More knitting time?

Everytime I start to get sick, I think, "No problem, just more knitting time!" Apparently, even though I have been sick many times in the last 5 or 6 years since I learned to knit, I have forgotten that being sick does not mean extra knitting time. Being sick means sleeping all day and all night and spending what little time I am awake blowing my nose and taking completely ineffective cold medicine.

All of this to say, I'm sick. :(

I really hate being sick. I'm not sure that many people actually enjoy it, I suppose, but I would just like to state for the record that it is not my idea of a good time. In addition to feeling like crap, I'm missing perfectly good days of work in lab--just when I finally, finally got an experiment to work right. And, on top of that, it finally got really cold in Chicago and I may have missed my only chance to go ice skating this winter.

Yes, I would like a little cheese with my whine. Pass the Brie.

In knitting news, I am still working on the mittens. These are the mittens with the flaps from Handknit Holidays and I just need to knit the flap for the second mitten. Let's not discuss the fact that it'll probably be spring by the time I finish them. At least she'll have them for next winter.

Mittens? What mittens?

So, unless I get really inspired, the mittens will not be done today (which is the last day of Christmas. And since it is--I kid you not--50 degrees here in Chicago today, I sincerely doubt I will be really inspired to knit warm, wool mittens.

The weather has been really screwed up here this winter. Actually, it's been pretty screwed up the last couple of winters. It's rarely below freezing, and sometimes it warms up to the absurd temperature of 50 degrees. We have gotten some snow and there was an ice storm, but those things are anomalies. Mostly, it's been pretty reasonable. You'd think I'd be happy about that but....it's creepy. It's not supposed to be mild. It's supposed to be ridiculously cold. This is Chicago, for cryin' out loud! The past couple of winters, I haven't even been able to go ice skating because there haven't been enough days below freezing. WTF?

1 out of 3 Christmas knitting goals attained

Well, I finished the socks I was making my mother for Christmas. I barely even started the ones I was going to make for my grandmother. I don't know what I was smoking when I thought that I would get those done. I have no idea when/if I'll ever get those done. Finally, I'm still working on a pair of mittens for a friend. Technically, according to the Catholic church, it is still the Christmas season (the days leading up to Christmas are Advent and the Christmas season starts on Christmas day and ends 12 days later on the Epiphany). It is marginally possible I'll finish the mittens by the Epiphany (this Sunday) but I rather doubt it.

I really didn't do much to celebrate Christmas this year. Very little decorating. No baking. No cards. No tree. Just labwork. Always, everyday, labwork. So next Christmas (when I will NOT be in grad school, God willing), I am going to go all out on the Christmas stuff. I'm going to fill dozens of tins with homemade cookies--sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies and spritz and those ones with the Hersey's kisses in the centers. I'm going to send Christmas cards to everyone I have ever met in my life. I am going to have two Christmas trees. I'm going to cover every window and the balcony with lights. I'm going to wrap presents in the most elaborate way possible with fabric wired ribbon and who knows what else. In short, I am going to whoop it up bigtime. Martha Stewart will look at my apartment and say, "Whoa." She will wonder how I find the time to do everything.

That's my plan, anyway.