Temptation, thy name is Ben, and sometimes Jerry

You do not want to eat this.

I warned you!

The post in which I expect to become a rockstar and fail miserably

I had just finished telling the Very-Soon-to-be-Doctor Husband that I wanted my posts to evolve organically, but I knew that I had a good story. I didn't want to go to the grocery store yet again this week, and after all we really need to get rid of the food in our kitchen before Moving Day (now November 26!). I raided our pantry and freezer for long-ignored and maligned "food" that we didn't want to move. There was the single can of green enchilada sauce to a half-used bag of frozen mixed veggies from the dark recesses of our freezer. I pulled everything together with the expectation that I could pull off an amazing casserole and humbly tell an amusing story to the blog world.

This plan went horrifyingly wrong. Well, not completely, because Charlie loved it. He even asked for seconds! I'm not sure how sophisticated his palate can be, considering that he would eat cat food if we let him. This became the casserole that tasted like freezer burn, the casserole that was inedible, and the casserole that kept on giving in the worst way possible.

This, which I expected to be able to turn from water (or in this case, more like festering raw sewage) into wine...

A veritable menagerie of crap

Turned to this:

Warning: this doesn't taste nearly as delightful as it looks

Christian and I picked at it for awhile in the hopes that we would hit the good spot, and then eventually gave up and went to bed hungry.

On the knitting front....the Cable Rib socks are finished! Hopefully they fit the recipient.

I have a great gift for making socks look like they're different sizes in photos.

I really loved the Radiant Twist yarn. The colors are perfect and the yarn is the perfect mixture of tight spin coupled with the sproinginess that I adore. I assume that the base yarn is Louet but indie dyers are pretty tight-lipped about which yarns they use.

I have eagerly moved on to Mona's Mystery Socks. I love the yarn more every day:

I am totally smitten.

It's amazing how different the yarn looks at different times of the day:

An artsy shot with Grandma's cookie jar

The contrast between the yellows and pinks just isn't there at night. I find myself getting up in the morning and looking at the sock first thing to see what it really looks like in the sunlight.

Juliet continues to grow a few rows a day, but basically looks the same.

Tomorrow the family starts to pour in for Dissertation Day. I can't believe how quickly things are moving, after months that seemed to creep by. I have a feeling that we'll be throwing stuff into boxes at the last minute. This really isn't a change from how we usually operate.

Well, time to get a few precious rows in before bed. Cheers!

Counterproduction

It makes perfect sense that although I am dying to cast on a brand shiny new pair of socks, I neglect the existing WIPs entirely, and begin new, non-sock related ventures. Payback is a bitch, however, and I believe that my unfinished socks have conspired to jinx any new project that I attempt.

Exhibit A:

This Calorimetry is eating my head.

I look like a lobotomy patient. I assumed that I didn't need to knit a gauge swatch since I went down a needle size from the suggested pattern. It looked a little big while I was knitting it, but I assumed that since it was ribbed it would end up a little smaller. I'm contemplating trying to shrink it a little in the wash.

The socks that are out to get me:

Finished Undulating Ribs

Unfinished (but nearly finished!) Cable Rib Socks

And poor Juliet...

I keep thinking of this color as "Lion Brand Buddhist Mustard".

There appears to be nothing wrong with this (yet). Maybe the socks haven't noticed her.