Unwarranted Confidence, or Don't Forget to Review Directions

I've been working on a "simple, quick knit" sweater since last February. Sigh. It's mostly a matter of not making time for it. But really, it seems to take experienced knitters a couple of weeks and I've dragged it on for nearly a year. I'm in the final stages now. Finished up the sleeves, just need to sew up some seams, finish the neckline, and block it. Easy, no? You'd think so, but I'm having comic difficulty with the final easy steps. Must be a lack of practice - since I so rarely finish something knitted, I just don't remember what all goes into it.

With that said, I relate to you last night's adventures in shoulder seaming...
First, get kid's jammies on, escape to living room to work on sweater. Locate embroidery needle for stitching up the seam. Match up shoulders, start sewing. Oops, he's done reading books with Daddy, time to help kiddo settle down. Maybe he'll look at a book on his own. Yeah, try that.

Back to the living room. Finish up one seam, flip it over to see how it looks. Yikes. Crappy. What did I do wrong? I was carefully stitching down below the cast off row, but it appears that I didn't have the cast off facing flat up, so a few of the edges were showing on the outside. Bad, bad, bad. Unpick, unpick, oops, need to deal with not-sleeping kid...

1/2 hour later. Kid's asleep. Okay, still need to unpick and try again. I'll put in the movie I was watching last night to finish it up too. Yeah, that won't be distracting, what with the subtitles and all. Unpick, unpick. Okay, ready to try again. Flattening out the edges nicely, stitch stitch stitch. Well, that's looking better. Yeah, much better. WAIT! Why did I just sew the two front shoulders to each other??????? Grr. Unpick, unpick, unpick.

Okay, third time's the charm. Try again. Oh - I should get those little clippy things I used once to hold it together. Matched FRONT shoulder seams to BACK shoulder seams? Check. Clipped into place? Check. Edges nicely lined up? Check. Stitch, stitch, stitch. Hey, that looks better. Shows a little bit, but not badly. Let's make it good and tight then. I think I'll weave in the ends really snug, then call it a night (and night it is: 11:30).

Next day, hmm, I need to pick up stitches to do the neck. I remember reading some technique for that, where was that? Do an online search for picking up stitches, notice articles on finishing techniques, and then recall - D'oh! I did a plain 'ol sewing stitch (in & out, every stitch) and I should have done a backstitch or mattress stitch to get it all flat & even. Ugh!

So, what's your vote? Live with it, or unpick YET AGAIN (at least it's only 6 inches total) and do it right. Keep in mind that with this sweater, I've started the body twice (frogged the first attempt at 3 inches when I realized it would be enormous) and one sleeve once (had thought it would be too loose at the wrist, so I narrowed it, then realized it looked terrible that way).

Sigh, is it any wonder this has taken nearly a year?

Christmas card laziness

I usually (like 10 years straight, I think) make my Christmas cards. Hand-stamped, paper cut, not super fancy like Jody's cards, but handmade. This year I haven't been feeling it though. Just no energy to put into thinking up another idea (one that doesn't involve snowflakes, because that seems to be my default) and being creative with paper. All that annoying cutting, and the gluing, and no way am I doing glitter or embossing this year! So I've been putting it off. Colin was even suggesting (gasp!) buying cards! Whoa! Am I really that lazy this year? Have I lost all drive to create?

Luckily, this morning as I was about to pass PaperZone on the way between school & work, I remembered that they are open at 9:00 AM and so I dropped in. The guy behind the counter helpfully pointed me to an examples book that had customer-submitted holiday card ideas and I found one that appeals. So, yeah, I am still feeling lazy (no glitter, no embossing, and using cards already cut to size with not window cutouts to make), and I'm taking a shortcut by stealing someone else's idea (although it's one they want to share, and I'm also doing my own take on it), but at least the homemade tradition lives on! Let the card-making begin!

Veggie kid?

Max tells us that he doesn't want to eat "dead animals" anymore and wants to be a vegetarian. He's pretty earnest about it (although tonight when the veggie eggrolls were yucky and he knew that the chicken ones he had last week were yummy, he became practical rather than principled, and chowed the chicken ones). So, um, now what? I was always thinking "well, at least he's getting enough protein, even if he doesn't eat his veggies", but now what? He's snubbing all dinner ideas beyond ramen & spaghetti - hardly balanced & complete meals. He's not a tofu fan... Aside from his already-favorite and already-veggie corn dogs from MorningStar farms, what do I feed this kid beyond PB&J?

Any ideas?
Think it'll last?

Early November highlights

I seem to be on a semi-monthly schedule with these. Ah well, highlights of late...

• Forgot to call Lisa on her birthday (lowlight, bad sis). Remembered the day after! Always good to chat.
• Parent association meeting last week, plus got to participate or view videos of interviews with possible new heads of school for next year. Really fun to have some say in that process.
• A happier election day than I've had in years. Yay! Yes, we did!
• Bookclub last weekend. Fun to see the gang. Embarrassed that not only did we not finish the book (pretty much a first), we didn't even get a copy to start on. Sigh. Bad bookclubbers! Dinner (fajitas) was fun though. Maybe it's really a supper club, not a bookclub :-).
• Got my nightguard fixed at the dentists' office. Okay, it sounds REALLY lame, but hey, it's just nice to grind away all night again without waking up with sort teeth.
• Dessert out with my VTs. They're nice gals, not pushy, and we chatted and chatted about the kidlets and schools.
• Last night's 10-year anniversary party (10 years at MSFT) at EMP with 2000 of my closest friends (not, and by the way, a pile o' Microsofties all going from Redmond to someplace at the same time makes for lousy traffic). Food was pretty yummy, and it was fun exploring the "Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum". Plus, the Presidents of the United States of America played, which was fun. Sorta lost on me as I really only know "Peaches" but it was fun just thinking that it'd make Jason jealous (hi Jason). Colin and I liked the SciFi museum and thought that Max would LOOOOOOVE it given the amazing assortment of phasers, rockets, spaceships, and robots they have on display. Max & Abbey went today :-). Oh, and Mom, I was wrong, no classical at EMP, just rock & roll Seattle-based music scene. Noelle & Patrick were kind enough to babysit, and Max had a swell time with them. Thanks guys!
• Looking forward to DOCS this weekend. Maybe I'll finally finish a sleeve!

Halloween

A little pictorial tour of our Halloween weekend.

Wednesday: Boy, carving pumpkins is hard work!

Friday: Trick or Treat at Mom's work - with Abbey in the lobby.

Ready for real trick or treating in the neighborhood. He decided on Wednesday that instead of being a police man, he really needed to be an Airplane Director. So, I whipped up a safety vest (complete with reflector tape) on Thursday, and Colin made red cones for some blue flashlights and dug out some cordless headphones for ear protection. Pretty cute, if we do say so ourselves, and very original. Not as original as the blueberry, but hey - it was recognizable this year - the flashlights were the real key to the costume.

Neighbor Paul's huge pumpkin - he grew it himself! And he gave Max a cool pumpkin too (see above).

All the kids assembled for neighborhood trick or treating. We have a Chinese Princess, the Airplane Directory, R2D2, Luke in a flight suit, and Spiderman!

Friday night: enjoying the haul.

Saturday: Halloween Party with some pals (not all pictured): in addition to R2D2 and Luke (out of uniform), we have the mushroom, the Hulk, and a Fairy.

Sunday: Jammies all day, and playing with his favorite pumpkin named "Enterprise". Whew, that was a busy Halloween!

Not much, you? Recent highlights

Weekend - hung out at home, coughing, sneezing, while Max played and watched too much TV. Colin did tons o' work in the yard. Felt guilty, but not enough to help :-).

Last week:

• Parent night at school, and Max actually enjoyed himself at the Extended Day babysitting at school, which is great, and unexpected given how apprehensive he was. Sure helps to have a kid there he knows from class.
• Sucked up my courage and made calls for Obama Thursday night for an hour. Verdict - hate it, just as expected :-). They seem to be low on envelopes that need stuffing and only want dialing help. Bother.

Preceding couple of weeks:

• DOCS - worked on the sleeve for my Gathered Pullover. Nearly done with one! Except that I don't like how it's turning out and probably should rip it and start again. Sigh. So it's been sitting, with absolutely no progress, since then. Mental block! It's only two sleeves, how long could it take? Guess we'll find out.
• Took Friday the 3rd off and hung out with ETHAN (and Jason and Chris and Fiona, and their assorted rellies in town). Emphasis is Max's. He was all about the cousin, so happy to have time with him. Zoo was unpopular with Max (raining, tired), but playing at home was great, as was Museum of Flight. Attempted a sleepover with Max & Ethan, but no sleep achieved until Jason & Chris & Fiona came back from their dinner out with friends. Max & Ethan had fun staying up looking at books though.
• Inspired by Just Bento, made chicken mini-burgers, basically using our gyoza filling recipe, and ate them on dinner rolls for buns. I thought they were way fun. Ethan & Max liked 'em well enough. Speaking of liking/not liking food, this Bento blog post (see the bottom when her kid tries it) made me laugh out loud. Been there, seen that (not with Baked Tofu though). Also trotted out my bento stuff for zoo & Museum of Flight snacks. Kids liked 'em. Yay.
• Saturday, the 4th was the Family Heritage Festival at school. Since I'm on the parent association, I got to hang out & greet folks as they came in. Fun to see everyone and what they brought for the potluck. Max wanted to help with nametags (writing people's names), but settled for making a plane/spaceship out of leftover nametag backs & sticky bits.

Phew...That's over...

Last week and this, I prepped for a presentation for work. There was a conference this week, with probably about 100 people per session, and I (gasp) volunteered to take over a session that was planned, but unmanned. Saw the room on Monday, it looked to hold about 140 people, and they were all there!

So today was the day! We had one session before lunch, where we did focus groups on different designs, and we got about 80 customers for that, which was great. Unfortunately, they didn't all come back after lunch for my stand-up and talk session, and neither did anyone else. Out of about 40 people in attendance, only about a dozen were actual customers, the rest were other 'softies. Sigh. It's hard to vet plans with customers when they aren't there. Guess my joke to colleagues about how we should encourage people to check out the excellent shopping across the street wasn't a joke after all! That or they were tired of sessions on their last day.

I did fine, my presentation went well, but when you plan to talk for about 30 minutes of your hour-long slot keeping half of the time free for discussion along the way, you don't expect to be done at 36 minutes. But that's what happens with only a dozen participants. Better luck next time? Kind of a let down.

It did feel good to once again demonstrate that I can conquer my public-speaking anxiety. Lots o' prep, plus talking about something you really DO know about, sure helps :-). I mentioned to Max last night at bedtime that my presentation was tomorrow. He said "why are you so scared?". I was hoping that I was showing him that even though I was nervous about doing something difficult, I was preparing and pushing through the fear and accomplishing something. Might be a little too subtle for 5. But maybe it'll be a teaching example later. Who knows.

So that's me, and my week. Tomorrow, my biggest thing is a group lunch at work and date night. Yay - fun stuff!

Oh, and I really liked my outfit. It's a keeper. Thanks for helping me shop, Mom! Isn't it funny how clothes can boost your confidence?