This weekend was spent on the annual pilgrimage to Rhinebeck, aka the NY Sheep and Wool festival, aka OMG PRETTY YARN I MUST HAVE IT ALL!!!!!

It was a great gathering this year. The weather was the platonic ideal of crisp Fall, sunshine, and foliage either at peak or darn near close to.

I spent my time helping the economy and adopting homeless yarn. I also convinced christinenj to take up weaving and to buy a drop spindle. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!! Now I just have to convince anomilygrace to buy a loom and my plans for world domination... well won't be complete or anything but it would give me one more person to squee over looms with, so there's at least some upside.

Anyone curious about the yarn I bought can check out my updated stash at Ravelry (I'm craftbq over there, if you haven't friended me yet). I have so much yarn now it's overflowing in my baskets. Which means I either need more baskets or I need to use up yarn faster. Probably both.

Some meals were provided care of the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe at the Culinary Institute of America. All was good, but I'm not ashamed to say that the breakfast I had there yesterday morning was a religious experience. Possibly also a sexual one. This is definitely going into the regular roster of things to do when I go to Rhinebeck.

The cats survived with my dad checking in on them while I was gone. As of me typing this, they've finally calmed down from the stage where they need to attach themselves to me like Velcro because OMGIWASGONEFOREVER and instead are doing it at their usual level of being powered by snuggles as much as they are by sunlight.

Tomorrow I return to work where I'll be there but my boss will not, so hopefully I can catch up on everything that happened while I was gone. It'd be great if I could be paid to stay home and knit all the things, but sadly that's just not happening. Ah well.

I have a surprising amount of scheduled social outings this month. Which, let us be frank, typically means any but seriously, lots! I have no idea how this happened!

Possibly as a way of restoring the natural order of things, today there was - still is - a big snowstorm. It's scheduled to end tomorrow morning, but it may impact my ability to go over to someone's house for tea tomorrow afternoon. But I am optimistic, so I made currant scones anyway. I figure worst case scenario is that I bring them into work on Monday. Plus baking on snowy days is fun :D

After that I worked on making cards. I'm still trying to figure out my style, but I'm pleased with what I ended up with. I'll take pictures when I have better light.

After that I worked on my Spanish. And after that I worked on a scarf. Sadly the yarn in question is pure muppet fur and it sheds like a mofo. It's also just slipipery enough that it's literally a pain for me to handle. This project may end up getting frogged and forgotten.

I am now sitting and relaxing. I have not yet gotten tired of having a wireless printer. The cats still refuse to fetch the papers for me, but I remain hopeful. Or deluded. It's a fine line.

Things of a crafty nature abound here in Siam. I come bearing pictures of said items!

( Shelves! )

( Sock! )

( Sewing! )

And that is all for now. Currently I am snuggling with kitties, and in a bit I'll toss a steak on the BBQ.

Supposedly we are going to get snow tonight. SO THEY SAY. Currently it is (comparatively) warm out, so I shall believe it when I see it.

That being said, I do have waffles at the ready. Snow = waffles, as well you know.

Currentl y I have a Luna curled up beside me. She's doing that cat thing of being all tucked in on herself very delicately, complete with tail wrapped around her, and she's purring. Because being next to me is apparently a happy thing in her mind. Either that or she's buttering me up in the hopes that I'll buy her a pony.

I reeeeeeeeeeeally need to pick a new project to knit.

Not for Luna's pony, I just miss having a knitting project to work on.

*goes to poke at Ravelry queue to see if anything appeals*

Last night I went to bed at 9:30. NINE THIRTY. Stupid migraine.

On the upside it would appear that I'm headache free now, which is good because tonight my knitting group is having a picnic while we watch a little outdoor Shakespeare. No clue how we'll knit when it gets dark, but hey! Picnic and Shakespeare and at least the possibility of knitting.

Over in my work life my boss has asked that I write out instructions for the person who replaces me. As I do so much more than he gives me credit for I suspect this is going to be a lot longer than he's expecting. Anyway, if I'm slow to reply on emails and tags and such, that would be why.

And since some folks asked - I haven't posted the details of the new job yet b/c these posts have been public and I'm leery of giving out specific information. But once I get half a sec I'll do a general post. And also decide what sooper sekrit code name to use for the company. (Though I suspect I already know which one it'll be.)

Busy weekend so far, but pleasantly so. Last night was BBQ & cake at Older Brother's house for my niece who has just tured 7.

Today it was sleeping in, crepes and tea, and then heading down to the beach to join my SnB group for Knit in Public day. It turned out to be overcast and on the cold side, but the view was pretty and I enjoy cold so no real worries there.

After that we went out to dinner at a new pizza place, then had tea at a nearby cafe that we're going to try as our new SnB location.

Now I am home and I have a purring cat in my lap.

All in all, I am pleased.

Luna has discovered that the best way to cuddle with me while I'm working on the laptop is to lie across my wrists. This allows her prime lap cuddling while not getting in the way of that typing I so rudely insist on doing. It's rather cute, though problematic when I long for things like bloodflow to my fingers, or the ability to get off the couch so that I can go to the bathroom.

Yesterday I had a day of great productivity. I cleaned out some closet and storage space which resulted in 4 bags worth of trash, three boxes of stuff out of my closet and into my storage unit, and an entire backseat of my car's worth of stuff that got donated to Goodwill. I now have all this SPACE for things that have previously been shoved anywhere they can go. Some other weekend I shall figure out what exactly I'm going to do with it. But I'm excited.

After I did all that I took the rest of the day off. This involved sitting and knitting and watching HGTV, which is my newfound addiction. I'm not much for the home buying shows (for some odd reason I can't relate to the trials and tribulations of a woman looking to buy a $500,000 vacation home in Hawaii) but as you might imagine the organizing ones are right up my alley. If Luna ever gets off my arm, perhaps I'll be able to reach the remote control and watch more of them.

In a remarkable stroke of luck I had today off. This allowed me to first and foremost sleep in, which I think we can all agree is necessary to the health and happiness of TBQs.

Enjoyed a lazy morning of sleeping, breakfast, and surfing the net. Then had a productive afternoon of making marshmellows, getting a haircut, shopping (but not buying anything), getting Chinese food, and then napping. Not in that order.

Tonight will be Stitch n Bitch, and I also have to make up my grocery list for tomorrow, when I shall be heading to Whole Foods to do shopping for all the stuff I'm making for Christmas. In theory there may also be wrapping of presents but we'll see.

Today went pretty well. I did laundry. Then I got a call from the garage saying I could pick up Serenity b/c she was fixed. Turns out she had a bad fuel pump relay, which was replacable for a not too scary amount of money. I'd hoped to be able to talk to the guy at the garage so I could learn more about the whole process, but for some reason he and I were locked in some sort of Abbott & Costelloian alternate universe where instead of baseball we talked cars. ("So the fuel pump relay was bad?" "No, the fuel pump RELAY was bad." "...yes, the fuel pump relay, which you replaced." "No, we didn't replace the fuel pump, we replaced the fuel pump RELAY." "Right, the fuel pump relay." "No, the fuel pump RELAY." "O... kay.")

My suspicion is that it was a whole English not being his first language issue. Either that or he's born with some sort of hearing problem where, much like the Austrailian bartender in that Simpsons episode who can only hear the word "Beer" he cannot hear the word "Relay" unless he himself is speaking it. I hasten to add that this guy is not the owner of the shop, who I met yesterday, and who was much nicer about both asking me questions about my car and answering the ones that I had.

On the plus side it was nice enough out that I was able to walk to the garage to pick my baby up. I thought about stopping for groceries on the way back but - eh. Nothing was urgent.

So once home I was back in comfy clothes and settled down to enjoy the marathon of the first season of America's Next Top Model, which I'd never seen before and found to be utterly perfect TV for a relaxing day of nothingness. While watching I worked on my knitting, so I finished a project I've been working on for a while (which is a surprise for someone) and balled up some yarn and started working on a bag.

All that and it's not even 10pm yet. Nice!