Archives for January 2008

It’s super foggy outside — can’t even see the hill where I walk the dogs. I’m drinking my tea. It’s weird, I lost my taste for coffee about three or four weeks ago, something I do every once in a while. My acupuncturist calls it liver stagnation. I call it coffee-tastes-bad. And I love coffee, so it’s quite strange when that happens. But I’m loving my tea, and I really need a tea cozy for the pot. Wish I would just make one, but there are so many other things demanding my attention today!

For example, today I would like to:

1. Go for a run with Clara
2. Clean the house
3. Do laundry
4. Make oatmeal-raisin cookies
5. Grocery shop
6. Dye my hair/cut bangs
7. SPIN!
8. KNIT!

Those last two things are the things I want to do most, and I want to do them while watching stupid TV. But what will happen, what always happens, is I will put off doing the fun things until all the chores are out of the way (and many more chores will occur to me as I’m moving through the house) and then it will be seven o’clock, and I’ll be tired and rather grumpy from being So Busy on a day off.

So what do I do? Combat it by spinning right now? Watch a little TV? I know, logically, that if I do that, I will be happy and content, and then I will move easily into house-cleaning — a little here, a little there. But I have such a stubborn streak about "getting things over with" that I always feel like I should do the icky stuff first, then have the reward. Although like I said, the reward is always moving away as the day slips by.

So yes. I will compromise — I’ll put in some laundry, and maybe clean the couches of dog hair and THEN spin for a bit (not with the dog hair! No! With the luscious camel/silk I’m dying to play with). And maybe knit a cozy later.

GOOD MORNING!

Whoops. My caps were on lock, but I suppose that’s a nice, loud way to greet you, so I’ll let it stand.

Just for fun, a picture from the never-blogged archives (or was it? Don’t remember. But it’s cute! Here you go!)

        Everyone say cheese!

And how are you?

Me, I’m pretty sleepy. But happy, because I did my soy test last night (while I’m going to see an allergist when they can get me in, I’m also practically a doctor what with my Masters in English and EMD certificate, so I enjoy diagnosing myself) and I was very scientiffik about it. I had avoided ALL sources of soy completely for two full weeks (which meant no eating out, because seriously, it’s in things like hamburger buns and pasta. Please). And then last night I did my GO BIG OR GO HOME sushi feed, and I ate all the sushi I could fit in my mouth, dripping with wasabi soy saucey goodness.

And no problem. No reaction. No swollen lip/eye/tongue, no itching at all. I really think it is just a soy lecithin problem, which, while it is pretty awful to have to avoid things like chocolate and sweets, it’s not as bad as also avoiding all soy. Hooray!

Today, I’m helping a friend clean out her dad’s house — he just died, and I think I’m more moral support than muscle, although I’m happy to be both. So she’s picking me up in a little while, and it’s off to the city for us, and it’s a gorgeous, clear day, and I’m happy to not be at work. Yep. I hope your day is lovely and your teapot stays cozy.

https://rachaelherron.com/good-morning-wh/

Such a nice day I’ve had. It’s blustery and cold and rainy, and for some ungodly reason I felt moved to make good on my promise to myself to run once a weekend, outdoors, with Clara. I drove to the San Leandro Marina with her, and then sat in the car in the parking lot while the car shook and the waves were blown splashing up onto the rocks. I watched tree limbs fall. I sat for ten minutes. Then I started the car and left the marina. No way in hell. Then I apologized to a confused Clara and turned around again. I went and parked in the same spot, and then got out and ran.

It was SO COLD AND WET. But I did it, and I was glad that I did because now I can just lounge around, knitting, and brother, do I have knitting to do. And knitting to show you! I never have knitting to show you, not until it’s all done, because I never get around to photographing anything. But today I did. So shall we take a walk through what I’m obsessed with right now? My works in progress:

First,  Jeanie: 

It is REALLY hard to get a good photo of this, but it is a blast to knit. You’re always thinking a little bit, and then you get to drop stitches. It’s like Clapotis on steroids. Keri is a genius. Reversible cables! Come on! Unreal! Lace by doing cables! It’s a dream come true! But lordy, is it slow going. Worth it, though.

Tactile Socks:

My friend Maia and Brooke have a relatively new fiber business called Tactile, and I bought some roving from them a while back. I loved the colors they chose in dyeing this (they use organic, natural dyes):

I split the roving, one half for each sock, and spun a relatively fine, soft single:

To keep the colors together, I Navajo-plied it into a 3-ply. Having never officially been taught how to do this, and having learned the technique online, my technique involves me and my lazy kate in a battle of wills. Usually my hands are flipping somewhere above my head while I treadle frantically. Seriously. There has got to be a better way.

When I plied it, I was only middlin’ pleased. Didn’t know how it would look knit up:

(One can tell I am a crazy kid on the Navajo-plying bike.)

But oh, my gosh, I am so excited about the sock it’s making! It’s working! It’s self-striping!

Isn’t that purdy? I love it. Go say hi and tell ’em I sent you! I think if you email them they’ll hook you up; they’re still setting up the online store.

And moving on, I have no sweater on the needles. That has to change! Makes me nervous. So drawn by the gorgeous DROPS 103-1 (sexy name, isn’t it?) that everyone in blogland is making, I’m going to make one, too. I would like it to fit me like Holy Knitball’s fits her. Ain’t that cute? For Christmas I got from Lala what I always want the most: a gift certificate to Article Pract. One can NEVER go wrong with that gift, I tell you. With that present, I was able to buy ten skeins of this:

And I also bought Son of Stitch and Bitch — what a cute book! I haven’t needed to own any of the others, but there are some awesome patterns in there, esp. the Ernie Sweater.

Okay. I’ve spent too much time here. Now I need to sit on the couch and cast on. Oh, yeah.

I love routines. LOVE them. I can get into a routine in two days. And then I look forward to the next day, when I can do it again. It’s flexible, though. I can fall out of a routine just as quickly.

I have some new routines. Doesn’t everyone? It’s the new year, after all! Even if I don’t make "resolutions," there’s a certain clarity that comes with a new year, a fresh slate. A new blank notebook of a year.

And while it’s only the fifth, I’ve already been to the gym three times! That’s a miracle right there. I’d actually canceled the gym a few months ago, after I hadn’t been in SO LONG that it was completely embarrassing. I felt good about the cancellation. Proud of saving money that would be otherwise wasted.

Then I started wanting to start running again. Runagogo has a Ravelry group! 100 miles by April 1st! I had to start keeping up with runagogo-ers (how great is it that it’s taken on a life of its own?). But with the winter light, and me getting to work long before dawn and leaving after night falls, there was no way I was ever going to be able to run on work days (I won’t run at night, no matter how safe the area feels — did it a couple of times and hated it, even with Clara at my side). And I wanted more than just one run on the weekends. So I signed back up with the gym (they’d frozen my account so I didn’t have to pay joining fees again), and I have a new thing now: I run before work. There is no justifying that level of crazy, except to say that getting up at 4 am really isn’t that much more painful than getting up at 4:40. Seriously. It sucks either way. But three times this week I’ve rolled out of bed at four (or a little before — I always wake up before the alarm — highly annoying), fed the cats, put on my gym clothes, grabbed my work bag, and headed out.

The gym is so different at that time of morning. I go to a really huge 24-Hour Fitness in San Leandro, right on the way to work, and it’s usually packed day and night. I like it because EVERYONE goes there. Men, women, gay, straight, every race, every body size, every age. I love that there will be a twenty-year old guy as big as an Oakland Raider wearing a black tank and black running shorts running on a treadmill, and right next to him will be a ninety-year old teeny-tiny Asian woman wearing a full-on pink polyester pants suit, holding her purse with one hand, the rail with the other. (The little old ladies of every race are the ones I love the best — they always carry their purses with them, and they come in pastel-colored flocks. They perch on the weight machines and chatter and then walk very slowly and carefully on the treadmills, gossiping as they go.)

And always, when I’ve been there before, you have to wait for a machine (because the little ladies are gossiping) and people hover behind you, making sure you don’t go over your 20 minute treadmill time limit. But that early in the morning? No one is there! Just me on the treadmill with maybe one or two others, and three or four guys pumping iron, scattered in various areas of the huge room. No one cares how long I’m on the treadmill. I’m the first one in the shower for the day, so the shower and locker room floors are blessedly dry. No one else has been in the locker room with me at all. No one’s in the pool, although I don’t see myself really using that — I know how to swim, but it seems counter-intuitive to work out in an environment which doesn’t support my breathing lifestyle.

I’m doing the Couch-to-5K program, using the awesome Robert Ullrey’s podcast (free from iTunes). He tells you when to run and when to walk, and the music is just my style: gay-bar disco-rific. Erika, you would like this music. Yes, I could do more than this, yes, I could run farther for longer than the program has you start out (jogging for one minute, walking for 90 seconds), but I haven’t been running in months, so I’m starting out again slowly. No hurry. Just want to get there in the end. You know? And it’s nice to not time yourself, to have someone else doing it for you.

So yep. A couple-three times at the gym during my work week, and one longer run outside with Clara on my weekend. That’s the goal. Nothing big, but it’s something.

Plus, I’m eating so damn healthy right now. I’ve eliminated all sources of soy from my diet* for a couple of weeks, and I’m here to tell you, all good things have soy hidden in them somewhere. Even most gum has soy lecithin. It’s everywhere. I am so bored without chocolate and ice cream (and by that I mean Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Ben and Jerry’s, not extra-dark chocolate and organic pumpkin frozen dessert). Gah. I kind of feel like if I’m forced to eat like this, I might as well work out.

But I like my new routine. It feels good. (As does the fact that Lala and I made a bet that the other one wouldn’t go a whole month meditating every day. All right, I guess that’s more of a challenge. But I like to call it a bet. And there might be financial gain in the offing, but that might be anti-Buddha to those Buddhist types, so I won’t mention that part. But I like that new routine a lot, too.)

*I forgot my face soap at the gym one morning and used their soap dispenser instead. Turns out it was Dial Facial Wash Soy & Almond (no label on it). My eye blew up. Go figure.