Monday, June 30, 2008

Muscle Spasm!

Well, there I was sleeping quite soundly last night and out of the blue..... ZOWIE... my lower back decides to go haywire on me. wtf? I was just sleeping, maybe rolling over to a new position, but nothing that should have caused any problems what-so-ever. But suddenly, I was in intense pain and could barely move. I spent several minutes trying to figure what happened and really could not come up with any plausible excuse. So I resigned myself to sleeping on my back for the rest of the night. It should be better by the morning, I thought. I couldn't have done that much damage. WRONG. I almost couldn't get outta bed this morning. The whole swing your legs around and sit up in bed was beyond my abilities. The only reason I actually got out of bed is because I had a chair next to the bed and I used that to brace myself. I knew right away that I was not going to take the bus this morning. The thought of bouncing around on those hard seats with a sore back was more than I could stand. Luckily, after a couple Tylenol and about 2 hours, my back started to feel OK and by the end of the day, it was almost normal. Hopefully, there will not be a repeat again tonight.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

latest projects

I've been working on some odds and ends this past week. I finished up some wash cloths and dish towels. They are bright sunny yellow and blue. However, I'm getting tired of working with cotton. after a cotton sweater, and a bunch of wash cloths and towels, I'm cottoned out. Its nice to work with cotton during the summer, but its not the easiest yarn for me to work with.

I've been practicing my knitting during my bus ride to/from work. I was working on a scarf. I figured "how hard can a scarf be?" It should be something I can work on easily on a bouncing bus. Well, I have ripped it apart and will be starting over. I've got the stitches down OK. My problem is with the end of the rows. The last stitches are always WAY to loose/big. I read somewhere that you can slip the first stitch in the row and that will solve the problem. Unfortunately, I went in the opposite direction. My end stitches became to tight. My scarf started looking decidedly "boatish". I may try slipping every other row. Hopefully, I'll find a happy medium. I was also using needles that were way to small, a problem I have with crochet also. I really need to learn to automatically go to the next size up whenever I start a project.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

socks!

My socks that I just finished. This is my first pair of "normal" socks. The others I've made have all been kilt hose.


New Beer

I get excited about 3 weeks after bottling a new batch of beer. It is about this time that the beer undergoes its almost magical transformation. What started off barely drinkable turns into this wonderful, carbonatey elixir that the world calls beer. At least it is supposed to, sometimes really BAD magic happens during the 3 weeks. Fortunately for us (the Marquise and I) the beer gods have smiled upon our efforts. The latest batch is really maturing into a tasty drink. It is actually rather quite sweet, which is surprising because this is the first batch we have not added any sugar to. This batch is all malt extract. It should be really good when we head off for the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in about 3 weeks or so. We will be prepared this time and bring our own beer. We are not going to have another repeat of last year when we couldn't find a beer to save our souls. (for those of you that don't know, the games are held in a "dry" county - no alcohol available for sale in the county) So far I've only had the beer warm (it kinda grows on you - warm beer that is). It should be really good cold. Somehow, I've gotta make the beer last another 3 weeks. It's a good thing that the Marquise doesn't drink as much as I do. At least there's a really good chance she'll have a lot available if I succumb to the temptation.

Next batch - - An Irish Stout!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Commute Debriefing

This will be a short posting today. Just wanted to let everyone know how my first week of commuting went. The bottom line is that at this time last week, I had use 3/4 of a tank of gas. (I did have a trip out to the Marquise's place last week, so that added some extra mileage.) This week, I haven't even used 1/4 of a tank. Savings this week, about 45.00.

Now, my commute is not all roses. There are still quite a few thorns. I am spending a lot more time getting to and from work. However, as I told my momma, I have a lot more time than money!

That and I am getting tons of crocheting done! So far I've gotten a couple of washcloths and dishtowels done. I'm going to work on a pair of socks now. (No kilt hose this time around, just regular ol' socks.) For those of you that just have to know, they are dark grey and deep red. The yarn is Moda-Dea bamboo wool, 45% wool and 55% rayon from bamboo. I'm not sure what rayon from bamboo is or how its made. I'll have to search it out and see what I find.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Houston, we have a commute.

Well, I don't think Houston really cares, but I was able to successfully use public transportation to get to work today. All in all, it went pretty well. The connection out was quick and easy. The return, however, needs a little fine tuning. I misjudged the bus time for my particular stop (all right, I got it all wrong) and ended up standing outside for about 1/2 an hour. Normally that would not be bad, but it was about 100 here in Raleigh today! Of course, since it is a new office park, there are no mature trees anywhere close by the bus stop. I did however, have my trusty umbrella, which works quite well as a sun shade.

The time involved is a lot more than it would be driving (not unusual) so I have some more "lifestyle readjusting" to work out so that I'm not wasting all that time on a bus. I already started packing my breakfast to eat once I get to work since I get there early. I may start packing my dinner also since I have about 1/2 hour after work before my bus leaves. I'm thinking about doing the once a week cooking thing and having the meals already packaged and ready to go. I've almost always got some crochet (and hopefully knit) project going that I can do on the bus. I already know from today's experience that I'm gonna have to keep the projects simple on the bus. There is a lot of shake, rattling and rolling going on with those buses.

My goal this week is to use the bus thru Thursday (I can't take it Friday, because Hercules Mulligan is playing Friday night at Tir Na Nog.) and then re-evaluate over the weekend to see what I wanna do in the future.

Just so that everyone knows, I am still not particularly happy with CAT, but I have to work with what I'm given. At least I'm using more of our tax money.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Pictures!

After a short stay with the Marquise, the camera is back home safe and sound. I can now show some of the truly amazing pictures I have recently taken.


A Rainbow after a HUGE thunderstorm a couple of weeks ago.

Diane the Brit and me at Tir Na Nog

The Marquise and the Brit

Super Carbonated beer. Not quite a "beer bomb" yet, but pretty close.

Do NOT try this unless you are a trained professional or an inexperienced homebrewer.

Shane from My Three Kilts at their home pub, The Flying Shamrock in Goldsboro, NC

Rob and Shane

Rob and ... Oh no! Brain Fart, I forgot his name. It'll come to me.... SCOTT!!!!!

Scot(t) (what's the correct spelling?)

Rob and Shane

My first crocheted sweater!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

No Commute

I felt adventurous this morning. I decided to take the bus in to work. I had been looking to see if I could use the bus, but to say that it is inconvenient would be a stretch. While there are a couple of bus stops around my house, none of them go even remotely in the direction. (I have bus stops for 3 different bus systems within 0.5 mile of my house!) The best I could come up with is a 5 mile drive and then take a bus and a connecting bus to get to work. Total time around 1.5 hours. It looked plausible on paper, so I decided to give it a try. I got up early, got ready quickly and headed out to the bus stop I had selected. There was a small shopping center (grocery store, restaurants, etc) across the street from my a.m. stop (corner of Edwards Mill Rd and Duraleigh), so I would be in a good position when I left in the evening (easy right turn). I turned into the parking lot and what did I see, but a whole forest of signs stating "NO PARK AND RIDE TOWING ENFORCED". Not one sign, but signs on every single green area in the parking lot! I was not happy. Now I realize that the parking lot is private property and they can put whatever restrictions they want on it, but I would think that the grocery store would welcome park and ride folks. I mean, if you have to go to the grocery store after work, what better place than than one where you are? It's about as close to a captive audience as a grocery story is ever gonna get!

So here is the assignment students. Find a way to get from Buck Jones Rd in Raleigh to Brier Creek shopping center out by the airport using public transportation. You can find all the area's public transport schedules at GoTriangle.org . If anyone from Capital Area Transit (CAT), Cary Transit (C-Tran) or Triangle Transit (TTA) has an idea, I'd love to hear it.

Even if I had a much wider audience, I doubt I'd hear from them.........