Ye scurvy landlubbers!

My pirate name is:

Dirty Anne Cash

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Eviction Notice

I hate to give up on anything. I wanted to start my own home based business a couple of years ago and went for it. I had a web site, an email address, a PO Box, a toll free number, t-shirts and business cards, and even special insurance. It never took off and I chalked it up to a learning experience.
I signed up through the city to plant a garden plot this year. I wish I could say I had a green thumb but I somehow manage to kill every living plant that I come into contact with. On Saturday I received an eviction notice from the City Clerk's Office. I had until June 21st to get my garden in order or they were taking over my plot and would never rent to me again. I can't give up. I must conquer the weeds and somehow get vegetables to grow. My parents are excellent gardeners. They could write a book on organic gardening they're so good at it. Shouldn't this skill have been passed on to me? Why wasn't I paying attention the first 18 years of my life? Every muscle in my body was aching last night from 2 days worth of manual labor trying to make my garden presentable. I can remember people stopping by my parent's house when I was younger wanting to buy manure(we had four horses at the time). I would laugh in their faces at the absurdity of charging for poop. I would show them to the pile and encourage them to take as much as they wanted. I've become one of those city folk paying for bagged manure. I can hear my Dad laughing now. Somehow my children seem convinced I will surely have tons of pumpkins, zucchini, and tomatoes in a couple of months. I should be optimistic but I know I will probably get another letter in a few weeks revoking my gardening privileges. My Husband will be laughing at me and at the same time saying, "I told you so." I hate that even more than quitting.
In other adventures,I stumbled upon some Bernat cotton blend yarn($1.30/skein on the clearance shelf) that I'm going to use for my next KAL with the Sexy Knitter's Club. I knit up a gauge swatch last week and am ready to get started on the Tempting II July 1st.
My favorite place in this town to get veggie soup is having a special celebration for the first day of summer tomorrow. In celebration of the first day of summer on June 21st, Panera Bread is providing a "Today I'm Taking Mom to Lunch at Panera Bread!" coupon, inviting kids to take Mom to lunch to thank them for all their hard work!
Yay, summer is officially here!

Back for round two.

The Sexy Knitter's Club starts their next KAL July 1. Tempting II is the project and the suggested yarn is a cotton blend. I can't wait to start this one. I'm going to make it a size bigger than I should in hopes it will be less clinging than the picovoli KAL.
Thank you Heather for giving me the idea for knitting MaryElla. Of course you're more organized and methodical about gathering your supplies from Earth Faire. Late last week I was bored with what was currently on my needles so I stopped by my local Michaels store with $5 burning a hole in my pocket. I went in looking for a non-knitting project and walked out with thread and beads. There may be a second round for this pattern too in different colors. It was nice to try something a little different and be able to complete it in a couple of days.

Why did we leave again?

My husband brought home the Kiplinger's June 2006 newsletter today for me to look at. Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine released their '50 Smart Places to Live' list. Ithaca is #8! Check out the review here.
We lived there for four years and I long to go back and raise my family there. Maybe I'll move back to get my D.V.M. Oh right, the little issue of finding a great paying job to support the family. I know DeKalb, IL will never make it on the 'smart places to live' list. At least we can go back to visit and encourage the kids to go to summer camp there so we can enjoy Ithaca's best season-summer.

Soda Bottle Volcano

This title led me to a wikiHow "experiment" yesterday. If you have $2 to throw away on supplies try it out.Make a Soda Bottle Volcano!We blew up 3 2-liter bottles of soda and were amazed how freaking high the soda shot up. I know, we're easily amused.

Time Flies.

Wow, time flies when the pool season starts. The pool has crystal clear water and has reached temps in the 80's. The kids think it's great I think it's too damn much work. It is nice not to have to deal with the morons at the community pool. On the knitting front, it's been one big rip fest. I was working on a bathmat in a King Charles Brocade pattern. Nope not what I had in mind. After about 60 rows it's being ripped out tonight.

In the Crochet Pattern a Day calendar on May 22nd there was a pattern for a double crochet potholder. I must not be able to do a simple tunisian stitch correctly because my beginning rows don't look anything like the picture. Yep, it's going to be ripped out too.



All over knit blogs and knitcasts I've heard about the book Mason-Dixon Knitting. I looked through it over the weekend and loved the patterns. I'm going to try to turn these 2 ripped objects into the Log Cabin Bathmat, the Mason-Dixon Washcloth, and the Ball Band Dishcloth. They have a KAL and that may be helpful for my dyslexic patern reading skills.