Yesterday's Progress

I am wondering when it will open!

There is knitting tonight. With the Alison’s Scarf complete, I have been back on the socks with the loops of magickness! I have a dishcloth on the needles (always). I have started knitting my first handspun into a scarf, but think the pattern isn’t working. I have another pattern I think will do better, and intend to frog and restart. I will be following the Wendy Scarf pattern from the pattern-a-day calendar. I am also dying to cast on the baby surprise jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Dying, I say! (Cast on as of knitting tonight.)

Knitting, spinning, gardening, and birthday cards to make. My life is full.

All that, and at work, we have started our annual exercise-a-thon. We are cast into teams, and set loose to rack up minutes in exertive activity. Now, I work with some that make fitness a serious lifestyle. I am talking running miles, biking miles…MANY MILES…daily! And I work with some that haven’t seen the distant side of 30, and if they have, they are much closer to 30 than to 40. Then there are a few, very few, of us circling around the half century (and beyond) mark. Over half the employees participate in this, and over a 6 week span, average hours exercised by teams run about 10-12 per week per person. Do the math. That’s a lot of competitiveness. That’s a lot of keeping up with the youngsters!

I can get an hour and a half in easily when I ride my bike to work, and I typically work on the stationary bike in the morning 30 minutes anyway. I just boost that time up to 45 minutes when I don’t ride. If weather/time permits, a walk with Best Dog Ever after work can help, but it’s tough to get more exercise than that in. Hikes on the weekend add time to the total, but leave other chores undone!

If only I could count spinning…

I found this tonight on my return home. Oh yeah!

Smack in between Mother's Day and my birthday. Life is good.

Dearest Sister....any ideas on the name of this old friend?

Week’s Half Baked

On the upside of this week, I got back on the exercise routine. I got off the routine last week after the floor scrubbing/painting soreness/tiredness, with Wonderful Guy being gone a couple days and all the morning routine falling to me. With the wonderful weather this week, not only have I been back at my stationary bicycle in the morning, but got in some lunchtime walks, and after work walks, too. Best Dog Ever has been particularly pleased. There is a new park over our way, brand new, as a matter of fact. Just completed last fall. It’s a wonderful and convenient place for getting out and about. Look what they have done with a couple of tree stumps.
In other news, a local bike shop started a sale today, including a particular bag that fits the rack I have on my bike. I have one bag I have used for two years successfully, and wanted another to expand my carrying capacity. Room to carry a coat on my way home from work that I wear on my way to work will enable me to start riding sooner this year. Room to carry some groceries, even. Room to carry a picnic lunch for Wonderful and me? We’ll see about the last….
I am pumped to start the riding, but temps are supposed to drop by 15 degrees tomorrow. Ahhhh…..spring! That’s okay. Little green shoots promise me the ground is warming, and soon there will be a weekend warm enough to allow some flowerbed cleaning

In the meantime, I am de-cluttering. I cleaned out some books (shock horror!) this past weekend, and donated to the Friends of the Library. Five boxes of mostly Time-Life books. Hope someone is as taken with them as I was at one time. (I saved two sets, one each on gardening and sewing. Those were my mother’s.) That task also included the straightening and dusting of all the bookshelves…no mean feat! The kitchen has also been de-cluttered and re-organized through the painting process. I am feeling good about all this! My goal is to continue with smallish projects, areas, and goals, collecting the matter in a space in the basement. The neighborhood garage sale is in June. If I last that long, fine, or it may all go to charity. Habitat for Humanity is just down the road, after all.