My request to join ravelry was accepted/extended last week.

I've become a ravelry junkie - I began posting my projects from what I can recall offhand since I'm not home but I plan on spending time this weekend logging my WIP's and stash. I love the photo galleries of finished projects and seeing what yarn people used for their projects. It's also good to know that many people experienced the same issue with their Tempting II as I did (I have to redo the whole neck someday soon).

For a long time now I haven't had the urge to start a new knitting project as my focus has really been on finishing items in my stash. I realized this week that it wasn't as much about finishing items as it was about finding a pattern that tripped my trigger. I've been eyeballing the Central Park Hoodie for a while and even though it takes over 3000 yards of yarn I think my interest has been triggered. Now it's a matter of finding yarn for it. I just so happen to be going to Minneapolis next week for work...

To our new team project (hopefully I won't be a party of one)??

Another hoodie finished.

Here's Nancy in her new top down hoodie made with Berroco's Pure Wool. I loved the color and the yarn. I would use Pure Wool again and it comes in many great colors. I think I'm going to make me one someday out of Malabrigo in my stash...

Everyone meet Jeff.



Jeff is our trainer. My dad, Alex and I spend multiple hours a week with him. It's torturous and awful at times but we are learning to love every minute of working out. He has helped me strengthen my back and lose weight. It's amazing - I'm even jogging on a treadmill now which is something a few months ago I couldn't contemplate. I used to live on Advil and Alieve to help my back which now I don't even take.

He has worked with Alex and I on changing our diets and taking vitamins. We owe Jeff huge.

We've gotten to know Jeff rather well over the last six weeks and he's become our friend as well as our trainer.

Friend or not, when I have to do step aerobics holding a ten pound weight straight over my head the whole time I still threaten to throw the weight at him. Also, after 100+ crunches (sets of 25 crunches with minimal time in between) I still threaten to kick him (I have to keep my legs in the air when doing crunches).

We love Jeff because he's genuine and naive. We discuss our personal lives and he always seeks our advice. He's very personable and he claims we're his favorite clients.

He also says no one whines or complains as much as I do.

It also just dawned on Alex and I the other night that Jeff has an uncanny resemblemance in personality to Butters from South Park.

I expected that merging with Alex would require a few transitions.

I've learned to watch NFL and put up with WWE but tonight was a new and painful experience.

Alex loves American Idol. Enough said.

It's only logical to me.

I drove my parents on an errand this week and in the process exposed my messy van full of three sweaters worth of yarn and two knitting bags each containing an almost finished sweater.

My mom inquire, "Why do you have so much yarn in your van?"

Because it makes it feel like there's less in my house (yarn room). I don't feel like I have as much yarn if I keep part of my stash in my car.

On a different note, Trouble was helping me finish Nancy's hoodie tonight(he was keeping the yarn warm):

Our great vet called Friday night to give us the results of Berlin’s autopsy but mostly to confirm that we made the right decision. Berlin had a large mass on his chest that was most likely cancerous, pancreatitis to the extent his intestines were breaking down fat and were about to explode and kidneys that were close to shutting down. What was odd is that through all the blood tests and examines no hint of pancreatitis showed (it was Berlin’s primary cause of illness).

It was a very surreal phone call with the vet but he kept reassuring me that we made the right decision.
Alex was great Friday night; he knew I was very sad. We spent a lot of the night just cuddling and talking.
We have noticed that the bad cat smell in the house is gone and the high amount of cat puke we used to wake up to is gone (which the occasional exception of Moby puking if she eats too much or too fast).

The house is very quiet. The three remaining cats stay very close to us (mostly Alex). Jack is attached to one of our laps at all times and Trouble still sleeps on Alex’s chest. It’s going to be weird for a while without Berlin.

We put Berlin to sleep tonight after a short discussion with the vet. There wasn’t much of a decision to make as the answer was very obvious but it didn’t make it any easier.

Berlin was a great cat. He purred backwards, he cried loudly, tried to open doors throughout the house and spent most of his days underneath the guest room bed.

Alex said the cat god will fix everything – he’ll give Berlin a new heart, a straight purr, flexibility and remove any tumors that he may have had (last minute speculation by our vet).

Don't count the cat out of the fight

Berlin had a rough day at home coming back from the Emergency Clinic. He barely moved and if he did he took long rests. He didn't eat and would just stare at his water dish.

Alex and I had a long talk last night that if Berlin wasn't better by tonight then he needs to go back to the vet tomorrow. We're concerned he is starving to death - we don't want him to suffer. We talked through what felt like the only option - putting him to sleep. We left things at "let's see if he makes it through the night" and go from there.

So that leads to this morning - we woke up early to give him his medicine and we couldn't find him. We looked in all his usual hiding spots and finally found him in the kitchen cupboard. He let out a big cry, got up, walked to the litter box and used it. Big accomplishment given that the little guy pooped all over my kitchen yesterday and I was warned that once he gave up using a litter box then it was a slippery slope downhill.

It's hard to tell if he's been eating and drinking but the little guy looks like he has some fight left in him.

Yesterday, I had accepted that the inevitable was clear with Berlin but today I feel like I shouldn't count him out of the fight. He did manage to bite me hard enough to draw blood when I gave him his pills.