Socks

In an odd moment while looking at my own socks (below) I gave in to my curiosity re: how many stitches they'd have. At completion, at 56 st/row & 11 rows per inch and with 5" of leg above the heel flap & an 11" foot, the pair will have 19,712 stitches (give or take a thousand). At a rate of 1 stitch every 4.6 seconds (112 stitches timed today for this calculation), which includes sliding stitches along the cables, etc. it takes 25.2 hours to complete. That doesn't include knitting a gauge patch nor the time to close the toes.  Still fun to do something quasi-mindless while listening to radio, books on tape, etc.

With that in mind, my socks shouldn't be simply a testament to whether I'm smart enough to knit a sock, but rather something more of a personal statement.

Knitting socks

ew. I just did the math. at 8 st/inch and 11 rows per inch, for my feet, a pair of socks will have roughly 26,700 stitches(+/- a thousand).
Gotta stop this insanity.

Green Tomatoes

Fried Green tomatoes. Who thought to take these fruits early and cook them like that? rather like eating hot pickles. good but exhaust system in kitchen does not quite get all the smoke out.

maybe better in noodle soup.

10 days in Las Vegas

Gave my mom a hug and promptly received her upper respiratory virus. Slept on the nearly rock hard matttress upstairs with the dusty smelling pillows, which I covered with a freshly laundered towel the 2nd night.

Saw Jennifer on the 2nd night and boys. All well.

Ate at the buffet at the Bellagio on Thanksgiving Day.
While staying with my mom, I heard someone knocking on the door--not the front door, but the bathroom door where mom was taking a shower. The lock button had gotten stuck and she was locked in. I slipped a screwdriver under the door--she removed the doorknob and I was able to draw the mechanism back to allow her exit. The next day we replaced the bathroom door knobs.

Then a malfunctioning casement window crank called for removal.  The phone at Eagle windows in Vegas gave "busy" signal. The store itself was unoccupied with just a table inside. Found the crank online & ordered it. Tom will install.

Repaired broken plastic lock handles for the screen doors. Tom had a stick of poplar, from which I'd cut small blocks and screwed to the locks.

Leaking shower in mom's bathroom. Pulled half the cartridge out, the rest came out with the help of long nose pliers I bought.  Plumber's supply wasn't too helpful--said the cartridges cost 30-40$. Finally, got smart and bought the cartridge at Lowe's for $9. Huge difference between plumber supply store & Lowes prices.

Getting meat fever. Every meal has meat in one dish or more. Great but still, not the way I eat.

Fit to be Tied

I had bought the black coat for the Grays Harbor Symphony concert--$14 from Goodwill in Olympia & Nordstroms branded to boot.  Now I just needed the tie, in solid black.  I skipped Goodwill store in Oly in my rush to get back to town to get my snow tires put on. I made a quick trip to the thrift store on B street and found a black tie with some pattern in gold thread--$2. @ 2 p.m. today, I began to color the gold threads with a black Sharpie pen--the coverage was marginal. would I have to do this several times?  Then I noticed that the tie was more navy blue than black. I didn't have enough sharpie pens in the house to color the whole tie!  I quickly thought of using black spray paint which I knew I had in the basement. I sprayed a light coat on the tie & it looked great! It was dry by the time I had to leave for the bishop center, tho it still smelled of paint. Now if I was lucky the smell sensitive flute players wouldn't get a whiff and fall over in bronchospasm.

The flute players survived and Mary Frye even said I looked good.

I quoted Rodney Dangerfield to Jeff Freed, et al, during intermission--we laughed.

Redux: REI Flash 65 pack

The waist belt and shoulder cinch straps start to loosen up after a few minutes--that lets the load down on my buttocks and lets the load fall rearward.  I was thinking this was endemic to the pack & began to look at other packs in the REI Oly store. REI chick came by and we looked at another Flash 65 pack whose straps didn't slip. Bring your pack back for an exchange, said she.

Recent trip to Top foods.  Stopping at the bakery, where the tech was slicing a loaf of French bread for a couple, I asked aobut how they bake their bread.  Breads go 5 loaves to a tray and up to 22 trays will fit on the cart that holds the bread for fermenting and proofing.  To ferment the cart with dough is rolled into a retarding room about the size of a very large refrigerator, which is kept at a temperature lower than room temp--I'd love to know that temp!  Then for proofing, it is rolled into a similar sized room at about 90 degrees F.  following proofing it goes into a steam injected oven (again the same size)

I forgot to ask if each loaf is kneaded or just stretched and folded.

Also is the dough fermented in one huge volume?