I know it's too hot to think of wool sweaters, but...

Okay, when it gets to be that time and you're swapping summer clothes out for winter clothes - I have a recycling proposition for any of you.

I'm in the market for some cast-off 100 percent wool sweaters. I re-washed the one I got from mom today, and it will be a purse by the end of the month, I hope. I'll probably take to trolling the thrift stores within the next few months, looking for CHEAP sweaters to experiment with.

If you pull a sweater out of your closet and it make you go: "What was I THINKING when I bought this thing?" don't take it to DAV, give it to DA-ME!

When I pulled the argyle sweater out today, the body of it looked like it MIGHT fit Kyle or Lauryn, one of my 2-year-old BFFs. It's definitely felted tightly enough to cut with scissors now.

New schmnew

Okay, people. Just because you rebroadcast the season finale with some "never before seen footage" doesn't mean you're broadcasting a NEW show.

These crafty network execs know exactly what they're doing. They know we're starved for some REAL TV, not re-runs and random crap, so get that fall season on the road. I actually thought (stupid, stupid girl) that "My Name is Earl" was new tonight.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. I guess I just have to wait one more week for the season openers - tonight was like a little warm up for the DVR.

We did, however, watch one new show last night - "Kid Nation." Did anyone else watch this, and will actually admit to it? I have to say, it reminded me of why I teach HIGH SCHOOL, not elementary kids. I don't think I could listen to 30 of their little voices all day long - some of the kids just seemed a little off.

Parents who read this blog - I guess each family got $5,000 for sending their kid off to the desert for 40 days? Anyone else heard that? Would you do that? I know five grand is a chunk of change, but that seems a little crass.

It's been one week (part deux)

I guess I've already used "It's been one week" as a title before, to document my blogging tardiness.

It is so windy here right now, it sounds like I'm typing this from a haunted house. There must be a storm blowing into town.

I just got home from the Sunflower Knit Guild meeting. Mom and I went to check it out. There were probably about 20-25 people there, from my age, up to Grandmotherly. It was interesting to see all of the projects people were knitting on. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one out there with serious KRADD (Knitting Related ADD). Alas, I only had one project for show and tell, the infamous sweater vest. I did get to work on it for two whole hours, so I think I made some pretty serious progress tonight. My hope is that by this weekend, I'll be back to striping time.


It almost looks like a little mini-skirt, doesn't it? It's pretty lumpy and bumpy right now, but once it's knitted and blocked, I think it'll look pretty darn good.

The next item on my agenda is turning this 30-year-old wool sweater of my dad's (SHHH - don't tell him)...



into another felted purse. I think I need to wash it one more time to lock the fibers before I go cutting into the yarn. The plan is to get it nice and felted, and then cut it into pieces, using the sleeves for straps. I love the color scheme, so I think it will look pretty cool.

Livin's easy

How funny that Shep asked about the apartment life after my last post.

As I was trudging over to the mailbox this afternoon, I was thinking to myself, "Self, you need to write about how it is living in an apartment after owning a house all this time."

Overall, it's been all right. We're on the lower level, so no schlepping groceries up a flight of stairs. And, until the last two or three days, I haven't heard our upstairs neighbor at all. But, all of a sudden, it's like whoever lives up there gained 100 pounds, because I'm always hearing he/she walking around, opening their sliding glass deck door, etc. No loud music or TV noise, and no gettin' busy noise, so that's good.

I do ABSOLUTELY hate walking to the mailbox. I LOVE LOVE LOVE checking mail, but it's more fun checking it in our cool old school post box on our Holyoke house. It's not that it's too far, and I'm not lazy, I just hate the thought of it.

One thing that really annoys me about the other Dunes Dwellers is that three times now, people have asked me for the code to the clubhouse after hours.

Point for debate here: Would you give it or not?

I won't. How am I supposed to know that they actually live here? And, it's only six digits. The managers give it to each of us on a piece of paper. How hard is it to keep up with that? What if I let some "resident" in on Saturday, and then Sunday, when someone else goes in to use the gym, there's a crazy man who's been hiding in the bathroom overnight waiting to pounce?

Plus - there are computers in the building, and we can't even have free weights in the gym because some a-holes stole them all when they DID have free weights. This is why we can't have nice things. Luckily for us, treadmills and ellipticals and the weight system can't be carried out easily so they're still there.

I really like the property manager though, she gets things done. Did I already say that we got a brand-new refrigerator? Our old one was freezing stuff that was in the fridge, no matter what setting it was on, and the icemaker didn't work. Now we have one that does, at no cost to us (at least, no immediate cost to us).

Last but not least, we don't have to mow the lawn. I like yardwork, but Adam doesn't.

Crisp air

I used to think that I was a summer person. Once upon a time it was my favorite time of year.

But, I'm moving more in a fall direction. When I got in my car after school today it was 66 degrees outside. There was actually a chill in the air.

On the way home, I drove through a neighborhood and saw trees whose leaves have already turned red.

It's campfire weather. College football Saturdays weather. SWEATER weather! A knitter's dream.

We've got all the windows open at the apartment and it feels amazing.

It'll be so nice to do our long runs in this kind of weather instead of constant heat. Yesterday we ran 6, and by the end, I was pretty well exhausted - too much sun beating down.

Speaking of exercise, I've got to go do my strength workout now, before the Closer season finale starts at 8. Yes, I might be totally addicted to TV, but at least I'm not a total couch potato - all junk food no exercise...

Awww, man.

Okay, so now that I've been out of Wichita for six weeks, there's a knitting group forming? I. AM. SO. JEALOUS.

How come no one discovered how utterly relaxing and hip knitting was until AFTER I moved?

Too bad Thursday is a school night, or I just might have crashed the party.

I guess I'll just have to re-work Adam's sweater in solitude.

Sniff, sniff.

Maybe once the group gets off the ground, I could talk them into a knitting retreat in KC...

One "Halloween" = Five Romantic Comedies

Yep, that's how many chick flicks Adam will have to sit through to make up for me having to watch Rob Zombie's Halloween.

There were only about 10 people in the theatre, and four of those people were a mom and her three KIDS - ages looked to be about 4, 6 and 10.

Nothing like a Saturday afternoon flick about a psychopath to complete a family-friendly weekend.