Merry Christmas

 Images from Christmas past and present.

Books

I just finished reading my first free-copy-from-LibraryThing book, Interloper at Glencoe.  It was a fun read.  I like historical fiction, and time travel is always entertaining.  This book combined the two well, and the historical event was both obscure and interesting to me.  It is only available in electronic format, I believe.  Check here if you're interested in learning more.


On the home front, I had my windows measured for blinds.  Can't wait to get rid of the hideous drapes (they are truly, spectacularly ugly).  The woman who came to measure said, "I see you're a knitter.  My daughter is a knitter.  She recently moved home because she's going back to school, and when I saw all that yarn I said, 'No more yarn purchases until you use some of this up!'"  I just smiled.

Boy-child is home and helping with the bookcases and unpacking the books.  I even skipped Drunken Knit Night I was so excited to be making such great progress.  The place actually feels like it's mine now.

Those big boxes in the middle toward the left are glass doors.  I'm leaning away from the doors at this point; I think I'll take them back.  I'll have more room for growth that way, and it will be an uninterrupted wall of books :-)


I was at a training seminar for work last week.  They had those blue mints that you used to see in the 1960s, if I remember right.  It was kind of cool.

Cool mints.  Get it?  Really though, it was weirdly nostalgic.

Food and Snow

I just want to say that, for the first time in my life, someone brushed the snow off my car for me. Ok, sure, people have done it for me while I warmed up the car, but that was because they wanted to go somewhere. Auntie's neighbor brushed off my car just to be nice.

It was actually frozen shut; took a lot to get one of the doors open (passenger side).  I gave him cookies anyway.

Sure am glad I have that underground parking spot.

I went to The Kitchen Window and Lund's yesterday (guess where my mind is?).

Kitchen Window has monster paella pans.

The smallest of them can be rented - when filled with paella it feeds 60.

I told Auntie about the fantastic bell pepper display at Lund's.  When I said I took pictures, she looked at me kinda funny.

I told her, "I guess I don't get out enough."

Also in cooking, I tried a new recipe - beef cooked with kosher salt, olive oil, orange zest, nutmeg and cracked pepper.  It was delicious.

This and That

Today we woke up to a Winter Wonderland.  It has been snowing steadily all day which, of course, meant that I was driving all over town running errands.

At least it's pretty.

You may recall that foggy morning view from the balcony.   This is what it looked like today:

This is what it looks like on a sunny winter day with no snow or fog:

I'm thinking I'll dub my new address "Cemetery Way" ~ I sure do like my new, quiet neighbors.  The grocery store on street level is not very quiet, but across the street is "heavenly."

Another thing you may or may not recall is the double-knitting I started back in October.  I frogged that little project.  Double-knitting does not seem like a good idea right now.  I'm sure I'll think of something to do with the yarn, which is delicious.

Also in yarn news, there was a moth scare for some recently acquired yarn...The acquired yarn along with anything it was near is now in the freezer.

I finished a Christmas hat (details later or you can look at my Ravelry page if you're a member).  It's pretty.   I also dug up some Starry yarn and started a sparkly pair of socks for myself.  Kind of makes me giggle that I'll have sparkly socks.

The Christmas cactus still looks great, although I'm back at Auntie's making sure she can manage after a month away at the hospital and in transitional care.  She's much better.  She is, in fact, the healthiest sick person I know.

Now that the bookcases are under way I've started working on window coverings.  The sample fabrics arrived; they're fantastic.  More to follow.

Book Progress

You know how sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better?

First there were boxes of books... there are a lot of them, but we managed to have a small Thanksgiving dinner around the dining room table no problem.  Everything was under control.

Then you add a few more boxes from Ikea and you've got to put the dining room table in Boy-child's bedroom.

'Cause now you've got boxes to go with the boxes.

Then you put a few bookcases together and you have to move the boxes of books out of the way in order to get the bookshelves in place so that you can unpack the books.

Uff da, I'm tired!  Final stages yet to happen.  Thank goodness Boy will be home soon to schlep boxes of books around.

Colorful Night, Foggy Morning

Last night was very colorful.

This morning was not.

The Not Un-packing Week

So, I went downtown yesterday to file for homestead tax, change my address on my driver's license and  go to the post office so I could mail my Christmas cards.  Yes, I got my cards out early.  I like cards, and I wanted people to know my new address so I mailed them early this year.

Except for the ones that I didn't mail because I ran out of cards.  More on the way.

Unfortunately, I accidentally erased all my downtown pictures.  It didn't even ask me, "are you sure?" before it chugged through them all.  Gone.

Anyway, while wandering around lost, going to the Lumber Exchange building instead of the Grain Exchange building (I used to know my way around downtown blindfolded - no more), I popped into the library to register my new address.  Now I can legally check out audio and ebooks from the library on my own card.   My heartfelt thanks to that individual who loaned me a Minneapolis identity so that I could enjoy audiobooks over the past eleven months...

It was delightfully amazing to see a throng of people waiting for the library to open at 10am.

On the home front, I have not unpacked anything this week.  Nada.  I did order massive quantities of bookcases which will be delivered later today.  That means there will be no unpacking, only assembling this weekend.  Of course, once the assembling is done, the unpacking of the books will begin, and that will be loads of fun.

Oh, and my Christmas cactus is in bloom:

I've done precious little knitting, which is kind of distressing, but whaddaya gonna do?

This is my mindless-but-not-a-sock project.  I have no idea who will receive it.  It's a tube that fits within a tube - green stockinette under pinky/purple eyelet.  Nice little scarf that will be very warm.

This is my stealth Christmas knitting. I can't help it but show a photo. The cables are kind of tricky, and I had to re-do a bit, but I think I've got it figured out now.

I might have to make another.

Progress

Where have I been for the past week? I've been either unpacking, working, feeding my children or visiting Auntie in rehab.

First things first; the modem had to be set up.  It was not easy, not even for the tech who was sent out to help me.  I like its position here, next to the antique pitcher, although the pitcher won't stay there.

There are still a few boxes to unpack, and I have to get blinds to replace the hideous curtains.

The refrigerator is appropriately decked out in magnets.  I remember, years ago, a friend at work said something about another co-worker's house and how the kitchen was pathetic, "with magnets and stuff all over the refrigerator."  I decided then and there that she would never enter my house.

The TV is noticeably old and huge.  I'm waiting for my fairy godmother to come deliver a new, sleek one.

The space is good though, and eventually everything will either fit or be taken to Savers.

I found a great place for the cubes from the old kitchen eating area - all the games, hand knits and yarn can fit, plus there's room for my knitting magazines and a few other things.  I'm sure it will all be full in no time.

I kinda accidentally found myself at Ikea today too.

Adding color little by little.  I found out delivery of bookcases is not too expensive.  Assembly, however, is not in the budget, so I'll be enlisting those hungry children to help me put them together...

Tags

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I found a corner in South Minneapolis that has all four stop signs with knit tags. It's on 36th west of where it turns into a two-way but before Bloomington Ave (I think). Check it out; it's a delightful corner.

I closed on the condo Friday.  Once again I have a home.  With quiet neighbors.  And that's Taco Taxi's truck out there on Lake St. mmmmm......

I have an old-lady shopping cart - my first house-warming gift.

And what do you do first thing, when you're moving?  Set up the new swift and wind a hank of yarn into a cake, that's what.

I also got an awesome shower curtain. The place needs color, and I plan to remedy that issue.

I was going to replace the fugly counter tops in the kitchen first thing, but it turns out it's not in the budget.  Other sprucing up will be done.  Stay tuned.