I’m giving up personal ad sites for advent. (Advent kindof rhymes with “lent” right?) Close enough. I’m not even truly interested in dating right now - I think I’m just addicted to looking at the profiles.

We’ll see how it goes.

Pictures of knitting soon. Hopefully later this evening.

I need a housesitter. Do you live in Waco and want to make some $$$ between Dec 24th and Jan 3rd?

The people that lived in this house before me must’ve been huge mail order catalogue shoppers because I get at least 4 catalogues EVERY DAY in the mail. It’s sortof irritating to me, because it just creates a lot of trash, and Waco is not exactly the recycling capital of the world. The stack of mail and catalogues I have for them is now about 2 feet tall, and that’s only after one month. Must do something with it soon.

Friday afternoon I drove out to a local farming/religious community called Homestead Heritage. They have a huge craft fair each year on Thanksgiving weekend to sell the handmade items they have made throughout the year. (There are also some shops that are open year round). Anyway, I picked up a few items for myself since I’m a sucker for handcrafted things…. a pair of coffee mugs, 2 hand woven dish towels, some yarn dyed with natural ingredients, and a lathe turned drop spindle. I took a quickie lesson on how to spin roving on the drip spindle and so I also bought some wool, and hopefully throughout the next few weeks, I can spin enough 2-ply yarn to make a hat or something. So far, I think I have about 10 yards.

Been working on the back yard this weekend, too. My leaf blower is also a leaf vacuum and mulcher, so I’ve been able to create some cut up leaves and things to put under the trees. It’s been a lot of work, but I think if I can get the yard under control now, it will be much easier to maintain. It’s just so overwhelming right now because there are so many branches down, and the grass is so bad, and the leaves just do not stop falling…. would be so much more enjoyable to be out there working if I wasn’t alone, but I think if nothing else, this afternoon I will pull the stereo closer so that I can at least have some music outdoors.

Is “adrenal fatigue” a real medical problem, or is it just a TV thing?

One very nice thing about working in education is the extra holiday days that are spread around the calendar. This week I only worked on Monday and Tuesday… and today has been total bliss so far. Even though I got up early, it was because I was asleep by 9:15pm last night. The morning has been quiet and long, complete with lots of coffee (I’ve been sipping at it all morning - think I’ve drunk almost a full pot by now), mindless daytime TV, and knitting time on all the unfinished projects I’ve been shlepping around with me for months. In my bags of mostly knit items I’ve found the following things:

1. A baby sweater with both sleeves missing.
2. Another baby sweater with 2 missing sleeves.
3. A baby sweater with only ONE sleeve missing.

(do you detect a pattern here?)

4. A sock with everything but the toe knit.
5. A sock with everything but 1/2 inch of ribbing knit.

So, anyway… all of those things have been finished up now, apart from one of the baby sweater, which is coming along as well. I have a lot of blocking to do, but this sweater made with cotton needed less help so I’ve already grabbed some shots of it.

Um…. can you see the HUGE house that is across the street from me? Turns out the owners have lived there for over 25 years. They are very kind, although I haven’t seen them much lately…

I love this tree in the front of my yard… and the view down the street:

Right now I’m also dog sitting for a friend - a little Shidoodle named Tuck. He’s been fun to have around, although honestly Clem and Bear are not huge fans. Luckily, the only cats Tuck are chasing are outside… poor Smokey seems to be his favorite. He seems to be loving the yard and running around in the leaves. Makes me think I could actually have a dog here, since it wouldn’t require walking on a leash three times a day… I still don’t think it’s the type of pet commitment I’d want to make though.

Anyway, more pictures of the other items once I have a chance to soak and block them. Too bad both of the socks were only the first of the pair, so it doesn’t really feel like finishing anything. I guess it’s not bad if I don’t mind having unmatched socks.