home again jiggedy jigg

we came home from anchorage yesterday. it's crazy how much can change in the spring and fall in just a few days. we were only gone 2 whole days, and yet when we left, blue sky was just beginning to show in patches through the trees out back. and today, there are just a few leaves peeking out from the skeletal trees. i love fall, i just wish it took longer here. and had a few more colors like back home.

we spent most of saturday in the temple, till it closed anyway. i love the temple. so peaceful. i've felt pulled in so many directions lately, and when the stillness and calm finally penetrated i felt much more grounded. if only it were closer.

chuck took monday off, and we did some shopping. all chuck's jeans have been turning him into a plumber lately, so i told him i would buy him pants in anchorage. he only agreed on the condition that i buy some shirts that i needed too. augh. on top shoe shopping. he'd just had a conversation with his boss in which the word "non-negotiable" figured. it was chuck's favorite new word this weekend, especially when i didn't want to look at clothes.

so we found me some shoes, and got some nicer clothes for subbing. it was nice to get stuff i needed, i just wish the checkbook wasn't so nasty about it all. we do seem to luck out, and happen onto sales when we decide to shop. that mellows the checkbook out some. chuck got new jeans that look very nice on him, and i talked him into a couple shirts. he's got a good stash of banker clothes, but not much in the way of real people clothes. i've been working on it. he's very cooperative, just not used to taking care of himself or being taken care of.

the irony of it all is, we bought me dressier (i can't say dressy cuz i can't do businessy dressy) clothes and today i got a 5 day job as a recess teacher. shrug. can't say i mind wearing jeans to work though.

knitting update for this weekend: i had not-really promised to work only on chuck's sweater. really i was agonizing cuz i had yarn in the mail and all i wanted was to get started on those projects. we checked the mail on the way out, and of course the yarn was in there. augh!!! and me without my needles and patterns. so all weekend the yarn sat in the back seat and taunted me.

irish moss: the pre-anchorage shot. the lighting doesn't do the color any justice. it's a darker red.

so i worked on chuck's sweater a bunch. started my second building block slipper, and ran out of yarn. *sigh* a pitfall of using up stash yarn i guess. i have some orange of the same yarn, i'll use that for the bottom where i don't have to see it. and i started my clessidra's. yay!! i'm excited about getting some knee socks - so i can avoid the abominable nylons/tights this winter. i was amazed to see how much knitting got done with 12 hours in the car and no computer distractions. imagine!

then this morning, somehow, finally, i found a live link for some bars. whoo-hoo! somewhere i saw them called percentage bars rather than progress or project bars. if you're searching for them, go with "percentage bars" as your term. ojojoj. all that time i wasted looking for progress bars. and then of course i had to make them mine, which involved learning a bit of HTML. i'm slowly picking that up, as i need it. i figured out how to change colors and add links for online patterns. and i found the HTML for a strike through, which i'd been wanting too.

so despite the blanket of bright yellow birch leaves on the lawn, this was a good day. a good ending to the weekend and a good start to the week.

P.S. - did i forget to say how great it was to have chuck all to myself for the whole weekend and then some? the bank even left him alone. i loved it.