Week Fifteen: Time to Catch a Train

As a friend recently pointed out to me, it was high time I reached out my arm and caught the next train that was passing by. Fortunately for me, it was the calculus train and it was just a few stops ahead of the station at which I disembarked last fall. Allllll aboard for Objective Functions, Antiderivatives, and Integration!

Last week I was able to make a short visit to campus, and I happened to check the office hours of my calculus professor from last semester. I was pleased to find that she was once again teaching Calculus I, but in the mornings this time, and holding a review session on Friday mornings. I showed up last Friday and surprised myself with some of the things I was able to remember how to do. Monday, with her permission, I started sitting in on the class itself, and she used my work on an objective function problem as the example she put under the opaque projector! (I am told by educational personnel more in touch with audio-visual equipment that this is called something else. I am of the age to call it an opaque projector because the device is projecting an image, and the original does not need to be on a transparency.) She just took my whole notebook and stuck it there under the camera. Gosh, I’m glad I wrote neatly. (The radius was 3.04 cm and the height was 12.2 cm. So there.)

All she wants me to do is take the tests with the rest of the class. They just had a test handed back, so it looks as if my ticket has been punched for the rest of the trip. One more regular test and the final exam, and I will be finished with the course. With the opportunity to go to campus every morning and study, go to class, and study some more, I can do my best and have no excuses. And frankly, the material is a bit easier for me now that I’m hearing everything a second time, with some space in between. I will have my afternoons for errands and editing work.

When I’m not editing, I’m reorganizing the house. My middle son turns 9 this weekend, and he wants to have his birthday party at our house. I’m never thrilled about cleaning for cleaning’s sake anyway, but the house is much more disorganized than what cleaning will fix. A huge social deadline may be just what I need to make me finally get our stuff in the right places, and get rid of the stuff we don’t need. Several rooms are already done and they give off a happy vibe now. But there are many more left to go… plus a party to plan, and probably at least one thing to bake. I really should make a list or something.

And starting this weekend, or maybe not, I am a soccer mom. My youngest child is signed up for city rec sports outdoor soccer (yes, indoor soccer is a thing) and they cancelled the first game because the fields still had snow and/or mud on them. The second game is supposed to be this Saturday morning. At 9am. With no coach. It’s been raining all week and the field is underwater, so I’m praying hoping that this one is cancelled too. In the meantime we have already bought him soccer shorts, soccer shoes, soccer socks, soccer shin guards, and a portable soccer goal. UPDATE: Yes, this weekend’s game has also been cancelled. So now it starts the following Saturday morning, with make-up games on a couple of Wednesday nights. Oh, how interesting this will be.

Just to carry along the train theme, here is the video for “Driver 8″ by R.E.M.

Week Eleven: This Thursday Intentionally Left Blank

Did you miss me yesterday? Sorry, I’m transitioning (temporarily) to Friday posts so that I won’t miss a week when I’m on Spring Break in a couple of weeks with the kidlets.

Someone asked me this week, “So, where are you going for Spring Break?” Of course I answered “OHIO!” with a big fistpump. Even when I was in college in Ohio I took my Spring Breaks in Ohio. And it was usually in the middle of March, so even if you felt springlike, there was no getting around the fact that it was NOT a good time to start your own personal cycling season; the temperatures were usually in the range of 40 to 50°F. If I got any riding done when I was home on break, I usually had a sore throat and a cold by the next week. It… wasn’t exactly a vacation at the beach.

Okay, time for progress reports!

Last Sunday I was enjoying the lack of need to go anywhere since the weather was crappy. I sat on the couch and knitted on my Wingspan shawl until I ran out of yarn near the end of the 8th triangle. Lo and behold, the second skein of yarn for it arrived on Monday afternoon. YESSSSS. It is a different dye lot and looks a bit darker to me, but I really don’t mind or care. I get to keep knitting.

In the meantime I have pulled out a pair of socks I started knitting last October or so, on yarn that has been languishing in my stash for years. (How many years? Well, I stopped in at Ruhama’s in Milwaukee [all right, really Whitefish Bay] before I saw “Mean Girls” in the theater. Which came out in 2004. That’s a pretty long time for a skein of fine-looking German sock yarn to make up its mind about what it wants to be. And who would have guessed it would actually want to be socks?) They’re intended for someone whose feet I don’t have immediate access to, so I really hope they’re going to fit. Knitting fitted items to spec is not one of my natural gifts, so while I can knit socks, they usually go to someone whose feet happen to be the right size. Locating people whose feet fit my socks is also a gift.

And…. drum roll…. tomorrow I shall knit the Very Last Piece for the project-which-will-soon-be-unveiled. I cannot tell you how hard it has been this week to only knit one piece per day for this project, with the end so near in sight. There was such a temptation to hole up and crank out the knitting and finish early. I decided to join the resistance and maintain the pace, despite how eager I was to get the whole thing “done.”

In non-knitting news, the kidlets really did a lot of stuff since my last post. Middle Son won a trophy in a spelling bee, Youngest Son earned a ribbon in the same bee and then proceeded to lose his two front teeth over the weekend. Eldest Son went and turned 14, putting a real cramp in my tendency to still think of my inner self as 22. He’s almost taller than I am, and his feet are already bigger than mine (though we can still trade shoes in an emergency). And I went ahead with my valiant weight-loss plan, did two Jillian Michaels workouts in two consecutive days, and completely wrecked myself. I took Thursday off from programmed exercise, and by the end of the day I was able to go both up and down the stairs without screaming involuntarily. I’m calling that a victory and will strive to make progress from there.

Back to knitting news! Due to an unexpectedly favorable alignment of circumstances, I will be able to attend Late Night Knitting tonight for the first time in more than a year. It takes me an hour to drive there (and there might be freezing rain in the early evening), but I can stay until they kick me out at 11pm. Then (sigh) I have to drive homeward for another hour (and there might be snow in the late evening). On Saturday there is a rummage sale/bake sale at my kids’ school (for which I will be baking) from 8 until noon, so I’ll need to be there at least at the beginning of that. Then I think there’s a Pokémon tournament somewhere that needs to be Hung Out At with Eldest Son. Then there will be a Batman movie to watch, Doctor Who to view, and some test knitting for Phase Two of the Ginormous Secret Project. Then…. ah, how I like being busy.

Week Nine: The Ninety-Three Percent

As of today I’ve hit an important milestone on a knitting project I’ve been working on for a few years now. For various reasons I am not ready to reveal its nature in this space (but those of you who know me from “another space” will be able to figure it out pretty quickly), but I can say that I now have just 15 units left to knit before I assemble the whole thing. That puts the project at 93 percent complete, though in truth after I have those other 15 parts knitted I will call it no more than 99 percent until every last end is woven in. And because even the pre-assembly work is going to take some time, I can’t even give you an estimate as to when this project will be completed, photographed, and fully shared. Just know that I am very happy that my daily work, which I’ve been referring to as “quota knitting,” is getting me steadily closer to a huge creative goal.

But trust me. When I do the reveal, you won’t miss it! (You may question my sanity, but you won’t miss it.)

Most of you, when you see it, will want to ask me one question. The answer to that question will be “yes.”

I’ve also been chugging away on the Wingspan shawl and really should take another picture now that I’ve finished 5 of the 8 wedges that make it up. I don’t know if it’s the merino sock yarn, or the Addi Turbo needles, or a combination of factors, but I find it delightful to knit on it and shall be sad when I’ve finished it. But finishing it will allow me to take care of some other projects that also need my attention. Such as socks made from sock yarn. (What a concept!)

This week has been busy with healing myself body and soul, shoveling show out of the way, and driving kids to, fro, and back again as they all took turns being under the weather in various ways (dental work, low-grade fevers, sniffles & sneezes, and good old-fashioned hooky-playing). One of the best things I did was go back to campus Thursday morning and reapply myself to my calculus book. I’m having to start almost from scratch with the math, but today I got to a place where I am doing well and seem to have a deeper understanding of the type of problems I’m solving. We’ll see. Between the weather and everyone’s health it’s been tough to get down there. Now that we’re healthier I am renewing my commitment to finishing the course. My math-related plans after that point are still nebulous, but slowly forming.

My progress on my other resolutions has been somewhat hampered by the knitting done on these two garter-stitch projects, but there is a small project I had intended to cast on for on Valentine’s Day that calls for a new type of cast-on. So as soon as one of these projects is complete (most likely Wingspan), I will try it out and perhaps be able to check off one more completed resolution.

And finally… it’s finally MARCH! My already-teenage son will turn 14, my sister will be performing at SXSW in Austin (on his birthday!), we will have Spring Break, and DOCTOR WHO will be back on television!

Week Eight: Spiking

This will be a short post just to make the quota. I have been under the weather and so have some of the kidlets this week, so I’ve been trying to keep up with keeping up. I told myself that during Lent I would knit one square per day on a huge project I’ve been working on for a couple of years, and as of today I’m one square ahead of pace, having knitted the only square that needs additional stitching. If I can finish it tomorrow (which will require learning a new sewing technique) I will have 21 plain squares left to knit and can then think about how to seam up the whole thing. Thinking that far ahead right now just adds to my fatigue (and I’m already perplexed as to why lying on the couch all day napping, knitting, and watching TV has worn me out).

I’ve been enjoying knitting on Wingspan again after fixing a dropped stitch, but I have tried to do my “quota knitting” first… so poor Wingspan is waiting for me to pick it up again. I’m on the fourth wedge of probably eight. I don’t have any new photos but will probably take a progress shot when the fourth wedge is done.

I logged into WordPress last night to try to write a post, but nothing came to mind. When I looked at the little stats bar, I noticed a big spike in viewing. I investigated a little more, then realized that I’ve conditioned everyone to expect new posts on Thursdays. That’s when I aim to write them, too; however, this week I was too worn down for the inspiration to strike at the usual time. I’d like to thank those of you who showed up on your own, looking for my words. It reminded my of my late grandfather, who used to keep a vegetable garden. Next to the garden there was a post for a huge purple martin house that he built himself. Every fall after the birds migrated away, he’d take down the house, clean it out, and store it in the garage for the winter. Every spring he’d take it out, clean it up, and put it back on the post so it would be waiting for them when they returned. One year he didn’t get the house up in time, and the birds took turns waiting on the top of the post!

Woody’s martin house looked something like this.

By next week I might have a lot more to say or show. For now, though, I’d better rest.

Week Seven: Renewal

After much agonizing, I have decided to renew a library book which I detest. Two weeks ago, there I was at the library, minding my own business, having dropped by to pick up a series of graphic novel-style mathematics books for my 6-year-old son. On my way to check out the books, I happened to notice a new arrival — a book on Euclid and his amazing book, Elements. I thought it would make a good introduction to book and author before I sat down and tackled Elements for myself.

Wrong, wrong, couldn’t have been more wrong. I started hating this book on Page Three.

Don’t even point.

Wait — now that I look back at it, I realize that I started hating this book waaaaaay before Page Three. Because I hate that the quote from Blaise Pascal that appears before the preface is in untranslated French.

I also hate the preface, which gave me my first sense of the author’s writing style.

It got worse from there.

I soon decided that the only proper course of action for me was to write a scathing review of this book so that I could warn off any of its potential readers. Time is precious these days. If I could establish that this book is a waste of both time and space, we could all move happily on to the next item in the queue. However, I didn’t think it would be fair to be nasty about a freshly published book that I didn’t actually finish reading. (Think back to high school. Can you imagine your Literature teacher’s reaction if you had attempted to turn in a book report on a novel you didn’t finish?) So, I struggled forward, trying to keep my temper. It wasn’t my book, so I couldn’t throw it with great force. I did toss it aside often, though. Then I would think, “It’s not that long. I can really get through this” and pick it up again. Then I would yell “I HATE THIS BOOK!” and put it down again. So my progress in the reading of it was not that swift or consistent over the last two weeks.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from the library… the book is due this Friday. I had 48 hours left to read the book, and 96 hours’ worth of more pleasant and useful things to do within that 48 hours.

So I’m going to try to renew it tomorrow. Between chapters, or segments, or paragraphs perhaps, I shall be sharpening my pen and charging up my electrons. I have two more weeks…. unless someone else, perhaps the author’s mother, is on a waiting list for it.

Slop season. Not spring.

One might also look out one’s window here in Wisconsin and imagine that spring is coming and this is a time of renewal. Think again, bucko, it’s only mid-February. Just because you can see patches of grass amongst the snow, slush, and mud doesn’t mean the crocuses are coming any time soon, nor should they dare. And you should probably stay inside yourself if you know what’s good for you. Flu, whooping cough, and black ice are laying for you.

So. Until Spring is really here and there are better things to read that don’t have such a tight deadline and bizarre moral imperative, there is knitting to do. The dropped-stitch lace scarf is complete and has been entered on the Finished Projects page. I have cast on for a Wingspan scarf/shawl and gotten a couple of sections done. It has kind of an unusual construction, but the knitting itself is quite easy. So far, there are three of us in my local knitting group who are making them.

Wingspan in progress

(I don’t know why I can’t get the photo to show up. Sorry, just click the link.)

During the past week I have also gotten my oldest child signed up for his freshman year of high school. He is almost 14. He is almost as tall as I am (he checks this every morning). However, he is nowhere close to understanding just how ambitious his desired schedule actually is: Honors English, Eastern Cultures, Science 9, Geometry, P.E., German 1, and Intro to Engineering. I can’t wait until we get started on this in the fall and pour hormones into the mixture, add heat, and see what happens! He is a bright boy — he will just have to work harder at this than he realizes.

And now, a special announcement:

UNWIND 2013

I’m happy to announce that we are in the planning stages for the 6th “Unwind” social event, to be held Saturday, September 7, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, Wisconsin.

This event is NOT an official Sheep & Wool event, nor is it an official Ravelry event. It is a private party that you are invited to! The price of admission (which is cheaper, the earlier you register) covers dinner, a goody bag, a chance at a door prize, and the chance to hang out with some seriously fun knitters, crocheters, spinners, and others! And yes, you can and totally should bring your needles, hooks, wheel, spindle, and what-have-you. All the cool people are doing it.

On your registration form you can also choose to purchase a T-shirt. When you arrive at the Festival on Friday or Saturday and check in at our table in the main building, which should be just in front of the fence around the Silent Auction items, you will pick up your goody bag and T-shirt.

We have a cap of 150 attendees, so if you want to come, please sign up early. We can take walk-ins at check-in time at the Festival grounds, but NOT at the event itself.

Updates, discussions, and Q&A should take place in the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival group on Ravelry.

If you would like to help sponsor the event or donate a door prize, please email me or PM me on Ravelry.

I hope to see you there — I’ll be the one wearing the Doctor Who Scarf!

Greater resolution

It’s time again to reinvent myself — to move forward, to learn more, to do more, to be more.

To blog more. Let’s make that #1.

Thusly, I resolve that, in 2013 (!!!) I shall:

1. Blog on Chocolate Sheep again, and regularly. Dare I say, weekly?
2. Finish the Doctor Who scarf I’m knitting for my friend Ginnie. COMPLETED!
3. Complete my calculus class.
4. Learn one new cast-on.
5. Find a Most Excellent Job in my chosen field of technical and scientific editing.
6. Learn one new cast-off.
7. Help my kids be awesome.

Seven looks like a good number, don’t you think?

A day late and a short post

This was a long week, but I can’t think of much to say about it. Brendan was out of town from early Monday morning to very late Friday night, so I did a lot of catering to the kids when I wasn’t studying for the first exam in my astronomy course, taken on Wednesday (grades are not up yet).

What did I do? I drove the station wagon a few times, super glued Tommy’s glasses back together, learned new stuff in math class, dropped the ball on Valentine’s Day, washed a lot of dishes, did a lot of laundry, baked chocolate chip cookies a couple of times, and barely watched any television at all. I didn’t get as much sleep as I needed, I didn’t eat as well as I should have, and yet I seem to be gaining wait. Stress, stress, stress.

One does what one must, I suppose. But I shall try to do better this week and maybe get some knitting in, though my opportunities to attend my regularly scheduled knitting groups seem to be gradually vanishing. I passed a benchmark on a big long-term project; I can’t claim that the end is in sight at this point, but it may be within comprehension.

One of my two big items this week is to take Tommy to an eye exam. It seems odd to say that he hasn’t had an exam in years because he’s not yet six years old, but it’s true. He started wearing glasses when he was in Pre-K4. He’s been breaking his Internet-ordered frames now, and it’s time to see if he needs a new prescription.

The other big item, happening on the same day, is to take JC to apply for a passport. His Tante Linda has booked passage for them on an Alaskan cruise this summer, and because they will be traveling to and through bits of Canada (I’m so envious!), a passport is essential. He’ll need to have his passport photo taken, and the application process will be a little complicated by the fact that he’s a minor with one deceased parent; I’ll need to bring my son’s birth certificate and his father’s death certificate.

In an ironic twist, Peter had wanted to take him to Canada a couple of summers ago to eat at his friend Steve’s restaurant in Windsor, but I couldn’t get the paperwork done in time because I couldn’t find JC’s proper birth certificate. But when I was at Peter’s house looking for key items after his death last fall, there was a certified birth certificate for JC in one of the folders. Weird.

Anyway, we’ll get the process started on Friday, so my son can prepare to be a travelin’ man. He’ll be 13 next month; it’s Rite of Passage time.

Resolution Update

Resolutions? Did I make resolutions?

Ascending and Descending

Whoa! it’s been a week. Not for knitting — no, not so much for that. All I have been able to work on knitwise was blanket squares, and not so many of those. But as I walk through my evolving work-and-study schedule at school, I’m finding pockets of time that I might be able to use for work that requires more concentration, like the DNA Scarf.

I’m definitely in the right spot at work. I sat down this morning to start a blanket square, and by the time two other people had entered the break room, we were having a lively conversation about knitting, crochet, and the lost art of lace tatting. Not one person has wandered in, watched me work for a split second, and commented cheerfully, “Knit one, purl two, huh?!?” Which is refreshing.

As far as school goes, I got through my first astronomy lab (fun) and my first astronomy quiz (got almost everything right), and emerged from the dizzying Chapter One of the precalculus book and its extremely dry review of linear algebra and entered the peaceful and friendly Chapter Two dealing with functions.

[f(a + h) – f(a)]/h, anyone? Come on, it’s fun! And eventually it’s going to have some cool purpose, I just know it is.

Ascending and Descending, M.C. Escher (1960)

I haven’t exercised this week unless you count repeatedly climbing (and descending, let’s not forget descending) several flights of stairs and crossing acres of campus to deliver Extremely Time Critical campus-mail envelopes. I volunteer for that job every chance I get. The air is crisp, the sidewalks aren’t too slippery, and the way I walk, it’s aerobic. And I’ve been drinking very little soda (until the headaches creep back into my temples, then I have just a teensy bit), mostly having flavored green tea water. It tastes better than I’m making it sound. Zero calories, lots of hydration.

So I was pleased to weigh myself on the Wii this morning and see that I had finally met my incremental goal. It took me about three weeks to lose two pounds, but I did it. The next goal is to lose two pounds by two weeks from now, and by healthier means than by catching a bit of the stomach-bug that’s apparently making the rounds of the house. Jack had an awful day of it on Thursday and stayed home from school on Friday too for good measure; Colleen stayed home from school on Friday as a sort of preventative attempt; Tommy has it now and let’s just say we’ll be washing a lot of bedding today. Poor critters.

Resolution Update

1. I am publishing this post on Saturday as I promised. Check.
2. Knitted about three blanket squares. I need a recount on that particular project.
3. I rehomed a hand-knitted sweater this week. Unfortunately, it was Tyrone, which I absent-mindedly put in the regular wash, thinking the wool was Superwash. Oops. Yep, it felted and would no longer fit my heartbroken five-year-old. (Who promptly insisted I had to knit him a new sweater, RIGHT NOW.) I passed the sweater along to the owners of the local coffee shop where my knitting group meets; their little boy just turned one year old. Anyway, in all other areas, clutter abounds. There is work to do here.
4. Doing well on my Precalculus homework and Astronomy work. The first Precalc exam will be February 10; the first Astronomy exam should be February 14.
5. I met my incremental weight-loss goal of two pounds and have set my sights on the next two pounds.

Same as the old boss

What a long week! I got slammed with a sinus infection on my first day of school, then the meds slammed me again. There were also snowstorms on Tuesday (to and from school) and Friday (after school) that kept me as alert as possible. I worked 15 hours in the Languages & Literatures Department, mostly photocopying syllabi on Tuesday and posting “class cancelled” notices on Friday. It turns out that I probably won’t be able to count on getting that many hours in a regular week once the schedule is set, so I’ll probably be looking for an additional campus job to help pay for classes. I have a couple of leads.

Unfortunately, there was almost no knitting this week. The roads were terrible on Tuesday night, so I wouldn’t have gone into town for knit night anyway, but it was a Scout night, so I didn’t go to Scouts instead. I missed both morning knitting times, as I will for this whole semester, and I was so busy on Friday afternoon that I didn’t get home until about 5:30 anyway. There was no way in the snowfall that I was even thinking of driving to Verona anyway, which takes an hour in each direction on a clear day.

Friday brought something new… a first step in an assessment for Jack. I wanted him to be checked with Asperger’s Syndrome in mind, but after half an hour of watching him scoot across the exam room on the doctor’s “spinny chair” on his stomach, touch everything in the room, open all the drawers, and interrupt a million times, the doc wisely remarked, “I don’t really see Asperger’s here, but have you thought about ADHD?”

Well…. duh. I’d said years ago that I didn’t want him to go off to public school because he would have come home with a Ritalin prescription in hand on the first day, but I hadn’t taken my own words seriously. Viewing him through this filter, it makes a lot of sense. He doesn’t have a formal diagnosis yet, but we got a referral to someone who can make one, we set another eval appointment for two weeks out, and I have a pile of questionnaires to fill out myself and to distribute to other relevant parties. So, if you know a kid with ADHD or are an ADDult yourself, feel free to chime in with positive suggestions. The kid definitely needs some coping tools and some impulse control. He’ll be super scary when he gets focused!

Resolution Update

1. I am publishing this post on Saturday as I promised. Check.
2. No progress on the DNA Scarf, and none to speak of on the blanket squares either.
3. I must have thrown something out….
4. I’m current with my homework for Precalculus (and still looking for how to access the homework file for Astronomy).
5. I did a quick weigh-in this morning on the Wii after not working out all week (except for burning 450 calories a minute by gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white and my fingers locked up). I’m down a bit but didn’t make my incremental goal. Time to set a new goal and keep drinking the green tea.

Alcatraz update: I DVRed the show and watched it closely for two hours, but didn’t pick up on where Lydia’s song was. Ben says it’s in the gun-shop sequence, so I’ll have to watch it again and crank up the sound. I do kind of like the show. Thanks to everyone who watched the show, mentioned it to other people, or shared the video of Lydia performing “How Many Women.” Every little bit helps, and sometimes they turn into big bits.

Christmas with the Doctor

I won’t have everything done in time for the perfect Christmas this year… but I’m coming to terms with it. I’ll enjoy mine if you enjoy yours!