Spazzmanda

Meet Black Santa.  Actually, Black Santa #2. To fully understand why I have a plastic Santa and see it fit to blog about it, I really must go back to the beginning.

Years ago, grandmother obtained a Santa that was a party favor from a church luncheon. There were Santas of all ethnicities, white, red, yellow and african american- the dollar store was cleared out of all to make sure there were enough for each centerpiece. She came home with black Santa. We immediately loved him.  Somehow, mom and I started “hiding” black santa at one another’s house. Over the past ten or so years,some of the better hiding places have included, her underwear drawer, the bottom of a large Sam’s-sized box of laundry detergent or entombed in a can of soup (not the best, she knows the contents of her pantry far too well.) My favorite hiding place from her was when she hid him in a bag of spinach in my freezer.

I feel I have to explain why there are two. Somewhere along the way Black Santa #1 got lost. Or rather, she hid him too well and I never found him.  Well, back this summer I was cleaning out a closet for a garage sale and squeeeeeeee! I found Black Santa #1 in a box of pictures she had  refused to store any longer for returned to me in 2004.

So it was ON. The funny part really is that on the day of said garage sale, Jeff actually helped mom hide Black Santa #2 in my yarn stash all the while (unbeknownst to both of us) working with me to hide Black Santa #1 in the center console of her car.

Neither Black Santa was found until this fall.  Sometimes that is the problem with the game. If it goes on too long you can forget where he be. And you know, Santa can really be anywhere all the time so watch out! This time I wrote a note on the bottom of Black Santa #1, where he was  found and when he was found and then I TOTALLY hid it while at her house during the tea party last month (bwahahahaha.) Oh, and my stepfather was a witness and knows where it is hidden.  (I think it is good to have accomplices/witnesses in this game, makes it that much more fun.)

Merry merry, y’all. More with today’s theme of Santa, here is a site that a friend sent my way: http://www.sketchysantas.com/

We waited in line at the Borders in Atlanta for four hours, but it was totally worth it to meet the Pioneer Woman, sister Betsy, and best friend Hyacinth. If you are not “in the know” about P-Dub, please familiarize yourself with one of the best blogs I’ve ever read over at www.thepioneerwoman.com. She writes amazing recipes (and I mean amazing) and about her life as an “Accidental Country Girl”, her “Marlboro Man” and four beautiful children and her adorable basset hound Charlie.  Oh, and get her book while you’re at it. You know you want to.

I don’t know why we’re all leaning over like this, but whatever.  I was just happy to meet the lady. And she was delightful. She was signing and smiling for hours. What a trooper.

Oh and kniters, I totally geeked out and made her a gift. (I have a strange compulsion to give objects I’ve knat to complete strangers.) I made a very practical headband that will keep  ears warm without messing up the ‘do’. I took no photos of the thing, I just gifted it. It was a fun night.

Me and my two favorite ladies went to see the Rockettes this past weekend, it was awesome. I took but one photo. Luckily it turned out.

I’m on the fence about this one, you guys be the judge.

Spotted multiple  in classified ads in the local paper recently:

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

“We met briefly at the (insert festival, city and date here to protect the innocent). On the back of your shirt it said (again, city specific.) While your escort was talking to another man you told me that your husband of 30 years had died of cancer. My wife died of cancer. I gave you my business card and asked you to call me. Why haven’t you called? I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. (phone number)”

The bitter loneliness here makes my heart ache for this man, in a perfect world this would be the beginning or happy ending of a Lifetime Movie starring Kevin Costner and Robin Wright-Penn.

However, I get caught on the presumptive “rest of your life” and almost ominous “you know who you are” that are both, in this day and age, a tad frightening. Or maybe I’m just hyper-sensitive.

Ah, the Classifieds, along with the scary restaurant cleanliness ratings are why I still read the paper.

Any thoughts?

Pretty low-key this year for Halloween, we hung with friends, went trick-or-treating with the framily, ate at Moe’s and went out around Gainesvegas. My man and I won the costume contest at a local bar! He got first place, $100, and I won second $50- I was totally robbed! I guess his Geiko Caveman was pretty sweet, but all night long I heard some hushed comments as I’d walk away of how much I looked like Flo the Progressive Lady. We had a blast.

(you can see all the photos here.)

I finished a sweater in a month. I know, unreal.  Best part, it is made fromt the top down (no seaming.)  I highly recommend this pattern.

Diminishing Rib Cardigan, from the cover of the Spring, 2009 Interweave Magazine.

“HELLO ATLANTA!  YOU wanted the BEST and YOU GOT THE BEST…!!!”

I was taken for a ride on the wild side on Monday night.

The Magic Man took me to see KISS.

In concert.

On the 7th row of the Philips Arena.

Let me tell you friends, I’ll NEVER be the same again.

By far, the most amazing live show I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I take back EVERY single snarky thing I’ve ever said about this band (like “I don’t get them” or “all their songs sound the same”.)

Surprisingly, I knew most of the songs they performed and retained about 75% of the factoids about the band I was ever told. (See darlin’, I listen!)

Makes me appreciate the Lil’ Gene I made  four years ago that much more… thank you Jeff for sharing this experience with me, I’ve been such a fool.

Next up, Lil’ Paul…  I love you Paul Stanley! (He doesn’t know it, but we share a deep and meaningful relationship.)

I am a newly converted uber-fan of KISS.

Here is the face:

Yeah, my throat hurts.

I came, I saw, I conquered and I left with a bag load of yarn, glorious yarn.  I had a BLAST  with my fine group of fiber friends fiends at SAFF in Asheville this year. Best of all, I took this as an opportunity to take a long overdue trip out of town with my mother, another newly-converted fiber-a-holic. Here is most of the crew (some had class/had to leave/could not sit still)

All photos from the trip HERE.

I didn’t take any classes this year, it was overwhelming enough just being in a huge showroom with yarns and fibers that I didn’t even know existed. I will take an inventory and blog about my precious purchases later, but for now I’ll focus on the trip itself. We left bright and early on Friday morning and met up with a crowd at Waffle House. I had a pecan waffle and it rocked. I don’t normally do sweets or carbs at breakfast so this was a real treat.

Susan was positively gleeful from the discovery $85 in her SAFF purse from LAST year, and I was soon to discover why.  It only took us about 2 hours to get there. Not a bad road trip and I was antsy. I was finishing up the neverending 3/4 sleeves from my diminishing rib cardi and was lamenting the amount of space it was taking up in my bag. I also vowed not to purchase anything on day one, no, I would be mindful and wait until at least day 2.

I bought a beautiful sterling shawl pin and a sweater’s worth of yarn before lunchtime.

I was absolutely high from the spending and had to sit down for a while to recover.  We ate at Carrabas that night and I committed carbicide with gnocchi and sausage and bread and calamari. On to the Hampton Inn to laugh and knit, and laugh (we’re a loud bunch) talking about homosexual gorillas and exchanging recipes. I learned what qiviut was and how yummy it was to behold and how pretty Janet worked it up and how dangerously decadant an expense it could be.  I shopped and knitted my Saturday away, and since it was no longer raining we went and looked at the animals (probably mom’s favorite part of the trip)

I also bough sock yarn for me, it might not end up being socks as I got this KEWL beaded scarf pattern too. Come to think of it, I bought a lot of stuff for beading yarn. Go figure.

Me and my yarn will be VERY happy together thankyouverymuch.

I drove mom’s golfcart all weekend (the Prius) and didn’t like it one bit in the rain but converted after I figured out what all the buttons were for. There’s a lot of buttons to push in this car and no key!

All in all it was PERFECTION and we’re already scheming about next year. Like I’m bringing much smaller projects and making this and some of these and bringing much more cash. Anyone want to give me some of their unwanted cash for SAFF next year?

Ok, so I don’t normally like to talk about work here because this is here and that is over there, and I don’t like to mush my here and there together too much, you know?

Well, all I’m going to say is this girl hates public speaking and this girl had to speak at a big ‘do’ (for only 3 minutes) AND was one of 3 (out of 24) organizations selected to do so, and it was a big deal.

A very, very big deal.

Fox was my date. She kept me calm and laughing and then took this picture so I could remember it because what with the blood rushing in my ears and all the diet coke, I really wouldn’t have recalled a thing. (thanks Fox!)

I’m going to my first “SAFF” this weekend and I can’t wait!

SAFF is the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, and apparently like ‘mecca’ for knitterz. It is just outside of Asheville, my birthplace, so I’m also taking the opportunity to take a long overdue road trip with my Mother. We’re both SAFF ‘virgins’ and we’re traveling with a whole crew of crazy fiber finatics, it is going to be crazy fun. Crazy, crazy fun.

I’m literally counting the hours.

I haven’t packed clothes, but I have the camera, GPS, ipod speakers and the wine accounted for- thank goodness. You have to prioritize.