Knitting, Nakedness, and D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Dear Blue Moon,
Knock it off already!! The Raven series comes out in November but already there are beautiful, new colors available. I don't have a whole lot of extra cash laying around and I might just have to say something like, "Bean I know you're hungry, but feel how soft this is! And look at the lovely colors!"
I hope that in the future you will save new colors for times when I have stacks of cash available. Or perhaps I should just split my direct deposit between you and Twist.

Sigh.

In other knitting news:
I finished the knitting part of Kerri's garter. It doesn't look like much yet because I need to block it... that's on the agenda for tomorrow. Then I need to figure out what bias tape is and how to install it and then I need to put elastic and ribbon on it. Surely that all can be accomplished by Friday, right?!?
My monkey socks are moving right along. I'm on the foot part of the first one and I'm at the point where I don't have to look at the pattern every row to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. Which is nice.
The Clapotis has stalled - mostly because I haven't wound the third skein of yarn into a ball - and I've had more pressing projects.

The slumber party was a blast - I am totally exhausted. The girls swam their little butts off - and at one point (very late, after the rest of the grownups had gone to bed) asked if they could skinny dip. I said that as long as only the people who were comfortable doing it did it then that was ok. I turned the inside and outside lights out and let them swim. I don't know who did and who didn't and after about ten minutes I told them to put their suits back on.

When I told the husband about it he freaked out. He was convinced that the parents would be furious. He said it was the stupidest thing I had ever done (totally not true. I have done WAY more stupid things). None of the parents seemed overly concerned - there were a few surprised faces when I told them all what happened, but all in all nobody seemed to think I was some kind of crazed monster.

Speaking of the husband... I think that my marriage is over. I tried to kick him out last Wednesday and he refused to leave. (What the hell are you supposed to do when you say, "Please leave" and they say, "No." I was sort of speechless). We talked a lot on Wednesday night and basically it comes down to three requests. If he wants to save this marriage he needs to:
1) Stop drinking
2) Get a job
3) Go to couples counseling

He is thinking about it. Seriously. He's got until the end of the week to "think" about it before I take real action. I just want this to be done. You know how once you make a difficult decision you want it to be finished as soon as possible? That's where I am.

I just don't think he gets it. I think he is totally in denial. It's like he thinks that these three demands will just fade away and we can go back to the way things have been. Nope.

I talked to Bean about it and she's sad but she gets it. She has seen how things have been over the past year and she said that sometimes she thought that things were better when it was just the two of us. I agreed. I told her that there was still a possibility that we could work something out, but that we would be ok no matter what. The scary thing is that neither of us are crying about this. This decision has been so long in coming that there really isn't much to cry about anymore.

It's like when someone you love dies after a long illness: when they finally do go sometimes there is a sense of relief mixed in with everything else.

We're in this weird, polite place. He's being overly nice and trying really hard to show me in little (meaningless) ways that he loves me. Here's the thing - I love him. I do. But the only thing he can do to fix this is counseling, stop drinking and get a job. All of the little gestures in the world won't make a difference if those three things don't happen.

Some humor has come out of this though... I was chatting with a friend and we were trying to decide what my new last name should be. In the running are: Pitt, Jolie-Pitt, Depp, Noro, and The Queen.

Oh, and I am keeping the house.