Breaking news: Crazy lady finishes sweater

Breaking news: Crazy lady finishes sweater

Well, I finally managed to finish the commission. Two weeks late. In really, really big yarn. Honestly, this project should have taken me three days, but I'm just not firing on all cylinders yet, so...um...it took forever. Ah, well - done, delivered, and they love it. Rah! Go, me! Eventually! Yes, this is why no blogging for a while; it feels even more horribly dysfunctional to be writing about how late I am rather than trying to actually finish the work.

Now that particular monkey is off my back, I'm feeling a little looser - not so much clenched in the shoulders, that sort of thing. I still haven't finished up littlest child's gloves (which is itself pretty stunning), but am making splendid progress on socks. Yes, while other paying work was late. Yes, I realize that's bonkers.

There's a design call actually up on Knitters' website with more than three days notice, so I toyed with submitting something for about six minutes and then went, um, Liz? hello? big yarn, way late? anything wrong with the picture here? So check it out, rest of world (I can't find a non-broken link right now, so rest of world, go on and hit whatever makes sense on knittinguniverse.com, okay? Okay.). I gotta say, four weeks for a fine gauge project including time for the yarn to arrive is cutting it VERY close. Designers need to be superhuman speed demon knitters--this is why. Probably the yarn will take two weeks to show up. Then the designers will have two weeks to knit the whole thing, write the pattern, do the schematic...oh, it sounds like so much fun, I can't believe I'm passing it up.

Cooking! I made a batch of pasta thingie and froze three meals' worth of it - yum, good dinner that I can throw into the cooler for those days when we're at the co-op. Here's the recipe:
1 package cheese tortellini
1 package Knorr pesto mix (NOT the cream kind)
1 cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil
1/2 lb. grilled chicken strips (frozen, in a bag)

Cook the pasta al dente, drain, and put in large bowl. Make the pesto sauce; pour over pasta. Chop the sundried tomatoes and add to bowl. Cook (re-heat, really) the chicken strips & dump in bowl. Mix well. Done! Tasty and oh so healthy. At least healthier than pizza.

I've finished doing my taxes - another Rah! go me! is in order, of course. I knew I was going to owe money, so have been dragging my feet. Finally did the last bit of fiddling, printed out everything, and then rather late last night, went onto my brokerage account and put in an automated request for a check for the thousands of dollars I'll need to pay out. And I didn't email my brokerage guy! I called him this morning, and he was freaking out, going "oh wow I have to talk to you, there's--" "I put in a request for a check, dude." "Oh." "It was me. For the taxes." "Oh." "I'm glad you were checking at six in the morning, but it's really okay." "Thank you for calling. I was really worried." "That's a good thing."

I love my brokerage guy. (I don't really call him dude, though.)

Next task: figuring out estimated taxes. Good thing I like this sort of thing; if I didn't, it would totally bite.

Cats! Our insane cat is on parole, again. It seems she's unwell enough that she doesn't absolutely have control of her sphincter. How did we learn this, you might ask? Well, oldest child carried insane cat downstairs and sat with her for a couple of hours, patting her, during which time the cat purred like nobody's business. Then oldest took cat and walked upstairs. Cat yowling about something. Child gets to upstairs hallway. I hear a splatting noise. I inquire. A pause. "Mom, the cat just shit on me." Cat apparently was yowling about impeding crapfest, and her sadness about same. I cleaned the kid off enough for her to walk safely, and then the two of us set about taking care of the...aftermath.

Pets are great. No, really.

Oldest kid is now totally not interested in having children, ever.

Wow, that was gross. The other three cats thought so, too.

Cheerio, all, 'til next time.