Lilacs Socks Update

So Monday was spent at the local Veterans Administration campus, being "orientated" so I become an official VA employee, so I can pay myself off the merit award I earned a year ago for my cancer research. Some system, eh? That was only Day 1 of 3 days of orientation, mind. Due to the fast day Tuesday, I got to beg off the remaining 2 days until next month. I cannot imagine what else they'll come up with to waste time and taxpayer money. Note to taxpayers: I'm now a GS13 civil service grade, please tell that to your congressmen, maybe they'll cut the nonsense down to the 3 hrs it warranted. Proof: look at my sock, finished in the spare time we had (an entire hr between HR reps at one point!) and during some of the pointless presentations (do I need a lesson on how to fill out a W4? I'm only working for 23 years now). Sock #2 is well under way. I modified the foot of the pattern as follows: after the heel turn, I changed the middle RT to a K1 tbl, to prevent sag around the ankles (it worked too). Total reps of pattern = 11, and heel flap was started at row 6 of 6th repeat. French heel (my fav) was used, and double-dec toe; dec every 3rd row down to 14 sts (used Lana Grossa Meilenweit for the toe, just to try it out), then grafted it shut. The modification fits my size 7 foot very nicely.

Last night we saw "Hairspray." Being someone who was raised in Bawlmer (though I never spoke quite the way Edna does in the movie) during that period, I was entranced by it all. When I was very little, my parents and I even lived above the grocery store my dad owned (in a different neighborhood) and our apartment look the same! Our TV was a Zenith, not the Admiral in the movie, but a similar B&W console set. French doors and signs painted on the walls opposite - yep I remember the National Boh guy winking at me every night when I went to bed (I said I was very little). I had a multi-hued crinoline just like Little Ines wore in the final scene, and a doggy pin like Penny wore in several scenes, and my Revlon doll had the sophisticated dresses that the dancers wore (and a fancy hair-do too). Only things I did not like: Michelle Pfeiffer was too thin for the era and the clothes; Tracey's last outfit. Mod Carney Street in 1962? Just about 5 years too soon for those clothes; it cast a jarring note to the period setting, imho. Now I'm nagging DH (whom I met in Bawlmer when we were grad students at Hopkins) to get us some coddies for dinner tonight. Those and Almond Crush soda, and some coffee Breyer's ice cream, and it's a summer night in Liberty Heights in the early '60's all over again.