I forgot to remember

So when I left you all last time, I had all kinds of good intentions of cooking up tasty meals to pair with my tasty new wines, and then taking pics and posting them with all the details of their nomminess...

Yeah. That lasted for exactly one meal. A very yummy chicken-and-veg teriyaki, served with a very lovely apple wine, for our anniversary on the Tuesday after the long weekend. See?

Notice the steam still rising off the veggies...A precursor to the subsequent lack of posting. And picture-taking. I woke up the next day and thought I had burned the back of my tongue and throat quite badly - teriyaki sauce can get pretty darned hot, after all, and keep the heat for awhile. Never mind that I didn't remember burning myself at all; it hurt! So I ate cold, soft stuff for a day or two. I tried to ignore the blisters, writing off the extreme sleepiness as the result of going back to work after a long holiday.

That lasted about a day and a half, when I somehow had the sense to drag myself to the doctor. Burned throat? Nope. Strep throat? Yep! Not exactly how I would have chosen to score another long weekend! Bah. (On the plus side: I went to a new clinic near work, and the doctor was not only nice, and patient - he was also quite...hot!)

On the other plus side, it just so happens that one can get a lot of knitting done when still too sick (and contagious!) to go to work, but not quite so ill that one needs to sleep 20 hours a day. (Just 14-16!) I'm making good progress on my Rhinebeck sweater. It turns out that chunky yarn knits up a lot faster than the light worsted I used in Dad's & Mr.Q's sweaters! (Whodathunk, eh?)

I'm not getting cocky about the pace & progress, though, as I'm about to start on the charted panel, and that makes me a bit nervous. In the meantime, see the pretty colour?

I thought I ought to have a little "brain candy" on the needles as well, for bus knitting, since the chart for Red Oak is going to be At Home Alone In Silence With The Phone Off knitting. I sort of happened to pick up some lovely skeins of Mochi Plus the other day (oops!), and am working on a variation of the Noro Striped Scarf that coincidentally has some purple in it that matches my sweater-in-progress perfectly. It's quite addictive, watching how the stripes play out against each other!

Meanwhile, it's hotter than the seventh level of hell outside, and I'm in the basement knitting with wool. Coz I'm just that special! Hope you're not all melting. Root beer floats for supper tonight, I think!