This is a short and fast list:

1. I confirmed a job interview today.
2. I picked up some more crafters cotton for another ball-band dish towel.
3. I made an appointment with my esthetician.
4. I decided to go out of town this weekend to celebrate Simcoe Day.

How’s that?

As I knit up my procrastination project, the ballband dish towel, I must comment on one thing: it’s very hard to knit into the knight, er, rather, night. I’m using a light yellow for the “mortar” colour, and then a multi-coloured yarn for the brick, and when the multi-coloured one gets into the lighter yellow-ish colour, the darkness in my living room make for some dangerous knitting. Last night I had to rip back about 10 or 15 stitches and redo them. I have enough light to do most things, but not really read, and apparently knit, because the light is rather diffuse. I could just buy a new lamp with a focussed shade, but I don’t really need that lamp, and since I’m trying to save moolah, I’ll just have to stop knitting in the dark. Or rather, use these needles:

Yeah, those are those glow-in-the-dark needles that I’ve seen about. Very silly, but in my case, could be practical. Whaddy’all think?

This blog hasn’t been about too much knitting lately, not because I’m not doing any, but rather because I’ve been procrastinating. First I was on vacation, then I was going out to concerts, but now that I’m back down to the grind here chez moi, I figured it’s time to start knitting again. BUT, I am still procrastinating from completing El Segundo. I had to confirm with my sister that I had the whole beginning part again, because I took a dip in the froggie pond with my first attempt. But of course I just can’t keep all the info in my brain, so I had to confirm again. And I also wanted to buy some plastic dpn’s, as the metal ones I had were bothering me somewhat, with their nails-on-chalkboard inducing scrapy sound. I found some this week, so I’m all set to start off El Segundo, for a second time. tee hee.

In the meantime, I am actually working on a ballband dish towel, extrapolating the dish cloth pattern from the Mason-Dixon knitting book and my sister’s own pattern. She couldn’t quite remember how many stitches to cast on, and she gave me one too many, so on row 3, I had to k2tog, but that’s aokay, cuz it’s coming out fine. Wanna see?

Very cool. I’m using two ginormous skeins of Bernat’s crafters cotton. The bricks are in Summer Spray (or something like that), and the “mortar” is a nice soft yellow colour. Once this one’s finished, I’ll be reversing the colours and doing another one! I like this pattern because it’s a little mindless and fun to do. Can’t wait to see how it ends up! And yes, I’ll be keeping you posted on the progress of El Segundo. I plan on starting it this weekend. Toodles!

Yes, I finally got off my duff this morning and went out for a run. Ran about 2kms total, doing some 4 and 1s. Phew though, I sure am beat now! I haven’t been out in about a month or so, and this just knocked me out! I don’t know how some people can say that a run before work charges them up for the day. I felt like I wanted a nap afterwards. But after a good lunch, I felt much better. And now that I finished watching Youngblood whilst I was job hunting online, I feel even better. (what a horrible movie, by the way.)

So while I’ve been off work this summer, I have been forgoing any and all exercise I might have been doing. I signed up to play Ultimate Frisbee, yet only played 4 games in May. I started jogging again in April in preparation for the Ultimate season, and haven’t gone out since the end of May/beginning of June. I’m starting to feel a little blechy, even though I’m not showing any outward signs of my lack of exercise. Especially because I’ve been eating a lot more ice cream and drinking more beer over the last 5 weeks. So, in honour of the beginning of my job hunt, here’s my list of things to do to feel more energized about my current situation:

1. Start running again. Yes, I’ll get off my duff and get out there. I really don’t have any excuse for not running all summer so far, because it hasn’t been as hot as last year, when I had to stop because of the heat. (I like to run in the late afternoon, so when it’s 35C plus a humidex to feel like 42C, I don’t much feel like lacing up my shoes.)
2. Get up every morning with my alarm clock. I’ve been doing this one all along, as I didn’t want to get used to sleeping in. So this one’s not a new thing, but a continuation of something.
3. Go walking. Get out at least every other day for a nice walk in the neighbourhood. I live in a really cool, older neighbourhood, and there’s always something to get out and see.
4. Organize the boxes in my storage room (read: the 2nd bedroom). I’ve been meaning to do this ever since I got home from work that fateful day, but haven’t really gotten to it.
5. Sell off anything I don’t need or want anymore that I can get money for. I’ve started up my “sell everything on eBay” plan again, so stay tuned for a list of my auction links. Who knows, you might find something you like!
6. Donate any unused clothes. I haven’t done my semi-annual purge yet, so this one’s definitely on the list. It’s something I like to do anyways, as I don’t have a lot of storage in my place, so there’s no need to keep things I don’t wear anymore. Plus the good karma always makes me feel good.

Hmm, I think I’ll stop there for the moment, as I don’t want to put down more things than I will actually do. Ha ha. Seriously though, I know a lot of those things don’t sound like “energizing” activities, but to me they are. I mean come on, don’t you get excited and pleased when you clean up a room? Isn’t life so much better for a day (or a few hours, depending on how many people live at your house!), when that room is just perfect? I know, I’m starting to show my age, getting excited about cleaning n’ such, but being that I am a bit of a slob & pack-rat, it’s a very tangible thing to me. The actual exercise will also make me feel better, as I’ll be getting rid of any job hunting stress, toning up and slimming down, all at the same time! A multi-tasking activity if there ever was one. Don’t worry though, I won’t be turning into a running freak, and start training for a marathon or anything. The longest I will ever run is a 5k, that’s it.

Interesting, I got the idea for this post from an article I read over on Problogger, about how to recharge your blogging, and you know, it really worked. Granted, I wasn’t feeling entirely waterlogged or anything on this blog, but still, sometimes it’s hard to come up with topics, especially when I haven’t done much knitting lately. Stay tuned for more news on El Segundo at some point this week.