Will It Really Happen This Time?

The word today is that my closing will be this Friday, probably in the afternoon. On the one hand, yay! On the other, I have a hard time accepting that it’ll really happen after the disappointment of last week.

An interesting note is that the thing that was causing the delay turned out to be a nonissue, but there was some sort of communication fumble, so that message didn’t get to whomever it needed to. Kind of frustrating, but there’s not much to be done now but go on.

I  don’t have much more to report today. After not knitting at all yesterday, I managed to get a couple of rounds of the Hemlock Ring Blanket done while hanging out at the yarn shop this evening. I’d love to finish another three before bed, but seeing as how it’s already about 10:30, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen.

Dinner for One

Somehow today I found my mind wandering toward what I’m going to do for meals when I’m in my own place, which will hopefully be very soon. (There’s no news yet on when the closing might be.)

A few weeks ago I was browsing through cookbooks (a weird occasional habit, since I’m really not much of a cook) and got to thinking about how most recipes seem to be for four servings. I like leftovers as much as the next person, but I’d really rather just cook for me rather than the family I don’t have. So I turned to Amazon to see what I could find for cookbooks for one.

There were quite a few books that sounded good, and I put a few on my Wish List, but there was one that intrigued me enough to order it, Going Solo in the Kitchen by Jane Doerfer. I’ve been browsing through it here and there since it arrived, and not only does it seem to have a good number of uncomplicated recipes (remember how I’m not much of a cook?) that sound really good, but the author gives quite a bit of advice on things like food storage and how to buy just enough food for yourself. One thing I’m looking forward to trying is one of the various recipes that are supposed to have leftovers that you can repurpose into making a second different meal. I think it’ll make for a nicer variety than just plain leftovers.

I also got to thinking about all the groceries I’m going to need to set up a kitchen again. I have a few things (beer bread, anyone?), and I don’t need to stock everything right away, but a few basics, like flour and sugar, are probably in order. Which reminds me, I never have found canisters for those.

I Should Be Packing

This morning I did some packing, taking all the stuff I had in my parents’ kitchen cabinets out while Mom packed the stuff up. I had two bottles of wine I had completely forgotten about in there. I have a feeling that I’m going to have a lot of little discoveries like that. Hey, look! I have an espresso machine!

This afternoon and this evening we went through a bunch of household goods that have been stored in my parents’ basement. I still don’t know where my plates, bowls, or silverware are, but wow, I have a lot of Pampered Chef products. I was a consultant for PC for a couple of years in the late 90s, and I accumulated quite a bit in that short time. I have more stoneware than you can shake a stick at.

If I can wrangle up enough boxes, I’m hoping to work on boxing up mystery books tomorrow evening. They’re currently in two bookcases, most in one that’s pretty large, with the overflow in a smaller one. I’d like to repurpose the smaller one to house my sci-fi/fantasy books, which currently don’t have a home at all, though I don’t think they’ll all fit. However, I’m weeding out certain books as I go if I can get them on Kindle instead, so that should help all around. And, I’d certainly love to have the books I’m keeping ready for when I’ll have some help moving them.

The total stitches for my NaKnitMo practice day was 2,697, despite having to frog about 500 stitches. I’m making a circle blanket that has an increase round followed by four rounds of straight knitting, but I did the increase round a round early. Whoops. I took it out, did the row properly, and then did the increase row in the first real hour of NaKnitMo.

Throughout the day today I was able to fit in another four rounds on the blanket, so my total for today is 2,520. Below are a couple of photos, one from the top view, and another from the side. Right now it’s all squooshy on the needles, but when it grows up, it’ll be blocked and stretched out to a nice, large circle.

I think this is going to look fabulous hanging out on one of my new sofas. (I ordered two because it was only $20 more to get a second sofa instead of a loveseat, but I can switch if the second one doesn’t fit well.) And yes, power recliners on both sides. I can’t wait to sit and knit there!

Just to talk about something other than my move or knitting, I’m currently reading Busted Flush, edited by George R.R. Martin. I learned about the first book of what is at least a trilogy (the third is due out this winter) within the Wild Cards universe because a friend of mine from high school is one of the authors. If you’re curious about how I tracked down that friend or about the books, I wrote about it here.

A Busy November Ahead

Because buying a home and moving isn’t going to be enough to do for the next few weeks, I decided to add a couple of other challenges. The first shouldn’t be too difficult, especially since it involves knitting, but the second is a little trickier.

But first, an update on the condo. I was supposed to close yesterday, but found out a few days ago that it was going to be delayed, probably about a week (I was first told “at least a week,” but the next day it was downgraded to “at most a week”). It was very disappointing, but I’m over that, and just hope it all works out well. At the moment I still don’t know what day it’ll be, but probably Thursday or Friday.

The first additional challenge is NaKnitMo (Ravelry link). Someone posted about it in one of my other Ravelry groups, and I couldn’t help but be intrigued. The basic idea is to knit 30,000 stitches during the month of November, which at first seemed like a huge number. However, I’ve been keeping track of my stitches yesterday and today. Without any special effort, I knitted a bit more than 1,300 yesterday, and so far today I’ve completed nearly 1,800. So even with moving and all that entails, 30,000 stitches, or an average of 1,000 a day, is looking very manageable.

The second challenge directly affects this blog, as I’ve decided to participate in NaBloPoMo. I’ve never been very good about posting regularly, but during a time when I actually have things going on that I can write about seems as good a time as any to attempt to develop the habit. And it’s not like I’m trying to write a novel or anything.

Speaking of those things going on, I should try to do a little packing this evening. I should at least put away the yarn I bought this afternoon. What a Saturday night!

Next Step (Technically): Closing

The condo-buying things went so fast for a while there, and now pretty much all I’m looking at is the closing on October 30. Just 38 days!

My agent and I got together on Friday, September 4, to fill out the purchase agreement, and my offer was accepted two days later after very little  negotiating that really only changed the closing date.

The inspection went well: there were a couple of minor electrical things that the inspector suggested should be done (the seller is actually taking care of these, though I didn’t request that, so — bonus!) and the furnace is original and 25 years old, so it’ll be the first major thing I’ll need to deal with at some point.

I’ve gotten a couple of batches of homeowners’ association papers, and after getting the second batch this morning I chatted with my insurance agent to see what I’m looking at for the cost of my personal property and liability insurance (not too bad — less than twice what I’m paying for renter’s now, and that includes adding extra coverage related to my in-home business).

So really, the next major thing for the actual purchase of the condo is the closing. Woohoo!

But in reality, besides getting started with packing, I’ve been looking at lots of furniture options, particularly for the living room. I want to have enough seating for a group of friends to talk or watch a movie or sporting event, but my original plan didn’t really accomplish that without using dining room chairs (my chairs are fine, but I wouldn’t want to watch a whole movie sitting in one, so I don’t want anyone else to have to either). So I’m looking around a bit to see how I can still get the power rocker recliner I’ve been drooling over (ideally I’d like a pair of them with a center console thingy) and have room for at least another loveseat. At this point the best option involves changing where I had planned to put the TV so I wouldn’t be able to see it from the kitchen, which might not be the worst thing.

I’m starting to think about paint colors, too. Mostly I just have to decide what I like. A little color? A lot of color? Neutrals? What I need to do is start paying attention to pictures of rooms and that sort of thing and go through the Sherwin-Williams paint chip collection my mom has.

Next Step: Purchase Agreement

Like I mentioned in my last post, I had been casually looking at townhouses and condos online for quite a while, but about a month ago finally got together with an agent to start looking at places. As it happens, the condo that is ridiculously close to my local yarn shop is also the best place I’ve seen, and I haven’t really been able to get it out of my head. I was a bit worried that it might sell while I was on my long trip to upstate New York (a post or two to come about that soon), but happily it’s still available, and I went to see it again last night.

No place is going to be perfect, but this condo is about as close as I think I’m going to get. I haven’t looked at many condos because most don’t seem to fit two of my criteria: separate entrance (i.e., not a security thing where I have to buzz someone in) and in-unit laundry. This one does fit, and feels much more like a townhouse than anything. A little small perhaps, but it should be plenty for me, especially if I find ways to do some things efficiently. It has a second bedroom that should work fairly well as an office/craft room, with a futon for a random guest I might have (I’ll also have a loveseat with a decent — really — pull-out bed mattress in the living room). The bathroom isn’t spacious, but it isn’t cramped either, and has a good linen closet that opens into it. The kitchen is pretty nice, with a decent number of cupboards and good counter space (though the counters themselves are something I’d want to replace someday, but it’s not at all urgent). The master bedroom has a good-sized walk-in closet, which I love (I had one growing up, and I’ve always kind of wanted one again).

There are a lot of other positives, and only one major thing I was hoping for — lessening my commute a little bit — won’t be fulfilled. The home is in a really nice location, though, which makes up for it.

So, tonight I’ll be meeting with my agent to work up a purchase agreement. She keeps saying I seem nervous, and of course I am! I’m a single person buying a house by myself, and while there are a bunch of good reasons to do so right now, that doesn’t make it less daunting. But I’m also really excited.

Now to figure out where I’d put the litterbox. That one has me mystified.

Catching Up

I knew it had been a while since I posted here, but I had no idea it had been nearly so long. Sheesh. I do have a blog elsewhere that I’ve been using more for my adventures in knitting, but there’s just no way I can keep up with two blogs, so I’ll have to decide what to do about that.

In my last post, I mentioned that I had started knitting recently. It’s been about 10 months now, and I’m still loving it. As of today, I’ve completed 19 projects. I currently have four works in progress (WIPs), two of which are very close to being done, and four unfinished objects (UFOs). Naturally I have a bunch of projects that I want to start soon too, but I’m only planning on a couple of them in the immediate near future. One is a gift for a friend, the other something I’d like to have as sort of a housewarming gift for myself if I actually buy a home this fall (a little more on that below).

I don’t yet have photos uploaded to Flickr for everything, but here a few of my favorites.

I knitted this for a scarf exchange through Facebook, and it uses a fingering-weight yarn. I started knitting it only about six weeks after I started knitting, and loved how it turned out. I loved the colors too, but have the same yarn in a different colorway in my stash ready to knit a second one I can keep.

I’m knitting a bunch of these this year as gifts, but this is the first one, which I made for an exchange on Ravelry. I can probably knit this in a couple of days pretty easily, but when the kitchen cotton ends up doubled at the top, I have to take breaks from it.

This is actually the very first part of a wrap, which I knit in February. The wrap is sort of a sampler of different techniques (these are mitered squares), without about 19 more parts if I remember correctly, plus a crocheted border (it’s been quite a number of years since I did any crochet), so it’ll be a fun learning experience. Other things keep coming up, but I hope to get back to this wrap this fall.

I actually have a couple of things going on in the rest of my life, which is usually not the case. Last week I started actually going to see homes (townhouses and condos) I might be interested in buying, rather than just looking at them online. I’m going to see one or two more this evening that are more in the area I’d prefer, and one is ridiculously close to the yarn shop I hang out at a bit. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing — less mileage for getting there (and if I got it back in condition, I could probably bike there), but so, so close for making purchases. But then again, when I have a mortgage, I’m going to really need to outline a knitting budget and stick to it. It’s not like I don’t have enough yarn for probably at least 20 projects already!

A week from tomorrow I’m heading out to upstate New York to visit my friend Jessica for about 10 days. We’re still working on an itinerary, but our plans include going up to Rochester to see a Red Wings game (probably on Sunday the 30th), spending a day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, heading to Saratoga Springs for a day to sightsee and check out the horse racing; seeing the new Harry Potter movie (I’ve seen it, but certainly don’t mind seeing it again with Jessica, who has not yet), and taking an afternoon or two to check out the yarn shops around her area. Of course I’ll also be seeing at least one performance at the Glimmerglass Opera, which is where Jessica works, probably La Traviata on the 25th.

Knitting/Cat Storage

A few weeks ago I decided it was about time I learned how to knit. I plan to post more about that soon (including photos, which aren’t transferred to my computer yet), but I have this photo on my iPhone just waiting to be posted…

See, with the knitting has come more yarn, with more need to find places to store it. I found some great containers, particularly perfect for balls of kitchen cotton.

And cats.

XXIX Summer Olympics – Are you watching?

I’m sitting here watching tonight’s (that would Monday the 11th, though I’m posting this early on the 12th) primetime Summer Olympics coverage, and thought I’d pose a couple of questions to whomever might wander this way: Do you watch the Olympics, and if so, what are your must-not-miss events?

I don’t remember ever not watching any Olympic coverage (I’m not sure where I get this, since neither of my parents care at all), but since getting a TiVo several years ago, it certainly is easier to watch as much as I have time for. Probably my favorite event of all comes from the Winter Olympics (figure skating; in high school I had photos from magazines hung up in my room, but they weren’t of the usual teen heartthrobs, but instead my favorite figure skaters of all nationalities), but in the summer I try to not miss any gymnastic coverage.

I’ve also always enjoyed diving, but I now watch a lot of swimming. I also try to make time for beach volleyball, equestrian, and synchronized swimming. So far this year I’ve at least watched a little water polo, handball, badminton, and rowing, and will probably watch a little of whatever else comes up on my television screen.

Something fun to peruse when you have a little time is the Wikipedia page for the Summer Olympics to see all the sports that have been played over the years. Tug of war? Croquet? Sounds like good times.

Because I Can

WordPress recently released their new iPhone app, and I’ve been wanting to try it out before going to the Stampin’ Up! convention next week, since I’ll probably want to do a little blogging but am really hoping to not need to bring my laptop.

So here’s a quick pic of the new item I picked up for my cats this evening at Menard’s (I really know how to spend a Friday night, right?). The box calls it a “Kitty Stepper,” and while it’s hard to tell from the photo (getting Guinness and Blazer to stay still enough for one photo was a chore), there are four full levels for them to enjoy.