Friday Mishmash

Ahhh, Friday.  Considering that I don't work, you'd think that Friday would be the same as any other day to me, but this Friday is the start of Spring Break, which means that our town is going to clear out of about 50,000 people.  AHHH.  Coincidentally, Spring Break of 2000 was when we came to look for a house when we were moving here, and I was tricked into thinking that living near so many students would be no big deal .  Nope...they just weren't here!  So I feel like I get "my" town back for this week - and I plan on fully enjoying the empty restaurants and no traffic jams!

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Recently, I participated in a new year's resolution support group and won some life coaching from our very own blogger extraordinaire, Crabby McSlacker, of Cranky Fitness, so for the past four Mondays I've had the pleasure of speaking with her (and she has a real name, too)(::whispers::  it's Jan) and working on some things to help me get better focused as I move toward the next big part of life.  It's been really wonderful to bounce things off of her and get a some direction and like I mentioned, FOCUS - I'm not a huge goal-oriented person, but I don't want to look back and think "why didn't I start that sooner?" - after all, I'm not getting any younger (tucks Kleenex back into sleeve; adjusts bifocals), and there's not as much time to waste!  Very happy that I did this, and I can't thank Jan enough for her help.

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Random blogger perk:  I have a nice little relationship with the company Oh Nuts - they occasionally offer to send me food and I always take them up on it, because HELLO, free food (diet blog? what diet blog?!).  They have bulk nuts, dried fruit, candy (if you want only one color of a certain candy, like Jordan almonds or jelly beans, these are the people to see), desserts and gift baskets.  Recently they offered to send me a Passover dessert sampler, and here's what I received:

Sandwich cookie, raspberry jelly roll, brownie...

 Plated for the picture...

...and saved from the dog JUST in the nick of time!

Somehow I don't think Paco was as interested in keeping kosher as he was in this just being food at his level, lol!  The package was at our front door when we came home from eating dinner out - ironically we'd decided to not get frozen yogurt and instead behave ourselves...but when dessert lands on your doorstep, it must be a sign that you were meant to have something sweet, right?  Thanks, Oh Nuts - these were tasty!

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Sit and Knit update:  You meet the nicest people on the internet.  One of my readers, Diane, emailed me to let me know she was a knitter - long story short, we became Ravelry friends (it's THE website for knitters), and I saw that she's knitted several hats like the blue one that I was working on.  Lo and behold, I got to an odd point in the pattern and was able to email her to get help - thanks, Diane!  Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm not showing a picture of my progress, it's because something went wonky (got off on my count, I think) and I started to unravel it back a bit, but discovered the hard way that putting ribbed stitching back onto needles is NOT easy.  So it's sitting in a pile until I figure out what to do.  It seems like I always have something that gives me fits!

Here's some other projects that I've had better luck with:

Windmill bags!  I've made a total of SEVEN of these, plus a miniature one.  I think I'm officially done with them.  Or I need a support group...WBA (Windmill Bags Anonymous)?

I finally finished the first two parts (clue #1) of the mystery knit along shawl...lordy, I thought this one was going to do me in.  NEVER have I had so much trouble, so many times, with one project.  I can't even count how many times I started over; I eventually had to cut the yarn and start fresh because it was getting worn out from being knit and unraveled so much!  But here it is, before I started clue #2 (which is much easier, btw):

You wouldn't think something so small could be so much trouble, but think of this as a mischievous three-year-old in the next room who suddenly gets quiet...too quiet. 

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The professional photos from the Armadillo Dash are up, and we got some good ones crossing the finish line - I think this is the one I'll order:

The look of relief!

Have a great weekend - I'm only (only!) running 4 miles tomorrow...AHHH!