Tuesday, May 22, 2012

No Progress

I haven’t really been knitting, just a row here and there on the Schieffelin Point Shawl. It’s a shame because I’m so close to having it done. I think I’ve got 6 more rows before I start the lace border.

We have been making progress on our cycling goals thouhg.

5-22 Biking Goals

We are +50 miles over where we were at this time last year. We are planning to ride a minimum 40 miles both this week and next week. The three-day Memorial Day weekend will certainly help. If we can manage that we will be nearly +100 miles over last year. Unfortunately, it is looking like we won’t be able to participate in the Michigander Bike Tour this year though. Mr. TEKs has a project at work that is going to necessitate extended hours, so we are going to try to find a different tour.

Otherwise, my free time has been taken up by hanging out on the patio (which allows for some knitting) and playing Diablo III (which does not).

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

April Update

April is probably my favorite month. And yes, my name does factor into it, along with my birthday, warmer weather, and formerly the beginning of the end of classes. This month has been more of the same, except for the end-of-classes thing; I wish my life still came with summer vacation.

Cycling: With better weather the bicycling take precedence. Granted it’s not perfect weather yet, still cool and windy, (60’s F, or below) but we are making it count. Spreadsheet has needed some tweaks, but now I think I’ve got it. We’re nearly 40 miles ahead of where we were at this time last year, and that is HUGE. It’s too bad that the weather is supposed to be crummy this week. Mr. TEK plotted several road routes that we can ride for 10, 20, and 30 mile rides that will keep us out of the local State Park. We are trying to build speed and endurance, and it is not safe for either us or the pedestrians when the park is busy. People tend to be all over the place, and have no problem blocking the trail- either with items or themselves- which makes me… well, let’s just say unhappy.

The road routes are somewhat more difficult, as they include going over highway over-passes, which is about as good of a hill as you are going to get when your town was built on a swamp. It’s early in the year, but I thought I’d have better endurance already. I’m impatient, especially since it seems that Mr. TEK is breezing through these 10 mile rides.

Knitting: I’m still working on the Schieffelin Point Shawl. I hit the half-way point in terms of number of stitches over the weekend, and just started the third skein of yarn. I’ve done the second-to-last set of increases, but somehow I have either 13 or 20 extra stitches. I’ve counted twice and gotten those two different numbers, so I’m going to have to count again. I can tell you this, however many stitches I have, I am not ripping back. I’ll just make sure to adjust my increases accordingly.

I’m only working on this project right now because I’m hoping to have it done by May 15th. I’m pretty sure I can reach that goal, but I’m going to have to do a lot more knitting in the evenings at home.

The bulbs I planted in the fall have come up and they look amazing. I find yellow and red tulips next to brightly colored hyacinths to be interesting to look at. I’m a “plants on top of plants” kind of gardener; I don’t want to see dirt- just lush green foliage and pops of pretty colored flowers. I am also lazy, as mentioned many times on this blog. I don’t want to have to do any kind of maintenance to my plants, outside of an occasional weeding or cutting. Mr. TEK is more of the regimented, spaced-out plants with fresh mulch around each plant, kind of guy.

We have a new area to plant in now, since we added two more fence sections to our patio. It’s now mostly enclosed, granting us a lot more privacy, which makes Beers on the Patio™ all the more awesome.
Beers on the patio!

This year is apparently the year of seeing bands that I wanted to see before I died. So far this year we have seen The Life and Times (for the 2nd time) and Clutch (for the first time). We just got tickets to see Fiona Apple, and Shiner, and we are hoping to get tickets to TheDeftones and System of a Down, and Garbage. I’m 100% sure we will get Deftones tickets; it’s just a matter of where the “seats” are. The show is at DTE, which has a pavilion with real seats and hill seating, which is like a picnic with a crappy view of the stage, which is the opposite of awesome for a rock show.