When worlds collide

Just saw the best ad for the DC CBS affiliate's sports coverage. Maryland head coach Gary Williams, and another local coach I don't know, sitting there knitting.

"Hey, Gary, think you can teach me to make an afghan?"

*snort*

I think I can, I think I can

I was working on the never-ending SKB tonight at my knitting group, and Jody told me that she's hoping to see me wear the finished sweater next week. At first, I chuckled. I've been working on this thing for 7 months... I can't FINISH what's left in a week... can I? Hmm...

Maybe I can. On Thursday, one of my most favorite times of the year starts: the NCAA college basketball tournament. This means a lot of me sitting here, knitting and watching basketball. Last year's tournament yielded my favorite scarf... perhaps this year's tournament will include a finished sweater. Here's what's left: 3" left to go on the second sleeve, plus the neckline edging, plus possibly ripping out the hem and redoing it in seed stitch. I admit, I have no idea if this is a realistic goal for me or not, but I'm going to give it a shot. :)

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In other knitting-related news: yay, Eunny! Way to go! Great news for someone very deserving. :)

Rowan All Seasons Cotton

Earlier this week, it was 25 degrees and snowing... Today, it's in the mid-50s. Seems very fitting to me to show off the Rowan All Seasons Cotton I received yesterday, since Maryland is doing everything it can to cram all the seasons into this week. :D





I ordered this from the Knitting Garden. I'm using some pale green All Seasons Cotton for my Bejeweled scarf, and I LOVE working with it, so when I saw this stuff on closeout for $5/skein (it normally goes for $8/skein), there wasn't a whole lot of debate over whether I was getting it. I'll admit, the picture on the website was more of a purple, but I'm really taken with the actual shade: a nice dark mauvey pink. I don't know exactly what I'll do with it, but I can see it being a shrug or a springy tank top/shell.

Y2K7

From a local news channel:

Lawmakers passed a bill moving [Daylight Saving Time] from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in March*, three weeks earlier than normal. It's an effort to save energy in the evening with extra daylight.

But the plan could come with a price. Some worry that computers set up to recognize the old Daylight Saving Time date won't be in synch [sic] with the change, not to mention the fear that cell phones, surgery times and the like will all be thrown off.

*Or, to be accurate, the second Sunday in March, since the first Sunday was March 4, not March 11. Ah, local news... I love local news.

OH, can I please share my experience with "Y2K7" (which was the name given to it by one of the papers that we get at the library)?

Apparently, they tried to install a Daylight Saving prep patch on the Unix servers that house our circulation database, and it went... badly. The circ system went down right around closing Wednesday night. Library employees were greeted by a fax first thing Thursday morning telling us that we wouldn't have access to our circulation system until noon, and shooting for noon was optimistic.

We got another fax around 4:30 Thursday afternoon telling us, "We're hoping to be back up by the time the branches open tomorrow morning." As one coworker said to me, "We're frakked." (usage of BSG syntax: good. News being conveyed: baaaad.)

Huzzah for our computer room staff, though: the system came back up for use around 8:10 Thursday night, slightly less than 24 hours after we first lost it. However, that's a LONG downtime for a library system as large as ours. And it wasn't just the branches that were affected, but the online catalog and account access... we have a bare-bones back up system that allows us to scan in checkouts, but does little else. No accessing people's records, no placing holds, no looking up CALL NUMBERS, even. Thursday was a very long day. I was so glad that the patrons that I dealt with were all very understanding and patient.

I really have to wonder if 21 shifted hours of daylight are going to be worth the headaches that this is causing for people. I doubt any major catastrophes will be caused by it, but if many other computer systems experience what we did... what a colossal pain.

Today was much better. Our system was back up and running, for one thing. Also, one of our subs asked me if the branch is planning any events that I'll have an excuse to bake bread for. I know I did good work if I'm still getting unsolicited compliments almost 2 months after the party. *grin*

AND I came back from lunch to find a box on my desk. A box containing YARN. I shall show it off tomorrow, as I don't have any kind of lightbox setup here. I have the sun and a window... Nature's lightbox. ;)

*hugs* to everyone :)

Curses!

So, here's a fun moment.

3 months ago, I put myself on the wait list for a DVD of The Devil Wears Prada at work. December 6, to be exact, if anyone's curious.

I finally made it to position #1 this week, got my copy on Wednesday, and watched it tonight after one of my classic "urgh, Benadryl" coma naps. Or, I should say, tried to watch it. The entire second half of the movie skipped and jumped like crazy. I think I got the gist of what happened, but after 3 months waiting for it... gah.

And people at work wonder why I signed up for Netflix. :)

However, I did have the happy revelation today that May 5, the first day of MDS&W, is one of my Saturdays off, so I will be fully available to go ooh and ahh at everything...