Finishing on the Fourth

I thought about making the day all about finishing but decided against it. Instead, I finished one knitting project and one spinning project and made progress on one of each.

Finished, one pair of gift socks. Recipient yet unknown.Finished, twisting up washed skeins of what was supposed to be Mike's next sweater. Since I do not think I have enough, I bought a whole lot of shetland roving to start over. No idea what this stuff will become but there is about 1500 yards of it. (Not all pictured here.)
Made progress on a project involving a whole lot of these and then went and bought more. I hope to mostly finish this project today.Did a lot of spinning and finished listening to the latest Janet Evanovich novel, Fearless Fourteen. It was the first time I listened to one of her books instead of reading it and I have to say, the characters are even clearer in my mind now. I really have a good feel for what Ranger is supposed to look like. Whew! Hot!!!

Basically, it was a stay at home day, except for Squidette who went and had waterballon fights with her friends. When she returned, we all went to services and then to see the fireworks.It was the first time seeing them fairly up close for the kids. Our view was somewhat obstructed but it beat the occasional burst that we usually see from our windows. Yes, it was raining.

Now I am the only human awake in this apartment (Mike is out running). The kids are getting some well earned sleep after which we will go order new glasses frames for them. Another quiet day planned here at Chez Squid.

Summer Update

With the first two weeks of the summer now over it is time for an update on my summer goals.

Reading:

Finished: Hiroshima, John Hershey and Bound Feet & Western Dress, Pang-Mei Natasha Chang.

Working on: In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez and The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins.

On the knitting front:
Lace Scarf from handspun silk -- not yet blocked.
Men's sock -- k2, p2 ribbing on the top of the foot, stockinette on the bottom. Note the marker near the toe. I knit from the marker on up during Harry Potter this afternoon. Good movie! I would have gotten further but I dropped a stitch during one of the final scenes.
The cobweb shawl.
Fronts of Cheveron Shadows vest for the TdFKDL. Only 2 more side panels to go!

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On the home front, we have a lot of clearing to do tomorrow so that we can paint on Monday. The turtle tank has to be emptied, the rug rolled (and tossed out if I have my way) and the furniture moved. Everything except the desk and the three remaining bookcases will go either into a kid's room or the dining area with the thought being that we can get both coats of paint on in one day and then get everything back in the room and mostly in place by dinner (not counting the book cases in our bedroom). What do you think? Are we crazy? The apartment has to be in some semblance of order by Wednesday morning so that Maria can work her magic. Worst case, the second "room" will be painted Thursday and Friday. Remember -- we only have from about 9:30 a.m. until about 3:00 p.m. to do this in ... Tomorrow, however, we are going out for a pleasure ride to Inspiration Point.

Summer Projects

This is where I lay down what I intend to do this summer and you get to laugh at me. First up is my summer reading list:Yes, I have already read the Anne Frank, I want to reread it with an adult perspective. All of these were borrowed from the English Department bookroom hence the heavy duty bindings.

Then, my summer growing list:
Pumpkins. Don't laugh! My favorite Otter is also attempting to grow pumpkins in a container. Look! A tomato! First one of the season.Cucumber vines! Yes, I am aiming for chef's salad with my own cucumbers and tomatoes. Last year we managed a whole pasta dish with our tomatoes. Yummy!

Then we have the knitting which is somewhat constrained by the two Knit-alongs. First up, my first pair for the Summer of Socks.The Padded Footlets from Favorite Socks without the padding. Knit in Regia Silk, these fit Squidette's newly sized 7 feet. Save me from growing children, please!

Then the Tour de France knit-along. I signed up for the yellow jersey. I am making the Chevron Vest from the Summer 2007 Knitters Magazine from my handspun silk/merino/alpaca mix that I picked up at Rhinebeck back in October. Then there are all of the projects already in the queue. The Go With The Flow socks, also from Favorite Socks, a yellow baby sweater started so long ago that I do not even remember how old it is, my cobweb lace stole and a silk scarf that I started a few weeks ago. Oh, and the theoretical blanket that I started weaving on my Hazel Rose looms say ... two years ago? I started in again on this one earlier today and have two more triangles and a square to show for my efforts.

And the spinning ... the bamboo-silk from Susan and some very dirty alpaca that I started on the Journey Wheel after Dave went on about the awesomeness of actual spinning on the JW. Yes, it is awesome to spin on. No, I am not enjoying myself as much as I should since my fingers wind up BLACK during a session with this stuff. I will, however, see it to the end as it is only 4 ounces or so total. That project saw almost 2 hours of work today as I enjoyed myself with an audiobook out on the balcony with my plants.

And there you have it, my summer projects. Will I finish them all? And how many more will get started? And what about the painting?!

Just TRY to renew that ebook

Three weeks ago I downloaded a Lisa Scottoline book to my Treo. I figured that three weeks was more then enough time to read it during spare moments. I read it while waiting for my lunch, I read it on the subway (the one or two times I took it) and that was about it. Two thirds of the way through the book, it expired.

This morning I thought I would see what happens if you try to check out the same ebook two times in a row. In to the NYPL website I went. The book was available (yes, ebooks can be unavailable) so I checked it out and downloaded it. Then came the transfer to my device. That is when everything went bad. My Treo rebooted, and rebooted, and rebooted, endlessly. Even a soft reset didn't stop it. Even a medium reset didn't stop it. Even a hard reset stopping short of wiping all memory didn't start it. Wiping the memory worked. Blah. Fortunately the hot sync that mucked everything up had also caused all of my information to be saved to my computer. One more hot sync and I was golden.

Later I finally got up the nerve to try opening the book and it worked -- it was even on the correct page!

From now on I will stick to Project Gutenberg books and skip the hassle of the library due dates.