Even my cold dead cynical heart is warmed by this:
Bathroom update - sheetrock is up and primed. Tile is scheduled to start on Tuesday.
Knitting - I'm working on a sweater with a yoke pattern of waves, trees, and mountains called North Shore. But I was bored while working on the solid color bottom of the sweater, so I started a little stash-buster project - a scarf where I'm randomly selecting warm colors for the foreground and cool colors for the background.
I bought this bundle of multi colored Rowan felted tweed yarn a couple of years ago and it just doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, but maybe this project will put a dent in it.
Here's the scarf in progress. I'm actually knitting it as a tube and then will try to flatten it out into a scarf shape once it's done.
Not much else new here. Remember the guy from the rope lab who I was mildly annoyed by? He showed up yesterday at the munch for the group that I help moderate. And I learned that he is planning on spending the winter in Columbia because of a woman there who he's "met". Met in quotes because they haven't met in person. It began with online conversation that started because she messaged him about a comment that he made in a group and progressed to phone calls and presumably video chat.
At least he's not moving in with her - he found a cheap AirBnB. So I suppose if it doesn't work out, he's still spending winter in a warm place.
I don't know...I'm just not that adventurous. I'm not discounting the option of meeting someone online and wanting to see if there's in-person spark, but if I were doing that it would be a one week visit, two at most. What say you?
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I feel like traveling significant distances (either party) comes with expectations and I just don't think it would be wise. But to each their own.
The furthest I have traveled to meet someone was a two hour drive. It didn't work out very well, lol. The second I got out of my car I could tell he hadn't really thought through what a 5'11 woman looks like and I don't think he was attracted to a woman larger than him. I didn't particularly feel a click in person, either.
@smartasswoman I have been with men from kc and stl before (both 2-2.5 hrs away), but the first meet was almost always when I had other reasons to be in the area or vice versa.
@CL_Love meeting up when you have another reason to be in their area is perfect.
Any place home to the Poison Dart Frog, the Pit Viper, the Bullet Ant and the Black Caiman Crocodile... is NOT a place for me. I don't mind living and grazing where I am; anything dangerous that tries to migrate up here — freezes on f**king contact. 😶
There are a few million women in this town... I haven't met yet. 😎
Did you know one of those frogs has enough poison in them to knock off 20 men? 😲
My stereotype of Columbia would be drug cartels rather than dangerous creatures. Both are probably exaggerations; I do have a friend that vacationed there for a couple of weeks with his partner and enjoyed it a lot. Still... I would be very suspicious of a Columbian man wanting to romance me. And most of them are pretty short, aren't they?
@smartasswoman
Pablo was five feet, four and three-quarter inches... so yeah.
He'd have reached a nipple; which isn't a bad thing. I guess if he had a small stool... or if you lay down. 😶
Those bullet ants aren't exaggerations. A casual walk along a forested nature trail and BAM. A single sting from one of these pests can leave a person in agony for up to 8 hours.
Let's not talk about that viper.🙈
Yeah the bathroom is making progress! How exciting!
The scarf is already gorgeous. Your color choices are lovely.
I would venture a weekend to see if I clicked with someone. Then proceed from there.
Hugs!!
A weekend to start seems best to me, too. I suppose that's a bit impractical if you're talking about Columbia!
Thanks Smarty, the proposal story made a nice antidote to wildlife pictures, lol. Bathroom looking good.
On the knitting front, before I realised I was doing it I found myself looking at your balls of wool hoping to see a particular shade of purple there. I look in every wool shop and charity shop I pass for a ball of dark reddish purple wool. I have a favourite sweater which has worn through in a few places and needs darning, but I can't find a matching colour anywhere. Weirdly, I did have some once as I darned a small moth hole in it ages ago, but I don't know where it has gone, and I have never seen the same colour anywhere since!
You just gave me a rationale for hanging on to my ever growing stash…might need to mend my sweaters some day!
@smartasswoman I have hoarded a lot of things which "might come in handy one day"! I think I learned it from my father, who was always making or mending stuff. The thing is, very often, now when I am making or mending stuff, I find myself thinking Ahh, I have got the very thing to fix that somewhere....."
A wonderful selection of colours in your scarf.
You must now feel a real sense of progress with your bathroom renovations.
Sorry, but the ‘ring of fire’ engagement story sounds like a ring of bs self-promotion.
The tile will be the acid test of whether I'm happy with how it's turning out.
I don't think it's mutually exclusive to be romantic, and yet attention seeking. 😂
@smartasswoman It just struck as ‘too convenient’ a set-up.
Even at the mention of such an adventure my gout kicks in and my knee scolds me for thinking it'll put up with my shit.
I'm definitely getting less and less adventurous.
@smartasswoman Right? Just gimmie a pint and prop me up by the fire.
I like the scarf colors and pattern a lot. How do you "flatten" it. Doesn't it stay in a tube?
The bathroom is coming along..always nice to see progress and the look of finishing. I've got friends from Georgia in my NC condo right now redoing the built-in cabinets. They were long overdue. It'll look okay, but I'm kinda bummed that the woodgrain look is gone. I think it's a shame to paint wood, but their response to me when I brought up the idea of having a woodgrain look was that there'd have to be "actual" wood in the place. Lol. I guess plywood doesn't count. The kitchen had been painted to look like woodgrain but has been peeling since I bought the place. They thought a lighter color would brighten up the place and make it look a bit larger. We'll see...I've seen pics, but I can't help wondering if I'm going to hate it when I see it! I'll go back in the spring.
There's only one guy that I knew for a couple of years and then did video chats for 4 months that I spent a week with as a first meet. I kept hoping he didn't stink when he showed up because then what would I do? LMAO.
For flattening the scarf - the ends will be grafted together. Then I'll wash it and dry it flat, trying to press it into the shape that I want. We'll see...it's possible that it will want to keep regressing into a tube shape.
It's hard to picture how everything will come together when you're making a big change like painting cabinets. I am nervous whether all of the tile will look good together. I'm pretty confident that I'll like the vanity.
Hummm, I'm guessing it's at least a second marriage, maybe a third, for both of them. 😀
I'm very attracted by colors whether it be in photographs, clothing, whatever, so I think the scarf is neat.
I've found a 3 to 4 day visit is a good test of compatibility, but after going all that way, I might want to stay a bit longer.
Oh, not necessarily, I'm older than them and I've never been married. 😊 But yes, the odds favor your theory.
It was a grey rainy day here so no ring of fire or even a noticeable dimming of the light. I'm envious (but very happy for you) that your bathroom is coming along so nicely... I got burned by a crappy contractor redoing my tub/shower and now it's just janky looking.
What's the over/under on his "winter" turning into a week in Colombia?
Well, there's still plenty of chances for something to go wrong with the bathroom. 😜 But I've been impressed so far. Seriously, for what I'm paying, it SHOULD be perfect. Basically I decided I was willing to pay through the nose so as not to be unhappy for the rest of my time in this house. Like I am with the fan in my other bathroom, that has a motion detector and the contractor placed it too close to the door so every time I walk by that bathroom the fan goes on 😖
Oh, and yes, maybe he'll be sorry he told a bunch of people about it? It would be embarrassing now, for him to show up at any local events during the next few months. If it doesn't work out I guess he'll just have to be a hermit upon his return.
Sweet story.
The bathroom progress is looking good.
I wish I lived closer so I could bug you to knot something for me.
We could do a garden- knit trade.
Yeah, I’m not staying more than a week in that same situation. I’m more likely to stay a few days, like three. I sure wouldn’t spend a month
You don't have much sweater weather where you live...let's re-discuss in the future when you get out of that den of humidity. 😁
Agreed, two or three days would be ideal for first in-person meeting...not real practical I guess if it's Columbia, but the entire winter is quite a leap!
@smartasswoman once he retires, we’re going north. In five years, he’ll be close to retirement and fully invested in his 401k.
I have serious doubts I would even go to another country to meet someone. I used to be much more adventurous, but that would be a stretch for even younger me.
Even if we could see the ring of fire in Japan, we couldn't have since it rained last night.
I wouldn't travel just to meet a total stranger. But, there are some people who do take the leap. Good luck to the dude.
I know he doesn't consider her a total stranger, I think they've been chatting for quite a while.
In my earlier days on the site, there were a couple of guys who I chatted extensively with who I would have considered traveling to meet (NOT to spend an entire season with, haha!). I suspect both of them were actually attached and just looking for amusement, because both of them went poof once I brought up that idea. Which, I guess, confirms YOUR conclusion!!
I say - the bathroom is coming along, the scarf looks great, and I'm guessing he's not going to Columbia, SC , which makes him nuts.
An online romance with someone in a different country merits an EXTRA level of scrutiny.
@smartasswoman I wonder if his middle name is 'green card'
@superbjversion2 right. Well, if he really likes her maybe it's worth knowing that he's being taken advantage of, a little bit. 🤷🏻♀️
How sweet about the couple. I wonder why they waited so long? Bathroom is looking good as with the knitting project. I'm a helluva crochet-er but can't knit a lick. Never learned. Plus, I'm left handed so its a bit more difficult for people to teach me unless they are also left handed. As to meeting online interests. I'm usually good for a weekend, which I've done several times but any longer than that, he'd have to be really special and it wouldn't be the first meet. I've met several men that give great email but in person, they are completely different and what I would call a dud. Plus, I really don't like to be away from the mother ship that long anyway. I'm a homebody, what can I say?
I think CleavageFan has a good theory - they may have known each other since high school but married and divorced other people in the interim?
I had to come back to this. My heart must be colder and more cynical than yours because this 'report' is all over the internet within hours of the eclipse...sounds set-up to me.
Perhaps they are romantic attention whores.