Active Day For Firemen

See this:

It's an active day today for our fire department. They have a forest fire in Port Mouton that they are still battling. They were stopping for the night, but it has flared back up and is blowing ash towards houses. Also early this afternoon at the same time this was going on, there was a chimney fire on Birch Ave. That ended up being a house fire. I haven't heard anything on how bad that was. Travis will be home tomorrow sometime. Guess he knows where he'll be a lot of his time home this weekend - out at this forest fire! Four helicopters were at this fire today. At 7pm I heard a helicopter coming my way. I looked out and saw them coming, two of them. I could see one had the water basket thing hanging underneath it. Anyways, it flew directly over my house, low enough to make my windows rattle. It would have been an awesome picture! They are staying at the local inn for the night (my former place of employment - mother-in-law still is there).

Besides the fires happening everywhere, it was a beautiful day today. (All three counties on the South Shore had numerous calls today for grass fires.) It was +14Celsius and sun, sun, sun! Tomorrow is going to be the same. The boys and I have been spending a lot of time outside.

I finished one of my striped socks tonight. I am sorta making the pattern up as I go. I think I need to tweak it a bit more before I post it as a free pattern. It's a little loose, at least in the leg. I don't mind loose socks - I always used to love slouch socks. I think I will pick up some more of the same yarn in a different colorway and go down a needle size. That may help instead of changing the number of stitches. The heel, gusset decreases, and toe worked out fine in that respect, so I don't really want to mess too much with it! I want to try to finish the other one by the weekend and get back to work on the Sockapalooza socks. The only thing done on those so far is the ribbing of the first sock, but I picked up another set of 2.25mm needles. Now I can hop to it! Running out of time! May 2 is fast approaching!

*The photos above of the fire were taken by a friend of mine, Stephen Nickerson. I copied them from the Queens County Times to my site, as the Times doesn't archive. I don't think he'd mind as long as he gets his credit!

Happy knitting!

Springtime

It's definitely springtime here. Well, at least this week. It's been gorgeous all week so far and is supposed to continue through the weekend. Yesterday after Darren got home from school we stayed outside until 5. Today Logan and I went for a walk around 1. He fell asleep for about 30 minutes. When we got home we stayed outside. He played in the sandbox and on his tricycle while I bagged up six more big bags of leaves! We have a prickly hedge that goes down both sides of the yard and across the back yard. That was just down one side! That must put the total number of bags of leaves between some last fall and so far this spring at 28ish. I should have kept a better count. I will continue tomorrow. I have to work, but it's going to be sunny and +12Celsius so I'm sure once Darren gets home from school we will be outside til suppertime again. We had to stop playing outside today at about 4:30 because I had to meet our driver outside of the paper mill to get my pay statement from him.

Travis should be home sometime Thursday. He's in Montreal and picked up a rather large seadoo that takes up about half of the flatdeck. In the morning he's picking up some other stuff and then will be heading home. This is a picture he took with his cell phone, thus the not-so-good quality, of what he hauled from Red Deer, Alberta, to Montreal. Guess he was right when he said he needs to wash his truck when he gets home! She look pretty grungy. But our yellow truck doesn't! I didn't think it could get any more yellow! That poor truck doesn't know what hit it! Our driver and his wife are neat freaks and have that thing spotless inside and out. She looks good. Here's a pic he sent me. He plans on doing more polishing this weekend.

Got some goodies in the mail today. I saw Quickeye had these, so I ordered some. They're from aCloset.com. I love them! She even sent a little bag to keep them in! My first nice stitch markers. I am going to keep an eye out for new ones. I really like the penguins, but they were sold out. A couple of these even have little bells on them!

I also got one of my eBay purchases today. I love Coronation Street, and I bought this doodle by one of the actresses that was sold for a charity auction. I will take it to work and get it framed.

I guess I didn't check my mail last Friday. There were notices sent out about the military training exercises in town on the weekend! Guess I was one of the few who didn't know anything about it!

Anyhoo, must go do some knitting. I haven't gotten much done the past few days where its been so nice. I have shaped the instep on my sock I started the other day. I hope they won't be too loose. I'm sorta making up my own pattern. I also have only one sleeve left to make for Logan's jacket, plus the hood and button bands (and the dreaded sewing-up!). I also remembered to get another pack of 2.25mm needles so I can get to work on those Sockapalooza socks!

Happy knitting!

Short Rows Will Have to Wait

Warning: Picture-heavy post!


Short rows will have to wait for another time. I'm running out of time for Sockapalooza. I had finally figured out the first half of the heel and was starting to do the "decreases". The boys were being particularly disruptive, and I lost my place. I ended up getting pissy and ripped it all out. I picked out this pattern to make for my sock pal, plus I want to make a pair for myself as well. I did start them yesterday, but the pattern calls for five needles with the lace pattern using a 15st repeat. I only had four 2.25mm needles, so I only did the ribbing and stopped. I have to work tomorrow, so I am going to pick up another set. I did start these self-striping socks for myself, however. I am kind of making up the pattern as I go. I tried to do this pattern, but they were too big. I ripped it back to the ribbing and tried decreasing. Seems okay so far. I have a couple of inches to go til I start the heel. I am keeping track of what I am doing, and if it turns out I will post it on my sidebar as a link to my first free pattern!

Its been really nice out the last few days. Lots of playing outside for the boys while I did some yard work. Today was breezier, so when I was finished plunking around the yard I sat just inside the garage out of the wind and knit while the boys played. Logan kicked up a big stink when it was time to go inside, but I was getting cold, and it was almost suppertime. Here's some of the things I did:

This is the walkway beside where I park my Dodge. I took a shovel and evened the bank. I had these landscaping ties left from last year. I had planned to use them for something else, but I can get more. I was feeling energetic, so do it while the feeling lasts! When Travis gets home I have to get him to drill these and nail them together. I may do it myself before he gets home. I would like to maybe do it one more row higher and get some Moonrays for on the top. We'll see.

This is my front walkway. Today I took my shovel and dug out the outer edge of it. I plan on running that black edging stuff along it and plant flowers. I need the edging to keep Travis from decapitating anything I plant with the weedwacker! He's not very careful. I had Moonrays along there once upon a time, but there was no protection for them, and they met an untimely death. He knocked the tops off so many times that the little nobby things to hold them on were gone. Then he'd hit them when he weedwacked, thus knocking the tops off and mostly smashing the lights inside in the process!

I relocated some phlox, too. The spot it was in is too shady, and the leaves get moldy. It was starting to sprout, so I hope I didn't kill it! I really don't have much of a green thumb. I try mostly to get stuff that comes back year after year and is very easy to grow! These are rather close to the fence, but they can get tall and wonky, so this spot will be easy to string a piece of twine to tie them up if needed. The front yard gets sun all day long, so they should do extremely well here.

Daffodils coming up. There's also tulips, bleeding heart, orange lilies, and some other things sprouting as well. My lilac bushes have buds, too!

This is my biggest garden. Well, really my only garden so far. I have plans for other spots in the yard, too. It doesn't look like much now, but it is nice when everything is in bloom. There are a whole bunch of orange lilies that grow by the doorstep. There's also yellow primrose, four different astilbes, asiatic lilies, variagated zebra grass, and other things. (Some of these pics in the links are close to what I have.) I couldn't believe how much higher the orange lilies grew in the couple of days since I raked all the leaves off of them!

Think I need a new chimney, wouldn't you say? We have a fireplace, and pretty much every time it rains (depending on how hard and the wind direction) it leaks. I am going to start calling some bricklayers over the next couple of weeks and get some quotes. I had a quote a few years back, and it ain't cheap! I hope to get it done in May. There are flakes of bricks all over the ground around the chimney. I'm surprised the tulips pushed their way up through it all!

The boys had lots of fun in the sandbox and on their bikes this weekend! Yesterday I took them both skating. The fire department rented the rink for an hour for the kids to go skating. Afterwards we went back to the hall for hot dogs. Darren did better skating yesterday than he's ever done! He only fell twice, I think, trying to keep up with me when I was pushing Logan around on a chair. It was only Logan's third time skating. He did okay. We took a break halfway through for hot chocolate and some gummy worms. At the end when there was probably less than ten minutes left, Logan came off the ice. Darren stayed on. Then Logan decided he wanted to go out without me, and he only wanted Darren and another little girl to help him. I went out on the ice, too. There weren't many people there, but some of the teens were acting like teens, and I didn't want someone to run over him. He normally won't move unless I hold his hand. I try to get him to let go - he does much better. He tried skating by himself like Darren and Jamie. He fell down quite a bit but quickly learned how to get up by himself, which he thought was the greatest thing. He's going to catch on to skating much faster than Darren. I think any Saturdays that I am off I will take them to public skating, til they take the ice out of the rink for the season. I actually got to skate around a little bit on my own! Usually I have a kid attached to my hand or leg. I had to laugh at Darren giving Logan skating instructions - you'd think he was a pro! I think Darren and Jamie helping him out made a big difference. I wish he hadn't waited til it was almost over to really get into it! I am hoping the next time he'll be as interested and into it as he was yesterday.

So we had a busy, active weekend. Poor Travis was stuck at a truck stop in Ontario for two days. His load he's hauling is oversize, so he couldn't move it on the weekend. Tomorrow he will continue on to Quebec. The dispatcher was trying to get him to go from Montreal back to Windsor, Ontario, then take a load of steel to Alberta. I don't think he can. He is running out of one of his medications, and he doesn't have any tarps yet. He's quite sure steel has to be tarped. He's lucky he didn't get a broken jaw or nose today. He was tightening one of his straps using a steel bar. He should have been using two hands, but he was only using one. It flew out of his hand, he reared back, but it knocked his glasses and hat off and did catch his nose enough to give him a nosebleed. Betcha that was some kinda sailor talk coming out of him! Hope there was no one around!

I'm not quite sure what was going on yesterday. I was quite surprised to look out my window in the morning and see these guys going down my street. I saw them up near the arena, too. Must have been doing some kind of training. It's just weird because there are no bases around here.

Anyways, this post is too long. Can you tell I'm bored?

Happy knitting!

Not Much New

Just looking and see I haven't posted since Sunday. I don't really have much to report in the knitting world. I made it to the heel of my Wyverns, but the short rows aren't going too well. After several rip-outs, I am still at the heel and decided to set it aside til I finish Logan's Sirdar sweater. I'm not enjoying that much, either. Don't like the yarn. Too splitty and loose-spun. I don't like the looks so much of the stocking stitch, but I'll live with it. I have the back and the two fronts completed. I have almost half of one sleeve done. The sleeves are all moss stitch and aren't so bad.

So it's looking like my Sockapalooza pal will most likely be getting something other than Wyverns, something with a heel flap. I may do one of Sockbug's patterns, not sure yet. I just don't know, but I'd better make my mind up soon. They have to be done and ready to mail on May 2! I may figure out the short row heels and go with my original plan. I think I will sit down and try it again tomorrow night after the chitlins are asleep.

Hubby is not a happy camper. He's on his first run in the new truck, and this is also his first time hauling flatdeck. They weren't supposed to give him anything oversized til he gets used to it. Monday he ended up loading a huge grader - by himself! (Should look something similar to this.) Took about four hours. He was not happy. It's going to Montreal. He called this afternoon from the Manitoba/Ontario border to say he had a flat tire on the flatdeck. He was waiting for someone to come from Winnipeg to fix it (about a two hour wait). Because this thing is oversize it can't be hauled after dark. He also found out that if there is any precipitation of any kind or fog he cannot drive, and also it is illegal to haul oversized loads in Ontario and Quebec on the weekend! So if he gets up tomorrow morning and there's flurries or showers he can't go anywhere. (Ontario's weather is 60% chance of showers or flurries.) Plus now he's stuck in Ontario for the weekend and probably won't get home til next weekend. That makes this trip almost three weeks when he was only supposed to be gone for one-and-a-half weeks. Definitely not a good way to start a new job.

Well, I must get ready to hit the hay. Darren's been getting up like 6-6:30, and when he gets up he's not happy til he wakes everyone else up.

Happy knitting!

March of the Penguins (and Other Birds!)

Today was the Canskate Ice Show. It was called Birds of a Feather. Darren was a penguin. He did really well - better than I thought he'd do! I figured he'd get there and see all the people and not want to go out on the ice. His group were second out, and he had to sit there til the end when they all went back out. I wasn't allowed to stay over where he was, and I had my fingers crossed that he behaved himself! I kept watching, and he seemed to just sit there wrapped up in his blanket and watch the show. He said he enjoyed watching all the other kids skate, especially one boy who skated solo to the Star Wars theme song! I didn't get any still pictures. I had the video camera, and Travis is in Saskatchewan, so it was only me! I did get Darren to try his outfit on last night. It was quite snug. He has a long torso, so the costume didn't quite cover his belly. One of the other little guys had the same problem. The hood looks too big here because it was made to fit over his helmet. It's hard to see, but there's a bunch of little yellow beaks in a row on the right end of the bench. I was too far away to get a decent picture. After the grand finale a lot of the kids stayed on the ice so parents could take pictures. Not Darren, of course. He took off so I didn't get any. My video turned out well, and that was most important! I can always try to take some pics off that.

Remember this from a couple of days ago?

Now it's slowly turning into this:

My very first ever toe-up sock! I didn't realize that Wyverns were toe-up, short row heel. I had terrible trouble with this so far, but it's my fault, not the pattern. I tried short-row toes in the tutorial linked in the pattern. Ripped it out three times, then I decided to try the third method listed in the tutorial, the "Easy Toe". That one worked fine. (I don't crochet, but I did have a 3mm hook and looked up how to make a chain. I used to be able to make chains only, but that was a long time ago.) I won't go into detail about my problems with the sock - they're so lame I'm embarassed! Let's just say I should have been paying more attention, and the problems wouldn't have happened, and I'd be a lot farther along by now. (Sometimes it's not good to try to watch a movie and knit at the same time!) I will have to see how I can cope with the heels. I was thinking of making a pair of these for Sockapalooza, but I'll have to see how mine look in the end. I'm terribly fussy, especially when giving something to of all people a fellow knitter! I may try these heels when I get to that point (probably tomorrow night). Take a look at Dave's socks in his post from March 17. He used Sherman heels, and they look awesome. I was reading through the pattern yesterday, but I really need to actually do it before I really grasp what it is I'm doing (or supposed to be doing!).

This is where hubby is supposed to be tomorrow to offload a bunch of farm equipment. He's in Saskatchewan now, and they had terrible driving conditions today. I was talking to him after the ice show, and he said they were advising people to stay off the roads. He saw a lot of cars in the ditches. It wasn't really snowing, but the snow was blowing onto the roads from the ditches and turning to ice once it was driven on. I watched the Global news from Saskatoon, and it was their first news story. I'll be a wreck with him driving in the dead of winter next year!

Must go find something to watch so I can get lost and mess up my sock again! I should be okay til I get to the heel, then I better have "quiet concentration"!

Happy knitting!

STAR WARS TV SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! I'm so excited!!! Look what I just found!

Star Wars is going to be a TV series! A 100-episode TV series telling the story of Luke and the other characters growing up. It will take place between Episodes III and IV, filling in the blanks from the 20-year span in the movies. I am a huge Star Wars fan! The only original cast member for now is Anthony Daniels, beloved C3PO.

(Bit of SW trivia - Anthony Daniels was the only actor to appear in all six movies. My husband heard that on the radio one time and thought he could trip me up with it. I don't think so!)

Yay, yay, yay!!!

Happy Knitting!

Is There a Rabbit in the House?

Is there a rabbit in my house that I don't know about?

No, it's just this little munchkin! We had half of this cooked with supper. I was keeping the rest of it for tomorrow or the next night. He did this to me one day in the grocery store, too. I was paying for my stuff, and I heard him say, "I like grass!" I looked, and he had reached over and grabbed my broccoli out of the shopping bag and started chewing on it! I ended up breaking off a couple of heads so he could chew on them. Guess I shouldn't complain! It's healthy! (Darren wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot-pole, even if I put cheese on it!)

I worked this afternoon, and I work all day tomorrow and Saturday. It's been soooooo slow and boring it isn't funny. I can't stand it. I just think of all the other things I could be doing. This summer may call early retirement for me. A lady that used to work at the store before I started working there is starting again on the 27th. She had to quit before because after eight or nine years she became allergic to the chemicals in the mini labs. She will print pictures but can't mix chemicals or touch any of the racks unless she wants all the skin on her hands to peel off. I guess she was a mess. Travis doesn't want me working when he's only going to be home for four days every two weeks or so. I also normally work every second Saturday, but with him doing this I can't guarantee them that I will have a sitter to watch the boys. I already told them that. The girl I get now is very active and is in a lot of things at school. She is busy a lot of Saturdays. I may only be able to get her for half a day or not at all. I can see it being a major problem once the summer hits. Plus once Darren is out of school for the summer I would have to rely on her totally as Ma isn't supposed to watch them both at the same time because of her blood pressure. (For me to scoot to the grocery store or something is different. An hour or so is alright.) For what little bit I make every two weeks it's not worth the headache. I already figured out that working a bit extra over this March break is only getting me about 3 or 4 more hours than normal. By the time I pay the sitter I will actually make less than what I normally clear working my usual hours!

Hubby is getting homesick already. He's been sitting in Montreal for a day-and-a-half, waiting to get this other piece of equipment he needed to pick up cleared. The paperwork wasn't ready on it yesterday morning when he was there. I talked to him mid-afternoon, and he was waiting for the guy to come back from lunch break so he could get it put on and hit the road. I hope he makes good money at this! The first payment on the Pete comes out April 2. I'm so scared that I'm not going to have the money to pay for it. He won't get a pay from Clarkes til March 31, and he had to buy some stuff for the truck through them. They are supposed to span it out over as many pays as possible. Our other truck will have a small pay, even worse because when I checked the statement today for this week's pay I noticed they only took one week of fuel out. That means next pay will lose $1,000 off the top for the fuel missed this pay! Grrr! I hate it when that happens! Plus the driver had to take it to the garage last night because it was shaking so bad when he got up to around 85km/h. Come to find out the king pin on the driver's side was gone. I still haven't got a copy of that bill or the one for the broken spring/broken air can/new u-bolt yet. I shudder to think what I owe that place. Ah, the pleasures of owning not one but two trucks now! Gonna have one whomping HST return for the month of March, that's for sure!

(Sorry about this negative venting, but I had to let some steam off.)

Hmmm, what's this, I wonder? Will have to tune in toworrow and see how much more its grown!

Happy knitting!

On The Road

Travis left today for his first trip in the Peterbilt. He had gone in to Halifax yesterday, basically for nothing. He was there for 8 am, but they were having trouble finding him something to haul. His tarps and binders are in Woodstock, New Brunswick, so they had to be careful with what they gave him for a load. He may have ended up borrowing some from a company truck and will just give them back once he returns. Also most places were short-staffed yesterday because of March break, and Mondays can be a little slow anyways. So he came home last night and left again this morning. He just called and is getting ready to leave Halifax. He has some sort of roller thing he has to take to Edmonton, Alberta. He has to stop in Montreal and pick some other piece of equipment up as well.

Yesterday I took Logan to Moms & Tots skating. He wore real skates this time. I tried getting him to hold onto a chair, but he preferred to hold my hand. He ended up sitting on the chair and getting me to push him around for a little bit. He did better when I let go of his hand, but he kicked up a fit until I took his hand again. There was one poor kid there about 5-years-old who just absolutely screamed the whole time. He hated it, but his mother kept him out there. About half-way through the hour Logan sat on the chair again, and I pushed him around the rink. We were going a pretty good clip, and I noticed his head looked a little sideways. I stopped and took a look, and there he was, sound asleep! I wish I had taken my camera! I tried to wake him up, but he was too tired, so he took a "power nap" for about 20 minutes, sitting on a chair on the sideboards. Once I could get him awake it was pretty much time to leave anyways. Darren went skating last night for an hour. One of his classmates had the rink rented for an hour, and he and his two brothers had a skating party for their friends.

Not much knitting done at all the past few days. I started Logan's Sirdar sweater, but I only have probably not quite half of the back knit. I didn't a stitch yesterday, which is unusual for me. I have to work this afternoon, so I probably won't get much knitting done til this evening. Have a Yarn is having a no tax sale on for the next two weeks. Nova Knitter wanted to know if I wanted to go there with her Friday or Saturday. Of course, I agreed to work all day both days so the owners could take their kids somewhere all night. Every time I get a chance to do something non-kid related it never works out. We are going to try to go there after she gets back from her Florida trip. I've never been to this shop yet, so I am quite excited about it!

Must go fold laundry.

Happy knitting!

New Sock Yarn and Sirdar Denim Chunky

This is my gorgeous, new sock yarn from eBay. I took it outside and tried natural light for the second picture. Had to take an up-close of the orangey one. I love that one best, I think! I am going to make Wyverns with this one. They all may become Wyverns, depending on how the first pair goes. Then again, I may try to decide between the other two which one I want for Sockapalooza. Kinda had in mind to make Wyverns for Sockapalooza, too. I will make my pair first and see how it goes from there. I do have a couple of back-up patterns if I change my mind. I will definitely be a repeat buyer from this seller!

I also got my Sirdar Denim Chunky, also an eBay purchase. I started Logan's sweater with it. I only have a few rows completed so far, and I find it kinda splitty. It's going to be nice, though, and it's going to knit up fast.

I also completed my March socks for the Sock-A-Month-Knitalong! They were knit with Patons Shetland Chunky in a discontinued color called Sand Marl. These will go in our camper, I think. They are too thick to wear with any of my shoes. I think they'll be good to wear evenings/mornings when it's still chilly. We camp early and late in the season. Our camper has a furnace. The first pair of socks I ever made were these socks in the very same color! I had knit a sweater for myself (which I still have) and had enough left over to make the socks. I ended up wearing them for slippers and wore the bottoms right out of them!

Lastly, I had to take this picture of Logan and Simba last night in Daddy's chair.

Happy Knitting!

Stay Tuned!

I was hoping to get some pictures posted tonight of my eBay yarn purchases, but my camera batteries died, so they are being recharged right now. I promise that I will get them posted tomorrow night! I have to work til 2:30, so it will be after that.

I got the absolute most gorgeous, softest, 100% pure merino wool, hand-dyed sock yarn ever! I bought three skeins - hot pink, hot purple, and an orangey one for me. One of the other two will be Sockapalooza socks, but I think I will have to make a pair of socks from each and then decide which to send. It's just so hard! I will definitely be buying more yarn from this seller in the future. She does an absolutely gorgeous yellow that seems to be one of her most popular colors. She even wound the skeins for me into centre-pull balls! (I don't have a winder - yet!) I also got my Sirdar Denim Chunky from eBay today. Remember - got four skeins for the price of buying one at regular retail?! I am just finishing up a pair of chunky socks for me, so I think I will start Logan's sweater out of the SDC tomorrow. Should knit up quickly. I can also see starting a pair of socks with my gorgeous new sock yarn as well!

Pictures tomorrow, I promise! Camera batteries always pick the worst time to need recharging!

Happy Knitting!

Hornets Still Buzzing

The CF-18 Hornets are still flying around, although today it didn't last as long, nor did they fly so slow over my house. Kinda worries me cuz face it - the Canadian military is kinda well-known for its, um, junk. I was reading on this site about the 18 crashes of CF-18s since 1984, the last one being last year. This site also gives good specs and stuff on them although it's the US version of the same plane.

Another pic that was posted on the Queens County Times. I stuck it on my blog because QCT isn't archived.

This photo was taken by Kenny Veinot. Yesterday's shot was by Chris Masland.

Happy knitting!

Invasion?

I thought we were being invaded before supper tonight. There was an awful racket. I didn't know what it was at first. After a bit I clued in that it was a plane, but I didn't see it at first. It was flying really low, and it turned out to be this.

It's a Canadian Forces F-18 "Hornet", apparently conducting exercises in our area. I didn't think they usually did that over residential areas, especially flying that low. I know if I had my binoculars out I could have seen the pilot! He was doing all sorts of fancy turns and flips. Kinda got on my nerves after a bit because it was soooo loud.

I finally remembered to take my camera to work yesterday. Here are some pics of our new sock yarns.

Lots of pictures! The Regia in the first picture is $8.99/skein. That stuff's all a cotton blend. It's really soft. The 50g Sockas are $7.99/skein, and the 100g Sockas are $15.99/skein. All the prices are Canadian, and we do ship yarn if anyone is interested! Payments accepted via PayPal or directly to the store with MasterCard, VISA, or American Express!

Got kinda sad news to day - good for Shelly, bad for us. She got another job offer. It's only til the end of June, so she may be back when it is over, but they told her it may turn into a full-time position but wasn't guaranteed. I don't blame her for taking this job - she'll make twice as much an hour as she makes now. I think she will still be working some Friday nights and a Saturday once in awhile. She starts Monday. She's the one who really does all of the yarn orders. I am only there two days a week, she's full-time. She will be missed, but ya gotta do whatchya gotta do!

Travis finished his training today. They wanted him to go on the road tomorrow, but he has to go to the garage to get the lights put on his truck and get his inverter wired in. Then they tried for Friday, but I think he's going to try to weasel it out til Monday. Some of the paperwork got messed up, so they couldn't plate it today. They have to get that fixed before he can go anywhere. I think he will be taking something to Ontario, then continue on to British Columbia maybe, then bring something back to Nova Scotia. They asked him today if he was interested in going all the way to the west coast, and he said yes. He did that once before when he long hauled for the same company, but back then he drove some else's truck. (Who didn't have an Espar heater, truck was set to only idle for 15 minutes then shut down, went through in the dead of winter when it was -40Celsius, so cold his cans of pop and soups froze and broke open, and he was sleeping in the truck in this! I told him he was crazy! Frost on his blankets and everything! Shoulda reported the broker for unfit working conditions. Then it was to the other extreme when he went down south in the extreme heat and had to sleep without air conditioning or any air flow. Who wants to leave their windows down and risk someone breaking in while you're sleeping?) This truck doesn't have an Espar heater yet, but at least he can idle it if it's too cold. I will definitely buy one of those heaters before the fall for him. I also took a picture of the headache rack I was talking about the other day.

It was hard to get a shot of the headache rack around the fence, but you can pretty much see it all in that shot.

Well, this was a long post. Darren is hovering to use the computer. Must go try to finally finish his mitten.

Happy knitting!

Too Good To Pass Up

Well, I have broken my pledge to not buy any new yarn until I use up some of the yarn I already have. This was too good to pass up. Four balls of Sirdar Denim Chunky in grey marl, $0.99US, no bids, $10US shipping, on eBay. I bid on it, had one bid against me which took it up to $2.26US. I ended up winning it, so by the time I did the exchange it only cost me $14.28CDN!!! Check out the price per ball -- this is what I would have paid for one ball! I got 4 balls! I have wanted to make this jacket for Logan for awhile now, and guess what! His size requires 4 balls for the hooded version. Perfecto! Can't pass up a deal like that! (And I did also buy three skeins of hand-dyed sock yarn off eBay - haven't gotten it yet - but Sockapalooza socks are destined from one of the skeins. I couldn't make my mind up which to choose, hot pink or hot purple, so I had to get both. Then, of course, there was the gorgeous orangey yarn I had to get for Wyverns...)

I haven't gotten too much done this weekend. I did get one of Darren's mittens finished. I made an extra-long cuff, as he hates snow going up his jacket sleeves. I made the large child's size, so it's just a smidge too big, not enough to worry about. I started the other one, but I only have a few rounds of ribbing done so far. Think I will go take a quick bath and watch the Oscars awards show for a bit. I'll work on the mitten some more. (He picked this color out himself!)

Happy Knitting!