But we live in Bumfuck, lower Michigan. Technology is not rolled out first here, never mind that we are less than 30 miles from the second largest city in Michigan. The last time my daughter visited, she looked at her iPhone and said “EDGE?!? I can’t remember the last time I saw that.”

We called our credit union, and after we told them what Apple Pay was, they told us they were thinking about considering implementing it.

We went to a nearby credit union that was on the Visa list of participating financial institutions. They are too small-time to have been included in the initial roll-out, and have no idea when Apple will allow them to implement it.

We called the local Fifth Third bank, also on the Visa list, and they did not know what Apple Pay was. But after checking around, they are “in the process of implementing it” and have no idea when it will be ready to use.

I called the local Chemical bank, and they insisted that it was solely up to the retailer and had nothing to do with the bank. They are wrong.

We have no Chase bank, no BofA, no Wells Fargo or Citibank.

We do have USAA auto insurance. Later today my husband is calling them, because their implementation of Apple Pay began working today.

I made Tardis handwarmers for my daughter-in-law. No pattern was used, I simply did a little math, dividing the stockinette portion into 3 roughly equal sections of 8 rows each: before the thumb opening, the thumb opening, and after the thumb opening.

In the last Harry Potter movie, Hermione wears this cute cable and eyelet hat. I wouldn’t know this as I haven’t seen the movie. But I ran across the pattern, and it was pretty without being fussy or overly feminine. I knitted it for myself. It should have fit me perfectly, as I have a very small head and the hat was said to run a bit too small for the average adult. Unfortunately, I knitted the pattern exactly as written instead of going down a needle size. The result was a hat perfectly sized for a normal head, but not mine.

I mailed it to my daughter-in-law along with the Tardis case. It will perfectly match the fingerless gloves I made for her earlier, being made from the same ball of yarn.

The pattern I used is Hermione’s Cable and Eyelet Hat by Jackie Lauseng.

I will make one major change when I knit it again. I will relocate the eyelets to be in the middle of the cable’s straight section instead of immediately before the cable twist row. I may put 2 rows between the eyelets rather than one.

But isn’t this a very pretty hat?

My daughter-in-law is a huge Dr. Who fan, and she loves reading on her Kindle. When I saw this pattern for a Tardis Kindle case I knew I had to knit one for her. And so I did.

I mostly used the pattern by AmericanWitch on Ravelry. I didn’t do Judy’s Magic Cast On so I had to sew the bottom shut. Guess I had better learn that cast on soon! Now I just hope it will fit her Kindle!

Temperature

Temperature preference is one way many couples differ. How many couples have one partner who wants the windows wide open when it’s below freezing outside while the other partner shivers under multiple blankets? Jim and I discovered our shared preference for a cold bedroom and a toasty bed early in our marriage, when we were sleeping in a poorly-heated attic bedroom. Snuggled between our flannel sheets in our flannel jammies, under our down comforter, we were warm but able to breathe that lovely cold air. How cold? 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius). I miss that.

In our current home we’ve tried opening our bedroom windows and keeping the door shut to get just the bedroom colder. Our home is too well insulated for that to work; when it was 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 degrees Celsius) outside we only lost 1 degree per hour at most, and got hardly any heat loss at all when it was merely freezing outside.

These days we simply adjust the furnace to 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) for overnight. I’d like it cooler, but in the semi-heated attic bedroom, waking up and going downstairs was all it took to get into a warmer room. We both find 65 degrees a little too chilly for the rest of the house, so going any lower overnight would make for truly miserable mornings, even in our fuzzy fleece robes.

Touch

Some people like to sleep intertwined or spooned; some people don’t. King size beds were invented for a reason, and having enough space to sleep without feeling crowded is that reason. They didn’t just make the king size bed longer to accommodate taller people, but made it wider, and they increased the width far more than the length.

Jim and I both prefer a happy medium. We don’t like to sleep snuggled together, but we do want to sleep touching in some way. It may be my toes up against his toes, or his hand resting on my hip. We are aware of each other all night, even in sleep, changing how we touch as we change sleeping positions. We have had both a king size bed and a queen size bed, and prefer the queen. In a king size bed we sometimes “lose” each other, and don’t like that.

Light

The amount of light we can tolerate while trying to sleep or sleeping is where Jim and I differ. I require darkness. I don’t mean the semi-darkness of a bedroom with the blinds closed and the illumination of a nearby streetlight gently filtering in. Where I lived as a child there were no streetlights, and it got truly can’t-see-your-hand-in front-of-your-face dark at night. That is what I need to sleep. Daytime napping is a very rare thing for me, because it is far too light out and I cannot sleep, even on cloudy winter days.

Jim doesn’t truly understand this, because he can sleep if I am lighting up the entire bedroom with the glow from my iPad on the brightest setting. He understands that I need darkness, and because he is wonderful he turns his iPad off and allows it to be dark for me. I think one reason I am sleeping much better the past couple of weeks is that we have arranged the bedroom differently, and the angle of the faint light from the streetlight crosses my feet instead of my face. I think another reason is that the bed is now aligned North-South, as my mother always aligned beds, and her mother before her. I don’t know why this seems to matter, but it does.

Sound

Jim likes to enter sleep listening to the soft drone of a TV set or radio, but he doesn’t need the sound to sleep. I need quiet in the same way I need dark. Once I am asleep I sleep like a mother; the normal sounds I expect to hear do not wake me, but an unexpected or muffled sound will wake me instantly.

Jim tries to cooperate with my need for quiet, but hasn’t wholly mastered the art of not being too quiet. Jim practicing piano does not wake me, but the barely audible click of an answering machine 2 rooms away picking up a call before the phone rings will wake me. The microwave oven door opening and shutting, and the beep of reheated coffee being ready does not wake me. Jim sneaking out of the bedroom as quietly as possible to avoid waking me up at 5 AM does wake me.

It might seem a bit unfair that Jim defers to my preferences in both light and sound. If Jim needed that TV set on all night and could not sleep without it, demanding he defer to my preferences for dark and quiet would have been very unfair. Fortunately, he sleeps well in dark and quiet rooms, so we are sleep-compatible.

Yesterday I made a Major Cosmetics Shopping trip to Grand Rapids. All my cosmetics were so incredibly (and unsafely) old that I threw them out when we made the move here.  I have tried a few drugstore brands during this year following the move, but found them unsatisfactory. So hypoallergenic Brand Name it had to be. My skin is sensitive, and I think what mine senses is price tags – meet the price minimum or it will turn brilliant red, break out in a rash, and peel.

Ever since my hair has become almost entirely grey I have had a hard time choosing cosmetic shades. The old trusty colors don’t work so well. And when I arrived at the Brand Name counter, I found that the few shades that did still work were discontinued. I put myself into what I assumed were the capable hands of Seemingly Gay Guy behind the counter. And I accepted his choices of shade for me, after telling him I preferred soft roses and pinks.

This morning I played with my new toys  applied my new products, and I hate every single color. They are all brown-based shades. Plum-tinted brown blusher. Brown-tinted violet eyeshadow. Browned plum lipliner and lipstick. Brownish-violet eyeliner. Have I mentioned yet that I hate, hate, hate brown makeup? Seemingly Gay Dude was not even able to look at my pink-alabaster skin and choose the right shade of powder! No, he gave me a shade of powder that goes on darker than I am when I am suntanned, with not a touch of my natural pink. Worse, he gave me 2 products that were not even the ones I requested.

It’s not that it doesn’t look okay. Jim likes it. But it’s a very made-up look, a fakey-tan look that is using the colors that might be natural on somebody with skin 3 shades darker than mine. I hate it, and now I have to drop yet another 3 figure sum of money on replacement shades that I do like.

My husband, Jim, has nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. He thinks it’s a nice way for bloggers to recognize the heart and soul their colleagues put into their blogging, and to build a strong sense of blogging community. I think he slightly misunderstands the Beautiful Blogger Award. I did some online sleuthing, and it appears that we do not nominate others for this, but that we actually award them this.

I thank him for this token of respect and admiration. Jim, you are my most faithful blog reader, as I am yours, and I hope it will always be so. Now go read his blog: No Stolen Cat Pictures. Then come back here.

As with any good chain letter or Facebook repost there are Rules.

1. Place the Beautiful Blogger Award in your post. (done!)
2. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. (done!)
3. Tell 7 things about yourself. (see below!)
4. Pass this Beautiful Blogger Award on to 7 more bloggers. (see below!)

Telling 7 things about myself is hard. I don’t share truly personal information much. I thought I did not know where to start, but suddenly I did know.

1. I am a recluse. I rarely leave my house and yard except for grocery shopping.
2. I remember the days before polyester and perma-press, when all clothing had to ironed. Even brassieres.
3. I don’t much care about shoes, but I have a serious handbag weakness. Think Coach.
4. I am the Alpha Geek in my family, to whom falls the job of setting up networks and helping the random friend who is having computer trouble.
5. I spent 12 years in the Air Force as an Aircraft Maintenance Tech, reaching the rank of E-6, and had tested for E-7, but got out before I got my test results.
6. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse, or I was until I let my license expire in 2006.
7. I hate beige. The carpet in my house is a lovely gray that will be stunning with the white molding and trim and blue walls after our house interior is painted later this month.

The bloggers I wish to nominate for this award are:

1. Writing about writing: A Way with Words.
2. A female Jewish convert who has just moved to Israel: Just call Me Chaviva.
3. About belief in general: Grome Soapbox.
4. Delicious gluten free, dairy free food blogging: The Nourishing Home.
5. The transition from career to homemaker: Happy Homemaker, Ph.d.
6. Um, some knitting here, but mostly just life sharing: Try To Be A Bit Less Rubbish.
7. And another knitting blog: Knitting to Stay Sane.

I am NOT going to do this twice, once for each blog. Definitely a copy and paste job, so if you read it on one blog it’s the same on the other.

Like every other user of the Boye Needlemaster interchangeable circular needles, I love the needle tips and hate the cables. I have tried to do Magic Loop on them, and succeeded, and hated every miserable minute of it. The cables are too rigid, and will not cheerfully flex into those small magic loops that let you knit 7 inch circumference mittens on 36 inch circular needles. They fight back every round, doing their best to force ladders into your work.

Everybody wants more flexible cables for their Needlemaster tips. There is more than one way to reach this goal. You can tap out the Boye needle tips to accept the larger Knitter’s Pride/Knit Picks cable, per Fleegle and Kat, but you can’t do the size 2 needle. You can make adapters that accept the 3-56 machine thread of Knitter’s Pride/Knit Picks cables and screw into the 2-56 machine thread Boye needle tips, as Robin suggested in the comments on Fleegle’s blog, and which my local gunsmith is currently doing for me.

What does “2-56” or “3-56” mean? It is the standardized size (determined by diameter) and number of threads per inch of a screw. Your ordinary household screw is probably a size 8, with 32 threads per inch, or an 8-32. The smaller the size number, the skinnier the screw. The 3-56 screws on the end of Knitter’s Pride/Knit Picks cables have the same very fine threads as the Boye cables, but won’t ever fit into a 2-56 Boye needle because they are too fat. So, “tapping out” the Boye needles means making the screw-in opening fatter. The Knitter’s Pride/Knit Picks cables will then fit, but the Boye cables will not anymore.

Or you can make your own cables, following the instructions from Rheatheylia. I modified her instructions in a couple of significant ways to make the job easier.

I bought the nylon tubing from Amazon. Be sure to get the .075 inch inside diameter and the .125 outside diameter. Your choice of black or white, but the minimum length is 25 feet. $13.67, and eligible for free Prime shipping. This is enough tubing to make several lifetimes of custom length cables, as you only need between an inch and an inch and a quarter for each cable end.

Instead of screws, I bought 2-56 machine studs, 1 inch long. $3.03, but with $4.29 added shipping cost for a total of $7.32. Using studs eliminates the step of cutting off the screw head and then filing it down to get a clean end that will not mess up threads.

I bought a stud driver to help me insert the studs into the nylon tubing. This allowed me to use a faster and easier construction technique than Rheatheylia used. It is $4.07 plus $4.25 shipping, and well worth every penny.

We had weedwhacker cord of the appropriate .065 diameter in the shed, because that’s what our trimmer uses.

Finally, I bought superglue at the hardware store. I was very, very careful to avoid the “instant” type, and get one that had a 15 to 30 second setting time. This feature kept me from gluing the cable to my fingers.

Construction:

File the tubing down to a smooth rounded end per Rheatheylia. I found a glass nailfile could be used for sides 2 and 3 combined of the nail buffer. Cut to a length between 1 and 1 1/4 inches. Remove snagglies. Make a second one.

Thread a stud into the smaller hole end of the stud driver until it bottoms out. Use the stud driver to thread the stud into the nylon tubing until the driver touches the tubing. Use a Boye gripper pad to hold the nylon tubing so it doesn’t slip. Remove the stud driver. The magic of this driver is not just the ease in threading in the stud, but that when you remove the driver it will leave a threaded end the perfect length for Boye needles. Woohoo! Do it to the second one, too. You now have two cable ends ready for cable between them.

Cut the weedwhacker cable to a length you like. Rheatheylia’s advice to cut the cable at an angle is golden. I didn’t, and regretted it. Put some glue on one weedwhacker cable end. Insert it immediately into the open end of the nylon tubing, all the way up to the screw. Apply glue and insert the other cable end into the second tubing with screw piece. Let it set and dry. Congratulations, you have a new cable!

It’s an ongoing issue. It’s not that I don’t want to sleep. I am very tired and want desperately to snooze for about 9 hours. It’s not that I am worried about anything, or anything more significant than being a little too lax in my housekeeping, which is not a very high priority these days. There is knitting, and baking, and the Internet, all much more pleasant ways to spend time than dusting, sweeping, and mopping.

Curse you, Vitamin Shoppe employee, for warning me of the dangers of taking melatonin every night for an extended length of time! I was sleeping then.

I took my L-theanine, I took my buffered aspirin, I lay me down and… nothing. No sleeping. Tossing and turning, as if I could find a magical position that would allow me to doze off, and failing.

Worst of all, it is my own fault. I have a small window of time in which I seem to be able to enter into sleep. I didn’t head off to bed until after 11 PM. I don’t know exactly when my sleep window closes, but it seems to be before midnight, if not before 11:30. I should have gone to bed at 10 PM. I should have, but it is pretty hard to convince yourself it is bedtime at 10 PM when you didn’t get up that morning until 11:30 AM (because you didn’t sleep until 4 or 5 AM).

It is now a quarter to four. I will close this, and publish it. And then maybe, just maybe, I will be able to finally sleep.