I can’t believe this made the news

You have to read this article.  I promise the links in this post are safe, even though they look strange.

Yes, I have a third grade sense of humor. I’ll be sure to find something more grown-up next time.

Edited to add:  Oh my god, I just found the event website.   Check out the merchandise…wow!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Happy Birthday Adam! (And of course Molly had to get in on the action.)

Yarn (and fiber) Therapy

What’s the best way to soothe a massive freak-out about my future?

Three skeins (almost 1000 yards) of all natural, organic, soft cottony goodness. I have a store bought cabled shawl-neck sweater that I love that I plan to duplicate use as inspiration.  It’s also my motivation to finish my test knitting project quickly, because I’m not letting myself start until the test knitting is done.

I also got 4oz of kelly green merino roving that will become sock yarn, and 2 oz of plain merino to play with thrums.  That just looks like so much fun!  I might just have to break my “must finish test knitting first” rule to make myself a pair before I go home in a few weeks.

Now to go pet my cottony goodness and soothe my nervous breakdown…

Holy cow

It’s done…I just submitted my PA school application.  Wow.  I know I’m going to wake up in the morning and realize I forgot something important, but there’s kind of relief at knowing I can’t do anything else now but wait.  Adam finally got me through my writer’s block and I finished my application essay, and I think it actually turned out pretty well.  It’s like happiness and relief and dread all at the same time.  At least it’s done.

In a daze

This was a rough week.  I started out with two Chemistry midterms last Thursday (class and lab), followed by two extra shifts last weekend.  Monday I went straight from work to an ACLS class all day (which was pointless because I just recertified in May, but thus is Pinellas County EMS – pointless).  I went home and slept for six hours, then stayed up and studied and went to class Tuesday morning.  Worked Tuesday night, had Wednesday night off, class and lab on Thursday, had Thursday night off which I spent studying for my Psych midterm yesterday (for which I had to get up three hours early), then worked last night.  Today, for the first time all week, I got a normal night’s (day’s) sleep and got up at the usual time… and it’s back to normal this week.  Luckily I did very well on all my tests and passed ACLS (again).

I also got a chance to look at what my schedule will be for next semester…and it won’t be pretty.  I’m taking Anatomy and Physiology II (and lab) online (should be ok – I’ve done all that before), and taking Chemistry II and Organic Chemistry I (both with labs) in class.  I’ll have class Monday through Thursday, with labs two of those days.  I figured out how to work it so my labs are on the days I don’t work (so I can sleep), and for the rest I’ll just have to get up, go to class, and go home and sleep for a few hours.  Working nights is frustrating as far as daytime activities are concerned, but the plus side is that if I were working days I wouldn’t be able to go to school.  I may be sleep deprived, but at least I’m getting these classes done.  The real upshot is that I’ll have all my prerequisites done in time to (keeping my fingers, toes, arms, legs, and eyes crossed) go to PA school in the fall.  And THAT will make it all worth it.  Now I just have to get in…

I’m really thankful that I have a job where I can knit.  I’m still really enjoying dispatch – I never realized how stressed I was all the time while I was working out on the road until I stopped doing it every day.  Between that and eating food that is not making me sick, I’m feeling great!  (even with the sleep deprivation).  It gives me a chance to do homework or study (once it calms down after midnight) or knit – I’ve gotten a lot done!  My coworkers think I’m a little kooky, but they’re used to it now.  It’s working out really well right now, because I have a new (paid and super secret) test knitting project to try to finish before my trip next month.

Speaking of my trip next month…I’M GOING HOME FOR A VISIT!  I’m flying up to Rochester midday on November 9th, and going home early on Monday the 12th.  I hear there’s already a family birthday party (?) that weekend so hopefully I’ll get to see everyone in one shot.  I can’t wait, both for the vacation and to see everyone – I miss you guys!

Checking in

I’m still here…running from work, back home to sleep, back to work again.  I’m in ACLS all day today (thank goodness for free WiFi) then going home to crash for a few (or several) hours, but at least I’m off tonight.  Yay!

The book crisis has passed.

Sorry for my crazy woman rant in the last post…I’ve calmed down now. I got my book in the mail Friday, did my assignment, and read the first five chapters over the weekend. As I suspected, it’s pretty much the same. I knew it would be, but for my own sanity I had to be sure that I was studying the right information.

It is finally cooling down here (only 90 today!), so I took advantage of the lovely weather to weed the front garden.  The grass runners had pretty much taken over because it was too hot to weed all summer.  It looks much better now   No pictures because I just finished, and it’s dark out.  The previous owners had cheap plastic edging that looks like crap and keeps coming apart, so I’m going to look into doing some stone edging and new plantings over the winter.

Not really any knitting…I have midterms in Chem and Chem Lab this week, and my Psych midterm next week, so you know what I’ll be doing.  (If I’m a good girl and get my Chapter 4 review done tonight, I might treat myself to a new pattern though!  I’ve been waiting forever to knit Sizzle, and I have the yarn waiting…)

For an (allegedly) intelligent person, I’m sure dumb sometimes.

So, I’m taking this online class.  Everything is going really well, I have a midterm in two weeks and I’ve been studying hard.  I went online today to do this week’s assignment, flip open my textbook to the pages indicated, and the reading assignment isn’t there.  No one else seems to have had a problem finding the reading, so I click over to check the syllabus and make sure I have the right edition of the book.  La de dah….

I HAVE THE WRONG DAMN BOOK!  Not just the wrong edition…the WRONG BOOK ENTIRELY.  I double check in the syllabus, and the chapters in my book are EXACTLY THE SAME…until the SEVENTH WEEK OF THE $&@*#&# SEMESTER.  Six weeks too late to return the book for a refund.  I went in to beg their mercy at the bookstore because I bought the ONLY BOOK for my section of the class, and they inform me that I should have used their online feature to buy my book, as the book I bought is for the classroom section.  Silly me.  So I sold back my $70 WRONG BOOK for $27.  I know I can’t really blame anyone but myself, but I’m unbelievably frustrated right now.  I had hoped to exchange my book for the correct book, but no.  The Textbook Nazi lady  who was manning the desk in the bookstore shot that one down before I could finish the sentence.  I’m going to have to buy the new book from Amazon and have it sent overnight shipping so I can finish this week’s homework on time and start studing ALL OVER AGAIN for my midterm that is in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.

This is not fair.  NOT FAIR!

(I know it’s my fault.  I know I can’t blame anyone but myself.  But I’m hoping that venting and whining and crying and writing in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS will help ease some of the financial pain of buying an entirely new book for this class.  I’m sure the material is pretty much the same and it won’t be all that much extra studying.  But Christmas is coming and I wanted to go home for a visit…and I didn’t need this right now.)

Figured out why our internet has been down…

Our internet was down for four days, hence the lack of posts/emails/etc. The cable guy came yesterday to look into it, and informed us that our spotty connection for the last ten months (which we’ve had FOUR different cable guys out to check) is because the cables running through the attic are chewed up. The inspector told us when we bought the house that there was OLD evidence of rodents in the attic, and we’ve seen nothing new since then (we sealed up all the holes we could find on the outside of the house) – so I’m hoping really really hard that this is old damage – we’ve had problems since we first moved in. Either way, the exterminators are coming out just in case. Eeewwww….

But the guy replaced the cable and the internet is back, better than ever. I finished two of my pairs of socks-in-progress, and cast on a new pair for mindless work knitting. A coworker just had a baby, so last night I started a Baby Yoda Sweater with some blue Plymouth Dreambaby DK superwash yarn. I’m working on the endless body pattern of the Telemark Ski Sweater (again…so it’ll be slow). I’ve also made good progress on Christmas knitting. All in all, I’ve finished more projects than I’ve started, so it’s all good.

The county came by and dug out the ditch in front of our house, which attracted a horde of birds to eat the grass seeds that were stirred up:

We’ve had all kinds of wildlife around here lately – the usual frogs, birds, bugs, and lizards, but also some rabbits (including two teeny babies hiding in the backyard grass), an opossum, a massive moth (no lie – five inches across), and an adult deer with a decent set of antlers. That reminds me – I need to change the food in the bird feeder, we should be getting new birds flying south for the winter! A friend gave us a bird book, so I can identify the unusual ones. The only new ones we’ve seen are some mourning doves, but they left before I could get a picture.

The weather here is finally cooling down (which means only 70’s – 80’s during the day and 60’s at night), which means I can get back to yardwork and spending time outdoors! The front garden is overgrown with grass runners, and some of the plants in the back garden died from the drought this summer. I’ll have to plant earlier next year and make sure to get them well established before summer.

Molly says hi!