Sundays are for blogging

In the same vein as the Harlot's "Tuesdays are for Spinning", I am going to try really hard to establish Sunday as a regular blog-update day - some weeks I get every day in and some weeks not at all - I need to be more consistent with a lot of things in my life (hello, can we say laundry?) and I'm trying to get some structure back now that "the event" is over and things are getting (back to?) normal.

So, a week-in-review update, with no pictures because although most of my house is tidy, my desk is not and I can't find my camera.

Sunday last: married. You heard. Moving on. :)

Monday: Victoria Day (observed, it should really have been Thursday but then we don't get a long weekend). Slept late, took naps, went to bed early. Really a perfect day off. No knitting.

Tuesday: back to work. CHAOS! My job is complete chaos. Trying to catch up with things and just get a handle on what the heck is going on, and when, and why I'm getting yelled at for it. Also answered a lot of "how was the wedding" questions, accepted congratulations, and confused people by changing my last name on email and voicemail. (I had an email asking if my voicemail was me - how fun is that?) No knitting.

Wednesday: uh, more work. That's about it. Still no knitting.

Thursday: still more work. Oh, and the car decided to have a transmission "incident" midafternoon - we were having a minor one-day heat wave (30 celsius plus humidex) and car didn't like it. Fortunately I was 10 minutes away from my mechanic at the time and his shop is air-conditioned (car isn't, at the moment). They did something, it's fixed, but needs "looking at - soon." I totally cannot afford car repairs right now. Argh. Still no knitting, although I had a sock in my bag at the mechanic's - read a trashy mag instead.

Friday: Work, but at a much less frenetic pace. Organized for the week to come, cleared most of the clutter into manageable piles, and was out the door promptly at 1:00 as we are now on our summer hours and I get Friday afternoons off! Woohoo! Errands and then home to a quiet evening. Again with the no knitting. Started to worry that I haven't knit in nearly a week!

Saturday: GARDEN TIME!!! Up at the crack of dawn (or thereabouts), to the nursery, to the other nursery, to the hardware store (for watering implements and assorted garden gadgets), to home where we planted:
1) Tomatoes. Three varieties.
2) Purple cabbage.
3) Bell peppers.
4) Potatoes.
5) Beets (beetroot for the Brits).
6) Radishes.
7) Cucumbers.
8) Snow peas.
9) Snapdragons (not edible, but pretty and planted).

We also moved a few rosebushes and things around to make room for all the veggies, and Peter discovered that his Mom had the startings of an herb garden so I will put the rest of the herbs in there (we'd been waffling on where to put the herb garden anyway). Then, we came inside, ate HUGE sandwiches and watched movies. AND - I knit! I had to, I was relaxed and ready and just could not sit and watch three movies without knitting. Worked on the Wednesday's cardigan and then dug out my Karma Chameleon Clapotis (abandoned in disgust last summer) and restarted it (after a full two hours untangling the bag-o-yarn that it had become). Felt good, REAL good to be just knitting away on whatever, whenever again.

Today: wedding-present shopping! See, our lovely guests were mighty generous with the 50/50 draw and cash gifts tucked into cards as well. We bought a really nice patio set (COMFY chairs!) and a Dyson "animal" vaccuum cleaner (remember, we have two cats and I'm allergic to them, poor fuzzybutts). Apologies for linking to places with prices; I know it's tacky but it's also easy.

And then we came home and had naps and baked bread and had a nice quiet Sunday. The end.

Married!

Wow, two days married and I'm still grinning like an idiot. :) This will be a brief post because I tried to write out everything I thought and felt about the day and well... just couldn't. But I did promise pictures! So here is a picture of Peter and I, just after the ceremony, going away for a quiet moment before the reception:

And here is a "group hug" / "team photo" of the whole kit and caboodle (except our officiant Al, who had to leave early, darn it!)

It was a wonderful, incredible, joyous day and everything I had hoped for. See all those smiles? There's a whole lotta love in that room. I am so lucky.

T-1, or - deck building day

Yes, it's tradition don't you know to build a patio deck in your back yard the day before you marry! Well, what the heck, we need the deck and it's a beautiful day. There's so much going on right now my head is spinning (not least of which, my sister and her kids arrived from out East last night at 11:00 and SURPRISE! - three more for the wedding. They'd better have a late lunch because there are no extra fajitas.)

Was visiting Yumi's blog this morning and found pictures of me:

and the chapel for the wedding tomorrow.

Thanks Yumi! I've had a pretty insane week and I needed a moment of tranquility... these pictures are it.

So today, we build a deck, then Gloria and Dylan and I are going to have lunch at Cora's and see Shrek the Third - yes, I will miss what may be the last Sens game of this series (if they win) but I don't see Gloria often and hockey is always there. Fortuitously, the Wings lost their last game, so tomorrow's game is non-critical. Still, they should win now. No screwing around.

Last night we watched Pan's Labyrinth - a good film, a dark film but well made and intriguing. Some violent bits but nothing too over the top. It would have been nice to know in advance that the film was in Spanish with English subtitles, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. However, I messed up my #2 blue sock heel and had to frog it back to zero - subtitles and heel-turning are apparently a bad combination for me. Ah well.

Have a great long weekend everyone - next post will be from married me!

This is not a real post

It's another meme, 'cuz Tess was sneaky and tagged me in hers. Bad Tess, giving me work to do five days before my wedding! :) So:

Eight things about me

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random (but oddly connected) Facts about Kit
1. I hate to eat fruit, but love fruit smoothies.
2. I feel much less guilty about buying Starbucks lattes or Booster Juice smoothies when I remember I used to spend more per day on cigarettes, and don't anymore.
3. At least twice a year, I still get a powerful urge to smoke. But I don't.
4. At least twice a year, I go through my closet and purge clothes I don't wear or that don't fit or that are just plain dead. I'd rather wear the same pants three days a week than three different pairs I don't feel comfortable in.
5. I have totally come to terms with "comfort" as my personal sense of style.
6. Yes, I do wear socks with sandals - but only hand-knit ones I've made myself.
7. I have to be knitting at least two things for other people for every one thing I make myself or I feel INSANELY guilty.
8. I am getting better at being honest with people when I just don't have the energy to go out and do stuff. Rather than make a lame excuse I will phone them and say, "I don't feel like it tonight, I'm going to bed but I love you and will see you soon." People are generally understanding of that, and if they're not, why on earth would I spend time with them anyway?

Ok, that's eight. Done like dinner - oh crap, I need to eat dinner. Um, tagging eight people... do eight people read this thing? um... Yumi, Lori, Alison, SP!, Tess (tag-back, ha!), and anyone else that feels like it.

Time for dinner and then Happy Hippie Hat part II!

Seven days from now...

We'll be into the second set of the Crowd show (R&B and dancing) part of the wedding. We'll have chicken wings and veggie trays and I'm SURE my eye makeup will be raccoon-ing. And I will be - married.

Ok, if you're here for the knitting, you will have to indulge my marital obsession for just a few more days. At the moment all I can knit are socks (hey! I cast on the "Rosewood" - looks like cherry-chocolate-swirl ice cream. Yum.) and even at that, I'm having difficulty with things like turning heels and decreasing toes the right way. I'm NOT nervous, just - preoccupied, especially with the weather (current forecast: massive rainstorm on Wednesday followed by hot and sunny through to Sunday. Please God, keep that one!). And details, details - everyone is offering to help but I don't know what I need help WITH! But - it will all be good and beautiful and, as I'm told, go by in a big ol' blur anyway.

Meanwhile, we had Mother's Day at the folks' place with the folks (of course) and sis and niece. BBQ and wedding chat (of course) and general family-time-goodness. I brought tulips fresh-cut from our garden, which Mom loved, and she was wearing the Fleece Artist socks I knit for her too. Yay me! And, I had a call from my daughter, who is super-excited about coming up for the wedding (she arrives Thursday), which made the day even better.

Now, I'm home and bathed (oh, I love my tub!) and thinking about bed. Actually, I'm thinking about curried cashew nuts, but I don't have the makings for it so I will have to settle for reading the recipe again and putting the makings on the grocery list for the weekend. I had some of these at Tara's the other night and they are ever-so-good and addictive as hell.

This week is going to fly, and I have obligations every single evening:
Monday: meet with Al, our officiant, to finalize ceremony stuff.
Tuesday: teach Part 2 of my Happy Hippie Hat class.
Wednesday: SnB Bridgehead. I so need a night with the girls to just KNIT!
Thursday: pick up daughter at airport, get groceries.
Friday: uh... well, Friday evening we don't have plans, as such. But I'm sure we will, by then!

So there may not be any more blogging this week. And I promise PROMISE that after the wedding we will return to regular knit-talk, mostly. Maybe one picture, if any turn out decently.

Oh, and before I forget: yes, I am getting married wearing a hockey jersey. But for the first part of the ceremony I will be wearing my "rabbit tracks" from Alison (scroll to Dec. 7 and Dec. 2 for story and picture), because I think you can never have too many hugs on your wedding day, and that will be a long-distance hug of the highest magnitude. :)

This time next week, I'm gonna be married. Wow and wow again. Life is sweet.

Saturday, in the Park

Don't know who wrote that song, and I'm pretty sure they weren't singing about sitting indoors watching "A League of Their Own" whilst knitting socks. But that was a big chunk of my day. Here is the result:
(No, I didn't knit ALL that during one movie. Finished 'em all though!) From left to right: sock for me in Patons Classic Merino Wool, "Wedgewood" colourway - this is sock 1 of the pair, I've been too busy to knit much lately! 2nd from left is a "teaching sock" in six colours of Patons Astra, the six colours representing the six "steps" in the sock-knitting process. And on the right-hand side are a pair of teaching socks in eeny-weeny size (honestly they wouldn't even fit a baby, but they do demonstrate the process fairly well I think!)

These will be my store samples for the June sock class series; I have 2 confirmed and one interested student so I'm getting pysched for that. However I'm also very busy with wedding last-minute-y stuff (a week tomorrow!) and that is starting to push other things to the back of my mind. Go figure.

Smells like my pie is done - cherry pie to take to dinner at Sandy & Dan's and then over to Bundy & Kid's for hockey. Can we stretch one pie to two social events? I hope so, I'm too tired to make another and it's getting late. Serves me right for napping all morning... I woke up at 7:30 (it's saturday!) and read for about two hours, and then suddenly it was noon and I had a kitty on my lap. Kitty on lap makes for instant nappage, apparently. :)

Edit: No B&K trip last night - so SO tired, we had dinner and then I just came home and fell into bed before the 2nd period of the hockey game started. So Yumi gets another Pie-O-You!

Teaching again!

Went into the store tonight to check if anyone had signed up for my Hippie Hat class and there was a lady signing her daughter up at that very moment! Which was very cool, because if I had been five minutes earlier or she had been five minutes later, the class would have been cancelled (24 hours prior + no students = no class). BUT - I have a student, so the Hippie Hat class goes forward. Neat! So tonight I need to finalize the pattern (thanks again to all who provided suggestions) and pack up my little bag o' goodies for tomorrow evening. Yay paid knitting time!

After a very busy but oh-so-productive weekend of landscaping (pictures later, they're on Peter's camera), we have a lovely back yard and a much smaller pile of dirt. We still need to move about 1.5 cubic yards of earth, filling in little spots here and there. Hoping to get to that Wednesday evening, if I don't have to work too late. WORK - augh! Let's just say the crazy train is heading my way from both directions and I'm tied to the tracks. It's going to be a Fugly week, but what can you do? Gotta work. The upside is, the week will FLY by and then I can play in my dirt some more. And knit and watch hockey. And totally NOT stress about the wedding, which is now in 13 days (never mind the counter, I think it's in a different time zone than I am). I'm not stressed, just tired of people asking me if I'm stressed. Or nervous. Or, "so, still have time to run, you know!" Got that one this morning, to which I replied, "Nope. We bought plants together. That's a commitment." Why is it people feel the need to antagonize you about your wedding ENDLESSLY, right up until the moment? It's like going up to a pregnant lady and saying, "So, those feet sure are swollen. Sure you don't want to reconsider?" Or poke her in the belly or say "how many days now? Gee, aren't you NERVOUS?" Gods, people - it's a wedding, I'm not going to the moon. It's a party to celebrate me and my honey and our nearest and dearest.

Sorry, just a little annoyance there. I'm fine, really. Have to go finish my pattern notes now. G'night all.

Two weeks and counting...

It's Sunday morning, two weeks before the wedding. Peter's up early (as usual) and I've slept in a bit (as usual) and now we're getting ready to tackle Phase II of the landscaping project. Phase I was yesterday - actually, we started Friday evening - where we moved a little over half of 8 cubic yards of topdressing soil into our backyard from our driveway. Our backyard resembled a bit of a moonscape - all dips and hollows and high spots and very poor drainage. Now it's well on it's way to being a reasonably level, reasonably smooth blank canvas of rich soil on which we can impose beauty. We hope.

Today's plan calls for moving the rest of the dirt, bringing in a pile of rocks for the retaining wall and pathway, and planting a few things. I've got pansies to go in the front, and daylilies (in abundance!) which we dug up from beside the composter (where they were THRIVING, I can tell you!) and are going to put in around an ugly standpipe that the landlord whacked into the middle of our front yard last year. Hopefully the daylilies will disguise it fairly well.

Then we will seed the back yard with a mix of grass and white clover - as Peter says, "let 'em fight it out, something will grow!" There is a corner reserved for a large bed of flowers/shrubs/whatnot. There is a sunny spot (by the composter!) for my herb garden. And finally, there is the LARGE vegetable garden. But that will be a project for another week - still too cold for getting veggies in the ground. We had -1 windchill last night.

And knitting? The upshot of all this earth-y business is that I knit for about - 2 hours? yesterday. Finished the first pair of store socks and started the second. This evening I will have to knit a lot, and tomorrow evening as well, because I have to get these samples in ASAP. But first, more dirt.

And what does all this have to do with the wedding, you might ask? I think it's obvious. We're building and beautifying our home, together. Working in harmonious tandem to achieve common goals. NOT having dirt fights (Yet!). And sharing in those quiet moments where we both sit in chairs, on a freshly-raked bed of topdressing soil, in the sunshine, and say "It Is Good."

Happy Sunday all!

Thursday? Whoa!

This week went by too fast. Today started off wonky (forgot my tea, left stuff in trunk of car, new light for desk lamp didn't fit, stupid people asking stupid questions, pants didn't fit)...

and then got oogy (pants didn't fit, every food choice tasted wrong and made for upset stomach, head ache and back ache)...

and ended up good (bought pants that do fit, came home to Peter doing dishes, have an evening of relaxed knitting ahead).

This weekend we're sticking close to home and getting serious yardwork done. As in, 10 cubic yards of topsoil getting dumped in the driveway and then trucked around back in wheelbarrows and raked over the backyard to even out all the humps and hollows. Assuming of course that we can get the dirt delivered tomorrow (kind of a last-minute plan, oops!). If not, screw it - I'll knit and go golfing. :) Either way I'm getting plenty of fresh air and sunshine this weekend - may have to run a long cable/extension cord outside to watch the Detroit game Saturday afternoon!

Still working on blue sock #1 - pink sock #1 has not yet been started but I have to be good and finish the store sample socks before I go back to my socks. Darn it. :) Pictures of store socks soon.

OH! And, I got together 90% of the goodies to send to my Secret Pal - she's overseas from me so I'm doing 1 big package instead of several smaller ones. Got to get that in the mail next week. Mmm. Secret goodies. I will take pictures to post AFTER SP10 is over so you all can witness my selflessness in sending away stuff I really REALLY wanted to keep for myself. Ah well, it'll teach me humility or something.

Teaching is fun

Especially when your students are patient and relaxed and really want to learn. We had fun tonight - I had fun, even though I was nervous and trying to figure out the "must know" stuff from the "good to know" stuff. They (my peeps!) had fun and both are willing to learn more about knitting. A class of two was a good start - I think I might have had trouble with more, but now I know how to teach the knitting, not just do the knitting. And that's pretty dang cool.