Just say no to consumerism

My sad sad sad bank account informs me that when I pay rent, utilities, and my credit card bill this month, I will have approximately $13 left to my name. Although I would be horribly shocked by this, all of my purchases really do seem justified. I don't usually buy a lot for myself, and this month isn't much of an exception. However, I did have to: pay federal and state taxes (boo), buy meds for the dog, and take a CPR/First Aid class. That cost over $1,000, but luckily I always strive to have that much extra to pad my account (not that it always works that way, but I try). I think I might have to deposit my birthday money in the bank account just in case though. So sad! Maybe at the end of the summer I'll have enough for a Wii...

I can has cheesecake

My mother received an email today from some Brazilian friends of my cousin raving about her cheesecake. Backstory: My cousin spent time in Brazil for work, and his new buddies came to the States to visit. They had heard good things about "cheesecake" and wanted to try some. My mom, being world renowned for her baking, was asked to produce said cake. The Brazilians apparently thought it was great and sent her this compliment:

Very obliged for its Cheese Cake, it mutch but good was
delicious.....very exactly wonderful.

Please don't get me wrong... I don't mean to poke fun at his English skills. I'm sure I sound the same when I try to speak German. I just am in love with the phrase "very exactly wonderful." I hope to one day do something that well myself.

Random picture of campus:

Isn't UNC pretty in the spring?

Feast for the eyes

I finally got around to uploading the pretty Atlanta in spring pictures, and I wanted to share my two favorites. The first one is one of the first yards you see when you enter the neighborhood, and the second is my house. I'm obviously having a little trouble getting the spacing right, but it's pretty anyways!


The other fun thing I saw today were ducklings! Sophie and I went for a walk by the lake and saw these babies. They must have just been hatched, otherwise I suspect they might not have survived the foul weather this weekend. I don't think the killdeer parents made it. There was no sign of a nest this morning when I went to work.


P.S. - CPR and First Aid certified! I can save your life!

Hippity hop

I drove down to the ATL for Easter, and other than being COLD it was very pretty! All of the azeleas and dogwoods were in bloom, and there wasn't much yellow pollen in the air at all! (Sidebar: for those of you not from Atlanta, we have "yellow season" every spring. A "high" day for pollen is a count over 120. This year, Atlanta had a 6,000+ day. I love my city. And I don't have allergies!) I'm still a slacker and haven't uploaded my photos yet, but believe you me, it was nice. I sang and played handbells and had myself a grand time.

Handbell story: One of the pieces we played was slow and pretty (not joyful and triumphant!) and was done with the choir. The choir wasn't getting it, so we had to play it for 45 minutes! Our organist was playing the bells next to mine, and being the musical genius that he is, he was making up notes! When I pointed this out to him, he began making up notes for me too! Quite fun. However, he first asked me how I could tell he was just playing whatever he wanted, and I responded "I know how to read music." Perhaps it was a "had to be there" moment, but we had trouble keeping a straight face every time we saw each other for the next two days.

The Knitting Post

Here we go on the knitting front! First, check out my Clessidra progress:

It's not a lot since last time, but I'm pretty happy with it. The small needles just feel right in my hands when I pick them up, and the cables are lots of fun. I hope to have more quality time to spend here in a few short weeks.

Other projects that are occupying my time include this lovely baby bib and log cabin quilt, both from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I'm using the Peaches & Creme yarn that they recommend, and it seems to work well. I'm almost done with the bib (might even finish it later tonight), and then I'll throw it in the wash and see what the final product looks like.

The quilt is for the boy's sister who has decided to attend U(sic)GA. See how nice of a person I am? It was really hard to find anything that would look good in those colors, but I did my best. :) This project is on hold until I get some longer circulars, but it's just knit, knit, knit, so it should be done by graduation.

Wonderful Weekend (and more!)

This past weekend, I went up to D.C. to visit the boy and enjoy the spring. We got up early Saturday and headed down to the Tidal Basin to take in the cherry blossoms. There are lots of pictures, but I haven't had a chance to upload them yet... look for them soon. After we'd had our fill of flowers, we headed to the Mall for the National Kite Festival. There were lots of professional kite flyers, but more than that were the tons of people like me who were out there for fun. We grabbed a spot of grass and launched our little borrowed Discovery Kids kite. It worked great! That little thing could fly, and high too! There are pics of the kites to come as well. The nicest thing was that if a kite fell on your head (or your kite fell on someone else, or you got tangled, etc.) was that no one cared! Everyone was just relaxed and having a good time. It was great!

I also realized I'm coming close to having knitting ADD. I cast on my third project on a month or so, and I haven't finished any of them yet. To be fair, the socks are my fun project and the other two are gifts with a deadline (graduation present for May and baby shower present for next week). There will be pictures of those projects soon too.

Last, but not least, I passed comps! Whoo! Not that there was any real worry, but it was still nice to get the letter and be able to cross it off the list.