strummin' on the ol' banjo

I think cooking would be much more interesting to me if I had live banjo music available.
Anyhow, I believe it's a well established fact that I hate to cook and would never do it if I could afford someone else cooking my meals. (T helps some but generally gets home so late that we'd be eating after bedtime. And then there was that time he made "soup" where one of the ingredients was Cheezits...) So. We have the options of feeding the family on restaurant or fast food, or I get off my lazy butt and cook.
Sigh.
I'd been wishing for recipes that I knew would freeze, that were not all tomato-based or cream-soup-based. Unless we're talking about the fennel family, I refuse foods based on texture, so the stuff HAD to freeze well. In passing an office mate mentioned onceamonthmom.com. Once you get past the icky name, you get a website with a month's worth of recipes that you cook all in one day, adjusted for size and freezability (is too a word). If you follow the menu exactly, there's even a schedule that tells you what order to chop and cook, how to package, and (if you're working with a friend) who chops what. We are a somewhat picky family, so I've been picking and choosing recipes. (For example, the White Chicken Chili was FANTASTIC as written for T and me, but was too spicy for either boy to eat. The second time I made it I adjusted appropriately and they inhaled it.) Last weekend, I took a few hours and made three meals, and we ate them throughout the week. All three were ruled "delicious" by all members of the family. One was prepped ahead of time and cooked in the crock pot on the day we ate it, two were marinated and either grilled or roasted on the day.
This week I'm getting more ambitious and prepping six eight recipes. It's a boatload of work on the day you do all the prep, but I don't actually spend more than about half an hour each night afterwards making the main dish and fixing sides.

Here's the haul for today:
Meatloaf (my recipe)
Chili (my recipe)
Chicken Orzo Skillet
Bacon Broccoli Penne
Cauliflower Mac N Cheese
Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash
Slow Cooker Chicken with Pineapple and Peppers
Chicken Fried Rice



In most cases you do a double recipe and freeze two family-size servings, but I only did that with recipes we've tried already. We had the Chicken Fried Rice for dinner tonight, and next time I'll double it. I'm tempted to quadruple the white chicken chili next time.

Bug was hungry.



And a bit maniacal.

Oh sister mercy

Someone has a wild hair...

Apologies for the long absences. Mostly I knit slow and have nothing to show. Also, last week I was hit with strep (went to the ER and TOLD them it was strep but they didn't believe me until the culture came back positive TWO DAYS LATER no I'm not bitter why do you ask?) and had a miserable week. Friday I was feeling pretty good, and since it was Friday and the breezes were cool and the children were compliant, we went ouside, where they played and I flipped through the Keepsake Quilting catalog.

Oops.

It may have stirred a long-dormant feeling of bed-linen-dissatisfaction.  Namely, I have no topper and shams that I love.  I don't even have one that I like much.  T was not much use in this department when he moved in, being a boy and therefore in possession of exactly one blanket and one set of sheets, the pattern of which he described ones as "slug-shaped".  (They're paisleys.)  So, here we are.  We have a day off, we have settled on a basic pattern and color scheme that is neither too girly nor too boy, and we have tossed the stash.  (You understand that I'm referring to the Royal We, here.  T is at work and blissfully unaware of my new project.)  

I had a scrap of something that would have been perfect, so I toddled off to JoAnn's in an effort to find something in a similar tone.  As luck would have it, I found the exact fabric (plus a couple others I will use instead of those from the above photo).  And (ahem) a few other little things.

I'm off to enjoy lunch with my aunts shortly, and when I return there will be ironing and cutting and arranging of fabrics, and possibly even sewing of same.  I ALWAYS underestimate how long it takes to cut perfectly good fabric and reassemble it into a blanket.  This is evidenced by the fact that I am already thinking about hand-quilting motifs in my head...

Anyway, whilst you chuckle at my startitis and my craft-fickleness, I will leave you with a couple photos of paperwhites I forced in a vase in my kitchen  Courtesy of T's mom at Christmas-time. 

wha? where am i?

welcome to february, my lovies. here we are, five weeks into the new year. is it just me or does that seem crazy-long and also not nearly long enough? on one hand i can't believe it's already february 7, and on the other hand new year's and christmas seem so far in the past.
incidentally, i seem to have given up capitalization for new year's.
hmm, well. life has been busy. last year my company purchased a smaller company and one group is working to bring the products in line with our way of doing things and our style, without changing their procedures (much). since i belong to all and no one at the same time, i was given the task of editing the manufacturing documentation. there are many people from all over the country involved, and we all zipped off to irvine, ca, for much of the work. i have come in on the tail end of the thing, so my travel has been much less than others'. still, it has been a bit difficult, mostly on T and the boys. T took over like he's been doing the daddy thing for a lifetime instead of less than a year, and i think the boys behaved better than when i'm around. they act like they miss me, though, so i keep coming home to loads of hugs and smiling faces, and there is nothing better. :D
the trips are getting shorter, though, and i can do most of what's left from the office in tempe, so i don't have much travel left. the first trip i took all my latvian-mitten yarn, my b-side, and a scarf. i didn't knit much that trip. the second time, i schlepped my sweater and the handspun nutkin i started a million years ago. i knitted a little on the nutkin on the plane, but not much else. this last time i took only the sock, and got a few repeats up the leg. after trying the thing on i have determined that i hate the toe i picked, and the short-row heel is about two rows too deep. i will fix those later. i expect i will take the sock along this week, and again if i have to go back next week. (in these trips i'm only really gone overnight.)
this weekend i devoted some time to b-side. when last you saw it, i'd picked up all the stitches for the sleeves and was short-rowing my way around. i hated the way it was turning out, and since i'd already knit three full sleeves i figured i'd better make darn sure this sweater was going to fit well and look good, so i ripped. i used the ratios as before for the proportion of the sleeve to short-row and just picked up the stitches as i got from side to side. i ended up with many more stitches, and many fewer decreases. i like the look of it much better, and the extra stitches ensure plenty of room for the bingo wings. i am now knitting round and round and round, decreasing my way down the sleeve. i haven't measured in a while, but i guess i'm 1/3 to 1/2 the way down. the thing that would be nifty about now would be the ability to find the paper i scribbled my sleeve notes on, so i can remember how long i intend to knit the decrease portion and/or how many stitches i'm supposed to end up with before starting the ribbing.
i still have that red scarf on the go - i didn't finish T's dad's christmas scarf in time so i appropriated the one from ofa's box, as it was the same style and color. i believe i am nearly finished with it, but truth be told, the nutkin and the sweater, both destined for me, get attention when it's cold. that's all i'm actively working on right now. i'm anxious to get them finished, both to wear them before the weather heats up, and to get out some other wips or new projects to play with.

Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

I don't, but I know what flights will get you to Irvine.
I've been here all week, and have plans to come back next week. I'm making the best of things but missing my guys like crazy. It hasn't all been bad. There's been some of this



a lot of this



a bit of this



some of this



and even one night of this



(and last time I was here I got a dinner with this))

But tomorrow, I get to go home to this



and this



and I can't wait.

Oy.

The work and the home life are both conspiring to kick me in the metaphorical hind-quarters. I am off to SoCal again this week, for the whole week, whilst I work on something I should have been involved in months ago, and dealing with old man engineers who call me sweetheart. I haven't knat in a while, though I have dutifully carried my knitting about to CA pretending that I won't be too exhausted at the end of the day to knit something.
Instead, I will point out that this current blog-tagline is actually a link to an article. I have read it multiple times and am still not sure what I think of it. If you're inclined, go forth, clickety, read, and then c'mon back and discuss.

ETA: in case it doesn't work for you, here is another place to clickety: Look at my boobs! I am very smart!

Lynn in Tucson made me do it.

Cuz we all know the Devil has nothing on your Enabling Friends.

But first! We didn't do the whole "end as you mean to go on" thing. Unless you count the fact that I mean to continue ignoring the housework... Anyway, I finally had the fortitude to face B-Side, and picked out the sewn-in sleeve, ripped it out, googling the instructions on knitting a set-in sleeve top-down from picked-up stitches, and worked some maths. I think the maths are right, I can't be sure of the counting. I also think I don't particularly love the decreases-while-short-rowing look, and if the sleeves are otherwise satisfactory I will probably rework them to include a centered double-decrease down the "crease line" of the sleeves on future patterns. Either that or I will need to fix my wrapping techniques on the short rows cuz I think I might be wrapping in the wrong direction. In either case, I'm not fixing it on this sweater. Partly because I don't think the yarn can stand much more ripping, and partly because, renewed with hope and love of knitting as I am, another setback on this sweater might turn it to crackers, a là Cookie. I also think blocking will help a bit. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



And so, we enter the Year of the Mitten. Or maybe a more appropriate title would be the Year of Colorwork. Primarily since my SIL has been hinting that she wants more hats like the one I crocheted for her, and I can't find any other crocheted patterns I like, and will henceforth be diving into the Land of Colorful Tams. (Appropriate, as she's Aunt Tam, no?) (As soon as I get over the Flaming Resentment of her repeated "hints" for knitwear.)
Anyway, I've been slavering for Latvian mittens. I have the book, I have the time. (Well, I have some.) I have access to my little stash and some inexpensive local or internet yarns. I was making a purchase that vaulted me over the line for free shipping, and, well, it was just financially responsible to go ahead and order a few fingering-weight solids. This year I have vowed to get my finances under control, and how better to do that than to buy enough to avoid shipping fees? It's a no-brainer, really.



Since it is not my intention to carry around the better part of a sweater, even though my new bag (squee!) allows me to, the mittens may become my lunchtime knitting after my scarf is done. (I wasn't going to finish T's dad's scarf in time for Christmas without seriously killing myself, so I appropriated the one I'd knit for OFA and am replacing it with the one (same pattern, nearly same color) I started for him.) It seems that the good thing about putting some projects in extended timeout is that after a while, they become exciting again. I have Madli and some Nutkins I'm anxious to get back to, also, though I'm pacing myself and alternating with new projects to avoid burnout. :D

Resolved.

Here's the obligatory new year's resolution post. Only, resolutions mean you are going to do something. (Or stop doing something.) Exercise more, eat less junk, less time on the computer, knit from stash, knit every day, knit something every month, whatever. The thing is, despite the fact that I whinge (a LOT) about not having enough time or enough laundry done or whatever, last year was a pretty damn good year. I met a new love, got a new job, moved to a new city. Ran a 5k. Survived having a kindergartener. Survived having TWO talking children. Survived combining a 5 bedroom house and a 3 bedroom condo into one three bedroom condo (plus a coupla storage units). Survived moving towns in the middle of the hottest month of the year. Lost weight, gained weight. Tried new things that I loved (helloooooo sushi) and not so much (goodbye, mushrooms). Went to a mall and neither died nor killed anyone. In short (yeah, I know, too late), I had a grand year, and I hereby resolve to keep on keepin' on. Cuz really, what else is there? Catch you on the flipside, my lovies.

It's here, y'all

Merry Christmas, or happy Saturday, whatever you choose. If you celebrate a holiday around now, I hope it's magical with moist turkey, perfect wine, and everyone genuinely happy. If you don't, I hope the rest of us keep the noise to a dull roar and you have a relaxing and joyful Saturday. I'll report back, assuming I make it through the next 36 hours unscathed. (Or even partially scathed.)

Smacky with a Side of Grown Up

Cuz baby boy is this many today:

It's Go Time.

I think it's safe to say that your schedule is out of control when you need to color-code it.



It's go-time here. Supplied are ordered in bulk to do Christmas projects with the kids for their grandparents, aunts and uncles. They're still little so there will be a great deal of directing by T and me. Schedules are made indicating what needs to be mailed and hence what must be finished/purchased first. I'm down to counting down how far I need to be on what day in order to keep a schedule and get things mailed on time. It sounds a little insane, but once I get the schedule I feel a little more relaxed knowing that nothing is falling through the cracks. Poor T is probably going to wonder where his relaxed, somewhat low key (SHUT UP SQUISH) girlfriend went. He saw a hint of it at Thanksgiving, but turkeys got nuthin' on Santa. Christmas card photos have been snapped, snowmen and chrismooses are displayed, plans are made for the procurement of a Christmas tree. I even went to his office Christmas party, where he was employed as the photographer and therefore spent most of the time roaming about while I fended for myself, and I didn't say or do anything that might get him fired. (I think.)(The boss's wife was WAY more drunk than I.)(Also, whoever invented the Ruby Slipper is my new best friend.)

I think one of the drawbacks of making my own Christmas presents or decorations is that I start early enough to give myself time to finish, but slack because I think I have all this time, and then I feel far far behind just as the season is picking up.
Anyway.



So, the shawl is blocked. Two dropped stitches (urgh) need to be dealt with, and ends woven, but I am still happy with it. Perhaps a photoshoot will be forthcoming for the weekend. The required scarf is being knit now, with plans to exchange it for one of the same pattern, similar color, not-as-nice-yarn that was in my OFA box if I don't get it done. (If I resort to that, the OFA box will get the finished gift-scarf instead.) One mitten to finish for Smacky, with ends on the first mitten and matching hat to be woven. Still need to bind FIL's quilt. Two parties this weekend and the possibility of driving off to Tucson to attend the 4th Avenue Street Fair. (If I'd gotten that watercolor I liked for Aunt C in April, when I bought the one for Aunt H, I wouldn't even consider it, though 4 hours of car knitting time might be lovely). Something like 16 tshirts to be stamped this weekend by the children. I have 48 whole hours if I forego sleep. If someone would hurry up and invent a Star Trek transporter I'd have an additional week to craft. (And think about it - insta-delivery on internet and catalog orders!)(But there would need to be a blocking option on unannounced visits.)(Hmm, I seem to have gotten off topic again. This will be a surprise to you, no doubt.)

It's so much harder to live in denial when I insist on trying to stay organized.

Tis the Freaking Season

Know how I know? Cuz the drivers on the road this fine December morning were even more insane than usual. Prepare to drive your armored tanks for the next 30 or so days until the furor dies down.
And speaking of holiday furor, I'll not be eating between now and...oh... 1/15/11. I ate enough over the past weekend that, in addition to my normal reserves, I could go on a hunger strike for six months before anyone would need to worry about me. (As a point of reference, we expected 20 people. We cooked 35 pounds of turkey. o.O)
However, the holiday was a good one, filled with family and fun. T's parents were in town and helped us cook dinner, and then we puttered around all weekend. Friday was the train park, Saturday was the symphony, Sunday was the local park and some turkey soup and mulled wine. Fun, low-key, lots of stuff for the boys to do to burn off energy (they were with Aunt Nan while we were at the symphony) and no one killed anyone else.
Since I couldn't be finishing the last rows of the shawl, I dug out a hat I'd started for Smacky last year and finished it. Then we went to the park and it was coldcoldcold, so I started some Smacky mittens in the same yarn as the hat (Jojoland Melody) only held singly for the mittens. Baby mittens are freaking hilarious. Exhibit A: Smacky-mitten cuff.



I have just the bind-off on the shawl, and may even dye it tonight, or see if I can't finish a tiny mitten. Eensy mittens are super-satisfying, but dyeing the shawl means it would be pinned out tomorrow night. Dilemma!

Update! That thar shawl ain't touching them thar needles.



Still need to dye and block the beast and weave in the ends.

It's been darn cold - unseasonably so - here the last week, even getting to freezing last night and tonight. May have to make T some mittens, though by the time I finish them, chances are it will be toasty warm and springlike outside...

Turkey Hangover

The whirlwind of turkey day is over. Today is about drinking up last night's sangria, putting away last night's dishes, and eating pie and cookies for breakfast. Slow, relaxing knitting will happen as soon as I have the energy to think about knitting. US friends, I hope it was a good one. International friends, I hope your Thursday was extra special, what with the waves of turkey-induced coma emanating from our shores.
Now we start the graceful slide into the High Holy Days of Glitter. My favorite season of the year, in fact, due to the unusually high concentration of sparkle, glitz, and too-tacky-for-Vegas light displays in this country. (Yesterday, watching live TV for the first time in months, I saw a commercial talking about how buying an Audi for Christmas made it the "season of reason" and it meant you didn't have to go overboard for Christmas.) Bring on the shiny, yo, and peace out.

Progress of a sort

Last week I was bored, so I wrote the post about how my shawl was done, I dyed it, it was beautiful, etc, intending to add the photos as they happened. From the moment I did that (which coincided with the moment I started the border) it was FRAUGHT with problems and issues. Not to mention the fact that no matter how loosely I do my nupps, give that there are so many YOs around them, they stretch and the looseness goes away, causing a purl-back row to go from 30 minutes for a nupp-less row to 2 hours or more for one with nupps. (Cuz there are like 60 nupps in most of these rows.) That being said, I am approaching the end. This last row had a few errors that I fudged, rather than pulling back two rows (or more) of nupps.



Later when I get the thing out to work on it, I'll pseudo-block the area to see if it's noticeable, but I can't really believe that it is. (In most cases it was an extra stitch, likely caused by missing a k2tog or knitting one of the loops of a nupp separately, a few rows previous.) I couldn't be chuffed to care last night, though. I am near the end of this monster, and it IS a monster, for all that I think it will be lovely and it will be a wrench to give it away. I have been 100% monogamous to this puppy, and I'm looking forward to a nice cabled scarf for a change.

Otherwise, life goes. I have been doing Christmas shopping early, in an effort to make this Christmas as relaxing and lovely for myself and for T as it will be for the children. Bug is super-excited and loves the glitz and sparkle of Christmas as much as I do, and Smacky has taken to saying "Oooooh" when he sees pretty things, in his tiny little voice, and it melts my icy cold heart all over again. If I can keep the cats and the Smackster off the tree, I will consider it a success. (Anyone know how to anchor a live tree to the wall, in any case?) In the meantime, though, we're still purging and working like crazy on the house to get it ready for Thanksgiving. T's parents are coming and my family is descending like locusts. My brother promised to make a Thai dish, we're making spicy chili cranberries in addition to the regular, and a few other non-traditional dishes that T wants thrown in. Can't wait. I love making T-day dinner. Now to decide whether to make a pumpkin cheesecake, or a milk-chocolate kahlua one. The shopping for this dinner was epic.





The cats are adorable, smelly, finger-biting, yarn eating monsters too. Yesterday I got out some yarn to show T, who's helping me figure out what to use for his dad's scarf. I left the hanks on the bed and went downstairs. A few minutes later, George came down skulking, and hid under my desk. Little jerk had one of the hanks of yarn and was carrying it like it was his latest kill. I rescued it (there was no noticeable damage) and the little bastige went up and got the second one. Then I noticed Smacky's hat out of the knitting basket, and one strand of the yarn stretched over the chair, mostly because George went over to bat at the strand in consolation. Icicle seems to have no interest in yarn or knitting, and will happily sit on my lap and purr away, so long as the yarn doesn't tickle his ears.

Thankful Thursday Saturday

Okay, so I missed Thursday. And last week. Be thankful I'm doing it at all. (heh, see how I tied that all in?)

Anyway, today, I am thankful for too much. Too much to do, that is. I whine (an awful awful lot) here and to Lynn and others about how much there is to do and how I don't have enough time and blah blah blah. What a luxury. Think about it - I have a job which provides me some measure of income, and I have a little home to maintain. And I have knitting I want to do, and not enough time to do it. I have a stash of yarns and patterns waiting, and a whole brainful of creativity that is nearly spilling out my ears. And because I get SOME of it done, it means I do have at least some time at my leisure. Time to do with what I will. It's not enough - never enough! - but I have it. Today I'm happy and thankful that my list of things to do for the weekend includes a selection of wants, chores to maintain my little house that I love, playtime with my kids and T, and a whole lot of creative pursuits vying for my time. Instead of whining today about how there isn't enough time to do all the wonderful things I want to, I'm going to celebrate how there are too many wonderful things to do.
How sad, to be someone with all kinds of time and no enjoyable way to fill it.

Progress

Halloween has come and gone. This weekend is our (likely) final trip to Tucson for my remaining stuff. There will be furniture shifting at the house and boxes moving and appliances exchanging, but I think we've broken the back of it and we're well on our way to having a nice, functioning home again. (I'm consistently surprised when I remember that "nice, functioning home" requires LESS stuff, not more, but that is probably something most of us struggle with, and I'm not yet willing to sell it all and live in a caravan or a 200 sq ft apartment under someone's stairs.)
This weekend I managed to clean the kitchen - REALLY REALLY clean the kitchen - and it's wonderful. T came in and saw it (he was volunteering at the Autism walk) and said, "WOW! Now what's our plan for keeping it like this?" lol He liked it so well he actually cleaned up after dinner and left nothing out! (We both have the habit of not quite finishing the tidying, so each night it gets a little more cluttered, until finally there is no room on any countertop and we are forced to eat out for a week. Forced!)
Anyway, in the course of cleaning and tidying and shifting, I have been knitting AND sewing. The shawl is a loooong slog (enjoyable, still, but a slog). I was berating myself over the weekend for being unable to finish it, since I only had 20 rows left. Then I did a little math, upon the realization that one row is averaging 15-20 minutes. Yeah, not this weekend. I'm nearly to the edging (perhaps there, by the time I publish this). I feel good about that.
(See the Christmas counter, people? It's bearing down. It's coming. It's already November, y'all. For those who knit for Christmas, get on it.)
The sewing is my FIL's quilt. Started in 2004, when my MIL fell and broke her neck. When she woke up in the hospital, one of the first things she asked for was the quilt Gramma had made her. I realized FIL didn't have a blankie of his own, so I set out to make one. As per usual, I petered out when it came to the quilting of the thing. I have made a couple stabs at it in the past, but this time I'm finishing the puppy and sending it for Christmas. Assuming I can find the fabric I'd planned to use for the binding, or indeed, if I can even remember what that fabric IS, I'll be in good shape.
Next up, a (nominally) twin sized blankie for Bug, based on his beloved Green Blankie. Said Green Blankie is minkee on one side, satin on the other, and he's carried it with him since Day One. I have four colors of satin for one side, one color minkee (in that same mint green as Green Blankie) for the other side, Big Alice's tutorials, and I'm going to get Joan on speed dial. Save me. (Sitting here typing this it occurs to me that I should make one for Smacky, who has few blankies of his own, given the crazy number Bug received as gifts. It's starting to get a little crazy around the edges of Christmas already...)
T tweeted before trick-or-treating that this was his first Halloween dressed as a "dad". It was excellent. My neighborhood seems dead most of the time (in fact, it's so rare as to be notable when we see someone walking about in the complex) so we went to my dad's, where my sister, her kids, my other sister and husband and a couple friends had gathered. Dad's neighborhood has TONS of kids so we had high hopes. It took a bit for Bug to get into the groove of the thing, and truly, the nardos who leave their outside lights on but don't answer the door? SUCK. We must have been the first out in the neighborhood, and went around the corner and fell in with a large family, which was fun for a bit. We parted ways and wandered up the next street, and when we turned the corner to go back to dad's street, it was a sea of humanity. HUGE groups of people wandering the streets. One family had a fire pit, some were sitting outside waiting - one tween boy was nice enough to remove his scary mask so Bug could go up and receive candy without fear. Smacky toddled along in his giraffe costume - I really thought he'd fight it but in fact refused to take it off for some time after we were finished. (It was a little short in the torso so the hood pulled down over his eyes a bit, but he still wanted to wear it all night.) He had a great time, Bug had a great time. When Bug got tired, he said, "Can we go back to Grampa's now?" and he ate a bit of candy and some dinner and passed out candy with his uncle while the rest of us ate pizza and drank beer and wine and chatted on the back patio.
(Clicketty Biggity)


Weekends are settling down, and we're enjoying some relaxing time. Knitting in the afternoons while the breezes waft in through the windows, bike riding on the local path, baking muffins with the boys (Smacky on the chair on one side, Bug on the chair on the other, each taking a turn stirring and tasting...) Almost don't mind the mountains of laundry and sticky spots that appear on the floors 12 seconds after I've mopped... Happy Fall, y'all.

More of the same

Yup, fall is slipping away like sands through the hourglass these are the days of our lives. This time of year in the valley is a reward for living in Satan's armpit through the summer. Windows are open all day long, and the songbirds heading south are happy little critters as the sun rises in the morning. Kittens are happy and chirpy and snuggly (and I don't want to end them now that I have rigged up a way to keep them from destroying the carpet under the door of the bedroom, begging to come in and snuggle and bite our ears at 4am). Knitting happens not much at night, but nearly daily on the patio of a restaurant at lunch. I'm making decent progress on my shawl, in spite of the number of times I like to forget YOs or accidentally knit the flower-stitches in the wrong order. (Blocking for this puppy will be super-duper involved in some of those spots - I didn't realize why it looked like that until about the 8th repeat, so I'll need to fix those stitches individually. Oy.) Anyway, it still looks like boiled ass, as lace is wont to do, but I'm still mostly enjoying it (don't ask me about the purlback rows after a row of flower stitches - I might be a little tetchy.) So, no pictures. Go look here, and imagine it slightly larger, but still mottled and lumpy.
The rest of the time is spent trying to beat the house into submission, and we're making progress without killing ourselves. I realized a little while ago that much of my frustration came from not having places for everything like I did in the Tucson house, but I should suck it up because I had TEN YEARS in that house to find places to stash things. We're still rearranging in this place. (I'll probably get it just the way I like it, the week before we find a bigger place and move there.) Last weekend we had a day of errands and cleaning and general suckage with parents and children having bad attitudes, and Sunday morning we woke to beautiful skies and pancakes for breakfast, and a fantastic bike ride where Bug only whined a couple of times about being tired (allowable, as I figure we exceeded five miles on that trip). There was wrestling and playing (T and Bug), playing alone in the play kitchen (Smacky), and knitting (me), there was a barbecue with my family, there was the best day we've had in a long time. Ahhhh, fall.

Smacky-speak, take 2

shish	fish
shoo	shoe
zhu	juice
moo	any farm animal that is a cow, could be a cow, or stood next to a cow once
mao	cat
Mommy	o.O
Pop-Pop	Papa
Bubba	Bug
cah!Mommymommymommymommycah!	oh look, Mother, a vehicle
arpla!Mommymommymommymommyarpla!	oh look, Mother, an airplane
beeeeeeeeeeeeee!	birdie
mo	more
no no	no no
uh-oh	with the shrug
oh-no	o.O
puppa	puppy
ni-ni	bed time
poo?poo?poo?poo?	I have desecrated my diaper and you need to take care of it at this time or I will drive you mad with my relentless monosyllabic repetition. (That's totally what it means.)

Funny things Bug still says:

That taxi is lello.
We're driving on the threeway.
Daddy Rick was from Meh-ontana.

Christmas is in the bag

I am totally cruising on my shawl, have plenty of time to finish it and the other (already well in progress) projects I want to gift - the scarf, the hat, the slippers... I have a plan for baking cookies and freezing them to frost later. I have the Flylady to organize my Thanksgiving dinner, and I sit in my car at lunch with the windows open, feeling the beautiful soft breezes and knitting away.

I'm totally going to get there this Christmas.



Oh. Damn mail.

Feels so good...

To be knitting lace again...

First, though, thanks for all the kudos for doing the run. I feel pretty good about the whole thing, and will likely keep it up (though I have given some thought to switching out running for biking). It's easy to think about in the light of day, but my resolve wavers when the alarm goes off at 4:45am...

Anyway, as I suspected, I hate the way this yarn is knitting up.





(Kindly ignore the boiled-ass look of the unblocked lace and commiserate with me on the boiled-ass look of the variegation.)

It's lovely and soft and I think it will make a beautiful finished product, but I deeply dislike variegated lace, or really, variegated knitting of any type, with the exception of socks. Mottled, shaded yarns based on one hue? (what do we call those? kettle-dyed?) Lemme at 'em. This stuff? Not so much. (Before you ask, the store I visited had a limited selection, due to a recent move. The solid colors they did have were either not the recipient's favorite colors, or were superwash. I knew I could work with the greens in this yarn to come up with a nicely shaded, medium-to-dark cedar green with a light over-dye.) Lovely Echo Flowers (from here out, "Effie") will be having a bath in the dyepot when I've finished knitting her. The knitting of this shawl is interesting, too - the '2 into 9' and '3 into 9' stitches, which sound vaguely Borg-like, make these cute little flower-like spots throughout (though they are a monster pain to work), and I can hardly wait to get to the edging. (I'll have to, I have only 4 or 5 of 13 repeats of the flowers done.)

Truth be told, I still have Madli on the go, and while I still love that pattern, I won't likely be getting back to it any time soon. It requires the presence of a tray of beads, and with four little boys in the house (the happy pitter-patter of 12 little feet, as T puts it) I don't see myself working on it in the near future. I have procured a water bottle for the training of the four-leggeds, though, so maybe that will help. (I wonder if the water bottle can be used to train the two-leggeds?)(Update since I started this post - nope. They giggle when you spray them, then squint their eyes and grin and wait for the next spritz.)

Two Sundays ago, the four of us did the AIDS walk in Phoenix, and afterwards, all four of us, feeling under the weather, came home and napped for hours. It was indulgent and luxurious. I woke up to T unpacking boxes, and the boys bright eyed and rosy-cheeked (which later turned out to be fever), and we all had a lovely, restful evening. The rest of the time, though, we feel like we're on a hamster wheel. So much to be done, so little time and/or energy. The quickening pace of the fall... I've written about it before. I think the people who feel it still feel the urgency of the harvesting in their blood. The need to get it all done, all the food put up, all the wood chopped, all the ground turned, all the everything, before the dormancy of winter sets in. School starting, holidays bearing down. Daylight fading. No matter that I don't farm, that here in Phoenix the dormancy happens in the summertime, that I've never needed to put up food or chop wood or turn the fields... I still feel the urgency of the impending winter. I have a few limited projects I want to get going this month, plus the general care and feeding of home, children, partner, pets. I'm trying to attack my to-do list like I do my running: no matter how slowly I go, I'm making progress if I just don't stop. Unlike my pioneering forebears, no one will starve or freeze if I don't get it all done. (For which I am profoundly grateful - I am FAR too lazy to be a pioneer of anything but cookie-consumption.)(The flaw in this plan is that we dirty things and untidy things far more quickly than T and I can clean and tidy them again. Small bursts of desecration are apparently more efficient than small bursts of cleaning and tidying.)

This weekend is, of course, packed full of delightful engagements that will see us getting further behind in the home maintenance department. Sunday night will hit, and I will say, where the hell have all Smacky's socks gone, and why doesn't anyone have clean underwear? (The answer: no one knows. he takes them off at daycare, hides them or throws them away, and puts his shoes back on. and also, dunno, should prolly buy us some more.) But it will all be totally worth it.

Bouncy, healthy ta-tas, and some ass-kicking.

Cuz today, I ran my first 5k race.



Before. (Feeling like a poser.)(Note: I normally do not wear lipstick to run, but it was the only Burt's Beeswax I could find in my purse.)



During.



After. (Feeling like a million bucks, and also dead.)

Many thanks to T (and all YOU, and particularly LeeAnn) for the support, and also for catching Mr. Pecs in that last pic. More later - today, I am glorying in accomplishment. And limping.