Alien Invasion

There is a strange sound in my house right now. Could be aliens invading, or maybe someone with a large ray gun pointed at me (I’d like to think it’s that little Martian from the Bugs Bunny cartoons). I suppose it could also be something as normal as a car alarm, but I opened the front door and can’t hear it outside. It’s quite unnerving.

We met at Lux today for knitting – I like day meetings so much. Jack is always in a better mood and I never feel rushed to get home for anything. Lots of people came, but of course by the time I got my camera out we had dwindled. It may look like Letoya was knitting alone, but trust me, she wasn’t:

She’s making a felted bag out of Cascade – very pretty colors.

Melanie and Kiki were there as well:

Kiki’s working on a lacy shawl and I think that’s Melanie’s baby blanket.

We also had a new person named Emily who was doing something called Shephard’s knitting (is that right?) It was with a small hook but it was certainly not crocheting. I had never heard of it. She brought her adorable daughter who is 2 ½ and she is pregnant with her second baby due in July. Kim was there as well, without her children, lucky girl. My mom came and helped with Jack, but she really needs to get working on that knitted kangaroo she’s making for Vincent so I made her knit a little.

I wish I had gotten a picture of Becky’s adorable little knitted baby pants. They are cute as can be, although I can’t remember who they are for. She had to run off to work so she wasn’t still there when the camera came out.

It was a fun day – the weather turned chilly again which is quite unheard of for Arizona in April. I don’t expect it will last long, but we’ll take what we can get. It may actually rain tonight – what a treat.

Lace Question

Ok, normally in a pattern when you increase by using a "Make One" (you know, where you pick up the little bar in between the stitches and knit it?) you have to knit into the back of the stitch so it doesn't leave a little hole. But when you're making lace do you want the little hole? I am on the Pebble stitch part of the Mariposa shawl and after an entire row of knit two togethers, there is a row of Make One, Knit One. I am leaving the little holes because they are cute, but I'm wondering if that is correct.

Here is a picture so it makes more sense what I'm talking about:



See those little holes in the top two rows? I think they are supposed to be there, but who knows? I could be wrong.

Thanks for all your comments about pregnant and smoking girl. As Kim mentioned, it's her sister Jenny. When she read my blog she said "I don't care what other people think of me." I suppose there is no way to get through to people who are harming their babies. Kim is at her wits end by now. Of course she won't let Jenny smoke in her house or near her kids, but beyond that there isn't much she can do. It's sad really and I hope she quits before the little babe arrives.

Smoking and Pregnant

As many of you are aware, I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to pregnancy and rules. I ate feta cheese a few times, had some salmon, even a glass of wine. But smoking? Seriously? I don't think there is a doctor or a study in the world that condones smoking while pregnant. The list of known side effects is long and horrifying, the worst of which are various kinds of death. Stillbirth, in my opinion, being one of the most terrifying. So the baby can die inside you and you will have to deliver an unborn child. Can you think of anything more awful? Oh yeah, I can. SIDS. Directly linked to smoking. So you wake up in the night to check your baby, and, oops! She's not breathing. And oops! it's entirely your fault.

This diatribe is brought to you today because my good friend has a sister who is four months pregnant and smoking. She claims it's very hard to quit because she's been smoking for six years. It makes me wonder if this is possibly an unwanted pregnancy and perhaps she is trying to hurt the baby? Who knows, but I just can't imagine how she is living with herself right now.
And it's not like she's going to quit once the baby is here either. So double whammy – second hand smoke for her infant. Nice work.

Some people just shouldn't be allowed to become mothers.

On a different note, I came this close to ending my career as a blogger. It has come to my attention that I am not an effective communicator when it comes to the written word. I have unintentionally caused three complete knock-down arguments here and one in the comments section of another blog. I feel like I say one thing and it is interpreted in a completely different way. Obviously I am the one at fault since it has happened so many times.

I am going to continue for now, and try to stay out of trouble. (Unless you're a pregnant smoker, then I don't care if you're mad at me.)

I'm off to go knit on Mariposa. The boy is sleeping so I have a bit of free time before I collapse into a big heap.

What is up with blogger, by the way? This posted about 8 times, and my previous post was there twice and now is gone. Just gone.

The Results Are In

Well, I'm glad to see the rest of you don't think my blog is unsuitable – thank you all for your comments both here and in person. So as it stands the score is:

Me and my blog: 13
Crazy relative who makes Mary Poppins look dicey: 0

Yay for me! And it makes me even happier that many of the people weighing in on my side of the issue have raised children into adulthood successfully. So to my challenger I will say again: Take some deep breaths. It's all going to be okay. You need a small amount of Zen in your life.

Now on to the great part about the blog – the Knitting! First of all, I am interviewing at Craftmart next week to talk about teaching classes there. Since the job at Jessica's fell through I have been trying to figure out what I am going to do with myself. I'm so excited about this and I hope everything goes well. I'm going to take the materials I prepared for my fifth graders as well as some of my knitting, so hopefully they will think I am worthy.

Jack has been sleeping a lot during the day – I think because his teeth are about to break through on the bottom. This has given me plenty of knitting time, and I finished the first pattern repeat on the Mariposa Shawl. Here is the shawl:



and an up-close shot of the lace:



I've just put in a lifeline after row 22 so in case I mess up the decreases in the next section I can at least save this bottom part. Looking at the yarn though I don't think there is any chance I will have enough. We'll see. Has anyone else made this project? And did you have enough yarn?

I'm almost done reading the Yarn Harlot's book. I've kept it by my rocking chair and am reading while I feed the little guy. It's wonderful and funny – she has great insight into the lives of knitters. If you don't yet have it I strongly recommend going to buy it.

Knitting this week at Lux – I think Thursday morning at 10. I love that place. It makes Jack calm and I always get to knit. He is increasingly more difficult to take out at night – his bedtime is running around 7 and so we really have to be home by 6:30 to get him in bed. When I keep him up later he gets unhappy, and an unhappy Jack is not a pretty sight.

Rated XXX

Yesterday someone accused me of having an unwholesome blog that was inappropriate for my young audience. Normally comments like this don't bother me – if you think my site is bad you really should not be on the internet at all. But for some reason I am really upset by this allegation. I don't discuss politics, or religion, or any type of inappropriate topic. I don't use naughty language. And unless you're one particular person, I don't offend anyone. Ok, now two people.

The entry in question is the picture Squareslant made for me. Apparently someone thinks this cartoon is bordering on pornographic. Of course I think it's funny and not-at-all offensive, but apparently I am just wrong.

So I ask you, my faithful readers. Is the picture unfit for a young audience?

In knitting news, I am working away on Mariposa and cannot believe how much I love it. 308 stitches, nine repeats of the pattern. It's blissful. It will be very hard to give up when I finally finish, but I am learning a lot about lace.

Today I'm having lunch with Parley, Potusol, and my mom. We had to cajole my mother – she wasn't going to come because she doesn't like to interfere with my friends. I told her Parley likes her more than me anyway. (He agreed. She often makes him low-carb desserts and dotes on him as if he were her son.)

The other night at dinner Kim asked me if I was a mama's girl or a daddy's girl growing up. I suppose I have been a daddy's girl my whole life, especially when I was a teenager and my mom didn't like me so much. But isn't having a favorite parent sort of like having a favorite kid? My mom used to favor my brother until I got pregnant, now I think we're tied. And baby Jack beats us all by a mile.

Unless one of your parents is grossly negligent, I think it's hard to say you favor one over the other. Mine have both been so wonderful it's hard to say.

I never finish a project in time.

I don't think I'm alone in this predicament. I always seem to think I have more time than I do and a project will take less time than I think it will. I was so close to finishing the baby sweater and I literally did nothing else leading up to the shower yesterday. I was six rows short by the time we arrived at the country club (it was a very fancy shower), and blazing mad. Of course I blamed the child for not taking a longer nap, but really the problem goes back much farther. Like to my childhood maybe.

So instead of leaving the gift in the car, or even giving it unfinished, I plopped myself down at the table and started to knit. Maybe this is not appropriate, but I just couldn't help myself. Six measly rows. Well, and I had to sew up the sleeve seams, but still. Like I didn't have a spare hour in the past week to get this done?

But here it is, finished:



I didn't put the hood on. A hood on a baby sweater is sort of silly, actually. If it's cold out, you have to put a hat on the kid anyway. And the hood just gets all jammed up behind them in the car seat.

We met at Mama Java's last night, but after Jack's day of partying at the club he was too tired and we had to leave. He was just way too fussy for me to enjoy myself.

I did meet a fellow knitter at the shower named Charlie. She saw me knitting and came right over to chat about the sweater. That's one thing I love about knitting – you always make friends if you bring out your latest project, even if it is a bit inappropriate. Anyhow, we talked yarn shops (she likes Fiber Factory and won't go anywhere else. I told her about my experiences at the evil yellow house and she concurred that they are not nice.) and I got her email to add her to our group. Yay! A new person to knit with!

I picked up my SWTC Mariposa again last night. I am only on row 10, but now that I have the pattern down it's going much more quickly. I had to stop last night because the allergy medicine started to take over and making a mistake in lace is just not a good idea.

I may get some more knitting in today while Jack is napping. I rejoined Netflix and am already obsessing about it. My first three rentals were Closer, I Heart Huckabees, and the first disc of the first season of 24. On Tuesday night while I was frantically trying to finish the baby sweater I watched the disc of 24 and I do like this show quite a bit. I should have the second disc tomorrow so I'll watch the next four episodes while I wait for Joe to return from his trip. Great knitting show – you don't have to look at the screen all the time to know what is going on. I Heart Huckabees was not as good for knitting, I kept having to rewind because I wasn't paying close enough attention.

The Harlot in Phoenix?

First off, I emailed Stephanie Pearl-McPhee to find out if she's planning to come to Phoenix this summer. She emailed me back and said she forwarded my request to her publicist, so we'll see if it happens. How fun would that be to meet the Yarn Harlot in the flesh? I got her book this weekend and am not surprised at how wonderful it is.

Do any of you read Squareslant's blog? She's a regular commenter here and on a few other blogs I read, and she always has the funniest pictures where she puts her face on a different body. Well, when she found this picture she thought of me, and put MY face on the body:



Too funny. Thank you Squareslant for that amusing look at myself.

Since the shower is this Wednesday I had to give up on the clapotis baby blanket and go for the SWTC baby jacket instead. I've already made this pattern once so it is going quickly and I hope to have it done by then. It will all depend on how much Jack behaves. Here is how far I am right now:



Amy over at Needles and Hooks has created a Clapotis Cap. Go check it out – I'm pretty impressed. The first one she made looks like it would match my shawl perfectly. I like it inside out myself, but both ways look pretty cute.

In other important knitting news, Knitpicks now has cotton yarn. For those of us who live in a climate similar to a large pizza oven, wool yarn is not an option in the summer. It's just impossible to convince yourself to put a sweater on your lap and knit, especially if that sweater is made of a fiber meant to heat you up even further. I am going to make myself a cool summer tank top.

I just received an email from the Daily Knitter. I've never heard of this site before but it looks pretty cool. Yarn shop links, patterns, groups, and articles galore. I'm going to add a link on my sidebar and I've asked them to add our Stitch and Bitch group to their list.

Knitting this week at Mama Javas, yay! I love when we meet down here so I don't have to drive as far. And I'm trying to make Jack's bedtime just a tad bit later so hopefully I can stay a little longer this week. Joe will be in New York, so we have to find ways to entertain ourselves.

Baby Blanket Bingo, and Kim's Questions

The bad part about baby blankets is they are so big. I know they are not as big as an afghan or a bedspread, but 35 inches of knitting is still a bunch. The shower is 6 days away and I have only dropped one stitch on the PROTOTYPE blanket. Here it is:



and the entire blanket:



I am seriously considering making her the baby jacket I made for SWTC using the Microspun yarn – I could have that done in time and there is just no way I will have this blanket done. hmmm.

Pam went to Martini Ranch with Melanie to see a concert last night. Reading this made me feel old and, well, motherly. I used to hang out at Martini Ranch and watch the Peacemakers. I used to go hear live music. I was cool, darn it. Last night I was up at 3:30 in the morning realizing that used to be prime time to hang out at Denny’s after dancing all night. Sigh.

To commemorate the occasion of Pam’s trip to my old hang out, I am drinking a Rolling Rock Green Light. Beer just tastes like old times to me. Of course I won’t even be able to finish it because my head will start to droop and I will lie down on the couch until Joe gets home, but no matter. I can sit here and reminisce about a time when I could sleep until noon and sometimes didn’t leave the house until after ten at night.

I keep forgetting to interview Kim! Here are your questions Kim, the answers should appear on her blog.

Kim’s questions:

1. As the leader of the knitting group, what has been your biggest challenge? Is the group what you imagined it would be?

2. What do you miss most about Jonny when he’s gone for a month? (Besides the obvious answer, please.) Is there anything that has surprised you so far about being on your own?

3. How has being adopted positively impacted you as a person? What is your view about all these kids being adopted from orphanages in other countries?

4. What does “being popular” mean to you? Is it having a lot of friends? Is it making sure everyone likes you? Does this desire color the way you see others?

5. If you could change one thing you have done so far in being a mother, what would it be? What do you think is your greatest success as a mother?

Live and Learn

I've learned a lot about blogging in the past few months. Namely, people are going to read into your posts what they want to hear, not necessarily what you intended to say. I suppose written communication is not the most effective. I know this is true in the media as well – someone reading Ann Coulter, for example, reads through a particular lens, expecting certain things from her. Same with William F. Buckley. These people have so thoroughly entrenched themselves in the conservative point of view that they have lost the ability to be taken seriously.

I just wonder what it is about me in particular that makes people read certain things in a negative way. The cop is the third time this has happened. I said "I wonder if our laws are making us safer." It seems he thought I said "We should be allowed to drink and drive all we want."

I suppose I will just keep blogging away, and hope my audience will begin to understand me a little better. I don't know Aimee and Jay (at least I don't think I do), so I just have to assume they stumbled over here without reading much and made some pretty big assumptions about the type of person I am.

It's all pretty fascinating really.

Now on to the knitting. We met at Changing Hands last night – what a great time it was! Unfortunately I had to leave because Jack was hanging on by a thread. We've been trying to have a "bedtime" and see if that helps with his sleeping, so he gets tired around 7 and is looking for his pjs. But I did get to see a few people and Becky brought her new baby. He's five weeks old and cute as a little button. He has so much hair!

Here are some pictures (not of the new baby though, he got there just as we were leaving.)







It was a smaller group than normal, I think because another group was meeting at Cupz in Gilbert. I like the smaller size meetings – it's easier to talk and hear people and see what everyone is making. Lots of talented knitters, let me tell you. I haven't seen an update on the Cupz meeting yet but it does seem pretty popular. Just too far for me on a week night.

But are we SAFER?

Thank you all for your comments regarding my DUI post. (I know it says I have no comments, but there are 7. I don’t understand Haloscan and I can’t figure out how to make that work correctly.)

I love getting lectured by a cop. It makes me giddy. I half expected him to call me young lady.

Just to clarify a few things. I don’t condone driving while impaired and I don’t think it’s okay. I hired the car because I wanted to drink and not drive, and I am usually the designated driver in the family. This means I will have a glass of wine with dinner and I do not drive when I am impaired in any way. The time I was pulled over (six years ago) I was given a hand-held breathalyzer and the cop even told me they weren’t very accurate. (Um, then why give it to me? I wondered quietly.)

So there are two issues. BAC – how much alcohol is saturated in your blood, and Impairment. As Jen pointed out, there are a lot of old people driving around who have no business operating a motor vehicle. I have been to a funeral of a young man (22) who was killed by a 93 year old who could barely walk down the street, much less pilot a vehicle. I also recently read that “sleep deprivation” means waking someone up during their normal sleep cycle in one 24 hour period.

I’ve been woken up every night for almost five months, sometimes more than three times. Should I not drive?

It all boils down to my original question. Are we safer? I don’t think we are. I don’t think alcohol related auto deaths have gone down. I don’t think the laws are working. Someone suggested a lifetime suspension of your drivers license for DUI, but would that really stop people from driving? My friend is in jail right now with people who have four and five offenses. Clearly the laws are not motivating them to stop drinking and driving.

The sad thing about Arizona is that we don’t have a viable public transportation option. The light rail will provide some relief to this issue, but it’s about 30 years too late. The valley is so spread out and difficult to navigate that there is not a good way to build a system now.

Anyhow, I’m still interested to see what people think. As I said before, I don’t know how I feel about the laws because I don’t think they are working. If you have evidence to refute that I would love to hear it.

Whew.

Now on to knitting. I just dropped the first stitch in my prototype baby blanket. I am doing two repeats of the straight rows of Clapotis and then starting to decrease. I also am going to change yarn at the halfway point and see what happens.

We went to knitting and rugby Saturday and were almost blown away – it was so windy my allergies turned nasty and we had to leave after a few hours. Here you can see the cute boys, as well as the flag that shows just how windy it actually was:



Pam and Jack hung out for a bit. Unfortunately I forgot Jack’s hat, but his sunglasses made it. Here they are looking hip together:



Here is Melanie working on her baby blanket and holding her adorable little dog:



And Gemma bringing Mariah back to the camp:



It was a fun day out – I wish I would have felt better and I wish it wouldn’t have been so darned windy.

Tomorrow night is knitting at Changing Hands. We’re meeting at 5:30 for dinner at Wildflower if anyone wants to join us. According to the evite it will be a smaller group than normal – only 19 people have rsvp’d yes, so the room shouldn’t be so crowded. And I’m hoping Becky brings her baby – it will be funny to see a brand new one next to my roly-poly guy.

Knitting and......Rugby?

Last night we had a wine tasting to attend, and due to the recent experiences of our good friend with the Arizona DUI system, we thought it best to find alternate transportation. We hired Execucar to pick us up and drive us there and back. I’ve come to realize that it is impossible to know what your blood alcohol content is, and at very low levels you can still be sent straight to jail without passing Go. Our friend was recently sentenced to 30 days in tent city (yes, that’s a real thing. It’s jail but in a tent.) It was very nice to not have to drive so neither one of us had to worry about tasting the wines.

I’m not sure how I feel about the DUI laws here. The limit is .08, which basically means if you kiss someone who has been drinking, you may be violating the law. The one time I have been given a breathalyzer I blew .07 and I seriously think I had 2 sips of beer before driving. Is cracking down on the barely-impaired group of drivers going to help deter the really dangerous people? Are DUI related accidents down since Sheriff Joe started his campaign to rid the streets of drunk drivers?

In my experiences with the government, they often make things worse when they have the best intentions. I’m afraid our current state of affairs with these laws may be doing just that. The time I was pulled over it was because I didn’t stop 100% at the stop sign, and when I did stop I was a little too far in front of it. While the nice young officer was performing his battery of field sobriety tests on little old harmless me, I wonder who was driving down Scottsdale Road in a real state of inebriation on his or her way to kill someone’s child. (edited for clarification): After he was done testing me, the officer sent me on my merry little way. He said I "wasn't impaired at all" and he pulled me over because they were practicing for New Years Eve. And this was a few years ago so the limit was actually .10 at that time.

I know this has nothing to do with knitting, but it was on my mind this morning. I’d love to hear what people think – I know most of you have an opinion on this subject, but most of you probably live in states where the consequences of breathing vodka fumes are not so severe.

Today, shortly after Joe abandons his small family to go to LA with his friends, Jack and I will head to Mesa for Knitting and Rugby. What is Knitting and Rugby? you may ask. It is an event put together by our wonderful leader Kim, whereby a gaggle of knitters descends upon the Rugby field of her husband’s team and watches often-shirtless men run around with a little ball. I don’t know the rules of the game and I really don’t care. I’m just going to enjoy the wonderful weather and hopefully get some knitting done.

Speaking of Kim, she’s asked to be interviewed. I will have her questions up tomorrow. Along with some Rugby pictures I hope.

It says I don't have comments, but there are some about the whole DUI thing - I encourage you to read them and throw your 2 cents in the ring. I am very curious to hear what people have to say about this.

Interview rules

Someone who shall remain forever nameless on my blog was confused about the interviews, so here are the rules again:

1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones below.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

See? Now does it make sense?

Interview Four

Whew. On to my last interview. This is for Squareslant. We don't know where she came from, but we're sure glad she's here.


1. How did you end up in Florida? Are you happy to be there? If you could live anywhere else where would it be?

2. I’ve found that I make friends differently now that I’ve passed 30. I no longer make friends just to have them. Do you find this to be true for you? I know you’ve mentioned it’s hard to not have friends where you live, so if you could design a group of friends for yourself what would the be like?

3. You were still wearing braces when you got married (!), what perspective does this give you that is different than the typical bride these days? Do you think your marriage is stronger because you were married so young? What was the hardest thing about it?

4. Name one person in the last year who has changed you in some way. And it can’t be a family member.

5. So your wish is granted and you find out you are going to die 3 days after your 48th birthday. How does this change what you do on a daily basis now? Would you tell anyone? Are you sad?

Interview Three

Here are questions for Paula.

1. How did you get involved with rowing and what exactly is it? (I’m picturing rowboats like Kermit the Frog used to woo Ms. Piggy, and I know it has to be more high-tech than that.)

2. If you had to select one of your many interests and pursue it exclusively until you became and expert, which would you choose and why?

3. How do you decide if you like a book? Is character development more important than plot? Do you like detailed descriptions or do you prefer writers who get down to the point? Do you always finish books or do you put them down if they annoy you?

4. With an unlimited amount of money, what are the first five things you would purchase for yourself? Who are the first five people you would buy gifts for and what would they be? Would you quit your job?

5. What is one thing new people knew about you before they met you? Do you think it’s easier to meet someone you’ve “known” online?

Three down, one to go!

Interview Two

This is for Lisa, also known as Slip Knot Pixie

1. What has been the hardest thing about being a mother so far?

2. OHHHHH, the rogue sweater. I have this on my list of things to make. What drew you to this sweater? How do you decide what is worthy of your knitting time?

3. My brother lives in Colorado. What's so great about it? He refuses to move here and be near his family, so it must be a really wonderful place to live.

4. When you lived in Puerto Rico did you feel like an outsider? What was the best part about being there? What was the worst?

5. If you had magical powers and could give each of your children one thing, what would it be and why?

Interview Number One

This interview is for Stephanie, a bead artist in Pennsylvania.

1. How does living in a small town make you different than the average American?

2. If you could be a character in an Anne Rice book, which book would you choose and why? Would you be a vampire if you could?

3. I had a garden in California that was so amazing I often stood in wonder at the process of it all. Do gardens have a spiritual aspect to them? What gives them their life?

4. What is your favorite thing about art festivals? What is the strangest thing you have ever seen sold at one?

5. What is the difference between crafty and artistic?

Post the answers on your blog Stephanie - I'm looking forward to it.

Interviews coming soon

I have three people to interview! I will get those posted by tomorrow. And yes, I spelled ex-Patriot incorrectly. Sorry. Of course I meant expatriate.

I have a lot to talk about and very little of it has to do with knitting. But I will show you my niece Mary who is a master 11-year-old knitter.





First of all, I have to admit two things. I really like Justin Timberlake and I really like Kelly Clarkson. This is hard for me to admit, because I probably would have made fun of people for liking them in the past. But “Rock Your Body” and “Since U Been Gone” are both really good songs. Okay, I feel better now that I got that off my chest.

And in less fun news, the pope has died. I know, it was two days ago, I’m a little behind. I am very sad by this news, and not because I necessarily agreed with a lot of what he did. But he was my pope, and I met him, and I do think he did a lot of amazing things for the church. And so I am sad.

He has been sick for so long. Joe and I went to Rome in 1999 and went to the big audience with the pope at the Vatican on Wednesday morning. I seriously thought at that time, “My goodness, this guy is on his last legs!”. We went again in 2001 on our honeymoon and since we were newlyweds we were blessed by him (along with about 75 other newly married Catholics). It was an amazing experience. I don’t have a scanned picture so I had to take a picture of the one that hangs on our wall:



And now he is gone. I am so curious to see what will happen next. I can’t imagine trying to follow in his footsteps, but I’m sure the new pope will be pretty conservative. I know the church will change, but I also know it does not change quickly.

Lastly I have to say a few words about my lunch yesterday. I sent the little character to Chandler to visit his grandparents (I didn’t even have to drive him! Joe drove him for me!), and I met two friends for lunch at Duck and Decanter. For those of you not lucky enough to live in Phoenix, this is a lovely place with wine and food and a wonderful patio. We sat outside, drank a bottle of wine, had some sandwiches, and talked about things not related to babies. I enjoyed myself so much I didn’t even mind when I had to get up a billion times last night to deal with the babe.

The funny thing to me is I was thinking on the way home “I’m glad I have some new friends here.” New is a relative term I suppose, because I think I have now known these women for a year at least. To me that is very new. And I am grateful to have them. I know I am not the easiest person to get along with, so I do appreciate it when I meet people who I can sit and hang out with and not worry about it.

I will be dropping stitches on my baby blanket soon, and I will photograph the evidence. I just got the invite for the baby shower and I can’t go! Great news, because there is no way I was going to have the blanket done in time.

Less and less time to knit these days, as well as do anything else. I spend most of the day trying to entertain my small bald boss. He can’t yet sit up or crawl, and this makes him very angry. He wants to move, he has things to do and see! Therefore I must keep him happy, or I will certainly hear about it.

I can’t wait until he’s big enough to play soccer and baseball – think of all the knitting I will get done then!