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Clear, cold and icy.

I have automated the reading list (see right). Further enhancements to come.

I’ve done practically nothing in leisure except read all week. A Suitable Boy, of course. I have not enjoyed a book more in ages. The only improvement would have been to divide it into volumes so I could carry it on the subway, it being a bit bulky to handle with one hand.

When I wasn’t reading the book, I was looking up references on the internet. I had to look up dhoti and kurta among other things, then, of course, I thought about whether I could get away with wearing them. Probably not. Waistlines would definitely be less of an issue, however.

Usually, if I am within fifty pages of the end of a book, I cannot put it down and will read until I’m done, no matter how near to bedtime I am. In a book this size and this good, I hit that point somewhere between 150 and 100 pages from the end. Not good, since I hit it about 11:15 or so. I finished the book anyway, and would do it again—and probably will.

It was 1:10 am when I went to bed, quite satisfied.

And I got up at 5:35. And napped on the sofa from 5:40 to 6:10, but still made it to work by 7:45.

On page 1163 of the 2005 paperback edition, we find Mrs Rupa Mehra knitting baby booties.

Or will.

I have to back Birch up 3 and a half rows. I missed a k2tog and added an extra yo two rows up, for some unknown reason, and now the pain begins. Probably too busy talking during the staff meeting.

I’ll tink or frog, cut and rejoin. The ripped out kidsilk haze doesn’t have the same verve.

Aside from that, I’m being boring. I spend much of the weekend with Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy or looking up relevant cultural bits on Wikipedia. A description of me reading is rather dull.

I’m on page 905. Five hundred-sixty nine to go.

Ah. The bike must go to the shop. The rear wheel has a slight warp and rubs the brake. Yes, it is added exercise, but it decreases one’s joy of coasting downhill when one is forced to start pedalling halfway down.

F&F: five-eighths of round 101: 88 and three-eighths to go.

Birch: Row 72 of 240, thankfully decreasing ten stitches for every eight rows.

Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy: page 310 of 1474.

All of which are perfectly enjoyable.

I’ve started reading—through p. 147—Virkam Seth’s A Suitable Boy, which my mom gave me as a B-day gift (months ago). I’m liking this book. Engaging characters and dialog. A different culture. The question is whether I will finish it, at 1474 pages in paperback, or F&F first.

Probably the book. I’m only on round 97 of F&F. Weeks until the end.

I actually wore khaki pants and a white dress shirt to work today. Khaki makes your ass look huge, or flat and baggy. Mine looks huge. Why? [I mean, "why did I wear khaki?" not "why does my ass look huge?"] Because I thought to myself this morning, if the power goes out today—because of the heat—what do I want to be wearing when I have to walk home across the Brooklyn Bridge? A black polo shirt and grey slacks or khaki and white? On my way to work—two blocks away at 7:30 am, I’m sweating—I figured I should keep a spare pair of shorts and a t-shirt in my desk, just in case. And flip-flops, since dress shoes don’t work with gym shorts. And sunscreen, since the power would likely go off mid-afternoon and there’s little shade along the way, like you could fight the crowds your way into the shade anyway.

Currently listening to: the soundtrack from Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man

I’m stuck. I’m done with the practice Feather & Fan. I’m ready to move on to the real thing. But I don’t know how to bind off the practice lace and get it off the needle. I’ve transferred it to the 60″ Addi circ to look at it stretched out, but I will eventually need that needle.

These are the first sixty rounds of the pattern. Not perfect, but only one truly wonky bit: the large hole near the center.

My conference call knitting is a ribbed coverlet for my disgustingly spotty office chair. It goes slowly because I’ve lately actually had to participate in the calls. My subway knitting is a baby hat in turquoise elsebeth lavold silky wool. It goes slowly because the commute isn’t really long enough—ten minutes—to get much done.

But mostly I’ve been reading Wikipedia and The Codebreakers by David Kahn, the revised and updated version. I gave it to my mom for her birthday earlier this year—she did want it—and decided I wanted to read it too. It is an interesting history of cryptanalysis, 984 pages of text, with another 197 of endnotes and indices. I’ve made it through WWI, but that’s only about a quarter of the way through.