Joys of routine

Busy season becomes a blinding routine after a few weeks. Wake up panicky that I've overslept - maybe I have, maybe I haven't, but either way, I'm awake and moving. Get to work, caffeinate, work work work, and then home. Hopefully at home, I can do a chore or two a night... tonight is vacuuming the floors and dealing with the cat boxes - and then some time to knit. Working on my friend's pillow cover is wonderful this season - the repetition of the basketweave is so relaxing at the end of the day. The yarn is smooth and soothing to my hands after dealing with papers and pencils and binder clips and the occasional paper cut. Then, bedtime, and up again to do it over again the next day. Soon, I'll wake up in the normal panicked state, and then realize, oh, wait, it's April 14th. One more day of madness, and then I can sleep all day. Until then, the basketweave pillow case and socks will take up my time and be my creative outlet.

Hello friends...

Things are definitely getting busy at work. My CIRAs are coming in for preparation or extension, and the busy-season interns started today. I was at work till about 7 tonight, which is not bad, but I was determined to go to the gym and then to the store afterward. Since watching Food, Inc., I have been making dramatic changes to how I eat. If I can't ensure that meat is organic, I'm not eating it; I'm making as many of my vegetables organic as possible. No eggs if they aren't organic (to the point that I didn't buy any at the store tonight); no unorganic dairy products. I was pleased to see that my favorite coffee, Dunkin Donuts, is fair trade certified. So... grocery shopping is a new adventure.

In knitting news, I've finished my Diagonal Cross-Rib socks! I cast on a swatch for my friend JS' basketweave pillow cover, but realized she said she wanted regular basketweave, and I was swatching pie-crust. Oops! So, frogged the swatch and restarted it yesterday.

Well - since it's late, I'm off to bed. The dog was just going nuts, I'm betting out of exhaustion, and I am going to get my second wind if I stay up much longer.

Scarlet Letter! Except for sickness.

Heh - yeah, not the scary red A, but the scary red X or SOMETHING that says, "Stay FAR FAR AWAY!" All three of us have been ill. B has been sick for weeks now; three of the strongest antibiotics on the market haven't fixed him. He goes to a respiratory specialist next Monday. C had a really bad fever Sunday and part of yesterday, but we've been able to get her back down to normal. Her chest is really congested, but at least she's not feverish any longer. I wish I could say that my fever wasn't too bad, but it was. Did you know that the "standard" 98.6F human temperature was arrived at by taking the temperatures of 10 random people off the street? At least, this is what I learned in college, so hopefully that's correct. Who knows what the real "normal" temperature is? Due to my own nerdiness and curiosity, I know that my normal temperature is between 97.5 and 98.0 - so if I'm at 98.6, I'm beginning a fever. My temp this weekend got up to 100.9. I was finally coherent enough to go to the doctor today, and they gave me a script for the generic Biaxin. Nasty nasty horse pills - two pills once a day with food. Yuck. I popped two with lunch as soon as I got home, and I am feeling SO. MUCH. BETTER.

In other personal news, I am working on conquering my fear of deep water. Since I was feeling so much better this afternoon, I put on my bathing suit and got in the pool. B had left his snorkel mask out, and I decided that now was as good of a time as any to start working on it. No one around to make me nervous! So I put it on, got in in the shallow end, and fell in love. Wearing contacts plus never finding a pair of swim goggles that fit my face well meant losing my vision underwater. But today - I could see everything! I could see exactly where the dreaded drain at the bottom of the deep end was; I could see the few oak leaves floating along the surface; I could see the water bug swimming along near the wall. The whole not being able to breathe underwater still skeeves me out, but whatever, I'll get over that. I had so much fun swimming around! I am such a dork but this has bothered me for so long - I am so happy to be making progress at defeating this fear.

I've finished the body of my Sonnet and am working on the first sleeve. Making so much progress on the sweater is the only positive part of being home sick from work for two days. I had to do a little modification to the basketweave stitch for the center panel up the sleeves, but it still looks nice. I can't wait to finish it all, seam it up, and toss it in the washer!

OK - I'm off to do some chores around the house since they've been so neglected over the past few days. Poor cats could use some attention, too.

Vacation & road trips

We spent this last weekend on the road. It was my annual family reunion, and seeing everyone in my mother's family was wonderful. The gathering was at Cloudland Canyon State Park in Rising Fawn, Georgia. It's near Chattanooga and in the mountains - beautiful country up there.

I finished my Undulating Rib Socks on Saturday and cast on Sonnet! I was so pleased to finally start that. When I gave my sister and niece their socks, they were very pleased. Emily put hers on right away, but when Grace tried to put hers on - no luck. The yarn shrank in the wash :( Shame on me for not swatching them. I'm so disappointed. I suggested that she get them damp and slip them on carefully, and then let them dry on her feet.

My sister-in-law, brother, and father have all put in requests for socks. Mary and Kenneth are getting pairs of Padded Footlets; Kenneth is getting a pair of Eesti Trail Hiking Socks; and Dad is getting two pair of the same hiking socks. My poor Branching Out is going to be neglected, but thankfully, I have the counter app on my iPhone so I will be able to pick up where I left off. Kenneth picked out some beautiful yarn from KnitPicks - I can't wait to see how it looks and feels in real life.

The Sonnet is coming along nicely; I am using the piecrust basketweave instead of the box/moss stitch recommended in the pattern. I'm also cutting out an inch on each side since I have heard from every direction that the finished item will definitely stretch side-to-side. I finished about seven inches while we were on the road. I do love how Bradley doesn't mind driving...

Basketweave & Baskets

I'm over halfway done with my next basketweave scarf. This yarn is a little challenging to work with, but it's very soft. It is going to be really nice when it's finished. I really wanted to stop by the craft stores yesterday and get some new stuff, but I was a good girl and reminded myself of all the delicious yarns I have here at home.

I need to get out on the balcony this and water my plants. I forget how frequently I have to water when the plants are in smaller pots or baskets. There's another tomato growing on my plants; I am not sure how many I'll get this year, but even having three little tomatoes is a big improvement over my scorched plants from last year.