A quick recap

Thanksgiving weekend was very busy, with my mother in town Thursday lunchtime until Sunday morning and then work on Sunday.

Wednesday

• Took Dorian to Little Peoples and had a cafe date with Sebastian.
• Did the last shopping of the year at Walker Farm. (Sob.)
• Made an apple pie, a pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce.
• Watched Singin' in the Rain with the kids which they loved and I am so happy they loved. Dorian was crying he was laughing so hard during this scene.
• Went out with Christine, Steven and Rosemary for a little pre-holiday fortification.

Thursday

• Made a 13 pound turkey. As usual followed the directions and as usual had the turkey finish cooking an hour early.
• Had a lovely meal with the kids, the husband, the in-laws and my mother.
• Made several quarts of turkey stock to put in the freezer.
• Was very tired. Can't remember anything else.

Friday

• Had a lazy rainy morning and then went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was fantastic. My favorite part was when one of the characters called something a "cluster cuss".
• Made a pot pie-ish thing out of leftovers with mashed potatoes on top. Starting to be really sick of turkey.
• Played dominoes. Lost every time.
• Somehow got sucked into a show about wedding dress shopping. Can't explain it. Clearly swept up in some holiday weekend vortex.

Saturday

• Took the kids ice skating. It was Dorian's first time and Sebastian's second. Sebastian's first time was when he was Dorian's age and he started screaming a quarter of the way around. Jeremy barely got him back to the door to get off the ice. Dorian's first time almost went the same way, but he relaxed at about the halfway point and ended up doing fine. I had not been on ice skates since 7th grade, so it was an exciting experience for me as well.
• Went to lunch in Greenfield and then to the Montague Bookmill-- "Books you don't need in a place you can't find."
• Had a popcorn dinner while watching Hard Day's Night. The kids also loved this one. We're riding a large wave of Beatlemania around here these days.
• Played more dominoes. Lost every game.
• Played Waterworks. Won the last game.

Sunday

• Got my mother on the road. Sent Jeremy out for donuts. Breakfast of champions.
• Went to work. Tried to work on my second mystery sock which is supposed to be finished by midnight tonight if I want to enter the contest.
• Had none other than John Hodgman sitting on the couch in the store while his wife shopped for yarn and his kids all took turns needing to use the restroom. I couldn't decide whether to say anything to him, so I opted not to. Later I realized I had missed an opportunity to punch him for all the times I couldn't sleep because Jeremy was laughing so hard next to me while reading his books.
• Played more dominoes. Lost every game.

Now I need to put my fingers to a different use and get these socks done. Only 14.5 hours to go. I don't even know what I could win, but I want to dammit!

One thing I'm thankful for

I realized the other day how glad I am that Rachel opened her yarn store-- not just because she has beautiful yarns, or because I now have a job, but because I have found such an interesting community of younger knitters there.

When I first moved to town, the only knitting circle I could find was at the original yarn store and was a bunch of older women who met on Tuesday mornings. Taking a toddler to that would have been impossible anyway, but it just didn't feel like the right group for me. Then I tried one at a library in the next town, but it wasn't really for me either. Granted, I have had some issues at this one, but they seem to have resolved themselves.

It is just really nice to pop into the store anytime and find a really interesting crew of people knitting together. There's a girl who helped found a roller derby group. There's a graphic designer who is just learning but is cranking out some awesome projects. There's an acupuncturist who is leaving town today to travel the country for a month before moving on to Spain or Colombia. (And I will miss her amazing sense of style.) There's a guy who is helping out a good, if odd, cause. And there is another guy who is a stonemason in the summer and ski patrol in winter. There are plenty more, but you get the idea. All of them are in their mid 20s to early 40s, and they are all good company.

So, today I am thankful for a knitting community that I didn't have to create myself by forcing my friends to learn to knit. (Although, I have been known to do that, too.)

0 for 2

Jeremy and I suck royally at finding a good movie to see in the theater. Last month was the Invention of Boring. And this month was the reinvention of boring aka Paranormal Activity. Save your money, people! Unless you are a tween, in which case you will probably think it is awesomely scary, when in fact it is not.

However, last night we found a movie that was actually scary and combined 2 elements that I am ashamed to find unsettling.

1. Burlap sack masks (Mildly ashamed-- I think everyone can agree they are creepy.)
2. Caves (Somewhat ashamed-- They're just geography. Or geology. Either way, they probably shouldn't freak me out so much.)

So, this little gem is called The Orphanage and is available on Netflix Instant if you are interested. In addition to the aforementioned creepiness, there's the "mother with a secret", the "impossibly large house with too many rooms to get lost in", the "kid who has imaginary friends who might be ghosts" and the "weird, bespectacled old lady" to keep you on edge. I screamed at least once, maybe twice, where I spent a lot of time yawning during the other films.

Sweater show

Sunday night I finished the raglan sweater for myself:

I really need to wash and block it so the sleeves will stop creeping up my arms, but otherwise I'm happy with it.

And Wednesday after lunch I started this little green number and finished it this morning-- a mere 47 hours later. I think that's a new record for me and sweater making. (Probably because it has short sleeves, but let's not diminish my victory shall we?)

A quick and easy knit on big needles with bulky yarn, it is very cosy and I plan to wear it today.

We can thank Dorian for the photos which made the first sweater look lighter and the second look darker. But you get the gist of it.

The little stinker

Last week when Dorian slept until 10am, he got up and announced to me that he had "slept as long as a skunk." As baffling as this initially seemed to me, I did have to concede that I don't know how long skunks sleep and that 14 hours may be right on the money.

Then today, Dorian asked me to blow on his pizza because it was "as hot as a skunk on fire." At least it didn't have the accompanying smell.

My awesome idea that will never come to fruition

The other night it came to me-- what the world really needs is a knitting band. A band that plays music about knitting, and-- get this!-- has a pattern in each song. So if you listen to the song (which would of course be amazing in its own right and feature cookie monster vocals like this) and follow the knitting instructions, you would end up with a sock or a hat or something.

This is pure genius, I know, which just makes it sadder that it will never happen. I just don't have any musical talent. Having a 94% average on Medium drums on RockBand just isn't enough. Maybe I should pass the idea along to Kelley Deal.

Boo to that!

Friday night, I was almost finished with my sweater. I was so close I could taste it. Then I noticed a mistake and I ripped back 10 rows. I redid the ten rows and then I did 8 more, but something was nagging at me. The yarn, which is somewhat variegated, was doing a sort of stripe thing. But I thought it might not be that bad, which is why I knit 68 of the 92 rows.

And then I looked at it in the cold light of day and it was striped alright. No doubt about it. The only problem being that none of the rest of the sweater is striped. And I didn't set out to have a sweater with one striped sleeve. No, sir. And thus it was frogged. (When you rip it! rip it!) Almost 3 hours of knitting undone in about 30 seconds.

Lucky for me I had another skein and it seems to be working out much better. Maybe I'll even get to wear it tomorrow...

But I'm thinking I maybe need some more stripes in my life and I might need to make one of these, just in a different colorway. You know, because I didn't get enough yarn the other day. It's a miracle I make it out of that yarn store empty handed most weeks.

Fits like a glove... but it's a sock.

After the multiple distractions of samples for the yarn store, I finally finished sock #1 of my mystery socks.

As I have said before, I think I would like the finished product better in a more solid colored yarn, but that isn't what I used and I do love this yarn anyway.

And because I was done with one sock and one sleeve, I obviously deserved to cash in my chips at the store and take my yarn that I get in trade for the samples. More distractions!

Now the question is: More selfish projects, or do I actually make things for others for the holidays?

I'm not dead and the computer isn't broken.

I just haven't felt much like blogging lately. I'm trying to wind down from all the PTA rigmarole and remember what to do when I'm not counting other people's money and having meetings and answering endless emails. (Hint: it involves laundry. And having coffee with Amanda while we both fight falling asleep in our armchairs.)

Not having all that to do certainly doesn't mean that I'm not busy, but it has been a more positive kind of busy-ness. Like the boys' birthdays happening last Friday and today. 7 and 4 is a little crazy to think about, but sounds about right. And Rob's birthday falls in the middle, so it has been a week of birthday celebrations, including a trip to the Montshire Museum on Saturday.

Poor DeeDee has been a little under the weather. Friday he was very sensitive and a little snippy. And Saturday he slept until 10am! (I'm not sure when I will stop thinking that oversleeping is a sure indication of my children's deaths, but if I don't get over it soon I'll have quite a time when they are teenagers.) He was healthy and happy when he did finally wake up and was fine Sunday and Monday. But this morning he didn't want to wake up for school and fell asleep again before dinner and then at 6:30 announced it was time for bed. (He did find time to open his presents first.) He doesn't have a fever or anything, but has complained of some leg pain and a headache, and I wouldn't put it past him to be growing again.

Sebastian has been doing well and we had a good parent teacher conference yesterday, which was much better than the other four where either his teachers didn't know what to do with him, didn't think he belonged in their class, or provoked me into an argument. He even won a little prize at All School Sing for doing some extra math problems, so he was excited by that.

I have been trying to fit in the knitting time and am about 10 rows from finishing the first sleeve on my sweater, just have the toe to complete on the first mystery sock, and finished the knitting for the purse and purchased the lining fabric and buttons and just need to buckle down and get it done. Of course, all that has been interrupted by another design for the store. So I am also in the middle of a lacy cowl done in this yarn.

And Jeremy is up to his usual nonsense, monkeying up the English language. In one day he managed to admonish the children to use a "food towel" (napkin) and to ask why all my "hair bops" (rubber bands) were lying around.

As Dorian would say, "The End. That's it."

What I learned at the swine flu clinic

• I made the right choice in not vaccinating my children. Sebastian would have lost his mind in that situation.
• Holding down a child who is not your own is somehow easier.
• Managing 160 children in grades K-6 who have just received vaccines is not easy, but it is possible. At least I didn't have them all at once.
• 4th-6th grade boys will choose a picture of a seahorse to color over all the other choices available, including monkeys and dinosaurs. Who knew?
• Out of 160 kids, only one had absolutely horrible behavior, but she did write me an apology so I'll forgive her.
• And out of 160 kids, only one needed to call her mother. She was a 5th grader.
• Older kids found this to be a fantastic opportunity for bragging, ie. punching themselves where they got the shot to prove it didn't hurt, and for picking on the ones who cried and/or limped off. (Why a shot in your arm would cause you to limp I do not know.)
• Kids whose parents were there were much more likely to cry, scream, and attempt to kick the Health Dept. workers in the head.
• Third graders think that if you get the shot you will die in 30 years.
• A parent thinks the next shot is administered in the lip.

One clinic down, one to go.

Roller coaster day

Today started with my being very ashamed of myself and feeling like a giant ass and is ending with my being very proud and having kind of a big head. So where are these extreme body parts coming from?

Well, yesterday I found out that one of the girls at Dorian's school has a sibling who was diagnosed with (gasp!) swine flu. So, this morning I was leaving the school after dropping Dorian off and on my way out the door, I ran into the mother of this little girl who has decided that since the little girl is not exhibiting any symptoms that she is going to bring her to school. Because I'm an insensitive moron, I greeted her with a lighthearted "Hey, plague-bringer!" Big surprise, this was not received well and she glared at me and said, "That was NOT okay for you to say!" Of course I apologized immediately and profusely, but she was not having any of it. It was a joke. A bad joke to be sure, but a joke nonetheless. I was not trying to be mean or judgmental. That's apparently how I sounded though, and I felt like shit all day.* I wrote her a very nice apology which she will not receive now until next Tuesday when the kids are back in school, but I have done my best to make amends.

Then, this afternoon I decided to stop by the yarn store to drop off the bowl I made but kept forgetting to bring in for a display. When I got there I asked if the owner had had a chance to review the pattern that I wrote for my striped arm warmers. She asked me to write one up using a new yarn we are carrying, so I finished one arm warmer on Sunday at work and typed up the pattern. And, she told me it was exactly what she wanted, and-- get this!-- someone already bought the yarn and got the pattern. My pattern! Someone is knitting my design.

See-- I'm not all bad.

*I felt like shit until I found out that not only did she bring the kid to school (which is questionable enough under the circumstances) but she also brought a snack that she cooked (pasta) and not something like crackers in a sealed package.

Halloween roundup

We had some really lousy weather for Trick or Treating this year. Let's just say that the smartest costume I saw all night was the girl decked out as a jellyfish in a costume made out of an umbrella. But that didn't deter the children. I even ran out of candy by 7:15.

So, here are the grown-up costumes:
Dr. Acula-- his teeth are horrifying, but his bedside manner is impeccable.Two of Heinz' 57 flavors ready to go to the party featuring the Scary Home Companion Arkestra.

And the one that I didn't get to see in real life but I'm sorry I didn't:

My awesome little brother who was ready for the Day of the Dead a little early.

And I am conspicuously absent from these since I was too lame to dress up this year. I did dress up as Heidi for Sebastian's school parade and party the day before, so if any random pictures surface, I'll pass them along.