Knitterly Goodness & Belated Thanks

DSC00157, originally uploaded by kyredbutterfly.

I'm going to take full advantage of all my work last night and finally thank my dear friend Chrissie for packing up and sending me all of this delicious yarn and magazines and books. (The books are a little hard to identify, as Phoenix the Cat felt the need to pose on top of them. It must have been the smell of Artie the Dog, because no matter what I did, Phoenix wouldn't move!)

I know it's been way too long, but thanks, Chrissie! I've got a few goodies planned for all this fun yarn.

It sure doesn't take much!

(Just a gratuitous picture of the tulips that were beautifully displayed in front of the Capitol earlier this month. Now, here's why they're posted here...)

To make me downright ecstatic, that is! As I said last time, it was about darn time I got on the ride and uploaded my photos to Flickr, got pics on this darn blog, and eventually figured out how to put a Flickr badge onto my blog.

The big problem was that we've been having massive internet problems at home. Between the frustration level and the fact that I was beginning to think that I was going to have pay someone to come fix the problem, I kept putting it off. It's gotten to the point that most days I don't even look at the router to see if it's working more than once a day. As I walked into the house after work today I just happened to glance over and Oh. My. Gosh! It's working! Drop everything. Turn computer on. Find Flickr account information from when Kat visited last July. Do not stop to go to the bathroom, do not get anything to drink, don't even take off jewelry. Get online - now!

Not only did I get a select few pics onto Flickr (and think I've figured an easier way to do it out), but I tagged and named and described the ones I did upload. I figured by then I was probably pushing my luck to attempt the badge thing all by myself, given the lengths Kat went through to try and unsuccessfully put a badge onto my old blog design, but I held my breath and gave it a shot. Anyone with two eyes (or heck, even just one) can look to the right of this post and see that I actually succeeded. Not that it was hard. Not that most anyone could do it. I realize this isn't rocket science. But the fact that I did do it...well, heck, I don't like trying to hook up the DVD player if I can find someone else to fool with it.

So, I'm ecstatic. But I must also admit, given the hour-long drive home and the hour that I've been enjoying internet usage again, my bladder's pretty darn full and I'm going to risk it. I mean, why not, I actually accomplished one of my "big" goals for this spring. Maybe I'll get really, really lucky and the internet connection will not break down when I turn my back for a few minutes. A girl can dream, can't she?

Long Time, No Words

Did you all (all 6 or 7 of you who actually read this, that is) think I'd dropped off the face of the earth? Well, sometimes working for the state legislature during the last days of their annual session feels that way. Really, it's been a combination of the job and the frustration over a decision I made about a month ago that I haven't been able to implement.

The legislature's now left town (for now), meaning I can leave the office on time again and have more time for outside pursuits, like this blog baby. However, I'd vowed that I was going to be better about adding pictures to my blogs, getting my pictures over onto Flickr, and trying to link my Flickr pics to the blog. Kat and I tried last year when she came to visit and had a frustrating time ending in (obvious) defeat. But blogs without any pictures can be boring, so that was a goal I'd set for myself. Then my home internet service decided to go bye-bye, just in time for me to not have the time to get it fixed.

That left me faced with the dilemma...do I blog without pictures (and when, because of work obligations, there wasn't much to share) or do I wait until I got the pictures downloaded to Flickr and figure out how to make the link work properly? You can tell which one I chose! At this point I'm thinking of bringing the camera into work so I can just load the pictures to Flickr and be done with it. (Sshhh...don't tell!)

Also, the new look for the blog...The blog hit the one year mark this month, and I was itching to make some changes. And, I love, love, love green, and spring's the time for a new look. I'm also secretly hoping it's easier to create the Flickr link in this template than the other one I was using. Kat seemed to think that was the problem. I guess we'll see.