This weekend included Friday pizza dinner with a friend and a trip for the three of us to opening day of the new Captain America: Civil War. (I’m #TeamBlackWidow, if it matters.)

On Saturday, I slept in and got some chores done. I missed out on visiting the Bahamanian embassy as part of Passport DC, but did get to my local comic book shop, Fantom, for Free Comic Book Day. I also visited the French bakery that opened where the cupcake shop used to be. They make desserts based around meringues. I started reading a new graphic novel, planted some things at the garden, and bought a case for my new cell phone. I did not write a book blog post about my April reading because I had to finish a post for work about bee swarms, and it took longer than I expected. (The book post will come later this week.)

Today, Rudi and I went to the farmers market and to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We saw sheep and sheepdogs and ate funnel cake. I bought a skein of yarn to make Rudi a hat. He bought spices to make me dinners. We bought tomato, pepper, and basil plants to make our garden productive.

And now a look ahead, rather than backward: This week is both Armchair BEA, the book blogger version of the Book Expo of America convention, and Bout of Books 16, a weeklong readathon/reading challenge. I’ll be participating in both and blogging about them here and invite you to take part, too. I’m hoping to finish three books by the end of the week, blog at least thrice on bookish topics, and take part in at least two off-blog events (be they contests or Twitter chats or something else remains to be seen).

I took a few days off to create a long weekend that I spent up north visiting my folks and my best friend. It gave me a little perspective on work and a little head space to open up for knitting and reading projects.

Here’s what I’m currently working on:

I am not loving Mansfield Park so far, although I’m about a third of the way through it. The main character is kind of a drip thus far, and both the love interest and everyone else in the book is rather one-dimensional and mostly horrid. I’m hoping it picks up, but am not holding out tons of hope at this point. Frankly, if it weren’t Austen, I’d give up on it.

I am, however, really enjoying The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle, who also wrote Better Nate than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate, about a gay teen boy falling in love the summer after his sister dies. It demands comparison to Becky Albertalli’s award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, not least because Albertalli blurbs Federle’s book.

I picked up my Lightning Shawl again tonight for the first time in forever. It felt good to work on it again, but Corey came to sit on me and demand my attention instead, preventing extensive progress. (Life is hard, right?) I also started (for the third time) a pair of vanilla socks over the weekend and, thanks to the drive home Monday and an all-staff meeting this morning, am now pretty much through the heel flap. Probably a couple more rows to go and then we turn the corner and head into foot territory.

Yarning along with Ginny.

I’ll admit to being in a low place, which means I play more computer and phone games and watch inane or repeat television shows than do productive things like read or knit. I know some of what’s causing it and that time is just going to have to get me through the next couple weeks, which are likely to continue being hard. However, volleyball starts back up this coming week, sunset creeps later every day, and the ski season is over. I’ve sat outside several days this week and have gone on a couple bike rides. The garden is under way, and we’ll pick our baseball games for the year this weekend. Much like getting pulled under by a big wave at the ocean, I know that if I don’t panic about the sinking feeling, I’ll come out the other side a little battered, but not much worse for the experience.

That said, I did start a new book this week: Vaseem Khan’s The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra starts on the title character’s final day at work as a Mumbai police inspector before a medically recommended early retirement. It’s also the day he gets a letter from his uncle informing him he’s about to receive a bequest — a baby elephant. I’ve only reached the day after retirement, and already Chopra’s feeling a bit antsy. I don’t think retirement is going to suit him too well.

I’ve started carrying around, although haven’t yet started working on, the second sock of my Sock Madness pair. I cast on a random sock twice this month, once with too few stitches and now with too many, so clearly that yarn needs to go into time-out until it can decide it’s going to cooperate and fit a leg properly. Hopefully it will see sense and allow itself to be re-jiggered (60 stitches, maybe) before the next time I need some mindless knitting for a concert or meeting.

Yarning along with Ginny at Small Things.

I do not have a pair of finished socks to show you as the first round of Sock Madness comes to a close.

But I do have a finished single sock:

And that is literally half the battle.

This is just a quick post because, frankly, I’m starting to realize exactly what a mess I’ve left my knitting in in order to advance in Sock Madness. I have until midnight on Monday night to finish, but I’m not yet to the heel on sock #1. And apparently the heel is a challenge. And it’s toe-up, which means getting it off the needles is more time-consuming than toe down.

So, here’s my plan:

Tonight: Go to bed after I’ve finished my tea. Getting enough sleep to not fall asleep while knitting is crucial to the rest of the plan.
Tomorrow (Thursday): Get through the heel on sock #1.
Friday: Knit the entire leg of sock #1.

Saturday: Knit the foot and heel of sock #2.
Sunday: Knit the leg of sock #2.

This leaves Monday after work for overflow when that schedule proves unrealistic. It doesn’t sound bad right now, but I did want to do some things other than work and knit for the next few days, and I can’t afford to eat every meal out between now and then!

(That photo could look less awkward; there’s a ball of yarn in the toe (as well as my own toes) from where I moved through the skein to get to a more contrasty section.)

Anyway, I’m still listening to Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn while I knit, and I’ve been sneaking in the short chapters of The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett, one of the novellas my library picked for its Rush Hour Reads series, in microbursts on my commutes. I am enjoying and recommend both.

March has arrived and with it comes Sock Madness, the annual foray I make into competitive knitting. The pattern dropped Monday evening (it was March already in Australia), but I sort of hemmed and hawed and put off starting until tonight. But now, Rudi has gone to bed (and with him Posey and Jeremiah) and I’m able to play the video showing the cast-on (a variation on one I already knew, but I didn’t realize that until I’d seen it) with only Corey to distract me. This particular sock calls for two contrasting sock yarns, so I’m hoping this pair of Ty-Dy Socks skeins will suffice.

(Also pictured are a cup of Darjeeling tea and the last of the cookies from my birthday.)

As usual, I have several books going at once. I’ve just begun the two pictured here — Connect the Stars by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague and V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic. I’m only a chapter into each, so I can’t offer an opinion of any significance yet, except to say I’m going to keep reading! I’m also just a chapter into Carola Dunn’s A Death at Wentwater Court, the first Daisy Dalrymple mystery, on my phone, since while I can read a paper book and knit at the same time, it’s definitely a slower process and is not conducive to advancing to the next round.

Other books that I’m still finishing up are Anne of Green Gables on audio and Barry Svrluga’s baseball book, The Grind.

Joining Ginny for the Yarn Along.