Happy Halloween! (with explosions)

y'know, I always thought glass exploding was an old wives tale. Extremes of temperature? moisture on a hot glass? naaah, never happen. well, I just spent half an hour cleaning up a broken Pyrex glass bowl off the stove that literally exploded. It was my fault, mea culpa, I left the bowl on the stove (full of pumpkin seeds from the jack-o-lantern's we made this afternoon) and accidentally turned on the wrong burner. That is, I turned on the burner under the bowl, instead of the one that I actually MEANT to turn on. oops. I left the kitchen (to go get on the computer) and 10 minutes later, there was this "Crash!" from the stove. Big J and I rushed for the kitchen, b'cause we both thought the cats (or the little boy) had knocked something off, but, no. It was a classic example of glass' reaction under temperature stress. Anyway, the moral is, be careful with your glass bowls.





And here, is pictures of my little one. We went over to Sam's Club this evening, where they were having trick-or-treat, and stories, for the little ones. We were doing that because I had thought Little J was really too little to go around the neighborhood...we came home, and Big J took the Little one around to the local houses. what can you say? little boys, big boys...they all like candy.





Here's pictures of my little one...

COOKIE!

another quick update

No pictures tonight :( I did finish up with the apron, and it's exceedingly cute, but, my photographer was busy. Big J was working on a paper for his military history class, and I was dragooned into proofreading.

nada

I putting up a blog post tonight, to say that I'm not posting anything. :) It hasn't been an exciting day, we haven't did anything, and I haven't been knitting either. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have pictures of my lovely new apron to put up here. We'll see...

baseless anxieties

For the last twothree days I've been frantically cleaning my house. What the FlyLady calls "crisis cleaning". I cleaned the areas my company would see, and shoved things into the other rooms. This morning, my "public" areas were clean, and I was exhausted by the time people started showing up for the meeting at my house. But, I was ready, I smiled, I welcomed them in, and was a gracious hostess. Yay! And I think everyone had a good time.

And then I had an "eureka" moment. Why had I been fixating on the cleaning and decluttering? Why was I thiiis close to having panic attacks over it? Everyone who was here, knows what it's like to have small kids and be pregnant. Nobody was going attack me for having dust on top of my TV. Nobody was going to run in terror because there was a stack of paper on the dining room table.

And, on the other side, I really like having my house this clean. It's nice to to have clutter on top of the entertainment center, it's nice knowing where all the bills are. It's very nice to have all the junk and clothes off the couch so that there is actually room to sit on it. Why haven't I did this before? (well, i have, just not all at the same time, and not recently.)

Did I mention that I had shoved things into the other rooms to hid them? Yes, I did. Next project, cleaning up alllllll the other rooms.

For Terry Pratchett readers

In November, ION channel on cable TV will be showing the movie "Hogfather". Yippee!

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071022/20071022005910.html?.v=1

new baby thoughts

Big J dosen't know it, but he may have caused me to spend more money for this new baby. He found an article on PBDE's in children and was telling me ALLLL about it. I've known for quite a long time that humans (and all the other creatures in our environment) are carrying around a lot of industrial chemicals, but, it kinda slipped my mind that quite a high percentage of what humans have is from indoor exposure. It's a scary thought, and I don't really want my baby exposed to more than I can help.

So, I've been googling organic mattress, and clothing, to see what I can find...it's expensive! Dh and I were talking about getting a new mattress (Little J is too wiggly at night. Need more room!) and the organic ones cost about double a non-organic, even before you add in shipping. And baby clothes, well, these suckers would be heirlooms and hand-me-downs, because I would only want to buy one set.

Whatever we do, this is going to be in the back of my mind.

Knitting

No pictures, and no details, b'cause it's the top secret Christmas present, but, I've officially finished half of this project! Yay! And the second half should go faster.

Do I have a boring life?

A friend of mine was talking to me about coming to visit. To visit me, that is. That's cool, it would be great, I haven't seen her in person in years. But, then she asked "So, what is there for me to do there?"

::blink, blink::

Say what? How do I answer that? My friend is recently single again, but even when she was in a relationship, she normally went out in at night, went clubbing, spent time at bars...that's in contrast to me, who hasn't been in a bar in (let's see, it had to be before Little J was born) over 3 years, hates the smell of cigarettes, and, at this point in my pregnancy, is exhausted by 6pm. Even when we were in college, I would just as rather spend the evening with a good book as go out to a party.

I don't do anything! I don't go to concerts anymore, it's expensive to take the whole family out to a restaurant, I'm exhausted half the time....my idea of a fun trip is to go to a fiber fest. (oh, and in case you're not busy Saturday - Southern Indiana FiberArts Festival ) Or the library (Not the bookstore. How much browsing can YOU do with a two year old shrieking happily and running amok within the bookshelves?).

i need a life.

I'll take her to the local yarn stores. She crochets. Yep. That'll work. ;)

Too tired...I really want my morning nap....and the afternoon nap...oh, and live in maid and cook would be nice too....

Book List update

I have been knitting recently (but it's a top secret present). [sad face] so I can't show my project here on my blog. Very sad. But if you're on Ravelry, you can go look at it there! I'll have a picture of it up tonight.

Instead of knitting, I'm going to up date my reading list. I haven't did it in a while, and I have a growing (!!) stack of books beside my bed that I've read in the last month or so. (This isn't all! some have went back to the library, some I've forgotten, and I absolutely refuse to put down all the times I've read Jaiden's favorite books to him)

• Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett
• Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
• Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
• Kushiel's Justice, by Jacqueline Carey
• The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
• Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik
• Wolf Who Rules, by Wen Spencer
• The Serpent's Shadow, by Mercedes Lackey
• Conrad's Fate, by Diana Wynne Jones
• Deep Secret, by Diana Wynne Jones
• Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
• The Grand Tour, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
• A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer
• A Scholar of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer
• The Wizard of London, by Merdedes Lackey

Got the KnitPicks!

Yay! yarn came today, so it's just like Christmas! Or it will be, when I get this stuff knitted up :) I started on of the projects today. It has an i-cord cast on (have I mentioned I hate knitting i-cord? I really really do) and I've got that done, and the first few rows of the color work. I'm trying to do the two handed yarn thing, but so far, I can't keep good tension on the yarn on my right hand. Argh! But, I can see how it will be faster than having both yarns on one hand, so, I'm going to stick with it, and see if I can get it. If I don't understand what I'm doing by next Monday, I'll take it to knitting at Panera's and see if I can badger one of the right-handed knitters into showing me what to do with the oh-so-annoying yarn.

Happy Birthday!

To my darling husband, the best man in the whole world! I love you!

Knitting at Panera's

I had a really cool quote from Jonathon Swift, something about...ah ha! Here it is:

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

Anyway, that was a random thought, wasn't it?

Tonight was knitting at Panera's. (wanna come? Go here ----> Southside Indy Knitters) there were about 9 of us there tonight, with lots of nifty neato projects. Interestingly, there were several people working on mittens. Cathy had a reversible mitten on her needles, and Crystal was starting a mitten from her garage-sale-yarn. And, (i can't remember her name! Bad me!) somebody had roving and a drop spindle and was spinning. The roving was dyed in a lovely assortment of purples blues and greens, and I'm amazed at how smoothly she was spinning out the thread (when I do it, it's a much more laborious process. hmm, i should practice more.) Oh, and Suzanne (spelling?) from Mass Ave Knits stopped by to say hi.

Me, I finished off Jaiden's socks, and worked on the alpaca sweater some more. I noticed on Jaiden's socks that my gauge was a little off, so I hope it dosen't make a problem in the sweater. If I have to rip that 2" of work out again, I will just cry.

Ribbit, ribbit

I ripped out a day's work on my current knitting. RIBBIT! discouraging, it is. I was trying out an idea, and it took that long to see that it wasn't going to work. It was about an inch of knitting (hey, i don't get much time to knit in a day) and made a nice heap of yarn in my lap.

Let's see...I ordered yarn from knitpicks for my Christmas presents. No, not Christmas presents for me, presents to give to other people. One I can't mention, because I know the giftee reads my blog, but the other is two Christmas stockings (for Little J and Little sister) from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush. The yarn should be here in about a week (I hope!).

And, a very nice person(Should I put your name in?) gave me a sample hank of Alpaca sox yarn. Very soft, muted varigated colors....very nice. (I'm not really in love with alpaca yarn in general, although I can definitely make an exception for this stuff. I simply fell in love specifically with the alpaca yarn I'm using for Big J's sweater.) I think I'll swatch it, then decide if (or how much) I need of it when it's available.

Ultrasound pics

Or, I'm having an alien baby. LOL! No, but at this point, the ultrasounds of the darling little girl's (the tech wouldn't give a 100% guarantee(of course not), but said that the baby looked like a girl) face DO look very much like an alien. The doctor thought everything looked good; skull, brain, bones, hearts, fingers...
Even legs! During the ultrasound, we saw alot of baby's hands and feet, because she kept wiggling them around. I think she's going to be another very active baby. It's that old mother's curse, "May you have children just like you were!"
Big J was able to come along to the ultrasound, and he had ahold of Little J. We tried to get the little boy interested in the pictures on the monitor, but, c'mon Mom, black 'n white? I don't think the pictures made much sense to him. Since then, I've sat him down and tried to explain about the new baby, but, I don't think he was listening. Oh well, another 4 months, and then it'll be easier to explain.

not fun Sticky Stuff

I went to stick wet sheets in the dryer, and what did I find? There's blue stuff streaked over the inside of my dryer! it's sorta sticky, and looks alot like crayon, but I don't know for sure what it is. It had to come out of Little Sister's jeans, but she's not admitting to anything. ummhm. I was testing to see what would get it out (alcohol will, with a little elbow grease) and then I thought more about putting flammable solvents in to my dryer. Not a good idea! I decided I don't really care if the sheets get blue stuff all over them, and, if there's any left over, I'll do a load of my really old and grungy towels until all the blue stuff is out. Hey, I bet I know what it was! Melted Smurf!