More on the Knitting Class, the Weather, an iPad Question, and Cats

First of all: yes, I biked last night! Not for long, but getting back on was the major accomplishment. Now I can focus on making it more regular, and for longer periods of time. Else I'll never get that second sock done, and I want it!

I would have liked to go into more detail about the knitting class when I wrote last night, but it was getting so late: I worked later than usual and then picked up some groceries, so my evening time was limited (and some of it belonged to Carlos, too). Since the first time I read of the technique, a few years ago, I've been fascinated by the idea of knitting two socks simultaneously, one inside the other. I had to agree with the Yarn Harlot, though, who wrote that she was sure if she tried it that she would finish the pair only to discover that they were fused together by "one stinking stitch". I was sure I would never have the nerve to try the technique, but still, how cool is it? I dreamed of the day I would feel that confident.

Then yesterday, I read on Annie Modesitt's blog that she was going to be teaching at the Interweave Knitting Lab in New Hampshire in May, and I clicked the link over to look into the details of the classes. I haven't been to a knitting lab or the like, unless you count Rhinebeck, and while there are classes there, they aren't what I think of as the primary purpose of the event. In fact, I think the only knitting class I've ever taken was the sock one I took back in 2006, unless I'm forgetting something. Anyway, lots of the classes looked interesting to me, in a general way, but nothing grabbed me by the throat until I saw this one class. How could I resist the chance to try it?

The class is on a Friday afternoon, so it will require a vacation day. Manchester is about an hour from me, so I can drive up in the morning, visit the marketplace, have lunch, then go to the class. A fun day!

*****
The weather remains hella cold, though not just here: when I checked it this morning before going out, I noticed that at my mother's in Florida, it was 39 degrees, which is very unusual. (My mother, however, is currently at her mother's, in NY, so she's as cold as I am, or more--but that's to be expected in January in NY, much more so than in FL.)

When my mother's away, and not checking her e-mail as regularly as she does at home*, it's always a startling reminder to me that normally, I e-mail her pretty often, when I think of things to ask her or tell her. Nothing urgent, certainly, and I can tell her when we talk, but for instance, I would have sent her a message last night about the knitting class, or the other night after I talked to the man at the humane society about the potential cat, about how he threw me a trick question--which I answered correctly, but not because I suspected a trick. He asked whether I intended to have the cat be outdoor-only or just partially, and I replied in confusion that I was planning on indoor-only, which is when he told me he was just checking.
*I don't actually know how often she checks it at home, but it's a safe bet it's more often than when she's away.

Or I would have e-mailed her today to tell her I was starting to edit an epidemiology report on migraine, and maybe I'd learn something interesting... And then I would have sent her another one, a few hours later, to gripe about how my boss came out of a meeting with her boss to tell me that whoops, she forgot* about another report that's a higher priority, so she'd have to pull me off migraine to do the other one, sorry. (She apologized several times, and I said, "That's all right" without adding what I wanted to say, which was that I'm sure she can't help it, she was born an idiot.)
*I honestly don't understand why she still has a job. She does this kind of thing all the time.

Now, let's talk of something else, to distract me from this job, and from the fact that I haven't heard anything about the job I applied for--yet, I hope.

First, I'm looking for iPad help, specifically with podcasts. At some point in the recent past, the podcasts thing on my iPad seems to have gotten stuck. When I open it, it opens to the last podcast I was listening to, but none of the controls work, so I can't get back to the other podcasts or anything. It doesn't even play that one, let alone allow me to do anything else. I went into Settings, but the podcasts area there is not helpful either, being more about how often it checks for new episodes than about what you've signed up for. I tried googling for a solution, but the closest I came was to unsubscribe to the podcast, to clear the problem, then resubscribe. I can't get into the thing at all, in order to do that. Any ideas?
Edited to add: Fixed it! It turned out that the updates in the app store were stuck; I had to reboot the iPad, and once I did, the updates went through and it works again. Yay!

Then, there's a cute cat picture. Just because.

And another. Seriously, this is one zen cat. Look at that final photo!

Pan liked water, but only to lick. Have you ever known a cat to enjoy submersion?