Just a sneak peak

So I was finally able to get my yarn today to start the Oh Deer Mittens. I got it this morning but I wasn't able to start them until this evening because I had to finish up a present that's going out in the mail tomorrow. It's a surprise just for fun for someone dear to my heart, and that's all I'll say about that.

I've been itching to cast them on and terrified at the exact same time. I still feel like I have no idea what the hell I'm doing with knitting and these babies are really intricate on small needles. Pray for me.

People always tell me what an excellent knitter I am and maybe it has to do with how well I discount myself but I think the stuff I can do is really plain and simple. These mittens seem so advanced to me that I'm a little terrified taking them on, but all knitting projects that include something that I've never done before do this to me so apparently it's just me. Neuroses at work people.

I'm only on the fourth row of the corrugated knitting on the cuff. (Not that that means anything to you, it's more for me if I forget my place in the morning. You're welcome.) But here's what it looks like so far. Also, the colors are not actually that abrasive.

These are the actual colors.

And a picture of the store front of the knitting shop we went to this morning because I thought it was funny and endearing.

Okay, I so need to go to bed now. Night all.

I'm pretty sure of a few things right now.

Like how Dakota Skye is my new favorite movie.

One of the lovely things about Netflix streaming is that you get to watch movies that if you actually had to go out and rent them you probably wouldn't. Not that they don't look appealing but because you don't know anything about them and you don't always want to take that chance. But Netflix streaming? Same price for as many movies as you want so the ability to take a risk (movie wise) goes up.

I don't know why I love this movie. Well I do, they really made you feel the human connection in this movie and you don't necessarily get that in a lot of movies. Especially in little small independent indie movies. Well, at least for me.

And bam.

Alice gloves are back, and kinda with a vengeance too. I made the complete pair over the weekend and the one on the needles I did 7/8th of today and I'll cast off tonight. I was going to make these for my family for Christmas but I didn't plan on everything else taking up so much of my time so it didn't happen. But don't worry, they got Christmas presents and they're all fine.

I'm waiting until Friday to buy the yarn for these.

Pattern by Natalie Selles.

Because I really, really want to make them. And even though I don't do mittens, or Latvian colorwork I really want to attempt it (Please check back for my complete frustration) because I love, love, love them. And I keep looking at them and the urge to knit them isn't dissipating.

Happy Tuesday all.

In which I find the solution to the problem

I've had my trusty little macbook since August of 2006. Sure we've had a few problems but for the most part it's been great. Yes, there was the massive crash in November of 2009 (luckily I had Apple Care and they completely replaced my hard drive for free, and yes, I had been backing up regularly thank you very much), and my built in webcam stopped working (that was an easy quick fix that also cost me nothing when I took it into Apple), but besides that it's been smooth sailing.

Okay well that's kind of a lie. I've known that my CD drive has been going down hill for a while now and I've been pretty loathe to do anything about it. I saw it slowly die and kept telling myself everything was fine. But now I really can't do anything more but own up to the fact that it's gone and if I want to have one in this computer I would need to replace it.

I'm finally owning up to this fact because I haven't updated my Mac software in a while. I was pretending that everything was fine, I had Leopard and that was good enough for me. That was until they recently release Lion and now I was two behind and I was suddenly unable to do some stuff (not a lot but enough to know I was starting to be hindered).

I'm owning up to it because you have to install software updates in order otherwise they won't work and I had to buy Snow Leopard and install it, (bum bum bum) with a disc. I even went so far as to delude myself that if I bought the disc the CD drive would work. You know "If you build it they will come." except it didn't happen anything like that. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

So after Christmas I finally broke down and bought Snow Leopard (I talk about it like it's so expensive and it's not, it's actually really reasonably priced. I talk about it like this mainly because I didn't want to admit my CD drive had bit it.) and it recently came.

When I got it I even remember unwrapping it and thinking legitimately that my CD drive would pull through for me just this one time so I could install Snow Leopard. (Because after Snow Leopard you can just download the new software installs. I literally just had to get through one more software update and I could be free of my CD drive forever.) So there I sat defiantly shoving the install CD in the drive and watching as it instantly popped right back out. Over and over and over again.
(I did mention I had deluded myself right?)

See? Legitimate copy.

So then I finally thought, there has to be a better way. So I looked up how to install Snow Leopard a different way and low and behold there was an easy way to upload it from a usb drive. I "found" a copy I was able to do this with and with a little help from a tutorial (okay, who am I kidding I followed it to the T) I now have Snow Leopard!

Okay so that's my exciting news for the night but now I must go to bed (don't forget I am three hours ahead).

Oh, and I totally forgot Vampire Diaries is back on the air and I can't wait to watch it in the morning! (Too much? Oh well.)

Night all. :)

You must read this.

Um, not this post. I think I need to learn how to title better. Or stop over analyzing. One of those.

Anyway.

This is going to be a throw back to world events that happened in 2003. You know the whole we invaded Iraq based on a flimsy accusation of WMD.

I never agreed with the war in the first place but I pretty much tuned out the nitty gritty details of it. I knew it was going on, saw the night fire fights in Baghdad and the city burning. I knew the whole cluster fuck we made of their government but that's where I stopped. I didn't want the view point that the tv was going to give me of the politicians involved because our government was going to give us their version and not necessarily the truth.

I remember having a discussion over dinner with my family during the summer that this was all going on and I expressed a point of view that really got me nailed to the wall. I'm going to share it with you in a second, but first I want to give a disclaimer.

I am very highly supportive of the US troops, several are dear close family friends. I appreciate and am in awe of the sacrifices they make every day to keep us here safe.

With that said, I think that the other side of war needs a voice too. While our troops protect us, they also cause what we have benignly termed "collateral damage". These are people's lives, not buildings or other inanimate objects. Living breathing people.

So anyway at dinner I stated that I felt badly and really abhorred all the innocent lives that we had taken simply because we were looking for WMD. I know it's not that simple, I really do. But it makes me angry that we raid people's homes, take their possessions, and mistakenly shoot people or create situations in which innocent people are killed which wouldn't have happened if we weren't in that country. My family took this as I didn't support our troops because I said that I hated what they did. These are two different subjects entirely in my mind.

Please don't mistake my support for our troops, I just really hate war and all the horrible atrocities that happen because of it. No matter what side it's on.

Well, (I know we're finally getting to my main point, sorry for my long winded POV) I'm finally getting an inside view of Iraq during that period of time. It was written by a Iraqi woman (who anonymously named herself Riverbend) during the Iraq war and part of her blog has been made into two books (which I recently found, obviously). But you don't have to buy the books (you can to support her) but you can still read everything she wrote on her blog because it's still up at http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com.

I encourage you to read it, even just a little. I've just started and I really want to read the whole thing but I can tell you it's going to be an undertaking.  For me it's important because I find it riveting, I love reading her honest point of view and I can see what actually happened during this period of time. She's not always going to write nice things about us as American's and I'm okay with that. I don't mind seeing both sides of the coin. I hope you do too.

Also as a complete side note I recently joined a site called www.goodreads.com where you can post the books you've read and are reading and find good suggestions for next books to read. You can link up with friends profiles to get more suggestions and to see what they thought of books. If you already are on good reads and want to link profiles or want to join and do so just let me know.

Happy New Year. Here's to a fantastic year.

In which we talk about chicken

I know, I know. We're so close to the holidays and I'm sure you're thinking "why the @#$% are we talking about chicken". Well my friends, this year the holidays seem a bit surreal, as in it's the 21st today and I still cannot correlate that that means Christmas is literally four days away.

I chalk it up to that we have moved this month, I started a new job, and in putting stuff away we've pared down and donated a lot of stuff we didn't use. All which has taken a lot of time and my tree is still in a box. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays but this year there's been so much upheaval (not to mention the close to 60 degree weather we've had of late (and I'm so not joking) out here on the East Coast) that there really hasn't been enough time to absorb that Christmas is practically upon us.

But now, back to the chicken. (I know, this is so not important to you)

The West Coast knows what a real chicken looks like. One that's a good size with normal size portions of white and dark meat.

The East Coast... not so much. Our choices have been between Cornish Game Hens, chickens that look like Cornish Game Hens or turkeys. (They do give us the option of large and small turkeys, but they're still the size of well, turkeys.) How generous of them. No one carries normal looking chickens.

And now I know what you're thinking. Why the hell doesn't she just buy the boneless, skinless chicken breasts like the rest of us?! Because, I have a chef for a husband and it's easier (and cheaper) to break down whole chickens. He's shown me numerous times but I pretend to have amnesia every time and still make him do it.

We have gone to numerous grocery stores trying to find normal looking chickens where the meat isn't tough and old when you cook it. We're still looking, pray for us, it is Christmas time. ;)

Normal West Coast Chicken:

Abnormal East Coast chickens:

Okay fine, that is actually a Cornish Game Hen, but this is simply a visual example.

Well looky at you.

You're so special you're getting two posts tonight.

This might be more of a bitch session, just fyi.

I have to say that Jersey drivers are some of the craziest I've seen. This is not made better by the lack of cops on the road. Also the cops might be worse drivers than the normal Jersey drivers. This is also not made better by the fact that the lanes are super narrow (like just a car's width wide) and people don't know how to a) stay in their lanes and b) stay in their own lane when they turn corners. If you visit please plan on doing at least 15 over the speed limit. You might get run over otherwise. Also? (and this is to their credit) They honestly don't give a rats ass on what you think of how terribly they drive, they don't look at you and they don't make apologies. This is better at least for me because it helps me not get angry and let it go because there's nothing to react to. Also, they are so set in what they're doing (even if it's wrong) you can't argue with them.

Actual story.
I was going to the grocery store the other night and as I was walking up to the store I heard a guy in his car yell out the window at a pedestrian walking in front of his car to get to the parking lot "What are you? A fucking moron?" While yes it is offensive it honestly makes me crack up because it's such an East Coast thing. The answer to this rhetorical question was complete silence, which is again, so East Coast. It reminds me to brush it off on a daily basis. On the West Coast it feels so personal when anything rude happens but out here it is what it is and you get over it, it's not personal.

Also, I'm homesick for stuff that I love. I'm slowly finding the products that I had at my fingertips on the West Coast. Nothing is more frustrating than going to a store and not finding 3/4 of what you're looking for. I'm trying, lets just say that.

Okay now you have to wait for a little while.

Night.

Yup, still here.

So yes it's been a while since I last posted and I've been thinking for days now that I really need to post so here I am finally doing it.

Let's see, so much to catch up on.

First is the last week I was in Washington. This mainly consisted of a lot of packing, Jilian coming up one last time to help me once and for all vanquish the garage, more packing, the last day of my previous job, (Man am I glad that's over, it was starting to go to shite when I left and really has since.) and having the movers pack the van so our stuff could be moved out here. I also watched a shit ton of Vampire Diaries (I am now caught up and waiting impatiently for January when it starts again). Noop (my brother from another mother) tried to get me to start watching it two years ago but I was literally in the process of moving then and had no cable. So I waited, because I didn't want to jump in in the middle and get confused about how it all started. But right before I moved they put the first two full seasons streaming on Netflix so I had no excuse. (P.S. it's really awesome)

Oh and I just have to say that the movers that we used are awesome. I still had a lot of stuff to take to the goodwill and I was actually becoming a little worried about how long it was going to take me but they offered to take it to the goodwill for me for free. Also I donated furniture to St Vincent De Paul and they rescheduled on me twice so they also came the last day I was there. Luckily it dovetailed nicely with when the movers got done packing the truck and then I was just left to clean and make a few last trips to the dump. I was so tired at the end of that day but I managed to get it all done.

Then came the actual drive which was nice for the most part was good. We had some icy nights which weren't that fun but for the most part the weather wasn't bad. It was really great to see two of my sisters and my parents. It was like a roadshow traveling family reunion. I first saw my parents along the highway (not as strange as it sounds) as they were driving back home and we were driving out east. We sort of planned to meet up if events coincided and by chance they did. Then we saw my little sister Corey who we met up with for dinner and then we also had breakfast with her too which was really great (the sister and the food). Then we saw my older sister, my brother in law and my nephew and we actually stayed the night with them (this was also pre-planned). We made really good time and the traffic really only started to get bad once we hit Indiana so only about a day and a half.

And then we (my father in law and myself) were finally here. Our stuff was delivered last Monday and we've been working on unpacking and paring down more (It's amazing how much crap you think you need and you really honestly don't. It's also amazing at how this stuff can stay packed between move to move and a) you still lug it around and b) when you finally unpack it, you think "just get rid of it") to really just what we need and we'll actually use. I recommend everyone every couple of years purging, it feels good, freeing and it's nice to only have around the house stuff that is actually practical.

I also started my new job and I love it. Everyone I work with is super nice and helpful and yes you get an occasional bitchy phone call but you have others that understand and that you can talk to. Every job that I've loved has honestly been because I love the people I'm around. I know I would not be able to stay in a job that I dreaded going to everyday just because I made a lot of money. I would stop showing up, easy.

And that's where we're at now. We finally got cable and internet Friday and I was really worried that this CABLEcard experience would be a lot like the last one (you can read that here.) but it wasn't! Although Comcast hasn't changed because I told the service representative on the phone we needed a CABLEcard, not a box and that the installer could come between 11 and 1pm Friday. Isaac calls back to confirm and he's told our appointment is between 3-5 on Friday (which actually worked better) and when the installer guy comes he brings a box and no CABLEcard! Luckily we got the internet working but we had to make ANOTHER appointment (luckily they came out the next morning) to get a frickin' CABLEcard. But once it was in our Tivo and the guy called it into Comcast it's worked ever since (knock on wood). I guess it's nice to know that Comcast is just as reliable no matter what coast you're on and all their contracted installers hate them too. :/

Okay, off to finish unpacking/throwing stuff in the goodwill pile.