I Suppose I Ought To Blog

 I suppose I ought to blog, huh?  

Truth is, I really haven't felt like blogging much here lately.  Sometimes, it just doesn't seem worth the effort.  But I suppose better writers than I am have felt that way at times, too, so onward we go.  

First, some good news.  The yarn has found a pattern it likes.  

You could call it a loose fitting cowl, or maybe it's a circular scarf.  Whatever it is, the yarn seems to like it.  The pattern is one I've adapted from a sock pattern I downloaded years and years ago, called Roundabout socks.  It's a really easy, almost mindless pattern, but I still managed to mess it up.  The yarn kept telling me I'd messed up, but I told the yarn it didn't know what it was talking about.  

Doggedly, I knit on, but when I came to the end of the round, I realized I should have listened to the yarn after all.  I had indeed messed up.  This one thing I knew, I was not going to rip and re-cast on 216 stitches in Chinese Waitress, so I did the only thing I could do.  I tinked nearly the entire round until I found the mistake, corrected it, and resumed knitting.  Yes, it was a lot of work, but not nearly as much as redoing the cast on would have been.  

The yarn has been cooperative ever since.  Well, except for collapsing into a giant wad of yarn barf, that is.   But other than that...I was able to make good progress while watching football all day yesterday.  

Speaking of, this has not been a good weekend for football.  Texas lost the Red River Rivalry, after leading by 21 points in the first quarter.  I guess nobody told them they had to play the second half of the game, too.  Navy lost to SMU, but I didn't really expect them to win that one anyway, so it didn't bother me as much.  I miss Malcolm Perry.  And I miss Keenan Reynolds.  Navy hasn't had a good quarterback since Malcolm graduated.  LSU got absolutely slaughtered by Kentucky.  I don't want to talk about it.

So, no, it hasn't been a good weekend...except for this:

Do you see it?  Do you see it???  Unranked A&M knocked off Number 1 Alabama.  Funny, those obnoxious Bama fans have been mighty quiet today.  As my old dad would say, the Crimson Tide became the pink puddle.  And I said, but just this once, GIG 'EM!  

My cousin David posted this photo (which I shamelessly swiped from his FB page) of his son's reaction.  I think it says it all. 

In more mundane news, I'm sure you've been hearing about the supply chain problems due to the ineptitude of the current administration.  It's affected everything from milk to dog food.  To small animal bedding.  I usually put aspen shavings in my snake tanks, but Walmart has been out since July.  I finally broke down and bought this stuff, and let me tell you, it's expensive! 

That one bag is enough to do three tanks, if I don't put in as thick a layer as I usually do.  I've gotten two tanks changed so far, before I took a break to watch football.  The good news is, Friday when I went into town, they had some aspen in stock.  I got a couple of bags, so hopefully I won't have to keep buying that pricy stuff.  

OK, then...

If you know me at all, you know I love my pumpkin spice.  However, there is a line I will not cross.  Pumpkin spice biscuits is that line. 

And in piano news, I'm almost done with my Michael Aaron course 1 book, so I went ahead and ordered the level two books. 

Well, two of them at least.  I didn't buy the theory or technic books, because I figure I already have enough of those kinds of books.  Here lately, I've mostly been playing in my Christmas books.  I'm trying to focus less on getting them note perfect and more on just enjoying playing.  It's why I wanted to learn, after all.  One of these days, I'm going to get you some music recorded.  Some day, but not today.  

Do you know how to tell you live a dull life?  When the highlight of your weekend is replacing the window blinds in your laundry room. 

When I first got the cat, in her panic to try to get outside of this strange place she was suddenly put into, she tore them up pretty good.  I mean, the whole bottom 6 inches were gone, and I always felt like whoever was driving down the road was looking right into my house.  They weren't, but I still felt like they were.  

Anyway, by this time, I'd figured the cat has settled down enough I can replace them and be reasonably sure she won't go berserk again.  By the way, ignore the giant hole in the wall.  It was there when I moved in, and it's on the list to get repaired.  The previous owner had put a mesh patch over it, but I guess they didn't know they needed to spackle over the patch, too.  I've hesitated, because I don't have any more paint of that color -- it's hideously ugly anyway-  so I would have had a giant white blob right in the middle of the room.  I may go ahead and re-paint the whole room.  I may not.  It won't be that green if I do, though.  I think I have some leftover white from the living room.  I'll use it.  Or else the blue from the bathroom.  I don't know.  I'll figure it out. 

While I was replacing things, I put new blinds up in the kitchen window, too.  They'd gotten old and brittle, and some of the slats were breaking.  

These look much better.  The next thing to do is find some sort of valance or window treatment to put up to give it that homey feel.  I guess when you spend so much time at work, you don't notice all these things as much.  Or you do, and they just don't bother you.  As much.  

And lastly, when you have disinfectant spray, but you forget you have disinfectant spray, and you also forgot you already bought more disinfectant spray, so you buy more disinfectant spray, you end up with a lot of disinfectant spray.  

I don't want to talk about it.  Here's a sunset instead. 

That's one thing I love about fall and winter.  The sun goes to bed before I do, so I get to see these things.