Still here

Yes, I'm still around. I've been sleeping more and better and my energy levels are creeping back up again.

Feeling more energetic means getting more stuff done but less time on the computer. And this really is a good thing but I must budget the time for this blog. I write in my head a dozen times a day but nothing gets written down so I lose it somewhere in the vacuum that exists in my mind.

I took Zach out to Pizza Hut Saturday night as an early birthday present. He turns 21 on Friday, which is boggling my mind. I had taken me out on my birthday (and Zach of course) and he started getting a picture of what women sometimes go through in this modern world. On my birthday the waitress, fairly young, came to take our order and never once looked at me, even while I was telling her what I wanted. If he needed a refill on soda she was right there. I had to ask for it and she looked at me like I had three heads.

Saturday night, the waitress did acknowledge me while taking my order but I never got a refill although they fell all over themselves to get Zach one. We talked on the way home about how the world has traditionally treated women and how I used to view it as okay when I was a fundamentalist. Zach is now officially a feminist. That's my boy!

I haven't gotten the plastic on the windows yet. Tom went hunting this weekend and I lazed around most of the weekend just enjoying doing much of nothing. I woke almost refreshed this morning and have accomplished a lot so far. Three loads of clothes, cleaning the kitchen, doing some minor winterizing. I got the blanket up to the basement/back hall area but it's really an afghan and so has an open weave effect. I have a sheet in the wash right now that I'll pin to the back of it and that should work okay. I'll get the plastic on the windows day by day as I've still got tons of things to do otherwise.

I was watching Pasion de Gavilanes again last night, wishing I spoke Spanish. Maybe I'll look into it again. I've got textbooks and dictionaries and the library has several courses. One more thing to add to my list

My sister called me 30 seconds after the alarm went off this morning wanting to know if I would be able to knit a man's sweater by Christmas for a special friend of hers. She's settling for socks since there is no way I could accomplish that by that deadline. Next year, I told her. The socks are already done and for good measure I'll send her the pair I'm working on now for herself. All she has are worsted socks I've knitted and she can't wear them with her shoes so she needs some she can wear to work. These are multicolored striping with teals, purples and I can't remember what other colors. I need to switch to it so I can get it done in time to send it her way.

I had to redo the back of the Oblique sweater since the raglan part is way too long. I don't get it since I'm right on gauge-wise. I made some modifications and narrowed it a bit before the armhole bind-off and hopefully it will be the right length. I love the pattern (with my middle panel modification) and I love it in black. I just hope I can make the adjustments for the raglan sections on the fronts and sleeves.

I started working on Tom's orange (well...melon, actually) hat for gun-hunting season. I had to make some adjustments to it because I don't have size 7 circular (16 inch) or double pointed needles. I'm using size 6 and added some stitches. I tried size 8 but it was too loose-woven and I didn't like it that way. I'm not crazy about 16 inch circulars because it's hard on my hands to knit that way, but I just switch to another project when it gets too bad.

Well, off to get some more work done. I'm fixing supper way early so we don't have to take it with us and we'll just grab a sandwich when we get home. Maybe tuna salad or something like that. With the costs of Tom's hunting trip (I nearly fainted when I tallied it up) and the upcoming heating season (I've cut the heat back to 55 again...sigh) I've got to be more diligent about frugality.

At least we don't have snow like they do in Minnesota. We had flurries on Saturday but no accumulation.

TTFN