Under the Arch

• I went to Novaks again last night. I tried to explain to Will about how a lesbian bar and say a bar on the landing are a completely difference experience for a girl and so next week we are going to attempt a little social experiment to prove my point.;)

• The weather has been amazing the last few days and I'm sorry to see it go again, I can't wait for spring to truly get here.

• I'm finding myself more and more annoyed by the ex-boyfriend, though I'm trying really hard to bite my tongue so I don't ruin him even more for the next girl. I'm afraid that anything I say at this point would just be mean rather than helpful.

• I'm being promoted at work, but I'm not supposed to know and have to act surprised when it happens. ;) The new position is full time, more creative and should give me most weekends off. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan.

• I went to a craft fair today and bought a pair of earrings from a glass artist. She was explaining to me the process and I think I can make them myself, so I'll have to dig my supplies out of the basement soon and give it a try.

• Though something else is going on, I've written and deleted several sentences to say that I have no idea what that something is or if it is a something at all and rather than be upset, I'm mostly amused and curious to see what happens next. How's that for cryptic?

Guess who got a new camera for Christmas? Guess who hasn't completely figured out how to use it?

As far as New Years goes, I don't really do resolutions. (I think last year I called them self-delusions, though I did manage to follow through on a couple.) I do have the new camera that needs to be broken in and Moosh in Indy mentioned a 365 project she will be participating in, so I thought I'd give that a try.

I do have some ideas for things I'd like to try this year, but I think I'm going to keep those secret a bit longer til I figure out if I can. ;)

I did volunteer to write about my online dating experience and to round that out a bit, I'd love to hear stories from others, blogger or not, especially guys. Email me, k?

Yes, I did start dating someone new since Christmas and we are getting along swimmingly. My head is sort of spinning actually and I'm not sure whether to be thrilled or terrified. ;) (He's not a blog reader, isn't that nice? lol)

Until, I can get the photos I've already taken uploaded, here are a few posts from last year that I especially liked.

My resolution to keep knitting is off to a roaring start

Making fun of my brother

Enjoying the weather

Where I first talk about my issues with food

Taking a walk in the park

One of my more popular Naked Monday posts that was discussed over drinks

Bossy's visit

The first time I was mistaken for a hooker

Meeting a Cardinal's baseball player

My cat goes crazy

The post with the most hits (it's the bikini post, are you surprised?)

The ones about my car accident

The BlogHer posts, plus the hostel and my first troll

Exposing my messy side

Blogging while online dating can be hard

I bought 2 Altoids tins today. I don't like Altoids. I just wanted the tins. More on that later because my cat got a whiff of the Altoid residue in the tins and went apeshit on me. I have bite marks on my hand. I finally had to grab a hold of the back of her head and flick her in the nose. She let go and acted all wounded while I shouted, "Yeah. Hurts don't it? Fucker." Cats are weird. And now my hand smells like cat spit. And Altoids.

I tore out what I had managed to finish on Dan's hat last night.
I was about ready to start reducing to close the hat at the top when I realized that one of the stitches had fallen off one of the needles a couple of rounds ago and I hadn't noticed. Damnit.

I decided to go the "easier" route and buy a circular needle. (two needles connected by a cord or tube) Easier my ASS. I had trouble with it from the start and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.

"Damnit!! You're supposed to be easier! Be easier, you fucking thing!"

Needless to say, that didn't work either.

Then, I found a website that said when I had finished casting-on my stitches, I needed to stretch them out so that they covered the whole thing.

"OOOOh! Ok!"

So I cast-on my stitches again and stretched them out, and....no go. The cord was too long. What the hell?

After cursing the air blue, my cat was staring at me warily and I made a radical decision.

"I'll just cut it!!"

I estimated how much needed to go, cut it off, and after trying to use matches to fuse the two ends together and failing...miserably, I went to the kitchen, turned on the burner, and stuck both ends in the blue flame and smooshed them together(that's the technical term).

"Holy crap, it worked!! I'm a genius!"

bwahahahaha!

This is the knitting project I've been working on lately. My friend Dan is in the army and will be deployed to Afghanistan in March. I've been told it's quite cold in the mountains, so I thought I would make him a hat. The color doesn't show up very well here, but it's called "putty" if that helps. It was the manliest color of yarn I could find. But, here's my dilemma....this is the pattern. If you ignore the fact that the model in the picture is a girl, the pattern's not too girly is it? Help me out, here.

Some are silly, some are serious, but all are wishes...for myself.
(I'll be updating this one periodically.)

1. backpack around Europe
2. knit a sweater
3. sing the National Anthem at a major league baseball game
4. ride a horse on a beach in Hawaii
5. scuba diving in the ocean
6. wander around New York city
7. own a used bookstore
8. sell my art
9. live in a place with a closet big enough to hold all my clothes and shoes at once
10. take a cooking class
11. take a ballroom dance class
12. visit the Grand Canyon again
13. go on vacation and do nothing but lie on a beach and eat amazing food
14. learn to surf
15. Go to BlogHer!
16. Take my own Jeep to Camp Jeep