Books and writing

 Well, I didn't notice until I had published my last post, but I had a comment!  An honest-to-goodness comment!  From someone I'm not related to!  I am so surprised.

The comment asked for some information on the books I am reading for my class.  Well, here is a partial list.  I will have to add more as I go.  I will also comment on my impressions of the books. 

First up is The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon.  I am not sure how I feel about this novel.  It's relatively short, about 150 pages.  I am about a third of the way through it.  It is - unusual.  Written in the mid '60's, it's the story of a women, Oedipa, who is the executor of a past lover's estate.  It is kind of interesting.  I keep plugging through it.  What is making me a bit unbalanced are words like 'groovy' being used, not as dialogue, but as adverbs throughout the description.  It really brings home how we should try to leave description as generic as possible to allow for the longevity of a text.

Next up is going to be Sula by Toni Morrison.  I love this book.  Sula and all the characters in this book are interesting, well developed and wonderfully multifaceted.

In other news, I am working on several projects I want to complete before the month is over.  There are about 4 more I am dying to cast on, but want to complete these first.  The first one is the Frolicking Deer hat.  This is for Baylor.  I am better than halfway done, but am looking at about 15 hours of work on it yet.  The second is Platomon, a shawl.  I have 7 rows to complete an it will take about 7 hours to complete.  Well, I guess I am further along than I thought!

I found out a dear friend of mine is having surgery on Tuesday.  She'll be in the hospital for 5 - 6 days.  That is a long time.  I am going to try to go see her on Thursday, then see about making her something to heat up the following Wednesday.  Something easy to digest.  I worry because she is under a lot of personal stress.  This stress has nothing to do with her surgery but other events in her life. 

Well, I guess I better get on my knitting.  It looks like a good night to knit.

The year so far

Generally speaking, I am a pretty upbeat person.  I like joking around and am pretty quick with a quip when it is needed.  But honestly, this year is shaping up to be absolutely crap-tastic.  A total shit sandwich.  Let me elaborate.

Here we are at January 14.  I should have had a day or two without some kind of emergency, but it's just not happening.  On Christmas Eve, someone pulled up beside me on Upper Valley Pike and told me that the taillights on my car weren't working.  Baylor and Steve looked at it and couldn't find anything wrong with it.  We let it go until after the holidays, since I was off work.  It turned out that we had two choices - about $2000 to replace the tail lights on a 1999 car, or $500 to put in auxiliary lights in.  I opted for the second choice because we cannot afford another car this year.

So now I am waiting for the car to be fixed.  We have 8 registered vehicles, but can I find one to drive regularly?  No.....  The GMC is too tall and Baylor doesn't like when I use a stepladder to get in it.  Also, it doesn't run regularly.  Baylor had his truck, Ethan had his.  The blue truck - Steve prefers that I don't drive it for some reason.  The service truck?  No way.  Kelly had the Escort, the LaSabre was in Illinois. The Riviera was in the shop.

No sooner got the Rivie back than the Escort blew up.  So now Kelly's got the Rivie.  The upside? Ethan is in the Virgin Islands, so I can drive his truck for a while.  Baylor and Steve went to Illinois so B can go back to school and Steve can get the LeSabre.  All is relatively good for a few days.  The day Steve is to come home, Baylor texts me, followed by a call from Steve and later a call from Baylor.  Steve drove the LeSabre into a corn field and had to have Baylor pull him out.  Baylor was sideswiped by a deer on the way - the same side that he just had $4500 worth of bodywork on after slipping on a patch of black ice.  I got to hear a lot about what happened and how mad B was.

On this same day, my manager's father passed away and our database was so unstable.  It crashed a time or two and I am not happy about it!

So the weekend comes and Ethan is due home.  We cannot get him on the phone and have not heard from him since he left.  We try, but it rolls to voice mail every time. Texts don't go through.  Thought he would be home on Saturday, but no Ethan.  We waited around a while, but no Ethan on Sunday either.  About 7 PM, I get a text that he is in Florida and will be home about 2 AM.  What the heck, you got to be at school on Monday morning.

We find out Monday that Ethan is on Academic Suspension this semester.  But all is good.  He has a plan to keep busy until August when he can go back.  He's looking for a job - preferably with a chemistry twist.  Maybe do some community service as a track coach.  Plus he's planning a trip to New York to talk to someone about worm farming. Sounds like he's going to be productive.

Oh, and Kelly and Al will be moving in to the shop in the next few weeks because Al lost one job and got another, but it pays significantly less.  What a couple of weeks.  Hopefully, we will go up from here.

New Semester

This semester I am taking Contemporary American Novels.  I've been to two classes and already turned in a paper.  Amazing, huh!  It seems like it will be a great class.  We are reading a whole list of interesting books for the semester.  I think it will be fun.

Tonight was Sit N Knit at Panera.  What a great time!  We played 'Last Knitter Standing'.  It's a fun game, but I think we could come up with a whole lot more questions and challenges than they have.

Steve and Baylor went to Illinois, so TJ and I are holding down the fort here at home.  TJ is on point on the back porch right now, so he's doing what he does best.  Me?  I'm about ready to go to bed.  I hope I don't oversleep tomorrow.

This morning I woke up to Steve asking when I needed to be at work.  When I told him at 8, he said 'it's already 8'.  Wow!  What a way to wake up in the morning.  Took me about 30 minutes to get dressed and out the door, so I wasn't that late.  I usually stay until 5:30 anyway, so it was fine.

I have two alarms set for tomorrow so if I oversleep, I have a backup.

I thought I would get some additional knitting time when I got home, but Leslie needed some help with a project.  I haven't done anything as far as knitting this evening.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.  I need to work on Baylor's hat and get it in the mail.  Then I have Ethan's hat to finish as well.  I'd like to finish my shawl before too long.  Then I can decide what to do next.

I have some items completed, but need to block and finish them.  I'll take photos tomorrow.  I may even get a Christmas gift done, if I'm not careful!

First weekend

It is the first weekend of the new year and life is getting back to almost normal.  I started back to work on Wednesday, so this day off is greatly appreciated.  I cannot believe the whole 3 days that we worked would wear me out so much.  I was exhausted and ended up sleeping until 9 AM.

Ethan is off to St. Thomas.  I hear he made it to Miami and is enjoying his trip so far.  I hope he has a great time.  The turquoise beaches, the beautiful sun and the warm temps... wow that would be tough.  He comes home just in time to go back to school.

Baylor leaves for school on Wednesday.  He's paid his tuition and is ready for the next semester.  This weekend he's just getting himself organized... getting rid of two of his game consoles, cleaning up his room, that kind of thing.

I'll miss both the boys while they are at school.

Classes for me start on Monday.  I have my books and am ready to get started.  I need to get my bookbag out and ready.

For this weekend, I need to run the sweeper, get some of the dishes rid up and work on Baylor's hat.  I have a swap I need to get together.  At least get it started.  Then it will be out in the mail before next weekend.  I also want to clean out the refrigerators.  Both of them.  They are disgusting and there is way too much stuff in both.  But first, I'm going to clean the ice off the front steps.  They have a lovely sheet of ice on them that is dangerous on these warmer days.

Well, I better get on it or I won't get these things done.

New year, new goals

Here we are in 2013. Many people didn't think we would actually get here, thinking the world would end on December 21.  I told Baylor that if the world should end on the 21st to wake me up.  I've never been to an apocalypse and didn't want to miss it if it should happen.  As luck would have it, no end-of-the-world, so we  are still here and I still had some living room to clean as well as our kitchen.

So I finished cleaning my living room and got most of the kitchen done thanks to Kelly and Al.  It is great to have our living spaces back from the nightmare of the last two years.  I hate that I could only use part of our living room for two years. Although there are a few more things that need cleaned up, it's great to have most of these spaces cleaned up, or easily picked up in a matter of a half an hour.

Here are my goals for 2013.  They are much more measurable than last year:

Home:

1. Do 13 home improvements.  I have a list of several that I want to complete, but need to find a few for inside the house to do this winter.
2. Clean and purge 13 areas of my home.  This is a LONG LONG list.  I have lots of areas that I need to purge.
3. Run the vacuum cleaner 13 times every 2 months.  That is twice a week.  It will keep the living room picked up and cleaned up.

Family

1. Come up with 13 new holiday traditions.  Our lives have changed dramatically in the last year.  We need to have some new traditions that make our holidays feel more 'full'.
2. Complete 13 handcrafted Christmas gifts.  Doesn't matter if they are knitted or not, I would like to have 13 done by next holiday.  I will be starting with my gifts for my sisters. 

Self

1. Lose 13 pounds every 3 months.  That is a pound a week and totally doable.
2. Read 13 books of The List.  This will enhance my English major
3. Do 13 nice things for me.  If I don't feel good about myself, how can I do nice things for others?
4. Create 13 crafts that are not knitting.  I know how to do lots of other crafts and this goal will give me the chance to explore them.
5. Learn 13 new techniques/ stitches.  I am always trying to improve my knowledge of the craft and I have the Knitter's Life List to help.

Soul

1. Do 13 Random Acts of Kindness.  This goal is easy.  There are always people in need of an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on or even just a little something to make them feel better.
2. Write 13 blog posts every two months.  That is a little better than twice a week.  I think I can do that.
3. Complete 13 items to enter in our County Fair.  I don't know if I'll have 13 for this fair, but I'll have a few.  That is better than I would have in the past.

First three day weekend

This is the first of my three day weekends, building to my week off for the holidays.  It was great.  I got a lot of stuff done and am plugging right along on my 'Get Ready for Christmas' list.  It's been great. 

First, I got the entire front of the living room cleaned up.  Things are put away, including the two fair totes.  Steve took the old TV stand downstairs and actually got two of the 'not working' televisions to Best Buy for recycling.  He says he is going to take the other two that are in the basement over later this week.  YEAH!!!  More trash out the door.

Started working on the kitchen.  Hopefully I'll work on it some Thursday night and get it done over next weekend.  Got some of the dishes done and recycling gathered up.

Did all the laundry.  Yes, all of it is folded and put away.

Worked on knitted Christmas gifts.  Should meet my first goal this week easily. The hat is coming along nicely.  It looks pretty good, but is one of many.  I have two more hats to make and would like to make a couple of these really cute mice ornaments.  I have everything I need, but just need a few minutes.

At work, we've chosen our 2012 Christmas recepient.  It's a good choice.  I just need to come up with something for tomorrow.  I got us all set up on Friday.

Things I need to do over the next week:

1. Finish at least one hat.  That means some major knit time
2. Finish my first Pinterest item.  It's looking pretty good - entirely painted and ready to put together.
3. Check Christmas Card list and make up cards for at least the church people.
4. Clean the 2nd part of the living room.  This may take some time, since there is so much piled there, but a lot of it can be donated, condensed or put away.
5. Clean half the kitchen.  Ialready have it started, so it shouldn't take long.

It always helps to have it in writing.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are knit nights, so I won't be working on household stuff too much.  I do have some items I want to make up for the holidays. Baylor will be home on Friday, so I'd like to have some things done.

A sock finished

This is a photo of a friend, Cindy.  She is holding her FIRST SOCK!!!!  I am really excited for her.  We've been working on this sock for about two months.  It is a proud moment.  I am really excited for her and believe we got another hooked.  Now she needs to finish the second one to complete the pair.  These are going to her grandson. 

You can see the pride in her eyes!