Monday, October 30, 2006

October wrapup

Socktoberfest was a big non-event for me. I did hardly any sock knitting this month.

I'm about three-fourths of the way finished with wristwarmers for myself. I hope to have them done by November 1 for...



That's one of the new word-count widgets. As I update my progress, you can follow along and see how I am doing, if that is of interest to you.

We had our regional kick-off party Sunday. There had almost 40 people there, and took up almost half of the seats at Panera. There were all ages, teens to grandparents, and all levels of experience. I don't usually go to writer's groups or meetings, so this was easily the largest group of writers I have ever seen in one place. I wrote a poem for our goodie bags, which also appears this week in the Piker Press.

The weather was beautiful this weekend, but this afternoon and cold front blew in. "Cold" and "Blew" are the operative words, with the temperature plummeting and the wind picking up. Sure wish I had some new socks to wear.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Wildlife in the 'hood

There's still no knitting to report on. As I said before, I am a bad joiner.

However, this weekend, I managed to sneak up on Chuckie outside, and got some good pictures of him.

He ran for home when he heard me coming, but he stopped at the entrance to assess the danger.

When he heard more noises, he would scoot backwards into his hole.

The more noise he heard, the farther in he scooted.

Did you see the brownish markings on his chest in the second picture? Who does that remind you of?

Katie, of course! After I came in from taking pictures of Chuckie, she was on a tear. When that happens, it's time to get out the feather toy and run off some of that energy.

Today, she got a new "toy".

We've have merchandise at work that comes tied with satiny fabric selvedges. I saved a few of them once, curious to see what they would look like if I knitted them up on a couple of pencils. Then I started rolling them into a ball. The ball is one of Katie's favorite toys. It's soft and easy to bat around, and if she gets lucky, she finds the end and unravels it.

I accumulated a big bunch of ribbons today, and tied them all together in a big knot for transport. She was a little freaked by this at first. Apparently she thought it was a giant centipede or something. But after it had been lying still for awhile, she made her peace with it.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Socktoberfest Stash Flash

Over at the Lime & Violet message board, Stareil reports that she performed an inventory, and learned she has 17 miles of sock yarn.

Since I covet every new skein of sock yarn anyone writes about in any internet venue, I thought perhaps I should refamiliarize myself with my own sock stash.

There it is - 45 pairs of socks waiting to be knit. That, plus four pairs I have on the needles, comes out to about 12 miles of yarn.

This exercise really talked me off the edge. I actually don't need more sock yarn right now. I do need to get knitting, though.

The secret project has been delivered, and can now be revealed.

It's a hat (Ann Norling's London Beanie pattern) and wrist warmers (Fetching, from Knitty), both made from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. They are now in the possession of my friend and fellow Piker, Sand.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

I read this somewhere

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.
An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.
You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view.
A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary.

You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.


Meanwhile, in real life: It is cold. 27 degrees this morning (a bit below 0 for my Celsius-speaking readers). I may have to bypass the light jacket and go straight to the wooly coat. I don't know if there were flurries during the night. It was beautifully clear this morning - "good astronomy", as I tell Terry while shuffling him out the door on his way to work.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

It's official - I CAN see

I went to the retina specialist today for the six-week follow-up after my Visudyne treatment.

First stop: Nurse Linda has me read the eye chart.

Big letters first
then smaller
and smaller
and smaller

until she exclaimed, "Wow! You just read a letter at 20-15!"

The doctor was also pleased with how the eye looked. He said that histoplasmosis cases like mine often respond favorably after just one treatment, whereas macular degeneration often requires multiple treatments. It's possible that that this will be all they need to do. I go back in six weeks for another follow-up.

Thank you to everyone who offered prayers, good wishes, and kindnesses.

That Saint Lucy - she's a peach.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Katie in a box

It's cold and rainy. Tomorrow night is supposed to be below freezing. I turned the heat on about an hour ago.

KnightStar and I are still sifting through the photos from our weekend visit to the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.

There may be knitting photos later, but not today.

All I have to offer is a kitty in a box.

Monday, October 02, 2006

NaNoWriMo signups begin

Why the button? Why here? Because this is the easiest way I know to get it into my links.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Waiting patiently

It's October 1, and I am waiting patiently for NaNoWriMo to open the doors for the 2006 novel writing season. This year, they did not specify a time when the forums would re-open, no doubt an attempt to avoid the annual Crashing of the Server.

My NaNo experience last year was horrible. My writing sucked like a Hoover, and life (and death) interupted a couple of times, causing me to lose momentum and fall far short of my goal. I swore to the Pikers that I had NaNoed my last.

My local group has continued to meet a couple of times a month, and I have continued to go to their meetings. A few weeks ago, the leader started talking about our kick-off party. Fun! Except I can't very well go to the kick-off if I am not participating. So maybe I will participate, just so I can keep hanging around the Cool Writers' Club.

I'm not the only only on the slippery slope. Over at the Piker Press forums, some other "I'm never doing this again" is giving way to, "I bought a new notebook and have some good ideas."

In knitting news, the baby has her sweater and looks adorable in it. I also made her a turquoise beret, which is probably too big yet. I finished a secret project, and started another secret project. There has been no sock progress today. See why I don't do knitalongs?