It is true. I AM actually grown up!

Today, I made a very mature decision. Today is the sign-up for the Rockin' Sock Club. Oh, how I wanted to sign up this year. Who wouldn't?? Look above at just one of the offerings from the website. And I read blogs of people all excited to get their STR packages, joyously knitting up their socks.... Last year, by the time I was knitting socks and knew about it it was full. I had a computer reminder set to remember to sign up.... But the fee is 289.00 USD, and has to be paid up front. I actually went to my bank's online transfer page and was ready to transfer my ENTIRE savings to checking so I could do it. At the last second, I came to my senses.... Man, does being a grown-up SUCK!

Instead, I will be paying that 289.00 on one of my credit cards. Have I mentioned "sucks" yet? Big plans are in the works, though, and one of those big plans is getting as much paid off on my credit card debt as I can this year. NOT a resolution, I am not making resolutions. Just a plan. Plans are open to revision....

Another plan that is NOT a resolution: I started Weight Watchers this morning. Weight is one of the things that I have let get away from me this year... Good news is that I weigh ten pounds less than I thought I did for this mornings official "after-I-pee-and-before-I-shower naked weigh-in." But it is still an appallingly high number: 172.0. That is right, one hundred and seventy-two pounds. And I am not tall! Time to do something about that. Good thing that I love Weight Watchers recipes so.... The Pepsi is going to be the hard habit to kick. Sigh.

Here is to a skinnier me in the new year, and with a better credit rating!

I think I am going to buy a skein of Socks That Rock Lightweight as a reward for not spending 289.00....

In which the Nerd fails to buy a car....

So, I tried to buy a car today. They wouldn't finance me without a co-signer. The credit bureau is working out to be my arch nemesis. Everybody needs an arch nemesis, right? Oh, well. Plan B, I guess. (What is it that they say about starting the year the way you intend to go on....? Bodes well....)It was cute, though, huh?

I am having a GREAT New Year, so far, despite the lack of cute new car. I am back to my Socks from the Toe Up knit-along, and I started the Rivulets sock yesterday. (The picture is from Wendy Knits herself, since I am still having the computer issues that keep me from uploading pictures!) I knit half a sock yesterday! I am completely amazed!! We sat down and watched a couple of movies as a nerdy holiday celebration, and I got my knit on. I am using Celestial Bounce by the Knit Witch that I got at SAFF, which I am very impressed with. I had never used any of her yarn before....

Next, since we know how much I hate finishing anything, I will move back to my two-right-sides Cuzco cardigan.... It is too fantabulous to let languish any longer. I have to just figure out how I REVERSED the reverse-shaping directions and ended up with two right sides.... Unbelievable.

Ok, so I apparently lied about this one being about Christmas knitting. I am just happy to be blogging!!

Happy New Year! I am off to procure chicken nuggets, having gotten the traditional dinner under out belts!

Great sheep debate.

My uncle did not believe me that there were brown sheep in the world. I googled. Here is a brown sheep....
He got a sweater made out of Cascade Eco Wool for Christmas from my mom in a brown color, and despite the fact that the label said that it was undyed, he didn't believe that there was such a thing as a brown sheep.... And he was convinced that the sweater was olive green. Now olive green sheep, there are not.... Reminds me of the great "lamb, mutton, ram" debate of 2003. All I can say is don't look a gift sweater in the sheep!

If it is not tempting the fates too much, I will say that I am mostly recovered from my surgery. The only thing really left is icky red incisions. Ick. The scabs are coming off, and it is seriously icky. Have I mentioned Ick? Slowly my energy is coming back, being put to the test this week as it is the first week I have been back for eight hours a day. When have I ever had energy for that, though, surgery or not??

Funny story. I, for some unknown reason, made a gyn appointment for two weeks after my surgery. Not my favorite thing in the world, but survivable. Little did I know the operating room people were going to SHAVE ME after I was knocked out!!!! Not completely, just enough to create a strange hair topiary and get out of the way of the 1/2 inch incision that for some reason just HAD to be that low.... So there I am in the paper gown, and as soon as he walked through the door I said, "You are not allowed to mock me for the strange hair topiary. I had surgery and did NOT know that was going to happen." He laughed and said that he learned long ago never to laugh at anyone's personal gardening, no matter how strange. To which I responded, "I didn't do it, seriously!!" The whole thing just added another fun dimension to the yearly visit....

Next post: Tales of Christmas Just Past.

I may have finally entered adulthood.

Shudder at the thought! I found out today that I have to have surgery. Not only is my gallbladder trying to kill me, my appendix seems determined to get in on the action. So next Monday, they are both getting nipped and tucked. How I wish that would mean that I would end up skinny....

However, the surgery itself is not the grown-up part, scary though it may be. No, I had to go get my belly-button ring taken out after having it for seven or eight years. I couldn't get a hold on the little balls to unscrew them, so I went to the place that put it in. Now it is gone. I don't think you can ever be too old for a nose ring, can you??

My gallbladder is trying to kill me.

Sorry for the silence. I think the pressure was too much for me and I choked. I am back to report that my parts are in rebellion, however: This is an image from the Mayo Clinic of what is a close approximation of what I got to see last week in my very own ultrasound. The ultrasound, as an aside, was one of the coolest things I have ever gotten to do! Elizabeth, the best ultrasound tech ever, narrated the whole thing and was the one to tell me that my very small ovaries and uterus look great, but my gallbladder is filled with little stones. There seemed to be more in mine than in the image above.... Looked like about a dozen or more, all lined up like peas in a tiny pod. Strange how my relationship with my insides has changed now that I have seen them....

The original complaint that sent me to the doctor's office was pain in the extreme lower right hand side of my abdomen and awful nausea. I can tolerate many, many things better than nausea, so that is what really sent me running to the copay factory! The pain has mostly been at a four out of ten kind of level, coming up a little higher and going down to nothing off and on, for about the last week, now. Today, after the pig out that was Thanksgiving, it is hurting like crazy, though. I meet with a surgeon on Tuesday, Dec 1, and the nurse at the world's best doctor's office believes that gallbladder removal is in my future. Sigh.

And by the way, ultrasounds are fun, but I highly recommend against recreational or educational CT scans. Wait for medical necessity. Two words: barium milkshake.

There has been knitting news, but since it is almost all Christmas knitting and everyone who is getting a present from me could conceivably read this, the less said the better. I shall share after the gifts are all given. Let me say, though, that I am having a blast knitting the few presents that I have undertaken, and I am optimistic about their completion....

I DID try to finish the lovely olive green Cosima.... (Pardon the blurry picture. You would never guess that I had a degree in the art of photography would you???) There is a reason that one should not put a sweater aside for nine months and then pick it up and start knitting again.... I seriously believed that I was following directions correctly. I had the back and one front piece already finished, so I started with the other side and happily zipped through that and the sleeves. It is a raglan construction, so I sewed both sleeves to the back with visions of showing off at Thanksgiving dancing in my head. THEN.... I got out the front pieces to determine which went on which side.... And they were both the same side. No kidding. I knitted two right front sides. I have no idea how I managed that, especially when it is the dreaded "reverse all shaping for left side" kind of pattern. I have put it aside to let it think about what it has done. WOW, that was silly!!

Ok, back to work. Yes, it is true, I am at work the day after Thanksgiving. There are only four of us in the entire building, and the people I know and love are at the movies right now. I am so loyal....

Apparently I suck at this.

Either that or I am exhibiting a strange rebellion against authority.... Even though I am the one who decided to post every day! Day two and I forgot. I toyed briefly with ideas for travelling back in time or possibly setting the date back on my computer.... I decided, however to just go ahead and 'fess up instead. Indeed, I am crap at blogging consistency!

Sadly, I still have no photos. So I shall knit instead! I may be able to start the stripes on Daybreak tonight!

November: National Blog Post Month

Well, I didn't make it all the way through Blogtoberfest.... It was pretty exciting to post so much, though! And I apparently have a chance to redeem myself in November during National Blog Post Month. I didn't make that up, either.... Found it on the internets....

And I am aware that I owe another SAFF post, but I am going to TRY to finagle a way to get the yarn purchases uploaded so there will be pictures.... Give me a couple of days!

I stopped posting this past week because, honest to goodness, I have been too busy knitting. I can't believe it, but its true! I finished the Christmas present socks. Thank goodness, because they were starting to get on my last nerve. They just went on too long....

Then I started another present, the Bird in Hand Mittens. May I say, worsted weight yarn on size one needles is nothing to trifle with! My poor fingers, so sore.... They are so, so, so beautiful, though! Kate Gilbert is another genius!! I got through one with only grafting and the thumb left, so even with frequent breaks for finger resting they are going quickly!

As a reward to myself for working so hard on Christmas presents, I started some easy, mindless knitting, the Daybreak Shawl. I saw it on another blog and fell in love. The yarn for that one is one of my SAFF purchases, so there SHOULD be pictures sometime this week... :-)

Other than knitting there has been passive entertainment. I read the cutest book: Soulless by Gail Carriger. She has the best voice I have encountered in a very long time in a formerly-unknown-to-me author, and you gotta love laughing out loud in a book about a victorian miss totally missing her soul.... Loved it!! Also saw The Brothers Bloom and enjoyed it thoroughly. Matt thinks that Rachel Weiss' eyes are too far apart, but it didn't hurt my enjoyment one little bit!

Ok, gotta go! Time for Amazing Race!