Shop Announcement

I'm happy to announce that the Fibernymph Dye Works Etsy shop will be open for business as of this coming Friday, March 25, 2011. It will go live sometime between noon and 2:00 eastern (need to give myself some wiggle room in case there are any glitches!). Please stop by and check out all of the yarn, fiber and bags we've been working on for your enjoyment!

And just a reminder, my blog will soon be moving to it's new home, The Fibernymph Dye Works Blog. Until I post a final announcement about that, I'll still be updating this blog as well. But the new one, in addition to having a focus on the shop, will also be home to the 90% Knitting videocast as well as my regular (albeit scarce lately...sorry!) knitterly posts.

This is an exciting time for me. I can't remember the last time in life I've ever been this incredibly busy. Maybe back when I had newborns in the house? Setting up this business has very much been like having a newborn around! It's fairly all I think about when I'm awake. Well, that and laundry. But mostly the shop. ;)

Cubbies make all the difference!

Not baby bears. Not a baseball team from Chicago. These...

I've been in my new office/yarn room for a couple of months now, but I still didn't have it completely organized to my liking. Also, I hadn't yet decided if I wanted to try and put a bed in here, or a futon, or nothing, so that wall where the cubbies are remained empty and the room looked pretty funny.

Over the weeks, though, I've decided that I really liked having the open floor space. I could set up my ironing board in here, out of the way, or I could put mats down and block things in here. It was nice to not be squished because, frankly, we live in a small house, and we pretty much live in every square foot of it! To have some extra space and open floor, well...it felt like a luxury. So I decided to skip the bed and instead put in cubbies for more storage. That was what I really needed anyway.

So, now that the room is offiically DONE, let me give you the official TOUR! =)

(By the way, the rest of these room photos are linked through Flickr, so if you click on them, you'll go to the Flickr images where you can see the notes I've imbedded in the photos. The trade off is I can't get Blogger and Flickr to play nice, thus the photos will not center. Ok, now they're centering, but I've got line spacing issues. Sigh.)

Here we are, entering the room...

...and the if you look to the left, you'll see the cubbies as they are in the picture above. Want a closer look at the cubbies? Sure you do! Remember, click through the Flickr images because I've got notes galore on what you're seeing. (I enjoy learning the details of people's living spaces...maybe it satisfies some deep, voyeuristic tendencies I have?)

I love having all of this color and texture right out in the open! Today, after I finished arranging it all, I just sat on the floor, entranced. Chris walked in and asked, "Um, having fun staring at your yarn?" Why yes, I really was!

My Loopy collection. :)

Turning again to the left, we come to the original book cases that were in the room...

I originally thought I would have plenty of space for yarn in just those top three shelves in the left case. Ha! Didn't hold nearly as much as I needed them to. Now with the cubbies, I've opened up nearly an entire shelf (which I'm sure will be filled with something soon) and now I also have room to put my scrapbooking papers out where I can actually get to them and possibly even use them again (novel idea...I really would like to scrap occasionally again...it's been so long!). (BTW, tons of notes on the Flickr picture of this one! LOL)

As you turn to the left again, you will pass the room's door, which, when open, hides the closet. I didn't take a picture of that because, frankly, it's still kind of a disaster in there, but not quite as much as it was. Right now, it houses all of my batts and bumps of spinning fiber (the braids are all out in the cubbies! Yeay!), as well as fiber to be dyed and also all of the yarn I have up on my sell/trade page on Rav, or plan to put there soon. It also has my shipping supplies, boxes of pictures, a huge box of old journals, kali sticks, machetes and some sewing supplies. Yeah, quite a motley assortment of goods.

So! Turn to the left again, and we come to the dresser...

Only the top drawer has any yarn in it now, though the top two used to have sock yarn in it. More than anything, I just love this piece of furniture. It was from Kevin's grandma's house and it is old and just has such charm and character!

I love buttons!

If you turn to the left again, you've done a complete circle around the room, returning to my desk.

And then if you look down, you will likely find this at your feet...

She really is not happy about this. She is probably plotting where
she will do something nasty that I will then need to clean up.

Love what you own, use what you love...

So, the main goals of this summer's house projects were to replace crappy old carpet with pretty new flooring and to repaint walls that desperately needed sprucing up. So far, so good! We are definitely attaining those goals.

However, I also had some sub-goals for this house re-do project, because I can never have too many goals, it seems. My sub-goals went like this: 1) Get rid of all the stuff I just don't love/need/want/use anymore and 2) make better use of the things I do love and already own while 3) repurposing as many things as possible in order to 4) avoid the purchase of too many new things that have the potential to just turn into stuff I no longer love/need/want/use at some future date.

I've been doing a fantastic job with #1. As I mentioned the other day, we just gave a porch load (literally) of stuff away to the Vets last week. In addition, I have a few things I'm going to try to sell on Craigslist, if I ever get my arse in gear and figure out just how to do that. And I have some other things that I'll likely put on my local Freecycle list. It really does feel good to get rid of things, whether I get some cash for it or not.

In cleaning out though, I realized I have a lot of things that I love but don't use nearly as often as I should, considering how much I love them. This realization is what prompted #2. My pottery collection is a good example. I started buying pottery several years ago, usually at fairs or when I'm vacationing and find a good pottery studio. I love supporting artists, and while I may not be a crystal or china person, I love pottery. So, when I was moving things out of the china cabinet the other day, which is where my pottery is happily housed and displayed (it long ago displaced my grandmother's china that I pretty much never used), I asked myself why in the world don't I use it more often? I have a couple bowls I use pretty regularly, but that's it. I'm determined to make better use of these pieces from now on.

#3 and #4 are sort of a set. When I'm doing a house project like this, where my rooms are changing in major ways, I know it's inevitable that I'm going to need to buy some new things. Like fabric to make new valances for the windows, and in the case of our new floors, I'm going to need to buy area rugs because we've never needed them before. However, the temptation is there to buy other new things too. For instance, I'd love to get some new lamps for the bedroom, and a new comforter for the bed. And maybe some fun new things to hang on the walls. But really, I don't need these things, and I don't want to spend a ton more money than what we're already spending.

So, I'm making every effort to repurpose other things in the house so I don't have to buy a lot. In the process of cleaning out and moving things around, I've uncovered some things I forgot I had, things I really love but never had the place for them before. Now I do, and I'm going to use them. And I'm also going to make better use of the myriad photographs I've taken in recent years. Prints are pretty cheap, and I have a ton of frames here on hand. I want to be better about putting them out where we can all enjoy them instead of leaving them languishing on my computer's hard drive.

I'm not a patient person by nature, and it's frustrating to me when I think of how long it's going to take to put all the finishing touches on the rooms. But, frankly, it's exciting too! And I can't wait to see how it all ends up! :)

Spring Fling!!!

Yes, I know...it's two days before Christmas, a little early to be talking about spring, but I just had to give a little whoop of joy for the fact that I've secured a place at The Loopy Ewe's 2009 Spring Fling retreat! 

So...whoop-whoop-whoop!!! :)

It's like a special little Christmas gift! Whee!!!

Seventeen...

After going to my Ravelry projects page and adding two more WIPs to it, I stopped to count. You can do the same thing by looking at my WIP counter to the right. I now have seventeen -- 17, one-seven -- WIPs. That's not including the five projects I have in hibernation (at least one of which is getting frogged for sure). 

Seventeen.  

That just seems so...wrong. 

I know I'm not the only knitter like this. In fact, I imagine there are knitters out there who can beat my WIP score. But it does make me think back to the early days of this knitting obsession, back when I felt like I was going a little over the edge by starting two, maybe three at the most, projects at the same time. I mean, that felt a little crazy to me. Had someone told me that about two years later, I'd have seventeen projects in various states of completion all at the same time, I'd have thought them insane. Yet, here I am. Now I think I'm the one who is insane.

What makes this even more concerning is that ten of the seventeen are over halfway done. A couple are thiiiis close to being done. I think I need to get down to business and prioritize a way to get some of these done.

A list. 

Yes. I need a list. After the holidays. Stay tuned.

In case you are wondering, the two projects I added that brought my WIPs to that woeful total are: another striped scarf, this one half the width of the pattern so I can use up some odd balls of Silk Garden I have on hand, and a Just Enough Ruffles scarf, which is going to be a Christmas gift for a friend. Yes, I know...I said I was not knitting Christmas gifts this year. Well, technically I was not planning to knit any gifts...but this scarf was largely unplanned, so there you have it. I was just going to give this knitting friend the pretty Malabrigo Silk Merino yarn I'm using for it, but I saw the scarf at Yarn Harlot's site a couple weeks ago, and I thought maybe this would be a better use for the yarn, and the person in question will still get to enjoy it. :)

Road Trippin'

LORELAI: Ah. No music. I can't believe we forgot to bring tunes.
RORY: Do you realize that neither of us has the vaguest idea where we are?
LORELAI: What is a road trip without tunes?
RORY: The sun is directly behind us.
LORELAI: Never been in this car for any extended period of time without playing AC/DC.
RORY: I have no idea which way it's going.
LORELAI: I need my "Highway to Hell."
RORY: It's right out the windshield there.

(Road Trip to Harvard, Gilmore Girls, Season 2)

Won't find me in Lorelai's predicament. Got my tunes! My official Florida '08 Road Trippin' play list (be warned -- like its creator, it is eclectic...be kind, don't mock) (click image to embiggen so you can read it without inflicting eye damage on yourself):

A couple notes:

These songs are listed in no particular order. They just jumped out at me as I perused my song library.

My goal was to have no more than one song per artist. I failed.

With regard to Linkin Park, I could have added a bunch more, but I exercised restraint.

With regard to Year 3000, hush, you! We are all entitled to a guilty pleasure now and again.

These 40 songs will use up 2.5 hours of drive time, which means I would need to listen to this playlist approximately 12.8 times to cover the entire drive time of the trip. This will not happen. I would be entirely sick of every song after about eight rounds. Maybe nine.

Thank God I downloaded those audiobooks. That's another 4.5 hours accounted for. Whew.

Making the list...

...because I am a list-maker, and because it makes me feel productive to be able to mark them as "done" when they are...done.

Drop off the grandson - Done

Grocery shop -Done

Ship packages/buy stamps - Done

Pack clothes - Done! (Three people, three suitcases...I cannot pack light to save my soul)

Pack knitting - Done (Ha! Told you it would be done before clothes packing! LOL)

Pay bills - Done

Send in retreat registrations - Done

Apples? - Sigh - Well, Done...as in pitched in the compost heap...they were too far gone :(

Tomatoes? - Done (sorted the too-far-gone from the still salvageable...hopefully the husband will eat his fill while we're gone)

Plan school work for trip - Done

Book on CD/MP3 - Done, in triplicate (A Christmas Carol, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Raven...heh...was going for a Halloween theme...and while the first isn't a Halloween story per se, there are ghosts in it, and it is a classic.)

Print out directions/reservations - Done

Clean kitchen despite fact that husband will not keep it that way - Done

Decipher what Mom means by "cold" in reference to Florida weather and how that should affect clothes packing - Hmm...done...kind of...packed for all temperature contingencies, which helps to account for needing three suitcases

Do ONE more load of laundry...really... - Done...actually, did two more, but the son needed socks, so I HAD to do the whites
Buy travel book for Savannah - Done! (Bonus! Picked up the Yarn Harlot's newest, as well! Yeay!)
Download new tunes/make road trip play list - Done! (This was a bonus, a reward for getting everything else done.)

ETA: I am done! With everything on my list! Even the added items! And it isn't yet midnight! Not even 11 p.m.! This has to be some kind of record for me the night before a trip. I may actually get a full night's sleep. Hot damn!

Planning a trip...

...as I mentioned a few posts ago, the kids and I are taking a road trip to my mom's in Florida. We leave Wednesday. I'm preparing for the trip now. Or at least I'm trying. The grandson has been here since Thursday night -- a three year old changes everything in a house! -- and he will be here through most of tomorrow, so my practical planning time is at a minimum. 

Since making the decision last week to take this trip, it has seemed like I had plenty of time to get ready. No rush! Now, here it is, Sunday night, and I'm inventorying all that should get done (with a three-year-old around) before I go, and I'm feeling a tiny bit of anxiety. Also a tiny bit of guilt because some of the things I should do -- like care for that bag of apples in the kitchen and the last of the tomatoes I picked last weekend -- should have been done before now. I've procrastinated, and now I am paying the price.

Some things I have done already. I have voted (my absentee ballot will go in the mail tomorrow). I have done most of the laundry. I've made a generous list of knitting projects to take with me and have wound balls of yarn accordingly. I've made our hotel reservation for the mid-way stop Wednesday night. That's all a good start.

So what do I still need to do? I need to grocery shop for food for the trip as well as for the husband to eat while we're gone. I need to pack clothes and I need to pack knitting (the latter will likely be done before the former). I need to pay bills and mail in the kids' fall retreat registrations. I need to do something with the apples and tomatoes. I need to plan school work for the kids to do while we're away, and I need to stop at the library to get some books on CD that we can all enjoy on the drive (or maybe I should see if I can find any free MP3 book downloads and just put them on my iPod?).

I know there is more to do, and it will likely come to me in bits and bobs over the next two days as I work to get ready to go. In order to make any of it possible, though, there are also things I should not do. I should not check Facebook and Ravelry a dozen times a day. I should not play Bubbleshooter. I should not try to catch up on unwatched episodes of DVRed shows. I should not stay up excessively late. 

We'll see how it goes. 

Bugs...

It is bug season, it seems. With the cooler weather, we have our annual visitation of tiny, annoying gnats in the kitchen, seemingly attracted to the last of the tomatoes sitting on the window sill, as well of the bag of apples languishing in the corner (I really need to cook those soon). 

The cold weather also invites in spiders...the crunchy-looking kind. Blech. While I know spiders are not technically insects, they still "bug" me...or, more accurately, they creep me out (which, I realize, is oddly fitting for late October, eh?). Nothing is creepier than sitting here in my chair, minding my own business knitting, when, out of the corner of my eye I spy something small and black skittering across the cream-colored carpet. Ack. (Ok, there are creepier things than that, like watching a DVRed episode of Fringe late at night, alone, and seeing some guy's arm being mangled and people plummeting to their deaths in an elevator and things like that...but the spider is pretty creepy too. I haven't watched last night's episode yet, but from the commercials, it appeared to feature blood oozing from people's facial orifices...yeay...creepy. LOL) 

I used to have no mercy on these eight-legged invaders, wasting no time in getting out the vacuum and sucking them up. I've become more humane in my old(er) age. Now, I usually either try to capture them between a container of some sort and a piece of paper and release them back into the wild, or if they appear to be no real threat to me, I simply remind them of our deal -- you go under the couch and don't bother me, and I'll let you live. All bets are off, however, if they happen to be creeping anywhere on the ceiling or the wall above the head of my bed. :::shudder::: The mere thought of a spider falling on me in my sleep...well...ACK!!!

This time of year also seems to encourage bugs of the germ-y type. So far (knock on wood!), no one here has come down with the first cold of the season, but I know it is just a matter of time. My daughter did get a flu shot at her annual check up this year. My son did not, and now I'm thinking maybe I should sign him up for one, as his asthma has been flaring up occasionally lately. My husband and I have never gotten flu shots, but as the pediatrician told me, they are really being recommended more for everyone. I don't know. Still pondering it.

My most recent bug encounter, however, has been with the travel bug. Having traveled more in the past two years than ever before, I thought I might finally be immune from it, at least until next spring when I was planning a trip with the kids to see my mom in Florida. I was wrong. I woke up two days ago with the sudden realization that I needed to make that trip now. While I visited them for a long weekend in May, my kids haven't seen their grandparents since our oldest son's Marine graduation back in February, and unlike the past two years, my mom and step-dad will not be coming up here for either Thanksgiving or Christmas this year. My mom just had one eye surgery (cataract) a couple weeks ago, and she is due to have the second early next week. And I just want to be there.

So! A traveling we will go! I'm good at last-minute travel plans. Actually, spur-of-the-moment trips are my favorite kind. (After all, I planned an entire trip to Ireland in about three weeks, including getting passports!) After a few phone calls to rearrange some appointments, we are scheduled to head south a week from today. Other than that? It's pretty up in the air. We'll get there on Thursday (as I cannot make that drive in one day by myself), probably stay about a week and then visit the oldest son a day or two on our way back north. 

And hey, isn't it great that I just put all of our summer clothes away? Yeay! I get to pull them out again. LOL But at least there will be beach time (it's still in the 70s down there!), and there will be knitting time (what would a vacation be without it?) and for the kids, there will be school time (one of the beauties of homeschooling...portability!). And unlike previous September and October trips to Florida, where part of me has felt like it was missing out on the beauty of the western PA autumn, foliage season is definitely on the decline now, so I've already gotten to enjoy it!

Now I just need to make my lists and execute them -- to do before I go, to pack so we can go (which is so much easier when we drive since the only baggage limit I must observe is that dictated by the size of my trunk), knitting projects to take for while I'm away, etc. 

Let's here it for spontaneous travel! :)

Happy Monday!

And yes it is a happy Monday. It is sunny out. The first view I see when I get out bed these days is the hillside to the west of our house, all resplendent in its autumnal glory. (In other words, the trees look darned pretty! LOL) And when the sun is shining on those reds and oranges, well, they're just set on fire and look amazing. 

And, the moon? Wow...I went outside late last night -- the first time I've taken the time to do that in a while, it seems -- and the near-full moon greeted me, shining bright and clear and simply beautiful. I surveyed the constellations and realized it has been a while since I'd been out to pay them a visit, because they've moved significantly. That means, of course, that my much-loved winter sky is creeping closer every night. I'm eagerly awaiting Orion's return to my part of the sky...I watched him all last winter, and he was my touchstone for learning several other constellations. I can't wait for him to come back around.

And it is a happy Monday because I have nothing making me leave my house today. I may voluntarily leave to go to the grocery store, because we need milk and a few other necessities. But otherwise? I'm good to stay home. And other than a couple of other regular outings and hair appointments for the kids on Thursday, our calendar is quite uncluttered this week, and that always makes me very happy. 

The fact that it is a light week schedule-wise gives me hope that I might make some progress in re-organizing the basement. Seriously. With the cold months coming, that place needs a good clean-up and I need to recoup space that the kids can use this winter to get their energy out lest they drive me batty up here! 

Plus, I am dying to get my office/studio-space re-organized. I removed the love seat from the room this weekend (because, really? the only thing that ever sat on it was junk) and replaced it with an old, beat-up conference table. This will give me the horizontal space I need to finally get my yarn all organized into less random collections in the storage containers, and once that is taken care of and I am (hopefully!) able to move around the room a little more, I plan to use that table as designated scrapbooking space. 

I've not scrapped in almost two year, and I really miss it. I have so much stuff (for every obsession there is a stash), even after purging through it a while back and getting rid of tons of materials that I'd collected over the years, and I have so many pictures...I want to get back to it. I figure if I give myself a designated spot in which to do it (because right now, my yarn has mostly displaced my scrap-goods to the nether regions of my space), then perhaps I can use one day a week to scrap. That would be good. And fun!

So...happy Monday to you all. May it be an enjoyable and productive week for us all! :)

P.S. Another Monday happy bit today? I finished a pair of socks for the boy (Rav link) last night, and he immediately put them on and hasn't taken them off. I love that he loves his hand knit socks!

The First Garden...

...as in White House, not Garden of Eden.

The Garden of Eatin': A Short History of America's Garden from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Found this little video through my Local Harvest newsletter...thought it was pretty cool. There are a couple of other fun, insightful videos at this site, too, including this one that is an encouragement for our next president to re-institute a garden at the White House. 

I found it interesting that the decline of White House vegetable gardening (and probably gardens of the general populous) corresponded with the passing of the National Highway Act back in the '50s. Suddenly, our food could travel, so why grow it? Sad.

I have fond memories of our garden when I was growing up. My dad, born in 1918, lived through The Depression era of the 1930s, and even before that, families pretty much just had gardens, at least if they lived in the country, which my dad did. I don't remember my dad ever having a bad gardening year. Ever. I'm sure maybe he did, but all I remember was there were always tomatoes to be canned and cucumbers and fresh lettuce and onions and radishes and eggplant. He was good at the garden, and I love that memory of him.

My husband comes from a family of garden-planters, too. Thus we've always had a garden here at our house. It's usually been his thing, as I do not naturally seem to possess the green-thumb my dad had. I tried this year, though...I had my little salad garden, which was more or less successful in that we did indeed eat salad from it, at least for a while, until the chard when haywire and took over and the weeds then sprung up over night and I was overwhelmed by the whole darned thing. I meant to rip it out mid-season and try again...I got as far as ripping, but I never replanted. But at least I tried!

Our large garden that my husband does wasn't so successful this year, either. Weather issues aside, him breaking his ankle this summer was not helpful. He couldn't keep up with the weeds and he never got the electric fence up. And since we no longer have a dog outside to scare them off, the deer pretty much had a field day romping through the garden and eating off the tops of the pepper plants. And the ground hogs dined well on the tomatoes. 

We did get a good crop of garlic, though, and a few peppers, and there are still potatoes to be dug. Once the tomatoes finally began to ripen, I managed to can a couple batches, but there was a high rate of rot on them this year, so for every one I picked, I probably pitched one or two over the hill. There plants are dying off now, so I need to go down and pick through one last time to glean whatever non-fetid, ripe tomatoes are still on the vines. It's sad to see tomato season end so quickly! 

This year, in addition to our own gardening efforts, we bought a half share of my friend Myrna's CSA. I'm so glad we did this, not only to support her farming efforts, but it was so much fun to have a variety of vegetables to cook with and eat throughout the summer. I'm not sure if we'll do the CSA again next year, not because it wasn't worthwhile, but because I'm hoping Kevin and I can work together to plan a better garden for ourselves. We've got the space to do it, so it seems silly not to.

I'm not a person who closely follows current events, but even someone as news deprived as myself hasn't missed the rumblings about the current economic crisis. I have no idea what the answer to that is...I honestly don't believe that either political party has a foolproof answer to it. Like most major issues, it's not something that happened over night, and there is no quick fix to it. But it is kind of mind-boggling to me that here we are, almost 100 years after The Great Depression, and we seem to be right back in that kind of predicament. That truly sucks.

However, I am one who always tries to look for the positives. Where there is a cloud, there is a silver lining, right? If the current economic situation prompts more people to take a  closer look at their food shopping habits and gets them to consider buying their foods more seasonally and locally or, better yet, growing their own, that would a very good thing for everyone.

So, if you're looking for something to do this winter, why not spend some time planning a garden for your family next spring? You don't need a lot of space. Container gardening is a great option for people without a big yard. And if you have no yard, check into community gardening with others in your area. Or support a local farm by purchasing a share in a CSA (you can find one through the Local Harvest web site). 

Just to get you started, a couple of my favorite gardening books are:

The Garden Primer, by Barbara Damrosch

Four-Season Harvest, by Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch

Packing...

I think I've managed to get all of the important things done I wanted to do before leaving on my trip tomorrow. Well, except for finishing this #@!$ February Lady Sweater. I finished the body, but not the sleeves. I figure I can do them in the car on the way up. I've had to slow down on knitting it because the less-than-bouncy Silky Wool has really done a number on my hand and arm muscles. They hurt! I have to take a lot of breaks.  Anyway, it WILL get done and it WILL get worn on this trip. 

I've got all of my knitting projects for the trip packed and ready to go. And I've got my suitcase mostly packed. I've got clean underwear, and really? What else does one need?

Fourteen hours 'til departure!

Countdown...

Today is Monday. On Thursday, noon-ish, Amy and I will climb into her CR-V, make the obligatory beginning-of-road-trip Starbucks stop and commence heading east by northeast to Gloucester via a stop-over in Hartford. 

Three days and counting.

We've been planning this trip for well over a month now, and it's always seemed off in the distance, as these things usually do. Now it seems imminent. It is imminent! And that's exciting, as I love to travel. I love road trips, especially those Amy and I take together. I've never been to Gloucester, so I'm looking forward to seeing the quaint seaside village that has been described to me, as well as its neighbor, Rockport. I look forward to the possibility of a whale-watching trip, and many, many photo opportunities. I look forward to a few relaxing days with books and knitting and coffee shops and the beach. And while Amy is not a knitter, I hope she will indulge me by facilitating a yarn shop trip or two over the five days we'll be gone, which I undoubtedly will enjoy. 

Furthermore, I look forward to seeing Denise, a friend whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting in person, who readily paints with her words charming visions of the northern coast of Massachusetts. And en route, I look forward to meeting up with a couple of Ravelry friends (also as of yet unmet in person) for an early lunch in Hartford. 

It will all be good. 

But until Thursday, I have a lot to do. Three full days of school (and an abbreviated day on Thursday morning). Balancing the checkbook and paying bills. Going to the grocery store/pharmacy. Rearranging some appointments for when I get back, as I have myself double-booked. Doing laundry. And, of course, packing -- and as any knitter knows, it takes more energy and time to choose and pack your knitting projects for a trip than it does your clothes. :}

I best get busy!