Machair Monday

machair ~ low-lying sandy beach

Where did the summer go? One minute we were talking about how long summer was taking to get started, the next we were complaining about how hot and sticky it is, and now it's over.

Okay, so it's not quite over. It's still pretty warm here in the Great White North. Last week was not only overly warm, it was extremely humid as well. I'm surprised everything I own isn't covered in mould, it's been so damp this summer.

We had friends over for a barbeque yesterday and one of the things I did was clean out my salt and pepper shakers. You may be asking yourselves, why is that such a big deal? Because of the high humidity this summer my salt shakers in particular have become increasingly difficult to get anything out of. Plus, the metal tops started collecting moisture and becoming rusty. So I soaked them and cleaned them and put a few grains of rice in them before refilling, and now I'm crossing my fingers that the humidity goes down so I don't end up wasting all that fresh salt.

Another down side of how hot and humid it's been is that I haven't been able to wear my new sweater - it's too freaking hot.

Because my sweater is done I needed a new craft to work on, so I switched back to the afghan. However, once again I was foiled by the heat. The afghan is just barely long enough that I have to drape it over my lap as I work, and it's pretty darn warm. So there was only one thing left to do - I had to start one of the two Fair Isle sweaters I was planning for Christmas presents.

The thing about Fair Isle is that they're done on circular needles. Circular needles have the advantage that you're working in rounds, and you're not as likely to drop a stitch without realizing it. But it's been a long time since I've worked with circular knitting needles and I forgot how much your work can twist when you're getting started. To make a long story short, don't ask me how, but instead of ending up with a circle of ribbing, I ended up with an infinity symbol. It wasn't one of those things you could fix by pulling the work off the needles and untwisting it, so yes, I had to rip it all out and start over. *sigh*

Blog Stuff For the Week:

Tuesday: Part sixteen in my series on the Major Arcana of the Tarot is The Tower.
Wednesday: A new hump day hunk for your viewing pleasure. ;-)
Thursday: Chapter 81 of Water. They're finally out of the cave system, but for how long? You'll have to read it to see.
Friday: This week's Ramble will be one of my surprise rambles. And I'm sure I'll be the most surprised of all. :-)

Other Stuff

This week's TraxTime report runs from August 25 through August 31.

Crafts - 13 hours and 22 minutes ~ way up from 4 hrs and 21 min
Emails - 6 hours and 53 minutes ~ down from 8 hrs and 53 min
Games -8 hours and 11 minutes ~ up from 5 hrs and 55 min
Reading - 3 hour and 09 minutes ~ down from 5 hr and 27 min
Non-fiction - 7 hours and 58 minutes ~ down from 9 hrs and 53 min
Fiction - 6 hours and 37 minutes ~ up from 5 hrs and 01 min
Editing - 12 hours and 33 minutes ~ up from 11 hrs and 32 min

In my defense, it was really crappy weather last week and it sucked the ambition right out of me. So at least when I spent all that time on crafts I was doing something, unlike my gaming time (which also went up) where I was accomplishing nothing.

No surprise the reading time took a nose dive. I'm reading a very enjoyable volume of faery stories (for adults) in a hard back book, but the book I'm reading on my kindle, though well-written makes for uncomfortable reading because of its subject matter. So I may have to set it aside and start something not quite as intense.

I must be writing faster with my non-fiction for the time to go down by two hours, but then last week's ramble didn't take much research. :-)

And while my editing time remained about the same, please notice that my fiction writing is taking an upward turn. Hmm. Maybe I should put these times in a spreadsheet and create a graph . . .

Yesterday, sad to say, I did nothing that required logging on TraxTime. The early part of the day was spent getting ready for our barbeque - making the salads, etc., and a triple chocolate cake for the son-in-law's birthday - and then the rest of the day was spent entertaining.

Today we're off to Neb's Fun World to celebrate the SIL's birthday with a few games of bowling. And it's 5-pin bowling, thank you very much, which is more of a game of skill than 10-pin. With 10-pin the pins are so close together and the ball is so big, that as long as your ball stays on the lane you can't help but score points. Whereas with 5-pin the pins are set further apart and the balls are much smaller - it is possible to throw the ball between the pins.

Now, if I could only remember where I put my bowling shoes . . .