Today was Yarn Harlot Day

Tonight, the wonderful Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, was in Plano, Tx, at Legacy Books.  We left OKC at 4pm, and due to some lovely construction, barely made it there in time. We missed the introduction, unfortunately, but were able to hear the majority of her talk. Knitting is apparently healthy, helps expand your brain, and apparently holds off dementia (and possibly cures psoriasis lol-this could be beneficial to me). Google repetitive something something something (it is freaking 2am, and I've driven 7 hours since 4pm, so I can't quite remember what she called the research term for knitting-I'll fix it if I remember at a more decent hour). Anyway, sorry this picture is so dim, but the other one I took does not show her personality as well as this one does:

Since we were pretty much the last ones there, we had to wait quite a while to get our books signed (there was only 1 girl behind us in line, actually). When I walked up, she called me her "little petal." I was so nervous that Kate had to tell me later that she said it lol. Here I am telling her my name (I totally just typed "telling me her name"):

Of course I wanted to show her my tattooo, so she made me put my foot up on the table so she could take a picture for her blog. I wasn't aware that I am that flexible! Her screen on her camera is broken, so I have no idea if its going to turn out well. She's gotten great at taking wonderful pic anyways, so my fingers are crossed.
She kindly wrote down my name and biomaj for the pic.
Finally, here we are together. She's taller than me, but not by much. We determined that our feet are the same size.

A lovely time was had by all, and I am exhausted. Remember my post from a few weeks back where I worried about coming off as stalkerish? The girl in front of me had me beat. Fo sho. Oh, and thanks to the lovely bookstore employee/volunteer photographer. You did a lovely job.

Belated vacation update

Here's the update I promised you 3 days ago. :)

*Pittsburgh Zoo*

We have very few chipmunks in OK, so when I saw a wild one at the Pittsburgh Zoo, I took his pic.

Mike and me and some fish

Octopus!

Shark.

Most times, you'll see the signs that say "you must be TALLER than this to ride....;" its not often I see one that says shorter than, and the fact that I'm taller than it is a confidence booster (sorry the pic is so big-iPhoto wasn't cooperating, so I had to upload it elsewhere).

 *Elizabethtown*

I'm not sure where this farm was, but it is an example of one of the many beautiful farms in PA, and one of the reasons I want to move back.

My childhood best friend Sarah and I were goofing off for the camera. :)
I lived in the town of Berwick, PA, before we moved to Oklahoma. The whole point of our vacation was to go back to Berwick and reminisce/look around.

This is the house we lived in. The yellow shutters weren't there before; my bedroom was the top window over the front of the house.

This was my grandpa's house. I thought he had built it, but my mom corrected me. Apparently this house was a station on the underground railroad, and my grandpa remodeled it. That fence is new. It has 3 floors, an attic, and a basement. I wanted to look inside, but didn't want to be a creepy random person lol.
Sarah's parents still live in Berwick. This is me, Sarah's mom Debbie, her sister Steph, and brother Scott. The dog Scooter is in the front.
Finally, on the way home we saw a very entertaining truck bumper.

I'll do a separate post for my knitting projects from the trip.

Brief update

We made it home in one piece. Came home to find they had sprayed our apt for bugs on Tuesday but didn't lock the door back (grr). Had a ton of fun, wish it wasn't over, and we are more seriously considering moving to PA in the next few years.

I'll do a longer update tomorrow.

On the road again

We're on the PA turnpike on the way to Elizabethtown, where my friend Sarah lives. I think we'll get there around 10pm. We were seriously freaked out when we had to take a ticket to get onto the turnpike-in OK you pay to get on and off (you get an actual ticket that you have to mail to the turnpike authority if you run the tollbooth). We kept looking for a person to pay lol. We took the ticket, called my mom, and she informed us that you pay to get off. Crisis averted.

We went to the zoo to kill some time today. I have some hilarious pics to share whenever I get the photos uploaded to my computer.

I ate dinner with Bexie in Pittsburgh. She is very nice and we had a lovely time. We are amazed that so many of the houses are on/in the hills here, and that there are so many bridges. DH wasn't 100% thrilled with Pittsburgh, so if we ever decide to move here (and we have discussed it prior to this trip), it likely won't be in a big city.

I need to figure out what to knit on now. I worked on the skirt last nite, but I don't want to keep up with the chart while in the car. ::taps chin:: I'll have to think on this for a while.

We've made it to Pittsburgh

Ok, so here are a few pics in roughly chronological order (I hope). We spent the majority of yesterday and today in the car, I was knitting like a psycho for part of that time, so I didn't get too many pics. I also don't really remember what cities we went through. But here's what I got:

These are Fred's socks. I finished the first one last Tuesday-ish. I STARTED the second one at 8am in the car yesterday, and finished it with a little over an hour to spare before meeting the truly awesome Fred and her DH last night. Please forgive the very bright pic-I had to take it in the car.

This is a pic of a mountain (hill?) in Kentucky. All of a sudden, it went from clear to foggy. I thought it was pretty, so I photographed it (and the power lines apparently).

I want to say this is Cincinnatti, but I honestly don't remember what city it is. Could be Louisville. If you recognize it, throw me a reminder in the comments.
This is in Ohio, but I don't remember the city. I wanna say I saw a stadium with cardinals on it, but I thought the cardinals play in St. Louis, and I know we didn't go to Missouri. I'm a failure at documenting our traveling. But hey, I'm so tired my eyes are barely open right now.

My major accomplishment of the day was the completion of the second mitten. Ta-daa! I'm so glad to be done with them. I really hope my friend Sarah likes them. I'm freaking proud of them.

Made it to Nashville!

We are in Nashville. The drive was uneventful (=good!) and we were able to find the hotel easily. Now we're just waiting to go to the restaurant to meet Fred.

Leaving for vacation in T -5 hours (give or take)

We are leaving for Nashville somewhere between 6 and 6:30am. I'm still getting ready-clothes are packed, but my knitting bag isn't ready. Just printed the directions. Still gotta pack the computer. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I can't remember what. I'm 99% certain I will be blogging, twittering, etc., while on the vacation, so you'll never know I'm gone. :)

Ok, I gotta go wind some yarn. 

PS: I got the approval to leave work at 3ish on the 29th. Looks like my chances of meeting the YH are pretty good.

Do you ever wonder?

Yesterday as I was driving the incredibly long 2.5hr drive to my mom's house to drop off the dogs, I passed a hitchhiker. Now, most times, hitchhikers look like scary psychotic serial killers who've missed a few showers. Stereotypes aside I guess, this guy actually looked friendly. I changed lanes to give him some space as I passed, and he waved and smiled. He looked very friendly (and was clean). It made me wonder who he was, where he came from, and why he's hitchhiking. Maybe he's a nice guy, maybe he's the next ted bundy. Who knows? Makes me think of how you really don't know where people come from, regardless of where they are now.

That being said, I didn't slow down.

Only 3 days until vacation!

I can barely wait! We are driving to PA. We'll leave at the buttcrack of dawn on Saturday. I'm eating dinner with Fred and her family in Nashville on Saturday nite, driving to Pittsburgh on Sunday, meeting Bexie on Monday.... I'll post more details later. I am going to have so much knitting time!

::whispers:: there is a hit on my blog from Toronto. That thrills me. Holy crap! ;)

Yarn Harlot, attempt #2

DH ruined my last attempt at this-damn it I was funny last time and I don't know if I can repeat it. I'll try to do it again, verbatim.

The YH will be in Dallas on May 29th at 7:30pm at some bookstore. I may lose my job or go to jail for a massive speeding ticket, but by god I will be there (it's a 3 hr drive). Anyone who has ever read my blog should have realized by now that I am a worrier. I am really good at it. So, I'm going to list my current causes for concern (assuming I remember them-damn it DH!). Several also apply to the fact that I am meeting not 1, but 2 nesties within the next week as well. They are as follows:

1. I'm really nervous about meeting her.
2. I stutter when I'm nervous.
3. When nervous, I tend to say things that only make sense to me or the only 2 people in the world who have been confirmed to speak Laura (DH and bff Liz).
4. I really like the YH, but I do not want to come off as stalkerish. See items #1-3 as to why I think this might happen.
5. From reading her blog archives (I'm up to august 2005 now), it appears that most people bring their knitting to show her (almost always socks). Is it always her pattern? What if I bring one that's not her pattern? Is that insulting? Guess I'll be casting on a sock on vacation.
6. I have had nightmares about not getting there in time. From the fuss on ravelry, there will be many people there.

This is as far as I got when dh called me. After typing it twice, I cant remember my other reasons. I'm sure they'll come to me.

Grrr

I have a blog app on my phone. Just spent 45 minutes typing a very witty post about the yarn harlot's upcoming visit to Dallas. DH is on-call with the ambulance service, called me, and I lost all of it. Just tried to type this out using the computer, and the high winds knocked out my electricity. I'm blogging cursed tonite.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms, soon-to-be-moms, and moms of the furbabies!

AWing my favorite Etsy store again

Just a reminder: take a look at Fred's Etsy store (link to the upper right). She makes beautiful jewelry, adorable diaper bags, and freaking awesome stitch markers (I have several sets!). She's raising money for her adoption fund. Go check her out!

Introducing George

I've had my cat George since ~Sept. 2007. I had moved into a duplex, and the previous tenants had been feeding a cute half-way grown orange cat. My duplex had a no pet rule, but that didn't stop me from taking him in and keeping him (always paying rent on-time, if not a day early, helped I'm sure). We had him neutered and named him George. Fast foward to my moving to the city. George did not like living in the apt, so I took him to my mom's house where he could go in and out as he pleased. My mom is in the process of moving, and George is now an inside cat (I don't think he realizes there is an outside to go to lol).

George is a very loving, moldable cat. He doesn't care how you hold him, as long as you do. Here he is yesterday, telling me how much he missed me (please forgive the blurry iPhone pic):

Probably done with the dentist for now

My next dentist appt is in the neighborhood of Nov. 5th for a cleaning. She's going to check the tooth that might need the root canal (we'll call that tooth bob) to see if it does need one. I am still having pain in the front teeth and Bob, and she said if it hasn't gone away in 2 weeks I need to stop by and see her. We didn't talk about the wisdom teeth, but they might come out this summer if  I have time.

One of my coworkers had his appointment right after mine (I think he was afraid to go alone lol-we rode together from work to the dentist). The dentist assistant had to clean up my chair because she had another appt after me, so I ended up doing the suction for the coworker while Lida cleaned his teeth. In 5 short weeks I have gone from terrified of Lida to assisting her. I find that really hilarious.

Final tally: 11 fillings, 1 potential future root canal, and a future eviction notice for the wisdom teeth.