Calling a Mulligan

This was a never-ending and wearisome week. The summary is thus: almost no knitting. Gained back all the weight I’d lost so far. Threw out so little junk that I forgot Thursday was Trash Day. Spent most of my time being tired. So, it’s time to draw a line in cyberspace and let myself start over. Tomorrow is another day and all that. I shall prevail, I vow that I shall. Eventually. In the meantime, please print new dance cards and reset all counters to zero. Thank you.

One highlight was that on Friday I pretty nearly rocked my first math exam. Unfortunately it was the easy problem that escaped me. After I turned in my test I solved the thing in my head in less than two minutes. Oh well. I will get more credit for doing as much as I did algebraically than if I’d written down my “logic” that solved it later. So, it’s net gain, and I didn’t erase a good answer and replace it with a non-answer. It’s a strange thing to be positive about, but it’s mine.

Spam of the week:

Sometimes, there weren’t even enough slots in the computer and so you also had to buy an expansion chassis.

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.

And this year I mean it.

Happy New Year everyone…. I might be back.

2011 was a rough year for me, as you know if you know me via Ravelry, Facebook, or Real-Life™, and I don’t want to rehash it here. But I would like to resume my blogging ways and share my knitting (now including crochet!) adventures, my quirky sense of humor, and my funny kid stories as I used to do.

I would like to publish new posts every Saturday, but to kick things off I’d like to amuse you all (especially you, “Stephanie”) with some New Year’s resolutions.

1. I would like to publish new Chocolate Sheep posts every Saturday. (Stop laughing, Lauren.)
2. I’m going to finish all the projects on my WIP list. (Stop laughing, Brandy.) But since I also have new projects for which I would like to cast on, I want to do my projects in pairs — finish one WIP for each new project. The only way this works is if I finish the new project too. I might also include a Needle Liberation Tally as I go along.
3. I’m going to work to reduce the clutter in my home. (Stop laughing, “Stephanie.”) Actually, the best way to do this is to finish projects or to find people who could use the supplies I’ve been hoarding reserving for future use. That means I will also have to create scrapbook pages, digitize photos, and maybe even make quilts.
4. I’m back to school for a B.S. in Physics with a minor in Math and, this semester, back to work at school as well, for 15-20 hours a week. I got an A in my first course (Intermediate Algebra) so I’m coming in with a 4.0 grade point average. I would like to keep an A average now, in this my remedial year, so when I start this fall to take on Calculus and Physics I will look and feel like I can handle it. This semester I’m taking Precalculus and Astronomy.
5. Is five a nice round number? Well, this year I want to finish a goal I made progress on last year. I vowed to lose 50 pounds and actually lost at least 20 before life threw me a doctored slider in September and I stopped exercising. I need to find ways to get healthier on a busy schedule. I won’t be at home all day with access to a Nordic Track, an exercise bike, and a Wii fitness system — so I will have to reduce my calories and stay active in other ways. Goal weight is about 140 pounds, so I will try to keep you posted on that.

That should be plenty! See you on Saturday….