Just Stuff

On Friday evening, John and I made our way over to the other side of the house and shared a few drinks with the guys. In a case of beer they had, they discovered this…

Yes, a can of Bud with no printing, just the white base coat. Strange. They’re wondering if it’s worth anything. For their benefit, I catalogued the anomaly. I doubt anything will come of it, but they seemed to think it was pretty special. Men!

It’s been a very warm weekend here, and it doesn’t seem that today will be any different. I was up fairly early this morning (7ish) and, while the coffee was brewing, took the camera outside.

As you can see by the picture below, the chives are blooming and they’re really pretty. I never realized their blooms were that intense a shade of purple. They’re also very attractive to the bees. The stand of chives was virtually abuzz with them. As always, if you click on the picture, you’ll see the larger, more detailed, version.

And the final thing that caught my eye this morning…

I just happened to see this as I glanced out the kitchen window. Something on the upstairs “deck” (it’s no more than a landing for the stairs) was reflecting on to the workshop, directly above a hoe leaning against the wall. It was kind of magical and made me think of movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or some kind of magical sceptre.

Oh, the things that capture my fancy!

I’m not complaining, but it’s HOT!

I hate to say it, but there hasn’t been much knitting happening this week. The temperatures have soared (mid 30’s C… or near 100F) and knitting just hasn’t been up there on my list of things to do in the heat.

The suite, I must say, stays relatively cool, being a basement suite with ceramic tile floors. At night, I close the blinds at the back of the house, where the sun first puts in it’s appearance and leave everything open at the front, where we’re shaded by large pine trees (former Christmas trees, apparently). Later in the day, when the sun moves to the front of the house, I open things up at the back and close windows and curtains at the front. It seems to work, as long as I can get John to keep the doors closed.

There is one thing that’s been taking up some of my knitting time. I’ve downloaded a program onto the laptop, Page Plus x4, a desktop publishing program. It’s like the poor man’s version of Adobe InDesign and I’m really enjoying the learning process. Because we work with the Adobe Creative Suite at work, I’m familiar with a lot of the principles, but because it’s a program I’ve never worked with before, there’s a learning curve. On a hot day, when working with wool isn’t the most comfortable, working on my computer comes a close second.

Another thing I’ve been doing is taking pictures around the yard. I’m really having fun with the little camera and getting (in my very humble opinion) some pretty decent pictures.

The chives are in full bloom right now as are the sunflowers, Michaelmas daisies, lavender, poppies (almost finished) and clover (it’s everywhere!).

Mindless Knitting

Saturday was Sit & Stitch; this time, we met at a different location. After meeting at the Rotary Center for the Arts for WWKIP (World Wide Knit In Public) Day, we decided that, for the summer, we’d meet there instead of our usual coffee shop. There’s a nice, grassy area, shade for those who want it, and a coffee shop (and washrooms) in the Center.

Because I really didn’t have much on the needles in the way of mindless knitting, I cast on another pair of socks for John.

This time, the yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Bosco, 80% wool, 20% polyamide. The yarn is nice to knit with and I’m quite pleased with how it’s looking. As usual, I’m knitting on 2.25 mm needles with a 72 stitch cast on.

There are two small changes from my usual “pattern”. I’m using a different cast on, Nancy Bush’s Estonian Cast on (you can find the video here) and, as per her suggestion in the video, after the cast on, I knit one round then purled one round before starting the k1, p1 ribbing. The other change I’ll be making, when I get that far, is to make the heel flap a little shorter than the 3” I usually do for John’s socks. I was observing him one day and realized that the heel flaps on the socks he was wearing were a little baggy. That tells me they’re too long. If I shorten the heel flap by about 1/2”, they should fit better. We’ll see.

I’ve also been working on the Haruni shawl some more. I’ve now finished 3 repeats of the pattern and it’s looking, and feeling, really good. Finally, this yarn is playing nice!

The Shetland Christening Dress has also seen a small measure of progress this past weekend. It’s coming along slowly, unfortunately. Even though the first skirt is now in the garter stitch section, it’s so fine that I have to pay close attention to what I’m doing, and that is not the definition of mindless knitting. The second skirt hasn’t progressed at all; I’m in the final lace section, but with the move and the subsequent chaos, it’s been moved to the back burner. There’s no way it will be ready for this year’s Armstrong Fair, but there’s always next year, right?

A Little Bit of Everything

When I posted the pictures of John’s socks, I forgot to show how much yarn I had left over. While knitting the feet of both socks, I was a teeny bit concerned that I might not have enough yarn to finish the socks but, as you can see, I had more than enough.

That was a relief, but now I have two small balls of yarn that I really can’t do much with. What do you do with little bits of yarn like this? Keep them? Toss them?

Yesterday was a productive day of getting things done around here. All the boxes have been sorted out; things that we’re keeping have found homes and things that are garbage have been disposed of. What’s left will become garage sale fodder when we’re ready for a sale. All that remains now is for me to sort through my crafting stuff and decide what I want to keep and what I can get rid of… one way or another. That is for another day, though.

By last evening, we had one more small chore John wanted to look after.

The raspberries are in full production mode at the moment. There are two short rows of berries in the garden and they really needed to be picked. We got two cookie sheets full and there will be many more by tomorrow. We’ve decided that we’ll pick them, freeze them, put them in ziploc bags and then share them with the couple upstairs (after all, J did plant them and does the gardening).

I have to say, though, that picking the berries brought back a lot of memories, none of them pleasant. Berry-picking is no fun when you have to do it for at least eight hours a day, every summer, no matter what the weather’s like (well, if it was pouring rain, we didn’t have to pick but we did pick in blistering hot sun with no shade). Is it any wonder I couldn’t stand raspberries for a long time? Even yesterday, John kept encouraging me to taste the berries but I simply couldn’t.

Enough of that! We have berries in the freezer for the first time in a long time. That’s a good thing!

For your perusing pleasure, some photos taken around the yard and house yesterday.

Kitty… yes, that’s really her name. Mike’s cat, rescued from a burning house by J, who was a forest-fire fighter the year Kelowna had the fires (2003, I think it was).

Part of our outdoor decorating. The boxes are old apple crates. John calls this our “museum”. It’s kind of fun and funky! We definitely don’t live in a cookie-cutter house.

More and more sunflowers are showing their sunny faces. I love it! They’re such a cheerful flower, aren’t they?

Michaelmas Daisies. There’s a nice, big stand of these daisies in the front garden and they’re just coming into bloom now. And there are a LOT of buds!

I Couldn’t Help It

If you’re a knitter, you’ll understand what I mean when I tell you that a specific skein of yarn spoke to me this weekend. If you don’t knit, you may think I’ve lost it; trust me, I haven’t. Yarn speaks to knitters all the time.

A number of years ago, I ordered some yarn online. I wound one of the skeins into a ball and tried several times to knit with it, but every time I did, the pattern and yarn just did not play well together. This past weekend, I was reading one of the forums on Ravelry and the Haruni shawl came up; being unfamiliar with it, I looked it up. Well, it turns out that it’s a free pattern and as soon as I saw it, I could hear the yarn calling, telling me that this was the ONE.

My Haruni will be knit on much finer needles than I’ve used for shawl knitting so far; I’m using a 2.5 mm Addi Lace circular. That means this shawl will not be a quick knit. So far, though (not quite one repeat in), I’m liking the look and feel of it and it’s an easy pattern to memorize.

The yarn is Handmaiden Fine Yarns Silk Floss, 100% lace weight silk yarn. There are 500 m/50 grams and I have two skeins of this lovely yarn. The colourway I’m using is called Moss Garden, and that really is what it reminds me of.

The pattern, as I’ve already written, is a free pattern that can be found on Ravelry. If you’re a Ravelry member, check it out. If you knit and you’re not on Ravelry, get over there and join; it’s an invaluable resource for anyone who knits or crochets!

In other things, because yesterday was Canada Day and today is Friday, and likely a very quiet day at work, I took the day off, giving me a four day weekend. I can’t remember the last time I had that much time off in a row; it feels good! Yesterday, we did very little but I did make granola (which didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped) and Yorkshire puddings to go with the roast John made for dinner (again, they didn’t turn out as well as they have in the past; I think this oven is hotter than the last one).

This morning, I’ve been busy with laundry, cleaning and cooking/baking. While browsing over at the Tasty Kitchen, I found a recipe for hush puppies that sounded really good. I made them and they ARE really good! I’ve never had hush puppies before, but I’ll definitely be making them again. I may even add a thing or two to the recipe, like hot sauce. Just a thought.

I also made a batch of dinner buns. Again, it’s a recipe I found over at the Tasty Kitchen. They’re my go-to dinner bun recipe. I definitely have to get used to this oven, though. The buns didn’t turn out quite as well as they have when I made them at the apartment. The bottom crust is a little thick and almost a touch burned, even though I turned the oven down by 25 degrees. Perhaps it would be a good idea to invest in an oven thermometer, just to see how much it really is out.

They still taste good, though. And, really, that’s what counts, doesn’t it?

A UFO Becomes an FO…finally!

I’m being careful; really, I am! However, I can’t sit around doing nothing but drinking wine. That’s just not good for anyone no matter how enjoyable it might be. So, I’ve been working on John’s socks a little bit at a time. By this morning, I was down to the toe (seeing as they’re cuff down socks) on both socks.

So, I finished them. John now has a new pair of socks, which I’m sure he’d be wearing already if he wasn’t snoring away in the recliner about 8 feet away from me.

Details? Well, I don’t remember what yarn it is, but I think it’s Trekking XXL. The colours sure make me think it’s Trekking. They’re a generic 72 stitch sock, with 2x2 ribbing on the cuff and stocking stitch feet. They’re made with the standard heel flap and gusset and I used 2.25 mm needles.

Now the big question is… what do I work on now? I’d love to start a new project, but I have too many unfinished projects at the moment. Maybe I should just dig into the bag of ufo’s and pick one.

By the way, I realize this is the third blog post today. Can I help it that I finally have something to write about?

A Quick Note

I’ve removed some of the recipe links that have been in my sidebar for a while. Having switched internet providers, the links were no longer valid. I will repost them at some point, and will add recipes as well.

Hmm, maybe I should just start a recipe blog. Any thoughts on that?

Cheesy!

You know I love baking and being in the kitchen. You can assume that I love cookbooks almost as much as I love knitting books… you’d be correct in that assumption. I also love cooking websites. I have three favourites at the moment: Recipezaar, the Pioneer Woman Cooks, and it’s sister site, the Tasty Kitchen. The last one has been an interesting and inspiring find.

There’s one category that has really intrigued me… Homemade Ingredients. There, I found a recipe for this:

What, you ask, is that? Well, it’s cottage cheese. Yes, cottage cheese. And it’s incredibly easy to make! When I saw the recipe, I simply HAD to try it!

The recipe, which can be found here, uses one quart of milk, which is four cups; I halved that and used two cups of milk. Basically, all you do is add a bit of cultured buttermilk to the milk (I used 2%), allow it to sit in a warm spot until the mixture has thickened, heat it to separate the curds and whey, strain out the whey, add salt to taste and refrigerate it. That’s it!

I love cottage cheese, so I have a feeling that I’ll be making this often. I just have to keep buttermilk in the house (which I also love!).

Toys Need Protection, Too

I think I've mentioned that I've acquired a small camera, didn't I? This one fits into my purse and I can carry it with me easily, without having a camera case slung around my neck. There is, however, one disadvantage to having a camera in your purse: it can very easily get scratched and/or damaged. To that end, I decided that my new camera needed some protection. And, being a knitter, I knew just how to do that.

On Sunday, I found a ball of sock yarn, a long-enough circular needle and started experimenting. I started out with a garter stitch rectangle. Thinking that 64 stitches around might be good enough, I cast on 28 stitches; my reasoning was that there would be 4 stitches picked up on the narrow ends, leaving 56 stitches. Half of 56 is 28. I did 8 rows of garter stitch, giving me the 4 edge ridge stitches for picking up. Then I worked straight up in stocking stitch (knit every row). I did about an inch, then picked up the camera to see how it fit. It didn't. The pouch was far to big for the camera.

The good thing, though, was that I had a swatch now. I was getting 9 stitches per inch and could work out from there how many stitches I should have. In the end, I had 56 stitches in the round, having cast on 22 for each side and 6 stitches on each of the narrow ends. Once all the stitches were picked up, I worked straight up until the pouch was the same size as the camera. I finished it up with about an inch of 2x2 rib (knit 2, purl 2), then cast off.

As you can see, the ribbing pulls in nicely, holding the camera in place without cords or buttons. The yarn is OnLine Supersocke 100 in the Hiking series and I used 2.25 mm needles. Timewise, I had this made in one afternoon/evening. It's a quick knit, looks kind of funky and protects my camera which, incidentally is a Lumix 12 megapixel camera, a very nice little toy.

Knitting Again!

Even though I still need to be careful, I've once again picked up my knitting needles and am doing a few rounds at a time on John's socks. They're coming along nicely. One sock is ready for the toe, while I'm well into the foot on the second sock. I've decided to get both socks to the same point before I start the toes because I'm a little concerned about the amount of yarn I have remaining. I hope there's enough to finish. I'm sure there is, but it's still a little bit of a concern.

And as long as I "listen" to my hand, I'm just fine, no pain.

In other things, I finally got my hair cut yesterday! It's needed it for a long time and the time was finally right. I also had to find a new hair dresser. The woman who cut my hair the last couple of times moved back up to Alaska. As much as I love how she did my hair, a trip to Alaska just to have her cut my hair is definitely out of the question.

I followed the recommendation of a woman who lived down the hall from us in the apartment and I can honestly say I wasn't disappointed. I'm loving the fact that I no longer have to tie my hair back because it's just too hot to wear it down. And John loves it!

On the Side of the Road

For the past couple of weeks, we've had the luxury of having two cars; one of the ladies I work with has been in France for three weeks (they arrive home on Sunday) and she very graciously allowed me to use her car.

On my way home, I pass through a rural area where there are plenty of cattails growing in the ditch and also quite a bit of mullein. This particular stand of old mullein caught my eye one day and I decided that before we return the car, I had to stop and take a picture of it. I've never seen anything like it. If I hadn't been wearing a skirt and sandals, I probably would have gotten closer, but at least I got a picture of it before it disappeared.



Doesn't it look like moose antlers?

Quotes

It is rare that you'll find anything that could be seen as being even remotely political or inflammatory in my blog. I try to keep personal opinions about such things to myself, or discuss them with John and others in my circle of influence. It's unusual for me to read the newspaper on a regular basis. Yesterday was different. John handed me a section of the newspaper and told me to read it; the article he wanted me to read was about critical thinking. It was interesting, but when he pointed out another article, I got really interested and one or two of my "buttons" were pushed.

In this past Saturday's "Globe and Mail", there was an excellent op-ed piece, written by Peter Scowen. The title of the piece is "The sleep of reason produces monsters. Or at least oil-covered pelicans". In it, he talks about our appetite for the good life, and references the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In the second paragraph, he states, "...it urgently needs to be said by someone, frankly, that we are entering the Age of Endarkenment." That is something I've been saying for a few years now.

I won't type out the whole thing for you, but there are a couple of sentences in it that I consider worth repeating and remembering.

"It is now official that the freedom to use one's own intelligence has mutated into the freedom to use one's own stupidity..."

"The people making the most use of freedom of speech are people who have the most vile, irresponsible and ill-informed things to say."

The piece ends with the following paragraph:

"Meanwhile, the oil flows and flows and flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and we know that we, the children of Enlightenment, don't have, and never really had to begin with, the capacity to stop it. Our appetites are stronger than our reason. The waters grow darker by the day."

I've clipped out the entire article and have every intention of keeping it. If you're interested in reading the whole article, you can find it here.

Welcome to Our Home

I promised my daughter that I would take, and post, some pictures of our new suite. As promised, here's a glimpse into our new home. As you can see, it's still not quite set up completely (the lamp is no longer on the couch; it now lives on an end table) and we've moved a few things around since the pictures were taken.

The first two pictures are of our living room; the sliding door looks out onto a small yard that has three pine trees (former Christmas trees, apparently). It also faces the street, but because of the trees, it's very private.

In the empty space to the left of the desk, we now have our glass curio case, so it doesn't look quite as bare now. The white bi-fold doors on the right hide the hot water heaters for our suite and the upstairs suite. The cabinet doors have the electrical panels for the two suites.

The kitchen, as seen from the entrance to the living room. It overlooks the back yard. As you can see, we still had a few boxes to unpack when the pictures were taken. Those boxes have been unpacked and dealt with. In this picture, the bi-fold doors hide the laundry area.

This next picture was taken in the kitchen, standing at the kitchen sink. The open doorway (behind the television, which was only there temporarily) is our bedroom. To the right of that bedroom is the second, smaller bedroom which is currently being used for storage, library and stash room. The desk/cabinet is where the laptop computer lives and immediately behind that wall is the bathroom.

To the left, behind the chair are two closets, the one on the right being more of a pantry. We've turned one of the smaller closets into a recipe book cabinet and the other closet is being used for storage for Christmas decorations and such.

This picture shows the front of the house, the sliding door at the front being our front window. John's been doing a lot of puttering out there and has it looking pretty good. When I took this picture yesterday, we was puttering in the back. Afterwards, he tidied up this area even more. It's looking pretty good now, I must say.

All in all, I think we'll be happy here. It's a nice, bright suite and we're well on the way to making it feel like home. Both of us have a lot more energy, we've noticed. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that we can actually walk out the door and be outdoors. That just feels good!

Time for more puttering. I have no intention of doing anything that's going to hurt my thumb (which is still quite tender but not as sore as it has been) but there are some little things I want to accomplish today.

Little To No Knitting Allowed

I went to the doctor today; actually, I saw two doctors today, but that's another story. I went to see my family doctor today because of my thumb. Last week, at work, while I was putting a ream of paper into the photocopier, I experienced a sharp, shooting pain from the base of my thumb almost to my elbow.

On the weekend, at WWKIP, it wasn't too bad but when I woke up Sunday morning, I was in pain! John told me to ice it, then he wrapped it for me so I couldn't move it too much. By this morning, it was feeling somewhat better, but I decided that since I already had an appointment with a specialist I might as well see my GP while I was out and about.

Within minutes, he confirmed my (and my daughter's) suspicions; my daughter has it as well and when she told me her symptoms, I was quite sure I had it, too. I have DeGuervain's Tenosynovitis. How's that for a mouthful? Basically, it's very similar to carpal tunnel syndrome, but in a slightly different location, at the base of the thumb.

Treatment? Avoid all movement that stresses it, apply ice, wrap it, take anti-inflammatory pain killers (I have naproxen in the house for my neck, so that will work) and take it easy until it feels better. Unfortunately, I do have to work so it will be used, but even my boss has told me to do only what I can (he's trained as a physiotherapist) and ask for help when I need it.

And, in the meantime, no knitting... it hurts too much. *Big sigh* I'll have to find something else to keep me occupied. Oh wait! I have the laptop!

Oh, as far as the specialist goes, he's going to schedule me for a surgical biopsy on my thyroid. He anticipates it will happen towards the end of August, early September. Approximately half my thyroid will be removed and tested to rule out cancer; I'm quite sure there is no cancer, but he's playing it safe. I won't need medication afterwards as, apparently, the thyroid can still function quite well with most of it removed and, at this point, mine is functioning normally.

Ok, time for ice... too bad it won't be in a martini.

World Wide Knit in Public Day 2010

Yesterday was World Wide Knit in Public Day (it was also Bike Nude day, apparently). I attended and took pictures. If you're interested, here's the link to a Flickr set.

WWKIP

My New Toy

Yesterday was an extremely busy day at work and I was eager to get the workday finished with. I had the Canada Post notice in my bag and as soon as 4:00 came around, I was out the door and on my way to the post office.

Here's what was waiting for me...



And the best part of having this? It was free. Yes, you read that correctly... free. When John and I decided to make this last move, we also decided to get rid of cable tv and just stay with internet. However, when I started comparing high speed providers, I found that our local telephone service provider had more reasonable rates for internet alone (well, telephone too, obviously). In addition to a 6 month introductory rate, they offered a free laptop. It was an easy decision.

Details? A full size (not a netbook) HP, with Windows 7, almost 300 gb hard drive, wireless internet capable (haven't figured out how that works yet), usb ports, photo card reader and who knows just what else.

I'm happy. Just don't ask me which I prefer.. Mac or PC, ok?

Amazing What One Forgets

Moving can be a good thing. I know, it's a lot of work and I really hate moving... but... It's amazing what turns up when you go through boxes or through bags of stashed yarn and projects. I don't think I've ever even blogged about these; they certainly aren't in my Ravelry projects.

They're obviously socks; I wasn't even sure if they were meant for me or for John until I counted the stitches. They're John's; there are 72 stitches. If they were for me, there would only be 64 stitches. Right now, I have two projects actively on the go: these socks and the christening dress. Obviously, I'd like to get these done and, at this point, I can almost do them in my sleep.

In other things, this was left on our door handle today. I'm excited!!

I know what's being held for me but I'm not showing you until it's made it's way here... sometime tomorrow. Oh, I shall have fun!

Sunday Morning Blather

In yesterday's post, I wrote that I'd done some baking on Thursday, while waiting for the telephone repairman to show up. The flourless chocolate cake (here's the Recipezaar link) that I made calls for eight... yes, eight... eggs, separated. John and I almost always purchase the same brand of eggs; what amazes me is the difference in the colour of the yolks from one tray of eggs to the next.

The colour change, as you can see, can be rather dramatic. The yellow egg yolks are from the last tray of eggs (there are 20 per tray) and the orange yolk is from the tray we bought on Wednesday.

I liked how they ended up looking like a flower, so I just had to take a picture.

Yesterday, I found MY spot. Just behind the trees is the road, but this spot is quiet, virtually invisible from the road and the perfect spot to sit and knit with a cup of coffee close at hand.

Speaking of knitting, I'm going to go and do a little of it before we tackle the "box room". My next blog post will have knitting content... I promise!

It Went Well

Shirley commented that she hoped our move went well; it did. Actually, it went very well. Four of my co-workers showed up and three of John's co-workers showed up to help with the move. Within an hour, we had everything out and loaded; another hour later, with just one run, everything was unpacked at the other end. By lunch time, the guys were out in the lot next door sucking down beer and finishing up the Timbits (Tim Horton's is a Canadian doughnut franchise and Timbits are doughnut holes, for those of you who have no idea what Timbits are) and pizza.

The day didn't end well, but that's another story (John left to watch the first game of the Stanley Cup finals and didn't get home until well after 11 p.m.).

Now, the suite is slowly coming together. This is the part I really don't like; the unpacking, that is. We have a lot of furniture and we managed to fit it all in to the apartment. The layout here is quite a bit different and not everything is going to work here. We've been trying to make everything work but it just ain't happening! I finally told John that we were going about it backwards. Instead of trying to fit everything in, what we need to do is set up each room the way we want it; whatever furniture is left over, whatever doesn't work, we get rid of.

In all honesty, there isn't a lot of "stuff" I have that I'm completely attached to. There are a few pieces of furniture I'd like to hold on to, but not many. The same goes for the bits and pieces that decorate our home. There are some things that will eventually be handed off to children and grandchildren, but a lot of what we have isn't so important to us that we can't let go.

To that end, at some point this summer, we'll be having a garage sale.

Understandably, knitting has been put on the back burner. That said, there HAS been some progress. The moving scarf (the Lilac Leaf shawl from Nancy Bush's book, Lace Knitting in Estonia) is finished. That is, the knitting is finished. I still have to graft the two pieces together, then block it. It's nice, though, to have something finished... the first FO here at the new place. Pictures will happen, but not until the scarf/shawl has been blocked.

Yesterday I had the day off, not by choice (Telus, our local telephone company, had to repair the line so we could have internet... not TV-- we've decided not to subscribe to cable of any kind), so I had some time to bake, relax, knit, worry, wonder, fume... you get the picture. By 4 p.m. (ish), internet was up and running, I'd baked two cakes (one for my workplace... a flourless chocolate cake because one of the guys I work with is gluten intolerant and one for John's workplace... a Lazy Daisy cake), made ganache to frost the chocolate cake, finished the shawl, worked on the Shetland christening dress, had dinner prepped and ready to cook when John got home (at 9:30 p.m.... it's grad weekend at the college and everything had to look perfect) and still had time to sit and watch the sun set.

Tonight, we're going to a local pub for dinner (pizza and beer... or wine, in my case) and to watch at least part of game 4 of the Stanley Cup series (go Blackhawks!!!). Tomorrow and Sunday, we tackle the dumping ground, also known as the spare room where all the boxes are. We're thinking of putting the TV, stereo and book shelves (and stash) in this room.

(My yarn stash is in the closet around the corner to the right. There are boxes you can't even see in this picture.)

Most importantly, though? We're sleeping in!!!

I'm Baaaaaaack!!

I'm finally back online!! We moved in this past Saturday and didn't get the telephones working till yesterday. Internet didn't come online till late today. It's amazing how much I've missed it, even though I can access it at work; it's just not the same.