20 pounds. As advertised. However, it would have been more, but I had some bad days at the beginning of last week, so that slowed my rate down. I kept my cal count down, but the food choices on the bad days weren’t the best.

This week, I’ll be adding in the walking, as recommended by Medifast – 20 minutes 3 times a week. Don’t know when, just yet – possibly at lunch time at work.

On the knitting front – can’t find the camera, so you’ll just have to imagine in your mind – I’ve got the triangle blanket halfway done. I bound off the baby sweater torso, only to determine it’s too short, so either I have to go back and add about 6 rows, or scrap the whole thing. Nephew is due on valentine’s day, so I need to decide soon.

Today is the six yr old’s part at Chuck E Cheese. Ugh. But, this is her first big, non family party, with invitations and thank you notes and everything. So, I’ll be listening to screaming kids for two hours. I’ve warned the husband that if he’s home when we get home, I’m going to take an hour off to recover my sanity. He has to work today (maintenance weekend for the govt computers), so he’s excused from party duty.

I had my first off site client visit last week for the new job. I’m definitely out of practice, but I think I did okay. I was pretty nervous, so I told the 4.25 yr old at drop off that I needed to hurry because I had my first big meeting with the new job. So, at pickup, the first thing out of her mouth was “Mom! How did your meeting go?” That made my afternoon.

After 3 weeks on Medifast, I’ve lost 15 pounds. I seem to have settled on 3 lbs a week after the water loss. So this is the real work. Medifast recommends getting used to the program before starting their exercise for sedentary folks (walking) program. So, next weekend, I will begin that. That should help as well. That may increase the 3 lbs a week, or may just help with inch loss.

The 5.95 turned 6 on Tuesday. I’ll have pics from the big Chuck E Cheese party which is next weekend.

The 4.25 has recovered from her cold and has spent the last 6 nites in her own bed all nite. Yes! Remember, this is the child who’s also called the Klingon. (Cling on, for those not aware of Star Trek).

The knitting – well, not so much. New Nephew is due in 4 weeks. Hat is done. Sweater needs sleeves. Still need to do booties and matching blanket. Other blanket (to match nursery) is almost half done. 18.25’s sweater – supposed to be done for christmas – needs sleeves.

I have my first on-site client visit on Tuesday with the new job. I have to make sure I can present a professional enough appearance. Also gotta remember to take my business cards to hand out.

I’m doing some personal coding, but time is short.

I’ve got a new story idea wandering around in my head, so I’m putting some of the stuff on paper, but I haven’t been really writing in ages. I guess I’m not as serious about it right now as I used to be.

We’ve lost the TV Remote (my fault – I put it somewhere, and now can’t remember where) so now I’m off to clean in hopes of finding it under the clutter.

Update: Found the remote. It was in a box I had thought I’d looked in before.

I got a package, but since I still haven’t found the digital camera, there won’t be any pics until I do. Little bit of everything in this package.

Inside, I found:

• 2 rolls of Lifesaver ButterRums – yum. The trick is to make them last.
• 1 ball Patons Bumble Bee in lime green – cotton dk weight, but machine washable
• 1 ball Bernat Miami in sky blue – looks like tube cotton, and it may go well with the stuff from Stitches
• 1 ball Berroco Candy FX in pink/white mix – this is a knit along, so while I like the looks on the ball, I gotta find something to use this with
• 1 ball Berroco Plush in Pink – very, very soft. I almost like this in the ball too much to make something.
• 1 supersize ball Sugar n Creme in Over the Rainbow (mix of fuschia, yellow, lime, orange, white) – Not my usual color mix, but I like the way these go together. I never would have bought this myself, but I think I’ll enjoy making something with this.
• 2 balls Bernat Handicrafter cotton, same color name and scheme – I just finished making a dishcloth with one of the previous Bernat balls she sent me, so all three of these may make a nice set to give to someone. The texture difference between the two brands is slight, but there.
• 2 balls Cascade Pearls (in another bright mix (fuschia, aqua, lavender) – I’ve recently been acquainted with Cascade Yarns, so this is good quality. This is a boucle type yarn.
• 2 balls Schaechenmayr nomotto Rainbow in lavender – this is a worsted cotton yarn, wrapped with a variegated single strand of rainbow cotton. Interesting. This will definitely be an interesting knit.
• 2 balls Wendy Shimmer, in purple – girls loved this one the best. It’s a feathery novelty yarn. It looks good next to the Candy FX, since they’re both metallic. This will prolly become a doll blanket or something for the girls.

My design juices are flowing, and my fingers are itching, but I need to finish Ellen’s sweater, and Cailin’s green sweater first before I tackle any other time intensive project. Now, to add all these into Ravelry, and see what others have done with them – the biggest feature of Ravelry, IMHO.

So, yesterday, I parked the littel monst– girls, and waved at the husband, and took off to Baltimore to Stitches East. Just for one day, to check out the vendors.

Takeaway – knitters need big wallets. Seriously. Yes, it was all nice, and custom dyed, and fantastic quality, and almost nothing machine washable (other than superwash wool, which we all know I can’t touch). So, I saw some knitting gurus – I spotted Lily Chin there, and I bought a book from the Cabin Fever ladies, but other than that, I had to shop real hard to justify any other purchase.

I did buy 10 balls of Lucci tube cotton – 4 bucks a ball. This was a low price booth – the manufacturer/distributor booth. White and mint green, 5 each. Prolly a layette set for the boss, or a spring time thing for a monst– girl.

And I had to pay 9 bucks just for the priviledge of entering the market, and 20 bucks to park. And 5 bucks for a pretzel and a 20 oz bottle of diet soda.

Takeaway – I’d rather spend my money on machine-washable, affordable yarn, than the good stuff. I’d prefer my stuff to get used, not put away. But hey, that’s just me. I’ll just stick to Lion Brand, and whatever’s on sale, thanks (except Vanna’s Choice. Don’t like the feel or the colors).

That was what I asked myself when my favorite blogger went off line for nearly two weeks. I mean, even to post something saying she was taking some time off?

Of course, over the last two weeks, I’ve had the same difficulty posting – not necessarily due to lack of something to say, but finding the time to say it right – with pictures and everything.

So, I’ve decided to stop being the hypocrite, and stop being the perfectionist and just post – even if I don’t have the pretty pictures downloaded from the camera and ready to go.

Here goes:

The in-laws just left after a week’s visit. They’re great. I love them, but it’s nice to have my home back to myself (so to speak). Really, they’re wonderful. They both clean (I’m not quite the world’s worst housekeeper, but they may think so), she cooks, and they both dote on the little monst–, uhm, girls.

Of course, I get a head cold last week, that this week is trying to migrate into my chest. And I don’t have Columbus day off, with this new job, so I’ll be dropping you know who off at my mother’s.

I’ve made progress on Ellen’s Surprise, and Holly’s Custom Sweater (Light blue with up and down white stripes). I’ve started and ripped and started Cara’s Matrix Thing.

I’ve watched all my shows from last week – Bones, NCIS, Bionic Woman, CSI, Numbers, and Cold Case. I started Munich – about 45 minutes. I finished Highlander: the Source. Ugh. I was never a fan of Duncan McCloud.

Next time, I promise to have pictures. Gotta go wake 5.5 yr old, and dress us all, and head out.

What a week it’s been. We had an intense time at the beach, then came back to the week not quite from heck, but from somewhere pretty close. So now I’m finally mentally and physically ready to resume blogging. Unfortunately, I haven’t any pictures for you, yet, but I’ll get back into that soon.

Below is a list of all the stuff I have in the works in various stages more solid than dreaming about.

Knitting Projects Currently On The Needles:

• Green Sweater for 5.5 yr old (needs one sleeve, and body)
• Christmas Sweater (not those colors) for 18 yr old
• Kittyville hat for Youngest Sister (by request)
• Not a Kelly for Me
• Various Dishrag / swatching

Knitting Projects Soon To Be Cast On

• Tank/Tee for Middle Sister
• Sweater for 4 yr old
• Sweater for Cousin 4 yr old (by request)

Knitting Projects Being Planned

• Layette for BOSS (due Jan 1 – Baby’s Due Jan 15, gender unknown)
• Layette for Youngest Sister (due Feb 1 – Baby’s Due Feb 14, male)

Website Projects In the Pipeline

• Updates to this site
• Writeaholic resurrection
• Codemom deployment

Writing Projects In my Head

• Divine Right to Rule (exploring a physical manifestation of this belief)
• Magic Tigers
• Warriors

My second layette – well, at least the sweater and blankie – have been completed.

The frills remind me of Sigmund and the Seamonsters, but my mother gushed, so I guess they’re cute enough.

I personalized the blankie, but this time with duplicate stitch.

It’s more of a throw, or a breastfeeding cover, but this yarn – Bernat Baby Coordinates (mill end equivalent) – got heavy. I used a double strand on the blankie, and it started stretching too much from the weight of the yarn. I have tons of this stuff. I’m real quick doing some booties in white, with frills, then it will be ready to send to my sister’s friend.

When we got up after abbreviated nap, guess what I found? A Secret Pal gift, just for me. Yippee.

I had my girls and cousin help me open, and they were very good at waiting. So, I shared some lifesavers.

From left 2 right: redhead is mine, 5.5 (the kindergartener), blondie is mine, 3.9 (the preschooler), the teenager is mine, 17.9 (the college student), and the 3.9 year old is my niece (the cousin).

Now, we’re off to the surprise.  I’ll post specific thanks later, but I love it all!

I swear, she’ll talk you to death. Sheesh.

Got the SP 11 package and Michelle’s package in the mail on Tuesday. When Michelle acknowledges receipt, I’ll post the knitting pics. The other baby due in Sept is actually a preemie, so after I confirm sizing, I’ll prolly send them something this coming week. SP11 Recipient has acknowledged, but I can’t put a link here, just in case.

Blogging and tight coding deadlines don’t mix well. But my code went live today, and I haven’t heard about any issues with it. While I had the logic down pat, I know the code wasn’t well formed, but I’m new to the language, and a lot of the finer points that others fully trained in the language would code automatically I either ignored, didn’t know about, or took awhile to track down the syntax. I’m open to a code review when we can breathe again, and I said so to my direct boss, the integrator. So, hopefully, they still like me as much as I like them.

Here, have a kitteh.

 

 

The Not A Tulip Layette is nearly complete. The blanket – with personalization – is done and finished. Everything is packed in a box, with a note. And I finally found an easy bootie pattern I liked. However, the first bootie took me an hour from start to finish. So, the second one will be completed in the morning. And the Secret Pal box is nearly ready – just have to acquire one more item. Tuesday will be fun at the Fed Ex store.

We went to a cookout and my sister gave me a book – Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook – and requested the kittyville hat, and a matching one for the new one (once gender is determined on the 20th) due in February. I flipped through it, and it’s interesting, so she didn’t waste her money. And the knitting book I ordered – Knitting Around – will be the last actual knitting book purchase, at least until the Harlot visits the area on the 20th.

Well, I promised Hubby I’d be up at midnite. So I better go on upstairs.

Happy September!

Deadline for day job fast approaching, and I’ve been tracking down an issue, which seems to be a stupid programmer issue, for the most part. I forgot I had included a step in a routine, then called that step outside the routine, then the routine itself, so of course it wasn’t working. Duh! Logic 101, time to refresh.

1. Unzip
2. Untar
3. Send email

In that order. Silly Programmer, kicks are for trids.

Sorry, it’s late, and I’m rambling because I have no real knitting progress to update – between kindergarten, and tight coding deadline, knitting has crawled for the last two days. However, since I have to send package on Saturday, once coding furiously is done, knitting furiously will resume.

Here, have some cute kittehs.

Someone has gone and made some links. I’m not the only one, it seems, who would be interested. I’m not that into HP, but the other stuff looks interesting.

It seems blogger/blogspot is down this morning. None of the blogs (okay, most - I got one to work) I usually read from there are working. From a technical perspective, it will be an interesting read when it's back up and the explanation is posted. From a blogosphere perspective, it will be interesting to see how the overal web society responds to the outage.

Okay, enough geek musings.

I'm taking the baby sweater to visit my grandmother this evening. While she didn't teach me to knit (I actually took a knitting class in elementary school), it has been another thing we share, and it seems I'm the only one in the family who enjoys it as she does. Since she's ninety, and her body's starting to complain, she doesn't get out much - if at all. So we'll marvel at the techniques, and discuss a few things, and continue our bond, while the little gels run around the back yard of my mother's house. (At least, that's the plan.)

The Not A Tulip Sweater, she has been finished! Finally! Although, it really only took 11 days, and I was sick the last five, so it was a fairly quick project, but WAY too much finishing work for me. The I-cord around the neck - I worked it separately then sewed it on, since I couldn't wrap my head around the applied directions (doing I-cord while attached to the sweater) - is now complete, and and all ends woven, knotted as needed, and snipped. The hat is done. The blanket is about half way done. I found a good set of seamed booties, so the layette will be complete.

Once this set is done, I need to finish the blanket and booties for the other Michelle, and I'm done with baby stuff for a couple of months. (Pics will be forthcoming after Labor Day - both boxes must be in the mail by Sept 1.) My boss and my sister are due in January and February (in that order), so they'll be the next baby layette recipients.

Next up on the priority list is finishing the green sweater for Cailin, and doing one each for the other two daughters. My husband doesn't wear sweaters, and I'll work on mine as I work on the girls'.

In the meantime, have some LOLCat cuteness. And if you're a geek, you might enjoy LOLCode.

[Geeks, be patient. I have some good marriage tips coming up for you - whether you are one, or are married to one, or both.]

In Kid News, the the five year old starts kindergarten next week, so that's our big building up to event. We did some homework a bit tonite, to warm up brains. Both the 3.9 yr old and the 5.5 yr old did two pages in the little books I got for them from AC Moore. We're setting up the routine before the school year starts, and easing them into it.

Questionnaire is here.

Other Q N A

1.  What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without? Hmmm, Gallon size zip lock bags.
2.  If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you?  Of Course. If so, how much and what type of project? Lots and everything. I usually take several projects.
3.  Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot? Natural Bridge, VA
4.  What is your favorite knitting book at the moment?  Do you own it? Knitting from the top down, Barbara Walker, and yes, I own it.
5.  Do you listen to podcasts?  I've tried, but when I have time to listen (at the day job, programming) is not when I'm knitting, so it doesn't work out. When I have time to knit, the girls are usually around and about, so I gotta pay attention to them.

Knitting group tonite. I made a hat last nite (my first one), and I hope to finish the sweater tonite, and the blanket this weekend. Girls will be traveling with grandma, so I'll be kidfree, but lots of house work to do. And quality time with Hubby.

Here are the rest of the general purpose links. While I have time to post.

Free Patterns
http://www.berroco.com/pattern_library.html
http://cache.lionbrand.com/content-knittingPatternIndex.html (registration required)
http://www.straw.com/cpy/free_patterns.html
http://www.canadianliving.com/Crafts/knitcrochet/
http://www.spotlight.com.au/projects/yarn_projects
http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php

Knitting Blogs
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/
http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/
http://www.knittingcurmudgeon.com/
http://www.ysolda.me.uk/wordpress/
http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/
http://mamastopknitting.typepad.com/mama_stop_knitting/
http://majorknitter.typepad.com/

Yahoo Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/knitlist/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sweetlifeknitters/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knitting4children/

Tomorrow - some geek stuff, so be warned.

I have 2 babies to knit for - both due in September. My goal is to have knitting boxed and ready to mail on Sept 1.

Here's the Tulip (scroll down) I started last Thursday at SweetLife Knitters Meetup:

Not quite the pattern, but close. Here's the blanket I'll prolly send with it, unless I do something with the matching yarn in time. Lots of finishing, and I prolly will adjust the next one to decrease the amount of finishing. But it's top down, easy (except for the knitting in the round sleeves), and memorizable. And quick. Most likely it will be completed on Thursday, if I can get the size 6 dpns in time.

 

The blanket is white mill end cotton, and will most likely have one more diamond before I begin the decreases. I may or may not embellish

The other set will appear tomorrow.

Yes, folks, apparently some of you ARE reading this. Which means I gotta be more disciplined in posting.

Chicken Pox Update: Hubby was down for a week. He eased back into work last week, but until this past weekend, that was it. He'd go to work, pick up the girls from school, then be useless the rest of the evening. Only the essentials - dog feeding, pool maintenance, trash to the curb - got accomplished. Needless to say, I wasn't Happy Harriet Homemaker. I'm an overweight, cranky, menopausal forty-year old. (Yes, it's menopause. Been confirmed.) So, the house is still recovering.

Finally, this weekend, he seemed back to normal. And then the five year old started having a nose. Sheesh, it never stops.

I started my not quite a tulip baby sweater last thursday, and I've made it to the first sleeve. Knitting in the round on dpns is not my favorite activity, but as a knitter, it's a necessary skill. I tried magic loop, but it stretched the stiches too much. I looked all weekend for the camera, and I found it this morning, so hopefully I'll get some pics up this evening. And I need a set of size 6 dpns.

Back to the day job.

So, I finally went to a knitting group last nite, and one of the less computer-oriented asked where to find free knitting patterns. So, Just now, I've gathered the beginnings of a reference list.

General Patterns
http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/baby.html
http://www.elann.com/freepatterns.asp
http://magknits.com/archive/
http://www.knitty.com/
http://www.knittingknonsense.com/
http://www.dailyknitter.com/exclusive.html

Generators
http://www.knittingfool.com/pages/topdown.cfm
http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/

I have more bookmarked, but most of the rest are ones and twosies that I'm interested in.

Okay, here goes nuttin'...

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I have skin allergies with both wool and nylon, so I've been enjoying cotton and cotton blends lately. Haven't tried other things.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? Denise case, loose in my knitting drawer.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I consider myself an intermediate knitter. I've been doing this off and on since I learned in 4th grade, 30 years ago.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes, at amazon (geek alert).

5. What's your favorite scent? I like strawberry and rose, but due to allergies, the only scents I can really tolerate are vanilla and cinnamon.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Sweet Teeth, definitely. The only candy I don't like is gummy anything. Butterscotch and butter rum lifesavers are a rare treat, when I can find them.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I don't spin, being allergic to wool. I'm a geek, so in my non-knitting spare time, I futz on the computer with programs.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD). I like any kind of music EXCEPT COUNTRY. And of course I can do MP3s.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I'm a blue freak, and I don't like orange all by itself, or brown/tan with pretty much anything. Or Teal. (the old windows 95 default background made me want to puke practically every time I saw it.)

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? 3 girls (17.9, 5.5, 3.9), 1 husband (43), 1 dog (6.8). Various parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, fabulous in-laws.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I've got long hair, so I don't do the hat thing, but I'll snip the fingertips off cheap mittens, if needed.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I'm having fun with my first top down raglan sweater per Barbara Walker's book, and the tulip baby sweater.

13. What are you knitting right now? See above, plus... cuff to cuff for the youngest, Kelly sweater (from Daily Knitter) for me, something surprising for Demented M, besides the baby's blanket.... (must not cast on, must. not. cast. on.)

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Of course, who doesn't?

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Circs, definitely. I'm a clutz, so they're easier. I use Denise, supplemented by whatever.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Nope.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? There's something upstairs that I started before my nephew was born - he's nine now.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas!

19. Is there anything that you collect? Besides yarn? Crayons, probably. I love the smell. My kids never run out.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I haven't read the harlot in print, just yet, only online. If I subscribed to a magazine, it would probably be to knit n style. Vogue, possibly. I'm getting into design, since I don't usually like the designs that are in the glossies.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Cables are next. I've done one swatch, but I want to get good at it.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Never done that. Wanna learn. My shoe size is 8 wide. (short fat feet)

23. When is your birthday? May 26.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? Yes, I'm on ravelry. Kaplooeymom, of course.

There you have it.

Pics coming tonite, I think.

Barely. Husband is sick - started sunday afternoon when he came home from weekend work. He's pretty sick, fever/chills, dizzyness, soreness everywhere. Since he hates me to fuss over him, I just concentrate on the girls. So I get pretty cranky sometimes.

The party was a success, for the most part. I tried to take pictures, but of course the batteries were low, and the moment was lost.

AC Moore has/had a one day sale today, and I found some fuschia Microspun for 1.87 a ball - I got all 7 balls left. I'm trying to schedule in a trip to the other store to see if they have some. I'm working on a microspun baby blanket for one of the michelles, and while it's not gonna be pink, the yarn is pleasant to work with, and at that price, I can stock up and work double if I want something thicker.

I'm gonna try to take/post more pics tonite. Either of knitting, little gels, or both.

I finally had an hour to kill, without kids or husband, on the way home from work, so I went by the LYS. I'm a cheapo, but I found something new at a price I could justify for my expectant sister (due valentine's day). (excuse the crumbs).

Cotton/Acrylic at $5 a ball. This will make either a nice blanket-bootie set, or the tulip sweater and a hat. Or something like that. Plenty of time.

All my yarn is now getting ID'd per skein/ball - yes, these have been duly marked and entered into my current knitting organizer. I'm back to doing my organizer in MS Access to save time on tweaking. Once I'm happy with the final output, I'll  port it to either a fancy desktop app - in Mono, I hope - or I'll webify it. If I webify it, it won't be social, like ravelry, but datacentric, like basecamp.

I'm such a geek. While I like ravelry.com, it's a little too social for my taste, so in my spare time, I'm working on my own. I was going to make it a plain desktop app, but what with Vista, and Mac and Linux ppl, for now it's browser based, in vb.net 2005 and sql server. When I'm happy with the overall usage, I  may make it multi-user, and do more with it. The big thing I want it to do is price my projects and keep track of my yarn inventory based on yarn usage.

In other news, the teenager is moving out today. I'm trying not to be too mushy ("oh, mom!"), but she's been my life for the last 18 and a half years (including gestation). She turns 18 in September, and she'll only be six miles away, but still.

On the diet front, over the winter and chaotic spring I had gained back all my weight loss, so now I'm back on medifast. I'm gonna use up my existing supply, then order more. The girls and I took a walk to the playground this weekend and the next morning I could barely get out of bed. And, since the 5 yr old was signed up for fall soccer, I gotta be able to teach her some basics in the next 30 days.

So far, no actual writing has occured, but now that I'm no longer at the overtime-crazy job, maybe I'll be able to better utilise my free time for more than just making sure the kids have clean clothes and snacks for tomorrow. I'm slowly but surely recovering.

BTW, I haven't read HP 7. I stopped after 2.

I signed up for SP11. It's a secret pal type thing for knitters and crocheters. So, expect some knitting type posts around here. 

In other news, I'm adjusting slowly to the fact that my oldest graduated high school, and expects to move a couple miles away to go to community college part time, while living with her grandparents. She's been with me for the last 18 and a half years, and it will be different to not have her around, or returning in a few days. Yes, I'm proud of her. Yes, I want her to be successful in her own life, but I'll still miss her.

The five year old taught herself to swim in the last six weeks - seriously. I bit the bullet and signed her up for fall soccer. It's mainly for health and social reasons. I hate the game, but it's what kids play now, and it's important for her social development.

The almost four year old is definitely eligible for speech therapy from the county. So, a therapist will be working with her on her enunciation - she's smart, but can't pronounce half the words correctly.

Work is good - no stress. Inlaws were up for two weeks and are leaving tomorrow.

More when I get my knitting thoughts organized.

I didn't realize it had been that long.

We made it back from the trip, I started the new job the next day, and I've never looked back.

New Job: No timesheets, no client support, learning Install Shield's script (kind of like Javascript, but not), C#, Dot Net 2.0, the new portal, SFTP (Secure FTP, which is implemented completely differently than FTP), packets, and buffers and streams, oh my!

The 5 yr old graduated from Pre-K (January kid, poor thing, can't wait for kindergarten, reading already). The 17 yr old graduated from High School (not looking back, either), and turns 18 in Sept. The 3 yr old turns 4 in Sept and got her own room. All three are enjoying the new pool.

I turned 40. My Dad turned 60. My surviving grandmother is still kicking at 90.

I've gotten back into knitting in a big way. It's amazing the free info now found online. And the yarn. Beautiful lovely yarn. Aha, aha.... Sorry, you prolly don't get the reference (Disney's Robin Hood).

Anyhoo, I'll be trying once again to get the site(s) regularly updated. Keep your fingers crossed.

While many people love spring, I'm fairly ambivalent. I suffer from seasonal allergies that have only recently been controllable (thank you OTC Claritin-generic) and usually start suffering in February.

However, with young kids, I'm making the effort to get them out of the house more, which means I have to get out of the house more, as well. So, since I'm not into running around with them (yet), I've been either reading or knitting.

Yes, knitting. I've gotten back into that. I was knitting before the 5 yr old was born, but had such terrible carpal tunnel with that pregnancy that I couldn't continue. Then, 20 months later, the 3 year old came along. Finally, though, they're old enough so that I can sit for 10-20 minutes at a time, and not have to wait on them, so I need something to do with my hands that isn't in front of a computer.

It's amazing how popular knitting is online. Who needs knitting books anymore? Just google free knitting patters, or knitting blogs, or yarn and see what is out there. I confess, I did purchase one book. Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears, and I wish I'd read this years ago, when she was alive. Anyhoo, I've done two doll blankets at the request of the kids, and I've now got a sweater for the 3 year old in progress, and one semi started for the five year old. I'll see if I can get the digital camera fired up and post pics, like other knitting bloggers.