counting down

to our arkansas trip. at least chuck is. he's getting as excited as a little boy in a candy shop. but when he says, "11 days" do you know what i think? a horrified, "oh no, i only have 11 days to finish the last towel?" i suppose it's extra motivation, and i did pass the halfway mark yesterday.it's looking good now. i actually dreamed i was checking in at the airport, and realized suddenly that i didn't have any knitting with me! i went into a panic, but since i was 3 hours early for the flight (definitely a dream-i haven't ever been that early) i was going to go home and get projects - i even knew which ones. but people kept preventing me, and that's how the dream ended. ugh. but i just counted before taking pics, and i only have 2 pattern reps to go. which is only 12 rows (a lot less after sunday evening knitting than it was this morning). so maybe i'll finish it once this post is done. whew.

my thujas aren't progessing very fast lately, since i've had jobs where i actually have to teach - again. *sigh* so i try to knit at least an hour at home. and there's all that flying time coming up. . . . . i'm sure they'll get done this month. at least i'm on the second sock! the back of chuck's sweater is almost through the ribbing now. i'm still only knitting it in church, but it will get lots of attention in arkansas.this picture actually captured the color pretty good, and if you enlarge it, you can still see the stitch pattern. all the other pics make the yarn look too pink, or bright red.

this week i've got jobs lined up every day. the checkbook is very happy. especially with trips coming up. it's weird having holidays getting closer and not needing to plan for them. no cookie baking, no family get-togethers at our place. no stress :)

i finally learned, in one of my sporadic trips into html-land, how to space my pictures so they're not right up on each other. blogger only lets you pick central, left and right aligned or none. now i fight the temptation to go back and properly space all the pictures ever posted. that's not anal or anything, is it?

a minor miracle occured last week. the frosted lemon verbena
came back to life! they were out in the garage until i got around to dumping them and reusing the pots. it's cooler out there, and they don't get any light, except a few minutes when we leave the house. but somehow that was enough, and it's got just a couple shoots struggling to grow (just one plant, the other's still frosted). i'm babying it as much as i can.

my chives are back in the house now too. the roots needed to freeze for a month. unfortunately for them, it snowed while they were out there and chuck didn't see the pot. they got shoveled right off the deck. luckily they stayed in the pot, and are coming back to life now.

we got a new bird house, since our stooges seemed a bit cramped. they didn't like being moved (bit chuck's hands!!) but they seem to be settling in fine and liking the extra space.

oh, and another winter surprise: my rose is blooming again!