SA-TUR-DAY-NIGHT!

Yes, it's Saturday night and I'm not working! Woohoo! In fact, I do not work at all this weekend (imagine, from 4 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday with no commitments. Wow.) AND I am not working next Friday night either, just a short shift Saturday morning (which could be cancelled, sales are down which means hours get cut). I should be worried for the store, I should be concerned with my income. However - I did get a raise at my Main Job, Peter is working steady (and long) hours and I'm just really enjoying having time off at home. We're going to see about making this a permanent state of affairs very soon.

So last night, and today, I sat on my rear in my recliner and knit knit knit, watching Bollywood movies and then a mini-marathon of Northern Exposure: Season 2. I did some assembly on Peter's sweater - it now has one sleeve attached. The other one tried to get sewn on inside out so it's sitting in the basket until tomorrow. I also worked on Mom's sock - an inch to go and then toe decreases start - amazing, I've knit nearly a whole sock in less than a week, that's a record for me in standard sockweight yarn (chunky socks tend to go faster, of course!) Here's the sock, badly overexposed - my camera hates me for some reason:

It looks a pretty violent teal here but is actually deep foresty greens. The yarn is Fleece Artist Nova Sock (superwash merino). 2.5mm needles in the pattern that came with the yarn. You'll notice next to it is a purple ball - that's my Patons Rumor still waiting to become Wednesday's Cardigan. I really want to get these socks finished first!

Speaking of finished socks, here's the Mega-MegaBoot sock I made for Peter - mate to follow by next year, maybe? Notice it does fit rather well, except that slight bagging at the ankle, but if the ankle were any tighter it probably wouldn't go over his foot.

Sitting adoringly next to Peter's chair is our senior cat, Moosh. For the first two months after Peter's mom died Moosh basically lived in the vanity cupboard in mom's bathroom. Peter gave the bathroom a good scrubbing-down a few weeks back, got all the "mom scent" out, and now Moosh is out and around all over the house, mrawring for scritches and food and attention. So I guess she's recovering from the shock (aren't we all?), slow but steady.

Tomorrow evening we're having some folks over for slow-cooker chicken stew and I think I may try my hand at a lemon meringue pie, just for fun. A little light housecleaning and finish up that first sock, cast on the second, get ready for next week of work. Things are going to be completely insane at the office this week so I'm trying to minimize other stresses - might do some more batch cooking tomorrow so lunches are covered for the week. I know for the evenings next week I'm going to try to keep it easy and get some extra sleep. When March 31st Madness (it's a thing with my job) hit last year, I almost ended up in hospital - started my day out with intestinal distress AND a migraine, then worked a 10-hour day on no food and a lot of medication. Trying VERY hard not to do that this year!

Thinking of extra sleep, we had the oddest thing happen Thursday evening - the power went out for about three hours or so. I had picked up Payday Pizza on the way home so dinner was covered, and we just sat in the quiet together, me knitting and Peter reading, by oil lamp light, until about 8:30, when the power came back on. We reset the clocks and said, "well, I'm tired, let's go to bed." 8:30! I slept like a rock and woke up Friday morning with no pain in my back for the first time in about 2 weeks. JOY! The whole evening makes me think that maybe I/we spend way too much time with electronic keep-awake devices in the evenings. With no "background" it's much easier to listen to your body.

That reminds me - I need to get in touch with the folks at Gordon's Park and see about booking the cabin for the August long weekend this year. It'll be a late and short honeymoon but one that we both will really enjoy. No electricity. :)