Peter Kevin and I still like to have what we call Date Nite on Friday nights after work.  Very often this consists of going to Barnes & Noble and having a beverage and light snack and reading magazines and knitting. (it's a cheap date night but with all the reno work we have to pay for, it works for us).

Last night was one such date nite. I took a sock project with me.  It's another pair of the SKYP (slip,knit,yo,psso) socks.  I really like the design in the middle of the rib.  Kate gave me this skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock (and another matching one) for Christmas. The yellow is not that bright, it's more muted, like gold.  You can see that this sock will have a very colorful foot. 

The Silk Garden Sock (worked on 2.5mm needles) is making a nice thick fabric.  It's a bit thick/thin in places but knits up in an interesting way.  It is not soft at all but I didn't expect it to be.  I have another pair of Noro socks which is a lacy pattern and they have never softened up but have lasted a long time despite many wearings.  Not too bad for a single.

These are gift socks so I am tailoring the pattern to the recipient's preference for plain footed socks.  I'm making me a pair as well and mine will be patterned all down the foot.  My only concern is that there are only 388 yds in the skein which might have been a problem (but I do have the second skein which was going to be for me but I'll sacrifice it if need be).

While we were there, at a table close to ours sat an older woman and a young couple.  I overheard the young woman say "statistically, mumble% of high school sweethearts stay together".  I was curious so I got up and went over and apologized for evesdropping but asked what percentage she was quoting.  She said 78% (which I think is probably high but what do I know?).  I then turned and pointed to Peter Kevin and said, "that's my high school sweetheart.  Over 32 years now".  She laughed and we chatted for a moment.  As Pk and I were getting up to leave, the older woman came over.  She is the grandmother who also is still with her high school sweetheart.  She is 75 and her husband is 78 and they have great-grandchildren.  It was a sweet moment.

Pk teases me all the time that people talk to me (and by people I mean strangers).  I think I talk to strangers almost as often.  I can't help it.

He is on is way to Bridgeton with Jim's father (Big Jim-yes, we're original) to pick up some wood to enhance his stash.  A man on craigslist had elm logs (40" across and 4' long-huge things) for free to a good home.  Elm is rare due to the outbreak of Dutch Elm disease years ago.  I don't think I've ever seen an elm tree before.  When he saw the ad, he got very excited.  He  broke his own self-imposed stash diet ("I won't acquire any new wood until I use up the pieces sitting outside of the workshop first"  Sound familiar?).

It doesn't bother me at all as long as the wood is in a neat pile, who really cares?  It makes him happy and who doesn't love free stash enhancement?  The logs are too large for our car so he called Jim and asked to borrow his truck and his strength.  Elm is dense so these will be heavy logs.  And it's a beautiful blue sky cold winter day.  A great day for an adventure.  I would have gone with him but I'd be useless at picking up something that big. 

There's snow in our forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  Only an inch or so but when I hear SNOW I always hope that they're wrong and a strong system comes out of nowhere and dumps a foot of the white stuff on us.  It never happens that way but I hope for it every time.  When it comes to snow, Pk and I are like little kids.  We love it.  And we live in an area where traditionally it does not snow heavily.  I know if we lived in the Frozen North, we'd be blase and probably hate it but down here in Southern NJ?  It's a rare treat to get a substantial snowfall.

I have no real plans for the day.  I'm going to have some breakfast, do the laundry and then clean out the drawers to our side board.  As we remodel and move things around, I am trying to clear out years of junk.  Last weekend was the spare bedroom (to be fair, Pk did most of the work).  This week was supposed to be the rec room but the elm got in the way.  I can't really clean out that room alone, stuff is too heavy, so I'll clean out some drawers.  I want to be able to put all the tablecloths and napkins and things in the side board so I'm cleaning it out with that in mind.

Work is a bit tense.  We have an inspection this upcoming week and the requrements for our charts changed again.  The new requirement made it very hard to come up with "perfect" charts.  It has to do with signatures on treatment plans and dates of treatment plans.  The only charts I have that will work are brand new ones.  To my mind, they don't tell much of a story of the good work we do.  I'd rather use an older chart that shows that a person keeps coming back because they think our services are worthwhile and helpful.  But older charts have more of a chance to have mistakes.  I think it's the state coming in and they tend to be "date counters".  They don't look at content as much as When something was done.  Waste of time.

I finished one skein of yarn for my sweater and hopefully will finish plying the second skein.  After I do a bit of housework, I'm going to spend some quality time with the spinning wheel. My body is crampy (my second period in less than a month-this perimenopause thing is like being 12 all over again.  You never know when or if it's coming.  Whoopee!) so I have no plans for strenuous exercise. 

My stomach is reminding me we haven't had breakfast yet so I'm off to make some oatmeal. 


Happy Groundhog's Day!  That's Punxatawney Phil at the 127th annual Groundhog's Day celebration this morning.  Sigh, 6 more weeks of winter.  Look at the claws!  I'm not sure I'd let that creature climb on my shoulder.  He is not terribly happy looking, is he?

Well, 6 more weeks of winter means 6 more weeks of chances for SNOW!!  One can only hope.