(The kitchen is clean, and the children are occupied with a newly found box of toys.)

Although we do have some in the front yard – roses. But the rainy season appears to be over, so prolly no more rainbows for awhile.

Life here is hardly “idyllic.” When Julia was in skating camp, Cailin and I checked out the library – and of course, silly me lost my wallet. So that was a crazy 24 hours, calling the library and the rink seeing if anyone had turned it in.

Replacement card arrived finally arrived last night. Grocery shopping yesterday with both girls was a challenge as I had to keep tabs on the running total and make sure the girls didn’t destroy the store or my nerves. However, they were much better behaved in the store this last time, so they ARE getting better behaved.

Allergies have definitely surfaced. Wild flowers abound, prairie grass, and this house seems dusty.

And last weekend my check engine light came on. It went off the next time I got gas, but still, that was another coupla nerve-wracking days without the credit card.

The basement is pretty much finished, and Steve has started placing his electronics (60 inch flatscreen, 400 disc blu ray player, speakers out the wazzoo). So once that’s done, the Entertainment Center will be done, and I can tell the girls to go bug Dad as long as he’s not working.

Girls still whine when I ask them to do chores. We haven’t been nearly as social as the girls need (my fault) so they haven’t been on any “playdates” (I hate that word), but they do make friends when they’re at the pool. I don’t enjoy the pool. I’m nowhere near ready to swim myself, and I burn easily, so between the allergies and hugging the shade, I don’t enjoy the pool. But I’m reading a lot when we’re there.

Speaking of reading, they’re doing more of that, since we don’t have regular TV in the family room, and when I don’t let them watch shows, they are doing more reading.

For the most part, though, it’s turning into an okay life. I miss programming, but that will have to wait until they go back to school, other than the odd thing I do once a week or so.

We’ve been here about two and a half weeks. The first week was recovering from the trip out and getting the furniture truck, then we had skating camp. This has been the first week of figuring out how to live here.

Life definitely is slower. I don’t know if it’s the slower pace of things or the fact that I’m not working and don’t have to rush anything.

I have a clean kitchen this morning. Girls clothes are clean and put away (they did that, so I don’t know if they’re folded, and frankly, until they care, I certainly don’t). Living room and family room are straightened as well as can be expected with the piles of boxes still all round.

The basement final inspection is today, then we can start moving at least half the boxes downstairs, and working on the rest of the boxes.

My office is once again the catchall for things, but I hope to work on that next week.

We’ve been doing chores and watching a movie (at least the girls) in the morning, then if weather permits, going to the pool in the afternoons. I have done some walking, but the allergies are definitely hitting me here (all this prairie grass is new to me), so I haven’t been pushing it.

With me cooking, we’re definitely eating healthier. Cailin has lost seven pounds, but her bathing suit is now hanging off her, so she’s lost inches as well. We need to get her a new bathing suit this weekend. Julia’s lost a bit, but since she’s the skinniest, I’m not really concerned about her.

I’ve lost my trip weight gain, and maybe one more pound. I tend to make the home made healthy sweets, then over indulge, since they’re healthy.

I will post pictures, as soon as I remember to start taking them.

Also, my mother is continuing to spin in her grave, since I’ve willingly cooked and eaten yellow squash casserole, and eggplant parmesan. And last night I made an onion casserole, of which Steve had 3rds. I’ve knitted two dish cloths, and of course, there’s laundry. We have a septic tank, so I can only usually do one load a day. Today is my day. So at noon I will start the load.

We have 8 weeks until school starts. I need to find a doctor and schedule physicals before then.

So things get done, but slowly. My method is to work some, then rest/relax some. Heavy on the relaxing. I hope to make it a habit to update this place every day, so hopefully, you’ll see me here tomorrow.

We're two weeks out from putting the house on the market. Carpet installers come on Monday. Somehow, I'll be ready for them. I do plan to put pictures here, so maybe I can get to that this weekend.

 

So I go to the doctor yesterday for a sinus infection, and she says "Are you having trouble breathing?"

I say no, of course. She says "Yes, you are out of breath just talking to me, and I want a pulmonary function test." I'm thinking I'm only having issues cause I'm fat and outta shape. Besides, it's just a little breathlessness.

I hate pulmonary function tests, 'cause my pulmonaries, they don't function too good, and the test just makes it worse, every darn time. I've learned to live with it, hence the fat and outta shape.

So, I blow in the darn tube (candles on cupcakes on the laptop! - how game-y!), three times, and sure enough, I'm mildly obstructed. Well duh, I coulda told you that, but that doesn't mean I'm wheezing, or having trouble breathing. That's just me.

Well, I live life mildly obstructed, but it's better than steroids, let me tell you! Anyhoo, I got my antibiotics, and I'm supposed to try singulair. We'll see.

Somewhere up there, my mother is laughing.

You may have heard, but it’s semi-official. We’re moving to Northern Colorado in the summer of 2011. I will be writing about our move west, as well as how we’re dealing with the  changes ahead.

Steve’s job has shifted to working at the Airport in Denver, as much as half time. The other half, he’s working on building up new business for his company. Since he makes most of the family’s income, this is our primary reason for moving.

Other reasons (not in any order):

• cheaper cost of living
• I won’t have to work
• less pollutants in the air
• slower pace of life
• I won’t have to work
• the potential of getting a horse
• I won’t have to work
• the potential for a second dog

Notice the theme?

The schools are not quite the level they are here in northern VA, but they are consistently in the upper half of the national rankings. And I’m confident I can do any supplemental education as needed. And the girls will benefit from the out of doors experience that 300 + days of sunshine a year will provide.

Next up: The house we’re trying to purchase (We’ve put a contract on it, and we’re in the midst of paperwork).

I know, I know. This poor, neglected blog. But it's been such a crazy awful intense time.

The overriding event was the death of my mother, on May 30th, of breast cancer. She went peacefully, with my dad and my aunt (her sister) by her side. The weeks leading up to that were fraught with emotion (she said fraught!), and there was barely time and energy to deal with the necessities, let alone this poor blog.

Also, the host went through a platform migration, that somehow didn't take, and last week I finally took the time to create a support ticket. So obviously it's fixed now.

On the plus side, first communion went off without a hitch. However, same weekend, was also the youngest's first ever ice skating competition, and she was in two events. Saturday morning and Sunday morning. Luckily, first communion was at the 11 am service, and we were done with the Sunday event in time to come home and change. But still, it was a crazy weekend, and my mother was clearly on the decline and missed out on it all, but she saw the videos.

Then, we had two funeral services to plan and attend: one for northern virginia, and one for southern virginia, where we also set up a new family cemetery. So there was lots of organizing amid the grief. Then, the kids were out of school, and husband's work load increased dramatically due to contract awards, and he's been in denver at least half the time since July 1, so I've been doing some single parenting of the monste-erm, girls. At the same time, work re-orged (new word), so I'm not in charge of people any more, just technology, which actually was a relief.

I have a ton of book write-ups to get back to, some grief related pieces in my head that need to get out, some coding stuff to discuss, a new hobby/interest to talk about, possibly some weightloss and knitting news, and... Well, you get the picture. But hey, it's mid-August in DC, and it's hazy, hot, and humid, so at least some things never change.

I’ve been more on twitter (@kaplooeymom) than here. Sorry.

I now lead a staff (I have staff!) of 8 developers migrating a legacy client server application to the web. It’s due at the end of September. So there’s usually not much time at work to think of things to write, let alone write them decently. Although I’d like to.

At home, Julia’s in first grade, and Cailin’s in second grade. Julia ice skates, Cailin plays softball and has swimming lessons. Life is very busy.

Cailin’s first communion is coming up; the very same weekend Julia will be in her first ice skating competition. Oh goody.

We enjoyed the blizzards of 2010, although I still say there wasn’t enough snow.

Time to read work email. I hope to have more soon.

Writing this on my new PC, which was my main christmas present. IE 8 won't register for the text editor, so this is being entered in pure HTML.

Windows 7 64 bit is mostly nice. 16 GB of RAM helps (no, that's not a typo). I haven't taxed the system yet, but last nite I had three instances of Visual Studio 2008, a coupla tabs of IE 8, Outlook, Word, and itunes going, and there was no noticeable performance hit. I will be teh codez goddess this year! Also, my new das keyboard is excellent. I wish I could afford one for work, especially the new silent ones they have now, but I barely could justify a hundred dollar keyboard for home, let alone work.

In other, brief news, I'm taking ice skating lessons - yes, at age 42.5, and too many pounds, I'm doing it. Haven't fallen yet. Girls are fine. Dog is fine. Hubby is fine.

I know you've heard this before, but I want to become a regular blogger again, so hopefully this will be one of my successfull new years goals. I have a physical in February, so the weight loss is currently successfull. Knitting, well, I've been distracted by my new toy, but I've done some.

If you keep up with such things, I'm on twitter as kaplooeymom.

Yes, I neglected a few details. And I'm only just now getting around to fixing it.

Okay, so while I was happy with my account at Drundo, they did away with the account level I was on, but grandfather’d me in at my original level. All was hunky dory.

Last week, I get the message that they’ve ‘upgraded’ all the legacy accounts to the new equivalent. Higher price, without my permission, and while some parts were upgraded, others were downgraded.

So after consulting with the House Finance Manager (husband), I went looking for a new hosting company and plan.

I settled on webhost4life, and last night, began what I thought was going to be a tortuous session, and loss of email for days. Boy, was I surprised.

I grabbed the files from the old server, bought a new domain, then went and ordered the advanced package, with my new domain. Smooth enough. They up sold turbocharged – more disk space for a piddling amount which was fine – and soon I had a brand spanking new website. Time to migrate kaplooey. The only issue there was that I had to ask the helpdesk to fix the email on the kaplooey domain. within 30 minutes of the ticket, I had kaplooey email back up and running on the new server, transparent to outlook.

While migrating this blog, I upgraded to dasBlog 2.3. Smooth there as well, since this is not using a database.

So, I have a new web host, more space and features, for less than what I was originally paying before, even before my upgrade.

Part of the deal with webhost4life was 5 sql databases (It was a time limited offer, so good luck if you go after it. So I’ll be working more on my personal applications. Trying to fit it all into 1 was annoying.

Also, just to let you know, I’ve been on Twitter (as @kaplooeymom) more than here lately, cause it’s easier to do one-liners than blog entries.

Did I get it right?

Yes, I did! BTW, on Windows Server 2008, Network Service needs read/write permissions on your asp.net website - at least here on the new host. More about that later.

Not just the Answer. My age, as well.

I’ve done the introspection stuff required every year. I’ve reexamined my short term and long term goals. All privately, of course.

In other news, we’ll be heading to Disney world the end of June. We’re doing this right and staying 8 nights on premises, at the Polynesian. Still arguing with my husband about needing a rental car. He says no, but I may need to see if I can get one to go check out yarn stores. And Transformers comes out while we’re there, so unless Disney has a movie theatre on site that will carry that, we’ll need transport for that.

7 and a half days of kindergarten left.

<geek alert>

In my quest to learn something well enough to give a talk, I’ve been looking at WPF and Silverlight, and XAML which governs both, and all this whole new paradime (mistake intended) for programming front ends/user interfaces.

I submitted a proposal for code camp, and they accepted. I will be speaking at Nova Code Camp on Saturday, May 23, at 3. (No pizza for me, this time!)

So, I’ve been busy with working on the demo, and I’ll be doing some practice talks here at work. I’ve also decided to do the demo in C#, so I’m in the middle of a re-write. I may make the sample code available in both flavors, but professionally I need to begin programming full time in C#. I’ve been semi-promoted to developer team lead for a major webification effort of an existing ugly winforms system, and the target language is C#. I’ve coasted with VB.net, and now it’s time to get serious.

</geek alert>

 

Just finished three by Linnea Sinclair. OMG! The first one I had trouble slowing down until I knew I could jump right into the second one. The second one I had trouble starting a bit because I was sick, but once I felt better, it was over just like that. So I started in on the third one. It was read in 2 days. And these aren't small books. They have WORDS.

Book Links
Gabriel's Ghost - read this one first
Shades of Dark - sequel to Gabriel's Ghost
Hope's Folly - the whole saga continues, but focuses on a major Minor Character from the first two.

Three weekends in a row have been horrendous – stress, illness, weather. Although, my sister’s wedding was pretty good, it was surrounded by stress, illness, weather…

Children, on the other hand, have shown remarkable improvement in behavior - for the most part. Both have received kudos from teachers in the last two weeks about their improved behavior and actions.

It was my turn to be sick this past weekend, so I didn’t get much reading done, other than some blogs I keep up with and the news headlines.

I did watch the second Harry Potter movie with the girls this weekend – in two parts. It’s a little scarier than the first one. We’re going to acquire the books and begin reading them. They were fascinated by the world of magic. Although I constantly remind them that it’s all pretend. We do discuss how the computers have added the special effects, and how special camera shots make it look a certain way.

Hopefully, this will be a better reading week and I’ll be back with booklinks in the next day or two.

 

 

I got the annoying throat tickle yesterday, and today, the only thing keeping me going is Dayquil. I’ve had to miss so much work due to kids, that I’m trying not to miss any this week and actually have a real 40 hr work week. Nyquil last night, no TV, straight to bed. I’ve got Bones epis piling up on the TIVO.  

So even though I want to look at the new WPF Composite App guidance in VB.net, I only got as far as the download and install. Maybe when the 2^nd dose of Dayquil kicks in…

In the meantime, I’m attempting to document this crazy scanning app platform that I’ve inherited. Enterprise Records Management cots, Enterprise Scanning Server, Enterprise PDF Search Engine, and custom client that marries the three together in some very weird ceremonial way. Configuration is a pain, and coding, well, I’ve read the code. I THINK I know what’s doing, with whom, and when.

 

Crazy weekend after crazy week and previously crazy weekend does not a happy Leah make.

However, I waved goodbye to sick hubby, then ditched the girls with Big Sis, and caught a Clive Owen double feature yesterday – First Duplicity then The International. So, when I finally retreived the girls, and then had to feed them @ 7:30, I was no where near as cranky as I had been at noon, when I dropped them off.

Also, I caved and bought a coupla books. I had some time to kill before the first movie (Amazon link to the theatre apparently doesn’t know about EDT) and the bookstore is one level down from the massive theatre complex at the mall.

I’m making progress on my book app, and I’m figuring also how to apply the same methodology to my knitting app. Primarily desktop, but social features enabled upon demand. For the anti-social persons in all of us.

I’ll try to get pics from my sister’s wedding (this past Saturday) up in the next coupla days.

 

Hi, my name is Leah and I’m a bookaholic. It’s been 65 days since I ordered a book off Amazon dot com.

I’m still reading, though, just plowing through the ones I’d stocked up on, and enjoying the couple of pre-orders that came in. (All links go to amazon page for purchase)

Finished

Patricia Briggs – Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4). (Read in 4 hours in one sitting.) Excellent. Mercedes Thompson is a great heroine, and her adventures and her world are just down the street from my reality. Besides, my father is a mechanic, and grew up in Olympia Washington. Near enough to the Tri Cities area that I pass along the books and he devours them as well.

JD Robb – Promises in Death. Read over the course of two or three days. Mainly because exhaustion crept up on me. I want an Autochef. And Roarke, too, but don’t tell my husband.

Gail Carson Levine – Fairest. Bathroom book to start with, then I had to finish it the other night – stayed up til 1:45 am doing so. Sister book to Ella Enchanted (have, but haven’t cracked yet).

Currently Reading

Ted Bell – Assassin: A Novel. The second Alexander Hawke book. Alex is a spy with a great cast of friends that help him through his adventures. Like the first, the book started slow, and finally the action builds in the latter half of the book.

Elizabeth Moon – The Legacy of Gird (Trade Paperback) (surrender none and liar’s oath trade paperback reprint). Re read. Ms. Moon is finally returning to this world, and while I pretty much read the The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel at least every two years, I haven’t read this since I read the original books, so much of this I don’t remember, so it’s like new stuff.

Brian Herbert – Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert the bio of Frank Herbert. It’s amazing how his ideas and thoughts were shaped by his life in the pacific northwest. Tacoma is another place my father grew up near, and I’ve visited. And the Dune saga is pretty much my favorite body of work.

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – House Atreides (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 1) House Atreides. After reading the sequels, I’m going back and reading the prequels. Not quite the same as Dad’s work, but close enough so that the difference is not annoying.

Steven James – The Pawn (The Patrick Bowers Files, Book 1) Interesting. I picked this up a coupla weeks ago off the sale shelf in a Christian Bookstore. Much of the locale is western North Carolina, which I grew up taking trips to, and tried to go to school at Appalachian State before the great Cancer Experience decided to change my life’s course.

(There’s a book for different parts of the house, and always one in the car. Always reading more than one at a time. Computer reference books don’t count, but it’s still been a dry spell for amazon purchases.)

 

We finally have some real Snow! And it's still snowing! Of course, the girls are dying to make snow angels.

Hey, it’s here. Not that I update it much. It’s mainly so I can comment on a coupla blogs I follow over there.

Recorded Here until I get a chance to move them to the sidebar:

Blogs

• Elizabeth Moon
• Because I Said So

Links

• Giveaway of the Day
• Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

I will be upgrading the site engine and making a few cosmetic changes this week. Hopefully, this effort will spur me on in regularly updating the blog.

5 yr old just finished lesson 3 of 7 of intro to skating for 4-6 yr olds. She moves pretty well on the ice, and seems to be motivated even though she has the occasional spill. We'll be doing skating practice tomorrow.

New gym uniforms for both. We have three gym shirts, and I couldn't find any of them Thursday evening without cleaning rooms. I'm not like Dawn where I venture into the room and 30 minutes later it's clean. No, I make them do it, and yell and nag constantly to make sure they do the work. Anyhoo, $43 dollars later, 2 new gym shirts and one new pair of sweats (without scissor holes). If scissor holes appear, they'll have to either give me the replacement money, or work it off. Harsh, yes, but necessary. I'm such a mean mom. They tell me that several times a week.

The Maids are coming for the first time tomorrow, so I'm clearing out the major clutter. They supposedly pick up and straighten, but it's hard to straighten if there's no apparent order in the chaos that was my corner of the family room. Knitting, school work, computer stuff, cds, dvds, trash, books, toys confiscated from children all have found places in my corner. It's looking better, but I still have work to do. They're only cleaning the main level and the girls bathroom.

The Eagles play at one, and I have to work around that. Hubby just took the girls to softball camp (75 minutes for the next six sundays), and I'll pick them up and either pass them off to Grandma or keep them and force a nap. We'll see.

In knitting related news, I got my christmas yarn so I'm pattern browsing. I'll eventually have at least a navy top, if not two, or a sweater.

Trying to stay low carb/low blood sugar impact, and I have to keep caffeine to either none or infinitesimal amount. Graves is on the upswing, and I see the doc on the 26th. Hopefully they'll be able to kill the thyroid once and for all.

Here, have a kitten pic.

I'm alive and well, and the mother of a kindergartener, a first grader, and a 19 year old who has her driver's license and is pretty self-sufficient over at grandmother's house. Where does the time go? And the baby two posts below? He's 8 months old, has several teeth, and is the king of drool.

I've switched jobs - I found out I'm not a consultant. Back to DOD contracting. Husband is now also a DOD contractor, so we're weathering the economy okay. Currently, funding for our jobs is not an issue, nor is it likely to be for the next five to ten years.

Not knitting so much, but the house is getting a little less cluttered. Slowly.

I'm on Twitter as kaplooeymom, and I've been trying to post a bit each day, but it's nothing big.

I will be trying NANOWRIMO this year, seriously. I have a story that won't leave me the heck alone, so I'm trying to keep it under control until November 1. Whether it will go anywhere once it's written remains to be seen.

Seriously, I’m wearing gloves right now. I’m having a good diet day, which means I’m freezing. I haven’t cut the tips off the fingers yet, since I seem to be doing okay. Programming is 50 percent point and click click click click click right now, anyway.

We’ll see if knitting in gloves is possbile later on.

Baby Xander (as opposed to Xander from power rangers mystic force) was born on Feb 3. He weighed either 7.5 lbs or 7 lbs, 5 oz, I don’t remember which. My sister is fine – going back to her teaching job next week. Below is Xander at 2 hours old.

I’ll get a new pic this weekend, and you’ll be able to see how much he’s grown.

My sister’s water broke about 1:30 this morning. She’s at the hospital. Her last child took 24 hrs of labor though, so this one won’t be easy. As soon as I get more news, I’ll post it.

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.

Down 11 pounds. Ketosis has begun. Water loss has ended, so now the real work begins. Last time, I was able to maintain a loss average of a pound a day.

Lessons Learned/Relearned

• Drinking is necessary. Water is best, but diet soda/ice tea will work.
• Vegetables are necessary. If neglected, system backup will occur.
• Vitamins are recommended.

Tips and Tricks

Whenever I have a meal, I drink at least 16–20 oz of liquid with it. At work, they provide water bottles in the fridge. For liquid meals, I use two – one to drink part of, then use the other half to make my meal, and one to drink with/after the meal.

While they don’t recommend adding exercise for 3 to 4 weeks, especially for sedentary people like me, I try to add in extra stairs trips at home, and park farther away from places to creep walking in.

Clean the shaker/bowl/container used immediately after your meal. Soy has a weird texture, and this is a necessity unless you want stinky dishes.

Use the forums for support. I’m signed up with mymedifast.com, but there are others out there.

It’s important to have your family or house mates supporting you. My kids help, and Hubby helps. If I have trouble with a specific food, they’re good about letting me leave the room. Extended family support is good too, but the day to day people are essential.

Next Sunday, I’ll have another writeup.

(In our fam damily, we do this on purpose. Mostly to hide the fact that we do this accidently, too.)

Yesterday was Medifast day 3, and I peaked at the scale and had lost 7 lbs. Yes, you read that correctly. Now, most of it was water weight, I know, since I was visiting the facilities on average every 45 minutes, but it drives the confidence up.

The hardest part of doing this is not sneaking bites of little girl food. But, I’m keeping to a 1000–1100 calorie diet, and as long as I follow the program I’m not hungry. The shakes and pudding and oatmeals are enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied, and every 2.5–3 hours, I’m eating. And I get one real “Healthy” meal a day. As long as I follow the rules for “Healthy”, I’m good.

New Years Eve, Hubby was ill, so I entertained 2 4.2 yr olds and one 5.95 year old. We managed to stay up to watch the ball drop, and we toasted with caffeine free diet soda, and they were excited to see Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers standing next to Dick Clark. Fifteen minutes later, they were fast asleep.

In advance of the new year, I’m making this public. Hopefully, I’ll track my progress. Areas are not listed in any order, other than how they pop into my brain.

Professional: I’m taking one of many baby steps and getting involved in code camp. I’ve volunteered to take on the web site duties, and one of my personal professional goals is to have enough confidence about a subject to give a talk at the next one. I’m picking up sharepoint coding, so that may develop into a presentation, and I’m getting back into web development after six months of vb6/install shield heck, so maybe I’ll be able to feel more knowledgeable about something there. I’ve loved the code camps, so hopefully I’ll be able to give back.

Parenting: I need to stop yelling so much. It’s just easier to be louder than the kids, instead of stopping what I’m doing and walking over to them and making sure they’re listing. I don’t know how to quantify/objective-ize (is that a word) this, but it’s something I’m working on. Also, we all need to be better organized about our mornings – which means I need to do stuff at night to make this happen.

Housekeeping: I am not a housewife, but I need to be better at this. And I need to get the kids involved in chores, now that they’re old enough. I know my husband would prefer not having a slob of a wife, and a house the same.

Knitting: Cables. Completion. I need to complete stuff, and do something with cables. And take more pictures.

Writing: I need to be more diligent about blogging, even if the topic is not related to yesterday’s. There are enough interesting things in my head that I should be able to come up with something each day. And I need to get Cinderfella finished – it’s finished in my mind, but I need to make myself write it.

Reading: I’m on God Emperor of Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 4)' target=_blank>God Emperor of Dune (Book 4), and I’d like to finish the original series, then the two add-ons that the son wrote from the outlines. I’m not sure I want to read the prequels, since you already know what happened, but I’ll decide later.

Web Site Management: Now that I’m getting back into web development, I hope I’ll make the time to do some sprucing up around here.

Personal: Okay, weight loss was a non-success this year. I’m not using the f-word, since you kind of have to try in order to fail, and since my tries were very inconsistent, I’m not counting. However, new job has minimal commute (I mean, 1 mile, maybe from daycare to office), with no chances of drive thru, so that’s good. However, if I want to stop and get something, there are options. And since I’m so close… Well, I’m trying not to to that too often. What I really need to do, of course, is spend time on the treadmill. I’ll think about how that can happen, and get back to you when I have a more concrete goal.

Okay, the above are loosely defined, so next week, my plan is to have, for each area above, a well-defined, achieveable objective. Keep your fingers crossed.

Happy Holidays!

 

Are you ready? I begin my online shopping Wednesday. We have the wonderful amazon.com credit card, that we use like cash, and pay off every month, and the rebates are in the form of amazon.com gift certs. So, I take my gift certs, double that at amazon, and try to spend as little as possible else where. We are prime members which saves on shipping, and the purchases on amazon itself are worth triple toward the rebate gift certs.

Knitting Secret Pal has come to a close, and Mandy has received the final package I sent. Her niece is soooo cute. I miss babies. (I’m not going to cry about early menopause, I’m not, I’m not, I’m NOT!)

BTW, I found a cute little site today – I was reading a sharepoint tech blog, and they sent me here. Hysterical! For techies, or any kind of daily computer user, it’s a must read.

I finally made it to the mail store, and got my two packages in the mail on Wednesday. One to my knitting secret pal, and one to my sister and her husband. His birthday was last week, and hers is on December 20. I’ll send them their Christmas package separately.

I finally folded a bunch of clothes and got the 5.9 yr old to put hers away. The 4.2 yr old will do hers tonite. Mine, well, the pile is at least migrating toward my closet.

I finally watched Bones (the one with the kiss) from Tuesday. Very Interesting. Now we have to wait until January for new episodes – it looks like some have already been produced, so hopefully the Writers’ Strike (go writers!) won’t affect that show too much.

I finally did some knitting last nite, but I don’t have pics. I’ll produce some this weekend, I promise.

 

I went to Code Camp on Saturday, and won a license to JetBrains Resharper, and Dot Trace Profiler. Retail value 6 hunnerd bucks. All cause I had tivo'd and watched Hackers recently, and could identify the soundtrack.

Anyhoo, I started a new job on Friday, and so far, so good. Lots of good stuff to learn and do. I may be posting geeky bits more and more. My goal is to learn enough about something interesting to be able to give a presentation at the next code camp in March.

And the monsters got up extremely early. Still working on adjusting the time clock. We’re up, had breakfast, and the kitchen has been cleaned. I cleaned the microwave, and hand washed the glass plate. Hubby is now cleaning off the formal dining room table – the repository for all the stuff we don’t want to put away since pretty much Easter (or even last Christmas).

I finally decided that until I was happy with the knitwhit prototype, I wasn’t going to port it to the web. Also, whatever job I end up having, the web version will be my practice area. Currently, there are four web versions, all using different methods of programming, with pretty much the same database. So, it’s in Access for now, until I get the pattern database stuff finalized, and then I’ll make it multi-user, then I’ll port it to the web and start asking for beta users. It WON’T be another ravelry – purely a project management app, not a social one.

I have two packages to get in the mail between now and Monday – one for my knitting secret pal, and one for my sister.

I’ve made a little progress on my NaNo project, but I’m behind, and I’m actually using it as a reward for my must dos, rather than the other way around. Otherwise no laundry would get accomplished.

I’ve lost ten pounds, also – mostly by not eating or eating one or two of the one-hundred calorie snack packs. And drinking gallons of iced tea.

Well, the clock is chiming the hour, so the girls have to be given their cleaning instructions. We’re all working this morning.

According to the recruiters, nearly everything is a “Hot Opportunity” or a “Perfect Match to your skill set”. And yes, it seems this is a good time for me to be looking, right now. Govt contracts have been awarded or enhanced (thank you, taxpayers). People here in the DC area are in a state of transition. (Which, for this area, is the norm, but it’s a little high right now, since it’s after the school year has started.) My particular skills (and an odd mix of geekiness they are) are not necessarily the norm, so when some recruiter sees my resume on Monster, or Dice, or Washington Post Jobs, they gravitate. I’m even getting identical job descriptions from competing recruiters, which always makes me chuckle, whether I’m interested or not.

So, I’ve been on one real interview, and two meetings with “Recruiter/Staffing firm” people. Not bad for 7 days out of work. And I could have done more, if my personal requirements weren’t so limiting.

My biggest challenge is looking business-like. The phrase “bull in a china shop” is very close to my awareness outside of my home, not the least because I get clumsy when I get nervous.

And I’m definitely not in the market for the constant increase in wages, which causes disbelief in many. So many of the recruiters automatically add 5 to 10 K to what I just made as a starting point, and that’s not the kind of image I want to present.

So, this may take awhile (hey, I’m catching up on the dreaded laundry), or I may get the “Perfect Match” sometime next week. Either way, I’m trying to make the most of it. I’m volunteering for the book fair next week (yummmmm, book fairs), and I’m doing plenty of decluttering and catching up on house work that I would otherwise ignore, and I’ve started NaNoWriMo, and I’m catching up on sleep. I’m knitting a little bit – I’m actually using knitting as a reward for getting the unpleasant housework done.

To finding a job closer to home, doing work I want to do.

To Shenandoah Sheep and Fiber Festival.

To Halloween with Spider Girl and the Vampire Queen (I found my camera, pictures will be procured and posted).

To getting rid of lots of clutter and getting a craft room for me.

To trying to eat right, once again, or just giving in and doing the gastric bypass.

To wrapping up the year on a positive note.

 

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.

They’re playing with Daddy. So I get a few moments to tell you how I’ve procrastinated regarding laundry.

I’ve finished the second bootie, cleaned off my computer desk, and worked on the teenager’s former bedroom – moving all the stuff she left behind into the closet, and doing some dusting – which will become my knitting room. I don’t know if the computer will move up there, because I’m not counting on her being gone permanently, and so the room has to be able to do double duty if she comes back.

We survived week one of Kindergarten, and the very first ever soccer practice. This coming week will be continuing adjustments as we get into the routine of packing lunch everyday.

As soon as I find my camera, I’ll post some pics.

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.

It was Hubby’s Scheduled Work Weekend, so I had the littel gels, and then some. Last nite, I took them, and Cousin H and Cousin L by Marriage (Sister married, then divorced, L’s cousin) to Burger King with a playground. 90 minutes of two 3.9 yr olds, and one 6 .01 yr old, and one 5.5 yr old. Then, we met my mother and the Teenager at BigMart. Then, after buying new shoes for Catholic School, we went to QD for ice cream.

Now, when my mother’s involved, there’s no such thing as doing things quickly. So, we didn’t get home until after nine, and bedtime was around ten.

Today, we met my mother and Cousin H for breakfast at Greasy Mac’s, and then she took the girls (Thank you!) for a coupla hours, while I picked up a few things at AC Moore, then gelled.

She returned the littel gels, plus Paskettios for me to nuke for their lunch, at 1:20. So, nap time didn’t happen until 2.

Tonite, after littel gel bedtime, is worktime for the day job, so I won’t have knitting progress to post until tomorrow.

Have a cute kitteh pic instead: Funny Kitteh

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com. This may or may not result  in more entries.

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents. (Nathaniel Borenstein)

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.

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.

Holey Schmoley! I gotta reader! Someone actually commented! My free knitting patterns reference must have come up on a search list or something.

In other news, the company outing yesterday turned into laser tag. I actually competed in one game, and didn't come in dead last (it was a beginners' game, so death wasn't permanent). I got my immediate supervisor more than he got me. Not bad for a forty year old fat woman with exercise/allergy induced asthma. The fog machine got me though, and I had to sit out the second game. Luckily, I had my knitting.

Kidlies and Hubby are disappearing this afternoon, so I'll take and post some pics then.

That's what the husband has. The doc said he might get it when the 5 yr old got her shot, so we postponed her shot, and his doc told him to get vaccinated, and he did, then two weeks later, she did, and now he has chicken pox. So it's either from his shot or hers, no one knows. He's pretty miserable, and pretty disgusted with the medical advice, and I'm exhausted from sole care of girls, and they miss their dad.

(New Paragraph, finally.) I have knitting pics, but I haven't taken the time to sit at the computer in the evenings and upload them from the camera. Today is Thursday, which means Grandmother gets them from daycare, and keeps them until about 8-ish (ish can be anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes, BTW), so I can work late or relax. So maybe I'll get stuff done then. Don't count it.

At the day job, I have to rassle with InstallShield script - who knew how complicated a progress bar could be?

(Beware, I'm into alliterations.)

I'm hosting a cousins' Christmas in July party tomorrow night. I need to plan dinner and crafty thing for 2 almost 4 yr olds, and 5 to 6 yr olds (We invited the neighborhood boys, but they won't sleep over). If the weather holds, I'll wear them out in the pool, then plop them in front of a project while I fix the food.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly to feed them. The craft is set - I got cheap t-shirts and fabric markers, and I need to pick up some stencils, and we're set.

I'm getting a tiny bit exhausted just thinking about this, but the kids just love it when I do this, so I try to do one every other month, when the husband is scheduled to work all weekend.

Brain break is over, back to coding at the day job.

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 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.