Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Update on the iMac

Being a life-long PC user, I was a little worried about the learning curve on the iMac. I know. I know. Everyone that has one says that "once you go Mac you never go back." I'm happy to report that I'm almost there. There are a few quirky things that I haven't figured out how to do yet but I'm working on it. I finally got the outgoing email to work on Monday so I've been able to retire my Yahoo! Mail for a little longer. 

I took my first Apple One to One class on Monday and took a list of questions with me (would you have expected anything less from me than an annotated list?) and the guy was great. He answered all my questions, patiently showing me how to do everything. We spent the rest of my session playing with iPhoto - which could possibly be the coolest photo thingie ever. 

Speaking of photos, here's one my mom took this past weekend when she and my dad were here. Ain't my Punkin big? Not sure what's going on with her new "model poses" but they are cute. 

Speaking of my mom... "Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you-oooo! Happy Birthday to you!" (Trust me, that's way better than me singing it.)

Sunday, May 25, 2008

It's Been Awhile

For the four people who actually read this blog, you'll notice that it's been awhile since I last posted. My brother and his girlfriend were here last weekend and we spent all day Saturday at the AT&T Classic and all day Sunday playing golf. 

Then, our computer finally bit the dust. (Insert moment of silence....) Last Thursday when we had finally had enough of fooling around with it, we trekked up to the Apple Store at the Mall of Georgia and bought an iMac 2.4GHz. I wish I could say it was "sweet" - but I'm not there just yet. 

You see, I'm a lifelong PC user and the transition has been less than easy for me. All of my little shortcuts no longer work. I can't "right click save as" or "right click open in a new window." And to top it all off, I can't SEND email and I can't get the thing to recognize my card reader so I can import all 650 pictures currently on the card into iPhoto. (iPhoto is one of the coolest things about the iMac - a definite selling point for me.) 

So, tomorrow, on Memorial Day, instead of sleeping late, I'll be trekking back to the Apple store at 9:00 in the morning for my first "One to One" session. Apparently that's where they take those of us who are in PC detox and slowly teach us how to use our new Macs. 

Maybe they'll at least teach me how to work my email and load my photos. After all, a blog without photos is just the tiniest bit boring! I'm just saying...

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Mother's Day

Look what I got for Mother's Day... They'll be here sometime this week. WooHoo! To prepare for their arrival, we went to the Superstore and to the driving range this evening. Punkin hit her clubs and is doing quite well. She got a new golf glove at the Superstore and thought she was 'da bomb! How cute is that? We're thinking that she's going to be a better golfer than gymnast - she can't point her toes (kinda hard to be a good gymnast if you can't point your toes).

I sold some stash yarn on Ebay - at least (overall) made my money back. Someone in PA got a dealio on some Hobby Lobby Yarn Bee eyelash yarn - 20 balls for $8.50. It retails for $2.97 per ball - I only paid $1 each for it. I made up the difference on some Lion Brand Homespun that was gifted to me. Those 10 skeins sold for $15.50. All together - $24, $4 more than I had "invested" in the eyelash. As they say, one man's trash....

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Taking the Edge Off

Nothing takes the edge off a perfectly crappy day at the Death Star like a nice glass (or two...or a bottle) of Chardonnay

and some new sock yarn.

That's 600 yards of hand painted from Spider Goddess in the Lucinda colorway - a lovely blend of pink, red and orange.
Can't wait to start a new pair with it, but first, I have to finish the Harlot Socks.

I'd say I'm about 85% done - I have a little more of the foot to finish, then the toe and I'm calling them done. I've been working on them on the train when I have to work downtown. Funny the looks you get when you knit on the train - it's almost like you have a communicable disease or something. The train can be packed with one seat left next to me and the knitting and seriously people will STAND rather than sit next to me. I'm mean, really, dude, I'm NOT going to poke you with them! Hello! Occasionally people will ask "what are you knitting?" and I'll politely reply "Socks. Keeps my hands busy..." but that's as far as the conversation goes. I'm waiting for someone to say something stupidly inappropriate like "they sell socks in stores" or "I wish I had time to do something like that..." so I can say "My parole officer recommended knitting to keep my hands busy. You know after what happened the last time...." How funny would THAT be? No one would ever sit next to me again. What a hoot!


On other sock yarn news - I've ordered my first skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in the Dixie Chick and Watermelon Tourmaline colorways. Can't wait to get them -should be sometime either tomorrow or Saturday. Happy Mother's Day to me! I have my eye on Pixie Park but I'm waiting to see if I like using this yarn before I "invest" anymore into it.


I thought you'd like to see some of the other yarn that I've gotten over the past few weeks.

Check this out....

This is 100 yards of Kollage Yarns Cornucopia in the Wine colorway - made of 100% corn!

Who knew they could make yarn out of corn?

This is 150 yards of Manos del Uruguay silk blend (30% silk and 70% merino wool) - it pretty much has all of my favorite colors in it.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing with it but I love it.
This is 270 yards of Louet Claudia Hand Painted linen in the Fresia colorway. The photo just doesn't do it justice - it's beautiful!

So pretty and orangey-pink. I got this and the Manos from Knitch when I went to see the Yarn Harlot.
This is my first purchase of the famed Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in a beautiful colorway that should have a name but only has a number (912, which now that I look at it is the same number as my mom's area code - what a kawinkeydink, huh?).

It, too, has all my favorite colors. I'm not sure what I'll do with 2 skeins of it but I'm sure it'll be wonderful! I got this and the Cornucopia from Patternworks.
Lest you say that I have a "yarn" problem (to go with my "wine" problem, HA!) I'm happy to report that I currently have two eBay auctions ending tomorrow for some stash yarn that I'm getting rid of. I'm got 20 balls of [what I now consider hideous] eyelash yarn from Hobby Lobby and 10 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun that was gifted to me. Just doing my part to share the yarn-ey love with other crafters! Knit on!