Candy Candy

I am hopelessly attracted to Noro Yarn.  Especially Silk Garden.  Every time I see it, I want to buy it, like candy.  I do resist occasionally but earlier this year, I went to drop off some hats for the 25,000 toques project at Main St. Yarns in Milton and saw an afghan, with each square made up of one ball of Silk Garden.  And I immediately planned make it.  I haven't crocheted in at least 20 years but a granny square is like riding a bike.  I loved the process and I love the finished project.  I had an excuse to buy Silk Garden at yarn stores I visited over the next few months which was also a fabulous treat.

The afghan is 24 granny squares, 1 ball per square (so not inexpensive but I've seen Silk Garden on sale quite often).  I joined them together with some leftover solid Silk Garden using a technique I picked up by googling.  And crochet is so quick.  I had forgotten that.  And for a while, I was able to indulge in purchasing candy without guilt.

Walk On

For a long time, I have resisted the lure of the wrist-worn fitness tracker.  I have wanted one but told myself that Map My Ride and the My Health app on my phone were enough.  But yesterday, I finally caved and bought a FitBit.  And am quite enamoured.  The arguments in my head that kept me from buying one in the first place still are sounding .... Will it make a difference in my activity level? In the short term, I can confidently say yes.  Beyond the short term, we'll see.  Will the wristband tell me anything more about my sleep that I don't already know?  I could tell without the wristband that last night's sleep was lousy but we'll see what happens on a regular night.  Do I really want another device to know where I am 24/7?  Not really but I still couldn't resist..

A couple of early benefits ... I have entered into challenges with some of my team at work who have recently bought FitBits.  And I've connected with a sister-in-law who I never see to challenge each other.  And so we walk.  Hopefully farther than my desk job regularly takes me during a day.  We'll see!

Washington

I've been telling myself for a while that I'll get back into posting to this blog.  So here I go, trying again.  This year, to date, has been a mix of big challenges with some very nice things in between.  I guess that is the experience of life compressed into the last 10 months.  After a really rough period at the end of last year and beginning of this year, I've had some travels that have really given me that mental rest that I so desperately needed.  While I'm not out of my mourning phase, I feel like things are starting to right themselves again.  Things will never be the same, as they never will be with big loss, but a new normal is on the horizon.

In addition to a lot of upheaval, I had one of those milestone birthdays that is an upheaval in itself!  I still feel like I'm 30ish, not my real age which I'm not even admitting to myself, let alone my blog!  So in between bad things, we went for a very nice trip to Washington DC.  It is a long drive from Toronto but not unreasonable so we set out.  I loved Washington.  As a Canadian, we can't help but be exposed to US history, politics, pop culture and so on.  So most of the sites in the city were "familiar".  We spent our 3 days there walking, walking and walking.  All along the mall (my favourite spot was the arboretum but I also recommend the Museum of the American Indian and its cafe for lunch), to dinner at Restaurant Nora (a delicious restaurant, conveniently located near Looped Yarn Works, a very nice yarn store where I managed to spend a bit of money, quelle surprise).  All of the war memorials were moving and my favourite presidential monument was the FDR Memorial.  Beautiful and not seemly well known based on the limited number of people there.

At one point on day 2, we rented bikes from the bike share (manly because my feet were killing me and I whined until we rented bikes).  And wouldn't you know it, my bike was a lemon.  I ride my bike all the time and this piece of less-than-stellar engineering made me look like a rookie.  The gears wouldn't change without a good amount of persuasion and the steering was suspect.  I'm not sure how much of the issue was the need for bike repair and how much was the part where I'm used to a very nice road bike … I'm blaming the bike but I guess you also get what you pay for.  We rode from just outside the Capitol,  through the parts of Arlington Cemetery that you were allowed to ride bikes (which was not very much) to Georgetown where, after a couple of tries to find an empty rack, I said good riddance and got back on foot.  I really liked Georgetown but, on a Saturday, so does everyone.  There was a bakery I was hoping to try but the line up out the door dissuaded me.  I considered that to be a positive thing in the end.  Given the other gastronomical delights we experienced while we were there, baked goods, no matter how good, were not really necessary.

On another portion of our DC hike, walking back to our hotel from the mall, we happened upon the Canadian embassy.  No matter where I roam, it is always nice to see a bit of Canada.