Okay, I'm a day late with two lousy pictures, and also will get drummed out of the Devoted Grandma Society.

I will make up for that with a long, rambling, boring post and a picture of my unusually tidy living room. Normally there's a pile of magazines and a textbook and calculator on that cocktail ottoman. I realized I've been living here over two months and haven't shared anything of my new living space.



The picture over the sofa is a bit too small for the space, but it's better than a blank wall. That picture used to hang over the credenza in my office back in the day, when I had an office with nice dark wood furniture and a door and everything. It is of course a Yorkie - I had to have it because it looks uncannily like the Bossy One in his long-hair days, and now look how it blends in this new living room! The lamps are from Target, the end tables were a bargain find on Overstock.com, the upholstered furniture is from a sale at Haverty's, the bookcase to the right of the window belonged to my beloved Uncle and dates back to probably the 30s, the china cabinet you can't see here was purchased about 15 years ago and dates back to around 1930-ish. I'm really pleased at how the old and the new and teh innernets all came together to make a comfy room that looks like I actually had a plan when I started putting it together. I had no plan. The red living room furniture was not my first choice. That style also came in a tan with a really cool graphic floral design on the pillows and cocktail ottoman, and that was my first choice, but that fabric was special order and could have taken anything from six weeks to eternity to arrive, so I went with the red. Now I'm really glad I did. I would not love the room so much if it had been all beige furniture on beige carpet and cream walls.

And here's the linen stitch scarf:



It's a stash yarn gem, and I'm pleased. The colors are almost true, but more muted and richer in real life. I can see myself wearing it with a casual jacket well into spring.

Onward to a Knitting Book Review! As I said in my last post, the Queen nearly had me talked into tackling a knitted dress, but whenever I have the urge to exert myself on a project of that scope, I like to lie down (preferably with a nice glass of wine) until the feeling passes. I did buy a yarn sample, just in case the wine didn't work and I really decide to go for it. I bought some Louet MerLin on eBay, and decided that my swatch would be in the form of a dress for Grandgirl. I browsed on Ravelry and hit on a really cute little sundress with a smocked top, from the book AwareKnits. So, the book arrived from Amazon today, and the dress is indeed cute, but other than the dress and a basic sock and a simple cardigan, nothing in it piqued my interest, let alone thrilled. I had thought there were two baby sundresses in it, but I guess I was wrong. I guess I can't bitch, because lately if I find a book or magazine with two things in it I'd actually make, I consider it a win.

So it's late January and I'm already thinking of Spring, in knitting and other plans. Boy and I talked yesterday and made plans to do a late lunch downtown tomorrow, and I somehow agreed to babysit next Friday night. They want to go see a relative's band perform, and they will not get home until probably 1 a.m. Arrgh.

And now I'm going to get drummed out of the Saintly Devoted Grandma Society, because I'm not really looking forward to this. I'll do it because they don't ask that often, and it's not like George Clooney called (though if he does, they will be SOL). I won't say anything here I haven't said to them, but damn, I hope the little angel goes to bed for me and sleeps. I adore her, I think she's gorgeous and very smart and utterly enchanting, but I'll be a lot better with this grandma stuff when she's old enough to hold a conversation and also have a sleepover at my house. At that stage, we will have a blast. I'll be a most excellent grandma at that stage. We'll make something special to eat and watch movies or play games or read books or make things with clay, and I'll let her stay up extra late if she wants to, and we'll have a ball.

Right now, it's still basically hours of making sure she doesn't smack her head on the coffee table and redirecting the eating of carpet lint and gnawing on random pieces of junk mail, followed by dinner (fun) jammies (okay), and settling her down to sleep (a battle), and hopinghopinghoping she will stay asleep, because she's not a good sleeper. Yes, she's cuter than anything and I adore her, but...that's not my idea of an exciting Friday night. I have to struggle to stay awake at their house and then come home and walk the dogs, etc., so I'm looking at a 2 a.m. bedtime. I'm glad it's Friday night and not Saturday, because (weather permitting) I'm going hiking on Sunday.

Of course, everything is (weather permitting) these days, right down to when I'll actually be working again. That is contingent on finishing the licensing class and getting the state exam done, and right now, we're working around weather delays. The upcoming week's forecast is all over the place, from nothing/flurries to heavy snow. But I noticed today that the sky was still bright blue at 5:30 in the evening - proof that the days really are getting longer. I'm happy to have distinct seasons here - note, I did not say, "I'm happy to have seasons again." Florida does have four seasons, but they aren't as distinct as they are further north.

Let's see, what else was I going to ramble on about? Oh, that's right - Eating Well. It's been around forever and I may be the last one to the party, but damn, I really love their recipes! Right now my crockpot is busy making a dried fruit compote with green tea and lemon zest. I've bookmarked a ton of recipes I want to try, and want to subscribe to the magazine. I can't believe I've ignored it this long. I found it because I have a "recipes" window on my Google homepage, and finally figured out that almost all of the recipes that appealed to me came from the same source. Duh.

So, that's the Two Months in to the Great Relocation Adventure. I like my apartment just fine. As a place to land in a new city, it's perfect - convenient, comfortable, nice neighbors - but I don't plan on living in it forever. I do miss my bike. Every time I go to the Harris Teeter store next door to Liberty Bicycles, I have to stop myself from pressing my nose to the glass and whimpering at the bikes. I miss having places to ride right outside my door, so I'm going to take advantage of my real estate connections to find myself a rental in a bike-friendly part of town. My apartment is quite fine, but when thinking long term I could use a bit more storage space, and a fireplace would be lovely. A little fenced yard for the dogs to pee in the wee hours would be lovely too. And of course, a place to keep my bike, and a place to ride it. But all of that is out there, and it'll all be there when I need it. One issue at a time - first, we need to have enough decent weather to get the classroom hours done for the licensing class. Beyond that, I have a plan.