today was a tuesday.

Last night after Dale and I did the dinner dance for longer than my meager patience could handle, we threw some fish sticks and curly fries in the oven and called it a meal. Yes, I've been out of elementary school for more than a decade and I ate fish sticks for dinner. Not even upscale, wild-caught fish sticks - nope, these are yellow-bag more-breading-than-fish. sticks. Craptastic. Sometimes, this is how I avoid going apeshit.

Afterward I needed to get out of my garbage mood and decided to make cookies. Obviously. I used the Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate mix [oh Costco, how I love thee!] and a quarter pound of Kerrygold butter. Y'know, on a whim; also because I have no restraint when I shop at Costco and no idea what do with a spare 3 pounds of Irish butter. But the cookies turned out delicious, and my furiousity died down enough that I was able to enjoy an evening of Masterchef with Dale.

And so now we're at today, which was alright, really. I was running late for work because I stopped to pick the lilies in the pic above from my garden, and I can think of worse reasons to be late. I was a little over-zealous in my picking and I yanked the bulb out of the ground; I then felt guilty to the plant so I dug around in my ginormous bag for a pocket knife, cut the flowers the right way, and tucked the bulb back into its bed. Today while I enjoyed these beauties on my desk, I was wishing good thoughts for my plant and its full recovery.

I also was congratulating myself on my forethought for bringing cookies to speed up a dragging afternoon. :)

weekend recap.

Clockwise from top left: pulled pork and roasted broccoli for dinner Saturday; a ghost pepper plant; mama duck leading her babies through our sub; hanging on the patio with Ally; breakfast of blueberries with sour cream and brown sugar; laying out on Sunday.

This weekend has been an exercise in the best kind of lazy self-care. Dale has been working over 60hr a week lately and he has been so beat. We really soaked up the opportunity to relax around the house and catch up on some sleep... my poor guy got in over 16 hours of sleep Friday night into Saturday. It was nice to see him snuggled up on the couch with the dogs, and I took the time to catch some sun and watch some movies on demand. :)

The coming week doesn't have much of anything exciting in store for us. We are in a tight spot budget-wise right now, so the plan is to keep it cheap with lots of dinners at home and maybe some trips to the state park after work. Hopefully the weather holds out!


Of course I have to wish my dad a happy fathers' day, even though odds are he we will never read this. I am so blessed to have the most incredible parents ever, and I am so thankful for my dad. He is one of the most awesome, unique people I know. My dad has taught me to treasure the little things, the every day things. He's introduced me to amazing music, cribbage, muscle cars, and flea markets. Even though I am almost 26 and have lived with Dale for over 3 years, my dad still changes my oil every 2500 miles, and writes my sticker for under because he knows I will procrastinate. I have gained so much from him, and I love when I can give back a little and teach him tricks on the computer. I love you so much, Dad.

dishrag bender

this Thanksgiving holiday has given me lots of time to work on dishcloths. i remember i how much i love them because they are simple, portable, and offer near-instant gratification even for a new, slow knitter like me.



these are the wheatfields and reverse miter dishcloths. [links are to ravelry project pages.] The patterns on both are super easy to memorize and cruise along once you get going. the reverse miter squares were knit on my ride home from dale's cottage after Thanksgiving; wheatfields i started after work on friday and finished saturday. one miter square will be kept here for personal use, and the others will probably be Christmas gifts for my mom.



and this, of course, is a famous ballband dishcloth; i call it fire and water, lol. this was a stash-buster - it used all of the black and the pink variegated, and most of the blue variegated. started at about 10pm last night and finished it up this morning. i think this one will go to my sister for her apartment.



one other exciting thing that happened over the holiday, but was not the holiday, was dale's birthday. he turned 30! it happened to fall on Thanksgiving this year, so his brother had the awesome idea of throwing him a surprise party the weekend before. dale was so surprised when we got home from dinner to a house full of his friends - he had no clue about our planning. we made 70 jello shots that were gone in less than an hour, and everyone had a great time - even little p, dale's nephew!



[and yes, his shirt says 'daddy's little wingman' ;]

we painted.

these are the befores and afters of my dining room. the new colors are called interlude [the light one] and french press [the dark brown]. i'm incredibly satisfied with how well it turned out. the boy is gone hunting and he has the dogs, so it was much easier for us to paint - although, it was still a fucking huge project.

this morning i woke up with a pounding headache - maybe from twisting at odd angles all weekend? maybe from fume inhalation? at any rate, i called in sick and vegged out on the couch all day, with my little roaring fire and down blanket. now i'm waiting for pizza to be delivered because i was too lazy to leave the house.

cookies!

i treated myself to some chocolate chip cookies from mcd's tonight. the guy got a big caramel frappe - yum! those are one of our favorites, and new to the mcdonald's in town. we were rewarding ourselves for raking and bagging the front yard in like 2 hours; let me tell you, that is truly an epic feat. we stopped at 9 bags, a half hour into dark. we probably could've even gotten one or two more, but we were tired, cranky, and ready to relax and eat dinner after work.

still, i was sweaty and needed to shower, so i ended up giving the puppy a shower with me. she was a dull, grimy shade of white from her weekend up north hunting, and had a small oak tree's worth of leaves in her pretty feathers. she is now clean and smelling yummy next to me, while i cuddle on the couch and enjoy my reward. it feels well deserved. :)

i would post a pic, but i didn't think about it in time, and just polished off the last one.

weekend.

it is beautiful out today, completely unlike the bleak, freezing weather we have had the whole past week. i have my windows open, and the smell of the fall breeze is amazing. dale is enjoying the warmth up north at his family's property - i stayed home and have been catching up on some much, much needed sleep. today i will watch football, knit, and eat the cookies i baked last night. :)

work.

i was inspired by wendy's post about her desk. i mean, for some reason, i like to be nosy and see how other people function. that's neat, right - like a museum exhibit or something. and anyway, *i* spend alot of time at work. more time than at home, probably, so it's pretty important that my little box is cozy. wanna check it out?



this is a poorly-stitched panorama of my cubicle. in it, you can find things like a little etch-a-sketch; twilight branded band-aids; my jungle of animals, including lion, monkey, & hippo; ipod touch with bose earbuds [crucial!]; a fairy wand; vampire bust; and my 'what up dog' greeting card.

just out of sight is the 'insane asylum' sign hanging on my overhead bin.