Bah humbug!

Yikes, I am in the full throes of pre-Christmas traumatic stress syndrome. First of all I was way behind on everything as I was out of town from December 8th through the 13th. When I got home from my biz trip at 11 pm on the 13th, and drove up to my completely dark, undecorated house, I shed a tear, knowing the horror that would await me inside after 6 full days away. All things which Sisyphus dreads, laundry, homework, vacuuming! Did anyone vacuum while I was gone, no. Did anyone help middle child do 11 notecards on Malaria which were due Friday, no! Did anyone help my youngest make her costume for the holiday program which was Friday, no! Did my husband complete the one task I assigned him, which was to take the Christmas picture, no! I had to prioritize! Thursday night, did the notecards and costume (she had to go dressed as a toy, she was a puzzle). Friday, cleaned the house. Saturday decorated the tree. Sunday, baked 4 pans of gingerbread and invited the neighbors over to make gingerbread houses. In between, tried to knock out as much shopping as was humanly possible. Monday, mixed up some Christmas cookies which I baked off just now. Only they didn't come out. I thought the dough seemed impossibly buttery, but I went ahead and baked it, after ending up with a buttery pile of nuts on the cookie sheet, I realized my mistake! I was using Plugra high end butter and I used a whole block which is 2 cups! instead of the 1 cup called for. Usually I crank out 600 cookies 2 weekends before Christmas, I guess I don't work well under pressure! I've posted a picture of a truly dedicated mom for all to enjoy. Apparently this tiger had 2 cubs who died, and the tiger got very depressed. The zoo decided to try dressing piglets up as tigers so that she could have babies to care for, and it worked (luckily for the piglets!)

Vegas Baby

So here is a picture of my Irish Hiking Scarf in Malabrigo, color Frank Ochre, hanging out in front of Ceasar's in Vegas! Yeah Baby! (said in Austin Powers voice) I felt kind of silly snapping this pic, & I wanted to have the Live Showgirl posing in front of Bally's hold it for me, but I would have felt silly asking her. And besides she was busy posing with all the millions of cowboys who were in town for the Rodeo. I used to love Cowboys with their big hats, short haircuts, tight jeans, and good manners(in that order), but Brokeback kinda ruined it for me because now I feel like they have no interest in me, they're more interested in each other. Had loads of fun in Vegas, it's a long story, but I got onto the VIP list at Tao (a hot nightclub at the Venetian), my husband had no interest in going, so I brought the two 23 year boys on our trip with me (I am literally the same age as one of their moms!). It was a nice club if you like tons of people and lots of girl on girl action. I had to mention that because I can't wait for someone to google that phrase and end up on a knitting blog! Ha!

Merry Christmas to Me

My husband doesn't know it yet, but he's giving me this Kim Hargreaves kit for Christmas. I love her stuff, and when I saw it was on sale a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't resist. Plus Rowan Biggy yarn = instant gratification, which is my type of project. I finished my second heart hat, plus Shannon (author of Knitgrrl) wrote me back & acknowledged that the editor of her book might have screwed up the chart (she couldn't remember & couldn't find a copy of the book laying around.) So if you see new errata concerning the heart hat, you can thank me for it. FYI I knit the first out of Malabrigo, and the second out of Lamb's Pride Worsted; my middle child, owner of the Lamb's Pride worsted, complains that it's itchy, not so for the Malabrigo, I thought you should know. Also, I probably had 1/3 to 1/2 of the Malabrigo left afterwords.