Dude, what the hell?! I can do better than updating the blog only once a month. Ah, I will do better... I have been very busy (though when is that not the case?), with lots of traveling and planning and exciting things. Guess what? I feel like a bulleted list. Forgive me in advance--I have been loopy from Midol for the last few hours...
* The picture: another shawl, dammit (pattern here), out of my long-neglected Malabrigo Lace. The color is much darker and more purple than in the photo. It's an Estonian-style pattern, with knitted lace (i.e. patterning on every row) in the second section and nupps in the border. I am just now working on the first nupp-free row. I am running precariously short on yarn, I think, but I suspect that at this point I could probably survive if I left off a row or two. Or I could track down a few yards of this yarn--I have a friend who just finished a cardigan in this colorway, I believe (Purple Mystery). I'm also working on a fitted Tomato in red Cotton-Ease (leaving out the unflattering colorwork!), for situations when lace is too complicated. I was going to design something for myself with this yarn, but what I had in mind wasn't going to work in worsted weight. I'm practically rewriting it, anyway.
* Recital update: I think we are set for August 29 at 3:00. This is dear Helen's birthday. I hope she doesn't mind. ;)
* In other singing news, I did a sample recording a few weeks ago with actual recording equipment, and it may work! I need to record some arias (including both Wagner, huzzah) so I can make a new demo--I haven't had much luck in the past with non-professional equipment, and this is like night and day.
* I went to Atlanta for work several weeks back. It was completely pointless. I was the only exhibitor at a conference of sixty people...and my table was across the hall from the men's room. Everyone saw me by 10 A.M. the first day, and I couldn't exactly make small talk with men coming out of the john. That, and the "downtown" hotel was not. It was about a mile from downtown, across twelve-plus lanes of superhighway, and in a very sketchy area. I was told not to walk the two blocks to the nearest bus stop. I did venture out one night--to an expensive (but nice) yarn store and a Thai restaurant, to the tune of $34 in taxi receipts. I suppose it was nice to get away, but it really was not helpful work-wise.
* Last weekend I flew up to New York, and a good time was had by all (with much anticipated family drama averted, thankfully) but mainly I was there for my sister-in-law's baby shower. She is so big! Everybody loved the blanket I made, to the point where it got kind of weird. Yes, it is a handmade blanket. Yes, I made it. No, it was not that hard, seriously. I like the compliments, but jeez, knitting is not magic. And I'm not even that coordinated, okay? Anyway, she got all sorts of expensive baby stuff, including lots of duck-themed onesies (since they don't know the sex). I'm hoping I can get some hand-me-downs someday...
* Speaking of which: this is weird to talk about on a blog, but I have like five readers, so whatever. We are going to start trying to have a baby soon. I won't say how soon, because it's already so strange and absent-referent to talk about sex without actually talking about sex (and gross, I mean my mother will know--and yes, I've been married for five years, but still)--but soon. Because of my various lady problems, it may take a while. Or it may take two months, who knows? Since I have the recital and that show coming up in the fall, it was most important to me that I be able to take a reflux medication that works. (Selfish? Not really. A bad performance from swollen cords would not be a good thing at this point, when I'm actually starting to move up in the world. I will still need to have a career after the baby's born, thank you. ) I was worried that I'd have to take Zantac, which doesn't really work for me, but just got confirmation that it will be okay to take Prevacid, which should be fine (I'm on Prilosec now, but it can cause birth defects). Anyway, I truly hope not to be one of those people that moan online about their fertility problems. I purposely avoid PCOS websites and forums, because I just don't want to hear about it, or about "miracle babies" (barf). So hopefully this will go relatively quickly. Whatever's supposed to happen will happen. I'm going to try real hard not to stress about it--at least not in an inordinate way. In the meantime, I refer you to the song in this post. Heaven forbid I lose my sense of humor.
*Saw my first firefly of the year last night! In case we couldn't tell from the humidity, it is definitely summer here now.
