Monsters & Snow

"Hey! Hey! We're the monsters!

And we're just hanging around...

Soon two of us will be leaving...

And heading across town..."

"Hi! I'm Niobe. Like my curls?!"

"Hi! I'm Morpheous. 

Yes, Mom was watching Matrix while making me 

and decided I wasn't complete without Niobe. 

She really likes her crocheted curls."

"Hi! We'll be heading to Mr K & Corey's house soon.

We hope they give us names!"

These monsters are lots of fun to make. I could have made the whole Matrix crew - lol!

You know how I am! *sigh* Sanity, it's a good thing. 

I used Lorna's Laces Green Line Worsted - Pioneer, for Morpheous. 

Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted - Icehouse & Lakeview, for the boys.

Lorna's Laces Green Line DK - Red Rover, for Niobe.

First Snow

November 22nd will be a day I never forget. It started snowing in the morning and started sticking in the afternoon. I was at work, totally distracted. I left at 4:30pm to catch the bus with Lynn. We caught the first bus heading to the Park & Ride at 4:40pm. At 5:15pm, Wooly calls me to see where I am - I'm close to Macy's. He says I should be home by 7pm. I laugh. I'll be lucky to be home then. 

Then, our regular bus pulls ahead of us and Lynn & I jump off and run after our regular bus. At 7:30pm I call Wooly and tell him we're at 8th & Olive (4 blocks from Macy's). He thinks I'm joking. He thinks I'm at the Park & Ride and want him to come get me.

At 8:05pm we finally get on I-5 and there's heavy traffic heading north, so we're plugging along. The temperature is 23*F, not counting the wind chill. It's like we're in a snow globe & very windy. Lynn says we better get across the bride before they close it. There's hardly anyone heading south.

At 8:50pm we're stuck on the bridge. I call Wooly at 9:30 to tell him we're mid span on the bridge going nowhere. The entertainment is that the guys are jumping off the bus & jumping the barrier to push the cars heading west that lost traction. Wooly freaks out and yells, "I DON'T WANT YOU OUT THERE PUSHING CARS!!!" Dude, I'm not. I'm wishing I had my camera so I could document this trip.

At 10:30pm I report to Wooly that we're still on the bridge. The bus died twice. Now we have no heat. My legs are freezing. I'm wishing I had the Sofia Wrap from Rowan 48. I've got to make that.

At 11:30pm we're still not moving! I can't believe we've been here forever! Wooly tells me that according to the news, I'm in the worst spot.

At 12:05am we're moving! Yippee! I-405 is totally clear. Everyone must be home except us.

At 12:15am we pull up to the Park & Ride and I start digging out my car - with no deicer or scrapper. The only good thing is that it's very bright, the wind died down, it's not snowing, and no one is on the roads now. I assure myself that my car is great in the snow and I will make it down & up the huge hills with no problem and get myself home.

At 12:45am I pull into our driveway! Hooray! Wooly is still awake. I'm cold, tired and beyond hungry = me at my worst. Wooly asks how I made it without peeing for 8 hours? 

I'm a camel.

I had the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving, so I just had to make it home. 

Here's Wooly and my car. He thought it would be fun to go out the next day. I stayed home. Someone stopped on the hill on the way home and he had to back down and try going up it again. I warned him of the stupid drivers that ruin your day. He was beyond pissed. It snowed again Thanksgiving day. Good thing we weren't going anywhere. I never left the house until Friday.

 Mr K and Corey had fun in the snow.

 Look out!

So, this last Saturday, Mom calls me and says, "I know we were going out to lunch, but, Mr K called and said he and Corey and Brother are coming over. Why don't you just come over too!" You can see where I rank.

Wooly dropped me off while he went to play with his friends.

Brother said he asked Mr K if he's played Wii at Grandpa's house before. He said, "Yes! Remember, Michele was there!!" Yippee! He knows me! And I was there again!

Notice Mr K's shirt. 

Corey was pointing to Mr K's shirt babbling away and Mr K says, "Yeah Corey! I'm wearing my bowling shirt! And I'm bowling!"

I say, "Yeah! Good call Corey!"

Mr K looks at me and says, "Ive got 2 pins and 1 ball."

LOL!

So, I've been in a knitting funk lately and really having a hard time getting motivated about anything. Wooly asked me what my problem was last night and I did my silent scream and he started laughing. I hope my mojo returns soon... or I'll have to make the whole Matrix crew - lol! 

Happy Knitting! :)

Pie

"I fail to see the humor. This defines exploited."

"So, what happens if we lose these mittens?... we get no pie?!"

"Shut up! We're NOT kittens! Don't give her any ideas!"

Is this what 'pooling' means?

These monsters knit up really fast. Now I've just got to stuff & sew them up.

Speaking of pie...

 Grandpa had a lemon meringue pie for his birthday. Mr K & Corey put on the candles.

 I guess Grandpa is six. Mr K helped blow them out.
Notice the San Francisco place mats, in honor of the Giant's World Series Win.

  Mr K loves pie and wasted no time eating his whole piece.

 Corey was more interested in the edaname.

Guess what Grandpa got for his birthday? Wii would like to play too, but it was all Mr K.
Poor Corey doesn't know the batteries were removed from his remote.

I asked Mr K what is favorite color is. He said, "blue, green & black."
I asked him if he knew what Corey's favorite color is. He said, "Corey hasn't told me."
I said, "Yeah, he hasn't told me either."
Brother started laughing.

We all had fun and Wooly was happy the boys got use to him (after 3 hours) and he got a high-five from both of them when we left. Yeah, Uncle Wooly is pretty intimidating - big & loud... even without his bagpipes.

Wooly has a re occurring dream that one of them asks him to mentor him in piping. Wooly gives him lessons and takes him to all the games and he ends up being really great. I keep telling him not to hold his breath. You know Brother & SIL aren't into piping. It makes me feel bad for Wooly.

 While watching the Giants win the World Series (baseball), I got a lot of knitting time and managed to get the body done for the Red Queen. Now on to the sleeves.

"Mom, you really think your fat head is going to fit through that hole?"
"Smoothie, shut up. That's why you don't get any pie."

geez.

Happy Knitting! :)
I'm looking forward to pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Unbelievable

Oh, ribbing, how I love thee.
Life has been unbelievable. Luckily, I've got my Red Queen to keep me sane.

Here's the story.

All of a sudden I could no longer visit Jimmy Bean's Wool. Not that I order a lot from them, I just enjoy looking at all the yarn, watching their videos, reading reviews and clicking on Wool Watcher to see what the special is. The sight still worked at my job, so I thought it was strange that I couldn't access it from home.

I mentioned it to Wooly. He said it's because our internet provider left Washington state, so those 'other people' took over.

I called 'op' and was on the phone for an hour. I ended up talking to the Supervisor, who said, "We've exhausted all of our resources on this end. (translated: Woman, get off my phone!)" I asked if they could bring up the sight on their end. He said they don't have access to the internet. (what?!) It's got to be Jimmy having a problem with their sight." I told them it's not Jimmy that has a problem.

He said, "Do you have a smart phone?"

I said, "No, I've got a stupid phone. And a stupid computer. I guess I'm just going to find something else to do besides knitting, since I can't order yarn from Jimmy because there's no server!"

He said, "No, you can't give up knitting! My mom knits and nothing can get those needles out of her hands!"

I felt better. I guess he kinda understood why I was so exasperated.

I emailed Jimmy, to see if they've been having problem. No problems.

The next day, Wooly called our IT guy and spent 1/2 hour with them. It's not your computer. It's your internet provider (op). Wooly called op and spent an hour with them. They finally said they can sign us up for 'super duper internet help' for $15 per month for a minimum of 1 year and no guarantee that they could fix the problem. Wooly told them where they could stick it.

Meanwhile, we got another email from Jimmy saying that they talked to their host & there are 5 people who have reported the same problem... and gave us a link that explained how to switch servers. We thanked them, and explained our fear of changing anything because we're old & our whole computer might blow up.

Then it happened.

Wooly found a bagpipe sight he couldn't access. Now, THIS is a MAJOR SERIOUS PROBLEM!
Now, he knows how I feel!

"UNBELIEVABLE! LOOK! IZ DID IT!

Just call me Wooly, Computer Genious! Wooly, I.T. conqueror of ALL!"

Yay Wooly! He followed the instructions on the link & it worked! Yippee Yahoo!

We emailed Jimmy and let them know it worked for us and thanked them profusely - they gave us real customer service.

I know what you're thinking. Michele, what did you order?!

 I know! Unbelievable! Why? 

Cute monsters for my cute monkey monster nephews! Can you believe this is Corey?! I asked Brother what their favorite colors are. He said, "blue & blue," he doesn't know, I found it very funny...

 Everyone has their favorite! Kamati likes Pioneer. Turtle likes Icehouse. Smoothie likes Lakeview.

Yep, Christmas presents.

Op called us the other day saying that they heard we wanted to sign up for 'super duper internet help.' Wooly told them where they could stick it (again) and that we didn't need their help, so don't call us.

Unbelievable.

 I love my Red Queen. The only sane thing in this unbelievably insane life... and I haven't even told you about my job! Don't worry. I won't dump that on you guys. That's what Wooly is for. :)

Happy Knitting!
Go Monsters! :)