off by 3

I am off by 3 days, I am now 3 days into my 5th year of this blog - amazing! I started blogging because I was travelling and I am blown away by all the fabulous folks that I have met and become friends with as a result. I won't bother with a link fest because you know who you are and I don't have the time.

Things continue to be busy - I am home, gardening, knitting and working to finally get this house finished. I have pictures from my trip but I'm at home and we all know how much dial-up likes pictures. I must go teach some little angels how to be better angels so this is all there is for today... here's to 4 years blogging, great friends and hopefully more years as well..

still here,

well not there but here and there instead.
There have been walks

trips to the beach

airplane rides

fresh seafood - yeah for markets

and my beloved ocean - there is something about the pacific that makes me happy

All is well, life is good and I am on my way to visit my parents next. I'll be home next week and now that life will be a little calmer ( less dogs and more gardening) I will update you on life, knitting and some of the other things that have happened on my trip - like lunch with other bloggers.

Have a heart update

Today is Larissa's 20th birthday, and the beginning of a new chapter in her life - this morning at 1am she went into surgery to receive her new heart. As of 7am her heart was pumping on it's own and she is now doing well in the icu. She still has a long road ahead of her - so say a pray, cross your fingers, do whatever it is that you do - she needs all the help that she can get now. While you are at it please remember the family who lost a son this week, for Larissa to live someone else had to die and as hard as that is I am so grateful that they decided to help another person live by donating his organs.

PS - there are pictures of Larissa and the blanket, but they are on her camera, not mine - it'll have to wait. I never did get around to thanking and linking to each fabulous person who contributed 1, 5 or 12 squares - know that I thank you and so does Larissa.

the last one

This is their last picture, after a trip to the vet yesterday the first one left last night and the rest will go through out the weekend... except for 2, Phoebe is staying until her family moves at the end of April and Bella is staying forever - I know, I know another dog, don't start. I love her, I bottle fed her, I can't let her go and besides once you have 3 what's one more.

Life is busy, lots to do inside and outside and things in our world are changing - not things I can really talk about now ( no I am not pregnant and everyone is fine) as time goes on and they all sort themselves out and then I will talk about them. Until then my presence will continue to be sporadic and some what vague - sorry.

But, on the good news front, I get to go west next month, first to sunny San Fransisco to play with my sister and then home to play with the rest of the family for a few days, this year P is coming for the Victoria part too! I'm looking forward to playing with my siblings munchkins, it's been a year and they tend to get so much bigger in a year.

sprung

Spring
has
sprung here!
and the puppies are busy being cute...

WHACK!

That would be the sound of me being knocked on my butt by strep - after a week of being ill I finally went to the Dr. she told me it was a virus, I asked her to humour me and check for other things - lo and behold it is strep, she called me yesterday and called in a prescription, hopefully I will be better once the antibiotics start to work.

I wanted to take some pictures of the bits of colour emerging in our front garden but is is freakin SNOWING today and although the purple, green and white may be a neat picture I just can not bring myself to do it - enough with the snow already.

The puppies are good, getting big - they have there own blog now, it will only exist till they are all sold but there is more puppy cuteness there. There has been little knitting or anything else for that matter, sleep and puppy care are about all that has been happening here.

where did March go

I am not sure where this month has gone but it's almost finished and it seems as though it has barely begun. So well I try to decide where the month has gone and cast on the second front on my garter stitch jacket ( that isn't garter stitch) let me amuse you with more puppy pictures. Speaking of which, if you live in the area and know someone who might want a puppy leave me a comment (we are selling them but really just to cover our costs) and I will forward all the relevant info along.

going, going

gone

show me some love

comfy?

In no particular order

We still can't get to the mailbox, and this is after a few days of melting!

More puppy pictures, I had vision of taking pictures of my knitting with the puppies and then decided against it, to messy!

Our eyes are open and we can see and hear now too.

We have had to move to 2 food bowls, some feel the need to sit in their food while others prefer to just eat.

How cute is that, even if it is a littel blurry. I need to play wiht my camera settings, most things are blurry and I am not sure what to do - perhaps I should read the book that comes with the camera.

broken

My direct line to Mother Nature seems to be broken, if yours is working can please let her know that I can handle the additional snow we will get tonight but the wind has got to stop. If it must blow for some reason could it please blow in the same direction that it was on Sunday because at this moment all the snow that drifted to the south side of the house is drifting north back across the yard and landing in the narrow path that I managed to dig causing a great deal of extra work for me. Yes, yes I understand that we can't go around making demands every day about the weather but seriously folks, I think I might just stay inside until the snow melts, floods my cellar and forces me out to make sure that the pump is working so that we don't float away.

PS The snow bank at the foot of the driveway of doom is bigger than I am, by a lot and shovelling out our mailbox was a waste of time because there is not way I have enough muscle to move a snow bank that high.

now with pictures.

As you can see we had a little snow this weekend. It took hours to make a path from the house to the cars, that is after we found a way out of the house. When I got up on Sunday morning I could not open the front door or the back door which we never ever use. The screen where frozen in the windows and so I couldn't climb out that way either. P. had to go out the cellar door and walk all the way around the house to shovel the snow from the the front door so we could out.


The tire swing is hiding, there was more snow here but it drifted a lot overnight and most of it ended up in the fields.
There is a truck and a stone wall under there somewhere... the snow pile on the other side is higher then the white shed ( for those of you who know where the white shed is).

Ignore the ugly paneling that still lives in this room and look at the snow against the window - there is a little roof about 2 feet below that window. While I was trapped in the house for 3 days I got some knitting done. I have finished the back of the garter stitch jacket which is really not garter stitch at all - at least not according the pattern I have. Then I picked up a friends sweater to do some mending, it is a fav. or hers and I thought it wouldn't be to hard. 5 hours later it is fixed, there were lots of holes and the cuffs had to be cut off and reknit because of the holes in them. It was a big job and all day I kept saying that it was a good thing that I love her because otherwise I would of said, too bad, so sad for you. Now I seem to be developing a cold, a cold on the week that a friend (the sweater friend) is coming to play and don't have to work at all.

And because they are so cute a puppy picture, their eyes are open and they are becoming very roly poly - it's fun to watch them change so fast. They have tripled in size in 2 weeks.

snowed in

It's 6:49 and we are still snowed in. We knew this would happen but we were not expecting it to be this long. Our snow plow guy has had a few very bad days and a truck that is not so interested in behaving. He promised he would be here today, he has 5 hours and 10 minutes. I have pictures but as usual blogger doesn't want to play with me today, I'll try again tomorrow

Snow Day V 8

I believe that yesterday was the 8th snow day that our local school board had, it really was a snow day and we were snowed in until after 9 pm. Luckily for me though Tara is not afraid of a long walk up the driveway of doom and she arrived on my doorstep last night in time for some dinner. It was lovely to see her, we ate, playted with puppies and even knit a little. If you need puppy fix go to her blog, she has lots of good pictures and since she posted them I am not going to post more of the same picture.

I am looking forward to a weekend trapped in my house with a good book and some wool. I think that when the next storm rolls in I won't be going anywhere for awhile. That's all I have for you today... well except for the fact that the puppies started opening their eyes this afternoon. They are getting cuter.

moving along

Jeanie is 1/2 finished, I have hit a bit of a snag but I am sure I will get the groove of it back shortly.


The garter stitch jacket is about to be cast on, I am hoping I can plow through it in order to wear it sooner rather than later.
Our Have a Heart Afghan is nearly complete but Larissa has MRSA and I am not sure that I will be allowed to give it to her... I need to talk to her mom first, it may have to wait until she tests negative and is no longer in isolation.

FYI - I thought puppy pictures were cuter than my 1/2 finished knitting. Some people were wondering what breed they are - Mama is Rottweiler/Doberman and Papa is Bull Mastiff Rottweiler but they all look like bull mastiffs

dancing

I have spent my day dancing with puppies because one only weighs 8.5 oz and I want to insure that she doesn't get squished to death by her siblings who weigh a pound! I will eat, sleep and breath puppies for the next 10 days or so until they are big enough to fend for themselves. I don't think there will be much knitting but I can promise you lots of puppy pictures.

they have arrived...

10 puppies on the 25th, that makes Sarah and Britt the winners. I'll work out prizes and such at some point. I'm tired, so is Chudder so that is all you get for today.

They are still there

You may want to get in on the action if you haven't yet joined the puppy pool... she is still pregnant and I just came back from the vet. Only one of you is remotely close to the number of puppies that may be in there, I have a rough idea but those little guys are hard to count on an x-ray. I am hoping for everyones sake that she has them this weekend but she doesn't seem to interested in my wants or needs. It's been a LONG day and I am off to chill for a little while with The Amber Spyglass, I'm loving it!

contest continues

I didn't think anyone would actually figure it out, I mean really 8 pieces of wood on a bedroom floor could be just about anything unles of course you have built a similar thing before. And for some reason blogger won't let me post a finished picture so I can't even have you continue to guess what it may be... so instead, if I may, a new contest.

The Puppy Pool - yes we are expecting pupies. We have a very pregnant dog ( the big black one) and she is expected to have puppies sometime in the next 10 days or so, we really don't know when but she is very pregnant!

If you want to play along leave a comment with the date that you think the puppies will arrive and how many puppies you think there will be. There will be 2 prizes one for the date and one for the number of puppies. In the event of a tie I will randomly draw a name for each prize. You can enter until they arrive, the puppies that is. But I honestly can't give you a better timeline then sometime in the next 10 days... it may even be 12 days if my math is really off.

Prizes will be similar to those described in the last post and will be sent out after puppies have arrived and my life calms down a bit.

PS You will see the finished whelping box when blogger feels like playing nicely again.

creating a contest

It's not knitting but it has to be done. I haven't finished it yet, it needs to be assembled and a tarp needs to be added. If you can figure out what I am building (and I haven't phoned you looking for one) leave me a comment and the first person to guess correctly will get a skien of sock yarn... or some other fibery goodness in the mail. Unless of course you are not a knitter and then I will send you something else that you will love.

There are some clues here, in the description and the picture, well sort of, let's just say that this room is usually full of stuff.

one word, (well not really)

Dyed

Seaming

Transferring

Knitting

Things are happening, life is busy, my head is down and I am trying to get this blanket finished, I am still waiting for some squares to arrive in the mail and when I am done a proper thanks to all those who have helped out. While I knit the blankets border I am finally adding my CD's to my computer (909, 2.4 days of music) because P bought me a shuffle. He has a 8g Ipod and so I decided I didn't really need one as well, but I had been eyeing these cute shuffles and so he brought one home last week - what a sweet boy. Seams are calling, gotta go

.

blue

my hands that is, I have been dying wool this morning and I was to lazy to find some gloves. The wool is from the garter stitch jacket, I have wanted one for awhile but my LYS never had the colours I wanted and then I got a gift card for Christmas for the LYS. So I bought a white one kit and dyed it with wiltons food colouring. I am rather happy with the results but the camera is MIA, when I find you can see what I did. I have also been tidying and doing laundry. I think that perhaps laundry should happen without any human intervention, just put the stuff in the washer and it could come out washed dried and folded - maybe someone could get on that.

Have a Heart Blanket Update

I have lots squares, thanks everyone (if you still have one email me and we will arrange a pick up) and now comes the task of putting the thing together. I went out last Friday night (in a huge storm) and met up with a bunch of great women (she has pictures) to start seaming. It was a good time but we still are not finished and I really want to give it to her next week... so if you are free this Friday night (feb 8) I will be at the Bridgehead at Carolina and Wellington again at 7:00 pm. I still have 2 pattern books and some sock yarn to give away as thank you's - so come out and help and you may go home with a treat.

Hope to see some of you local folks there, I am off to fold laundry - good times