Adventures · life

Nature Drama!

Today I glanced out the window with the corner of my eye and saw a bunch of ducks in the parking lot walking past the window. “Aw,” I thought, “it’s a duck parade!” But when I grabbed my camera and got a better look at what was happening, this is what I saw:

The ducks were shooing a pair of black vultures away from their favorite area under the bush beneath my window. Once they had convinced the vultures to move a comfortable distance away, they smugly returned to the shade and safety of the bushes. At least 4 of these guys were fuzzy little ducklings when we first moved in.

Here are the vultures looking all dejected.

DUCK PWN!

So they wandered over to the dumpster in hopes of a snack that doesn’t fight back.

But as I was getting ready to put my camera away, I noticed I wasn’t the lone spectator of this tiny drama.

This very lovely red-shouldered hawk was also watching. And waiting.

 

Adventures

A Lizard Adventure

Tonight, as we were getting ready to sit down to dinner, Isaac pointed at the ceiling and yelled “OMG THERE’S A LIZARD IN OUR HOUSE”. Doozer was really excited. I had the mister grab a glass and capture her so we could get her safely to the outside, but not before I snapped her picture. Seriously? I’ve seen spiders bigger than this:

So I guess this is like a normal thing now that we live in Florida. Random lizards just invite themselves to dinner. So much excitement.

Adventures · Uncategorized

Sunset 8/13/12

And a very lovely golden sunset it was, too!

Adventures · life · Snowflake

Box Hell

can’t blog now stop completely buried in boxes stop will check in next week stop here’s a cat picture instead stop

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Adventures · life · Snowflake

Almost done!

Well, we made it! We got down here in time to move in on the 31st!

We really love our new place and we are just waiting on the movers to deliver the rest of our stuff. It was supposed to arrive today, but evidently the truck broke down in Georgia. They rescheduled us for tomorrow, which means today I need to clean up and get ready. Here’s my new kitchen:

And here is my new rug:

Also, meet Snowflake, our new cat. He comes to us from old friends who were leaving the Florida sun for Seattle rain and weren’t able to bring him with them. We got down here just in time to keep him out of a shelter, which turned out to be fortuitous for all of us. He is a very sweet boy and makes a wonderful addition to our family. He and Doozer are already buddies after just one short week. Lolly is taking a bit longer to accept all these changes, but she’ll come around eventually. She is able to tolerate being in the same room with him, so that’s something. So many new and exciting things! How has your week been?

Adventures · cute kids · Doozer · Knitting · Lace · life

Well Then.

So it looks like I let 2 whole months go by without a new blog post! And while I ordinarily wouldn’t let it go so long, I think that I must’ve needed the head space, because I am returning to you revitalized and more inspired to write than ever. So inspired, in fact, that I purchased a new blog domain over the weekend which I will move over to eventually. But more on that another time. What today needs is one of those posts where I tell you all about my adventures during the months of my absence.

Firstly, my knitting. Back at the end of March, I finished another utterly random Baby Surprise Jacket.

[ravelry]

It just needs a wash and 3 little buttons. Of course this cute little jacket needed some matching bootees, too.

[ravelry]

And so there you go. Very cute. But in between finishing the BSJ and the bootees, my fibery doings took a bit of a detour.

I finally got off my lazy ass and warped my loom. Seriously, the whole time I was asking myself why I waited so long. It’s not that hard, you guys. Really. It only took about an hour to warp this project and then it was about 2 or so hours of weaving.

[ravelry]

Of course I neglected to get a photo of the finished product before I delivered it to its intended recipient, you’ll just have to take my word that it came out beautifully. And, it was so much fun that I made another one.

[ravelry]

As you can see, I have a lot to learn about weaving still. But first and foremost this project taught me that weaving sock yarn isn’t necessarily the best idea. Plus, my skein of Saami had a lot more orange in it than I remembered. Still, it’s warm and cozy and very colorful and cheerful. I’m thinking this is perfect for E, if I can get him to wear it.

When I was finished with all that weaving, I kind of lost my knitting mojo for a while. To say that I am sick  of the Orange socks is a bit of an understatement. I even tried to force myself to work on them, which we all know never works to endear a project and make it more fun to work on. Plus I was a bit bored with baby sweaters, to be honest. All I could think of was how I wanted to make another lace shawl like the one I’d made for my sis. Ultimately I accepted that there was no denying lace’s siren song. I acquiesced and cast it on.

[ravelry]

It’s actually quite a bit larger than in that photo. I’ve already increased again and am almost finished with this middle section. Then it’s on to the twee little triangles which gave me so much trouble I enjoyed so much the last time. I can’t wait!

Now, on to other things. March was kind of a strange month. My husband went to Florida for business for two weeks in March, leaving the kids and me to our own devices. We celebrated Pi Day:

And I took the boys up to Kent Falls to enjoy the March Heat Wave of ’12.

Yes, they are hot and sweaty and wearing shorts. I think it was like 80° that day. But, as is Connecticut’s wont, the weather turned cold again and we are back to wearing layers and wool.

It was so cold, in fact, that the favors for the outdoor wedding we attended on the 31st of March (the Mister’s cousin’s) were fleece blankets. No pictures of all the frozen attendees, sadly, but I did get a couple of shots of my little cuties in their tuxedos.

 

It was a black tie optional affair, and we optioned the shit out of it. Here we are back at my MIL’s place afterward:

Matchy!!! OMG we all look so tired. Not the kind of regular tired that you get when you’ve been working for a living, but a fancy sort of tired from being strapped into an uncomfortable bra and wearing pinchy shoes for hours and hours. (Good gravy my hair is straight. I know for a fact that I set that shit with hot rollers before we left but by the time we arrived at the wedding it had already reverted to its natural state: straight straight straight. Gah, stupid hair.) We had a lot of fun anyway and we looked damn fine too.

And then it was April. April was a rather busy month here. We celebrated Easter with another family in New York and had so much fun that future Easters have been ruined for us. Here we are setting off fireworks.

  

Because that’s how we roll, bitches.

Hubs went away to Florida on business (again) the following week, but it was too cold to do anything fun with the boys while he was gone. Mostly we hunkered down and got ready for the next week. Remember how I said we are moving to Florida? Well, the day after the Mister returned from Florida, I got in the van with the kids and drove down to find us a place to live.

OMG you guys I loved it down there! I am so much more excited for our move than I was before, I can’t even. Have you seen these beaches?!

This is in Ft. Lauderdale. The sand was soft and deep and the view was gorgeous. The waves are enormous though (well, compared to Long Island Sound). Everyone is going to need swim lessons.

[wiki]

These guys live in the canal behind our new place (all the water there is heavily managed and so there are canals and man-made lakes and ponds everywhere). Yes, they are considered a bit of a nuisance down there, but aren’t they cute? That big male on the right was making quite a show of himself for the little female that came with him over to us to beg for food. Birds are strange and feral ducks are even more so. We also saw a flock of ibises and tons and tons of little Indo-Pacific geckos. The kids are hell-bent on catching the little things, which reminds me of the alligator lizards which are common in southern California. I spent many happy afternoons with my friend Jen hunting (and failing to catch) one for a pet. Speaking of alligators, we did not see any alligators, although the realtor assured us that due to our proximity to the Everglades conservation area (literally less than 5 miles away) it’s fairly certain we’ll see an alligator in the canal or even our yard at some point. So yeah. And, even better? There is a nature center just around the corner and down the street from where we’ll be living. This move is going to be a good thing for us. I can’t wait. Only 28 days to go!

And here is Doozer because he hasn’t been on the blog in a good long while.

And now you are all caught up. What have you all been up to?

Adventures

The Big Announcement Post

Last year the small software company for which Mr. Interrupted has worked for 13 years was purchased by a large corporate conglomerate. He survived 2 rounds of firings, thank god, and in November they closed the Connecticut office. He has worked from home pretty much all the time, so the closing didn’t affect him much, but when all was said and done, the new company announced that the kind of job he is doing from home (high-level software technical support) would be going away at some point in the future, but that there will be a job for him in the office near Ft. Lauderdale if he wanted to take it. Let that sink in. The job is moving to Florida and that means that we will be too.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to go at first. My Totally Awesome Sister is here in Connecticut, and besides, I really like it here. I like the cooler weather and the trees in the fall. I tolerate the winters thanks to all my woolies, and the summers are blessedly short. But, keeping the job is more important than living in a specific place and so we decided that when the time comes, we will go to Florida. And the more I think about it, the more the idea grows on me. Besides, luckily, thankfully, they have air conditioning down there.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, we didn’t know when the move would take place, assuming it would be sometime in the next few months, or maybe even next year. But then word came down that they want him there by June at the earliest, and definitely this summer. Did you hear that, y’all? We’re moving to Florida this summer, and we may be leaving as early as May!

So that’s the big news, big life-changes headed our way. I can’t believe it, and I can’t believe how much there is to do. I am excited and happy and sad and overwhelmed all at the same time. And part of me still can’t believe that this is actually going to happen. You should see how many to-do lists I have going right now. Now if we could just get my airways straightened out, I’d be all set.

Adventures · Knitting

i’m not dead yet

So just a quick post to say that this has pretty much been a crappy week, asthma-wise. I am still alive, but there has been a visit to the ER and also the pulmonologist. I was feeling relatively better until today when my asthma flared up again while I was out shopping. I am hoping not to have to see the ER again. As a side note: PEOPLE, YOU’RE SHOPPING FOR SNACKS FOR THE SUPER BOWL, NOT FUCKING JUDGEMENT DAY. CALM YOUR SHIT DOWN.

Lastly, here is my sock in progress:

 

Adventures · Knitting

Big Day Today

1. I finally got around to picking up a couch we ordered from Ikea back at the beginning of October. Now that it is in my house I despise the color, but I know I’ll get used to it. Also, I will be able to tone it down with some contrasting throw pillows and our gigantic sheepskin. We haven’t had a couch since June (or before, I can’t really remember when the last one gave up the ghost) so the cats are extremely excited to finally have something to sit on. I am too, I admit, even though the thing is rather a bit more orange than I had expected.

2. I finally succumbed to peer pressure and talked my husband into upgrading from our crappy little cell phones to iPhones! After I finished assembling the couch we packed up the boys and headed over to the Apple store. We had to wait in line about 2 hours, and then it took a while to get the account set up since we switched from AT&T to Sprint (sorry AT&T!). But now I has an iPhone!! w00t!! Follow me on Twitter (@kniterrupted) because, theoretically, I can now tweet the crap out of everything.

3. I continue the slow march through Catkin chart 1. Here I am, a little way past the halfway point where I am very nearly about to run out of orange yarn. I suspected the yardage would be extremely tight, but I took a gamble on it anyway. Needless to say I’m not thrilled. Option 1: buy another hank of STR and be guaranteed the colorways won’t match. Option 2: frog it and reknit without the orange garter stripes in the first section. The colorway will match, but reknitting. Neither option is particularly appealing.

4. I cast on a plain and simple sock, specifically for knitting abroad. Isn’t it purty?

Adventures · Knitting

In Which I Plan How to Utilize Good Results of Something Before Those Results Have Occurred

I finished up My sister’s shawl while we were on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard.

(We had a positively lovely time, by the way. The Mister took the boys fishing

and we drove all around the island to look at all the lighthouses.

It was fun.)

I don’t have any pictures of the finished shawl just yet, either, because I still need to block the damn thing, but it is done. Done done done. Well, mostly done. And yes, I do have plans to knit a second one, but not for a while. I have a few things I’d like to do first. Namely this, which I have been obsessed with since the Yarn Harlot tweeted about it last month. I ordered the yarn for it before we left for MV, but it didn’t arrive in time for me to bring it with me. The plan today was to wind the yarn into cakes and do the swatch, but I’ve spent most of the day internet shopping for buttons. Ahem. Why yes, I do I realize that this is the knitter’s equivalent of counting your chickens before they’ve hatched. Shut up.

Also in the works is a pair of socks, which I cast on and frogged in MV.

I really like this colorway (Sweet Pea from the Yarn Pirate), but I didn’t like how it looked once I got the toe up to 72 stitches. Last night I cast on again for a smaller number of stitches.

Other projects planned include Bird in Hand mittens for Sis, some felted clogs for me me meeeee, and a sweater for the Mister.

Too bad I can’t stop shopping for buttons. I’m thinking of something from here.