Too Busy!

I've been updating on FB and updating via emails and totally forgetting to come here and post something. So, hi. I've been busy. How are you?

November is over and once again, I participated in NaNo (National Novel Writing Month). Once again, I'm pleased to say, I won! I hit my 50,000 words on November 29. That turned out to be a Good Thing, because I was so busy working on November 30, I didn't have time to go back and write some more of the story, which I had planned to do.

(For those who don't know about NaNo, it takes place over the month of November, and it's to jump-start people into writing their novels. You know, the Book You've Always Wanted To Write. November is the no-excuses month - just sit down and write. 1,667 words a day will get you to 50,000 words by the end of the month. [Technically, that will get you 50,010 words. Consider those extra 10 your emergency buffer.] In reality, 50,000 words would be more of a novella, but writing 50,000 words by November 30 will probably be closer to a novel than what you might write on your own in a non-NaNo month.)

So this year, I actually sort of liked my story, but it wasn't finished by the time the end of the month rolled around. I know I keep thinking about putting the stories on CreateSpace or Lulu.com so they could be shared, but ... They're really raw first awful drafts. There may be kernels of non-mediocre writing or glimpses of a point/plot, but they're no where near semi-fully formed. I'll keep thinking about sharing them.

In November everything takes a back-burner to just about everything, including knitting, so I have relatively few completed projects to share. A couple of cowls, some socks-in-progress, little work done on the three (four?) shawls I have on needles. My brain doesn't seem able to process anything vaguely complicated, so I'm sticking with a 3x1 ribbed sock and some pedicure socks most of the time. And I'll have to decide what knitting to take on the Mediterranean trip - that's always a dicey proposition. I'm good with U.S. travel, but the rules are different for other countries, so I need a project that will work with my vacation brain AND be expendable should a security agent feel the need to rip out my needles.

I did manage to make what turned out to be a teeny tiny baby blanket yesterday. Sock yarn, even on the smallest plate, makes a very loose fabric, and yet it still curls like a sonofagun, so I'm adding a border in hopes it will un-curl a bit. I may try to block it, but it's superwash sock yarn. Blocking, not work so much. I still managed to drop a fair number of stitches and had to re-hook them (one dropped around 15 rows down), but on the other hand, I'm getting a better feel for how to get the machine to cooperate and not get stuck too often. I doubt I'll ever get to use it for its original intention (to knit the boring parts of a large clothing item), but I may get to use it for other things. Washcloth, anyone?

Picking up the love of my life tomorrow after being gone 9 days. This house gets HUGE when he's not in it. I rattle a lot. Plus, I had to take out my own garbage and clean my own kitchen. Sweetie, if I ever start to take you for granted for any reason (but especially for the clean-up work you do around here), just remind me, okay?

Okay, time to watch "Two and a Half Men." Hopefully I'll update here once or twice before we leave.

Pismo time

Pismo time is special to us. It's the place where we always seem to talk about 'meaty' issues in the relationship - what "we" means, getting married, buying the house. Even when times were stretched a bit financially, we could not do away with our Pismo weekend.

This trip (last weekend) was as wonderful as always (except, maybe for the cold that I have that isn't moving). Thursday's weather was gorgeous, Friday was nice, Saturday and Sunday were normal Pismo - fog, drizzle, splotchy clouds. Doesn't matter. Our biggest decision is always "Do we eat at McLintocks on Thursday night and the Cracked Crab on Friday? Or vice versa?"

We stay at a motel that, from the street, looks like it's stuck in the 50s or 60s - The Kon Tiki Inn. It's on the corner of Price and Dolliver, within walking distance to both the pier and the restaurants along Price, and all the rooms have balconies and face the ocean. It's funky looking from the outside, but the rooms are simple, clean, and have La-Z-Boy love seats. Free wi-fi, too.

There is always a festival the weekend we go (the last weekend in October or the first weekend in November). Some years it's the Pismo Clam Festival, some years it's the Pismo Jazz Festival. This year, it was a high school marching band competition, so there were all sorts of snappy uniforms and feathery hats around town.

There's also a sports apparel store on Pomeroy (the road that leads to the pier) where we scored our SF Giants World Series paraphernalia and my brother's Christmas present (it's a Yankee-themed appliance).

Some shots to whet your appetites...

The view from the top of the stairs heading down to the beach.

Awww... isn't that cute?

The view from our balcony Sunday morning. The little dots are surfers.

The view from the top of the stairs leading down to the beach. 125 or so steps.

From the beach at low tide, looking to the northeast.

That long?

A month-and-a-half? Holy cow. Guess we've been busy. We both did Vegas in September, then KW went off to Ottawa, then we both went to DRJ in San Diego. Stayed home for 2 weeks (saw a baseball game, got the cars serviced, and had a lovely spa day with MM), then geared up for Stitches West 2011 registration, theatre, and a lovely day with my knitting buds. Back to travel, KW set off for Washington, D.C.; I followed a day later and stayed the week. Home for a day, then KW was off to Memphis (I decided to stay home for that one). When he got back, he was here for a day and then we left for our Caribbean cruise, returning yesterday.

Deeeeeeeep breath.... No, wait; no time to breathe, we're off to Pismo Beach later this week! After THAT, though, we're here until the December Mediterranean cruise. No, wait! KW has to go to Ottawa again the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend!

See? It's been like that since June...

For now, I think I'm done with all the laundry from the cruise (which was my big goal for the day) and will spend tomorrow catching up on all of RP's work that I couldn't do while floating on a big boat in the middle of the Virgin Islands. (Pictures to follow once I've uploaded them.)

Suffice to say for now that all is well, and life is good.

Such Fibery Goodies!

A few months ago, I bought into Chrissy Gardiner's "CSK" - "Community Supported Knitting." Like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), she set it up to be a way to support indie dyers while at the same time funding her new sock book to be published next year. For $55, you get a pattern a month (one of the patterns that will eventually be in the book - there will be more than 12), an opportunity to buy yarn from each monthly featured dyer (often with some sort of discount), and once it's published, an autographed copy of the book.

One of the incentives to buy in was the carrot of a goodie bag if you signed up before July 1. Which I did, and the goodie bag came today. Oh my word! Here's what came in the mail today (and what's in the picture):
- A beautiful hand-made stitch marker from Plover Designs.
- An "Indie Socks/CSK Member" post-it pad.
- A button from Pico Accuardi Dyeworks.
- A mini-skein of the Verve sock base in "Spunky," from the Unique Sheep (October's featured dyer).
- A Mountain Colors notepad.
- Writing implements: A pencil from knittedwit.com; a pen from the Unique Sheep; a pen from Twisted (yarn shop in Portland. OR).
- A gorgeous knitting needle holder from Lantern Moon.
- A ruler/needle sizer from Twisted.
- A pattern for a "Toe-up Mini Dessert Sock" from Crafts Meow, with a "taster spoon" sample of the Ice Cream Sundae yarn base in "Popsicle Toes" colorway.
- A Knitcellaneous keychain sock blocker with some beautiful yarn from Lavendersheep.
- A box of note cards from Schaefer Yarns with images of hand-painted fibers on each.
- A Chrissy Gardiner pattern, Midnight Lace Scarf.
Aaaaaand....
- A big ole' canvas CSK satchel!

Wow! Score! And all the yarns are lovely, simply lovely!

What Do You Get When You...

...put together the following numbers?

• My birth month
• My birth day
• My birth year
• Our anniversary month
• Our anniversary day
• DH's birth month
• DH's birth day
• DH's birth year
• My mom's birth year
• My dad's birth year (or was it my brother's?)

You get $4800, that's what you get! At least that's what you get at Treasure Island in Vegas when you play a $5 "Pick 10" card at Keno and manage to pick 8 of the 10 numbers you selected.

On Thursday, we flew in to Vegas (10:00 AM flight on Southwest, smooth flight, on time, no screaming people or children, arrived on time), got a cab to Treasure Island, and were in our room by 1:00 PM (lovely room, Strip view, looking south towards MGM and Mandalay Bay). Having only grabbed coffee and a muffin at the airport, we needed food, so headed to TI's 24-hour restaurant as the path of least resistance. While sitting and talking about what we wanted to do while in town, I took out a Keno sheet and crayon, and KW and I started picking numbers. We put in two sheets, one a "Pick 10," and one a "Sweet 16."

When the game was over, I read the numbers to KW, who could see the board behind me. "Yes." "Yes." "Yes." "No." "Yes." "Yes." "No." "Yes." "Yes." "Yes." I reached for the little Keno brochure that shows the payouts and almost choked. I could have sworn it said that when you pick 8 on a "Pick 10" card, you got $4800, and told KW. He looked at me funny, in a "Are you sure you know how to read?" kind of way, when the Keno runner came to the table with a little print-out sheet. "You won!" she said, and showed me the sheet. Sure enough, it said "$4800" on it.

Well, anyone who knows anything about Keno knows that it has the worst odds of all the casino games. There's a 25% house advantage - compared to Blackjack with something like a 1.2% house advantage. No one wins at Keno! Apparently the number of winners from the Coffee Shop are so few and far between, the runner didn't know the proper procedure for us to get our money! First she said her supervisor would have to come to the restaurant with a TI manager, then she said we would have to go to the Keno area. So we went over to the Keno desk, met the supervisor and the TI manager, who dutifully filled out the IRS paperwork (yep, anything over $1199 gets you a Form W-2G, "Certain Gambling Winnings" form) and then started counting out 48 one hundred dollar bills.

Let me tell you, that's a lot of bills! And pretty damn exciting to use them to pay for everything on the trip... wheeee!

The rest of the trip was wonderful, too, especially dinner at Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay's restaurant at Caesar's Palace), where I was greeted by the Birthday Bear! The Bear does get around!

Late flight home today, and KW is off again tomorrow on a business trip. He gets back on Friday, then we're both off to San Diego next weekend to attend a business conference. Busy, busy, busy!

Alright, Who's the Wise Guy...

...who "borrowed" all my store club cards? DSW... BevMo... Office Depot... They were (at one time) all together. Now they are... well, perhaps they're all together, but they're nowhere to be found (by me, anyway). And the car title from the lender, the one that says they release the lien on the car? Who's got that?

I swear, little gremlins have been coming in to the house and taking things away. Probably having a better time there than with us, but that's besides the point. I need them and they're not here! C'mon, guys; give 'em back! Please?

At least I'm not walking around asking where my glasses are (they're perched right on my nose, where they belong, thankyouverymuch). But some days I feel like that question is right around the corner.

::sigh:: Being discombobulated is not a good way to start this week!

Beadazzler

No nefarious goings-on with the Beadazzler - no plans to rhinestone up my car or the lampshades. My purse sprung a leak - the joins where the leather meets the zipper have come undone. I thought a Beadazzler would work as a way to hold them together. Unfortunately, I returned it today because the prongs on the studs that they sell for it were too short to go through both the zipper and the leather.

So there goes my stud crafting future!