Stitch n Bitch n Hitched

Sairy and her longtime beau, John were married today in a lovely ceremony in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. My SIL, Tammy and I have had the pleasure of knowing Sairy through our SnB group and have gotten to know and love her dearly. We have really been looking forward to being there on her special day. We can even clean up quite well.

"The hubs" looks spiffy, no?

And we finally got a picture of just Tammy and I at the wedding.

Here we are with our lervely princess bride. Isn't she gorgeous?

We were also rather mesmerized by the colorful "bears on parade" throughout the town.
Oh and since I know some of you have been curious as to my mystery project on Ravelry.....I made the Summer Shawlette from Interweave for Sairy. I didn't know if it would work with her gown or not, but I thought, "what the hell, right?" She wore it last night at her rehearsal. I neglected to get a picture to post to the blog and ravelry, completely unlike me. I will beg and plead for the lovely princess bride to send me a picture of her with it when she gets back from her honeymoon. *bats eyelashes and pleads silently to the princess bride*

Congratulations Sarah and John!

May you have a lifetime of laughter and happiness.

In lieu of a frontal lobotomy, a new haircut and WIP will have to do

When I am stressed, I sometimes become irrational for a change in the scenery so I went and had like 6 inches chopped off my hair. Trust me, it was dry, raggedy and it needed it. They also straightened, added some long layers, and thinned it a little for me. I hardly straighten my hair anymore because it was like a horse's mane. I know I'm complaining about a gift, but geez trying to get a roll brush through this is a production. I have the mental battle wounds from my mom trying to comb my hair when I was younger.

Didn't think my hair could get that straight, did ya?

And with stress I also start new things as if I don't have enough to finish. New bright cheerful colors were the medicine I needed. After seeing Sairy's Wicked, it prompted me to want a comfy sweater with a kangaroo pouch, Remember that 100 purewool.com I bought a few months ago in the "Poison" colorway?

Yeah, hellooooooo lover.

Oh and just to clarify, that isn't a dye lot change in my mom's Lush and Lacy Cardigan. It photographed strange and I panicked when I saw it on the computer. All is well with that sweater in case you noticed and was afraid I would snap in two if you did. LOL

Ye Best Be Talkin' Like a Pirate, Mate

I am taking a much-needed afternoon break to say Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!!! Ye best be talkin' like a pirate today mate sez Cap'n Jack Sparrow.

Jack was in a jovial mood today so I actually got him to stand next to Captain Morgan. There was a bit of scoffing, but he did it for me. Jack would like to remind you all... "It's Cap'n. Cap'n Sparrow...I be the greatest pirate in ....in....in all the whole world, love. Morgan is a scallywag. I be settin' Jones' terrible beastie on the hunt if I was scared for me own hide. That Scungilli...fishface."

You wouldn't have thought they weren't best mates shortly thereafter. Jack cozied up to the rum pretty quick. It was a rough afternoon on the island.
"The undead monkey is in me rum again. Where's me pistol? I want to shoot it..AGAIN. What's the use of shootin' the thing. It's undead....still. Tia Dalma didn't even want the beastie.
So once Jack be passed out from the rum, I be sneakin' off to knit sez I. Progress on me mum's sweater, Ms. Lush and Lacy. That sounds to be the name of pleasurable company sez I, but never mix with rum or ye be makin' it walk the plank.
Me and the Cap'n are going to go find more spirits today of the rum variety after we set sail on the Pearl. I be knittin' a mean sweater mate. Even me favorite captain thinks so.

'Tap, Tap' This thing on?

Hello my dear readers.....the blog absence, not otherwise planned, is due to the overwhelming craziness that is my life right now.

I can sum it up in one word...But I'll let Billy do it for me..............


I happened to see this live in Philly back in the day. Good show might I add.

As much as it hurts to remember

WE MUST NEVER FORGET

"My will is as strong as yours...........

you have no power over me."

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Hanna is not my BFF socks and a Weiner Weiner Roast

As you scratch your head and try to make sense of my post title, lets get to the FO shall we? First up, the "Hanna is not my BFF" socks.

Pattern: BFF socks by Cookie A.

Yarn: Cascade Heritage Paints

Needles: Size 1 addi turbo laceweights

Started: June 22, 2008

Finished: September 8, 2008

Mods: None

Made the finishing rows Hurricane Hanna weekend, hence the name.

Next up, the annual New Jersey Weiner Weiner Roast sponsored by a lovely family involved in Daschund Rescue of North America. You see my lovely weenie, Annie, was adopted through DRNA some 6 years ago now. We were her foster parents while we were waiting for our other adoption of a dog named Cody to come through. In having her here, we fell in love with her sweet disposition and adopted her. It was actually fate as Cody's foster parents fell in love with him and adopted him to be his forever family. Annie, (at the time her name was Francesca then to Frannie then to Annie), was one of 40 dogs rescued in a raid of a St. Louis puppy mill. The female dogs were planned to be drowned for being older and no longer of puppy-producing potential. The ASPCA caught wind some how, raided the place, shut them down, and surrendered the dogs to DRNA for placement. One of the little girls she was rescued with, Donna Mae, still comes to the picnic with her forever parents. They sniff each other and then the tails start to wag when they recognize one another. The third of their rescued female trio passed to "the bridge" a few years ago from mammary cancer. This poor dog had been through the ringer. She was rescued with severe abdominal pain. When the dogs were sent to the vet for a work-up post rescue, they were able to identify that she still had a "petrified" puppy in her uterus that was never birthed! Can you freakin' imagine? Those jerks never took her for medical care following her 7-8 deliveries in her lifetime, nor did they our Annie.

So anyway, the loving family that are our contacts for DRNA in NJ have a lovely annual picnic that is invitation only to all parents and foster parents of doxies rescued through DRNA. Family members including non-doxie brothers and sisters are always welcome. Cartman is always one of a few non-doxies and man does he ever start a small dog ruckus when he saunters in. They have picnic food for humans and canines, a DJ, raffles, a canine massage therapist, reiki practitioner, micro-chipping professionals, a dog "communicator", photographers, and a caricature artist all free to everyone. We always have a good time seeing the other happy tails wagging that they now have their forever homes. They have a blessing of the dogs with a non-denominational priest and a memorial ceremony. All of the names of dogs "at the bridge" are stated around the circle while music is playing and they release biodegradable white balloons for each family as they state the names of their beloved pets. It chokes us all up every time.

We also have the weiner races. Here is a short clip. It's pretty hysterical seeing all of the hot dogs running amok.

Cartman was entered into the non-doxie race.....all by himself. He ran the other way and was finally lured to the finish line with a hot dog. Yep, that's my boy.

Good times, good times. Today was an interesting and rather trying day off so I'm going to go relax before walking back into hell at work tomorrow.

I should be on a beach in Puerto Rico with a tasty beverage right now....

But NOOOOOOO, "Ike" is in my way. "Josephine" can't make up her mind and "Hanna" is a giant beotch. That's right. No Puerto Rico vacation for me. Wendy and I had to cancel on Thursday because it's just too risky of getting on the island but not getting off for like 2 weeks. It was due to downpour the entire time so I guess I will have to succumb to a mojito and sock knitting at home. Why you ask? Welp, I've even given you some theme music for this weekend....StormFront by Billy Joel.

Because I am too afraid of experiencing this again. This was the April 2007 Nor'easter's destruction of my newly finished off basement room. Brand new carpet a soggy disaster. That was 9 inches of rain in less than a 24 hour period. Tomorrow they are anticipating 7 inches at some point a few inches an hour. That's only an estimate as NJ will get some of the heaviest rainfall. Fabs, especially since my basement has been back in one piece since Fall 2007 after we got over the initial shock of the damage and cleaned up.

I'll be working at the KubusKrafts sweatshop, but certainly not venturing to far from home. Honestly, it will force me to finish the mate to this:

Yeah, I will be partaking in mojitos at home. *sigh*. At least my fellow crafters can cheer me up.

Well first I would like to thank everyone for commenting on my Ravelympics sweater. Some of you I could not respond to for lack of your email address so know that I appreciate your compliments. It's been a long week otherwise, post knitting, as work took it's fair share of my energy.

I had been out in San Francisco prepping for a bid defense of a new study proposal. The time difference, even 3 measly hours, always gets me. Not too mention how my chair was kicked for 5 hours straight on the flight out there. The most annoying thing about it was the parents tried to use the "1....2.....3" method on a 24-month old. Sorry folks cognitive ability to discern right from wrong should be followed with an action, such as pushing your child's feet from the back of my chair while telling her to stop kicking the nice lady in the back. May I suggest a dose of Benadryl 20 minutes before the flight next time, perhaps?

Anyway, I took a mini-break from knitting to let my wrists rest after the Ravelympics and then yesterday I worked in my SIL's "sweatshop" prepping for craft show in Nov.

Today, we took the kayaks out to Assunpink Lake and had a good variety of wildlife in our path on this calm, sunny day.

Usually, these guys take off at a distance as you near them, but this Great Blue Herod, almost posed for the camera.

This pickerel just sat under the surface of the water and didn't even move as my bright yellow kayak drifted next to him.

Here is a Double-Breasted Cormorant, a common lake sighting, doing a little fishing off of a stump in the middle of the lake.
And I caught the cormorant taking off here.
Of course, there are always an abundance of swans, mostly to keep out the Canadian geese.


And I couldn't resist a lily (lotus) blossom, open in full-splendor. All in all, it was a good weekend and I have to prep for vacation this week.

I'm leaving Thursday for Puerto Rico until next Monday. It's great when you can turn business trip into a little vacation too. My friend, Wendy, and I will take in some of the local San Juan sites as well as forest zip-lining and bioluminescence evening kayak tour. I need the vacation, my peeps, trust me.