Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can. (Elsa Maxwell)

Since it was such a pretty day, I went and sat by the pool to knit for a while this evening.

I really don't understand why so many people passing by stopped to smile at me. I was only knitting by the pool.

Well, I did take my shoes and socks off, and rolled up my jeans so that I could dangle my feet in the water while I knit. But still, I was just sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet dangling in the water while knitting.

Well, I did have my ipod on so that I could listen to Marc Gunn's Pubsongs podcast. And I was probably a little loud with singing along, as I dangled my feet in the water and knit.

Yeah, I probably would have smiled at someone like that, too.

When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste. (Laiko Bahrs)

I made Slop for dinner tonight. It was really good. Okay, I think I just really hungry, because it wasn't until just now that I realized I forgot the peas. But for the record, Slop is really yummy and it's one of my family's favorite meals. I've posted the recipe on Family Cooking, if anyone would like to try it.

When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste. ~Laiko Bahrs

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer. (Mark Twain)

I only had 131 stitches left to finish my Renita shawl. Just four rows on the lace chart, and then the ten row final chart. By all rights, I should be bragging right now. Instead, I'm trying to work up the nerve to frog EIGHTEEN repeats of the lace chart. I'm literally in tears at the thought of pulling out over half of the shawl, and then knitting it all over again.

It was about nine repeats ago (about 3/4 of the way through the shawl) that I started to wonder if I would have enough yarn to finish. But I had carefully weighed and marked the halfway point of the skein. The shawl is knit with increases until you've used half of the yarn, and then you decrease for the second half. Adventurous people can simply eyeball their skein, and by guess and pure nerve pick the the halfway point. Since I wasn't willing to take a chance of guessing wrong and not having enough yarn, I actually weighed the yarn and marked the halfway point with a pretty little bow. I'm not sure if my scale isn't accurate enough (it's a food scale that weighs ounces and grams), or if I just plain did it wrong. But I'm 131 stitches off. That's a full week of monogamous knitting completely wasted.

Added to the other blows my pride has taken today, and I'm ready to take up a new hobby.