All Nighter

*Guest post from the husband.  BTW, she reminded me to make sure I used the spell check before I published, and as a lifelong totally awesome speller I was a tad bit 'offended'. So, I am not using ye olde spellcheck, if you readers notice any typos, please do me  a favor and let's keep it between ourselves shall we? Thanks.

Remember college? The project/paper/assignment that your grade was based on? The final evening that kept going and going. Downing cups of coffee/soda/beer (in no particular order), your favorite alt.rock band playing in the background, and a frantic adrenaline and stimulant-fueled race to an impending deadline.  This, knitterers, has been the state of my beloved wife for the past ten days.  She apologizes for her time away from the blog, she will return Monday, and I'm writing this in her place to give you something meager to digest until she returns. 

Creating the final swatches for her book was a more brutal task thatn she had planned for and it took its toll. The work below is what has consumed the household for the past two weeks.  Her efforts culminated in an honest-to-God-all-nighter Thursday night. Over the pat few weeks our house became a horror show of loose fiber, coffee cups, wine glasses, and general disorder (which we know how much OCDers LOVE disorder). We knew it was coming, but neither of us was prepared for the actual 'event'.

Lindsay and I arrived home from skating practice around nine o' clock Thursday evening to find our heroine staring intensely at the laptop with a look of white-hot hatred.

"This isn't going to be good." I muttered to Lindsay; she nodded and smartly retired to her room after giving Mary a quick kiss.

"What's wrong?  I meekly asked.
I'm not going into the response.  It isn't suitable for a blog of this stature, but my wife was trying to download some podcasts off of itunes. As a life-long PC lover, she still isn't hip to how Apple works, and I received a tirade focusing on color scheme, user-friendliness, and why-do-we-have-ESPN-podcasts here (Guilty: fnatasy football teams are not simply created...they have to be dilligently maintained).

I calmed her down, loaded John Hodgman, Fresh Air, and some Wait Wait Don't Tell Mes, got her situated in the reading/knitting nook, and took my leave to bed (I have over 190 tenth graders wating for me every day, so I need my beauty sleep).

I felt the familiar re-adjusting of the pillows (apparently I sleep 'wrong') far later that night. In fact, the AM alarm went off a few minutes later.
"An all-nighter?" I asked.
"Set the alarm for nine, and make sure the kids go to school." she sighed.
Done and done.
When I called that afternoon, she had finished. When I arrived home, the kids were packing the box while she took reference pictures of the swatches, and I was immediately sent to the local FedEx office.

We had some quick dinner, and she was off to bed. Hopefuly she'll be awake by Monday.  Like all all-nighters, her relief was palpable and immediate.  So, that was great, and she feels the project is finished. 

When do I tell her the first re-writes arrived by e-mail today...?

Below are a few images of the state of our house for the past few days. Enjoy.