Saturday Sky

Saturday Sky from Colorado because all we've got here is gray and cloudy.

Gather Ye Rosebuds

To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,

   Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today

   Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

   The higher he’s a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

   And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

   When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

   Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,

   And while ye may, go marry;

For having lost but once your prime,

   You may forever tarry.

~ Robert Herrick

We've had an incredible stretch of Indian summer this week, with

 temperatures in the 70s, and even flirting with 80. Some rain and a

 change in the weather means a return to more seasonable conditions.

 Carpe diem.

The Best Destination

I've been a customer at The Loopy Ewe for many years, but have only been visiting in person since 2013. I finally remembered to take a few photos during my most recent visit.

It's so much larger and well-stocked with row upon row of lovely yarns than my photos convey. I usually concentrate on the aisles of fingering weight to avoid becoming overwhelmed, but The Loopy Ewe carries more yarn weights, fiber types, dyers, and colors than you can imagine. I've only ventured into the huge fabric section a few times to admire all the collections, and so far have successfully avoided falling down the quilting rabbit hole.

After culling and organizing my stash last summer (and there is still more to do), I tried to exercise some restraint. Ryan is an excellent yarn-picker-outer, and he helped me choose three skeins.

This is a skein of Meadowcroft Dyeworks Rockshelter Sock in Guatemalanness . I have no idea what I'll use it for (another Hitchhiker?), but loved the colors and name, along with the speckles in the light blue.

I also got two skeins of Tosh Merino Light in Stargazing. In addition to assisting with yarn choice, Ryan provides another valuable service. Here he is using natural light to match two skeins of this TML. It's tough to match Madelinetosh yarn, but he did a great job!

There is just something about shopping for yarn in person, being able to see and touch the yarn for yourself. The Loopy Ewe has great pictures on their website, but I'm not sure I would have ordered either one of the yarns I chose if I hadn't seen their vibrance and depth in person. I'm so glad I got to visit the best destination!

Wednesdays are for Whatever

I was trying to think of a good theme for Wednesdays in November, but couldn't come up with anything that I could continue for four weeks. So I made the executive decision that Wednesdays are for Whatever. Today, "Whatever" is calculus, but no calculus will be inflicted upon readers!

Part of Ryan's work as a graduate student involves teaching. I visited his Calculus I class last year, and got some wonderful insights into what kind of adult he was becoming. During my visit this year, I attended his Calculus II class, twice. It was great to see him teach, even if his lessons on Taylor series and convergence did point out some rather large gaps in my knowledge. I had Calculus I through III, did well, and would have even said that I understood the subject, but that was more than 35 years ago, and now I barely remember functions, limits, and derivatives.

I don't think I'll have many occasions to use calculus in my life today, but to test myself, I signed up for Calculus I through Ohio State/Coursera. It's self-paced, and I'm prepared to go through it slowly and multiple times if need be. I think it might be a fun valuable mental challenge, and if I fail miserably, well, I'll just never mention it again!

Ten on Tuesday - That's Novel!

Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is an interesting one - 10 Sentences That You Think Would Make Great Opening Lines for a Novel. I did try to write a few opening sentences on my own, but here's an example: "She sat down to knit, and as her yarn unwound from the ball, so did her memories begin to unwind." My attempts were a bit cheesy and of the "It was a dark and stormy night" variety, so I went with the alternative prompt, Share Your 10 Favorite Opening Lines instead.

• “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." -- Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

• “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” -- Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You

• “Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.” -- Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups

• "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." -- George Orwell, 1984

• "The king stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored." -- Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

• "In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing." -- Norman Maclean,  A River Runs Through It 

• "I'm pretty much fucked." -- Andy Weir, The Martian

• "There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife." -- Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

• “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast."  -- E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

• "Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup." -- Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry

These are all from books that I've read and found the first lines intriguing. I remembered that thought-provoking line from Her Fearful Symmetry, but did have to look up what novel it came from. I can't recall anything about the book itself, but the first line certainly stuck with me. Perhaps the book is worth a re-read!

What are your original or favorite opening lines?

Monday Musings

Mondays during November are for Monday Musings - about the weekend, what's going on, or maybe just a gathering of randomness.

Raking - All the leaves. My BBF also helped this weekend.

Watching - Futurama. Very intellectual viewing!

Reading - Listening to Midnight Riot (a recommendation from Ryan), slowly but surely eye-reading The Animal Dialogues (I love the cover!), and giving Career of Evil another try. It was too creepy for me to continue my first attempt, but I do want to find out where Robin and Cormoran are headed.

Thinking about - Spending yet another day in the hospital this week, this time for some outpatient surgery. I'm not the patient, but the patient can be cranky, selfish, demanding, and uncooperative. It's a long drive for me to get there, and a long day sitting in the waiting room, despite time spent with my knitting, Kindle, and an audiobook. I recognize that since I'm not the patient I don't get to complain about this, so I am also thinking seriously about how to adjust my attitude towards this situation and handle it with patience and grace.

Drinking - Not Your Father's Root Beer. Good, but very sweet. The next time I have it I may mix it with some regular root beer or seltzer to cut the sweetness.

Eating - A delicious dinner with several friends on Friday night. One of them planned everything, so all I had to do was show up and have fun. With a diverse group including a Mexican organic chemistry professor, an Egyptian toxicologist, a retired couple that travels extensively, along with John and I, the evening was full of interesting stories and plenty of stimulating and brilliant conversation from some very smart people (not me!)

Starting - Some amaryllis bulbs. I need to get a few new ones to start now since the ones from last year are just a few weeks into their resting period, and not ready to bring out of of dormancy yet. New bulbs are on my grocery list this week; picking up flowers or bulbs at the grocery store makes it much less like grossery shopping!

Procrastinating - Painting the back kitchen window. It's not a big job, but it needs lots of scraping and prep work before I can even start painting, all of it on a ladder just a little higher than I'm comfortable with. It's one of those pesky projects that we've said we really need to get to for at least two years, so I need to just do it.
 
Looking Forward To - Election Day tomorrow, because that means the end of unwelcome, irritating, and interrupting political phone calls (at least for a little while!)

Planning - NaBloPoMo posts!

What's going on in your world right now? I hope it's all good, and not disrupted by annoying phone calls!

Sunday Supper

Hello and welcome to my first post of NaBloPoMo 2015. I managed it last year with a minimum of whining, so it seems like a worthwhile challenge to try this year. Sundays are going to be for Sunday Supper, and while I'm not talking specifically about food today, it's definitely food-related.

Ryan's birthday was in October, and I spent a long time thinking about good gifts for him. Like most other 25-year olds, he can always use money, but deserves some much more personal gifts. Then it came to me; what young man wouldn't love his own recipe box? ;-)

My grandmother used this old oak box when she was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. It's been sitting empty in my kitchen for many years, but once I had the recipe box idea I knew just what to use. Going through my own recipe file and copying Ryan's favorites took some time, but part of a good gift involves giving of yourself and your time. I was also on the receiving end, as I recalled many happy family memories while I was rewriting recipes.

I think he enjoyed the gift and appreciated the "family heirloom" box. I intend to add to it with new recipes that I think Ryan will enjoy, and this one may be the first I send after we try it for our Sunday Supper today. My nephew has proclaimed this as "one of the best meals, EVER!!!!!", and I can't resist recipes that combine some of my favorite ingredients (even if they may be decidedly unhealthy!)

I hope everyone gets to enjoy their own delicious version of Sunday Supper, no matter what that may be for you. I'd love to hear what's for supper at your house today!