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!

Consider this your random post for the day!

~+~ I’m a loser. Let’s just get that out of the way right now. Tiffany sent me an email yesterday apologizing for her new mailperson’s abilities since she’s sure the package I sent her must have been returned. We can certainly go that route, if you’d like, but the truth is I’m a LOSER because I haven’t sent the package. That’s right L.O.S.E.R. I owe a bunch of people a bunch of mail. I’m sure you know who you are. (I hope I do!) I’ve made a pledge to myself that I will try to get together one package a night – you know baby steps – until everything is out. Rest assured – I never welch. NEVER. So you will get what’s coming to you. I’m just a bit slow at times. My sincerest apologies for making you wait!

~+~ The winner of my blogiversary contest will be named tomorrow. Which will coincidentally be my 300th post.

~+~ Crazy busy you say? Sure. Sure. No REALLY! My little home grown photography business has suddenly exploded. It’s like all the stars came into alignment, and by gosh – people like me. They really like me. (Or at least they like the pictures I take of their kids.) Which means when I’m not shooting I SHOULD be processing. I’m trying to keep the wait to three weeks for the final prints and that’s tough sometimes. And being sick has really thrown a wrench in the plans. It’s hard to see when your eyes are dripping and there’s tissue basically wallpapering your nose.

~+~ Speaking of sick – I’m on the mend. My sister was SO glad I was sick when I got to her house because their house is a veritable germ factory. They keep bouncing it back between each other and we were a delight to behold. It was a cacophony of sniffles sneezes coughs and nose-blowing. Ahhh. The horn section was particularly good. Nothing like a little snot with your Halloween candy. I’m most pissed that I haven’t run in a week. I only ran two days from being off the week for rain/Rhinebeck and then I’ve been off again on account of not being able to breath. And today is nuts with my getting ready for class tonight and I don’t think I’ll be running today. Or probably tomorrow. So Friday at the earliest and with my luck it will rain.

~+~ Tomorrow night, 7PM, Fales Auditorium, NYU Bobst Library there will be what promises to be an EXCELLENT reading. Jayne Ann Phillips and Deborah Eisenberg will be reading from their work. Be there or well, be stupid. Both of these writers are top notch, in my opinion – and I think it’s really rare for them to be reading.

That’s all for today! I really missed the blog (read: all of you!) while I was away. Sometimes I welcome the break – this time – not so much. See you tomorrow!

L, C

Thank you, Georgie, for showing me the way.

Do yourself a favor and push play.

I’m DYING. Dying I tell you. DYING. DYING. DYING.

Oh my GOD. I just pre-ordered it so I could see the documentary clip about the making of Born To Run. All I have to say is it’s a good thing G’s out late tonight. Ima gonna be busy. 😉

my arm/hand/wrist might not be so bad. Firstly, let me say thank you for all the good wishes! Secondly, Junior Caramels might just be the BEST caramel candy ever. And I love me some caramel. Think Milk Duds, but softer, not so chewy. Sort of just the right amount of chewy without hurting your teeth. I’d encourage you all to run right out and buy some.

Now before anyone goes and starts yelling at me, I did knit yesterday. BUT, I wore my brace while I knit and honestly, it doesn’t hurt to knit. I was good though and I only finished one set of repeats and then STOPPED. I stopped myself from knitting. It’s the first time that ever happened. Especially when I could’ve gone on. And afterward I iced my hand/wrist/arm. To the point where the ice actually feels hot. You know what I mean? G says it doesn’t work unless it gets like that. And I slept with the brace on and it doesn’t seem to be so bad today. It’s definitely NOT worse. Now my back – well – that’s another story.

I’m going to work on my sleeve slowly but surely. I’m not going to overdo it. I’m setting goals for myself and I will try to get through those goals – with the brace – with the icing – and we’ll see how it goes.

Celebrity Sighting!

Georgie and I went out to dinner last night with our friend Jeff, who was in town from Montana. Jeff makes watches – beautiful gorgeous handcrafted timepieces. I tried on one last night that was fully engraved and had little sapphires all around. Oh my god! I told Georgie it matched my wedding band. He just laughed because I have like fifteen watches and I never wear any of them.

Anyway, we went out to dinner with Jeff to Nam. Vietnamese food in Tribeca. It was knock your socks off good. The BBQ Pork especially. So we’re eating and laughing and talking and Georgie leans over to me and says hey that girl looks like Scarlett Johansson. Now, I’m pretty good at picking out the stars. My credo – if a person looks so much like a celebrity that you immediately think to yourself – wow, that person really looks like *insert Star name*, then 9 times out of 10 it IS that star. People don’t look THAT much like other people. So he says, hey that looks like SJ and I turn to look and say, it IS SJ. So we’re eating a couple tables away from Scarlett and both my husband and my friend are arguing over who had sex with her first (you know in that high school boy way – I did her. No I did her first.) Me, I’m just rolling my eyes until they’re permanently stuck in the back of my head. (Although I’m might’ve done her myself. 😉 )

So we eat dinner. And every now and again I look over at SJ’s table. I mean, how could I not, right? Well, at one point I look over and see a big bug crawling up the side of the wall next to Scarlett. Instead of freaking out, because really a big bug on the wall in a NYC restaurant can only mean one thing and I’m not talking ants here, I lean over and tell G, hey, there’s a big bug crawling up the wall next to Scarlett. He kind of ignores me. He’s not real fond of bugs.

But next thing you know, Scarlett’s kind of calling really loudly, “Sir, sir, SIR! There’s a big cockroach that just crawled under the table!” Georgie said she was covering her face with her hand so she didn’t have to look at it. Nam is not a big restaurant. Everybody turned around and looked. The woman at the table in front of her, clearly out for a birthday dinner (as evidenced by the candle in her desert) was HORRIFIED. Anyway. The proprietors didn’t really do anything but move Scarlett and the woman she was with to another table. It was pretty funny, to be honest. Although I did feel bad for Scarlett. I mean, she must have been pretty freaked out by the bug to call that much attention to herself. I told G we should call Page Six and he thought we’d totally get it in, but I decided to blog about it instead.

We stayed and ate desert. It was a fabulous meal. I’d recommend the place highly. Oh and Scarlett – she’s pretty damn pretty in real life too.

so I’m not going to run today. I hurt my lower back the other day anyway so it’s nice to give it an extra day of rest. I’m doing well with it though – halfway through week 4 and enjoying it still. The colder it gets the better I like it! I love to run in the cold! We’re supposed to be getting some pretty dramatic storms today – so I’m not feeling as guilty as I might.

Speaking of guilt (seems to be the topic of the day, no?) I’m feeling pretty badly about the fact that I don’t think I’m going to Philly for Rosh Hashanah. My mom will probably be upset, but last night my class gave me 75+ pages to read for next Wednesday and I have two photography jobs to process from last weekend and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Going to Philly means I don’t get anything done for 48 hours. I don’t feel like I can lose that time. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Thanks for all the sleeve advice yesterday. I cast on the 42 stitches and I think I’m going to increase up to 94 stitches. The distance between where I bound off for the modified sleeve and shoulder is about 10.5 inches, so that should work out just fine. I’ve got to learn me some more info about this designing stuff. I want to be Colleen when I grow up, and the process is a bit slow for me. It was funny – I had the dreaded Ann Budd book open on the bed and G came in – he took one look at and started to laugh – “Look at all that math!” he said. It’s really pathetic when I’m constantly calling out to him – what’s 27 minus 9? Or what’s 24 and 42? You know, really pathetic math.

[This is turning into one of those random posts. Hey Cate – can I have random Thursdays?]

Still no socks from my sock pal. I don’t want to seem like I’m complaining, because really I’m not, but dear sweet sock pal, can you send me an email or something to tell me that the socks are coming – or an ETA maybe? Or if they’re NOT coming, tell me that too! I just want to know. Thank you. When I was at Kay’s the other night we were talking about the whole swap/secret pal thing. I sort of look at it like lending money – you have to be able to give full well knowing you’re probably not going to get anything back. My SP4 experience was sort of like that. (I got fine, just no real connection – on any end.) The Better Pal thing is getting along really well. I’m very much enjoying sending gifts to my BP. We’re pretty different and I’m loving thinking out of my box to spoil her. And MY BP, well, even though I don’t know who she is (YET- I’m STILL not looking!) I feel like we’ve really connected! Which is all I really wanted anyway.

Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck, Rhinebeck! It’s all you knitters talk about these days! 😉 I AM excited – there are lots of people I want to meet and see. And THE BIG CHEESE IS COMING! (See Ann, I have cute names for Vicki too!) Should we do another meet-up? Was the last one successful? Or should we just put a list of everyone coming? Did the non-attendees think it was mean to do that? Let me know. I’m game if you’re game. I gotta say though, I’m nervous about Rhinebeck too. Mainly because I’ve still got the anxiety thing going and anything out of my comfort zone is making me crazy these days. But I will be there. Xanax in hand. 😉 (You knitters are crazy – you know that, right?) And one more confession – I don’t feel like buying any yarn. There. I said it. I may just stand in that t-shirt line for four hours because I’m not even going to the Brooks Farm tent. I’ve got all this yarn from Maryland that I haven’t even touched. There are a few vendors I’ll be seeking out, but otherwise, I’m there for my peeps. And the lamb of course.

I leave you with this hysterical flash cartoon my brother emailed me yesterday. I guarantee the Tribe will be rolling in the aisles over this one – and even a few of the honorary members.