Ah, Kitchener, we meet again...

 I have finished the socks for Middle.  One might be a row or two longer in the leg than the other, but that's not such a big deal.  It is not entirely true to say that I have finished.  I have 24 stitches left on both socks that I must sew together using the Kitchener stitch.  This is a fancy way of sewing the stitches closed in a way that looks like they were knitted together.  It's a grafting stitch.  Sometimes I do it well and the toes look beautiful, sometimes it looks really horrendous.  There are a billion online resources to use, so I'll find one and get it done.

In the meantime, I have picked up the sweater for Smallest.  I was working on it while we were watching Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings last night and now I have to un-knit three rows to figure out what I screwed up.  Alas.  At least it's a smaller sweater.  

We are preparing for Thanksgiving also.  It will be the first holiday without my Father-in-law.  I know that my Mother-in-law was in a memory care place last year for the holiday, but Jeff is adamant that she was with us for the holidays last year, and I don't think that's the case, because the facility was highly restrictive about visitors.  At any rate, she doesn't remember last year, so it doesn't really matter.  We'll be gathering at Jeff's brother's house, which will accommodate her wheelchair, except for the bathroom.  I'm learning more and more about handicapped bathrooms and am thinking I need to rate the Houston area bathrooms by how easy they are to use.

At any rate, it should be a nice holiday, and we'll have tasty food, and be with good people.  

I'll see if I can remember to snap a picture of the sweater to share soon.

I should be going to France in a couple of weeks.  I don't know if I want to take the sweater, or start on a shawl to work on while I'm there.  I finished my Sunwalker shawl at the last in-person meeting (July, 2019) and knit some socks at the previous overseas meeting (Paris, 2017).  I was swatching for a Good Vibes, but have set that aside.  Maybe I can work that in while working on the sweater...

Margie

Road Trip!

 This weekend, I drove with Smallest up to Memphis so that she could audition for the ballet program at the University of Utah.  We left after a school program on Saturday morning and arrived in Memphis around 10:30ish?  It was an uneventful drive up, which is always good.  The perk was that it was Daylight Saving Ends weekend, so clocks went back, the audition was at 2:00, and we could sleep in!  

Much sleep was had, then we had a tasty breakfast at Bryant's Breakfast, which was very tasty.  I had a bacon biscuit with egg and cheese, and Smallest had the Nutella Supreme pancakes.  We were pleased with our decision.  Here are the pancakes:

After breakfast, it was back to the hotel to relax a bit and then get ready for the audition.  We left around 1:15 for a quick drive to the studio, where registration was to begin at 1:30.  The studio was a brand new place and is really stunning.  There were about 20 other girls there and one boy.  They all got to go in and warm up after checking in, and overall things went pretty well.

At the end of the program, we were the last to leave because Smallest was waiting to change clothes.  The professor who lead the audition complimented her, and we discovered he knew several of her ballet teachers in Houston, which was cool.  Smallest said the teacher had a lot of Russian-training tendencies in his dancing, so she was very happy to have had the experience with the Bolshoi program this past summer.  At least something good came out of all that!

We left around 5:00 to drive back to Houston.  We got dinner at a sketchy Subway at a gas station, which was amusing, and had a smooth trip back home.  Smallest slept the last couple of hours, so hopefully she won't be tooo tired today.  We arrived around 1:30 in the morning.  We enjoyed some really beautiful sunsets, and laughed a lot about how Smallest has picked up a lot of my habits, for which I apologized profusely.

That's about it.  I'm thinking about a short nap here before lunch.  Maybe... I do have a library book to pick up.  I could walk and get it on the way home...

That's what I know.  Now we wait to hear from Utah about scholarships and admission, and wait to hear from the other schools about auditions.  Lots of waiting.

Margie

Upping the frequency

 If I post more frequently to a blog that no one reads, does it really matter?

I will feel better about it at any rate.

The water hyacinth continues to bloom and is entirely pleasing.  I am still taking pictures of the flowers, but not as frequently.  I had been thinking that it had plenty of water with all the rain we've had recently.  However, when I was out back to check some breakers, I noticed that the water was pretty low.  It's been filled up now and I know to check it every so often.

Other excitement... Smallest finished the college applications that were due for Nov 1.  This involved filming dance videos and then editing them into longer videos and videos of different combinations.  She had to do some of this for an application due Oct 15 and had a terrible time with editing software while at her dad's house.  Luckily for her, this time she was at our house.  I helped her with the filming and once she selected the videos she liked, I did all the editing.  iMovie for the win!  There were some short sleep nights, as the musical was still going on, but she's been a trooper.  The Oct 15 deadline school has invited her for an audition, and one of the other schools has admitted her but she's waiting to hear about a dance audition.  There are some reach schools in NYC that I'm sure she's anxious to hear from too.  One of the other schools has a regional audition this coming Sunday, so we are driving up to Memphis for some dance fun!  Paar-taay!  I am glad we are close enough to drive.  Flying seems so crazy these days with flights getting canceled all over the place.  There weren't any flights back to Houston Sunday afternoon, so we decided to drive.  It should be fun.  Only about 8 hours.

I've started on some Xmas knitting.  Socks for Middle.  They mentioned that they liked tiger stripes last year at some point and about a week after that, this yarn appeared in an email newsletter so it seemed like destiny to me!  I'm knitting Vanilla is the New Black because the heel is cool and something I haven't done before.  After those are done, I've started a sweater for Smallest.

We've made progress with my in-law's house.  We've removed everything that's going, except for some furniture for Jeff's brother.  Now it's time to get the estate sale moving!  There was a lot of stuff.  Oof.  There's been a lot dealing with Jeff's mom and her insurance.  Medicare is complicated!  I think we have everything sorted now.  We will see.  I did take her to the dentist this week.  Turns out she hadn't been in four years, so it was good that we took her.  Apparently she doesn't really like going to the dentist.  However, she _does_ like going on outings, so that was more important than where she was going.  We got tacos for lunch afterwards and that was a nice perk too.  She is starting to lose more of her words though, which is sad.  

That's about it for now.  I made a top for Smallest last night.  I'll see if I can get her to send me pictures of her in it at a party tonight and then I'll relate the story soon.  Off to Memphis tomorrow.

Margie