I spent most of yesterday cleaning, and my house doesn't even show most of it!  I cleaned carpets yesterday, which does show, but the rest of it was just the normal cleaning, and a couple of hours later, you can't tell that I did anything.  Oh well - I know it was cleaned!  (The carpets do look much better! - my back doesn't feel that great, though!) 

I finished a few projects this week - don't ask me how.  I have meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, and between them and the time change, I was pooped.  The first one was for a Yahoo group - he Traveling Hook is making its rounds again.  One hook is sent throughout the members.  When you get it, you make something with it and send it on to someone else.   Here is a picture of the one I received:

And here is the one that I made to send along:

I was trying for a 'autumn' feel - the colors and pattern reminded me of wheat.  I also finished up a huge doily for a co-worker.  She wanted a large lavender doily - and it is large!  It is about 25 inches, and it might have been larger if I had a larger blocking board.  Mine is only 24 inches, so I couldn't really stretch this one out as much as it could have been.

I also had a co-worker request some baby booties that were 'biker boots'.  I'm still not really happy with the buckle on these - I may try them again with a different approach, but they were fun to make.  I just sent her a picture this morning, and she said these were perfect, and the baby arrived last night, so I am just in time!

I was right - Alli was up at 4:30 this morning.  All week, I've been having to wake her up, and today she wakes herself up.  I was expecting it, so I did go to bed at a decent time, but....so much for catching that extra hour of sleep when the time changed!  Oh well - the sooner I get started on laundry, the sooner it will be done.

My back and I are still hobbling around.  It does just fine until I move wrong, or forget and pick up something wrong.  Ouch!  This morning I had to bring in a bag of pellets for the stove - more than I probably should have picked up.  (But it was cold in here!)  Yesterday, it limbered up quite a bit by evening, so I'm hoping it will loosen up as the day goes along.  I put my sore back to good use yesterday - laying around on the couch.  I'm working on a doily for a friend, and I got quite a bit done on it.  Alli and I also took a nice nap in the afternoon.

I sent out the announcement that we will be having a craft bazaar at work this year, so I am now committed to doing it.  I don't know how much more I want to stockpile vs. using what I have as samples.  I do need to get a bunch of gloves done - they always go fast, and I need extra for my teacher gifts this year.  (That way, I can take a break for a couple of weeks and work on other things, maybe??)   I always have more things to work on than I have time.

Winter is coming!  I spent most of yesterday afternoon with a cat curled up in my lap.  Of course, that means I spend most of the afternoon sitting on the couch!  I actually spent most of the day sitting on the couch.  As I was putting Allison's breakfast dishes in the dishwasher yesterday morning, I pulled something in my lower back.  I spent the rest of the morning sitting.  I did get a lot of crochet work done, but not much else.  Hopefully I'll get something done today!  My back is still sore, but not as bad as yesterday, so maybe with some ibuprofen I'll be fine.  I hope so - but I'll miss the cat in my lap.

My new office area has beautiful view of the sunrise.  Unfortunately, that means that I am at work when the sun is coming up.  Pretty soon, I will be there when it sets, too - the days are sure getting shorter.  I'm looking forward to the time change this weekend - it means I get to sleep in a little bit in the mornings.  I don't know how long it will take to reset Alli's internal alarm, so we will probably be getting up at the same time as we do now, for a while at least.  Then I can sleep in!

Made it to Friday, and I have the day off!  Since I don't think I've made it home much before 7:00 any night this week, I need it to catch up with myself - busy week.  As promised (finally!) here are some pictures from Halloween.  Most of my pictures of people in costume didn't turn out very well - too dark, even with a flash.

Casey's work area

A window in the department

My desk

The sun on the webbing

One of the spiders we had stuck around everywhere

Jan and Blake 

Cassey, Berneice and Justine taking pictures

My "Hobo spider"

The hallway past our department 

Jan's 'treasures"

More of Jan's 'booty'

Blurry picture of Berneice - a 'black widow"

Justine - a 'Parson Spider" (Her spider on her back is holding a bible)

Cassey - also a black widow

Halloween was a success at work - I went in early to finish decorating, and we strung more spider webs, and set up our props.  The pot luck was delicious!  Our theme as a department was 'spiders' and we had three black widows (ladies dressed in black compete with a veil) and the rest of us represented a different type of spider.  I was a "Hobo Spider" - and my little friend even had his own bindle.  Here's a picture:

I have a ton of pictures on my camera - but haven't had time to load them yet.  More pictures tomorrow???

Whew!  I think I have every thing done.  Costume all gathered up? Check.  Bindle staff for spider?  Check.  Extra spider webs and decorations for the office?  Check.  Cookies made for Allison's class?  Check.  Sprinkles gathered up for Allison's class?  Check.  Cookies made for neighbors?  Check (and Ralph already delivered Jane's - AJ will take the others down in a few minutes.)  Bookmarks done?  Check.  Goody bags done for the office?  Check.  Pork done for the enchiladas?  Check.  Enchiladas done?  No, but I'll do them after dinner.  Dinner ready?  sort of - the meat is ready for Ralph to put on the BBQ, so I just need the side stuff.  Whew - my feet hurt!  My "cold" didn't get any worse, so I was able to get everything done.

Here are some of the cookies.  As you can tell, the kitchen was a mess after baking!  I made a double batch of sugar cookies - somewhere between 10-12 dozen cookies, and a batch of peanut butter cookies (upon request from both Ralph and AJ.)  AJ help be frost the sugar cookies, so that chore went faster than normal.

Rufus took advantage of the bedcover after it came out of the dryer - he was nice and snuggy warm!

Here are the cat bookmarks I made - they all turned out just a bit different - depending on how I finished up the tail.

Mom asked me to pick up some material for her at Joann's this weekend, and when I went to the cutting counter and took a number, my number was 96, and they were working on #75 or so.  I had quite a bit of time to wander around shopping until they could cut the material, and I found some more yarn,  (I know -what a surprise!)  I made it up in the flower scarf pattern, and it turned out pretty nice! The white is a different texture than the black, so it adds a bit of 'difference' to the scarf that I like.

We had a visitor the other day - and he stayed quite a while.  I don't think he was too scared of us.  (He was a pretty big lizard!)

No! No! NO!  (Visualize tantrum here)  I think I'm coming down with a cold!  I don't have TIME for a cold!  I don't LIKE colds!  I don't WANT a cold!  Whine, whine whine!  Hopefully Airbourne will work it's magic, and I won't actually get sick.  Luckily, I got most of the housework done yesterday, but today was reserved for baking and cooking.  I want to make sugar cookies both for Allison's classroom and for me to take to work (and maybe some for Ralph and Alex?)  We are also having a potluck at work tomorrow, and I was going to make up some enchiladas today, which means I need to cook the pork roast today, and then make the enchiladas.  I know it will all work out, and I am so happy I have my new mixer to make my cookies!  (Hey - it's being thankful for the little things that get you through life!)

I did a dry run for my costume for work yesterday, and I think it will work out fine.  I was worried about wearing a costume all day and trying to work (did I mention the last day of the month is usually very busy for us???)  My department is dressing up with a "spider" theme.  Two are coming as 'black widows' - women wearing black - and the rest of us are coming as a 'themed' spider.  While we were tossing out ideas, one person googled spiders, and started reading off the different types of spiders, and it just took off from there.  Did you know there is a Pirate spider, a Hobo spider, a Jewel spider, a Parson spider, and a Candystriper spider?  The names are just too much fun!  I am going as a Hobo Spider - I'm dressing as a hobo, and will have my spider in my bindle!  I'm thinking of making him his very own little bindle to hang from a stick too.  (Of course, that was BEFORE I decided to dome down with a cold - we'll see!)  The department draped spider web stuff over a lot of the department on Friday, and we are going in early tomorrow to finish decorating.  I'll post pictures of the finished projects!

I finally made it to the weekend - yippee!  What a long week - busy at work, busy at home.  I spent a lot of time on the phone with friends this week - some bad, but a lot good.  It was nice to talk to friends that I don't talk to often!  (It does eat up an evening, though.)  Between work being extra busy (the last week of the month and the first week of the month are our busiest times) and spending my evening chatting instead of my normal house work, my house is a wreck!  Today is cleaning day, and I started a little early last night.  I went to sit down in the computer room and watch TV, and I could barely find the couch.  I piled up all of AJ's stuff and put it in his room.  Now his room is a mess, but I can enjoy the computer room again.  His idea of 'cleaning up the computer room' is taking the dirty dishes out - which is a start, I admit, but that is not the end!  Oh well - it look good now!

And, I realized this morning, Thanksgiving is at my house this year - I need to do some major cleaning between now and then - carpets and drapes and dusting (I only dust once a year - whether it needs it or not, LOL) etc.  I think I will try to go through some of the stuff I have and minimize it a bit - it always looks cleaner without clutter!  We'll see how far I get on that plan.

Back to work today - and I'll probably be paying for my three-day weekend (which was wonderful, by the way!)  Mom left yesterday around 11:00, and I already had most of my laundry on the line.  It took all day to dry, so I was folding clothes last night at 6:00 p.m.   Yuck!  I want, somehow, to do laundry instantly - all the loads at once.  I hate it dragging out all day!  One nice thing about our summers, by the time I am ready to hang the second load on the line, the first one is dry.  It does cut down on the time element.

I keep thinking the weather is going to change.  I had Picot in my lap all afternoon yesterday (if Allison wasn't in my lap).  Odd behavior for both of them.  It must be coming up to winter time or something. Alli napped in my lap after lunch, and Picot curled up several times later in the day.  They both make it hard to crochet.  I'm trying to build up inventory for our Christmas Bazaar at work.  I was also asked by a friend that if they have one at her work if I would put some stuff in.  Sure!  I better get busy - I have quite a few scarves made up, but I need to make up a bunch of gloves,  They usually sell well, and don't take as much time to make as the scarves do.  I've been having a lot of fun playing with the different yarns that are out now - so beautiful and soft!

Koori is so proud of her toy.  She is such a funny dog.  She doesn't want you to play with her toy, she just wants you to admire it.

Finally - a family reunion of sorts.  We were supposed to get a reunion going this summer with the family in Sacramento, but we could never get it quite together.  So instead, Mom and I went to Sacramento for a 50-year anniversary party Friday night, and met up with them there.  The relationship?  Guy, Jewell and Alba were siblings.  Alba was my Dad's mom, Uncle Jewell was the father of Rebecca, Mary and Micheal, and Uncle Guy was the father of Tommie.  (I'll have my Mom verify that I have this correct - family relationships confuse me - you're related to me how???)  My Mom spent time with the families when she was teaching in Floyd (Dad's home town) and then semi-followed them to California.  (They found a teaching job for her here, and she moved out to Crescent City area, went back on a quick trip, got married, and Dad followed her out.)  When Mom was teaching in Floyd, some of the 'cousins' were in her class.

Mom and Mike

Just Mike

Tommie  (who probably goes by Tom in the real world - Mom has always referred to him as Tommie)

The lady in Red and the gentleman to the right in the light shirt are Peggy and Ty - 

the couple that celebrated their 50 year anniversary.

The trip was fun, but tiring.  We drove down and back in the same day, and the party was at 7:00 p.m..  As usual, we closed the place down and didn't leave there until after 10:00 p.m., which made for a long day (I was up at 4:45  a.m. Friday morning with Allison - and got in bed close to 1:30 a.m. Saturday - long day!)  I also had an impromptu lunch on Friday with some girls friends -fun!  Veronica was in from Paradise for Inventory at Rexel, so she and her sister Meredith and I met for lunch.  Friday was a pretty busy day!  I made up for it on Saturday - I asked Ralph to get up with Allison and slept in a bit, and took a nap in the afternoon.  Another lovely day!

I stayed up way too late last night working on another bookmark - this one for Halloween.  I should have gone to bed much earlier - I know I have to get up early, I have no idea why I didn't!  I found a pattern that looks like this cat (sort of) but I didn't like the way it was constructed, so I worked out my own pattern last night.  I think he turned out pretty good!  I need at least 9 of these by Halloween, as well as getting a costume together for me.  I need to get busy!  I have an idea for my costume, I just need to pick up the materials and get started on it - then see what I need to fine tune on it.  

Here is another key-hole scarf I finished - love the colors.  The photo doesn't do them justice, but that's what you get when you take the picture at 6:00 a.m.  I like this pattern, and have started a scarf in the other pattern from the set that I bought.  It uses front post stitches, so have a lot of texture, so I am using a different type of yarn for it.  I'll post pictures of that when (if?) if get it done.  Too many things on my to-do list.

I'm off this Friday for a family wedding anniversary in Sacramento.  Mom is coming over, and we are meeting my sister on the way down, so it should be a fun trip.  It may be a quick trip - we haven't decided if we are staying the night in Sac or coming back home the same night.  It depends on how long we stay at the party, I think.  

I finished up the next set of bookmarks for my book club.  We are reading "Ender's Game" this time around - a very good sci-fi book, but not one I could find a bookmark for from the book - genius children, war games, aliens, etc.  I just couldn't come up with anything.  So...we went with Autumn.  I found a pattern for fall leaves, and worked them into a book mark.  Not too bad!!

AJ and I took a quick walk last night after work - before getting dinner ready.  I finally found some fall color.  (And the dogs found a lot of mud puddles!  They had so much fun running and chasing each other in this one!)

Alli is going back to the doctor's today.  She has a skin issue under her brace.  I thought is was an infection, so was treating it with the medicine for the last skin  infections, but....it isn't getting better.  Of course, it flared up over the weekend, so it was either treat her with what I had on had or take her to a walk-in clinic.  I figured they would say it was a skin infection and treat it just like I was doing, so I didn't take her in.  Now we'll see what Dr. G has to say about it.  Poor baby.  It is very red and itchy.

Koori and I made for a walk this weekend.  We went down to the Anderson River Trail and walked a few miles.  The trails are not well marked, and I lost my way out in the fields, but we had fun.  Not a lot of color changes yet, but still a pretty walk.