Broke

Things I would do tonight, if I had the focus:

* Write a Roe post. (Meanwhile, go read Bitch Ph.D's. It's pretty good. Link is in the sidebar, one of the few links that still work so take advantage of it.)
* Write to the kid. It's been a couple weeks since I did that.
* Mop the floor.
* Watch this $%#$&^ movie for work.
* Read more Dr. Sears.
* Email much-needed friends: Adri, Bekah, Beth, Ang. Miss them.
* Mark some dates from one calendar to another.
* Write a pregnancy update.
* Clean the desk. Fix the printer. Make my workspace not such a disaster.
* Call my cousin and ascertain just what's up with him.
* Put stamps away into my book. I like my stamps.
* Screw up my courage and get rid of a bunch of gewgaws I don't need.
* Re-swatch for the abandoned shawl. Resolve to write down the size needles used next time. (Alternately, throw out my interchangeable needles so I can no longer get away with this type of malarkey.)
* Go to the drugstore and buy C's fizzy drink mix and some baby aspirin for me.
* Record some books.
* Find an icon for this breeding odyssey so I can post without shame in the preggo's forum.

However, my brain is major-league broke tonight. (I blame Blue Monday: hat tip, janeorben) I am medicating with liberal doses of chocolate and Vorkosigan, and trying not to put weight on the more tender areas of brain. On the upside, the conference is all finished and work is going great now. Good night.

delicate sensibilities

Non-knitting content.

Last night, Elwood got the TV to himself and was watching some hideous-looking movie called "Monster Man" on the SciFi channel. I walked past it to find a screaming zombie creature on screen, writhing on the floor with the bottom half of its torso chopped off and a very fuzzy looking hand.

"You won't want to watch this," says Elwood, referring to the bloodified zombie torso which was continuing to scream.
"What's the matter with his hand?" I asked.

After peering at the screen for entirely too long, I figured out that the zombie torso was holding his hand up towards the camera to flick off his attacker. (Despite the obvious blood loss and wandering intestines, Zombie Man was still not dead. I guess sometimes it's good to be a monster man.) The film cut away to the attacker a couple times, then back to the zombie, who (as indicated by the censored and blurred-out hand) continued to give us all the finger while wailing incoherently. The SciFi channel has no problems with showing us monsters chopped messily in half, but shies away from an upraised middle finger. We can't be teaching the kids bad habits, you know.

In other news, this morning I heard on NPR clips of a "60 Minutes" interview with President Bush. It was a short, well-cut little report, with the president saying in his own words (and without the speechwriters) that he wasn't going to follow Congress' advice on the war, and he was disturbed by the video he saw of Hussein's execution. When the interviewer pressed him, he admitted he hadn't watched the whole tape because he hadn't wanted to see Hussein go through the trap door. I guess he has delicate sensibilities too.

(crossposted to LJ)

Rescued!

Thanks to everyone for their advice on the DFS, particularly to Emily, since she's knit a DFS somewhat recently, and to all the folks who know Toni and recommended that I make life easy and call her before doing anything drastic.

I did call the Fold, in fact, and got Toni herself, even on the holiday weekend. She immediately found the right color and the right dye lot, commiserated with me about being so close to the end and so sure I had enough yarn, and agreed to ship it out promptly. How wonderful is she?!? I will even get a chance to use my new swift! I was tempted to ask her to throw in one of those little blue ball-winders*, but decided that I've spent enough on clothes and shoes** in the last three weeks that I really should use my lovely nosterpinne for another month or two. I'm used to doing all the winding by hand across my knees anyway, so I won't suffer through doing a couple more hanks of yarn that way. I have a few days off to work on little projects (more dishcloths, Wayne's hat) until the Miracle arrives, and then I can wrap it up, get its picture taken, and speed it on its way. I'm hoping to have nice pictures of this one, when I can finally show it off, and one of the reasons for my rush (besides its status as a Christmas birthday present) is that I don't want my very talented photographer to change her mind. So, hooray!

_________
*Why didn't I get a swift and ball-winder together? Well, I have put off both for years because while either of them seemed reasonably priced by themselves, the two of them together were never as tempting as a few more hanks of luxury yarn***. I've solved this problem by getting a nostepinne, realizing how useful the swift would be alone, and proceeding stepwise.

**A few irritating facts about shoes I've recently learned:
1) I'm now wearing (or very soon will wear) a size 8 shoe/boot.
2) Size 8 boots on clearance sell out before any other shoe in the store.
3) Women with size 8 shoes who want to wear those lovely knee-high boots are never, NEVER allowed to work out, walk more than fifty steps, or use their calf muscles for anything besides looking cute.
4) My calves are closer to a size 10 in boots, although no matter how much baby weight I gain, I don't believe my feet will ever be that size.
5) Quite possibly, it's time for me to give up my lovely winter boots and pad around in sneakers and flats for the duration. I'll have to knit extra-thick socks so my ankles don't freeze!

***Not having a swift or winder also slowed down consumption of said luxury yarn, which was an economic fringe benefit. Alas, no more.

Guide me, O wise ones.

Okay, I'm making a Diamond Fantasy Shawl out of Classic Elite Miracle. I'm two rows from the end of the last chart (I'm making the "scarf" and not the "shawl" version, for those of you familiar with the pattern.) And, okay, I might have been a little optimistic on my yarn requirements. I figure I might get through one more row before I run out of string. So, here are my options:

(a) attempt to knit the final two points and bind off here, forgetting about the I-cord edging.
--This option seems least likely to work: it would leave a wonky end to the chart and an amateur looking edge.
(b) rip back to the last logical-seeming pattern pause (halfway through this chart) and attempt to run the points and the I-cord bind off with my remaining yarn.
--This option is quite attractive, but if I'm still short of yarn it will be heartbreaking.
(c) Go back to the Fold/attempt to locate another distributor and buy one more skein with which to finish as directed. Pray that the dye lots are close enough for government inspection.
--Elwood says, "That should be an easy color to match, right?" Umm. Maybe, but would the differences become more apparent after washing a couple times?
(d) Attempt to find on the knitting blogosphere someone with a partial skein of Miracle in color 3313, lot 0101. Completely forget about the fact that I was hoping to finish this project by last month.
--It would work, but it would have to be next year's Christmas present. As if I'll have time to knit presents next year.

So, knitters, what do you advise?

Accounting

(stretches) Ahh, it was a lovely internet break. I got some stuff DONE over the holidays, man, let me tell you. Not always the stuff I meant to do, mind you, but stuff nonetheless.

On New Year's Eve, I always get a little panic about properly documenting the year that is closing and preparing for the year to come. I asked Elwood at one point, "But what did we get DONE?" He sensibly replied:

"You got pregnant.
I got a job.
The Democrats won back the legislative branch."

Oh. Looking at it like that, I guess it was a pretty good year.

So, on to the yarn accounting:

THIS WINTER'S GIFTS


Sockatta socks for Mom.


Madil Iceland socks for the man. (Boy, do they bloom in the wash. I'm going with a different wool next time.)


An array of Mason-Dixon washcloths, various recipients

And? And? Shadow knitting! For the fabulous and much deserving KAH!


Front view of DNA scarf.


Yeah, baby.

There is one more project left to knit, I admit. It's almost done but it turned out to be a little more ambitious than I'd originally intended. It might even get treated to a professional photography session before it wings off to its recipient. The object and I are both pretty excited about that.

I'm paring down my 'net time quite a bit; I pruned the RSS feed pretty severely, and will probably do the same for my LJ friends list over the next week or two. Blog maintenence is still on hold until further notice. I'll update those links soon, I promise.

Okay? On to the new year!