Knotty Mouse

Hope everyone has a wonderful & safe Halloween!

Today I’m 32! Have a piece of cake with me!!

When I get stressed and overwhelmed, I knit. I knit A LOT. This pattern (thermis) was bought before we left for our trip to Florida.. something simple and mindless to knit while on vacation or in the car during the 7 hour drive but it never saw the outside of my knitting bag for the whole trip.  Instead I cast on for it on Friday night in the midst of a total freak out with a partial ball of LB Wool-Ease and size 6 circs… this morning at 9am, I had this:

I didn’t do any mods to the pattern except for the occasional bungle of the stitch count (I’m going to say it makes the whole thing more ‘organic’.. go with me on this, k?)  and I knit the “small” size.   Unfortunately I have to wear the cowl like this :

I don’t know.. it might be an improvement.. or I might be wearing it wrong.  Wearing it like this  DOES however make me feel better about my impending move (utter denial- I haz it) AND keeps me warm since its suddenly THIRTY FIVE FREAKING DEGREES at night here in Georgia (really? seriously? Just push the crazy girl in the heatless house over the edge already would you?) which is totally unheard of in mid-October.  I keep hearing that we’re going to have a horribly cold winter this year..  the possibility of living in a  house with heat is the only thing that’s keeping me motivated about moving.

If anyone needs me… I’ll be in my cowl.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu

This quote keeps coming to me in different forms.. over and over again in the last few weeks. I thought I’d put it here as well…  just in case anyone else needs it.

I’m back from my trip with the in-laws to Panama City Beach Florida, and I’m completely unhappy about being home.  Our trip was rather.. interesting.

We headed down on Wednesday morning, bright and early only to find out that my husband’s predictions of  “mild weather & no bugs” translated into “hordes of gigantic blood-sucking mosquitos, fire ants, and some sort of nasty bitey things that Mousie is also completely allergic to” coupled with 11,000% humidity.  Thursday was spent dragging a lawn chair from shady spot to shady spot in our camp site and loudly complaining about the shitty weather (me) while mass apologies (husbear) and whining (munchkin) occurred.  On Friday the weather shifted, a steady breeze blew the bugs away, and we were headed down to the beach when my husband’s phone rang.

The friend who was taking care of our kitties had called to tell us that there was a strange letter attached to our door when he came to check the animals. The doorhang read : ” The agent below has been sent to determine the occupancy status of this property. If you do not contact the agent immediately to arrange for the removal of your personal property, any property remaining on the premises will be considered abandoned and will be removed.  You have 72 hours to respond..”   *insert confusion & hysteria here*

Turns out that the rental house which we’ve been living in and paying rent on has been foreclosed upon and is now on its way to being auctioned off by the mortgage company!  Our landlord hasn’t been paying the mortgage with our monthly rent payments and apparently he wasn’t ever planning on telling us that he no longer owned the property but he was certainly willing to keep taking our monthly rent until the sheriff arrived to post an eviction notice in 30 days!!  There are  apparently some sort of aid or vouchers that we can receive to help us with the relocation to a new house… not that it was really any consolation as we were standing in a campsite, on vacation,  7 hours away from our home, hearing that we’ve got to move out.

After deciding that we were already ON vacation and that there was absolutely no reason to go home when we’re facing a SURPRISE!!! relocation,  we figured we’d make the most of the rest of the trip.   There were shells gathered, skull bathing suits bought, games of putt-putt golf played, ice cream eaten, trails walked, waves boarded & manta rays sighted.  Husbear and I were even able to have a child free “date night” (I hate that term really..) with a walk on the beach & a nice early-birthday dinner where I didn’t have to cut anyone’s food.

I wish I had some photos to show of the trip but they’ll have to wait until the Husbear uploads some to me…  I never took my camera out of the case until this morning when I photographed the salt water taffy we brought home (it was free with purchase at one of the many tacky beach shops).

I’ll be away from the computer until next week, so I’ll leave you in the capable paws of the evil overlords Ms. Kitty & Captain Jack until I return.