The Blogs are Dying

Today I emailed the Sweet Stitchin' Betties group to try and get a take on what has happened to blogging lately. Almost every one of my regular reads hasn't been updated in quite some time. I'm not one to point the finger, I know, but alot of the blogs I used to read have just sort of died. No one seems to update them anymore, and I miss them.

On that note, it's time for me to do some catching up. Since my last post I travelled with Robbie and his kids to Helen, GA, Stone Mountain, Ruby Falls, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Pigeon Forge, TN and Gatlinburg, TN. While in Gatlinburg I went to the Smoky Mountain Spinnery and finally learned exactly how spinning is done. I also bought some great handspun yarn. The lady who owns the shop was SO nice!!

The mountains were BEAUTIFUL although I have to admit that my running suffered during the ten days we were gone. I took off to go running when we were in Helen, GA and I soon found out that trying to run down a mountain is almost as bad as trying to run up a mountain. On the way up I was jogging so slow it was basically a fast walk, and on the way down I had to fight to not build up speed and wind up rolling down the hill. I took to just walking while I was there ... even with this, being a native Floridian, I wasn't completely relaxed because I kept thinking there was going to be a bear around ever turn. Just for the record we never saw ANY bears, not even one. In fact the most exotic wildlife we saw on our trip was a lone beaver. They're really cute, I might add.

It was very cold while we were up there so I finally got an opportunity to pull out my handknit scarves and hats. I, of course, wore them almost constantly. Here's a dorky picture of me at Ruby Falls:














Our cabin was at the very top of a mountain and had an awesome view:

Other than that I've just been trying to get into a regular, varied exercise routine since I quit roller derby and seem to have lost my interest in roller skating. I still think I'd like skating outdoors through parks, etc. but just haven't done it yet. I still run twice a week, but have also been doing a lot of yoga, pilates and workout videos. I also found a few yoga places I want to check out. I know myself well enough that I won't go all the time, but I do want to get out and take a class twice a month, and then do daily yoga poses at home. I used to be really into yoga when I lived in Miami and I want to get back into it.

This weekend I went to Wild Oats with my mom. It's an awesome health food store in Miami and it inspired me to get back into that as well. I used to do almost all my shopping there but now with no health food supermarket really close to me, I've kind of gotten away from it. I miss eating all that healthy food!!

On the knitting front I'm presently working on a Chevron Scarf made out of Koigu wool. I love the wool and the pattern and can hardly wait to finish this one so I can make one out of Socks that Rock wool. I want to make the Watermelon Tourmaline/Farmhouse combination that is very popular on Ravelry and is SO pretty!! I'm also working on a scarf for my cousin, a dishcloth for my sister and my second Clapotis!!

School starts again on May 9th, but sad to say that if my tax check doesn't come before then it looks like I'll be waiting until next semester to start. My job pays tuition, but doesn't cover books and they can be quite expensive. Just can't swing it right now.

Catching Up

Since I haven't posted in so long, I have some time tonight so I thought I'd catch up a little bit.

On Halloween Robbie and I stopped by and surprised Tony at work. I had on my costume shown here. Then we went to The Field on a whim and had SO MUCH FUN!!

On Thanksgiving Tony, Robbie, mom and I ate dinner at Tropical Palms. Service sucked, food was okay, but we still had fun.

During December Robbie and I went to a boat parade party that was right on the Intercoastal and met up with the roller derby grrls afterwards for a goodbye party at Howl at the Moon for Mazel Tov Cocktail (Sara). Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera that night because it was quite an evening. Very fun and alot of indulging in alcohol!!

Christmas Eve I spent part of the day with Tony opening his gifts ... then I spent Christmas Eve night with Robbie, his kids, his mom, his sister and her husband. Christmas day I drove down to my mom's and spent the day and evening with her, but forgot my camera. We had a great day though ... eating a home cooked meal, drinking wine, opening presents, relaxing.

For New Years Robbie and I went to a party at my boss's house. That's my boss in the black shirt. Then we went to another party and met up with Robbie's brother. New Years was ALOT of fun!! We had a really good time.

Other than that I resigned from the Broward County Derby Grrls at the end of January. It was a shame, but I decided it just wasn't for me after all. I was the oldest and also the smallest derby grrl and I was getting my ass beat! I will pat myself on the back and say that I proved to myself that I can still skate really well. I'm just not good at getting hit really hard by girls alot bigger than me!!! I'm now in an underground group of EX derby girls that get together and just have fun!! We are going to skate, have dinner, do crafty stuff, etc. I think this group will be a better fit for me.

The good news about all of this is that since I don't have derby practice on Monday nights anymore, I'm back to hanging with my knitting group on Mondays. This makes me very happy!! :)

Robbie and I took my mom out to dinner a couple weeks ago. She wanted to go to the old Steak N' Ale by her house. It was only okay, that's for sure. They need to update the place. God love her, my mom is very chatty. Here's a pic of her telling Robbie a (probably very long winded) story. As you can see, he was riveted ...

One more thing: I found this picture that Tony took of himself. I really like it. It's just .... cool.

Finished Clapotis

So much to catch up on, but not enough time. Of great importance to me right now though is that I finished my Clapotis!! I love the pattern and love the finished project. I want to make another one and have a few different yarns already set aside, but I'm going to finish a charity pet blanket first, and maybe also squeeze in a few dishcloths before I "clap" again.

Months Pass Like Weeks

I would sware that it had only been maybe three weeks since I last posted ... but NO, it's been over a month again! Damn!! Anyway, I've made progress on my Clapotis.



Here's a pic from Halloween Horror Nights weekend. I went with Robbie and met up with my sister and her girlfriend, Christine. We had SUCH a good time!

This is a pic from roller derby practice a couple weeks ago, and a dorky picture of my 1st derby bruise. I'm too tired (after a VERY hard derby practice tonight) to write much more. I'm going to go soak in the bathtub, read, knit a little and go to bed!! (I hope these pictures line up right ... damn, it's so frustrating!)

Tony's Picture

Okay, here's the picture of my son at his visit to Full Sail. God, I love him.

Clapotis, Full Sail, Roller Derby ...

Since my last post I've continued to work on my Clapotis and am getting there, slowly but surely.

I finished my sister's wrap that I've been working on since March of 2006!! It turned out more like a lap blanket and has some mistakes, but it was made with love and I know she'll find warmth in it ... even if it's spread out on her lap instead of around her arms! lol I vow that the next thing I knit for her will have any mistakes frogged, but frogging on this lace thing was near impossible.

I took Tony to visit a school in Winter Park that he is interested in attending called Full Sail. He really loved the school and it's so nice to see him excited about his future. Now we have to cross our fingers that either he can get Financial Aid or I can get a loan ... or here's a novel idea, maybe his father will come through for him for once in his life and help him out!! That would really be pushing it, but stranger things have happened, right? (I have the best picture of him at the orientation, but Blogger seems to be having problems and won't upload it. I'll put it on the next post!)

I also joined the Broward County Roller Grrls and have been going to practice twice a week. I am having such a good time skating and laughing with these girls. They are a lot of fun! No pics yet, but I'll have some soon. I still need to think of a roller derby name. So far this is what I have ...

Bipolar Roller

Misty Meaner

Veggie Roll (since I'm a vegetarian)

Wheels-A-Go-Go (my mom came up with this one ... )

My mind is constantly working on this, but none of them really "grab" me. My boyfriend, of course, loves Bipolar Roller, because he thinks I am ... lol ... but I'm not. My sister hates that one, but loves Misty Meaner. Eventually a name will stick ... and voila, my alter ego will emerge. Stay tuned ...

Henry Rollins!!

Henry!!
He's intense, he's intellectual, he's inquisitive, he's angry, he's out there, he's provocative, he's tattooed, and gosh darn it, he's HOT!!











Tony!!
Tony (my son) and I went to see Henry Rollins do his "Provoked" show tonight at The Theatre in West Palm Beach. It was a very small venue so I got to see Henry up close. It was an awesome show.

My First KAL

After two and a half years of knitting, I've finally joined a knit-a-long. 10 or more of the other Betties have also joined to make a Clapotis. It's nice to be knitting something with other people in my knitting group so we can all see each others progress!! I'm using Jamaica yarn by Katia. Here's what I've knit so far ...

Where Does the Thyme Go?

A friend sent me an email nudging me to post something on my blog. Little did I realize, it's been THREE MONTHS since I posted anything!

Well, I've been very busy. I finished a very hard Accounting class with a B+, so I'm one class closer to my degree!! The bad news is that I'll only be able to take one more class between now and March of 2008. My job has a limit to the amount they'll cover and I'm almost there. At least in the course of a year I'll have managed to get through six classes. By this time next year I'll be very close to being done. My son also wants to take some college courses which I'm very excited about.

I spent a weekend in the keys with my boyfriend, his son, his nephew and his brother in July. We went rafting behind Robbie's boat and he and his brother did everything they could (like going REALLY fast) to get me to fall off the raft. They wanted to see how long I'd be able to hold on. Mean, right? Well, I managed to hold on long enough to really impress them without getting hurt. Robbie ended up hurting his arm. See how Karma works?

We went to Robbie's Marina and fed the tarpon and ate dinner at Island Fish Company:

Also in July we took Robbie's kids up to Orlando for the weekend. Unfortunately it rained really hard almost the entire time so we weren't able to go to any of the parks. We decided to drive to Cocoa Beach and hit Ron Jon Surf Shop. Unfortunately while trying to turn around in a tight space, Robbie "dented" the new truck he had just purchased ... two days before.

A couple of weeks ago we took a road trip to Bethany Beach, Delaware. One of our first stops was at South of the Border where I was in hysterics when Robbie put on these glasses. Ha Ha Ha!!!!

I was also very excited to take my picture with Favio. So excited in fact that I put my purse on the floor to pose and then forgot about it. I didn't realize until we were about an hour down the road. We had to turn back (Robbie WAS NOT happy) and thankfully someone had gotten it and saved it for me!!

We went to Oriental, NC where I almost stepped on this snake in the woods, posed with this fantastic horse made out of driftwood, rode a ferry to the Outer Banks of NC and saw wild ponies and beautiful landscapes in Beaufort.

Arrived in Bethany Beach, Delaware, where

I met Robbie's relatives. This is his niece's

daughter, Naya ... Is she cute, or what?!

We went crabbing, caught lots of crabs and

ate them:

We went to Ocean City, Maryland before we

headed back home.

AND I knit a Mason Dixon ballband dishcloth!!!!

Father's Day 2007

Another great weekend to report. I drove up to Palm Beach this weekend and went horseback riding with my boyfriend's sister-in-law (who is also my new friend). We had SUCH a good time!! We're usually with the guys on the Harleys, so this time it was just me and her on the horses ... good fun, lots of girl talk. Very cool!!

Other than that, it was a very rainy weekend so my boyfriend, his kids and I hung out alot at his house. We watched Norbit and Night at the Museum, ordered pizza, I got to do a lot of knitting, and then while my boyfriend took a nap his kids and I decided to let the dog AND the pig in the house so they wouldn't get wet. lol






Pugsley and Chinka.







Isn't his pitbull, Chinka, cool looking? He has awesome amber eyes and is almost as sweet as my Weezy.

Weezy













Chinka

Blogging with Pictures is a Nightmare

I spent close to two hours trying to get the spacing right around the pictures in the post below, to no avail. Every time I moved one thing into the right position it screwed up something else. I finally threw in the towel. Definitely need to educate myself on inserting pictures correctly!!

Mother's Day 2007

What a great Mother's Day I had!! I drove down and picked up my mom in Miami. Our first stop was Elegant Stitches where I bought some awesome cotton yarns ... a step up from Peaches N' Cream, for my new fascination with knitting washcloths. Then we ate at Outback and went shopping at T.J. Maxx (my mom bought me a gothic-looking black cross ring there). We finished off the night at Cold Slab Creamery (I think that's what it's called), went back to her house, had some wine and did word puzzles together and then watched Mad T.V. and I knitted.

Today we (I) got up VERY LATE and my mom wanted breakfast at Wagon's West. We got there and it was closed. So we went to this bagel place down the street and it was closed. So we went to the Bagel Emporium and they were closing and we could only order takeout, so we went to JJ's Diner and they're air conditioning was broken and it was about 100 degrees in there so we left. We wound up eating Mother's Day late lunch at Denny's and it SUCKED!!!

So we took a drive through Coconut Grove since neither of us had been down there in years, then we drove to Crandon Park and went walking through the park that used to be the old zoo. It was awesome!! There were hardly any people around and lots of areas to explore.

There are all kinds of birds that will actually let you get pretty close to them, like this one.

There are also TONS of iguanas, so if you don't like them, this is probably not the place for you. My mom hates them, but was SUCH a trooper!! I was told that if you go during the summer you have to be careful that you don't step on them because they're EVERYWHERE! Needless to say my 77-year-old mom probably won't want to join me when I go back this summer.

Okay, so I drag my mom way back into the zoo, off the walkways and we turn the corner and find these!! They're not real, they're from the old zoo, but when we first saw them they scared the hell out of us! By the way, at the entrance there's a sign that tells you to watch out for crocodiles (meaner than alligators) which I didn't see on the way in (woops)! We probably shouldn't have been back in these areas, because there probably are real ones, but it was some good explorin' fun!

This is my mom wandering by the old cages that used to house some of the animals at the zoo. If you used to go to Crandon Park Zoo as a child, I recommend going here. It brought back so many memories and seeing it now was sort of surreal. Very cool ...

My awesome mom and I back at her house trying out the new beer called "Chill". It's a new light beer made by Miller with the taste of salt and lime. It is SO good!! Definitely my new beer of choice.