This post has no real content.

Except to say that I wrote a letter to Ask Laura, and SHE ANSWERED OMG!!!

http://www.bravotv.com/blog/laura/2006/11/ask_laura.php?page=1

Tomorrow, I’m headed to the Briar Rose Open House with Lynette and friends. If you see a short redhead who is standing around awkwardly (or is overly animated, you never know who you’ll get), say hi!

In honor of my wedding dress picture, here is my mom and my dad on their wedding day.

I am in a fabulous mood today.   I have to admit to being a huge moper lately - November 4th was supposed to be my wedding day.  Instead, I spent it in a suburb of Cincinnati, OH, visiting a great uncle and his family.  Which was very nice, but still.   More on that later though.

But why am I in a fabulous mood?

1. The Democratic Party takes over the House of Representatives.  Hello Speaker Pelosi!
2. If Tester in Montana and Webb in Virginia win, the Democrats will have control of the Senate as well!   Its close in both races.
3. I had a lovely evening with the new guy.  He keeps calling me an election nerd though.
4. I’m having a great hair day.   I was wondering why guys kept looking at me - I believe my aura of happiness and great hair is attracting the Men Types.

Okay, on to knitting.   As I mentioned, my Mom, Mike (her partner), Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Frank all flew into Chicago on Thursday.   Originally it was to see me get married, but instead they decided to road trip it to Cincinnati, OH for my Great Uncle Mervin’s 80th birthday party.   Given that my other option was staying at home and bawling hysterically, I decided to go with them.    Plus, I got to drive like 85 and scare the old folks.

What happens first?  Well, a flamingo showed up and insisted on coming along.  He said it was too damn cold in Chicago and he wanted to go south.  I tried to tell him that it was just as cold in Ohio, but he wouldn’t listen.

Actually, I knitted him using the awesome Fiber Trends Flamingo Pattern.  It’s amazingly well written, very easy to follow, and the results were awesome.

The Flamingo (who is now named Pinky by my mom and grandma) made friends with all the stuffed animals in the car.  He got out of the car when we stopped at a rest stop in Indiana and immediately honed in on Mike, my mom’s partner.   Who is wearing the Sweater of Great Boringness I knitted for him last year.

I actually knitted the Flamingo for Mike as a joke.   A few years back, I was desperately shopping for Christmas gifts.  Online.  And in a panic, I bought him a Flamingo Lamp from the National Wildlife Federation catalog.  (They’ve apparently gone a bit more upscale since then.)   Well, I thought it was a small lamp.  It wasn’t.  It was massive.  Apparently everyone in my family thought I had lost my mind (I wasn’t there), but my mom and Mike loved it.   So since then, flamingos just show up around Mike

I personally think its a little big on him, and the neckline is bugging me.  But, he still looks great, and Mom is happy, so I’m happy.

We make it to Ohio.  I don’t really know many of my relatives on my Grandma’s side, so it was great to meet all my second cousins.   Here’s Uncle Merv, my Grandma, and one of my cousins looking at the neato Heritage books that my grandma and Aunt Irma have been putting together.

Okay, Uncle Merv is asleep.  But he had a bad cold, and apparently its a total tradition to take pictures of asleep relatives.  It must run in the family, because I took this picture before learning of it.

Speaking of the heritage book, here’s an awesome picture of my Grandma’s family.  I knew my Great Grandma Leona - it turns out I was the one cousin she managed to teach to crochet.

While I was in Ohio, I found time to go to Lambikin’s Hideway in Hamilton, OH.  It was just a few miles from my Uncle Merv’s house.  My mom begged to come along.  I told her she could, but only if she bought me yarn.

Pictured are awesome ceramic buttons from Sweaterkits.com and two skeins of Naturwolle (Black Forest Yarn) that was 50% off.

Lambikin’s is a really nice shop - I wish I had taken pictures, but I’m always too shy to do that.  They had a lot of basic yarns, with just a bit of froofroo.  They also had their own flamingo, but theirs was much more fuzzy than mine.  Probably because I used Cascade 220, and they used something with Mohair in it.

Well, after partying hardy, we headed home.   One large problem is that Mom refused to order food for Pinky and Vealy, the cow.   She said they could eat leftovers.  Well, we stopped at this scary truck stop restaurant named Grandma’s.   Despite being scary, the food was actually pretty good.   Pinky and Vealy were pretty fed up, and tried to make a break for it.

My mother set that picture up.  I believe it runs in the family.

I’m cheesed off that they are trying to steal my awesome green Coach purse!

So, the trip went well, although I did sort of just throw them out of the car at Midway Airport. I hope they made it home.

Yes, among the 20 million anti-abortion ads in Indiana, I did spy a porn sign.  Which I of course took a picture of.

I think the trick to having a healthy blog is to be busy, but not TOO busy.   What have I been doing lately?

Well, work for one.   Add in friends, the new guy (okay, I’ve been seeing him for awhile, ssssh, don’t tell), actually wanting to knit, read, pet my cats and my reality tv addiction, I’ve sort of ran out of time for blogging.

But don’t worry, I’ve been knitting!  First, we’ve go the hat and cowl set I made for Aimee.  The hat is from the Rowan Plaid Collection book.  The cowl is a heavily revised version of the Cowl from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Scarves (Vogue Knitting On The Go).  Both are made from Rowan Plaid, which is fabulous and sadly discontinued.

I’m working on a mystery project, too.  Yes, I know, its hot pink.  Some might say FLAMINGO PINK.

Oh, and I’ve been working on this Christmas Sock for someone.   The stripy bits are Lorna’s Laces Country Christmas, and the charted bits are Baby Ull Cream and Lorna’s Laces solid Navy.   i did start out with a chart, but I’ve been sort of messing with it.  Making the second sock should be a challenge, because I refused to, oh, write anything down.

What has Aimee been up to?  Apparently making scary Cheesy Goblin Heads for Parties.

And what has Katie been up to?  Being way annoyed at Hunter, who just got nuetered.  It hasn’t seemed to slow him down any.

He’s massive - he’s now almost 7 pounds, and as long as Katie, and as tall.

I think she’s REALLY annoyed.

I’ve been at my workplace for over 8 years now, so I get 4 weeks of vacation.  I had a bunch saved up, and I have to burn it by the end of the year.   So, I had a nice three day weekend!Friday:

Hung out in PJs.  Cleaned the kitchen.  Hung out some more.  Realized that I better be presentable if I was planning on going and seeing Laurel do storytelling at Ghost Stories in the Park! Put on very warm clothes, including the awesome sweater Monica knitted for me.

Here’s a very small picture of Laurel taken with my camera phone.

Speaking of Laurel, she was the lucky recepient of the zombie flesh eating socks.  Why?  Well, her feet just seemed ready for them…

After stories in the park, I went out on a date.

Yes, a real live actual date.  I met him on the train, he’s very nice, employed, the whole nine yards.  It was excellent.

Saturday:

Refused to take a shower.  Lounged some more.  Knitted Aimee’s birthday hat, which I have a picture of, but its currently inaccessible.  I’ll post more when I actually have pictures.  Started Aimee’s birthday scarf.   Made chicken for dinner and a cake.  Went to Meijers.
Oh, here’s a picture of fried okra I made a few months back I never posted.  It’s Crazy Aunt Purl’s Recipe.

Sunday:  Realized I needed a shower.  Still lounged.   Tried to catch up on audio books.  Did laundry.  Went to Target (after the shower).   Decorated my cake.

This is the cake that Dee posted about - its a Chocolate Pumpkin Pecan Cake with Honey Buttercream Icing from Country Living.   I made the decorations out of marzipan I colored with food coloring. It was fun, although my frosting didn’t set up the way it should have.  It was still excellent.  Sunday night, the date came over, ignored the messy kitchen, and hung out.   That was nice.

This post will be a total picture dump. And I’m going to do it in under 6 minutes.

First up - these awesome shoes that Christine was wearing when we met at Knitche a few weeks back. They rock! Monica took the picture.

How cute are those?

Second, I present these excessively cute itsy bitsy sweaters that Monica has been knitting up. She’s promising me a pattern to post on The Island of Misfit Patterns. People, submit more!

They are from leftover Vesper Sock yarn.

Then, we have ugly to balance out the cute. I finished the rotting zombie socks. I actually ran out of my Cherry Tree Hill Sock yarn towards the end, thanks to excessive swatching. So I said screw it, and used a bit of some left over Lorna’s Laces. No, I couldn’t find my swatches.

Back in cute terrority, I finished my poisonous flower pillow. I went with a 14 inch pillow form which was a bit snug. You can’t see the white so much in real life, though.

Finally, here is a picture I took on Laurel’s and I Trip to Go Pick Apples in Rockford that I found on the camera. I was going for a faux “posing with sock” thing. Honestly, I believe that only the Yarn Harlot can do the “Pose with Sock” thing. Everyone else is just being a big old copy cat.

Okay, its 5, and I’m outta here. I’ll go back later and add helpful links. Or not . You never know with me.