29 November, 2010

And as quick as that it was gone

What an incredibly bizarre few days of weather.  I did not go to Doug's Wednesday night for rehearsal because it was still below freezing.  Thanksgiving day started out a bit over freezing and warmed up steadily throughout the day.  Friday morning I woke up and all the snow was gone and it was raining!  It's not warm but at least it's not freezing or below and there is not one trace of snow around.  I wonder how many more times we'll have to go through this mess this winter.

Thanksgiving was low key and quiet.  I made a nice big turkey dinner for Mr. M and his two kids.  It took me four hours to prepare and 30 minutes to eat.  Crazy.

I had a hair appointment on Friday and then went out to Doug's for our final rehearsal before the thing Saturday night.  I got there at 4:30 and we went through 30 songs that I was set to do for Saturday.  That took us until 8:15.  No breaks.  We went through a few of them more than once but I was not confident in my musicians.  On Saturday I laid low, watched the Huskies play Cal [they won!] and went out to get my make up done.  I haven't had it done for ages and thought it would be nice to get a professional to do a sexy, smokey eye for me and then I'd know how to do it myself.  And I think that's the sole positive thing I have gotten out of our "gig" on Saturday night.

It's not that we here horrible, per se.  But it could have been SO much better.  Thankfully we had Mr. M there to run the sound or I would have walked off the stage.  The monitors mix was a mess because the stage is small and domed inside so you can imagine what that does to the sound of drums.  As he got more and more excited, the drummer was beating those drums and cymbals as if he were outside playing in an arena.  At one point I turned around and begged him to quiet down a bit.  And at the break the bass player did as well.  It was just one thing after another.  I don't know what to do about it, but I need a break from them for a while.  I sounded good though and I am looking forward to listening to the recording to see if anything is salvageable to post.

Needless to say I had a nice quiet day yesterday.  Mr. M was gone most of the time working and I watched football and did laundry and knit, having done all my running around on Saturday.  All was normal, I went to bed and was asleep around 10 pm, BUT my iPhone woke me with an alert at 12:30.  I had forgotten to turn it to silent.  I didn't think it was any big deal until I started thinking about all the things I would like to say to Doug, then started thinking about ... oh who knows what.  I tossed and turned and was all congested.  I got up for water.  I got up to blow my nose.  I got up to walk around.  Finally I went downstairs and got a Benadryl, hoping that it would make me go to sleep and clear me up so I could breath.  I looked at the clock then and it was 4 am.  I turned of my alarm and sent an email to work saying I was going to be late.  I figured if I fell asleep then I could sleep in until 8 or 9 and go in to work at 10.   I got up again and got a cough drop.  Tick tock tick tock ... Benadryl was not working and now it was 5:45!  OMG!  Finally, right before Mr. M's alarm went off at 7 I dropped off.  I told him what had been happening and to let me sleep.  I woke up at 9:15.  *sigh*  Still way congested.  So I'm working from home today and I called in rather than send an email.  I always find it suspect when someone doesn't turn up for work after a long weekend.  I will work here at my computer.  If sleep does overcome me at least I can lay down for a while here.

24 November, 2010

Sometimes we just have to break tradition

and I think this is the perfect time.  Typically I look forward to an egg nog latte the day after Thanksgiving to kind of ring in the holiday season.  This year .... I'm not waiting!  I am having one now.  This weather is just insane and I couldn't see any reason to wait.

I made it home okay Monday night but it was SO cold and treacherous.  Mr. M had been occupied during the day and left his errand running until after 5, which is typical for him but not too smart a move on a day like Monday with the temperature below freezing and snow falling.  He had to pick up something at the pharmacy and a 20 minute errand ended up taking an hour as he navigated by stuck vehicles and tried to avoid the hills - which is not easy around here.

I had already planned on working from home on Tuesday but they decided to suspend operations at the University campuses and so yesterday was an official snow day.  I tried to sleep in but unfortunately my body thought it was a work day so I was awake for good at 6 am.  It was sunny but oh so cold and I thought something nice from the slow cooker for dinner would be just the thing.  I looked through my favorite cookbook, the Cooking Light "best of" volume and found a lamb stew that was just complicated enough to make it interesting and sounded like it would be awesome!  After giving Tinkerbell a little walk around the neighborhood I put on my pack and started hiking to the nice grocery store about a mile away.  The side streets were compacted snow and ice but some of the main arterial streets, like 145th, had been sanded and plowed so traffic was mostly moving on that street although I did see a couple people having trouble with the inclines.

And after I got home I had a nice long lazy afternoon ahead of me with nothing on my plate.  I thought it might be fun to pick up that blanket project I had started sometime ago.  I don't usually crochet but I found a pattern that I liked and thought it might be a good project to pick up when I was bored with my other (billion) WIPs.  But when I picked up my bag with the pieces the magazine with the pattern was missing.  In one of my tidying frenzies I had put it back on the shelf and I couldn't remember which magazine it was.  Now, I have by Ravelry count, 56 magazines and so it is not such a simple thing to search through all of them.  But I thought why not use the Ravelry pattern browser to find it?  BUT it seems like I had forgotten to add that particular magazine to my collection so the pattern didn't show up.  So I got a bit craftier and used all those awesome filters and found the magazine in just a couple of minutes.  Hoorah for Ravelry!!

Before I went to bed I got an alert from the UW saying they would be open today as usual, which I found to be rather odd since it was predicted we'd get into the teens at night and not much over mid-twenties today.  And sure enough at 12:40 am another alert was sent saying it was closed again.  So I have another nice day to get my Thanksgiving dinner plans set and figure out how I'm going to get to Doug's tonight for rehearsal.  Mr. M said he'll take me but Doug lives so far out I can't imagine it would be a good idea.  We will see.  It is supposed to warm up tomorrow but I sure don't envy all those Thanksgiving travelers out there.

22 November, 2010

Snow before Thanksgiving!

I got all my chores and running around done on Saturday so that I could enjoy a day of football and knitting on Sunday and I am sure glad that I did!  It was very windy on Saturday night and the lights flickered a couple of times, but there was no snow.  It was cold but dry.  We had a pretty good rehearsal although we still have a lot of work to do before I'll be confident.  We'll rehearse again Wednesday and Friday and if I am diligent I should be able to get the last of the lyrics into my head.

So, Sunday Mr. M was up and out of the house at 5 am for a job - sound for a race that I am so glad I didn't sign up for.  I decided to take Tink for a walk before the games started and just as we were getting ready it started to snow.  It was really too warm for it to stick - I think about 38 degrees - but it snowed for a couple of hours off and on.  It stayed dry the rest of the day but it got very cold last night.  When I woke up this morning I checked my iPhone weather before I got out of bed and it said snowing but when I looked out the window it was bone dry.  I wasn't going to bike in anyway because it is below freezing so I figured I'd take the bus, just in case it started to snow.  And it did start to snow about 10 minutes before I walked out the door and it is snowing, hard, now.  The bus was packed and I was lucky to get a seat. I'm not looking forward to the ride home at all.

I got a lot of good work done on my convertible mittens.  I am nearly done with the hand so I might be able to finish them up today.  I tried another variation.  I had added two stitches at each end of the top flap on the cashmere pair and then decreased down to the original count to finish off the hand, then I tacked the flap down when I finished them.  This time I didn't decrease back down to the original count but left the extra four stitches.  I am hoping this will make the top fold back tidier.  We'll just have to wait and see how it works when they're finished.

Thanksgiving plans have changed.  I wasn't going to be cooking this year and instead we were going to go out.  But Mr. M's son decided he wants to come for the long weekend so I'm cooking.  I have decided that the son is not going to stay in the guest room but will sleep on the fold out in the theatre.  Mr. M asked me if that wasn't a bit inconvenient and I told him that I thought finding dirty dishes in my clean clothes was a bit MORE inconvenient and he sheepishly agreed.  I maintain that if someone is going to treat my home with that much disrespect there must be consequences.  I don't think I'm being unreasonable, do you? 

19 November, 2010

Ahead of schedule

I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving to have the first eggnog latte of the season.  However, today just felt right so I am having one now.  And it is yummy!  You can ask them to mix the eggnog with 2% milk so it's not too sweet.  In fact it's just right.  And gone.

Everything seems to be moving a bit faster this autumn.  I heard on the radio this morning that Crystal Mountain is opening today for skiing and Mt. Baker will be open tomorrow.  Snow is falling in the county near the Canadian border and is expected in other outlying areas this weekend.  I don't believe we'll be getting any here although the forecast is for snow mixed with rain.  It's not nearly cold enough.  It does look like we're getting a cold snap early next week though. 

Because of the 5 o'clock football game yesterday the commute home on the trail was a bit challenging since many people were taking advantage of the trail to walk to the game.  I did manage to avoid hitting anyone and considering the obvious pre-game alcohol consumption of a few rowdy groups I believe I deserve some sort of recognition.  I had set the game to record so that I would be able to take Tinkerbell for her walk and have a shower before watching the game.  Mr. M was gone all day and I couldn't NOT take her out.  And another bonus - I could speed through all the pre-game blah blah and commercials and get right to the game.  And hoorah! they won!  If they can win the last two games they most likely will get a bowl game.  I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice for a change.

I had an epiphany about my convertible mittens.  I wore the cashmere ones while I was out walking Tink.  It was very cold and I wanted to keep my bike jacket on because it's reflective, but it has no pockets.  I had one hand closed up as a mitten and the other open so I could deal with picking up the deposits, etc.  I noticed that the twist was even more pronounced after wearing the mittens and part way through the walk my fingers started poking out through the palm.  It wasn't just that the flap needs to be bigger but it was the twist because of the thumb gusset.  So while I was knitting the current pair last night I got to thinking about that.  I had put all of the thumb gusset on the palm needle and then replaced the original 5 stitches back onto that needle.  With this current pair I have decided to distribute the thumb gusset equally between the two needles.  That should take care of the twist.  I'm excited now to try out my theory.  I've got the first 4 rounds of the gusset increases done.  It's a little slower going on the size 3 needles but I should be able to finish up the thumbs and more this weekend.  Not much tonight, since we have to go to Mr. M's mom and dad's for dinner.  I'll have some time Saturday before rehearsal.

18 November, 2010

Learning the hard way. Again.

Here's what I learned:  Put the rain gear on if rain is forecast for the day and it's currently sprinkling.  Even though the sky looks lighter in the direction you are going.  It is better to have the gear on and not need it than arrive at work soaking wet to the skin.  Thankfully I have dry running pants, socks and shirt I can put on to get home but my gloves are another matter.  Not only that, I am sitting here with wet hair and wearing wet tights.  The tights I wore under my bike pants because it is rather chilly.  I don't have an extra pair of tights.  I am just keeping my fingers crossed I don't catch my death of cold.

I did the finishing on the first pair of convertible mitts yesterday evening.  I should have taken pictures.  They are not perfect but I will be able to wear them and the next pair will be perfect.  I cast on for another pair on size 3 needles with the sock yarn again.  While the stitch counts are different the basic pattern is the same.  I need to do a few things differently though.  For the pairs that I knit in DK weight yarn on size 6 needles I either need to use a smaller needle for the 2x2 ribbing at the cuff or switch to 1x1.  It doesn't seem to matter with the sock yarn on size 3 needles if I do 2x2 ribbing but the other was too loose.  Also, I think I need to cast on 5 stitches when I have finished knitting the thumb gusset and putting the thumb stitches on waste yarn.  Otherwise, if you increase those five stitches evenly across the palm the mitt is twisted a little bit.  So that leads me to believe that the increase has to be in the same spot the original 5 stitches were taken.  I need to make the palm side ribbing for the top just a little bit longer.  Adding the two stitches on each side worked to make a little overlap and I was able to sew it down so it didn't show.  On this next pair I will make it a bit longer and if I replace the five stitches at the thumb I don't think it will show on the back of the hand.  And also with this pair I want to find a better way to do the decreases to close up the mitten.  I don't want it to be so pointed as the other pair.

Big football game tonight.  And indeed Jake Locker is going to be able to play his last home game.  Thankfully we're not playing a really great team, so maybe they will win. 

17 November, 2010

Very close

I am SO close to finishing the convertible mittens and they are JUST what I was looking for.  They fit perfectly -- at least they fit me perfectly which at this point is all that matters.  I believe I solved the problem of the mitten top overlap but I won't know until I start the finishing.  I am going to have to be crafty in sewing the little tabs down on the corners.  If I can be tidy about it the join should be invisible.  My only concern with these is that they are 100% cashmere and I suspect they're going to pill.  But they are so very soft and warm.  I'll just deal with it.

It is a work at home day for me today.  Mr. M is going to be taking off soon for a job and the cleaners are busy.  Soon it will be quiet and clean and I can work.  It is not a very nice day but at least it's not pouring rain.  Tomorrow I have to bike to work no matter what because there is going to be a football game at 5 pm, televised by ESPN and parking is severely limited and buses, although free, will be jammed..  This, of course, was set up way back when the Huskies were supposed to be winning everything.  Now it's just another public humiliation on a grand and national scale.  Jake Locker has been pleading with his doctors to let him play -- his last home game -- with his cracked ribs.  I haven't had time to read the sports page yet.  I sure hope he can play, for his sake and the teams.

16 November, 2010

Winter is sneaking up on us

My iPhone weather app, Yahoo weather, shows six days -- the current day and then an extended forecast.  You can put several cities in there so I can see what the weather is like in places I would like to be, places I will be in the near future, places where my friends are, etc.  The interesting thing I've noticed this morning is that we are forecast rain mixed with snow this weekend.  Brrrrrrr ...

Last week I finished up my audio book of Sarah Dunant's latest called "Sacred Hearts".  The narrator was just wonderful and the story also very good.  I love her books and I think this one is my favorite.  True love wins out in this one, not the Catholic church.  The one I am listening to now is very different. It's John Grisham's latest called "The Confession".  I was listening to it on Sunday while I was out walking Tinkerbell and it was so sad I started crying!  I wonder if I would have had the same reaction if I was reading rather than listening. 

It was a very stressful dog walking session.  Besides being charged at by a big dog, a woman started tapping on her window when Tink did a little piddle on the corner of her yard.  "Don't let your dog do its business in my yard"!! she hollered from her door.  I was taken aback and told her that I would never do that, it was just a little piddle!   And we kept on walking.  Then a minute or so later she came rushing after me to explain that she wasn't a mean person.  It was just that someone was not picking up after their dog and she had found three large messes when she went to do some gardening a few days ago.   But she could see that Tink was much too small to leave such a large mess.  I just wanted to get away from her.

While watching one of the most unusual and record breaking Monday night football games last night I was working on the convertible mittens.  I finished up the mitt part, broke the yarn and cast on for the ribbing for the part of the mitten that is palm-side.  I got distracted by the game and messed up the ribs.  It's going to be too obvious to call a design element so I'm going to rip the few rows out and start over at lunch time today.  I would like to get the ribbing done and get a good bit knit up on the mitten part tonight.  I want to finish these this week so I can write up the pattern and make another pair.

15 November, 2010

It was really really nice

Just a fabulous look weekend!  Even the weather cooperated.  Wednesday night started the party with a nice dinner out at a restaurant I've been wanting to try for a while.  I had the duck, which was very very good.  Unfortunately I don't eat things that rich very often and I did not sleep well at all.  In fact I was awake from 1 am until after 4.  I did get to sleep in a bit Thursday morning, but not too long because I had a couple of stops to make before the spa appointment at 12:30.  First there was the yarn shop to check out their sale -- I bought a couple of magazines and a couple of skeins of yarn but nothing on sale.  Then out to Tuesday Morning just for fun -- got out of there quite cheaply as well.  Then it was off to the spa.  I could have been a better experience.  It was nice and I got a great scrub but it wasn't as relaxing as I had hoped because it was very busy.  There are signs posted everywhere saying that you are supposed to speak only in whispers but people just ignore it.  The pool room has a waterfall into a cool pool, then three other pools of varying heat where the ladies soak before the scrubs or moisturizing or just to soak.  So you can imagine when all of the pools are full of yapping women and the sound is echoing off the tile floor and walls and the waterfall is making noise ... gah!  It was really getting to me.  Of course, by the time I was done with my scrub it was nice and quiet there.  Next time I make an appointment I'm going to make sure I don't come at the busiest time of the day.

My nephews arrived that evening around 9:30 so I didn't get much time to knit that evening before I had to go pick them up.  We stayed up until we were all three starting to fall asleep in front of the TV.  We had a big day Friday to look forward to so we all went to bed around midnight.  Unfortunately I woke up WAY too early because Mr. M had to get up at 4 am for a job in Tacoma and I never really got back to deep sleep.  The boys slept in a bit and after breakfast we went out to shop for the birthday party we were having that night for my eldest nephew.  We went to the mall and the party store and Best Buy and finally the grocery store.  By then we were starving so we had some Pho then headed back home so I could get dinner started.  Because I had a bad night Wednesday night and hadn't gotten caught up Thursday I was dragging Friday afternoon and oh, I truly wanted a nap.  But one thing led to another and I just couldn't fit it in. 

So I had a house full starting at 6 and we had a fun party.  I asked my nephew what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he chose meatloaf!  Well that was easy enough and everybody likes meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  We had a yummy cake and everyone had a great time.  And we stayed up way too late.  Again.

Saturday I took all three nephews out to lunch at FX McRory's, then we had to run a few errands.  That evening was a major boxing match on PayPerView that we all wanted to watch.  The oldest nephew had to take one of his children to a party after lunch so we left him to it and did our errands.  I was able to get a one hour lay down that afternoon while the two guys were watching football but I didn't really sleep.  The boxing was great and we watched in the theatre.  The picture was sometimes a little TOO good.  You could really see some gory details.  And we stayed up way too late.  Again.

I managed to sleep in until maybe 9 on Sunday.  Mr. M hadn't gotten home until 3 or 4 am so he was going to sleep late as were the boys.  Although they did manage to get up in time to start watching the first football games.  The red zone is perfect for fantasy football because you can see all the teams.  Oh.  And the Seahawks won!  I lost my fantasy matchup but what else is new.  I had managed to put off my rehearsal to Sunday afternoon.  I was able to do a little knitting in between cleaning up from the weekend and football but I had to finally say goodbye at 3 and dash off to rehearsal, leaving Mr. M to take them to the airport while I was gone.

Rehearsal went okay.  We are all feeling a sense of urgency since our gig is coming up on the 27th.  Maybe 3 more rehearsals and a ton of work to do.  I was so exhausted though I could barely make it through.  We went until 6:30 then I was out of there.  I wanted to just relax, do a little knitting and go to bed early.  I was in bed before 9:30 and I truly believe I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.  And I woke up feeling fantastic!  I needed sleep and it was sweet and deep.  I did wake up a couple times for water.  Mr. M had ordered Chinese food while I was gone and since I was not in the mood to cook I was glad for it, but it made me thirsty.  And then of course while I was awake I started thinking about all the lyrics I have yet to memorize.  But I managed to put that to the back of my mind and fall back to sleep.

Even though I never really had a good chunk of time to knit this weekend I did manage to finish the thumb gusset and start on the hand part of the convertible mittens.  I want to make these ones work since I'm using cashmere and I'm not about to waste it.  I made a little error last night when I started the ribbing directly after the thumb gusset was finished.  I am going to call it a design element.  It was only a couple of rows and in fact it might help the fit. No one will know that I didn't mean to do it.  I sure want to finish those early this week.  I have so many things I want to make!!

10 November, 2010

Happy Fri-Wednesday

Yay!  The end of the short week.  I sure am looking forward to spending time with my  nephews.  And a spa day tomorrow to look forward to as well as a nice dinner out tonight.  All I have to do is make it through the day.

It started off cold, that's for sure.  As I was pulling out of the driveway on my bike the man across the street was scraping frost off his windshield!  There wasn't any ice along side the road or trail, thank goodness.  But I'm a little chilly still.  I should have brought a long sleeved top for work today rather than this short sleeved one, but it's usually so stuffy and warm in my closet. 

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me at home last night.  A couple weeks ago DBNY was having a sale on their grab bags.  I think it was left over stock from a yarn store buy out.  I thought I'd give it a shot and wow!  Totally worth the $25.  I think I got something like a dozen skeins.  Two skeins of several colors, and a few singles.  And the colors they picked out were great for me.  The patterns weren't anything much on first glance and a pair of long size 2 needles, pretty much useless for me.  But it was a great surprise.

Noon knitting today and I'm still slogging through the Cloisonne Jacket.  I am half way through the stranded color work.  I am able to do two or three rows in the hour we spend on Wednesdays.  I have so many other WIPs at home, I don't want to take it there or it'll get lost with the Shining Birds Eye shawl and the blue Green Gables and  ... oh! the white Simple Knitted Bodice that I haven't touched for a year.  Not to mention now I'm all gung ho on these convertible mittens.  I worked a bit on the cashmere ones last night.  I hope to be able to get some good work on them tomorrow.

I'm craving scrambled eggs.  Tough luck for me since our cafeteria doesn't make scrambled eggs.  I'll have to settle for oat meal or a scone.  Hmmmm ....

09 November, 2010

If at first you don't succeed

I finished up my first pair of convertible mittens last night during the football game (no money this week).  They are not perfect and not even wearable - by me anyway.  I started the decreases for the mitten top too early so the flap is not long enough, leaving a gap at the palm.  I have a couple of design changes in mind and will scrap that pair.  I would frog them but I ended the mitten part with an I-cord and finished one of them, sewing the I-cord end inside the mitten and stitching the ribbing inside the hand.   I think it would be much more of a hassle than it's worth.  I'll just scrap them.  I do have enough of that sock yarn to make another pair, easily.  My next pair is going to be on size six needles with the pure cashmere I made my bandit out of a few months ago.

It was raining this morning.  I was just going upstairs to put on my rain pants and my booties that my wonderful friend gave me after we biked in the pouring rain during the month of May.  But before I did that I checked once more and it had stopped.  I hate wearing those rain pants so I just said the heck with it and took off.  But of course it started raining again.  It wasn't so bad but I'm going to put my rain gear back into my panniers and leave it there.  I took it out earlier this summer because I needed extra room but it's time to put them where they belong.

I am getting so excited about my nephews visit!  And I made an appointment for a spa visit on Thursday afternoon.  It's been a while and I've been craving a massage.  A visit to the Olympus spa is just what the doctor ordered.  It's women only.  I like to do the body scrub - a massage plus you end up soft as a baby.  Ahhhhhh can't wait.

08 November, 2010

Unbelievable but true

The football was even worse that I had imagined.  Just awful.  I didn't really have much  hope for the Huskies going up against the number one team in the nation with a back up quarterback.  And since I had slept in late on Saturday I decided to just put off doing the errands until Sunday and take it easy.  Mr. M had to leave for a show so Tink and I had the house nice and quiet to ourselves.  After breakfast and cleaning up we went for our walk and then I settled in with my convertible mittens to knit on and the football game to watch.  And actually the Huskies did better than expected for the first half.  So I kept watching.  They were tied 3-3, but when they came back from the half the Ducks, who are famous for making adjustments during the half, came out and just ran all over us.  I switched off the torture.

Rehearsal was pretty good.  I felt much better than I had last weekend and the number of songs that we are really clicking on are growing, plus the new guy is fitting in nicely.  And bonus -- it was turn back the clock night so I got home at 10:30 but had an extra hour to de-stress and so I had a nice evening of "Saturday Night Live" and a couple martinis. 

I was up and out so early on Sunday even though I tried to sleep in.  And because I'm so used to running errands on Saturday, when I got to the salon it was closed.  They don't open until 11 on Sunday.  So off I went to the mall -- but same story.  Doh!  So I went to the grocery store and shopped slowly until I could get to the mall, then the salon and home in time to get dinner into the slow cooker, laundry going and settle in to watch the Seahawks.  I love my RedZone from Dish network, now that I finally figured out that it is over at 5 pm, so I was watching that and keeping track of my fantasy team.  Which -- erghghgh -- so I got these new guys who were KILLING last week and this week ... pft.  Nada.  I have one player in tonight's game and he's going to have to go crazy for me to win.  Not going to happen.  Anyway ... so the Seahawks were playing the Giants and we have just run over them the last few times they've played here.  This time?  Not so much.  We had our back up quarterback in and he couldn't connect with the receivers and the Giants offense was just running all over us, not the mention their defense picking off our quarterback.  We gave that game away.  It was pitiful.  I couldn't watch it.

I did very well with my convertible mittens.  I got the mitt part done and a few rows done on the mitten part.  I wish I had done a couple rows of ribbing when I started working on the covered part but I was so anxious to see if it was going to work.  This is my prototype anyway.  Next I will perfect the pattern with worsted weight yarn on size 6 needles and then do one last pair on size 3 needles and then I should be able to put the pattern on Ravelry.  And I'll have a few new pairs of convertible mittens. 

Short week this week.  Thursday is a holiday and my nephews are coming in from California for a visit.  I will take Friday off for a vacation day so I can spend as much time as possible with them.  I am making a party Friday night for my other nephew's birthday so it's going to be a busy weekend, but fun fun fun!

05 November, 2010

I had a great day yesterday

It was going to be a beautiful and sunny day.  I could tell even in the wee dawn light -- plus it had been forecast as such.  Mr. M had a show and was going to be gone from 8 am until 10 pm.  I had nothing at the office that I couldn't do from home so I decided, at 6:30 am, to work from home.  Knowing that the weekend is going to be cold and wet, I figured this would be the perfect (and only) time to get the vegetable beds cleaned up, tomato cages put away, pea vine sticks also stowed and maybe put together a couple of planters for the new patio.  I was outside by 8 am and make quick work of the vegetable bed clean out.  I didn't go crazy - just got the big stuff and cut down the blackberry vines crawling over from the neighbor's yard. 

I got on the computer and did a little work work and then dashed out to run some errands during lunch -- early lunch actually since I had been up and going so early.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any plants to put in the planters.  I wanted maybe some autumn pansies and some decorative cabbage.  Obviously I went to the wrong places.  I didn't really want to take the time to go to a full blown garden store but maybe I can do that this weekend.  I also made a quick run through Costco, just because it was a weekday morning and I knew it wouldn't be crowded and I thought maybe they might have some odd plants.  They didn't but I did pick up the Blu-Ray version of Toy Story 3 .. with digital copy.  I love the digital copy.  I know it's crazy small but watching movies on my iPhone is just so fun.

It was so nice and clean and quiet and sunny.  I had finished my Coquille shawl the night before so I tossed it in the washer and blocked it in the afternoon.  Here it is drying on the guest bed.  You can't even tell that I made that mistake unless you carefully count the points.   I was quite keen to cast on for the convertible mittens, which I did and got about 2 inches of ribbing done.  I meant to bring them in to work with me so I could do some at lunch but I forgot.  I did wear this today but frankly it's not that cold for such a heavy scarf.

It is going to be a very bad football weekend, I already know for sure.  First of all the Huskies are playing the Ducks, who are ranked number 1 in the nation.  We haven't been playing all that well and now it's going to be even worse because we're using the backup quarterback.  Jake Locker's bruised ribs turned into cracked ribs and now, broken so he can't play.  The Seahawks are playing the Giants and although they are here at home Matt Hasselbeck was concussed last weekend and is not cleared to play.  We have a pretty good back up quarterback but he hasn't had much real playing time.  Hopefully  my fantasy team will do well this weekend.

03 November, 2010

Dinner fail

I thought I'd try something new last night.  Not huge, just a different preparation for some squash.  Rather than peel it and cube it and steam it I thought I'd bake it.  I typically bake Acorn squash and this was just a big chunk of Hubbard and there's no reason I couldn't bake it, right?  Well, turns out I was wrong.  What I should have done is cut it up and roasted it like I do when I make roasted vegetables.  It wouldn't get done and wouldn't get done so I turned the oven up to cook the fish in hopes that the squash would finish cooking as well.  Okay, everyone reading this already  knows what happened, right?  The bottom of the squash burned and the flesh refused to cook.  Well no matter, I had a good bit of Trader Joe's marinated Ahi tuna and their lovely roasted vegetables in balsamic sauce and some lovely bread.  For some reason or other the fish was mushy(!) and therefore inedible as far as I was concerned and the vegetables were not hot.  But at that point I was so disgusted with myself I ate the tepid vegetables, took a couple bites of fish and called it dinner.  Ick.  I hate it when I mess up dinner.  I can't eat Mr. M's cooking at all so it's up to me and when I mess up such a simple meal it puts me in a very very bad mood.  In fact, I'm still upset about it.  I could be crazier than I think.

I did figure out the problem with the stitch count for the Coquille shawl/scarf.  I misread the pattern and therefore did only six repeats of the motifs rather than six MORE.  So what I am doing now is more of the smaller motif as I decrease 4 stitches each repeat.  It is going to mean that one side of the thing is longer than the other but since I'm not going to be using it as a shawl anyway it won't make any difference.  Design element.  I still haven't finished it though.  Hopefully tonight.

I'm hungry.

02 November, 2010

Back in the bike saddle again

Despite the warnings for a particularly nasty and early winter, the weather is still quite mild and since we haven't turned our clocks back yet, the mornings are pretty dark as well.  We will have lighter mornings starting this coming Saturday but again it won't be long before it's dark and treacherous.  I haven't been out there on the trail for more than a week so I was a bit surprised by how many big patches of wet leaves there are now.  It helps smooth out the bumps.

Despite my best intentions and working an hour at lunchtime and during the football game last night, I still haven't finished the Coquille.  Plus my stitch count is way off!  I don't know how that happened exactly but I'm going to have to figure it out at lunchtime today and then maybe I can finish it up tonight.  I want to get started on those convertible mittens.

My nephews are coming to visit for a long weekend - arriving next Thursday evening and leaving Sunday evening.  My other nephew that lives up here is having a birthday on Tuesday so hopefully I can make a little party at my house for everyone on Friday.  Thursday is a holiday for us so I'll take the Friday as well and have myself a nice long weekend too!  I'd probably be better off taking the Monday but I can't.

My fantasy team just took a big hit - Randy Moss was let go from the Vikings.  He was put on waivers and that means that, starting with the lowest ranking team, he can be picked up from the Vikings for the amount of his contract - something around 6 million I believe.  He hasn't been producing much and I really wanted to get rid of him and nearly had a trade done before they dropped that bombshell.  But who knows, maybe he'll get picked up from a team that can get the ball to him and he can score some points for me.  So far he has been a huge dud.

01 November, 2010

Another horrible football weekend

The little party Friday evening was quite nice and we stayed for a couple of hours.  I went right to bed when we got home, I was so tired!  I didn't sleep - couldn't sleep.  Which is so annoying.  I was just exhausted but I couldn't fall asleep.  I ended up reading and messing with my iPhone until I finally drifted off. 

Saturdays are more like work days, especially when there's a rehearsal at 7 pm.  I got up and out early enough so that I was able to walk and wash Tinkerbell and, as planned, spend a couple of hours on my fancy shawl.  It is coming along but now I am really quite anxious to finish up the Coquille so that I can make some convertible mittens to go with it.  I was thinking last week that I really need another pair of fingerless mitts since the ones I made a couple years ago are getting kind of ratty.  I thought it would be more useful to make mittens that convert to fingerless mitts but I couldn't find a pattern that I liked.  None of them are written to be done on two circulars and they all without exception make you knit through the palm with waste yarn and then go back and pick up those stitches to make the mitts.  I got to thinking that if one were to make them on two circulars that whole mess could be avoided.  So I am going to make my own pattern using the other two balls of Noro sock yarn I have and write it up and put it on Ravelry.  I need to finish that project first though because I have too many balls in the air as it is.

Rehearsal was good, mostly, but tempers flared near the end.  All of us except Doug, the leader, think we need more dance music.  When people come out to hear a band, especially a new one, they are not looking to see a concert.  They want to dance. Also, everyone but him wants to play in clubs and bars and he wants to only do parties.  He doesn't realize that in a party situation especially people don't want to hear slow tunes, they want to dance.  I am conflicted about what to do about it.  I have to do the gig on the 27th but after that ... I just don't know. 

Football this weekend was a travesty.  The Huskies were shut out at home for the first time in ... what? 50 years or more?  It was ugly.  The Seahawks went to Oakland and the Raiders kicked their collective butts to the tune of 33 to 3.  And my fantasy ... I managed to pick up two awesome players last week but instead of starting them, I let them sit on the bench because I thought my current line up was pretty sweet.  Ends up my bench out performed my players buy a lot.  SO annoying!  Let's cross our fingers that I win something tonight, although with those numbers it's not too likely.