My thumb, my thumb, my lovely lady thumb

I'm convinced that my body is trying to kill me slowly with non-conventional and creative methods. Well, more than the regular aging stuff. What's going on, you say? There are some things I cannot speak of here. Let's just say, it's not pretty. *snake eyes*

But the latest problem is in an area I would never have suspected. It's my thumb! Somehow, a small sliver of glass, or at least this is what we believe since this all started after a glass was broken in the sink, has managed to wedge itself down into the center of my thumb. I'm sure you can see how this is a problem. I use my thumbs a lot, it seems. If I use my left thumb for anything, I have to carefully hold it so the point-of-anger doesn't keep poking the nerve-from-hell. That includes driving, washing dishes, opening a door, etc. Or...dare I say...knitting! That's right, now my body is trying to take away something I enjoy; using two sticks and string to make something that can be worn!

Zoe thinks I should just be grateful I have thumbs and stop whining. "Less whining, more petting!"

It's actually more painful than you would think. I tried digging it out once but that didn't work. Oh, and it hurt. Whatever is in there, I can feel a ball in my thumb but I can't see anything like you normally would with a sticker.

Anyway, lately I've been thinking...maybe I should get this thing removed by a doctor. There, I feel better. I whined. *phew*

Kite surfing?

This last week on one of my days off, Apollo and I went to Fiesta Island to hang out and have a picnic. The weather was beautiful and with all the clouds rolling in, we knew it would be the perfect place to people watch. The island is pretty cool. It's not the prettiest place to hang out as it's mostly made of dirt and sand with only a few patches of grass, but it's a great place for bonfires. We used to bike around it (it didn't even seem like five miles) with a group of friends.

We saw these guys using large kite like things harnessed to their bodies and, while standing on small looking surfboards, they would jump into the water and soar across the surface.

Actually, all these guys were beginners and did very little actual surfing. They spent most of their time trying to control the kite in the strong wind.

Aimee has suggested they were kitesurfing. I think she may be on to something here!!

On our way out we saw about forty fishingpoles stuck into the edge of the bay. This is just a small sampling of what greeted us when we stopped to talk to one of the fishermen. As you can see, each person monitored several poles. I'm not sure what they were fishing for but now I want to go fishing! The idea of freshly caught fish...yum!

Blissed

So I decided to go ahead and try making the Seed Stitch Shoes in my latest Debbie Bliss book, Baby Knits for Beginners. Other than a large section in the book with how-to stuff and beginning each pattern with instructions detailing what a decrease or increase is, it's a nice book with cute, simple patterns. I initially bought the book for the dress to the right. It seems like a cute little summer dress with a lot of potential.

Isn't it weird that no matter how much yarn you have, you never have the right kind or enough of it? It's true! I don't have any yarn (some people may scoff or snort) that can be used for the dress. I'm going to be forced to buy new stuff from Knitpicks (oh the agony) for this and for the cabled coat from a separate Debbie Bliss book, Baby Cashmerino. I love that her patterns are simple enough that they can be changed by adding small details, colors, ribbon, etc.

Unfortunately, the simplicity of the patterns is also a bad thing...I notice that often the Bliss books often cut corners by using the same patterns in several different books and merely making subtle changes such as a V-neck or a seed stitch border to create a whole new pattern, but I still think they're worth it. I may buy more. I'm such a sucker. Meanwhile, hopefully sometime this weekend I'll finish at least one baby shoe. And place an order with Knitpicks.

Uh...

Laura sent me an email that I was going to forward on but the photos were just too good to not post here for you to see. I'll leave them captionless, I'm sure you'll have your own thoughts.

Click on the photos to see them larger.

One down, four to go

Tonight Andrea Bocelli sang on American Idol. The kids can't even compare to him. It's going to be laughable when Kellie (I know she's going to get kicked off, she HAS to) sings her flat song.

I can't believe they divide the group into three and pretend that we don't know which is in danger. *sigh*

During the commercials, I switch back to Lost to catch highlights from past shows. Meanwhile I'm telling Aimee in chat that if Pickler isn't kicked off, Faythe is probably going to have a stroke with all her swearing, typing in caps and exclamation point usage.

WHOA, did you see Kellie without makeup? What a shocker. Not that shee needs it but she's been using so much I'm not used to seeing her without it. I really think I like her without all that garbage on her face.

OH MY ,THANK GOD they didn't make her SING AT THE END OF THE SONG!! WHAT A BLESSING! LOL! She was cut off before she could even sing!

Well, that was a fitting end to the Pickler legacy!

Britney pregnant again!

That's right! According to numerous news reports, Britney will have another child this fall. She's reportedly 4 months pregnant meaning she'll have two children at or under the age of 12 months at one time.

As Faythe says, she must be really fertile.

On a side note, baby Sean is looking pretty cute with his almond eyes and pink cheeks.

Stunned

I'll probably complain about gas prices a lot. I just have to get this off my chest.

Today I put $30 in my tank, not even filling it up. Four hours later I passed the same gas station and the price jumped up six cents to $3.15 a gallon. This is the least expensive gas we're able to find.

*angry*

STOP THE PRESS: No sheep were injured in emergency landing!

A friend of my sister, Jeff, had to land his experimental plane in a field today when a propeller somehow fell off. Those of the yarn-obsessed persuasian will be happy to know their wool is just fine and will be appearing in yarn stores near you!


Photo courtesy of Democrat-Herald / Linn County Deputy Matt Rae holds a propeller that fell off a plane Monday. The plane landed safely in the field behind him. (Note, no sheep in sight)

Regarding the old guy who stated the propeller landed five feet away from him, I'm sure we've all heard an old bear story or two from our grandparents. It's amazing how "facts" change when you have a good audience.

But seriously, Jeff is doing fine (though I'm sure he's a big shaken up) and his plane is OK too.

In unrelated news, these flowers were found tucked away at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Tonights American Idol

I know some people are all about the boobs but I was disappointed Katherine showed so much of her flesh tonight. I'd really like to listen to her sing without staring at her breasts the entire time. It was too distracting! I don't completely agree with the judges tonight who said her song was too big for her. She sounded great! However, I have to admit that I got a little bored during her performance and started checking my email. That's not a very good sign. :(

Elliot's tie is distracting me. It's big, shiny and tied a little too loosely around his neck. Paula cried while delivering her critique. I didn't find it that moving. Simon said something about a masterpiece. OK Simon..

Kellie is really flat, terribly flat. OH MY GOD is she singing flat!! AAHHH the horror, when will it end? She has no passion in her eyes when she sings, it's like she's all technical and no art. The song was terri....aahh, FLAT FLAT I can't even type while she's singing!! It's like karaoke hell! Let's see what the judges say. (If Paula is crying, it will be because she's in pain.) She didn't get any good reviews, Simon was cut off by the music. Basically, they all agreed that she was good enough at this point in the show.

Paris wasn't too exciting either. I mean, sure, she can sing. But she didn't really deliver this week. I couldn't help but think how her hair looks like Kitty's hair on That 70's Show. Simon gave a quick review. Apparently, his feelers were hurt by getting cut off last time so he dismissed Paris fairly quickly.

We came back from commercial to see Ryan and Simon paling around, that must mean Simon's ruffled feathers have been smoothed over. Taylor sang his bit, it was warm and soothing. Perfect for calming the nerves. So soothing, I stopped listening and started reading an email from my Mom about a cousin I didn't know I had.

Why is it so easy for some people to have kids? Why is it that some people have kids who shouldn't? OK enough of that whole weakening-of-the-gene-pool thing.

Anyway, Chris was next. He ended the disappointing evening with the judges raving about his performance. Whatever, it wasn't great. Meanwhile, I just before his performance, there was a commercial on the news about how all the AI kids aren't getting along and are refusing to talk to each other.

Well, it was a lackluster night. Nothing really great. These past few weeks have been terrible song themes. I can't wait for the producers to pick something more interesting. I feel like I'm in a coma now after watching the show. I actually think House, a medical mystery show about trying to solve mysterious diseases, may be uplifting and more interesting.

I don't really have a favorite this week. I guess Kellie should go. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I should post this while it's relevant

Apollo and I stumbled upon an immigration protest while in San Fran. We heard a lot of shouting and noise so of course, we made a bee-line towards the disturbance.

Local news stated thousands were protesting. I've since heard from people that have spent time in the bay area that local news estimates are usually a bit generous. I'd say it was more like a few hundred.

Yep, there were signs. And megaphones. And baby's in strollers. And an awful lot of Spanish. I don't know what their signs said. Too bad, I would like to be able to support them. You know, considering I vote and all. If I could just understand what they were saying!

I tried to get a shot of the motorcycle cop with the beer belly but wasn't sneaky enough. (Imagine a man with a big ol beer belly and spandex riding pants.) Instead I got this one of his buddy and their paddy wagons.

Sandra Lee hahahahaaha!

Luckily, Shawn alerted me to the fact that Sandra Lee's show was on Sunday. Because Faythe was busy and probably wouldn't be catching any Sandra Lee episodes, I thought I'd check her out for myself. Unfortunately, I missed half of it but I saw more than enough to see why Faythe is irritated with her.

First thing I noticed was Sandra coating churros* with pumpkin pie spice. Do they have pumpkin pie spice in Mexico?

How much creativity does it take to figure out how to make a frozen banana snack? Well, apparently enough for some air time on Sandra Lee's show! She cut a banana in half, poked a popsicle stick through it and rolled it in melted chocolate chips and then in nuts. I can't believe this is an actual television show. Or maybe Faythe's food-snobbery is rubbing off on me.


*Faythe just informed me that she looked up the churro recipe...Sandra used all-purpose baking mix. That doesn't sound like a churro to me! In fact, it sounds like a greasy biscuit!

WARNING!

Some people may find the following site disturbing. Hence, I'd like to post a warning to certain man-types, toads, pastors and basically anyone who is offended by "Girl Talk."

The rest of you, enjoy!

Aunt Flow's World of Menstruation Euphemisms!

Brown-Houston family

The first updated photo I've seen of the family in a while.

Scary

I just read Denise Richards declaration. Wow.

Almost everything I learned during my stint volunteering at a nearby domestic violence unit was clearly outlined and discussed in her declaration. I hope this all works out for her.

Someone made a mistake

And it wasn't me! Someone at Toyota messed up when they filled out my paperwork. In March, I received the title to my car. I didn't think much of it. I mean, this is the first time I've purchased a car, so I didn't know if this was normal or not. This week I got a phone call from an "enthusiastic" sounding lady at the dealership requesting the title. She said something about the bank being freaked out. Since I don't really own the car yet (not much left on the loan though, yay!), I'll walk it in this week.

Google promotes Earth Day

No baby pics for Faythe

Last night I met up with Jen for dinner. It was nice to hang out with another girl. Don't get me wrong, my male frineds are great, but they just don't understand, or want to understand, the emotions of a female. Or maybe we don't want them to understand. Anyway, we went out for sushi and went back to her parents-in-law's house for tea. They have an amazing collection of art like I've never seen in a non-museum atmosphere. It'd be cool to go back and look around some more but I feel kind of awkward doing that in someone's house aka personal space.

Anyway, we had tea and she fed her baby. I haven't been around a newborn in so long, I was and still am amazed at her tinyness! I think her fist is as big as my thumb! And her legs, those tiny little legs! It still amazes me to this day that we can create another human being that is so complete like that.

Though I promised baby pics for Faythe, I wasn't able to follow through. Maybe Jen will post some more?

Maybe

Recently it's come to my attention that maybe I'm living the wrong life. Maybe the person I'm with has other dreams, maybe his dreams aren't my dreams after all.

Maybe this is a good thing, maybe it will force me to live the life I should live. Maybe I've wasted the last seven years. Maybe I'm just really bad at this.

Maybe...maybe I don't know what to do.

No, not pickles!!

Quoted from letter written by William Swain, a miner in San Francisco on April 15, 1850.

Looking for affordable gas?

San Diego and surrounding areas, locate cheap gas here. And good luck!

You'll need it.

(I'm still not sure why California's gas prices are affected so much by world events when the reality is we're forced to use oil from our own refineries, not outside sources. But what do I know?)

GAH!

Kris and Sara Everson from Missouri admitted last week to fabricating a story about the birth of their sextuplets. Apparently they made up the whole story, including details such as how their babies were critically ill and in intensive care, etc, just to get money from generous sources to pay their bills. But after all surrounding hospitals denied knowing anything about these people or their babies, authorities became suspicious and ended up slapping the Everson's with stealing by deceit, which could get them up to seven years in prison.

How they were intending on keeping up this charade is beyond me. I mean, in the end you're going to have to produce six babies, right?

Kitty hat

Isn't this the Kittyville hat from Debbie Stollers Stitch 'n Bitch? Looks like the maker used huge needles and bulky yarn.

You won't believe what I did tonight...

Yeah, that's right! I paid over three freakin dollars per gallon for gas! My car is supposed to get supreme gas but not tonight, no way! She got the cheap stuff and even then it was $20 for 6.5 gallons. Why? WHY?

The latest in diseases...

In the news...a man from Carlsbad is suspected to have the mumps. He's being tested and we'll know in a week whether or not he does have the disease.

Meanwhile a woman in LA tested positive for the bubonic plague earlier this month. I guess people get the plague from being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the plague bacterium.

I'm starting to feel a little germ phobic.

Tonights American Idol

Rumors are that Katharine may be a Scientologist. *sigh*

Tonight I fell in love with her performance, it was so beautiful. To me, she and Paris were the winners. Unfortunately, Kellie and Ace didn't do as well.

I think the makeup and lighting crew did a great job tonight too. Without them, the performances wouldn't quite be the same. Way to go guys!

Eeek!

Tonight I got what I think was the cousin to The Blue Screen of Death. While playing around with Google Earth, I suddenly got a sapphire blue screen with a bunch of messages similar to, "You have experienced an error....shut down....Physical Memory is being deleted....Physical Memory has been deleted..."

It was so scary, I don't know what the exact details of the messages were, but you get the picture. Since then I have restarted and ran a system check for errors and everything is OK.

Hopefully, this isn't related to Google Earth!

Lower your mortgage payment and you too will be sexy!

Skacel Meditation yarn

Faythe and I were just talking about this but I'd thought I'd share it with you as well. This Skacel Meditation yarn smells like lavender for at least 40 washes, so says the manufacturer.
If I find it, I'm going to try it out. Maybe make something that doesn't require so many washes so it'll last a while.

Lesson learned today: Do not overindulge on sugar-free sorbitol sweetened mints.

Eyebrows

I just realized...Whoopi doesn't have any eyebrows! How did this happen and why? Does she wax her face?

Happy Easter

I am thankful!

How are eggs related to Easter?

Lost (in more ways than one)

This week my boss, Brian, loaned me his collection of Lost's season 1 dvd's. I started watching today; I can't believe I missed out on all this good stuff! After watching the first 2 episodes, I started over so Apollo could see them too. I will force my addicion on him if I have to!

I started taking some medicine yesterday that can potentially make me act a little moody. Of course, when I tell friends about this potential issue, they say things like "Any moodier than usual?" and "Does the doctor that said that really know you?" I'm not really sure what that's supposed to mean. If they only knew how much I was holding back!

Speaking of holding back and moody, I've decided I shouldn't be making any important decisions for a while. I recently had an episode involving two different phone companies, cancelling services and some stifled crying. *sigh* It was not pretty. You know there's a problem when you have a mood swing and within minutes think to yourself, "What the hell just happened?"

Yes, these next few months will be interesting. Hopefully I won't make any life changing decisions.

What now?

All I have to do is go to Joann Fabrics and buy the final touch to Darth Baby's sweater and I'll be done. That being said, I am done knitting! This means I'm free to start something new!

Considering I've had a brief episode of complete irrational behavior and a few lapses of sanity, I'm not sure if I trust myself to pick out my next project.

Instead, I'm shopping for knitting books on Amazon.com. The first book is Baby Knits for Beginners. While I don't consider myself a beginner, there are a couple really cute patterns in this book that I want to knit up. They also have potential for "upgrades." The second is Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks. I really enjoyed her last book, Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter. If you're a knitter and enjoy reading books, I recommend this book. Mostly because it's freakin hilarious but also because it's nice to know you're not alone in obsessive behavior. :)

Shopping is so therapeutic. Now, the obsession over when the package arrives begins.

What is it they say about taxes and death?

Well, I'm pleased to say I just filed my taxes. Because of a screw up at work (believe me, you don't want to know) I owe the federal government a small sum. I knew I would owe this sum and have delayed filing taxes. Fortunately, now I'm able to pay such debt. Or at least, put forth a good faith payment. I was going to wait until 11:58 on April 15th but I'm glad I finished "early." :)

So today I got one of "those" emails from my Mom. You know the kind...the kind that make your heart pound and you instantly know what the problem is. (If your Mom is like my Mom, she knows how to make a person panic with just a few words.) Well, I was right on with my assumption, it was about Grandpa. I guess his health has deteriorated and he has been given two years to live. It seems his cancer has progressed along with a couple other health issues.

I feel bad. I feel like I need to move to Oregon and be closer to him and the family. It made me think, why am I in San Diego anyway? I miss Oregon.

The red dot shows where grandpa lives and the red arrows indicate areas I would move to i.e. areas of significant population.

Tonights American Idol

I took an hour nap in preparation of tonights episode. I just have a few comments:

Bucky - So you know that feeling you get just after you've vomited? That acidic taste or feel in your mouth? That's how I feel when I'm listening to him sing.

Ace - Unfortunately, looks will only get you so far, if these are the kind of looks you go for. This week his looks were freaking me out a little. Is it me or does it look like he's deliberately staring at the audience just to get votes? Plus the odd shape of his face and or head is really starting to unnerve me. He should go next, he's not a very flexible singer. The familiarity of the song may save him, though.

Kellie - Wait, did she just tell Simon that she doesn't have an accent? But last week she told Kenny Rogers that she was happy to meet him and sing his music because they both had the same accent! I hated her trampy outfit and I hated that wink at the end.

Chris - He's wearing eye makeup! I didn't really get the song but it was still cool. It had such a weird ending too.


Katherine - It was OK, I wasn't too excited. It had a broadway feel, which she can pull off. Well, honestly, it just seemed like a bunch of music and loud singing/hollerin.

Elliott - I actually dug it! I liked Elliot tonight, he sounded like he could be a member of Queen.



Taylor - Changed his song choice, good thing too cause I think this new song suited him better. It still wasn't the greatest but man, can you imagine what it would have sounded like if he sang "We Are the Champions" as planned? He looked kind of silly when he missed his microphone stand the first time when kicking at it. He needs a haircut, his old style is growing back in.

Paris - Apollo commented that she looked like Tina Turner and I have to agree, she had that TT style goin on. She wears those spikey black boots much better than Kellie does. I thought this song showed great versatility even if it wasn't her best performance.

It was hard to pinpoint a favorite this time, it didn't seem like there was one person that really stuck out. That being said, I think Elliott was probably my favorite. I think either Bucky or Ace should go this week. Please!

Van was on Jeopardy tonight!

Watch video: Windows Media Player

Van is an intern at our church and is currently looking for a church to pastor.

He lost by a slight margin tonight. But he did great, I'm impressed!