Both Brain & Heart...

...are full...

(l-r) Baxter Bell, me, Melina Meza - Yoga for Healthy Aging Training

I've finished my 30-hour intensive; as soon as I finish my final exam (to be emailed to us on Monday or so), I'll get a certification and can market myself as a certified "Yoga for Healthy Aging" teacher. It's a great way to create a longer health span - the time you spend "healthy" in your life, instead of the time you spend sick or affected by some chronic issue. 

And in this week, I not only have half a notebook of notes, picture upon picture of sequences (easier than writing it all down while doing it), and some excellent notes for future reading, but I HAVE SOCKS...

Knitting...

I finished the blue self-patterning pair. I was kind of a "hit" at the training because (huzzah!) I wore hand-knit socks EVERY day of the training. Of course, you can't practice yoga in socks, unless you're doing everything on the floor. But the weather has finally "found" fall, and the studio was cold. Which was fine with me. Rather cold than warmer. 

The blue pair are another "fraternal" set. I'm going to be jazzed if I get a matching set, but so far, unless it's a variegated yarn or solid, nada. 

Everyone was amazed that I was knitting during lunch. Hey, that's my meditation...and I was so close to finishing that I really was motivated to get them done. 

The St. Charles socks are moving along; I'm at the cuff ribbing. The size 0 needles are...interesting. We'll see how this goes. I think it'll be fine, but I'm a bit worried they'll be too big. But I think casting on 64 would make them too small. So I went with 72. I've done several in that size before. 

This is the next yarn up, but you know...I'm not sure. Well, I know it's sock yarn, but I can't find the label. And looking at it, I'm wondering now. Would it make a beautiful shawl? It's soft enough. But then it's neutral enough for a very nice pair of socks. I have to figure out what I did with the label. If it stripes, maybe it's destined for socks. But if it pools and puddles? I could live with a shawl in this yarn. 

Or I could do the shawl and give it to someone. I wouldn't have a problem doing that. 

It did come out of the "12 bags, a pair a month" tote. I haven't been in that closet lately to see how many more bags I have... But "too many" might just cover it. And that's not counting the bag of sock yarn in my office. 

Speaking of which, I've done a little planning.

The Office...

As I sat in a moment of "potty break" in the training, I started thinking about the office area (a/k/a The Dumping Ground). I've started to clear out the crap. Kid #2 has finally, I think, removed all of his stuff, from his recent change of house. 

And I was thinking. I need space for my yoga mat and preferably also the meditation set-up. But we have an oak rocker in the basement that's just sitting and doing nothing. I could get cushions for it, move an Ott light from the dining room (don't ask) and stick that near the window. Then, remove my computer from the front room, putting it back on the desk, where it belongs. Move the file drawers back UNDER the desk, eliminating a hiding spot for Quinn where she gets tangled up in wires, and giving me a touch more floor space... I'd probably get more done that way... 

And a little rug under the rocker. The music stand and guitars. And I thought I could make all of that work. It's a small bedroom, and Hubby did me a huge favor by lining the walls with bookshelves. Though it does make some inverted yoga poses a bit of a challenge. But I really need to cull through things. Perhaps put the fiction books down in the basement on the bookshelves that used to line the hallway. We moved them to gain more space in the hall and hang up a bunch of needlework and photos that I'd done. Which I like, but then I had to put the bookshelves somewhere. And in the basement they went. 

It's a work in progress and I'm going to be fiddling with it for a while. I just need to get back to having a dedicated space to write, plan my yoga sequences, and have a "she-room" since we don't have room for me to have a "she-shed." Now THAT would be ideal...Hmmmmmmm. 

Baking Again...

Not like I had nothing else to do, but in a moment of weakness (or maybe ego?), I volunteered to do the cake for our vicar's retirement. Tomorrow. Which means, yes, after a solid 30-hour intensive yoga training, I headed to the church office where I'm the Administrator, and put in another 4 hours getting things in shape for Sunday (I'd already done the church bulletins on Tuesday for the vicar's review), and drafted and mailed a newsletter. And so I made a cake. 

We're holding a luncheon for the vicar. I'm on the Bishop's Committee and we have a present for her. The congregation is also getting her something - no idea what... but we do know how to put on a feed. I was watching one of the gals dress up the tables. Of course, it's all a fall theme. 

So of course, my cake is pink and green. See, I have this theory. Retirement is a change. I love autumn. I do. I just think that it's depressing as a colorway for a "retirement" cake. "Autumn of one's life" and all that. I kind of like the "jazziness" of pink and green. This is tinted burgundy, and so there's probably more "rose" than "pink" in it. And I had some edible glitter gel, so I put some "squiggles" on the cake. Anyway, my point with the colors was that I wanted it to be more like, "Wow - retirement opens up possibilities! You have a Third Act (or maybe Fourth Act?) Who knows WHAT could happen?" I wanted it positive and joyful. And to me, pink & green exemplify joyful colors. I do have orange, but I thought orange and green were too Halloween... 

I was messing around with the Russian frosting tips again, but I got the frosting too soft. It's going to be a work in progress to get the texture right. On my mom's birthday cupcakes it was too thick. This was too thin. I have to figure out what's "just right."

Here's the thing. I'm about done making wedding cakes. Most halls or banquet venues have stopped allowing "mom-made cakes" and you have to have their nasty stuff. (Sorry - I am a consummate cake snob.) When my nephew got married, I was going to help my mom make his cake, but he wasn't allowed, unless we were "licensed and bonded." Crap - we're RELATED. Not like we're gonna skip out of town!

And my friend Doris had asked me to make her granddaughter's wedding cake. We just had this phone conversation because I told her there was no way I was going to get my kitchen inspected randomly by the local health department, and I wasn't going to spend all the money to get certified as a commercial kitchen. It wasn't worth it. It's probably all for the best. 

But it's nice to know my church will let me bake for them any time I want to! That being said, this recipe looks like a good one to try for the next coffee hour. Though Heaven knows we don't need more sweets. I love baking cookies and it's nice that, with the braces, I can't eat half of what I'll be baking this Christmas. 

It's really time for a sugar detox. Hubby got me the stuff for smoothies, and even though it's colder outside, I really do need to get my sugar addiction under control. Because it's wayyyyyyyyyyyyy off the scales. 

Random Picture...

So our church is almost 200 years old. And it's haunted. I went in today to drop off the bulletins and some other stuff, and said hi to God and the ghosts. I had to turn up the heat because we'd just had the organ tuned and it was too cold. 

Well, my phone was acting up and kept shutting off. And it's nearly November, so it gets darker early and I was having trouble seeing the thermostat, but too lazy to turn on lights. 

I was all, "Ok guys... quit spazzing my phone out..." and I finally wrapped everything up and got packed up for home. The light was beautiful. It's a lovely building. 

As I took this, my phone took another dive. But THIS time, I saw the message on the screen... 

"Battery critically low." 

Some days, it's not the ghosts. It's the battery. 

Almost Hating Winter...

Outside my east window yesterday

I say "almost" because it is indeed beautiful. But I'm kind of tired of not being able to enjoy it. I feel cooped up for a number of reasons, some of them just my own inability to get out there, and some are just constraints of job and other responsibilities. 

Yesterday, we waited. And waited. And waited. Because the snow was coming down really fast - about 2" per hour, which is much more than the plows could keep up with. Pictures throughout this entry will show you that it wasn't exactly pretty. 

Well, it is pretty. If you don't have to drive in it. If you're playing in it, it's great. 

I kind of felt that IDOT was staging snow plow drivers in my parking lot because they'd come. Sit. Then go. The campus is at a pretty major set of intersections for the local highways, and I'm sure they were planning their strategy to handle this mess. 

Finally, though, we got word that night classes were cancelled, and I managed to catch my assistant before he left. He drives easily 45 minutes to an hour to get to the campus, and I didn't want to have him start off on the barely passable highways (all of them in his neck of the woods were pretty messed up) only to have to turn back. 

Even my yoga class was cancelled, which turned out to be a good call. The roads in my subdivision were not plowed when I got home. My trek home took one hour. It's normally 25 minutes, so it wasn't that this was a huge, huge commute. I know folks had it worse. But the roads on the way home were pretty pathetic.

Ice under this snow

And I had a hot-dogger... Some guy in a Yukon pickup apparently thought that going about 25-30 mph in THIS mess was too slow. Because, of course, he has 4WD. So do I. 

And you know what? There was ice under that snow. And 4WD slides really nicely on ice. He flew by me going at least 40 mph. I didn't see him in any ditches, but then again, Heaven only knows where he thought he was going.

This road is normally a pretty busy road. It seems that people finally took heed and if they didn't need to be out there, they weren't. I did leave earlier than our expected closing, but I'm not going to wring my hands about it. I wanted to get out before everyone else left work, and while it was still light out. 

Snow pack

This is a major intersection. Take a peek at the "plowing." The plows seem to have made an initial foray by just swiping 2 lanes. This is normally a 4-lane intersection, with additional turn lanes. Everyone behaved themselves, though the larger vehicles wanted to squeeze into slightly skinnier lanes. I have one of those "fat" trucks and I was a little nervous trying to get into the turn lane and not have my passenger-side mirror knocked off by an ambitious driver to my right. Everyone obeyed the lights; nobody was acting like a fool. And as far as I know, we all made it home safely. 

Of course, I went outside to take pictures. I was out a total of perhaps 2 minutes. It was mild, inasmuch as it would be when it's snowing like crazy. The wind was picking up and this is what I looked like when I came in. My sweatshirt was covered and the snow on the sidewalk was up over the top of my boots. 

Snow sparkles

My friend from IT called to see if she could come out earlier to do her updates and she informed me that "your parking lot sucks." It was at least 5" deep out there... 

Nobody came from our service to plow. I'm pretty sure we're last on their list. Problem is, our operations START when most businesses are closing down! Anyway, I hope to get that straight with the landlord sometime soon. 

I talked to Hubby about bringing my snowshoes. You know we have that area around the campus. I can take a short hike during lunch. I can't use the skis. Mainly, I don't fit into the boots anymore. But also, I tend to fall on my rear end. Not good for work!

But I can get on the snow shoes, tool around for about 10 minutes, and just get off my butt more. It's supposed to rain mid-week, and then snow again. I would like to get out in it -- I think I'm just depressed about being cooped up. Maybe a little dose of winter sunshine will help. 

I came home, made some soup and just had an evening at home, which seems to be more and more rare...

Dinner...

Had 2 heads of green cauliflower (not brocco-flower, but GREEN cauliflower) and I made soup. Same Cream of Cauliflower, but I didn't use any Canadian bacon. I had sliced portobello mushrooms, which I thought about adding, then I realized they'd turn the entire batch mud-colored. Not appetizing!

So I sauteed them, wrapped them in a tortilla and had a nice sandwich with my soup. That'll be dinner tonight, too. Oh, Raisa not only sings along with Kid #2 and the harmonica... She'll sing along with the stick blender. That was interesting.

I'm back to trying to cut out the sugar and refined "stuff" in my diet, and it's working so far. Lucky for me, I can eat the same thing time and again. I know it makes me feel better, but jeeze - when Kid #2 starts baking, I can barely stand it!! 

Knitting...

The Nephew Afgan is DONE!! Well, almost. Here's a picture of it. I ended up calling my LYS and having them set aside 2 hanks of the yarn for me. I'm going to crochet an edging around it. It needs something because one edge curls. It's 75% acrylic and 25% wool, so it won't "just block out." So I talked with my friend D and we agreed: crochet around, once, in each color. First off, it will pop the colors out, since as you can see, it's marled now. Second, it'll straighten out the edges. Third, it'll add a little length and width to the piece.

Nephew Afghan

It's on my California King bed. It takes up, I would say, about a twin-sized section. The extra edging will, I think, make it a tad fancier, and a bit nicer. My nephew is a biggish guy - this will make it more his size. 

I've started Teal Sock #2 and I also made a list today of the projects I'd like to do for 2014. I have to see if Blogger lets me set that chart as a sidebar on the blog. This may require some research and some tweaking. 

I don't want to move to WordPress, but I do want a little more freedom to design this space the way I want to. 

As for the nephew and the fiancee -- as you may recall, I was upset about her behavior at the shower. An hour late, no explanation... many things. My mom got the pics back. I took them, with Sis's camera. She says that Fiancee looks VERY impressed with my gift. Which is nice. I try to pick something that I think people will like. 

But that still doesn't excuse ill-mannered behavior. I worry about him. He's a soft soul. And I'm not so sure about her. Maybe I'm over-thinking this.

Raisa...

Is fitting in nicely. We are all off-leash now. Yesterday, Quinn snapped at her, but that stuff will happen, and from what I'm told, Raisa deserved it. She's taken to giving the Elkhounds a big slurpy kiss. This is usually pack behavior, and in her situation, it means, "I'm so happy you're my friend." She also likes to lick Tippi's ears. Tippi tolerates this much better than Quinn, mostly because Tippi is more emotionally stable.

Training last week was a joke. As a typical Husky, she's nuts. We did several things... Except that Raisa and I had to concentrate on ONE thing. Loose-leash walking. Which was mostly STOPPING for us. You let the lead out, they pull. You stop. Wait till the dog gives you slack till you move again. Stop when she pulls.

Raisa the cat

Go ahead. Imagine. Yeah, it took us most of a half-hour to get down one aisle. Bobbie used her as the "bad example." I think I may have to move closer to Hubby & Quinn. I was trying to keep us apart so that she could concentrate, but I don't think it's working. She seemed almost frantic to get back to them. So I don't know if that means she's bonding more with Hubby, who's with her all day, or just sees Quinn as "hers" and she's not happy unless she can see her. 

I took Quinn briefly and she freaked out. She's definitely a Daddy's girl. Which is fine. 

And I know - Raisa is not even 6 months old. We have to have patience. Well... I have to have patience. She's not Tippi and she's not River-the-robo-dog.

She is, however, as you can see here: Raisa the cat-dog. This morning, before we got Arlo up, she tried to climb onto Arlo's table for a better look. 

Oh my. 

She hasn't tried counter-surfing yet. I don't think she will. I shouldn't say that. 

Back door

Random Picture...

The snow outside my back door yesterday. It really was poetic. Simultaneously swirling and dumping, the snow had a ballet all its own. 

Backing up to a forest preserve, we have this wild area where we can just enjoy the scenery. There's a service road back there, but mostly, it's just us and the hawks. We have a lovely paved patio area and the concrete planters hold Coral Bells in the spring/summer/fall. The trees directly out back are pine trees; I have no idea why they were planted, but I would have preferred they keep it just to the native plants. Right behind those pines, it drops off pretty steeply. I haven't been back there and I won't do that while I'm at work. Maybe Hubby and I can explore that; it's Park District land, so maybe there's a trail in there somewhere.

As you can see, it's piling up. And I still maintain it's pretty. 

I think I've just got cabin fever.