Observed

So I'd just like to say that today was my first day working at the daycare, and it was also the day randomly chosen for the yearly state inspection. Yay! Luckily my class wasn't the one being observed, but NS's was, and because the inspector was there, we none of us could go on break at the right times, the schedules were all whacked out and the children were seriously acting up. I swear even the one year olds knew there was nothing we could do if they caused problems. Technically, all we're allowed to do is calmly tell the children that we don't appreciate their behavior. We aren't even allowed to put them in time out according to the state.
Anyway, other than that, we're also being observed at home. I don't remember (and I'm too lazy right now to check) if I mentioned, but the house that my family currently lives in and rents is being sold. The owner (who also happens to be my grandfather) just switched real estate agents, so the new one is coming out tomorrow to take pictures and all that jazz. Which meant a house-wide cleaning dash for me, and a mild room cleaning for my DS and DM. Gotta love that whole "you don't work or go to school, you should be in charge of all the cleaning" mentality they have. Notice how both clauses of that statement are now completely untrue but nothing's changed. I think I'll schedule the revolt for the weekend.
From all of my recent babysitting, I knew that taking care of children is exhausting, but I actually think this was easier for the most part. The children were on a schedule, and they were all a little older/more mature than I'm used to. They mostly did what they were told, and we had like 2-3 people in each room where I worked so I didn't feel like I was all alone and swamped. It was tiring though. Plus I had to get my fingerprints scanned right afterward, and I don't even want to talk about exactly how annoying that process was (well, finding the people who do it, not the actual scanning itself).
In knitting news, I worked a little bit on DM's sock- it has a toe. I switched the short-row toe for a Judy's Magic Cast On toe because when I tried the short-rows I ended up getting all these little holes (I do know about the wrapping and turning that supposedly fixes that, but the pattern I was following was a no-wrap pattern that obviously didn't work out too well). Anyway, here's a progress photo:

The yarn is called Paprika and the skeins I bough are actually two very different dye lots, so I'm hoping each pair can be done with only one skein, otherwise the socks won't match at all. It isn't exactly the color DM asked for (I think "gay pride flag" were her exact words) but I showed her the progress and she likes it so far.

DS's socks aren't coming along nearly as far. They're cuff down for one, so they aren't as much fun to start and the yarn isn't the most fun to work with. Here's a progress photo of that though:

 I'm about 3 rows farther along now than when this was taken and I'm thinking of lengthening the cuff from 6 rows to maybe 10 or so. 6 looked pitifully small and a sock should have at least an inch of ribbing in my opinion, even an anklet sock.

Yesterday I bought a second set of Boye Size 2 dpns at Walmart (cause we all know that's the best place to find quality knitting supplies) and I'm seriously disappointed in them. They're super squeaky and rough. I ran them over with lotion to make them a little slipperier but it hasn't helped much. The funny thing is that I have no problem with my other set, just this one. No standardization in knitting I guess, which doesn't make sense to me because Ravelry reached 2 million knitters. That's two million people all over the world who carry sharp, dangerous objects as a matter of routine, and we should be able to get some standardization in our knitting needles.

So I'm right in the middle of Deep Secret by Dianna Wynne Jones and I just got into it so I'll blog more tomorrow. Maybe I'll include an updated list of recent reads and I'm thinking of doing a monthly goals write up so I have documented evidence of my progress as a knitter and human being in general. Anyway, we'll see what tomorrow brings.