Squee!!

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Words cannot adequately describe this 100% extrafine merino yarn (whose colours appear much darker on that site than in real life, perhaps it is my monitor). Gorgeous colour. Soft soft soft! Grab some if you see it! Wish I had picked up more of each color, there isn't enough yardage to do anything with cables (I need 600 to 700 yds for a scarf & a minimum of 400 yds for most knit/purl flavours). I only have 294 yds of each colour (obviously bad math on my part), so I will have to do plain knit/purl or lace.

The BFF had a choice of these two colors for the MSCS I will knit for her. She originally wanted to knit one herself with this luscious merino, but she never found it in a red shade she liked. She's more into paper crafts than anything involving Ovis fibers, so it would be awfully painful for me to watch her take over a twelvemonth to knit this scarf. She ended up choosing the red when I showed her the 2 hanks.

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It has been crazy over here in recent weeks and I did not even manage to block or take a photo of the red scarf I finished for my SIL. I still need block the center of the scarf so that the motif shows better. The scarf looks like the WIP photo here. It's for Christmas, so there really isn't any hurry to block it. I thought I'd be able to show you a photo of the scarf before I left on my little road trip (more about that later).

I finished Sock1 of Pair6, which took me several days to bind off. I was just too lazy to do it. Now I have to weave in the ends before I can take a photo. I really need to get back to Sock2 of Pair 4, which has been on the backburner for much too long.

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I recently got hooked on these books. These novels and sleep are mutually exclusive. Sleep is losing out.

I finished reading Book 1 (TWI) of this popular teen series, and liked it so much that I managed to get my hands on Book 2 (NM) on Monday (18/5). I thought I'd take NM with me to Tahoe on Thurs (21/5), but this plan didn't work out when I couldn't put the book down and ended up finishing it on Wed (20/5)! Unfortunately, I did not manage to get my hands on Book 3 (ECL) for my little road trip. What to do? Reread TWI from beginning to end during my trip, followed by randomly rereading specific sections in TWI. It's amazing how one can pick up on more details the second time around. Oh and I now understand how Teenuh could read each of the 4 books 5 times.

Claudia was wondering what I thought of these books, particularly NM. During TWI, I couldn't help but think of Edward as a stalker and I thought Bella's predisposition to tripping/etc was overexagerated/unbelievable. I was excited to start NM and read the first 68 pages while at the library, and then had to close the book because the story took a bad turn at that point and I couldn't go on. However it didn't take me too long to pick it up again. I wasn't sure about the middle chunk of the book, always wondering, where's Edward? But the book isn't about EC. It is about getting to know Jacob. And I suppose the book got better after that realization. I need to reread this book.

Not too long after reading NM, I started the partial draft of Midnight Sun (PDF ) that is available from SM's site, which tells the story of TWI from EC's perspective. Now that was quite interesting. I would like to see her finish this novel, though I can understand how she feels and wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to pursue it further. I would love to read EC's perspective of NM, just to know what he had been doing all that time.

While reading one or more of these novels, I discovered that EC owned an Aston Martin Vanquish (it was one of the James Bond cars). Ok I know that the Cullens like their fast cars and I gathered that they are quite well off, so I couldn't help but wonder why EC couldn't have chosen something a little less pedestrian than an Aston Martin (or Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, etc). Why not something a little different, something a little more exotic, perhaps a Bugatti Veyron for an "easy" everyday driving car (not avail in manual transmission) and a Koenigsegg CCX or Pagani Zonda for a fun weekend car (though the Pagani isn't avail in the US).

I managed to pick up Book4 (BD) shortly after returning from my 4 day trip in Tahoe. I know. I know. I am reading these out of order. BD seemed an easier read compared to NM. I loved the chapter titles used in Jacob's section of the book, however I wasn't too crazy about what B experienced during that time. I keep feeling sorry for Jacob. I love Alice, she's my favorite character in the series.

I still need to get my hands on Book3.

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The weather was perfect in Tahoe. I rode on the Gondola for the very first time and I was quite anxious on the way up. I'm not very good with heights and it was not a good thing to look down to see how high we were above the ground. The noises I heard as we traveled upwards did not help either. I tried not to think too much about it, especially when we reached the upper near-vertical section before arriving at the observation deck. The view from the observation deck is breathtaking!!! Definitely worth the anxiety it took to reach it.

That's the big lake. It looks much better in real life than in my crappy pics. You can still see some snow on the tops of those mountains.

We drove around the lake, stopping for lunch at this restaurant in Tahoe City when M got hungry. The food was good, I'd definitely go there again. These 2 pics were taken from the east side of the lake.

This is Emerald Bay. There's a little island in it.



Other than massive amounts of reading (& related lack of sleep), my other distraction lately has been DDR and W.iiFit which DH got me for my bday. I really like DDR, especially after I figured out how to disable the W.ii extras to "dumb" it down to a standard footworkonly DDR. The addition of the controller+nunchuck had thrown me off, it was way too difficult for me. I'm trying to master the footwork part of the game before I add any of the extras. And if I'm lucky, I might even lose a pound or two in the process. Now wouldn't that be nice?

I haven't played the other one very much but it seems quite challenging. I had trouble with the "tree" pose in the Yoga section. I can't remain balanced on one leg. Need more practice.

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