Rabbid Fun!

Last night the B-ster and I had a Wii off. We sat down for an hour and battled head to head on Rayman Raving Rabbids. I haven't had that much playing the Wii in forever.

Most times it's the boy who reigns the roost when it comes to the video game playing. It blows my mind that he can play a super hard level in Mario Galaxy and beat it in two tries when it takes Chris and I many many many Mario's to do so. It's an amazing sight to see and well, that's usually what happens. The whole family watches on the edge of their seat while the boy plays. B just sits and offer's player two assistance when requested and doesn't complain that she isn't getting her turn.

This past weekend I went to the video store and rented Rayman. It was an instant hit with the kids. Honestly, how can you not love playing a game where a mini game consists of burping, then causing massive damage to Paris? But after a day the boy grew tired of the game and went back to something more challenging.

So last night I took advantage of the empty house and had some quality time with the tot. What I love about this game is that a four year old can play it. There are a few mini games that require a little more than what she can master, but most she can actually do and WIN. Yup. She got some high scores and claimed ownership of the game. The game itself is so silly and had no "MUST GET TO THIS LEVEL" stress that I wasn't barking at her to do this and that correctly. So both of us had fun...yes, F-U-N!

Now all we need is a charge station...the remotes suck up battery life like nothing!

Heels and Mitts

This weekend was all about the heels and the mitts. Up to now I've only known one way to turn a heel. It has become my bread and butter and I can execute a good short row heel without any gaping holes. Being the year of the fearless knitter, I've decided to broaden my horizon and learn something new.

So I printed out the directions posted on the Forward Motions blog and the Widdershins pattern. At first glance the construction details looked different. But after test knitting both, the logistics are the same just the size is different.

Here is a 10 stitch added or 5 round gusset:

Here is a 20 stitch added or 10 round gusset:

I apologize for the itchy dry skin. The deeper the heel flap the better the heel feels. So I'm gonna go with this heel for my jaywalkers. yeah! I'll scour the ravelry forums for additional ones I can try.

In addition, I decided to cast on fingerless Noro gloves. They were so quick and easy i feel a tad bit guilty for putting them in my FO pile.


Now I'll be stylin' with my matching Noro scarf and glove set!

Once again my beloved C will be leaving for Florida for a week to care for his sick mom. Please send good vibes his way...

And the decisions was...

This past weekend was Beaut-i-ful!! So wonderful was Sunday that when Monday rolled around I asked my daughter what she wanted to do on mommy's day off. "Anything!" I said. I imagined us spending the afternoon at a playground, at the zoo, or in the woods on a nature hike. Her answer? "I want to go to your work!"

Why do kids have this fascination with visiting a parents work place? I was feeling agreeable, so we packed in the car and went to work. Blake had a blast opening doors and pushing elevator buttons. She loves the view from the sky bridge.

We also walked around the grounds and discovered these:

It's amazing how the words GOOSE POOP! can be the cause of so much hysterical laughter!

She also found the bridge in the Japanese garden a hoot:

Overall, it was a fun afternoon...

Not to worry though, I did do some knitting. I am currently at the point where I need to turn the heel of my socks. I'm trying to figure out how to do a gusset heel toe up on two circulars. I found a nifty blog entry from Forward Motion that I'm using as reference on my tester heel.


Until then...GOOSE POOP!

DI...why!

There was this manic energy running through the house today...C is coming home! It has been 10 days since I've had to say my goodbyes. And he conveniently did so on his birthday.

He thought he dodged that bullet. But little does he know the kids and I have been planning. (insert evil villainous laugh here) Gifts were purchased. Cards were drawn. And a cake was baked. And since the theme this year is Hello Hippie, I made him this.


As we speak thousands of dead heads around the world sense a disturbance in the force... Don't try to hold it in, laugh. I freely admit that I am no Ace of Cakes...more like a joker. But it is an improvement from last year's debacle. For some reason it made sense to me that if I bought an ice cream cake from a refrigerator at Baskin Robins, that it would be fine in my refrigerator at home. Needles to say, we ate cake that year through a straw!

I was able to complete his convertible gloves tonight. I have to admit I wasn't too keen on these until the boy exclaimed they were "cool" and he wanted a pair for himself. Holy crap...an 8 year old thought a handknit item was cool? I've never felt more hip!

Happy Post Valentine's Day!

I love Valentines Day. I love the act of giving people something special, or sugar. And lots of it!

For the big day at daycare, B and I made cupcakes. It has become tradition for her to become my big helper. She was super duper excited to try her hand at cracking eggs and amazingly only one tiny shell piece had to be retrieved!



I tried adding aluminum foil balls between the cup and the pan to make them into "heart-cakes"...but they just ended up looking squished. There were no complaints! In the end, the best part was watching B spend time picking out sprinkle colors and carefully planning where they should go.


The biggest surprise was coming back from lunch to see a big box sitting on my desk. My hippie boy spent me flowers...I'm sure I annoyed my co-workers with my delightful disposition the rest of the day!


What a lucky girl am I!

Noro works itself out.

A couple of weeks ago I received four skeins of this wonderful Noro Silk Garden colorway 22 as a thank you gift for helping the girls at Twisted during their inventory.




With it I've made a scarf. Initially I swatched the "My So Called Scarf" pattern, but didn't like the backside of the knit. So I ended up using the yarn harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf. It's coming out beautifully.

I have one skein left...and with that I'll make the Garter-edge Noro Fingerless Mitts.

It's all about the Noro today!

small victories.

At the end of a long day it's best to look back at the small victories.

We have all animals alive and counted for...check.

The girl had a most excellent dry day. She is very proud and happy...check.

The birthday gloves are at the final stages...check.

All this makes the torn up carpet from the dog a bit bearable, the camera dying upsetting but not devastating, and the lost day at work cleaning up someone else's mistake tolerable.

And so it begins...

This is truly a momentous occasion for me. I had been an avid blogger on myspace but became tired of how clunky the program was. How was I suppose to wait five minutes for the site to load when I wanted...no NEEDED to tell the world about my daughters raunchy smell NOW! Well, luckily for everyone involved, my daughter is now beyond the smelly phase of her toddler youth and is now in preschool heaven!

So why bring back the blog? Well, I've been inspired. In the last year I've become obsessed with knitting. I've been doing it for sometime, but by myself in a dark corner after lights out. It wasn't until I met K and realized there were others like me that I dived in, full throttle. The knitting community online is huge and there are so many resources out there. So why not add one more knitting + wacky stories about my family type blog?

It makes sense to me!