FO is knitting "geek speak" for finished object

And now that you are all up to speed on that, I want to show you this:

Yes, yes. It's awesome. Also, it only took me about 11 months to finish. WIN!

I used organic cotton handspun yarn from the fabulous Tara over at The Blonde Chicken (she's @blondechicken on twitter) and I got it from her so long ago that I don't remember what the colorway is called anymore. Which is sad, because it's super cute. I bought myself a membership to her Yarn Adventure Club as my Armini is going to China without me present (aka - the grief knitting).

The reason that this took me forever is that I have this crazy ability to unravel handspun yarn pretty much by looking at the wrong way. So I would be knitting along, happy as a clam, and then the yarn would just fall apart in my hands. Needless to say, I got tired of it pretty quickly and went on to knit other things. But last week I was digging around for something to knit on and found this and thought I would give it another go. And I finished it!

It's huge though. Like, way too big. And I'm terrified to wash it because I love it and I don't want it to do anything crazy, like burst into flames, if I try to block it. So I'm thinking that I'm just going to leave it like it is. I'm already referring to it lovingly as my Thinking Cap. Why is that do you ask?

Because it's big enough for all my dreams to fit inside.

My Friday ...

I think this pretty much sums it all up for you guys.

This past week the 4 boys that I take care of after school (who also live right next door - it's the best commute EVER) didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. Plus it was wet and rainy which meant that they couldn't go outside and run off the extra energy they had on Thursday, which ended up coming out as a COMPLETE MELTDOWN at about 2:45.

So their parents took pity on me, gave me some cash and told me to take the boys to Chuck E Cheeses in the hopes that I could have one day when I didn't go strait home and drink a six-pack of beer (you may think I'm joking, but I'm really not).

It was great. They played and did a fantastic job of listening and helping to take care of the youngest brother and I got to sit and work on my sock (it's the dark blue thing in the picture up there). I also spent some more time considering what to do now that I didn't get into my Child Life program and I think I might have it figured out. Sort of. It's a start anyway.

All and all, I think things are starting to look up around here.

Take your Mom to Work Day

Today I took my mom with me to work. Yes, you read that right.

It worked out because I nanny and my mom has this thing about snuggling little babies and I really like to sit and let her do all the work hang out with my mom and little babies at the same time. The schedule for the day looked something like this:

• Snuggle time.
• Sitting and rocking on the porch swing.
• Make the baby smile, practice our coo-ing and giggling.
• Snuggle time.
• Watch Jurassic Park and snuggle.
• Nap for 45 minutes.
• Snuggle time.
• SuperCareo knitting time/SuperMama uses some mom-type magic to make the screaming baby fall back asleep.
• Shopping time (even though Mom didn't get me anything ... what a rip-off).

All in all, a good day indeed. I particularly liked the part when the screaming baby was being dealt with my someone other than myself. Plus I got some knitting done on my sweater which only has the one sleeve left until I seam it all together and then knit the collar.

Yes, I knit. I'll own it. Even if Hilda insists that I also need to acquire 20 cats and grow some gray hairs to go with it. Knitting isn't lame people. Just go click that link and then tell me that I'm knitting things that you would hide in your closet. I AM NOT A GRANDMA.

Ahem. Sorry about that. I just needed to get that out there.

Computers Suck - Watch out for Antivirus XP Pro

I have some bad news people. My laptop has come down with a virus ... which means that I will not be posting much this week or next week until my computer gets fixed.

It has been infected by a program calling itself Antivirus XP Pro (although it clearly is NOT an antivirus program) - it has taken over my desktop and thinks that it is totally awesome to open random internet windows with the website advertising the download.

Because I am TOTALLY going to download an antivirus program that infected my computer with a virus. That sounds like a completely awesome plan that can, in no way, backfire on me. Right?

Now I just have to find someone to fix it for me for free ... because I am still making not much money at my job, and I just don't want to spend a ton of money for someone to take the freaking thing off my machine. I tried to do it myself, and I did a good job, I know I deleted a bunch of the files that it needs to run because I got it to stop displaying the flashing "Warning Your Computer is Infected" sign on my desktop, and I even got it so that my antivirus would run a scan, where it would find the infected files, but then the virus would step in and freeze the program. I also now know how to unlock my task manger manually when the virus tries to stop me from ending all of its processes (take THAT antivirus xp pro!).

However, this must be the newest generation of the thing because none of the spyware websites I looked at had a listing that matched. BOO. Hence, I cannot get it off my machine on my own. BOO.

In other news, I finished my first ever knitting project! I will post pictures when my computer is healed.

Also, the apartment is still coming together. Boyfriend told me that I had to have everything cleaned up and put away by Tuesday night or else everything will be going into the storage unit. Which may not sound like a threat that I should worry about, but seeing as how I'm not sure where our storage unit IS (other than in the basement, I know that much), it presents a problem.

On a related note, two of my throw pillows have found homes in places other than my bedroom floor. However, the rest remain in a giant pillow mountain which has since been conquered by two tiny dogs in their quest to find the most comfortable place to sleep (other than my pillow, of course).

It's Offical

Slowly but surely, and not all together against my will, I am becoming totally, completely, head over heels, can't stop thinking and dreaming about it, obsessed with knitting. Yup, you heard it right. OBSESSED.

Right now I am in the process of knitting two scarfs. One is going to be three tones (but only because my mom didn't have enough of the beige yarn I started with in her stash), one pretty beige, then navy blue and then another shade of beige. It's big and it's going to be super warm and snuggley. And it has a wonderful little hole in it that my mother and I are mystified by. Somehow I managed to drop a stitch and pick it back up on the next row. AMAZING.

The second scarf I cast on all by myself and is bright red. It's skinny and it's going to be a scarf that you can wear while your at work or out on the town or what have you. Warm and decorative, can you ask for more? Right now it is quite small, only a few inches, but when I finish it, I'm sure that it will be FABULOUS.

Once I get these scarfs done, I am going to go out into the world and start building my stash. Ooooohhhhh yyyyyeeeaaaa. And then I am going to knit this 4th grade hat, a truly awesome handknit hat that you can find on the Twist Collective's website (which has soo many things that I am just itching to learn how to make).

Hickey: Day 3

Well everyone - just thought you might like a little update on the hickey situation. It has faded somewhat, but the teeny bit that was really dark is still really dark. I currently have so much foundation on my neck that it looks like I have a reverse hickey. The skin over the hickey is now more flesh colored than the rest of my neck.

SIGH.

But, on the upside, I decided that tonight I am going to knit a scarf. Specifically a hickey scarf. So that I can wear it tomorrow during work so that I won't have to wonder if anyone is staring at my neck. Although, no one has said anything about it so it could be that I'm in the clear. Unless my co-workers are reading my blog. In which case they probably have secret meetings in the conference room where they make fun of me and laugh. But who am I kidding? I am the only person who reads this (Yes that's right, my mom doesn't even read my blog) so I don't think I have much to worry about.

I would post a pattern for scarf knitting but since my mom's an avid knitter, I happen to know first hand that, unless you are totally clueless about what you're doing, you do not need a pattern to knit a scarf. Pretty much they are the easiest thing to knit ever. When I get done with it I'll post pictures. Promise.