394: grinding my teeth

hey y'all.

i am trying to overcome some residual effects of getting that crochet hook stuck in my hand back in june.

some days, i see horrible images of hooks getting stuck in my various body parts, particularly my feet. it's a bad feeling and it comes and goes at random, not just when i'm using the tiny hooks.

i don't feel any fear when i see the small hooks. but the negative thoughts are there...

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

393: the a-dams fam-uh-leeeee

hey y'all.

did i mention that we went to my family reunion earlier this summer?

i would have to go back to read previous posts to know for sure. lol

any way, i thought about it the other day when i saw the m and m's commercial about the adams family.

i teased baby bliss that we are the adams family because my mother is an adams by birth. our reunion was for my mother's father's mother's family -- the hawkins family -- but in the small town where my grandmother and grandfather met, most people were already inter-related by marriage and other kinds of mingling. *insert raised eyebrow here*

so there are a lot of adams on both sides. making us double kin or some such notion.

i was amazed to learn that our family tree has been traced all the way back to john quincy adams.

which reminds me that i need to e-mail one of my cousins. i compiled the list of names and e-mail addresses that will be used for next year's reunion and she needs it. she also has the document that shows how we're connected to john quincy, which i really want to see.

392: i need more practice on this one

hey y'all.

i've been up all night, doing a little bit of this and a little of that.

one of the things i was working on was this crocheted cross.

i need to work on it more or find a pattern because this one is crooked. when i get it right, i'm adding it to my "body" collection.

it's cotton thread worked single crochet in the back loops. baby bliss has already claimed it. she just wants everything i make but i'm gonna be watching to see if she wears it.

391: do you see what i see?

not very much...

this is our current weather. i was hoping for some golden rays. *sigh*

390: craf-teeeeeeeeeeee blisssssssss

hey y'all.

it's been a crafty week or so for me.

i finished this basket for my friend's son. it's now sitting on a stool, waiting for me to take it to the post office.

after she saw this one, baby bliss requested a basket for her room. when we moved to the penthouse, she switched over from pink to ocean blues and greens for her room colors. most of her containers are still shades of pink and purple so i guess she does need new containers. i started her basket on friday. it's shades of blue and green. i'll post pics when i'm done.

saturday we visited my sister. while we were there, i crocheted a cotton thread bracelet for my sis. it was a simple double crochet rib stitch done by crocheting in the back loop of the previous row. it's pink trimmed in beige and fastens with a cowry shell.

no pics of that one. :0(

i also finished a peach hat i knitted for baby bliss using the round knitting loom. it was superdooper easy. baby bliss said it's not real knitting cuz i didn't use the needles but what does she know?

i've been wanting to make hats for chemo patients for a long time and my yarn stash is overflowing with silky soft yarns to do it with. but i know how well i do at following crochet patterns. the knitting loom makes it so easy that i can almost knit blindfolded.

probably i can get 2 hats per skein of yarn.

i've been researching crochet patterns over the past several days for inspiration and information. i have an idea for a necklace in my head but i need a pattern for part of it.

thank you to all the crochet pattern writers who allow items made from their free patterns to be sold.

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389: peace and quiet

hey y'all.

despite the fact that i got bitten by a red ant at my sister's on saturday night and my foot is swollen up like a macy's thanksgiving day balloon, today was a good day at our abode.

no one harassing me via phone or e-mail and i was able to sleep in.

yay!

i was asked to water the garden for a relative who's out of town for the week. but it's been raining most of the day. unless we get high temps and lots of sun over the next few days, i probably won't need to do that.

baby bliss and i are free to enjoy our last week of lazy days in relative peace and quiet. *big grin*

i'm thankful.

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388: O and Joe

hey y'all.

it's official: Obama has picked Joe Biden, the distinguished gentleman from Delaware, as his running mate.

i'm sure the mill was grinding out the dirty laundry even before they inked the presses.

Obama said, "I want somebody who is going to be able to challenge my thinking and not simply be a yes person when it comes to policymaking."

well big O, looks like you've found your man.

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387: it's done

hey y'all.

well, i did it. i sent the Client a well-thought out e-mail with my resignation imbedded.

is it tacky to quit via e-mail? well, i work from home and 98% of our communication is via e-mail so it works for me.

i plan to follow up with a short letter via snail mail too.

freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-dommmmmmmmmmmmmm!


today's to-do list:

1. get some sleep! i've been up all night.
2. bank
3. target: organic blue corn chips, distilled water (they drank mine!), t.p.
4. hobby lobby: red saver yarn in delft blue, white
   
5. post office: basket to baby boy D___, check my p.o. box
   
6. supermarket: laundry detergent on sale 2-for-1
   
7. find my nephew's sneakers before tomorrow
   
8. start new basket
9. find baby bliss's artwork and upload to my laptop for future use
10. start crocheting hats; winter is coming!
11. print the button tutorial and make some!

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386: donate a scarf for the Special Olympics

hey y'all.

can you crochet or knit?

are you searching for a charitable project or want to do a good deed?

if so, the 2009 Special Olympics needs your help!

they need 5,000 scarves donated by january 15.

interested? go to this page for more info.

i know wal-mart sells the specific yarn needed. maybe hobby lobby does too. i'm gonna check out hobby lobby's website to see what's on sale.

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385: crafty stuff on overstock.com

hey y'all.

overstock.com sells crafty stuff.

maybe this isn't news to some but it is to me.

they have how-to books, yarn, sewing machines, craft storage systems and more.

yay!

not that i plan to get anything from them right now. but it's nice to know i can.

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384: How to Get the Life You Want

hey y'all.

in light of all the change to come in my personal/professional/home life, i'm posting a link to a great article i happened across while researching some crochet patterns.

enjoy!

How to Get the Life You Want - Kristyn Kusek Lewis

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381: Walt Disney World was wonderful!

hey y'all.

despite my fear and loathing of amusement parks, i have to say that we enjoyed a wonderful time in florida. and (of course) the disney parks and universal studios were the highlight of our vacation.

i am soooooo not the amusement park/carnival girl that i truly thought i would have a horrific time. but going with baby bliss and mr. bliss made it all magical. we could have been the poster family for a disney commercial.

that's not to say i got totally caught up in the commercialism of it all. i didn't forget that the magic of disney comes with a price tag. a hefty one if you don't research and plan.

the three of us did a 7-day trip and it cost us less than $1400. i'll do a separate post on the money-saving strategy we used.

2008 is disney's "Year of a Million Dreams", and our trip was a dream come true for baby bliss. i don't ever recall her asking to go to disney but when she was about a year old, one of her favorite videos was a disney sing-and-dance-along video.

i don't remember what it was called but i recall a few of the songs because she wanted to watch that video every day, all day long. one of the songs was a hawaiian-style number about a "hukilau"; another was about "going right down the middle of main street, u.s.a." i even videotaped her watching the video and dancing to it in her diaper.

back to our vacation...

i didn't realize that "walt disney world" is now actually four (4) separate theme parks: magic kingdom, epcot, hollywood studios, and animal kingdom. each park has separate admission costs unless you buy the park hopper pass. which we did.

universal studios is also separate and also has other parks attached to it: islands of adventure and wet 'n wild. we did universal studios itself but not the other two.

mr. bliss didn't go with us to universal. baby bliss and i did that one with the other girls from our group, my friend lady F. and her granddaughter, little miss D.

if you've never been to disney, a fantastic pair of walking shoes and/or foot-cushioning insoles is a must.

we walked so much at universal that by the time we left the park, everything below my boobs ached. no kidding.

everything was interesting and exciting, even for me, the woman who thinks she's seen it all. lol

as soon as we got into the gate, we were stopped by a photographer. she took our picture then directed the younger girls to pose for a photo that would include digital extras. it was fun and funny.

a few feet away, baby bliss joined the band that plays (i guess) daily near rodeo drive. she didn't really sing but i did get some shots of her at the mic and with the guitar player.


  

the band played "for the love of money" by the ojays and one of the band members asked the crowd which t.v. show the song was from. i wracked my brain and came up with nothing then thought he was joking. how could a t.v. show have that song for a theme without me knowing?

but baby bliss knew. she said it was donald trump's t.v. show but couldn't remember the name. i shouted, "the apprentice!" and won a string of red beads that i turned over to baby bliss. she wore them all day.

our next stop was the shrek attraction. the line was long and it was hot out. i don't think the ride had even opened yet when we got in line. but the line moved faster than i expected and they had fans blowing misting water every so many feet, so it wasn't too bad.

shrek was a sit-down-in-an-auditorium, 3D (or was that 4D?) attraction. it was better than i expected but for as long as we stood in line, it could have lasted longer. (we also had to stand in a sort of ante-chamber to watch and listen to some... i don't know what to call it... before we were allowed in the auditorium.

between rides we ran into lots of fun characters like the 3 musketeers, jack and jill, sleeping beauty, and some others.

the mummy ride was next. a roller coaster but a very short one and no long stomach-curdling drop-offs. (thank you God!)

waiting in line was almost as scary as the ride itself. not so much the length of the line as the interesting scenery the line wound through. part of it seemed to be underground which didn't feel so good to me. (i have a fear of underground places.)

(and there was a creepy guy behind us who seemed a little too interested in the children. he kept making conversation with me but i got the distinct feeling that he was trying to cop a feel or some other nonsense that would get him pulverized and me in the county jail. the girls were between lady F and i but baby bliss has a tendency to lollygag. i was careful to keep her in front of me and at arm's length.)

the roller coaster itself wasn't too bad but i haven't been on one in 20 or more years. so i got a bit whipped.

another thing scarier than the coaster itself was the lockers. no bags, purses, etc. are allowed on the ride so they provide lockers to store your stuff before you enter the building. the lockers are free (really? yes, really.) for people getting on the ride and/or for a certain time limit (45 minutes i think).

they are supposed to be secured by your fingerprint. all you have to do is remember your locker number.

wellllllllllllllllllllll how about when we got off the ride, i saw a group of people with a disney employee standing in front of the lockers. i heard the disney employee asking them their locker number but they couldn't remember it.

the method of locking and unlocking the locker is your fingerprint but it sounded to me like the employee could override the fingerprint requirement. and i began to worry.

i ran to my locker and yanked the little handle and sure enough, it was open! the skies immediately darkened and a storm of magnificent proportions lay poised to shut down the entire east coast.

my blood boiled and if i had screamed, they would have heard me in nepal.

i yanked my bag from the locker, thanking God the whole time that it was a bag and not a purse. i immediately searched for my change purse and the card holder i keep my debit card in. all was exactly where it should have been.

i thanked God and the sun reclaimed her rightful spot in the sky.

of course i wondered if my bag would have disappeared if there had not been a sign that said the area was monitored by video cameras.

our next destination: fear factor live.

one of the few things i abhor more than amusement parks is fear factor.

baby bliss loves it. go figure.

but since the other girls wanted to go, i put on my girl scout badge of fearlessness and trooped in along with the rest of the gross-out mongers. there's a picture of the set in the previous post.

baby bliss was overjoyed to see that the host was the actual guy from the t.v. show.

great for her.

i was too busy wondering if i would have to see (or hear) people getting sick from drinking ground up lizard toes sauteed with wombat eyeballs or watch someone sit in a pool of water while piranha swirled about their nether regions.

thankfully, the universal studios version of fear factor live wasn't as yucky as the t.v. version. the contestants were park guests so that probably helped.

there were times when i turned my head away from center stage but overall, it wasn't bad.

our next stop was the men in black attraction because it was raining and folk said disney rain capes were being sold in the m.i.b. store.

the jaws ride was on our to-do list but by the time we got there, the wait was over an hour.

um, we passed on that one and opted for the jaws exhibit/photo op. the younger girls formed a trio with a little boy from the crowd and they (accidentally) broke the line. i wasn't paying much attention and didn't see the line because it went off at an odd angle. i'm guessing the little boy's mom didn't see it either.

the children posed for pictures (since they were already there) and we went on our merry way. when i looked back over my shoulder, i saw the end of the line and followed the snake up to the front.

aha! but too late.

our day was winding to a close...

we stopped for more photos (as we had been doing all day), all the while heading for the exit. although i said i wouldn't, i bought a few souvenirs (at an amazingly inexpensive souvenir cart). we also stopped to play an arcade game (that i won), garnering baby bliss a big ole souvenir dog that shall keep her other big ole dog company for eternity.

back on the main road of the lot, i remembered the photo taken of us when we arrived at the park so full of life and freshly-limbed.

i thought it would be nice to have at least one professional photo to commemorate our visit so i stopped in the shop. it seemed our longest stop of the day.

first lady F couldn't find the ticket. then she found the wrong one. in the meantime i was asking if our photo could be located using our arrival time.

when the photos were finally found, burak from turkey, (the cast member who helped me) made the honest mistake of telling me i had options for the digital framing and characters displayed in the photos. :-)

yes, we were all dog tired but i took my time in exploring all the available graphics options. i was a little frustrated that certain combinations weren't available but in the end i got a product i liked and at a 10% discount with my AAA card.

our tails dragged and shoulders sagged as we walked and rode the moving walkways back to our parking space in the cat-in-the-hat section.

our first day of disney excitement was over.

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