Summer cottage in Babylon

It’s always great to get together with two of my favorite heathens [that would be Middlest and Fourthborn, in case there was any question]. Middlest was kind enough to set up her laptop so that I could listen to General Conference yesterday, and both of them kept their irreverence to a minimum. I managed to get something out of the broadcasts without ignoring my children, and I also enjoyed their hijinks and contributed a few of my own.

I told them something Trainman said recently, and Middlest exclaimed, “I need to meet the Trainman. I want to tell him he can be my new daddy.”

To which Fourthborn retorted, “He doesn’t want to be your new daddy. My new daddy, maybe, but not yours.”

And I trumped with, “You’re both forgetting that he doesn’t want to be my who’s your daddy?” It’s a good thing that neither of them had a mouthful of milk.

BestFriend’s socks are finished and delivered. Pictures, eventually. Very purple, and a big hit with all the TCU alums on the train.

I cast on a sleeve to swatch BittyBit’s sweater. I had to liberate the Addi Lace needle from the Clapotis en Soie. [This cotton yarn thumbed its plies at my Addi Turbo and horse-laughed.] I think I guessed the right needle size, though I haven’t measured it as yet; I do like the feel of the fabric. And I think I want to work another swatch with a different triple-decrease.

This one is Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO [slip one, knit 2 together, pass the slipped stitch over the two you’ve knit as one], and the PSSO lies slonchwise across the other two stitches. But Sl2K, K1, P2SSO [slip 2 stitches as if to knit, knit 1 stitch, pass 2 slipped stitches over knit stitch] gives a more symmetrical decrease, with the center stitch remaining on top. I might even go so far as to show both swatches to BittyBit and get her opinion.

My guess is that she will go for the symmetrical decrease because of its crispness and precision. She can be quite particular. [Yeah, I know: one apple, not far from the tree. Reassuring in its own way, no?]

It’s acting like spring again. I came home to a comfy nest that became uncomfortably warm once I had cooked up two servings of linguine and enjoyed half with a nice *gloop* of red sauce and some freshly-grated cheese. I had to get down on the floor and turn off the fireplace. Oh well, at least I’m getting my exercise.

This morning I fixed my best pan of hash browns to date, and two respectable over-easy eggs. Not pretty, those eggs, but the whites are quite thoroughly dead, and the yolks are just how I like them. I only wish I had some toast to sop up the last bit of yolk. No bread, no tortillas, no biscuits, not even so much as a stale saltine! [We are far from starving chez Ravelled; we are simply and utterly out of bread. I think we will make cornbread for lunch, but that does not solve the yolk problem immediately at hand.]

I also forgot to buy more knee-highs last night, when I picked up milk, juice and eggs. Thankfully, today is the second and final day of General Conference broadcasts, and I can listen on my computer here at home, if I can solve the problem of crackling speakers. I think I crimped a wire when I corralled them all, a few weeks back. So I do not need to put on a skirt today, woohoo!

I am continuing to cull the herd, in terms of my DVD’s. I picked up Something’s Gotta Give a few weeks ago, and I had forgotten how obnoxious Jack Nicholson’s character is, or all the language. I had put a sticky-note on the case: “Watch in French,” but I decided yesterday morning that I just didn’t want to have it in the house. So after I got my nails done between Conference sessions yesterday afternoon, I ran it and two others over to the place where I sold off my DVD’s during the last winnowing.

I meant to do laundry last night; I really did. But after I dropped BestFriend’s socks off at her house, and Fourthborn off at her place, and got myself home, I was ravenous. And then I was very, very sleepy because of pasta backlash. Barely able to run out to restock the aforementioned vittles. I think I was in bed by 9:30 or 10:00.

Oh well, I know what I will be doing after work tomorrow. [I do not go to the laundromat on Sundays, and the clothing situation is not so dire that I need to bend the Sabbath at the home of one of my children.] And I know what I am doing next. A Sabbath-appropriate DVD and some quality time with BittyBit’s sleeve and maybe that second sleeve swatch, until it’s time for Conference. I have three and a half hours; that’s enough for Midsummer Night’s Dream and most of Sense and Sensibility. Or vice versa.

My friend Rebecca [she of the blocking wire lending library, and sadly blogless the last I knew] was a big winner in the February Sockdown! on Ravelry. I wonder if she’ll have her prize in time for Knit Night next Tuesday? I wonder if I remembered to take my merino/bamboo prize for show and tell, that I won for January Sockdown!???

The Anatomically Correct Toe was arguing with me yesterday, so I’ve put it in timeout for a few days.

I’m babbling. Must. Go. Knit.