On Sunday we went down to the Cincinnati Reds Stitch 'N Pitch. Did I mention we moved to OH last August? No matter, we're leaving this fall anyway (hopefully to return to Seattle). A good time was had by all, but especially the Cygnet who had the time of her (admittedly short) life. I was worried she was going to be overwhelmed by all the noise, but after looking concerned for a bit she really got into it. The seats reserved for the Stitch 'N Pitch crowd were much, much better than those at the Seattle event but they were in the sun and I'm pretty sure it was in the mid 80s in them. We'd carried the Cygnet in the Moby, so we pulled her out of that right away, stripped her, and used it to shield her from the sun. She was still sweating like mad. Fortunately, two of the seats reserved for those who can't do the stairs were available right behind us on the concourse. It was a bit noisier, but a very comfortable mid-70s temperature. As soon as we got up there, the Cygnet woke up and spent about four innings completely enthralled with all the people buying their hot dogs and beer. I think she would have liked watching the movement anyway, but it certainly didn't hurt that everyone was in red!
On the downside, the event wasn't quite as... festive as with the Mariners. They had it all muddled up with doing Mother's Day stuff (I guess they must not be playing this week), there was no big announcement, I saw maybe four knitters I hadn't come with, the mascot didn't throw yarn into the crowd, etc.
I didn't manage to take any photos at the game, even though I did remember my camera, but I have a shot of the swag:
It's a really impressive bag; actually nice yarn (cotton fleece), good needles (Bryspun and Clover in tree tru-, er, 17 & 19), coupons for local shops, a Rebecca pattern, the least offensive issue of Cast On I've seen, a little notions bag, and one of each size of my favorite point protectors.
Labels: Events
An average day here at Swan Lake:
8 am: Wake up only enough to attach baby for feeding
8:15: Consider showering while Mark is still home to watch baby
Check baby is breathing
8:45: Wake up enough to say goodbye to Mark
Check baby is breathing
9:30: Actually wake up to nurse, change diaper, choose adorable outfit for baby
9:40: Switch changing table cover because baby thinks it's funny to wait until the diaper is off to make a huge mess (give silent thanks that this time it doesn't involve washing my clothes, all the bathroom rugs, and the far wall)
9:45: Change diaper again (baby also thinks this is funny)
Enjoy morning hour baby is awake aatempning to play with 2 week old
Attempt "tummy time" and realize that as a modern mother, have no idea how to set a baby down on stomach
Manage to get baby down without strangling or dropping and be amazed how
entertaining looking at a plush soccer ball is to 2 week old
9:55: Realize being on tummy and having things near mouth has confused baby, feed briefly
Consider how much easier it would be to just be topless, reject based on week of snow
10: Return to play, realize am clearly best mommy in whole world when baby can raise head and push up on arms for a few seconds
10:30: Sling baby to be able to Accomplish Things
Get one load of laundry in washer or empty dishwasher
10:35: Plunk self on couch and flip on TV to remain there until Mark gets home, rotating between 1) feeding baby, 2) snacking on anything and everything, 3) geeling bad for getting crumbs on the sleeping baby, 4) checking to see if baby is breathing, 5) looking at serger and stack of flannel squares and thinking really should serge those cloth wipes, as all others are dirty and not currently in washer, 6) checking to see if baby is breathing, 7) looking at almost complete knit eggplant rattle and wishing had remembered to buy jingle bells last time at JoAnns, 8) checking to see if baby is breathing, 9) considering finishing the last few diaper covers I had been sewing when my water broke, and 10) checking to see if baby is breathing.
This sedentary afternoon is justified by thinking that when Mark gets home he'll hold the baby and I can get all those things done. Of course when he gets home he does take the baby... and then we all just snuggle on the couch for the rest of the evening. I can't wait until it warms up again and we can at least go for a walk and be less lumpish.
With this schedule (and the fact that basically the whole third trimester I had such terrible carpal tunnel that I couldn't knit) you can see how I haven't had a ton of blog fodder lately. Maybe as baby gets on a more solid schedule I'll start getting things done again and have more to say. We'll see.
So
Before:
After:
7:15 pm, 25 March 2007, 22 in, 9 lbs 4 oz
I (along with thousands of others) have joined
Socktoberfest
Unfortunately I won't be able to take advantage of it to start a new pair of socks or to finish off all those pairs for which I have one sock done through the heel, as much as I really, really want to. I will be using it as impetous to knit the Christmas stockings I'm making for my parents and brothers this Christmas. Let's see if I can make one a week and be done before I even return to Seattle! This seems really unreasonable, but I seem to remember that
Mark's only took two or three days. I'm making these on... sort of the same pattern. I'm not totally happy with the proportions of the foot and the top flap on Mark's, so I'll be adjusting those a little bit. To help find the right flap proportion I'll be knitting these from the toe up. I'm also doing different colors and pictures, and using smaller yarn. This time I'll be knitting with Brown Sheep Worsted instead of Lopi, so they should be a bit more reasonably sized. I'll have a light blue/white one with bells on it, a white/light blue one with a skier, a red/green one with a Christmas tree, and a green/red one with a reindeer. Last night I worked out three of the charts (though I'm still not totally happy with the bells) and as much of the pattern as I could in advance, and started by knitting a red toe. Unfortunately, I had to rip out half of it this morning, but I'm still feeling pretty good about my timeframe.
Last weekend I went to Bath. I really enjoyed it. The city really had that aura of history around it while clearly being a current center of activity. This feeling was helped by the fact that the students had also returned about the same day and were descending on the town center for reunions and exploring with the excitement of the new academic year.
Due to the lack of good public transit options, I tried something I have never done before: I got on one of those busses full of tourists to get shunted from one place to another in a big passel. Well, it was a van and only 15 of us, but still. I took a day tour out into the country and saw
Which was much smaller than I had expected. Well, smaller may not be the right word. More compact is probably more accurate. The height was what I thought from the pictures. And more compact does not mean less impressive.
The tour also included the Avebury stone circle, grounds lovingly maintained by many ovine caretakers
We also made stops in two adorable Costwold towns. They were very quaint, and I'm glad that I went, but I'm also glad that it was just a brief stop on this tour. I think that if I had followed my guidebook's glowing recommendation and done a driving tour through the Costwolds I may have gotten bored.
So there are two main things that have happened to me since I last updated (whenever that was). Can you guess them from this photo?
How about the combination of these two?
I'm currently in England, and I have a very small companion (who's demanding more room every day). I'm actually in Manchester, to be precise, though I took those photos in London last Saturday. I'm doing some research at the U of Manchester, paving the way for a series of student exchanges between our two schools. At this point I'm basically just dealing with administrative things and training on various equipment until my samples arrive. The increased airport security made us think they might be a little eeked out by my checking uncured epoxy packed in dry ice, so Brian is sending them on. Today marks a week since I left Ohio. Oh yeah, we moved to Ohio too. (We have decided that MS is now the place that shall not be mentioned or we'd just spend all our time saying "x is better than how it was in MS.") In a very scary twist, we also bought a house:
With a huge backyard:
It's technically in a suburb of Dayton, but it's one of the first-teir ones and is more urban feeling. It seems to be the best neighborhood around, and only a very desperate seller (a previous contract fell through and the seller had already moved to a nursing home) and extreme price drop made it possible for us to move there. It needs some (entire) redecorating, but is in very good shape otherwise. While Mark works out the details of that, however, I will be living out of a suitcase until Christmas. Until after Christmas, I suppose, since we'll probably travel for that. First I'll be here in Manchester until the 23rd of October, then I'll go back to Ohio until the 28th when we go to NJ for a wedding and then I'm back in Seattle until the holidays frantically trying to finish my research and general exam. I gave up my apartment so I don't have a plan, per say, as to where I'll be living this time, but I figure I'll work something out on Craig's List or something. If all else fails, there's always the couch in my office and the showers at the gym...
I've worked a little on my River Rapids socks, but otherwise not much knitting has been done.
WTF?!?! It is TUESDAY! Tuesday is NOT karaoke day! Why the hell are there drunk people belting out Sweet Caroline into the mike downstairs?!?!?!?!? This is completely unreasonable! I should not have to put up with this!
This is just a quick note to say that I am still alive. Last week I decided that I need to stop blogging in order to become more focused on school. Then I went to the Northwest Regional Spinning Conference this weekend, and realized how much I like being a part of this all and how worried I am that I will be lost when I move away from places that have such events and easy access to fiber. Having a blog seems like a good way to remain connected. When I finish school it won't be such a problem with getting things done, and I still wanted to blog again then. Rather than quit completely I have decided that I will officially make this a sporadic blog until I finish school. I won't feel guilty about not updating much, and feel the need to do it first thing and do a really long post when I finally get on the computer. I'll blog when I finish projects at least, and if I am finished with my other responsibilities and have something to say. Generally, though, things may be a bit spartan around here until Marchish (please, please, please let that be as long as this takes).
