Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet... We slept in, made some breakfast, then went to see the new James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace." A good chick flick and dick flick... DH really likes the Bond franchise, and I... um... I really like Daniel Craig. We both enjoyed the movie. A little choppier than "Casino Royale," but fun to watch. After the movie, we allowed our good friend Marie Callender to cook us dinner. She's a good cook. And she didn't even mind that we showed up without calling first, she just let us sit down and eat! So what am I thankful for? Friends, family, my health. Mostly that I get to wake up and go to sleep with the best husband in the world.

Yesterday (Friday), we totally avoided anything that resembled shopping. No "Black Friday" crowd crush for us, thankyouverymugh. Another sleep-in day, then up to San Francisco to visit my client for some work and dinner. She's a good cook; we had a yummy spinach salad with pomegranate seeds and pumpkin/cheese ravioli.

Today... ah... today... nothing. Absolutely nothing. I didn't get out of bed until 10:00, played on the computer while I listened to "Car Talk" over the internet, then went downstairs for breakfast while listening to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." Since I had finished my novel (YAY!), I knit one heel on my Gumdrops and started another pair of slippers. (Yes, another pair.) So, yes, ChickenKnittle... holiday knitting will commence with vigor! The meals for the day were of the grazing variety - there were leftover quiche, leftover veal parmesean, leftover hamburgers, leftover Thanksgiving ham dinner, and leftover pumpkin pie. Yum.

Tomorrow? Well it looks like another day of relaxation... the only thing on the calendar is Madonna's afternoon knit group. Dinner will be one of DH's specialties: tacos!

Yippee! Four for Four!

Another NaNo, another WIN! Yay, me!

I hit 50, 750 words today and got validated by the NaNo robots, so I have my purple bar of goodness on my NaNo profile. Excited? Very yes!

I hit the 50K mark, but the story's not yet done. I'll keep writing through the weekend to finish the actual story. Hopefully, it won't flounder like last year's... I still need to finish that story up, too. Hm. Maybe I should plan on taking more than just 2 days to tie up these slightly loose ends...

If You Give a Bear a G-string...

Really, there's no way to explain this.

Shhhh! Don't Tempt the Writing Gods!

Don't look now, but I'm pretty much on pace for this year's National Novel Writing Month. I was 700+ words ahead of yesterday's word count, and even though I didn't write a lick today (not in the novel, anyway.... was too busy attending to emails and... well, here), there are two write-ins this week, plus the open space of Thanksgiving weekend. And... I know what my story is! I think this is the first time in 4 years that I had a plot this soon before the end of the month! See, it all started when Bill Clinton called me on my cell phone in a dream...

Of course, now that I've said this, something will happen this week and I'll have to come up with 10,000 words on Sunday, the 30th. Sheeeyit...

I'm Just a FO Machine...

Alright, I admit it - a wine bottle is not an adequate substitute for an adorable little Yorkshire Terrier. But since there is a distinct lack of Yorkies around here, a bottle of Cabernet Sauvingnon was the best I could do. Deal with it.

This here is little Chloe's "Little Black Dress," (click here for the non-Ravelers among you) complete with pearls at the neck and ruffle at the rump. It will probably be too big for her, but I'm assuming my in-laws will fatten her up (like they've done to every other dog they've owned) and it will fit within a few months.

More FOs

Uh oh... I was about to post pictures of my two most recent finished objects... then realized that the recipients may actually read this blog. In order to get pix on Ravelry, I either need to use Flickr, upload from here (via Picasa), or upload directly from my PC.

Well, I hate Flickr, the PC uploader in Ravelry isn't working, and if I post here, the recipients will see. Maybe they just won't know who's getting what? Okay, we'll try this... anyone who thinks they're getting something knitted from me for the holidays, don't look below!

Knit Pix

Okay, Kadootje... look away! The image uploader from PC isn't working on Ravelry, so I have to post here so I can post there...

Finished - Flat Feet socks! SweeTart pattern (BMFA RSC pattern). Currently blocking on ChickenKnittle's sock blockers (thank you!). Still wet... have no idea how long before they'll be completely dry, but they do seem to be a good deal softer than when I was knitting them.

Almost done - Aunt I's Red Spice sweater. In this picture, one sleeve is on. In real life, the second sleeve has been started and is just about at the first set of decreases. I'm going to send it to her to try on before I go further, as I think it might be a tad small.

I'm back to working on the Gumdrops, and will likely pick up the Scroll Lace socks again. Maybe.

Dora the Explorer

Surf... sand... sun... On our annual trip, which normally isn't this late in November, so it's going to be a balancing act to get in the knitting I want to do (Christmas is only about 45 days away!) and make my 1667 words a day for NaNo. But the best part? Being with DH and NO WORK to do! Sleeping in, not needing to be on a conference call, no documents due to anyone... Loverly...

NaNo!

It's NaNo time again! (For those who aren't involved or who don't recall, November is National Novel Writing Month - write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.)

Days 1, 2, and 3 were good word-count days; as of now, I'm about 200 words over the daily amount needed to keep pace (1667 per day gets you 50,010 words by the end of the month). And last night I went to my first write-in of the month, at Panera's in Gilroy. Munichmaedchen and I were there from about 7:00, and around 7:30, ca.bookwyrm joined us, too.

Tonight, I'll be hosting a write-in at our local indie bookseller, BookSmart, from 6:00 to 8:00. Ca.bookwyrm said she'll be there, too, but it's anyone's guess how many others will show up. It may be a gaggle of two!

In November, I don't usually have a lot of knitting progress to show, but I am very close to finishing another pair of slippers, and am about 4 rows into the lace part of "Hey, Teach!"

Now, off to do some writing for someone else (for which I get paid) so I can do some writing for me (for which I definitely do not get paid).