Unemployment Has Its Benefits

I'm packed. If I was employed, I wouldn't even be home yet. Score one for unemployment, when it means not staying up late and skimping sleep to pack.

And score two, today it also meant dropping off boots at the shoe repair place for new heels, something I've been meaning to do since, oh, last summer. What kept stopping me was that the place is open shorter hours than I work(ed), so I couldn't go either before or after work, and I hesitated to use vacation time twice for shoes.

Another count for unemployment: knitting time. I started this shawl a week ago, as I foretold, and here it comes, around the shoulder and to the back.


It's basically garter stitch, which I think shows off the yarn nicely, and it has these fun lacy points.


The sock is also zooming along. I started this Friday night, and already I'm having to think about how long to make the leg.


Longer, anyway. I do love the pattern! It's a five-row repeat, but only to change where you do the twist, so once I got started, I could see where I was. I love that in a pattern. Between this and the Skyps, I may never make another sock pattern.

Carlos, of course, has been sleeping 20+ hours a day, as is his habit whether I'm working or not. The difference is, I'm usually here when he wakes up, whenever that is, and he can usually convince me to make a lap and scritch a kitty.


Friday night or Saturday, I was reading a magazine, and was struck by something ... off.


That second open-paren is italic, and it shouldn't be. I, on the other hand, should be a proofreader. Nice to feel validated.

I mentioned the other day, when I showed you the used books I didn't buy, that I'd have to show you what I did. The answer to that is a copy of a book I already had, but it makes me very happy nonetheless.

AA Milne wrote a charming book called The Red House Mystery, and I owned it in a modern reprint from The Franklin Library of Mystery Masterpieces. While I am grateful to them for putting this book back into circulation, owning a shiny new gilt-edged copy of a 90-year-old book always felt a little jarring. Now for $3 I have a copy that fits with his other works on my shelf.


Well, Winnie the Pooh is on a different shelf, but you know what I mean. Does anyone want to read The Red House Mystery enough to forgive the gilt? I'd be glad to pass it on; it's a wonderful story.

We're leaving tomorrow for Florida, so I probably won't be blogging again until I return. The weather today was mild here, 50 and some sun, but a few days in the 80s sound heavenly to me.

Speaking of our return, when I was making our reservations for the Florida trip, I of course never considered Super Bowl weekend. It's just not on my radar. (The only time I'd normally be checking when the Super Bowl was playing would be to see when would be the best time for my grocery shopping that weekend.) We're coming back on Sunday evening, so we'll be missing it, and true to form, I'm more concerned that I'll be missing three Bruins games while we're away. I hope I can trust them to take care of themselves when I'm not watching!