wasted days

You know that your time and talents are misspent when the focus of a day (not to mention the last day home before the new job) is being a midwife to a child's difficult poop. You will be gratefull that there are no photos accompanying this entry. My three year old spend his day straining, red-faced and tearful. Weeping that his "tussy" hurt. Frantic phone calls to the doctor were involved. This distress was witnessed by many of our morning friends at the coffee store. They were all sympathetic.

When I finally left the house to pick the girls up, he finally took care of business much to the dismay of DH (who remains laid up in bed with herniated disc despite the valiant efforts of a massage therapist this weekend). I then had several phone call from DH with questions that clearly only I could answer (like were are the wipes). By the time I came home the crisis was resolved and the patient was playing in the bath. People wonder why re-entering the world of work is appealing to me!

tales of vomit and underwear

My week started out with a bang. The vomit comet stopped at our house and resulted in many extra loads of laundry for me, and increased the need for a good rug cleaning. The real casualty was my new issue of Interweave Knits that my son vomited on, I don't think it was a commentary on the new layout.

But in other not table talk news, my Little guy is sporting underwear and peeing on (in or near) the potty. In respect to his long-standing obsession with all things green, I dyed a bunch or underwear for him.They all helped!

new gauge

Well, clearly it was right to frog the socks. So far I have reknit about 4 inches of the foot and used up almost all the yarn it took to make the whole first sock. They would have been good for about one use. Disposable socks do not seem to be a good use of my knitting time.

My sister, the remedial knitter

My gorgeous sister, Jane, has been threatening to take up yarn and needles since she moved near Loop in Philadelphia. She is above frolicking in the sea with my middle child and her partner James (who is much slimmer that this photo would lead you to believe). His family recently gave her the gift of knitting, well actually a gift certificate for lessons at Loop. I can tell that she will master this, as she reports that a coworker taught her to cast on using a shoe lace and a pencil. I see yarn in her future (better not be mine though). Even though I usually feel like a pusher when I get someone started, this time its not on me!

how I spent my time at SnB

So after consulting with my knitting peers online and in person I realized that I had no choice but to frog the sock and start again. I didn't realize that I would use so much time undoing. I didn't get to cast on again until I got home, then I decided I might as well do it toe up so I could be really super sure of gauge. It is much better (now around 10.5 spi). I was left with a massive amount of yarn vomit, which I am wearing as a a hair ornament. Thanks for taking the pics Jenna! The beautiful yarn store you see behind me is Creative Fibers in East Windsor CT. The owner Laura is a major knitter and all around nice lady. She was wearing a gorgeous hand knit cashmere sweater last night. Wish I had apic of that. She is generous enough to hold on open knit nite the first Wed. of the month.

Update on Julie Amero

Yesterday's Hartford Courant ran a letter signed by about 20 noted computer scientists from noted Connecticut universities (including Yale, Wesleyan and many others) urging lawmakers and the appellate court to review Julie Amero's case. They state that this guilty verdict will have a chilling effect on the use of computers in the classroom as Julie was held responsible for content on a computer without active firewalls or filters in a class where she was a substitute teacher. Hopefully this will get some notice before her sentencing, which is scheduled to take place on March 26th.

my day

Woke up and found that the temp had dropped to really f***ing cold, realized I am angry at the lying groundhog. Then I got every cranky non-morning person in the house up and dressed for the weather. Fed all the cranks breakfast (the cranks include my DH who is still incapacitated by back pain). Got the whole sorry lot in the car, picked up the neighbor kid and dropped off at three different schools and one physical therapy center. Got drive in coffee from dunkin' donuts (who were out of the donut that would have neutralized my PMS). Then I picked up DH at physical therapy, drove him home. Then I went and got fingerprinted at the police station for my new job. Went to the post office. Then it was 10:30 AM. Really, 10:30 AM. How do you top that?

No knitting yet today, but I am trying to decide what to do about the shaeffer Anne socks I am working on. I have one done and 1/2 the cuff one the second sock but I am really starting to thing that this yarn may not "bloom" as much as I have been told it would. If that is the case, I may need to frog them and start over. I don't know, I may need to pimp my fellow SnB'er for opinions. I may just need a class of wine and a nap.

Yarn Lust

I have been a very good girl. Every thing I have knit since January 1st has been either gifted yarn or from stash. I had not officially declared myself on a diet but I was doing pretty well. Then on sock yarn sales yahoo group I saw a post by One Planet Yarn. Well, I drooled one my monitor (and a little on the keyboard). Now I am imagining all the ways I can spend the first paycheck when I go back to work.

On a serious note, please check out Eleni's and Scout's blogs about Julie Amero, who was convictived of several counts of risk of injury to a minor for porn pop-ups that invaded a computer in the classroom where she was a sub. The short end of the story is that she was not permitted to present her computer expert testimony which found the hard drive corrupted by spyware and the district acknowledged that there was no filter on the computer yet Julie could be sentenced to up to 40 years in jail. It is a travesty and has the potential to ruin her life.