Circular But Not Round

(The title on this post came from a conversation I had this morning with Carlos. I sat on the futon, and he raised his head to watch me. "You're looking at me, and I'm looking at you," I observed. "It's very circular." Then I thought more about it, as much as I am capable of rational thought at that time of day [hint: not much], because although the action was circular in one sense, it was straight back and forth in another. Therefore: not round.)(Aren't you glad I don't blog in the mornings? Imagine how that would go.)

Craigslist had a posting this morning for a job for a native Dari speaker.

I had to look up where they speak Dari (did you know? it's Persia).

I will not be applying for that job.

And are the gas prices crazy where you are? (How's that for a segue?) A month or two ago, I was paying around $3 a gallon, and today I was looking for under $3.50; I ended up paying $3.39, which was an extra-big bargain after seeing $3.85 a few miles earlier. Wow!

I went to the dentist on Valentine's Day and the neurologist on St Patrick's (migraine follow-up). I don't have anything scheduled for April Fool's day yet, but will that change?

Next: why does it have to be 65 degrees today, and forecast the same for tomorrow which is a Friday (when I'm again inside all day), and only 45 on a Saturday, when I could be out enjoying nice weather?

In related news, the answer is today. The question, you may recall from back in ever-snowing January, was, When will the snow in the driveway actually melt? There is a damp patch where the last of it was, to which I say yay!

I am surprised it was this early, actually, but of course if February had been like January (and there was nothing to say it wouldn't be), we'd still be waiting. As of now, there are plenty of filthy-snow-piles around, but mostly in areas that were plow piles, or don't get much sun, or both.

Finally, happy St Patrick's day from the NHL:

Half-way Through March

The title of this post has nothing to do with the content.

I'm tired. (What else is new?)

It's the best I can do.

Update on last night's dinner: the chicken was indeed much better baked in the oven than it had been on the little grill. However, it was still nothing special: moist, but not especially flavorful. The best part was the pieces of pineapple I put in for the last few minutes (I got a pineapple at Wilson's yesterday, mmm). In short, I will definitely be going back to Dom's for the steak tips. Soon.

As for the hockey game, well, it wasn't the best Bruins game, but they won in the shootout (as Jack likes to say when Tuukka Rask gets the win, "Two Us, two Ks, two points!"), and that will do for now.

I realized after I got into bed last night that I hadn't taken a Unisom as I'd planned, and decided that if I was awake for a while, I would get up for one. However, I slept fine. Weird, really.

In other happiness-related news, I started to re-read The Happiness Project, and was inspired to start work on my own clutter (clutter is one of the first things she tackled). We'll see if that translates into action.

Also, I thought of something else I've done that's made me a little happier. I used to read a website that has little stories about how stupid people are, and it was funny, but honestly reading it left me a little depressed at how stupid people can be. A while ago, I stopped reading it, and starting reading It Made My Day instead. Leaves me with a smile much more often!

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I wonder what my word is?

I've noticed that some people have a word they tend to use very frequently. One person uses "whatever" as filler, almost as a comma ("So if we do that, and whatever whatever, I think that will work"); another tends to start sentences with "Which" ("Which he hasn't had it for a while..."). It's the kind of thing that would be easy not to notice, it seems to me, which makes me think I could be doing the same thing without noticing.

So if I do, what's the word?

**********
I would like your opinion on something: if you buy a pair of non-cheap* shoes, work shoes, how long do you expect them to last?

*To me, that means between $50-100 (I'm not sure that I've ever spent more than that on shoes). Your numbers may be different, but the idea is a number that is not insignificant to you.

I bought a pair of Clarks last May, have had them re-heeled twice (remember?), and today noticed a crack across the sole of each shoe (where the foot bends). I don't feel like I've had them all that long that I would expect this level of wear, though I have worn them a lot in that time. Do you think my expectations are unreasonable?

I'm pretty sure I'll buy more anyway. I love the way they look, and they're really comfortable. I just wish they were a little more durable. But again, am I expecting too much?

Trying to Raise the Mood

It made me feel ill to read this morning that there are scumbags out there putting up fake web pages to fraudulently solicit donations supposedly for disaster relief for Japan. That's so sick! How can anyone, anyone, look at the news coming out of Japan, see the pictures, watch the videos, and only think about ways to make money off it? Absolutely sick.

If you can give, please go directly to the Red Cross, or another reputable organization.

In the face of overwhelming amounts of coverage, and overwhelmingly bad news, I have been alternating between long focus (reading about the situation, looking at the pictures, and trying to comprehend the scale of the disaster), as much as I can stand, and short focus (looking away, making my grocery list, knitting) thereafter. It's a balancing act, with my sanity as the goal and reward.

To be ready for short focus, I wound yarn last night, both STR for new socks and some of the blue* to start swatching for the sweater. Since I stuck the sock project bag in its usual place in my purse, I had it with me at work today, so I took the yarn out and put it on my desk for a while. It has pink with a touch of beige, pink heading toward (but not reaching) lavender, peachy pink and rose pink... It's a pretty thing to contemplate.


*I know, I know, which blue? This blue:


Speaking of knitting (and stress), there was a great knitting-related story in the Washington Post recently: go read it!

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I was in a grumpy mood this afternoon for no real reason. Oh, there are real enough reasons (Japan; my uncertain job situation), but nothing new, just a swing of the mood and things were bugging me and grrr. I decided to see what I could do to make myself happier, and here is what I did:

• I e-mailed three friends about getting together--not tonight, but to have things to look forward to, which is one of the ways I make myself happier.
  
• I went to Barnes & Noble and used most of that gift card from Christmas to buy The Happiness Project, just out in paperback. I enjoyed it from the library, and think I would benefit (ahem) from closer study.
• Sang along loudly to music, including one of my current favorite radio songs, Shake Me Down (by Cage the Elephant), and then to an old tape of Martin Gore covers that I found in the car. Not that the latter is cheery music, but I do really like most of it, like Mother Earth (not to be confused with Motherless Child, which is a fast-forward song to me)(fast-forward! tape! are you kids following my lingo?). I've noticed before that Martin's voice seems to suit my singing "range" such-as-it-is.
• I went to Wilson's and bought, along with fruit and celery and potatoes, some quail eggs (remember them from last year?) They're actually caramel eggs, of course, and if just seeing them cheered me up, imagine what eating them will do!

*Have you ever noticed that celery has a rather strong odor? I could still smell it on my hands when I got home!

I am trying a new recipe for the potatoes, which I will share if it works out. I need some simple side dishes in my repertoire, preferably ones that use staples and don't require a trip to the store every time. Rice pilaf, pasta, what else? The chicken will go in shortly; I tried that teriyaki chicken the other night, but it wasn't wonderful. I think it was not as well suited to the Foreman grill as the steak tips were (mmmm, steak tips), so I'm going to do the rest in the oven to see if that works better.

It would help my mood-improvement project if the Bruins could win tonight (doesn't look good so far). They're already riding their longest losing streak of the season; time and past to turn it around, guys.

Think of the tulips

Yarn Crawling!

I can't believe I had another bad insomnia night last night! I really did not want to know what was on HGTV at 2 AM, thank you... (it's Income Property, if you wondered). Just like the incidence last week, I fell asleep, but woke an hour or so later and tossed and turned forever. I did doze after I went back to bed at 2:30, but it was not refreshing sleep.

In fact, when the alarm woke me, I decided there was no way I could go to work on time (gosh, I'm not doing well on that lately), so I went to call my boss to leave a message to that effect, and somehow called her cell phone number instead of work (at 6:15 AM!), thank god she was up already but how embarrassing. Unisom tonight, and possibly for a while after. I can't take this nonsense, especially on top of the time change.

It was only two weeks ago, at my physical, that I was telling the doctor that I don't usually have trouble sleeping, and I've been a total mess since then, comparatively speaking. Yuck. I was just joking when I named that peculiar "cold" that I had last week the Sleeping Sickness, but you know, I may have been onto something.

On to happier topics! I alluded in yesterday's post of random photo-ness to the Day of Yarn Crawling that I had with two knitting friends on Saturday, but let me tell you more. In short: it was awesome! We hit seven* of the twelve participating stores, four of them new to me, and I had a great time without spending a ton of money (yes! it is possible!).

*Which was probably too much, too be honest; I was pretty zombified in the last one.

Many of the stores are far enough from me to require a plan to visit, not a drop in, but it's great to know they're there so that if I'm in the neighborhood, I can stop by. It's always a visual and tactile experience to see so much yarn in a day, and I was certainly overloaded by the end. (And after dinner with family friends, I went to bed early and slept fine Saturday night, fyi.)

Some specific store notes:

• One of the stores, Loom'N Shuttle in Ipswich, had lots of fabric, as well as yarn and an impressive selection of notions:

• Village Stitchery in Topsfield was much bigger than it looked from outside, with a really good selection and some very cute sample items.
• Cranberry Fiber Arts in South Hamilton had several rooms leading around to get happily lost in, and carried Lantern Moon needles, always good for coveting. We were amused by their sign; YA! RN!
  

• Creative Yarns in Beverly is a new store--just opened last week!--and has a really nice space with lots of light, and places to sit and knit a while. Their inventory was not the largest, but there's room for plenty more, and they carry Knitpicks needles.
• Coveted Yarn in Gloucester was my favorite last year, and probably still is. They've expanded somewhat since last I was there, and are just generally a great shop that I wish I lived closer to. Fantasy LYS!
• Maybe next year I'll make it to the stores in Newburyport and Marblehead; maybe even before next year! Not that I need to buy yarn for a while...
  

Some general notes:

• In at least three stores, I picked up and drooled over Cascade Eco Duo yarn. I have to decide what I want to make with this, because I crave it. I did stop myself from buying it without a plan, but that's mostly because without a plan, it's hard to know how much to buy. Me wants it, though.
• I have alpaca magnetism. How else to explain that most of the yarns I picked up were soft, lovely alpaca?
• I wore my new knitting t-shirt again (Knitting: It's sitting for creative people), and it was commented on more than once. Also, the "Don't get between me and the sock yarn" button.
• All the employees I heard or dealt with were super-nice. It has to be an exhausting four days for them, but they all seemed happy to be doing what they were doing.
  
• I bought a knitting needle, some stitch markers, and only enough yarn for a pair of socks. Regia is supposed to be a very durable sock yarn, and these colors just grabbed me. It's a winter thing.
  

Now the sad knitting news I also alluded to yesterday. I brought my sock-in-progress with me on Saturday, and worked on it some of the time in the car. Seeing it in sunlight for the first time in a while, the yarn didn't seem as dark as I had been thinking it was lately, which was a good feeling.


I was very happy with the progress I was making, and yesterday decided to take some pictures, to capture its status.


As I finished, I decided to take an on-the-foot picture, and, well. It's too small.


Oh, I got it on. The whole sock is only too-snug, not impossible to get on. But the cast-on edge is so tight, it was almost impossible to get on. Sigh.

So I'll probably have to frog it, which makes me sad, unless I decide it's time to make socks for someone other than me, which I'm not sure about (since obviously, even having my own feet with me at all times does not guarantee a sock that fits). It's going into hibernation while I decide. I'm thinking some Socks That Rock socks might cheer me up, in the interim. How nice to have STR on hand to comfort me.

Some Photos in No Particular Order

The princess, relaxing cautiously.
Growth! From the ground! My god, winter may actually end!
The baby, relaxing without any caution at all.

I bought more bulbs: hyacinths, this time. Here they are on March fourth:

And here on the tenth:

By the twelfth, the issues are becoming clear:

And as this was yesterday, you can imagine that this morning they were even further slanted.

I googled what to do, and found advice about staking them with chopsticks or bamboo sticks. I don't have either, so I pondered what might be in the house that would hold the top-heavy lovelies up. Et voila:I hardly ever use straight needles any more; these were in a vase, being decorative, and they might as well be useful for a while.

A small traffic back-up gave me time to catch this shot:

I had a great time yarn crawling yesterday; story to come.

She really is relaxing a bit, even when I'm around.

If you're a knitter, let me ask you this: do you consider a project finished when the knitting is done, or does it have to be blocked to be done done? I'm not sure if I want to say that my Frost Diamonds shawl is finished, since blocking is going to change its looks considerably, but at any rate the knitting of it is done. Yay! This is especially good news considering a knitting setback suffered earlier in the day (sigh)(not ready to go into it yet).


You can see how much the cats care.


But I'm pleased as punch! Wearing it now, in fact. I will report on the blocking when it happens.

A Mix of Heavy and Light Topics

Looking at the heart-rending photos from Japan (such as found here, and similarly here), a few things come to mind:

• When your house is swept away by a tsunami and then manages to catch on fire in the midst of all that water, how do you not feel that something is out to get you? I guess objectively, once you've lost your house, it's gone, and it doesn't really matter how or how often, but. I don't know. Insult to injury, cubed?
  
• All those people who went to work one morning, just as usual, survived this massive unbelievable earthquake, and then can't get home ... how do you deal with that? Wait and see? Try to walk? I work 20 miles from home, and I don't even know how many days it would take me to walk that distance. I can't wrap my head around the realities of the situation.
  

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Strangely enough, I'm going on a yarn crawl tomorrow (it's the North Shore Yarn Crawl, again). I say strangely because I'm still feeling the aftereffects of my Webs trip a few weeks ago, a cross between high and sated. I still love yarn, don't get me wrong; I'm just not feeling any great compulsion to buy yarn right now. I have so much I'm dying to play with already!

So for me, it's more of a recon trip, to see some stores I haven't been to before. A fun road trip with knitting friends. Maybe a nice project bag, or some fun yarn tool will come home with me? I don't know.

**********
I don't always understand why I am the way I am, why sometimes the part of me that doesn't want to try something new overrules the part that can see it would be fun or worthwhile or valuable in some way. Sometimes, I'm just along for the ride.

This is prefatory to telling you that I can't explain why it took me four and a half years after getting a recommendation for a shop not terribly far away from me, I finally went this week, and only because I was under the gun of an about-to-expire Groupon. If you sigh at me, I sigh with you.

The reason I know exactly how long ago I was told about this shop is that the guy who recommended it was doing the home inspection on the condo I ended up buying. "If you do move to this area," he said, in September of 2006, "you should go to Dom's Sausage*, their marinated steak tips are great." I made appropriately appreciative noises, noted the name, and sometimes in the intervening years I cut their ads out of the paper, and ... I never went. I don't know why. It's new, and something in my wiring is deeply suspicious of new. (I like to think that this is the instinct that would protect me from trying the unfamiliar thing that turns out to be poisonous ... but probably not.)

*Why, yes, he included the hyperlink when he spoke. Of course!

Then last Fall, there was a Groupon for Dom's, pay $10 and get $20. Excellent! I told myself. Only four years later, this will get you there! I bought it.

And meant to go. Really.

And never did.

Two weeks ago, I pulled it out and confirmed that the expiration date was coming up. I didn't make it that weekend, though. They close at 6 on weeknights, so I didn't get there after work (by which I mean that I didn't try, because--spoiler--it's possible!). I didn't make it last Saturday. And on Sunday, the Sleeping Sickness felled me completely.

Thursday at work, I pulled it out and saw that it was the last day. Last chance to not throw $10 in the recycling bin. Come on ...

And I did it! (What a pathetic thing to celebrate.) Still, the main reason I'm telling you this is because I tried the marinated steak tips last night, and if you are in the area, you need to go there and get some. Now. Mercy. I had leftovers for lunch, and whew! So good!

When I opened the package, I was dubious, because there wasn't a particularly strong odor from the marinade, and I was worried I'd picked up some plain ones by mistake. Nope! I used the little Foreman grill, and though it was a messy operation, it was totally worth it, and I'm already wondering when I can get back there. Soon, I think. Now that I've been there, it isn't so scary (boy, am I a special kind of nuts).

I also got some teriyaki chicken, so I'll report in if that's worth it, too. I tried sides (rice pilaf and potato salad), which were fine and perfectly average, nothing special, merely convenient. But the steak was sweet and tender, worth going out of your way for. Or, you know, going in the first place.

**********
The Bruins have been up and down lately, never more so than this week. They were losing back in mind-February, then went on a seven-game-winning-streak on their Western road trip. They got home and started losing again. On Tuesday they went to Montreal, and not only did they not resume their road-game-winning ways, they rocked the hockey world with a serious injury to one of the Canadiens, resulting from a Bruin hit. (Zdeno Chara hit Max Pacioretty into the boards, where he slammed into the stanchion at the end of the bench and fell to the ice. He has a concussion and a broken cervical vertebrae, so yeah: it's serious.)

In my opinion, it was a bad play by Chara, a hit well after the player had moved the puck, but not an attempt to injure. It happened in just the wrong place, making the result far worse than the action intended. The NHL's disciplinarians agreed, and Chara was not suspended, but that just fanned the flames. Major hits and injuries are a hot topic in the NHL these days, and of course with the long, emotional history between Montreal and the Bruins ... still, it seems to me that it's getting out of hand. The fans were calling 911 to have Chara arrested! Excuse me, it's a hockey game. The police were quoted as saying that people should leave the lines open for actual emergencies. but have since announced they're investigating the incident. Seriously. And Air Canada announced that they are considering withdrawing their NHL sponsorship ... un-huh.

If I sound callous, I don't mean to. I'm sorry that Pacioretty is hurt, and glad it wasn't any worse. You just don't want to see any player, on any team, go down like that, wonder if he'll be all right, if he'll ever play again, if he'll ever walk again. Hell, I watched it happen to Patrice Bergeron a few years ago (it took him almost a year to come back, and the best part of another to return to form) and Marc Savard last year (who knows if he will return).

Anyway! The Bruins played again last night, against Buffalo, and what a crazy game! It seemed like every time a Bruin moved, a Sabre fell down, and a referee's arm went up. Officiating varies, the refs are only human, but that was just a badly called game, period. They gave Chara a boarding penalty for hitting a guy in open ice ten feet from the boards, and the Bruins were down 5-on-3 for almost two minutes, not once but twice. I know I'm partisan, but seriously, that was ridiculous.

They're on the island tonight (Nassau Mausoleum, I heard it called, pretty funny considering how the Islanders are doing, and the crowds they're drawing, this year). How will it go? I'm off to watch. Cross your fingers!

Almost Too Tired to Post

And after reading this, you may wish I had decided not to.

I was very tired last night (making the night different from the previous 4 days/nights how exactly?). I turned the light off at around 10:30*, snuggled down with a sigh ... and tossed, and turned, and tossed, and turned. Finally fell asleep, and woke again--to find it was 11:30. At night! Still! What the hell?

*I mean to make it earlier, but ... I was reading. I know, I know.

I tried and tried to get comfortable and fall asleep, finally giving up and going for a unisom-type pill at 1AM. And yeah, I overslept a bit this morning, but who cares, I slept! I don't know what that was about; insomnia isn't usually a problem for me, and nothing like that, particularly when I was super-tired. Weird.

So tonight, I'm taking the pill at 9, if not before. Unless the second period of the hockey game is startlingly good, it will be a night to listen to the third period on the radio, in bed.

Oh, I can feel that sleep already...

Gradual Improvement

I continue to improve in energy levels, though I haven't yet regained normalcy (and given my usual energy levels [hint: not high], being below normal is a frightening idea). I worked half a day today, plus picked up a few groceries and a prescription refill, so overall I call the day a success.

And over. Early to bed, helps conquer the sleeping sickness. I hope.

Better. As in, "better than yesterday", not as in, "all better"

But that's a big step. I put in my contacts this morning, and I did in fact shower this afternoon (though I had to lie down after, whew, the excitement). I was hoping to actually leave the house, but didn't feel up to it. Still, improvement.

Will I go to work tomorrow? I will if I feel as much better than today as I did today versus yesterday. Only time will tell.

Carlos votes no.

He has been thrilled with the program of recent days. Going back to bed? I am with you. On the couch? Count me in. He fully supports sick days.

Oh. By the way. Still Sick.

I was awake for more time today than yesterday (not that that's a hard record to beat), but being unable to sit up for very long is challenging as well.

To recap: went to bed Saturday night around 10.

Woke at 6-ish AM, bathroom, fed cats, back to bed.

Woke again at 11:30, which is ridiculous even for me. Stayed up until 12:30, then decided to lie down for a bit.

Woke up at 6 PM. Had something to eat, watched some TV.

Back to bed at 7:30.

Woke up this morning at 8:30. Have napped, but mostly been up since then. Am considering bed again.

I do usually have enough energy to sit upright. Don't I?

I'm hoping that tomorrow brings me enough energy to shower. Cross your fingers for me, would you?

Symptomless, but sick

All I am is tired (and maybe a touch fevered), but I have now (7 PM) been out of bed for a grand total of two hours today, and I'm headed back there shortly. More when I can!

Good News, larger and smaller (with utterly unrelated photos)

I liked this stage of the bloom because it reminds me of a hand, like this:

I am so pleased to tell you that I did not get selected for a jury. I spent less than a full day in the courthouse, I sat through one empanelment but did not get seated, and once the other trials for the day were empaneled (or possibly settled, I don't know), we were released. Whew! The case that I got the closest to was a civil, not criminal case, and that wouldn't have been as bad, but I'm still feeling very relieved to have dodged the bullet. Now for three years of peace, jury-duty-wise.

Also, with all the sitting-around-time, my recently neglected sock-in-progress is now past the heel. Yes, I can now add "jury pool assembly room" to the list of places where I've turned a heel.

In other news, I have some small successes to report. You know, the kind of thing that isn't exactly a big deal, but feels much bigger than it is?

First of all, my disposal (the grindy thing in the kitchen sink) was sounding a little funny recently, and then stopped working at all. I was very dismayed at the thought of either living without it, or having to find and pay someone to fix it.

I ran across the folder of kitchen-appliances paperwork, and in looking at the disposal info, learned that there is a reset button on the bottom, and decided to take a whack at it before bringing in a pro. Simply hitting reset did not work miracles, but with a little adjusting, it's working again. Wheee!

Second, I've been having trouble with the mouse on my home computer for a few months now, specifically with the scroll roller thing. I love scrolling. I can't stand being without it. And it was working in a jerky, up-and-down way that made it worse than useless. Sometimes even when I didn't try to use it, the web page I was on would jump up and down, which was extra maddening.

I tried putting in a new battery (it's a wireless mouse), I tried re-synching it to the USB thingy, and nothing worked. I worked fine for at least a year, but now wouldn't work at all.

So, when I was a Target the other day, I picked up a new one. The old-fashioned kind, with a wire, like Laura Ingalls would have used. And though I'm not thrilled to have spent money (even just ten bucks), it is delightful to have scrolling capabilities again. I'm calling it a win!

He ain't heavy ... he's my pillow...

Busy, with foreshadowing

I feel like I've been very busy recently. Mostly it's good stuff, just not a lot of nothing-to-do time on my hands. I need a certain amount of down time for the sake of my sanity, so I'm trying to maintain a balance here, but it's challenging. Just looking at the last and next few days:

• the end of last week was full of auto-shop drama
  
• Saturday was my awesome trip Out West (yes, I am totally the typical Boston-area homebody)
• Monday night was stitch and bitch (I crashed early)
  
• last night was post office--doctor's office--Target--watch Bruins game
  
• tonight I had dinner with a friend, then gave Carlos a lap for an hour
  
• tomorrow is jury duty (more elaborate rant below)
• brunch with friends Saturday morning

Not bad stuff, generally, just plenty of it, on top of working and trying to keep up with the cat hair and general grunge at home. Why, can you believe I didn't get to Barnes & Noble with my gift card yet? I was so sure I would, but there it still is.

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So, tomorrow I have jury duty. Civic responsibility and all that, but have I told you why it strikes fear in my heart?

I was 18, and just home from a year at boarding school in England. The year was a confusing mix of unprecedented freedom--living abroad! let loose for a weekend in London! dealing with different currency, culture, and expectations--and equally unprecedented rules. Curfew and out-of-bounds and schedules, and why are you going upstairs during the day, there's no need for that, you don't go to your room during the day.

Shortly after returning home, my mother brought me in to Cambridge for jury duty. I was 18, and not a particularly mature 18. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. And I was selected to serve on the jury for a murder trial.

I have no idea why they picked me. One of our neighbors was a big-time lawyer, and he had said bluntly, "No attorney in his right mind would pick an 18-year-old for a jury," but there I was.

It was really nasty. I was kind of joking when I said that it traumatized me, but I was telling someone at work about it today and actually felt rather shaken. Twenty-three (and a half) years later.

Perhaps they will let me off for jury-duty PTSD.

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Today someone came to talk to the person who sits next to me about taxes and some issue with company bonuses being mis-taxed and I don't know what all, but they were talking and talking and talking, and seriously, this is not a tax office, we are not even in HR or accounting, and your twenty-five-minute (no exaggeration) conversation about this shit is driving me nuts, shut up, go away!

The fact that I am not a permanent employee of the company and therefore did not get the $1000 bonus in question did not help my temper. Nor that the conversation took place as I called in to the jury line and learned that I do in fact have to report tomorrow.

Sigh.

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I opened a job-listing today with that raised-hopes feeling, only to see an opening for an Urdu speaker. Whump. Back to earth.

**********
One thing from my doctor's appointment yesterday that I forgot to mention was that the nurse was a knitter. She hasn't tried socks yet, but has been wanting to, and she looked with interest at both my sock-in-progress and the socks on my feet (the recently completed STR lightweight pair of skypes), so I gave her the copy of the pattern I had with me, and she was so pleased.

Knitters. We're out there. Everywhere.

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Random question: what are the odds that two people in a group of about 20 would have February 29 birthdays? Pretty small, wouldn't you think?

Some February Summaries

Time for a quick one before the Bruins game starts! Shall we start with the tulips? I think so. They're pretty dead now in reality, but even looking at the pictures makes me smile:


I had a physical today (everything's fine), and had to sneak a shot of this sign. That's a general penalty for overuse of capital letters, and two penalties for unnecessary quotation marks, plus a whole lot of misplaced and/or missing punctuation. Whew!


February Summary, Exercising subcategory:

Each star is five minutes on the bike, except for last Sunday, when the first star was ten minutes. Building up! And as you can see, February was a vast improvement on January:

Have to make March even better!

Other February Summary, Reading subcategory: 21 books, 12 for the first time. My favorite new book read last month was Seven Miles to Arden, by Ruth Sawyer (published in 1915, available on Project Gutenberg). Also very much enjoyed The Candymakers, by Wendy Mass (in contrast, published in 2010).

Finally, just when I think the cats can't get any cuter:

Wow.

Pointless Work Note

I work for an educational company, so we are constantly referring to the new Common Core State Standards that 47* of the 50 states are adopting in the coming years.

*Fun trivia: do you know which three states are the rebels? I do! It's as much fun as naming the last state to get a Barnes & Noble store. Yes, I am a nerd.

Years ago, I worked in a payment processing center, where we dealt with Consumer Credit Counseling Services on a daily basis.

I have absolutely no trouble differentiating between Common Core State Standards and Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

However, CCSS and CCCS throw me for a loop, just about every time.

Socks, Sweaters, and No Regrets

Well, I regret that it snowed today. But no regrets about yesterday!

Nope, not a bit. In summary:

I spent more money than I planned to.

I bought more yarn than I thought I would. (Duh ... A plus B equals no shit, Sherlock.)

And I keep looking at it and smiling.

I bought enough yarn for three sweaters:


Yes, all blue*. Yes, I know that seems odd. No, I've never made a sweater for an adult, just a vest. I don't care. I love them all.

*I also bought one non-yarn item, highlighter tape. In blue. Years from now, we will call this my blue period.

I planned to buy a skein of sock yarn, and I bought three:


And I'm happy about it. So happy!

To step back to the beginning, yesterday morning I cleaned some snow off the car (honestly, winter, stop it already) and headed off to the shop to pick up the loaner car. I was sitting at a red light when I thought I heard music coming faintly from somewhere, and it took me a minute of "but the radio isn't on..." before I realized that this was coming from my cell phone, tucked away in my purse and with the volume on low. (Did you think I was exaggerating when I said that I don't use my cell phone much?)

I got nervous when I saw the call was from the town where the shop is, but it turned out to be a different person than I talked to Friday night, letting me know that the loaner was there for me. Whew! I told him that I was on my way over, and when I got there he had it running to warm up, and cleared the snow off and everything. Whew, whew!

The car was a Toyota Camry sedan, not at all luxurious but decidedly functional, which is what mattered. I headed out to Central MA with more confidence than I'd had in tires for a few days. The drive out was fine, and while I got slightly turned around at the end, I found my friend's house without much trouble*, and we jumped up and down a little with excitement.

*Only two wrong turns, small and easily corrected. No problem!

I said hi to her husband and kids, she showed me the house, I paid for my Girl Scout cookies and showed off my knits-in-progress and my new t-shirt:


All good, and we hadn't even left yet!

We did leave eventually, of course, and headed toward Northampton, home of Webs. Listen: did you hear the angels singing? Just me? Moving on, then.

I have been to Webs before*. It was overwhelming, and not only because it was packed for the Yarn Harlot. It is an overwhelming place. Wonderful, but overwhelming. I want that, I want that, ooh, touch this!

*Actually, I really thought I had been twice. But I only see that I blogged about it the once, and I'm absolutely positive that I would have written about it. The Yarn Harlot trip was my first, and apparently this was my second!

We had talked of stopping for lunch before going to the store, but the car took us straight there. We walked around for a while, taking it all in, getting high on yarn fumes, then left to get lunch and breath yarn-free air, come down to earth somewhat. After some lunch and a little chocolate, we headed back prepared to dive in.

Or as prepared as you can be. Have I mentioned, overwhelming? Like, not getting enough oxygen overwhelming?

My first stop was the Socks That Rock, since Webs is my only in-person purchasing option between Rhinebeck and Rhinebeck. When we went in before lunch, I found it and fell in love with two skeins at once. There was plenty, so I put it back before we left (rather than asking them to hold it for me, that is). When we returned (only an hour later), one of my choices was down from three skeins in stock to one! I grabbed it and hyperventilated a bit. That was close! Lesson learned: do not treat the STR lightly next time. You love the yarn, you want the yarn, buy the yarn.

Mango Tango:

And China Rose:

Isn't that yummy? There were so many sock yarns that I wanted. The other one I got was this, from Dream in Color (remember the socks I made from their Smooshy yarn?).


They call the colorway Morning Glory, but my friend and I decided that it should be Mermaid instead.

There were so many interesting bags and tools to look at. Rosewood needles or ebony? I like this style of bag, but that fabric. So many crazy fibers to touch; I mean, sugar cane? How often do you get to knit with that?

Sugar cane!


Pretty colors:


The softness! You can't imagine how soft this was.


And this? The ... luminosity struck me dumb.


I can't think what that feels like to work with. Or what you would make with it.

So, yeah. I got a little carried away. With the amazing prices, it felt perfectly reasonable to buy a sweater's worth of Ella Rae Amity (75% acrylic, 25% wool), when I don't know which sweater yet. (Maybe this one, which I've had my eye on for a while.)(This is the yarn I used for the sweaters for my friend's twins, incidentally.)

Kashmir Blue:

This one, on the other hand, was actually bought with a purpose in mind. Berroco Vintage Chunky, 50/40/10 acrylic/wool/nylon.

Dungaree:

I saw the Forward Pullover in the new Webs catalog and really liked it. I checked out the recommended yarn, but didn't fall in love with either the feel or the colors. Neither was bad, just ... I wasn't feeling drawn to it. So I checked for other yarns in a similar weight, and bing!


The yarn feels soft, yet hefty, solid somehow ... can't wait. I think I will wait, until I finish Frost Diamonds, but not much longer!

Then there was the Mirasol Qina (80% baby alpaca, 20% bamboo).

Midnight Blue:

It was on sale, at a really good price. It's soooooo soft. It feels wonderful. I love the color.

And I think I was a little yarn-drunk. It's the truth. That's the last thing I picked up, and I just couldn't stop myself.

And I'm glad I didn't.

Perhaps the funniest* thing was that, as both of us wandered through the store picking things up, putting some back, picking up more ... we ended up spending almost the exact same amount of money. I think we were $7 apart. We couldn't have done that if we were trying to.

*That must have been why we kept giggling, after we left, right? Because it was funny!

What a great day.