Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom

Hi, Anna-Liza here. Boy, it’s nice to have Lyda back after her temporary semi-silence! (How’s The List going, girlfriend?)

Things have warmed up here since the Drippy, Foggy, Rainy Memorial Day. I’ve even worn sleeveless tops a few times! (You need to remember that I won’t wear short sleeves until it’s at least 75 degrees out, maybe more.) One day last week, Darlin’ K picked me up from work and we went for a nice stroll around downtown Loveland. The sun and the warmth felt really, really good. Getting into the hot car even felt good.

I took a couple of days off. We had originally planned to go to Apogaea, but a number of things made us decide not to go after all. I decided not to change my vacation days, though. Things have been busy at work and busy at home, with more busyness pretty much all through the rest of June, so a couple days to chill just sounded about as wonderful as chocolate covered strawberries with champagne. Maybe more wonderful–I’m damn picky about champagne. Too much of the bottom-of-the-barrel pseuo-champagne at college cast parties, I guess. (Excuse me while I go rinse out my mouth.)

Thursday was a rainy, drippy, chilly day again. I happened to receive a large shopping bag full of free yarn recently, almost all of which was in loose skeins and rather tangled. A lot of it appears to be a rayon/alpaca/wool blend in nice colors, so I decided it was worth the work to wind it all up. So my friend Jean (who used to have Knit One, Purl Too in Longmont) let me have her swift, ball winder, and measuring thingy on a long term loan.

I spent a lot of time with the ball winding on Thursday as a result, and also took some time to go to the library (this is my idea of fun, y’all. I’m so exciting). The kidlets both like the ball winder, so they’ve been helping. I had several a lot of unwound skeins in the stash already, so this is going to be a longish project. I’ve got somewhere between 10 and 15 done. The yardage ranges from 600 (laceweight) to 5 (for something that was frogged that had stripes). I’ve gotten a little further on the mystery gift project, which is at a very boring knitting stage, I’m afraid, but no further at all on any socks. And I’m just itching to cast on something new … perhaps this? Or possibly some kind of lacy shrug I can wear to work … “lace” seems to be the theme of all the new stuff I’m looking at. Not that I don’t have other things to distract me already from my deadline knitting … but I digress.

Friday was a much nicer day — 70s and sunny. Darlin’ K had to finish some projects on Thursday, but he took Friday off and we spent the whole day together. It’s nice to rediscover uninterrupted conversation (and other things) once in a while! We had breakfast and aforementioned conversation at Java Stop, and later we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. That was a really perfect bit of action fluff, exactly what we were in the mood for. Roger Ebert’s review (follow the previous link) sums the whole thing up really well. I have to say that Shia LaBoeuf’s initial appearance channeling Marlon Brando was really fun, but he’s not terribly convincing as a switchblade-wielding biker. But as the story developed, I’m not sure he was supposed to be convincing. And Cate Blanchett was really hot in her sword-wielding, sleek and intense Russian villainess way.

I have to admit, I’m really not willing to spend money to see “challenging” or “deep” movies anymore. Life itself is challenging enough–if I’m paying for entertainment, it better be FUN! I can get “challenging” and “deep” just looking around, thankyouverymuch. And Darlin’ K and I spent a very fun day, as I’m sure you can imagine. And we even picked up the kidlets from day camp/preschool on time. (Just.)

I just got Marianne Williamson’s new book about midlife (for men and women) out of the library. I think it will be good, but I haven’t done more than read the dust jacket. It’s basically about midlife being a time to refocus and live more in our own integrity, rather than scattering our energies about as we did when we were younger–a time to live more deeply than ever. And when I say “we”, I mean “I”. Anyway, I’m sure it will fit into the Reading in Wonderland Challenge, but I’m not exactly sure where yet. I’ll let you know.

But first, I need to finish Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series. Escapism and fluff, a sovereign remedy for what ails you. That and lace-oriented startitis. And anticipation of the Wool Market (in just a week! Oh boy!!) And four evenings of shaman-led workshops and SolFest later this month (here’s more info) …

… and this lamp.