Don’t you just love it that as early as 10:30 AM you can already have a crappy day? That’s right. I spent 45 minutes this morning dodging traffic jams. I’d get out of one and come up on another. All within about five miles from my house. And it wasn’t the usual commuter traffic either – there were like 47 accidents – something weird is going on out there. Be careful.

And now I just found out I have to go out again. G left something at home – an important something – for a meeting – and I need to bring it to him. Generally I wouldn’t mind. He’s working his ass off too and he was working late last night and forgot it – I’m glad I remembered to ask about it (since I ran my desk chair over it this morning) but I had my day planned out down to the minute for maximum efficiency and it was GONE TO CRAP by about 8:15 this morning. It’s beginning to feel like every minute that goes by I lose another hour. Know what I mean?

Two-fold evidence: A) I worked hard yesterday; and B) I can take a crappy crappy picture.

That’s eleven packages – I think it’s eleven – all ready to ship. If I owe you something, it’s in the mail. (Well all except Janet and Wendy – it’s coming. Don’t worry.) There were actually a couple of more packages, but this is all the knitting related stuff. AND I managed to finish up two jobs that were sent off to the printer last night. Aah. Productivity. AND I joined the fingers onto my Nona’s Serial Gloves. I’m still a little bit iffy about the joins – there are holes, but Margene says that’s okay, so it’s okay. I’ll darn them, darnit. I also cast on a new sock. For me. Because I don’t have enough shit to do ( the Cotton Candy STR was calling out to me) but then I ripped it because something weird happened. I think I dropped a stitch or something, but I need to investigate more what I want to do with this yarn. It’s a sock for sure – a nice long one – but I need some calf shaping strategies.

And I don’t understand why the Harry Potter freaks get all the special treatment. I preordered my 30th Anniversary Special SUPER FUCKING FANTASTIC OH MY GOD I’M DYING HERE Commerative Edition of Born To Run a MONTH ago and it came out today and Amazon’s all like it’ll arrive some time next week. WHAT? Aren’t mailpeople running around knocking on doors at midnight so all the little Harry Potter fanatics can get the book the second it’s allowed? And I HAVE TO WAIT FOR MY BRUCE?!?!? No matter. I was at Best Buy this morning at 9:15 (I would’ve been there at 9AM, but I was stuck in traffic) to pick up a copy. There ain’t no way no how I’m waiting for that shit. And of course, Amazon won’t let me cancel the order either. Fuckers.

I would love to talk about Bruce – it was my intention today to talk about the love and the love and the music and the love, but I’m in a crappy mood. So maybe later. Hope YOUR day is a good one.

PS – In my defence about the crappy shitty picture, I didn’t use the real camera. I thought – eh – I’ll use the stupid crappy point and shoot – these are the pictures it’s meant for – little did I know it takes CRAP PICTURES! Note to self: take the extra five minutes and pull out the real camera if you don’t want to be pissed off.

PPS – And while this may sound like I’m backtracking – the camera doesn’t MAKE A PICTURE. It’s the PHOTOGRAPHER that makes a picture with the control you have with the camera. If I had read the fucking manual on the P&S like I’m always preaching about, I would’ve had more control as to how the picture came out. But I didn’t. So it was on Auto, which gave me a crappy picture. I’m a manual kind of girl – complete control at all times. That way you have no one to blame but yourself. 😉

No matter what the thermometer says, I fear Fall is over. And what a glorious Fall it’s been! I was trying to explain to my nephew how lucky we were to be sitting outside in our sweat jackets playing in the mud on November 13th on a 60 degree plus day. I told him it should be nice and cold by now, like Winter. But, he pointed out, it’s not Winter yet. He’s right. It’s not. But it’s coming. This was definitely the last weekend for the leaves. They’re dry and crackling and the color is gone to a mulchy brown. But we had fun anyway.

Can I vent for a minute? We went to a park near my sister’s – it’s more of an arboretum type place with an open field and a creek and a path – no playground or anything. But there are lots of trees – and therefore leaves – and the kids could run around and throw the frisbee and whatever. People walk around. There are some benches. And of course they bring their dogs.

My niece is afraid of dogs. When she sees one coming she gets that look of abject terror on her face and literally leaps into the arms of the closest adult known to her. Before all you dog owners get all over me about this, we tell her the dog won’t hurt her, that Mommy/Aunt Cara/whatever adult she’s with won’t let anything happen to her. Her grandmother has a dog that she plays with and likes. The neighbors have a big (way bigger than her) dog that she will approach. Sometimes. But generally she’s afraid of dogs.

Well, here we are at this open park. It’s a small area as far as parks go and it’s right on a busy street as well. We’re all getting out of the car going to run in the park and here comes this dog. It look like some kind of retriever mix and it’s coming right at us. OFF ITS LEASH. I have a SERIOUS SERIOUS problem with dog owners who allow their dogs off the leash in places that aren’t specific to that purpose. First of all, from what I know, it’s AGAINST THE LAW. Second of all, I’m sure you love your dog. But guess what? I DON’T. And I don’t want your dog running up to me, or my kids and basically scaring the crap out of them.

I was this close to hitting this woman at the park yesterday. In fact, as I’m writing this I’m getting more and more pissed off. She had absolutely NO CONTROL over her dog. She could not get a handle on him. Every time she went near him he ran off. Right toward the kids. My niece was already back in the van and I’m trying to take care of my nephew who’s now terrified too and the baby’s just sitting in the stroller with the dog sniffing all over him. I told that woman under no uncertain terms that she better get her dog under control – that the dog shouldn’t be off the leash in the first place – and that I was ready and willing to call the police if she didn’t get her dog away from my kids in about five seconds flat. This was after I had already told her “nicely” that she should control her dog. The woman was like don’t you think I’d like to control him. And I said, if you can’t control him, why’d you take him off the leash. I swear to you – no exaggeration – it was a good fifteen minutes that the kids sat in the van while this woman tried to corral her dog. She actually had the nerve to say to me that instead of yelling at her I should HELP her get her dog (which I actually tried to do as I sent my nephew screaming to the car.)

In fact, she never got control of her dog. She just finally realized that she better leave the park. So she did, and I watched her dog run through all of the backyards belonging to the homes adjacent to the park. For the record, every other dog we saw was on a leash.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. I was running once near my house, where I run all the time, and I was bascially attacked by these two small lap dogs. They were nipping at my ankles and I could have seriously tripped and hurt myself. I was yelling at the woman to get her dogs and she was standing about 25 feet away calling to them come, come. Of course the dogs didn’t come. So that woman was slapped with a $200 fine by the association office – it wasn’t the first time she had her dogs off the leash. Next time I saw her, leashed they were.

PLEASE. PET OWNERS. BE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR PETS. DON’T MAKE ME DISLIKE PET OWNERS ANY MORE THAN I ALREADY DO. 😉

Okay. Rant over. Thank you for letting me vent. This is an issue that really bothers me.

I did knit this weekend. On the train back and forth. Basically, on the way to Philly, I knit and ripped, knit and ripped, knit and ripped. I don’t know what my major malfunction is with the Prairie Blanket, but I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it. I think I’ve finally got it all figured out though. It really is a wonderful pattern and I hope to be moving along on it. Hopefully before Xavier is a year old!

Nona has the THIRD INSTALLMENT up! Yippee! I’m going to try to get the fingers joined together again tonight. I’m still in work overload, but I’m doing okay and I’m looking forward to a really productive day today (she says optimistically….) Running. Post office. Pictures. Yup! I’m felling bright eyed and brushy tailed.

Norma has brought to our attention a particularly worthy cause – get your charity knitting needles out! This guy needs some purls for his penis. You just know he was DUMPED by a knitter. Help him out!

You’ve got ONE MORE DAY to come up with a name for the new KAL I’m sponsoring. I’ve already got the winner in my mind – so knock my socks off people! C’mon. There’s a prize at stake.

Oh and don’t forget to sign the map. 😉

Ann, honey, the proof is in the pudding!

Your Birthdate: January 1

You are a natural born leader, even if those leadership talents haven’t been developed yet. You have the power and self confidence to succeed in life, and your power grows daily. Besides power, you also have a great deal of creativity that enables you to innovate instead of fail. You are a visionary, seeing the big picture instead of all of the trivial little details. Your strength: Your supreme genius Your weakness: Your inappropriate sensitivity Your power color: Gold Your power symbol: Star Your power month: January

As seen on fellow January girl Emma’s blog. Go and wish her a happy THREE year blog anniversary. YAY Emma!