Another Book Down, Another Knitting Project Complete.

I just finished another book for the book clubs. This one, called On The Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren, was practically written to be a Lifetime Movie for Women. Great if you like that sort of thing, not so much my cup of tea. It's a dysfunctional family comes back together with the help of wacky outsider help-type of story.

Granted, I am partial to space battles and zombies and not so much the women's books, so I'm not the audience it was written for, but sometimes it came off as a bit TOO much. The youngest daughter is an Earth Mother-type, complete with bare feet and spirit guide/imaginary friend. But we discover there's more to it - she’s a reincarnated African-American preacher who died in a KKK-fueled church fire and was reborn into the body of a white girl; her constant canine companion was a dog who died in the church fire, and her spirit guide was a parishoner. The eldest daughter is the overachieving, power exec who lives with a loser slacker, only to dump him, discover she’s pregnant, and head off to live in a mud house she creates on her grandmother’s property. The brother is hiding a horrible secret, so he took off at the age of 14 to go live in a tree. In the woods. And then we have the tap-dancing troupe of elderly women – it’s the Red Hat Society in tights and taps. It just feels like it was constructed to have all the major elements of a ‘women’s book’ – it’s a good story that just tries a bit too hard to appeal to its audience. But like I said, I'm not the audience for this book, so I'm pretty sure I'm reading too harshly.

I've also finally finished a knitting project, after endless starts and pauses. Pictures to come, but it's a blanket for one of Heartbreaker's former teachers, who I always thought highly of and whose baby is due in a few short weeks. It was a pretty garter stitch (easy to work on while watching TV!) pattern that I put some color work into, and I think the end result was nice. I even tested by crochet mettle by putting a little border onto it.

Still trying to get an answer on the issue I've come up against with the Baby Boyd birthday gift - I e-mailed Interweave about it, but have yet to hear. Normally, when I've contacted a magazine about a problem with a pattern, I've heard right away - anyone have any experiences with Interweave?

My Ravelry queue/projects/stash is just a mess. I need to do a lot of updating. I've been spending entirely too much time on Facebook; need to get a lot of stuff buttoned down when the boys go back to school on Monday. I haven't even been spending much time on Ravelry, so I totally feel out of the loop.

Being home for this long is starting to weigh on me. Thankfully the weather's starting to perk up, because I find myself settling into this daze that takes up most of the day. I need to start moving around more, because I'm beginning to notice that it's all too easy for me to spend an entire day just zoning out at the computer. I need to give myself things to do and not tell myself they'll take too long - where am I gong?

BABY BOYD!

Baby Boyd has arrived! He's gorgeous, Mom and Dad are over the moon, and all is well.

I attempted to cast on for a baby hat on the way to the hospital last night, but got carsick.

Catch-Up Post - Baby Boyd

I've been really bad at updating my photos lately - once I get them off of the camera, I just go to bed. Or play with my iPod. So I was seriously lax on my Snapfish distribution action. I've remedied that last night.

If you're a regular reader, you know that I've been anticipating the arrival of Baby Boyd with about as much zeal as I anticipated my own boys - which is probably on par with the arrival of the Christ Child, but indulge me if you will. This is indeed another Baby Boyd post, but it's illustrated.

Baby Boyd made out like a bandit at what I like to refer to as "The Pre-Game Show". Enjoy some of the haul...

Here we are, flush with the joy of new goodies to find places for. I'm secretly thrilled that Nancy prefers her photos to be taken from the chest up, because I really don't want anyone viewing me from below the waist these days, either.

Keith surrounds himself with testosterone at the Pre-Game Show - there was a LOT of estrogen magic in that home.

As the countdown to Baby Boyd's arrival begins, I ask myself... what do I have time to knit? ;-)