Beauty is in the eye of the land holder.

Having a steep, weed infested hill for a back yard isn't all bad!

Ian is set for a brilliant musical career!

Check out Ian's debut musical performance:



(just in case you can't tell, he's singing Wake Up Call by Maroon 5)

Also I have added a couple of albums on the side so go check them out!

A little randomness.

1. I have the Prize Dishcloths done. I will post pics soon and also mail them. But I am pretty lazy so "soon" is really relative.

2. Evidence I am an Idiot: Exhibit A: I was at the drive in bank machine and dropped my bank card in the slot where the parking brake is.

3. The weather has been really nice the last few days, hot enough to swim outside but not so hot as to be uncomfortable. I was thinking of taking Ian swimming but it got a little breezy. But tonight is the Bedford Days Kick Off Fireworks, so I think I might take him to that. We will go early and bring a picnic supper.

4. Evidence I am an Idiot: Exhibit B: I ordered pizza the other day and then I went and got my wallet and waited for the Pizza Guy to show up. When he finally appeared, I opened my wallet and no bank card inside. So I was tearing my house apart looking for it, dumping my purse, digging in pockets, etc and it was nowhere to be found. So I got the brilliant idea to jump in my car and drive the 100 metres to the mail box, with the pizza guy still standing there on what passes for my lawn. I got the mail, and lo and behold, a replacement bank card! Whew!! (the one I lost was the temporary one.) Good timing on the replacement card, there, Bank!

5. We are going to go camping this weekend, out by Pictou. It will be Ian's first time ever camping. I will be sure to take lots of pictures. I may even post them!

6. Evidence I am an Idiot: Exhibit C: I bought some camera batteries for the old Advantix camera. I swapped out the battery, and finished off the roll of film. Then I thought to myself, "well I don't want to run out the battery just sitting there, those little mini camera batteries are expensive!" so I opened the film drop in loading thingy and put the battery in. Then I shut it. Then I noticed the lens hadn't retracted so I was going to put the battery back in but try as I might, the door wouldn't pop open. I guess the battery was blocking the latch or something, but I don't understand because the battery is pretty small. Anyway, I thought maybe I could see how it opened if I took the back off. So I took the back off. and alas it wouldn't open, but it did give me a shock so bad it burned my finger. I threw dropped the camera and since it had no backing on, some pieces broke off. And I was very very afraid of picking it back up again so I sorta slid it into a ziploc bag. Maybe some day I can get it repaired. Who knows. Anyway, little camera batteries are NOT as expensive as overpriced, obsolete, panoramic cameras. JUST LEAVE THE BATTERY WHERE IT BELONGS, PEOPLE!

7. Verdict: Should I really be taking a small child camping?

It's really just an episode or two after supper folks, I swear!

I may have been watching too much House.


Ian has been telling his toys: "I'm sorry, there's no treatment."

And the winner is...

...Jillian! Who guessed Newhart! I put all the names in a bowl and let Ian pick. Also, all the names were great and I couldn't decide between them so I put those in the bowl and let Ian pick too. And he picked....Jillian! Woo Hoo! Only one parcel to mail!

It was completely random. I swear! If you have an issue, take it up with the Independant Review Board (aka Ian) although I have to warn you the conversation will go something like this:

Sore Loser: Why didn't you pick Me?
I.R.B: And Thomas goes on tracks?
Sore Loser: Wha? What are you talking about? Your choices were not fair!
I.R.B: And battery power Thomas wants to hang out with me? And that's a great idea?
Sore Loser: Are you even listening to me? I want to speak with your supervisor!
I.R.B: I want a snack. I want yogurt for a snack.
Sore Loser: AAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So the name chosen for my sweater is "Beryl". Who is my aunt. (Hi aunty!) But since I reserve the right to alter things to suit myself, I am going to alter this name. I am still battling ants around here, and although I have yet to find ants actually ON the sweater, I will hereby dub the sweater "Anty Beryl"

I will be shortly emailing my lucky double winner to discuss colour choices.

In other news, I got Ian registered for preschool this fall. I have to say, I didn't think I was a sappy, sentimental person but when I was looking around the school, and I saw the little classrooms and the little cubbies with the coats and backpacks, and pictured Ian on his first day with brand new sneakers on, bringing me home artwork to stick on the fridge, I got all choked up.He's not a baby anymore. He isn't even a toddler. He is preschool age! He's gonna have a cubby! I just brought him home from the "hopsital" yesterday! How can he be ready for a cubby?

He can't even get his pants on frontwards!

Time flows swiftly past.

So the questions have been flowing in... what the heck is a swift. Well folks, I have the answer. This:

is a swift. It clamps on a table, you put the skein of yarn on it and it spins around so you can wind it from a pretty but useless skein to a much more managable ball. Used in conjunction with a ball winder (which I also ordered because I decided I like centre pull yarn muffins best) you have all you need to prevent either a) trying to find a willing victim to hold yarn while you wind it, such as a husband, who seems to be conveniently absent (possibly avoiding holding my yarn? we will never know) b) putting it on the back of a chair or your feet and spending about 4 hours swearing and untangling the resulting mess or c) driving 25k into town to get them to wind it at the yarn store. Of course I could have avoided all this mess if I just bought all my yarn at Wal Mart but I am a complete yarn snob and I have a weakness for stuff that still smells like sheep.

Anyhoo!

I had to take Phoebe to the vet today. She hasn't been in several years and was due for a shot. She spazzed out and bit me. (I'll live. Although it was my yarn hand, it was conveniently not where the yarn goes.) We took her in the room and the nurse came in, and we coaxed her out of the case. Then she growled and hissed while she was weighed. (10 1/2 lbs. What a tubby tabby!) The nurse or whatever was starting to look nervous, and Phoebe jumped off the table and went and hid under a chair. There were literally clouds of fur coming off her. It didn't help that Ian thought it was hilarious and was banging and thumping to scare her worse. Then the actual vet came in and took one look at her and said, "well that's your problem. I can see why she is grumpy right there. Look at her colours. She is a tortie. They have behavioral issues"

So I guess she is genetically predisposed to being a psycho homicidal loony. Nice kitty!

Anyway, he said "no way I'm giving her this pill. You take it home and force it down her throat."

So looks like I am in for a fun evening!

(Someone better call me in the morning to see if I survived.)

World Wide Knit in Public Day

1. Theodore was full. So we will do it some other time in the summer. Maybe on a weekday. But WWKIP Day was fun, we went to the Spring Garden Library and sat on the lawn and they gave out prizes. I didn't win any. Because I suck. I mean, I seriously suck at draws. I have bad draw karma. I think there is a black hole with my name on it and when I enter draws it sucks away my entry.

Well maybe I shouldn't complain. I did win that LCD TV in a draw last year. But that doesn't count because it wasnt YARN and it wasn't TODAY.

Anyhoo.

I donated some hand knit dish cloths to the Byrony House, they were collecting food and household items. Then a lady was trying to show me how to do stranded knitting with two hands using my dishcloth-in-progress and I knit continental and honestly don't know how you right-handed folk do it because every time I try I have dropped needles sliding all over the place and my hands get all tangled up in the yarn and so on. Plus I think there is a good chance I knit weird because when other people do it, it looks really weird. So I couldn't tell what she was doing. But I pretended I did. Because I am socially clever that way. And then I went and sat quietly under a tree and tried to frog it back but that doesn't work well with slipped stitch colourwork and so I lost about 8 rows of knitting before I could get it back on the needles and then I broke the needle.

So I luckily had my sweater there and took it over to the crowd of people and I was knitting away and gabbing and I noticed my stitch marker had disappeared, the open ring one for marking the rows. I was like "great. I need a stitch marker now" then suddenly like a beam of light from the heavens above, the owner of The Loop was sauntering about handing out free stitch markers and percent off coupons! I was disproportionately excited! I went "woo hoo I REALLY needed this!" and marked my row and then I noticed the coupon and got even MORE excited because OMG I HAVE A SWIFT ON ORDER AND NOW IT WILL COST ME 15% LESS!

Could life be any more grand???

Plus I bought some hand painted wool/kid/nylon/silk blend from Lismore today but we don't need to talk about that do we?

Ahem.

I told the lady at the Farmers Market that I am officially CUT OFF FROM NOW ON, OK?


2. I never bothered to look it up chose the Darrell spelling as an homage. I didn't want to COPY. That would be bad. But who else thinks I should get another tetra and name it Darrell (pronounced da-RILL)? He could have a pony tail and be a really pretentious fish and a bad waiter.

Anybody?

No?

Ok, then.

(that joke was really hard to write out. It would be funnier if I said it to you.)

5. Who likes my evil plan to get more comments? Mwahahahahaha

6. I know I skipped 3 and 4 but I really didn't have anything further to say about those subjects.

Stuff to do...

1. Taking Ian downtown today. (fun to park!) We are going to the Farmers Market then I think a Theodore ride then it is World Wide Knit In Public Day so I will find a place to knit in public. Preferably eating my yummies from the market.

2. I got a bigger tank and a couple tetras and a snail. The snail is orange and is named Larry. Since I got the tetras at the same time, and they are orange too, they are all brothers. I named the tetras Darrell and Darrell. (not after your hubby, Adrienne) So if anybody comes over I can introduce them as such: Hi, this is Larry, this is his brother Darrell and this is his other brother Darrell. Whoever guesses what I am talking about could get a free dishcloth!

3. I got a gift card to The Loop and also some Birthday Money so I got all worked up and went down to buy a swift. But they had to order it in. I won't get it for a couple weeks. I have no idea what I will do until then. (Ok, lets be honest, I am going to make dishcloths. Plus I have a sweater to work on. I need to quit getting ahead of myself here)

4. Speaking of the sweater, it is about at my belt now. I need a better name for it than Sweater. Any suggestions? Whoever comes up with the best name for it wins....well not the sweater. How about a free dishcloth?

5. So I guess I am having a blog contest. Leave a comment on this blog, or on the Facebook note. (I think a feed goes to Ravelry too but I am pretty sketchy about checking that so I wouldn't recommend leaving a comment there) I will draw from correct answers for the fish and I will pick my favourite name for the sweater completely objectively. Contest closes, well, lets say Tuesday. I am gonna be all casual and junk. I will personally knit a dishcloth for you in the colour of your choice if you win and then mail it to you.

Well now that I got that off my chest, how about some pictures.

Sorry about the maudlin post. I really make an effort to keep this upbeat and positive (and honestly for the most part, that is how I feel) and I don't usually open up on here a whole lot. I have a lot of respect for the bloggers out there in bloggoland who do open up in their blogs. But I did have some good things to say so here we go.

Friday Ian and I went to Lawrencetown Beach. A bit nippy out, even though it was a warm day. Not a lot of wildlife there. We saw this:

And that was about it. One crab leg. Oh and about a dozen hot surfers. (I know Travis doesn't read this so I am allowed to write that, mwahahahaha!)

Actually, I don't know how anybody can call surfers at Lawrencetown "hot". After all the water was probably about 2 degrees Celsius. They had wetsuits on but still, their faces had to be freezing. And you can find them out there any time of the year. Yep, even January. Crazy.

Here are some more pics from the beach:

Ian pondering the infinite Atlantic:

Me attempting to be artistic. I thought the colours were pretty. But I couldn't see because of the glare on the camera. At least my finger isn't in the picture.

I also have a pic of a humongous boat we saw on the waterfront. Yep, it took me 3 pics to get the whole thing:

That was the day we took the Dartmouth ferry into the town, and spent my pennies bumming around. Halifax from the ferry, featuring the back of Ian's head:

I spent the first half of that ferry ride frogging a dishcloth and the second half trying not to throw up. Yep, I have major problems with seasickness. It is my only weakness. My kryptonite, if you will. I got queasy in a display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic once. And one time I almost barfed PARKED NEXT TO the ocean. And one time Travis took me for a day sail on the Freddy and I was sick all day. So sick in fact, that I drank water and when I barfed it was still cold. :::shudder:::

Ahem.

Back to the pics.

Here are some shots of Ian, who just learned to ride his tricycle. Pedaling is fun!

And for those of you who wanted a better look at a June bug (because I know there are millions), I trapped this one between the window and the screen and in the morning caught it in a jar. It was a little stunned, and it just sat there for a while and then it died. I threw it in the driveway and the next day some ants were eating it. Here is my Buddy:

Sorry it is so blurry. And yes, that is a quarter.

Here are some uber-hot pics of me modelling my sweater. It is actually about 6 inches longer now but I don't feel like taking more pics.

I actually posted these pictures as a warning, people. These are examples of how to not:

1. Model

2. Photograph a model

3. Decorate

4. Do your hair.

Oh well. At least I had pants on.

And finally, here are pics of me and my friend Beth all gussied up for my birthday.

I actually had a lot of fun. I stole the kids menu from Bubbles Mansion (That place is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING how I expected, also be careful of the link it has a loud song that isn't really workplace appropriate.); the oldest anybody guessed my age was 23 (go chubby girl who never ever goes out in the sun and is too lazy to wear makeup most of the time!) and I discovered that drinks cost a HELL of a lot more than when I started going out to the bar. Like, frig, dudes! WTF?

So that was my week (give or take) in Pictures. Hope you liked it!

What a week.

I know I haven't been posting much the last few days but the weather has been really nice and we have been enjoying ourselves immensely. I had a BBQ on Wednesday, which was my very uneventful 30th birthday. Then on Saturday a friend and I went out to celebrate. We had a pretty good time but I have to say it is bothering me a lot that nobody else came. I have friends and family back home who would have come if it were closer, and I totally understand that. But I have lived in Halifax for six and a half years now and I could only find one (1) person to come out with me on my thirtieth birthday. That really says a lot about me I think. I don't know what it says but I do know that some changes have to be made.

I don't think I am a bitch or anything. (I hope I am not) I think I am just way too timid. Weird to imagine, because people who do know me know I never ever shut up and also I can be very loud and obnoxious sometimes. But when I meet people, I don't know how to take it from small talk to actually hanging out and becoming friends with people.

What I would really like is a group of about four or five people I can get to know and hang out with and be myself around. But it seems like everybody already has their group made up. Even when I do meet people and hang out it always seems like I am kind of inviting myself along and so I spend most of my time feeling like they just let me be there to be polite. It doesn't help that nobody ever calls me or calls me back, and most people don't follow through when they say they are going to do something. And I don't want to be that person who has to call all the time and say "Hey, you said you wanted to go do such and such did you still want to?" because most of the time the answer is "no my cat died" or "my sister has her practice for her wedding hair that day" or whatever. I hate nagging people and feeling like a stalker.

Anyway I really am sick of not having very many friends or any kind of a social life. I need to do something about it, before I lose my mind. Because at this rate, the only party I am going to have will be a pity party.

An open letter to the Weather Guy

Dear Weather Guy

Are you just trying to make yourself look better? That is the only explanation. Why else can I look at the long term forecast for a particular day and Lo! It is Sunny! But as the day draws closer and closer the it becomes slightly cooler, then partially cloudy, then the day before my long-awaited outdoor event, it is showing storm warnings, tornadoes, hail, hurricanes, and 37cm of snow. By then I have already packed the car full of camping equipment/waterskis/beach umbrella and have got my kid all excited about Having Fun.

I can understand that you can't really predict the weather more than a few days ahead, but couldn't you just put rain on the forecast? That way we will all be pleasantly surprised when you are wrong instead of plotting your downfall.

Thanks.

Your fair-weather friend,
Leoal