UNLOADING

I am tired. Exhausted. Stressed.

I've billed 185 hours this month. (I only work 90% time, so my target is 125.) And there are still 3 days left in the month for me to work.

I have managed to get a couple more repeats of the shawl knit. I'm pretty sure I made a mistake, but I'm actually -- and contrary to my usual nature -- ok with my mistake. No one but me will be able to see it, and I'm really knitting it because knitting helps to keep me sane when the lack of light starts playing the bongos with my mental health.

Like I said before -- I'm going to finish the scarf, block it, and if it looks good, I'm going to give it to my bosses daughter, who is getting married. If it doesn't look perfect, but still nice, I'm sure there are people in my life who will enjoy it.

I'm going to sleep now. And maybe when I wake I will feel less stressed.

BTW -- if you ever have the opportunity to buy a pack of Fox's BisQuits, BUY THEM! MOST YUMMY! My friend, Sinead, sent me a few packs, and I've already finished 2 of the three packs! I saved the chocolate for last!

Myfanwe, Norbert & I are leaving Mitzi with the house sitter and taking a long weekend to visit our god-daughter, Little Bird, in St. Louis this weekend. My wee Little Bird is turning a year old! We haven't seen her in 2 months, and I can't wait to see everything new she's doing! I'm making a batch of cinnamon rolls and freezing them so I can bake them off in St. Louis. Which means somehow I have to find time tomorrow night to form them and freeze them. Oi! Wish me luck!

Virginia Woolf Would Be (Sorta) Proud...Not Really...

...or "Stream of Consciousness Blogging as a Therapeutic Exercise"

OK, I am in an incredibly bad mood and it is all because of a couple of things and I swear to Dog I have tried to snap out of it but I really can't because you see a contractor tried really really hard to snow us and pressure us into accepting his bid on our kitchen last night but he didn't even bring a hard copy of the proposal -- I had to read over his shoulder to see it on his laptop --- and when I said I wasn't prepared (imagine) to give him $50,000 without seeing and being able to go over the proposal he said that if we didn't we would loose the 10% discount I mean what a jerk like who on earth would be dumb enough to do something as stupid as that but the problem is I don't know that the other people we are considering are quite as good technically although they had a great idea about replacing the pegboard in our kitchen design (a la Julia Child) with perforated stainless steal panels - doesn't that sound beautiful - but the real pissiness in the business is that I e-mailed the owner of the firm and he didn't even say I'm sorry but instead told me that the guy we'd been working with had told him that we were crazy liars and not to believe anything we say and the muckfuppet actually wrote me an e-mail which said exactly that I quote "I can with good conscience know that we made the correct decision in refusing your business and allowing another contractor to deal with your antics." now I know there are people out there who are saying "I thought he was trying to lead a more thankful life" and well I am very grateful for a lot of things but I have to say this really twists my nipples -- both of them...do you have any idea how angry and sad and rejected and drekky that makes me it is just like when Deb J. dumped me at breakfast after prom but that turned out well because I heard she married some guy in college and didn't tell her parents she had dropped out but kept taking their tuition money and then I heard something about her house being condemned because she had hundreds of pet snakes but I digress (imagine that) .... what the hell is wrong with these people has something happened in the economy that suddenly people doing home remodels can pass up a $50,000 job willy nilly I hope those people get hemorrhoids I really do and now I'm just going to make a resolution to just feel better.

Deep breath.

On my lunch hour today I bought a copy of Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. Norbert and I are going to dye some KnitPicks yarn using Easter egg dyes,

and I've decided to knit a Hooded Jacket for Little Bird.

(But I still feel bad.)

Three Things for Saturday, March 1, 2008

1. I managed to sit through cabinet design with two different manufacturers without crying or pulling my hair out. I am so glad I will only have to do this once in my lifetime. (Though a part of me says "Wait! I have to have more than 30 good years left. I have so much more I want to do!") Who else but me would suffer a crisis of mortality while remodeling a kitchen? It looks like we chose a tile for the floor. I saw one tile at Home Depot that didn't make me vomit and one that did. I brought home one of each. Myfanwe looked at the non-emetic tile and said, "Oh. I like that one."
2. I made 20 pints of apricot orange marmalade this evening. It could have been 22, but I ran short of jars. I don't know how a person can feel sorry for themselves when they have marmalade in the pantry.
   
3. I have begun a 5HBS -- a Five Hour Baby Sweater -- for Little Bird. I am knitting it in the most striking lime-green cotton. I have given Myfanwe the task of locating a suitable pair of navy pants to go with.
   

It's A Miracle...

I haven't taken more than a handful of good pictures in the last 20 years. A couple from my wedding, a couple from Norbert's bris, and one memorable one from a day we spent in Chinatown a few years back. And then I received this in the mail.


On reflection, I must take good pictures when I am my happiest. I have a migraine as I write this, so I am more emo than I normally am, but if I close my eyes I can literally feel a baby against my chest...and I feel better.

Little Bird's Debut

She's the most beautiful little puffin ever to walk the face of the earth.

Below is a picture of our first meeting...notice the very sharp hat I'd just picked up on Delmar. When this picture was being taken I believe I was saying, "Hello, Little Bird. I'm your Uncle Aidan. You and I are going to be best friends. You are going to tell me all kinds of wild stories and I am going to take you shoe shopping and for spa days and facials and to get you eyebrows threaded. You will be the only girl in grade school with Mac cosmetics or Manolos." She cooed.

A fella could get used to this...
Here I am singing to her. I decided to start with songs of the Irish Resistance, 1800 to 1900...from Bold Robert Emmet to the Bold Fenian Men. And I threw in a few family drinking songs, just for good measure. Proud mom Maxine is on the left and Norbert looks on from the right.


I have to wait a full three weeks before I get to hold her again. Life is not fair.