Oh, yes...

And Happy Easter!

We were very busy over the weekend.

First we jumped in the car:



Look at poor Spencer's hair. Static like you wouldn't believe. I couldn't even get a good shot. But let me say this--we started laughing at Spencer (Brian and I) and his crazy hair. The next thing we know, Irene is laughing at him, too. She makes a comment on how funny it is that his hair is so static-y. She sits behind him. When you're two and you don't reach the top of your carseat, but someone behind you can see your hair standing up, it's a very dire situation. Plus, you clearly need a haircut.



We did the Easter celebration with my side on Saturday. Good times. It was quiet, just my Mom and all five of us. And the guest of honor--my Grandma, who came down from Maine to spend the holiday with us. Such a treat! Grandma was in charge of making the mustard gravy to go with the ham...something my Mom's been "trying to learn to do for 20 years!", according to her. Somehow it never turns out quite right, in my Mom's opinion, so she jumped on the chance to learn again from her own mother, right in her own home. The gravy was delish.



All right, I know what you're thinking. Terrible picture. I know. I know. I just wasn't really thinking. Even you, my loyal blog readers, know that if I wanted a photo of this for posterity, I should have taken the camera from Brian. Can I tell you how many little movie clips we have on the camera that are taken sideways? Too many. And if you have a digital camera that takes movies too, you know that you can't flip movies like you can with photos. Yeah, that's right--they're stuck sideways. Fairly annoying to watch. The poor guy feels bad enough, but it happens a lot. I have no good excuse for not grabbing said camera away, other than that I wanted to be in the picture, too. You know, three generations and all?

Anyhow, if you could see their faces (not bitter) you'd see that they're both real cute. You'd probably comment about how we all look the same and all of that. I'm sorry to disappoint.

After much fun, basket opening and super yummy dinner, we jumped back in the car for the ride home. Ah, gotta love the travelling you do with little kids. Not too far--about an hour each way.

On Sunday morning, we did NOT hop in the car. That's right. We did Easter morning right at home. Nice. Naturally, I have to share the trails with you. I am reluctant to do this, as it very sadly puts a spotlight on my disgusting cream colored living room rug. I'm been trying to decide if I could deal with the embarrassment of having them out on display on the Internet for all to see (and gag) but I'm going to do it. This is just too huge a part of our Easter traditions to leave it out.

For the record, I would never, not ever, even consider putting this color rug in my home. This rug was here when we bought the place, and it's gotten considerably gross. I used to clean it with all kinds of harsh stuff, and succeeded in doing two things. I made these crazy super-clean spots on the rug, thus highlighting how dirty the whole thing was. (This was some time ago, so it wasn't nearly as dirty as it is now--yikes!) And I also made myself paranoid that my children were playing on a rug that was covered in chemicals and everything and that it wasn't worth it, blah, blah, blah. Anyhow, I'm counting on your not deciding that I'm a bad person/knitter because my rug is gross and your continuing to read the blog, grimy rug and all.

Here it is. The reason I'm showing you the rugs is this:

JELLY BEAN TRAILS


The Easter Bunny leaves them every year. Each child has his or her own trail (beginning with their initial) and it leads either to the basket or to a clue. This year, Irene's led to cute rhyming riddle-type clues. Keegan's clues were in the form of a picture with the word underneath. They each had three clues. Spencer's led right to the basket itself. We all enjoy this tradition immensely, and the kiddos have been discussing the trails for weeks in anticipation.


Keegan found his basket.


Irene's got hers.

Worry not. Spencer found his, too. But the picture Brian took was pretty much Spencer's butt sticking out from behind a rocking chair. I left it out.

And then, later in the day, we hopped in the car. This time it was to see Brian's side of the family at Aunt Judy's house. The drive was a little longer, about an hour and a half each way. This year we opted to stay home and let Spencer have his whole nap, instead of trying to nap him in the car, which never works anyway. We ate lunch at home, instead of having them wait until 2 o'clock to eat lunch. This all worked out so well, believe it or not. The lunch was not as good as the dinner Judy usually serves up, but we made due.


Spencer, Irene, myself, and Auntie Mo

Judy gave the kids recorders (did anyone else ever call these "flutaphones"?), a carrot shaped bat and ball, and bunny shaped racquets with a ball and a birdie. Big fun was had--outside.

The highlight of the visit was the piano.



When I asked Judy if it was all right if Spencer played, she said of course. She also said not to worry--it's not like he can make it any worse. (I'm guessing it's out of tune or something.)



Spencer played for maybe three minutes before the top of one of the keys fell off.



Yeah, seriously. That's what happens when you tempt the universe like that.

Next time, I promise...some knitting.

In Which There Was a Little Puff of Smoke

Early last week, maybe Tuesday, I had a problem. With my laptop. Again. You might remember when I had some issues a while back with my charger cord and it went on and on and finally had to be replaced. Gotta love Toshiba, but I digress. Things have been all right since the new cord arrived. Well, excepting of course a couple of weeks ago when my computer just slowed all way down and then got really bizarre, opening windows all the time (that I was not trying to open at all, for the record) and it just kind of freaked out. Sure computers can freak out--why not? So poor Brian was working and working on it and finally, it was a-ok.

Whew. What a relief. Thank goodness I didn't have to get a new one or anything. Just about a week to a week-and-a-half and I was in business. Pause for a moment to stop grinding teeth. And then, seeing as I was so happy and all...

You knew something bad had to happen, right?

I was on my laptop and something happened. First my cord (newly replaced, mind you) looked like this:



Well, mostly like that. There is a tiny green light on the charger thingy and that light was on.

Then Spencer ran by, as he often does, and runs over the cords, instead of going around the table. Big surprise, right? Those of you with kids are completely perplexed--that NEVER happens at your house, I'm sure. So I hear him kick the box and it annoys me. I'm fairly certain that the reason the first one broke is a direct result of him doing just this type of thing. I look down and expect to see this:



Light out. Cord unplugged.

Nope. I see this:



Light out. Cord still plugged in. Hmmm? Then I hear a tiny sound and see a little puff of smoke. I know, I should have snapped a photo at that exact moment, but I wasn't ready. This is clearly a reenactment for your benefit. I'll admit it, I did have a moment when I considered staging a shot of the cord, with me out of sight shooting steam at the charger with my Rowenta iron, but I thought that might be a little too "Yarn Harlot in the Tub" for me, you see. (Hilarious post, but a tad bit weird with the camera readiness. Later she explained that she had someone grab it for her, but you get the idea.)

I do think you need a visual of some sort, though, so I went with this instead:



Anyhow, it was horrible. Really a bad, bad feeling. I quickly unplugged all the cords, just in case. Then I gagged on the horrid smelling smoke. Next I checked the charger box and it was hot, which sort of freaked me out. A moment after the relief that all was o.k. and there was no longer any risk of fire and such, I realized that I probably had about 60 minutes of juice left on my laptop. And that is it. Luckily, most of what was on there was just backed up, because Brian had to erase the whole laptop in order to fix it last week. But still. The thought of having it die and then having to wait another week or more for a new cord (again) sank my spirits. I let Brian know what happened, and I stayed the heck off the thing to save the battery life. The problem is, without a new cord, anything on there is inaccessible when it's dead and can't be charged up.

Brian, bless his heart, suggested that we really did need a new one. This one's had many problems and it needed a new charger and a new battery, too. Plus, it's on the older side. I hated to do it, but we decided to just go and find something fairly low frills, so this didn't keep happening.

So here's my new laptop.



I really like it, and everything works, which is sort of a novelty for me.



It came with Vista, and I was nervous about that. But I do have to say that I really like how it works and I'm not having any problems with compatibility with older programs, etc. So far so good (watch out for falling tree limbs, sudden sparks, or spontaneously unravelling knitting).

It's lighter. Bigger, clearer screen. Longer battery life. All that good stuff. Gotta love improving technology...



Even the cord is better. Smaller, more compact, and the cords are heavier with three prongs!

Oh, and I forgot to explain the title. I'm seeing that all over the place lately. The whole "In Which....blah, blah, blah" titles. I can't remember who the blogger is who sort of started all of that by always starting her posts with "in which", but if I remember, I'll add a link. But I couldn't resist using the term, because how do you really start a post about a crazy power cord gone postal and smoky and all?

March Knitting Comes...

...in like a Lion,







...and out like a Lamb.

How do you like the Lion that Keegan made at school today? I couldn't resist...you know..."sheep humor". It's the Knitter's Achilles Heel.

I pulled out the Sunrise Circle Jacket last night. Figured, why not? It's not going to knit itself. Come to find out--I'd done a lot more on it than I remembered. How good does that feel? Awfully sweet. Sweet enough to bring back the mojo. Ah, yeah. Finally. I still am not sure why I was avoiding this project.

I came to the decision this weekend that if I wasn't going to work on it, I should really *gasp* change it's status to "hibernating". Now maybe this doesn't sound like much to you, or maybe it does. But I'll let you know that I've never put anything into Zzzzzzzz mode before, and it felt like a really big deal. Had to be done, though. That is, IF I didn't get to work on it. In a way I was relieved. So last night I took it out, expecting there to be maybe 2 or 3 inches done on the first sleeve, and much to my surprise, I pulled out maybe 7 or 8 inches! I started working on it and somehow, it magically transformed around my fingers. And I fell in love with this project for the first time. This style of sweater and tweedy type of yarn vary drastically from my usual M.O. Somehow, it all works, though. I thought of Jen and her good advice that if I waited, the mojo would just show up. Ah, she is wise beyond her years...



I'm thrilled with the progress and very pleased with the yarn and colors.



I have a serious and long-standing weakness for orange. The bright, happy vibe it sends works for me. In the past I wore tons of it, and then as I had children, my wardrobe dove into neutrals and more plain colors. I'm pretty much a brown, black, blue (as in jeans), white and maybe green girl. But I miss the orange.

Now, don't ask me why I'm making the baby sweater you see above. No good reason exists, except that I want to. The pattern called to me. I showed it to Brian and he said I should pick it up. So I said that I could always just wait to see if we had another baby before I started it. He suggested that if we don't have another baby, we could always give it for a shower gift or something. Combine that innocent suggestion with a sale I found for Shibui Knits yarn, and the pattern/fiber practically materialized on its own. After hanging onto it for a while, I just cast on. There wasn't much on the needles, and I wanted something mindless around.

It's fingering weight yarn and tiny needles, but it's knitting up quickly.



Another two inches or so and I start the sleeves. So pretty. So soft.

On Saturday I cast on for a plain pair of socks (using the Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe, of course) with Plymouth Happy Feet. I haven't worked much on it. The yarn's buttery and wonderful. Startitis seems to have a hold on me. Clever minds may have realized that Saturday was the 15th. Beware the Ides of March!

I picked up the Happy Feet at Webs with Krista, and she got the same yarn. OK, to be honest, she picked it up first. I am a total copycat (this time only), but again with the orange--I couldn't resist. So no pressure to cast on or anything.

But wouldn't it be fun to have these going at the same time!!? C'mon. You know you want to.

I Challenge You to a Duel

Duelling laptops?

I was on my computer, and I left the room. I come back and see this:



That's Spencer's little Elmo Laptop toy, set up right next to mine in the dining room. What a funny guy...

So everyone can rest assured that my laptop is now all set and functioning properly--virus free. Granted, Brian had to painstakingly backup everything on it. Which, when your systems are functioning at a snail's pace, is pretty irritating. Or so I've been told. And then he had to wipe the whole slate clean and reformat the whole deal. From there, we had to find all the software I use/need and re-install everything, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. I have to say, Bri did a great job, and I pretty much have all the stuff I started with. Except, of course, the virus(es) and my email contacts. Yup. Not bad. I have all my old emails themselves, just not the contacts. So if you read the blog and we usually email and I haven't contacted you in a while--it's kind of not my fault, o.k.? Send me an email so I have your addy...

So back onto knitty business!

The Jacobean Socks for the SKP2008 are finished (have been for a while, actually). I love them, and I am dying to get my hands on more DIC yarn.

One thing I meant to share last post and forgot--I made a kind of big boo-boo. (Off topic: Have you ever had one of those days when everything you write looks weird? I'm finding I keep backspacing, believing that things aren't looking "right", and I'm not happy until I throw a hyphen in there. Odd, huh?) Anyhow, I read the charts backwards. Didn't matter so much for the middle section, but on the two outside charts, I read them left to right by mistake. And yeah, it does say clearly on the pattern to read them the other way, but apparently I sometimes read words and don't really bother to notice what they, in fact, mean.

See what I mean? It's not really a big deal as far as function, but I felt silly, none the less.

My TVyarn sock club package arrived today, and I can't wait to tell you all about it. I will wait a day or two, though, so I don't spoil it for anyone who hasn't received theirs. Oh, it is SO yummy, and I'm really diggin' the colors. Jana rocks!

Oh, and I wanted to mention something to everyone. You all know I do the Making Strides walk in Boston each fall to raise money to fight breast cancer. Cayli is doing the big 3-day walk (wow--go her, right?! I don't know if I have it in me. SIXTY miles in three days?!) and she's fundraising right now. Please check it out, and if you can, maybe help her out. It's such an important cause, and every little bit makes a difference. Oh, and did I mention that there's a contest, and some sweet prizes are involved?

The Wheels on the Bus...

Today, we did something extra fun. My Dad drives a bus and the kids got to check it out! I'm going to go ahead and leave out the company name and all, for the sake of not getting him in trouble. Really, I don't think we did anything wrong, but you know...just in case.


Anyway, he was sort of stuck between pickups and all of that, and wanted to know if we could meet up with him. Not a problem--he was only about 25 minutes away from the house. We all packed in the van and went to see Pep's bus. (It's what the kids call him. Short for Pepere.) Irene and Keegan were thrilled to check out this huge vehicle. And really, it is pretty darned large. Kind of dwarfs you to stand beside it. They loved the bathroom in the back, and the TVs and the special shades that went up and down in the front windows. Spencer, um, didn't appreciate it as much, and kind of freaked out. I still have no idea why. So we sat in the seats after we examined everything and got to take a RIDE! Yup, round and round the parking lot we went. Think first driving lesson--if yours was in a parking lot, like mine. Maybe a little boring for Brian and I, but the kiddos loved it. Once my Dad gave Spencer his flashlight, he liked the whole ordeal a lot better. All in all, we had a lot of fun. I think the kiddos will be talking about this one for a long, long time. Thanks, Dad!

Oh, we did take a few pics on Brian's phone, but I can't get them right now. Can't believe I forgot the camera, but you know if I'd remembered it we wouldn't have gotten to have a ride to take pics of, right? That's just the way these things work.

Here is a quick pic of the first finished Jacobean sock for the SKP2008.



I have another better one. Unfortunately while I was first uploading the pics and starting this post (like 5 hours ago) my computer started to get all screwy and crazy. Things started opening up and bogging down and it was bad, real bad. I decided to just stop the upload and reboot the whole thing, because things were just not right. Well, when it started back up, the screen was weird, all kinds of stuff was happening that just should not have been happening. It was like Friday the 13th of my computer. A real horror show.

So, like the able minded technical gal that I am...

...I ran to get Brian. It's not a good sign when your computer savvy engineer hubby gets all quiet and serious about these sorts of things. I asked if it was bad, and he's all, "Yeah--this is really bad." Not good. Not one bit. And then those dreaded words: You've. Got. A. Virus.

Needless to say, he's still working on it and trying to get stuff to work properly and all that good stuff. What? That's a technical term. Well, it is to me. So I'm blogging on his laptop. But I don't have all my photos and I never successfully uploaded everything I needed for today. Annoying. Hopefully it will all be A-ok by tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm on the last repeat of the main chart on my socks, so they should be done soon. I'll get some pics tomorrow and keep you posted. For now, this is about all I can blog. But I couldn't leave you hangin'.

Oh, and the funniest pen? I love this. It's a freebie from signing the kids up for soccer this year. I won't put the soccer organization on here, but check out the last line, after the name, website, etc.:



I thought that was great. You know, in case you thought they might have been around since B.C. It really cleared that up for me. These things can keep you awake at night.

Enough About Poodles.

Let's talk Knitting. Irene's socks are finished and they fit like a glove. Love 'em.





I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to make child socks that actually FIT a child...



And not just once, but twice!

Um, no, not like "both socks"...more like "both PAIRS of socks". Uh-huh, that's right:



Keegan's are done and they fit, too! I don't have a finished object shot, though. He wore them right away, and I didn't get a decent pic before he was off to school.



The colors on these socks are really cool...so many different shades and colors. I thought they were going to be predominately blue when I ordered it, but I'm happy with how they look.



So, the reason I didn't get a picture? Well, I was well into the second sock when I asked Keegan what he wanted to bring to school the next day for Show & Tell. He exclaimed that he really wanted to wear his new knitted socks. Um, yeah--not quite finished, exactly. But now I sure had some motivation, didn't I? How could I not knit until I finished them? After they were done, I forgot to take a picture, and then we were running out the door to school drop-offs. Here he is in the morning--you have to see.

It was Pajama Day, so the kiddos wore their PJ's to school. Super cute. Keegan wore his China pajamas, from one of Brian's previous business trips.



Best part of his outfit?

The socks.



I have to tell you about the new knit-a-long I joined: Sock Knitters Pentathlon 2008. It's in honor of the upcoming Olympics. Knitters from many different countries have signed up. We'll knit 5 pairs of socks. The first pattern was released at midnight EST on March 1st, and we have two months to finish to stay in the running for a medal. (Yeah, I'm not so much "in the running" as I'm just knitting along and having fun, but anyhoo...) More details can be found if you follow the link. Lots of fun.

The moderators suggested a solid or semi-solid colorway for the socks, so I chose some Dream In Color Smooshy in Happy Forest. Beautiful.



This yarn is Keegs approved.


He thinks it looks like grass and he's right. Plus, SO soft. I've been dying to try some DIC, so this was a great excuse reason.

Now, we had suggestions for the yarn color, the required gauge and suggested needle sizes. We just had to wait for the pattern to be released. Naturally, I stayed up until midnight to see what it would be. Really cute pattern, by the way. Jacobean Socks. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about the pattern, but that was most likely because I was dead tired. So I figured I'd start in the morning, and went to sleep. I tossed and turned and worried if the gansey type pattern was way over my head. In the morning, I went online to print out a copy of the pattern and get started. Well, someone had already finished one sock! Yeah. Like since I went to bed, and before I got up in the morning...someone had finished one. Then she finished the other. I think it was something like 9 hours or so! What?! Really, this did shock me. I know lots of people knit tons faster than I do, but I was not expecting this. Oh, and now that I've been working on the pattern--not nearly as intimidating as I thought, and I love how they look.



I have finished one, and I'm just starting the patterning on the foot of the second. Short row heels are easier than I thought, but way more tedious than I'm used to for a heel. Knowledge is power, though, so I know this skill will come in handy later. (Or so I keep telling myself. What a PITA.) SKP2008 is fun so far, and I enjoy learning new techniques and having people to ask about them if I have problems. You all know I'm a sucker for a KAL. But I did change my settings on the Yahoo group to moderator posts only. Somehow, possibly because it's such a large group, the comments and posting was making me crazy. I tried the daily digest, but still felt overwhelmed. I am glad to do the group, however, and I think if you wanted to join, it's still not too late. And yes, Qutecowgirl, Jen did get me too. How did you know? I believe she likes the term "enabler".

Oh, and the quote? It's from The Cutting Edge. Great movie.

Alright, next time I have to show you the funniest pen.

Poodles

Very busy times. Lots to do, lots to tell you about, but where to start? Oh, there is too much. I keep waiting for "the right time" to update, but it never arrives. I've been waiting until I get a chance to upload all the pics I've taken of knitting and life, but that never happens. So, I'm thinking I just have to get on here and write something. Right? At least I'll be heading towards something that way...

So I thought, why not write poodle? It's just as good as any other word, don't you think? And it's something. Oh, I know you are all wondering why you even bother reading this crazy woman's thoughts--clearly she's deranged. Maybe you could just bear with me for a bit longer. (I promise I'll update and get some cool knitterly pics up soon!)

Poodle-on, people. :)

Next time: fun news about my latest knitting groups. Ever heard of SKP2008? Ooh, it's sweet. From one of my favorite movies (can you guess?):
"Parlez-vous Olympics?!"