Approaching 2007

Well, it's almost 2007 - a mere 6 hours to go, and I did actually manage to complete one project before the new year. Yup, you guessed it, the eight-month socks are finally complete! Not just complete, but all the ends are woven in and they are actually in a *wearable* condition now. And they're not half bad, if I do say so myself... Now, do I cast on the next sock with the green merino wool (also crazy small needles) or the tweedy brown (ditto), or do I go back to work on the sweater, which has been sorely neglected for amost the last week?

Well, the answer is obvious. I went and worked on the back stairs some more instead, taking advantage of the virtually unprecedented TWO weekend days, back-to-back, sans rain! Hallelujah! I finished screwing on the little posts between the top railings, and dilligently worked on creating my first railing after consulting with Damien. He's really good about this - he offers to help, gives me advice, and then steps back and lets me beat through it on my own. I know it would go faster if he were helping, but I wouldn't be learning as much. I've gotten much more comfortable using a miter saw! You can see in the photos that the railing isn't finished yet - it needs the little posts added, and the second railing still needs to be added.

Now, the Jiffy-corn bread is in the oven, getting ready to take to the New Year's Eve party, I am showered, the sawdust is out of my hair, the dishwasher is running, and I have photos to share.

Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Martha

Approaching 2003?

I'm doing my best to catch up to 2006, in baby steps. First, it was the blog, now it's an iPod. Check out the telltale white earphones. I feel a bit like a neanderthal poking at this little sliver of a device, with big meaty, hairy (figuratively speaking) fingers, trying to make it go. I have not figured out podcasts AT ALL, nor do I have any control over how it interacts with iTunes. It does its own thing when plugged in, chatting happily away with the computer, and it spits out some music, and for now, we're happy. Other than through iTunes, though, I haven't figured out how to pull in any other podcasts. Let me know if you figure something out. Ditto with the playlists...

Since arriving back home, I've run about a million errands (getting the iPod was one of them) and I got the new glasses I ordered before I left - my poor old lenses were so scratched, when I donned the new pair, it was as though a veil had been lifted from my eyes. Just incredible. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo I uploaded (and I came close to giving you two a super close up, but it made my nose look Humongous. Macro-photo setting is not kind to one's vanity) but they're horn-rimmed on the top and rimless on the bottom - similar to my old glasses in shape. I still love my old ones, but they were getting pretty worn.

Today was a massive, solo Home Depot run. I feel so macho (and so petite at the same time, when trying to manouver items) when I go there. Today, I was picking up big stuff - pegboard so Damien can stop kindly suggesting it would be Much Nicer to Organize the basement, hardiback board (cement board that they put under tiles) for my ceramic stuff. Insulation stuff to cover & make into blocking boards for my knitting (if the HD guys only knew...) Lots more lumber to keep chipping away at the back stairs. Handrails would be very nice. A woman came over and offered to help me load the truck...but after I got all the hard stuff loaded. None of the guys offered. Does that make them liberated?

So, I may get ambitious and work on it some this afternoon. Or I could successfully procrastinate a bit more and leave it for tomorrow. But I really have no excuse - it's NOT RAINING here. I mean, this could be my only chance for, like, three months, to work on this. NOT RAINING!!! And it's a WEEKEND! But then again, I don't think it's supposed to rain tomorrow... And I'm sore from working out to a DVD yesterday - crouching is a bit painful.

In the interest of procrastination, I have also cooked up a minor storm - tried a yogurt curry chicken breast to make a chicken curry salad (which is good - I've made it with just grilled chicken before), and tomato-black-bean soup (an old standby - I should send this to Margaret).

Maybe I should go knit. The flight was completely useless for knitting because I had a splitting headache and there was no use attempting to concentrate. The headphones work as well as my earplugs, by the way - quite impressive! And combined with the earplugs, they almost managed to block out the tag-team screaming toddlers who wailed for about 90% of the trip.

Happy Almost-New Year!

P.S. Any ideas on how to add additional carriage returns in HTML? Argh!

Luddite Jones & the Year 2K...plus 6...

Fine. I'm trying a blog, since my attempts at writing letters to the sisters has not been very successful this year, hampered by the lack of a new typewriter ribbon for the first 6 months of the year. And when we cleaned up for a party, the typewriter (along with the letter I started in August) was stuffed in to the closet. It has yet to make a reappearance, since there is no room on my desk. I'll fix that later.

But only the two of you have access to this, so I can tweak and twiddle and all that, and maybe, just maybe, you'll get more regular updates on what's going on over in my little world.

Love,
Martha