That was a quick month.

For some reason, April felt shorter than February did.

Weather-wise, it's been a bit of everything, including snow (most recently on April 22nd), thunderstorms, lots of rain, lots of sunshine, and high temperatures ranging from just above freezing to over 70(F).  Neither my sinuses or my throat are very happy.  Some of us joked while waiting for a work meeting to begin that we didn't know if ill feeling was from the vaccine or spring.

I'm still staying home, still enjoying lots of arts and lectures and virtual travel.  I hope that organizations continue to offer programming online even when we can be in person again, because it enables me to enjoy so many more things, as in one day I can be in Chicago, New York, and Buenos Aires, or in a 24-hour period attend events in Dallas, Connecticut, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Work is busy, although less so than in March.  It feels odd to work ten hours a day, instead of sixteen or twenty.  I've been able to avoid work at least one day a weekend also, which feels just as odd.

Mini-Resolution Report

Much the same as before.  I have finished some knitted items, but not my UFOs.  Although I wasn't going to do it, I pledged to make some items for charity, and those proceed.  I've put it aside to finish a gift that I hope to finish by midweek.  I guess we'll see.

Not So Taxing

I meant to post this yesterday, which would traditionally be Tax Day in the USA, the deadline to file our income tax returns.  Except that this year, like last, the IRS extended the deadline, and so did the states.

Otherwise, life continues much the same.  I took a couple days off work, once we got the Very Big Massive Deal signed, and during one received one part of my Pfizer vaccine:

I've read that the Pfizer CEO says that we'll need a booster shot in 6-12 months, and although I hate shots I am OK with it because that sounds like the regular influenza vaccine, with a booster against new strains every year.  With all the variants popping up in the last couple of months, I'm not surprised to hear we'll need the booster.

I took the days off partly as comp time and partly in case I had a reaction, which I didn't.  No side effects to report, other than a very sore arm for several days, and a horrible headache which could be from allergies as much as from the vaccine.  The weather was lovely those days and I went for walks.

In fact:

As you can see, I did a LOT of walking.  An unannounced goal of mine for this year - a mini-resolution, if you will - was to have a week where every day I:

• Walked at least 250 steps in each hour of the 9:00am-6:00pm timeperiod, when my FitBit is set to vibrate if I have not walked enough.
• Walk not only the 10,000 steps per day goal, but enough steps to walk at least 8km (for some reason, this is also a goal widget) daily, which for me is over 12,500 steps.
• Sleep at least 6.5 hours per night.  This is not easy for me even when I am not working on a Very Big Deal requiring 14-22 hour days.
• Walk or do something else, such as my Saturday yoga, to count as exercising for at least a half-hour every day.
• Not shown above: use the new meditation/mindfulness module every day.

Last week was the one where I accomplished these goals.  The exception was the mindfulness; I didn't use it on Saturday, thus only six of seven days (I have it set for three, so it was overachieving anyway) and since I did a yoga class on Saturday which includes meditation, I counted it as good enough.

All those steps on Sunday?  I participated in Foodshare's Virtual 5K Race Against Hunger, and that is the day I did my walking.  Of course I wore food-themed items:

I forgot to wear my race bib, but it didn't matter.  Donations from friends and family exceeded my goal, and together everybody raised plenty of money for the food banks.

April Mini-Resolution mid-month report

I started the DFW Fiber Fest top, and at this point am past the sleeve separation, so it's plain work on the body until the end.  I added the seed stitch borders when I did the separations; the pattern has you do it at the end, but I wanted to be sure I have enough yarn.

The Board posted on social media that this would have been the weekend for DFW Fiber Fest this year and encouraged people to post photos from past years.  Of course my social media feed has been full of class projects, stash enhancement, and yarnbombings from years past, as well as some of the theatre I attended on the non-speaker nights.  Here's looking forward to next year!

No Fooling

I very much intended to write a post yesternight, to have at least two per month, but March is the end of my company's fiscal year and I was flat-out to get a deal done - and then we had annual HR training to complete.  So I was trying to get that done by midnight as well, after an all-nighter on the deal.  At least in business, March was a lion all the way through.

April definitely is starting with showers, which are not as photogenic as snow, so you'll have to trust me for the weather report.  Farmstands and nurseries have flowers for sale, and I had some brave purple crocus on Tuesday, poking above the leaves and branches from last weekend's storms.

Last night was the monthly Cooking Club, and while I'd planned to bake something, I then remembered it's Passover plus the yearend madness, so I made Chili Colorado, called that because it is supposed to be red.  Mine came out more brown, because of the chilis I used.  They were from a friend who grows them and sent some dried ones a couple summers back that I hadn't completely used.  I nibbled one and it didn't seem very hot, so I threw in a handful of pieces that looked about correct.  I must have gotten a very cool corner to nibble.  Luckily I am a chili-head, but BOY!!  I am going to add some potatoes when I reheat the stew, to help mitigate the punch.  The meat is bison from a local farm, and while it was a bit annoyingly chewy when I took some out for the cooking club, the meat I left simmering in my slow cooker (handier for me than the recommended dutch oven, especially as I had only a pound of meat and so had to scale the recipe a bit) absolutely fell apart on the fork.  Definitely a winner, and I recommended that if you don't like heat, put in a spoonful of paprika instead, to get the flavour.

March Mini-Resolution Closing Report

Small progress made on the Omega Shawl, partly because it's in the loooooooong rows phase and it's difficult to notice progress.  I put a small safety pin every twenty rows (ten eyelets) on the leading border as a way to keep track.  No progress on any other UFO.  Some reading done, but no book completed.

I did finish the BLUE project for the KnitTalk Q1 Make-Along, and tomorrow I announce the theme of the Q2 Make-Along.  People are speculating like crazy.  Here's the finished hat:

I am going to donate it to Mittens for Akkol, and there's enough yarn left (Koigu Premium Merino, long in the stash) to make a pair of matching mittens, I think.  Those probably won't have the dots pattern because I don't feel like figuring it out to match the mitten stitch count.

I started a couple more hat-and-mitten sets for them as well.  Because of travel bans information about the grads was handled via email and phone, so we don't have their colour preferences and people who knit sweaters just assign them, then people can make accessories to match.  I had a couple of sweaters done "on spec" - really to try a top-down patternbook, which I can definitely recommend - so I assigned those to grads and looked for yarn to march others' sweaters.  This is giving me a chance to make something of very old New Zealand yarn (it was in my stash before I went there) so I am enjoying the feel of it even though I wouldn't wear the colour.

April Mini-Resolution

Now that the weather is a bit more reliably warm, I want to get out and do a long walk at least once a week.  I did manage to fit one in the weekend before last; last weekend I worked almost the whole time, and during the little gap I had the weather was not my idea of pleasant.  I'm not that dedicated.  It felt very good to get in the one long walk and I want to get back to those.

Since DFW Fiber Fest is again not occurring - it was one of the first events cancelled due to the pandemic last year - and usually occurs in late March or early April, I decided that this week I would knit something from yarn I purchased in their virtual vendor hall last year.  My social media feed has been full of pictures I took in past years of class projects, the yarnbombing, and my acquisitions in the vendor hall.  Of course I haven't had much time, even for a very simple item, but I started this:

Then I frogged and re-started because (1) the collar rolled and I needed to do it on much smaller needles, and (2) the circular needle's cord was very twisty and I was tired of fighting it.  A couple quick dunks in very hot water and holding it taut helped to relax it a bit.  I would like to finish this so I have it to wear next year, and hopefully this summer.  The colourway is Fiberlady's "Oh Happy Day", which was a special fundraiser for DFW Fiber Fest during the virtual vendor hall.  It seems so appropriate to work on right now.

Also to make progress on at least one of the official UFOs, although I suspect that the other items for Mittens for Akkol will take over the time, so I can get those done and shipped.