My kid's school has the students practicing crazed-gunman drills now. At the sound of a particular code phrase over the intercom, all the kids are to stop, drop, and play dead.

And now I have to speak.

Folks, what happened in Connecticut on Friday is tragedy. And it's scary. So take a moment of silence for lives lost and families greiving. But please, when you've done that, take another one for yourself. Breathe in and out until you're doing it nice and steady. Don't think on your feet right now. Let's all make a conscious choice to act, not just react.

Some days are just like that, you know? When the power goes out, all the battery backups are bleeting at you, and you're already late for work. You know the sort? Sure, you do. Where you start your day with a less-than-stellar parent-teacher conference. Your to-do list is stacked against you and three more folks bearing requests are queuing up at your desk. Some days that's just the deal. So go ahead, ArcMap, crash again. After the fourth time, it kind of gets funny.

I've got a stack of finished fiber that I haven't blogged about yet; reader be warned. I eventually will tackle the write-up of the quidditch robes process, but right now that project and I are taking a little time apart. I need some space.

So let's talk about knitting.

Happy Halloween from the Chudley Cannons!

I spent last night working on a sewing project for Halloween. When I was in my sewing cave, I had the presidential debate streaming on my iPad. When I needed space to lay out fabric for cutting I was in the living room with the baseball game on. I bounced back and forth between the two for an hour and found myself drawing quite a few comparisons between the two competitions.

In particular, I found myself wondering if the candidates can walk up to each other after the final inning and say, "Dude, that was a nice save you made there."

Perhaps not.