Knit, natter, and train your brain

Last night’s knit night was a quiet affair; only two of us this week. Still, I figure if we keep talking about it and keep turning up, other people will join in eventually. If not, it gets me out of the house and forces me to knit on the Manly (Rav), so why not? Funky Flower is good company anyway! (and when Blogger stops being broken I’ll add her to the Blogroll. It might be because of the filters at work?)

Outside of that, I’m afraid I’ve been a bit lax on the knitting front. I mentioned Guitar Hero III last post, which is a chronic time suck! Trouble is that once I get on there and I’m in the “zone”, I find it hard to put the controller down admit defeat and go to bed. The new wireless guitar is wicked too!
But, my company treated me to a £25 voucher to a place of my choice. (don’t get me started on slashing one bonus and then giving us another) and I have been wanting to get a Nintendo DS for ages. Since before Christmas! I have finally taken the plunge (and no, the £25 didn’t cover it by any stretch!) and bought myself a silver DS and the Brain Training “game”. I was shocked to discover that my brain age was in its 40s! So I’ve been training (for two days) and have got it down to 31. I hope to get down to at least my real age! It also has Sudoku on it, which I’ve been doing at lunch instead of my knitting. (I know, I’m sorry, normal service will resume once I cast on the other sock)
Of course, just owning Brain Training isn’t enough (oh no, I’ve unleashed another time-and-money suck!) so I’ve ordered Nintendogs: Dalmations and Learn French. At least the learning French one will be useful. The idea is to recap my GCSE French, which I was awarded ten years ago, ready for our holiday in France in the summer. Suffice to say, I’m a bit rusty. I still remember the basics, but much of the grammar; tenses and stuff like that have fallen by the wayside. I can still say “j’ai un petit pois vert avec un grande nez” which means “I have a green pea with a big nose” – not especially useful, but then most of the foreign that I know is either ordering drinks or not useful. “Konnichiwa, watashiwa Tsuki des, Samurai dewa arrimassen” means “Hello, I am Tsuki, I am not a samurai” in Japanese. Oh well.

Yes, the socks. I’m suffering second sock syndrome a little. I need to get the darned thing cast on before I lose the will to knit it. it’s the thought of all that rib! Funky Flower has sent me a link for a stretchy cast on to try, because the cable cast on (that I usually use) is a bit tight for OH. My new sock knitting book recommends the long tail cast on (I have yet to find a tutorial, mainly because I haven’t looked).
Since we have a long weekend though, I hope to get some knitting done.

Other plans for the long weekend include: more baking, move the stuff in the bathroom so there’s room for the new towel/bedding washing basket, finish the curtains that have been sitting waiting to be hemmed for about a month. Depending on the weather we might go off on a day trip somewhere. You know, usual Easter weekend type stuff.