Haha!  I’ve got to tell you, my front door looks 10 times better in that photo yesterday than it does in real life!  I couldn’t have asked for better light.  I make no bones about the fact that I love my house, for a lot of reasons, but there’s something about it in pictures — lighting, framing, editing — that even makes me think, "I want to live there!"  Oh, heh, I do; I have for almost 19 years!  In pictures, you don’t see the dust critters, can’t hear the floorboards creak, and the mountain of laundry is ignored.  I’m not kidding.  The kids will wash the clothes and dry the clothes, but they apparently draw the line at folding the clothes… there are stacked laundry baskets just outside the laundry room door.  I had to dive for underwear this morning!

Katy, this one’s for you.  That’s Ali looking as if she’s ready to take your order.  She’s actually talking to Katie in London using my nifty new makes-me-feel-like-a-telemarketer headset and Skype, making for a darn cheap phone call using the internets.  Cheap, but not free, and they talked so long last night that they got disconnected because the money ran out.  ; )  Jan told me about Skype a few weeks ago and it’s been working out very well. If Katie had her own laptop/computer and a headset of her own over there, we could actually be talking for free.  Free!  As it is, it’s less than 2 cents per minute.  Once or twice, we’ve had a bad connection and Katie told me I sounded like Darth Vader, but mostly it sounds better than a land-line.  I Skyped Cara a few weeks ago, too!  I’m sure it wasn’t anything like talking to Ann — Cara’s right when she says that Ann does the best phone — I really don’t do phone very well.  I never have.  I had a girlfriend in high school who would call me up and then just sit there and wait for me to entertain her, I guess.  I just hated that and it was torture trying to nicely extricate myself from the phone call (I never wanted to hurt anyone’s feelings — "I don’t want to talk to you if you don’t have anything to say," is what I really wanted to say) and I think it’s had a lifelong affect on my "phone."

Williamsro, up-to-the-minute update.  The color representation is really good here.  I am very proud of my side seam on the reverse stockinette — that’s not my favorite to do.  I ran some yarn in a contrasting color to help me keep on track of the rows and top/bottom loops on each side and it worked like a charm.  I still have the sleeve seams to do, but picked up and knit a few rows of the bottom edging last night while watching figure skating.  I’m very disgruntled at both Netscape and AOL for giving me the news before I wanted it; MSN was forthright in announcing that the results were in, but left it up to me as to whether I wanted to click and find out.  Grump.  So I knew that Sasha Cohen didn’t win, but had to watch; she’s such a beautiful skater.

Hubby and I have been invited to a farm for dinner tonight.  I am so excited that I’m even giving up yoga.  The farm has sheep and the farmer’s wife uses their wool to make things and she has a fiber room; she’s also the person who made that marvelous pumpkin lasagna that I went on and on about a while back.  Oh, I can’t wait.  I will be bringing Williamsro because there’s still plenty to do and, heh, I think she’ll understand.  Woo.

As predicted, my sister took the Olympic challenge, too.  She has been quilting quite diligently on her Grandmother’s Garden block.  I told her, though, that she must send me pictures and if I don’t get pictures, she will be disqualified and out of medal contention.  I’m kind of a committee of one (it’s an Olympics for one!) and it’s gone to my head — in a good way.  We’re both having a lot of fun with these challenges (oh, I should have challenged her more!).

"Hi mom, it’s been a long day — but AWESOME…"

Katie went on a trip to Canterbury and Dover yesterday and that’s the beginning of the email she sent me upon her return.  She’s given me the poop so I can access her Photobucket account while she’s away — she uploaded maybe 15-20 of the 100 pictures she took on the trip (nearing 400 for the entire time she’s been away, so far) and I’m sharing a few with you.  First awesome thing, in my opinion, is the weather.  I’m sure that view from the keep is gorgeous even in the rain, but that one takes my breath away.  There she is with the Northstar Mittens at The Pharos — I feel completely idiotic (and I don’t care) that I find it so thrilling to see my mittens there!  And sheep on the cliffs of Dover!!

This is a ceiling in Canterbury Cathedral.  Amazazing.  This one actually makes my neck hurt!

My weekend wasn’t nearly so scenic.  We’re preparing for a little remodeling project and I did some preparatory cleaning, with a teensy trip down Memory Lane as some of it involved going through some of the girls’ saved school stuff.  I threw out lots, saved a little, laughed a lot.  There’s much more of that to go through, though, as I saved everything from spelling tests and math quizzes to monthly newsletters and workbooks.  Now, the accumulation phase has pretty much ended and with the knowledge gained over the passage of time (I’ve never been inclined even once to see what was news in the spring of *anyone’s* third grade year), I can be more ruthless than I once was, and I am able to save just artwork (the good stuff) and journals, possibly a particularly interesting report or project, and report cards; even so, there was a bit of wistfulness and I had one of the girls haul the bag to the trash.  The path to the attic is more clear.

Typepad is being weird, so I better get this up.  I’ve been working on Shirley Shrugs; found the yarn (Better Pal stuff!) that eluded me a couple of weeks ago; and I have a finished pair of Jaywalkers to show you tomorrow.  Woo.

Why a little bloggy break?

I found "Escape"!  You think blogging is a time-suck?  (Let me know how you score…)

I’ll be back on Monday.

When not studying or singing karaoke, the girl is seeing the sights, having her picture taken with phone booths (I’m humored that the person in the booth behind her also appears to be having a picture taken rather than using the phone), doing some shopping, and taking walks in the park.

I’m wishing for feel-o-vision right now — I’ve love to get my hands on that cute little bag — it appears to be made of little felted balls that are all glommed together somehow.  That’s her new phone for scale.

The more pictures she sends, the more I want to go.  Workin’ on it.  I love the light in the park picture and that sunset.  Wow.  My girl’s a sky-watcher, too.

I spent most of Saturday at home and did some training for International Pajama Day (the next celebration is slated for February 5th!).  Maddy needed my driving services later in the day, and while she and a friend shopped the import store, I ran up to the LYS for a pair of needles so I could commence the Olympic training.

Oh, but before that could begin, I had to rip the offending work and wind it all up.  It’s a big, big, BIG pain the ass to rip and wind yarn that is ‘held double throughout.’  I did not want to re-wind it doubled, I wanted it separate; it went pretty well, though I did have to enlist help once.  I was dreading ripping the Blossom, but it came out okay!

In the fresh start spirit, I re-copied the pattern on Sunday — in color and on nice paper — and also made a motivational page with Mary Beth’s helpful information regarding this sweater.  In an unusual training maneuver, I made two swatches during football yesterday — BIG swatches — one in stockinette and one in the cable pattern.  Next, I’ve got to sharpen my pencil and warm up the calculator…

While I was doing all that ripping, separating, winding and swatching, the Luna Shawlette was having a Eucalan bath — I kind of forgot about it, so it was a good, long soak!  There was a little bleeding of dye, but not bad.  It ought to be dry and ready for unpinning when I get home tonight — I believe I did get about four inches in length when I pinned it, but will have to see how much it might bounce back.

And in between all that, I worked on the Jaywalker — I’ve knit the heel flap, turned the heel and started the gusset.  That’s simple enough work that I ought to be able to do it while watching 24 tonight…