~ the Elf Owl's Nest ~

I thought that I might be able to power through the decrease rows last night and (finally) finish up my "Sweet as Honey Scarf," the pattern I was helping test-knit for my friend Beth.

AhahahahahaDENIED.

Before starting the decreases, it occurred to me to count the stitches currently on my needle. I was missing two from the total I should have had. So I slowly tinked back, re-counting at the end of each row and hoping each time that I'd found my mistake. Eight rows back, I found where I had knit two together instead of knit front and back. *headdesk* By the time I fixed that and re-knit those eight rows I'd had to undo, it was already past my bedtime.

At least that left me poised for the decreases today, and I got through the first 8 decrease rows before starting work this morning. Now to see if I can get through the rest during lunch.

::ETA:: BOUND OFF! Booyah.

Knitted Finished Objects, that is. Since I subjected folks here to blather about knitting, figured I should post the pics of what I managed to churn out, so.

( Image-heavy behind the cut! )

So yeah, that's what I spent large chunks of October up through early January doing. Have two more to finish, and then I'm gonna make something I get to keep.

( ...and I feel... fine? )

Okay, that kind of included the beginning of the year, too. So much for accurate titles. ^_^;;

I actually did get around to decorating my house a bit for the holidays...

( Pictures go here! )

Will be at my Mom's house in Michigan through the weekend - in the land of dial-up, so unless I sneak out to Panera or some such, I'll probably be radio silent until Monday. I wish everyone who celebrates Christmas a very merry one!

( Yup, it's another Twitter Round-Up )

I have - well, it's not even really a "Good news, bad news" situation; it's more like "Meh news, meep! news."

The "meh" news, which I pretty much expected, is that aside from a few technical people they really can't afford to lose, my company is not getting raises this year. Given the economy, this isn't really surprising even if it is a little disappointing.

So the "meep! news" caught me more off-guard than it might have otherwise. My boss' manager managed to wrangle me a "Staff Annual Performance Award."

I... I got a merit bonus. This is a first - and is certainly welcome! *happy dance*

( More Catch-Up Tweets )

At least when it comes to posting on my journal. I've been better about reading others', if not leaving comments. :( So, as a very brief catch-up...

In the month of November, I:

* Got all my belongings (with the exception of maybe a couple of Christmas things & some empty boxes packed away out of reach) out of the old house
* Wrote just under 19,000 words and went to two NaNoWriMo meet-ups
* Finished knitting one gift scarf, about 75% of another, and started work on test-knitting a pattern for a friend
* Had a root canal
* Messed around on Twitter a lot
* Discovered that I would NOT be happy working as an event planner
* Turned the unhappy-making task over to my company's real event planners
* Put together most of my second Ravelry swap package
* Acquired a new housemate & her cat
* Successfully cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time! =D
* Saw my longest-duration friend for the weekend after T'Day
* Actually went to panels (*gasp*) while at Darkover Grand Council
* Spent 90 minutes in a hula hoop while a 4-piece instrumental group played jigs, reels & waltzes (yes, it was surreal) - and was briefly joined in this activity by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly (!!!)
* Watched the first season DVDs of "Heroes"
* Read quite a few new books

Those were the main points of the month, good and bad (and skipping most of the indifferent). So far, most of December has been "Knit, knit, knit!" ^^;;

...Yeah, I've been slacking again.

( Feel free to skip all these! ^^;; )

( Twitter twee )

( Still More Tweets! )

I feel vaguely competent for yesterday. ^^ Got a dryer delivered, finished putting my TV stand together and got the (old heavy monster CRT) set onto it and the DVD player & GameCube hooked up. Also picked up a couple of new brassieres, and almost finished off the first skein of yarn on my current scarf-in-progress.

Apparently, if I make a more modest to-do list to start with, I can actually work my through it! Who would'a thunk it.

Things I should have blogged about earlier but haven't:

( Long Ramble Goes Here. )

Household things accomplished since last post:
- Kitchen partially shelf-papered
- DSL and wireless network up and running, so I now have Intarwebs at home.
- Area rugs for living room and dining room
- Assembled the TV stand, moved the heavy monster CRT set onto it, hooked up the DVD player and GameCube
- Acquired a dryer (yet another awesome Craigslist find!), which just needs a new exhaust pipe/tube/whatchmo attached
- Paid for a washing machine which will be delivered Sunday... yay for in-house laundry capability!

Wow, these have really piled up on me again. 8P

( Far, FAR too many Tweets under this cut )

Survived a second evening with no Internet connection, and while I haven't gone into full-out withdrawal symptoms yet (probably because I have daytime access at work), it's quite inconvenient. :( Hurry up, Thursday!

Even without shiny Internet distractions, I once again did not come anywhere near completing the to-do list I made up during the day. (Granted, it was somewhat ambitious.)

I have, however, remade the bed in a way that guarantees I will sleep warmer tonight than last night - yay for heated mattress pads and floofy comforters. I also relocated the upstairs litterbox and closed off the empty bedroom across the hall, which makes one less echoing "concert space" for my would-be opera singer feline. She's still got the dining room and powder room, but the one close by is smaller - less echo - and the larger one farther away.

...I also have earplugs tonight, just in case. Wish me luck.

--------------------------------------

A.M. RESULTS: Much better night's sleep! Between the earplugs and closing off the opposing (empty) room, I had no feline-induced wake-ups. And my fuzzy love was curled up on the bed with me when I woke up. ♥

Still not completely moved in at my house, but both my stove and the new mattress set got delivered Saturday. I'm now sleeping over there... sort of. As much as my very vocal kitty allows me, anyway.

See, Ms Caitlin has re-discovered the "joy" of mostly-empty rooms: they echo when she meows loudly. Last night she ran no fewer than three "sound checks" between midnight and 5:30 am, when my alarm finally went off.

Between that and the fact that it was colder than expected, I think I got maybe three hours of sleep last night. _-_ *ded*

I had planned to work on putting together my TV stand tonight, and finishing cleanup on the head-and-foot-boards for the bed. That may have to wait until after a nap - and after I've brought more boxes upstairs to try to kill the echo effect.

In other news, due to unexpected (and not all happy) circumstances*, I got to see Cirque du Soleil's "Allegria" last Friday night (and took Rissi as my guest because hey, after helping move my refrigerator she had more than earned it!). Sweet jeebus on a pogo stick trapeze, the degree of control those people have of their bodies is purely astonishing! I literally sat there with my mouth hanging open at several points (and may have drooled a couple of times, too. Yum!). It was a gorgeous show, and I was saved from spending too much money during the intermission by two simple facts: they were sold out of the soundtrack CD, and the one T-shirt design I really liked only came in "baby-doll" cut - which meant that even the XL was too small for me. *pout*

...I may still order the CD from their website after my next paycheck. >,> And when I was out picking up a few more house necessities yesterday, I found a VERY inexpensive DVD of their "Quidam" show, so I bought that to watch.

* - My teammate and her husband had tickets for the performance, but her mother passed away in the wee small hours of that morning, and she was too exhausted to attend. She offered me the tickets instead.

It's official!

I signed and initialed a gazillion things, turned over a cashier's check for over half my savings, and walked out with an entire fistful of keys (most if not all of which will be irrelevant wthin 24 hours anyway).

I'm a homeowner.

Official start of moving stuff to new residence will be tomorrow after work; between working today and the signing (and eating WAY too much dinner after), wasn't feeling up to it tonight. But soon there will be pictures of the interior! And despite not feeling all that great, I can't sit still in my chair. Hee.

Holy Carp. Signing is tomorrow afternoon. It's all real. I will be a homeowner.

Got the last of the utilities switched over to my name today, so those are taken care of. Picked up the cashier's check for closing. Met my agent tonight for the final walk-through of the place; the things I'd asked to have repaired were - and I proved I was better at figuring out the breaker box than my agent. XD (Do not underestimate zee woman!)

Still have to decide on Internet access & get that set up, and see what I can find in way of appliances. May end up buying some of those new, depending on how the financial situation settles out after closing; it'll save hauling out used ones next spring and replacing them.

And yeah, stopping now before this gets any more rambly due to nerves. Eh heh.

If all goes well and the mortgage company doesn't have a hissyfit between now and then, it looks like I'll be closing on my house September 22! @,@

This still leaves me a whole long list of Stuff To Do (including making sure the utilities are switched over to my name, and buying new lock-sets because I am paranoid security-minded!).

And packing. A LOT of packing. *flail*

(...oh yeah, and figure out getting Intarwebs for the place. Important stuff, d00d.)

Just after I'd geared myself up into the mindset of "You're not going to hear anything more about the house stuff until after the holiday weekend, so just relax and enjoy it," late yesterday afternoon I got an email from my mortgage rep.

It opened with: "Congratulations! Attached is your mortgage Commitment Letter."

The mortgage is approved, and I may even be able to move my closing date up before September 30 (depending on the repairs the seller is making).

ZOMG, I'm almost a homeowner. O,o

Since LoudTwitter actually started mailing me my collected tweets, I should probably ( start posting them. )