The sock, she is done...

I want you to know that it took me ALL DAY to put this post together. Blogger is most definitely not cooperating with me trying to post today, especially with pictures, so I think I'd better go with what I've got before it eats everything. I guess I should be happy that I was able to load what I did.

As promised, some pictures of Chicago. What a great city. Here is ZimDee looking down at the Chicago river: I'm a huge fan of the first Apprentice winner, Bill Rancic. It was exciting to see the progress on the project he's been working on for Trump in the city. When I was in Chicago back in November they had barely broken ground, and now it's going up fast:

And here is a picture of some of my most favorite people in the world at the foot of the John Hancock tower:
That's my beautiful niece Stephanie on the left, holding Sproutie. The cool dude next to her is my fabulous nephew Tim, and the long tall drink of water to his left is my sweet Natey. I couldn't love them more if I had given birth to them myself. One of the best things about my life is that I have the privelege of being their aunt. I love you guys! I miss you every day.

Here are Tim and Girlie walking down Michigan Avenue, the fabulous Miracle Mile that Oprah mentions at the end of every show. I even saw the famous Omni hotel that guests of the Oprah Winfrey show stay at when they're in Chicago. La di da.

So that's enough of the city, in no small part because that's all blogger would let me load.

Oh, looky here, what do we see?Yes, it's my Girlie carrying on in her mother's footsteps! No matter that this scarf has been over a year in the making now. My baby girl loves to knit! She even brought it with her on vacation. That's true dedication, if you ask me.

A belated congratulations to Kim for winning the movie line contest from The Way We Were. Love, love, love that movie. Thank you for elaborating about the scenes that made you cry. *sigh* Your sweet treats are on their way.

The next movie line up for consideration is a long way from The Way We Were. I'm thinking funny, cult movie here. What movie are these lines from?:

"Kill him--a lot!"

"Hey, you missed practice again today! I think you better sit down and think about how that made me feel."

Good luck to all.

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for: My Mock Croc socks are done!
I finished them yesterday, just in time to show them off to Amanda at our monthly knitting guild meeting. I also got to stand up and show them to the guild members at show and tell. I felt shpeshal.

And now, my loyal readers, I would like to direct your attention to a new knitalong, of which I have been informed that I am the co-host. It all came about rather innocently enough. Amanda and I were talking about (what else) knitting at the guild meeting, and she mentioned a mystery sock knitalong that she knew of once in which the participants picked out a free pattern from the internet that had no picture to show what the finished product would look like. If you are like most people, including me, you usually skip right over those patterns. But not this time. Who of you is brave enough to come along with me on the Mystery Sock KAL? Mamma? Tam? Kim? I'm calling you out by name. Click on the link to get the full details. So, are you with me? Leave me a comment and let me know. I can't wait to find out! This is going to be fun!

Happy Birthday ZimDee!

Happy 4th birthday to my sweet little man.

You were my smallest baby at birth, barely weighing in at 6 pounds, zero ounces. Here we are in the hospital where you were born. I was in awe at the wonder of you.

Your daddy was so happy to finally have a son.

I was just happy to hold you in my arms.

And my how you grew! Here is one of my most favorite pictures of you, taken on your 2nd birthday. Chocolate cake is mighty yummy!

You are one of the funniest people I've ever met. You love your mommy with a fierceness only matched by my love for you in return. Happy birthday, my sweet prince.

I'm Home

Because he was so shocked at not being tagged by name, I now proclaim that Tim has been officially tagged! Let it be known throughout the land of this taggage! And now I look forward to your unquestionably witty answers, Mr. Tim.

And in light of not leaving anyone out, I didn't tag you, mamma, because I knew you would be out of town. But please note that the gracious Tam has done the honors. Looking forward to your answers as well.

I want to acknowledge everyone who answered that fun little meme, or GIM, in Tam's case. Who knew that Kim and Jennifer liked the TV show House as much as I do? That Angela shares the same strange love of asparagus as me? That Stephanie is obsessed with cheeseburgers? And that Amanda and Tam have both lived in Germany? Well done, ladies. It was fun getting to know all of you a little bit more!

We are now back home from our trip to Chicago. I will have some pictures to post of our trip to the city and the boys' new haircuts when everything gets more settled around here.

But right now I want to say a big thank you to my One Skein Secret Pal. She sent me the most lovely skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in my favorite color scheme: purples! Also included in the package was an adorable mini spa kit with the yummiest smelling citrus-scented candle, bath salts, and a cute little spa book. There was also a frosted lemon sugar cookie that met its untimely demise in my children's tummies before I could unpack my camera. I absolutely cannot wait to knit this fabulous yarn into a pair of socks, which is my new obsession. Thank you so much, O/S Secret Pal!

A word about Sproutie: apparently he is not allergic to penicillin after all. When we returned home we took him to a follow-up visit to his pediatrician because his rash was getting worse, not better. The doctor diagnosed him with roseola, and explained how this mistake could happen: a child presents with a high fever but no other symptoms. He is diagnosed with an ear infection and given antibiotics. When the roseola rash breaks out after the fever, the child is erroneously diagnosed with an allergy to the antibiotics. The doctor said it is a common mistake. The roseola is a virus and not treatable by antibiotics. It just has to take its course. So Sproutie is in good spirits, though still a bit polka-dotted. Thank you all for your caring words of support.

And finally, another movie contest. What movie did these lines come from?:

"Do You think if I come back its going to be ok by magic? What's going to changed? What's going to be different? We'll both be wrong, we'll both lose."
----"Couldn't we both win?"

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were old? Then we could say we survived all this. Everything thing would be uncomplicated, the way it was when we were young"
----"It was never uncomplicated."

and finally:

"Your girl is lovely."

Ok, I think I'm going to go cry now. I love this movie. It always makes me cry. Does it do the same to you? Let me know in your answer.

Good luck to all.

Movie Line Contest Winner and a Tag

Congratulations to lavendersheep for winning the movie line contest from Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest. Johnny Depp was fabulous as usual, but I'm going to go against the grain and say that I was disappointed in this movie. Check out my beautiful niece Stephanie's blog to see her review.

So, Lavendersheep (I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name), if you'd like to email your snail mail address to me at Katrina at HereinTopeka dot com, I will send your candy prize on its way. You have also earned the right to display the movie line contest winner ribbon (located on my sidebar) on your blog if you so desire.

And now for a meme, which I caught from Marji:

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. dental assistant
2. manicurist/nail tech
3. court reporter
4. telephone operator

B) Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. The Incredibles
2. Victor/Victoria
3. 9 to 5
4. Tombstone

C) Four places you have lived besides where you live now:
1. Coos Bay, Oregon
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Salem, Oregon
4.

D) Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. So You Think You Can Dance
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Last Comic Standing
4. Grey's Anatomy

E) Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Disneyland
2. Victoria, BC
3. Yellowstone Park
4. Chicago

F) Four websites I visit daily:
1. Blogger
2. Outlook Express
3.
4.

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. raspberries
2. chocolate lava cake
3. freshly made lemonade
4. Jamba Juice!!

H Four places I would rather be right now:
1. being served tea in a tea shop
2. shopping and knitting in a yarn store
3. watching a movie at the theatre
4. at Jamba Juice

I) Four friends I think will respond:
1. Jennifer
2. Kim
3. Amanda
4. Angela

Stephanie and Tam, I am tagging you as well, even though I know you protest to the meme label, Ms. Tam. And anyone else who thinks this would be fun, please join in the festivities and consider yourself tagged!

Now on to the Knitting

Now that Sproutie is feeling better, I will belatedly congratulate Jennifer for correctly guessing the movie line from Postcards from the Edge. I loved the mother/daughter dynamic in this movie, and Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine do not fail to deliver fine comedic performances.

The next movie line up for consideration is very, very current. Try this one on for size (if you've been to the movies within the last week, hint hint):

"Hello, Beastie."

Good luck to all.

And now that Sproutie doesn't want me to hold him 24/7 and he's taken more interest in playing with big brother and sissy, I can start knitting again. I'm about an inch away from turning the heel in my second Mock Croc sock. I'm already searching out patterns for my next pair of socks. I haven't decided between the Jaywalkers (MagKnits, Sept 05), Pomatomus (www.knitty.com, Winter 05) or Baudelaire from the new issue of Knitty (www.knitty.com, Summer 06). What do you all think? (I'm sorry I can't provide links to the patterns for you to click on and see. If you were so inclined, you could find them by doing a search. I don't know why I can't get the hyperlinks to work. It's either a blog thing or a me thing, and smart money is on it being me. Do any of you techno-savvies out there have any suggestions or explanations why I can't link to these patterns? As always, it's much appreciated.)

My love to all.

Update on Sproutie

Here is an update on my precious Sproutie:Three days into taking antibiotics for his ear infection, he woke up with a terrible rash all over his body. We are still out of town, visiting in Chicago. So we took him back to the urgent care center, where they confirmed my suspicion: he is allergic to penecillin. The doctor said to stop administering the antibiotics immediately, of course, and put him on a regimen of benadryl.

As you can imagine, I'm not very happy about the allergy. Apparently allergies to penecillin are pretty common, but I'm not comforted by that fact when the mommy worrier side of me starts thinking about the options not available to treat my child. I've heard that administering antibiotics too soon and too often will more often lead to allergies to them, but my boy was truly sick, with a fever of 102.4 and in a lot of pain because of the ear infection. And I guess that if he was going to be allergic to penecillin, we would have found out sooner or later whenever he would have been treated with it. Mommy guilt is such an all-consuming thing sometimes.

The good news is that he is in good spirits now, and is smiling and laughing and wanting to play again. That warms my heart to no end.

So aside from a few polka dots, my baby boy is on the mend.

My apologies

Sorry to my wonderful blog friends for being so scarce. I'm thinking about you every day. Sproutie has been sick with a high fever and ear infection and it's been hard to get away to read your witty blogs and to write on my own. Know that you are all in my thoughts, my dear sweet friends. I will write and fill you all in when my baby boy is feeling better and doesn't need his mommy to hold him constantly. Until then, my love to all.