Weekend Catch Up

Friday Knitting

After dinner and feeding the dogs, I sat down to knit for a while before Battlestar Galactica. There were a few problems though. I was tired of the projects I had as WIPs so I had to think of something else (Although, I should have been working on the WIPs). I finally decided on the Ilene Bag designed by Hannah Ingalls (whose name makes me think of Little House on the Prairie). I really like this little market style bag.

So I cast on using a ball of Hula that I had. The first snag is that the pattern calls for 270 yards of yarn and Hula is only 238 yards but I figured it would be okay, I would just alter it a bit. Well, I worked the 25 rows in stockinette for the bottom and I only had 2 inches, not 4. Hmmm, what was the f**ing problem? Aha! I had used size 5s and not 6s so I unraveled it. Then, I had a thought. Maybe I should use that cotton in the closet that I have had forever and make the bottom a separate color.

Into the stash I went. I pulled out the two balls of cotton and returned to the Hula. Damn, the cotton is pink, the Hula is yellow with flecks of blue and red. They don’t match at all. Thankfully, I have enough cotton to make the whole bag so I cast back on for the bottom (with the correct size needle). I worked on it for three inches and didn’t touch it for the rest of the weekend, except to move it out of the way.

As for Battlestar, I am really pissed sad that next week is the finale. Thankfully, it is a 2 hour episode or else they would never be able to get it done. Irritatingly, Friday’s episode didn’t really tell us anything.

Saturday

On Saturday, Princess Ivi and I went to Gainesville. We had a successful day and a not-so-successful day. The success came because we did the following:

1. Went to the used bookstore where I bought 6 books for $14.
2. Had sushi for lunch which we ate in the car.
3. Went to Barnes and Noble where she found the book she was looking for (book three in a series of 5 and this was the only one she didn’t have) and only bought that one book instead of a stack.
4. Went to the Florida Museum of Natural History at UF and saw the Butterfly Rainforest (I will post pictures of this tomorrow as I forgot my camera today). This was a totally unplanned stop but it was fun.
5. Went to Walmart for dog supplies.
6. Bought tomato and pepper plants at Lowe’s.
7. Went to the grocery store.

The unsuccessful part came because we were coming to Gainesville to go to a Summer Camp Expo at one of the middle schools. Now, I can pretty much find my way around if I have an address and/or an idea of what the place is near. Unfortunately, I had sketchy directions to the school and we gave up looking for it at about 11:30. Of course, wouldn’t you know that on the drive from the bookstore to the other side of town, we drove right by it.

Those Scary Girl Scouts...
When were going into Lowe’s we walked by the exit and a Girl Scout put on her evil cute face and asked if we wanted to buy cookies, I said that I wasn’t sure but I would think about it. We got our cart and then went directly to the garden section and that is where we paid. It was helpful because I didn’t have to walk out of the exit that the girl was standing near. But, as we were walking back to the car, I realized that we were going to walk right in front of her and she would ask me again, I knew she would. I was a girl scout leader and I had trained many a girl to remember those people who didn’t give an outright no and ask them again. So Princess Ivi and I quickly crossed over to the other side of the parking lot and practically ran to the car, avoiding eye contact with the girl or her leader. About halfway there, Princess Ivi looked over and said, "Mom, you do realize we are running from the Girl Scouts right?" to which I replied, "Come on. We have to hurry so she doesn’t see us."

Princess Ivi and I also discussed the irony of the fact that her gym teacher is overweight. (She referred to it as a pregnant belly.) Now, of course, I am not in shape or skinny or anything but I would have thought that a gym teacher would be fit.

We also talked about how sad it was that every weekend there are at least 10 yard sales lined up on our main road due to the economic hardship. We live in fairly low income area (where I actually make decent money and live a better quality of life than others) and I think everyone just wants to make any extra bit of money they can. It is pretty sad.

Sunday

Sunday was spent cleaning, organizing and welcoming Princess Ivi’s little dog to our house.
There was nothing exciting about the cleaning and organizing except that some of the items were boxes I pulled from the storage shed that I hadn’t seen since I packed them in Massachusetts. There were many times that I said, "That is where that is" or "I have been looking for that" or "I forgot I had that."

As for the dog, her name is Nyx and she seems to be adjusting pretty good to the house and the crate. Given the way that she acts, I would definitely say that she was a pet at one point or another.

(My dog Penny is still at the barn but I think she will be at the house by this weekend.)

I worked very hard all day yesterday and went steady until 10 when I took a shower and then went straight to bed with no TV and no knitting. I also slept so soundly that I feel great today.