Cool news in the mail today: the interest rate on our mortgage is going down. Granted, the balance on our loan is extremely low, since the condo wasn't that expensive to begin with and it's over half-paid now. Still nice, though. On the other hand, my shock when we buy a house will probably be extreme, since DH figures we'll be looking at houses that cost around 10x what our current balance is.
Yeah, I'm the one who got a little freaked at signing the check for a Ford Escort. The six-digit numbers on mortgage paperwork may blow my mind.
More good news - I finally figured out which crochet book I'm looking for, and I'm on the wait list for it at the library. I checked out a bunch of crochet books last year, and one of them had a pattern for a bath mat that looked nice. Fairly easy, plus useful and a nice change from hats. Of course I forgot to copy the pattern or write down what book it was in, so I've been trying to remember it for a month or so.
I spent a few hours digging through the library's online catalog, which doesn't often include things like tables of contents, and put a dozen or so on hold to look at when they're finally checked back in. This week, I had time at the library to go up in the stacks and look at every crochet book on the shelf, which wasn't many. (Either 100 books only take up one shelf, or they spend a lot of time checked out.) No luck there. Then I get the bright idea to take my hold-list books and look them up on Amazon, on the chance that I can get content information there.
Bingo! I'm waiting on First Crochet. I'm pretty sure this is the one. The bath mat is done in cotton, I think two strands together, and there's a star done in puff/bobble stitches. I've got all this Sugar N Cream yarn, you see. Michael's had the big 12-oz skeins in fun colors and I couldn't resist. Usually it's just the dinky 2-oz balls, or the big 1-pounders in white or off-white. I got a big skein of Key Lime Pie, variegated greens and white, and I think it wants to be a bath mat.
In the meantime, I've got 34 items checked out (some are El Burrito's) and 18 on hold, including the last 4 books of the Spiderwick series and a dozen or so crochet books. I've gotten pretty good at plain scarves and hats, and I need to find something to do with that Bernat Satin Sport. Lovely stuff, but as I'm not a shawl person and probably not skilled enough to do anything not-square (it's the counting that loses me), I need some inspiration. I'm tempted by the sweaters in More Crocheted Aran Sweaters, but I'm also intimidated by the stitches. Plus, not really a sweater person either. There is a vest, though. And the blurb says it's pretty simple . . . .
And now I'm off to dig through Corel's website and see if there's an upgrade that will convince Paint Shop Pro 9 to read ORF files (the RAW format that Olympus uses). The Olympus software will, but it's very basic and a little irritating. I don't usually use the RAW format, but I do for astro photos on occasion.
Oh, and think of a birthday gift for my brother, since I'll be seeing him this weekend.
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