Eeee!

It's almost Christmas! Despite my misgivings about both the Christian faith and the origin of CHristmas, I can't help but be excited by it all. Everyone is nice to each other (at least in my world), all sorts of positive surprises come to light (ie: new Ipod vs: the clap) (a completely non-reality based example, really), and I get to see my family and show off my girl to sorts of her adoring fans. All in all, it's great.

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Now I have to go pack & get ready to go. T minus nap time people! Let's move! We need the prezzies, the kid's food & accoutrements, the other prezzies, the knitting for the road.... The clothes, the playpen, the cameras, erm. So do we really need the spare tire?

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I'm leaving my laptop behind, so it'll be a week without internet! We'll be having lovely fun. Talk to you closer to the New Year, hope Santy brings you what you asked for.

Tis The Sneason!

This is a lame post. Why? The cold. I mean, the weather, whatever. But my sinuses? Gynack. I will come up wioth a better post soon, I promise, but for now, really, mehhhhhhhhhhh. I was just tired of thinking that I needed to update things, so the note wasn't the most current post up. So yes, gnarg.

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(PS: Christmas is coming! Eeeee!)

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(PPS: My only other comfort is that I'm the only one suffering from this crud.)

An Open Note of Bile & Imprecation

Dear _____,
Don’t send me smiley face emails, you twit. Your lackadaisical approach to your job caused me to waste my morning, and you continue to waste my time, which is precious and scant. I’d wish ill upon you, but we both know the odds on the ______ group finding a competent replacement for you. Just do your job – correctly - the first time – and don’t send me bloody smiley faces.

Happy Holidays!!!! :)
K.

Evolution of a Pig-Tail

Earliest pig-tail: learning to use simple tools.

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Middle pig-tail: evolving literacy.

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Modern Piggy-tail: laptop vs. puppy?

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This post has been brought to you by the number "2",

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And by the letter pig-tail.

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(It doesn't hurt that the pig-tailee is so darn cute, eh?)

Ditzy Diagonal Scarf on the loose...

Hey. Whatch been doing? I've....

...dyed a bunch of yarn. (It was late when I was done. I was tired, and also, ready for bed, hence no eyeliner.) I've named it "Therese Oddball", the first of my Oddball family of yarns. (I chose Therese because S_____ noted that when knit up, it almot feels like terry. A lot nicer & classier though...)

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Then I created a scarf pattern for the delicious yarn, modelled here by the almost lethally curvaceous S___.

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Doesn't she have the prettiest eyes? Anyways. I took the pattern & the other yarns, & I've created kits that are currently for sale on Etsy ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6136835 ). Excellent gifts for knitters! The following colors are available:

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Royal Purple

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RaspberryPeach Cobbler a la Mode

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Alberta Sunset
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RaspberryPeach Cobbler

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True Blues

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Bark & Earth

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(The colors are taken with flash, against a snow-white background, and there are subtleties of shade that show up in varying, gentler lights. Those same lights result in muddy photos though.)

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And the ball I knit up didn't get it's colour named, because I've been thinking of it as ____'s scarf - it's going to be a Xmas gift, now that it's had a brief & glorious stint as a model. Just think of all the stories it can tell the mittens!

I was very brave.

Yes indeed, I was incredibly brave the other day. No, it had nothing to do with Amoryn's immunization shots.... It was all about mittens. MITTENS!!!!
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Elizabeth Zimmerman's mitered mittens, to be exact. I got some cool yarn a the knitting retreat, & decided to make a pair of mittens in the worsted & a scarf out of the sport weight. (Non knitters: mittens, heavy; scarf, light.) (Worsted is good.)
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And her pattern calls for basically knitting a tube, then cutting a hole & putting the thumb in after the fact. Sounds simple, right?
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EXCEPT THAT YOU CUT A HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF PERFECTLY GOOD KNITTING!
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I thought, I can do this, cast on, & knit two mittens at the same time*. I cast off, bound in the raw end, and placed the markers, picked up the scissors, and started hyperventilating. I had to do some deep beathing & have a collaborative phone call with mom. I reasoned that I would know how to mend a hole in a mitten, so cutting a hole shouldn't be too bad, because I know how to fix it.
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EXCEPT THAT IT'S CUTTING A HOLE.
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IN A PERFECTLY GOOD PIECE OF KNITTING THAT I JUST WOVE ALL THE ENDS INTO.
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There was a lot of deep breathing, it's true. I don't think the man understood why I was freaking so hard. It's just so... Unnatural.

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Anyways, I'll get to the graphic photos - caution- this might offend some readers of a sensitive nature.

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The innocent mittens, as yet unaware of what's in store for them. The two stitch markers should have been a clear tip-off that something was up.

Mittens: Doo-de doo-de doo. Nothing happening here.

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Mitten: Whatcha doing? ..what? Hey! AHHH!

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It's just not natural.

Mitten: Oooooohwoh ow ow ow.

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Although that is a groovy thumb-hole.

Mitten: You mock my pain.
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And the picking up & knitting not too bad at all...

Mitten: I agree. I still think you're mocking me, but you're knittting at the same time, so okay.
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Ta-dah! The finished mittens of happiness. It was a journey that had its share of trauma, but in the end, I've learned something, grown as a person, and I have new mittens.

Mittens: Wheeeeeeeeee!

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*-Using two circulars, I knit two mittens at the same time. Perfect way to get around "Second Sock Syndrome". (Non-knitters - just let this go.)

By Jove, I'm a Designer!

I mean, I've always known it, but now Ravelry, people on Ravelry, and you know it too!

http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/kourtney-robinson-designs/11155">buy now

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I'm so pleased with myself. You can purchase the above pattern, Spiral Lights Hat, through Ravelry, and maybe one day, if I'm really smart, through Etsy & my website.

If you don't know what Ravelry is that's okay; you're not one of the knitters. I'll work on your conversion later.

Happy Walking Oct 08

Happy Walking Oct 08, originally uploaded by Kourtney_R.

The most wonderful girl ever.

Can all little children have painted on noses, please? Oct 31

Can all little children have painted on noses, please? Oct 31, originally uploaded by Kourtney_R.

Really, witha little painted nose, she's just so much more cute. And forgivable. Maybe it would work on all children... (pauses, imagining scene in Safeway where I get arrested for painting nose on darned little brat....) Maybe not. Still, for Halloween, awesome.

Princess Leia & the Ewok, out in the hood Oct 31 08

Princess Leia & the Ewok, out in the hood Oct 31 08, originally uploaded by Kourtney_R.

Yes, Happy Halloween. Am was pretty darn happy as an Ewok, & I was secretly ecstatic to finally get to be Princess Leia, the only damn female character in Star Wars, who my cousin Keeley always was when we were playing.* It's no fun being a storm tooper.
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And no, that's not my real hair.
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*She was bigger, & could read, so it makes sense that she got to pick her character first. I just always kind of y'know, wanted to be Princess Leia.

Princess Leia & the Ewok, out in the hood Oct 31 08

Princess Leia & the Ewok, out in the hood Oct 31 08, originally uploaded by Kourtney_R.

Yes, Happy Halloween. Am was pretty darn happy as an Ewok, & I was secretly ecstatic to finally get to be Princess Leia, the only damn female character in Star Wars, who my cousin Keeley always was when we were playing.* It's no fun being a storm tooper.
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And no, that's not my real hair.
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*She was bigger, & could read, so it makes sense that she got to pick her character first. I just always kind of y'know, wanted to be Princess Leia.

Thank you, my sense of irony is well-developed.

Yes, I know. The best laid plans of mice & Kourtneys gang aft agley. So no, no frequent posts for November, you noticed? You may also notice that whatever's wrong with my keyboard is not improving. I edit, & eit, becaus otherwise a properly spelled sentnce ens up lookin like this, I swear, I am typing just the same as on any other keyboard. It's just this one. So leters that are wrong are myfault, & letters that are missing are the keyboard, okay?
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So, it's been a busy November, wth a cuple super great highlghts, & some bummer things too. Also, there is less light in the days, & as the man remindd me, that gets me down. THank goodness e's here, I wouldn't have figured out the SADD on my own until January. Seriosly.
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All right. I give up. Now for some photo posts of Halloween, which was super cool, and then later, will tell youall about just how cool Yarn Camp was. (AKA: Knitting camo, aka: Make 1's Fall Fiber Arts Retreat)

Oh NoBloPoMo!

It's actually NaBloPoMo, as in "National Blog Posting Month", where a bunch of bloggers commit to blogging every day. Every year, I think of it too late, but this year, since I realized it on the 2nd, I'm jumping in the NaBloPoMo pool. Should be nice & warm, might be a little trite (at least on my behalf)... but! A good way to get focused & stuff & stuff, or so I'm going to treat it. And I might not formally join the NaBloPoMo group, because then I have another thing to remember (userid, password, etc etc), and I Am Completely Unimpressed With Trying To Keep Track Of Various UserID And PassWord CRAP. More about that later.

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For now, you're going to have to wait for the H'ween pictures promised, because my computer has frustrated me Yet Again, And I Am Going To Teach It To Fly if ths keeps up. So I think, for now, that I'm going to logg off, and try again tomorrow.

I don't get it.

I stopped by the office today, Amoryn (in costume) in tow, to do a couple quick things that are due for next week, but I can't do remotely. I thought I'd also show off my girl, some, because that's always fun too. Say what you want about seperate work & private life; Amoryn is a huge part of my world, and work is a good chunk of it, so it only makes sense that they overlap. And I think it's good to establish a certain level of person-ness at the office, as in "I'm not just an office drone". I don't blog about my work, because hello, good way to get fired, but. Today isgoing to spill out of the "work" box in my head, into everything else, so hi, blog.

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Today there was some really bad news. My old manager - who had been promoted less than a month ago, had positive family things going on, and seemed cheery and upbeat all the time. He killed himself last night. I already missed working with/for him - he was a great boss. And now he's gone, gone. Not just on another project, or at another office. It's so hard to understand how he can possibly be dead, and how he could have felt so low. I guess suicide is always an irrational act. The last death of a coworker (a couple years ago, in a car accident), was jarring, beacuse he was a young man, but this? This was intentional. I just don't get it.

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I'm going to go & dye some yarn, and continue to mull how confusing life can be. At this point, I don't really feel like handing out candy, or dressing Am up again in her _____ costume (took it off to nap). Maybe I'll compromise, set the candy by the garage with a note that says: "Honor System: Have Two", and take Am around to the people we know in the neighborhood.

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There'll be a pic of her in her ______ costume in a little while. Trust me, totally worth the wait.

Once Upon A Time, In A Kitchen Far, Far Away

My living room and kitchen are completely covered in short, fine, grey hairs. So is Amoryn; so am I. I've vacuumed & dusted & vacuumed again. I'm sneezing & have debated lint rollering my face.
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And yet, I feel grand about this. Why? Well, for once, I got to make the mess. And all in the name of a good cause.
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Stay tuned... all I'm going to say is that Hallowe'en is just around the corner....

A-ha!

I'm back! I bet you didn't even really realize I was gone, right? Well, this is partially because I didn't really go anywhere, in the geophysical sense of the word. However, my Yahoo email was being awful about my password, so I had to reset it, and I wrote that down, but then I couldn't find the paper.
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True, Yahoo has nothing to do with this blog's log-in, which uses my Google account. I think. However, I find that by changing one password, it's like my brain is temporarily reset and I can't remember any passwords. Maybe a design flaw, maybe a sign of the raging inability to focus I am suffering from as late. Waterbug brain, skittering from here to there. Zip! Zip! Zip! All valid lacations, but no continuity, no sense of order! Zip!
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I was just trying to think of some examples for you, & got sidetracked by realizing that I've neither folded my laundry, nor unloaded the dishwasher. These are both things that Am LOVES to help with, but sometimes, I selfishly unload the dishwasher by myself, after she's gone to bed. Ditto folding clothes.
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I honestly am trying to be more focused, more coherent; it'd be nice to be more efficient too. No, I don't want to be a mindless automaton (although: fun Halloween costume!). I just want to feel a little more on top of things. I'm not sure if it's the dregs of the summer's depression (depression usually hits first as inertia... difficult to overcome), the idyllic autumn (which tempts me into lollygagging outdoors - I mean, a 20C day in mid October? Come on!), Amoryn's blessed molars (which wake her up, and wake me up)...
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At any rate, I'm not condemning myself at all; all three above conditions are valid conditions (especially the gorgeous fall days - wowza!), so I'm not beating on myself. But I'm trying to get gathered, and man! Deciding what to accomplish during Am's nap almost does me in. And I really don't feel like I have enough time to let go of multi-tasking - even as we speak, I'm googling an Xmas idea - although maybe I should take a brief hiatus on multi-tasking, just to get refocused a little.
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I just sent an email.
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I think perhaps it's the sleep interuptions getting my order in my brain all scrambly. I make lists, then put them in my pockets, then spend ten minutes looking through my pockets for the list, decide I must have left it at home, get home, & discover the list in my pocket. Really. It feels like jet lag.
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I just sent an email about the Xmas idea I was just Googling.
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And I think it's time to go to bed, instead of continuing to blog abut my theories about how sleep deprivation is my enemy.

Gack. Ook. Gyuuuh.

I was at the fabric store yesterday to pick out buttons for Am's new sweater. Yes! It's done, it's adorable, it's too big for her in a good way, & I am inordinately pleased with it. As well, it took less than a month, which is a record for me & sweaters. (All of you speed knitters out there - no, I am not that slow... but I work part time and have a toddler. And I like to sleep. And it's been summer, so I've been dragging myself outside and stuff.)
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Anyways, despite slim button-pickin's, we persevered & found enough buttons. As it was Get Your Home-Ec Supply List day, there was quite a crush of teenagers & their mothers at the till. (I've never seen a father take a kid for Home-Ec Class stuff. I've seen boys taking the class, but no dads along for the ride.) So I found a pattern for a sleeper for Am, then finally got in line.
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And as the line wended towards the till, we went past a pile of interesting looking knits. Fascinating, really. Quite interesting. Missoni, actually, when I checked the info, and on sale. Hmmm. I thought "I'll go home, see if there are any patterns online that tickle my fancy, & maybe go back."
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Can you see where this is going yet?
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(Let me give you a hint: the horror, the horror... )
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I think I've addressed the "What On Earth Were They Thinking?" before, but in a european (ie: Burda) manner. These are all North American. And unfortunate. I was even playing fair & not looking in the Bridal section. (Typically, home of the heinous & horrible.)

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Although I can totally see the unfortunate red number in a wedding party.

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I'm not sure how cold I'd have to be to put on that blue jacket.

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And I'm pretty sure that you couldn't get me into that pantsuit jumper thing, no matter what. I'd rather be naked. I'd look better & be more comfortable.

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Why? Why encourage the pet-dressers? Why? PETA, is this not animal abuse? Pam Anderson, where are you?

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This is perhaps forgivable, as a sports-fan paraphenalia, until you realize that one of those is a two person poncho. A poncho for Siamese twins, perhaps.

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All right, this is charming, & the only reason why I'm not going to renounce McCalls forever.

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I'm going back to my sewing machine now, to mull the awful awful options ou there in the world.

Well. The Eagles Have It.

Yes, we're back from Napa Valley, hale & hearty. And over fed. And wined right up. And I'm trying not to be overmedicated, but the world, it hurts, without my DayQuil. I either found my very own headcold in Napa, or I caught the one that Mom & Am had/is almost done with. Either way, I am sick.

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California was sick too, but in that groovy cool way. And I didn't hear anyone say groovy or sick, or even cool. There was one use of the word gnarly, but it was (properly) in reference to a stand of trees. I think I need to maybe rethink my conception of California. Dude.

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I just reread this post, & I sound spoiled & vacuous & addled. I can live with two of the three being true. It's really nice being spoiled. And the addled, well. I think there's some kind of ratio between how much crap my sinuses are producing & how addled I am. Vacuous is just a temporary sub-set. Oh well, read on, my dears.

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Wait, do I sound confused? It's just the meds wearing off. Let me start over.

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Napa was incredibly, stunningly gorgeous. We didn't see a cloud until the day we were leaving, and it was hot. Hot. 103, 107, 110. And hot. And sunny. Lovely to sit outside - very still - and taste wines. One of the couples on our trip got engaged -hurray for them! - and so, well, it got drunker than the typical wine tasting, where you taste & swish, then dump the rest, but whatevs. The help of a disco nap had me in good shape (mostly) for supper, which featured the Most Amazing Tomato Soup Ever, a great sole, & an adorable lemon dessert. (Imagine a little snowman, made from Meyer lemon sorbet, nestled in a lemon peel, with a little lemon peel hat. Adorable. I feel fine eating things with faces though, so I ate it. Partially. I was pretty damn full by then.)

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The weekend was larely about consumption - sometimes consumption veiled as "experience", but mostly consumption. And it was grand to just wallow in the selfishness of it all, and have two disco naps a day, & then rest afterwards. There was another incredible meal, and a third amazing amazing phenomenal* meal, and some other really good and cool stuff, then there was Target, & Jack In The Box, & Ross Dress for Less, & Trader Joe's. There was the pool by our room, there was the gorgeous night air, there was the incredible fruit selection at the buffet breakfast. There was also the lame duck minivan rental, & the overrated taxi, but the rest? Pure gold.

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It was a very, very great weekend. And unlike almost every other great vacation I've take or had, I didn't take hardly a photo. One of the gals did; she'll copy a cd for us. When that happens, I'll post some. But rest assured, we were fabulous. There must have been paparazzi snapping pics of us, or something.

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I'm back to doing my thing here, I'll try not to wear my dark galsses too much. Particularily because it's overcast as hell.

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*Did you know there is a pork equivalent of Kobe beef? It is f-i-n-e, fine. That meal is going to get a post of its own, I promise.**

**I know, footnotes are usually smaller, but that porkloin, I've never tasted better. Wowza. Yum. Crazy.

Are you excited yet?

Because I sure am. Even as we speak, I should be packing my bags to go to Napa for 5 - count 'em - five days. With my husband. And two other adult couples.

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And no baby...er, toddler. I'm excited about the prospect of Time To Myself, with no need to worry About What Little Hands Are Getting Into, but I'm super going to miss my girl. If this is like my other stints away from her (1 day, 1 night; three days, two nights), I expect that I will thoroughly enjoy my time away, then fall ravenously onto her little pudgy self & eat her up once I'm home.

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The question is - do I wake her up that evening? Because I work Tuesday morning, you know, so I don't see her in the morning... or do I wait until I get home on Tuesday afternoon?????

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Only time will tell...

Conversations of late.

I knit publicly. I try to always have a little project* socked** away in my bag, so that if I unexpectedly happen into a block of unused time, I can fill it up by knitting, instead of fidgeting restlessly, reading anything in view, and fidgeting some more. This has proved to be a handy habit - one day, I was in a car accident - a minor fender bump, not my fault - but I still got to spend about an hour & a half, sitting in my car, watching the rain. And knitting! The police office who arrived to take my statement was very impressed with my industriousness. And prehaps my sanguine attitude - I really was quite content. I could've maybe had a purring cat & a cup of tea to complete the scene.

I also knit on the train. I've had a couple conversations with people who were knitters themselves (albeit private, closet knitters), and were commenting on either my technique or my projects. (I switched from knitting the way that pretty much everybody else here does - English style, with your yarn in your right - to Continental style, where the yarn acts like it's going to be crocheted, & curls lovingly about the fingers of your left hand. I look forward to someday holidaying in some far off & exotic locale, where all the knitters knit that way, to see how they do it. I taught myself, & I just recently realized that I was purling odd, so now I'm, alittle curous to see some working lace Continentally.)

(Should I warn you that today's post is about knitting? No? You've already guessed? Okay.)

I switched knitting styles to avoid getting carpal tunnel syndrome, because it's more efficient, & because the English style originated because when knitting moved up from the crofter's cottage to the lady's manor, it was considered that the motion of the hands wasn't very ladylike. So they changed it. To save my knuckles the wear & tear and to express my offence to 'them', I no longer knit that way.

S knits when she's a work, & she was telling me that people are always astonished, because "nobody does that anymore". I'd never had that response, although I had noticed that knitters are apparently regarded as exotic & possibly dangerous creatures, judging by the Transit Seat-Share Index***.

So when I was taking the train from the zoo to the spa, I was quite surprised to hear a man's voice over my shoulder: "Excuse me - are you knitting? You're knitting! I didn't think that people did that over here!" Turns out he's from Goa, INdia, & his grandmother knit jumpers up for them all the time. We had a brief discusssion about how knitting here is different, it's more of a luxury craft than a survival**** mechanism, and then I had to cut the conversation short as my top arrived. That's okay though, because he was shifitng the conversation from knitting to the fact that he met a Mexican (in Mexico), who knew where Goa was because of its 'like crazy weed, man'. In my experience with transit tales, a segue to drug stories inevitably ends in a cheezy pickup attempt. So do hat complimetns, actually.

At any rate, I'm off to put on my threatening cap, & continue to harrass people x about situation y, as per my mandte. (Don't worry, it's an office thing.)

*-Something small, that uses one color, that can have it's stitches dropped & pickedup again easily.

**-Not usually a sock, though.

***- You know - you get on a bus/train, and who do you want to sit next to? Nervous Asian women reading books are preferrable, because they're quiet & small. Big fat people eating potato chips are to be avoided, because they take up space & have greasy crumbs. (I know it sounds rude, but it's true. Sorry.) Goths usually are pretty cool. Avoid teenagers wth cell-phones, because like, Emily, seriously, Aaron was so into you at the mall, but you know, really...

**** - As much as I love knitting, & I think I would go bonkers if I didn' have it in my life, if I dropped my needles, my family wou;dn't go hungry or cold. ALthough there would be less yarn to help insulate the basement... really, it's my duty, I must struggle onwards! For the good of my family, I'm doing it.