Gadgets!

Did I mention that I got a laptop for work? Anyhoo, I did. John was tired of listening to me fuss about the lack of computers there are at work, and he got me my Christmas and birthday present early (TOTALLY unexpected by me).

Well, I needed a mouse because I hate those little glide pads on laptops, and when we went shopping we saw the neatest bit of technology. They have developed "nano transmitters" for wireless mice so that it's super tiny when attached to your laptop! It's actually small enough that you can plug it in and forget about it. So cool! We were so transfixed that we had to get it.

Look at how small that baby it! Craziness!

Tiny Sweater!

Ok, so I found at my favorite LYS these tiny sweater key chains, one of which was in Tribe Pride colors. Well, sadly for Lara, there was only one. So this Christmas in my surge of tiny knitting, I made her a tiny sweater keychain too... really that's all the story behind it. It's a tiny sweater for crying out loud, it doesn't need much of an explanation! When was the last time you made a tiny sweater, huh? Though I probably can safely say that this will be my last time making a tiny sweater as it was a royal pain joining the sleeves to the body. :(

Then, as I got into the tiny-sock phase of Christmas (bet you didn't know that on the 13th day of Christmas you give out tiny socks, did you?), I wanted to play with color changes in the sock. My test-dummy was again Tibe Pride colors, and I think it turned out rather nicely, if I do say so myself. And I do say so. :)

Koolhaas Hat... Finally!

As sad as it makes John (and he gets really upset too!), I pulled out the Koolhaas hat that I had made way back during the Council meetings. It was too short, a fact made worse by it being a little too small and pulling itself off your head. So I just bumped the pattern up a needle size to make it just a little bit bigger... Little did I notice the first time I made the hat, only the ribbing at the bottom was on the size 6 needles. Not the whole hat as I made it. SO! My second attempt was to actually follow the pattern as written. Silly me.

Yay for taking pictures of yourself in the bathroom mirror. You never see all the shmutz on the mirror until you take a picture in it.


I really like the cable pattern that he used for this hat. It was pretty simple, too, once you got a few lines done and could see where you were in the pattern.


My favorite part, though, is the finishing top bit. I was worried as I was making it of how the top would end... Hey, I am living with a 6'4" person; the top of my head gets seen a lot more than most people's do. (don't mind the cat hair)

Ordo to the Rescue!

Shelf!

YAY! A DVD shelf! I feel like a real person now, rather than a homeless college kid who's movies permanently live in a DVD binder. Funniest part about all of this was that each shelf we looked at was too small for all my movies! We would've needed to buy two shelves immediately to fit all the movies I already have. This one was juuuuussst big enough, but if we get too many more, then we will need another shelf.

John was laughing at me, because setting up the shelf also required that all my movies be removed from the binder, put back in their cases, then alphabetized. He kept asking "don't you have paperwork to do?" And I was like, "Of course I have paperwork, why do you think I want to set up the shelves tonight?" :)

Looking at it makes my Type-A side feel so happy. :)

Camera

New cameras are a lot of fun, except when you have very little to take pictures of. Only the fuzzies are willing models for me. I have a lot of pictures of Harvey and the puppies. Like a crazy cat-lady. :(

Harvey Cat's "Regal Kitty" face

Harvey says "phtbtbhbhbhbtbhbhbhbhtthtbhbhbhbh!" [blows raspberry]

Maile says, "Whatchya doing up there? I am very short! Let me see, let me see!"

John is more interested in defeating the "smile detector" on my camera. You can set the camera to automatically take a picture when it recognizes a smile. However, what it calls a "smile" is only based on crinkled eyes and teeth shown, so the two pictures below are John "smiling" for the camera.

Do a good deed

I think Lara sent me this link, but I figured I should spread the clicks. It's a website that gives food to animal shelters... you just need to click on that huge purple button! Actually, you need to click on it twice, once here on my blog, then once again on their site. My button just sends you to the site. The sponsors pay for the advertisement space and the money goes to feed the fuzzies! How cool is that?

Remember, you can click once EACH DAY for over half a bowl of food donated! Each day! Click on the link and feed the animals.

FINALLY!

I HAVE A NEW CAMERA!!



And I have to admit, it's a bit of gadget pron. It's really cool. Very sleek, touchscreen on the back, smile detection... Who would've thought that all of a sudden I'd become such a techno-phile? (I already made the guys at both Radio Shack and the cell phone store envious of my new phone.)

So, yes, once I get a decent memory stick, I will be taking about a gazillion pictures and (hopefully) posting them! Yay! Pictures!

V is for...

V is for Vendetta! No really, V is for Virginia! I am that weird Navy brat who never remembers moving once in her life. Both Lara and I were born in Newport, RI... then we got bounced between Jacksonville and Orlando, Fl a few times... then we moved to Virginia Beach. My first memory is our first meal in that house- we used my kindergarten napping mat for a table (no furniture yet) and we ordered KFC.

So, Dad finished his ship duty time stationed there, and we stayed when he went to shore duty. When he retired, we thought we were gonna move, but he found a job still in the Beach. For me, moving to Lynchburg is the first time I've packed up and moved all of my worldly possessions. It was a weird feeling, moving out of the only house I have ever called "Home."

You know what else is weird? - this whole "Virginian" thing. I mean, Virginia is definitely a Southern state (Robert E Lee, anyone?), but I grew up in a predominantly military town. We had people from all over the globe to grow up with. I always referred to my Southern-isms as "latent" because they really only came out when I was compared to a Northerner. However, Lynchburg is definitely NOT military and definitely IS country. I feel like this big-city girl sometimes, especially when I see some of the rednecks that live out here. I was picking up some take-out the other day after work (i.e., dress pants, nice shoes, professional top), and the first thing the waiter asks me is if I was from around here! It's weird that only a few hours inland and the whole area changes so drastically.