Counting down to Christmas

Well, I didn't get the job. I'm disappointed and discouraged. But I'm not going to think about it until I start back to work on the 2nd.

I'm going to have an unusually social Christmas holiday--the Ts and I have been invited to go see a friend's new home on the 24th, I've been invited to a Christmas dinner on the 25th, I get my hair cut on the 27th, and I may see my sister and younger brother on the 28th.

Unfortunately, the weather is supposed to be icky. It's very foggy out tonight--even in town; it must be really thick out in the country. Then tomorrow it's supposed to get up into the 40s by early afternoon, then a winter storm is supposed to blow through with the usual--rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, wind. Sunday windy and cold. Monday and Tuesday partly sunny, a bit warmer. Then mostly cloudy and highs in the upper 30s. I was hoping for something a little nicer, because I wanted to take the Ts onto campus to do their On the Road Level 3 testing. Maybe we can still manage it if the wind dies down.

I bought extra melting salt tonight, since I'm cat-sitting until the 9th, and if it gets bad tomorrow, I'll need some help getting to the house--they have a long, slick brick sidewalk; add water or ice and it's really kind of scary.

Oh, my "emergency kit" came--the lamp and candle-cooker. I need to go get some batteries, now. Also some superglue.

No, not for the emergency kit. I got a needlekeeper for my sister, a little present. It's very spiffy--a tube with one end that comes off. You take off that end, put your sock dpns in, and the sock hangs out a slot in the tube. Then you put the end back on, and you can be sure that the needles won't get sat on and break or bend, you won't lose one, no-one will get poked by one, no stitches will fall off--I feel like I ought to get about half a dozen for me and my multiple sock projects! Anyway, the only thing is that they're very cleverly made of PVC pipe, so kind of plain, and so I made some bead tassels with charms on the ends to decorate the end you take off. As usual, I plunged in over my head--I used beading thread instead of wire because I wanted the wiggliness of thread instead of the stiffness of wire, but then the problem was, how do you finish the darn thing off so you don't have ends sticking out all over? A friend suggested I put a drop of superglue on all the knots, then trim off the ends of the thread. I thought I had some superglue at home, but can't find it, so I'll have to get some.

I took it all to work with me because I couldn't envision trying to string seed beads with the Ts there to help... :-^)

I need to overcome my low spirits and general tiredness and get knitting. I'd like to make chullo hats for the people who invited me to dinner, and a teddy bear for my new nephew. If I use worsted weight, I should be able to do all those in time--but not if I sit here on my butt sighing about how tired I am. I found a really cute knitted teddy bear pattern online that I can do in the round, which I approve of, of course. The chull0 hats shouldn't be hard; it's just a matter of selecting colors for everyone.