Poor Kate. Yesterday's tea was a disappointment for her and her lovely Britishisms. We were served two different teas in pots, neither of them English tea; we had to ask for refills when we'd drunk them both. And she had to ask for a cup of black tea with milk... and they brought her half and half, with her tea in a mug. =)
The food, however, was yummy. Since two of the knitters didn't show up, and I'd already reserved all our slots, I ended up bringing home their "leftovers" and had them for supper, and will have another serving for lunch today. The food was good, the desserts were nice. But the lack of real tea was a surprise, even to me. I mean, the meal was "tea," so one might reasonably expect good old English tea at least as an option. It's not like it's any more expensive than what we were served.
In any event, we had a blast! Catherine, Kate, and I met in Hunt Valley and carpooled merrily into Pennsylvania. Sweitzer's is a cute little shop, I believe it was once a butcher's, with a couple of the most well-insulated rooms I've ever seen. Tables were filled with a wide variety of sale yarns, and Heather is a sweet lady; she's a treasure.
I bought a couple of skeins of sale yarn, plus a circular needle organizer for all the various needles I now have around the house. Yay!
We ended the trip at Brown's, home of cookies the size of my head. Enormous, cakey, soft, buttery discs of pure joy. Mmmmm!
What's that? Ooh, a cookie and some scones are calling my name. Guess it's time for breakfast!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Stolen Moments
I am using unsecured wifi. There are three different connections around Hampden Place, and I've used them all.
In the kitchen, it's Neighbor Belkin. He only keeps his wifi on in the morning, with occasional, random evenings. Upstairs, I can choose between Neighbor Linksys and Neighbor Netgear.
Howdy, Neighbors! Thanks for being so understanding as I download games via Steam! I'm trying to keep my usage to the middle of the night to not slow down their own use, but I'm imagining that Neighbors Linksys and Netgear don't actually do much but check their emails and maybe play Farmville or something.
I wonder how far away these folks actually live from me. All of the signals are "Poor," although every so often Neighbor Linksys pops up as "Low." Currently observing Fallout 3 downloading on my poor connection. I have about four more hours left. Or six. Or three. It changes every time I check. Mysterious!
Anna and I hung out last night. She graciously helped me wrap and schlep glass blocks from the apartment over to Hampden Place. We walked down to the Ave and had dinner at a little Italian place, cruised a couple of shops, and I bought a print to hang in my bedroom. This possibly means no yarn for me at today's outing, but I really liked the image; she's going to preside over my bedroom eventually. For now, she's on a bookshelf in the living room, getting to know me.
Later today, going to PA with Kate and several of the Wednesday knitters to Sweitzer's Country Store for her sale event. We are following that up with afternoon tea at Serenity Station. And to further my caloric demise, will then go to Brown's to get cookies as big as my head. Yay!
In the kitchen, it's Neighbor Belkin. He only keeps his wifi on in the morning, with occasional, random evenings. Upstairs, I can choose between Neighbor Linksys and Neighbor Netgear.
Howdy, Neighbors! Thanks for being so understanding as I download games via Steam! I'm trying to keep my usage to the middle of the night to not slow down their own use, but I'm imagining that Neighbors Linksys and Netgear don't actually do much but check their emails and maybe play Farmville or something.
I wonder how far away these folks actually live from me. All of the signals are "Poor," although every so often Neighbor Linksys pops up as "Low." Currently observing Fallout 3 downloading on my poor connection. I have about four more hours left. Or six. Or three. It changes every time I check. Mysterious!
Anna and I hung out last night. She graciously helped me wrap and schlep glass blocks from the apartment over to Hampden Place. We walked down to the Ave and had dinner at a little Italian place, cruised a couple of shops, and I bought a print to hang in my bedroom. This possibly means no yarn for me at today's outing, but I really liked the image; she's going to preside over my bedroom eventually. For now, she's on a bookshelf in the living room, getting to know me.Later today, going to PA with Kate and several of the Wednesday knitters to Sweitzer's Country Store for her sale event. We are following that up with afternoon tea at Serenity Station. And to further my caloric demise, will then go to Brown's to get cookies as big as my head. Yay!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
One More Week!
Nothing like procrastinating, I tell ya! Wheeee!
One more week of renting the old apartment. I spend most of the day there, scrubbing floors and putting cute little vacuum stripes onto the bedroom floor. There's still some stuff there I need to pick up, and then vacuum up the living room, but then I'll be done with it.
The forecast today was for thunderstorms, but I sure didn't experience any. I spent some time with my coffee and a new sock project, hanging out in the front parlor. The chair Jeannie gave me is comfy and cozy, perfect for knitting while watching traffic go by. I installed a door sweep on the front door to keep critters and stuff out. Then I came upstairs to put together a nightstand I bought last month. It's been in pieces all over my bedroom since it's been too hot upstairs to work on it.
So hot upstairs, in fact, that it asploded the battery in my wall clock. =\ Ow!
Not having bits of wood all over the floor any longer does make the bedroom open up more. I have lovely original pine flooring in here, as is the case throughout most of the house.
As the weather starts to cool, my fretting turns to heating Hampden Place. All I've heard is how expensive it will be since I have an oil heater. That makes me very sad, as I don't know what to anticipate, and am not looking forward to bills of over $300 a month to heat the place.
Clearly need to knit more hats and wraps. But first, more socks!
New project is actually a repeat of my first sock project: Twitterpated! It's well-written, quick to memorize and knit, and is just flying off the needles two-at-a-time! I cast on late Friday night, and even though I was busy nearly all day Saturday, I got far enough along that tonight I was able to turn both heels and move on to the gussets. Whee! I love this pattern =)
One more week of renting the old apartment. I spend most of the day there, scrubbing floors and putting cute little vacuum stripes onto the bedroom floor. There's still some stuff there I need to pick up, and then vacuum up the living room, but then I'll be done with it.
The forecast today was for thunderstorms, but I sure didn't experience any. I spent some time with my coffee and a new sock project, hanging out in the front parlor. The chair Jeannie gave me is comfy and cozy, perfect for knitting while watching traffic go by. I installed a door sweep on the front door to keep critters and stuff out. Then I came upstairs to put together a nightstand I bought last month. It's been in pieces all over my bedroom since it's been too hot upstairs to work on it.So hot upstairs, in fact, that it asploded the battery in my wall clock. =\ Ow!
Not having bits of wood all over the floor any longer does make the bedroom open up more. I have lovely original pine flooring in here, as is the case throughout most of the house.
As the weather starts to cool, my fretting turns to heating Hampden Place. All I've heard is how expensive it will be since I have an oil heater. That makes me very sad, as I don't know what to anticipate, and am not looking forward to bills of over $300 a month to heat the place.
Clearly need to knit more hats and wraps. But first, more socks!
New project is actually a repeat of my first sock project: Twitterpated! It's well-written, quick to memorize and knit, and is just flying off the needles two-at-a-time! I cast on late Friday night, and even though I was busy nearly all day Saturday, I got far enough along that tonight I was able to turn both heels and move on to the gussets. Whee! I love this pattern =)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Finally!
Behold! I finally finished my Citron shawl. I started it in April from the laceweight Zauberball I bought when our knitting group went on a field trip to Sweitzer's in Pennsylvania.
And I finished my Mad Color Weave socks, which I also started back in April. House-hunting and moving took all my energy. It's nice to finally feel like sitting down to do some actual, factual knitting.Still have a few things to wrap up at the old apartment, then I'll be completely in Hampden Place. That'll give me more time...to knit! Yay!
Yesterday, Ellie and Jim had a little get-together at their house. I played Rockband 2 for the first time since I left Seattle (and I still suck at it), plus a couple of other games. I miss game nights. =\
Chandra, one of the Wednesday knitters, is in town this weekend, and so a few of us got together this afternoon at Judy's house. Another lovely day of socializing with friends.
And that's what I like best about living in Maryland: friends. Yes, I still miss Candyce, and my little cherubs, but I have friends here, too. Huzzah for friends!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Days in the Big City
Nice thing about the East Coast is how close everything is, in relative terms. Hence, when my high school friend Kurt let me know late on Friday that he'd be in DC, I arranged to take Monday off so that I could drive down there and spend a couple of days playing tourist with him.
We had a great time getting caught up on each other's news, as well as wandering around the Mall so that I could see all the memorials that I'd never actually been close to before. The only monument we didn't get to was the Jefferson Memorial, and that's mostly because it was swelteringly hot and I was developing blisters from all the walking.
And once again, everywhere I went, I was gleefully reliving moments from Fallout 3. Muahahaha!
Kurt remembers peculiar details of stuff that happened to us back in the day. For example, we were at the Viet Nam vets' memorial area, and one of the statues depicts a soldier holding an M-60, which sparked a memory for him. While I don't remember the episode, Kurt mentioned that while we were at a JROTC Spring Camp one year, he and I were in the same group firing M-60s, and that I'd apparently tried to load the ammo into it incorrectly. When he told me it was backwards, I took the ammo out (he says), and jabbed it into his hand, telling him to load it himself. Or something to that effect.
Which, I am sad to say, does lend credence to his account, as it is exactly the sort of thing I'd do. =\
I'm uploading photos from the weekend on Flickr now. Need to edit them a bit, as there are something like 50 shots of the ground as I attempted to get a good photo of a cute squirrel, and stuff like that. I'd include photos in this post, but apparently the interface has changes on blogger, and I'm too tired to wrassle with it tonight.
I was really sorry when our holiday ended so quickly. Kurt flew back to Hawaii today, and I went to work as usual. The cats were happy to see me when I got home tonight, and I'd missed them, too. Still, it was a nice get-away, so close to home, and yet so far away!
We had a great time getting caught up on each other's news, as well as wandering around the Mall so that I could see all the memorials that I'd never actually been close to before. The only monument we didn't get to was the Jefferson Memorial, and that's mostly because it was swelteringly hot and I was developing blisters from all the walking.
And once again, everywhere I went, I was gleefully reliving moments from Fallout 3. Muahahaha!
Kurt remembers peculiar details of stuff that happened to us back in the day. For example, we were at the Viet Nam vets' memorial area, and one of the statues depicts a soldier holding an M-60, which sparked a memory for him. While I don't remember the episode, Kurt mentioned that while we were at a JROTC Spring Camp one year, he and I were in the same group firing M-60s, and that I'd apparently tried to load the ammo into it incorrectly. When he told me it was backwards, I took the ammo out (he says), and jabbed it into his hand, telling him to load it himself. Or something to that effect.
Which, I am sad to say, does lend credence to his account, as it is exactly the sort of thing I'd do. =\
I'm uploading photos from the weekend on Flickr now. Need to edit them a bit, as there are something like 50 shots of the ground as I attempted to get a good photo of a cute squirrel, and stuff like that. I'd include photos in this post, but apparently the interface has changes on blogger, and I'm too tired to wrassle with it tonight.
I was really sorry when our holiday ended so quickly. Kurt flew back to Hawaii today, and I went to work as usual. The cats were happy to see me when I got home tonight, and I'd missed them, too. Still, it was a nice get-away, so close to home, and yet so far away!
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Two More Weeks
This is going to be a very lean couple of weeks, according to my budget calculations. Last month of paying the rent on the old apartment, combined with the new mortgage, and the new associated bills.
Good times =\ I have not a spare dinar to my name and will set aside paying for my bills immediately (as I usually do), waiting instead for the due dates that coincide nicely with my next payday.
Two weeks. Surely, I can make it two weeks. I will need to fill the tank with gas, but I have enough food in the house to not need to purchase anything more. Filling up Jane Grey will be about $25 or so.
I haven't lived this close to the wire since the first year after my first divorce. That December, I had thirty-two cents in my wallet the week before Christmas. I had already bought the boys their gifts in the months leading up to the holidays, and so we had lasagne for Christmas supper and I anxiously awaited my next paycheck.
I'm a year ahead of myself in terms of home-buying. I hadn't meant to buy a place this year, but decided that the $8,000 tax credit was too good to resist. And so, I've made my bed (still on the floor), and will lie in it, knowing that there would be a painful period of material privation for a bit.
Hence, only stolen wifi. Hence, shuffling from room to sunlit room, until the sun is low enough that I must turn on a light. I spoke with the oil company people about setting up an account, and they estimate that it cost over $1,000 last winter to heat this house. I can pay in monthly installments of $99, starting now, if I like.
Good thing I have several wool coats and enough yarn to knit thick scarves and mittens all winter long. No, I do not want a bill for $99 a month for an entire year...not this month, anyway.
The bureau is upstairs, although I had it put together before noticing two of the supports are in backwards. They are significantly lighter in color than the rest of the thing, but I don't feel like taking it apart again for cosmetic reasons. Will be heading upstairs to put away clothes, now that I have a place to put them. It's amazingly open again in the living room, now that the bureau isn't taking up space and absorbing light beside the stairs.
I've been re-reading His Dark Materials, to fill the time between opening boxes and stowing things away. This morning, I curled up in Jeannie's Ikea chair with The Amber Spyglass and a cup of coffee. A little card fluttered from the pages of the book: "Sunshine, heart you and miss you already, love always, e."
He'd marked a book of mine with a note from his ex. I put the note into the recycle bin, but I don't think I'll be able to forget it. For a little while, anyway.
Good times =\ I have not a spare dinar to my name and will set aside paying for my bills immediately (as I usually do), waiting instead for the due dates that coincide nicely with my next payday.
Two weeks. Surely, I can make it two weeks. I will need to fill the tank with gas, but I have enough food in the house to not need to purchase anything more. Filling up Jane Grey will be about $25 or so.
I haven't lived this close to the wire since the first year after my first divorce. That December, I had thirty-two cents in my wallet the week before Christmas. I had already bought the boys their gifts in the months leading up to the holidays, and so we had lasagne for Christmas supper and I anxiously awaited my next paycheck.
I'm a year ahead of myself in terms of home-buying. I hadn't meant to buy a place this year, but decided that the $8,000 tax credit was too good to resist. And so, I've made my bed (still on the floor), and will lie in it, knowing that there would be a painful period of material privation for a bit.
Hence, only stolen wifi. Hence, shuffling from room to sunlit room, until the sun is low enough that I must turn on a light. I spoke with the oil company people about setting up an account, and they estimate that it cost over $1,000 last winter to heat this house. I can pay in monthly installments of $99, starting now, if I like.
Good thing I have several wool coats and enough yarn to knit thick scarves and mittens all winter long. No, I do not want a bill for $99 a month for an entire year...not this month, anyway.
The bureau is upstairs, although I had it put together before noticing two of the supports are in backwards. They are significantly lighter in color than the rest of the thing, but I don't feel like taking it apart again for cosmetic reasons. Will be heading upstairs to put away clothes, now that I have a place to put them. It's amazingly open again in the living room, now that the bureau isn't taking up space and absorbing light beside the stairs.
I've been re-reading His Dark Materials, to fill the time between opening boxes and stowing things away. This morning, I curled up in Jeannie's Ikea chair with The Amber Spyglass and a cup of coffee. A little card fluttered from the pages of the book: "Sunshine, heart you and miss you already, love always, e."
He'd marked a book of mine with a note from his ex. I put the note into the recycle bin, but I don't think I'll be able to forget it. For a little while, anyway.
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