kmkat and her kneedles

Things that are making me happy today.*

I discovered that a pair of socks that had never really gone with anything actually coordinates with a recently-acquired shirt.

Fashion-forward is I!

 

The sun is shining!

Funny white shadow is reflection of cell phone in glass. 

 
Not only shiny sun in sky, but actual ground visible along north-facing driveway.
And while taking these photos, I saw a hornet flying around... outside!

The poles that I had Smokey put in last fall actually kept us from driving on the snow-covered garden. Yay!

 

Another pair of double-thick socks.

Raveled here.

That was how much I got done the first day of knitting! Of course, that was the day we drove to Rice Lake (one hour), Smokey had blood drawn (20 minutes), we had lunch and I finished first (5 minutes), Smokey went shopping in a couple stores while I waited in the car (~1 hour), we drove home (1 hour), and we watched TV in the evening (2.5 hours; we watched an extra episode of Criminal Minds on Netflix because I thought I could finish the sock -- almost; went to bed with ~1/2" of ribbing left to do.

I am enjoying double-thick socks immensely -- picking out the stash yarns to combine, knitting them zipzipzip, wearing them. So fast, so warm. I am pretty sure that if I knit enough pairs, and I get enough other people knitting them, these socks can solve world hunger, bring about world peace, and probably explain the theory of everything. (The latter has baffled Stephen Hawking for 45 years. These socks are awesome.)

There is one thing making me kinda sad, though.

Last time I grabbed my camera to take some knitting photos, it wouldn't turn on. Needs new batteries, I thought. Today I put in fresh batteries, and it still won't turn on. Right now it is sitting on the tray table in front of Smokey's chair, which is the place where he works on small projects while watching TV. He says the chances are slim that he can fix it, so I may be in the market for a new camera... which makes me kinda happy.

* Smoke actually commented that I was extra cheerful today. I explained about this post. Now you know it is all true.

Livin' in the snow. And lovin' it. Or not.

Any of you in New England, particularly in the Boston area, may want to look away from this post. Unlike you, we have places to put our snow.

A couple weeks ago Smokey was backing his car down the driveway. We tend to back down in the winter because there is not enough room to turn around (until next summer and forever after, but that is another story entirely) and it is easier to back down and drive forward up the hill than vice versa. 

Anyway.

He was trying to put his car as far to one side as possible so as to give me lots of room when I drove out. He is nice like that, but it got him into trouble this time. He got too far over to one side and got stuck in a snowbank. 

 

The sharp-eyed and car-savvy among you may notice that his car is an Isuzu Trooper, a 4WD vehicle. How in the world did he get it stuck in that little snowbank, you may wonder? (As some of us did wonder, but never out loud.)

Here is a clue:

Younger Son using a Sawzall to cut off the iron pipe the car was hung up on.

Why was that pipe there? Well, it's part of that other story that I may or may not blog.

Once the pipe was removed, my little Volvo performed admirably in pulling the much bigger and heavier Trooper out of its predicament. (Please note the warm hand-knit hat sported by YS.) 

Notice how I [finally!] managed to embed an animated gif? Yay, me!

 

The remains of the villain.

Heat wave!

Yes, this IS a heat wave. It was -19˚ F yesterday morning at this time.
On the other hand, we are not battling 8 feet of snow.

* * * * *

 In other news, I got new glasses.

It's winter carnival time in Luck, WI!

Every year the village north of us has an ice palace during their winter carnival. It -- both carnival and palace -- are somewhat smaller than the ones in St Paul and elsewhere.

St Paul Ice Palace 1992

St Paul ice palace, 1992.

Ice palace, Harbin, China

St Paul ice palace, 2015

Of course, the 2015 Luck ice palace didn't have the luxury of being situated directly in front of the Landmark Center, as the one in St Paul did, but it also was not as commercialized (above, lower right; click to embiggen).

Ice palaces have a long and storied history in the Land Of 10,000 Lakes.

St Paul ice palace, 1888. Looks more like a snow palace to me.  

St Paul ice palace, 1917. That's the Landmark Center in the background again, although then it was either a courthouse or a post office, according to Wikipedia.

 

Here is the Luck ice palace:

Somewhat smaller, but just as much a source of local pride.

 

One advantage of a small-town ice palace is that the viewer can see its inner workings.

 

Although the 2015 Luck ice palace is small, it is larger than the one I last chronicled here.

Luck ice palace, 2008

 

Bringing down an ice palace is as much fun as building it. Maybe more...

* * * * *

A Twin Cities television station has a feature called Going to the Lake, wherein two of their anchors travel to a vacation destination in MN or WI. The female anchor and the sports anchor came to Luck for the winter carnival. We watched them on TV: in front of the ice palace, in a local bar, having lunch at coffee house/cafe.

Edited to add: you can watch the Going to the Lake segments here.

The coffee house/cafe staged its second annual trivia contest during the winter carnival. Smokey, Younger Son, and I had participated the the first one and came in second. When I called the coffee shop to register they told me the contest was full! This is the first time in all our years here that anything -- a theatre, a restaurant, anything -- turned us away because it was full; such is one of the joys of small-town life. 

But they called again the morning of the contest to say one of the teams had canceled and we were in. Younger Son got here 24 hours earlier than he usually does on a weekend, just so he could participate in the contest.

This was before all the contestants had arrived. The room was packed during the contest.

We remembered from the first contest that in order to win, a team has to bet big when they can So we did, and we didn't know the answer, and we lost all our points halfway through. Had we gotten that single question right, we might have won. [/whine]

 

Ten on Tuesday, the winter fun edition.

Ten Twenty Things To Do To Make Winter Bearable.

1. Knit something warm and wooly to wear the next time you go out.
2. Knit something for summer. It will come...eventually.
3. Toss and sort the stash. You will find inspiration.
4. Read an engrossing book, be it a mystery novel, a romance novel, a historical suspense romance novel, whatever. The main thing is that it be totally engrossing.
5. Cook up a pot of soup and bake some bread -- yeast or quick or muffins or scones -- to go with it. The house will smell amazing for hours. 
6. Cook up something in the slow cooker. The house will smell amazing for hours.
7. Eat spicy food to warm up your life.
8. Build a fire in the fireplace to enjoy while doing any of the above.
9. Fill squirt bottles with water tinted with food coloring. Use them to draw pictures in the snow.
10. Blow soap bubbles outside when the temp is below freezing -- the further below, the better.
11. Invite the neighbors over to enjoy any of the above, as appropriate.
12. Go for a walk in a park or the woods or along a county lane after (or during) a snowfall. Dress a bit more warmly than absolutely necessary; you can shed your hat or your gloves or unzip your jacket if necessary, but if you are cold it won't be any fun. Take your camera along, keep it inside your jacket to stay warm until you need it. Outdoors is beautiful after a snowfall.
13. Dig out your ice skates and re-learn how to skate backwards.
14. Rent some skis, cross-country or downhill, and explore a golf course or park in winter.
15. Take your sweetie (and kids, if you want) for a weekend getaway. Go somewhere with an indoor pool.
16. Take a MOOC (massive online open course). Learn about something new.
17. Volunteer to listen to early readers read aloud at a local school. Early readers need all the encouragement they can get.
18. Do a[n anonymous] random act of kindness. Stand back and watch the results. Feel warm inside.
19. Read seed catalogs. Plan a garden. Plant some seeds now in a pot on a sunny windowsill -- basils and mints grow quickly.
20. Treat yourself to some lovely scented bath salts and/or lotions. Pamper yourself for an evening (or a day or a weekend -- whatever).

Ice fog.

We have had fog for nearly a week, unusual around here. Some days it burns off, but on others it lasts all day. It makes driving a bit hazardous. But it is oh, so hauntingly beautiful.

 

 

 

If the temperature is low enough, the trees are frosted or even iced in the morning.

 

 

Sadly, I had only my cell phone camera with me.
It does great close shots; at longer range, not so much.

 

The trees in town were frosted only on one side.

 

Can you see it?

This is how Twitter tells me winter has arrived.

Yes, that is ten, count 'em, TEN! screens of tweets from the MN Department of Transportation warning about road conditions. I like to subscribe to their feed so I can feel smug when I don't have to go anywhere or fight rush hour traffic.

And here is how it looked outside shortly after the above road warnings.

Not nearly as impressive as it did earlier today when it was snowing to beat the band.

Winter, go home. You're drunk. (redux)

I would love to show you some photos of the 12" (twelve inches!) of snow we got over the past day and a half, but my computer will not recognize my camera, and LastPass (which I installed after reading about the Heartbleed security screwup) refuses to allow my iPhone access to Gmail. 

Sometimes I almost wish for pre-digital days. Almost. But in those days I didn't have a blog and hadn't met any of youse guys so...

First, the snow. It started sometime Tuesday night or the wee hours of Wednesday. When I got up Wednesday morning to let the dogs out, the words out of my mouth do not bear repeating on this (mostly) family-friendly site.

There were only a few inches on the ground at that point, which were not enough to keep me from a scheduled appointment and multiple errands. 

The snow continued all day Wednesday and into the night. This morning, Thursday, it was deep enough (twelve inches!) that we called Doug The Plow Guy to rescue us. Smokey had planned to plow it himself, but at some point he remembered that Da Yeep had not been started in a month and would most certainly require a charger. Charger (on wheels) is roughly the size of a floor model humidifier but heavier, and he did not relish the idea of dragging it through a foot (did I mention we got twelve inches?) of wet heavy snow up the driveway hill to the detached garage.

Call Doug The Snowplow Guy.

Second, the camera. No idea why it is not talking to the computer. Probably a poltergeist or a gremlin hiding somewhere. 

Third, LastPass. This is a $12 program that generates a really, really random password for every site that you tell it and stores them in its online vault (heavily encrypted, multiply firewalled, and probably protected by some Dumbledore-created charm). As I was working my way through my nine pages (nine pages!) of sites that require a password I chanced to wonder just how this was going to manage to screw up my life.

When I tried to use my iPad last night I found out.

Today's task is figure out how to get LastPass on my iPad and iPhone, assuming that is even possible. Somehow I cannot imagine that BoingBoing/Gizmodo/Lifehacker would have recommended the program if it were not iGadget compatible. I hope.

.

.

.

Well, Doug The Plow Guy came... and got stuck. Smokey is out there right now attempting to free Doug's truck with Da Yeep. 

Will I make it to my 3 pm meeting? Stay tuned...

 

Friday.

We got 10.5" (26.5cm) of snow last night and today. (Bah, humbug.) Two of my knitterly friends and I were going to meet a fourth knitterly friend to visit a yarn store, have lunch, and have friend #4 teach us how to make a linen stitch scarf. It would have been a 46 mile trip, one way. K, who would have driven, emailed yesterday that her Jeep could make it through anything and that she was not afraid to drive. (I replied that she was one badass mofo. She agreed.)

Yesterday I watched Skyfall on Netflix and cast on 600 stitches for the scarf (I decided I wanted the long skinny version). Skyfall = 2 hr, 23 min = exactly the right amount of time to cast on 600 stitches. Win!

 

But this morning reality dawned and we realized that the two of who were going to park and meet her would end up having our cars blocked in when the snowplows went by. 

Crud.

But we will reschedule this little outing for later in the month. Maybe winter and blizzards will be over by then.

Maybe.

Not everyone is disappointed with the weather.

Younger Son and most of his company are leaving tomorrow for the NAB convention in Las Vegas, so Ser Percival The Energetic is staying with us. As you can see, he is tremendously despondent at being separated from his Poppa. Misha tries in vain to cheer him up, but he is inconsolable.

Not.

He cried piteously for the first hour or so after YS left last Sunday, but he has bonded to us now. He snuggles up in the bed at night and follows me around during the day. In the evening he attempts to slime up onto my lap. Sometimes I let him do it, the 65-pound lapdog.

Election day.

This is how I have spent the past two days. Over 300 phone calls.
That's a lot of talking for an introvert like me.

 

Today is the spring election day in Wisconsin, when we elect our county boards and school boards and village boards and city councils and judges. 

[digression] Why are judges elected? They should be appointed; same for clerk of court and county clerk, which are elected in November. All those jobs demand a certain kind of expertise and probably shouldn't reflect the candidates personal politics. [/digression]

[digression #2] I cannot decide if it is appropriate or ironic or just plain weird that this year's election day falls on April Fool's Day. [/digression #2]

 

The lake was completely frozen over -- except for the small area kept open all winter by the aeration system --
when I started calling around noon on Sunday. This is how it looked by the end of the afternoon.
Those dark areas are where the surface of the ice had melted. At least I think that is what they are;
I'm not going out there to inspect them. 

I have had lots of help in this campaign.

Even the president lent his support.

 

Snowbanks rule!

This is now.

 

::sob::

Tuesday, but not ten on.

Lots o' snow here. We got ~12" last Thursday.

View from windows on the uphill side of the house.

 

Turning to the right to gaze through the trees toward the neighbor's house.

 

Looking out from the sliding door just to the right of the ice-covered barbecue grill
in previous photo. Note the horizontal tree.

 

Meanwhile, in the house I bound off the baby sweater last night. Still need to block, sew sleeve seams, and add a button.

Photo is from last Friday. I really did bind off last night.

If this is Monday, it must be snowing.

 

Who are these women? (Hover for the answer.)

 * * * * *

I was dicing some ham for inclusion in Friday night's dinner when I I made a doofus move and sliced the tip of my finger. Not sliced off, mind you, but close.

Want to see? This is a tissue wrapped around the finger and held in place with scotch tape.

Here is the other side of the bandaged finger. (Not for the overly squeamish.)

And here, using a handy chip clip as a tourniquet. (Ditto.)

When I showed it to Smokey, he asked if I thought it needed stitches. "Yes," I replied, "but how exactly is that gonna happen? We are snowed in, remember?"

No stitches, then, just a good tight bandage.

Here is the actual cut the next day.

It is healing nicely, minimal discomfort, just the occasional reminder that there is a right way and a wrong way to hold a chef's knife and that I need to do it the right way every time, not just almost every time.

* * * * *

The latest snow depth photo, taken Friday.

 Note: it did not actually snow today. Miracle!

It's two-fer Friday.

There is just way too much happening not to post today. None of it is earth-shaking, but hey, that's what blogs are for, right? Minutiae?

photo credit: j.edward ferguson via photopin cc

Thing 1. Smokey was scheduled for knee replacement surgery this coming Monday. But pre-op physical doc decided he needed a stress test first, and that appointment got screwed up. As a friend said upon hearing the news, "That's what [you guys] do, right? Reschedule surgeries?" 

Surgery will be later in February. Now to reschedule the stress test. Good news is I can attend Library Legislative Day in Madison, which I had previously had to bow out of. Bad news is Smokey has to endure more days of pain.

 

One of Smokey's vans, untouched since last summer (bad brakes).

Thing 2. Our driveway has not been plowed out properly this winter AT ALL because Da Yeep was laid up. My all-wheel-drive car has allowed us to get in and out while Smokey and Younger Son and Kiera The Teenage Helper worked on the Da Yeep. Younger and Elder Sons have both partially cleared it with our smaller snowblower at various times, but we have had a lot of snow since then.

Wednesday night I had to go to a meeting. The ruts where we drive are packed solid, but apparently I got off a little too much to one side into the soft snow. Car was jammed against a tree. By driving back and forth ~5 feet at a time (exactly as YS had last Sunday when he got my car stuck in another spot in the driveway), eventually I was able to get the car out and continue to my meeting. I dreaded seeing what I had done to the passenger side door.

On the way my side view mirror on the passenger side suddenly started flapping in the breeze and flew off. I went back but couldn't find it in the dark. Happily, it was only the actual reflective mirror; the enclosure is almost perfectly intact.

Also happily, there is NO damage to the passenger door at all. The only casualty was the mirror and a tiny sapling that got broken off; the real tree, a pine ~6" in diameter, is unhurt.

 

Thing 3. After my meeting I went to knit at a friend's house. Called Smokey to tell him about getting stuck. He and Younger Son had pretty much gotten Da Yeep, our plowing vehicle, back to working order last weekend. He did the last little thing(s) and went out to plow so I would be able to drive in safely. 

The snow in the ruts was so hard he had to make multiple passes, shaving off a little each time with the plow blade. On the third pass he got stuck. Or one of the back wheels fell off, we're not sure. (Seriously.)

Da Yeep was stuck at the entrance to our driveway. I left my car on the lane and waded through the snow to the house when I got home. I cannot tell you how glad I was for my Nantucket Bagg, which converts from a tote bag to a backpack in about 2 seconds. It is so much easier to balance with empty hands.

 

photo credit: Anonymous9000 via photopin cc

Thing 4. The next day (yesterday) Smokey went for the aforementioned stress test. I went along for the opportunity to knit in the car and in the waiting room and, more importantly, to have lunch at our local Indian restaurant. We both had to walk the ~300 yards uphill through the snow to where my car was parked at the lane, not an easy task.

Much frustration re: stress test (=irony), but a lovely lunch nevertheless. New iPhone came in handy. Called Lennie The Super Mechanic to send a tow truck to retrieve Da Yeep and bring it to his shop. Came home, parked my car in the lane again, and waded through the snow -- downhill this time, whew! -- back to the house.

Tow truck came a few hours later and loaded up Da Yeep. After they were gone I rashly decided to drive my car down to the house so Smokey would not have to walk up the hill again. 

Guess what: I got stuck. Different place, other side of the driveway, bah humbug. Once again converted tote bag to backpack and stuggled down the hill, losing one brand-new fingerless mitt in the process.

Thing 4a. Today I emailed several friends who live nearby, asking for recommendation for a reliable snow plower. Got three so far -- yay, friends! Smokey has the list and numbers, will call.

Okay, that enough whining. Time for something fun!

Thing 5. I was on Twitter this morning and saw this.

Clicked over to Instagram and saw this:

The stars aligned! I have been on a yarn fast since 1/1/13 (bought exactly ONE skein of laceweight since then; was trying to make it to April so I could truly say I had not bought yarn for a year) but this was too good to pass up.

• Cotton/merino blend: pure wool is too warm for me >90% of the time.
• Red: I have been lamenting the lack of a red sweater in my wardrobe.
• Aran weight, #9 needles: a sweater should go relatively fast, even at my speed.
• And the price? Fabulous.

Comments on Ravelry seem to indicate that the yarn is splitty and may be closer to DK or worsted weight, but I can deal with that. Cara emailed me that she mailed the yarn today. Whee!

Ten on Tuesday, the winter edition.

The view out my windshield on a Saturday earlier this winter.

Ten Things I Like About Winter.

1. The clothes. I much prefer layering to a t-shirt and shorts.
2. The food, Comfort food, like soups and roasted root vegies and crockpot meals. 
3. The view. A snowy winter is absolutely gorgeous in the north.
4. The snuggling opportunities. Who want to cuddle when it's 80˚?
5. The opportunities for knitting. While I knit year-round -- don't we all? -- there is so much more inspiration and incentive in winter. Madame DeFarge Knits is providing a LOT of inspiration lately.
6. The coziness. There is nothing quite like snuggling under an afghan to watch TV, perhaps with a fire in the fireplace, a cup of hot tea/cider next to me, a cat on my lap.
7. The snugglieness of kittehs. Ours became heat-seeking missiles right around December first. When the temp is below zero, Hannibal The Fluffball Of Doom likes to sleep on my head. Warmth!
8. The opportunity to make use of the all-wheel drive feature of my car.* Also the heated seats.
9. Did I mention the hand knits?
10. The feeling of hardiness we Northerners enjoy when the temp is below zero and the wind is blowing snow across the prairie.

* The AWD is not quite enough when, through driver error, the right front wheel finds itself in the ditch, a ditch IN TOWN and completely invisible because it is filled with snow. Not that I have any experience of this, you understand...

 

It's a Sunday in January and it is snowing. So, what's new with you?

1. Vex :: Hex.
2. Ghost :: Spirit. 
3. Detail :: Devil is in them.
4. Furthers :: No, farther.
5. Foxy :: Vixen.
6. Hybrid :: Prius.
7. Maximum :: Prime.
8. Wonderful :: Wonderful.
9. Munch :: SVU.
10. Organize :: I really should...

* * * * *

I just read Cookie's latest blog post, wherein she says, and I quote: "...we're not having much of a winter this year..."

That is what is happened in the far western part of the county. 

In the East and South and Midwest, the complete opposite is true. Cold, more cold, and still colder cold; snow, more snow, and then a little more.

I read somewhere recently that one is not supposed to blog about the weather. 

Oops.

* * * * *

Yesterday was the strip-quilting fundraiser for our new library. There were six of us participating, two teams of three. The instructor gave each team a pile of fabric strips, each individual strip 40" long and 2-1/2" wide, and all sewed together into a l-o-n-g strip.

1600" l-o-n-g.

The first person in the team took the two ends of the 1600" strip and started sewing them together along the long edge.

 

The helpful instructor was helpful.

 

There were quilts on display.

 

At the end of an hour, my team had created this.

 

Half an hour later, the other team -- which did not have the benefit of Super Jennie, who had made strip quilts before and ran that sewing machine at blinding speed -- produced this.

 

Thanks to y'all -- and a few others subjected to relentless arm-twisting and unmitigated begging -- I raised over $300 for the library. 

THANK YOU!

Winter!

 

At the risk -- too late! too late! -- of offending everyone who is shivering right now, I must proclaim that I am loving this winter. 

I fully admit that my enjoyment is made possible by a number of factors, none of which can I take credit for:

• No need to battle the elements every morning to go to work or school.
• I am not the one responsible for snow removal.
• I am driving an all-wheel-drive car for the first time in nearly 16 years.
• Said car has heated seats ::grin::
• My husband has tweaked our heating system and supplemental heat within an inch of its life, and it now keeps the house warm (enough) even when the power company shuts off the interruptible power.
• I have an ever-increasing stock of hand-knit accessories to keep my extremities warm -- fingerless gloves, cowls, scarvs, hats, socks. Wait, I can take credit for that one.

Now, let us take stock of the warm woolies I have added to my wardrobe in recent months.

Hat and scarf, made last May because I knew I would need them.

I seem to have lost the scarf at some point in the past week. Crap.

Added recently, a cowl.

Pattern: Willow Cowl
Yarn: Toe Jam sock yarn (that's what the label says!), dyed by Rabbitch (~400 yds.) in Bruise. She has another skein for sale in her Etsy shop with a slightly different name: Stupid Friggin' Futon Frame. If you click over to her shop she tells how the yarn got its name.
Needle: US#5 circ.

When I was making the cowl for Kiera The Teenage Helper for Christmas, I knew there were some cowls in my future. This winter absolutely demands them. So far I have worn this first one with a solid royal blue sweater and a solid orangey-rust sweater. Perfect.

There is more knitting in that cowl than you might think.

 

For my hands, a pair of fingerless gloves to wear over my leather gloves when driving.

This is the first one, in progress. I am using the Striped Mitten pattern from Favorite Mittens. The cuff is the solid brown Cascade 220; there will be a fold-back cuff at the fingertips, too. They are mega-warm :-)

Sunday random.

1. Voice :: activated.
2. Counter :: sales.
3. Marked :: man.
4. Loving :: cuddle.
5. Coat :: fur.
6. Pounce :: cat.
7. Dehydrate :: tomatoes.
8. Desire :: in the elms.
9. Concern :: related.
10. Broth :: chicken.

* * * * *

Now for the truly random...

• I cleaned up one of my email inboxes yesterday. It had over 600 messages; now it has 3. The rest all got filed appropriately or deleted. I feel very good about this.
• One of these days I need to do the same thing with my Gmail inbox, which has 341 messages. At least none of those are unread.
• It was 6 above on Friday. Today the snow was almost melting. I was too warm in my wool sweater.
• High on Wednesday is predicted to be several degrees below zero.
• On a somewhat related note, I am loving this winter. Lots of snow = a gorgeous sight, and ultra cold weather just means piling on the hand-knits. 
• I was discussing this winter with a colleague on a committee last week. We agreed that this is like winters used to be back in the Good Ol' Days.
• Yes, I occasionally find myself being one of those who refer to times past.
• But I still like a real winter. None of this wimpy stuff with not enough snow to keep the septic drain field from freezing, not enough cold weather to be able to wear wool.
• ...and it was uphill both ways.

* * * * *

From Neil Gaiman's blog:

My not being currently on Twitter meant that you did not have to endure any grumbles from me about Federal Express leaving packages at houses they were not addressed to, or, alternately, handing over packages to the US Mail service, who then stoutly maintain that the house I'm in does not actually exist and returned said packages to the sender.

I can sympathize. We ordered a new color laser printer/scanner/fax from Amazon on December 27. FedEx delivered it about January 2 or 3, but left the 70-pound box by the mailbox. Which is ~300 yards away from the house, up the hill and through the woods. I guess I can understand why the delivery person did not want to venture down our semi-plowed driveway, but anyway. Smokey found it a day or two later. This was all during one of our extended periods of below-zero weather. Guess what? The toner cartridges -- all four of them -- were damaged by the cold, so the printer prints really, really badly. 

I contacted Amazon and they will exchange it, but new ones are on back order, yada yada, so the whole process is going to drag on. I predict that at the end of that process, either 1, that item will no longer be avaiilable, or b, the price will have doubled to what it was from any other vendor on the planet.

The alternative is to keep the machine and order new toner cartridges. The three color ones are >$100 each, the black is merely $70. New toner cartridges would cost more the the entire machine.*

::grumble::

Speaking of FedEx, they also decided to leave another package from Amazon at the local post office, who said they sent me a notice -- which I never got.

::grumble x2::

* * * * *

Discussion of all the viewpoints is nice, but when an organization is supposed to stand for something, eventually we have to stop airing our individual viewpoints and decide where we take our stand.

And that is all I have to say about that.

* * * * *

Tomorrow I plan to blog about knitting. Remember knitting? It is a wonderful hobby that we all enjoy, and I have been doing a lot of it. Smallish projects, but still knitting and still enjoyable.

* * * * *

And now, because what good is a blog post without a photo, here is what I was doing at 6:30 tonight.

Percy's and my handknit sweaters were getting acquainted.

 

 

* Writing this made me realize I should recontact Amazon and see if I can get replacement toner cartridges instead of trying to exchange the entire thing. It also made me realize that if I had bought the machine locally (not even possible, and even if it were I would have paid ~4X what I did), I would be dealing with someone I know instead of someone in Cambodia or the Maldives or Tierra del Fuego or wherever Amazon's customer service center is located. Oh, well, first world problem, right?

A cold weather tip from Wisconsin.

From today's email.

Interholiday Sunday.

Oops, I forgot to hit Publish yesterday. It's a two-fer Monday!

1. Business cards :: overrated.
2. IT :: lifesaver.
3. Liver :: pâté.
4. Rugged :: truck.
5. Destruction :: Eve of. Child of the '60s here.
6. Cast :: signed.
7. Gratification :: instant.
8. Pizza :: sausage and mushroom.
9. Cutest :: guy ever.
10. Best :: dressed.

* * * * *

That cold front rolled in last night, the kind of cold front variously known as Alberta clipper, arctic clipper, or jesushf*ckingchristitscoldoutthere clipper. Yes, that kind of cold front.

High today predicted to be -3˚F, -19˚C for those who roll that way. (That would be the entire rest of the world, I think.) When I let the dogs out last night the door wouldn't stay shut afterwards -- wind was so strong it kept blowing it open, even when I swore I had latched it. I even thought about throwing the deadbolt, but eventually I managed to get it latched firmly.

Actually, the forecast for this cold front was worse a few days ago. Now it has moderated.

Yes, that is moderated. A few days ago the weatherpeople were predicting highs below zero forever nearly a week.

Never fear, however; I am wearing a wool sweater -- handknit! -- and wool socks -- handknit! -- and will don a wool hat -- handknit! -- and wool scarf -- handknit! -- fleece-lined gloves before I venture out today.

For comparison, yesterday I was out gathering signatures on my petition to have my name on the ballot in April (20 signature of registered voters in my district, required by law in WI) I shed my parka early and wore only a cotton sweater with long-sleeved cotton t-shirt under it. Still too warm.

Enough.

* * * * *

And now...

it's time for another rousing game of...

SHOW ME YOUR WALLPAPER!

Here's mine, found on a knitting site I can't remember Madame DeFarge Knits:

 

It replaced this image, cheerfully lifted from Ryan's blog:

That's a rock on a frozen skein of yarn.

 What is decorating your screen these days? Phones and tablets allowed ;-)