I'm NOT a Creep!

If you have to start your conversation with "I'm not a creep, but...", then, yeah, you probably are.

The other day I had to stop and get gas. I was out of town in another tiny town. There was one other car getting gas. We are both pumping and minding our own business when this unsavory and CREEPY dude walks up to me. I know you can't judge a book by it's cover, but if you were going to pick a serial killer for a horror movie, it would have been this guy. Did I mention that I am alone as the other car had driven off by this time and I am a small female. He stares at me for a minute (okay leers) and says, "I'm not a dick. I'm going to pump your gas."

Ummmmm, wow. I managed a polite, "Thank you, but I've got it under control." I immediately grab my cell. Thankfully, it has service. I dial DH. "Yeah, hon, how are you?"

He responds with a confused, "What?" It is the middle of the day. Surely, I'm not calling to chitchat.

I continue, "Wouldn't it be weird if, like, some random dude was staring at me right now and wanting to pump my gas and telling me he isn't a creep.......Yeah, I know you don't like other men pumping my gas."

DH is pretty quick on his feet. I can hear the concern in his voice as he says, "You mean, there is someone there doing that now! Can you leave?!?!"

"Well, if he weren't standing in front of my car."

At that moment, another car pulls up. The dude looks at me and says, "I'm not a creep or crazy or anything." No, I'm sure you're not, sweetheart. People always approach lone women at gas stations, offer to pump their gas, and then block their cars so they can't leave. It didn't make me feel any better that the attendant casually watched through the front window.

You may be thinking, "Damn, this woman is an idiot. Why the f*#% did she not call the cops."

I was going to, but I thought 1. is it really a crime to announce that you are not a perv AND offer to pump someone's gas 2. if I am talking to someone on my cell phone, surely he has enough sense to leave. Anyway, I had decided at that point, I would just run the creeps ass over and then call 911. Can you imagine that call:

"What is your emergency?"

"Yeah...some dude tried to pump my gas, so I ran his ass over."

"What???"

"Well, he did indicate something about a dick..."

I'm with Crazy

Life seems to kind of get out of control sometimes, and suddenly it's November. I'm trying the multiple projects thing. I have one that is languishing alone at the bottom of the knitting bag, one that I get out and work on a couple of times of week, and smaller projects that I knit up and finish in the meantime. I've gotten an okay amount of knitting done.

I've been reading a lot of books lately-mostly fluff. I've watched a lot of movies (mostly foreign). I LOVE Netflix instant play queue.

I've also been dealing with a couple of months of crazy--not my own, but I am afraid that it will rub off on me. Unless you are inoculated against them, crazy and stupid both tend to be contagious. I am around an excessive amount of both. That's all I have to say on that topic.

I'll try to get some of my knitted items posted here. If you are a member of Ravelry, I've posted several pictures there. Hopefully, I will find the time and sanity to do more with it soon.

FO's

Yes, two are in yellow/gold. I had some leftover yarn for the Fetching, and DD wanted another pair. It worked out perfectly!

DD and I went to see Harry Potter in Imax 3-D today. It was great. Without giving away anything, I find it interesting that characters are not always what they seem to be but are rather reacting to situations that are thrust upon because of life's situations. Although there are definitely good and evil characters, most of the characters fall somewhere in between and have moments of both.

Garden Fresh

Dinner tonight was simple and delicious. Hubby grilled ribs rubbed down with a concoction of brown sugar, garlic powder, and other herbs and spices. He basted it with lemon juice as it cooked and then finished with barbecue sauce the last fifteen minutes of grilling. I used herbs from my puny herb container garden (pictured above) to add to the zucchini and potatoes. Both got a spritz of olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper, and fresh Greek oregano and thyme. I added onions to the zucchini. They were added to the grill beside the ribs about 40 minutes before the ribs were finished. I would post a pic of the grilled food, but it was eaten immediately!

There was no biking today. Instead the dogs got an extra walk in. I finished yet another hat! The problem is the Spidery Tank was set aside until I finished the hat. I'm almost finished with the front. Then, I just have the back left to do. In the meantime, I also need to knit a baby hat and a pair of Fetching. Considering our governor just announced teacher furloughs, I'm guessing I will have plenty of extra knitting time (but, alas, no money to buy yarn).

Nap Time!

Everyone should have the ability to nap like this.

A Break and an FO

I took a time out from the Spidery Tank to knit a Butterfly Hat for my stepmother. As usual when I try to do two projects at once, I just put one aside and knit the other until it was finished. I knit the bulk of it yesterday watching a couple of Doctor Who repeats and, then, playing a game of Scrabble with the family. The pattern said that a repeat could be added. I think that unless you had an above-average head size, you would end up with a slouchy, large hat if you added another repeat. I'm back to the Spidery Tank today (unless I take another time out for another hat).

Yesterday morning was spent on the bikes on the Silver Comet Trail. It was very cool here, and I ended up wearing long sleeves. There were a lot of people on the trail to be so cool and so early on a Sunday morning, but there wasn't much wildlife. We haven't seen a deer this year which is quite unusual. I haven't seen the large red fox that was on the trail earlier this week again. The squirrels are there in abundance and still seem more than happy to try and throw themselves under any passing bicycle. It is quite a feat trying NOT to hit them. I think they all just love a good game of chicken. After the ride, we met some old friends who are visiting for China. We had a great time catching up over lunch and seeing how much their kids have grown. They head back at the end of the week and then will be quarantined in their home for a week so that China can make sure they didn't catch swine flu.

Oh, I almost forgot my book report. I finished The Divide. It was okay. It had a few plot holes as in most mass novels everything seems to bizarrely work out in the end. I'm reading a Mary Higgins Clark book now at the recommendation of a friend. It is quite typical. It is interesting enough for a light summer read. We all have our guilty pleasures as far as movies and books, but I find that she isn't one of mine. I enjoy the ongoing character-based mysteries by Kathy Reich and Patricia Cornwell more. I also skimmed through Knitting in Plain English. It has a lot of good techniques and tips that I have forgotten about. It also includes specific tips and common pitfalls that most tradition learn-to-knit books don't include. Most of the directions are very specific and very detailed in a way a non-knitter/beginning knitter can understand. There are black and write illustrations of techniques. There is a lot of advice on matching yarns to projects, reading patterns, etc. However, it is very text-heavy (which some people won't like) and the patterns are a bit out of fashion/old-fashion. Also, she is quite opinionated about that does come through in her writing.

Honey

My little town is having it's local arts and crafts festival today. DD and I walked down before lunch to check it out. I bought some wonderful Georgia honey from Hidden Springs. There is a lovely picture of their bees to the right. They have several flavors to choose. There were samples to help in the process. We finally decided on Gallberry and Raspberry, but they were all equally yummy. Their service is excellent. We cruised the vendors after that. DD bought some earrings and socialized with her friends. We shared our annual funnel cake (delicious!) before heading back home.

I have half of a pattern repeat on the Spidery Tank and then the top before I'm finished. I'm already planning my next projects. I'm going to make some gift hats for some instant knit gratification.

Harry Potter and Photographing Red Yarn

We went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday. We all (husband, daughter, and daughter's friend) found it to be quite entertaining and well-done. Yes, they did leave some things out from the book, but if they hadn't it would have been much longer than the 2 1/2 hours it already clocked. If you have read the book, there are no surprises. If you haven't, then stop reading here. The girls and I teared up at Dumbledore's death. The school's reaction to it was perfect. Although I still don't like him, I really felt sorry for Draco and the situation his heritage thrust upon him. We have decided to go see it again, but this time in Imax.

I have been reading Nicholas Evans' The Divide the past two days. His writing is very descriptive. The characters seem like real people with real problems--although one problem is one that most families (thankfully) don't encounter. I'm hoping that the ending isn't some neatly wrapped up, beyond belief, "everything is okay" type of ending that I've seen in some of my summer reading lately. There a lot of flashbacks, and they appear in no particular order. I find that within a sentence or two, it is easy to determine the time frame of the action.

I'm continuing with the knitting on the Spidery Tank. My daughter has decided she wants it to be a bit longer than pictured, so I will be adding a repeat or two of the lace pattern. That means I have a bit more to knit on it than I planned which is fine. It's a good pattern. I've given up on taking pictures of it until she can wear it. I am finding it horribly difficult to photograph the work in progress with the red looking like a wretched color and the pattern detail not showing up. It sounds like something I should google...

Hubby and I beat the rain today for an early morning on the Silver Comet Trail. It is being cleaned up for Homespun, so it is currently quite populated. One day this week we had to abort the ride due to the workers cutting limbs and moving debris from near the trail. We are going to try to go tomorrow, but we will probably have to pick up the trail in a different place. I still love the picture I took with my crappy Razr at the trestle near Rambo Nursery a couple of years ago.

Germaphobes on the loose!

I had to make a Target run yesterday to pick up some kibbles for the girls. new tweezers, and some detergent. Real boring stuff. Anyhoo, hubby and I get to the check out, and the cashier dude is sanitizing his hands with at least a half a cup of hand sanitizer. He tells us it will be just a second and commences to wipe the register down with Lysol. He gets hubby to hold the dog food for the scan and return it to the cart. The guy then picks up the detergent with two fingers and quickly scans it. He looks at the bagging area and then just sets the detergent down. He grabs the tweezers with the same two fingers, scans them, and then thrusts them at me (bagless) holding on to the edge indicating that I should just toss them in my purse and says "you don't need a bag for these." I'm pretty sure he was re-sanitizing himself and the area as we left. I held the receipt in my hand as we left in case there was any question about why I had a pair of tweezers in my purse. How can a person work at a place like Target and be that terrified of germs?!?!? Poor guy, he must be completely miserable. At least he doesn't work at a hospital, I guess.

I finished the Marion Keyes book Angels. It was a predictable summer/beach read. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. It was fairly fun.

In the meantime.....I really miss the beach....

Monogamous Knitting

I'll admit it...I have found that I can only work one knitting project at a time now. If I am working on more than one thing, I am constantly thinking about the other project I am knitting instead and how I am not working on it yet and actually knit less. I do feel like an oddball about it. I keep thinking maybe I should cast on a sock and keep it in my purse at the very least. The only exception is sewing seams. After I knit the project, I can let it languish for a year before I actually sew it together. In fact, I currently have at least one project like that.

The Spidery Tank is coming along. I didn't knit on it yesterday. I wasn't feeling well. I'm sure that I will make up for it today. I think that it will be finished by next week. It is easy to knit as long as you keep track of whether you are on a knit row or purl row. The yarn I am using feels great on my hands as I knit it. Even though I'm not knitting with my favorite needles, they aren't horrible because the yarn does make up for a lot. I'm trying to decide what to knit next. No, I don't feel guilty at this point about having a UFO that just needs to be seamed. It's a cardigan, and cardigans can't be worn in Georgia until at least October =).

Hubby and I watched Taken Thursday evening. Clearly someone took some of the main plot elements away from the movie in editing (my hope is that at some point they were actually in the movie). If you don't care about plot holes and you're just in it for the action, this is the movie for you. There were a lot of things in it that were completely beyond belief, even in the movie world. It wasn't the worst movie I have ever seen, but one could take a fifteen minute snack break in the middle and not miss anything.

I finished reading Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes. It was a good, light, summer read. It was fun with the right amount of sex and tension in it. Some characters were caricatures, and some seemed like real people. I was glad that the American publishers left most of the Irish slang in the novel because it did add a bit of realism to it. I am reading another one by her now which seems to be just as much fun. Next, I will get back to some serious reading (maybe).

Confessions

So, on Ravelry I am using the stash features, but I didn't post all my stash. I have several shoe box size containers that have various unmarked balls of yarn that I hope to use for a labyrinth rug at some point. Also, I have a couple of UFOs that I didn't report and didn't count the yarn. In all honesty, they are probably going to be frogged and have the yarn returned to the stash. I also had a long lingering UFO that was from some really cheap-o yarn that I finally just tossed. It goes against the recycler in me, but it was yarn that no one would want. It made me a bit depressed seeing the project lingering there. I'm working on the Spidery Tank. I've gotten to the lace portion of the sweater. I posted some pretty crappy pics on Ravelry.

I'm going to use the stash that I bought at Stitches and/or bought for specific projects. I'm going to try not to buy any yarn until I finish those. I've almost used up all my cotton dishcloth/washcloth stash (yeah, I didn't put that on Ravelry either).

In a bout of insomnia, I watched the Korean film I'm a Cyborg, but It's Okay. It wasn't awesome, but it was engaging and interesting. It takes place in a mental institution. The main character has a family history of mental illness. She thinks she is a cyborg and refuses to eat. She develops a relationship with another patient. It ends up being charming and sweet.

Hubby and I have started back riding. We got in a ride this morning before the rain (which we may or may not get). I listened to some odd Stash and Burn podcasts while we rode.

Wow! This thing still exists!

I didn't realize that I still had this thing. Since it has been years since I have used it, I decided to delete everything and start fresh. I have been knitting dishcloths/washcloths the past few days. I have been trying to find something more substantial to knit, so I am casting on the Spidery Tank from Interweaves Knits Summer 2009. I have some Debbie Bliss Stella in my stash. I'm doing a swatch now. Hopefully, the yarn will work out.

I just finished rereading The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. It was quite verbose in several (okay, many) places. I reread mainly because DD is into the vampire/witch type books and wanted to know if she could read it. The answer is still "no". At least not for a few more years. Now I'm doing some very light reading: Marian Keye's Sushi for Beginners. It has been holding my interest and is entertaining.

Hubby watched the Friday the 13th remake this weekend. I was there while it was on. Skip it unless you like brainless horror flicks.

Maybe I'll remember this is here and update it on a regular basis now.