three cool things from Sunday.

...thing #1 - I went to the gym with Sara and we worked out together for an hour (how cool is that!?! you can bet I love it - except of course, no way am I going to get a picture!)


thing #2 - cutting and pasting with patterned paper to make two gift cards for two baby girl gifts (Goodnight Moon and the softest pink satin-y blanket, of course)


thing #3 - gumbo ala Marc (which means with spinach and okra) from this yummy mix my mom gave me last summer.

3103.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixthborougher/sets/72157602769173596/

check out the night-time photos of the apartment (so far); will take some better shots of the living room and kitchen (and bedroom) later this week...

xo october love.

saturday with sara.

...shopping at IKEA for new bedroom furniture. She picked this (in a full size), this, this, and for the desk, this and this with this on top and these above. Now we're waiting for a mattress sale and some sort of inspiration in the sheets department.

Then lunch at The Grape in Atlantic Station. Very good food, and fun people watching.

And countless (seemingly anyway, probably only 3 or 4) episodes of House. Our new favorite show on DVD.

finished hint #3.

...yesterday - so not quite able to keep up the weekly pace (hint #4 came out Friday morning), but not feeling too far behind! And I'm hoping to knit some today so I can be ready for #5.

here's a close-up of the beautiful design in the middle.

I am really enjoying this project. Which is good since I've had to spend a lot of time on it...without much of my usual knitting company - food tv (or sports) and chatting with Sara or Marc. For this hint, I did manage to listen to the TV, and successfully talked (besides just to myself) on the purl back rows. The pattern for hint #4 looks like the easiest so far, and maybe I'll be able to carry on a conversation while knitting!


Still haven't figured out the whole photo thing for this stole. We really don't have a lot of natural light inside - and the shorter days are making it hard to get outdoor light, too. So here's how I setup the shot: ottoman, with white towel in the middle of the kitchen floor :-)

balance.

..."work-life balance" is a big deal in my office these days. I'm not even sure why the phrase caught my attention (enough to think about a blog posting!), but it did. So bear with me! Note - this picture shows a realistic shot of my worklife on a Friday...pile of files, a few new projects, not enough time/space for realistic reflection...

To begin, I hate how "work-life balance" somehow pits "work" against "life" - and that's not really it at all...it should be figuring out how "work" fits into life, like me and all my roles as mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, me. So more like "work-me-balance" or "work-me-mother-wife-sister-daughter-friend-....-balance". Because my work is a huge part of who I am and what I am. And I love that about myself. There were definitely times when I was not comfortable working. Times when I did not want to work. But that's not me now. I love the working. I love the me that works. Does that seem weird? It scares me a little (yes, just a bit!) that I'm the most comfortable with the working me just as my retirement date is settling in on the horizon. I do hear the voice that says "Maybe that's helped me get comfortable with the working me...knowing it's not that long-term?! " In any event, I've decided to embrace it ... can't hurt, right?

So I'm getting comfortable working fewer hours (clocked under 45 this past week, and got everything done that I needed to, plus a few unplanned things). And being extra careful to make sure the time I am working is adding value...talking to my team, my clients, making plans, solving problems,...of course that's the "stuff" that I've always enjoyed most anyway.

And also spending time developing myself...not just knitting or scrapbooking :-) but also me - being healthy, finding an exercise routine that will make me strong, trying new recipes to make with Sara, etc.

So many thanks to my wonderful friend, Liz, for seeing the destination AND helping me get there!

...she thought the dessert case made a better photo - wrong, girl, wrong!

the drop in.

...as in a very quick visit - not quite so fast as the drive by, but close. Which I paid to Katie (and her friend Sam) last night to drop off a few things she forgot on Saturday. Got to see the apartment "nearly finished" - it's looking great and Katie has promised photos. I'll share here as soon as I get them!

finished hint #2.

...whew! only made this much progress because bookclub was postponed til next week and I diligently got myself home from work by 5:30 or 6:00 each night. this is probably another 10 hours of knitting. and way more fun than last week, since I only knit it once :-)

(I do need to learn how to pin/photo - I swear it's not really lopsided!)

a knitting lesson.

Monday night. Karen & Jill. I think I've taught them both before, so I'm hoping it sticks this time :-) Karen's knitting the itty bitty felted bag (directions here) and Jill's making the skinny scarf (directions included on the yarn wrapper). Karen called tonight to say Jill wore the scarf to school today. Wow - that was fast! And Karen reports progress on the bag. Can't wait to see FO's!

...in other knitting news - I started the monkey socks last night. Who'd think that knitting on four 6"-long size 1 needles would now be my "easy" project?!

...and in non-knitting news - a new Target ad arrived in today's mail. And I grabbed it right away for my journal. I love junk mail as creative material!

good for the soul.

...this morning's scatter joy pick. which totally recalled Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul. I was enchanted with this book in the early 1990's - things were tough at work and hard at home with two young children. and something about "[being] tied to life in all its particulars - good food, satisfying conversation, genuine friends, and experiences that stay in the memory and touch the heart" spoke clearly to my soul. I revisited that book and his follow-up The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life today. And was caught up again in the idea - ideal? - that "...we may discover the nature of the soul and the pleasure of being a participant, and not a master, in the extravagance of life."

I re-read a few more pages this evening, and enjoyed a bit of that extravagance - sitting on the deck with a glass of wine watching the sunlight play in the leaves...all the many colors of green...anticipating the gold, oranges and reds to come.

happy birthday.

...Daddy! 70 wonderful years, and I've been so lucky to share almost 45 of them with you. Looking forward to celebrating with you in person next month. In the meantime, hope you're doing something fun, maybe a little crazy?!, to mark the day! Love, Mary

only three good photos.

...wow, this past week has been a slow one photo-wise for me (except for knitting progress :-). Just uploaded pics to flickr and to ritz. And there are only three blog-worthy ones, not counting the lunch photo that I shared on Friday:

Birthday card for my friend Donna. I've used the idea before, but this time I used aqua pen in the stamp lid and love the colors so much better. I also used the white shimmery cardstock and it's perfect for watercolor.
At Donna's birthday party - Shari, Patty, Bunny, Dawn, Michelle, Lise. Nothing of the birthday girl. And not because I didn't take lots of pictures - just none of them turned out (red-eye, blurry, scary faces, ugh!).
Sara's ALTA teammates after their last fall season match (wins for all these girls :-). Emma, Sarah, Elizabeth, Sarah and Sara...yes, 3 Sara(h)'s, but only one without an "h"!

done, done and done.

...replacement vest, first socks and SotS clue #1. Still wondering exactly how I morphed from a serial mono-knitter (one project on the needles, knit til it's done, start another project, ...) to a poly-knitter (multiple projects, knitting on each as the mood, or circumstance, suits). And not at all sure how my finishing rate (which for me, has increased dramatically these past four weeks) is related to the number of projects in process at one time. Seems counter intuitive that knitting more projects at once would lead to finishing more projects? Oh well, I'll take success however I can get it!
DROPS short shrug in blue sky bulky duotones - a very fun project - knit up fast - sometimes too fast (I missed bindoff/shaping several times and had to rip) - and fits great - even though it's hard to tell with this t-shirt shot
DK weight socks in cascade fixation - a little disappointed that the stripes don't match up, but for first socks, I'm ok with it! and thanks to Nell at knitch who suggested a three-needle bind off for the toes instead of the dreaded kitchener stitch!


clue #1...whew! this is probably 10 hours of knitting and I'm freaking out just a bit about keeping up the pace for the next seven weeks. Hoping maybe I've got the hang of it now, though (the last 5 rows flew by), so it will go faster. The sparkles in the pic below are the beads...I am completely in love with this project!

My current thinking about multiple projects is that I need something portable (socks), something fun (sweaters, stoles, scarves) and something hard (right now it's the SotS - totally loving the challenge!) And since I finished socks and a sweater this week, I'm casting on two more projects - monkey socks in a colorway that recalls knitchand the flower basket shawl in jitterbug bright charcoal. Admit the shawl is puzzling me - I'm not sure how it will all come together - knitted the first 26 rows and I still can't tell - is this the bottom or the top?

Of course new projects means trips to the yarn store - I took Sara to knitch today (I think she's the first person who's been to that store and wasn't completely inspired to knit!) and then we met Lydia for lunch at Baroanda. Days don't get much better than this!

Across the Universe

For much of today’s generation, the brilliance of The Beatles is lost. (Before I continue, I’d like to say that, while I’m no Beatles scholar, I definitely appreciate their work and recognize the impact that they’ve had on popular culture over the last four decades.) Sure, the youth knows some of their songs, like “Hey Jude” or “Hello, Goodbye,” but were it not for a Super Bowl halftime performance by Paul McCartney a few years ago and a catchy Target commercial, I’m afraid that many teenagers, when asked the simple question, “You know who The Beatles are, right?” would make a confused look, and, finally getting the memo, sourly pull out their iPod headphones from their ears, pausing for a split second Soulja Boy’s (no typo there, I promise) “Crank That” and say “Yeah, sure, whatever,” and return to the sounds of “pop music.” Little do they know that the music that they listen to, or even the genre that they listen to, goes back to the Fab Four in some way or another. John, Paul, George, and Ringo. (“Ringo?!” they would say. “What kind of a name is Ringo?!” They would then go right back to listening to Timbaland.) Forty-some years ago the guys from across the pond graced us with their catchy tunes, of which the list is endless.

And so, thankfully, decades after these four guys formed the band that would endure physically for years, but that would and will last for years to come, the greatest movie ever is made. Ah, I kid. It’s not the greatest movie ever. But it’s the best one I’ve seen in a long time.

Named after the song that graced The Beatle’s last studio album, Let it Be, Across the Universe is the musical that will introduce much of today’s generation to the brilliance of The Beatles.

In all, there are more than thirty different Beatles tunes that the lead cast belts out (and quite amazingly, I might add), and there is not a weak one in the bunch (such a thing is pretty rare, I think you’ll find). What’s also incredible is how effortlessly they seem to fit into the plot. Take “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” Okay, so normally you wouldn’t think it would fit into a love story, but it does. And it’s amazing in the process.

Across the Universe is a story of a young bloke from Liverpool (birthplace of The Beatles) named Jude (“Hey…,” Jim Sturgess). Jude travels to the eastern coast of the United States to Princeton, where he meets Max (“… and the Silver Hammer,” Joe Anderson ), a carefree guy who shows him the ways of the Americans, and his younger sister Lucy (“…in the Sky with Diamonds,” Evan Rachel Wood). What enfolds is their love story, spanning the late 60’s, including the anti-war movement in Vietnam that often personifies much of the revolutionary decade.

Also told are the stories of other famous names from famous Beatles songs, such as Sadie (“Sexy…,” Dana Fuchs), Jojo (“Get Back,” Martin Luther McCoy), Prudence (“Dear…,” TV Carpio), and Dr. Robert (“Doctor Robert,” Bono). Each lends his or her voice to the soundtrack, which, if you haven’t inferred, is flawless. Thirty-one tracks and I am hooked. Some of the highlights for me are “With a Little Help from My Friends,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Let It Be,” “Come Together,” “Dear Prudence,” “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” “Something,” “Strawberry Fields Forever” (which is featured during a fantastic, and rather hallucinogenic, sequence), “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” “Hey Jude,” and “All You Need is Love,” which is my favorite out of all of them.

You might think that it’s a bit crazy to say that this film is an achievement in both art and music, but it’s just that good. It leaves nothing to be desired. Well, except that I want to see it again and again.

But, of course, don’t take my word for it. Watch the theatrical trailer here, get super excited, and then go out and see the movie. You won’t regret it, if not because of the awesomeness that is Across the Universe, but because you’ll finally get to experience, albeit in a slightly different way, the awesomeness that is The Beatles.

pink.

...in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Jo had a beautiful pot of miniature pink roses when I saw her Saturday. Harry's didn't have pink roses, but they did have these beautiful alstromeria - it's been too long since I had fresh flowers on my desk! [wow - loved looking back at the blog for June to find that link - I've been blogging now for about 7-1/2 months and it has probably had a bigger impact on my life than just about everything since marriage and parenthood - wow]

10 things to do.

...when I'm not running*

Enjoy coffee and journaling time at Starbucks, before a Jo appointment (note the shoes - very supportive!)

Make my first internet yarn purchase. Sophies toes. 2 balls for socks and 2 for a stole (sorry, forgot to photo before it got dark!) But the service was delightful. I ordered Tuesday evening, received a thank you email on Wednesday and the shipment arrived on Friday. Thank you, Emily!

Knit 50 rows to finish the left point of the Secret of the Stole clue #1. I changed needle sizes from the 4 that I used for my swatch to a 3. And like this fabric much better. And the addi lace needles are so much easier to work with. Not that this was a piece of cake - figure about 3 hours of knitting? Wondering now how I'm going to manage the 2nd point and the 30-some rows once they're combined before the next clue comes out on Friday!

Completely scrap the concentric vest, spend 2+ hours searching for a replacement pattern and find one - whew! But it does involve a trip to LYS for trim yarn (the red) and size 13 needles (and of course, a very nice ball of sock yarn, jitterbug in the charcoal colorway).

Knit the replacement vest - up to the crochet trim. Yes, I cast this on Thursday evening and I'm modeling a nearly FO on Sunday. Wow! (and it should've been quicker, but I had to rip more times than I'll admit because it went so fast, I kept missing the bind offs!) Also made a trip to JoAnn's for buttons and found some.

See Across the Universe with Sara. I really wasn't a Beatles fan growing up. But this movie and I Am Sam have made me love their songs. Sara purchased the soundtrack and I can't wait to load it on my ipod.

Work out with Rob. Called him up in a panic on Thursday morning and I took his first available appointment this afternoon. Nice to work up a sweat even if I'm not out in the park. Wonder how sore I'll be tomorrow?

Help Sara with her math homework. Something about a piece of paper x" by y" with a 2" margin on the top and bottom and a 1" margin on the two sides and 30 square inches of text. Find the minimum paper size. Helping Sara with problems like this is really just walking her through the thought process...a few suggestions on things to try and she takes off leaving me in the dust. Right, who am I kidding, I do enjoy it!

Read a hundred pages of 1000 Splendid Suns - bookclub pick for October. Really enjoying it. But sorry I had to leave Abundance unfinished!

Get my ravelry invitation and decide NOT to lose myself in the site...til next weekend. I did accept the invitation, create a user name (mere - surprise!) and enter my vest project. Anything else will have to wait.

*yup - no running for 4-6 weeks. plantar fasciitis in the right heel and tendonitis in the left leg. three days home from the office with my leg propped up seemed to help. and honestly, my feet feel better today than they've felt since I can remember.

Easy as 1-2-3?

A few days ago, my mom told me about this A-Z contest playlist thing. Basically, a blogger had created a contest where her fellow bloggers made playlists where every song title started with a different letter, the 26 letters of the alphabet. And then she drew the winner and someone one….

So of course I don’t learn about this competition until after I have a chance to win it. Nevertheless, my mom still presented me with the challenge, which I didn’t think would be that hard. And guess what? It wasn’t. In fact, the hard part wasn’t finding a song that started with the letter I or Q or Z (although X is a bit of a stretch – see below), but deciding which song out of hundreds to choose from.

Below is my list of 26 songs, and every single letter of the alphabet is represented. Better yet, no artist repeats.

A is for "All My Days" by Alexi Murdoch: This is my favorite ‘A’ song. Alexi Murdoch is too unknown for the amount of talent he has. The perfect voice. The perfect lyrics. It’s almost not fair how perfect he is.

B is for "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve. Chances are if you haven’t heard this song, or at least the famous orchestra that opens the song, you are at most, 10 years old, but then again, you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog, so everyone should know this song. If not by its name, then by that orchestra. It’s pretty distinctive, and it makes for a pretty good song.

C is for "California 2005" by Phantom Planet. I’ll admit that I really don’t like how this song is called “California 2005.” So what if it’s more mellow than its upbeat original? It’s still the same song. The lyrics are the same. The band is the same. They just threw in some whistling and hand claps. Does that really call for a new song title altogether? But kudos again to my hero Alex Patsavas (I posted about her in my last post, you may remember) and Mr. J. Schwartz for putting Phantom Planet up to “covering” their own song.

D is for "Dice" by Finley Quaye and Beth Orton. This is a wonderful song with a nice… oh, who am I kidding, I know absolutely nothing about musical terms like “harmony” or “melody.” All I know are phrases like “this is awesome,” “it sounds pretty cool,” and “it’s so darn catchy.” And, in this case, I can use all of those technical terms.

E is for "Earthquakes and Sharks" by Brandtson. I’ve been listening to this song for over a year and I like it every single time. It never gets old. The pure definition of a timeless classic. At least in my mind.

F is for "Fans" by Kings of Leon. Pretty sure this song is off their new album, Because of the Times. Still good music. Still that same, distinctive voice of Caleb Followill, the lead singer.

G is for "Good Day" by Luce. This song just reminds me of summer. It’s just really happy and it “flows” really well, whatever that means. This song could also have easily gone to another G song by the exact same name. So, sorry Tally Hall, but I chose to go in a different direction. Sort of.

H is for "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley. Not enough can be said about this song and just how classic it sounds to me. Jeff Buckley does an amazing cover of a song that is covered a lot. It’s the best I’ve heard, so it says a lot about this song. (It also helps that I have associated this song with a fantastic OC moment, but still.)

I is for "I Want to Hear What You Have Got to Say" by The Subways. The Subways are a band that can go for a “heavier” type of rock (but I still listen to it, so it can’t be that “heavy”) but can tune it down, evident in this case. And then they can combine the two elements, and they do that pretty flawlessly in this song, as well. Plus I love the aspect of the girl singing in this song. Puts a whole new spin on the song.

J is for "Just For Now" by Imogen Heap. I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted about this song, but I chose this song assuming that I haven’t just so that I could talk about Imogen Heap’s spectacularly amazing live rendition of this song that sounds little like the original but a billion times better. This woman has out-of-this-world talent and some cool machines to display that talent. I’ll say that the awesomeness of this video got me through the craptastic week that is winter finals.

K is for "Keep It Together" by Guster. Guster is one of those bands that does the radio-friendly alt-pop stuff, but then goes way crazy and does “Carol of the Meows,” (click for a link to a HP fanvid, which is the best clip of the song that I could find) which is an experience that you can’t really describe. Well, describe well.

L is for "Legendary" by Lou Barlow. This song is so mellow, but really, really good. It starts out pretty slow, but picks up towards the end, but maintains its gloomy sound throughout. Now that’s dedication.

M is for "Marvo Ging" by The Chemical Brothers. The Chemical Brothers have this sort of crazy, instrumental thing going on. Think The Album Leaf, add some more upbeat sounds and mixes, and you have The Chemical Brothers and this wacky, but awesome song.

N is for "Naked As We Came" by Iron & Wine. When the talk on the TWoP OC boards was about the final song to play on The OC, I really could not think of a song that could be played. So I Googled “the saddest songs,” and came upon this one. It’s really not that sad, but it’s beautiful and I could totally envision it as the final song to ever grace an OC episode.

O is for "Oh Yoko" by John Lennon. John Lennon sings the same thing over and over again in this song, but it somehow works. Maybe because of the upbeat sound. But I’m guessing it’s more because he’s John Lennon and he can do whatever he wants.

P is for "Paint the Silence" by South. This used to be my favorite song and deservedly so. It’s pretty long, but it doesn’t have the feeling of being dragged out like other long songs do. It has some great lyrics, too, which also helps. And it was on The OC twice, which helps even more.

Q is for "Quiet" by Rachael Yamagata. After Imogen Heap, Rachael Yamagata is my favorite female artist. Her first LP, Happenstance, is so beyond flawless it’s not even funny. She has this amazing, deep, sort of husky voice, and she’s so different than all of the other female “singer-songwriters” out there. And yes, I have to use quotes, because half of those girls don’t even write their own stuff. Yes, Ashlee Simpson, Hilary Duff, Avril Lavigne, and Lindsay Lohan, I am looking at you.

R is for "Rough Gem" by Islands. This is a slightly different sound than what I usually listen to. It has that Caribbean sound to it. I think it’s probably the steel drums, but at least we known that Islands are self-aware of their sound.

S is for "Stay With Me Tomorrow" by Patrick Park. I’ve really gotten into Patrick Park more lately, especially some of the songs off his new album, Everyone’s In Everyone. Anyway, this song is on that album. Going back to the final song on The OC ordeal, this was one of the songs that I thought would be the last one when I heard it was a Patrick Park song. I could totally envision the final scene (totally different from what actually happened, but that’s aside from the point), but I was just off on the song. Give it a listen and tell me that it doesn’t sound like a series-ending song, though.
T is for "Transatlanticism" by Death Cab for Cutie. Final chapter in the final song on The OC story (kind of strange that I picked three songs that fit into this little story, though, isn’t it? Or maybe I did it on purpose in order to relay my story to everyone. Who knows?!). Many of the posters over on TWoP thought that this would be the perfect song. I was still content on “Naked As We Came,” but I decided I had to give this song a listen. And I became obsessed. This song is really like four songs in one. It transitions flawlessly.

U is for "Umbrellas" by Sleeping at Last. I read about this song on a music blog and fell in love with it. It’s got a pretty “soft” sound, but it builds up wonderfully and the climax in the song is amazing.

W is for "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Shins. The best of both worlds! The Shins covering a Postal Service song. This song is off the Such Great Heights EP (I think), and has a much different sound than the original, which is a lot slower and more electronic. But, hey, that’s the best thing about covers.

X is for "Chicago X 12" by Rogue Wave. I know, I know. But couldn’t it technically be “X 12, Chicago?” No? Well, then you go find a song starting with ‘X.’ I’d be delighted to take a look at your results (or lack thereof). Anyway, off of Rogue Wave’s new album, Asleep at Heaven’s Gate, which I love.

Y is for "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn & John. Chances are you’ve never heard of Peter Bjorn & John, but that you have heard this song, which is kind of everywhere. Read on (from a TWoP recap): “a song so over-licensed it now plays whenever I send an email, receive an email, am approached by strangers, see a blue or green car, or think about what shoes to wear today.” Here’s a more fitting analogy: Remember The Fray’s “How to Save a Life”? Remember how it was like a rite of passage that any television show with an audience of at least 10 million (give or take a lot) used that song, preferably in an episode-ending montage? Okay, well, Young Folks is like “How to Save a Life,” except instead of television shows, it’s car commercials. Sort of. It’s hard to explain.

Z is for "Zak and Sara" by Ben Folds. One of the few songs that talks about a Sara without an ‘h’ (and even includes that description in the lyrics!). Also, one of the few songs to start with a ‘z.’ I included it for both of those reasons.

as promised.

(finally!)...a knitting update. I have been knitting. When I haven't been walking, or working, or reading or sleeping. But otherwise, pretty much, just knitting - or planning about knitting, finding patterns and yarn. ...well, maybe the planning about knitting has been more than the actual knitting. At least I finished something:


Lilith - probably my quickest project ever (that wasn't a hat or one of those quickie scarves).

I love it - already wore to work and have decided stoles are perfect for my office where the temperature is just plain flaky and always completely unrelated to the season or the temperature outside. I knit this in Art Yarns Silk Rhapsody (50% silk, 50% mohair", colorway 143) on size 10-1/2 bamboo needles. It was also my first "real" experience blocking and I was amazed by the results. I pinned and spritzed before bed on Tuesday and it was dry and oh-so-well-finished by work time on Wednesday. Totally a blocking fan now, which is probably a good thing since I'm liking all this lace stuff!


Not so great news, the vest I'd started for the Grey's KAL - ripped (or is it frogged? haven't learned all the latest knitting lingo!) when I realized the short row cable thing was just plain wrong. I did get a cool tour of ravelry when I visited Knitch for help. Can't wait to get my invitation. But it would be better if it didn't arrive til after I've retired from Hewitt, because the site could definitely be a full-time job! Of course I compensated for the lack of project by buying more yarn. Malabrigo Laceweight to make this scarf for my dinner club Christmas gift exchange. The website doesn't have my colorway, which is a very subdued gray/green/lavender. Beautiful.

And I've made more progress on my first pair of socks and am ready to do the gusset on sock #2 [see the very end of the post - I think this is the first and last pic I've shared of the first pair of socks - wow, pitiful]. I've decided I really like knitting socks. Love how small they are. How fast they can go (when you knit them instead of the other, bigger projects you have in your knitting bag). And how interesting they are - so many patterns, colors, techniques. And not too expensive. So I signed up for an ALL DAY class at Knitch next month to learn more.

Eagerly anticipating the first installment of SotS, due out this weekend.

Oh, and I ordered four skeins of the October release from Sophie's Toes (thanks to lime and violet for the recommendation). Two skeins for socks. Maybe this one and this one? And two skeins for a shawl.

[sorry for the lack of pics, but my left ankle is swollen like an elephant leg and I'm chair bound with an ice pack...maybe 30 miles again next year isn't such a good idea?!]

the walk.

...yup, as simple as that - THE walk. Two days. 31(ish) miles through Atlanta. With my best friend who (I'm so lucky!) happens to be my sister. Raising money and walking so our daughters won't have to face what our mom, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law have faced (and what took Marc's grandmother way too young). And if the support we saw this weekend is any indication, I don't think our goal is that far-fetched. The traditional mosaic of favorite moments:
(all the photos are here)

::you're not going to believe this - but I forgot my shoes::coffee?!?!::Katie, I'm at North Ave...Katie, I'm at Collier Road...Katie, where are you?::who knew this was here...that you could walk from downtown to the Governor's Mansion in one morning::great crew!::Atlanta's finest, lookin' fine!::uh-oh, detour::sucked the life right out of me::2 miles til cold beer::need medical attention::Go Tech, beat Clemson!::knitting research::where's Sara when you need her (for a long-armed shot)::turn, forrest, turn!::downhills hurt the most::GT looking not so bad after a party night - sorority sisters looking good::it's always something with me::no more time for PT - let's go::can't imagine doing this without you::I need a nap (and an ice pack)::

We both registered for next year's walk yesterday morning. Thinking we might get a bit more ambitious about our fundraising and a $3,000 goal for the pair of us. We brainstormed a bit about fundraising ideas, what we could do with the blog, our 2-day websites, etc. If you read this and have ideas to share, please leave a comment! We won't get too hot-and-heavy until after the holidays, but come 2008, we need to be ready!

(knitting post to follow...tomorrow...promise!)