Ramblings Of A Saturday Evening

I'd been plugging away for several days at what I've come to refer to as my firecracker socks. I call them that because their colors remind me of firecrackers exploding in the night sky. Anyway, I'd gotten all the way past the heel on the second sock, had picked up my gusset stitches and was ready to begin my decreases when I realized something. I had cast on the wrong number of stitches! I'd done the first sock with a 64 stitch cast on, but had only cast on 60 for the second sock. I momentarily debated on whether I could live with such a mistake, but quickly came to the conclusion that I really couldn't. So I ripped it out and started over. I didn't knit very far on it, because I'd cast on a Yukon Leaves sock in my Austermann Step. I love this yarn. The color I have is #11 Dune. I worked on it most of the afternoon. This is the first sock I've attempted that actually has a pattern to it. I think I'm going to like it.

As much as I would have liked to, I didn't spend the whole day knitting. Cody and I went over and got most of our stuff packed up and moved out of the old house. My coworker kept saying that she wanted to buy it, but she never came up with the money. Mike found somebody who had the cash in his hand ready to pay me for it. I finally told my co-worker that she had until Friday to get the money into my hand, but she didn't. So I will ask Mike to get in touch with his friend and see if he still wants it. I hope so, because I'm ready to get rid of the thing and be done with it.

Around 4ish, Joshua called me and asked if I would come unlock the dojo for Barrett and him. Mr. Eiffling, a 4th degree black belt from Greenville, was coming to town to work out with them and help prepare them for their test. I must admit that I felt more than a little envy while watching him go over bunkai with them. I wish I'd had someone to work with me to prepare me for my test. But I was left in the corner to figure it out for myself. Fortunately, my own sensei tested me on bunkai, so I was able to get away with not knowing very much.

Mr. Eiffling asked me if I was going to come to Barrett and Josh's test. I said that I would be there with my camera. Barrett said, "Don't do that! We don't want any evidence!" Then Mr. Eiffling said that yeah, you think you did pretty well on the test but when you go back and look at the tape, you see every little thing and say to yourself, why on earth did I do that? I agreed, saying that after watching my test on tape, I felt it was a wonder that they even passed me. That's when Mr. Eiffling told me that they should have tested me (well, all of us who tested that day) on a different day. It was simply way too hot the day they did our test. He said that the dojo is hotter on some days than on others, and that day was unbearable. I didn't argue.

Just for the record, sensei was real generous with his cold. He gave it to Barrett as well as me. As far as I know, nobody else has gotten it. Blake has gotten a full time job at the hospital. It is a secretarial position. I just hope it doesn't stop him from coming to class. For all his faults, he is the only one in the class that treats me with the courtesy due a black belt. Blake seems to like the formality and the traditions that go along with it.

I don't think Erica will be back to class. Last Thursday (a week ago) when I was teaching, she and her friend got in to a big screaming argument after class. Seems that they both like James, and they both said that they liked him. They seemed to be trying to make James choose between them, but he said he didn't really like either one of them. Of course, each girl blamed the other for that, and the screaming began. I heard it from inside the dojo, and went outside and told them that they needed to take that off of dojo property. I said that I didn't know what they had going, but it needed to go somewhere else. Erica hasn't been back since. She even missed her rank test. I told sensei that I didn't think they'd be back and he was like, Duh...why? "Trust me," I said. "I know how girls think."

I waited and waited all day for the sky to do something interesting, but it remained a beautiful but cloudless blue. I almost waited too late to get a good picture.

Well, them's my ramblings for today. I still haven't heard back from the computer guy. I'll bet he doesn't call before Monday. I'll have to call the dentist Monday. I had a filling fall out this afternoon. Ick.

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