I got the job!

Whee. The short version is that it's an excellent opportunity for me, and I'll be moving over to the more academic side of things at the university. I still have a little over month before the position starts, so I've got lots of loose ends to tie up around here. I'm planning on taking a little bit of time off near the end of July so I can take a breath before starting my new position. Woot.

Thanks for all the good interview wishes -- it worked!

This weekend was a knitting extravaganza. I finished my Flower Basket Shawl and blocked it. (By the way, no one told me that I would completely fall in love with this shawl once I pinned it out. When I finally got it off the needles, I was happy. It looked, ya know, pretty cool. And then I blocked it out and pinned out the little ends and OH MY PRECIOUSSSSSsss.) I love it! I can't wait until it dries so I can dance around with it -- err, I mean, wear it.

unblocked shawl.
click here for the whole unblocked shebang.

I need to learn to wear my shawls with casual abandon. Currently, I'm a little scared to wear my other (Morehouse Merino) shawl because I'm afraid I might rip it. I actually find this to be an issue with a lot of my knits. (I should probably mention now that I'm really, really hard on my clothes. I sweat a lot. I spill things ALL THE TIME.) But, what's the point of knitting them if you're not going to wear them, right? (Of course, I could argue that I'm knitting things just for the process and that I don't really mind if the finished object never gets worn, but that is not how I work.) Food for thought.

In other news, out of sheer boredom this weekend, Jacob and I got a used Nintendo Gamecube, and found a new fun time: Super Monkey Ball. Super Monkey Ball is like Marble Madness, but you're a monkey! in a ball! and there's like, 9,500,456 levels to beat. And according to the box, it's "equal parts party and game!" SO. FUN. Jacob is probably posting on some gaming forum about ways to increase your points right now. hee hee.

So, in other scary news, Jacob casually mentioned that he saw a king snake in our yard on Friday.

A king snake looks like this.

I was like, oh my god I will freak out if I see a snake. And he said, oh, they're nice, they eat poisonous snakes, no worries, etc. Hmm. Then, Friday around midnight, I went to take Bella out, and I told Jacob that I was SCARED BECAUSE I MIGHT SEE THE SNAKE. Jacob told me that they don't come out at night (a deliberate lie, I might add, to assuage my fears) so I went out with Bella. And we're just moseying along, doing our thing, when Bella got really excited and wagged her tail and danced around to tell me that she'd made a NEW FRIEND! and then I noticed that she was playing with a three foot SNAKE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. And ya'll, I have never screamed so loud in my entire life. And I kept screaming. And Jacob came running outside, and directed me into the house. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I didn't realize that I am so scared of snakes, but I AM SO SCARED OF SNAKES. I'm actually getting the willies typing this. You can make fun of me all you want, and call me a girly girl, but now I'm terrified to walk Bella because I'm afraid Mr. Snake might slither up on me. And eat me.

All right then. I'm going to go charge my camera batteries so I can take a picture of the blocked shawl tonight. Now that I'm temporarily back from shawlsville, I think I'm going to knit on a few unfinished projects that I have around (River Tape top, ribbon tank, Secret Project That Shall Not Be Named, etc). Back to work....

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (54)

Gah! I can't even think of a damn title right now. I'm thinking about making decisions and jobby stuff and school, etc. Tomorrow I have a stressful appointment that could potentially be a great thing (read: interview) and I'm a little nervous. Send coffee. And also a good hair day.

Now I will use some distraction tactics to take my mind off the stress. Look at these cute dogs (you knew the distraction would be a schmoo, right?)

Betsy and Yoda are NOT friends.


Betsy is a tiny lab puppy (Jacob's parents just got her). She is adorable and all puppified and wants to play all the time. Yoda is not pleased with the cuteness. He wants to be left alone. Here's what happens when he gets angry.


No schmoos were harmed during the taking of this picture.
Isn't Angry Vampire Yoda the best?

In other distraction news, here is my current knitting distraction: Mikado. Ribbon.

Mmm. Shiny stretchy tanky happy times.

That's an almost completed back you see before you. The crochet hook is there for scale, although it doesn't look as tiny on the blog as it does in real life. It's teeny. Jacob was like, um, why is your shirt so tiny? But it stretches. A lot. I think it's gonna fit. I mean, I KNOW it's gonna fit, even though I, um, didn't do a gauge swatch. It will fit. This tank has been excellent TV/movie knitting. I knitted it through the Alias Season 3 finale (have you seen this piece of crap? All I'm gonna say is: the disguises? are ridiculous.) and through Sideways (which I liked okay. Jacob liked it okay too, enough to buy some Pinot Noir to drink with dinner tonight. I thought that was cute).

All this distraction isn't working - I'm still thinking about tomorrow. And grad school. And what I want to be when I grow up. Does anyone want to quit their job with me and start raising alpacas? They're really cute. Okay. Off to bed.

P.S. Thanks for all the happy housewarming comments! I'm so glad you came by. I'm thinking about finding a way to work the cartoon Carrieoke back into the design because I kinda miss her too. Is that vain? **edited to add: I'm testing her out, in small version, on the sidebar.**

P.P.S Oh my goodness! This weekend, we went to a show on Friday night (two great bands, Geoff Reacher and Welter Weight, if you're ever in Athens and get a chance to check them out). After the shows, they had Indie Rock Karaoke at the bar. Now, Athens can be a hipster kinda place sometimes, but this karaoke was TOO hilarious. They had lots of indie songs, but the funny part was that any commercial songs in the songbook had a JUSTIFICATION out to the side. Like, "Britney Spears, Hit Me Baby One More Time" -- "Came with the karaoke machine. Had to put in catalog." HAHAHAHAHA. So, I put in a song that the dude didn't have, and I had to pick one on the fly, and when I got up there I said, hey, dude, can I sing Britney Spears? And he was all, 'um, no...I'd really rather you didn't. Your song is fine.' um, okay, hipster boy. hee hee hee hee. I think I'm too mainstream for Indie Rock Karaoke. Har.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)

Welcome to the new blog! I still have some kinks to work out, but it's pretty much where I want it to be. Thanks for clicking and finding me here - and change yer links!

I actually have some knitting to show! I've been knitting a lot (which may or may not have to do with borrowing Seasons 2 and 3 of Alias from Miss High Energy. Oh, Season 3, how strange you are. But still I watched the whole damn thing...someone give me hope for Season 4, please?) Knitting during Alias means lots of stockinette or ribbing, because I'm not even going to think about working on my Flower Basket Shawl while I'm engrossed in a show. But, I have been working on this little number:

Ribbon yarn makes me happy.

Fabulous Carolyn sent me this beautiful Mikado Ribbon yarn and a pattern for a super cute strappy tank top, and as soon as I saw this shiny yummy yarn, I put aside my current project and cast on. (I'm so easily distracted.) It knits up SO prettily...I'm hoping that the tank turns out because I (ahem) was so excited that I didn't check gauge. Hee. But ribbing stretches, right? So it will fit.

My current work-in-progress was the Bella sweater from Rowan's It's a Tape Thing. I'm using Rowan River Tape, which is gorgeous yarn, but I can't seem to get gauge with it. (I didn't actually do a swatch for this one either...I just knit the back and two front sides before realizing my gauge was a wee bit off. Oops.) It's a fast knit on large needles, so it's okay, but the yummy Mikado gave me a little distraction from my re-knitting.

Bella likes the River Tape project because of its name, but she also loves the yarn. See?

Bad. Schmoo.

I salvaged most of the yarn. I think she brought the rawhide over to make it seem like she wasn't involved in the tangling of the yarn. Of course instead of scolding her, I took a picture. D'oh.

ooh! I have one more thing to show you -- my blocked Morehouse Merino shawl!

Blocking is cool.
(but I think it makes my butt look kinda big.)

I could've blocked this shawl even larger -- I can't believe how big it got! I *love* this shawl. It's so easy to make, and it's lightweight - I could totally use it in the summer. If I ever needed a shawl for any reason in the summer. Here's my serious shawl pose: click, and here's the shoulder shot: click. Yay shawl time.

I want to again thank Miss Fluffa herself for all of her help, encouragement and support while over at Pretty Posies for my blog hosting -- Becky really encouraged me to keep doing this when I first started blogging, answered a zillion questions, and she is a not only a fabulous web hostess, but a great bloggy friend! Thank you Becky!

well, I hope you like the new site as much as I do. I'm excited about playing around with the new space...but not until I go knit some more on that ribbon yarn. Bye!

Posted by Carrieoke at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (58)

If anyone reading this works at a university, you know what time of year it is: the end of the fiscal year. Blech. So, I feel your pain. Just saying.

Perhaps reminiscing will put me in a better mood. I've told you about the fabulousness of the marathon...now, can I tell you about how fabulous California was? I. heart. California. Our first stop was the OC (sing with me now ....'Califor-NYAH, here I coooommmmme...') to see dear friends Taylor and Valerie. Taylor was one of my first college friends and I've known Valerie since college as well. They are good times. But really -- I was there to see their dog, Odile.

Schmoo Number One.

This is Odile with German Mickey. Odile knows how to party.

So, we spent one night in Orange with Taylor and Val and then went to the train station to catch a train to San Diego. AMTRAK! Whee! The Santa Ana train station is actually really beautiful, and I started snapping pictures until a guard apprehended me and told me to stop. Here's the evidence before I was accosted. So. pretty.

I was picturing a lovely, quiet train ride, sitting by the window with my knitting and my Jacob, watching the coast. Ahh. Well, not so much. There was definitely knitting, and Jacob, and the coast, but this particular train was pretty full and noisy. We also had an admirer who approached us in the train station for conversation (where he proceeded to tell us that we should "watch out for people like me - they'll rob you blind..") Sketch-y. So I was a little nervous on the train, because I thought Drunk Amtrak Guy was going to steal our stuff. Which of course didn't happen.

Here's what did happen: I finished my Morehouse Merino shawl.

Train Time.
This was right after I took it off the needles -- it's SO soft. It's been blocked now and the thing is HUGE, but I'll show you that later.

So. Yay. I'm not going to give you a play-by-play of the rest of the entire weekend, the highlights are in the extended entry. My impressions of San Diego (mostly Ocean Beach): LAID BACK. I think that might be more of an Ocean Beach thing. And I loved it. I know that Southern California isn't all nice people and tequila parties and sunshine and ocean breezes, but my trip was! And you can get 30 cans of beer for $9.99 at Rite-Aid. HELLO?!?! Click for more:

Schmoo Number Two. This is Carlo. He belongs to Jacob's cousin Will and his girlfriend Jeni, who totally rock. Carlo will bite your hand. But then he will curl up with you while you nap.


Cousins!

This is Jacob with his cousin Will. Will is totally the nicest guy you've ever met. Seriously. Not only did he welcome us into his house, he and his friends took us around Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and even took us to a tequila party with his friends.

Patron, or Don Julio?

This is me and super nice Christine at said tequila party. That was shot number 4. I was going to try and tell you that we went to Tijuana, but I knew you wouldn't believe me. (Also, did you know that it's not Tijuana? It's TJ. And Ocean Beach is OB. I'm just going to take the 5 to the 8, dude, and now I live in California. Hee.)


Cactus.
This is a cactus in the backyard of the tequila party house. Jacob was so excited about all the crazy plants that we saw everywhere. His bonsai trees would be so happy in a climate like San Diego.


Silly.

Here we are at Cathy's victory dinner - Jacob is making a ridiculous face. Note how sunburned we are...I'm still peeling.

Yum.

This is Cathy eating the biggest dessert I've ever seen at the hotel. Doesn't she deserve to eat the whole thing? I think so.

Well, clearly there are more pictures, but you get the idea. I met lots of cool people and schmoos and ate good food. I'm setting up a photo gallery with the rest of the pics soon and I will link to it.

Happy Monday. Blech.

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)

My sister Cathy ran a marathon! All 26.2 miles, dude. Seriously.

Rock. N. Roll.

And we got to see it. People, if you're going to run a marathon anytime soon, may I suggest the lovely city of San Diego as a location? It's perfect. Nice mild temperatures, ocean breeze -- no humidity. Ahh. (The South has its finer points, but humidity SUCKS.)

I'll get back to San Diego and its fabulousness in a minute. THE MARATHON. So much fun. We got up at around 8:30am (no small feat since the previous night had included a tequila party -- pictures later -- and Cathy had already been running for TWO HOURS! ) and drove bleary-eyed downtown. Cat's husband and his parents were already staked out at mile 14. Somehow, through the grace of God and the organization of the Rock and Roll Marathon, Jacob and I ended up near the finish line. We camped out on a little grassy area about 3/10 of a mile from the finish. And then I cheered for about three hours straight.

I didn't realize how FUN it would be to watch people run a marathon. Lots of people write their names on their clothes, their numbers, or up and down their arms and legs, so you could yell "GOOOOO SARAH! YOU GOT IT! HOME STRETCH, BAY-BEE!!" and then the runners would give a thumbs up or a smile, and just keep on running.

I was getting so excited for these strangers, that they were so close to finishing a marathon -- so I should've been prepared for how PROUD and EXCITED I would be when my sister ran by. I wasn't. I was so overwhelmed! Luckily, Jacob was prepared, and had his camera ready to take some actions shots...

Go Cathy! Home Stretch!

So I started screaming, "That's my sister! Woo-hoo!" and running on the side when I saw her totally kicking ass. Here's proof:

Crazy Bag Lady Cheers Runners.

And she totally finished - 6 hours and 18 minutes. They even called her name out as she crossed the finish line!

Check out that medal!

So. Proud. The 800 runners/walkers from Train to End Stroke, (Cathy's fundraising group) raised over a million dollars -- rock stars, all of them. It was so inspiring to see people of all ages and sizes and shapes out there to raise money for stroke victims. It's enough to make a girl wanna train for a half marathon in Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day... I guess I shouldn't put that on the blog if I don't mean it!

I will post later this week with other details from our trip to San Diego, including the tequila party, Jacob's totally awesome cousins and their awesome friends, OB, PB, the OC, and more. Whee. Oh, and I finished one shawl, I'm 3/4 of the way done with another!

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (53)

I accidentally drank three cups of coffee and a double vanilla latte today. Wheeeeeeee! I'm jittery. Wheeeeeeee!

Here's a picture to bring joy to everyone. Or just my feet.

New shoes make a girl feel pretty.

I heart my new Sam and Libby shoes. I have extremely narrow feet and ankles that turn inward, so finding cute shoes that also fit well is kind of a challenge. Sam and Libby always fit me, and also, they were on sale at Rack Room, on a holy weekend: Buy One Pair Get The Second Pair Fifty Percent Off. Hooray for sales.

I also tried to shop for clothes in the juniors section this weekend, because the clothes in juniors are SO. MUCH. CHEAPER. Not so much. (Note to self: I no longer can wear juniors. Even the biggest size. My booty is taking over. Must buy clothes in the ladies section.)

I'm leaving for San Diego tomorrow to watch my fabulous twin sister run in the Rock and Roll Marathon. Go Cathy! Go Cathy!

Classy Cathy can run a marathon.

In addition to running marathons, Cathy teaches high school, and also lends me great clothes all the time. She's a schmoo.

The Rock and Roll Marathon has this cool thing called Wiggle Wireless -- if you register, you can actually receive text messages on your cell phone that tracks a runner's progress in the marathon. No kidding. So I'll get a TEXT MESSAGE! when Cathy is passing all the Kenyans and hitting the 10K mark, or the 20-mile mark. Isn't that so freakin' cool? (I told my friend Catherine about it this morning, and she said, "Surely we can end poverty if we can do something like that." Word.)

Oh, the knitting? Well, work was officially LAME yesterday so I decided to take a brief break and take some blurry secret pictures.

Yummy purple shawl.

I'm all about the shawls. This shawl is going really quickly - it's laceweight yarn on size 10s, so it's a little tricksy at times, but the Morehouse Merino is SO SOFT AND DELICIOUS. I'm planning to take this shawl and my Flower Basket Shawl on my trip. I also have a River Tape project in the works, although I left the pattern book at Jacob's parents house, so I may or may not be able to continue knitting on it. And of course, Jacob's sock.

Delirious! Wheee! I'm going to go try and wrap up all the looses ends at work before I take off for the West Coast. We are staying with Jacob's cousins right near the beach! Yay! And I'm going to get to see this fabulous girl because we're flying into the OC, and also I get to ride a train. I've never ridden a train! CAN YOU STAND THE FUN TIMES?

If you are familiar with San Diego and would like to tell me about a yarn shop, please do! I may have time to pop in and buy lots of yarn -- errr -- browse. Hope ya'll have a great rest of the week.

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I accidentally drank three cups of coffee and a double vanilla latte today. Wheeeeeeee! I'm jittery. Wheeeeeeee!

Here's a picture to bring joy to everyone. Or just my feet.

New shoes make a girl feel pretty.

I heart my new Sam and Libby shoes. I have extremely narrow feet and ankles that turn inward, so finding cute shoes that also fit well is kind of a challenge. Sam and Libby always fit me, and also, they were on sale at Rack Room, on a holy weekend: Buy One Pair Get The Second Pair Fifty Percent Off. Hooray for sales.

I also tried to shop for clothes in the juniors section this weekend, because the clothes in juniors are SO. MUCH. CHEAPER. Not so much. (Note to self: I no longer can wear juniors. Even the biggest size. My booty is taking over. Must buy clothes in the ladies section.)

I'm leaving for San Diego tomorrow to watch my fabulous twin sister run in the Rock and Roll Marathon. Go Cathy! Go Cathy!

Classy Cathy can run a marathon.

In addition to running marathons, Cathy teaches high school, and also lends me great clothes all the time. She's a schmoo.

The Rock and Roll Marathon has this cool thing called Wiggle Wireless -- if you register, you can actually receive text messages on your cell phone that tracks a runner's progress in the marathon. No kidding. So I'll get a TEXT MESSAGE! when Cathy is passing all the Kenyans and hitting the 10K mark, or the 20-mile mark. Isn't that so freakin' cool? (I told my friend Catherine about it this morning, and she said, "Surely we can end poverty if we can do something like that." Word.)

Oh, the knitting? Well, work was officially LAME yesterday so I decided to take a brief break and take some blurry secret pictures.

Yummy purple shawl.

I'm all about the shawls. This shawl is going really quickly - it's laceweight yarn on size 10s, so it's a little tricksy at times, but the Morehouse Merino is SO SOFT AND DELICIOUS. I'm planning to take this shawl and my Flower Basket Shawl on my trip. I also have a River Tape project in the works, although I left the pattern book at Jacob's parents house, so I may or may not be able to continue knitting on it. And of course, Jacob's sock.

Delirious! Wheee! I'm going to go try and wrap up all the looses ends at work before I take off for the West Coast. We are staying with Jacob's cousins right near the beach! Yay! And I'm going to get to see this fabulous girl because we're flying into the OC, and also I get to ride a train. I've never ridden a train! CAN YOU STAND THE FUN TIMES?

If you are familiar with San Diego and would like to tell me about a yarn shop, please do! I may have time to pop in and buy lots of yarn -- errr -- browse. Hope ya'll have a great rest of the week.

**Hey there! In the spirit of supporting wonderful family (like my sis!) and friends who like to walk/run for good causes, mosey on over and show your support for Miss Small Hands Chelsea, who's doing a run/walk for breast cancer this weekend. Any amount helps -- Click here to donate! **

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)