I always knew I had more than one personality ;)

My faves are #1 and 12:

1. YOUR PORN STAR NAME: (Name of first pet / Street you live on):
Tammy Gaywood

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (Name of your favorite snack food / Grandfather's first name):
Cookie Gardiner

3. YOUR FASHION DESIGNER NAME: (First word you see on your left / Favorite restaurant):
August Jonathon

4. EXOTIC FOREIGNER ALIAS: (Favorite Spice [herb] / Last Foreign Vacation Spot):
Dill Poughkeepsie (I wish I had a foreign spot to put here...)

5. SOCIALITE ALIAS: (Silliest Childhood Nickname / Town Where You First Partied):
Shelby Geneseo

6. "FLY GIRL/BOY" ALIAS (a la J. Lo): (First Initial / First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name):
M. Ro

7. ICON ALIAS: (Something Sweet Within Sight / Any Liquid in Your Kitchen):
Apple Milk

8. DETECTIVE ALIAS: (Favorite Baby Animal / Where You Went to High School):
Kitten H. Falls

9. BARFLY ALIAS: (Last Snack Food You Ate / Your Favorite Alcoholic Drink):
Cookie Collins

10. SOAP OPERA ALIAS: (Middle Name / Street Where You First Lived):
Deane Rittenhouse (Pronounced deeANNE)

11. ROCK STAR ALIAS: (Favorite Candy / Last Name Of Favorite Musician):
Cadbury Yoakum

12. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: ( First 2 letters of your first name and the first 3 Letters from your last name makes your first name. Take the first 2 letters of your mother's maiden name and the first 3 letters of the city you were born in):
Miroh Miroc

I ♥ RAOK's!

Good morning everyone--I hope you all had a pleasant (holiday) weekend. I will tell you about mine in another post. I want to use this posting to express my gratitude to my friends at Crochetville that have sent me Random Act Of Kindness packages. They give me warm fuzzies when I open my mailbox and see them in there, and then again as I read and/or open the item. Here are my recent gifts--pls. click the images to see them better:

Stitch markers from an Austrailian fairy godmother--thank you Bec!!


A cool flower hook from Rebecca V.. Thank you Rebecca, I love this hook--it's beautiful!


More postcards!


A postcard from a fairy godmother in the Adirondaks, Thank you!







I have 4 RAOK packages ready to go, now, and just have to get to the post office....it feels wonderful to return the happy thoughts to others!

Just the Same Old Stuff

This is pretty neat...click it to make one of your own:

Honestly, I have been too lazy to blog lately. I can't blame anything else--well, my home pc did die, not that I ever blogged much from home--work's been not super crazy, and I have spent more time than normal lately on the new Crochetville forum. Oh yeah! I have started working on a [nonfiction] book while I'm at work (that's what my "down" time has been going to lately). It has to do with children's books, but that's all I can say right now, other than I had a manic day last Monday and blasted out a 12 page outline for it.... I sincerely hope that a) I keep on working on it and it doesn't become another of my passing fancies, and b) that someone somewhere would want to publish it.

Terry Schiavo discussion below--stop reading if you don't want to know how I feel about it. Here are two quotes that I found interesting, relevant, and very true (IMO) regarding the whole Schiavo case:

Allan Lichtman, who chairs the history department at American University in Washington, said the intervention of Congress and Bush to try to overturn the decision by Schiavo's husband not to prolong her life is the antithesis of several conservative principles.

"It contradicts a lot of what those behind it say they believe: the sanctity of the family, the sacred bond between husband and wife, the ability of all of us to make private decisions without the hand of government intervening, deference to states and localities as opposed to the centralized government," said Lichtman.
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Julian E. Zelizer, a Boston University history professor who specializes in congressional trends, said a conservative Republican movement that "built itself in the 1970s around attacking government has become the party of big government since 2000."

"Starting with the war against terrorism and climaxing with Congress intervening in this case, we see a GOP that is quite comfortable flexing the muscle of Washington, and a Democratic Party which is increasingly finding itself in favor of limiting government," Zelizer said.

No need to comment if you disagree [actually I just turned comments off--I don't need the debate].

That's all for now, gotta cram some stuff in the next ½ hour of work.....

A Mixed Bag

Hi readers, thanks for sticking with me and bolstering me with comments!

Today's offering is kind of a hodge podge of topics, starting with my works in progress:

Sunshine Lace afghan
Poncho sweater for Emma (I made one of these for Holly, and it is AWESOME!!)
Flowers
A sweater for me
A softie
Redwork turkey

I solemnly swear to post pictures more often, especially now that Tim got a new pc with a drive right in the harddrive for a camera card. Ü

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As you know, I've been eating better (well, mostly) foods and less processed ("faux") foods. One thing I have swapped in my fridge is real butter for the margerine "spread." The only thing that I don't like about butter is that the sticks are so hard, and it's basically unspreadable. Well, for part of my birthday present, Tim bought me a Butter Bell. This thing is awesome. Now we can keep the butter out of the fridge safely, as it is stored in an airtight seal made with water. Love it!

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I found this really cool link for readers: Dear Reader. You sign up for the genre of book you are interested in, and then every morning they'll send you a portion of a book in your email. After five days they start sending a new book--you'll have to go to the library or a bookstore to get the rest of the book if you liked it. Cool! Now I will read at work!

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My last link for today has to do with my other vice (aside from cookies, that is)--Diet Pepsi. Now I can find out exactly how much of it I'd have to drink (in one sitting?), for it to kill me. Check it out with your favorite soda!

The Only Therapy I Can Do Right Now

As seems to be the norm for bloggers around their one year mark, I am going thru a phase of, "Why am I doing this blog?" I am generally a private person, and would be mortified if some of my "inner circle" (in the Michelle-centric universe, lol) read it. But, then I thought two things: maybe it can be a way for me to start to "open up" to closer family and friends, and also, it's kind of like therapy, but for free. I think keeping the blog is a good thing, and I will continue with it.

Sometimes it is hard, though, to go to blogs of people I read regularly and see that they don't or no longer read mine. Why? Not enough of the content they want? Did I piss them off? Wrong politics? Try as I might, it still stings some, even though in all likelihood it's not anything personal. There's no way I can write about crochet exclusively here, as I don't get that much time to either crochet or write. What I write is done at work ;o) and I don't have access to my crochet stuff.

I am also dealing with something that I hesitate to bring up here for fear of losing more readers or angering them. I am ****SO*** jealous of the stay-at-home moms/wives that get to crochet and parent and work in their homes all day. The topic upsets me inside. Please don't delete me from your bloglines just because I said this. It is nothing personal to any of you--in fact, I truly consider you closer friends than most of my coworkers. I am just very jealous of your positions, I'm sorry. Sigh.

Well, for now I leave you with a quote I ran across this morning. It immediately made me think of cookies, my personal drug of choice:

"I just need enough to tide me over until I need more." --Bill Hoest

p.s., It is cracking me up how yarn manufacturers are scrambling to make poncho patterns like Martha's "coming home from the slammer" number. If she jumped off a bridge, would people do that too?

Awesome, But Non-Crochet, Post

For those of you who don't know, Heather is a woman living in Utah that started a blog several years ago, blogged about hew workplace and co-workers (without mentioning any names), and got fired for it. There's been many recent news stories about this occurance, and she usually is featured as the main example. There is also a new "word" for the act of getting fired because of your blog: dooced.

Over the past 2 years, Heather and her husband have had a baby girl, Leta, and her blog mainly focuses on their parenting experiences now (which are abso-freakin-lutely hilarious, btw). If you ever have a couple free days, start way back at the beginning of her blog and read up til now. I promise you, you will laugh your ass off. The woman's a great writer.

The most recent post on her blog is noteworthy, check it out here. It goes back to the subject of her blog-firing, and features a comment by a male mysogonistic moron that leaves his name and company name and email. Hard to believe people are so dumb, especially in management positions, lol. As Heather closes with,

Just think, one of the biggest consulting companies in the world harboring someone who would send out an email WITH HIS NAME ON IT including the words, “Find that your being a woman makes you a liability in the work force to an employer, typically.”

The Internet is a bitch, no, Matt?

Bo Rocks!

I really like Bo. He better be safe on Wednesday. He's my favorite of all the contestants, male and female. Plus, last night he sung an Edwin McCain song, "I'll Be." I love Edwin, his "I Could Not Ask For More" is Tim's and my wedding song. Anwar's also awesome; he's my second choice for best voice. And something about the long hair maybe, lol??

Phew!

What a weekend it was. Full of birthdays (Tim's and Emma's) and visitors (Tim's mom). And potty training.

I'll start at the beginning. Friday, Tim's mom arrived for a visit from Poughkeepsie, Tim's hometown. She stays with us on the living room couch. Of course Tim had to work Friday night, which left me and Emma, Holly, and Ryan to bond with her. We watched a tape of Supernanny (another fantastic parenting show), and there's a book out by the woman too. Tim's birthday was this day, too, but we didn't really celebrate it til Sunday, family party night.

Saturday was Emma's birthday. I cannot believe I am old enough to have an ELEVEN year old daughter. It seems like just yesterday that I was smacked out at the hospital after 20+ hours of labor with her. At hour 19 they decided to do a c-section so she could make her entrance in the world. (At that point, I was really up for ANY way to get her out--"Pull her through my eyeball? Sure, that'll be fine....") I digress.

For Emma's party (because without a party she'd simply die from lack of attention--NOT), her dad and I took her and three of her friends out to Pizza Hut and then to a movie,Because of Winn-Dixie. We had a great time, and the movie is excellent. Read the book with, then go see it. It is, caveat, a slower paced movie with alot of depth to it. Deep for a 11 year old, it discusses how life is a mixture of the sweet and the sad, and that sometimes people have troubles and difficulties. It's very real.

Sunday was "family party" day. Tim's mom left to drive back home around noon. Then my parents, Rick (Emma's dad), and me, Tim, Holly, Ryan, and Emma had ice cream cake, and Tim and Emma opened presents. There were alot of those squooshy pillows for Emma, and candles and gift certificates for Tim.

In the midst of all these happenings, wouldn't you know it, but Holly decides to use undies and the potty. We've been trying various things/methods for the past year (plus), but Saturday she decides she wants to wear undies instead of diapers. Sunday she peed in the potty 3 times, and had 1 accident. Today she's had 3 accidents and has gone once in the potty. We are bribing her with chocolate, and the spectacle of Tim and I performing a kickline singing, "You went peepee in the potty! Peepee in the potty!" It seems to be working!

I am still hanging in there with the French "diet." I have been struggling with not snacking, but have (I think) managed to cut down some portion sizes, eat in mini-courses (sometimes), and decreased the amount of artificial foods I eat. I can't seem to totally kick my cookie habit, and I don't think I'll ever be able to stop drinking diet soda, but I have upped my water intake and *sniff* decreased my cookie intake. I lost 2 pounds very quickly, about a month ago, but nothing since then. I just have to keep at it and not give up.

More updates later, crochet pictures included....

Frostsicle

They named him "Frostsicle."  He's got a broccoli nose, since we had no carrots.




This photo is actually from over a week ago. We've had 10+ inches in the last 36 hours. Oy.

I have been kind of depressed and overwhelmed lately. I have done lots of crocheting, but I have also been an anxiety-ridden, moping, pouting, bitching, and raving person. A bit manic depressive, I suppose, which would not be too out of character for me, unfortunately. I have been on Prozac for almost 15 years, but of course it doesn't solve any problems. I have no idea how Tim stands to live with me.....

October through March are way too busy for me. It is a nonstop happy hell of Halloween, birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthday, birthday, birthday, birthday, birthday, birthday, birthday. It exhausts me totally no matter how hard I try to prepare in advance for it. The whole kid birthday party thing is annoying and expensive as hell. Especially when you are trying to plan it with an ex- and a 10 y.o. that doesn't remember anything she doesn't want to hear.

Here is my Thread CAL entry, which I gave to my sister as part of her birthday present:




And here is a RAOK angel package that I wrote about a week or so ago:




More about my imperfections on a later post...