neadods | Gallimaufry (Reply)

Chopping down the big jobs into "just do x today" is helping a lot with getting the chores shifted and stress levels.

With that in mind, I'm going to deal with the overwhelming number of knitting podcasts I've downloaded at the rate of one review a day. There will be a couple of cooking podcasts in there as well, but most of those were video podcasts, which makes them inappropriate for downloading for the commute to work!

First up is

tchwrtr's beloved Cast On. It is an extremely comprehensive 'cast, covering current knitting charity drives, pattern reviews, knitting web page reviews, a theme, Q&A, and music. Lots and lots of indy music, which is then linked and advertised on the web page as well.

It's a good podcast and covers a lot of territory, but in the end,

tchwrtr loves it a lot more than I do. I get impatient with the sheer size of it and start skipping around (for instance, any discussion of spinning leaves me cold). I think in more leisurely days I'll enjoy the ramble, and I probably will subscribe to Cast On, but I also have to confess in all honesty that I haven't listened to a single episode all the way through without fast-forwarding at some point.

Small pleasures: Someone at my office got me hooked on clarity in a can, aka Starbucks Expresso Double Shots and Cream. But they are only randomly available at the Starbucks near my office, and another one in the area told me that they were being discontinued.

Silly me, I should have gone to the local college. There the person behind the counter told me that they get shipments of them *every day* - and they're a full dollar cheaper there than the lobby Starbucks near work.

Also, I am trying to make a point of literally stopping and smelling the roses every day. I cannot recommend David Austen Roses highly enough, and the ones I've had shipped bare root from England do even better than the same roses nurtured in the local gardening stores. I get them, I lovingly plant them, and then I neglect the snot out of them, and yet they thrive anyway. I would tell you the exact one that I'm sniffing - a pale, yellowish English rose with a delicate scent and a Shakespearean name, but their website appears to be down and I can't look it up. I think it's Sweet Juliet. (Wise Portia, if you can find it, and Noble Anthony have fabulous petals for drying - almost fuschia on the bush, but deep red when dried.)

Off to do tonight's