The past two weeks have been fairly crappy.  I had an uncle die last week and then my sister (see previous post in regards to how I feel about my sister) decided to stir some stuff up and her arguing with my mother and then causing my mom and dad to argue.. I’d love to go into it all, but honestly, I don’t think I have the energy.  And even if I did, I don’t think I could do the whole shit storm justice on this blog. 

Not to mention - I had to watch my nephew on Saturday.  I’ve talked about Tommy before - he has issues with ADHD - takes medicine… I guess I hadn’t really realized how lost and angry he is, and I feel sorry for him, but it’s gotten to the point where he’s mean to Turtle.  So there won’t be any more Tommy visits in the foreseeable future.

Let’s talk about something happy.

I finished Turtle’s hat yesterday.

It’s a pattern by Jared Flood called Koolhaas.  It was a very quick knit and a fun one and with the way things have been rolling in crazytown lately, it’s exactly what I needed.

My friend Em posted a recipe not long ago for Three Onion Chowder and it sounded so good that I had to try it out myself.

My pics are not as good as hers, but here are two from when we made it:

The finished product:

It was really good - I rec it.

That’s about it… I’m working on finishing up some socks and I have another shawl to finish up. 

I’m out.

On a conference call with a co-worker, who is openly gay.

He asks me, “Cat are you okay?  Do you have all the information that you need?”

I reply:  “Yes, I’m straight… But that could change!”

HARHARHAR.... oops. 

Scene:  My car, riding back from dinner at the Hibachi place

Turtle:  We have a new game we like to play at school

Me:  Oh....? *braces herself*

Turtle:  Yes… do you want to know what it is?

Me:  Sure.

Turtle:  It’s called Terrorist Attack

Me:  What?

Turtle:  Ter-ror-rist A-tack

Me:  Why would you play a game like that?

Turtle:  *shrug* Some of us are military men and a few of us are terrorists

Me:  Don’t play that game…

Turtle:  Why not?  We kill the terrorists

Me:  Because it’s not a game…

Turtle:  Why can’t it be?

Me:  I don’t know… Just don’t play that anymore.

Am I wrong here?  It’s not like cops and robbers… Terrorist Attack.

There went February… and I had so many good stories to tell you too.  Something would happen, and I would think, OH!  Good blog fodder, but then I had to cook dinner, do laundry, finish knitting… yadda yadda.  You get the point.

I could have blogged at work - but then there’s J-me, who is always around or in my cube or asking me questions or or or… But his contract is up the end of April, so maybe I’ll have more time.

Let’s see…

I had my birthday.

Sharkey had his birthday.  Can you believe he went from this:

To this:

I also can’t believe the amount of money I spend on dogfood.

I’ve been knitting…

You would think that I would have made a dent in my stash - but no.  I just keep adding more and more yarn instead of using what I have.  Note to self - take picture of stash to show insanity to the internet.

I got the barn reroofed in the back - which is an accomplishment to me, but I have no pictures of because… *shrug* Who cares about a reroofed barn?  I also got new patio doors installed… again, no pics.

So that gets us up to speed, yes?  At least on that front.

With my birthday, I promised myself two things:  a housekeeper and possibly a return to Betsy (who I took a reprieve from just because I needed a break)

I’ve been feeling agitated lately - edgy… And granted, I’ve not railed on anything in a long time on this blog (and frankly, this blog was a great place to do so for a long while).  I don’t know why that changed… Maybe I don’t feel as safe bitching about things as I once did?  All this twitter, facebook, youtube BS… if it’s taught me nothing, it’s taught me that once you put it out there, it’s out there for anyone to see. 

And also… I don’t know… the whole blog thing got to be so self-absorbed… A lot of whining and moaning… and it seemed to scream PAY ATTENTION TO ME!  It got away from my needing to vent about the characters in my life to me being an entertainer.

ANYWAY - I digress… I’m researching the housekeeper and I need to put in a call to Betsy.

Oh yeah and the agitation…

See - I guess I thought that in the past year, I’ve become… less angry.  Less.... cynical… More… centered, if you will.  But BEHOLD!  The human spirit in all it’s magical glory overtook me and I now realize that instead of being less furious, I’ve been saving up… See - I have a whole new set of things to despise.

Like the Kardashians… or people never turning their cell phones off… my sister… people that call me and then never get to the point… parents that don’t make their kids behave in public… ice cream on top of my cake… people being mean to my dogs… the color orange… beergut men that still try to tuck in their shirts and wear belts… never being able to find the @#$#@ remote control… facebook game invites… facebook and twitter in general…

Are you getting the point here?  I mean really… I could go on, but I think you understand - my capacity for anger is much larger than even I knew. 

So I need to get in to see Bets and work through why things, that a few months ago, would have only gotten a passing scowl but now make me want to rip someone’s eyes out and then pour salt in their empty bloody sockets.

Therapy people… That and margaritas are what separates us from the animals.

I promised more posts… and hey… you at least get two this month (so far!).

I’m busy again… I find idle hands and idle minds tend to get me in trouble. 

I love caked yarn.  The above yarn I’m using to make a fair isle hat.  I’ve just finished the ribbing and am starting on the pattern.  It’s kind of fun, but I think I much prefer patterns rather than colorwork.

I’m also working on my first cabled mitts.

Cables look intimidating, but are very easy and fun.  It’s nice seeing the little snakey cable appear and form.

Life right now is a mixed bag.  Turtle continues to struggle with his handwriting and we recently took him back to the occupational therapist for a re-evaluation.

It’s been determined that he needs to do everything on the computer.  His muscles are just not there in his hands.  We keep asking if this will ever get better, but get no answer.  Other motor skills have improved, just not the fine ones.  We still need to continue to build muscle mass in the upper body.

I believe he gets this from my side of the family. 

We got this news last week, and also got the news that he will be competing in a county speech competition because he won for his grade at his school.  The speech subject was “My Favorite thing” and naturally he spoke on football.

This is a wonderful thing not just because he won, but also because he just finished speech therapy in October.  There always seems to be a protective coating over him.  You can never count him down and out.

So that’s it.  I’m really tired.  Just staying busy with the house, the dogs, the family, job, etc.  But everything is really good.