You Have To Be Nice To Me Today

The Red Cross says so.


Did you know it's pretty hard to take a picture of your own upper arm? Because it is (that's where the sticker is).

Anyway. I'm tired today. The cats woke me up in the middle of the night, and I had trouble falling back to sleep after I had shut them up, so I'm about three hours short. My brain isn't working well.

So of course, giving blood was a great idea. :) But they were here, so I had to try. And I'm glad I did - someone will be happy to have that blood.

Happy Things

I forgot to e-mail my list to myself again on Friday, so I'm posting these a day late. But I'm still PMSing in a huge way (I'm ready to cry this morning if anyone says anything wrong to me, even though I have absolutely no reason to cry - hormones suck butt), so I'm really doing well just getting them posted at all.

Sometimes being a woman really sucks.

Okay, on to happier things from the last week.

Sunday: I had a really nice day at home with J, playing Sims, knitting and watching TV. Also, the Dolphins won, which made him happy, so it makes me happy.

Monday: J and I got home at the same time, which I don't think has ever happened before. It was nice. Getting an hour to Sim, and spending it playing an orphan family. It is a fun challenge, and everyone survived, woo!

Tuesday: Sitting in the living room at night, all the animals being quiet, the TV not on, with Sable sitting on my shoulder, purring and rubbing her head into my jaw. She's so sweet. It was a very peaceful moment.

Wednesday: I got Molly, my humidifier, in the mail! Also, watching J sleep for a few minutes, after I gave him a nice massage. It was very sweet.

Thursday: Sitting on the futon with Willow, watching TV and crocheting. And of course, J. He makes me laugh.

Friday: Starting the day in J's arms, not wanting to get out of bed. Ending the day in J's arms, not having to get out of bed.

Saturday: Starting the day with chocolate milk and a Kit-Kat. Mmm. Getting some great hugs and kisses from Willow when the oven wasn’t working, and my brownies were trapped in a half-baked state inside.

Today

This morning I felt Bernie nosing me in the arm, even licking me, while whining. I didn't know what time it was, and didn't look at the clock, but for some reason I thought it was time for J to get up for work (or almost), so I ignored Bernie. Then I heard him start to pee on the floor. That got me up. And it was only 4:08, so it wasn't anywhere near time for J to get up. Lesson learned. I will never ignore Bernie when he comes whining to me in the middle of the night again.

Once I got up, let him out, cleaned up the pee, let him back in, washed my hands and went back to bed, I was pretty much awake. I didn't want to be, but then you don't always get what you want, right? So I lay there, awake. J got up for work, then got ready, then came in and got the dogs and let them out. Then he came to say good-bye to me, handing me that king sized Kit-Kat bar that I wrote about earlier. I love a man who hands me chocolate at 6:00 in the morning, I really do.

After he left, I finally managed to get back to sleep, after kicking Willow out of the room for being noisy, and then letting her back in once she started scratching on the door from the living room side. I got up at almost 8:00, still tired, but ready to start my day. I had a lot of plans for today! I was going to:

Finally finish that baby blanket
Make homemade bread
Make brownies
Dust the furniture
Vacuum the floors
Mop the floors
Clean the bathroom
Do all of the laundry

Good plans, right? Here's what I actually did:

I finally finished that baby blanket (but it took me from about 8:30 in the morning until about 4:45 in the afternoon, and almost killed my right wrist - I have a bit of carpal tunnel or something, and the repepitive motions of crocheting really bug it after a while).
I made the brownies (with some trouble).
I attempted to make some bread (but learned that my bread maker is broken. I ended up with a lump of hard, unrisen, browned dough).
I did all the laundry.

Sigh.

First, before I go any further, I should tell you - I'm PMSing. Big time. I got all emotional and mushy this morning when watching Made of Honor, and e-mailed my mush to J. That was the good part of my PMSing.

I melted down later. The blanket was taking forever. The bread didn't work. I mixed up the brownies and put them in the oven, and then the oven for some reason stopped lighting (I have a gas oven/stove), when the brownies were only half done. It finally lit up again, after I melted down over it, asking the universe why it was keeping the brownies away from a hormonal woman who had just finished up 40 days without chocolate. Isn't that enough? What more do you want, universe?!?

Just in time to keep me from laying on the floor in a full-on fit, the oven lit up once again, and shortly thereafter, just an hour or so after they should have been done, the brownies finally finished. Whew. Is the oven broken now? Or was it a temporary anomaly? I have no idea. I'm hoping for temporary.

Then I spent ten minutes on the floor, hugging on Willow, who gave me some very nice hugs and kisses back. That helped. I also sat on a chair in the dining room and watched the rain falling into the pool. That helped, too. Then I finished that blanket, and that helped a LOT.

I made myself some mini pizzas for dinner (using the toaster oven, which thankfully is still working fine). I burned my tongue on one a little, but not badly. I shared the last mini pizza with the dogs. They liked that. Then I went out and frosted the still warm, but not too warm brownies (did I mention they are frosted brownies? Because they are, and they are heaven in a pan), and I cut a big one and ate it. I got chocolate frosting all over my fingers, and I loved every second of it.

I feel a lot better now. How did I ever go 40 days without chocolate? I don't know, but I am never doing that again. That's a second lesson I learned today.

To recap:

1. Never ignore Bernie when he whines and licks my arm in the middle of the night.
2. Never again attempt to live my life without chocolate. It's just not worth it.

Okay, me and my hormonal self are going to go watch some TV and relax, chores be damned for now. But first, take a gander at these.

The blanket, all folded up and ready to go. I'm going to find a gift bag for it this weekend. Michelle? I hope you'll like this. The two dark colors aren't showing up quite the same here as they are in real life - the one is more mauve than purple, like it appears, and the other one isn't quite so dark brown. Also, since I have no idea when I'll see you guys again, I'm going to deliver this to Donna on Monday. I figure she'll see you way before I see you again.

They really are heaven in a pan, and were totally worth waiting two hours for. But I still hope there isn't really anything wrong with the oven.

Okay, I'm out of here. I'm going to go relax and watch TV for the rest of the day. And maybe I'll vacuum, before the house gets completely taken over by animal hair. Oh! And I almost forgot two more things. First, finishing that baby blanket was on my list of 101 things, so I get to cross it off. That's two items crossed off in one day, woo! Second, have some cuteness to make you smile:

Breakfast

This is what breakfast looks like when you've gone 40 days without chocolate. :) In case you can't tell, that's chocolate milk in the mug, and of course that is a king sized Kit-Kat, courtesy of my wonderful J, who put it in my hand when he came into the bedroom to say good-bye as he was leaving for work this morning.

In case you're wondering, this is what it sounds like at my desk as I'm eating sticks of Kit-Kat (oh, the heavenly chocolate taste) and drinking chocolate milk - "Mmmm, mmmmmmm, hmmmmmm."

I'm so glad that 40 days is over.

Oh! And I'm going to go mark this item on my 101 list as done. Check! Never doing that again.

Day 40

Today is my last day without chocolate.

Wait, let me scream that out loud.

TODAY IS MY LAST DAY WITHOUT CHOCOLATE!!!

I'm a little excited, in case you couldn't tell. I have Sarah's bucket of Halloween candy at home, and I'm going to get some brownie mix (or chocolate chip cookie dough, I keep going back and forth) when J and I go after groceries tonight.

Anyway:

I'll probably eat these first. Mmm.

Followed closely by:



It's going to be a good weekend. :)

Two Years Ago

Two years ago yesterday I was sitting at my desk at work, when I got an e-mail with the following subject line: "eHarmony match requests communication." I opened it up and saw that J from (his city) had requested communication.

When I signed up for eHarmony, it wasn't so much to actually meet people - it was more to see who they would match me up with, or in fact even if they would attempt to match me with anyone. The first time I tried eHarmony was a couple of years after my Mother died. I was very depressed, and when I filled out the profile, I was honest in how I was feeling at the time. I got all the way through their very long application, only to have them tell me that they couldn't match me with anyone.

This time, however, they obviously did (of course, I was in a much better frame of mind this time around).

So when that e-mail came in, I wondered if I should bother replying. I would have to pay to join eHarmony to respond, and what if it didn't work out? I had a very bad track record with relationships, after all, and had really begun to think I would just be alone forever.

But then eHarmony sent me a deal - three months for the price of one. And I had a credit card with enough available to pay for it, so I said what the heck. I paid, and I replied.

Obviously this is one of the best things I've ever done.

I love you, J. I'm so glad you asked me to start communicating with you two years ago, and I'm so, so glad I paid the fee to respond. I can't imagine my life without you now. I'm glad we're going to get to spend the rest of our lives together.

Meet Molly

I have been having trouble with my contacts feeling really dry after I wear them for a few hours. I asked my boss if I could order a humidifier to use in the office, in hopes that it will help keep them more moist - especially once they start blasting the heat for the winter months. She said I could, so I did - it arrived today. Meet Molly. :)



Molly says "Moo."
Also, her nostrils and mouth look like a smiley face. :)

I could have ordered a normal, boring humidifier, but why do that when you can get one in the shape of a cow? They also come in the shapes of frogs, penguins, elephants and even Spongebob Squarepants. But I've always liked cows, so it had to be this one for me. Isn't she cute? The mist comes out of her ear tips. She's making me happy. Now here's hoping she can make my eyes stay moist with my contacts in!

How I can tell it's fall

1. I'm thinking that there is a nice chill in the air, that feels good on my bare arms.

2. I noticed that the trees are starting to mix some yellows, oranges and reds in with their green leaves.

3. I'm sweating way less.

4. Were those Canadian geese that I heard honking in the field next door? I think they might have been.

5. The windows are closed at night, instead of open.

6. The fan isn't always on at night.

7. I'm wearing socks again.

8. I haven't cut the grass in weeks, and it barely needs it (but I will have to cut it probably one more time before I'll be done for the season).

9. The calendar on my local station's weather page says it officially starts today.

10. Football season is back underway (for J, which means Simming/knitting/reading while he watches and/or listens to football is back underway for me).

11. I'm feeling the urge to bake - cupcakes, muffins, cookies, brownies (and not just because I'm missing the chocolate so much), and even bread.

12. Halloween decorations are starting to show up all over the house. :) When J is done decorating, maybe I'll take you on a tour again, like I did last year.

Happy Things, Week 3

Look at me, remembering to do this two weeks in a row! Here are the things that made me happy this week.

Sunday: J coming home to me, after being at work since Saturday morning. We spent a great afternoon together, before he went to sleep.

Monday: I used all of my letters TWICE in Scrabble with Sarah. I had dinner with my sister and her family - I hadn't seen her in a long time, so it was very nice. I also got all of my playing done for my next update in my Sims story.

Tuesday: Relaxing with J at night and just watching TV until bedtime. Also, Willow was being very snuggly and happy (mostly because her enemy, Rosebud, was in the mudroom).

Wednesday: I got a good night's sleep (after getting a horrible one the night before). I got part one of my Sims update done, and started setting up for my other legacy.

Thursday: Having some time with my poor, tired J. Working on the second mesh stitch section of my scarf, and having it come out right! Maybe I will be able to make myself a sweater soon after all! (After I finish the baby blanket, that is. I won't let myself start a sweater until I do.)

Friday: Writing part 2 of my Sims legacy update, while watching TV with J.

Saturday: Lying in bed with J, watching Raging Bull. It was a good movie, with great acting by DeNiro, and I love watching movies with J. Sarah bringing me chocolate! Which was partly mean, but I'll love it when I can eat it on Saturday of next week. :)

Why Sarah is Awesome (and mean)

She brought me this:



It's full of this:



Isn't that nice? A bucket full of chocolate, all for me! But it's also mean, because I can't eat any of it until a week from today! :) It smells amazing, though!

Meme Time

It's been a long time since I've done a meme, and I just found one online that was actually semi-interesting. I wanted to post anyway, so here you go! :)

A-Accent: I don't hear one normally, but I guess I have a bit of a northern accent. Until I hear southerners on TV, and then my southern comes out (I lived in Virginia for almost 15 years).
B-Breakfast item: Cereal. Many different varieties, depending on my mood.
C-Chore you hate: Mopping. There is a reason my floors are not the cleanest (understatement), and why even when we someday replace the worn out linoleum in the kitchen and dining room (and bathroom), I will have to find a color that will hide dirt.
D-Dad's Name: Philip (birth Dad, he died when I was two), Wayne (step-dad, raised me then died when I was 23).
E-Essential every day item: Once next Saturday comes? Chocolate. But really, water, J hugs, pet hugs and kisses.
F-Flavor Ice Cream: Chocolate. Mmm.
G-Gold or silver?: Silver mostly, but my engagement ring is gold.
H-Happy Place: Home.
I-Insomnia: Not often, luckily, and when it does hit, it usually only lasts one night.
J-Job: Marketing. Boring.
K-Kids: None, woo! Unless you count dogs and cats, and then I have 9 (counting J's two dogs).
L-Living arrangements: Living in sin, although it's less sinful, I guess, since he proposed to me in December. And I don't really believe it's living in sin, but that's what everyone used to call it.
M-Mom's birthplace: a hospital about ten miles from where I am right now.
N-Name your pets: In no particular order - Bernie, Willow, Rosebud, McDuff, Lucy, Kate, Zelda, Gracie, Sable.
O-Overnight hospital stays: I had my appendix out when I was in sixth grade. That's it so far.
P-Phobia: SPIDERS. They're way too creepy.
Q-Question: Why can't we work two days a week and have five off? Or even work, like, three days and have four off. It seems more balanced that way, and we'd all be way happier.
R-Religious affiliation: Officially, I'm Methodist. But I don't go to church, and I don't have any interest in changing that fact.
S-Siblings: Three brothers, one sister - all older than me (I'm the baby by six years).
T-Time you wake up: On weekdays, 6:30. On weekends, anywhere between 6:30 and 8:00. I've lost my ability to sleep the morning away, like I used to.
U-Unnatural hair colors you've had: The only time I've dyed my hair, it was a very dark brown. Now I don't even do that.
V-Vegetable you refuse to eat: Uh, all of them except for corn. Yes, I know. They're good for me. But, blah.
W-Worst Habit: Snacking when I'm not hungry - just bored.
X-X-rays you've had: Ankle, when I broke it, chest, when I was having severe congestion problems. Maybe I had my abdomen x-rayed when my appendix was infected (they had trouble diagnosing it), but I don't know.
Y-Yummy: Chocolate!!!
Z-Zoo animal: I haven't been to a zoo in at least 20 years, so I don't know. Uh, elephants? Penguins? Tigers? It kind of depresses me that any of them are in zoos instead of living the life they were intended to live, in the wild, so I don't know.

Almost Done Skipping Chocolate

Ten days from today, I'll be able to have chocolate again, because my 40 day no chocolate experiment will finally be over. I'll be able to cross an item off my 101 things list, woo! But more importantly, I'll be able to have chocolate milk, and maybe some brownies, and definitely a candy bar of some sort. It's going to be a good day.

What have I learned from this experiment? Well, I guess I shouldn't really say I definitely did NOT lose my taste for chocolate, since I haven't had any in 30 days (if I had done a 30 day no chocolate experiment, I'd be eating it again today. D'oh! That's what I should have done), but based on how much I'm wanting it, I'd say it's a safe bet that I haven't lost any of my taste for it.

So I guess I've learned a couple of things.

One: I am definitely addicted to sugar. When the chocolate first went away, so did most of my sugar intake, and by day two I was withdrawing big time. So I added other forms of sugar into my diet, and I've been fine since. (I am NOT facing my sugar addiction right now. Maybe in the future, but not now.)

Two: I've discovered non-chocolate sources of the sweet stuff. Cookies that I normally overlook, like Fig Newtons and Lorna Doones. Cake flavors that I would never usually buy, like French Vanilla and even muffin flavors that I wouldn't have bought before, like Cinnamon Streusel (these were a hit with J, by the way. He hinted last night that we could have those again and it would be a good thing). :)

Mostly, though, I've learned that I CAN go without chocolate if I need to. I'll miss it, but I'll survive. However, since I don't HAVE to go without it, you better believe I'll be sinking my chocolate deprived teeth into a big candy bar or brownie or something come September 27. Mmm, I'm already licking my lips in anticipation.

Happy Things 2

As promised, here is my list of things that made me happy over the last week.

Sunday, 9/7: Opening day of football season. And okay, I don't really care about football at all, but J was home, and he was excited that he got to watch his Dolphins play (they don't air the Dolphins games much in our area), and we had ourselves a regular football party/junk food day. I automatically love any day that includes extra sharp cheddar cheese and crackers. Mmmm. Oh, and Hint of Lime Tostitos. I could eat those all day (and I think I did).

Monday, 9/8: Watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles with J. Getting on the floor and laying with Bernie, my head on his side. (I had a nasty headache that evening, so it was nice to just relax and do nothing much.)

Tuesday, 9/9: J calling me at work. :) I still love when he does that. Also, J pulling into the driveway when he got home from work, honking the horn to let me know he was home.

Wednesday, 9/10: Gracie was walking out of the bathroom in the morning (while I was in there getting ready for work). Sable was hiding outside of the door, under the china closet. When Gracie reached the doorway, Sable pounced on her! It made me laugh.

Thursday, 9/11: Seeing J's big smile and getting a big hug when he first got up (while I was getting ready for work). There's no better way to start the day.

Friday, 9/12: Unexpectedly having J home with me that night (he was originally supposed to be at work, but his schedule changed).

Saturday, 9/13: Gracie laying on my chest, oh so content and happy as I petted her. She's so pretty and sweet (they all are). That was a very nice, peaceful moment in a day that I kind of walked through asleep, because I didn't get enough sleep the night before. Also, I played a lot of Sims, which always makes me happy. I love to feed my addiction. Oh, and of course I knitted some, too. My scarf is getting long enough to actually look like a scarf now! Woo!

Talking To Myself

Believe it or not, I remembered to record my list of things that made me happy this week. I typed them at work every day. But then when I left work yesterday afternoon, I forgot to print them out or e-mail them to myself, so now that I'm home, I have no idea what they were. Oops? I'll post them on Monday.

J is at work today. This isn't anything unusual - he generally does work on Saturdays. But for some reason being alone today has made me remember what it was like before J, when I still lived alone and wasn't dating anyone. I talk to myself. A lot. I eat too much. It's not pretty. It's a good thing he'll be home most of tomorrow.

It is nice and quiet here right now, though - all of the animals are sleeping. It's nice.

Happy Saturday, people.

Template Change

If you visited this site yesterday, you saw a totally different template than this one. Sorry for changing it again, but I didn't love the one I put up yesterday - this one, though, feels more like me. I like it.

Gerber daisies are just so pretty, don't you think? They're cheerful. I like it. :)

Restless

I'm feeling very restless this afternoon. I feel like I need a change of scenery. I'm considering just getting up and walking around the building or something. Or maybe stepping outside and just standing there for a couple of minutes. Anything to get me away from my desk.

Or I want to move my blog to somewhere else, or redesign it or something. But hardly anyone reads this, and no matter where it is, it's still just me writing it, so what's the point? Sigh.

Also, I have 16 days to go and I'll be able to eat chocolate again. I think it's safe to say I'm not losing my taste for it. In fact, did I tell you I've been dreaming about it? Because I have. Nothing major, but I'll just be walking through my dream, eating a brownie. I miss brownies.

I have to bring in a snack for work tomorrow. I wish I could bring brownies. I have no idea what I'll make instead. Maybe some white or yellow cupcakes, or some sugar cookies or something. I don't know. I'll peruse the bakery aisle in the local store and see what I find.

Happy Thursday, people. I hope you're less restless than I am right now.

Willow and McDuff

For someone who acts like she hates all other animals, Willow sure does like McDuff. :) I can't blame her, though, he's a sweetie, for sure.

Falling Apart - Not Really

I have a canker sore in my mouth. It hurts when I eat. I hate canker sores.

I bit the inside of my cheek (left side - same side as the canker sore) while eating dinner last night. It hurt a lot, and is just waiting to jump in the way so I can continue to bite it whenever I eat.

I started getting a headache at work yesterday, but it wasn't bad, so I didn't take any Advil to get rid of it. It got progressively worse, so that I didn't feel up to doing anything last night. I did finally take some Advil, and then J and I spent an hour on the futon, watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I'm glad it was on, because that's all I was up to doing. (Also, I love my DVR. I had no idea the premiere was on last night, but the DVR knew, and it started recording it for us. DVRs rock.)

I feel a small headache beginning again this morning. I'm out of Advil. Sigh.

It's raining today. I don't own an umbrella (well, I do, but it got left outside on the porch too long and is now in the garage, which means it is dead to me, because spiders are most likely living in it. Or not, but in my mind they are, which means it's still dead to me). I need to walk across campus for lunch. I really hope it stops raining for half an hour, so I can make the walk without getting drenched. (I would just drive, but the students steal our parking spots if we leave them, and then I'd have nowhere to park when I got back.) I really need to buy myself an umbrella.

My Pandora radio station played a song this morning by a band called Diamond Nights. I had never heard them before, but I think I like them. They sound kind of like old school rock and roll, which is the best kind. Check them out. (You can listen to their whole album on their website, which is very nice. I wish more bands did that.) I'm up in the air about some of their songs, but I think I really like a few other ones.

There is some sort of training session getting ready to start in the conference room across the hall from my office. Their food table is set up in my area, because the conference room is too small to hold it. I really hope that they close the door to the conference room, because it's going to be annoying enough when they all file into my area for lunch - I don't want to have to listen to them all day, too. Sigh.

I once again failed to do a list of things that made me happy last week. Why do I suck so much at that? I'm going to go start a file on my work laptop right now, so that I can open it up every morning and write something down for the day before. Maybe this way I'll actually remember to do it.

Bye. :)

More Knitting Talk, with Pictures!

Check it out! This is the beginning of my first ever knitted scarf. There are a total of four patterns in this scarf, and you can see that I have three done already (the four are repeated four times, of course, to make it longer). I have started the fourth pattern, but I only have a couple of rows done, so you can't really see that yet. But aren't the other three cool?

This is the basket weave pattern, which was the first one I had to do. It's really easy, thankfully, and it came out well. There are a couple of minor errors in it, but this scarf is just for me, and I can live with them. :) And since it's my first real knitting project, I can live with a couple of mistakes. I kept thinking when I was doing this part that I would kind of like a sweater in this pattern - at least a sweater that had this for the front - maybe not the whole thing. But I'm not up to sweaters yet, so who knows what I'll end up making when I get ready for that.

This is the mesh stitch, which is the part that gave me the most trouble. Let's just say that I got a lot of practice at tearing out rows and picking stitches back up (which isn't all that easy when you're new to the whole knitting thing). There are mistakes in here, too - I had to completely fudge the last row to get back to the right number of stitches. But whatever, I wasn't tearing it out again, and like I said - this is for me, so I don't really care all that much if there are mistakes. Here's hoping that this section gets easier when I do it the second, third and fourth times, though, or I may just shoot someone.

This is the section I did last night - it's called sugar cubes. This one would make a cute sweater, too, although I don't know if I'd want to wear it - it might be too cute as a sweater. I don't know. Anyway, it was easy, and I don't think I made any mistakes in this at all! Or at least no major ones, and none that are even visible. So that's good.

The next section is called seed stitch, which is just knitting one stitch and then purling the next, and reversing that on the next row. It'll be easy, too, I hope. As long as I don't lose track of when to do which stitch.

Which reminds me, I totally learned something about this whole process from my Mother. I remember that when she was knitting a difficult pattern, or at least one where the rows were all different, she had a notebook that she would keep next to her, and she'd mark down rows as she finished them. Guess what I'm doing now? You better believe I'm writing them down, or I'd never remember what I just did, or where I left off the day before when I pick it up again. So, thanks Mom!

I'm really enjoying this whole knitting thing (like you couldn't tell). I plan on working on this and that baby blanket I've been making forever at the same time, so that I can get them both done soon (soon, I swear, so that baby has her blanket before it gets cold again). Once I have both the baby blanket and my scarf done, I'm going to try to make a sweater next, I think. I found a nice, easy looking pattern online that I want to try. We'll see. It'll be a while before I get these done, but I'll be working on the sweater by October, I hope.

Oh, and I'll get off the knitting topic long enough to say - I weighed myself this morning. I don't really have any idea what I weighed before I stopped snacking so much at work, but this morning I weighed about six pounds less than I would have expected to. Woo! This new minimal snacking at work habit is one I want to keep up.

Knitting and Chocolate and Snacking and Other Ramblings

I'm teaching myself to knit - working towards that entry in my 101 things, where I want to learn to knit and then make myself a blanket or sweater (preferably a sweater, since I think it would be cool to wear one I made myself). I'm doing this pattern: The Road Scarf. I've just finished the first part, which is a basket weave pattern, and it totally looks the same! I'm so proud of myself. I apparently knit tightly, which means it's a bit smaller than it is supposed to be, but that's okay. It's just a scarf, and that just means I made more basket weaves than they show in that picture to compensate.

Well, the next section is a mesh stitch, and I had absolutely no idea how to do that, but then I found videos online to help me! I love the Internet. In case anyone finds this post in the future and wants to know as desperately as I did, here they are. This woman shows how to do "yo, k2tog," and this knitting glossary shows how to do the Skp.

The Internet is a great thing. I'd rather have my Mom here to show me how to do these things, but I don't have her. In this case, the Internet is the best alternative. (Although nothing would ever replace her, of course.)

Anyway, learning how to do this pattern is apparently my new obsession. I have to have one always - usually it's the Sims, now it's knitting. At least I'll get a useful product out of the knitting (plus I can do it while I'm Simming, and feed two obsessions at once, hee).

I think I had other things I wanted to talk about in here. I wanted to post a couple of days ago, but I was way too busy, and now that it's two days later and I have the time, do you think I can remember what it was I wanted to say? Heck no. :)

Oh! I remember. I'm not old, but sometimes my memory doesn't work so good. And no, the fact that I am obsessed with knitting does not make me old. :P

So, what I wanted to say was this. I am on my 19th day without chocolate of any sort. I didn't even crave it for the first 13 of those days. But for the last six? Oh man. When we went to the Fair on Sunday, I wanted a soft serve chocolate ice cream cone. I wanted chocolate milk. And since then, I've wanted chocolate milk, chocolate ice cream, and just about any sort of candy bar (but without nuts). And last night J said we were going to have a junk day on Sunday, because it's opening weekend of football season, don't ya know, and he might even get to watch the Dolphins play, woo! So it's a reason to celebrate. And I was like, "Oh! I could make us some brownies!" Except then I couldn't eat them. Sigh. Why am I doing this no chocolate thing again? Just to see if I can lose my taste for it, like that one person did? I really don't think I will, if these cravings are anything to go by.

Maybe I'll get a box of yellow cake mix and some white frosting, and make us cupcakes instead. We can even put some orange sprinkles on them, in honor of the Dolphins.

Also, I haven't weighed myself, but I think the no chocolate thing, combined with the fact that I've changed how I eat at work, is making me lose weight. See, I used to bring my lunch, and use the money work gives us for lunch to buy sodas, candy bars, chips, cookies, etc., to go with my sandwich and to have as snacks later in the day. Well, instead of doing that, I'm now spending my lunch money on - imagine this - lunch! Which means no snacks (or not many). I'm not going to weigh myself to find out for sure, but I think I may have lost a bit of my abdomen. Here's hoping I'm right, and that it continues.

Okay. I've rambled enough now. Just one thing - is it 4:30 yet? I want to go home and knit. :)