New Years resolution....or not

OK, so my New Years resolution to myself was to blog more.....as you can see by the fact that there were no posts in January, I failed miserably. What was holding me back was my last post in December. I tried started, stopped, edited and finally gave up for a while. It was just a really painful wound that I needed to let close a little before I could go on. But, now I am back and here in force! I hope.

Since I linked this blog to my Ravelry notebook/profile, I know there are many more potential people who might be reading this blog....Welcome! Up until now I have been writing to myself. But after a year, I just got my first comment. Wooohoooo! I am on a roll now, Baby!

I had thought about posting my crochet items on a separate blog, but since I have a hard enough time keeping up with this one I don't think that is a good idea. So, I am simply going to continue tagging the crochet specific posts and let the rest of you find them. Good luck!

Good Bye, Uncle Bill

Yesterday was a really hard day. Last Saturday I got a call from my mom saying that my Uncle Bill had passed away. It was very unexpected as he was in great health and only 66, but he died in his sleep and my aunt was unable to revive him. He was my father's older brother by 11 years and had 2 kids and 4 grandkids that will miss him terribly. The funeral was yesterday and the church was full of all the people he had touched over the years.

Uncle Bill was my closest uncle on my Dad's side of the family, since he was also my godfather. I was baptized in the catholic faith, but was raised methodist and that never bothered Uncle Bill one bit. He still took his "job" very seriously and liked to spoil me rotten. I looked forward to his presents the most on birthdays and Christmas because he always managed to know exactly what I wanted, even if I didn't.

Because of family tensions (a really LOOOOONG story that I don't even know completely) we never had much communication with my Dad's brothers and sisters. I only knew Uncle Bill and my Aunt Carol out of the 7 siblings. Uncle Bill has two daughters, neither of which I ever spent much time with. They were older by a few years and I am really sorry that I haven't gotten to know them. Now they both live on opposite ends of the country and I have a feeling I won't ever get much of a chance to develop a relationship.

I think the hardest part of the funeral was putting myself in everyone else's shoes. I have a bad habit of empathizing too deeply with people and I then over react to the situation. Even now I am sitting here with tears running down my face because I just can't help but feel bad for the children who no longer have a grandfather and his wife who no longer has her husband.

Caleb was having a really hard time understanding why we were there and what was going on. Definitely some really big concepts for a 3 YO to handle. He kept asking who the man was and why he was laying there. The only thing I could tell him was that Uncle Bill was sleeping and that Bumpa had to say goodbye to him. He then asked all the way home when we could play with Uncle Bill and why Bumpa was so sad....pretty profound for a boy who had never met his great uncle, and now he never will.

Crochet: finished the bunny hat and MACG meeting

This is a picture of Caleb wearing the bunny hat and mittens that I just finished for a friend of mine at work. Well, actually for her new baby, but you probably figured that part out. It was really easy to make and took me about two nights to get it completely finished. Very quick, painless and adorable.

I also managed to finish the first of many swiffer shrugs that I want to make for Christmas gifts. LOVE the pattern! It was a lot of fun to do and very easy once I got the hang of it. Took it with me to the MACG (Madison Area Crochet Guild) meeting and it was definitely a big hit. I like the idea that it is environmentally friendly and I think it will actually work BETTER than the ones I buy in the store because it will pick UP the dirt and not just push it around.

I didn't do a whole lot else this weekend, crochet wise, but I did attend the latest MACG meeting at Lakeside Fibers here in Madison. I really look forward to getting together with these ladies and just having a little spontaneous conversation about anything and everything while we all get a chance to crochet. These ladies understand the addiction and don't think less of me for it.

Did manage to work on Caleb's blanket a little more and started on the carrot bagholder, but then realized that I needed an elastic hair band to go any further so had to stop. I think I did the first 6 rounds wrong anyway, so I will frog it and try again. Not a big deal, just gets me back to square one. Now all I have to do is locate me "I" hook....I think a certain 3 YO who shall remain nameless has walked away with it again, which means I may NEVER find it.

I did find a really neat pattern for a crocheted sponge this morning that I am going to make instead of some of the dish clothes I had planned. Sponges, swiffer shrugs, dish cloths and potholders will all make good gifts, I just don't know if I should "theme" them or not. I think I will try, just to make them a little more personal.

Why me? (AKA The animal rescuer)

As I was leaving for work this morning (already late as usual) I noticed there was a dog running around in our backyard. Now, as any of you who may have been to our house know, our backyard is roughly the size of an office cubicle so there was no chance I wasn't going to spot him. He looked like a young chocolate lab and he had tags, so I went out with a couple of dog biscuits to try and see if I could figure out what where he belonged. I felt really sorry for him because he had icicles on his chin, so he had obviously been out for quite a while. He turned out to be a really nice puppy and I decided that I needed to bring him inside to get a closer look at the tags.

I cordoned off the living room and dining area so that he wouldn't try to run upstairs and put Caleb on top of the table, just in case. After a few more biscuits I was able to get his collar off of him and take a look at the tags. The address and phone number were from Plainfield, IL! There goes my chances of this being a quick phone call to some one else in the neighborhood. Now, my only choice was to call animal control....but I only got an answering machine. Then I called the humane society and they said some one would be out to get him, but not until after 9:00. I wasn't about to let him go again so that I could go to work, so I was kind of stuck until some one came to get him. Grrrrr....

At about the same time I was being told that I would be there a while, the dog started scratching and rubbing and my brain immediately thought "FLEAS!" I knew I had to do something other than letting this dog have free run of my house, so I put him in our small bathroom, took Ruby out of her crate, put the gate up in the hallway to keep her upstairs, wrestled her crate downstairs, pulled out her bedding and coaxed the poor puppy in there. He went in reluctantly but easily enough. Of course, he didn't like being in there so I gave him some treats and eventually and bone stuffed with cream cheese to try and keep him busy.

The very nice animal control lady came by at around 9:30 to get him and said that they would find his family. I sincerely hope so because he was really a very nice dog who needs a family to play with.

Want to hear something odd? Last year at this same time (right before Thanksgiving) I had to call animal control because I found a very scared and loving kitty under my back steps. How weird is that? Is my house some how the magnet for stray or lost animals in the neighborhood?

New furnace, new glasses, and a bit of "yarn"

The new furnace is in and working like a charm. My boss thinks we got taken on the deal, but I am just glad it is over with and I can sleep at night again. Since we already paid for it there isn't much we can do about it anyway. There was some lingering smell from the epoxy PVC glue and some oil that had to burn off, but otherwise there isn't a noticeable difference.

Also, I finally got a chance to stop and pick up my new glasses since my meeting in Sauk got out a little early and there was no point in going back to the office. No prescription change but since the old ones were basically worn out, I decided it was time to spring for new frames. Since I am so freaking blind I have to pay big bucks to get thin and light lenses, but it is worth every penny. Got the kind with the magnetic clip-on sunglasses again and this time they aren't that horrible amber color. Yeah! Sometimes it is the little things in life, right?

Typical Wednesday nutty-ness last night with swimming lessons and Noodles and bedtime and everything. I did manage to find some time to check out the yarn sections at both JoAnn and Michael's though. :) Didn't do too much damage, but did pick up some new patterns and the yarn I needed to finish up the bunny hat and mittens I am working on. The baby shower is next week so I am hoping to get it done by then. Will have to put Caleb's blanket on hold for a little while so that I can get going on all these Christmas gifts that I keep adding. Don't know exactly who all of them are for, but I figured I would get a bunch done and then sort it out later. I have several dish clothes made and I know the Swiffer shrugs won't take too long. Want to make a plastic bag holder that looks like a carrot (very cute!) as a gift too.

Speaking of Christmas, I have NO idea when I am going to get my shopping done. Jay may be coming down this weekend but I will spend time showing him what Caleb and Mom want rather than doing my own shopping. Grrrrr.... We will be putting up the Christmas lights on the outside of the house on Saturday so at least we are getting started on the Christmas spirit. Have to get the tree decorated yet, but may work on that tonight during the Packer game. We are lucky enough to have the NFL network (thanks, DirecTV!) so we can watch it at home unlike MANY other people in the state.

Merry f*ing Christmas.....aka the new furnace

That's right folks, we need a new furnace. The old one was only 6 years old but was apparently defective and has developed a cracked heat exchanger. Doesn't affect the operation of the unit, but carbon monoxide could be leaking out of that hairline crack....NOT GOOD! Good thing we have a CO detector, but YIKES! We wouldn't even have known about it if the igniter hadn't broken and left us without heat for 3 days. When the repair guy came he checked the heat exchanger because apparently this has happened on almost ALL of the furnaces of this model. Sure enough, he found a crack and refused to turn our heat back on unless we had the CO detector. Scary....very, very scary! Thankfully there was never any CO detected but just having the high potential was enough to keep me from sleeping well at night.

So what is the solution to this problem? Why...a new furnace of course! GREAT! This is the BEST time of the year to just drop $1400 on a new furnace. Thankfully, we have the money in our emergency fund, but it is going to wipe out a good chunk of the savings. I HATE doing that, but why else do we save the money, right? They call it a rainy day fund and it is definitely raining....or rather snowing because we don't have any heat....

The new furnace is the highest efficiency unit that we can put in so we will have to see if it has any affect on our heating bills this winter. We can get a tax credit AND save on the heating bills, so all the better. It is being installed this afternoon and I can't wait for it just to be IN so I can sleep a little better. They must have known how important and dangerous our situation is because Scott called on Monday to schedule it and they will be here today (Wednesday) putting it in. Wow!

Crochet: more progress...sort of

Why is it that whenever I finish a project I have to start another one immediately? The worst part is they usually aren't even part of my WIPs but a new project that I just found in some magazine. For example, I was just able to cross the dreaded hooded scarf off my list, but then figured I had a few minutes so I would whip up an adorable baby hat and mittens that I found in the latest Crochet! magazine. Don't get me wrong, they are ADORABLE, but I really didn't need another project. Yes, I am using up stash yarn....but I have a TON of other gifts to get done. OK, who am I kidding; I am an addict and there was no way I was going to resist doing this cut little bunny hat. Even if I had to make Caleb where it, it was going to be made! I will post pictures of it as soon as I get it done, which will most likely be tomorrow evening.

Ravelry has proven to be extremely addicting. I love the fact that I can keep a list of all the projects that I want to do. I am sure there are great things that I have wanted to do, but have lost the print out or forgot what book they were in. Now I can look at all the other great things people have done and with one click add the same project to my queue. Then I can add notes as to what type of yarn I want to use and who I want to make it for. Fabulous! I spent quite a while adding pictures off a lot of my finished projects, and two of them have actually been chosen to be the picture used to represent that pattern on the site! I know that it is probably because it is the first time that pattern was added (with a picture) but it still feels very validating. My family just doesn't always understand the addiction that crochet has become for me. I LOVE to create these things for the people in my life, but I don't think they can always appreciate the work that goes in to them.

One of the things that is continuously on my to-do list are items to do for charity, but they seem to get pushed to the bottom of the list whenever I find something else to do for some one in my life. I am going to make it my goal this January to try to use up some of my yarn stash (even though it isn't all THAT big) to make items for charities. I will try very hard to just use the yarn I have and not worry about all of the colors matching or coordinating. There is a certain kind of "visual interest" in all those different colors blending and contrasting....but it goes against all of my OCD-ishness. Like my father always says, "if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well"....actually he always said "don't do anything half-assed", but you get the picture. :)