A Pretty Good Week

For the most part, it's been a pretty good week around here. It hasn't snowed as much and we even found the driveway under about 10 inches of hard-packed snow and ice. That took a quite a bit of chipping and lots of help from a few milder, sunny days. The mild days put an extra spring in Gypsy's step and even Bubba was glad to be outside for a change.

I finished a project almost on time. I made this scarf for Mom for her birthday last week and got it to her Friday; it was actually finished the day after her birthday. It is Argosy, from the last issue of Knitty. I'm telling y'all, it is always worth checking Knitty for an interesting pattern!

Do you think I cut it close enough for the amount of yarn needed?

There are some other finished projects that I'll try to take some decent pictures of in the daylight.

DD is slowly recovering from having her wisdom teeth (all 4 of them) liberated from her jaws. She's certainly not 100% yet, but she can talk again, wants to eat a bit and is starting to make jokes again. She even went out on her own for the first time today.

Today, I spent the day at the computer. I paid bills, did the income taxes for both the Feds and New York state, e-filed them, and filed FAFSA and NYS financial aid forms for 2007. Goodness, what a grim way to spend the day, but at least it's done for another year! Or at least another month as far as the bills are concerned.

Tonight, it is snowing again. Gypsy came in much, much whiter than this. She says that she's trying to be the same color as Bear. Bear is a standard poodle that, sadly, lives too far away to be her playmate.

There Comes a Day

In the fall, when the days become shorter and shorter, the temperatures start to head down and lake effect snow becomes part of the weather forecast, we think about the winter to come. Is it going to be an easy winter, or one of those that goes down in the record books for truly grim? Once it gets below say, 40 F or so, we feel chilled and go looking for the woolly bits that get us through the cold season. Very few actually remember to make sure that we have shovels (sometimes they wear out) or that other snow removal equipment is up and running. We save that for the first "real" snow of over 6 inches or so.

Once winter sets in for good, which was quite late this year, we hunker down and deal with it. You wouldn't dream of leaving the house without gloves, mittens, hat, scarf and boots. Even if you are driving somewhere, all those items are in the car, just in case. The snow brush/scraper is always within reach to unbury the car. Many well-prepared people add jumper cables, salt/gravel, chains, shovels to the trunk. Even if you don't need them yourself, you might need the stuff to help someone else.

There are long stretches, weeks even, where it snows every day. You may not see the sun for weeks. It's often very cloudy around here. There are storms; there is wind; it is cold. It is a daily struggle to get to work, to the store, to the mailbox.

Sooner or later, every winter, there comes a day that seems quite nice. The sun is shining, there isn't much wind, you find yourself wandering around with your coat unzipped, no hat, no mittens, no scarf, and the window part way down while driving around. You say to yourself, hey, it's really nice outside, even warm. Then you look at the thermometer and find that it is 20F (-7C). Today was that day.

It's About Time!

Well, I've got to say that it's about time we had a snowstorm. I think this one was a bit over-publicized. Yes, we've had over a foot of snow; yes, it's quite cold and yes, there's been some blowing/drifting. However, I've seen worse over the years. I don't know if it's because the media just has to make such a big deal over everything or if we're just out of practice with this, up-til-now mild winter. Gypsy says that it's about time I left the blankie on the couch for her!

At any rate, this was a good day to be home. I meant to spend the day at the desk, doing things like guild membership updates, organize this month's bills and do the taxes. What did I do instead? Laundry and this:

Nice looking, eh? I decided to boycott getting expensive cards for my family on Valentine's Day and treat ourselves to cheesecake.

DD sure needed a little treat for the day. Every public school and college in the area was closed, except hers. Not only did she have to drive through the less-than-ideal conditions, but she was reminded that water (or diet coke) expands, or in this case, explodes, when frozen. Should've listened up in science class, kiddo!

Sweater Progress

I've just been plugging along around here. I review job postings, ignore housework and go to the post office every other day or so to support what I'm calling the world's slowest garage sale (aka EBay). We're actually doing pretty well selling off an accumulation of vintage stuff, tools and what have you.

It wasn't snowing much and was a bit warmer today (20F, -7C) so Gypsy and I went off to the park after the Post Office run today. Most trails weren't really accessible, so it was a short walk, but good to get out for a bit anyway.

You would think that I would be turning out millions of yards of yarn and almost as many knitting projects with all this spare time on my hands lately, but I seem to be self-rationing. There is slow progress on the sweater. The lapels and border are in seed stitch, which takes me longer to knit anyway. There's also the small problem of this cat who appears to be in love with my sweater.

What is it about February? I'm already sick of it and it's only the 7th. There are many, many places that are much colder than here and many near here that are getting pounded with snow to the tune of 3-6 feet over last weekend (and it's still snowing in the lake effect areas). Yes, measuring snow in feet, for those of you doing metrics...call it 1-2 meters. Kind of boggles the mind, doesn't it?

By the time I was able to get the camera, much of the snow had melted off of Gypsy, the snowydale...she was completely covered across her head and back.

There is progress on the sweater that I'm knitting. At this point, I'm just putting all my faith in the designer. It just doesn't seem like there's going to be enough frontage for the boobage. I think I've thought of a solution, if needed. She was completely and wonderfully spot on for the sleeves, so there is a reason for that faith.

I continue to be quite fond of gadgets and this is one of my current favorites. You see, I like to drink those fancy, flavored coffees now and then. DH says that "those" coffees contaminate the coffee maker. Voila, problem solved.

Happy Groundhog Day!

To be honest, why do we think that having 6 more weeks of winter (or not) is any kind of forecast? Around here, we're lucky if winter is over (ish) by the middle of April, which is 10 weeks away. Let's face it, the whole Groundhog Day thing is really just for fun. People do think up the oddest things to do to pass the time during the winter. Other odd activities might include ice fishing, polar bear dips and golf (yes, I have actually participated in a very snowy golf tournament). Anywho, Punxsutawny Phil says there's going to be an early spring.

To celebrate the day it seemed like a good idea to make banana bread. It was and there were two loaves; it goes fast in this house.

In other news, I've started a sweater. Actually it's well along, body done up to sleeves, one sleeve done, the other underway. More on it later when it looks more like a sweater.