tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17648638502648390272011-08-19T03:27:12.889-04:00midlife adventures and misadventures of a middle-aged middle-class midwesterner who aspires to mediocritylisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-70343478553152832862010-04-18T01:24:00.002-04:002010-04-18T02:05:13.172-04:00

So I don't have $10,000 for fat camp, or the inclination or time to stop my life and do some fad thing. I've decided instead to put myself on a strict food/exercise program and have that be my top priority. I am just finishing up my eighth week and am pleased with my general downward climb, slow and steady as it may be.Here's the plan: I am back on Weight Watchers. I stick within my daily points

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-244223907939533132010-04-14T16:26:00.002-04:002010-04-14T16:42:49.038-04:00

So, Lou is gone for a week and I am trying to keep myself in high gear.I kicked butt this last week on the exercise front -- walked South Park, end to end plus extended the route through the woods a bit (5 miles). Walked to PNC Park for T-shirt Thursday, including surmounting Knox Avenue, which looked like a mother fucking Alp when I thought I had finished all the hills, and turned off

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-53606238052090911652010-03-30T00:25:00.004-04:002010-03-30T02:00:56.999-04:00

I like my Pittsburgh graylike silver with gritbridge graysteel grayriver grayrain graythe gray at the bottomof bottomlessold coffeegone gray with milkexplain that to the hapless flywho thought it was liquid skyThe gray of the face of agethat answers the doorinvites you to tour the knick-knackscollected on off-season road tripsto the Outer Banksto Pennsylvania's not-as-grand canyonto the Maple

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-38843507176633641622010-03-26T03:12:00.004-04:002010-03-27T03:16:54.602-04:00

OK, I admit, I can't get it together to write more than once a year or so. Life is bursting full and, much as I pretend in the back of my brain that I am a writer, I must not be, because, well, I don't write.But I do have many ideas. Many, many ideas.I want to write about the quirks of Pittsburgh, about the row of vinyl library-style armchairs outside the abandoned warehouse in Hazelwood and the

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-27847654429984145132009-06-12T03:34:00.005-04:002009-06-12T04:44:57.190-04:00

as usual, as i do with everything, in early may i serendipitously opened a door into machine embroidery that has changed the course of my life -- or at least cost me an ungodly amount of money. i prefer to focus on the curative and spiritual rather than strictly pecuniary aspects. ok it's less painful -- even carthatic -- that way.so here's how it went down:me: no sleep. disconsolate on parkway

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-47517135068177802752009-04-17T02:14:00.006-04:002009-04-17T03:16:19.392-04:00

I can count on two needles the number of days I haven't knit a stitch in the two-something years I've been a knitter. For me, it's a rough-and-tumble contact sport that tackles me, outwits me and leaves me crying softly in a heap on the floor for my dearly beloved to walk pityingly past at the ungodly morning hour when he is waking up and taking off and I haven't yet dragged myself and the

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-92159857966933477352009-03-23T12:51:00.004-04:002009-03-23T13:23:18.151-04:00

So I owe my middle kid a shawl/afghan/big project because I have been promising for a long time and it is way past her turn (if you ask her). And I have attempted a few times but something has always gone wrong -- last time, I tried a ruana like my old knitting bud Elise made her mom (from Cheryl Oberle's "Folk Shawls") with about 40 different yarns but I wandered away from the original color

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-51366409316343711922009-03-20T03:51:00.013-04:002009-03-20T15:29:21.657-04:00

I'm sure there are reasons to love my knitting machine, so I will try to list some:1) It has the word "knitting" in its name2) It looks kinda like E.T. just without any lovable humanoid side3) It's old and funky and when we hang out together I get all greasy and feel like an auto mechanic. Then I remember my 20-hour stint as an auto mechanic was an unmitigated disaster, except for the "I get to

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-13474045250550389322009-03-15T22:34:00.006-04:002009-03-15T23:34:50.223-04:00

I admit it -- I've gained 25 pounds in the 2-1/2 years I've been knitting, and all this sedentary inactivity is getting to me. (What, you mean knit one-purl two isn't aerobic?)I used to be a bit of a gym rat; or at least I've had spells when I was at the gym, or doing something active, once or twice a day. I did a triathlon in '05, and even though I think I had the slowest time in the history of

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-36566801595941604322009-03-02T01:05:00.008-05:002009-03-03T11:18:56.855-05:00

Ahem, so I guess I really can't say I blog if I only blog once a year (or less).But maybe, feeling a little more confident in my knitting these days, I can start making more of a habit of the knitblog thing.I do seem to go through some real knitting highs and lows, more so than in the rest of my life. OK, honestly, I don't really have a rest of my life, so maybe those manic and depressive moments

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-7482400919956933332008-02-28T13:02:00.004-05:002008-02-28T13:52:28.301-05:00

Oh, to be perfectly ordinary.I have always attracted the looks askance, the fleeting stares and snickers of kids on passing schoolbuses, the squirrels looking up from their nuts in the park, the offhand derision of those who know ... something ... toward those who never will.I am happy enough mucking along in my muckety muck, squish, pop, whirr. My shoes squeal on linoleum and crunch on cheap,

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-48619672887472588982007-12-04T04:25:00.000-05:002007-12-04T04:49:56.160-05:00

I'm fantasizing about starting a knitting in pittsburgh newsletter that could be online as well as hard copy available in area yarn shops. Supported by advertisers (local coffee shops and cafes that knitters frequent, national and local yarn-related businesses). Possible features -- interviews with every-day knitters, profiles of stalwarts of local knitting communities, listings of knitting

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-44796854572456763082007-06-26T11:58:00.000-04:002007-06-26T12:04:55.015-04:00

my newest plot to take over the world involves starting a network of travelblogs under the moniker "if you do nothing else in (fill in the blank)" that would give casual visitors an insider's track on the world as a happening place. i spent a random, partially drunk night a few weeks ago brainstorming the places in pittsburgh about which i could travelblog and the list was quite loquacious. or

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-44866897844536374712007-05-20T23:35:00.000-04:002007-07-07T23:32:10.401-04:00

Spending the weekend visiting family out of town reinforces for me how far gone I am with this needle addiction thing ... oh yeah, I mean knitting.So while for the rest of the clan, the weekend revolves around time together, food, a rousing game of Scattergories and visiting a Monet exhibit at the Cleveland Art Museum, here's how my weekend goes:1) A few days beforehand I check in with my brother

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1764863850264839027.post-14546436969262742632007-05-17T01:05:00.000-04:002007-05-17T01:29:07.169-04:00

one more night of a six-day week, and then my payback: a 3-day weekend, hip hip!of course we are going to cleveland because where else would you go for a 3-day weekend?there's a monet exhibit. there's rock'n'roll. there's a great lake. dad and may will be in for a few weeks. probably for some event in may's family. and we will visit, and i will smile and not answer any personal questions

lisaknitshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08337421036089410372noreply@blogger.com0