Winter, computers and programs

I can't believe it but I seem to be jinxed when it comes to technical equipment the last couple of months. Now my printer cable that connects my printer to my computer is broken. I had to switch my Browser to Mozilla Firefox because Explorer kept locking me out of websites, including this one. And now the new program for my newsletter has a couple of glitches and the techs are working on it and will let me know when they get it fixed. At least they tell me that I am not the only one with the problem and they are working on it. Somehow today, that does not make me feel better.

Last week I had an appointment with my doctor. I seldom get sick but I picked up something that gave me a temp and a horrible cough. I spent one Tuesday in bed. The next day I called the doctors and went in. I am to drink plenty of liquids, rest and take 2 aspirin every 4 hours as needed. The cough has stayed with me and I hear that it will for a few weeks.

And now we have cold weather. We still have very little snow, the grass can still be seen through it, but it is cold. Towards the end of the week, they are telling us that we may not see zero during the day.

Yesterday, Bo and I drove to the Twin Cities to go to IKEA. We wanted to get some cabinets for the classroom. I wanted to have shelves with doors so that I can hide the dog training equipment and books while they are not in use. I was also looking for a table to put my sewing machine on. And we wanted to go see IKEA and eat some Swedish food.

We were able to find all that we wanted and had some good food. Last night we put together the table and this morning I put together the smaller of the cabinets. No glitches and neither took an hour to put together. The table is really great for my use. It has a center section with drawers. This section is only 12" wide when the two sides are folded down. There are 3 drawers facing in each direction. The two sides are quite large and you can fold out one or both at a time. That's Lilian hiding under the table and the new bench in front.

Closed the table is very small. But when it is open, it will not only be able to hold my sewing machine but it will be a great place for the drum carder. I am pretty excited about it. It is nice hard wood and cost under $100. Bo is happy that it is good Swedish wood.

Now after dog school or tomorrow, we will get the second cabinet put together and I can get all the clutter behind doors. There is so much paper in my world that it threatens to take over my life. The good ting for me is that knitting needles wouldn't need repair of reprogramming and don't take up much room. Now if I can do something about the cold!

And Minnesota winter has finally arrived

It has gotten cold here over night. Yesterday we had no snow and lucky for us we got about an inch last night. Now the temperatures are dropping. When I got up this morning it was about 10 degrees. Now it is not even noon and we are at 1 degree. It is expected to drop to below zero by tomorrow morning. That means that it is knitting weather!

I have been sorting papers all week. I had to go through the color notebooks, price sheets, memos and what have you for the new year. It is always amusing when someone says that it must be so much fun having a yarn shop and being able to knit all of the time. Being a yarn shop owner is like being any other small business owner and you spend a great deal of time pushing papers around. But I feel really good about it all now. I went out and bought some big plastic bins. Since they had red tops they were considered Christmas and were half off. I filled them with the patterns and things that I had behind the desk in cardboard boxes. Although the boxes were free, they were beginning to wear out and look awful. Now I have lovely plastic bins with red tops instead.

I also had Jaws computer folks in yesterday to give my computer a tune up and more memory. There was tons of old stuff from my former hard drive that wasn't needed anymore so it was cleaned out. With the new memory, I have lots more space and memory so 'puter is running faster. I guess that it is winter house cleaning time. I have just started sorting yarn and expect that I will find lots for the clearance section.

I just hope that my level of enthusiasm continues until I get even more done. And I hope that this cold snap doesn't last too long! The girls and I have a number of winter agility workshops scheduled and it is so much more fun when it is warmer!

Put on a warm sweater, pick up your knitting, put on some nice music and a nice warm drink and enjoy this time. This is knitting weather!

testing a new way

I have been having problems getting into and using my blog program. So we are going to see if this works. If it does you will be able to see the Frog Suit! So far the picture seems to be downloading. And here it is.

It looks like I can now not only get into my Blog program but I can download pictures. Life is good! I have now be able to sign into the blog program since before Christmas. Thanks to my web guys the problem appears to be solved.