Wow, that was fast

I had a really hard time getting to sleep last night; so I finished my first mitten! I LOVE it and it fits beautifully; I'm going to CO for the other one later today! I'm still unable to upload pictures from my camera, but I'll try to work out a way to get some up here (maybe a digital-camera-owning-relative will take pity on me).

Last night I got an email from one of my gluten-free newsletter groups telling me there is a new Yahoo! group called UtahSillyYaks!! Fabulous bunch, I can't wait to interact more with them; it's nice to get in with a local group. Not only do you get recipe ideas, you also get local restaurant reviews and tips on where to shop from people with a lot more experience than you!

I also came across The Silly-Yak Shirt Company (not affiliated with the group above, they kindly allowed the Yahoo! group to use their name). I love the tshirt that says "wheat sucks" :oD They also have a fantastic link page with a TON of awesome information/helpful sites.

And you know those yellow rubber bracelets everybody was wearing for awhile?? Well now there's green ones to promote Celiac awareness! Nifty :o)

Knitting Update

I've finished "re-knitting" the cuffs and button band on my cardigan! I was going to block it yesterday, but I'm chicken. I've never blocked an entire assembled sweater before and am not quite sure how to go about it. When I block it I'll be stretching/lengthening it a bit; up to this point, my stripes have matched up and been fairly straight but I'm paranoid that when I do block it, it'll go a bit funky. It wouldn't bother me too much but it'd be nice if I could make them match you know?

I've CO with the real yarn for my mittens!! Yay!! My tension is much better now and I'm quite pleased with the way they're turning out :o) I'm about 1/3 through the left mitten (in case you need a refresher, here's the pair I'm doing).

My shawl and I haven't spoken for a few days, I'm starting to grow weary of this project. Every time I work on it I have to tink or rip back, it's amazing I've made any progress at all! I'm excited to finish, but I want the magic knitting fairy to come speed things along for me :o)

Bridal Shower Fun

Friday I went to a Bridal Shower for my cousin; we'll call her Cousin Italy (Italy is one of her passions; she's been there several times, just for fun, and her entire condo is Italian themed).

I usually enjoy these things, but this time I just didn't want to go. For every other bridal shower we all work together and tie a quilt during the party but this time my Aunt Peacemaker thought it would be fun if we painted dish towels instead so she just did the quilt. I really missed the quilt, this was the first bridal shower I can remember that we didn't tie a quilt. When I was little, I'd help Mum by sitting under the quilt, pulling the needle down, and pushing it back up to her and when I was about 9 Aunt Peacemaker taught me how to do it myself.

Mum was over the dish towel thing so I was nominated to stitch a decorative border around all of them. However, I didn't know this till 2 days before the event. The dish towels were on the large side and each one took 30-45 minutes (and that's with the machine going full throttle)!! My (ok, it's really Mum's sewing machine, but I call it mine) machine was also having tantrums and I ended up fighting with it and lost quite a few rounds.* I managed to finish in time but was sewing right up to the last minute before we had to leave to go to said event. Mum ironed on some vintage days-of-the-week designs (you know, each one had a different day on it with some flowers or something) and at the party we were supposed to color them. Mum tried to get some sort of special paint pens but was unsuccessful so we used Sharpies instead. The upside of this is Mum bought the hugest Sharpie pack I have ever seen and now we have ever color of Sharpie ever made, in regular and fine tip (yay!! I love Sharpies!!)! It also came with some 'clicky' Sharpies (like click pens but it's a Sharpie) and some metallic silver ones.

At the actual party I worked on my shawl, avoided coloring dish towels (I had already spent enough quality time with them while sewing the borders), and helped the groom-to-be figure out his new digital camera. Yes, at the bridal showers Mum's family throws, we invite the groom too. It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be; I was able to actually eat some of the refreshments, wasn't too intensely grilled by other family members, and being a bit of a technology geek I very much enjoyed figuring out groom-to-be's camera (sorry I don't yet know him well enough to give him a blog name).

Something else we always do is play "The Cookie Game". Mum and I get to think up a bunch of random questions (we usually aim for 50-60) to ask the groom-to-be. We call him up ahead of time and ask said questions; then at the party we ask the bride-to-be the same questions and see if she can guess what the groom answered. If she gets it right, she gets a cookie to put in her new cookie jar; if she gets it wrong, the person who asked the question get to keep the cookie (we individually wrap each cookie and attach a question to each one, everybody at the shower asks a few).

Just because I feel like it, here's a sample of our favorite questions with my answers:

• When dressing, do you put on your pants or shirt first?: Pants
• When licking an envelope, do you lick from left to right, right to left, or another way?: I usually ask someone else to do it for me or use a sponge (gluten hides in envelope glue, it would make me ill to lick it myself)
• If you were an animal, what kind would you be?:** A cat of somekind
• When brushing your teeth, where do you start?: Back teeth, usually the right side
• Does the end of the toilet paper go over or under the roll?: I really don't care, but I usually put it under; if I don't, my cat likes to unroll the whole thing
• What color should socks be?: Argyle!!
• Concerning pens, what color ink do you prefer? Blue, black, or another color?: I like red, or green, or maybe purple. I guess I just like pens that aren't a "normal" color.
• When taking off your shoes, do you untie them first or just pull them off?: Just pull them off
• Do you prefer butter or margarine?: Unsalted butter please
• If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do with your winnings?: Finish paying for my violin and pamper it (it needs new varnish, a good cleaning, new strings, a check up, and I want to get the finger board/pegs replaced. They don't need replacing but it'd be cool of they matched my chin rest)
• How many 1st cousins do you have?:*** 53 (no I'm not kidding, I counted)
• How many Aunts and Uncles do you have?:*** 26 (this includes spouses of the "original" Aunts and Uncles)
• What kind of chocolate do you prefer? Dark, milk, or white?: Dark, around 70% is perfect
• When relaxing at home, what do you have on your feet? Socks, slippers, nothing, something else?: Usually nothing; unless I was wearing shoes earlier that day, then I wear socks (I always take off my shoes but sometimes I'm too lazy to take the socks off too)

*When I won, I was able to go on sewing. When the machine won, I'd have to either stop and re-thread it or stop and unpick a few inches of stitching.
**The actual question we ask is 'If you and [insert brides name here] were both animals, what would you be?
***We also ask 'How many 1st cousins/Aunts and Uncles do you think [insert brides name here] has? Also, please keep in mind that these numbers include both sides of the family.

It's been a week?!?

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a week. It seems like I just blogged yesterday, weird.

For the past couple of days I've been cleaning up toilet paper. Sister, and her girl friends, started a toilet papering war. Last week they got all their guy friends and a couple people from church but now it's payback time. In our front yard we have a couple of tall trees...they got the very top of all of them. I have never seen such a magnificently toilet papered house, it almost looked like it had snowed! We've all spent a lot of time climbing trees and ladders but still can't quite get all of it. It's raining right now, hopefully that'll help.


I've re-knit the cuffs on my cardigan!! I'm going to block them/re-block the body of the cardigan later today. I'm hoping to finish with all the re-knitting this week but we'll see.


*sigh* It's entirly possible that I'll be unable to attend Tuesday night S'n'B anymore :o( My Tuesday nights are threatening to fill up again; I'm trying to work it out, but I'm not sure if it's possible.


My insomnia is starting to get worse...again. For awhile I was able to get about 6-7 hours of sleep, now I'm averaging at 3-4. I've usually been able to cope fairly well; but this time I'm really starting to feel it, I'm so tired.

What to do??

So I'm finally feeling motivated to fix my cardigan. However, I have no idea what is the best way to go about it. I wish I lived next door to a knitter (well, ok, I do live next to a knitter; but she only makes dishcloths. No, really, that's all she's ever knit or had the desire to knit). And I wish my lap top was up and running because then I could upload pictures so you could all tell me what I should do....

I can't make it to S'n'B this Saturday, maybe I'll have to wait till Tuesday's meeting. *sigh* Till then, here's a description of what's wrong. Maybe somebody will know what I'm talking about and have some ideas:

1) It's too short. I'm thinking that I can block it again and get a bit more length out of it but should I "un-seam" it first?? I guess I could pick up stitches from the bottom and add a stripe, but it's only about 2 inches too short. Also, if I wanted to add a stripe I'd need to rip out the button band first (which I might do anyways, see #2).

2) The button band ruffles. I used the same size needles for the button band as the body of the sweater; maybe I should rip it out and use a size or two smaller? Or perhaps I bound off too loose?? Part of me thinks this might also be something that blocking could fix but then the button holes (which are already too big) would get bigger.

3)I changed colors on the wrong side for the collar. I was trying to be all tricky and knit the first row of the new color and then continue with 2x2 rib (which really does work, it's soo cool!!) but the way the collar sits when I actually put the sweater on makes it really visible. In order to rip the collar out and fix it though I'd have to first rip out the button band. I think if I block it again and make it sit right I could live with it; but if I'm going to be ripping out the button band anyways I might as well right?!?

4)I completely screwed up the cuffs. I love really long sleeves. So I was thinking I wouldn't need to fold them back; I was wrong. I changed colors on the wrong side (again doing the tricky 2x2 rib thing) and when I seamed them I didn't do as the pattern suggested (seaming the cuff on the other side so you don't see it when you fold them back) I just seamed the entire sleeve the same way. They're knit starting at the cuff but they really bother me so I'm thinking I'll undo my CO edge and rip out the first 2 or 3 stripes.

I have no idea where to start. If it helps, I used Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks and the pattern is Sesame from MagKnits.



It'll probably be another couple of weeks before I can get a new hard drive for my lap top. There's a slight possibility that it's still under the manufacturer's warranty (rather then the warranty from the bloke that sold it to me). I've been investigating that but as of today have not been very successful. If it isn't, Daddy thinks I should just spring for a better hard drive but it would be about 3 times the money and I'm kinda broke right now.


I'm making fabulous progress on my shawl! I've just passed the half-way point (yay!)!! The way it's constructed is: you knit one half, do it again, and then graft them together. So I've finished one half and have (barely) started on the other.


My mittens have been neglected. I need to sort out my tension problems (I keep pulling too tight, grrr). After I have that worked out, or at least better, I'll CO with the real yarn :o)

Catching Up

As promised, here are pictures of my finished socks (sorry about the weird angle, it's hard to take a good picture of your own feet. I swear I'm really wearing both of them) and boogie time:




I picked the wrong style of watchface for boogie time. It was a huge pain to stitch it on (I ended up making a needle out of floral wire to pull the yarn around the bar; had to make a new one almost every single time) but I really liked this one and am very pleased with the results. With my luck, I bet the battery will die before the year is out and I'll have to do it all over again to replace it :oP


I'm starting a new project!! It's the Lapland mittens from Folk Mittens. This is my first stranded color project so at the moment I'm practicing with some cheap acrylic. I'll be making them with some Lion Wool that David gave to me (poor guy just broke his wrist and won't be knitting for awhile) in red, white, and (darker) blue.



And finally here's an 8-strand hollow braid I've been messing about with:



As it's a hollow braid, you need to use a core to get proper tension (well, in theory anyway; my tension is a bit wonky). For my core, I'm using a 3-strand braid of jute, and I'm braiding with embroidery floss. I'm using the card method and a pattern from Braids: 250 Patterns from Japan, Peru & Beyond. I have absolutely no idea what I'll do with it when I'm done; right now I'm just enjoying making it :o)

Lake Alice Pictures...again

Now it's time for pictures of the lake, yay!!


This is the first view you get of Lake Alice as you come up the trail. Oh, the guy on the right? That's Daddy :o)


As you walk around the lake you see that it just keeps going. Daddy and I tried to hike all the way around it but stopped and turned back when we had been walking for about 5 hours (his estimate, I would've said 4) and probably only reached the halfway point. We'd turn a corner and the lake kept going! Turn another corner, same thing! It was crazy!!


Here's a shot of the lake right before we turned around. The lake curved around the mountains and created a lot of little bays like this one. The trail we took went (obviously) quite a bit higher then the lake, I love seeing the different colors where the water gets deeper :o)


Something interesting that happened after the dreaded reunion: I was at my local library, there's a shelf that has a bunch of old books, CDs and such for sale. I usually take a quick glance just in case there's something good and I found the coolest book! It's called When Difficult Relatives Happen to Good People!! It's a very interesting read, I wanted to take it with me when I went to the good reunion because I wasn't finished reading it (still not finished either) but I didn't. I was a bit worried that they might all get the wrong idea :o) I wish I had found this book before the dreaded reunion!!

One of the "exercises" the author recommends is writing a "Thank you for being so Unpleasant card". You do not send it to the person (the author stresses this several times) but you basically write them note thanking them for being such a good example of what you don't want to be like :o) So, in honor of Cousin Hate-his-guts's visit (he and Uncle Rubiks are coming to visit this Saturday, I'm planning to leave home as early as possible and be out the entire day), I've decided to write one!!

Dear Cousin Hate-His-Guts,
Thank you for being you. You have been such a perfect example of what I don't want to be like. You illustrate so clearly how I should treat people if I want them to all hate me. Because of the time I've spent with you I have learned to think before I speak, not say every thought in my head, chew with my mouth closed, and respect other people's property. I will always remember you in my heart and utilize your valuable example for the rest of my life.

Cheers, Jess

Lake Alice Pictures

Here are some pictures from the dreaded reunion (part 1, part 2). All of the pictures get bigger if you click on them.


Our camp site - on the left you can kinda see the fire pit (it's the pile of rocks next to the log), the big blue thing is a mesh shade (it was so nice to sit in there and knit, it was a lot cooler and it has mesh walls that kept the flies out :o) Brother has dubbed it "The Death Star"), in "The Death Star" is our picnic table, through "The Death Star" you can kinda see our tent, and that's the car Grandpa let us borrow while he fixed our car (Grandpa fixing our car and lending us this one was one of the reasons Daddy felt guilty for considering not going)



These are from the hike to Lake Alice. In the first one you can see how green it was, and in the second you see one of the rocks slides (Lake Alice was formed thousands of years ago when a HUGE landslide fell into the river; Supposedly it was named after a girl that drowned here in 1900).

On the hike Daddy and I took around the lake, we saw this amazing dead tree. I love the twist of the roots (you must click on this picture, it looks so much better when it's bigger)!


Blogger won't let me put all my pictures in one post (I usually link directly to photobucket but I'm having trouble editing/resizing pictures without the software on my lap top and blogger resizes automatically so I'm uploading them here; I guess they have a limit for each post) so I'll post a few more picture in a couple of minutes. I know, it's a lot of pictures, but you haven't even seen the lake yet!!

The "good" reunion

As the good family reunion didn't have anywhere near as much drama, and was two days shorter, I have considerably less entertaining material to work with. So I'd like to apologize in advance for the relative dullness of this post. It's also kinda long.....opps.


Day 1 - Thursday
We (my family and I, with the exception of Sister, who stayed home with a friend because she wanted to go to a church activity instead) of course didn't leave home till much later then planned but we managed to arrive before dark and just in time for dinner. I couldn't eat most of what was served (for dinner everybody brings something and we all share) but Mum made some excellent chicken salad and somebody brought a bunch of fresh fruit. Ooo and I roasted some coconut marshmallows, mmmmmm they're regular marshmallows covered in shredded coconut; soooooo good!!

After dinner Daddy and I set up the tent and figured out where everybody was going to sleep and I approached Aunt Crafty about teaching me to tat in the morning to which she happily agreed (yay!!). We all sat around the campfire and chatted (I worked on a sample of an 8-strand braid I've been messing around with); at about 1 I went to sleep.

The place we pitched our tent was quite close to the creek and the sound of the water kept me awake for most of the night till I got out my CD player (Sting - Mercury Falling; if you must know) though I still didn't sleep very well.


Day 2 - Friday
I woke up at 5:30 and laid in my sleeping bag enjoying being warm (it wasn't too cold but I was feeling all warm and snuggly in my sleeping bag). I finally got out of bed around 6-6:30 and sat by the fire to watch my Uncles make breakfast.

Cooking is something Mum's side of the family loves and does really well. They especially love Dutch oven cooking and do a lot of it when camping. Our traditional breakfast is called "Mountain Man Breakfast". It's comprised mostly of eggs but also has a lot of cheese, bacon, potatoes, onions, sausage, and peppers. I wasn't sure if it would be gluten-free* or not but I didn't care; you cannot go camping with that side of the family and not eat "Mountain Man Breakfast", it just doesn't work. At times, it's almost like eating "Mountain Man Breakfast" is the reason people come to the reunion, it's that good. My Uncles also love making Dutch oven cobbler. On the first night at dinner they made apple cobbler and peach cobbler....I couldn't have any. *sob*

Anyways; so I watched them make breakfast. Like I said, we had "Mountain Man Breakfast"; we also had fruit and pancakes. Uncle Hot-Cakes always make the pancakes and when he's ready to serve them he says (at the top of his voice, which is considerably loud) "HOT cakes!! Come and get your HOT cakes!!". He does it every year and Cousin Runs-a-lot (his daughter) says he never makes pancakes at home, but he sure loves making them at our family reunion :o) When we were at the dreaded reunion we also had pancakes for breakfast but brother (keep in mind that he's only 5 years old) was so confused; he kept telling me that they forgot to say "HOT cakes!!" heehee :o) Uncle Hot-Cakes was also feeling a bit silly; every time Aunt Cleans-a-lot (his wife) would walk by he'd shout "HOT wife!!" :oD

After breakfast Aunt Crafty started teaching me to tat. She's attempted teaching me a few other times but I never really caught on till now. It only took maybe an hour till she was confident I could do it by myself (success at last!!)!! Over the next couple of hours I worked at it and slowly improved; I had to run and find her about every 10-20 minutes to ask if I was doing something right or have her remind me how to do it properly. She'd patiently show me how to do it/answer my question and watch me for a minute or two to make sure I understood.

This year it was Uncle Techno's turn to plan the reunion and he brought a couple of activities for the kids to do. They did something called "diving for dollars"; there was a big pile of sawdust that had about $10 in change hidden in it and on "GO" all the kids dove in and started looking for money. I don't think they found all of it; after awhile they got bored collecting dimes, nickels, and pennies and just started having a sawdust fight :o) Uncle Techno also brought a candy gun (it's like a mini cannon). You stuff it with candy, light the fuse, and it shoots it's contents into the air so when it all comes down it's raining candy (every child's dream)!! We shot it off twice but then someone from the host campground came and informed us that it was illegal and if we did it again she would call the police.

Another thing we always do is jigsaw puzzles. This year we only did one (we usually do 2-4) but it was pretty big. It had a bunch of Looney Toons characters all over it! I worked on that off and on through the day, alternating between that and working on my shawl (which I finally figured out where I made a mistake, the last time I had to rip back I didn't put my stitch markers in the right place so I only thought I was missing a stitch).

I also took a short walk so I could take a few pictures. We go to this same camp site almost every year so I revisited all the places I used to play as a kid. At one point by the creek there's a wooden bridge that I liked to play under. We (meaning the cousins around my age and I) used to find the coolest pebbles there (lots of different colors!) and trade them, or pretend they were money for other games. We also used to try to build a dam; it never worked but we had a great time getting extremely wet and muddy :o) There's a campsite with a cement platform to put your tent on (which I never understood, wouldn't you want to stake it down??) and we'd pretend it was a stage and make up plays or have talent shows. And there's a volley ball court that has a mix of sand and dirt that was perfect for sand castles and mud pies (or just getting extremely muddy, which we always liked to do). If you walk up stream in the creek, there's a little island made of small rocks and pebbles that was our "raft" as we "sailed down the river". And there used to be a tree that fell down across the creek that made a great log bridge (We'd pretend it was suspended over a huge ravine and we had to get across as fast as we could because there was a bear chasing us, I was never the fastest one but I was in the top 5).

That night I had Dutch oven potatoes (cubed and roasted with bacon, mmmm), bean salad, fruit, and cooked vegetables (cabbage, and cauliflower). There was also potato salad, some sausages (I had a bite of Daddy's; a bit disappointing as it was more like a hot dog :oP), chocolate chip cookies, some jello fruity stuff, and cake. My Uncles also "Dutch ovened" more cobbler (chocolate cherry, my favorite), turkey, baked beans, and some pork but I wasn't sure if they were safe :o(

After dinner we sat around the fire and sang. I've always hated singing by the fire (we never sing anything good) but it means a lot to my Grandmother so I do it anyways. Music is one of the only things my Grandmother responds to anymore; she has dementia. She doesn't know my name anymore, and the only conversation that goes on is her telling you how much she loves you and her family (I love my family, I love you love you love you, I love all my children and grandchildren, etc.). Last time I saw her she still knew my name....It was a huge shock when she didn't know it (she still knows I'm her granddaughter though). It's been so hard watching her get worse and worse. We used to be very close.

After most everybody went to sleep (around 11), Cousin Runs-a-lot and I went up to the (paved) parking lot, laid down in the middle of it, and watched the stars. I am very much a city girl. But the one thing I always miss is the stars. I think we laid there in the middle of the lot for 3 hours. We talked and swapped jokes/corny pickup lines :o) Then we sat against a car and talked some more. I don't think I went to bed till around 5.


Day 3 - Saturday
I woke up at 6 and enjoyed being warm again :o) We had "Mountain Man Breakfast" again :o)

After breakfast everybody started packing up; around 10 we had a family meeting where we tried to work out a schedule for us to help give Grandpa a break from taking care of Grandma. When you hear the same comment (I love you) every 5 minutes it starts to wear you down. Grandpa never gets any time to himself because Grandma just follows him around asking what he's doing/what he'd like her to do. The idea is, each family would have a week where they would do a couple of activities with Grandma so Grandpa can have some time to himself and do things he enjoys. I always feel bad talking about someone in front of them; Grandma didn't know or understand what we were talking about, and even if she did she wouldn't remember it 5 minutes from now, but it still felt really awkward/rude discussing this stuff with her sitting right there.

Around 1 we finished packing up and started for home. I tatted and listened to music on the way home (Bright Eyes, Natasha Bedingfield, Eminem, fan_3, and Snoop Dogg). When we got home I promptly took a shower. It feels good to be clean again :o)

So all in all I guess it sounds like it was a bit on the boring side (esp. when you compare it to the dreaded reunion) but I really did have a blast! It was smaller this year, not as many people were able to make it. When I was young(er) I always had lots of cousins to play with but now they're all married and wrapped up in their own lives/families. Which is how it should be, I believe that once you bring a child into this world, they should be receiving most of your attention; but I missed having them all there. Cousin Runs-a-lot is a lot of fun, but it's just not the same; I don't think we would've spent as much time together if Sister had come(they're the same age and best friends). And I don't mean to imply that I was glad Sister didn't come, she's gets really hyper at night and it would've been more fun to have her there as we swapped jokes in the parking lot :o)





*My gluten-free worries were not about the ingredients, but about the cookware. Sometimes residual traces of gluten can be found on certain kinds of cookware that have been previously used to make something containing gluten.

Back home and tatting!!

I'm really doing it!! Aunt Crafty has finally succeeded in teaching me to tat (go here if you don't know what I'm talking about)!! Right now I'm just working on a sample so I can work on my technique and even out my tension. In some places it's a bit wonky (like when I skipped 4 stitches) but I'm getting better :o) It still feels really awkward but I guess that's to be expected when you try something new; still, I hope I get a better hold on it soon.

Aunt Crafty recently started tatting little hand bags and said she'd show me how when I'm ready (I've got to make a few little projects first)!! I'm not sure I'd ever use one as they're meant to be evening bags and pretty much just hold your phone, keys, and credit card (where will I put my knitting!?). But the idea of making something so elegant/delicate makes me want to at least attempt it.

I'll update more about the "good" reunion tomorrow; right now I'm going to bed (last night I was too busy looking at the stars to sleep).

Good Night

Life Line

Life lines are a beautiful thing. There I was working on my shawl when Aunt Gossip comes over and asks me what I'm working on. I tell her about it and she asks to see it. I carefully move all the stitches to the cable part of my needle, hoping to avoid any dropping of stitches, and let her take a look. She somehow managed to drop like, 10 stitches. I tried to fix it but it was hopeless, I ended up ripping back to my last life line (about 14 rows back!). I'm back at the point before I had to rip back (the red arrow is where I ripped too) but I think I made another mistake, I'm missing a stitch :o(


You can't see my life lines but trust me, they're there. I'm using a dark thread and it kinda blend in with the background.


Today I'm leaving for the "good" family reunion so no updates for a couple of days (I'll be back Saturday evening). My Aunt Crafty is going to (try again) teach me how to tat!! Hopefully it'll click this time around :o)

Have a good weekend everybody!!

Bad Mood

I'm still in a bad mood so if you don't want to hear more ranting than stop reading now.


I wish my crazy relatives were a bit more dependable. Like when they say "we'll be there around 7am" they should arrive at about 7!! Yes, I'm glad they're not here yet, but we all woke up at 6 so we could get the house at least somewhat straightened and I for one would've really enjoyed a bit more sleep.

I don't mind Uncle Rubiks; he accepts me for who I am and likes to do puzzles with me (I've given him the blog name "Uncle Rubiks" because he taught me how to solve a Rubik's cube....I can't remember all the moves now; maybe I can convince him to give me a refresher course). He's a bit of a pessimist but I can handle that.

Aunt Gossip on the other hand I don't really like being around. It was a toss up between blog naming her Gossip or Shopping. That's all she finds joy in; gossiping and shopping. She likes to buy me stuff but unless I can get her over to the bead store it's usually jewelry/shoes/makeup that I would never use or even like. It's always given me the impression that she's trying to "doll me up" or turn me into something I'm not (girly). And if she's not buying something she's taking Mum and Daddy out to dinner or whatever and expects me to drop everything and take charge of Baby Sister and Brother. Even if I find a way to get out of it she spends the rest of her visit making me feel guilty. She had better not do that this time; I didn't go to S'n'B last week, there is no way I'm missing this week too.

And I feel sick again. I think it was something I ate at the neighbors last night (how on earth can gluten hide in fresh green beans, corn on the cob, and a plain baked potato?!?).

I need to go knit. Knitting always helps.