New Addition to the Family...

It is with sadness that I announce the passing of Smoke2 over the weekend. He was only with us a short 8 months and I am unsure what happened as he never showed signs of any sickness, as did his predecessors Smoke and Sparky (Beta Fish... the ever so complicated world of such uncomplicated beings!), who were both with us for a couple of years each.

Since an empty tank simply just can not stay empty for too long, a trip to Pet Smart was in order yesterday and Smoke3 is now part of the family (and for those of you interested, he actually looks just like Smoke2... and the "Smokes" are named after NASCAR driver Tony Stewart... I had debated on changing this one's name, however I have these nifty caricature return address labels with us, the dogs and "Smoke" on them, so... SMOKE3 he is!



In between shopping trips to Pet Smart and Michael's and cleaning out the little fish tank to make a sparkly clean home for Smoke3, I tried to get some knitting done. As I was refilling the tank last night, I realized we were out of freaking stupid filter cartridges and had to do a quicky emergency run to Walmart. The trip would've been a bit quicker, however a very persistant Lola made it quite clear that she was going with me for an r-i-d-e. When she wants something, she's a royal pain in the behind... and just looks so freaking cute doing it (scroll back a few entries to the infamous "tilted head" photo).

I have managed to get some knitting done on a few projects though, despite all of this and Teutul's new obsession with my sheep tape measure....



For entertainment sake, I'd like to say he was jealous that Mommy was using his big brother Zeus needles to work on this Plymouth car seat blanket, but I really think he just wanted to steal my tape measure and claim it for his own toy... he loves that "swooosh" sound it makes. Note to self: Be sure to keep this one tucked deeply inside a knitting bag - preferably zippered shut - and never out in plain site when not being watched!

I also started - not once, not twice, but three times! - the Broadway diagonal scarf. I started this out on bamboo needles -- MISTAKE! -- and ended up frogging it twice before deciding what a brilliant idea it would be to use my Susan Bates Quicksilver needles instead! On the 3rd frogging however, I was ready to just throw the whole darned thing in the trash frogged with a little too much agression and ended up snapping the yarn, so its possible the scarf will either 1) come out a few inches shorter than meant to be or 2) I'll have to carefully pull back the frogged part and splice that yarn in at the end.

Note to anyone in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts - or those of us yarn obsessed who don't mind a short - or long - drive to a LYS.... Knit Wit in Rockport, MA has officially begun her going out of business sale! I'm a little disappointed as I was just there last week and bought at FULL price! Ahhh... I guess a trip back is in order (although I did send my Mom down there today to pick up a few things I knew I wanted needed!

Have a wonderful sunny day ... and HAPPY SHOPPING to those of you near Rockport!