Just a quick update...

I got some exciting news tonight - Baby Benevides has joined us! Stacey Plurked about it after reading Lauren's Facebook page. Girl, you are Iron Woman for being in labor AND Facebooking it. I have those last couple of gifts to give, so when I get to visit, I'll make sure to bring them.

Saturday's coming quickly, and I've started my teaching demo run-throughs. I am seriously debating on dragging Heartbreaker and Cutie Pie out of bed to be my students, but that's probably not very teacherly behavior, especially at 10:59 p.m. on a weeknight. I gave Mike my lesson, but he was half asleep. I'll run through it tomorrow.

And to SiSi - that e-mail address is the old one. Let me see if I can make this work: Roe's e-mail. If you click on that, you should be able to e-mail me!

In knitting news, the endless stockinette stitch of the French Market bag continues. I frogged the first draft of the Celtic Neckwarmer, but the second time seems to be the charm.

I saw, and thoroughly enjoyed, Sex & The City today. Stacey, Nancy, Janet and I had an honest-to-goodness girls' day out. First, we had a tasty lunch at CUP Diner in Astoria (and I ate healthy, too - and didn't reward myself with junk food afterwards!), and then headed in to enjoy the movie. I have to say, if you're a fan of the show, you'll enjoy the movie. So take that as you will.

Nancy and I went back to her place, where Mike and Keith were waiting with the kids; I got to play with Baby Boyd for a little while until my boys got antsy, and then we were back off to Casa Kiladitis. All in all, a very nice way to spend a Sunday, normally the day I loathe the most.

It was an honest-to-goodness girls' weekend, having been out to Sag Harbor for Lauren's baby shower the day before. I can finally reveal the super secret projects, having completed one of them (the baby blanket) in the car on the way to the shower! I'll have pics up soon, but there is a baby blanket, a hat, and the Baby Chuck Taylors, which went over as well as I prayed they would. I have some washcloths that I'm working on, but it's not super-secret anymore since I pulled one out at the actual shower to work on.

Lauren is a glowing mommy-to-be, and she was surrounded by some gorgeous baby gifts and lots of love. I even got to see the baby belly move!! I swear, I never got tired of watching my own belly jump around when Will, and then Alex, would let me and everyone near me know they were awake, so I love watching my friends get to experience the same things.

Sigh... back to the real world manana.

From the Heart of Hell, I Spit At Thee...

...or just spit up crap, essentially. Oh, come on - who else paraphrases Melville while referring to bronchitis? I've been sidelined for days with this blasted thing. I was sent home from work on Friday before I infected everyone at work and managed to score a repeat performance at the doctor's that day. Apparently, my virus had been upgraded to 'bacterial bronchitis'. I felt like I was going to return to my apartment to find it swathed in plastic like when the scientists got hold of E.T., or some random X-Files episode. Just call me the Outbreak Monkey.

Wow, this is a rather cinematic entry... must be the codeine.

So today I feel better than I have for a few days, and decided to catch up on some computing. I have a lot of e-mail. Holy crap.

I also have the coolest swap partner in the known universe. When the postman brought this huge box out of the elevator yesterday, I thought Mike had ordered something. But then I saw MY name on it, and jumped up and down until I started coughing like I was going to die. I managed to get a cough drop in so I could open the box. Holy COW. How awesome is my swap partner? Oh, about this awesome:



Kristen is also 45 oz. of M&M peanuts awesome. Yes, that is a 45 oz bag of peanutty, m&m-y goodness there.

More goodies? How can you deny the insane cute factor of a sheep in a sweater?



And how much do Hello Kitty knitting needles rock?



All in all, my first swap was awesome. I just heard from Leslie, my swap partner, who seems to like all the goodies I got her. On to the next swap - anyone like Hot Sauce?

And before I toddle back off to sick bay, more great news - it's a boy! Super-Secret Knitting projects are underway...

Super-Secret Projects Again...

Yup, I've got a super-secret project on the knitting needles again. It's adorable, and it's coming together much more quickly than I hoped, so I'm thrilled - I may even make a couple in different colors. Hee.

I went shopping for my Longing for Spring Swap pal, and got a few spring-y things. Now, I'm off to the yarn store this weekend to buy the main focus of the swap - the yarn and needles for the pattern I've chosen. I hope she likes everything...

Ugh, back to work. Spreadsheets call. Yay.