Blinking Heavy

Gee, I almost forgot to tell you... Andrew's band has a new video out. It was made by Fluorescent Hill and it's getting rave reviews.

Click here
First you'll see this screen:

You'll need to click where it says video/audio at the bottom left of the screen.

The next screen that comes up should look like this:

But if you look really close at this picture, you'll see that I've added an arrow that shows you where to click for the new video. "Try telling that to my baby" is the song. The video is in Quicktime, and some people have had problems downloading it (*added later: actually, it will download, you just have to wait for about 4 minutes for it to start playing). I'm not a techno-wiz, so if you have problems... uh... yeah... sorry *shrugs shoulders*.

For those of you who watch it, a word of warning: You may experience cravings for sugary treats during and after viewing.

Arguments For Turning The Heat Back On

Despite the fact that it has been unseasonably mild here since Saturday, I have been toying with the idea of turning the heat back on. Here are just a few of the arguments I have prepared for when Andrew questions my sanity:

1. I can drape my clothes (and his) over the radiator so they are warm when I get dressed in the morning. This perk also extends to pajamas, housecoats, towels, and when it's really cold, shoes or boots.

2. Walking out of the huge cloud of steam when leaving the bathroom after having a shower, although reminiscent of an 80s rock video, gets old fairly quickly.

3. I'm always losing my knitting needles in the blankets on the couch.

4. My body is starting to lose the ability to regulate its own temperature. Last night I found myself wearing my big sweater at my SIL's house, even though they had the wood stove blazing - she asked if I was cold.

Probably the most compelling argument thus far:

5. My handknit socks are not yet dry after their first washing on the weekend.

And... The Heat is Back Off!

The heat was on for less than 24 hours. Andrew and I enjoyed a lovely warm evening at home last night... and woke up this morning to find it incredibly warm outside. We turned off the heat and said, ok, maybe we were being wusses last night. The heat has been off since about noon and it's still 64F in the house.

It was so nice outside today that when I was vacuuming out the car I was warm enough to take off my jacket.

I haven't got much energy to blog tonight... so instead I've got some photos for you.

This is one of the streets I bike every morning on my way to work.

I noticed two people walking through the leaves that morning. Their feet were making that "Shoof, shoof" sound that Bill Watterson always wrote into Calvin and Hobbes cartoons when they walked through the leaves. It's great onomatopoeia. Shoof shoof. I need to do some shoof shoofing of my own. I love that sound.

This is what I wore when I biked home from work the other night.

Please imagine a black helmet topping off that colourful set and you'll understand why I started doing superhero poses in the kitchen (all by myself, b.t.w.) before I left for work that morning.

This is the completed bunny hat for my cousin's baby:

It's just so darned cute that it needed booties. DOH!

Our plan for global domination through knitting has spread. Uncle K and I were chatting on MSN only moments ago and he sent photos of the knitting my aunt has been doing this evening! YAY!!!!!!! Go Auntie K, GO!!!!

8:42pm Atlantic Time

The furnace is on. The heating hold-out has ended. Shortly before the furnace was turned on the inside temperature was 13C.

I would like to make a few points before anyone thinks to utter the word "wuss".

1. We have started thinking of 12C (55F) as "liveable".
2. It has been 14C (56F) and under for the majority of the last 15 days.
3. The plants are starting to lean toward the neighbour's side of the house.
4. Andrew and I could see our breath in the air last Sunday.
5. When I misplaced the dishcloth, all you had to do was look for the steam above it.
6. The refrigerator seemed warm.
7. I no longer shiver at 13C (55F).
8. The butter in the cupboard is harder than the butter in the refrigerator.
9. I've started to suspect that Andrew is working long hours only to stay away from our house.
10. CBC has stupidly cancelled the Roundup. (Not sure what that has to do with us being called wusses, but living with no heat and hearing that the Roundup has been cancelled... well, something had to give. I was getting too close to the edge.)

Andrew and I just got home from dinner with JAK and her husband (who just made VP of his company - YEAH!!!! Congrats!). We had sushi. YUM. I wish I had thought to photograph Andrew stuffing the end piece of a soft-shelled crab roll into his mouth. All these legs sticking out everywhere... heh heh... It was funny.

Thanks, everyone for your kind "Blogiversary" wishes. Sniff... You made me feel so loved!

Ok, gotta go. The heat is on, baby... on the street. I think I can take off the touque now!

Tomorrow, photos! (I hope)

First Blogiversary Bits of Happy!

It all started a year ago today. Under pressure from Minou and instruction from my father to write more, I started this blog. I'm not entirely certain if this is what he had in mind when he suggested that I do more writing, but as Calvin says, "I obey the letter if not the spirit of the law."

It's hard to believe that through writing and knitting, (what are both so often solitary endeavours), I have brought so many people into my life.

Moving from a small town where everyone knows you to a city where you can spend a day out running errands without ever seeing someone you know is never easy. When you're an introvert it's even harder (I know, it's hard to believe that I can be introverted). It took me a while to find my place in HRM, especially after a certain friend moved away to go to university. Eventually though, I found a kindred spirit or two at work with whom I could share my newfound love of yarn... an old friend moved back to town just in time for the knitting to begin but left before it got intense... and then through knitting and this blog, I met other "real" people both in my LYS and on the road.

May I present, in honour of my year of blogging, a list of "Free Bits Of Happy" stemming directly from this blog and knitting:

1. Being linked by a well-known knitter and writer. That was the day I installed a site meter

2. Participating in a yarn swap with someone who lives in a place I have always dreamed of visiting.

3. Receiving a yarny gift in the mail from an amazingly kind person and fabulous knitter. (The yarn that is still in the "it's so beautiful I have to find the perfect project for it" drawer of my "yarn storage unit")

4. Getting up in the morning to check to see if there are any new comments on my blog and finding I have an audience.

5. Being part of a world wide community of knitting obsessed people and realizing that it's not so freaky.

6. Reading about she who needs no link, buying her bookbookbook and giving it to my Grandmother.

7. Having my grandmother tell the entire family about my knitting.

8. Seeing my dad wearing the hat I made for him the first Christmas I tried to knit for everyone.

9. Receiving comments from my Uncle K.

10. Meeting local knitters and being brave enough to start a Stitch and Bitch group of my/our own.

11. Really, really liking those knitters. Every single one of you.

12. Being able to send a baby gift that I made to one of my oldest friends and knowing that although I can't be there, I've wrapped my own version of a loving hug around her newborn daughter.

13. Teaching a good friend how to knit and then watching as she knit her first sweater!!!!!.

14. Having that friend be obsessed with knitting too so that "Yarn Crawls" become part of our roster of "fun things to do without the boys".

15. Meeting my grandmother and her two sisters at a yarn store and seeing their faces light up just like mine does when I see good yarn.

16. Hearing that my SM loves the shawl I made for her.

17. Learning so much about myself by just sitting here with a keyboard.

18. Learning that the bizarre thoughts that pop into my mind ("hmmmm... a knitted rug... that would be cool" - right JAK?) are not all that bizarre.

19. Hopefully inspiring my Auntie K to learn to knit.

20. Having something I wrote appear on the CBC lock out website. (Oh sure, I help them picket and they take the Roundup off the air. I feel as if I have done no favours for this country.)

21. Making a great friend in my LYS owner, my fellow LYS employee and many of the customers.

22. The yarn... ok, the yarn isn't free, but squooshing it while it's still on the shelves at the shop... that's still free. Although I do think Sheryl could charge admittance.


I think that's all I've got for now. It's been a treat, this year on the web. Who woulda thunk that the girl who took Computer Ed in 1990 (and learned BASIC) would be on the internet?

Oh, and for those of you who are around this weekend... Tangled Skeins will be open on SUNDAY and yours truly will be guiding the destiny of the yarn in the shop. Please come by, say hello and FOR HEAVENS SAKE, IF YOU HAVEN'T STARTED THE ARAN CABLE KNIT SWEATER THAT YOU PROMISED TO MAKE YOUR 250 POUND UNCLE MEL FOR CHRISTMAS, YA MIGHT WANNA STOP IN AND PICK UP THE YARN. No pressure or anything. It's just that you don't have much time before the holidays.

Home heating status: It's now 12:04am on November 4th and we still haven't turned on the heat. I'm wearing the same fleecey outfit as the other night, only I've added a touque.