Tuesday, November 20

yesterday flew by. i was helping a coworker with photoshop work, so that helped. no conference call, so no knitting. i'm not a big fan of the yarn i'm knitting these latest fingerless gloves with. it's wool, which i'm ok with, but it's kind of rough. and the color is a little weird. i may ditch them after one mitt and use another yarn. i'm completely obsessed with Cascade's Pure Alpaca. i bought a skein of red about two weeks ago and finished my first pair of the gloves. LOVE the yarn. it's wool, but it's sooooo soft and it has fuzz, not like this wool yarn i'm using now. i wanted to buy more to make this second set, but alas, my fav knitting store is discontinuing it. boo. they have Misty Alpaca, but she didn't have the color i wanted. i'm trying to find some Cascade Pure Alpaca online, but it's a pain. and expensive!

anyway. this is how exciting my life is.

today, we're supposed to go drinking after work to celebrate thanksgiving, but i'm not sure that will happen. the holiday is claiming too many people. i will be at work alllll day today and alllll day tomorrow, lucky me. i don't get vacation time, so i have to cash in as much as possible. but then i get an (unpaid) 4 day weekend. huzzah.

thursday will be thanksgiving at my moms. it'll just be the four of us. i wish we had a larger family or that my grandma was still alive and living in wisconsin. thanksgiving at her house was awesome. she had two kitchens (well, two stoves. one in the kitchen and one downstairs in the laundry room). her and my mom and aunt would be running all over, getting stuff ready. us kids would be underfoot or watching some disney movie. the guys would be in the living room watching (of course) football. typical family stuff. what was awesome about our family is that we didn't really have any issues with one another. it wasn't stressful or terrible or angsty. i hear horror stories of people's families and the fights and the issues. not ours. surprisingly enough, we all got along.

friday is The Shopping Day of the Year. barf. i think i may head over to my favorite knitting store, as she is going to be open at 7am. and who doesn't want 40% off yarn for the first hour?

what irritates me about Black Friday (and the following month) is that if you need anything incidental, like jeans or shoes or a scarf, you have to battle every greedy mother fucker for it. you can't just expect to waltz into Old Navy to browse. it's going to be a shit-show for the next 5 weeks, my friend. it's like needing milk the day before thanksgiving. be prepared to stand in line for an hour for that forgotten milk. or that baby aspirin. hell is other people.

saturday is Cookie Day. my sister and i will schlep 95% of our baking equipment to an Oak Park church basement, where 12 of my closest friends will bake literally hundreds of cookies for the holidays. that last few years i haven't really been baking all that much. i think last year, i picked up a bag of cookie ingredients from Jewel and baked those. i just don't have the baking bug these days. but i do like to help other people. and i do dishes and clean up and help decorate and keep stuff moving. i like to be support staff. and i get some cookies out of the deal. :) oh, and i'll probably knit something. i finished a hat for Cain last year.

then sunday... nothing. thank god. i'm sure i'll knit. are you surprised? i think i have a problem.

oh, and it's supposed to be 63 on Thanksgiving. that's crazy sauce. i rode my bike on sunday and it was awesome, as usual. i worked out yesterday after work. i think i'm running into a problem: my cardio is too good. my resting heart rate is below 60. i can do the elliptical on 11 for 30 minutes and not be sore the next day. i can run three miles and just get sore joints and nothing else. crap. i mean, i am THRILLED that i am in shape. i'd like to weigh less, but i'll take this problem anyday. of course, i still get winded walking up the stairs. fuck stairs. assholes. anyway, time to knock it up a notch, i guess. what that is i'm not sure. maybe dragging a Smart Car behind me when i run? LOL!