Desperate Knitter

Over the weekend, we learned what it was like to live in times when one had no real line of communication to the outside world, other than actually getting out and talking to real, live people. Apparently (or so the cable guy told me when he came to fix it), one of our neighbors decided to do a little digging without calling that underground-line-finder phone number first. And they snapped our cable. That meant we ended up with no TV, no phone, and no Internet -- for three whole days. That, my friends, is a long time to be without modern conveniences (or Desperate Housewives, which I watched online as soon as everything was back up and running). I figured it was only a matter of time until the power went out, too -- but, fortunately, that's still working.

Thanks for all of the anniversary wishes (and happy belated anniversary to Jeanne -- click over to see the beautiful bride on her wedding day). I was going through some of our wedding pictures on Friday morning, with every intention of posting a couple, when Paul walked in on me.

Him: "What are you doing?"

Me (a sheepish grin on my face): "I'm going through our pictures -- so I can put some on my blog."

Him: "Uh, you might not want to do that. The scanner's not doing too well. It'll make everything green."

So, for the sake of not appearing sick on my wedding day, I decided against posting a picture. But, just for the record, it was a lovely day in West Michigan. Crazy windy -- and it even snowed a little bit, or so I was told -- but a beautiful day nonetheless.

Paul took Friday off, but we didn't really have anything planned. In fact, he ended up mowing the lawn while I did the laundry. Then we went to the mall and bought him pants. And I got a bagel, which goes back to a pretty long story on my wedding day, the gist of which is that there was a long line at the bagel place, and I didn't want to be late for my hair appointment, so I went without breakfast. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even beg anyone to get me a freakin' bagel. All I wanted was a bagel. My sanity and stability was all resting on my getting a bagel -- a streusel bagel with strawberry cream cheese, to be exact. The closest my mom would get was to offer me a bran muffin, which I thought was the last thing I needed on my wedding day. Eventually, my sister-in-law went out to get me a bagel -- but it was so late that I was already getting my makeup done, so I only got to eat a little bit of it. It's a miracle I didn't pass out.

So, five years later, I got myself a cinnamon crunch bagel with hazelnut cream cheese. And it was wonderful.

On Friday night, we went to what might have been the worst hockey game ever. I was planning on going out for drinks afterwards, but I was too depressed. So we bought a case of beer and went home to watch a movie. But, hey. It was a good night anyway.

Thanks to our lack of cable, we spent much of the weekend watching DVDs. We also learned to play a new game, took two walks around the neighborhood, went hiking around the Hocking Hills, and spent a lot of time being artsy. Paul worked on his latest drawing, while I did some knitting. Okay, I did a lot of knitting. I finally made it past the half-way point on the lace, and I started a sweater of my own creation. It's an obnoxious hot pink, but, as I learned with the obnoxious bright orange, obnoxious is my color. I'm sure I'll love it and wear it often -- as long as it turns out okay...

The plan is to make it a V-neck, with ribbed sleeves. It's actually based on one of my favorite old sweaters, which I still wear all the time. I figured I could use some variety. One gray, one pink. And this one won't be a men's large. I just divided for the sleeves last night, and I'm almost to the point of joining the front of the V.



On Monday, I decided to start a super bulky baby blanket while I was knitting with the girls. Just your average, run-of-the-mill, knit on the diagonal baby blanket on 15s. It looks small, but the sides are actually 19" already.



I figure if I use up some of my super-bulky yarn, it'll make it look like I'm using up more stash than I really am. Brilliant, don't you think? I'm almost at the end of the first skein. I think I'll be able to pull one out in three skeins -- which means I'll be able to do three baby blankets with the ten-skein bag I bought at the outlet in the spring.