Miscellaneous Updates on Life
It is winter in Michigan. This afternoon we had what the weatherpeople call "winter mix", freezing drizzle and snow. Most natives have either fled to a sunnier climate or they are going about whining, "I'm sick of winter." The more positive natives are saying, "I'm ready for spring." At this point in the season, very few people are still loving the snow, ice, cold, and short days.

Knitting
The CIC vest challenge resulted in 312 vests. They will be taken to orphanages in Eastern Europe to help keep little children warm in the poorly heated buildings. In February the focus is on producing toddler sized wool socks. My first February pair is on the needles.

Earlier in the week I finished knitting a pair of Purple Opal Lollipop socks for myself. They are my generic plain wide ribbing pattern that shows off the yarn colors and I'm very happy with them. They're very similar Mom's Purple Opal Lollipop socks pictured in the January 24 post, so I'm not going to post a picture.

The next sock project is a pair of yellow Opal Magic socks for daughter Heather. The Magic has wide stripes and I'm playing around with a seed stitch based stitch pattern to show off the colors.

Weight
I faithfully counted Weight Watcher points in January and only lost a pound. Not happy about that, but not disappointed, either. I only have five more pounds to lose to reach my goal. If the pounds are going to come off at the rate of one a month, that's still better than gaining weight. I feel great, I'm not hungry, and I'm gradually increasing my walking as indicated by the pedometer. What's the hurry?

The dogs are getting used to all the little walks we've been taking. They come and stare at me when it's time to go out. They still think it's a novelty to have me home in the daytime. They're napping less than they used to nap and they're getting more exercise. DH Bob tells me that when I leave home, they each find a quiet place and sleep the whole time I'm gone.

Some of the Michigan winter days have been a walking challenge with the wind chill below zero (F) and the deep snow. Several nasty weather days the dogs have headed back to the house before I was ready to stop.

Dumbbell Progress
Gail, the truly magical dog trainer, took Pappy Thursday night, put the dumbbell in front of his mouth, gave his collar a jerk and told him to "Take it". He took the dumbbell, and held it firmly in his mouth. He was so impressed with her authority that he didn't want to let it go. She had to tug it out of his mouth. Pappy avoided Gail the rest of the evening.

I watched all this with open mouth amazement. I've got his number now. We're on our way to dumbbell stardom.

Begging for Comments
The Friday Five questions I used to answer frequently generated interesting discussion in the comments. That's not happening with the Blogger Idol posts. I love getting comments, so the lack of comments has my attention. I'm going to do one more week of Blogger Idol and then decide if I want to continue. Any comments?

I was planning to answer questions from the comments on Saturday, but there aren't any.

Is there anything on any subject you'd like to ask Violet?