One of the prizes I get for getting up in the dark and heading for work while it's still dark, is that I get to see things like this

as I make my way into work.  The moon is just a sliver there in the distance but you can see the gorgeous clear Maxfield Parish blue sky and the sun just waiting for her cue to enter the scene.  It almost makes up for all that darkness.

I finished a sweater for the baby-to-be of one of my interns.  I really like this pattern.  The leaf design is knitted on at the same time as the front is being knit so there is no edging.  Just a simple button band since the button holes are also knit as part of the patterned edge.  This is called Cascade and I made it out of Knitpicks palette in Hollyberry.  It's such a pretty red, not at all what I would usually choose for a baby but I think babies must get tired of pastels.

Speaking of tired, I found out that my thyroid levels are very out of whack and that might explain why I continue to gain weight without eating much food and why I am so tired all the time and why, even though I am still having the ubiquitious power surges, I am cold (especially my hands and feet) all the time. I've done the ultrasound thing with negative results so now it's just playing with my meds to find a good dosage.

Tomorrow is Spring here in NJ and we are going to celebrate it by enjoying a 3 inch snowfall (and 26F temps today).  It was a balmy 65F on Tuesday!  People pulled out shorts and flip flops-a bit premature if you ask me-and tomorrow we will once again be in winter boots.

We're hoping to pick up our car tomorrow (after a rather expensive clutch job) and then take Em's Jeep back to her.  This will be a busy weekend with the usual chores and Pk has a weeklong training that starts on Sunday.  Sunday!  Who does that? Evidently, his employer.  I'll spend the day putzing around. I'll have to try to give him a chance to do that on Saturday so he gets some downtime.

Otherwise, things are just moving along.  My office mate just came in and the first words out of his mouth were a complaint.  Time to put my "ignore the annoying person" skills to use.

Have a happy Thursday!

Good morning!  Although if you don't look at the clock, you might be deceived into thinking it's actually still evening since it's so dark in the morning.  It's rather disorienting to walk out of the house and have it be night time at 6:30 in the morning.  DST kicks my butt every year for about a week.  Then my brain comes to terms with the level of light and all is well again.

And it was 45 degrees (7.2C) this morning.  Slightly diifferent from the 7F we had just one week ago.  I think it will be a balmy 65F (18C) this afternoon.  It's nice not to have to wrap up in wool from head to toe to leave the house.

Kate heard me when I said I needed some color and when we got home from grocery shopping, there were some lovely tulips waiting for me.  They add a bit of hope that Spring will come soon.

Here's a pile of some of my latest hand spun.  I am thinking that if I mix  the greys with some of those colorful yarns, I could have some interesting colorwork pieces.  I have enough to make a chula style hat or some mittens for next year.  These are all waiting for a bath.  It should be dry enough this weekend to throw them all in some wash and then whack them a bit and hang them to dry.

People make a big deal out of the power surges and irritability of menopause and while I'll admit that both of those are a pita,  I think hands down, my least favorite part (not counting the periods that ambush you out of no where) is the random insomnia.  I couldn't sleep for 2 nights.  I slept well last night but today I could put my head down on the desk and sleep for an hour.  This is frowned upon here as ou can imagine. It will be a struggle to stay awake today.

Sorry for the shortness of the post but suddenly it's gotten busy and I have to go do my job.  Happy Hump Day all!

It's only 15 days untii Spring.  Someone should wake Mother Nature and tell her.  It will be DST this weekend and we'll still have several inches of snow on the ground.  I don't remember this happening  before.

Peter Kevin and I planned to stay home this morning but we got up and it was only raining (It was 35 degrees).  We went to work.  By the time I got off the train, it was snowing.  Big, fat, wet flakes.

I watched it come down and was glad I was at work.  Our temps will fall into the below freezing (as in single digit F) overnight and all of this will freeze hard.  That will make it harder to get to work tomorrow.  I transferred my requested day off from today to tomorrow.  Now, I can sleep in and ignore the snow and ice in the morning.  It's snowing hard now, close to an inch an hour.  It's beautiful but what a mess.

This is Philadelphia as I was leaving at noon.  Locust St never looked so beautiful! 

This was Monday morning as we left the house.  Just gorgeous.  You can see that we still had snow on the ground then.  But the sunrise was spectacular.  

Life here has not been exciting.  Pk is working at his new job.  He mostly likes it.  There are some bits that drive him crazy.  But I think we can all say that about our jobs.  My workplace has decided that I had too many "occurrences" in the past year and I have been given a verbal coaching.  I can't call out until sometime in September when my occurrences fall away.  So, let's hope for a healthy spring and summer!  If I called out sick, it's because I WAS SICK.  I don't play around with that.  And I don't bring germs into the workplace.  Or rather, I didn't because I will be dragging my sick ass into work regardless of how I feel for the next 6 months or so. And if I spread germs, so be it.  

This yarn is as bright in person as it is in this photo.  It is a merino/silk/cashmere blend and it feels just gorgeous to touch.  It will be fun to work with after this

This is the first one of Pk's Architect of Rivendell socks.  They are not complicated (despite having 3 charts and having a unique gusset design) and they are so cool looking.  But they are very grey.  Unrelenting grey.  Our winter world has faded down to grey and white and black.  The only color out the front window is the Stop Sign on the corner.  The red yarn (Andy Warhol's Stamped Lips was the inspiration) is such a welcome departure.  I've even been spinning grey.  Peter Kevin took apart my spinning wheel and cleaned and oiled it.  She looks brand new and all spiffy but now needs to settle down and get readjusted to my favorite settings.  I'm saving my 2 oz of bison for when it's all back in order.

So, how is Almost Spring treating you?  Some people have told me they have FLOWERS.  Flowers!  I seem to remember having some flowers in March.  But not this year....