Still alive...
And no cat on my lap at the moment, so you get a post!
It's a brutal -18F here today, one of the coldest days in Wisconsin in quite a long time. The high is only supposed to make it to -14. Needless to say, I'm staying in today. Baking is scheduled, because what else do you do when it's frozen out there? I may have made a tactical error there, though, as I was confident I had all the supplies I needed when I went to the store on Friday but didn't do a thorough check, so I barely had enough buttermilk for one loaf of robot bread and there is enough all-purpose white flour for only a single batch of cookies. Whole wheat bread flour, pastry flour, stone-ground flour, white bread flour, rice flour, buckwheat flour, potato flour... got plenty of those. All-purpose white flour? Not so much.
I'm also knitting again and in the last two weeks have produced four hats, one of which fits me and I am wearing a lot. The first two were too small and have been sent off as surprise gifts to someone else's grandchildren. I hope they find them useful and pretty. They have cables.
Right now I'm knitting a black and white short-row scarf with some mill-end yarn I bought on sale at the craft store. It's very thick and the scarf is knitting up very dense, but I hope that this will be a good thing in the long run. It's good to have something to do with my hands besides eat left-over holiday cookies.
I bought a TV and smart Blu-ray player on which I can get Netflix, so I have been burning my way through series that I missed the first time around or lost track of part-way through. I enjoyed Heroes, am halfway through season two of Once Upon a Time, which I like quite a bit, but I am taking a break and watching season five of Dexter, which just became available. I'm looking forward to watching all of Alphas, which I've caught kind of hit-or-miss over the years. I occasionally watch PBS with the folks, and we had people over for the premier of season four of Downton Abbey, to which my mother is addicted. It was fun but contained few surprises beyond the one revealed in the opening minutes.
My reading has sputtered to a hiatus after a binge reading of all the Harry Potter books and Libriomancer by Jim Hines for the fantasy book group I've joined. I'd blame the TV, but I was blocked even before I got it. There are plenty of books on my "unread" shelves, but none of them really draws me right now. Maybe when I'm tired of knitting and can let myself just read I'll give it another try.
Time is passing very strangely for me. It's hard to describe beyond "slipping away un-noticed". If I get two things done in a day I feel accomplished. If I get five done, I feel exhausted. There's always tomorrow, because life has become a series of identical days punctuated by pre-set activities and the occasional social invitation or doctors appointment.
OK, I have been informed by Beamer that I have done enough typing for the time being and she would like her lap back, please. Next time I have the chance, I'll put in some pictures.
Take care, everyone, and stay warm wherever you are.
This entry was originally posted at http://moderate-excess.dreamwidth.org/320914.html. Comment there using OpenID, or here. Either one works for me. Comments are lovely.
It's a brutal -18F here today, one of the coldest days in Wisconsin in quite a long time. The high is only supposed to make it to -14. Needless to say, I'm staying in today. Baking is scheduled, because what else do you do when it's frozen out there? I may have made a tactical error there, though, as I was confident I had all the supplies I needed when I went to the store on Friday but didn't do a thorough check, so I barely had enough buttermilk for one loaf of robot bread and there is enough all-purpose white flour for only a single batch of cookies. Whole wheat bread flour, pastry flour, stone-ground flour, white bread flour, rice flour, buckwheat flour, potato flour... got plenty of those. All-purpose white flour? Not so much.
I'm also knitting again and in the last two weeks have produced four hats, one of which fits me and I am wearing a lot. The first two were too small and have been sent off as surprise gifts to someone else's grandchildren. I hope they find them useful and pretty. They have cables.
Right now I'm knitting a black and white short-row scarf with some mill-end yarn I bought on sale at the craft store. It's very thick and the scarf is knitting up very dense, but I hope that this will be a good thing in the long run. It's good to have something to do with my hands besides eat left-over holiday cookies.
I bought a TV and smart Blu-ray player on which I can get Netflix, so I have been burning my way through series that I missed the first time around or lost track of part-way through. I enjoyed Heroes, am halfway through season two of Once Upon a Time, which I like quite a bit, but I am taking a break and watching season five of Dexter, which just became available. I'm looking forward to watching all of Alphas, which I've caught kind of hit-or-miss over the years. I occasionally watch PBS with the folks, and we had people over for the premier of season four of Downton Abbey, to which my mother is addicted. It was fun but contained few surprises beyond the one revealed in the opening minutes.
My reading has sputtered to a hiatus after a binge reading of all the Harry Potter books and Libriomancer by Jim Hines for the fantasy book group I've joined. I'd blame the TV, but I was blocked even before I got it. There are plenty of books on my "unread" shelves, but none of them really draws me right now. Maybe when I'm tired of knitting and can let myself just read I'll give it another try.
Time is passing very strangely for me. It's hard to describe beyond "slipping away un-noticed". If I get two things done in a day I feel accomplished. If I get five done, I feel exhausted. There's always tomorrow, because life has become a series of identical days punctuated by pre-set activities and the occasional social invitation or doctors appointment.
OK, I have been informed by Beamer that I have done enough typing for the time being and she would like her lap back, please. Next time I have the chance, I'll put in some pictures.
Take care, everyone, and stay warm wherever you are.
This entry was originally posted at http://moderate-excess.dreamwidth.org/320914.html. Comment there using OpenID, or here. Either one works for me. Comments are lovely.