Without further ado – a few Halloween pictures:

We’ve got Darth Vader, The Butterfly Princess and The Cutest Baby In The World. Any questions? 😉

Last night was fun – if anything, though, it made me profoundly sad that I’m not writing anymore. I think about it all the time and it weighs on me. The women who read, Deborah Eisenberg and Jayne Ann Phillips, said some interesting things about their process and what their writing life is like. They both agreed that writing is awful – it’s extraordinarily hard and boring most of the time and it’s something you have to force yourself to do. I completely agree. They also said they were lucky because they basically weren’t good at anything else so there wasn’t much competition for their time. BINGO. I don’t want to be good at anything else. I only want to be good at writing. But, fortunately or unfortunately my weekends say otherwise. I’m now double booked with photography jobs – shoots in the morning, shoots in the afternoon – and I’m happy about that. Don’t get me wrong. (Amazed is more like it!) I’ve always said – if you take away my camera tomorrow I will be extremely sad. But I’ll live. If you told me I’d never write another story – I’d be heartbroken. Devastated. I MUST DO IT! I MUST WRITE! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

Did I ever tell you the story about how I used to tape a note to myself on my alarm clock? It said “How badly do you want to be a writer?” And I’d set the alarm for 5AM or something ungodly like that and try to wake up before my 9-5 job. Never worked. I’m not a morning person. At 5PM – That’s when I write best. Or mid-day. You can’t bully yourself into the process. That’s the lesson. But I’m going to try. An hour. Just sit there. Don’t do anything else. You don’t have to write. But you have to sit there. NO EXCUSES!

I’ve got something else painful to talk about: K1R2. I’ve let it lapse completely. I’m very sorry about that. I just can’t do it right now. I’ve got some feelers out about people taking it over temporarily, and I hope to have it fully functional come the New Year, but for now – it looks like I might have to shut it down for a bit. I’d hate to think it’s gone forever. Maybe a new incarnation? Something more self-sufficient? Message Boards with lots of discussions going on at once? We’ll see. I am sorry though. No formal announcements have been made as of yet – that’s why the post here. But I fear it’s coming. And soon.

How’s that for a cheery note to end the week? I am so busy I can’t think straight. My house is in CHAOS. I might not get to run today after all. AHHHHH! Januaryone can’t come fast enough!

L, C

Right now, I’m on the floor in my nephew’s room. To my left is one sweet sleeping niece, to my right one sweet sleeping nephew. God I love these kids and I’ve missed them! The baby can sit up on his own and clap his hands, all dimply and amazing. Halloween was a blast, with two parades (one replete with marching bands and everything!) and lots of trick or treating. We’d leave one house, and Charlotte would ask where are we going now, and I’d say another house and her face would just light the way throught the dark. She LOVES candy! And Max, poor Max, won’t TOUCH chocolate. Thank goodness for those chocolate free houses!

I didn’t finish the Deadhead sock before the end of Socktober. I’m about to start on the toe. It will be done tomorrow. Once again I’m freaking out about enough yarn – but I’ll stop at the post office to check it on their scale. I’ll be back sometime tomorrow, I think, with Halloween pictures. Dark Vader and the Butterfly Princess don’t disappoint.

Happy Halloween!

to bring you baby news!

Baby’s First Koigu!

At about 5AM this morning, Baby BOY G arrived! I spoke to Jen a couple of hours ago and baby and Mama and Daddy are all doing great. Baby G weighs a bit over 4lbs. and is in the NICU right now (or he may be out by the time you read this) but only because he’s a wee one and it’s hospital policy. I’ll update more information when I get it. Jen had to hang up because they came in to move her. And yes, I didn’t get a name. Sue me.

Go on over to Jen’s blog and wish her congratulations!

CONGRATULATIONS JEN AND DAVE AND OSCAR!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY G!

ETA: I spoke to Jen again – Baby G doesn’t have a name yet! Also, things aren’t going as smoothly as originally thought. The baby’s still in the NICU – he’s having some respitory trouble and they’re doing blood tests for infection. Jen says the docs say he’ll be in the hospital at least a week. She’ll be home Monday though. It’s tough for her, but she sounds okay. I think she’s barely seen the baby – hence no name. She wants a good look at him before she decides. Dave has spent more time with him and Jen says he feels much better about the whole situation. More updates as I get them. Baby G is going to be fine – it’s just going to take a little bit to get him used to being outside! Hugs and Kisses Sweet Boy! To you and your Mommy and Daddy!

The show yesterday was very, very good. We had awesome seats, smack dab in the middle, on an aisle, with lots of leg room. Before I left the house I used some of this shit – Georgie told me it was the bomb and damn he was right. Cleared my head RIGHT out. I could breathe! (Although a google search on Zicam has brought up numerous lawsuits about loss of smell. Great. I have a very highly honed sense of smell. But it looks like the one that does the damage has zinc in it (the preventative one) and mine doesn’t have zinc in it. Whew. Now I really can breathe again.) Back to the show – I lasted pretty well through the first act – blowing my nose like the lady I am, quietly, demurely. I let my lozenges melt on my tongue without any loud or unsightly chewing.

The second act all bets were off. I had to sneeze a million times and I’m one of those loud sneezers so I was trying hard not to sneeze loud – you know – holding it in and all – and I think I threw out my back restraining myself. The shit that was the bomb wore off about half way through the second song in the second act and my nose blowing got louder and louder the closer we got to the finale. My head hurt. My neck hurt. My nose burned. My back itched (whenever I get a cold I get this weird itching on my back. Especially after I cough.) I felt like crap.

But the show was great! It was a lot of fun – the sets were magnificent. I think the sound left something to be desired, but the actors were very good. (Although I felt like the Glinda actress was channeling Kristin Chenoweth instead of making the part her own.) The story was very well done – except I don’t understand why the slippers weren’t RUBY? Why wouldn’t they be ruby? And I was a little upset about the whole scarecrow thing. All in all a good night – I wish I hadn’t felt so sick towards the end. My dreams last night – flying monkeys. ‘Nuff said.

What am I forgetting? Oh yeah. Kay. Lovely Kay. And the equally lovely Ann. Ann you were totally there last night. I ran my little heart out trying to get to the Knit Lit III reading in time (traffic was a BITCH with a capital B) – and by gosh I made it. Lucky for me, Kay was last. And she finished in just enough time to take a picture of my socks and then I had to dash to the theater. Kay’s right – the placement of the reading in the store was a bit strange. There were huge windows looking out to 42nd Street behind the readers – so a million and half people stopped and stared at all the weirdos in the audience knitting. It was quite entertaining actually. (I swear, Kay, I heard every word you said!)

All in all it was a lovely night out, you know, besides all the snot.

Speaking of snot, my brain was so preoccupied with phlegm and taking over the world, that I forgot that yesterday was MY BLOGIVERSARY!!!! Yes, my friends, you’ve been lucky enough to have me for a whole year. It all started on October 26, 2004 under the unassuming name, Purls of Wisdom. I quickly found that beyond pretentious (like I have any wisdom) and changed over to January One right quick. And here I am.

It’s all Jen‘s fault. She and I met online in a fertility forum and quickly became REAL LIFE friends. She had a blog. I didn’t even know what one was really. But soon I was blogging away. Becky was one of the first people to link to me (in her sidebar no less!) I remember how thrilled and grateful I was when she noticed my photographs and my knits. Thanks Becky! Cassie was the first blogger I met in real life. We met a few times at the place next door to Purl for tea and lemonade. Thanks Cassie for taking a chance on a blogger from New Jersey.

Blogging opened up a whole new KNITTING world for me – patterns, yarns, HELP. I’m a much better knitter now than I ever would have been had I not started blogging. MUCH BETTER.

But the best part about blogging – the people I’ve met. (Here comes the gross part. Be prepared.) I love my blog because I can bitch, I can be happy, I can cry – and people keep coming back! They like me! They really like me! I’ve never laughed so hard in my life because of the people I’ve met through blogging. People all over the world that actually ARE as crazy and funny and sane and nice and generous and REAL as I’d like to think I am. So thank you all for making this a great blogging year.

Now, on to the contest (because what’s a blog birthday without presents!) I’m going to push myself here. Do something that seems really big and beyond what I would usually do. I’m going to knit for someone. And because this week has been all about the SOX, I’m going to knit the winner a pair of socks in whatever SOCKS THAT ROCK colorway they choose. That’s right. Understand this though – there’s no deadline on this knit. I’m notorious at getting prize winnings out late and these socks will be no exception. I would hope that you will get them before the next blogiversary (that’s kind of a joke) but no guarantees. BUT YOU WILL GET THEM. I never go back on my word. Also, rumor has it that there’s been some kind of run on Socks That Rock over at The Fold. Beats me why that would be happening, but alas, it’s true. 😉

Okay. Here’s how you can win. My birthday (my real birthday) is officially 66 days away. I’m really bad at receiving gifts – I’d usually rather just go out and get it myself. But, if you’ve been reading along for the past year, maybe you have an idea of what would be the PERFECT gift for me. Leave a comment with said gift. Can be knitting related, but it doesn’t have to be. My idea of a GREAT gift is something I wouldn’t necessarily buy for myself, but that once it’s in my hands I’m not sure how I ever lived without it. So dig DEEP! A winner will be chosen at random using that random generator thingy that I’ve used before – please only one entry per person. (They’ll be some runners ups too.) I will close the comments November 1. Exactly two months until I turn 36. (WHAT?!) Have fun! And thank you for being such wonderful readers!