Friday, September 21, 2007

I gave myself a break from Fall Colors...

I gave myself a wonderful gift when I put up the Fall Colors shawl for a while and got out good old "Happy" the garter stitch afghan. It's about 2.5 feet by 5 feet (5x5 completed). Ron got me the yarn for Christmas ("Sunshine Print" by Red Heart) and I enjoy it a lot. It's got 6 sunshine print, 2 golden yellow (solids) and one hot pink. Hot pink is the center stripe, it goes 2 "Sunshines", one golden yellow, another sunshine, Hot pink, etc. I was so glad to get it out, nice brainless knitting. "Happy" is exactly how it makes me feel.

I was starting to make mistakes on Fall Colors and I noticed a definite feeling of resentment - and I'm knitting for fun. Yeah, I'd love to be the kind of disciplined knitter who only has one project on the needles at a time, but I'm not. I can alternate between "Happy" and Dad's hat for now.

Ron is so impressed with the garter stitch afghan. He really hated crochet. "Too many holes!" He wanted to like it, but he didn't. He truly loves my knitting - I want to impress him. I may give him "Happy" when I'm done.

In addition to the very kind comment I got yesterday (I love knowing that people enjoy reading this!), we've gotten a couple of nice comments recently. When we've told our drivers we're coming up on our 15th anniversary, they're surprised. "Really? Y'all act like newlyweds!" and "What's your secret?" (answer "Two good forgivers"). I think that's so sweet that people think we're a cute couple.

I had a great time working on Happy yesterday while watching the zombie movie. Zombie dogs, that's a new one. I'd love to see Resident Evil part 3. I think I'll wait until it's close to the house and take a cab each way to see it. Ron would HATE it. I only had one problem with the movie - I took a while to unwind before I fell asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Bubba the cat came home through the cat door, meowing at the top of his lungs. I translated that into Bubba is a zombie cat and he's out to get me! Needless to say, when I woke up I had a little trouble dropping off again.

This morning I woke up OK. I needed to go to Walmart to get my sausage and sauce for the spaghetti (Ron's going to cut up the sausage for me). I was also hoping Dr Pepper had stocked "MY" Diet Rite Cherry Cola (drinking one now). They had! Something told me to go look at the acrylic yarn.

I know. I know. I was cutting back. I wasn't buying acrylic anymore because I liked wool better. But... I still love my Red Heart. I couldn't resist the "Zebra"! It's so cute and I can see it in a garter-stitch vest - nice and cozy. It'll wear like iron and match everything I own. So, I got it. Then Ron told me to put it on his debit card. Even better! AND Walmart has knocked it down to $2 a skein. You can't beat that for a 5-ounce ombre skein of yarn. I also got a nice dark teal, just one, because I like it.

I can't help but feel vaguely guilty for buying it, like it's "Too cheap" for me. I have an afghan out of this stuff that's going great after 10 years of life. If it makes me happy, why spend more money? Especially if it's something I'm going to be spending a lot of time knitting up - it had better be something I'm passionate about! I have yet to find a wool yarn (or even the $20 a skein stuff at the yarn shop) that I liked better. I refuse to feel guilty.

While I was rampaging through the yarn section, I had to laugh at myself. I was as "into" that yarn as a fashionista at a runway show. "Ooooh! Look at the new lines!" I thought it was cute when I saw my beloved "Sunshine Print" in its' own bin. Their acrylic yarn buyer has fantastic taste.

I wanted to get myself some kind of birthday cake but I woke up with a bad headache today. I kept thinking, "Do I want to wake up feeling like this ANY time this weekend?" Of course the answer was No. I looked around, held cakes up in the air so I could read the labels, and discovered that "White" cakes have yellow #5. Bad news!

I settled on a cheesecake 2 slice pack. One side is chocolate cheesecake, the other is plain cheesecake. I've eaten the plain with no problem, so Ron gets the chocolate. He'll love it. I'll call it "Anniversary cake".

I also got Ron a really cute singing card. My aunt sent me a meowing card and he loved it. I think he'll love one playing a sappy love song. Finally, a card for a blind man!

He doesn't know I got him a can of cashews and a can of smoked almonds, too. I hid them. He "Doesn't want anything, save your money, Heather." but he'll eat them and enjoy them and not feel guilty! I don't want him to feel bad, just appreciated. This ought to do it.

After Walmart we headed home. We had about 30 minutes before work. I put up my stuff, changed my shoes (I miss wearing my sandals to work!), grabbed a bottle of diet Dr. Pepper, and ready to go.

I got another nice comment from a Metrolift driver recently. "Whenever I show up, even if it's early, you're ready!" I really work at that, so it makes me happy to hear I'm appreciated.

We got to work, and it's a good thing we went! Soda 1 had a burned out light bulb. It looked like it was out of service. One food machine wasn't accepting dollar bills, and we were completely out of sandwiches. Ron listened to me and we bought individually wrapped PB&J sanwiches. I can't eat peanut butter anymore, so he ate one of each, and loved them. They'll get 2 sandwiches for $2 and we have a good food cost percentage. We put out 10 "sets", so we'll see how many we have left on Sunday.

Yup, we're going to work on our anniversary, seems appropriate! We'll only be there for a little bit - just enough to make sure all the "kids" are behaving.

After work today we went to Burger King. YUMMY. I let myself get a little too hungry but once I ate I was fine (and the headache ran off). We each got a burger for breakfast tomorrow - I love those Stackers! The sauce is NASTY but I love the burgers.

They'll make a delicious birthday breakfast.

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