She Knits Shizknits

long time no see!

Yes, yes, I know it's been forever and a day since I posted. Lots of stuff was going on around here but the thing that was keeping me away from the blog most?

My desktop computer, the one I do 99% of my photo processing and blogging on, got really smashed by spyware.  I really don't know where I picked up this particular nasty program, but it did such a number on my computer that the Dearest decided it would be easier to just give me a new desktop than to try and salvage the old one. I was due for a new computer anyways so he just hooked up a new CPU for me.  Unfortunately, I have TONS of data on my desktop which took quite a while to move.  Then there was reinstalling all my programs, fixing up network connections, etc..  It took me a good hour just to get Photoshop back to where I wanted it...and then I couldn't find a bunch of my custom actions and the Dearest had to hook up my old harddrive so we could find them, and then I had to figure out where in the world I'd stashed them on the old HDD....

Oy.

Suffice it to say, it's been three weeks and I am finally able to do all my geeky things on my new desktop without having to stop every few minutes to install something.

I just wanted to pop in and post so yáll would know I'm still alive! LOL There are going to be a flurry of posts over the next couple of days: I have FOs to talk about, as well as pictures from our trip to the local mountains, and lots of fiber-ish stuff to show off.

See you soon!

tricks and treats, just in time for Halloween

We have a new toy here at Chez Shizzknits....The Dearest surprised me with an iPhone, of all things.

It's not like I was complaining about my old phone....in fact I really liked my Shadow. It was small, worked well as a phone, allowed me to store MP3s and audiobooks, and easily performed mobile blogging/internet browsing.

A few months ago, The Dearest picked up an iPhone for himself to replace a first generation touch-screen phone made by another manufacturer. He has been really happy with his iPhone and has been hinting that I would like one....but I'm a cheap bastard at heart and couldn't see spending $$ on a new phone when my old one worked fine.

But lately my Shadow has been acting hinky....and evidently one of The Dearest's clients was upgrading so they had an older iPhone they weren't using. The Dearest was able to pick it up for a song, and he surprised me with it yesterday.

It didn't take long before I figured out how to add custom ringtones and SMS sounds- thanks to the great Google gods. With some hacking and a few free programs, I was able to download videos from Youtube...which is important because *some* little monkeys like to watch Yo Gabba Gabba *alot*.  And now he can do that on my phone!

  The little bugger has already figured out how to use the screen controls for volume and playback...and he can get onto Youtube with no help. Scary!

In other scary news...we decorated our front yard with fake spiderweb a couple of weeks ago.  One of the resident big green garden spiders decided that using the fake web was easier than building her own. Less labor-intensive...

we have been going outside and watching her catch bugs and build webs with the fake stuff....and then a few days ago we saw this: She made a little nest for her eggs! Just in time for Halloween! I'm torn between leaving it there so the small men can watch the eggs hatch...and getting rid of it cuz I know a zillion little spiders are going to come out of it.