Two-track mind

I apologize in advance for the boring subject matter of this post, but… wait a minute this is MY blog, and I’ll write about whatever I want! Seriously though, if you don’t want to hear about knitting and softball, now is the time to stop reading because I can’t seem to think of much else lately.

Knitting:
I think I may have mentioned that I finished the blanket I knit for my cousin in time to actually give it to her at her wedding last weekend. There was some question as to whether I’d be willing to part with it. In the end, it is unspeakably beautiful, if I do say so myself, but it’s only lap size. If I’m going to make one for myself, I want it to be at least full size, and doing a full size afghan out of the good yarn is simply not in the budget at the moment. While I was in WV for the wedding, my mom gave me some hand panted sock yarn that she got for me when she visited Wyoming this spring. Between the loveliness of this yarn and the shear joy of knitting without a deadline, I can’t seem to stop. I learned how to roll the yarn into a center pull ball using only my own thumb from a knitting blog that I read, and the hand painted pattern is knitting up in to the most interesting purple and green spiral. If I bother to sit down to knit at all this weekend (which is unlikely since I’m playing volleyball then going to the VFW tonight, going to the beach tomorrow, and playing softball on Sunday), I’ll probably make it far enough to turn the heal. After that the sock will be nearly done, and you can count on seeing pictures.

Softball:
At yesterday’s practice, I got the nicest compliment:

First baseman: Did you play in college.

Me: For about five minutes, so not really.

1B: Doesn’t matter. You can still hit!

And he’s right. I still can. I’ve rather shocked myself with that. My fielding skills have not survived quite as well. I can still catch and throw and all that, but I’ve actually gotten slower than I used to be if that’s even possible, so there are a lot of things I just can’t get to. I’m hoping that a little more practice will solve that. At yesterday’s practice I actually kind of pleased myself when I made a play on an annoying, know-it-all faculty member who thinks he’s better than all of us. He hit a low but hard line drive, the kind that he had just argued was the reason that girls should not be allowed to play in the infield. I snagged it on the bounce and threw him out before he even got halfway to base. The coach/team captain or whatever we’re calling him told the guy not to worry, that “Maggie can handle herself.” He didn’t say another word about girls on the field after that. My new nickname seems not to be going anywhere. Back at the beginning of the summer when I helped Joanna realize her dream of learning to box, I became known as Sluggo. Apparently the double meaning (boxing and batting) entertains the maintenance staff to no end, so wherever I go around the lab, I’m followed by shouts of “hey Sluggo!” Those who aren’t aware of my slugging tendencies are completely perplexed. Our first game, double-header in fact, is Sunday, so I’m sure a play-by-play will appear soon. I’m sure the suspense is unbearable.