In which the rain is replaced by wind

Yes, it is true! The rain is gone. We are quite soggy from the visit. Today we have wind. Big wind. Wind that talks in its own special way. I am so comforted by the howling wind. I love sleeping while the trees are screaming. What I am not thrilled about is when I must go out into the wind. That is rough. The cold wind burns my face in a way that makes the sun look like the fair skinned redhead's best friend.

I have almost finished the Charcoal Broadripple socks! The heal is turned and gusset decreases almost complete on the second sock. That is a great accomplishment. I am resisting the urge to find yet another project to start on those overly active size 1 needles. The Baby Blue Slouch hat has 5 inches on it. Another 2-3 and I can get on with the crown decreases. That will be today's cardio-knit. I have got to get that completed and get the package into the mail. I think it would be an all time first for my nieces to get gifts on the actual day.

I made a list of the projects to get complete for gift giving. It is very long. I need to be doing some sort of crafting at every moment in the day, unless of course I am eating or sleeping. I do need some form of a schedule but that is not taking form yet. Lists are really my strong suit. I know what needs to be on the needles in order to come off the needles. I know what needs to be cut into little pieces up in the sewing room. Then there are all those other projects that I want to get done which may or may not get going. That is what I am calling the Dream List. If I stop dreaming at night I might get them done OR I am just plain dreaming to think that they might get accomplished before the time is here.

I've noticed something about the sitting room. It is so much smaller than the old living room the clutter looks messy. In the older larger room I could loose some of the clutter. It was almost like it did not exist really. Now though, the newspaper on the couch or the shuffled magazines on the table stand out. They are screaming out loud "Please put me away! Don't leave me exposed!" Good news though Celie has started to venture to the downstairs again. She was a bit shell shocked when her living room disappeared. She spent days upstairs in her house. If the cats came close (with in 5 feet!) to her she charged. Now she is re-taking control of the downstairs. She is sleeping in her downstairs bed and charging at the cats if they come 5 feet from her. This is an improvement. Moon Kitty is not backing down. He is however disappointed that she is in her bed. He was thinking it should belong to him. Maybe Santa will bring new beds for the animals. There really isn't too much room for them, the beds, but it is understandable for them, the cats, to want the warmth of a polar fleece bed to curl up in. (I will resist the urge to add them to the List. Even the Dream List!) Like I said maybe Santa will fix that one. (Hope he has good decorator sense and understands limited spaces!)

OK, time to quilt. Today is T-shirt quilt day. Must get them done. Must get them down to Mom to get quilted. Must keep going. Must get the list complete!

Rain Anyone?

Surprise! There is rain again today! Lots of rain. The light in the sitting room feels like 4 PM not 9 AM. The gutters are doing a decent job of getting the rain from the front of the house to the back yard and avoiding the basement. I am always so very happy when this happens. (The other option is not too much fun. I don't even want to think about inches of rain down there with those weight machines which cannot be moved.) Happiness at its best, a dry basement. The back yard on the other hand has chosen to grow grass again. Looks as though we will need to mow this weekend. Feels a bit like living in the tropics again.

I did get in both weight training sessions yesterday. The soreness isn't too bad. I am experiencing the stiff ankle thing but wondering if it is due to the lower body weight training or to the excessive dampness and pressure with this weather. Pressing on! Yesterday did not include any extra cardio. Today has two cardio sessions slated. I am wanting to get that going. Lots of fat burning. Lots of calories used. Lots of knitting time for me!

More Rain

So it is raining again. The predicted amount is 1 inch today, another tonight, and then for a change of pace tomorrow we could get two inches. I'm not complaining. We need the rain. I would just rather snuggle on the couch watching movies than try to work in the drippiness. There are a few errands that must get run. I have already been out. I don't want to go back out. The rain makes driving no fun. Maybe the cats won't mind not having food for the next few days. Maybe the bill collectors will forget they need their money until I am in the mood to take it to them. Maybe I am living in a fantasy world.

I have been keeping up on the cardio. The weight training has gone to pot so far this week. Well, that is not too fair to say. I was not able to get in my lower body on Monday. Today is only half gone. I could double up and do upper and lower body today. I am planning to get in another hour on the bike. Kam mentioned to me that I need to be walking two miles each day as well as all the other stuff I am doing. I thought I could get away with not doing it because of the rain. Many games are called on account of rain. Apparently cardio is not one of them. She remembered the Walk Away the Pounds videos. I can do a few miles without even leaving the house. Joy Bliss

On the knitting front, I am half way through the leg portion of the second Charcoal Broadripple sock. I intended to breeze right through it until it was done. Alas, I got distracted. Last night was one of my great evenings with Mia. Mia is a friend's 11 year old daughter. We hang out together on Tuesdays so her parents can have some time away. This is not babysitting. She is not a baby. She is more like a surrogate niece. She is an excellent knitter. A few weeks ago I promised to teach her to knit with circular needles. Last night she started a lovely green scarf. Again, I forgot my camera and will need to ask her permission to photograph her progress when I see her on Thursday evening. While she was plugging away with the nice 10.5 needles, I started another hat using size 6. Normally it is fine to do a magic loop hat. Last night I decided to use bamboo circulars. The center cord is so stiff it might as well be wire. I am so very spoiled with my Knit Picks Options. I have the nickel plated model. The yarn glides over the needles in a way I cannot describe as anything less than heaven. That may sound like an exaggeration. It is not. After last night's workout with needles I have learned the beauty of the Options. The hat I started is for my other niece. It is lovely. The yarn is soft and very smooshy. She has the most beautiful long brown hair and this baby blue slouch hat will be perfect for her. Hopefully she is feeling it is perfect for her too!

Rainy Tuesday

I'm loving the weather today! The overcast skies normally make me cranky but today is different. I can go outside without a winter coat, gloves, hat, scarf, and thick socks. My face is not cramped because of the icy wind beating against it. I actually had the word balmy come into mind when I was just out on the porch! Imagine, balmy on December 9!!

I completed one sock last night while hanging out in the new sitting room. I found the room to be much cozier at night. The dark outside makes the room feel more closed in. That doesn't sound like a pleasant thing but in reality it is. Maybe it is this getting closer to the shortest day of the year that is making me feel dark and closed in spaces are good. Anyway the sock, I completed one. I love the color. The pattern is beautiful. Broadripple from Knitty's Summer '03. This is the second pair I've made using this pattern. Love the way I can memorize the counts. Almost like using a simple Calculus formula, almost. (Maybe that is where I went wrong. Maybe I should have created knitting patterns out of my formulas to memorize them for the exams!) Curious what the sock looks like?
If you click on the picture it gets bigger. The lace is subtle in this yarn. I'm fascinated with the pattern in a solid color. Hopefully the new owner will love these as much as I do. They are not for exercising in even though they are shown on the ball. This grey day does not lend itself well to picture taking.

One other event of last weekend was a trip to Denton to see Kam's parents. I learned to always take the camera where ever we go. We decided to go out for a meal and a mini adventure. On the side of the road was a man selling collard greens. The temperature that day was 35 and windy. If it weren't for the upcoming holiday I doubt many people would have been out of their warm homes. But this guy was in his truck selling collards at a very busy stop light. The pick up truck was loaded. Trust me, I know it is hard without photo proof, this was a full size pickup loaded above the bed and covered with a tarp. The beautiful greens were cut at the base just above ground where they grew in the fields. As we drove by it looked like he was selling giant green flowers! They were gorgeous! I wanted lots of them because they were so pretty! We limited ourselves to three.
That is what my kitchen sink looks like right now! I have all three heads in the sink. The flower is still beautifully evident.

Make it bigger, you can see how wonderful it is! The question now is how many pots will it take to cook these suckers up? The one I have is huge. No really this is huge!

It looks small there on the counter. It is a 16 quart stock pot. When I bought it I thought it would be a nice soup pot. I was working in a kitchen store. The pot looked small in the big store. I was very excited about it. A large heavy stock pot all shiny and only $20 after my discount. The intention here was turkey soup after Thanksgiving. Turns out this pot is big enough to make stock out of two turkeys at one time! Now you have an idea of the immensity of the pot, and a visual on how enormous the collards are. Do you think I can get at least two of them into the pot to cook? It would make me so very happy to only have to keep track of one huge pot of greens but that is stretching the point beyond the laws of physics. I have a little sister pot that is only 12 quarts. She may just end up helping out.

Best get off to cleaning, cutting, and cooking that mess of greens. Perfect timing too, the house is very dry and can use the extra humidity that will come from hours of boiling greens!

New Spaces!

The above picture is for Jon. Don't you want to come and fix that floor? Many years of use have left it sad, dry, stained, and wanting your loving touch! At least we don't have to put in a hardwood floor to exercise on!

So what is this all about? After months of writing the business plan, re-writing the business plan, searching for a location, finding a new location, and meetings with officials, we presented the plan for THE FIRE to a local lending organization to obtain funding for the move and expansion. On Friday December 5th we got the news that we were not approved. After a bit of heavy thought and weighing the options we came up with a new plan. (The last plan B put me back in school to get a teaching degree and into the public school system teaching math to high school students. Let's not go there today.) So, the new plan B was devised: Move the living room into the dining room, the dining room up to the craft area of the bedroom, and the living room becomes a new workout studio. The devising of the plan was rather quick. I think it took about 10 minutes to work out the details and envision the end result. The settling in of the plan took 48 hours. That is to say the first steps of execution were not laid until Sunday afternoon. Regrettably, I did not take any before photos. I thought about some during photos (that was when I remembered the camera). What we have is the end result photos. Really much more pleasant and less dust bunnies.

The first order of business was to empty out that dining room. The place looked like a green house with all the plants in for the winter. Now the guest room looks like a green house, more of that later and hopefully pictures too! Once the dining room was clear we were able to move the living room into it. I must say I prefer the new setting. It is cozy. The laptop has an easy Internet plug in and my favorite chair for knitting is located next to the table with the drawer full of knitting notion clutter (oddly no tape measure there, could be it was stolen to measure a client's waist). In this smaller space I will have to be mindful the projects do not get out of hand. That is to say they must stay at a limited number. Currently there are two socks in process (different pairs, different stages, different recipients), a scarf (not sure where to send that one), and the Sweater Girl for Kam. Fortunately my spinning basket still fits under the coffee table and does not need a new home. The hard part for this room was getting that 8 foot 150 pound couch in when the rug was already set. Kam's back is sore today if that is any indication of how it can be done! By the way, my favorite chair is the light green one. It is a rocker with old cushions in it. I don't want to replace them they are super thick stuffed with cotton wadding. I am not sure where to get such heavy duty cushions. The frame needs to be refinished and the cushions recovered. That may happen sometime in the future. I know I can recover the cushions. I know I can also refinish the chair frame. This is really the wrong time of year for that.


Isn't it cozy? Not too much cleaning to do in that room! Not much walking to be done in that room too. It is more of a sitting type space. Sit and knit. Sit and spin. Sit and read. Sit and write. Sit and watch a movie. Sit and talk to a friend. See, a sitting room!

Then we have the new studio. The floor is clear. I even swept away all the dust bunny families! There is enough room to accommodate up to 4 people working out at one time!! Soon I will be running classes. These will be fun classes. Sizzling Seniors, Fire Starters, Great Balls of Fire... Notice the mirror in the photo? It is old. It looks dirty when clean. It distorts the body and makes you look shorter. This is my idea of the perfect workout mirror. I am looking for one that makes you extra tall and skinny and another that makes you look all squiggly. (If you find one of either of these please drop it by. You can leave it on the porch if no one is here. Thanks!) Moon Kitty thinks this is a great new arrangement. He has been hunting mice and bird feathers. (No not real ones the stuffed ones that come from the pet store!) I have yet to ride the bike in its new home. I must add miles to the TdF today and there are still socks that have not gotten done for that gift giving day.

On the back wall we have a stereo. It is from the 70's. I want to convert it to XM radio. I like music while biking. I like music while writing too, but the computer is not wanting to play Pandora while I am doing other things on the net today. With a room this open we could have a dance party. I am also thinking the New Years Brunch will be easier with all this space for tables. It is OK with me if anyone wants to take our ideas and run with them. Big open rooms without furniture give options for lots of parties. I like parties. Kam likes parties. We like hosting parties. We like going to parties.
It is all so very new and exciting here. I am planning on new curtains in this room. We have discussed flame fabric. Kam is also thinking about making a new collage quilt. Can you guess the theme? Yes, fire. It will be a nice addition. The quilts help absorb some of the sound. Come on by and make some noise!

Society

Dear Patriarchal Society,

Could you please release me from the need to mention my marital status at every turn? I simply want to move throughout my life as my own entity. I am no longer married to a man. I have not seen that man for almost 13 years. I do not understand where stating I am divorced or single makes a large difference. I really feel it is none of your business either way. I choose to define myself by my own achievements. I feel defining myself through a man is degrading even if I were attached to that man at this point. And I am not! The human body replaces all its cells in a 7 year period. By that definition I am almost a completely new person two times over.

Thank you for staying out of my personal life from now on...
April

New Numbers!!

The miles have been totaled. The results are in. November was 214.9 miles long. As of today I am at mile marker 823.2. I am feeling the crowning achievement that is consistency. I set a goal (granted it was an unrealistic goal and had to be changed but it was set none the less) and I am working my way towards it. And WOW under 1400 miles to go!! The lesson learned is not to set a finish date. Get the miles but don't be hyper-focused on the ending date. This month my goal is to ride 5-6 days each week. I know some days are harder for me. Sometimes I wake up with knee or ankle pain. Those are the days when I need to be gentle on myself. I am also interested in remembering the value of heat/ice therapy. Kam would say to remember the value of physical therapy exercises. Those are important too. Bet they will be worked in somehow.

Yesterday I started weight training. I am sore today but not so sore that I don't want to do it again. That is an improvement. What did I do differently? I downloaded the Body for Life exercise program. Simple. Fool proof. Pick and choose. I did some of my favorite exercises! It is important to do what you enjoy doing so you keep progressing towards the goal. I bet I will eventually have to do some of those that I don't like so much. Hopefully when that day comes along I will be much stronger and able to move that weight without fear. I am so hoping that by the end of the next 12 week period I will be able to curl 20 pound dumbbells. This is realistic. I used 15's for 6 reps yesterday. Mathematically speaking 20 is only 5 more than 15. Gravitationally speaking 20 pounds is much more than 5 pounds greater than 15 pounds. That is the goal though and it is public now. I want to be able to workout with 20 pound dumbbells.

Today's cardio-knit was the right hand glove. I am ready to decrease from the thumb. The mailman brought the last DVD of Firefly. Tonight I will surely get to the fingers!

What I got done over Thanksgiving Weekend

I was a busy girl over the holiday weekend. I managed to start and complete two projects, sew up shoulders and add a ribbed collar, complete a scarf started eons ago, and begin a pair of mittens. I really could have gotten that cardigan completed. All that is left is to sew up the sleeves and set them in the arm holes. It did not happen though. I think I was getting tired of the sewing part. Maybe tonight. I sure would love to wear that sweater on Wednesday to a meeting. The green thing is a hat. I started and finished it in about 4 hours! I am very proud. The yarn was fat and the needles a size 7. That is a magic combo that produces completed projects in record amounts of time. (The link is to the Ravelry group Wooly Wormhead. I think it may be the only place the pattern is offered. Sorry...) I had tons of fun making this one. I'm thinking it will go to my niece in the north. She likes green and will need to keep the noggin warm. Also, the slouchiness of it screams teenage girl. Perfect gift fit. There are two scarves there. One is a basic garter out of novelty yarn. It was already started. It wanted to be done. I found it less than interesting and actually impressively boring. I am grateful it is done now. Again added to the pile of gift giving options. The other scarf is one by one ribbing. It lays very flat. I think it is handsome and will be given to one of the many men on the list. I wanted it to be about 6-10 inches longer but the yarn was leftover from a scarf made 2 winters ago and so I am happy it is long enough to be called a scarf. Besides that, not all men like to have scarves that wrap around a bazillion times. Then in the center there is a glove looking thing. Look closer here...



They are nice. They are well constructed. They have nice stitches. They were fast (OK not complete but this one took about a day!). The were supposed to be for Maricruz. Her hands are very small. These are almost too big for me. I still have to get the index finger and thumb done. After that they only need their "mitten hat." I searched through all the files I could find and this was the only pattern published on the net for a convertible mitten/glove. Then last night right before going to bed I found my Winter issue of Vogue Knitting. There is a pattern for these same mittens (almost) right there in the pages. It comes in many sizes starting with xs/s. Now that I have gotten one almost done I can start over with another pattern in a smaller size. There must be someone else on the list that will love the larger pair. Geoff was laying eyes on them this morning. I think they may be too small for him though.

All in all it was a productive weekend. Now, Monday is here and I have more time to be productive. I intended to begin a rigorous exercise endeavour today. Perhaps that will come about. The day is still young. I did however drop a marble rolling pin on my foot on Saturday and the pain is still lingering. This is making biking, walking, and other movements requiring body weight on the feet, no fun. Suppose I could always do upper body. Better to start somewhere than not at all.