363 Shopping Days Until Christmas

In other words, hurry up and finish reading this and get back to your knitting! I found out the hard way that there is less time available than you realize, when you make gifts for the holidays. On the brighter side, I did find the blanket I had started for my brother last year; turns out that all I really had to do was tie up the last end of yarn, it was big enough after all. (Yes, I cheated and showed it to him a couple of weeks ago, and asked him if he thought it was big enough. Since he said yes, and the only reason to make it bigger was because I like to make BIG blankets -- hence the extremely long finishing time -- well, that was one present done). I took a photo before I wrapped it, but haven't developed the film (actually I haven't even finished the film yet...); more on that in a moment.

Also took photos of the ornaments I made. Not ALL of the ornaments, I don't have a wide-angle lens for my good camera; just a composite of the different types. And a photo of the famous Blanket for Rick, two in fact; one has a toy horse from the old swingset next to it for perspective. The film, still the roll that I haven't finished. Got a photo of the crocheted octopus that I made for John more years ago than I care to count (don't want to take my shoes off, ha ha). Same roll of film! Hope that there are still places that develop film by the time I get it finished... again, ha ha.

Now for the incredibly awesome great news: I won't have to whine about not being able to post pix of my "stuff" anymore! Santa and Carole were great to me and the kids for Christmas; I got a DIGITAL CAMERA!!! While it isn't the fancy-shmancy one that I dream of someday in the very distant future, it is good enough for website photos; since that was the main reason I wanted one (along with not having to get film developed) I am not complaining. Couldn't complain anyway, I got to pick it out myself! The only thing I really dislike about it is that there is no preview LCD screen, only a little screen to show mode and flash and number of pix left, etc. So you don't know until you download whether the picture is worth keeping. Oh frigging well, I'm not wasting tears on that! Not since I have a working computer at home (beautiful Eddy) and can sit right down and check them, even have the USB port on the front so don't have to kill myself getting to the back of the tower like I did with Elvis. Yee haa!!!

The only two complaints that I have about the camera are that it is made in China (forgive me, John McCormick and Cliff Parr); and that I have to beat my kids to get it back from them. The girls are having a great time with MY presents; I also got an electronic musical keyboard from my mommy and you can bet that the three kids are partying down with that one! Oh well, at least it is educational. (Mom got it for me so I could try and drown out Alanda's Christmas present; she got her the guitar she has been begging for for the last three months -- or is it years?)This photo is actually of Ruthi, but it shows Alanda's guitar really well...would show it better if Al hadn't been playing with the special effects feature on my photo editing software...


OK, calm down, I don't really beat the kids, you don't have to call CPS. Put the phone down! I did pitch a whiney fit (the nice way of saying I bitched like a crazy woman) and now they at least ASK before they take over my toys. Hey, ya gotta do what works... Too bad that technique doesn't work with irresponsible teachers as well as it does with teens... We won't go *there* right now, I still get itchy mad when I think about the situation.


Anyway, I did manage to get a photo with the NEW camera of my brother wearing the hat I made him for his birthday (which happens to be December 25th, hence the name Chris).