Oh what's better than a good yarn bargain??

Yes okay sure, there are a few things better but .... I just had some spectacular luck on Friday. First of all it was gorgeous outside (and continues to be so -- supposed to be up close to 80 today and tomorrow). We have all been working so hard and such long hours and I had a free afternoon. So with the chairman's blessing I took off early. I needed to get some shampoo for the doggie and thought I'd swing by Tuesday Morning since people had been talking about a yarn sale there. Usually it's just junk but it never hurts to look. I found two skeins of Elsabeth Lavold Angora in a nice teal color that my friend Kate likes. Perfect to knit something for her. Nice yarn, too. Also earlier that day I snagged two skeins of Artyarns Beaded Silk at Yarnzilla for half price! An incredible turquoise color that I need to find the perfect lacy pattern for. And finally I got 12 skeins of Noro Cash Iroha in a beautiful lavender on eBay for less than half price. I am thinking I might use that for the Cascade Cables Pullover instead of the Seta Lana that I have started with because I think the Seta Lana is just a little too bulky. Well .... I'll have to (gulp) swatch. And also I am going to have to take some time and update my stash pictures for Ravelry. I am behind.

Saturday I did get my felting done, as well as my nails and grocery shopping for the dinner on Sunday. I was using S's top loader at the old house and I had never used it before for felting so I ended up having to run the thing twice. If I had been there I could have checked it during the cycle and just let it run longer, but ... oh well. The hat turned out perfect although I am not all that keen on the colors. The bag will be fine and useful when the handles are on it. I wish it had felted up a little tighter but it's fine. Great colors.

Saturday night was torture - the quarterback of the Huskies broke his thumb and although the second stringer did okay, it was not good enough to win. The Seahawks had a bye week. The weather cooperated and I got some good time in the garden on Sunday. The vegetables are all done and I cleaned out the beds except for the tomatoes. They will still be ripening for a while yet. The dinner was fine and I am looking forward to a quiet couple of evenings now. I am done with company for a while.

Hooray for the end of the week!

I am just so ready for the weekend. I have been exhausted all week and yesterday was just SO busy. All I want to do when I get home is collapse. I am going to sleep in tomorrow! I have all of the errands I never got around to last weekend to take care of but at least I won't have to get out of bed at 6 in the morning and maybe I'll even get to take a nap. I am quite anxious to get the bag and hat felted and I'll do that Saturday while my car is getting it's jiffy lube and I'm getting a manicure and stuff. The Husky football game isn't on until 7 pm so I'll have all day to do my things and shop, etc. and then relax and watch football (until it gets too painful). We're having a dinner for S's son on Sunday. He's going away to school Monday morning. And besides cooking and baking on Sunday I have GOT to get into the garden. I've not had time to do it the past couple of weeks and it needs some TLC.

I worked only a little on my peacock scarf last night. It's nearly done and I have to start thinking about what I'm going to pick up next. Maybe I'll get back to working on the Cable Cascade Pullover. I put it away when it got warm and now may be the time to pick that up again. .... or not.

Happy autumn

Oooo boy did I feel the difference today! I was cold on the way in to work! My ride starts off down hill and the wind on my hands ... wow. My fingers were numb by the time I made it down to the water and I had to stop and put on some little glove liners over my riding gloves. It hurt.

Had a super SUPER busy weekend and while I did get some good knitting done, in fact I'm almost done with the hat, I just couldn't bring myself to go out of the house on Sunday and go do the felting. In fact I fell asleep at 4 and slept until 7, then went to bed at 10 and forgot to turn on my alarm and slept until 7 in the morning with S's alarm went off! Now that's tired. Worn out. Lots of company with 3 little girls sleeping over both Friday and Saturday nights and then we had a family housewarming on Saturday afternoon/evening. The big bathtub finally got broken in. I know, it's hard to believe that I've resisted getting into that lovely tub but it's been just so hot! I haven't felt like a bath. Those little girls really loved it though, especially when I turned on the jets and whipped the bubbles up into a froth. That bathtub reminds me a lot of a bathtub a friend of mine had in Paris, although his didn't have jets.

I have a balance on my Paypal account that's eating away at me. I want to splurge on some really fancy yarn -- maybe Artyarns Beaded Silk. But I can't make up my mind so I'm going to let it go for now.

Work is just so busy -- yesterday I didn't even come up for air all day. I wolfed down my lunch in a few minutes around 1 and kept on going. Hopefully today it'll calm down a bit.

Genius!!

I have fallen in love with my iPhone all over again! While I was home sick on Tuesday I took the opportunity to download the updated iTunes and the updated software for my iPhone [which, as an unfortunately side effect, lost all of the music and I had to RE-load it which took practically the entire day]. The new software has a "Genius Playlist" function. What this is, besides pure genius, is a way for you to make a 25 song playlist based upon a song you like. How many times have you put your iPhone or iPod on shuffle and it just wasn't playing what you were in the mood for? Now you can pick a particular song you'd like to hear, hit the Genius button and it comes up with 24 little friends to match your mood. I absolutely LOVE it!! I had that thing plugged into my ears most all of yesterday. I highly recommend it if you haven't taken the time to download the software yet. It is really really cool.

Things that annoy me - there are plenty of them, sure. I'm a crabby kind of person I guess. No ... no wait, I think I'm just sensitive. Yeah. And truth be told I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who get annoyed at these types of things, just like I do. Plenty! So here's what is bugging me today -- the crazy over-protective state we find ourselves in. I'm not talking just about government regulating who can smoke where. Even though I'm a non-smoker I think it's just insane that a bar can't be designated a smoking place and if you don't want the smoke, don't go there. But I don't want to get off on that rant ... here's the deal. We have detour signs on the bike trail because they're fixing the places where tree roots have pushed up the pavement. I took the detour yesterday morning and it was ridiculous and dangerous and, yes, annoying! On the way home, realizing that I could bike 1/2 a mile out of my way when I was maybe 25 yards from my exit from the trail, I got off my bike and walked up to the barrier and looked. Hmmm ... nothing. So I pushed my bike around the barrier and went up a little ways to the bend in the trail and sure enough there was a patch of maybe 12 feet. Right in front of my exit. Now I had just seen a jogger come through there so I knew there was no reason I couldn't go through. So I pushed my bike along the dirt next to the pristine tar and that was that. This morning the signs were still there but I just totally ignored them and rode on through. You could see that was what quite a few other people had done as well. I mean ... it was hard when I went home last night! Who are they protecting??

I am just SO glad this week is over. I was so tired yesterday when I got home. I finished up the i-cord bind off for the Trellis Tote. As a side note, if I hadn't known how to make i-cord I would have been totally lost in the directions. She doesn't tell you to put the three stitches back onto the left needle after you knit them. It makes a lovely bind off though. So I got that done and started the hat. No pictures of the hat, but here's the bag pre-felted, obviously.

The strange laws of yarn

Yesterday afternoon at noon knitting I was working on the Trellis Tote and didn't really feel like that last skein of Kureyon was going to make it through the whole 6th row of the windows. Since I was still a bit under the weather I had driven in so I stopped at the LYS on the way home to get another skein just in case. And while I was there I picked up two more skeins for the hat AND a flat topped hat form. You know what that means though, don't you? Because I managed to find and buy a skein in the same dye lot I made it through that sixth row of windows with about 12 inches of yarn to spare. Not that I mind having an extra [hah, is yarn ever extra? It's like extra money .. no such thing] skein of Kureyon hanging about. I gave some serious thought to extending the bag two more series like the pattern suggests, but after taking a look at it again this morning I have decided that no, I don't want it to be that tall. I'm going to start the hat at lunchtime today. I will be going to Bothell for some grooming on Sunday so I could easily stop at the DH's old house which still has a working washing machine, top loader, that will work just fine.

We're having another open house this weekend for family since they weren't able to attend the last one due to a wedding [which we weren't invited to]. The weather has been absolutely heavenly lately but clouded up this morning and we're predicted to have rain just like the last one! No matter. I'm going to make some chili and we'll do brats on the grill and S can put up the canopy again. It's kind of cosy. Don't like all the wet being tracked through the house but oh well ....

I've got the itis!!

Startitis, that is. Not finished with the scarf, nor the socks, nor the Sizzle but I had to start the Trellis Tote. I had finished up my first punch card at my LYS and had that burning a hole in my pocket so I trotted up there Friday afternoon and purchased a couple skeins of Noro Kureyon and some Lamb's Pride Worsted for the trellis part of the bag, and also more Lamb's Pride to make my nephew's "Where's Waldo" hat. I hadn't read the tote pattern before I went up but had pretty much decided that I remembered the yarn amounts. But I goofed up. Lucky for me I had some gorgeous green Lamb's Pride at home in the stash so rather than use the black I had purchased I am using the green, and instead of 8 rows of windows, this tote is going to have six, which I think will actually be better. I am not going to put the felted handles on this one, but I have some purse handles that one of my Secret Pals sent last year which I think would be great. I also want to make the flap version with the felted handles (and grommets!) so I will need to get more yarn for that eventually. First though I am going to use the black Lamb's Pride I got to make a Trellis Toque. I need to find one of those had blocking things because with this pattern it is essential to block it so it's flat on top to get the proper look. Won't it be cute?

I got hit with what I can only guess is some little virus so I have been down and out the past couple days with a terrible sore throat and aches. I came in Monday but left after lunch and was in bed all day yesterday. I did a little work and downloaded new software for my iPhone which, again, erased all my music so almost the entire day was spent with me on the couch snoozing while the iPhone got filled back up again. I also bought the last season (5) of the Ricky Gervais Show and an episode of Saturday Night Live. I love my iPhone.

The Strange Workout Guy

He was on the trail this morning. I haven't seen him for a while, but there he was today walking backwards and clapping his hands. Step, clap, step, clap, step, clap. So strange.

My zucchini plant is dying rapidly and now it looks as if the pumpkin has caught whatever it is and it's on it's way out as well! I looked on the internet this morning and as close as I can tell, it's Verticillium Wilt. I am going to take both plants out this weekend. Maybe I can put in some cool weather vegetables. I was rather looking forward to the pumpkins but it's not going to happen.

I finally took some pictures of the gorgeous yarn I bought at the fair and a close up of the scarf I am knitting from it. The colors aren't really as neon as this picture came out. This yarn is SO soft And I think I'll have some left over after I get the scarf to five feet. Maybe I'll make a hat to go with it.

Yay for Wednesday

Noon knitting - my favorite lunchtime. Today I brought my peacock tail scarf to knit on. I truly intended to take pictures but completely blew it and I didn't have time this morning to snap any. I need to post pictures of my finished Trellis Shawl and also a WIP of the scarf. I didn't knit last night because after reading the paper and making dinner it was time to watch that new show "Fringe" and we don't really have a knitting light per se in the theater yet so I just relaxed and enjoyed the show. It's not "Lost" but it could be good.

The weather has been astonishingly gorgeous this week. As I come down the hill to the trail I am blinded by the sun coming off the water on these sunny days. That won't last much longer, so I don't mind it at all. This morning, 7:30, there was someone water skiing as I was biking by. Very picturesque. Oh and the mountain ... so beautiful. I'm trying to save up these pleasant memories because I know I'm going to be cursing the ride and the weather in the future.

Hah .... I never learn. I thought I'd try one more time to find that magic, easy way up the hill. I thought if I went on the trail three more blocks to the 100th St. exit, then biked to 103rd and went west up the hill to 48th from there that it would be easier than going up 97th to 49th. On my way in Tuesday morning it looked to me that the hill from 49th down to the trail was shorter and less steep than 97th. Not so. Optical illusion. I couldn't make it.

The little tomato plant in my garden is just exploding with ripe tomatoes. They are SO tasty! I can't imagine what we would have done had the last owner not taken two of the plants. I guess everyone I know would be getting baskets of tomatoes. Next year though, bigger ones. No beans or zucchini. I've never tried to grown vegetables other than tomatoes but I think next year I'll try to grown some lettuce and carrots as well as tomatoes and corn and then grown the herbs in pots on the deck. I guess we'll see how I feel about it in the spring.

Crrrazy busy!

Wow, it has been SO busy! And stressful. Not a good combination by any means. I am hoping by the end of the week things will have calmed down a bit.

The weekend was good and bad. Football = bad. Can't talk about it much but I can say two words -- robbed and beaten. One describes the game on Saturday and the other the Sunday game. Pitiful.

But the weather was absolutely stunning this weekend and we went to the Puyallup Fair! I haven't been to the fair in years and years. I saw the grange exhibits, which I just love! All that produce arranged in a pleasing way. ;-) I wanted to see the knitting but never did find it, nor the quilts. But I did see some amazing collections. For example - not kidding here - a collection of sprinkler heads. Too much. We shared an onion burger, and each had a scone. I did want a corn dog but I just didn't have enough room! We found the beer garden. My DH did find enough room in his stomach for a turkey leg, which he ate during our second stop in the beer garden. And oh the people. Heavens - that's what it's all about. People watching. A slice of Americana. I managed to sniff out the yarn and bought 220 yards of some absolutely gorgeous mohair in peacock colors! I immediately started a scarf with a feather and fan pattern and it's like a peacock tail. Lovely.

Sunday was laundry and laundry and laundry and knitting and football. I had been so busy last week I had let all of the laundry pile up and it took me most of the day to get the pile back down again. I don't mind it though because I can be knitting and doing laundry and feeling like I'm accomplishing something besides being self indulgent.

It's nice to get to the place ....

where my favorite go-to cardigan is one I knit myself! In fact I have two that are at the top of my list and both of them I made. I think I'm finally growing up as a knitter and knitting things that I can actually wear (usually) and not just things that look cool in the pictures, which is what I did a lot when I first started out. I still haven't decided which project to start next. I just worked on the socks a bit last night.

I want to be disciplined and finish that Sizzle before I start anything else. There's not much work left to do on it, it's just the dividing of that last ball of yarn in the body dye lot. I need to spend some time with the pattern and figure out where I left off, then do some measuring and probably a few more rows with increases (or decreases ....). Anyway, once I figure that out I can measure the yarn very carefully and with a little luck get the front done in the same dye lot and use the other stuff I got for the trim. But see .. it's a daunting project and I have to be in the mood. That very picky, precise mood.

I have found the route, corroborated by a couple other cyclists yesterday morning and evening. My instincts were correct - to get off Sandpoint Way as much as possible. I don't think that the ride home, up the hill, is really any easier but at least it's off the busy street as much as possible and it seems shorter. That's what counts. And it is definitely safer.

1 Project = 1 Lesson

With a nice long weekend to knit I finished up the Trellis Shawl. I sewed the little sleeves onto it last night. Short story - I sewed the sleeves one right side and one wrong side. To take the wrong one apart would be next to impossible. I was so furious at myself I almost threw the thing across the room. It's not obvious because of the boucle yarn. But I know it's that way. My problem was that I couldn't tell the right side from the wrong! I had to look very closely to find where I had woven in ends to ascertain which was the wrong side. But I goofed up anyway. Lesson learned - always mark the wrong side of a garment if it's not obvious. All that work ... errrghghghg. I'll still probably wear it but I'll always know and I won't wear it in public.

I don't know what project I'm going to start next. I do have the Sizzle to finish and as usual a pair of socks on the needles that I'm quite anxious to finish so I can use my Noro sock yarn. I should start some gifts. I have a couple ideas and I was looking through my One Skein book and the Knitted Little Luxuries and even the Scarf book. There is a pair of fingerless mitts that might be nice made out of some gorgeous angora and mohair I bought last time I was in Paris. I do have some cotton to make some bath mitts as well. My nephew wants a "Where's Waldo" hat, much to the chagrin of his wife, I must add. Lots of fun little projects in the works.

Saturday a friend and I went to check out a Labor Day sale at a yarn shop. Of course, being the second day of the say there wasn't that much there and only one thing I couldn't live without, which was Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran at half price. I bought 12 balls in a nice peach-y color. Don't know yet what I'll make out of it but something soft, that's for sure!

My new favorite iPhone App

Often when I'm riding in the car I'll hear a song on the radio and wonder who it is. Either the DJ will not say the name of the song or I'll have to leave before he or she does. But I have Midomi on my iPhone now. If I hear a song and I like it and want to know more I just point it at the speakers and in 10 seconds I have the name of the artist and the song! It's magic! This morning it was Plush by the Stone Temple Pilots. The link here is not the version I was listening to, which was acoustic. The lyrics are kind of icky but I really liked the acoustic version. I guess they're going to be here at Bumbershoot this weekend on Sunday. I'd be tempted to go except I know the weather is going to be crap. My little trip there tomorrow to see Joe Bonamassa will be enough. Let's hope the rain holds off.

I did my best to relax yesterday evening and although I did have a nightmare it wasn't so bad and I managed to wake up before I started screaming. I worked on the Trellis Shawl and I have about 2 more balls to go on the main part. I really do think I can finish that monster up this weekend, especially since the weather is going to be bad and my DH has to work. I'll bribe myself - one hour in the garden each day and other than that, knit knit knit! I do think I'll do one other chore this weekend and that's get the pictures and mirrors positioned for S to put up next week. I can just spread them all out on the floor in the living room and dining room and then decide which wall they go on. And keep my fingers crossed that S doesn't want to bring any of his "art" from his old house. [Oh I know ... I am just so bad!]

Tonight at 7 is the last pre-season football game and I'm going with my nephew and a friend of his. I have tickets for 4 games this year although I have 6 seats. Two of the games I will be taking, probably, my DH and the other two my nephew will be taking a friend. Tonight he's taking a friend. It's too bad though - the Raiders. Not going to be a terrific game since it's the last pre-season but it'll be fun all the same. Then I've got one in October, one in November and one in December! Sweeeeeet!

The constants in our lives

Every year I get stressed at this time. It's the job. I can keep my stress under control pretty much because I exercise a lot and I have my knitting to keep me calm, not to mention a cocktail now and again. Sometimes though it gets the better of me and last night I had a terrible nightmare and woke up screaming. Why stress gives me nightmares I do not know. But I'll be glad when the next couple weeks are behind me again.

I drove in again today - too many meetings and errands plus S had to get up and out before I got up this morning and won't be home until after 7 and I can't leave Tinkerbell that long. When I bike I leave before 7:30 and typically don't get home until 6 and that's just too long for her. I heard this song on the radio this morning driving in. (I'm trying something new here -- that link should take you to Jango Music and you'd be able to listen to the song.) I don't know why but it grabbed me and made me think of things that I try NOT to think of. Sometimes I can't help myself. I think I might put it on my iPhone.

Other constants ... the people I see when I bike in on the trail. It's not that odd when you think about it - we all have our little routines. We get up at the same time and leave the house at the same time. When I was in Paris I took a class and I would walk up the street to catch the Metro at the same time and would see many of the same people. One I remember still - a man, maybe Middle Eastern, who would wear a dark blue sweater with FBI in gold letters across the chest. it always struck me as so funny.

These days my constant odd ball is an older Asian man. Each day when I ride by him he is doing what I can only assume is some kind of workout. I haven't yet figured out if he's warming up or cooling down or if this is the entire workout. Granted I know nothing at all about martial arts but this still doesn't seem like a real workout. For example, sometimes he's walking backwards. Not fast, not slow, just walking backwards. Or standing up and, with alternating hands, slapping himself on the back. Just weird stuff.

I bought a birthday card for a friend with a picture of a woman in a goofy outfit in a silly pose toasting the camera with a schooner of beer and the caption said , "We're all the same age inside". I just love that! To me it means some things just never, ever, ever change. How you felt then is how you feel now. Which is neither good nor bad but simply the observation of the day. Now if I could just stop crying .... It must be the stress.

Welcome to the monsoon season

That's what a guy said on the radio this morning. "Didn't know Seattle had a monsoon season, did you?" I can't believe - no, I refuse to believe that summer is over! But holy cow, it has been raining like crazy! I am going to check but this must be some kind of a record wet August. Not to mention the breeze and the lower temperatures. I mean come on! It's August and in the low 60s! And this weekend coming up is Bumbershoot and the weather is predicted to be terrible the whole weekend. My poor DH has a stage and must work outside all weekend, including Friday before the festival starts because the Mayor is doing something at his stage. Lucky for me there's only one act I really want to see and that's late Saturday afternoon so worst case I can just run in and run out. I'll have the Huskies season opener to look forward to that evening at least.

My department's official office space is still being remodeled. We are slated to start moving back into our remodeled space in late October, although I won't be moving until late November because I am getting not a remodeled space but a space someone else has been using while their space was remodeled. In the meantime I've been "living" in the Annex, which is an ancient construction trailer sitting between Pacific Avenue and the Rotunda/H wing section of the Health Sciences Building. Things are less than perfect here, to put it mildly. The air conditioning either doesn't work (like in my space) or is so cold that one cannot even stand it (like my friend Kate's space). One of the reasons I chose this particular office was because it has windows that opened out onto a lovely lawn -- that got dug up and covered with blacktop the week I moved in!! Well now they're breaking up the blacktop and loading it into trucks. I have to have my window open to breath so it's noisy and stinky, to say the least. I am not one to complain too much [no, really!] but with everything that's been going on with work I am already nearly on my last nerve and then this constant noise just is making me crazy!!! People come and people go because it's a surge space. One of our new people is an Avon representative. Can you guess what that means? It means that every day besides all of the noise and other nonsense I put up with here I have the reek of a different cheap perfume wafting down the hall each and every day. [Good heavens, I AM in a bad mood, aren't I?] At least I didn't forget my keys again today. Well, I drove - pretty hard to forget the keys.

I worked on the Trellis Shawl last night. Only 2 1/2 (or so) balls to go for the main part! Woohoo! I measured it on the floor - 18 inches to go. The sleeves will be fast. Then I really need to finish up that Sizzle for my sister. Then I think I'll start thinking about gift knitting and KNIT FROM MY STASH!! Seriously. I think with the One Skein book I got and the scarf book I should be able to use that stash.

A couple years ago I knit a cute little flower outfit for my friend's little girl, who I saw yesterday. The little girl loved her flower outfit but now the skirt is too short and the top is too small. She wants a pink hat with a flower on it. I can do that! She's so adorable - looks like a little elf.

At least it's good for the garden

That's what we say when it rains and rains when we don't want it to. The weekend was nice on Saturday but Sunday, not so nice. Because of all the rain and the warm weather the garden is full of weeds. No, not "full" but I have to keep up with them. Sunday was the day but I only got about 45 minutes into it when it started to rain. And I'm not talking sprinkles here - big, fat wet drops. I am going to have to make myself spend an hour each day of the 3 day weekend coming up to get the weeds out. I can stand an hour at a time. Anything more than that .. ick.

We ate some of the tomatoes in a Caprese salad Sunday. And fresh basil from the garden too. Oh it was gorgeous! Next year more tomatoes! And I'm going to plant Early Girls rather than the Roma ones the previous owners planted. We roasted some of the home grown corn on the barbecue and that was spectacular! That's a first for me.

The Trellis Shawl is growing. It's now up to my chest and I have a little more than 3 balls to go for the main part. The sleeves are going to be quick. Lovely thing about this house is that it's got carpeting in some of the rooms and I'll be able to lay out some towels and spray my shawl and actually block it! Wow, that'll be a first. Real blocking.

I was dithering around this morning and managed to leave my keys behind. That kind of thing throws my whole day off! And in this whole great big health sciences complex there is ONE extra key to my office. ONE. My department doesn't have it and I have to go to the main building maintenance folks to check out the spare. Had to bring the bike into the building too because no key for the lock. Pretty annoying.

The good, the bad and the boucle

I couldn't wait to get home last night and tackle the Trellis Shawl stitch count problem. There is absolutely no way in the whole wide world I could have tinked back with that yarn. I am sure there is someone who could do it, but me? Not on your life. And after knitting a good 3 feet (or more) of this monster I wasn't about to start over either. The bad part about knitting with boucle is that it is just way too easy to mistake a curl for a stitch. But then again, the good part about knitting with boucle is that the curls can mask mistakes quite handily. The trellis pattern isn't that obvious unless you hold the fabric up to let the light through the holes. In that case, knowing that there was a mistake there, my DH was able to ascertain that yes indeed, it did look as if it zigged and zagged and zigged and zigged. But to the casual eye it will not be obvious. Just can't let my friend Peggy near it. Peggy is one of those knitters that I will never ever be - she's a perfect knitter. Everything she makes is so darned gorgeous!

I am still experimenting with ways home from work. It is now very obvious to me that I live on the top of a hill, so getting home is always going to involve at least a mile of steady uphill climb. My goal was to find path that would lead me home while skipping the steeper hills. What I've discovered the past couple afternoons is that my first inclination was the best. And it is the most logical - get off the trail at 97th and take the fairly gentle hill up to Sandpoint Way and just bite the bullet and power up those 20 blocks. Because the trail is nearly sea level I have to climb both west and north. There is no way for me to skip biking up the hills unless I want to bike down to about 135th and then walk up stairs - stairs as in over 125. Nope, not even carrying my new lighter bike. No matter what back roads I take, climbing to Sandpoint Way is steeper the further north I go even though Sandpoint Way itself does dip at one point. That's why I thought I might be able to find a less steep way up but .. not so far.

All this rain has just made the weeds in the flower beds pop up like crazy! Guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend.

Is it just me?

Or is this not the most hideous paint job you've ever seen? I was walking Tinkie last night. I'm still exploring the neighborhood and came upon this heinous mess. I pretended to take pictures of Tinkerbell because I didn't want the people in the house to cop onto the fact that I was snapping pictures of their bad taste. What in the world would possess someone to paint their house that color? And that's not the whole house - I only have a portion of it. It's quite large and there is another part of the house and a double garage that you can't see in the picture. What an eyesore! I am SO grateful it's blocks away from my house. If I were a neighbor I would have been so unhappy to see someone painting their house that color. Ewwwwww!

I woke up in the middle of the night and heard it pouring rain. And when the alarm went off at 6:20 it was still coming down in buckets so I decided to drive in and do some errands on the way home. Of course now as I am typing -- it's brilliant sunshine. It is supposed to rain again this afternoon and tomorrow and then by Friday be back nice again. I must say the garden is just loving it!

I didn't get around to working on that mistake in the Trellis Shawl last night. And it's too big to take in to noon knitting on Wednesday. Maybe tonight I can work on it.

I am hoping to hear from the refrigerator repairman today. It is SUCH a hassle having the fridge out of commission and having to go out to the garage every time you need something from the fridge. Especially in the morning when I'm getting my food ready for work. S did some sleuthing about this particular model on the Internet and found that although it is the most energy efficient of the refrigerators out there it does tend to break down. Therefore I am very very thankful the people who bought it had the foresight to get the extended warranty!

Talk about your inauspicious starts

This stuff you can't make up -- I got ready to go this morning and turned on my "new" GPS thingie - my Garmin Forerunner 201 replacement I received yesterday from a guy on eBay. First of all I couldn't get it to switch from pace to speed mode - pace is for when you're running and speed for when you're biking. Since it was still trying to triangulate I didn't think much of that, figuring I'd check it out further at work and/or when I go running. I bought it from someone in Texas so it's going to take a bit of doing for it to find it's bearings, so to speak. But at least I could use it to time the ride, right? Off I went down the street, turned the corner to go up the hill, down shifted whereupon the chain derailed, my goggles split in half, my helmet fell off and my Garmin quit working. That took 50 seconds, ladies and gentlemen. As my friend Mikie says, "heavy sigh". Got the chain back on, picked up my helmet, put my glasses back together and tried to re-start the GPS but it was locked up. I guess trying to find the satellite was too much for it.

It rained most all of yesterday and I got a bit wet going home last night but honestly, it felt good. I am sure the garden is very happy. The lawn was looking a bit rough even though there is a sprinkler system. I know this is just going to make more weeds grow but that's the price we pay.

I was rather jangled when I got home last night - busy day at work and I hadn't slept well at all Sunday night. All I wanted to do after walking the dog was have a shower and a cocktail and read my paper. But the DH wanted to hang pictures! I tried my best to be nice about it but I don't think I was very believable. He got the big gilt mirror hung up over the buffet in the dining room, but when he came into the family room with a pair of ... well let's be honest here - hideous pictures he had purchased at Costco(!) and was going to put them up in the family room I am afraid I was a little less than polite. "Oh, those don't go there. I think they'll look better upstairs in the hall on that brown-ish wall, don't you?" I mean ... they have black frames for crying out loud!! I know he loves them and he can hang them somewhere, but lets find a place that people walking into the house aren't necessarily going to see right away. I know the family room is in the back but people tend to gravitate towards the kitchen area, especially since the doors to the deck are there. So I am now going to have to find some place, upstairs hopefully, that he will accept. Am I bad?

The Trellis Shawl is going along quite nicely except I found that I have 2 extra stitches. I am reasonably sure that I discovered this on the first row that it happened. One of the rows is yo,ssk and if you haven't done the previous purl row a bit on the loose side some of the ssk are pretty hard to do. Boucle yarn is tricky anyway so I am sure I ended up with the extra stitches on that row. The light just wasn't good enough and I was tired last night so that'll be my big chore tonight. Wish me luck!

Tink the Adventure Dog

We are still learning about our new house and garden. Tink helps out in her own doggie way, by showing me where the holes in the fence are. Last night while we were getting ready to go to dinner I let her out in the back to take care of business. S was on the phone and I was getting myself dressed. I called her and she wouldn't come in and I could see her at the back of the garden, sniffing at the fence. I know she heard me because she stood there, looking at me. Little dickens!! So I took off my high shoes, put my feet into my garden shoes sitting on the deck and marched out across the lawn to get her. As soon as she could see I meant business and was coming through the garden, up to the fence to grab her she started squeezing herself under the fence!! And I was that close to grabbing her but she got through and I could see her, tail high and wagging, running around the neighbor's back yard. I dashed back to the house and S hung up and got into his car and drove around the block one direction and I took off running in the other. He made it back there before I, of course, so when I came around the block I could see his car sitting in front of the house directly behind ours and my phone rang - he had her. That silly little dog - she is pretty smart. As soon as she saw him she came running to him, he said "Tink" and she stopped in her tracks, obviously not liking his tone of voice, and turned around and headed back to the fence to try to squeeze back into our yard! She wasn't fast enough for him though.

Now I am going to have to go around the entire perimeter of the property and inspect the fence. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place this morning while I was getting ready for work. S called out to me - "Come here, quick!" And I ran to the back and looked out into the yard and there was a whole family of raccoons, playing in the yard. Big ones, too! So that's how my dahlia got trampled. I didn't think Tink could have done that. And also, that's how the holes got under the fence. It's a wildlife paradise I guess. I found a gopher hole in the side yard this weekend as well.

It was blazing hot all weekend so what did I do? Turned up the air conditioning and did some serious knitting! My goal was to find the most comfy and best place to knit in my new place. Really, the first weekend I've had just time to myself with nothing to do but knit (and watch football). I found that the purple comfy chair in the living room is the best place to knit because a) it's comfy and b) there is lots of natural light. I measured the Trellis Shawl after using 3 balls of the Silk Mountain and calculated that I needed 11 balls for the body, so Saturday I rolled up 8 more balls. Now when this basket is empty I will be finished with the body of the shawl. For some reason that's less intimidating to me than stopping and measuring all the time. Here's how it looks so far: Not too exciting. You can't really see the trellis pattern, even in close up. Maybe when it's blocked. It's good TV knitting.

Oh -- the Seahawks won their second preseason game. That was my Saturday night while S worked. Pretty nice - knitting and football. We all know that's my favorite!

We're havin' a heat wave!

Oh yeah .... it is hot and humid and in fact they have put out a heat warning for the area. The air conditions are bad for the first time in almost ten years, I understand. It is therefore lucky that I haven't been riding my bike the past couple days. Wednesday I had to wait for the fridge repairman -- [on a side note, why is it that I have a husband with a home office but every time there needs to be some waiting around for a repairman and/or some other house related thing, he is busy?] and so I worked at home and yesterday I had to meet up with the housekeeper for her first visit and she changed the time so there I was, stuck working here again. I finally quit trying to be thrifty and turned on the air conditioning. Oh baby .... ahhhhhhh, huge difference.

My office at work is a hot box - a sweat box. It is supposedly air conditioned and my friend Kate's office is so chilled she can't even stand being there and my office, right across the building from her, is so hot that even with the window open and a fan blowing I am always too hot. So even though it's not the most convenient set up here at home, at least it's cooler. My DH hasn't yet gotten the wireless set up to work with anything except his laptop so I have to squish myself onto his bookkeeper's desk so that I can plug into the ethernet. It works, but it's not an easy set up. Yesterday I was working on spreadsheets and making up table assignments for the coming class - tedious and fiddly work, but it sure made the day zip by.

Not so much knitting going on. Tuesday night I worked on the Trellis Shawl and a bit on some socks. Last night was a wine auction and picnic - the anniversary of our first date - so even though I got home by 8:30 there was no knitting because it was too bloody hot, even with the air conditioning. Tonight -- I don't know we'll have to see. It is predicted to be nearly 90 degrees today. Not conducive for knitting.

I'm going to take Tinkie out to the dog park at lunchtime and let her swim.

An unnatural disaster

Even though I ran yesterday afternoon, with the proper fueling up before I got on my bike for the ride home (an apple and a piece of cheese) it was much much MUCH easier than last week on my old bike. It's a little challenging, but I think with my toe clips installed it will be easier still. I was pretty tired and sweaty when I got home, but got the little Tink walked then had my shower and changed into my lounge-y pants. That's when I noticed that my bedroom clock was blinking. Hmmm ... must have had a power outage. No big deal, I re-set the clock and then went downstairs and out onto the deck to put my feet up and read the paper and do the puzzle. The big cooler is still outside from the party because there wasn't enough room in the inside fridges to put the left over beverages. I pulled a bottle of white wine out of the cooler and poured myself a glass, then went inside to get a handful of chips and some salsa. Hmmmm and that's when I noticed that the display on the fridge wasn't working.

The light came on when I opened up the door but it was definitely not very cold in there and the buttons on the display didn't work. Just one bar blinking. I checked the breaker box and nothing seemed to be amiss - although in retrospect that was kind of silly since there was obviously power coming to the thing. About that time my DH came in the door but he didn't have a clue either. I had been looking at the brochure, trying to troubleshoot but there was nothing in there about this type of thing, so I called Sanyo. Their big idea was to turn it off for 10 minutes to see if it would re-set once the power came back. That didn't work. The owners had thoughtfully purchased an extended warranty and were very good note keepers, so since my DH had a 3 am call for a 6 am show this morning and needed to eat and get to bed, I worked on dinner and he called Best Buy and arranged for repair. Wednesday is their earliest time. They are supposed to give me a call today and set a definite time to come over.

I just figured everything would be fine in there for over night and I'd put a few things in the fridge in the garage in the morning. I didn't take into consideration that there is an automatic ice maker, hence the freezer is full of ice all the time. Well .... not when there is no power. So what did I step in when I came downstairs this morning? Yeah, ice water. I didn't see a way to get the ice out of there and I was in a hurry, of course, so I just put a pile of towels down and I'll have to deal with it when I get home. I did transfer all of the frozen stuff out to the other freezer in the garage fridge, which is now packed full. And now I'm sitting here and wishing that I had taken the time this morning to pull that brochure out again and figure out how to get the ice out of there because it's going to be a soggy mess on the floor when I get home. Hope Tink stays out of it.

Since S had to go to bed at 8:30 to get up at 1 am, I sat downstairs and knit on my Trellis Shawl and watched the Simpson's Movie (again). Good mindless TV for knitting. I just wish I could find my iPod sound system so I could listen to music without ear buds! That should be my project Saturday, since S has to work all day and late into the night. I can break down boxes and try to get some assemblage of order in there and also maybe find those things I've been missing - a blue bathroom rug that would be perfect for the upstairs hall bathroom, my fireplace candelabra which will be super sexy for the jacuzzi tub in the master bath, and most importantly my iPod sound system!!!!

I brought my current sock project with me today and hope to be able to get out and knit at lunchtime. The weather is gorgeous and I want to start working hard on those socks so I can finish them up and cast on with the beautiful Noro sock yarn that my Ravelry Birthday Swap partner sent me. I keep petting it .... oooooooo yummmmmmm.

What a totally awesome birthday weekend!

Oh it was just about the most perfect birthday weekend ever! My auspicious birth day was gorgeous, weather-wise and all wise. I ran again on Friday and did my whole 30 minutes without stopping! That is just unheard of. I have never come back from such a long lay off and run the whole thing! That means that I should be able to train well enough to run the Dawg Dash! yay!!

I managed to beat my DH home Friday since he was out running last minute birthday errands. I got in the shower and dressed in time for the kick off. The Seahawks played the Vikings in Minnesota and they kicked butt! I got to sit and watch football and drink champagne and I was happy. There were flowers from my sister when I got home, not to mention the other flowers my DH had gotten me plus balloons!! Some hearts and a Seahawks balloon. And for dessert, chocolate cake. And if that wasn't enough, there was the present. A new bike!! A nice light one. Wow. Just perfect.

And to add a little perfection to the evening, about 5:30 (just as the Seahawks were about to score their first touchdown) the doorbell rang and it was a nice neighbor couple and their daughter at the door to welcome us to the neighborhood with a plateful of homemade chocolate chip cookies. I swear. Just too much.

Saturday we spent getting stuff ready for the party. And while the weather forecast had said rain, it was lovely in the morning. By the time we were done running around however it was cloudy. My DH had purchased all sorts of silly things at the party store - pink flamingos for the croquet lawn, a pirate flag to fly off the front porch and, silliest of all, a cardboard pirate with the face cut out for people to stick their heads in for pictures. That was hilarious and quite a hit. We did try to get people playing croquet and some of the little kids went at it, but it kept starting to sprinkle. And at one point actually it was pouring! S had put a canopy up over the deck to cover the barbecue and a couple of the tables but it was splashing off the barbecue so we had to take it inside for a while until it calmed down. It was a good party, even though the police weren't called.

I spent yesterday morning cleaning up and working in the garden. I had found some gigantic zucchini when I was giving a garden tour on Saturday so I picked them and lots of green beans. Turns out the beans were just a little too ripe - I cooked them last night with some other roasting vegies and they were too tough. I made a couple loaves of zucchini bread with one of the big 'uns. Some of the strawberries were ripe as well. Oh gosh did they ever taste good! I can't wait for the corn - it should be ready soon. The tomatoes haven't even started getting pink. I hope they will ripen up before the weather starts to cool down. It's going to be nice this week.

I also did the entire New York Times Sunday crossword yesterday. I finished the whole thing! I always start them, but it is very rare that I can completely finish the thing. I am considering framing it. .... No, not really.

I cast on again for the Trellis Shawl Friday evening and have knitted up one ball of yarn and started on a second. This fabric on size 9 needles has a little more drape and the trellis pattern is more open. I think this is going to work. My only concern is, since I am substituting yarn, that I have enough. To that end, when I finish the second ball I will measure and that will tell me if I'll be able to do the entire shawl. If not - then at least I will be prepared and know I have to make it shorter or skip the sleeves or make something else.

Happy Birthday to me!!

And another year goes by! What a year, too. When I think back to where I was last year compared to now it's just amazing. Like I always said, good things are right around the corner, I just don't know how long the block is. It was a long one but once the good things started coming .... wow. So this birthday first of all I am thankful and grateful and joyful ... full of all sorts of good things.

The day has started out pretty darned good. I opened my Ravelry Birthday Swap package from my birthday pal, suzenew. What a fantastic birthday surprise! Thanks SO much Suzie!! There's a skein of Noro Silk Mountain sock yarn, which I have been dying to try out, plus a couple skeins of some really yummy linen blend yarn and a spa package with a cute pear candle, some shower gel and nice tea and a soothing eye mask. Great start to my day - and let me tell you, it was hard not to open it before this morning!!!

My DH keeps telling me he got me a great present. But I have to wait until I get home. And when I get home we'll have champagne, and he's cooking steak for dinner PLUS there's pre-season football on at 5!! OMG! How perfect is that?

Last night I didn't do any knitting, but I did some UN-knitting. I frogged the Trellis Shawl and maybe tonight I'll cast on again with size 9 needles and try not to mess it up! We went to Costco last night to get stuff for the party Saturday. I still have to unpack all the books in the theatre room and it doesn't look like the pictures and mirrors will get hung before the party, but that's okay. Hanging all those pictures is going to be very difficult. Not the physical part of it - that's what a husband is for - but just figuring out the best place for everything. We have lots of stuff.

Yesterday my MIL brought a birthday gift over to the house for me. It's a really lovely glass ball on a stand. Kind of hard to describe. I'll have to take a picture. And the fun part will be deciding where in the garden to place it.

Well .. work is very busy so I'd better get back to it!!

One way easy ...

one way hard. Super hard. I biked home last night for the first time. Okay, mitigating circumstances first - my legs were very sore from running, it was nearly 90 degrees, and my stomach was growling with hunger. In retrospect I should have had an Emergen-C and eaten a piece of fruit, but I didn't. The ride on the trail, about 6.5 miles, was fine and easy but once I got off the trail and onto the street (up 97th and then north on Sand Point Way) it was torture! Not because of traffic or surface, but the fact that it's a significant uphill grade for more than a mile. I didn't stop, but I sure as heck wasn't going very fast. The good news is that it will get easier. It's never going to be a cake walk, but it beats the heck out of a 15 mile ride. I wish it were downhill going home rather than going to work in the morning, but there ya go.

My Garmin Forerunner GPS unit, which I just love and use every single day running OR biking, was not powering up. I plugged it into my computer and reloaded its software and it powered up, but then I couldn't get it to turn off. I am lost without it. I can't tell how fast I'm going or how far, I can't keep track of my running pace either. I checked into sending it away to get fixed but they charge almost as much as it would cost to buy a new unit. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and take care of that this weekend.

I got a bit of vindication from my DH with regards to my bike. I had him take it in to get the tire fixed a couple days ago since he was going to be out the way of the bike shop. I kept telling him my bike was heavy, but since he habitually lifts 100+ pound pieces of audio equipment without breaking a sweat I think he just thought I was being a wimp. HOWEVER, once he took my bike in to the shop and lifted it in and out of the van, and then went shopping for new bikes he realized just how heavy mine is. I wasn't being a wimp after all, it seems. That bike is 15 years old. I remember buying it for my birthday present to myself the first year I lived in my house in Ravenna. And I love that bike. It really suits me - it's pink and just the right size. But I believe I'm going to have to give it up and move on to a nice, light modern one. Maybe I can still fine a pink one. Oh! Or green would be nice too.

When I got home yesterday, all exhausted and sweaty, it was SO nice to walk into air conditioning! What a deluxe thing to have here in Seattle. I love it! Plus there was a package waiting for me from my Birthday Swap partner. I am a stickler for opening presents on the correct day, so I haven't even peeked at it. I will save it for when I get home tomorrow. I am going to send hers off today. Her birthday is the 11th of this month. I would link to her blog, but she doesn't have one! I know, huh? hee

I worked on my Trellis Shawl at the noon knitting yesterday and made another little mistake. Then I was multi-tasking last night - doing laundry, cooking dinner, knitting and watching TV. At one point I went upstairs to fold a load of clothes and left my knitting in the middle of the row. When I picked it up again I started knitting instead of purling, then turned the work and started the next row, got to the middle of the work and realized my mistake. That tears it - I'm going to have to rip it out and start over. I was wishing I had gone up a needle size anyway and I'm only maybe 1/10th of the way into it so it's okay. I don't know if I'll have time to do the ripping back tonight. Still lots to do at the house before the party Saturday (when it's predicted we'll have rain!!!gah!!!). The DH got the system set up in the theatre last night so now I have to unpack all those books! Oh well, maybe I'll finally unearth my iPod speaker system. That's the only thing I haven't yet found.

Hurts so good

Yesterday I finally got to start running again. It was hot -- and it's even hotter today -- but I managed to run for a full 15 minutes without a rest, then run walk run walk the rest of the 30 minutes. I was pretty happy with that. Usually after such a long lay off it takes me a few days to get up to 15 minutes at a go. I'm confident now that I'll be ready for the Dawg Dash in September for sure. It's just so strange that my legs are sore today though! I mean, after all that bike riding one would think that a little jogging wouldn't even register but not so.

It was also my appointment to have my eyes checked and it was way over due. As in six months. My far vision has improved and so my old contacts, which had been increasingly uncomfortable, were over correcting which was making my eyes so tired! This is SUCH an improvement. Typically I've been taking my contacts out as soon as I get home, but yesterday I didn't need to. We had a block watch picnic to attend and so we met many of the neighbors. But when I got home I did take out the contacts because I wanted to wear my birthday present. Each year I buy myself something special and this year I really splurged and got a gorgeous pair of Chanel glasses frames. They are awesome! I ran right over to the lens place after work and had them made up. I love love love those glasses!

We have some lovely neighbors. I'm not much for these types of social situations but S is quite at home schmoozing it up. I'm better one on one. We learned about the house and the neighborhood traditions - a Christmas progressive dinner, which sounds like fun and the people who owned our house always gave a neighborhood Super Bowl party. No problem, we're down with that. I invited some of them to come over for our open house on Saturday. I guess lots of people have wanted to have a peek inside the house and at the back garden. I learned that the previous owner did all that landscaping! I didn't realize that. It is quite spectacular. She gave me the contact information for the woman who helped her out a few times a year and I'm going to keep that up for sure.

Is it really oh so wrong to love an appliance?

No, not THAT kind of appliance! I am talking about my new washer and dryer. Front loader, high efficiency washer that is so quiet I can't believe it. I feel kind of silly talking about my washer and dryer but I just can't get over how wonderful they are! That washing machine senses how large the load is and uses the correct amount of water, which is much much less than a top loader. The literature was talking about how much cleaner it gets clothes. I thought that was pretty bizarre, thinking I had clean clothes from my other washer. But Sunday when I was putting some kitchen stuff away I grabbed my pot holders and my doggie washing apron and threw them into the washer. I was absolutely blown away at how clean that apron got with no bleach. Just ... wow. So now I want to wash everything I own in my new washer. I shall resist and wait at least until I've work it once.

But here's the deal -- can I still felt in a front loader? There isn't the same type of agitation going on as in a top loader. And I just bought two cute patterns - a felted bag and a hat - The Trellis Tote & Flap Bag and the Felted Trellis Toque. I guess I could go to a laundromat, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to.

After my easy-peasy bike ride in yesterday I was looking forward to an equally easy ride home, got all togged up and outside and realized that my back tire was flat AGAIN! I just got it fixed!! Obviously there is something in the tire and the guy repairing it didn't check. So S had to come out and get me. I waited and waited and after about 30 minutes the phone rang and it was him - "Honey, I haven't left yet. I can't find Tink anywhere!" Grrrreat .... seems he had the garage door open while he was messing about taking stuff out of the van and he let Tink follow him out there from the house. She's a good dog. She'll mind if you tell her to stay, especially if you correct her if she starts to maybe walk out onto the driveway. But S doesn't keep that keen of an eye on her, so she just decided to have an adventure. As I was talking to him and asking where he had looked (Under the bed? In the backyard?) my other line was ringing, so I picked it up and it was a woman. "I have Tinkerbell". Whew! She was just two houses north. So he got her and then got me and the bike and he'll take it back to the shop today.

I got to knit lots on the Trellis Shawl last night. S is a sound guy. He owns a sound company and provides sound for events and galas and a few concerts, etc. And he is fanatical about surround sound systems and speakers and blah blah blah blah .... honestly most of it is WAY beyond me. (With the exception of the home theatre he had set up at his house, where if you were sitting there watching an adventure movie, the couch would actually vibrate with the low sounds, like in a movie theatre. Really really cool. Oh, and also he has a thing about HD but again, I rarely can see the difference. ) We have a family room off the kitchen where we have my old TV - which I think is fine and he is not too impressed. However, it does have a decent surround system so he was putting that up last night while I was just knitting away. Lovely. He still has to do the upstairs big system but at least for now when I get home on Friday for my birthday dinner, I can sit there and knit and watch football. yay!!

We're having a housewarming party Saturday. I know it's soon but I wanted to get on it right away because if I put it off, I'd never get the house ready. Plus which S has a bigshow the next weekend, so since this is also my birthday weekend, I think it's perfect. And we're really in pretty good shape. The only .. what what I consider the only .. big thing left is hanging all the art and mirrors. I wish my sister was here. She is so good with that! Me? Not so much.

What I did on my summer vacation

Totally worth using a week of vacation time. We got moved into our new house and I am just thrilled to pieces. It was hard, hard work though. Saturday we moved a few things into the garage, since we didn't officially take possession until Monday evening. Monday, with the "help" of my in-laws I finished packing up the DH's house and that evening we took a preliminary load over. Tuesday morning he was off to work and I was off to meet the movers at the storage facility. Of course, it was raining but not too hard, thankfully. We thought they'd be able to get some stuff into their truck after loading all my stuff, but it was full so I took them over to the new place to unload. My sweet M-I-L just wants to help but her idea of help was to start unpacking my kitchen for me! Un ... no thank you, I want to do that myself. She just wouldn't sit there and read so I had her putting pictures into a photo album while she waited for the delivery people, but once boxes were there to unpack I couldn't keep her out of them. I set her to unpacking glassware and washing it while I supervised the unloading of the first bunch of my things from my old house. The only glitch we had in the whole day was that the big sectional wouldn't fit through the doorway in the upstairs theatre. However, with the expertise of my F-I-L they managed it -- he took the door and the door jamb off. I was hiding in the bedroom. But at the end of 8 hours I had the house together enough so S could come home and sleep in a new bed, have his clothes and bathroom stuff and have coffee in the morning.

The rest of the week is just a blur. Each day was long and arduous. I am covered in bruises from lugging boxes around and bumping them into myself. I just knew that I had to keep at it because I never have the energy to do much around the house after work except the normal chores. In other words, I'm not likely to spend 4 hours after work unloading boxes. Not a chance. There are a few boxes left to unload, plus all of the books because the theatre is the last room to be done and I can't put the books away until the TV and surround speakers are all in place. That is going to be an awesome experience though! S got the TV hooked up Saturday -- cable came on Saturday. I didn't even miss TV during the week because I was so exhausted at the end of the day I would read a bit and then conk out. S got the downstairs TV hooked up Thursday, I think, and we watched a DVD. That was a treat but we were so tired we couldn't even finish it! And speaking of tired, I haven't even tried out the whirlpool bathtub yet!

All week I was just itching to knit but it was too chaotic to get anything out. Things slowed a bit towards the end of the week and on Friday I gave myself an early birthday gift of a trip to the Olympus Spa and a body scrub and facial. Oh baby! That was sooooo nice! By Sunday afternoon I was putting away the last kitchen box. I still had a few things on my list to do -- wash the dog, work in the garden and do my nails and cook dinner. But as I was going through my list in the morning with my DH he pointed out that my list was just too long and I had to give myself a break. Right. There I was at 2 o'clock and the last box was emptied. I made a deal with myself - one hour in the garden and then I could sit down and watch the NFL Network and knit. And one hour later I was inside and opening my new umbrella swift. I finally got to use the ball winder I bought months ago. I was in heaven!! Winding balls of Noro Silk Mountain and watching football. *sigh*

I started a new project - the Trellis Shawl from Runway Knits. The trellis pattern is a four row repeat and it's pretty simple. The Silk Mountain is perfect for this pattern. Not my usual thing but a nice break.

And now I'm back to work -- August is a big, busy month for me. The weather is gorgeous and my bike ride in -- super easy! I think if I had gone from my old house and the dinky 3 mile each way commute to this one I would be complaining. But after doing the 15 miles each way, this is a cake walk! I can start running again!!

A brilliant business opportunity

AAA for bikes!! No, seriously. It looks like yesterday was, in fact, my last bicycle trip from Bothell because when I was taking the bike out of the garage this morning the back tire was flat as a pancake. I do recall there was some glass somewhere along my ride home last night and I must have caught a piece of it. So I had to run back upstairs, unpack all my junk and get dressed and drive in. How handy would it be to make a phone call and know that when I get home someone has come by and fixed my flat? I would totally pay for that service! As it is I now have to drag my bike into some shop sometime next week. As if I don't have enough to do already. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

Yesterday I got my latest package from Elann. I bought 15 hanks of Noro Silk Mountain in the colorway Wine Garden. This is completely different from the colors I usually buy but I was feeling adventurous when I ordered it. Also I don't usually go for boucle yarn either. But I am thinking of making a shawl/wrap thingie with little sleeves from the Runway Knits book called the Trellis Shawl. This is also a departure from my normal type of knitwear, and who knows I may even gift it. It just kind of called to me. I wanted to start it or at least swatch it last night but the yarn comes in hanks and even though I am now the proud owner of not only a ball winder but an umbrella swift as well, I haven't unpacked the umbrella swift yet. I thought I might as well leave it in its box until the move is completed. So ... no swatching. I just cooked and veged last night. My fingers are itching though. I have got to get some knitting in soon!!

Today is a big day. We're going to sign the papers for the new house which closes Monday. Excited? Uh ... a little.

I want to break up with my hair stylist

This is not a trivial thing. I am mindful of the fact that if it weren't for Lisa Marie I wouldn't have met my DH, so yes, I owe her. But she drives me nuts!!! I wanted to stop seeing her a couple years ago but then we had a friend in common and she kind of went crazy on us, then she introduced me to S and so I couldn't stop seeing her then. And now I'm like stuck! Last year she and I went to a wine picnic and auction and S calls it our first date. That event is coming up soon and Lisa wants to go and S wants it to be just us, of course. And so do I!! She keeps bugging me about it and I told him that he's going to have to lie and say he can't get her in this year. I think I'd strangle her if I had to spend more than an hour with her. I swear, on my wedding day she was dithering around while I was trying to get downstairs to get some pictures taken before the guests started arriving and I finally just lost it and screamed at her, "Oh. My. GOD!!! Get your damn purse and let's go!" It's not like me to yell or lose my temper but she tries me every time I spend any time with her. If I didn't know better I'd say she was on speed.

I finally ran out of excuses and so had to get on my bike today for the penultimate trip from Bothell. I snapped some pictures of the roosters this morning but I think I'll wait to post them tomorrow. I wanted the bunny as well and it's usually hopping around on the way home. I must say, having a few days off from the ride made it much more enjoyable. My muscles had time to stop aching and I wasn't huffing and puffing at the top of the hills. The sun even came out. It's been hiding the past couple days.

No knitting last night. I did knit a bit at noon. Maybe I'll have some time this weekend. I certainly have the inclination!

And finally ... I was reading one of my favorite blogs - A Little Loopy - and was inspired to create my own mosaic like Disentangled's. Here's how it goes:
- Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
- Using only the first page, pick an image.
- Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

Questions:
1. What is your first name? - Shelley
2. What is your favorite food? - French food
3. What high school did you go to? - Mountlake Terrace
4. What is your favorite color? - pink
5. Who is your celebrity crush? - Matthew McConaughey
6. Favorite drink? - vodka martini
7. Dream vacation? - Paris
8. Favorite dessert? - chocolate cake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? - happily knitting
10. What do you love most in life? - my dog, Tinkerbell
11. One Word to describe you? - Happy
12. Your flickr name? - Shell Picto

And here's my mosaic:

I thought this was a knitting blog ...

Ah well I guess I just haven't had any knitting news! But James Taylor .... what a concert! It was just a perfect evening - not too hot, no wind, blue sky, no bugs. Our friend who had invited us had not only VIP tickets but was also invited to a special reception with awesome food. We were eating and drinking all night and didn't have to sit on the ground, which is a huge bonus to me! The back up band that James Taylor had was incredible in that every musician was top notch and a star in their own right. The sax player was Lou Marini! And the concert just started with them all walking out on the stage. No opening act. It was magical.

Coals to Newcastle

This was the first weekend in I don't know how long that we haven't had any obligations. It was just wonderful!! The weather was great and all we had to do was relax and have fun. Friday I even got to do a little knitting. Not much, but enough to keep my hand in.

One of my goals for the weekend was to organize my music on my laptop and reload the music on my iPhone. That ended up to be a HUGE project that went on and on all weekend. I did get it done though and I am happy to say it is full! There was new software to download so you basically had to start from scratch. I bought an app, Scrabble, which is awesome! But now I wish I hadn't been so impatient when S gave this to me in February and waited a week for the 16 gig one because I have completely filled up this 8 gig model. I mean completely!

On Saturday instead of going to the Bite of Seattle we went shopping for stuff for the new house. Got some great ideas and when we went to the new house Sunday evening to take measurements I was gratified to find that yes indeed I can fit a chaise lounge in my office/yarn room! Woohoo! The current owners are just sweethearts and thanked us for "taking this house off our hands"! We even met some neighbors. I've got a lot of work ahead of me this week but I tell you, I cannot wait to get moving!!

Sunday was another gorgeous day and S wanted to go for a bike ride. Oh man .... and the poor guy looked at me kind of sheepishly when he asked me. I knew he really wanted to go for a ride and what the heck, it wouldn't be like riding to work. I just took it really easy and it was fun rather than a chore. We rode out to the St. Michelle winery (where we're going tonight for a James Taylor concert) and on the way home stopped at a cute little barbecue stand for a snack.

There will be no knitting tonight because of the concert. And probably none tomorrow either because I'm meeting up with folks after work to celebrate a birthday. Wednesday .... knit Wednesday noon for sure!

Yay for IK Press

My books were there when I got home last night! I got the Knitter's Companion, Scarf Style, One Skein, and Knitting Little Luxuries. All just great books and so of course AGAIN I didn't knit a single stitch but did manage to skim through all four books. I really was in the mood for sushi so we walked down to the local sushi restaurant and had a really lovely meal. Another hour of looking at knitting books and a further hour working out strategies for the move and there it was -- bedtime!

I must say I am really looking forward to this weekend. I want to relax!! Maybe watch a movie. I don't know though, there's a lot already going on. The Bite of Seattle is this week and if the weather is nice, like it is supposed to be well then I suppose we're going to go! Also my annual high school golf tournament and dinner is Saturday. I'm not going to play golf this time because I just didn't feel I could spare the time and S doesn't golf. But we might go out to the club and have dinner. Sunday evening we're meeting up with the current owners of the house. She's going to let us take some measurements and tell us about the house and maybe introduce us to neighbors.

It looks like I'm going to make my goal of riding in every day this week. Although I must admit I was feeling it this morning. Yesterday evening I did the apple and string cheese thing again and I really did feel like I had more and enough energy. I decided I was going to see exactly how fast I could get to my new, soon-to-be exit from the trail. So I leaned over those handle bars and peddled as hard as I could, once I got away from the UW crowd. The path was pretty nearly empty and so I was able to get up and go. I was averaging 3 1/2 minute miles and I got to my new cut off point in just under 32 minutes. I was winded but I pretty nearly kept up that pace all the way home, making it in 64 minutes. But sushi is a pretty light dinner and even with my cup of coffee and little Quaker granola bar as usual, I was just not very energetic this morning. Plus it was a bit windy. Anyway, I'll be glad to rest up and do nothing but a little strolling this weekend. I'm tired!

Four down ...

My goal this week was/is to bike into work every day. Today is the fourth day and it looks like I'm going to make it. Each day I get in one minute later. I can feel my legs and butt -- the muscles are sore but not so sore that I'm limping or anything. I have been having a hard time find the right amount of hydration and calories to get before I head home. Typically about mile five or 6 my stomach starts to growl which makes it very difficult to ride. I think I've finally hit upon a good combo. I felt good going home last night. I ate an apple and a piece of string cheese about 30 minutes before I left and then right before I went I drank an Emergen-C. I'm going to try it again tonight and see if it was indeed that combination or just happenstance.

There hasn't been any knitting at home this week so far. I've been busy either writing thank you notes or planning the big move. Since S has to work I am going to be handling the first 3 or ... no, 4 days of the move myself so he is organizing everything. Spreadsheet at all. He's a great organizer. He'll get the truck and the labor handled and all I've got to do is make sure everything is packed up our end and supervise the installation on the other end. Oh .. and put stuff away. But that's going to be the fun part!

At noon knitting yesterday one of the girls brought a couple books she had bought from the IK book sale a couple weeks ago .. or was it last week? Anyway I ordered my books the same day so I was so excited when I got home yesterday, expecting S to come home from the post office with four new knitting books for me. But no!! I was SO disappointed!!! Maybe tonight. I do need to keep knitting on the Sizzle, although I'm getting a little scared that my final ball of yarn won't take me up to the shoulders on the front. If not I am going to be SO PISSED! I should just get it over with. Knit and knit and find out one way or the other. I still have thank you cards to write though so I've got a good excuse for procrastination. As if I need one ....

Orange is orange is orange?

I got the two skeins of Ella Rae Shibu from Dianne on Ravelry. I knew it was a different dye lot but I will be able to use it for the trim on the Sizzle top. But it is just amazing the difference in the two dye lots. I am always surprised by the wide variance of what is purported to be the same color. The balls that I got from Dianne are much brighter orange than the ones from my dye lot. I like mine better, frankly. There is a bit more brown in them. I do think that with the seed stitch that is used for the bands that the difference won't be all that noticeable. My goal now is to be able to finish the front of this with the last ball! I think I can do it, but it's going to take some clever management because I have to work the two front sides separately. Boy, if this doesn't cure me of starting a project before I am sure I have enough yarn ....

I gave myself the night off last night - no knitting, no thank you notes. I just reclined, read the paper, did the crossword and read my latest knitting book - Runway Knits. One of my knitting at noon buddies brought in a copy from the library and I loved it so I bought it. There are a couple things in there I'd like to make. And I have four more books coming from the IK book sale. Woohoo!!

At the crossroads

I was knitting away on the top for my sister, the "Sizzle", and came to my last ball of yarn so I stopped. I need to decide if I am going to wind some off of it for one of the front sides or if I'm going to work from both ends of the ball. I anticipate that working from both sides of the ball will be difficult and messy, however winding off the correct amount might be a bit difficult as well. I think the most logical solution is to knit to the point of the V-neck and do my best to wind off half at that point.

I can't decide which project I want to do next. This top should be finished up by the weekend. Maybe it's time for Fifi.

Summer is finally here and it was warm to hot all weekend. Saturday I baked a birthday cake and a peach cobbler and also made a big batch of guacamole for a joint birthday party that evening. It was brutal being in the kitchen all morning in the heat but it had to be done. And it ate up the whole day, pretty much. Sunday I got my poor dirty little dog bathed, got my nails done, grocery shopped AND started writing out the thank you notes. That's going to take a couple more evenings. I guess we should start thinking about packing next weekend. Only two more weeks of this brutal bike ride and I am counting the hours. I did have a personal best today though - 57 minutes to the intersection of 25th and the trail. That's only about a mile from work.

Isn't Ravelry great?

Here I was up the proverbial creek with regards to getting any more Shibu in the orange color and I found someone on Ravelry who was willing to trade two skeins for some Peruvian Highland I have! Woohoo! So now I can finish Kelli's top and if I don't make it with the yarn I have, which I don't think I will, I will have two skeins to use for the trim. Perfecto! So I was able to knit with abandon last night knowing that in a few days I'll have the rest of the yarn. That was nice. Didn't get a whole lot of knitting done on it but I should be able to go to town tonight since my DH is going to be working late.

I made a slide show of pictures of the house we bought. You can view it here. Conspicuous in it's absence is my soon to be office/yarn room. It is painted a gorgeous lavender! Pictures when I get the stash installed.

And if you'd like to look at wedding picture you can view the professional shots here. And my nephew's here.

Surreal experience

I have to share this -- it was just too weird!! Yesterday I was sitting on the porch of my soon-to-be new house, rocking in the porch swing(!!) and I heard Christmas music. To be precise, I heard Natalie Cole singing "Do you hear what I hear" from the Holly and Ivy album. I know this because I own it. I heard this clearly and then a car pulled up kitty-corner across the street. Mind you, I am sitting clear across the street AND a house north and this car is sitting there with all the windows closed and I can still hear this Christmas music as clear as a bell. And the guy sat there and sat there for at least a minute, maybe two. Then the car door opens up and the music is WAY blasting! I don't know how he could stand it in there. Christmas music. In July. He was a normal looking guy wearing shorts and sneakers and a T-shirt and sun glasses. Nothing out of the ordinary. He walked up to the door of the house and taped a piece of paper to the door and then sped away. All the while this Christmas music is blasting. Isn't that weird?? You don't know how hard it was for me not to run over there and ask him why in the world he was playing that music, and why so loudly? But I didn't.

The house passed inspection with flying colors, which is what I expected. Here's a picture my agent asked me to pose for. She is such a sweetie.

And here's a picture of the front of the house.

It was a picture kind of day. My nephew's pictures arrived yesterday and I went through them and put up a few in a slide show, viewable on my wedding blog. Also the professional photographer's picture link came. I am not that happy with all of those shots. My make up was severely messed up (I think) and I want to be able to go through his shots and pick which ones I like as opposed to which ones he likes. So when his disk comes in the mail I will put up more. He did make some nice group photos and did some artsy shots of me getting ready and some nice B&W ones. I just don't like the ones where the crappy make-up job is obvious.

So bottom line is that there was no knitting last night because I was in front of my computer until 10:30 fiddling with pictures and putting them on my iPhone, etc. Today we're having an extra knitting at noon session since I was unable to make it yesterday. yay!

Two -- FO and WIP

Oh I'm on fire! Two pictures today. They're not good pictures, mind you. But pictures all the same. And I have no reason not to take good pictures except I always decide right before I am heading out the door that I should take some pictures so I throw the project down on any surface that is even almost large enough and snap a quick shot and away I go. So that is why the picture of the Water Lily Top is so bad -- I just found a spot and plunked it down. But you can see the pretty colors anyway. As I suspected I will need to wear a tank underneath for modesty sake. It's not something I usually wear but I may. I am not all that keen on the yarn actually. That is probably due to the fact that I was knitting it with larger than called for needles and it's slick. I have plenty left over since this took only two skeins, and not even all of the second one. I might make a scarf with it or maybe even sell it.

Now comes the "Sizzle" in, appropriately enough, a very brilliant and bright color of Shibu. When I started making the shrug in the lovely mauve Shibu and needed more of it I also ordered 5 skeins of this orange and 10 skeins of a lovely straw color. I assumed that 525 yards would be plenty for a tank. Come to find out after getting the back nearly completed that the Sizzle in the size small calls for over 600 yards. I tried to order another two skeins from Little Knits but they were out. I don't know about you, but I find it particularly nerve wracking to be knitting away on a project and not know if you've got enough yarn to finish it! And yet ... yes ... this is the second project in as many months as I have had to deal with this. I did find a nice person on Ravelry who has some of it in the same color but different dye lot. So I may be able to purchase some from her and use it for the trim around the neckline and arms. That would be okay. And who knows, since this has such a deep neckline I MAY be able to make it with the yarn I have but wouldn't it be terrible to get two rows into the neckband and find that the yarn had run out? Then what? Gah!!

Back to reality - kind of

Back at work today. After a week and a half of profligate living I thought the ride in would be harder than it was. My bike broke on the way home last time I rode - Tuesday before last - and lucky for me I was in walking distance to a bike shop and home. So I had a nicely tuned bike to ride today and made decent time. I was a little slow because I was looking for the steps to the trail from 135th, which I found. They are steep but doable. Why was I looking for steps to the trail? Because we found a house, made an offer and it was accepted! We are going to close in 3 weeks. I swear. What am I going to do once this whirlwind is over? I am going to feel like I am the laziest person on the planet. But there's much work to be done before that happens.

This house ... oh I love it!! It's only 35 minutes on the trail to work, which is fabulous and something I know I can do year 'round plus which I will be able to start running again when I'm not riding so far each day. There is an office on the main floor for S's business, a 3-car garage and tons of space! The yard is easy care and beautifully landscaped with a sprinkler system. It has air conditioning, which for this part of the world is pretty non-standard. Room for a home theatre upstairs and a large family room downstairs plus an eating space plus a formal living and dining room. The kitchen is big and awesome. Upstairs besides the master suite with a fabulous bathroom (with a jetted tub!!) and the home theatre, are two other bedrooms. One for a guest room and the other for my office/yarn room. Oh ... and it's painted lavender! I know it sounds kind of weird but it works. Enough about the house - there are still a few hoops to go through, like the inspection. It's not done until we move in, right?

I got some good knitting done during my week off. I finished the Water Lily top and I started and am nearly done with the back of the Sizzle I'm making for my sister. Hope to have pictures tomorrow. I am using a gorgeous orange Ella Rae Shibu for it. I had lots of time on the 4th to knit because S was doing a big show and so I had hours and hours of sitting waiting for the fireworks to knit. Lots of comments from people walking by. I knit until I couldn't see any more and then ... voila! Dark enough for the fireworks. Getting home was a bitch, of course, because of traffic. But the symphony was very nice and S did an amazing job. I was truly impressed. Which makes it much easier to give a compliment, right?