Spring is Here..Finally

Today the temp was over 70. What a treat? I think (hope) we can put the last of the cold weather behind us. I am on my second round of allergy season since the grass is not growing and the Bradford pear trees are blooming. It is not as bads as the early season but it is noticable.

What's new at my house? I got my car back Monday night and wonder of wonders, the bill was only $250 to flush the transmission and replace the fluid. It passed the computer test with flying colors so we are good to go.

I had a foundation company come out to look at the basement wall. Unfortunately, the front wall has started to bow but has not started moving. I really need to get something done soon before there is more damage. I had anticipated an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. The finally amount is $5,900. Much better than I had expected but now I have to figure out how to pay for it and not totally tap my savings account out.

I am sure I will figure something out.

So far I have dropped 6 stitched on my Clapotis. It is going well but is kind of boring. I think I am going to start a baby something to trade off to.

I got new pictures of my neice Alexis today so I thought I would share. She is becoming such a beatiful young lady.

This is her new dress. She picked this out herself. The dress thing is fairly new for her. I think she made a good selection.
This is the everyday Alexis. The likes to be casual most of the time. She has the dark hair I used to have and the brown eyes to go with it. She has just started playing soccer. I hope she learns to like it and lot. She has so much energy it would be a good focus for her.

I hope this summer to be able to get out to Portland. It has been a while since I have see my sisters family so I have not seen Alexis as a kindergardener.

A Better Day and More to Come

I am having a better day today. I got a grip and am moving forward. Last week is a week I can do nothing about and I always figure if you cannot do anything to change what is let it go and move on. I want and stood out in the sun today and I think the vitamin D helps. I was wishing that it was warmer so I could get started cleaning out flower beads but the temp is supposed to be 25 degrees tonight then by Tuesday it is supposed to be 70. The clouds that are left should move out tonight so maybe this is our last cold snap. It is about time. I think we have all had enough winter, even thought it is Spring.

OK, here is what I have for WIPs. I started this sock from som OnLine that I got on sale at KnitCraft. I was not sure how it was going to strip but so it was a surprise. I like it. I am knitting this as a tube and then will go back to do the heel. I saw somewhere in a pattern to do the tube the at the point where the heal should be you snip the stitches the pick up the stitches on both sides and do the toe decreases for the heal. I will be interested to see how well it fits. I don't like a short row heel but I thought I would give this a try. Stay tuned.



Here is this progress on the Clapotis. I have done 4 drops and am almost ready for number 5. Since I am using a lighter weight yarn, mine will look different than the one Mary is doing in Lorena's Lace. It is interesting to see how the same pattern works up in the different yarns.

The only thing about the pattern is that it is kind of boring after a while. You only drop stitched every 12 worse so ther is not much going in with the pattern the rest if of the time. It is basically k1 ktbl k3 ktbl the purl back. The sock is my car knitting so I may have to start something a little more exciting to switch off to.

SSK was nice yesterday. After my week it was nice to be with everyone and think go something else. We were a smaller group yesterday as several had other various other things going on. I was running early, after getting my hair cut so I went to Jason's Deli and thought I would get some soup or something for lunch. While standing on line I thought a baked potato would be good, not knowing that their potatoes weight about a pound. I could only each abount 1/4 of it.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday while whining is that I went salsa dancing Thursday night with the singles group I have joined. It was a lot of fun. The Isle of Capri has free salsa lessons on Thursday night. My intent was to go watch but I ended up jumping right in and did really well. I figured I would only last a short time but I danced the whole 2 hours. It was way more fun than aerobics or walking the treadmill. I got on the scales the next day and had lost 4 lbs. Gee just think if I went every day. I would be thin in no time. Maybe I will be inspired to go workout more often. I know it would help and now that it seems that we are into better weather I can make myself go. Well, it could happen....

Cheese with My Wine

I have had an incredibly bad week. Not the normal bad week but a bad week to the power of 10. It started out when I found out I did not get a perm job I was applying for. As it turns out I spent 2 hours of unpaid time to fill out an application and take some stupid test only to find out that the job went to a man who will probably take flight when the next lucritive contract comes along. After finishing the application process I got a call the next day from the headhunter telling me that the job had been offered to a guy who had worked for the company on a contract and he had declined because he had a long term contract with Sprint. The hiring manager really liked my resume but just after I call (oh sure) the guy they had offered the job called and said his contract got cancelled and could he still have the job. So they gave it to him.

Work was not smooth either but I will not go into that. It was mostly me and my OCD wanting everything to be organized correctly, so in otherwords my way. I was not happy with the work product but my client was to that is all that matters.

With all of the rain the last few days, my foundation is settling even more so the house is popping and creaking. Such fun to listen to. I have a foundation company coming Monday so maybe they will be able to help me. I am so anoyed with myself for not taking care of the problem before it got to this point but I just did not have the money to do it. I still don't but there is no choice now.

To finish off my week when I got home last night and pulled into the drive way my transmission went out. At least it was in the drive way and not on I70 or at the boat late at night. So the car has now been towed for repair but of course being Saturday the shop is not open so will have to wait until Monday to get the diagnosis. Hopefully, it will be something cheap and easy. I have my fingers crossed. My wonderful aunt has lent me her car do I do not have to rent on.

OK....I am through whining. Tomorrow is another day....the sun will come up tomorrow...la...la...la.

Oh yes, I did do some knitting this week. I have started dropping stitches on the Clapotis.

Here is the Round throw. Gracie is still not sure she want any one to have it. I think she is going to have seperation issued when it goes to its new home. It is not as big around as I thought it would be but I am tired of doing it. I thing Iam going to do some crochet around the edge to help it lie flatter.

Yes I did start my Clapotis. I link doing it with the lovely spreadsheet that some kind person posted on the now defunct Clapotis KAL. It has made it much easier to keep track os thr repeats. I am not as far along has I would like to be because I am not sure I like it in this yarn. I will go a little ferther and then decide. I cannot remember what this yarn is but I got it out at KnitWits originally to make a shawl that I have not gotten to yet. I do have some Koigu that I had intended use but wanted to see how this would work. The Koigu is still an option. There is also some Noro sock yarn I could use. Will have to see what works best.

On another note, I went to a over 45 singles dinner meet up this week. I really had a good time. I have not done the singles thing for a long long time but decided that one of my goals for this year was to develop a more varied social life. I met 55 new people at China Star in Overland Park. I was pleasantly surprised had how diverse the group was. I found this group on Meetup.com. I had joined another meetup earlier thsi year but it really did not work out. The events they had were always at a bar. I am so over the bar thing. I did that 20 years ago and do not want to do that any more. This was nice to be in a room with people where you could have a conversation and mingle without all of the noise. I will definately go again.