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i went to the cafe today to drop off the latest color revision for a thorpe hat. i did the math: knitting a medium thorpe using size 10 needles with chunky yarns means 4 rows of knits per color band, with the exception of the crown color which has 6 rows. my mother had already started another thorpe (this one in medium), knitted using size 8 needles with medium patons classic wool in a forest pattern. this was the yarn i picked a while back for a potential hat but i ended up not liking the patterning (sort of a camouflage pattern); on the thorpe it didn't look so bad, more distinctive bands instead of jagged chunks.

there was a strong urine odor when i came into the cafe. when i asked my mother what it was, she said it the old guy sitting by the window, a regular customer, and a frequent stinker. i'd seen him in the past but today i smelled him. everyone's too embarrassed to say anything, but it's probably bad for business.

i did some yard work when i got home, raking the leaves and twigs in the backyard, pruning back the rampant ivy, and putting them into garden refuse bins. i also swept the sidewalk in front of the house. when i came out to wipe down my motorcycle, that's when i bumped into dennis. i was also planning on doing water changes on the aquariums but after getting a cut on my finger that was all the excuse i needed to postpone that chore until tomorrow.

the rest of the day was spent catching up on a backlog of downloaded shows from the past few days (death valley, how to make it in america, boardwalk empire, hung, homeland, pan am, once upon a time).

i've been drinking a lot of tea, especially since the weather is getting colder. i brought back a large dunkin' donut thermos from my parents' place and i've been using it to store my hot water so i can make tea anytime without waiting for my electric kettle to boil. i've been drinking so much hot beverage that i don't even feel cold anymore, even though i know it's not that warm inside my house.

for dinner i scrounged up some leftover ingredients and made some tuna fish sandwiches.

later in the evening i was learning how to braid. the finishing touch on the thorpe involves tying braids at the end of the earflaps. my mother didn't know how to do this so i took it upon myself to learn. having not grown up doing friends' hair, i lack any sort of braiding skills. the thorpe calls for a 6 strand braid. it took a long time to find a proper how-to on the web. one place had an amazingly complex braiding technique; i finally found a good explanation out of all places on a site for making braided bread.