Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all! I hope everyone had a nice time last night doing whatever y'all did. Skip the next two paragraphs if you want to avoid my rant.

Last night we went to the fire hall dance. It totally sucked. They played crappy music. We got there shortly before 11, and I went up to the bar to get a kahlua and milk. "We don't have any." No kahlua and milk. None. That's my drink, and they didn't have it. I could have went home right then. So I drank water. Then after that I noticed that there were no balloons on the ceiling. Every year they have a balloon drop at midnight. They also have plastic leis, noisemakers, hats and such, but not last night! The only reason anyone knew it was midnight was because one of the firemen who is very loud started bellowing the countdown. So we decided that it wasn't much fun and next time we're taking the kids somewhere for the night. Even if we just go out of town to a hotel with a swimming pool and do a pizza/movie thing in the hotel room.

My Dad didn't come home yesterday after all, and I could have saved some money on a sitter cuz I would have taken the kids up with Nanny had I known he wasn't coming home. (She didn't know, either, til we were already gone out.) And this morning when I was looking for bacon in the freezer I noticed my box of lean chicken burgers was opened and five were gone, leaving three. I had bought the party-sized pizza and garlic fingers for supper and had lots left over for the boys, nephew, and his girlfriend. The bottomless pit nephew decided to cook himself up some chicken burgers, and why he needed five I'll never know. From what we gathered from the Oldest One, he tried to cook them, but they didn't turn out right, and he garbaged them. The sneaky devil didn't throw them in the compost stuff. Hubby found them in the regular garbage can, nicely tucked away on the bottom, all wrapped up in paper towel. Guess he didn't think I'd notice that my unopened box of burgers had been opened. I don't begrudge anyone food, but there was no need of him opening that box of burgers. That would have been two meals for the kids and me when hubby was gone, and when he tries to hide it, well, it ticked me off big time. (And he does that -- hides stuff in the bottom of the garbage thinking I won't notice that it's gone. It doens't work.) We had to talk to him before about eating everything he can get his hands on. I always have stuff for them, treats and stuff, so there's no need of getting into other stuff. He's 16 and skinny, but it will catch up to him someday.

I did get two FOs for 2008 done already. We had five skeins of yarn that were given to the store by yarn reps probably about a year or more ago of at-the-time new yarns. They've been sitting in the cupboard, never did get any of the yarns in, so I decided to bring them home. I made two plain roll-brimmed hats, one this afternoon and one this evening. The other yarns are one skein of an aran-colored worsted weight acrylic that I think I'll use to make a cabled hat. The other two skeins are cotton that will become dishcloths. All five items will go to the store. The hat on the left is Patons Nuance, and it didn't do much for me. I am not a big fan of yarn with metallic thread in it. This one is a mohair blend. It wasn't too bad to knit with, but definitely not my favorite either. It's a bulky yarn, recommended 6.5mm needles, but I used 6mm. (I can't get the Patons site to open up links right now, so I'll try to add them in tomorrow.) The hat on the right is Patons Rumor, and it was really nice. It's an alpaca blend, and I may see if I can order it in sometime. It's really soft and smooshy, great to work with. It also is bulky with a recommended needle of 6.5mm, but I used 6mm. If I remember correctly I cast on 50sts with the Rumor, 54sts with the Nuance. The top is K2tog one round, knit a round, K2tog one round, knit a round, K2tog one round, draw stitches tightly, secure.

As mentioned, too, Dad didn't come home yesterday. He stayed on the boat and let the other guy go home for New Years. He would have had to turn around and go back today. It's a five-hour drive one way, and he and Ma don't go out anyways. So I rushed the socks when I had probably another week to finish them. Oh, well. They're done, and if I had slacked off I may have gotten too slack and not had them finished on time.

Must get ready to hit the hay. It's supposed to snow again tonight, change to rain, then back to some snow. I hear freezing rain hitting the window right now. That should be fun in the morning. I have to go to work.

Local knitters check out Heddy's blog tomorrow to see if there is a Knit Nite tomorrow night and the location. Keep an eye over there, too. Her blogiversary is coming up, and she's eluding to a contest. My three-year blogiversary is coming on the 9th. Better keep an eye here, too. I may just do a little something...

Happy knitting!