being sick, finishing the semester, and the holiday season as Consumer America knows it. Everyone in the family had a great Christmas. Best yet, I only had a handful of panic attacks. Considering how taunt my nerves were, that is quite the accomplishment.

the Maternal Grandmother is doing very well. She starts her final semester as a school counselor, after 50 years of teaching. And the Maternal Grandfather is also doing well.

my Half-Sisters (The Twins) provided lots of entertainment for us. The Elder Twin helped everyone unwrap gifts, whether or not we wanted said help. The Younger Twin just wanted to watch movies, That Darn Cat! (the old one) and G-Force are now her favorites. I never want to see G-Force again.

my knitting is nearly out of control. I finished lots of new projects over the last month. Need to take photos of them. I’ve managed to clean up the Stash a bit, tossing it gently so that yarn on the bottom is now on the top and I remember how much yarn I actually have. Surprising, I don’t have as much as I thought I did.  And I really need to knit faster.

“Where did the semester go?” Suddenly the last week of classes is upon us (next week) and project deadlines are coming up fast (first week of Dec). Meaning, I won’t have time to go to the Homeland for a big turkey dinner. Way too much homework and not enough time. Which bites because the Maternal Grandmother has back surgery next week and I want to be there to stress out about her.

please add three hours a day to my life for knitting purposes only. Crunch time approaches at the uni and Christmas comes right after the post-semester crash. I need more time to knit. You don’t have to give everyone an extra three hours, just me. And other knitters. Actually, I think all fiber artists need the extra time.

thank you!

p.s. Please make the Brownies do the dishes.

of the past week, since life got pretty crazy and finding a moment to breathe and destress was more important than turning on the computer.

1. Sunday, 25 October I saw the last performance of MND put on by the Tennessee Shakespeare Company. Loved it. Even bought a hat to celebrate how amazing it was. I don’t like to compare productions of plays (it’s not fair to anyone involved. kinda like comparing a 5 year old’s first batch of non-burnt cookies to a world famous pastry chief’s latest batch. not cool at all), so I’ll just say that this one was so worth the 8 hour drive after working 8 hours to see it.
2. Monday, 26 October Puppy had surgery. There was a growth an inch down from the base of her tail that had to be cut out. Dr. Vet took great care of my Puppy. He wasn’t worried about the growth being a really bad thing, he just didn’t want her to accidentally rupture it and have it bleed out. In fact, he didn’t even send off a sample of the growth for any lab tests.
3. Monday, 26 October I went shopping all day with Mom for a new grown-up purse. That evening, I went with the Maternal Grandparents shopping for grown-up clothes to wear at the conference (Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association). Both events were highly stressful.
4. Tuesday, 27 October…can’t remember too well. I did go to Stash, the Midtown Yarn Store.
5. Wednesday, 28 October the conference began with an Early Bird meet, greet, and drink. The Peabody Lobby Bar where the first event was prefers that you buy a drink if you plan to hang-out and chat, hence the drinking.
6. Thursday-Saturday was a blur of activities. I came home every night long enough to shower and sleep and not much else. If anyone wanted to see me, they were pretty much out of luck if they weren’t at the conference. I chatted more with the parking toll guy than with my mother. (Please note the lack of sarcasm.)
7. Sunday, 1 November I moved the Maternal Grandparents across town. We missed church twice in order to get everything loaded up, taken a three minute drive across town, unloaded, and unpacked all the major stuff like food and cat toys.
8. Monday, 2 November I talked to some classmates about a project for class. Then, I drove 8 hours. Puppy was very glad to be home. I cannot begin to describe how happy she was.
9. Tuesday, 3 November I slept, walked Puppy, bought groceries, slept, ate, walked the dog, went to group therapy, and blogged. There are 30 emails in one in-box and about 80 in another. I’ll deal with them in the morning. After I sleep.

so, I bid you all a good-night. More when I sort through life via emails.

year passes by. I’d do some real celebrating, but there isn’t a whole lot of time. Since I will be at a conference most of next week, I have been doing as much work as possible so I do not have to worry about falling behind in any of my classes. I am nearly to that point. All this stress and school work has one benefit, I have been knitting like crazy. Several small projects are getting done. In some cases, done altogether.

like this one, my first cowl (also called a neck warmer):

Spiral of Fire and Water

(Ravelry link here)

Pattern: Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Multi (Fingering weight wool/nylon)

Needle: U.S. size 7/ 4.5 m.m.

Date Started: 20 Oct 2009

Date Finished: 22 Oct 20009

cowls are showing up everywhere pattern wise in the knitting world. They are like minimalist scarves. Mine doesn’t show off the stitch pattern as well as solid (and heavier) yarns do. But I like it and it is keeping my neck warm. As for cowls as a whole, I am still not sure how I feel about them. I might knit up some more.

in other news, I took cupcakes to class last night. Good thing I did, SIS Buddy Herr Wilhelm finally defended his Master’s Thesis in German. Long time coming, nearly two years to nail down a defense date. But it is all over now.

how long should it  take someone with a Master’s Degree in English Literature to write a simple book review? I don’t know the national average, but it took me a little over five hours. I just kept wanting to write more than necessary. Not to mention stopping myself from giving an analyst of the book using dead theorists.

my fellow Library School Buddy in the class had a disclaimer in the middle of my verbal book presentation, anything under 600 pages is considered my leisure reading. That was when I thought the book was under 400 pages. Turns out, Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything is 560.

note to self: look up pagination when reading books on a Kindle. I know the book has caught some grief about lack of details and too much biographic antidotes on scientist, but I loved it. Then again, I have been known for my strange taste in reading materials. (I blame the advance degrees.)

the Fall Break has begun. They should just call it “Homework Catch-Up Days.” That’s what I will be up to shortly. Doing all my homework so I do not fall behind in any class when all I really want to do is crawl back into bed and pretend the world doesn’t exist. The quicker the work is done, the quicker I can do that.

why does that sound so much easier until I try it?

ok, so it’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Other than Fall settling in, work, Grad School, and lots of knitting…not much has happened. Nothing worth writing home about. Just me here buried under mountains of stress running nonstop on one of those hamster wheels.

perhaps the Brownies will have something more interesting tomorrow.

yesterday, around 9:15 a.m. I took this photo of a hat I’m working on.

that night, around 8:30, I was goofing off during class and took this photo of the hat:

either my Wednesdays are way too long, or I am knitting very quickly. Now for the WIP info.

Pattern: Elsebeth’s Lavold’s trym

Needles: U.S. size 6/ 4.25 m.m.

Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss (color: Dusk)

Started: 29 Sept 2009

the water rose up from the frog pond today. Three projects did not survive. Photos were banned from the scene.