Your Animal Personality

Your Power Animal: Deer Animal You Were in a Past Life: Panda You are a fun-seeker - an adventurous, risk-taker. While you are spontaneous, you are not very rational.

The Animal Personality Test

Giggle of the day

Have you knitters been to 1-877-SOS-KNIT yet? It is worth a giggle or two, especially if you haven't had a chance to see the Yarn Harlot in person or read her book. Go ahead and give it a ring -- after all, it's toll free.

I snagged this meme from a blog I only read every once in a while:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

I started exercising in the morning before work which is supposed to give me more energy, but I think it is dragging me down.

Some things never change, do they? Three years ago when I started my first blog I was trying to make exercise a habit, and here I am still trying.

You Are Italian Food

Comforting yet overwhelming. People love you, but sometimes you're just too much.

What Kind of Food Are You?

Grumble, grumble, grouse, grouse

There are people who are committed enough to their work to skip lunch and/or breaks. I just don't have that in me. I give my employer my best effort during work hours, but my break is mine. The work will still be there when I get back. If I don't finish it today, it will be there tomorrow. It is especially amazing to me when people do this in a job where they are not being pressured to do it and it isn't going to do anything for them. All of the places I have worked have had no opportunity for advancement, no matter how hard you hustle. Why give 150% to a dead-end job? (Did I mention that I'm lazy?)

The camo 5HBS is giving me fits. I ripped back to the end of the hood, knit down to the arms a second time, and I still ended up with 30 stitches too many. This is not an unfamiliar pattern. I have knit it with and without the hood several times. Why am I having such a hard time with this? Being the stubborn (and lazy) knitter that I am, I refuse to rip again. I'll just have to find a way to make it work.

The camo baby blanket is still on hold because I need a longer circular to finish it. I got over my fear of spending long enough to order a set of Denise needles on Saturday. Hopefully KnitPicks has quick shipping!

Health Update

I'm right where I was last week (7.6 pounds lost). ABM took me to Weight Watchers for my weigh-in but I couldn't stay for the meeting. The good news is that after moving my digital scale upstairs and resetting it, it is now in line with the WW scale. If I miss another meeting, at least I can have an accurate weigh-in.

I exercised a bit harder this week, and my body is complaining. Besides the normal soreness in my upper body from the crunches and pushups I added, my right knee and right foot are killing me. The most likely reason is the increased pace of my daily walks. It is very frustrating to finally be motivated to exercise but have my body stop me from going full-on. I'm still holding on to the hope that these problems will go away once my weight goes below 200. My DVD workouts have been sitting on the shelf, but I think I am going to give them another go starting this week. I'm really feeling the desire to dance!

The cafeteria at work is my constant downfall. I keep telling myself I will get a salad, but when I get in there I end up getting the more fattening sandwich or entree. When I do have a salad, I feel like I am missing something. The funny thing is that lately when I have the entree it isn't as good as I thought is was going to be and then I feel bad that I wasted the points.

With fall right around the corner (yes, I know it officially started yesterday but it is still 90 degrees here!), I am going to try a new strategy. I love soup, so I am going to press my crockpot into service and start making soup to take to work with me. I'm paying for a WW eTools subscription that includes a recipe database so I need to put it to use. I am also going to try eating at my desk more often so I can avoid the temptation of the cafeteria until I am stronger.

And I always thought I was rather butch :-)

You Are 30% Boyish and 70% Girlish

Even if you're not a girl, you're very feminine. You're in touch with your feelings, and your heart rules you. A bit of a emotional roller coaster, one moment you're up and the next you're down. But no matter what, you try to be as cute and perky as possible.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Thanks, but I really am lazy

Sharon left a very supportive comment in response to my post on Sunday about being a good helpmeet for ABM. I thank you, Sharon, for your concern and your prayers. However, I have to ignore all advice to strike a balance and take care of myself. You see, I really am lazy (I'm assuming that you don't know me in real life because your name is drawing a blank -- if I do know you, please jog my memory). People laugh when I say that I come home and do nothing, but it is true.

Let's take today. I asked the kids if they did their homework and I listened to DJ read for about five minutes. That is the most mothering I intend to do today. The kids are at church, where they will be fed. I am going to watch TV and knit until they get home, then I will send them to bed and watch some more TV. I will not be reading any bedtime stories, asking anyone about their day, or even washing the dishes that are starting to fall out of the sink because they are stacked so high. This wouldn't be so bad if it was just one day, but I do this a lot.

I have a bad habit of using well-meaning comments from online friends and coworkers to support my laziness. "Being the working mother of four kids is a tough job, so I deserve to sit down here and relax." I imagine that it would be a tough job if actually did anything. The toughest part of my job is stressing about what I'm not doing and trying to keep ABM distracted from the fact that I'm not doing it. So if I sound like I am being hard on myself, it is only so I can make myself see the real situation more clearly.

I'm actually much better than I was 10 years ago; it doesn't take nearly as long for me to fed up with the poor state of the house and start cleaning something. TV shows like How Clean is Your House? make me feel good that my house isn't that gross as well as inspire me to make it even cleaner.

What Your Sleeping Position Says

You have a passion for everything - including sleeping. Outgoing and brash, you tend to still shock those who know you well. You tend to be selfish. You are the most likely type to hog the covers. You gravitate toward comfort and don't like extreme situations.

What Does Your Sleeping Position Say About You?

Fall Knitty

I haven't seen too many comments about the new fall issue of Knitty on any of the blogs that I frequent. I finally got around to taking a look for myself. Several of the "piquant" patterns looked more like "extra spicy" to me, what with all the cables and charts. The only two patterns that jumped out at me right away were Flora and Astrodome. I doubt that I would knit Astrodome because I don't do a lot of colorwork, but I might attempt Flora. It uses small amounts of yarn and I am always looking for stashbusting patterns like that.

The KnittySpin column is an interesting addition. I don't spin but I liked reading about Amy Singer's quest to learn. So many knitters are also spinners these days so a knitting magazine without spinning content seems odd to me now. I also enjoyed Purple Chihuahua. Stories about how people learn to knit can be as boring as labor stories (everybody thinks that just because you have had a baby, you want to hear how they had theirs), but Heather Nicaise made hers entertaining.

It is unrealistic of me to expect Knitty to be filled with "mellow" patterns. I know it must be tough for a designer to make a pattern easy and innovative at the same time. Still, I keep searching for that magic pattern because I'm afraid of anything that requires me to concentrate too much. Patterns with charts and long instructions aren't conducive to knitting on the go.

TV is not evil

Many groups, both secular and religious, are quick to vilify television. To be fair, the entertainment industry gives them a lot to hate. When I renewed my commitment to God and my Christian walk, I fell in with the party line and stopped watching practically all the shows I enjoyed. It was a necessary move to allow me to study my Bible more and spend more time in prayer. Now, however, I am getting a little sick of the message that TV is either entertainment for the brain dead or a tool of the devil. True, there are many "junk food" hours in each network's programming schedule but there are also many shows that can help you make a positive change.

Today's example is "Body Challenge: Ultimate Slimdown" and all the other weight loss shows on Discovery Health Channel. Every time I see one of these shows I feel motivated to get off my butt. Some of the shows work through inspiration by telling the story of people I can identify with and what they did to lose weight. I always pick up an interesting tip or exercise from these programs. Other shows work through disgust by showing me where I could end up if I don't get a handle on my weight gain. The key is that these stories are televised. I've read articles in magazines and on the internet, but seeing and hearing people tell their stories and seeing moving before-and-after images connects a lot better with me than words and static photos on a page.

Not my usual Sunday

Both of our vehicles went on strike this week and refused to move. This has been coming for a long time, but ABM has put off having them fixed because we really needed to get a new vehicle that would fit the entire family. Well, the decision was made for him this week when both the car and the van nearly left him stranded on the highway.

Fortunately, God does provide. ABM found a used van in great shape that will meet our needs. His job is offering extra hours, so he has been working mad overtime to pay for the van and a few other bills. He has gone from an 8-hour shift to working 10-12 hours a day, plus working on his days off. This will help us in the short term, but I'm not too sure about the long run. His job security depends a lot on his statistics for things like sales and average call handling time. The more hours that he works a week, the more difficult it is to keep his numbers at an acceptable level.

Hopefully, ABM won't try to keep up this pace for too long. I'm worried about his health because all of his waking hours are being spent at work. Even though customer service isn't manual labor, it is stressful work. He knows that these extra hours will most likely bring back his headaches and insomnia. Still, he feels like this is the only option he has to reduce our debt load. He wants to grab as much overtime as he can while it is available.

I feel like this situation is another test of my ability to be a good "helpmeet" to my husband. In many areas, ABM keeps things moving and I am just along for the ride. I've known for a long time that I don't contribute much to this relationship; I'm more of a dependent than an equal partner for ABM. Every once in a while, though, God throws me a chance to redeem myself. I usually fail miserably because I don't recognize the chance until after it has passed. This time, however, I am going to do my best to make good.

The thing that makes ABM happier than anything else is a well-run house. If he can spend long, miserable hours in a job he hates to pull us through, then the least I can do is give up my comfort in the evenings to make this house a more pleasant place for the little bit of time that he is here. I keep dreaming of the day when I can be a stay-at-home mom again so that I can handle things the way I want, but there has been a soft voice whispering in my ear for quite a while now that says I can't wait for that day. That dream may not be in God's plan for me. I have to sacrifice my comfort. I have to stop being selfish and give up what I think is making me happy to create a better environment for my family.

Notice that I said "what I think is making me happy". It isn't truly satisfying me. All the time that I am sitting on my tuchus in the evenings after work, I'm fretting over what I should be doing and making up excuses for why I'm not doing it. I've convinced myself that if I spent my evenings cleaning and taking care of other household responsibilities I would be a miserable person to live with. Would I truly be any more miserable than I am now? I doubt it. I would much rather think of myself as a baleboosteh than an albatross around ABM's neck.

Anyway, that's enough navel-gazing for one week. Those that know the words of prayer, pray muchly for us and I'll do the same for you :-).

Health Update

The actual total weight loss is 7.5 pounds, I think. I'm not sure because I weighed at home. My regular scale said 256 and my digital scale said 256.5, so I went with the digital. From past weeks, though, I noticed that my digital scale has registered one to two pounds more than the Weight Watchers scale. I guess I'll find out next week.

Yes, I missed my Weight Watchers meeting again this week. NotMissy's husband is balking at the idea of paying for the meetings and the gas. That's understandable, but it leaves me in a tough spot because ABM is not crazy about me throwing away the money I spent to sign up. I imagine that I can keep my WW eTools membership up-to-date and just weigh from home. I don't want to sign up for the full WW Online program because the fees I paid to sign up for eTools and the in-person meetings equal out to the same thing. As far as I can see, it really is the same program, but you get it at the eTools price if you punch in the code that you get from your first meeting. I know that I will have to pay another $25 if I decide to start going back to meetings, but that doesn't bother me so much. ABM has spent way more than I have in diet supplements prescribed by his doctor, so he isn't going to complain too much as long as I am sticking to the program and losing weight.

There hasn't been much of a change in the exercise area. I'm still doing 10-20 minutes of walking. The situps still haven't made their way into my program. I have, however, added in some pushups after my walk (the kind you do where you push off against a wall or a countertop). I can't say that my energy has increased because I am SO sleepy in the afternoons, but I am more likely to get up and try to do things. Yesterday, I woke up a few minutes earlier to get ready for work. Normally, I go back to sleep for 30 minutes after getting M out of bed for school but I think that time would be better used for something, anything else. I don't feel any more rested from that 30 minutes so I might as well accomplish something.

The extent of my laziness

I have lived in this house for four years. I have owned my microwave for four years. I just learned how to use the auto-defrost function on my microwave today. Does that give you any idea of how seldom I cook?

Racing a baby

The camo baby blanket is knitting up quickly, but I'll have to put it aside for a few days. My longest circular needle isn't long enough to finish this project. ABM promised me that I could buy a Denise interchangeable set with the very next paycheck, which we get on the 23rd. I've been waiting to buy a set for three years, so I am very excited. Since I don't have a yarn shop here, I'll be ordering online. God willing and the creek don't rise, I'm hoping to have the needles in my hot little hands by 01 Oct.

I've almost finished knitting my first Super Saver skein, and I bought three. I think I may use two for the blanket and turn the third one into a Five-Hour Baby Sweater with a hood. I find that if you knit the 5HBS with a hood in a strongly masculine color, fathers are distracted from the lacy bits and are less likely to call it a girly sweater.

Sharon asked in comments if I would be posting a photo of the camo blanket. I hope so, but the new mom looks like she is ready to pop any second even though she isn't due until the end of October. I may end up giving it to her before I can photograph it. As a matter of fact, I think I better start that 5HBS tonight!

So much for decreasing the stashette

Three babies in my area are about to make their appearance, so if I am going to do any baby knitting I need to buckle down. Yesterday, I bought seven skeins of yarn because I have absolutely nothing appropriate in my stashette. Despite what the late Mrs. Zimmerman felt about babies preferring wool, the stuff in my stashette is all scratchy and ugly. I would show you my purchase, but this isn't some handpainted/handspun/I-must-sell-my-children-to-own-it stuff. I really wanted to buy yarn from KnitPicks but most of their line seems to be "hand wash only". So I fell back into my old habit and bought the cheap stuff. Red Heart is my friend!

First up is a baby blanket made from camoflauge Red Heart. Some may think that camo is too dark for a baby, but this is for an African-American baby boy. I used this same yarn to make hats for my own son and they went so well with his coloring. Besides, I like to use non-traditional colors for baby blankets so that they can be used for a long time. The pattern I'm using is the square shawl pattern in the February chapter of "The Knitter's Almanac". I've had this book for over five years, yet I have never knit anything from it. Every time I look at the patterns, they seem too complicated. I don't know why I never noticed how simple the shawl pattern is. So far the knitting is going well. I hope to finish it this week, but realistically it will probably be the end of next week.

Health Update

As usual, the weight tracker rounded the numbers. I lost two pounds in the past two weeks, putting me at 257.4 pounds. That's 6.6 pounds lost so far. I've been doing Weight Watchers for about a month, so I think that's pretty good. I'm not expecting more than a pound a week.

The Flex plan seems to working out OK, but I find myself falling into my old bad habit of counting points until I get to 20 and then ignoring the points for the rest of the day. This means that I don't count all the little nibbles I put in my mouth when I come home. To counteract that this week, I am going to focus more on other activities in the evening. I noticed that I didn't nibble as much on Tuesday past when I had to help the kids with their homework. A lot of people say that needlework helps them cut down on their snacking, but I can't knit or crochet longer than an hour a day because of pain in my right arm. Perhaps another good book is the answer. I barely snacked at all when I was reading HP6.

NotMissy is still discouraged about her weight loss. I think she has only lost two pounds since we've started WW. I outweigh her by almost 75 pounds so I was bound to drop a bit more than her in the beginning, but this fact is of little comfort to her. She has decided to add yoga to her exercise regimen a couple times a week, so perhaps that will relax her.

Hop on over to Craftster; OKC

Craftster fits my crafting sensibility. Whenever I read the name of that site, in my mind I extend it to "crafty hipster". I like the idea of 20-somethings embroidering their rockabilly clothes or painting replicas of their tattoos on their kids' onesies. Unfortunately, I don't really have the time to troll all the different forums. Enter the Craft Challenge. Lots of cool projects located in one place, and you get to vote for your favorite. Challenge #5 caught my attention in particular; it was called "No Yarn Allowed". The brief was to use a technique that usually requires yarn with some material. Check out the entries here. My favorite is the bikini that was knit from strips of pantyhose.

Guess what I was working on today? An afghan! My sister called me on Sunday and I was expecting a long chat, so I grabbed the Gaudy Rambling Rows Afghan. This project has been stalled at square 12 for about three years. We didn't end up talking long, but it was long enough to get me interested in knitting that pattern again. Unfortunately, I used the bright purple yarn that I had set aside for this project so now I can't continue the color scheme I planned without going shopping. I could use the dusky purple yarn that I have on hand, but it would bring down the tone of the afghan. I call it "gaudy" because when I started it, I was trying to reduce my stashette (I'm always trying to reduce my stashette) so I threw together all the no-lot acrylics I had. It was intended to be a scrap afghan but it turned into a color scheme and now I am not sure that I want to mess it up. However, if I don't find a suitably flamboyant purple yarn at the discount store tomorrow then I will use the dusky purple just to keep the process moving. I've made some progress in using up my yarn and I don't want to lose momentum.

I've also been working on the Pom Squad anklets from Mag Knits. My socknitting experience isn't extensive (about five or six complete pairs) and I haven't run into this kind of heel. I'm accustomed to the short-row heel; the instruction to "knit the wrap" is confusing me. I just ignored it and the heel seems to be OK. I won't be sure until I finish the sock. Hopefully, I can take some photos tomorrow.

Which General Mills monster-themed cereal mascot are you? Yummy Mummy You are a cheerful mummy wrapped in historically inaccurate red, yellow, and purple linen. Your cereal, introduced in 1987, is almost identical to that of your predecessor, Fruit Brute--except you have vanilla marshmallows, not lime. Like Fruit Brute, you were ultimately discontinued--in 1992.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Health Update

I'm not putting up my slider this week because I didn't go to my WW meeting. With the gas shortage scare in my area, NotMissy's husband wanted her to minimize her driving. On top of that, she hurt her neck so she had to limit her activities. I wish there were a Saturday afternoon meeting in my area so ABM could take me.

Anyway, I stepped on my new digital scale and it read 258. However, I'm not sure I believe that number since I have a hard week food-wise. I go through weeks where I am ravenous. No food is safe near me. The menu choices in the caf weren't the best and I snacked more than usual, so I doubt that I lost even an ounce this week.

On the positive side, I did exercise this week. In addition to my walking, I did crunches twice this week. My goal is to do crunches and upper body exercises three times a week. ABM also renewed his community gym membership (only $14 for two months!) so that he can feel free to get sweaty and take a shower before going to work.

Your Boobies' Names Are: Dessert and Dinner

Get your own Boobie Names