Monday, October 26, 2009

Now I know perl and purl!

My knitting instructor had to go Russia this week, so I am attempting to teach myself the second knitting stitch, the purl stitch. I got yarn in a color called Rose Camo, and it looks like a rose garden all mixed up. It is also the softest yarn they had, I love it!


I started with 26 stitches, and somehow ended up with a hole (bottom, to the right of center) and 27, but it's good practice!

Ben's scarf is coming along nicely! His is made using just knit stitch, but I like the wavy pattern it gets.


His is very soft and fuzzy too. I spent most of my time this weekend trying to figure out how to purl, so haven't gotten much further on his, but I'll do more of it this week.

The Kitten, keeping with her reputation as a strange cat, pretty much ignores the yarn but is fascinated with the knitting needles.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Wedding Updates!

My dress is in! I had too many dreams where I was walking down the aisle wearing a bathrobe, or jeans, or my high school prom dress because I never picked out a wedding dress, so I ordered it possibly a bit early. But it's getting the bustle put in and I will get to take it home soon! Now I just have to figure out where to keep it in my apartment, and how and when to get it to Jersey.

My shoes are also in! They are incredibly awesome and I have to restrain myself from not wearing them all the time, I love them so much. I wore them when I tried on my dress and it is the perfect length with them on!

My brideswomen have picked out their dresses! I wanted them to be comfortable and feel attractive in their dresses, so I gave them a color and asked them to pick out whatever dress they liked. They ended up all liking the same dress, and it looks awesome on all of them!

We also (finally finally finally) have a wedding ceremony location! We will be married at the General Greene Pavilion in Washington Crossing Park, next to beautiful old trees and a green grassy field. Unless it rains, in which case we will be married in the Riverside Ballroom in the Inn at Lambertville Station, next to the rain falling on the Delaware. Unless something terrible happens to the Inn, in which case we will be married at the courthouse. Always have two backups, my father always says!

Because even if it rains and the food is terrible and the music sucks and my centerpieces are uninspiring and the cake falls off the table and people have to wait in line to use the bathroom, as long as we end up married at the end of the night, I will be happy. That is the goal, I have it written across the top of my wedding spreadsheets so I won't forget it.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The frost is on the pumpkins...

...if by "frost" you mean 91 degree heat and "pumpkins" you mean the complete LACK of any sort of pumpkins whatsoever. Or apples, or anything else generally evocative of Fall in any way.

I went to North Carolina last weekend, and it was a wonderful trip. We drank apple cider and incredible peach cider and got lost in a huge corn maze and got pumpkins, it was a very nice way to enter October, which generally means Fall in most places.

Not Texas, though. It's definitely not Fall here. No pumpkins, no leaves turning, not even any apple cider in the grocery stores. The 91 degree heat and the humidity which makes it feel like 101 degrees (seriously) mean it might as well be July here, and you'd never know it wasn't by looking around.

I miss Fall. I miss apple cider and cool, crisp days with the vivid blue skies you only see in October in the north, and leaves falling and crunching under your feet as you walk along in your jacket, hands in your pockets and nose getting cold as you breathe the cool air. I miss the inexplicable smell of leaves burning even though no one burns them anymore. I miss the spooky feeling of being outside at night in October, an electric feeling no other nights have. I miss the nights cool enough to need an electric blanket, and the cats attracted like magnets to the warmth. I miss needing flannel sheets on the bed and extra afghans which hold me safe as I sleep.

Stepping outside into the wet-sock weather of a humid Houston is just no replacement.