Rough Weather

Friday we got some rough weather. I knew we were in for some heavy stuff when I turned on my TV at 5:30 am that morning and the weather guy is PUMPED for the afternoon. lol

Anyways, we got a lot of thunder, wind and dime to nickel sized hail. We lost power for about 4 hours, long enough to be bored out of our skulls.

The Boy was awoken from his nap during the storm. He asked what the music was, and that was when I noticed the hail was getting larger, hitting the glass of the windows and making high pitch pinging sounds. Music. To me, that means get into a room without windows. lol

We sat in our interior half bath for about 10 minutes, playing flashlight games and calming each other down. We left the room when the rain had backed off considerably.
The neighbor down the road lost 2 trees, one of which spread across most of the road. This is what it looked like after someone moved it out of the road and onto their grass.

What a mess.

We still have streets that are closed and although we have our power back, some in town are still without.

An F1 tornado was confirmed 2 towns over, associated with this same storm.

Ah, summer.

I'm still knitting on the socks for the AIDS charity. That's my take along knitting. I started Buttercup (Rav link) Friday. Lovely, but I think it's going to be big on the top, too small on the bottom. The wonders of a pregnant woman's body. Anyways, Rebecca knit it and it looked so pretty on her. I thought since it's A-line that I could make it work. But, due to the fact that I have zero patience for knitting swatches or any sort of test knitting at all these days, I just cast on and went with it.

It may be wonderful, it may make me cry when I first try it on. We'll see.

Ohh! I also have a beautiful new nephew to welcome into the world. His name is Aiden and I got to meet and hold him on Saturday. Hehee, my baby brother is a dad. Wholly crap. Maybe I'll post photos when I get some (bad auntie. I totally forgot to grab my camera as I headed to the hospital the other day.)

Rain, Rain...

So it's rainy again today. I need sunshine, STAT. I'm feeling crappy after 2 nights of little sleep. I'm getting to that uncomfortable stage. Yuck.

With all the rain I noticed something new about my car. In heavy rain I was turning my wipers on high, but when I came to a stop (such as a stoplight) the wipers slowed down. When I sped back up, so did the wipers. So cool. It's pretty much the one positive thing that I've found with all this rain. That, and how much I love LL Bean's waterproof shoes and jackets. LOVE!

This shot was taken a few weeks ago. Any idea what plant it is? (Iris maybe? God, I'm so flower-challenged.)

Still

Still among the living, just busy and thanks to the fine New England monsoons we've been having daily, can't take worthwhile photos.

Tomorrow is the big family gathering. It's going to rain.

I'll check in later in the weekend.

Got any plans??

Charades

So what do you think is in my knitting bag these days?

Yeah, I'm sunk.
Sock one of Charade, from I May Be Knitting a Ranch House. (Does she still blog? I loved her stuff.) These are on size 1's, which I got FREE at SnB a couple of weeks ago (and the very same day that I went to 2 stores looking for size 1's. Strange, eh?)

Anyhow, Gale asked some New Haven SnB'ers to knit something for the upcoming AIDS Project New Haven Annual Gala and Auction. Somehow, I felt the need to knit a pair of socks. I think we're getting a few pairs together to be sold as a lot, but maybe I'm mistaken on that. lol.

I'm somewhat bored with this pattern already, perhaps because my mind is so cluttered with the 1000 other things I have to get done around here. I'm officially in my third (gulp) trimester and I have nothing accomplished regarding this kid.

We are also expecting guests tomorrow, in the middle of the week, and next Saturday, most of which haven't seen the new house and who I expect will want a tour of it. So copious amounts of cleaning have been going on.

Audi Love.

This is sitting in my garage. We brought her home yesterday.

Fast doesn't even begin to describe it. Seriously, I'm used to a V-6 Pontiac Grand Prix with a supercharger, and this thing BLOWS that car away. Hubs, who had the GP since his bachleor days, agrees. It wants to fly, but at the same time sticks to the road. It corners like nothing I've ever experienced before. And it looks adorable too.

I love this car. I tried really, really hard to hate it. In my mind I thought we'd get a cheaper new car, with some bells and whistles. This car is used, but has all the bells, whistles, and then some. It gets way better gas mileage that the new cars we test drove and it has TURBO! Best part, it was cheaper than the new cars that I was looking at and still has almost 30K left on the warranty. We got a crap financing rate, but Hubs made the point that he would be getting a commission check in August that would cover the cost of the car and we'd be able to pay off the loan then. (Gotta love sales.)

Unfortunately, I now have the task of calling the super-sweet Subaru dealer and telling her that I bought the Audi instead. I really connected with her (and the Impreza) but it wasn't the right one for me.

Should I buy blue aviator sunglasses and fingerless gloves to match?

(And funny story- it was about 9 pm last night and Hubs was sitting watching tv. He suddenly jumps up and says, "Hey, want some ice cream?" Um, yeah man. I'm pregnant. I never say no to the cream. Anyhow, he grabs MY keys and says, "I'll be taking the long way. Be back soon!" I think he likes the car too. lol)

Asphalt. (Image Heavy)

Last year I talked at length about my driveway. It was one of my favorite things about this house. For those who don't know, we live off the street several yards. You can't see the house from the road. I love the privacy. Anyways, our driveway was paved at the end (by the street) and in front of the house. The middle part was unpaved, a mix of dirt, rock and some brave shoots of grass and moss. Take note of the grassy hump in the middle of the driveway.

Last year I would love to walk down to the mailbox, breathing deep, taking my time. It was a 5 minute sanctuary in a day of 2 year old chaos.

In November, we hired a plow guy. Since we were new to the area and the place that the previous owners used had closed, we went with the guy that took over for that company.

We asked him to come out, since our driveway is a bit tricky. Reluctantly he came, gave us an estimate, we agreed on a price and trusted that he knew what the hell he was doing.

Well, he didn't.

Basically, with the first snowstorm (we got 16 inches, if I remember right) he came barreling down the drive, scraping everything in sight. (These photos were taken last week. We didn't take any in the winter, partly because there was constant snow/ice hiding the damage. Partly because it broke my heart knowing that my sanctuary was gone.)We didn't know it at the time, but he completely ruined our driveway. Notice the center "hump" is gone. Gone. The entire driveway was flat, large stones were thrown to each side so that Hubs couldn't mow without it being a danger to the mower and himself. I can't imagine what damage he did to is plow.

We noticed something was strange when we came home one day to find a stack of rocks in our driveway. Strange...

Then our neighbor across the street called to tell us that he basically ruined HIS snowblower from our rocks, which the idiot plow guy dug up and pushed into his driveway.

Sigh.

We went over the next day and shoveled all of the rocks into a wheel barrow and put them on our property.

But still, we felt like a-holes.

Anyways, with the continued beatings that the plow guy gave to the driveway each snow storm, we realized this spring that we'd have to do something about it.

We interviewed rock guys, asphalt guys, and landscapers. We went with the asphalt.

They started on Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon, we had a driveway!

It breaks my heart that I'll never be able to take the walks like last year, but the guys did a wonderful, professional job. I know in my heart that asphalt is safer for The Boy to play on (you have NO idea how many scrapes and boo-boos I treated last year from him falling on rocks.) Plus, now he can ride his big wheel all the way down to the mailbox.

Here's some shots:

This shot was taken after they graded it. It's more level and some of the larger rocks were removed.

During. They cut away part of the already paved area to filled it. It was cracked and crumbling from someone (cough, cough) driving off it. The big truck was full of ground up rock, concrete and dirt. I didn't take any other during shots. The beginning of the new asphalt and the bend:

Looking up towards the bend in the driveway. They widened that area by 4 feet so that delivery trucks had plenty of room. There was alot of damage done by them to this area. Hopefully this eliminates that.Looking down the driveway to the street.

They married up the new and old so well. Great job.

I'm looking to this as a positive thing, not because I have to, but because I want to. I'm looking forward to my walks to the mailbox on my asphalt driveway. I can't wait to smell that summer rainstorm smell.

And the plowguy? Yeah, he has no idea, but these photos are being sent to him and the Better Business Bureau. We probably could have sued him for the cost of the new driveway, but we just couldn't do it. I'm sure the damage done to his stuff was more than the driveway...

I'm No Stunt Woman.

So 2 nights ago I fell down our stairs. Part of me wonders how I lasted in this house almost a year without falling down (or up) the stairs before.

But anyways.

I ran up stairs to get a ball of yarn. As I was coming down I got lightheaded, tried to grab the bannister and down I slid.

The worst of the damage was to my shoulder. I tried breaking my fall by reaching my right hand behind me, but as I slid down the stairs the arm was pulled farther and farther back.

Hubs heard the fall, ran to see what had happened, but I was in so much pain that I couldn't talk. I felt like I had dislocated the shoulder and I just wanted to catch my breath.

After realizing that I was in one piece and that the baby was ok, he started asking me questions. I could make a fist, but my fingers were numb/tingling. I could move my elbow without issue, but couldn't move my shoulder without pain.

We got ice on the shoulder. I took 2 tylenols and after about an hour I knit.

It still hurts like hell. I've been doing stretches for the past 2 days, massaging the area a few times a day and trying to remember to take it easy.

It was scary though. Perhaps it's time to install an escalator?

I'm going to try to find time to post another interesting thing that's been going on in Castle Campbell. It involves many men, a few big trucks and lots of steamy asphalt.

More later!

For the Nay-Sayers Out There*

I present to you:

A pair of finished socks. That match. And don't suck.

I've come to the conclusion that I don't hate knitting socks. Perhaps I even found joy in making these. It was great to have them finished in under 2 weeks. I'm positive that it would have been sooner if it were just stockinette instead of cabled, but a quick knit, either way.

Perhaps...and I'm just saying perhaps...I might be winding another ball of sock yarn. Now, I'm not saying that I'm knitting socks again so soon, I just want it to be handy in case of an emergency.

*I know that you guys were just teasing and not really being mean. :) I like a little snark to my day. Feel free to bust my balls any day.

Mass Sheep and Wool

I've been waiting to post an outstanding photo of my new pair of socks. Unfortunately, I was rather green most of today so I didn't get to finish them. Yet.

That's right, a PAIR of socks. All ya'll askin' where the second sock was can bite it.

Tomorrow. Haha.

For today, I have Mass Sheep and Wool. I went Sunday with Baby Beth. We had a great time, she had no problem with me peeing or eating every 20 minutes (but not at the same time) and was happy to leave when I was.

It was quiet. It was weird being up there and having NO ONE around. Seriously. I joked with Beth that I felt like I should start throwing elbows at random people because typically at fiber shows to get close to most of the popular booths, sometimes you need to elbow in. (Oh, come on...like you don't do that!)

We also met up with Rebecca and her husband. He made a swift getaway and we shopped.

I bought some fiber, I'm a sucker for the non-mohair sparkly stuff and found some at one booth. Pretty. I also found cormo-soy silk blend. HEAVENLY!! I wanted to by every ounce in every color, but I've never spun it before and was a bit intimidated by it.

Cormo/Soy silk on left, Cormo/Angelina on right. Close in color, and super smooshy!

I got a set of stitch markers. They were a bit on the expensive side, but I have no problem paying for handmade things like this.

And the Leslie Wind needle. Sigh. I love this thing. Seriously, I want to wear it around my neck! It's THAT beautiful. I also asked her why she never makes smaller (like dime/nickel sized) round shawl pins. I'm small and the larger ones just overpower me, I think. She offered to sit and make a proto-type while I was at the fair. Whoa. How's that for customer service? I told her that I'd email her because I wasn't sure how long I'd be at the fair.

We came home in the nick of time. We drove through one hell of a rain storm and after we got home, the storms really fired up.

All in all, it was a good trip. I wish I brought my wheel (and Alice) but it was fun.

Tomorrow, more bragging about my socks!