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.