The end of the fiscal year sucks rotten eggs.

Although I’m really not doing too badly today. I’m to the point where I don’t really care, I don’t want to call any more vendors, and I just want to go home and write or knit or something other than fiscal stuff. Urgh.

Talked to the lady at the bank today. She said no news was good news. I said, “Well…” Because yesterday I heard from Mom that her spy had talked to the lady at the bank and TLatB said we might have to push the closing date later into October.

Which is NOT GOOD, because I DON’T WANT TO MOVE IN JANUARY, DAMMIT.

But then I talked to TLatB and that’s when she said no news was good news, and that Oct. 15 still looked good to her, and that they were waiting on the appraisal to appear. Still no definite date, but I’m hoping and praying that Oct. 15 it is, because I’m already off that day and don’t want to have to take another day off if I can help it.

So, that’s where we stand house-wise. I also had to give her my savings account # because she said they were putting in $400 as what I had in my savings account, and I told her I had a lot more than that, which I do. (Like, sheesh!) Don’t know what that’s all about, in truth. She said she would call me if she needed anything else.

Next time I buy a house… *grumble* (In truth, I shouldn’t be grumbling. I just don’t like delays. And, counting tomorrow, there are 10 business days until Oct. 15!!!!!!!!!)

Urgh.

Other than that, I worked on SYWTBAV a bit during lunch, for lack of anything else to do, since I haven’t decided about SCR yet. (I haven’t decided if I’m going to do a complete rewrite, or what, that is. And where to begin.) And I still have half a gingerbread man on my desk, and Mallie didn’t come home last night.

Mallie may have died tonight. Unless she shows up, I doubt I’ll ever know.

You see, lately, she’s been neglecting to get off the top of anyone’s car when they put it into gear to pull out of the driveway. We’ve had to shoo her off more than once. Tonight, Bekah left to go to work and didn’t notice that Mallie was on top of her car. I tried to stop her, but she drove off into the distance with my cat trying to hold on for dear life on the roof of her car.

By the time she got to work (less than a mile away) Mallie was no longer on top of her car.

So she drove around and I drove around and I walked up and down our road and I didn’t find her.

And now I’m not in a very good mood. Mallie’s a brat, and neurotic and stupid and she doesn’t like any other cats (especially Tipsy) but she didn’t deserve this.

I hope she returns safely.

House dreams.



Last night, I had what is a pretty usual dream for me–I dreamed that I was purchasing or had purchased a house (it started out as the one in Georgetown but morphed to something else later.) While walking through the house with Bekah, we discovered that it had a lot more room than I had first thought. In fact, it had its own theater (the last movie played was something called “Snatch”, which was evidently about a Clifford-like dog), a second kitchen, and a host of other rooms that had no apparent use. It also had stained glass windows like the ones you would normally find in a medieval building, with knights and ladies and dragons, etc. Built in cupboards and wardrobes that stretched for miles and were full of interesting things. Slate tiles on the floors. Dirt everywhere.

It reminded me a bit of the Council’s house in the Beth-Hill stories. A house that doesn’t make sense in any architectural sense, but makes perfect sense once you’re inside. (If that makes sense, that is…) I half-expected to stumble across a Hound on our walk.

There was a restaurant, too, in this house. And there were people in the restaurant, eating. But the theater wasn’t running and there weren’t any other signs of an established business.

I woke from this dream and had to convince myself that I wasn’t buying that house, but a different one entirely. *sigh* Although in all honesty, I’m not quite sure how I would have used all that space.

In other news, my eye is still twitching. It’s getting quite irritating, but I guess I can be thankful that it doesn’t happen all the time. Tomorrow is the end of the fiscal year and the stress, and really, I’m fine. I have a stack of bills to process, but there’s no reason why I can’t get them done today.

I’m reading to the end of SCR, and then I’m starting over. I think I’ve found the right thread, but to properly do this, I need to set aside everything I have and start from ’scratch.’ Since I expect to be able to use some of the old stuff, I think this rewrite will go rather quickly. At least at first.

In two days it will be October. I can already smell fall in the air.

Today at work we have our ‘team’ meeting, which is a joke and a complete waste of time. I should have worn black. Or called in sick. Urgh.

Let’s see. I’m getting glimmerings of what needs to be done to SCR. It might entail a complete rewrite, but that’s okay. We’ll see.

My right eye is twitching from early morning glare. Grrrrrr. Except, it’s my left eye that usually has the problem. Grrrrrr. Yesterday, the problem stemmed from reading Old House Web too long. Today, it will stem from just being at work.

This weekend I will have to start the craft show stuff in earnest. So I’m not expecting to get a lot written in October, and finishing SCR is probably out. I’m also contemplating just setting up at two craft shows this year instead of three, just because I’m not sure I can make enough stuff for three this year. Maybe next year. We’ll see. I don’t want to burnout, after all.

Other than that… I started, but didn’t finish, a 11-inch gingerbread man yesterday. Got half done, and I started on the second leg. I’m hoping I really have enough yarn to finish it, because I don’t think I have any more of that yarn left. And it would suck if I can’t finish it, considering the amount of yarn I do have. But we’ll see.

And I stand by my assumption that knitting takes up more yarn than crocheting. I don’t care what anyone says. It does. I can crochet a scarf with one normal skein of non-acrylic yarn, and there’s no way in hell I can knit a scarf with the same skein of yarn. So there.

On a minor and slightly house-related note, Mom met the lady who owns the house directly behind the one I am buying. She goes to St. George’s church. Mom now has a built-in “spy.” I swear… it’s getting harder and harder to find anyone who doesn’t know my Mom in this area.

Unfortunately, I am beginning to think that SCR needs another reworking. Somewhere between merging two separate storylines together, I lost the individual threads.

And everyone knows that when weaving a rug, every thread is important. (Or knitting anything, for that matter.)

So I’m going to read it over again and see if I can pinpoint where the break occurred. Thank goodness there’s no real deadline on this one or I’d be in trouble for sure.

It’s October this Friday. Where did the summer go? Heck, where did the year go? I keep having to reread my archives just to remind myself that I did get things done this year and it didn’t just fly by.

Well, instead of writing, I started another knitted animal, this one a cat. The bear is finished and I have a picture of it somewhere, which I will attempt to find. I think he turned out okay. Not great, not perfect, but good enough.

The cat, on the other hand, is just weird. I think part of my problem is that they are so big and I’m more comfortable with under 12 inches, not 14-15 inches. I am thinking about modifying the pattern so I can knit gingerbread ornaments, and perhaps a couple of 10-inch gingerbread men and/or bears. I’ve always wanted to have Christmas-themed stuff at the Christmas craft shows, after all, and this might be my chance to make something I can live with (and give the leftovers away for Christmas presents.)

See, my problem is that there are a lot of patterns for a lot of Christmas-themed crafts out there, but they’re all either ugly, cutesy-country, or just too out of my range of interest. But I can see knitting non-cutesy-country gingerbread men and bears without sacrificing my stand against cutesy-crafts. (Yes, it’s a pet peeve.) I’ll go so far as to call it primitive folk-style without getting into the cutesy-primitive style. There you go.

I have standards to uphold, after all.

And a lot of yarn to use up.

I also, once upon a time, crocheted a cute little angel ornament, which I might attempt to replicate as time draws nearer to November. We shall see.

I will write today. I’m not giving myself a choice.

Oh, and yesterday we went to the second Goodwill and bought more stuff, but I didn’t get any more cashmere sweaters. I bought stuff I will actually use instead. Oh, the horror. (Not that I won’t use the cashmere sweaters. I did mean to start the quilt this weekend, but the sweaters took a bit longer than I expected to dry.)

The bear is, at the moment, in the dryer with a handy towel, shrinking. I washed it in hot water prior to the dryer, and now my hands feel all weird. (And the water turned yellowish-brown. I think it’s the wool.) But anyway, I’ve taken pictures and it started out at 14 inches tall from ears to the bottoms of his/her feet.

So maybe I really will finish something! That would be nice. I’ve already decided that if this bear works I will make gingerbread men (and more bears) for the craft show, because if it works, it will look quite nice.

And I have a lot of brown wool.

I am due to write yet tonight, but I’m not sure how late I’m actually staying up.

At the moment, my room smells like wet cashmere, which is an interesting smell. I have sweaters everywhere, drying. And I think I have decided to only use the black, pink, periwinkle, and purple sweaters, because the red just doesn’t match (and I think I will keep both of the red sweaters to wear.) Hopefully I still have enough, but we’ll see.

I’m going to go check on Bear.

The Goodwill Haul:

–Nine cashmere sweaters (Do you realize how much these things cost retail? I was finding them left and right. Two went to Bekah, three will be worn, and four will go towards my ‘quilt’, making (I think) my total sweater lot for the quilt about ten…)

–One Continental German language typewriter (Very cool.)

–One lion rampart heraldic sign (handmade)

–One mug from Pier 1 that I almost bought in Florida for $4.99 (for 50 cents, so that works)

–Two sweaters to unravel (one autumn colors, variegated, one aqua blues and greens, also variegated. )

–a cool dark purple sweater coat (Very Cool.)

Money spent: Less than $40

Ha.

I did stay up and finish one side of the bear last night. Left it underneath a book all night long, and that flattened it out quite nicely. I’ll be making the other side today, and then going from there. Will post the finished product when I have one.

WIP: (It doesn’t really look as bad as it does in the picture. Honest.)

The yarn is handspun, and some of it feels very... greasy, I guess. Not sure if it's supposed to feel like that or what, but we'll see.

The actual colors are cream and dark brown, and you can kind of tell in the picture that the yarn is different widths all through the balls I am using.

I might finish this side tonight. I haven't decided yet. My eyes are beginning to cross.

(And the neck looks a lot better in real life.)

Oh, and my Denise needles have been godsends--I've used three different lengths throughout this project without having to resort to normal needles. Yay for Denise!



In my quest to finish something I’m knitting without getting bored, I’ve turned to animals. At the moment, I’m working on the second leg of what will be a felted bear, quite simple in design, but utilizing some joins, increases and decreases I haven’t used yet. So it’s challenging enough to keep my interest. I’ve been knitting for about an hour and a half, with only the chirping of crickets as my music. It’s been lovely. I am hoping to get about 1/2 done with the front part of the bear this evening still.

While I am knitting, I am contemplating what horrors to put Michael through (and everyone else for that matter.) It’s starting to gel in my mind now. I think I might be able to finish revising tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Goodwill has a 50% off almost everything sale, and I am probably going to go to see if I can come home with a few more cashmere sweaters to use in my quilt. Wish me luck.