EnigLdy~SheepFaced

I'm In Lust

I have totally changed my mind about attending concerts.  CHICAGO rocks ass!  I wanna be James Pankow when I grow up but I wanna do Robert Lamm right after he gets off stage.  I wanna do this dude until it hurts.  The trombone does it for me but something about Mr. Lamm's looks and voice --- omg, made me crazy.  I'm still trying to leap into my subconscious and have a wild time with him, wild abandon and doing things I wouldn't do with anyone else.

My sweet son took us out to eat prior to the concert - the yummiest steak house in town along with the yummiest salad in the universe.  I found a pseudo recipe for it and can't wait to see if it is as good.  Grand finale song was 25 or 6 to 4 and DSon waited all nights in hopes they'd play it.  Thanks Chicago, please pass a spoonful of RL for me to eat.

It'll be 3 weeks for me on Sunday for those of you tracking my non-smoking efforts.  I'm so over being a smoking cow.  I've already vowed to never touch them again.

Poor GBaby - here is the proof of the after shocks of falling onto a tree stump during recess:
He entertained everyone with his wise cracks.  During the photography session of before, during and after he told his Mom, "That is so inappropriate."  Once the stitches were installed he asked the doc, "Was the surgery a success?"  The nurse and teacher called to check on him ---- either liability or sheer concern for the class clown, who knows!?

This weekend is the Poppy Fest and I'm hoping to enjoy some time there.

Patch Therapy and Abnormality

Day 4 of the patch and I'm hanging in there.  It is kinda cool and I'm enjoying the vivid, yet strange dreams I have at night.  Night before last I got to see a friend who died about a year ago.  In my dream she was alive and her husband was dead.  It was nice to see her.  Then I dreamed that I'd wrecked my car (not my fault) in a bad neighborhood and had to ditch my purse and everything to make it safely to a phone.  Not sure what year I teleported to in my jet-style car but I used a pay phone to call my previous boss to help me try and locate my car.  I was mostly worried about the $50 bill in my wallet and all my credit cards.  In my dream I remember kicking myself for having a mastercard that links to my checking account.  Subliminal or psycho? 

For those of you who have no clue about nicotine addiction, let me explain what it is like to try and quit and why the failure rate is so extremely high.

Day 1:  Within the first 5 minutes after you first slap on the patch:

Every 1.5 minutes seconds you think about ripping off the patch and having a smoke. 

10 minutes: I can do this and I'm only thinking about smoking every 10 seconds.

20 minutes: I don't think I can do this and why am I even trying?

30 minutes: There is always tomorrow that I can quit.

40 minutes: Wow - I've made it this far.

1 hour: Why does everyone say quitting is so difficult?  I really hate the smell and I only enjoy 3 of every 30,000 cigarettes.

1 hour, 10 minutes: Everyone has to die of something and I'll smoke if I want to.

2 hours: My lungs hurt, it feels good to not be adding smoke to them.

3 hours: That was a great breakfast and I sure could use a cigarette...or 2.

3 hours, 15 minutes: Think of all the money I'm saving - I should use that money to buy myself something I've always wanted.

3 1/2 hours: There is nothing I want except a cigarette.

What prevents me from ripping off the patch and just smoking?  Once you apply the patch and have the cotinine (fake nicotine) coursing through your skin/blood, you put yourself in extreme danger of a heart attack or stroke.  Yes, I know someone's aunt who got to experience this although she was wearing and smoking/drinking.  With DMom's stroke history, I'm more than a little paranoid.  I have a box of step 1, 2 and 3.  When I last quit, I got to step 2 and was able to rip off the patch and make it through a year of no smoking.  This time I plan on using the freebie step 3 sent to me by another blogger/knitter.  I'm hoping it'll inspire me to stay off the schmokes.  I no longer think my voice is sexy sounding like Marge Simpson's sister, Patty Bouvier.  Another reason to stay off the smokes?  I get soooo awful much done at home when I'm not smoking.  When I'm not smoking I don't put off things to go have a cigarette.  You wouldn't think it would disrupt your life so much but in my sad ass life, it does.  I've even tried incorporating doing things while I smoke - taking the mail with me, magazines, reading, knitting.  In my attempts to make this the longest paragraph ever, I'm going to add that I'm thinking of going to a pulmonary specialist.  From what I've read on the www, there is a simple and cheap test where you breath into it for 12 minutes and it can detect lung cancer.  Get this grossness: lung cancer gives off a detectable toxin that this test can pick up.  Figure I might as well find out if I'm long for this world after 30 years of being Smokahontas.

Guess what?  DSon, DHub and I are attending the Chicago concert next Friday!  I've so got the hookup for tix and we're on row D - as in row 4.  I'm such a hooker - don't hate me for it.  I'm psyched, to say the least.  My boss thinks that I'm 85 years old.  Does she realize that I'm taking an 18 yo with me?  In my attempt to keep my precious baby boy an innocent, I taught him to enjoy I Love Lucy and to enjoy all the horns in the band Chicago.  The brass instruments have always done something to me ---- I swear to you that I must've been a horn player (I am now - hehe) in a previous life.

Tonight and Saturday GB has a baseball game - I'm excited because DSeester and DN are attending tonight's game.  Saturday morning DSeester and I are hitting the Granger neighborhood yard sales.  OMG - what is better than a neighborhood yard sale?  I can't think of anything.  I was gonna hit IKEA with ex-co-worker but put that off to Sunday.  Yes, DHub left the truck and I'm sooo gonna be in trouble.

How do you like me now?  I bet no one would've guessed these results for me but they need to realize that DSeester was the basement nymph, not I.

You Are 12% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at medium risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is somewhat likely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at low risk for having a social phobia. It is unlikely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

Up Hill

Loving the mood upswing and knocking out the projects.  Here is the scarf I designed from the handspun yarn I made on the wheel:
Pretty cool, huh?
Here is the small afghan I started on Monday and finished Saturday:
I call it "Amish Stained Glass" since the red is the yarn DC Ruthie found at an Amish yard sale.  I had a heck of a time coming up with something to flatter all that red.  I used 4 of the 6 skeins and although the afghan is not large enough to cover your entire body, it is warm and snuggly.  I used it last night when I had my legs flipped to the side.  Nice and warm.

That is my productive weekend.  I finished laundry yesterday including the sweaters that were waiting for a washing.  The girls liked the bunnies so that was a successful project.  The weather was yukky enough to stay in and knock these out.  It rained, hailed, snowed, rained and then hailed again.  The 2nd hail lasted a couple hours.  I was thankful that our cars are covered even though the hail was pretty tiny.  We Hubby made a yummy beef stew and that warmed things up.  We had talked about a hamburger soup and with a few subtractions and additions we ended up with a stew in a soup pot.  After his dad and daughter nibbled on it we ended up with only a large bowl of leftovers.  I'd say it was a hit.

I think I'm going to start another scarf for the pattern shown above.  I want to list the pattern for sale but don't think it shows up so well in the darker yarn.  The other scarf pattern has been my best seller so I think this one will be worth reproducing.

I have two skirts I need to get ready to sew.  I'm having trouble orienting the pattern on the fabric so keep putting it off.  I want to make a bunch of long skirts for the summer so need to get my mind wrapped around the pattern. 

I also need to figure out what knit/crochet projects I want to work on next.  I have the crochet sweater that I put down once I started working on the back decrease.  It wouldn't take much to finish so I need to commit.  I'm also going through the stash to sell some of the excess.  I have more fabric than yarn so considering starting a destash site to unload fabric.

DH goes out of town this week and I hit IKEA on Saturday to buy the book cabinets for the office.  Ex-coworker Cindy and I meet up there every few weeks and so far she's been the big spender.  I think I'll be the winner this time.  I'm just hoping DH gets a ride and leaves his truck for me to get it all home.  I also need to buy the paint and get to livening up the room.  I probably should do that prior to purchasing the cabinets.

Guess that's all for now.

Happy Easter

Baby K and the new additions to our family hope you have a Happy Easter!