Ah ha! The computer works now! Hurrah!

So! I was experiencing some technical difficulties there, but I've managed to get things back online and we're back in bidness!


Weekly update:


Last week Elizabeth moved here, and she's getting settled in. On Saturday we went to the Highland games to watch strapping men throw heavy things and to eat really unhealthy pastries stuffed with meat. YUM. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get outside and wander around. They had border collies who were busy herding sheep. It's so amazing to see these dogs with such a good work ethic and so naturally good at their job.


There was no yarn for sale though. Tragic!


Last week we also made an important purchase in our household:




New sleeping bag! Now I have my own little piece of warmth for when we go camping. :) Also, I'd just like to point out that it's slightly darker than in this photo. So yes, it is DUKE BLUE, not carolina stinky pale washed-out blue. Thank you.

On Friday I filled in for my boss at a conference. She was feeling very puny and sick, and was supposed to present a 1.5 hour long presentation on cultural competence in healthcare. I jumped in and did the presentation and enjoyed it! It was a fun group (nurses - they have great senses of humor) and I can now put that I've spoken at a state-wide professional conference on my resume. Feedback was great - they said they enjoyed it but also learned a lot. So go team!

This past Sunday Joe and I went shopping and got something very exciting that enabled me to make this:

It's a new sail bag for Joe's catamaran sails. (The new bag is on the left - the old ratty bag is on the right). Detail from the inside:

It's canvas on the outside and plastic tarp on the inside (so it's relatively waterproof) and has nylon straps and a zipper. Before, Joe had to slide the sails into the end of the old bag, which is hard when the sails are about 11 feet long and the bag is floppy. This way, he can just open the bag and lay the sail on the bag and zip it shut. Much easier. And snazzier looking too.

So, I can hear you asking, what does this have to do with anything? Well, what we bought on Sunday that helped with this project was this:

A new sewing machine! This is a commercial grade Singer machine that can sew through 8 or 9 layers of denim at once. It's got a bunch of cool stitches and neato special adjustments on it that I won't bore you with. But for those who do sew out there (and those who might want to learn to sew - I'm open to teach!) here is a detail of the accessories that come with it:

So! Yes I know this has to be the most boring photo ever published on a blog, but whatever. This machine does blind hems, has a darning foot (for fixing holes) and I can do quilting with it too (that big plastic thing on the side lets me move the fabric all over without trying to feed the fabric through like normal). It also has a zipper foot like I like (skinny).

Wow. This is really boring. I'm sorry everyone. I'm just dorky.

That wire thing? Is a finger guard. It goes around the needle area so that your fingers don't get too close, because my friends, this thing FLIES. it's super fast! And super strong. That sail bag was a perfect example: on my old machine, it had taken 30 minutes to sew 1 inch of the strap onto the bag. I was able to finish the entire bag in one afternoon with the new machine. I love it.

Ok, sewing dorkiness over.

As we are currently planning our summer vacation (driving up to northeast Canada in July), I have decided that I need to review some Scottish Gaelic and French just in case I for some reason end up in an area where no one speaks English. Because apparently I have this idea that Canadians are touch & go in regards to English speaking. Eh? It's actually quite fun though. I've been listening to French language CDs in my car and it's nice to be working on a different language. I've been working on German for so long, and am in the more complicated levels. It's nice to go back to "Hello. My name is..." in another language, instead of focusing in separable prefixes and gerunds and genitive declinations (and no, that's not a medical condition).

Wow. This might actually be worse than the sewing dorkiness. Language dorkiness! Why are you still reading this?

Today is my mom's birthday. I'm knitting a mohair shawl for her, and of course I'm not done yet. But I'm close. See? This post DID get worse! KNITTING dorkiness! Will it never end?

I had some other things to say but frankly I'm afraid to - no one will ever want to speak to me again if I keep going at this rate. Also I love y'all and I don't want to kill you with boredom. So I'll sign off! Have a happy Wednesday!