rain on tulips

…but not horrible!

I spent 4½ hours doing my hair yesterday — 1 hour bleaching out the purple and the roots, 3½ hours sitting with cotton candy pink dye on the bleached sections, and the last half hour of the 3½ with black dye on everything else — and when it was all rinsed at the end, only the newly bleached roots took any of the pink, and it definitely is not cotton candy.

On the other hand, the white blonde with pink roots surrounded by black isn’t bad!

On the other hand, had I known the pink wouldn’t take, I could have spared myself that 3½ hours in the hair-do department!

Oh, well!

(I finally caved last night and bleached and dyed the bangs on DS’s hair — green. Its a rather sickly green, as well. Needless to say, he loves it!)

This is what we woke up to this morning. I had actually gotten out of bed and gotten the boys up before AE came in to tell me that there was snow on the ground. Five minutes in front of the early morning news confirmed that all classes were cancelled for the day, including mine tonight.

So. I ran to the grocery store and the library, then Fuul went to work, and AE has her workgroup over to work on their big project from school.

If things settle down shortly, I may pull out more knitting for a while.

Fuul and I had a lovely evening out last night — thanks, Mom! — dinner at Olive Garden, some live music at a little hippie coffee shop near here, some new yarn… while DA babysat and DS and JS slept over at friends’ houses…

Then CC was up a bunch, screaming during the night, inconsolable, not sleeping… right up until he puked on the carpet at 5:30. So much for decent sleep.

Then, Fuul woke up with a horrible, painful cold and sore throat, and I woke up with a horrible, painful cold and sinus headache, neither of which seem soothed at all by cold meds or Tylenol. Boohoo.

Been sitting on the couch most of the day, hoping the kids will feed themselves (or have DA do it!), wishing the house was clean. Fuul got up this afternoon and supervised the cleaning, so its finally done.

No more puking so far (knock wood), lots of stockinette knitting done (did some drop-stitches, as well, that I really really like the look of!), still with the headache, Fuul still sounds awful…

Maybe we’ll stay home from church tomorrow and recuperate.

I decided to go ahead and frog the ribbed sweater that I started last year, and the false-start raglan from the same yarn. I liked what I had, but with a little weight gain, and unable to figure out how to finish off the top/shoulder/neckline to my satisfaction, I figured I could use the yarn for something else that I will love, and quit feeling guilty for the stuff just sitting there on the shelf!
In the end, I wound up with 7 full balls, plus two mini-balls of yarn. Or are they cakes? I don’t know. But, the ball-winder that Mom gave me for Christmas was a huge help! (And wow, how fast it goes frogging something straight onto a winder!)
I also went ahead and frogged the ‘Hawk Socks. It was a lot of work to give up, but Awesome Mom was right, I need to love them when I’m done. So, they went. I’ve been browsing lots of patterns on Ravelry, and right now I’m torn between doing something in a plain vanilla stockinette pattern, or I’m toying with the idea of doing a rainbow short row pattern… that would do away with the pooling/striping that can sometimes happen with the yarn. Either way, I intend to have my ‘Hawk Socks back really soon! And better than ever!

So, I love the ‘Hawk socks. I’ve got two on two circular needles. I’m enjoying knitting them. I’m enjoying the progress I’m making — turned the heels and finished the gusset decreases and started work on the foot –

–and discovered that I really like the look of the Hometeam Football yarn a lot better in stockinette than in rib… the colors just ‘move’ better.

The socks are hibernating while I debate finishing them, because I’m so close, or frogging* them, and re-doing them as stockinette basic socks.

Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, I’ve cast on for a leaf-lace scarf with the lace yarn and beads I bought over the summer, and for a fire hat for JS that is all intarsia and too many yarn bobbins hanging down the back to make it a very portable knit. And the blanket for A&E’s baby. Gotta keep busy, huh?

*Frogging is knitter-speak for ripping out large areas of knit — ribbit, ribbit — ‘rippit, rippit’.
So, yeah.

The CD drive on the main computer isn’t working.

DA’s MP3 player has been randomly shutting off. We reformatted it this afternoon. It won’t turn on at all when not plugged in to the computer. Next?

The cord on my new (to me) laptop shorted/sparked/smoked this afternoon when I plugged it in. *ACK!* Luckily, I was able to find a new one at Staples, that is made to fit a variety of HP computers; it came with an adapter that fit my system, and I’m back up and running, no worse for the wear — knock on wood!

Also picked up and installed TurboTax; it found last year’s returns that I had copied from my old laptop and got all the transferrable information moved correctly! Now we just wait on the W-2s to show up, and we’re good to go!

I wish it were more of a day off, but I can’t say I particularly enjoyed this one. Just felt ‘off’ all day, irritated at everything, and over-tired, even though I’d slept reasonably well last night. Napped for most of three hours this afternoon, and been hiding out in the bedroom all evening, watching bad tv.

Hoping that the kids will get to bed, and I can ‘recover’ by tomorrow. Because its a three-day-weekend, and they will all be home for an extra day, and I need to be up for it.

The power went out today just after lunchtime, for about two hours. Luckily, CC had already gone down for his nap, and the battery pack for the portable DVD player was charged, so EK could watch Spongebob for a while. I was surprised how fast the house got cold… I was just on the verge of calling Fuul to tell him to come get us and take us somewhere warm when the power came back. Oh, how I don’t want to repeat last January’s multi-day no power adventure!

Snow last night. Icy roads this morning. Schools on two hour delay. Heading back to bed!

I actually finished the essay/assignment for my writing class this week, though it took a lot longer than I had hoped. And I’m not entirely satisfied with it. But, its done, in the time allotted, and I probably hit the five hour a week goal of writing.

Maybe this week (or two weeks, as there is not class next Monday) will produce something better, something I like more, something more ‘fiction’ than the essay I wound up with this week.

I have to head out early this afternoon, though, because its snowing, and I don’t want to deal with bad rush hour traffic and snow too. (Its starting to stick to the grass….)

I cast on a new baby afghan today for a&e’s baby, who is due (I think) in March. Its such a quick, easy pattern I’m using (LionBrand Diagonal Pattern Baby Blanket), and produces a nice, cuddly, washable blanket. Plus, its a no-brainer for knitting time!

(If only the yarn had more give to it… sometimes working with the acrylic is awful, though I love the end result!)

‘Hawks lost to Greenbay this afternoon. So sad. They started off so strong, and the weather just didn’t help.

Here’s to next year! (Still going to finish up the ‘Hawk Socks… working down the foot now).

wah.

Off to find some meds, and see if dinner won’t help out. Vision is going quick, and patience is right behind.

Yeah, ok, total blather.

That’s how I feel, though, because I’m trying to do some simple CD ripping and file transfers, and its just not working out. Windows Media Player 11 either works wonderfully — for one CD — or freezes up at startup, making the rest of my computer slow. I fixed one piece by finding the .dll’s to restart, but it only worked once.

I really ought to be writing instead. Or knitting. Funny the things I find that need to be done when I really should be doing other stuff! LOL