Had a bit of a busy weekend. Heh. Busy weekend. Just a bit. Hehehehehahahahahahaheeeheeeheeheelmmfao
Yeah. Ok. So. Right now we're looking at roughly 272 people for the dyeorama swap when I'm all done confirming a few entries and getting some info I need from a few others. Call me a softhearted woman but yeah I'm giving people about eleven more hours to confirm or ask nicely if they can join.
Let me say that again. Two hundred seventy two people. And the server didn't go down. And it won't show up as overage on the bill either. So hooray for Dreamhost! It shows a little having that many people signing up for WordPress but the swap registration form was great. All things considered there were very few problems to fix. Especially once we got the Internet Explorer issue resolved. When there were problems (primarily people entering wrong information and a RTFM moment or two) they were incredibly easy to fix thanks to Cody's programming and Dreamhost running PHPmyadmin so I could maintain the database.
Now on to the programming a way to randomly match people and email them by May 1.
We were approached by a store for sponsorship and decided to give out some prizes in a random drawing from the list of people who completed the swap. I'm really pleased with the sponsor's yarn and I think her dyeing kits are great! We're accumulating several good gifts (I love the idea of having an incentive to be a good buddy) and trying to come up with a way to confirm when people have received their yarn. Cody has some great ideas.
It's kind of hard to get across how much work programming something like this from scratch really is, or making things run as smoothly as possible with all the possible variables. I pretty much haven't done much else this weekend but check emails, change database info, fix the website, and figure out how to fix bouncing emails. It's not sexy or exciting but I'm proud of the work. And I think it's going to be a fun swap.
The great part of this is knowing that between Cody and I we can pull off a project for almost 300 people. That's something to put on a resume. Which is very cool.
So after all the work I've been shopping online for a prize for myself. Between this work and resolving a serious problem we were having wth PNM misreading our gas gauge and overcharging us by several hundred dollars, *and* selling some yarn this weekend (to a dyeorama member no less!) I feel like I should buy myself a present.
In a state of sleep-induced delirium yesterday I wandered around online looking at my favorite places. My favorites list at Etsy, Kpixie's one of a kind yarn, the new Fiber-of-the-month club at Spunky...I couldn't decide on anything.
After running to Trader Joe's for groceries (we still can't get over the prices there) and to Smith's for the less glamorous groceries like toilet paper and kitty litter (I know TJ's has hippie pine pellet kitty litter but that isn't going to work for my cats' industrial grade asses - we need crystals), I ended up going to Borders to get the brand new "Big Girl Knits" book. They couldn't find it for me so the nice guy called Barnes and Noble (which was maybe a football field away anyway) and had them hold it at the desk for me.
It's a great book - the models are actually plus sized not the like "oh she's a little hippy but otherwise railass thin" kind of models. The advice is good, the patterns cover a wide variety of materials and shapes. I'm very pleased to hear that ribbon yarn is the novelty yarn for the big girl since that's what my big tunic project is - also pleased to find out that they recommend tunics. And I love the boobs, butt, belly category. I found the bottoms section a little - well, kind of weird. But I'm not much for knitted skirts. And there weren't any bottoms for belly people which annoys me a little. I might try the yoga pants pattern someday. Yoga pants are my favorite kind of pants. The accessories was an interesing section - mostly because of the advice to carry larger accessories. I can attest to that - there's nothing that will make you look bigger than a tiny purse. Or make your neck and chin look larger than a mini necklace. So overall, I'm pretty pleased with the book. It's a nice sized hardcover that will take a lot of abuse. I beat up on my books ya know.
So I was feeling pretty plus-sized friendly. And still looking around in my wishlists and things for something else fun to buy, maybe. And I've been going back to this one little weird thing on etsy the last few weeks. It's by the same woman who made my incredibly cool purse. And I kept going back to this weird thing and last night I'd just pointed at this little chubby guy and made too many cute boopy "poking in the belly with my cursor" sounds for Cody - he decided that Barry had to come live with us. I'm very excited about this. He's definitely a belly guy. No boobs and a flatter ass than mine which I wasn't sure was possible. Aww but I love Barry. Can't wait to have him here.
So click on the photo and give him some clicky belly boops with your cursor for luck and safe travels for Barry.
And now, photos of my ironically cabled socks (ironic of course because the cable was out when I started them) that I finished last week sometime.
a silly photo I took of myself in my rock n roll cowgirl t shirt
And a few birds have been building their nests under our porch roof again. This one had used a little strand of pink yarn. Isn't it sweet?
Is this post long enough or what?
Comments
I'm glad you got PNM sorted out. And Barry is supercute. I just order Big Girl Knits on Amazon, and I heard that they are taking submissions for a Big Girl Knits 2.
Posted by: beth at April 24, 2006 10:04 AM
Sounds like a great weekend, tho! Barry is awfully cute. :)
Posted by: Chris at April 24, 2006 10:49 AM
Great news! Glad to hear it wasn't your water heater leaking gas!!! I was worried... Love the socks, they turned out GREAT!!!
I would watch out! If you brought Barry to SnB, he would be more popular than a NASCAR driver at a church picnic :-)
Posted by: Laurie_Gator at April 24, 2006 2:37 PM
I love the bird nest w/ a bit of yarn. I think that should be turned into a new skin for your blog.
Dye-o-Rama is turning out so awesome, but I had better win a prize for once!!!
Posted by: carole at April 24, 2006 3:21 PM
I'm in love with Barry. In. Love.
Posted by: beverly at April 24, 2006 5:56 PM
He has a flower on his belly!
(Those ironic socks are pretty damn cool, too, btw).
Posted by: jocelyn at April 24, 2006 8:58 PM
Barry is ADORABLE!!! I'm sure he'll be very happy in your home.
I also just love BGK. I can't wait to start some of those great projects.
Posted by: Renee at April 25, 2006 5:42 PM
Comments are Closed
In order to control comment spam, comments are automatically disabled on entries older than 30 days using Conversation Killer. This entry is over 30 days old so comments are now closed.
If you'd still like to share your thoughts there are several options: You can email me or use the contact form on the sidebar - let me know you want it posted here and I'll include whatever info you want. Or you can visit the most recent post and leave a comment there. Thanks!