Kiss My Knits!

Emily told us this morning that she would like a horse from her aunt’s stables. She’d keep the horse in the back yard and bring it inside when it rains. She was laughing as she said this – even she recognizes the impracticality of this plan. It’s still better than her first plan, which was to keep the horse in the washing machine.

Emily has discovered Looney Tunes. We have a box set which she’s enjoying greatly. I’m sure half of these jokes don’t mean anything to her, but then, a lot of these were geared towards adults anyway. The rest, though, she gets. She thinks it’s just delicious how naughty and bad these folks are.

“He shouldn’t go in a mine shaft! Why not?” she’ll ask us, squealing with delight. She knows, she just wants to involve us in the madcap zaniness. They sure don’t show stuff like this on TV anymore. I doubt you’ll find Dora the Explorer with a cigarette dangling from her lips, but the cartoon above showed Bugs rolling one.

Speaking of cigarettes, we were outside at Starbucks yesterday, and someone sat down near us and was about to light one up. I had to put away my Jayne hat knitting because I didn’t want it to smell like smoke, and I think Emily took that as the signal we were going to leave. I told her, “I’m glad we’re leaving, that lady was about to light a cigarette and I don’t like the smell of the smoke.” “What’s a cigarette?” Emily asked. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess nobody in her life smokes. Well, good! We had a conversation and then let it drop. I’m not worried about it. The kid won’t eat cinnamon toast if I tell her I put extra cinnamon on it, she’s not going to start experimenting with tobacco.

I took a week off of the couch to 5k program because I was feeling under the weather. I did, however, start back up. Go me! Today will be day two of getting back on the horse.

Hey, look, I brought it all back around to horses again! I’m queen of the segue!

I’m going to pack up and mail a kit, go run, then arrange for more red yarn. This is the last kit for a while. I’ve had to discontinue the kits until I can get more so that I don’t short my finished hat clients. This shall not stand – I want a chicken in every pot and a Jayne hat on every head!

A big shout-out to my fiber godmother, who has sent me TWO cards in the mail. You’re a sweetie! Thanks!

Y’all have a good day!

As you can see, the couch to 5k continues. When I exercise vigorously, I turn red. Really, really red. Like so red that people are concerned for me. I haven’t had a heart attack yet, it’s just that my super-fair skin needs little provocation to make me look like a cooked lobster. If you see me jogging down the street, please do not call 911. It’s perfectly normal.

I need to work out a new route. I’m doing okay up until that last leg of the run. It takes me up Mt. Doom, and it’s brutal. Maybe if I walk a little farther before starting the program, it won’t hit in the same place.

illiane turned me on to this really cool feature on the internet. Maybe you already knew about it, but I didn’t. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ will let you plot out a route and tell you how far it is. It’s not entirely accurate, because I’ve driven my route and it’s just about exactly two miles, but it comes up as slightly less on that site. The site doesn’t take elevation into account, though, so maybe going up and down the slopes of Mt. Doom is adding some distance.

Jayne orders are picking up speed. Unfortunately, it’s because Halloween is upon us – and I’ve already got an eight week wait. I feel bad for these Browncoats, but it is what it is. Two kits went out yesterday, another two kits and two hats are going out today, and I’m devoting the rest of the morning to Jayne activities. I can also usually knit an entire hat at my weekly stitch session, so that’ll be another one down.

I do love my Browncoats. Check out the sweet art that came along with an order over the weekend. Too neat! The hat she drew is similar to a picture I made for something I’m planning on introducing fairly soon. “Fairly soon” being “whenever I can eke out the time for it” so actually, who knows when it’ll be?

Because all work and no play makes Tvini go crazy, I did pull out the Fleece Artist that I got as part of a sock kit swap from (thanks again!). I’ve been wanting to make Pomatomus since it was published in 2005. I just love the way these socks look.

Unfortunately, it turns out that I don’t love the way they knit. I tried to put in a lifeline before I started the pattern, but it was so tight that I gave it up. Twelve rows in and I’ve already lost a stitch. The twisted knits make tinking back a giant pain in the keister. I’m knitting it on size 1s instead of the recommended 2s because I’m a loose knitter, but even so, these stitches are pretty darned tight. I think I may abandon this and use the yarn for something else, maybe Embossed Leaves.

All right, back to the Jayne mines!

Couch to 5k update. Long!

For those playing – or attempting to play, given the system’s major technical flaws – the Dunder Mifflin Infinity game that is the online component to the Office, Dunder Mifflin Infinity has opened up new branches. After having such a frustrating experience so far, this seems like a good opportunity to start anew. The list of new branches is here.

I signed up for NC-Wilmington, down by the beach. If I’m going to have a booze cruise at my branch, I want it to be out at sea!

If you’re playing and you’d like to join my branch, my code for Wilmington is z0tm9uu7go .

Today, my calves, thighs, back, and feet are sore. The back is an intermittent thing, the legs I can’t do anything about, but I’m wondering if I need better shoes for the feet. Hmm.

My yellow yarn finally came. I ordered it in April, so yes, I am incredibly happy to see it. Now if we can just get the orange and the red to arrive.

The good news/bad news is that Brown Sheep is raising their rates again, meaning my costs for yarn are going up. I know I said this last year, but this year I really may have to raise prices. I hate to do it, so I’ll crunch some numbers and see how everything shakes out. On the up side, because this batch of yarn was ordered before the price went up, they’re honoring the old price. Yay!

Do you see anything in that picture that might give a hint as to a new Firefly-type product? Maybe something related to the keychain I made for myself so I won’t lose my freakin’ keys all the time? I need to finish up the item in question so I can show y’all properly.

In other news, my calves ache and it hasn’t even been 12 hours yet. I’m glad the “couch to 5k” program is only every other day. I’m gonna feel this in the morning.

Long, long post about fat, false starts, and fitness.

The reviews that said Masala Bhangra is not a low-impact workout were correct. This being Indian dance, there is also shoulder shrugging during all the moves, which is to be expected.

Put the bouncing and shrugging together, and I cannot stress enough the importance of a good sports bra while doing the workout. The twins were Bhangra-ing around a lot is all I’m sayin’.

Also, the workout needs a longer warm-up and especially cool-down, although of course you can do those on your own.

The instructor does not explain any moves, and only shows how to do them once at full speed before you are expected to do them in combination. It’s very dancey, which would be good for someone more coordinated in that way. For me, it was sink or swim. I swam for about 15 minutes, then fast forwarded to the cool-down. Then I rewound just a little bit to see what was near the end, and saw all the exercisers dancing in circles around an old guy in traditional dress banging a huge drum. I might have been hallucinating, but I don’t think so.

I’d do this workout again, but it’ll be a while before I’m up to doing the whole thing.

Also, I need a better sports bra. Possibly made of titanium.

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I finally set up my Dragonrealms e-mail to forward to booboomonkey mail. This means that I don’t have to wrestle with AOL to retrieve info on new releases, upcoming events, planned player massacres, etc. I hated being out of the loop.

Turned away from the house on my walk home today and added another half mile or so to the route, which was nice. So far I’m being pretty good about doing it even when I really, really would rather be home in bed. Now if I could just be as vigilant about actually getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. The iPod helps keep me from going batty with boredom on the walks. In college, I used to walk everywhere, just enjoying the scenery and being in the moment. Now I think about how much else I have to do. The music (or sometimes audiobook) does help me be more in the moment. A couple of years ago when I was running, the real reason I started running was because a two mile brisk walk on hilly streets didn’t feel challenging anymore, but I didn’t want to add more time to my walk because it was already taking plenty long enough. Maybe if I were more awake, though, I wouldn’t be dragging like this.

Side note: I first wrote “book on tape” for “audiobook” up there, then realized that I was dating myself. Eh, I can be quaint in my old age, I reckon.

Pulled out the DVDs of The Tick last night. Chalk this up as another “why did Fox cancel this show?” series. If you haven’t seen it, you should. Freakin’ hilarious. How can you cancel a show with lines like “Gravity is a harsh mistress”?

Part of today will be spent working on Jayne hats from 1/14. There are several from that date, so that’ll stay steady for the next few days.

The bulk of today, though, will be spent looking for khaki pants for my husband. Sunday I exhausted the resources at the local mall with no luck. Apparently he’s just barely too tall for the regular section of the store, and barely too short for the big and tall section. He’s aroud 6’2″ or 6’3″, which isn’t that odd, so I don’t get the problem. In fairness, he has finally admitted that he can’t fit into his old pants anymore, so maybe the new size is just very popular. He’s overweight, but not obese, so I imagine a lot of tall guys are in the same boat.

All I know is that it’s irritating to sort through every pair of pants in a store because the clerks don’t realize that they don’t have his size. However, he needs them by tomorrow, so I’m off to examine men’s pants. But not in a fun way.

DVDs, sock yarn, Browncoats, and a tiny splash of DR.