Author Archive: meri

We drove over to look in on G’s parents’ place,to make sure nothing untoward had happened during the storm. (Nothing had.) We had all of two functioning traffic lights for the trip there, including a several mile stretch of Route 1. We encountered exactly one intersection that had police directing traffic. Attempting to follow the rule of “treat black intersections as four-way stops” was a good way to try to get killed.

Any gas station with power (which were rare) was either out of gas or had a huge line.

We did see the source of some of the power word, though: a line of 6 wooden power poles that had simply sheared in half dropping down onto the strip mall parking beneath. It says something about the extent of repairs needed in general that this particular case didn’t merit a crew.

We’re back home now, and I think our plan is largely to stay inside until the dumb returns to normal levels.

It would seem that I am utterly hooked on the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl (hereafter referred to as the SSMS™). I first started it on some Mille Colori Sock & Lace, and it’s turning out quite lovely. I took pictures of the work in progress after I finished the first pattern installment, but I can’t for the life of me find them. So, instead, you get two pictures of how things are looking after the second pattern installment.

We got the second pattern installment on Tuesday. I didn’t get around to working on it until Wednesday, and finished up the new bit of knitting that day. Realizing that I was going to be sans shawl to work on for several days, I dug around in my yarn stash, and found the rest of the Kauni Effekt that I had kicking around, and cast on a second shawl. I admit it. I’m addicted.

We don’t get another pattern installment until Tuesday! That hardly seems fair, with it being a holiday weekend and all. Ah well. I guess I shall have to try to feed my knitting jones by working on the giant rectangle of stockinette that I’m knitting up for a store sample for The Yarn Spot. We’ll see how that goes.

Good morning, earthlings and other friends. I have a good reason for being in a good mood this morning! I woke up with ow, but much much less ow than I have had in the past few days. Heck, I was able to get out of bed without whimpering. I would dance a jig, but, well…

Here’s hoping that today bucks the trend of its Monday brethren and treats everyone gently.

Aloha!

I’m designing a new paper planner (think DayRunner, DayTimer, Franklin Covey, GTD, etc). Yes, there are still lots of people out there who use them, so if all you wanna do is mock, please move along. If you use a paper planner, or have opinions about them (other than the mocking thing), please read on!

I’m pretty well set on my new layout (2 page spread per day, including notes, agenda, to-do list). This means that each month will always have a blank “front cover” and a blank “back cover.” Historically, I have used a monthly calendar for the front cover, except the new layout removes the need for this. What would you like as the cover page for the start of each month? A simple “Month Year” cover page? Monthly goals? Expense tracking? Special dates? Something else?

Also, the “back cover” of my months tends to be “future planning” for the following two months. Any other ideas?

Thanks for helping me brainstorm!

If you use a paper planner and are not happy with the one you use, we should talk. I have a few subscribers to my monthly planners, and they’re pretty happy! 🙂

Happy Monday, all. I hope you had a great weekend, and that your week gets off to a good start.

Nobody was harmed in the talking of this photo.

I’ve decided that I’m going to try to post a picture a day. However, given that I lead an incredibly boring life, chances are very good that that picture will almost always be of either whatever crafty thing I’m working on that day, or a cat. Consider yourself warned.

I started a new scarf last night. Unfortunately, the photo really doesn’t do the pattern or the yarn justice. The photo isn’t washed out at the bottom. The scarf is actually a lovely gradient from medium gray to black in the part visible here. I suspect I’ll start moving back down towards light gray shortly.

On the plus side, finger wound aside: shoyu potatoes! Yum!

Add to the things that are safe for most people to use, but apparently not for meri: vegetable peeler.