RRS (Really Random Saturday)

Today was a rather random kind of day, filled with surprises. Some of the were good and some, well, were interesting.

• I was run sponsor for the club run this morning, meaning that I had to get to the run extra early to put out water.
• I kind of got lost doing it, but to be fair it was very early, and dark
• Then I got lost again because there was a tree across the road and I couldn't figure out how to get to the next place to put the water.
• I eventually figured it out, but not before I was 30 minutes late to the run.
• It took me over an hour to put out water.
• Fortunately, the morning was cool and it was one of the better runs I've done in recent memory.
• The run was followed by a trip to the farmer's market and the health food store.
• I picked up a copy of Healing Lyme while I was there.
• Yup, I've been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
• Blimey! I'm a Lymie!
• Spent a large part of the afternoon reading how the Borrelia spirochete infects its host. Fascinating reading.
• The bluejays raised a major ruckus while I was reading.
• I went to investigate, thinking it was a cat. Instead, I found a hawk in our yard.
• Then a little later, a larger, different type of hawk perched in one of our trees.
• A hummingbird also paid a brief visit.
• The neighbors a couple of doors down had what sounded like a fun party.
• They even had a bagpiper!
• Fortunately, the piper wasn't bad.
• I also managed to clean the refrigerator.
• Met a friend for dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant in town.
• We shared a salad, three entrees, and three desserts.
• The waiter warned us that it was a lot of food.
• There wasn't much left over.

All in all, not a bad day (except for the getting lost part). I didn't get any knitting done, but I did carry the current sock-in-progress with me.

Now, I must to bed go. It will be another early start tomorrow so I can get to the run on time. Hopefully, there won't be any fallen trees blocking my route. I'd hate to be late to a breakfast run.

Happy knitting!

I Felt the Earth Move Under My Feet

Fortunately, the sky did not come tumbling down. But such a bizarre experience.

On Friday at 5:04 a.m. EDT, as I was getting ready to give the cats their breakfast, there was a terrible racket and the house shook violently. The cats got panicked looks on their faces, laid back their ears, and bolted from the kitchen. My first thought was that the furnace exploded (or something else in the neighborhood had). My second thought was that Tom was moving heavy furniture around upstairs. My third thought was that a huge, heavily loaded dump truck was driving past the house. And all I wanted it to do was stop making that sound.

It turned out that we had a bona fide earthquake, a 3.6. It was a bit disconcerting. The cats returned a few minutes after it was over and they were very wary, and quite puffed up. Fortunately, there was no damage (except maybe our plaster walls have some more key failure).

Running News
Tonight is the 4th Annual Mule Run. Last year I went the distance. This year, I'm crewing. I have not been running well at all this summer. Even slow runs feel extraordinarily hard. More so than they should be for my fitness level. There's some speculation that I might have Lyme disease and I'll get that diagnosis confirmed (for the second time) on Monday. So we shall see.

Knitting Progess
I'm at the gusset on the first Monkey sock and I continue to love this pattern. I plan to get a lot of knitting in tonight while I wait at the various crew stops for the runners to come in. I might even take the second ball of yarn, just in case I finish the first sock. Yeah, dream on...

Renovation Progress
The room, she is done. It's much more workable now. I acquired a second Effektiv cabinet and I think that will serve me well. Now all that I have to do is find the time to knit at home. I'll try to post pictures in the next post.

Now it's time to gather together all the stuff I'll need to crew tonight. It's going to be a long day; I don't anticipate much, if any sleep, until tomorrow afternoon.

Happy knitting!

Melting Bullets

I'm rather enamored of bullet-point blogging. I can be as random as I'd like, which is good, because it's too hot to come up with a coherent narrative. Yes, the house has air conditioning. But even the briefest trip outside reduces me to a puddle.

• It's almost 9:00 p.m. It's 90 degrees outside
• That's just wrong
• It's supposed to be worse tomorrow
• The air conditioning in my car doesn't work
• I'm getting a new car; it's being delivered tomorrow
• I love my Volvo and it still has a lot of miles left
• It's not a good car for crewing or volunteering for ultra marathons
• It's a great car otherwise
• I've had it for 11 years and 153,000 miles
• It gets great gas mileage
• Have I said how much I love my Volvo?
• I hope I love my Outback just as much
• I feel like I'm abandoning my Volvo without just cause
• My fiber room is mostly done
• All I need to do now is to finish organizing
• The Effektiv line from Ikea is quite...effective
• I put two bins of yarn in one cabinet (one high unit, one add-on low unit)
• I needed another cabinet for the unspun wool
• Plus I seem to have stashed yarn in baskets, bags, and boxes
• I still think two cabinets will be enough
• Time will tell
• Just checked the weather: there's a heat advisory, excessive heat watch, and an air quality alert
• The temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 101 degrees.
• I'm not wearing business clothes when the car has no a/c
• I'll go a little more casual and wear linen; I don't care if it wrinkles
• I've turned the heel on the Monkey socks; it took two tries.
• Now I've got to rip out one of the gussets
• Apparently I can't count
• The cats think it's time for a bedtime snack and are hunting flies

And speaking of time, it's time to start preparing for the work week. The long weekend was much too short.

Stay cool and happy knitting!

Nothing to See

But there might be tomorrow if I work my plan.

Tom is off in Wyoming running the Big Horn 50-miler again. They started at 6:00 this morning and I expect him to finish in about 12 hours or so, depending on the snow conditions at the higher elevations (they got four inches of fresh snow on Friday)(actually, given there heat and humidity here at home, snow sounds quite refreshing).

Tom is also running slightly injured, having pulled a muscle in his lower back last weekend. He has until 9:00 p.m. Wyoming time (11:00 p.m. ET) to finish.

I took Friday off and managed to get a fair amount accomplished around the house. I played hooky from running this morning and got even more accomplished. Then it was up to College Park to visit Ikea with my friend Val and her daughter, the newly-minted Dr. Molly. The trip was very productive. And I absolutely love how Ikea can take something that looks big put together and package it so it can fit in a regular car. Of course, being able to creatively pack a trunk has its benefits.

Traffic on the way home was horrible; it was slow all the way to the Dulles Toll Road, so my time was not used very efficiently there. But the cats are fed and walked, I've eaten (and blogged), and now it's time to get back to working my plan.

Hopefully, there will be something to see tomorrow.

Happy knitting!

Inspiration and Motivation

I've had this problem with Inspiration lately. And Motivation, now that I think about it. Both seem to have left the building, leaving me feeling decidedly...flat.

Blogging? Not feeling the love. So, tonight you'll get another bullet point post (BPP).

• I love Radio Paradise with all my heart. Go give them a listen and if you like what you hear, become a member. They are listener-supported.
• I bought new shoes last week: Jambu. The Cherry model in the All Terra line. I love them almost more than I love my Birkenstocks.
• I got stung by a bee today as I was retrieving the cats from their evening constitutional.
• I hope it wasn't a honey bee. I don't want to be responsible for the death of more honey bees.
• There's enough eco destruction in the Gulf right now
• I'm feeling guilty about buying a car that isn't either a hybrid or a very high mileage car
• At least I won't be buying a Hummer
• Have you noticed there aren't many new cars saleswomen? Why is that?
• The cats like going for a walk
• They get to catch bugs and eat grass and roll around in the dirt
• There's been some knitting
• Another pair of Monkey socks is on the needles
• Sadly, the needles were too small, so the sock is now off the needles
• I don't care; I love knitting these socks with a passion that is unrivaled
• As soon as the larger needles arrived in the mail, I cast on
• I might stay up late tonight, knitting and listening to Radio Paradise (and wearing my new shoes)
• Or not. The weekend runs start at 7 a.m. now. It's 10:16 p.m. and I'm still eating dinner

That's it. Dinner is finished and I'm feeling rather somnolent. I suppose I should get my beauty rest. Tomorrow will be busy: run, test drive more cars, and prepare a dessert to take to a barbecue. And let's not mention the usual chores. And the room renovation.

Happy knitting!

I'm Not Dead Yet

It's been way too long since I've posted. I've had all these brilliant posts rolling around in my brain and absolutely no time to post. Or knit, for that matter. So here's a quick run down of what's been happening for the last month.

• I ran the Boston Marathon. Amazingly awesome. The cheering did not stop for 26.2 miles.
• Bosco was almost dead when we got home; he had a urinary tract obstruction and was close to renal failure.
• He made a full recovery and there was much rejoicing.
• I'm watching him like a hawk for the tiniest signs of recurrence.
• I've been putting in mega hours at work. 60-hour work weeks are not fun.
• I never know what day it is now.
• This weekend will confuse me even more; it's MMT weekend.
• I'll be up from 3 a.m. Saturday morning and not go to bed (or get any significant amount of sleep) until Sunday night.
• Since Tom's the runner, he's going to be even more tired than me.
• I'm thinking about running the Vermont 100 Mile next year.
• I think all this working has addled my brain.
• That's why I'm taking a brand-new knitting project this weekend, despite an ever-growing UFO pile.
• The renovation, she is not done. The other wall needed major plaster repair.
• My parents are visiting next weekend. All the stuff from my fiber room is crammed into the guest room.
• I'm in big trouble; there's no time to do everything that needs to be done.
• Next week is going to be a heavy work week, too.
• It will all work out.

That's all the news that fit to print. Hopefully I'll be able to carve some time out to write in more detail. But until then, thanks to Sheepish Annie for the bullet point format.

Until next time, happy knitting!

The Week in Review

It was a bit of a rough week. Work continues to be extremely busy, which is good for preventing boredom, but not so good for getting home before 8:00 in the evening (to be fair, I normally get to work between 9:30 and 10:00; flex hours...you gotta love 'em!). By the time I eat dinner, it's 9:30, which is too late to start knitting (because a) either I won't want to stop or b) I'm tired and I'll make stupid mistakes and have to redo it all). So when I go to bed, I've been curling up with Elizabeth Zimmermann or, most recently, Rachael Herron.

The other thing that made this week particularly difficult was that Bosco developed some sort of urinary tract problem and that had us extremely worried. A couple of weeks ago I took him in to get a distemper vaccine, but even then was noticing that he was constantly in and out of the litter box without much, if any, "output." He seemed to be fine otherwise. The vet prescribed a homeopathic remedy (sulfur), which we didn't need. Bosco seemed fine.

Last week, however, the litter box behavior started again, but this time Bosco definitely was not feeling well. Over the course of the week, his energy level and appetite decreased. We took him to the vet a couple of times and he was diagnosed with crystals in his urine, which is not a good thing. The vet prescribed another homeopathic remedy (thuja) and he needed three doses before it seemed to help. In the meantime, we were petrified that he'd become blocked and would need emergency surgery, especially when he seemed to get much worse towards the end of the week.

Fortunately, he seems to have made a full recovery, although he still isn't producing much "output." But at least he doesn't seem to be in pain anymore and isn't in the litter box five or six times per hour.

Knitting and Renovation Progress
Move along, nothing to see here.

Running Progress
Because of work, I haven't had the energy to get up at 5:30 in the morning and run during the week. This is bad because those morning weekday runs help add to the mileage base. I have been able to get out on weekends to run, though, and at least am getting my long runs in. I ran just over six miles yesterday (in the rain) and 14 miles today (in the rain). (Tom, on the other hand, ran a 50K in the mountains (in the rain) yesterday where the creek crossings were waist-high. And cold from snow melt. With a fast current. Comparatively speaking, my runs were a walk in the park.)

I'm going to try to run 18 miles next weekend. I'll feel better if I can get up to 22 miles before Boston. And despite its cachet, Boston is going to end up being a slow training run. I will not finish in a blaze of glory. I'll most likely be crawling over the finish line.

On the Nightstand: How to Knit a Love Song
Long, long ago and in a galaxy far, far away... I used to read "gothic" romances written by the likes of Daphne du Maurier, Dorothy Eden, and Mary Stewart and found them thrilling (in more ways than one). Then I discovered science fiction and other genres and pretty much gave up reading (most) romance novels (I don't believe I've ever read a Harlequin romance).

So when Rachael Herron announced that her first book (a romance) was being published, I decided to buy it. And I'm not sorry that I did.

How to Knit a Love Song is a delightful book. All the elements are there: a smart, beautiful knitting heroine, a handsome hero (although he doesn't come off that way in the beginning), a truly slimy villain, a (somewhat) contested will, fleece-bearing animals, and a dog. Oh, and very well-written "steamy" scenes (it wouldn't be a romance book without those!) The characters are well-developed; the book fast-paced (although somewhat too fast-paced; I found myself wondering how we got to where we were. Perhaps I was reading too fast.). What really drew me in was Abigail's inheritance: a cottage filled with yarn and wool and spinning wheels. I wanted to be there now. Pure bliss! As a bonus, there's a sweater pattern at the end; you can see the finished sweater here. This book will be a great beach read.

Of Birds and Hatchlings
So, apparently this site is flying through the interwebs at...well...internet speed. I would also recommend the eagle cam from Norfolk Botanical Gardens. There's an infrared camera so you can see the eagles at night. This year, the pair had three eaglets. While relatively rare among eagles, it's common for this pair. Last year, another female tried to get in on the action and the first clutch didn't hatch. The second clutch did hatch, but the eaglets had some problems. Hopefully this year, the three eaglets will do better.

Happy knitting (and birding)!

Life Moves On

I'm always sad to see the Olympics end, perhaps because it's the end of a bringing together. It seems that for 17 days, the people of the world are joined together, holding their collective breath as the athletes rocket at incredible speeds down steep hills, narrow tracks, or around tiny skating rinks. They gasp as one (barring time zone differences) as figure skaters jump and twirl and lift, as hockey teams shoot and defend goals. They rejoice as their nation wins medals, but they also rejoice in other nations' victories.

The winter Olympics are my favorite Olympics. They are much smaller than the summer Olympics. And when I started thinking about it, a number of the athletes only have a brief period during the year when they practice, say, skiing or snowboarding. That's pretty incredible. The summer athletes can practice year 'round.

And now this special time is over for another four years. And with it, the Knitting Olympics. This year I medaled, and am thinking that I set the bar too low. But I did what I set out to do and learned a lot in the process. It helped that I was reading a lot of Elizabeth Zimmermann during this time. She provided the guidelines for my mitten design and helped me overcome the fear of knitting without a written pattern. And it was fun! I could do what I wanted and did it with thought, instead of blindly following instructions and not understanding why the designer did "x." If I didn't like the way a part of the mitten was knitting up, I simply unknit it and tried something else. Freedom!

And that got me thinking (and that's not always a good thing)...

I've started contemplating knitting a (dare I say it?) sweater. Like a certain Sheep we know, I too am cursed when it comes to sweater knitting. There must be at least a half-dozen or so laying about the house (well, tucked at the bottom of baskets and boxes actually). There comes a point during the knitting when I just can't go on. I misread the instructions and can't fix the problem. Or I run out of steam. Or worse, the instructions are wrong and I don't figure it out until I've lost all love for the sweater. It's a travesty, really, because I love sweaters and I dream of swathing myself in lovely handknit sweaters during the cold winter months and the chilly spring and fall, and wearing lovely, drapey shells in summer.

So, after I finish the second mitten (just in time for Spring!), I'm going to plan a sweater. I've been reading Knitting in the Old Way as well as EZ. And it's beginning to make sense. The plan is to buy a little wool (or go stash diving) and knit a tiny sweater, maybe doll size, so I can get a handle on the techniques and the (gulp) math. Then scale up for me. And maybe, just maybe, by the time the winter snows are blowing next year, I'll have me a gorgeous sweater!

Running Progress
I am so in trouble for the Boston Marathon. Fortunately, my foot is really almost healed and I've started running again. But now I've got only six weeks to train. My longest run has been about 12 miles, and the long run seems to be the only run I can muster. And those runs are not pretty. I feel like I'm waddling, not running, and by the end, my legs are weak. My goal is to complete a 22-mile run by the end of March. There will be no taper; Boston is going to be a slow training run.

May the running gods have mercy upon me.

Renovation Progress
I managed to get one length of baseboard scraped down to the base paint layer. The sad part is that the baseboard will be hidden by shelves. I'm seriously considering giving up this particular endeavor and move on to painting the ceiling, then the walls. If I don't, my room won't be done until this time next year. And that's too late.

On the Nightstand
I came home yesterday to find a package from Amazon. Inside was Rachael's book, How to Knit a Love Song. It's a very enjoyable read...enchanting, really. I mean, how can you not be enchanted when someone inherits a cottage full of spinning wheels and wool? I'll write a longer review when after I finish it.

So, Rachael, if you are reading this, you're sharing my nightstand with EZ!

Happy knitting!

P.S. We still have snow in our backyard. I think we've had almost a solid month with snow on the ground. Truly an unprecedented event!

The Thrill of Victory

Welcome to this next-to-last day of Olympic coverage! It's been quite the competition this year, Jim.

That's right, Bob. Of the 4,049 competitors, we've seen stunning successes and heartbreaking setbacks. Remember "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat?" That's been so true during this competition as the knitters work through the difficult parts in their program.

Take for example, in the host nation, the organizer of this event, a superb knitter if there ever was one. Stephanie chose a gorgeous sweater to knit, not unlike her entry for the 2006 Knitting Olympics, which she finished just before the torch went out. This year, however, she's been plagued by little setbacks that have added up to being so far behind that it's anyone's guess as to whether she'll finish.

We'll definitely be rooting for her, Jim. And then there's Tee who pulled out of the competition after discovering a serious problem with the gauge of her project. She was gracious in her defeat, saying that the point of the challenge was to make a pretty sweater for her daughter, not to win a race.

And don't forget Carolyn, Bob. She chose a lace shawl for her competition, having never knit anything larger than a baby hat in 17 days. After barely starting, she was unhappy with her program and changed yarns, which obviously meant starting over. I'm happy to report that she finished Thursday night!

And what about one of the returning competitors? Here we have Teri, from Virginia. You competed in the 2006 Knitting Olympics, didn't you?

That's right. My project for that competition was a pair of Norwegian mittens. Unfortunately, I DNF'd, having completed only one mitten of the pair.

And for this year's competition, you chose to knit another stranded mitten, right?

Yes. I knew that I'd have difficulty with finishing the program before I even started, what with the lack of time to knit because of a challenging work schedule. My goal was to finish one mitten, with the catch being that the mitten needed to be designed by me.

That's quite a stretch, because this is your first foray into design, isn't it?

It was a stretch. Fortunately, I had already knitted a prototype mitten and was unhappy with certain aspects of the design. So all I needed to do was to modify it by removing a pattern repeat and changing the cuff pattern. The design was heavily influenced by some of Elizabeth Zimmeramann's mittens, and I chose to do a curled mitten tip and a striped thumb with a gusset, both new techniques for me.

Did you encounter any difficulties along the way?

Definitely! There were sections that needed to be ripped out and knitted again because I made mistakes in counting. The thumb gusset was problematic because I had no idea how many stitches I needed. The first go 'round would have produced a thumb of gargantuan proportions, so I had to rip back to the cuff, almost a third of the mitten. I was sure that that incident was going to take me out of the competition. But I persevered and eventually ended up with a thumb that works.

Weren't you thinking that you might exceed your goal and finish two mittens instead of one?

Yes. After a week into the competition, I was thinking that I might be able to finish a second mitten. However, the aforementioned gusset problem dashed those hopes.

But I'm happy to say that, despite twelve hour days at work, I finished my program! The knitting was finished Thursday night and the ends woven in last night. Overall, I'm pleased with the fit. The thumb is a little wonky, so the final pattern will need to be adjusted. It's truly been a great experience to design this mitten.

And for our viewers at home, here's the completed Vancouver mitten:

The back

The palm


Cuff detail


Main pattern detail

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Teri. Congratulations on your winning performance!

Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Well, Jim, that wraps up today's coverage. Good luck to all the Knitting Olympians who are still working to finish their projects!

Now I've Gone and Done It

I did it. I joined the Knitting Olympics. What was I thinking?! I can't seem to finish any project in less than six months and now I've signed up for finishing a project in 17 days?

So here's the deal: I'm working designing a two-color mitten and the first mitten has some design problems challenges. The concept was good, but something got lost between brain and paper and wool. It needs some "refining," including sizing it for a hand (mine) smaller than Edward Scissorhands. My goal is to fix the design and knit one mitten.

In order for me to finish by the time the torch goes out, I'll need a couple more snowstorms the size of the one this past weekend (to keep me at home) and a major Internet outage (so I can't work from home).

The saving grace is that the yarn is bulkier than I usually knit with, so the knitting goes fast. Still, completing the design and one mitten is going to a be stretch.

May the knitting gods have mercy upon me.

We're Not in Virginia Anymore, Toto

Okay...so we got about 34.5 inches of snow this past weekend.  This area isn't used to that much snow and they don't clear the roads well with less snow, so I opted to work from home on Monday.  I also worked from home on Tuesday, partially because I had a migraine, partially because I didn't feel like dealing with the roads, and (here's the kicker), they were calling for more snow to start Tuesday.  Foot's Forecast mentioned something about Kahunageddon.  But the National Weather Service wasn't calling for that much snow, at least not initially. 

By the end of the day yesterday, the estimate was for another 10 to 20 inches.

It didn't start snowing yesterday until late in the afternoon, and it was very light. And then it stopped.  I was positive this storm was going to be a bust.  When I got up this morning to feed the cats, it was snowing hard.  Not only that, it was very windy.  A girl could only do one thing:  go back to bed.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed, it was clear I was going to work from home again today.  Yesterday we had a winter storm warning.  Today it was a blizzard warning.  What?!  We don't have blizzards in Virginia. It snowed and blew (why isn't it snowed and blowed or snew and blew?) all day, with the snow finally tailing off late afternoon.  The unofficial tally is nine inches for my little town, far less than the original estimate (somehow, and in a sick way, I feel cheated).  The winds have picked up again this evening and even though no snow is predicted, they are still predicting blizzard-like conditions.

We're not in Virginia anymore, Toto.

So how much snow have we gotten in the 2009/2010 season?  The December 19 storm dropped about 22 inches, then we had two storms that dropped about six inches each, the weekend storm that produced 34.5 inches, and today's storm with about nine.  That's over 77 inches of snow!!!  And I think there might of been one or two insignificant snowfalls.  So let's say 80 inches of snow.  Virginia just doesn't get that amount of snow.

And looking at the long range forecast, there's a chance of snow Sunday and Monday.  The thought of more snow leaves me speechless.

I'll try to get some post blizzard pictures tomorrow, after the blizzard-force winds die down.  In the meantime, here's hoping that our porch roofs don't collapse!

Stay warm!


 

More Than I Thought

All last week, there had been rumors of another significant snowfall here in Virginia, something along the lines of the December 19th storm. That storm dropped about 20 inches of snow right before Christmas, wreaking havoc for those of us who don't start Christmas shopping until the week before. (For your information, that would not include me. I do all my shopping online.)

The forecast for the 12/19 storm was accurate, unlike one storm several years ago when they predicted 12+ inches and we got maybe an inch. That storm was a major bust. The forecast for the second snowfall this year was originally for an accumulation of less than half an inch and we got about six inches.

So when this storm was forming, I started watching the NOAA web site. On Thursday, a friend sent me a link to this weather site and I never looked back. I started obsessively watching the forecast and how it was changing and why (I swear I should have been some kind of scientist).

Anyway, to make a long story short, the National Weather Service (NWS) kept changing their total accumulation estimates. It started out as 12 inches, then it was 12-18, then it was 18-24. They finally settled on 20-30 inches, with potentially more than 30 inches at higher elevations. The NWS issued a winter storm warning that was in effect from 10 a.m. Friday to 10 p.m. Saturday.

The region started the standard typical emergency preparations: buying more milk, eggs, and toilet paper than a family could possibly use in a month. My sole purchase was a pair of ski pants, because if we really got that much snow, I'd need something to keep me dry while digging out.

Digging a path to Tom's office

The snow started at 10 a.m. on Friday, right on time. By the time it stopped Saturday afternoon, we had an amazing 34.5 inches of snow on the ground! That's the largest single snowfall I've ever experienced. We started shoveling Friday night, trying to "keep ahead" but it was all for naught. By Saturday morning, it looked like we hadn't shoveled at all.

The snow is somewhat wet and heavy and we lost a large branch from the maple in the front yard (which happened to fall on my car; fortunately, the car wasn't damaged).

Where's the Volvo?

A large branch also broke off the cedar in the back yard, damaging the windshield wipers on the Westfalia. We were fortunate in that we didn't lose power, unlike a lot of people (including my mother-in-law) in the region. It's supposed to get very cold tonight, about 8 degrees, so Tom might have to go get his mother and bring her here until power is restored.

We walked around town yesterday and some of the roads are okay and some are not. They've already closed schools for Monday and Tuesday, but I suspect that with the cold temperatures and the remoteness of some of the bus routes, the schools are going to be closed all week, especially since they are calling for another snowstorm on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are some pictures that Tom took while we were on walkabout:

A stream at Morven Park

 

Old Waterford Road

 

A local Bed & Breakfast

So, has this snow event left me time for knitting?

In a word, no.

However, I hope to get some knitting time in today and with luck, should finish the hand of the mitten. I was almost finished with the pattern on the hand when I discovered a mistake about five rows down that had to be fixed. I'm back on track, though, and the first mitten should be finished in relatively short order. Then it's on to the second mitten, where I'll need to decide if I want to tweak the pattern a bit, which will mean that I'll have to rip out the first mitten and re-knit it to match the second mitten. It's really cold and these mittens are going to be very warm. I suppose I could wear subtlety mismatched mittens until the worst of the weather is over. Or I could declare both mittens to be prototypes and then knit them again in a yarn that will better show the pattern.

That's it for now. Happy knitting!

Mitten Love

There's actually been a fair amount of knitting activity chez Knitting Libran. I'm not quite sure how that happened, given long hours at work. I have three partial skeins of Manos del Uruguay that are left over from a hat project. It's nice yarn and it's a shame to let it go to waste. But what to make from it? There might be enough to make a hat, but hats and my hair do not get along. There's not enough for a scarf. There might be enough for a pair of socks, but the yarn is too loosely spun. But a pair of mittens would be perfect! This winter is cold and Tom has taken my ugly, machine-made wool mittens for running, leaving me with an inadequate pair of thin leather gloves.

I have three different shades of blue (dark, medium, and light) and there isn't enough of any one color for a pair of mittens. That led me to the idea of Fair Isle mittens, since my gauge swatch indicated that a judicious use of all three colors would give me plenty of yarn. So I dug through my books to find an existing pattern. Alas, either the mittens were too big for my hand, or the yarn was the wrong kind, or I didn't have enough colors. Sigh...

So I'm taking the creative leap and designing my own. I'm taking inspiration from EZ's Norwegian and Jogger's Mittens. I knit a gauge swatch to determine, well...gauge. And size. How many stitches do I need to cast on to get a mitten that isn't too loose? After getting that answer, I started looking for Fair Isle patterns in Sheila McGregor's book, Traditional Fair Isle Knitting. There are pages and pages of charts in the book and I figured it would be a piece of cake to whip together a design. Ha!

This pattern is too big and that one is too small; this one would be just right, except I don't like it. And that was just determining the cuff pattern. I finally found something that would work well with my original calculations. I knit the cuff this morning. It looks pretty good, except the Manos is not a good choice for two-color knitting, given the slubbiness of the yarn. The Fair Isle pattern is not as crisp as I would like it to be. But the mittens will be warm!

The cuff is knit in navy with a light blue border pattern. I was originally thinking about knitting the hand in medium blue with a light blue snowflake-y pattern, but I have more light blue than medium blue so the pattern will be medium blue. The palm will have an all-over pattern and I'm considering striping the thumb as well as placing a medium blue stripe on each side of the hand, separating the back from the palm (a la EZ's Norwegian mittens). My next task is to figure out the design placement on the back and which pattern to use for the palm. And how to do the thumbs.

I suspect that this pair of mittens will be a prototype. I'd like to see what they'd look like in a regular smooth, plied yarn. More later!

Room Makeover Progress
As is typical with old houses (104 years and counting), the work in the room is spawning additional projects. Tom is now going full-bore repairing the ceiling and wall. You know how it goes...you see a piece of loose paint or wallpaper and you just want to neaten it up a bit. So you scrape or pull and before you know it, you're determined to get every bit of old paint off the woodwork. It will give in to your will, you just have to find its weak point of adhesion. The sound of a whole lot of paint zippering off is very satisfying indeed. It's going to take months before the work it done, though. However, the hard work and the wait will be worth it. I'll have a calm, quiet, organized place to go to read, work, and indulge in my fiber-y pursuits.

Running Progress
I've finally been cleared to run! I did a short run last weekend, maybe only four miles or so, and my heel didn't get worse. So now it's time (if the stupid weather improves) to slowly start increasing the miles in preparation for the Boston Marathon. All of my travel arrangements have been made and everything has been settled. Sadly, Tom won't be able to go. It would definitely be more fun with him there. Only three months to go...yikes!

That's it for now...happy knitting!

Looking Back...and Looking Forward

Every year, everyone does it: the politicians, the pundits, the media, and that tempts the rest of us (well, maybe not all of us) to do our own "year in review." As hackneyed and trite as it might seem, I find it to be a useful exercise. I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions, but looking at my successes and "not-quite-successes" helps me figure what to keep doing in the coming year and where I can improve.

Successes

• Achieving my running goal (qualify for the Boston Marathon): I'm not sure why I succeeded; perhaps it was because I never let my training lag and during the race I was very focused.
• Becoming more technically adept at work: A couple of large software projects gave me the opportunity to do a bit of testing again and made me realize that I hadn't lost my testing "chops."
• Finishing the baby blanket...and knowing when it was done enough, even though I still had yarn left.
• Getting through most of my Christmas holiday to-do list: I'm notoriously bad at making to-do lists and then ignoring them. I managed to focus and get through most of my tasks each day and by the time I go back to work, I should have completed the remaining chores on it.

Not-Quite-Successes

• Training a bit too hard and injuring my foot: I don't think it was the distance, but perhaps the speed and the road miles. I'll spend more time on trails this coming year.
• Finishing only one knitting project: Due to my work schedule and the lack of time to do things at home, I didn't allow myself sufficient knitting time
• Working long hours: Not much can be done about that and unfortunately, 2010 is probably going to be worse than 2009. Working at home one day a week will help, especially if I can plan it so it falls on the knitting group day.
• Not holding up my end of house chores: See the previous item. The long hours, coupled with running long on weekends, led Tom to rightly declare "I do everything around here." I need to focus on better work/life balance.
• Not spending enough time on the mat: Perhaps if I established a regular home yoga practice, my life will become a little more balanced. If I can keep myself from going back to bed after I feed the cats in the morning, I've got this one in the bag!

Knitting Progress

The spiral scarf should not have looked like a sock. I came to that conclusion the other day and ripped it all out. I had miscounted some rows early on and ended up with the increases on the inside edge of the scarf instead of the outside edge. It looks much better now and I think it is going to be a quick-ish knit. I don't think it will be done by the time I go back to work, but it might be close.

I've also been teaching a friend to knit, which has been a blast! She's picking it up quickly and is so enthusiastic. The last knitting lesson was teaching her the purl stitch, then putting the knit and purl stitches together for stockinette and a 4x4 rib, which is in preparation for knitting a hat. The next lesson will be about gauge, how to read a pattern, and coming up with the 4x4 rib hat design.

Room Progress

Alas, the painting has not commenced because Tom is still working on stabilizing the ceiling, but the plaster washer installation doesn't appear to be going well. Last night Tom said that maybe we should just gut the room, which while it would be nice, is not strictly necessary. I don't need the room to be perfect; I just need it to be comfortable. The remaining "public" rooms (the dining room and the library) are more important. Besides, I'm still scarred from the kitchen/bath renovation we did in 2002.

So that's it for this year. I wish you and your family a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2010.

Happy New Year!

OMG...It's an FO!

Presenting perhaps the first and possibly the last finished object of 2009:



This is the baby blanket for my co-worker that I started back in April. Baby G. was born in May and I finally finished it in December. It's a very simple pattern, once the stitch pattern is established. I used my all-time favorite baby blanket yarn, Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. It machine washes well and wears like iron. So why did it take so long? A distinct lack of knitting time. The blanket will be shipped off to Baby G. this week. I hope it becomes her favorite blanket to drag around.

Here's a closeup of the slip stitch pattern:



While I haven't exactly abandoned the garter stitch scarf, it is in time out and I suspect I'm going to have to rip it out and start over, due to what looks suspiciously like a change in gauge. See the lower part of the scarf and how it's nicely zigging and zagging, creating a subtle argyle pattern? And then see how the zigging and zagging just sort of falls apart? It's like it's almost zigging and zagging and then gets tired and just stripes. Even though it's pretty, it's not acceptable.



That left me without a new knitting project (let's not mention the UFOs; there is something wrong with all of them and it will take more brainpower than I'm willing to muster right now to figure out how to fix them). I could knit socks (I have two years of Rockin' Sock Club socks to knit), but I'm not quite ready. I thought about a sweater, but again, that seems too hard. I bought some yarn from Laura Bryant of Prism Yarns in October in a luscious silk/kid mohair blend (Indulgence, Embers colorway) with the intent of knitting up her spiral scarf pattern. It's garter stitch, with just enough short row shaping to keep it interesting. It doesn't look like much right now (it looks more like half a stocking than a scarf), but I think it's going to work out just fine:



I don't like mohair. It's too floaty and the fibers end up in my eyes or food, or mouth. Bleh. However, the silk single is wrapped with what looks like a two-ply binder thread. It doesn't seem to lose fibers, even while winding into a ball. I'm very pleased with it (even if it is a little splitty).

Christmas Vacation
I'm officially on holiday! The week is stretching out ahead of me and it looks like there will be plenty of time to do a lot of stuff. I know this is not true, however. And I hit the first stumbling block today.

The big plan for the week is redo my fiber room. That means painting (the room is still the same dingy white that it was when we bought the house 13 years ago), getting new shelving, lighting, and a comfortable chair (so I have a place to knit and listen to music without hearing the television). While it's tempting to plunge in and just get the furniture and deal with painting later, that's not the right way. The right way is to paint first. So today we went to Home Depot and I got some paint.

My plan (since I don't want to deal with moving out everything in the room) was to tackle one wall at a time, moving furniture as necessary. However, the ceiling also needs to be painted. And true be told, the ceiling plaster needs some serious stabilization. That kind of took the wind out of my sails, because theoretically, that needs to be done before anything else. And I don't know when Tom will be able to do that. I'm tempted to say forget the ceiling and I'll just paint it as is. But once again, that's not the right way. So I'm not sure what's going to happen there. I'm very afraid that I'm going to lose momentum and really, with a whole week off, I don't want to put this job off.

Bosco, however, is wondering why I'm all worried. He strongly suggested I follow his example:

Just find a spot in the sun and take a nap!

Hemmed In

During sivasana at a recent yoga class, Barbara had us take a "mini-vacation" and visualize our favorite vacation spot and recall how we felt while we were there. I immediately went to the Caribbean and then out West, remembering the grandness and sense of space. Then I started thinking about how I feel while I'm on vacation and compared it to how I feel when I'm not (It was at this time that Barbara said "If you've left your mini-vacation, it's time to go back." Oops...). What I revel in, especially if our vacation includes being in the wilderness, is the sense of freedom, of openness. And it struck me that my day-to-day life makes me feel, well, hemmed in. I leave my house in the morning, get in my car, go to work, sit in my cube and conference rooms all day, get back in the car, drive home, eat dinner in the kitchen (or in front of the TV if Tom is watching something I want to watch), then go to bed. Repeat for five days.

The weekend routine is only slightly different. I don't go to work (usually), but the days are usually spent in the house, trying to get caught up on chores that I didn't do during the week. Sometimes I just spin my wheels and don't accomplish much. Hemmed in.

On vacation, however, and most notably when we took a road trip through New Mexico, Utah, and a tiny part of Colorado (and again in South Dakota when we were there for the Lean Horse Ultramarathon), that hemmed-in feeling disappears and I feel free. I can't quite figure out why. Is it because I have no responsibilities other than just being? Is it because I'm out in nature? Is it because I'm out West and the landscape is so vast and grand? Whatever it is, I would dearly love to feel like that in my non-vacation life.

And speaking of vacations, for the first time since I've been out of school (I won't mention how many decades that's been), I'm going to take both Christmas Eve and the week after Christmas off! Usually the companies that I've worked for schedule a major software release in January, and given that most software development efforts involve the code being delivered to the testers several weeks late (without the release date slipping), I've worked long hours over the holidays. Not so with my current company; the last release of the year was delivered this week. So I'll be free! I've already started a to-do list that includes fun things and chores. Maybe I'll pull out some UFOs and finish them. Maybe I'll pull out the spinning wheel and finish some spinning. I want to paint and re-do my fiber room. I want to cook up a bunch of gluten-free food to take to work for lunch. I'll be teaching a friend to knit (we had the first lesson yesterday). How much do you want to bet that I won't get any of it done (other than teaching the friend to knit)?

Breaking Weather
It's snowing!! Now, for those of you in the more northern climes, I'm sure you're groaning at the thought of snow. However, in Virginia, and particularly in the Washington, DC area, a good snowfall is rare. The last several winters have seen a couple of snowfalls that were only a couple of inches. Pitiful. Shameful, actually. However, the National Weather Service is predicting a "significant" snowfall and they've been upping the accumulation estimates all day. Now, they are saying that we'll have 5-9 inches over night (up from 1-3), 8-12 inches on Saturday (up from 7-11) and another 2-4 inches Saturday night. I'm pretty sure that the higher accumulations will be in the mountains, but a minimum of 14 inches is pretty good. I'd like to see the maximum, of course, but I'll take what I can get.

It was difficult to concentrate at work today because of the predicted snowstorm. I swear, I'm worse than a child. While I don't like driving in the snow (the drivers around here are pitiful, either going too fast because they have four-wheel drive or too slow because they don't), I love shoveling snow. I know, it's kind of weird. But there's something satisying about clearing snow. You can actually see the results (the results in my job are somewhat intangible).

And then there's the hush that falls when it snows. All the sounds are dampened, muffled, almost reverential. It's the same on Christmas Eve, when everything seems to be hushed in expectation of the birth of Jesus (or the visitation of Santa, depending on your beliefs). It's mystical.

I absolutely love it.

Knitting Progress
After many months (eight months, to be exact), the baby blanket is off the needles, the ends woven in, and washed and blocked. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, even though I see the mistakes in it (I slipped yif once instead of yib, and left out a row in one pattern repeat, but I at least I was consistent). The hand of the fabric is nice, somewhat heavy, but fluid. And even though I was using magenta and lime green yarns, the magenta did not bleed into the green when I washed it. What a relief! I'll post a picture later this weekend then I'll send it off to the happy family.

I'm working on the garter stitch scarf (I'll post a picture of that, too), but I'm not sure about how the dye pattern is working out. I raveled back to where I untied the knot, retied it, and everything was going along well for a while, but now there are stripes where there was an argyle pattern. Did my gauge change that dramatically? Of course, I was quite relaxed when I started knitting it at the knitting retreat and am much less relaxed now, which could result in tighter knitting. I ripped it back once more and tried to consciously loosen my gauge, but to no avail. I'll continue on and see what developed. Maybe a full do-over is necessary.

Well, that's all for now. I need to check the snow status and head to bed. I'm working tomorrow to verify the implementation we're doing tonight. Fortunately, I can work from the comfort (albeit chilly) of my own home.

Happy snow!

Runner Down

Prior to running the Steamtown Marathon, I was experiencing some pain in my heel. It was nothing major and the pain was alleviated by running. After the marathon, however, the pain was pretty much constant. I made a visit to my doctor who diagnosed plantar fasciitis and told me to take two to four months off running and do the stretches that can be found online. To maintain aerobic fitness, she suggested swimming and riding a stationary bike (swimming in a public pool grosses me out to no end, plus I don't have access to either a pool or a stationary bike).

So I gave it three weeks and tried a slow 6-mile run up Old Waterford Road. It felt good to run, except it was clear that my heel wasn't better. A friend recommended a chiropractor who specializes in sports injuries and practices applied kinesiology. A combination of foot strengthening exercises, ultrasound, and deep tissue massage seem to be helping, at least a little bit. The heel still hurts, but I'm walking much better. The goal is to start running again in January.

I don't like this enforced inactivity one little bit. And it comes at a dangerous time of the year...the Holidays. We celebrated two Thanksgivings, one with my family and one with Tom's. There are already two Christmas parties on the calendar and mostly likely one or two more will pop up. And then there's Christmas Eve dinner (I'm considering attempting Julia's Duck en Croute), Christmas dinner, and New Year's Eve dinner. Yikes! Dangerous times indeed.

And then there's the whole stress reduction thing that comes with running. I'm trying to increase the amount of yoga I'm doing. If I'm not running early in the morning, I should be practicing my yoga, right? And theoretically, the yoga will increase my flexibility, which should help my heel. We shall see.

Knitting Progress
With all this enforced inactivity, you'd think I'd be knitting up a storm. Ha! For some reason it isn't happening. There's so much that I haven't done around the house (the dust buffalo have evolved into dusty mammoths), that I feel guilty if I take the time in the middle of the day to sit and knit. And after dinner, I'm too tired to sit down and knit, especially during the week, given that I don't get home from work until after 8:00 most nights (thanks be to Tom for taking over the cooking duties and everything else during the week).

But there has been knitting. The baby blanket is six inches away from being completed and I've got until the weekend to finish it. The baby's mom is coming to town next week and I would like to give it to her then. Must give it to her then, because I'm terrible at mailing packages.

And there's been a lot of thinking about knitting. After the blanket is done, what shall I knit? One of the sweaters that I've been dreaming about (never mind that I've got more unfinished sweaters than I care to admit lying about)? How about a shawl? Or a scarf (I do have a garter stitch scarf on the needles; that's my totally brainless knitting) (except it isn't working out because I untied the knot in the yarn, which threw off patterning) (who would've thunk it?)? Maybe a pair of socks? (Oh wait...I have two pairs of socks on the needles) Or yoga socks (Barbara's studio is kind of chilly)? How about a wimple? Patternworks has a wimple pattern designed for Schaefer Andrea yarn (why is it that I always type "yearn" first?), that's 100% silk. I love hats, but look stupid in them. And they flatten curly hair. Maybe a wimple would be the perfect thing to keep off the winter chill!

Of course, if I were a good and thrifty knitter, I'd finish up the myriad of UFOs that are tucked away in various boxes and baskets and bags and knit from my stash instead of adding to it. Of course, she says, it doesn't count as stash if you knit it immediately. Right?

In parting, since I haven't posted any photos in a while, here is a picture of Bosco (in the back) and Emma in a rare moment of truce:



Actually, they're a lot better than they used to be. Bosco has stopped trying to exert his dominance (for the most part) and Emma will actually initiate playing with him. She still hisses at him and swats him for no reason other than she walked by him and he looked at her (but isn't that what big sisters are supposed to do?). Bosco still attacks her, but usually it's in the early morning to keep her off the bed. And then he only feints an attack (which shakes the entire bed)(he's a big boy).

Well, that's it for now. Time to get some knitting in!

Boston Bound!

Once upon a time, there was a woman who was a couple of years into her fourth decade. She wasn't very athletic, although in her late twenties, she was a somewhat decent rock climber and enjoyed caving. But cardio was not her forte, although she did play a couple of seasons of soccer (very badly; something about cardio not being her forte). Anyway, this woman had a coworker who regularly ran marathons, which amazed her. How could anyone run that far? The people who ran marathons had to be superhumans! But the more the woman talked to her coworker, the more she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could run a marathon.

So she talked to some people at the gym she belonged to, bought a book (Marathon! by Jeff Galloway) and commenced the To Finish marathon training program. She found a running partner and 6 months later, she ran (and finished) her first marathon. Admittedly, it was at a very slow pace (5 hours, 10 minutes, if she remembers correctly; there was a lot of walking involved).

With that success under her belt, she decided to run a different marathon the next year. She trained with her running partner again, and she ran (and finished) her second marathon in November (this time was faster: 4 hours, 44 minutes). Her husband ran his first marathon that year, too.

Buoyed by her success with running two marathons, she decided to run another marathon the following year. But alas, there was a problem. Her running partner decided to go to nursing school while continuing to work full-time, so there was no running partner. And this woman's husband was much faster than she was, so she found herself "training" by herself. When marathon time rolled around, her taper (the period of time when runners start cutting back on the mileage) was more like a plunge (she also had an undiagnosed thyroid deficiency, but that's a story that's already been told). So on marathon day, the woman runs, knowing that it's going to be a difficult run. Unbeknownst to her, the organizers had changed the sports drink and she hadn't trained with it. It did not agree with her digestive system. And around mile 15, her knee started hurting, so much so that she kept thinking that she'd quit "after one more mile." She finished the marathon (in 5 hours, 36 minutes) and wept tears of exhaustion and relief after stopping.

She would occasionally run after that last marathon, but her knee still hurt (iliotibial band syndrome) so she eventually gave up running entirely. Her husband kept running, though, and started running with a running club. He finished a couple more marathons and then decided that he would try a 50-mile run (if you can run a marathon, you can run a 50-miler, he was told).

Four years pass and the woman decided to try running again (the thyroid problem was under control, gluten was removed from her diet, and all other deficiencies were being corrected). When she started running, she ran with the running club. But they were fast, so she and a friend would run a shorter distance and run slow (about a 13 min/mile pace). She was happy to run and talk to her friend. But one day her friend wasn't there and she didn't know the route. She had to run faster to keep from getting left behind. She was surprised that she could keep the fast runners in sight and that she didn't expire from the effort. Shortly thereafter, her husband challenged her to run 50 miles when she turned 50. 11 months later, she did just that (it wasn't pretty, but she finished).

With that success under her belt, the woman (who still didn't think that she was a runner, but she might be getting there) decided to set a goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon the following year. She didn't think she was fast enough to come close to qualifying, but after a couple of long runs that were faster than a snail's pace, she thought that maybe she had a chance. So she ran and ran and ran and kept thinking that she would run intervals (she did so only once). The fast runners kept getting faster and she still couldn't keep up with them, but she saw her times decrease. When she thought she had a reasonable chance (if worse came to worse, she'd at least run a PR for the distance), she signed up for a marathon that had a downhill course profile (notice that the woman was beginning to at least sound like runner) because she loves running downhill (it makes her feel fast).

So, race day rolls around and with seven other running club members, the woman lines up at the start and starts running when the starting gun fires. The going is slow at first (the runners were bunched up), but eventually everyone spreads out. She picks up her pace and runs with a couple of people, asking about their running stories. Even though the day is cold, the running feels easy and the woman runs comfortably and strong for a long time, taking time to walk through the water stops and take both Gatorade and water. The trees were wearing their best fall colors, the church bells in the town were ringing blessings upon the runners, and the townspeople were cheering everyone on. A glance at her watch told the woman that she was running faster than her qualifying pace (the watch lied, but she didn't know that at the time) and she felt good. At mile 20, her legs were beginning to feel tired and heavy, but she pushed onward, knowing that she had to run only 6.2 miles more. She relished each mile marker after that, counting down the miles, but she was beginning to want more water stops so she could have an excuse to walk more. Finally, a mile or so from the finish line, she encountered a rather large hill and gave up and walked the whole thing. At this point, her left heel was hurting and so was her right hip and she wanted to just stop running! However, she remembered everyone at home who had encouraged her and believed in her ability to run, so she dug deep and kept running (and amazingly enough, kept passing a lot of people). It was downhill to the finish (literally) and she picked up the pace. With the crowd cheering wildly, she crossed the finish line in 4:05:35, setting both a PR and qualifying for Boston!

The moral of the story, dear readers, is that if you have the courage and belief in yourself (and you find some good partners), you can do pretty much anything. If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would someday be running marathons and ultramarathons and qualifying for Boston, I would have looked at you like you had three heads. I'm not a runner, I would have said.

I realized this weekend that I am a runner. I was always a runner, even when I was running slow. It took qualifying for Boston to make me believe in myself.

Still Running and Knitting

Well, maybe working, running, and knitting. But not so much with the knitting. I seem to have lost my momentum, so if anyone sees it, please send it back to me. I'd really like to have it back.

Running has been proceeding apace. Tom has been training for the Arkansas Traveller 100 Mile, which is next weekend. Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there with him because I'll be at a knitting retreat (he signed up for race after I had already registered for the retreat). I feel bad about that because I want to be there to support him. 100 mile races are not easy. Imagine running or walking (or crawling for that matter) for over 24 hours, with only a few brief stops. It's tough psychologically because as you get tired, the negative thoughts start and it's very easy to spiral downwards. But Tom is nothing if not stubborn and if he can eat enough and stay hydrated, he'll finish.

I've been training for the Steamtown Marathon, which is in mid-October. This is the race where I hope to qualify for the Boston Marathon (I need to run 26.2 miles in 4:05). Will I do it? Only time will tell. I haven't done the speed training that I needed to do, but I have been running faster. I'm not concerned about the distance (I've been doing a 20+ mile run almost every weekend). The course is mostly downhill and I love running downhill. If the weather is cool and overcast, and if I have a good day, and if the stars align, I might. If I don't, I'll mostly likely run a personal best for the distance. There are about seven of us from the running club going (and all are going to try to qualify for Boston) and it will be a fun weekend. After the race, at least some of us will head over to the Banshee for some post-race replenishment.

Can I stop running so much after the marathon? No. Then it's time to start training for the JFK 50 Mile. No rest for the weary!

Knitting News
Not much is new. I've been knitting about three rows every couple of weeks. However, I plan to make great strides next weekend while at the knitting retreat. The blanket that I'm knitting is relatively simple. I'll take a sock to knit for a change of pace. I should be able to finish the blanket. (Ha! Famous last words!)

Anyway, that's what's new. One day I'll start posting pictures again. If only there were a way to zap them into the blog without having to that download and upload thing. It takes too much time.

Have a great weekend and knit on!

Julie and Julia

I did something very unusual today. I actually went to a movie! I'm not a big fan of movies. For some reason, they make me feel anxious and I have a difficult time sitting through them. But I love food and Julie and Julia opened on Friday, so off to the movies we went (it was also a hundred bazillion degrees outside).

We went to the 2:00 showing and after about 5000 commercials about nothing, they started the trailers. These are always anxiety-inducing because they are typically violent or suspenseful. The movies I won't be seeing this fall? The Lovely Bones and 2012. I'd be having nightmares for weeks!

Fortunately, Julie and Julia was neither violent or suspenseful (well, it could have been, but I had already read the book). Meryl Streep did an outstanding job playing Julia Child. The movie was delightful. I laughed, I cried (well, not really, but I did get teary-eyed more times than I'd like to admit) and I got very hungry. The movie, like the book, has inspired me to pull out my copy of Master the Art of French Cooking again and start cooking. The timing is poor, though, since August is upon us with a vengeance. Even though Julie Powell probably sauteed and roasted her way through August in New York (perhaps without air conditioning), I'm just not up to it. And the thought of eating cream- and butter-laden foods this time of year does not sound appealing. But once the weather turns? I'll be trying to master the art of French cooking once again.

Running News
Running takes a lot of effort these days. I went for what was supposed to be a 13-mile trail run yesterday and quit after seven miles. It was very humid and I was totally drained. It was fun, though.

This morning's run wasn't much better; too humid and hot. Oh well, that's August in Virginia for you.

Even though Tom's been saying that he probably won't run a 100-mile race, he actually signed up to run the Arkansas Traveller in October. I knew he'd do it sooner than later. I wasn't expecting him to run one quite this soon. And sadly, I won't be there to support him since it's the same weekend as the Hunt Country Yarns PJ Party knitting retreat. Oh well...

I was going to start running intervals this coming week to try to work on improving my speed, but it feels like I've pulled something in my thigh. Today's run was a little painful and I think my body is telling me in no uncertain terms that I need to start practicing yoga on a regular basis. So, tomorrow morning, after feeding the cats at some ungodly early hour, I will not go back to bed. I will knit for a while, then do some yoga. We'll see how long I can keep that up.

Knitting News
Knitting? What knitting? Move along...there's nothing to see here. Actually, as soon as I finish writing this entry, I'm going to try to find a comfortable place to sit and knit. That's easier said than done, since the TV room and the living room are adjacent and Tom's watching television (watching TV, unless it's a cooking show, makes me anxious). Even listening to TV music makes me anxious. Sheesh, what a wimp!

Anyway, I'm still working on the same project that I've been working on. I'm satisfied with how it's turning out, but I'm ready to be done with it. Unfortunately, I still have a long way to go. And then I'll work on a pair of socks for Tom. They were supposed to be summer socks, but summer will be long gone by the time I finish the first one.

Since I've started running, my knitting has dropped way off. They say the Hash Harriers are a drinking club with a running problem. I think I've become a knitter with a running problem! I need to find a way to knit and run at the same time; that would be much more productive.

Okay, enough rambling. It's time to put yarn to needles and knit before it get too much later.

Have a great week!