It's A Small World After All

Back in May of 2009, my father and I saw the following vehicle in Shop Rite's parking lot:

I am fairly certain I saw it AGAIN, tonight.  Either that, or there are two minivans in this area that are running around with a piece of siding replacing the fender.  I really do wonder if that passes inspection or if they just haven't had to have the car inspected again yet.

Random Tuesday Night

I really have nothing to say, but feel the need/urge to write.

Of course, I'm also feeling the urge to grab a calc text book and to start relearning calc.  Evidently, I feel the need to do a task with a clearly defined goal and method.  

I signed up for LiveMocha, to teach myself Hebrew.  For a while, they didn't actually offer Hebrew 101, which isn't too surprising - the website is free, after all, and Hebrew isn't that common of a language to easily throw together lessons.

I finally logged in to find that they now have Hebrew 101 - for those with little to no experience with Hebrew.  "Great," I thought, "that's me!"

Yeah, no.  The first lesson?  On pronouns?  Has words written out in Hebrew characters.

They never teach you the Hebrew Alphabet.

In other news, I am slowly falling victim to a cold.  Tickle in the back of my throat, wanting soup, slight headache?  Yup, got 'em all.  I'm just glad that the slow addition of symptoms means that I do NOT have a version of the flu.  I have no plan to get the flu and many, many plans to avoid in.  (No, said plans do not include a flu shot.)  I don't work with the public for a reason.

Speaking of needles, I can now sedate a horse with intravenous medication.  And the horse, in theory, is the only one that ends up woozy.

I'm riding in a horse show this weekend.  I refuse to be sick for that.  I am a bit nervous, as the LAST time I rode this horse in public, he bucked me off.  Goals for the weekend: don't die of illness, don't fall off, no refusals or rails in cross-country and stadium.

There is a stink bug on the bed next time.  Kittens are being woken up, sheets are being changed.

Things recently learned (or relearned)

If you ever have to choose between having a cat hair in your eye or an eyelash, go for the eyelash.  Even if you are not allergic to cats.  Considering the size difference between the two, you might think the eyelash would be more painful, but that is a dirty filthy lie.

While Kit is a person in cat clothing, Schroedie is a puppy in kitten clothing.  Evidence:

• he plays fetch
• he has destroyed a flip flop (which, sadly, is no longer available.) and regularly attacks shoes
• he sits up and does other tricks to get treats
• he walks on a leash
• he greets me at the door when I come home, all excited to see me and, presumably, tell me about his day

The internets are full of weird and crazy and mean people.  Thankfully, there are also amazingly kind, sweet, and thoughtful people that will knit you socks just because you asked.  Often, those groups of people exist in the same places on the internet.  They just tend to gravitate towards sides of the room, if you will.

The biggest problem with life is a lack of time.  There isn't enough time to work 8 hours, work out for 1, cook and eat a yummy dinner, do homework, knit, take pictures, practice the clarinet, learn piano, ride horses, etc. etc. etc.  And there never will be, so when you have a chance: take it.

Pictures of babies can make everything better, even if just for a few minutes.

Friends will often pop up out of unexpected places.

A coworker's life goal is to purchase a trailer and then die in a tornado in said trailer.  S/he thinks that will be a fast way to go, and relatively painless.

Last week? Not so good for the knitting.

I did, however, rip-out the sewn cast off of the paw print sock, knit another half inch or so of ribbing and then try a cast-off I saw on Wendy's blog. I like it MUCH better now. I'd take a picture, but really - it looks almost the same. Just better.

So now I can start the second sock. I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt to make the socks match or just go with it. I think I'll end up matching them. I couldn't bring myself to start the second one when I didn't like the first one.

I also got the second skein of yarn for my sister's scarf, so hopefully I'll be able to knock that thing out in a week or two, just to make myself feel better about the number of things on needles right now.

Blaze is moving along... It would make a semi decent tube top right about now, but not so sure about how much I like the idea of a cabled tube top. Or a tube top in general, so I'll just keep knitting. For the most part, I've memorized the pattern. I just have to stop and figure out if I'm knitting/purling each stitch or crossing them on each round. I've just joined the third ball of yarn, too.

Last week, I somehow forgot to cable and/or cabled when I shouldn't have and had to tink back 4-5 rows to find and fix the mistake. That actually took more time than knitting would have, which was rather annoying. But ah, well. At least it is correct now.

Other than that, working for the first time this weekend - stage crew for the Vagina Monologues. I love the show, but not sure how being present for 3 performances is going to pan out. At the very least, I'll be paid.

Other than that, feeling rather ... off. Somewhat feel like I'm forgetting to do something or am behind or something. Things with friends are weird, things in general feel weird. Not bad, just .. different. And I'm not sure I like it.

Christmas came a little bit early

 It has been a very few exciting days around here.

But you'll get to read the same old boring topics.  YAY for you!

I've finished with all but one class - Hist 401.  Of course, this is the class for which I must write a 20 page paper.  I'm currently on page ten and about ready to curl up in a ball and cry in his office, begging him to just give me a B+ and I'll take it, thankyouverymuch.

Something tells me that I'm just gonna have to suck it up and write the paper.  

I've only received one grade so far and oddly enough, compulsively checking eLion to see if any other grades have been posted doesn't seem to be working.  I've decided to blame technology.

The realtors made a surprise visit yesterday to make sure we're all abiding by the lease.  One section of the lease (on the bottom of page 9, actually) states that only four people get to live here.  Oddly enough, that's the one section of the lease we can't seem to get Jendrew to follow.  Surprise of surprise, they were both here when the realtors knocked on their door and she got a talking-to.  About twenty minutes later, they both left.  She's returned once, to pack up toothbrushes and medications, and we've only seen them once since.  The atmosphere here is SO much more relaxed now. 

If he spends more than two nights a week here again, we're gonna have a little talking-to ourselves.  I am, in a sick and twisted sort of way, looking forward to that very much.

I'm fairly certain that she is pissed at us, believing that we called and complained.  I find it so very satisfying that a) she is angry for getting in trouble for doing something she is not allowed to do and that we have asked her, multiple times, not to do and b) that we had nothing to do with it.  Here's to hoping that they remain not here for the rest of the school year.

To follow that wonderful Christmas surprise (I promise, there is no sarcasm what-so-ever in that sentence), Ryan locked himself out of his room.  (We have taken to locking our bedroom doors when we leave because we have reason to believe that Jendrew went through Ryan's room while he was at mass.  Papers were not were they had been left and a rather mean-spirited note that he had written to relieve stress and anger was found on top of the papers it had previously been underneath.  Plus, there were a number of holes in his practice exam, as if the exam had been stabbed with a knife.)  All told, I think he spent about two hours waiting for a locksmith to let him back in his room.  I suggested billing Jendrew for the cost of the locksmith, but the idea was vetoed.

TheUrmily had similar issues this morning, but that was related to her car and the fact that she locked not only her keys, but also her cell phone and id card in her car, making it impossible for her to either call anyone for help or return to her room and ask a neighbor for the use of their cell phone.  

There is no knitting content because I have been doing no knitting.  I sit at my computer and I type and read and read and type and play a few games of Freecell so my mouse doesn't feel as if I no longer love it.  Ryan shall have to go home hat-less, as I think it would be better if he went home in such a state and I finish this paper before it is due.  (Time: 19 hours and 45 minutes.  And I think sleep might be a good thing at some point.  Perhaps?)

There will, however, be knitting content once I get home.  We'll see how fast one can knit an applied i-cord edging to a other-wise completed hat, finish the remaining 1/4 of a sock, figure out gauge for Blaze, start upon highly complicated chart-reading-requiring socks, and go to the barn and deal with family and maybe see the boyfriend for a little bit.  And let us not forget about the holiday parties which, by definition, involve food and alcohol that is (mostly) free.

bits and orts

I want to knit these socks.  I'm not very good at reading charts, so that might prove interesting. But they are beautiful socks.  

Problem is that I owe a pair of socks to Tina, a pair of socks to my sister, and a pair of socks to my mother.  Tina's socks are about 3/4 of the way done and I've already knit my mother a pair.  So I guess I ought to make my sister a pair.  And she also loves the pattern.  I suppose that I can knit them for her first, learn the pattern, and knit myself a better pair.  That works for me.

This is our Christmas Tree Topper.  Somehow, it was deemed
fitting that he should have something up his behind.
That ought to give you some idea of our sense of humor

So, for break, I have lined up : Kool-Aid dying.  I've got some 400+ yards of fingering superwash yarn from KnitPicks to be dyed.  

I'll FINALLY get to start Blaze, with the super yummy alpaca that I pet before going to bed every night.  Luckily, the boyfriend doesn't even notice when I knit in public anymore, so he's gotten very good at ignoring all the yarn sitting around my room.  And my actions towards it.

And then, I'll start the Bayerische sock.  I'm thrilled to find a sock pattern with a gauge of 9sts/inch since that's my typical gauge with Opal and that's the yarn my sister picked out for her socks.

When I was little, I used to build forts under this bush.
The best part was that my parents could never see me.

So, you want to hate me?  I'm almost completely finished my Christmas shopping.  I need to run down-town and pick up a poster for a friend, but I know that the store has it.  For the Urm-dawg, I'm going to donate money to a charity in her name.  I just need to figure out which charity would best suit her.  Doctors Without Borders would let me help out the Yarn Harlot, but maybe I'll just end up donating a bit to them anyway.  I need to get the Boy one more gift, but that might be done through iTunes, so no big deal there.  And of course, I need to wrap those that I've already purchased, but that won't take long.

Clearly, I am a throne for the cat.  This is a scan of a print
my sister took, when I fell asleep reading one evening.

Yesterday, I stayed on campus until 9:30pm, working in various computer labs.  I managed to get quite a bit of work done - I only have two papers and a final exam left.  So, I've calmed down a bit and am rewarding myself for managing to hand in two finals today.  I managed to get about 3 pages of the 5 page paper done, so if I can finish that tonight, I have tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday to churn out 20 pages.  Totally do-able.

Right?