Homework Crunch

Today was a fun day.

I had my first round of babysitting for this family today.  The door was open when I arrived because there were workers installing a fireplace (or rather the stone around one) and only the middle daughter was findable.  She remembered my name and seemed delighted to see me, which was encouraging.  I got her to explain her LEGO house to me, and we repaired all the damage her baby sister had done to it.

Everyone else was upstairs.  The oldest daughter made an appearance first, and she was obviously a little more wary of me.  She's a lot less of an attention-seeker and it's clear that she neither minds nor desires my presence.  I like her.  Eventually the mother came downstairs, when the baby was finally asleep.  She made tea -- in an actual teapot, which was apparently the first thing she unpacked -- and spent the rest of my stay moving between the garage and the house as she unpacked and sorted.  The girls "unpacked" some things as well, which stressed her out more.  Oops.

On the way home I stopped at the local Trader Joe's to pick up shelf-stable Indian food.  I also grabbed a box of couscous, which I used for lunch, and a bag of Inner Peas which will probably be gone by Sunday because they are so delicious.

I had a homework crunch tonight:

Tavern Wench

My family went to Medieval Times tonight, which is this elaborate dinner and tournament show.  Most of my family dressed up.  I brought my spindle and refused to wear a paper crown in an attempt to be "part of the show".  I gathered a little crowd of enchanted tiny kids and was mistaken for an employee at one point, which basically made my day.

My costume was a Halloween pirate dress my aunt bought a few years ago.  We had to belt it so it would fit, and it still draped rather than hugged, but wearing the "corset" I bought for prom two years ago at least made it look like I had some curves.

Notice my adorable half-curtsey that looks as natural as breathing.  Curtseys have been my default "you exist and I am acknowledging you" gesture while in a skirt for years now, so it's semi-automatic at this point.  I was bobbing curtseys to knights, royalty, and little girls all evening.  (The little girls were the greatest because they would stare in wonder and then bob awkward little curtseys back!) I discovered upon returning home that I actually have the balance required to make those deep, elaborate curtseys that require you to go almost to your knee with your back totally straight while spreading your skirts out, and rising back up without wobbling.  It's quite a feat, and one I'm maybe too proud of.

Oh also, our knight won the tournament and defeated the bad guy.  It was a good night.

Let's take a peek at my February Resolution progress, shall we?

Missed One, And Friday Victories

And I missed my first blog post of the year yesterday.  Sad face.  I just totally fell asleep before I remembered to post it.

Oh well.  It's not a big deal, obviously, and I will be fine.  I also missed a day of exercise on Wednesday.  February is starting off shaky.

I guess it's time for some Friday Victories, since I again don't have Adulting Blanket pictures off my camera.  Shame on me.  We'll try to be better organized next week.

My Favorite Blanket

Short update on the socks before we go into my weird showcase for the day.  I turned the heels!  I'm still somewhat suspicious of this whole Fleegle heel thing, since I ended up only doing 20 rounds of gusset increases rather than 30 and that meant increasing to 32 stitches rather than decreasing after the actual turn.  But they fit okay as far as I can tell, and I am somewhat more cheerful now that it looks like I may actually reach the end of the ball at some point.

The front of the sock is three cable panels, and the back of the leg adds in the outer two cables while leaving the center in stockinette, which I think is pretty neat.  Because I'd like them to be aligned with the cables on the front of the foot I actually started them on round 3 rather than round 1, but I'm probably going to just ignore those first two rounds and pretend I have them.  My plan is to shoot for two full repeats of these cables, so 24 rounds (minus the two at the beginning, but that's fine) so I have more knitting to do before I start getting impatient.  If I feel like I'll probably run out of yarn before that, I can switch to the ribbing.  Otherwise, that's the goal.  Twenty-four rows (I've already completed six, so eighteen to go), and then I can either add another few rows or go straight to the ribbing.

So I did not adequately prepare for Showcase today either.  I am a bad blogger, obviously.  I shall try to have something for you next week, but for today I'm going to quietly show off my favorite blanket ever.