Thursday

Forgot to mention that I received the name of my spoilee for the Spring swap at TOK. This will be fun! Pino woke me up at 4 a.m. to go out. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I hate that he's so old. Anyway of course is was gale winds and downpouring because of the storm. At 6:15 a.m., when I took them again for their normal bathroom outing, it was just drizzle and no wind. Geez! Work was good. I really don't have much to complain about there. Got my state refund so I paid off one of the creditors. I wish I had about $10K (more actually) to get them all to stop calling. But I may end up with garnished wages or something. I also ordered my annual tech birthday gift to myself - this year its an Ipad. Got it through QVC with their easy payments. I know I have tons of creditors but I have extra taken out of my pay so that once I year I can buy myself a gift. And I am doing my best other than that. I buy nothing -- every cent goes towards the bills. That's about it, I guess. Just Elk stuff but I don't even want to think about any of that right now.

Back to reality!

Back to work this morning. It was so foggy that I was counting lights to try and remember how many lights before I had to turn off Whalley Ave. onto Blake. I mean I do it automatically every morning so I was making guesses. Luckily I guessed correctly and got to work. LOL!!! Did some major stalking for the TOK Spring swap. I love that place and am looking forward to this swap. Of course I've looked forward to all of them. Everyone there is so great! Talked to Lou for a while after work. She's still coping amazingly well with her cancer. She said she's getting a little bit worse but her attitude is amazing. She's allowing no negativity and living her life very fully. She can still drive and is still caring for her mom at the nursing home and doing all kinds of stuff. I love it!

Finally started to forget

I knew I'd forget to write stuff eventually and it happened. I guess I missed a few days. I don't know where I left off but I think Friday I was down the lodge working on the newsletter. We still didn't finish. Sunday I went out to lunch with Sandy. We went to Red Lobster which I don't think we've gone to in a few years. Afterwards I went to Peggie's for supper and to watch Imitation of Life -- good movie. Saturday was supposed to be stormy so Sandy didn't want to go out then, but it was fine and I did some stuff at home. I can't remember what else over the weekend other than all my minis are in. Yesterday I came home from work early. I thought I had a stomach bug but I actually think I must be allergic to zinc. Or at least to taking zinc on an empty stomach. I stayed home today too to recuperate. I did finish knitting the Wooby and have to put him together. Of course I'll procrastinate there -- I think the finishing up is the hardest for me. I need to finish knitting the arms on the little dolls for the Yarn Barn. Maybe I'll work on those now. The weather was bad yesterday and apparently work got let out at 3 p.m. That wouldn't have done me any good since I normally work until 3:30. The roads still would have been nasty. And they postponed the cooking thing at the library to tonight. I can't go tonight because we have to finish the newsletter plus we have an officer's meeting. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Baaaad me!

Give me five cents and I'll spend it at the grocery store. *sigh* Got paid today and decided to go to BJs on the way home and re-join -- that was $50 and then I spent $95. But I bought good stuff.

And we're not going to work on the newsletter tonight. We're doing that tomorrow instead.

Lastly -- it was 4 degrees out on my way to work this morning and 20 degrees on my way home!! WOW!

Newsletter night

Spent hours after work doing the newsletter with Yvonne. Tomorrow night will be the same. I'm so tired! Almost forgot to mention that my last mini came today. But I signed up for a spring swap. I love TOK!

Cold today

It was in the teens and supposed to be colder tomorrow. I'm NOT complaining. Unless, of course, my car doesn't start. This is way, way better than hot and humid!! Just relaxing tonight. The rest of the week will probably be taken up by going to the lodge and working on the bulletin.

Lazy day just knitting

Did nothing today but read and knit and watch tv. I finished reading Cold Days and can now bring it back to the library. I have the new paperback I bought to replace the one I lost. I'm still going to have to pay for the book but at least I'll feel better. I still can't figure out how I lost it. I've never in my almost 61 years lost a book!!

I finished one side of Woobie and started the other. I've had that on the needles for a few years. I'll try to remember to post a picture when I'm done.

I am determined to get a few of my UFOs done before the nasty hot weather sets in!

Busy today

Went out for a few hours with Sandy. Stopped for lunch/breakfast -- I had a Canadian Mountie omelet -- YUM and then shopped a little. When I came home, Anthony and I ran to the laundromat and made a quick stop at Shop Rite. Came home and knit for awhile and then was going to see Casablanca at The Strand. When we got there we found out that it had started an hour earlier. Geez! I really should check the times before I do things. So Roseann, Anita and I went and grabbed supper instead. Really was quite a nice day. No work tomorrow!!!

Good day

I couldn't get to the post office so I don't know if I got any minis today. But two of mine have already gotten to their new homes! Went to the Elks mid-year convention and pretty much enjoyed it all. It was little boring in spots but very informational for the most part. I enjoyed the company too.

Long weekend

We have a three-day weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to the CT Elks mid-year convention which will be interesting. Sunday night is Casablanca on the big screen and Monday will be a Monday off from work. YEAH!

Snow today

We had snow in the night and a half day delay this morning. Yeah! Finished skeining my minis and putting them in mailers. Mailed them after work. Double yeah! So my day was somewhat productive. :)

Elks

Worked today. Skeined some of the minis I need to send out and then went to the Elks meeting. What a loooooonnnnnnnnngggg meeting. It was under two hours but it seemed like forever. All the discussions. We did initiate Vinny Greco. How peculiar it is that our lives circle around again. I know that I've stayed close to bunches of 'kids' that I've known from kindergarten and all my life, but it still feels odd to have some roam back into my life. Vinny -- I've known him that long and through high school and I can count on one hand the number of times I ran into him. Mostly at reunions. I wonder how many other old classmates will follow?

First mini arrived

The first of my five mini skeins from the TOK swap arrived today. It's so pretty -- Koigu merino wool. I never had any Koigu before so this is exciting. I'm excited to see what else is coming -- I know there's Knit Picks in there. I love ALL the wools that have been mentioned even if I've never tried them. Spent the morning at the laundromat getting all my clothes done and then went into New Haven with Roseann. Had a very nice day. We went to the Knights of Columbus museum and then to eat at Ray's Pure Health Lounge and spent over an hour talking and catching up with him. Then we walked over to St. Mary's to visit Fr. McKenna's tomb. That is so spiritually uplifting. Tonight I addressed all the envelopes for the minis I've got to send out and will have the skeins made up by Wednesday night and off in the mail on Thursday.

Gone with the Wind

As many times as I've seen this movie in my lifetime, I never saw it on the big screen until tonight. Of course since it was made before I was born, I didn't see it when it came out. LOL!! But all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!! Four hours with a ten minute intermission and it was awesome! Next week they're showing Casablanca and if I can't find anyone to go with me, I'll go alone.

Better today

Went to bed very early last night and woke up around 7:30 this morning. Of course I was up about five times during the night but that's normal, even though I took two sleeping pills. UGH! So I went with Maria to the home of Alice and Joe on a farm in Oxford. Met a lot of very nice people and learned how to make lye soap. What fun and so easy!! Then I went down the Elks for a few hours and now I'm home and ready to go to bed early again. 1/15/13 -- Editing this to say that I've totally shocked myself. I never mentioned that the 12th would have been Allen's 59th birthday. My God! Am I finally letting myself be free of him? I don't really think so since there hasn't really been a day that I remember, since he and I started dating in 1969, that I haven't thought of him. So I find it weird that even though I thought of him all day on Saturday, I didn't mention him in here.

Not feeling 100%

Feeling blah and my throat is a little scratchy. I mixed up a batch of honey and vinegar and cayenne and ginger and will keep sipping at that. I have too much on the agenda for this weekend to get sick!

Almost forgot to say that Anita is running for mayor. I congratulated her and said that I really hoped she'd run an honest and clean campaign and also not ban people who are asking honest questions from the Facebook page.

She knows I'm referring to the last election where the Democratic candidate kept putting out lies, that were able to be proven to be lies and also banned me from the the Facebook page for asking polite questions.

This time around I will cite references to everything I find that's not true and put it out for the world to see. And I'll copy everything I say on Facebook or the Indy so if they delete it, I'll have proof of what I said and how I said it.

Honey and vinegar

This stuff actually tastes good. I have it pinned in Pinterest but I want to put it here so I don't lose it. I'll probably forget it's here anyway but at least I'll have it in a few places. It's a honey and apple cider vinegar mix for sore throats. But I think it's awesome in general. I'm going to try to remember to take a spoonful or more a day just for general health. It was great when I had that nasty cold -- helped with the cough. But the ginger should help with my stomach which isn't feeling well tonight.

Almost forgot

I almost forgot to come here and write something. I really am trying for every day. Today was just a normal day. And that's something to be grateful for. My life is a good one and I try to remind myself of that. I don't want negativity and I try to stay away from it. Sometimes I even succeed! LOL!!! Today I bought mailers at the Post Office for the mini skein swap. I am trying to think of a little something to add to the swap that I can get quickly. All we have to do is send one skein each to five people but it's always nice to include a little something. But what? Grrrrrrrr!

Tired tonight

I am soooooo tired and I don't know why. Bleh. Boss is sick again and she texted us saying her husband came home with a 102 fever. Wonderful. I refuse to get sick again. This weather is not helping at all. Normal winter weather and then boom -- 40's and it's supposed to be in the 50s this weekend. NOT healthy at all. Oh well. Guess I'm going to go to bed early tonight. I can't stop yawning.

Hexi charts

I need a place to put links to hexi charts. If I bookmark them, they'll be so lost I'll never find them again. Maybe I'll remember if I put them here: beekeeper's quilt one stop charts & tips

Louise Lavender

Beekeeper's Hive

Monday, Monday

I actually like Mondays. The beginning of a new week, full of all kinds of interesting things. Today at work I was asked to sit in on a mini meeting regarding our work order system since I am one of the ones who do the most on it. We'll be meeting with the trade supervisors to try to get better use out of it and better communication with the people who put in work requests. I'm a little excited about this because I know it will make things run much more smoothly. That's about it for today. I'm sitting here while Carol is cooking supper and I have a head full of hair dye. After a shower and supper I plan on watching a little tv and maybe working on an UFO. We'll see. I might just read instead. Tomorrow or Wednesday I have to put together the packages for the mini skein swap so I can mail them after work on Thursday. I'm looking forward to seeing what yarns I get too. :)

Finally got to knit

I worked the gift shop at the historical society for four or five hours today so I had a good amount of time to knit. I finished the body of the other little bear and now all I have to do is make the arms and legs on both and sew them on. Then it will be on to hexis and UFOs. There are quite a few UFOs. LOL!! 12th Night went really well. There was a good showing and Colonel David Humphries was there, of course. So was Red Bear. And then it got funny. I was hearing booms and thinking that the kids were upstairs knocking over looms or something. But one of the kids told me the guys were shooting outside. I unbarred the back door to look out and there were David Humphreys and Red Bear shooting black powder guns. But what was really funny was that while one was shooting the pistol, the other was taking his picture with his Iphone. So here you have one person in full Colonial uniform and an American Indian in full gear playing with guns and Iphones. Unfortunately my camera battery died and I had forgotten MY Iphone at home so I couldn't take any pictures of them. Well tomorrow is back to full work weeks for a few weeks. And then we get Martin Luther King day off. I've gotten used to working only four day weeks. LOL!! And in case I decide to track it -- I'm at 134.4 today. I was down to 132 the other day. Don't know what's going on with my weight but I do not want to go back up to 139. Ugh! Also I have been talking to a really nice couple at the Historical Society. I always see them at faire and they are always volunteering at the Historical Society. Anyway, Maria is in the SCA and says there's tons of classes they do at a farm in Oxford. There's going to be a soap making class and she's going to send me the info and said I could go with her. I'd like to go if I don't have to be elsewhere!

Five in a row

Wonder how long I'll keep this up? Anyway -- went to the historical society to help decorate the house with greenery. Tomorrow is 12th Night and I'll be working the gift shop. They're going to have samplings of lots of Colonial food and the Junior docents will be singing and there will be tours of the house. I've done 12th Night before and it's very nice. Afterwards I ran to Target and Big Y and then home to take out the dogs. Put together a Kentucky Hot Brown casserole. Never had Hot Browns before so this should be interesting. Sold a thingy on Ebay -- a soundblaster that I'd bought for my old laptop and used only once before the laptop fried. Also got my names for the mini-skein swap. I'll be mailing all that out during the week. Lots of fun! I'm bringing knitting with me tomorrow. They like that I knit there since it's authentic -- even if I'm using non-wood needles. I tend to get a lot of knitting donw when I'm in the gift shop. And the casserole was a bust. What a waste of time. It was just ok. Nothing special at all.

Friends

Met Joanne for pizza. I'm so glad we reconnected after all these years. We talk and talk and talk and reminisce. What fun memories we have. She was half way between my parents' age and mine and we were so close. And the years passed. Now we are trying to get together once a month.

On a roll!

Three days in a row. I know this probably won't last. I don't care as long as I actually remember to note the important things in my life. Nothing out of the ordinary today. I'll sit and knit a little on the little bear for the Yarn Barn and watch some tv. I don't have to be anywhere at all tonight. We'll see what happens with my stomach. Lunch was pasta with broccoli and olive oil and garlic and some Italian bread. Nothing happened after I ate. Supper was rotisserie chicken, potato salad, bread and a little of something called a bon bon cake. Basically that was chunks of chocolate cake with chocolate mousse. I didn't have much of that because I don't generally eat too much sweet stuff. Waiting to see if anything happens.

Day two

Didn't get to knit -- no time. After work I had to run right to the Elks to help finish up the newsletter and then run to mail it. Now I'm going to my Cosmic Meeting. As far as eating -- so far today I ate a chocolate croissant, one cup of black coffee, some mozzarella balls, some cured olives, some little smokies wrapped in bacon and a handful of potato chips with onion dip. If anything should make me sick, that should, but it hasn't. Supper tonight will be fried mozzarella in marinara sauce and maybe scallops wrapped in bacon. We'll see what happens. Of course Donna is stuck in ice in her driveway and I can't go get her since I can't see well enough in the dark to get to her place way up in the hills. If she doesn't get unstuck, she'll have to cancel the meeting.

And a new one just begun

2013 -- And the big question is will I really keep writing in here? LOL!!!

Stealing someone else's idea and trying to remember doing a daily gratitude journal: January 1, 2013 I am grateful for 60 years, nine months, and 15 days of my blessed life.

Do I have goals for this new year? Knit a bit every day. Today I worked a little on the second little toy for the children's hospital thing. Put together the 'sandwich' and quilt the top from my 9/11 quilt. Yes -- it's been 11 years since I made the top. There's no excuse anymore. Not only do I have a sewing machine again, but there's a quilt shop just up two towns over, maybe five minutes from here.

And then I'd like to make another quilt. The quilt book and magazine that I received in my Tokmas package are s inspiring. I know I can do this!!

Figure out what's wrong with my stomach lately. Sometime I can eat and eat anything at all and am fine - most times, thank God. But every so often I eat and have to run right to the bathroom. I don't know what it is. And it's not the same foods either. I wonder if I should write down the meal each time it happens.

It happened tonight. The meal was roasted chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, pearl onions in a cream sauce, green bean casserole, stuffing, biscuits and cranberry sauce. I drank on glass of pinot grigio and one cup of black coffee and had a tiny slice of chocolate cream pie. And then ran straight to the bathroom. *sigh*

And YEAH! I remembered (well I looked it up) how to make returns after paragraphs. Put < BR > at the end of a paragraph. Of course with no spaces. To make a double space, put it twice.