Where am I?

Still have no concept of the day of the week (except for knit night, wahoo!) or the time, but that will be changing come Monday morning, when I report for training at oh-dark-thirty. I suspect since I will be working on the base, I'm gonna hafta learn military time. I also suspect that since I have not had any sort of schedule for four and a half months that the idea of working for a whole day and then having to do it again might actually kill me. I have gotten accustomed to being aimless. I might have to bathe regularly, or bathe my KIDS regularly, or something.

The DH is, right now, at his big fancy interview. He wore his suit. *swoon* I had to tie his tie, and people? THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET. He has big hopes for this job, since he's been given the heads-up that he's at the top of the short list of candidates, and they want someone starting ASAP. My checkbook wants us to start working ASAP too. (ETA: he had his interview and says it went well. We should know something by the end of the week, so keep crossing your fingers and such.)

I finished my March PSC socks. WOO!



Squeak likes them too. They're tasty.



Only a month late. And no, I haven't worked another stitch on the April socks yet, but c'mon - entrelac is a long-term sock pattern. I might dig out some dish cloth cotton and knit up a coupla bibs, because Squeak is eating food.



So far, he's had applesauce, rice cereal, and bananas, and he's quite a fan. It's a little early yet for him to be eating food, so I'm keeping him at that much and hoping that I can get a little bit of milk stashed for his inevitable daycare debut.

A few weeks ago, DH got the wild hair to fix up the back yard and plant a lawn. He spent many hours fixing up the sprinklers that came with the house, and filling in the low spots, and and and. He decided that instead of rototilling the dirt that we already have, he needed to buy some and use it to build up the yard. (Cuz, ya know, when you're unemployed, buying dirt is high on the list of good ways to use your money.) Anyway, it kept him entertained for a few days, and entertained Bug even more. The kid loves him some dirt.

Turns out I'm not such a tramp after all.

I'm just a serial monogamist with ADD.
I can't knit on two projects in the same time period. I can't alternate in a day, or every other day, or whatever. I currently wish I could actively work on the PSC socks and Madli, but I can't. I can only knit on one thing, until forced by circumstance (too many people around to concentrate on lace, going out to stand in the unemployment line and lace is too big, finally quiet in the house so must work on lace, etc) to change to the other. I practice project monogamy. o.0 (I only just practice on a short scale. No way will I ever be the person who knits on one thing only until it's done. Those people are just weird.)
Anyway, I have knit a few more repeats on Madli. I'm up to 8 now, and still enjoying the pattern.

I CAN, however, be multi-craftasmic with abandon. In a stunning example of delayed gratification, restraint, and self control (given that it took me FOUR HOURS to remember the phrase "self control" - all I could think of was "self denial" - you can tell the concept isn't practiced much around here) I have finished one bobbin's worth of future sock yarn and have started the singles for the second bobbin's worth, rather than plying the first bobbin right away. This makes it harder for me to succumb to second-sockyarn-spinning-syndrome.



Of course, it's pretty easy to take some time to spin when my mornings look like this.



Yesterday during my morning spinning time, these two little guys kept me company:




(Look, the Evil Twin blankie in the wild! This photo is MUCH closer to actual color.)

The voices in my head say Hi.

I really don't have much else, but Stacey wondered about my radio silence and thought maybe it was because my man was home, but we can't have her thinking that. (Actually, it is partly due to that - I haven't done this many dishes since, well, before he left. How the man can use every pot, pan, utensil, dish, and flatware cooking two meals for 3 1/2 people I will never know. He thinks he's a tidy cook.)
No, I did spend what felt like ages in the unemployment office, only to find out it was really the welfare office and the unemployment office was next door with no waiting. I would have been really pissed if I'd waited that whole time to have my number called (there were 20+ people ahead of me and they managed to help about 10 an hour, based on what I'd heard yesterday) only to find out I was in the wrong place. Then when I went to the unemployment office (with the letter that said, "You must appear in person and bring this letter with you") the guy said, "Oh, that just meant your job service log in didn't match, but you coulda fixed that online."
o.0
And also, there seems to be a serious shortage of operators in the unemployment call center. That call took 35:01 minutes (seriously, how did I survive without a phone that told me how long I was on hold?), of which 3 minutes were spent with an actual person.
When I'm in this kind of pissy mood, I should not watch movies with sweeping views of the mountains, old crabby ranchers, Morgan Freeman, and down-on-their-luck women and kids. Seriously, I could just about kill myself, if I weren't so lazy. (And also, I think it might hurt, and I don't do pain much.)
And since I'm about to bore the rest of you (the one or two of you who've managed this far without clicking away in disgust) to death, I will spare you further rantings and give you instead, fiber and babies and little boys who are way too little to be riding bikes and who told them they were allowed to grow up so damn fast?

(Click these for short videos of teh cute.) (ETA OMG turn off your volume for the Squeak one because OMG I SWEAR that is not my real voice.)







(Slippin Stripin sock the first, from this month's PSC, a seriously entertaining knit. Yes, that is laceweight, doubled.)


(Bobbin of hopefully 1/3 fingering weight singles, from the Birthday Batt that Blogless Lynn made me.)


(The rest of the first half of the Birthday Batt.)

Speaking of Blogless Lynn, see this article. That's my preferred LYS pictured, that's the woman who taught me to spin (Jill Holbrook, holding the lovely sweater), and that's Blogless Lynn in the back of the last photo. Woohoo!

If anyone has seen my brain, I'd like it back, please.

Sigh.
Two more days until the DH is home from his trip and I can go somewhere and be ALONE. (He thinks he's going to be all huggy and kissy and lovey and "I missed you so", but really, I'm going to chuck the kids at him and run away screaming for an hour.)
Toward that end, I let the Bug stay home from daycare today. o.0 (Please see title.)

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I'm the only one in the JoanCookieOtteralong who hasn't flashed her Madli. Or her nupps. Actually, mine are not real nupps - they're fakes.



That color, while lovely on my monitor, is nowhere near the deep dark teal/marine blue of this yarn. I have no hopes of catching up with Ms. 20 repeats in a day or Ms. Poor me I only did 15 in a day. I'd be worried, but a) it's not a race, and b) someone has to finish last...
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Look! Sweet peas! Stock! Petunias! Gerania! Green leaves and (achoo) pollen pods! (Click to embiggen.)



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In other news, I'm enjoying the heck out of the slippin' stripin' socks. The laceweight makes them nice and squishy and the stripes hold my interest. (Nora said something about easily-entertained mouth-breathers the other day - count me in that group.) I have no pictures as yet because I forgot to take a picture while I had my camera in there and now I'm too lazy. I've turned the heel on the first one (subbing a short row heel for the called-for gusset and heel flap) so I hope to have a finished one to show off soon.

Beginning the week, beginning the month

First, a flower for Joan. My geranium is blooming again.



Today starts the JoanCookieLace project. I wound the yarn, I found the needles, I am paralyzed and have not started yet. Sigh.
When DH is gone for any length of time (in this case, it's been three days), the fiber starts to take over the house.



What you see there at the bottom is the first time all my Options tips have been put away (except the pair in Linden and the pair in Mary Jane) since I got the set. Labeled, even. I told you I was paralyzed - I did that this morning whilst looking for my size 5 tips.

I also picked out my first sock-club yarn. I consider it a deep and bitter irony that the ONLY WIP I put in was the one I pulled out first. I am thinking the universe is telling me to finish up some damn projects already. Anyway, I'll be finishing the Slippin' Stripin' Socks from last year's Sock Madness (signups are right now, if you're playing). These are laceweight socks held double, with the colors of one strand of laceweight changed in and out to create stripes. They're cute, and they're going to be really really soft. (I just have to remember not to wear them if my heels are cracked. Dry climate, alas.)



One more cutesy picture - I saw friends on Friday that I hadn't seen for months. (Well, I'd seen Dr. B, as he's Bug's and Squeak's doctor, but his wife, Gramma B, I hadn't seen.) They bestowed wonderful gifts on the boys (including the little sweater on the table in the picture toward the top, cuz she's a knitter) and gave me this mug, which combines my two best (non-family) loves: knitting and moose.



It says "woolgathering". Hee.