Mystery Bird, Part 2

Remember the blue heron we were briefly visited by in August? I think today's chicken-duck (Chuck?) tops that.














As I type this, a good two hours after taking these photos, Chick Hearn (say it fast enough and it sounds kinda like "chicken"?), or Chuck, or whatever we shall name him/her, is still standing at the top of the hill at the back of our yard, apparently unable to fly, and Mystery is whining and straining at her leash on the patio, trying to get at it. Watching her try to catch the bird in the pool without getting in herself was hilarious. I think this is a sort of hybrid between a chicken and a duck, because of the chicken-like legs and talons and pebbly face-skin-thing, and the mixed-up coloring. Its feathers are black and white, but the "black" feathers have that green-ish opalescent color reminiscent of that on a Mallard. There is an aviary/duck pond of sorts over by church that has ducks, geese, and chickens, so I figure either a duck egg was fertilized by a rooster or vice versa. I wonder if this situation will go the way of the Mystery Incident, and whether we will consequently wind up with a new pet. In which case, I think we'll call "him" Chuck or Dickens (Chuck Dickens?) or something.
Life is strange sometimes.

The Best Dog In the Whole Wide World

Blondie was truly the best dog ever to walk the planet, and she is sorely missed.
We brought her home on Saturday, the 18th of September, 1998, and Jesus took her to His home on Saturday, the 16th of December, 2006. She was in perfect health eight and a half years, then took suddenly and terminally ill the week before she died with lymphoma.
I can't really get too upset because I realize that Jesus deserves her more than I do, she's far happier and healthier than she ever was here, and He couldn't have picked a sweeter dog to bring home to His Father. I look forward to meeting up with her again, but until then, we'll just have to pay special attention to our remaining dog, Mystery, who is very lonely without her best friend. (She is not the puppy pictured here; that was Elanor, who had to be given to another family before she ate poor Mystery! This is Mystery-->)

Figures.

None of my yarn sold. My four skeins priced at $18 ($24 Buy-It-Now) did not sell. I relisted them with the price I'd originally intended for them, $10.50 ($12.50 Buy-It-Now), and they'll be up again until next Friday around 1:30 pm PST. Needless to say, I'm a little bumed out by the whole thing, but hey, that's the breaks, right? Not everybody is wildly successful their first try. They'll sell this time for sure.
These are the things I tell myself to keep from breaking down and deciding that this whole yarn thing just isn't for me.
Then, I bring up the Dashboard and see my countdown-to-Christmas widget reads 44 days, 10 hours, some odd minutes and seconds left until Christmas and determination rekindles hope: I have presents to buy, some of which will need knitting before presenting.
This yarn has to sell.
In the meantime, there's a cute jumperdress in Vogue Knitting that's caught my eye that requires just exactly (maybe even a little less, since I'm planning on making it a good six inches shorter?) the amount of yarn that I have left undyed and at my disposal...
No. Must... keep... focus... Yarn... for... selling...
Then again, I might get better results with a fingering weight sock yarn, or maybe a laceweight...
Darn cheapskates. Now they got the darn hamster running again...

1,235 Hours Remain

Target has my number. Remember the One Spot, with its insidiously cute merchandise at deceptively low Dollar Tree prices? They just started stocking their Christmas stuff. Mini trees in classic green and pearlescent clear, battery-operated strings of white LED light, packages of 12 multi-colored mini ornaments, sets of 6 make-your-own glittery ornaments, sparkly pom-pom garlands... very cute and pretty harmless, right?
Wrong.
Remember how this last stock of Fall One Spot merchandise had a special section devoted entirely to my worst of addictions, not simply dishes, but sushi dishes? And remember my dismay at seeing new little signs up reading, "2 for $5"?
My darling mother offered to buy me a tree and the aforementioned trimmings, including a second make-your-own ornament pack and a $1 wrapping embellishment/ornament for a tree topper, thinking it would only cost a few bucks, no harm done.... Until we reached the checkout and realized that we had both failed to notice (or was it not yet posted?) that horrible dratted sign... "2 for $5" What should have cost $7 (plus tax) cost $16. I was horrified, having just reached the checkout from my last-minute frenzied (an shockingly unsuccessful) search for those heaven-sent Brach's Autumn Mix candy corn bags marked down like 90% from Octoberween as Mom painfully signed her check. No, make that more like mortified. I offered to go return it all, as I never would've picked it up if I had seen the real prices, but she refused. She wouldn't even let me pay her the $1.08 I had in coins! (What? I got nothin' against coinage...)
Further confounding me at the unexpectedly astounding extent of her forbearance, she left my very messy glitterballs out to finish drying (as I speak, two are still not completely dry) overnight on her kitchen counter. Her obsessive-compulsively clean, black kitchen counter! Nothing left on that counter overnight is ever there in the morning. Ever.
And so we have...
















The Tree.

Meanwhile, my fourteen-year-old brother Zach is going to his first skool dance Saturday night, and I still will be sitting at home with my mother. Eighteen stinkin' years of this nonsense is starting to get to me. I'm losin' my everloving mind. Is that knucklehead ever going to ask me out, or is he just content to admire my beax and leave me to my solitude, requiring no action or effort on his part? What am I, art?
But seriously, a girl can only take so much rejection and indifferent disregard before she starts to wonder... What, am I just not good enough?
I mean, guys have it easy: they can just go up to the girl they like and ask her out. Worst-case scenario she says no (well, actually, worst-case scenario she rends him limb from limb, but I haven't been working out quite hard enough for that option to be open to me yet...), whereas all I can do is wait at home for the phone to ring or my email program to ding, and pray that it's not just that silent prank-caller we keep getting or the library telling me one of the books I requested is now available for pick-up. Because I'm on my last book, and they don't have any more on knitting that I haven't read... And most of those sucked big time anyway.

Behold the Lamb!

My shop is finally up and running!
...Well, sort of.
I ordered my first twelve skeins of worsted weight Peruvian wool yarn (very nice stuff) and have painted five of them so far, photographed them, and put them up in the shop at $18 a skein.
They are simply beautiful, although not all of them even resemble the color scheme I was trying to match, the way I was haphazardly mixing my dyes, flying by the seat of my pants, as usual. Structure? What structure? Chaos, my friend, is the mark of a true artiste!
...Or so I tell myself.
Go take a look, and e-mail me if you're interested. I'm probably going to put them up on eBay very soon, if not immediately, in fact, so keep an eye out for them there (my eBay ID is HeroOfTime777).
More blogging to come!

Well, well, well... Look who's back for more...

Yes, yes, I know, I'm terrible. This so-called "blog" is a waste of Web space. I am a lazy, slacking slacker who's very easily distracted by absolutely nothing whatsoever. I humbly apologize. I've not much to report, I suppose (that's any of your business, that is), except my new phone:












Isn't she beautiful? The Pink V3 RAZR by Motorola. I even got a new number and everything, and the best part is, I got her free with our new Faimy Share Plan! Mom got the same phone, and Zach and Nate each got V3i RAZRs with iTunes (theirs did come with a price tag). We love them to pieces. And mine even came with a very pretty wallpaper of sushi! How much more can this phone scream "ERIN!"?
I just started Women's Inductive Bible Study on Wednesday, and I think I'm really going to like it, even if it does force me to be sociable once a week... (Come on! I can do this!) I've been sitting in on the message for a few years now, but this is the first year I've done the study or been in a group. ...Which reminds me, I need to work on my study more tomorrow, because I didn't today. >.<
Zach's vest is bent on making me lose my everloving mind trying to finish it... This time, it's the side seams--you know, the home stretch. Tedious but easy. Riiiight. I've started marking every fifth row or so on each side to make sure that they match up as I sew them together, because last time they were ten rows off. Ten. Rows. Don't ask me how this could happen, since they're exactly the same... I got most of a seam done today on the way to and from the beach before it started acting up on me again (right as we were getting home, by the way). But hey, that's life.
Here's a little Tahitian eye candy for your enjoyment; enjoy!

Where Does The Time Go?

How is it possible that I haven't had time to blog since that sorry excuse for a post on the third? What with all the "idle" time on my hands, I should be blogging once day, and I can't even manage to get around to it once a week?
Let's see, there's been the garden...





Look at all those peppers! From only three plants!









Then there's the beach twice a week...




Thank You, Father, for the ocean!










And then there's the knitting...






Almost finished, I just need to finish the hood, knit the yellow ribbing on top of the pockets and sew them down, and weave in all the loose ends. Oh, and knit the ribbed belt. Tantalizingly close, yet so much to be done.













Mind-numbingly boring knitting, but very interesting results with this open wrap-in-progress. Works up pretty quick, just seems to take forever.










Dad's hat's a little big for Scruffles, but he doesn't seem to mind. This Misti Alpaca is sooo soft and smooth, drapes so nicely, and is so shiny... I bought two balls, but I may only need one, or maybe just a bit of the second, so I'm going to make myself a pretty lacey beaded scarf with the rest, if I can find the right pattern. ...Or maybe just my own hat without the brim.








Zach's vest is coming along nicely; I just need to finish embroidering the accent lines, sew up the sides and weave in the ends. This was supposed to be done for his 14th birthday on the 15th. Of August. Oh well, he wouldn't be able to wear it yet anyway, until it cools down a bit more...







I'd add some more stuff, like the batts of spinning fiber I just received, but Blogger's photo service seems to be bent on driving me to insanity with its non-working-ness tday, so I'll try again tomorrow.
Maybe.