Sorry so silent lately. Life's been busy and I just haven't had a lot to say. Plenty to do, just nothing interesting to discuss. Not that I have anything exciting now, I just figured I'd pop in for a bit. Leaving Monday for Hawaii, so I am trying to arrange with a pet-sitter to take care of the kitties and fish, as well as making arrangements with my parents to go out there and leave our car for the week.

I love traveling, but always find the few days prior to my departure very stressful. Then again, this entire season has been stressful, so I can hardly tell the difference.

Only have a few inches done on the front of Kristy's bridesmaid tank, but with about 11 hours in the air and a changeover at LAX, I figure I can get a lot done on the way to Hawaii. Of course that assumes they let me bring my knitting aboard, but they haven't stopped me any other time so I think I'll be fine.

Company holiday party last night was dull. At least it started at 3:30 so we knocked off work early, and it was in the office so I didn't have to travel to it. Left at 5ish, got a few more presents, and went home to collapse. Woo-hoo, I am leading the high life. Tonight we're planning to go out for dinner and hit a local bar that looks nice and has a pool table, which is the big draw.

It is fuh-reezing today but sunny, so I actually enjoyed my morning walk to the subway. Very unusual. I think I'm on a bit of a high from getting Ryan two really good gifts last night. One is going to totally surprise him. Actually, I think both will, but one will do so even more than the other. So cryptic, aren't I?

I can't believe we're leaving for Hawaii in less than a week. Our flight is at noon on Monday. Ryan's sister said her fiance, Tom, has gotten lots of yummy things for Christmas dinner, and that they are really excited to see us. Me, too. I'm so happy that we've gotten to know each other and really like each other a lot. It is going to be so much fun to have her as my sister-in-law!

Lots to do before we leave, including finding a cat- and fish-sitter. Anyone in Brooklyn who's reading, I'd love a recommendation. Preferably someone who won't kill our pets or rob us blind while we're away. Too much to ask?

Too tired last night to knit, and I am not going to make it to Stitch-n-Bitch, unfortunately. There is just too much to do and we both slept horribly last night and the night before - I need to make up for it tonight or I won't last the week. Our company holiday party is Thursday afternoon/evening here at the office (on three different floors - I'm curious to see how that goes.) Then on Friday morning I may have to go to a client meeting near Philadelphia. No biggie except the meeting starts at 9 a.m., which means leaving around 6 a.m. to be there on time. Ugh. I'm torn because I'd really like to present the stuff we're doing, and meet the client face-to-face, but that is an ungodly hour to have to do so. We'll see what happens.

What a relief to wake up and be able to take the train to work today. I still hate taking the subway, but today I was grateful for it. Too much going on and not enough paid time off to stay home, so transit strike or no transit strike, I was going to have to be here. I'm just hoping it stays this way and they find a way to agree.

I've got my first client presentation here at 4pm. It's an informal one, on a conference call, but it's the first time I've done this in about a million years. At my last job I was never involved enough on a project to actually present, and before that I was freelancing and freelancers rarely present. So I am a little nervous. It's a fairly straightforward project, and the things that are new and different are actually things I suggested, so I should be able to talk about it fairly coherently. Still, there's a certain "dog and pony show" aspect to it that always unnerves me.

Right about now Ryan should be giving his interim thesis presentation at school. He's done a lot of great work - way more than any of the other grad students. He's stopped updating his blog, but last night I saw what he's presenting today and I was very impressed. It's a combination of storyboard scenes plus completed scenes, with music and dialogue. At least all the time he's been putting in on that rather than spending with me is coming to fruition!

Still coughing but not as much, and I feel much more human today. It does seem as though I am going to live - good to know.

Went to an eyewear sample sale last night at Alain Mikli. Fancy French eyewear designer. I needed new sunglasses to replace the ones I bought in Italy and lost, and I found a really cool pair with red frames for $30 bucks from his "lower priced" line - retail around $150. Then I spotted a cool pair of regular frames in a muted purple, that were just too cool to miss. Fifty bucks for frames that retail around $400. Yes, I signed up for their mailing list. Now in January, when my new vision plan starts, I'll go visit Yoon, my friend and eye doctor, and get prescription lenses for the purple frames. Yay!

The subway has been so crowded the past few days it almost makes me think the strike would be pleasant! Yesterday and today I had the same conductor's train, and he was very entertaining. Made lots of PSA-style announcements about pickpockets and not giving money to people who say they are from a charitable organization for the homeless. He was really into it, offering tips about keeping your wallet in your front pocket or holding your backpack in front of you - very helpful.

Tonight I think I'll start knitting the front of Kristy's bridesmaid tank while I watch "Must-see TV." I'm looking forward to hitting the sofa at the end of the day.

I saw a girl knitting on the subway this morning. She had raspberry-colored long hair and was working on what looked like the first row of ribbing for a sweater in what I think was a white cotton yarn. She was standing just a few feet away, so I took my headphones off and mentioned to her that if she was interested, there was a knitting group that met on Tuesdays right off Union Square. She was very interested, and said she had been looking at my scarf, wondering if I had knitted it (I had). So, if anyone spots her at SnB (the hair is hard to miss), be nice to her!

I didn’t make it last night because I’m sick again. Or still. Whatever. It seems to be a reverse virus. Usually I have a sore throat and feel crappy, then I get a cough. This time it was the other way around and now I’ve got the sore throat and feel crappy. If I were at my old job, I’d have called in sick, but I don’t have any sick time yet here until after the first of the year. Bummer.

I was supposed to go out tonight and wrap presents for a childrens’ charity with some friends, but I think I am going to have to pass. My body needs some charity, which will probably take the form of knitting on the sofa and going to bed early.

I haven’t started the second side of the tank just yet. Been too busy running around. Most of my holiday shopping is done, though I am still working on Ryan’s gift. I think I won’t discuss that in this forum!

Talk of a possible transit strike is really making me nervous. A few weeks ago, I could have just walked to work (albeit a long walk in the cold). But now that’s just not feasible – it would take well over an hour and involve crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in the freezing cold. I could carpool with some friends, but the mayor says they would only allow cars with four or more people to cross into the city. And I know traffic would just be hellacious. Let’s hope the MTA and the union can get it together and avoid the nightmare of a strike.

Thanks to all for the compliments on the bridesmaid tank. And no, I don't let Serena hang out on it a lot, so it's not cat-hairy. Ryan's kitties do like to sit on clothing, so I try not to leave stuff lying around where they can get to it.

Not much to tell today. I waited half an hour in the freezing cold this morning (20 degrees Fahrenheit) to get into the building where the Social Security office is. I needed a new SS card for work, and today was the day I chose to go. The 30 minute delay was because of security - they have one metal detector and a tiny lobby, but the building has offices for SS, IRS and Department of Labor. Half an hour to get in the building, 2 minutes to hand in the application, have the person do the data entry, and get a receipt telling me to expect my card in the mail in 5-10 days. Sheesh.

Then I got stuck at Fulton Street for 20 minutes on the subway because there was a sick passenger at Union Square. Argh! Didn't get to work until 10:45. Luckily I had said I'd be late and why, so no one cared. Plus it was a quiet day, so I didn't miss much.

Right now I am torn between surfing the web, unpacking some more stuff, and knitting by the TV. I think I'll go unpack until 8, then go for the latter, and try and let the web wait another day.

I finished the back of Kristy's bridesmaid tank tonight! I cannot believe it went as quickly as it did. This is a crappy background for it, but I managed to get one halfway decent shot



before Serena decided that Izzy shouldn't be the only famous knitblogger cat.

It was warmer than yesterday when I left the house this morning, and the snow was gently falling. There isn't anything gentle about what's going on out there now, though! It's snowing horizontally on 42nd Street, with the wind coming from the East River. Brr! I had to go out at lunchtime to buy some new gloves, because I lost one of my beloved red shearling gloves on Tuesday morning, apparently on the subway or on the street.

My friend Casey (who works across the street) met me for a Gap expedition, where I got some black fleece-lined mittens that I'd never make for myself. I also came back with two pairs of corduroys in black and stone, since they were on sale and they had my size. I've been experiencing a "comfortable pants that fit and still look good" shortage lately, so these should help.

My office mate got to leave work early, since she lives in NJ and has a long commute hampered by weather. But I am stuck here for the duration, it appears. Someone even rescheduled tomorrow's 3pm meeting for 4pm today, which is utter madness.

Sad to report that Shrimpy is truly gone. Speculation is he molted and was too weak to survive it, and was eaten by his tankmates after he died. So sad. He was my favorite. I didn't realize I could get so attached to a little crustacean. Now I don't know if I'd want to get another shrimp or not. It's sad to look at the tank and not see his cute little pinkness zipping around. He used to hang out by the filter, and it looks so empty there. I can't believe I am so emotional over a pet I never even touched.

It was so nice to go to Stitch-n-Bitch last night! I really had missed seeing all the girls and just hanging out. Plus lots of people admired the luna silk top so I was pleased. It really is so pretty - all the yarn's doing, not mine. I'm about an inch or so into the armhole shaping for the back, and am still amazed at how fast it is knitting up. And at how far the yarn went - I am just about finishing the first ball now.

Sad news on the fishtank is we couldn't find Shrimpy this morning. Shrimpy is/was a peppermint shrimp and was one of the first denizens of the tank last summer. He was also the coolest. As I put it, he had great shrimpinality! He just seemed like such a happy little crustacean. I hope he was just hiding, but it didn't really look that way. Poor Shrimpy. We've lost other fish in the past, but somehow Shrimpy always meant the most to me.

I'm headed out in a bit to the doctor's office to try and get some help with the dry hacking cough I have had for almost 2 weeks. It's finally driving me nuts. Even if it's viral, I'd at least like something that will suppress the cough, since the OTC stuff isn't doing a thing at this point. I can take Robitussin shots all day, and still cough up a lung. Yuk.

Man is it cold this morning! I thought my nose would fall off on the way to the subway. 21 degrees Fahrenheit when I left the house, and windy windy windy. Brr! OK, enough whining.

So this tank is coming along way quicker than I expected it to. I am just a few rows away from the armhole shaping with just a few hours last night and a few more tonight. I think it might be going so fast because the yarn is very thin and thus I can jam together a whole lot of stitches towards the end of the needle, and then just zip through them really quickly. That's opposed to knit, knit, knit, push, knit, knit, knit, push. I don't know, but something is definitely making it go fast. Pure determination?



I'm planning to go to Stitch-n-Bitch tonight, but I won't be there for too long, it seems. Stupid me brought the tank but forgot to bring another ball of the yarn, and I am close to finished with the one I have. I guess that will be my enforced deadline for leaving tonight. Probably just as well. I have a ton to do at home, but I really want to see some of my knitting girls! This way I guess I can do a bit of both.

Since Deb mentioned it, I figured I'd talk a bit about the fishtank. Ryan decided last summer that he wanted a saltwater aquarium. I love fish, but thought it would be a really expensive, pain in the ass hobby. After saying that, I supported him and helped him pick everything out. Two weeks ago we had the fun of MOVING the fishtank. Whee! "Luckily," many of the denizens had expired over the summer and fall, so we only had two fish, a shrimp and a crab to move. Over the weekend we picked up some more fish. We got a lunare wrasse, three yellowtail damsels, a tomato clown, an angelfish (can't remember the exact variety) and a green serpent star. So far just about everyone is getting along well. I took a few pretty lame pics for you.

Zebra-striped damsel (one of the original residents who survived the move with aplomb!)



Zebra and the new angelfish



Yellowtail damsels



One of these mornings when they are all out for feeding I'll get some more pics. I took these at night and most of them were hiding.

I decided to damn the torpedos and install IE5 on my Mac here at work. If someone from IT gets pissy about it someday, I'll just claim ignorance. At least now I can post to my blog. And that's what's really important, right?

Yesterday turned into a good day. I didn't really do all that much for most of the day - put a few things away, went back to the aquarium store with Ryan for some more rock for the fishtank. But around 5 pm I decided to start knitting, so I pulled out the Luna silk and the Artfibers pattern and started on Kristy's bridesmaid top. I was tremendously relieved that the knitting goes pretty quickly, even though it's a finer gauge yarn than usual. Actually, it's really not all that fine - 5.5 stitches per inch (that's 22 per four inches for those who don't feel like doing the math).

The first inch of the sweater is garter stitch, which I actually find goes more slowly than stockinette, since my odd method of purling seems to go faster than my knitting. For the 36" size, I cast on 99 stitches, and have already finished the waistline decreases and am about 12 rows into the bust increases. I'd say there's about 5" on the needles right now, though I am terrible at eyeballing measurements like that. The fabric is just beautiful - it feels wonderful, drapes nicely, and looks lovely. Now I am beginning to once again believe that I can pull this off.

I think the only reason I had any doubts was that phonecall I had with the girl at Artfibers. I don't know which person it was, but she made a big to-do about Luna being "very thin" and being surprised I was knitting it by hand. Whatever! She must be a chunky-gauge gal. (Yarnwise, I mean!)

Got a seat on the subway this morning, which figured since I left the knitting at home. I had to content myself with playing FreeCell on my Palm, as I had also neglected to bring a book. I'm really annoyed about leaving the knitting - now that I have started this sweater I just want to continue on it constantly. It feels so nice to actually want to knit again - like maybe some of the craziness in my life is calming down and I am getting back to "normal." I think I'll even go to Stitch-n-Bitch tomorrow night. I have a few errands to do in my old neighborhood (dry cleaning, prescriptions I didn't get a chance to transfer yet) so I will do those right after work, and then head over to Java-n-Jazz for a while.

Lots of upheaval these days for lots of knitbloggers. Squib is dealing with the aftermath of a layoff (been there, done that - it gets better, I swear). Staceyjoy has been struggling with electrical and other landlord-related nightmares, which finally seem to be working out, thanks to her tireless efforts. Stacey bought and moved into her new house. And lot of other folks seem to be just generally dealing with a bunch of crap that's keeping them from enjoying their favorite hobby as much as they'd like.

Count me in! We moved November 12th and still do not have a phone line in this place. As I mentioned earlier, the contractor who renovated the apartment cut all the incoming phone and cable lines. Cable finally made it in about a week ago, but phone is still AWOL. We have two Verizon appointments (one for the outside line and one to install the jacks in the apartment) on Tuesday between 8am and noon. Yeah, we'll see. Since this will be the 3rd such visit, I am less than certain it'll happen.

On the up side, we did lots of work around here and are getting the place shipshape. Most of the boxes are gone and the few remaining ones are not too tough. I mostly got the kitchen in order yesterday and celebrated by baking chocolate chip cookies. Yum! Just had a few for brekkie with a glass of milk. Hey, it's at least as nutritious as those sugary cereals, right?

Speaking of cereal, I cannot believe the price difference of cereal at the supermarket here in the city (even in Brooklyn, which is cheaper than Manhattan, though not much in this neighborhood) compared to the price at Target on Long Island. Some of the cereal was 50% less at Target than at Food Emporium on 14th Street! That is insane. At this rate, if we do all our food shopping outside the 5 boroughs, we will save the amount we spent on the car in the first place!

Well, enough babbling about cereal and money. I've still got plenty to do around here to make my little office space feel comfy and look good enough to post pics for you.

Not a lot of talking, but some new pics to share. First off, is this a cute baby or what? Liliana is wearing her new strawberry cap, and seems to like it.



And is this a cute birthday boy, or what? Since the big day was Wednesday the 27th, my family celebrated Ryan's birthday with cake after stuffing our faces for Thanksgiving.



And last, is this a cute cat or what? Serena's favorite new nap spot is on top of the armoire in our bedroom. Keep in mind that the armoire is over 6 feet tall, and she climbs up by using the wood beams inside the doors as rungs on a ladder. Then she either jumps from the top to the floor, or (most impressive) walks out to the very end of the open door and does a controlled fall/leap onto the end of the bed (about 4 feet away). Such a little acrobat, though you wouldn't know it from this pose!



That's it for now. We're off to the aquarium store today, so Ryan can take advantage of the $50 in new fishies that I promised him via a homemade birthday gift certificate. Maybe we'll have some pics of them later.

This Thanksgiving morning, I'm thankful to have gotten a good night's sleep! I'm also thankful that we've got more unpacked than still packed, and that Ryan had a happy birthday. And that our kitties are getting along.

As I wrote that last bit, Serena jumped from the top of my monitor to the top of my bookcase, which is in a new (apparently more exciting) configuration here in the new apartment. She's been spending a lot of time climbing on the furniture. She particularly likes to be up on the top of the armoire, which is over 6 feet tall. Once she gets up high, she usually puts her front paws on the walls or moldings, looking for a way to get higher. I swear, the cat would climb across the ceiling if she could. Now she's back on the monitor, stalking Cleo. I think it's mostly play, but you never know when things could get out of hand!

We're headed out to my parents' house in a few hours. Ah, another thing to be thankful for - the ability to drive our car out there rather than cram in with a million people on the Long Island Railroad. After dinner we'll go to Leanne's parents' house, although she won't be there. Pastry chefs sometimes get stuck working on Thanksgiving. I'll be back out there tomorrow to see Leanne and her sister Tracy, so I can give Tracy the strawberry cap I made for her baby, Liliana.

The rest of the weekend I plan to lay low and finish unpacking and settling in here. We're doing quite well, but still have some stuff to sort out. Mostly kitchen stuff and my office stuff, since I have been working and haven't had time to do it. Once we settle more, I'm sure I'll blog more regularly. In the meantime, happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

FInding it harder to blog these days for a bunch of reasons. First, I'm so
busy unpacking at home that I can barely find time to get to the computer.
And some days the computer is blocked by boxes! Working on that one.

Second, for some reason Netscape 4.76 is the only browser installed on this
ancient iMac at my new job, and blogger pro is not compatible with it. I
haven't completely sussed out whether it's OK (i.e. if there are any weird
IT policies about software installation) for me to install Exploder, but I
think I'll probably do it anyway soon. Right now, I'm going to try the
"email to post" option offered by blogger pro. Hope it goes OK. If not,
blame any formatting oddities on that, not me!

Things are percolating along at home, though we are still screwed on the
telephone front. Next day they can even attempt to install a line is
Tuesday, 12/3. And that is contingent on either being able to get into the
next-door-neighbors' apartment or finding an alternate route. I'm not
optimistic right now. At least our landlord is being (for her) sympathetic,
and agreed to cover the installation charges, which are going to be $213 for
two jacks in the apartment. Yeesh. At least we don't have to pay for the
outside wiring!

I knitted a bit on the subway this morning. I thought I was rather clever,
standing in the doorway of the moving train, bracing my back against the
door while I knit away on a strawberry cap, yarn tucked away in my shoulder
bag. I did consider that if the train stopped short I'd stab myself (or
someone else) in the chest with my size 6 addi turbo circulars, but I
decided the probability was small enough not to warrant further
consideration.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, if only to have four days out of the
office, three of which I can use to finish unpacking and getting the
apartment in order. Before Thanksgiving comes Ryan's birthday (Nov. 27th),
which I'm also looking forward to. I got him a...yeah right, I'm going to
post it on my blog for him to see! How stupid do I look?! He does
know that I've invited a bunch of his friends to join us for Korean BBQ
Wednesday night. Should be fun since no one has to work the next day.

Well, it took over a week but at least my internet connection is back. Getting cable installed was a nightmare. And we still don't have a phone. Apparently, when the contractor renovated this apartment, he cut the phone and cable lines in the building. Restoring those is easier said than done. Because this neighborhood is a landmark district, all utlity lines, etc. have to be in the back of the building, and nothing can be run up the front. That means the boxes where cable and phone originate are in the back of the building, which is only accessible through the neighboring building's yard. The cable guy had to use a ladder and drill through the walls, and the phone people are going to have to do them one better and also go through our across-the-hall-neighbor's apartment.

That means to get a phone we have to coordinate with (1) Verizon (ugh), (2) the person in the neighboring building, (3) our neighbor across the hall, and (4) Ryan's class schedule (since I can't take any time off the new job). What a friggin mess. In the meantime, we've been out of touch and running up giant cellphone bills. Whee!

Tonight, at least, I came home and checked my mail (which I'd been doing at work for a few days, but didn't want to be slacking so soon and thus wasn't answering much of). Then I watched all the NBC TV shows, and started a new fruit cap for Leanne's niece. I never got to see her over the summer, and now the 6-month size is too small, but I'll be seeing her next week. And apparently her Mom was just telling Leanne she hardly has any baby hats! Perfect!

Other than all the installation crap and the boxes everywhere, so far, so good in our new place. We're getting settled as fast as we can, and once we are I'm sure I'll have more exciting news to blog than this.

Decided to take a break from packing and post the photo of the baby hat I finished the other night. I'm very pleased with the way it came out, especially considering I used cheap yarn (Sugar'n'Cream I got for a buck a skein), no pattern, and charted the heart pattern myself. Yes, I am slightly proud of myself.



I would rather make a hundred more hats than continue packing my apartment up. Why oh why is this so hellacious? I think it's mostly because of the nature of my studio apartment. There's no spare room to put all my boxes and crap into, so they just sort of take over the perimeter of the place, mingling with the stuff that isn't packed yet. I'm sure there is a better way to go about this, but it's just too hard to be super-organized about it.

I'm also torturing myself by deciding to do a few last loads of laundry before we move, since our new building doesn't have laundry in the basement. Yeah, I'm nuts. But, clean sheets, clothes, and shower curtain will be nice to have when we settle in.

The cat is totally freaked out by all the stuff moving around. She's completely twitchy, and I feel bad about it. My plan is to leave her here tomorrow with litter box and food until we are done moving things into the new place and then come back around dinnertime to bring her and her stuff over to the new place. I know that when the movers are here, she will just go hide up on the shelf in "her" closet, but in the new place, with the door propped open, I'm afraid she'd get disoriented and run away. And this move is going to be stressful enough with introducing the cats; I don't need to lose one in the process!

OK, this is probably my last post for a few days. The cable guy is supposed to come Wednesday morning between 8am and noon, but I doubt I am going to jump online and blog immediately! So, send good thoughts my way, and I'll be back as soon as I can be!

Packing starts out carefully and neatly, but eventually you end up just dumping the contents of your drawers into boxes.

Oh lord, moving sucks so hard. It looks like a tornado hit my apartment right now.

On the up side, we drove to the Home Despot (no, that's not a typo, I just like to say it. Apparently, I'm not the only one - check out this very amusing site) last night and picked up blinds for the new apartment. It was such a pleasure to just stick them in the trunk and then go to dinner with friends. Having a car around here is totally opening up the world for us. And making life so much easier, especially with the moving. Plus, instead of paying shipping charges, we drove to U-Haul to get moving boxes, and just drove 'em home. By the way, did you know U-Haul will take back any unused boxes as long as you have a receipt? Excellent! And you can bring them to any location - which makes sense if you move cross-country or something. So, I didn't skimp on box-buying.

I am in the midst of making the cutest little baby cap for my friends Dan and Renee's new baby girl, whose name I cannot recall at the moment. I'm using the Sugar'n'Cream I got on sale from elann a few months ago. It's pink, and I charted out a row of little lavender hearts. I think I paid a buck for each ball, so this is definitely a cheap and happy little gift. It coordinates with a little sleeper I bought for her a couple of weeks ago. And I'm extra-happy because while cleaning out my desk "junk" drawer (more "thinning out" the junk than actually cleaning) I found my little sew-in labels - the ones that say "Betsy made this just for me!" on them. I knew I'd find them eventually. :-)

OK, no more fun for now. Gotta go pack some boxes. I'll finish the cap after I pack for a good while, and maybe post a picture later.

I have an ever-so-slight hangover this morning, the result of a couple of margaritas after my last day of work yesterday. I'll be fine in an hour or so, but I feel fuzzy right now. That probably has something to do with all the craziness, but definitely more to do with the tequila!

We picked up the car on Wednesday night, and it was so fun to drive back to the city rather than take the train! And I got extra-spoiled because Ryan drove me to the office Thursday so I could load the trunk with empty boxes that Edwin, the mailroom guy, was giving to me for apartment-packing. The amazing thing was we hit zero traffic and it was 15 minutes door-to-door (Brooklyn Heights to east Midtown). I could get used to that (but I won't because it ain't gonna happen often!)

I was in something of a daze yesterday. It's been so long since I left a job without being laid-off that it felt weird to prepare for the whole thing. It was so strange to wake up this morning and not have to go to work. Of course, that doesn't mean I am lying around today. Unfortunately, I have to start packing, which is not my strong suit. I know I should just get rid of a lot of stuff, but I'm so damned sentimental. That's why I have as much crap as I do already.

Oh well, Ryan's bringing the car over a little later so I can unload the boxes from yesterday and drive over to U-Haul to get the rest of the boxes I need. Then I have from today until Tuesday to finish up. We're going out to Coney Island tonight for my friend Sonia's birthday dinner, but other than that no social plans until post-move.