Dammit.

Heath Ledger is dead. I've been sitting at my computer for about an hour puttering and crying. which is dumb, because it's not like he was a friend, or someone I'd ever met. But I liked his acting. And he was very pretty and one of the few actors I've ever had a major crush on. I'm looking forward to the Batman movie this summer where he plays the Joker, but it's going to feel different now...

It seems that he overdosed on prescription pills. Some sites are saying he had a substance abuse problem. Whatever. I'm sad for his family, and for his friends, and for his fans.

Too young. Dammit. RIP.

I can't think of a good title so this is what it is

I am not a gardener-type. I have been known to kill cactus.

This morning I repotted the plants that sit on my desk.

Vera came from the grocery store. She was in a tiny little pot and marked down to 99 cents so I had to bring her home with me. She has flourished since then!

Rex is a Begonia Rex. When he is happy, he has beautiful purple and green leaves. He was very, very happy on my last desk, but all the moving around and a few weeks with too much sun and not enough water has made all his leaves fall off. He is still alive though, and I'm hoping that the new pot and soil will help him perk up.

Violet was a gift to me from a friend at my last job. While we were there she bloomed almost continuously. Since October she hasn't even shown a bud. Again, I'm hoping that a new pot and fresh soil will bring back her fatness.

I have set up that little corner with some of my angels. This is a good job and environment for me, but I'm still trying to find my really comfortable spot. I hope that fixing my plants up will bring some comfort to my space.

Want!

I like the concept of the sock club. You sign up and pay your money, and every few weeks you get yarn and a pattern in the mail. There are many clubs out there, all with their own merits.

But.

This is the one I want with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns:

The Flock Sock Club

Why? Because she (The Tsarina of Tsocks) designs stuff like this:

Cookie's Garden

They are works of art.

Ah, well. Maybe by 2009.

And since I can't end the post on a whine:

She wants a cookie!

Yum!

I am having organic goat yoghurt with organic rasperry jam in it. It's so much better than regular fruity yooghurt!

Whee!

Yeah, that's about all I've got. Anything else I have to say would be all complain-y, so I'm just going to stop there.

Yum!

Excellent Perqs!

So the new company I work for isn't giving us a Christmas party this year.

Instead, they booked the Air Canada Centre in Toronto for a private concert.

The Tragically Hip

And Van Halen!

They were both fantastic! Traffic getting into Toronto was super stupid so we missed about half of the Hip, but we still got to hear Bobcaygeon and 100th Meridian, and I found out from people who got there before us that they didn't play either of my favourite songs before we got there, so I don't really feel like I missed anything.

At intermission we discovered that we'd been sitting in the wrong section! That's why the photo of the Hip is at a different angle than the other ones. As it turned out our actual seats were even better than the ones we accidentally stole. I couldn't figure out how to get the BlackBerry camera to zoom in more, so it looks like we were farther away than we were. The seats we had would have cost over $200 each at a regular concert!

For a group that's been playing since 1972, Van Halen is still just so fantastic! I actually think they may be better musically now that they're living less of the "rock star" kind of live. David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen are in phenomenal shape (one was in leather pants, the other shirtless - my friend Leslie was thrilled!), and David can still get those high-kicking split jumps going! Eddie's 16 year old son is touring with them playing the bass. From his stage presence he seems shy, but wow! what a talent that kid has! And I can only imagine how amazing it must be for him and his dad to be touring together, and sharing this passion.

This is Leslie being thrilled. *grin*

The drummer (Alex Van Halen, Eddie's elder brother) did a 15 minute drum solo that I thought was going to be the highlight of the night. Then David told a story and sang while playing an acoustic guitar, and I thought that was going to be the highlight. THEN, Eddie did a 20 minute lead guitar solo that, well, as Leslie said "I didn't know it was possible to make that many different sounds with one instrument!" It was awesome, in the proper sense of the word. They saved "Jump" for the encore, and pretty much everyone in the stadium (14000 people) were on their feet for it.

It was definitely better than any Christmas party could ever be!

I made this!

This is what I did with my night last night instead of painting my sewing room or cleaning the house. It's a gift for a friend's birthday.




I think I need to get one of those jewelery store busts for showing off this kind of stuff.

Tiny Green Eyes

People are turning up pregnant all over the place! I know three people who are due in June, and it's all very exciting, and I have a giant list of things I want to knit. I am so happy for these friends (although very sorry that they are dealing with being sick) and I can't wait to see/meet the new people they are creating.

That said, when I found out last night that ex-best friend is trying to get pregnant, I got a little jealous. It was only a flash, only for a moment, but there it was. It probably had more to do with the "who" than the "what", and I recognize that.

We want to have a child (maybe more if we can manage the first one ok and don't misplace it or something), but we know that we need to get a better handle on things like money and cleaning the house regularly before we embark on the whole adding-a-person-to-the-household thing. Plus, with the five animals in the house, I'm not sure where we'd put a baby right now; it's already a little crowded. So we're being responsible, and grown-up, and trying to make the right decisions.

But, dammit! I want babies too!

Wellington Fibres

Here are the photos from the trip to Wellington Fibres.

These are the breeding herd goats.

This is a boy goat, who is waiting to be sold to another farm.



This is fleece that has been dyed, and it waiting to be washed.

This is washed fleece, hung up to dry.

Picked fleece (that's the step after drying; it takes out all the extra bits of stuff) going into a carder.

And coming out the back end of the carder.



These are the roving cakes that are make by the carder, waiting to be fed into the spinning machine.


This is the spinning machine.

This is a skein of spun yarn.

And this is the store!

I don't have photos yet of the lovely yarn...Mom spoiled me with enough for a sweater, and I got two colours of merino/mohair blend that will make Fred and I each a pair of socks.

The cake was wonderful - both to eat and to look at. Fred did a fantastic job! But I forgot to take a photo, sorry.

A weekend in the country

Ok, so, really only a morning in the country, but I couldn't pass up the chance to hum a little Sondheim.

Anyway!

Tomorrow morning I am accompanying my mother, some of her guild members and some of the London Handweavers and Spinners guild to a goat farm! Wellington Fibres is about a 30 minute drive from home. They raise angora sheep, which produce mohair. Mmmm...mohair. I'm taking a camera with me. And some cash. But the debit card stays at home.

While I am out playing with goats, Fred will be at home baking this cake. We're going to a pot-luck Hallowe'en dinner party tomorrow night, and he decided while flipping through my Martha Stewart catalogue, that this would be our contribution, and that he would be making it.

I should be home from the goat farm by about two, just in case.

Day by Day

We did not have to make a trip to the vet today! Roo is doing much better: she's eating and drinking and not vomiting! She's kept everything down for 36 hours, now we're waiting to see when/if she'll have a bowel movement. Let me tell you, I never thought I would look forward to picking up dog poop.

Her balance is still off, and she falls over when she shakes her head or tries to chase a cat - but at least she's back to wanting to chase cats.

Thanks everyone for your good thoughts and wishes.

It doesn't look good

This is Roo. Up until last Thursday she was pretty darn healthy for a senior puppy. Sadly, although the head tilt is going away, she's still vomiting. On the vet's advice we've tried switching her hard food for soft, tried not giving her the anti-biotics, tried giving her Gatorade. She'll eat or drink a little and then at some point later on it all comes back up again. We were hopeful yesterday - she went for almost 24 hours without bringing anything back up again, but today... let's just say we're going through paper towels at an accelerated rate. The vet says that if the vestibular disorder diagnosis was the correct one, we would have seen a marked improvement within 3 days so it is likely something else. We'll wait to see how she is on Friday, but if there is no improvement, we will probably have to say good bye to Roo this Saturday.

The good, the not-so-good, and the downright crappy - updated!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks.

The good: the new job is exciting and only a half-hour drive from home, compared to the roughly two hours each was I was travelling. I miss my friends from the last job, but that's about it. As a going away gift, the company gave me a round-the-world tea package. Once a month for the next 6 months, I will get two fancy teas in the mail. Usually people who quit there get a "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" kind of good-bye, so the gift was quite a pleasant surprise. I got spoiled for my birthday this year too, with knitting books and yarn and more tea and an evening with Fred (he works the afternoon shift, so we don't see each other during the week usually), and I went to meet some internet knitters and eat gelato last night.

The not-so-good: Last Sunday we brought Fred's 14 year old husky/shepherd cross home to live with us. We expected that the cats would be unhappy with the change, but the level of unhappiness was far worse than we expected. Like, Zoe climbing the blinds in the kitchen then making Fred bleed really badly when he tried to get her down, then her racing across the top of the kitchen counter trailing urine (the cat's) and blood (Fred's) after her. The cats have pretty much lived in our bedroom since Sunday night, although they will go out into the hallway for food and to use the litter. We had to put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so that the cats live on one floor of the house, and Roo lives on the other.

The downright crappy: When I got home from knitting in public last night, Roo was sick. At first I thought it was just because she had gotten ahold of and chewed up a bunch of kleenex. So I cleaned up the carpet, gave her a drink and took her out to pee. Then she threw up again. All the water she'd just drunk. This went on all night, with her only being able to keep water down for about 5 minutes, and not wanting to eat anything. She didn't even want any peanut butter. Fred is on his way to the vet with her. We're both thinking kidney failure, and Fred said that while the vet didn't want to diagnose over the phone, he felt from her tone of voice that she agrees with us. So after a traumatic 5 days with the cats, it's about to get a whole lot more traumatic.

Edited to add: Apparently we get the slightly broken animals. Roo has the same thing that Zoe does - vestibular disorder. This is something that manifests in young cats and old dogs. I'm very happy that Roo's illness is not the worst-case scenario, but boy, it would be nice to have an animal at some point that isn't dizzy or limping or running away from dust.

Forever and a day...is how long it's taken me to get this posted.

Before the ceremony

Exchanging vows



Official kiss


Ring photo

Us with my girls

Fred getting in trouble (so it's all back to normal pretty quickly!)

In other very, very exciting news, I will be starting a new job October 1 that is only a 30 minute drive from home! Woo!

eta: Thanks to Allison, Jess and Callie for photo help!

It's like s*x, but better!

Ok, maybe not quite that good.

Still, loving Buffy and Dr. Who this just gave me a big fangirl squee, and considerably lightened up my Thursday afternoon.

Women Deliver

How badly do I want to go to this?

Women Deliver

So, so badly.

Sadly, People In Ties Inc. doesn't have a GL code for "feminist interest, and helping the women of the world".

They do have one for golf though. Hm. I wonder if I could make that work.

Circlet!

The last piece of jewelery is made!

Circlet front

Side

Back

Other side

Tonight I'll start sewing the dress together.

Two weeks! Woohoo!

I'm in Ravelry!

If you're not a knitter, or a friend/family member of a knitter, feel free to scroll down at look at my pretty wedding dress fabric.

*looks around*


*hyperventilates*


I got my invite to Ravelry!

I was all set to go quit my job so that I could stay home and knit/play on the knitting internet full time, then I realized that if I do that, there will never be any cash-ola to buy stuff to knit with, and they'd cut off my internet access.

Poop.

Whee!!!

The underskirt is mostly done.

Next, I move on the the overdress.


The necklace and earrings are made.



And I have my shoes.


I still need to make a thingy for my head (circlet won, but I'm still figuring out how to make one).

I am still waiting to hear back from the minister.

That's about it! Nineteen days. Woo!

Checklist

Done

~ Marriage License obtained
~ space for ceremony/Minister of Ceremonies booked
~ my ring (inherited from my paternal grandmother, via my mother - yes, I know that's an odd way of doing things)
~ Fred's outfit (he's wearing a suit and whatever shirt/tie he feels like putting on that day)
~ restaurant reservation (although I'll be confirming it again a little closer to the date. The girl (and yes, I mean girl, not woman) seemed a little distracted and giggly when I called, and thought I said five, not twenty-five)
~ asked friend to take photos
~ guest list finalized (of course, with only 25 people invited, that was pretty quick)
~ asked my mom and Fred's oldest friend (who just happens to be here from Texas at the time!) to be our witnesses

Still to do

~ get Fred's ring
~ get fabric for my dress, figure out what I'm putting on my head (I can't decide between a beaded snood, or a beaded circlet), make dress/jewelery/head thing
~ make and send invites that need mailing, hand out the rest, make map to go in invitations
~ talk to Minister of Ceremonies about the ceremony to find out how it all works, and if we can have music
~ if we can have music, find some (we have ideas, but nothing concrete)
~ figure out what I'm missing and do that

Less than 30 days people! Woo!

Official Announcement

The date: Friday August 3rd

The time: 1:00 pm

The place: Evergreen Seniors Centre, Guelph

The thing: We're gettin' hitched!

The dress. The one on the left, with the underskirt. Which won't have the fabric bought for it until less than a month before the wedding. Yipes!

Woohoo!