Long time no blog.

Hi everyone, I know it's been way too long and lots has been going on here but not everything I care to share on such a public forum but we're doing fine. I want to thank everyone who e-mailed when I seemed to be blog MIA.

A few scattered thoughts just to get myself off center;

Last week I turned 49 and I'm looking forward because the past is behind me now. I cant change what I've already done but I've made a few changes to make the future better.

I stopped drinking soda on September 4th, cold turkey and have only had a few since. This came about when we went to the recycling center and they handed me more than $15 the last two months for all the empty cans. It was kind of an eye opening slap in the face. How could we be consuming so much that we were getting $15 for the empties in a month. We attended a house warming last month where I fell off the wagon and had a few ginger ales at Pubknitters but I'm holding steady. I was drinking at least 60 to 72 ounces every day before stopping. I'm still drinking iced tea but no sugar added. Each morning I'm having a large bowl of Quaker oatmeal and the results are wonderful. My BP is down and I've lost about 15 lbs and I feel great. The greasy, fattening but great tasting food on the catering truck is gone too. This wasn't an all out diet change but a little modification that has had some positive results. I promise This won't become a diet blog but it's nice that my clothes fit better.

We had a package of those amazing Dove Dark Chocolate Promise candies and this was one of the thought provoking statements. "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" This sort of sounded like frogging back a project and re-reading the instructions and trying it again.

I did some dyeing last month and the results were very good. Targhee and Cormo.

Some Targhee in a new process that worked out pretty well.

The Targhee after it dried and all braided up.

4 ounces of Cormo

On the knitting front, I'm still working on the Flickering Flames skirt.

This picture is a little old but according to the Excel sheet I have set up it says 35% of the rounds complete out of the 130 rounds. The issue is when I get to round 47 I double the stitches again. I'm at 18.675% of the 89,640 stitches or 16,740 stitches complete.

The Mrs and I have enjoyed the public library a lot lately. I'm looking for the perfect list of books to read before you die not that I'm on a time table but trying to fill that void that only reading does. It's hard to find that balanced list of classics and contemporary authors. The more I read the more my eyes open. We just watched "Sense and Sensibility" today and I loved the story and the books of Jane Austen are high on my personal list now.
The deep imagery playing out in the mind each time you turn the page. The Mrs. wonders how I can listen to music with noise canceling headphones and still concentrate on what I'm reading but I can close off the outside world with pseudo white noise and still bebop to the music.

Right now I'm reading John Steinbeck's Cannery Row and on deck are The complete short stories of Marcel Proust, Carpathian Castle by Jules Vern, a biography of Nikola Tesla and one of Andy Summers from the Police. the plan is to read a book per week or more. While looking at digital books they give estimated minutes to complete the book. I know it's just a range but it looked like 5 to 10 hours of reading per book for most of the books I have on my radar.

I'm looking at E-book readers so I don't have to lug the books around but $130 -$350 seems a lot to give you just a little convenience. I like the idea of instant access to a dictionary and multiple books in case I feel like I want to read something different that day without having multiple books with me. The Kindle looks good but the Sony seems better to me and the Ebookwise reader may be just enough for a lot less money.

OK I have so much to say but I'll continue this another day.