To whom it may concern:

I love Starbucks Coffee. So you can imagine my delight when a free standing one finally opened up in [my town], Colorado. That was, until one of the Starbucks employees refused to make my drink, a decaf, skim, iced latte, blended. Apparently it’s against Starbucks policy’s to blend a latte. (Although, I know it’s possible because my first trip through the drive through at this new Starbucks location got me a decaf, skim, iced latte, blended. Apparently the girl was “new” and didn’t know she was breaking company policy. There was even a free add-on on my receipt that said, “double blended.”)

What I’m writing today is to ask that you reverse those policies. In my consumer mind, I see no reason why an iced latte cannot be dumped in the blender and blended? I also wonder why Starbucks would refuse to make my drink? Doesn’t the customer come first? What options are there for blended drinks for those who don’t like or can’t have sweet drinks? Doesn’t Starbucks want all it’s patrons to be happy with their coffee? I hope so.

I sincerely hope that you take my plea into consideration. It’s getting hot here in the desert and I plan on drinking a lot of iced, blended lattes this summer. I just hope that they can be from Starbucks.

Sincerely,
Allison Blevins

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Emailed to Starbucks this morning at 8:45 am.

Jim’s movie review: the DaVinci Code.

Friday Jim took the day off and we had a nice leisurely day of shopping at Target and drinking coffee. We came home and put the kids down for a nap and I walked over to get a pattern from the yarn store while Jim took a little nap of his own. Little did we know that when we thought Honor was sleeping, he was instead finger painting with the contents of his diaper. All over the carpet. Again. I guess he got bored with it, because he decided to go ahead and take his nap, commando.

And that’s how I found him. Sleeping peacefully with poop smeared EVERYWHERE. I just turned right around and walked away… for his own safety. So I decided that I didn’t want to scrub any more poop off the carpet. I think that this is the fourth? time he did this? And I decided that I was done. So I convinced Jim that we needed to rip out the carpet. RIGHT THAT MINUTE. And that’s what we did. I had peeled up a tiny bit of the carpet around the heating duct and saw what I thought was a pretty decently finished hardwood floor. But, yeah, not so much. What I actually found was this:

(Sorry, no photos of the room with carpet, I’m trying real hard to keep from posting pictures of feces on the internet.)

By this point, Jim was quite unhappy. So I dug through the paint closet and found some leftover paint from the kids walls. He helped me get all the carpet tack up and I got the floor all cleaned up and the first coat of paint on it. We ran to Home Depot to wait in line for 45 minutes for more paint and then got more coffee and came back home to finish the floor.

It was seriously the easiest project I’ve ever done. (Thankfully.) And it’s left me with a renewed desire for home improvement. I’ve got plans for all the walls in my house now. I’m just afraid any other project will tarnish the memory of this perfect project. If only Honor would poop on the floor more often. Yeah. Not really.

Tuesday I decided that I could no longer take Honors hair looking about as long as Edens. We have to keep that distinction between the two, because I was starting to get asked a lot, “Are they twins? Both boys?” Yeah. So I bribed him with a popsicle and got him to let me buzz his hair. Sort of.

Really it went more like this: 20 minutes trying to talk him into getting his hair buzzed, followed by setting him on my lap and just going for it. Surprisingly he wasn’t too freaked out about it and let me get about half-way done. That was until he wiggled and the clipper attachment jabbed him in the head a little. It was nothing major at all, but then he decided that I had lied to him and getting his hair buzzed did, in fact, hurt.

By that point we were at the point of no return. There was no way I could let him go out in public with his hair half buzzed, so we had to push on. Eden went and got the popsicle out of the freezer for Honor to see while I tortured him. It’s always good to see what you’re suffering for.

The popsicle held him off for awhile, but it didn’t last long and I just had to hold him down and finish. He was screaming and wiggling and hair was getting everywhere. Eden was even covered with hair. But it was done. And we ate our popsicles in the bathtub.

I went to the dentist today. I had another effing root canal.

I don’t want to talk about it.

I finished Picovoli last night. Or I should say, I finished it as much as I could. I ran out of yarn. It’s about an inch short. And of course I picked the last 5 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton Color #186 there are, on earth. Isn’t it just my luck to pick a discontinued color, that NO ONE HAS?

But really the lack of yarn really isn’t my problem with the shirt. I should have known from the beginning that I wouldn’t like it. I’m knitting on gauge, the yarn is a good match in weight to Debbie Bliss Cathay, and I’m just finding the fabric to be too firm. I knit this whole thing on 5’s. (And this is were I get to talk about my needles. I bought a size 5 32″ addi turbo for this project. There were rough spots on the needles, so it was like fingernails on a chalk board! I had to stop every few rows because I was being driven insane!!! Finally I borrowed some needles from the store, because, of course I bought the last size 5 32″. I have to send them back.)

Another thing that I should have thought about was the rolling. I just don’t think rolling like this will block out. I should have done a folded hem, although it would have been bulky with this dense fabric. I also planned to do longer sleeves but the lack of yarn nixed that.

Finally, it flares out too much at the waist. I could easily fix that, with fewer waist increases, but it won’t matter. I still won’t like it. There’s nothing like knitting a whole garment, just to try it on to see if you like it.

So here’s my plan: If I can stand to look at the yarn again after all the hours and hours and hours I’ve spent with it, I’m going to rip the whole damn thing out and start over. I’m going to knit a raglan tee-shirt style shirt with folded hems and a more open raglan “seam.” I’m going to knit it on 8’s too. And I’m NOT going to run out of yarn and it IS going to fit.

Tuck mid-lick.

Honor the Grumpy Pants

Eden took this one

Eden and her bunny that she loves oh, so much.

Look how tall she looks.

•33 comments so far and not a one is male! But it was amazing to hear from all of you!
The internet brings people together in ways that are impossible. It’s something that I’ve really grown to appreciate.

Amy was the winner, her itunes gift certificate is on it’s way!!

•I taught a group of women to knit in November. They decided they would all stick together for all their classes and only I could be their teacher. Since then, they’ve learned how to make a hat, a felted bag and a baby sweater. A few weeks ago they decided to name themselves the “Knitwits.” Their class tonight will be the first of their “independent study” classes, each of them will choose their own project to begin.

Over the months, I’ve gotten to know each of these ladies, each different and amazing in their own way. Each one has had an impact on me. This is why I love teaching.

•My Grandma is in town today from Wyoming. I’m going to go meet her at her favorite place, Taco Bell. She hasn’t seen the kids since before Honor was talking, so I’m excited to see her reaction to how much they’ve changed. Since I see them every day, all day, all the time, the changes happen so much more gradually that they don’t seem so huge and amazing. I really enjoy experiencing them through someone else’s eyes.

•I’m working on a worsted weight sock pattern right now, for beginning sock knitters. The good thing about worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles is that it goes really fast. I got to the heel last night and should finish the sock today. All Seasons Cotton is really strange for socks, but at least they’ll be washable.

•I helped my friend Sarah get her new website up and running this weekend. Go check it out.

It’s official. Today is the day that all of you out there that I never hear from get to say “hi”. And to sweeten the deal, commenter #?? will win a little prize (of the itunes variety). I’m especially interested to see how many men are reading, Jim thought maybe 20% of my readers are men. I think maybe 4 of my readers are men, all of whom I know.

So you can just stop by to say “hi.” You can tell me a little about yourself or you can tell me your favorite item on the toilet list. Make sure you include a valid email address with your comment so I can email the winner about their prize!

Let the de-lurking begin.

I finished my Koigu socks! Really these socks went pretty fast, I just never had any time to work on them… except all those times I was waiting a the dentist’s office. And then of course there was the time that the dog drug the sock in progress across the house. That wasn’t a very good day for the dog…

But they’re finished and haven’t sustained any lasting harm. Perfect timing, in a month it’s going to be 100 degrees here and I just knit some wool socks. Oh well.

Pattern: Out of the mind of Joelene
Yarn: Koigu – I have no clue what colorway. I picked it up at Stitches West.
Needles: Addi Turbos #1
Finished: May 16, 2006