Absence makes the blogging harder...

Well, what's up? or as Tim would say, wazzh-up? Or something like that. Here are a few subjects I want to talk about (not necessarily in this order):
The weekend
Socks
Taxes
Gardening
Knitting
The eye doctor
Preemie Hat
no photos: camera was hijacked and taken to Seattle
ok, so I'll start with TAXES
I signed some papers. At 11:30pm April 15. Here's my take on this: Filing taxes is like giving birth. It is so much work. And so painful. And takes so long. And causes people to say things they should't say. The analogy ends there because the only joy involved is knowing that you met the deadline. That's all I have to say.
The Weekend: It officially started when the taxes got mailed. Then an hour later I took DH to the airport with the hijacked camera, thus no photos. They both went to Seattle for the weekend. Now it's Monday evening and I can hardly remember what I actually did. Oh yes! Since DS went with DH to Seattle, the DD-I-L and I went to Bell's Nursery on Saturday afternoon to look at plants---she with the hope of buying starts for hanging baskets. Now this is Alaska, remember, and the weather has been warm and sunny--close to 50 during the day! And the snow piles are almost gone! So therefore the thoughts about outside things. Well, we hoped to get a jump start on the plants, but for now, we decided we would let them continue to grow in the fine, controlled greenhouse environment for two+ more weeks. The target date for putting living plants outside is Memorial Day. Good thing. I woke up this morning with snow falling, and it's cold today! Another 3-6 inches possible overnight.
SOCKS: Good news! I'm working down the instep of sock #1 and it is beautiful! I was intending to go ask the LYS for help, but it got late on Saturday. As I was perusing _Knit Socks!_ I happened across this helpful statement: "The key to turning a heel is to believe the pattern and follow it for a few rows before forging off on your own." Bingo. I can't believe that the author knows me! So I believed (although hugely skeptical) and voila! It morphed into a heel! So now I look at the sock and I can't figure out exactly what I did. It just doesn't LOOK LIKE what the instructions said you just did. If that makes any sense...So this is a new revelation to me, but for anyone who has made socks, I can hear the derisive laughter.
...and I am making a Preemie Hat in a purple acrylic yarn with "squiggles". This is inspired by the local guild charity knitting for May. Acrylic because the hats have to be sterilized.... pictures to follow when my camera returns and I learn how to do photos...It's cute. I might need another yarn though, since it isn't super soft. And that reminds me of felting...DDIL finished knitting her bag...she came over and we felted it on Sunday. It's drying now. We both stood over the washer and smelled the hot wet wool (very earthy and animal like..like a wet dog...) and marveled at the miracle: the huge funky knitted thing became a gorgeous, chic bag...hopefully I will be able to photograph the wonder bag as well...
I guess that covers the majority of the weekend. It's back to work tomorrow. Oh yes. the kitchen got a good clear out cleaning. Nice...
Eye doctor? That was today too. Kinda disorienting to have the pupils huge all day. Hard to knit...can you spell "ocular hypertension". Otherwise all is ok for another year, unless something unforeseen happens...
Tomorrow: Watch for the Branching Out knit along...and the auction scarf!