Warning: Random Post Ahead

Hello, I know it has been a while, but there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Last Saturday we celebrated DH's 34th birthday with his mom and nephew(she is his guardian) by eating at Cracker Barrel, good food. We had fun.

Earlier we had bought me and her new cell phones. I had been using an old brick that was a few years old. DH is a computer tech and is fairly savvy about any electronic gadgets so mil wanted his help too. We both ended up getting a motorazr, so we can use it as an mp3 player as well. Pretty neat phone, I spent all of an evening downloading pictures and adding them to everyone's contact info. Haven't quite worked out how to convert songs into ringtones, but working on it.

Speaking of DH, I'll probably start calling him by his online handle, Techpriest, because he fixes it and prays it works. He has been going by that now for longer than I've know him. Actually, I've been going by Faren online for longer than I've known him too. While reading Robert Jordan's Eye of the World I came across the mention of a farmer who had my last name (maiden), his first name was Faren, loved the sound of it and decided it use it.

The place seems quieter without Tika around, even though she hadn't been able to get into trouble in quite a while. Raffles is doing good, still sleeping all the time, just wakes up to eat and poop seems like. It will be really quiet when he is gone.

Marianne had asked a couple of days ago whether it had rained much here lately. I told her no. It seems as soon as I said that it started raining. Yesterday it poured down. Hard enough to flood the apartment. Again. This has apparently been the wettest spring in thirteen years here. All the rivers are still very high from the last series of rains. Everyone's basements have flooded, I just happen to live in one. Hutchinson has flooded even worse, two of my friends have had two and four feet of water in their basement. Both lost their water heater and one lost the blower to the central heating unit, which means no air conditioning. So I suppose I could have had it much worse, but it is hard to remember that when all the rooms in the apt. have water in them and you have to keep going from one to the other to keep up with it. Yesterday I was ready to move, but we really can't. The rent is cheap, we are in a good neighborhood, the neighbors in the other apartments are nice, and we can keep Raffles here. It is a pain to find somewhere that will let you keep pets. And we are hoping next spring isn't quite so bad.

It is also very cool down here, I've seen it be 10 degrees cooler than it is outside. But sometimes I swear everything is just slightly damp it is so humid. That has been getting on my nerves too, but Techpriest borrowed a dehumidifier today and it has already made such a huge difference! I'm amazed. So yeah, I feel better about the place than I did yesterday, what a difference a day makes. There really are many pluses to this place.

Sunday I cleaned off the sewing cabinet, one set of crafting shelves, the computer room closet, and a set of shelves in the kitchen. These spots just collect junk that don't belong there. So I got them under control for a while.

Techpriest bought me a couple of Red Dwarf books, so I've been reading them. They are good, but I think I like the TV show better. If anyone is interested, let my know and I'll let you have them for what he paid for them.

Not much knitting going on. I finished using the leftover yarn from Nathan's sweater for squares for Greensburg, and I just haven't moved on to anything else. I found some different instructions for short row heels, but just haven't sat down and got it done. I'm going to have to really pay attention, and all I've really wanted was mindless knitting while watching tv. I plan on doing it tomorrow, but we shall see.

Gratuitous Nathan Picture of the Day!

I love this picture of Nathan with his Daddy(my big brother)

Tika

Tika just passed away. I thought she was going to go sometime in the night, but she was still here when DH got up at 5 to check on her. She was still hanging on before he left for work at 8:30. After I finally talk him into putting her to sleep, she is gone when I check on her before calling the vet.

I feel guilty because I wasn't holding her, but I was getting ready to take her to the vet. Yesterday she wasn't eating or drinking at all, she would move her head away from it. When we got back from the circus, she had somehow managed to crawl on top of the blankets(without disturbing them at all, I found it very strange) and was so cold and unresponsive. If we had been gone a little longer she might have died then. She finally warmed by after using the rice pack over and over. We did hold her all last evening. She was so unresponsive DH thought she was in a coma, she might have been. He figured if she wasn't in pain not to put her to sleep, but I just hated to see her that way.

We certainly will miss her. To see more pictures and read more stories about her go here.

Can't sleep, the clowns will get me!

Well, I finished Nathan's baby sweater this weekend. It would look better on a model, but I made it big so it would fit him this winter, so it wouldn't fit anyway, even if he was around.
Project: Nathan's Baby Sweater
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Jelli Beanz
Pattern: Plymouth Yarns Hooded Baby Sweater
Needles: size 9 KnitPicks Options
I made this through a class offered by Yarns in Salina, very helpful, I learned a lot, I also forgot a lot. There are still plenty of mistakes in it, but I'm not going to tell! That way Miranda might not notice them. She is a crocheter though, so she might figure some of them out. It is still cute though, and wearable, so that is all that matters, right? The buttons are adorable too! They have a black outline of a car on them. There certainly were a lot of ends to weave in, it will be awhile before I make something that is more than one color!




I finished this not to long ago, love the celtic knotwork. Isn't the piping pretty? It would hold a checkbook or two. The only problem is the cards keep falling out, any ideas? Either how to fix this one or for future wallets?

I was able to finish the sweater because I was fed up with Miranda's sock, actually the heel. I've only ripped it out twice, compared to the toe's 3 times, but I just couldn't take anymore! I thought I had it figured out when I noticed one side has holes...just one side. If it had been both sides I might have left it, they aren't very big holes, they are almost decorative. They are on the side where I knit the wraps with the stitch. I was looking at the Sockapalozza site and noticed that a lot of the short row heels have them. So any idea on what I should do and how I should do it? I intend to look it up on the web, I just haven't felt up to it. Ignoring the sock has allowed me to finish the sweater and another square for Greensburg so that is something.

Today was laundry day again, no horrible parents today, though there was some circus clowns...actually I don't know if they were clowns, but they were from the circus. Across from the laundromat they were sitting up the big tent, I think the whole town came out for that because the elephants were helping. Anyway, the laundromat was full, apparently the circus does it's laundry on Tuesdays too. I had to wait for dryers, but not to big a deal. Then we went to the afternoon show. I was surprised McPherson could get such a big circus. They were really good, acrobats, high wire acts, horses, and the elephants of course, it was a long show too. In the petting zoo they had some llamas and alpacas too, and even a hippo, though you couldn't pet him.
We had a good time.

Gratuitous baby picture

Sorry this post has so many run on sentences and who knows what else, but I wanted to post, and my brain just is not working very well right now. I think it might be time to go to sleep!