Marilyn

Stolen from Inky Knits

Wow, I would say that this is true!

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Marilyn!

You are a Marilyn -- "I am affectionate and skeptical."

Marilyns are responsible, trustworthy, and value loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes. Their personalities range broadly from reserved and timid to outspoken and confrontative.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Be direct and clear



• * Listen to me carefully



• * Don't judge me for my anxiety



• * Work things through with me



• * Reassure me that everything is OK between us



• * Laugh and make jokes with me



• * Gently push me toward new experiences



• * Try not to overreact to my overreacting.

What I Like About Being a Marilyn

• * being committed and faithful to family and friends



• * being responsible and hardworking



• * being compassionate toward others



• * having intellect and wit



• * being a nonconformist



• * confronting danger bravely



• * being direct and assertive

What's Hard About Being a Marilyn

• * the constant push and pull involved in trying to make up my mind



• * procrastinating because of fear of failure; having little confidence in myself



• * fearing being abandoned or taken advantage of



• * exhausting myself by worrying and scanning for danger



• * wishing I had a rule book at work so I could do everything right



• * being too critical of myself when I haven't lived up to my expectations

Marilyns as Children Often

• * are friendly, likable, and dependable, and/or sarcastic, bossy, and stubborn



• * are anxious and hypervigilant; anticipate danger



• * form a team of "us against them" with a best friend or parent



• * look to groups or authorities to protect them and/or question authority and rebel



• * are neglected or abused, come from unpredictable or alcoholic families, and/or take on the fearfulness of an overly anxious parent

Marilyns as Parents

• * are often loving, nurturing, and have a strong sense of duty



• * are sometimes reluctant to give their children independence



• * worry more than most that their children will get hurt



• * sometimes have trouble saying no and setting boundaries

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at

Trouble With Tribbles

This is so cool and absolutely no trouble at all. Quick knit. I use mine everyday and love it. I can see how they seem to multiply.

Trouble with Tribbles , once you start you can't stop.

Scarfs

Here are a couple of scarfs that I knitted during the summer.

I love them both. The pattern for the white scarf is the Magic Scarf from Crazy Aunt Purl. The yarn I used is one of my thrift store finds, Lion Brand "Jiffy". I only had one ball so I went to Walmart to find another. The shades of white were so different but I was able to match perfectly. I really love the way it turned out. The pattern for the ruby scarf I found in the Knit Scarfs book. The scarf is called Chunky Monkey, it's just a mock rib stitch. The yarn is Lion Brand Chenille "Thick and Quick Prints" This one is really soft.

My yarn choice is not expensive but I think these scarfs feel good. They are going to be great for winter.

I'm Baaaaaaack!

If at first you don't succeed....

Well I tried, and tried again.

I'm on a quest to conquer "Magic Loop". The first time I discovered that I was knitted inside out. I fixed that problem which was not really a big deal. The cuff, easy. Heel flap no problem. Turn heel not bad. Then came picking up stitches. Could not get it, I need to visually see it. I know how to pick up stitches, it was just the way the pattern was worded. Well, problem solved. I found a really cool DVD. Watched it from start to finish and saw what I was doing wrong. I cast on again and this time, hopefully, I will be able to finish a pair of socks. HOPEFULLY!

BTW: The yarn and the circular needles are a great thrift store find.

For Me

Look what the mailman brought me. Just for me! Love you mailman.





Love you Jimmy Beans Wool. I placed my order on Friday and it was at my door on Monday!

Hats

For real next time.

The next time I knit a hat, it will be for someone and not just practice. I wanted to knit a couple of hats with some of the crappy acyclic yarn that I have. So I knitted two hats with different stitches. I thought that they looked pretty good, until I tried them on. The hats are mini hats. Well, the mock cable is really not that small if I don't cuff it. Anyways, I have the basic idea of how to knit a hat. Next time will be for real, with real yarn and for a real person.




To cuff or not to cuff.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday. I took the day off as a gift to myself. Chris gave me a beautiful card and some nice gifts. Tomorrow my daughter is giving me a little party. She is making dinner and my grandson is making strawberry shortcake. He is making the shortcake by scratch. My daughter called me and asked if it was okay if we had shortcake instead of birthday cake, because G really wanted to make me shortcake. I thought that was so sweet. He is 8 years old and takes cooking at his school. He loves it.

Here is a pic of the gifts that I got from Chris.

These are the gifts I picked out. :) "Power Up" comes with three DVDs and a yoga strap. I wanted the yarn for a cute scarf I'm going to make and I love ladybugs.

My birthday turned out to be a great day!

Weekends

I always looks forward to the weekend. Weekends are for relaxing. The last two weekends, this did not happen. Easter weekend was not good at all. It starts on Friday, the day where I take a deep breath after work and say, finally. Well that Friday was normal and after work I had to take my little Cisco to the vet for shots. We are in the room and the vet assistant gets ahold of Cisco so that the vet can give his shots, except Cisco is not happy and starts fighting. Cisco is a very strong chihuahua and the assistant is having trouble, so the vet puts a muzzle on poor Cisco. Well, the assistant still can't hold him tight enough, so the vet says to her, I'll hold him while you give the shots. After giving the shots I hear the vet say to her did you get it? She says yes. I really did not give it any thought. So all is well and we go home. That night Cisco gets a bath and he is really happy. Later that evening we are relaxing on the couch watching TV. Around 8pm or so Cisco jumps into my arms like he is trying to get away from something that scared him. Right after this he will not let touch him, he did not seem to be in any pain but just wanted to be left alone. I thought that maybe he was just tired. We went to bed and again all seemed fine. He did not wake me during the night to take him out. So around 4 in the morning I take him out to pee. This is when I notice that something is not right. He is walking like he is drunk. At first I thought he was just sleepy, but still I knew something was not right. I put him back to bed and kept watch on him. In the mean time I had a bad feeling. I could hear him breathe and it did not sound right. I could not go back to sleep. At 6am Chris made coffee and I brought Cisco out to the couch to lay down. This is when my stomach sank. It was clear that something was so wrong. He did not want to move and he could not walk without looking like he would fall over. He did not seem to be in pain, so I thought I would wait until the vet open at 8am. I was there before they opened. The vet checked him and said he was ataxic and his temperature was low. The vet could not explain how it happened but at the time did not think it was caused by the shots. They needed to get him warm and give him fluids and maybe a steroid shot. They kept him all day. During this time we had no idea what was wrong with him or if they could even get him better. I spent all day crying and crying. My heart was broken and ached for little Cisco. He seemed so helpless. All lab tests were normal and the vet said later that Cisco may have had a reaction to the shots. I am happy to say that Cisco is better. It took about a week before he was back to his normal active self. He is now as active as ever. I really think that when the assistant gave him his shots she hit the muscle instead of giving it right under the skin.

The next weekend comes and I think, right on, it's Friday, I get to relax. NOT! Broken water heater and I have to wait until Saturday for a new one. I've lived in this house for about 12 years. The house was brand new when we bought it. This new water heater makes it the fourth water heater in 12 years. New water heater every three years is ridiculous. At least it is still under warranty. Whatever! It still cost $450 to replace.

Okay, so today is Tuesday my head hurts and once again, I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Mock Cable

Mock cable is kinda cool. It's really a simple stitch and makes for fast knitting. I like the way it looks and can't wait until the hat is complete.

My Helper

This is my office assistant. Every day Cisco sleeps on my lap while I work. I work from home. He does have a bed in the office but some how manages to worm his way to my lap. Yes, those are pajamas .

Surfs Up Dude

Pismo Beach get pounded by high surf and high swells. It was so bad that Pismo Beach PD evacuated the pier. Police expected to keep the pier closed until at least today. Swells reached 17 to 19 feet. Crazy! The sad thing is that the elephant seal pups were being swept out to the sea by the high swells. An estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of pup seals are swept away. Pups are born not knowing how to swim, and until they get to a certain age they just float. Poor babies.

Some knitting news. I'm going to knit a hat. This is a first for me. I am going to attempt to knit a mock cable hat. So far, I have learned some things about gauge. What I learned is that not all worsted weight yarn is the same. I had no idea. The pattern says worsted weight yarn, size 8-9 needles, approximate gauge 4 sts/in. Okay, I have the worsted weight yarn, size 8 needles and I knit a gauge swatch. I get 5 sts/in. Well then I think, maybe I can just CO more to get the size hat I want. This just did not even make sense in my head. So, I get a different brand of yarn, still worsted weight and knit a gauge swatch, and yes I got 4 sts/in. But this is not the yarn I want to use. So just for kicks I get out size 9 straights and do a gauge swatch with the yarn I bought for the hat and you guessed it, 4 sts/in. Well the problem is I don't have any circs in size 9 and I really want to start this hat. I decided that I will use the really crappy yarn for now. This will be my practice hat. Wish me luck.

Happy Birthday Purple Lady!

Today is the Purple Lady's 85th birthday. She is the mother of the boyfriend. The Purple Lady is a kind of a local celebrity. She is everything purple. Her house, and everything in it, EVERYTHING! walls, carpet, kitchen, everything. Of course, as you can see ( you can't 'cuz stupid blogger is acting up and will not let me add a picture ) her hair, glasses, and clothes. The Purple Lady is purple all year except during Lent. During this time she wears any color but purple and she lets her hair grow out gray. The first time I saw her not purple I was very surprised at how different she looked, just like an ordinary old lady. Ordinary she is not.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Purple Lady, you are loved.



EDITED TO ADD: Here is the picture.

Rain and Walking

.......don't mix with me. I've been really good with the walking routine. Then the rain happened. Lots of rain! This is walking week four. I was a little discouraged at first, cuz I thought I would lose weight right away. Nope not me. I actually started to gain muscle weight. So I followed the advice of the walking book, I measured myself. So for the first two weeks nothing but weight gain and no inches lost, then week three I measured myself, and to my delight I lost one inch off my waist and one inch off my thighs and a half inch off my hips. This made me very happy, cuz it meant that all the walking was working. Walking has been pretty easy. My walking speed is about 4 miles an hour. I love my pedometer. It tracks steps, aerobic steps, aerobic walking time, calories burned, distance, and fat burned. I started using it on Jan 9th and so far I have a daily average of 4,196 of steps, 3,742 of aerobic steps, 31 minutes of aerobic walking time, 146 calories burned, 2.12 miles, and 9.7 fat grams burned. This an daily average, there are some days that I walk 4 -5 miles. I only wear my pedometer when I fitness walk, so the numbers may not look impressive. I have taken a few days off for different reasons. This week being the awful weather. We have had non stop rain since Tuesday, along with hail and a light dusting of snow, which is a big deal here on the central coast.

As far as knitting, I'm not feeling the love. That last scarf was really a downer for me. For now, I'm knitting a simple garter stitch scarf and a knit, purl shawl. Can't into trouble with that, or can I.

Yikes!

I have no idea how or when this happened. I am so upset about it. While knitting this scarf I knew it was going to be short and I had thought about just ripping it, but I started to like the look so I continued. Yes, the scarf would be short but it was kind of cute as a neck warmer.

Well, I was on the last knit row and then the bind off, but something looked kind of strange. The bind off looked nothing like the cast on, it was the total opposite. The cast on had a V shape to it while the bind off had an arrow shape at the end. This is when I really looked at the whole scarf. I laid it out and this is what I discovered.

Can you see it? At some point I missed a row and just kept knitting. I had no idea that this had happened. I was so disappointed and just really upset. I ended up doing this. To the frog pond!

I really do like the pattern and may knit it again, but for now I don't even want to look at it. :(

Jimmy Beans Wool

I fell into this site, Jimmy Beans Wool , check them out. I was looking for Lucy Neatby DVD for socks. I ordered this before Christmas but just now blogging about it. I ordered the DVD late on a Thursday and received my package on the following Monday. I was so please with everything. I even got a candy cane and a smiley face on the receipt. I gave the DVD a quick preview, so far I like what I see. I will definitely use them again. They even gave me a free shipping coupon on my next order. How cool is that?

Big Storm 2008

Check this out. Water is falling from the sky and hitting Pismo Beach.

Walking Day Three and Four

After this week I will just post my walking progress by the week. On day three I walked 45 minutes. I walked on the street and on the way back took a trail from the OSH shopping center that leads back to my house. It was a vigorous walk and kicked my butt. This let me know that yes, I'm really out of shape. Today I walked the dog. We walked only 10 minutes but went at a fast pace. Chris met me at OSH because I needed some salt for the water softener, and I needed him to put it in the back of his truck. The walk was a nice but kind of chilly. I probably should have walked back but I was a little lazy. The goal today was only 10 minutes and I met that goal. I bought an Omron pedometer from Amazon yesterday. I'm excited, I think this will be a really cool gadget to get me motivated. Can't Wait!

Walking Day Two

Today I got paid to walk. I walked to the post office to mail off claims. This took me 30 minutes. I took Cisco with me. He loves to walk. The last day of 2007 ended up being such a beautiful day. The sky was clear and the ocean deep blue. This made for a pleasureful walk.

The book I mentioned before is actually titled " The Complete Guide to Walking". I think that I was suppose to measure myself before I started. I'll have to read chapter one again. There is really a lot more to this book than just walking. I am going to keep track of my progress for 52 weeks. This should be interesting. So, for today I walked 30 minutes, medium pace.

Wishing all a very happy New Year!

Walking Day One

Today is the first day that I started a walking routine. For Christmas I received a book called Walking, written by Mark Fenton. This is not a New Year's resolution. I have never been able to keep one. I have gained so much weight lately and for some reason it has not been easy to lose. I have always been fortunate enough to be able to keep weight off, but now weight just stays. I think it is an age thing, whatever. The thing is I don't know how to diet. I have always been a person that went to the gym reguarly and have been able to keep toned. I did not renew my membership earlier in the year because I could not stand the gym's GM, not to mention that the gym was just turning to shit. I thought no problem, I have a gym setup in my garage, yeah right, the so called gym is now a clothes hanger for the boyfriends clothes and anything else he can manage to put on it. This by the way, this has pissed me off a lot, but that is another story. So all I have to do is walk six days a week. Seems easy enough, so I'm giving it a try. Today I walked for 45 minutes at a medium pace.

As for knitting, I started an easy lace scarf. I love the pattern. I found the pattern on Ravelry. I have all this yarn that I got from a thrift store. Most of the yarn was acrylic, there was some cotton yarn and some nice wool yarn. Since I am still new to knitting I like to use the thrift store yarn to practice, practice, practice. I had some Lion Brand Jiffy Mohair yarn and wanted to do something with it, so I went to Ravelry and entered the yarn and searched for a pattern. What a cool way to get rid of yarn and at the same time I'm learning new things. Yea for Ravelry!

Happy Holidays 2007

Same tree different year.

I'm sorry, its just that I have not been able to get into the holidays. It's been weird. It's like I'm just going through the motions. I have all of my gift shopping done although they have not been wrapped.

I have been fighting a really bad cold. My head hurts from all the sinus pressure. I feel like crap. I got this from the boyfriend. Good thing is, that I work from home so I could get away with looking and feeling like crap and still get work done. Now is the start of the weekend and I don't have to work until the day after Christmas. So on the couch for now.

I leave you with Celebration Barbie 2007.