A Penguin in Central Park...

I have been knitting my little fingers to the bone lately. I have the whole front and back of my Central Park Hoodie blocking on my bed as we speak. Which reminds me, I fucking hate to block. The whole process takes way to long and the only place I have to do it in my tiny apartment is on the bed, which makes afternoon naps (or an afternoon delight, if J were actually home) out of the question. Anyway, I got the whole body blocked so that when I get the sleeves done I can immediately start on the hood and get this bad boy sewed up by monday. That is my goal anyway, lets see if it happens. As it stands now, I am about half way through the first sleeve and I am beginning to wonder how it would look as a vest instead of a sweater. Of course we may have a larger problem. When I got the sweater all blocked out it looked HUGE! I suppose I will never know until I get it on, but as it stands it may fit J better than me. I made the 52" version, because I have huge knockers, but I probably should have jumped down a size or two. of course, it's not like I swatched or anything. There is a little pattern snafu on the front right panel, and I accidentally added 3" to the length (Because I REFUSE to frog it). Oh well, now we just play the waiting game.

I also made another Pasha, since I can't get over that pattern. I ended up giving one to Harley, and my sister says she is still carrying it around all over the place. I felted this one, which would have turned

out great, except I seamed her all together and stuffed her before I felted, since I wanted the seams to blend in. Well, when I pulled her out of the wash, she had gotten really fat, like Cupcake Royal had relocated to my dryer. So in a nutshell, her white belly is not near as felted as her black and yellow parts. Also, one of her wings sticks out, straight from her side. J thinks it's funny, so I haven't really worried about it all that much. 

In other news, I went to a new knitting group last night in Renton. I joined the Ravelry group like a month ago, and for various reasons had yet to make it to a got together. Honestly, i was also a little afraid that they would all turn out to be fire breathing or something. I actually had to give myself a pep-talk before going in. I mean really, I have moved to Eastern Europe alone, I could certainly go an sit with some people in a Starbucks. Well regardless, they turned out to be really nice, and didn't look at me like a was a freak, encroaching on their happy established little group. J thinks going knitting will be good for me, that only working and sitting at home is making me a little batty. Maybe he is right. But I had stuff to do this week, like officially change my name to J's last name. I even found the elusive Social Security office in Bellevue. 

Happy Birthday To Me...

So today, I turn 28. I have had a hard time with turning 28, mainly because it seems so freakin' close to 30, and 30 still seems old to me. In addition to turning 28, I also had to trot down to the DMV today to get a new driver's license. Which means I had to bid farewell to my lovely Alaska driver's license (that allowed me to get tax exempt on every thing but food and gas) for a boring old Washington State one. It took me about 2 hours to get in and out of the DMV, mainly because this was apparently the only day of the week when new drivers can take their driving tests. I kind of thought it was funny, how nervous they all were. 

One little asian girl sitting next to me kept asking me what the test is like, and I had to explain that not only did I take my driving test 12 years ago, but I also took it in a different state, so I could really be of no help to her. (insert picture of Weasely, because he is absolutely the cutest thing ever when he sleeps like this.)

But having to get a new license also left me without a lazy excuse for not changing my last name to J's. It only took me 11 months to get around to it. For the longest time he said that he didn't care what my last name was, but when I told him about needing to get my license renewed he said "Oh, now you can change your name!" Apparently it was more important to him than he had let on. 

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In other news, I am working away on my Central Park Hoodie. I have the back and the front, left done. No pictures yet, because I am lazy, but to tide you over, here is a picture of Teply and her amazing tongue instead. 

This picture was actually taken by J after he had an entire day off work and by himself at home. When I came home from work there was an entire sink full of dishes, a hamper full of laundry and 156 pictures of the dog and cat on the camera. 

If I didn't love him so much I may have had to be angry, but I forgave after he cooked me dinner. Which consisted of a single pork chop. I honestly wonder how he survived as a single man? 

I started a group...

So, today I started a Ravelry group. Since there seems to be a group for everything, I thought I would try and find one for people who love their mutts. I mean, have you seen the pictures of my precious? I have a major thing for my dog, because she is a super hero. But low and behold, there are not Ravelry groups for mutts, which I find surprising, since people tent to start groups for anything. I even found one today for people who like the movie Labyrinth, so I figured if there were groups out there that can find 83 members who worship David Bowie in a mullet wig and tights, then there must be some out there that love their ugly (or uniquely beautiful) mixed breed dogs. I called my group Mutt Puppy. I mainly picked this name because I couldn't think of anything else at the time. But whatever, I guess I could have called it "The Teply the Wonder Dog Group" but I am sure most people won't get it. 

The Joke May Be on Them...

This morning, I stumbled out the door, tea and toast in hand to go to work, only to be greeted by this: 

Needless to say I

 was perturbed, but that honestly lasted only a little while. I mean, I have good insurance that will cover the costs, but the really frustrating 

part is that they broke my window and only stole my GPS system. After my initial frustration subsided, I began to find the entire situation relatively amusing. To illustrate, I will go through a list of all the great stuff that was in my car just asking to be stolen:

 - 1 Gallon of Grey Goose Vodka

 - over $500 in camping gear

 - Several bottles of prescription drugs (Ok, so they were asthma pills, but still, criminals don't have time to read labels in the dark)

 - Several ounces of herbal, recreational material (if you get my drift)

 - 2 iPods

 - An XM satellite radio and an iTrip

Obviously it was a smash and grab job, but still, a lot of this stuff was pretty obvious. Of course, the last laugh may be on the way-word thieves, since J broke the GPS by "accidentally" dropping it in a river while camping last weekend. Obviously alcohol was being consumed at the time. 

Oh Inga...

Oh Inga, the saga you have now gone through. I actually finished my inga hat a few weeks ago. I love the pattern, and even thought I kept reading on Ravelry about how it was too big and how you should shave a few rows off the bottom, I kept right on knitting. 

As you can see, it is rather large, so I decided to take matters into my 

own hands. 

I took Inga and shoved her in the dryer on Low. I checked on her every 10 minutes to see how she was progressing. And by a miracle of the Gods, it came out to be a normal size. Ok, I say normal size as a loose term. She is a little tight now, not so tight that you can't get it on, but tight enough that t

he hat keeps riding up when you have it on. Therefore Inga

 may be destined for the Gift Pile. Which has gotten a little larger lately. Of course, no one ever regretted being totally prepared with tons and tons of beautifully hand knit gifts for the Holidays. 

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In other news,

 I was driving home from work yesterday I passed this car on Interurban Parkway. Now I am no expert on Washington State Driving laws, since I am still have an Alaska  Drivers License ( At least for another 9 days, then it will expire and I will actually have to get a Washington one. Which makes J happy since i am out of lazy excuses for not changing my last name), but I am pretty sure that your back window should be unobstructed with issues of the Seattle Times. But what do I know? Yesterday I also had a woman come up to me at work to inform me that her son had made "a rather large mess" in the bathroom and that I "needed to take care of it". And then the bitch walked out the door. I was in shock. First of all, if my kid made a mess somewhere, I would clean it up, I wouldn't go and tell an employee. And secondly, I have a fucking Master's Degree!!!! Yes, I realize that my degree doesn't make me above anyone else, but every time something happens at my job that pisses me off, I want to run through the halls screaming " I have the same degree as the department director and I am more qualified to run this whole place than the CEO!!!!" Ugh, at least all of this just gives me the motivation to continue my job hunt.