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.

Stupid Man-Eating Escalator.

I was supposed to get my stitches out today, but the doctor decided it would be best to leave them in for another couple of days. So I get to pay an additional co-pay in a few days. Stupid escalator. Stupid rush hour.

Okay, enough griping. I've got good stuff on the horizon. I haven't really said much about this because I was being superstitious and afraid of jinxing myself, but I have to get past that phobia. So here it is - I applied to the NYC Teaching Fellows program and have made it past the first round!!! Deep breaths, deep breaths.

So the next round comes this coming Saturday. I have a day of interviews downtown and I will have to give a 5-minute teaching demo. I'm excited and terrified all at once, and Nancy is a saint for putting up with my mania as I mine her years of education knowledge. She's given me some great ideas, now I have to test it out on my boys to see if I can get this down pat in five minutes.

I don't know what will come of this, but I'm really hopeful. I have wanted to get into the classroom for so long, and I really hope that this is the chance for me. So please, keep your fingers crossed, ok? Send some teacherly vibes my way.

Other happenings... I'm working on the endless stockinette stitch involved in the French Market bag, but have cast on for a Celtic Neckwarmer to keep my brain from flatlining.

I've got another swap going - the Saucy Knitters Swap Part Deux - a continuation of the awesome hot sauce swap that I was in a few months ago. (not so) Cynical Knitting Gal, someone I've come to consider a good friend, ended up being my swap partner and she totally rocks! I'm so ticked off that my camera is still dead (grr...), but I'm going to see if I can get Will's camera to work so I can take a pic of the swappy goodness. In addition to the package o'yarny love I received at home today, there's one of hot saucy goodness waiting at the local post office. So guess where I'm headed after work tomorrow.

Did I mention that I got to meet another knitting Plurker? Last week, Karen from The Knitting Patch and I got together for some tasty Yolato and knitting talk. It was so great to meet another knitter that I've been talking to online for months (only to discover that she works less than three blocks from me)! The online knitting community is really amazing.

Okay, before I split to break up the emerging fight between the boys and herd them to bed, just have a message for my friend Sisi - I do not know what is up with the e-mail situation; no one else has had a bounceback! I am sending off a letter to you by the week's end, but didn't want you to think I was ignoring you - when my e-mail crashed a while ago, my address book was wiped out and I can't find your e-mail in my address book! Can you e-mail me again? I hope we can make plans for October!

Oh, and by the way - new issue of Knitscene? Must. Knit. Every. Pattern. Immediately.

Okay, they're trying to put each other in sleeper holds. This can't be good. I'm out for now.

I just spent my literal last dollar on lunch. It was totally worth it, but I may have to ask Mr. ATM to loan me some cash so I have 'mug money'. You know what mug money is, don't you? My mother always told me to have some money handy in case you get mugged, because if you're empty-walleted, apparently that would make it worse. Ah, the '70s.

So I took it to the knitters on Plurk, and it seems that the French Market Bag is the way to go with the extra-chunky yarn I've got; the fact that it's not quite at gauge is okay because it's going to be felted anyway. Whoo hoo! Next project for the Summer KAL-CAL will cast on tonight!

Speaking of the KAL-CAL (knit-a-long/crochet-a-long), I have to take pictures of the soaps I'm donating as prizes. Except my camera broke in Rhode Island. So hopefully the phone camera takes halfway decent pics...

More later!

I was meaning to blog this earlier, but was sidetracked by the excitement yesterday.

TO EVERYONE IN GRAND CENTRAL STATION AT 9 A.M. ON WEEKDAYS:

- The lady walking with the bloody shin? (that would be me yesterday) Obviously not having a good morning. Clear a path to the coffee counter for her.

- That sound you hear as I pass by is Anthrax and Public Enemy. Not exactly Yanni. It reflects the mood. Get out of the way.

- Tourists, this one's for you - A.M. rush hour in Manhattan is precisely the WORST possible time, along with 5 P.M. rush hour, to be taking photos in Grand Central Station. What in the hell are you awake and in Grand Central for at this hour, anyway? You're on vacation. Go back to bed, or find a breakfast buffet and stay the hell out of my way.

- The urge to clothesline people coming at you full speed is tremendous, especially when you're undercaffeinated and very hot and drippy. And bleeding. So before you Westchester and Connecticut commuters think about charging me en masse, think hard.

Bad Blogger, No Cookie.

I know, I know, I've neglected again. I throw myself on the mercy of the court.

So, what's been going on? Well, we had a lovely weekend in Newport, Rhode Island that wasn't without some stepfather drama on the fringes. Suffice to say Newport is now very close to places I would leave NY for in a hot second.

What else? Oh yes, the Subway Incident. Ready for this one? Take a seat, pop some popcorn, this is a good one.

I had a bit of an adventure that required me leaving work at noon. To go to the freaking hospital. Why? Because I am a freak and New York sucks. Anyway. Heartbreaker goes to camp in NYC, so we get off at 53rd and 3rd yesterday morning, like always. As we go up the escalator - and, for those non-New Yorkers reading, escalators in New York have express lanes, I kid you not; if you just want to stand and allow the escalator to do its job and transport you, you stay to the right. If you use the escalator as a walking path, you go to the left. True story. Anyway, we're in the express lane, and everyone in that lane acts like some crazed serial killer is behind them.

Some jacka$$ must have stepped on the back of my sneaker because obviously being right up my rear end was going to get him or her to the top of the escalator that much more quickly. I fell, hit my leg on the step, which is like a little claw. I got up, saw I was bleeding, didn't think much of it. Got Will to camp, got to work, and cleaned up the leg, which looked worse cleaned up. I had a hole of about 1-inch in my shin. I tried to bandage it up, but it kept bleeding through, so around noon, I went home. Mike met me there, checked the cut, and apparently, I was cut to the bone. So he drove me to the ER, where I waited a really long freaking time, and got three stitches and a tetanus shot.

In knitting updates, I finished the Rattlesnake Socks! Now, I need to find something else to knit. I'm thinking of the French Market Bag from Knitty. But will I use it?

Happy Fourth!

A bit late, but let's keep the party going. We had a busy but relaxing weekend. The boys had a playdate, we spent some family time out in Staten Island, and Mike and I got some work done at home. We threw out a couple of bags worth of garbage, got the bookshelves above our bed organized, and I can now access my radio/CD player that was buried under books and dust for far too long. We actually have paper in our file drawer now, too, as opposed to empty pentaflexes and paper strewn about the room. Let's hear it for organizing! Now, if I can just keep reminding myself that progress comes in inches rather than leaps.

I finished one sock - the Rattlesnake Creek socks I've been working on as part of the Summer Knit-A-Long/Crochet-A-Long - and cast on the second, so Mom is happy to have a second pair of socks coming her way.

Had an aggravating conversation with my father - is there any other one, these days? - and retreated into junk food for two days. Sigh. Nothing like hearing, "Oh... I guess you haven't heard from me in a month because I was too lazy to call." That's only a slight paraphrasing, folks. Does he honestly think that makes me feel better? Not only is he too much of a selfish jackass to come up to New York, putting all the effort on me to trek four people down to see him, but now it's all on me to keep up any pretenses of a relationship at all? When I do get down there next month, there's got to be some conversation; changes are going to have to be made.

I don't normally get this heavy here, but I just needed to vent a bit.

After my 2-day pity party, I've emerged recommitted to getting myself back together. Today's nano-goals include eating well for breakfast and making a healthy lunch. Check - had a tasty smoothie for breakfast, I've made my own lunch (pasta with edamame with a splash of lemon juice) and brought healthy snacks. Just have to make sure I eat a snack before leaving work so I don't snack/binge when I get home.

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting back on track. If I can get down those 10 pounds before leaving for Florida next month I think I'll be in a good place.