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Stress

Yeah. Lots of it. Holidays and packing and yeah. I have no idea how I'll get it all done. Ack ack ack. I probably won't have anything terribly interesting to say here for the next week or so. But we'll see.

I want to watch The Simpsons.

Yeah. It's bizarre. I ignored/vaguely hated that show for years and years and years... why? I'm not sure. Partially because it's so popular, I guess. It was one of those things that my classmates "got" and I didn't. I didn't "get" it because I wasn't interested enough to watch it, but still, I felt left out. And then in high school we had to watch an episode in English class when we were studying . . . parody? I think so. And I resented it then because my literary-snobbish 15-year-old self didn't think we should be "wasting" time in class with such silly things.

My roommate watches it occasionally, though, and sometimes I've found myself drawn in against my will. "It's not so bad," I finally admitted. I sort of enjoyed it. Laughed sometimes. I could take it or leave it. But then, yesterday, driving home from work, I heard Matt Groenig talking to Terry Gross on Fresh Air. And it was great. He was great. I loved it.

So now I have to give The Simpsons another try.

You know you knit too much when . . .

. . . there's a really cute guy volunteering at the gift wrap table at work, and every time you walk by you can't help but look at--his sweater. (It was pretty! Lots of cables. I love cables.) Sigh. Is this why I haven't been on a date in over a year?

In other knitting news, the ridiculous amount of Christmas knitting is meandering along, but not as quickly as I'd like. I did get to cut out one project, though--found something else to give that person. Yay!

I GOT IT!!!!

I got my apartment! Yay!!! There was still no word when I got home from work today, so I called the guy I was dealing with, and he said yes, I definitely had it, and he was very sorry to leave me hanging like that. I guess he thought his partner had called me or something. They are currently renovating it (new shower, among other things), and he said they're about 60% done. My lease will start 1/1, but they're letting me move in a few days early.

I cannot even verbalize how exciting this is. I was so worried. And this is my first apartment all my own! (I currently have a roommate, and he moved in first, so it's never been just mine.) I'm so excited. Heehee.

Now I just have to pack.....

Panic

I just really started panicking about my apartment situation for the first time. Before this, I had been stressed and worried, but not panicked. Now I am. A little back story: my current lease is up December 29. I saw a place on Monday that I really liked and yesterday I put a deposit down on it, and they said they were taking it off the market and just waiting to check my references before it was sure. And I didn't hear either way today.

Well, I was talking to my aunt about it a few minutes ago and realized that if this falls through, I almost certainly won't have time to find anything else before the 29th because of Christmas and all. Ack ack ack ack ack. I do have somewhere I can stay for a while if necessary, but I don't want to move twice. Ack. I NEED to get this apartment.

Stress knitting

Soo much stress. Moving and holidays and everything else. And I'm not dealing with it well at all. Usually I work pretty well under pressure. This time I'm just wanting to curl up on the couch and knit. And not even knit any of the Christmas gifts I have to do. Knit other things.

Speaking of which. Knitted gifts. I was going to do precisely one this year. I don't like deadlines with knitting because knitting is supposed to be relaxing. But. I keep thinking of more people I need gifts for. And I have more excess yarn than excess money. So I'm going to try and knit a bunch of hats and slippers and stuff. Wrist warmers? Scarves? We'll see. It'll be fun, right? Right. I'll just stop sleeping.

Sweater Progress

Still knitting away. Here's the promised picture of the sweater back I finished Friday night:

I'm so proud of it! I didn't get to knit it yesterday because I was out all day (computer show and then work), but I started the front today and this is where I am so far. It's going quickly. I like it.

Yesterday I did bring a scarf along and got a bit done while waiting in the car, waiting for food at the restaurant, etc. It's ribbed in a green/blue color of Caron Fascination--just yarn I had around, and I started it when I needed a mindless project for watching The Two Towers on Thanksgiving. Well, I had it in at work on Friday and one of my bosses saw it and fell in love with the colors. So she shall get it for Christmas. And perhaps a matching hat, if I have time. And maybe even wristwarmers, if I have lots of time. (Time? Me? What?)

Oh, and you should scroll down and look at my pretty Christmas tree in the entry before this. Nothing knitted on it yet, but I'm thinking about it. While staying up way too late knitting and reading blogs. Because it's my day off, darn it.

Well.

Big news today. But we all know that. And I'm not sure I really have much to say about it beyond the obvious, other than that the timing seems awfully convenient (close enough to Christmas to make it playable as a happy Christmas thing but not too close) and it caused lots of people (especially presidential candidates and senators) to say stupid things. Especially Joe "If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power" Lieberman. Umm. No.

I did manage to tear myself away from the news long enough to finish (almost) my Christmas shopping and Christmassify my apartment. First, we found a nice wreath for the back of the door:

And then it was off on the great Christmas tree hunt. The first few places we went had either no tabletop trees, or only very small/scraggly/expensive ones. My roommate had stuff to do, so we headed home, and then I braved the beginnings of the snowstorm and set out to find one myself. Luckily, Home Depot had just the thing, and I made it home just as the roads were getting bad. Here it is, in all its geeky-cute glory:

And yes, that is Deep Space 9 on top. Isn't it pretty?

Sweater lust

I have made this confession before, but I might as well make it again as a preface to what follows: although I have been knitting for years, I have never finished a sweater. I've started several, but never gotten terribly far. This has bothered me, but not too much. Until recently.

In the past few days, I've suddenly come to really really need to knit sweaters. Lots of them. Different types. I'm not really sure why this is. The new Knitty, my recent compulsive knitting, my current addiction to Glampyre Knits--I'm sure these are all involved. I've been reading Stefanie's archives, and when I came across this, it just . . . clicked. I get it now! I get sweaters! Finally! Yay! And I really want to try a sweater using that recipe, but I want to make it all fun and stripey and I don't have the yarn right now. So I did the next best thing . . .

I found my most recent sweater attempt and decided to resurrect it. It's the "Basic Sweater" from the first Knit It. It's a beautiful dark pink, and I was almost done with the back. I'd thought there was some reason I'd put it aside, but I couldn't find anything, so I (remarkably easily) figured out where I was and started it up again. And then, of course, I decided that I had to stay up until the back was done, even though I only got three hours of sleep last night and am very very tired.

But I persevered, and now I have a sweater back! Too tired to try to get a picture of it up tonight, but I will tomorrow. I promise. And now I can't wait to cast on for the sweater front! Maybe tomorrow will be one of those mornings when I wake up and get out of bed right away because I want to knit. I like those mornings. It would be good to get it started before I go off to be geeky for the day--jaQ and I are going to a computer show (and IHOP for breakfast). I'm in search of a number pad for my laptop. It should be exciting.

And we do want to get an early start with that, since I have to be back here to work at three, so I think it is time for bed. Good night!

Almost an FO...

Well, the knitting on it is done, at least:

In case you can't tell (and there's no reason you should be able to), it's going to be a cushion, intended for sitting on outside, reducing grass stains and such. It's amazing how much motivation for finishing something appears when I decide I need the needles for something else. This project had been limping along since the spring, I think. It was a skein of Red Heart I've had around for years. I don't use Red Heart much these days, but I really liked the colors, and it will be nice and sturdy for outside use.

And this is the reason behind my sudden need for my 29" size 8 circs to be free. Yesterday I came across a bag of Patons Ballybrae that I realized wanted to be a loose jacketish thing. And, of course, Knitty was my first thought of where to find a pattern. Believe it or not, I think this will be the first Knitty project I've actually started, even though there are several in each issue that I want to start. I'm going to let myself start it once I'm done with my current freelance editing assignment. Yes, I bribe myself unashamedly.

Isn't she cute?

This is Etta the Pointsettia. Our eyes met across the carts in the grocery store entrance yesterday, and she agreed to come home with me to try to make my apartment more Christmassy. We're very happy to have her. Miss Tesseract has not yet tried to eat her, so all is good thus far.

Speaking of Miss Tesseract, there's nothing like cuddling up on the couch with the kitten after a long day:

Click to see us bigger. Aren't we cute? I'm just all full of cuteness tonight.

They're such babies.

I'm sure you've heard by now that countries that didn't back the U.S. invasion of Iraq aren't being allowed to bid for reconstruction contracts. How bizarre. How stupid. I don't get it. It's just . . . immature. "You didn't play with me at recess so you can't come to my birthday party." Or something.

And what's almost as upsetting is the CNN poll on the issue, found at the link above. 52% of responders seem to think that this decision is just fine. So you should go vote. (Yeah, even if you disagree with me.)

For all of us with secret second lives...

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