Comments...
Thanks, y'all, for the good wishes on the new job! I'm very excited and more than a little nervous.

Nancyj said: We love stopping in Shipshewana...Shipshe is a great town to shop! This is the second time I've worked there. The first time was in the late 80s-mid 90s. I managed a cluster of shops on the north side of the feed mill, called Quiltmakers/Shaker Legacy/Depot St. Shop. Later they added a Christmas store, too. Shaker Legacy was my favorite. We sold beautiful custom-built Shaker-style reproduction furniture that was built in an Amish woodshop north of Shipshe, and my husband built some here in his woodshop, too. Lovely, lovely stuff, in cherry, oak, and maple. Sad to say, those shops are long gone now. I can still weave traditional Shaker chair seats, though, if you ever need it done!

Jayne said... I love your cat (a siamese was my first ever cat and I am so tempted to get another one -...It's an odd thing about that cat. There are no Siamese on the place, and never has been one anywhere near, as best we can tell. We live in the house that was my grandparents until they both died in the 70s. There was a barn cat here named Cherryl Kitty (named by Grandma after my sister, who rescued the cat and brought her out to the farm in the mid-70s) when we moved to the farm in '79. She had a couple of litters every year, and a few litters had kittens with Siamese markings in yellow, grey, or tan. We've never kept one long enough for it to breed, but the markings keep showing up in Cherryl Kitty's descendants! It's funny how we never get a pretty gray/brown/white tiger like Cherryl Kitty any more, but we keep getting these.
The kittens with these markings are usually born a sort of dirty-white color, and the markings begin to show when they're a week or two old. As they get older, the colors get darker. Hershey is the first one we've kept this long -- people always want the 'siamese-y-looking' ones, so we end up giving them away. When Hershey was born I laid claim to her and wouldn't let anyone take her.
Time to go clean something or knit something...hmm...I wonder what will win out???

I have news!

I have a new job! I love my job in the store, but have no benefits: no health insurance, no paid holidays, no paid vacation, no lunch breaks (yes, I said no lunch breaks -- weird, huh!). The store is beautiful, the owner is very nice, but I need to have insurance, at the very least. Rich currently carries me on his job's insurance, but what if something happened to him?

So I applied for a job with Artisan Interiors in Middlebury, Indiana, and I got it! The pay is better, and I have all the aforementioned benefits. I'll be starting March 6th. I'll be doing order entry and customer service. I'm very excited, and more than a little nervous.

We had visitors... friends from the GL1800 Riders' Forum came up on Saturday and we did tourist stuff. They brought their son and daughter-in-law along, and our kids joined us, too. We did some shopping in Middlebury -- two words: Knudsen's Caramels! -- had lunch at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, then went to Shipshewana to see some of the shops there.

We stopped in at the shop in the Davis Mercantile where I work and the 'kids' tried out our life-size resin pig statues:

Nick & Nici and Jeff & Tammy with pigs...cute!

We had a great time, made some plans for camping and riding together, and shared a lot of laughs. You really do "meet the nicest people on a Honda!"

There is knitting: I have a couple pair of socks on the needles, and am re-knitting another for a pattern picture. I've started a baby blanket for little Thor(ina) and bought yarn for a little snowsuit-like-thingie, too. Yes, I fell off the no-stash wagon, but it was on sale!

Just checking in...
No knitting pictures to show, so here's one of Dash and Hershey napping. This was taken last summer, and Hershey has gotten much darker since then. Well, I guess it's kind of a knitting picture, too. That mess in the background was my first exploration into the Haley's Roses pattern.
Gosh, I guess it's been about a week since my last post. Sorry to worry you, Chelle! All is just fine here. The smoking cessation is coming along nicely. Rich says he's down to maybe 4 or 5 a day, and I haven't had one since Saturday. The meds they have him on for the acid-reflux thing are working well.
I didn't sign up for Olympic knitting, but have been knitting while watching the games (off and on...Rich does still control the remote, LOL). I did some swatching for grandbaby-knitting, and have been working on a new pair of socks in Opal Prisma yellow.
The most wonderful baby bootees book came for me this week, via inter-library loan (thanks, Decatur library!). 50 Baby Bootees to Knit is by Zoe Mellor and the patterns are adorable. And speaking of booties/bootees, one of the shops in the suite where I work is now carrying these. They're Robeez baby shoes and booties, and are they ever cute (but pretty expensive). Little Thor(ina) might get a pair, though!

ER...our very own reality show!
When Rich came home from work last evening, he said he didn't feel good. I asked him what was wrong, and he shrugged. When pressed, he said, "My chest hurts."
Well, you can imagine, that brought things to a standstill. It seems his chest had been hurting for several days, and he just hadn't mentioned it to me.
Long story short, we headed for the hospital. Rich insisted he felt well enough to drive! He spent the night there in the Chest Pain Observation Unit, and had a stress test this morning. The good news is that he has acid reflux disorder, NOT heart problems. The REALLY good news is that his heart is in wonderful shape: the ER doctor said Rich should take the images they got during the stress test to our insurance company and demand a discounted rate because he has absolutely no sign of heart disease.
The bad news is that his chest X-ray shows the beginnings of emphysema. We will both be quitting smoking...

The good thing about hospitals is you can knit there for very long periods of time while you wait.
These Jaywalkers are finished. I kitchenered the toes in the ER while waiting to see if they were going to keep Rich overnight.

The generic make-it-up-as-I-go socks in the really lousy picture are begun. I started them this morning while waiting for Rich to finish his stress test. The yarn is vintage Lady Gault from Kroy. It's very, very, very fine, almost laceweight. It's nice and soft, though, and a lovely color of green...I believe I have had carpet this color of green in every house I've ever lived in!

Haley's Roses (new cuff)
Here's the new version, finished, and a closeup of the cuff. I love the stitch definition of the Lang Jawoll. The roses actually look a little like roses!
I think Jawoll is my new favorite sock yarn.

Jaywalkers Progress
I found my knitting bag at work today. There is a little progress on my Jaywalkers:

I've completed the gusset decreases, so I shouldn't have any trouble finishing them in the next week or so.

Haley's NEW Roses
OK, here's version 2, with narrow bands of pink on the cuff to set off the rose panel. Better? I think so. This one is in Lang Jawoll. Beauty!

Was going to post a progress photo of my Jaywalkers, but I can't find them! I think I either left the bag at work, or carried it to a restaurant over the weekend and left it there. This is what happens when you have too many projects going on at one time. It's a good thing I only had one child...

So my niece posted at her blog that her son (6 years old, I think) decided to move out. Read about it here. It reminded me of a story my husband's aunt told me many years ago.
Said aunt has three children about my age, each more wonderful than the last. One of them, let's call him 'Will', came to the decision when he was about five years old that he had had enough! and it was time for him to move on. 'Will' packed a bag, with his mother's help. He took no food, but he included a stocking cap, in case it got cold (it was summer!). He packed no underwear, because he didn't know where he would be staying, and he "...didn't want to have to change his underwear in front of people". 'Will's' mother helped him fold his clothes neatly, closed the suitcase carefully, told him to be careful and write (when he learned how!) kissed him good-bye, and sent him out the door (it was a different time then, and little kids could walk down country roads carrying small suitcases without ending up on a milk bottle). Of course, as he left, his mother said, "It's too bad you're leaving before supper -- we're having your favorite tonight!"
'Will' made it about half-a-mile down the road before he reconsidered. When he returned to the house, he informed his mother that it would be a shame to waste all that food, and he guessed he could still run away tomorrow. She agreed.

He never did, though!