie. Have a good evening!

Gotta love short work weeks!

This week has flown by! I've been working on the pink sweater a little every day. Today, Daye and I were going to go to the LYS and do their open knitting. As I had understood it, everyone was welcome to bring whatever project and knit until 7 pm. Daye decided to call today and check to see if that was really the case. No, she was told snarkily. It was only for those knitters working on their Philosopher Wool's sweaters. I still could have gone, but I'm not ready to pick up that heavy sweater, yet. (It's slightly cooler this evening due to that front moving through; it's not THAT cool, yet.) I had planned on winding my pink Araucania hanks into balls. Since moving, my ball winder hasn't yet been found to put it with the other knitting stuff. When Daye told me the owner was snarky, that took all the fun out of my evening.

So, what did I do? I had a great afternoon/evening. I talked to Matt and (kinda) Rob on the phone. (Aren't they great guys?!) I ordered a cute hat pattern and some Lamb's Pride bulky to make the gorgeous hat I saw on Bo-Peep (Hi, Pam!). I have to go out and find some fake furr (Hobby Lobby, Micheal's, or Joann's) as Threadbear was out of stock of their furr. If I lived near them, they would be my second home, I fear. lol

Then, I repotted a couple of indoor and outdoor pots. If only there weren't mosquitos!! Darn pesky insects! I did manage to fix some increases that were too holey by dropping the above stitches and reworking them to my liking. I'm so glad I didn't have to rip six rows!! So much faster this way. Whew!

Now I'm sitting at the computer (duh!) all sweaky clean from a nice cool shower. Too much potting soil on my arms to wait longer than five minutes after being chased inside by the blood-suckers. Tomorrow is hat day at school, our first pep rally, a teachers' tailgate, and the first football game of the season. I bought the first game t shirt and a new Falcon's hat, my jeans are out, and I'm giving tests all day.

Just talked to Mom and Dad. Apparently, my grandfather and his wife (the one who pulls the pursestrings) have sent me a nice check for house/wedding congrats. That will pad the savings account nicely. Cushioning is a good thing!

And.... Tomorrow is Friday! Smile!

Happy Labor Day! No school! Yippee!

Everyone at school was looking forward to having the day off, myself included. Here is the week in review...

Saturday, while at PINS, I started the fixation socks using the basic socks soar method on two circs. I finished the first sock on Sunday. I love the fixation yarn and using 4s instread of size 2s. Mucho faster! Then, at school this week, I had morning duty which consists of crowd control in the cafeteria from 7:45 until 8:10. Officially, I'm to limit students going into the halls unless they have a note or a good reason. Every day, I brought my remaining sock to work on. By Friday, I was wearing my pair of new socks with my jeans and black Falcons polo. Everyone was very impressed that I finished them so quickly. :) They felt great! The only thing I would do differently would be to go down a needle size on the toes and add reinforcing thread. I could see too much pink skin through my stitches, and I think these solutions would work to alleviate that.

I still needed a break from the Creatures of the Reef shawl, so I began the Adrienne Vittadini sweater in Araucania pink wool. I took it with me to Miguel's soccer game yesterday (he was the goalie and they won 3-2!) and got quite a bit done. After working on it this morning, I've got 7 inches done from the left side. It's knit from side seam to side seam (new for me!), so it is interesting while still being a mindless k1 p1 rib.