So very random.

[jan_andrea]

I have 9 slings to sew, and Sophia is at this minute napping on my lap. If I move her, she'll wake up and be cranky. If I don't move her, I won't get these slings out today, which I told my customers I'd do. Argh. Family comes first, but I hate to disappoint people. Then again, if I mail them tomorrow morning, they'll get there almost as fast as if I mailed them at 5 pm today, which is what I'd end up doing.

On the plus side, my Shiny! New! Laptop! arrived today! But then, I don't have any cables to hook it to the hub with, so I can't transfer my files over yet. David's going to bring some home. Maybe I'll ask him to do the transfers for me so can sew. It figures I get a million orders on the weekend I really can't get anything done (see next paragraph). I can't wait to be able to use the laptop, though; I have a new (refurbished) gorgeous flat-panel 20" monitor, so I'll hook the laptop up to it when I'm upstairs, and use the built-in 15" widescreen when I'm downstairs or out of the house. Just ordered a wireless modem/hub, so I'll be able to work elsewhere in the house. And I think it's WiFi enabled, so I could hypothetically go to the coffee shop and work there, too. Not sure our library has WiFi, but if they did, wow, that'd be fantastic -- be great if I could work while Stephen was in Storytime and Sophie played with the trains there.

The opera (Copland: The Tender Land) was mixed -- bloody awful (IMHO) on Friday, brilliant on Saturday, and so-so on Sunday. I was so tired by Sunday that I screwed up in places I hadn't screwed up before. We'd had a full run-through plus practice on Thursday, an hour warm-up/rehearsal followed by 2 hour performance on Friday, and the same on Saturday and Sunday. So, like, 12 hours of pretty solid playing in four days -- I haven't done that in years, and it was quite wearing. Mom and Bob came up for Saturday and stayed overnight, which was great, though they did have the misfortune of missing a Genuine Stephen Tantrum. Whee! Dad and Ann came up for the Sunday performance, but had to leave shortly after. Dad's so busy... I can't wait until he retires and can spend more time with the kids, though I guess that's not for another 10 years or so.

Man, that stack of slings is just mocking me now. Three of them have pockets, which takes an extra 30 minutes per sling. Yuck. I suppose I could stop offering them, but people really like them. Some of them get serged edges, anyway, which is a little faster, and I bought a 6mm hemming foot for my regular machine, which cuts the hemming time in half. Wish I'd bought it years ago!

I wanna play with my laptop! POOH!

Comments

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

what chip did Shiny come with?

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Um. I actually made David order it for me. He's my tech guy :) It says Centrino on the case, and I know it's a nice fast one (new), but beyond that, I'm pretty useless.

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

intel centrino has built in wireless...:) go find a hot spot and cruise...:D

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

It's a pentium centrino 1.6 GHz -- 512 Mb ram, ATI X300 video card...

My tech guy is sitting next to me getting the programs up to spec :) It came with a lot of useless crapola installed.

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

i'll trade ya an XP P4 and a free microsoft wireless card for that centrino chip.....;D

[mybonnykate.livejournal.com]

Once I thought I'd never grow tall as this fence...

I have a pile of ABCs I want to sew and mail out to friends. And a baby who naps best in arms! I so totally sympathize with your dilemma. ;)

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

"... this space was plenty for me..."

Have you done The Tender Land? I have random lines stuck in my head. Unfortunately, as pinkiesngr mentions, the orchestra spent a lot of time totally overwhelming the singers in our performances. Pity, because they sounded good when we could hear them!

Sophie's waking up due to Sibling Interference, so maybe I'll get a few more done today... I wouldn't trade her lap naps for anything, of course; I love having her warm and close, and I know it's not going to last long.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Hum. I don't know how to fix that manually, but it's pinkiesngr and hopefully that works...

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Goddamn it. Obviously I'm as clueless with LiveJournal as with my computers :P

[brunahildm.livejournal.com]

pinkiesngr = [lj user="pinkiesngr"] Only of course you substitute triangle bracket thingys for the square brackets. You were confused because lj-cut is hyphenated :)

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Figures :)

[iuil.livejournal.com]

Take out the hyphen between lj and user :-).

i must check out your slings again - I may be in the market for a new one shortly :-0.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

OooO! Already?

I have a new shopping cart... will institute an LJ Friends discount. $5 off any sling. Code: jans-friend

[iuil.livejournal.com]

Well sometime in the next 5 weeks! I'll be 37 weeks on Thursday and so not ready ...

Thanks for the info on the discount too. :-)

[mybonnykate.livejournal.com]

I've learned bits of it, but haven't done it. Oh the curse of an overwhelming orchestra! LOL.

/nodding That's exactly the reason I don't even care that my six-month-old takes 99% of her naps in my arms; I know this time around how fast it goes. :)

Interested to hear about your hemming foot...

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

It was about $5, 6mm hemming foot (the machine came with a 2mm foot, which is good only for very very lightweight fabrics), works with snap-on foot machines. It really is a wonderful little tool, provided I pay attention while I'm using it :) The fabric has to be fed in at just the right angle... and the angle differs from fabric to fabric. So if I do a twill, then an interlock, I have to readjust my sitting/holding position. However, once it's in the right "groove", it's SO much easier than folding and sewing, stopping, folding and sewing, stopping, etc. Lots faster.

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

i miss a baby that would nap in arms....this one is too busy scooting to want to nap, period....*snuffles*

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Sophie is most of the time, but when she's tired, only arms will do.

[warpedwitch.livejournal.com]

when sproglette first came home, she was the same way....now, she's trying to play even when her eyes are falling out of her head....:/

[rudbekia.livejournal.com]

"Stoooooooomp your foot upon the floor / throooooooooow the window o-pen / Taaaaaake a breath of clean fresh air / and dance around the room, and dance around the room"

Whee! I've only played the suite and that was a long, long time ago.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Heh. Now I've got *that* bit stuck in my head :)