Time for Random Tuesday

1. There is no coffee. No coffee at work and no coffee at home. No coffee. Please kill me now. Update: I just did something I swore I would never do. I microwaved coffee that has been sitting in the pot since yesterday. Just to take the edge off, I swear.

2. I cry a lot. I think this is probably bad.

3. The weekend is a blur. My home is not made to house a toddler, an infant, my sister and a puppy. My dog has still not forgiven me.

4. I do remember enjoying the weekend in spite of number three. My nieces are cute (and well-mannered, I might add.) The puppy was cute. My sister is a wonderful woman.

5. Work is kicking my ass. I am also kicking my own ass.

6. I have finished the knitting on the first Best Friend Bag. Unfortunately, because I did not bother to even check my gauge, it is two and a half to three inches too long. I have decided that those extra inches will make the bag look jackassed so I need to rip back, but I foolishly wove the ends in before I measured the knitting. now I have to find my end, remove it, unbind off and rip back.

7. I am making Lilies for the grandmothers as well. I have, so far, finished one lily about halfway and the other about three-quarters of the way. I started one lily and ran out of yarn halfway through, then I cast on for the second lily (since I had no more yarn and it was Sunday and the yarn store was closed) and am about three-quarters of the way done with it as of last night. I would probably be done with it if I hadn’t spent so much time sobbing last night.

8. My parents are in the woods. To be specific, they are in the Olympic National Park hiking for a week. I wish that I was in the woods for a week. I think the lack of civilization and other people would be good for me.

9. I made cherry jam on Sunday (after the wee ones had gone.) It seems to have gelled really well. I was lazy and used the inversion method so if I get botulism and die then it is my own fault. In my defense, by the time I had completed the jam making it was all I could do to keep from laying down on the kitchen floor and having a bit of a lie down, as the yarn harlot might say, so I really can’t be blamed for taking the easy way out on the jam.

10. I went to the yarn store yesterday to buy more yarn so that I can finish my half-finished lily. I have not been to the yarn store since I bought the yarn for my second punk rock purse. That means that I have not shopped for yarn since the end of June. It is now August. I’ll give you a moment to process that.

Okay, so, first: I only bought what I came in to buy, another skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in pink to finish my first lily. However, I did have a good look around while I was there and I have to tell you that it was good. I have ideas. One of the ideas floating around in my head is to make a full-sized Clapotis from Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport. By my calculations this would cut the cost of the Clapotis in half and I could get the yarn in any of the colorways that Lorna’s Laces makes. The down side would be that Shepherd Sport is superwash wool, not a yummy silk and wool blend. I also discovered that I have a fervent wish to make the Eyelet Camisole from the Summer IK. I will be substituting cotton for the linen yarn recommended (because it’s cheaper, I have found a cotton I really like and I can’t even fathom what would induce a person to knit with linen. Talk about hard on your hands! Of course, if anyone out there knows of a good source of soft linen, I would be willing to think about it, price permitting.)

11. This is a long post, but I just had to tell you that I had my first near-death experience on my bike last week. I was riding home on Thursday afternoon, and I came up to an intersection where people coming from a side street tend to blow right on through the stop sign at the intersection with the arterial (that I was on) and just keep on going. I know this. I also saw this woman coming (which is a very good thing.) I saw her, at the top of the hill, coming down to the stop sign. At this point I’m going uphill, I have the right of way, and I really don’t want to have to stop if I don’t have to since I’m going uphill and it’s a pain in the ass to get going again if you stop. Anyway, so I see her but I’m still counting on her stopping somewhere in the vicinity of the stop sign. Because it’s like, red, and octagonal, and there, you know? Of course, she doesn’t stop. Not only does she not stop, she blows through that stop sign like it doesn’t exist and is halfway out into the arterial, inches from my front tire, when she slams on her brakes, looks kind of scared and asks me if I’m okay. I’m fine, of course, because at the last minute I realized that she really wasn’t going to stop so I stopped. Moral of the story: you cannot expect that people driving cars will obey the rules of the road. They are surrounded in metal. They will hit you, and then keep going if you’re not careful.