lessons learned

I started the month with some intentions & some assumptions.
Like NaPoBloMo. My day late start might have tipped you off to the outcome, right? I assumed it might bother me if I couldn't pull it off. There were three or four misses. Am I bothered by this? nah. Isn't it poetic justice this very post is actually too late to count as being in the month. Lame but OK. I also assumed if I posted regularly, I'd then have more bloglines subscribers. Ha! I lost one. Quantity? Quality? Whatever.

I intended to knit for the Red Scarf Project & to spread the word that more scarves are needed. My finished scarf needs blocking & fringing. I'm goning to squeeze out another. Better than that, Knit New Haven is dedicating all their Thursday Nights in December to Red Scarf Project knitting, they are now a Red Scarf Dropoff spot and they have a poster for the project on their window, on a very busy New Haven street. And it works! While I was there yesterday a customer saw it, and stated right then she was going to jump in & knit one. Yay for a new shop that's stepping up for the local knitting community and a good cause. See you there Thursday? if I can pull it off I am going to make Red Velvet cupcakes for the occasion. No idea how you make them but that's why they invented the internets, right?

I intended to see if the one good brussel sprout experience I had, a year ago in Montpelier VT, might be repeatable. I assumed I'd cook them passably well, and then I'd kind of let it go for another year till harvest time. Nu-uh! They were so good, I had to make them three more times that week, one of which was on Thanksgiving. So, referring to the rule of food partisanship , I will now be making roasted brussel sprouts with garlic sauteed red pepper & onions, couscous & a quick sprinkle of parmesan cheese for many many years to come.

almost a movie title

Except we have no doorbell, and I'd call her a postal delivery person. So,
The PO knocked once:

When my oldest bff said she was sending a care package, I knew it'd contain her Imperial Cookies. I suspected, correctly, it'd contain some cuts of shot cotton because we are on a mutual quest for it, and she'd called me from Spool a couple of weeks ago exclaiming over the checkered colors.

What I didn't know is she'd been to a flea market and found these vintage resin buttons with seeds and beans in them. Which she correctly knew I'd be crazy about.

Not sure what I'll do with them but for sure something knit. And maybe something sewn like an apron. And maybe some will go on etsy.

The PO knocked twice, in abundance of thoughtful friends:

Do I not have the most beautiful potholder in the world? All during the Thanksgiving cooking, people kept telling me it was too pretty to use, it should be on the wall. Considering I'd enshrined a warshrag there earlier this year, I liked the way they were thinking. Except I really needed a new potholder so it went to work.

and a mid century modern cookbook sponsored by an insurance company, I love them!

Hand crocheted & felted & gifted by my blog pal Ellen Bloom, who rocks crochet in a way I rarely see elsewhere.
Exception maybe the character Felicity in Pirate Radio. Seriously, she is wearing a different piece of crochet in every scene.(Wish I could find a better still from the film online to show you what I mean but you can surely pick her out in the group.) It was incredibly distracting and craft inspiring. Made me want to whip up some granny squares while blasting the Stones and dancing. All at the same time.

about those breadsticks

I wasn't trying to throw a pity party. But here's the thing: once a food appears at a family gathering and gets any kind of partisan support, it can never, ever be taken off the menu. The homemade breadsticks gained a huge following back when there were lots of little kids wanting to help make doughy snakes while the kitchen was buzzing with Thanksgiving cooking. Now those little hands are attached to big teenage & twenty year old bodies, none hankering for some extra work. But we must have those breadsticks on the table !
That's the Aperol Spritz in my mom's hand. Molto buono with breadsticks and a little goat cheese. Worth the effort.
This year, sister Marla and my parents did all the bread stick shaping. Not that they had any choice. I threw the mountain of dough at them the minute they walked into the house, gracious hostess that I am. We went for 50 long sticks (the length of the baking tray) instead of 100 the width of the tray. They look good set out in vases that way.

They're more crispy than chewy, but not dry. Want to make some? Ok, I'll share the recipe, it was given to me by someone I photographed on assignment in the 80's, and I have no idea where she got the recipe. Or maybe she made it up herself. She had a farm stand and made breadsticks to go with her jams & fruit butters.
(don't worry. I won't turn this recipe thing into a regular feature.)

Breadsticks ---makes approx 100 12" sticks or 50 20 "
recipe may be halved , divided by thirds or multiplied

In large bowl, dissolve 3 packets of yeast and 3 tablespoons sugar in 2 cups of warm water
Mix in:
6 tablespoons olive oil
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons salt
3 cups unbleached white flour

Beat until smooth , this should take several minutes.
Add, kneading in bowl, about 3 3/4 cups additional flour. Turn onto flat surface and knead for five more minutes.

Place back in cleaned bowl, coat lightly with olive oil, cover and let rise till doubled (at least an hour). Punch down.

Divide into walnut sized balls and roll between hands into very thin sticks, the length or width of the baking tray. Giving them a slight twist when placing them on trays helps them not to shrink back in length.

Let rise on baking tray for 1/2 hour. Pre-heat oven to 325 degreesF.
Before baking, brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with coarse salt and seeds (we did black sesame this year, you can do any, or you can do herbs too).

Bake for about 20 minutes or until dark golden.

all in a day, bullet version

written earlier, just getting around to posting now. what, you think you can just stick food over the fire and leave it to go online????

most of the cooking is tomorrow, it's the readying that gets me

• finishing striped red scarf , show & tell another day. very cheery. for the OFA Red Scarf Project, of course.

• scheming up way to squeeze in a swing through Knit New Haven to get more red yarn, here's why

• not accepting there are a finite number of hours to this day

• wondering how on earth a supermarket could not stock enough fresh cranberries this week?

• delegating cranberry scavenge to Dave

(success!)

• looking forward to baking 5 pies. Love making pies.

• am also fine, happy even, with making cranberry sauce, veggie side dishes , mashed poatoes, grilled fish, corn souffle casserole, salad, appetizers but why of why did I agree to do the 100 long skinny breadsticks . again?

• sister Lulu does the turkey, stuffing & gravy. (in case you wondered.)

• everyone else travels to get here, we do the food. (see wondering, above)

• altho sister Marla was just in Italy and is bringing us a new apertivo . Aperol Spritzers for happy hour ! will report.

• wondering what the correct answer is to the 6:30 am question "what exactly is a cornucopia made of? not the contents but the outer thing?"

• but glad my 16 yo sits down, eats breakfast &grunts talks a little each a.m. (just found the answer, never knew it was that old)

• wishing someone would invent a self cleaning house

• offering mine as a beta site when they do

• thankful, truly, that these are my problems

redscarf: steal this for your blog

As of today, the OFA has just barely 1300 scarves. They need 3000 for the Red Scarf Project, to send in care packages to college students formerly in foster care, who are going it on their own.
I've been lucky enough to meet some of these kids. This isn't just some nutty knitters feeling good idea. The students truly appreciate what you are doing, knitting something by hand for them. Not only is it likely to be the only handknit they receive, it will likely be the only care package.

Here's the plan:
1) cast on for a red scarf and work on it as much as you can this week, and if you're in the US, especially over Thanksgiving. Pick a simple pattern and you'll maybefinish it by Sunday. Or next.

2) be thankful for whoever supported you with a care package when you were a student. Think what it would have been like without them. And if there wasn't anyone? Then you really know how it matters.

3) tell another knitter about it . There's info on the Red Scarf blog. And patterns.

4) STEAL THE POSTER above and put it on your blog. Really! If you click on it, it'll go to my Flickr page, just steal it from there.

5) Call your local yarn store and tell them about this. If they need a poster to print out, there's one of this one, print sized, linked to the Red Scarf blog. Offer to print it out for them & hang it in the store. Maybe they want to offer a discount on any red yarn for one day to perk things up?

6) Knit! I'm determined to finish the one I'm on now, and crank one more by the December 15th deadline. It is do-able. Join me?

My last pep talk on the subject is here, it has additional suggestions for helping out.

appearances

A couple of wonderful things showed up on the weekend.

Hand dyed handspun yarn by Annie at Maple Corners. She calls this Fire & Ice. I met Annie last summer in Minnesota, at the photo workshop. Among her many talents is making gorgeous yarn, often from her own alpaca. And look at what she wove. I can't wait to do something with it, I'm thinking (ravlink) Wave Cowl. Which would be extra special since then I'd know the designer and fiber artist. Here's her shop, I couldn't decide what I wanted so I said it had to be soft enough to be on my bare neck and asked her to surprise me, color-wise. I love it.

But the best thing to cross our doorstep? My older baby is home for the week. It's good to have him casting his shadow around here again. Now if I can get a round of crab empanadas out of him, it'll be a very excellent visit.

driveby posting

it is now necessary...

Navajo rug sample by Rena Yazzie, Hard Rock Reservation, Rocky Ridge AZ
(not the image I intended for this post but can't find where I filed the one I was thinking of)

If you live here in Connecticut, you've heard that phrase in the title eleventy billion times this week. Enough so just the first three words set your teeth on edge and make you wish to throw a phone across the room. Newsflash, we need to add an area code to all our phone calls. My speed dial is despeedified and geez is it hard to remember to punch in three extra numbers when you're calling someone who lives three houses away. I wish the recording you get when you screw up showed just a trace humor, instead of a scolding.

I'll leave you with a true but embarrassing audio book story: I am now so deeply engrossed in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo audiobook that I look for excuses to get in the car and hear more.(yes I do realize I can listen indoors too).I am loving the whole Swedish setting & characters, they are always making open faced fish sandwiches & drinking coffee or aquavit. Of course I think I know who did it. I need to see if my hunch is good. Listening on the way to drop my car at the mechanic's for a small repair, I pulled into the lot as a character entered the bedroom of another in the middle of the night. He said" are you OK?" and she replied " I'd like to have sex" . I pushed the pause button . Clearly the next line was going to be an action description of what they did and how it went.

I just KNOW the mechanic had to take the car for a test drive and I just KNOW he hit the ON button thinking he'd hear some tunes on the radio and instead heard a rich British acccent describing two people with swedish names having sex. You know he now thinks I am a pretentious perv who listens to well narrated audio pornography. Way to be remembered at the garage ! Skol.

cue the percussion

and the winner is....
Diane of WoolandSpice, Harry Potter on audiobook will be on it's way to you as soon as you send me your email & address.

Thanks for all the suggestions for my future book listening. And in case anyone wonders,check this out:

If you're thinking "..what're the chances?" .... It's 1 in 50. I know, probability is like that. Weird.

mid month review

Ahem. I called this meeting to review the status of monthlong goals and objectives. Referring to post 349 dated Nov 2 . Entitled "commitments with issues":

1. NaKniSweMo First let me say I heard Shannon Okey speak last Friday night and she smoothly spews out NaKnitSweMo as a noun, no pausing or giving it verbal quotation marks. Because she is just. that. cool. As far as my personal progress? I cast on this manly cabled sweater for Dave, got a good manly cabled start, and then found I had less manly cable knitting time than I thought. No way it will be done by month's end. Fail. But win for me because I love this kind of knitting and the Ultra Alpaca from my new LYS, Knit NewHaven , is heavenly to handle.

Win for Dave, who hasn't had a new handknit sweater in ages. Also win for me, I am tired of looking at this last one, which appeared recently for its 15th season. You'll note it is also manly cabled. What can I say? The guy knows what he likes.

2. NaPoBloMo The truly alert amongst you may have noticed this commitment was dated November 2nd which means..yup,technically a fail before I began. Cool. No pressure. So I missed another day in there too? Big deal. It's the 18th today. I'm declaring this one a cautiously optimistic win.

3. Vestvember Beyond fail. A non-start. I kept it real with my other projects....

4. ...such as the Red Scarf Project which I wouldn't dream of missing. I'm finishing this one I began last year. The brightness , randomness of striping and simplicity of stitch are a fine counterpoint to the manly cabled knitting . Although it may not be ideal (nongender), I feel pretty sure it'll find it's way to the right college student through the OFA.

5...and some holiday gift knitting. It's Malabrigo and it feels so fine I decided to wind the ball by hand last night, so I could touch all 215 or so yards. .

The color is Pearl. Mushroomish, purplish, slightly blackish shade with undeniable pearlescence. For a requested grey accessory. I think this'll work.

6. No more procrastinating on some long term cleaning/sorting/organizing. Hmmmmm. I read an essay I found helpful. So. I'm going to choose to go make a list of tasks, and it'll be imperfect. And then I'm heading off to the gym.

Meeting adjourned.
(This was written earlier, and I did make it to the gym after the list. The items on the list, well, see imperfection, above)

3 glimpses

Still putting the final touches on showing the whole Make Mine Local indie fiber fashion experience from the Common Cod Fiber Guild. You know, fixing the collar and getting the ID's straightened out for the models & designers.

Until then just this little peek.

Back soon with the real deal.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

You can enter to win the Harry Potter audiobook giveway until midnight Wednesday Nov 18th, leave a comment here.

you've been volunteered

My niece was drafted into being photo assistant and subject for some swift dramatic lighting tests just before the models and their fab fiber designs posed at Make Mine Local last Friday night in Boston .( I'll show and tell them tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.)
It's not that she minded helping me out for the night. She just didn't have any choice.

I know how she feels. My neighbors have decided we will have a knitting group and I will teach them how to knit worsted weight socks. Or ....whatever. This has been the buzz on the beach, half jokingly , for the last few summers, that we'll have a knitting society in the fall. Never happens. Just found out I've been drafted, Thursday night is our first gathering.

Not that I mind.

Still time to enter the giveaway for the Harry Potter audio book. Go ahead, leave me a comment here.

an assist

iphone photo

I put three little pumpkins on the mailbox. The wind must've grabbed a leaf off the lawn and stuck it in the handle. I've been Martha'd by Mother Nature.

If she could upgrade those ugly house numbers, that'd be a Good Thing. I swore I'd do that right away when we bought the place. 17 years ago.

p.s. file under: There's A Website for Everything, subfolder: lose 30 minutes browsing house numbers here

pps If you haven't already entered, the giveaway for Harry Potter on audio book is till open, on yesterday's post.

and, ummmm, also the dog ate it

Just yesterday morning I fully committed and put the NaPoBloMo button in my sidebar. I put a stickynote on my monitor with a list of blog post ideas flitting through my brain. On top of things , was I ! Then I headed north to Boston for the Common Cod Make Mine Local fiber fashion show, with a stop enroute in CT for a meeting.
The event was fabulous. But I didn't get home till the wee hours of this morning. And never posted for Friday the 13th. ooops. Ironic, eh?

You know what helped my tired ass self drive back here ? A terrific audio book. Random House Audio Books asked if I'd like to review one of their titles. I have to admit I've fallen out of the habit of listening to audiobooks. Back in the (way back) darkroom days of black & white film, I discovered audio books as the perfect accompaniment to the task. I was a finicky listener- anything too literary and metaphor-laden needed too much concentration. Anything twee- like charming vignettes of life in Provence- made me feel like gagging. Mysteries totally worked. Lots of plot, one strong main character to bond with, entertaining.

Anyhoo, sorry, got lost in my old silver chemical fumes there for a moment. The lovely PR person sent me Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I am partially through ( it is 16 cd's of story). I cruised over the rainy dark roads lost in this fabulous Swedish mystery, read in sonorous tones. If you click the link above (you need to go to my blog for real, if you're using a blogreader, the clip is missing) you'll hear a snippet. Highly recommend. I woke up wondering how Lisbeth Salander was going to deal with her guardian and when she'd cross paths with the Vanger mystery & Blomkvist. (and do not tell me if you know)

To celebrate my renewed fondness for listening, Random House gave me a gem to give away: one brand spanking new copy of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone unabridged audio cd recording to a randomly chosen comment on this post, open till midnight Wednesday November 18th.
Mention an audio book you recommend in your comment, if you can think of one. Or not. All comments will be entered.

Just remember to leave your email address or link to your blog, since I'm on Blogger a lot of the comments don't link back to you.

goings on of note

This Friday evening (tonight!) in Boston, the Common Cod Fiber Guild is putting on Make Mine Local, a fashion show of area indie fiber fashion design. Shannon Okey was the juror and will be there in person to emcee.( Her blog. ) There'lll be some live music and plenty of interesting knits.
I'm going to head up there to photograph and wallow in fibery creativity.

It'd be great to see you there, its at MIT, 50 Vassar Street, 7 pm.
But if you can't make it -- you can see us thanks to a live streaming feed.
That should be nothing to yawn at!

help wanted

Joan & I are seeking an intern - an editorial assistant- to help us with our new book project.

Details here. Interested? We can't wait to hear from you.

Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.- Pearl Buck

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.--Eleanor Roosevelt

*apologies for cross posting with the Shear Spirit book blog, for anyone who visits both.

a net

is not as slimming as one would hope for a sweater fabric. But I'm still happy.

I like a rumply cardigan I looked too buttoned down when I had it buttoned up.

pattern: Annette from Knitty Summer 2009
yarn: the lamentably discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed
(that there is a link to a place that seems to have it in stock. Pounce!)
needles: size 6 us
notes: I started this in the sunshiney days believing I was knitting a sweater a month in 09. In late July I thought it'd be a wonderful cap sleeved little cardi to wear over a black tank top. It became an autumn knit and long sleeves were obviously the way to go. First I knit a long sleeve using the diameter of the short cap sleeve in the pattern. It was wide & blocky. Starting over wanting a fitted sleeve, I cast on 41 stitches and knit it up from the cuff, increasing gradually until I'd reached the cap sleeve diameter in the pattern.

Funny yet embarrassing story: I was seaming the sleeves at SnB, and my friend the Archiknist, who designs fabulous sweaters & has an analytical eye, wondered why the sleeves weren't designed to be knit in the round. I agreed with her, and then said I wish I'd thought of that, and we even had an extended conversation on how lazy designers could be, not wanting to write out a 4 row lace stitch pattern in the round vs back & forth as in the cardi body, tsk tsk tsk. I was looking at the seams and the way the increases on the sleeve row edges were forming solid little stockinette islands along the inner arm seam, I was thinking that the designer could've maybe been more clever with that, too.

Then it struck me. She didn't design any long sleeves at all. It was my idea to knit them flat and to increase on the seam. Forehead smack. Thwack!

And, Ok, Lulu was right about the buttons.I guess she saw the writing on the wall. Very smart.

If you are coming to Make Mine Local in Boston Friday night, the indie fashion show put on by the Common Cod Fiber Guild, you might just catch me wearing this. See you there?

Sweater photos posed by my new favorite coffee shop. Vegan BLT's? what is not to love?

bit of red

I can hardly comment on the collections I found at my aunt's home on Friday. She had a thirty year headstart on me. I'm no slouch. The next generation will have plenty to work with here.

Speaking of red & the work of another generation (smooth segue, no?)...

photo courtesy of Rita Zucker

My mom sent me this shot of scarves she & her friend Claire knit for the Red Scarf Project of the OFA. Deadline's December 15th to donate a handknit scarf for a former foster kid now in college. If you start one soon, surely you can finish it in time for this very worthy cause. It means more than you think. And, go check out the contest Norma's running for contributors.

My mom's been a supporter of the Red Scarf project ever since we learned about it, in 2006. She's helped out when I've done photo shoots for them in the DC area. The first year she had a college student run up & hug her to thank her and say how much it meant, and she saw "red scarf kids" volunteering as packers get all excited picking out scarfs. She's been knitting, spreading the word & recruiting knitters ever since. Like her senior center gym buddy Claire. Claire's scarf is on the left (pattern unknown). In the center, is my mom's Luna Lace Scarf from Shear Spirit, (yeah, nepotistic choice, nothing wrong with that, right?). She modified for DKish weight yarn, knitting it over 35 stitches. On the right, she knit a checkerboard textured pattern (generic pattern here). I saw that one in person, it looks...dare I say? very smart.

Funny, yet awful, story: Claire had knit a fourth red scarf, she'd blocked it, folded it carefully and put it in a box on a shelf by her front door to bring to the gym to hand off to my mom. Her husband, being a helpful sorta guy, thought it was a trash box and took it out. Not to a garbage can. He threw it down an incinerator chute in their building.

Can you feel her pain? Claire didn't talk to him for almost 2 days.

on second thought

My new hat. When I put it on my head I thought this is IT, this is what I want in a new hat.
Pattern: Felicity
Yarn: Sport weight- 1 skein of Six Paca Farm alpaca (description here) , and 1 skein of Frog Tree alpaca in gold. I am crazy about these colors together. I'm tempted to add a small amount of bright red stitching embellishment. For some reason this color combo speaks to me this week.
Needles: sizes 3 & 5 US
Notes: Ok, this is such a cool hat if you look at it on Ravelry , mostly knit in worsted weight. Or here's a good example.There are, like, hundreds to admire.This is a lighter weight yarn so I modified the pattern , by casting on 96 stitches to start and increasing starting with K6 M 1, until I worked up to K12 M1 .
Since the yarn is thinner, I worried the hat wouldn't be long enough. A baggy beanie? No thanks. I added 8 rows before starting the decreases. And I knit 3 rounds between each decrease row.

When I first put it on my head I thought I was all that. I had the slouchy hat I wanted.

Now, I'm thinking maybe too much volume. At some point slouch just becomes...pouf. So this may get a restructuring. Or I may just be lazy and wear it.

brought to you by the letter b

My Annette is blocked & dry.

Thanks to yesterday's long roundtrip in my new car mobile blocking unit. Funny view back there- some photo equipment, my yoga mat and knitting. Throw in a cup of coffee, maybe a little dark chocolate, and there you have me. Thing wise, I mean.

I found these bug buttons marinating in my button tin. My sister Lulu brought them back from England for me a long time ago- maybe a decade or more. I've been saving them for just the right sweater.

As luck would have it, she popped by as I was contemplating giving them this permanent home. My other option, also under consideration at the moment, was mismatched vintage (and here vintage means not sure where they came from) green buttons. She told me I could do that if I wanted to "perpetuate my patchwork potholder look" . Or I could use the bug buttons if I wanted "a smarter style". Being mature and all, I didn't say anything in a sarcastic Goofy voice like "well, garsh, who wouldn't want to look smart" . But you know, I think I'll go for it.

a mere shadow of a post

I had a half-decent post planned for today. But I just got home, 10 pm, after a day spent on Lawn Guyland going through an aunt's home before she sells it, then visiting her in the hospital--and much contemplating on the nature of STUFF, mortality, time passing and gawdawful traffic. Really- 3 1/2 hours to travel 93 miles??!!

So, a shadow is what I have for you.
Till tomorrow.

do handknit socks reduce stress?

You wanna talk stressed? Bridgeport CT is stressed. I still like to look at it though.

Last week a reporter from cnn.com called me, writing about professions identified as being high stress compared to the level of pay. I figured she was looking to talk about the stress of working as a commercial photographer in this cruddy economy. It turns out the stress factors identified are deadlines, crazy, weird or precarious working conditions, unpredictable budgets while keeping clients happy and the pressure of needing to always produce fabulous work.

Really? These are things I like about the job. A little chaos is good, that's my motto.
So here I am as the commercial photographer poster child. When's the last time you saw handknit socks on CNN ?

what i learned today

#1 If I am out of caffeinated coffee , I must not make a pot of decaf and try to fool myself . It will result in headache and crankiness in the extreme by 2 pm.

# 2 Having the photo editor of a lifestyle magazine I admire asking me to make & send a quickie glimpse inside my home is humbling. Very.

1st tuesday in november

Is it weird that this is what I consider an all-american image? I heart diners.

My day as an Election Official got off to a whomping headstart. As bad as the 5 am call time at the polls was, the as-yet-unexplained way that I read the clock wrong and was ready at 4 am, fully dressed and out the door was even worse.

No matter. There's something about being hands-on so close to the nuts & bolts of democracy, and the nuts & dolts of my community, that I have to love it.

commitments, with issues

Oh, the pressure. November. A month when the darkness comes too early each day. A month to cast your ballots* in the US. A month to commit.
NaKniSweMo 2009 ? Vestvember ? NaBloPoMo ? Yeah, sure, why not.

If you ask me, all uncooked tomatoes have issues. The gooky stuff with seeds.

Well, umm, in the past I've had a mixed record with these sorts of efforts. Daily blogging? Sorta kinda made it through the month. Scrolling back from that link, I see I fell apart around the 21st. A sweater in a month ? OK, that I've done a few times but the year long effort ? Pfffffft. Gone with the summer breezes, I'm just putting the final touches on # 7.
A vest in November? When I joined Vestuary, I finished it in April.
So I'm not making any promises. We'll see how it turns out. Sometimes different is good.

* don't forget to go vote tomorrow (Tuesday) if you're in the US. I'm working it again, I got a promotion to tabulator tender. woohoo! Take pity on your poor Election Officials. We're there from 5 am on to welcome you. Not expecting it to be as exciting as last year, I may get some serious knitting in on that November sweater.