So, There's this guy I know...

I was reading through my joke e-mail the other day and it had this:

A strained voice called out through the darkened theater, "Please, is there a doctor in the house?!"
Several men stood up as the lights came on.
An older lady pulled her daughter to stand next to her, "Good, are any of you doctors single and interested in a date with a good, Jewish girl?"

And it made me laugh out loud (not always a good idea when you're at work because then you have to either read the joke or make up something that would be worthy of laughing out loud for that was not a joke email...very tricky!) and then ponder... I have had several conversations recently that start out "So, there's this guy I know..."

Ever since elementary school, I have been friends with Jen. Her dad is quite like my dad--he's not super chatty (definite understatement), he's totally committed to his family and he's thoughtful of others. Well, aparently my single status has been weighing on him because while he was eating out at Marie Calendar's, he commented to Jen's mom that maybe their waiter and I would hit it off....

And then when I was visiting Grandma Dixie she extolled the virtues of the very nice and very good looking fellow who worked downstairs at the front desk of the facility in which she lives. I was there at about 6pm...she made a point of mentioning several times that he got off work at 10pm so if I wasn't doing anything else and wanted to come back, that's when he'd be free. Now, never mind the fact that I had already noticed this guy and deemed him very attractive. He gets off work at 10pm...and he's very nice...and did she mention already that he gets off work at 10???

And these are just the more interesting stories of "So, there's this guy I know..."

Do you have an interesting story about somebody wanting to fix you up with someone? Do share, I don't want to be the only one that is getting these suggestions...

A guy and his tools...

Tyler got a huge tool set Christmas 2008 from Papa Dale and Grandma Carol...And BOY does he put them to good use. Papa Mike taught Tyler how to fix the vacuum and he did a great job!

Looking for a partner to walk with through life...

Remember waaay back when when I started this sock? Well, that particular sock is done, and is now patiently awaiting its partner. I learned a lot from this sock...patience for one thing. I calculated it out and determined that there are approximately 10,000 stitches in just this one little sock. I also learned that it is better to redo something that is wrong even if it's a pain in the rear because if it's wrong, you will never ever use it. On the first attempt, I followed the pattern as written for the toe of the sock, but when I tried it on, it scrunched up my toes. So, I waited...and waited...(Some might call it procrastinating, but I prefer to think of it as considering my options). Then one day, I came across a tutorial for creating anatomically correct toes for handknit socks. That was my Aha! Moment. I finally knew what I had been waiting for. I ripped out the existing, toe-scrunching toe and reknit according to the new anatomically correct tutorial and I LOVE it!!! It looks kinda funny when it is not on my foot, but it sure feels great when I'm wearing it. Now...I need to finish the second sock so that I can actually wear the pair.

I should put my socks in water

So, Grandma moved to Idaho. Did you know it snows there in the winter? I am firmly convinced that she did not take this into account when deciding to move there, since nobody in their right mind wants to live in a place where it snows and she's very smart...obvious conclusion? She must not have known about the snow. Well, I decided that someone who is living in a snowy place and who perpetually has cold feet (ok, really, a cold body) NEEDS some wool socks. And since I'm waaaay to big for my britches and had already nearly completed one sock I thought I should just whip her up a pair of blue socks for Christmas. Right...I said whip...(Please stop laughing so that you can continue on with the story of the Idaho Socks.)

I started the first sock in September and thought I'd have plenty of time. I read tales about people who "whip up" a pair of socks each month in between all their other committments so I thought I could surely finish one measly pair within a 4 month stretch. (Are you sensing a theme here, when you read the previous post in conjunction with this one?) I finished the first sock (after some intense, child free, committment free knitting time up at Lakeview)

and cast on for the second. You know the part of the movie "Finding Nemo" where Dorie sings, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." Yeah, that's how I felt with these socks. If I just kept knitting, surely they'd be done before Christmas! Well, they didn't...but they were done by the day after Christmas and Grandma loved them. In fact, when I had only one completed (and was working on the other) I gave her the first one to try on and see if she liked it...She forgot she even had it on and was wearing one blue handknit sock and one black store bought sock all day and only found the mis-match when she went to change for bed!!

(Post Title chosen by a 4 year old helper when I asked what I should call my story about socks)

Lesson Learned

(Pictures to come, as soon as the camera is located following the Christmas Spectacular)

I'm sometimes an optimist...I had a great idea the day after my birthday (August 21st for those who want to send presents) that I would knit Mom a sweater for her birthday (August 29th). Yeah, knit a sweater in a week? I really thought I could do it...Dad, however, was not convinced. When I told him I was knitting a sweater for Mom's birthday, he looked at me like someone looks at a small child who says, "I'm going to be Superman when I grow up!"...You know the look, right? Well, I knit and I knit like a madwoman...but alas, the week passed and I had not completed the sweater, so I gifted an alternate gift and resolved to have it done for Christmas.



Although I had originally intended this sweater to be a complete surprise, I started to get a little nervous about the fit. I am a little bigger than mom and it seemed to fit me just a wee bit snug, so I was pretty sure it would fit her, but then I started thinking, "What if it's too small and I'm just estimating wrong?!?" So, I broke down and told her that I was knitting her a gift and I thought that she'd rather have it fit than be surprised when she opened it...she agreed and tried it on. It FIT! (Which kind of makes me sorry I showed it to her, since all worked out well.) So I kept knitting , but at a more relaxed pace--after all, I had four months to finish, right? I knit a few socks (please note I did not say a pair of socks...I knit 2 socks each from a different pair), a hat, some slippers, and continued knitting the sweater. Then, December rolls around and I started to panic, just a bit. I HAD to get this sweater finished by Christmas or I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror. And so I knit...and knit...and finally finished knitting the sweater. I washed it, blocked it so the lace would expand to where it should be, and that's where I ran into a problem...buttons.



Have you ever tried to find exactly the right button to fit a specific size button hole in the perfectly matching color? Yeah, not so easy...So I scoured the stores for an appropriately sized button in just the right color. I lucked out when I hit JoAnn's and found the PERFECT buttons. They even came in a set of 3 (the number I needed) !!



So, the lesson learned here? Buy the buttons FIRST!!