I think it's high time Mrs. You know who learns to clean up after herself

I helped my sister, Pepper, clean her art room today. Mostly we were cleaning up the closet she shares with the other art teacher. Sorry, but just to quickly vent...and please, I've thought about bleaching my hair blond so many times...nothing against anyone who does. Normally it looks great...but there are some situations when the chemicals start seeping into your brain...anyway...

Mrs. You-Know-Who-You-Are,

You art so lucky to be teaching with Mrs. Pepper b/c she puts up with your superficial, shamefully horrendous behavior and treats you with the civility and respect that you don't give to her. For the love of the Gods, you should be ashamed that you don't keep track of your supplies and that your younger co worker, her sister (who had a hole-ly classroom of her own to set up thank you very much) and their lupified mother have to come in and clean up after your years of closet neglect! It concerns me that my former students might be subjected to you in the classroom because I have total confidence that you care little for anything beyond yourself. Your dark, dark brown roots are showing; go bathe in peroxide and wash away all those tough thoughts you may be having. PS: Don't ever wear a low cut horizontal striped tank under a t-shirt that doesn't cover your belly or boobies. That's not appropriate attire for school. If even a tom boy like me knows that so should you, blondie.

Love,
GW

Then again, maybe Mom, Pep, and I shouldn't be complaining about our jobs...read this link about a guy who really hates his job.

Pilfered from Cynical - C Blog....possibly the most entertaining blog out there.

In knitting news, I made up a pattern for a holiday themed scarf (I'm sure there are patterns just like it elsewhere, but I've never seen one).

The next pagan holiday I celebrate is Harvest (or Mabon). That's the autumnal equinox so the night and the day are both the same length.

I wanted it to be a little lacy (representing the breeziness of summer) and also see patches of solid stitches (creating warmth for winter).

I wanted it to have both sides of stockinette visible on either side (purls always remind me of moonlight glistening off ripples of water and the v's of knit sides can be compared to the rays of the sun).

So I thought about all of this and came up with a pattern using some Noro Silk Garden Sock that has some autumn-ish flava's to it. I'm just playing with the needle size but will post pics soon.

Super Busy...No Pics

Pepper moved yesterday. The whole week was all about getting her ready for it. It was very tiring. I never realized they (my sister and brother-in-law) have so much crap:) The things we accumulate. As a bonus I've been running regular migraines.

The 4th of July was very nice and surprising. Usually Mr. G works, but he was off so we BBQed. I invited a few people but didn't expect anyone b/c I knew some go to the same BBQ each year, or they were busy...but we had nine people. It was a very nice surprise. Griffin, my friend's son born last July 8th, stumbled around my house and I just adored watching him.

I can't believe Griffin turned 1 on Wednesday. I thought about him all day long, and the stressful time my friend had waiting to get pregnant, and couldn't help think of my own difficulties. Spending time with Grif or seeing other women w/ their babies doesn't make me sad or bother me. I like to see others happy; it makes me happy.

Fittingly, but coincidentally I attended a Resolve meeting Wednesday night, migraine blaring like my own personal internal car horn perpetually honking in my head. Resolve is the National Infertility Association. The group meeting (confidential, so I ain't sharing and hard for me 'cause I'm super shy) really guided me to feel more hopeful. I wasn't depressed, but I had kinda given up. I was waiting for Mr. G to come around to be comfortable, something I was thinking about long before I found we had problems having kids of our own...actually before I met Mr. G. I made an appointment to go to a fertility clinic next Thursday to consult w/ a doctor that specializes in infertility. I'm kinda private about this stuff...can't imagine posting this...but I'm going to.

The following day my girlfriend from work is going in to the same place to see if she's pregnant. Please pray to your respective gods for her. Even though I don't think the gods will pick to bless her w/ a child b/c I prayed more I do believe in positive energy. And, after all she's been through, I can't believe she still has any of her own left...but she does. She's just amazing and with an adopted son I can see what a great mom she'll be to a second. Now that I'm crying I will sign off.

A little bit of everything

Firstly, I'm really enjoying working on the Clapotis. The Jitterbug is so soft and smooth. I really thought that I wouldn't like the looseness of it w/ the size 6s, but I do love it. The Gods know I should be working on the tomten that keeps getting shoved to the side for one emergency project or another (gifts basically) but I can't take my hand off the Clapotis.

Nextly, I'm very tired of my dad being away. He's been visiting his mother - notice I type his mother and not my grandmother. I had a grandmother so I know what one is supposed to be like. Lupie's mother was a truly amazing person and devoted her entire life to her children and grandchildren. My dad's mom - not so much. I honestly don't know how he ended up being such a great person. Anyway, sometimes I wanna smack him but I am very attached to my dad and feel weird when he's away. I worry about how he's sleeping, how his stress level and blod pressure are while he's spending time with this very insensitive woman. I just can't wait 'til he's back tomorrow.

A small shot of Smudge. He's so cute. He's on antibiotics again. This poor guy has had such a tumultuous life!

Abandoned, homeless before he came to us, then the f-ing head tilt last summer (we thought he was going to die. I was just re-reading the posts from then to do the link here...it was horrible. I type this as Smudge is attacking my Ikea window bench in the sun room: ) and now a cold (sneezing and boogers are dangerous for rabbits) for 5 months. The doctor said the next time he has boogers he may want to flush out Smudge's nasal cavity.

Life has been consumed by Pepper house! I'm tired (had a freakin' headache and belly ache all last night and today) but am having so much fun painting with Pepper and our mom. They are hysterical and we all work well together. I love my co workers in school, but not every arrangement is as effortless as, for instance, my working relationship with my mentor. Its even better with my sister and my mother...like we don't even need to speak sometimes and we just do. I love summer with them (we are all teachers so the three of us are off in the summer).

Painting demands comfort so here I am in my good luck over the knee neon orange socks, Pepper's borrowed faux crocks in a Raquel Reed hair shade of blue and my cut off black sweat shorts - Ha ha ha - Jesus! Just a wrong wrong picture! But I was comfortable and the squishy shoes kept foot pain to a minimum.

For lunch we were pretty much out of cold cuts so for the first time in I estimate 15 to 18 years I went to Burger King with Pepper. And I ordered BEEF! I don't eat mammal except for the occasional strip o' pig for breakfast. I just don't care for most beef - anyway, so that was interesting. Pepper noticed that BK has some Star Trek cups for sale so I sheepishly asked her to get one for me. I wondered how they were releasing the cups...one a week or all 4 at once, that sort of thing. I really wanted only Spock and was curious if Pepper knew about my spock obsession. She place the order and the woman asked if it mattered which cup we got. Pepper replied by saying any cup would do...and my geek girl within surged up out of nowhere as I frantically mumbled, "Spock, Spock, SPOCK!"



I'll leave it at Pepper's house so I have my own glass over there. Thax Pep!

The Tale of the Pepper in the Castle

Once upon a time there was a little sister named Princess Pepper. She had a wonderful husband, two adoring parents with whom she lived, Queen Lupie and the King, a fearsome dragon, named Maggie the adorable, and a wickedly stunning older sister who followed the old ways. She was known as the GrimmWitch.

Pepper was happy where she lived, but she and her prince dreamed of a castle of their own. They finally found it...nestled in the woods among the creeping things and the rowdy beasts of the forest. The thing of it was that the castle was very, very filthy. What was poor Pepper to do? She enlisted Queen Lupie and GW and all sorts of helpful beings from throughout the realm to aid in bringing this frightful mess of a castle back to it's former glory.

The sunken living room is huge. The rug must be ca. 1960. The below pic was taken from the wood panel "den".

Here's the den.

When I got there this was the only panel down in the about 5x5 room. Now they're all down. And Pepper did it by herself (with a little help from me). It was actually really fun. I got to use my hands. We work well together b/c our personalities I think are suited for teamwork.

Above you can see the wallpaper falling off. That is being removed as I type. And there is the gross rug. I feel bad for the elderly people who lived there until about 2007. Clearly someone should have advised their family to help them have the rugs replaced if they didn't know to do so on their own. And the renters left the place gross:(

Above is the 1st floor half bath. Pepper's gonna do a Frenchy theme in there - but in a tasteful way. The renters apparently didn't know that they have to at times clean the lint trap. Pepper and I filled her Dyson completely with filth from the lint trap. I estimate there must have been at least one full cubic foot of lint. When I'd tunneled past most of it I found a happy little surprise.

I had to use a hanger to get it out because the long lint trap brush and the vacuum weren't doing it. I also found a sandwich toothpick (like to keep a club sandwich together), some change, and a zipper pull.

Finally, triumph!
Lupie cleaned the kitchen. Everything was covered in dirt and oily grime. I don't understand why the renters seemingly didn't clean anything. I'm a pretty forgetful, scatterbrained, and lazy person in my opinion and it was even too filthy for me.

So Princess Pepper watched as her castle slowly transitioned from monstrous to modern, from filthy to fabulous. She, and the prince, and the dragon would live happily ever after:)

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In other news...

The fingerless gloves will have to wait, Mom...It's time...

Photo from Knitty.com

I've had the yarn for this for over a year and never started...pictures to come.

And I'm sure all my little emo-ite, rock-esque, goth-lette students will be happy to know that I've bitten the bullet, or been bitten by it in this case, and

Yes, Sunky, I am reading Twilight:)