Bits & Bobs

• I finally got around to taking a couple pics of the Turkish socks. Except they're not Turkish, but Bosnian, and Don bought them from a woman who insisted they were mittens, even though they're clearly socks, with a heel rather than a thumb (and I think you were right, JJ, about it being German cast-on). See for yourselves.
  
  
  
  
  
  I'm thinking the woman may have been Elbonian.



• On my way in to work yesterday afternoon, I heard an interview with Arianna Huffington about an initiative she's involved in to encourage people to move their banking away from large banks and toward small local banks and credit unions. They've put together a clever little video:
  
  
  
  My preference for the past 20+ years has been to use credit unions wherever I could. As member-owned institutions, credit unions have a strong incentive to a) keep their money invested locally and b) look out for the best interests of their members, since an account holder is quite literally a shareholder.



• I started a major cleaning task on Saturday, clearing out the kitchen alcove which has nominally been my "home office" space, but which has really just been a dumping ground for all sorts of crap for far too long. In the process of cleaning, I went through a stack of mail that had been tucked away for, well, about 8 months. In that pile was a copy of the bloodwork I had to have run when I applied for life insurance.
  
  Because I'd never seen this envelope, I had just assumed there were no issues with my cholesterol, even though it's something I've been a bit concerned about and have mentioned here before. Turns out I should have been worrying more. My HDL was up, which was an improvement but still not good enough, but my LDL was even more up. In fact, it was kind of scary high. Since my weight is actually slightly higher than it was then and I know that my cholesterol actually varies with my weight, I'm a little afraid to think about where it is currently.
  
  Anyway, it was a good reminder that I need to lose some serious weight, ASAP. So I started looking around online for resources to help track caloric intake, activity, etc. I've used ediets.com in the past and have looked at Weight Watchers, but they both cost $18/month, which is a bit much when you really need to be economizing. Then I ran across FitDay, which has tiered access - a free site for entering foods eaten and tracking calories, weight loss, etc., and a premium service that's ad-free and offers more tools for tracking nutritional goals and health. The premium option was only $5.49/month billed for a full year, and $65 sounded like a much better deal to me than $216 so I went ahead and sprang for it.
  
  So far I'm liking it. It doesn't do meal plans or try to sell meal plans like the other sites, so you're expected to set your own goals in as much or as little detail as you'd like. They do have a calculator that tells you what your approximate daily caloric usage is and what caloric deficit you need to lose weight on a desired schedule, but you can decide what your target is for the proportions of fat, carbs, & protein you want to meet that caloric goal. It's also fairly customizable, so you can track the measurements that are most meaningful to you.
  
  Of course, a tool is only useful if you actually use it, but seeing those cholesterol numbers was a pretty big wake-up call. My goal is to lose 41# in the next 5 months, which is entirely doable. I just need to keep reminding myself that it's my ticket out of a whole lot of badness.

Blast from the Past

Geez, has it been a week already? My apologies for neglecting you all. It's not as though I haven't had blog ideas, but it's been my 60 hour week at work, so that and getting enough sleep have taken precedence. I have, at least, managed to get photos from the honeymoon uploaded to Flickr.

Anyway, now that we're both here, do you remember this?



I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, because I first posted about it way back here. You'll notice that I have made a little progress since that time. It now has a heel and, after setting it aside for a few months to concentrate on wedding knitting, I've finally started the ribbing. Of course, there's still another sock to knit up after this one, but I hope to have a finished pair in under a year.

I think they'll look particularly smart worn with my new(ish) work shoes:



These were actually delivered just before the wedding, but since they were designated for the workplace (because the FiveFingerses are not a good idea when you need people to be paying attention to you rather than the shoes), they got set aside for three weeks before seeing any action. So far I've been very pleased.

7 Things

Another thing that got set aside was this meme, which Andy tagged me for the day before the wedding. I've been meaning to get around to it, really, but we haven't even gotten caught up on the housecleaning since the wedding, so it's kind of had to languish. Anyway, here goes, and since everyone's likely seen this one by now, I'm dispensing with the rules.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago, I was living in North Carolina, working at a few different clinics. I had just taken a leave of absence from grad school because my first advisor had me on the verge of going postal. I was a bit over a year away from buying my first house and a couple blissful years shy of meeting S. It was a good time. Mostly.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
a. finish my shift at work
b. walk/run around the Back Cove
c. shower
d. sleep
e. have dinner with the Landladies to go over the purchase contract for the house (which means I have to miss CWS yet again *sigh*)

3) Snacks I enjoy:
- Most of them, especially if cheese and/or salt are involved. Or fruit. Or all of the above.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
- Take our house off the grid, open up the floor plan and basically renovate it from the cellar up.
- Build a nice heated garage with a well-lit studio space for David above it.
- Buy my grandmother's childhood home from my great-aunt and restore it.
- Fund spay/neuter & vaccine clinics in India, where tens of thousands of children die of rabies from dog bites every year.
- Build my parents a home for their retirement.
- Fund my sister's education and set up college trusts for all of my nieces and nephew.
- Fund my own return to grad school and get my PhD.
- Set aside enough so that David & I would never have to worry about our own needs.
- Fund more projects like those linked over in the sidebar.

5) Places I have lived:
- Cayce, SC
- Newberry, SC
- Kinards (Bush River Community), SC
- Charleston, SC
- Johnson City, TN
- Fountain Inn, SC
- Winslow, ME
- Granada, Spain
- St. Paul, MN
- Portland, ME
- Raleigh, NC
- Durham, NC
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Auburn, ME
- Kittery Point, ME


6) Jobs I have had:
- Dishwasher in a seafood restaurant
- Farmhand
- Veterinarian

7) Friends I want to know more about:
You've likely realized by now that I don't pass these things on. Besides, I think most folks that would do this one have already done so. If not and you're in need of blog fodder, then go for it.

A Lovely Weekend

We just got back from my grandmother's tonight after a fairly productive trip. We're getting some big things settled for the wedding next year. This is the Arts & Crafts era summer chapel where we'll be having the ceremony (That's David discussing details with Daphne, a friend who's on the board for the chapel):



And this is the view from the B & B where the wedding party will be staying:


Click to biggify. You'll be glad you did.

It was also productive on the knitting front. They're finished!



I'm still wearing them.

Easter Socks

Last night I finished these:

Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Colorway: Ruby River
Pattern: Widdershins, Generic Version

And promptly cast on this:

Yarn: Sportweight Superwash/Nylon from Scout's Swag, Colorway: Cerrillos Mine
Pattern: Toe-up Sock using Sherman short rows

Happy Easter, everyone!