Words, Words, Words, Words

Went to visit the in-laws this Saturday, as MIL just had an operation to replace her knee and is in much pain. I brought along my, and this deserves quotes, 'knitting' to show MIL as she is an extraordinary knitter and I wanted her to see that I was taking up the hobby. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but in doing so I think I cheered her up quite a bit. She has 4 sons and 1 daughter and the daughter crochets, but doesn't knit, and I am the first DIL who expressed an interest. She made my husband go get this gi-mungous box full of knitting needles and gave me a bunch of them - I know have 2 sets of needles (one big, one small) in every conceivable size. She also showed me how to 'purl' and 'bind off', gave me a book of patterns she just got and claimed to not like, and a pattern she had written down to make slippers. Which I am now attempting.

I'm doing pretty well, knitting-wise, if I do say so myself, and it was a nice little bonding moment with my MIL. She told me 'always keep your needles point down in your bag or I'll...haunt you.' hee.

We are getting snow today. Well SNOW, really, as it is the kind of storm that makes the news shows send their weather people to stand out in the cold to talk about how much it is snowing. Currently the story is we will be getting something like six to twelve inches before it is through. If I knew how to post sound on this thing, I'd regale you all with Charlie singing this song called 'Snow Day' because it is adorable. The lyrics start out thus: Woke up, can't believe my eyeballs/outside, everything is white/inside, listen to the radio/we're gonna have a snowball fight/'Cause it's a SNOW DAY! It is seriously adorable, especially at the end when he sings about building a snowman - I think I'll name him Phil. Phil?

Speaking of cute, Charlie apparently had a flying dream the other night, and it must have been really vivid, because he's still talking about it. Flying dreams are cool. There's this bit in Neil Gamain's Sandman where this little girl asks Morpheus about flying dreams, and if it is something people knew how to do once but have forgotten, and he responds 'in dreams we sometimes remember, when we wake we always forget.'

Really long day. Last night I totally forgot Charlie had homework, so he had to do it this morning, and it took him too long, and I wound up losing my temper a bit because we wre running late, and it made him cry, so my day had that lovely tint of guilt to it. Then all sorts of things just went haywire at the very last minute today while I was trying to get this SOQ (statement of qualifications) done, and I wound up not leaving until 6:30. And I have a cold, or allergies, or stress or something, and my nose is all raw and chapped, which just makes me look so attractive, I'm sure.

But my husband once said, years ago when we were first dating 'you didn't have a bad day; bad things just happened in your good day", so with that in mind, Charlie had a great day at school and with his sitter, he got his homework done this afternoon and he didn't seem to hold any grudge against me for this morning, so that's good. And I actually got several rows done on my knitting. The video thing that chavvah mentioned is very good, and it helped me see what I was doing wrong yesterday. So today I actually got passed the first row! There's some errors in it, but it actually looks like knitting. Hurrah.

Was V. busy today at work. No time to slack off and play on the interweb at all. Am just now having a few minutes, while still at work, to check friends list and post a quick hello so everyone knows I'm not ignoring them. Because I'm so sure that everyone's lives would be that much more empty without hearing from me. /sarcasm.

Have started knitting. Sort of. Can't seem to get very far before the stitches (or whatever they're called) is completely wrong and I decide to start over again. I'm quite good at the casting on now. Charlie, when I went to the store to buy my very own needles and some yarn, told the woman who was helping me that 'mommy is going to knit me a sweater.' He told me that he wanted me to 'make him fluffy.' Coincidentally, an episode of The Koala Brothers featured the penguin knitting a scarf for the unidentified bird who runs the ice cream truck, so now he's settled for a scarf. Assuming I ever learn to make an entire row without messing up.

Gilmore Girls tonight. Hurrah. I do like that show.

I've decided that Lane is more like Lorelai then Rory is. Lane, like Lorelai, rebelled against her upbringing and forged out on her own, determined to follow her own path. Rory I think rather enjoys the life her grandparents lead, controlling issues notwithstanding, and has will very likely wind up with that lifestyle, hopefully sans the obnoxious habits of her grandmother.

Anyway. I'm going home now. Bye.

I think I'm coming down with something. Had a slight fever yesterday, and took my lap top home with me thinking that I might be too sick to come to work today. However, I woke up feeling achy but otherwise fever free, so I came in thinking I'd be okay. Now I feel achy and feeling sort of dozy and stupid, which is not the best mental state to be in when one is at work.

And I am stuck at work because my husband has my car because his truck is broken. sigh.

I forgot to mention that my friend was trying, with very limited success, to teach me how to knit this past weekend. I am determined to learn. Not sure why. After many, many tries, I got the casting on thing, but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to go on to the next row, despite my friend's patient teaching. (I'm left handed, so I kept undoing the stitches I'd done in the first row.) It was frustrating because I could understand what I was supposed to be doing, I just couldn't get it to do what it was supposed to do.

Still, I shall persevere. I checked out Amazon/Borders for any books about knitting left-handed; of the three they had listed two were out of print (so why they list them I don't know) and the third was $95.

Everyone say Happy birthdy to purplemer3! She's 22 years old!