Relish, Lounge Green and Garden Grove

My intention is not to become a Wednesday-only poster, it is just how things have worked out for the past couple of weeks. I probably would have posted over the weekend, but I have a power issue with my laptop. Meaning that the only computer I can use at home is R's desktop in the basement, and while it is available, it is not ideal for my usual purposes, which involves watching TV while using the computer. Either an AC adaptor fix or a new christmas laptop strategy will be put into action soon.

Where to begin?

Overall, we had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend. My parents arrived on Wednesday afternoon, soon after I got home from work. We did the necessary grocery shopping while R finished some work from home, went out for dinner and had a generally quiet evening. Thanksgiving turned out to be pretty quiet, too. My MIL was making quite a few side dishes and several desserts, so there wasn't a ton to do. My dad made the turkey, stuffing and gravy. I made wassail, broccoli and corn, and my mom helped me set the table and cut the cranberry sauce. We had the pumpkin pie and sweet potato casserole later in the weekend, and the mashed potatoes never did get made. :-( (They're on tap for this weekend)

Friday we got a slow start, but eventually got going. Mom and I went for my 1-hour glucose test while R and Dad emptied the baby's room. Afterward we all met up to have lunch and buy the paint and a few supplies. (The name of the post are the three names of the green colors on the wall) Then Mom and I went yarn shopping and Dad spackled the cracks in the walls and ceiling. We just hung out the rest of the evening - watching TV, knitting and chatting.

Saturday was the big work day. We finished the prep work, primed the walls and all of the trim that was going to be painted, and then got one coat of paint on all of the walls. We collapsed into our chairs with chinese takeout, knitting and the TV. On Sunday, we managed to get a second coat on almost all of the walls before heading over to our neighborhood coffee shop for brunch. We had a nice brunch, and after a quick visit to the baby store we planned to finished the walls and get a coat of paint on the trim and closet door while R worked on the outside christmas lights...well that plan went out the window.

Soon after arriving home, I started to feel poorly...then I started to feel bad and couldn't find any relief. It felt like my ribcage was being squeezed and I had pain in my upper back. The short version of the story is that the baby is fine, and after a few hours at the hospital my pain dissipated. The blood and urine tests came back normal and they don't know what happened.

I didn't sleep well that night, so I decided to take Monday off. I was able to nap on the couch (with Nora) in the morning and generally relax all day. I did my best not to think about the mess or the painting that needed to be done upstairs. :-) The funniest thing about the day was how much the cats slept. Nora was on the couch nearly all day and Stewart was sleeping almost every time I looked for him. I realize that cats sleep a lot...but this was marathon sleeping. This was "you wore us out this weekend with all the activity and company you had" sleeping and "totally dead to the world" sleeping. :-)

That's enough for one post. I'll talk about the knitting that has been accomplished soon.

Happy Day

There is much good news to report, and with 10 minutes to go until Thanksgiving vacation, I'm in a pleasant mood for a number of reasons.

Last Wednesday's post was from my phone in Denver. I never wrote again because the amount of text I could send was so limited. I didn't take a laptop, and there were 24 free internet-ready computers for the 13,000 people at the conference. I never had enough time or desire to stand in line to use one. But the conference was very good, and I will try to post more about it this weekend.

It was a busy trip, and didn't afford the study time I had expected. So much of Saturday, all of Sunday and Monday night were spent studying for the LEED AP exam (a certification for the LEED green building program). The process of getting to the exam on Tuesday evening was a difficult one (once again I'd like to say how happy I am that I take the bus and that we don't live in the suburbs!), but I made it and I passed the exam! It wasn't easy, but I had a good enough grasp on the concepts and credits to work my way through it.

I got more good news when I got home - my best friend from high school is going to be able to come to town for my shower. I'm excited to see her and to introduce her to my friends here...most of which I've made since the wedding, which was the last time she was here.

So when you add in the fact that I'm only working a half-day today, my parents are on their way here, I have 4 days off in a row and we have help to empty and paint the baby's room this weekend...life is pretty good. :-) And now that I am done studying, I can get back to my knitting. (I did get to do a little work on the secret Christmas project on the plane to and from Denver, but barely knitting all last weekend was not fun.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This suite is ridiculously big for one person. The dining room table has six chairs and there is a kitchen.

Great weekend, traveling soon

Accomplishments for the weekend:

- Straightened up the house
- Cleaned the second floor and some of the first
- Finished baby registry and looked at items in person that had been added based on recommendations
- Made yummy Wassail
- Hosted knitting get together and had much fun
- Held the adorable and well-behaved child my friend just adopted from Guatemala
- Wove in ends and blocked 3 Christmas presents
- Wove in ends of first (of four) log cabin squares for our daughter
- Fixed mistake in secret Christmas present made during Friday's bus ride
- Noted that ribbed maternity sweater is definitely too long and developed strategy to fix it that involves cutting knitting
- Began implementing said strategy (without the aid of alcohol or caffeine, though there was plenty of chocolate on hand). I'm fairly sure that the results will provide a good looking piece of knitting and I'm 99% sure (I haven't tried it on yet) that the new length will not make my behind look enormous (like the previous length)

Tomorrow evening I'm headed to Denver for a conference for work. I'm very excited for the trip, the knitting I can do in transit, the contents of the conference and a chance to see a new city. (Incidentally, one that I briefly considered moving to after college graduation, but realized after little nervous breakdown that I don't have the constitution to move that far from my family, alone, to a place where I didn't know anyone. Going to Spain for 6 months was hard, but moving permanently was apparently too much.)

Ahem.

I haven't decided yet if I'm taking my laptop or not. I'm leaning toward not taking it. Along with my knitting, I need to study for an exam that I'm taking next Tuesday. (The topic of the exam is related to the topic of the conference, so I'm hoping it will all mesh well) I think that not taking my laptop will prevent me from wasting time that I could spend studying in my hotel room...so that I don't have to spend most of the coming weekend studying. So don't be surprised if things around here are quiet for as much as a week.

I think that hits all of the highlights. Maybe someday there will be pictures here again. :-)

Just for the record

I did not post to my blog at 2:43 this morning. I wrote and emailed the "Thursday" post on Thursday afternoon, during and after I ate my lunch. I have no idea why it took 12+ hours to post.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. Tonight and tomorrow I have no specific plans. There is nothing on the calendar and no where I have to be in that period. VERY exciting. On Sunday, I am hosting a knitting get together. So this does imply that some part of tonight and tomorrow will be spent cleaning and preparing for Sunday. This is fine because I probably would have spent time this weekend cleaning anyway since we are hosting Thanksgiving this year. Also, I have been trying to do little things around the house this week in the hope that I can be fairly efficient in the cleaning process. There isn't too much straightening up that needs to be done before I can get out the cleaning supplies and the vacuum.

Tomorrow, I also plan to make a visit to Babyland, one of the stores where we are registered. Hopefully with R, if he can be persuaded. There are a few items that I can't add online and a few that are on our registry based on recommendations, but that we've never seen/tried in person. The shower invitations went out this week and I am getting excited! There are number of things to look forward to between now and then, but I am really looking forward to it. For a number of reasons, but mostly because I'm looking forward to having many of my favorite females all in one room together. :-) I realize that they won't all be able to make it...but I can dream, can't I?!

Thursday

I didn't post yesterday because I was whiny, and I didn't want to subject my few dedicated readers to that. :-) I felt crummy, had great difficulty finding a comfortable way to sit at work, and when I finally did it was not a good position for computer drawing. As a result, I had trouble focusing on my work all day, and by the end of the day felt guilty for not getting more done. I got home and watched Gilmore Girls in bed until I felt better. Both kitties came to visit and sit with me (after R turned the faucet on for them).

While we watched Jericho and LOST, I finished my second pair of Fetching gloves. After a little blocking that means I'll have two Christmas presents done! I added beads to the second pair between the cables, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm not sure if I have appropriate beads for the other two pairs I'm going to make, but there is a good bead shop between home and work if I want to expand my collection.

The good news is that I'm feeling much better today. Not perfect, but generally good and much less cranky. And, I can sit in more than one position and still be comfortable. All good things.

Also, it's definitely official that I made Blaze (sweater from knitty.com) too big. Because it fits me the best today that it ever has. :-) I will definitely be making another attempt at this pattern post-baby and probably with 3/4 length sleeves. There is just something contradictory about an alpaca sweater with short sleeves. It's plenty warm, it's just odd to go out in November with short sleeves on under my coat.

In architecture news, I'm signed up to take the LEED AP exam on November 21st. LEED is a green building certification program. I've been telling the officers of my firm for 3 years that I plan to take the exam. I went ahead and scheduled it so I wouldn't have a choice, and I wouldn't have to put it on my list of goals for 2007!

Other than my fetching gloves, my other major knitting project of the moment is a Christmas present for a reader of the blog, so there might not be a lot of knitting content for a bit. We'll see how soon I start another secondary project I can talk about...or maybe I'll finish something from the work-in-progress basket.

Check!

I was initially thinking that I had nothing exciting to post, but then I realized that I haven't written about our accomplishment from Friday night.

The store we went to had floor samples for sale of this crib in a dark wood finish, along with a 5 drawer dresser, a 3 drawer dresser, a changing table to sit on the 3 drawer dresser and rails to convert the crib into a twin bed. All the pieces seemed to be in great shape, just a few nicks, and the price for the whole set was a good deal. It also means that we have all the furniture we need for the room, except a hamper and a glider. Great progress.

We don't have to take delivery of the furniture immediately. It seems likely that we'll be using Thanksgiving weekend to empty the room and paint it, and probably schedule delivery in early December. There is certainly more that we need before our daughter comes, but it is nice to have such a big item checked off the list!

Interesting

I experienced my first hot flash today. Aptly named, but a very strange feeling. Thankfully, the removal of my 100% wool shawl (Clapotis) seemed to help it pass quickly. Layers are good.

I'm still not thrilled about how full the weekend is, but I'm trying to remind myself of all of the christmas knitting and I can get done in the car tomorrow. And making a list of my limited capabilities at strike tomorrow made me feel a little better, too. (Maybe it shouldn't, but it did.)

Sunday afternoon (before strike), I'm going with a friend to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee". This isn't an album that I know by heart, but one that I have and which I'm anxious to see how the story fits in with the songs I know. I'm also interested to see how the audience participation works. I keep thinking about whether or not I would want to be on stage if I was asked, and I still don't know the answer. My spelling skills are not spectacular, but I'd like to think they're above average. ;-) (I'm probably fooling myself there.)

Oh, and what am I going to wear on Sunday? Hmmmm...

Thursday

The set has been photographed. All the seams on the vest have been sewn
and the collar has been knitted.

That's all the progress I can claim for last evening and tonight. I'm
not even knitting while watching CSI.

I think knowing how busy this weekend is going to be makes me feel like
doing nothing right now.

Tomorrow night is baby furniture shopping.

Wooster, rain and knitting

I had such a nice streak last week. I've thought of things to say during the past two days, but not while I've been sitting at a computer.

We had a nice (though full) weekend. Saturday was the rededication of a building I worked on at The College of Wooster. Photos here - http://www.wooster.edu/photography/files/2006-07/kauke_dedication/index.html Everyone we talked to had positive things to say about the building and during the evening event our work as architects was recognized by a number of the speakers. It was great to get to share the building, and all the work we did, with R and my parents. And we had a nice brunch on Sunday before heading back to our respective homes.

I should have accomplished more during Sunday afternoon and evening, but Stewart had other ideas. R had to convince him to leave my lap after two hours so that I could make dinner. He was very cute and warm, but his use of my left arm as a pillow prevented me from knitting while he was there.

Monday evening I met with a online friend to buy some of her old maternity clothes. It's not all stuff that I would have picked out, but it all fits and most of it is work-appropriate and it was cheap. :-) I had hoped that more of my non-maternity tops would continue to work, but many of them are just too short, and some will soon be too tight as well.

I did reorganize my closets last night. Instead of having my work/dress clothes in the main closet and my casual clothes in my office closet, I put the clothes that don't fit in my office and everything else in the main closet. I didn't try it all on, so there could be some thing that will have to be moved to the office. But I'm hoping that the change will reduce my frustration when trying to get dressed...

Thanks to all of the time spent in the car and bus recently, plus two hours during trick or treat last night, the front and back of the Christmas vest is done. Today in the car to and from Greensburg I wove in the ends and attached the first shoulder. The vest is taking a lot of room in my bag, so I might need to start another Christmas project this evening and leave the vest finishing for knitting time at home.

Unfortunately, we still have a lot of candy left from Trick or Treat last night. We bought the usual amount (which usually leaves us with none), but we had about half as many trick or treaters as usual thanks to the constant rain. I think we only got kids from a two or three block radius, and most of them came in the first hour. The second hour only saw a trickle of kids. Oh well. We just have to figure out what to do with all of this leftover candy. Thank goodness I'm not in "losing weight" mode. :-)