I am down to my last skein of Noro Kuriyon with the wrap I'm making. It's super-simple, just top-down garter stitch with a decrease at the end of each row to form a triangle. The colorway of this yarn is gorgeous, purples and blues and greens and grays. I am sort of in love with this yarn, and with the yarn store where I bought it. I never knew this place existed until two weeks ago, but it's about two miles from my office and it's all I can do to not spend every penny I make there. I am waiting until Kimberly finds out what she is having and then I plan to go nuts buying gender-specific colors for way more blankets than I will possibly be able to finish between now and when this baby is born.

Along the lines of way more blankets than I will possibly be able to finish, I am a big fan of Ravelry. It's sorta like MySpace for knitters and crocheters. I have about twelve patterns queued up, including baby hats, Dan-sized hats, Max-sized hats, Molly-sized hats, and about fifteen other things. Unfortunately, I already have an obscene number of projects on the needles and I need to wrap some of them up before I get rolling on baby knitting for Kimberly.

In other news: Dan and I are going to Virginia Beach next weekend for the long weekend. Our hotel has an indoor waterpark with one of those "Lazy River" things, waterfalls, etc. Max will go for that. If it's not horrendously cold, the Virginia Aquarium has whale-watching tours, and Dan is interested in that. Other than that, I need some ideas. Anybody have suggestions of what to do with a 2 1/2-year-old boy and a 36-year-old man-child in Virginia Beach in February?

I am gearing up at work for our busiest time of year, with an enormous (think several phone book-sized) grant application to the Federal government due, a block of money that supplies the bulk of our funding to the network of affiliates that we train and support. In addition, we are two days away from completing a second grant application that will provide almost $18 million in funding to housing counseling agencies who do "on the ground" work, preventing foreclosures at every step of the homebuying and homeownership process. This grant has had me and our corporate development officer working 12-hour-days for the last three weeks and is the reason for my relative lack of my usual drivel here. However, I continue to drivel daily at A Year In The Kitchen, so if you miss me, you can, you know, go there. And maybe cook something and tell me how it was.

Is anyone else watching "Project Runway?" and if you are, do you not just want to put a patent-leather muzzle on Christian? If this were a drinking game, everyone would have to do a shot every time he described something as "fierce" and we'd all be barfing by the time the show was over. And any full-grown adult who goes by the name Sweet P and has the cajones to wear short-shorts and a polyester blouse with an attached scarf and short, puffy sleeves that I swear to cheebus my mother used to wear to work when I was, like, 8...well, I just don't know what to say, except stop it. I am also really annoyed that Kevin got sent home, and I was even starting to dig Elisa, who, admittedly, had the design aesthetic of a traumatic brain injury victim, which, as it turns out, she actually was, which explains a lot, but by no means does it explain everything.

Well. That's enough now, I think. Carry on, designers.