Nature's first green is gold

...Her hardest hue to hold. Look at me quoting Robert Frost, and it's not even a holiday or anything!  ;) Everything here has been covered in a yellow-green haze for the past few days, but it rained this evening, and is supposed to rain again tomorrow, then get really cold. I'm hoping all the rain and the cold front coming in will wash all the pine pollen out of the trees. Wishful thinking, I know, but the poem is called "Nothing Gold Can Stay". That said, I don't think there are pine pollen issues in New England...

I am enjoying some yogurt and an adult beverage after a very long day. Mark woke me up at about 12:30 last night because I was snoring, so I moved to the couch, where I woke up in considerable neck and shoulder pain, and very confused after a rather, um, vivid dream about a guy from my old neighborhood. Other than that we have a lot of mutual FB friends, I have NO IDEA where this came from. 

 

[FB sidebar: the annoying person I mentioned last week is ALL OVER my feed for some reason. I don't want to have to hide him/her--and honestly, we would all be better served if I just stayed off FB!  I do want to crowdsource some preschool options, but since my aura is apparently detrimental to the operation of Windows (I did get the old laptop from work today, but I'm not taking a lot of chances)--and I refuse to install FB on my phone, maybe I will just cool it for a while after tomorrow.]

I just made reservations for our anniversary dinner online. Welcome to the Twenty-First Century!  My cousin is coming to watch Rosina (they are going to have a LOT of fun!), making this our first date night since...the summertime, I think. The night of the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me movie theater simulcast. We definitely need to do it more often. Ugh, I just feel like the last six months have alternated between very busy and decidedly shitty (illness, bad weather, grueling/disappointing travel). I know that was when my job started getting crazy, and when I got the first cold of the season--from which my sinuses have yet to recover. 

Speaking of which, I did finally make an appointment with that new doctor today. Unfortunately it's three weeks out, so I finally broke down and made a massage appointment for this weekend. I have been dealing with this shoulder crap since Christmas--enough!  No wonder I'm so damn grumpy all the time! O_o

Other news: we have learned almost all of the Bollywood choreo, with more than a month to go. On my way out I saw a tiny frog. I should've taken a picture--Rosina is really into frogs right now, and she was very excited to hear about it. It was smaller than a palmetto bug!  I think I could almost handle having tiny frogs living under the chimney. As long as I didn't find them in the toilet, or in my kettle! :/

Selfie:  I took this one on my way out of the car, listening to a new "New Rock" station. (It's from one of those soulless radio conglomerates, but they are actually filling an underserved market niche, at least.) I like that they throw in some Foo Fighters and Beastie Boys for the oldsters, and they even played Lorde today!  When I took this, there was a song on by one of those bands that wS heavily influenced by Blink-182. I think you know what I mean...

I love lists

This face says two things:

1. Somebody got some sun today. I wore sunscreen that apparently wiped off, and I got tired of the hat after a while at the (fun and low-key) birthday party. I may need to resort to a baseball cap. The freckles are taking over, and it's only mid-April! O_o

2. Will we ever find a flavor of training toothpaste that Rosina likes?! She likes the strawberry Tom's of Maine, but the dentist doesn't want her using fluoride toothpaste before she learns how to spit. In the meantime, she has tried and vetoed My Little Pony and Elmo flavors. I do hold out some hope for the Elmo, but the My Little Pony one does taste weird... In other tooth news, she finally for sure has broken tooth #17, after like, ten months. I still don't even feel two of her molars. I wonder if they'll even be in by her next dental appointment. 

Today was another day I felt really tired, but couldn't nap, even when the rest of the house was asleep. I'm turning in soon, and am taking advantage of our computer-less state to sleep in until nine-ish--at which point I'll call my manager to find out if the old laptop in the office will actually work, so I can come pick it up. (I drove all the way down there on Friday afternoon to get it, but there were so many updates to run, it probably took hours and hours. Definite waste of time and gas--though I will definitely be counting the bullshit and travel time in my hours.) I don't know how long it will be until the new one arrives, and we haven't taken any action on our own computer issue--other than to basically rule out the Costco floor models.  I think Mark may be considering a Galaxy tablet at this point. I suppose we can blame Sara Bareilles for that. ;)

So tentative plans for tomorrow: 

1. schedule a physical with a newly-recommended doctor (my former PA has moved out of the area), which will hopefully include referrals to a GYN specialist--because this Pill is NOT regulating my PCOS, let's be real--and an orthopedist--because my old one' s now out of network, and my shoulder exercises are not helping. I realized the other day that I'm currently on track to be in habitual pain, just like my parents are now, and I want to take charge of this now while my body is still fairly young (and before I develop diabetes caused by my unregulated PCOS, sad trombone). 

2. Drive to my office, pick up laptop. Possible stop at Trader Joe's on my way back! (I have to drive past TWO of the three in the metro area on my commute--though surprisingly only three McDonald's.)

3. Start putting out feelers for area preschools that aren't too far from my projected commute. I suppose this is something for which Facebook will be useful, for once. 

4. Work on this dumb sock. I am finally through the leg, and am decreasing the gussets now. Mark has seen it enough now, and tonight Rosina said, "Mommy knitting Daddy sock" within his earshot (she also said, "Rosina knit Daddy sock," and pretended to knit, which was really freaking adorable--though I will probably wait another year before trying to teach her! She's got great fine motor skills, but I'm not going to push it!), so even if I don't finish before Wednesday night he will get them soon!

4. Laundry. At least two loads. I have new wool dryer balls ready to be felted, so that'll be fun...

5. Much-deserved Bollywood break! 

Sock Purgatory

Arrgh, this is boring, and it's not getting any larger!

I'm trying to finish it for our anniversary on Wednesday, and now that I've given up on it being a surprise, I will actually be able to finish the pair on time. But this is really a snooze...

We had a friend over for dinner tonight, so we decided to run errands early this morning, but I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night so I could've used the opportunity to sleep in! Tomorrow we have a birthday party to attend in the morning, and we have some important landscaping and computer-purchasing research to do in the afternoon...

Missteps

I've been hearing Michael's commercials on the radio, and I just saw an A.C. Moore ad on TV. I have to wonder if it's because Hobby Lobby has been in the news. It can't be a coincidence--though they aren't prefacing every ad with an annoucement that their insurance covers IUDs, I suppose it's implied!

Speaking of crafting, today I learned that scratchy acrylic squares are great at getting water spots and soap scum off of glass shower doors. When a Magic Eraser won't work, reach for a tawashi. So yes, I cleaned the bathrooms today. I even scrubbed the grout in the shower!  It did need to get done, but it was also because I was avoiding something...

Our laptop died this morning. :(  My work laptop--vintage October 2012!--stopped working about two months ago, and while it was at the New York office being fixed I used our personal laptop, which is four or five years old. It was a little temperamental about the Remote Desktop sometimes, so I was glad to get the other one back a few weeks later--but it bricked again after only a few days. Our IT guy was supposed to send a reboot disk or something, but nothing really happened. Meanwhile, our home laptop was getting increasingly grumpy. I asked my manager about it a few days ago, and we reminded the IT guy about it again; he apologized and said he would look for a new laptop. Yesterday afternoon the trackball keys on our laptop stopped working. I did a system restore, since there was just a Windows update a few days ago, but it didn't fix the problem. After a few minutes of work today, the power cut out, and it wouldn't turn back on. We last backed up our files several months ago, and because we put almost all our photos onto Rosina's Shutterfly site, we won't really lose anything if we can't get it up again. Except several hundred dollars on a new laptop. We had been having some trouble with it freezing up at bad times, so maybe it's been coming for a while, but we're not happy about it. 

Dude, this college kid on Wheel of Fortune just lost several thousand dollars because he didn't know how to pronounce "Achilles". Ouch. I guess business-Spanish double majors at Indiana don't have to read The Iliad.  That was painful to watch... He actually won--which doesn't say much for the other contestants. 

Seriously, this day calls for some tawny port. 

Housekeeping

I was about to say I didn't accomplish much today, but I did actually get some things done. There was some sweeping, Mister Lambie was bleached, and I even got around to a crayon re-molding project I'd been meaning to try for a while. Pro tip: cheap crayons separate when you melt them. Not a dealbreaker, but good to know. I don't think Rosina has seen the Easter Island head crayons yet, but I think she'll get a kick out of them. 

Me before knitting tonight. I have finished the first of the socks I'm making for Mark, and started the second, but man, this pattern is monotonous...

Plan for tomorrow: a few errands, maybe the playground, possibly the movies with my tiny friend. I don't even know if I have to pay for her--I've only ever taken her to special summer matinees. I have some research to do!

Beat

I'm feeling better than yesterday, but it took me a while to fall asleep last night, so we are all turning in within the next few minutes. The lunch and office visit went well today--it really is a nice building, in a location near lots of retail and restaurants (a short walk to the best authentic Chinese place in town, and even a CVS 100 feet away, in case you really need Pringles and nail polish in the middle of the day), though I wish it wouldn't take driving through the worst morning traffic in town to get there. I'm pretty sure I can work out a flexible arrival time--9:15 would probably be doable. There are also several routes to ponder, since it's in the middle of town, near the intersection of two major roads and between two highway exits. It will also depend on where Rosina's preschool is. Apparently I need to get working on that! O_o

I did actually get to my dancing today!  The opening to the new choreo is cute and fairly simple--and the song is already stuck in my head. 

We are having a friend over for dinner on Saturday, and with us being sick for so long, the house is a WRECK. All the bathrooms, all the floors. Yuck. I will be scrubbing tile and sweeping tomorrow, I'll tell you. Have I mentioned my gold-leaf bathroom?

Yup. That is a dragonfly decal. Everything above the chair rail is gold leaf and painted lilypads; below it is painted blue, with koi and turtle decals. How do you remove gold leaf from a wall? I'm sure that never crossed the mind of the previous owners of this house, who went a bit overboard with some of the "artistic" touches. There's also some really fantastic amateur plumbing work. Oh, and they cost themselves thousands of dollars of crawlspace mold abatement by not installing twenty dollars of plastic gutter extenders. They were not the sharpest pencils in the box, just sayin'...

Serious topic for discussion:  my daughter will be three in five weeks, and still has never heard of a Disney Princess.  I am perfectly happy to keep it that way for as long as possible. We are not Disney people in general, though we have shown her the two Rescuers movies and some Winnie-the-Pooh. She has seen plenty of television, but it is definitely more of the PBS-educational-gender-neutral variety. Mark is going to a movie festival on Friday, and since my cousin is coming to babysit next week for our anniversary anyway, I'll be alone with Rosina. The Big Question: should I take her to see Frozen??  From all I've heard, this and Brave are both in the self-rescuing-princess mode, which I can totally get behind. And if she can handle the fairly harrowing elements in the Rescuers movies, she should be okay here. I just worry that this will open the Big Merch floodgates. She's already into superheroes--she likes watching Wonder Woman, and last weekend at the playground followed this kid with a Batman cape around like a puppy dog--so maybe I don't necessarily need to worry about things being less empowering. Ugh, I just don't want to go to that place any sooner than necessary. But I do think she might like the movie, and the music. I need to do more research...

No bueno

Uggghhhh... I am having some "bad tummy" tonight. I've been super low-energy all day, with a headache this afternoon--plus I impulse-purchased Lucky Charms this morning--which all points to my period being on the way. Considering I can't remember exactly when the last one was--I'm on continuous BC but I never do make it through the whole twelve weeks--coupled with the Murphy's Law-ness of it being my anniversary next week, I'd say there's a good chance. Serendipitous that I stocked up on Mini-Eggs, then. I did do a bit of Bollywood practice, but I am just beat...

Blggghhghhg.. 

Tomorrow is my work birthday lunch, and I will also get to check out the new digs. I think my desk may be farther from a window than it was before, but it is doubtless so much nicer than the old place!

I finished the second disc of Smash. I'd forgoten how much I liked Debra Messing (although she does something really dumb in this show). Wondering if I should watch The Starter Wife now... Speaking of television, House is now on Watch Instantly!  If you want to find me this summer, look no further...

Radio commentary

"Wild Thing" by Tone Loc came on the radio tonight. When you actually listen to the lyrics critically, the last verse makes no sense: the first three verses are seemingly meant to demonstrate that he has no trouble getting laid, but in the last he's propositioned by a prostitute. Why is this necessary?  I mean, was it just to shock people?  I don't get it. Anyway, right after that "Close Your Eyes Forever" came on. (Yes, I still know the words.) This got me thinking that I had never gotten around to watching The Runaways. I am moderately interested in the topic, so I think I can get past Kristen Stewart's involvement. How the hell is she famous?! She is a truly horrible actress (unless you're a fan of the "something smells bad" school of acting), and her face is not pretty to me. I just don't get it. 

In other radio news, I heard Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" twice in an hour, on two different radio stations. It must be fairly inexpensive to license. Not that I'm complaining. 

Today was another recuperative day. As predicted, the Bollywood class took a lot out of me. After we performed last session's choreo, I really needed a nap!  But here I was before I got all sweaty:  

Note to self: the flash is your friend! Does this look like a fancy Instagram filter? I call it "Nighttime at the Lake Lynn Community Center". I am sporting my former favorite T-shirt, which I got for two bucks at Target but has recently acquired bleach stains so is now relegated to workout wear. I'm also wearing my shearling-esque Mom Fleece. I call it that because when I bought it, I remarked that it looked like something my mother would wear (she is always wearing white cardigans, in various states of rattiness depending on their age). Indeed, when she saw it she immediately asked where I got it. (Costco. Yes, I have become a person who occasionally wears clothing from Costco. Almost all of Mark's work shirts are from there, and they carry cute toddler clothes--mostly Carter's--but the choices for women are definitely of the middle-aged white lady variety. I don't want to lose all my mostly-imaginary indie cred just yet!) I had planned to buy her one for Christmas--we live far enough away to avoid the embarrassment of matching (omigod)--but they sold out before I could get it. I'll keep my eye out for something similar in the fall. It is very thick and warm, and surprisingly easy to keep clean. Maybe when I finally find/design the perfect Aran cardigan pattern, I can give mine to her. 

Winded

This cold is insidious.  It's hard to believe that we're still feeling so tired.  I tried to go through a whole choreo, and I couldn't get through it without panting.  Ugh.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better enough tomorrow night that I can get through the Bollywood class...

This selfie actually came out well.  I think my phone just takes better pictures outside.

Also, my hair is on point. :)

Today I entertained Rosina after her nap by making a rather odd play dough recipe:  cornstarch and hair conditioner.  I definitely prefer more traditional flour-and-salt recipes, but this at least used up some very ineffective conditioner--I'd been using it as a wool wash, since it certainly doesn't work on our hair!  I also decided to color it with grape Kool-Aid.  I should've remembered that it would result in a lovely lavender-ish grey.  Still, it smells good, and it kept Rosina occupied for an entire hour!

This is a Prime Number

It was not a bad day, but I think I'm developing laryngitis. Vocal rest for everyone!

Also, in the most Bourgie news ever, we went to Carrabba's for dinner. I initially wanted Indian, but I could tell Mark wasn't feeling it. Comfort food it is!

I got a check from my grandmother. I am always conflicted about this: she doesn't need to be spending her fixed income on me, but then who am I to tell her not to spend her money however she wants? Mark said I should consider the check paying for our dinner. :)

Anyway, yes: prime number. I should not have acne and sun damage and wrinkles, but such is life. I should be thankful that my hair color is 100% my own! (Another thing to thank Grandma for, since I certainly didn't inherit the delayed grey from my mother!). Also, while I am no longer "cool" in the traditional culturally-dictated sense, I know plenty of awesome people in their forties and fifties; I would gladly emulate that kind of cool. A prime number is not a death sentence!  Honestly, being 23 totally sucked until I met my husband--another prime number. (Which reminds me that our ninth anniversary is in a few weeks, and we really need to start planning if we actually want to do something big for next year. Huh, that is a "mature" thing to do...)

I had been looking forward to going to the Lebanese festival today, but we're still just so run-down, and I could tell Mark wasn't looking forward to fighting crowds downtown--so we took Rosina to the playground instead. It had been two weeks, so she really let off some steam!  I took this great picture on our way to the car:  

My two favorite people, outside on a beautiful day!  That's a pretty nice birthday gift. :)

Photobombed...

No idea what this face was for...

More extra work today--no big deal, but it's not very interesting. We did have an exterminator come today, which is good because it means I won't have to kill palmetto bugs anymore. Mark has sprayed in the past, but it's never quite done the trick. We finally decided it was worth paying someone--plus we found a company that tries to use the least chemically-offensive methods, and was also reasonably priced. So yeah, exciting. 

Still not feeling 100 percent--and I'm trying to taper off the Sudafed--so my dancing today was limited to some improvisational stuff. Kind of liking Egyptian hip circles today!  

The plan for tomorrow: Lebanese Festival! I think I'd like Indian for dinner. Mark says my present is on order. Maybe I'll get a raincheck on the diapers for the day...

Quickly

Ran out of time today--another work project!--but I did manage to squeeze in the selfie:

Awesome backlighting courtesy of the sun. 

In radio news, The Eurhythmics makes for great bellydancing. And for a parenting win, today Rosina sang along on the chorus of "We Will Rock You", and howled along to " Werewolves of London". Doing something right!

Okay Spring, now you're the drunk one

Eight days ago snow was predicted. Today it was almost 90 degrees. WTF?  I would like spring back, please! (Dude, the AC just came on!)  It did give me the impetus to go through Rosina's summer clothes. By weight she should just be getting into 18-month clothing, but in most things she needs at least 24 months in length. This means that the 18-month shorts from last summer still fit--though some may be a bit too small to cover her diaper in a bit, if she's potty-trained before the end of the summer they will fit well without a diaper. Summer clothing is easier for me to work with for her. Little sundresses can always have the sides or straps taken in, or can be worn with leggings if they're too short (though the latter strategy works all year round, provided the proportions are right). Anyway, contemplating her closet is much more interesting (and less depressing) than contemplating mine! She has at least two sundresses with horses on them. Horses!

Other than that, we didn't get up to too much today. I have finally started watching Smash, two years later, and at least in the first episodes it is so much fun!  Rosina liked dancing to the music as well. I made pork with sautéed apples for dinner--for which I have gotten into the convenient habit of slicing way too many apples.  Oh darn, I have to eat all of this sautéed apple?! My life is so hard. :) For tomorrow: I've meant to go to one of the local Asian markets for several weeks, but other things would intervene. I'd like to get some more curry paste and a whole bunch of soba and rice noodles. Ooh, and bao if they have any without MSG. I could eat bao forever. 

I am still dealing with this stupid crappy shoulder, so after doing some ab work, I mainly did upper body stuff for my daily bellydancing. I'm not sure if it helped much, but it couldn't hurt at this point. 

In crafting news, I have started some socks for Mark for an anniversary gift. (No, he does not need any more socks--but he did wear a hole in one recently, and if my repair doesn't hold they'll need to be replaced.). I'm using the second skein of Sock-Ease from the big box from my mother (this one is totally NYM colors, which I can needle Mark about), and I'm making Hermione's Everyday Socks. Not the most scintillating pattern, but he is not a fan of busy patterns on his socks. (Busy colorways are another story!) I've just started the heel. For the two pairs I knit myself during the Olympics, I decided to try a Padded Sweet Tomato Heel, hoping the padding would keep me from wearing through the heels too quickly. It's too soon to tell about that, but I don't think the fit is all that great for me--the rounds where you knit all the wrapped stitches seem to hit at a bad spot on my ankle. With these socks, though they are not for me, I'm attempting a regular short-row heel with slipped stitches. We shall see how this works out...

Selfie Month, Day 2: since I took a shower this afternoon, a rare glimpse of me with no makeup but some lip gloss. As I told Rosina in the NICU, don't get used to seeing me without eyeliner on. 

I had some trouble getting the light right while not looking insane...

A happy surprise

Today I was at Target, and I didn't notice until it was time to pay that I'd left my wallet home. It would've been annoying to waste the trip, but there really wasn't anything that couldn't wait until tomorrow--but a woman came up behind us and offered to pay for our order. Twenty dollars! I tried to refuse, but she insisted. My faith in humanity is restored! I'll be paying for a few anonymous drive-thru orders in the next few weeks. :)

It took a long while to fall asleep last night--even with NyQuil in my system--but I did actually feel better in the morning, and am well on my way back to normal now, hopefully. I can taste again, and maybe my left ear will get back to its usual 75 percent one of these days. Who knows, maybe I'll be up for cleaning the house one of these days! Seriously, the living room carpet and the master bathroom. No, just no. 

I was too sick to go to my dance class last night, but I did hear about this today. Sounds like a great way to stay motivated--and five minutes a day is nothing. Hip bumps while making dinner, even!  (Which is basically what I did today.)

Speaking of dinner, I made this tonight, and it came out really well. I used fat-free evaporated milk and low-fat sour cream instead of half-and-half and heavy cream, and it worked out fine. I also used homemade stock instead of bouillon. Does anybody really use bouillon cubes? Ugh, that is so much salt. I mean, maybe if you're camping out, or in your hurricane supplies, but really, yuck. 

I did promise selfies, did I not?  

Dirty hair and weird lighting, but I did promise.  These always look weird to me, presumably because they are reversed from what we see in the mirror. I'm sure I don't really have crazy eyes--not all the time, anyway.  

Ugh, I have the plague

I can't hear well and I can't taste anything.  I suppose now would be the time to enter a hot-wings competition...

That is all.  Just feeling gross, and letting Rosina watch TV because I don't have the energy to pull out the play dough and paints.  Blech.  Maybe I'd feel better if I got dressed.

I guess I was pissed off...

Last night I was thinking about Hobby Lobby, and this was a quick search away:




You know you all needed this in your life.  Madeline Kahn, you were the awesomest of the awesome.  And seriously, when women's health is in the news, Madeline Kahn. :(

So everybody has that person in their life who thinks they are the first person in the world to ever go through a completely normal life event, right?  I am dealing with this right now. I want to give this person the benefit of the doubt, but everything they do is getting SO ANNOYING to me, to a nearly irrational degree.  Do I need to get a grip?  Perhaps.  Do they need to stop acting like they have discovered The New World, when there were already people living there?  Hells yes.

My annoying work project will apparently be an ongoing one, but the initial frenzy is over, so my hours will be more normal for the time being.  There have been a lot of changes in a very short time (our office has even moved, to a part of town that will make my commute, once resumed, about 15 minutes longer--not even counting the obscene morning traffic between here and there--but our old area was just not safe at night anymore, plus the new building apparently has a consistently-working HVAC, so that's nice), but I think they are all for the better. The person I used to work for/with was capricious and unpredictable--though he never had anything but good things to say about my work--and the new people are, well, normal? I should not be pleasantly surprised when people act consistently, and are actually friendly! Also, a few years ago one of them provided our office with the best brownie recipe EVER. I mean that. The secret ingredient: pistachios. One of these days, when I see a good deal on pistachios, I am going to make them, and will attempt to not eat all of them in one sitting. They were SO GOOD. 

To sign off on a happy note, because we are all sick here (even Mark, who is the most helpless and annoying sick person ever, bless him) here's a blurry picture of Rosina in bunny ears. She thought it was hilarious when I pretended not to recognize her...

Go home, Winter; you're drunk

What's that? Somebody on the East Coast complaining about the interminable winter? Oh, how novel... I suppose we must really be done now, in this state at least, but even two days ago there was a possibility for snow. Jeez. 

Right around the time of my last post I got a sample to knit, and it was more time-consuming than I'd assumed, even before a few minor issues came up. My wrists were killing me! While the body was blocking, I dashed off some chemo caps and some tawashi for a swap, then jumped right back in. As soon as I finished that I knit two pairs of socks during the Olympics (that seems so long ago!). Then I finished my Temperature Scarf and a Pinwheel Sweater for Rosina, all while dealing with a much heavier workload than normal (yay extra pay, boo extra hours spent Googling). Also, there has been some snow in the past two months. 

At least she looks happy about it...

Anyway. So things are okay here--ups and downs, I guess. Neck issues, eating too much junk, and I just caught a cold from Rosina. At least I know it will be brief...  I finally broke down and started a Color Affection, while I was on a garter stitch kick. And my next project will be another thing I said I'd never knit: a fingering-weight cardigan. It will take a LONG time, and I haven't picked a pattern yet, but we are planning some serious road trips this summer, so it should keep me out of trouble. I got a huge cone of (I think) LB 1878 from my parents for my birthday last year, so free sweater!

Speaking of my birthday, it is in nine days. It is a prime-number birthday, which is not a cool thing in my dork mind. I'm thinking about making it a Selfie Month--"this is what a prime-number-year-old looks like", or whatever. I guess I need the boost!  We shall see. 

Preview

I owe a longer post, but for a sneak peek, this happened:

Pasteis natas!  Jealous? :) No, we didn't get all the way to Newark (I wish--last time I was in Seabra's they were still selling candy cigarettes!), but we did go to Nando's while in the DC area this weekend. If they weren't $2.25 each, I'd have bought like, two dozen to put in the freezer. If you have never had these, well, you should. 

Stir crazy

We definitely should've tried to go out today...but when it finally stopped raining it was almost time for Rosina's nap. And I'm not going out tomorrow unless it's absolutely necessary. I could lie and say it's because my kid has no body fat, but nope, it's just too damn cold. I have no idea how the Jetta's glow plug and engine would react at nine degrees. It almost makes me want to go out and start the car in the morning to see how long the glow plug indicator stays on. Almost. So yeah, everybody bundle up!  I foresee drinking a lot of tea tomorrow.  Oh wait, that's every day. It will definitely be a good day to make sauce. I may even make homemade pasta--it would keep me in the warm kitchen, in any case. 

I have taken time off knitting for the past few days to rest my wrists. I am about to start a new sample project, and it will be knit at a fairly tight gauge, so I need the break now! That green fiber is working up  pretty quickly (or maybe I've just finally gotten the hang of this drop-spindling thing), and will be nice to return to when I need a break from the sample. 

Speaking of the fiber crafts: I suppose I can't be the last one to know about the Yarncraft alums' new (non-fibery) blog and podcast. Pretty good so far!  I knew I liked them for a reason. They are funny and definitely not G-rated (not that I mind). I've also started listening to Neil DeGrasse Tyson's podcast--relevant to my interests and funny!  Eugene Mirman, man. 

In Anglophilic news, I am down to my last Mma Ramotswe book. :/ On a happier note, Downton Abbey!  Carson FTW. Business as usual for Thomas! Grr, that stupid maid. Poor Anna and Bates...and Molesley!  Oh man...  I am excited about the guest stars for this season. Kiri Te Kanawa as Nellie Melba!  (I'm guessing there is a lot of overlap between opera nerds and Downton fans.)

Dropping (it) like it's hot

I am too exhausted to squeak out more than a sentence or two, but I did get some spinning done:

(Color fairly accurate this time!  And check out my awesome spindle bag-cum-Portuguese bread bag.) I think this is merino from Unplanned Peacock (?) that I picked up at the fiber fair in 2012. It's pretty amazing how much easier it is to spin the good stuff!  I may live to regret that huge fiber purchase last year...or I'll need to borrow a drum carder first!  I should have a whole sweater's worth, but it doesn't hold a candle to this stuff!  I have 8 ounces, I think (this is only half), which should definitely be enough for a contrast yoke on a cardigan, or maybe a shawl.