Readers -- I've got readers!

Much props to Crazy Aunt Purl who let me know that Blogger's default is to only allow comments by registered blogger people. How lame! I just thought I was babbling to no one but SF Knitter all this time. (and we *will* attempt an SnB when I get back from my trip and you are done unpacking 1 billion moving boxes)

Our cat sitter came over yesterday for instructions, so I feel a little better about leaving, but it is still hard. I'm excited for the trip, but I know that my little furry babies will be looking around the house for me.

Well, so we did not win the Mega Millions lotto this week. I almost don't know if I would want to win this close to our trip. I wouldn't be done freaking out before we left! We bought tickets on Sunday and then discussed what we would do with the money (which is why I waste the $1 in the first place). My fantasies run along the lines of: "Pay someone $5000 a year to take our garbage cans out to the street." and "Buy vacation homes in New Orleans and Italy that our friends can use whenever they want."

Mr. CTK goes off about how he'd like to donate a bunch of money to improve the Oakland school district. OK, now I feel lame. I'm paying someone to take out the garbage, and he's fixing education for children. He is a much better person than I. I said that we could adopt a kindergarten class and promise to pay for college for any of them that want to go, which is nice, but of course only popped into my mind once Mr. CTK shamed me with his far more altruistic money fantasies. :)

I am getting a little stir crazy having no job. My big plans for today are getting my eyebrows waxed and depositing some rebate checks at the bank. Woo hoo. I have semi-purposely been stretching out my errands to give myself something to do. Yesterday the excitement involved buying potting soil and some jelly bellies to eat on the plane. I did watch "Fellowship of the Ring" the other day, so I can watch the other two movies today and tomorrow, which kills about 8 hours, since I have the extra nerdy extended DVD versions. Oh yeah, I have an episode of "Lost" and one of "Sex and the City" on TiVo to watch. Ah, variety, the spice of life.

I understand why rich people with no jobs shop all of the time -- it kills the hours in the day that would otherwise be spent lying on the couch channel surfing.

And, of course, blog reading -- hooray for blogs because they can suck a lot of time in the day.

Sunday (when we leave) is the 8-year anniversary of our first date. Hmmm, Mile High Club? I think I would be too paranoid about getting caught by the flight attendant and getting disapproving stares (though I'm sure they've seen it all). And we'd probably get the same flight attendants on the way home, and they'd refuse us extra water and cheese and crackers because we'd been so naughty.

OK, and how's this for awful? We leave Hanoi at 11:30pm, arrived Seoul at 5:30AM(!) and then don't leave for SFO until 6:00pm at night. So we will have approximately 12 HOURS to kill, coming off of a red eye flight. Ugh! I need to do some research today to see if there is a quick sightseeing jaunt that we could make w/out visas and such to use up some time.

Finally -- a photo of the finished Tempting!

Kyoto Back and Sash

can't leave Frances out -- fresh from a bath in this photo. I caught her mid-lick & you can just see her tongue.

It's the first new camera downloaded picture -- of my cat, naturally.

New Teeny Tiny Camera has arrived! Woo Hoo!

Tagged, or Stolen?

OK, so I stole this from SF Knitter's blog, but since I read her blog, that kinda counts as a tag, right? Not sure about the blogiquette, but who cares -- this one was about cooking, which is a subject I could go on and on about (even though I haven't yet here...)


What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

True memory -- making a cheese souffle at age 8 or 9 because I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. As I recall, it rose perfectly. Thank you, Joy of Cooking.

Memory that I don't really have, but my mom told me about -- I was 8 or 9, home alone while my parents went to a neighborhood party in the middle of the day. Don't remember if my brother was supposed to be watching me, or if they really trusted that I would be OK for a few hours on my own. Anyway, when my mom called to check on me, I said, "I made cookies! But don't worry, Mom, I remembered to turn the oven off."
My mom said her heart kind of lurched, but I don't think she scolded me for using the oven without a grownup, since no actual disaster had occured.



Who had the most influence on your cooking?

Hmmm, probably my parents. My dad was the adventuresome one, so I learned to dig in and try cooking (and eating) new dishes from him. True to her midwestern roots, my mom was more about casseroles and pork chops, but from her I learned consistency. Dad's dishes could be up and down, but Mom's always came out the same.

Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?

Now that you mention it, I can't think of any.

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?
There's an eel dish in a Mario Batali cook book that I would love to try, but the thought of touching raw eel creeps me out. I always think of this scene in the bad Julia Robert's movie, "Mary Reilly", where the cook fishes a live eel out of this bucket and peels the skin off. EEEEE -- kind of stomach turning, even though I love me some unagi.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest letdown?

I have a bird's beak paring knife that I love, and my chef's knife that was a going a way present from the staff at a kitchen I worked in.

Hmmm, biggest letdown...I guess this lime juicer of the kind that you put half of a lime in and press down the handle like a garlic press. It really doesn't extract all of the juice, so I've gone back to my trusty citrus reamer.

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!

Peeps that have been left out with the package open so they get slightly hard and stale. Ditto for Red Vines.


What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?

anything Mexican
peanut butter on warm tortillas (my lazy lunch/dinner staple!)
Desserts/sweets in general, Jelly Bellies in particular

Three quickies:
Your favorite ice-cream…

Pistachio (with a close second to Chubby Hubby)

You will probably never eat

I'll try most things once, but given our upcoming trip to Southeast Asia, I'd have to bow out if presented with certain unidentifiable meats more identified with domestic pets here. (I can't even say it...way way way too stomach churning)

Your own signature dish

I consciously don't have one -- too boring to do the same things over and over.


Wow -- look at that -- instant post!

Kyoto Sash -- DONE!! Woo hoo

Max also passes along his greetings (though he's a bit more camera shy)

Frances sends birthday greetings to Crazy Aunt Purl!

Kyoto WIP

Well, I had planned to post the photo of the Kyoto sash part on June 17th and then post another photo of it all magically completed on June 20th.

Ha ha ha! I guess I was a little too ambitious about how much I would get done over the weekend away. Losing myself in my friend's manuscript ate up a lot of knitting time. I'd thought about seeing whether I could knit in the car on the way home w/out wanting to barf, but ended up doing the driving Which is probably better --kept me from getting that cranky feeling when you get closer and closer to home and you are forced to admit that the vacation is really over.

I feel this way getting off of planes as well. And I really hate getting picked up at the airport after a long/cool trip and being asked all about my vacation. Ugh...I want to savor the memories as MINE for a little longer before I give them away to YOU. Plus I am tired and jetlagged and not up for making my vacation sound exciting and interesting at this moment. Wait for the pictures, can't you?!?

Our new camera should be here Tuesday. Hurrah! I turned on old camera today to photo Kyoto & discovered that the fresh batteries that I'd put in last week & gotten about 2 minutes of use out of are *already* dead! I guess my camera must have gotten turned on in my bag. Grrrr. New shiny camera is not only tiny, but also recharges via wall socket, so I don't feel like I am selfishly filling landfills with toxic chemicals just so I can have 8 million cat pictures.

Kyoto on June 23

WIP: Kyoto on June 17

See my cool knitting label that my mom gave me!

....and we're back

We had a lovely weekend away except it was really cold all day Saturday and we hid out in the cabin all day long. Of course, it warmed up by the time we left yesterday. :(

But, I did get to read the almost-nearly-completely-final draft of a thriller that my friend wrote. It was really good and fun to be able to talk to the author about plot points and such. I offered some opinions (solicited, I wasn't just spouting off), some of which she might use. The other fun part was that I recognized some of the stories from the book as true life things that happened to my friend (like the crazy crack addicted roommate that made her life a living hell for quite a while).

We came home and got Zachary's for dinner to prolong that feeling of being on vacation. God, I love that pizza, even though it is 8 million calories a slice. We always order enough to have some leftover for breakfast/lunch/cold snack eating. MMMMMMM!! And we rented "Star Wars: Episode 2", which really had as many bad performances as we'd heard, but I liked the story and we want to go see Episode 3 on the big screen to maximize special effect experience.

Mr. CTK also wants to go see that new Batman film. I think I am not looking forward to it since Tom and Katie had to fake a romance in order to create hype about both of their movies. But we can see a matinee (and maybe sneak into Episode 3 afterwards -- ha ha ha : rebels without a ticket!!!).

How good could a movie be if you have to fake a romance (or some other such ET newsworthy story) to get people to see it -- just like "9 months" sucked so hard that Hugh Grant needed to have a fake prostitute/arrest incident. Can't you just see the publicists telling him, "OK, wear this shirt for your mug shot & don't wash your hair for three days before you go out trolling for an appropriately tacky lady of the evening to be caught with!"

The really good news of the day is that a friend called & has 2-3 days of project management work for me, which will fill some pre-trip time & get me out of the house & give us some extra $$ for trip expenses. YAY! I get to bill them ridiculous "Consulting" rates. ha ha ha I've given up on trying to find a job before we go, hoping that if I release that idea, I can relax and enjoy this time. I figure there will be plenty of time to stress out in August!

Hooray -- Off for the Weekend!

17 days until departure day! Or is it 16? I can never remember whether you should count the actual departure day or not. Good thing I programmed a countdown into my cell phone cause that keeps track of the hours and minutes until our flight, so I can really be sure.

But first, we are going away for the weekend. I am ready to get out of the house!! I am tired of looking for a job.

Though I did talk to my boss from last summer's internship yesterday & there might be something coming up in his division. Unfortunately, the job is in Sacramento, so it would mean moving or a really long commute. Kind of depends on how many days of the week that I would actually have to go there & whether I could work from home for part of the time. This becomes especially relevant if I get pregnant this fall -- my commute would probably take twice as long as I'd have to be making pit stops every 10 minutes. But we'll see.

My blog reading obsessions have expanded -- I started with Crazy Aunt Purl
and then moved on to SF Knitter and now I'm reading The Crochet Dude, Sunday Undies and Minou's blogs. I have too much time on my hands, I think. Though I do go in fits and starts whenever life gets boring. I used to be obsessed with other message boards & then life would get in the way, and I'd stop reading, and then I'd wonder how I spent so much time reading those boards all the time. Which is probably the way it will be with this blog.

Missing: Two Teeth!

So I took Frances in for a dental cleaning yesterday and when I went to pick her up, I found out that they'd had to extract two teeth! Poor baby. She came home and wobbled around the house in a post-anesthesia haze. This morning her eyes are much brighter and I found her in bed with me around 5am, so she was able to jump up without falling.

She lost two (fairly small) bottom teeth. The vet said that some cats are just prone to bad teeth, which somewhat soothed my "I'm a bad kitty owner" anxiety. Max hissed at her several times for smelling like bad vet smells. Oh, the indignity of being a cat home from the vet.

She's on antibiotics, so now I have to find someone willing to come in twice a day this weekend to shove an eyedropper down her throat. We are going out of town -- hurrah! A friend of ours rents a cabin every year up above Sonora, and we missed last year, so I am very excited.

Super mellow crowd -- you gotta love friends that can all hang out, reading separate books & not talking for several hours and be OK with that. This is not a highly efficient "make use of every minute" crowd, and that's totally up my alley.

We just need to get there early enough that we can grab one of the downstairs bedrooms as the upstairs is a big open loft w/20 beds & several snorers!

Trip Countdown

21 days until we leave for Southeast Asia!!

Lots of trivial trip preparations to do before then. I seem not to be able to get anything done after I come home from yoga cause I'm so worn out, and now the little lazy bug in me is saying "Just don't go. Take today to get some stuff done!" Ummm, but yeah, its not like I got anything done over the weekend when I didn't go to yoga, so there.

We did have a busy weekend though. Went out to clubs on both Friday and Saturday night, and dang if I'm not getting too old to do that. But we left around midnight both nights. Saturday I went shopping in Walnut Creek w/my mom. Returned a pair of shoes & was successfully humming along at a negative shopping balance until I stopped by the Stila counter & got new makeup. Then came home & realized that I had the same colors already for two of the three things I bought, so will return some of it.

Last night we went over to our friend's house for dinner. Had delicious grilled foods & played w/their 8 month old little girl & ate outside until mosquitos drove us in.

Oh yeah, we got the last round of vaccinations done for SEA plus bought the mega-dose of bug repellant, plus this stuff you spray on your clothes to make them insect repellant. (Lazy bug: oh, your arm still sorta hurts, so maybe you should skip yoga today)

Singing lesson on Sunday -- last week we discovered that I hear too much of the accompaniment of a song & this throws me off key when singing the melody. So, I need to work on feeling the beat of the song & listening for cues in the accompaniment.

Swatched Knitpicks "Shine" for Knitty's Kyoto and am IN LOVE with that yarn. So soft and lovely AND my gauge was correct, so I don't have to do any mathematical computations to correct for using a yarn different from that in the pattern. Yay!

I Came, I Saw, I Felted!!!

Below are photos of "Letter Have It", which, once blocked, will be off to our niece for her 6th birthday. Oh, and I have to buy and sew in a zipper (more tedious handsewing, sigh!)

But my mom gave me these cute labels to sew in knitted objects that say:
"From the Knitting Needles of ..."
and
"Handmade by ..."

I gave my grandma one to take home to sew to the scarf I made for her birthday, but I am excited about sewing one into my first FO since I got them.

Hooray!!

I am reading and really enjoying "The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters". Fast read & cute story. When Mr. CTK comes home tonight, I think we need to go out to dinner to celebrate first felted FO. :) Any excuse will do for me...

Hooray -- my first felted FO!

Letter Have It -- prefelting

I heart the saucy kitties inside!

Saucy Tote from SnB Nation

To Tell or Not to Tell?

OK, so the Bikram yoga adventure continues. Yesterday I went, and felt yucky again. Then I heard the instructor tell another woman that it takes about 10 classes for things to really sink in. So, today will be class 7 for me. I'd love to skip, and only go to my regular class tonight, but I fear that one skipped class would turn into two, into three, etc.

I have lost 5 pounds so far -- probably mostly water weight, but who cares?

As I figured, it is starting to really bug me that you do the same exact poses every class. Yawn. Having taken Iyengar for 7 years with an instructor who's been teaching for over 25 years, I am used to a lot more changing up during the classes. (Of course, when I went on Tuesday night, we did many of the same poses that I'd done earlier in the day, so that's what I get for complaining about lack of variety). I also dislike the "this is the best and only way to do yoga" attitude that Bikram fosters. I agree that I can get lazy during classes, so I do appreciate some of the ways we do things in Bikram, but don't like being chastised for modifications.

On another subject entirely, I'm debating whether or not to let people I know IRL (geek speak for in real life) know that I have a blog. There is something nice about being fairly anonymous and being able to write w/out fear of editing comments that someone I know might read, but I guess letting your friends know also invites readership that will be harder to build w/out letting them know. (And you know I live and die by the comments -- well, not really, but you know, you all blog too).

Must go eat something now, despite fuzzy warm kitty on my lap. I think one of the reasons that I didn't feel go great in yoga yesterday is that I lost track of time & ate a snack too close to class (which you are not supposed to do, but it was better than going into class w/nothing on my stomach but coffee and water.)

get outta my face with camera -- I'm eating here!!

tasty corn on the cob

Yay! Interview! Yay!

I have a phone interview in 27 minutes for a position that should be quite interesting & pay well & get me to where I want to be. Hurrah! I've been having trouble getting in touch with this woman, but we finally spoke this morning.

Max is sitting on my lap for good luck = sweet kitty. No pics because he runs away from the camera because he doesn't like the flash.
Max is very excited for corn on the cob season. He likes to eat it right off the cob. I think I have a pic somewhere that I will have to post.

Am sewing on the second I-cord on the initial bag (TEDIOUS hand sewing) then I just need to sew on the handles and its felting time, baby! I'm very excited. Oh yes, I need to weave in the ends (the second most tedious job in knitting) before felting time.

Yoga today felt hotter than hot. I am still going to try to go to my Iyengar class tonight so I can be super yoga queen of the day. :)

Madame Zalenka

Slash!

More Weekend update

Below are two new pictures -- the beehive hat from SnB nation that I did to practice with circs and dpns. It came out pretty well, except for a few rows when I switched from the circs to dpns & did something so my purls were showing on the outside of the hat as knits and vice versa. I didn't buy the bee buttons, but still like the hat.

The other photo is of my overweight kitty, Frances. At the last vet visit, she was 16.1 pounds. Here she is propping herself in a corner so she can lean over and clean her belly. Forgive the sideways nature of the photo. I am too lame to know how to make it right & Hello is confusing enough to figure out.

More on the weekend: We went out with friends on Friday night -- drove all the way from Oakland out to the Excelsior in SF to "Mom is Cooking" to find that it was closed. :( We suspect it might be a permanent closing as we were there on a Friday night at 7pm and the serapes were drawn across the windows w/no indication of hours.
So we headed to the Mission and ate at La Rondalla & then went to Beauty Bar for a drink. Then went to The Stud to checkout Shadowplay, a club run by a guy who sometimes dj's at a couple of the clubs that my friend S runs. It was pretty empty & we were tired, so we left after one drink.

Saturday we ran around shopping for the SE Asia trip. It was kind of a pain as we visited several travel related stores before going to Target & finding much cheaper "wicking" clothing there for Mr. CTK. He is test driving one of his tee-shirts today & the preliminary report is a feeling of coolness.

Saturday night we went to a friend's birthday -- the theme was "Halloween in June" because our friend is into costumes (as are many of our other friends). Mr. CTK went as Slash from Guns and Roses. I did my last minute costume scramble & went as Madame Zelinka, fortune telling gypsy woman. "Slash" got yelled at in the liquor store for his costume shop cigarette because it looked so real.

Our friends Amy & Kelly played three songs on the musical saw & ukelele. I was so proud to know them! Slash proved his musical prowess by immediately being able to produce sounds out of Amy's saw, Stella.

Yesterday we went to Patagonia to spend a gift certificate on wicking items for me. I am going to try out the underwear at yoga today -- I don't think it will keep me any cooler, but will dry fast after handwashing in hotels.

Then I went to singing lessons, which I have been doing off and on for about a year. I've done two recitals & had less total body shaking (from nervousness, not on purpose) in recital #2. Now I am working on "Cry Me a River", and I need to go practice & study from my HR certification exam book.

Frances, propping herself in a corner so she can lick her belly

Beehive Hat

Weekend Update with Can't Talk Knitting

Thanks to SFK for her kind words. I know, it is tough to respond to everyone that applies (esp. since we are still in economic recovery mode here in the Bay Area).

So...after my Thursday whining, I got up on Friday and sent some resumes and then went to yoga. I actually set my intention for the class to forget about the job search for 90 minutes (not that that really matters, since you are sweating so hard, and the instructor is constantly talking that you have no room in your brain for anything but trying to figure out which foot is your right foot and which is your left).

I am all messed up in this yoga class because the instructor that I've been taking from for the last 5 or 6 years always starts on the left foot & Bikram's classes always start on the right.

Came home to an email from a recruiter (at an agency, not in house, but I'll still take it!) who has an HR job! Woo hoo. I go in to do a preliminary interview (to prove I'm not a crazy person) today...hopefully something will come of it, but even getting out of the house is good for my morale.

In fact, I need to start getting ready to go now, so I'll post more about my weekend later. (I really got to use my identity line this weekend when Mr. CTK was talking to me in the middle of a decrease row -- "I'm counting!")

Job Seeking Sucks!!

God, I hate looking for a job. I just want to loll around the house all day instead. Its too much work for too little payoff -- at least on a daily basis. I mean, I know I need to look to have the payoff of a job in the end, but it is frustrating and demoralizing to send out resumes and never hear word one.

Most job seekers have email these days -- could companies not come up with some auto generated email that they send to people who have sent in a resume to say "Thanks, but no thanks"?!?

This is what I get for going to business school somewhere that the career service center is 2 people that are supposed to serve 6000 students. (Yes, really, 6000) But, I do think they are inefficient bureaucrats who do little more than help students find scholarships when they should be out in the business community making connections with people who can find us jobs -- or at least will come to campus for interviews or something.

Granted, it has only been one week since I really and truly started looking for a job, so I am really just whining as an excuse to not have to go back out on the web and look for a job. I did have an interview at a staffing agency today, and the guy at least talked a good game for upcoming opportunities. He should have an executive recruiter on staff by the time I get back from my trip, so maybe something will come of it. I mostly went to get myself out of the house and in front of someone.

Went to Bikram yoga again today. Still hot, still stinky, but I did make it through more of the class than I did yesterday, though I thought the instructor was a little more gung-ho on the Bikram style meanness. I've been taking Iyengar for the past 5-6 years from a woman who's been practicing for over 30 years and teaching for over 20 & her class is *such* a different vibe. Bikram is more like the early 80s aerobic instruction -- push, push, push, go go go. Blegh. But I will continue to go for this month because A) I've paid, and I'm too cheap to not try to get my $$ worth (nevermind the hundreds of $$ I've spent not going to my regular gym this semester. Be quiet little internal mocking voices) and B)because I'm telling myself it will ready me for the oppressive heat that is SE Asia in July.

I must send at least one more resume out today, then I need to work on thank yous, bill paying, practice singing and determine whether I have the energy to go to my regular non-hot yoga class tonight since I haven't been since January. I think it will probably get put off until next Tuesday when I will either skip Bikram, or be more used to the wrung-out-wet-towel post class feeling that's knocking me down right now.

I also am working on the I-cord for Letter Have It, which despite the small number of stitches, feels *quite* tedious to me.

another view of the candy bag

Here is the candy bag I made for my friend. My own design and all!

My first scarf -- see where my brain kicked in?!?

Stinky sweat yoga class

So I went to my first yoga class in the stinky hot studio. I did not pass out (good) but I did sweat up a storm. I came home and shucked off my clothes and they looked as though I'd just pulled them out of the washer, they were so wet. I wore long tights and a tank top -- most other people were wearing decidedly less, but I really don't think it matters one bit. At least my sweaty clothes provide me with some traction for some of the poses.

and I know this is really bad, but I came home and weighed myself & was down 2 pounds from this morning. I was just sort of curious, but I know it is totally unrealistic to have lost any real weight & a few glasses of water will put it right back on.

But, I now have that exercise self-righteousness feeling, which is always good. That means I can spend the rest of the day goofing off. No, not really. I have to write thank you notes for the gifts I received for graduation & get ready to go to a networking-meeting thing tonight.

But, as promised, I need to add something about knitting. I learned to knit in February, and made one rather ugly scarf, but I can never get rid of it because you can actually see the exact moment my brain finally got it. Then I was off and running on a multitude of projects: a hat, several more scarves, the Saucy Tote from SnB Nation. Then I got really brave and designed a bag myself that was based on the Saucy Tote. A friend of mine runs a club in SF every 2nd Friday, and part of the gimick is that she passes out a different candy every hour, so I made her a candy bag (which, if I can get over my lameness, I will post in here). I just finished Tempting from Knitty.com, but haven't taken a picture of it yet. I bought the ribbon for the eyelets, but didn't like the color, so I need to get something else.

Now I am working on Letter Have It from SnB nation for my niece.

Alright, I am so lame that I cannot figure out how to access my Hello account to get to where the pictures are. How lame and annoying is that? When I go back to Hello, there should be a link that says, "Hey, Idiot, OVER HERE!!" or something.

ETA: Oh, ha ha. I forgot it wasn't like shutterfly & you actually have to open the program on your computer.

I am a total grade grubber

So I am now obsessively checking for my grades. I don't know why it even matters, since I am done with school & know that I haven't screwed up too bad in any of my classes. I was a grade grubber in high school, got over it in college (read: discovered beer) but grad school had me back to my OCD grade ways.

I spent yesterday with my grandma, which was fun, if conversationally repetitive. She told me a few stories that she told me last week on the phone. But, I figure since she's 88, I'd better listen now before she's gone. We ate dinner at my parent's house & my father was in a FOUL mood, which kind of ruined the last night of my grandma's visit. He is compelled to escalate to personal attacks when he is in a bad mood. We came home & my darling husband complimented me on how in control I stayed (though at one point my hands were shaking because dad was making me so upset and uncomfortable.) In the past, I would have attacked back, so I guess there is something to be said for maturity. But its amazing how parents still have the capacity to make you snap back into frustrated 13 year old behaviors.

I am also waiting on someone to call me about an interview -- sigh! Its my one strong job lead, though I know I need to get off my duff and look for other things so I'm not putting all of my eggs in one little basket. Tomorrow I have an interview with a placement agency, so maybe something will come of that. But I need to start working my connections like there is no tomorrow so I can get a job that will start when I get back from SE Asia.

I realized today that my blog is ostensibly about knitting, but I've posted no pictures nor written much about my knitting adventures, so must remedy that. After I get back from stinky sweaty yoga class.