Life feels a bit too mundane to say much right now. Of course, that has never stopped me from talking before. ;)
The cats have been silly. We enjoy watching them. I've been knitting quite a lot. I need to be moving on to sewing projects, soon.
The heat down the hill is bothering me more than i remember from other years. I'm always thankful to get home to cooler temps on Thursdays. The mint i planted last week hasn't done well with our lows in the 20s, but i'm hoping it will hang on and come back around. If not, i'll replant later. The inside plants are doing fair, some well, others not so much. But still, it is a better start than i've made before. The onions outside are growing well. There is still some snow on the mountains, but it is melting off. The last day of skiing was the day before Easter, 2 weeks ago.
We are now driving the "summer car" - the Honda Fit. It gets better gas mileage than Duane's Subaru. I think if we are driving the summer car, we should have summer sheets on, too. Duane thinks summer sheets are only for about 8 weeks, from mid-June thru mid-August, and then only under protest.
Mac needs to be shaved of lumps - Jazz, too, actually. I think it is finally warm enough. Today, sitting in the living room was the first time this year i've not gotten chilled.
I'm very tired. Olivia was here today. We tried to do chicken pot pies, they turned out okay. I think the filling was fine, but the gluten-free recipe i used for the pie crust was so-so. The blog where i found the recipe raved about it, and i have to say it stuck together better than what i've done before. BUT it called for a full cup of white rice flour. By experience i know that this tends to make the whatever very gritty. I cut that by half and made the other half cup quinoa, but even so it was still too grainy and next time it gets only a tablespoon or so of the stuff. I'll find a better flour instead.
I've been re-reading the Harry Potter books and then watching the respective movie afterward. Not sure that is the best plan. Even tho the movies are well done, i get bored with them. The first two did a pretty good job of sticking to the story line and dialogue without cutting too much. After that the books are too large and complicated and i noticed a number of changes.
I tend to develop allergies to products easily. Even my expensive shampoos from the health food store are bothering me. I've been looking into alternatives (using baking soda, using egg, vinegar, or Dr. Bronners, etc.) So far i've not had much luck.
Lots of "re-used" pics here as i've not much room left at Picsaweb.
That's the every day, low down, nitty gritty here. So, how are things in your part of the world?
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I've had a window open for more than a week now, preparing to write another post at I Looked for Love. Don't know why i've struggled so to write this one. Have two other windows open for a couple of days now, planning to write an info article for Hawkes' Health on what i've learned about Manuka honey. Not written much here, either. So what have i been doing? Not a lot. I've mostly been looking at knitting patterns. My favorite place to look is Knitting Pattern Central. They have tons & tons of links to so many different patterns. The problem is they only have the link, so i have to open each link to see if it is anything i'm interested in making. That takes a lot of time.
I have a beautiful, fluffy, cream-colored yarn i fell in love with & purchased a number of skeins. It is nylon & acrylic. I can't often do fluffy yarn as they generally are alpaca, cashmere, or the like, & i'm allergic to them. I'm allergic to wool, also, although i tried once to knit with it. Because it was soft & wouldn't be on "sensitive skin" (my hands seem rather immune to most of my allergies), i thought i could still knit with it (for a gift for someone else). But my eyes itched all the time & i gave up & gave the yarn away.
Anyhow, i have been looking for a pattern to use to knit a pullover sweater. I've honestly never knit from a pattern. Well, the first time i ever made a feather & fan baby blanket, that was from a pattern. But it was just a square of the repeat of one row of a lace pattern, over & over. I've never followed a pattern to create something that would tell me when to decrease, increase or anything else. Now, i have made sweaters (about 4 or 5 in my memory). But i created my own design from a lace pattern. I think it is time to learn how to really read a pattern & use it. (Pics of the last sweater i made are here, at the bottom of the post. It turned out a bit too big. My own pattern/design with an established lace pattern.)
This is the pattern i decided on. It is called Bunny Hop. (Link to pattern.) It is called Bunny Hop because that is the name of the yarn they used. The problem is, they don't tell you what the yarn actually IS. I don't know the number of yards in the skein, nor the weight of the yarn. I never could get my gauge to turn out as they recommend, even using much smaller needles. And much smaller needles will mess up the fluffiness of my yarn. And make it more difficult to knit this particular pattern.
According to the yarn chart i found, 20 stitches for 4 inches is "medium weight yarn" (i.e., like worsted). I only needed 15 stitches to make 4 inches, making my yarn "bulky" although, the actual weight & the fact that it has only 2 strands puts it into the "light" or even "fine" category for me. So i've adjusted the pattern to accommodate fewer stitches. Which means that really, i'm only using the pattern as a "suggestion." Well, & i'm planning to add sleeves to this pattern too, either short sleeves or 3/4 length, we'll see. So, who knows how this will actually turn out. One of these days i'll have to choose a pattern, buy the exact yarn planned for the pattern, & follow the pattern exactly. One day.
I've never, ever done cables before. I've also spent the last couple of days practicing with some cotton yarn (& the cable practice will become cleaning cloths). They aren't hard. I was told they are not. I've been doing lace patterns for years, but this is my first cable item.
I'm already about 4 inches into the front of the sweater. What i found interesting is that i'm going to have to use 2 different counters, because the cable pattern repeats every 8 rows, but the lace panel in the center repeats every 12 rows. Using 2 counters is new for me! It is going to be a light sweater, not knitted dense at all. Meaning it will need a camisole or something under it.
This is another pattern (Tatania) i really like (the look of it, not the yarn used in baby-puke brown/green). I would like to try this one, tho i know i'm already planning to adjust it by adding a cable each side of the center pattern. I don't know if i will ever be able to do just what is printed in a pattern.
I'm so happy to have more energy, but still have to really monitor & limit myself. I did much, much, much too much on Monday (making Christmas gifts & sitting in an awkward position while doing so) & thus was totally exhausted when we had to come down the hill on Tuesday. But i'm recovering faster, too. Did 2 massages yesterday up here, which is the first i'd done since last January or February.
Dear friend Cindy said something wise to me this week. When speaking of energy & the frustration with still having to limit what i do, she said, "But if you just have the energy to do what you currently push yourself to do but without having to be so exhausted, that will be a great gain." Well, i think that is a paraphrase, but the gist of what i took away. I have to spend so much time recovering from what i do down the hill, if i don't have to have so much recovery time, that will be a great gain. I do know myself well enough, however, that if i'm not down for that "recovery time" that i'll be pushing myself to do more.
I also was blessed this week to be able to visit with dear friends Jessica & Jerry. We met at Mother's Market for lunch.
This is what happened at home this week while we were gone. It is not my pic, of course. It came from the Facebook Big Bear fan page. This was all melted by when we got home. Yesterday was sunny with blue skies, & so was this morning. It is overcast again this afternoon. It has been a particularly rainy October. Most of the fall colors are past their best now, although many of the trees still have leaves.
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I tend to be verbose, so i don't know if i can be concise.
It is Boxing Day, the 2nd day of Christmas. I have to go to the Post Office this afternoon (they are only open between 1 & 2) & i think i'll get some yarn.
Sunday we went down the hill & met friend Joseph & saw the movie Avatar for Duane's birthday. We saw it in 3D, & while the effects were beautiful, i would have preferred it regular, for i found the 3D distracting from the story line.
Tuesday AM we woke to an unexpected storm & strong winds. It wasn't suppose to snow even an inch, but we had 3 of powder snow. It got packed & the roads down the hill were icy. There were two major accidents that delayed us a lot. It took 4 hours to cover what usually is a 2 hour drive. (I could digress for a long time about flatlanders who drive in the mountains but won't slow down for ice & snow.)
My office was closed on the 23rd, but i worked anyway & had the busiest day i've had in months.
On the 24th we traded in Duane's truck. We were both sad to do it (it is the vehicle he had when i met him), but it hasn't served us well for some time. It is not 4WD, so is not practical in Big Bear. It uses a lot of gas & Duane didn't want to drive it much. We didn't really need a truck very much; it rarely was used to haul things. So he got an AWD Subaru. It will be our car to drive back & forth in the winter months, & then we will switch back to the Honda, which gets better gas mileage, for the spring, summer, fall. The Subaru has lots of fancy things; one of them is that it tells you your average miles per gallon. Duane re-set it so it would record as we coasted down from Onyx summit to near home. It maxed out at 76.0 miles per gallon. But our true average was about 26.
We had a lovely Christmas Eve with Duane's parents & his brother & brother's girlfriend. We had a fairly simple meal (compared to what holiday meals often are). I had a glass of eggnog with some brandy in it & it knocked me on my rear for about an hour. I don't manage alcohol well. I told Duane's mom the next time i think i might want alcohol, remind me not to. I wasn't silly or anything, just tired, tired, tired. After we opened gifts we went to the late service at the church we used to attend & where we were married. (St. James, Newport Beach.) The service got out about 12.30, so it was a 2 hour service.
I tried to reach my family by phone for 3 days in a row. I ended up speaking with my mother each time. Eventually Sis #3 called me. But i never spoke with any of the rest of the family. It was a bit much to see my nephew post on FB today that "Christmas was great! All the family was here." But, i rarely see them, & in many ways i haven't wanted to be part of that family, so i guess i'm not.
I've not been writing as much recently. Since Thanksgiving, or even before, i've been in deep mourning. This is the first holiday that i've had to face that we won't have children. Tho i have to honestly admit that i still hope even tho that hope has no possibility of being fulfilled. I truly believed that if i was patient, if i "waited on the Lord," that children would come, we would be blessed with a family. Frankly, life without children, without a family, is a prospect difficult for me to bear. Ever since i married Duane i would think each holiday, "When we have kids we'll bake these cookies, & decorate like this ____, & we'll do Christmas Eve, & . . . " Every year has been harder & this one 10 times more so. And i've not wanted to write here for i feel that if i even start, the bitterness & ugliness & jealousy inside will simply flow.
I'm so far behind in blog reading, i don't know if i'll ever catch up.
For some time now i've been playing a stupid game almost excessively. It doesn't have any merits to it, no prizes or anything to recommend it. I found myself wondering why i was wasting so much time on it. Finally decided that it is because in the game i feel i have some control. If i play with some skill i can have control over what happens in that limited setting. Although even in the game there are random occurrences that change the possibility of the outcome & don't rely on skill.
This world is not set up as most humans would have it be. Life is not at all about fairness. Or not what we consider fairness. From God's point of view, via the Bible, fairness would be to destroy the whole world, everything in it, & all creatures upon it. But as humans see fairness, this world is not fair. People, children, parents, young folks, die prematurely; others that want children but can't have them (& that is one long list) watch while other folks leave their children home alone to go on vacation or leave their kids at the playground for an afternoon, or whatever. Some folks are favored in different ways without merit. Often the folks with the worst ethics are the ones rewarded. I don't know why God made the world this way. I imagine that the things we want to make life "fair" would have a number of unintended consequences. And then we'd complain about that world!
Unlike my game, there are very few things in life over which i have much control or power. My attitude & many of my choices are under my control. But what other folks do that effects me is not something i can control. I can't control my husband or my cats or other people. (Like the person who backed into me in a parking lot last year.) I can try to control or i can try to influence them, with limited results. And we'd all be unhappy that way.
For whatever reason we are not given such power, & the Bible tells us it is wrong to try to effect things that are not under our control. (It is called witchcraft.) It is my belief that it is human nature to want to control things we are told not to try. I believe that is part of the fascination with the Harry Potter series, & Twilight, & many others (a list far to long & comprehensive to start). I don't consider those books/movies evil in & of themselves. I think it speaks to our natural human nature & it is fun to contemplate what the world would be like if we had such power. But it is forbidden to try.
I'm not trying to control other people. But sometimes i chafe at the limitations i have in life & how that patience doesn't seem to be working for me. So i go to a stupid little game where i feel i do have some control. I waste a lot of time there.
Will post Christmas tree/ornament pics later today.
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I hate insomnia!
I'll probably sit around in a daze for most of the AM. Drooling. Not a pretty picture.
If my brain engages later i may write about:
Polite fiction. Lavendar/what to do? Gitz/Sara Frankl (or save the time & go there now). Friends/family. Feeling sorry for myself (but only if i can gain some perspective on it). Perceptions - weight. Oh, & i have some pics for "a study on Sugarloaf Mountain."
Now, if only i drank coffee!
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