Knitting Cybrarian

oh yeah, knitting

Oh yeah.  I'm supposed to be the KNITTING cybrarian, not the Chipotle cybrarian...  the folks at the yarn shop where I work picked up an uncorrected proof of Big Girl Knits for me at market.   I've swatched a couple of yarns and wound up with Berroco's Ultra Silk as the yarn of choice for this project -- a short-sleeved shapely sweater called "Bombshell."

The pattern calls for Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb.  The yarn sounds divine and the color card sample at the store feels and looks lovely.  But... it's a really pricey yarn at retail price.  And if I'm going to teach a class based on this patten, my students need to be able to make it with a yarn that's a little more within a reasonable price range.  If they love it, then one can make it in a different color with the pricey yarn.  BTW, this isn't a bash against Lorna's Laces.  It's about the economics of pricing out a class and knowing about how much folks are willing to spend for a project when they're branching out into new-ish territory.

I've started knitting this pattern -- fit notes are included along the way in the pattern, so it should be easier to adjust than most!  I'll keep my readers posted!

Mornings are noisy now!

Portia wanted out this morning, so I let her out the deck door and noted how warm the temperature was.  I left the sliding glass door open with the screen pulled closed and turned off the heat in the house.  Portia's been out for over half and hour now -- the longest she's been out in a while.

I stood outside with her and listened and smelled the air.  Rain.  It's going to rain today.  When I first went outside, only one bird was singing.  But within a few minutes, more birds awoke and started singing and chirping.  And then... I heard frogs.  Peepers to be exact!  The field behind our house has at least one, if not two ponds and they must be near there.

Now I'm hearing a red-winged blackbird.  The birds know it's spring. 

Portia has since come in and is contemplating going back out.  She enjoys watching the birds and whatever else she can see in the little bit of light out there now -- there are mice in the shed and in the back yard, so I'm sure she watches them too.  As long as she keeps her prey outside!

Up before the sun

It's 6:30am and I've:

• got two pans of homemade biscuits in the oven (not those nasty, pop-out-of-a-can-'cause-I'm-desperate-for-biscuits things)
• answered e-mails, including a lengthy one about music recommendations from a church friend and another about desired yarn for a sample for a class I hope to teach over the summer
• scritched my cat several times
• had 2+ cups of coffee
• put away the dishes in the drainer
• checked several news and alert sites (Chronicle of Higher Ed, etc.)

But have I worked on the report I thought I'd work on this am?  Noooo.  But I need to get to work early and get cracking.   BTW, the Chronicle pointed to Arts and Letters Daily which pointed to an article from ABC on ATT World Net about a woman who has a perfect memory.  Before you think this would be terrific, wonderful, would help you win Jeopardy, the Nobel Prize in all areas and ace every exam, think about it.   She could remember that crazy linkage stream listed above in the correct order and that I wrote about it today.  She could not only remember every hurt in her entire life, but every thing she's ever done that she'd like to forget she did (just think of those things you did or said in childhood that make you cringe still and make you wonder how in the world you grew up and still have friends?).  And the trivia.  The little things.  I wonder if she can remember a grocery list from 12 years ago.  Ugh.

A perfect memory sounds great on the surface, but I don't know about how wonderful it'd be in the long run!

My biscuits are done.  And they look good.  Thankfully I can't remember the last time a batch didn't turn out well.

Babies 'R Expensive

I stopped by Target after choir rehearsal last night to pick up some items for a baby shower this weekend.  I don't know the mother that well (she's having baby no. 2), but she's the nursery worker at church and we worked together during Vacation Bible School.  She and her husband came here from Romania and I know life has been difficult, so I figured the least I could do is get some items for her shower.

Thankfully she had registered at Target, which helped me out greatly.  I don't have children, and although I can make a good guess at what one will need, I didn't know what she'd already have on hand and could use from her first child's early days.

Being the ever practical one, I thought I'd get one piece of clothing on the list and a few necessities. 

• one cute baby sunsuit:  $7.99
• 100 pack Pampers in the designated size:  $16.99
• large container of baby wipes:  $2.59

Okay, so just a little over $25.  Then there was the $4.99 for the gift bag and $2.49 for the tissue.  No way was I going to attempt to wrap this superjumboeconomysized package of Pampers.   So now we're up to $32+.

And then there's the Chubby Hubby ice cream for me to treat the shock of actually buying 100 diapers ($2.49) and the items for hubby to justify me buying Chubby Hubby for me (Kosher hot dogs, $2.99; Cadbury mini eggs, $2.69; and Cadbury creme eggs, $1.69).

Grand total of $47.97.

My, babies are expensive!  Not just the newborns, but the 42-year-old ones!

Much ado about very little

Sunday and Monday brought lots of Winter Storm Watches, Winter Weather Advisories, etc. etc. from the National Weather Service.  We were supposed to get slammed with rain, freezing rain and then lots of snow dumped on top of that.  I was a dutiful supervisor and reminded my staff and students of the inclement weather policies.  I outlined who would call whom if the campus and library was closed on Tuesday morning, and reassured them that if the early openers didn't get a phone call by 6:15am, campus would indeed be open.

Some library employees left early on Monday.  Although I'd see a little sleet from time to time, it was mostly rain.  The traffic at 4:30pm on Monday was pretty busy, so I decided to leave work later -- about 5:45pm.  Got home, gulped down a little dinner, then took off for church for a Vestry meeting.  Drove in a mix of rain and snow with the wind blowing right at me and Big Blue.  We met for an hour, then I called Joel before I drove home.  Driving home wasn't quite as bad because the wind was "at my back" and I didn't have the weather pushed into my line of sight. 

In the night, I got up often and would check the weather.  The snow steadily fell, but small flakes.  There was a little accumulation on the deck, but not the 1-3-5-7 inches that had been predicted.

So, campus wasn't closed and life went on.  I'm glad I didn't burn any vacation time by leaving early on Monday.  Although we got lucky weather-wise, lots of folks north and east of us were not.  Sorry, folks.  But it'll melt soon.  Spring's here, even if it entered with some snow!

Sleet and Harry Potter

I finally watched "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on DVD.  Wish I had caught it in the theater on the big screen.  It was great.  Dark, but great.

Sleet's hitting the sliding glass doors and I can hear the occasional PING! on the chimney cap resonate down the chimney flue.  We're under a winter weather advisory -- and only last Sunday we were under a tornado warning.  It's true what they say about weather in the midwest and the plains -- if you don't like it, wait 10 minutes.  It'll change.  But I'm not so sure about this storm getting better in the next 10 minutes.

Irish Mardi Gras? Or is it a "Top of the Krewe" to you?

Spotted at our local grocery store's bakery today:  Irish Soda Bread with either purple, yellow, or green sugar sprinkles on top.

Okay, I get the soda bread around St. Pat's Day.  But the Mardi Gras colored sugar sprinkles???

You can take the girl out of the mountains...

We woke to find snow flurries outside our window.  Nothing serious, except Mother Nature is reminding us that she's not done with winter yet.

Joel and I ran errands this morning and on the way back, we stopped at a fairly new nursery.  I'd passed it many times, but hadn't stopped.  Inside the "hoop houses" as the proprietress called it, were azaelea and rhodendron bushes.  The rhodendron unbelievably had some purple flowers on it, and I exclaimed to Joel "look!  Mountain laurel!  What I'm named after."  Now I really don't know if I was named after the mountain laurel (also called the Wildwood Flower, see the album at Amazon.com).   But what I do know is that the song "Wildwood Flower" was sung to me many, many times as a child by my mom, and my mom's friends. 

Growing up, we'd drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway often-- sometimes to enjoy the view from the top of the mountain ridges, often to visit Uncle Lije or other family members.  My Grandpa Green helped build the Parkway as part of the WPA works project (or was it the Civil Conservation Corps?) back during the Depression.  The government split up the family farm when they bought up the land for the Parkway -- hence why we had to travel on it to visit (Great) Uncle Lije.  Rhodendron (or laurel) lines the Parkway in the road cuts, and in the spring it looks as if pink clouds have settled in along the cuts. 

I miss the mountains of home in all seasons -- whether it's watching the mountains slowly turn green, or draped in winter snows.  This time of year, the moutains appear green from the new growth on the trees.  Soon, if not already, the redbuds and dogwoods bloom, bringing spashes of pink and white to the hills and valleys, with bright green peeking out and slowly overtaking the pink and white blooms.

My heart's there, even if my body is on the prairie.

Life in Tornado Alley

Tornado season started a little early with yesterday's series of storms.  We had at least 4 rounds of thunderstorms with hail and at least another two that didn't produce hail.  We were under a Tornado Watch all day and through the night.  And under a Tornado Warning part of that time.

I did go to church between storms yesterday morning.  We didn't do much yesterday-- prayed that the hail wouldn't damage our roof or plants, and at times, staying in the family room because the tornado sirens were sounding.

If you've not heard tornado sirens, count yourself lucky.  Around here, the sirens are tested once a month -- the first Wednesday of the month at 11am.  Pretty much everyone knows when the test is -- so when the sirens sound at other times, you know to seek shelter or at the very least, stay alert.  The sirens usually rotate  -- so you have an eeerie sound effect of the sound growing stronger, then weaker, then stronger as the siren comes back around.   The closest siren is at the fire station 1/2 mile from our house, and we can hear it pretty clearly.

When the siren sounds, we usually go downstairs to the family room and turn on the TV.  If the winds are fierce, we'll crowd in the windowless bathroom just off the family room.  Yesterday I wanted to pick up Portia and bring her down, but Joel reminded me that she'll follow.  We didn't want to stress her out or make her panic.  And he was right -- she did follow us downstairs.

We were fortunate yesterday, but many folks were not.  Lawrence, Kansas received a lot of damage, as did other towns in the area.  Welcome to tornado season.

Sandals?

I wore sandals last night to church because the weather was so warm.  I LOVE sandals -- I usually wear things like Birkenstock's Arizonas or similar styles from Naot.  Nothing too skimpy or strappy. 

I want to wear sandals today.  However, it's currently 45F out with a predicted high of 54F today.  Perhaps I'll be wearing closed toe shoes.