I'm Beginning To Hate This July Scarf Almost As Much As I Hate July

So...I work on the scarf on the way to work yesterday (instead of, as usual, working on my commuting sock) and on the way home yesterday and on the way to work today and then...at long last...today at lunch I am done. Finished. And I am contemplating it with satisfaction before casting off and....

What's this?!

Damn!

One hundred and thirty two rows have now been ripped out. I swear I didn't see the mistake yesterday when I looked at the scarf!

I swear...I am going to finish this blasted thing this weekend.

I Shouldn't Be Allowed Near A Computer

I'm such an idiot. I just stupidly deleted 25 comments from the blog, realizing only seconds after I hit the delete button, what I was actually doing. I don't know where my head was. And I can't even blame Blogger, as it warned me what I was doing and had me click a button to say yes, this was actually what I wanted to do.....grrrrr.

So, if you were one of the last 25 comments...I apologize. No, I don't hate you. No, I didn't find what you said offensive.

I'm just a moron.

I Found Something Odd In Our Driveway

After a brief stop, Mr. Pointy Sticks and I came home this afternoon and...what was this strange thing in the driveway?! It has some holes...

It has some funny indentations...
It seemed to be trying to curse....


It has some initials...

It had some shiny spots....

Parts of it were red...

But most of it was purple.


Let me introduce you to our new car, a shiny Scion xB...the color is called murasaki, which is Japanese for purple. I love, love, love this color and I love the car. I got to drive it home from the dealer...much fun. And speaking as an old lady with bad knees, I love how easy it is to get in and out of. And the interior? Big enough to throw a party in.

I love this car.

I'm not sure of it's name yet. It might be Shikubi, which was Lady Murasaki's given name (sort of). Or it might be Gromwell, another name for the plant from which Lady Murasaki got her name. Or it could be Genji, after Lady Murasaki's novel...

It'll come to us.

Twofer

Okay, two blogs for one today, as one is pretty short and simple. And I want to link to it here to remind my brother about it. We talked about it last night, but if he's at all like me, he'd forgotten it by the time he hung up the phone.

It's Criggo. Dedicated to the proposition that newspapers are too funny to let die. Full of amusing headlines...like this one....and this one. Or this one.

Though I'll admit, some of them go over my head. Like this one. But nobody bats a thousand.

Except, perhaps, for Antonia. The author of Whoopee, Antonia has given me more laughs than anyone I read. She's a tad profane, so if you're easily offended by salty language you might want to give her a pass. But whether she's wondering about moths, complaining about her neighbors, dressing up her kids, or dressing up garden snails, she's clever and witty and such a great writer. And did I mention she can draw, too? I'd love her as a neighbor...if only so I could snorgle her little butterball of a son and play with Esme all day long.

Depending On The Talent Of Others

Since I seem to have nothing much to post about at the present, perhaps I'll spend some time over the next few days introducing you to some of the blogs I really enjoy.

So today...Dances With Wool. I love reading about people living completely different lives than mine. And Lene certainly fills that bill. She is somewhere inside the Arctic circle in Finland, according to her blog, so you get lovely posts about the reindeer browsing in her yard and way the changing light gives her hope for the light-filled days of summer. She knits and spins and embroiders and sews and draws....all with great talent and verve and a wonderful sense of color. She has shared her space with us.

But oh, her knitting! I love her knitting. Look at these mittens! Or these! Look at this little girl's cardigan! Or this one!

I'll never meet Lene in person, I'm sure. But I am so glad to have a chance to get to know her through her blog.

Some Days...

...everything seems to be conspiring to keep you from getting up.



Hard to brush your teeth when your sink is fur-lined.

Nothing much new here. The socks are coming along...I'm up to the heel of the second one.

The July scarf is coming along. I'm almost three-quarters of the way through it. And I've started another one for August, but I may be ripping it out. It may be the ugliest scarf ever knit.

The shawl needs just a couple more half-circles and the edging.

Reading lately has been disappointing. I started a fantasy novel...bleah. Started a mystery and put it down...dull. I am working through The Slap, which is full of unpleasant people. Started a Dan Simmons book...stupid. Hoping that this situation improves.

More pictures when I actually have something to show you.

Happy Birthday, Lolly!

Today's my dad's birthday so here's a big shout-out to him.

He would not be happy, I think, if I shouted his age from the rooftops, so let me just say he's celebrating his 32,507th day on Planet Earth.

And, continuing in the numerical theme, I calculate that, in reknitting almost all of the ripped out portion of my sock, I knit 2,508 stitches yesterday.

Finally, I discovered yesterday that I have read about 20 more books than I had at this time last year.

Knitting Magic

Lookie here!

Now you see it!

Now you don't!!

I was galloping along quite nicely on these happy socks. But a couple of days ago, I saw this:

I think it may be a place where I did an inadvertent yarn-over when switching between the front and back needles. Work at it how I might, I couldn't ease the extra yarn out into the rest of the row. So, after a couple days of trying to make myself decide that it wasn't a big deal, I finally realized that I couldn't just ignore it. So r-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-i-p-p-p-p-p...out it came.

But an afternoon spent driving over to my dad's and back again, and sitting and chatting after lunch got me almost all the way back to where I was when I decided to rip it out.

And no hole!!

I'm reading a pretty gripping book. Yesterday I read Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass, which I liked. Though I think the ending was sort of sad. And then, at 11:30, I picked up Chevy Steven's Still Missing...and at 2:30 a.m. I forced myself to put the book down since I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I'm not saying it's the best book in the world, but it sure is hard to put down. I think Realtors might think twice before reading it. (Apparently you're supposed to capitalize Realtor.)