No pictures!

Shoot! I got on my friend's computer and I see now that none of the pictures I have sent from my iPhone are showing up! That's annoying. We're just getting ready to head out to drive the Apache Trail and I thought it'd be cool to send some pictures. Ah well .... AND I forgot my camera at home so all I have with me is my iPhone. I wonder if the pictures are too large or something. I know I used to be able to easily do it on my Razr. Off we go!

A new song

Here's McG debuting a new song last night. I like it.



Shelley

The photo for the post

Still trying to get the mobile blogging set. I think I have it now.

Sunday

This was last Sunday, wine tasting at Torii Mor. Today I am in California having a long weekend with my sister. Last night we went to a dinner party up in the Hollywood Hills with an assortment of authentic Hollywood types. The weather is rather rainy but tomorrow it's off to Phoenix where it is going to be sunny and hot!

Shelley

This was last Sunday

Shelley

A perfect record

Yeah ... drove in every single day this week. I can't remember the last time I did that. I could have ridden my bike today except that this is the one day that I have to have the car because I have a hair appointment at 4. Oh well. At noon knitting Wednesday one of the girls said "Just get over it". I guess I'd better!

No knitting last night and the night before was just round and round the skirt while watching LOST. It was Pub Night last night so by the time I got home I was too full and impaired to knit so I took my new Interweave Knits spring issue up to bed with me and read that until I fell asleep. It's a pretty good issue. Nothing jumped right out at me but I'll give it a couple more good looks.

I have tons and tons of work to do today to get ready for my two weeks off. So when I woke up last night I started thinking about that and composing email in my head ... gaaahhh! I'm tired today but I've got to keep chugging along so I can get everything done and not have to worry at all while I'm gone. Have a nice, relaxing vacation.

Posting is going to be hit and miss. I am sure I can do it with my iPhone because I used to do it with my Razr phone. I can always Twitter.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Okay now ... this is getting ridiculous!!!

It is neither raining nor snowing today. In fact, it's sunny! It's also very very cold. I SO wanted to ride in this morning when I looked out and saw that it wasn't raining and the streets were clear. What I couldn't see was that my car windows were covered with ice. I knew it was likely to be cold out there but I didn't know it was 29 degrees. My husband pointed that out to me when I said I thought I could bike in today. "Honey, it's 29 degrees out there!" Damn damn and double damn! I got dressed and got my stuff together and when I went out to start my car I was talking myself into riding -- "Oh, it's not THAT cold". Hmmm ... until I couldn't open my car door because the handle was frozen shut. Ah! Okay, so it IS that cold. As I was driving in I could see the puddles were frozen along side the road. I do not like having to driving in day after day. Yes, I guess I could suck it up and take the bus ... but I just need a few more degrees warmer and I can bike. Maybe by the time I get back from vacation this nonsense will be over.

I did a good bit of skirt knitting last night. Now comes the fairly boring part - knitting around and around and around, doing decreases every 12 rows. Inches and inches of it. But oh ... it is going to be so nice!

It's LOST tonight! Woohoo! Now that football is gone - it's my favorite day of the week.

WIP pictures

Finally I have pictures of my skirt. Only one week since I started it. I really wish I could discipline myself to take pictures in the evening rather than in the morning when I don't have any time. I always end up just snapping away in the morning as I'm running out the door. This shows the six lace panels - 3 in front, 3 in back, and the eyelet row for the bows. Since I'm doing this in the round, rather than as written, I completely missed that the eyelet row is supposed to be in garter stitch. But by the time I figured it out I was over half way through with it so I am leaving it as is. With ribbon threaded through it I don't think it would have been that noticeable anyway. I don't need to say how gorgeous the drape of this garment is already. I just hope that I am doing the right thing and that it fits!! I am entirely smitten with this pattern.

I got up this morning all fired up to bundle up well and get on the bike. After all, as I looked out my window I could see that the streets were clear and it didn't seem to be snowing. I checked the temperature .... ummm well, it was a little cold. Showing 33 degrees. Add wind chill to that ... but no, I'll wrap up my face, I said to myself. So I got all my bike clothes together and went downstairs to start some coffee. Tink needed to go out, as usual, so I opened the slider to let her out and got blasted in the face with very cold air, and also noticed at that time that floating through that cold air were teensie ice crystals. AKA snow. So no, no biking today. I will have to run at lunchtime. Have I said yet for the millionth time how freaking sick I am of this weather????

Goals

Remember my Action Plan? Step 1 - get back to my real size? Step 2 - save up vacation time and Step 3, take a 2 week vacation in February? An unwritten part of the action plan was to break my own 5K record. And this weekend I did it!! I got a personal best time at the Love 'em or Leave 'em race yesterday. I am still right in the middle of the pack for my age group - the first of the group came in more than 10 minutes before me, which is astonishing and definitely something to shoot for. But for now I think I'll be happy if I can shave a minute off my time. The next race in March is longer .... 3 3/4 miles so I'm not going to be breaking any records there, that's for sure. I could have even done better if some very rude people hadn't broken the rules. If you're walking you're supposed to be at the BACK of the pack, not right in the middle of it slowing people down. Also, this was a new route and there was a very bad bottleneck that slowed a lot of people down. And was it ever cold! By the time we started my hands were frozen into little balls of ice. They were numb and a definite distraction. Usually there is a booth at these races giving free coffee but there was no coffee booth this time so my hands got really really cold. It was 37 degrees out there.

And as for Step 1 -- I am 2 pounds away from my goal and wearing everything I own ... not at the same time of course ... I had to get my rings inspected and cleaned on Saturday the jewelry store is right by a Nordstrom Rack. Can't drive by a Rack without stopping, can you? I got myself two new pairs of jeans, which I really needed since most of my other ones are all frayed at the cuff. And a cute little top and a really cute jacket. I'm all set for my trip. Now I just have to make it through a week of work.

No biking today. Care to guess why? Snow!!! Freaking snow!!! We must have set some kind of records in Seattle for the amount of snow we've been getting. At least it wasn't much and had already started melting by this morning so I drove in. I did have a little scare when I was getting ready to pull out onto a busy street from a residential street and started skidding. But otherwise it was an easy drive in. And it's clear now so we probably won't be getting any more snow in the next few days. Fingers crossed.

I got lots of good work done on my skirt. All of the panels started, then hooked together and I'm now just a few rows away from the first eyelet row. I have decided to knit the small size after all because my gauge is off enough so that it won't be too tight. Plus which this yarn grows. I think it's going to be very pretty.

Thank goodness for the rain

and the humidity that comes along with it. It has been SO dry lately. And with the spontaneous nose bleeds that have been plaguing me I was starting to look like a LOST time traveler. It started sprinkling last night and it was lightly raining on my way in this morning. It's good.

I had a decent run yesterday at lunch. I'm pretty confident that if I fuel myself properly I should have a good race Sunday. I'm excited. Can you tell?

My DH is working long and late this week so I didn't see him yesterday evening again. I thought I'd get some good knitting done but Tink was so needy that it was difficult to get anything done. Plus which she's been super itchy again and she's got another yeast infection in her ear! I still have some medicine left from when I went for her right ear and I've been using it. I thought I had the left ear thing kicked but I noticed last night that she was going to town on it and sure enough. So I started it up again and this time I'm going to do the full 7 days of treatment no matter how good her ear starts looking. I remember from when her right ear was bad that when her ear cleared up she stopped scratching so much. Hope that can happen again because the poor little thing ... she's just SO itchy!

Knitting-wise I did manage to get the third panel started and all three put together. Now I need to do the same with another three, join them up and do those little increases and then I should be on track. After I get the lace done this is going to just zip along!

Tonight is a pizza birthday party for my little niece and Saturday tons of errands. But I'll have the whole of Saturday afternoon and evening to rest and knit and then Sunday ....

LOST eats into my knitting time!

I just can't knit when LOST is on. Even the "enhanced" repeat episode is too riveting to knit by. So last night I only got two of the six lace panels started. I need to make three 24 row starts and knit them together, then do the same with 3 more and then put all six together. I thought I was being so clever when I realized that because my gauge was off that I could make the small sized lace panels and then do the rest of it in medium size except ... well, the stitch count is off, isn't it?? And I like the way the skirt is shaped so I will increase before the eyelet row and then start the decreases. Because I am doing the lace panels with a size eight needle they are very stretchy and this should work. Fingers crossed. I don't want to get that far and have to re-do it. I am now all keen on knitting skirts. Go figure.

When I was first starting out knitting I bought some beautiful bulky thick and thin yarn in purples and greens. I made a very bulky first time out V-necked top-down sweater and also a cabled cardigan. I don't wear either one of those sweaters and I fell in love with the Trapeze Jacket from Stephanie Japel's new book, Glam Knits. The yarn is almost exactly the same. I am going to frog those two garments and see If I can get enough yarn to make this. I love it!!

Because I was under the weather this week I didn't get my run on Tuesday. I did run Sunday before the party and then my plan was to run Tuesday and Thursday so I could have a nice rest before the race Sunday. However .... I couldn't run Tuesday so I am going to run today and still rest Friday and Saturday. I rode in today -- cold but totally do-able -- so I won't be rested but I've got to run. At least it won't be so cold at lunchtime. It's actually been pretty nice these past few days, although rain is due to come in soon. But still I can't wait to get to California and Arizona!!!

Felled by a bug

I believe this is/was the second time in 3 months that I've been downed by some mysterious bug. This time it was a stomach thingie. I thought, since I've been eating such a low fat diet lately, that maybe it was a reaction to the fatty foods I was eating this weekend - dinner out Saturday and then the party on Sunday. But when I felt worse as the day went on Monday I realized it must be a bug. I worked from home Monday and Tuesday but I came in today. My stomach is still queasy but I drove in and I'm going to risk it. At least I've been able to eat - just finished a little oatmeal and some berries and so far so good! Fingers crossed.

I never feel much like knitting when I'm sick, plus I was working when I wasn't otherwise occupied but yesterday evening I was feeling better and started looking for a new project. I bit of startitis, I guess, since I'm still working on Rockstar and, of course, a pair of socks. I have purchased some really nice yarn lately - some llama/silk blend and some other Ella Rae silk blend, plus of course I've got those 10 skeins of Ella Rae Shibu. I was looking at little "blouse" patterns, but also I've been wanting to do a round yoke thing but nothing was really calling to me. Either they were pieced or just not right in some way. Some knitted skirts had caught my eye a few days ago and it was bubbling around in my brain and that's what I came up with. A skirt! I have a great pattern in the "Greetings from the Knit Cafe" book, the Lacy Skirt with Bows. I will, of course, modify the pattern to knit it in the round. It is absolutely insane not to do that. Also I am going to use the Ella Rae Shibu even though it's not giving me gauge. I really love the fabric this knits up to on size 7 needles at exactly 5 stitches per inch. The pattern calls for size five needles and 21 stitches per inch. If I switch out to size five needles with this yarn it's going to make the fabric too dense. I'll make the calculations but I think, off the top of my head and from doing a few rows of the lace, that if I use this yarn and make the size small it should come out just right - not quite medium and not quite small. I'm excited to get started and since my DH is going to be working the next few nights I should be able to get a good run at it.

OMG -- this is .. well, is it weird or funny or what??