I want YOUR money!

My mom and I are currently training to participate in America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, a 100-mile cycle around Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Why on earth would anybody want to bike 100 miles, you ask? Well, there’s the obvious reason of getting in incredible shape. But believe it or not, there’s an even better reason. We are doing this to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through their Team in Training program. I bet you never guessed that, even with the huge logo, huh? As part of the program, we’ve each committed to raise $4,800, a small part of which covers transportation, hotels, etc. but most of which goes straight to helping treat patients and search for a cure to leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood cancers. We have fundraising websites set up that make donation really easy, and donations are tax-deductible. If that aspect if really important to you, please contact me about it at fiberfiend6891[AT]gmail[DOT]com since I’m not positive you can do that with a credit card donation. So pleaseplease consider contributing to this awesomely worthy cause – my fundraising site is HERE.

(BTW, photo is me at the Finger Lakes Triathlon this past September)

…because sometimes I feel like I have no life.

80% Barack Obama
78% Bill Richardson
76% Hillary Clinton
76% John Edwards
73% Chris Dodd
69% Dennis Kucinich
68% Joe Biden
66% Mike Gravel
45% Rudy Giuliani
41% Mitt Romney
38% John McCain
34% Tom Tancredo
30% Fred Thompson
29% Mike Huckabee
25% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Teehee. I thought I was a little bit more moderate-leaning, but clearly not.

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren’t this extreme, but you’re in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don’t worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Musician
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Drama Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

No surprises here…although the artistic might’ve been a bit higher if there had been fiber art/crafty type questions. (EDIT: WordPress doesn’t seem to like the coding of the results for that one, but they’re presented in descending order, and yes, anime IS zero)

These quizzes were actually kind of interesting, to tell the truth.

In other news…

My sister’s hamster Java died awhile ago :(. Today she went to Petco to get a new critter to be a pal to Tesla (teensy hamster so named because she’s really hyper). She was going to get a guy and name it Edison to have a theme going on, but the lady there knew her and her devotion (obsession, really) with animals, small critters particularly, and she offered her the option to take home (for free) a 3-week old albino hamster that isn’t even weaned yet, but had been brought in without its mother. Addie’s so excited. She has to feed this little girl (we think it’s a girl) goat milk twice a day for a week or so, and I think it’s making her ambitions of becoming a vet come alive a bit. All fifth grade girls go through a phase where they want to be a vet, I think – but I don’t think my beloved sister is going to come out of it…

No pictures of the new critter yet, but trust me – she’s TINY. Literally about an inch and a half long. Anyways, one more quiz. This one creeps me out, no kidding…

What Is Your Name Supposed To Be? Your Result: Rachel Rachel- Hi Rachel, you probably the odd one out in your group, the different one. But thats good! You have your own taste and vibe, and your probably really cool! Thats why your personality name, is defenitley Rachel!
Carly
Alyssa
Brooke
What Is Your Name Supposed To Be? Quizzes for MySpace

How weird is THAT?

Ski trip!

I’m back from the ski trip, and it was awesome! As all ski trips inevitably are, of course. I had (term stolen from Yarn Harlot) camnesia for most of the trip, coupled with an unwillingness to bring the camera on the actual slopes with me, so there are but a few pictures…

We stayed in the charming Garnet Hill Lodge, in a building called The Birches – so named presumably for the birch trees surrounding it.

There was fine dining there (the highlight of which was the deserts…homemade pies…strawberry shortcake…)…

The first day of skiing was pretty grungly (word invented by my sister), because it was a ridiculous 45 degrees outside…wet snow is icky. But then it got a TON colder, so they could make snow, and conditions rapidly improved over the next three days, although the last half-day we skied (yesterday) was obscenely cold (something like 5 degrees, I think, with a windchill below zero), almost to the point of unpleasantness unless one was constantly moving and had plenty of breaks. I did some snowboarding and skiing, and am well-bruised now. Mostly from the snowboarding, but there was one memorable skiing fall off of a funbox. Why do I let my brother convince me to try these things?

On the way back, I saw this in a convenience store, which I found amusing:

Confused?

I think I had something else to say, but I can’t remember, so that only leaves my tag from AJ to post seven interesting/unusual/weird/random things about myself. Here goes:

1. I lovelovelove puzzles of almost any type. My favorites include NYT crosswords, sudoku, killer sudoku (sort of a cross between sudoku and kakuro), kakuro, and logic puzzles.
2. I can’t STAND pompous people. As a corollary, if someone even implies that I’m bragging/stuck-up/anything of that nature, I am very offended.
3. I don’t get embarrassed very easily – I do, however, laugh at myself a healthy amount. I suppose that here I should tell the story of one moment that embarrassed even me. Back in the horror days of Hebrew school, I used to carpool with my friend. One day, leaving temple, I saw her dad’s car, so I walked down, assuming she was following me, and jumped in. It wasn’t until I had closed the door, buckled my seatbelt, and greeted her father that I realized that it wasn’t her dad’s car at all, but had a man in the front seat that I’d never seen in my life. I muttered something to him, leapt out of the car, and ran back up to hiss at my laughing friend for not stopping me.
4. I tend to be very shy around new people. With my friends/family, I often can’t shut up, but if talking to someone for the first time, I find it very difficult to start a conversation.
5. I like making turkey and mayo sandwiches and adding those little hot cinnamon candies. It tastes really good. I also dip my fish sticks in cottage cheese with paprika. Yeeeah.
6. I can be a little bit OCD sometimes. I’m particular about where I sit (but only in some situations), and occassionally about symmetry. For example, if I’m sitting in a car at night, I hate it when a car goes by in the other direction and the headlights shine more in my left eye than my right.
7. My favorite color is green – almost any shade of green, but especially sage green or olive green.

I now tag…*drumroll*…

1. Rainberry Knits
2. Gonzomama Knits
3. Spin, Knit, Purl, and Be Happy
4. The Adventures of Jaxypants and the Yarn Dragon
5. The Happy College Knitter
6. Zeitgeist
7. a Friend to knit with (who posts the most amazing cookie recipes ever)

I love yarn people

Today I taught the second class of the second session of my kids’ class at my LYS. There’s only one girl enrolled this time, but it’s pretty fun – she caught on really fast and has already made two feet of scarf and learned to purl! Also, said LYS was having a sale, and there was the typical atmosphere: more crowded than usual, and people scattered on the floor amidst large piles of yarn, agonizing over colors. I myself got some Silky Wool at a lovely $3 per skein!

I think it will become herringbone mitts (Ravelry link) and the leftover reddish some kind of scarf like this, this, this, this (yes, I KNOW that’s not a scarf), this, or this. Those are all Ravelry links, as well. Any preferences/new suggestions? The yarn in the picture is all I have, so there’ll probably be 1.5ish skeins of the red left for the scarf/whatever. And yes, I know I’ll have to fudge the cast-on number and/or length. ;)

DANG, finding all those links makes me reallyreallyreally want to start these…I think my goal will be to finish the sweater by the end of break so I can (sorta) justify starting something. I mean, not that I don’t have a bajillion WIP’s or anything…

But truly, one could never find a place where a sixteen-year-old girl would be treated so nicely by middle-aged women than at a yarn store when they can tell she’s really ‘into it.’ As I wandered the sale before my student arrived, I had so many genuinely pleasant conversations with people I would certainly never talk to in a supermarket.

Basically, today was a nice day. :)

P.S. I’m (hopefully – I’ve heard the sales are CRAZY) going to buy this when Dee at Posh Yarn updates her store tomorrow:

(it’s sock yarn)

Isn’t it GORGEOUS? And it’s 70% merino, 30% CASHMERE…*drools, careful not to hit the yarn*

P.P.S: We’re leaving early on Monday for our ski/snowboard trip and won’t be back ’til Thursday evening, so don’t expect to hear from me!

P.P.P.S (I SWEAR it’s the last one): How awesome is this bag? I reallyreally want it (it’d be the COOLEST knitting bag EVER), but it’s kinda expensive ($72, which isn’t bad for a really nice bag, but is a lot for me, and I already have plenty of bags…).

Brrr!

The windchill this morning (they tell us – I haven’t been outside) was -25! Yes, Fahrenheit. They cancelled school! My alarm had already gone off, and I couldn’t get back to sleep after my mom came in and told me to – I was too excited! So I got up, browsed Ravelry, etc. for awhile, practiced violin, and exercised in the basement for half an hour. I was done with my duties! Now we’re chilling out – playing games, listening to music…we’re going to cook some apple muffins later. What a sweet day. And there are only 4 days of school until February break, during which we’re going to Gore Mountain! I’m reallyreallyreally psyched.

And now some WIP’s for you:

The nashua raglan continues…this picture is actually a bit out of date – the left sleeve is almost done now. And the picture also kinda sucks. But there you have it anyway:

I was very impressed with the yardage on this stuff – I finished the whole torso and hadn’t yet finished the first balls of any of my three colors. I wasn’t so impressed with the packaging – they look like center pull balls, but upon pulling from the center, pretty much completely disintegrate into a tangled mess, which is irritating to say the least. So I’ve had to wind all of it into normal balls.

Here’s a weird WIP(ish) from yesterday – I found this cute pattern through Ravelry (here it is there), and after finishing my HAT ATTACK weapon (see below), decided to try it with the leftover yarn from that, since it seemed feltable. But I got carried away and ended up doing one each out of nine different yarns. That’s eighteen little hearts! They came out lovely, though, even though I haven’t sewn any of them together yet due to a lack of polyfill and a hatred of sewing. Unfortunately, the cat (or perhaps the dog) found the fuzzy alpaca ones delicious, as those two had disappeared from the table by morning. So now there are sixteen…here’s a pre-felting picture of the pile:

…and post-felting (but not all of them):

Aren’t they cute? I have no idea what I’m going to do with them, I just felt compelled to make them by the cuteness.

And here’s my HAT ATTACK weapon, which was mailed this morning:


The first picture is more color-accurate. Unfortunately, I also happen to know that my assassin mailed her (my, actually) hat out today, so I’ll probably be dead before getting the WIP back from my target. Ah well. It was quite an enjoyable knit, and I’m definitely looking forward to future similar things!