The Memory Walk was done.. in the rain. However only 2 of us made it.

Friday night everyone started to get sick, so when we woke up to rain on Saturday morning, an executive decision was made and only myself and Cassidy attended. (Pictures later.. I still haven't downloaded them to the PC from the camera)

Then there was the mandatory fridge shopping (it arrives later this morning.) And what a delight (not!) that was. The Kenmore I wanted was no longer available (unless I wanted to rent a truck and move it myself! (Um, NO!) Then there was the Frigidaire, I was almost sold on, but it wasn't rated very high by Consumer Reports (who knew Frigidaire made crappy compressors?) The GE that I would have really liked, because it would match my GE stove, was like 600.00 more than I budgeted. Lastly, the Maytag french door, ooh la la that I really wanted but was twice what I budgeted. So I went with a Whirlpool. I'm not as thrilled as I would be with that gorgeous french door Maytag, but I'm still doing the happy refrigerator dance. No more leaky fridge. No more 50.00 a month in electric costs. No more frozen milk and melting ice cream.

*sigh* Fridge shopping is worse than car shopping, and I hate car shopping a lot.

Then the playing nurse to one big sick baby (Richard.) And cuddling, wiping noses, doling out meds to the rest of the tribe. And now its finally raining down on me *cough cough - sniffle sniffle*, while trying to pull "Goldie" (our 20 year old, groaning, GE almond side by side) out to clean behind and under, in prep for the new fridge (holy crap, where does all that dust come from?) And now I need to empty it (goodness, why do we have 4 bottles of Italian dressing, 6 jars of pickles, and 3 bottles of mustard?)

So while I hope to get pictures up from the Memory Walk later today, I'm not promising anything. I have a very full inbox to deal with (this happens when you don't check your mail for three days!) , and I think by the time Lowes brings me my fridge.. and I get everything put back where it belongs.. I'll likely just curl up on the couch with the also coughing, sniffling, feverish Connor.

So you know, the Memory Walk is tomorrow morning. And when we're done with that, its a bite to eat, then fridge shopping. No more looking. Its purchase time. YAY! And since we decided not to go to Hemlock on Sunday, I was hoping to fit in couch shopping this weekend too. If the pulled muscle holds up through tomorrow's walk, and the mandatory fridge purchase, its a go. If not, at least another two weeks of pouring over online furniture catalogs, trying to find the right style.

Kris could save me a lot of grief and just get a new couch so I could buy hers, because that is the one I want, and dammit if I can find one even close or as comfortable. Nudge, Nudge, Hint Hint Llamie.

Oh, looking for knitting? Though I wish I could show you something, I've only managed to knit maybe 5 rows on that sock I showed last week (so no pictorial update.) Instead its been all about the spinning.

As I mentioned in this post, I've finished my guild's holiday project fiber, and its now wound, and waiting for a book I purchased, along with a set of US5 Addi Lace needles. I know. I needed more Addi needles like I need Las Vegas real estate. But I've been wanting Addi's lace needles for a while.. like since I heard they were finally available. Problem was that when they were first made available, every knitter in the world wanted them too. So you can imagine how hard they were to find in stock, anywhere.

I finished up the green alpaca/merino/silk. "Not happy" would be my description of the final product. I started out plying 2 singles (from both ends of a center pull ball,) but was just miserable with how it looked under-spun, albeit perfectly balanced. So I decided to set aside the first little bit I started, and proceeded to navajo ply the rest. Sure I'm losing yardage by making it a three ply, but I kick ass at navajo plying.. if I do say so myself. I love the rhythm of its complexity. Once you learn how to do it, its not so hard after all. This yarn will sit on the bobbin until my new niddy noddy arrives. Yes.. I finally decided to buy a very basic, inexpensive Ashford niddy noddy, instead of killing my arm wrapping yarn around the bottom of a rubbermaid bin!

And I've picked up the self dyed green and purple corriedale again. I'm alternating colors, and spinning fairly thin since this will also be navajo plied into a self striping sock yarn. I have a long way to go, but if last night's spinning session is any measure, I may be able to get this done sooner than I imagined.

I do however, need to step away from the spinning for a short bit. I'm doing another contract project for KnitPicks, and I'd like to knock it out of the park pretty quickly. UPS delivered the yarn this morning, and the pattern has been printed and waiting in my basket for that to arrive. So tonight I'll cast on. And speaking of KnitPicks, my first contract project was received back in August with glowing praise by the powers that be (whew!) and the catalog that its in comes out in 7 days. Woo!

Lastly, I never blogged about this, and I'm not sure why! But I took part in Dish Rag Tag through the month of August. If you don't understand it, here it is in a nutshell. All participants were assigned to teams, where the captain of the team, and in our case, Carole, received the first box from Emily who hosted this fun race. In the box was two balls of dish rag cotton, a knitted dish cloth, and a small treat. You would keep the dish rag, use one of the balls of cotton to knit to send on to the next person in line, keep the other ball of cotton, then restock the box with two new balls of cotton and treat, then send on - as quickly as possible, trying to get through each of our team members, and back to Emily before the other teams.

I was lucky to be second in the race, receiving a fantastic orange/yellow/green dish rag from Carole, with a beautiful set of notecards. But I was in such a rush to knit, repack and mail on to KaKi, that I forgot to take pictures. I think KaKi was kind enough to take a picture of the dish rag I sent on to her.

Anyway, our team, Rag Racin' came in third! I really didn't think we'd place that well since our team had at least twice run into the postal service taking its sweet time delivering packages. So for coming in third, as part of the Rag Racin' team, I found this in my mailbox yesterday. How cute is that certificate? And the beaded row counter is beautiful. Thank you Emily!

While I was just talking about home improvement, specifically indoor lighting.. another item outside our home could use some attention - looking at mailboxes.

Since snow, and the every day passing of plows in this part of the country has to be something I think about when shopping residential mailboxes, I was a little bummed, to not find the kind of post/mount I was thinking of. Installed further back from the curb, with a longer arm (can you visualize what I'm thinking here?)

I am however, completely smitten with this dragonfly faucet. How adorable.

The whole attention thing, or lack there of, is back.

As I mentioned yesterday, I started the Dream Swatch scarf/headband (and I'm loving it), and I'm still chugging away on the Deatheater Illusion Scarf. But I remembered something I set aside and totally forgot about.. my second Spring Things knit with my handspun Georgia O'Keeffe roving. And ya know.. for as much as I want to finish it, I just don't feel like knitting it. To make this even more odd, I'm suddenly drawn to buy the Bee Fields pattern (I have to be the only person in the knitting blogosphere not to cast this on yet.) Lastly, there is still that Mason Dixon Baby Kimono for the new niece that needs seaming (oh how I abhor seaming, especially seaming cotton.)

I've noticed that I'm also getting bored with my surroundings. No, we're not in the market to hire a realtor, but I am constantly thinking about paint and new flooring (and getting an estimate to repave the driveway, refrigerator shopping, and getting the chimney's inspected before the cold weather.)

The problem is.. I really want to paint the kitchen.. but I lack the motivation to actually do it. The task, in theory, is a really easy one. You know, much easier than knocking down walls and ripping out cabinets. But its no weekend job.. especially with Connor underfoot.

Oh, and my gripe for the day? I bought this rechargeable CRV3 battery, with charger at Batteries plus for my camera. The purchase didn't break the bank, but it was not cheap. The battery charges, but it holds its charge for like a day. This is soooo not cool. I should have just sprung for the Easy Share dock.

Oh and as a side note, and because it relates to what I just typed above, just now in my inbox my planet forecast for Friday showed up..

Aug 17, 2007
Transiting Mercury Square Natal Neptune

A WANDERING MIND
If you speak before you think right now others might assume you're drinking on the job-or worse. Yet what you must report holds specific importance to you on a deep inside level. That's why it becomes so difficult to articulate. You're the only one in there. You must represent the urges of your spirit above and beyond ego, psychology and material need. Then you get heard. Speaking of what feeds your soul reduces potential confrontation. Understanding seems hard to come by. Offer your view and wait for things to clear. Pressing forward loses your place in line.

No wonder, eh?

'Nother side note because I know someone will ask. The Dream Swatch is being worked in Unger Legacy which is 32% Nylon, 26% Acrylic, 26% Cotton, 16% Mohair. This isn't something I'd normally work with, but my spinning guild did a fun swap a few months ago, where we all brought in a ball of yarn from our stash in a brown paper bag and randomly swapped bags. We then use that ball of yarn on a project over the summer and bring it back for show and tell at the September guild meeting. This yarn is a little thin for this project, but its still coming out nicely.. in my opinion anyway!

I got my new camera! I need to spend lots more time with it to master the controls and get the best results possible.. and this week is no time to play. I have a Sockapalooza deadline!

I hit a snag last night with the second sock, realizing a mistake.. a big mistake.. about 20 rows back. Instead of unknitting, I pulled the needles out and ripped back. Picking up the stitches again was another hour of frustration, not to mention losing another few rows in trying to pick up stitches. I'm back on track though and plan to spend the better part of today knitting on it.

As for the Mr Coffee incident yesterday. I'm much better today. The burns, which last night felt like a really bad sunburn has eased. Its still a teensy touchy when clothing rubs it a certain way, but it is better than yesterday.

My good mood has been attacked by the cappuccino machine. Yes, you heard that right.

So this afternoon, I decided I'm going to mop the kitchen floor, but I'm feeling like a I need a little energy jolt. Since I forgot to make a jar of cold brew coffee yesterday I figured I'd fire up the cappuccino machine. I start to brew, stop to froth the milk, set it back to finish brewing, then turned to put a spoon in the sink, then BABOOM! I'm not sure what happened but the metal handle basket thingie that holds the grounds was forced down, shattering the container, splashing the espresso, and steaming grounds in every direction but mostly landing on my back. I kid you not, it was splashed across the room on the fridge and stove, on my curtains all up and down my cabinets.. and my back! Alex managed to get a bit of a splash too since he was walking through the kitchen as it happened.

Now this is the second time this has happened. Two years ago it happened and I called the company (Mr Coffee) they apologized profusely and replaced the machine, noting that the model I had, did have a documented defect. Luckily that time, no one was hurt, it just made a big mess. This time we have the messy stained counter, floor (and clothing) but with the added bonus of burns.

So this time they're sending me the higher end model. And apologized profusely. But honestly I think I'm going to sell it on ebay or freecycle it or something and just buy a better machine.

Good thing I didn't mop the floor first.

So back to the good mood. I will not let Mr Coffee and his dangerous kitchen appliances dampen my mood. I've decided on a camera, and I'm going to pick it up tonight. I'm glad I did a bit more comparing and shopping around. I'm getting a MUCH better camera for a mere 30.00 more (I love sales!) I've decided on the Kodak Z712IS. The reviews are excellent and I've had much fun searching for images in Flickr tagged with this model. Yippee!

And much progress has been made on the second Sockapalooza 4 sock. No pictures until I can use my new camera. Stay tuned!

Oh! Mr Coffee and his attitude almost made me forget! Ashley tagged me as a ..

Wee!

Now I need to tag five peeps..

Loren @ Musings At Windyridge 

Kelly @ The Larabian Times 

Nancy @ Bronx Girl Knits

Cass @ CassKnits

Susan @ Susan B. Anderson

I've had an unusually good day today! Despite finding out that my SP10 spoilee's package went by the wayside and is now MIA, a letter that came in the mail alleviated some serious stress I had going on in my noggin. My house is remarkably cleaner than normal and I'm not terribly backed up on dishes and laundry. For that I can thank a full family cleaning session yesterday - every one pitched in despite the complaining - and made my Monday loads better than it usually is. Bonus good thing? I said a while back when I started paid blogging, that I had a few goals for doing it. An iPod, new digital camera, new iBook. Well, if my calculations are correct, I think I can purchase my new camera in the next week. I haven't even started comparing cameras yet, since I think I know the one I want (A Kodak ZD710, unless someone has a tried and true review of a similarly featured camera in the same price zone)

Ok, now I'm really late getting Sockapalooza socks done in this round. I think the first failures with the Monkeys really threw me for a loop and knocked me off my knitting game. I am moving down the leg of the second sock, but I'm actually not enjoying the knitting of it. It feels a little boring to me and I can't stay focused. Instead I picked up the Deatheater shadow scarf. I had started one a few days ago, only to realize I copied the the background stitch pattern wrong, so halfway through the second chart I frogged it all, and restarted...

Isn't it just crazy cool how that pattern emerges? I love love love it. The green I'm using is a bit darker than I'd like but I wanted to use WoolEase and this green heather is all ACMoore had.

But, now I have to stop this for a while and finish the Sockapalooza socks. Maybe I can work up the knitting mojo to get the second sock done in a day or two so I can get back to this scarf!