If I never see an alan key again...

it'll be too soon.

Hubby and I assembled J's new swing set Monday, after mowing the yard, in the blistering heat and humidity. It was miserable! The entire thing is assembled with the use of two alan keys, one on either side of each bolt, and the directions were piss-poor. For example, it would tell you to put these certain pieces together like the picture shows, but none of the parts in the box were labeled in any sort of way. And once you think you've got it together right, the next page will tell you something like "If the larger holes on the pole are facing out, you'll need to disassemble the part and turn it around."

Ummm... couldn't you have just told me on the previous page to make sure the holes were in a particular alignment?

It was a day full of much cursing, but we got it usable together. There is still one part that has not been finished, but the swings are on, the see-saw is on, the slide is on, the glider is on. The other piece will have to wait for another day when we all have a bit more patience.

Other than that, we're just getting ready for J's birthday party. He's decided on a pirate theme, and wants everyone to dress up. Since there's only two, maybe three, kids that will be coming, I can't wait to see how many of the adults comply.

Today I made a practice cake, and I've realized that I better have a standby available. I thought it would be simple to make a boat shaped cake- simply take two round cakes, cut them in half and then take the semi-circular pieces and layer them together. Trim a tiny piece off the rounded part so that it'll stand, then decorate appropriately. Well, even with a couple of drinking straws pushed through the layers for support and copious amounts of frosting between the layers, they tried to separate on me. I'm thinking that refrigerating the cakes before assembling them might do some good. By the actual birthday we'll be so sick of cake! The good news is, I found a great recipe for a basic white or yellow cake that turned out moist and delicious. I hate box cake mix.

Knitting? What's that? I started to cast on for a pair of socks in my standby rib pattern just for something mindless, but the smallest circular I have available that's long enough for magic loop is a size 2, and it was giving me a very loose fabric. I ripped it and gave up. I'm so spoiled to magic loop that I avoid the dpns like the plague now. It's probably the reason my other pair of socks are languishing on the needles, too. Heck, I don't even have second-sock-syndrome. I can't get through the first one! I cast these on back in February! Ok, so fess up. What's the project that you've had on the needles so long it's shameful?

I put myself on the Ravelry waiting list a while back. Why not? All the other cool kids are doing it! According to the stats, I should get my invite in about another 2 weeks. I'm not even sure if I'm knitter enough to really USE ravelry, but I think it's something like knitter porn, and who wants to miss out on that?