I jumped in

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I had another awesome run and I am super stoked for Hawaii, after booking that condo. I only have to wait 12 weeks. I have time to change it if need be, but I am really hoping my sister and her boyfriend will come. And if not, maybe some of my other couple friends would want to come along.

It was a busy day and I ran home, changed and went off to a quickie 1 1/2 hour rehearsal. It went okay. The whole point was to just go through one set, 12 songs, non stop. Of course, that's pretty much impossible for Doug but we did well enough and got through all the songs and I was out of there at 7:30. My goal was to make it home in time to watch the LOST recap. Unfortunately there was a Dancing with the Stars episode on instead! Ick!! All that running for nothing. And I was a bit disappointed in the episode of LOST too.

Not much knitting last night. I worked on the ribbing for the dress, which I brought for noon knitting today. And now to work!

Hawaii dreaming

I want to go Hawaii. Maybe it's because we've got a little trip to the ocean this weekend that has got me thinking about it. Or maybe because of the movie I saw Friday night -- Couples Retreat (which was pretty funny). Whatever the reason, I've set the wheels in motion. Booked the week of June 21 off from work and I've picked a place, ocean side condo, very near where I stayed the last time I was on the Big Island. My sister wants to join us and, hopefully, her boyfriend will come as well. Since he's in the movie business it's almost as difficult to nail him down as it is to nail Mr. M down as far as vacations go, but I'm going to reserve that two bedroom condo today and if I have to cancel and change it to a one bedroom I can do that later. At least I can save the one I want, right on the beach, for now and that's something very nice to look forward to!

We had big storms yesterday. Big spring storms with thunder and lightening. It's not bad today, although threatening again. I am just hoping it'll hold off so I can get a decent run in today at lunchtime. I want to make sure last Friday wasn't a fluke!

I got most of another square done for my blanket last evening, but then Tinkerbell really wanted to play so I put it down and romped with her for a bit. After dinner I picked up the dress again and finished the stockinette portion, bound off and picked up the stitches and started the ribbing. Depending upon how much time I get to myself this coming weekend, I could very well finish it. I doubt I'll be that lucky though, so we're most likely looking at the following week finishing up. Then I think I want to do that mohair cardigan from the Vogue Knitting Winter, the #23 Cabled Yoke Cardigan. I'm going to look up the yarn requirements tonight and start looking for just the right mohair. I can't work with mohair when it's too hot because it sticks to my hands and fingers, so I'd better get on it right away before the weather turns.

It was fantastic!!

Last Friday I had the BEST run I have had in time out of mind! It was amazing!! And it felt so good. At last I am able to breath and I'm not sick. I'm going to run again tomorrow and I'm going to try to go for an hour. I was going to go today as well but I've got to help with getting a class set up for 12:30 for someone who has food poisoning. Poor girl.

I had a pretty nice weekend. It was sunny and nice on Saturday so I got to spend some time in the garden - this time the back - starting the clean up. I filled 3 cans and called it a day. I worked on the Gatsby dress front until it was time to go to rehearsal. And Sunday was just a good. The weather was bad - raining and blowing and not gardening weather (which didn't break my heart) so I had the entire day, after errands, to spend in my comfy chair knitting and tending to laundry. For some reason my shoulder was sore. I think it's a combination of all the the purling I'm doing, since I'm on the stockinette portion of the front, and knitting in that chair. Sunday I spent making squares for my blanket. I found four more skeins of Noro Kureyon (did you know kureyon means crayon in Japanese?) in the colorway I love, 188. It goes well with the moss green Rowan Classic. I am going to make as many squares with the Kureyon as I can, then I'll know how many of the solid green ones I need to make. I am assuming I'll have enough yarn. Cheeky assumption. Hope it doesn't come back to bite me.

Looking forward to the weekend at the ocean. I'm taking Friday off. It's supposed to be raining all week but no matter. The beach is fine in any weather.

Knocked out again

I headed home a little early last night, trying to catch the beginning of the basketball game - Huskies against the #2 seed, West Virginia. I had forgotten to set the recorder but managed to get home and plunked down with my knitting with 3 minutes to go in the first half. They were up and had been so for the entire half. Unfortunately, sometime in the second half they lost momentum and lost. Too bad. And that's that for basketball watching for me. And it's a loooooong time 'til football except the draft coming up in April.

I am a little more than half way through the ladder lace portion of the front of the dress. FlashForward was on after the basketball game and that's like LOST in that I can't do knitting and really watch it. I have high hopes for this weekend. It is supposed to be nice on Saturday and I plan on spending an hour or two weeding, but Sunday it's supposed to rain again so I can just cozy up in my comfy chair and go to town.

This afternoon I'm going to try running. It was pouring rain at home so I took the bus again and lo and behold, when I stepped off the bus here the ground was bone dry. At least I'll have good energy (or should have) for the run. Fingers crossed.

I am taking no chances

While it was sunny and unseasonably warm yesterday -- I even biked home in my shorts and shirtsleeves -- this morning it was pouring rain. I am not willing to risk my continuing recovery with a ride in the rain, so this morning opted for public transport. I can get my exercise at lunchtime. I've got a walk to the bank planned and then I can run back to work. Depending on how I feel I can either extend the run or just head back to the office. I am very much looking forward to getting my legs back underneath me and being able to have good, long runs.

I emailed the bass player and drummer yesterday regarding the Tuesday evening mix-up. Doug, the leader, doesn't have email. Or rather, he has it but won't use it. I know .... Anyway, the other guys were very nice about it. What had happened is that the leader had telephoned to the bass player on Sunday evening, found out that he could make it and so called the drummer and told him but nobody called me!! Idiots.

As planned I got all but 1 1/2 repeats of the lace border done at noon, so when I got home and showered I finished it up and picked up the stitches and away I went! Now I am 6 rows into the ladder lace. It goes quickly. Since I had made the mistake on the back of the dress of picking up the stitches on the right side of the lace border ( rather than the wrong side as per the pattern) I repeated the same "mistake" on the piece for the front so they will match. I don't know what it was supposed to look like if I had picked up the stitches on the wrong side, because it's invisible to my eye.

I am STILL steamed!!

Oh those guys!! I was really looking forward to our little quickie rehearsal yesterday. I've been quite busy at work lately since I've gotten back on my two legs, and let's face it - I look for ways to escape the house when we have our "guest" [who, by the way, crammed an oversize suitcase into the closet in the guest room where I have clothes and bent or otherwise sprung the door!!] so I was a little disappointed when I didn't receive a call telling me the rehearsal was on. I did a little knitting and was just finishing up making a salad when the phone rings at 6:30 and it's the drummer asking me if I'm okay and if I'm coming to rehearsal! Here I must confessed that I snapped and replied in a rather loud tone, "NO I'm not coming to rehearsal!! You were supposed to call me!" Then I cursed a few times, and there was some hollering going on there in the background and then I cursed a few more times. It really made me mad!! How freaking difficult is it to let me know? If I don't hear from Doug and I show up, then there's no rehearsal. From now on I'm just going to have to take it upon myself to call each and every time to make sure we're still on. Now if I could just let it go!!

Last weekend I was knitting on the lace border and listening to the final Ricky Gervais audiobook. I realized that I don't make mistakes when I'm listening to audiobooks as opposed to music. When I listen to music and try to knit something I need to concentrate on it's hopeless because my mind wanders, whereas it doesn't do that when I'm listing to spoken word. So on Monday I bought another audiobook. A few years ago Christopher Hitchens mentioned a series in an article in Vanity Fair about Flashman which sounded amusing. A few weeks ago another friend of mind mentioned it so I thought that might be a good one to start my audiobook adventure with. I downloaded "Flashman and the Tiger". Not the first in the series, which I would have preferred, but the only unabridged version of the series on iTunes. I am enjoying the book but not the narrator. Although I have never read the book and therefore don't have a voice for the protagonist, this narrator, David Case, sounds as if he's always running out of breath. I am assuming it's an affectation but it annoys me. I looked him up on audible.com. He died in 2005 of throat cancer and was one of the most celebrated narrators. Perhaps I should try something else from him.

But anyway, while listening last evening I managed to do a few more repeats on the never ending lace border. Hopefully I can finish it up this lunchtime at noon knitting and then tonight pick up the stitches and be on my merry way to finishing this monster!!

Well that was silly

Why didn't I put that song in a link rather than post an address yesterday? My brain still isn't functioning at full capacity. Here's a link to the song by Antebellum that I am really loving right now. I am pretty excited about our new rehearsal schedule and actually looking forward to rehearsing, and it's been a LONG time since that's happened. For months I've just been forcing myself to go. I still haven't heard from Doug but I am hoping the bass player will see the logic in having a short one set rehearsal during the week. Plus he's not working ... it's not like he's super busy doing other things.

I got home a little later than usual last night because I had to stop to pick something up at the Mall. Then I spent some time putting our tentative three sets onto my iPhone and downloading the missing stuff. Oh! And we have a new one by Fergie . Well new is relative - it's from her Duchess album but it's new to me. By the time I was done with that I was famished. One nice thing about this particular diet, I'm not cooking big meals for the two of us. I make my salad and steam some vegetables and Mr. M does his own thing. Of course the boy is here on spring break for this week so there's a bit more that goes into it on his end, but I've got it easy for the next 10 weeks.

All that to say that I didn't get to work on the lace border again. It was nearly 9 by the time I was ready to relax, so I watched a little SCTV and did a few more rows on the One Skein Stole. It's going to be pretty cool. But I really want to finish that dress by the end of April!!! Maybe tomorrow.

Boing!!

Spring certainly showed up this weekend, right on time. Saturday was amazing!! Warm, sunny and spectacular. I still felt like a little shopping. Since I'm doing my annual spring diet, I wasn't looking for clothes but still thought I'd run up to the Premium Outlet Mall just to poke around the Coach store and look for some charms for my Juicy Couture bracelet, etc. I got there early enough so that there was plenty of parking and popped into the Juicy store first. I found a great charm -- this one a purple-ish faceted heart. I really want the Eiffel Tour charm but they don't make them any more and IF you can find them on eBay they are all over the map. I've seen them for over $100! People are crazy. But next time I find one in the $50-60 range I'm going to snap it up. I only have one more space left to fill, although the nice thing about that bracelet is that you can remove the charms and have theme bracelets. Anyway .... on to the Coach store which was bedlam! The tourists come down from Canada - usually Korean or Japanese - and hit the outlet mall Coach and Burberry shops like locusts. There wasn't room to move in the Coach store but I did manage to corner a guy re-stocking the shelves and asked him where the non-factory stuff was. You see, the factory stores have gotten wise and they make things specifically for the factory store - not as well made but still authentic. Well there was one shelf of real stuff and it was icky, so I left. Good thing too, because I could barely breath! Just a couple more stops - at the kitchen store for a couple new pans and the leather store for a nice travel bag. No, not Coach but real leather as opposed to the designer bags I had been looking at for $180 made of plastic.

I had set the second basketball game to record but I made it home in time and settled down to work on the One Skein a Stole and watch the game. The Huskies DOMINATED! Again, not a big basketball fan, but this was pretty darned exciting. So they are now in the Sweet Sixteen and the next game is Friday. And that was pretty much it for Saturday. I watched TV in bed for a while, worked more on the stole and had another sleepless night. (Thank goodness I'm finally done with the Cortisone. I am sure that's what has been causing this terrible insomnia.)

Sunday after a few little errands I settled down and got a lot done on the lace border. I have about 8 more repeats to go before I can pick up the stitches for the ladder lace. I had to cut it short though because Doug did get the rehearsal moved to Sunday, but it ended up to be the bass player's wife's birthday so he couldn't come. The three of us did have a pretty good run through of some songs. Doug has decided that we will not be ready for May 8 and is going to postpone our show to the end of May. I suggested that perhaps we could get together one during the week as well as on the weekend. During the week we could meet up for just an hour or an hour and a half and do ONE set, straight through. That way I would have more reason to actually start memorizing those lyrics and it's always a good idea to just go straight through a set and that way your mistakes are pretty obvious. They're going to run it by Greg.

We have a pretty eclectic set list, to say the least. From the 80's to the present with a heavy dose of country thrown in. I have one song that I just can't get out of my head. I LOVE it! It's a song that is crossing over into the popular air play. When I was down in California in February I heard it at a sushi restaurant. Here's a link to the YouTube video. The video itself is not great but the song is awesome! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB7T3lJ3dZ4

Progress!

Oh my, I am feeling better! Woohoo!!! I am still working from home today, but I definitely feel better. I got pretty tired pretty quickly yesterday but I did get what I had set out to do finished up, so working at home today is a good option.

How I know I am feeling better:

I was thinking about going shopping this weekend
(Haven't wanted to shop for weeks)
I haven't yet coughed up a lung and it's 10 am
(Haven't been able to make it through the night in weeks)
My head is NOT aching
(Complete miracle)
Had a fight with Mr. M
(Well, he spilled red wine on the couch in the theatre, sat in it, and didn't even apologize or go clean it up!!!)

I've got a ways to go yet and I'm not ready to go out and run or anything, but things are actually looking up for a change and I'm pretty happy about that.

It was (and is again today) beautiful at lunchtime yesterday so I ventured out for a little walk down by the water. I passed a row of beautiful cherry trees in bloom and saw this one. I just love it when the blossoms come out of the trunk!

I was quite exhausted when I got home, so I went right back to bed and watched the first game of the basketball tournament. Huskies won! I don't usually like basketball but this is the big national tournament so I turned it on. It was very exciting. They took it right down to the wire but pulled out a win.

No knitting. I am still planning on finishing up the lace border but my head was too achy for that last night. I have high hopes for the weekend. And Doug called and offered to move rehearsal to Sunday if there was a better chance I could make it. I hope I can.

Don't say it ...

I'll say it myself. Yes, I probably jumped the gun. I am at work. I don't know for how long today. I had a couple of things haunting me that are much easier to do from here than on my laptop from home and, quite honestly, I wanted to try it out. Getting out of bed, that is. I'm a little slow. But besides the blinding headache and feeling like I am dragging around 20 pounds of lead weights, I'm fine. ;-)

It is a stunningly beautiful day. Bright blue sky and spring bulbs blooming everywhere. I wish I could have ridden my bike but I am not that stupid. I'd like to try for a walk at lunchtime. I downloaded the last Ricky Gervais Guide To series yesterday and I like listening to it while I'm walking. Although sometimes I must appear quite mad, laughing at nothing and nobody visible. This one is Guide to the Earth. I'm sorry to see that series end, but I am enjoying the HBO animated series although it is just a repeat of the early pod casts with animation. I like listening to him talk. His accent is not exactly the same, but close enough.

Tonight "Flash Forward" starts up again. It has quite a few of the actors who were on LOST. I recorded a recap episode on Tuesday night after LOST ... I couldn't stay up. So now this evening I've got to watch that before the 2 hour premier or I'll be out of my depth. It is science fiction-ish. And I don't care so much about it that I can't knit while I'm watching. I did work on the lace border a bit yesterday but my head ache got in the way. Maybe this weekend I can get a few chunks of time carved out to get it done and pick up the stitches. The rest of the front is a pretty quick knit because of the stockinette.

Now I must dig in and make the most of what few hours I'm going to be able to sit here.

Still waiting

for the medicine to kick in. I am feeling slightly better in that my cough is not as bad, but the headaches and body aches are still a problem. I truly expected to be feeling much much better by now considering the amount of pills I've been taking. I am at least propped up in bed on my laptop rather than trying to do everything with my iPhone. Well it's no fun reading about someone's ailments and aches and pains so that's enough of that.

I might do some knitting this afternoon. I could get the lace border done for the dress if I put my mind to it. Or I could sleep.

We had a big wind storm here yesterday. It was funny - just quick and it was gone as fast as it came. However it did blow some trees over on some houses. We have a couple big old trees in the back. Last year an arborist was going door to door to offer to check out the trees to see if they were healthy and we had them checked out. I would hate for that to happen. I would often think about that possibility at my old house because I had two huge old poplars on my property and one of them was looking a bit peaked.

March always makes me think of a trip to Versailles. Spring not really ready to show up, especially after the big storms that year, but the groundskeepers were trying hard to force it by planting primroses and violets around the muddy grounds. My companion had skipped work that day, I believe. And we had a wonderful lunch in a restaurant like a greenhouse .... my memory is fading there. The rest of the day and evening is still sharp in my mind though. That was one of the best days ever.

Oh gosh ... I just realized it's St. Patrick's Day! Happy day everyone.

The results are in

A chest x-Ray and CT scan this morning and the results were back by 3. It is a chronic sinus infection! I still feel terrible but at least I know what it is and I am on the mend!

I spent the weekend laying low and knitting. Maybe tomorrow I can get some pictures up. It depends on how fast the meds kick in. I got the lace border started, knit on the 1 skein shawl and fiddled a bit more with the blanket ideas.

I am SO looking forward to feeling good.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I am sick and tired

AGAIN!!! This is it ... I'm going back to the doctor. This cough/chest thing has been hanging on and hanging on and hanging on! My chest hurts when I run and going up a flight of stairs is again a cause of much wheezing and gasping. I tried to get in to see the doctor today but he's out of town. I've got an appointment for first thing Monday morning. We are going to get to the bottom of this, once and for all.

I made it through the day yesterday, but barely and went right to bed when I got home. No dinner, no knitting, no TV. I read a bit and slept. I might be able to knit a bit today. I'd like to start that lace border but I'm going to wait until I see if I'll be able to stay awake. Oh! Darn ... I just remembered I have a hair appointment today. I'd better call and cancel that ASAP. The weather is at least cooperating and it's nasty and rainy outside.

I can't imagine I'll be up for rehearsing on Saturday either. I'll leave that call for tomorrow. Lucky for me things are pretty quiet at work so I am taking this day as SICK and not even checking my email. Ok ... that's a lie. I will be checking my email.

I shall rant AND rave

First the rave: It was pouring rain this morning and even though I received my new waterproof Ortlieb panniers yesterday I decided to forget the bike ride and take the bus. (My cough and wheezing has returned and I thought it best not to get soaking wet this morning. I'll be seeing the doctor tomorrow). As usual I got to the crosswalk at Lake City Way and here comes my bus. The light turned green after it had started loading passengers but I charged across the street and as I rounded the end of the bus it started to leave. Thankfully there was a man standing waiting for another bus and he waved to the driver who stopped for me. I waved a "thank you" at the guy. That was very nice, especially considering it was raining.

Now here's the rant: I spent the greater part of yesterday fussing with my restored computer. Because of the virus I got from who knows where, the hard drive had to be cleaned and everything reloaded. I've had this particular machine for quite a while now -- probably 5 years, maybe more. And while I'm grateful I didn't lose any of my files, the hassle of reconfiguring things is HUGE! I spent a few hours -- no exaggeration -- trying to reconfigure my mail client, Thunderbird. The UW has thoughtfully provided detailed instructions on how to configure it to run the UW mail, but the instructions were out of date by a version so I had to just wing it. I got it working in that I could read messages and receive messages but I couldn't sent messages. I contacted the UW IT department and got a reply and this morning got it running correctly. Unfortunately my entire address book is gone. *sigh* But my rant isn't about that, it's about the JERKS who write and disseminate these viruses in the first place. What is the point? How can they get satisfaction from doing this when they can't even see the trouble they are causing? Obviously I'm missing something. Something besides half a day. And I'm NOT in a good mood. I hope today is a little less frustrating. I couldn't even cook dinner yesterday. Thank goodness I had a nice hard bike ride to unleash some of that frustration.

I wanted to work more on the stole that I started at lunchtime yesterday but I was just too agitated when I got home. I need my house guest to leave, is what I need.

Rantless

Smooth sailing on the way to work today! Nobody tried to run me over or cut me off or anything! Plus it stopped raining before I got on the bike. Pretty lucky today.

Because I've been using my laptop for the past week plus I hadn't changed the page on my desk blotter calendar. I did it this morning and got a pleasant surprise. This Sunday is the start of daylight saving time! Yay! Spring forward! And the following Saturday is the official first day of Spring. We've certainly jumped the gun here.

I didn't get that one skein Noro sock yarn stole started last night after all. By the time I got the dinner cleaned up it was time for LOST re-cap and I didn't want to try to do all that casting on, etc. while I was half watching the show so I just indulged myself and watched TV for two hours. It was a really great show last night. Only 9 more episodes to go.

I brought the yarn and needles with me today so I can cast on and get started at noon knitting. I seriously want to start the front of that dress this weekend as well. I don't have anything pressing to do so I certainly should be able to do that.

It's just crazy time

At lunch yesterday I took a walk up the Ave. As I as walking along I noticed it starting to precipitate. No, not rain. Snow! Unbelievable - 60 degrees on the weekend and then snow on Monday. It didn't stick, nor did it come down for long, but still. And this morning as I was getting ready for work, all set to put on my bike clothes, my husband informs me that it is 29 degrees and icy outside and I might want to rethink the bike ride. So right. I took the bus.

Since I was up close to the yarn store I thought I might as well do a swing through, just for the heck of it. While I was there I decided to buy a ball of Noro sock yarn to maybe make a simple stole or try the tilted blocks ..... I wasn't sure. I found the color I wanted and took it up to the counter and gave the girl my card to get another punch. But it was full! It was full and I hadn't even noticed! Here I've been walking around for who knows how long with $20 of free yarn in my hand and I was unaware. Totally not like me. I can't believe I missed that.

Last night we watched "The Invention of Lying", which I thought was really good but Mr. M fell asleep. It had that "break up the wedding" ending though. I would have thought he could have come up with something a bit less trite. Ricky Gervais is a very vocal atheist, so I can pretty much guess where his premise came from. Still it was very clever and I would watch it again.

I tried to start a one skein Noro sock yarn stole - a pattern I found on Ravelry - while I was watching the movie but I kept messing up when I was knitting and dropping the wrapped stitches. Perhaps tonight I can get it cast on and get a little run at it before the new LOST starts.

Slush on my windows!

Wow ... what a change! Saturday was 60 degrees and this morning there was slush on the windows. It's a bit more seasonable. And it's supposed to get any colder, although it is supposed to rain more this week so my rides might be a bit yucky. I'll drive in again on Friday because I've got an appointment after work but other than that I should be able to ride in the rest of the week. That is, of course, if I can take my laptop home tonight and leave it there. My PC should be ready to go today, fingers crossed. Working on my laptop for day after day is tiring.

I did some good work in the front garden on Saturday while Tink was getting beautified. I filled up two cans, but it was much harder than the four I filled before because I was cutting back things, dead heading, cutting the lavender. I worked until my right hand was cramping then cleaned up and had a few hours of quiet knitting time before I had to go get Tinkerbell. They have a new groomer up at Kristie's and he did a super job! She looks so great!

I did a little more knitting then it was off to rehearsal. I made up two set lists so we can just concentrate on these songs for a while and get them down, rather than going all over the place. It still looks like we're shooting for May 8. Doug has a meeting with the person in charge of the hall this week to nail down the details.

Yesterday was mostly errands, but I did have an hour or so before we went to see "Alice in Wonderland" and I finished up the back of my Great Gatsby dress! It is SO cute!!! This is a bad picture, I know, I snapped it with my iPhone on the way out this morning. I need to find some quiet time to cast on the lace border for the front. It might have to wait for the weekend. An am anxious now to get it done. It is going to be wonderful. A perfect spring tunic.

The 3D "Alice in Wonderland" was quite an experience. It is gorgeous! And the 3D effects are spectacular. The story itself was a bit dark, somewhat gruesome. I enjoyed it though. And I balanced the evening out with Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life". Always good for a laugh or 3.

Chugging right along

Well I didn't watch "The Invention of Lying" but rather ended up with some silly movie on Comedy Central. It was perfect knitting fare and I got through the ribbing and on to the stockinette increase section. I did make one little mistake on a row and didn't catch it until I was up 3 more rows. Well it's more like a series of mistakes on a row -- I accidentally did a part of the row in ribbing. Yes, it's obvious but it is on the back and most likely my hair will cover it up. I'm not going to take it out.

I had a long, intense day yesterday. Not complaining -- it does make the day go by much faster when I'm nose to the screen all day, but my eyes really suffer. They get so dry staring at the screen hour after hour. I did have a good ride home and it wasn't raining. Today it's going to be sunny and nearly 60 so I'm going to have a run at lunchtime. Maybe even 45 rather than 30. I did feel really good last Tuesday.

And the good weather is supposed to stick around for tomorrow as well so after I take Tink to the groomers and take Mr. M downtown I will have a couple hours for gardening. I'll save the errands for Sunday when it's supposed to be cloudy.

Two rants in a row!

It does seem to happen that way. I've had another commute plagued by idiot drivers. It was raining when I left this morning and one would think people would be more careful rather than more careless. I have to cross Sandpoint Way in the morning to go down to the trail. I stop at 110th street at the crosswalk and wait for a break in the traffic to cross. Today there was also a man on the other side of the street on 110th waiting to cross as well. A driver heading south stopped for this gentleman so I started out as well and a woman going north just blew right through the crosswalk, nearly taking out the other bicyclist. Her view was unimpeded and should could see the other vehicle stopped. And before that I had a woman pull out right in front of me as I was driving down the side of the street. Idiots!!

I had two meetings yesterday morning. The second one was a miracle. Everyone was pleasant, working in concert, no arguments .... beautiful. We even got done early.

I did do a good bit of work on the Gatsby at noon knitting but not much on it last night after dinner. I think tonight I may watch "The Invention of Lying" and I should be able to get lots done then. I'd like to shoot for finishing up the back this weekend and maybe even starting on the front. I've got gardening, a few shopping chores, rehearsal, but otherwise should be able to carve out a few 3 hour slots to make some progress.

Okay now, here's to a smooth ride home this evening!!

Major Rant

There are a couple of stereotypical Seattle behaviors that drive me crazy. The too polite driver who doesn't take his right of way and the inability for 99% of Seattle drivers to use their turn signals. This behavior is not exclusive to motor vehicles. Bicyclists have the same problem. As I was zooming down the trail, getting ready to turn left to go up the hill off the trail, a male cyclist was coming down the hill toward the trail. I was, of course, signaling that I was turning left. He did not signal so I had no idea which way he was going. I could have avoided slowing down (which is always a good thing when faced with a steep hill) if I had but known which direction he was heading but as it was I had to slow down considerably, so that when I tried to shift into a lower gear to go up my chain slipped and my pedals locked up. I was lucky enough to pull my feet out of the toe clips in time so that I didn't go crashing down. I pulled over to the side of the street and proceeded to get my chain back on and as I was doing this a car came driving towards me and stopped across the intersection. No signal, so I waved the car through. I was on the side of the road, not impeding his progress in any direction but he kept sitting there. I waved him on again. What I needed to do was get a little run at the hill, so I was going to ride east a few yards past the trail, then turn and head uphill. I finally went east to make my turn and the car turned right!! If the idiot had only had his signal on ..... Needless to say all of the relaxation that I get from my ride was gone and I arrived home in a nasty mood.

A medicinal (and much needed) shower and a glass of wine and I was feeling a bit better. After dinner and during the re-cap episode of LOST I finished up the decreases and bound off, then picked up 74 stitches and started on the ribbing for the bodice portion of the back of the Gatsby. Since I have two meetings this morning and I always arrive in such a state when I ride, I drove in and therefore I was able to bring my Gatsby for noon knitting. I should be able to finish up the ribbing and start on the back tonight if I don't get distracted. Big IF.

I guess we might as well face it

We are getting an early spring, and that's that! I don't think we're going to be getting any more cold weather. Sunday was nearly 60 and I finally got out and spent some time in the garden cleaning up the dead stuff and finding all of the plants going full steam ahead. Unfortunately because the lawn has also been growing like crazy and Mr. M wanted/needed to mow it, I was only able to use the back-up yard waste cans -- four of them -- and filled them up in no time at all! Yesterday Mr. M mowed and he did indeed fill to overflowing the HUGE yard waste bin. But I was happy to get at least some of it done and the outlines are now visible in the very front garden. There are still hours and hours and HOURS of work to be done and so we'll have to hire some people to do the tough stuff, but I can at least get in there and cut down the lavender, dead head the hydrangea, etc. Plenty of easy work left to do. It is supposed to be nice on Saturday so that is my morning!

I had a really good run yesterday. When I ran last Thursday my lungs really hurt. Yesterday was fine. Just a little bit of ache. Otherwise I felt strong and I went the distance. I feel like I've finally turned the corner. I also had a very good ride in today. I won't be able to run the St. Pat's race but there is one in Kirkland in April. I'll shoot for that.

I have been doing lots of good work on the Gatsby dress. I have only a few more rows to go before I bind off, then pick up stitches for the ribbing portion of the bodice. In fact I even did a few rows at midnight last night. I was so very tired that I went up early last night to read and took Tink with me. She woke me up at midnight insisting to go out, so I sat and knit for 20 minutes while she did her thing outside, then back we went and I slept like a rock. In fact, slept through the alarm.

Tomorrow is noon knitting. I'd like to bring the Gatsby but it's getting hard to fit into my pannier and I'd like to ride in. Might have to bring the Enchanting scarf. I need to finish that thing anyway.