I'm back in the race!

For like two days this week I didn't do any knitting - that's kind of weird for me.  especially two consecutive days.  I think it was partly because I've been knitting on only one thing for a while now - my Eleanor test knit, which I'm really loving, but it's just hard to stick with only one thing, you know?  I think it was also partly because I needed to seam up the side and sleeve before finishing the sleeve cuff (Emily's came out short and mine was looking like it would too, but I wanted to be sure by being able to actually put the sleeve ON my body.)  The seaming just loomed over me for some reason - you know, you've got to lay it out on a table or something, and concentrate, and those simple things just seemed like more than I wanted to deal with.  But last night I finally did it (after getting out a book to make sure I was doing it right - because I rarely seam right and it turns out looking like crap.)  Man is that seaming thing gratifying!  Wow - when you do it right it looks so good!  and yeah, it takes a while, but boy do you feel jazzed about it as you see it coming out right!  All my rows lined up so nicely - the stripes matched, the armholes matched - whee!  I'm totally re-energized and back in the Eleanor race!  

Before starting on sleeve #2 today though, I decided I needed to quit pretending like the weeds which are quickly turning into trees in my yard don't exist, so I went out this morning and did a big of clean up.  Not nearly as much as I need to, but it's something.  This is why yardwork kind of freaks me out sometimes - especially when I let things get too overgrown - the scary stuff moves in!  

Can you believe that thing?  It's black and yellow and it was actually eating it's prey 

when I looked up and saw it right in front of me - that's the other problem - you don't see this crap till you're almost right in it and about to be killed by a flurry of probably deadly spider bites!  At the very least I'm sure I'd crack my head on the side of the bricks while I'm flailing and trying to get away from it's maybe deadly attack!  I'm not super afraid of spiders, but anything big like that just gives me the impression that it might be capable of anger, revenge or planned attacks and I don't want to be part of that!  This guy has a buddy of the same species who's standing guard over some tomato plants that I let get a little (ok, a LOT) overgrown in the back of the yard.  He's so big I swear he yells at me whenever I walk past - "heeey baby- I got yer tomatoes right here!"  Ugh, he's a jerk.  One thing that IS cool about both of these guys is their webs - look at the zig zag that goes up and down from the center point - both of them did this on their webs and it's probably for strength, or it's like their cast on edge or something, I don't know - it certainly adds to the menace though.  Like a barbed wire fence around him.

  Oh, my hand also got dangerously close to this monster praying mantis. 

 I know praying mantises probably don't hurt you, but again, it's the size!  He was in the same bed as the giant spider and was patient enough to wait there on the bird bath while I went to get the camera.  As I was watching him, he turned his head and looked right at me!  Seriously - check that picture - he's totally looking at me - maybe you can't tell, but what you're seeing at the head end is actually the front of his face - that neck just bent like I had no idea an insect neck could bend!  At which point I decided he was probably a preying mantis, and was thinking of coming at me with those big clacky wings, so I backed off slowly and started yanking ivy elsewhere!  If I ever meet him in a dark alley, he's totally gonna say "heeey, I remember yooou!"  not cool man, not cool.