leaving soon

i am slowly becoming cognizant of the fact that pete is leaving THIS FRIDAY for antarctica. yes, that would be the continent on the bottom of the world. his flight schedule goes something like this: friday morning fly from manchester, nh to chicago. then from chicago to los angeles. then he has a 12 + hour flight from L.A. to auckland, NZ. then a short flight from auckland to christchurch, where he spends a day (or two) before he hops a military cargo jet for mcmurdo station. i'm exhausted just writing the description!

he is scheduled to fly back on 22 january (the same flights described above but in reverse), but this is dependent on what the weather is like down there. so i am keeping my fingers crossed that there will be beautiful antarctic summer weather at mcmurdo around that time.

so it will be just me, boopers and cabot while pete is gone. luckily, my good friend who lives about five miles away has agreed to watch aubrey for me during that time so that i don't have to schlep her all the way up to her usual daycare, which is about 45 minutes away (where pete works). pete has gone away on short trips before, so i know i can hack it on my own, but i also know that not having an extra set of hands around is exhausting.

we've been busy finishing little projects around the house over the past few days. pete installed shelving in my closet, hooray! we've been splitting wood for the woodstove, cooking food to freeze, and otherwise cleaning. work is progressing on the kitchen and i am HOPING that this week the countertops will get installed and the dishwasher will be hooked up. ah, dishwasher....

and i'm making a new sweater for aubrey. i'm kind of sort of following a pattern (unusual of me). actually, it's just a formula for knitting a top-down raglan pullover. i'm using leftover bits of purplish yarn from old projects and so far it's super cute. i'll post a picture soon.