Me to a T

You Have a Choleric Temperament

You are a person of great enthusiasm - easily excited by many things. Unsatisfied by the ordinary, you are reaching for an epic, extraordinary life. You want the best. The best life. The best love. The best reputation. You posses a sharp and keen intellect. Your mind is your primary weapon. Strong willed, nothing can keep you down. Your energy can break down any wall. You're an instantly passionate person - and this passion gives you an intoxicating power over others. At your worst, you are a narcissist. Full of yourself and even proud of your faults. Stubborn and opinionated, you know what you think is right. End of discussion. A bit of a misanthrope, you often see others as weak, ignorant, and inferior.

What Temperament Are You?

I am Woman - part 2

A fistful of Fukitol and a good decent barely adequate nights' sleep can do wonders for a girl. Well that and one more sleep to the end of the school year!

So I tried to install a wireless router to our desktop last night. Everything came in a nice little box. "20 mins" the installation software said. I'm no computer geek (and when I say 'geek' I mean "geez, I wanna be smart like that") but I can follow directions. Mostly. Once I had the modem switched over from a USB connection to a ENET connection (with much props to Jason at Sympatico) and I worked my way through the Netgear installation to this point, I thought that I was golden. Pride goeth before the fall paralyzing doom.

6 hours of my life that I will never get back.
No knitting done - I can't knit when they (fucking Netgear) keep saying "type this" "try that".
No router installed - it's defective. No shit Sherlock.

These pictures show the disaster that I lived for said 6 hours.
So it goes back to Dell. I told Jeanette that I totally did not want another Netgear - didn't trust that another one would really work and their customer service people were seriously hard to understand, had no sense of humour (I mean really, who should be the annoyed one here?) and I know that one of them was reading from a manual. No bloody way that they are getting a second kick at this cat!!! I have a Linksys router on the way. (I didn't drink the whole bottle of rum, but I finished it off. The alcohol kept me fairly mellow and from getting seriously angry and throwing something out of the window.)

Why do you need a wireless router Wannietta?
Good question. All of the hints lead to this. I LOVE IT!!!







And while you're in the mood to be amazed here is my Tina Shawl progress.

The end is in sight

Finished lump of lace

Final blocking

I will get Kyle to take a picture of me & the shawl tomorrow before I have to ship it off. I swear, blocking is knitting magic on par with heel turning. They both actually make me giggle. Total simplicity resulting in deceptive complexity.

The kids were swimming at the neighbours' on Saturday. Kyle has perfected the 'angry teenager' look He stood there an waited while I took the picture - I didn't even have to beg & cajole. Amanda is still unabashedly joyful. They both had a great time - really!

I am Woman

Hear me ROAR!!!
I'm sure that tomorrow will have me in a much lighter mood and ready to share productive pics!

Hint #4: I'm a Travellin' Man

Relay for Life

We did it! Team DKC raised over $2600 for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life and we knit a bunch of scarves that will be donated to a hospice for Cancer survivors (Joan did mention which one but I am incapable of remembering it right now). Thank you to everyone who sponsored me (you know who you are!!). I really appreciate your support of me, the DKC team and the CCS. I also want to thank the following companies who contributed yarn for scarves:

Estelle Yarns

S.R. Kertzer

Needful Yarns

We had a great time walking some and knitting even more! A lot of other participants and volunteers stopped by to admire the scarves so we are quite certain that the courageous ladies who will wear them will wear these one of a kind "pink ribbons" with pride.

The Daddy Countdown continues:

Hint #3: An Empty Space

Over the Edge

Or should I say 'Around the Bend'? I've turned the second corner on the Tina Shawl edging and it's lookin' fine. For this picture I just pinned out the edge quickly - I'm sure that it will look even more sharp and stunning.

Cynthia & Ada - No wheel, and by extension not a spinning wheel. (Although I'm sure that Lorraine is plotting & conspiring as we speak and that the words "spinning", "Wannietta" and "convert" are being bandied about frequently).
Roxie - It's not alive. (That should count as a hint).

Hint #2:What?!? You want that this should be easy? Geddoudaheah!!

I don't know how Rampant Bicycle finds all of her cool links (maybe she doesn't really have a day job) but I luv 'em. This link to fictional swears had me in its thrall. I had to give my head a shake and walk away from the computer to break the time-sucking spell. I think that I've earned several of the Insomnia Badges - what bagdes from here would you be able to sew on?

Countdown

Amanda has made this little countdown board - all together now - AWWWW!!!


And in the interest of self improvement - not just blurting out every little thought that comes into my pretty little head - I will let you guess what my new thing is. I'm not cruel, I'll give hints. And I need to amuse myself somehow until it gets delivered.
Hint #1: It's small but not tiny. I know, but we've got a week or so and I don't want y'all to guess straight away!

Sorry, no Tina Shawl pics today (I'll try to do it first thing tomorrow morning, before anything else distracts me - like the knitting of the edging), but I did take these pictures of a dandelion gone to seed at the yard where I park my bus.

A New Distraction

Douglas Cootey writes a great blog. Informative and humourous. So while I'm sure that the link he gave to LibraryThing was intended to be helpful (and it was - I'm about halfway through my library) is seriously harshed on my knitting groove. Props to DC though, it's a cool Thing.

I'm almost at the halfway point of the final edge of the Tina Shawl - despite an acupunture/chiropractic appointment this morning (it helped so it was worth it), LibraryThing cataloging and a bit of a re-write on my Spinners' Quarterly article. Pssst - did you subscribe yet? If you get the issue with my article and carry it around I'll sign it when we meet. Maybe you'll be able to say "I knew her back when ..."

Thanks for your words so far - amazing how people can know you even if they've never met you. Très cool.

Another driving lesson

When you're Sunday-driving along at barely 80kph and you come upon a section of road with 2 lanes on your side where the sign says "keep right except to pass" it does NOT mean to "keep right, speed the fuck up to 110pkh so that no one can pass you so that you can drop back down to barely 80kph when the passing lane ends". And you know who you are because you read my lips asshole!!!

Whew! Been holding that one in all afternoon and almost had to take it out on other peoples' children. lol
I don't speak a lot about what I watch on tv, maybe because I watch so much of it that it would turn into a tv blog instead of a knitting blog. But I have to confess that I love my reality tv! I love Survivor, Amazing Race and my dirty little summer secret - Big Brother!!! BB7 starts Wednesday and I'm totally stoked - voting!!!! I am also right into the new show Treasure Hunters. Summer is full of re-runs, but I love CSI (original & Miami - NY not so much), Law & Order (original, especially any episode with Lenny & CI), Criminal Minds and Without a Trace to watch them over (and over). I'm a 'live in the moment' kinda gal with movies & tv shows. I either forget whodunit or how they dunit or some other key element of the plot that makes it almost new to watch it twice (or thrice).
Then I also have my movie network and a nice collection of movies on DVD (yes, I watch them over and over). hmmmm - there's probably some sort of DVD cataloging site out there. NO!! Don't tell me about it!!! Knowing most of what happens makes it a whole lot easier to knit while watching them. (and when I say 'watching' I mean with my ears and the occasionly glance up) Yeah, you know what I mean Ada!!!

Geez - no pictures! I'll fix that tomorrow. Along with an announcement (hint: every time Kerwyn goes away I get something new. I think that I'm compensating or something)

The Smoke gets in your Eyes

Not that I opened the smoker a lot - just a few times to spritz the ribs and add some sauce at the end - but it was worth some watery eyes to get these. I love the smell of the apple & hickory smoke. These ribs were quite fatty and not very meaty, but now that I know I can not screw up Bah'-buh-Q (it's all in the southern accent) I will use better ribs in the future. Oh - I inserted some lick 'n taste code so that you all don't feel left out. Let me know how it works. (No, those aren't bite marks! I had to cut some off to taste it - I certainly can't just throw food on the table without knowing if it's any good! I mean, really.)

The hot tub has a slow leak from a cracked pipe and at least one of the jets is leaking so I had to empty it so that Mark can fix it this week. Say it with my friends, "Ca-ching"!!! Loathe to waste all of that water, I had the children watering the flower beds with it. I've had it off for about a week so the chemicals must surely have dissipated enough to not kill the plants. It made sense when I thought of it, but writing it down now I'm having second thoughts. And yes, while they look hard-working and dry in this picture it went downhill quickly. lol I drained the rest of the water out aound some trees that looked like they needed it.

Amanda has had a wiggly tooth for some time now. She will come to me occasionally and say, "Feel how wiggly it is now!" "Is it loose enough to pull out?" I told her that I could pull it out, but it was still in there enough that it would hurt a bit. Well last night she just couldn't leave it alone. She worried it around enough that I just gave it a tug and Wallah!! the cutest little Toothless Wonder! (The name is something that she's been saying - I think she picked it up from Kaylie) A little whisky-soaked paper towel stemmed the small amount of bleeding and this morning she was having a grand 'ole time tonguing (that looks weird spelled out!) the hole.

I have made decent progress with the final edging on the Tina Shawl. It took about 10 repeats for me to really see the pattern and not have to follow the chart for each & every row. I'm almost at the first corner - I'll definitely take a picture of that if it works out!

8 more days of driving - and on the last day I don't have to do my high school so I can sleep in!!! Relief and excitement seem like opposing emotions, but I've got 'em both in spades!!!

MEME

Since Cynthia has made the effort to think of a word specific to me, I will do this meme.
Please leave a one word comment. This word will be one which you believe best describes me.
Julie, Kenny & Matthew - if you're game, consider yourselves tagged.

Meme - who'd've thought that a simple blog game had such deep & complex roots?

On My Own Again

Kerwyn left. I got a kiss & a hug then he picked up his bags and left. He's halfway around the world in China for the next couple of weeks. So my loss is your gain - I will be a better blogger so that Kerwyn can stay up on what we're up to.
Kyle said that Ms. Bolsby told him that he & Ryan will be getting around 80% for their geography project.
Amanda got 10/10 on her spelling ... again. She thinks that she got the bonus word right too! I think I'm tired of perfect. No, I'm just tired. Perfect is, well, perfect!!

I have started going for acupuncture treatments. The last couple of migraines have required multiple doses of Zomig and I have too much to do to be debilitated by mind-numbing pain and waiting for relief that is not forthcoming. After 2 treatments I do feel some relief from the constant stress-induced pain in my neck & jaw, so I am optimistic for the migraine-relief potential. Here I am posing as the human pin cushion (he only uses 6 needles altogether, so it's not so bad).

Cheeky Monkey has used up another life. I've lost count of how many he has left - anyone else been paying attention? I came home and found this:

And then he had the nerve to sniff at it like he'd never seen it before and look at me as if to say, "It's not mine - I'm sure I don't know how it got all around here!" Tell it to someone who doesn't have kids cat -





I'm wise to the lies. Uh-huh.

Amanda has made the following shish-ka-bob for Kerwyn. She is, however, quite concerned that it will not be quite fresh 14 days from now and has offered to eat it for him and tell him about how good it was. I have not been neglecting my knitting . The Tina Shawl is ready for the final edging. It is knit sideways and attached knitways as you go. My 1st Hawaii sock is finally done. I can knit a Tina Shawl but the simple lace pattern on this sock had me making mistakes like a rookie & swearing like a seasoned sailor. But it looks fine, so all's well that ends well. I just have to summon up the motivation to do another one. I think that I will go back to nice plain socks for awhile after this. lol

Jocelyn - You are more than welcome to paint my poppies. (Is it just me or does that sound a little pornographic?) My real ones are starting to go wiltey, but you're more than welcome to work from my pictures. I'll print some for you if you'd like.

a Bit of This & a Bit of That

Fiona's sweater is done - here is the hand-off. Starbucks is our meeting place of choice - I love my Red Eye!

Last Wednesday I took another group down to Medieval Times and this time I brought Amanda along. Hey, other schools call it an educational trip, who am I to question this & why should Amanda miss out? Here is M'Lady Amanda enjoying the action.

I have started on Joanne's sweater - trust me, not enough to be interesting yet. I am going to make some serious progress on the Tina Shawl this week. Photo-worthy progress, I promise!

I have got to buckle down and write a short article for Spinners' Quarterly. I've been working on it, but I have to have something off to Lorraine by weeks' end. (When I say "working on it" I mean a lot of contemplation and mulling, with very little zero emphasis on physical recording) No, I don't spin. Not that I won't if the team needs me to next year, but there will have to be some intense training. Anyway, I'm going to write a short piece about the B2B Wool Challenge. So go on over to SQ and subscribe!!!

My poppies have finally bloomed! Everyone else had poppies waving in the wind and I was beginning to despair for my own, but here they are. I love them!!!

I think that you are now pretty much caught up on my comings & goings. Don't forget that you can Pledge Me for the Cdn Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Just click on "pledge a participant" and search my name - Wannietta Prescod. No pressure, I'll keep writing my blog and you can keep reading it. There are so many worthy causes to support and we all have personal reasons for the ones that we choose, but if I don't ask ...

Have a great knitting day!!!

You Are Cyclops

Dedicated and responsible, you will always remain loyal to your cause. You are a commanding leader - after all, you can kill someone just by looking at them. Power: force beams from your eyes

Which of the X-Men Are You?

You Are 40% Normal (Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

Mommy said that I should put this up - she can't come to the 'puter right now. What's a "deadline" anyway? Can the doctor give her a medicine for that?

The Envelope Please.

I have deadlines looming like the Sword of Damocles so this is going to be short and sweet. Yes, sweet.
The Toronto Spiders (a pretty good-looking bunch, if I do say so myself!) successfully completed their B2B sweater in a new Canadian record time of 6:51:15. This is 40 minutes faster than the old record. It was a lot of fun. We got off to a fantastic start, beginning our knitting about 5 minutes after the first fleece was handed out. It was certainly a spinning/knitting marathon with Lorraine & I knitting for over 6½ hours with only a couple of short (<5>t unattainable. Here is a link to Flickr where I uploaded my pics - Emily helped by taking the ones during the Challenge. Thanks for all of your moral support - it really helped to know that we had a cheering section waiting in the wings!! We'll try to set a time & date further ahead for next year so that you all can come & make a day of it.
There is an American team competing this year (next weekend) for the first time - Good Luck!!!

Happy Anniversary to me!! Kerwyn brought my Deck Appliances home. Yes, the BBQ is quite large (those are 2 large-ish pork tenderloins grilling away), but I totally love it!!! The smoker is quite big too, but the better to cook for a crowd.




I also found me one of these. After much airing & Febreezing it no longer smells of cigarette smoke (yes, I bought it from a yarn store) - I just really loved it and didn't want the hassle of returning it & sourcing another. Jordana was so awesome about helping me find one and offering cleaning suggestions. Her customer service rocks!!!




Amanda helped in the flowerbed - this is one of the things that she has been looking forward to with having a house. I can't wait for the flowers to start filling out!!

Amanda gave me quite a number of handmade coupons for little things that we can do together or that she can do for me + some Tim Horton's gift certificates. Her cards were wonderful - remember me to take a picture to show you.



Sorry - no knitting in progress pictures. I just don't have the time to disguise & edit them into uselessness today. Fiona's sweater is almost done, Jenna's sleeves are done, but I'm going to be doing the rest of the sweater soon and Joanne's sweater will be started - not just swatched - any day now. Kyle loved his sweater - I've just keep forgetting remembering late to get him to put it on when I'm at home & taking a picture.

Today, Tomorrow & the Next Day

I have sent off the sleeves for Jenna - I hope they are perfect, or at least good enough.

I have finished Kyle's sweater - I'll take a picture tomorrow night when he opens it.

My Our 17th anniversary is on Saturday, and as I will be at Riverdale Farm knitting in the Back to Back Wool Challenge we are celebrating on Friday night. Amanda had requested and will receive a scooter. Kyle get the sweater and some cash (contigent on getting 8 credits - don't ask, just pray for a miracle). I have bought a few things - I'll take pictures and share with you in the next couple of days - but what would really be great is a B2B Canadian Record Time. Don't forget to come by the farm and lend some moral support!!! Yes, that's what I really, really want. Kerwyn is bringing home a new Vermont Castings 5-burner BBQ and a smoker too!!! Amanda is giving him a mug with this picture on it. Have you ever seen a man with more love for his little girl? Or a little girl any happier to be with her daddy flying through the sky? They are on a swinging pirate ship at Canada's Wonderland. The cropping I did has made the picture a little fuzzy, but the emotions are unmistakable.

Without any other pictures, you can amuse yourselves with this interesting video. Don't worry if you don't have sound for your 'puter, the background music is pleasant but not pivotal.