Baaaa

Wow! 72 degrees outside. Considering that today is the last day of March, that's pretty nice. When I was a kid, we always used to hear "March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb." I guess 72 degrees qualifies as lamb-like. There are about a dozen goldfinches at my finch feeder, and they are looking less olive-drab, and more, well, gold . They make quite a bit of racket. Five of our cats are stuffed into the window near the feeder, and the cheeping and twittering is putting them on edge. Now, every night at dusk, I have a couple of sets of cardinals coming to my big feeder. It's amusing to watch the males pick out the best seeds and offer them to the females. It must be near mating season. During the winter, the males peck the females on the head if they try to get on the feeder. And, in the evenings, the spring peepers are peeping madly down by the stream. In the last few years, it seems like there are fewer of them. I know frogs in general are in trouble, and I guess these little guys are part of that.

Speaking of lamb, today's weather puts me in mind of knitting in some non-wool fiber. I am feeling springy today, and tired of knitting with wool. I don't know what else, though. Maybe cotton, or cotton blend, or, maybe I'll get really wild and knit with a completely non-natural fiber. I'm going to go though my stash and see what I have. I haven't looked in a good part of my stash for about three years, so whatever I find will be a surprise, although not necessarily a good one. I have some knitting books, so maybe I can find a spring cardigan or light sweater to knit. Nothing without sleeves. My upper arms haven't seen the light of day in quite a while, and will continue to hide until I manage to lose some weight and firm up (ha). Somehow or another, I suspect we will be ice-skating in hell before that happens.

Knitted more last night on those effing Southwestern socks. I swear, I think one of the cats is ripping them back after I go to bed. I could have sworn I was way further along on them.

Today, I don't know what I should do. I really should go outside and continue to rake all the leaves off the flower beds. I have two modules on postpartum nursing and newborn nursing to read and test on. I should continue to defur my couch and floors. I should brush all the cats, and the dog, so I don't have to continue to defur my couch and floors. It never fails to amaze me that cats who spend the winter snoozing in front of the heat vents can continue to grow a winter coat. No matter now much I brush the furballs, it just seems like there's still a ton of cat fur everywhere. All of us have lint rollers in our car, just to make sure that we don't go to work looking like a cat.

I have the whole weekend, plus today, off from work. I haven't had three days in a row off from work in years. Hell, I haven't had three days off, period. I worked in delivery for a newspaper for nearly ten years, which meant I was up at 4:30 or earlier 365 days a year. I can get used to this.

Well, She Sorta Looks Like Me....Not!

Well, I finally figured out how to cut and paste. I asked Chris to show me how, and his response was "I've already shown you how a million times!" So, he showed me one more time, and lo and behold, it stuck. So, what did I do? I cut and pasted everything I could find. I finally got the Weather Pixie to stay on the page, and I added several other things as well. My personal favorite is the terror alert. For anyone who may be wondering, the characters are from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, an Adult Swim cartoon set in New Jersey, involving a talking meatball, fries, and soft drink. Don't ask. My college age sons watch this show.

Also, I have my Yahoo avatar over there. Yahoo needs to have more choice. None of their avatars have grey hair, and they are all slim. Ahem. My avatar looks like I did 30 years ago, and I would like to update her, because I won't look like that ever again, unless I have my jaws wired shut, and get major plastic surgery.

Calvin goes back to the vets tomorrow to have his stitches removed. Cal is a six-year-old cow cat, who just had an eye removed because he had cancer of the third eyelid. Never heard of that before, but he seems to be doing well. We thought he had an eye infection, which got better with treatment, and then a lot worse very suddenly. Now, he is much more energetic, with a better appetite, and we are hoping for the best. He has a 50 percent chance of the cancer recurring, most likely in his head or neck. I've had Cal and his sister Meggie since they were three days old.

Some knitting last night. Worked a little more on my Southwest Opal sock. This sock is probably going to set records for taking so long to knit. Can't help it. I have a ton of reading on postpartum nursing and a test or two that have to be finished by next week. Now, on top of that, I have a section on fetal monitoring, and will have more on newborn nursery in the next few weeks. Also, I am going to be working days for 6-8 weeks. It'll be interesting getting to work by 6:45 in the morning. I so prefer nights. Worth it, though. I love this job.

I want to get some pix posted this week. Dave took some cute ones of our Golden hanging out on my garden bench. Maybe he'll have time this weekend to show me how to do this.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work I Go...

Well, I have to be at work in exactly one hour and fifty minutes. So, while I am drinking an industrial-sized Dunkin Donuts, and trying to wake up, a brief post.

Got to work on the Southwestern socks last night. I finished the heel flap that I had already finished once (see last post), and turned the heel. I did all this while watching Big Love and the Sopranos on HBO. I wasn't sure about Big Love the first time I watched it. I watched the first episode a second time, and I was hooked. I can't wait to see what happens next week. And, as for the Sopranos, well what can I say? i didn't watch the first season on HBO. My son got it for me as a Christmas present, and I devoured it. I think I watched the entire first season in one day. Haven't missed any since. I think one of my favorite episodes was the one when Chris and Paulie Walnuts got stuck in the ersatz Jersey Pine Barrens.

Oh, wait. I was talking about socks, wasn't I? Yeah, turned the heel on the Opal Southwest, and am now headed down the home stretch toward the toe. I work tonight, so there will be no knitting at least until tomorrow evening.

I started reading The Hours last night, too. It is so weird to be able to read something I enjoy. I'm so used to studying that I've forgotten how nice it is to be able to enjoy a book. This is not to say that I don't have a ton of other reading to do, I do. I am still slogging though the orientation matierals for my hospital unit. I will be done with that soon, just in time to be oriented to another aspect of my unit. I love my job, so this reading isn't as bad as some of the study materials I've had in the last three years (chemistry, anyone?).

Did another couple of rows on the Trekking sock. I am forcing myself to finish up the second sock for several other would-be pairs before I really get going on this sock. I'm tired of seeing one lonesome sock sitting around waiting for its mate.

I'm So Confused, or It's 5 PM and I Just Woke Up - Do I eat Breakfast or Dinner?

I just started a new job which requires me to work a 7p-7a shift three nights a week. Not so bad really, especially when you consider that I spent the last three years working two jobs and going to college. Most weeks I worked 60-70 hours a week, 7 days a week. Now, I have four days off. Or, most of four days off. I take one day to catch up on the sleep thing. it really isn't that bad, and I've found it easier to sleep during the day than I thought I would.

Meals, though, are another problem. I am kind of getting around this by eating breakfast at the normal time, when I get home at 8 am. I fall asleep around 9 or 10 am, and wake up anywhere between 3-5 pm. I have dinner sometime after that, and if it is a night that I'm still home, I eat something small, like oatmeal or yogurt, around 11 pm. I don't feel like cooking at that hour, and I'm trying to not eat the stuff I really crave, like anything with chocolate, or a muffin. You get the picture.

I am trying to not think about the fact that as I write this I have a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk on the desk. Well, at least the milk is low fat.

Because of the aforementioned new job, I have not had a lot of time to knit lately. However, I do have several small projects going, including two currently sitting on my coffee table. One is socks in Opal Southwestern. Kind of a blue-mauve-rust-cream stripe going on. It reminds me a little of the colors that were very popular for decorating in the 80's. One sock is finished, and the other was nearing completion, when I apparently had a brain fart. I looked at the sock, and thought, "Uh-oh, the heel flap is wrong". So, without further ado or thought, I proceeded to rip the heel back to the starting point. At that precise moment, I realized that there hadn't been anything wrong with that stupid heel. It was fine. I was just to the point where it had to be turned. Aargghh. I dealt with my frustration by picking up a ball of Trekking XXL, color 104, and cast on for another pair of socks. Loved knitting with the Trekking, and the colorway looks yummy. Beautiful shades of blue - I can't wait to see what these look like when done. And, I hope that maybe by that time I will have sort of figured out how to actually put things on this blog. Tried that this afternoon. The Weather Pixie, and Blogger and I all had a little go-around. I did manage to get her on the blog, in theory at least, and she did show up in the preview. However, she is nohwere to be found on the acutal public blog. And, yes, I did hit the republish button after I put her on.

It looks to me like there are a few different fonts in this post. I'm not sure if the problem is with Blogger or me. As much as I hate to say it, most likely, it's me.

In the beginning....

God, what an effort.

Sitting around tonight, not doing much of anything, and had the bright idea to create a blog. Easy, huh? Maybe it would have been; however, my usual ability to make quick decisions seems to have disappeared tonight. Name? Uh, I don't know. Maybe knitting in New Jersey? Nah. Blue Cat knits? I knit, my cat doesn't. Not yet, at least. Linda Knits? Sounds like I'm channeling Wendy. Knitting at night in New Jersey with Cats? I need a title, not a dissertation. Knitting the blues? Whoops, taken already, and it's a blog I read. Decide on Knitting at Night. Hokay. So far, so good. Now, next page. Colors. I need to pick a color. Aarrrghh. What is wrong with me tonight? I can't make a decision. Finally, do eenie, meenie. Land on the blue one. Ok, blue is good. It's my favorite color.

I hope I can figure this out as I go along. I'm not very computer literate, which is something I would like to fix.

The last three years of my life have been busy, and somewhat painful. I feel like I'm coming out of the nasty stuff now. I have time to enjoy my life again. My kids. My garden. My cats. My knitting. My golden retreiver. My extended family. And, anything blue, especially yarn and flowers.

I hope to get a camera in the next few weeks. I'd like to try to post pictures of my knitting. Which, right now, would consist of several unfinished sweaters, afgans, and a frillion socks.
I can always call my live-in technical team, otherwise known as my sons. They have endless patience (well, most of the time, anyway) when it comes to me and computers.

So, we'll see how this goes.