Alpaca Hat!!

I'm finally done with the alpaca hat (Andean Chullo)! I'm so excited! Crazily enough it didn't take me any longer than knitting a pair of socks. Three weeks start to finish and that was with a little hiatus (didn't want to do the i-cord edging and tassels. Tassels are a hassle. Not really. But they aren't as fun as knitting.) So here it is, in all it's alpacay glory. I'm so in love with this hat. It's my favorite thing I've ever knit. (Don't tell the socks!)

Monster Dash!

I did a little something different for Halloween this year. My dad and I ran the Monster Dash Half Marathon in Minneapolis, MN. I was a little worried about this run since I had been sick for about two weeks and hadn't run. And I still had a nasty cough. But mostly it was because I hadn't run, and my longest training run was about 4.5 miles.

Sound familiar? I did the same thing a few months ago when we did the Ohio Half. I messed my foot up that time and could barely walk for a week. I could feel (and hear) the tendons in my feet moving. So I really didn't want that to happen again.

But I had a pretty good run. It was FREEZING at the start. I couldn't feel my fingers at all until mile two. My legs never warmed up. (Note to self: probably not a good idea to wear shorts in Minnesota at the end of October when you plan on being outside for over 3 hours.) I started to drag a little at mile 5, but kept a fairly steady pace. At mile 8, I broke out the iPod and some caffeinated "goo". After that I felt pretty good. Music really helps.

Until mile 12 when nothing helps but being finished and sitting down to a huge french toast breakfast with hashbrowns and fruit. But I finished. My time was 2:47. Not great, but better than the last one. I wish I'd trained better. I passed my dad right near the end. He was having trouble with calf cramps, probably from cold legs (stupid shorts!), but finished just a minute behind me.

It was pretty fun though. The goody bag had a really nice long-sleeved running shirt that I actually wore (first time wearing a long-sleeved running shirt for a whole race). And the medal is pretty awesome. It doesn't say Minnesota so I'll have to remember, just like I have to remember I did Iowa even though I got NOTHING for finishing that. Grr. Stupid Iowa. Anywho, here is the medal. It's also a belt buckle. Neato.


Disney World Marathon in January is next, right? :)

What to do, what to do...

Just wanted to post some things I made. They were surprises for my folks so I had to wait until they got them to post this. Here they are:
That's a little button drawing I made for my dad to take to work. It's my first "artist trading card".
"SMILE! It's Halloween!" Halloween card for ma. I like making these a lot, even though it takes forever to cut all those little peices.

On an unrelated note, I'm trying to figure out what direction to take my future/career in. Here are my ideas:
-Start my own yarn/fiber shop like the Fold in Marengo. (Buy a farm with some land, get sheep and alpacas, run the store out of my house. Spend all day knitting and kibitzing with the customers.)
- Return to school to be a dietician (specializing in whole foods wellness/weight loss/veganism). Looked for jobs related to that, didn't have much luck. Possible waste of money?
- Return to school to be an art teacher. Pros: Summers off and somewhat creative environment. Con: Purple hair not an option.
- Try to get a job as a freelance children's book illustrator. No experience or ideas on how that actually works.
- Write a graphic novel about my adventures as a cynical retail clerk. Probably going to do that one anyway.
- Write trashy romance novels. Pro: easiest genre to get published in. Con: I would have to tell people I write romance novels for a living.
- Get a real job. Pros: money. Cons: eternal misery/sold soul for money.

Ideas, comments, donations welcome.

Newness!

Halloween is almost here! The weather was so warm for so long that I waited to decorate and then it got really cold and felt more like winter. It's like we skipped right over Fall altogether. So I don't feel that Halloweenie this year.

But I did get my Halloween Swap package in the mail today! Super exciting! Check out all the goodies.


Did I mention it snowed again?


"It's not normally like this." It's a good thing Howie and I got some stay-at-home essentials like this awesome chair from Goodwill for $7. It's actually a nice poopy green, but looks brown in all the pictures. It's also the cats' new favorite scratching post.

And we bought a Wii! And Wii Fit! Woo! It's super fun. We rented Super Mario Galaxy, Ghostbusters and Animal Crossing:City Folk from Blockbuster and that's all we've been doing for a week. Here is Howie going for a nice island jog.

Here is me in Animalia. And here is my knitting project that I work on when Howie is playing. It's Knit Picks' Andean Chullo. That's the bottom half of some alpacas.

And I gave Howie a haircut and he made some yummy vegan stew, served with the bread I made earlier. Now it's time to settle in for some knitting and Super Mario!

Happy Birthday Howie! Goodbye Metrodome!

This is a little late, but here it is none-the-less. October 12th was Howie's birthday. The big Three-Oh. Since we moved up here we talked about going to see a Twins game at the Metrodome. They built a new stadium so this was our last chance to see them play there. We never really got our act together and missed the last game. But we got a second chance when the Twins went into the post-season. So I got tickets for Howie's birthday to see the Twins play the Yankees. It ended up being the Twins last game ever at the Metrodome.

Howie got stuck sitting next to Yankee fans (BOO!) so I couldn't help asking this kid to stop so I could take his picture as he walked by:


The Twins lost pretty horribly, but it was a fun night anyway. We did the wave, ate cracker jack and there was even a crazy fan who ran out onto the field. He actually made it to the fence on the other side, but he couldn't get over before the guards got there.

Oh yeah, and did I mention it SNOWED on Howie's birthday? Everyone assures me it "isn't normally like this" up here. I've been hearing an awful lot of that.

I can knit again!!

I can finally knit again! I read some stuff online about omega-3, so I've been taking my flax seed oil and eating lots of ginger and my tennis elbow is all better! Yay! Here is what I made today. It's half of the Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan. I have one of her books and her patterns are seriously amazing. Maybe in a day or two I'll have a finished bag to post. I was too excited to wait on this one. I'm going to go get started on the other half. Yay knitting!! Just in time for the long trip to Minneapolis tomorrow for the Twins playoff game.

Timm's Hill and Chequamegon

Yesterday Howie and I went on a mini-roadtrip to Timm's Hill, the highest natural point in Wisconsin, and Chequamegon National Forest. The colors are starting to change, even though it feels more like winter than Fall. I saw ice hanging from the bottoms of cars this morning.


We drove along a narrow path to get to the tower at the highest point.

Then there was a pretty big hill and we had to climb this...

And then we were at the top. Yay! So pretty! Pictures don't really do it justice.



We were going to carve our initials up there, but besides having no knife, there wasn't a whole lot of space that wasn't already taken.


Somehow I feel like that last one used to say something else...

Then we went through Chequamegon National Forest. There wasn't much to it that we could see. There were camp grounds but not too much in the way of scenery. We did stop at this little lake. Apparently they have man-made osprey nests but we didn't go on the trail since it was starting to get late.


Then we headed home. Fun day!