the blog.

So, here it is the end of the year and I haven't posted in what seems forever! I am soooo sorry. I vow that I will do better in 2011.

Since I last posted, TONS of stuff has happened. Let's see if I can sum up...

May was busy in that we had D3's birthday, our 17th anniversary, Mother's Day, my 40th birthday, a couple of graduations and a vacation in Colorado.

We spent a week in Pagosa Springs. My mom and step-dad drove up from Glendale and Duane's brother Dan and his wife, Beth, came down from Bailey, Colorado. We went fishing and Grady skunked us all.

I entered a few things into the Dodge County Fair, and everything I entered got 1st place. 1st place in most categories earns $1.50 in premiums... I won $5...just enough to buy a funnel cake!! YUMM!

I entered a few skeins of handspun yarn into Nebraska State Fair. Two earned 1st place Blue Ribbons, and some money. I won the special class "Best Use of the Color Purple" with a pair of socks (that came with a $20 monetary award.) My "Bombshell" sweater (of which you cn see a part ==>) won 2nd place in the adult sweater w/sleeves.

This is the first year the State Fair was in Grand Island. They did a pretty good job of renovating a horseracing venue. I went to a couple of spin-ins. It is so interesting to me that males are more interested in spinning wheels than females. They are so intrigued with how the twist holds everything together. They stand and watch and ask questions. It's pretty awesome.

October brought a trip to Branson, Missouri. Duane's mom and step-dad joined us for the week. They live in Kirk, Colorado. We did some shopping, we saw some shows. Six is probably the best show I've seen, ever. It's a group of six brothers who sing a capella and are phenominal.

November obviously brought Thanksgiving. Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Muffaletta for dinner. Man, the only thing that would've made the day better is to have had more family around.

December saw some birthdays. My sister Ginny, my Mom, and Duane's on the 21st. He took the day off. We kinda hung around. He forwent his usual birthday cake of Red Velvet and had me make cinnamon rolls, even though I was going to make some four days later for Christmas morning.

Which catches us up to.... NOW! LOL yay!

I will have lots to blog about as I keep track of the diet I'm starting Friday. I know, who starts a diet during the holidays? Well, the way it's going to work is that the first two days, (Friday and Saturday) are "loading" days where I can eat whatever I want. Sunday starts the hard part... 500 calories a day.

I have heard awesome things about this. My sister Ginny is on it as well. She lost 33 pounds in 34 days. I am hopeful that my results are as good.

Sorry for the huge post, but now we're all caught up and we can go forward from here. Next time, more fibery stuff.

May you all (the two of you who I know follow... thanks Kris and Teri!) be safe ringing in the new year!

Peace... Gina out!

it's the middle(ish) of march already?!

I know things have been crazy around here, what with all the recruiting of applicants for the Census Bureau I have been doing. (I saw at least 48 people on Saturday the 6th, but only submitted 38 applicant folders).

It seems that I have more things I want to do in a day than there are hours... especially if I want to sleep, which is among the top things I love.

I was going to do the Ravelympics and knit a sweater in 17 days, but that kinda didn't happen. I cast on 2 days late, then wasn't getting gauge, so had to cast on again. Then, I was going gangbusters on it and things were looking good. I was at a point where I should've had 250 stitches. And I didn't. I didn't even have the same amount of stitches in the sections that were supposed to be the same. I don't have differently sized arms. I tried to unknit it, stitch by stitch, until I found where it was that I went so wrong. It proved to be more than the 5 increase rows with a row of plain knitting (okay purling, because that row happened on the WS) in between. I finally gave up and ripped the thing back and cast on AGAIN!!!

I cast on the 66 stitches, did the set up row, bringing the total to 74, and then "went to town" knitting away. I did do something differently this time... I set up not only a Row Counter, but a Pattern Row counter AND a STITCH counter!!! So, as long as when I get done with a RS row, the Row Counter is twice plus one what the Pattern Row Counter is and the Stitch Counter is 8 more than the previous number (and that when 8xPRC + 74 = SRC) everything is good!!! Yes, it's a lot of redundancy and there's quite a bit of math going on every couple of rows, but damnit, I want this sweater to be awesome!!!

The laptop took a dump this past weekend... So, I'm down in the basement on the big computer. I have to say, the monitor makes it worth it! It's HUGE compared to the laptop. And, the space heater by my feet make this area quite cozy. Granted, I can't watch the shows on the tape in the VCR upstairs, but Duane will get over me not watching my shows, again. It's not like it's something new. There are actually days that the TV doesn't get turned on. That's because sometimes it's distracting to my blog/Ravelry/whatever reading!

That was all a lead in to this: I went out and took pictures with my cell phone of the smashed bunny play pens. But, I forgot to bring the larger card thing the micro-SD card in my phone fits into so that I can put it into the cardreader slot in my computer so that I can upload it to Flickr so that I can link it to here to show you the smashedness of the bunny play pens. Let's just say, where it was about 30" tall, it's flat on the ground. Smashed by the weight of the snow.