Germander Sage

Pretty #3: Mmmmmm...Artyarns Regal Silk. The color variations aren't in the yarn. They're due to the reflected light from my kitchen window. I don't know what this is going to be yet, but whatever it is will shimmer like nobody's business.

Don't look at me like that. I couldn't help but buy it. Yes, it's an addition to my stash, and yes, I said I wouldn't do that. But eleven dollars a skein! C'mon, now. How was I supposed to say no to that?

Know what we haven't done in a while? Resolution update! Wheeee!

--Still exercising, although I'm starting to resent how it's cutting into my relaxation time. I swam a mile yesterday, and it didn't utterly destroy me. That's a big accomplishment for me. I love the water, but I'm not a distance swimmer. What I mean is, I'm not yet a natural at it, but I'm getting there. That gets me thinking about what I say about myself, what I think about myself. I've always thought of myself as 'not an athlete'. "Everybody's going hiking? I'll hang out at the tent with our stuff. I'm not a hiker." What that means is "I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up, and I'm afraid I'll slip on the rocks, and I'm afraid I'm not good enough..." It's like a delusion of grandeur in reverse. And it's a load of crap, but after this much time, my whole sentient life, it's the way I think. If you watched 'Dead Like Me' on Showtime, it's like George's narration over the episode where she joins Dolores' bowling league. "Why was I so afraid..." By the way, if you haven't seen 'Dead Like Me', it's a gem, and it's available on Netflix.

I told Accountant Boy about my hiking fears, and he replied, "Your balance is better than mine, and you're not going to have any trouble keeping up. You just need to believe it." That's my new mini resolution. Believe it.

--Be a Better Programmer - still working on it. I'm actually starting to believe that I AM a programmer, not someone who accidentally fell into the job and hasn't been found out yet. Other people apparently already think of me as the former, but I'm convinced that I've duped them. One of us is wrong, them or me. It's probably me. Same mini resolution as above. Believe it.

--Knit from stash - yes! I love how Cobweb is knitting up in my second-oldest cache of stash yarn. I'd show pictures, but I've decided to knit all of the beaded portions first, and there's already a nice picture of beads and yarn in a previous post. Pictures when I get to the lace, I promise. I've only added that Regal Silk to the stash since the cataloging.

--Meet knitters - I suck. More specifically, my fitness regime is taking priority over knitting group. That mile in the water took more than an hour last night, after which I went home and collapsed on the couch. Technically, I DID meet some knitters. It's just been a long, long while since I did it. Does that count as a complete resolution?

--E-mail friends - Our friends? The ones we never respond to? They sent us a birth announcement for their baby the other day. So now we have a fresh, new reason to respond to them. We're on it, distant college friends! In a tragic technological turn, the computer that held all of our addresses and phone numbers suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure a few weeks ago. We have to rebuild from scratch, because we don't have any contact information backed up anywhere else. In a hilarious twist, this means that the only people for whom we have contact info are our distant college friends, because we've got their address from the birth announcement envelope. Looks like this resolution's getting new focus, whether we like it or not.

Even I'm bored by the resolution posts, but they're keeping me honest. It's the end of April, and I still know what they are. That's an accomplishment in itself.

Hey, know what all of that bark, the nitrogenated black bark that I shoveled for seven hours, those tons and tons of bark did for the garden? Everything's gone wild. The nitrogen is already seeping into the soil.

Gratitude: Every evening when I come home from work, this is the first thing I see when I open my car door.

Cripes!

First off, thanks to everyone giving suggestions so far on the future shrug-o-lero. I've had a great time seeing so many patterns that I hadn't come across before. I'm putting all names in the big hat at 11:59 on Wednesday night and drawing out a winner for the Mountain Colors. There's still time to enter, and I'm still undecided on the pattern, so don't be shy.

Oh, so many things happening, no new pictures.

Accountant Boy and I got it in our heads that we should finish landscaping the yards this year, so we've spent the last three weekends working outside. We also got it in our heads that Daisy and Falstaff's yard would be easy to landscape if we applied some principles of xeriscaping to it, so we've actually been working in three yards simultaneously. My main jobs were bark shoveling and sprinkler line maintenance. My ankles ache from all of the time spent sitting on my heels to adjust the drip manifolds. The pain wakes me up at night. Note to self: give up dream of being an MLB catcher.

Starsky's almost done! Just the belt left, now. The boring, boring belt. No, I won't call it done and take pictures and be all proud of it without the belt, because it's not completely done, and if I'm allowed to pretend like it is at this point, it never will be. Note to self: knitted belts suck.

Buddy's old owner swung by yesterday while we were toiling in the yard and asked if he could see him. Buddy has now been with us longer than he was with them and, with all of the time and money and love we've poured over him in our eight years, I don't think there's any doubt that he's our cat now. I know the old owner just wanted to say hello to him. Old owner's a sentimental guy. He still owns the house he grew up in on the other side of our back fence. He still has Buddy's mom after fifteen years, along with a few new cats that they adopted to keep her company. They're a big-hearted family, and he's a good man. When I brought Buddy to the door, he didn't quite recognize the booming voice of his old owner and he pushed back against my shoulder. I felt kind of bad about it, because I could see that the old owner's feelings were a little hurt by it. "You guys should come by when you have a few minutes to sit down inside. He doesn't understand why I'm holding him in the open doorway. He'll come right up to you if you're sitting on the couch..." We said that, and we meant it, but still. Note to self: formulate plan for spiriting Buddy away in the dead of night and living on the run with him, should his old owners decide to reclaim him.

Resolutions? Oh, yeah. Those friggin' things. Well, the exercise part's going well, and it's been three weeks since I had a Casper's chili cheese dog. I swam fifty laps in a row last Thursday without using the kickboard, and I felt like I finally understood how to breathe and swim at the same time. Knit from stash is still on track since I've been knitting the same damn sweater for the past four months, and it's out of stash yarn. Be a better programmer is hit-and-miss. I have some days where I feel really good about it, and some days where I don't know what I'm doing, in both the literal and figurative senses. Oh, and we're the crappiest friends in the world, because we STILL haven't written to any of our long-lost pals. So I'm still three for five on the resolutions, but at least it hasn't gotten worse.

Gripey as this sounded, I'm actually in a great mood. My yards are going to be lovely this year, and Daisy and Falstaff's front yard will be, too. The peach tree might actually produce peaches for the first time. I'm almost done with a really involved sweater, just in time for lighter, simpler Spring knitting. I'm getting stronger and sleaker. My ankles hurt, uh, less? Yeah, that's a good thing. My ankles hurt less today than they did last night.

Oh, and since I'm throwing everything but the kitchen sink in this post, here's a gratitude. I'm grateful for this lovely April day, and that I'm less than two hours away from stepping out into it. Maybe I'll go home and take some pictures.

Resolvers

Lucy waiting for us to remember that we resolved to make 2007 "Lucy's Year of Fitness".

It happens every year. The gym fills up right after Christmas with people we've never seen before. It's like it's a different gym. Sure, we still nod hello to the guy who looks like a short, buff version of the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz. I still get the pleasure of watching the soccer guy in the knee socks and headband run drills on the treadmill next to mine. When I can get a treadmill, that is. During January, it's not an easy task. The gym is overcrowded with these new people. Resolvers, I call them.

They come at it hard. Resolvers get on the elliptical trainers and pump their legs like they're trying to generate power for the city of Chicago, and they'll keep at it for a long, long time, longer than they're supposed to be on the cardio machines during peak hours. Resolvers take up all of the treadmills, speed-walking in their bright white cross trainers. They ride the stationary bikes like the devil himself is chasing them. "Well, I guess it's the rowing machine for me. Dammit. Resolvers on the rowing machines, too." The only area of the gym that isn't overcrowded is the free weight room, because I guess the racks of dumbbells scare them. For about five weeks out of every year, that's where you'll find Accountant Boy, Buff Lion and I. Soccer Guy? He's outside, running laps around the parking lot. No, there's no track around the perimeter of the lot. He's running in the lot, and drivers are swerving to avoid him when they come around the corner. He's a dedicated man, Soccer Guy.

Nothing against the Resolvers. I think it's great when people make an effort to change themselves, and these people are making one hell of an effort. They work really hard, I guess is what I'm saying. Too hard. Here's what happens every year. Come February, especially true this year when it happened exactly on February 1st, they give up. The gym returns to its normal state. I walked in on the first day of February this year and found every treadmill free. My favorite elliptical machines were standing idle. Nobody was doing anything misguided on the weight machines, like allowing the lat pulldown bar to hoist them up to the ceiling because they were lifting too many plates. Soccer Guy, with his terrycloth headband firmly in place, was stretching happily on the uncrowded floor behind the Stairmasters. Buff Lion and I nodded knowingly at each other at the drinking fountain. Resolver season had ended.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I am a Resolver. I made a lot of resolutions earlier this year, and seems to me that I haven't said anything about them in weeks. I've almost forgotten what they were. Funny. Looking back through my blog entries, it looks like my last resolution update was January 30th, one day before all of those enthusiastic new gym members said, "Screw it. I'm too tired. I'm going home tonight, but maybe tomorrow..."

I crashed hard in early February. "I can't keep up with all of this stuff that I said I was going to do. I wish I could just take today off from all of it." So I did. And then the next day, too, and the next after that. So I had too many balls in the air to juggle, and instead of letting one of them go so that I could easily manage the rest, I dropped all of them and walked away to have a beer. Ah, well. Never too late to pick them back up and try again.

Resolutions:

1. Fitness - I've stuck with this, with a week off here and there. Haven't lost any weight, and I'm not sure my body fat has gone down, but it's still early in the year. I keep telling myself that it might take months to see the difference. Daisy and I have started swimming together.

2. Programming - I hit a plateau, one which I created for myself. I've learned just enough to do what I need to do, and then my ambition stalled out. I'm hoping that by writing about it here, I'll goose myself back into action. My annual review is this afternoon. That ought to help motivate me.

3. Knit from Stash - This one's still going really well. I knit the Three/Five/Seven Day sweater from my oldest yarn. The big project on my needles at the moment is Starsky, which is also being knit with stash yarn. I needed a portable project, so I pulled this yarn from my stash and started making a scarf.


Will I have enough to make the scarf long enough? I don't know, because I didn't measure, and I don't care. I have two skeins of it, so it's going to be as long as two skeins will allow it to be. My secret pal Purly gave me this yarn last year. I'm just happy to see it knit up.

4. Meet other knitters - I went to that knitting group two times, then found excuses, legitimate or not, to miss it every Wednesday since then (illness, depression, frogging madness, Stitches, catch-up gym time, "don't want to miss 'Most Shocking' on CourtTV"). We'll leave this one in negative status for now.

5. Call/E-mail/Write - Also a negative, because we STILL haven't made contact with our college friends.

The roundup - two resolutions positive, one somewhat neutral depending on how I spend this afternoon and the rest of my work week, two negative. That's not too bad, considering. I'm going to keep at it.

What about you? If you've resolved to do something this year, how's it going? Tell me a success story. Not going well? Unless your resolution was "Do (x) in the first two months of 2007 or miss your chance FOREVER", it's not too late.

Now and Next

Now:

I kept thinking there were more of them, so I went through and rounded up all of the WIPs. What do you know? There are really only five things on or almost on the needles. We've got Bella, the start of the Portland Pullover, the back of Starsky, Sahara Knitted Something, and a silk project to be named later (SPtbNL).

Bella's going well. The back's done, and I'm seven inches into the front. Sahara Knitted Something stalled because I did the waist shaping a little too soon and I don't feel like ripping it back right now. Portland Pullover is waiting for me to go downtown and buy a 12" US11 circular. I forgot all about Starsky for months, and now I wish I had it done. It looks black in the picture, but it's actually a beautiful brown, like the inside of a bordeaux candy. Now that I've shoved it back in the hatbox, I'll probably forget it for another seven months. SPtbNL should turn into something within a week. It's got places to go, people to meet.

Next:

You know that wedding I mentioned in my first resolution post? This is the dress I want to wear. I'm going to have a couple of tiers taken off of the bottom, because I'm not as tall as the usual Betsey Johnson shopper. I have friends, twin sisters, who are the perfect Betsey size 6. They're 5'9", and they each weigh less than 130 pounds. Me? Not so much. I'm better than 130, and I'm six inches shorter. Less flowing than clingy, this dress hits me low on the calf, when it should hit at or just below the knee. I want it a little more cocktail, a little less Oscar red carpet.

What's that got to do with knitting? I'm still not giving in and making a shawl or a stole for it, but I do want a little something for around my shoulders. When I bought the dress, the chipper Betsey employee tried to sell me a little bolero to go with it, soft, lacy knit thing retailing for about a hundred dollars. "It's so CUTE on YOU!!!" Never mind that she said the same thing about every other item I tried on, even the crap I pulled over my head to try to trip her up. "That's PERFECT on you!!" Really? It's a size and a half too small, and it's giving me back cleavage that rivals my front cleavage. Cabbage rose print with the flowers perfectly centered over my breasts like two frilly bullseyes? "SO flirty!!!" Look, kitten, you already know that I'm going to buy something. There's no need to push. Don't let's turn the boutique into a satiny den of lies.

I have worn this dress to a wedding, with a generic woven shawl around my shoulders. I wished I'd bought the little bolero, although it didn't fit quite right and it was a hundred dollars I didn't want to spend. It looked like Rowan's Elspeth. Hey, I have that Rowan book! And look at the luck. I have something like fifteen balls of Elann Peruvian Collection Baby Silk in this color. So that's next in the knit queue.

Resolutions: It's resolution time. I should move this over to the sidebar. Maybe next time.

Fitness: Going well. I'm doing much more cardio than I'm used to doing, and I'm almost to the point where I look forward to doing it. Sure, I still have to force myself to turn my car into the gym parking lot, but it's getting easier. I'm not expecting to see results yet, because I'm trying to be realistic about it, but I think I can already feel the difference.

Programming: Also going well. I'm in a learning groove, now that I've figured out how to read the dynamic help. My manager said, "When you get done with that program, you'll have to teach the rest of us how to do it." "Oh, haha haha! Too funny!" "Yeah, heh...but really. You're going to have to teach the rest of us. We don't know what we're doing."

Knit from Stash: I'm keeping with it...until Stitches at the end of February. Even at that, I think I'm going to be O.K. I dug through the yarn cave this weekend to find that salmon yarn, and fell in love with all of that stash yarn all over again.

Meet other knitters: Babies, I not only met other knitters, I managed to unite two separate knitting groups. More on that later in the week, once I've taken pictures. Suffice to say, I had a great time. I can't wait for tomorrow night.

Call/Write/E-mail: This is my worst performer so far, but I'm not giving up on it.

****

I took today off to catch up on sleep, and then to have one of my much loved "What the F&$K is THIS doing here?!" days. The "What the..." days are great. I get into this state of constant movement, roaming the house and doing things that have bugged me for weeks. I've mended a pair of pants, ironed the candle wax off of my hearth, cleaned out my car, washed my gym water bottle, did all of the laundry, stuff like that. It feels great. "blog" was one of the items on the list. Check! Ahhh...that's a good feeling.

The Wild, Wild Sea

Pretty #2 - More Fiesta Insignia La Boheme. I bought it because the colors looked like San Francisco Bay on a choppy afternoon. They're actually a little lighter in real life, but still lovely. I'm going to make the Portland Pullover from the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits with it. The blue bleeds like crazy, so I'm knitting it on aluminum needles. The only aluminum needles I have in the correct size are these super-long Susan Bates straight needles. It's a good thing this is a fast knit, because those heavy needles are not fun to sling around. The yarn makes a lovely teal stripe around my left index finger. I've put this one aside for the time being, as I've got two sweaters and a scarf ahead of it on the priority list.

The colors of the yarn and the bean pot are accurate, but the counter is way off. Weird.

Gratitude #3 - Can I say Mama Mellace's Cinnamon Roasted Almonds again?

They're that good. No, I don't work for them or have any financial stake in their success. O.K., fine. I'll pick something new.

Gratitude #3(a) - I'm grateful that I have a warm place to call home.

We walked through Union Square on Sunday and got stopped by a guy taking donations for a soup kitchen. Accountant Boy gave him twenty bucks. "He said you looked like a movie star, so I though, 'What the hell? He had a good sales pitch.'" I know what he was really thinking, because I was thinking it, too. We were having a great day, happy in every respect, walking around San Francisco in the cold. We were happy because we knew we'd be able to get back in our car and turn on the heater, and go home and turn on the heater there, and be relaxed and warm. Why not give the guy twenty dollars so someone else can be warm for a couple of hours? We have it too good not to share.

Resolutions?

Fitness -- I've been to the gym four times since Friday. I'm working up to the running goal, hoping to soon reach the point where my toenails don't hurt after the workout. I usually hit that point about three weeks into the program, when I stop running on my toes. The Starbucks weekday ban went wrong today, because I though I had a morning-long meeting that would require a gigantic espresso drink. When I got here, I discovered that the meeting is tomorrow, but I already had the gigantic espresso drink. What was I supposed to do, throw it out?

Knitting -- Still knitting things that never actually made it into the stash, but at least I haven't purchased any new yarn. That's gotta count for something.

Be a Better Programmer -- I'm designing the screens for A.B.'s wine database. In our spare time, the .Net consultant is going to help me with the data binding and process flow. I'd feel guilty about doing this at work, but my manager says that any programming I do is valuable, even if it has nothing at all to do with the mortgage industry. I feel much better about this than I did a couple of weeks ago, much less like vomiting from stress when I think about coming to work tomorrow.

Contact -- I sent a long overdue e-mail to my dearest cousin this morning. Next week's e-mail goal? Our friends from college. They've sent Christmas cards to us for the past four years, and we've been meaning to get back to them for the past three years, eleven months and five days. We pick the card up off the desk in the office and say, "We HAVE to get back to them." The card sits on our desk, not lost in clutter and not covered by anything, no good reason other than procrastination, until the next year's card shows up to replace it. "We REALLY have to get back to them!" They have no way of knowing this. As far as they know, we either hate them or we're dead. I'm going to remedy that situation next week, if not sooner.

Meet knitters -- Tomorrow! (I hope...)

I finished one sleeve of Bella. I'm going to knit both body pieces, then see if I have enough yarn to make the sleeves longer.

Finally for this afternoon, I leave you with this. I have the distinct feeling that I'm being haunted. Yes, by a otherworldly spirit. No, I don't believe in that kind of thing, either, what with my Dana Scully-like belief in the primacy of science. Maybe I'm sleeping strangely because of the cold, or maybe Accountant Boy is gaslighting me. Nevertheless, I...but more on that later.