Battening down the hatches

My husband installed new weatherstripping around our front door today. It is amazing what a difference it makes. Why we've been living with that cold draft for so long, I do not know.

Thanksgiving snow

Two days ago I was walking around outside with short sleeves and this evening the backyard is covered in snow. I guess the weather guy on TV was right when he said that "the unseasonably warm weather is over". I hope the snow will still be there in the daylight, but I imagine it will melt off quickly in the sun.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner, though I fear we will be eating sweet potato casserole until Christmas. I don't want to eat again for a week. Of course, I know I'll change my mind in the morning when I encounter the fridge full of leftovers.

Incoming knitters! Clear the living room!

I've invited my Saturday afternoon knitting group to come over for some supplementary knitting tomorrow afternoon. I know they'll understand the yarn clutter, but I probably should at least clear it off the living room chairs. This should be fun.

Minor accomplishments

The majority of our eBay listings have sold (or will as soon at the auction ends) so I need to package stuff up and mail it as soon as the payments clear. We already sent out three things, along with a few books for PaperBackSwap. We probably should give our mail carrier an extra nice present this year.

Been doing a lot of spinning this week. A bag of fiber from my stash seems to want to spin fine, laceweight or fingering, I think. I'll have to decide how I want to ply it once I'm done with the singles. For now, I'm just enjoying the spinning.

Did some yard work this weekend, trimming roses until I ran out of room in the bin for the debris. Piled up the compost with non-thorny stuff. Still a lot to do. Destruction is rather satisfying.

Getting into a bad habit of staying up past midnight, now that I don't have work in the morning. Going to bed now, but I just wanted to write something to show I'm still here.

Freedom! Sweet, terrifying freedom

It's been a week since my last day of work, which wasn't really a work day at all, just signing some forms and handing in my badge.

I talked to a recruiter last month and have my resume out on several sites, so I am looking for a new job, but I have to admit that I'm not looking terribly hard this week.

Through Monday, nothing really felt different, just like a long weekend, but reality started to hit Tuesday and yesterday. I felt like I should be going to my Saturday afternoon knitting group or something. I was at the grocery store yesterday, a bit surprised at how few people were there, and then I remembered it was a weekday.

My dad sent me an email with some good advice and suggested a book, which I promptly ordered from PaperBackSwap. It should be on its way right now.

I'm just not sure what I want to be doing anymore. The past year at work had so much funding uncertainty that it colored my perceptions of the work itself. I'm somewhat curious what it would be like to work with other computer scientists for a change, rather than just being some sort of coding sidekick. I'm in no great rush to go back to work right now, really. My ideal situation would be to find a job soon, but not have it start until next year. I wouldn't mind having holidays without worrying about my vacation balance for a change. Of course, instead I'll have to worry about my bank balance, I suppose. Eh, we're in pretty good shape for now. I don't think I ever fully left the grad student lifestyle, so we saved quite a bit of my paycheck when I was working.

My husband is encouraging me to take this time to do things I've talked about, like the Master Knitter program, sorting through my craft room, offering patterns for sale online, etc. I think I just need to start something and get some momentum going. This week we've started listing some old stuff on eBay, clearing up space. I might try to trim some plants in the yard this afternoon. Being out in the sunlight would probably do me some good.

Time to step away from the computer and see what is out there in the wide, wide world.

Death

My grandmother died today. She was 82 years old.

I think I'm going to go sit on the couch and hug the cat until my husband gets home from work.

Just testing pictures

This is my cat.Isn't he handsome?

Held up on the first swatch

Maybe I'm just being too picky, but I keep changing my mind about what cast-on and increase techniques to use for my first Master Knitter swatch. Part of the issue is that I have to cite sources for everything I do, which I think will mean I need to dig through my knitting books and select references that describe the techniques in the way I actually do them. Unfortunately, I've picked up a few things from books I don't actually own (For example, I checked out Notes on Double Knitting the library in Bloomington, but haven't found a copy since moving away from Indiana.), so I may have to switch back to more common techniques. I probably could use the practice in techniques I don't usually use, anyway.

I went to Good Fibrations with some of the Saturday knitting group this past weekend. I hadn't been there before, since usually I just stick with Village Wools here in town. I thought it was I very nice shop. I especially liked how the yarn was organized by gauge, which can make it easy to select yarn for a specific project. We all delighted in testing a Louet Victoria wheel. It treadles so smoothly and can fit into a carry-on bag. If I were more of a spinner I would be sorely tempted, but I think my Ashford Traditional will suffice for now. I didn't make it out of the shop without buying something, though. I picked up a hank of navy blue laceweight merino from the sale shelf (You never know when you'll need another shawl, right?) and cleaned out all the balls of burgundy Hempathy. I'm thinking of knitting a summer top. Wool sweaters have a limited season out here, so I really should start playing with cooler fibers if I want to be able to wear my knits in other seasons.

I'm going to be a master knitter someday

This morning I signed up for Level 1 of the TKGA Master Knitter program. I've been thinking about it for a while, and decided that I should stop putting it off.

I know I'm a good knitter, but having a certificate for bragging rights would be nifty. More importantly, having to write patterns and reports for my homework should be good training for writing patterns and articles for knitting magazines and/or books (or just my blog, even). I've got a bad habit of making up patterns as I knit, but not bothering to write them down.

I wonder how long it will take to get my course materials?

Morning dialogue

He walks into room, hair damp, buttoning his shirt. "Are you getting up?"

She is in bed, glasses on, cat at her side. "The ceiling is very interesting."

"You're a ceiling inspector? Looks like you are a Sealy inspector. Hey, you're both!"

"I'm multitasking."

"More like multi-basking."

Dreaming awake

Do you ever dream that you are awake and starting your day only to wake up for real later? I had two of those dreams this morning before I really got up. It's disorienting.

Happy Pi Day!

I admit to changing the post time to get more digits.

I'm not dead yet!

It's been a long time since I've posted. I started converting my blog to the new format this evening, but I'd really like to take the time and add labels to some of my old posts. Maybe later. For now, I'm just posting to prove I'm still here.

I've been getting my "share my thoughts on the web" fix from my talkcast lately, so I haven't felt much need to update here. Over a month, though, that is a bit too long to be silent.

I've had some recent comments about Widdershins which I need to address. I'll do it soon, I promise. Right now, I need to log off and get some sleep.

My first caller!

I did my regular Thursday night talkcast again tonight. I went a bit long because I actually had a caller for a change. I usually have a random listener or two, but a guy in Australia actually called in and chatted for a bit. Among tonight's topics were the cat's dental work (He had five teeth pulled today.), the food in the house (I made an improvised tortilla casserole thing for supper), how my job is going (I've spent all day hunting a bug.), and other random thoughts.

Free snorkel with every visit!

I'm finally on the new version of Blogger, but I haven't had the chance to revamp the site yet.

To distract you from the lack of content lately, here's an amusing video. Come and visit sunny Kenya.

Talkcast episode 2

I made another episode of my talkcast this evening. Thursday nights while my husband is playing bridge seem to work, so I've gone ahead and scheduled another one for next Thursday at 9:00 PM MST. I realize that 11:00 EST is probably a bit late for most of my friends and family, but my more western readers may be able to listen to it (or participate!) live.

As in the first episode, I just rambled for about an hour on whatever came to mind. In the future, I'd like to have some more focused talks on specific topics, but that won't happen without some advance planning. Any suggestions?

Happy New Year!

When I was a child, staying up until midnight was a New Year's Eve privilege.

When I was in college, staying up past midnight was a nightly occurrence.

I think late nights are becoming rare again.