the house that Roya wants

Since Adam was about 11 years old, he lived next door to Chris and David. As they got older, he has lived with or next door to at least one of them - with the ONLY break from that being the 4 months he lived with ME in Alaska, and a couple of months ONE street over from them when we got back. As soon as possible we moved into the house in back of theirs. We call Chris "Uncle Chris" because he is Joey to our Chandler/Monica - he is already Uncle Chris to our dogs, and one day when we get married and have kids, he'll have a Joey room in our house and will be Uncle Chris for real. For the last year we've enjoyed an excellent living situation - bbq's between the houses, dessert sharing, movie watching, brunch-going, etc. It's been so nice to have our really close friends as our closest neighbors.

Then David decided to move. He'll be living about 1.5 hours northeast of us as of next week. Chris suddenly can't afford the double rent, so he was thinking of moving too. Our situation will be drastically uncool as soon as neighbors move into our front house. The driveway is tight. It was okay with friends...not so great with strangers.

I almost cried when Adam told me, and as he put it, he was "seriously bummed out." He really has lived with one or both of them for most of his life. Chris is pretty damn introverted also and I couldn't see him spending too much of his time out of his home, whever he moved to.

We decided then to start looking for a new place - Adam will be working far away, we could split the difference, maybe find something cheap to save money, etc. I don't remember who suggested it, but we jokingly said Chris should just move in with us. Then we "joked" about it with Chris, and Sunday the three of us spent a good portion of the day driving around looking at houses.

We found the house I want. It's a 3 bedroom, right between the two freeways the three of us need. It has a HUMONGOUS backyard - HUGE HUGE HUGE, with fruit trees and a work-in-able two car garage and a covered patio and tons of grass and a big giant garden plot already created with grape vines!

And - it's one street over from my family!!! I want it. I want it so badly. I have managed to talk Adam and Chris into the merits of this house, and tonight we go to meet with the rental company and...it is now time to start crossing fingers.

It's such a family house. It's in the neighborhood I grew up in, for crying out loud. It's a house we could stay at for a long time to come. Chris could really be Uncle Chris. Hell, there's even a shed he could have. ;)

Anyways. That's tonight. So I'm hoping and wishing, etc.

In other news - I went to CSULB for the Human Services graduation today... yay Cousin Becky and Intern Nancy and Friends Karen, Dawn, Kristin, Sophia and more! Yay for seeing KJ and Susan and go Beach!

I finished 1 of the Pippi kneestockings and it fits Rosie! I'm 3 stripes in on the second one! Here's to finishing a project!

knitting and my dogs...again!

I am slowly trying to go through my things and either find old projects to work on instead of buying new ones. I have sooo many half finished projects - 4 or 5 pairs of socks, gloves, scarves, beanies, latch hook rugs, cross stitch, oh man. So the other day I was just craving doing tiny clicking bamboo needle knitting, and I found a pair of knee length striped socks that weren't even half done - only about 3 inches of one leg was done! It's perfect. I've been working on it just for a day now, and I've already quadrupled the amount I had, and it's neat because I am obviously such a better knitter now than I was 5 years ago when I started.

I put aside the Juliana project for the time being. It's kind of mindless, what with needing to knit 3 feet of the same damn thing, but on the other hand, you also can't tune out completely or you'll wreck the pattern. So it's something I will resign myself to being an ongoing slow project that I will take with me to conferences and things where it's either knit that or knit nothing.

Yesterday was karate - my stomach was hurting so I didn't feel like I was paying good attention, or giving it my all, strength wise - so I tried to concentrate on technique. We did an exercise where we kicked through rebreakable boards - with two of them together instead of just one. My right snap kick is by far my strongest, and the first three were easy, but that darn brown rebreakable board gets me every time. I will work on this! I will also work on my side kicks and my hooking heel, so that when my next belt test comes along I'll be ready.

My puppy got her rabies shots last weekend, and has had enough cycles of her other shots so that I can start taking her places soon! I can't wait! I've been dying to get her on a leash so we can go walk through Central Park and go to the beach and stuff!!! She's such a sweetheart - she has two very distinct moods. There's the Crazy Eyes mood where here eyes roll back in her head and her teeth come out and she rolls around on her back trying to get her pearly whites on anything that will stay still. You have to watch your ankles when she is in that mood. Her other mood is her sweet, calm, loving mood where she follows me around throughout the house as I putter, and when I take a shower she comes and lies down on the shower step and when I do dishes she lies down on my feet! I love this dog. I can't believe how much I love this dog!

The big dog keeps chewing a hotspot on his back so he now officially has been CONED. This means you have to watch out because he doesn't know how wide or painful he is when he tries to brush by you. This also means I need to separate the two dogs because Juno likes to grab onto Rommel's cone and pull. Juno gets the backyard during the day (Rommel has the advantage of more years of house breaking) and Rommel gets the backyard at night (Rommel doesn't struggle with separation anxiety).

Let's see..what else... Adam graduates in...22 days! The week before he graduates, some of his academy friends, their husbands and wives, and me, will be going out to a fancy dinner. He told me a week ago that I need to decide what I am wearing SOON because he doesn't want to deal with my last minute what-to-wear panicking that I always do for every holiday or event. Hah. He knows me too well.

I've been doing a sparkpeople Sweatsuit to Swimsuit Challenge, and I am pleased to report that I haven't missed a day in 2 weeks! Coach Nicole's Cardio Blast DVD with 6 ten minute workouts have saved me so many times - when it's late and I don't feel like going to the gym and I don't even feel like doign 30 whole minutes of working out, I tell myself I am just going to do 1 ten minute segment, and invariably I end up doing more!

I feel like there is so much more I want to talk about, but really I'm just pining for my knitting and my puppy. My knitting is sitting on my desk next to me, and it's so hard not to do that, but I really need to go back to work. Ah! I am so glad this weekend is a three day weekend!

oh hey, my little sister is having her Gold Award Ceremony this weekend! HOW AMAZING IS THAT? REALLY AMAZING, that's what!

askew ouch

Finished the Askew tank top and I'm SO frustrated. It's beautiful, but I think I blocked the back the wrong direction, and so it's curling up and it's REALLY SHORT and maybe I just don't understand blocking... but it's tiny! It's so low in the front if I want it to cover my stomach at all, that my boobs basically pop out of the top and the straps don't reach the whole way, and.... arrrgh. I was so excited at the thought of actually making something for myself to WEAR!

So I don't know what to do. I could a)leave it the way it is and find a short-torsoed, busty, skinny person who wants it, b) take off the back and see if I can reblock it and see if that makes a difference in its wearability, or c) make another one and adjust the pattern myself so that there's just more to it!

I don't know. Knitters? Help?

want to mooooove

I've been so antsy at work all day long. I think because my day started with a 2 hour long meeting, I just felt like a little kid had grabbed onto both my legs and wasn't letting go so I was dragging them along. To combat this feeling, I have been running up and down the stairs all day, asking people downstairs to tell me when they have something that needs to go up, so I can take it. I also did 100 calf exercises on the bottom step of the stairs, and....I put a workout video up on my computer as background music - if I can't actually exercise, at least I'm preparing myself mentally for 5pm! Sick, maybe, but it's working. I can't wait to get done and work out.

I am debating working out here in my office, or going home. I think if I go home I'll find other things I need to do and won't work out as much. We shall see.

Otherwise, I need to make lunches, pick up/drop off dry cleaning, do my Sweatsuit to Swimsuit challenge video, and do SOMETHING with the dishes and the dining room table. I also need to eat one more servings of veggies for my StoS extra challenge. Tomorrow is karate, Friday I get off work early, and then - WEEKEND!

stuff and lists

Today...

1. Stop working at 5
2. Change into workout clothes
3. Do workout video for new Spark Challenge at work
4. Buy resistance band
5. Buy fabric softner
5. Go back to work or go home and do 2nd workout video
6. Soak tank top in water and fabric softener
7. Block tank top
8. Buy milk, chicken broth, chicken, fruit
9. Pick up dog poop
10. Clean coffee table
11. Make bed
12. Make lunches for tomorrow
13. Do 30 minutes of other cardio

Today...

1. Excited about new Sparkpeople.com team "Sweatsuit to Swimsuit"
2. Annoyed at mother of client for yelling at me for 30 minutes
3. Anxious to go workout
4. Stomachache and cramps
5. Feeling like too much planning not enough doing.
6. Is broke and annoyed by brokeness.
7. Continuing to knit Julianna

lazy sunday

Yesterday my sister and I were in San Diego for the 1st ever Sparkpeople convention. As a seasoned conference and convention goer, I definitely have some tips for them for the next time, but as it was it was exciting, energizing, and I am really glad I got to be there for the first one.

I also had a chance to finish knitting all of the pieces of the askew tank top - now all I need to do is block it. I've never blocked anything before in my life, so I'm sort of procrastinating. I started working on the Julianna berreco pattern with the yarn that I bought on ebay. I don't have enough yarn to actually finish this project, though, so at some point I'll need to buy more. It's sort of slow going, but very satisfying - I love alpaca, and this color red ("redwood mix") is deep and again, satisfying.

Adam and I have been enjoying an incredibly lazy Sunday. He had to work yesterday and I was in SD, so today all that I've done is make breakfast, get lunch, pick up dry cleaning, and bake cookies. Oh, and knit. A lot. I woke up at 6am and started knitting. it's now 3:30 and that's pretty much all I've done.

My plans for today include working out, making dinner, and making lunches. But for the moment, I am still totally content with my knitting! I need to be aware of the fact that I tend to get very restless on Sunday evenings if I haven't gotten out of the house, but I am hoping that a trip to the gym and grocery store will do it for me. :p

Okay, I've spent enough time away from my Julianna. Back to knitting!