I'm sick of complaining about how busy I am and even more sick of being this busy, but yesterday was a No Knitting Day and today ain't looking good either. I am, however, getting stuff done, so maybe in another week I'll finally have a more normal schedule? Maybe. Many things are in the air, both at work and at home, I feel like one of those plate-spinning acts on the "Ed Sullivan Show." I'm not a Crisis Queen, I don't seek out or enjoy ways to feel Really Busy and Stressed, I friggin' hate it when it is thrust upon me, and all I can do is methodically work my way through the enormous list of stressors, trying to knock them off one-by-one. But as usual, some things are contingent upon other things happening first, some things are dependent on other people doing what they are supposed to do (and they aren't) and only a portion of it is really in my complete control. So I spin the plates and try to move things along as much as I can.

The timing of Girl's Move has changed yet again. We were supposed to move her in on Labor Day, but now she can't get the keys until the day after, for reasons too tedious to go into in detail but which make sense. I'd left a politely exasperated message with an office assistant that I wanted to talk to the manager about nailing down a move-in date (which was still in the "like nailing jello to a tree" stage, apparently, a mere 5 days before I have to rent a damn truck), and he called back within the hour and left me a detailed and apologetic response and a definite time and date, ending with, "...and if you want to call me back to talk to me, swear at me, whatever, my number is..." So he got points for his prompt, detailed response, frank disclosure of the scheduling problem they had run into, and sense of humor, despite the aggravation I was left with a good impression of the management. But I'm glad I have a lot of vacation time to tap, because now it looks like it would make sense to take off all of next week and be done with it.

Boy came over last night and we spent hours hashing out various financial issues, scheduling issues, etc. , and by the time he left I was exhausted and fell into bed. This evening my friend is coming over to take Girl's old white iron bed for her daughter, which leaves me with two virtually empty rooms, which will be a good thing when it's time to paint and recarpet that end of the house.

My opinion on the new Knitter's: chock full of big, boxy, wooly cubes I don't need and can't wear. Nice enough patterns, but I wouldn't wear them, they're too big and heavy for me, both physically and fashionably. And is it me, or do most of those sweaters look like they don't even fit the models right? Look at the cover - we can only see the right sleeve, but look at the accordion folds between her wrist and elbow. If she put that arm down at her side, her hand would disappear. It looks like she's wearing an afghan. I see a male model wearing it on p. 63, I'm guessing it's the exact same sweater and it appears to fit him better, so I suppose that's the answer - putting a woman in a man's sweater that does not fit her well on the cover of the magazine is a dubious editorial choice. The exceptions to my "bleh" response are the "Cul-de-sac" vest on p. 52 - I'm not a vest wearer, but if I were, I'd like that one, it's pretty and it fits well and has interesting details - and the "RoundTrip" Noro sweater on p. 80 - I really like that sweater and I may have to put it on the ever-lengthening to-do list. I've seen some bloggish humor about the "wooly wimple" on page 90 - my gram used to make something like that for when we played in the snow, but the pattern she used was cuter. This one, especially in gray, looks like knitted chain mail to me, and of course a washed-out gray is so flattering to every complexion - what were they thinking? It's a child's article of clothing, modified to fit an adult in a very unflattering way. Imagine the case of Hat Head that thing would give you! With all the cable designs in this issue I was really hoping for a nice cabled cardigan, that would have gotten my attention, but all I see are pullovers, which are useless to me in a warm climate, even in the winter. That was somewhat disappointing. Oh well, to read knitting magazines is to become accustomed to disappointment.