Two Left Feet

So you've all (both of you) probably been wondering when the hell I was going to post. If ever. I have written a post probably thirty times in my head, and never put it onto the puter. They were poetic, they were funny - and they are no longer relevant. For example, I was going to tell you about my first pair of socks.

I don't have three feet, of course. I made mine (the fraternal twins on the outside) and the middle is Gene with his single sock. You are witnessing the grand total of my sock production.

I made mine two weeks ago. They are comfycomfy, and great car knits, since I don't have to pay attention, really. Just keep knitting in a circle. They are also, you may notice, fraternal twins, since the yarn is patterned and I didn't get the matching up quite right.

For Gene's, I have switched up the pattern to be all ribb-y around the leg and on the top of the foot (plain bottom, for Gene is very particular with texture.) Speaking of Gene's particularness with texture, he has warned me that he may not love these socks as much as I demand he love them. I have considered guilt as a method of making him wear them. I think I'm okay with it.

I was also going to write about how softly Fall seemed to be coming. The leaves were turning gently, no frost had come, the weather was delightfully crisp without being cold, and my front garden looked superb. I had planned to take pictures. Instead, we got this:

Tom Skilling, WGN-TV chief meteorologist

Colder, snowier weather's never hit earlier

Published October 13, 2006

It's got to really snow for it to accumulate when soil temperatures hover near 54(degrees) as they did Thursday. Whiteout conditions were reported for brief periods Thursday morning and early afternoon, a testament to the intensity of the snowfall. Flurries have reached Chicago earlier on ten occasions since 1885. But, never in 121 years of official observations has measurable snowfall occurred earlier in the city. Thursday's 0.3" at both Midway and O'Hare beat by 6 days the previous record for earliest measurable snow here--Oct. 18 in both 1972 and 1989. It also preceded by more than a month, Nov. 16, the average date on which measurable snow first typically occurs here. Thursday's 39(degrees) at O'Hare and 41(degrees) at Midway were the coldest readings ever so early in the season at each site.A chill of Thursday's intensity rarely lingers this early. It's likely to be nearly two months before daytime temps as cold as Thursday's 39(degrees) high dominate.

Which I didn't get any pictures of, either, because I couldn't find Gene's camera in his laptop bag while we were on the highway in those whiteout conditions. Instead, I offer this:

Ok. It wasn't this much snow, but it definetly stuck, and it was definetly hard to see out the windows. In between snowy episodes, we got snow pellets - was it hail? Just strange. (How is it that no one took pictures of this year's early snow in Chicago? Google had NOTHING.)

Returning to Fall, though, I have also done a smidge of paper crafting since my last post. My grandma's birthday was on the 23rd (of September). My grandma is one of those people who think that the wrapping is almost more important than what is inside. She always is very careful unwrapping, using scissors to break the tape, keeping all the ribbon intact. You know. So I spent a little extra time and made a card and wrapping paper and tags for her birthday present (mostly Yankee Candle stuff and a Halloween charm bracelet).

I was going to say that I was being considered for the Chapter (Colony) Advisor for the Sigmas at UW Parkside. Well, I've since been actually appointed and that has taken up a good deal of time. I'm not unhappy about it - in fact, I'm thrilled! But I don't have any pictures, so you don't get a visual for that one, just yet. Needless to say, like all Sigmas, they are pretty rockin'. :)

Work has been pretty consuming - in a good way, though. We are definetly picking up. That means I have a bit more to keep track of. I have been doing some graphic designing, too, for the business.

That's me, working ever-so-hard. I was going to crop this, but art historians and archaeologists (the inner me) like to see objects in situ. The office, in all it's non-neatness, is shown. The three framed pieces on the wall are the three images I made to make our office look more...office-y. I couldn't deal with the cheesy Teamwork posters. Besides, these are relevant to our business. See the locks? The say things like "Security" and "Safety".

In other news, I went to Toledo for a super whirl-wind trip this weekend. My next door neighbor growing up just got married. It was pretty cool to see all the old neighbors again. Mom enjoyed the evening as well - Gene and I had to drag her out! On the way back home, we got stuck in construction traffic. If you are coming to Chicago, AVOID THE DAN RYAN. It's a disaster. I was driving this particular leg (lucky me!) and the dogs were standing up in the car. This is a problem 1) because they bounce around and 2) because they have a tendency to barf if they bounce around too much.

Since we were in Gene's car, he was very concerned about this. So he jumped into the back and made the girls lay down. Gene, as many of you know, gets bored easily, so he started to entertain himself. This is the result:

Pelli is our hoodlum (groan). It did actually make her nice and calm, although Gene was eventually laughing so hard that all the dogs were up and around. Luckily, by the time he got to this point, where he had his camera out taking pictures of his poor dog, we had moved on to normal traffic.

Finally, I wanted to show you the little piece of Animal Planet that is at our house. We've been watching a few spiders get fatter and fatter. We've watched them catch bugs and wrap them in spider silk and then eat them. We are absolutely fascinated with these spiders. Since it's almost Halloween, I thought it might be nice to give you a little taste of our spider friends. Don't worry - if you are squeamish about spiders (and I'm always shocked by who is and who isn't), our fat little buddy is nowhere to be seen in this picture. It was pretty cold tonight - 34 with a wind chill of 26 - so he may be hanging out somewhere else. The chance that I will post again before Halloween is very, very slim, so I will wish you all a very Spooky Halloween!

P.S. - Send get well thoughts to Steph, who had to go to the ER today, her bronchitis was so bad. Ick!