Updates across the board

Bubba is out of town again (sad) and it appears that his absence is making me extra productive since I don't have someone around grabbing my ass and entertaining me with hilariously accurate impressions of the Not-Nice Neighbors.

So today is chock full of updates on shit I managed to get accomplished with my ungrabbed ass (sad).

[Running Update]



I went for a run this weekend (with my fingers crossed, mind you) to test out the tenderness of my shin meat. I thought about it all week and was frankly a little stressed out about running and, potentially, finding out that my shin meat was not healed and, perhaps, even more painful than before. This would have been Big Scary since my race is in two weeks.

*sweating*

Thankfully my run went fine, all short 6 miles of it (I was planning to be on a 12 miler, but no), and I got home from an hour on the pavement without even a hint of sassiness in my shin meat.

Woo!

Unfortunately, my knee took that as a sign that it should act up instead, so I enjoyed a few miles of mild tweaky stabbing that I'm sure will be a real joy when I'm trying to pound out 13.1 miles during the race. And since there's just not a lot I can do about that other than take it easy and not run a ton between now and the race, I'm going to try not to freak all out about it like I really want to.

Oh, and I bought new insoles for my running shoes since Zappos has chosen this one moment in time to stop fulfilling all my wildest online shopping fantasies (normally, I bow down to them as though they are the lord) and not have my size in my running shoes. Boo. However, the Triad insoles I got to compensate for the not-so-much-squishiness-left-in-my-shoes issue seems to have done at least part of the trick. No ankle pain, no shin meat pain, muted knee pain.

Good enough. I've resigned to being happy with the 11 mile run I completed before vacation and not focus on the fact that my knee may explode during the race.

*Sigh*

[Garden update]


It is some spooky shit out there in the garden right now because the big crazy looking spiders have moved in and have built big webs that could catch the dog.

I'm glad they're there, because it means the environment in the garden is just that healthy and full-circle-ish and all, but reaching into the plants for late season tomatoes has gotten a little creepy for my tastes so I'm letting any fruit that isn't hanging outside the cages (ie not anywhere near the spiders/webs/things that could be construed as spiders or webs) get as ripe as it wants without me disturbing it.

I like to think that I'm "respecting the spider's right to build webs and sustain themselves in a safe environment" but really I don't want to feel their tiny prickly legs on my fingers when I think I'm picking a tomato.

Yyyyyyyyyyessssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Big shiver right there.

[InStitches update]


There was a short time (about an hour or so) when I thought I'd actually do the patchwork required for this project. I pretended, as I often do, that I could perform many of the tasks involved in patchwork even though I know I have ZERO actual talent or skill for it. Specifically, choosing appealing combinations of fabric and accurately cutting them out to form a cohesive and properly sized item.

I was not surprised when my optimism proved unfounded. First of all, let us check out how horrible these fabrics look together.

Wow. That's impressive even for me.

I'm almost glad that I can't measure and cut out patchwork pieces worth a damn because that would have been a shitshow of a patchwork piece if I'd managed to piece it all together. I think the world is safer having this piece never see the fully sewn light of day.

Let us now marvel at how horribly awry my measuring/cutting of clearly marked patchwork pieces went. Granted, I knew it was going to be a *little off* when I was cutting them out with scissors instead of using my rotary cutter (um, why does the blade get dull so fast? I hate this.), but this is just impressive. Even for me.

I won't lie - I threw it all out. Like, I knew it probably wouldn't work, and that I'd end up with a mess, but this was beyond even my own powers of imagination. And frankly, I was a little relieved. Giving up after the first side proved to be impossible meant that I wouldn't have to suffer through trying to piece together the other side of the pattern. Thus saving me a lot of screaming swears and throwing scissors.

Now the big challenge will be trying to find a fabric that complements the exterior fabric I've chosen for this project. And since we know how good I am at matching fabrics, we could still have a good laugh/cringe in our futures.

Yay.

[Knitting update]

What? You're surprised there is one? We knit here on Finnyknits? What?

Yes, people, I actually have a future FO waiting in the wings. Without Bubba to make lewd comments and coax G&T out of my nose in front of the TV, I'm actually knitting something. And, *gasp*, I'm almost done with it.

I predict that tonight will be that special time when I say, "WOO! It's done! After all this time!"

This is actually a project I started, all optimistic-like, about a year ago when I was flying to Rome and had a 12 hour flight ahead of me. At the time (I'm trying not to laugh right now) I thought, "Hey, I'll make a couple pairs of these things and gift them at Christmas! I bet I can finish at least two pairs on the outbound flight alone!"

I am so funny.

Then I got on the plane, had a G&T with an Ambien back and passed out while trying to decode the complicated storyline of "The Devil Wears Prada". No knitting got done, needless to say. And, of course, no knitting happened in Rome since I was there with two of my favorite people in the whole wide world PLUS a lot of wine and the best food ever. And then I did an instant replay of my outbound trip when I got on the plane to come home, so the knitting stayed stowed in my carry-on bag taking up priceless space I could have used to hold important things like extra earplugs (when is there going to be an airline for newborn babies?).

I'll post pictures of the future FO knitting project soon, but you have to promise not to laugh when you see how small it is and how long it took me to finish, ok?