Every time I make a resolution to update this blog more frequently I end up breaking it. Life has been busy around here. The Jewish Holidays combined with some extra hours at work conspired to keep me silent here. Sorry.

Yesterday DH went to visit DS. I didn't go because I had to work. DS has outgrown most if not all of his pants so DH took him to the store to buy new ones. Don't know why they let this go so long we would have bought him stuff weeks ago if we'd known he was in need. DS himself wouldn't necessarily say anything about it. That's something I have to talk to him about. One of the numerous things you take for granted from so-called normal kids that we cannot take for granted with DS.

DD went to an anime convention yesterday and today. The first time she has been on the railroad without us. She went with some friends and since she is nearly 16 we figured that it was OK and she'd be safe. She had a great time and I think it was made even better because she knew we trusted her. She went in costume dressed as a character from a favorite anime. Cost her a fortune to get the costume and she spent all her art periods this past week making a prop for it (a large cleaver made out of cardboard. Don't ask). But she thought it was worth it and others must have too because lots of people asked her if they could take her picture.

DH and I have decided to go away for a long weekend in October. DD has a Girl Scout trip that weekend and we thought we'd take advantage of her being away to catch some time alone. We'll be staying in a Bed and Breakfast in upstate NY. We plan to do some antiquing, hike and enjoy seeing the leaves turn color. We used to do this all the time before we had kids but don't get as much of a chance nowadays. Bed and Breakfasts are fun to stay at. The food is usually excellent and it's nice to sit at the breakfast table with the other guests and trade stories.

On the knitting front, I am up to the sleeves on the February Lady Sweater and am putting it on hold till I can get to the LYS. My LYSO told me I should bring it in and she'll show me how to do the sleeves on two circulars rather than with double points. I've tried this technique and like it all I need is for her to give me a refresher (and sell me a second #7 circ). She also suggested that I finish off the button bands with some single crochet. I think I will follow her advice it should make it look more finished.

I finally sewed together the aran sweater. It was supposed to be over sized but it's a bit too big even for that. I am not happy, I worked hard on it but I suppose I can wear it anyway. I will post a picture as soon as I can get DD to take one of me wearing it. I also bought the yarn for a very nice shrug that I saw at the LYS. I am doing it in black Noro so I can wear it for work (we have to dress in mostly black ie. black pants any color shirt as long as you wear a black jacket over it). Like the February Lady Sweater this is knitted in once piece with no seams. I don't mind sewing pieces together but this is a nice technique that I have come to like doing the FLS. Still not ready to go whole hog and start making steeks, but I can see myself making a sweater in one piece from time to time.

Well must go and put up the Turkey Roast we are having for dinner. I hope to be back here on the blog sometime this week (fingers crossed)

Finally I have the time to write a post. DS has gone back to school in Pennsylvania and DD has started school as well. My life is once again my own :).

Our vacation was a good one. We didn't do all that much in contrast to most vacations we go on but that was the entire point. This was meant to be an opportunity to kick back and relax. We went to the beach (and all four of us got sunburned), walked the boardwalk, and played some miniature golf on what were some fairly inventive courses. (I even enjoyed it and I hate mini golf)

We did have a bit of a scare with the car. There was a loud thumping noise coming from the right rear wheel for most if not all of the trip. The car was otherwise fine, had not problems with handling but made this awful noise. Soon as we got back we had it looked at and found that it wasn't a serious problem after all just a loose spring in the wheel. Crisis averted.

Here's the picture I promised of my latest Secret Pal package:

I got some lovely yarn with a sparkle running through it, some cable needles, yummy tea, a circular needle and the pattern for the Irish Hiking scarf which as I said before I have been wanting to make forever. My pal knows how to spoil!


Yesterday DD came with me to drop off DS for his trip back to school (we bring him to Pen Station in Manhattan and the staff from school meets us there and takes them the rest of the way back. A very nice arrangement that keeps us from having to make the three hour drive) so that we could do some shopping. We ate lunch with DH and then headed to Century 21 a discount department store in the Financial District. I used to shop there all the time when I worked on Wall Street, back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and before I had kids. It hasn't changed much aside from the fact that it's gotten larger. I frankly avoid the place these days because it's right across the street from the World Trade Center site. I always get very melancholy, when I go there. The weight of my memories is just too much. I saw a lot of tourists taking pictures and I wanted to stop them and shake them and ask them why they were taking pictures of a graveyard. It's hard to see the place so empty when it's so full of people in my memory. They are making progress with the reconstruction, and one day soon it will again be filled with people. But it will never be the same again and I will never be able to look at it without sadness.

We are about to leave on vacation and I have run out of time for updating this blog for now. I received a wonderful package from my Secret Pal including a pattern for the Irish Hiking Scarf which I've been wanting to make for years. Wonder how she knew I'd like this!

I had promised her that I'd post pictures to the blog but it's late and this week has been busy so it will have to wait until I get back. My humble apologies.

As promised here are the before pictures of my house




























And here are the after pictures.


Looks so much better now and all in all the construction wasn't too bad. A bit noisy but we got used to it. The day after they finished another crew came to put up the gutters. Took them less than half an hour to do it I was very surprised by that.






I haven't sewed the aran sweater together yet. I will try to get started on that tomorrow. The February Lady Sweater got a little stalled as I found that the needle I was working with was too short. So I went to the LYS today to get a longer one. Managed to make it out of there with the needle and nothing else. I consider that to be an achievement!

I've been going to Curves daily and am really enjoying it. I've added a bit of extra aerobics a couple of times a week as well. DD says I am addicted, and maybe I am. But this is a good addiction. I'm considering taking a class in an aerobic dance called Zumba. I heard about it on the Weight Watchers message boards. It's done to a Latin beat and sounds fun. There's a place not too far away that has a class on Wednesday night and also on Saturday mornings. I'm not working tomorrow night so I may go and give it a try. Last week at my Weight Watchers weigh in I'd lost one pound. Which is fine, as long as it keeps going down and not up I'm happy. Another change I've made is following the Beck Diet Solution book. It's not a diet it's a way to get yourself into a new mindset. One that will support your weight loss and get you thinking like a thin person. If you have to lose weight I highly recommend it. It's really helping build my confidence.

They started the siding on the house this morning. As I type this they are pounding away on the outside of our house removing the old siding. You can imagine how loud all of this is but DD, bless her, sleeps on through it all. I am convinced this kid could sleep through a nuclear attack.

I finished the aran sweater! I'm not working this weekend and plan to spend tomorrow sewing it together. It took about a year longer than I'd intended but came out great. I've started the February Lady Sweater and despite a few false starts am doing well with it. I've decided to use kbf increases rather than m1. I didn't like the way the m1 looked in garter stitch and think that this increase looks much better.

As I said I would I joined Curves yesterday. I enjoyed the workout quite a bit. Just enough to get your heart rate up not so much as you feel like falling down afterwards, just what I was looking for. As soon as DD wakes up I'm going to go for another session. That's if I can figure out how to get out of the house without siding falling on my head :).

Well they didn't start the siding on the house today as had been scheduled. Yesterday was very rainy around here and it set them back on another job so ours had to be postponed for a day. They should be starting tomorrow. All the new windows as well as the patio door are in. What an improvement over the old windows especially in the Living Room. So much more light than before. I sat here all day knitting in the sun.

Today I picked up the yarn from my LYS for the February Lady Sweater. I will cast on for it over the weekend I suppose. I am trying to finish my aran sweater first and I am nearly done. I'm in the middle of doing the raglan decreases on the second sleeve. Then it's sewing time. I am one of the few who doesn't mind sewing the pieces of a sweater together. It's all part of the process to me and I am definitely a process kind of knitter. One of these days I suppose I ought to try knitting a sweater in the round just to see if I like the process as much as doing it in pieces.

After talking about it with DH, I have decided to join a gym. I have Weight Watchers tomorrow morning and that's in the same shopping center as the local Curves so I'm going to find out how much it costs to join. According to their website if you join now you get the rest of the summer for free so it's a good time to do it. If you've not heard of Curves, it's a 30 minute circuit gym that is for women only. Most people do it three times a week. The circuit is designed to give you some weight training as well as cardio and they said on the website that you can burn about 500 calories while you work out. I am mostly interested in the health benefits of working out but burning those calories will help me to lose weight as well. Wish I'd been able to drop a few in the last couple of months. I have to see the cardiologist for my yearly checkup next week and he's going to yell at me about my weight I just know it. Well serves me right. Last year when I had some minor chest discomfort it turned out that I was having mild heart trouble. The doctor really lectured me about getting into shape and I listened to a point but then got kind of lazy and slacked off. Especially in the winter months when it was hard to get out of the house to do a daily walk. So I fell out of the habit of exercising and have found it hard to get back into it. Curves is easy and it's not far from my house so I won't have any excuses.

I hate my socks. There I said it. DD and I went to a museum the other day and I took the socks I'm currently working on to knit on the train. As I worked I became more and more aware that I was unhappy with them. They are very plain (a single color cream colored yarn), and the toe of sock one didn't turn out so well (pulled the kitchner stitch too tight). Frankly, they are ugly. Life is too short to knit ugly socks so they are being summarily abandoned. Time to dive into the stash and start a new pair.

The contractors are busy putting in our new patio door today. With luck they will get done early and I will be able to run some errands before I have to go to work. I need to pick up something at the supermarket, buy a DVD that we promised to DS, and and pick up the yarn for the February Lady Sweater at the LYS. Not sure how long they are going to take as it is raining and that's sure to slow them up a bit, so keep your fingers crossed!