Some people have bad addictions to drugs, food and other unmentionables. Currently, I find myself glued to my computer more than I probably should be. I’m addicted/obsessed with YouTube. Not the crazy home videos but instead music videos by some of my favorite bands. Another thing that’s currently attracting me to the computer is Dr. Blind by Emily Haines, the lead singer of Metric. It’s such a haunting and beautiful song, I just want to listen to it over and over, I had it going through my head all day at work yesterday and while I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep last night. Fortunately for myself and the computer, Emily’s solo album comes out on Tuesday.

This past Monday Bryan and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We both had to work that day, after work we got dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. I truly can’t believe it’s already been two years since we got married. It was such a wonderful day and it was so wonderful that sometimes it doesn’t feel real. The wonderful thing was so many people came from near and far to celebrate our wedding. At this time two years ago, we were honeymooning in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada.

On a different note, this morning I had my hair cut and I feel so great. I’ve been so irritated with the layers that I had put in back in May. So I’m growing those out and the stylist softened the front, so I have really long “bangs” that come down to my chin. Nothing like good hair cut to make you feel like a normal person again.

Today was my day off since I work all weekend and I am hoping to finish my market bag soon. On RoseByAny‘s blog she listed her goal dates for finishing certain projects. What a great idea. Here are my wish dates for finishing two of my current projects.

Hobo – October 8 (exactly one year after I re-started it)
After an extra hard lesson in gauge, I have less than 70 rows to go before I finish the body on the second piece. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be finished with the body within the next week. Once I get going on the sleeve, it took me a day or so to finish it on the first piece. Then I need to block the pieces and sew them together. Fortunately, there are only four easy seams on this sweater. The top of the sleeves and the side/underarm seams.
Go with the Flow socks – October 31
I’ve joined Lolly’s Socktober Fest again this year. I hope to finish these socks and possibly start another pair for myself, which hopefully will go quickly. If I can finish both pairs by the end of October that would just be fabulous. I’m hoping that my obsession with socks from last year comes back.

I can’t believe I forgot this earlier, Marianne, my August Project Spectrum swap pal sent me this cute little fellow for August. He’s so cute and all handmade. I totally loved the creativity of the Project Spectrum swap pals I had. I didn’t experiment with a lot just challenged myself to make cool cards in that month’s colors and I think some of them are my best cards. I wasn’t the best Project Spectrum participant working on projects in that month’s color. Frankly, I had too many projects and I had too many babies to knit for. I guess the Log Cabin Blanket counted for almost every color of the rainbow anyway, so I guess I was working on a project in that month’s colors now that I think about it. March really inspired me to work on the Hobo sweater and now I’m more than 75% finished with the sweater.

I received my new Spin-Off magazine in the mail today and saw the beautiful bag on the front and thought, “I don’t know the last time I sat down at my wheel.” This summer was the summer of baby things that I needed to decompress and not knit for over a week. I truly burnt myself out this summer. The heat didn’t help much either. The idea of wool stuck to me wasn’t the least bit appealing. In the last few weeks, I seem to be going through a strange period, I want to knit and I love knitting but my excitement for it just isn’t there. I knit to relax and to keep my hands busy when I’m watching tv, the little tv that I watch, and DVDs. There is a local spinning guild but I just didn’t bond with anyone there. And for work reasons, I had to leave my knitting group. I’m going to be starting up teaching on September 25 and I’m hoping that will spark my excitement again. I may also be teaching at a new local yarn shop, which would be fabulous. A place to hang out and knit would be great and I may even meet fellow spinners. After I got back from Maryland Sheep & Wool, I felt like my knitting and spinning interests were unstoppable. Now Maryland feels years away and my excitement feels at about a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest). Part of this lack of excitement is why I needed a break from the blog. I didn’t feel like I had anything to contribute or anything interesting to say, except that I’ve been working a lot and I’ve been reading this book. While I was away, I finished the enormous knitting group project, finished the first of the Go with the Flow socks, worked several inches on the Hobo sweater, of which is about 75% complete, and started a Saturday Market Bag in some left over Cotton Fleece. So I have been knitting and doing some reading, too.

Speaking of books, I’m reading a book called The Hundred-Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald. I was checking in books at the library and I checked in this book. The author goes into the history of “better living through chemicals” and how chemicals are building up in our bodies. One thing that’s continuously caught my attention and it’s been mentioned several times now in this book is that there is research showing that taking kids off of foods that have a lot of artificial colors and sweetners will immediately show a decrease in hyperactivity. It’s made me look at everything on our kitchen shelves and it’s making me more aware of the “harmless” chemicals in our house. He goes into how so much of the real medical research is discredited by the chemical companies and their advertising. So many things that have been banned in other countries are put in and on our food without us even thinking twice about it.

Arg, I had something written and I lost my post because of a blog that I was checking for the Midwest Knitters blog ring caused Firefox to lock up. Anyway, I was writing that I’m going to take a bit of a break from my blog. I don’t plan to be gone long, unfortuantely, I feel a bit bored with blogging. My knitting is suffering a bit too. I think I burnt myself out with the marathon baby knitting during July and August. Maybe some of my disinterest in my blog has to do with the numerous junk comments that I’ve been getting lately. It’s so disheartening to see what havoc they are reaking on my email box.
Tonight, while poor Bryan has to work (why is the library open until 11pm on the night before Labor Day), I’m reviewing blogs for the blog ring, making a “biga” for some ciabatta bread I’ll attempt tomorrow and working on some new couch pillows.

One thing I’ve done a lot of this summer is read. At the beginning of the summer, my goal was to read six books between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I had no idea that I would read 16. Two-thirds of the books were young adult books, but they still counted. One of my recent reads has been added to the all-time favorites list. It’s called Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. Bess recommended it about a month ago on her blog and I added it to my already long list of books to read. It’s beautifully written, the author is a poet, and it’s been added to the list along with Prep and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Have a good Labor Day!