Wow .. here comes the heat again.

It's supposed to top out at 90 today. It was pretty darned hot yesterday too. I ran at lunchtime but I was so exhausted from that rotten night that it didn't make any difference that I drove in - it was a bad run. I also had started out later than I had planned because it's pretty darned busy around here so I was hungry as well. No matter -- I've got a couple weeks before we even start the serious training so I'm feeling pretty good.

Oh! And great news yesterday - we finally have a bass player! Yay! We're going to have a 3 hour rehearsal on Sunday. I couldn't make it last Sunday - actually I figured it would be much better if just the guys got together for the first time. I am SO looking forward to this weekend.

I worked just a little bit on the Neck Warmer Hat last night. And I have definitely decided to frog the Flutter and sell the yarn. And while I'm working slowly on the Frost Flowers Stole I can start holiday knitting. Hats. Lots and lots of hats and fingerless mitts.

I feel SUPER this morning. I got caught up on my sleep. Despite the fact that it was sweltering last night, even with the ceiling fan and another fan across the hall, I slept soundly and got a full 8 hours in. I went up super early to read, made it for about 30 minutes and then conked out. Tink woke me briefly in the night, barking at some phantom in the street. But once I got her upstairs and settled I was out! I have lots of chores the next few evenings because Mr. M wants to have a business dinner party on Friday so I have all the shopping and prep to do the next couple nights so that he can get the entree cooking on Friday afternoon and all I have to do is finish the sides. It's much better for me to have these types of things on Saturday, but I guess schedules did not permit that.

It's that time of year already!

It's insomnia season. That time of year when if I am awakened during the night the chances of me being able to get back to sleep are slim indeed. I try to avoid looking at the time, but I do know that it was pitch black when I woke up and so that means it was before 4 am. Needless to say, I am exhausted. I started thinking about work and that was all it took.

I drove in today because Tuesdays and Thursdays are my harder weekday running/training days and I think I'll get a lot more out of the run if I'm not worn out from that long bike ride. We'll see how it goes these next few weeks.

I finally ordered myself a dress form! Mr. M found it in one of his catalogs he gets. I'll finally get to take some decent FO pictures. It should be here tomorrow. Woohoo!

And Monday rolls around again

We are getting our summer weather back this week. Yay! It was perfect gardening weather Saturday. Not too hot, a little breeze, and sunny. I filled up 3 garbage cans with stuff. Amazing. There was a lot of dead heading to do, and tons of buttercups to get cleaned out. The other gardeners I hired to do weeding just never got around to that. I should have walked them through the garden before setting them loose. I spent a good 2 hours out there. That's about my limit. Next weekend I'll work more in the front.

Tinkerbell was up getting groomed while I was working in the yard. When I finished and got cleaned up I spent a couple hours on the Frost Flowers Stole. Still not up to the first moving markers row. I'm on row 12 now. This is just something that I am going to have to keep plugging away on.

Saturday was the first Seahawks pre-season game so I mostly spent the evening watching that and doing a little more work on the socks. I think I can bind them off any time now. And I have decided that I hate that pink bamboo yarn so much that I'm not even going to bother finishing Flutter. I absolutely will not wear it. If it was more of a creamy pink, then yes I'd go ahead. But this is absolutely bubble gum pink. Not good on anyone over 8 years old. I think I'll frog it and sell it on eBay.

Last night I started a neck warmer hat - a pattern I saw in a book of Knitted Gifts that my friend brought to noon knitting. It's going to be a project I can make a few of for gifts and use up some of that yarn I got for that organic wrap that flopped so badly.

A busy bike trail

There is some kind of bike race going on today and part of their course took them onto the Burke Gilman trail. They were heading the opposite direction as me, and since the weather was bad this morning there weren't the normal numbers of commuters heading into Seattle. If it had been a sunny day it would have been quite a mess for a few miles. Yesterday when I was running at lunchtime I actually yelled at a bicyclist who passed me. I swear if I had moved one inch he would have clipped me. I always ding my bell or call out before I pass someone. It's just polite! And safe. And I know how annoying and scary it is to have a bicycle whiz past you unannounced.

There was no knitting last night. I was soaking wet when I got home, and then I had a phone call, then walking Tinkerbell, and on our walk I was waylaid by a guy selling meat and seafood .... weird. Anyway while he was showing me his wares it started raining even harder so I was really cold and wet by the time we made it back home. I had decided to finally finish up those socks I have been working on so I can cast on the Noro sock yarn I bought on vacation and make some arm warmers. But it was so late by the time I finally got showered and settled that I just watched TV and thumbed through Spring and Summer issues of IK. I can't decided if I should do the Tangled Yoke Cardigan with the beige Ella Rae Shibu I bought or if I should get some cotton and make the Gatsby. There's also a nice tunic in the latest issue of IK but I think it's pieced. The Gatsby is done in the round. That's a big plus -- not that I couldn't re-do the flat pattern to round but .... it's nice when it's already done that way. We'll see.

Big plans for gardening this weekend. Tonight we're going out to dinner, tomorrow Mr M will be working late so it's a perfect day for me to do chores and garden and MAYBE start a new project.

The hat is finished and my next 15 weeks sorted!

I finished up the Windansea during noon knitting yesterday. It's SO CUTE! I should have Mr. M take a picture of it on me, but here it is on my flat topped hat block. The color is my favorite and it fits my head perfectly. I'm not going to sew in the elastic. I really don't think it needs it.

I attended a meeting at Gilda's Club last night. I am definitely going to join their 1/2 marathon training program. As soon as I'm registered I will put a link up here and be bugging you for sponsorship. I have to raise $750 for them and it's a really really wonderful program, so I'm going to be really trying hard to even beat that. The training starts next week but I'm going to start this week since I already ran Tuesday. And every Sunday we all meet at one of several locations to do a training run together. The schedule is moderate 25 - 45 minute runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and on Sundays we will start at 3 miles and eventually get up to 12 miles a few weeks before the race. The sole down side is that the scheduled training is Sunday - football day - and starts at around 11. Thankfully I've got a DVD and can record the games but that does mean that if someone happens to have a spare ticket I can't go unless it's a night game. Or after the 29th. Totally going to be worth it though. (Can you tell I'm excited?)

Mr. M has a big job tonight and won't be home 'til late, so it's just the Tinkie dog and myself. I guess I'll do some work on Flutter and get that out of my hair.

Pleasantly sore

It turned out that I was feeling quite strong yesterday afternoon and made my whole 30 minute run without having to stop and walk. That's great news! My leg feels fine, except of course that I'm a bit sore. But it's good soreness. So I am very excited to go to the meeting tonight and find out about the training. I did a bit of sleuthing on line and it looks like my Saturdays from now until race day, November 29, will have a formal training session. Shorter runs during the week and a longer session on Saturday. That makes sense. I just have to stay injury free, which is going to be the trick.

I didn't get to do any knitting last night because Mr. M's daughter came over for dinner with her new boyfriend. She's going to be gone for the next month and wanted him to meet her new beau. He seems nice. A whole lot better than the previous one.

It's noon knitting today. I brought my hat - I've only got 2 inches left of crocheting the wire in so maybe I can finish it up. It's sitting on a chair in the picture, the crown is flopping over but you can get an idea of how it is going to look. I will put it on my hat blocker and take a really good picture when I'm completely finished. And I brought my WIP Frost Flowers Stole just for show and tell.

Making up for all those dry days!

And how! It's been raining since yesterday evening. I know the garden and lawn will certainly perk up. Of course so will the weeds.

I'm feeling much better today. No sore throat! Since it was pouring rain and my rain gear is nonexistent, I drove in. I am going to try running today for the first time in over a month. More like a little run/walk action. Tomorrow is that meeting about the training for the half marathon. I want to know how my leg feels before I go to the meeting. I mean, it feels fine just walking and riding my bike, but I don't remember how long the last time I waited before I got back running.

I had plenty to do yesterday, work-wise, and kept busy. Tinkie got a bath late in the afternoon and then I settled down to finish up my Windansea hat. I didn't have much knitting left to do on the crown and finished that up and started crocheting the wire into the brim. I'm almost done and it looks really good! I meant to snap a quick shot this morning but as usual I was running out the door when I thought of it. Tomorrow.

Except for the sore throat ......

it was a pretty darned good birthday! I went to rehearsal Friday and when I got home my throat was very sore. I thought it was just from singing but it was still there Saturday. I chose to ignore it and did a little shopping instead of laying low. As usual, Mr. M gave me an awesome gift -- who doesn't love jewelry? And we had a nice dinner out with friends. And there was cake! Yay!! And a gift certificate to my LYS! YAY!! And champagne (well, sparkling wine). It was an early dinner so we had a movie when we got home.

I had big plans for Sunday -- yard work and doggie washing topping the list. But I was just not feeling well at all so I did a quick grocery shop and spent the day knitting. I got quite a bit done on the frost flower stole - I'm now starting row 11. I know that doesn't seem like much, but this is hundreds and hundreds of stitches. I got the hat nearly done - just the crown left to do. And I even managed to work a bit on the Flutter. I would like to finish the hat tonight. I couldn't find millinery wire but found 20 gauge wire that should work.

My goal today is to pound liquids and get rid of this whatever-it-is. Thank goodness I can work from home.

The good thing about it being unseasonably ....

cold today is that I got to wear my Ingrid skirt! It's awesome, if I do say so myself. I had Mr. M take this shot with my iPhone this morning. Yes, I could have been a little less lazy and had him use my camera but I was running late. At least you can see how the ruffle is indeed higher on one side and that is a design choice that isn't apparent in the picture on the web site. But it's really cute and it works. When I walk the ruffle moves in a most fetching manner. ;-)

I didn't do a thing last night. Mr. M was working late and Tink and I just chilled on the couch. I read the paper. I watched some TV, cooked some dinner. A nice, quiet evening. I haven't heard from Doug yet but I'm assuming we're still rehearsing tonight. If not, I'm going to do a big push and try to finish up the hat. I'll need to get some wire tomorrow. It is supposed to be cloudy all weekend but I really want to work in the garden AND I want to put in some solid hours on the Frost Flowers as well. Good intentions. Tune in Monday and we'll see how well I did, eh?

Clearly what I needed was a good sleep

I was so groggy yesterday. It was difficult to be productive and impossible to be in a good mood. When I got home I had a nice shower and got into my lounge-y pants and just relaxed. Mr. M was out running errands and so brought dinner home, which was nice because I sure didn't feel like cooking. And I tell you what -- after a dinner and a movie I went to bed and I must have been fast asleep before 10. I slept like a rock and now this morning I feel pretty decent.

Tomorrow I think we'll be rehearsing again, since I can't do it Saturday. The drummer has a bass player in mind and is lobbying hard to give him a try. I'm game. I don't know what the hold up is. Anybody is better than nobody because we can't make our gig demo without a bass player. Do you realize, if I'd started taking bass lessons when that first guy quit I'd be a whiz by now!

I got a good bit done on my little hat while watching the movie. I must make myself work for a few hours on the Frost Flowers Stole this weekend. It looks like it's going to rain so it shouldn't be too hard to carve out a few down hours since I won't be working in the garden and Mr. M is working most of Sunday.

The birthday week

It is in fact my birthday week and I am just flat out depressed. I hate getting older, and I miss my old friends SO much I can hardly breathe sometimes. I know ... don't think about it. But it's much much easier to say than to do. And OMG, do NOT read old email. I made that mistake. My thinking was ... oh this was a few months ago ... let's see what I was doing in May of 2000. Oh no no no. Bad idea. Well anyway this will pass. It always does. And there are always surprises around every corner, aren't there? And even if my birthday itself is a bust, there is football on Sunday! The first pre-season game.

I was going to attend a meeting about training for the half marathon in November. Gilda's Club is offering 16 weeks of free training if you pledge to raise $750 for them. I have always wanted to get some running training but it's rather pricey. Since I've just started riding again I am so tired I can hardly stand it. So I think I'll skip the meeting tonight and go next Wednesday instead. That way I can drive in and I won't be so wiped out and able to make a 6 pm meeting.

I worked a little on my hat last night but didn't want to bring that in with me because the yarn is so slippery, so I've got the Flutter with me today for noon knitting. I am really not loving that color. Way too pink. The picture on my monitor had it looking much lighter. I can give it away when it's done if I don't like how it looks.

Okay, so it hurt a little

I got back on my bike today - one month off! It was not painless, I'll tell you that. But I was only 2 minutes off pace. The weather was much cooler than it has been and it was very pleasant. Except for the pain, of course. Since I have my doctor's approval to do it I shall assume I'm not causing myself any permanent damage. But oh my goodness .... I am going to have to take some Naproxen or something. Ouchie

I got my hair done yesterday and by the time I got home and got a few chores done I was just ready to watch a little Star Trek and chill. I didn't do any knitting. I hope I can do some tonight. Tomorrow evening I'm going for a meeting about training for the half marathon in November so I probably won't knit tomorrow night. Oh ... but it's noon knitting tomorrow so I should be able to get something done. I guess it'll have to be Flutter.

More tea!!

According to plan

I got going early Saturday in order to get a good morning in the garden before the heat kicked in. Well of course the back garden is on the west side of the house so it was warm even at 9:30. I got out there and started with the hedge around the deck. I have never trimmed a hedge before but it actually turned out quite well. I switched up from trimming the hedge to weeding to dead heading, etc. etc. I ended up spending 2 1/2 hours out there but I got lots and lots done. It looks pretty good. I've learned a lot about gardening this year, watching this one come full circle. It will be better next year.

Mr. M was gone the whole day Saturday to a memorial service for a distant cousin so I had a nice long afternoon to myself. I *should* have picked up the Frost Flowers Stole and done a couple rows but instead I started Windansea with some beautiful green Seduce I bought at Weaving Works on Friday. I wound it up Friday evening and that was quite an ordeal. This yarn is linen, rayon, silk and nylon. VERY slippery! It is not a portable project because the balls threaten to unwind. It is knitting up nicely. I got it cast on and did a few rows before he got home that evening and a few more while I was watching a movie. It's an easy pattern.

Sunday was very hot again and we kept the AC on so we could sleep at night. Saturday night we tried fans and windows open but I ended up melting all night so at least I got a good night in last night. Went over to have a little rehearsal yesterday afternoon. Thankfully Doug has a window AC in the studio because it's on the top floor of the house. So it was okay - not cool by any means but we spent a couple hours up there without too much trouble. We hadn't been able to get together since my vacation and surgery. Still no bass player(!) but the drummer has a line on one so, fingers crossed, by the end of this month we should be able to put together out demo.

I know this could go without saying .....

but oh my goodness, I am SO glad that it's a bit cooler today! Last evening I actually turned off the AC and opened the windows. It is still supposed to be getting hot - predicting nearly 90 again today - but this is a nice respite.

I took the bus again yesterday. Two days is enough for me. I really really hate taking the bus. It's not like taking the Metro in Paris or the Tube in London. It's the bus. Noisy and stinky. And yesterday, the 2nd hottest day of the year, a poor man got on dressed in a shirt, tie and a coat and hat! He was quite obviously impaired somehow and quite a nose full. I have errands after work so I could justify driving in. Monday as well I've got a hair appointment but then on Tuesday I'm getting back on my bike. It will have been a little more than a month. I wonder how long it'll take me to be up to speed.

No knitting last night. I did get the circular needle I need to make that hat but the new Interweave Knits arrived so I indulged myself with an evening of reading. Isn't it funny how priorities change? I used to be such an avid reader. I always had a couple books going AND a few in the queue. But once I started knitting my reading has gone down down down. I do always have a book by my bedside, but the days of spending an entire evening reading seem to be gone. Who knows, I might get back into it someday. And I do keep up with my favorite authors, although they're mostly getting quite old. I'll have to branch out pretty soon.

No big plans for the weekend except to get out into the garden and pull weeds. That's another thing that hasn't been touched for some weeks and it is starting to look like it. I think I can get things spruced back up in a couple hours tomorrow if I start early in the morning before it gets too hot.

It was indeed a record

All I can say is thank goodness for the air conditioning. When I finally dragged myself through the door last night and looked at the indoor/outdoor temperature ..... would you believe me if I said it was 30 degrees cooler inside the house? The temperature outside read 105, and inside 75. It felt like Arizona out there! I took Tink for a little walk around the block and that was about all she wanted too.

This heat just sucks all of the energy out of me. I couldn't even knit. I just played Mario Kart and watched stupid TV and made a little food for Mr. M, who left the house at 6am and got home at 9pm, and ate, went to bed and got up and is doing it all over again today. I swear, I don't know how he does it! He's got two shows running simultaneously - one at Boeing and one at Microsoft. And one of his best employees has the flu. Talk about timing.

I am going to a meeting next week at Gilda's Club. They are offering a 16 week training for free to run the half marathon November 29 if you pledge to raise $750 for them. Since my nephew wants to do a triathlon I asked him if he wanted to do it with me and he does! It's going to be perfect timing for me. I'm really excited about it.

And hotter

It is crazy! The house was nice and cool yesterday when I got home, thankfully. I stopped on the way home and got Tinkerbell a new "swimming pool" -- actually just a plastic storage bin. But she loves it! As soon as I got it filled up she hopped in. She just stands there, maybe takes a little lick or two. Crazy dog.

I had also stopped to get some Seduce for the Windansea hat. I hadn't read the pattern closely and the needle it calls for - a size 6 16" circular - I do not have. I am using my size 6 Denise needles on the lace knitting and I am loathe to take them off. Besides, the Denise set is not very good at making a viable 16". So if I can't borrow one from one of the knitting ladies I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy one. It's just a rather odd size. Usually a hat is made with a 7 or 8 ... well, at least the hats I do.

Even though I have the doctor's approval to get on the bike it is truly too hot for me. As I said, getting to work would be lovely, but coming home in the heat of the day and going up that hill would be impossible. So rather than drive in again (they raised the PayPerUse parking fee) I thought I'd take the bus this morning. Of course since I have never taken it from home, and only once taken it from work back home, I went down the wrong road heading to the stop and had to walk back, causing me to JUST miss the bus. Just miss as in I was standing on the corner waiting for the walk sign. It was early as well. So I had to sit there beside that busy road for nearly 20 minutes to wait for the next one. Ick

I worked a little bit on Flutter last night since I couldn't start the hat. Let me just rant here a bit about this pattern and well, a lot of patterns by this particular designer. Here is a simple T-shirt really that she has written out in pieces - front, back and two sleeves. There is no reason this can't be done in the round, which is much more efficient. So I re-wrote it so I could do that. And also she has you increasing evenly across your work but doesn't give the count. Now I know how to figure this out or where to go on the internet to use a calculator but a beginner does not know how to do this. This designer has editors. Why in the world can't they just do the math for the pattern? Ridiculous. End of rant.

WoooWeeeee!

Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot!! It is ridiculous! Tomorrow they're predicting we'll hit triple digits. Crazy hot.

Yesterday Mr. M decided to just leave all the windows open rather than turn on the air conditioning. Yeah ..... not a good decision, it turns out. Our house is situated so that the morning sun beats down on the back of the house, and the afternoon sun through the side windows and the evening sun beats down on the front of the house. We have a lot of windows. There was no breeze yesterday. Needless to say, he decided to close up and turn on the air con this morning. Good decision.

So it was definitely too hot to knit last night. I just sat in front of the fan trying to stay reasonably cool. Maybe tonight I can knit. I might stop by the LYS on the way home for a couple skeins of Seduce for that Windansea hat.

I got all the sticky bits off my leg ... all but one at the ankle. And I can get back on my bike any time I want to. Probably later in the week when it cools down. It would be fine riding in to work in the morning, but hideous trying to get home and up that hill. AND she says I can start running any time after 3 week post-surgery. yay!

I shall try not to whine

Ah yes ... back to work after more than 3 weeks away. It was very difficult to get out of bed this morning. I know these next few days will zoom by, thankfully, because I have tons of stuff to do. Oh but the heat! It is going to be in the 90s all week! And even though our main office was remodeled they neglected to give us air conditioning! I am not in the main corridor, however, so my office is cooler than those with the windows facing west.

It is not easy for me to get comfortable because if I have my leg down it starts hurting and to put it up I have to twist my body around to type and see my screen. I can't put my leg up right in front of me. I'm going to have to get clever because I can't stay twisted.

I started the Frost Flowers stole a week ago Saturday. What a project! This lace knitting is "real" lace knitting, as opposed to the other kind I've done where there is always a plain row after a pattern row. This is just row after row of pattern. Once you cast on the 997 stitches, you do a few rows before joining. I was so afraid I had the darned thing twisted. I finally had Mr. M help me by holding the circular needle for me while I made sure it was on there straight. Here's a picture of where I was after 7 hours (!) on that first Saturday. Granted I was still on pain pills so I might have been a little slower than normal but yikes. And here's a picture 8 rows in, taken this morning on my way out the door. You can start to see the pattern finally. Still it is an hour a row so I don't imagine I'm going to be moving along very quickly. NOT TV knitting, that's for sure.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday Mr. M was doing a job at one of the 3 street fairs in Bellevue. The poor guy was mixing sound for the only music stage they had at this fair, so he was stuck there all day, every day. Luckily for him the food booths were near to him. My little great niece and I went to visit on Saturday. The main draw for me was the new Wii Resort game that they were demonstrating and that's where Sophia and I spent most of our time. It was so bloody hot that neither one of us wanted to stay long. We went home, turned on the air conditioning and played video games until our eyes bled. She was happy.

Now, back to real work!

Boring boring boring

Well now -- I had a nice long vacation. Part with my sister and part with my hubby. Then I had a little leg surgery last week. The bandages came off yesterday and now I have the better part of a week to stay off my leg and let it heal. This, my friends, is the difficult part. Sure sure -- at first it sounded great to have all that time off to just lay around and knit and read and it was nice for oh, about 3 days. The weather is gorgeous and yesterday I tried to give Tink a walk. At the end of 2 blocks I was whimpering in pain and almost called Mr. M to come get me! I guess it's going to take a little longer than I had remembered. In fact, I've been at my desk for a little over 30 minutes and it's about time to get it back up again.

I have been doing knitting, that's for sure. I finished my skirt on July 4. I started a little project on my vacation from a new bok "Knitting in the Sun". I had found a new Noro yarn on Elann on sale - Aurora. It has bits of wire in it for sparkle. I made the Silver Strand Ocean Waves Wrap and blocked it a couple days ago. It's lovely! And Sunday ... or was it Saturday? ... I finally started the Frost Flowers Stole. Oh. My.Goodness. This is a project and a half. Perhaps tomorrow I can get some pictures up!! Until then ...... errrrrghghghg

Ouch

Vacation is over and yesterday I had a little procedure done on my left leg. So I am laid up now for about a week. I can't take the wrapping off until Sunday which means sponge baths and no shampoo. My goal today is to find a way to be comfortable.

In knitting news-- I finished my skirt on July 4 and am just rows away from finishing a little wrap I started at the beginning of our vacation. Finding a project for my convalescence .... I can't decide. Maybe some coffee will help.

Port Townsend

Today, Port Townsend. We passed a yarn store with a "sale" sign and Mr. M pulled right over!! Unfortunately not much of a sale but I bought some Noro sock yarn to make some fingerless mitts.
I wish I could do pictures with my iPhone like I used to with my other phone. I hear that MM messaging will be available soon.

Now .... Lunch

Vacation

We are staying in a quaint place in Port Hadlock. Nice weather!! Lllllove vacation!!

Shelley

What? No FO pictures??

Ah yes .... I got derailed again last night. First it was a little Mario Kart on the new TV. I still haven't gotten used to it. There's not a really big size difference, but enough of one that I'm still not used to it.

Then I called my sister to find out if her boyfriend eats lamb, because I want to make a special lamb dish for Friday dinner. And then we started gabbing away --- yes, I know she'll be here tomorrow but there's always so much to say! By then I had to get dinner ready and then we watched a little TV and there goes the evening. Tonight for sure. I have a few little chores to take care of, but mostly I'm ready for the visit AND let's not forget VACATION!!! Woohoo!! And YAY Summer!!

Here comes another heat wave

Well it is absolutely gorgeous again AND it looks like we're not only going to have a sunny 4th of July, but a hot one as well! This is not normal for Seattle but always appreciated. Super lucky for my sister's visit as well.

There was absolutely no knitting yesterday since I spent the evening at Doug's rehearsing. I like the newer songs he and the drummer have learned - some Fergie and Pink. We're going to be having a big break in July since I'm on vacation and the drummer has a family reunion and then I've got my little surgery which is going to lay me up for a week plus. Doug promised to audition bass players during our hiatus. I am sure I'm going to be getting very bored after a few days of laying around. Maybe I'll just make it a project to keep calling him about it. hee

I brought the skirt in today. I should be able to finish the band and start weaving in ends at lunchtime today and then tonight - in the washer it goes! Hope to post pictures tomorrow.

Oh so close!

I really really really wanted to finish my skirt last night. Unfortunately I didn't quite make it. I was so tired when I got home, but I got Tink walked and got cleaned up, and finished cleaning up from the party and then sat down and started working on the skirt. I was doing fine, then I got distracted by the thought of fresh cornbread with the leftovers, so I stopped to make that, then a friend of Mr. M's came by with a new mini computer and I stopped to ooooo and ahhh over that ... then it was time to get dinner together ....... Yeah, there went the evening. By the time I got that mess all cleaned up I was barely able to keep my eyes open.

I did have an absolutely gorgeous night's sleep though. I feel great today. We are rehearsing tonight so there will be no knitting, of course. I think I might have to drive in tomorrow so I can bring it in with me and weave in all my ends. I am undecided whether I should put in the elastic and sew down the waistband or wait until after it has been washed and blocked to do that. I might have to put it in the dryer to shrink it is why I am thinking of waiting. I'll ask for opinions tomorrow.

I got the yarn packed up to be sent back today. I put it in a Priority envelope so hopefully I'll get the correct yarn by next week before we go on vacation. That would be a perfect project to have with me to pick up and put down. Lace .... no. If it's not going to get here in time I may have to finish up those little socks I have on the needles and cast on another pair or .... oooo! Or I could make another Sizzle with the left over Shibu. I have two skeins of orange and 3 of the gold. I could make another Sizzle, this time in the small size and do it in the round. Well, I've got option then!

Sum-sum-summertime

Friday I had another doctor appointment, so worked at home in the afternoon. I was thrilled to get my package from Webs containing lace weight alpaca silk for my Frost Flowers Stole, and supposedly Plymouth Royal Bamboo for my Flutter. The color of the lace yarn is absolutely perfect! However, I was a bit disappointment with the pink color of the other yarn. And it wasn't until this morning when I took a picture of it that I realized it wasn't what I had ordered! It is Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton and the color is not right. I looked on line this morning and found the bamboo I had ordered and gave them a call. I have to send the wrong stuff back and they will replace it with the bamboo. Hopefully I can get that in the mail tomorrow so I can get my bamboo fast! I am nearly done with my skirt and while I am looking forward to starting the stole, I will definitely need a simpler project to have on hand.

This weekend marked our first wedding anniversary. We had a big party on Saturday. It was a blast! I had purchased a small wedding cake from the woman who baked ours, and I made red beans and rice, Monika's husband Andre makes THE BEST ribs in the world and he brought those, Mr. M had the BBQ going and ... oh there was just too much good stuff. Coincidentally, the woman we bought the house from happened by while we were celebrating and came in for a tour of the garden and house. She was very happy to see the garden was thriving.

Obviously it was a quiet day on Sunday, our actual anniversary. After cleaning up I just relaxed and worked on my skirt. It was difficult to get the time to work on it. Now I have about 8 or 10 rows to go. Not much. I have the elastic so maybe I can get it done tonight or tomorrow, if I don't rehearse.

The weather is awesome and supposed to stay that way for the 4th. My sister and her boyfriend are coming up Friday morning, he's leaving Sunday and she's staying until Wednesday. So for me, my vacation officially starts Friday am. Can't wait!!

Oh I cannot WAIT for football season!!!

Besides the obvious reason - that I like football - I have another reason. Mr. M came home last night with a brand new, huge LCD TV! The TV that we had in the family room is a good TV, but this picture is even better. Football is going to be insanely good on that. He got it set up after dinner and stayed up WAY late tweaking it. I stayed up later than usual because we found a LOST repeat on the SciFi channel and it looked so darned good I couldn't stop watching. My MarioKart looks awesome as well. I don't know if I'm more excited to go home and play Wii or work on my skirt.

While I was waiting for him to get home and while he was fussing with the beast, I was working on the skirt. I got all of the decreases done and now have only 14 plain rows to work, then the waist band. I should be able to get it all knit up tonight, maybe even get the ends woven in and then tomorrow night I can sew the waist band up and put in the elastic and block it. I am anxious to see how that lace ruffle looks all blocked out.

I tried out the new ice cream maker last night as well (big night) with a sorbet. I was wanting to make mango sorbet but Trader Joe's didn't have any mango but they did have a mix of mango, raspberry and blueberry which made an incredible sorbet. Next will be ice cream. We're going to have some awesome desserts at this party Saturday. I'm also going to bake a peach pie. Wedding cake, peach pie, sorbet and ice cream. Good heavens - will anybody want real food??

The wind really kicked up last night and it was very windy on the way in today. The weather is still supposed to be nice Saturday, so fingers crossed!

The garden is tamed

Yesterday we had the gardeners out to weed, thank goodness. It took 3 people 3 1/2 hours to do it. That's a whole lot of man hours. It's not perfect - I can see a few things they missed and the little hedge around the deck didn't get trimmed. But that's something I can do myself and if I can get disciplined and spend just 1 hour a weekend out there I truly believe I can keep it up. It's really too bad Mr. M is not at all interested in it. He doesn't mind cutting the grass but he's not at all interested in the shrubs and flowers, except to enjoy looking at them. It's too bad my sister's visit is going to be so short because I could use some help deciding what to plant in the place of the things that died last year.

I got lots done on the body of my skirt last night and when I was getting ready to go up to bed I held it up to myself and realized that if I keep doing the decreases for the medium size it's going to be too long. I brought it to work today for Noon Knitting. I'll get the opinion of the ladies, but I am thinking I should now switch to the short version decreases for the other half of them and it should then be about the right length. The cotton is heavier than linen and the big lace ruffle on the bottom is weighing it down. I am loving it still though.

Insomnia strikes again

It's been quite a while since I've been plagued by insomnia. I was so very tired last night that I headed up to bed at 9 :30 to read a bit. I could barely keep my eyes open by 10:30 and so turned off the light and ... boing ... my eyes popped open. I couldn't get to sleep. When I finally did drift off it was a very light sleep and I was awakened by every little noise. Needless to say, I am a zombie today. I didn't even get the energizing effect of the bike ride because I have an appointment this afternoon and had to drive in. Ah well ... just means I'll sleep like a baby tonight.

Mr. M wanted to go visit his Dad yesterday evening so we took off to eat dinner at the Mongolian Grill en route to his parent's house. While there they gabbed and I worked on my skirt. Now it's just donkey work - around and around. I'm working as fast as I can. I have yarn coming from Webs on Friday. I broke my yarn diet and purchased some bamboo to make Flutter, by Norah Gaughan. And a cone of alpaca silk to make the Frost Flowers Stole. I was going to by the Indie II from Little Knits for that, but I liked the colors better from Webs, and the price was better too. I know the Flutter is a simple pattern, but sometimes simple is best and I believe I can rework the pattern to do it in the round.

It is now officially Summer ....

and therefore the sun has taken its accustomed place behind the rain clouds. It was nice while it lasted, eh?

I had a doctor's appt. Friday afternoon so worked from home. Friday evening and Saturday day and evening I worked on the Ingrid skirt. The short row bits, 3 of them consisting of 28 rows, took forever! Especially the third one which went all the way around the front and back, working towards the left side marker. Once I got the hang of the short rows, and started using markers, it went a bit faster. But still - whew! The odd thing about this pattern though is that it is written with one side being about 4-6 inches shorter than the other in the short row department. It's odd but supposedly it's supposed to make the lace panel hang straight. I hope it doesn't look funny. I can't see it in the pattern picture. Here's where I am now. I am working on the body and have done 3 of 15 6-row repeats, with decreases on the 6th row.

For Father's Day Tinkerbell bought Mr. M an ice cream maker. He is excited! I took him and his daughter out to eat last night - nothing fancy, just Red Robin. It was packed.

Loppem is finished

All in all a quick and satisfying knit. I used only 5 skeins of the yarn and so have 5 skeins left. I am considering making a sleeveless top with the cable used on the edges down the front. Maybe I can copy a top I have that fits right and make my own pattern. I'll think about it.

I hope to get lots of good work done on the skirt the next couple of days and through the weekend. Big party plans for the following weekend - 1st anniversary - so these next 7 days or so is when I'll get a big push on the skirt.

Watched "Animal House" last night while I was doing the sleeve bands and weaving in ends. I haven't watched that movie uncut in so long! It's a classic. I still laugh at it. Of course I am know for my low brow humor.

Finally they are fixing the trail

There is a portion of the Burke-Gilman trail that is SO bumpy. You can tell people that ride it regularly by their elaborate weaving path through the cracks and bumps. I have lost my panniers more than once on that stretch. Yesterday evening we were directed by signs off the trail and back on by the Metropolitan Market and again this morning it was closed. So yay!! It is about time!

Today is Noon Knitting but I couldn't bring either of my "big" projects in because they wouldn't fit in my panniers. So I brought socks. I have only a couple rows left of Loppem, then the sleeve bottoms. I am astonished at how much yarn I have left. I am still working on unraveling the Radiate, I have two balls of yarn already wound and I will most likely only use a small portion of one of them. AND I have 3 skeins of yarn that hasn't been wound. That means this little sweater is going to come in at under 600 yards.

No meetings today, one more tomorrow. This is the time of the year when we get together with faculty from the other sites, plus we're gearing up for the anatomy course in September. And people are writing grants like crazy. It's kind of nice to see action around here for a change.

I spoke too soon

Yesterday we had day one of our annual course meetings. I was talking to someone from Alaska who said he immediately started sneezing when he got off the plane because of hay fever, which he doesn't get in Alaska. So I said that I thought the worst of it was behind us, based on the fact that my symptoms had pretty much disappeared the last couple days. Well, not so. I woke up sneezing and I couldn't even get my contacts into my eyes! Oh well ... it's not so bad. It's a good trade off -- I am loving the weather!

Yesterday evening I worked some more on the skirt and finally "got" the wraps. I now realize what I'm seeing in the first couple rows are 3 or 4 wraps that didn't get picked up properly on the way back. I was thinking of taking out those 30 or so rows that I've already done and starting over but ... nah. Honestly it's really only visible if you get right up on it. I can make that the back and then even I won't have to look at it!

After dinner I got to work on the Loppem. I did some sleuthing on Ravelry yesterday and found out that the original corrections that had been sent and published as errata had in fact had errors! Can you imagine what a nightmare that must have been for Norah Gaughan? Good heavens. Anyway I got that squared away and was just knitting away, "one more row" --- you know how it goes. Before I knew it, there I was an hour past my normal bedtime! I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. But I will be able to finish up the Loppem tonight, hopefully. One thing though --- I messed up the first buttonhole! It is very small. I'm hoping I can stretch it.

I booked us rooms yesterday for our little mini-vaca. We're going to take my sister to the airport early Wednesday evening and then we'll head to Port Hadlock for two nights at the Inn at Port Hadlock, and then one night in Port Townsend. I got us a place there with a view AND a Jacuzzi on the deck! Yeah baby! Now fingers crossed our weather isn't just an aberration and we'll have warm weather in July!

Happy Monday!

Boy, I don't know why but I'm in a great mood today! Maybe it's because my sister has finalized her plans to come visit and I have decided on a week vacation to coincide with her visit and a few days after, so Mr. M and I can take a little weekend. He is SO busy! I am not complaining, it's just hard for us to find time to get away. The fact that he has a weekend in July open is something we have to jump right on. I am thinking we'll go to Port Townsend or somewhere around there. Water.

The weekend didn't go exactly as planned. I worked in the garden on Saturday rather than go for a bike ride. I spent a solid hour weeding and filled TWO cans! There is a part of the garden that is not planted and it's not exactly visible from inside the house so when I got back there it was like a forest of weeds! Big, tall ones. I am having the guys who did such a wonderful job with the spring clean up come by and take a look tomorrow then hopefully they can get out there later this week and do a professional job. It needs weeding and edging. If gardening was my hobby, rather than knitting, I'd come home every night and spend an hour or so out there. However, it's NOT my passion. I love looking at all the flowers - and they are spectacular - but messing with them - not so much.

True to my word, I worked on the Ingrid skirt for hours on Saturday AND Sunday. I got the ruffle done and 12 or so rows of the short row shaping. This skirt is going to be heavy! Good thing I'm making it from the bottom up so I can try it on as I go. I may be wise to make it a bit shorter than I would like because it is going to grow. You can see a bit of the 10x1 ribbing. Also I didn't get the first couple wraps knit back correctly. On close inspection it's obvious but I don't think it's going to be so obvious when it's on. Working those wraps on the purl side is hard and I still don't think I have it right. But the lace ruffle - nice, huh? It is going to swing when I walk.

AND I worked on Loppem as well. Finished up the decrease rows and am working now to get the sleeves up to 5 inches, then we do the yoke and button bands. I can see on the pattern picture that there is a garter rib to echo the bottom and the bottom of the sleeves but it is not written into the pattern, in fact the errata seems to erase it! I am going to check with Ravelry and see what people have done about it. It is very important to the look to have that, I think. Here's where I am so far. I am also hoping that blocking will keep the bottom edge from curling so much.

Hap-hap-happy Friday!

Oh boy it's Friday and it's supposed to be a nice weekend to boot. The forecast had originally predicted clouds and rain but it has been revised for sun. I have GOT to get out in the garden and do some serious weeding. I will try to do that Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going to go for a bike ride in the morning, do a bit of grooming and walk Tinkerbell, and then I'm going to wind some more cotton and get to work on that skirt! I haven't been doing 2 rows a night so I've got many hours left of the ruffle. If I can get up and get going early enough on Saturday I should be able to settle down around 1 or 2 and knit until my hands hurt. Mr. M has to work Saturday until late, so it's all me time.

He worked late yesterday as well so I spent my whole evening working on my Loppem (with the exception of 30 or so minutes on Mario Kart). I got the sleeves cast on, the garter stitch edging of the sleeves done and up to the first decrease row. It's still cute.

MUCH better

Oh yeah, the allergies were much better yesterday. And I had a great sleep last night! Yesterday afternoon I went for a run, since I could breath. It was hot but thankfully not so hot as last week. I rode in today, all the time thinking it was Friday. Cruel subconscious. When I made my first cup of tea this morning and went into the fridge to grab my milk I then noticed that I had 2 milks in there, meaning one for today (Thursday) and another for tomorrow. Yep ...

At noon knitting yesterday I worked until I had about 12 inches of yarn left. I must wind a couple more balls before I can do any more on that. And instead of doing that yesterday evening I worked on Loppem instead, finishing up the 9" of body and bound off for the sleeves. This is interesting and different construction for me. Since Mr. M has to work late tonight I may just work on that all evening and save the Ingrid for the weekend.

We're coming up on our 1st anniversary and trying to decide if we're going to have a party or not. I am torn because my sister is supposed to be coming up to visit and I want to take some time off around that. I need to nail that girl down!

And it's not even summer

Wow! Another gorgeous day and the weather forecast has been revised so that we are not expecting any rain until the weekend (of course). But still -- it's just wonderful to have all this sunshine and warm temperatures. Thankfully NOT as hot as last week.

But the consequences of having this nice weather so early is that the allergy season is kicking behind! I never did get my antihistamines to work very well yesterday and consequently didn't run at lunchtime because I just couldn't breath! I was uncomfortable all night. My eyes were very itchy. I let myself sleep in for an extra 45 minutes and drove my car in today. So far I'm feeling marginally better. I'm not wearing my contacts because my eyes still itch, but not as bad as yesterday. Maybe whatever is blooming that is causing this is on its way out.

I did a row on my ruffle last night and brought it in to work today for noon knitting. I should be able to get a full row done at noon and maybe start another one. I've got to roll a couple more balls of yarn too. I'm nearly done with my second ball.

Do you thinkI could actually rub the nose off my face?

If it's possible, then I'm on the road. The WORST allergy season I can remember for a long long time. Eyes itchy, nose itchy, sniffy .... ergh. As long as I keep myself dosed up with antihistamines I'm okay, but it's taking a few minutes for my morning dose to kick in!

One evening this weekend Mr. M and I made a quick dash to the grocery store to round out our dinner. There I saw a man in a Seahawks jersey and he caught me looking at him. "I like your shirt!", I said. "Won't be long now!" And he said .... "4 1/4 weeks". Wow! I guess he's talking about 4 1/2 weeks until training camp starts. Still ... sweeeeet!

I did no knitting last night. I was just so tired when I got home. I played some Mario Kart (oooo and unlocked MY Wii!) and after I got dinner on the table I was up for about another hour, then went to bed to read. I must have dozed off by 9:30. I don't know why I was so tired. I hope I can keep it together for a bit longer tonight - although I'm going to run at lunchtime and that always wipes me out. I truly do want to get that ruffle done and get the rest of the skirt going. I'll have to make a deal with myself. No video games until I get a few rows done!

Back to normal

Weather-wise anyway. More moderate temperatures, but the allergies are still pretty bad.

We had a fun rehearsal Thursday night, although I wrenched my knee a bit and so used Friday as a sick day and just stayed off of it and knit. No bike riding over the weekend either, so I'm pretty much back to normal too!

I got a good bit more done on the ruffle portion of the Ingrid skirt. I have 16 more rows to do, which might not sound like a lot until you figure that each round is 476 stitches. If I do 3 an evening then by this weekend I can start on the plain portion of the skirt. I took some pictures this morning as I was dashing out the door. This is morning light and so the color is not exact - the blue is a bit deeper and the yarn is shiny. These are iPhone pictures and a little blurry as well. After I finished the 5 pattern repeats (16 more rows) then I will be decreasing to half the number of stitches. MUCH more manageable, although I'll be using a size 5 needle. Still, it's going to be a quick knit after that.

Loppem also got a little time this weekend as well - it's TV knitting. Here's a close-up of the cable detail. And a picture of the entire body. I am SO glad I decided to frog Radiate and make this instead. The yarn is a bit warmer than I would normally use for a short sleeved cardigan, but it should cross over into autumn quite well.

After the slugs ate my winter squash starts I needed something to plug into that part of the garden and I found some acorn squash starts and also honeydew melon, plus I couldn't resist a couple more tomato plants. I popped them in and also spread around a little slug bait (SAFE for doggies!!). So far so good - they didn't touch them. I am SO looking forward to home grown melon and squash and tomatoes! Nothing like it. I've already been using my herbs and I have containers on the deck just overflowing with lettuce seedlings. I can't bring myself to thin them out so I'm just going to let nature take its course and see what happens.

Breaking records

We are breaking temperature records right and left, and it's not yet even summer! Another VERY hot day yesterday and we're headed that same direction today. Mr. M talked me out of riding my bike in today, since I was a wreck again yesterday even though I took it easy on the way home. I was about 3 or 4 minutes behind pace but I did arrive at top of the hill in significantly better shape yesterday than Tuesday. Since I have rehearsal tonight and a little office party this afternoon it's probably best that I did drive in, because it would be very difficult to get myself together to go rehearse after sweating buckets.

I knit a few rows on my Loppem during my proctoring session yesterday afternoon but it was too hot to pick up the knitting at home, so I just relaxed and played Mario Kart. Mr. M thoughtfully stopped and bought pizza rather than have me slaving over a hot stove (or him slave over a hot BBQ). Anybody else hooked on Papa Murphy's Take and Bake Chicken Artichoke Delite? I llllove that pizza!!

Today I'm wearing my T-twist top with a cute little pink skirt. It's perfect for today.

Heat AND allergies

Boy, my allergies are *really* bad this year. It has been a very long time since I have had such a reaction. I wonder if this heat has anything to do with the intensity? It was very warm yesterday - in the mid-80s - and it was blowing a hot wind on my ride home. That last hill was a killer! Then I had a severe allergy attack later in the evening. And this morning I took a pill first thing but am still sniffy and itchy. Hope it goes away soon!

It was just plain too hot to run yesterday and today I'm proctoring an exam at lunchtime and I don't want to go out and get sweaty before so ... no running today either. I don't care - I'm too stuffy and uncomfortable to care.

It looks like I'm going to start rehearsing again with my original band. I am going over there Thursday night to assess where we are, see the new songs they've been working on and to see the new rehearsal space and studio. Doug is very excited about it. Mr. M bought me a new microphone - it's pink! And it has interchangeable screens - gold, matte black and silver. I am rather looking forward to it. If I can only get him to nail down a bass player, then maybe we can book some gigs!

Love the hair!!

I want to say that my trip to the Derby Salon was a tremendous change from my usual trip to the salon. It was relaxing and fun, like it's supposed to be! I didn't get poked in the head with sharp fingernails, I didn't get water squirted down my back, the hair color didn't burn my head. Oh yes, it was just like it's supposed to be. ;-) AND I walked out of there with curly hair, a natural color of curly hair. Mr. M just loves it! And I like it a lot too. I think we need to add a little more around the face - some lighter highlights - but other than that I am just loving it.

The weather was absolutely stunning all through the weekend as well. We were going to go on a bike ride Saturday but I had to go out to West Seattle, to LittleKnits and Mr. M had to help his daughter move a couch, so we postponed the bike trip to Sunday and I took off to get the rest of the yarn for my Ingrid. And I am SO glad I went up there. First of all, yes I got the extra two skeins, and then I got to root around in all that yarn and touch it all! I have been thinking about using the Indie II lace weight yarn for the Frost Flowers Stole rather than the yarn called for, mostly because it is so much more expensive than the Indie II. I saw the yarn there at the LittleKnits store and OMG is it ever gorgeous!! The pictures don't do it justice. It is super soft and very very shiny. Just beautiful. That is going to be my next big project.

Once I got home Saturday I swatched for the Ingrid and found that I can get gauge with the King Tut cotton using a size 5 needle - that is for the body of the skirt, which is a k10p1 pattern. So I cast on for the ruffle with the size 7 needle and got going on that. It's going to be a bit of a slog. It took me over an hour just to cast on -- 487 stitches!! Then I used about 50 markers to mark out the 9 stitch pattern repeats. Eight rows for a completed pattern and 5 completed patterns for the ruffle. I am half way through my second pattern. It's going to be a really cool skirt.

Sunday was another hot day, so we got on the trail well before noon for our 20 mile ride. Mr. M had his new bike pants, shirt and gloves on and I believe it made the ride much more comfortable for him, although I still kicked his behind. I did find that when properly fueled I can make the ride to work 5 minutes faster than on a normal work day, when all I am fueled with is a cup of coffee. Interesting. I wouldn't have thought it would have made that much of a difference.

Yesterday I worked from home as I waited for the sprinkler guy to get there and get our sprinkler system back up and running. "First thing" he said. "First thing" turned out to be 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Ah well. I got lots of work done while I waited. And now we've got our system going again. I did find a big leak in one of the soakers in the front. I guess he didn't run the system long enough to find it. Kind of made me mad, considering what he charged. But he returned my call right away and said he'd be out to fix it this week. Now I MUST make myself do some serious weeding this weekend.

One knitting disaster after the other

I discovered yesterday, after looking at pictures of Loppem FO's on Ravelry, that I had made a mistake in the cables and needed to take it out and start over. Just in case you're thinking of making this sweater - be aware that the booklet contains an enormous amount of errors. The chart is totally wrong, for one thing, and is missing one symbol definition entirely! I did have the errata and had corrected my booklet but missed the missing symbol definition so I was doing one twist wrong. Nothing to do but take it out and start again. So, perfect excuse to start swatching for the Ingrid, right? Right. Blunder #2 - I didn't order enough yarn!! I don't know where my head was but I need 2 more skeins. I didn't want to start futzing with that until I know I can get two more skeins of the same dyelot so I will call LittleKnits later this morning and find out if I can drive up there this weekend and pick up the yarn. So that meant I had to frog my 20 + rows of Loppem, which I did, AND cast on again, AND did the lower band and 3 chart rows. I wasn't able to stay up late again after the previous night.

The weather is just stunning! It's going to be nearing 80 today. I will have to get out and run a little early today. I drove in because today is the day I go to my new salon! I am excited! I am going to get my hair back to WAY less blond and more reddish/brown. And start growing out this hideous excuse for a haircut as well.

It's going to be nice all weekend and Mr. M wants to go on another bike ride, so that's what we'll do this Saturday. We are going to go the opposite direction of where we went last time. We're taking my route to work, then going a little farther to Gasworks Park for a picnic, then back home. He will now finally understand why I arrive home in such a mess - that huge long hill coming up from the trail. He got new bike pants, and gloves so hopefully it won't be as painful for him as last time. I'll try to be gentle. ;-)

BBQ chops

Mr. M loves salmon. Especially cooked on the BBQ. He also loves butter (well, who doesn't?) and uses it liberally. Last night he brought home a rather large piece of salmon to cook on the grill. I got some vegetables ready (yummmmm with fresh herbs from my garden!!) and got them going. It's a really big gas grill - three or four dials .. I forget, and a rack on top - it's huge and he always gets all of the burners going even for a small thing. Anyway, the vegetables were nearly done and he took this huge piece of salmon and put about half a cube on butter on top of it, put a loaf of bread on the top shelf to warm it up and closed the lid. Can you guess what happened next? Anyone? Yes, fire. Big, huge, smokey, the whole grill involved grease fire. Smoked and burned the vegetables so that even he couldn't eat them. Blackened the bread. The fish - not done. I finished it up inside under the broiler while he got the fire under control. By that time is was WAY past hungry, so I had a piece of salmon and some chardonnay and called it dinner. He needs to cook more. His BBQ chops are WAY off. Maybe twice a week? :-)

My yarn came for my skirt yesterday but I didn't want to start it. Because I'm not using the yarn called for in the pattern and the pattern is translated from some European language, I am going to have to swatch and swatch to figure out what needle size is going to give me gauge. So I will leave it to this weekend when I've got more time and patience. I worked some more on the Loppem. In fact I just-one-more-row-ed myself to 11 o'clock, which is late for my bedtime. I'm glad I decided to frog the Radiate. The Loppem is a much nicer design and I think I'll get more wear out of it than I would have the other.

Just one more row

Having decided that the Radiate was not going to make it, I had no other project in mind. I am waiting for the cotton to start my next skirt, called Ingrid. I got the pattern from Louet. I am going to make it in a beautiful periwinkle blue cotton. I didn't feel like picking up the Rockstar Jacket, nor my socks. I wanted to keep using the yarn I had been using for the Radiate, a spring green llama/silk blend from Royal Yarns. I finally settled on Loppem, which has been in my queue since before the leaflet was published. I cast on for it after dinner, got the lower edge done and 9 rows into the cable pattern. I haven't done any cables for a while so I was not wanting to put the knitting down until a little after 10 when I was too tired to see. Then I got into bed, promptly fell asleep and continued to knit in my dream. Since I spit spliced the yarn for Radiate I am just knitting this new cardigan right from the old. Tidy. Or lazy? No. Tidy.

I rode AND ran yesterday - still don't think I'll be ready for the race this weekend but maybe I can do the race in Fremont in June. I think it helps, running around my neighborhood on the weekend, because it's hilly and I get a better workout there than on the trail. I am going to run Thursday and Friday, because I have to drive Friday and I'll be all nice and rested. Yeah ... maybe I will be ready for June.

Taking the easy way out

I did visit the new salon and made an appointment there for this Friday. I needed to cancel my appointment with my old stylist - the appointment was set for this Thursday. I put it off and put it off and finally this morning when I got to work I called her salon and left a message on her machine. Nine years I've been going there but I just didn't want to talk to her because I am afraid she'd argue with me. So - I left a message. And if she does call I'm not going to pick it up. I just feel sorry for my husband because if there is any flack, he's going to get it when he next goes for a haircut.

The extended weekend was just what the doctor ordered. It was GREAT weather too. The new Star Trek movie, which we saw Thursday night, was very good and well worth going to the Cinerama to view it. On the way to dinner that night we happened to drive by the J&M and saw that it had gone out of business and the auction of its contents had taken place earlier that day! I have a picture that has been on the wall of that place for ... well, I'm not going to say how long but I was 23 when it went up. My husband really wanted that picture so, since he knows the auction house owner, he called him the next day and found out that one person had purchased all of the pictures. On Friday he went down and spoke with a person at the J&M who was supervising the auction and told her the story and left his business card in the picture frame. Hopefully we'll get it back, or at least be able to copy it.

During my stay-cation I took two 20 mile bike rides - one with my DH yesterday but it was too crowded for me to have a good ride. Him on the other hand - it pretty much wiped him out. He's not used to it. I also got the vegetables all set and planted some lettuce and more herbs on planters for the deck. I got lots of good knitting done as well, but I have decided to frog the Radiate. The sleeves are giving me fits. The pattern says to knit them flat - but that is pretty much impossible. The other option is to do it in the round (duh) but on 2 circulars and because of the pattern I was not able to keep the edges from the ladder effect plus it's all purl and, quite frankly, I don't like reverse stockinette. I have tons of great patterns so I think I'll just rip it out and use the yarn for something nice. I am actually just marking time until my yarn comes from Little Knits to make my new skirt.

So now it's back to work and back to the real world and it's even supposed to rain today! But nice all the rest of the .. SHORT .. week! Friday a new hair stylist! I am going to have her take me back to the nice reddish brown I had. My ex-stylist was making my hair too blond and not listening to me. Hopefully this new one will fix me up. I have been hating my hair for too long!

Oh what a gorgeous day!!

I am having a little "staycation" to stretch my long weekend into 5 days. Today I wanted to sleep in but it is SO gorgeous outside I just can't! After breakfast I'm going to have a run, then get cleaned up and do a little spa stuff. Then pick up a couple things I need at the mall and at 12:30 I'm going to have a consultation at a new hair salon. I still feel moderately guilty -- I suppose the real guilt will set in when I actually call and cancel my appointment next week. Ah ... who am I kidding? Guilt has never been my thing. It'll just be uncomfortable because I know she's not going to be professional about it. Ah well ... that's life.

Tonight we're going to see the new Star Trek movie -- can't wait! Tomorrow I hope to get a little gardening and a lot of knitting done. Supposed to be nice all weekend. Maybe we'll even go to the Folklife Festival. Choices abound.

I'm calling it Friday

I know it's Wednesday, but I'm taking Thursday and Friday off this week to make a longer long weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice and it's a pretty good time work-wise to take a few days. So woohoo!! TGIF!!!

It's also noon knitting day and I forgot my knitting!!! I was busy putting the dishes away and yapping to Mr. M and then I realized I was late and I ran out of there and didn't remember until I was nearly a mile away from home. I couldn't go back - I was running late as it was. I did remember to bring a magazine so I'll go up at noon anyway and see if anyone has also brought some pattern books or something. I did more work on my socks last night. Not too terribly exciting. I am going to get going on those sleeves tomorrow, probably. I should get some pictures up.

There is one part of the Burke Gilman trail that is so bumpy that I regularly lose a pannier or two going through it. It is the part that parallels 36th Avenue NE, right between the Metropolitan Market and the bridge. I noticed on the way home last night that someone has spray painted the big cracks and bumps with neon orange paint, leading me to believe that it is going to be fixed soon. Yay!!

After nine years I have finally decided to leave my hairdresser and find someone else. It's not going to be easy since I've known her since I got back from Paris in July of 2000 and she is responsible for me meeting my husband. So. It's going to be hard and I'm just going to have to be honest-ish with her and tell her I just want a fresh perspective. Hopefully she'll be professional about it but I'm not holding my breath.

How's this for annoying

Last night is was raining so hard it woke me up. It went on all night and even this morning when I woke up it was not just raining, but POURING! It had started to slack off at about 7 but was still coming down pretty hard, so I decided to drive in. My rain gear is somewhat lacking in efficacy in that my jacket is new and works great, but my tights and shoes and my head and face get really really wet. I need a new helmet with a visor and I need water resistant tights and some of the neoprene boots to put over my shoes for this 8 mile ride. It didn't used to really matter when I was riding about 3 miles but now, it's important, especially when I'm coming in to work. I got about half way in, down by Children's Hospital and the pavement was dry! It looked like it had been raining but had stopped hours ago. Errrghghg! I guess on the good side, I'll have a nice dry run this lunchtime.

I worked for a bit on my socks last night as I was relaxing and watching old Star Trek re-runs. I am at the point with the Radiate that I need to sit down and get out a pencil and paper and figure out exactly how I'm going to do the sleeves. I am thinking I'll get out my pattern for the Simple Knitted Bodice and adapt those sleeves for this cardigan. They fit well and I like the bell sleeve - where it starts and where it ends up, size-wise. I'm going to do them two at once on two circulars, like socks. And that's always a bit tricky, dividing up the stitches and getting that first round going. After that it's not so bad. So that's not a project I can just tackle when I get home from work. I have decided to extend this 3-day weekend by taking Thursday and Friday off as well, so one of those days I can get that project started. Hopefully Thursday.

Steve only has one show, on Saturday, so on Thursday afternoon/evening we're going to go downtown to the Cinerama and see the new Star Trek movie. It's going to be a perfect place to see it. Paul Allen bought the old theatre a few years ago and made it state-of-the-art digital. And it's always been THE place to see big films. I'm looking forward to that.

It was a gorgeous weekend

Wow -- it must have been in the high 70s this Saturday. I got to the Fred Meyer garden center around 10:30 and already it was packed. There weren't too many vegetable starts left - well I should say there wasn't much variety. And no lettuce. I didn't feel like going to fight the crowds at Lowe's or Home Depot so I took what they had - some tomatoes (2), some cantaloupe, red peppers, green peas, and some herbs (lots of basil!!) then I bought some seeds. We'll just have to wait and see if they come up. I am thinking it might be too late.

I got home and cleaned out the beds and planted my starts and the seeds. The beds look so sparse! Maybe this weekend - I am taking Friday off to make it a nice looooong weekend - I will go to a larger garden center and maybe find a few more starts. Or, I did buy some lettuce seeds, so I might make up some planters. Last night Tink was barking and whining and I think I know why - there was evidence of something being in the vegetable beds last night. I had put the seed packets (with a few left over seeds) in the dirt to mark where I had planted things and they were gone. The little plastic pickets marking the plants were disturbed as well. I hope this doesn't become a problem. I didn't remember any animals in the beds last year, but of course they were well established by the time we moved in.

On Saturday night I had some knitting ladies over for food and frogging. We had such a fun time! I didn't get much done - that wrap is a bitch! I did get the edging taken out, then I had to just plain cut some mohair out. Others did quite well. We will have to do it again soon.

So it's Memorial Day weekend coming up and the weather, after our sunny weekend, has gotten bad again. But according to the forecast it's going to get nice again starting Thursday. I am going to take Friday at least off, but depending upon how things are going here I may take Thursday as well and have 5 whole days off! I seriously doubt we're going to be having any vacation this summer. I might as well start looking forward to London in October and/or Paris in November.

Bike to Work Day

It has been "Bike to Work Week", and today is "Bike to Work Day". That means that the Cascade Bicycle Club sets up little stations along the trail where you can stop and get a snack or some water or a new water bottle, sign up for the club, get maps, etc. etc. I stopped at 55th where they had set up a station next to the Metropolitan Market and got a new water bottle and some water and a nice piece of orange. It was set up like at the K5 finish line with cut up fruit and pastries. I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to stop along the way to work and sit there and have a piece of fruit or, if somebody was really thinking, have a coffee stand there. That would be totally awesome in the summer and fall.

I had some troubles with cars today. That is not a usual thing but today I had two cars blow through intersections and nearly get me. And on campus, where the trail crosses a road onto the campus from 25th, some JERK in a truck nearly ran me over! Typically normal drivers treat that intersection as a 4-way stop. Bikes stop or slow and the cars stop and let us through. The guy in front of me was waved through by the car in front of the black truck, went through and the car went and then I was coming up. The black truck hesitated so I figured he was stopping for me like the other car did, but then he started to go just as I entered the intersection! Of course he stopped again as I went through, then yelled at me as he drove away. So I flipped him off. Not my usual style but what the heck. He was being a jerk.

I had an awesome run yesterday afternoon although I got soaked to the bone again! It wasn't raining when I walked out and in fact looked as if it was going to clear up, but I got down to 15th and the raindrops were big and heavy. What the heck -- I was already out there so I just kept going. And it was a great run! Somebody told me once at a race that there's more oxygen in the air when it's raining and that's why I feel better and stronger when I run in the rain. I don't know though .... that sounds a little crazy. It couldn't be that much more oxygen in those raindrops.

I got the last increase row done on my Radiate yesterday evening. I think I'll finish up one more ball of yarn on the body and then do the sleeves before I finish off the body. I still am unclear on how long I want it to be.

I am excited about getting to the nursery tomorrow and picking out my vegetable starts. It supposed to be very nice all weekend so I will be able to at least choose them tomorrow and maybe start cleaning out the beds before I have to get ready for my knitting ladies. It's going to be a great weekend!!

Can you say "Drowned rat"?

Holy cow! I got soaked to the skin yesterday on the way home. My socks .. I could have wrung them out, they were so wet. Oh it was POURING rain! I did make it home in record time though because I was peddling like I was being chased by rabid dogs. Man, that was miserable! I couldn't wait to get in the shower. Poor little Tink did not get a walk, but Mr. M is doing an early show today, so she'll get a nice long walk this afternoon.

LOST was awesome last night! Nothing was answered, of course, except we got to see Jacob. It is hard to believe that football season will be over before LOST comes on for its final season. Only 3 months until football starts, so I think I can hang on. :-J

I drove in today, so that means I MUST run at lunchtime. There is work being done on the trail at a point that would mean I have to either climb a very high hill or go down the hill and drive in extremely dangerous traffic with no bike lane. Besides it's still raining. It is going to be nice for the next few days. That's perfect timing because I must get my vegetables and herbs planted this weekend. And maybe we can go see the new Star Trek movie!!!

Will I make it?

Three hours of LOST tonight! Three hours!!! The first hour looks like a retrospective regarding the time travel, according to its title. Then a two hour finale. It goes to 11 o'clock which is late for me. But I think I'll be able to do it. I accidentally slept in today - Mr. M got up early so I turned off my alarm thinking I'd wake up when he got out of the bathroom, but I didn't and he didn't wake me until it was nearly 7 and he realized he didn't hear me. I was only 30 minutes late but I must say, that extra 30 minutes of sleep was sweet and I feel great! I'll be a zombie tomorrow, probably.

I'm slogging away on the Radiate cardigan. This portion - the lower body - is pretty boring. I'll be doing another increase row in about an inch, then I'll knit until it says to stop in the pattern - 11 inches from the arm hole - and do the sleeves, then try it on to see how long I want to make it. And to make sure I have enough yarn to do the button bands.

Have you noticed how light it is staying at night? I love it. Except it makes me feel like a lazy bones when I hop into bed to read and I can still see a bit of light outside.

Making friends with the wind

It was very blustery again last night for my ride home. The winds were swirling though, so there were a few times when I had a tail wind. That was SWEET! The two times I got nearly blown over ... not so sweet. I did make the ride in good time however, so I shall keep a good thought for wind. Especially tail wind.

Unfortunately, since I had gotten such a terrible night's sleep Sunday night, I was exhausted when I reached home. Thankfully Mr. M had the time to give Tink her walk, so I hit the showers, put on my lounge-y pants and got dinner going. Can I just say how much I LOVE Trader Joe's? Their fish is just out of this world. Last night it was the mahi-mahi. My favorite is the garlic marinated tuna, but the mahi-mahi is right behind it. Easy to cook and nutritious and yummy to boot.

I got some good knitting done on the Radiate -- pictures soon -- and I had to make myself stay awake. I read for a few minutes and I must have been fast asleep by 9:30. I feel great this morning though. The wind woke me up once but I closed the windows so the blinds would not rattle and I was off to sleep again.

Saturday I'm having a frogging party at my house. Or a take-out party, or an un-knit party. The idea is that we all have projects that we've made that we find out later we're never going to wear (like my stupid shawl, or a couple bulky sweaters I made very early on) and that yarn can better be used in something else. It'll be a fun way to spend a Saturday evening. Since Mr. M has to work again. It beats sitting there watching stupid movies with the dog.

Round tireds round tires

How many times do I have to remind myself. When my tired get low it is MUCH harder to ride. Steve pumped up my tires for me yesterday and I had a much easier ride in, even though it was blowing a bit.

It was a pretty okay weekend. The weather was gorgeous Saturday and Tinkerbell got a grooming and I met up with a friend at Northgate after dropping Tink off and we did a little shopping. I got a nice skirt and a pretty top. Then it was just a quiet evening of video games and knitting. Boring .. yes, I know. I need to find another hobby besides Mario Kart.

I had a lovely long chat with my sister this weekend and she and her boyfriend are planning on coming up for a visit around the 4th of July. Yay! Now I have a reason to get the spare room done right. We have just had a little single bed in there and Mr. M's son uses it when he has school vacation. Mr. M. told me to make it as girlie and feminine as possible so his son won't be too comfortable there. Can do!

The ol' double whammy

I got it last night on the way home -- wind AND rain. For a while there in the afternoon it looked like it was going to get nice. At least it had stopped raining. But around three I was looking out a window and the sky was looking rather ominous. Sure enough, just as I was walking out the door in my shorts(!) it started to pour down rain. I didn't want to go back inside and strip down and change into my long pants so I just went for it, knowing I could have a nice hot shower when I got home. By the time I finished climbing the hill up to Sand Point Way at 110th the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing. Crazy spring weather!

I didn't get any knitting done last night although I do hope to get a good bit done on my sweater this weekend. Steve has to work Saturday so I will have plenty of good knitting time. Tink is going in for a grooming and boy does she need it! And I've got to stop at the mall for a couple things so there will be some considerable running around to be done. But in the afternoon - all me time!

I know there's science involved ....

Why oh why must I have headwinds coming AND going from work? It just doesn't seem fair! My pace was off by almost four minutes today because of the wind and I'll bet you anything that it's going to be blowing in my face on the way home as well! At least it wasn't raining.

It was the penultimate Lost episode last night -- of the season, not the whole show. It does have one more year to go. But holy cow has this been a weird season or what? And convoluted! And confusing! I just hope that what Jack is proposing to do next episode will bring them back to present day because all this time travel is confusing the dickens out of me!

Before the show was on I did have time to do a couple more rows on the Radiate. I finish this row I'm working on now and do another increase row. Although I'm not a big fan of reverse stockinette, the slipped stitches make a nice rib and I think it'll be cute. Especially with the sleeve modifications.

There's a big sale up at my LYS today and this weekend. I am still on my self-imposed yarn diet so I must stay away. It's not easy, but I am going to be good for a change.

And the big news?

The weather -- again. Wind and rain and lots of it! I had to get up and close the windows in the bedroom last night because the wind was blowing so hard! It was starting up on my way home last night. I had a really rough ride home because of the headwinds. And all of the offices except one on our newly renovated southwest side were wet this morning. We're lucky that our windows don't leak at home because they face directly west and they were getting the brunt of it.

Despite the noisy outdoors I managed to get a good night in. I do NOT want to end up with a sleep deficit like I did last week. That was brutal. I am just one of those people that needs a full 8 or, even better 8 1/2 hours of sleep. I've always been like that. And if I get into a deficit situation and can't sleep in, I am a mess.

Mr. M went out with a friend for sushi and beers and blather last night, so I was on my own. Since we're going out tonight I had my Cinco de Mayo celebration while the boyz were out. I had purchased some cheese with habanero peppers in it, so I made some guacamole and grated some of that cheese and a couple little corn tortillas .... pretty tasty.

I worked a bit more on the Radiate - need to do four inches from the underarms and then another increase row. I am doing mods on the sleeves. I really don't like the idea of a cardigan with short sleeves so I'm going to do increases between the ribs and make the sleeves belled. I think that will look nice.

And now .... oatmeal!!

Zoom!

That is the sound the weekend made. I hardly remember it! I was so wiped out Friday that I just collapsed when I got home and fell asleep for more than an hour! I hadn't even changed out of my bike clothes!

Saturday I had a lovely sleep in, did a few chores, grocery shopping, and then it was time to drive out to Auburn. My DH doesn't generally do concerts but he does this one every year. It's a country music show - not my favorite type of music but this year the headliner was Darius Rucker, aka Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish. He has gone country and I must say that I totally enjoyed the show. He put in some songs from his Hootie days and he was awesome! And the venue is small.

I went to the early show so I was home by 8:30, got my iPhone fixed up -- I had to restore it because it got all messed up the last time I tried to sync it. Then I played some Mario Kart and knit and watched TV. It was a nice evening. And then yesterday -- zoom! I did laundry and worked on my Radiate and we barbecued some steak and now here I am, at the start of another week. It is going to be rainy most of the week but at least the cold weather is now behind us.

I am hoping I can get back into running this week. I did run last week but I was so low energy it hardly even counted. I hope I can get a better workout. I doubt, at this rate, I'll be ready to race at the end of the month.

How to tell if you're playing too much Wii

Little bits of tunes play in my head. There always seems to be some song or another stuck in there and playing over and over, whether I'm conscious of it or not. Lately I've found myself humming along to that music and lo and behold, they're all songs from Mario Kart!! I should be ashamed, I suppose, that I play so much Mario Kart that I can sing the melody to each of the races. I gave myself a break from my Wii last night though and just knit.

I was wiped out yesterday. My ride in was a chore, I got my running gear on at noon and went out to run and ended up jogging 10 minutes, walking 3 or 4, jogging again. It was brutal!! I had absolutely zero energy. And the ride home - again quite the chore. I managed to drag myself inside, had a shower and then collapsed in my comfy chair and read the paper and then knit on my Radiate. My DH took care of dinner last night - and lucky, too, because I wasn't about to cook a meal. I worked on my two toned sock while watching a little TV and fell into bed at 9:30! I do feel moderately more energized today and my bike ride in was not quite so trying. In fact, I was right on pace. I can only surmise that I am low on energy because my sleep got messed up early in the week. Tomorrow I'm sleeping in!!!