Endings

Happy 1st day of December! This is the time that we celebrate the closing of another year and the starting of another one. A time when we reflect on our purpose. I love the feeling of being around family and friends at this time of year as well as the promise that right around the corner is another year to accomplish our calling. I like thinking back on the year and thinking ahead to the next. In some ways this is a tough time of the year. I miss my boys in Romania a lot during this time because I want them to experience the fun that families have together. It pains me to know that they will spend Christmas and New Years at the orphanage instead of being shuffled from relative's house to relative's house and back again. That they won't get to rip open presents on Christmas Day or eat until they bust. I do find comfort in the fact that I will be seeing them again in just 25 more days!

It is also a very exciting time of the year. In just a few short weeks I will be completing all my coursework for my graduate degree in clinical and counseling psychology! Then, just after the 1st part of January I will finish my internship and be officially finished with my degree! Graduation should come shortly thereafter though I don't think I'll get the chance to fly to California for the actual ceremony (because my school is online the actual graduation ceremonies take place in various locations around the country).

This is also the time of the year when I get really into knitting. I'd been so busy over the last few weeks with my internship that I hadn't gotten much knitting done. I was getting stressed and missing it though so I'm trying to make more time for my hobby. I was able to finish a blanket that I'd been working on over the last several months.

It's made from scraps of yarn held together and is a pattern from the Big Book of Quick Knit Afghans. It turned out really large and I love the way that the colors worked together. Basically I put all my scraps into big totes, closed my eyes, and grabbed out a ball when I needed a new one. I've already started a new afghan from this book (even though I need to finish weaving in the ends of the afghan that I just did). And I'm working on some socks for myself.

My final goal for the last month of 2012 is to think about my diet and exercise. Since moving about 6 months ago my exercise habits have been the best they ever have. I just want to tweak a few things as far as eating. I eat better now (fast food or restaurant food less than 4 times a month, hardly any prepackaged or pre-made foods) but I want to eat healthier (more fruits and veggies, less red meat, etc.). Oh, and add a few more supplements to my regimen. Just little things and nothing major.

Personal Update

So, this month has seemed to be pretty much all about fundraising and raising funds and getting funding. At first I was going to end the giveaway this week but I've decided to extend it until the end of the month. Then we can do a fun little Halloween night drawing for prizes! Also, can I say how excited I am about Halloween? I love the fall. I love how it marks the start of the holiday season and how there's a change in the temperature. I'm really looking forward to a pumpkin carving/bonfire/s'mores night with friends next week. We're also planning a corn maze/petting zoo/corn box/hayride/ more s'mores day in early November. Maybe I'll work some hiking in the North Georgia mountains in before Thanksgiving too. Now is the best time to go while the leaves are changing color.

Today is my one of the few days that I have off where I can actually get some things accomplished around the house. Right now that means filling out 501(c)3 paperwork and reading articles for school. I'm working on my integrated project for school which is basically a doctoral thesis without conducting the actual study. That means about 30-40 articles for the lit. review alone. Good thing I like the topic (for anyone interested I'm researching Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in children adopted from Eastern Europe and Russia and how that contributes to parental stress and attachment).

Everything with school, internship, and charity seem to be kind of just creeping along at a somewhat consistent pace. Of course I would like to fast track everything but I've been trying to rein myself in, especially over the last couple of days. I realized that if I keep up the stress and worry then I'll just end up having a melt down (never pretty).

Other things of interest...my dad is getting a new car, I busted my hand on the door frame last night when I literally jumped out of bed at the sound of the outdoor cat fighting with another cat or maybe a opossum at 3:45 in the morning, and I'm still knitting. Evidence:

Socks for charity.

Big puffy multicolored blanket of awesome. Also for charity.

I went to see Looper a couple of weeks ago with my brother and sister-in-law. Highly recommend the movie. Also, we went to the rich people's movie theater so the seats were these big leather recliners. Seriously. It was awesome.

I can never watch movies in a regular theater again.

 Oh, and I made an apple crumble. It was the best thing I've made in a long time. I ate it every day for breakfast for a week.

It's ok to be jealous.

It's been kind of fun talking about random stuff in life. Maybe I should that more often...

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway! I'm doing the drawing on Halloween night.

Senoritis

If you have ever been a senior in high school or college or the parent of a senior in high school or college then you are probably familiar with senioritis. This inconvenient illness strikes some time during a senior's last semester and lasts until graduation. Symptoms include failing to do work on time and not giving a damn. Individuals with senioritis like to procrastinate, take frequent naps, and say things like, "It's really not that important" and "I'll do it after I finish watching season 3 of Dr. Who." The reality is, of course, that it is that important and it cannot wait until the end of season 3 of Dr. Who. Unless you have a tardis of course.

I'm sad to report that I have taken ill with senioritis. I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with school work (nothing new there) and I ended up getting a bit behind last week (actually not my fault there, the website I needed was down for a week). Well, after getting behind and having to turn in things a little late and not finishing everything right on time and not doing assignments up to my usual high standards because I just needed to get them done... I realized something...if I overload myself with school work and worry then I'm not doing myself any good. So, I need to take some breaks. I need to knit a little bit. Maybe exercise. Eat some ice cream. Take a nap. Quit killing myself with stress.

And so, I did.

You know what? Life went on. Things got done. Maybe not right on time but not so late that I can't make up for it later. And my mindset's better. I'm a little more peaceful.

And I might almost have a new pair of socks.

Cheese and Whine

Taking a break from grad school work for just a minute or two. Took a brief walk down to the mailbox. I needed to mail some letters but I also needed to get up and move. I'd been sitting on the couch reading and typing for several hours. I had forgotten how much of a time suck graduate school postings can be. I had also forgotten how stressful taking two classes at a time is. The tension of this week has increased ten fold since school started back this Monday. Looking forward even less to next week when I have to travel and will have school work to complete on top of that. Just hoping that my final papers don't coincide with travel like they have in the past. That was torturous.

Haven't worked much on any knitting this week as other things have taken up my time. I have finished the patchwork blanket, just need to photograph the finished product. Almost finished with another Christmas present too. Have added a few other things to the Christmas knitting list so need to make a "Knitting Priorities" list soon to make sure I stay on top of things.

My apologies that this was such an uninteresting post. I have done some interesting things that I need to tell you about (going to Helen this past weekend for one) but I'm slightly unmotivated at the moment. Also my camera does not remotely load pictures and I'm too lazy to find the cord then upload, export, and select all the files I want. The next post will be better, I promise.

An End is a Beginning

Oh wow, where the heck did May go? Month #5 of 2011 was crazy. I was so busy with a million different things. There were 3 festivals, the end of the school year (and as such, the end of my teaching career), and juggling the start of several new ventures. So it's no wonder that I'm just now able to get back to blogging. However, I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up the social networking on a more regular basis.

Now that I've ended my career as a teacher what am I going to do? Well, a lot actually.

1. Run Vivid Creation Fibers. That means more festivals and more time to devote to dyeing.

Section of my booth at the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival.


2. Running the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. We've been collecting and distributing clothing to orphans for a year and half now. Just since January we've collected 120 items. Currently there are two campaigns going on: a collection of items for me to take and distribute in Romania in July (ending June 25th) and a drive to collect 154 blankets for orphans in Ukraine and Russia (not ending until November). With big campaigns like this running pretty much all year I want to spend more time making sure the word gets out about the charity and logging and tagging donations.

3. Graduate school. I'm set to finish up in December of 2012 and next year I'll start my internship which will be like having a full time job (but not getting paid for it). Since I'm already taking a full load it will be nice to be able to devote more time to assignments instead of just after I finish a full day at work.

4. Personal assistant. Somehow I was lucky enough to swing a gig as a personal assistant for a friend of mine, Jonathan Merritt, who is a faith and culture writer. I clean, I file, I type book edits, I pick up dry cleaning. I pretty much do whatever is needed of me. I really enjoy having such a totally different job thrown into the mix of what I do. And because Jonathan and I have been friends for a few years we have a good working relationship.

In addition to these main four jobs there are other things I do. I'm very involved in my church's orphan care ministry, One.27, and I'm working with the leaders of our women's ministry to start a knitting group. I also baby-sit/nanny for a few families. I'm sure that there will always be a few "other" things that are going on in my life.

And what about the knitting? Mostly I've been making washcloths. Yep, washcloths. For selling, not using or giving away. So, I've been doing "work knitting." I have managed to start a Moderne Log Cabin blanket for some friends of mine who are getting married.

It's a little hard to see the white since it's against a white sheet but the finished blanket will be red, white, and black; a UGA blanket. I've been working on this since last Saturday but I've only gotten 2 squares finished. The wedding, unfortunately for me, is tomorrow (Saturday). They'll be getting a picture and promise that the blanket is on the way. It will be done though. I promised my friend Nick that when he got married he would get a handmade afghan from me. And I plan to make good on that promise. Even if it takes me until October.

I also picked up some new yarn today while I was on vacation in South Carolina.

I'm itching to begin some new projects, mostly hats and scarves, to take with me to Romania. There will probably be some project juggling over the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll keep up the blogging trend so you can follow along in the fun :)

Random Monday

I've got a lot of random thoughts floating around that don't really connect so I'm just going to make a list. Here goes...

1. I did the Inman Park Festival in Atlanta this weekend. It turned out to be a pretty good show for a non-fiber focused event. I was the only yarnie there. But I got to meet a lot of cool people. The girl in the booth across from me actually majored in fiber arts in college and had moved into glass design. We had a cool conversation about dyeing and fiber. It's a small world, after all.

This was my first festival that was totally outdoors and my first with a canopy. My dad bought it as an early birthday present for me and I couldn't be happier! It worked great. We were shaded and protected and professional looking. Thanks Papa! You're the best :)

2. I got to watch the weirdest and coolest parade ever at the festival.

The Seed and Feed Marching Abominable. They've got a cult following in the city. They even had a PBS special made about them.

A precision attache case team. Bet you didn't know these existed.

The Atlanta School had some of their students dress up in steam punk. This picture isn't the greatest but I just think it's awesome that there were all these 13 and 14 year olds in steam punk get up.

Bagpipers.

"William" and "Kate" made an appearance.

Box Heros. Basically there are superheros made out of boxes. Really, really well done.

The Atlanta Roller Girls one of our local roller derby teams (Can I just say I love roller derby team names? And the names the girls give themselves. I have my roller derby name picked out but I'm not telling in case you try and steal it :)).

The Bridesmaid Brigade which featured girls wearing their bridesmaid dresses.

A guy on this bike thingy. You know, just because every parade needs one...

And, yes, a record breaking Gnome March. Didn't gnome they had these? Neither did I. But let it be gnome that they were out in force. Enough gnome puns...

3. For some reason I feel like avoiding grad school this week.

4. There are 20 more days of work left until I'm unofficially self-employed (I will be officially self-employed in August).

5. I finally updated the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages blog. For the first time ever I had some problems where the site was not recognizing a page. Finally got it fixed.

6. I really need to update my shop stock. But I haven't the energy. Must do this tomorrow.

7. My friend Jenn informed me this weekend that I don't eat or sleep enough. I'm beginning to agree with her.

8. I saved 27% on my grocery bill today. I'm no master couponer but I got enough breakfast foods (yogurt and cereal) to last me at least a month, some cleaning supplies for .99, health and beauty items for less than $5, salad, and organic dishwashing detergent. The most expensive stuff? The canned cat food and cat treats. Why do I have such a picky cat? I can't buy anything cheap because she won't eat it. All in all I think I did pretty good. If I can get it to 50% I'll be elated.

9. My friend Jenn (another Jenn) did a blog post about the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. It's such and awesome and lovely article! Many thanks to Jenn for featuring me. I love her and her family dearly, especially her two boys :)

10. I'm tired. And yet I have the strong urge to clean my apartment. Instead I'm going to take a bath and work on my grad school reading. Because nothing says "relaxing" like reading the standards for administering psychological assessments.

That's Life

Just some updates on this game we call Life.

1. Surgery recovery: It's been exactly two weeks since I had my tonsils taken out and my sinus surgery performed. I still have some tightness and soreness in my throat but I'm feeling human again. Monday was really rough, I still couldn't eat very well, there was a lot of scarring in my throat, I needed lots of pain meds to make it through the day, and I was super tired. I went to the doctor for a check up and to clean out some of the scabbing in my nose. That seemed to be the magic pill because that night I slept great and Tuesday I woke up with my throat feeling tons better. Recovery is still slow but at least it's steady. Most nights I can make it until about 4 or 5 in the morning before I have to get up for pain medicine. My biggest issue now is how to keep the cat from bothering me while I try and rest. She's definitely making up for the week and half I was away from home by following me around everywhere and giving me lots of kisses.

2. Work: Things have been the usual craziness at work except I no longer have the energy to deal with it (not that I had a whole lot of energy to work with in the 1st place). I'm just counting down the days until the end of the year. Two weeks ago the county office told us that, due to the large amount of snow days that we had to take this year, all employees had to make up 16 hours "somehow" (literally their words). They have already taken every day off we had until the end of the year and extended the school year the maximum number of days. So, myself and my coworkers are either coming in early or staying late each day for at least an hour trying to make up the time. So far I have 4 hours. I may doing this for awhile.

3. Grad school: Grad school started back this week (thankfully it was this week and not last week, not sure I would have made a whole lot so sense last week). My group counseling class seems like it will be fine but I'm a bit intimidated by my Tests and Measurements class. It's all about the standards of test administration and how to determine the validity and relevance of tests. It's very technical but the worst part is the book is drier than dust. I guess in one sense it's pretty straight forward as far as procedures go and what not but it's not interesting to read in the slightest. Needless to say I fell asleep at my desk today while trying to get a chapter read.

4. Knitting: All felting all the time. I've decided to carry some felted coasters and wine cozies at some of my up coming shows so I've been making lots of felted items. Not exactly exciting but it is what it is. And I'm knitting so that's always good :)

I think that about covers everything. Hoping to have something a little more interesting to post soon. I'm in the process of making up the week+ that I lost so there should be a lot of activity around here soon.

Resting Up

It's Saturday and it's raining and I don't want to do anything except knit and read blogs. Sure, there's laundry to do, the house needs to be vacuumed, I need to finish my taxes, and there are literally 5 boxes of donations for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project that need to be labeled, but I'm tired! As is customary for me I go through periods where I get extremely super duper out of control busy and, for awhile, I thrive. And then it all gets to be a little too much and I sort of have a break down and cry and really wish for some chocolate (there is a reason I don't buy sweets). And then I take a few days and I don't do a whole lot of anything. Things get accomplished but in small doses. For example, the dishes and the laundry will rarely get finished on the same day during this time. I'm in that final stage right now. Last week I was finishing up the quarter for grad school which meant I had two 15+ page papers due the same night (side note: I finished both but they were shorter than the required length. Got one of them back already and I made a 95 on it. All that stress for nothing.). I was getting ready for the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival and then, on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (can't remember now, the time line was kind of sketchy) a family thing came up. It resulted in this:

My cousin William receiving a Purple Heart after an attack on his patrol in Afghanistan. You can read a little more about it here. I'm insanely proud of him and the other soldiers, mentioned and not, that were a part of this. We are so ignorant here in America of what goes on daily so we have the freedom to run our mouths, drive our gas guzzling cars, and own half the world's wealth. Obviously this hit me pretty hard. Especially since my cousins and I are very close, they're like my brothers and sisters. By Thursday night I was a hot mess. And then, it was over. I turned in my papers and posted my final discussions for school. I went to the fiber festival and had a great time. My cousin was discharged from the hospital and life went on.

I wish I could say that this past week has been less crazy but it's been just as much stuff, except, different. Different meetings, different job commitments, different deadlines. Still the same busy-ness. But today feels a little more calm. A little more relaxed. I'm sure I'll get stuff done today, just at a slower pace. And that's ok. For now I'm going to read some blogs and knit more on the big blobby blanket.

And not worry too much about the other stuff.

Things I Love

I had originally planned to post this on Valentine's Day and then I had planned to post it last night but life kind of got in the way. Instead of moping about how it sucks to be single on Valentine's Day and how Hallmark can bite my butt, I thought I'd share some things I'm in love with right now. Oh, and I really don't hate being single on Valentine's Day (it's an excuse to eat lots of chocolate and watch crappy movies) and I most certainly don't want anyone to bite my butt. Just sayin'.

1. Grad school
Sure it takes hours of time to read all the material and do the postings each week and yes, occasionally the text is super dry and not very exciting but I love it! I love learning about how people think. I love learning how to help people stop thinking incorrectly. I can't wait to be out there helping people for real.

2. My charity
I love seeing the donations as they roll in. I love reading the thank you notes about the children we are helping. I love getting mittens like these (from Marcy):

I love knowing I'm doing some good in the world. It makes me want to go knit something really warm.

3. My company
I love that I get to play with color. I love knitting up swatches and seeing how the colors play together. I love seeing customers happy with their purchases.

4. The weather
It's been about 64 degrees F (18 Celsius) all week. I'm sitting on my porch enjoying the late afternoon sunshine right now. After record setting snowfalls this winter I'm glad to have a little spring.

5. Bing energy drinks
They fuel me.

6. Knitting
Duh. This is a given but I felt bad leaving it off the list.

I hope that you had a lovely Valentine's Day and that you're experiencing a little bit of spring wherever you are too.

Books

As you may have guessed from the title this post is not about yarn or knitting. If that is why you are here then you might want to come back later. However, this is a fairly entertaining story so you might just want to stick around.

About 3 months ago I started graduate school through an online university. In order to pay for this school I took out some hefty loans. As part of my loan package each quarter I get a book allowance that comes in advance of my actual tuition. There are, however, some stipulations to this. You have to have x amount over and above your tuition and it comes at this time or that and what have you. Well, for my first quarter and half (because I started mid-quarter for one my classes) I had the book allowance but it kind of came later than I expected. No big deal but I had to be mindful of this. Fast forward to the current quarter.

I spent most of Christmas break waiting for my book allowance to come but I wasn't sweating it too much because I knew it would probably come the week before classes. Well, the Thursday before classes came and I still didn't have my book allowance. I went to the school website and read over some of the fine print and realized that I wasn't going to get the allowance this quarter for one reason or another (I suspect that it's because I signed up for an extra class this quarter and will not have enough over the cost of tuition to get the extra money for the books). The reasoning doesn't really matter but now it's Thursday, classes start Sunday/Monday and I need my books. Well, I had to do some personal finances arranging but I was able to get the money into my account by Monday morning so I could get my books. A little late but before the end of the first week.

I placed the order for my books on Tuesday of last week and ordered 2 day air mail which meant they would be here by Thursday. Plenty of time to get done with my postings for the week. Well, last week was the week of the Snow-Storm-That-Lasted-A-Lifetime so this threw off the entire UPS delivery schedule. There is nothing I can do at this point so I grin and bear it and stalk the UPS site for several days waiting for my package to ship.

Monday of this week I see that my books are on a truck to be delivered by the end of the day. Hooray! I was in Athens for much of the day at a gymnastics meet (watching, not participating) but I was expecting to get the box when I got home. When I pulled up at 9:00 or so there was nothing at my door. No box, no note, nothing. I check the UPS site and there is now a note that says "Due to circumstances out of UPS' control your package will not be delivered today." What the what?!?! Despite almost losing it I take a deep breath and pull myself together. It will be here tomorrow for sure.

Tuesday comes and I have to go back to my regular 8-4 job :( When I come home I begin monitoring the parking lot for the UPS truck. I had a book study meeting with my friends at 7 so I was hoping to get the package before I had to leave. At 5:30 or so the UPS man arrives! Hooray! I sign off on the box (after he has an equipment malfunction with his scanner thingy) and decide to open the box before I head to dinner. This is what was inside.

That would be a soldering station. A temperature controlled soldering station at that. I had a serious "what the hell" moment. I even opened the box in case my two, 5 lb. textbooks were hiding inside.

Nope, just a soldering station. At this point I begin to flip the frack out. My classes have been in session for over a week and I still do not have my books. I have two discussion posting due the next night that were based solely off the texts. I. must. have. these. books. NOW!

I send an email to the bookstore and check my invoice (for the record, I definitely ordered textbooks). I wait about 30 seconds before I get impatient and jump on the bookstore's live chat (because of course there's no phone number listed). I explain to the lady what's happened. She can't believe it (welcome to my world, sister). She says she can overnight the books to me. They will be here on Thursday (because they won't ship until the next day, Wednesday). This is unacceptable to me. I ask for a refund and get put on "hold" for 20 minutes. During this time I have a meltdown, try to put on makeup, and attempt to get ready for dinner with friends. Finally she comes back. She has refunded my money so I can get the ebook versions instead. I thank her, order the books, leave, and meet my friends. After I got home I (praise the Lord) had no problems getting the ebooks to work. But I'm still not thrilled. I love the feel of books and being able to whip them off the shelf for reference whenever I need to. I like being able to flip back and forth between chapters quickly and easily. But this will do. Last night I was able to finish my discussion postings and at least now I won't fail because I don't have the books (if I fail it will be for other reasons but certainly not the books).

So, there you have it. The saga of the grad school books. I'll be ordering my textbooks for spring quarter next week.

Super Productive

For the last 3 days I've been stuck in my house due to ice and snow. Tomorrow I'll be stuck here as well. The snow is melting, a little. We still have between 3-5" piled up around my complex. The roads are the problem. If things warm up even a little it all freezes over during the night when the temperatures dip back into the teens (Fahrenheit). I haven't minded at all actually because I've been working on a lot of things. On Monday I updated the shop with new yarns and plan to add some more tomorrow.

 

In case you missed the update, this is Swamp Thing.

Tuesday I picked up and cleaned the entire apartment. I mean mopped, did the laundry, dusted, rearranged, the whole nine yards. The place looks awesome now! I even managed to do a good deal of work in the office which is by far the least organized room in the apartment.

Today (Wednesday) I spent most of the morning finishing up some assignments for grad school then I finished vacuuming and mopping. The rest of the day was for working on the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project website and setting up a Facebook page for EEROP. And I did more laundry. I think laundry might be my least favorite chore. It takes forever to do and by the end of the week the hamper is full again and you have to start all over! Surprisingly I still had time to knit some. I started a pair of simple wristers from 60 Quick Knits yesterday and I've worked a little more on them tonight. I'm not using Cascade 220 as suggested but some gifted DK weight yarn. These are turning out a bit smaller than originally planned but can still go towards Mitten Madness.

Tomorrow I'm hoping that it will clear up ever so slightly. While I've appreciated the time to get some things done in the house we are almost out of cat food and sugar. Penelope will need to eat and I can't function without my morning cup of tea! For now I'm debating putting in a movie. It's 9:15 but I don't have anywhere to go tomorrow :)

Lacking

My writers block has kicked in and the more I try and fight it the worse it's getting. I have an 8-10 page case study paper due tomorrow by midnight and I can't get the wording right. It will be finished in time for sure but it needs some more tweaking. Until I can find my voice I'm trying hard not to pull out my hair and scream. It's incredibly frustrating to have the first half of your paper written and feel brilliant about it and then to be working on the second half and be utterly annoyed with every word I write. Just thinking about it is making me want to lie in the fetal position until everything works itself out. I want to be done and hate to have the feeling of something hanging over my head (especially when I don't want to turn in an assignment at the last minute) but I just can't make this happen. I think sleeping on it tonight and just allowing my brain some time to work it out will do me good. On to happier things!

This morning I sent off several large boxes of goodies for EEROP.

This box of hats and vests will go to H2H International for orphans in Romania. Included in the box is the November mystery knit along that I hosted on Ravelry.

I love how it turned out and I had the perfect little blue buttons for it (the pink string at the bottom is a tag explaining how to care for the item).
The next box is going to Helpful Hearts (when I get mailing address from them).

14 pairs of socks for children in Siberia! As I said, I don't have a mailing address for them yet but I hope they will answer my email soon.

The final box is going to Knit for Kids.

Two thick coats for children in Azerbaijan.
Penelope helped make sure everything was ready for packing/shipping.

She is so very helpful.

December: Day 1

One of students proclaimed today, "It's the first day of Christmas!" It certainly feels like that. Winter arrived last night with a bang, literally. Yesterday we had a tornado touch down less than 2 miles from my apartment. Luckily I was in Atlanta with my brother and sister-in-law and even more luckily no damage was done to my apartment complex. The cat was really glad to see me though. Speaking of which... I got her shaved the other week when I was off work.

I guess I should have done this a month ago because she's kind of chilly now. She spends every night trying to get as close as possible to me while I sleep. I wake up every morning contorted because she's wedged herself between my legs or between my stomach and my body pillow. Or she's sitting right beside my pillow sniffing my head. Yes, my cat is beyond weird. When I'm awake it's not much better. Whenever I sit on the couch she has to sit in my lap. This includes while I try to knit or use the computer. It adds a level of difficulty to every activity. And speaking of knitting...Christmas knitting is coming along. But you can't see it. It's all secret stuff. With the arrival of the "winter tornado" we also got near freezing temperatures. This morning it was 34 F/1 C with a wind chill of 26 F/-3 C. I'm constantly fighting off the desire to cast on for a cowl and ear flap hat for myself. Must finish Christmas presents first. Speaking of Christmas... I put up my tree on Sunday.

It's not decorated yet. I thought I would get to that today but I have an 8-10 page case study paper due on Sunday and I really need to crack down on it. So, the tree might get decorated tomorrow. We'll see. It could have happened today if I didn't take a nap but I'm running on fumes right now so I needed to rest. Speaking of resting...here's a picture of my parent's dog.

This really doesn't have anything to do with this blog post. Except that he's resting. On the couch. Where he shouldn't be.

Grad School

I can officially say that grad school is a major time suck. That's all I've done for the last 2 weeks: grad work. Grad work and getting ready for SAFF. And going to SAFF set me back on really accomplishing anything. Not that I didn't enjoy going of course. Thus, I have declared this weekend to be a Do Nothing Weekend of Freedom. The only thing I have scheduled is a massage with my massage therapist on Saturday (at my house so I don't even have to leave) and church on Sunday. The rest of this weekend will be for accomplishing long neglected tasks such as laundry, washing dishes, logistical/business stuff for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project, watching Interview With the Vampire, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, designing a vest for a mystery KAL that starts Monday, making s'mores, reading blogs, knitting, making placinte, sorting yarn, and organizing my online finances. That all sounds like a terrible lot of stuff but it's all stuff I actually want to do, crazy as that seems. Well, maybe not the laundry or washing dishes so much but I do need some clean clothes and dishes (oh when am I going to find a man to help me with all these menial tasks....). I'm so glad this weekend is finally here. I may not be able to sleep tonight from all the excitement....

Including 2 of the whooping 5 pictures I took at SAFF.

 The full booth, which was TINY! 6ft by 8ft. But Steph and I made it work.

 Me in the booth. Get the full effect if it's tininess?