New routines

So, I got my bike tuned up and now I ride to the T.  It's not only relaxing and pretty, it's faster than the bus too (http://minutemanbikeway.org).

Another thing I had sort of forgotten about living in NE is sleeping with your windows open.  Our neighborhood is really quiet despite being in a very densely populated place.  Also, our kitty likes the window view:

And finally, I took yesterday off so we could go get out licenses and register/inspect our cars. Yuck.  Not the most fun I've ever had - but now I have a temporary paper license with a very traumatized picture of myself.  😉

New toy

Well, not really.  We got a fertilizer spreader. And even when you're 12, the coolest part is still the box. They enjoyed putting it together - spouse had to come home for an emergency dental visit.  Who wouldn't want to assemble a spreader with a preteen after that?

Friday night dinner

More Key West

Pictures from Key West

We just got back - tired, archiving some pictures.

Random thought of the day

Because I drive a lot (I'm a supercommuter) I ride along on my husbands Audible account. Which I love. And I'm really dull, which you might expect (Austin, Brontes, books on the NSA) but I did want to mention my favorite podcasts. Along with Knitpicks, I'd recommend Mile Duncan's The History of Rome, Kevin Stroud's History of English and any of the Naked Science podcasts - Naked Genetics is my favorite.
Thoughts for the weekend.
And here's our tree - now the house smells nice.

It's been a long time, sorry

It's been a long time, sorry.  But if you haven't abandoned me, I can say I've been knitting Christmas presents.  I have 3.5 out of 5 done and I only started in October, so I feel pretty good about my chances of getting this done and still having time to ship them.  I'll post some pictures tonight.

Today at work, I noticed I have these 2 birds outside my window, they look like they're playing chess.  Watch the video here.  Then they fight, one leaves, the other sits in the tree outside my window looking all hunchy and territorial until the first one comes back, then they play chess again and fight more.  It's sort of fascinating, so I filmed it and I'm posting it here.

Hopefully everyone is getting ready to have a relaxing holiday - we're going to make this stuffing (it's totally awesome, we tried it last weekend) and some of the usual fun stuff - like white chocolate mousse and pecan pie.  I'll have Wednesday at least partially to myself to go grocery shopping and clean, which is always kind of fun.  We don't go anywhere or see anyone for Thanksgiving, usually, so it's quiet and nice.  Which of course is making us flirt with getting a dog, because too little chaos just isn't allowed in our world.

I've been trying to get back to abandoned projects this year, and I have on thing I need to take out and do over.  My Kauni jacket isn't gong to fit, so I need to to repurpose the yarn - I've seen a really cool vest pattern on Ravelry . . . .  but if you do a pattern search for Kauni vest you get some pretty awesome stuff.

Okay, lunch is over, back to work!

All official and everything

My new car and its new plate. Both supporting a nice cause and its sort of work humor. Get it?

Stained glass pullover again

Yes, again.
Or how my knitting brain finally got a break and came up with something to journal here again.

So, my iPhone died.  Which is whatever I guess (I do need to get a cheap replacement for a little while so my child can call me when he gets home from school), but it meant that I had no music to run to tonight.
Now, a year ago, this would have s*cked, big time.  But I'm now enough in the groove of running 3 miles that I no longer NEED music to get my pace set and jolly me through it.  So I was running and looking at the clouds, which were all pink and red and purple, and thinking about knitting (duh) and thought how pretty they looked.  How nice it would be in a fair isle, except Alice Starmore already did that one and it's honestly not really my palette anyway.  Hmmm, palette - knitpicks, mmmmm, that idea I had for using an Islamic mosaic tile pattern for color inspiration last winter - I really like the idea of the blues and yellow golds with little shots of turquoise and lavender.  But coming up with a whole fair isle design and placing all that?  Oof, exhausting.  But wait - that could be PERFECT for another stained glass pullover - work it at the original gauge with 2 sets of palette stranded together, background would be blues and the panes would be golds.

In other news, I finished Vitamin D and LOVE IT, but I need to wash it again because my handdyed wants to bleed on me.  Yuck.  I also am making some dull mittens to take a brain rest and use up some yarn and have a comfy fingering swatch in the dryer right now so I can see about making a lightweight cotton cardigan, like the Featherweight by Hannah Fetig.

No pics, well, no phone.  Yes, we have a camera, but I don't know where it is.

Deer

In our back yard - she had twins but you can only see one very well here.
Spent the day taking the little one to meet the teacher day at middle school (he's starting 6th grade!) and then to Walmart. Walmart sucks. But we're ready. Or we have supplies - I guess that doesn't really equate, does it?
I'm almost done with Vitamin D which I love - the hand dyed is awesome and it's forced me to learn to felt graft as I go because you really have to alternate balls as you go with hand dyed, even from the same pot. But it is a boatload of straight stitch. And I hope to get a snap of Tumbleweed this week at knitting. I could use to go to our knitting group.

Cake

Note the theme animal print candles. The clerk at Publix thought I was a sad, crazy cat lady buying my cat a cake. He seemed relieved when I explained that I was just lame.

Another tiny sweater

Is done! Buttons and everything. In with the wash tonight.
Also, pictures of my flowers a juvenile doe keeps eating on me. See the bald stalks??




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sweater 4$ pays off

I'm getting paid! 8 skein of Alpaca Elegence and a new book. And I got a super sweet note from the sweater recipient. Yay!

Trophy

Just a quick snap before going to a couple games. His club played a world cup the other week and his team won, so they all get to bring the trophy home for a day. Worked on Cecily while watching them win 2 back to back games.

Happy Easter

I'm not religious, but lots of people I care about are, so happy Easter!
We're going to Muss and Turner's for brunch.
Tomorrow I'm going to post some pictures of the S4$ on before it goes in the mail.

Present this morning

This was sitting on our bedside table this morning.

I want to help you with your dental hygiene

Ah, kitties. They do find floss fascinating.
Still plodding away on the S4$, I'll take it's picture at practice tomorrow. I've finished the body of Hallett's ledge which I love but am unsure if it will be big enough until its done and blocked. Is it me, or does that sort of thing account for 70% of UFOs in knitting baskets around the world?

900.8

That's how many miles we've run in the past 18 months. Not sure on that time interval, but it's close.
Tonight casting on the back of the sweaterformoney. Can I beat my 8 week goal?

The better one

Crippling injuries?

Because just telling people not to do dumb things is no longer enough?
We're at a soccer tournament in Orlando this weekend and this caught my eye. I have a better one ....