Really....I'm alive

I know there must have been some discussion, but I'm here to put that to rest...I'm alive, and I escaped the kidnappers so don't send that ransom you were asked for. Seriously, I've been a very bad blogger and haven't kept you all up to date on what's happening in my life. So, I'm going to try and quickly bring you up to date and then try very hard to blog more then once every 6 months.

First, I got a contract job and that seems to have taken up more of my time then I'd like. Maybe time isn't the right word, maybe energy is. I'm coming to realize that the RA doesn't always allow me the same energy level that I think I have. So some things fall by the wayside. However, I've loved working at this job and was excited when my contract was extended to the end of March. Of course that means I now have to start looking for the next job, but that's ok too.

Since my last post I've seen
With my friend Kathe. We had a blast! What a great show.

I've managed to finish a few knitting projects, including a cute beret that I wore to work yesterday but that I don't have pictures of it yet. I also finished a stole/scarf and no there aren't any pictures of that. I've been working on a "super secret project" for about 2 weeks now. It's coming along, but slower then I had hoped it would.

As usual I went to hang out with my friends at a stitching retreat in October. We were back in Hilton Head again and had a great time together. One of the classes we were supposed to learn how to make scrimshaw. I learned that I'm not going to be making much of it myself and that I now appreciate the cost much more. While there my DF Heather helped me do the finishing for Halloween Fairy. Isn't she pretty?

Christmas was our usual decorating craziness with our open house on Christmas Eve thrown in. Then Christmas Day we went down to the church to have dinner with at the community dinner and hang out with everyone down there.

New Year's Day found me down at the Gator Bowl to say farewell to my beloved Coach Bowden. We had a great time and I admit I got teary eyed several times. The city did a fantastic job of sending him off in style. AND the team pulled together and got a win over WVU.Did I mention it was cold and rainy that day? It was, but we bundled up and had fun. I even managed to wear a new hat I'd knitted that week AND my HP/FSU scarf. (Jill & I above at the game.)

In January I took a trip up to Atlanta to spend time with my friend Jean (a.k.a. Doxietrek) for her birthday. It snowed, and more importantly the roads iced up so we spent a couple of days just hanging at her house. Our friend Ann had come in from TN so we stitched, knit and played some Wii games. Apparently it was news to Jean that I'm a tad bit competitive. But it did let me figure out that I like the Wii, so when I got home I ordered one as a late Christmas present. Having fun with it.

That's about covers the high points. I'll leave you with a gratuitous picture of my fireplace this Christmas. Had to put new lights on the garland and went with LEDs. Love the way they look, especially with the flowers I used.

Have you ever noticed...

...how very fast weekends go? I mean really. It was Friday, then it was Monday morning and it felt like only one day passed by. I think part of that is I went to the last FSU home football game Saturday, so not a whole lot got accomplished and I wasn't home so the weekend felt short.

Speaking of football. Like a lot of good southern girls I love college football. (Ok, I love most any kind of football, little kids, pro, high school, it's all good.) College football has traditions. Some are really amazing traditions. I don't care what team you root for you have to love the traditions that surround the game. Things like the "Power T", the Mountaineer firing his gun, the Trojan horse, yeah, even the Gator chomp, they're traditions. My alma mater has a few of it's own and one of them involves a guy named Osceola, a horse named Renegade and a flaming spear. Saturday was the last time the young man who has portrayed Osceola rode Renegade. He's graduating either next month or in the spring. Next year a new student will become Osceola. I love that the clothes Osceola wears are the genuine article. Made by the Florida Seminole tribe for the student who portrays our mascot.
Saturday was a noon start, but it was still great. I'm always a little sad after the last home game of the season. This year is no different. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was perfect. We had a cool fly-over after the National Anthem by the Coast Guard.(I actually remembered my camera, with the battery and a flash card so I could take some pictures.) The home team won, giving Bobby Bowden his 300th win at FSU. To celebrate that milestone, we went by the statue and had our picture taken.(That's my friend Selena on the left.) Oh, and actually we didn't realize that Bobby had reached such a milestone, that just sounds better then we were walking back to the car by way of the sod cemetery and decided "hey we're so close to the B.B. statue, let's go check it out!"

This leads me to the fact that the folks at AllState have a T.V. ad that features this statue. It's a funny ad, but I have a problem with it. You can tell it's not taken anywhere near our stadium. Heck, it doesn't even look like our stadium. (And before anyone says anything, I realize that there's a reason for that. Allstate paid to use Bobby Bowden's name and likeness, but didn't pay the university to use our colors or shots at our actual school, which is kind of funny, since they obviously had to pay someone to use the facade of a stadium, so why not pay the university, that's if they could of course, which I'm not sure they could.) So, here's a still shot of the car hitting the statue, since apparently everyone in the country hasn't seen this, and hey, I'm trying to make a point, which is hard without visuals.
At least they got the statue almost exactly the same. That's something I guess.

Enough of that, on to what I actually accomplished this weekend. I did manage to do some knitting on the way over and back from the game. Selena drove, so I knitted.This is what I knitted. I didn't actually finish it, I did that while watching some of the last NASCAR race of the 2007 season. (Another milestone for the year, which my friend Jean is mourning far harder then I am since she's a bigger fan then me. Don't worry Jean, Daytona is only 3 months away.) Anyway, this is another dishcloth from the patterns I get monthly as part of the Dishcloth club Knitwitz has. This has to be my favorite pattern so far. It was very easy, and went really fast. I like it so much I started another in a skein of Peaches & Creme I had picked up on sale somewhere. The new one is variegated and it's turning out so pretty.

Christmas decorating continued, or at least preperations for decorating continued. Today we managed to unpack 2 boxes of Santa Clauses. There's a story that goes with this, but I'll save that for later in the week, maybe tomorrow. This post has gone on way to long as it is without adding that to the mix.

(Isn't it funny how things happen? I was typing this in and got an email from my friend Angie who moved to Texas with her husband a couple of years ago. I miss Angie and her DH Frank. Anyway, she sent me this hilarious email about the differences between football in the north and football in the south. It was funny and scarily, somewhat true.)

Homecoming and Yarn Sales

On the surface these two things do have anything in common, however this weekend they seemed to go together quite well.

Friday I headed over to Tallahassee for FSU's Homecoming weekend. Got a later start then I wanted, but still made it in time to pick up sweet Anna and take her to dinner. (Anna is a "former" youth at my church and her mom & I are friends.) It may have been a few years since I was a student at FSU as Anna is, I still remember that it's fun to get visitors, especially if they will feed you. Mind you all my visitors were my parents, but that's not the point here. We had a good meal and she caught me up on her classes and told me about the mission trip she hopes to go on this spring/summer to Africa.

After I dropped Anna back at her dorm, I headed over to the friends home where Jill & I were fortunate enough to stay this weekend. Gregg & Traci are actually friend's of Jill's, but I like to think they've become my friends as well. They are both wonderful and have a lovely home. Jill was late getting in because of how late she left work, but that have G, T & I time to sit and talk. Mainly about books, but I'm sure there were other subjects. Jill arrived quite late, so the next morning we got kind of a late start, but all 4 of use went to breakfast and I proceeded to stuff myself with yummy food that wasn't exactly the most healthful choice.

Traci had a massage appointment (lucky Traci, sounded like a fantastic idea), so we dropped her off then decided, fairly spur of the moment to check out a yarn store Gregg knew about. (Ok, backstory, Gregg is a potter, so he totally gets the whole tactile thing with yarn and fibers. This is a good thing. Plus he knows the husband of the woman who owns the store.)

It's been years since I was over in what is now Railroad Square Art Park. It's a bit different, but still has that great funky feel you get in college towns. (If you click on the link you get to see some of the great places in the park and even a shot of yarn at the store.) The store is named Really Knit Stuff and is lovely, as is the proprietress Paula. I highly recommend stopping in and visiting this great store. There were some ladies knitting at the table in the shop and they were happy to have us sit down with them and chat while Paula wound our yarn. Yes, we bought yarn! Of course we did. And I have pictures. They are all separated because I'm trying to upload my stash to Ravelry and figured I could start with the new stuff coming in the door.

First the sock yarns...(I know, I know, sock yarns mean I should knit more socks. Well give me a chance will you.)

Lovely Loden from Cherry Tree Hill

Yummy Tea Green, also from Cherry Tree Hill.

And last, but by no means least, Serengeti, by you guessed it Cherry Tree Hill.

Let me explain why I HAD to get the first 2 (because I'm sure you can see by the loveliness of the 3rd why I had to get it. I mean really, it's fabulous. So fab that Jill also bought some.) You see there was a sale and I can't pass up a good sale and let's just say, they ended up being a price I couldn't turn down.


Lastly I bought 2 skeins of a "new to me" yarn from Barlett Yarns. It's loverly! I'm not sure exactly what I'll make, but I totally saw it as a purse of some sort, probably a cable somewhere in it. The 2 skeins will give me 420 yards and at 5.60 each skein after the sale, that's awesome. Oh, the color is called Lovat. (What a great Scot-inspiring name. The picture doesn't show the tweediness of this yarn and you certainly can't smell the great wool smell.) It's just wonderful. Can't wait to see how it knits up.

Well that's the knitting haul from the weekend. The evening was capped off by a win in football by my alma mater. As is our tradition, Jill & I stuck around after the game to watch The Marching Chiefs perform their post-Homecoming game show. They always end with "The Hymn to the Garnet and the Gold" which I like a lot more then our actual alma mater song. It totally caps off Homecoming for me. So glad we decided to stick around.

Came home today to some chores, mainly laundry. I'm also a bit behind in getting my Hogwarts sock finished. All this travel has not been as conducive to knitting as I thought it would be. It would be so much easier if I could knit and drive at the same time, but alas I've not figured out how.