A mixed bag today

Hey everyone...happy Wednesday! It's been a while since I last blogged, so I hope this finds you all well. The weather has been a bit confusing all over the world, to say the least. One day you wake up and find the sun streaming through the windows, and by the time you go to bed that night, you hear the rain on your rooftop. Crazy stuff. Scooter bought me a new car a couple of weeks ago...YES, I'm loving it!...but my new sunglasses I bought around the same time got left in the old car, which I still have. I left the house yesterday afternoon to do some shopping and realized I didn't have my sunglasses two blocks away. So why didn't I turn around and go back to get them out of the old car? It seems we have a water leak in our neighborhood, so the utility district is having to make repairs....right in front of our driveway! In order for me to get out of the driveway yesterday, they had to move equipment, get the worker out of the big hole they jackhammered up in the pavement, and guide me out. They teased around with me a bit, but they were very nice about it, so I didn't want to impose yet again just to get my sunglasses. I decided I would just buy an inexpensive pair when I got to the store I was going to do some shopping at to get me through the day. It was a very sunny morning and I can't drive without them. I guess I need to ask inexpensive by whose standards? I'm thinking I need to present the city with a bill for $22! Oh well, now I can just have a pair in my car and a pair in Scooter's. Ordinarily, I wouldn't balk at $22. for a pair of sunglasses. I have paid more in the past. BUT, I have also learned I'm really hard on them, so $20. is my usual price I will pay anymore. Here's where it gets really funny.....so I make my purchases of a new handbag, some towels for the front bathroom, a few pieces of lingerie (ahem), a decorative planter for our living room, a long handled back brush Scooter had been wanting for the shower, and the sunglasses. I had to stop at the grocery store on my way home for a few things. I used to hate it, but now my new SUV makes it so much easier. One of the cool features on a Lexus is a button on the key that opens and closes the rear door automatically. The lifts on the hatchback of my Eclipse had worn out, making it really heavy to lift to put my groceries in. I digress......I get up to the checkstand with our dinner, look out the front of the store, and notice it has gone all dark and cloudy. The clerk and I begin a conversation about the screwed up weather and I told him the reason the sun left again, was because I had just bought a new pair of sunglasses. He started laughing and said "well, take them back!" LOL

There has been quite a bit of knitting and crocheting going on in my world these days. I'm loving it! I'm on the second sleeve of my February Lady Sweater, I'm almost finished with another crocheted afghan for knittinwolf's charity drive, and I started a new pair of socks this past Monday. The pattern is Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt and these are by far, the prettiest pair I've ever knitted! I'm using Essentials (Stroll?) from KnitPicks in the Ivy Kettle Hand-Dyed colorway. Scooter had given me a gift certificate to KnitPicks for Christmas and I'm just now getting around to using it. So far, I've gotten three skeins of sock yarn, a ball winder, a swift, and two extra cables for my Harmony interchangeables in sizes I didn't have.

I was going to start on a quilt for one of my granddaughters yesterday and realized I didn't have a marking pen I needed. So after my shopping trip to the department store, I did make a quick stop over to JoAnn's where I also picked up the latest Special Issue of Crochet Today!, since it has some patterns in it that I will definitely be using. I won't get to start my quilt again today as it's knitting group night for me, but I will be anxious to get it going tomorrow! I will post pics of my progress once I get it going.

Before I leave here today, I want to remind everyone to please, please, take the no phone zone pledge!!! The California Highway Patrol released statistics last month for the first six months the law of hands free cell phone use while driving was enacted, and it shows a 20% reduction in fatalities and collisions. That translates to 700 fewer deaths and 75,000 to 100,000 fewer collisions. While those are amazing numbers, what's even more amazing to me is still seeing people driving and talking on their cell phones without a hands free device! What is so difficult about pulling off the side of the road if you have to absolutely use your phone?


In the words of my Irish ancestors...Slán agus beannacht leat (slaan agg-us ban-ocked latt). The Ulster dialect for "goodbye and blessings with you."