Happy happy joy joy

It's good to be home:



I'd ripped all my cds to my laptop before I moved to Switzerland and despite 3 years of valiant effort, I really never got used to the various cd-less technologies for playing music. I like my ipod when I'm out and about, but when I'm at home I really just want to pop 5 discs in the changer and listen to them on a stereo. So I'm very happy to be reunited with all my cds! Now, if I could only make a dent on the 100+ item wishlist I have going at Amazon..... And yes, that's some vintage VHS Spinal Tap in the corner!

I've been pretty busy the past few weeks! I rented an apartment in St. Paul. It's an enormous one bedroom with some nice older touches such as these leaded glass (?) windows in the dining room (the walls are actually white but I turned off the flash to try and catch the wall sconces):





and the exposed woodwork in both the living room and dining room:


I've spent a sickening amount of money getting it set up. It's funny, I don't mind throwing down a c-note for some books, but when I have to drop $500 at Target on "cheap plastic crap", I get all anxious about spending so much money. The couch gets delivered next week and I should be able to pick up my mattress tomorrow or next week and then I'll be all set to move in!

I'm knitting on some baby's things--pictures soon!

Some yarn and things

It's been a busy 6 weeks since I got home. Apparently once I'm no longer being paid to sit at a computer all day, I really don't want to sit at one all day! I haven't been up to much since I got back. I spent a few weeks hanging out at my mom's place in Oregon, seeing old friends there and up in Seattle and Vancouver, BC. Then I took Amtrak out to Minneapolis and have been chilling at my dad's place for the past couple weeks. I wasn't sure how quickly I'd start looking for my own apartment, but it turned out to be very quick--guess I've lived alone too long to be spending much time in the spare bedroom at home! So I've already rented an apartment in St. Paul--I got approved on Friday and hope to sign the lease ASAP so I can go buy some more cheap crap at IKEA! My new place seems enormous (1 bedroom with a separate living room and dining room!) and cheap ($700) and incredibly quiet (residential street!). I'm just eager to stop living out of a suitcase.

I had a good time in Tallinn, Estonia right before I headed back to the States. My friend and I stayed right in the old town and had a nice leisurely vacation--the kind where you sightsee about 3 hours a day and spend the rest of it lounging in coffee shops or the hotel room. It was exactly what I needed after all the stress of arranging the move and everything! I was on a mission to buy some pre-label Kauni/Evila yarn and managed to hit the motherlode. I don't have pictures of all of it (can't seem to download to my new computer and am too lazy to set the old one back up just now). I bought about 8 pounds--here is some of it drying in my mom's back yard:



There is enough of each colorway for a sweater (I hope!) and there is another colorway not shown (sort of an orangey-fall scheme) along with some undyed browns I bought to stretch out the yardage in case I run short.

I've been knitting on my bog jacket out of this same yarn but haven't been making any progress since I got to Minneapolis. My cat not only remembered me immediately (yay!) but has also expressed her infinite love of nice scratchy wool--she will not leave the sweater, so it's turned into a temporary cat bed! I guess I'll be knitting her a blanket out of one of the colorways so I can have my sweater back!!!

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I'm incredibly glad to be home and glad the economic apocalypse has calmed down a bit! I've been guzzling root beer like there's no tomorrow and sampling the gluten free goodies on offer and just generally being happy. The saddest thing about leaving Switzerland was that I really wasn't sad to leave at all, which says a lot!

I'm pathetically far behind on my blog reading--I imagine I'll get caught up and actually post more here once I have an actual desk set up in my new place! For now, just picture me curled up happily next to my cat who is curled up in cat-nirvana on some scratchy Estonian wool!