Just a wee bit of drama

So, I was sitting at work today when Miss Tammi called on my cell. We were chatting away when my mom beeped through. When I clicked over to talk to her, she says, "I just e-mailed you some pictures. I want to open them and look at her arms." And she sounded kind of frantic. So I asked her who's arms I was supposed to be looking at. And she tells me Annie's. I told her that I would look at it as soon as it came through and call her back. Now, the pics are on my work computer, but when I looked at them, I knew exactly what I was looking at. She was having an allergic reaction. At this point, let me give you a little back history. A little over a year ago, Annie started complaining that it really hurt when she went pee-pee in the potty. So, thinking it was a UTI, I took her to the family doctor. She sent us to Childrens' Hospital to a specialist. And the result was that she was so constipated that it caused her to have bladder spasms. He told us to give her Milk of Magnesia to fix the problem, and limit her favorite thing, dairy products. Long story short (I know, too late) she got tired of the M.O.M and my mom bought her some chocolate ExLax yesterday. She had a dose last night, and one this morning. And, as we found out, she's allergic to it. I'll post the pics soon. Not a pretty site. She had red splotches all over her arms. I had to leave work at 2 to make an appointment at 3. So, it's benadryl for the next 3 days, and back to the M.O.M. And I recognized it because I'm allergic to grilled or roasted tomatoes, and I get the same splotches, but mine itch, her's hurt.

But a few good things did come out of it. We found out that Annie's has grown 2 inches since August. I found that one of the near by Wal Mart's still had Valentine's chocolates at 75% off. I got the de-icer wind shield fluid that I have been looking for for 2 days. And I got a really cute set of 4 Irish toasting glasses for $5.

On the knitting front, I started a pair of socks for Annie on Sunday. I got the first one done on Sunday. I'm using Regia Crazy Colors that's stretchy. And I'm still practicing on the wheel. SO, right now, I'm going to kick back, take something for this headache and watch Open Season, again. And enjoy some chocolates. Later.

Saturday shopping fun

Saturday, we got up bright and early and headed off to Dayton. It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to get there in the bad weather. And about an half an hour after getting there, we headed off to Fiberworks to pick up my wheel. We spent an hour and a half there! Wow! We had such a great time, we didn't realize how much time we spent there. There was so much to look at. All the different types and colors of roving. I was in heaven. My SIL went with me, along with Annie and my niece F. All the older girls stayed at the house. I'll show you below in pics all the neat stuff that I got. And let me say, I did set a budget for myself and I stayed under it by $10 and some change.

When we got back, I started lunch, cheesy potato soup. And Angie (my SIL) made Italian grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum! And while we cooked, we whipped up a few cocktails, pineapple rum with orange-pineapple-strawberry juice. Again, Yum! Then, we let the kids go play in the snow. Don't worry, they had on multiple layers. And when they came in, we put them in jammies, and tossed all the wet stuff in the dryer. Here's a few pics:


Here's Katie and niece S trying to go down the hill in a box.

Here's Annie, after she hit the bottom of the hill.

But, on to the goodies.

Here's my wheel, still in the box.

Here is what it looked like when I opened the box. Inside of that folder is the assembly instructions, sand paper, a catalog of their other products and a little slip of paper that tells you who packed the box, with their picture on it.

Here is half of the parts, laid out on my bedroom floor.

Here is the other half of the parts.

And here it is, a couple of hours later, all put together. I am so proud of myself. Now for all the goodies that I got.

Arlene (the shop owner) gave me the white roving as a gift to practice on. The lovely dark mauve and rose roving I bought. I'm not touching those beauties until I get the hang of it.

I picked up the Handspinner's Handbook and WPI tool.

Here is some beautiful lace yarn that I fell in love with. It's Jojoland Harmony, colorway C05. And under it is a pattern for a Lace Flower shawl.

Here is some Jojoland Melody, fingering weight, in colorway Y45. These will become a lovely pair of socks.

Here is a lovely Lendrum Maple Niddy Noddy, that's adjustable to 1 or 2 yds. Now, I just need a Nostepinne. I have tried to use my wheel. I understand the basics, I just need to get the hang of it. I can get started, but it gets too twisty on my, really quick. But I am determined. I will learn to spin. And, finally I leave you with a pic of Mr. Vinny, sniffing my roving, which I have tied closed in a bag. Granted, he has great taste, but he would rather roll in it and make a mess.

An FO in February

I finished my sock in Lorna's Laces Irving Park. Wanna see?

Here they are, and I'm wearing my great find. I found these heels on the 50% off rack at The Shoe Dept. They are M.U.D., and I couldn't pass then up at only $10.00. That's what happens when I have to buy new cross trainers.


And here is another shot showing how I had left over. I didn't have to join the 2nd skein until after the 8th round of 24 rounds of the toe decrease on the 2nd sock.

The Specs:
Yarn: Lorna's Lace
Colorway: Irving Parking
Needles: Crystal Palace US1 DPN's
Pattern: Plain Ol' Vanilla sock pattern
Started: Jan. 13, 2007
Finished: Feb. 15, 2007

I know. I never take that long to finish socks, but I have good reason to lag on these. I have been working on the afghans for Cousin Becky.

Now, I have to figure out what I want to work on next. Maybe something in one of these:

The one skein of Liberty that I found, or the Gray's Corner.

Oh, we had a celebrity in the neighborhood today. Elvis Lives!

As I took this pic, I heard him say, "Thankya, Thankya vera much!" (I either have talented, or bored, neighbors.)

And I'll leave you with a parting shot from the ride home. Please pardon the dirty windshield.

Bad weather blues!

What a crazy, past couple of days. When I got up Tuesday, I was prepared for the snow. Got the kids off to mom's, and made it to work about an hour late. Then, during the day, it dropped around 4" of snow. The snow gave way to sleet. The sleet gave way to rain, that froze. Our office manager went out to her car and came back in and asked who wanted to go home. Both of my hands shot up. She said that she would let 3 of us go home. That was around 2, I normally leave at 5. I made somewhat-good time to mom's to get the girls, and I got stuck in the drive way. Since I am used to driving small cars in this weather, I started to rock the car out when mom's neighbor came over to help me. A couple of good rocks, and he helped push my little Kia right out. I got the girls loaded up, and we headed straight home, with a stop at Micky D's for Annie, as Amy was bring Chipotle home for Katie and me.

Wednesday morning dawned dark and ugly. I rolled over at 5am and turned on the local news, just to find out that they had cancelled school (for the 2nd day) and we were at a level 2 snow emergency. I called mom, and sure enough, the roads out her way were not cleared. And it looked like they weren't going to make it out that far till the afternoon. So, I was forced to call off. We sat around all day. I worked a little on cousin Becky's afghan and started my 2nd sock in my Lorna's Laces in Irving Park. I made it past the heel. For most of the evening, we watched Mythbusters. Let me tell you. That is a dream job. I would love to destroy things all day and get paid for it.

Today, it took my almost 45 minutes to clear my windshield of the 1" thick ice on it. I was about 30 minutes late for work because everyone wanted to do 10 mph on the highway. Then, I almost got stuck in the parking lot. But, I had retail therapy at lunch. Amy and I went to Knitter's Mercantile and I found 1 skein in Liberty and 2 skeings in Gray's Corner (which I didn't see on their web site, but it's pink & gray). And I got this. With the patterns in it, it was well worth the money.

Tomorrow, I am hopeing will be a normal day. Then on Saturday, I will be making a trip to Dayton. Why, you might ask? Well, let me tell you. I am going to purchase a lovely Ashford Traveler. Yes, I am taking the plunge. I am buying a wheel, and will learn how to spin. So, Saturday morning, the girls and I will be packing up and going to my SIL's house in Dayton. Then we are going to Fiberworks to get my wheel, and then back to my SIL's house for lunch and cocktails. I can't wait, I am so excited! I can't believe it's finally time to get my wheel.

Almost time to go home. Happy Knitting!

ETA: I just called the store to make sure they had my wheel in, and it wasn't on back order or anything. She said that she hoped that I would call, 'cause normally she's closed on Saturday's, but she would open just for me to get my wheel. So, we set it up to be there at 11 am. Yippee!

Newport Aquarium (with LOTS of pics)

I'm shocked that Blogger let me upload all of these pics. So, if you're one of those people that jumps from blog to blog just to look at pics, then stop and stay awhile.

To say that I took lots of pics is an understatement. There some pics that I deleted right away because they were too blurry. But on to the story of Saturday.

I started out by getting up at the usual time, as if it were a week day and I had to go to work. Got a shower, got the girls up, and went to get Katie's friend Taylor that was going with us. From there, I had an 8 am appointment to get my tires replaced, 'cause they needed it. I think I kinda freaked the guys out at the tire shop, 'cause I sat down in the waiting area and worked on my sock while the girls played video games. They had to be really freaked, 'cause they had me out in 20 minutes. We tried to get breakfast at Tim Horton's, but they ignored us to the point that it really ticked me off and I loudly told the girls to get back in the car because we were going to Jolly Pirate's. Once we got on the road, the 108 mile drive went rather quickly. And, when we stopped at a rest area about 20 miles outside of Cincinnati, something funny happened. As I sat in the car with the girls (Katie, Annie & Taylor) waiting for Miss PJ to come out with her son Brandon, I looked to the car to my left. It was about 3 spaces over, with no cars in between. An older gentleman got out and walked up to the rest area. Then a young man, I'd say around 20, got out of the passenger side of the car. He was rather good looking. And, as I causally observed, he took off his sneakers (mind you, it was about 30 degrees), and took off his sweatshirt and jogging pants. At this point he was standing in the parking lot in his socks, shorts and t shirt. I didn't think much about it. I noticed that PJ was walking back out. And, as I looked back over at young, hunk of man, he proceeds to strip off his shorts, down to his boxer briefs! The girls and I were stunned, to say the least. I'm pointing, waving and knocking on the windshield trying to get PJ to look, that way, we weren't the only ones to witness this. Granted, he had a great rear, but this sorta stuff only happens to me! I couldn't make this stuff up if I had to. But, back on the road we went, as he continued to change into a pair of dress pants and a blue button down shirt.

Now for the pics. I took A LOT of pics, and the final count that was keepable for the day was 173. The following are my favorite 76, besides the one in the sneak peek. So, sit back and enjoy.

This is what greeted us as we came in.

This is the first fish tank we saw.

This was a really cool, round tank.

Here are cave fish. I have seen these in their natural habitat, on our trips to Cave City, KY. They have no eyes, so the tank was really dark, and I had to use my flash to get them to show up.

My mom used to breed angle fish, but they never got this big. These beauties were the size of dessert plates.

This was the first tunnel we walked through.

I didn't pay attention to what kind of fish this was, but it was very interesting.

Here is the Horse shoe crab in the petting tank. Katie and I both petted this one, Annie refused to.

This is one of the really cool tanks.

This is a Mud Skipper. I had to really point this one out to Annie, and when she saw the eyes sticking up out of the water, she was really grossed out. (Just in case you're having a hard time finding it, it's eyes are near the middle of the pic.)

Next, we went into the Shark Theater. We watched a 10 minute flick, and then they raised the screen, and we got our first glimpse of the shark tank.

Here you see a small great white, along with some tuna.

Here are several sharks swimming around.

This one is kinda dark, but just imagine being in the ocean and see this swimming around you.

Here is a sting ray that swam up to the window for us.

Another great white, or maybe the same one. I couldn't tell.

Here is Sweet Pea, the shark ray. They still had her new boyfriend was still in his holding tank, until they could make sure he was going to take to the new environment.

These are turtle skulls. How cool!

Here is what the inside of a turtle shell looks like.

These are the same star fish from the sneak peek. I just love the colors. And my new camera caught it very well, don't you think?

These were in the same tank as the star fish. Such bright colors, reminds me of the '80's.

Here is one of the sea horses.

Look, I found Nemo! Well, maybe one of his brothers.

I think this is a deadly puffer fish.

Here is a lion fish.

Here is a moray eel.

Some piranah.

Here are the alligators. I guess they built the porch to make them feel at home. And what you can't see, that is just out of frame on the right, is a stuffed deer head.

Here is a turtle swimming just off the side of the bridge.

Here is the floor of the bridge. It was a little disorienting to walk on this. It felt like you were going to fall in at any moment.

Here is Taylor and Katie in the Bird Aviary. If you wanted to feed them, you had to buy little cups of fruit juice for them. Some of those birds knew how to work it. There was one bird that was on the wall, above everyone's reach, with a cup just chowing down.


This one I thought was kinda cool. The man you see standing there is Miss PJ's husband, Brian. The blur you see in the fore ground is their son, Brandon. And the reason why I thought this one was cool, is because Brian was standing still, and the fish and Brandon were moving in opposite directions.

Here's one of my little odd shots of Annie.

Here is a hammerhead shark, as he swam over me in one of the tunnels.

Here is a shot back into one of the tunnels. Just incase you are wondering, I don't know anyone in this pic.

Here are the moon jelly fish.

Here was one of the jelly fish that I thought was cool.

Here is Annie in front of the giant jelly fish wall sculpture. And the cool thing about my new camera is that I took this pic with the camera turned side ways, but the camera flipped it right side up for me.

Here is Taylor and Katie, respectively.

Here were some tiny jelly fish. And what was cool, was that they called this room the Jelly Fish Gallery. They had each tank set into a gold guild picture frame.

This was in the middle of the room. Cool, huh? Spongebob would love it.

Here is one of the sting rays as he swam over us in a tunnel.

Here is a white tipped reef shark.

Here is Sweet Pea, again. She was very social that day.

Here is another white tipped reef shark. And if you look just behind him, you can see the tail of a sting ray.

Once I pointed out the sting ray to Annie, he decided to come up to the window for a photo op.

Let me just say that it was little disturbing for a great white to swim over us in a tunnel. If you look closely, you can see all the rows of his teeth.

And this is why I'll never go swimming in the ocean, if I ever get near it.

It amazes me that they swim with these sharks. If you are wondering why they are in with the sharks, they were cleaning the tank.

This is a cool shot. That is Miss PJ, Brandon and her nephew Dale at a bubble window on the other side of the tank. I took this one from inside of a tunnel.

Can you hear the Jaws theme? Look just to the right of Annie's head, behind the fish. Is that a great white shark?

Yep! And look at the expression on Annie's face, as she realizes that it just swam really close to the glass behind her.

Another great white behind Miss PJ. I took this one with no flash, so you could see the shark.

Here is a shot of the bubble window that Miss PJ and the boys were in. Shortly after taking this, Katie accidently elbowed Annie in the eye, and gave her a good shiner.

Here is a shot of the great white, with the flash on.

Here is Miss PJ and Brandon, next to a stuffed hammerhead shark.

Here are the girls.

Here we are at the shark petting tank. Yes, I said shark petting. Don't worry, they were specially trained, baby sharks. They don't bite, I don't think. Needless to say, I didn't reach in there. It would be my luck that they would think it was lunch time.


In the fore front you see Brian, you can't see Miss PJ, then there is Katie and Taylor. And yes, that is Katie's arm in the tank.

Annie was like me, there was no way she was reaching in there. So, she sat on the floor to look at them through the side.

And this is Katie's arm, in the tank.

They had a seat that weighed you and compare you to how much a shark weighs. Here is Annie.

Here is where she ranked.

Here is Dale. He was at the Juvenile Shark Ray.

Here is Brandon. He was at the Adult Nurse Shark.

And here is Katie. She was at the Juvenile Shark Ray, too. And when I said that it just confirmed the fact that she was juvenile, the couple next to me started laughing.

Here is a cool shot from the penguin tank. The bubbles are from a penguin that swam past really fast.

Here is one that stopped to look at me.

They really like swimming past us as we got close to take pics.

Here is another one that was giving me the eye.

Here is Katie, as we had a late lunch at Bob Evans before heading back.

And here is Annie. It was a surprise shot, 'cause she kept diving under the table to keep me from taking a pic, which is really rare for her.

All in all, we has a great time. We browsed the gift shop, and we all came back with at least one thing that has the aquarium's logo on it. If you ever have a chance to go there, do it! I'd love to go back. Maybe by the end of summer we will.

Ok, back to the regular knit blog routine.