I’m getting rather jealous of the pics other bloggers have been posting of their gardening efforts. I haven’t had a sunny weekend in awhile, so my balcony plants (well, those that are still alive) are languishing. Winter took a heavy toll. My lack of watering the palm tree that is under the eave, and thus out of the rain, has left it brown and lifeless. I’ll blame the evil squrriel for the death of my lavender plant. One of the adopted citrus trees is blooming, so not all is lost. The ravages of winter have left my balcony looking simply horrible… lots of blacks and browns, lots of stuff dropped by the overhanging tree. I’m just going to have to find time to get to a nursery to get something with color.

I knit on my mom’s afghan last night while watching Rent. Singing along with a musical is not the way to get knitting done. I have also come to the conclusion that my row gauge is way off. I have stitch gauge (3 sts/inch), but the pattern says that each color strip is supposed to be 3.25 inches wide. Mine are more like 2.5. Another comparison indicates that each pattern repeat (4 strips) should be 13 inches wide. Mine is actually more like 9 or 10 depending on the set of strips you measure. Does Lion Brand Homespun magically widen when you wash it? I have quite a bit more yarn left than I was expecting with only 4 strips left to knit (according to the pattern). Do I just finish it and call it a lapghan? Or, do I add another set of strips, which will take longer to do?

Nothing quite like slogging your way through a day after waking up at 5 am and being unable to get back to sleep. Talk about unproductive all around. We won’t talk about the slight queasy feeling that accompanied me through most of the day since I only brought it upon myself (but the wine was good at the time).

Tonight, however, I have an evening of knitting planned, which is good because I had no time to work on my mom’s afghan over the weekend with a final to turn in. The Husband was called up by a friend this afternoon with an offer of a free ticket to tonight’s Sharks game, the last regular game of the season. So, now that I have fed myself, I’m going to pop Rent in the DVD player and settle down to some afghan knitting. But, I am thinking of walking down to the corner store for some ice cream first… mmm, ice cream.

I had been considering waking up at 5 am on purpose tomorrow so that I could watch the Lotta’s Fountation ceremony live. Then, I found out the commemoration is beginning at 4:30 am. I’m all for seeing history, but this is what Tivo is for.

Nothing like a paperwork run around to make you want to take a baseball bat to something… anything.

The nice people at the Vespa dealership would of course like a check when I take delivery of the scooter. The bank won’t give me a check until they have a signed purchase order. I can’t get a signed purchase order until the scooter comes in and there is a VIN to put on the paper. Oh, and the purchase order has to be to the bank before 2 pm, or it has to wait till the next business day.

Should I cross my fingers that the scooter comes in tomorrow, so that I can then run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off to get paperwork where it needs to be, when it needs to be there? Or do I hope that it just waits until Monday after my EAD final is done and turned in, after I have driven up to Livermore and back for a baby shower (which I have yet to purchase a gift for cause the baby blanket is at the same point as 3 days ago), after my Library of Congress cataloging assignment is turned in?

I’ve been avoiding the projects I need to get done. The baby blanket is crawling along — the kid is due May 24. My Mom’s afghan hasn’t been touched in months — her birthday is in 2 weeks.

I haven’t worked on the Adamas shawl since I cast on for the baby blanket. It sits on my coffee table, glaring at me. And I want to knit it, but I can’t, not until I get at least one of the projects with a deadline done.

Meanwhile, I keep thinking crazy thoughts… my Dad’s 50th birthday is at the beginning of July and a couple of years ago he asked for a lace doily for the coffee table in the living room (this is of import cause when you ask my Dad what he wants for any gift-giving day, his response is predictable – “Nothing.”) My best friend is getting married in August (in Boston), and while I have no flipping idea what I’m going to wear (and he asked me to be his best man), I have been thinking that 100% tencel lace weight I bought at Stitches West might make a nice shawl to go with some dress I haven’t bought yet.

Yeah… all my smart brain cells are doing homework.

ETA: If you haven’t read The Dark Side of Knitting Revealed over at Feral Knitter, you must go do it now.

I had to fill up my Corolla yesterday and almost choked on the total – $30.05. This is one of the reasons I’m upgrading my scooter. I’m currently in the process of getting a Piaggio BV500.

We had gone to San Jose Vespa a couple weeks ago so I could look at the BV500 and the Vespa GTS. I decided that the bigger scooter would be better for highway riding, but needed to think on it… do I really need a new scooter? We went back on Saturday, so I could sit on it again and to get a price break down. I ended up putting down a deposit on a burgandy BV500 with a top case, windscreen, and cover. The sales guy is hoping it will be in sometime this week.

Because I’m getting a bigger scooter I’m also going to get a new helmet. I currently wear an open face helmet with a full visor. With a larger scooter that can go a lot faster than my Vino 125, I want the extra protection a full face helmet provides. So, I’m considering the HJC CL-15 and the Arai Quantum 2. I’m hoping to go to the cycle accessories store tomorrow and try them both on again. By the time I tried them both on Saturday I had had 20 helmets on and off my head; my cheeks were feeling raw from the cheek pads rubbing as the helmets went on and came off. Of course, it’s just my luck that the more expensive helmet seemed to fit better when I tried it on Saturday.

On the knitting front, I highly doubt the baby blanket will be done in time for the baby shower. I had originally heard that I would have till the end of April, but I recently received an invite for the 15th. Nope, definitely not going to happen since I also have my EAD final assignment due on the 15th and a cataloging assignment dealing with the Library of Congress system due on the 17th. I figure I’m good if I can get the blanket done before the kid is born.