Catch Up

Ok, I know I've been away from here for a couple of weeks now, so sorry about that. Let's see what I can do for a catch up on here:

Jan 15: Flew to Lex, crashed asleep soon afterwards
Jan 16: Ran over to former workplace and saw people, dinner with family that night, hung out to Renee later that evening.
Jan 17: Spent day with Erica
Jan 18: Church, hung out with Erica, then hung out with Renee, Kim, Jane, and SB
Jan19: Great-grandmother went into hospital. Ran up there to see her
Jan 20: Went to SnB, saw all kinds of people I like
Jan 21: Uncle had colon cancer surgery. Spent all day at hospital, except to have lunch with Erica.
Jan 22: Hospital visits (noticing a trend here?)
Jan 23: Hung out with Renee almost all day and finally did something I had wanted to do for a while (if you are supposed to know, you already know :oP )
Jan 24: Hung out with Erica in the morning, went to future in-laws and hung out with them in the evening.
Jan 25: Went to church, SnB, then to see Zabet and Spooky. Bunny was pissed at me at first, but warmed up soon afterwards
Jan 26: Took lunch to my great-grandparents, saw my great-uncle, had dinner with my grandparents, prepared for today.
Jan 27: I'm watching it ice outside. Roads are terrible and it just figures that I'm supposed to have lunch with Kim. Twice now we have tried to have lunch and both times it has blasted iced the roads!

That's the catch up for the visit to Lex. I'm heading back to the sunshine state on Thursday, so hopefully I'll warm up there! There have been yarn purchases, some spinning, and some work on a baby blanket, so I have also squeezed some knitting, crocheting, and spinning into the hospital visits and friend visiting. I'll try to be better with the updates for the next week until I head back to the land of kimchi!

Knit on...

The Bleat Goes On

The fleece is still drying. Mostly the problem has been the extreme humidity and the rain that we had the past few days down here, but today was a nice, sunny day with a slight breeze. It appears that most of the fleece is dry now, so maybe by tomorrow it'll be ready to bag back up and pack for the trip back to Korea. In the meantime, I swear that the sheep is growing. I keep fluffing the stuff up to help it dry and in the process, it has taken over my parents' back porch. See?:

This is only about a 1.5 pound in the grease fleece too, but man I think it is growing! I'm about to go check it again, so we'll see how the sun and wind helped speed along the process.

Knit on...

A Little Late

Blatantly stolen from Dana's blog:

Where did you begin 2008?
Sitting on my bed, being woken up by a phone call from DF

What was your status by Valentine's Day?
Engaged to DF

Were you in school (anytime this year)?
Online stuff

Did you have to go to the hospital?
I always seem to end up in the hospital at least once a year because of the stupid stomach. I hate chicken...

Did you have any encounters with the police?
Not that I can think of

Where did you go on vacation?
This is the fun part. Let's see, Korea, Japan, and Thailand! Come on 2009, bring some more!

What did you purchase that was over $500?
Oh geez, let's see...airfare, airfare, airfare, and airfare

Did you know anybody who got married?
Yep, the secretary at the school. It was a fun wedding

Did you know anybody who passed away?
Yes, DF's dear aunt. She was the kindest person I think I've ever met.

Did you move anywhere?
Yep, when I move, I really move. Went to South Korea

What sporting events did you attend?
School sports day count?

Describe your birthday:
Talked on webcams to both my family and DF, some other English teachers came by and threw me an American food birthday party, with the exception of the cake which was definitely Korean. We had fun.

What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008?
Finally got to go to Japan

What has been your favorite moment(s)?
Traveling some of the side streets of Bangkok (DF knows which ones!), Geisha watch 2008, Christmas with DF and playing with the dinosaur tops, surprising my grandmother for her 80th birthday.

What's something you learned about yourself?
That I am not always as dependable as I thought I was. It was hard to realize, but I think and hope it makes me more mindful of others now.

Any new additions to your family?
There were a few in extended family

What was your best month?
The summer months were good while getting to travel.

What music will you remember from 2008?
Disturbed's Indestructible album because it pretty much wrote my book for me.

Made new friends?
Yep, I met people from all walks of life over in Korea

New best friend?
I think my best friend has stayed the same!

Favorite night out?
The Geisha Watch 2008 night with DF and the most expensive meal we ever ate :oP there may be another involving Bangkok too.

Any regrets?
I regret not buying good sunscreen before going to Thailand...

What do you want to change in 2009?
I want to be a kinder person and not be as pessimistic as I always seem to be.

Overall, how would you rate this year?
It was a year of changes. I'm glad I made the changes and good and bad, would do it all over again (just avoiding the bad :oP )

What would you change about 2008?
More vacation

Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
Work

Have any life changes in 2008?
See all of the above!

Change your hairstyle?
Yeah, I got it chopped and have vowed not to do that again. I desperately need to get it shaped though since it looks like a big red triangle at the moment. Don't worry, DF, I'm not killing the length again!

Have any car accidents?
DF hit a bicycle that rolled in front of him while I was on the back of his motorcycle, does that count? No one was hurt, but the bike had a dented wheel. We saw the kid again, still riding the dented wheel. I think she now knows to be more careful. At least it was us who dented it and not a Korean who would have probably killed her by ripping through that street.

Buy a new car?
No

Get a new job?
Yep, now teaching

Got a New Year's resolution?
I will run a 5k by the end of the year again. I want to travel more.

Do anything embarrassing?
I fell flat on my face in front of DF, but that's fairly common...

Buy anything new from eBay?
Not that I can think of off the top of my head.

What was your favorite purchase of 2008?
airfare

Get married or divorced?
Nope, not in a hurry to get married and speed up the prospect of divorce :oP

Get arrested?
No

Be honest - did you watch American Idol?
Nope, not a fan

Did you get sick this year?
yeah, I hate chicken and the sun :oP

Start a new hobby?
Don't think so

Drank Starbucks in 2008?
Yeah, in Thailand even

Are you happy to see 2008 go?
Not much I could do to make it stop, now is there?

New Computer

So all day today, I've been working on downloading everything to my new shiny laptop. I've now got word processing on here, itunes, and all the myriad of other programs that populated the last computer. I was going to post a rather dorky webcam picture from the new built in webcam, but I currently can't seem to figure out how. So no terrible pictures of me on here for now.

The new computer is an Acer Aspire One 8.9 inch laptop. It's tiny. It's tiny and light. It's the opposite of the monstrosity of an Acer that I currently have. The only complaint I have with the computer is that it's so damn shiny that it shows every little fingerprint, scratch, or anything else within five feet of it. If that's my biggest complaint, I think I'm doing pretty good.

I'll get some knitting done tonight while my mom is in the studio recording. She's working on her third stand-alone album now and it's rather fun to see how the bits and pieces of recording all go together. Considering I have zero musical talent, the whole process fascinates me.

Knit on...

Fleeced

For Christmas, my grandmother bought me a fleece, but I didn't get it until Saturday. She has been interested in how someone cleans, cards, and spins a fleece. So imagine my surprise when a nice, Jacob sheep fleece from a sheep named Dee Dee was handed to me. Since she wanted to learn how I prepare my fiber, I decided to show her. Here's the fleece in the bag:Very nice crimp which you can sort of make out in the picture. Well, the sheep was a very greasy one, so it took a lot of washing. Here is a soaked fleece:

It's a soapy fleece too since that was its first wash. It turned out pretty clean after four separate baths, so I decided to stick it outside to dry on the screened in back porch. This of course meant that the humidity would skyrocket and it would rain off and on today. Needless to say, the fleece is still damp and will hopefully dry completely by tomorrow.

I knit on some squares and forgot to take pictures of them. I also am doing yet another pair of mittens. I'm rather sick of knitting this pattern now.

Knit on...

At least it's something...

Yeah, sorry I fell off the blogging wagon again this week. Here, look at yarn:That's Clessidra in progress. I haven't been knitting as much as I had hoped on that because instead, I have been crocheting:

Dishcloths. Buttloads of dishcloths. I think I made 20 something. Some are for mom, some are for my grandmother. But it was a lot of dishcloths regardless. Now I'm working on Noro squares, and after that, I'll be making a pair of Broad Street Mittens for my grandmother who has now requested a pair before I leave. Then I'll start working on a batch of 3 baby blankets.

I had already made two children their baby blankets 4 and 1 years ago, but due to a house fire in which everything being used by the kids was destroyed (as well as most of the house, save one closet which thankfully had family pictures and other non-replaceable items). Well, I go over and visit their mom and the 4 year old comes up and says, "I really liked my blue blanket. I miss it."

Damn...now I guess I have to make him another one :oP His sister will be getting a replacement pink one (hers was originally blue and pink, but given how princessy she seems to be at 1, she's getting pink). And they just found out they have an indeterminable fetus at 8 weeks old, so there's a green blanket on the way for the unknown kid to be.

I better get to work!

Knit on...

I'm Here!

I do still exist! Sorry I haven't posted in a week now. I'm over the jet lag now it seems for the most part and I've been getting lots of knitting and crocheting done. I'll try to have some pictures tomorrow if I can get them on here. Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration and that your new year has been filled with all kinds of yarny goodness.



As for the Lexington crew, I'll see you guys in about a week!



Knit on...