Day Ninety-Three

Another hat for the homeless. I am going to try REALLY hard to get this one to the drop-off point before I accidentally give it away to somebody again. I just like giving people things, though! I guess if you have to have a fault, that's not a bad one to have.

Day Ninety-Two

... 11 ...

... 24 ...

... 48,

49,

50!

(This is what it looks like when you do sit-ups in front of a Christmas Tree.)

Day Eighty-One

I am having some difficulty with Item #33 (knit or crochet 20 items for the homeless). Back on Day Thirteen I started a red fuzzy scarf to give away, and sort of forgot about it. I remembered it last week when I had a recording gig, and yes, those thoughts are much more connected than they seem like.

Rule #1 of Recording Sessions: Something will go wrong with the sound system. Doesn't matter who's doing it, how prepared they are, how expensive the equipment is, something will always go wrong and it will take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours (perhaps more) to fix.

Musician's Response to Rule #1 of Recording Sessions: Bring something to do.

So, just in case, I brought my knitting along. And sure enough, the microphone wouldn't talk to the snorfle, and the snorfle was causing feedback to the globbenator, which was complicated by the inexplicable problems with the snarp. (I lost them somewhere around "microphone".) I got many, many rows done, and eventually we also got three unacceptable takes of the Ferdinand David Concertino for Trombone, which necessitated a second recording session.

Rule #2 of Recording Sessions: Rule #1 applies to the rescheduled session as well.

Musician's Response #2: Bring something to do, and maybe a snack.

I finished the final fringe on the scarf before we even got to the first take, and started a multi-colored hat, and that's where the problem began. I took the hat-in-progress with me when I went to visit my sister, and finished it while I was at her house. She took one look when I finished it and said, "Oh, that's adorable! I love it! Who's it for?" I said, "Um ... you!" Because, really, I can make another hat for the homeless, and she'd had a bad week, and she just needed that hat. And besides it looked super cute on her. So I gave it to her and started a new purple hat, which is about 60% done now.

I took the red scarf to church today to give to the lady who collects them. She wasn't there, so I gave it to her husband, a beloved family friend, and he promptly tried it on ... and proceeded to wear it for the rest of the morning. I laughed and said he was welcome to it.

I think I will hide the purple hat when I finish it, or the homeless aren't going to get a single thing from me.


Here is me in the red scarf before I delivered it. Due to some progress on Item #56 as a result of Day Forty-Three, there is actually a faint hint of cheekbones. Haven't seen those in a while ...

Day Seventy-Five

How hard should it be to make a decent batch of cookies from a new recipe? All I really wanted was something nice and chewy with walnuts and chocolate chips in it, as a special finish for an already heavy-laden Thanksgiving table. I looked around online and found one that was a surprisingly complex recipe - melted and cooled butter, very exact measurements, everything mixed in separate bowls and carefully blended. Fun!

They were chewy if you ate one right away.

Otherwise, they were chocolate-chip rocks.

FAIL.

Day Seventy-One

Happy Thanksgiving! (A day late, unless you're in whatever time zone is off the coast of Oregon a few hundred miles.) So many things to be thankful for, not the least of which is that I am healthy and live in a country where my 101 Things list is not:

1. Survive.
2. Find food.
3. Stay safe.
4. (Repeat 1-3 indefinitely.)

The freedom to be occasionally frivolous is (and yes, I know how odd this sounds) something I don't want to take lightly.

So, when I post this picture of me doing absolutely nothing useful today except for growing my hair another fraction of an inch, you will understand that it's with a deep sense of appreciation for everything else that is so, so good in life.

Day Sixty-Seven

I'm not dead yet!

That was not a fun flu, but it's only responsible for a few days' worth of missed posts. The rest has to do with a) I kept meaning to upload pictures and forgetting, b) I did have a couple of legitimate small relapses, c) my music schedule is getting crazy, but mostly d) laziness.

So, let's see ... did I actually accomplish anything while I was neglecting my blog? I did indeed!

Item #6 - I read Dean Koontz's "Your Heart Belongs To Me", since I had never read one of his books. I was only somewhat impressed. He did some interesting things with the character development (you don't even really like the protagonist for a while), and he made you think about a few things as the book progressed. But he got a little silly with the supernaturalism, which irritated me. He got started on some good secondary characters, but then sort of dropped them, which also irritated me. However, the truly unforgivable error was his tendency to use words that were just a tiny bit too big for him. I had the distinct sense that he had just bought a copy of Eugene Ehrlich's "The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate" and was all excited to use some of his new words. I mean, if you know how to use the word "deliquesce", good for you - but does it really go in your pop fiction medical thriller (with ghosts)? And for crying out loud, don't use it twice.

Item #29 - I rode on a train! But I can't post about that until I upload the pictures.

Item #33 - I finished a scarf, but haven't taken a picture yet. (See d), laziness.)

Item #43 - I wrote a letter to my grandparents. That was nice. I will do it more often.

Item #44 - I sent my friend Brenda a postcard with a picture of an ice-skating cow. That is not a phrase I type every day, so I'll do it again: Ice-skating cow. Yep, still funny.

Item #62 - I flossed my teeth, but then I forgot again.

Item #73 - I did a little more paperwork, and it seems to be regenerating itself somewhat more slowly than usual. I may have interfered with its paperish reproductive process.

Item #78 - I actually finished a nightgown for my daughter. Yay!


Since it is 46° outside, I think I will put off #91 (spend a night outside under the stars) and go crawl in bed. Good night!

Day Forty-Eight

Or, This Is Getting Really Old

Make that five pounds and counting. Still no appetite, no energy, just blah.