(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 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.

Last night I watched Eraser for the umpteenth time. I hadn't seen it in awhile, and I needed to burn off some caffeine, so I knitted (real simple knit every stitch - 45 stitch rows), and watched.

Arnold did some acting, and James Caan was James Caan as a fed. The plot was interesting enough, and the action scenes were well-executed and believable within context. Vanessa Williams did a good job pretending to be an executive, but they didn't put too much opportunity for real emotion for her character in the script. And Robert Pastorelli - well, you just gotta watch. The only thing I didn't like is the lack of romantic storyline. But hey, that's just me.

Trivia alert - can you spot the president's son? He was also in Transformers.

Bottom Line - if you like action flicks, this is one of the better ones. Arnold, a believable and cohesive plot, good rest of cast, well executed. I own this on tape, but I expect I'll purchase it on DVD when I get around to it.

 

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.

You Are Royal Blue

People find you difficult to understand. In fact, you often find it hard to understand yourself. You think so much that sometimes you get lost in your own thoughts!

It IS my favorite color after all.  

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.

Some tips:

• Don't sit them next to each other.
• Make sure you pick the right sized headphones.
• Make sure you choose your DVD selections correctly.

Other than that, it took us 13 and a half hours. We reverse the process on Monday.

There's a new place called Monkey Joes that has opened up in middle Georgia. We're there now. Free high speed internet, and free computer stations! Kids are going to wear themselves unconscious. Some one needs to open up one of these in northern VA.

The kids - 3.5 and 5 years old (20 months apart).

The plan:

Buy a Portable DVD Player with dual screens/headphones.

Put the kids in the way back of the minivan, with mom in the middle, and dad driving.

Have plenty of books/toys.

Stop every three to four hours and let them run.

We start first thing Friday Morning. I'll let you know how it goes when we get back Monday night.

I start my new job on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to learning new things, and doing something the public (well, more than just classified Navy Users) can see and use.

Hubby will be changing his job schedule with the new month - he'll be working evenings, for most likely the month of May. He's not looking forward to it, but I am. He can take the girls to school when they're nice and cooperative, and I'll pick up the cranky monsters and feed them, and put them to bed.

I've started Intermittent Fasting. Eat 24 hours, Fast 24 hours, from 6pm to 6 pm (In my case it's more like 7 - 7). Today is my first fast day. I will most likely be fasting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I didn't weigh today, and we have the road trip to the inlaws this weekend, but I'll get a baseline tomorrow morning if I can, and I'll try to repeat every week.

On the writing front, not much is happening. Current job ends tomorrow, which has basically been all consuming of any free time (hence the job change). I have several stories in the various mental stages, that I'd like to start putting down on either paper or electrons.

By the way, does anyone know if reflected light is different than direct light? How does the reflection alter the light wave/particle makeup? Anyone? Anyone? ... I guess I'll have to look it up, then.