Thanks for the votes. I fully expect my eyeballs will in fact explode from the additional stress of Ravelympics, above and beyond all the other fun things going on right now, but oh well. Maybe I should just go ahead and make an MP3 of the Woodland Shawl pattern, so I can at least listen to the instructions and carry on after my eyes catapult from their sockets and, before I can retrieve them, Moliere decides they’d make a swell new chew toy. (His latest toy experiment has been with dryer lint, which not only makes me worry that he’ll swallow some before I can take it away, but also makes an unholy mess. At least he hasn’t shredded any books or underwear lately.)
Anyway, both the dogs continue in their campaign to convert my flat into Chez Pee. I am trying to hold onto some shreds of sanity by reassuring myself that, in the current real estate market, I probably am into negative equity anyway, so it’s not as if they’re damaging the resale value much. If you are looking for hot stock investments, may I suggest Bac-Out as a product likely to experience increased demand for a while? We’re certainly zipping through bottles of it like hell on a jetski, at least.
On a more positive note, Nigel seems to be slightly more tolerant of Moliere, though you’d miss it if you weren’t looking for the increased tolerance. I suppose it’s hard to enjoy hanging out with someone who pinches your cheek between his teeth and then tries to drag you around like a giant stuffed toy, and then looks baffled when you yell at him. It is important, though, not to distribute full-sized chew toys to each of them at the same time. Nylabone-type things sawed in half and distributed, one half to each dog, seem to be acceptable, but woe betide you if you give an entire chew toy to each dog: Nigel wears himself out trying to corner the market on chewies, and makes a racket yelling at Moliere the entire time. I’m not sure why cutting the chewies in half means that Nigel doesn’t do his “cranky dragon amassing a hoard of treasure and flaming everyone who gets in his way” impression, but whatever.
All that aside, at least it was a pleasant weekend. My mom came up on Friday and we spent the day toddling around the shops and, for both lunch and dinner, going to the Soul Vegetarian near my place. (I ate way too much both times, but that’s easy to do because the servings are huge, the food is great, and I tend to get overexcited by being able to order pretty much anything on the menu and consequently order freakishly large amounts of food.) Saturday was the obligatory “get at least a couple of errands done” day, though I never did get around to clearing off the kitchen counters so I can start cooking again; Sunday, however, was spent watching a metric tonne of DVDs — well, four: the first disk of Extras, Pan’s Labyrinth, Watermarks, and Hitchhiker’s .(Netflix will probably have a heart attack and/or network failure when they get the first three DVDs back; I have an appalling habit of letting my rentals lie around and collect dust for months, and now they get all three back at once? Shocking. [The copy of Hitchhiker's was my own.]) The DVDs allowed me to get about 24 rows done on my Giselle sweater, which is something in the neighborhood of maybe 7000 stitches, I think. Only about 22 more rows, and I’m done with the body, and ready to start the sleeves and edging. No way I’ll get that done before Ravelympics, but at least the end is in sight.
There are two other projects that I want to finish before Ravelympics, but one of them depends on my getting the third and final skein of yarn delivered in a timely manner, and its dyelot not being too different from the other two skeins’. The cupcake hat, though, I seriously will finish in an official manner: all that I need to do is finish the second crochet flower decoration, then wash and block it. I will do it, seriously — but tomorrow. It’s gone 9:30 at night, and I just can’t face crochet at this time of the evening.
I could probably get in at least one more row on Giselle, though. . . .
