mid-week brain dump

If you miss your grocery shopping at the weekend because you're helping friends move, you'll have to do it on Wednesday or else go hungry. And then in your wanders through the grocery store you will find yourself having thoughts like What, please, are "whole dried peach wedges"? I get "whole dried raspberries", but how can you have a whole wedge? and Likewise, what is a "fresh frozen meal"? and When did "chai" stop meaning "tea"? and Hey, gluten-free Chex, groovy. (Not the wheat Chex, though.) and Is it still the nine days, or was that guy with unwashed hair in the kosher section just gross?

( And other thoughts about cereal. )

( In other news, here are some thoughts about women's clothing. )

In other other news, I understand from the radio that the American Psychological Association has just decided that mental health practitioners should not counsel gay patients that therapy can turn them straight. The newsiness of which, I guess, is that I had no idea they hadn't worked this out years ago.

sigh.

Seriously, I'd have finished another block tonight if I weren't a complete flake. The rectangles are 24-48-24, right, which means I cast on 24, place a marker, cast on (or in this case pick up) 48, place another marker, and cast on (or pick up) 24; knit back; knit to the last two stitches before the marker, knit them together (with a slip so they lean the other way, but that's not the point right now), slip the marker, knit two together, knit to the last two before the next marker, knit them together, slip the marker, knit two together, knit to the end; knit back; repeat, so now I'm on 23-46-23, and then 22-44-22, and so on. And I usually count every few rows to make sure I'm still on the right track, and on and on I go. When I get to 12-24-12 I normally feel like I'm in the home stretch. (Twenty-four is actually the magic number. The dreaded large squares are 48-48, and the time it takes to get those down to 24-24 is an eternity, and to get from 24-24 down to 1-1 is only a couple of hours. This is why the small square, which is 24-24 to start with, is a piece of cake.)

So tonight I got to 12-24-12, and then to 10-20-10, and yet somehow that was 10-21-10, which is not right, and after some examination it turned out that the middle stretch had been one stitch too long for sixteen goddamn rows, when I missed one of the decreases in the 18-36-18 row, leading to 17-35-17 and, of course, disaster.

Sigh. So I ripped back and reknit, and now I'm back to 12-24-12 instead of all the way finished with the block, and I'm going to bed.