Category Archives: Words Words Words

The Raptures of the Season

So somewhere around now Santa will be paying the kids at the boy’s preschool a special visit. I anticipate having to corral a very excited three-year-old when he gets home.

I have a board meeting scheduled tonight, and was supposed to visit a friend off-island afterwards, but with the roads being as awful as they are I suspect the latter isn’t going to happen. Gnarr.

We have the visit to the mall Santa scheduled for first thing Saturday morning, followed by a trip to pick out the Christmas tree. What with all the snow, I think we’re starting to feel a bit more seasonal around here. I’m not sure where December went. We’ve all been forgetting the Advent calendar, so the boy currently thinks you open four doors at once. And somehow it got to be my last cello lesson of the year tomorrow, so I’ll be stopping off on my way to it in order to pick up the present I’d intended to pick up before now. (Can I combine it with a trip to the local yarn shop to buy yarn for Bodhifox’s hat and a larger set of circular needles? Hmm. Probably not, since I need to work tomorrow now thanks to the overdue-assignment-I-just-got, which means they get shunted lower on the list of priorities and to a later date, sigh.) It’s like the middle of December disappeared. And it’s finally sunk into my awareness that if Yule is on Sunday, we can’t do the Yule-connected shopping on Monday when we do the rest. Which means doing it Friday morning as soon as the shops open, because the boy and I have the day together and the car at our disposal, and because there’s no way it’s being done on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Destined For Great Things… Someday

From a recent Ravelry exchange with Ceri:

    A: This is just gorgeous: [links to a pattern for a simply stunning knitted silk top]

    Ceri: Oh, lovely! I saw this at the bottom. Gorgeous: [links to a pattern for yet another stunning knitted lace top]

    A: Stunning! I want that, too! Wah. I have not the skill to do this, and I suspect I won’t for quite some time.

    Ceri: Well, you only get better by trying harder projects, right?

    A: Well, yes, but you’re talking to someone who hasn’t successfully purled yet.

Which means there’s nowhere to go but up, really.

In the ‘overdue assignment I just got yesterday’ news, I’m about a third of the way along. Trudge, trudge, trudge…

Slightly Fuzzy Proof Of Recital Fun

My stand partner just sent me a couple of pictures taken at the recital. See? I’m smiling! I’m having fun! It’s slightly out of focus but a cheerful souvenir anyhow.

Not as much fun: Being told that you’re a week late on an assignment that you never got. No initial contact regarding the assignment, no file in the FTP folder, just an automated “you’re late” notice. My contact has apologized for the glitch but wants to know if I can do it anyway. Sigh.

Day’s Summary

My site was down earlier and I could not blog! So here’s the day so far in one shot.

8h47: I am very achy. Not as achy as yesterday, thank goodness, and my focus is better. I was so achy yesterday I couldn’t even knit. This damn freelance assignment is getting done today, come what may. Because, well, I did nothing on it yesterday. Not for lack of trying, though. And I handled lots of other things that needed to be done, many of which were overdue to be handled. None of it was stuff that would yield a paycheque, however.

9h35: I have now spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what yarn Mousme used for Bodhifox’s Ravenclaw scarf. I think I have it tracked down by comparing the recommended yarns in the pattern and the pictures she posted. The name she gave me wasn’t correct (which she suspected when giving it to me) so I went around it the long way. (No, I am not yet working. Shut up.)

10h25: Ceri has just given me the correct name of the yarn! I was completely wrong. Are those angels singing? And I’ve just found a replacement for the discontinued shade! Now to track it down in person at one of my local yarn shops, many of whom carry yarn from this manufacturer.

11h47: Oops. I overcooked my chicken nuggets and smiley fries. They probably shouldn’t shatter when you bite them.

12h31: Facebook is a good place to divert frustrated blogging energy when attempting to work-avoid.

11h30: The rest of the LCO fall concert has been posted on Youtube:

Vivaldi concerto grosso part 1 (first and second movements)
Vivaldi Concerto Grosso part 2 (third movement)
Brahms Hungarian Dances part 1 (dances 5 and 6)
Brahms Hungarian Dances part 2 (dance 1)

My comments? Nice cello work at the beginning of the fugue in the Vivaldi part 1, with a bonus shot of my face while playing at 2:42! (Actually, this video was taken from the first violin side so there’s a lot of shots of the celli from face-on through part 1 and part 2. Even though I am often blocked by the conductor.) Nice cello work through out this entire piece, really. Oh yay, we all finished the third movement together, and with conviction. Stick the landing!

Around 2:20 of the Brahms 1: Look, we have a percussionist! Just below her and to the right is the music teacher from my old high school doing a guest turn as a trumpet player for us. (I can’t rightly call him my music teacher from high school because I never took music.) One thing I really like about these videos is being able to see everyone in the orchestra t different times. Most people in the audience only see the first couple of rows, and those of us in the orchestra are usually staring at music or the conductor.

Also, I could be wrong about the order of the Brahms dances, but I’m too lazy to track down my scribble in the concert programme. There were three, and we played 1, 5, and 6, but not in that order.

15h15: FINISHED! Yes! Now to query about the slight mess the identification numbers are in and an issue with uploading the completed assignment. Also to ask about the invoice I submitted two weeks ago which hasn’t been responded to, so I have no idea if they got it or not.

Which brings us to now! I should probably think about something for dinner. No, wait; tacos. There. Assuming we have shells or tortillas for soft tacos, that is.

Worthy Announcement

HRH fixed the robot baker! The post the the paddle sits on, which is supposed to turn, had seized. Saying that he couldn’t break it any more than it was already broken, he took a pair of pliers to the thing and wrestled with it. Ten minutes later I had a fully operational bread machine again. Huzzah!

A For-No-Reason Photo

So the boy is precisely 100 centimetres tall. Which translates to a metre.

Yeah.

So if the boy is metre tall, you can figure out how big the cat attacking his foot is.

I’m working on the boy’s monthly post as a break from work. It should be up later this afternoon.

ETA @ 14h00: It’s up! Click here. Normally I’d tell you to scroll down but the stupid footer is overlapping it.

Have Survived

Made it through my second recital ever. Go me!

Didn’t screw up my shifts. Didn’t let the bow skip. Didn’t let the rhythm go ragged. Held a half note a wee bit too long but adjusted. The second repetition was better. I don’t think I really lifted the bow as had been my bad habit before lessons either, although it wasn’t as ‘in the string’ as I would have liked. All the trio and ensemble stuff was great, too. I wasn’t a mess leading up to it, but the nerves did kick in after we’d set up and I encountered the ‘will it never be day?!’ mood that develops when you’re ready and it’s not time to start yet. Apparently we have another recital in June, and I’m actually looking forward to that.

Liam fell asleep ten minutes into the programme. He got to hear the littlest girls do their pieces, but fell asleep either during mine or directly afterwards. He was very impressed with the butterfly someone had painted on the youngest girl’s face in full colour, complete with sparkly highlights.

Now it’s on to making shepherd’s pie (well, more correctly, cottage pie) for supper, and casting on HRH’s scarf, as we nipped out to Ariadne Knits before lunch to pick up the yarn. Liam was very impressed with the yarn store, although was firmly convinced that there ought to have been a cat.