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Friday? Yeah!

Hiho dear knitters and knitbloggers, isn't Friday the most wonderful invention ever? Even though I'm not working yet, Friday still signals an end to a work week, and as the empty boxes can attest, I've been working on getting settled in. Curiously, it's affected my knitting; can't seem to get back in the groove. But since shortly it's the weekend, I'm hoping to legitimately sprawl in the a/c and knit away my cares.

In the meantime, since idle hands are, well, you know...I found a ball of Muskoka merino in the stash and started on my pile of Mousathon mice for Lucy. Mike, Jack, and Della think this is an awesome project, and I agree. Here's my nice little wooly stack so far.

Pre-stuffed, they rather resemble some of the bugs I've seen flying around here. However. I figure from this one ball of Muskoka, I can make a gazillion meece. Wish me luck, because the rescue-kitties all deserve a mouse. Wendy's received over 100 mice so far . . . what's your total?

In Sock News, the flourescent Opal sock rumbles along, and this weekend is my promised GLMCardigan knitting-time. Also, I'm hoping to be able to meet up with local knitters at the LYS on Saturday...that's probably just the tonic I need to feel a little less scattered. I hope you have a restorative weekend awaiting. Drink plenty of water! And send virtual belly-rubs to the pups.

Happy Day!

My birthday was practically perfect in every way; thank you for your birthday wishes! The weather was fine, my mom came to visit, and my nephew took me to dinner at his favorite restaurant (accompanied by his charming parents), and I had awesome cake! Plus pie for breakfast! Such riches!

Here's where Geoffrey took me:

and here's Geoffrey with his parents:

Am I lucky or what? Not only does Katz' "never klose" but they have something rare in Austin: chopped liver on rye! A totally blissful meal was enjoyed by all, especially me.

Sock News:

I had time while waiting for Mother to arrive to finish up the gusset on my nearly-dayglow Opal.

While the self-patterning has been very consistent right up through turning the heel, suddenly, at the top of the foot, the patterning broke, and I now have a big blue and acid-green Rorschach pattern.

Very curious. Opal does this now and again in my experience; I guess my expectations were raised with the perfectly matching Fortissima Colori socks I finished earlier this week. I could break the yarn and and reknit, but what are the odds the pattern would still be broken? I'm just going to enjoy as is.

Pup News:

The heat! Amazing! Here's how the pups look in the middle of the day when we go outside to survey the backyard:

They can hardly wait to get back inside, where we have the a/c cranked to a comfortably arctic temperature. As each day passes, we are able to stand more and more of the sunshine, but our primary forays are still very early in the a.m. and late in the evening, when it's only about 94 degrees.

Sister made me the most extraordinary gift; it's a re-purposed book that is filled with her memories of me. Since she was only four when I left home for my adventures, it's a real treasure. I tried to photograph it this morning, since it's hard to imagine, but the photo was too dark. I'll try again when it's sunnier, 'cause I'd like you to see it. It's marvelous.

Speaking of marvelous, the pups and I hope you have a completely marvelous day. It's nearly Friday, and this weekend is my designated free-time to return to the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. Oh! The excitement!!!

Tra-la, Tra-lee

Happy Birthday! Oh WAIT!!! It's my birthday too!!! Happy birthday to us!

No matter how old I get, I can't help loving my birthday and the solar return to my particular time of being born into the universe. And the solar-stuff is pretty spectacular here in Texas. My, yes, lots of sunshine. The pups and I are more and more acclimated to the incredible heat every day, my sister is only a few minutes away, and therefore, I pronouce Life is Good! Let the mariachis play!

Sock News:

Here's the Opal sock that grows on me the more I knit.

Pretty festive, eh? Well. That's it for sock news. Would you like to make some paper trout to decorate your cubicle? Oh go on! Do it!

Mikey wishes you an excellent day. We're off to the diner to eat pie for breakfast. Enjoy, and we'll see you tomorrow!

Coming Along Nicely

The prodigal Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan has returned! At least, I know how to get to it now. My helpers last week put the box---right! you guessed it!!!--on the bottom of a 8-foot tall stack of boxes. Boxes full of books! Today's task is to empty those boxes so that I can recover my knitting, along with my ball winder, swift, extra skeins of GLMC wool, and the book I was reading. Okay! Things are definitely looking up.

Nephew News

Last night I was invited by Sister and my excellent nephew to ride along and observe Geoff's boxing class at the local Y. I was thrilled, because having been away on the East Coast for so long, I hadn't been able to see exciting stuff like this. I went to bed thinking there was nothing better than being able to watch your very own nephew doing his thing. And doing it very well, too.

Cool. Stuff like this makes the past three weeks seem like they were nothing. Nothing at all.

Pup News

The pups met their new neighbors yesterday; and the neighbors were not completely charmed by our three dachshunds. Much barking ensued.

Knitting News

I can stop knitting compulsively on that acid-green Opal sock since the GLMC has nearly turned up! The color is starting to grow on me, though...I'll show you a picture tomorrow morning.

Until then, stay cool and have a most enjoyable Tuesday. And as always, thank you for your wonderfully supportive comments.

Slo-o-wly Adjusting

The pups and I are slowing adjusting to our new digs; my goodness! moving this far has made me feel rather old, although my 29-15th birthday is only two days away. . . maybe that's the reason instead. Sister has been a big help in making us feel more at home here. I can find my way to the grocery store all by myself now, for example! I feel extraordinarily lucky to have such an excellent sister. And I only live a few blocks away from her now.

A move like this seems to require more adjustment than I previously thought, however, and we've been busily gathering g ourselves together for an entire week now, with only a few complaints, mostly from Little Jack.

He's still ticked off because they don't allow pets at Graceland.

The pups still seem rather uncertain about it all, but as of yesterday, they'd begun to be a little more curious about exploring their new backyard.

I'm curious about my new backyard, too, but there is still quite a bit of unpacking and organizing going on inside the house. For one thing, the box with the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan inside it has still not surfaced . . . I hope it turns up in today's festival of arrival. I'm hoping, too, that I can visit the LYS next weekend, where Cyndilou reports there is a Knitting Circle from 2 to 4 pm. It will be grand to sit with some local knitters! In the meantime, while not much too much knitting has been happening, I did finish the socks for Walking in Central Park for my colleague in NYC. I'm going to search out a Post Office and mail them off today. Here's a photo of the finished socks (looking remarkably similar to Anne's).

Mine look a little oddly stretched, compared to Anne's, because mine were still on the sockblockers when I took the photo:

I've cast on some more socks, this time in an acid green-ish Opal, to stave off the growing distress I feel while I search for my GLMCardigan, which is only missing 1/2 a sleeve to be finished, wherever it's hiding.

So! It's still dark here! On the shore in NJ, we'd have been up in the daylight for an hour already . . . the pups and I wish you a sunny bright day wherever you are this morning! Have a great Monday, and we'll see you tomorrow.