In other news, the NaKniSweMo sweater continues to move along.  I split off the sleeves today.

I’ve got plenty of work ahead of me, though.  Somehow I don’t think Kris is up for a cap-sleeved crop top…

And under the heading of “opposite of genius”, I’m an idiot.  Why wasn’t I carrying the yarns along the inside between stripes instead of cutting every time and starting a new piece?  Because now, I’ve got this facing me:

Ugh.  I AM now carrying the yarns, so at least that’s not going to continue for the rest of the sweater.  I’d have to cry.

It looks like the Big Giant Tree‘s days may finally be numbered, by the way.  We’ve been waiting since SEPTEMBER for the guys to finally get to us.  We were hopeful last week – they were in our neighbor’s yard.  Then they skipped to the other side of the street.  Gah.  Today, however, they were in the yard on the other side of us, and actually made it into our yard to take out a tree that was rooted in his yard but leans over the fence into ours.

See him?  Waaaaay up top?  I’m pretty sure there isn’t enough money in the world to get ME up there.

I took that from the second floor of our house, and I got a decent one of the BGT, just to give you an idea of how REALLY big it is.

OK.  The house behind it?  Two stories, on the same level as the ground the tree is on (there is a little slope down from the tree toward our house, right across our backyard).  The tree is easily 3-4 times the height of that house.  I couldn’t quite get the top in the picture, but that’s most of it.  It’s going to take these guys a week just to get that tree out.

I had an election-related post bouncing around my head today, but honestly, I don’t have the energy for the whole thing.  All I will say is this brief version – neither gloating nor whining is an attractive form of behavior in a three-year old.  It’s even less so in an adult.  Also, it’s not a football game.  He didn’t “win” – he was elected, which means it’s not over – the work is JUST STARTING.  Everyone who is acting like the work is done… to me that’s like interviewing for a job, being hired, and then saying “Yay, I did it!  Nothing more to do!”  My personal policy is never to discuss politics or religion with friends I intend to keep, so please note right now that this is NOT a topic I’m going to debate in the comments.  My blog, my opinion.  I don’t expect anyone to agree with it.

Incidentally, last night’s post with the comic strip was my 500th.  I knew it was coming up, and I was sort of thinking of doing something big and introspective for it, but somehow I think that comic was more me.  Especially since I didn’t even catch that it was #500 until this morning.

Kris had decided last week that he was getting up early this morning so that he could vote before work.  I decided to go with him.  We got to the high school just a few minutes before the polls opened at 7.  The line was significant, which made us both happy.  We joined it, and we waited.  He read (currently, Thoreau’s Walden), and I worked on the Eye of Partridge shawl.

It’s 21″ across the top right now, and per my scale I’ve used 15g out of the 100.

We made our way across the parking lot, slowly but steadily, and were finished and headed back to the car at ten minutes after eight.  We ran over to Panera to grab breakfast (A spinach and artichoke baked egg souffle and a GIANT mug of hot chocolate.  Yum.), and then Kris dropped me off at home before heading to the office.

So, it’s now 9:15, I’ve done my civic duty, and I have the whole day ahead of me.  My only plans?  Do some research on election-related trivia (because if we get NO election questions tonight, I’ll be surprised), and make a run to Target to see if I can find one of the Rizzo Barbies that the insanely cool Penny Karma sent me a picture of this morning.

So, if you haven’t voted yet, what the hell are you waiting for?  (Non-US citizens obviously exempt from that question.)