I have absolutely nothing new to report on the knitting front. I still have to bind off my shawl. I would like to do that this week, so I can take it home with me to Connecticut and block it there in a place where there are doors to close against cats who like to lie on wool and pick up small things (like T pins) in their mouths. (To be fair, Corey has never actually picked up a T pin, but I imagine it’s only because I’ve never given him the opportunity.)
I’m also still carrying around the sock project in my bag that I started back before Christmas, thinking that it would certainly be done by the end of January. I did unravel a knot in the yarn last week, but that really seems like a low standard of success, unless you judge it based on the Senate, in which case I’ve won the week.
I was hoping to knit up my Valentine’s Day hat before next Friday, but at this point, that seems unlikely. But who knows…
I’ve had a better reading week. I didn’t take The Paper Magician with me to California because it was a library book, instead grabbing Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue, part of my #tbtbSanta gift this year. It was a fantastic choice, demanding to keep being read long after I should have put it down and threatening to force me to buy a new book for the trip home. (It did not and I did not, which is good, because that was not in my budget and I don’t think I could have convinced work it was a mandatory travel expense, although…) But I did finish it on Saturday after I got back to D.C., and it was excellent, and actually worked together nicely with The Paper Magician, since it, too, highlights the magical power of words. (It’s a new year, so book reviews should resume shortly. They don’t usually fall off altogether until spring.)
I also started listening to A Fatal Grace over the weekend. I don’t love books that change points of view every chapter, and I clearly forgot about that from the first book, but Louise Penny has such affection for her characters that I think it will be fine. And who wouldn’t want to spend Christmas in Three Pines, particularly if you could guarantee you weren’t going to be the one being murdered? (It’s probably too much to ask that you aren’t amongst the suspects; I’m hoping your own conscience will keep you from being the murderer.)
I hope you’ve also had books you loved this week and that your craft projects are moving forward faster than mine… (Check As Kat Knits for people who are more productive than I — and who also don’t let their phone batteries die just as they need a blog photo.)
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to consider books that we just know we’re going to absolutely love. For the purposes of simplicity, I’m not going to consider books that are parts of series.
Books I predict will be 5-star reads:
Nic Stone’s Shuri (my favorite Black Panther princess-scientist)
The Telephone Box Library by Rachael Lucas (someone wrote a book about Little Free Libraries, essentially)
Today was February 2nd, the sort of still but maybe no longer annual Bloggers’ (Silent) Poetry Reading in honor of St. Brigid, patron saint of poetry.
I missed last year, in part because the tradition has mostly gone by the wayside. But I liked it when we all shared poetry on our blogs, so I’m resuming it, at least for 2020.
This one is for the English majors and poetry geeks amongst us:
A Tale of Two Metres
~Tom Disch
I heard a little couplet cry:
‘Will God or Someone tell me why
We couplets are condemned to squeeze
Our wisdom into shapes like these?
To speak with gravity and treat
Of higher truths one needs more feet:
Four will not do! Four are too few. Five feet for me or I am through!’
Not only I but Poesy had heard:
She raised her sceptre, uttered not a word,
But struck the couplet dead. And what do you think?
Its ashes stirred — and formed, in living ink,
A couplet calm as Zeno and as stoic —
The couplet known to fame as The Heroic.
I made it home from California just after noon, but my plan not to lose my entire day to travel failed. I spent both legs of my red-eye feeling super sick, and so pretty much spent the rest of the day dozing on the couch.
Tomorrow, however, is a new day, and I’ve managed to eat and drink something that did not make me feel worse, so I’m hopeful we’re past the worst of it.
I am not much of a Super Bowl person, so I think I will skip my friend’s kind offer to have me join her and her husband at a bar to watch the game (she’s from Germany and wants to soak up the atmosphere). Instead, I think I’ll finish reading my book, bind off my shawl (!!), wander down to the Kennedy Center to catch the last night of their outdoor illuminated Winter Lanterns display, and get things sorted for the week ahead.
Rudi is off on ski coaching duties all week, so I’m on my own. This means I need to actually do a little better about planning ahead, since there will be no one else to check bike availability as I’m brushing my teeth. (If only Corey could work the phone app…)
Rudi was kind enough to pick up a bag of day-old bagels yesterday, so I have breakfasts sorted for a couple days. I’ll need to think about lunches and suppers, though. Maybe I’ll make a lasagna or a quiche, since those make for good leftovers. (I’ve got volleyball games both Monday and Tuesday nights, so maybe I’d better make one of those tomorrow…) Mary Berry’s cookbook is due back to the library, so if I want to try any of her cookie/cake recipes, I’d better jump on that, as well. Then that will give me snacks, too.
I need to change the sheets tomorrow, and since Rudi is away, I think I’ll just put on the flannel set. They’re too warm when he’s home, but I think they’ll be cozy while he’s away. Plus, it takes the pressure off of having to get that laundry done during the weekend, when everyone is fighting for time with the washing machine. (Actually, we’re a very civil building, and while we sometimes have a queue, everyone is usually very prompt about clearing the washer and dryer.)
While Rudi’s away, I’d like to get a little sorting done in the living room and kitchen.
I still need to put away some Christmas things piled on my living room table — cards and cookie tins and cds — and there are similar piles elsewhere that could be dealt with. Since I spent both sets of plane flights asleep, I still have my Inspector Ganache novel to listen to — incentive to spend time working on manual, brain-free tasks.
Finally, since the key to getting myself out the door in a reasonable fashion is to get up a little earlier, putting myself to bed at an earlier hour is also probably necessary. So hopefully my posts will be a little closer to midnight than two for the rest of the week!
I did some work. I attended an event. I saw a friend. I knit a little. I read a bit. I bought fresh citrus at a farmers market. And I enjoyed some California sunshine.
And I ate an ice cream sandwich made of peanut butter cookies and ube ice cream.
