Luna Moth - 3rd Repeat

It's starting to come together. This is after finishing the 3rd repeat; I'm on row 17 of the final repeat. I know this because I kept getting stuck on row 17. I made a mistake at the beginning near that first k3tog, then realized the mistake when I reached the center stitch and had the incorrect number of stitches to work. Tinked back. Started row 17 again, realized a mistake as I got close to the center stitch again. Read my work and saw that I made the SAME mistake at the same place. Grrr. Tinked back again. That's when I decided it was time to put it the shawl down and try again later.

I'm starting to worry about the stitches falling off my short 36" needle. What length needles do most people use for knitting shawls? The rows are taking longer and longer to knit, especially when I have to tink back because I made a boo-boo somewhere.

Sorry about the bad photo and the teapot lid holding down the bottom end, I had to use something to prevent it from curling up on the table.

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What I'm listening to right now .... Mauvaise foi nocturne de Fatal Bazooka. It's some sort of French rap. No idea what these two guys (it features some dude named Vitoo) are saying cuz they seem to be rapping at the speed of Public Enemy, plus it's probably 100% French slang which I have no hope of ever getting since it is hard enough to pick up on "proper" French. Anyhowz, I find I like listening to the sound/rhythm of their song...

Another good song I've been listening to lately is ... Musica by Paolo Meneguzzi. He sings in Italian. Again, no clue about what this song is about, but I like how this song sounds. I took one quarter of Italian in college and I don't remember 99% of it. :-(

I know, I'm kinda strange to listen to music in languages I don't understand. I've been meaning to check out Karen Matheson's latest album; she sings in Scottish Gaelic.

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We went to look at a few houses in cities E, F & G.

House #1 (4 bed, 3 bath, 1758 sq ft) was OK and seemed to be in a relatively nicer neighborhood of city F, but there was one thing I didn't like. They transformed a room (what was formerly the living room) into a huge master bedroom with a bathroom. They might even have knocked off part of 2 bedrooms to make this huge master, cuz I can't imagine one of these Ranch style homes having such a huge square-ish shaped living rooms. I would never use this as a master bedroom; maybe a large office & storage room. And it looks like they merged 2 bedrooms (in the bedroom wing) into secondary master bedroom with its own bath, but they way they did it made the room feel awkward.

House #2 (4 bed, 2 bath, 1831 sq ft) in city E seemed fine layout-wise. Need to drive around the neighborhood to get a better feel and look at the Disclosure Package for more info. It's in a cul-de-sac so you know there won't be much through traffic... this makes me think it'll be quiet enough for kids to play in the street. I'm thinking the neighborhood is just a hair less desirable than the house we lost, but it is also not in the neighborhood where we absolutely refuse to live. So we're more open to the possibility of living here.

House #3 (3 bed, 2 bath, 2000+ sq ft) is in the more desirable part of city E and the layout seems fine, but the wall in the backyard is actually the sound wall adjacent to a busy freeway. Eeks! You can actually hear the soothing sounds of the freeway from outside the house, and even from inside the family room. I suppose it is somewhat similar to the sounds of the ocean? I guess I could always set up a hammock & a water sprayer, and then pretend I'm in Hawaii. The master bath has a 2-person shower, it's so huge you don't even need a shower curtain or door.

House #4 (3 bed, 2 bath, 1525 sq ft) was in a nice part of city E. Loved how the bedrooms were in its own wing. I really don't like bedrooms that are separated, where some are on one side of the house, and another (usually the master bedroom, which is usually an add-on) on the other side of the house (especially if the add-on required walking through the kitchen to get to the bedroom). I didn't like the living room, I thought it felt small & awkward, perhaps because the window was along the short wall instead of the long wall of the rectangular room. DH thought this house was OK, except for the asking price of $948,000.

And just for fun, we looked at House #5 in what must be the "slums" of city G (because it was one of the lowest priced houses among those on the market in city G) ... a 3 bed, 2 bath 1781 sq ft house, all for the nice "low" price of $1,375,000. No, there is no typo there. You read that one correctly. Sticker shock, huh? I think part of the lower price was due to being on a slightly busier street.

Since we probably can't find our absolute dream house, I decided to launch The Sims (which I hadn't done in many moons) and build my own there. It's a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with open floor plan (living room, family room, kitchen, dining room). Great opportunity to add a second level; I've already planned for the 2 stairways. Lots of trees & shrubbery outside. Sims selling price is slightly over $23,000. Not sure which one of my Sim families will move in, but I have the feeling it'll be the MacKenna family (Aedan & Dubhlainn, both members of the Committee) who are currently the most affluent family and will be able to afford the house sooner than the others.

Ok, gotta go. M just woke up from her nap and I need to find a snack for her...

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