Monday, December 22, 2008

Winter break,and a cd giveaway

This is one of the biggest reasons that I work in a school. We always have 10 days off at Christmas, and sometimes we have two whole weeks. This is one of those times.

I've been lazing, sleeping late (although not well at night, in spite of--or maybe because of--the ambien), staying up relatively late for the working me, not the nighttime me that I used to be. I actually watched tv--and knit--till 1:30 Saturday night. It was heavenly.

I knit a hat for my nephew for Christmas; plenty of free yarn from Claudia back when I worked there, and it's coming in handy now. Tom would roll his eyes when I'd drag in another bag or two of yarn back then, but see? I'm using it, Tom, sweetie, it's not costing us anything, and I can make nice warm gifts for Christmas. I don't know how the recipients will like their hats and scarves in place of money or a year of XM radio, like in the past, but that's the past, and this is now.

I started a Fingering 55 (merino/silk) scarf in a very simple feather and fan pattern. It's really pretty, very slim, and I hope I don't run out of yarn before the scarf is long enough. I might have to put that one aside for a while as it's taking forever to knit even 12", but I got to about 15" last night. Once I'm motivated enough, I'll take photos and show you what I'm doing. But I'm lazy.

It's cold here, as in COLD 10 degrees. Lily the Heat Whore is in front of the electric heater we keep going in the living room; she even forgets that Zippy is in the room just three feet from her and will roll over on her back, all four feet in the air, and show her fat pink tummy. Zippy spends most of his time in his cardboard box. Tom cut the front down so he can get in easily, put his old pillow in there, and Zippy's happy. It keeps the drafts off him.

Beghera spends most of his time on the bed, cuddled up in the covers, unless Tom is in the living room. Then Beghera is either on his lap or draped over his shoulders.

Chester the Cat is pissed off these days. Several days, coming home from work, I've caught old Chester too close to the road. That's quite a way from the house; we have a long, winding driveway, and old Chester likes to go right down to the road. So now he's a house cat, not allowed outside at all, and he is one pissed cat. We've never seen the othe two cats that close to the road; they rarely go past the bamboo at the bottom of the yard; at least, that's all we've seen. When Lily goes out, she sleeps in the sun on the porch, but today, even though she really was in a hurry to go outside, she was equally hurried to get back in. Like I said, she's a Heat Whore. She used to sleep on the heat vent in the bathroom, but now she has a heater, and shes loving it.

I love this time of year in spite of the cold weather that accompanies it. We don't decorate, partially because Chester the Cat would rapidly undecorate, partially because we're lazy, which bothers A, because every house should be decorated for Christmas, as far as she's concerned. I love seeing holiday decorations, but like I mentioned, I'm lazy, and it's cold, so I'm sitting on the couch trying to stay warm.

For the last few years I've enjoyed the decorations that others have done along the drive home from work. Many people have lights and reindeer and wreaths and all kinds of pretty shiny things in their yards, and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. Some are tasteful, but most are the over-the-top crazy out-of-control type of decorating, and I love those the most. There's a single-wide trailer, rusty and leaning, that's always decorated to the point that I wonder how the thing can stand up under the weight. Their yard is similary overdone, but it's wonderful in an awful way. Or awful in a wonderful way. I wish I could get a photo of it at night, but it's cold, I'm lazy, and I don't know how to photograph it so it would properly display the awesomeness.

Tomorrow is B2's 5th birthday. Unbelievable. He was a big baby, and he's still big. He's not a little boy any more.

A's 9th birthday is coming up the first week of January. I've taken advantage of my free flights and am going to Orlando on Dec. 30th. I'll be "sick" *cough cough* on January 5th so I can be with my Bunny Baby on her birthday and fly home late that night. Back to work early the next morning, but it'll be worth it.

Hey, anyone want to have some Last Train home and East Nashville musicians Christmas cds? I have three to give away, courtesy of Eric and Mary Ann. The first three people who comment and claim them will be the lucky recipients of one of the cds. I have two Last Train Home's "Holiday Limited" and one "Yuletide from the other side--More Music from East Nashville", with 37 songs from artists including Last Train Home and 36 others. I admit that I haven't heard of most of the artists on this one, but if Eric thinks they're good, then they're good.

And regarding the last two contests: I'll mail the prizes of all three contests by Friday of this week. I promise. You guys have been so patient with my laziness. I appreciate it, and I appreciate that you've stayed around.

And now, I'm going to eat some black bean and corn salsa and knit for a while. After I go to Ravelry and see what hat pattern for chunky yarn, suitable for a man, that I can dig up. I haven't knit with chunky for a while, so I've forgotten how many stitches I cast on, and I can never remember how to decrease at the top so it looks decent.

Wish me luck. I'll be lost for hours, browsing the patterns and groups and people at Ravelry. It's fun!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joan says, I'm interested in the holiday LTH cd....And not to be selfish, if no one jumps at the other one, I'm there too! Tis the season for me to hear good Christmas music, any good music...Oh. This sounds very selfish. If I win one, I win one and will be very grateful. La La La...

rita said...

You're number 1!

Karin said...

I am interested in a holiday CD! I love Christmas music!

rita said...

Which one, Karin? LTH or Nashville? It's yours!

Anonymous said...

Well it said that there were 4 comments so I figured that I'd just say HI anyway, but now I see that Rita wrote 2 of the comments.

But I won one of the prizes in the last contest so maybe it's not fair? I don't want to be greedy.

Anyway, happy holiday.

Elaine said...

Happy holidays. I hope the new year brings wonderful, all positive things for you and your family whether you stay in VA or move to FL.

Trillian said...

i like this top down hat calculator. good for any kind of yarn, any size hat.

the yarn you sent arrived last week. yay new yarn!

Unknown said...

Wow. I didn't know you had worked for Claudia and got free yarn from her. Like wow. How could anyone not be happy about that?

Anyway, I just came by to wish you a merry and a happy. Hope all you worries dematerialize and next year is nothing but great.

rita said...

Anyone who won something at any time is welcome to enter any new contest and win something new. If it ends up that I have more "wannas" than cds, I think that Eric and Mary Ann would be okay if I......

So let me know, 'k?

rita said...

Trillian, thank you for the hat calculator! I've never come across that one in my many travels on the internets.

I'm glad you got your yarn! I still have plenty of the fingering, so I think I'll make myself some socks. I call this colorway Red Hat, anyway, and I love it.

Yes, Tom, I worked for Claudia for a year. It was exhausting, heavy, hard work, and I loved it. I got to take home yarn that she'd discontinued and wanted to get rid of. Loved it!!! Now I'm reaping the benefits of free yarn.

Thank you all for the wishes. Things'll work out, I'm sure. I'm a control freak and it drives me crazy not to know what's going on. I try to let go, but for me it's difficult.

But I'll keep trying!!!

Elaine said...

I hope your Xmas was great - and that next year is everything you hope for.

When you mentioned earlier that you had worked for Claudia, I didn't process that you worked for CLAUDIA. Wow - free Claudia yarn, that's great (even if the work was hard).

A local yarn store asked me to teach some classes. I said, well, I have a full-time job and I don't have a lot of free time, and what would you pay? She quoted a very low hourly rate. I said - how about paying me in yarn at wholesale prices. That is a much better deal for me and is the same for you. No - she said, but you can use the money to buy yarn here. Yeesh I said, that's a lousy deal and since I don't want to teach a class anyway (and actually they have very little nice yarn so I probably wouldn't want to buy yarn there) I think I'll pass. So if you were closer, and had any chores that needed doing, and wanted to pay in Claudia yarn, I'd be there. :-)

rita said...

Watch out, Elaine, we'd take you up on that offer!!!

Claudia really values her test knitters. She offered to pay me (pretty well, too) hourly or pay me twice the amount of yarn it took to knit the garment. Guess which I took?