If you want to get more knitting done ...

get Santa to bring your 4-year-old a Leapster!

5 pattern repeats now done on the Monkey sock:






















Actually, I think my concentration is improving a bit. I will take any improvements in brain function I can get at this point!! Practising is going pretty well too. Did I mention I am premiering a concerto in March? Eek! I am trying to memorize bits of it. Thank goodness it's very much in a tonal idiom ... I memorized some Takemitsu last year and it took me forever. (Great stuff, though ...)

Merry Christmas - Rugby is done!

I was very happy with the size and fit of the finished sweater. I was a bit short of yarn so the collar is not as long as the pattern directed, but I think it looks OK. Buttons are still needed but I'll let DH pick them out. He seems happy with it and has been wearing it around the house. Yay ... 6 months of brown stockinette was worth it!!

Now back to the Monkey socks:













Also I'm quite looking forward to using my Chapters and Amazon gift cards! Claire is the proud owner of a Leapster L-Max, an art set, some puzzles, and lots of other goodies. I hope Christmas was good to all of you who celebrate.

The struggle continues

Blocking rugby sweater
Originally uploaded by eusebius24

Having finally made it out of three months of being fairly constantly sick, I am now, at last, making some knitting progress. The Rugby sweater is blocked and drying - next is the polo collar and button bands (I hope I have enough yarn left!!)

Sewing has been at a standstill since I finished the Madison Avenue dress in October. I hope to resume over the holidays, with a Dora nightgown for my daughter and maybe a T-shirt pack from Wazoodle.

On the performing front, I played a good recital with a flutist last weekend, attended by exactly 10 people. Blah ... I have to get my publicity skills working. Being depressed and sick didn't help, but I think I should be able to manage the next one. The choral concert I'm playing on Sunday is far better advertised, and should attract a good crowd. I had to practically rewrite a couple of brutal organ parts for piano. We'll see how they come off.

My little pumpkin

morningpumpkin.JPG
Originally uploaded by eusebius24

Sorry I haven't been around - the start of term completely engulfed me. Anyway, to get things rolling again, here is Claire in her pumpkin costume yesterday (Simplicity 3593). More pics are over at Flickr. Here she is getting ready to go off to school (She wore the thing all day!!)

It took about a week to make the pumpkin, which has a broadcloth outer layer and a fleece lining. The stem is stuffed with fiberfill. Claire noticed that the girls on the pattern envelope all had black shirts, pants, and gloves, so of course she had to have them too!! To fluff her up, I used bath towels, which got a bit bottom-heavy... next time I think I'll buy some tissue paper.

Oh, and there I am in the background with my new haircut. Yay for bobs!

First dress ever!

dress11.jpg
Originally uploaded by eusebius24

I sewed this dress on Friday. The pattern is Simplicity 3749 and I used a cotton seersucker from Fabricland. It's a simple pattern, but it's the first dress I've ever done and the first facings I've done since junior high (much more successful, I might add). I have a Flickr set documenting the construction of the dress ... maybe it will be of some use to beginner sewers.

You know you have a blog called PianoKnits when ...

... you're playing the piano part of Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and you start wondering how the heck anyone could knit with any fibre spun like that!! And I'm not even a spinner. Yet. (Feel free to convert me.)

Thanks to Non Sequiturville for putting me on to this great image.

Anyone for tennis?

I was very fortunate to be able to attend the Rogers Cup singles and doubles finals yesterday in Toronto. Even though I was in the Fan Zone (read: nosebleed seats) I had a very good view of the action.



I was working on Jaywalker #2 the whole time:



Congrats to Justine Henin, one of my favourite players; Jelena Jankovic, who showed real fight; Ai Sugiyama and Katerina Srebotnik for their first Tour doubles title together; and Cara Black and Liezel Huber, a finely-honed doubles machine!

Claire came home with a cold on Friday and now I'm down with it, but it isn't too bad thanks to Dayquil. I did skip my run ... the first one I've missed in seven weeks, alas. I hope this hiatus won't be nearly as long as the last one.

I did manage to complete a throw pillow, my first ever sewing project to include buttonholes. Again the directions were from the ever-useful Sew Simple magazine. My machine has a super-cool automatic one-step buttonhole feature. Fun times! Zorra graciously agreed to appear in this shot.

Slow and steady

Since we got back from Newfoundland on August 7, things have been pretty crazy. I didn't expect to be playing or coaching nearly as much as I have. So things have progressed slowly on the crafty front. On the Rock I finished the back of DH's pullover:



Rows and rows of stockinette, but the Naturally Tussock DK from New Zealand is lovely, flecked with all kinds of tweedy bits. I also finished my first ever Jaywalker, in Socks that Rock Lightweight. The colourway is Fairgrounds, which is nice and summery:



My first completed sewing project in August is the bag from KwikSew 2320. It was fun, but I probably should have bought some heavier machine needles for sewing through four or more layers of fairly sturdy cotton. My thread kept breaking, which usually doesn't happen with Gütermann thread. Anyway, I learned to install grommets and reviewed a bunch of other construction things, which was nice.



Now on with the second sock, and the front of the pullover. I'll get back to St Brigid when that's done. Sewing projects in the queue: a buttoned pillow cover for our new chair in the living room; matching aprons for me and DD; some pajama pants with contrasting cuffs (this and the pillow are from Sew Simple 1) and a tunic from some African printed cotton I bought from Wazoodle a while back.

Very sad news this week of Richard Bradshaw's passing. The Collaborative Piano Blog has a collection of links to obituaries and memoirs. I still have not visited the new Four Seasons house in Toronto... early childhood and opera houses don't mix too well ... but I do appreciate all Maestro Bradshaw did for our Canadian opera scene. He will be missed.

Losing my Socks that Rock virginity

Whoops, so much for my G-rating. Well, the Opal Kid's Socks are on hiatus ... I realized too late that I would not have enough Fleece Artist left for 2 socks, so now I will finally cast on my Socks That Rock in Fairgrounds:



I was loving the colour changes and the smoothness of the hand while winding the skein, so I think knitting this up will be sweet. These will be Jaywalkers for me, and then when they are done I can stripe them with the leftover Fleece Artist for some pretty crazy colour action in Claire's socks. Also I have cast on in some lovely tweedy Naturally Tussock DK for DH's polo-collar pullover. It will be reams of stockinette, but that's about what my addled brain can handle right now.

Off to Newfoundland for two weeks of visiting the in-laws. I hope this year Claire will be old enough to start to appreciate what a beautiful place it is. It ain't Disney World, but there are some pretty neat things happening. I'm hoping to take her to places like the Salmonier Nature Park and maybe on a whale watching boat tour. Meanwhile, challenges for me include 2 weeks with the in-laws ... perfectly lovely people of course, but living in anyone else's house has never been my forte; 2 weeks without a piano; and staying OP with Weight Watchers. I have now had nearly 3 fantastic weeks on this plan and I am loving it, and I've lost 6 pounds already, so let's see if I can keep things going. The good news is that my in-laws, besides being lovely people, are very health-conscious and always have good choices in the house.

Random cuteness for your enjoyment, dear reader.

Who is that masked monkey?

















Here we see the Arctic fox in repose.

FINALLY an FO...

The Fleece Artist socks are DONE!
Pattern: Eleanor from Socktopia
Yarn: Fleece Artist Nova SocksNeedles: 2 2.75mm circs
Completion date: July 8, 2007

With the leftover yarn, I've started a pair of Opal Kid's Socks for Claire. This will be my first official Summer of Socks 2007 project. I realize I'll never keep up with the likes of Wendy, but I'm involved with a couple of other projects now (non-knitting ... details to come) so I'm happy just to be able to participate.

Another little project

It only took about 3 hours today to construct this very simple purse, again from KwikSew 2320. It has a zipper opening and a simple cord as a strap. Fun times!

I'm baaaack!

I actually can hardly believe it. After nearly three months of fighting the evil sinus infection, I am back on track again, eating healthy, running, working, and crafting. Grateful doesn't begin to describe it! I only hope that I can keep things moving, and not overdo it as I'm so tempted to do. I did restart the C25K running plan yesterday and it felt good. Also I have joined Weight Watchers online ... I learned so much from Sonoma but I think I need to incorporate that into a slightly more flexible plan.

Knitting is progressing glacially, but sewing seems to be going a bit faster. Some recent little projects:






Placemats ... very fast except for handsewing on the 24 little buttons. I considered getting a button foot for this, but the effort involved just to obtain it was just about equal to sewing on the buttons by hand ... maybe next time.














Some tarted-up tea towels. This is my first attempt at hand embroidery, ever. Good thing it was intentionally simplistic!! "Clixby" is a nickname for our daughter, and "Pekka" for our cat. Yes, our cat has a nickname. Don't ask. Both this project and the previous one were from Sew Simple magazine volume 1.












A small change pouch for my husband. The pattern was KwikSew 2320, a learn-to-sew pattern with fantastic instructions. My first ever zipper! My next two projects will be the purse and drawstring bag from this pattern set.

This weekend we had a visit from my brother and SIL ... just lovely. Then yesterday we made a trek out to a local festival that was going on over the long weekend. Claire got to ride a couple of midway attractions and had her face painted:















ROWRR!!!

Sick again

Hi folks - remember the nasty sinus infection I had a while back? well, it's back ... explaining why I haven't had much to blog about lately. I am still working on detangling the washed, unraveled St Brigid yarn, and the Eleanor socks should be done soon. I've been sewing a bit too, making placemats, pillowcases, and other simple things. (Even a zippered case!)

Anyway, I'm waiting to find out whether I need more antibiotics, and hope to be on the mend soon so I can share more pics and progress with you!

Meme time!

Thanks to Chelsey for the tag:

4 jobs I have had in my life:

1. Shelving books at the library in high school ... and getting caught reading the books.

2. Teaching German lab in university ... and totally forgetting about my first day at work.

3. Typing car serial numbers onto carbon duplicate forms.

4. Sam the Record Man! Best ... discount ... ever.

4 films I can watch again and again:
1. The Big Lebowski As a friend of mine says: "Pee-your-pants funny."
2. Hannah and Her Sisters
3. The Lord of the Rings (all 3 movies)
4. The Remains of the Day

4 places I have lived:

1. Toronto
2. Saint John, NB
3. Montreal
4. Hamilton


4 TV series I watch:

1. Hi-5
2. Dora the Explorer
3. Go Diego Go
4. Zobomafoo
Do we sense a pattern here?

4 places I have been on holiday:

1. New England
2. Dominican Republic
3. Newfoundland
4. Banff, AB

4 things I do every time I am on the Net:

1. Check email
2. Read bloglines and news feeds
3. Check Figure Skating Universe
4. Check Google Calendar

4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world:

1. Cilantro. UGH
2. Anything with visible eyeballs
3. Anything with tentacles
4. Hardboiled eggs. Gag!

4 places I would love to be right now:

1. Tuscany
2. Japan
3. On the beach in PEI (Prince Edward Island for you non-Canadians)
4. At Deborah Voigt's recital in Toronto this evening!

4 people I tag, if they have not been tagged already:

Natalie
Heather
Wendy
Shannon

Knitting update

2 repeats done on the back of St. Brigid:















At this rate, I should have the thing done by the time I'm, oh, FIFTY. And this is with only two projects on the needles, people. It's the damned internet. I need to focus ...

I did manage to finish the first Eleanor sock, finally.















I do like how the lacy pattern shows up in the Fleece Artist. Interesting without being over-busy. The second sock is on the needles now ... no 2nd sock syndrome for me.

Another cool thing that happened this week was that I became one of the lucky beta-testers for Ravelry. I am in the illustrious company of Marina and Theresa, among other fabulous knitters and knitbloggers. It's very cool to be able to compare your projects directly with those of others, and to see multiple versions of a project you're contemplating. Major kudos to Jess (frecklegirl) and Casey for this great endeavour.

I've been getting back into sewing on a very small scale, pursuing some of the little projects in the first issue of Sew Simple. My finishing techniques are, predictably, somewhat spotty, but improving. And they don't seem to mar the finished products too much. Next up: a purple pillowcase for my purple-obsessed little princess, some placemats, and some hand-embroidered (!) kitchen towels.

The preshrinking part would be a lot easier, of course, if my dryer was actually pumping heat instead of just air ... but I guess I'm being unconsciously enviro-conscious then, aren't I!

Classical music and museum culture

Lawrence Kramer, whose work I've admired since I started grad school so many years ago, weighs in on how the classical music world can learn some new tricks from visual art museums. I think that some of the more forward-looking ensembles are already thinking along similar lines ... I Furiosi and eighth blackbird come to mind ... but more of us could definitely stand to ponder these ideas.

No. 3!?

I see that Chris at the Collaborative Piano Blog has put together a ranking of Canadian classical music blogs (using Technorati ratings).

Amazingly, PianoKnits comes in at no. 3.

This inevitably brings to mind the eternal adage: "If you're number 3, you don't try at all!"

Also, Chelsey (bless her heart) has gotten on my case about not posting enough ... in the nicest possible way, of course! So, I think I'd better start stepping up to the plate a bit more.

Soon to follow, then, a knitting roundup, and possibly some reflections on the season (Royal Conservatory exam season, that is!!)

Tag! I'm IT!!

I feel all cool, because somebody finally tagged me :) Thanks Kozy Kitty! I've been quite sick this week and bad about blogging, so this is a good impetus to make an entry. According to PhD Knitter, the rules are as follows:

The Rules: Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.

OK then!

1. My Siamese cat rules the house and everything in it.

2. My father-in-law is the oldest of 21 children, all with the same mother & father.

3. I am nuts about watching figure skating. Everything I know I've learned from Skatefans and Figure Skating Universe (well, not quite everything, but a large amount).

4. I was in university for more years than I spent in elementary and high school.

5. The number of letters after my name is now larger than the number of letters in my name (not including my middle name).

6. Although my first word was apparently "car-car", I don't drive.

7. I am the proud owner of five out-of-print Alice *more books.

Photos may or may not be added later ... at the mo I am too exhausted to go looking for them.

I tag Chelsey, sgeddes, Natalie, Heather, and Jessica! Watch your comments ladies!!

Super keen

Now here is a navel-gazing post (literally): my new Keen shoes.

I normally wouldn't post shoes, but the purchase was partially inspired by fellow-blogger Steph, whose commenters pointed out that the Mary Jane style was highly suitable for showing off handknit socks! Also, like her, I have quite wide feet. Thanks for the tip Steph!

Not too much knitting progress to report. I should finish the first Eleanor sock in a couple of days. Plenty of piano-related work is coming my way, and for that I'm very grateful! Also DH bought me a lovely gift for Mother's Day: Volume 1 of the Beethoven piano sonatas in the Henle edition. I already had a couple of other editions, but this was the one I really wanted (I've already been using Vol.2 for a good 20 years now!!)

I have been enjoying listening to early episodes of Cast-On and Lime 'n Violet ... it's fun to follow the progress of the shows.

Craziness abates

Sigh ... only to pick up again this weekend as DH heads out of town for a conference. Well, it will be nice to spend some girl time with DD, and I did get some lovely things in the mail this week to amuse me:







A copy of A. *more's Tudor Roses from a lovely British eBay seller. Ah, I love this book already. I see myself making most of the things in here, but first off would be Henry VII for DH and Catherine Parr for me.

And:






Some really lovely stitch markers from Purl Blossom's Etsy store. Now I finally think I have enough to dispense with the old plastic ring markers altogether! What a nice reward for finishing a section ... to be able to slip one of these to the right needle. Little things excite me, I guess! Anyway, I highly recommend Purl Blossom's store for beautiful stitch markers, promptly shipped, and she plans to add other items soon.



Not much knitting progress to report. This week was nuts. I worked pretty much every day, including Sunday, and DD was sent home from daycare with pinkeye on Thursday so no knitting time on Friday.

Nonetheless, Sleeve #2 of St Brigid is coming along but since you've already seen sleeve #1 I didn't think another pic was necessary. I also managed to turn the heel and make the gusset on Eleanor Sock #1. It was cool doing this on two circs for the first time:
















As I've reported on runagogo, I'm getting to the end of Week 5 of C25K. W5D3 is the fearsome day where you finally run 2 miles non-stop. Going from 3 to 8 consecutive track laps seems like a lot ... but I guess I just have to think about the half marathon and how this is less than one-sixth of it. Doesn't feel like it, I'll tell you!! The good news will be that everything after that feels easier.

I also finished reading Ratking, which I enjoyed very much, and I'll be looking forward to further installments in the Zen series. How sad that Michael Dibdin is no longer with us.

Summer of Socks 2007

Jessica, a fellow knitting musician, is hosting this year's Summer of Socks KAL. I have lots of nice stash built up now for socks, so I'm looking forward to some socky cameraderie!

Name that musique concrète

Alex Ross links to a video of John Cage appearing on the TV game show "I've Got a Secret" in 1960. He is performing the piece "Water Walk", which uses all kinds of everyday objects, including a bathtub, a vase of flowers, a blender, and a rubber duckie, to create a surprisingly threatening-sounding atmosphere. The audience is in stitches ... I'm not sure if this is sincere amusement or just nervousness. An amazing television event.

Take action

A terrific sermon at my church yesterday has inspired me to renew and strengthen my commitment to helping end poverty and homelessness in Canada and around the world.

I have some plans, but the first thing I want to do is draw your attention to these sites for more information:

Habitat for Humanity Canada
Micah Challenge
Make Poverty History

Please check them out. Thanks!!

R.I.P. Slava

The great Mstislav Rostropovich died yesterday.

The calm after the storm

This past week has been insane. Hence, the lack of posts. But I have made some progress:















On the left, a nearly-completed Sleeve #1 of St Brigid which will have a full extra pattern repeat in it. On the right, the Eleanor sock in Fleece Artist.

Also some stash enhancement:















From left to right: Socks that Rock Lightweight in Fairgrounds; Naturally Tussock DK, for a polo-neck pullover for DH; various colourways of Meilenweit Meeting, from the lovely Robyn of Red Bird Knits.

In other news ... planning for DD's birthday proceeds apace. I've stencilled a treasure box for her party ... costumes and the like will fill it ... but I don't want to post a pic yet for fear she'll spot it. So that will have to wait until after the party next weekend. I have a choir gig on Sunday and possibly some more accompanying work in May, but otherwise things are calming down. I've completed Week 3 of C25K as of today, w00t! I hope to be back to half-marathon form by the fall.

Schumann meets Bach in Ohio

An important musicological discovery at Baldwin-Wallace College: a collection of Bach's works annotated by Robert and Clara Schumann and possibly Johannes Brahms. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has more.

Before/after

No, no weight loss photos. I have lost 7 lbs though (grin).

Before:















After:
















Fortunately it wasn't as tangled as I thought, so I managed to get through the winding without too much trauma. Thanks for the encouraging comments!

So now I've been able to start a new sock, my very first on two circulars, thanks to the great instructions by Washington KnitWit. The pattern is Eleanor, one of the excellent free patterns at Socktopia.
















I am loving how the Fleece Artist is knitting up!

Playing by heart

Is it always better for pianists to perform from memory? British pianist Susan Tomes provides an anti-memory perspective. She's not the first to make this argument; Gilbert Kalish leaps to the mind. But she makes it eloquently and reasons well.

Personally, I like playing from memory; it gives me confidence and freedom. But I can certainly appreciate Tomes's POV, and I'm definitely too lazy to memorize chamber music.

Go go gadget girl

Lookie here:






That's a Palm Treo 700p. Sweeeet! It replaces my ancient cellphone as well as a Palm that died recently; the camera and wireless modem capabilities are nice bonuses. I may try moblogging soon ...



Meanwhile, the Meilenweit socks are done.



Why do the toes look different? It's a long story, but I rather like the funky look.










Now I want to get started on my Fleece Artist merino, but somehow I managed to tangle the skein:





So if anyone has suggestions on (a) how to untangle this efficiently or (b) what would be a rocking sock pattern for this yarn, I'm all ears!

Resources for freelancers

Check out the new series on freelancing over at the Collaborative Piano Blog. I will be following with great interest!

So Joshua Bell walks into a subway station ...

Jodie weighs in thoughtfully on the much-publicized Joshua Bell busking experiment. Personally, when I read the article I felt that the results were utterly predictable. Some of my fellow-students who have busked in the Toronto and Montreal transit systems have gone on to become respected orchestral musicians and soloists ... perhaps not of Bell's fame and acclaim, but solid musicians nonetheless. Their recognition and earnings were no better or worse than Bell's, and some made quite decent money. I don't think the self-preoccupation of commuters rushing to work must be a sign of the demise of classical music or Culture In Our Society. See, for example, Alex Ross on the state of classical recordings now vs. 1988.

Ouch!!!

Piano movers in the UK dropped a Bösendorfer!!

Wednesday miscellany

Knitting report:

St Brigid progress continues. 2 1/2 pattern repeats done on the sleeve. I hope I am doing the increases right. As I fold the sleeve around my arm I wonder if it will be too tight, but I'll keep going for a while.

Meilenweit Sock #2: I've finished the gusset decreases and I'm knitting on the foot now.

Health report:
I'm on a bit of a kick. I am on Wave 1, Day 2 of the Sonoma Diet which I've been on and off for about 4 months now. I love the Mediterranean food and don't feel deprived at all. Also, I signed up at Runagogo and restarted the Couch to 5K running programme. I feel great already!! I hope I can keep this up.

Piano report:
Ugh. Trying to get inspired to practice. I guess it's been a heavy semester and right at the moment I'd rather be knitting, running, and playing on the computer. Nonetheless, I have a concert with a local chamber choir on the weekend and a bunch of performance juries coming up, so I need to get busy.

Blog report:
Jeremy Denk made me laugh out loud yesterday.

Fridge report:
Wendy challenged us to reveal the innards of our refrigerators! OK, I'll take you up on that:


























I remember when my fridge was nearly bare (grad school) but now that I'm eating veggies and have a daughter, things are a bit different ... At least there aren't as many science experiments in there as there once were!

Sleeve #1 in progress

Some progress to report on St Brigid:
















After swatching on 3.75mm circs, I found that the end result was a bit too wide, so I frogged and swatched again on 3.5mms. This gauge was near-perfect. So I forged ahead, this time deciding (like many on the St Brigid KAL) to begin with a sleeve as a secondary gauge check. This morning I noticed that I'd made a stupid mistake in the Chart B cable, so I restarted -- making today the official start date. I managed to finish a full pattern repeat this morning!

St Brigid underway again

I have finally ripped out all of the moth-eaten St Brigid pieces, and started re-swatching with 3.75mm bamboo circulars (Kertzer) with a ball I hadn't used up yet. Tomorrow I'll wash the used yarn and hang it to dry.

I'm getting about a half-stitch wider than the recommended gauge, but I think that will just accommodate my piano butt ;) My row gauge is, as usual, short, but so am I, so that works out OK.

Today I played a song by John Corigliano for the first time: "Christmas at the Cloisters". It's really an excellent piece and I hope I'll have the chance to do more.

Last week of classes

A looong day of piano teaching at the university yesterday. This time of year is always a mix of emotions: excitement at hearing a year's work come to fruition; frustration when a student doesn't follow through on commitments; and general exhaustion after a long semester. (this last would be improved if I'd be more consistent with eating and exercise, but that's a long-term project ...)

I had an exciting breakthrough with a student yesterday. She has worked very hard all year, but today she really began to understand that music needs to be felt physically and emotionally ... not just comprehended intellectually. Her resistance was expressing itself through a stiffness in the core of her body. I got her to play her pieces quite slowly, listening to the vibrations of each note and of the transitions between one note and the next, feeling what happened in her body as she responded to those vibrations. A natural, sincere musicality began to emerge. I hope that she trusts herself enough to follow these instincts ...

Thanks again to Madeline Bruser for her wonderful book. I would love to take part in one of her Vermont music/meditation workshops someday.

OKC (obligatory knitting content): A few more stripes complete on the body of Sock #2. Socks are so great for car trips ...

ChildHood complete

Pattern: ChildHood by Natalie Wilson from Knitty Fall 2003
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 100% Superwash Merino in Crocus (535) and Mallow (025)
Started: February 2007
Finished: April 2, 2007















Claire was pretty happy with it! Thanks to Natalie Wilson's ingenious button/snap design, she can snap and unsnap it all by herself (though I fear she'll rip the wool) and she's a big fan of big hoods for her head. The crocheted koala bear puppet was an FO for Grandma today! What do you suppose Claire's favourite colour is?

I finished the ribbing on Meilenweit Sock #2 and did an inch or so on the leg.

Today was my lucky day ... I was summoned for jury selection. I waited around at the courthouse for a couple of hours (no knitting needles allowed, but I did get to read a few chapters of The Art of Practicing -- see sidebar). Then we were all called into the courtroom and told that our services were not required, as the trial had been adjourned. Woo hoo! An unexpected afternoon off ... hence the FO.