Back to the Salt Mines I go!

My friend Jerry posted about his local WWKIP day, which was the 14th, also known as the day that I moved. Go here and scroll down until you see two knitters hula-hooping. And a baby alpaca [not hula-hooping].

Did lots of little fiddly stuff before church yesterday. Making sure that there were clear paths to the window unit in my studio, and the closet in my studio, because the sheet-rock below the window unit needs to be replaced, and because we are getting the radiant barrier, and somebody might need to walk around in my attic and put a foot through my ceiling.

Moving boxes out of the way so the Handy Dudes can shove the fridge 18” to the left, and I can put the drop-leaf table in the window and the bookcase with the pretties here where the computer sits, and the computer out in the living room. [Which I can’t do until the next paragraph happens.]

Making sure that the Handy Dudes can get to the corners in the living room so they can tape and bed them, and so that the window unit can get tilted so it doesn’t drip into the living room and necessitate new sheet-rock in a couple of years [see studio, above], and so they can connect my new gas fireplace for the two weeks of the year when it’s not summer in Texas.

Dudes, I have a cedar closet! I can’t take a picture of it yet, because there are boxes stacked in front of it, but when I stepped inside it the day of the move, I couldn’t figure out why I thought of Mom and Dad’s house. It wasn’t until I tossed something in there a day or so later that I realized I was remembering the closet under the stairs in the basement, where Mom kept my tutus and the red rayon dress she had made for me when I was four or five, with the daisy lace trim.

Can I just say how much I love my new ward? This is one corner of our meetinghouse, complete with three crape myrtles.



Two of the sisters whom I know slightly from the singles’ program are in my new ward. One recognized me and came back and sat with me during sacrament meeting. I've signed up to feed the missionaries toward the end of next month. I figure by then I will have things moved around enough that I will actually want to have people sitting around my table. And there are enough single brethren that once they know I’m not terminally scary, I won't have to import Brother Sushi or lasso one of the sons-in-law. I’m still getting teased about the time I served bison meatloaf to the elders in my old ward [the ground bison was a gift from a friend].

Dinner after church was lots of fun and a nice change from the leftovers and nuked stuff I had been eating all week. I reached into one of my boxes and pulled out my can opener! Then I opened a can of tuna!! Then I made my first tuna fish sandwich in weeks and weeks and weeks, and another one to take to work today!!! Second course? Part of a can of baked beans, huzzah!!!! Followed by half of the remaining carrot sticks, with the last of them tossed into a snack bag for lunch. [No, the carrots do not get five exclamation points; I’ve been eating carrots all week. I’m thankful for them, but I’m not excited about them.]

And then I had some mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert while I hard-boiled a few eggs for lunches or snacks later this week. Timing them was a little iffy, as I have no idea where my ladybug kitchen timer is. And I tend to lose track of time while playing online games, so no Sudoku for me, missy, until they were done.



I was always a little afraid of the gas stove at our old house in Irving. Unlike more than one of my daughters, I do not have pyromaniac tendencies. [Ask them sometime about when they nearly caught the doghouse on fire.] But I have raised five teenagers since we owned that house, and lived to tell about it, and a gas stove seems tame by comparison.



I swatched one of the Barbara Walker patterns in church and decided that while it was all very nice, it looked too much like crochet for me to want to use it. I like crochet, but I like my crocheting to look crocheted and my knitting to look knitted. None of this double-agent stuff, if you please.

So after dinner, I went back to my room with a bottle of water, and I tried some more swatches. And I think I have a winner. Something lace-like, to maximize the yarn on hand, but not requiring much in the way of blocking when finished. One of the patterns I tried got lost in the color shifts, but I think it would be smashing in the darker teal Gloss Lace when I’m ready to design my duster. When I have more than six rows in the pattern I’ve chosen for the Noro, I’ll snap a picture to see what y’all think.

I woke up at 4:20 this morning. Not sure if it was excitement at going back to work, or anxiety about catching the train. My lunch is packed and in the fridge, my bags are ready to go, and I know what I’m wearing to work.

Happy Monday, everybody!