Two Too Many Big Projects

When will I learn? Doing 2 big projects at one time is just not satisfying to someone who wants frequent ohhs and ahhs for finished projects.

I am currently knitting on the Dr. Who scarf for J. If you have looked at one of these things, you know it will take pretty much forever to finish it. I am possibly almost, but not quite, 1/3 of the way finished. Which translates to having 2/3 of this hummer to go. The one positive note--it's a great project to drag along when you want to visit as it is straight knitting and doesn't require many brains cells to function at once.

The prayer shawl for the family member of a fallen soldier is in better shape. I have knitted 15 inches of the required 24 inches. Hopefully I'll have it finished and mailed to the family in another week or so. I may have to take a break and work on a smaller project or two before I run screaming into the night trailing yarn after me.

The heat is ridiculous right now so I am doing an impression of a bear hibernating only I'm knitting instead of sleeping during the day. Thank goodness for floor fans. They are a life saver and using them I can keep the a/c on 78 during the day and turn it down to 74 at night. NOTE TO ALL: Floor fans also have the advantage of herding the dust bunnies into a couple of groups rather than scattered around the room. Very productive. Makes for less cleaning.

Speaking of cleaning...a brilliant friend is now cleaning her place by spending 15 minutes a day doing it. She sets the timer and when the timer goes off, she stops cleaning for that day. I thought it was a wonderful idea and when we discussed it on Saturday, I decided I would start on Sunday. It is now Tuesday and I am 45 minutes behind schedule. Somehow I don't think this method is going to work for me.

As Scarlett so beautifully put it, " I'll think about that tomorrow." Hey, if it was good enough for Scarlett, it's good enough for me.

Cleaning and playing

5, that's right, 5 big shelves that are now clean and orderly! One whole bookcase is done (except for what's on the very top but surely that doesn't count).

This milestone was achieved by alternating working on the bookcase, knitting, Bible study, playing with the dogs, and congratulating myself on being so productive. It takes a lot of more interesting things to balance the cleaning / straightening projects.

I'll have to think about what to tackle next. In the meantime, I am having such fun changing the persona on Firefox. I love playing with different backgrounds and Firefox makes it so easy. Today is all about pinks, and purples, and trees. There is a huge selection to choose from and, once again, it is a diversion from picking up the stuff I have accumulated. It really is my mission in life to teach people how to play. We often take ourselves way too seriously.

Starting to Shovel

You would think that completely cleaning out and straightening 3 shelves (not 3 bookcases, 3 shelves) wouldn't be such a huge deal. It has taken me the better part of a day. Most of the day was spent trying to get motivated to attack the shelves. Now this is where I could use a clone. The clone wouldn't throw out anything I wanted to keep and could do all the grunge work. Ok, maybe a clone without my procrastinator gene would work best.

It's such a shame that the bookcase is behind me as I sit at the computer. I need to turn around often. The rest of the room is still in the "surely a windstorm came through here" decor. That's what I mostly see so I'll be turning around a lot. Stuff in the middle of the room is so high I can't see the 2 lower shelves of the bookcase which I haven't cleaned and straightened. Hmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

I even have a large stack of books to take to knitting tonight to share, with the understanding that they don't come back to me! Naturally none of them are knitting books as I am still actively doing that.

Again, the clone thing would come in handy as one could knit, one could dye fiber, one could spin, one could make paper and then books, and one could go out for food when necessary. I could rotate around to which ever activity appealed to me at the moment. I may be on to something here.

I have taken the pictures of the pottery but in this mad burst of cleaning/sorting/tossing I haven't uploaded them yet. I will soon. You just know this shoveling thing isn't going to last.