Days off are for Repair Work

Yesterday was amazing.
Between the craziness of Christmas, moving and unpacking, dance jumping into hyper-mode, getting in the climbing gym as much as possible, and maintaining a healthy dose of relationship time with S, my life has been more than a little hectic.  One look at my highlighted and color-coded planner would convince one of that.  But yesterday I had (with the exception of an hour of tap) the whole day off.
It was glorious.  I had coffee in the morning, cleaned up the kitchen, did two very large loads of laundry, and made myself not feel rushed in any of my tasks.
I put away a bunch of the small random piles in the living room, so it feels a little more lived-in and less like we're still unpacking, and added things to the now fairly sizable donation pile.
And I finally tackled fixing the Onward Shawl.

(My first attempt at fixing it, with the problem child watching.  Notice how she doesn't have an ounce of regret in her little eyes...)
I cut back the entire edge that seemed damaged, figuring that I could just pull back as far as needed (hoping it wasn't much) and pick up the live stitches on the needle.
I didn't realize how much damage there was until I was pulling, pulling, pulling... and the yarn kept coming in nommed-off chunks.  I finally just picked up the stitches right before the fourth repeat section, far below any chew marks, cut the piece down to just above the needles, and pulled back to that.  Two CSI episodes later, I finally had it fixed and ready to work again.

It was a little sad to see how much yarn I had to cut out and pull back, but I know that it's going to be worth it in the end.  It's going to take a couple of rows to figure out if I accidentally dropped any stitches, or need to do any other small repairs, but it feels good to have a handle on this thing and get it finished.  This has been on the needles way to long, and it needs to get to the recipient before the cold weather is over.
Speaking of cold weather, I finished my amazing day by going on a night cross-country ski with my friend Alex!

We did the Piedmont trail which overlooks the city.  I wanted to get a pic of my new skis, but the whole night-ski thing made that difficult.  I'll just have to do it next time instead. :)
One of the nicest things about a whole day off?
I feel completely refreshed and energized to continue my week!
Huzzah and upward!