Baa Baa Knit Stitch

>Catching Up

>Well, we’ve had a little time to recover from the trip to Pigeon Forge. Penny has sufficiently recovered enough take over again. We didn’t think she’d want to go anywhere for awhile, but last Saturday she was stir crazy enough to want an outing, so we did the usual morning trip to Starbucks followed by errands. She made friends with a Papillon named Shiloh — Richard and I decided it was a tossup as to who had the cushier life, Penny or the Papillon — and she rode somewhat peacefully in her car seat while we drove her around. We were pretty happy about that, because that’s exactly what we want her to get used to doing.

I’m pleased to say that I have now survived my first colonoscopy. I knew it was important to have it done, because I’m at a slightly higher risk for colon cancer since I had an uncle die from it and since my father had a few issues… but to be honest, I put it off as long as I could. I’m here to tell you that the procedure itself is a piece of cake. You’re taking a nice, enforced nap (using Propofol in non Michael Jackson-esque quantities), and I figure as long as nothing ends up on You Tube, I’m good. My only problem was with the prep. If you have no clue what’s involved, I’ll let you google it. I knew it was going to be unpleasant, but I had no clue I was going to be one of the small percentage of people who had a really bad reaction to it. I’m such a speshul snowflake. 🙂 I got a clean bill of health tho, and they gave me an invitation to come back for another one in 5 years. I said we’d chat. Upon further review, I figure I’ve got no worries because the government healthcare probably won’t pay for it at that point anyway…

The new business is going well. You’d think things would settle down after tax season, but now we’re in what I like to call the “flurry of letters” season. My current favorite is the Georgia Department of Revenue, which apparently delights in wasting taxpayer time and money demanding payment of taxes that have already been paid. Topping that is the NC Department of Revenue which seizes bank accounts of unsuspecting taxpayers after sending notices to incorrect addresses, after they’ve been properly notified of the correct address. And some people think we only really work 4 months a year… 🙂

In the middle of all this, I have actually had an opportunity to (gasp!) knit and even crochet a little:
Crochet dishcloths, pattern is Tulip Stitch Dishcloth, yarn is I Love This Cotton by Hobby Lobby. You can get two cloths out of one skein. 🙂
Ladder Stitch Crocheted Dishcloth, again in I Love This Cotton by Hobby Lobby. It took only part of a skein, so I’m doing another Tulip Stitch cloth out of the rest.Lacy Mock Cable socks. Yarn is an Ella Rae fingering/lace weight yarn that’s doing well for socks. 🙂

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend! Take time during your fun to remember why the holiday is there, and if you see a soldier, say thank you. 🙂

>Marathon Shopping

>…and we’re home from our annual marathon shopping trip to Pigeon Forge. Mom likes to go up there about once a year to check out the outlet fare. There’s a Kasper outlet there and she generally has pretty good luck finding something (altho it’s pretty difficult to find clothes when a size 2 is too large… yeah, she needs to eat more). It was a quick Friday-Sunday trip… but more importantly, it was Penny’s first big trip away from home and staying in a hotel. We were anxious to see how she’d do.

Friday morning we headed to Rome to Mom’s house to get the van and head up to the mountains. We had decided to try to get Penny to ride in the puppy car seat; Oscar would never ride in it, preferring instead to “drive” draped across the lap of whoever happened to occupy the drivers’ seat (generally me). Needless to say, this is not the most safe way for anybody to travel. Fortunately, Penny took to it like the proverbial duck to water…She’d look out the window, curl up and have a nap… she didn’t even fuss when we stopped for fast food and deigned to eat a bite still parked in the car seat. Didn’t whine or bark (except when we drove through a storm and it thundered, but that’s another matter). We were very pleased.

On the way up, we try to always stop at the Mayfield Dairy in Athens, TN for some ice cream. All of us found it very tasty!We stayed in the Hampton Inn in Pigeon Forge. This particular hotel is located very close to the main outlets and is very comfortable and very pet friendly. We always stayed there when Oscar was with us, and their hospitality hasn’t changed. Penny did exceptionally well in the hotel and only barked a few times when there were some unexpected loud noises.

Mom bought a stroller for Oscar to use when shopping (DF Jill referred to it as his “Royal Carriage”), and Penny has inherited it. After some initial complaining, she settled right down in it and consented to be driven around. Sure beats walking, especially when your legs are so short!

We shopped Friday afternoon, and all day Saturday. Did some damage, but not as much as on other trips. Mom did find some suits, which was the main purpose of going.

As Richard said on Facebook, “We shopped till she dropped.”
On Sunday before we left town, we headed for the huge Flea Market that’s just off the interstate. That’s when Penny’s patience ran out. She was tired of being in the stroller and nothing would do but that she be carried around. She decided to bark at people. She was In A Mood — I dunno, maybe it was the Fleas. At any rate, we piled back in the van and headed south.

So, it was a successful trip with the hound. It appears we have another little traveler, so we’re anxious to return to Highlands. We haven’t been there for two years. Hoping for a trip this summer!

>Stitches South, 2010

>My name is Jean, and I have a problem.

Oh heck no I don’t! I freakin’ enjoy myself!! And I had a particularly wonderful time this past weekend at Stitches South. Although I will admit that I didn’t think the haul was nearly as big as it turned out to be. Reminded me of the time we were all at Spirit of Cross Stitch, and we asked our DF Cathy what she’d bought, and she replied “Not much” and then proceeded to dump this huge haul onto the bed for us to see. We laughed ourselves silly over the astonished look on her face when she realized exactly how much she’d spent….

DFs Teresa and Jackie came to spend the weekend at my house. This was the first time I’d met Jackie in real life, and she is so delightful! We decided that in oh so many ways we were actually the same person (although she’s a bit taller). Along with DFs Heather and Jill, we took a class on Thursday: “Fiendishly Difficult Stitches”. Class was ok. I just took it because that’s what everyone else was taking, and to be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention. I was distracted by the yarn fumes coming from the marketplace that opened right after class was over…

Shopping ensued, both on Thursday night and on Friday morning. People have been asking for pictures of the haul. Take a deep breath…
This is the “accessories” section of the haul. I got a set of Kollage square circulars (a size 8 is missing because it was immediately put to use casting on a tank top with some yarn from last year’s Stitches South), Della Q project bags plus an interchangeable needle holder, some portable looms I’d been eyeing, and some Hiya Hiya stitch markers with holder.Sock yarn: The four skeins on the left are from Miss Babs… center is Opal, right two skeins are very sparkly Kraemer with sterling silver woven throughout.

Next up is my visit to the Quiviut booth. No, I’m not that crazy. I bought merino and some very nice hooded cowl patterns…It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the cowls. They’re lace. And lace and I are currently in a mutual time out. Last time I tried… well… the result was ugly and it resulted in me temporarily losing all my religion.I bought some books and patterns…And some more books and patterns, along with a kewl swift that is the subject of some debate at my house. You can’t really see it here… but it’s wooden and is flat on the tabletop. Richard says we don’t need it; I disagreed.

Finally, more yarn…Some bulky Noro was on closeout at Webs… Got a great deal on the Noro sock, and the Araucania cotton is something insane like 4400 yards, and I’m planning on knitting with it doubled and making some form of garment.

Ordered and to come… some wooden purse handles with a cutout in the shape of a dachshund, and earrings from Sassafras designs made from knitting needles that had to have leverbacks put on.

So, upon review, I probably bought just a teeny bit more than I thought. 🙂

One of the best parts?? Got our picture made with the folks responsible for Ravelry!That’s me in the middle, next to Casey, looking very… short. L to R is Teresa, Jill, Casey, Moi, Jess, Sarah, Jackie, Mary-Heather. (Thanks to Jackie for the picture!)

Other than Stitches South, we made a trip to Perimeter Mall for shopping at the Pandora store and the Clarks shoe store… we ate at the hibachi steak place… Teresa and Jackie shopped at the needlework store that shall not be named for a little bit on Saturday (Richard and I sat in the car) and we headed in before the storms got bad… we did sneak out a bit later so that they could see DF Andy’s townhouse and all of her beautiful stitching.

Princess Penny, of course, had a great time nibbling our guests’ toes. Teresa’s toes, for some reason, are particularly tasty. Jackie got a great picture of her…
All in all, a great but exhausting weekend full of good friends and good times! My bank account has a year to recover, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.

On another note… can you help a wiener dog out?? Pam (who created the beautiful February Lady Sweater) has a doxie with a broken leg. To help out with vet bills, she’s designed this tres cute baby sweater. If you have a few dollars to spare, please consider making a purchase. 🙂

>Drumroll, please…

>Today is April 15. It’s a big day for two reasons. First, it’s the end of the first wave of tax season. Second, and most importantly, it’s a new beginning.

April 15, 2010 is the first day of business for Early & Smith, LLC, an accounting and financial services firm I’ve created with my new partner, Steve Smith. Steve is an Enrolled Agent (EA) and is becoming licensed to provide investment services to our clients.

I’ve known Steve for nearly 20 years now, since we both survived worked at Universal Tax Systems in Rome, GA. He’s a Northwest Georgia kid like me, and we share a lot of the same values.

Bob is going to ease into retirement after this tax season, and Steve will be working with a lot of his clients. We’re hoping to work together to grow the business a lot more.

I’m excited — I think this is going to be the beginning of a great new partnership!!

>States I’ve Visited So Far…

>
visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

>I’m probably going to regret this…

>…but I took the weekend off.

I’d had it. Too tired to think about anything, and I considered myself a danger to work on anybody’s stuff. The kicker was on Thursday, when I had one of the worst dizzy spells I’d ever had while I was at a client. Ya know… the room reeling, hold on to the chair for dear life, don’t dare get up for fear of falling down kind of dizzy spell. I worked through it; it was probably a mistake because I found out Friday some errors I made that I’m going to have to correct. Upon review of the days leading up to it, it was probably also a mistake to subsist almost exclusively on Girl Scout Cookies, apple fritters, and caffeine — did I mention the caffeine??

So evidently it was time for a personal “ctrl-alt-del” and a reboot and recharge to get through the next couple of weeks. I decided to go through the Easter weekend and spend it with my “pack” of Richard and Penny and not work.

Saturday we got up and decided it was time for a full pack outing. Started off at Starbucks for the first dining outside of the year. Penny delighted us by chasing petals blowing off the Bradford pear trees when the wind blew. She delighted the children stopping by with their mom on the way through Georgia from Wisconsin to Florida. From there, she went to Top Dogs, where she scored some treats, and we put her in her stroller to go to the Bird Watcher store to get her used to being in it in anticipation of a marathon shopping trip to Pigeon Forge with Grandma later this spring.
We’ll just say this experiment wasn’t a rousing success. Think “toddler tantrum” and screaming dog. We’re hoping that if we tire her out a bit more before we put her in it she might be more amenable to being driven around.

From there we traveled to check out a new yarn store that had been opened by a friend of a friend of mine. Lovin’ Knit has just started up, and I had met Pat who owns it at the Starbucks (where else do I hang out?) earlier this winter when she was there meeting with some yarn reps. I think I’m known as the yarn-crazed CPA who accosted her while she was trying to do business… At any rate, turns out Pat knows Bruce, who I do business with for Aflac… (insert small world comment here). The store is very cute and Pat has done a great job getting some very yummy yarn in…
(Have I mentioned I have a little problem with yarn?)

After the yarn shop, we went to another dog boutique (more cookies for Princess Chunky Butt!), a jewelry store (more Pandora charms!) and lunch (Penny enjoyed some bites as we ate outdoors with her).

Today we went to church for Easter services (don’t fall over… I actually put on a dress!), and after a grocery store run we’ve been at home for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Richard has wound one of those skeins of yarn for me. I think I’m going to go start a pair of socks. 🙂

Till tomorrow, when it’s time to work on the taxes again….

>Happy Easter!

>Wishing all of you who celebrate a Happy Easter and a Happy Passover. 🙂

No chocolate bunnies here. Just one black and tan dappled wiener dog who seems to be on constant alert for any bunnies who may be lurking the front yard. Curiously, she completely missed the squirrel who took over the bird feeder off the deck and emptied it of seed.

It’s April 2, and I’m tired. Tax returns are still coming in. Will have an exciting announcement (well, exciting to me anyhow) after April 15.

Back to work…

>Save the 88

>I love NASCAR, particularly Dale Jr. (as you can tell by the layout of my blog. He’s now sporting a Grizzly Adams beard that isn’t, in my opinion, attractive, but I digress.).

If you follow NASCAR at all, you know that poor Junior has had a tough couple of (well, several) seasons. Poor guy can’t catch a break. He seems cursed. He’s had only one win (at Michigan and on fuel mileage at that) over the past few years and it looks like the only luck he has is bad. Either he gets caught up in someone else’s problems, his car breaks, the tires give out, the engine blows… you get the picture. Or, aliens take over his brain and he misses his pit stall.

Whatever the problem, it just hasn’t been pleasant for those of us faithful in Junior Nation.

There are a group of us knitters who met on Ravelry who are rabid NASCAR fans, and we have a chat during each week’s race. We’ve run through several theories on Junior’s problems. One was that his stepmother had a voodoo doll and was sticking pins in at random times. The one that seems to have stuck was that meteors are falling on Junior during the race and causing the problems with his car.

We are of the opinion that the Hubble Space Telescope could be used to predict these meteors and that Mr. Hendrick should surely engage NASA in an effort to help his driver.

Evidently there’s another movement afoot as well. Yesterday I received this package in the mail:
I have blocked the return address so that the Society may remain protected from all who would wish Junior harm.

Contained therein was equipment that would be necessary to be worn during the next race to ward off the oncoming meteors and hopefully protect Junior’s car from possible harm and enable him to win.

Penny and I are ready:
Bring it on.

>I’m Angry

>It hasn’t been the best tax season. Software issues have been a real problem. There’s some other difficulties with the business. Family issues have piled on top of that.

And then this morning, I discover some low life has spammed my blog.

Her name, among what looked to be the Chinese characters, was “Karen”. And she began her comments with “How Cool!” or “How Creative!” before launching into a barrage of what again appeared to be Chinese characters, clearly punctuated by a few words in English that I won’t repeat here for fear of more spambots picking them up, and not for a good reason. It was ugly. I’m not a prude, but it’s not the type of thing I generally want associated with anything I’m publishing.

What was particularly painful was that the spam hit the post I made when Oscar passed to the Bridge, and the comment began “That’s Cool!” Yeah, I know it was something automated or someone who obviously didn’t care and would just sit there and type in the code I thought you had to enter to prevent things like this from happening. No, it wasn’t “Cool”. It still hurts like hell, right to this day.

I’ve gone through and deleted the comment on all the posts the spammer hit. I didn’t want to chance that anyone who reads my blog might come across them.

I’ve had to turn on comment moderation. I apologize for the hassle it may cause some of you, but I just can’t allow this to happen again. And I’m disappointed, because I always enjoyed getting a note in my email letting me see your comments without having to go to the blog to view them. That’s over. All because somebody has nothing better to do than spread filth through the internet.

No, I’m not stupid or naive. I know it happens. It just sucks that it happened to me.