As The Yarn Turns

Package Day

Yesterday was Coffee Swap Package Day, a much better day than the previous, mousey day. Lori was my swap partner and she sent me a wonderful package of goodies. For me, the nice thing about swaps is that I get things I never get around to trying myself. Not to mention the fun of seeing what other people put together.

There is a bag of the anniversary blend of Green Mountain Coffee. I've heard a lot of good things about Green Mountain but I just never got around to trying it. I'm looking forward to it. Then there's a large tin of chocolate filled wafers. Those go really well with coffee. Rick and I have already been munching on them.

The yarn Lori sent was a skein of Socks That Rock. I know I must be the last person on the planet to try it and I'm really looking forward to knitting with this yarn. She also sent two skeins of Filigree Designer Glitter Boucle. You can't really tell it from my photo but the yarn has a gold thread spun into it. I think I have the perfect yarn to go with it too. I already have plans for the nice coffee-themed journal that was included. Thanks Lori for the excellent swap!

On the case of the mysterious mouse attacks, there have been no confessions yet and none of the mouse's friends or relatives have come forward to offer any evidence.

We won tickets at the Christmas party to the NCAA Division II football championship that will be held in town tomorrow, so I'm off to get some sleep.

by Sydney  |

The Mystery Killer

One of these is the face of a killer.

Katie, Balt, Phoebe, Zoe

The intruder was probably just looking for a warm place to sleep and a bite to eat before he (she?) met their demise. Rick and I had forgotten about a business-related Christmas party we needed to attend tonight. Neither one of us were dressed appropriately so around 4 pm, I raced home to change clothes and grab some clothes for Rick so we could leave from the office. Everything looked normal. All suspects were napping when I got home. I went back to the office. We made our appearances at the party and got home around 8 pm. The suspects above were napping. I go into the bedroom to change clothes and then go into the bathroom to take out my contacts. The victim, a very dead mouse, is laying on the bathroom floor. (Pretend there's a picture of a dead mouse here. Rick insisted that I should post a picture but I overrode that decision. Some things are better left unseen.)

There was no blood and very few marks on the body, leaving us to suspect that torture was involved. Due to the fact that rigor mortis had already occurred, we place the time of death between 4 and 72 hours before the body was discovered. The body was placed in a ziploc body bag and removed to the outdoor trash can. Katie cat has been identified as an animal of interest in the case. We're really hoping she hasn't been batting it around for a day or two.

Other than that excitement, I've been knitting on the afghan that's been aging in my stash since last winter.

It would be nice if I could finish it before spring. The problem is that I get bored with it and move on to other things. So I'm just knitting the occasional block. I also knitting on my socks and shawl. More on those later.

by Sydney  |

Christmas on Our Street

We still have the "sleepies" here at Doctor Dirt Central. All humans, ferrets, and cat spent a lot of the weekend sleeping. Personally I think it was because last week's weather included record-breaking highs and record-breaking lows. I did get some knitting done but I'm not sure any of the photos look much different than the last ones. Rather than show you still another progress picture, I thought I would give you a tour of the Christmas decorations on our street. Well, not all of the decorations but the major ones anyway. Besides, Kat at For my next project is having a contest for photos of the most over the top decorations in your neighborhood.

We have 11 houses on our little street. The folks on our street love to decorate for any major holiday. Most people have at least a few decorations - some wreaths and a few lights on the bushes. We're usually lucky to slap a wreath on the door before Christmas. The large blow up ornaments and large wooden stand up ornaments are popular here. The house across the street has a variety of decorations including lights, wooden stand ups, and the blow up Santa. They also play Christmas carols while the lights are on.

Then there's the house next to them with more wooden stand-ups and blow-ups.

The house next to ours is all about giant blow-up ornaments.

Just outside the picture to the right is a giant Santa, not far from my kitchen window. They had a car in the driveway that was blocking the view of Santa.

Then there's our house.

The kids on the street start worrying if we don't put up our Christmas decorations quick enough. So we rush out one night and put up a few strings of lights and a wreath. Here's a fuzzy picture of our front door. We also put a Christmas graphic in a spotlight and shine it on the front wall. It's become a favorite with the girls across the street. Anyway, that's pretty much it for our little street. More fibery stuff next time.

by Sydney  |