Not so lazy days

I had such high hopes of showing you in-progress pictures of the bathroom remodel. But when you're brushing your teeth at the kitchen sink, and thinking of how many extra trips you took to Home Depot and Lowe's, and that weekend-long project stretches into a week because it takes time for paint to dry, the excitement of "in-progress" kind of fades away. But there you go: our upstairs bathroom, before and after!

Before: notice how nothing matches?


After: notice now things actually match now? Wow!

We put the finishing touches on about a week ago, hanging the barely-dry mirror and cabinet doors, just in time for a visitor (my parent who actually owns the place) to see the finished bathroom. That's why we're redoing it right before we move out: because we have a small stake in it selling well. Unfortunately, though, we're going to have to rent it for a while until the market picks back up. We now have the oddities of a "for sale/rent" sign out front, as well as a lockbox. Weird - and a sign that this is real, we really are moving!

There's been progress on the knitting front as well. It's now the Summer of Socks knitalong - and since the rules say socks have to start after June 21st, and I have two pairs in progress, it'll be a while. But, I'm making progress on the two other socks I had going. See?

Embossed Leaves

What, you think that little discrepancy of 3 grams is going to be a problem? Especially since the done sock weighs more than the remaining amount of yarn - and I don't have any more than that? Yeah, so do I. I'm about 1/3 into the second anklet and am really hoping to get most of the way into the toe. Then I'll either troll the net looking for some similar yarn, or I'll just knit it with some plain blue or green sock yarn. I do know it's Koigu... I don't have the ballband, so I haven't a clue what I'd be looking for specifically. Shoot. At least the Embossed Leaves sock pattern is tons of fun!

We have winners!

Thanks so much to everyone who played along in my blog contest! We have some winners! Danielle will be taking home some Shadow in Sunset, and Jeanne will find herself with some tweedy blue-green!

And thanks, all of you, for your sock suggestions! I was truly amazed, at first, at the number of "monkey!" requests that came rolling in, and (though they are certainly on my list) was nonetheless pleased to see things start to diversify. I'll have no end of possibilities for the Summer of Socks!

My research trip was good, if inconclusive. It was especially nice to see so many friends, and to make a spontaneous, if out of the way, trip to my college town for dinner at my favorite restaurant. I really actually meant to go to WEBS while still sort of in the area, but I also wanted to visit my "old stomping grounds," as the waiter in the restaurant said. The timing made it such that I couldn't do both, and instead of stocking up on yarn, I stocked up on popovers with apple butter, salad with almonds and poppy-seed dressing, and seafood bisque for dinner, with many years' worth of happy memories to keep me company. I'm usually uncomfortable having dinner alone in a restaurant, but in this case I was so happy to be there, the first time in years, that I really saw all my old friends, my family, my professors, at all the tables in the room, and strangely enough, the memories really did keep me from feeling alone.

In terms of research, it ended on a happy note, as I "had" to go to that shrine of learning and books, the Boston Athaeneum! Wow, was that a lot of fun! However, it was a bit inconclusive, for several reasons. One, I wasn't quite as focused as I've been on previous trips, so it seemed less immediately helpful. Two, I think that the topic I'm interested in might not quite be the best one to address the broader questions I'm interested in, so the question becomes: to switch topics, or to switch questions. Either are possible at this point. I need to mull things over for a bit... perhaps while redoing the upstairs bathroom. This has been on our "to-do" list for over a year, and finally we're both caught up enough with school to permit another venture into the wild world of tiling, painting, and plumbing!