Updates

1. So Far, So Good
Bananas has made it safely to the first mail drop and has updated her journal here. She has met a lot of other hikers on the trail, including one with the inexplicable trail name "Cannibal." I'm sure there's a story behind that one, but all the same, I think I'd be sleeping with one eye open.....

2. Dem Fischer Sin Fru
The final clue came out today. Good thing, too, because when I finally get past clue 1, I'm sure I'll just tear right through the next 6. It's a beautiful pattern (I will post pictures of the final project eventually--can you hang on until 2009?) based on/inspired by the old fairy story, The Fisherman and His Wife. That was my favorite Grimms Brothers story--the old man frees a flounder from his net & it grants him wish after wish, at his wife's request, and she's never satisfied & just gets more demanding. Finally the flounder takes everything away from them.

3. Ex-Wife Issues
I have no idea if the ex-wife repellent is working or not, but now a lot of people are hitting the blog looking for ways to cope with hostile ex-wives, and there has been a huge response. So, I will be adding some future posts about ideas, coping mechanism, advice we received, father's rights. This isn't going to turn into a site about divorce, but I don't think anyone should have to go through this type of thing alone. If anyone has ideas, tips, advice--anything to share, please let me know. One note: I know how frustrating and draining it can be to continually cope with someone who is totally consumed with hate, but only constructive ideas are going to be posted. This is about how to cope and finding options--not about bashing the ex. That which makes you angry controls you. A friend of ours stumbled across a blog by Andy's ex, and it's all about how awful he is & picks apart stuff on my blog, and while the obsessive fixation 4 years later is a bit worrying, what she actually says about Andy & about us is irrelevant--she can't send the venomous letters to us any longer, and obviously has no one who will listen to her, and she's just jealous & angry that Andy is happy & that no one cares what she thinks any longer. The opposite of love isn't hate--it's indifference. As a person, she just doesn't matter.

4. I Joined Another Knit-Along (KAL)
I will be seeking therapy--do you think they treat over-optimistic crafting???? And, in my best "enabler" spirit, it's this one. My theory is, if you take people with you, it's a little less insane. It closes on March 25, uses fingering yarn and size 7 needles (for non-knitters, this is a much bigger needle size than KALs usually use, so it will theoretically go faster--or would if you didn't have 58 other projects going at the same time).

5. Eating
I finally had one of my chocolate cinnamon bears (thanks Ellen!) and I thought they were pretty good. Andy didn't like them, but had two. (I didn't ask). Cinnamon and chocolate are such an unusual combination that it was a pretty unexpected taste, but it was REALLY good to have a cinnamon bear again.
When I eat things that are obviously pretty processed, my stomach hurts, I feel more sluggish, and I feel hungrier about 2 hours later than I should. To be honest, I did not expect that there would be much of a difference--either eliminating the processed foods or having them again--so if anything, I was biased the other way, but even at the risk of permanently giving up a lot of foods I really enjoy, I feel better when they're out of my life. *sigh*

Anyone have any thoughts on how to make oatmeal taste like cinnamon bears?

Day 16 - WE GOT PIZZA!!!!!!

Last night, after THOROUGHLY checking the ingredients and nutritional information for our local gourmet pizza shops, we ordered an allowable pizza!!!! To a woman who had tuna salad for breakfast AND lunch yesterday, this was like winning the lottery!!!

Yeah baby, walking on the wild side....

Uh huh.

And update time, because I've been a little remiss...

For Valentine's Day, Andy--the most romantic man I've ever known--decorated the house with a trail of cards & gifts (constructed with YARN since I'm not buying any new yarn all year), and these were among the trail's stops:



There's a man who REALLY knows how to woo his wife! 13 more days and I can actually have those cinnamon bears!!!!

My gift to Andy included, among other things,


Ain't love grand?

And in a totally unrelated update, my dem fischer sin fru is making progress


albeit slowly. I'm still on clue one and clue 4 came out yesterday, and my goal is to only be 3 clues behind, so I need to get cracking before next week's clue. In the files section of the group there's actually a second project for people to work on while they're waiting for the next clue to come out, just in case it wasn't humiliating enough to just be behind.

To be fair, I have been working on other things (that's my excuse & I'm sticking to it). The tie-dye pi shawl is almost done and I'm just adding the edging--I say "just," because it's small in comparison to the rest of the shawl, but it's about 1200 rows of knitting. (I try not to think about that part).

Because of the strangeness of the striping effect of the yarn, I couldn't find an edging that worked (though Andy can attest to the attempts--and the swearing), I made one up. Luckily, it seems to be working--or I'm just deluding myself in an attempt to get it finished. I'm willing to go either way.

Dem fischer sin fru

The new KAL has been open for 24 hours now, and I'm sure someone has already posted a message that they have finished clue number one and that they are translating the Old Testament into pig-latin in order to have something to do while waiting for Clue #2. Luckily, as you might have guessed, this KAL is in German, so I am unable to read most of the messages, having studied Latin instead of German while in college. But if the Vatican ever hosts a knit-a-long, I'll certainly know what is going on.

I have started clue 1:



I am probably behind, but I learned to knit long ago to help cope with my Type A behavior, and am trying very hard to avoid competitive knitting, though there is a part of me that might be tempted to argue that if one can call Curling a sport, competitive knitting can't be too much of a stretch. I bet an experienced sock knitter turning a heal burns about as many calories as a curler. Throw in the occasional temper-tantrum over a dropped stitch or a printed chart error and presto! ESPN might even be interested.