And She Knits Too!

Holiday Ambition

I just wound 10 balls of yarn to knit during my holiday time.  Six bohus (at 9 sts to the inch, so imagine the yardage), Oak Grove and Sheldridge Farms sock yarn for Emma's socks and 2 skeins of O-Wool to make Bird in the Hand mittens. 

I also want to paint my entire kitchen--ceiling walls AND cupboards. 

Stop laughing...I'm still in the glow of the 2 weeks off (I spent the entire day in the pj's even).

Festive Frolicking

My fun, festive weekend was bookmarked by sick kids.  Alexander recovered in time for us to pack up and visit my in-laws outside of Tweed.  We spent Saturday frolicking in the snow in the wilderness.

There was sliding:

Tree cutting:

Angel Making:

 

And beer (it's good in the winter, it stays cold):

The kids had so much fun and fresh air they were falling asleep over dinner.  Sunday was spent hot tubbing, more sliding, watching Ratatouille and relaxing. 

Then the other shoe dropped--Emma wasn't looking too good; but not with the same thing as her brother.  We sent her to school Monday, mostly because there was a Brownie party she wanted to attend; but she didn't make it.  And we've been home with tea and honey and lots of tv.  The tree is still outside waiting to be trimmed and I just started my Christmas shopping with a big Land's End order and I have a lot of work to do at work. 

On the bright side, the kids are getting pesky viruses out of the way before we're off for two weeks.  And I'm getting some unexpected knitting time.

Itching to be Seven

Yesterday was my baby boy's seventh birthday.  As you can see he can barely contain his excitement for a picture.

Especially with yummy cupcakes and presents to be had.

Our birthday festivities were a bit rushed since Monday nights are Brownie night and just generally week-night harried, but we did have time for cupcakes before dinner which was good Japanese food at Aji Sai (if you're in Toronto visit the one on Danforth--the food is fantastic).  Alexander not only polished off his favourite dish of edamame and a bunch of gyoza, he also took the big-boy leap of trying a spider roll which I don't think he loved but which he ate graciously. 

Then we played his new Jam Pack Jam game (pretty fun) while listening to the dulcet tunes of Crazy Frog (beware of audio--work friendly but silly) and later Elton John (I try to mix the kiddie choices with more mature sounds--he loves the song Crocodile Rock).

This weekend we'll do the serious celebrating by playing (borrowed) PS2 videogames and eating a lot of junkfood*. 

Happy Birthday my Xander, I love you a tonne and hope being seven is completely magical.

*As I write this I flash forward 7 years and see the future.  Except my baby is a giant eating me out of house and home and I can never watch my own tv.  I am afraid.

Sick Day

Emma is home sick and I'm home with her and happy for it.  I'm not happy she's unwell, poor thing, but having another day at home, an unplanned day at home is a great opportunity to catch up on things.

I spent the weekend catching up on the other stuff of life, buying the kids winter boots (if you haven't done this, go now--all the sizes are gone, I mean gone), getting the coat thing sorted out, laundry groceries, birthday parties, stair stripping (7 done, 7 to go) and I don't know what else, but it made me tired when I plopped on the couch at 10pm to watch Myth Busters and then Robot Chicken. 

About the coats.  I didn't get just one, I got two.  Having my mom to shop with really helped.  She's a great shopper and enabler.  She bought me the dressier fall or not-so-cold-day winter coat

(mine is Brown, all the info is here).  The hood comes off and makes it a snazzy fall coat that's perfect for right now.  It is also the perfect coat for the Earth Stripe Wrap.  Thanks Mom!

I bought the super down filled puffy coat (Eddie Bauer, good basic stuff). 

I got style and substance (but you knew that about me already ;) ).

I also finished Sherbie.  Well, it was almost finished in the wee hours before I left for Rhinebeck but I didn't like it so I didn't bring it (good thing, it was tropical that weekend).  I actually still have one side of the zipper to backstitch (I do an overcast on the edges and then back stitch the middle) but since I have time now, I figured some FO pictures were in order.

It's warm, technically well knitted and okay, but I don't really love it.  It looks great on my mother in law who is larger and more curvy than me since the ribs hug her the right way.  And it looks great on my very tiny mother, since it's oversized on her.  But on me, I'm feeling meh.

I know that all over rib doesn't suit me, so I'm not sure why I made it since it makes me look all over ribbed.  Adding horizontal stripes doesn't help the matter.

 

But it is warm and looks good on other people so if I don't keep it, someone has a nice Christmas present.

DIMM and Dimmer

The computer and I are still not getting along.  Seems like my DIMM card is dying.  That's the RAM.  And that's not good.  It probably overheated and fried, but  it can be replaced but my computer guy Craig is away this week so it has to wait.  In the meantime I'm backing stuff up and hoping for the best.

I also have a trojan horse virus and have been running all the appropriate cleans which takes forever when your RAM is diddling around and acting like a toddler who wants to look at everything when you're late for an appointment.

This has given me some time with the Earth Stripe Wrap but no time for photos.  And I'm staying off the internet at home until this is fixed.  So photos will have to wait--sorry.

In the mean time, go read the reviews for No Country for Old Men.  I really wanted to see this at the Film Festival but couldn't get tickets.  I love the Coen Brothers and will be seeing this one on Saturday night.

Halloween

I love Halloween.  It's a low-stress, non-religious, non-controversial holiday.  No family fights, no long travels, just a pizza, some costumes and a whole lot of candy.

This year we had a Ninja and a Devil.

Or the more scary version with nifty jack'o'lanterns

While they were out raiding the neighbourhood I stayed home to give out candy. To ten kids. Including my two. This is our first halloween at the house and I guess we're not on the path to Candyland. Just means more for us I suppose. Just a block away they hit the jackpot and came home with this:

It's a lot of candy. A lot. And it's good.

Yes, Craig is pouring sugar into my son. Emma is pouring liquid sugar into herself. That, my friends, is the true meaning of Halloween.

Hot enough to cook the turkey

We had a nice, pretty lazy weekend.  Saturday we finally went out and bought a new bed.  Our current one was bought just after we got married, and it's been through two very long labours, the stuff that got me into the labours in the first place, co-sleeping, a move across the province, several moves in Toronto and its final resting place sans the box spring which wouldn't fit up the stairs of our new house.

It was squooshy and unsupportive and frickin' noisy.  It was time.  We both really really like the tempur-pedic memory foam bed.  A lot.  But they're mighty spendy.  $4000 spendy.  Too bad, because it was fabulous to lay on.  No noise.  No movement.  We chose a pretty run of the mill Sealy in the end and splurged on some tempur-pedic pillows.  They come on Sunday--only 5 more shitty sleeps until we have a new bed!

The rest of the day we enjoyed some original Scooby Doo cartoons (first season made in 1969!) and lazed around much of Sunday, save a bit of mouse-proofing because apparently semi-wet latex caulk isn't enough to keep the rotten bastards out.  Damn thing tunneled it's way through and got the stuff every where.  I showed him with a length of trim and my pneumatic brad nailer. 

I also spent some time seaming Sherbie.  I was planning a walk through the leaves in my new sweater.  Then I went outside on Monday.  It was hot.  Too damned hot for October.  31c hot.  Not a day to cook a turkey, but what can you do?  Craig got all the goodies ready and I went outside completed our other weekend project:

No more ugly prison railing and super ugly brass light. 

   

New railing to come next weekend with new house number and mailbox.  Maybe some trees too. 

Then we ate.  Craig made a wonderful meal (I did the cranberries!)

 

And even though we were way too hot, we were happy.  Lots to be thankful for.

Thirteen

Today is our thirteenth wedding anniversary (see our wedding picture at the link--we eloped). 

I have a cold.  Bleh.

We did get to celebrate last night in between a work function I had to attend and the onset of this cold.  It was a beautiful night so we strolled along Philosopher's Walk on the campus where I work and took in some of the Nuit Blanche exhibits. 

We are not really modern art people.  I find whimsy in the things we looked at: balloons teethered on a cord of lights, a film about teaching white people funk dancing, an Event Horizon space ship landing on campus (with guys in biohazard suits and "media" and all the other things needed to make it look like a real crashed spaceship--at least on the Fox channel.)

But the idea of walking through crowds of people for whimsey doesn't do anything for me or Craig (especially Craig).

I really did like the miniature bar.  Everything was tiny and it was really crowded.

Craig's head for scale

So we went to a little neighbourhood joint and had a nice late dinner. 

Here's to thirteen years.   

Instead

Not much And she knits tooing around here.  Instead I've been:

*Gearing up for back to school.  Which mostly means reminding kids that school is coming, buying them shoes and thinking ahead about lunches and schedules.  Nothing too onerous. This is the first year in a LONG time that I'm not part of the back to school rush for myself either as a student or instructor.  There was the year I was on maternity leave, but even then I still felt like a student.  This year I'm just the mother of two who are going back to school.  It's weird not to be on an academic calendar.  But also great since I'm not teaching!

*Picking film festival movies.  Due to new day job I won't be seeing my usual dozen or so films but I have a line up of 7ish movies picked and while I'll be a bit sleep deprived, I get to see movies.  I love movies and don't get to go as much as I like to.  TIFF is a good excuse to just do it and go.  I'm seeing more Hollywood ones that normal, but they fit the schedule better.  Can't wait to see the new Cronenberg and new Coen Bros. films.

*Working.  It's all good, but sometimes a bit too much.

*House.  We're in the "thinking about hiring a contractor" stage for the garage since it's a bigger job than we can handle.  Not the actual construction but the permits and drawings and building codes.  I know these rules are around to make sure things are safe and so people don't build wherever they hell they want, but they do keep handy people like ourselves from actually being able to just build a damn garage in the same spot as the old one that's already there (which was the plan when we bought this place).  I want Claudia to be in a safe dry home and to avoid scraping the car in the winter.   And I still need to finish painting all the work we've just done inside so I can put away the damn tools already.  At least there aren't 5 saws in the living room anymore.

So am I going to get much else done this week?  Nope.  Just work, Lettuce Knit Night and then off to the cottage for the long weekend--sun, sand, trees, lake, beer and yarn. 

Remember This?

Before:

After:

Well, Craig and his Dad have been busy bees:

Just another coat or two of drywall compound and then some paint (that's my job).

The two sides were actually not the same size and by removing the cabinet we gained a lot of room and can play with the asymmetry.  The other cabinet it going too.  The *plan* is the buy a 37" LCD tv and put that in the open space to the right of the "L"  and build shelves for all our components and dvds etc.  The other side will be more shelves for books and stuff.  We're giving it time to see how we like the idea of the tv there (we'll drag our tv stand to that corner once we paint). 

I'm just happy to have those curves and ugly insulation gone.