I got a package from my SP9 Secret Pal! But I have no pictures yet, and I’m incredibly tired - dog in labor, gonna have puppies! - since I haven’t slept in 24 hours except for an hour long nap.

Bigger update later!

It’s happened! I’ve finally got myself signed up for one of those oh-so-cool knitting swaps. You know, the ones that aren’t on craftster, the ones where it’s all knitting themed, and everyone sends such wonderful stuff to each other, and I drool and drool and drool. Uh huh. One of those. Anyway. I stumbled upon Yarn Aboard! just about a week ago, by sheer accident, and quickly signed up for the notification list. And sure enough, notification came late last week that signups would begin Monday!

And I miraculously remembered to sign up! *laugh* Actually, I didn’t. I just happened to see the email sitting there in my inbox, already read and everything, as I was logging off the computer, and I rushed back to sign up quickly. Heh. I already sent in my questionaire and everything. I’m excited like you wouldn’t believe. Or maybe you would. I know the vast majority of my non-crafty pals (which is, sadly, the vast majority of my pals in general… like… maybe all…) will just look at me and shake their heads in shame.

Ha! But I care not. Anyway. I’ve been obsessed with sock knitting lately. Yarn Aboard is themed for sock knitting, actually. Well, to be honest, there’s two themes. One for sock knitting, and one for spinning, but I’ve only touched roving like, once, and while spinning is one of my things to learn, I don’t have the financing for even a drop spindle, let alone hunting down fiber and stuff. Not at this time. But soon. I’ll drool for now, I guess!

Moving on…. I’ve had company for the last few days. A has become severely allergic to something. It’s not the cat, as we previously thought. We /think/ it’s the Glade Oil Plugin thingie she had jacked up to HIGH in her apartment. It fits the “I’ve got hives!” timeline just fine, and she’s got sensitive skin. Anyway, she /does/ have hives. They were somewhere near AWFUL on Friday and Saturday, especially. Today, they’re going away, because — big moment of unsurprise — she hasn’t been in her apartment! And oh yeah, she’s doped up on prescription allergy meds and crap. Yay. So she’s been miserable. Poor girl.

Grandma’s out of the nursing home and back at home. Good. I hope she’ll be all right now, and eat right, and drink plenty of water, all that. *crosses fingers*

I’ve finally began knitting my Shimmer Branching Out scarf again. I’d screwed up on the third repeat, and had to put it aside for a couple days to get over the frustration of having to rip it back. Yay for lifelines, though - only ten rows lost. Last night, I managed to knit 8 repeats. Woot! Tonight, I’ve done one so far, but am trekking along. I hope to get at least four done.

Tomorrow, my KnitPicks package should be here! I hope, anyway. Then Tabbycat comes to visit, so we’ll see if any of the mystery stole actually gets done in the next couple weeks.

Grandma’s in the hospital. To make a long story semi-short, she called and asked me to come help her, so A and I ran over to see what it was she wanted. Turns out she’s on the floor, weak, dizzy, sick, and unable to get up. When we helped her up into a sitting position, she passed out in my arms, so A called 911 while I held her and soothed her with a cool washcloth (It was /hot/ in her house! Gugh!). Then we called Dad, and he came, and the ambulance came, and she went off to the hospital for observation. She’s dehydrated, a bit, but she should be okay. Good. She had me worried.

Anyway, for a couple hours, we dealt with that, and them A came and went to work for me, because… she needed the hours, and I needed a night off. *sag*

So it’s been a while. I’ve had a lot going on lately. We were planning on going to Billings over my birthday. Planning to leave Thursday, March 23rd, or Friday the 24th. But Mom got sick Tuesdayish, and Wednesday, and Thursday… And I was a little sick, too. So Friday, we left anyway, and then it was a long, vaguely disappointing trip in Billings. We stayed with my aunt and uncle. Auntie dearest irritated me constantly. I think I was mostly civil…

But we had fun nonetheless. Bought bunches of things - skirts (I am so obsessed with ankle length skirts right now…) I bought 3 of them (two for cheap at Ross’s!) and that means I have no less than 6 skirts of that sort. Nice. Warm in the winter, too, actually, when I put on my cuddle duds. Not sure how it’ll go in the summer. Anybody but me ever get that awful inner-thigh rash from your thighs rubbing together? Gugh.

Got more tea, too. I’ve been drinking at least 2 cups a day now. Hehe… but it’s good! I like black tea. Mmm.

Anyway, despite it all, there’s not much news. I’ve been struggling like mad to readjust back to my night shift schedule. It’s hard. Today I somehow reset/shut off/didn’t set my alarm, so I got up waaay late. Like, a quarter to six. Yikes. I was meaning to get up at like, 4, and 5 at the latest. But I slept at least. That’s something.

Parents might get a decent offer on the farm this week. We hope so, though Mom and I are nervous about it. Dad is not exactly the sort of person to handle this best And Mom’s rather timid about getting her way. We sorta fear we’re gonna lose our shorts on some godawful venture or another. But oh well. Can’t keep on with a farm that doesn’t make any money.

Now. Onward ho to the memes!

So I’ve been yearning to shop. You laugh, but it’s true - I’m a shopping addict. I /love/ to buy stuff. Materialism, I’m your girl. I just love things. Some people don’t, but I do. I mean, I’m not one of those people who think you can buy love or happiness, but frankly, having things /does/ make me happy. Not as happy as, say, having friends, but pretty darned happy, nonetheless. I’m terrible, I know.

Anyway, terrible old me signed up for a spell of the month club thing at Spellbound Secrets. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. So I finally did. We’ll see how it is, and if it’s not worth my $25, I’ll cancel.

Then I went on and was gonna order $50 of stuff from Terry’s Village. Like a beautiful chocolate easter egg wreath. Not real chocolate easter eggs, but just painted ones to look like it. Pretty, anyway. I need. Really.

But I got smart, and put it off for a while, and decided to go ahead and order something I’ve been wanting even longer. Essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs. Because I’m finally gonna take the plunge into green cleaning. I got 3 to start with (smart move, since I may not like it at all) - eucalyptus, lavender, and sweet orange. I figure that’s good to start with. I want tea tree oil, but actually, I’d like to smell it, first. I hear it’s… strongly medicinal, and I may not like it. Don’t wanna spend $11 an ounce on something I won’t like to use. Where I’m gonna smell this, I don’t know…. Or maybe I’ll just order it when I’m feeling braver.

In any case, I’m collecting homemade cleaning supply recipes… and other recipes / ideas for using these oils. I got an ounce of each. Plus some honeybush tea, because I want some, and a teaball spoon dealie, because I’ll need it, having only used tea bags before. And some droppers and stuff to use with the oils. Whee.

So that’s the big news in my life. Mom thinks I’m crazy, I think. I find it kinda irritating, though, that she doesn’t /say/ anything, except ‘huh’, or laughs, at half the things I say or do. It’s like what I’m talking about is so far out there she just can’t think of a thing to say, or perhaps she can, but is just going on the “if I don’t acknowledge it, it’s not really happening” theory. I don’t know. Same with my religion. She knows… but she doesn’t know anything about it, and never mentions it, except to say that I shouldn’t mention it to my grandmother.

Sigh. I’m just glad I have friends to talk to.

I found out last night that my childhood best pal’s father died of a completely unexpected heart attack. Gave me a glimpse into the fragility of human life - my own father’s been told numerous times to stop smoking, stop drinking… and he hasn’t yet. He’s been in the hospital twice in the last… six months? A year? Something like that. Congestive heart failure, and his liver’s on its way down the tubes, too. Russ’s death last night was so sudden - no one expected it, he’d even had a clean bill of health from the doctors not long ago. If such a seemingly healthy man could so abruptly pass away, how much more likely would it be for someone like my father, who’s not nearly so healthy, to do the same?

Moving away from such a serious topic… my washing machine took a dive last night while I was washing towels at… oh 2:30am or so. I heard this strange hissing noise and went out to look… and sure enough, something behind the washer was spraying water…. everywhere. I had gobs of water, water racing across the floor and in all directions - and me, I was standing there just freaking out like an idiot. I was being stereotypically… female. Yikes. So I finally got enough of a head on my shoulders to dial my brother, my socks soaked, the bottoms of my jeans beginning to draw up water, and barely managed to convey in my panic that I had a “big emergency”, which didn’t make him too thrilled. He came up though and shut the water off (harhar, easy as pie, if i’d known how…) and gave a laugh at the utter mess and the steamy windows (yes, it was the hot water tube that’d sprung a big leak) and went back to bed… leaving me to run around, still half panicked, because I didn’t have a good way to mop up the mess. I mean, my mop? It’s a Swiffer WetJet. That is definately no good in this sort of situation. And all my towels? You bet, right in the washing machine, filled with hot soapy water. I found three that hadn’t made it into the machine yet, but they were drenched sopping within minutes. Finally, I got the idea to spin out all the water of the machine, giving me semi-not-soaked towels - just damp, to mop up the rest of the water with. Hell. Pure hell.

So after I’d gotten off the phone with mom, telling her this (I was trying to find a mop), Sheila (our bartender) showed up with the money from the bar… and the cops in tow. Night before last, someone had tried to bust into the bar, and nobody’d noticed cause it was on the back door, which is usually barred at night, meaning we don’t use a key from the outside. When she went to lock up, though, she found that her key just… spun happily in the lock without doing a thing. And someone had taken what they thing was a screwdriver and a hammer to the lock. Greaaat. But we don’t think they got into the bar. Good news, because we’ve had enough burglaries there…. *sag*

What a day, what a day. I just hope tonight goes better.