Our land lord bought us a brand new dish washer this weekend! The guys from Sears came over and installed it yesterday.
I took some before pics of our old machine but they seem to have disappeared from the camera 
This is a shot mid-removal.
And here are a few shots after it was installed. Oh look the dogs have made cameo appearances in the shots. I’m sure we’re all shocked.
Abe
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/08/22/argentina.dog.tale/index.html
Dogs are the best.
Abe
What a wonderful (though hot) weekend. Friday night felt like another whole day. We went shopping for the last few items for the HSKS5 thang. I also got the yarn I need to make the Dream Swatch Head Wrap (down on the left) for the KAL (Knit A-Long) that the Hufflepuffs started. I have not been added to the list of participants, though, so I don’t know if they are still working on it or if I sent my email to the wrong person or what… Acorn Street Shop did not have any variegated bamboo yarn, so I got two colors of yarn and will switch EOR (every other row) or so. Oddly enough, the two colors I liked the most were basically Ravenclaw colors. I think it will be really pretty.
Also this weekend, we had a GREAT time at Allison’s going away party. Hung out at the park with le Poops for a while eating really greasy hot dogs (well, part of one until it made me sick) and talking with everyone. Le Poops were really happy, though too hot. Jim gave Nisa a watermelon rind and I had to struggle for a minute or so trying to pry her jaw open to get it from her so she wouldn’t release some fowl liquid all over the car. That morning we had given the dogs a bath and vacuumed the car. Too much dog hair. It was finally starting to get to me. Nisa has been shedding like crazy because the Addison’s was making all her hair fall out and we have to wait until her next hair cycle for it to stop. She she about a puppy’s worth of hair when we gave her a bath.
Also on Saturday morning, we went to Get Smart. Very funny. There were a couple scenes where we were all laughing so hard (the two of us the the 2 or so strangers that were there too) that no one could breathe. And I LOVE Dwayne Johnson. That is all I have to say about that. It is not particular to the movie, but I wanted to point it out for Abe again. Hehe.
Then on Sunday we went to the Lake Forest Park Farmer’s Market with Abe’s mom and it turned out to be just that. They only sold veggies and the like. And since it was only 11 and already so hot out that I stopped at every vendor just to get out of the sun, we promptly went home. Well, we stopped at Michael’s so I could buy another tatting shuttle since I lost one somewhere in the apartment, but they no longer carry them. All I can say is “What kind of Bull Crap is that!” They had tatting thread and no shuttles. And no green tissue paper. Granted, neither did Fred Meyer’s. But then we went home and I melted on the couch, watched a disc of ER and finished the shrug from the pattern I got at Spin A Yarn in Edmonds on the LYS Tour. It looked weird open loose, so I closed it in front with a saftey pin and it looks really nice. Busty, but nice. I am glad I chose these colors and not some crazy bright pink colorway. Though I did get to see some of the new Noro sock yarn color ways at Acorn Street and there is a beautiful green, blue, and black one that I am dying for. I think there is a little purple too, so I bet it is gorgeous. Can’t wait to figure out what I would like to make with that.
And now I have started Bad Juju. It is a small knit voodoo doll. I am going to pin him to the side of my cubicle through the neck with a long T pin. I think it will be adorable. And maybe it will get QA to shut up. Hehe. Then I am going to make a shrunken head. Also for my cubicle. I think I will hang it like I did the snitch I made.
The bad news though. Isaac can’t make it the weekend of the 4th for Harry Potter weekend. So he is trying to get the next weekend off to come down instead. If he can, we will be going to a dyeing class at my oh so favorite yarn shop Acorn Street on Sunday. Or just buying the dyeing kits and dyeing it in my kitchen. I am sure Abe would love that. But the class is a bit pricey and I have to have $175 to buy a kit to make the Imogen sweater for the August Olympic Knitting Trials. This kit, but I have not decided on a color. Maybe the Hercules or Merlin or Origin colorway. I am thinking Hercules. I want something kind of colorful, but not bright. Or Victoria for something less colorful but will still show the stripies.
This weeks jerk of the week award goes to an eq2 player I had dealings with on wednesday night. We started a group for a dungeon called Stormhold which is a 20s level area. It can be difficult to get a group together in that level range so I was very pleasantly surprised to have 5 people in our group within a few minutes of posting the first notice in 20-29 chat. This is when the drama started.
We have one spot open and the Tool wants us to invite his lvl 55 guardian buddy because “We don’t have a tank.” I explain that one of the people in our group is in fact a Brawler which IS a tank class. The Tool then says “Well we need a REAL tank.” The brawler says “I’m a tank. I can tank SH. I have good gear.” As far as the rest of the group is concerned it’s decided at this point but the Tool persists. “If you aren’t going to invite my friend to tank for us I’m going to leave.” He says. I’m thinking to myself this guys a fucking Tool! He doesn’t want a group he wants his friend to power level him. Some furious whispering happens between me and the people in the group that aren’t the Tool. “It’s pretty hard to get a whole group of level appropriate people together for a dungeon in the 20s. Leave if you want to but I’m happy with a bruiser for a tank.” I say in group chat.
The Tool drops from the group and immediately starts advertising for more people for his new SH group in 20-29 chat. We have a good chuckle about it and start to work our way in to the dungeon.
A few minutes later the Tool sends me a /tell asking me to join his group to heal! I tell him I’m happy with my group and he replies that “You can’t do SH without a plate tank.” I tell him I’d rather fail with a group that’s the right level than waltz through the place with a minor deity tanking for me. At this point he says to me “Fine enjoy dying you stupid bitch.”
I told my group about all this, reported the Tool for being a jerk and put him on ignore. About 20 minutes later we ran in to the Tool and his high level buddy struggling their way through the dungeon with no one to help them. I pointed at him and blew him a kiss 
I made an interesting discovery this week. I HATE LCDs for gaming. Yes widescreen resolutions are nice. Yes text is incredibly clear and easy to read. But, if you are playing a FPS a CRT with a decent refresh rate is head and shoulders better than an LCD every day of the week. It’s hard to describe and basically can’t be caught in a movie or I would capture it and show you. Playing Quake 3 or UT 2004 on my CRT is like looking in to a 3d space vs watching a very fast slide show on the LCD.
I’ve rearranged my desk so my LCD is off to the side and my CRT is dead center in front of me. I can’t believe I ever bought in to the whole LCD thing and I’m fearing the day that my CRT dies because I might not be able to find a replacement.
Nisa is really doing well these days. She’s playful and happy in a way I just don’t remember her being in a really long time. Ernies lost about three pounds on his diet in the last few weeks too! I can’t wait for both of our dogs to be happy and healthy again.
And here’s some funny animal pictures.
more cat pictures
I was going to take a movie of the dogs to put up but the batteries in the camera are dead so look forward to that for next week!
Abe
Yep it’s tuesday. Not a lot happening. I did a bunch of laundry today. And I washed the dishes.
Nisa is returning to her normal self as she starts to feel better. In fact I think she has been feeling crappy for a while because she seems like a different dog in a lot of ways. She’s making different facial expressions and her ears are pointing out at the top rather than straight up. She’s also only peeing like three or four times a day which is TOTALLY awesome. I was getting tired of running up and down the stairs 15 times a day.
Jeez, I probably need to start some kind of exercise now that I’m off the Nisa’s bladder plan.
I don’t have my grades yet but I’m sure that I did very well.
I’ve been playing eq2 lately and I really enjoy it for the most part but it seems like there are fewer people playing it now than I’ve ever seen. Most nights on my server there are only 10-20 people playing that are in the 20-30 level range. I haven’t been able to get a group together for anything at all since I came back two weeks ago. It’s pretty depressing.
I am also getting original EQ for free until august and I started playing that last night. It was amazing how many people were running around in tha game in the lowbie areas let alone how many were talking in chat. I saw more players in 30 minutes in EQ than I’ve seen in the last week in EQ2. That’s just sad.
I’m downloading the 14 day free trial of Dark Age of Camelot because I suspect that I’m just burned out on Norrath. Basically I just need a change of environment. I can’t afford to buy the game if I do like it though. Ah being poor blows.
I was going to say something about Blooms Day but I don’t really have anything. I’ve started to read Ulysses three or four times and I’ve never made it more than about half way through. I really like Joyce’s earlier writing, in Dubliners especially, but Ulysses and Finnegans Wake pretty much just leave me cold.
I much prefer Celine to Joyce. He writes about retards and whores. My kind of guy. Except for the whole Nazi collaboration thing.
Abe
Our dog Nisa has been sort of sickly for the past while. She’s had bouts of vomiting and has been drinking extreme amounts of water and has had problems with having accidents in the house. Over the weekend she seemed to be getting a lot worse. I was taking her out to pee every 45 minutes and she was drinking truly huge amounts of water. On Sunday night we noticed her shaking. On Monday morning she was shaking even worse.
So I called the vet and made an appointment for her. After x-rays, blood work and a urine culture the vet came to the conclusion that the blood test might indicate Addison’s Disease and so we gave him the go-ahead to do a test on her that would confirm his suspicions. So yesterday we got confirmation that she does have Addison’s and I took her for her first shot. For the rest of her life she needs one of these shots every 25 days.
She seems to be feeling better now but she’s mostly sleeping. She was wagging her tail this morning though. And she had enough energy to chase the birds too.
On a lighter note, June 10 was my half birthday and Angela made me an awesome card.
My piano final is tomorrow. Then I’m done with school until the fall. I’m going to miss my classes though.
No lolcats today. Instead here are some pictures of Nisa that I took a few days ago.
And this is whats she’s spent most of the day doing today.
Abe
So for the last few days Nisa hasn’t been eating much of her food, she’s been shaking a lot and she’s had to go out for bathroom breaks like every 90 minutes. Yesterday it got so bad that I took her to the vet. After an hour and some pretty expensive tests we really don’t know what’s wrong with her. They took some blood and urine samples and the vet is calling me back today to tell me if there were any bacteria in her urine.
The vet gave her a prescription of pain drugs and antibiotics. So she’s doped up.
He’s worried that she might have diabetes insipidus. But he was careful to warn us that at this point it could be any number of things.
Finals week is this week. I have my theory final tomorrow and my piano final on Friday.
Angela and I played EQ2 together last weekend for the first time in a few months. We had SO much fun. We have very similar play styles and enjoy the same parts of the game so we really have a blast when we play together. We made new characters. I made an Ogre inquisitor named Dennika and she made an Iksar necromancer named Stierska.
I’m doing something different with Dennika. One of my goals is to make as much of her gear myself as I can. Right now she’s a level 21 weaponsmith and is only a level 13 adventurer. I’m also trying to do as many quests as I can and to that end I’ve turned off combat experience so she only gains experience points from turning in quests and discovery of new areas.
I’m really enjoying playing this way. Dennika has some totally awesome gear and has almost as many AA points as she has adventure levels. She looks awesome too Angela gave me the rare ingredient that I used to make the armor pieces.
And her’s a lolcats for you. This one made me laugh out loud.
more cat pictures
So the weather has just been all over the place for the last week or so. One day its 83 degrees and the next its 50 and raining. At night its been really cold and both Angela and I have been having crazy dreams. Last night I had one where we were driving around in our car and something hit our windshield and shattered it. I started to get upset because we couldn’t afford to replace it but Angela said “Don’t worry I’ve got some lace weight yarn with me, I’ll just knit us a new one.” And a few minutes later we were driving away again with a windshield that looked like a giant white doily!
Angela’s foot is healing up really well. We’ve been washing it, putting antibiotic ointment and a fresh bandage on it twice a day since it happened. It was pretty funny. I was sitting on the ground playing with the dogs and Angela stepped over the little table at the end of the couch and right on to the dog brush. She started laughing hysterically and hopping around and I looked up just in time to see the dog brush go flying off her foot which she was madly shaking. then she collapsed on the ground and said “It hurts!” between spurts of laughter. She was laughing the whole time I was on the phone with the doctor. All in all it was a pretty surreal event.
The yarn trek was fun in its own way too. Saturday was my favorite day. We took the dogs with us and went to Bellingham to have lunch with Rijil and Isaac and then we drove to like 14 yarn stores between Bellingham and Seattle. It was cool to see the variety in the stores. And I really enjoyed chatting with Angela for such a long stretch of time. It reminded me of when we used to play EQ2 together. It was like a big long quest
Man I’m a dork.
Also, some amusement from http://icanhascheezburger.com/
Just wanted to share this video of an absolutely adorable corgi I found on you tube.
Also, I installed OpenSolaris 2008.05 on my laptop today. It’s very nice so far.
What a great weekend. Yesterday we did nothing. Well, I sold a pair of needles to my cousin Jenny and some other arachknits stuff, but other than that, we both had a great relaxing weekend. Abe played WoW all weekend. On Saturday, I started some fingerless mittens. I watched Memiors of a Geisha and the first two disks of Firefly (of four disks) which got me through one and a half of the gloves. They are garter stitch, mostly, so I was getting bored at that point. So I stopped knitting and read Watership Down for about 3 hours. Good book. I got to cuddle with Nisa while I read for an hour. Perfect way to read the book.
Today, we bought the dogs some toys. They love the Petsmart dog toys. I think we got them the 24 inch. They love it! Nisa carried it all over the apartment giving it the occasional death whip. Then Ernie got ahold of one end and they started the pulling and ripping. Ernie pulls with his full body and Nisa just doesn’t have the power to keep up. But when Ernie got bored, Nisa took it back and started rippng its guts right out.
She would stick her nose in to rip the stuffing out when it wasn’t just falling out anymore.
Unil finally, the poor thing had been debrained.
Then we put them in their kennels and went to Baby Mama. Pretty funny. Abe said it has too much story. Some very funny moments. And of course those girls are hilarious. During the previews though, they showed a whole bunch of funny (and fitting) previews for upcoming comedies. Then after one particularly hilarious one, they played the scariest preview for some movie with Liv Tyler. The preview was so scary that I couldn’t even watch. It might have seemed scarier than it actually was because it was right after such a funny preview. Then they went right back in to really funny previews.
We came home and returned the dogs to their beloved blue dog toy. They instantly ripped the beaten toy in half.
There is Nisa pulling out even more stuffing. Fortunately neither Ernie nor Nisa eat stuffing. Now that it is ripped in half, they each get a piece!
We also got them some lo-cal spearmint dog chews for tartar (Ernie has horrible teeth). Here is Nisa chewing on hers.
I finished my gloves today before we went to Baby Mama. Abe coulnd’t take the picture, so I had to take these on my own.
That is “gold” beading on them. I used Noro Kureoyn Sock yarn. I like it (the colors are magnificent), but the yarn really sticks to itself. The pair actually used pretty much exactly one repeat of the color pattern.
And now, I am going to see if these is anything to watch on TV. I am currently watching a Canadian channel (which I didn’t even know we got). But it is on Antique Road Show, so I better find something else to watch.
P.S. I found a wrinkle on my forehead. Less than a month before my 26th birthday. I feel old.
