I think my 'maters are diseased. Observe:



I cut these two off the plant because they looked pretty bad, and the others are still too small to have any problems. Does anyone know about tomato maladies?

We had a memorable Fourth of July this year!

At around 1, Nicoal arrived and we went out to Nearly Normals for lunch. They were reeeeeallllllly slow. Like almost 45 minutes from ordering to eating. But the food was yummy.

After lunch we hung out at home for a bit until Cory's friend Mike and his girlfriend Angela arrived, and then we set out for Marys Peak - a bit early because we weren't sure what to expect as far as parking availability on a popular holiday.

Marys Peak is west of Corvallis, the highest point in the Coast Range at 4097 feet. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the parking lot, and then it's a 1.5-mile hike uphill to the summit. There's another grassy area closer to the parking lot that also boasts some pretty good views of the Willamette Valley, but if you also want 360-degree views the summit is the place to go.

Mike and Angela followed us up, and we donned our packs and started up. My pack was pretty heavy, with three thermoses of coffee and three bottles of water, along with some food and jackets and other various things, and it didn't take long before I was hot and sweaty and out of breath. And we hadn't gotten to the steep part yet. But one can't get into shape by not working, I suppose, so in the end I was happy to get that exercise.

When we reached the top, we took a breather and then set up our little vantage point.



We set up our camp chairs and blankets and ate some KFC that Mike and Angela brought, and other snacky things. It was much cooler up there than on the valley floor, and we had to start layering pretty quickly. I played a game of cribbage with Cory and Angela to teach her how to play. As the sun started to go down, we all walked around the summit taking photos of the deepening light and watched people start to join us on the grass and lupine.



Linus got the crazies, so after a few minutes of taking one step and having him RUNAROUNDANDAROUNDANDJUMPJUMPJUMPRUNRUNJUMPRUN and then taking another step and OMGRUNJUMPJUMPRUNRUNRUNJUMPRUNEATGRASS I decided to take him down to the parking lot so he could exercise a little and Nicoal and I could throw away our bag of KFC trash. (A few college-aged boys had a big pretty dog that had no leash and no interest in listening to the boys. Luckily, the boys had no interest in telling it what to do, so it roamed around and got into everybody else's stuff.)

When we got back up, we settled in for fireworks-viewing, along with maybe 30 other people scattered around the summit. (And Linus finally crashed too.)



The sun had gone down but the sky was still pretty light, but it sorted itself out soon enough and we were able to finally see where the cities were, once the city lights came up. We could see Salem, Albany, Corvallis, Philomath, Lebanon, Harrisburg, Springfield, Eugene, and I'm sure a few other places as well. And then the fireworks started, the official ones in Salem and Corvallis and Eugene and little home-made shows too. They were teensy little things, but pretty neat to see from way up on the Peak, and we could barely hear little muffled booms too, though usually the voices of the people around us drowned them out.

It was over pretty quickly, and so we packed up by moonlight and started down the trail to the parking lot, nobody saying much of anything like most trips home tend to be. Mike and Angela headed for home straight from the lot, and Nicoal came home with us.

We got home around midnight, and all of us fell into bed. It had cooled off really quickly, too, which was nice because we'd forgotten to open the windows before we left and the house was stuffy. But we made short work of the stuffiness.

This morning, because Nicoal had to leave earlyish, she and I got up early and made blueberry pancakes with blueberries we got yesterday and ate them on the patio in the cool morning air. It was great - I love my patio but not when I'm all by myself out there, so I don't go out there for meals as often as I'd like.

And then Nicoal went home and Cory and I have been spending the rest of the day being quiet and still. :) All in all, it was a great 4th and a great weekend, and I'm glad to have spent it with good friends!

Cory, Linus and I went to Astoria last weekend!

On Saturday morning Cory slept in while I hung out downstairs, crocheting furiously because I made a mistake on the sleeves of my Tunisian jacket sample and had to redo them. We left around 11, after packing and all that good stuff. We drove west to Newport, and stopped at Agate Beach to introduce Linus to the coast.



It had rained overnight, so the sand had a "crust" over the top of it, so it wasn't soft unless you broke through a little. Linus liked it anyway. He danced around, and when we got to the surf he tried to chase the bubbles at the edge of the waves.

After a little while we dusted the sand off ourselves and headed north on 101. We stopped here and there for lunch and for Linus to go potty and also for a little playtime. We went to the Tillamook cheese factory but there were so many people there that we left pretty quickly. Rockaway Beach was really nice; we'd like to go back again in the summertime and earlier in the day when all the colorful shops are open.

Finally we reached Astoria, at around 7pm. We went straight to our hotel, which was in our "Canine Oregon" book, the Lamplighter Motel. And it was awful. Paint was cracked and peeling, there were baseboard heaters and a box fan for temperature control, there was mold in the shower around the window... so we went out again so we didn't have to be there.

We drove up an insanely steep hill as we explored, and made our way to the Astoria Column. (Here is one view of it; our camera was full by the time we got up there so we used iPhones which aren't nearly as good as this pic. But the real view is FROM it - you can see all of Astoria, the Columbia River, and the ocean too.) Then we took a roundabout way back down the hill and found a Rogue pub! So we went there and had onion rings and beer to pass the time.

Finally it was starting to get dark and we were tired and Linus was exhausted, so we went back to the motel. We let Linus up on the bed, but he was so tired that he fell asleep within a minute without even really enjoying the fact that he was on the bed. Poor guy. We watched a little bit of Princess Bride and then fell asleep ourselves.

During the night someone banged on our door and a lady outside yelled to the banger "THAT'S NOT OUR ROOM!" Then at 4:30 Linus was tossing and turning so I took him out to go potty. And then at 7:30 Linus and I were up for the day. I took him out by myself for a little bit, and then came back and got showered (where I stood in the exact middle of the little suction-cup-traction-mat-thingy, ack) and re-packed.

When Cory got up we went for a walk on the riverfront. That turned out to be a good idea, as a barge was about to go under the Astoria bridge, right by where we were walking.



A Best Western hotel was next to the bridge, and we had fun watching all the people come to their windows and outside to see the barge go by.

Then it was time for breakfast. Next-door to the motel was Pig'n Pancake! I'd never been there before, but had seen them up and down the coast whenever we drove around, and was curious. It's just diner food, but it was yummy. (Lil' Sambo's is next, I think. I remember when it was called Little Black Sambo's!)

Next we piled back into the car (Linus was getting to the point where he'd rather not get in the car anymore; after awhile we'd approach the car and he'd try to walk away from it. Heh) and drove south a bit to Fort Stevens. The fort was built in 1963 to protect the mouth of the Columbia against an attack by the British during the Civil War, which never happened. The fort was eventually put on the surplus list in 1047. I remember going there as a kid, once, and being pretty scared of it as there are a lot of dark buildings built into hillsides. Ominous to an 8-year-old. But this time we had fun. They were even doing little cannon demonstrations up at the main museum area so we watched them do that before we headed out.

One quick stop at the Goonies house:

...and then we were on our way.

We went east on highway 30, and once in Portland we stopped to pick Haley up and then stopped at Dad's house so that we could all spend the afternoon together. After dinner at Berlin Inn, we came home. It was nice to be back in our own beds even though we'd only been gone one night!

More photos on Flickr.

Seems like we're starting to get the hang of the schedule we've got Linus on. He didn't have any accidents for the last two days, but then he had one by the door this morning. It was our fault, though, we slept in a little so he was in his kennel an extra hour today. (He's been getting through the night really well without waking us up at all!) We still need to work on leash training, though - he doesn't pull, he'll just take a few steps and then sit down and refuse to go anywhere. It seems to happen less often when we're both taking him out together (maybe that bolsters his confidence?) but it seems like he's just experiencing all this new stuff (it took FOREVER to get past the boys playing basketball across the street, he'd take three steps and sit. And three steps and sit. And if they made any whooping or cheering noises he'd sit. Heh.) and he needs to process it still.

So we're making progress, and the biggest lesson for me is patience. :)

Some things I read online said the second night was better than the first night. Others said it was worse. So we gritted our teeth and brought the crate and the rattle can upstairs. I was super sleepy from the night before so I fell asleep almost immediately, and woke up with a start at 3am thinking "oh no, the dog hasn't made any noise and we haven't taken him out at all!" so I took him downstairs and he peed in the crocuses.

Cory woke up at 4:30 or so and took him out again but he was dry, so I think not giving him water after 5 was a good thing. Except that he was thirsty after his walk last night, poor guy.

It looks like the rattle can works pretty well - I don't like the negative reinforcement but at least we're doing it so that he can't see us. Hopefully he'll continue the quiet-in-the-crate behavior when we go out without him.

Looks like our first big hurdle with Linus is going to be successfully crating him. He doesn't like his crate at all. He'll go in there sometimes to play with something but come straight back out. He likes sleeping everywhere but the crate, it appears. Everything we've read says that pups like their crate, it's a little sanctuary to them, but Linus is not that way; at least not yet. Earlier today I shut him in and he cried and tried to get out, even with me sitting calmly next to him. (Maybe he wanted to play?) So later we took him out on a good walk and played at the park with him, and tired him out, and he crashed on the kitchen floor. I scooped him up and put him in his crate and he got back out and crashed on the kitchen floor again. So I scooped him up and put him back in the crate and shut him in, and then one of us sat near the kennel where we were unseen while the other watched; and when he'd cry we'd shake a vitamin bottle at him. We even threw the bottle at the wall of the crate once or twice. He got the idea pretty quickly, that the universe doesn't want him to cry. I think if we make sure we kennel him more and more during the day like we read about (like an hour at a time, between going out to play/potty) and keep the unseen rattling going, he'll adjust pretty well.

The true test will be next weekend, when we're due at Mom's, and he'll need to be in his crate quite a lot. (And when we have to drive 3 hours with a puppy in the car!)

Yesterday evening we tailored the kennel to fit Linus' needs. I think it was just too spacious for him (it'll fit him when he's grown up too) so I took some of the cushions I salvaged from our old couch and then cut down to floor-pillow size and set them vertically against the back wall so that the livable area is half as big as it was. He liked it much better then, and we had far fewer complaints when we stuck him in there.

We took him out around 10pm, and while Cory was with him I took the kennel upstairs and got it ready for bed. Cory tired him out really well, and he snored while we finished watching Fringe on hulu.com and for a little while afterward.

And then he started whimpering and flopping around in his crate, like he'd woken up and noticed nobody was around, which freaked him out. He did that a few times, and then I like to think his whining was a little more urgent, at around 1:30, and I took him out to pee (which he did right away, good boy).

I took him out again around 2:30, and then the next time he sounded like he needed to go out (after 3) Cory was awake so I asked him if he'd take over. He ended up lying next to the kennel with a pillow and blanket for awhile to keep Linus company, and then at 6:30 when my alarm went off they got up for the day.

Trout is still not on board but she's a little better. She slept on me for awhile in the night and has started to hiss at him when he gets too close. But she'll get used to him.

Overall, I think he's a very good boy and he's going to learn his commands in no time. He's not overly chewy or rowdy or jumpy, and even though he's had a few accidents I think he'll learn quickly that outside is where we go potty. (Well, we don't, but he will.)

This is our Linus! He peed twice on the blanket we put down in the back seat and whined quite a bit on the way home. Once he was in the house he calmed down quite a bit.



He spent some time in the kitchen at first, peeing a couple of times (yay for linoleum) and being oblivious to Trout, who started warily to come close to him. When he noticed her, they touched noses and then he backed up and sat for a couple of minutes, stock still. Heh. Since then, she's watched him from above (like on the windowsill) and every time he notices her he barks and whines at her.



He decided he likes the corner between the couch and the chair, under the end table, to sleep. I locked him in his kennel for a few minutes and he was pretty unhappy but I read you're not supposed to let them out when they whine, but wait until they've calmed down. He didn't really calm down, but the moment he stopped to take stock of his situation was a long enough moment so I let him out. We may move his kennel to the spot he's in now, but we shall see. I think he just needs to get used to the kennel. I suppose it's hard enough to go from having mom and dad and 12 brothers and sisters and goats and turkeys and feral kitties and a steer, to two humans and a cat. Who don't smell familiar. Tonight should be rather tiring, I expect. :)

I've been scarce, but only on LJ. (You can find me on Twitter, if you haven't already.)

I've been looking at the humane society website on and off for quite awhile, probably a year. This morning I looked at Craigslist and found a couple of interesting ads for puppies; and after lots of thought and discussion with Cory we went to meet one at a farm north of Corvallis and decided to bring him home. He's 10 weeks old, a golden retriever (not papered but both parents are), and we think we're going to call him Linus (that's what's stuck so far; but I'm still deciding, and if anyone has any ideas for something else, let us know).

After we met him, we did a Petco run and bought a few things for him, and tried to puppy-proof as best we could. Tomorrow we need to find a crate for him; I'm kind of thinking a travel crate would be nice but they're kind of expensive. We'll have to get it before we go get the pup in the evening, so we can crate train him more easily.

I already called him Remmy once. Funny how it's been almost three years and I can still do that so quickly.

Went to Portland yesterday for India Day! solteronita and rini and I were chatting several months ago, thinking about the dreary days in February when the weather is icky and so are our moods, and decided to plan something colorful and yummy and musical to combat it. February ended up turning into April, which is fine too, I like hanging with my girlies whenever it is!

I was also going to make a worm bin with some of Nicoal's extra worms, so I threw my tupperware containers in the car and started northward in the morning. Nicoal pulled apart her bin (her worms' names are Tina) and threw handfuls of worms into their new apartment, and I named them Keith.

When Erin got there, we all walked down to the bus stop and took the bus to Saturday Market, where we got henna tattoos from a woman in a full-length burqa.





Nicoal couldn't decide what she wanted, so she didn't get one.


Pretty.

Next we bussed to an Indian restaurant on Burnside, in the upstairs area of an old house. I wasn't very impressed; Nicoal found a long hair in her food and there were ants. But the food was OK. Then we walked back to our cars at Nicoal's house and drove to Erin's house, where we watched Raincoat, a Bollywood movie that Nicoal picked up from the library. We kept waiting for the dancing and music, but it ended up to be an adaptation of an O. Henry story and it was sad and artsy and full of metaphor. So that was a bust. It was a pretty good movie; just not what we were expecting.

After a bit more chatting, I took Nicoal home and hopped over to Dad's house, where I imposed upon him and made him feed me dinner. :) We watched YouTube vids too. It very quickly became 8:30 and so I started for home.

Today, my mehndi looks like this:

So, the movie Coraline opened at the beginning of February and Cory and I ran to see it. Dunno how familiar y'all are with the "lore" behind the movie, but the marketing was viral-esque, with lots of places to stick in passwords on the website so you could access little behind-the-scenes videos and such.

Anyway, at the end of the movie, after the credits, "FOR THOSE IN THE KNOW: JERK WAD" showed up on the screen. It was a password to enter into the website to get a chance to win a pair of limited-edition Coraline Nike Dunks.

So I went home and entered on a whim, even though they're not the most attractive shoes on the planet, and then promptly forgot about it.

And guess what showed up in the mailbox today?



I told them my shoe size was a 9.5 (and really it's between that and a 10) but when I tried these on I still have a little too much room in the toe. But they're funny and crafty (and the soles glow in the dark!) and I think I'll keep 'em! :D

Applied yesterday afternoon for an ODS plan. They seem to be pretty popular around here, and with a (rather high) $2500 deductible I just pay $81/month. So it's affordable, and hopefully I won't have to utilize it much. That is, if I am accepted. We shall see in the next two weeks!

I'm looking at individual insurance policies. It's great fun, let me tell ya. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. Here are the main points:

* Will I be able to afford to keep up payments if I lose my job before Cory gets one? (That's hard to say; I don't know how much unemployment I'll be getting. We have some money saved up, but we'd also have to deal with rent and all that other stuff coming out of savings.)
* Should I choose the cheaper catastrophic plan (in which around 60% of the bill is paid by insurance)? Or should I spend more money per month and go for something that will pay 100% after a copay? (We don't go to the doc very often but we both need our eyes and teeth checked. So I guess that answers that one, really - the cheaper one is better for us.)
* If I have complications during pregnancy and birth, will the insurance cover me only if I get pregnant after I've enrolled? (I'd think probably; I just don't know what the wait is, or if a hospital transfer during labor is counted as an emergency room visit or a maternity stay. I'd have to call the company...)

I'm thinking it might be doable. Hmm.

On my way home from work today I almost got rear-ended.

I stopped at a red light, about five cars back, and left a little space for a van to come out of a driveway to my right and turn left. I motioned for him to wait for a sec because there was oncoming traffic, and then I heard tires squealing and I looked in my mirror and a pickup truck towing a camper was coming up quickly. At the last second he swerved into a bush on the side of the road, just missed me by a foot, and when he hit the bush the nose of the truck was at the same level as me. So that would have been a hard hit if he hadn't moved over. I think it was probably a combination of wet road and heavy weight. And not-paying-attention on his part. It wasn't like I stopped quickly, I was a ways ahead of him when I stopped. Anyway, I decided not to wait for the van and moved out of the way before the truck had completely stopped. Sorry, van.

A couple of weeks ago I was having coffee with my very pregnant friend Erin, and she invited me to come see her give birth to her second son Oliver! I was really excited - I've seen lots of YouTube videos of births (I started a Natural Birth YouTube group) but hadn't had a chance to see it in person. So as her due date got closer (he was due April 3rd) I started bringing my phone to bed with me so I could get going as soon as I got the call.

Yesterday I chatted with Erin on MSN Messenger a few times, and she told me she had lost her mucus plug and was starting to get sporadic contractions. At around 2 she told me it was difficult to wrangle her toddler while she was in labor, but when I asked if she wanted me there to help she said no.

So I made a dumb decision and thought it'd be nice to walk to Fred Meyer to pick up salad fixings for dinner. It's a 30-40 minute easy walk. I took my phone and we set out, and got there, and gathered our groceries, and as soon as we hit the checkout (at 4:40) my phone vibrated at me.

"It's Tom," the voice said. I was all "...hi!" but thought "Tom? Who's Tom?" The voice said "we're on the way to the hospital now, it's time!" OH! Time, not Tom. Duh. And at the worst possible time, too, heh.

We flew through the self-checkout and walked home as fast as we could. I ran the last block or two, got inside and changed out of my now sweaty clothes, grabbed my bag and was out of there.

I had to call my aunt to have her help me with directions at the hospital, as the original plan was for me to go to Erin's house and ride with them. I made a wrong turn and had to make a U-turn and go back the other way, but when I got to the parking structure I found a spot pretty quickly and then made my way over to the birthing center. It was just before 6pm.

I got up to the labor and delivery area and stopped by the nurses' station and asked them to take me to Erin. The nurse knocked on the door and opened it, and I heard a baby crying - I was TOO LATE! By maybe a minute. The doctor hadn't even sewn her little tear up or anything. I rushed in and grabbed the camera out of my bag and went to see Oliver.

It turns out Erin was at 9 centimeters when she got to the hospital at 5:30, and after half an hour she was done! Her mom barely got there in time; she'd arrived seven minutes before he was born.

I stayed for almost three hours. I looked at the placenta (I said "it's kind of pretty, in a weird way" to the nurse, and she laughed and said "that's the first time I've heard anyone say that!") and got to hold Oliver for a few minutes (he sneezed, which startled him - so cute) and was there for his first feed, and was there when his big brother Anthony came to the hospital to meet him for the first time. When Erin's brother and his family got there, I decided it was time to get back home; before I left we planned for me to come hang out at her house on Thursday after her mom left, so that I could help out with Anthony and help Erin get some rest.

It was a whirlwind evening! I was so happy to be able to see at least the tail end of the birth, and Oliver seems to already be a pretty laid-back little guy!



I put a few more pictures up at Flickr.

I heard Twitter was good for networking. It'll probably be a lot about crochet, but what else is new, eh?

We had the oddest encounter earlier, my friend Lisa and I.

Through email we decided to go to happy hour (around 4pm) at Downward Dog on the waterfront. Actually, we decided to go have a drink and an appetizer and it just happened to be happy hour. So we had a nice glass of cab/merlot and shared a cheese plate.

Then we moved to the Crowbar and had a mixed drink each (I had their version of the mojito - yum, mint leaves). And then walked around a little bit for fun. Most everything was closed, as it was just after 6, so we walked back to the car through an empty parking lot.

In the parking lot was a middle-aged lady, who was walking really erratically - couldn't even get close to a straight line. She'd go a few yards one way, and then swerve a few yards another way, just zigzagging all over the place. We walked by her, and I could see her starting to curve around behind us, and suddenly Lisa turned around and the lady was grabbing for Lisa's wrists and both of them almost ended up on the ground. We asked her if she was going to be OK and if we could take her to a bench to sit down for a minute, but she insisted she was just going to walk. I asked her if she was going to drive and she said no. She looked at me for a long few seconds and tears kind of welled up a little, and she thanked us both several times, saying things like "stars in your crown!" and then after steadying herself with my coat sleeve a moment she let go of us and walked away.

We watched her weave her way across the street and out of sight, and then continued to the car. Just past Downward Dog, we saw another lady poke her head out the door and look around, grimace, and go back in. We think maybe she was looking for the drunk lady but couldn't be sure. Then when we got into the car we drove the way she went to see if we could find her but couldn't.

Poor lady. She was obviously unhappy - hope she's OK.

This morning Cory woke me up to sing me happy birthday, and then we went off to have pancakes at Elmer's for breakfast (an old tradition of mine). Then we drove west until we couldn't go any further and parked at the end of the road and went down to wander around on the beach for a little while. It was spitting rain at us here and there but was nice and warm.



We had lunch at Rogue, where the waitress pressured us into becoming members of the Rogue Nation. And then we came home and had a quiet afternoon, birthday top ramen for dinner, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. 'Twas a nice day!

Stitch Diva is having a sale on their Offhand Designs bags. The one I want is now $172.50 instead of $230. That doesn't make it any easier for me to say no. Droooool.

It's a beautiful day today, now that the fog has burnt off. A bit of wispy white up there, and then blue-blue-blue. Dad called a bit ago and I went outside to talk to him, and the feral kitties spotted me and followed me back and forth, and then eventually to the porch where they lounged in the sun and batted at things. And then I realized it was lunchtime so I brought out my chicken marinara and shared it with them. I'm inside now but they're making circuits to each of the places I threw a bit of chicken, hoping there was some I missed.

Tomorrow I am visiting my friend's school to talk about crochet and how I got into it and what it's like to design. I get to try to convince some 6th graders that math is actually kind of fun when you can use it for something practical. I whipped up a quick brimmed beanie thing and jotted down a pattern, trying to be no more difficult than switching colors and doing single crochets. And it's in the round, which might be confusing for them. Or, really, it will be confusing to them; they read about knitting and crocheting with their teacher but have yet to try it out with actual hooks and needles and yarn. So I'll spend some of the hour helping them with that as well. I'm looking forward to it; should be fun.

Goodness, this day makes me wish it was time to bring out my rocking chair and sit on the patio.

Slept in
Got up for a bit
Went back to bed to hang out
Lunch at Elmer's (fish sandwich)
Library and Book Bin (nothing acquired)
Grocery Store
Coq au Vin
Pan-Browned Brussels Sprouts
Merlot
Season 1 of Damages
Mango Sorbet
Sleep

If you're in the Corvallis area and like lambs, check this out: the Gazette-Times has an article on how and when to get to the lambing barn at OSU so you can see the new babies! I think I might have to go have a look.

It was snowing/sleeting when I left home this morning. It looks like it's mostly stopped, but there's a nice thin layer of white over everything this morning. Pretty.

And apparently that's all I have to say. Heh.

Apparently I have a habit of writing mostly on Mondays. Heh.

Let's work forwards from Friday.

Around 10am on Friday an icky icky headache came upon me. I took some sinus medicine from the first aid box in the office, thinking perhaps it was just the last of my cold, but it did nothing. I got nauseous and started putting my head down on the desk or leaning back in my chair; and then I started walking around the building trying to find a place to sleep on the floor. I picked out a spot in the copy machine room but of course it was drafty and cold and uncomfortable there so I got back up and emailed our sister company to let them know I was going to take a "short power-nap to try to get rid of this headache." That was around 11. I went home and straight up to bed; Cory woke me up once to feed me a little bit of lunch, and then woke me up at 3:30 because he was starting to worry about me sleeping so long. But the headache was gone! That was un-fun though. Ouchies.

Friday night I had my last rehearsal for choir. I felt better because my cold was just about gone (and I'd had that 4-hour nap) and I was comfortable with the music so I had fun. After rehearsal I had a craving for pancakes so we ran over to Elmer's but they'd just closed; and Shari's is the only other open-late diner in town and besides always being packed on weekend nights the food is icky so we went to Fred's instead and bought some pancake mix, and then went home to bed.

In the morning I used the pancake mix (oatmeal-buttermilk - yum) and got ready for my day in Portland. My neighbor-friend Lisa came over and we hopped in the car and drove northward, and got to solteronita's house just after 9:30. The clouds had given way to blue sky so we decided to walk from Nicoal's place to our first stop, which was Yarnia. I'd checked two or three of our target yarn shops' websites and they'd all said they open at 10, so we were a little surprised when we got there at 10:15 and it wasn't open until 11. Grr! So we walked all the way back to the car and drove down to Yarn Garden and poked around. I found some alpaca in grey for Cory's socks, and took a skein of the green alpaca as well because it told me it wanted to come home with me. I also found a Sweater Stone which I'd filed away in the back of my head to buy someday. My companions were not as excited to part with their money, even though Nicoal at least had a project in mind. So I was the only one to come away with merchandise (and a fuzzy shirt from carrying them).

Then we made our way back to Yarnia, towards 11:30. And what a fun store that is! I can visualize one spending a couple of hours in there, walking back and forth between the shelves, tring to find the perfect combination of color and fiber. Yarnia is a teensy little shop at "garden level" (meaning you have to go down a couple of steps from the street to get there) with several shelves of bamboo, wool, cotton, acrylic, cashmere, silk, and other yarns of all different colors; and a big machine in the corner that puts your blend together. You go through and pick out a few cones and she threads them into the machine and you come out with a cone of something - it's neat. And almost never quite exactly how you think it's going to look. My particular cone still needs to grow on me, though I think if I crochet a swatch that might make it happen faster.

After Yarnia we met rini at The Tao of Tea for lunch. They have an extensive tea menu that is rather overwhelming but everything is yum. And their food is good too. We ate and drank and chatted, and then once we were getting short on time we parted ways. Lisa and I still had 6 yarn shops to go, but since she'd gotten the yarn she wanted at Yarnia and we weren't really in the market for more, we decided to make a pit stop at Cost Plus in Clackamas on the way home. We roamed through the store and found a few things (I got a stack of Turkish Delights and found Cory the 4-cup french press he was wanting) and then started back down south. I feel like it didn't last nearly long enough; we had to leave pretty quickly so I could get back home to get ready for the choir concert.

Back in Corvallis, I put on makeup and changed into my black "uniform" and Cory took me to the church where we were going to perform. There was a contra-dance going on in the gym that night too, so the parking lot ended up being packed and I'm surprised there were as many people there as there were. We sang, a couple of soloists had to make up some words a little bit, but overall it was fun and the audience liked it. I was tuckered out by the end of the night, so it was nice to get back home and crash.

Yesterday we slept in and puttered around the house, and then went to see Coraline. I'd been looking forward to seeing it since I first saw the little boxes that the production company had distributed to bloggers around the internet. It was very cute - dark in that nice Neil Gaiman way, and I'm looking forward to reading the book someday. I like experiencing new fairy tales.

And now it is Monday again. This morning when I was opening the gate I heard a noise and looked up and there was the yellow kitty, yowling at me to come and feed them. I think now that there's no garbage to eat out there, and probably not a ton of mice and pigeons and all that, the poor kitties are hungry. So I unlocked the gate and drove straight back to the truck shop and fed them as they swarmed around me. I was able to pet the black one for the first time this morning, too.

And now I am off to play with logs and spreadsheets. Woohoo.

I got sick on Friday, with a cold, but I had plans on Saturday so I sucked it up and went out socializing. I spent Saturday morning in Salem with my friend Erin, and we grabbed coffee and talked about her second baby shower, which we're going to throw after her son is born in April. I think it's going to be cute. And thank goodness she doesn't like baby shower games. I didn't want to have to plan any - I'm not a fan myself.

On my way back to Corvallis I spent a Christmas gift certificate at a sad little yarn shop in Salem, grabbed lunch, and spent a little time at home before my neighbor Lisa came over and we went to Coffee Culture down the road (where they have free wifi) to plan our Yarn Hop outing next Saturday. We picked out seven yarn shops in Portland that looked interesting and we'll probably park somewhere and walk to the downtown ones and maybe take TriMet to some of the others. We shall see. Hopefully it's nice that day.

Sunday I spent the entire day on the couch until it was time to get ready for choir. I felt gross all evening at choir because I was sweating the way sick people tend to do when they overexert themselves by going up only one flight of stairs. Yum.

Today Cory is sick too.


The sky looks like a pastel watercolor painting this morning.

I'm sure glad I have family in central Oregon, because driving all that way to talk to a guy for 45 minutes about how he doesn't have a job for me is kind of a waste. I mean, I pretty much knew that there wasn't any more room for me there but still. He could have just told me over the phone to look for jobs at the hospitals and school districts or in Portland. Heh.

I spent the rest of my weekend hanging out with Mom, helping her when she needed it (mostly things like refilling her ice pack and unscrewing jars) and watching a bunch of movies. We watched Marie Antoinette, which was very odd but kind of fun, even if I didn't know who any of the characters were and kept mixing them up.

On my way home, I missed the turnoff to highway 20 and got stuck on 22, which runs northwest to Salem, which added a bit of time to my journey but it was much warmer in the valley than in the high desert (which was 25 degrees, coated in rime and foggy all weekend) so I opened the back window and smelled the smells as I drove along Detroit Lake and the river westward.

Then yesterday Mom called to tell me that her husband's (Dennis') son Darren (who I'd only met once or twice) died in his bed on Sunday. They weren't sure how he died, and Dennis told his mom it was a heart attack (as that was one of the things they thought might have happened, as he had a family history of it). But today they found that it was a suicide. He'd threatened it before, and had had a history of drug problems (he'd spent a bit of time in jail for selling pot, too) and had a failed marriage and was always asking Dennis for money, even at 39 years old.

Dennis is a mess, Mom said, grieving and feeling guilty for not being able to stop it from happening. I feel so horrible for him - it's got to be beyond tragic to lose a child; that's not the way it's supposed to work. They're still maintaining the heart attack story for Dennis' mom, who is in the early stages of dementia.

In ever so slightly happier news, I'm going to have lunch with some of my ex coworkers tomorrow. It's only been two days but it's already lonely - I had fewer than 10 phone calls today, and nobody stopped in. I almost met a couple of men, though: they drove their van over to the far side of the plant site, took something shiny with a handle (some kind of box I think) out of the van and hopped the fence and went out into the field beyond our property. I got Cory on the phone for "backup" and started over there, but once I got sort of close the men came back (without the shiny box) so I modified my walk and turned to go into the planer instead. They left pretty quickly. But I need to find out what to do about people like that in the future, since it's kind of hard for little old me to go yell at men in vans.

Welp, here I am at work, all alone. My coworker was in early to get the rest of his tools and to give me his keys, and he just left. I'll have a truck coming in an hour, and the owner will be bringing up one of his employees to get him up to speed on what needs to be done so that he can come in once a week to check up on the mill (like on pipes and that sort of thing, not on me).

I was a little sad yesterday when I found out he was leaving, and sad again this morning when he actually did, but I'm trying to be a little more chipper. I'm heading to Mom's this weekend, and I'll stop by the mill at the reservation to do my quasi-interview on my way there (even though it's technically past Mom's house).

Once everybody's gone this afternoon I may go out and take some photos of the mill. And see if the feral kitties will be around for me to feed. (I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to move their food up to the office so that I don't have to go all the way out to the mill every day.)

Another quiet Monday morning. It's actually even quieter for me today because my coworker had to run to another mill for the morning. I spent ten or fifteen minutes in the truck shop feeding the feral kitties (there are three: an orange one, a black one, and a calico one) and trying to see if they'd eat around me since I'm a stranger. Turns out only the calico (who is the most skittish) was nearby to hear me shake the coffee can of cat food, so I stood motionless for awhile as it tried to decide if eating was more important than staying away from me. (I was around 10 or 15 feet from the food.) In the end it came up and would take one kibble, chew it, and look up at me nervously; then take another kibble and chew it and look up at me nervously. I finally got tired of standing still so I left. I may go back later on and see if the other two are there and if they got to eat any of the food I left out.

This weekend a friend of my dad's came by for lunch, with his two sons. We walked to the Mexican place by my house. If you ever come to Corvallis, don't go to that Mexican place. The service was slow and they filled the older son's burrito with cheese and sour cream after he specifically asked them not to (milk allergy). They did give us that meal for free, which was nice, but I still wouldn't recommend them.

On Sunday I had coffee with my neighbor and we knitted and crocheted and spun and chatted. It was nice. I like having someone super close so that we can just walk to the coffee shop rather than having to drive an hour to see them. We decided we're going to try to do an LYS hop in Portland - I found a Google Map of all the local yarn shops and we're going to try to hit most of them I think. Since most of my fiber friends are people I know exclusively online, it's great to be able to hang out with someone who not only doesn't look at me funny when I fondle cashmere or something, but will fondle it too. Heh.

On another note, things at home are extremely nice lately. True, Cory hasn't found a job and mine is still in jeopardy, which creates a little bit of stress; but it's cake compared to the stress of studying for tests and getting projects put together. We've been able to have a lot of undistracted spouse time, and I'm loving it. (And having dinner ready when I get home isn't so bad either!)

We all know my kitty is strange. A couple of months ago, for instance, she started coming up to lie on my pillow at bedtime and she'd bite my head. Not like the quick pouncy bites that kitties usually do when they're playing, but a long, gnawing one.

She's also been very stompy. I don't know why, but for quite awhile now when she gets into a mood she'll come stomp on our feet or hands with her back feet, and it usually dissolves into playfully attacking us with claws and teeth. But in the last week or two her stomping has become more lovey than playful, and now she has a strange routine where Cory will kneel on the floor with his arms up on the bed, and she'll come up and stomp all over his arm and hand and up onto his shoulder. She gives him little love bites, and purrs the whole time, and after about ten or fifteen minutes (if Cory lets her do it for that long) she settles down on the top of his hand. Usually Cory gets tired of sitting there so he moves his hand, and then she comes up to my pillow for her little bite (or just sticking her nose in my hair for a few minutes) and then goes downstairs to prowl around while we fall asleep.

I finally uploaded a video of the weirdo:

I just called Mom.
So yesterday morning when she went out for her walk, it was 37 degrees so she wasn't too worried about ice but she spotted a little bit of ice on her own driveway so she decided to walk in the gravel on the side of the road. That went fine until she started walking across another neighbor's driveway, which was slanted, and fell so fast and so hard on her left shoulder and hip that she didn't have time to try to catch herself.

She was at the doctor most of the day. They gave her a sling, which she's wearing, but every little movement is excruciating and when she moves it it feels crunchy. The doctor hasn't called her with her surgery time, but they're hoping to get her in this week. It took her fifteen minutes to get into bed last night and she was still in bed when I talked to her even though she had to pee.

She broke her arm right up at the base of the ball of her shoulder. And she's not sure she didn't break her hip, either; though there's not much anyone can do about that. (I joked to my aunt about a butt sling, heh) The chemo from her breast cancer treatment, as well as the thyroid pills she's been taking, has made her bones kind of brittle.

So hopefully soon we'll hear about surgery, unless she changes her mind and decides to just use her arm as a sling a la David & Goliath.

My mom broke her arm this morning, on her routine morning walk with her next-door neighbor (who is a nurse, thank goodness):

Well, 2009 is getting off to a somewhat "disarming" start.

Penny and our neighbor went for their morning walk at 6:30 this morning......It was very icy.

Everything went well til about 6:45 when Penny elected to become an Olympic gymnast/figure skater....without skates.

She did a beautiful half-gainer and landed on her left side and shoulder. The neighbor called to tell me she was taking
Penny to the ER in Redmond.

I met them in the ER where Penny was being X-rayed. She was in a great deal of pain. The doc prescribed some pain killers and suggested we meet with another Doc in Bend to determine the best course of action..... We were lucky that the Bend doc could fit us in at 1:00 PM.

The Bend Doc showed us the X-rays and the upper bone that connects to the shoulder joint was definitely fractured and separated. He said it would be best to schedule her for surgery and have a metal plate installed.

We're currently waiting for a call from the scheduling nurse with a date and time.

It is very painful for her to make any movements and she is currently taking a bit of a nap.


Will let you know what happens.

Yikes. I wish the pass over the mountain was OK so I could go see her. Poor mommy.

I have to go back to work tomorrow. :(

In other news (har har), last night I was "flipping through" our local newspaper the Gazette Times online, and found this gem:

Portland Resident Shops in Albany">

I'm so glad the Portland resident didn't get away before the local media put her in her rightful place, in the spotlight. That was a close one.

Tuesday: I finished all of my crochet projects, just in time! Phew! I spent a little while wrapping gifts:


Wednesday: I got to leave work at around 10am, so I went home and finished wrapping my gifts, and wrapped up Cory's gifts as well:


In the evening I printed out the local newspaper's list of good Christmas lights, and Cory and I set out on a tour. We wanted to capture the Pepsi Bottling Plant's hokey display in photo and in video. It started snowing and raining pretty hard, big fat wads of snowflakes in amongst the rain, so it was hard to keep the window open so that we could take good pictures but we tried our best. Then we started on the newspaper's list, and were pretty disappointed - one of the houses was gorgeous, but the rest of them were kind of eh, and it was hard to find a lot of them. I plotted them out on a Google map but I kind of wish I'd made directions to each one so we could make a loop. We gave up partway through, and then I watched the Yule Log on PBS for a few minutes before bed.

Thursday: We took a chance on Doaks Ferry Road in west Salem, and though it was pretty snowy on top of the hill we had decent traction and were fine when we took it slow on the way to my aunt's house. We got there at 10, and once most people arrived we started opening gifts. There were about 15 of us, and everybody got everybody else something (for the most part) this year, and our tradition is to go around in a circle from youngest to oldest and open our gifts one at a time. So it took around five hours, with a break for lunch in there. We also spent quite a bit of time on Grandma's gift, which was a rhebus and then a puzzle so she could figure out we're sending her to the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in May. We left my aunt's house around 6 and there was already black ice on the streets, but we were past the bad spots pretty quickly (it's been warm in Corvallis for a week now).

Friday: We puttered around, enjoying doing nothing. In the afternoon I whipped up a couple of gifts for our weekend hosts (Dad and Bonnie).

Saturday: Up to Portland. We got there around 10, and picked our way through the super-snowy parking lot of Cory's friend so we could have coffee. It was raining, so we got soaked on our way from the car to his apartment... and then we found that he wasn't home; he decided to meet us at Peet's down the street so we didn't have to drive in his parking lot and get high-centered on the ice. Whoops. So we had a bit of a challenge getting out of our parking spot, but we made it to Peet's and shared a french press and had good conversation.

Then we moved on to Dad's house, and had a little gift exchange and some lunch, and in the evening we went to Claim Jumper over by Clackamas Town Center (which has been remodeled since the last time I was there - I'd like to go in and wander around to see how different it is now. I remember when most of our malls were kind of dumpy but in the past couple of years they've added a ton of fancy expensive shops.) We had good food and got way too full. In the evening we noticed a lot of the snow had melted but there were still ruts in the side roads.

Sunday: We woke up to clear roads - it'd been pretty warm overnight and rained a lot, so most of the snow was gone. Cory slept in pretty late and Dad and Bonnie went to church so I had a quiet morning alone with the parrot. Then we had a pancake brunch cooked on Dad's new griddle at 1pm and by 2 we were on our way home so we could prepare for Cory's brother's arrival from the Bay Area.

Around Milwaukie on 205 we saw a sign that said there was a crash on I5 and to expect delays. And a few minutes after that, traffic came to a standstill. When we passed under the sign that told us the freeway-split for I5 north and south was in a mile, I made note of the sign - and 25 minutes later we hit the split. We entertained ourselves by going to tripcheck.org and finding the traffic cam for the I5/205 junction, and refreshing it every minute or two to see if we could see ourselves. And we could! Except as we tried to take a picture of my iPhone with Cory's iPhone, the dang thing refreshed itself and we lost it forever. Heh.

All in all, what should have taken us an hour and a half took us almost four hours. And three of those hours were taking the 1-hour trip to Salem. Halfway between Portland and Salem at about 2:45 that morning a tanker truck carrying 10,000 gallons of unleaded drifted off the highway, hit an ice berm from the plowing that was done a few days ago, slid 70 feet and rolled, and then exploded. ODOT decided to let it burn itself out, so they rerouted traffic for several hours while that happened, and then opened the left two lanes later on. By the time we got there they'd opened the last lane, but traffic was still horrendous. When we passed by the scene, all that was left were some wheels and axles being secured onto a flatbed truck. The driver died in the explosion. How horribly sad.

So we got home around 6, and I packed up all the Christmas decorations and moved the couch back where it belongs and set up the spare room for Joel. When he arrived we chatted for a little while and then took him to see the Pepsi lights, and then I went to bed pretty quickly after that.

And here I am at work, eating some lefse and looking out the window on the pouring rain and listening to the wind howl. We've gotten a couple of really nice gusts this morning. Hopefully the day will go by quickly so I can get home and play with my boys.

I hope you all got everything you wanted this year, and had a relatively stress-free holiday. And happy New Year!

I thought I posted this yesterday, but apparently I didn't. So here it is now.

Just a couple more days until Christmas! I'm not ready yet but I think I will be by Christmas eve.

Last night was the Christmas concert for choir. None of my family came, because in about the middle of Salem on up north (through Seattle and onward) there was 6 or 7 inches of snow. But in south Salem and south there was rain. So we got rain all day yesterday and it didn't freeze overnight or anything. That was a fun storm though - I'm just sorry I missed out on most of the fun while being preoccupied with work stuff. Oh well.

Yesterday afternoon Cory and I ventured out in the rain to the river, where I got some river rocks for Mom's Christmas gift. We also ran to the yarn store so I could get some yarn for Cory's dad's Christmas gift, since we're going to try to make it up to Seattle and then Portland for the weekend if the snow stops.

Then today we took the old couch out to the dumpster so that I could unpack the bits of couch that we had sitting in the middle of the living room since I was starting to get annoyed at the clutter. We took the cushions off and took the frame out and set it next to the dumpster, and then an hour later I took some of the cushions out and saw that someone had already helped themselves to some of the frame - the broken arm was gone, and the vertical slats on the other arm weren't there either. That was fast. I joked to Cory that if I ever sat out by the dumpster they'd probably take my kidneys.

The new couch is all set up now, or at least the parts that we have. There are no arms, but we have all the cushions and the back and the seat frame. And the little feet and other hardware, but those will have to wait until the arms get here It's pretty comfy, though I think it'll be better once it's complete. I already have good ideas for some mismatched throw pillow covers.

This morning when I was driving to work the rain turned to snow, and it snowed for two hours and accumulated about an inch. It's mostly melted now except for white patches here and there, but that was a fun way to experience the sunrise. I don't think my friends and family to the north share my snow-is-nice sentiment; they've been buried under over a foot of it (with ice on top) for a week now. I feel their pain though (sorta): the box containing the arms of the couch is stuck in Portland due to inclement weather. I want my arms! We're also hoping to get up to Seattle on Thursday night so I hope the roads clear up by then!

It's sunny now, and it's reflecting off the 4 inches of snow we got last night, and the ice that's underneath but has been exposed here and there, and the wet wigwam burner, right into my eyes. But it sure is pretty! (That's not our wigwam, by the way - I'll post one of ours later.)

Yesterday most of our snow melted in the 37 degree heat, and the roads were just wet and it was nice to drive the speed limit for the first time since last Sunday. But then at around 6pm I went out to the car to come to work and pick up some things I was going to give to my coworker, and noticed the parking lot was a skating rink so I decided not to get in the car. It snowed over the top of all the ice during the night, and everything was so pretty this morning, under a clear sky with the moon coming up and the pink light everywhere. I waited a bit to come to work but made it here pretty easily even though nobody had sanded the roads or anything yet.

Our couch was supposed to be delivered yesterday, but never showed up. I'm thinking the weather and the time of year had something to do with it. Cory called to say the main part of the couch came today but we're missing the other big package so we'll have to live with a very cluttered living room until everything else comes. Cory said one of the UPS people was pretty unhappy with him because of the weight of the package, which made him feel bad, but the other one commented on his Lego Christmas train. Heh.

Tonight is our last rehearsal for the Christmas concert tomorrow. I wonder if we'll get as good a turnout as everybody is hoping - apparently it's supposed to stay pretty cold and slippery for the next couple of days and we might even have a white Christmas. Hope that doesn't keep us from visiting Cory's dad in Seattle for Christmas weekend.

I have had the busiest several days in the land.

Last week, I don't think I mentioned it but I had an interview for the City of Tangent for a financial specialist. It was at 7:30pm at their pretty farmhouse office. I got their rejection letter yesterday. It's good 'cause I didn't really want to work there anyway. :)

So Saturday was the party, but you know about that already.
Sunday I worked from 10:45 to 5, and had choir at 6:45 to 9.
Monday I worked from 7 to 5 (through lunch), and had choir at 6:45 to 9.
Tuesday I worked from 7 to 3:30 (through lunch), and then was finally able to go home a little early as the auditor left around 2. I lied down on the couch and fell asleep in a flash, and Cory woke me up with dinner and then took me to choir.

Layer on top of that: me being sick (my singing was actually croaking on Monday so I sat Tuesday out), and then this fantastic storm that started on Sunday. We got about three inches of snow in Corvallis, on top of rain-wet roads which turned to ice as the temps got down into the teens. I think last night it got down to 11. So the roads have been skating rinks - pretty scary in places. I'm so careful, though, that I barely lose control which is nice for me but not for the over-confident people in their 4wd trucks and such. Oh well. It's supposed to start snowing again any time, and will probably be mixed with freezing rain for awhile which means I'll have fun driving home later this evening.

And now it feels like it should be Thursday or Friday, though I'm glad it's not because I still have a ton of Christmas crocheting to do that I didn't have a chance to do for the past four days. Hopefully that and a little vocal rest will help me be ready for our Christmas concert on Saturday. And it looks like tomorrow or Friday I should have a new couch!

We had a graduation party for Cory yesterday. It was an open house, so people showed up here and there, and slightly overlapped each other, but I think overall it turned out nicely.

First solteronita and rini showed up, and left shortly after two aunts, two uncles, two cousins and Grandma got here. My aunt and uncle and cousins all sat on the couch, and after a couple of minutes I heard a little crack and the couch broke. It's in the front where the arm and the front of the couch are connected. We grabbed a brick from outside and put it underneath the broken side and everybody vacated the couch just in case. Two of Cory's old coworkers also came by for a little while, and so did Mike and Angie.

Then all of my family but an aunt and uncle left, and Ulises came in (his wife and baby were in the car taking a nap) and then the rest of my family and Mike/Angie left and Erin came in with Anthony and we spent a while with them. And then we were alone by 5.

I had a good time, and was glad to see everybody. I do wish some of them could have stayed a little longer, and I wish the weather and people's health and a few other things had been cleared up so that more people could have made it, but such is life.

So last night while we watched Holiday Inn I found a few couches I liked, and after talking to Cory we narrowed it down to this one. My aunt is a member of Overstock so I can get around a $75 discount on it, which is nice.

My sweater is up on the Interweave Crochet preview site!



More pictures at my Flickr page or on the IC site!

I'm proud of how it turned out - it's got a good shape to it, and the buttons look SO much better than the zipper I'd put into my first version.

It's that time again. Drop me a line with your address if you want a Christmas card! Comments will be screened!

That was a very slow and painful death for the Beavers. I ended up watching something else on the computer so I could avoid watching the Ducks score over and over, but Cory watched it until the end so that he could commiserate with his classmates on Monday.

My arms are tired of Tunisian. This pillow needs to be done already.

It's downright summery outside right now - 63 degrees. We have all the windows open.

This weekend is not quite 3/4 over but here's a recap!

On Wednesday night I came home from work and packed a few things up, and then grabbed Cory and we went up to Portland. I made eggnog and put half the booze in it that they asked for which was plenty.

Thursday morning was pretty lazy. I didn't even get my hair dry until 11, but when it was dry I went and got Haley. We hung out for awhile, and then Dad went and got Grandma from the airport, and then we had our feast. The turkey wasn't done when we thought it was so we had to microwave a bit of it and put the rest back in the oven. But that's OK, it still tasted good. I ate until I was uncomfortably full. Then awhile later I had a little glass of my eggnog and it was so rich that it gave me a bit of a tummyache. Ow.

We sat around and digested and then Haley went home, and just afterwards Cory did too. Then Grandma and I sat and talked until 11:30 and it was bedtime.

Yesterday was another laze-about day, until around 2:30 when Dad and I went outside and put Christmas lights up on his house. It took us two and a half hours because of a few little problems like half of a few strings not lighting up, and the outlet's reset button was stuck because of some oil/stain from the new exterior of his house that got on it. But when we were finished it looked nice.

Then I got in touch with Nicoal, who had made dinner plans with Ravi, so I crashed their party and the three of us went to Arabian Breeze. Yummy as always, with good conversations as always. Mmm.

Ravi was nice enough to take me to the train station afterwards, and while we sat in the terminal waiting for the train to come he played with my iPhone and made a couple of posts for you.

And then I got on the train and a lady popped her head over the seat a minute after I got out my Tunisian crocheting to ask me what I was knitting. We chatted for a sec about Ravelry and the socks she was knitting; and I broke out the phone to add her as a friend, and she ended up abandoning her husband to come sit with me and we yarned and talked the whole way down to Albany. It was nice!

When I disembarked in Albany, Cory hadn't managed to leave home yet so I put on my gloves and hat and shivered on a bench for half an hour until he came with the warm car.

Today I straightened up and brought out the Christmas decorations, which I'll put up tomorrow. I think I'll try to convince Cory to get a tree with me tomorrow so that I don't have to worry about it next weekend when I need to get ready for Cory's graduation party (yay!!!!).

And now we're biting our fingernails while watching the Civil War football game. It's not looking that hot right now, though we're still in the first half.

...so that I may add them to my bookmarks at home later...

Knitted wire pendant lamps
Brussels Sprouts wreath
Clove Necklace

Truck drivers are so debonair. The one just now asked me, "Are you part of the load I'm picking up?" I said, "nope, not today, I have to stay for these other trucks; but since we're running low on inventory and aren't cutting any more I'll probably leave here with the last truck - so you'll have to come back!"