Friday, August 31, 2007

Scattergories

SCATTERGORIES ... and it's harder than it looks!

Here are the rules:

* Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions.
* They MUST be real places, names, things ... NOTHING made up!
* If you can't think of anything, skip it.
* You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
* If your name happens to start with the same letter as mine, sorry, but you can't use my answers!

My name: Laurin
1. Famous Singer/Band: Lisa Loeb
2. Four letter word: Lust
3. Street: Lonely Street
4. Color: Lilac
5. Gifts/Presents: Lipstick
6. Vehicle: Lincoln Continental
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Lighters
8. Boy Name: Lance
9. Girl Name: Lisa
10. Movie Title: Lost in Space
11. Drink: LaLa's Dirty Martini (all ya have to do is ask....)
12. Occupation: Lawyer
13. Celebrity: Lauren Tewes (oh, I am OLD...)
14. Magazine: Lowrider Magazine
15. U.S. City: Lowell
16. Pro Sports Teams: LA Lakers
17. Fruit: Ligonberry
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Lazy Ass
19. Something You Throw Away: Lint
20. Things You Shout: Later, Dude!!
21. Cartoon Character: Lisa Simpson

If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged to add this to your blog. Let me know you did!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

First Pair of Socks - DONE



Finally.

Harlot Simple Socks, in Trekking XXL.

Frogged at least 8 times, but finally finished.

Was going to give them to Gina, but oranges reds and blacks just don't seem Gina-ish, ya know? So I started another pair.



Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in Hawaii colorway. Beautiful colors, although I am not thrilled with how it pools. But Gina likes the way they are knitting up, so on they go. Jaywalkers, this time.

Ravelry - the great and mighty time-suck

I got into Ravelry a few weeks ago, and have mostly been lurking, checking out other Manch-Vegas knitters project queues and stuff. I have a feeling that the very minute I start to use this thing in earnest, I'll have to quit my job. It is a fantastic site, with the compelling lure of organizing your knitting life and joining a community of folks all trying to do the same thing.

But man - I spent two hours on it today. Without a whole hell of a lot to show for it. But it is soooooo cool.

I'm in trouble.

The Next Day at the daSilva Spa and Resort


The story starts the night before. After all the ManchVegas chicks (and Chris) left, Mark thought the pool has lost some water, and decided to bring the level up. So, he put a hose in the pool, came in, and made his first mistake.




Rule #1: Don't ask your tired wife to remind you to shut off the water, and then expect she will stay awake longer than you do.

I fell asleep sitting up in the living room by 8:30 - and he went to bed. No, I did not remind him. Can you see where this is going? Hmmm?

He got up to pee about 3:00, and he was confused to hear what sounded like rain outside - but it wasn't raining. Except pool water through the skimmer opening, of course. Eroding the stone fill around the base of the pool. So he went out in the dark with a flashlight, probably blaming me - still comfortably snoring in my chair - to shut off the water.

Rule #2: If you are going to backflush the pool to drain off some water, make sure you rehouse the pump valve back to normal when you are done.

He didn't. When he checked the pool the next morning, it had continued to drain off water until the level was below the skimmer. Bad.

The hose went back in. Ice cold water from the well. So now he is convinced that we are never going to be able to swim in the pool again - we might as well drag out the ice skates. And man was he UGLY about it.

So here is where the daSilva Spa and Resort came in. I was telling Lisa this story and she invited me over. Done deal. She has a pool. And a spare bedroom. What's not to love?


Went over for a day of relaxing drinkies, knitting, swimming. Lisa runs a three star establishment complete with crazy puppies and an even nuttier husband. He thought Mark's pool mishaps were so funny that he called him and said "at least MY woman doesn't have to go to another man's pool to go swimming.." This would have really cheesed my husband's shorts except that Chris is Brazilian, and was so excited about his little joke that his accent got in the way and Mark didn't understand a word. I had to translate for him the next day.

Lisa and I thought it was hysterical, though!

Poolin', Knittin', Drinkin' and Foldin' - OH YEAH

August 4th - OK, so only a few weeks behind here. Invited the Manch-Vegas gang to my house for a very long day - at least for some of us. From about 9:30 to noon, whoever showed up put their heads down to the task of folding as many origami cranes as we possibly could, to decorate Gina's house for Ericka's shower. She loves bright red, so most of the cranes were red, but we also used white, gold, and a few very pretty printed papers.


I have to admit this is not a strength - I find it really hard to follow origami instructions. So I devoted myself to the first few folds - the others grabbed my starters and finished them up. Luckily Gina's husband Ian was there - he was a whiz at it. He helped the others get going, then took Ben out to the pool so we could get to work. Sarah, Heather, Caroline, Marion, Gina, Lora, Melissa - they all kicked butt cranking out the cranes.


Then, at about 1:00ish, we broke out the drinkies, started getting lunch out, and drifted to the pool. The whole day was a blast - perfect weather, perfectly crazy and funny guests. And perfect frozen margaritas. What else could you possibly ask for? Except for my frog back, maybe. But he is in a good place. His wife misses him, though. Maybe she will meet a nice newt and forget all about him.
Ericka and Chris finally dragged their asses over about 3:00 - I remember the good old days when I could lounge around in bed till noon with no one to nag me about it - days long gone when married to a morning person. (Should have run when I had a chance.) They brought chicken wings that would grow hair on a rock. The minute they lifted the lid on those suckers, it went right to my throat - like gargling on hot, vinegary razors. But damn were they good!

Catching Up, PART THREE


July 1st Update: Forgot to mention that we also celebrated Rob's 21st birthday - Lisa brought all kinds of Hostess cakes and stuck a candle in them. Kiddie crack - gotta love it!


He did.


Dude - happy birthday.