Not Dog Talk.

So, in OTHER parts of my life, progress has been progressing - slowly, slowly, incrementally, but stuff is happening.

Girl's wedding plans are coming together very nicely. I believe the only major outstanding item is the cake. She really just wanted a Publix cake with buttercream frosting, but their standard wedding cakes are all coated in fondant. Fondant is not frosting. Fondant is modeling clay for cake designers who make cakes that look perfect in photos and taste like shit. (Can you tell we have really strong anti-fondant bias in this family?) So, unless Publix can do a non-standard wedding cake with real frosting, this will require some shopping and sampling. (This fondant thing is another change in wedding styles about which I had NO clue - I had no idea that it would be tricky to get a cake with real frosting.)

Next week, Girl and Fiance manage two houses for a few days (stand by for Smooch meets the cousins, and cross your fingers!) while I go to MD with Cousin C, to check out potential living areas. I see jobs online all the time, but sending resumes is premature - by about 3 months. I'll start that August 1 if I make huge progress in July. After I return from MD, the pace will pick up tremendously. But it's nice to know there are jobs there, because here, bleh. Here, there is Not Jack Shit. At least Not Jack Shit that would cover a mortgage payment and maybe let me put a few bucks toward retirement, and maybe not make me want to kill myself at the thought that this was my future, like the last job.

And of course, this state's economy is only going to get better when the oil spill makes its way around the FL peninsula and ruins ALL of the beaches. I'm nauseated when I think of it.

So, this will be the first of probably a few trips in the coming months, and in between I have to do some stuff to this house, big and small, and/or hire people to do it. The living room needs paint, and it's time for those ancient big mirrors to come down. I'm anticipating drywall replacement behind them - if there is any drywall there. This was a model home 25 years ago, and for all I know, they put the mirrors directly onto the studs. The goldfish pond my husband put in 10 years ago is coming out. We were ahead of the pond trend, and at the time, the options weren't all that available here, so we went with a small-but-cute-molded plastic pond, and then I had a steep learning curve about filtration systems that worked. Swimming pools I can do - ponds, in this climate, are a bitch. My pond is currently a really lovely shade of green - again. Girl and my new SiL are going to rent this house in October, and Layla needs Frisbee-game room, and they do not need a green pond that needs attention on a regular basis. So, it's time for it to go. And the fence needs repairs, and I'm still cleaning up the garage, and...and...and. Oh, yeah, and I have to pare down my worldly goods and pack it all up. Holy. Shit. What. Am. I. Doing?

So...part of this process involves knitting. Weeding out the books and the stash, because only the true treasures are coming along on this adventure, wherever it leads.
And part of this is also the unearthing of UFOs. KNITTING ALERT!!! (Just figured I should do that for those who may pass out from the shock.)

I'd been been thinking about how I needed to start a really nice, cozy sweater to wear this fall, walking my two little dogs in our new place. And then I went stash-diving, and discovered that I have . one 2/3 finished already. I honestly can't remember if I started this before or after my father died in 2006, but I do recall working on it at my parents' house, and my mother admiring it. It's Cascade 220, which feels heavenly soft after my recent linen projects, and it's PURPLE. It's big, and purple, and soft, and scrunchy, and I cannot wait to finish it now. I'm almost done with the back, which is, as you can imagine, about 200 miles of stockinette. I'm all about the easy movie-watching knitting, but even I can get sick of 200 miles of stockinette. But the worst is behind me, and next will be knitting that collar/front band, and then the sleeves, and while it's still easy knitting, it's at least a little more effort than the back. Still easy knitting, perfect for movie watching. I can't remember the last time I was this enthused about dragging out a UFO. I WANT to finish this!