Kim and I went out for coffee yesterday and we were watching the traffic and pedestrians go by as you do when you are sipping coffee and nibbling on cheese and pickle sandwiches. For a while we were distracted by the vanity plates on the cars - we saw one that said "hi mel" and one that said "kimmy" and one on a fancy SUV that said "clazz 1." Then we became distracted by the people trying to parallel park on the other side of the street and then finally, just when we thought things were getting a bit dull and we were going to have to move on to chowing down on chocolate chip shortbread to stay entertained, a huge tow truck drove up to one of the cars parked across the street. This wasn't any ordinary tow truck like we have in the states though, this was a levitate the car right out of the parking space sort of tow truck.

So at 3:14 the truck pulled up and two guys jumped out and made a quick circle around the car and the one guy went off to do something with the parking meter and the other guy lowered some large metal legs from the sides of the tow truck (presumably for extra stability). Then he lowered the rectangular lifting arm over the offending car. Obviously it would be ideal if at this point in the story a giant magnet came out of the lifting apparatus and just sucked the car right off the ground but since this was a convertible that probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Instead, he went around the car and put a clamp on each wheel which he then attached to the lifting bit with a chain.

By 3:16 the car was ready for takeoff. This was perhaps the most intense moment of all as the car did not go straight up in the air as I would have expected. Instead, each wheel lifted off sort of one at a time and the whole car was wobbling a bit in the air like one of those mobile things you have over a little kid's crib made up of farm animals or representations of heavenly bodies. Except the car had no musical accompaniment.

By 3:20 the car had been lifted completely off the ground and after a bit of wobbling and subtle dancing in the air lowered onto the truck bed. A second or two later and the truck was driving away. By that time we were stuffed on cafe food so we had to move on from Starbucks to the computer game store :). We did pass a slightly confused older couple that may have been the car owners. The man was taking pictures of the sign on the parking meeter and the woman had so much fur on her coat she could easily have taken a spot on the mobile opposite the car.

Ok so you'll note that several of these projects were not even on my list of unfinished projects but they were for Christmas so i *had* to start them before I finished the others :).

This is a scarfy neck wrap sort of thing that I made as a Christmas present for my Aunt. I wasn't too happy working with the yarn, it knits up quite soft and furry but its a bit rough sliding along your finger. I don't think novelty yarn is really my thing.

Here is my dad's sweater, it is a navy blue color and it doesn't show very well here. It's a pretty straightforward sweater with pockets. The button band didn't come out right so I had to rip it out and try again. The first time I was knitting really fast to avoid running out of yarn but the second time I was a bit more relaxed.

Here is a dog sweater I knitted for my Aunt's dog. She requested it so try to keep the sarcasm to a minimum :). The color isn't quite right here either but you get the general idea.

And here is my sweater! Finally finished after ripping out a whole sleeve. Getting the sleeves in was a bit of a pain, it's hard to make reverse stockingnet lay nice in a sleeve. Also it has side gussets which makes it a bit more difficult to get the sleeves in. Wow that is a lot of uses of 'sleeve' in one paragraph. I do like the way the texture came out, I like chevron patterns because they have that nice v shape and the texture is all with knit and purls and no cabling (at least in this case).

So I thought I would update you all on some happenings that you might wish you could see for yourself. Fortunately with the power of the Internet you can just experience it in 2-dimensional 4 inch format via my blog.

First for those of you not experiencing sub zero temps at the moment we have about 6 inches of snow as of yesterday. I dug my car out today but then I was feeling very protective of my clean parking spot so I didn't actually go anywhere.

These are some flowers from my Christmas Cactus which is actually flowering at Christmas time! I've had this plant for a few years and over all it has been a good plant. It does not complain about lack of watering and it also doesn't turn yellow at the slightest hint of extra water. It has really pretty pink flowers but normally I only get one or two flowers every six months or so. There are actually two plants in the pot and I think this time one whole plant is flowering!

Mollie has suddenly decided to become a lap cat (in short spurts). I would describe her personality as friendly but not particularly affectionate but now she occasionally jumps up on my lap for a few min to have a snooze or get her chin scratched. She does not approve of wiggling though and if I try to shift to much or reach for my measuring tape she moves back to the window.

I've been going to the gym for a few months now and look, I have a muscle! What more could I possibly need to say about that.

Ok so I got up this morning and ate breakfast and in protest of my very being awake on Friday at 8am I got a stomach ache. As happened on Friday last week. Clearly this is a sign to return to bed and sleep in until an appropriate weekend sleeping in time. Nevertheless I went to the gym (where I benched the bar all by myself, woohoo!). However when I tried to leave to come home I took off my running shoes and then instead of putting my street shoes on I put my running shoes back on. And then I looked down at my feet and had a sort of "which one of these things doesn't belong" sort of moment. After the gym I came home and prepared to run some errands: renew/pickup a prescription, buy some food for the weekend, and go to the bank.

I went to the grocery store but instead of going to the pharmacy window to renew my prescription I just started shopping. One box of clementines, a frozen pizza and a bottle of hair conditioner later I remembered about the prescription. Fortunately, it only takes 10 min for them to fill a prescription and I still had more shopping to do. Unfortunately, I finished shopping, paid and left the store without remembering to pick it up. Then, I went to the bank to deposit a check where I filled out the slip for deposit to a savings account instead of a checking account. I finally remembered the prescription and went back to the grocery store to pick it but looked all over the wrong parking lot for the car. (Not remembering that I had left it at the bank.)

Ok well most of the stuff was done so I came home and checked on a dvd I'd been burning for my brother. About half an hour after returning home I looked over and saw the frozen pizza on the floor thus triggering another forgotten task: put the groceries away. I've probably forgotten more stuff but just haven't remembered that I forgot yet.

Clearly my brain thinks that today should have been the sort of day where one sleeps in and then leisurely works on knitting projects. I also took a friend to the airport and on the way home there was a huge semi stuck across the road and everyone had to drive up over the curb and onto the grass to get around him. Maybe he doesn't like Friday's either.

So I've been wanting a teapot for a while because drinking tea from a pot seems like it would taste better. Or look better. Or at least be more fun. So I was at the Salvation Army store the other day and I thought I'd look for a teapot but they only had a few and most of them were part of a set with a little sugar bowl milk container thing shaped like a cow or they were huge and romantic notions of tea drinking aside I can't drink a big pot of tea and if I did bad things would happen like run on sentences that were entire paragraphs long. Anyway, I found this ugly little pot that seemed like the right size and even though its kind of nubly and chipped and the lid slides off whenever you poor the tea I decided to give it a try. Perhaps after seeing me through finals grading and crazy rush of Christmas knitting projects I will develop an affection for my ugly teapot.

So it turns out that according to spell check nubly isn't actually a word. All in favor of adding it?

Ok, this post is for all the people who think I have 17+ unfinished knitting projects. Here is a list of all of my unfinished projects. I think from oldest to newest but I can't be sure. Obviously my stash is bigger than this, anyone who knows anything about knitting knows you have to have yarn ready for the next project before you actually get to the next project. For inspiration and emergencies.

Project 1
This is a purse I started with yarn I had in my stash because I was in the mood to crochet. It's made out of suede yarn and it's inspired by this pattern: Berroco's 'Val'. I've finished the front and I have the yarn to start the back and I even know which crochet hook to use - the sparkly red one. I have no idea what size that is so hopefully I'll finish before I loose it. The crochet hook that is.

Project 2
This is a baby hat I started for someone at work whose wife was about to have their first child. But then when the baby was born my coworker disappeared for a month and I never bothered finishing. Quick, someone else have a baby so I'll finish! The hat is pink with a flower on top so it had better be a girl.

Project 3
Here is a wrap I started with some really soft lace yarn and a pattern from Exquisite Little Knits. I was working on it as a traveling project but it's taking forever. Plus its a summer item and who can be motivated to work on a summer wrap in the dead of winter?

Project 4
This is another summer project, the Cabled Bandeau. Totally coincidentally also purple. This was another stash using up project that is taking a really long time because of the cabling. I think I'm close to the end now though, I just need some super arctic temperatures to get me in the mood. (Super arctic is the opposite of sub arctic right?)

Project 5
This is a project that I made up myself that was supposed to be a quick, confidence boosting project that turned out to take much longer than I was expecting because my first few pattern attempts didn't work out and then when I finally thought I'd finished it I found another skein. So I have to rip out the last row and then keep knitting. Plus I don't really remember the pattern I finally made up. But it's sparkly and pink so I'm sure I'll finish eventually...

Project 6
This is the Bonsai Tunic from Interweave Knits. It was going along swimmingly until a) I realized I was supposed to stay with the smaller sized needles for the lacy bit on the front and b) I realized that I had two different dye lots, one of which was much darker - see the line at the top of the back? So my great friend Carolyn sent me another skein which will hopefully match better but I have to rip out a bunch and I think I already did some weaving and the whole thing is a bit sad and frustrating, plus its more of a spring project :).

Project 7
Here is a sweater I started for myself from the Fall 2007 issue of Vogue Knitting. Vogue just redid their website and aside from being hard to navigate it seems to also be void of any useful pattern photos. Anyway I only started this project a little while ago and as you can see I only have one sleeve and the gussets left. The texture is really great but it doesn't show up well in the photo.

Project 8
This is another crochet urge project. I had these enormous skeins of Jo-Ann's Rainbow Boucle and I've been trying to use up stuff in my stash and they were taunting me with their enormity so I started a blanket. And I've gotten really far. But now it's Christmas time and I don't have time to work on it.

Project 9
This is a sweater for my dad from Knitting for Him. I got some really soft, washable wool from the yarn shop. I am making progress but I think I might be knitting the sleeves forever. At 6 rows to the inch this project is to blame for many other ufo's remaining status as ufo's. Also my dad is not the same size as the pattern so I'm having to do lots of knitting math. The Knitters Handy Book of Sweater Patterns has been very helpful for shaping the armholes and sleeve caps.

Project 10
I've been having trouble resisting Jo-Ann's Kashmira yarn so I bought a bit to test out on a scarf. It's the type of scarf with a slit so that you can keep it tight around the neck. The pattern is from the Knitting for Men book mentioned above. There are a few holes in the seed stitch but I think once it's folded in half it will be pretty warm. Cables do slow things down a bit though but at least its a nice woolly, wintery project.

See! Only 10 projects. Plus that table runner thing for my mom but that doesn't count because I was young and naive back then. And many of these I'm actually working on at the moment. So there.

So I was on my way to Ohio for a party and I left a smidge late. Well maybe it was more than a smidge but arriving at the party within fashionably late status was within my grasp. Well, it was, until I got stuck in crazy road construction half an hour after I left. Fortunately there were construction signs saying at what exit the lane closures actually started. Unfortunately the exit was far from where the very slow moving traffic started. So, I whipped out my map and noticed that there was another highway east of my current position. Unfortunately the map was not exactly a fine grained, detailed sort of map with all, or even most of the roads between my current position and the desired high speed motorway. Fortunately I have a compass in my car, which I calibrated myself. Thank you very much. So I decided to get off at the exit which was tantalizingly located only a few yards in front of my not moving bumper.

Quickly I was no longer stuck in construction traffic, and was moving rapidly eastwards. Or maybe it was southwards. The details are not important. What is important is that I worked my way slowly but sure easterly noticing but not paying much attention to the fact that there were fewer and fewer cars on my rear bumper and that the number of crossroads that were comprised in part of dirt roads was on the rise. Well eventually as often happens in life I was faced with the very thing that I had been doing my best to ignore. I came to a T and in order to consider traveling in an eastish/southish direction my only choice was to take the dirt road. Well that or follow Mr 'I drive a bmw and do important deals on my cell while following random jeeps across the countryside looking for interstates' who turned chicken and drove north on the paved road. (He may have been the only other car left that was in our caravan avoiding the construction but this is where the woman is separated from the mouse.) Well the whole point of this detour was to get to the party quicker, so I wasn't about to give in and drive the wrong direction (information I was easily able to gather given my dashboard mounted compass).

I know you are all on the edge of your seats so I won't keep you waiting any longer. A few more turns (on increasingly larger roads) and presto - non clogged highway at 2 o'clock. Coincidentally the final crucial turn was based on a town that was conveniently located on my coarse map. Perhaps also coincidentally but not surprisingly I was more than fashionably late to the party but all I missed was the salad course, which as we all know only serves to fill one up to prevent proper ingestion of dessert later on in the evening. So I hope we all learned our lesson. No construction is beyond the power of a compass (and preferably a topological description of the local surroundings).