Well Its Been A While

It was brought to my attention (thanks Julie) that I 1)Havent been here in a while 2) havent told you guys whats been going on with Mister, my duck. All things on the duck front are great. He still doesnt have half of the top part of his bill and never will, but he is fine. He can eat on his own and prean himself pretty decent for the most part and he can still bite (fucker!). He also lost half of his total body weight when it happend, and when you only weigh 5 lbs to begin with that tricky. But he has gained it all back and looks like his big fat self again. We do however still hand feed him twice a day just to make sure he is getting enough food, and we bath him once a week with baby shampoo to make sure he is clean since he cant clean himself as well as he used to be able to. But all in all, he is fine.

I finally got a job. Im working up at Ewe to You Yarns where I live. Im teaching sock classes up there and puttering around and Im fucking loving it. Im getting paid to do what I love. It seriously doesnt get any fucking better then that!

Right now its raining. Its been raining for a couple days now as a result of all the hurricans and I swear, we are going to drown. There is a lake in my back yarn. Pretty soon Im going to be able to wakeboard back there, no joke.

Oh yea, be got a boat! A 2000 Sport Nautique but it has the factory ballists and tower so technically its an Air Nautique. And its purple!! Not my color of choice, but whatever. Boy and I have used the shit out of it. I was the first to get hurt on it, of course. Knocked myself out cold after a jump when the board came up and hit me in the back of the head. Then like a moron I went again and fell, again, and gave myself whiplash. Ended up throwing up for 4 days before I went to the ER. Turned out by then all I had bad a bad concussion. Good thing I didnt go in sooner.

My Lady Sweater

Oh my, its been awhile since I've written, Im sorry. Im partaking in one of my guilty pleasures right now ( and no, not that pleasure you sicko). Im watching A Haunting on Discovery. I love that show. I like scaring myself, its fun. It also gives me the much needed adrenaline rush I crave. The other night I was watching it at 1am and I ended up scaring myself. I was freaked out and I didnt want to leave the couch to go up stairs. Im such a dork.

Anyway, I started the February Lady Sweater. Its an awesome pattern, I love it. I really want to make another one after I finish this one in cotten, in wool for the winter.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/february-lady-sweater
I also got my Nameste bags from Ewe-To You Yarns in Grand Blanc. I love them. I got the Malibu, the Laguna and the Newport. They are a bit stinky from the pleather, so I have them stuffed with dryer sheets to help defunk them. I really hope it works. They stink.

What the hell?

So I got this email last night from my mom. I have no idea what made this come about (other then watching Hope Floats). I have no idea what to think about it. I, for once, am speechless.

"I wish I could go back home and find what I was looking for or lost. I amsorry for what I put you thru looking for..... Looking for myself. I messedup a lot and I just tried to get the money to get us what your daddy neverhelped with. I just wanted the best for you. I hope you understand. I am soPROUD of you yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I gave you what I could, eventhough it wasn't always the best. But, you turned out to be the best personthat ever happened to me. The BEST person I ever knew. I am so glad I wasstrict with you, even though you hated me. I just always wanted the bestfor you. I will always be THANKFUL for having you. I guess this moviebrings out some sappy things in me. Thanks for remembering watching thismovie with me. I love Sandra Bullock in this. Reminds me of the way I wasso many years ago. Only I was a loser. My life never ended like hers. Howsilly I am. It's a movie. But movies sometimes relate to life. My Mom wasnever like hers though. Maybe that's why I'm sad. I don't know. Just loveme for how I tried. Ok! I Love you so much and am so proud of you! I wish Ihad done as much as you at your age. It was reallly sad when she went tosee her daddy and he didn't know her, but remembered her from a picture. Imiss my Daddy after that part.Ok, enough mushy stuff from me. We'll talk before I leave.

I Love Jessica.
Love Mom
Have a great day.

What do you guys think? Im not sure if she was drunk or what.

Bad or Not?

Things have been really stressed around the house. With the duck getting attacked, racing season starting, Motor City Knits launching, Boys job, things are just crazy. Even though things have been crazy, I found time to read a box called "Riding The Bus With My Sister". For those of you how dont know about it, its a real life story about a women and her struggles with dealing with her mentally challanged sister. Reading it helped me understand that Im not the only one who gets frustrated with a mentally challanged family memeber. So here is my point: Boy's sister is mentally challanged. Some days she is totally on her game and you would never know that there was something wrong. Then other times she it so stupid (its what we call it when she is have an off day. We dont actually call her stupid) and she can bearly get out of bed, get dressed or tie her own shoes. She also has wild mood swings. One minute she loves you, then next you on her shit list and you dont exsist in her world. Its so annoying because when your on her shit list she is a totally BITCH and it will driving you nuts. Case in point, when we were at the race track she was filming Boys pass and when I asked her if she got footage she said no. Then 10 mintures later she staanding there showing Boy and his friend the footage she hhad gotten. When I walked upped the clip was just ending and she was like "Oops, its over" and slapped the side screen closed. I was pissed. Really pissed. I dont care if she gets attitude with me at home, but when she pulls this shit at the race track in's very unacceptable and she knows better. I know it may not sound like much, but added with all the other little tud's she gives you on any given day for no reason, makes you just flat out pissed. Boy was like "Are you fighting with a retarded person?" I guess yes. She is very hard and annoying to deal with. When she gets her attitude, she is impossible to be around because you want to just smack her up side her head. She is also a repeater when she talks so she says stuff twice. In a convo, its enough to make you mad. But the worst is her lying. My god does that women tell some lies. You can never believe what she says be 50% or more is lies.
Does this make me a bad person to be annoyed with a metallt challenged person? There are just days I dont want to talk on ends about horses with her, I just feel bad being annoyed with her, when its not her fault. I know she cant help it, but somedays she is so normal and your like Yesss! She is in this world today. Then on her bad days she'll drive you fucking crazy
I dont know. I just feel bad about it. My couch meds are kicking in so Im fading. I'll touch more on this tomorrow.

Just a quick pantie change...

I dont know what the hell has been up, but I have been having some just overtly sexual dreams lately. I cant understand. Every morning I wake up drenched in sweat and wet from a true life wet dream. Now dont get me wrong, Im not complaining one bit. Who would complain about something like that? I dont even need to be awake to have an orgasm, its fucking awesome! I just cant understand why Im having them so much lately. My sex life is great. I wonder if its just a change in hormones or something. Whatever it is, is strange, but Im not gonna wish it away. It stay as long as it wants :grin:

On the duck front, everything is great. He is eating all by himself, even though we are still feeding him by hand 4 times a day to make sure he is getting enough food. He has started playing and quaking again. I was standing downstairs with my back to his cage and I feel a pinch on my back and on my arm. I turn around and that little shit had his head between the bars biting me!!! I started chasing him in the cage and he was quaking and playing with me and it reassured me that he was definatly getting better. That and he is eating and drinking on his own and his beak is healing wonderfully. It doesnt even occur to him that anything is wrong with him. Its great. My female, Peanut, though is not thrilled by all this. She isnt taking to him very well. She keeps pecking at him. I suspect its because he isnt "whole" in her eyes and she doesnt like it. I hope that after we get his prostetic beak she'll be fine. I hope.

Today

Yesterday: It is super crazy, but he is doing really well today. We gave him his pain meds and antibiotics this morning and he got that all done fine. It just took 3 hours to give him the pain meds, anti’s and some food. The serenge thing for everything is a pain and he is showing us he feels the same by trying to bite the serenge :giggle: Looks like he back to his old self. He is alert today because all that shit from yesterday wore off. He is doing his quaking again, which was always soft and wonderful to hear again, and he played in the pool this morning loving the warm water. He cant splash water on himself because he cant really turn his head much which was how he got water on him, so we splash him and he shakes around, and flaps his wings and trys to act normal which is nice to see. He is realizing there is something wrong with his beak because when he tried to pren himself, he realized he cant and it hurts and its hard to watch, I feel bad watching. He is also opening and closing his mouth trying to figure out whats wrong with it and why he cant eat. But he was going after lettuce we ripped up in the pool which shows us he does have an appitite.
Marete, we are almost possitive it was a raccoon that got him. Its the only thing big enough to do that kind of damage. Had it been a dog, there would be nothing left except for some feathers. Lucky for me, raccoons are considered a “nusence animal” so your allowed to kill them. We’ve had a raccoon problem for a long time, with them destroying stuff, so now Im going to fix that. A .22 handgun works perfect for such a problem. And before anyone asks, no I dont care about killing them, doesnt bother me a bit. Natural consiquences for fucking with my duck.
Last night was aweful with him. He got mad and tried to bite the rubber serenge and ended up hitting something on his beak and he started bleeding. The bleeding wouldnt stop and it was just dripping down his tongue onto the floor and every time he shook his head, he flung blood on me. I had to stick him in a warm pool to get the bleeding to stop and by the time we were done, I was covered in blood. I came home and got into the shower and as I was standing watching the blood go down the drain and wished that whatever attacked him had finished the job. It was just so aweful to see him that way. I know thats a bad thing to think, its just not fair to him. He never did anything to anybody and he, like Sissy, doesnt understand why this happened to him and whats wrong with him.

Today:Good duck news: He is eating food!!! We are mashing his regular food up with water turning it into paste, putting it on his tongue, then using the powered food mixed in the water to drop on his tongue so he’ll open his mouth and eat the food paste. He ate a nice little bit. Thats really great. And he likes to have his tongue stroked. I have no idea why, but he does. He had some layers taken off his tongue and the vet described it as being like a burn when you drink something hot. His tongue also when from white to pink finally so he’s getting good blood flow to it, and it appears that his beak is scabbing over because its turning white. He is also feeling like his old self again because he is talking to the dryer when there is no one in the basement. Considering he is my duck, its not suprising that he’s a little retarded and talks to the dryer. But its loud and he is talking to it. And when you walk but the cage, he pokes his head between the bars and trys to bit you, something he always did playfully before. He is spending more time in his pool playing around. He wants to go be by Peanut so bad but she actually doesnt want anything to really do with him. She actually tried to attack him a couple times so we cant let her really be by him because were too afraid she’s bite his beak. I have no idea why sheis acting this way. The only thing I can think of is he still might smell like whatever attacked them. And we realized that Peanut has claw or bite marks down her beak. We figure whatever attacked tried to ger her first and he went after it trying to protect her.

He one strong little duck. And lucky. I want to take a picture so I can document the healing in his beak over time. I’m post pictures in here and if people want to look they can and if they dont, they dont have too. Im just giving everyone a heads up.

Sigh

It has been a very sad and horrible day in the household. Nothing really feels real. Last night, when everyone got home (it was after dark), Sissy (Boys sister) went down to get the ducks. She comes racing back saything that the gate was open and the ducks werent in the pen :onsetpaniccmode: We start calling for them and from the other side of the pool (across the yard) we hear Sissy’s female Peanut just shrieking and quaking and carring on. As soon as she saw Sissy she raced toward her and was just talking and shrieking away. The we realize our male, Mister isnt with her. So we start looking for him and we couldnt find him anywhere. Peanut is still freaking out so at this point everyone, except for Sissy, realize soemthing is wrong and it isnt going to be pretty. We send her in the garage to start getting Peanut ready for bed and to try and get her calmed down while everyone else searched the yard, and I took the field. I walked the entire perimitor of our property (14 acres) and then started searching the field grid style. At this point I wasnt really looking for Mister, I was looking for a body. When I got the the middle of the field it where its thick with brush and what not, I stopped and was listening to see if I could here him quaking, because he always quakes and thats how we were looking for him by trying to listen and see if we could hear him. I heard some ruslting in ther brush and I stopped to listen, but I didnt hear any quakes, figured it was a rabbit and kept searching. I was all up and in the thick but I didnt see anything. We gave up after an hour and said we’ll look for him in the morning because it was all we could do. And by “we” I meant me, boy and his mom to look for a body so Sissy didnt have to see it.
Well our phone rang at 4:30am and it was Boys mom saying that the duck had come back, but it had been attacked really bad and we needed to take it to the vets. I got up and put clothes on then went over there. I wasnt really sure what to expect, but it sure as hell wasnt what I saw. It was just horrible, and Ive seen some really nasty stuff working in the pet store. Sissy was on the floor hugging him and she was in shock and she just said “Look Jess, my baby came home.” I dont think she even really saw what was wrong or understood what happened (she is mentally retarded for those of you who dont know). I took one look, held my breath while my stomach just fell through the floor and told her I had seen worse and we’ll take care of it and everything will be okay. We finally tracked down a 24 hour ER vet that saw birds and hour away, I grabbed the GPS, and at 5am, Boys mom, sister, duck and I jumped in the Jeep to the Vet. Sissy explained from the back of the Jeep that she had gotten up to pee and she was standing at the window in that bathroom and she saw Mister walk up from the field, hop through a hole in the fence around the pool and jumped in the pool. She went running out there before anyone could stop her and as soon as he heard her voice and she got the the edge of the pool, he swan straight over to her so she coud pick him up and bring him in. I guess once he was safe in the garage he just kinda collasped in a sort because he was finally safe. I have no idea how that duck made it back from anywhere.
This is what I saw. His entire beak was shredded. It was just aweful. There were chunks of it just hanging everywhere and there was blood from it everywhere and his tongue was just laying out among the pulp. I couldnt decipher the top beak, which was pretty much gone, from the bottom. I dont have any idea how that duck made it back home. Seriously. It should of been dead. I wouldnt even take a picture to show you guys how bad it is because its so bad. I can bearly stand to look at him, and Boy just freaks out and wont look.
The second we got to the vet, which was empty, they took him in the back, despite Sissy insisting she go with him, and gave him some WAY over due pain meds and to look him over and asses what was going on. She came in a little bit later, with a chair, and sat down. She layed it out very simply and very nicely. He was hurt really bad. He had been attacked and she want sure why, whatever attacked him, didnt finish the job. She said putting him to sleep was not a bad option. This is imediatly shot down by Sissy. She said his beak was obviously really bad. Her main concerns where him being able to eat again, because so much of his beak was torn off and missing and they cant eat with out a top bill. He aslo had three other bad bite marks, one really deep one right on top of his head and two on each side of his neck. I asked if they could put in a feeding tube, and she said normally yes, but since he had the two bite marks on both sides of his neck, she was afraid it would get infected and therefo wasnt a option, for right now. We talked back and forth about what potiential problems could be, and she said if he makes it, because he is missing so much beak and it wont grow back, that he is going to have to have a prostetic beak made for him and put on so he could eat normally again. A prostetic beak? I was speechless. She said she was going to put him under so she could explore the wounds better and clean up his bill and see what other damage there was. If he had severe trauma to the underside of his beak and was slit on both sides all the way down, then there wasnt anything we could do for his. There would be too much damage that wasnt fixable. It would also give her more time to check out the other wounds on him. She said give her about an hour, and she would call us back and discuss what her findings were. She said she wanted to keep him sleeping incase some other actions needed to be made, like putting him down. So we took a freaked out Sissy to McDonalds and got breakfast, tried to re-assure her that it wasnt her fault, that Mister should be fine, but if for some reason he isnt, she needs to think about whats best for him, instead of whats best for us. We then walked around the little farmers market for a bit, got her to smile, then went back to the vets and she was just getting done. She said he was very slowly waking up in the back. She said she removed as much of the damaged beak as she could, surgical glued the one slit on his lower jaw, which she said was in very good shape considering what the top looked like, plucked all the feathers out around his neck to she could see the wounds and clean them. She said luckly his nose and pallate were still in tact and fine, but about less then a half of an inch from his nose and down was missing. His tongue is almost fully exposed. She said she honestly wasnt sure if he was going to make it. He was a strong duck. He made it through the attack, then back home hours after the attack. She said he was more then likely protecting Peanut and then got dragged away. He was probably the reason she was still alive. And trust me, things would of been a 100 times worse if this had happen to Peanut. Sissy would die if anything happened to Peanut. So she gave us liquid pain meds, antibiotics, antibiotic cream, Petrolium Jelly to put on his wounds to keep them from getting dry, and a special powered food stuff that I have to mix with warm water and feed him every four hours with a big plastic serenge because he cant eat on his own.
We are keeping him in the basment because its very, very, very, very important that he stay clean at all times (no poop), stay warm, have clean water, and stay away from flies (maggots). He’s still really groggy from them knocking him out. But when I fed him for the first time he responded by eating ask much as I could squirt in. Then I discovered that if you put it in a deep bowl of water, he can drink, which the doctor didnt think he could do. If the waters deep enough, he can get enough of his beak in to where its missing for him to “drink normal”. He really is trying, its so wonderful. Our biggest challenges right now are fighting the infection, and nutrien because he cant eat on his own. So were keeping him warm and clean, and feeding him and weighing him. He looks just aweful and I can bearly look at him but I have too. I have to be the strong one. I dont want Sissy to freak out, so if she see’s me fine, she stays calm. So Im on duty 24-7 taking care of the duck who shouldnt be here with half a face.

Death By Garden

The garden hath killed me. I was feeling better yesterday after being so damn sick all week so I caught up on all my fish stuff (water changes, skimmer cleaning, tank scraping, etc.), then I decided I needed to get my plants from the basement, outside to the garden. I was still running a high fever yesterday (about 100.0), so I wasnt planing on planting everything I had in the basement. I just wanted to get my pole and bush beans out, because they were growing taller and I had to get them outside and strung along poles before they got too big, tipped over and died. I was burning up all day and by the time I was done I was wiped out. I can bearly move today my legs and knees hurt so bad. But I cut some stakes on the ban saw and pounded them in the ground, then strung them with string and re-planeted my little baby sprouts that were almost 2 feet tall. I got this big burst of energy so I decided to re-plant all my garnden plants from the basement too the outside garden. A big mistake maybe? Ask my legs and knees. They are not fans of me right now.

Now my garden is fairly large this year, 23 feet by 5 feet on the one side of the garage, and 30 feet by 4 feet on the back of the garage, and I still ran out of room!!! And I havent even planted the main bulk of my watermelon, canatlope, pumpkins spinich, herbs and pickles yet! Anyway, I ended planting all my beans, the sprouts and seeds for the next collecting, cucumbers, yellow and green squash, radishes, okra sprouts, carrots, two kinds of lettuce, brocoli, califlower, watermelon, cantalope, and....I think that might be all, but Im not sure. Oh, I still need to get some tomato plants when I find then nice and cheap. All I know is my garden is HUGE this year, and it took me almost 6 hours to get everything in the ground, my hills hoed out, chunks raked out, different stuff staked out so I know where one thing ends and another begins, all that jazz. Im very proud of my garden because thus far, I've had more of a black thumb then a green thumb up until last year when my garden blew up and took off. I was so excited so I expanded it to the whole side of the garage and the back, plus a nice chunk out in the field for the vast majority of my vining plants like melons and pumpkins so they dont snuff out all the other stuff around it. Im really begining to enjoy watching my garden grow and eat the things Im growing. That and alot of what Im growing is going towards feeding my Uromastyxs and my tortoise Martin, who is a giant Afrian Spurred Tortoise thats 16 years old, weighs about 130 lbs, and is about 4 feet by two feet large. He's a big boy and he eats like a PIG!!! He lives at my dads store because he is WAY too damn big to take anywhere and I dont want his ass here because I dont have a place at my house to house a tortoise that can take out the studs in my house like they were toothpicks and that is 82 degrees or hotter all year round. And I dont want a reptilian cow that smells like shit in my house either. I'll have to get a picture of Martin to show you guys, because I dont think I have any that arent on my phone. As much as he annoys the hell out of me because he acts like a dog and follows me around and begs for food, is always in my way, always trying to crawl in my lap still even though he could break my legs if he really wanted too, IS really cool, because how many people can say they have one of the giant tortoises of the world (the 3rd largest in fact) as a pet? Im just so used to him being around (Ive had him for 16 years!) that I forget that almost no one has a giant turtle as a pet.

Its been raining all day but I dont mind. Everything needed the rain. Its all green and beautiful outside. Everything is blooming and smells so nice. I love when spring is in full swing like this. Lets just pray it doesnt freeze at night again.

Itchy Rash

Ok, so maybe the kick ass cough medicine isnt so kick ass after all. I have a giant rash all over my body and it itches. Guess Im still allergic to Codeine after all :Oops: Its all over everything, and now its starting to itch, AHhhh!!! I want to take some Benydril but I dont want to fall asleep again because I lost out on another day yesterday. I fell asleep at about 3:30 again and didnt wake up till 7 this morning. Only this time I didnt see Boy at all.

It still feels like someone kicked me in the chest, and Im still coughing, but I think I should stay away from it for a while. If I go out in public, I have a good chance of someone calling the hazmat team on me :Eep!: My face feels all funny from the rash and from it peeling from my sunburn. What a weird combo. But at least its not poison ivy. Poison Ivy and I do not get along. I get it every year, and Im sure someone of you know my woes with it. I got it in a rather, unpleaseant place last year, like, down there... The only way I can think that I could of gotten it there was when I came in too pee, I didnt wash my hands good enough before or when I went to get into the shower. Either way, it fucking sucked.

Im on this mission now to learn how to knit some hard core Fair Isle now. Norway totally inspired me to take my knitting to a whole nother level. I want to be able to knit myself the kind of sweaters I saw in Norway. Its going to be so awesome, proven I can do it. I just need to find some patterns (probably from the library) and just do it. It may take awhile because colorwork is hard as hell, but I know I'll get it eventually, after Ive threatend to kill, break and burn everything around me.

Ok, I think Im going to try and get some knitting done. Im almost done with my 2 socks on 2 circs. I cant wait till I start the other pair of socks with the yarn I got from Ms. Angelia at Blackthrone Fibers. Their going to be beautiful!!!

The Horrid Ick

Yesterday:
:cough: :hack: :sniffle: I has the Ick :ohnoes!!: I knew it would probably happen from being on the plane so long. I feel asleep all nice a nd cuddle to the Boy last night, then around 1:30am my throat started hurting. I tried to ignore it, but it just got worse and worse. So I went down stairs and tried to sleep with some cough drops, but on luck. I was just getting medicine tummy :yuck: So I grabbed my head lamp and my book and went and read with the fishies from 2:30am till about now. Im peeved, because Im super tired and not fulley adjusted to the time difference yet, and now Im sick. My throat is on fire, and I know its strep. Boy told me to go to the doctors and I was like, no, I’ll just ave her call me in a script, but he was very adimit that I go to the doctors today which is weird because he always tells me I dont need to go. Hum. So Im going to try to get in today. It hurts to just open my mouth. Ahhh, I hate planes. So now Im just cuddled up in mai chair by the fishies waiting for the doctors to open so I can call and sneak in. Im starving, but everything hurts going down except ice cream . I had three ice cream sammies at about 5am because I had medicine tummy so bad I couldnt stand it. Stooopid cough drops :bleeeck:

Today:
Turns out tis was a good idea to go to the doctors. I have the Bronch :feck: I have no idea how it manifested itself in less then 12 hours, but it did. The doctor was like, you dont look well at all. So she had a listen to the chest and said there was some yucka gurgles in there and while she was listening she was like, your burning up, have you taken your temp. I said no, so she took it and it was 101.0 :oops: No wonder I was feeling light headed and my eyes were burning and I kept getting hot and cold. And the cough I had was horrid (but probably not as bad as yours Marete, thank goodness), it hurt so bad to cough, and it still does. So she gave me a script for a Z-pack and some serious big boy cough medicine with codine in it. I had to start with the Z-pack because Im allergic to most antibiotics because Im allergic to penicillin, sulfa and keflex. She told me if it doesnt appear to be working by the time its done, to call her right away so she can start me on something else becfore it turns into something way worse.
So I took the couch medicine yesterday around 3pm. The last thing I remeber is talking to Boys mom around 3:30 while eating a freezy pop. I knew I wasnt talking right and was fucked up. That was the last thing I really remember until I woke up this morning at 7am!! I slept from like 3:30 till 7 thing morning. 15 hours straight!! I couldnt believe it. The cough medicine said “May cause drowsiness”. Ha! I do remember Boy throwing a pillow at me on the couch because I was passed out cold when he got come and he was trying to talk to me but I was not hearing anything he was saying and he wanted to make sure I was okay. He said soemthing about tryingt call me and I didnt answer and I think I told him I never heard the phone ring, because I didnt. Then he woke me up to ask if I wanted dinner and I said no. Then he woke me up again to tell me to go upstairs to bed and I remember seriously stumbling upstairs. I have no idea what time these things happened though. I guess I really was sick this time.
I feel a bit better this morning, but not much. My sore throat is almost gone, thank god. I think that was the worst of all. I can deal with mucus and sore chests, but not throats. Im phlemy (sp?) and i still have a fever. I can always tell when I have a fever because I get light headed and my body burns. Oh, and zits appear on my face from all the heat :grrr: So Im eating freezy pops right now, about to move on to carmel ice cream . I still have the coughs, and I want to take some cough medicine, but I need to wait till I get some stuff done or Im going to be out cold again till tomrooow.
Ahh, ick sucks.

City Hall and the Opera House

Peggah and I went to city hall yesterday because it was suppose to be open for free and you could look around. But they were closed :sad: So we went around the back of the building because it was so pretty to take pictures when the security gaurd came out and asked us if we always took pictures laying on the ground (we were layign on the ground) We said we were just trying to get some good shots of the outside since we couldnt go inside. Then he asked us if we wanted to have a look inside. We were like, yes!! So he let us in and it was seriously like a palace of marble! The big room was so beautiful, words cannot describe it. It was like being in a church with how big itt was. And these magnificent murals were painted on the walls and it was just unbelievable. He let us go upstairs and look at all the other rooms and I couldnt believe this was there city hall. It really was a palace, I swear. He then proceded to give us a personal tour, just Peggah and I, while City Hall was closed, too every room, explaining the murals on the wall, letting us take a zillion pictures, turnign on all the light for us so we could see the rooms all lit up to their glory, he took us in this one room where this giant priceless painting was hanging, I dont remember by who, and I couldnt they ever let people near it. Then he took us to the library!!! :thud: I almost passed out. The books in there were sooooo amazing. The oldest one that I could find was 1877! He said he was very sad by how much the people dont care about the building or the things in it because no one takes care of anything. Some of the books were upside down, they had these giant tapastries that were hundreds of years old hanging on the walls and they were fading and fallign apart because no one wanted to do anything about blocking the sun out from them. He said they take it for granted. Inlaid in the marble (everything was marble) were these amazing wooden floors laid out in a pattern that he said no one alive could replecate and the people who use the rooms, instead of lifting up that chairs to move them, they just drag them across the floor anf scratch the shit out of them. I was apaled!! How could these people not care about a buidling that was so beautiful and magnificent. I would kill to have something that glorious in the States that we could see. Then he asked if we want to go up on the roof!!! We were beside ourselfs. So we had to walk up a whole bunch of stairs then take an elevator the rest of the way up (it had to of been 30 stories or more at the top) And as soon as we got on the roof, the bells started chimming to the hour. It was sooooo loud but soo cool. There must of been about 20 bells in the tower that played a long song every hour and a couple of notes every 15 mintues. Then we walked up this plank thing to a walk way all around the roof and my breath just left my chest. The view was just undescribable. You could see all of Oslo plus some, the moutains, the islands in the fjords, the ski jump in the moutain, everything!! We totally got snap happy with the cameras. I mean, how many chances woudl we ever get to see the city like this? The gaurd stood up there with us for an hour !!! He pointed out all the different things, the castles, the fishing boats, the islands, were the moose are, the different parts of town, were all the museums were, where the viking ships were, were the real Palace was at, the University. I mean everything. Then we asked him about the cost of living and such and we just talked about everything while we watched the big cruise liners leave the port and the different boats coming and going from the docking marina’s. It was cold and windy and raining a little but I didnt care. He told us that in the summer, it cost 20 krons to stand on the top like we were for only 3 minutes!!! We were us there for an hour, and had the run of the entire building to take pictures and see things that the public doesnt get to see. It was the most amazing thing ever. I will probably never get another chance like that again! I feel so incredably lucky. That gaurd was just so nice it was unbelievable. I would show you pictures, but Im over my limit for the month on Flickr (which ends like, tomorrow). Then Im going to get post happy and show you all the pictures so you can see all the things that I saw. It was just so beautiful.
And Oslo’s new Opera House, oh my god. Its also all marble and white Italian at that! You can walk up and down the sides of it and go on top (as you saw in the pictures above) and its buildt to that it looks so elementle, literally coming up out of the water. We have nothing on the buildings over here. Their amazing. And the whole inside of the opera house is solid oak. Its gorgous. I wish we had an opera house that beautiful at home. And the luckiest part? It just opened after 8 years of building on April 17th, the week before we got here. I will also post more pictures of that as well when I get a chance.
I guess were driving North for skiing this weekend. I really want to stay in Oslo to finish seeing everything, because today is a Holiday for them and a lot of things are closed. Plus its raining. But in turn I also want to go see the north because the country is sooo beautiful, and Im determined to see a moose and a raindeer, because there wild here. I guys everyone saw a couple mooses coming home from Sweden last weekend, but I missed it :sad:

Playing Catch Up Here

Piktoors!! The first one is of Boy and I in Sweden. The rest just around Oslo. I'll post the pictures I took today later on.

Ive been so busy I havent had time to update here, so this is little clips from my knitting blog of the last few days. Some of it is a little random because there were pictures in all these posts. I post some here, but its not all of them.

Saturday April 26

ok, I is back now. I had to help Boy check the engines on his cars. I got to work the computer and “special software” thats secret and make sure the engines were okay. I felt special.
Anyway, where was I. Yes, last nights dinner was awesome. The steak was amazingly good. It was nice to have a real meal. Then we went out to a couple bars. I forgot my license at the hotel and got carded so I had to walk all the way back to the hotel to get it. Then we went to another bar that had Absenthe, or what we thought was real absenthe, but it turns out it was the real stuff. It was very disappointing. i wasnt drinking it, but another guy was an we were looking forward to watching him be all goofy and shit. Then on the way back, the hookers totally ignored us!!! WTF!! Were we not good enough for them. Whores! Then we went back up stairs and went to bed because we were wasted, well I was tired, Boy was slightly drunk. Its soooo funny to see him drink because he never drinks. Ive only ever seen him drink in Europe. Im always amazed to watch him do it. And he gets all giggley when he’s drunk, its so fucking cute. And he always wants ice cream too. I believe tonight were going back out again. But to were, I do not know.
Everything closes really early here, like at 5 or 6, it kinda sucks. Boy and I walked around yesterday when he got home and we really couldnt go into anything because everything was all closed. But we did take a walk down the the pier of the fjord and on the docks and it was really pretty. Some of the boats were old wooden boats and it was cool to see them. Then we went to 7-11, which didnt have slurpie’s, which is the epitome of 7-11. Well, I guess were off again to some where. I’ll detail the rest later.
MIss you guys!!

Monday April 28th

I went to Sweden yesterday. It looked just like Norway! Boy also bought me this Haaayoooogge leather purse while we were there (hey, I needed a momento from Sweden :shifty:). Im gonna use it, of course, as mai purse/knitting bag. I also finally took some pictures yesterday in Sweden so I’ll post them later in the afternoon. MISS YOU GUYS!!!

Me and one of the other engineers daughters, Peggah, were buddies in crime today. We had so much fun just being goofy and shopping and taking pictures of funny things.
And best of all…I bought out this hobby shop of all their roving today!! It’s the same as Malabrigo. I bought 22 bags and the lady gave me 10% after some haggling, so it cost me over 1020 krons, $202 american. But it was sooooo worth it, its sooooo soft. Now i just need to find someone to spin it…..

First day in the city

So I got totally lost today on my first trip out. Suprise suprise. Had no idea where I was or where the hotel was. So I just went with it until and wondered around until I found the hotel which is just a block from the yarn shop and the hobby store. I also woke up a tad late today, like 2pm late :yikes: I guess I was really tired. I have to make sure I dont do that again. That was WAY to long to sleep. 15 hours of sleep is a bit much. I dont want to throw my body in a shock anymore then it already is with the fucked up time.

Well my yarn store vist today was a bust. Im really disappointed They didnt have the kinds of yarn I thought they would of had. No hand dyes or hand spun, nothing really cool :verysad: They mostly have Rowan and Regina. But they had some Noweigan brands that were really cool and I wrote down the name of the companies and Im going to look them up and see if I can get accounts with them. I also stoppped by this hobby shop and in the back they had these bags of roving that were Merino wool in a shit load of colors and it was just like and as soft as Malabrigo!!! Im totally going to buy all of them and bring it back. Im sure someone can spin it for me.

I was also looking for stuff that I could buy and bring back for everyone, but everything is sooooooo expensive over here, its stupid. And yes Marete, its expensive after you convert it into american (wink). Ive taken to carrying my calculator around with me so I can figure out how much shit is after you convert it. I found some beautiful hand blown glass beads and I was thinking of getting some strands of them and making special stitch markers for all you guys but the only problem is, its $65 for 26 of the beads :ggrrrr: But their this cream,blue and gold mix in the shape of hearts and their perfect to make stitch markers for you guys. I also found the perfect gift for you Angelia. Im going to go back and buy it tomorrow. Tia and Marete, Im still looking for you guys. I havent found anything that screams your names yet. Same for you KK and Lisa (both of you). I have these sweet shoes on hold for me right now at one of the stores. Their made by Merrell and its a boiled felted wool slipper/clog with a back to it with a rubber sole so you can wear them out side. They are soooo comfortable and cute. There 699 krons, which is $140 bucks. Im in negotiations with Boy right now for them. There just so cool. They might sound lame to some of you but I love clogs like that and and Im excited that they have a real rubber sole so you can wear them everywhere. Ive been looking more for stuff for you guys then myself.

Dinner was intresting last night. We had this cold smoked salmon roll with Brea cheese in it. I was gross. Then we had hand made tortalini stuffed with cheese and spinach with a piece of the most tender and juiciest chicken brest atop of it and it was to die for it tasted so good. For desert we had chocolate moose and I dont like chocolate, but it was delicious!! I guess Chrysler has a deal with the hotel and we get breakfast and dinner free. Every night they cook the same thing for everyone in the group. A 3 course meal. You can eat it for free, or go pay a million dollars for something else.

And the city is beautiful!!! The buildings are are amazing. I cant wait to take pictures for everyone to see. Its awesome. And the fjords are beauitful as well. Everyone over here has a dog and their allowed everyhwere the people go. Im jealous. I want a puppah!! Everyone also smokes too. And the people dress a bit strange, but who am I to judge. They all wear Chuck Taylors (converse) which is cool because I love them and was wearing them too. But they cost 700 Krons. $140 dollars!!!!! For Chucks!!! I was horrified. They only cost $30 bucks at home. And people pay that much for them. Its dumb.

But its almost dinner time, steak and potatos tonight, so I’ll talk with yea bitches later.

Hey, Im finally in Norway

It was a long flight of no sleep, of course. Im insanly tired, but I cant sleep till tonight. I feel abit sick from not being able to take my Xanax, but I’ll live. I dont think anyone will be on, other then Angelia, right now at 5:30am (its 11am here). The flight over was pretty good. I sat next to a really nice brit/scotish business man and we chatted. He said he liked that I had “British humor” that so many americans take as being snarky and dont understand. I told him I love british humor because Im “different”. He agreed. And amazingly, he knew the city I lived in because he had lived in the next city over, it was crazy. We were giggling about the lady in front of us that kept passing gas :puke: I got to sneak up to first class and see Shaun a couple of times. The only impressive thing about first class was that their chairs were little pods with foot rests. Totally not worth $4000 though. I didnt get much knitting done on the plane despite all my efforts to get the right neeldes because there just wasnt enought room to knit comfortably in my tiny coach seat. So I read most of the time or chatted with the Brit. The only major problem I had was right before we were boarding the plane in Detroit I was fixing my hair while I was going pee and my hair tie snapped!! Talk about some bullshit. And being as smooth as I am, I didnt pack an extra (which is rare) in my carry on :fuck: The guy at the ticket desk gave me a bagage tag strap which was this tiney, tiny little elastic thing that didnt even hold my think hair back. Finally after about and hour, the people came through with the duty free cart and I asked if they had a rubberband. She said they didnt, but they did have a hair tie :fucking score: Granted it was one of those super thin ones, but it was a hair tie non the less.

When we landed in Amsterdam, we were late because the stupid plane taxied for like a fucking half hour, so we were rushing to find our gate and then BAM! Customs :grrr..: so we waiting in this impossibly long line and we were going to miss our connection to Oslo. So we ran ( I hobbled sort of) across the airpost and made it on the plane just in time. That plane was sooo janky. There were pieces of it bouncing around on the inside!!! I couldnt believe it. I really hope it wasnt as fucked up on the outside as it was on the inside :shiver: I dont even wanna think about that. Once we got into Oslo, we bought a $5 Pepsi (no joke) and a train ticket to Oslo’s main station. Ive only been on trains a couple times in my life. I live in the friggin’ Motor City, public transpertation doesnt exsist. It was a fun ride though. It was one of those bullet shaped trains that go really fast in and out of the surrounding moutains. From what I saw from the train, it was beautiful. There were these amazing rolling hills and cute little farm houses and cities built into the sides of the moutains and all the old buildings. It was sooo cool. The best way I can describe it is a mix of Graz and Pennsylvania. Strange, I know. I cant wait till tomorrow when I can go exploring on my own and find some yarn shops and look around.

Right now Im sitting in the garage where Shaun is working because he had to go straight to work from the train and we cant check into the hotel yet. SO he set me up in the middle of the groups little conference table in the garage on the internet and told me not to fall alseep. They have this awesome, giant wooden hanger building that has thousands of tires in it. I guess the shops main business is tires. There are sooo many Mercedes over here. Everyone drives one because there so cheap. There was also some expensive Ferrari here that everyone was going on about. Honestly, it was ugly.

My knees are absolutly killing me right now. Suprisingly, my right knee is hurt way more then my left knee, which is the one I had surgery on. My hips are killing me too. Having a bum knee throws off the rest of your body and sitting on a plane for 9 hours doesnt help either. I feel like Im 90 years old. I can bearly walk. And my back hurts. All to be expected.

SO right now Im just sitting here, in the middle of a garage with people working on cars trying my hardest NOT to fall asleep. This would be the reason Im rambling. Sorry.

StReSs!!

Gah! Im so stressed out right now. My anxiety level is sky high. Can we say panic attack? I always get this way before I leave on a trip, especially if it involves flying, and even more so if Im going to be stuck on a god damn plan for 9 hours. It doesnt help that I started my period today and am cranky as hell and have cramps like a mother right now, and Boys mom is driving me up a fucking WALL! She freaks out everytime we leave to go anywhere, no matter where it is or how long it is. Its so annoying. She's just been around us all fucking day and I want her to just go home and let us get our shit done. Not to mention once again I cant find my stuff because she's moved it some place fucking stupid. Like my favorite nail polish that I've been looking for, for 6 months, I found in the cupboard above the fridge that no one goes in. WTF? I was in the that cupboard looking for something else that she had also moved. And for the past 6 months when I've asked about where my nail polish went, I get the same answer I always get, "I didnt touch it." I didnt put it in the god damn cupboard so that leaves only one person because Boy doesnt touch my stuff. Grrr...Im just PMS, stressed out bitching. BLAH!

Im trying to de-stress by listening to my iPod while its charging up right now. Music always calms me. Its my savior. If I didnt have my iPod, I might die. For reals. Or freak out and kill someone. I want to go to sleep but I know its useless. I NEVER sleep the night before a trip, especially big ones. I just lay awake all night. Im going to take some Tylenol PM's on the plane tomorrow so I can sleep on the plane and not worry so much. I hope. God, I feel like my chest is going to explode right now. Stupid anxiety.

On the plus side, no matter how annoyed I am with Boys mom, she is still a saint. She'll be taking care of Bailey and Lola (my lizards) for me, as well as the fish tanks, and the baby cardinals. I dont know what I would do without her. Unfortuntaly for her, the cardinals are going through a dieing off stage where the weak are dieing from not eating probably, and the strong and doing awesome. Such as life.

I also got in my Frog Tree order today. My pima cotten and pima silk for summer knits. Tis' the season for cotten! I personally dont like cotten because its so heavy, but I think Im going to use it too make Juliet with. I'll also be starting some awesome socks with some yarn from Blackthrone Fibers, Angelia's hand dyed sock yarn that is so yummy its not even funny. Everyone should own LOTS of it. Its the best. I will post pictures of my Blackthorne goodies when I get them. You will be jealous, I promise.

On a cute snuggly note, I got to snuggle with the kittah this morning. So far I havent found a way to actually snuggle with the kittah (which belongs to the house next door but lurvs us WAY more). But this morning he was at the front door so I grabbed the brush and cuddled up on the Chase under the blanket, and the kittah jumped up and we snuggled while I brushed him for about 45 minutes. It was awesome. He was all spread out on my lap rolling around being all cute and giving me wet kittah nose kisses and needing my leg with his claws while I brushed him. It was sooo cute and fun. I miss having something to snuggle with. I've always had dogs to snuggle, but not here. The funniest part, the kittah bit Boy today and not me. Ha!! I always get bit. Thats why I use the brush. The brush gets the love bites instead of me. He should of hand the brush...

Stupid Jessica moment of the week: I realized on Saturday that I had missed my dad's birthday. I felt like the worst person in the world. And the sad part? His birthday is one of my passwords. :DOH!:

YARNZ!!!!

My first box of yarn came today in the mail. I am so excited its not even funny!! Its my Kraemer shipment. EEEEEEE!!!! All those random hanks on the bottom of the picture are goodies for me!!

Packing

Im trying to get motivated to finish packing for Norway, but I cant. I just want to keep sitting on the porch under the blanket enjoying this beautiful day. It feels good to be outside for once. Im working on my laundry right now, so I guess thats something. Im de-funking my new suitcase that the dad gave me with my awesome lilac scented dryer sheets. Its twice the size of my old suit case. Im also bringing another suit case to hold all the goodies I bring back from Norway :GLEE: Im really not looking forward to this plane ride. I HATE planes. And worse, Boy wont even be sitting with me, he'll be in first class because Chrysler bought his ticket. Im in coach because the moms NWA points bought my ticket which means I didnt pay anything so I shouldnt be too grumbly about it, but Im still gonna grumble some. I really want to knit on the plane, but I keep getting conflicting answers on whether I can bring my metal needles in the plane. I know I can bring wood, but I dont have any wood and Ive taken metal needles on a plane before. So I have no idea what to do. Im also bring all my needles in my suitcase and I super freaked out. Im so afraid their going to loose my suit case which will be holding all my needles. I will die if I loose them. For real.

Well my yarn shipments got all fucked up. Artyarns, Interlacments, and Checkers are refusing accounts with me because Im an on-line vendor. My rep waiting two weeks to tell me this. This information would have been really fucking usfull like, TWO fucking weeks ago. Im so pissed off. Is'nt this her job to be on track and keep this shit sorted out? So I had to scramble and make a quick order with my other rep. and the shipments should arrive while Im gone. Frog Tree and Kraemer shipped their yarns out to me as soon as they could, thank God. Im still waiting for my order from Schaefer to go through, which I doubled because of the canceled orders, and hopefully it should also get here before I get back. I need to call them today to make sure they have all the info they need because once Im gone, I wont be able to call anyone till I get back.

My knee is hurting pretty bad today and Im not sure why. I know its aching because its going to rain, but I have this bad pinching, stretching feeling in it too along with the aching. Its driving me crazy. I really dont want to take any pain meds because they make me not be able to pee (which is the most annoying thing) and poop (which I can deal with).

Alright, I must be off like a prom dress to get back to my packing and making sure all is taken care of before I leave. Oh shit, and I also have to get the details of Maretes Bachlorette party in order before June 14th too. Crap. I can do it.

Pain and Love

So Im up early. Ive been up since 4am. I went to bed at 1am. Do the math. But today there is a reason other then not being able to sleep, that made me get. The pain in my sides, belly and back from my IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrom) is just horrible. I havent been in this much pain in awhile. Although I always have pain in my side, I dont get bad flare ups like this often because of all the meds I take for it. I got up at 4 and ate some animal crackers then took a big boy pain pill and it didnt do shit, so I took another one at 6:30 and its still isnt doing shit. I guess Im either gonna have to deal with it, or go to the hospital where they will torture me with stupid test before they manage the pain for me (which is the only way to get it to stop, but then I become a zombie). So hospital is out. Its not my apendix's, which they always think it is. It hasnt been my apendixs for the last 12 years Ive had this. I think I would know the difference by now, trust me. I dont know if many of you know about my IBS come to think of it. I have a serious case of IBS, minus the pooping all the time. I dont do that. Mine is all pain.

And over the last 3 years, Ive gotten more symptoms, like the horride, painful bloating. My belly and abdomen stick out and get rigid and it hurts so bad. I cant wear pants when this happens because one, they dont fit, and two, its hurts to damn much or bend over. Sitting even hurts. Then the burning cramps all through my intestines (worse then period cramps, especially when I get them at the same time). This one also sucks. And the last one, which is rather gross, and still freaks even me out, is the mucus in my poop. Its white, or when I eat fruit rolls ups, what ever color I ate that day. I'll feel like I have to go to the bathroom really bad and I'll go, but the only thing that comes out is mucus. I thought I was dieing when this first happened. But alas, it was only another symptom. Ive been on every IBS medication thats on the market in every combo, including trail stuff to manage the pain, and noting really helps. The only thing it does is allow me to get out of bed, which is amazing because before they figured out what it was, I couldnt get out of bed, go to work (which I almost got fired), go to school, hang out, nothing. I didnt have a life because when I did go out in public, I would pass out from the pain which was and still is really embaressing or throw up or both. So right now I take 4 different medications just for my IBS. One four times a day, one three times a day, one twice a day and the last once a day. Thats not including the pain meds which is the only way to somewhat help it (or my crazy pills). Ive tried to join studies for it, but no one is doing studies on pain, just the pooping part. Its not currable, so I deal with it. But one days like today, it hurts so bad I wanna kill someones. Sharp and dull pain mixed in with whatever else my body wants to do. In short (which is too last for that :sorry:) it sucks.

But since I came down stairs at 4, Ive been sitting in front of the fish tank in my chair Boy got me two x-mas's ago for knitting. Its a super cushy recliner that rocks and it matches our couch. The sound of the water and the wave box is the most calming, soothing, tranquil sound ever and sometimes it brings tears to my eyes when I look and listen to it because its so beautiful. It will put you to sleep. I do my daily meditation in front of the fish tank. The tank is a totally different place at night, its unbelievable. You see things that dont come out in the light, like all of our cleaner shrimp who are a beautiful butterscotch, blood red color with a white stripe down there back with long white antena's. They bounce around the rocks to clean them and jump on the fish to preen them of any parasites that might be on them (hint the "cleaner" name), and all the crazy snails that surface. We have thousands of these little snails that come out of the sand, no joke, and our big snails who come out of the sand on the glass to breed (wicked cool to watch), hundreds of the little star fish come out, worms poke out. Its amazing. All the fish hide and go to sleep. And as I was sitting here, the sun was slowly coming up and I could see the tank starting to change and wake up right before my eyes. I had never seen this process before, and it was breathtaking!!! I mean just simply amazing. This must be what the ocean looks and acts like when the sun rises everyday. All shrimp start to go back into hiding, and the fish slowly start to wake up and poke their heads out of their sleeping spots and move about. When they sleep, they change colors, mostly fade to blend in, and you see their colors start to change back into "day" colors. Our Maroon clown got all upset because I stood in front of her anemone and she started dive bombing and buring herself into it becase she thought I was "too close" for her comfort. Bitch. All of the corals and polyps started to slowly open and grow back to size (they shrink at night). I just cant explain it enough. It brought honest to god tears to my eyes. I have never witnessed something so magnificent in my life. This same thing has been happening everyday in the ocean for billions of years and Im lucky enough to be able to see it in my house!!! I feel bad, I feel like Ive taken my tank for granted and not truely paid enough attention to it, like I have this morning. For TWO years I have never taken the time to sit and watch this because, well, Im sleeping or in the living room watching T.V, like a moron. Ive watched them all go to bed which is awesome, but never wake up. I have a whole new appreciation for my tank that Ive never had before. Its just simply amazing and beautiful. Now all the fish are swimming around right in front of the glass where Im sitting saying goodmorning to me and "FEED ME!!". Some of you may not believe it, but my fish really do know who I am. When I walk into the room they race to the front of the glass and get all excited like a dog, but when a stranger walks in (like Boys boss last night) they change there colors to "pissed off" colors and hide until their gone. But all of this by just the natural sun light. Their lights arent even on yet, not for another 2 hours. I always thought we controled them and what they did. How egomanical of me to actaully think I could control something thats been happening for billions of years on their own. Sometimes us people really dont have a clue. We cant control everything like we think we can. Were completely oblivious to what really happens in the ocean or wild. I cannot believe though, that Ive taken so much of this tank for granted, and appreciate it and enjoy it more. Its a miracle that I have this little piece of ocean in my house and I am truely greatful that Ive been granted the gift to be able to keep it alive and thriving like I have. I love my tank :love:

Im a mommy again!

Yup. Im a mom again. I was standing at the refridgerator last night and glanced at the fish tank. I saw that my female Bangaii Cardinal was chasing Steve, my Anthia. This triggered suspision because she doesnt normally do that. I walked over and stared at the male Cardinal and sure enough he had little tails sticking out of his mouth. His mouth was full of babies!!! He was ready to spit them out that night because they were so big so I had little time to act and go into Operation Get Male Cardinal Down Stairs to the Brood Tank. (side note: for those of you that dont know, which is probably everyone, Male Bangaii Cardinals hold the eggs and the babies in their mouth for safe keeping until they are big enough to "fend" for themselves, at which point he spits them out, usually into our long spine urchin which makes them impossible to get, which is the point, but then they end up getting eaten by something over the next couple days). I shut off all the lights because the fish become retarded or something when the lights are off and WAY easier to catch. I caught him, ran down the stairs and in the process he spit out 4 babies in the net, put him in the brood tank, made sure he was okay, shut off all the lights to keep the stress as low as possible and went to bed. This morning I went down there and we had 7 babies just floating around doing their own thing, one was dead, and I figure okay, he's done spitting them out. I catch him again, and take him upstairs to put him back int he tank while its dark to minimize stress. As soon as I put his punk ass in the big tank again (big tank as in 400 gal.) he opens his mouth and I see like, 5 more babies in there!! GAH!!! So I had to fish his dumb ass back out, and in the process fight with the urchin because thats where he was hiding and I get him back in the brood tank. I hurried up and feed the babies that were out really quick, then covered the tank with a towel to make it dark, shut off all the other fish lights down stairs for now, and went back up stairs. Now its a waiting game. I have to wait for him to stop being an ass and spit the rest out so I can put him back up stairs where he belongs. I really hope I can get them to live, I could use the extra money. I'll take pictures after everyone is out and doing fine.

In other news, I had an interview with the Grand Blanc Police Department on Saturday morning for dispatch. It was a listening and comprehension test. I found out about the position from an insider, I didnt realize it had been posted in the news paper. So when I showed up at 8am, I was not expecting 30 people to be there!! And there were two other testing times that day. Ugh! They said they'll send me a letter in two weeks if Im choosen and to make an appointment for my oral interview. I really hope I get this job. I've my god damn Law Enforecment degree for a year now, and I havent done shit with it. And since I fucked my knee up, I have a full year before I can do anything related to officer work. Its annoying. Im way qualified for this job.

I started Yukon Leaves again in Knit Picks Essential, colorway Tuscon Multi. It looks like Superman Ice Cream!! I love this colorway. These are my 2 socks on 2 circs. They are coming along good now. It really was a pain in the ass when I first started because I kept getting my balls of yarn all twisted, but now that I have a bit done, Its going good. Im excited that instead of knitting just one, I'll have TWO when Im done! Hopefully I can stop my SSS this way.

Bought beads at Joann's the other day to start making stitch markers for the website. I was really excited until I realized I have no fucking idea how to bead or make stitch markers. I kinda figured it out while I was on the phone with Marete and Tia. I think the ladies from the Commune will be getting my reject ones that I cant sell on the site, which could be quite a few :shifty:

I think Im going to throw Marete her bachlorette party. She doesnt have one planned, this is her first wedding, and she is a little freak. Therefor I am taking it upon myself to make sure she gets shit faced drunk, wear LOTS if things that are shaped like penises and have a shit load of fun. Its gonna be the best damn party ever. Just wait and see.

Knit 2 Soxs at Once?

Im watching Top Gear on BBC right now (only the funniest show ever, its on monday nights at 7pm I believe) and Im laughing so hard Im going to seriously pee my pants. I love this show so much. I wish it were on everyday. Oh god, I was just laughing to hard that there is spit on the computer screen and Im crying. Ah, check the show out.

Well, it feels like since I started this Motor City Knits business I've bearly knit at all, which is true. It feels like I havent knit in ages. So tonight, Im trying knitting two socks on two circs. Im rather excited to try it. If it goes well, it should prove to be a fast way to get over SSS. But I still love my DPN's, even though they are after me and plotting to kill me. Im serious. They really are trying to kill me. One has already succeded in impaling itself straight through my palm. This is no laughing matter. Its scary.

Last night I decided it would be a good idea to take sleeping pills and go play on www.ravelry.com . It appears that when the sleeping pills actually kick it, my spelling vyris goes into overdrive and I make no sense what so ever. Everyone enjoyed it though, so thats all that counts really. The only scary part was, I dont remember typing anything that I did on there last night. I remember being on the computer and that I kept nodding off, but I dont remember writing anything. The other sad part is, my insomnia is so bad, that even after 4 tylenol PM's, a xanax and a flexeril, I still only slept 4 hours and was wide awake at 5am, ggrrrr.....

And my "garden" is doing quite well. I have a whole shit load of sprouts in my broccoli, all my beans have sprouted, my cucumbers and pickles have sprouted and my basil and dill are poking through. I still havent seen anything with my watermelon, cantalope, okra and catnip. Maybe later in the week. I also picked up 10 bags of top soil for my garden at the Depot this evening.

Boy also took me for ice cream this evening as well. It was such a beautiful evening that we busted out the new corvette ( lame I know, we should of taken the 59' vet, but the top of the engine is currently torn apart) and went to get some ice cream from Boys best friends parents ice cream store. It was delicious! It almost felt like summer...until we walked out to go home and it was freezing cold. But it felt good to be back in the Vet again. We bought the poor thing last summer and its just sat in the garage all winter being alone with a battery charger. It has to be hooked up to a charger during the winter because the new corvettes are all electronic and if the battery dies, you can get it in, or out for that matter, of the stupid thing, and you certainly cant start it since it doesnt have a key start. Its a push start. They only way you can possibly get in is the hidden key in the key fob that you use on a hidden door lock under the hadle of the back hatch and climb through the entire car and pop the hood. Its all rather dumb and too much work. I'll stick with my Peon Neon, Boy can keep his high maitance vet.

Ok, enough messing around, I must knit!!! Im off like a prom dress!


"If you love someone, set them free; if they come back, set them on fire..." ~G.C

Motor City Knits | Where yarn meets muscle

Motor City Knits Where yarn meets muscle

Ouch!

Okay, I cant move today. I woke up with an awful migrain this morning. I took some medicine and took a three hour nap on the couch with a black shirt tied around my head to keep the light out. When I woke up I went down stairs, moved the "garden" to one side of the basement to get it out of the way, did a water change on my frag tank and took apart both of the skimmers and took them outside to wash them out and clean them up. I was not aware that the next door neighbor was having an Open House to sell his house so I walked out of the front door to clean the skimmers and take the garbage out wearing a wife beater with no bra, and yellow, terry cloth boycut shorts. Not such a great idea.

I did however get my office in order today, which was a reliefe. I also got my filing system organized as well. I just have a few more things to do to finish my office up and I should be good. I need to get a few organizers to hold my return lables and business cards, and move my scanner/fax machine from Boys office into mine. I also might need to buy a printer even though we have a fucking million of them because my computer is gay and doesnt have a normal printer drive, it only has a USB drive to connect to a printer.

Oh yea, I got my busniess cards and matching return address lables in on friday :SQEEEE!!!: They look so fucking cool. I really hope I'll be able to track down the image and buy it for my logo for the sight.

I will also be getting some of Angelia's http://theknittingdefective.blogspot.com/ beautiful hand dyed sockie yarnz, which I suggest everyone check out and buy, or even better yet, join her sock club, because you'll just love it!!! Its worth every penny!

This is going to hurt tomorrow.

It was such a beautiful day out today that I simply could not stay in the house. So I went outside and decided to turn the dirt in my new garden...by hand. Doesnt sound too bad righ? WRONG!! This said dirt has never been worked before. It was like working fucking concrete! I cant feel my shoulders or my feet, and my knee, the size of a balloon. It only took me 5 fucking hours to do it!! But I did triple the size of my garden from last year, so I knew it was going to be alittle work. I was just hoping for a rottertiller, but no such luck. So Ive decided that the seperate garden I was going to plant for the watermelon, cantalope and pumpkins (because they get HUGE and vine everywhere and need ALOT of space seperate from all the other veggies that they tend to snuff out) is NOT going to get worked. Fuck that shit. Everything grew just fine last year. Im just gonna dump some potting soil on the ground and let them go to town. And Im so out of shape that I thought I was going to die, for real, from working all the soil. Boy thought I was going to keel over and die my face was so beet red.

I also went for a walk in my back yard today. We have quite a bit of acrage and I love hiking (even though its nowhere near hiking) so I took a walk to the back of the property then picked my way through some bush to get to the swamp that lays in the far left corner of our property. I had never been that far back before because usually summer is in full swing and its too thick to get back there, but not today. The swamp suprisingly is really low though, even though half our fucking property is soggy and wet so I was able to walk out into the middle of it without getting wet. While I was out there, I saw my baby duck Charlie and her male in there nest. I knew they were living back there, I just didnt know where. But now I know. She just kinda looked and me and quacked wondering if I came bearing food, which I wasnt. There were also two pairs of Geese in the water too who were not happy I was there so I didnt stay long. Geese are fucking mean.

Being the loving mother I am, I took my other two pet ducks, Peanut and Mister who live with me year round because their acutal pets, to the back of the property because there was a HUGE pond/puddle back there and I let them go swim and play in the mud. While they were busy in the mud, I decided to go search our "Hole" for some railroad ties or boards for my garden. For those of you that dont knwo what our "Hol" is, its a big GIANT hole or drop off at the very back of the property where we throw everything from cut down brush to old junk to god knows what else in. Since the grass hasnt started growing yet, it was easy for me to pick my way carfully down there to get some big, long boards I spotted at the bottom. But being me, and staying true to form, I started picking my way down into the hole with my Crocs on and no socks (because I didnt want to get them wet). Well, wearing foam Crocs into a hole tha has so many rusty, sharp objects in it its stupid, is not a good idea. Within the first 5 minutes, I stepped directly onto a nail that went staright through my Croc like butter and into my foot. FUCKING OUCH!! There was blood everywhere, but I kept going. I ended up dragging out 6 huge boards, full of nails by the way, to use to box my garden in. I also lodged a big piece of wood into my thumb as well. I dragged 4 of the 6 board all the way across the field to my garden then quit. I was already fucking worn out from turning dirt, I dont think I could of drug the last two up even if I wanted too. I would of passed out.

SO now Im camped out on the couch, fucking sore EVERYWHERE and ready for bed Im so tired.

Tomorrow is going to be another beautiful. I think I'll go play in the dirt even though I probably wont be able to move.



"There ought to be a least one round state."- G.C

Meet Bella

Well, I got a new fish last night. Her name is Bella and she is a Half Moon Betta. She is sooo cool looking. When i saw her I just couldnt resist. So I set her up in a super pimped out 2 gal. tank with some real plants that float on the top and add oxygen and something to nibble on and some fake ones inside for her to hide in. She totally loves it. And she's fiesty. She likes to attack her food :giggle:

I also got to watering the "garden" in the basement. I still have yet to see any sprouts, but its only been a couple days. Im thinking by the end of the weekend I'll see something. I am just way too excited about starting my garden out side.

Going to put through my second big order for MCK (Motor city knits). Things are finally all starightend around at the bank so its go time. Hooray for fucking yarn!!!!

So much going on!

Well, I finally got the website up and running www.motorcityknits.com and Im so excited about it!! I dont have any inventory yet because my shipments havent come in, but my the end of the month I shoudl have everything. :GLEE: I cant believe this is finally happening.

I started my gardening for the year...in the basement. Apparently someone forgot to tell Michigan that its spring and it keeps snowing and is cold as hell. I needed to get some of my veggies going now or I wasnt going to have anything right away. So I planted my Okra, broccoli, pole and bush greenbeans, cucumbers, pickles, dill, basil, catnip (for the Pheb master), watermelon, and catalope. With the 400watt light over my frag tank, I have more then enough light for the plants to start. I should be getting my first sprouts over the next couple of days. Im trying to figure out my plans for making my garden bigger this year. I need a rotertiller, but no one has one. So Im going to have to go with plan B, which is getting some railroad ties and a shit load of dirt and do it that way.

Been feeling liek crap lately. I think my meds are all messed up and in turn it has me in a major funk. Im tired all the time and I dont want to do anything. Not too mention Im snappy and bitchy as hell. I dont know what the hell is going on. I need to get ahold of the doctor and get this worked out. I cant be feeling like this with the new business just getting started.

And on a brighter note, I did get my tickets to Norway. We still dont knwo what were doing the last three days were there. I really want to go whale watching/swimming and see the Aroura Borealis and the midnight sun. Not to mention I wanna see the the mountains while Im there.

Stupid Bellhousing

So Ive been out in the garage all day (like 7 hours and Im still here) because we put the clutch and bellhousing back in the race car only to find that the 3 month bulid time, $3000 custom built bellhousing, doesnt fit!!! I thought Boy was going to kill someone. It was grim there for a second. Then we took it off and looked at it and I suggested that he take out the steel plate that goes around the inside of the housing to stop the clutch from coming through it if it ever explodes (the actual bellhousing is Aluminum which isnt strong AT ALL and his leggies are right there). He took it out, figured out that he could trim like an inch of it off and it would fit back in perfect not catching the flywheel like it was before. So after like 3 hours of cutting and chucking it up in the Mill and all that jazz he finished it and it fits perfect. God he is so god damn hand with metal and tools its sexy. It still fucking sucks balls that we had to modify a $3000 fucking custom part, but such as life.

Now I guess the real trick is, is getting somone who actaully understood anything I just wrote. Sorry. I forgets not everyone has a race car.

Boy just painted mai tonails. He was being all cute and technical about it. I was giggling. I also just got some kick ass business card, return addy stickers and note pads for dirt ass cheap. I cant wait till they come!!

Money!

So Im going to get my check for my business Sunday. This is it. Ive reached the final step. I'm just crunching my numbers right now to make sure I have all my totals right and I'll be on my way to putting in my first orders for Motor City Knits. I seriously cant wait. This just doesnt seem real. Im sure after I have to bust my ass to get my orders ready and out it will seem real, but for now its like a dream. Just as good as a wet dream come to think of it.:giggle:

Norway, websites...

Ok, I finally decided to let people see my website that Ive been working on. I dont know if Ive ever explained it here, but I own my own company. Motor City Knits is my baby. Its my on-line yarn shop. I dont have any inventory yet because Im not done tweaking the site and other little details yet. But Im sooooo close I could taste it. Other then my piss poor grammer in the site, everyone liked it. I tried to make it as easy as possible to navigate around in. Easy is good. But here is a look for you guys too. http://www.freewebs.com/motorcityknits/

On other annoying notes, Im trying to book a hotel in Oslo Norway for Boy and I. We are staying 3 extra days to go and have fun. But, I have no fucking idea what kind of money they use so I have no idea how much these stupid fucking rooms cost. Ah!
While Im there Im going to try to go to Sweden and Denmark. There so close I dont think I could not go while Im there. Im so excited to go I cant wait.

When I get bord

This is what happens when Im sitting in the garage bord with nothing to do and there is black tires and paint near me. On the plus side, Boy *loves* them. There the race car tires. They match the race car now and they look fucking sweet. I want to do the slicks but I have a feeling that after the first burn out, all the paint will crack off.

I havent been feeling well. Ive been super tired all day long the past week and its killing me. I dont know what the hell is up.

Ive got a couple stitches working their way up in my knee still. This also is driving me nuts because it itches and its knida creepy to keep pulling stitches out of my leg at this point in time. And no, my knee doesnt feel any better. It still fucking hurts really bad. And my back hurts too.

Zep

:sigh: I love Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Paige is a God.

Oh Beautiful Bag

So, I think this is my new knitting bag. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love. Im a sucker for a hot bag. Im a bag whore. Its the Namaste Malibu bag. I want it in Olive. Check out this sexy little number.

"The List"

Ok, if you dont know what "The List" is, let me explain. In life, there are certain things that we all just hate, and I mean hate. It could be something small, a band, a person, an object etc. As life goes on, the list gets bigger. I choose to choose what goes on my list very carefully. Too each their own though. So this is my list, thus far. Trust me when I say, it will go.

"The List"

~U2 (Bono sucks)
~Tony Shumaker (drag racer who is the devil incarnite)
~Rich Christensen (From Pinks. The guys a total fucking douch bag)
~Race car seat belts that wont fucking go in right after 8 hours.
~Socks that I have knitted that are too small when I only have two more
fucking inches to go or have frogged more then once for this reason.
~Dumb girls with no common sense. Or sense at all for that matter.

Note to self: "Self, add the 'List' here tonight."

Just another Sunday

Havent been to vist for awhile so I figured I would stop by and say :dragqueenvoice: Heeeyyy!! Right this minute, the neighbors cat Phobe (its a boy, how cruel) is staring at me through the back door window. That thing loves Boy and he (mostly me) feeds him kittah treats or ham. Friday night he ate seriously half a pound of ham. I was amazed. But he keeps staring at Boy right now cuz he wants to come inside. I feel bad, but not too bad because Im allergic. But he is a cool cat. And now he went around to the front door to see if he can get in that way. Silly Kittah.

Drag racing is on right now. Melanie didnt make it in and the devil incarnite Tony Shumaker is still in. Ahh, I hate him!! He is NOT gonna win the series this year even if I have to personally kill him with my bare hands. Which I could and would do.

Working on a pair of socks with Kraemers Saucon Sock yarn. Its animal fiber free for my non animal fiber wearing friends. Its a 44% cotton, 43% Acrylic, 13% nylon yarn and thus far is working up quite nice. It isnt all nasty like most cotten yarns and because of the Nylon its hold shape, even after you stretch on it. Im knitting Yukon Leaves by Lela Conrad. I really like the pattern. Im thinking knitting some arm warmers in the pattern I like it so much. I posted a picture so you guys can see what it looks like. Im just about to start turing the heel.

In other news, I slipped down the stairs last week and jacked the shit out of my bad knee. I slipped with it under me and then hit it on the wall. It felt like it did before I had surgery when my lower leg was seperating from my knee. I was so scared I tore my graft. But I went to the Ortho and he said I was good and that my graft was in tack. I just opened up some shit in my knee and theres fluid all back in it (yuck).

Im promoting shows for Woodward on March 22nd (see post below), April 9th (once again see below) and the Chicago show (just fucking look below and write it down!). The guys are awesome and its hard not to want them to go far. Im not getting paid for the work I do and Im totally okay with that. Its not a job, its a friend thing.

Ok, Im going to finish watching drag racing and finish my heel turn.
Shut Up! I kill you!

too strung up to sleep

Its about time!!

Well everyone, my favorite band has decided to finally grace our presence here in Michigan, and in Chicago if your in the area, with their awesomeness. Im telling you guys, their fucking awesome and dont just take my word for it. Go check them out for yourself. I promise you'll love them. Its seriously impossible not too. And if you dont want to (which I still cant understand why the hell you wouldnt) go see them, at least click onthe link so I can win the contest because you love me, and their awesome.

Come see Woodward the band live @ Paycheck's in Hamtramck on Wednesday April 9 as part of the International Pop Overthrow Festival.

Im Alive

Ok, I havent been on in awhile. Im sorry. Alot of crazy shit has happened. Boy and I broke up for a week, then got back together. We're working things out and I hope it works because I love him so much.

Im also getting bad muscle atrophy in my left leg, up to my butt, from the knee surgery. It sucks really fucking bad because it hurts really bad. All the muscles ache so bad it hurts to walk or lay on it and my hip is killing me. That and I have horrible pinching in my knee cap. This whole knee shit is sucks bbig fucking time.

I also got my state tax ID # so Im offically a business owner in Michigan!! Im so excited about that. I can finally get my orders put in and get my yarnz rolling in and the site up. Hooray!

I cant spell

Thanks to my wonderful bitch ho Andee, who so politly informed me that I had forgotten my second "o" in my blog title Too Strung Up To Sleep. I cant spell if my life depended on it, and didnt even realize I had spelled it wrong. Yes, I am that cool.

This is funny!

I've determined that most of my friend would never read "Life's LittleInstruction Book" or at least not follow the rules. So here are somethat you will all enjoy, taken from "Life's Little Destruction Book."

Signal left, turn right
If the mistake is in your favor, don't correct it
Tell the ending of movies
Cut people off in the middle of their sentences
Develop a convenient memory
Tailgate the elderly
Develop a truly tasteless foul mouth
Blow out other people's birthday candles
If there is going to be a fight, make sure you start it
Reserve compliments for people who can do you some good
Accuse, Confuse, and Refuse
Put off until tomorrow whatever you can o the day after tomorrow
Focus on winning and to hell with how you play the game
Revenge is sweet, get some
Get a backseat driver's license
Change the rules to suit your moods
Always have an ulterior motive
Pee in the swimming pool
Bite your dentist's finger
Make animal noises in libraries
Procrastinate and someone else will surely do it
Bitch, Bitch, Bitch
Play mind games
Disturb the peace
Jump to conclusions
Be a bad sport
Answer the phone with "what do you want?"
Always be right

And last but not least: Don't get caught!

Just Another Monday

Not much going on today. We might be going to Utah to go skiing (we'll Boy to go snowboarding since I cant). Were having trouble booking the flights because the airline keeps blocking out our flights out there. That and we can only get one ticket with the Sky Miles we have because their expired which isnt a problem because I can activate them at any time. It will just take 8-12 weeks before I see them and thats definaly going before then. And regular tickets are fucking retardedly expenisve. I Boy to take my moms points and go. I dont mind staying home. I cant ski anywat right now and one of us should be able to have fun.

That and I hate flying. Those long trips kill my leg. That and its impossible to get comfortable so all I do is squerm and it suck. As much as I want to go to Utah because its beautiful and they have some great trails and rocks climbing, I would rather stay home and keep healing. I really dont care if he goes. I would love for him to go though. It would be a nice break and he'll have a great time and traveling..

Also ftlled on an app. For The township possition is for a clerk/dispatch possition. I hope I get. I;ll be going to into interview, *again* if i get it.

Ok, pain meds and sleeping pills are kicking in so Im going to bed. I can bearly see, let alone type without nodding off.