Movies, movies, movies....

Alright....ya'll know I am a big movie fan so when I saw this on Manda's blog, I had to steal it and make it my own. Most of these I said, "Name just one?", so, I tended to name more than one.

1. Name a movie you have seen more than 10 times. Harry Potter movies...good for background during crafty weekend with Becky.

2. Name a movie you’ve seen multiple times in the theater. Harry Potter, any of them. Hey, you know I am a nerd, alright?

3. Name an actor who would make you more inclined to see a movie. Tommy Lee Jones

4. Name an actor who would make you less likely to see a movie. Can't think of one off the top of my head. Although, I didn't care for seeing my brother make out with someone on-screen in Primal. (UNT flim)

5. Name a movie you can and do quote from. The Princess Bride!!!
"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"
"Inconceivable!" "Do you know what that word means? I don't think that it means what you think it means."

6. Name a movie musical in which you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs. The Sound of Music (it's a family requirement) and My Fair Lady

7. Name a movie you have been known to sing along with. Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and lots of Disney movies

8. Name a movie you would recommend everyone see. Medicine Man, Goonies, Contact, Star Wars 4-6, Spaceballs, Shawshank Redemption

9. Name a movie you own. LOL!!! You're kidding, right?

10. Name an actor who launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops. Mandy Moore...I'm a fan all-around

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what? I have seen a few, but can't remember what they were.

12. Ever made out in a movie? Umm.....I plead the fifth.....

13. Name a movie you keep meaning to see but you just haven’t gotten around to yet. Narnia...for one. That is one that I really want to see, but just haven't gotten there yet.

14. Ever walked out of a movie? No

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater. I think I cried at Titanic. I cry more at home, with rentals or Lifetime Network, or the last episode of West Wing. Haley and I called eachother sobbing.

16. Popcorn? I enjoy popcorn, but it is not a necessity. I really dig the Milk Duds.

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)? I don't go to many in the theaters. I hate going alone and most of us just rent. When I do go, I ususally go with family, unless it's something uber special. Yes, I have plans for Harry Potter 5, in the theaters, at midnight.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater? Wild Hogs. It was cute and entertaining.

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie? Anything but horror. Just doesn't float my boat. I love comedy and action and drama.

20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater? I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can tell you that I was addicted to Dumbo growing up.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen? Hostel

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed? Mating Habit of the Earthbound Human...looks at our mating practices through an "alien" perspective....absolutley HILARIOUS!!

23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen? I watched Silence of the Lambs for the first time in college. I was perfectly fine till the end will all of the darkness. Kinda freaked me out.

24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen? Spaceballs

Nothing's on TV, so we'll pretend it's Wednesday...

I am getting annoyed at this time because you never know when shows are rerunning.....so here is the early edition of What's-up Wednesday...

I'm reading....

....and I watched.....

...and I'm listening to this and this.....

....and I'm still waiting for this.

As I mentioned last time, my parents came down and we went to the AFI Dallas International Film Festival and went to see my brother's film on the big screen. They had a really good turn out, say 80% full, and only six people walked out, and that was toward the end, so I don't think that's bad at all. Go Daniel!! (here's a review) I got to sit by the nice lady who jumped during Happy Feet. Needless to say, I was wondering how she ended up in this movie that has been said to be rated a "hard R". She was quite vocal.

Our star sighting for the evening was Bill Paxton. He was there doing a Q&A in the same theater and he walked by. He's a super skinny thing. Grandmother, you need to get him to eat some chicken fried steak.

Ok, so, last week was Spring Break so I should have gotten alot of knitting done, right? Umm...yeah.....between the gardening and the dyeing and the movie, I was too tired to get much knitting done. I am almost ready to turn the heel on my RSC sock. Sooo....much.....ribbing....I HATE RIBBING!!!

Our Hancock Fabrics is going out of business and so I had to use my "get out of Lent free" card....and got Lion Brand. I got some Magic Stripes, which I actually like, and a skein of Wool-Ease in Avocado. The color just jumped out at me and I thought they would be great mittens. And that's it.....well, yarn wise. But even then, I only got a mini-craft iron and some iron-on bias tape for some of my mini-quilt patterns I got last weekend.

I have to throw a shout-out to Miss HALEY who found my blog and left me a comment, with no other way to CONTACT HER!!! :-P Haley and I are bosom West Wing buddies so much so that this:

..okay, Haley.....stop....seriously.....a woman your age shouldn't be making out with her computer screen. Remember, Joshua Lyman is FICTIONAL....much to our dismay.

Pressie, pressie, I gotta pressie.....


I got my second package from my lovely Scotland SP:

A super cute Noni bag pattern, cute post-its (can't have enough), a cute card and gift tags that she made herself, and 2 skeins of Cotolino. It is a cotton-linen blend that I am super interested to try. And what a crazy color selection...she happened to choose the same color as my favorite sheets. Great job girlie!! petting.....stroking....loving.....the yarn and calling him George. Those who don't get the reference are probably too young to be reading my blog anyway! :-P

This weekend my parents are coming down and we are going to go watch 'my brother's film', i.e. one that he worked on tremendously and has a cameo, which was accepted at the Dallas AFI Film Festival. We are all very excited for him. If you enjoy independent film, I highly recommend going. It is an international festival, but I know that my brother's film was done exclusively in the DFW area.

Fiber front....no spinning wheel yet, but I am hoping that it will ship soon. I am almost ready to turn the heel on my RSC sock. I am ready for it to not look phallic anymore. No, it's not just her.

Well, it was Wednesday when I started.....

Yes, TECHNICALLY, it's not Wednesday anymore, but when I started getting things together, it was Wednesday. Here's the lowdown of what I have been....

Reading....

Watching...spring break is nice....

Listening to.....

Well, it's the middle of Spring Break and it's nice. I have been catching up on lots of extended chores and activities. I have been learning little lessons this week and I will be interjecting them periodically.

Since the weather has been nice, I got my patio cleared off, i.e. cleared off the compost heap that had accumulated. Lesson #1: When you are getting an apartment and notice the wonderful patio you get, make sure you take note of the sun and wind patterns if you plan on using it.

I live on the first floor and apparently the position of my apartment (yes, it's only mine) is the end point of a wind tunnel in the complex and ends in an eddy right on my patio. That means that everything blows into it and by the end of "winter", I have what looks like a nice compost heap on my patio.

Once it gets nice outside, I put my plants back outside and sweep out the patio. I think I have figured out a plan on preventing this, so if it works, I will share. I have also replaced dead plants and added new ones, including some hanging plants. Let's see if I get more than one 1.5" tomato this year.

Okay, so let's off to fiber related material! With all of these large blocks of time, what's a knitter to do? Dye yarn! Kerry and I got together to dye yarn...and weed her flowerbeds and replace mulch....but I digress. We did a little experimenting and this is what we ended up with:

As with all yarn dyeing escapades, the colors are better in person. We played with the speckles and marbling and I really like it! I think it will be awesome knitted up. Of course, those aren't mine...mine are the purple and green.

We also had a miraculous experience, check this out!

Yes, I was the one smart enough to wear GLOVES!!

But somehow, the person who was quoted as "I can't even EAT without getting it on my shirt", did not get one spot on her white shirt. Bravo Kerry, bravo...

Lesson #2: 409 and the Clorox bleach pen are AWESOME at taking Wilton's/Koolaid off of countertops/body parts.

So much fabric, so little time....

No knitting content today, but I will share some other craftiness. Unfortunately, it won't be my own. This weekend I went to the Dallas Quilt Show over at Market Hall. The quilts were just a gorgeous as ever and continue to amaze me. I went with my friend Becky (yes, sewing weekend Becky), her sister, Shannon and her mom, Vicki.

We had a marvelous time as we did last year, but this year Vicki entered a quilt into the show, and..........she won third place! We were all super excited and proud of her. This quilt was planned meticulously and executed beautifully. Yeah Vicki!!!

As other craftsters know, we can be underestimated and misunderstood. I had made comments to people that I was going to the quilt show this weekend and they, of course, thought I had lost my mind. Folks don't realize what the current crafting community creates nowadays. I know knitters and crocheters get this all the time. I began to see the same attitude towards quilting.

I picked out a few of my favorites to share and to show you what people are up to today.This is a simple pattern called a Double Wedding Ring. These were, and still are, quite abundant. But by choosing, and able to choose, shading colors, you create a whole different look to the pattern. Earlier women didn't have the choices in fabric and textile that we have today. I am certainly not insinuating that they were inferior. Most older quilters, and quilts, could put us to shame!

This was one of my favorites just because it was fun. The background is a tiedyed fabric and the orange objects are fish, swimming. The title of this quilt is "Synchronized Swimming".

The combination of the background fabric, the quilting, and all of the 3d fish made me keep going back to look at this one.

Here are some others that I looked at repeatedly. Some might not find these very remarkable. Nice, but not remarkable. Now, let me put it into perspective. The labels next to them are 5.5" wide. All of the dots of color are individual pieces of fabric. These were some of my favorites in the Miniature Quilt category. The rule is that it cannot be bigger than 18" x 18", but several of them were smaller than that. I looked at these for a long time in amazement. It's like thinking about when people used to knit socks for necessity and did it on 0.5mm needles.

Needless to say, being the masochistic craftster I am, I did find a few patterns for some mini quilts that I fell in love with. I will certainly post the finished product, right before ya'll cart me off to the loony bin.

If you would care to see better pics, check out my flickr photostream.

I know I have no life...

This is going around the blogosphere, so I thought I would throw it out there. Those who know me know I have a thing for movies. If not, see below. I was more curious to see how many I HAVEN't seen. Enjoy~

"It’s been alleged that if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, figure out whether you’ve got a life or not, and post it."

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
(X) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
(X) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
(X) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
(X) Scream
(X) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(X) Scary Movie
(X) Scary Movie 2
(X) Scary Movie 3
(X) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
(X) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
(X) Lilo & Stitch
(X ) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(X) Butterfly Effect
(X)13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
(X) Robots
(X) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(X) Universal Soldier
(X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
(X) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong
(X) A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
(X) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( )The Ring
( )The Ring 2
( )Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(X) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(X) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
(X) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(X) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
(X) Bad Boys
(X) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number SlevIn
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
(X) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
(X) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) E.T
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She’s All That
(X) Calendar Girls
(X) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
(X) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(X)The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
(X) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
(X) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
(X) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street
(X) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(X) K-Pax
(X) Krippendorf’s Tribe
(X) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(X) Base-ketball
(X) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
( ) Highlander
(X) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
(X) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 2
(X) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) the Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
(X) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(X) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

137 by my count...course, I am not a horror person, so that cut out quite a few. I am a big movie fan and DVD owner and I tend to get involved with what people have seen and there are basics that some people have never seen. Here is my list of movies that you should see at least once:

Spaceballs
Star Wars 4-6
The Princess Bride
My Cousin Vinny
Clerks
History of the World, Part 1
Blazing Saddles
Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail
Silence of the Lambs
The Jerk
Goonies

If there are any of these movies you have never seen, you must go rent them now....or come by and I will lend you my copy. I will now conclude with my favorite line from one of the above movies...don't ask why:

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Wednesday, Wednesday......

Makes you wanna go watch Addams Family, right? And I have been...

Reading

Watching

Listening to

Waiting for
...this week. Any good postman mojo that anyone has would be very appreciated.

Oh, I also took a quick run over to Switzerland the other day as well...See!

Look at all of that nice green stuff!! Guys, that's called grass...yeah, I know, I know, ours usually consists of alot of tan and brown, but trust me, there are places where grass is green. This was from my lovely SP in Scotland (HI!) and I absolutely LOVE this postcard. When I pulled it out of my mailbox the first thing I said was, "Wow, that's a pointy mountain." I of course shared the wealth and showed it to my roomie and she said, "Wow, that's a pointy mountain." So,.......isn't it a pointy mountain?

Picked up a round of knitting magazines tonight and I wanted to tell all the knitters I know to pick up the March issue of Simply Knitting. Not only does it come with a handy magnetic needle case (with free needles) but they have a pattern for knitting farm animal toys, INCLUDING SHEEP!!! I was so freaking excited. There are a few other good patterns as well, BTW.

Ok, it has been brought to my attention that my birthday is coming up. If you don't know when it is, I'm not telling! :-P With this information, these individuals have also asked what I wanted. As gift certificates to the stores on the sidebar are ALWAYS welcome, I know that some feel that they need to get specifics. So, knitters, skip the rest of this as I do a little explaining.

*Sock yarn - I like making socks and therefore sock yarn is always appreciated. To make a pair of socks, you need approx. 400yds of sock yarn. Depending on the yarn, this is usually 1-2 balls. I have not met a color of sock yarn that I didn't like....even pink.....trust me. Some brands that I have used and enjoy are: Cherry Tree Hill (1 skein), Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock (2 skeins), Koigu Painters Pallate Merino (KPPM) (2 skeins), Socks That Rock, mediumweight (1 skein) Trekking XXL (1 skeins), and Schaefer Anne (1 skein). These are only suggestions for those that need to be able to ask for something specific. If you happen to find yourself in a yarn store, ask for help. Most store owners are very happy to help you.

*Other yarns - Yarn that I keep on hand and use alot are Cascade 220, Patons Merino Wool, and Plymouth Encore. This would be what you would call my "multi-purpose" yarn. It usually finds itself used in little projects, baby/child items, and when I need just a little bit for putting in a picture in my knitting.

*Books - I have kept my amazon lists, both knitting and general, updated and I am officially putting myself on a "book moratorium" until the summer, so don't worry about me already having something!

*All of the above in null and void if you find me a nice and caring husband and help me win the lottery so that Becky and I can open our tea room/restaurant/yarn shop. Plus, I will guarantee handknitted goods for life.

A plague on both your houses.....

Ugh.....I have officially been smacked by the Sinus-Infection Fairy. For the past two days I have been hopped up of Sudafed and MucinexDM....wonderful little cocktail. So what do you do when you are bored and hopped up on drugs? You update your blog!

It was mentioned by an anonymous person (*cough*Sarilyn*cough*) that I had not updated my sidebar in a while, so they didn't know what I was knitting. My apologies....shortly after this is done, I will rectify that fact.

One of my projects that was finished was an EZ Tomten for my little cousin Noah for his 2nd birthday.Pattern: Tomten Jacket from Knitting Without Tears by EZ
Yarn: 3 Plymouth Encore in....ballband...ballband....um, red with blue trim
Needles: US8

Mods: I made a bigger size, CO136 stitches and keeping the same proportions, as described by EZ. I made a collar instead of a hood and did a sc trim in blue. Really made the difference. I crocheted some loops and added some wooden toggles.

Doesn't he look excited?!? You don't want know what he had to do to get those Mardi Gras beads.....

Next we have a shawl that I realized I hadn't documented, probably because I finished it in about 3 days.Pattern: Self-fringing Shawl from Simpatico Yarns
Yarn: 3 Misti Alpaca Chunky in Teal (stupid leprechaun ran off with all my ballbands.....)Needles: US 11


I really like this shawl. It's super soft and sits nicely on my shoulders. However, the alpaca sheds!!! If anyone knows a suggestion on fixing this, I'll buy you a beer....and felting it is NOT an answer.


Next up we have a lovely EZ Baby Surprise.
Pattern: Baby Surprise in Knitting Without Tears by EZ
Yarn: Plymouth Dreambaby
Needles: US 6

At the moment, the recipient of this has yet to be determined. But between friends and family, someone is always having a baby!

Gosh, it is Wednesday already???

Here's the Wednesday lowdown

Reading....still

Watching...

Listening...

Tuesday night was my first night with a nice little knitting group in Lewisville/Flower Mound. We had a ton of fun and I got to work on Noah's secret present.....but more on that after Saturday!

Tuesday was Jury Duty. I was in a group assigned to a case tomorrow morning. In other words, my Rockin' Sock and I have a date at the courthouse at 8-freakin'-am.

8am has never been a good time for me. Granted, I am not a morning person, but there is something about 8am. I mean, I used to work at a hospital as a phlebotomist and I would have to be at work at 5am. Didn't bother me that much. I was find with 9am chemistry classes in college. But those 8am classes usually entailed me going in my pajama's. Mom, don't look at me like that.... :-)

As some of you know, I gave up buying yarn for Lent. No, seriously....REALLY! I have not bought yarn in 2 weeks....and it has been a struggle, let me tell you.....except after fixing my car for $900...then, I just couldn't afford it! I am a big yarn impulse buyer. That's not to say I buy yarn, willy-nilly. Every single skein has a project planned...I just haven't gotten to it yet. That being said, I still have a TON of yarn....I mean, look at my sock yarn. That was 6 weeks ago, and it has grown.

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am addicted to yarn....Duh! I am a KNITTER!!! HEAR ME ROAR!!!!

Goody, goody....

Let' see what I got in the mail today!! First up is the yarn that I got in a contest run by Christine of Pointy Sticks.

This is a skein of Fleece Artist Merino Sock in Pinata, donated by yarn4socks. Here, let's all take a closer look....

So bright and pretty!!! Hmm....I wonder who these will be for???

Next up we have a little Swap-Bot action going on. This swap was for knitting notions, because you can NEVER have too many.....that is until I catch the leprechaun that is stealing all of my tape measures.....

Let's see, we have some Nancy's Knick Knack cards, a yarn cutter pendant, candy (which has already been consumed), a pencil, a Chibi, handmade stitch markers, a needle gauge, Postits, and some handmade knitting needles made out of DPNs. These are the coolest things ever! Thanks Knitgirl63!!!

My cousin also sent me a copy of the DomiKNITrix book. She saw it and knew I had to have a copy, so she sent it. Makes you wonder what my cousin thinks of me..... :-P

What a week, what a week.....

First, let's start with the good parts!! The mailman has been very good to me this week. First, we continue our European tour and arrive in....

....PARIS!!! Ah, the lovely Effiel Tower.....and I was recommended to stop by the La Droguerie for the most amazing buttons, ribbons and yarn. Someday, someday.....

I also got a package from Leigh (aka chemgrrl) in a Random Act of Kindness!!

Check out the loot!

- Two cute postcards

- Knitting magnet ("Sorry I can't go out with you. I have to stay home and knit")

- Cool wrist pocket (Apparently, all the cool chemists are wearing them thing spring)

- Lovely hand lotion sample

- Personalized stitch markers (for the Texas who are wondering, that lovely white stuff is called "snow".)

- A skein of Lorna's Laces in Shepard Sport in Periwinkle, probably to become copycat socks of Leigh's...I love it too much!

- A yummy smelling jar of loose leaf tea, which I have never used before...been looking for the right tea ball. (...and yes, it really is TEA)

- Yummy bag 'o Jolly Ranchers, one of my FAVS!!

- Official Indiana University periodic table and pencil. You can never have too many.

I also felt her to be a kindred spirit when the box that contained the goodies was from Cambridge Isotopes. As long as I am not the only one who steals boxes from work... :-P

And it that wasn't enough, I got my first Rockin' Sock Club package!

Contents include a pattern binder with goodies inside, official button and bumper sticker, emergency sock yarn, and my first skein of Socks that Rock, medium weight, in the Monsoon colorway. I now know why everyone loves this yarn. I immediately cast-on Friday night and the fabric is sooo soft and squishy. Can't wait to finish!

And then, to the not-so-good parts. Finally took my car to the dealer on Saturday and it stayed there why Kerry and I were at Simpatico. When I finally got the call, it was not good news. My O2 sensor went out and I somehow cracked the exhaust manifold, which is attached to the catalytic converter, so I have to replace the whole thing. All in all, $900. Ugh....the only upside is that I haven't dispersed all my tax refund like I was going to.

I wonder if I can knit an exhaust manifold....