Knitting and/or Diving

Gee, there hasn't really been much content about either of these subjects on the blog lately.  In fact, it seems like several of my posts have been about why there haven't been many posts on here lately!  Well, I never said I was good at focusing...

So, knitting, I actually have been doing a little bit of that lately.  For some reason, during the summer, I tend to take a knitting hiatus, of sorts.  Not sure why, but it happens every year.  Then, sometime around my birthday usually, I pick it up again.  Maybe it's the change of season to cooler temperatures, but I get absolutely nothing accomplished knitting-wise in the summer. 

Like I said though, I've actually been working on a project; the Cinnamon Grace shawl by Katie Harris.  I'd link to my Ravelry project page, but there aren't any pictures there anyway, so you're not missing anything!  I did (finally!) finish my 1st Lace Shawl (Dane Shawl by Jane Tanner), but still haven't blocked it, so, no pictures there either, sorry about that...

And, as for diving, we've been doing a little bit.  My first student just received her PADI Open Water Certification card in the mail today!  She said she was so proud, she took it to work with her to show it off!  I am very proud of her as well.  It was a tough first couple of dives, but I knew she could do it! 

First, she had some difficulties with equalizing her ears in the pool.  Then, in the open water dives, she was nervous, had troubles equalizing again, kept getting frustrated and we ended up having to call the dive.  The second time out didn't go so well either, she didn't have any problems equalizing, but was extremely stressed about the mask clears.  Admittedly, the mask skills are the most mentally stressful for most people, but she was really having problems, and panicking.  I was really concerned that she wasn't going to get calmed down enough to do the mask skills, and if she couldn't, I couldn't certify her.  Finally, she worked it out in her head, calmed herself down, and nailed the first partial clear in shallow water.  Then a full mask clear.  Then the mask removal.  Then she did another full mask clear.  She had it!  We moved to the deeper platform at 20 feet, she did all of her mask skills flawlessly, and it was smooth sailing from then on!   She's a tough cookie, and stubborn too, she was going to get it!
On a related note, we leave for Honduras in a week and two days.  Not that I'm counting or anything...  Have a great Friday!

Doing, Knitting, Sewing, Winning

Well, I'm still working on my 30 Before 30 List.  I'm going to add it as a page in the sidebar by my bucket list (there on the left) when I get it done.  But here's what I have so far:

1. Get my Mandarin fish tattoo
2. Sew myself a wearable skirt
3. Sell at least 1 of my photographs
4. Paint again (canvas, not walls)
5. Embroider a pillowcase
6. Preserve vegetables that I’ve grown in my garden
7. Go to a stitch and bitch or knitting group
8. Volunteer
9. Run a 5K
10. Read at least 5 books on my bookshelves (preferably that I haven’t read before)
11. Invest some money for retirement (auto 401K with work does not count)
12. Yarn Diet-Knit down my stash
13. Bake and frost a layer cake from scratch
14. Sell or give away 50 things that I currently own
15. Paint the hutch in the dining room

So, I'm halfway there!  Any suggestions?  Unfortunately, they can't be travel related, cause I only have 6 months, and we're planning a trip abroad for my birthday, so we won't have the time or money to go anywhere before then!

I also owe the blog my pics and process for that bag I made for my friend Dani's birthday so, here goes:

I used the one hour bag tutorial from RicRac as a jump off point.
I only changed a couple of things.  I didn't use anything for a closure, because I didn't have any snaps or ribbon.  I also sewed the strap on when I sewed the lining and the outer bag fabric together.  And that's it!  It took me longer than an hour, probably closer to 3, but, I'm still slow at cutting and sewing, and I'm really happy with how it turned out!  And so was Dani!  And that's all that matters.

I cast on a new sock project the other night.  Per my list above, I am on a yarn diet!  I need to knit down my stash, and I have accumulated a TON of sock yarn and cotton yarn for washcloths.  So, for the next six months, I need to concentrate on getting that knitted up.  Then, for my birthday, I can buy myself some Malabrigo!  Have I mentioned lately how much I love Malabrigo?  Cause I do, a lot!  Come to think about it, that's what I bought myself for my birthday last year! Oh well, it's totally worth it!

Oh yeah, I won a free yard of fabric from Sew Mama Sew's Free Fabric Friday!  I'm so excited!  I never win anything!  I've got to hurry up and pick something out, but it's so hard, there are so many cute fabrics on the site!

Project Updates

Well, about that Ravelympics sweater, unfortunately, I didn't get it done on time.  This is where I got to by 11:30 EST last Sunday night:

Close, but even if I would have kept at it till 3am (12 midnight PST, the closing time for the Ravelympics), I wouldn't have finished, so I figured since I had to work in the morning, I might as well call it a night at a decent hour.  So, I knitted away Monday evening, and finished it (ends sewn in too) on Tuesday the 2nd.  So, I was 2 days late to the finish line.  I was fairly disappointed Sunday evening, but I'm just thrilled to have it done!  Here it is:

Still need to wash and block, but I finished a sweater in 2 and half weeks!  Not too shabby of an accomplishment I say!

Next up, some patchwork pillow cases for the sofa.  I've really just started on these.  I've worked out the design and the pieces, but have only just begun to cut the pieces.  Once I get everything cut out, the sewing won't be bad.

Look at the fun fabric I bought last night!  It's all washed and pressed here:

I do have specific projects in mind for all of them.  The 2 blue and brown fabrics are for the purse I'm making for my friend Dani's 30th birthday tomorrow.  I've got the pieces cut out, and have started to sew, so, I won't have any problems finishing it by tomorrow.

The plain orange will go with the orange, brown and green fabric for cloth napkins.  And the fun floral striped pattern will be a skirt from Sew What! Skirts.  It will be my first project from the book, and I'm looking forward to it!  Seems like a great book, good diagrams and clear instructions, so we'll see how it goes!

Hmm, anything else?  Well, I don't think this post would be complete without a dog picture, so, here's Izzie, being a mountain goat:

She's often either on the back of the couch or on the arm, which is where she is as I type this.  She's a nut!  Anyway, have a great weekend!

Random Wed...er, Thursday?

So I'm a little late on the Random Wednesday posting, the label still applies!

• Still plugging away at the Ravelympics project. I do have one sleeve done, one to go, plus the yoke... I'm hurrying, I know! I've only got 4 days left! And yes, I take full responsibility for the 4 days that I didn't work on it due to, um, not having the 10.5 DPN's. Whoops... 

• I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I'm a total American Idol junkie. I've watched it since the first season, and am still addicted. I made sure that our DVR stayed plugged in when we left the country, just in case they didn't air it in Indonesia. Surprisingly, they did! Anyway, after the preliminaries, I was pretty excited about a few of the contestants, but after the last 2 nights, man, almost all of them were terrible! I kept saying to Jeff, I think they gave both groups the off-key microphones, cause nobody could hit the right notes. It was BAD! 

Dogs on Thursday:

This is Murphy and Izzie, my MIL's 6 month old Labradoodle.  She's adorable, but rotten as can be! We think she's Dexter reincarnated.  She's so smart, but so darn stubborn, just like he was!  She's coming to stay with us Friday night through the following weekend as Jeff's mom and step-dad are going to Puerto Rico.  So, we'll be trying to keep her from eating the house for a week.  Man, I'm not ready for another puppy, I feel like we just got Murphy out of that stage!

• Oh, another dog related thing.  Please go vote for Murphy in the Humane Society Spay Day 2010 Online Photo Contest.  It raises money for a local Dublin, Ohio non-profit, Rascal Charities, for reduced cost spaying and neutering.  Spaying and neutering is one of the most impactful steps in reducing the number of homeless pets in shelters.  An estimated 10 million homeless animals are euthanized each year in the U.S.  I'll get off my soapbox now, but animal welfare is an issue that is important to me, so I want to promote it a little.  I've also added a button on the side linking to the Animal Rescue Site.  Just clicking a button helps provide food and services to rescued animals.  There are also links to gifts and other sites assisting homeless animals.  You can click every day, so click away!

• I think that's all!  Happy Thursday!

When did this turn into a cooking blog?

So, I am still on my cooking and baking jag, and I don't think my husband has any complaints!  The other night I made this awesome black beans and rice recipe that I hadn't made in forever and it was so good (recipe below).  I could literally enjoy eating it for days on end, but it only lasted for lunch the next day!  Weird how that happens sometimes, huh?  I've made Smitten Kitchen's Blondies twice, with walnuts and chocolate chips, and my husband has requested those again.  I made these Banana Walnut Chocolate Chunk cookies to rave reviews, mostly mine, since anything with bananas in them, wins.  And tonight I made Smitten Kitchen's snickerdoodles, wow, are they amazing!  They'd better be though with 2 sticks of butter!  They're so good that I told Jeff that he was lucky I liked him, cause I might eat them for every meal otherwise.  Yes, they are that good.

Black Beans and Rice (originally from a veggie cookbook from my MIL)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 med onion, finely chopped
1 med carrot, finely chopped
1 med celery stalk, finally chopped
4 med or 2 lg garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp minced fresh oregano leaves or 1 tsp dry oregano
Tabasco sauce to taste (start with a few shakes to 1 tsp)
2 cups/1 can vegetable broth
2 15 oz cans or 1 cup dried (soaked and cooked) black beans
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 chipotle pepper, plus 1 tbsp adobo sauce from can
1 bay leaf
salt to taste
cooked white rice

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add carrot, onion and celery (I also added a finely diced serrano pepper, you could use any kind of hot pepper), and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, about 8-10 minutes. Add garlic, oregano and Tabasco sauce, cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the broth, beans, tomatoes, chipotle pepper and sauce, bay leaf and salt to taste, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened but still brothy, about 15 min. Remove and discard the bay leaf and chipotle pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve over hot rice or refrigerate in airtight container for several days.

 Oh, and in case you're wondering about my Ravelympics project, I discovered that I do not have size 10.5 DPNs and thus have not been able to start the sleeves.  So, tomorrow, I am headed to my MIL's house to borrow her set.  I haven't worked on it since... Thursday I think, so I've got some catching up to do.

Stuff Going On:

I really don't have any good reason for not blogging lately, I just haven't!  I have been working on the appearance of my blog, you may notice the header change and a slight color change.  Also made it 3 columns instead of the default 2.  I struggled with that last night, I just don't know enough about HTML yet!  I'm starting to understand reading it, but just can't write it, just like Spanish!  Anyway, as the title says, I have stuff going on...

Ravelympics:  Made some progress in my Duchess Raglan Sweater, bound off stitches last night and will start the sleeves tonight.  I might just finish this thing!  Hmmm, probably shouldn't say that, now I've jinxed it!

Diving: Jeff and I went ice diving this past Saturday at Whitestar Quarry.  Had a lot of fun, saw friends and fellow divers that I hadn't seen in a while, but got super cold!  I know, shocking, on an ice dive, but last year I didn't get nearly as cold.  I made a rookie cold water diver mistake, letting myself get cold before I get in the water.  I learned that you should have all of your exposure gear on before putting on your fins and maybe wear one layer less on my feet, I think they got constricted and that's why they got so cold.  I have a big issue with asking for help, in all aspects, but in diving, especially being a woman and an instructor.  I feel like I have to be completely self sufficient and be able to do everything myself.  I hate asking for anyone to help me get gear on or hand me something if I drop it.  I feel so helpless when people have to help me do something I feel like I should be able to do myself.  I need to realize that ice diving is different, it's a lot harder to do anything.  You've got more weight on, full exposure gear, meaning less flexibility, usually an additional tank slung, throwing off your buoyancy.  Plus, you've got a rope around you, it's below freezing outside and you're trying to do everything with lobster claw gloves on.  Yeah, it's not terribly easy, and I still feel incompetent if I can't do it all myself.  Oh well, guess it's something I need to work on.  Anyway, it was a great time and here are a couple of pictures from the day, think warm thoughts when you're looking at them!

An Actual Knitting Update and the Calm Before the Storm

Let's have some knitting content shall we? I've finally got some pictures of the Dane Shawl that I've been working on. It's a gray color that is rather difficult to get a good photograph, but I've been practicing:

I've also decided to participate in the Ravelympics this time around. I've joined Team Twilight
on Ravelry and my event is Sweaterboard Cross. I will be doing the Duchess Raglan Sweater.

Here's the link to my Rav project page. I bought the yarn today, just basic Lamb's Pride Bulky in Brown Heather. It should be a lovely everyday sweater, and I've only ever finished 1 adult sweater, so that is my challenge! I'm nervous, but excited!

And the calm before the storm. We currently have about 10 inches of snow on the ground, with another storm coming in tomorrow. They are calling for up to another 6-8 inches! That will be a lot of snow! It is beautiful though, and Murphy is LOVING it!

Happy New Year!

Again, I apologize for the snarky last post, I just tend to have a low tolerance for common sense deficiencies. It's one of my biggest pet peeves, that and bad driving. The parking situation combined both! LOL! Anyway, I didn't want that to be my last post for 2009. So, Happy New Year to you and yours. I hope 2010 brings you good health and happiness. What am I doing for New Year's Eve you ask? Well, I'm finishing 2009 watching "How Do They Do It?" on the Science Channel with my husband, dog, knitting, and Dos Equis. I know party animals!

(BTW, I'm wearing my fabulous purple Malabrigo Clapotis and working on a knitted cover for my Kindle)(I'm making up the Kindle cover pattern as I go, I'll post it when I'm done)(So there, knitting content! LOL)

Christmas and Other Happenings

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and spent it with people you love! I had a great Christmas and it was only mildly stressful! We got all the wrapping done on the 23rd. Except for pair #2 of the French Press Slippers (more on that in a minute). We celebrated with Jeff's mom and stepdad and his brother's family on Christmas Eve, had lunch and watched Up with the nieces. What a cute movie! Sadder and more serious than I expected, but I loved Doug the dog! I worked on the slippers during the movie and when I got home that evening and stayed up to sew them up. I popped them in the washer Christmas morning, and gifted them to my grandma later that day! Of course, they were still a little damp, but she loved them anyway. And no, I didn't get any pictures of them, cause I'm awesome... lol! Christmas Day was the busy one, we were out at my parents' by 10 for presents and Christmas lunch. Then to Jeff's dad and stepmom's by 1:15. Then on to my Grandma Norma's by 3:45 and on to my Grandma Patty's by 5. Finally got home about 8:30. Exhausting would be a good description of that day, but it is always fun, if a little crazy.
Also, Santa was pretty darn good to us this year. I got this strobe for my SeaLife DC800 for our trip, a Kindle, an electric kettle, and a MacBook(!!!). Totally shocked about the Macbook, Jeff had asked his mom for a laptop for Christmas, so we could keep in touch with everyone while we're gone. BTW, is Skype not the coolest thing ever!? Anyway, we were expecting like a $300 inexpensive laptop, that didn't do much of anything except get on WiFi, and she gets us a MacBook!! Don't get me wrong, that's what we would have eventually got ourselves, but we did NOT expect her to get us one. She did say that this was the last present we would be getting for birthdays, holidays and such for the next couple of years! LOL!
Unfortunately, Santa also brought me a cold, blah. But, I'll take it cause everyone was so generous to us with their gift giving this year, it seems only right I've got to take a little bit of bad with a LOT of good!
Other things going on:

• I have my first Scuba student! My best friend Dani, is well on her way to being a certified Open Water Diver. We got all of her pool skills done this week and she is studying the book. She'll take the test next time she's in town, and we'll do her open water dives when it gets warmer this summer. It was really a lot of fun, and I'm glad my first student was my best friend. Took a lot of the anxiety out of it!!
• We leave for Indonesia in 2 weeks! So the packing and stressing has begun for that. I'm just now starting to feel a little nervous for the trip, it's a LOOONNGG way away! But so excited, I can't believe we're getting to go to the other side of the world a second time! Sorry for all of the exclamation points, but I am crazy excited!

Think that's all for now

Look, This Post Has Pictures!

So, I haven't been knitting, at all. Or working out. Or eating right. Or diving. Sooo, there hasn't been much to blog about lately. I've been procrastinating on well, pretty much everything. Yeah, guess what I've been doing instead of knitting? Reading the freaking Twilight saga books! I just finished Eclipse last night and got 75 pages into Breaking Dawn today at lunch. Since I don't have to work tomorrow, I'll probably get it done this weekend. Oh well, as soon as I'm done reading I'll be able to actually get some Christmas stuff done! Although, we did get our tree and Christmas decorations up last Friday, that was fun. No good pictures unfortunately. I think I ended up deleting all of them because they were BAAAADD. I've been playing around with my Sealife camera's settings and it's just frustrating the snot out of me. The manual is not great for telling you how to change the settings. There are tons of options, and I've figured out how to take pretty decent pics underwater, but above water, I'm struggling with it. I just have to get more practice with it. We also have the Canon Rebel that I need to work with too, it has a lot more manual settings on it that I've got to play with and learn more about. But the auto settings take fantastic pictures as it is, so I haven't had to learn!

I finished my Bella's Mittens for my friend J. And I actually got a couple pictures before I gifted them! Sorry for the crappiness:

I used good old Lion Brand Wool Ease so they're washable for her. And I learned how to do Magic Loop, which I really enjoyed actually. I'll probably start adapting other DPN patterns to this. It was so much easier to keep everything together on one long needle instead of 3 or 4 short DPN's.

Also on the knitting front, I need to finish my French Press Slippers (aka the Cutest Slippers EVAR!) for my mom, just need to sew on the tabs and buttons, and make a pair for my grandma as well. I was going to make a pair for my mother-in-law, but seeing as she sent me a link to the pattern yesterday, exclaiming how cute they were, I'm going to guess that she's probably going to make them herself. So now I have to figure out what else she's getting for Christmas. Darn Yarn Harlot for promoting that pattern before Christmas! J/K! I probably should have seen that coming though, with how freaking cute they are and super easy and fast too!

And just for fun, a couple of pictures I've recently uploaded, all three of these were taken this past spring on my grandparents' property:

This is me! I just like this picture for the colors and my expression. One of the few pictures of myself that I like. I think I'm terribly un-photogenic.

This is Jeff, he and my dad and brother were out shooting clay pigeons and I like the composition of this shot.

I just really like the texture of this one. The creek was really high and moving, but crystal clear.

So, I guess that's all for today. Have a good weekend!

Twilight-Mania!!! Oh, and Other Stuff Too

Okay, so I resisted the cult for all this time, but I've officially been sucked in. Ha, that pun was completely unintentional, but I'm keeping it! My friend J has been harassing me to read the books for months and months, and I just kept saying, "No, I don't get this whole Twilight thing." And she would say, "Just read them and you'll get it!" So the trailer for "New Moon" starts in heavy rotation and my interest gets piqued. So I borrow the first 2 books. I fly through the first one in 3 days. Put off the second one until I know that I have time to finish it in a couple days, start in on Thursday night, finish it Sunday morning. Monday, I went over to her apartment to get the other 2 books and the Twilight movie. Watched it last night. Reluctantly, I have to admit, okay, I get it. Damnit. I get it. Man, I hate it when she's right.
Oh, and we're going to go see "New Moon" on Saturday-yay!

Now back to the regularly scheduled blog post, sorry for the silly Twilight interruption. :-)
Well, I'm still knitting Christmas gifts, and someday, I might actually take pictures! It's just hard when you've worked all day, it's dark when you get home, then you have to think about dinner and laundry and cleaning. By the time I'm done, it's usually 6:30-7 and I just want to plop down in the recliner, knit or read and talk to my husband. Then there's always stuff going on on the weekends. I'll get around to it one of these days. Probably.

Oh! I wanted to mention that we got our ipods fixed! This is a big deal because a.)we love our ipods and b.)one has been broken for over a year, and the other one for about 6 months. We are super excited to get them back in working order. I found a site online: Repair Guys that you can send them your ipod for a free diagnostic (you just pay the shipping to them), they tell you what's wrong with it and how much it will cost to fix it. If you agree to the repair, they fix it, send you a PayPal invoice, and send it back to you. It was so easy! It cost like 7 bucks to ship (that was with $200 insurance), and $140 for a new LCD screen, hard drive and battery for one and a battery for the other. And they did all of the labor, and shipped it back. I sent them out and got them back in less than 2 weeks! So I HIGHLY recommend their services if you need an ipod fixed. K, that's my consumer report for the week!

I Need Finishitis

So, I'm a good starter of projects, but not such a great finisher. This goes for almost everything, not just knitting. I don't know why I'm so bad at it. I've got dozens of craft projects that I have various bits done, but they just languish for extended periods of time, sometimes they never get done. I've been a terrible procrastinator, pretty much my entire life, and I've always gotten myself in trouble because of it. I've just never gotten any better. I just don't have a whole lot of motivation or drive, even if it is something I love. It's always both surprising and rewarding for me when I actually do finish something, like my scuba instructor certification. I just hope I follow through on teaching, I spent a lot of money on it!! I mean, that's of course not my only motivation, I have such a strong passion for diving, there's almost nothing else in the world that I love more than diving. And I know that I will be a good instructor because of that. It's just follow through that I seem to lack. I always have ideas, but rarely do I do anything with them, or I don't finish what I start. Somehow, I did manage to finish college, with a degree in fine art, but I don't use my degree. I mean, knitting counts towards using my artistic abilities, but, I don't paint, or draw anymore, and I get to museums and galleries increasingly rarely. It makes me sad sometimes. Before diving, art was my main passion. I still love it, but I've fallen into complacency and I'm inherently lazy, and lack in my follow through. I've got a good paying job, and my company provides good health insurance for both my husband and I, so, in this economic environment, it's hard to give that up. Especially since Jeff is self-employed and insurance is either impossible to get or prohibitively expensive. Hmm, such is life.
Anyway, sorry for such a morose entry. It started out teasingly that I have a ton of knitting WIPs, and went to a psychoanalysis on myself. Eh, it happens.

Let's try this again...

So, I've been completely absent from blogging for quite a while, I've written dozens of posts in my head over the past several months, just never actually got online and posted. I'd like to try to post at least a couple times a week, and with at least some relevant content, either working out, knitting/crafting, dogs or diving must be discussed in each post. We'll have to see if I can do it! So, let's play catch up:

• Working out: I was running, and was building my strength and endurance. I was running 3-4 times a week for about 4 weeks, then I tore my quad. Couldn't run for 2 weeks, so I got lazy, and hadn't worked out until last night. Had a little bit of a headache, and it was raining, so I did one of the more strenuous yoga workouts, and I can definitely feel it in my muscles today, so that's a good thing! Plan to either run or do the Jillian Michaels DVD tonight depending on the weather.


• Knitting/crafting: We're now into the Christmas crafting season, so I have a butt-load of projects all going on at once, but no pics! I'm working on mittens for a friend, 3 (or more) pairs of felted slippers for family. Not to mention the couple of things that are languishing on the needles for myself. On the positive side, I've finished several projects; 2 Clapotis', one for me and one for my mother-in-law, my Monkey socks, well, I think that's it... Also on the crafting front, I want to make homemade scented bath salts for family and maybe sew a couple of bags too. We'll see how well I do! (FYI, all the knitted project info is on my Ravelry project page )


• Dogs: Well, we're now a one dog household. We said goodbye to the old man Dexter on October 30th, 2009. His quality of life was steadily declining, he was really starting to struggle to catch his breath, and we made the decision that it was time. We will always miss him, and it is certainly quieter around the house without him. Murphy has done well adapting, she's more spoiled than ever (thanks to the husband!) and we can now get a puppy fix at Jeff's mom and stepdad's house. They got a 13 week old chocolate labradoodle about 3 weeks ago, and she is super cute! She loves Murphy so much, but Murphy is not so sure about this crazy little thing that keeps stealing her toys! It's pretty funny to watch, especially since it wasn't so long ago that Murphy was that crazy little toy-stealer!


• And Diving!: I am officially a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor!! I took my Instructor Development Course in August and September, and passed my Instructor Exam October 18th. It was stressful, but an awesome accomplishment and I am just thrilled! Of course, there's not much teaching to be done in the winter, but I have several people lined up for spring when the water starts warming up, so I'm very excited! Also, we have booked a big trip coming up soon in January. We're going to Indonesia to dive! I'm pretty excited about that too if you can't tell!! We leave January 10, will be spending a day and a half in Singapore on the way there, and then onto Manado, North Sulawesi for 7 days of diving around Bunaken island. Then we head to the East side of the island to dive Lembeh Strait for 5 more days! It should be absolutely amazing! We'll be gone 17 days, which is crazy, but we are so excited! We are waist deep in the preparations, everything is booked but there's just so much to plan for. We went to the Travel Medicine Clinic at OSU to get vaccinations and prescriptions and info for going to the other side of the world, so we're getting there, but there's still so much to buy and pack.

Well that's a good catch up, be back soon!

UFO Sightings and Updates

So, update on my grandpa, he's been released from the hospital and is now temporarily (hopefully!) in a nursing home much closer to home. He still needs to gain quite a bit of strength back. At least enough that he can get in and out of a wheelchair without assistance. They believe that the weakness was caused by a combination of his cholesterol medication (simvastatin) and his dialysis. He's been taken off of the statin and will be doing physical therapy to get his strength back, but the doctors are optimistic that he'll be able to go home within the next month or so, all depending on how hard he works. So, good news for the most part. My aunt and uncle brought my grandparents' Chesapeake Bay retriever Emma to see him, I think he was missing her more than anything else while he was in the hospital!

As for working out, I haven't run in about a week and a half=bad, but I did swim last Wednesday and plan to go again tomorrow evening=good! Diet is bad. I have zero willpower to eat right. I do good for breakfast, but lunch and dinner just fly out the window! Oh well...

So, UFO Sightings:

February Lady Sweater:

I'm getting there, slowly but surely. So much for having it done in February! Hopefully I can get it done in April!

Mossy Firestarters:

Had a heck of a time with the chart, still not sure if I'm doing it right, I guess we'll see!

The others... I don't want to talk about... :-) (that means no progress!)

Supposed to maybe go diving this Saturday, all depends on whether Jeff gets all of his tech gear together. His new Apeks regs came in today and he's got his wing and harness. He's still waiting on the metal fabricator in town to finish his backplates. So, we'll see! Hopefully, cause we're probably going to either Whitestar or Gilboa, both great places to dive here in Ohio!

Slacking Blogger

So, I haven't been blogging much, but stuff has been going on. I haven't been working out much, but I did run last night! I ran outside too! It was such a pretty day. I started the Couch to 5K program and need to learn to run outside. I haven't been swimming but once, because I got a tattoo and couldn't submerge it in water for awhile. More on that later...

I've been working on some knitting, but no sewing. I've started the 2nd Jaywalker sock, and am about 2 inches in. It's my travelling sock. The one I throw in my purse to take with me, so those ones usually take a while to get done. I'm going to cast on tonight for Firestarter socks with my Andey's Original sock yarn in the Mossy Brook colorway! It is so pretty and soft! I'm excited! My February Lady Sweater is coming along, I'm about 6 inches into the lace pattern, it's going sooo much faster since I separated the sleeves! And the lace pattern is super easy! Let's see... Foliage is still hibernating because it hates me. The same with River. And I think that's all that on the needles right now.

On the diving front, Jeff and I are going tomorrow with our friend/instructor Jason to Lakeview quarry in Lancaster. We've been there twice before and conditions are going to be a crapshoot. The first time we went, it was great, 20 foot vis. The last time was awful, 15 feet till you got to about 20 feet deep, then when you went through the thermocline, the lights went out. You couldn't see your hand if you stretched it out in front of you. So, we'll see. I'm excited to get in the water again though! If conditions are decent, I'll hopefully have some pictures! I'll post some pics and talk about our ice diving certification soon too! Oh! And Scubafest is this weekend here in Columbus! I'm excited to see a bunch of people we met last month up at Whitestar Quarry for the ice dive. We're taking our neighbors, who are not certified yet (but soon!) and getting them in the pool for a Discover Scuba class. It should be a really good time!

I think that's a start for catching up... I'll do better at blogging, I promise!

And just for fun, here's a pic of Murphy curled up on the couch:

About me, the extended version

So, I've decided to join the world of blogging. I don't know that I really have all that much interesting to say, but right now I'm trying to keep myself motivated to get in shape. I hope that keeping track of what I'm doing, (or not doing) will help keep me in line! Also, I'll have miscellaneous knitting, diving, and dog pics.
Anywho, so, about me. My name is Heather, I've been married to my pretty super husband Jeff since October 2004. We have 2 dogs, Dexter, a 14 year old golden retriever/yellow lab mix and Murphy, a 3 and a half year old crazy chocolate lab. Obviously, I love to knit and scuba dive. I don't have nearly enough time for either of them since I work full time for a large corporation. As for the knitting, here's my Ravelry page to see what I'm working on. And as for the diving, I'm pretty much obsessed. I've completed my advanced and rescue diver certifications, and I'm about halfway through my PADI Divemaster. I hope to have my Instructor cert by the end of this summer. In June, I will have only been certified as an Open Water Diver for 2 years. Oh, and we love to travel, but don't have the time or money to do it as often as we would like. More about that in later posts.
I suppose that's a good start for the first post. Talk to you soon!