Happy Halloween!

No cats were harmed in the making of this picture. One cat was, however, thoroughly annoyed. And a teensy bit (read that as totally) scared of my kitty ears (like puffy tail scared and everything! it was super cute!).

Sometimes I wonder how Spike puts up with me. Oh yeah - the Whiskas, that's how.

entrelac scarf

I finished the entrelac scarf I've been working on. Everyone seems to be impressed by this scarf, so here you go - be impressed!

Basic entrelac scarf based on the Danica pattern on Knitty. I used their numbers, but I didn't change yarns. It took 3 skeins of Patons SWS in geranium. I love this yarn! so pretty!

I brought this scarf to the knitting group at work last week. The ladies at work were so impressed - the next day three of the women from the knitting group brought their friends over and asked to see my scarf again. lol

no more cold feet

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately.

Last week I made one pink ankle sock

(my own pattern, thank you very much)

and yesterday I knit one big blue sock.

Neither of them have partners,

so I wore them together.

At least my feet weren't cold.

My right ankle though? Very chilly.

I took the next few pictures of The Lawrence Welk Show for someone specific - you know who you are, even if you don't know who Lawrence Welk is. ;) (yes, there was wine involved in the decision to take these pictures. There usually is some form of alcohol involved when I start taking pictures of what's on tv.)

cleaned out the freezer...

... and found some lefse! We were so excited!

My car is over 100,000 miles now! I was waiting and waiting and waiting to hit 100,000 miles. I made sure to have my camera handy with a charged battery so I could be sure to get a photo of it - and then Monday morning I checked the odometer and it said 100,023. I missed the big moment! *sigh* You'll have to settle for this picture of mile 100,100.

A cat with something to say

I just don't know what he's so angry about.
It probably has something to do with his empty treat bowl

and the fact that he can't get the packet of

poultry-flavored Whiskas out of the cabinet by himself.

5 weird things

Erin tagged me with a meme, so here goes:

5 weird things about me

• I've had a ganglion cyst in my left wrist for more than 15 years. I like it - it comes and goes and is squishy. The coolest thing about it - when it's really big I can press a laser pointer to the side of it and the whole cyst glows. I've actually had a second cyst pop up, but the one in my wrist is the most consistent and it's my favorite.
• Most of the time I'd rather come up with an elaborate plan for something than actually do the thing I created an elaborate plan for. You may know that I knit and crochet a lot lately - I don't think I actually like to knit or crochet. I just the planning that's involved in it.
• I once scored a 167 in an online IQ test. The internet thinks I'm a genius! and you know, the internet is always right. ;) I took that test one day with a group of guys, one of whom was really excited about his score until I beat him by 30 points. ha! (I love outsmarting guys who think they're smarter than me, even if it's only on scientifically worthless internet tests. I am very good at standardized tests in general though.)
• I have pretty good hearing. I can often hear people who think I can't hear them. It's great for eavesdropping and picking up gossip. I'm also really good at recognizing voices.
• I've been to Irish pub-type bars in 5 different countries but I've never been to Ireland. (If you're interested - Ansbach (Germany), Lucerne (Switzerland), Paris, London and, of course, here in the US. (And yes - I've used the bathroom in all of them! you guys should have been able to guess that!))

and now 5 weird things about Spike:

• His favorite food of all time is potatoes: McDonalds french fries, potato chips, lefse and, his ultimate favorite - mashed potatoes with meatballs and gravy all mixed together. He also will beg for chicken, Whiskas Choice Cuts, milk, cheese, ice cream and Cheetos (he likes to lick the orange power off them!).
• He likes to play and be petted while laying on the stairs with his head hanging over the edge.
• He will only drink water from a drinking glass. He absolutely refuses to drink from a bowl and would rather go for days without water than drink from a bowl. (You can see it in the background of this picture.)
• His favorite place to sleep is anywhere on top of me. On my lap, in my arms, curled up on top of me under the covers in bed, even on top of my feet once while I stood in the kitchen and talked on the phone.
• He's very vocal and will have a "conversation" with me. He will also call for me if he thinks I'm home but in a different room. When I reply to him he'll come running to find me and then reprimands me for leaving him alone in the first place.
• bonus Spike fact - I think he likes being called "fluffybutt"!
  

Let's see... who can I tag... (you know what's coming here, right?) Todd - you're it - let's hear 5 weird things about Todd.

mmm... Ikea!

Meatballs, fries and a chocolate marzipan roll thing. yum!

and a treat for Spike. He really, really wants it -

can you tell he's standing on his back legs? lol

6 Spike fans can't be wrong!

I was talking to this guy at work today about web stuff and we ended up talking about blogs. I told him I had a blog and he asked what put on it. So I told him it was mostly just pictures I have taken of random stuff. I told him the last thing I had put up there was a photo of me and my cat. He said, incredulously, "People want to look at that?" I told him "6 Spike fans can't be wrong!" I don't think he got the joke.

I love checking the stats on how many people look at this. It's kind of pointless in a way, since only 6 people looked at my picture on Sunday. But on the other hand - Six people came to check out my blog on Sunday! I wanted to ask that guy at work how many people were interested in him and his dog on Sunday! so there.

I'm going to Ikea tonight. So, just for you, my faithful 15 regular readers, there will be pictures of meatballs!

Also, on a semi-related note - there are a few people in Virginia who keep googling Sven Sundgaard and ending up here. How strange is that? Seriously, it's happening like once a week. Either there's another Sven Sundgaard down there or someone in Virginia has a massive crush on Sven!

self portrait, avec cat

From Spike

too nice to stay inside today!

I swear, the Internet had some kind of personal vendetta against me this weekend. It wouldn't let me send pictures anywhere! no printing, no emailing, no blogging. grrr.

It took me a while, but I finally put up pics from a few weekends ago.

Sept. 23, 2006

Sep 23, 2006 - 7 Photos

(click on the photo to check them out!)

Dinner with Tucker

The fun part...

and the not so fun part.

Finding Things

On my weekly (but lately not-so-weekly lol) walk with my friends Erin and Tucker I picked up this lost to-do list. I guess I have it pretty easy compared to this guy - I think the hardest thing on my list right now is #4. Clean litter box!

I spent some time cleaning out the closet in my spare bedroom today. I'm kind of a packrat, but today I tossed a bunch of things I really don't need anymore. The stuff is still in my garage, so if anyone's interested in a stack of New Kids on the Block pictures ripped out of magazines and once taped to my bedroom wall let me know before Tuesday's trash pick up.

I did find a few interesting things though. Remeber when cds came in cardboard packaging? I stilll have the package from the REM album Automatic for the People. I remember it perfectly - Camille gave it to me for my 16th birthday and I unwrapped it on the bus on the way home from school. This was in December of 1992.

I also found a bunch of papers I had written in school (Mr. Keller gave me an A- on my essay comparing and contrasting two differant fiction genres!), a whole years' worth of The Pony Express, Stillwater high school's student newspaper, the essay my brother wrote for his 9th grade confirmation class (I have no idea why I have that!), and, best of all, grade school yearbooks.

I thought this was cute - here Dan has signed his name by his photo. This photo was probably taken in the fall of 1985, he was 7 years old. Note the missing teeth, the perfect currsive "D", and the not so perfect... well, check it out:

And if you think it's mean of me to post someone else's old yearbook photo, here's mine, too. I would have been 8 in this picture. A semi-related fun fact: The kid whose photo is next to mine on the page just started his first year as an elementary school principal!

The Lunch of Champions...

Kraft EasyMac and S'Mores Poptarts... mmm...

Or maybe it's just the lunch of people who raided their desk drawers looking for anything edible. like me. lol

Phone cozy

I always thought these bags were kind of goofy looking but the other day I realized I needed somewhere to put my phone besides my pockets. I just didn't have room in my pockets for all my stuff. So here it is - a phone cozy bag.

Knit & Crochet stuff

Jul 24, 2006 - 5 Photos

It's just a tiny bag with a strap. It can be hooked around a belt or the strap of the bag I carry to work every day. No more shoving in pockets or digging around in the bottom of my bag hoping to find the phone before it stops ringing!

No pattern, just made it up as I went. I used some clearance Joann Sensations yarn called Smania in the Dark Multi colorway. It's actually darker colors than the picture shows.

Sam!

My first nephew arrived this morning!

Samuel Francis

8/30/06, 5:15 AM

7 lbs 10 ozs, 20.5 inches

Click on the picture to see more!

Sam

Aug 30, 2006 - 10 Photos

Peaches and fangs! Rawr!

These peaches tasted fantastic

and looked really pretty too!

I got a new cell phone.

Spike's getting calls already...

Fangs! I never get to see these!

He's not that tough though - he's yawning.

I'm almost done with this sweater!

I'm just excited.

Crazy Elvis movie - Harum Scarum.

It was awful. Even I didn't watch it.

Baby booties

Prince Charming

Feathered friends

(Ok, they're entertainment for Spike!)

Changes

You guys may have noticed some changes here - I switched to the new Blogger Beta. (Question: why is it "Blogger Beta" but "Picasa Web Albums Test"?) I think I was in one of the first - if not the first - groups of people invited to switch. I think Google's realized I'm one of those people who will jump on anything they send out right away. lol

Anyway - They finally let us add labels (or tags) on posts. Those are the words lists under each post. I added a list of them on the sidebar so you can find things. So if you're looking for the stuff I posted about my July 4th visit with my cousins, click on the Family link. It will only show you posts about my family. Try it and leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

Behind the scenes they've made it a little easier to customize your blog template without knowing any html. I have no problem playing with the html, but I'm lazy. I have to admit I like the drag and drop/fill in the blanks things. And they made the spell check just like the one gmail uses! I've been hoping they'd do that!!!

A couple of things I don't like:

• No three column templates! I want to have a three column template!
• They won't let me edit the html. There are a few things I want to clean up or change in the template and I can't. Also, if I could edit the html I could get that three column template I want. (I have one all ready to go. I just never got around to publishing it. and now I can't.) They do say that they'll let us edit the html soon though.
• I think in the old version of this blog that if you clicked on the Spike and I title in the top left corner of the page it would take you back to spikeandi.blogspot.com. There's no way that I can see now to get back to the "home" blog page. This is really annoying if you click on one of the label/tag links and then want to go back. And I haven't found a way to make that title a link since I can't use html.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. Especially let me know if anything is confusing or hard to use! (I am a Technical Communication Specialist, you know - I should be able to design a user-friendly blog. (I just got a new job title at work. I love it. It makes me feel important. ;) ))

Fetch!

Sad but true - I'm a fan of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman.
and cheetos.

For those of you not in the know, Fetch! is a reality show
for pre-teens hosted by a cartoon dog. It's awesome.
(Well, it's a lot better than watching reruns of Sex in the City.)

Also, it's my blog. I can post all the pictures of food and my cat that I want.
You, on the other hand, don't have to come here and read it.