7 Quick Takes (Vol 212)

Good golly Miss Molly it is MAY! Stop the world I want to get off and have a giant glass of wine. Just because Spring is finally here doesn’t mean the weekly rules have changed in any way. When you are done shoveling through the load of blather here you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of the dandelions sprouting in the grass, over to Conversion Diary.

Live long and BLATHER!

1.
Sigh. We are taking Chez Knit off the market on Monday. A year and many showings and no one wants to buy. I will have a longer rant post on this I am sure but right now it is bitter sweet.

But the upside is that I won’t have to deal with realtors that show up an hour late for a showing and don’t apologize. And let me tell you that has happened WAY too many times for my liking this year. Their time is more valuable than mine?

Taking a deep breath. Taking a deep breath.

When HHBL and I walk the neighborhood at this time of the year it is lovely and I am glad that we live here. Trying to be thankful about this.

2.
This time of the year it is always a dance to decide when we turn the heat off for the season. This week has been BEAUTIFUL here in the Frozen Northeast Ohio. Daytime temps have been in the 70s and nights in the 50s. We are all tempted to think that it is time to power down the furnace for the season.

But not so fast grasshopper. I can think of many a year when I still had to use the heat all the way to June, which is really just depressing. I am going to hold off a bit longer but I would guess by the end of the month we will be in that lovely in between time when we don’t need either the heater or the air conditioning.

Of course I could be in Kansas City right now where evidently they are getting snow. At least for once it isn’t us.

3.
HHBL has a new car……a Prius C. A red one! Talk about going from a high performance car (which the beemer certainly was) to fuel economy out the wazoo!! And because he is…ummm…..sort of competitive.

Yeah he is but not me!

But I digress.

Now his thing is all about seeing how high he can get his miles per gallon. Going back and forth from the office where he can go at a bit of a slower pace and thereby have the Prius run mostly on battery……

He is getting somewhere in the 55-60mpg range.

Egads.

4.

On Monday morning, during our walk, Sandy and I discovered that the first batch of goslings have come into the world. Darn it. 5 cute and fluffy little chicks with VERY protective parents. Dad was still hissing at me even as we had turned the corner and were obviously not making any threatening moves.

This morning we passed the same goose family in almost the same spot only…..

There are three goslings missing.

At this age goslings do not stray very far from mommy and daddy so I think we can safely assume that they have been picked off by something. We do have Bald Eagles and hawks as well as all manner of things that run on four legs. I am going to guess that the most likely scenario is that the eagle got them.

I expressed some sorrow that Sandy did not feel was all that sincere.

She would be right.

5.
My latest sweater knit is ALMOST finished.

Moonlight Over Lima blocking before the button band knitting. Oh she is SOOOOOOO soft and lightweight. Of course that is because, like an idiot, I used fingering weight yarn. But I am so glad that I did.

Not that I had any choice in the matter actually because all the yarn I brought back from Peru  this last trip was fingering weight yarn. Not that I set out to buy only fingering weight yarn it is just that that was all that I seemed to see in the different markets. For a country that produces so much Alpaca fiber you would think that it would be easy to find a boat load of yarn fiber.

But it isn’t really. Every where you look there are finished products but not fiber. I really had to search to find it.

MOL will be finished by next week I am thinking, the button band is almost completed. Then I just have to get some grosgrain ribbon for the button backing and buy some excellent buttons and we will be done.

I name all my knitting projects. This particular sweater’s name comes from this picture, which I took at my in-law’s home in Lima, Peru. Unfortunately this view is no longer there as someone decided that they needed to build a 15 story apartment building smack dab in the middle of my beautiful view.

But I have the photo and the memories and now the sweater.

Almost.

6.
There is a fair amount of outside work that needs to be done in the summer time here at Chez Knit. And this year I am trying to work smarter not harder.

I hate hard work.

Of course the thought that I have to spread a mountain load of mulch doesn’t thrill me but there is a boat load of things that have to happen before I even order the mulch. And I am trying to break it up into chunks of work. Do that particular set of tasks and then call it a day rather than thinking that I will just work until it is ALL done, there by sending my ancient body into shock and pain for days afterwards. And making me hate the outside work.

Smarter not harder is my summer landscaping motto.

7.
And last but not least I think we need a funny video to end the week on a high note. I have watched this one several times this week just for the chuckle value.