Thanksgiving Knitting

Another packed week, although this week actually didn't involve any Work (at least the kind that earns me $$ rather than helps me spend it faster).

First...knitting stuff...Had a Knitting Knight for the first time in a while, with a good turnout. Alison was working on felted slippers, Carlos is chugging away at his FSM hat (unfortunately, running out of yarn!), Heidi is cruising through this baby blanket, and Hilary came to hang out. I worked on my Birthday socks, since the lace is not possible when there are any other distractions.

House stuff... the contractors are OUT (mostly), and I've tried 7 different swatches of paint to try to decide how to paint the rooms. Miller paints are beautiful, but wow, I can really fret over color choices. We've decided on what to paint one room, and I'm still dithering about option #2. I want to get one room painted so that I can get the radiator in this week (how nice would that be???). The area behind the radiator has now been painted and the trim is drying, so it should be ready to go.

Then, packing for Thanskgiving - we tore out of here Wednesday night. Naturally, I brought knitting (three projects, one that was started at the airport. THe lace scarf, the birthday sock, and a hat, since Heidi threatened to knit me one if I didn't just shut up and knit one for myself already). Off to Orange County for days of food, more food, geeking out with the cousins and aunt & uncle & grandparents. The weather was, naturally, perfect. The Imax 3D version of Beowulf was quite impressive. 3D Imax rocks, I must say.

We had a record 15 people in attendance for Thanksgiving dinner, and even just sampling a little bit of everything left me in a complete food coma afterwards. Zzzz. I was not the only one...

Sock knitting was done in the line at Fry's (though we decided to not bother with the line - I walked around for about 20 min in the line, and people were saying it was at least 3 hours long!). Lace knitting was done on the flight home. Hat knitting dominated the actual holiday time - to good effect. I finished the hat on the way home! I wore it around last night & today - the verdict is... I'd make it longer and out of a less itchy yarn. But it was yard sale yarn that was originally $9.50 / skein, so I can't complain. At least for now, it will keep my darn head warm.


Upcoming attractions: new knobs for the rooms (they somehow ordered a dark finish), painting doors, new radiator, sanding/priming/painting in basement, lace knitting, breaking down and buying size 8's so I can start on my sweater, a bisque firing, a glaze firing, eating leftover sweet-potato black bean burritos...and apple crisp. And maybe a trip to Austin while we're at it...

House Gear

Wow, am I sick of house chores! There's always another project just lurking around the corner. Every single time I turn that corner, they jump up and yell "boo!". But, we have made progress. The bedroom doorknobs are the wrong color (we should have figured this out a while back, as are the hinges). The lever knob on the door was put in upside-down, but Damien, brilliant Damien, figured it out and calmed my freak-out about not being able to handle upside-down doorknobs every time I came home.

I did finish painting the basement bathroom, which allowed me to move in the cabinets that I painted (the last vacation) on for size. Sizing is good, but they still need countertops, and I'm a little nervous about cutting the countertop solo. I could probably do it, but... No hurry, we still need to get the sink faucet in. Unfortunately, with classes, D has had no time to help out on this. We'll chip away at it.

We did totally score on a paint sprayer. After confessing to some exhaustion (as well as hand fatigue, which can TOTALLY cut into my knitting) I suggested I might have someone paint the rooms. D countered with the idea of renting a sprayer. However, given that we have lots to paint (and have discussed painting the outside in the next few years), I suggested we might just blow a bundle up front to buy a sprayer. Happily, D has experience with these, we found one and Home Depot, and then on a whim, checked craigslist. I LOVE CRAIGSLIST. There it was, same model, for 1/3 the price. Between us we had exactly the right amount of cash (otherwise we would have been collecting quarters), and we got it pretty much within an hour.

As a FUN thing, I met yarn-enabler-extraordinaire Heidi downtown for a kabab-lunch, which is, as always, great fun (and knitting-centric). New place - Hush Hush - though I think I liked the other one around the corner a bit better (they had a mezza platter). I also zipped off to Ann Taylor Loft and bought one of the last skirts to match my suit in town ($30 off, no less, so worth the effort and procrastination). A trip to Powell's meant that I stocked up on books (knitting and books, such a difficult combination!) - the Neil Gaiman short story collection "Fragile Things" hardback was on sale for less than the trade paperback, so it was a no-brainer. Then to Barnes & Noble to spend my giftcard (Susanna Clark short stories, Lian Hearn "Tales of the Otori" new novel I hadn't realized was out. And of course, Home Depot.

Today? Finished watching Cowboy Beebop: The movie (eh, whatever). Good for knitting lace, which I'm in the middle-black-hole on. I'm through 11 repeats now, and probably about 1/3 of the way through the scarf. It's going to be lovely. But there are so many other things to knit!

Training Blitz Week - OVER!

What a week! Running a Training Blitz for people who have traveled halfway around the world, 130 people actually attending, 3 days of training, is no small feat. I'm pooped, and I have a million things to do at home. While it was crazy busy and disruptive - it's been weeks since I feel like I've done "real work", I did get to see a number of people I work with but see only occasionally (from Ireland and Malaysia). The overall feedback was very positive, with one whiner who helped me understand that I'm very good at dismissing the positive feedback as "polite" and listening only to the negative feedback. Given that The Whiner actually didn't have any constructive feedback, nor did he know what he was talking about for just about all of his comments, he really wasn't worth listening to, yet I let him get under my skin. I am now dismissing him as irrelevant.

Anyway, it's done, my wrap-up / post-mortem is almost complete, and it feels good. It feels so good that I'm getting myself involved in mini-program management. Which will mean a trip to Austin in December, it looks like, and a lot more responsibility.

On the home front - so much progress, so close! The trimming around the doors is almost complete. The back door - without the dog door and plywood screwed onto it - is in! I can start painting (yea?) in the basement. The pressure is on to select colors to paint the bedrooms. I'm realizing that I have no idea where the hammer, the drill bits, or the flat head screwdrivers are.

Done by the end of the year? One can only hope.

Whirlwind East Coast Tour

Whoosh! D and I have traveled 6000 miles in less than a week. We took the redeye out of Portland, flying for the first time on JetBlue, and headed to JFK. I now remember why I really dislike redeyes. I'm just useless for the next day anyway - might as well sleep horizontally rather than vertically and lose the day either way. I did manage to keep moving in some facimile of life through Margaret's bridal shower, which was actually a lot of fun. I thought a proper high-tea would involve my breaking ettiquette rules I didn't even know existed, but in fact it involved lots of yummy dishes and none of the servers looking down their noses at us and saying "yes, ma'am, whatever you SAY, ma'am" with obvious tones of disapproval. Nope, none of that. In fact, for a very victorian-style establishement clearly catering to little old ladies getting together for a bit of a cozy gossip, it was certainly well-staffed with Fine Looking Young Men. Coincidence? I think not! I'm just wondering how many times a day they get pinched.

The sugar cube even had a little icing flower on it, it was so Floral and Pink.

Champagne? Yes! Tea? Yes! salad, sandwiches, scones, and then 2 kinds of dessert? YES YES YES!

And that was just the beginning of the Wedding Weekend of Margaret & Ivan. A good time was had by all.


We were mani-pedi'd. We ate soy cheese pizza and actually liked it. We were made up, coiffed (and sprayed and teased and BOY, were we pinned). We dressed, none of us stumbled down the aisle, and happy tears were cried. We walked, we ate, we hit the subway, we opened presents, we cleaned, we toasted good wishes to the happy couple. We discovered that becoming part of a new family also provides new sources of gossip! Let's just say a sibling was being actively talked up by other siblings and family friends, with attempts to set him up with either me (boyfriend not withstanding) or my twin.

And we made it back home late Sunday night... And I'm into the whirlwind Training Blitz that I happen to be running (I have SWORN that I will not do this again. NOT AGAIN.) It's really nice seeing familiar faces traveling from distant places, but I will still be happy to have a Thanskgiving break next week.

Crunch time? Start Lace

The last weekend before my little sister's wedding, and I have a list a mile long. Naturally, I caught a cold a few days ago (D thinks this is correlated with my flu shot... he may be right) and I remain sniffly and not terribly fit for public viewing. So naturally, it has been gorgeous weather and I had to get out and finish hacking down part of the hedge so its unevenness didn't mock me all winter. Out came the chainsaw. And I had to paint the steps that I had so urgently scraped the previous weekend. THis done, I treated myself to a nap, D & I went out for Ethiopian food, and I knit for the rest of the evening.

I finished the Canadian souvenier yarn socks (a bit baggy around the ankles, but honestly I really wanted to get on to knitting something else and really didn't want to re-knit, so they are DONE). And I started a pattern called the "Easy Knit Flame Lace Scarf" (or some perturbation of those words) and it is Easy. It has the same number of stitches in every row, so when I think I've messed up, I can verify. It only has 2 different rows (besides purl) in its pattern. I think I can hack this. I am beginning also to see the attraction in it - it's a bit like self-striping yarn. YOu want to get through just one more repeat! This one is turning out, as a certain lace knitter has been known to call it, "nipply". It's that Sl 1, K2Tog, Psso, effectively a K3 Tog.

House watch...sheet rock is up, tape & mud sometime later this week. Which means (drum roll) the doors and trim can go up hopefully the following week! How exciting is that?!? Then I'm just limited by my ability to pick a paint color (and a ceiling fan, which can wait a bit). Maybe by the end of the year, we'll have it done!

Genius is Often Misunderstood

All I can say is that it was a brilliant piece of work. Who wouldn't want to know how many trick-or-treaters come the entire night to guide optimal candy-buying next year? Or to estimate how many will come in the next 10 minutes so you can decide if you have a decent shot at making a run...elsewhere in the house other than the front door?

Sadly, others have failed to see the utility of such data collection. I have been mocked by turbo-geeks at work (they were jealous, I tell you). But I will record it here for posterity.

I give you...trick-or-treaters as a function of time, NE Portland...



I tell you, I am sadly misunderstood.