Lace, Baby!!

The swatch of lace: this is my first attempt at lace, blocking, and complicated patterns.






It's all pretty boring. Pretty, but boring. This is the first pattern I've tried to follow that was more than a simple repetition. It is also this very soft and delicate yarn that I worry about tearing right through. I'm glad it's beaded at the ends because the swatch is so light that it would blow away!
I dig the beads. The pattern calls for drop beads but I couldn't find any and was more interested in starting then in driving around to different stores looking for them... so I found these pretty round beads and thought I would try them instead. I like the way it looks. I am neglecting the baby blanket that is done except for the sewing-in and the baby blanket that is maybe 1/3 done, not to mention the housework, the book for our next book club meeting, laundry and what's that other thing? What is it? Starts with and S.....
Oh yeah, sleep. I am neglecting sleep. I haven't been able to sleep much lately and I'm feeling pretty worn down. I'm ready for some real time off - a week maybe? Longer? Doubtful at this point, though. There is light at the end of the tunnel: the Big Boss and my work spouse (who is also my boss) are supposed to be training with me this week to learn some of the automation. I think she is worried that I'm getting so burnt out and frustrated that I'll jump ship before I finish my degree. Probably not. I would have to get a really good offer to leave the station.

So what's a work spouse? A work spouse is someone from work who knows you as well as your spouse (or better). In my case, she is my best friend and my boss (though we're pretty freakin' informal at work... it's more M*A*S*H than The Devil Wears Prada). I know that she won't eat onions, drinks Diet Pepsi and likes funky earrings. She knows that I won't eat fish, live on Diet Dr. Pepper, and can't wear earrings. We both love movies (we're movie whores, we'll see anything) and are married to men who don't like movies so every Friday (almost without fail) we have a dinner and a movie date. She knows without blinking what to get me for birthdays and Christmas. She knows what I want to eat when I'm sick or depressed. We could both live happily forever on bread, cheese and fruit, we both love Asian and middle-eastern food, and we are both so in love with Johnny Depp that we might just stalk him if we were in France and had time to do it right. We even make fun of people in the same way, though she is waaaaay nicer than I am. AND we travel well together. Really well. Scary well. It's not always an easy thing to travel with your best friend and we have not only traveled together, spending five or six consecutive days never more than 6 feet apart, but because of station budgeting issues we had to share a hotel room more than once and more than once we had to sleep in the same bed. (I snore. Really loud and she only makes fun of me sometimes).
My spouse is great to me too. He knows all of those things about me too and HE just came home with a monster cookie blizzard from Dairy Queen.
(~le sigh~)
I'm a lucky, lucky girl.