Lou – Page 4 – Enchilada Sunrise

And we’re back

I thought I wasn’t going to get to post today, because the website has been down since about midnight last night, and it wasn’t looking hopeful! But then my host fixed everything (hooray), and although I had to restore a couple of posts again, at least I had a backup of my own this time. That’s right, I got cautious.

So today, while I’ve been working on the site design, I’ve only just uploaded it, and… well, a couple of things aren’t quite working yet. Ah well, try again tomorrow. I’m happy enough with most of it.

Now, I’m off to bed, as I am library-ing in the morning. Good night!

Coding, Comments and Connectivity

I’ve been faffing around with the design of the non-blog pages on this site today and yesterday… and I’ve made a right hash of it! That’ll teach me to try modifying someone else’s code rather than writing my own. I’m going to take a step back and do some rewriting – it’ll make more sense to me that way, and hopefully even work!

In other news, today is the start of this month’s IComLeavWe, and marks a year since I first joined that group! Maybe I’ll try for Iron Commenter status this time around. I’ll have a crack, at any rate.

IComLeavWe: Join the Conversation

Comments awaaaaaaaaaay! (If only the website will stay up; this server move seems to be taking longer than I expected… Apparently there are now some issues with SQL that’s causing database connection errors. Which temporarily eats this site! Hopefully that will be fixed soon.)

Family Reunion

My brother and sister-in-law got home from their honeymoon today, hooray! They’ve been in New Zealand for two months, so it’s lovely to have them back and be able to see them and chat to them in person, rather than just reading about their adventures on their blog!

This afternoon we’ve been over to their place to say hi and see some of the photos they took. They met up with some NZ cousins of ours while they were there, so it was lovely to see pics of them. I think we still have some photos to see, though – there are lots and lots! :-)

Repost for 18 Nov: In which my computer was unhappy, but my web server more so.

I should have taken a back-up after I posted yesterday. I should have known. But silly me, I didn’t. So the entry I did post is gone, eaten I assume by the server move that’s happening with my web host at the moment. It didn’t help that I was having computer troubles the same day.

My livejournal feed did manage to grab the entry before it vanished again, so I can tell you that it was posted at 23:57, the post id is one which doesn’t exist in my current database, and the excerpt text (whyyyyy did I never change to full text feeds?!) says:

“Oh dear, my computer hasn’t been firing on all cylinders today. I’m pretty sure the problem was with my virus checker since it all started after a change to that. I’ve run a ‘repair’ thingy on it, and hopefully everything …”

… and then I continued on to say that all should work now, fingers crossed etc, the end. That LJ feed will only stay there for 10 days, I think, so it’s not a permanent record. Bah!

I hope the mods are OK with counting this for yesterday’s NaBloPoMo entry, considering I did post, but it vanished. I shall drop them a line to check, I think.

Proof Positive

This will make more sense after reading the next chronological post, but the proper post from 18th Nov went missing. But! Here is proof that it did exist:

The lost post on the LJ syndicated feed — The LJ syndicated feed

Having heard back from the lovely Nablopomo mod, I have the go-ahead to backdate this post so that I don’t miss out on an entry yesterday. Hooray!

I fibbed

Well, sort of – I said I would post pictures of the finished shawl today, and I haven’t got around to taking and uploading them yet. What I do have is a sort-of, half-finished, almost new blog design. Yeah, I know, but it’ll do for now – there will be many more adjustments to come. It’s a fork of the Thirty-ten WP child theme. Pictures by me, some things (like the Rav bars) not working yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Typing + tiredness = not working

Since I’m extremely tired today (I have new medication which is making me drowsy, hopefully just for the adjustment period, and every time I sit down somewhere relaxing I drop off!), I’m not going to say much again. I haven’t managed to finish the shawl yet, but just have the cast off edge to go. I’ve been setting the twist of some of my handspun:

(excuse the rubbish photo), and also marvelling over how the Xandermog can go from FULL ON PESTER mode to fast asleep, you-can’t-wake-me in under five minutes flat. Still when the result is this little face:

how can you complain?

Nearly done!

Just two rows to go on the Gap Year Travels shawl now:

Gap Year Travels / Travelling Woman shawl in progress — Travelling Woman "Gap Year Travels" shawl in progress

I’m planning to finish it and leave it blocking before I go to bed. Yay!

Things and Stuff

Today has been a day of variety, which has been nice! I started out by going up to the Christmas fair for Mum’s church – I got there quite late on, so I helped clear up and carry the remaining stuff back up to the church. I got a few nice cards and nick knacks for gifts, so that was a worthwhile trip. Then I walked with Mum back to her house for a drink and then a lift home.

On the way up to Mum’s place, I stopped off and did a geocache that was en route. It took me a bit longer than I’d planned due to me being disorganised with my stuff, but it was still a speedy one. Not a micro one this time, but a still small one. So not big enough to put the travelling monkey into, yet. Poor monkey! I’ll move him on soon, by hook or by crook!

After visiting at Mum’s for a while, we came back here and had dinner – stir fry followed by cupcakes! Then Mum went home and I’ve been knitting and watching Strictly Come Dancing. I’m still working on the Travelling Woman, but hopefully I’ll be done soon. Maybe tonight? Maybe tomorrow.

And then I’ve been playing with Blip.fm – I’ve put a widget linking to my account there in the sidebar, and I think it’s possible to play some tracks directly from here? I’m not sure, I’m still figuring it out. That’s not what I’m using it for, anyway. Mostly I’m listening to the songs my friends have playlisted. Is that even a word? Probably not, but I know what I mean, and I’m sure you do too. Anyway, I thought I’d put the widget up here because in the first place I can, and also because I’m trying to get all my web stuff better linked together. Integrate my web presence. Oh how pretentious. ;-)

Applying myself

I need an editor to stop me from making horrible puns, don’t I? But it’s true, today I have been applying myself to plying two bobbins of handspun together. I haven’t done the whole lot yet, and there won’t be pictures because this is for the Limegreenjelly Christmas swap. Which means I don’t want my partner to see what I’ve been working on for her, mwahahah… eek, hope she likes it!

Other than that, I’ve also been (still) working on the “Gap Year Travels” Travelling Woman shawl… and I can’t remember if I mentioned this, but I’ve called my particular version of it Gap Year Travels because the colourway of the yarn I’m knitting it in is called Byron Bay. Which is somewhere I visited while travelling in Australia on my gap year. Anyway, I’ve nearly finished the shawl – ten rows or so to go, and I don’t think I’m going to have enough of the yarn left. Fortunately, I do have some solid blue that goes with it well enough that I can use it to finish off. I hope! If that doesn’t work, well, I put in that lifeline, so it’ll be easy to rip back without dropping any stitches. If a bit of a nuisance. But then I’ll definitely have enough yarn to finish off the edging chart.

In other news, marmite rice cakes are delicious. That is all.

Not-a-Friday 5

I have no blogging inspiration today, so let’s have a meme instead! I’m going to fall back on the Friday 5, which is always fun when I remember to do it!

Friday 5 for November 5: Packing

How far ahead of time do you begin packing for a weekend trip?
Planning, 2-3 days beforehand, depending on where I’m going. Actual packing will be the night before. I am little miss last minute!
What was your most recent purchase of a six-pack?
Technically yesterday when my groceries were delivered, including a couple of six packs of Pepsi.
What do you look for in a good everyday backpack?
Comfy straps, at least two pockets with a couple of small compartments for things like my mp3 player etc, waterproofing, and in colours that I like!
Among people you know, who’s the worst packrat?
Me, I think. Ooops!
How do you know when it’s time to pack it in each evening?
When the cat comes to demand his supper, or when I’m starting to doze off, if I don’t have anything in particular on the next day. If I have something on, then it depends on what time that is, because if I don’t get a good night’s rest I’ll never get up in time for it.

Stitch by stitch

When I’ve not been out (Tuesdays is the day I volunteer at the library) or on the computer today, I’ve been industriously knitting away on my Travelling Woman shawl. I’m determined to finish it soon! I am a little worried that I won’t have quite enough yarn, but I put a lifeline in so that I can rip back to the middle of the previous patten repeat (if you know the pattern, this is the logical place) if need be. No pictures yet, but there will be once I’ve finished. Go go go!

Fly By

I have no time to make a the post I’d planned tonight (knitting & spinning related)… although it serves me right for leaving it so late. I’d planned to have a nice bath, then post and be off to bed. But no, fate intervened. Or my Downstairs Neighbour did, by hitting the fire alarm for the second night in a row and setting it off (then hiding in his flat until the rest of us banged repeatedly on his door). Luckily I was just out of the bath and decent again! However, now I’ve had to get out of my PJs and dressed again because in all the drama, our neighbour from the garden flat is locked out – he was asleep when the alarm went off, and left his keys in the inside of his front door. Downstairs Neighbour didn’t hit the alarm on purpose, btw – he’d probably had a few and made a mistake. But there’s a £40 call out charge to get the thing fixed. Luckily we had a glass panel so could do it ourselves this time, but… argh! I really hope he doesn’t do it again. But now I must get back downstairs and see what progress has been made Garden Flat Neighbour getting back into his place…

[Half an hour passes]

… Yay, go us! Thanks to a group effort, Garden Flat Neighbour is now back indoors. As are we all, warm and dry out of the pouring rain. It took my ladder, Upstairs Neighbour’s Son#1 (to wriggle through GFNs bathroom window), and GFNs torchlight and assistance in getting Son#1 over the garden wall. And now I’m going to dry my hair, and get myself to bed.