TOP CHEF, Ding Dong the Bitch is GONE!

FINALLY, my Top Chef dream has come true...Stephen has packed his knives...errr cork-screws, and gone. It is about freakin' time!! Thank you!!!

I was thinking that much like "Project Runway" was hanging onto Santino Rice, Top Chef must have been hanging onto Stephen for the drama. Well, the drama queen has opened his last bottle of wine, educated his final wait-staff and served his last cold plate of food. I cannot even tell you how thrilled i am. I have to say that there was not one item of food that he created that i would have found remotely appealing. Contrary to Stephen's shallow little world, not everyone likes hoity-toity foods that are over flavored and over explained...and not everyone likes wine. I know it's hard to imagine, but it's true! I wonder how many of Stephen's customers during the course of the show, may have been recovering alcoholics who would have preferred for any type of alcoholic beverage to be as far away from them as possible? I wonder if he even thought for one split second to have that consideration?? The show is supposed to be about the FOOD, not spirits...the customers were there to eat and to experience different flavors in their foods, NOT to learn about or taste a crap load of wines.

Ok, i'm done with my reality tv rant for tonight, thanks for the space Dear Blog. ;)

I'm off to read other people's knitting blogs, what's everyone knitting these days?? I'm gonna go find out!

Knit On!!

~Suz~

Vote For Nicole Jamrose

For the next Nashville Star... but as i'm typing this, you only have 2 and a half hours left to vote!!!

So why am i writing this then? Well, just in case anyone happens along here who wants to vote for her and has been having a horrible time doing so, that's why! The USA Network - Nashville Star website is not the most voter friendly. It took me until last week to figure out how in the heck to vote. You must DISABLE all POPUP BLOCKERS (including Norton Firewall and maybe others!!) or you will not see the bright yellow strip to click you into the voting area.

Nicole Jamrose, from Dyer/Schererville, Indiana, is one of the last three remaining people competing for this seasons title of "Nashville Star". I'm from Dyer, grew up there...so, of course i have to support the home girl. Nicole is the last woman standing...so, of course i have to support the home girl. And, Nicole is a fabulous singer/songwriter...so, of course i have to support the home girl!

What are you still doing here reading this?!!?!?!!!! GO VOTE!!! Hurry!!...

~Suz~

New UU Part Two

We checked out another "new to us" Unitarian Church today. I think we both liked it better than the one we've been sporadically attending since the Fall. Today was the Earth Day Service and we were pleasantly entertained by the music and words of Kathy Moser, who also spoke briefly about "Cohousing", "Natural Buildings", "Green Buildings" and a community that lives completely "off the grid", these ideas really intrigue us! We were sad to learn that the current minister, Rev. Roberta, will be leaving come the end of June, she's another reason we decided to check out this church. However, in true Unitarian spirit, we even stayed for two meetings afterward, lol!!

This is the view out of one of the windows in the Sanctuary...it was a gloomy start to the day so this photo does not really do it any justice. This is basically what we saw from our seats if we looked straight ahead and not at the pulpit.



Then we meandered our way home as we always do, taking roads never traveled and we ended up further North than Deb had intended, close to these...



And i had to take a picture of this, because they are everywhere around here...



We also saw some "baby sheeps", as i like to call them, but i wasn't quick enough to get a pic and it was on a narrow, curvy road which may have been dangerous for Deb to stop on....there are no shoulders to pull over on here and some roads are barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass.

We kept on driving and saw this in the distance...



...and i thought, "ooooh what a cool bridge". Yeah, it wasn't a bridge at all. On close inspection, it was this...



...off on the left side of the road. Neat, eh?

Ok, so onto knitting pics. Here are both of my finished socklettes, i think i've been wearing them for like three days now, i know - gross! I'll wash them, i swear!!



And here's a pic of Deb's first sock that i'm working on. I am loving the Sockotta self-striping yarn.



Well, Deb's been off to work for over an hour now, i think i'm going to go curl up with her sock and see if i can get it done tonight and the next one cast on. Nighty nite!

Knit On!!

~Suz~

Belated Blogday

Dear Blog~

Happy belated Blogday! I know, i suck!

It dawned on me today that i started blogging "about" a year ago and then while fiddling around with my blog template, i realized that my "archives" are not listed in the sidebar. Hmmm. When did that happen? Could have been a month ago, several months ago, or maybe on another one of my template fiddling outings, eh? Ok, so i fixed the archive listing and accessed them, only to realize that i'd missed the Blogday. I started my blog on April 16th, 2005. So, it's been over a year. YEAH!!!

So, here you go my Blog, my buddy...a new look, at least for a while now.

Love,

~Suz~

Late Night Musings

It's been a strange day.

I only slept for about 4 hours last night and was up at 7:30am because i was supposed to watch Deb's special needs nephew, Chris - who's 18, for a few hours while Deb & her Mom went to get Ms. Gertie from the rehab facility and take her home (she had knee surgery last week) And Chris' Mom went to take an elderly lady to a funeral (been a lot of those around her the past week or two!). Well, Chris & his Mom never arrived. I found out later that Shawn had called to say they weren't coming but Deb's Dad had taken the call and not bothered to tell me. I did manage to get some fresh, hot coffee while i was up and knit a bunch on my socklette, so all was not lost, just a bit annoying.

I'd no sooner gotten the news and went into my own room to hop online - when Deb and her Mom came back home, asked if i was hungry and if i wanted to go to Plum Crazy ( a local diner) for lunch? Little did i know that Deb was treating us all, it was 'our' Easter gift to her folks. Hmm. Another round of 'treating people' that i had no say in. That annoys me. I really don't mind treating, that's not the point...and i do realize that i'm currently unemployed and that Deb's bringing in all of 'our' money, but that's the point, it's 'our' money. I feel like i should be included in any financial decisions, i included Deb way back when we first got together and i was the only one working at different times. It's called a "partnership" for a reason.

Ok, wow! I totally did not hop online to post with the intention of writing about this, guess it was on my mind. So, there it is, then.

Anyway, lunch. Then Deb dropped me off at home while she and her Mom went to get their hair cut and run a few other small errands. They were gone a while and i was getting hungry so i warmed up a McD's breakfast sandwich that they'd brought me earlier, ate it - and then they no sooner called and asked if i wanted pizza for dinner from this certain place. Ugh! Of course i wanted pizza! When don't i want pizza?? But, ya know, i wasn't nearly as hungry as i had been say, 20 minutes earlier. Sigh.

I ate pizza. Two pieces of this Sicilian pie later and i'd eaten too much. I still feel like bloated crap all these hours later. A sore tummy, coupled with Deb's snoring and i just can't sleep...so here i am!

I hope everyone else is having a more restful night.

Nighty nite!

~Suz~

Oh My Goddess!

I'm old!!!!!!! This sure dates me, doesn't it???

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

I stole this off of Wandering About, Bumping into Walls, i just had to!!

That is all. Knit on!!

~Suz~

Ahhhh, Serenity

Yes, i know! It's amazing! I'm actually posting again so soon. AND. I have pictures. Proof of knitting, even. How's that for exciting?

But before i get to those, i must torture you with some recent adventures...

Deb and i had the most relaxing, grounding day on Friday. AND. Once again i forgot to take the digi-cam along. Sigh. I know, i know. Kick me later, ok?

After Deb and her Mom got off of work Friday morning, they stopped at home to pick me up and the three of us went off to Denny's for breakfast. Deb treated in celebration of her job description change/promotion at work. Now, instead of picking books by hand at the local Random House warehouse, she's driving a forklift and picking cases of books instead. It's one of those forklifts that goes up a few stories as well as moving backward and forward. Deb's loving it. AND. It includes a $2/hour raise. WooHoo!!

We had a nice breakfast with Deb's Mom almost falling asleep at the table and then we dropped her off at home and went on our merry way. We headed into Frederick, MD - again, on a mission. We decided that we're really missing the CUUPs part of our UU Church and the UU in Frederick has a CUUPs chapter and we wanted to get in contact with them prior to Beltane so that we can attend that Ritual and not miss out. We managed to find the church and since there were a few cars in the parking lot, we tried the doors and found the second one open, so we went into the church. It ended up being very easy to find the office, which of course is the most likely place to find people, it was right inside the door we went through. We met a woman who is taking over a job in the office and the woman who was doing it prior, the later was nice enough to take us on the nickle tour and give us some information. We left there feeling pretty good about the little visit. Later on i found out that Deb didn't really like the church building so much because it's very new and sort of sterile...so we talked about how a "church" is not a building, it's the people who make up the community who use the building, etc. We also talked about attending there a few times and checking out their CUUPs Chapter and if it doesn't feel right either, there are still other UUs in Maryland.

After the church, we went to visit one of the Pagan shops that we had been to before. Deb's on a hunt for a certain necklace/pendant and she didn't find one, but she did find a talisman of the Venus of Willendorf that she had gotten such a huge surge of energy from it when she touched it on our last visit and she got her job promotion just afterward, so we decided that if it was still there when we returned, she was meant to belong to Deb. She was there. It was so relaxing to go into the shop and be surrounded by the amazing smells of incense, oils and herbs. We had a nice talk with the shop owner and i finally bought some Stevia, it's an herbal sweetener that Revia (hey! that rhymes!!)told me about long ago and i've just now finally bought some.

After visiting the Owl's Nest, we headed back into downtown Frederick and over to the LYS. I've been needing help with a chart that i bought from KnitPicks and Kathy at Keep Me In Stitches said that she'd be glad to help if i brought it in...funny thing is, she even had trouble with it, so now i don't feel so bad! I ended up buying a new pattern chart and these...



Sockotta yarn. Mmm. Guess which one Deb chose, and which is for me? LOL!!

After the lesson, browsing and shopping we grabbed some lunch and decided to head into the mountains again. We came upon Cunningham Falls State Park and decided to see if the camping loops were open yet. I'm not sure if they were supposed to be open or not, there was a "road closed" sign that had been moved aside so we drove in and soon discovered that there were no campers to be found and only a few electrical workers.

We found the camping to be just right for us. Very few electrical sites, mostly primative. YES!! Lots of brush and trees, sites not too close together, just the way we like it. It's probably 30-40 miles from 'home' so not too far for us to jet out on a Friday morning, early when Deb gets off of work, set up the tent and dining shelter and then she can crash out while i organize the table and 'kitchen' area of camp and then knit, heehee!!

The whole day really helped my spirit, i hated to come back to chaos house, but at least i feel a bit renewed.

Ok, i know you're waiting for photos that prove i've been knitting, here they are...







Ok, that's my update for now. Knit on!!

~Suz~

The Awful Truth

...of my knitting world, is that i've finished virtually nothing since the Knitting Olympics has ended.

Wait. No. That's not true, it only feels like it.

I have finished a second baby cardi, and two pair of booties. Sigh. There. That's the truth!

So, what's unfinished?, you ask.

~A pair of booties, only needing seaming
~Another pair of booties
~The first sock of a pair
~The first sock of another pair
~A baby blanket
~and the TSP that can't be named, due to being chart-reading challenged

With all of that on needles and not finished, i am going to cast on yet another pair of socks, this time, for me...out of the KnitPicks - Dancing which is 41% Cotton, 39% Wool, 13% Nylon and 7% Elastic. Whew! What a mix!!

I know, i know! Why am i casting these on with all of the other things yet unfinished? Because i can only manage to work on the baby blanket for so long before getting bored and i need something small to knit while i'm sitting at the computer downloading things for this...on dial-up!!

Oh okay, OKAY!!! I'm busted. Now you know. The Sims 2 has distracted me from knitting and blogging. There it is. There REAL truth. Finally. Whew, ok that's not so bad.

No worries though, i'm The Scattered Gemini afterall and i'll bore with it eventually, just like most everything else!! :D

~Suz~