Extra Life: Play Games, Heal Kids

On October 18, 2008, I will be joining gamers from all around the world in an effort to raise money for Pediatric Cancer research and treatment. It is a 24-hour gaming marathon set up by the fellows at Sarcasticgamer.com.

Cancer is horrible, and cancer in children is unthinkable. My goal is to get 8 people to sponsor me at $1 per hour, but any contribution will help boost me to my goal of $192. If you would like to help, please visit my fundraising page. You can sponsor per hour, or just give a flat amount of whatever you can afford. Donations are collected safely and securely through PayPal.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and thank you even more for any help you can give to help these kids.

Side Effects and Inflicted Obsessions

Did I ever mention that all my prescriptions went on strike at the same time a few months ago? Anyway, I started new script #3 yesterday. My ADD is pretty bad, and my performance at work has been suffering. Anyway, I've taken the last two days off work because taking all these pills has me feeling pretty wonky. My energy levels are totally unpredictable.

Anyway, after taking the Straterra™ for the first time yesterday (in addition to the Cymbalta™ and Concerta™), I did something out of character for me. I sent email.

DAHN! DAHN! DAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

Oh, hush. Let me explain.

At the best of times, it takes forever to email my own family. I can write, but writing for correspondence is my weakest point. But yesterday, I not only wrote an email, but one to someone I don't know. Someone well known it what they do, at that. That's right, I wrote a fan email. A fan email asking permission to promote them via geocaching. What the heck is wrong with me!? I live in a shell! Under a rock!

Today, there's a reply sitting in my inbox, but I'm too embarrassed to open it. I haven't taken today's dose of meds yet, and I'm hesitant. I don't want to embarrass myself again. We'll see how I feel when the water is done filtering and getting cold, I guess.

Tendonitis is getting the better of me now, so I must sign off. In the meantime, I hereby subject you all to my new obsession.

Decoder Ring Theatre

Great pulp in the style of golden age radio, this podcast is. Superheros, hard-boiled detectives, space adventures, and hyper-enthusiastic announcers. It's got it all.

SSK: If I didn't know it before...

Boy, do I know it now! I was going through sock withdrawl lately, so I trekked myself down to my Local Yarn Shop to pick up some yarn that I couldn't really afford, but just HAD to have:



So, armed with my new yarn, I surfed over to Ravelry and found a pattern called Smaug, which looked a little like dragon scales. It used the SSK stitch, which I wasn't very good at, but I HAD to have these socks. Fortunately, my recent addiction of podcasts put an episode of the Knit Picks Podcast that addressed it recently. There I learned the trick that if you slip the first stitch as if to knit, then the second as if to purl, then knit them together, it lays much nicer than if you slip both as if to knit. The socks aren't turning out half bad, if I do say so myself:

Welcome to the world, little baby boy!

Welcome, little Max! We all waited a long time for you, you know. The loss in the past made it nearly unbearable, but you are worth every second of every minute, of every hour, of every day of every year.

Congratulations, Susie and Chuck. He's beautiful :)

On the needles, and out of the washer

First of all, a huge thank you to all who have commented on my last post, and who have responded to my poll. And if you haven't yet, please do! The poll will be open through the month, and constructive criticism and suggestions are always welcome and encouraged.

I wanted to document some proof that I'm actually crafting these days and not just puttering around on all my new social networking sites ;)



This is a prototype of a shawl I'm working on. This was inspired by the very first few rows of a pattern from the Secret Knitting Podcast. When I accidently saw the photo of the finished project, I decided to take what little I'd started with and see what else I could do with it.




I'm also working on a cotton lace boatneck sweater which is a free pattern from KnitPicks.com.




And finally, fresh out of the washing machine, a load of Tiny and Micro Totes. Once they dry, I'll pull out the "Oopses", then tack buttons on the good ones.

Now I'm off to work on that shawl some more.

Room For Improvement

Happy September, everyone :)

Sometime over the weekend, my Blog got it's first rating over at BlogCatalog.com I am now currently rated 2 out of 5 stars. I feel the rating is deserved, since this page is still very amateur feeling. But the mystery rater did not leave any comments about what they felt was lacking or needing improvement.

So, dear readers, I ask for your feedback. Opine to me. Is there anything on my page that you feel really shouldn't be on here? Should I maintain two blogs, one personal, and one store related? What type of content would you like to see? Should I offer free patterns or product give aways? Should I review craft products and tools that I use? How often should I update? Once a week? Once a month? Once a day?

I vigorously encourage, and would vastly appreciate any comments and suggestions you can give.