Let's talk about the weather.

Seriously, I'm running out of things to talk about!! 

So, another ground hog day, and another year I get all confused about shadow or not, 6 weeks of winter or 6 weeks of winter.... Really, that is why I was always confused.  I mean, where I live, the exception is to have only 6 more weeks of winter from this point.  One year, there was a blizzard in May.  Most years, snow hangs around to at least mid April.  Sometimes, though, it can get warm in March.  I remember one year, being outside in the middle of the afternoon wearing just a t-shirt (yes, I was wearing pants- I mean, no sweater or jacket or anything with long sleeves) to clean up the dog stuff.  We did get a few inches of snow later that year, but it was melted away quickly and greened up the yard after the late snow.  I have a feeling, though, that this year, we are going to get a blizzard in March.  I don't know when; it is just a gut feeling.  As long as it doesn't happen on or just before the 30th of March. 

Segue :)

I bought tickets to see a show.  I've seen it before, but I don't mind at all seeing it again.  I took my dear sweet husband with me the last time, but he says he doesn't want to go again.  Honestly, I'm mostly going again because I  kind of messed up buying souvenirs. But, I don't mind seeing the show again at all.  Anyway, I can go by myself, but it is one of those things you want to share.  So, I am taking my oldest grand daughter.  So looking forward to seeing "CATS" again :)

I didn't finish the afghan.  Sorry - no segue here.  I still think I should do some sort of edge.  At least on the top and bottom.  And I still need to weave in ends.  But, I finished doing all the pattern rows.  I wish the picture did justice to the red variegated. 

You can see how much white yarn I have left - it is on the arm of the couch.  The pink thing at the top is a kitty blanket I bought.  It comes with its own pillow, and is sort of like a sleeping bag - sewn together down one side, and across the bottom.  No zipper, though.  And it is toddler size.  BUT - it is a kitty, and it is pink.  Two very important qualities.  And on the wall, you can see the bottom of the composite pictures we got for Christmas, with pictures of past pets.  Here's a close up of the afghan rows:

I had asked in one of the Ravelry groups for help finding a soft rounded ripple type crochet pattern - I don't mind chevrons sometimes, but in this case, I didn't want points, and I didn't want to knit.  Someone directed me to a stitch pattern from Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet.  I had just bought her Encyclopedia of Knitting at the time, so had to hit up the library for the book so I could start.  I've since purchased the book, though.  Anyway - since it was a fairly simple two row repeat, I had no problem memorizing it.  And, I am so very pleased with the result - it almost looks like the knit pattern "Feather and Fan".  :)  Exactly the end result I wanted - soft scallops. 

Well, I wouldn't have gotten all the ends woven in last night anyway.  I had to do some minor adjustments to the house again.  Earlier in the day, I'd let the dogs out.  Our house shifts; specifically, the back entryway shifts a lot.  Sometimes, the door gets a bit out of line, and is a pain to open, close, or lock.  I've made a lot of adjustments over the years... Anyway, I thought the problem was the shifting.  I let the dogs out, they asked to come in, and the lock jammed.  I couldn't unlock the door.  Now, I really wasn't thinking about it at the time, but later, recalled the fact that for some time, now, the key has been acting up.  As in, you really have to wiggle it to make it go in, and more wiggling to make it unlock the door.  This was an intermittent thing, and seemed to only happen when I was trying to use the key... Finally it happened to DH.  But I digress... I wiggled the knob, pushed, pulled, wiggled - finally got the door open. Decided that I wasn't going to be able to go anywhere or lock the door again until something was done.  So, waited for DH to come home from work, then went off to the hardware store to buy a new lock.  Of course, though, while trying to tell him why, the lock behaved itself perfectly.... Well, I bought a new lock, and I've changed door knobs and deadbolts and installed them and everything many a time.  Even the directions that came with it, said something like a five minute job....   Half an hour later.... I had to chisel out the door a bit, as the new deadbolt was just slightly shorter than the old, and to get the screw holes to appear in the proper place in the door meant either a little bit of chiselling, or a lot of drilling and filling.  The good news - we have a nice new lock on our door now.  Works like a charm.  Slick smooth key operation.  Very happy.  The bad news - I thought it would be around 20 bucks for a new lock.  Nope.  Fifty.  Owning a house is expensive.  As well as frustrating....