Monogamy, schmonogamy

Apparently, finishing this big project, the latest in a string of big, monogamous projects, has had an effect on me rather like that of the first day of college on a Catholic schoolgirl. (Not me, mom! It's just something I heard about, promise.)

I went back to work on Rick's gridiron sock. The pattern is good fun, and once it's established, it requires very little concentration. And, I'm using my lovely new needles, which make me very happy (I think I need a pair in a size 3, but that's a different story).
Aren't they pretty? The yarn is soft, the needles are wonderful, and yet, they just can't be the only thing I'm working on (for one thing, they're endless; Rick's legs are a thing of beauty to behold -- I have one word for you: biker -- but they are not small, nor are his feet short, and socks are quite the commitment, especially at this gauge). Well, they could be, but apparently project monogamy is right out for the month of February (or at least, for this week).

I have noticed all winter that Younger Daughter's poor teacher, who has morning duty, must stand outside in the freezing cold, non-sunny playground, watching the kids run around. Don't you think that means a pair of mitts? I did.
That's some Malabrigo I had left over from knitting the Calla purse (in The Knitter's Book of Yarn), and I'm using a pattern from this little baby. I treated myself to this book last week, in search of inspiration for the smaller amounts of spinning I do.
I like this book quite a lot, especially the way the projects are divided up by yarn weight; it will make it easy to look for projects that might match my yarn.

But that isn't all. It suddenly occurred to me that we're going skiing this weekend (I tell you, it's snuck up on me; I kept thinking that we're going the weekend before President's Day, which we are, but is it just me or is President's Day really really early this year?). And I've been dying to knit myself a pair of EZ's mitered mittens, but feeling like it was a rather ludicrous project to put on the front burner, given where I live, combined with the fact that we're apparently never going to have a winter again. But, I told myself, if I knit like the wind, I could wear them this weekend!
We'll see. They're a little tight -- I'm so used to sizing for mitts instead of mittens -- so I may not like this one once it's done. I'm using some of the Peruvian alpaca yarn from Shivaya Naturals; the other half of that skein went to an ill-fated (coughRickfelteditcough) neckwarmer.

I also got (among other wonderful gifts that I'll post about later) a wonderful book from my SIL and BIL that has me drooling. There are at least two sweaters in there that I want to knit myself (modified somewhat) for summer. Which is, apparently (have I mentioned?), now.
So much to knit, so little time.

And I'm back at work this week, in the sense that I've picked up my research and am preparing to plug away for the rest of the semester. I spent all day yesterday attempting to come to terms with a data tragedy that I'd thought might have happened, but had been in denial about (oh, that river in Egypt, how we do love thee). Apparently, in the (lamented and cursed) transition to Leopard, my entire language database (well over 600 entries, if I recall correctly) was utterly lost. Gone. Really and for true.

Part of the problem is the program. I was using a freeware (well-established, and one of the few good programs, free or otherwise, for creating language databases) program that I've used for some time. The problem is that the cursed people who make the program (and because I know that I'm currently feeling bitter bitter bitter, I won't use their name right now) have, for reasons only known to themselves, decided in recent years not to make it for Mac, and moreoever, to make it so that their older, Mac-compatible, program doesn't work on emulator-enabled Macs (like mine). So, one must use the version that works with Windows, and only ever run it through an emulator. The problem with that (there are many, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the biggie) is that my emulator won't see my USB ports or my disc drive, so I can't easily get the db off my computer. For this reason, I'd long been thinking that the time was coming to get the db out of that program and to try another one (like, oh, say, FileMaker, that everyone seems to have and that, if worse came to worst, someone could surely retrieve my data from). However, I would not have chosen to have everything I'd done disappear before I could even attempt to save it in some other format.

The plan at this point is to start trying to learn FileMaker, only entering things which weren't already entered into the db, and then to go and politely demand that the IITS guys Find. My. Data. But not this week. I'm far too cranky to be polite.

Think I'll go knit something for a while.