WOOOOOWHOOOOO!!

First ski of the season!! So the snow was heavy and wet, and not all that deep in a few places, i had FUN, and got the best workout i have gotten in a loooong time! The dogs are exhausted and very very happy. They loves them some snow. Henry thought the skis were pretty cool, and tried to pounce on them once or twice as i was zipping along on my freshly laid tracks. That ought to be interesting later in the season.

And by the way, how freakin pretty are my skis? I love them!! I have matching poles and boots, and they are just the prettiest little things you ever did see!

I MISSED my Husband on this inaugural ski.....he would love to be snow-shoeing right along with me...actually, he would probably be about 50 paces ahead of me, the man is a bit of an athlete.

Donkey

Here is a pic of "World's Most Pathetic Donkey-Dog"

Do NOT let this photo fool you. This is a dog who flips OUT in the snow. He loves loves loves it. I took this pic last night, just as the snow was starting.

yes, Henry REALLY has me wrapped around his paw-hoof. He is such a little manipulator.

Holy Crap....we got SNOW~!

Oh boy...now, i was ALL PREPARED to deal with snow AFTER Halloween, but hello, it is the 29th! It started snowing yesterday, and it snowed throughout the night...and we got this!

The houndies are pretty darn excited. I am actually going to strap on my new XC skis in a bit, and hit the fields! I am psyched....i will put the Vizslas in their Nana sweaters...see said pics of sweaters above in blog headline. My mom knit them those...and the Husband groans everytime i pull them out, but the houndies? The houndies bound through the house with GLEE!! They loves Nana's sweaters!!!

What i have been up to lately......

Well, Miss G asked me what i have been up to lately...and even though i have been blogging a lot lately, i have not really been saying what i have been doing. So....here is a pic (which i know is what she has been wanting to see FOREVER!!) of the Husbands Garter Stitch Aran Pullover. This is the front panel. Back panel looks the same, except has a few 'signatures' on it.

I should be starting on the 3-needle bind off today i hope, and then get to work on the sleeves. I am super excited to get this finished! My husband is so nice...he will wear it even if he hates it, or if it does not fit him. yup, he is a GEM!! The yarn i am using is Dale of Norway Freestyle. This is a washable wool, and feels so nice. I love working with it. There was another washable by Dale that was a little bit more industrial strength, but i did not like the feel of it. Husband would wear the itchy stuff, but why suffer? Oddly though, he thinks that the itchy stuff keeps you warmer...as in, the irritation actually heats you up. That is one way to look at it, i guess!

So, where does this lovely little sweater live while it is being worked on?

It lives here, in this adorable little project bag that Miss G sewed for me!! I think this was the first gift she ever gave me, and that was about 2 or 3 years ago? I love it!
It also contained a needle roll, but there is no room in it for the roll now! It is crammed full of yarny goodness, and pattern copies, my notions and what not.

Please excuse the interruption......

....these photos are strictly for the Husband:

Snow in the forecast...already!

Well, winter is REALLY on the way! We are under a winter storm watch here, as there is a Nor'easter bearing down on us. It looks like i will likely get only a dusting, but the areas east of me will possibly get over a foot! Ha, and the guy at Sears LAUGHED at me when i brought my snow tires in last week, and asked him to put them on my car!!
Henry is going to be SO thrilled when he sees the snow. He loves it, although last year he did get a little sick of it after a bit. He, along with Fred also loves to EAT GRASS. They are like a couple of little cows, and i think the lack of grass really bothers them.
Today i get to haul all the patio furniture into the barn. That ought to be fun. Not sure if i want to put the Adirondack chairs in the barn, or put them on the covered front porch? I think i will opt for the porch. At least when they are there, i still get to look at them all year!
All the geese have been flying south for the past few weeks. I have not seen the snow geese yet though, just the Canucks.

Wow, i watch too much TV

Ok...i was just reading "Watch with Kristin" on the E!online site, and did a fistpump in the air when i read that "The Real Housewives of the OC" will be coming back on Nov 25.
That is me...and this is my life. I firmly acknowledge that i am a tv addict, and i really watch some pretty stupid shows. Oh....which reminds me, i tivo'd The Girls Next Door last night, and i still need to go and watch it.....

New Sump Pump Coming....wooooowhooooo

Yep, that is the exciting news in my household today. I am having an automatic sump pump installed. This will enable me to live my life without having to go down into the cellar every couple of hours to turn on my sump pump. I can actually LEAVE my house for a WHOLE day while it is raining outside. Progress folks.

I still have not done the three needle bind-off on the sweater...i have been too exhausted to tackle it, and have had too much homework.

Oh...on a brainy note, i am getting a 4.0 right now in my current class. Wow. That is pretty amazing for me! I usually do really well on the discussions and class participation, but suffer on exams...but i got a 10/10 on my most recent essay. Wooowhooo.

Big Accomplishment

Last night i finished the front panel of The Husbands Garter-Stitch Aran Pullover. Woowhoo...only took about TWO years to get to this point. Now comes the tricky part, doing the bind-off. Looking in my Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitters Guide ( i lurve this thing), it looks a lot like kitchner stitch? I am a little freaked about this step, i have never done a three needle bind-off. Kitchner, yes...with a cable needle. If i go slow and methodical it turns out great. Anyways, reading the instructions though, i think it looks pretty easy. Famous last words? Sheisse, i hope not.
Oh, and last night i fixed a big error, and i am SO proud of myself. I had forgotten to cross the VERY last cable on the front panel. I almost said "meh", and left it, but then said to myself " i am a BETTER knitter than this...i can fix it!". So, i pulled out my handy dandy Knit Fix by Lisa Kartus (Thank you Yvonne....love that book!) and read up a little on the "Incorrectly crossed cables" section...took a deep breath, and off i went. Holy cow...it worked! It is not perfect, i think my ladder is off by one stitch, but it looks pretty good! This is a HUGE improvement on my previous attempt to fix the center diamond pattern. I flubbed up the unraveling, and ended up having to frog back about 20 rows. ugh.

Oh...and i have a bad doggy report. And NO..it is NOT Fred!! it is HENRY!! I know...shocking. Well, the other day i left Fred out of his crate while i ran to the neighbors house. Normally, Fred is crated when we are gone from the house, as he tends to suffer from separation anxiety a little, and he will terrorize Henry with his neurosis, and be COMPLETELY exhausted when we return home. If we crate him though, he rests comfortably, and we return home to a relaxed, calm (ish) dog. OK, so...i ran over to the neighbors house for a few minutes, and when i returned home, i noticed that the little piece of plastic tubing that holds up the canopy on the new burrow dog bed had been chewed, and a portion of the sleeve had been torn. I instantly figured it was Fred, and just sighed...what else can you do? No punishment if you don't catch them in the act. I was a little annoyed with Fred though.
Flash forward to yesterday, and we are all comfortably tucked into the living room for a night of TV (yes, we are party people), and i happen to look down at Henry, and see him nonchalantly chewing on the plastic tubing!! Just all casual, like a cow chewing her cud. I could not beleive it!! My PERECT prince!! I immmediately flashed back to his first year or so of life, where he chewed the HELL out of many many expensive things. My brand-new down jacket when we left him in a hotel room for a couple of hours while we had the NERVE to go out and ski the Matterhorn in Switzerland....several pairs of The Husbands pricey running shoes, which he CLIMBED A SHELF to get to, in another hotel room in Garmisch. A gorgeous pillow from my MIL that he casually chewed the tassels off of, as he gazed out the window. Yes, Henry is lucky he is STILL so dang cute.

Can you tell which dog is......

super well-behaved, and which one is not so much so?








Don't they accessorize so nicely with the gorgeous fall color? I think so, too.








Today the dogs and i played like REAL farmers. We loaded up into the Husbands big truck, i put on my mud boots, and we headed over to the local cattle farmers house for some bales of straw. There are some weak spots in the back of the house as far as the air-tight foundation goes, so i needed to put some straw up against it, now that winter is once again rearing it's head.

The dogs thought this was pretty damn cool! I am sure that they will eat the straw at some point. Doesn't Henry look like a little Donkey back there? He is SUCH a donkey...loves to mosey around the farm, just taking it all in.

There is one thing that stinks about being in the North Country, and that is NO decent Thai food. We have been to two restuarants, and they were horrid....so, i just make my own. So far i have Pad Thai and Tom Kha Gai down pat...and last night i added Green Chicken Curry to my repertoire. I am work on Red Curry...and hope to have it all down good so that the husband and i can feast when he is home on leave.

Another thing that stinks....the closest yarn shop is over 50 miles away. Can you even believe this? I cannot!! Today i really just had the urge to hang out in a yarn shop, sit, knit and chat a little....but the idea of driving 50 miles to do it pretty much killed that urge! So...i baled straw instead, drank a beer on the back porch in my adirondack chair, and chatted on the phone to the 'rents instead.

Dog Park Social Lepers

My friend and i started a new club at our local military post. It is a Dog Club, and we meet monthly at the dog park. Today was our first meeting.
I usually do not like to go to dog parks, and my excuse is that it is germy, and mean dogs could show up. The fact of the matter is though, my dogs are social retardos. I am just sitting here thinking about todays visit to the park, and shaking my head. I am the co-chair of this club, and i think i am about to become the first member to be kicked out of the club. Let's see, where do we begin.
First off, when one of our club members showed up at the gate, Fred rushed the fence and absolutely scared the sheisse out of her, and her two gorgeous, white German Shepherd Dogs. Then Fred decided that both dogs, the girl AND the boy, were unbelievably hot, and tried to hump both of them every chance he got. Then Henry raised his leg and peed on my friends Cairn Terrier. Now, that one really mortified me. Anyone who knows Fred completely expects ANY socially unacceptable behavior from him...but Henry? He is my sweet prince!!
My poor friend, her dog sleeps in her bed at night, and she just does not have time today to bathe her. Let's hope Henry was well hydrated.
ahahaha!

Bummer, Dude

Well, i am not the only one who is bummed about closing down the pool for the season.....

In other news....we have a giant dumpster in front of our house.......

This is to prep for the roofing material to be removed, which i REALLY hope starts soon!!

Yarny Yuminess

My good friend Gaylen sent me a treat in the mail the other day. She felt sorry for me, i was having a rough few weeks there, and she knows the way to make a knitter chill out!!

This yarn comes from Clementine's Dry Goods, and it is loverly. I used it today to help teach a new knitter how to knit! I started a little knitting club up here in my neck of the woods, and today was our first meeting.