the sum of its parts

Well, I've finally reached that dreaded point: I have 3 knitted pieces without the vaguest idea how to put them all together. Here they are:

For whatever reason, I had the worst time with the gusset. Fortunately the wonderful knitters on MySpace Knit Knack were kind enough to help me, so I finally finished that part up. The instructions for the increases and decreases were far too vague for my taste. If you have a pattern going (in this case, moss stitch), you can't just say, "work to the last stitch, M1, work last stitch"; you need to tell people the exact series of knits and purls that will maintain the pattern!
So what's left? Reverse single crochet (?!?) along the top edges of both front and back, sew the gusset on, crochet some kind of button clasp, attach handles, plus lining. I did get some cute lining, black with red skulls (it's Halloween, and also my ahijada (prettier than "goddaughter," no?) is 14, so I think she'll like it). I did not, unfortunately, find handles, JoAnn's only had small ones. Boo.
I've been putting off even trying to finish it because I feel like it requires my full attention, which is hard to give at night after work. So it's on tap for this weekend, especially since--hurrah!--my boss has offered us all an extra day off next week because we worked such atrocious hours the last two weeks (Almost makes up for the fact that my whole section is going to Colombia in November and I'm not included). I'm planning to take Monday, my birthday, assuming she approves.
I finally placed my big KnitPicks order; I ordered yarn for hubby's sweater, mom's slippers, sister's scarf and grandfather's socks, plus--YAY!--my options set! I can't wait 'til it all arrives. I'm sorry to say, I was disappointed with my yarn swap experience (to sum up, having been told a minimum of 3 full skeins, I swapped 4 skeins of brand new yarn for 1.5 skeins of partially-used yarn--not quite an even exchange), so I'm really looking forward to getting a giant box of yarn to play with.
And shame on me, I still haven't come up with a project for my next swap. :o( Think, think, think . . .
As a side note, among the people I am annoyed with this week: Oprah. I'm sure she's well-intentioned, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a brilliant writer, he really doesn't need "Oprah's Book Club" publicity; but now that she's selected Love in the Time of Cholera as her new book, I just know people will be wandering about thinking what a great service Oprah has done, bringing this "unknown" author into the public eye. Eye roll.