Here comes the cold

Oy, I'd be so much happier if the barometer would stop moving around. Yoga was so much tougher than it needed to be this afternoon - I felt like a total slug trying to move today to get into the postures, and it was supposedly a very easy class. Granted, there was a lot of forward bending, which I currently can't do well, and you are not supposed to compare yourself to others. Still... I can at least be happy about the fact that even when I do get achy a few ibuprofen do actually help, and the yoga will help (and get easier) over time.

Before I forget again

Ladies, the yarn is Road to China, by the Fibre Company. It is 65% Alpaca, 10% Cashmere, 10% Camel, 5% Yak and 10% Soy Silk, and the skeins are approximately 80 yards. Not an inexpensive yarn, but oooooooooooh so yummy. Someone remind me of this so I remember to tell Jane next week.

Here's more crossing of fingers that the finished hat fits me perfectly, 'cause I don't want to give it away instead. :D

Sigh.

When the terms *metric assload* wander through your mind as you are going through your yarn stash looking for something, it is really time to get rid of some or use it up, or something. Egads, I found at least five random foo-foo scarves I don't even remember starting. I've got a small country's worth of fuzzy yarns for flip-flop embellishments (not to mention a gross of flip-flops due to a project that didn't pan out, and I was the one on the losing end).

The problem is not so much my recent yarn-buying habits -- with the exception of the flip-flop debacle, I've been pretty good this past year at getting yarn only for specific projects instead of picking up any pretty yarn that caught my eye. For the most part. However, I've got yarn I bought (a ball here, a couple hanks there) several years ago when I was first getting into knitting. In my prior crafty life, I did only crochet. I learned from my mother when small, and I bought pretty much only Red Heart and Caron. While I still have a bit of the acrylic left in the stash, most of that I can offload to mom, since she likes using it for afghans. I can knit and crochet up a bunch of the foo-foos and other acrylics for sale and for charity (note to self - get to work on that, already!), but gadzooks I have a lot of other yarns just floating around.

Perhaps it's time to take a leaf from Peggy's book and build a stash database for my Palm. At least that way I know what I already have so I'm not tempted when a new yarn flashes its sexy twist at me. Read my lips: no new projects. (At least not until I finish five UFOs. That includes Road to China, the UT scarf, the red flowers scarf, the purple muppet scarf, and Sergio's scarf. See a trend here?)

EEEEEEeeeenterestink

Well, apparently Blogger is now forcing everyone to move into the new format, which explains why my RSS feeds have been spammed with old entries from all the Blogger folks. No biggie, though - now I get to see some older entries that I may have missed. :D

My beef with Blogger now has to do with the flexibility of templates for people posting to their own servers. Darn thing just won't let me do a drop-down list for that long list of archives I've got going on over there. Sigh.

Grooooooooooan

Ugh, I don't want to move. I really don't want to go to yoga today. However, I know that the workout I get actually helps a lot more than anything else - even if I do my own stretches, somehow it's never as good.

Perhaps I will go to the mall for a bit afterwards - it's always fun to window shop. Besides, I need to get Virgil a birthday present...

Edited later in the day to add: Yes, I did go to yoga, and yes, I do feel better after it. I rewarded myself by walking around the Factory Outlet in RR for a while - bought the birthday present and a new watch for myself, since my old watch was looking a bit disreputable. The new watch is also a Timex - Reef Gear, so it is waterproof to a hundred meters. Not like I've been more than snorkeling once, but just in case I decide to go again... :D

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman...

...and we'll leave it at that.

So this evening I went over to Dream Dinners with a co-worker -- put together some very tasty items for my freezer. Now the trick will be to remember to defrost and use those entrees.

It's been a bit of a long week, so I think now it's just time for a muscle relaxer and bed with a book. One more day until the weekend!

Woof

The only problem with beef/pork ancho tamales is the slight bit of heartburn you get from eating too many. But dang, were they tasty...urp. :D

Now I'm too tired to bother getting the camera out to download today's pics, so that will wait until tomorrow. Nighty-night.

Keeping Austin Weird

I love this town. I love the fact that you can walk up Congress Avenue late on a Sunday morning and see a gentleman crossing the street wearing a kilt. A block later, you spot Chuck Norris at the Driskill (sorry gang, no pics - he was too far away for me to snap a pic before he went back in) and a block or two after that you see a guy in cat ears and a tail.

Chuck Norris is apparently in town for his World Combat League - the WCLers were staying at a hotel further down the street. During my walk I saw just about all walks of life in Austin, but I didn't see Leslie. I think I'll live.

The object of my walk was to take photos of all the Guitartown sculptures on the north end of Congress. If you ever plan a similar trek, may I suggest you park at the Burleson Tower? The small parking lot there was practically empty, and you can first walk across the street to City Hall before going up to 2nd street and getting pics of the guitars in front of Jo's, then continuing on to Congress.

Fair warning: be careful of the person sitting at the bus stop in front of the Capitol shouting imprecations and really odd theology.

Back by popular demand

All for Abernathy. :D

I went to a party last night - party started at 8, I get there about 8:15, and no-one else is there. Not super surprising, as I tend to be early (no comments from the peanut gallery), but I figured more people would be there by a quarter after. Aside from the hosts (and the hostess' 22-yr-old daughter), no-one showed up until almost 10. That's taking fashionably late a bit far, I think. No matter, 'cause we had fun teaching the 22-yr-old how to dance. She has good rhythm, but didn't understand how to move her hips. Granted, I couldn't dance much, but baby, I gots moves. Heh. Of course, today I am a bit stiff, but it was a good small workout since I hadn't been able to get to yoga on Tuesday due to the ice.

Well, back to yoga this week for sure - and with luck the weather will warm up some. We might actually get some sunshine tomorrow!

This makes me happy...

Someone pointed out a few says ago that this year's Google Holiday Logos had to do with knitting, so I finally got around to checking it out. I like. :D

Playing with Words

Playing with Words,
originally uploaded by Cyndiva.

I have a magnetic poetry calendar on my wall at work. Sometimes strange things get said on it - usually things calculated to make me blush and shuffle the words. (Click on the photo to go to my Flickr stream to see another example of the -- oddity.)

Today was the first day back at work after the great ice storm of 2007 (ha!) -- granted the bridges were a mess, and some still are, but the surface roads were really only bad on Tuesday. ...of course, now they predict we'll have a freeze again next week. Fun, fun!

Adventures of La Gringa Loca

Day 3 of being iced in, and I can tell you that you can, in fact, expire of cabin fever. Okay, perhaps that's a tiny fib.

Yesterday I had the day-long Joan of Arcadia marathon. Today I spent over an hour de-icing my car, using hot water to get a spot started (yes, I know the "it'll crack the glass" story, but I've yet to crack one) and then letting the defroster run for a bit while I worked over the loose bits with a credit card. Granted, it would have been much easier to use an ice scraper, but I apaprently never got my scraper back after I lent it to a co-worker the last time it iced over, and as that happened over a year ago there is no chance of me getting it returned.

Here's the loca part: I actually drove the 15 miles up to my workplace. I have been frustratingly unable to get full network access at home this week, and so I finally gave up and went in to get the files I needed to work on (not to mention it gave me a good excuse to go visit Abernathy). Well, first I drove over to my local grocery store to test out the streets and get milk.

For the most part, the roads aren't terrible - the bridges are still rather icy, though, so if you live here and have to go out, be careful and drive slowly. Another reason to drive carefully: sheets of ice - not on the road, but flying off other cars. Several times I saw great sheets of ice flip up in the wind, one flying at least thirty feet up, before crashing back down in the roadway. Luckily I was never close enough to one of the affected cars to even need to swerve, but it was disconcerting.

Now I'm back at home, I've popped a movie in, and I'm fixing to make cookies. Life is good.

Coolness

It's snowing outside right now! ...and I am being entertained by the college kids runnign around 'cause they don't know what snow is -- one dude is out in his PJs with a earflap hat and galoshes. He's gotta be cold...

Flowers make the grey go away

Sunburst,
originally uploaded by Cyndiva.

Okay, not really - but they certainly make me happy. :D

I went to work this morning in the cold, dark wet - and by the time I got there, freezing rain was driving down. Since I was already there, I actually got some work done - fielding calls from co-workers asking if anyone else was in and then remarking that they weren't going to risk it. After a couple hours (and a couple more people remarking how much nastier the day would get) I decided I'd had enough and came back home.

It's still cold and wet, and will only get icier as the day moves on, so I'm ensconced at home with my computers and movies with my fuzzy black slippers on. Later, I'm going to make tea.

(S - saw the recipe for tea milk fudge - looks fantastic, if I get a chance I'll try it this week!)

Thanks, Sammi :D

I have a head for business and a Cyndiva for sin.

Which movie was this quote from?

Get your own quotes:

Hee - nice little giggle on a cold and wet afternoon. Hoping for an ice day tomorrow! :D

What an exciting life I lead...

Yup, been real active lately - not. I've been playing a lot of PS2, if you must know, although I can say that I've gotten some housecleaning done in the last couple days.

So far I haven't been to yoga class this week - meant to go Tuesday but my shoulder was still sore from grabbing the stair rail on Sunday, and unfortunately the other classes I want to attend are given during the daytime for the rest of the week. Ah well, I'll go Saturday morning. I have at least managed not to injure myself any more this week. :D

To the Knit Buds

Thanks and an apology...

First, thanks because the white elephant was a lot of fun (as it always is :) and there were a lot of goodies to go around (and I think a third of them made it into my car).

Now the apology -- I got home and realized how wired I was (still am!) and I must have talked everyone's ear off like a prepubescent teenager with her own phone line. Egads, I'm bouncing off the walls, so apparently prior to this evening I had been at least marginally successful in getting excess sugar out of my diet. Not that I'm not hyperactive usually anyway, but hey. So, my fullest, deepest and sincerest apologies to you for putting up with hyper me. :D Plus more thanks, cause y'all rock. (And special thanks to Michelle for schlepping extra stuff out to my car - I think I forgot to thank you during the attempt to avoid creepy weird guy in the parking lot.)

Warm milk is supposed to help you sleep...

...so I figured spiced hot chocolate was going it one better.

Blast, I've been in bed for a couple hours and not able to nod off a bit. I like going to bed early on Sunday evenings because I know I never get to bed on time the rest of the week, so at least the first day of the work week I should be decently rested.

At least this bout of insomnia gives me an excuse to try a new treat I bought last week (but was holding off on since it's pretty sinful): Hershey's Cacao Reserve Premium Drinking Cocoa in the Aztec blend. I picked up a box of both the Mayan and the Aztec - both have far too many calories (and sugar) for me to drink them regularly, but I must say, the flavor (with milk) is outstanding. At least for the Aztec, since I haven't yet tried the Mayan. I heated milk to stir in the cocoa, since I prefer a richer, smoother taste, and the spiced version of the drinking cocoa is such a nice palate warmer. It could even stand to be a bit spicier - hardly a surprising sentiment from me, since I love the Zen and Aztec God flavors of Mary Louise's brownies... (Mary Louise is a friend of a friend and her brownies are simply to die for. Take my word for it and try one, or a dozen!)


Hm, perhaps it is a good thing that I don't have any of those brownies in the house, or my cocoa would be getting a bit of a chaser. Heh. Okay, back to bed for Bonzo.

It's been a day

Don't Fret,
originally uploaded by Cyndiva.

The day started with me slipping down the stairs -- thankfully only wrenching my knee, I think. I was insanely afraid that I'd do damage to my back again while I was going down, but I grabbed onto the stair rail and only my left leg slipped about four stairs. So, now I'm a little sore but I haven't noticed any new back issues so that's a good thing.

I did hang out a bit with the Austin Flickr group, and we wandered up South Congress to get pictures of the three Guitartown installations there. Project progress was also made - I crocheted a flower for the start of a new hat from Drops 39, and got a few more inches done on the rainbow scarf.

Tomorrow the plan is to avoid injuring myself.

Playing with the movie mode

I was playing around with the movie mode on my camera while a friend played around with my Harry Potter game (that is, sadly, not functioning properly - it won't levitate).

Guitartown Austin

004/365 - Guitartown
Originally uploaded by Cyndiva.

I'm very excited to see that the guitars for Guitartown are starting to appear in various locales downtown. I spotted at least four in my drive of Congress and southwards to the LYS - this fifth one is in front of Waterloo Records on Lamar. So far the Guitartown website doesn't have a map displaying the locations of the sculptures, but I hope it will be out there soon!

My year in Pictures

I've joined Project 365 on Flickr, and I dedicated a new blog to showing off the results. :D

Okay first off, I just found out that #41 from Boise State crochets. Cool.

Now for my intentions for 2007:

1. Lose 10 lbs in January. (Starting weight documented on refrigerator door.)
2. Don't put it back on in February.
3. Do at least 10 minutes of yoga/stretching a day (and return to 100% as regards my back!)
4. Take at least one photo a day.

I actually have several more, but I decided to leave the official list short - I always feel bad when I come back at the end of a year to see that I've completed only two of ten. This year I am going for four of four. :D