Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

The Love Goat

Love Goat soon will be making another run
The Love Goat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.

Actually it is Julbock Christmas Pocket by Moss Creek that I finished last night. When I showed the design to my DH before I started he started singing about the Love Goat(because of the hearts). So, that is what I call him now.

Lots of Progress on Noah’s Ark

I took advantage of the holiday to stitch, stitch stitch!

The old picture isn’t quite up to date. I had finished stitching the minks and pandas and started the cats before this week. And I might have put in a tiny bit more blue in the ark scene.

This week I…

- Backstitched the minks, pandas, and foxes
- Finished the cats, camels, seals, doves, hedgehogs, musk oxes, and squirrels (still need to back stitch them).
- Finished the blue border all the way around (aka the cages)
- Worked a bunch on the ark scene.

Before :

And After:

In other news, I started my sister’s birthday present. I am going to remain quiet on that in case she stops by. I also got word from the seller that my spinning wheel has shipped (estimate is 4 to 6 weeks).

And some how I ended up talking to a mortage lender about getting pre-qualifed for a house. We just started saving in August for a downpayment, but my mom the realtor talked to her friend the mortage lender who gave us a call. It seems that since we are first time home buyers and have good credit, we might be able to get a house now instead of waiting another year and a half to save up some money. I’m supposed to hear back from her today.

DH and I have been talking about all the great things we could get with a new house. We could have an upstairs that isn’t 10 deg cooler than the downstairs and might even have more than one tiny register to heat the entire upstairs. We’d have a roof that didn’t leak. We’d be able to paint the walls instead of living with renter’s white. We could have a full bathroom with walls and maybe even a door!

I’m insane!

Because I’ve been surfing on ebay and actually won a wheel! This on in particular…

It is currently in Holland and should be getting here just after the new year.

It is also time for the weekly WIP update. Last week was Rainforest Afghan. I started the branch in Square 3 some time during the summer. Last week, I finished the branch and started in on the rainbow and leaves.

Other progress: I’ve started my first sock for the third time and made it past the toe! I’m using Wendy’s Toe Up Sock pattern. They are for DH so it might be a while before I finished them. They are my lunch time project at work so I only work on them a couple of times a week. And I started to seam up Gatsby. I had finished the shoulder a while back and took a stab at setting in the sleeves, but I just gave up. On Sunday, I set in both sleeve and did one side seam. So, I have just one side to seam, all the loose ends to hide and maybe a little repair job on the collar and it will be done! My very first sweater!

This week I’m moving on to TW’s Noah’s Ark.

Band Rant

Okay, I gotta get this off my chest because I was so angry last night at the stupid saxophones that I almost screamed at them. The focus for the past year has been blending as an ensemble. And since summer time, it has been the saxophones who can’t blend. They play the dynamics as written not how it sounds within the group. And they sit right behind me! When we tried to talk to the summer conductor he just said that per square inch the saxophone can produce the most sound. At least last night I think he finally understood what we were talking about. He kept trying to tell the saxophones to play softer so everyone can hear the poor little woodwinds in front.

I swear this all started when one of the players was in a different section and then quit the band due to muscially difference with our main conductor. He was later wooed back by one of the sax players and returned to that section (his primary instrument). He must be going deaf or something because he plays *so* loud. And now I think the other saxes are in a contest to play the loudest. It isn’t like they can’t play soft, it is just that their dynamic is always two or three levels louder than everyone else! Even when the conductor (Christmas concert is done by the summer conductor) said something along the lines of, “If you can only hear yourself playing, then you are too loud. It should blend such that you can’t distinguish different instruments.” When we do things like that, the saxes blend… but give them a fortissimo and I swear one day I’m going to have an embolism trying to make my little oboe heard.

Oh and I kicked butt last night! The first oboe wasn’t there (not sure where she was) and there were times where it was just the oboes so I had little solos and I did pretty good if you ask me! It is amazing how much I’ve improved in the past year and a half since I’ve joined the band.

I got this came from Erica’s blog via Jo. I removed two questions about who will respond to this email and who did I receive it from to reflect its new status on blogs.

1) If you could move and build a house anywhere, where would it be? I’ve been fascinated with Scandinavia so maybe there.
2) What’s your favorite article of clothing? I have two really soft sweaters, one is purple and the other red.
3) What’s the last CD you bought? Classical music
4) What time do you wake up in the morning? DH tries to get me up at 7:15… lately I’ve been sleeping in until 8:30.
5) What is your favorite kitchen appliance? Well, not counting the basics like fridge and stove and since I don’t own a stand mixer yet… I’d have to say I love my hand blender (the immersion kind).
6) If you could play an instrument, what would it be? I play the flue and oboe, so I’d like to next learn the English Horn or Bassoon.
7) Which do you prefer, sports car or SUV? Mini SUV
Do you believe in the afterlife? Yes and I believe in reincarnation. I would get too crowded in Heaven without it.
9) What is your favorite children’s book? Goodnight Moon.
10) What is your favorite season? Fall with Spring come in a close second.
11) If you could have one super power, what would it be? teleportation
12) If you have a tattoo, what is it? don’t have one
13) Can you juggle? Yes
14) Is there one person from your past you wish you could go back and talk to? I would to talk to my grandfather about his past more.
15) What is in the trunk of your car? plastic grocery bags to be recycled, a blanket, and jumper cables.
16) Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger? veggie sushi
19) Who did you find this? Jo’s Blog

Silly Gallery is down

My gallery is down, but I still have access to the pictures. The gallery software is provided by the server and I tried to use their customization tools for the look of the gallery, but guess what! The tools they had was an older version than the gallery that they have installed for my site and now my gallery is hosed and I don’t have access to the configuration wizard to fix it! I’m thinking of just bailing on the plug-in and installing it myself!

But since I still have access to the photos, here is a photo with the progress I made on Night Flight last week. I think it only has one or two more rotations before it is finished. After I fill in all the obvious bits, I have to do a black border around the entire thing.

This week is Rainforest Afghan.