Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. I had the window open and kept telling myself I’d do it later. Not out of procrastination, actually, but because I thought that “a little later” would be a better time. Clearly, it wasn’t.

This month, and the tail end of last, has been about forming new habits. I’ve been trying to get Zero to the dog park most days. I’ve been trying to get myself blogging every day. Most recently, I’ve been trying to keep my kitchen counters clear. The intentions are good, but how have I been doing?

I get Zero to the dog park about 5 days out of the week, most of the time. Today we won’t go because he’s spending the day with Andrew’s mother, and I fear there’s no time for me to get ready for work AND make it over to the dog park before driving to her house. Blogging? Though I’ve not been meeting my goal for every day, I have been pretty good about updating. Now I’ll have to be better about including pictures. The kitchen counter is doing well. Right now the only thing on it that really shouldn’t be is a cookie sheet. I was hoping to make some Joe Froggers today, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

On the knitting front, I am almost done with the first sleeve on my Flair. (Maybe I can get a photo of it at work.) I also started my enormous wedding thing, but I think I’ll give that its own post. Maybe tomorrow? We’ll see.

But right now is my time to sit and drink my cuppa Earl Grey and browse Ravelry forums and blogs. So I’m off to do that.

I have felt like blah all day. First I was really tired. Then I just didn’t want to do anything. Zero looked at me pleadingly, and I could read the unspoken wish for Dog Park in his eyes, but I was unrelenting in my sloth. I threw the ball around the apartment and took him out to pee and for a couple mini-walks, but we stayed in. I figured he’d get to run around tonight at Andrew’s mother’s house, as we had plans to go there and have dinner. She’s got a back yard that he loves to explore.

But Andrew called me around 5:00. We’re not going to his mother’s. And now I’ve kept this poor puppy inside all day. He’s bored, and is driving me crazy, especially since I just want to lay around. Now I’m feeling like I might be getting a cold.

What a blah day. At least I don’t have to cook; there are tons of leftovers.

Zero isn’t thrilled with it, but we got him a Gentle Leader on Saturday. Right now, we’re ALL getting used to it. Zero didn’t like it when we first put it on. Neither Andrew nor I liked the way it looks; it just looks so mean and painful. But goodness, do we like the results! We made sure to read the literature and watch the DVD that came with it, and it’s a good thing we did. It doesn’t work like other systems, where you tug or give quick jerks. In fact, doing that with the Gentle Leader might actually hurt your dog. I’m hoping that this will be a temporary item. Maybe in a year or so, when he’s not such a puppy, he’ll be able to walk more calmly with just an Easy Walk harness.

Maybe. In the mean time, it just looks like it hurts.

A little overdue, but still fun.

Andrew, with the pumpkin he carved. It’s blue! It smelled like cucumbers.

Pumpkin, lit with little lights that are similar to LEDs.

Zero really loves Andrew.

Here’s what Andrew and I did with our sole day off together:

We took Zero to the creek to play fetch with a tennis ball. We didn’t get a photo of one of the best moments. I was squatting down to retrieve the ball he dropped for me, when Zero shook and sprayed water all over me. It was pretty funny.

We also went to the pet store and got Zero some beef flavored “jerky”, as well as the Gentle Leader. He doesn’t like the Gentle Leader, but goodness, what a difference it made in walking him. SO much easier. Then we went to the library. I had to return a couple audio books, but I can never leave empty-handed. I got Good Calories, Bad Calories; Anne of Avonlea; and The Full Cupboard of Life.

Andrew is off getting a coffee, and I’m about to sit and watch the video that came with the Gentle Leader and do a little knitting. I’d say this has been a pretty good day.

I’m not feeling very inspired to write tonight. I haven’t been feeling very well. I was so tired and cold and there’s a little sore tickle in my throat.

So what am I up to? Well I’m still working on my sweater. The rows are quite long now, as I’m sure I have over 200 stitches on the needles. I’m also working on a sock for Andrew. It’s out of some Shelridge Farm yarn I got from Simply Socks Yarn Company. I bought the color called Fury, which appears to be sold out now. It’s a beautiful green heather. I am going to make Andrew some argyle socks some time and I’m thinking that this yarn will be perfect for it. I might even be able to knit them on 1s instead of 0s.

I just noticed now that the time appears to be off by about 3 hours. Wordpress things I live on the Atlantic Coast, I suppose.

Maybe I’ll go have a popsicle.

This is a photo of my brother Robbie and me at the airport. He's the only brother that shared the same parents, and so we would often make trips to visit whichever parent we weren't living with. This is probably taken at the Laguardia airport; it a photo of him greeting me after I visited my mom in California.

Four years ago today, my brother Robbie died. It still hurts, but the raw grief from that time has passed. I can talk about him now and not cry, and sometimes not even feel the need to cry. Some days the mere fact that it doesn't hurt as much is what hurts.

I miss you, my little brother.

But now I've got to pull it together, because I have some gougère in the oven, and I've got a knitting/book group to go to.

Here’s what I did yesterday:

I pulled my stash out of the closet. I removed it from its bins. Then I sorted it all and put it back, this time in an organized fasion. Then I added a location for it on Ravelry. It felt so good to get this organizing done. I also donated some yarn to the shop. All donation yarn is put in a bin, and then customers get to “purchase” it, with a donation to the Avon Breast Walk fund. (A few of the women there are on a team.)

Strangely, this overhaul made me feel like maybe I have enough yarn. Except for hats. I actually don’t have much for hats. Unless I make them out of sock yarn. Maybe that’s what I’ll start doing. ^_^

Also entitled “What I Did This Past Weekend”. A pictorial essay.

For those of you who are not knitters, allow me to explain. OMG. I cut the front of a sweater open. It was scary, but intentional, and everything turned out ok. For the knitters, I did use my sewing machine and a zig zag stitch to reinforce the steek before cutting it. I then picked up stitches and worked an i-cord bind off along the front edges. Next I need to buy and install a zipper, then sew down the neck facing over the zipper. Oh yeah, and I have to figure out what to do with the cut steek. I think I might sew some grosgrain ribbon over it, in black. It can hide the zipper AND the steek edges.

It was a very happy moment for me when I got to see Andrew wearing this.

Guitar Hero World Tour vs. Rock Band: It’s on!

My take? Rock Band, all the way. I don’t even know if I can explain why. I think it’s easier to see your star power in RB. Though it’s easier to deploy it in GHWT; in fact, I found myself using it at times I didn’t want to! I was using the GH3 wireless guitar, Andrew was playing on the RB drums. I think GHWT is a more difficult game, but that doesn’t always mean more fun. The songs on GHWT are AWESOME! There’s a great deal of older rock, which I LOVE. There’s some new stuff too, and I suppose most of it is good, too. Also, Michael Jackson. Awesome. AWE. SOME.

Maybe tomorrow night I’ll sing instead of guitar. Aw yeah.

I’m glad Andrew got the game through GameFly. I’m not sure if we’ll end up buying it. Maybe. But we haven’t been playing Rock Band quite as much lately, so who knows. Part of that is because Andrew has been playing other games while I’ve been knitting. Right now he’s deep into Fallout 3, and I must admit that the game has sucked me in as well, even though I’ve only been observing it. There are complaints that the story sucks, and perhaps the main path does if taken alone. I wouldn’t know, as Andrew has played through most (all?) of the sidequests available to him. I like that you can choose to be good, neutral, or evil. He’s playing through as a good guy right now, but he might play through again and do things the evil way. That’s never as fun for me to watch, because I just feel like you’re being a big jerk.

And in the “Things You Don’t Know About Me” category: apparently I do a better impression of Joe from Family Guy than Andrew does.