General

Sorry I haven’t blogged much so far this year – it’s been a busy few days. I don’t generally post about my family (well, at least not too much) because, well, it’s personal (plus they all know my url). But right now I need some positive thought vibes… My grandfather is having open heart surgery Monday morning to do a triple bypass and fix a leaky aortic valve. Also, my 15-year-old cousin is having an MRI Wednesday to check up on a brain tumor that’s been surgically removed twice but is being very stubborn and won’t go away completely.

Life is scary sometimes. Give your loved ones extra hugs today, ok?

I can’t believe it’s already 2004! This year, I have resolved to make no resolutions. I’m going to just do things, instead.

Like clean my craft room, which really could called be a different word…that starts with “cra” and ends in “p”. It’s bad. I had it all organized, then something happened and now it’s not. And it’s not just that it isn’t organized. I mean, there’s not that much floor space in there to begin with, between the large table, the bookcase, and the bed (it doubles as a guest room), but at the moment, there are only a few square inches of carpet showing. The rest is covered with bags of yarn, baskets of yarn, piles of yarn (ah, a pattern emerges), books, fabric scraps, pins (I hope they’re all pointy-side down), scraps of fusible webbing (can sunlight fuse that stuff to carpet? I hope not!) and all manner of other bits of crafty things that were pulled out and not put away in the explosion of gift-making.

And now, it’s overwhelming how much needs to be done to make it even marginally useful as a craft room…like being able to even get to the sewing machine.

But I’m not resolving to clean it. I’ll just do it. Tomorrow, maybe…or the next day…

I now know the most important phrase in Italian:
Dove è il negozio del filato più vicino?
(Where is the nearest yarn store?)

You’re probably wondering why I need to know this…well, we found some decently priced tickets, so we’re going to Italy in March! Specifically, we’re going to Venice and Rome. We’re not going on any tours, so I’m trying to absorb as much Italian as I can before then so that we survive the trip and don’t accidentally cause any international incidents. It’s funny – after taking 5 years of Spanish and 2 of French, I can read a lot of Italian and understand what it says. Now I just have to learn a ton of vocabulary so that I can actually speak it. Oh, and why exactly is it that in every Romance language the most common verbs – to be, to have, to go, etc. – are irregular? I ask you, does this make any sense?

My other goal on this trip is to travel light. We’re bringing 1 (yes, 1) suitcase. We’ll each have one carry-on. (I’ll have to carefully consider what knitting (on bamboo needles) to bring. No scissors.) And of course I’ll have my camera bag. Now I just have to find a camera bag that can double as my purse and carry my camera equipment: the digital rebel, at least one other lens, a flash, and little things like memory cards. It can’t scream, “I am a camera bag, steal me!” I’d like it to be stylish (read: leather, preferably brown, none of this black cordura nylon, big plastic quick-release buckle stuff). It, obviously, needs to have good quality padding. Heck, what I really want is for a nice leather purse and a camera bag to marry and have children. I guess until that I happens, or unless someone can offer a better suggestion (anyone?) I’m going to settle for a lowepro napa bag – assuming I can find it (since it’s discontinued) somewhere. If it came in brown, I’d stop looking. (Don’t ask me why. Black is probably more stylish. I just prefer brown.)

Anyway, if anyone has been to Venice and/or Rome and has good suggestions about things to do that may not be in the tour books, or if anyone knows where to find a nice camera bag-purse, let me know! Grazie!

I have to preface this with the following statement: I was very, very, very spoiled this Christmas. I’m not even sure I should blog about all this, because I’m afraid I dreamt it and I’ll wake up!

Christmas morning started out with Denis giving me some great DVDs. But then when we opened up our stockings, I found a 256 MB memory card and this certificate…which of course immediately got redeemed for this camera:

(I want to feel guilty about running out and buying my dream camera the day after Christmas, but I can’t, because Santa Claus said I shouldn’t. With luck and a little time to practice using my new toy, the photography on this site should become considerably better.)

After opening up our gifts to each other, we went to my parents’ house. The deal was, “we’re keeping Christmas simple this year.” So when I got a box of lovely fiber I was happy, because I really need to start spindling more now that the Christmas knitting is done.

But then a really big box was placed in front of me…a really big box which contained the spinning wheel that I had sort of vaguely decided I liked the look of months ago but figured I needed time to practice with my spindle so I thought a wheel would be something I’d get a few years down the line. I mentioned it, once, to my mother. Once. I don’t even think I showed her a picture. (It’s a Kromski Minstrel. More details here.)

So, yes, Santa was very, very good to me this year. I guess I must have been a very good girl! And I promise I’ll post pictures of the gifts I gave out soon!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a wonderful, happy, healthy New Year!

Well, not quite a river, just a creek really, but to Grandmother’s house we went. I spent the day running errands (I don’t recommend either Wegmans or the mall on Christmas Eve), cooking, eating, cooking more, eating lots more, and killing my fingers on the guitar (I haven’t played in a long, long time.)

I think it’s time to go sleep now, and keep an ear out for sleigh bells.

Well, I’m not quite done with the last gift. Turns out I didn’t have quite enough of the main color of yarn, so I had to rip back a bit and re-think the color sequencing last night. So what did I do all day today instead of knitting? Last minute shopping (even when you think you’re done, apparently you’re not), lots of baking and cooking for tomorrow, and…we went to see The Return of the King. Yay! It was very, very good, although I think I’ll have to see it again in a less distracting theater. I mean, really, I know the movie is over 3 hours long, but the lady sitting next to me got up FOUR times during it. And the people behind me kept whispering things, commenting to each other about things that were happening (or were about to happen). And I heard at least three cell phones go off. Grrr. People are rude.

Anyway, I have to go to bed now. Must get up early and peel (no this isn’t a typo) 30 pounds of potatoes…which I first have to go to the store and get. Granted, there are going to be 30 people for dinner at Grandma’s, but do we really need a pound of potatoes per person? Wait, these are Grandma’s scalloped potatoes we’re talking about…I guess we do. :)

Buy cookies or make cookies? The verdict: both. I bought cookies, and then made cookie dough and brought it with me. Now all the cookies are baked, and some are even frosted.

And I did lots of knitting in the car on my way here. I was a good girl: I only brought the last two gifts-in-progress, another (non-knitting) gift that will need to be done in a few weeks, and two balls of sock yarn. (Yes, I know, that’s really ambitious, but I couldn’t decide which sock yarn to use first.)

Anyway, I think I’d better get some sleep, since I have dozens of cookies to frost in the morning. My niece Lizzy is learning about sprinkling cookies with “pixie dust” (as opposed to emptying the jar of sprinkles on one cookie.)

(Side note: Last night’s concert went much better. I totally choked on the first note of my solo, but…it’s not brain surgery, and no one died, so I’m ok with that. At least I corrected the first note and redeemed myself playing the rest of it. :) Someday I will learn to get over my stage fright. Maybe.)

So, what’s left on my to-do list from Monday?

• I still have two gifts to finish knitting. One of them isn’t even started yet. Can you hear the panic in my typing? Obviously, that’s what’s being packed knitting-wise for the trip. I might toss in a ball of sock yarn just in case (yeah, right) I manage to finish the gifts before we get back.
• I’m almost done wrapping things, enough so that the rest could probably wait until we get back from our trip. Especially since two of the things aren’t done anyway. (See above.)
• The inside decorations are up and the boxes put away, and the outside just hasn’t been cooperating weather-wise…maybe I just won’t bother this year. :(
• Cookie baking. Well, I have two choices: stay up until probably 2 or 3 in the morning tonight, or buy cookies. The Italian Catholic guilt gene is saying “stay up, you know you really shouldn’t bring store-bought cookies.” The rest of me is saying “go buy those really fancy Italian cookies and go to bed early so you can enjoy the trip.” Which will win? Tune in tomorrow…

So, aside from the cookie debate, and the feeling that the neighbors must think we’re horrible grinchy people with just a small door decoration and candles in the windows but no wreaths or garlands, and the fact that I have several hours of knitting left to do, I’m less stressed. No, really, my to-do list is getting shorter every day. Of course, the time left to finish everything I have to do is also getting shorter every day.

Really, I just want to be able to get back to knitting stuff for me. Two sweaters and a vest, and several pairs worth of sock yarn have been calling from my stash for days now. Not to mention my stalled aran afghan. But I’m going to be a good girl and ignore them for just a few more days. Probably.

I’m having one of those days where I probably would have been better off going back to bed and trying again tomorrow morning. I really hope it gets better, because it’s a nice sunny day, and I’m in anything but a sunny mood.

Maybe I could crawl back under the covers for just a minute or two and get up on the right side of the bed this time?