Can Someone Please Call Summer and Ask it to Please Come Back

Ok - can we all please take a moment and look at the calendar.  Yep - that's what I thought - it still says July. As in summer, like Fourth of July, BBQ, picnics, fireworks, sunscreen, sunglasses. Lets see - what do all these things have in common? That's right - outside, sunshine and warm weather. 

Ok - then can someone please explain to my why I actually:

A) Put on wool socks

B) Pulled out my winter sweater and put it on

C) Turned on the heat

What is wrong with this picture? Its July folks! I should be dreaming of knitting with cashmere not actually wearing it!

Summer - please come. We really miss you in New England. 

Im still here!

Yes - I am still here but I seem to be suffering from the same syndrome as many others - busy! I still can't believe I ended spending close to a month and a half in Hawaii which really was crazy - you work long hours virtually round the clock sometimes, then when you aren't working at site you are trying to keep up with the home office and maybe, just maybe, find time for sleep. I did enjoy it though. I really love my job. I am lucky that way. And I did get to have a little bit of fun - aside from getting to go out to dinner with a bunch of different people that I work with and getting to know them off hours, I was also able to escape for one day and go on  the volcano tour. We also went to a luau but that was kind of tempered by the fact that I had to go from the luau to work again. 

One of the fun parts was hooker atm. Honolulu has its fair share of working ladies. Now personally I see nothing wrong with that line of work. I say if you can make money at it - go for it. I am not going to sit in judgement. But what was fun was watching these ladies work. There is one ATM and there are several girls who stand right outside the ATM. I think that is brilliant marketing. I was there long enough to recognize the girls who worked that location. I even gave them names and backstories. Jamie and Barbie. Jamie always wore jeans - I wondered if that was a management uniform. But what was sad was that I never saw any of the girls get a customer. I think the economy is hitting everyone. I have to wonder how much these girls make because from what I saw, its a lot of work standing there for hours on end in those heels (I think its a law or something to wear plastic see through platform heels) and not getting any takers. It must be profitable because there were sure lots of girls. I hope so - if you are going to go into this line of work I would want to make good cash. Anyways - what became fun is that was the landmark we used - we would meet at hooker ATM. Its funny how many people knew exactly what we were talking about. Ok - so seriously - we were working that hard that our entertainment in Honolulu was watching the hookers. Sad but true. 

But now I am back and slowly getting back in to things. I came back with my usual bronchitis and spent a couple weeks recovering. Feeling better now and glad to be back to a semi normal routine. I have some yummy yarns waiting for me and my spinning wheel is calling. Nice to be home!

Home!!!!

It feels so freaking good to be home and sitting around doing absolutely nothing! Three weeks is a long time to be away for work. Yeah, its Hawaii but while I am there it is all work all the time. Even when we are not working it is still everyone from work so of course we discuss work. Its very tiring all around. And I get to go back in a week for two more weeks of this kind of fun. My life is so glam. 

So this trip was all about sushi though. I ended up eating more sushi than I think I have in my life. We ended up at several places that have the conveyor belt running around the room and you pick what you want off the belt. Not only yummy but fun. We also hit a grill your own place where you have a small grill at your table - ok - not sushi, but we did eat some seared tuna. I have to say that the seafood is one of the best parts of being in Hawaii. Other than that it was work work work - and the site was so unglam - no running water, no power and hot as can be!

Well, at least I am home with my family and oh so happy!

Finally .... Spring

Its finally starting to get nice outside. Today we have green grass and the daffodils are poking through the ground. Its a huge relief to have this winter behind us..we hope. The big boats at the dealership are still shrink wrapped though so we are still cautious. But at least we can go outside for now without a jacket. 

My brain is all things spring. I am spending my spare time watching Lambcam over at the fiber farm. The goats are due to drop babies anytime. We have all been watching for the past week anxiously waiting out baby goats. I love being a part of the fiber farm. I also got my first share this week. In the mail I got a box full of yummy Marthas Vineyard Fiber Farm fiber - right off these very goats I am watching on lambcam.  Check out this pile of fibery goodness.

The big pile of white is the MVFF fiber - its a Cormo/Mohair mix fresh from the farm. I got 12 ounces of this yummy softness.  There is also a smaller batch of white which came from another farm and was included as a bonus, but the super surprise was the brown wool. There was four ounces of the surprise brown which also came from a neighboring farm but it is the richest chocolate color I have ever seen in fiber. Stunning is all I can say. I cannot wait to spin it up and keep it in its natural color state. I think it would make a stunning contrast color for some fair isle work, possibly in mittens or a hat or a scarf. 

This is a close up of it all. The chocolatey color really doesn't come through very well. You just have to believe me that it is so beautiful. I hope to start spinning this in the next week or two. Right now I have some Sereknity merino roving on my wheel, in Pomegranite colorway. Its a pretty blend of pink, orange, purple and burgandy. Its going to make some lovely sock yarn. Its been so long since I have spun with prepared roving that I forgot how quick and easy it spins up. 

Blah

Its a total Blah day. I think I am just tired. That and it is only 40 degrees outside. Can someone please tell the weather that it is Spring???? Honestly - I cannot wait until I can wear sandals, short sleeves and not spend my day huddled under a blanker. Blah.

So I had to travel this past week -just a couple days to Florida. Wish it could have been longer because it was at least warm there but I needed to be back at work. So it has been a very busy week and I am tired. Again - more Blah. 

So today I am calling in my "day off" card. I am just hanging. I want to sleep but DH went to a movie and the young one is being active. Blah.  So I decided to sign up for twitter. Hmm - we will see if I can at least come up with any interesting tweets. 

Blah. 

Sigh. 

All that in a tiny envelope!

I absolutely love this swap idea! You have one 4x9 inch envelope, five dollars and all the creativity you can muster and send it on its way. 

I got my envelope today from Finland. First of all, I have been following my spoiler's blog and am super impressed that she did this with a little baby just home from the hospital. Sleep will come again some day I promise!

So here it is - what was amazing was I tore into the envelope and it practically exploded!

My spoiler, Hisch,  must have stuffed everything in and forced it shut!

And lookee at all the wonders inside. The card - isn't it beautiful! I love the image - contained a note from Hisch telling me all about my goodies. There is chocolate (that is dessert tonight) and tea (tomorrows pleasure) including Raspberry, Mango and Peach tea, Basil seeds - my husband has claimed those already for the garden - some lovely yarns which I will make into mini socks, some buttons/beads - I should have taken a better picture because these are lovely - I love the bluebird buttons - and a crocheted angle made locally in Finland.  And the best part was the gift card. 

And turning it over you get this: 

It says  "This gift card is good for: 1 Day off from housework - can be used whenever wanted"

I love it! And plan to use it this weekend. 

At first I thought I could use it then pass it on to someone else, but instead I think I am going to use it, then put it in my dayplanner at work to remind me to take time off now and again. But I will send another one along in my next swap. I think we all need reminders to take time for ourselves. I have to say, of everything in my package - and I loved it all - this little tidbit is the best. Hisch gave me a very precious and priceless gift reminding me to enjoy life. 

Thank you Hisch - and to Cinnamoon on Ravelry for organizing this wonderful swap. In today's economy its nice to remember that you don't need a lot of money to share a little touch of happiness.

How could I ever live with out it?

Ok - so I have to go on about one of my all time favorite products that I have grown to love even more over the past few days. This would be my iPhone.
I love it. I cannot imaging how I ever lived without it.
This is actually my second iPhone. I got a first gen, then when the 3G came out, I gave hubby the first gen and got mysefl a 3G.
At first, I just wanted to internet features. In fact, I tried to talk to Verizon about what would be comparable that would give me full internet access. I was finishing grad school online and really wanted to be able to have full access to email and school wherever I went. Verizon got a bit snarky with me though. In fact, the final straw was when I attempted to find an option with Verizon and explained my needs, the sales guy actually said to me "You just want an iPhone" and walked away. Yep - left me standing in the middle of his store, turned his back on me and walked away. Ok - off to AT&T. But I digress.
So now I have my iPhone 3G and why do I love it? Aside from the internet and email the App Store has turned it into something useful into a near instantaneous problem solver.
For example, the other night it was late and I couldn't sleep. I needed a book to read to distract me but I didn't have anything unread around the house that fit the bill. I started surfing the net instead and lusting after the Kindle on Amazon thinking if I had a Kindle I would never be in this position again. That was when I noticed this little sidebar that said Kindle for the iPhone. Could it really be? I clicked the button and sure enough - there is a Kindle app for the iPhone and you can get books sent to your iPhone just like a Kindle - but without the Kindle. And the app was Free! So I downloaded it, went over to Amazon, bought myself a book ("Outlander" by the way) and voila! I was off and reading a new book on my iPhone. Unbelievable!
Another example - yesterday we decided to take a road trip to Maine for some outlet shopping. I brought my latest knitting project and as we were getting on the road I realized I had forgotten a measuring tape. While hubby offered to turn around I declined and instead picked up my iPhone, went to the App Store and within seconds I had a ruler on my phone. Show me another phone that does that!
And this was just in the past week. I could go on about the many uses I have for my phone. My son loves it for games but we also have an app that teaches reading so that when we have spare time, such as waiting in restaurants, we practice reading. I am sure as he grows so will the variety of apps on my phone grow to use for teaching opportunities. Then there is the gym - at the gym I can listen to the radio (I have downloaded an app that allows me to listen to radio stations all over the country, including my favorite San Diego morning show), I can catch up on tv (if you have a Tivo, you can pull your shows off tv to your Mac, "toast" them and load them on to your iPhone. I can get movies via iTunes. And I can read my Kindle books. Or I can play games. Or music. So I won't be board on the treadmill at the gym. Then when its time for weights, I have a program to track my weight training. Ok - I can go on and on. Have I mentioned the GPS? I helped direct my cab driver in NYC thanks to my GPS.
I think you get the picture here - but I just had to post to say this is one product that is simply life enhancing. In today's economy its nice to find something that works, works well and has such diverse application.