We had a power outage here Saturday morning.  When we have power issues, usually it’s only a flicker where the power’s out just long enough to make you have to reset your clocks.  This time the power was out for 8 hours or so.  I know that’s nothing to folks in some parts of the country for whom power is a sometime thing during the summer (I’m thinking windstorms, thunderstorms and tornadoes), but it was a little prolonged for us.

Even so, I wasn’t terribly concerned.  I have a gas stove so cooking wouldn’t be a problem and I have a French Press so coffee shouldn’t be an issue, thank goodness!

Oh wait...how am I going to grind the beans?  Maybe I should look at a hand grinder…

I’ve been putting time in on the entrelac shawl, hoping to get it finished before the weather turns seriously cold.  But you know, that seems like more of a joke every day.  It’s the 22nd of October and we have yet to have a hard frost.  Today the temperature is going to be in the high 70s and it’s the right time for Indian summer - except for that lacking the hard frost thing… The way it looks now, we’ll be heading into a mild winter.  I’m dreaming of a green Christmas?

Anyway, the shawl is coming along and the end is approaching rapidly.  Since you cast on for the width at the top, the piece just gets narrower as you work your way down.  Those last few rows of blocks really don’t take any time at all.  I pretty much expect to be finished with the body of the shawl by the end of the week and puzzling over possible borders on the weekend.  I really can’t wait to wear this :) The way things have been this year though (it’s going to be 79-82 this afternoon), I have to wonder!

After Chatters Saturday evening, I was finally sufficiently motivated to cast on for the second Endless Knot sock.  See, I had been thinking about doing the second by reversing the colors of the first.  It had occurred to me that, on top of the symbolism already inherent in the sock, reversing the colors would lend a bit of a Yin-Yang feel as well.  I was a little concerned though, that it would look clownish.  The Chat crew, however, urged me to go for it - even echoing some of my own reasons for wanting to do it this way.





So I did :)

Yesterday, I went to a concert with my dad.  We drove up to Rochester, NH to see “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band.  You can’t imagine how good these kids were!  Well, they’re not kids I guess, since they’re old enough to be Marines - but they were all younger than me probably including the colonel who was conducting :) I realize that for many, band music is an acquired taste but this band is so good and the musical selections are so well chosen, that you’ll never miss the strings - I promise :) The band is small enough so that you can see the performers and instrumentalists (assuming reasonable seating) and actually watch them creating this incredible sound; seldom do you get to hear such clarity, articulation and precision.  This is not a crude piling of one note on top of another.  This is the building of breath-taking architecture constructed with sound and air.  The program included Makris, Holtz, and Copeland along with a medley of Harold Arlen pieces and a few marches, one of which was (of course) Semper Fidelis.  If you get the opportunity to hear these people play, jump at it - this band is so worth it.

So, how was your weekend?