sometimes I really wonder if my stupidity will be the end of me. I would not be surprised if I actually die of stupidity some day. a few years ago, a friend and I took a "we're going to do something fun and crazy" trip to mount rainier national park up in washington state. we flew there, since we live in california. and you can't camp without some sort of fuel, but you can't bring fuel on an airplane. plus, we wouldn't have a car and we didn't want to waste any time, so we weren't able to go to the store and buy any after we got there. since I'm brilliant, I decided I could ask a friend to buy some fuel for us and meet us at the airport, hand it off and we could hop on the shuttle which would take us to our campsite. of course, in addition to the price of the fuel (less than $10), I had to, at the very least, compensate my friend for parking and the trouble of having to go to the airport on a friday night.

so, the shuttle ride was quite pleasant. it was run by a couple who lived in the area and they were really friendly and nice to talk to. (I realize this is turning out to be a really long story, but there is no turning back now... sorry! feel free to skip ahead to where there are actual pictures!) I forget how long the ride was, but I think it was a good hour or two - not a short drive. by the time we get to our site, it's dark, it's late, and we just want to get in a good night's sleep before our day of adventure ahead. so we pitch our tent, get settled in and start drifting off to sleep when I suddenly jolt awake with the realization of "holy crap, I left the fuel in the shuttle." we manage to nervoustly laugh it off, but our cell phones don't work so we can't call the shuttle and now we have no fuel for our stove! we figure we'll just have to find a way to manage and somehow fall back asleep. at some ungodly hour, we are roused from our slumber when we hear a vehicle pull into our site and someone calling to us. I unzip the tent and peer out through very sleepy and confused eyes to see the shuttle lady holding the bag with our fuel in it! I am overjoyed and touched that she came back to save the day! I get about halfway through thanking her before she says "yeah, so you're going to have to give me $35 for the trip back out here." I'm shocked, but there really isn't anything I can say and I'm half asleep and not even entirely sure of what just happened, so I just fork over the cash and watch her drive away. then it dawns on me. I just spent six times the value of those canisters of fuel and we would probably only use about half of it. I came back from that trip with the nickname "stupidity tax sue". my friend came back with the nickname "tuna and luna" steph, but we don't have the time to get into that now. because this story is about me. and my immense moronosity.

so, what am I getting at? I'm an idiot. remember the whole stolen check, money stealing fiasco from way back when? well, I ended up changing banks after everything had gotten cleared up. and (seriously, I am usually super on top of these kinds of things) I thought I had changed all my online payment things to my new bank account. so a couple months ago, ladida, I go and pay my bills, doodeedoo... and I get a notice from one of my cards that I am no longer authorized to use online payments and I need to call them immediately. turns out I forgot to change my bank account and they tried to take money out of my now defunct old bank account. so, not only do I have to send them a check and get suspended from using online services, they also charged me $38! I was really annoyed about it, but decided it wasn't worth it to try and dispute it, so I just paid it and they were happy and let me use online services again. so I go ahead and pay my bill again, thinking hooray, I can pay online again. but then I get another phone call because - hello! how stupid am I?? I still didn't change my bank account and it happened again! *smack self in head* another $38 charge!! I think my death by stupidity is going to be due to me paying all these "I could have and should have been able to avoid this if only I were paying attention" charges to the point where I can't afford food anymore and I starve to death. why do I even bring this up? that money could have - and should have - been spent on yarn. ok. that is officially off my chest. on to the knitting, because, I promise, this is still a knitting blog.
so, koigu sock #1 is just about done. I haven't bound off yet, because I'm not sure what kind of a bind-off I want to do. I can't do the tubular bind-off since I did the cuff in a k2p2. I'm not stressing about it, though. but you know what? it's really kind of hard to get on. I keep having these awful images of ripping a big hole in it trying to get it over my huge man ankles (mankles?). I mean, I can get them on, but it is really a struggle. maybe I can *sob* give them to my mom. or rip it out and start over from the heel area, increasing a couple stitches before the heel and then decreasing again after. or just live with it. I do like the way the foot and the leg fit. I think the tight part is right around the heel/ankle part. which isn't a surprise, because that is the least squishy and most gimongous part of my foot. anyway. we'll see.hey, remember these guys? these are what I call "socks for susan". notice, at most, there is only one sock for each pair and a whole lot of unknit yarn. interesting, isn't it? this was the motivating factor for me joining socktoberfest! well, that, and the beer. or maybe it was this sock shaped beer. I'm not sure. the point is: socktoberfest! how much beer will it take for me to finish these socks? only time will tell. I will keep you updated.finally (we are nearing the end - here is where you can stop crying from boredom because it will soon be over), this is what I'm calling "the big one". this is my brother's christmas gift. yes. it is a sweater. for a man. a small man, but a man who is still bigger than me, so this is officially the biggest project I've ever attempted. I'm really motivated to finish this and do a good job. I only have one brother and he's getting married next year, so I feel like this is kind of our last christmas of just us kids, so I want to make him something special. anyway, apparently this sweater is brought to you by ups. did you know they have trademarked the color brown? how do you trademark a color?