Doodle Nugget, You Rule

The big #35 is on the horizon. There is much reason to celebrate! YAY! I have a husband that I ADORE! Friends that I LOVE! A job that RULES! A house that is SOUND! A family and an extended family that KICKS ALL SORTS OF ASS! YAY! Life is good! Yet there is one incomplete piece. Offspring. Something the dudeman and I have contemplating quite a bit lately. I ain't getting any younger. And although we've RARELY ever argued about (evil word) MONEY, it's a stresser when we start thinking about Offspring. Currently we are DINKS (squared) - our two regular jobs, plus doing the things we love for fun and fun money - him - Coast Guard Reservist - me - yarn store fill-in. If there is offspring we may cut our income by at least 1/2. It's a scary proposition and for someone who as independently fierce as me, its kinda terrifying. How do I justify yarn purchases? How does he justify $20 "volleyball socks"? (They have "special" gel inserts.) We are extremly lucky to have the life that we have, but we have made a commitment to have a debt-free life (**excluding house and vehicle payments.) We don't live extravagantly, but we certainly don't sweat the small things. This will change. And just when I get really spun up about it, Flynno delivers this:



He tells me they are shaped like hearts.

And suddenly, it's all alright.

The biggest, baddest, most dangerous slip-n-slide west of the Missip

Awww Yeah!

The opposite of Eye Candy

Yes, I know - this is bending the Eye Candy Friday rules. But I need a new battery for my camera - it wants to die after every dozen pictures - so you get the pictures of the tragedy of my home. No eye candy here!

First up - my desk.

Good Lord, how do I live with myself? Bear in mind, I've only opted to show you one horizontal surface. I couldn't bring myself to photograph the others in the office. Fortunately I have some motivation to clean this off. Flynno's grandma is coming over tomorrow morning to get help with posting things on e-bay. There's no way this kind of mess can be here when the Grandma K comes to visit!

Next up - my "vegetable drawer". Apparently sometime earlier this year (I have no idea when) I thought it was a good idea to dedicate a drawer in the kitchen to root and hard skinned vegetables. Then, I promptly forgot about it. Before the "dedication" that drawer was for my hubby's snowboarding / recreational snacks (trail mix, jerky, Cliff bars, etc) - he kept the drawer stocked so when he had a spur-of-the-moment chance to go do something fun he could just grab and go. Isn't it weird how time can be just a blur. I have no idea what happened to Flynno's goodie drawer. But I did find this when I was looking for a place to store my huge Trader Joes haul of nuts and dried fruit:

Gah! WTF?

And then finally, there's this:

Which was reduced to this and then this a couple of weekends ago.


There was no question we needed to start over. The soil was so compacted and hard that even in the rainiest season you would find bone-dry dirt just a couple inches down. Rather than till it all under we opted to rent a sod cutter and shave off the top layer. This weekend we are covering it with plastic so it doesn't get weedy (its previous state). Then we'll truck in sand to till into the soil (there's a lot of clay) and then bit by bit over the winter we'll add several inches of compost and topsoil to get it ready for spring planting. What a job! Oh, and everything else in the yard is coming out except for the Japanese maple. The plan is to have much wider planting beds, a fence and less grass. We have our work cut out for us!

Where does the time go?

I'm back from a no-good-reason hiatus. Hello again! There has been knittage! First, I present two ballband warshrags for the Hilltop contest.

I whipped these babies out in record time (well, for me) but my attention was soon diverted to Ariann.

Oh, Ariann, I have a crush on you!


And close-up, just for you, Saltwater Purls!


For this photo I probably stretched this out a wee bigger than it will be when blocked . I think my yarn overs look looser than the sample on Bonne Marie's page - and looser than some of the others showing up on the KAL. Still, my gauge is fine so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this fits. If anything, it will end up a bit big (I think) and I'd rather have that than too tight. I'm really enjoying working with this yarn and I am loving this heathered "spruce" color in Rowan Kid Classic. I'm only one skein of 7 into it, so I've got a ways to go...

Next, is the one-skein Alchemy scarf from the most gorgeous colorway...

This picture makes it look like some weird stocking. I'll have to find a more suitable place to take the finished shot. Oh, and the flash photography really doesn't do this yarn justice.

Tomorrow you get to see pictures of the massive yard project we've been working on.

TTFN!