Phew! I just FINALLY finished the baby blanket I was test knitting for Lynn ( www.colorjoy.com/weblog ), who has been waiting EXTREMELY patiently for it. Way more patiently than I would have been, that's for sure. But I finished. See, you're thinking "baby blanket. Babies are small... why are you so slow???!?!" but in reality a blanket is still a blanket which is a lot of stitches and a lot of time. However, I can tell you now that it's finished that it is a luscioius, gorgeous blanket, and I really really love the yarn! Hand dyed by Lynn herself, and machine washable. Do yourself a favor, go over to her website and look at all her great patterns and yarn. Wait, what's that? You want to actually SEE this blanket? Yes, I thought you might, so I took the liberty of taking a picture. The color is FAIRLY true, it just took me awhile to realize that I need to take all my pictures in my bedroom on the white comforter with the overhead light and a small lamp turned on with no flash. Very delicate conditions, let me assure you.


So the next question becomes, what did I do in celebration of completing the ONLY project I had on needles? (wait, did I just say that I only had ONE project on needles? I can't even remember the last time that happened) The answer to this question is that I immediately started two new projects and planned two more after that. Because that makes total sense, right? In my defense the two I've started look to be fairly short and I like to be prepared.

New project #1 should look fairly familiar (if it doesn't go check out archives...November I think):



New project #2 is a teaser:


What's in the bag?? What's in the bag?? This is the yarn for my super secret bag exchange buddy for Guild. Go ahead, try and figure out what's in there. I dare ya. The secret shall not be unveiled until May. So you'll just have to be patient. But I'm confident that the wait will be worth it.

And now to settle in for my first weekend with nothing to do (except for going to work this morning) since Thanksgiving I think. I'm going to do nothing but watch football and knit and be lazy for the next 2 days. It'll be GREAT.

New year, thank goodness!!

Happy 2006, and good riddance to 2005, at least as far as I'm concerned. I have to say that on the whole, with the exception of a couple really great things (getting my braces off, my nephew being born) it wasn't my favorite year. But I have a good feeling about 2006, and I'm looking forward to whatever might happen.

The year started off the right way, with a trip to Boston and a rockin' NYE party at Sacha's house. Toni and I found the COOLEST balloons on the planet and managed to get the last set. We bought the display and while we were waiting for it to be reinflated, two other people came up and asked for them. But we won! They were ours! It was a great party and a great (but short) trip.

Now back in Lansing, I decided to look into some organization for the new year. We'll do a photo progression here:

1. My stash of yarn as it was this morning. Not very pleasing to the eye, and not very conducive to seeing what I have.

2. The new bookshelf I got on clearance at Target Friday night that maimed me Saturday morning when I bent over and caught the corner of it with my head (it was in a different location than it is now)


3. Stash + bookshelf = way prettier and less space consuming way to display what I have spent probably far too much money on in the first place.

Now I know that according to some yarn buying professionals this is merely a weak attempt at a stash but what can I say? I'm young and I have limited space and money. :)

Anyway, here's to a good year!

Merry Christmas!

Man, December has sure flown by...what have I been doing with my time? Oh yea, frantically trying to get caught up for Christmas, spend time with loved ones, and get into gear for our busiest time of year at work. Work work work work work.

Here is a little cutie that I made for my nephew for Christmas...from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book again, I seriously love that book. I think he's a very cute little elephant.




Exciting news for the day: In a generous showing of Christmas spirit to myself, I just purchased a plane ticket to spend New Year's in Boston with Sacha and Toni! I am SO EXCITED, I love love love Boston! As many of you probably already know!

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday (whichever holiday you celebrate) full of friends, family and lots of good food!

No rest for the wicked

Well, I've been a busy girl the last couple of weeks, that's for sure.

Thanksgiving weekend was out of control, with family everywhere. My dad's sister, two brothers and one sister-in-law, my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, and a cousin and his girlfriend. It was great to see everyone, but that's a lot of people. Never a dull moment, as they say.

On the plus side, hanging out with family gave me lots of time to knit, and I got quite a nice chunk done on the baby blanket I'm test knitting for Lynn ( http://www.colorjoy.com/weblog/ ). It's gorgeous, this yarn is totally to die for. I'm having great fun knitting it, it's so soft! Not to mention machine washable. Fabulous.

Also, I finished my Aran bag from Sarah's class ( www.handknitter.sarahpeasley.com ), well, all except for the actualy stitching of the lining to the bag. Let me just tell you how it's practically a miracle that I managed to get the lining sewn together with the interfacing and all that jazz to get the bag to stand up. Sewing is not my strong point. Still, it was a fun bag to do and now I feel as though I've expanded my bag creating horizons, now that I don't necessarily have to felt a bag for it to be practical to carry. At any rate, here's my almost finished bag:


Next, Grace and I have a friend, Leo, who is gearing up for his first winter in Michigan after having grown up in Costa Rica. Needless to say he'll be quite cold. So in an effort to keep him from running as fast as possible away from here in about mid-January, I'm in the process of making him a hat and scarf to stay warm. I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease chunky knit on size 10 needles, and this stuff is like armor. If wind gets through this hat, you should go inside immediately because it's probably dangerous outside. :) The hat is a pattern I found on the internet a couple of years ago, I'm not even sure it has a name, and the scarf is called Men's Rustic Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which is probably the best investment in a book I've made. If you don't have it, I most definitely recommend looking into it. Someday I would like to knit everything in it. And that's saying a lot (I'm very picky).

And now I'm going to settle in for a cozy evening of watching the old Disney animated Robin Hood which just arrived from Amazon.com. Possibly followed by Pete's Dragon... I seriously think it's been about 2 and a half weeks since I've had an evening to myself to just sit and do whatever I want. I'm going to relish it and completely hermit myself in here (yes, I just turned hermit into a verb)

Trying to compensate for being a slacker...

So I'm taking this Intro to Aran class, and I'm diggin' the cables and all is going well and then... I messed up. I ripped out 16 rows and started over. Now I realize that 16 doesn't sound like a lot, but cables are TIME CONSUMING.

So, to cut to the point, I was unprepared for Wednesday's class. Lucky for me, I was not the only unprepared one, but still. As a lifetime brownnoser and overall goody-goody, it was stressful not to have my homework done. :)

So I worked really hard to make up for it and finished all the knitting for my bag today. Straps are done and attached and everything. All it requires now is washing and blocking (along with the washing of the lining). Phew. So that's a load off.

And here is a picture of the finished product. Actually, 2 pictures. One of the bag as a whole, and one close up of the cables. I'm not sure if I've mentioned before on here or not that I was also difficult in that I wanted to do a different cable in the middle of the bag. The original had diamonds in the center, but I have a fascination with braided/Celtic looking cables, so I found one that fit the chart and used that instead. I'm really happy with how it turned out, even though the bag turned out smaller than i anticipated and I have an entire skein of yarn left. Too bad I already wound it and therefore can't return it. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I'll find a use for it.

Now it's time to move on to new and interesting things. There's the charity hat knitting for the Mid Michigan Knitting Guild (of which I am a member and an officer...now how did that happen?) and these are the colors I got in my grab bags... the gray and camo goes together and the red/white/blue goes together. I'll have to try and come up with something creative to do with them.

I am also about to start knitting a blanket as a test for LynnH ( www.colorjoy.com/weblog/ ) once I go out tomorrow and get needles for it. I find it completely hard to believe that after 2 and a half years of knitting, working at a yarn shop for 10 months and acquiring more stuff than I can even think about, I still don't have size 9 needles. It's unfathomable to me. Anyway. It will be started tomorrow, mark my words.

Last but not least, at this past Tuesday's Guild meeting, we did a program in which we had a sort of mini- knitalong. We all knit little stars that will be strung together in a garland ( thank you thank you thank you Tamsyn for agreeing to crochet them on a chain) and given away in a drawing at our December meeting. I heard pretty positive things about the program, I think a lot of people left feeling excited about knitting more stars. And that makes me happy, I love seeing people excited. Here is the collection of stars we had by the end of the meeting, aren't they great? There are still a couple seams to sew and some ends to weave, but such a great variety, I can't wait to see it all put together!


Ok the for real last thing. My dad and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie today. It was the first one I didn't make it to on opening night, but last night I was at a party with my friend Jenny which was SO much fun! I loved the movie, obviously, and I'm sure I'll be seeing it again before too long... maybe IMAX next time? We'll see.

My promise to you

So I just made a quick decision that I'm going to try and go no more than 10 days without posting. I'd like to say it'll be more frequent than that, but I can't make any guarantees.

So phew, I'm getting in just under the wire.

I don't have new pictures to show just yet, but my bag for Sarah's Intro to Aran class is coming along, now that I decided to change the cable pattern in the middle about 5 rows after where I decided to start changing it. With Sarah's help and a lot of handholding I managed to get things to where they should be and I SHOULD be up to where I need to be for the next class (3 cheers for a 4 day weekend next week).

Tonight I'm going to the PwC holiday party with my friend Jenny as her date. An excuse to get all dressed up and go to a party sounds good to me. Especially with how disgusting it's been this week weather-wise.

Tomorrow I see Harry Potter with my dad! This is the first one I haven't made it to on opening night, but I'm working on being ok with that. Really, I'll be ok. It's not going to matter if I don't see it RIGHT when it comes out. Right? OK stop thinking about it.

Oh geez! I better get to work!

Quack attack!

daaaaa na

daaaaa na


daa na daa na daaa na


(ok that was my lame attempt at shark music. Just play along)

Attack!




No, silly, they're not really going to attack you...these are the baby booties I made for my friend Sarah whose baby shower Grace and I will be attending on Saturday. Aren't they so cute?


I believe this now makes the 3rd pair of these I've made...because seriously, can you think of a baby that DOESN'T deserve a pair of cute and adorable duck feet booties? Neither can I. So as long as people keep having babies, I'll keep making booties. Since I'm in approximately my mid-20's I figure I'll be pretty busy on the baby knitting front for about the next 5-7 years.

The pattern is called "Duck Feet" (very clever) and it's from the book 50 Baby Bootees (Booties? I'm not sure how they spelled it) to Knit. It can be found at your local yarn store. I should just buy the whole book. I love booties. Hint, hint, anyone out there looking for Christmas shopping ideas for me. ;) just kidding


(but you know, not really)

they say the first step is admitting you have an addiction...

Well, I've got one. A big one. For Target. It's like some sort of sickness. And I find that a lot of my activities these days take place in the Okemos/Haslett area, which is close to where I work. I live in South Lansing, so when I have activities after work, I tend to just try and kill time between work and said activity. The problem with this, of course, is the Target across from the Meridian Mall. It just sucks me in. For example, this past Tuesday I was wandering around Target because I needed to buy a couple birthday cards. CARDS. Well, after about 40 minutes I walked out with some hair products, some body wash, the cards I went in for, a gift, and these:

Yes, feeding my Target addiction has a nasty habit of feeding my movie addiction. I had to really cut myself off from buying more than just those three, too. I spend a good 3 minutes arguing with myself over whether or not to buy myself the complete Sex and the City dvd set. My checkbook won in the end, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to hold out.

On the knitting front, progress is being made, sort of. Here's a picture of my bag for Intro to Aran class...although we'll call it the "after" picture. I was actually pretty far when I decided that I could use a little more practice (translation: I messed up and it was far more satisfying to rip it out than to spend the time trying to figure out where I messed up and how to fix it) so I'm starting the sides again. I like it a lot, I'm excited to have a finished bag soon! Of course I had to be a little bit of a problem child and change Sarah's pattern a little, but she didn't seem to mind and it makes me so much more excited to work on it!

Close up of the cables on the bottom:

And for now I'll leave you with this:

"I could think of things I never thought before. And then I'd sit and think some more..... if I only had a brain..."

Eureka!!

Phew! Just when I thought I was DEFINITELY going crazy (any comments about that can be kept to yourselves) I located the cord to my camera. For a reason that will probably remain a mystery to me, it was in the front pocket of the bag I take when I go somewhere overnight. Why would I have ever thought it necessary to pack the USB cable to my camera overnight? Your guess is as good as mine. But at least I found my cord...yay!

And now for the long-awaited slide show of knitted wonders....:)

I'm going to go in order of importance, least being first and best being last. You know what I mean.

I am (slowly but surely) knitting a dishcloth out of your typical Sugar N Spice or whatever it's called (cream n sugar? I don't know, it doesn't matter). Anyway, Andrea gave me these dishcloth patterns that I think are kind of interesting...this one is called Columns, and I think it's pretty (and we badly, badly need the dishcloths around here...it's lousy not having a dishwasher)

Next, are a pair of socks that started out with the intention of going to one friend, but Grace looked at them when I was halfway through and said, "I really like those. When are you going to knit something for me?" I politely reminded her of the ridiculous lacy shawl that took me SIX MONTHS to knit, but then she got pouty and said, "but that was a long time ago and you just finished knitting a blanket for Corene, so I should get the socks." What can I say, at the time it was a persuasive argument. Grace got the socks. Corene will get the next pair.

Now, I have no attention span for knitting one sock at a time, so I shelled out one day for 4 addi turbos in size 1 in order to knit them in pairs...however, the yarn (Opal handpaints, maybe? Opal something self-striping. Clearly I'm not too with it today on remembering what yarn I'm using) comes in 100g sizes (one ball= one pair of socks). So I took the two ends of the ball and wound them until they met in the middle. The result? The socks are mirror images of each other, which I think makes them look kind of cool and Grace didn't seem to mind. This was also a first attempt at the after thought heel, which I think looks about a hundred times better when the sock is actually on a foot (which is, of course, the best time to look at it). Next time I'll get really daring and go toe-up so whenever I get tired of them I can just stop and call it a day. Now if only I could figure out how to make the kitchener on the heel look a little neater at the ends...

Mirror images:

Finished product, modeled by the new owner:

And last but not least, the long awaited wedding afghan. The pattern for this is called "Pleated Afghan," which I got from my mother, and the yarn is Patons Decor (this one I'm sure of). It's a pretty simple pattern, but I think it makes a gorgeous blanket and I did I-cord edging along the sides, which looks nice and is easy to do as you go along, not to mention way easier for tucking ends in. And the Decor is so soft! It was VERY hard to give away. But I know Corene and Dan will like it and *hopefully* get lots of good use out of it.

This is a little blurry, but I wanted to show an up close picture of the stitches and how pretty the colors looked together with the way they pooled.



So there you have it...coming soon, duck feet baby booties for baby Allan, a pair (maybe) of socklets (what are they? you'll just have to wait and see), and whatever catches my attention to start next!

ahhhhhhh!

I STILL CAN'T FIND MY CAMERA CORD. I'M ABOUT TWO STEPS AWAY FROM FREAKING OUT.

But really, I'm ok. No, really.

I know, I know...

Yes, I know. It's been forever. You thought I deserted you. Several of you have yelled at me for it. But hey, I've been busy!

On October 8, my brother and his wife (well, more his wife, obviously) had their baby! Carter Allan finally showed up at 12:31am weighing 8lbs, 14oz. He's the cutest baby on the planet, of course, and I can't wait to see him again!

Work is busy because I don't know anything, but I'm learning!

Last weekend I went to see Amy's new house, which is incredibly cute and awesome and grownup. And it freaks me out a little, but then again I get a little more freaked out everytime someone I know buys a house, gets married, has a baby, etc.

Speaking of getting married, Corene's wedding is tomorrow! Her blanket was actually finished with like 3 weeks to spare, which is practically a miracle. :)

And lastly, I had all these pictures to show that I just took, of the blanket, the socks I'm making for Grace, this dishcloth I'm doing that's a cool looking pattern (I think) and the bottom of the bag I'm making in Sarah's Intro to Aran class...

...but I can't find the cord that connects the camera to the computer!!! aaaaahh. It's probably got something to do with the fact that my room is a total disaster area, but it's getting cleaned up by tonight, I swear. So pictures by the end of the weekend. I PROMISE.

Signing off :)

A satisfying sense of accomplishment

This week I did what I thought just a short time ago was impossible. I finished not one but TWO major projects this week. Major.

First, I finished the blanket for Corene and Dan's wedding next month. No pictures until after the wedding, however. Take my word that it's fan-freakin-tastic and a part of me wants to keep it for myself. People I know better stop getting married for awhile because after a little break I want the next afghan I knit to be for myself.

The second thing I finished (just minutes ago, actually) was my wallaby! It was, in fact, the second time I knit it. I got almost all the way through it once and decided that I didn't like the very bottom of the sweater so I ripped the whole thing out and started over. I then did a little knit along with Jessica, who was making a wallaby for Cameron (who is almost 3). It was a bit of a struggle at times, as I have a very short attention span and Jessica's was about 4 times smaller and therefore faster. But I persevered and I finally finished!



*Technically I used the pattern from Cottage Creations, but I change the bottom, the sleeves, the top and I didn't do the hood or the collar. It was, however, extremely helpful as far as the pocket goes.

Now it's time to get back to knitting baby things, assuming the baby ever decides to SHOW. (He was due the 25th, it is now the 29th. Patience is not my best virtue) :)

Go Cubs!

Hello to Stephanie, who found my blog through someone else and asked for the pattern that it came from.... and never let it be said that I don't take direction well:

As many know, I'm about to be an aunt (any day now, the due date is Sunday) and I've been knitting things like crazy...there was the sweater in July, a pair of booties that I made before I even started the blog, and I have about 12 more ideas. Basically, I'm completely out of control. But in a good way. Moving on...

First, here is a picture of said hat (it looks much bigger than it is, my little brother is holding it more in front than to the side. It's very small.)




The pattern is called "Ball Cap" by Pick Up Sticks! (I would imagine it can be found at www.pickupsticksonline.com I did things a little differently, however. Instead of knitting the cap and the brim separately, felting them separately and sewing them together, I picked up stitches and felted it as one piece. So, I didn't get the ridged effect you see in the picture on the pattern. Also, I thought the brim was a little too pointy (and I wanted a more rounded look, like a baseball cap) so after I felted the hat the first time, I trimmed the edge and felted it again. And that is how it became the hat it is today.

As for the letter, I just graphed a little gameplan to try and get as rounded of a "C" as possible (so it would look as Cubs-ish as possible) and the pattern said to double strand using a stem or outlining stitch. But since I'm garbage at embroidery and that phrase basically meant nothing to me no matter how many times I tried to figure out how to do it. So I took a single strand of the red and just duplicate stitched the "C". I don't really notice a huge difference after felting between the way my hat looked and the way the picture looked as far as the letter was concerned.

So that's that, the story of the hat. Oh, and I made the 2nd size. It gets pretty small and I definitely recommend finding a bowl or a pitcher or something to stretch it back out a little and get the shape you want.

And that's all, folks.

Somebody pinch me...

Let me refresh your memory.

For 2 years, I looked like this:


For the last week, I looked like this:


And NOW, as of around 9 this morning, I look like THIS:


Do you think I'm happy about having my braces off? Let me just say that so far food tastes better, the sun shines brighter, company is more enjoyable and everything just seems a little more pleasant.

Yes, I know. But allow me my one foolishly optimistic day of cliches and tomorrow I'll go back to my usual sarcastic self.

A blast from the past

As I was driving to work this morning, my heart almost stopped beating and exploded in my chest.

There, the car in front of me...

Was there something familiar about it??

There WAS. It was MR. UGLY! He lives on! I almost teared up...

For those of you unfamiliar, here is the back story on Mr. Ugly (for those of you who already know, feel free to skip to the end):

**********
When I turned 16, unfortunately my grandfather passed away (as is somewhat of a curse in our family when we turn 16). My grandmother decided to get a new car, and she negotiated a good deal with my dad so I could get her car. A red '89 Escort, that she effectively drove back and forth to the grocery store.

Anyway, one day at school I was having an argument with my friend Brandon (which was a frequent occurence) about whose car was less cool. I told him his car was pointless because it barely got him the 2 blocks between his house and school and the fabric on the ceiling was held up with push pins (seriously, imagine like 200 push pins holding up the top of your car). He very wittily replied, "yea? Well your car is ugly." To which our other friend Casey added, "yea, yea, your car is like MR. Ugly." The name stuck, despite all my efforts to fight it, and both the name and the car took on a life of their own. Everyone in my high school knew my car as "Mr. Ugly." For Christmas my freshman year in college my parents bought me a vanity plate for my car that said MR UGLY. Then the car became FAMOUS. My parents went to a restaurant and the waiter brought the check and asked, "who wants Mr. Ugly? haha, isn't that funny? I saw it on a license plate the other day." Pizza delivery men would never fail to comment on it, the fame even followed me to college. Two separate highway occasions:

1. A man pulled up next to me in order to scream, "HEY!!! I'M MISTER UGLY!!!" It's a good thing we were in moving cars, or he may have gotten fiesty.

2. I was passing a guy in a truck and as I'm almost past him he speeds up so he's keeping up with me. This always makes me nervous but eventually I look over and he's pointing at the back of my car with a huge smile on his face. So I slow down to get away from the creepy man and I see when I get behind him that his license plate says "UGLYMUG" He was just trying to be my buddy.

So you get the picture, he was famous.

Anyway, during my 3rd year of college, my little brother turned 16 and unfortunately, my grandmother died (the aforementioned curse) and I got her newer car, while Mr. Ugly was passed on to Sam. Sam drove him for two more years until he left for college and my parents donated Mr. Ugly to charity. It was a very sad day indeed, the end of an era...

**********

It was definitely him! He still had the US flag sticker underneath the top taillight, the dents on the driver's side door, the dent on the hood from the mailbox I hit when I was 19, a little bit of rust on the bottom of the driver's door.

It warms my heart to know he's still out there, truckin' along, carrying people to and fro.

I'll acknowledge that perhaps I'm a little over sentimental about this, but he was my first car, he's very dear to my heart, and it made my day to see he's still on the road. He's like the little Escort that could. :)

Ok, I'll stop now.

Oh and my braces come off in 38.25 hours. Yes!

beware, this post is not for the weak of stomach...

What is this frightening picture of?? A scary monster, coming to haunt your dreams? A sad little captive trying to break free? No, this is the rubber band configuration happening in my mouth for the next week until my braces come off. I'm trying to be optimistic enough to think that they just want you to REALLY appreciate having your braces off so they make it so completely miserable for the last week that you have them.

I count a total of 12 rubber bands I just removed in order to eat what my orthodontist laughingly refers to as the one meal a day I'm going to be eating for the next week. I believe the exact encounter went something like this:

"Now, you're going to be wearing spaghetti bands for the next week. You'll probably really only want to eat one big meal a day because they're kind of a pain. No, I'm joking. But really you might want to."

Nice.

Anyway, update on the job front: I love it, it's very interesting and somewhat overwhelming at this point. I think it'll all work out nicely once I get the hang of things!

Well, back to my one meal for today....

As promised, cool stuff to look at

Well, I've actually been a busy girl the last couple weeks, hence no posting. However, I did promise cool pictures once I got a battery in my camera, and lo and behold a battery is now in my camera!

First, progress on the wallaby. I'm up to the shoulders now, which is about where I got the last time I knit it and then ripped it out. It's looking pretty good, it's to the point where it needs to be split for the neck placket, so hopefully I will be able to wear it before too long!

Next: A friend of our family spent the last 8 months or so in Sweden studying hard and having interesting experiences. She came back a couple weeks ago and my mom and I went to hear all about her trip and look at all her pictures. We thought it would be nice to give her a little something to welcome her home, so I whipped up a little bag, which my mom filled with chocolates from Roma..yum!

Here is the bag and a close up of the stitch pattern. This is the staircase rib from 200 Knitted Blocks, which I bought a couple weeks ago when I was up north for another baby shower for Jamie. It's a great book, with lots of interesting ideas and I can't wait to do more blocks out of it!

Other than this I've been working on the top secret wedding gift for Corene and Dan, to be unveiled at the end of October, after I've given it to them.

In other news, on Friday I went to get my hair cut, only to suffer what was possibly the worst and most pointless haircut of my life. It was so bad, in fact, that I had to wear my hair in a ponytail for the entire weekend. There was at least an inch difference in length from one side to the other. Disaster. Luckily I called back on Tuesday to let them know it was clearly not going to work and they had me come in so someone else could cut my hair and I'm glad to say she did a fantastic job and I now have the haircut I originally asked for. And, in honor of a new season, I also decided to go red, so it's a whole new head of hair for me. :) I don't really have any pictures, because I was really not interested in documenting the travesty that was the first cut. Take my word for it, it was terrible.

My new job starts on Monday and I'm so so so excited!!! I can't wait to have somewhere to be Monday through Friday during business hours being all responsible and adult-like. Today I went and bought basically a whole new wardrobe in honor of it. Next stop: shoes.

Last but not least, a one day late happy birthday to Jenny and Marie, who turned 24 yesterday. We went to Royal Oak to have dinner and celebrate with them. It was tons o' fun and I wanted to give them a shout out on my blog. Happy birthday weekend, girls!

A productive member of society once more

First, my camera is currently suffering from lack of a battery, so no pictures at this time, but I do have an exciting announcement!

I GOT A JOB!

Today I was offered a job with WEYCO (a 3rd party administrator/employee benefits firm) as a flexible benefits specialist. I'll be starting at some point in September and I'm so excited!

Anyway, once my camera is back on track I'll put some cool pictures of some stuff up. I have no idea yet what that cool stuff will be, but rest assured it'll be worth the wait. ;)

I am a 7 course mosquito meal

I spent the last two days up north near Grayling at a cabin type place with some fine folks who work at MSU. My duty for the couple of days was to watch Cameron and hang out and get out of my house for a couple days, as I'm in danger of becoming a full-fledged hermit.

The trip was fun, and it ended up at a state park whose name escapes me for the moment, but we went to look at an old growth forest (very old, tall trees). The forest was cool and I'm sure I would have really enjoyed it were it not for the swarm of mosquitos eating me completely alive. My entire body itches, I'm not kidding.

Back home now, preparing for a garage sale that's being hosted by several different families (and some of us single folks as well) on Friday and Saturday, and I'm very tired. Also, having slept in a strange place with no air conditioning last night I will be very happy to see my bed tonight...

*yawn*

Victory Is Mine!!!!!

At last. A momentus occasion. A day two years in the making. A day that will live in my memory for years and years to come...

(pause for dramatic effect)

I'm getting my braces off September 21! Almost 2 years to the day that I first got them on. The level of happiness I felt leaving the orthodontist today cannot even be adequately described. I'm so excited.

Well, as my life is pretty boring this week, that's about all I have to say...

Cheers!