Friday Photos

Here are some pictures of my "work in progress" stole. It requires a certain level of concentration, but I'm finding remembering the pattern is not so hard. I still count, count, count as I go along the pattern rows. I haven't been working on it the last couple of days because I wanted to try to get my other kind-of-secret project done so that I can give it away next week. That one is coming along nicely and will be done shortly. I will post pictures of it next week.

I've got to get over it...

Seriously. I've held a grudge for almost 27 years. I need to get over it. I realized that this morning - but I'm not sure I can do it. Here's the deal...when my father died, I was in college. The girl who had been my best friend from high school never called, never wrote - nothing. She never sent a single word of sympathy my way during the most devastating time of my life (at that point anyway). I've been angry with her ever since. I rarely see her, but when I do, it's all I can do to grind out a "Hello Melissa" (note that she was always Missy - so I'm being extra bitchy by calling her Melissa.) Today, I was reading a note on facebook about how one of our high school teachers is retiring. Missy posted about how her daughter is a sophomore now, and has this teacher for homeroom and her son is going next year and she was hoping he would get this same teacher. I read that and got angry. Why does she get to have kids and I don't. I know it's not her fault I can't - but I was - hell am - so pissed that this woman who couldn't show me the littlest bit of kindness gets something I so dearly want. I know - life is not fair and except for this one fault, I'm sure Missy has led a good life. I know I need to get over it. It was 27 years ago. But right now, I'm just going to wallow.

Friday Photos - St Baldrick's Day

A after his St Baldrick's Day haircut - and a little embellishment added by his friends. Yes, that's a blue 1.

Happiness is...

....Spring on the way. Friday it will be spring! YAY! I know - it could still snow - but I'm kind of hopeful it won't. My crocuses are blooming. BTW - did you know that crocuses will naturalize all on their own? I didn't. I had some showing up in my front lawn and in new places in my gardens. I thought maybe they weren't real crocuses (a faux crocus - can you just imagine?) so I googled crocuses. That's how I found out they will naturalize like that - so I'm just going to let them have at it. It brings a happy touch to our yard - which is looking kind of sad and brown yet. Anyway, the weather has been getting better and better. Walks are becoming a daily routine again. I can take the dog out without wearing 3 layers of clothing. It's all good.

My Life Changing Moment...

....was 7 years ago today. I met A that day. I didn't recognize it as a life changing moment at the time, but it was. I had gone to the city to watch the St Patrick's Day parade with A's cousin B, who is my co-worker, and B's girlfriend. This was the first St Patrick's Day parade after 9/11. A was marching with his FDNY firehouse. I remember the sustained applause when the firemen came by. The parade paused for a moment in front of us, the people just kept clapping and clapping. This was the first year they had the probies carry the 343 flags - what a moment, it still makes me want to cry. As you might imagine, the city was teeming with firemen that day, not just from NYC, but from all over the country. We arranged to meet up with A at a bar on the Upper East Side - packed to the gills with firemen. So - B introduces us to A, he says "Nice to meet you, can I get you a beer?" He comes back with the beer and that was pretty much the last I saw of him. I wasn't really looking at the time and A was still married to his first wife, so I didn't dwell on the meeting much. He clearly stuck in my head from that meeting though - because 4 months later, B's girlfriend says to me "B's cousin A is down in his office. He's getting divorced. You should go down and say hi." I TOTALLY made up an excuse to go down there. I chatted with A for a few minutes, then headed back upstairs. A later came up to my office, passed me a business card with his number on it and said "Next time you are in the city, give me a call" and hustled out of there. The next day, he e-mailed me and asked me out. The rest is history. So - little did I know, but that moment in the bar 7 years ago changed my life. And I'm one happy girl that it did!

And so it begins...

I decided to make the Cozy wrap - third picture down from my last post. There were two primary reasons. First, the yarn that I had purchased was the right weight, so I don't have to try to figure out any adjustments my first time trying a pattern like this. Second, it has "rest rows" meaning that every other row is straight purling. I figured that would be easier my first time out with something more intricate. So far, I've only ever done stockinette stitch, garter stitch and then the baby blanket I made which had seed stitch and was the first time I had to count stitches and rows! I started last night, made an error in my second row of the pattern. I tried to find it, ended up ripping it out to the beginning. Second attempt has gone better. I'll be working on it tonight. My goal is to finish it by mid-June. You may think that's very doable - even too much time - but I have a habit of starting out great guns and then slacking. I do have an event to which I would like to wear this, so hopefully that goal will keep me on track. I've got another project I plan to spend some lunch hours working on - but I'm keeping mum about that, just in case the planned recipient pops in here. That one's easy - straight stockinette stitch for the most part.

Friday Photos - sort of

Okay - I'm cheating a little. I actually have photos to post - but I decided to do something else. I am planning to knit myself a stole/wrap. I've had trouble deciding what pattern I want - have even considered creating my own pattern. I plan to use off white yarn for the stole. The yarn I plan to use is thicker than what's in the first pattern, so the stole wouldn't be so lacy looking - but would have a nice pattern to it. So here are pictures of the possibilities - feel free to comment.

happiness is....

....good numbers. There are all sorts of ways numbers can be good - weight going down (or up for some people), salaries, house prices. For me right now, the good numbers are the ones I got yesterday on a big bond refunding we did. When municipalities need to borrow money, we sell bonds. Refunding bonds is pretty much like refinancing your mortgage. So, yesterday, we refunded about $30 million in bonds by selling $28.5 million in bonds. We saved $1.8 million dollars on a budgetary basis over the life of the new bonds. It's a 5.1% present value savings - WOO FREAKIN' HOO!! This is providing serious budgetary relief for the next two years - so I'm a very happy camper.

Friday Photos

I've been slacking a bit - sorry. Last Friday, I started my day in beautiful Laguna Beach, California. Here are some pictures I took.

Happiness is...

...okay - so I'm a little late in the day - but....happiness is catching up with girlfriends. I had dinner tonight with two girlfriends. One I had seen not so long ago, but we haven't had a chance to sit and talk recently. The other I hadn't seen in months, but had kept in touch with via e-mail. Tonight was fun to sit and talk about all sorts of things that came to mind. We all need such nights once in a while.

Snow thoughts

It always amazes me what other people consider to be adequate removal of snow from their car. We got over 10 inches of snow last night. I saw a car that cleared the windshield off - but left the 10 inches that accumulated on the hood and the roof! And there are the ones that clear off the front windshield, but not the back? Of course, they may have cleared off the back, but left the 10 inches on the roof, which then slid down and covered the back windshield. One of my favorites is not clearing the snow off around your license plate! Mmmmm way to avoid that speeding ticket.

Next snow thought - I arrived at work only about 10 minutes late. That's actually pretty normal for me. My employee who lives in walking distance - shows up 1/2 hour late. What's up with that! She says to me "I thought we were closed." Uh - since when? We hardly ever close. Anyway - it's the snow, freezes peoples' brains - must be.