Thank goodness I get to go back to work tomorrow!  It's been a busy and exhausting weekend, and there are still lots of things to do before Thanksgiving.  For those who like lists, here's a day-by-day breakdown of What I Did This Weekend.

Friday night: The 3rd Friday of the month is always Open Mic at Mission Coffee.  We listened to many good musicians and I knitted like a madwoman.  Gusset decreases for the blue-striped socks are done.  Green tweed sweater armhole decreases are done.

Saturday:

·         Super Slow weight training - always

·         Hardware store for special order plumbing part

·         Me to Berkeley for haircut, Ken to fix bathroom sink - see above

·         Texas Tech - OU football game - OUCH!  TV room is guest ready

·vacuumed

·dusted

·removed cat hair from sofa

·knitting, sewing, quilting projects, materials and patterns neatly organized and put away

·         Dinner and the first grocery shopping trip

Sunday:

·         Breakfast at The Nile - always

·         Farmer's Market

·         Costco

·         PetSMART - the cats have to eat too!

·         Grocery store

·         Wash, dry and replace guest bath linens

·         Wash, dry and replace powder room linens

·         Wash 4 cats boxes with bleach and anit-bacterial soap, replace litter

·         Wash and dry tablecloths and napkins, layout on tables to prevent wrinkles

·         Wash and dry rugs that go under litter boxes

·         Help Ken make 10 dozen cookies

·         Telephone calls to sister in Georgia and parents in Texas

·         Wash comforter that the cat tossed his cookies on

·         Change sheets on our bed

·         Cook dinner and clean up the kitchen

·         Pick ripe tomatoes for Roasted Tomato Soup for Thanksgiving

·         Shower, wash hair, polish nails

There's a list for every night too!

This has been another crazy week at Furball Farm.  We've been busy every night (baking cookies on Monday, seeing Casablanca* on Tuesday, dinner and musical entertainment Wednesday) - yes, we've been out on "school" nights!

Tonight promises to be quieter, which would be wonderful. I'm staying home no matter what Ken wants to do.

*Quite possibly my favorite movie of all time.  So romantic, so wonderful and to think it was a "throw away" by the studio!

Thank you, Bess, for the lovely compliment and blue ribbon.  I'll have my awards posted this weekend.  Apparently we read some of the same blogs!

Sensational Shirttail is blocked and ready for seaming and finishing.  I'd forgotten how much I love the yarn and pattern for this sweater.

Green tweed simple sweater is coming along nicely.  The back and left front are done, and the right front is almost to the armhole decreases.  

Raspberry wallaby's first sleeve is done and will be connected to the body this weekend. I'll also start the second sleeve - it's great commute on BART knitting.

The garden is still producing tomatoes, black-eyed peas, parsley, sage, thyme, basil and the occasional cucumber.  While the bounty is nice, I was hoping to pull out the plants over Thanksgiving weekend and start prepping for the early peas and winter crops.

Crazy weather is to blame for the garden abundance this late in the season.  We had a cool and rainy week, followed by 10 days of warmer than normal weather - seriously, it was 80* in San Francisco at the end of last week!  Tuesday it was warmer at 7 a.m. when I left BART than it was at 5 p.m. when I left work.  Today is cook - expected high in SF is 59*, perhaps a couple of degrees warmer at home.

More tomorrow or Saturday - dinner is almost done and I have to visit the attic for Thanksgiving tablecloths!

Where are all the wonderful, chatty, humorous posts?  The beautifully composes photos?  The proof of finished objects?

I compose them in my head, but they never make it to the computer!  It actually surprised me today that they weren't here.

Tomorrow promises to be better, and at least one of the mental posts will actually be committed to bits.

People seem quiet today; most seem tired and happy.  Lots of parties while watching election returns, much jubilation in public.  There wasn't much election drama on the national ballot here on the left coast.  Speeches were done, concessions made and victory declared by 9 p.m.  Results on propositions and local initiatives may not be known for a month, in some cases.

Our evening was rather different than planned - not bad, although initially I was unhappy about it, just different.

We went to vote at about 6 pm, and were surprised that the line was almost non-existent - maybe 5 people ahead of us.  The polling place was incredibly cramped, there was no privacy, it was noisy and the only electronic voting machine wasn't even plugged in!  Some people had their children with them, but didn't control the little darlings who were climbing around in the very flimsy supports for the "booths", grabbed my pants legs, and in one case almost knocked me down.  Others were reading the ballot aloud to each other and discussing each item.  I was very glad I had my marked up sample ballot with me, otherwise it would have been almost impossible to concentrate and vote.

Once we'd voted, we went to meet friends at Essanay Cafe for the Recession Dinner, Open Mic and Election Returns party.  Oops!  They'd "lost" our reservation - which we'd made in person with the owner on Sunday - and were packed to the gills.  We found seats, but it was noisy and too close to the propane heaters on the patio, so we headed elsewhere.

It was cool and dampish, so we opted for Chinese food and Wor Wonton Soup, and got an unexpected bonus: election returns TV coverage in Mandarin!  Just enough English was spoken to keep us interested, and the food and service were impeccable, as always. The only downside was no open mic, so no knitting until we got home.  

Class is over, I earned a new certification and Continuing Education credits.  More important: I learned a lot!  The instructor was really good, and the students were motivated.  Much different from some classes where people were late, took calls, read newspapers and such.

I got soaked almost to the skin this afternoon when the sky suddenly opened up and poured rain for about 10 minutes.  My curly hair dried even curlier, and BART finally sent a train my way, and life is back to normal just in time for another list of unrelated and random thoughts.

1.  I'm attending a class in San Francisco Monday and Tuesday.  That's good.

2.  The class is being held around the corner from Art Fibers!  That's very good.

3.  "No on 8" activists were out in force all day today, and effectively blocked my entrance into BART tonight - that's why I got soaked walking to the next entrance while taking to BART police on my cell.  That's bad.

4.  The class information will be very useful at work and I'm learning a lot of new techniques.  That's very good.

5.  Ken and I installed 3 trellises Sunday.  We're trying to make the very narrow - 8 feet wide - left side yard useful, beautiful and also to provide a bit of privacy without replacing the 2 gates we took out.  That's good.

6.  After I get home tomorrow evening, we'll go vote.  Then we'll stop for our weekly lottery tickets and head over to Essanay Cafe for a recession dinner with friends, election return watching and a special open mic.  Should be a fun evening.  That's good.

7.  The back of the green tweed sweater is finished.  Funny story:  all the time I've been knitting this, I had a vision of it.  Turns out, my vision was of the sweater on the next page of the magazine!  Fortunately, they are variations on a theme, so I only had to change the shoulder shaping.  The new version even has long sleeves, which I wanted, but the original version didn't have so I'd been playing with the numbers a bit.  That's a very good outcome.

8.  We visited the Leather Factory on Saturday, and I came home with a pattern pamphlet, a whole deerskin and some tools.  Is this a new hobby?  That's ____________.

9.  I found 4 possible buttons for the Serape Sweater and Joann's has 6 of each one.  I need 7 plus a spare.  That's bad.

10.  I may be forced to visited Britex in SF soon - they have a great button selection.  That's good, I think.

WOW!

The score doesn't even begin to tell what a wonderful, terrible, on-the-edge-of-the-seat, nail biter game this was.  I whooped and yelled and cheered until the cats went into hiding - sure that Mom had taken leave of her senses.

This was Texas Tech's 500th win, and the first win ever over a #1 ranked team.

What a game!

(Posts about knitting, cats, quilting, gardens and the like will reappear as soon as I come down from the football-generated high!)

There are photos to post, and knitting to show, but today just feels random.  For your review, a collection of random thoughts and meanderings.

1.  I finally started putting my stash up on Ravelry and it's a daunting task.  There are 611 lines in the relatively up-to-date spreadsheet for non-sock yarns, and 132 lines in the spreadsheet for sock yarns (and that one is probably not as up-to-date).  It is a good opportunity to review the stash and decide what needs to be de-stashed. Ten entries a day is my goal, and I'm already behind!

2.  While rummaging around in the guest room / library / sitting room / yarn and fabric room closet, I came across two large Rubbermaid bins that I didn't remember.  They were full of linens - 4 down comforters, 2 sets of flannel sheets with extra pillowcases, 3 sets of percale sheets, 2 electric blankets, 4 comforter cover sets and 1 quilt.  Ken and both had complete households when we married, but this is nuts.   Chosen items will be free to our local neighborhood group very soon.

3.  It's time to switch to flannel sheets and a warmer blanket and comforter!  We still have windows open because we like it cool at night, but last night I dreamed that someone was showing me his collection of snowballs!  

4.  The guest room / library / sitting room / yarn and fabric room closet also yielded a whole bag of fun fur type yarn (what was I thinking?), 2 large shopping bags full of zip-lock baggies that had been used for yarn, 3 tote bags crammed full of tote bags, and 1 bag of those freebie cosmetic cases from Clinique etc.

5.  Rain is predicted for Halloween.  Boo!

6.  We need the rain, but after 10 pm would be fine - I love seeing the neighborhood kids in their costumes, talking with our neighbors while the kids trick-or-treat, and that's much less likely if it's raining.

7.  Ken brought me a Mrs. Field's peanut butter chocolate chip cookie.  According to the package, one cookie is a serving, and it contains 310 calories!  Guess I'll be sticking to fruit and pretzels.

8.   OK, so the fun fur does add a cute touch to the top border of Wendy's felted cat bed.  That took less than a skein, so unless I'm planning to mass produce cats beds, this is pretty much a life-time supply!

9.  If I get one more robo call from a politician, I'm going to scream!  Those calls are illegal in CA anyway, but it's virtually impossible to get them stopped.  The recipient must have their telephone company file a complaint with the candidate, there's paperwork to be done, and then the candidate can be fined $500 per call.  Yeah, sure.

10.  Off to help Ken made cookies.  I'm going to work on the green silk Shapely Tank that's been almost done for over a year!