Eat, Love, Knit, but don't pray

I seriously feel like I could sit on the couch all day and work on a project. It's really all I did yesterday. It has a perfect accompaniment to my book-on-iPod, which I finished last night around 9:00.

I can't say the book "changed my life" (which apparently was the tone of Oprah's show on the subject). I found reading through some of the reviews on amazon to be more entertaining and interesting that the book itself. The chapter on India was my least favorite part, and I might have skipped through chapters had I been reading it. At first I came out of it with a sort of realization of "wow, I must not be a spiritual person at all," but then decided that this was not true. Instead, the author just thinks she's a gazillion times more spiritual and important than just about anyone else in the world.

I just went to the author's website and it kind of summed it up for me. There are huge (I'm talking huge) pictures of her face on every page. It's a little too much.

Anyway, I did get a bit emotional while listening to it, but it was the result of the sweater I was knitting. Having finished Dad's scarf earlier in the day, I got back to working on the sweater my Mother-in-Law had been working on before her death. I was binding off for the shoulder (3 stitches every row for 12 rows) when I realized that the last row (minus the ribbing, but we'll forget that) was 108, a number whose sacred nature is pounded into your head by the book. I cried a little bit.

And my weekend begins

I just returned from dropping R off at the airport. I drove his jeep, which was an experience in itself. I drove a 5-speed (and occasionally a 4+) for a long time, and learned to drive on one. However I've been happy with my automatic for almost 6 years now. I'd forgotten what it's like to drive in the right lanes on the freeway. It's like being on a different road!

It does not handle like my VW...

Last night's dinner:



Chicken stuffed with figs & goat cheese, roasted fingerling potatoes (with a bit of duck fat), and haricots verts. Mmm.

Lucky for me it cleared up yesterday and I was able to get some more yarn photos. There are still a few photo-less skeins on my ravelry stash page, but I'm getting there. I also managed to order everything I needed minus the boots, plus a wig. The only thing I have left for today is laundry. woo hoo!

Today must be productive

Yesterday was a gorgeously beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. I should have come home and started taking pictures of my newly inherited yarn stash (the first box that has been shipped down...there's more to come), but I'm not working today so I figured I'd get it done this morning. I don't think it's worth dragging the box out on the porch for cloudy-day photos.



Other things I must do today:

1) Finish Dad's Christmas Scarf (only 4 more repeats!!!), while listening to Eat, Pray, Love for a book club I've been invited to. I don't usually read Oprah's Book Club selections, but I wasn't involved in the choice. I did buy the book as well, but I think I'm going to have to work with a combination of the two.



2) Drop of some old paint at the monthly hazardous waste drop-off.

3) Order this, and these (or something similar), some of these, and a white satin corset. (I'd post a link, but that wouldn't exactly be safe for work now, would it?)

4) Do laundry

5) Go to the store for a few more things for the "nice dinner" I promised R yesterday. We ordered pizza Tuesday, which meant leftovers last night, and he's off to Vegas for a bachelor party tomorrow. This meal is suppose to make up for my laziness.

It is 10:15 and I am still in my robe.

Wow I didn't realize that my last post was the 9th. I thought I must have posted something closer to when we left for Chicago, but I guess not.

I have been away, longer than I had planned. My mother in law passed away the day after Christmas after a 9 1/2 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was weak when we got up on the 21st, but still had enough energy to take over my attempt at making waffles on Sunday morning. On Monday morning she just started going downhill, falling asleep mid bites of breakfast that she was unable to swallow and didn't want to admit that she couldn't. She had forgotten to take her pain medicine but didn't tell us she was in pain. She slept through most of Christmas eve day, but managed to gather up enough strength and will to demand she attend the neighborhood Christmas eve party. Her other daughter-in-law did her hair and makeup and got her dressed, and we drove her the two doors down where she ended up sleeping in a chair for most of the hour she was there. When we brought her home she fell back asleep, and but for a few eye openings, didn't wake up again.

She passed away around 2:45 in the afternoon, at home with all of us around her but for once not hovering over her. I think she wanted it that way. My sister-in-law had been falling asleep next to her and just minutes earlier decided to get up and make a sandwich. I was talking to her cousin about how we'd spent that night. R came back with a sandwich and sat down next to me at the foot of where she was sleeping. I took one bite of sandwich and realized that her chest was no longer moving. I slowly put the sandwich down and went to her without saying anything. Her heart had been racing all night, but there was nothing when I placed my hand on her chest. I had to go into the kitchen to give my brother & sister-in-law the news.

Her breathing had been shallow and congested for hours, but there was nothing to alert us that it was time. She was probably gone for a few minutes before we even noticed.

She wanted to make it through Christmas, and did. I'm just so thankful that we were up there.

80+ in December is just plain wrong.

I think we have had one cold day since the end of October, and I am officially frustrated with the fact that it just won't cool off. OK, so I didn't have to bring a coat to R's office party last night, but even a mild chill would be nice at this point.

We slept in late again this morning, but I've been working on a few things. I made a second batch of spiced nuts in the crock pot today (this time sweet; the first were nice and spicy) and I'm trying to figure out the pattern in the lace shawl I want to start. So far it's not going too well, but I know that once I get a little further along it will be clearer what stitch is required where.

My first lace scarf is complete. Things got a bit tricky in the end, and I still need to try to block it, but overall I am happy with this first attempt.



The office party wasn't too bad. We were a bit skeptical as they decided to hold on the mezzanine floor of their office building instead of a hotel ballroom as per usual, but it was all very pretty and the food was good (although I focused on the crab cake and only had a bite or two of the fillet mignon). We didn't win any of the raffle drawings--one guy at our table actually one a digital camera--but we did win our table's drawing for the centerpiece. I carried a gorgeous arrangement of white hydrangea, roses and calla lilies home on my lap, with one stop at the neighborhood wine bar for a bottle of chilled champagne to go.



Not bad for a cellphone shot.

Someone's been missing his green veggies

Yes, I admit it. I have been horrible about vegetables lately. I love them, but I haven't been good about making them for us. Our last real vegetables came Saturday night in the Chinese takeout we brought over to our friends' house. Sunday and Monday we had gumbo and nothing else. True, there were bell peppers and celery in there, but you can't really count that. Last night was chicken cordon bleu (I made extra when cooking for my client), mashed potatoes (I almost never make these for us, but I had one to use up), and frozen corn.

I know...corn is a vegetable. In fact I have clients who wont eat many more vegetables than that. I managed to find an opened bag of frozen corn in the freezer and that was my attempt at balancing our meal. The key point, however, is that it's not green.

Last night I asked R what he wanted for dinner tonight. His reply "Something green and some whole grains. Oh, and fish. Fish would be good."

(I love what I have done to this guy's diet. Before me he ate pizza 3 nights a week, sandwiches 2 nights, and ate out on the weekends.)

I didn't work today, but I did spend 10:30 to 3:15 at my friend's house giving her moral support while she prepared a dinner for the first night of Hanukkah. I left her and headed straight to Starbucks to meet another friend who is moving home to Turkey at the end of March. It had been ages since we last met for coffee, and I'm running out of opportunities to do so. I left her at 5:00 faced with the horrible task of stopping by the grocery store. Luckily I was able to get in an out of Whole Foods (I refuse to buy fish at Kroger) in about 10 minutes.

Dinner: Maple/Mustard-Glazed orange roughy, broccoli, and barley risotto with swiss chard.

Now: I'm just a yard or two from the end of the first of two skeins of yarn needed to finish my lace scarf. I have already bought new yarn for my next lace project and I so want to start working on it. I am forcing myself to finish this one first. Thank goodness it is fast-moving.

Something good from Thanksgiving

I'm making my turkey stock this afternoon for my gumbo. The next thing I need to do is make my roux, but I'm trying the no-oil one that my dad makes. This involves cooking dry flour in a pan and it's a very smoky process. I think I'm going to take my portable burner out on the porch and do it there.

We got our Christmas tree yesterday and decorated it today. It's just so hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 80 degrees outside.



Last night the cats were having a territorial fight under the tree. I was glad that it was still standing when we woke up this morning.

Oh, and my knitting ADD has come back with a vengeance. I'm happy just sitting and knitting all day long, when I really should be straightening the house. I found a book on Victorian lace patterns Friday and now I'm working on a scarf. It's going well, and it's making me want to go buy a nicer lace weight yarn and start over again.



Oh crap. That needle says 6. I'm supposed to be working with 7s. I must be working with one of each.