Computing

You'd think they knew.

I had trouble turning Old Slowcoach on this morning, to record my weight. I succeeded in the end, and made copies while I was there of Quicken, Lotus Organizer, and some important Excel files, namely “Xmas” and the folders “Tax13” and “Tax14”. OpenOffice ought to be able to manage the Excel files. But, oh dear.

(more) Non-knit

I am sorry about the premature Thanksgiving wishes. I should have known. In my youth, there was still confusion about fourth-Thursday and last-Thursday. (They coincide this year, of course.) I think opinions divided on party lines. I can't remember which party was on which side, but I think the Democrats -- Roosevelt and then Truman were in charge in my youth -- must have been the fourth-Thursday people.. We have the same problem in Kirkmichael, where the Games are always on the Fourth Saturday (of August) but even old village hands get confused when that falls on the 22^nd or 23^rd. “Why have they changed it?”

There's something in Swift somewhere, I think, about the question of which end of the boiled egg to open for one's breakfast.

This year, Thanksgiving is really distressingly near Christmas. Have a great day anyway, y'all! Lizzie is to travel eastwards to celebrate with my sister and her husband and some cousins on the paternal side whom I scarcely know. (They – more specifically, by now, their parents -- didn't get on very well with our mother.)

And we are off to Loch Fyne. Alexander says he can't be here to fetch us until 1pm or so, which means we don't even have to suffer much stress about getting ready. 11 am is manageable but tough; 1 pm should be relatively easy. I'll be back here on Wednesday, insh'Allah.

Knitting

Carol Sunday's “Oak Park” yarn kit turned up yesterday – through the letter-box! Hers is the one American website I know – as I mentioned recently – which is aware of the charges levied on the innocent European knitter. I think my escape this time is largely due to the fact that she addressed the package by hand. All the necessary documentation is there, but it doesn't look particularly commercial. I haven't yet emailed my thanks, but I will.

And it's beautiful.

But – we're never satisfied – if it had been the Sensible Christmas Project instead, I could have taken it to Loch Fyne and pretty well polished it off. As it is, I'll take the Pakokku socks, which rarely get an outing these days. I don't get much time in the sock-knitting zone – no travel, efficient waiting-room-time systems in hospitals and dr's surgeries. As I said, we're never satisfied.

I had a look at Sock Sizes while I had Lotus Organizer perilously open just now. The difficulty here is that Pakokku doesn't seem to do its trick except on 64 stitches, and only Greek Helen and Ketki and my sister, amongst my female sock recipients, have feet that big. All three have had recent socks.

I have big feet too, of course, but I don't wear socks much.

As for the domestic scene, I did indeed finish the central panel of the Rams & Yowes blankie, but I managed only one shoulder of the back of the Milano/Relax3. There was time, I could have polished off the other, but by then I was only fit for dead-easy. And there was none to hand. There's something to be said for Multiple WIPs.

I have to confess that, on proofreading this, I found a misspelling in one of the its-s. Either a misplaced apostrophe, or the lack of one where it belonged. I won't go so far as to tell you which.

Until Wednesday, then, when you can expect  pictures of ducks.