Feel the burn!

This morning I and a couple of friends rode our bikes down to the Waterfront to take part in Mayor Jerry E. Abramson's Healthy Hometown Hike and Bike. Yeah, Jerry was there - sportin' some spandex and everything. blarghfph! It was a lot of fun. A few month ago I got a new bike, and have been riding the H-E-double hockey sticks out of it. Today was no exception. I didn't realize it was a 16.1 mile ride until I got there.

I was a bit anxious that my single gear bike wouldn't allow me to keep up with my friends, but this wasn't the case. There were a few hills which got me up off the seat. It was a lot of fun - I'm definitely gonna do it again next year. During the ride, I even ran into a couple of people I haven't seen in a long time - one of which was a college friend I ran a couple of minimarathons with back in the day.

I think I ended up finishing in about 50-55 minutes? The friends I started the ride with finished in 58 minutes, but I got ahead of them at the end (I was riding with my friend from college at the end). Next week, I am seriously considering riding my bike to church. Right after I invest in a new bike seat, or some serious butt padding. Oh yeah, some major glute pain is happening, folks.

In other news, the sock I'm knitting is too small. Yeah, I'm knitting socks - my first pair. I'm close to actually finishing the first sock, and when I do, I'll make a post about it. But right now, I don't feel like writing about a project gone awry. There is no way I'm gonna frog it - it's a perfectly good sock. The problem I have now is to think of someone who is badass enough for these socks I'm knitting...

Life is good. I mean it.

This past Thursday, at SnB at the Nook, I finished my Jared Flood Cobblestone Pullover. Kristen taught me to Kitchener stitch, so I could stitch up the arm pits (thanks, Kristen, you rock). It looks great, and it fits, too - that's always a bonus, huh?

um, i'm too lazy to put of a pic of me wearing it. so here it is, on the hood of the Ranger.

In other news, I've started reading Jane Austen's Persuasion. I've never read any Austen, but lately, I've seen the movies "Becoming Jane" and "The Jane Austen Book Club", and it got me interested in her writing.

I also read Steven Weisman's Chewing Gum in Church last night before going to sleep - I love this guy's comics. And I just started James Kolchaka's The Cute Manifesto, which is sort of an apologetic for creativity.

I have a new favorite movie. I think my favorite movie before this was Amelie - so I'm actually kinda reticent to say it, but its true - I have a new favorite movie. I watched Lars and the Real Girl this past Thursday night (to celebrate the pullover being done), and then Friday on the way home from work, I bought it, and then watched it again. The only other movie I've done that with is Amelie (I had to order it off the internet, because I couldn't find it in stores at the time).

You know what else is weird? I can't freakin' watch a movie without seeing knit/crochet stuff in it - its freakin' everywhere! In Lars, there's a lot of hats and gloves, and he uses a baby blanket his mother knit as a scarf (um, its complicated).

Um, what else... oh yeah, the garden! Its going great. Yesterday, I woke up early and got on my old jeans and boots and dug up more ground for planting. I remade some mounds around the plants (to keep the leaves up off the ground), raked the soil to get rid of any weeds that might be trying to start, and then planted the green, cayanne, jalapano, and banana peppers. Later on, H-bomb and I hung out, and that's when I picked up a habanero pepper plant at the Lowes across the river, along with some sage and two lavender plants. I don't plan on using the lavender, it just smells awesome, thats all. This morning, before church, I was back out in the garden, planting everything I picked up last night. I have a few more spots I could plant something, but I have to quit sometime. And I got a nice tingling sunburn to boot. Folks, it is summertime: get off your duff and go outstide.

the garden


greek oregeno is a good looking plant

Tonight, I'm watching baby Job, so his folks can go out; I'll prolly read, watch Lars and the Real Girl (again), and work on the socks I just started (they'll kick a lot of butt, I'm using Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn, 100 gram skein of a superwash/mohair/nylon blend - the color Rich Red. Ah man, I gotta go, I'll be late for dinner!

Garden? check.

before


after

Here it is: the garden. I'm gonna have to make it larger, though, so I can plant the peppers I bought this week. I got banana, jalapano, cayanne, and green peppers. I still want to get some habanero peppers, and maybe some red peppers. Man, I had a great time getting this garden together. Dirt, old blue jeans, sun, a nice breeze - this is my idea of a good time. When I was watering the garden tonight, I didn't feel so bad about not getting as much done on the sweater as I had hoped to this month.

And then I smacked myself in the head and got back to reality. This sweater needs to get done; its a bad ass sweater, and it's muy gratifying, but I'm getting other projects on the brain, namely, socks. This will be the Summer of the Socks, if I can only get them on the needles. I never thought I'd do it, but I am gonna have to become a two project man, instead of "OCC on one project guy". I knit during the drive home today (yeah, I carpool - go ahead, be jealous), and while unstuffing the sweater from the back pack I carry it in, I realized, "I can't believe I drag this around with me." Anyhow, the sweater is 6/7th of the way done, and I'm working on it every night now; I've already given it a couple hours tonight, and it'll a get a couple more while watching Return of the King for the nth time (the roomie is now down with seminary - so we are going to celebrate with LOTR and Taco Bell!). Good times - the sweater is going really well - just garter stitchin' the yoke, and praise the Lord, I've already got a decrease row done.

Speakin' of praising the Lord, there are knitters at my new church! Ruth, a lady with an English accent, knits socks for all the new members who are women - so when my friend Jamie got her new pair socks from Ruth, she let Ruth know I was a knitter. Ruth is very much a sock knitter - she busts 'em out on DP's, too. Man, it was really cool talking yarn with Ruth - I will definitely have to bring her to the Nook sometime.

A titular change...

If you were able to find my blog, you'll have noticed the change of title. No more Ballisticknitter, it's now Balls of Yarn. My friend D. suggested I call it this, and this was actually one of the options I'd had when I started out. Although the old title was a good one, this title's testicular obviousness has won the day. I plan on making a new banner for the blog soon; hopefully, it'll make ya laugh.

The sweater is still very much happening - I'm going to work on it some tonight. I wanted to work on it at SnB this week, but I forgot my instructions, and wasn't gonna risk having to frog anything else, so i just sat there and griped. I was actually really bummed that I didn't work on it at much this week. I'm a slacker, and I shouldn't neglect it - it mellows me the heck out, yo.

The salsa/chili garden is happening, too. I planted everything last weekend, in spite of warnings it might frost even after Derby. I even had to make the plot a bit larger, make sure the tomatos would have plenty of room to grow. The basil is lookin' a bit rough, but no regrets so far. I still haven't put out any peppers, though. That'll maybe happen next week.

In my next entry, I'll prolly just post some pics of the garden (before/after).

Egads, I'm going outside to enjoy this crazy amazin' weather.