Knitpickity

all messed up

OK messed up my whole blog

eek and too tired to debug

Tonight I quickly fixed

Yeah

Too Tired to Quit

I have a great job as a Systems Architect for UNIX Platforms

The paycheck makes for a very comfortable lifestyle for my kids

But sometimes it can be very demanding and I have long work hours

and then there is this weekend

I have worked 46 hours since 6 pm Friday night - Yup out of 51 hours I have worked 46.  I have slept 3 hours.

It involves a major system microcode upgrade, a catastrophic Symmetrix failure and then an upgrade on the world's frailest application, Enterprise Records Management

I think I would quit if I wasn't too dang tired to type up the letter.  We are currently waiting on tech support from China.

I get by with a little help from my kids . . .

I have been working lots lately.  This has been my normal schedule

5am get up and do housework, sign school papers etc for 45 minutes to an hour

shower and get kids and myself ready and leave around 7-7:15

Work until 5pm, get kids, make dinner, eat as a family and hang out together (take walks, play a game, watch TV etc) until kids are both in bed around 9pm - do dishes, do some laundry, login to work and work until midnight

Get ready and go to bed and sleep for four hours, rinse and repeat

Needless to say I am getting a bit numb.  But we are moving the data center and I have more to do than ever before at work.

Well tonight I decided I was NOT going to do any work from home. Traffic was fairly light and we got home a bit early (no ballet tonight) ate dinner and then Catherine offered to help me with some chores.  We did the kitchen together (Patrick even swept) and laundry and then they picked out their clothes for this weekend and I ironed them.  So here it is 9:30 and I am sitting here with a glass of lemonade unwinding.  The laundry left is about 2 loads, and none of it needed before Monday morning, the kitchen and breakfast rooms are clean, the kids are packed for the weekend - I can go to bed early and even sleep until almost 6am tomorrow.  There is honestly a ton of housework that could be done, but nothing that is urgent and I will get it done this weekend.

It is amazing how much help the kids provide.  Sometimes it is just having the company while I work that makes it go faster.  I do not want to do this too often, I don't want my kids life to be constantly about work and chores but it is nice to see them developing that sense of family.   We have been together playing lots lately, so tonight they helped willingly.

Well I am tired and rambling, albeit happy.  Here's to very good dreams tonight!

Words that I believe

COMMITMENT:

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.

It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions

and the actions which speak louder than words.

It is making the time when there is none.

Coming through time after time.

Commitment is the stuff character is made of.

It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

Hollywood Squares and Match Game

OK I loved both of those shows for the great witty one-liners . . .

Subject: Remember Hollywood Squares?

Just remembering these characters is funny....

Original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this may bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when "Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous and clever, not scripted and (often) dull, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q. Do female frogs croak?

A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?

A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.

A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?

A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me a wake

Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?

A. Rose Marie: No; wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?

A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say "I Love You"?

A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?

A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?

A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?

A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries.  Are you going to get any during the first year?

A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?

A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps.  One is politics, what is the other?

A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?

A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?

A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?

A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?

A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?

A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?

A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?

A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?

A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?

A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?

A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?

A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh.

Evolution of a blog

Originally when I started this Blog it really was about knitting - I posted progress and projects.

Then it turned into a place that I could express my journey through separation and divorce and my battle with depression.  There are some really maudlin posts and some really stupid ones.  And then there are the posts that I deleted but kept me from going over the edge.

Well I am over all that.  Glory Hallelujah, I have finally gone on with my life and the roller coaster ride is over.  The engineers at Disney know what they are doing and the ride ends at a different place than where you get on. 

I like where I have arrived at.  I am not exactly sure what is next.  Do I stroll around, people watch, catch a show, grab a snack or am I willing to get on another ride?  There is no hurry to decide.  This ticket is good for the rest of my life.

I do not have lots of time for crafts and projects anymore.  So my writing will include those when I can.  I am still house proud.  My home is currently the realization of a dream and I am so happy.  I will post pictures of that and my progress of making a yard into a garden.  There will always be updates on the kids.  But now I will write because I want to, not because I need to.

Thanks for reading during the aftermath of the breakup.  It has been a couple of years that were not easy.  I have learned so much though.  If you listened to the sermon from Rocky Anthony that I have on my site, then you know that I agree that we should not just get through the bad times but embrace them to grow.  The funny thing is now that life is good again, how do I continue to challenge myself to grow?

I will write about that too :)

Life Lessons for Tweens Cool vs Popular

Do you ever surf on myspace.com and see how kids act and speak today?  It is very different than what I grew up with! However, I believe in having kids that fit in to today's world who have common sense and morals to balance out some of the more interesting influences out there.  I really hope lots of what the kids are talking about is smack and braggadocio - I am guessing that it is or there are some really blind and terrible parents out there!

Tonight we spent dinner talking about the difference between being cool and being popular.  My kids do not see a difference and I am thinking it will be a few more years before they get where there are the popular kids and then there are the cool kids and while the circles overlap, they have their boundaries.

I explained that cool kids don't follow the trends, they set them.  They do not set them to be popular or cool, they are just so comfortable in their own likes and dislikes that they do not worry about what other people will think.

Cool kids do not make fun of the dorks, they do not need to make fun of other people to make themselves appear better.  It is not that the cool kids like the dorks, but if they don't, they just ignore them.

Cool kids are not dorks.  They can be dorky sometimes but they are never dorks.  They have good social skills and can fit in well with other people.  But fitting in is not the end all be all of their existence.

Cool kids do not blow their own horns.  Their actions speak louder than words and they are natural leaders.  Other kids emulate them (good and bad - being cool does not make you moral or nice) and so the cool kids in their own way have to be careful of their choices.

So I want to have good kids.  I want them to be moral and responsible.  And I want them to be cool, the popularity is up to them - it does not matter to me.  I just want them to have a sense of who they are and what they want and where they are going.

Not asking for much, am I?

And no they did not *get* this conversation.  They are still focused on being popular and are willing to follow.  That is definitely NOT what I want as a parent.

House Stuff

Spent this weekend getting the house back together from the painting and getting some decorative type items and cleaning. 

Here is how my living room is coming along - I like my furniture much better in this room now that the walls are now white

Found a really unique table that I loved at a local antique store - it is leather topped with carved legs and a big lion - put it in the living room so that I could move the flip top game table back in the entry way . . .

Arranged fresh flowers for the entry way table - I do not have anything blooming in my yard yet (although a Star Jasmine did jump into my cart today at Costco)

Found a darling wicker coffee table for my bedroom (wasn't sure if it was for the bedroom or porch but I love it in my bedroom)

We found this chair for Catherine's room months ago at a different antique store - went back Saturday and it was still there - think I will do her futon and duvet in red toile to help set off the pink walls and blend in with the chair

Patrick got something cool for his room too - a genuine WWII trunk - love how it looks with the Red Clay walls

So little by little the house is beginning to look like ours

linneth.com is going to move to knitpickity.com

During our marriage service, the minister looked over and said "Do you Linneth . . ."

Then he stopped and laughed and said he had joined us already.

I loved it and picked it for joint stuff for us.  But Kenneth never used Linneth and there is no Linda and Kenneth any more so it makes sense to not use it anymore.

Seems like bad juju to keep it and it is getting ready to expire.  I cannot move linneth.typepad.com until next year but this is a start

Please bookmark www.knitpickity.com - it will be the new active name - sorry to mess up any bookmarks

Nothing very newsworthy

All the news that is fit to print.

What if there is no news at all? We are very dull here at our house.  Nothing bad, nothing very exciting.  I am working too much, the kids are doing well, the kitty cats and fish are fine.

The painter is finishing up the latest round of painting  - I think I will take a break before we get the rest done.

I have not done much crafty lately - we are moving the data center next month and am working some long and odd hours to prepare.  This weekend I plan on cleaning and organizing the house to make it liveable again.

Ken and I have broken off pretty much all contact - not the recommended method for coparenting but it is what we are doing.

So all is quiet here. 

Happy Easter

Patrick, Catherine and I hope that your Easter was wonderful and full of family and blessings.

Catherine's New Sassy Do

Catherine got her first real haircut today - starting when she was little, we only got trims to keep it in shape.  She has always declared that she would NEVER cut her hair.  Until last week, when she announced she wanted it cut.

What?!  I mean I had always teased her about it but I never thought she would take me up on it.

So we waited almost a week and then today was the big day.

She got about 8" cut off the length and some long sassy layers cut in.  When she saw the finished product she grinned from ear to ear and said "Bubbly Bubbly Bubbly Bubbly"

She loves it.  It is not princess hair - it is fun and spunky and feminine and cute and very her.

I did not get a good shot of her tonight - she wanted to do pique turns with her new 'do and it was hard to get  a shot, but I will get a better one this week and post it.

It was a growing up moment.  It was hard to let go but it was great to see her personality emerge in her appearance.

But in a way it means she is growing out of fairy tales and princesses into a sense of self.  Bittersweet and cool - I did save a lock of hair from this cut, I think it is the beginning of a journey.

Fuligo Septica

Came home Friday and noticed a strange yellow foamy substance on the mulch outside the front door.  It was really strange looking.  I did not think much about it and went to bed.

In the morning I looked out and saw a large brown patch that resembled a toasted marshmallow that was oozing a reddish liquid and the size of a dinner plate.  I dug it out and disposed of it but of course with the miracle known as the Internet I had to find it.

It is Fuligo Septica a form of slime mold.  It is kinda cool, kinda creepy!

Here is a neat site  about it with pictures.

Bought a new lawn mower this weekend - I bought a good Craftsman self propelled with rear wheel drive that proved to be a life saver on the hill in the back.  It only took an hour to mow the back but it was really a challenge and good exercise.  Believe it or not, it is the going down that is harder than the going up.  It takes about 2 - 2.5 hours to mow the entire lot (it is just over .5 acres) so not too bad.

I did make it officially my house today - I planted two rose bushes (Abraham Darby and Glamis Castle) in the bed just outside the garage.  I have 11 more roses to plant, I will put a few out front and some in the new bed in the back.  I did break some more sod this afternoon and hope to do a bit after work this week.  I would love to have that bed planted by Easter.  Then I will mulch it.  Hopefully it will not have it's own patch of Fuligo Septica.