Things I didn't Want to See

Last night while the wind was whistling past the eaves I started a new pair of socks. Well, I tried to start a new pair of socks. I pulled the loose end out of the middle of the ball and saw this:

So instead of starting a new pair of socks I spent 45 minutes untangling a large mess of yarn. This is Trekking, which I picked up at Stitches Midwest because the Yarn Harlot seems to love it, but so far I'm underwhelmed.

Thing number 2 is this:

At first glance there's nothing wrong here. There are some nice socks made out of the Socks that Rock yarn, so some money went to a good cause. The problem here lies in whose feet are in the socks. They are not my feet. They are Daughter's feet. The socks are a little bit too big, but only just a little bit. It will not be long before my clothes begin disappearing into her room, I fear. hopefully my clothes will be way too geeky for her to want to wear, but who knows.

And lastly there's this:

That would be the new ejector pit pump that was installed this morning. While I was doing the last load of laundry yesterday (why did it have to be the last load, why not the first?) I noticed that the water was backing up onto the laundry room floor. Being experienced in these things, I put my hand on the pipe and could feel that the old pump was just running and running, but not accomplishing anything. As much as I can sympathize with that particular feeling, it needed to be replaced. Last night husband went to Home Depot and purchased a new pump (this one has a lifetime warranty) and this morning it was installed to the tune of $500, just for the labor and a couple of pieces of pvc pipe.

Hopefully this will be the end of things I didn't want to see for a while.

B is for ...

Brrrrr

This is the forecast for tomorow:

Notice what the "high" temperature will be? I realize that it's politically incorrect to say so, but I'd really like some of that global warming they're always talking about on the news. We've got so much snow piled up next to the end of the driveway that I can barely shovel the new stuff up over it.

So if a person is going to be suffering through frigid days and nights what should she do? What could possibly make the weather a little less unpleasant?

Socks made from the leftover sweater yarn, that's what. And yes, those are my long-johns, it really is that cold.

Geek's Paradise

This past weekend we went to Husband's End-of-the-Year party given by his employer. In years past they rented the employees a room at a hotel/indoor waterpark in Wisconsin. Over the course of the last few years they decided to move the venue, primarily because the bar in the old hotel was only open till 10:00. They also decided that they were only paying for the brunch, and the employees had to spring for their own rooms.

This year they chose a place much closer to the Chicagoland area which was good because this is what it looked like shortly before we left:

After shoveling off the driveway and making sure the 4-wheel drive was working fine on my car, we headed off to beautiful Gurnee, Illinois to visit the Key Lime Cove Resort. Once we got there it became very clear that the people in charge of this place know what they are doing.

You walk in to the front door and instead of seeing a traditional reception area you see this:

A festive, tropical street to stroll down. The front desk is the area to the left, but everything else is a money making opportunity of some sort for the resort. You can have your picture taken by the nice man with the parrots, only $12 for a 5x7. You could have the airbrush artist create a lovely sign with your family name, all of the letters looking like palm trees, parrots, or other tropically themed items. I didn't bother to check the price on that one. There are 2 gift shops, a candy counter, and I'm not sure what all else. Don't have any cash on you? Not a problem because the wristband you got at the desk has an electronic sensor in it. It's connected to your billing information, so you can just walk over, swipe your hand in front of the machine and you're good to go. Even the vending machines use the wristband system. I'm sure that they're hoping that if you're not using real money you won't realize that you're charging a regular sized Snickers bar to your room for $1.40. They did at least have the common decency to only give the electronic wristbands to Husband and I, and gave Daughter a plain plastic one.

Daughter let us spend about 2.5 minutes in our room before stripping off all non-swimsuit clothing and demanding that we take her to the waterpark.

As far as indoor waterparks go it was fine. There was a lazy river, several tube slides, body slides, and a small wave pool. They also had one of the obligatory play structures that spray cold water from innumerable spouts, hoses, showers and buckets. My favorite spot was the hot tub. No one under 16 allowed without a parent and a maximum capacity of about 35, which they enforced. There were only a few times while I was soaking that I was wishing evil upon a poorly behaved splasher.

Sunday was set aside for the company brunch. I'm pretty sure that whoever planned the event didn't have children, or has children with very odd taste in food. There was sushi, salad, ratatouille, salmon, and chicken covered with mushrooms and unidentifiable vegetables. Daughter filled up on chocolate cake and dinner rolls.

And just what does a room full of computer consultants having a company outing look like?

That would be a bunch of geeks standing around waiting their turn to play Rock Band II on one of the 3 game systems that were the main focus of the luncheon. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite so soothing while you're eating your hotel food as listening to some off-key techie sing about the "Spirit in the Sky." Husband tells me it's even more entertaining when you've had a bottle of beer and 3 kamikazes at the bar the night before.

The event did end on a somewhat sour note for me. It seems that at some point on Sunday my sunglasses were twisted in some horrible way and would now fit on someone with a head the same size and shape as a basketball, but not me. I guess when you take into account the potential for disaster with the snow and traffic, losing one's favorite sunglasses is a small price to pay for an enjoyable weekend.

A is for...

Again

I'm going to try to do the ABC along again this year. Last year I started and then life went and got complicated, so I didn't manage to keep up or finish. This year I'm going to give it a go again.

When husband got home from work last night he told me about his day, then asked me what I had done. I held up a sock that was 3/4 finished. He looked at it and then asked me, "How many hand made pairs of socks do you have?" I'm sure that he was noting my lack of good socks and not in any way trying to imply that I've made too many, or that I spend too much time knitting.

So yes, dear, because I do not have enough pairs of them, I'm making socks AGAIN.



This pair is made from a skein of Socks that Rock in the Knitters Without Borders colorway. I picked it up at Stitches Midwest. When you buy a skein some of the proceeds go to the Yarn Harlot's Knitters Without Borders project.

Redhawks? Blackwings?

Last night I was watching a hockey game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings. Chicago came into the game with a nine game winning streak. They left having been bageled. (That's a tennis term I got from Husband, they got beat 4-0 and 0 looks like a...) This reminded me of one of the adventures that I had in October but didn't get to writing down.


Daughter, Brother, the Meschke, Kevin and I went to see the Red Wings and the Blackhawks play at the United Center. I should point out that Daughter and I live in the Chicago area, but we tend to be Red Wings fans. Daughter was a little peeved that the majority of the fans were booing the Wings and chanting things that I can't necessarily reprint in a family friendly blog. She also had a hard time keeping the names of the teams straight. She kept talking about the Redhawks, much to the amusement of the rest of the party.

This being my first professional hockey game, I learned a couple of things. First, 23,000 people can make a lot of noise. Second, Daughter can go through giant soft pretzles like nobody's business. Third, when they take a TV time out, scantily clad girls skate out and shovel off the ice that's been shaved off. I forgot to take a picture of them, but I did get a picture of everyone's favorite part of a hockey game...



It was a very exciting game, with both teams having a lead, then losing it, and so on until they were tied at the end of the third period. They played the overtime period and were still tied. They played the shootout and each scored one goal. Finally in the sudden death shootout Marian Hossa scored and the Red Wings finally won the game 6-5.



It was a very good choice as a first pro hockey game for me, and the first ever hockey game for Daughter.

In more recent news, I may have finished my sweater. I'm not sure that I like the neck, so I may be revisiting this, but I'll wear it once before I decide.

Merry Christmas

Why, yes, now that you ask, it has been a few days since I last visited the blogosphere. Through one circumstance or another, I've found myself not keeping track of the little anecdotes that have been happening around me, and have thus had not much to report. I have been assured, however, that there are actually people (who never leave comments I might add) who do occasionally peruse my little musings, and who would like me to keep them informed in a more timely manner of the things that are going on in my little corner of Chicagoland.

The most recent event, of course, was the annual Van Kosky Chirstmas. Mom, Sister-In-Law, and I rotate houses and this year we found 8 extra people sleeping in our house.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, mostly because I like to be surrounded by family that I don't get to see very often. This year all of the travelers chose to drive into town on the snowiest day we have had yet. The Marquette to Chicago trip, which usually takes 8 hours maximum, took Mom & Dad 13 hours. The Detroit to Chicago route was a little faster, with average speeds of 50 miles per hour. Both groups reported a lot of cars spun out and in the ditch. The Detroit contingent reported that the majority of the vehicles that were off of the road were pickup trucks or 4 wheel drive vehicles. We imagined that the internal dialogue in the driver's head went something like, "I can go faster than the rest of these guys, I'VE got 4 wheel drive!"

Christmas morning started at 7:00, which for our family is a bit of a late start. The children dug into a huge mound of presents which they doled out to the rightful recipients. We then took turns opening one at a time, from youngest to oldest. We finally opened the last one at 10:00.

The traditional Christmas dinner for us is roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. As of 11:00 in the morning, that and some form of shrimp was all I had planned for dinner. By the time we actually sat down to eat there was so much food it wouldn't all fit on the table. We need to have a fairly wide variety because: 1. Niece and Nephew are both alergic to dairy, so no milk, butter, cream, etc. for them. 2. Nephew is alergic to peanuts. 3. Sister-In-Law doesn't like most forms of meat. So the person doing the cooking is actually making several meals all at once. I may prove myself to be a geek, but for me it requires charts and lists to make it all come together at the right time. Well, to be perfectly honest it was about 1.5 hours late to the table because I miscalculated how long it would take to cook the roast. All in all, it was a very successful Christmas.

My gift from Neice was a kit for making a bath mit. In between cooking tasks I managed to had enough time to get it whipped up and ready to go.

(Blurry because I had to turn the flash off in order to make the leaf show up.)

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as well!

Where's the Knitting?

The following message was found on the floor in the craft room this morning.

Dear Kathy,

We were all very excited over a year ago when we found out that you were going to be writing a knitting blog. We were all looking forward to having our pictures taken as you changed us from balls and skeins into sweaters, hats, mittens, or whatever else struck your fancy. It's true that the acrylic yarns in the back were a little hesitant; they were afraid that the wool and alpaca were going to make them look bad. I think we can all agree though, that most of the things you've done with us have turned out quite nicely.

Not too long after you started blogging, we noticed that there were non-knitting stories beginning to creep in. We didn't mind at all because although we take up a lot of your life, we do understand that you have to spend an hour or two each day with your humans. So we let it slide when you talked about your vacations. We didn't even point out that most knit-bloggers take sock pictures when they go on vacation. We aren't so self -centered that we have to have every entry feature us.

Unfortunately we feel that now we have to take a stand. It has been weeks since you featured us in a post. Have we somehow insulted you? Done something to make you angry? If we have done something that has made you unhappy with us, please let us know what the problem is. We can change, if only you let us know what is wrong.

Hoping to be back in your good graces again,
Your Yarn



My response

It's not you, it's me. I've let other things get in the way of our once happy relationship. I do value the time I spend with you, and i promise that I'll do better in the future. In order to start making amends I provide you with these:


A finished pair of entresocks and...


The beginning of a sweater. I don't have an actual pattern, I'm just making things up as I go along. We'll see how it turns out.