i am a spoiled little girl.

well, not typically, but today... today i am the most spoiled girl in the WORLD! i got my knitty summer lovin' swap package!

i woke up around 8:30 this morning with a nasty ass headache, so i took some pills and then went back to bed. by the time i woke up (i won't tell you when) the headache had mostly vacated my brain, so i went downstairs. dad was sitting on the porch, as usual, and mentioned that i had gotten a package. i squealed, and ran outside. upon looking at the return address, i had that matrix-black-cat-deja-vu kind of feeling.
then i tore the wrapping off the box, and in my foggy state declared how strange it was that someone had used the same stickers that i had used on the last box i sent out for a swap.

did i mention i'd had a headache for most of the morning? that's my story and i'm stickin' to it.

once the fog cleared out of my head, i yet again squealed and realized that the wonderful Vicki, who was my spring swap downstream, had sent me my summer package full of fun!

my sweet lord, what goodies she sent my way!



as if having my former downstream as my upstream wasn't enough, she went all out and totally spoiled me rotten with all sorts of handmade goodies. i mean, this package is just chock full of vicki's creativity and talent! i feel so special! let me tell you what she MADE for ME!!



~ beautiful hand spun yarns: 2 skeins of "Summer Fun", a beautiful 50% merino/45% bamboo/5% silk light worsted in pretty turquoises and purples; and 1 skein of "Sage Shimmer", a fabulous 85% merino/11% silk/4% firestar boucle in beautiful blue/greens





~ a simply exquisite knitting needle roll in which was hiding...

~ handmade stitch markers! i almost missed these little goodies! so well hidden.

~ sterling silver drop earrings

~ a handknit bracelet - now this is awesome, because she made it using the yarn that she spun up from the roving that i sent her in the spring swap! and she's posted the pattern on ravelry and i have the very first one ever! *super special squee!!*

~ note cards printed with gorgeous botanical photos that she has taken herself



now, do you think all of those handmade treasures were enough? ohhh no. she didn't stop there. she just had to put some other fun things in there as well! so she ALSO sent...

~ 3 skeins of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes (kettle dyed) in Spruce

~ a pack of 3 chewy rope tugs for the oliver pup

~ a pedicure kit (thank heavens, my toes are in a sorry state)

~ a pack of orbit mint mojito gum (i loooves me some mojito!!)

~ a magnetic note pad (awesome for school, i seem to devour those things)

~ a really fun coconut cup that i will thoroughly enjoy a cocktail in later...

~ JELLIES!!! yes, folks, she found the ultimate 80s girl shoes. i had so many of these when i was little. hilarious! a total blast from summers past!

oh vicki, you have no idea how happy you have made me! i can't even believe how much of yourself you poured into this package!



THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! even my mom can't believe how much thought you put into this package. i am truly touched :)

this neighborhood is going to the dogs.

the world is a big steaming pile of dog poo. well, maybe not the world, although george bush isn't doing much for the america's image. but that's beside the point.

i just took the dog out since his master and commander is working and dad, who usually gives in first, is at the beach. for the little jaunts we walk him down the side street - we're on a corner. the side street is nobody's front yard, and we pick up after our dog, so really it's not a big deal.

our backyard neighbor, let's call him J, is an elderly man who lives by himself. 90% of the time J keeps to himself...but he's really big on dog poop. there are people in our neighborhood who do not clean up after their dogs. these people happen to live in direct proximity to us and the same side street. i'm sure you see where i'm going with this.

in the past, J has resorted to papering his fence with signs that read "clean up after your dog" and "no dumping here" (haha, funny J). we always clean up after oliver. you never see any of us walking him without a baggy for the dirty job. never. we don't appreciate it when owners don't clean up after their dogs on our property, and so we're pretty vigilant about cleaning up after ours.

today, as usual, i walk oliver down the side street. at a slow pace it's a good 3 minute walk down, and oliver loves to sniff everything so it's usually slower. typically, by the time we've reached the end of the street, he's ready to do his business. who doesn't have a bathroom routine? i mean, c'mon.

so he's sniffing around, and J walks out from his front yard and starts chastising me. i hold up the bag. he relents, momentarily. i pick up the poo, and he starts in again.

"well, look at this! this here!" (J points to poo by his fence)
"i know, it's a shame that some people dont' pick up after their dogs"
"listen, you live down there, right?" (J points to main ave on which we live)
"yes, we're your neighbors"
"well, you don't live on this street, so don't walk your dog here anymore. just walk him on your street! i dont want to see you here anymore!"

are you kidding me?! i calmly pointed out that i had picked up after my dog, and that all of us pick up after this particular dog. he can run poo analysis for all i care. he continued his diatribe and i simply said that we all live in this neighborhood, and that when he owns the whole place i'll consider listening. in the meantime, i will continue to walk my dog and clean up after him.

now i know he's elderly, and i know he lives alone, but man, that really ticked me off today. we do our part to keep the neighborhood clean. get off my back, man.

hold on, it's an FO!

two, count 'em, TWO posts in one day. this one is knitting related, so i kept it separate from the first.

i've decided to knit up some bookmarks for my book club, which i mentioned in my earlier post. i started up a feather and fan bookmark last week while i was moderating drama camp (which amounts to sitting around watching our counselors play games with the kids).

i used some beautiful fleece artist sea wool in coco raspberry to knit this up on the only set of size 3 needles i have. i received the yarn and the needles in a swap back in february. there's a pic of it back yonder somewhere.

i know i said i was going to learn socks, but after several aggravating attempts, i've decided that they are just not for me... at least not for right now. i need infinite amounts of patience for that, and during the school year i tend to use up more than my daily allotment of patience from 8am until 4pm.

so, the pretty pink fleece artist sea wool is now (well, ~20 yds of it anyway) a pretty bookmark ready for the loving hands of a fellow teacher! my mom really loves the way feather and fan knits up. hmm, possible future gifts for mom? hmm....

becoming a better blogger

it has come to my attention that i am a bad, naughty blogger. my apologies for being neglectful of my blog duties. i tend to A) forget that i have a blog and B) think that no one reads it anyway... well, clearly i am mistaken, at least on point B. i'll start taking a gingko biloba supplement for point A!

school's out for summer (insert 80s guitar solo here) so i am, contentedly, doing a lot of nothing. the end of the school year was a little chaotic - my teaching assignment for next year is just about completely different than anything i've done before. this is a good thing. a much needed thing. i get to play with the big kids now! 11th grade music and english, along with 7th grade and 8th grade choruses. the only thing i've done before? 7th grade chorus. eep! actually, that reminds me... i should start brushing up on my british lit!

i'm really quite excited about the change, actually. the last couple of years had started to become more than a little disheartening, feeling like i was heading towards bigger and better things only to end up teaching the same thing again. it's not that i didn't like what i was teaching, but i never intended to teach at a middle school level, so to be doing that for 5 years was, well, a bit too long. now i get to stretch my intellectual legs with british literature and music history, and i am thrilled. yay for finally feeling accomplished in my career!

~~note: if you are not a book geek, you can skip this paragraph~~
lately i've been reading quite a bit. i jumped in on a small book club with a few of my coworkers, which i think has been really great for my reading habits. i do love reading, i just hadn't felt motivated to really get into it in a while. we read life of pi by Yann Martel, which was a strange book. i did enjoy it a lot, but in the end, it's a head-scratcher. in a good way. then we read Cormac McCarthy's The Road which was just truly and utterly depressing. it's the only book i think i've ever read that i can only describe as "grey". our most recent read, which we're meeting for sometime in july (i think? i should email erin...) was written by Khaled Hosseini. he wrote The Kite Runner which I had read previously, and we chose another of his, A Thousand Splendid Suns. i read it in one day. i could NOT stop reading it. it was brutal at times, but his voice is truly intoxicating and it just draws you into his narratives. i can't wait for the meeting for this book! aside from the book club, i've also been reading the new David Sedaris and a book my mom got me for Christmas that's a new translation of the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. it's a side-by-side text, Old English on the left, new verse on the right. i am enjoying it but i can't read a lot of it at once.

i celebrated the 4th of july in brooklyn, with Nick, my cousin Michael and a few of his friends. i have never seen the macy's fireworks anywhere except on TV... well, we watched them from Nick's roof in Brooklyn Heights! it was awesome. i'll leave this entry with a few of my better shots from the fireworks display... despite the rainy weather, the show was still amazing!

and i promise, i'll try to update again soon ;)

spring fling!

today marks my return from the senior trip to disneyworld. i don't remember my trip being quite so full of insanity, but it was fun to go along and see the kids have so much fun. and we had fun as chaperones too :)

however, i have bigger and better things to share, such as my fantastic package from my spring fling SP, Aitara! Gretchen, girl, you are AWESOME! i can't believe the stuff you sent me! thanks so much!



so, here's a rundown of all these great goodies!

edible yummies include a fantastic tin of green tea infused with coconut, lemongrass and ginger. the smell of this tea is enough to make me want to try some tonight! she also sent an extreme dark chocolate bar (mmm) and CHOCOLATE COVERED BLUEBERRIES! i haven't had these in SO long and i can't wait to indulge.

i got two books in my package... one is a billy crystal book that i'm really excited to read, i LOVE the guy, and the other looks like a blast of a book entitled "The Big Over Easy" (A Nursery Crime). i love this stuff. simply awesome.

she also included some gardening gloves, which is perfect because i think mom and i are going to start digging in the back yard next weekend! cleverly, she put a little manicure set in the package too, so i can keep my nails looking pretty even in the midst of gardening season.

the pup got a lobster squeaky toy (which he promptly claimed as his own and proudly marched down the stairs), and she even sent some cat toys for matt's kitty, leo! i can't wait to bring them up for him!

now, on to the knitting goodies... i gots some purdy yarn! Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn in a beautiful bright royal blue, Maizy (Crystal Palace Yarns) in the Neptune colorway, which is right up my alley. simply gorgeous, and a really cool corn fiber yarn to boot! and finally, some lovely Tatamy Tweed Worsted in Teal. i've been looking for the perfect yarn to make a cabled bag, and think the tweed will be fabulous for it! on top of the fantastic yarn, she included a little purple tape measure, some blocking pins, and some split ring markers as well.

i feel SO taken care of! and it was a great surprise to come home to this after spending the last 4 days running around like a lunatic in florida with 460 high school seniors!

THANKS GRETCHEN! You are an awesome pal! *hugs*

long day's journey

ah... at last, i am home and in my comfy chair.

it has been a slightly hectic week of vacation. only slightly because most of the craziness was self-induced and actually enjoyable.

easter was a lot of fun and extremely tasty. we had aunt celeste, uncle gary, uncle bill and grandma over for dinner. the guys actually managed to get my dad's ship together. he's had it for quite a few years now, a gift from my uncle JT, and just never got it back up and together. it looks great on top of the chest in the living room! i'll post pics of that when i remember to snap them. maybe later.

monday my parents and i headed over to a local nursery to get inspired for gardening. i brought my tiny cam and took some lovely pics while we were there. i'll post a few down below.

tuesday and wednesday were spent with the high school band kids on their first trip in 7 years or so. we went up to boston where they braved 35 degree weather in quincy market to play! they did well. and then they invaded the starbucks ;)

thursday i headed up to 'cuse to visit matt. well, i really wanted to visit his kitty, but we'll just say i wanted to visit matt. he's aware that i adore his kitty, possibly more than i adore him. ah, love. the drive there was awesome, no traffic at all actually. today was similar, except for a few thickheaded motorists who don't understand the idea of a PASSING lane.

now i'm home. back to the grind tomorrow, but i suppose with all the fun i had over vacation, i shouldn't complain.

i probably will though. ;)

and now, for some pretty flowies! happy spring!

inspirational things

it's getting to be that time of year when things are getting green again, and that always improves my mood tenfold. having daylight savings early is fantastic!

yesterday i played in the dirt in the back and front yards planting bulbs. we'll see if they decide to come out and play, as it's a little late in the season for them. mom and i have plans to go to the local nursery later this week for garden inspiration. since the major renovations last summer, we have a clean slate in both yards, and we're looking very much forward to getting to play with lots of new ideas.

while out looking for summery clothes (i'm chaperoning the senior trip to disneyworld in a month!), i wandered into pottery barn and found, on sale, a bright, cheery duvet! the perfect thing to spruce up my room for spring! it makes me happy. :)

and finally, for fun, a survey stolen from my friend suz's LJ...

Open up your iTunes and fill out the survey.

How many songs total: 1556

How many hours or days of music: 4.2 days

Most recently played: Matt's internet radio show!

Most played: Duncan Sheik - Longing Town

Most recently added: for some reason, there's nothing here...

Sort by song title:
First Song: Across the Universe (The Beatles)
Last Song: Your Redneck Past (Ben Folds Five)

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: Frog on my Toe (Tori Amos) 27 seconds
Longest Song: Miss Blue (Filter) 19 minutes

Sort by album:
First album: The All American Rejects (Self Titled)
Last album: Elliot Smith (XO)


Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 0
Life - 20
Hate - 3
Love - 89 (wow!)
You - 148 (more wow!)
Sex - 4