It's as cold as...January

Cool braids. From the 2009 Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club

 where we are
  Gerald Locklin

  (for edward field) 

i envy those

who live in two places:
new york, say, and london;
wales and spain;
l.a. and paris;
hawaii and switzerland.

there is always the anticipation 

of the change, the chance that what is wrong
is the result of where you are. i have
always loved both the freshness of
arriving and the relief of leaving. with
two homes every move would be a homecoming.
i am not even considering the weather, hot
or cold, dry or wet: i am talking about hope. 

This is one of those days wherein I wish I could fly off to a place of sun and warmth and flower-scented breezes. Alas, it is not to be.

I should be grateful for the fact that there is only 1 inch of snow on the ground, as compared with last year's Siberia. But it is pretty cold out, and the lack of snow makes the world seem harder - almost like iron.

Spinning: very little progress, but a little is better than none at all.

Knitting: plugging away on the Malthese Flowers shawl when at home, knitting about 2 rounds a day on the sock during lunch at work.

Exercise: free weights and 20 minutes of cycling. I'm now warming up for 5 minutes, then doing 1-minute intervals of "fast-as-I-can-go" and "just-let-me-catch-my-breath" pedaling. It's harder, but it goes faster.

Food/Water: Doing well with both. I mean that in the weight-loss sense, not the "boy, there's so much excellent food/I want it all right NOW!" sense. Slow and steady. If I shed an average of 1 pound per week, I'm happy, and that's the average thus far since the start in early December.

There's no reason to post this photo - I knitted these last winter, but I like them.