Michelle received her package. The blanket says “babetko” which means baby in czech. Poor kid, not even here, and already notorious in the blogosphere.

The sweater looked like this:

There was a hat in white with the purple border, and booties in purple with a white cuff. I’ll try to track down pics. For yarn ppl, this was done in TLC cotton plus. I used 3 balls of white and two of purple – I think it was called lavender, or something like that.

I did the sweater first, then mirrored the design in the rest of the items. If anyone is interested in a pattern, let me know – while this was based off the Tulip Sweater, different yarns and modified instructions I hope I can differentiate it enough so that I won’t violate copyright. I highly recommend the original pattern, but not necessarily the yarn. Even the kits are a bit expensive for me. At 3.75 a ball, x 5 = $20 (Michelle, ignore), Cotton plus is, to me, is a much better choice. It’s machine washable and dryable, and half the cost. 

Well, 5.5 and 3.9 are due for bed. No naps – they had Old Country Buffet Breakfast and Chuck E Cheese with Granna, three hours at Cousin 6.3’s house, then a fifteen minute snooze while I drove to 5.5’s class cookout. There were two sandboxes, and I swear 3.9 bathed in both of them. So it was bath time as soon as we walked into the door.

Hot, crowded, but still very exciting.

They loved taking a picture with the Real Power Rangers. Then we went to Burger King with a playground, then dropped cousin off. Now we’re home, they’re in jammies, and watching – you guessed it – Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (Once a Ranger episode) until bedtime.

After bedtime, I’ll do a good knitting post.

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.

 

 

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.

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.

Well. What a hullabaloo. I think we remembered everything, and we labeled everything, and she wore the required clothes, and she was there on time. And the 3.9 Yr old was fine, as well, on her second day in the fours class. They’re going to Chuck E Cheese today.

We ended up tightening up the belt, so the shorts fit better. Tomorrow is PE day, so the uniform will be slightly different. And we’ll be taking the 3.9 yr old first, most likely.

I pick her up in 3 hours (8–11:30 this week, 8–1 next week, then finally all day kindergarten with after care starting the tenth). It’s a good thing I have a decent job, and can work from home. Speaking of work, I have enough to keep me occupied until 11ish, then it’s time to collect the kindergartner. House work? Are you kidding? Not bloody likely.

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

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.