Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

This week is kind of crazy and the knitting needles have actually not been picked up since Sunday. I will resume knitting on our road trip tomorrow though, and in the meantime, Tandaina tagged those of us who know her true identity with a meme so, filler content it is until I get back from Holiday World with a finished sock or three.

What were you doing five years ago?

5 years ago today, I was probably riding a coaster. 5 years ago, in general, I was still working and living in the same place, different area of the department work-wise, but still the same place. I wasn’t knitting yet and I was embarking on the first crazy year of several with the coaster hobby.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1) Work

2) Packing for this weekend

3) Laundry

4) Making sure the kitties are sufficiently fed, watered and littered for our 4-days away.

5) Calling my mom, haven’t talked to her yet this week.

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1) Chocolate

2) Chocolate

3) Diet Soda

4) Ice Cream

5)  Chocolate

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1) Make several family members and close friends financially independent

2) Buy a house

3) Buy my parents a house

4) Quit my job

5) Come up with a completely different life plan

What are five of your bad habits?

1) Nail Biting

2) Caffiene

3) Over sleeping/staying up too late

4) Forgetting sunscreen

5)

What are five places where you have lived?

1) My parents house

2) College campus - dorms

3) College campus - other dorms  (I think I lived in 4 different dorm buildings while in college)

4) Teeny Tiny College apartment

5) Decent sized new 2-bedroom apartment for the last 8 years.

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1) Cemetery Groundskeeper (I pushed a lawnmower for a couple summers)

2) Technical Services Receptionist

3) Temp data entryist for an insurance company

4) Network Technician

5) System Developer

Tags: If you want it, it’s yours.

Craig must have planned his trip this weekend just because he knew I was hurting for blog content. I have been knitting, and ripping, and knitting this week and just don’t have a whole lot to show for it.  Craig took his sock to Holiday World and to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom this weekend (he’s ahead of the curve… the rest of us will be down there next weekend for Holiwood Nights).

Apparently Santa told him that he must be bad due to the size of his stocking.

And at Six Flags the sock met a couple of characters.

Craig, if you can get that sock in the hands of some poor teenager at a Six Flags who’s walking around in a Marvin the Martian costume, I might just make you a couple of those coaster-rider washclothes after all.

My mom has a knack for turning just about any hobby into a money making opportunity, and since her hobby is collecting dolls, we were up at the crack of dawn to setup a couple of tables and sell at a doll show on Saturday morning. It was exhausting, but I was able to finish a sock while sitting there watching all the local doll people mingle.

We wrapped up there and literally went home and all 3 of us crashed at 4pm. It was exhausting. And mom and dad will be doing another show this weekend in Grand Rapids.

Sunday for Mother’s day, we met mom’s aunt for brunch and I gave mom the socks I’d finished at the doll show. I had hoped to have time to make a different pair for her, but I’ll get around to them eventually. My knitting is just kind of being pulled in a zillion directions right now.

The finished socks are the stockinette socks in Trekking that I’ve been picking at for a while. I’ll be starting a couple other stockinette pairs for the summer as I have a few colorways of Knit Picks Felici that I want to play with. The Gelato colorway will be mom’s next pair, and the Coney Island colorway will likely be my park knitting for the summer.

But in the meantime, I’m focussed on the socks for my aunt and hoping to get them wrapped up yet this week so I can give them to her at the celebration of life on Thursday.

I also had a winning day on Friday which was a great end to the week after everything else last week. I was the runner up winner on Christina’s blog contest. Also, in the ultimate spot of enabling, I won fiber on A Verb For Keeping Warm. Camel/Silk blend no less. I think that marks the start of the slippery slope of spinning that I’ve managed to avoid until now. At least I know there’s an amazing spinning shop nearby where I can immerse my self in a new hobby once I’m ready.

Thank you all for the messages of sympathy on the loss of my cousin. She had a rough life  with more than her fair share of medical issues and it was a rough couple of weeks that lead up to her death. In lieu of a memorial service, there will be a celebration of life get together for family and friends towards the end of next week. As part of my grieving process, that creative spark in my head shot off and I’m working on a sock design in her memory. The initial pair from the pattern will go to my aunt as a belated mother’s day gift. And once I have it written up, the proceeds from the pattern sales will be donated to the American Diabetes Association in Chandra’s memory.

I am still moving through life as usual this week though. I’ve decided this year that in addition to my CSA, I’m also going to grow a few extra veggies on the porch. I’m also going to use some of my economic stimulus check to get a chest freezer so I don’t waste as much food when I have the CSA and veggie garden providing.

Since I’m in an apartment, the veggie garden is a few plants in a couple planters. And I picked out plants and supplies this weekend. I need to get some more soil and redistribute the plants a little bit since I only had enough soil to fill 2 of the planters, but it’s a start.

If all survive, I should have tomatoes, squash, eggplants, green and jalapeno peppers, cilantro, thyme and basil on the patio.

My kitties are indoor only cats, but since I was outside planting, I left the door open and they did a little exploring of their own.

What’s funny about that is that generally Gromit is my timid cat. He’ll warm up to people when he’s good and ready and not a second before and while he’s curious, he’ll usually let Lily explore something first before he indulges. Lily is typically far more curious and more social. But Gromit is also my window cat, so he’s more familiar with the outdoors at least in appearance. So, when given the rare opportunity to explore, he was far more comfortable and curious outside than she was. She didn’t leave the patio and jumped inside the door over every little thing.

He kept trying to leave the patio and go explore.

But once he started looking a little too comfortable and repeatedly wandered off the patio, we quickly got inside so there wouldn’t be any disappearing acts. I think if he’d seen a bird or a chipmunk or a squirrel while he was out there, he would have been on it in a heartbeat and I’d have never gotten him back inside.

37 is far too young.

You will be missed.

Chandra Page

1971 - 2008

Remember all those wee-tiny socks?

One of them has gained a purpose in it’s wee-tiny life.

I suppose I should tell the back story. Guard your children, this one is a little on the *ahem* adult side. Only a little though.

My coaster friend Craig keeps joking about wanting socks. His ulterior motive when I’m wearing or working on handknit socks in his presence is to get one from me and take it into a private place for a “photo session” ala Red Hot Chili Peppers.

So, when I made all the wee-tiny socks for the swap, I decided one of them would be for him. Because if he’s going to have a hand-knit sock for such photo sessions, he should have one that fits.

I gave it to him last weekend at Six Flags Great America. This was his reaction.

So, he’s decided that his project for this summer is for the sock to show up in photos on his various trips. This weekend, he took it to Indiana Beach.

You never know where that sock will pop up. I’ll keep the blog posted with updates while it’s visiting the amusement parks of the world this summer. I hear it might even make it to Europe.