Mid-February Smorgasbord

First, a shout out to my fellow bloggers who manage to post on a regular schedule, or even every day. I don't know how you do it, but I love reading your posts. Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on my posts as well! I do love this little blogging world we've all nested inside of.

Remember when this was a knitting blog? Hey look, I knit something!

The pattern is the Midnattsol Hat and I used Knitpicks Gloss which is merino wool and silk. I do love colorwork but the pattern had many rows that used three colors (it's usually just two) and it was difficult to manage the yarn. I kept having to stop and untangle the giant mess. The pattern ended up looking really nice but I probably won't knit it again. The soft and squishy hat went off to live with my cousin, who has been a grateful knitted hat recipient in the past (he even took one mountaineering in Argentina), and who is dealing with some pretty serious health issues right now. I also knit a hat for his wife, because in Chicago everyone needs multiple hats, but I didn't take a picture of that one. It was that hat you see everywhere, you know the one with the horizontal ridges alternated with 1x1 ribbing, and a faux fur pompom on top.

A word of warning about faux fur pompoms: one of my coworkers was out walking and a hawk dive-bombed her because it thought she had a dead rodent on her head.

A three year old became a four year old. Three definitely had its cute and fun moments, but four is when kids get easier. We are all breathing a sigh of relief around here. 

So I'm pretty much an idiot and I bought Mary one of those teeny tiny dollhouse kits for Christmas. It does look adorable, but it is ridiculously tiny. RIDICULOUSLY. You have to build everything almost completely, and an 8 year old approaches the project by just dumping every teeny tiny part into a (teeny tiny) pile, and half of it rolls off and disappears down the heating vent. Fair warning to anyone who falls for the cuteness of these kits. In case you don't believe me about the teeny tiny claim, here's a stick of deodorant for scale.

Jason and I escaped for one night to Annapolis. It was fairly cold and we didn't have much time, so we just walked through the city, which was not that big. It was worth it though, to have coffee, dinner, and breakfast while sitting down the whole time, never having to get up to bring anyone milk or tell anyone to just STOP IT. There are boats there. I am not sure what else one does in Annapolis, maybe drinks and eats crabs?

I also read a couple of good books. I loved Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce, which had been on my list for some time and I finally got around to requesting from the library. It's a book that sounds a little weird from the description, but ended up being an exciting, endearing story. A middle-aged woman and her mysterious younger sidekick go exploring New Caledonia in the 1950s in search of an elusive, undiscovered golden beetle. It was both funny and heartbreaking. I had never heard of New Caledonia before and I assumed it was made up, but nope, it's an actual place!

I followed that up with The Guide by Peter Heller. This book is set in Colorado, and the descriptions of the West really got me. We lived for awhile in that part of the country, and Heller manages to capture the beauty of the place. It ended up being a weird mashup of literary fiction, thriller, and dystopia that made for a quick read. Also there was an extra line between every paragraph which I couldn't really figure out. Was that just to make the book longer?

I am now about halfway through Matrix, which I was so excited to read because I love Lauren Groff. But... I don't know if I can do it. If you've read this book, you know what I mean. Where are the quotation marks? I'd debating if I should abandon it - the parts about 12th-century life are pretty interesting/horrifying, but I don't know if I can slog through more religious visions to get there.

We're now halfway through February, and daylight savings time starts in less than a month! The increased light has had a huge impact on improving my mood and energy, and I can't wait until spring.