The "Ladies Cardigan" by Lea Petäjä is coming along. I had to cast on, because it was going to be more interesting than the Summer Sorrel top, now that the yoke motif of the Summer Sorrel is finished. Of course, now the lace motif of this sweater is finished. Whatever will I do to have something entertaining while I finish the bodies of the two projects I'm working on?
I took my knitting when we went to see the movie Project Hail Mary and got some knitting done before the movie started.
I can recommend the film if you haven't seen it yet. It's based on the novel by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian, which was made into a film in 2015. I've read most of Weir's books, and they were all good. I liked Project Hail Mary the most so far. I really liked that the film stayed pretty close to the original story, probably because Andy Weir was involved in the production. Is there someone you would be willing to give up your life for? That's what this story is about. I loved the ending, which was the same as in the book, of course.
I listened to the audiobook by myself first and then again with Charlie as we were driving across the country in 2024 with the RPod. I knew he would like it, and he did. I wouldn't mind listening to it again.
It's appropriate that I took my knitting to see a Ryan Gosling film. He's also a knitter. He didn't knit the wolf cardigan (since gone viral) that he wore in the film, although he offered some design changes to the costume designer, Glyn Dillon. The cardigan he wore in the film was based on a vintage Mary Maxim pattern, and that company has a kit, available here. (Tip: I love to do colorwork, but this is intarsia, which is a pain to knit.
Gosling was amazing in this role. It's almost a one-man show, because all of the other characters (other than the alien, who couldn't have been portrayed by a human actor) only appear in flashbacks, at least until the end of the story.
Quite coincidentally to our trip into space with Gosling's character, I saw this planet at 9:06 PM one evening. We have it narrowed down to either Jupiter or Venus. It looks pretty big for Venus, though, and I'm not sure I could have seen Venus that late at night, but I'm going to try to have a look with binoculars.
A few of nights later at 9:31. slightly lower in the sky and farther north:
Now it's behind the branches of that tree at the same time of night.
Cinco de Mayo, appropriately enough, fell on a Taco Tuesday this year, so we had tacos with refried beans and Spanish rice, vegetarian, of course.
Here's my recipe for Spanish Rice. I added a teaspoon of taco seasoning in addition to the seasonings listed, and I think it improved it somewhat.
Here's my recipe for vegetarian taco filling. I use TVP, which is really cheap, when compared with ground beef.
We had it with a nice Riesling from Madroña Vineyards in El Dorado County, our favorite winery.
The dogs went to Gracie The Groomer on Friday. They were starting to look pretty scruffy, so it was about time. It was 5 1/2 weeks between grooming for Dusty. He had to be groomed before his surgery on April 1st, because he couldn't have a bath for a couple of weeks after. It was 5 weeks for Sandy, and he always looks scruffy after a month. His hair grows so fast! Now they're good until the end of May, which will get us through our upcoming camping trip, and they will still look nice for our next trip to Portland in June. Such handsome boys!
We (the dogs and I, at least) walked every day. Charlie joined us on Sunday. This was the longest walk for him since his procedure, and he's walking well without getting too tired.
I spent some time working on the new book. I think it will be ready to go to my editors after one more read through. In the meantime, though, I've decided to start publishing The Doll's Storybook stories on SubStack as well as Blogspot. Perhaps they will get a few more views that way and maybe even sell some books, which will help the organization providing research and treatment of pediatric cancer, which gets the royalties from book sales. Here's how it looks on that site.
For some additional cuteness, here's Johan playing the French Horn on Mothers' Day.
I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: Back in May, 2018, when Jolena first came out of her box, she couldn't go to sleep. She tried all the usual remedies for insomnia, but nothing worked. Mandy figured out her problem, in this story from The Doll's Storybook: Insomnia.
<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
