Grey November

The overcast fall weather is pushing my mood into an uncomfortable place. I am sad a lot as it is, but it is more pronounced on these chilly wet days. It could make for a long winter. On the bright side, after the workday tomorrow I have four days off. We will be cooking for ourselves, the children, and my parents on Thursday, a scaled-down version of what we did two years ago. It should be nice, lots of good food and good company. The promise of apple pie is enough to lift anyone's spirits.

I started the second square for the next baby blanket, I showed my friend the 1/9th I had completed. She and her little one came to visit the office today. The blanket square was the only knitting I worked on today, I have gotten sucked into the vortex that is Spider Solitaire in Windows XP. I disabled the games when I still had Windows 98, I should probably do the same thing again.

Sorry so boring, but I am far more tired than is reasonable and am on my way to feed the furries and crawl into bed.

On the Verge of Hibernation

Today wasn't particularly cold, or anything, but I think this weekend will be a good time to stay home and knit or read or even just sleep. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, my back still hurts from yesterday's mishap, and the only thing I sort of want to do is get my hair cut. I think I'll walk up to the shopping center late in the morning, check the wait at the salon, rent a couple of movies, then come home and settle in for the rest of the day, maybe for the rest of the weekend. I have several projects through which to cycle, so why not? I think I've been making myself go out for stuff on Saturdays to justify not having his boys during the day, but I don't think that's actually necessary.

I'm two inches shy of my first baby blanket square, I'd like to finish it and start number two by the end of tomorrow. I want to do at least one a week until it's done, so that the blanket doesn't take forever, especially since I have one more to make after this. I do think I'll have to find a place to get more Jaeger Baby Merino; Oh, Susannah didn't appear to have any more of the colorways I find suitable for these blankets. The red/green and tan/brown just didn't quite fit the bill for me. I'll knit a few squares and see where I am after that, I suppose.

We had dinner at Taj Mahal this evening, it's always very good, and it was gratifying to see it doing a decent business while we were there.

No writing is happening these days, but I'm hoping to look over a few things this weekend in that department, in addition to the massive knitting push I hope to execute. Hibernation will not be entirely sloth.

Nano No More

Yes, I am no longer working on NaNoWriMo. I didn't make any progress over the weekend, so I decided to retire it for this year. The idea was before its time in terms of my being able to adequately express it the way it needed to be expressed. I have no regrets, I've done it twice, I'll probably give it a go again next year. In the meantime, I congratulate all of the participants who hit the ground running and are putting huge efforts into their novels this month, good luck to you all.

Unfortunately, since I'm not nano-ing, I'm not writing anything. I need to remedy that very soon.

I have been knitting. I am working on a second pair of socks in the world's brightest sock yarn, still cabling away on the scarf I started last week, knitting the first of nine squares for the next baby blanket, and working on a secret project (which I could probably mention, since I don't think anyone reads this, especially anyone who would encounter the project, but I'll refrain).

He may have been right when he said that I have something else to do with my hands besides writing this November. But that wasn't my only reason for not getting into it.

We're doing Thanksgiving this year, probably for six, it should be fun, but I think I need to see about renting a table and chairs again. We are going to try not to over-cook this time, we definitely did the last time, even though that was for ten or twelve.

The anxiety thing is not going away. No more panic attacks, but I could feel the early signs today when I was at our annual school Thanksgiving Feast. I'm not happy about this, but I don't know that I want to go the medication route, or even the going to the doctor route. I'm in denial, obviously, but I'm going with it for the moment, unless it gets worse, or continues for too long.

I'm trying to work out again, but I keep kinking myself, this is another disturbing trend.

On the bright side, there's only one work day left until the weekend.

I'm Cabling! I'm Cabling!

Yes, that means I'm not writing. I believe Nano is no more for this year, I am sad to say. I'll give it a go this afternoon, but if I'm not sucked in and rocking soon, I don't think it's going to happen.

Meanwhile, I finished the knitting on the pink-and-purple baby blanket last night (weaving ends and blocking to come) and started on a cabled scarf out of burgundy 100% alpaca from Andean Yarns that my dad found at a thrift shop in January. The yarn was sort of fractured at the beginning of the ball, but it seems to have calmed down. I'm doing it, and it's making sense, and after 5 pattern repeats I basically have the pattern memorized. I know, I know, I get way too excited about these knitting accomplishments, but you have to take joy where you can find it, right? Oh, I thought I only had one more baby blanket to do; turns out I have two.

My parents and grandparents were over-the-top impressed with my socks, almost enough to make me wonder what they thought they'd be seeing. But it was cool, and my knitting and I got to be the floor show for the evening.

Hope everyone has a pleasant day. I'm going to see The Carmina Burana this evening at the Fulton Opera House. I've never seen a production there, and I've never seen this production anywhere, so it should be exciting.

Update the Next (Nano and Knitting)

Nano Day 8 -- 330: Unwell, huddled under blankets, bed by 9:30.

Nano Day 9 -- 1732: Broke the generic daily minimum, still behind the minimum I need to do this.

Just under three stripes left on the purple and pink baby blanket, I alternated knitting and writing this evening.

I took half a sick day yesterday, but it helped neither my writing nor my knitting. Helped my state of mind only moderately, but I won't get into that at the moment.

Delinquent Update

Nano Day 4 -- 0: hurt myself during my workout, motivation for anything but finding a comfortable way to sit was nil.

Nano Day 5 -- 302: Did a bit at Borders in early evening, spent the rest of the evening watching Buffy episodes I hadn't seen before.

Nano Day 6 -- 60: Done during the previews before Shall We Dance (It was close to the original, good dancing, I cried). Strange, sort of frustrating day.

Nano Day 7 -- 2641: Best day so far, did some here, some at Borders, more here. Could have done even more, but mind wandered in the evening.

Current total 8359. 3310 word deficit at this point. Here's hoping I can overcome it sooner than later.

Blanket is still growing incrementally, that's what I got done the nights I wasn't writing. Worked on the sock for a bit this afternoon during more Buffy episodes.

Today was gorgeous, I made a point of getting outside and enjoying it.

Nano Day 3 -- 915

Yes, it's a pretty pitiful count, but I was completely distracted and overwhelmed by sadness at the outcome of yesterday's election.

People have the right in this country to vote for whomever they choose, and that is one of the positive things about the system. Any other positive things will probably become significantly less positive over the next four years. George W. and Co. have been handed the country on a silver platter. They will do whatever they possibly can to reap the greatest reward for themselves and their cronies during this second term, because they no longer have to worry about a re-election bid and they have a congress more securely on their side and more conservative in its slant.

Pro-life and anti-same-sex groups and churches got out the vote and they will be expecting to call in favors once the government changes hands in January. America is supposedly a country to be looked up to and followed, the greatest nation in the world? How can that be when so many intelligent people are willing to put people into office who want to legislate women's reproductive rights and demonize gay and lesbian people for falling in love with someone of their own gender.

Morality should guide your own sense of what is right and wrong, and put it in a context of the greater good. It seems to me that people who voted using abortion or same-sex marriage as the number one issue stopped at the first point, without bothering to consider the second at all.

I hope that we as a country manage to come through with our rights, whether they be reproductive, civil, or any of the rest, intact, but I have to admit that I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, I'm hoping that I can find a way to ride it out without becoming completely discouraged by the regressive tendencies of my fellow citizens and their choice of public servant that this election has laid bare.

I am happy that Kerry carried Pennsylvania, despite the absurd number of visits by the president in recent months, and I am excited that Barack Obama will have a chance to use his voice of dissent in an increasingly conservative congress. I wish him luck.

No knitting, too depressed. Pizza and Sex in the City instead -- the most apolitical content we could find for our viewing pleasure this evening.

Nano Day 2 -- 2009

The total is 4441, in case anyone is interested. I probably should have gotten more done today, but I have been caught up in election anxiety. I've done 2000+ each day so far, so I'm satisfied. I don't feel the need to get the 50k done in three days, so that is plenty. I hope to get higher numbers on weekends, but I'm not going to stress out about it. The competitive thing on the boards is not helping me this year, it's stressing me out more than anything, even though I'm doing what I want to be doing.

The story is taking a while for me to get into, I think the material may be too close for me to deal with effectively, I may have to change direction slightly if I want to make it this time.

I voted after work today, number 482 at my polling place. I waited for about 15 minutes, and there were probably twenty or more people waiting behind me. At this point, NBC has called Pennsylvania for Kerry, about which I am extremely pleased, but it's not over yet, and I'll have to wait until morning before I learn much more.

No knitting today since it took me so long to get my words in, but I did manage to get the new DVD/VCR player working, so that was a little thrill for me.

Have a good night, all, and think good (Democratic) thoughts for what tomorrow morning will bring.

Nano Day One -- 2432

This total is as of 8:28 pm. I may write more this evening still, but I'm not entirely sure. I am tired from staying up to get my traditional midnight start, and the next scene I need to write is going to be fairly intense, so I may just stay where I am and do some knitting instead. I passed both the traditional Nano minimum and my personal daily goal, so I won't feel too awful if I do decide to call it a day.

REMINDER: Don't forget to vote tomorrow if you are in the US. It is extremely important that everyone who is eligible gets out and votes in this election.

I think that's about all I have to say this evening. I need to decide whether I want to get up early and go to the polls before work, or spend my evening immediately after work in line to vote. I'll probably decide tomorrow morning.