Knit & Play with Fire

Out Playing

Look for a few posts in the next few days. Things have been a little busy - drills, fires, and Hersehey Park. Plenty of photos but they need to be edited or sorted.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Okay, here are some photos of how I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon yesterday. (scroll down for the real story!)

Okay, are you confused yet? No, I was not a a ball game. Although I was at the rear parking lot for the local Carolina league team. Do the bright orange cones give you any clue? Remember taking driver's ed and having to drive between the orange cones and parallel park between the cones? Okay, we were driving around the cones but I can promise you that I was not the one driving. Trust me on this one, I will never drive this thing! It is big and red and requires 2 drivers. Yesterday was quiet at the station so we went out for driver's training. One of the guys is still practicing tillering and that is him in the photos practicing in the parking lot. Next time, we go out he will be driving on the roads. Scary!!!

Oh, you wanted to see a picture of the guy who was driving? I guess I can do that. But I do need to tell him that he does look really cute when he wears his glasses. Okay, maybe I won't do that but he does look cute when he wears them.

But you don't come here just in hopes of seeing fire fighters in their gear. Some of you expect to see knitting. And look, I have knitting!!! This is sock 1 of my sock-a-pooolza socks. I frogged what I had and restarted it. It is the same pattern except that I am now doing it toe-up. I am really loving this pattern since it is real easy to memorize and it looks great top-down and toe-up. And I am almost at the point where I get to turn the heel. Yeah!!!!

Books for Books Meme

Here is a meme that is actually right up my alley. Cara over at january one has tagged anyone who wants it. And since I like books....

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt )
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

You want to do this? CONSIDER YOURSELF TAGGED. And yes, I love books. It can be very diffcult to pull me out of a booksotre without me purchasing at least 2 or 3 books. BTW, my current read is definitely different. It is The Colony by John Tayman about the Molokai leper colony. Between 1866 and 1969, if the government, both the Hawaiian and  the US, suspected that you might have Hansen's disease, you would be exiled to a remote peninsula on Molokai. It is definitley worth a read.

Odds & Ends

The things we will do for friends. As I have already mentioned, I am going to the Apple Store this coming weekend. Well, the closest Apple Store is in Bethesda which is about 50 miles from me. Not that great of a distance when you live in the greater DC area. I have been known to drive to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for dinner and that is about 70 some odd miles one way.

The other night after stopping my LYS, I stopped but the truck house to talk to my friends.  Okay, actually, I stopped by to talk to T. Well, one thing led to another and he is willing to try one of my favorite ethnic foods. Although I love Chinese food, and that is the only true ethnic food that I can get up here in the county, I really truly love Arabic food. Actually, I love Lebanese food. And my all time favorite restaurant is the Lebanese Taverna in Rockville, Maryland.

So I am going to go shopping on Sunday and I will be picking T up some carryout for his lunch on Monday. Let's see, shopping at Nordstrom's, the Apple Store and Whole Foods plus a trip to the Taverna that equals a perfect day out.

I might even try to sneak in a trip to Woolwinders while I am down that way.

 

Being Bad

Okay, I don't know about you but when I get my tax refund back I always allow myself a guilty purchase or two. I take the money back that I am receiving and divide it in half - half goes into savings and the rest is mad money. And when I checked my on-line balance on Monday, I discovered my mad money sitting in there. And since I was able to snag one of the few openings in the exclusive Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Club, aka the STR Club, I went ahead and paid that invoice super quick. Yeah, I need more sock yarn like I need another tattoo.  Oh wait, I want another tattoo so I guess that that isn't a really good analogy. But yeah, I am in! My first kit is already on its way. Thanks Kaci and everyone at Blue Moon!!!

And the second thing that my mad money will be spent on is replacing my big iPod. But that really isn't doing something crazy since I was planning on replacing it this year. It is just now a necessity. See over the weekend, my big iPod gave me a very unhappy face. When I turn it on, I see an image of an iPod wearing a frown. The battery has died in it and I can just as easily put the money that it would cost me to replace the battery towards a new iPod with a larger capacity. And this time, I will be buying my new iPod straight from my local Apple store. After consulting my my technical person, also more commonly referred as my bother, I am going to skip the HP/Apple iPods and buy a straight Apple iPod. And for those of you who do not speak sister-ese, bother is another word for brother.

And I received some really bad news yesterday. No, not that type of bad news. But that I will not be able to be at MS&W early the first day. I start a new fire class on Monday and I just so happen to know the instructor pretty well. (He is not only my assistant chief but some one I have known since high school. Rumor has it that we were prom dates but I will not verify that rumor.)

Well, we were out on a b.s. fire call yesterday when I asked him if class would be over by the first weekend in May. He told me that he thought the final was that weekend. When we got back to the station, I checked out the schedule that was in his truck. And yes, the final is Saturday, May 7!!!!! So I may make the festival late in the day depending on what time we get done. The final includes a practical and a written test. The written final shouldn't take me more than 10 to 20 minutes depending on how many questions are on it. There should probably be 50 questions on it should that means I will be done in 10 minutes. Okay, I am able to take tests so don't hate me for that.

I will definitely be there on Sunday. But don't worry, I am working on a plan to get the good stuff. I just need to talk to some one first. More later.

Socks Yet Again

Okay, to answer a few questions about my sock stash. No that was not just the stuff I liked; it was all of my sock stash except for the odds and ends bag. I have a bag where I stash away the odds and ends of sock yarns plus the stuff that I have tried and didn't like. And the actual number of skeins really isn't that bad when you get down to it. Some of the yarn in the keep stash was received as gifts. So I really can't place it in my get rid of pile.

But I do have a finished Jaywalker sock to show off. I am not 100% sure I like the fit on my foot so I am waiting a few more days before starting the mate. I will do my best to take a photo of the sock actually on my foot soon. If I do end up frogging the sock, I already have a pattern in mind for the yarn. It is a pattern that I saw in Socks, Socks, Socks called Gull Wing Lace Rib. I am planning on using this pattern really soon.

I am planning on having a sock yarn sale on either the blog or on eBay really soon. Some of the yarns that have been in the yard sale are going to be going on over to eBay. I have several skeins of Alice Starmore yarns that I want to de-stash and the best place for those particular yarns is eBay.

And Phyl, I will send you an email privately about how the meeting went on Saturday. But let's just say, I am undecided at this point if I want to continue getting to know G. Pris, you already know the details. And I have a guy who asked me out on MySpace but I haven't answered him yet. I am having this one checked out by some male friends first.

And just to prove that I actually do finish up some things, hrere are two photos of 2 hats that were finished this weekedn. One is in Noro Kureyon and the other is in Rowanspun Aran. The color on the Rowan hat is really hard to photograph but it is nice deep dark navy with little flecks of color.

Pretty Travel Pictures

Okay, I did spend almost all of yesterday cleaning up the stash and finishing 2 UFOs but their photos will have to wait until tomorrow. I still need to take the photos.

But I saw these two wonderful photos on Webshots today and decide to share them. Take a close look at the one. Do you see who is hiding under the shade?

These photos are of someone's vacation to Kenya. And now, I wanting to visit there as well. Before the only part of Africa that I have ever wanted to visit was Morocco. And now I can add Kenya to the list.

Yet More Quizes

So what type of girl are you and are you uptown or downtown? Can you tell that I have been spending a little bit too much time on MySpace?

You Are Downtown

You're a funky spirit that requires freedom to live. Your city girl persona needs adventure, diversity, and great pizza.

Are You Uptown or Downtown?

You are a New Age Girl!

You're bright, opinionated, and dedicated to changing the world. Even if it's one hybrid car at a time, you do you part to make things better. In fact, you may be so busy with your causes that you have little time for love. Take an extra yoga class or two, and you just might meet New Age Guy!

What Kind of Girl Are You?

Dating in the Modern Age

Okay, Phyl, just for you, here is an update on my dating life.

I joined CatholicSingles.com which is like Match.com but for Catholics. It was free for the basic stuff so I figured why not. Well, I got a hit right off the bat from a guy down in Lorton, Virginia, which is really right down the road. I checked out his profile and he seemed okay. He works in the defense industry and he is a volunteer firefighter.The one thing that struck me as a little bit strange was his age and the fact that he has never been married. But, hey, who is to say that he didn't get burned in the past.

So I responded to his initial email and gave him one of my proxy email addys. (Why yes, I have several email addys; doesn't everyone?)

In his very first e-mail, he was asking about kids and wanting to meet in person. Oookay... I may live in the country but I am still basically a big city girl and wary of meeting people who can not be vouched for by friends.  And I told him that in the first email to him.

We have exchanged a grand total of 6 emails and he is still pressing to meet in person. And he has been asking some questions but he seemed really hesitant to answer my questions. Plus based on his profile, he is a much more devout Catholic than I am. I am something of a liberal Catholic who blends some Buddhist beliefs into my personal beliefs. He seemed a little bit put off by that but okay.

In the next to last email exchange, I flat out told him that until we got to know each other better through email there would be no meeting in person. His last email to me said something to the fact that I should learn to trust more easily and that this would be his last email to me.

Okay, that is fine with me since he wasn't willing to learn a bit more about each other through email than he wasn't right. Plus I prefer to err on the side of caution. It is better to be safe than sorry.

But that is okay, because I think I already have a keeper in the wings. I have been riding down at the truck house in the county for the past several months. And prior to that, I have had the chance to get to know one of the career guys (T) stationed there. T is married but he is a really nice guy. And we were talking one night and he asked my permission to give my cell number to a friend of his who lives down in Blacksburg, Virginia. (All together, how sweet!!)

 

The guy he wanted to give my number to is his best friend since like 3rd grade. G works all of the time between his job at Tech and helping his parents take care of 35 acres. Yes, he lives with his parents event though he is in his 30's but he has his own space on the family estate for lack of a better word. His parents need the help maintaining the acreage and rather than see them sell it off, he helps to take care of it.

I said yes to giving out my cell phone number. G is originally from up here and gets up here quite frequently as time allows. The first time, he called we ended up talking for almost an hour. The only reason that the call ended was that I got a fire call.

And every time we talk, we end up talking for at least an hour. T told me one day that G has been wanting to see a picture of me and T told me to just email him the pictures. And yes I did do that. I have seen one photo of G and yeah, I like him. The one thing that G asked T about me was I real. He said that I was sweet and too good to be true.  T told him that yes, I really was that sweet. Okay, that really does give your ego a boost.

Now I would have willingly meet G somewhere half way between here and Blacksburg simply because T knows him and can vouch for him. Is that wrong? I don't think so, because T can vouch for him and has known him for well over 20 years.

And just so you have some photos to look at, I am going to give a link over to a friend's Myspace page that has a picture of my new ride as he puts it. Yeah, I like big trucks! And here is a link that has a picture of T in it. Ignore the short little s**t next to him because we all do anyway. (Not true, Matt, just in case you find this page!) yeah, both of them are cute and they are both really sweet.

Flashing the Sock Stash

Okay, I have taken the challenge and I am going to flash my sock stash. I joined the Sock Yarn Addicts Club and we are flashing our stash plus doing an inventory of it. Do you have any clue as to how hard it is to inventory your sock stash? And yes, I am flashing mine early. I like to be different.

I did finally find a use for the antique cradle I bought last fall. I have finally finished the refinishing of it and it has made a great prop for flashing my sock stash. And I may end up using it to store my sock stash in because all of it fits in the cradle.

Now the big question is how many pairs of socks are in the cradle? Yes, I know that you really want to know. Although after checking out Emy's pile, I have nothing to worry about. She has more pairs of socks in her stash than I do. And the amazing thing is that we both have the same neon bright pink Koigu yarn. Yes, she sent it to me when she was my secret pal. BTW, she has enough yarn at home for 39 pairs if socks plus more on hold at the shop.

I have about 72 skeins of sock yarn in my stash at the moment not including the yarn that is already on the needles. But I am not going to keep all of that yarn. There are 3 skeins/pairs in my definite sell/give away pile. Three are 17 pairs of socks in my maybe get rid of pile. I am not 100% in love with these yarns after looking at them again.

But in the keep pile, there are 31 pairs of socks. But there are 2 skeins of the same color yarn and these skeins make a pair of socks each. So although I love the color, I may reduce it to 1 skein. I really do not need 2 pairs of socks in the same color. So I will be sorting out the sock yarns this evening and looking at them harshly as to keep them or do I help them find a good home where they will be loved. Some decisions are hard to make but I have to make them. After all, sock yarn wants to be loved and used.

So if you are a member of the sock yarn addicts club and you feel need to increase to increase your stash before April 1, keep an eye out next week and I will posting photos of the socks that will be looking for new homes. And yes, there will be some Lorna's Laces in that pile.

And btw, some of the orange sock yarn in the stash belongs to Priscilla but she will not be getting it until MS&W. So Pris, you really need to make sure that you come again this year. And yes, Mac has to come along to carry stuff for us again. LOL