Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas and Such

My it has been an eventful few days. Christmas kicked off well with gift opening and mass. I have been setting my needles afire with how much I have gotten done over the last few days also which is always good. I have had a few toys to play with which is always nice too.

Before I get to my Christmas bounty, I shall first update on the Christmas sweaters. After countless rip outs, ends woven in, wrapping and praying for correct fit, photographic evidence will show a 6 out of 6 success rate. Justin's just barely fits, nice and snug, Racheal loves her 'butcho' (see a post or two back), Dad's vest's neck fits lovely, second time's a charm I guess, and Mum's last minute hail Mary finishing of Ian's sweater paid off since its done and dusted. A little hiccup on Kathryn's sweater, but she now loves it and all the pain and suffering of making it is now gone. As for me, I love mine. Such a cute color and pattern. Now pictures individually will follow soon, but as this post was kinda overdue and I the chaos of Christmas has yet to die down, I haven't photographed each individually.

So photos will come soon, and I now don't really have an excuse not to show regular progress on my projects and such since Santa brought me a camera. A nice cute red one, and if Blogger will cooperate I will post some pictures in this post (I tried once, but it didn't work well). So if you see pics at the end of this post, then it worked, if not, keep waiting, they will come. I promise.

And that brings me to Uncle Jim's sweater. The body was finished late late Sunday night, and the first sleeve was finished up this morning. Progressed was slowed today, but I still have a good leg under me on the second sleeve. It looks possible to finish it by New Years, but I won't be counting my chickens yet.

So Christmas, I got 2 sets of really nice needles, size 8's which are not working miracles on Uncle Jim's sweater. 2 Skeins of sock yarn, which I will photograph a bit later, a cute bag, and a few other things, but I fear I am losing ya. It seems like I am procrastinating on the pictures, but I will get better.

It seems like a lot, yet a little happened. And now that I am spouting nonsense, I think its time to wrap things up. Hopefully everyone had a good Christmas, and Happy New Year if I don't post sooner.

Way to much time with a camera

Well I am happy to say Justin has really bounced back from his asthma attack. As I type he is playing in the back yard and disobeying me.... no coat and it isn't even 60 degrees. My thought is when he gets cold he will come in....... okay when I tell him to come in and put his coat on he will come in.
I never knew just how much I liked the color red. I stood by the stove mixing and smooshing cranberrys thinking this would be a great color for wool then I looked down at a pair of red socks I had finished months ago. Yep I seem to like red.
Pisssst note from Cuddles (aka Dixie). Mum really needs to put that camera down. Now I can see whey she would take a photo of me but the next photo well she mush have lost her mind.
I know people think big dog and a dog of a certain breed and they think bad dog. Well look at this face, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and he is one of the best dogs in the world. I would put him up against the best and he would win over hearts with his sad puppy dog eyes his doggie kisses. He truly is a member of this family just like our children and cats.....no not gerbils, gerbils are rats. When I saw Kathryn curled around Sedgwick well I thought this is truly how he is. His feelings gets hurt and he loves as much as any one would and could love. So come on people get a grip don't hate the dog educated the owners, on lookers and passer by ers.
Ian's socks the socks I didn't get to give to him on Christmas day..... no I had them done just forgot were I put them. I always mess up one way or the other. Socks and boy have been reunited and my job here is done.
The longest sweater of this year. My goodness it was a handful but now that it is done I kind of miss it.......Maybe another one for next year NOT. Glad Kathryn likes her new sweater. It really looks nice on her and I am so glad.
Any one who knows me knows I am cheep and only pay for something if I have to. I saw these kind of stitch markers and thought I can make them so I did. Going to test these stitch markers out see how they hold up. Wish me luck.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Insomnia

Well it's 4 AM right now, Christmas morning. I can't sleep as per usual and so in Christmases to come I don't get implicated, I am quietly typing out this post, not venturing from my room. Partly because of the dog and partly because of all the grief I get from mainly Kathryn about my early Christmas wake ups. Its not my fault if I can't go back to sleep at 4 Am is it?

The buildup to Christmas this year was nice. We got a nice winter storm 2 days ago that dropped the temperature to around freezing at best and put about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Whether that snow is still on the ground as I type, I don't know.

We exchanged our secret Santa gifts and assorted other gifts last night, and my secret Santa, who I can now reveal as being Racheal loved her gifts. Although it can be hard not to love seamonkeys and ribbon jewelry kits right? My secret Santa was far from being secret, but that was alright, she gave me a Musical Ride t-shirt. I would mention some of the other gifts I got, but I haven't got them yet.

With all this decorating, you may ask if I got any knitting done at all. And I would have to reply au contrare my good blogging buddy, whereas it is true, decorations go up the two days before Christmas as per tradition (and don't come down till three kings Sunday) between present wrapping and cooking and such I have gotten less than 3 inches away from the ribbing on Uncle Jim's sweater. Which I have to say is a relief cause my tentative goal is to finish before new years.

And Christmas sweaters were exchanged also last night, and if I had a picture I would post it, but I don't so I won't. All of the sweaters that we made were very well received. They all fit, and were finished on time, so mission completion!

So a peek to the future, get out your crystal balls guys! Once everyone gets up, we will open stockings, rip through presents, the whack the overnight baked porridge in the oven and go to church. When we get home our porridge will be done, we will eat, then the endless box opening and twistties, and battery finding will begin. Then comes the chorus of "why don't you wait on _______, you have all Christmas break to do __________" (reader may fill in blanks with whatever kit, game or other unwrapped goodie strikes their fancy.) Then we shall sup on a gorgeous beef roast, green bean casserole stuffing and such, then to top it all off, we shall light the Christmas pudding (hopefully not any eyebrows or Mum's tablecloth! We've had a few close calls) and top that with a bit of ice cream or custard, or pecan pie for the younger ones. Then once the kids go to bed, Dad, Kathryn and I get to play with the kids' toys.

Now it's time for Hulu and me to watch some television. Like last year I think I will catch up on some Law and Order SVU. Hulu has seen this episode a million times, but I haven't, but that doesn't matter because he will watch it over again, just for me, cause I asked. Isn't he sweet?

To the very few readers we have out there, have a very safe warm and most of all Merry Christmas, if our oversees readers haven't already. As a side note, thanks to all of the readers out there, it's nice to know that someone reads these words I string together. You can tell my life is dull when the threshold of exitement lies with how many hits this blog gets. Sorry, bit of a downer on the warm Christmas spirit of before, so here Merry Christmas, and to all a good night (or morning in my case)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Preparations, Meet Mundane Daily Life

A long yet short week, and it is only halfway over. Last minute Christmas stuff seems to be filling every moment, a shopping trip here, groceries there, scurrying with wrapping paper everywhere. The flow of baked goods still hasn't ended, with Justin baking brownies at a friends house today resulting in a plate coming home. Christmas lights have gone up, the Grinch is inflated and slowly but surely the house is making its transition to a more festive state.

Mum has to finish up Kathryn's sweater and I have to seam up the butcho (poncho for butt (racheal). Long story short- Racheal was ruffle butt and that slowly evolved from ruffle butt to ruffles then to just plain butt.) All the tags for Dad's vest are pulled in, and that was a task in itself, Justin's is done, and Mum pawned Ian's off on me too. And if anyone asks, the three sweaters and butcho under my covers are all projects I did over the semester and got lazy on the finishing. I had to make up a cover story quickly to avoid suspicion over the mass of knitting on my bed. And technically it isn't a lie, per say.

And when all that is done, comes wrapping. Apparently it is very hard to find garment boxes anymore, so now I have to find a way to wrap a bunch of sweaters. The roll of paper that nearly misses your head will be me, sorry.

Oh, and on the grade front, I am happy to say that I now have all of my grades. And Bean is a hero. I managed to get straight A's. 3 A's and 2 A-'s. The A-'s were so close to being A's, it was like kissing Ian. But I can't complain, straight A's are straight A's.

So what's on my needles now? Well it seems as though I have been seaming more than I have been actually knitting. Uncle Jim's sweater now has the sleeves taken off and now is just a race to finish the 15 or so inches until the ribbing. The bed socks have sat on my dresser since my last post, not intentionally though. I need to get Uncle Jim's sweater done first, so they take a backseat. I also managed to finish Mum's abandoned cross stitch from a while ago. I did most of it over the summer but ran out of time on the final border, so that was yesterday's project, and I am happy to say it was done before tea-time.

I finally, have gotten my haircut. This kind of event usually isn't that groundbreaking, but since about a week or two into the semester it became apparent that I got a terrible haircut. It looked marginal in the salon, but what could I do at that point, to fix it it would have had to be shaved off, since i like my hair short short. So as it grew out, it kinda turned into a chick mullet. When it was cut, instead of leaving it long enough to go around my ears, they cut around my ears, so I had rather short hair on the front a a fringe of almost shoulder length hair in the back. It is finally gone, I have a good looking haircut and I don't look like I should be from the 80's.

I must get back to seaming, maybe tonight I can actually work on a knitting project! I still have a tie pillow to make for my secret Santa, but I have a day or two left.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sundays Are Not For Resting

I made it through the barrage of cookies cakes and other such sweets and end of the semester parties that are obligatory in elementary school, barely. We also have enough cookies and such at home to open a small shop. It will be a miracle this Christmas season to not gain weight. Needless to say my willpower is a tad lacking.

I have casted on for the Uncle Jim sweater. It is about 15 increases in and it is kinda poking along. Yes, I know that that much progress is good for only working on it since 3 yesterday afternoon, but shouldn't it go faster? I think it may be plunked on my dresser for half a day to finish my mardi gras bed socks. You know those bags of donated yarn? Well there was some very vibrant fuzzy yarn that got some short rows and size 3's and made a really cute sock. So I have to finish the heel of that socks and do another. I know you have been waiting with baited breath to see the result of Vlad, but no dice. Sorry, the camera has been hiding, nursing low batteries, so you guys will have to wait.

I really don't know how much knitting I will get done today due to the fact that both me and Kathryn have been enlisted to babysit the neighbors. Not that I mind, just bring the little brother and he and Noah play and play and play and play till mum and dad pick Justin up, and Noah crashes on the couch. The only thing we are there for are to feed them and keep them from hurting themselves, each other, or breaking stuff. The only thing is that they usually stay out rather late (for me at least, I am the one who goes to be religiously at 9 during the semester), and they only way to get Noah to sleep is mindless shows on Noggin. It's a good thing they invented blind knitting. Without it my mind would be mush. So it will be a late night tonight, good thing the kids don't have school and I can sleep in tomorrow morning since we will be going absolutely nowhere.

Now all I have to do is wait for Bean to post my last grade. Either he will be a hero or the mean nasty professor who messed up my straight A's. It's his choice. Although this semester was the last one he plans to teach at UH so I doubt my measly grade will stain his conscience.

Football is on, I think it is time to knit.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

At Home Again, Naturally

My first week back has flown by it seems. We have been running from school to store and home again so many times it is quite amazing I have had any time to do anything for me.

I shall start off with knitting, for a change. I finished Justin's sweater arms for the second time earlier last week, so all I had to do in my dorm was preemie hats and Vlad. I got about half a dozen hats done and about 5 pattern repeats done. Vlad is now officially done, as of noon today and is rather large. I shall post a pic of it next time, if I remember. So the dentist office waiting was filled with a preemie hat.

On the subject of preemie hat knitting, we got a 'donation' of yarn this weekend. I wasn't on the ground two hours when Ian's boy scout merit badge brought us to the house of one of the boys where 3, yes 3 large garbage bags full of yarn were loaded into the back of our van. Usually when someone wants to offload yarn onto us it is old, unusable yarn, but these bags were filled with Baby and Yarn Bee yarns from Hobby Lobby. Lots of novelty yarns, but also nice baby yarns in really cute colorways. So we should have enough baby yarn for sweaters and hats and such for at least a year, maybe.

Grades for me have started to trickle in. I am now only waiting on one, surprise surprise, the laziest, slowest grader has yet to post my final grade. It is at the point where I am nervous to see if prof. Bean will break my straight A record with a B+. I did really well this semester, and wouldn't beat myself up over a B, especially with the 2 A's and 2 A- 's but still straight A's would just top this semester off.

I have all of my Christmas shopping done, coming in 5 bucks under. Granted I had a $20 budget and only one person to buy for. In my family the 7 of us draw names and we are their secret Santa. That keeps us from getting 6 terrible cheap gifts instead of nice thought out gift. Some people are over achievers and get multiple people gifts, but that is the theory anyway. I won't spill who I have just in case that certain someone is reading.

Recently I was thinking about the whole story behind Santa. First of all, how did St. Nick turn into a chubby jolly guy in a red suit coming down a chimney? And how did such widespread details become widespread? Like mice opening the door from inside if you don't have a chimney, or coal, not getting presents if you wake up, elves, Rudolph and such. I don't mean the night before Christmas and those kinds of stories, but the original origin. The funny things you think about on an uphill 2 mile walk from an aborted dentist trip. Long story.

So to return to the beginning topic, its time to pattern search again. I have an idea for my next project, I want to modify the front and do the Dahlia Cardigan from the 2011 Fall Interweave knits mag, but I need the yarn and I shall soon have another project 'dumped' in my lap. My uncle Jim has requested a brown pullover, and Mum is still swamped with Christmas knitting, and since I was an overachiever and finished all of my Christmas projects, I have been recruited to do this project once we can find the yarn. I really don't mind, it means I have some more time to find my next project, which can take awhile.

Things are so busy here, so I don't know when I will post next. I kinda liked posting every other day, I will admit, so I may post more often, although I am hesitant to make such a declarative statement. We'll see, it seems as though Taylor puts it best, "I can't say what is waiting for you, at every stop you blow my mind and change direction"- Wait Here For You (by Hanson). Such an adorable song.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Sleep, an Impossible Commodity

It is no surprise that the last 2 weeks have been tiring. With finals now done, I was really looking forward to a good night sleep without any essays or exams looming over my head. But God definitely has a sense of humor. I was just about asleep, it was like 10:30 and I had been tossing and turning for an hour and a half and the fire alarm goes off. Great. Just great. So I stumble out of bed, grab my phone, manage to find my bathrobe and shoes, almost forget my id and keys and go outside. The only blessing was that it wasn't too cold outside and my bathrobe was thick enough so I didn't freeze like the other short short pajama clad dorm buddies. You can always tell when I am just slightly on the peeved side when I am calling the automated voice a moron and criticizing and poking holes in the emergency procedures. Insted of just the alarm, we get this automated voice telling us to evacuate the building, not taking the elevator, etc. and he got the brunt of my frustration. I don't think he minded. But then once I got back to my room 15 minutes later (the security to clear the building took their sweet time) I was awake. Took me forever to 'go back to sleep'. And on the day I get to fly out. The one day where I have a lot to do in a short amount of time. Real funny God, real funny.

In a slightly more upbeat frustration (if there is one) two of my grades have been officially posted. I knew I was getting an A- in art history, but when my psych stats grade came in this morning I was shocked. The grades were on blackboard, so I could calculate my average, a simple points system out of 480 points. So I was resigned to the A- that blackboard told me. I was really happy that I was able to bull my bunnies out of the fire and pull out some kind of A. But when I checked my official grade, it was an A. Pure unadulterated A. I don't know how my 92.29 grade turned into a 93 or higher, but it did. Maybe my group was right, the 'I don't curve grades' stick up her you know what professor, did make me the teachers pet. I didn't do anything to deserve such an 'honor' I assure you, but maybe it was bestowed upon me. I got an A out of it, so I am not complaining, puzzling yes, complaining no.

Well I have some last minute stuff to do, so I can board my plane and forget the last two weeks ever happened.

Friday, December 9, 2011

This is Your Brain After Finals

Well, before I furiously start packing and getting ready to go, I though I would post. It seems as though my mind has gone to mush, and I haven't even taken my last final yet.

This morning, I felt so stupid it wasn't even funny. I am one of those people that the minute it is time to check in online, I have already so that I get the best boarding position. So this morning I had it in my head that I had to check in at 8. So I try, and they send an error message. So I do it agian, and again, and again. Then wait 5 minutes and repeat the process. So about 15 minutes later I am kinda panicing, thinking there is something wrong with my itinerary and such. So I decide that I should see whats wrong, so I called the hotline. As I am explaining my problem to the really nice representative, I realize that 24 hours before my flight means that I can check in after 10. I felt so stupid. Thankfully the representative was understanding, could joke along with me and didn't make me feel like to much of a choice animal.

Twenty minutes and counting to the most involved final of the semester. I have to write about 8 pages worth of an essay, or two. Six prompts, and I have to choose two to write in a three hour period. I am not freaking out about the essays, I can free write an essay like that no problem. The issue is that the whole semester has been one of those blow off classes. I have been listening and taking notes the whole time of course, but it seems like the type of prompts are so different than what we talked about. The stories also I wasn't too fond of. Oh well, in about four hours this will all be in my rear view mirror and all that will be left to do is stress over the long waiting to see how well I fobbed off genuine knowledge of short stories. I also doesn't help that I don't get to eat until after the exam. And I am kinda hungry.

So in about four hours I will be able to return to some kind of normality.
"we can talk about normality till the cows come home.
Ford- What's normal?
Trisha- Where's home?
Zaphod- What are cows?

Sorry, this moment called for a little Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Right now I am in dire need of a lemon hat. (ya have to see the movie).

Monday, December 5, 2011

Coolest College Morning Yet!

A bit early for a post from me I know, but I just had the best 'breakfast experience' yet (sounds a little hinky when you put it that way though).

I was eating my normal, boring breakfast alone, like usual, when I notice a guy and his friend enter the dining room. I had seen the guy before, he lives on my floor and we are like, general acquaintances, name and major that's about it. So, they are finding a place to sit, and I notice them kinda walking towards me, and I am trying to mind my own business since I don't really know them. So Braxton, the guy I know(ish) kinda walks up and says something to the effect, of my friend here thought you were someone else, but do you mind if we sit and eat with you? And who am I to turn down eating with someone?

Before I finish this narrative I will say that normally when I find myself eating with random people (a whole whopping 3 times in 3 semesters, to date) it has been really awkward, eating in awkward silence, punctuated by random questions followed by short answers, eliciting no conversation (sorry, rather long sentence there). So I was happy to eat with warm bodies, but wasn't enraptured with the idea of awkward conversation and trying to eat and leave them sitting there without it being weird and making me feel bad.

But, the thing that made this morning the best morning yet, is that for over an hour, long after we had finished eating we were still talking and laughing. It was so naturally, not weird, making it kinda weird in itself, if you follow the logic. I had such a great time, it was sweet. You can tell how low the threshold of excitement is during finals week when a breakfast spent with people is an awesome morning.

Also I find that I get mistaken for other people alot. How sad is that, I can't get my own image, I have to steal other peoples? I don't mean to take the mickey out of the previous event, you know me, can't stay upbeat for long! At least Braxton and Willy didn't make it awkward and do the usual 'oh, I'm sorry, thought you were someone else' line accompanied by awkward walk away, sometimes with a giggle, a little ways away (not far enough away for you to not hear them).

So see Mum, I am making friends here. I have had my social interaction for the day, now I don't have to feel bad being a hermit in my dorm studying for my exams and getting ready to fly out.

And I have finished Justin's first sleeve again and am halfway through the second. And wonder of wonders, I get lunch today! No, I don't have an eating disorder, I am a perfectly normal (eating wise) person, with my meal plan I get two meals a day, and three on one day of the week. But this week, since I am flying out on Saturday, it means I get an extra meal a day. Cool right? This bit is really making me think of ImprovEverywhere's I Love Lunch musical check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRKfZ0mGLaY

And to help last post end a little happier, we (coogs) were killed Saturday afternoon by Southern Miss. in the C-USA championship, but managed to score a bowl game. So January 2nd we get to play in the Cotton Bowl against Penn State. I don't know how that will go, hopefully Case Keenum can pull it together again for one last win of the season. New Year miracle anyone?

Alright, now to study and do random stuff. The life of a college student, gotta love it right?

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Studying, Papers and Exams, Oh My!

Another week down, less than one to go. It has been an interesting one to say the least. It started out as a weird week, and ended a fatigued one. Roomie dearest had a falling out with her boyfriend, so I played roomie again, and for the first time she stayed the night three times in a row. Its nice to have her here, but it totally threw off my schedule.

Then, Wednesday rolled around and I stressed all day, and the days before, for my French oral exam. Surprisingly I found it went rather well. Before that exam, the internet over the whole campus went down. So for 9 hours, I had no internet. It would have been alright if half of the material for my socio test wasn't online. Those chapters were only available online, not in our book, and I was planning on studying them Wednesday afternoon. But since I was in bed when the internet came back on, I had to cram before the exam at 8:30. So needless to say I was a tad stressed. It also didn't help that I had two exams that day either. But, surpisingly, for cramming at 7, I pulled out a 92.5. I don't know how it happened, but it did.

Then to top everything off, my week was anything but done. An art history exam to start off the day, and a paper due that evening rounded out my week. I managed a 94 on the art history test, again, rather surprisingly will the stress, and the paper got almost finished when the deadline was extended. So when I finish writing this post, I am off to microsoft word, and write a conclusion read my 5 pages and turn that sucker in.

So now 4 exams down, 3 classes all done but the final grade, and only 2 classes, 2 exams and less than 7 days left to go. I have to say, that is a really nice prospect.

Well, this weekend so far, although been relaxing, it rather busy, oxymoron I know. Well, this morning I was off to Krogers, which included a rather long wait at the bus stop. It would have been much shorter if it wasn't for the hordes of fans going to Robertson stadium. The first bus just passed right by me since I couldn't see it till it was too late, and the bus couldn't see me and just sailed right on past. And to add insult to injury almost everyone who passed, either on rickshaw, car, scooter or on foot decided to stare at the girl knitting at the bus stop. And then a really annoying guy decides to wait for his friends at the stop. Good thing his friend didn't dawdle getting there or I would have punched his lights out.

But the return trip went well. Nothing bad to report, I got off the bus a stop too early, so I had a slightly longer walk, but it wasn't too bad. Other than that nothing much to report.

Oh, knitting, I almost forgot. Not much knitting this week as you can imagine. I got a good amount done on Vlad, and am almost done with sleeve take 2. After I finished the sweater Mum measured Justin and I found out that the sleeves are 2 inches too short. So now they have to come out and get re-done. So that is now my television knitting for now.

So now I have two more exams to take, as well as packing up and wrapping up the semester. If all goes well I will be on a plane come Saturday morning. So time to finish watching the depressing 4th quarter of the football game and try to get the motivation to finish my paper before Sunday night.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Oh, What a Break!, (Late Novemeber, back in 2011?)

A bit late for my normal post I know, but, I survived! The school put on a last minute (to me at least) thanksgiving meal, in which I stuffed myself even though it wasn't quite traditional. I am not the 'turkey police' when it comes to the proper was a thanksgiving meal should go, really, I mean I like my thanksgiving with a banana under the skin (makes it nice and moist, not gross at all surprisingly) but that meal would have benefited from someone taking the thanksgiving off its name. The turkey was good, it was smoked, and with the gravy it resembled a thanksgiving ideal, resmebled. The gravy was really good, and made the stuffing bearable. It was supposed to be cornbread, but had the consistency of bread stuffing, which was odd. The green bean casserole was the worst though. The green beans had no taste, in place of cream of mushroom soup, there was a tasteless sauce, and tasted entirely of red bell pepper. It was really really weird. But that is over, the cafeteria is now open again, and all is right with the world.

Now that the holidays are over, and I have had a nice 3-5 days of sleeping in and occasional homework, it is time to start prepping for exams. I know, December isn't even here yet and I'm am staring finals in the face. This week I have an oral exam in french on Wednesday, a stats exam and a socio exam on Thursday and an art history exam on Friday. Lovely right? So I think its safe to say I will have no life this week with a paper I have barely started due on Friday also.

In about an hour I get to meet my lovely oral exam partner for french. The partner who gave me the wrong email address, ignored me for more than a week, and just now wants to start studying for the oral. I have been trying to get ready for more than a week, but couldn't really without my partner. So now that it is getting closer, it is suddenly a good idea to meet at the library and get our acts together. I am just hoping that we are graded separately. As Asia sang, only time will tell.

On a brighter, happier note, our football team have gotten through the regular season officially undefeated. Next Saturday we face the conference USA champs of the east for the title, then after that I don't know. Hopefully my and my roomie can get $5 student tickets and go before they all sell out. I heard that yesterday all of the regular tickets sold out, and I have a feeling the student tickets will go like hot cakes as well. The nice thing is that it will be at Robertson stadium, so we have an opportunity to go. It will also be on ABC that day too, so you guys can watch too, hopefully.

Oh, knitting, I almost forgot. Lets see here, not much has gotten done. One really cute striped preemie hat, and a good amount done on Vlad. It is a shawl done with my 'reclaimed' plum baby bee yarn from last semester. It is turning out nice, it should though since it is on size 8's. But it is fun, keeps me on my toes.

Alright, that's it for me, school work beckons, unfortunately. But less than 2 weeks to go!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Wonders of a Shower, or Access to it

These few days have been so eventful I thought I might bring you up to speed before the Thanksgiving slow down.

It all started Sunday night. I make it a habit of going to bed at nine every night during the semester, since I get up rather early and all that. So like a normal night, I went to bed and it was reasonably quite, my suitemates weren't loud, or there at all, and I thought I was going to get a good nights sleep. Well, that wasn't quite the case. They got back around quarter to ten, before I could soundly fall asleep, proceed to make tons of noise, and blast their music. And the bad thing is, they have horrible taste in music. So I don't fall asleep until after 11, which is then followed by waking up in the middle of the night a handful of times. So when the alarm goes off around 5:45, it already seems like it won't be the best of days, especially with the fact it was a Monday. So I was looking forward to a nice hot shower, even lukewarm would have been nice, but God has a nasty sense of humor. So insted of letting me muddle through a shower, I was greeted by a locked bathroom door. My suitemates had locked me out. And so I knocked on our adjoining door, to get it unlocked. After the second knock, I hear them whisper and beds creak, then silence. So I get dressed, go to breakfast, probably scaring everyone I see with my greasy bed head and get back to the dorm. Thankfully the second times the charm and I get my nice shower 3 hours after I wanted it. The day goes rather well, considering the morning.

So that evening I just wanted to brush my teeth and go to bed, forget the day ever happened and count the hours till I can sleep in. No dice. 9:00, suitemates are quiet as churchmice and, we are locked out once more. So I bang on the adjoining door, rather steamed now, but they aren't there. So I throw on my jam jams and ask roomie to keep and ear out for them so we can have bathroom privileges again. Well as per usual, she leaves to go to her boyfriends, and unbeknownst to me, they never showed up. So 24 hours later, it's deja vu, and I am knocking on the door to use the bathroom I paid for again. But luckily for them, their sleep wasn't disturbed since they weren't there. So like yesterday, I was shower-less, heading to breakfast, then heading to my 8:30 class. So after class, really mad, I checked and they still weren't there, so with my patience gone, I head down to the desk, and get someone to go next door and open the door for me. And now, all I can think is, 'why didn't I do this sooner?'. It was painless, a bit humiliating though, but painless, and at the end of it all, I got a shower!

So along with posting this, knitting alot, getting a cold sore, my therapy for this whole ordeal was some signage. After a whole semester I would have thought they would know which way the lock on our door turns, but apparently not. So a black marker, colored pencils, paper and a pencil, now clears up the complicated process of locking and unlocking my door. It is now rednecked to the door right above the door handle with duct tape.

Alright enough of that, hopefully I can now draw a line under it and move on. We'll see what happens. To end on a high note, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Another Week

As you can see, I wasn't eaten by my art history paper, thankfully, what a terrible way to go (akin to getting hit by a bus or something). The deadline was pushed back a week, but I finished it and turned it in before the original deadline. I had enough stuff to do over the break, and it was finished (knowing me I wouldn't have changed it in the week it would have sat on my hard drive) so hopefully it will get graded soon and I can see how I did.

This was a rather nice week, even after a rather rocky start. Monday I was so exhausted it felt like a Friday and Tuesday was not much better. But on Wednesday two out of three of my classes were cancelled and I got a surprising amount of work done before class at 2:30. Fridays I only have two classes, both of which were cancelled again, so yesterday I had off, and again got a fair amount done. So now if I can get my bunnies in gear I can get my stats homework out of the way as well as my french before the weekend and I can consider it a productive weekend. Not holding out any hope though.

Knitting, ah yes, well it has been two weeks since I started looking for another pattern, and today that search has come to an end. I found a simple shawl pattern with my name written all over it. So hopefully it will take long enough to last through the semester. Dad's vest has one more sleeve edging to go, Justin's sweater is finally done, but the tags are going to wait till I get home to see if it will actually fit or it may be a mad scramble to finish up before Christmas. And atop all that, my preemie hats total climbs to seven.

Busy week on campus here. ESPN's game day came and broadcasted live for the first time in school history it seems. Apparently this is a big deal. Shows how little I know. I guess we have to be 10 and 0 to be recognized as a good team, and as a cherry to top it all off, we managed to beat SMU also, so we are still undefeated. Seemed like a dull game from what the internet was telling me so I'm glad I opted to stay in the dorm this afternoon.

Oh and another tale from the antiquated dorms. Tuesday I was greeted by no hot water. Always a nice occurrence at quarter to six in the morning. Sets the day well I think. And the residence halls association had the great idea not to tell us about this problem before my face was all soaped up and before it was too late to skip the shower. So a freezing half shower it was. Totally killed my Tuesday.

So next week is Thanksgiving, if you didn't already know. And it seems as though my three days off will be filled with a paper for intro to fiction, some stats homework, art history studing, adn french oral presentation studying. Oh and delightful meals consisting of ready to eat, no refrigeration, just add water and zap in the microwave meals. And maybe some fruit that I can swipe from the cafeteria. Lovely right? So as you are gathered around the lovely feast before you, and you go last saying what you are thankful for, and all the good ones are taken, you can think of me and say you are thankful it isn't ramen in front of you!

A simple thing like breathing

Guilty of what you ask of taking my sons health for granted. It started yesturday when I just wanted the school nurse to check Justin's breathing. A feeling of better to be sure than sorry loomed over me. Sure enough wheezing in both lungs. Buckle up folks it is going to be a bumpy ride I thought. I started right away with his breathing treatments and for a while I thought I had caught it in time. By the time he was going to bed I suspected he would be up that night. He had three attacks in the night and with each treatment he wasn't getting any better.

By morning I was just watching the clock tick would you get to 8:00 so I can take Justin in to see the doctor. Tick please you are taking tooooooooo long. Then like an alarm 8:00 I was off with Justin in tow.

No I won't wait he is having an asthma attach.

Smart girl behind the reception desk didn't try to jerk me around just went and got a nurse.

Okay I like the nurses at our Doctors office. They are quick and know their stuff. Breathing treatment with in 5 minutes and they try and measure his pulse oxygen level....toooooo low.

Two hours later, two treatments later, oxygen treatment and 10 games of tic tack checkers ( don't ask how may games I won because I won't tell) later and he is out of danger. He now lays on the sofa sleeping his breathing is labored but he sleeps and I can breath again.

Pictured above is Justin helping unload popcorn not even a week ago. Funny he is always the first to help. He is a joy to be around.

Never never take the simple act of breathing for granted.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Random Occurrences

Another week done and dusted, and all I really have to show for it is a blog post. Not much on the productivity scale, but at least someone gets to peek into my life. I guess the sad thing is that most of the stuff 'post-worthy' happened before Tuesday was done, making the rest of my week into a non-event it seems.

So to start things off, everyone will be pleased to hear that after my big trip to the Menil collection last week, I am still only 1 1/2 pages into my paper, which is supposed to be 6 pages long. Only good news being it is now due a week later, on the 25th instead of the 18th, which means an extra week of procrastination. The deadline was extended because the antiquities section was closed for renovations, not to open until a day after our paper is due. So the deadline was extended, and I am one of the lucky ones to get in before it was closed. I am going to try to turn it in early, maybe get it graded early, so that I am not writing it over thanksgiving break in my ramen induced sleep coma (cafeteria closed Weds-Fri, so it is cheap food not requiring cooking or refrigeration for me!). That is what my Intro to Fiction paper is for, and finals studying, cause that starts a week after Thanksgiving.

I swear (although I shouldn't) the Christmas season starts sooner every year. It hasn't even gotten close to black Friday, this was last Saturday mind you, and hints of the holiday season was creeping up. It hit me in Kroger's last week that they weren't playing that odd mix of supermarket music, they were playing Christmas music. What is next, after the memorials on 9/11 the cutting of the pine trees? Sorry, getting slightly cynical.

A few random moments from the week, first of all, for the first time, I have actually noticed the ornithological happenings around me. In lay mans terms you could say I saw a blue jay. This is odd in the respect that I don't really know my birds, and don't really pay attention to them, and yet while walking one morning, it kinda caught my eye. Nice way to start the morning, a bright pretty blue jay standing 3 feet away from you, not scared off from the sleep deprived college student standing 3 feet away. Talk about more scared of you than the other way round. And also Murphy struck. I was thinking last week that my headphones have lasted me a good few years, like more than 3, which for me is really really good, and guess what, yup, the left one just upped and quit with no warning. So I tried to struggle through, but one eared music is kinda funky especially when the songs are in stereo and all you get is half the instruments and the intermittent backing vocals. So now I am the proud owner of a pair of $10 neon pink earphones from the bookstore. I would have gone with black like the old ones, or even purple, but all they had were these obnoxious pink ones. They work real nice though, hopefully they will last long like the last ones.

Ah, knitting, yes I have done some. Justin's sweater is as of right now, a sleeve and 9 rows of k2/p2 ribbing away from being done. So what television knitting have I done? Well not much I will admit. I finished 3 preemie hats, my WIP socks finally, and another pair of bed socks. I had some spare yarn from one of the sweaters I made, and I needed a quick project for the bus ride last weekend. I needed a pair of acrylic socks I can wash and wash and wash, so these were it. I finished the body of one whole sock listening to roomie dearest's woes for 2 hours. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind, maybe too many details in her relationship, but nevertheless, I really didn't mind helping her out, she just needed an unbiased person to help her see the big picture, or at least another perspective. And I must have 'spill your guts' tattooed to my forehead, cause this happens more often than you would expect.

And as a final remark, I shall conclude that out of all the Adam Sandler movies I have seen, and were repulsed by/ disappointed by, I have finally seen one that I actually like. I just finished watching '50 First Dates', a really cute movie that I would actually watch again.

If I don't get eaten by my art history paper, see ya in a week, ish.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Saturdays, What Can Ya Say?

I never thought a Saturday good be so full, and it isn't even midterms or finals. I guess my life so so boring that a bus ride to an art museum is monumental. I have a paper due in two weeks on one of eight pieces in the Menil collection, about a 15 minute bus ride from the dorms. Thankfully this time taking the bus went better than last time. And as a bonus I got some groceries on the way back.

The trip started out a little rocky. I missed the bus the first time by about 30 seconds. With this being the first time I have taken the city bus, and the first time using this route, naturally I wanted to make sire all went well. So the bus pulls up and I am pretty sure its the right one, but to be absolutely sure, I asked the driver if this was the westbound bus. It doesn't establish much confidence in the metro bus system when even the bus driver doesn't know if this bus that he is driving is the westbound bus. All he could tell me is that it was going that way, pointing west. The only thing I could say was that I was glad I printed out a map of the bus route, and knew which way we were going, and knew which way was west. I must have a better magnet in my nose than I thought.

And then I realized on the walk to the museum that I don't know where the bus stop is for the return trip. How stupid could I be? Usually I am a prepared person. Usually I have triple checked every detail that I may need for the contingency plan of the contingency plan. But the air of calm that surrounded me this morning blinded me to that rather crucial part of my outing. Good thing I happened upon the logic of the Houston metro system. I had this brilliant thought while walking around, if the westbound bus stops on one side of the street, and the route is just reversed, than that means that the eastbound bus stops at a similar spot on the other side of the street. What an amazing thought. It's amazing what a nice fall day, a mile walk, and the need for a way home will produce.

Talking of epiphanies, I found a Kroger. It was the oddest thing, I was walking, keeping and eye on my surroundings, making sure I don't get totally utterly lost, and realized that I was passing behind a Kroger. I had been trying to figure out a way to get to a grocery store, and here was one literally staring me in the face. Kinda weird. The only downside was that I was walking all around the surrounding areas looking for a bus stop afterwards with two shopping bags off odds and ends looking like a tad bit of a dork. Although I have been told I don't need two shopping bags of stuff to do that. Then since I just finished going on a 'school trip' to a museum, I just had to watch To Sir With Love. A sacrifice I know, but someone has to do it!

On to other subjects though, I finished my pair of socks last night. Turned out real nice, for my first pair. Justin's Christmas sweater is under 2 inches away from getting ribbed and sleeved. And Dad's vest still hasn't been forgiven from the grave offense it committed. After I finish Justin's sweater I will take out the front and lower the v-neck. I still can't face it, and as mentioned before, necessity can do marvelous things.

Just before I fell asleep last night I had the oddest thought. For some reason I was thinking about jello. I had the thought that it would be awesome to cover everything in a room and have an all out jello fight. Like food fights in the cafeteria, but with jello. Don't ask where that came from, but still, wouldn't that be fun?

Oh, I never said how the Menil itself was. For the assignment I had to look at the antiquities, basically Aegean, Hellenistic, Roman and up to about the 18th century stuff. Nothing much to interest me. But what was really cool was the surrealist stuff. I don't know why, but I really like style. Much more interesting than bits of bronze or stone carved into terrible representations of the human body. It bored me in class and it was no better in person.

This week should be a little less stressful. But this is only Saturday, who know what could happen when classes commence again on Monday. Professors can have a nasty sense of humor.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Routine Shake Up

Well, as you guys can see, it isn’t the weekend, but I am posting? I know, it is a Thursday, although I keep wanting to think it is a Friday. Always a terrible feeling, especially waking up on the Friday morning thinking it should be a Saturday. Well enough philosophy for one post.

Back to the original thought, it is a Thursday, and I am posting, why you may ask? Well my roommate wanted the room for an hour, and I didn’t have any homework per say that I could bring to the library, so here I am with no internet, a laptop and a sock on the needles (see Mum, I am knitting on it) needing something to do. For a library that is supposed to encourage students to study and research and use its resources, its wireless internet is terrible.

On the knitting topic, I can now proudly say that I finished both of Mum and I’s knit a longs before she did. Both Out of Cheese and the blue shawl are off the needles, and I am finding myself needing a pattern for my 3 skeins of plum Baby Bee. I had an idea for a shawl pattern, but after reading the pattern I had second thoughts. So it will be off to Ravelry for me. I am open to suggestions for a top or shawl...

Hmm, what else, other than a French exam yesterday and a sociology test today, which in under a half an hour I will see how bad I did. The material was on stratification and poverty, nice and boring stuff that doesn't lend itself well to remembering. Especially when it is joined by vocab and partitive articles and the ever present masculine vs. feminine problem. So thankfully my psych stats test is next week, otherwise I would be a puddle of grey matter.

Both my roomie and me have come to our breaking points. As of now there is a towel duct taped, binder clipped and safety pinned to our air conditioning vent. It is currently in the 50's and 60's outside, and today especially very windy so the last thing we need is an igloo for a dorm room. Now that Out of Cheese is done, I have another blanket for my bed, and I have to say, it couldn't have been bound off at a better time.

I don't know if I shall post like normal over the weekend, events may not be worth reporting. Or I may have lots of odd occurrences to fill a post. So stay tuned for more!


Sunday, October 30, 2011

Heath Nuts and An Oxymoronic Week

Another week down, and what a week. Have you ever had one of those weeks that fly by, yet crawl? That was this week. It seemed as though the days went quick enough, but Friday never came. It probably didn't help that the normal routine got kinda thrown off by some oddities in scheduling. For starters the 'Bayou Bowl' or Rice/UH game was this week, on a Thursday which is odd, and made Thursday night very loud, giving the it the feeling of a Saturday. An art history test on Wednesday felt rather odd also, the last one was on a Monday, so ya get the picture. Good news being that October is no one day away from being a calender page in the bin.

It seems as though fall has come. Although the last time I thought that, the weather warmed back up to the 70's and we were assaulted by mosquitoes. It does feel nice though, not sweating on the way to meals, although the trek to the cafeteria at 7 in the morning is a bit on the cold side.

Wow, what a week for knitting though. The blue still unnamed is now off the needles and has already had its maiden voyage in the cold chapel for mass this morning. Out of Cheese is almost done also. The rows drag, but the project is speeding towards the end. As of right now I am on row 164/168. That now brings me to the point in the semester where I start questioning whether I have enough project to get me through the remainder of the semester. I think I will be ok, but that is what I said the past 2 semesters, and fall last year there was a package in the mail with emergency yarn in it about this time last year, and spring semester I was searching ravelry for a project quick because the other projects I had got ripped out. I may be coasting home on fumes (or rather stray fibers being a knitter!). Or I may be just fine, we shall see.

I had a strange thought recently. I was walking back from breakfast, and the crisp fall air has a way of blowing out the cobwebs and sparking some strange thoughts. I have been reading The Once and Future King right, and I had just finished the part where Arthur pulls the sword form the stone and Merlin explains to Arthur that he remembers swaddling him up as a baby and putting him on Sir Ector's doorstep. So I guess my question is, if Merlin lives backwards (death to birth instead of birth to death) then how can he remember something that he specifically hasn't done yet?

I got called a heath nut. Me, a health nut. I mean don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a heath nut, I have nothing against people who are health conscious. But me? I have kinda gotten into the habit of every Monday and Wednesday stopping by the c-store in Oberholtzer hall and getting a snack to tide me over through French class. Since it is later than any of my other classes, I probably shouldn't pass out, get woozy or zone out in the middle of it. So I stop by, get a protein bar of some kind and a diet coke after Intro to Fiction and have a snack before French at 2:30. The cashier, who is also always there at that time when I was checking out said something to the effect of 'I am surprised that a health nut like you would be drinking this stuff.' I know she meant nothing by it, but I couldn't help thinking that someone thought I was a health nut, me, the one who takes all redeeming value out of a salad with creamy poppy seed, ranch, and blue-cheese dressing. I know, I am taking this way to seriously.

Oh, and before I click post, I know you are all wondering the result of the biggest UH rivalry, right? Well, it was a very close game, really close, 73-34 Coogs. So we kill the Owls and stay undefeated. Everyone wins right? Before you call me a huge sports/football fan and a coog true and true you should know that I found out the score when I got up the next morning, after never attending the game.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Mum has had a bit of knitting time

A hat you say well not any old plain hat run of the mill hat get it from the store hat oh no this is a hat Racheal finally finished. Yippie :) :) So that we could send it off to a friend who is due any minute now. Not like we were cutting it right down to the finishing line. Okay I had the baby sweater done in like a day and it waited and waited and waited. I think the next hat Racheal crochets will be done in half the time. Why am I so sure if it.....well this was her second hat the first got a knot the size of Michigan and wouldn't come out so she had to start again with a whole lot of tears. But it is done the new mum just loves it and I am now the nice mum again :)
They look nice together well I think.
Had to replace my MP3 case. The banana one was beyond looking nice. Had a snag and some dirt just wouldn't come out.... yuck. Meet red love love love the purl and will never give up my big button stash it really came in handy see. Oh it is soooooooo soft and yummmy I could wear it all day....wait I do wear it nearly all day.

Clearance bin sock yarn. I will have to admit I just picked up this yarn because it was 3 bucks and my budget is really tight. I thought hum colors are nice I can live with them. Then I knit them up and wow do I like them or what. I have a couple balls more of cheep sock yarn and I sure hope they come out as nice as these.
Okay you can't see just how nice this green is and you can't feel how yummmm it is and it's way to nice to be put on a boys feet but well they are going on Ian's feet once I knit them up into a nice nice pair of socks. Now the reason they are, half because I was asked really nicely by my wonderful husband (hey he asked really really nicely even poured me a glass of wine as he asked and I don't think it was the wine who said I would be happy to knit up a pair of socks for the nose picker boy who yells at me) the other half is when the boys goes out walking in the woods for a boy scout merit badge he wears a whole in his socks and I can't keep getting him new socks. The money fountain has just dried up. So I will have a pair of socks on my needles by the end of the week. Really need knitting to stash in my purse so I don't have to wait and deal with rude people.
Oh Lindsay I ripped out the neck....... don't hate me I didn't like it. I saved the sweater and love how I reknit it way higher. I love love love the real wool but it isn't holding up the way I want so I think I will be knitting up a cheepo sweater that will wear like iron as my winter work horse sweater. Any idea's ladies, for patterns feel free I'm plum out of ideas. I really could wear this sweater all day everyday if it would hold up better. About to cry yes I feel a tear.....stop laughing ladies not funny making fun of you dear old mum and don't think I can't hear it. ;)
We have our pumpkin for the season. Just went out and got it 3 bucks so I broke down and bought it. I think it will be a lovely jack o lantern this year. Justin has big plans for this pumpkin and the way he is saying it well I'm a little frightened. Still have no idea what they are going to be for Halloween not even a inkling.

Oh I thought I would send you some of our weather. It is getting colder here and I'm really loving it. Just wanted to share it with y'all. Can you say sweater weather.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Procrastination, thy name is Facebook

Sorry i've been away for so long......school caught up with me. I meant to blog last weekend, but as seems to be a weekendly occurance, the internet was down for the entire weekend. Alas, I committed to writing the following week. Unfortunately, as there is no post before now, it was to no avail. I do not really have an excuse for this, only that I seemed to have become desperately lazy for that one week. I had no major papers to write, no tests that week so I decided to take a week to relax since I was recovering from a nasty cold that lingered for almost a week. I don't normally have anything on Wednesdays, save Student Association meetings every other week and 1-on-1 meetings with Ed Reilly where we talk about any problems that have arisen on our floors, and other random things. It was our off week for SA, all I had was my 1-on-1 at 2:30 that ended up being mostly about how Ed's new cat was coming along. Ah! Now there's some news.
Ed Reilly became the new director of Residence Life last year, and for almost a year he has been scouring shelters for the perfect cat for his apartment. Success came two Saturdays ago when he, another RA, Amanda and I went down to the animal shelter in the hopes we would find a new cat for him. Unfortunately, he was not successful, and I left truly wishing that I was allowed to have a cat in the dorms. There was this gorgeous, white with tan, dark brown and black patches. Sort of looked like my first cat, but with much more white. Maybe that was why I was drawn to her. Or maybe it was that she was very shy, an obviously abused cat, and I have a soft spot for those ever since we had our cat Roland. She was in a little cubby in a room that had all kittens, though she was almost and adult cat. The only part of her you could see was her tail hanging out the side. Her eyes could melt even the coldest of hearts. She flinched when I gently stroked her tail, and coaxed her out. She finally did come out but ran to the corner and cowered. It took several minutes to get her to come out, but when she did she was quite friendly, if a little shy. She was only comfortable with me, and thoroughly enjoyed the attention if I do say so myself. I fell in love. I wanted to take her home so bad. It was not to be though, and Ed did not find one that he liked, so for a last resort we went over to the SPCA at the mall. Success!!! There were several kittens that had been just dropped off because they had been with a foster mother since the were found by the side of the road. So Ed found little Leota, the newest addition to the residence hall. It is quite nice to walk back from the PVR and see little Leota in the window, curiously looking at all those walking by. And from what I've heard, she is a right and proper kitten, always energetic and teething. But most of all playful!
Wow, tangent. But that needed to be updated. Thursday it turned out that all my classes were canceled and so I took another mental health day. But I couldn't shake the feeling that I should have been doing something. Friday rolled around and sure enough, I had a Bio Lab practical coming up on Monday! That's what I forgot. Okay, so I have the weekend to memorize bones, muscles, the anatomy of the heart, how to tell male skeletons from female skeletons and how different cells look under the microscope. I'm sunk. And thats not just my pessimism, our professor told us that we were screwed. Encouraging, right???? Okay, I'll lock myself in the library for the weekend and have no life. I can live with that. Oh, shoot I have a Statistics test on Tuesday that I also have to study for. Okay, maybe an all nighter. Catherine's coming to visit this weekend???? Snap! Catherine is one of my best friends who graduated last year and is now in graduate school at George Mason University in Washington DC. So of course I will have to go out with her while she's here. Ok, socialize with Catherine, and then squeeze in as much studying as possible and deal with the consequences later. However I vowed to spend more time in the library to be more productive in the future.
Monday came around, stressed about the practical, took it. Wasn't too bad. Today started off on a high when I got back a paper with a big fat A on the top of it! Granted, its political science, not all that hard, but hey! I'll take what I can get. Then today took a nose dive. I was so prepared for my stats test. I put a solid 6 hours of preparing last night for it. I knew the material backwards and forwards after reworking the homework questions. I sat down in front of the computer for my test, open excel and plug in the numbers in formulas just like in the homework. Well, I must have done something wrong, because I kept getting answers from Excel that I KNEW weren't right. I was the third to last person to hand in their test after I sat there for so long trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. To no avail. 1 hour and 15 minutes later I handed him my test frustrated, gave him a death glare and walked out. All the questions are answered, and thats the best I can say. That is one test I'm not looking forward to getting back! But no matter, off to the library to fulfill my promise myself: to be more productive. This is where the blog title plays a role. I sat down at the computer in the library prepared to do my political science homework when I decide to check facebook. Then, the little chat pops up and Katie wants to know if I want to talk. We had started to talk this morning before class because she was on duty the night before and a stupid, immature incident happened that she was upset about. Hmmmmm, homework.............or girl talk with Katie and Amanda????? Which do you think I chose ;)
And with that you are up to speed on my life that seemed slow, but turned out to be really really busy still.

PS: that lab practical????? He emailed the grades Monday night. 98%!!!!!!!!!!! Boo ya Mr. "you're all screwed for the lab practical on Monday." I showed you! :)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Insert Creative Title Here

Wow, it is the end of the week, and I actually remembered to post. I actually remembered a week after my last post, I actually remembered! You can tell what kind of week it's been when the remembering to post on my blog is an achievement. Reminds me of a webcomic I read, Sheldon. Lets see if I can link it... http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/090719.html Hopefully that works. I love the strip, and this one especially.

Well today itself has been a rather busy day, it is homecoming, laundry day, wet sheep day, and on top of all that Zac Hanson's birthday. We won this afternoon against Marshall, 63-28 making us coogs undefeated. Pretty sweet. It was also laundry day, which included the wonderful task of washing my collection of wool socks. The sink in the bathroom doesn't have a plug so I had my socks soaking in a pyrex measuring cup, then ending up with a sock on each of the ends of my hangers and a binder clip to keep them from sliding off the end hanging up in my closet. Vicky (roomie dearest) is gone for the weekend so I get to fill my dorm with the lovely scent of wet sheep until they dry. Good thing we have community property febreeze! Gotta love real wool, nice and warm but a real pain to wash! And happy 26th birthday to Zac Hanson, youngest brother from the band (there are 4 younger Hanson siblings not in the group), drummer, and occasional lead singer, on songs like Go, Broken Angel, Marshmallow Lovers, and Devil's Nachos. I kid you not, Devil's Nachos.

Alright, well school has been going well, and flying by. I realize now it's time to schedule an appointment with my adviser, and in two weeks register for classes for next semester. In four weeks it will be Thanksgiving, and then a week from that Thursday I will be taking my first final exam. It's rather weird (fighting the urge not to write the rest of the lyrics!) thinking of finals. Next weekend I have a trip to the Menil collection for my art history project, a nice 6 page paper due before Thanksgiving, that I will probably be writing the three days before it is due, and dreading every single word. That is usually how it works.

Surprisingly without any major assignments due this week, I haven't gotten much knitting done. On the still unnamed shawl I have gotten through another 6, maybe 8 rows, and on Out of Cheese I have finished the first of three final repeats. I haven't even thought about the vest I have to redo, that shall probably be next week.

A quiz and an exam in the middle of the week shall promise to make this week interesting, but might help it go by fast, so before I know it, I may be once again before my keyboard typing out another installment of my life.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Over Halfway Done

Well the ending of this week marks the official halfway point of the semester. Good thing for me being I only had one 'midterm'. And that was grueling, so I am glad I only had one. After taking that test makes me even more thankful none of her tests are cumulative. If they were, I would be dead by finals. And then instead of being able to crash back at my dorm, I had a paper to write. Good thing it was an English paper on a story I had already read. Procrastination, gotta love it!

This weekend has been disappointing on one front, and that would be the knitting front. I pulled Dad's Christmas vest out of my closet (I learned my lesson with the drawer!) and decided to finish the armholes and neck edging. So I put on You've Got Mail and 3 needle bound off and did the armholes. This morning I finished the neck, and had the idea to try it on, since My dad is similar in size, just taller, and without 2 size D's. So, I tried it on and realized that he has a bigger head, and I had trouble getting it over my head. So after having everything done, it has to all come out, and the front has to get redone. That is never the way a project should turn out.

But, I have gotten some good progress on Out Of Cheese. I am now on row 139/168. It is going along nicely, despite the bazillion gillion stitches on the needles right now. My blue shawl is also going well. I am getting close enough to start the countdown of rows. As of now I am working on the 33rd row before the bind off. Row 35 was a bit tricky, but 33 is nice.

On the subject of hobbies, since I had nothing to do on Saturday, I found myself in the musty, dusty bowels of the brown wing of the library and despite the asthma attack, managed to pick up some reading material. I was looking for Douglas Adams, and after picking up the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, my (high school) senior English teacher Mrs. Mendek's favorite book grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and pulled me back and I ended up checking out The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I had forgotten about her mentioning that book until I was a few racks past it and stopped in my tracks and went "wait a minute" backed up and picked it up. I shall report later as to if her like of the book is founded or not.

As a sad ending note, Betty Driver, better know as Betty Williams on Coronation street died this weekend. The Rovers Return will now be deprived of its hotpots. A wonderful character and amazing woman, such a full career and a much loved actress. She will be sorely missed.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Road Trip!!!!

I can safely say with finality that Hanson is one of the best bands out there.  As it was Columbus Day weekend and both me and my friend Katie are HUGE Hanson fans, we traveled out to her house in Southwick, Massachusetts for the weekend because there were two concerts in her vicinity.  However way before I can talk about the concerts Friday and Saturday night I must update you on the events that led up to this concert. (Mostly what caused us to be so sleep deprived that day!)
On Thursday night Residence Council subsidized tickets to go see Lion King at Shea's Theatre in downtown Buffalo.  Even though I had seen it once before at Shea's, $20 for a ticket couldn't be beat.  And it was amazing!!!!!  We got back to the dorms around 10pm that night so it was perfect.  I would do my stats homework that was due Friday night at midnight (since I would be at a concert, I didn't want to risk it!!!!)  Instead, Ed Reilly, our building director and our boss as RA's was hungry, so a group of us did our usual late night run to Denny's.  That pushed my arrival time at the dorms back to 1am, with stats homework left to be done.  That was finished at 3am, and I had yet to pack.  Quickly shoving clothes and other essentials and completing other tasks that needed to be done before I left (aka, tidying up my room!) I exhaustively climbed in bed at 4am, expecting a good solid 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up to be on the road by 9.  Low and behold that did not happen.  Much to everyone in Marguerite Hall's dismay, the fire alarm went off at precisely 6:06am (total sleep for me: 2 hrs!) and rallied us all outside in the parking lot, putting us all in a very grumpy mood.  However the night/morning could still be salvaged!  Normal fire alarms entail: we all evacuate, the fire department comes, clears the building and then we all file back in, usually only taking up about a half hour, putting us at 6:30, plenty of time to go back to sleep and get up in an hour and a half!  It did not.  We passed 6:30, and after doing head counts of our floors both outside and then when we got in the gym, everyone was growing very grumpy!! 7:00 rolled around and Katie and I were getting worried that we might miss our planned departure time.  Finally at 7:35 we were allowed back inside the building for a total time out of the building of 1 1/2 hours, with still to find out what happened.  Once inside, the residents who were able to take the elevator came across the very potent odor of burning metal in the elevator and above the 7th floor.  Thus the problem.  A mechanical error in the elevator resulting in the upper building filling with smoke and me coughing half a lung out when I finally got back to my room. 
Drawing by Katie forshadowing our weekend!
While most residents were able to go back to sleep Katie and I had no such luck.  We showered, packed up and headed out at 9 as planned.  6 1/2 hours later (see picture drawn very well by Katie on the way to cedar point) we arrived at her house to be greeted by a large, adorable basset hound named Forest who was very happy to see Katie home.  But still, no rest for the weary.  We had dinner of home made pasta fa joule (delicious!) got ready and then drove an hour to North Hampton to the Calvin theatre for the concert!!!!! It was amazing, once we got past the droll opener.  However I must say my favorite moment out of concert #1 was at the end when Taylor brought a little girl up on stage to dance with them. And i've already found a video someone uploaded :) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGrtgugeiYY&feature=related
However after the concert is why I now know that Hanson is the best band around.  If you wait outside their bus after the show, they will come out and sign autographs and take photos!!!!  This is where I get angry at Hanson fans.  I met Isaac Hanson, and talked to him which was AWESOME!!!!  But by the time he got to me and Katie he wasn't taking photos anymore because the fans before us were being a little too over the top :(  But I did meet him, and there was always Saturday right??? (note there is no huge picture of me and Isaac and that will give you a clue to what comes next).
Saturday's concert carried us 2 hours from Katie's house, to a club near Yale.  We had no idea about that part, but it was neat.  This concert was even better, if that's possible.  Kind of weird, but 2nd favorite moment was when they forgot the lyrics to "Kiss me when you come home."  Zac saves them, but its hilarious!!!  And again, I have video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFF7hAIVMN4.  But the first favorite moment from this concert was when they played me and Katie's favorite song "Man From Milwaukee"  as the last song.  Amazing!  But I had yet to meet them!  We stood by their bus yet again only to be disappointed.  Seems that Taylor was coming down with a cold so they all wanted to play it easy so they could stay healthy.  Though I'm upset I didn't get my photo with Isaac, I admire them for not cancelling the concert when Taylor was feeling a little under the weather and they are still one of the best bands around.