One project pau

The scarf that I have to deliver tomorrow is pau! Yea! All I need to do is tuck in the ends and wrap it and I'll be all set to deliver it. Even though it'll be given on December 1, I still like to think of it as a Christmas present. It makes me feel better to think that I've already finished one of my presents. :) It's for one of my former grad school professors. She's probably the only one of my professors that I'd ever knit for. Because as much as much as I've admitted that some parts of grad school were great, it truly was a horrid time in my life. We all agree that most of the people who were responsible for teaching and guiding us (ahem, otherwise known as the faculty) only made that stressful time worse than it had to be. However, the professor that I made this for was one of the few that I thought really gave a damn about what happened to us. Anyway, here it is:
I really enjoyed working on this scarf. The stitch was interesting enough to keep me going but was mindless enough that I could work on it wherever I went. And after working on the blanket, it felt like a quick knit. I found the yarn at Aloha Yarn and at the same time discovered that Aloha Yarn was an awesome yarn store. Here's a close up of the stitch pattern:
I'm delivering the scarf tomorrow at a meeting that to be quite honest, I'm not too thrilled to be attending because afterward is the UH and Washington game. We have tickets to the sold out event. It should be awesome.

A disappointment

The week's not over yet and already I feel drained. There have been times in my life where I have moved, touched, and pleasantly surprised by the people who surround me and in life in general. Unfortunately, there have also been times when I am reminded that the weather isn't always sunny and the air doesn't always smell sweet.

I am not an optimist. I am not a pessimist. I am a realist. And this week reality really sucked. I had a setback involving an event that I had agreed to participate in. I had to deal with disappointment and someone's abandon ship attitude, but that part of my week could not compare with the week of a friend of mine. She's had a horrible week, one of those weeks where really all you can say is that sometimes life sucks. And it doesn't matter who you think people are. No profession, even those in the education field, are immune from crappy people.

Thanksgiving weekend

So this Thanksgiving was a little different than recent Thanksgivings. Sure, we did the traditional, way-too-tiring relative thing on Thursday, but other than that it was odder than usual. Why?
1) While baking on Wednesday night, I discovered that our monthly payment to our security company is money well spent. When the smoke detector goes off, they really do check to make sure you're okay.
2) As usual, Lance and I examined Black Friday's sales. Oddly, there were very few things that we were interested in.
3) We didn't really partake in any of the sales. Joy and Brad went to Hilo and I dropped them off at the airport and once again, the sales weren't very good.
4) Lance was sick all weekend, which is actually probably why the rest of the weekend was weird.
5) I did not go to either the Okinawan Center craft fair or the Blaisdell craft fair, both of which are Thanksgiving weekend traditions.
6) I spent most of the weekend in the kitchen. I'm actually fairly domestic, but it's odd that I spent that much time cooking/baking. Wednesday night I worked on the overnight layered salad, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin squares. Friday I made a yummy loaf of bread. Saturday I made ziti. And today I made cinnamon rolls.

I also did my normal weekend chores (i.e. laundry) and made some progress on my knitting. The scarf that I'm working on now was actually started so that I could have some nice mindless knitting for my "knitting club", but it occurred to me this weekend that scarf delivery day is approaching quickly (umm...like, Saturday...) so I really need to finish it up. It shouldn't be a problem, it's almost done. It also occurred to me that I really need to focus on that Christmas knitting. I have quite a few projects to complete before Christmas. Yikes.

Oh, and I got to rock out to Rock Band today. I didn't play much this weekend because Lance was sick and I didn't think me banging on drums would help him feel better. Thankfully he's feeling better so I played for quite awhile today. Oh, and of course I'm just happy that he's feeling better. :)

Thanksgiving

Ahh...Thanksgiving weekend. Fantastic. I just finished cooking and baking for tomorrow and I'm just waiting for the cranberry sauce and pumpkin squares to cool so that I can go to bed. I'm glad the overnight layered salad is not a third thing that I need to cool because I'm exhausted. Lance and M*Bark both went to bed without me and I'm jealous. So tired. I blame my "boss" for the late finish as she was the stupid one who scheduled a training for the afternoon before Thanksgiving. I also blame myself for going to the stupid training. It was a big waste of time, the speaker was fairly boring and didn't quite seem to know what she was talking about, and I disagreed with many of the things that she said.

Anyway, so we have Lance's cousin's house tomorrow day and my aunty's house at night. I hope to relax this weekend, but I also have a list of things I want to get done. My desire to relax often gets overshadowed by my need to do stuff. Anyway, no matter how busy this weekend turns out to be, I'm definitely going to make time to play with our new toy. Rock Band is perhaps the most awesome game ever. I love Guitar Hero as well, but with Rock Band I finally get to fulfill my dream of being a drummer. Thank goodness this game came out after we moved out of our townhouse and in to a single family house. My poor neighbors.

I just realized that this post is a little different from the typical Thanksgiving titled blog. I didn't say anything about what I'm thankful for or anything like that. It's not that I'm not thankful for everything I have. I realize how blessed I am but honestly, I'm just a little too tired and grouchy right now.

A belated Halloween post

I tried to post this on Halloween, but blogger didn't want to cooperate so now you get a belated (but quick b/c I have stuff to do) Halloween blog. This year, Lance and I turned our pumpkin into a Transformers pumpkin. I don't know if the picture does it justice, but it turned out awesome. We decided to stay home and pass out candy b/c it was our first Halloween in our new home and we wanted to see how many trick or treaters we would get. We got quite a few and way more than we ever had at our old house. If it wasn't raining so hard, we probably would've gotten a lot more. It was neat because they all loved our pumpkin and the kids couldn't stop talking about it. Oh, and for those of you wondering, no, M*Bark did not dress up.

A finished object

Well, I finally finished The Blanket. I started this blanket last year and it was to be a present for my popo. It was the present that I was frantically trying to finish on Christmas Eve. I managed to finish her lap blanket, like two seconds before I gave it to her. She didn't know what it was because it was so small. I explained it was a lap blanket and she was happy. I also asked her if she wanted it bigger because I wasn't sure if it was big enough to comfortably cover her lap. She said no but then changed her mind three months later. She wanted it long enough to cover her shoulders when it got chilly. Of course by then I had already moved on to my next project, which was a set of colorful bibs for my cousin's first child. And so the blanket sat, untouched in my house. Truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to working on the blanket again. It was knit in garter stitch so it was quite boring but it was too large for me to take to places that I normally knit boring pieces at (i.e. the dentist's office). And it was knit in relatively small needles and in long rows so it took forever to make any noticeable progress. Anyway, I recently realized that it was almost Christmas time again and I still had this blanket in my house. I forced myself to work on it and it's finally done! Of course, M*Bark discovered it:

The great pumpkin

Isn't The Great Pumpkin a beaut? This weekend, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick this year's pumpkins. It was the first public weekend of the patch and it was crazy busy. There were so many people there and so many cars in the lot that people were parking out on the street. In the end, I had three pumpkins that went home with me. Two medium size ones (the kine you can't you really carve) and this beauty of a pumpkin. I also ended up purchasing a small pumpkin from Safeway. As you can see, M*Bark had to check out the newest addition to our house. The pumpkins are going with me to school tomorrow because I'm going to have some of my kids talk about small, medium, and large and what better way to illustrate that than with pumpkins?

It starts...

Look what arrived today!
Yup, this year's Christmas yarn arrived today in the mail! I'm glad, I needed a little pick me up. The only thing bad about the Christmas yarn arriving is that it means that Christmas is quickly approaching. I really need to get started soon. We (and by we, I mean me and everyone around me who will put up with the craziness until Christmas) don't want a repeat of Christmas 2006. It was Christmas Eve and I was frantically trying to finish a present. I wanted to...well, what I wanted to do isn't important. It wasn't pretty. The junk thing is, I have two fairly large items to finish in addition to my Christmas presents. And me, being me, had to talk myself out of adding two more items to my already long list (they were a pumpkin hat and a pair of bee booties, in case you were interested). Anyway, here's M*Bark checking my the yarn pyramid:I promptly put the yarn away after taking the picture. I suspected that she wanted to knock the pyramid over and take a ball to play with. We've been having little spats over my yarn lately. I'm having a hard time knitting one of my projects right now because she's fond of the yarn.

Random things

Fall break has come and gone. I'm making myself feel better by reminding myself that the second quarter always seems to go by quickly. I think all of those lovely holidays help. Anyway, Joy and Brad got married! She looks great, huh? Anyway, I learned that I enjoy bossing people around and maybe I'll become an event coordinator person if this whole speech thing doesn't work out.
We also did more home renovation stuff this break. We painted our master bedroom and although it was a hassle to paint it two different colors, it really came out fantastic. We're getting closer and closer to having the house of our dreams.
M*Bark discovered a fun new game. Apparently Lance puts his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor while he's taking a shower. He's really good about picking them up when he's done and putting them in the hamper, so I didn't realize that he did this until M*Bark started sticking her paws under the bathroom door. She's pulling his clothes out from the bathroom and into the bedroom.

WTF

It is 1:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. Any guesses as to where I am right now? I'm at home. I'm bloody sick again. The past month I've been on a nasty cycle where I'm sick for one week (see the blog w/ the orange juice) and then healthy for the next week and then sick for the next week. So I was healthy last week and lo and behold the cycle held up and now I'm sick again. The best part is that these illnesses have gotten progressively worse. This time around I have a fever and at times it feels as though my head is gonna explode, it's so sore. I actually gave in and went to the doctor yesterday and I have a sinus infection. Oh, I actually went to an adult doctor. Yes, I now have an adult doctor. My previous doctor was a pediatrician/adolescent doctor whose cutoff age was 26. Anyway, as Joy so rudely pointed out yesterday, I now have my big girl pants.

J is for Joy

Yawn, I'm tired. Joy and Brad are getting married in two (yikes!) weeks so some of the girls spent a weekend in Waikiki. It was a pretty good definition of a bachelorette party. We spent the night in a hotel, had a yummy lunch, went shopping, someone got a tattoo, ate a yummy dinner, went dancing, went to a bar, had breakfast, and then spent the morning at a spa. It was fun but I'm still trying to recover. Anyway, here's a picture of Joy eating her first escargot. :)

Germy little people

I'm home sick...again. Actually, I haven't been sick for awhile. Anyway, germy little kids should stay home from school. They have a difficult time focusing and learning when they're sick and THEY INFECT OTHER PEOPLE. I think I should have the right to refuse services to anyone with stuff coming out of their nose. I've been feeling under the weather for a week now and finally decided to give in and stay home today and rest. See, I've been feeling sick but other than drinking orange juice, I haven't done much to make myself better. I should've been resting all week but life's just been too busy lately. Some of the adults at work have been driving me crazy and what with planning the convention and general social obligations, I just haven't had too much time to rest. Anyway, I drank some orange juice, took a nap, and forced myself to eat some saimin for lunch. I think it's time for another nap. I hope M*Bark doesn't mind shoving over so that I can have a bit of the couch.

I Win

After three years of offering to teach Joy to knit, she finally gave in! Okay, maybe I didn't really offer to teach her. The first year I offered (I didn't know her very well...), the second year I nagged (I knew her much better by then...), and the third year I left her alone (but not really...). The third year I stopped bugging her about knitting because I suspected that her unwillingness to knit had become more of stubborn mule thing rather than a lack of interest. She just didn't want to give in to me. So instead of openly bugging her, I left my knitted items laying about. Y'know, an ipod case in my car, a beanie on my head, my knitting sticking out of my bag, that sort of thing. And then I knit in front of her and taught someone else. And then someone else wanted to learn. And ahh, finally Joy gave in and agreed to knit. She pretended to be reluctant and tried to convince me that she was only giving in to shut me up, but I know she was really excited on the inside. And y'know, she did pretty well for her first time.

Lance is disappointed in her.

Feeling clever

How funny that Matt commented about felting when I had these pictures to post. Anyway, I recently completed my first felting project. And I must say, I'm feeling pretty clever. It's cool that by knitting this:

You can make this:
With felting, you do indeed knit an item extra big and then throw it in the washer using hot water. The agitation and the hot water felt the wool. The item shrinks and the yarn fuses together, creating a pretty strong fabric. And what's extra cool is that you can shape the item while it's still wet and it'll keep its shape when it's dry. These are a pair of clogs for Lance. I need to add something to the bottom, though, b/c I think they're a little slippery for our wood floors.

I like knitting

I like knitting, I really do. But this bloody sock has been kicking my arse. I started it a year ago and have had to frog it twice. The first time I got confused and didn't decrease enough at the gusset. I had a feeling it was way too big for Lance's feet, but I was scared to find out so I put it aside for several months. I finally got the nerve to make him put it on and it was way too wide. The only way it would have fit was if he was a clown. Dismayed, I frogged it and put the yarn aside for awhile. The second time I started it I had gauge problems and had to frog it again. I just cast it on for a third time a few weeks ago because my other projects are huge blankets and I desperately needed some immediate reinforcement and socks are relatively quick projects. Plus I needed a travel project because the blankets were just too huge to be lugging around. Anyway, so I cast on this cursed sock for a third time, but this time I changed to smaller needles because I hoped the new needles would break the curse. So far I've had to rip out parts of it but at least I haven't had to resort to ripping the whole thing out. I don't know what's with this sock. It's not the first sock that I've knitted and it's not a fancy sock. In the year that I initially cast on these socks, I've knitted a bunch of other projects, including another pair of socks.

Anyhow, I found out that knitting actually helps me pay attention during long presentations. At big conferences, I can sit in the back and knit under the table. I always choose a project that's fairly mindless so I can listen to the speaker and having my hands move constantly really helps me stay alert and awake. Anyway, while I was working on this sock the other night, I came to a horrible realization. I've been hoping that my realization was wrong so I've been asking other people. Sadly, they all agree with me. Is it bad form to knit at a conference that you're in charge of?

Fair is not Equal

This week I was reminded that equal and fair are not the same things. It was a good reminder. Do all kids get the opportunity to learn in a small group environment? No. Do all kids have an adult following them around, helping them throughout their day? No. Do all kids have the same amount of money spent on them? No. But for some all of this extra help is necessary to learn the material that other kids are able to pick up with just a teacher's guidance. Fair is not equal and equal is not fair. That's the whole premise behind special education. Our kids are not lazy but need something extra in order to succeed in the classroom. But although we special education providers embody and demonstrate this everyday, we sometimes forget that this applies outside of the classroom as well. Our kids will turn into adults, adults who will be able to one day contribute to society but may continue to need that something extra to be successful at doing so. We may one day be working with them as adults and we shouldn't begrudge them the extra help that they're given in order to do the same job as us. Having a learning disability is a life long struggle. They're not lazy, they need extra help. Fair is not equal.

Spider Dog

Spider Dog, Spider Dog,
Does whatever a Spider Dog does
Can she swing from a web
No, she can't, she's a dog
Look out
Here comes Spider Dog

2 down, way too many more to go...

I've now officially been back at work for 2 days.

They were a...let's just say they were "rough." Alright, so this was this crappiest beginning of the year that I've had since I started working.

Sometimes I don't want to play nicely and I'm waiting for my infamous temper to flare up enough so that I explode.

It can only get better from here, right? Good grief, how many more days until fall break?

Year 4

I got a very unpleasant call from work today. I wasn't supposed to officially go back to work until Thursday, but now I have a meeting early tomorrow morning. Boo. I was also told that I have an other early meeting the following day, but at least that day is an official work day. Sure, my meeting tomorrow won't last more than an hour, but I'm still bummed.

Lance and I went back to school shopping today. He bought a snazzy new pair of shoes and I got myself a new backpack. I've always had a thing for bags and backpacks and I used to get new backpacks quite frequently. When I first started working, I carried my backpack from grad school but I eventually felt self-conscious about it. Everyone around me had over-the-shoulder bags that looked professional looking (or they had those plastic rolling crates but that's not a look that I want to be sporting anytime soon). The only people who had backpacks were under five feet tall. I eventually swapped my beloved backpack for an over-the-shoulder bag in order to fit in a little better with my colleagues. I was already the youngest member of the faculty and I didn't want my choice of bag to make me look even younger than I was.

When I was younger, there was a period of my life where I had over-the-shoulder bag as my school bag. I had two denim bags and one black bag and none of them lasted very long. They also weren't as easy to carry as they took a little more effort to hold on my shoulder than a backpack. The straps would occasionally fall and it was a lot harder to carry additional stuff. So I switched to Jansport backpacks. They were a lot easier to carry and to hold on to and the Jansport bags were incredibly sturdy.

Quite frequently last year, I arrived on campus with arms laden down with stuff, my over-the-shoulder bag, my lunch bag, my coffee, and my computer bag. My over-the-shoulder bag made getting to my room quite difficult, as the straps would constantly fall off my shoulder. The struggle to get to my room each morning made me cranky. In addition to this, M*Bark had discovered how much fun it was to poke her head in my bag and find something to pull out and lay in the middle of the floor. That didn't make me cranky, I actually thought it was funny but I did worry that she was pulling stuff out that I would need for the day.

And so, as I approached Year 4, I decided that I needed a new bag. I hadn't really thought about what kind of bag I wanted, but I started looking at the backpacks today while we were at Sports Authority and suddenly decided that I wanted a backpack again. So, just like the good ole days, I dragged Lance around to lovingly fondle the various backpacks. I finally decided upon this Nike backpack. It was on sale and had some good pockets and had a fun mesh pocket in the front. I thought I could maybe put my umbrella and hat in there for easy access when it rained (which, is like every other day up there), but Lance pointed out that it would make a good knitting pocket. Well, the idea of a handy pocket for taking my knitting to work pretty much sold the bag for me and now it's sitting next to me, waiting for me to fill it up.

The one thing that made me second guess this backpack was the fact that it was a backpack. If it was unprofessional of me to have it three years ago, then why did I think it was okay for me to have it now? Well, the answer to that is: I just don't care. As I enter Year 4, I realize that I don't give a damn what my colleagues may or may not think about me. I think that I have more than proven myself to be professional and to actually know what I'm doing, despite my age. And for those of my colleagues who still question me because of my age...well, I really just don't care.

At long last...

I had been looking forward to Friday's events all summer. Friday morning I woke up early and hightailed it to Borders. I was a little dismayed when I got there that I wasn't early enough to be one of the first ten in line, but I was pleased that I was within the first 50. I ran into Starbucks, grabbed some coffee and some breakfast, and joined the line of excited people. To pass the time, I knit on Lance's clog. Borders was nice enough to let us check in before the store's official opening time and I was back at home with my bracelet by 10:00.
That night, my bracelet and I went to back to Borders and joined the crowd. There were witches, wizards, and even a walking Whomping Willow. At midnight, the crowd started counting down and let out a huge cheer as the boxes were opened and the first person got his copy of this:
I finished the book yesterday and I am speechless. It was more awesome than I think anyone could have imagined it would be and I think J. K. Rowling is a genius. I'm sad because this was the last Potter book, but wow, what a way to end the series.

I have to go back to the book now. I re-read some of my favorite bits of the book this morning and now I'm just re-reading the whole thing.