No Pictures Today

But plenty were taken by others at Late Night. And what a crowd we had to celebrate Holly's birthday at The Shop. Of course, I hadn't hit Late Night for probably a month or so-- so it was great to see everyone and catch up. And holy cow-- talk about good! Incredible cakes from Ann,Erika (who left with Bennett before I got there, darn it!,)Rosanna and Stephanie (hey-- keep a good thought for her-- it's a big day today).

I worked on the second wee sockie, and picked up some Mission Falls to make some nice washable baby sweaters. They're poppin' out all over the place, and I'm barely keeping up!

The Husband and The Son came to pick me up, since we've had another of our musical car scenarios going on. We went to Las Tapas for dinner-- lovely sangria, great food, flamenco and a guitar player who was quite good.

Today's schedule:
1.Gather stuff for vacation to Lake of the Ozarks (Whoopee!! Family Vacation with The Parents, The Sibs and The Offspring). Most needed.
2. Take MY car in for an estimate and leave it to get fixed. The Son got rear-ended by a person who has turned out to be, shall we say, less than cooperative with our insurance company. He wanted to skip insurance and pay for it himself. That would be fine, if he were honoring the estimate. (Hey, Mister... when you hit the back of somebody's car while you're playing with your dog-- or whatever it was that you were playing with, you have to replace the bumper and fix the car so that the trunk will close. And guess what? I'm not going to have Joe Schmoe fixin' the not-yet-completely-paid-for Volvo with parts from the junkyard!!!)
3. Do laundry.
4. (only if the spirit moves me) finish a teaching unit for work.

And tomorrow-- leavin' on a jet plane.
Catch you next week.

What a Difference a Day Makes

A day away, that is. (or actually, a day and a half-- 36 little hours...)

All work and no play makes NurseLaura a very grouchy lady.

So, our Day Away was to Cleveland.
The Son and his Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia(national men's music fraternity) buddies sang The National Anthem at the Cleveland Indians vs Minnesota Twins game.
And here I am, with Baseball Knitting, working on the wee sockie.








Bratwurst, beer, a taste treat known as "Johnny Applestix" (omigod-fried apple slices rolled in cinnamon that you dip in caramel sauce... un-be-bleepin'-lievable!!!)

We attended the game with DW of Brother #3 and their daughters, as well as 2 of Sister#2's offspring who flew in from Chicagoland. Brother#3 (who runs the place) let us walk around the field after the game, sit in the dugout, play in the bullpen, and even touch the grass. It's nice to "know people."

And despite a rather crushing loss (I blanked the final score out of my mind) FIREWORKS!! Lots of them-- and dare I say, even better than the 4th of July on the National Mall. And the music was better. (I love Stevie Wonder, but choreographing the National Independence Day fireworks to his tunes? It was a bit weird.)



And we returned to this:
It doesn't get any better. (Except maybe when we win.)

Oooh- So Excited

...not only to not be working today, but because The Husband, The Daughter and I are going to Cleveland tomorrow.

Why, you might ask?

To see The Son and 99 of his closest fraternity buds sing this here.

AND, we'll be able to see Brother#3 who is the dude in charge of this where it all takes place.

AND, we'll get to spend a bit of time with his lovely and charming wife and his equally lovely and charming daughters.

AND, eat hot dogs and drink beer.

Why I Haven't Been Blogging

Or knitting, much.

Take a look at my schedule for the past month.

(Please understand that I cooperated with this-- my employer is not exploiting me, and I am being appropriately compensated.)

That being said, it's still a lot of hours, and it cut significantly into knitting time:

June 16,17,18,19,20,23,24,25,26: 12 hour day shifts
June 28,29: 12 hour night shifts
July 2,3,5: 12 hour day shifts
July 6: 8 hour night shift
July 7,8: 12 hour night shifts.
(and then another 12-hour day shift on Monday, with meetings all day Tuesday)

Now, in the course of 23 days, that's 17 shifts, or a total of 196 hours in 3 weeks and 2 days.

In more recent news, the final markups/edits for the book chapter are finished and will be submitted tomorrow. Just gotta finish the pictures.

Back to work tomorrow for 3 days. You May Be Right, I May Be Crazy-- but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for...

Knitting next week for sure!

It’s Always Something..

And the past couple of weeks have been no exception. Either you’re having deluges, or the calls keep coming from work, or you keep losing your place in your knitting, or you’ve missed an editor’s deadline with no solution in sight.

I’ve missed Late Night for the past couple of weeks because of frantic “Can you Possibly work tonight” calls, and am going to miss Knit’n’Nosh tonight for the same reason. It’s difficult to explain how disappointed I am to miss this weekly “fix”. And I’ve been unable to make it in to The Shop on the weekends for the same reason.

This week’s work total will be 68 hours. I usually work 36. The paycheck will be sweet, to be fair, but holy cow!!! And the extra hours are all nights. I really don’t mind nights, since I get better sleep during the day when I'm doing long strings, and there is that bit of differential. But there is disruption to the rest of life with all this -- day or night. Of course, I could say "no". But I wasn't raised that way.

On the knitting front, I’ve abandoned the Baltic Sea Stole for now. I just couldn’t “feel” the pattern. And with not having enough protracted time to work on it, I kept losing my place—there are pattern stitches on the right and wrong sides, so for someone with my fractured attention span, eternal vigilance is required-- despite hiliters, post-it notes, row counters and such. Plus, the quick color changes in the variegation of the yarn I was using didn’t help—couldn’t see the pattern as well in the knitting.

So I ripped it all out, and started a triple-wide Branching Out. It’s simpler, because the wrong side rows are all purls to give my addled brain a rest. Baltic Sea will be back. But I knit for enjoyment, and when it’s not being fun, it’s time to switch gears.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, I need to make the editors fixes to the book chapter.

And hope not to get a frantic call.