Battle of Knits

“Sometimes I get so tense, but I can’t speed up the time…”

I have come to realize after a day of screaming too much… that I do not have a lot of patience. Some days I have more (a lot more) than others.

Today was not one of those days.

I hate hearing myself scream at my son. I am going to make a HUGE effort to limit this as much as possible, because after today I am upset with myself for not having more patience. I made it through the infant stages with minimal breakdowns… there was this one day where I thought I was losing it, called Josh at work crying because our son just would not stop crying– I had maybe 20 minutes sleep in 2 days… I look back now and cant believe I was as calm as I was! Must have been those oxytocin and prolactin hormones flowing from breastfeeding!!!

Right now the kid must be going through something… A growth spurt? A phase? Whatever it is I am completely frustrated by it. He wants to be held– and ONLY BY ME– 24 hours a day. He is being very picky with food these last few days. I feel like I throw out enough to feed 2 extra kids some days. Today I could only get him to eat half a waffle, french fries and some gluten-free flat bread. I tossed out chicken, broccoli, crackers, raisins and it drives me crazy. Tomorrow I am going to try some jello with fruit in it. He will most likely eat more tomorrow since it is “Daddy-day” since I am going out to Hank’s in the afternoon. We shall see. I just want my happy kid back!!!!

Finally at least the weather seems to be warming up. Today might have hit 70. I feel like such a freak sometimes… I moved here in August of 2004 and that winter I never wore a jacket, maybe a sweater in January… I wore flip-flops the whole season and though everyone around me was crazy in their UGG boots and scaves, hats, mittens, ski jackets… Honestly, I have not yet pulled out my L.L. Bean ski jacket since moving here. Now I do feel cold if it drops below 60 degrees. I have fully adapted to Florida living!!! Scary.

Here is a picture of the best part of our day. We went to the mall to get me some jeans and the Boo-bear some new sneakers.

See next blog post… since Flickr is a pain in my ass!

Pearl Jam– Dissident

She nursed him there, ooh, over a night
Wasn’t so sure she wanted him to stay
What to say…what to say
But soon she was down, soon he was low
At a quarter past…a holy no…
She had to turn around

When she couldn’t hold, oh…she folded…
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here

And to this day, she’s glided on
Always home but so far away
Like a word misplaced
Nothing to say, what a waste
When she had contact…with the conflict…
There was meaning, but she sold him to the state
She had to turn around

When she couldn’t hold…she folded…
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here, oh…oh…oh…

She gave him away when she couldn’t hold…no…she folded…
A dissident is here
Escape is never, the safest path
Oh, a dissident, a dissident is here, oh…
Couldn’t hold on…she couldn’t hold…no…she folded…
A dissident is here
Escape is never the safest place, oh…
A dissident is here

Shawl (again!) & some updates + news

Yeah, I am going to make you look at that shawl again. Sick of it yet? I seriously love that thing. If i didnt mention already, that shawl is going up to Maine to live with my cousin Allie. She will appreciate and I know it will safe from grubby little toddler hands! Besides she has much more time to wear something like that. If it lived here it would be hanging on something for 363 days a year… what kind of life is that? That shawl was made to party!!! Ha, yeah… okay in all seriousness… I bragged like a little kid who just won a spelling bee on my LYS’s forum on Rav and Lorena is going to post some picks of it on the Hanks blog. Without further ado…

BEHOLD:

Traveling -up to Maine shawl

I think this my biggest accomplishment since carrying a child for 9 months inside my body.

It has really brought me back. I was out of sorts for awhile.

…

Totally unrelated news…

I have some more donations lined up for the big giveaway! I was hitting a lot of walls at first, but now I am having better luck– Keep checking in for more info!

Josh is in Miami tonight, for some work related conference. Now I have gone to many work conferences back when I was in the corporate world. Most of my conferences involved drinking tasting wine and trying to hold important conversations while completely buzzed worrying about how red my teeth were from the wine, but never once were they ever held in a strip club. What you say? A strip club? Well, he didnt tell me that is where they are held… I can just only assume he will be going to one and then will sleep in far too late to attend the conference. We will see. In 2010 I intend on exposing much more of my personal life. Why? Well, why the hell not? I Facebook and Twitter all day anyway. I would like to give ya’ll something interesting to read besides just pics of my knitting, pics of my kid doing crazy stuff and general whining. The stats have gone up considerably in the last 2 months. Now, dont let me scare you off… Stats just tell me how many people are reading, not *who* is reading. So you are still an anonymous reader. How do I know you wish to stay a closeted reader??? You dont leave comments. Come on people. I think you can do that anonymously too. So keep on stalking reading!

(Does this mean I need to hit the spell check once in awhile?)

I have a bunch of gluten-free product reviews to post. I just have no time. Clingy child= neglected blog. Sorry! Do I even have any GFree readers? Most people think this is completely in my head, with the exception being Josh, since he knows how sick I get. GLUTEN IS EVERYWHERE!!!

I am really feeling for the survivors down in Haiti today. Normally I live the usual selfish live, believing if I cant see it, it aint that bad. Well, today I watched Oprah (sue me.) and Wyclef Jean (dont be hatin’– I love him) was showing actual video his brother shot on a flip cam. There are piles and piles of bodies everywhere, dead children and lots of people just freaking out in general due to lack of supplies and care. He said the stench is overwhelming and the graveyards are full. Here I sit in my nice big house, drinking my wine, listening to music on my laptop, typing away on my blog— and it makes me feel terrible! I dont know what there is that I can do. My only idea is this baby hat pattern I made. I am going to post it on Ravelry tonight and sell it for $5 and list it under the Patterns for Haiti. All proceeds go to help Haiti. I was going to type it up and give it out for free. I mean, its just a baby hat… but if you need to get something for your donation… here you go! I sometimes wish I was independently wealthy and didnt have a young toddler to chase right now– I would go down there and help out the people. That would be a great life. Might be hard work, but at least I would sleep soundly knowing I did what I could for my fellow peeps. Yeah, if I had a billion dollars… I’d be there digging through the rubble in Haiti, trying to save people… children… and well, humanity in general. Until then… I will cherish my son and raise him to be as giving and caring as his mommy is. The kid is golden though, he will be a a wonderful addition to society, I just know it.

(LISTENING TO WYCLEF)

Okay off to post my pattern, then off to knit and watch some Nip/Tuck. Wait! I cant leave this on such a somber note… SO here you go:

Don't be hatin' on Wyclef.

PEACE.

The owl.

We had a vistor today and I was lucky enough to get a few pictures of him. Please dont mind my terrible photo. I really need to get the flash fixed or at least play with the settings.

Owl, hunting squirrels, I hope.

 – If an owl hoots at the moment of childbirth, the child will have an unhappy life.

 – The Irish believe that if an owl flies into a house it must be killed immediately. If it escapes, it will take the luck of the house with it.

 – If an owl nests in an abandoned house, then the dwelling must be haunted. An owl is the only creature who can abide a ghost.

 – By eating salted owl, a person can be cured of gout.

 – If an owl hoots during a burial service, the deceased is bound to rise from the grave and haunt the living.

 – An owl living in the attic of a house will cause a pregnant woman to miscarry.

 – If a pregnant woman hears the shriek of an owl, her child will be a girl.”

Trip to Cedar Key…

     We had been wanting to do something, since summer is nearing an end and the heat is… well, its still damn hot, but the summer is almost over. We almost always go to St. Augustine, this time we decided to go somewhere different… so we went West. The gulf coast… a sweet little dump of a fishing town called Cedar Key. If you have ever wanted to party with random bikers and eat some crappy seafood in a dirty bar… Cedar Key would be heaven for you. Now dont get me wrong, it sure is breathtaking to look out over the water as you sip a Corona and eat some clam chower… it just is not a place you would want to go with  your kids. Okay, if your kids are older– teenage maybe, you could let them roam the postage stamp sized town, while you are enjoying some drinks at the local watering hole, and you could be 100% certain that your kids could not find trouble if they tried! If you have a stroller though, beware that most of the bars are on the second floor… and are not handi-cap accessible. Oh and if you want food? Most of the food can only be found in these 4 bars. So you are limited to carrying your kid and stroller… or you can go to the “dirtier” biker bar down the street that has seats on the first floor, stinks of cigarette smoke and has no servers.

Baby's first trip to the Gulf Coast!

I had a good time though, as I am always one to look on the bright side and make the best of it… which is good, since Josh is not that type and he likes to complain (as much as possible) before he comes around and just relaxes. So after getting a margarita into Josh, we went to the little beach and walked the kiddo around through the sand and the water.  I asked Josh to be a good sport and snap a few pictures of us. I am always the photographer and hardly ever see pictures of myself with my son! I was happy to see that some came out quite nice! Go Josh!

Cedar Key beach

The sand was pretty hot, but he played in it a bit. I kept covering his feet with dry sand — wet sand — he was not a fan and kept kicking it off! There were a lot of kids on the small beach and they were running around playing in the water, making sand castles and just having a blast. I think our little one had the most fun just observing everything around him. Maybe on the next beach trip he will be playing with the bigger kids! For now though he stuck close to Mom.

Another jaunt around town took all of 20 minutes… okay I exaggerrated there. It took about 15 minutes. With nothing else to do and having seen all the sights… we popped into the “Cedar Keyhole” and looked at the local artwork. I was on the hunt for the perfect souveniers, that way we never ever had to return to this wretched little place! I finally decided  on  a piece of hanging driftwood with a seahorse painted on it. At the checkout Josh spied a wooden magnet shaped like a gator with “Cedar Key” etched into it. Perfect!!!

( I will take a picture and insert it into this spot ASAP)

Then we stopped for water, beer and some more snacks. I had award winning clam chowder, Josh had a lovely looking house salad and some peel & eat shrimp. The kiddo ate some black olives and crackers… he threw strawberries, bananas, and more crackers on the floor. Then Josh and I shared a deep fried platter of desserts. Rich and fattening. We then decided to head towards the car and take the long drive home.  I got to the car and realized I had not taking any pictures of the water! It was such a nice day, I insisted and a whining-complaining Josh walked with me a whole twenty feet to the water.

Honeymoon Shack

This beautiful dream house is called “The Honeymoon Suite”. It is a popular landmark among artists and photographers.  Josh had a great laugh over this. He can not understand why they would not tear down this eye sore. My understanding is that it was a functional building until a hurricane demolished it, then it became a novelty. I like it and I love my pictures. Perhaps one of these days I too will join the ranks of Florida artists who have painted this “Honeymoon Shack” .  It really sums up the whole town… a dilapitated pile of shit, that makes you wonder why no one has cleaned it up, but then you realize it is simply because no one really cares… if they do care enough, they have obviously lost ambition because due to lack of things to do in this town, said individual has since gotten drunk and forgotten all about it.

Cedar Key, Florida 08-30-2009

All in all, as bored as we were in Cedar Key, we had a good day. The baby was well behaved and sweet, we didnt spend a ton of money and we enjoyed some breathtaking views during a gorgeous weather day, and even though it was completely sweltering, we had a good time wandering around the 3 streets of Cedar Key, Florida. I dont think we will ever visit this place again. I feel like both of us have a new appreciation for St. Augustine and its 7-8 streets to wander.  So we headed home, tired and sprinkled with sand. Josh will kill me for blogging this tid-bit but he actually got a bit lost! I nearly threw his blackberry out the car window when he pulled it out to use his GPS! I laughed and laughed!!! I navigated the two blocks to get us out  and we were home in time to enjoy some pre-season football and get my Hyena Cart shop in the works. I got in some good knitting time on the ride to and from… I worked on my Pheasant Run socks mostly. I finished the dreaded ribbing of the second sock and I am nearly to the toe on the first sock.  So a good day all around!

Flower Power.

I don’t have a clue about flowers in Florida. I don’t really have much of a green thumb at all, let alone knowledge of flowers or gardening. This is a potted plant in our back yard and I love it.

This I know is a lily of some sort. That is all I know.

These are quaint, but I dont much care for the colors. Pretty boring really, but they remind me of straw flowers or bachelors buttons.

I have seen these many times before, but I have no clue what they are called. They are very wonderful though and I enjoy them. In fact I may cut some and bring them inside… it may cheer me up a bit.

This plant is what originally brought me outside. I was filling the dog water dish and noticed a very large butterfly hovering on it and I wanted so much to get a good picture of it, however… it flew away as soon as I had a good focus, of course. Again, no clue what these are, but they are quite tall and very pretty.