Going insane

I spent this week basically at home...I would make a LOUSY stay/work from home person. It's not even that there are too many distractions (although there is that), but I'm just not efficient.

I also forget to eat. This could contribute to the general lack of efficiency.

Inertia is HUGE in my life. If I'm doing something, I'll keep on doing it. If I'm not doing something, I'll keep on doing that.I also have "shiny thing" syndrome where I'm all over the place. Hence why I have wet laundry in the washer, nearly burned the pancakes (as it is, there's three that are pancake crisps, only unburned since the heat was on so low) and didn't even go shopping for dinner until it was after five (good thing D's working late.)

I'm feeling...bleh. Maybe it's the rain the last two days...my Vancouver brain can't handle it after all the gorgeousness. Maybe I'm coming down with something. I've got something really important coming up on August 30th, and I'm not ready at all. I'm working every day on it, sooooooo....I've got 29 days to BE ready.

I guess I felt like I should've accomplished a bunch more stuff since I had the week off. As it was, we basically still ate out/had take out and the place is still a total disaster. Between Dave and I, we're probably working the equivalent of three or four full time jobs, so I guess it's understandable that things have slid a bit. I just had these big grandiose plans of cleaning the whole apartment, organizing a whack of things and getting all of my homework finished for the summer.

Epic. Fail.

Maybe writing it all out will make me feel better (as soon as I swap the laundry...)

Things I've accomplished this week:Train karate (every day)
grocery shopping
empty dishwasher (2x)
make banana bread
clean out fridge
put away laundry
garbage and recycling run
work on botany scrapbook (every day)
press flowers
wash bed linens
recycling depot
pickup flowers from Jen’s
get green card stock
go to school for a day (making up for a sick day
organize school binders
final exam homework
grocery shopping again

That looks pretty good actually. Huh.

I've still got a billion things on the list...but it's a little less depressing when I see it all laid out like that.

:D

I have been taking and posting pictures like whoa. So, wander over to my flickr site if you haven't been recently.

Today I was trying to catch salmon fry in a puddle (our creek overflowed, then receded). I didn't catch anything, but I got to see some water snails and some weird thing with a whippy tail that I need to post online and see if anyone can identify.

The beavers that live in our creek are still there even though there's been two days of city maintenance workers breaking up their dam. The creek has dropped a crazy amount!!

I saw a nifty neato little yellow bird today, but it flew off before I could get a picture.

School Work Can Be Fun!

There are SO MANY things I want to do someday...learn to scuba dive, various foreign languages, various art projects, various movement arts (dance, fencing, gymnastics etc). I want to be in a play someday. I want to learn aromatherapy to the point where I can blend scented relief for people quickly and easily. I have thousands of books I want to read. I have dozens of books I want to write, gardens I want to plant

Sometimes, life comes about and lets me fulfil a few of those ideas at once.

I've always been envious of scrapbookers, but I never started scrapbooking, even when I was working at Michaels. I've already got an insane stash of art and craft materials...how could I possibly justify a new (potentially extremely expensive) hobby, even if I have hundreds of printed photos from trips, special events, and so on. I would love to do a scrapbook for each year I have a class (since I have thousands of digital photos). I have always wanted to do a botany scrapbook with drawings, and pressed flowers and...ahhh... This ties in with my love of plants (I love them SO MUCH that I will cut them apart, squash them between heavy objects and keep them with me FOREVER!! A little creepy when one thinks about it...) and my love of order (not noticeable to anyone who's ever seen any place I've ever spent any time at all) which manifests itself in strange ways.

For school this summer, one of my assignments is a botany scrapbook. I've been spending the last several weeks collecting flowers and leaves, pressing them in a lovely microwave flower press I got at Lee Valley, and gluing them to bits of cardstock. Things are coming together quite nicely. Pictures of in progress are forthcoming, but I'm on vacation this week, (a post ALL for itself...I am under the impression that I would make a REALLY crappy homemaker, but I will allow you to judge for yourself when [if] I make that particular post. [seriously, horrible housekeeper. for realz.])

Meme!

One word answers only!

1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Your significant other? David
3. Your hair? varies
4. Your mother? teacher
5. Your father? tall
6. Your favorite thing? touch
7. Your dream last night? sick :(
8. Your favorite drink? cold
9. Your dream/goal? classroom
10. The room you’re in? diningroom
11.Your hobby? crafts
12. Your fear? spiders
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? WAHM
14. What you’re not? healthy
15. Muffins? cranberry!
16. One of your wish list items? laptop
17. Where you grew up? Coquitlam
18. The last thing you did? massage
19. What are you wearing? pedometer
20. Favorite gadget? iPod
21. Your pets? imaginary
22. Your computer? Vaio
23. Your mood? tired
24. Missing someone? David
25. Your car? Cavalier
26. Something you’re not wearing? (ear)rings
27. Favorite store? craft
28. Like someone? many
29. Your favorite color? purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? today (while I was throwing up)

Home!

And thankful. There was a bitch of a storm starting just before the Coquihalla toll booth and going until Abbotsford. What should have taken about two and a bit hours took me nearly four. It was hellishly scary. I had visibility of about 2 feet for a while there.

Pictures of stuff coming later. I'm waaaaaaaay too tired. Hooray for cool air! I think it averaged around 36 degrees Celsius when I was in Kelowna (105 or so Farenheit.)

To recap: driving=bad, home=good

Because I have absolutely ZERO sense of direction...

When reading yesterday's lightning post, please read "south" as "west" and "north" as "east". Thank you very much.

...

And weirdly, I do solo road trips, usually get where I'm going, and so far also get back home from them. (knock on wood, since I'm actually still in Kelowna for another day.

I can see my fingers reflected in the screen (mental note: laptop with matte screen, and one with a card reader) and, damn, it's weird seeing my fingers just...do stuff. Nifty. I want to keep typing and watching them. Lalalalala....I guess I could watch them do homework.

Meh. :P

One more day of school!!

Sentient Weather

The lightning is mocking me.

And not only because when there's lightning I won't go swimming. I was trying to take pics of it when it was in the north, about three minutes ago, then I decided I should do work and anyway SCREW YOU CAMERA SHY LIGHTNING, so I went onto the porch where I'm facing south. Guess what? The lightning is suddenly in the south.

Stupid, sentient, mocking lightning.

It's nice and cool right now. YAY!!

Two more days of course...wow. That feels like a crazy lots amount of time, and it also feels like a crazy little amount of time.

There have been eight lightning flashes since I started this post.

Nine.

That's a lot, since I copy/pasted part of this from IM with (ten) my mom.

I think I'm going to stop liveblogging the flashes of lightning now. As awesome as they are (and they're seriously, really [eleven] freaking awesome), I really, really should get some stuff done (TWELVE! And that was a GOOOOOOOOOD one.)

Maybe I'll try takeing a couple (thirteen) south facing pics....

(edited to add: fourteen and fifteen hit just as I clicked post...sixteen...)

(edited again to add: YEAH! Southern lightning must less inhibited. I got three or four pics at the same time lightning struck, and two of them show the forks! I'm super stoked, and now I should go inside to get my WORK DONE!!! and not be distracted by a bunch of STATIC ELECTRICITY! Pictures will be posted when I get home, since I have no cord, and as far as I can tell, my mom's laptop doesn't have a card reader for my camera.)

Not sleeping outside tonight!!

Ok, holy crap...apparently there are BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS in Kelowna, and apparently there was one RIGHT BESIDE THE DOOR AT THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE today. Holy crap on a crap stick. I guess I'll just bake tonight.

Gahhhhhh....nnnnnnghhhhhuuuuuhhhh...

Before Day One

(from an email I sent my mom this morning. I currently feel much better, although very tired.)

I feel like death. :P I got to sleep around eleven upstairs after taking a shower and not drying off in an attempt to combat the HEAT. I woke up around two to spider nightmares, realized it was insanely hot and couldn't sleep, drank some water and splashed water all over my tank top and me. That didn't help, so I went downstairs to try since it was cooler down there...spiders were still on my brain, so THAT wasn't going to happen. So, after some deliberations and more attempts at falling asleep, I set up a mattress on the back porch with the chair cushions and watched a bit of lightning before I slept from around 4 until 530, when it was liiiiiight...waaaahhhhhh...

Managed to squeak out another hour or so of dozing between glaring at birds and the lit up clouds when my cell phone went off. Now, I'm feeling gross because I'm exhausted and still sick, nervous about class, and my mouth tastes ick from my antibiotics.

Random Mishmash of Otherness
The class was absolutely phenomenal. I'm so excited about teaching this stuff, it's awesome. This is totally the right path for me.

According to the scale here, I weigh about 171 lbs. I like this scale. The one at home says I'm 174 or so.

I'm debating another swim before I try and get some sleep (had one after dinner tonight). I'm also debating if I'm going to be sleeping on the back porch again, or if I should at least attempt an actual bed tonight. Decisions, decisions. I think part of it will depend on whether the drunk neighbours continue celebrating Canada Day in their backyard.

I love having use of a laptop. Last night, before attempting the aborted inside sleep attempt, I was hanging out by the pool fooling around online (which is exactly what I'm doing right now! Yay!), as I am wont to do. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye, and a cat was hanging out with me. Hee! Ironically, I'm doing a whack of hand written stuff because of class notes, and because some of the other notes I'm taking lend themselves better to hand written. Ooh, plane just flew overhead. Nifty.

PS, I also love having a pool. Kersplash! Swim tonight? Yes/no? I have to cover it still, so I might as well get another quick use out of it before I go inside to die a little bit of heat. Hrm...regardless, I'd better sign off, since I want to do a bit more work before bed. Good night, Lower Mainlanders!! Happy Canada Day!

Safely in Kelowna

Timeline for today so far.
1130-leave Port Coquitlam after the doctor's appointment (whee! a week of the antibiotics that taste like gah!)
1230-Pass through Hope
100-Coquihalla toll booth
130-arrive Merritt, eat at A&W...they've got a decent veggie burger...who knew??
215-leave Merritt (busy at the A&W)
400-arrive in West Bank and try to find my Oma and Opa's old house.
430-find the house by memory (10 years after the last time I was there!), take pictures
500-find where I'm staying, unpack car
515-phone around to let people know I'm here now
534-get off phone, get into swim suit
535- dive into pool...ohhhhhh yeahhhhhhh
538- hear thunder (pretty far away, but why take chances?)
538 and thirty seconds- jump OUT of pool
542-sudden massive rainfall and much closer thunder.
544-get online

Time to figure out where I'm going for class tomorrow...or supper first? Hmmm.

What happened to the sunny Okanagon I've heard rumours about??

Holy crap, the rain is coming down like CRAAAAAAAAZY, and the lights are flickering. HOORAY FOR LAPTOP!!!!

School

Tomorrow I leave for Kelowna to start a one week course. I'll be there from Monday to Saturday, coming home either Saturday or Sunday, then I'll start a two year program on Monday.

*whimper*

Oh, and I'm sick like yikes. I took three days off school in the second last week, then was almost better when I got WHAMMED with illness again. Summer colds are the worst. :P I've got a doctor's appointment on my way out of town. Hee.

??

The kids were strangely quiet today...a bunch of them didn't come to school and the secretary couldn't get their parents on the phone. I guess there's something going around. We had a shortage of substitute teachers today too...a couple of people just didn't show up, so we were covering classes today.

* * *

Recess was weird. There was a lot of movement in the bushes and one of the kids swore that she saw a bear wandering around. I had supervision and saw a bunch of people walking toward the school as if they were drunk or something. At 10:30 in the morning? Luckily we came in before they got there. They were moving pretty slowly.

Some of my kids had been talking about zombies the last couple of days, so that was on my mind...and I never want to be that grownup who says "NO SUCH THING!" and then gets killed...sooooooooo...it's been a bit on my mind.

* * *

I'm home now, sixteenth floor. I'm looking toward Metrotown and there's a lot of cars just...stopped. There were accidents all over the place and I couldn't get through to home for nearly an hour. I'm not sure what the hell happened. There's power, but it's intermittant...that explains the accidents and traffic. There must've been a lot of accidents, beyond what the radio talked about before it went dead this afternoon. There are people walking around with blood on them, looking shellshocked.

There's a knock on the door...kind of scratchy. Dave's probably home with his hands full. Back in a bit.

* * *

(confused? go here.)

It's that time of year again...

Just applied for a whack of teaching jobs. Wish me luck!

Priorities

Files currently open on my desktop: report cards, report card comments.

Items currently sitting on my desk: ball of yarn, new project pattern.

Goal: if I finish my report cards by this weekend, I can start working on the new project.

Prognosis: I have very little self control. I am doomed.

(what if I just cast on and did...y'know, a swatch. To see how it looks? [it's not like it's...uh...a scarf or anything...where um...the swatch would be the start of the scarf...or anything like that. No, no, no.])

...yeah, I'm doomed...

Book Binge Review

In no particular order:

The Kitchen God's Wife- Amy Tan
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy- S.D. Perry
Not a Penny More, Not A Penny Less- Jeffrey Archer
The Feminine Mystique- Betty Friedan
Becoming Vegetarian- Melina Davis Harrison
Maria Montessori: A Biography- Rita Kramer (in progress, currently on page 273)
Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst!- Lois Lowry
Time Enough For Love- Robert Heinlein
Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook- Maria Montessori
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea- Jules Verne (in progress, currently on page 98)

Holy Hell.

I got this via Squid. A special needs boy is voted out of his kindergarten class by his peers...initiated by the teacher.

Oh my God...this is horrifying. I can't conceive of the kind of person who would do this to ANYONE, let alone a child... (I don't watch Survivor or any of those reality shows for this reason.) I make it my goal all the time in my class to ensure everyone is included. To deliberately segregate a child (NOT GROUNDS FOR EMOTIONAL ABUSE??????) via his classmates? Unbelievable. This woman should lose her teaching license. That is not ok.

I would like to meet the two children who voted against voting him out of the classroom. I'd like to think that I was that kind of kid. My mom told me once that I'd picked a very unpopular, seriously learning disabled, probably austistic/otherwise special needs boy to ride in our car for a field trip. When I was asked why by my mom, I apparently replied, "Because I knew no one else would pick him."

ETA: I am so sad and angry right now, for Alex Barton, his family and the rest of the kids in that class. I've been reading some other blog posts and news stories about this, and what strikes me is how so many people remember being horrible to another child, as children, and how they still bear emotional scars from that.

Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy

I can't WAIT to be finished tutoring. Holy crap, I'm tired of it.

Tutoring today, then not until next Monday...yay! Kids karate today too...tiring Monday...looking forward to karate though. I like doing kids karate, even when my brain feels like it's going to leak out of my ears.

I would like my weekend back please. It was fun, but not restful. I'm currently reading a biography on Maria Montessori for the course I'm starting in the summer.

What the hell, also...I was out all day Sunday, under a tent-structure at an Ultimate tournament. I literally was out in the sun for two occasions at about 20 minutes each...I HAVE A SUNBURN! Damn this pasty white skin of mine. It's not super bad, but it knocked me out for three hours yesterday afternoon.

I got random accupuncture on the weekend too. I was hanging out with the physiotherapist for most of the day because our tents were adjoined and mentioned my messed up hip, so he did some physio stuff and then he poked me with an accupuncture needle. OMFG, that was the weirdest feeling evar. I didn't feel the needle after the first quick pinch, but then suddenly a muscle that was about eight inches away started cramping up. Craaaaazy. My leg felt like it'd gotten beaten up afterwards. Interesting sensation...not sure if I'd like to repeat it.

New...weekend resolution

The time that I previously spent on clicking webcomics and blogs hour after hour in the hopes that they've updated: to be replaced by writing fiction and/or doing actual work, since I've registered for a summer course, and will be registering in a two year program next week.

The end. True story.

Present

Pin Gift
Originally uploaded by Random Synapses

I got the most adorable present from one of my students today. She made this pin for me to thank me for teaching her how to knit. AWWWW!!!! It's even got a cable running on it...something I taught her how to do on Thursday (it's Tuesday now). She made one for my mom too, since my mom helps out with knitting club. I'm verklempt. :D

Lace

I did two rows of lace knitting last night on my scary shawl. I think I really should start something smaller and less difficult for a first lace/first chart project. I think it took me half an hour for the two rows. Granted, they're 85 sttiches across now, but still...

Problem...I have no lace weight yarn except for the skeins I've got set aside for this project, and I don't want to start something with them. I'm still semi on a yarn diet, so I don't want to buy something new.

I'm thinking of ripping out what I've got going for the shawl, but...ehhhh...don't really want to do that either. Hmph.

KnitPicks is NOT helping when they keep sending me emails with gorgeous lace weight yarn advertised. No wonder I'm craving the lace. I mean...COME ON!!! *drools*

Miso Soup

I found miso soup paste at Save On the other week and just had some. Love it. It took me thirty seconds to make once the water was boiled, then poured it in and mixed it up. Nom nom nom. We have a boiled water dispenser at school. I will be eating this and rice every day for the next week, due to deliciousness.

Things are falling into place nicely for returning to school in July. Excellent. *steeples fingers*

Sharp Sticks

I feel like knitting. I've been doing a lot of physical stuff lately (karate x 3 days a week, biking) and lots of reading, since I'm participating in the Book Binge (see button over ----------------} there, unless you're reading this from archives, in which case, it should be gone [although...um...I took it down about three weeks ago from last year. So it had been up for roughly eleven months. Yeah. I'm almost this good at real life housekeeping.]) I'll be doing a lot of intellectual sitting-on-my-butt work soon (details forthcoming...back to school-ness is in discussion and final shakedown), and of course karate is intellectual as well as physical, especially the stuff I've been doing lately (Holy hell...learning a second style is like learning a new language that is similar enough to the old language that it feels like it should be understandable, but then it ISN'T, and then it turns out that the basic grammar, that which is taken for granted has CHANGED. It's disconcerting in a very large way, as if suddenly English had another letter added to it, or plurals and singulars were swapped. Something like that, but totally not at all. Y'know. If that clears things up for anyone. [not even myself. {OK NEW PARAGRAPH TIME. I BELIEVE I WILL GET BACK TO MY ORIGINAL POINT.}])

I've been doing a heckuvalot of knitting, considering that I kind of run a knitting club, but none of it has been very intellectually stimulating. I've got a whack of boring projects on the go...good for waiting in line at the movies, or while watching TV, or at knitting club, where I get a constant stream of kids needing casting on or off, or a dropped stitch to be fixed, or for me to stare intently at something weird and whacky that they did which I have no idea how to fix (seriously...I have no idea how they DO half their mistakes. I've seen so many things I can't even identify, let alone fix...although they think I'm pretty much a total miracle worker, since I've been able to fix a bunch of things that looked pretty darned hopeless. [Holy crap, I'm using a tonne of brackets this time.]).

Current projects on the needles:
-cotton washcloth, basic pattern. Boring, boring, BORING. I'm so sick of it, and I hate knitting with cotton. No give and hurts my hands. Did I mention that it's BORRRRRRRING????? Oh yeah, and I managed to shut the door on one of the wooden dowel needles I was using with it...so until I get back to school after the long weekend, it's on hiatus.

-pair of socks, basic pattern. Meh. I'm currently working on the heel, which is at least a LITTLE exciting (yeah...whee.) but I'm sick of the colours. Grey, white, dark grey, dark white (or light grey. whatever.) *snore*

-weird red top thing: knit in the round, so it's knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, until my fingers fall off, or it gets to the length it needs to be. Since I'm totally making up the pattern (well, kind of [totally] stealing it from a couple places) I'm not sure how long this is going to be. It's also got some weird lumps happening from poor decreasing choices, so I'm not sure how nice it's going to wind up. Bah. It's in a bag next to my computer desk. Staring at me. Maybe if I pull it out, I'll be pleasantly surprised at how much I've gotten done on it and it will inspire me to work on it! One moment please...hmmm.. Mildly surprised. Definitely not inspired though.

-Lace stole: mmmm...lace. And beads. Lovely. I would really like to work on this...I'm actually craving lace right now, but there's a problem. I have all the stuff, but I think know I screwed up several rows back and might probably almost definitely have to rip back a ways. Hmmm...maybe I oughta take a chance. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? (don't answer that.)

Stay Outta My Way!

Ironically, I was just thinking yesterday afternoon, "Huh...I'm not getting my normal hormonal evil nature this month. Yay!"

Ha. Ha.

*chants to self under breath* I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones. I'm not ruled by my hormones.

In other news, my bike now has aproximately ten miles on it.

In other, other news, I think I can officially go to movies again. Dave and I saw 88 Minutes today...decent movie. The smell of the popcorn in the lobby almost made me ill though. Bleah. I love popcorn, but popcorn don't love me.

I'm trying to cut back on my labels. I have tooooooo many labels.

I'm currently sad. :( I feel as though I shouldn't be sad. This annoys me. Then I get annoyed that I'm annoyed...as though my feelings aren't valid. Then I get sad because I feel that way. Vicious circle, which is usually broken either by distraction, or sleep. Since I'm currently very tired, and up past my bedtime...I believe I will choose sleep...after one game of Scramble (not linking, due to high addictive aspect)

FREAKIN' SWEET!

Look what I bought this weekend!!!

Cannondale F3 mountain bike!!!

I'm super excited. I already rode it about four miles last night and as soon as the bell goes, I'm blowing out of here to pick up some stuff I need for art class tomorrow, then I'm going riding. WOOO!!!

Whee!

A good day, this I am having!

I'm currently typing on my currently working computer that my currently in Vancouver boyfriend seems to have fixed! (I'm being subtly slightly pessimistic due to the fact that this computer sometimes randomly explodes right when I think it's working.)

I have several small rock chips taken out of my windshield, so I (finally...ahem) arranged for a windshield chip removal appointment at Crystal Glass in Burnaby. Not only did he say that the chips weren't worth fixing (because they'd be made worse), he also told me how to figure out if it's worth bringing the car in for windshield service! Very, very impressed. By giving up my $50 transaction today, he's pretty much guaranteed himself a customer if/when I need to get any glasswork done. This happened a few weeks ago too...I was buying gas at the Esso on Lougheed near...uhhhhh...kind of near the GardenWorks...whatever that cross street is. Anyway, I had hot chocolate and my gas purchase, and I was given the hot chocolate for free. Again, $1.50 or so of transaction given up equals loyal customer. Love it.

I cut up some green onions today to make a vegetable soup stock. I found them to be pretty much totally unobnoxious and actually quite delicious smelling. SUCCESS!! I have found the solution to my onion problem! If the stock's any good, I'll share the recipe here.

I have karate today, and through the magic of Dave's mad laundry skillz, my gi is basically in shape. Minimal ironing will be needed. This pleases me immensely, as I loathe ironing my gi and have a small (miniscule, really) scar on my hand from where I burned myself a couple years ago*. I need to have a chat with my laundry sensei and learn from him.

I've started using my flickr account again. Feel free to pop over there and say hello. With luck, I'll be able to post the roughly 123498792374210324765 pictures I've taken since my computer died last year.

At least two kids from my knitting club have taught their moms to knit. I'm in awe. I have started a knitting revolution. In sad news, we've had our first knitting injury...one of the girls from another class was knitting very close to her face, and the needle slipped, stabbing her in the cheek. Apparently there was much blood...I wasn't there, as this was in her regular class. Nnnghha. Ouch.

Dave and I saw Iron Man yesterday. Loved. It. I strongly suspected some of what was going to happen because of formulaic stuff, but still enjoyed it a lot. Great writing. this is only the second movie I've gone to see since The Bourne Ultimatum's opening night (August 3 2007, apparently...I thought it was further back than that...I guess not.) because of horrendous dizziness and nausea that made me leave the theatre for about half the movie (iirc...might've been less time). Anyway, hopefully this means that I can start going to movies again. That reaction made me extremely nervous to go. I took some generic Gravol before the movie and was fine...but I don't really remember the car ride home. Hee. Totally out of it...yeah. SCREW YOU MENIERES!!

*which I can't seem to identify. Wow, I've got a lot of miniscule scars on my hands.

Product Plug: Yves Veggie Dogs

The first time I was a vegetarian was when I was 13. For about six months, I stayed away from chicken, beef and pork. For two months after that, I ate some chicken. Then, at camp, I crumbled into a million pieces after smelling the bacon everyone else was eating for breakfast. Ka boom.

Anyway. One of the things that my mom picked up for me was some tofu-ground meat stuff and some tofu dogs. Holy hell, were they ever gross. Texture, taste...yuck. Just...yuck. The ground tofu stuff was put in a casserole in an attempt to disguise it. EPIC FAIL. The tofu dogs were even worse. I think I ate part of one, and chucked the rest.

Understandably, I've been leery of the various meat replacement products I've seen in my local produce department. There's also so much choice! Cajun, cheese flavour, tofu, veggie, help! Last week I picked up some tofu to play with (and figured out that bits of fried tofu, plain or on salad, and strips of fried, garlic salted tofu dipped in tzatziki are darned tasty) but hadn't quite gotten up the nerve to try the meat replacement products. Today, I did.

I tried Yves veggie dogs. They smelled like real hot dogs coming out of the package...a good sign. I zapped them in the microwave for about 30 seconds, still smelled good. I tried them, and they were AWESOME. They weren't as salty as beef hot dogs and had a slightly different texture (a teeny bit spongy) and squeaked a bit in my teeth (which I found rather charming). All in all, an excellent purchase.

Incidentally...mental note to self: when walking to the grocery store to purchase a bit of stuff (fruit, wild rice, veggies, yogurt, oatmeal) DON'T WIND UP BUYING 35 POUNDS OF STUFF. Half a mile isn't that far, but now your fingers are tingling with pre-blisters and your back hurts like a bitch. SAVE THE QUANTITY PURCHASES FOR WHEN YOU'VE DRIVEN OR GONE WITH SOMEONE. Thank you...your disgruntled body.

On a totally related note, I'm off to take a hot, HOT bath.

Annoyed

I have decided I need to write a cookbook. It will be entitled "Vegetarian Cooking: Beyond the Onion". Seriously. It's nearly impossible to find a vegetarian recipe (except for desserts) that doesn't include onions. I don't really mind cooked onions, but I can't stand prepping them (my eyes burn like hell if I walk into a room where they're being cut), and I don't really care for the taste or texture that much. That being said, I will eat them...but they seem unnecessary to me. Raw onions? Yeah...no. No way. They're WAAAAAAAAY too strong for me. If they're on my burger in itty bitty pieces, all mixed with the ketchup to the point where they're an integral part of the whole thing I will eat them, but then I'll taste them for the next forty-eight hours.

I guess the big problem for me is that I don't know enough about cooking and how things will cook up and taste if I eliminate the onion and add something like garlic instead (loves me some garlic...mmmmmm). I could experiment, but I already had a majorly bad experiment gone wrong this week (bean/cornmeal patties...apparently the cornmeal needs to be "cooked" so it's "digestible". Who knew??).

Hints, tips, tricks all welcome.

(PS. three days in a row of steadily falling weight, each day being the lowest in three months. Down to 172.8 lbs today!)

Bleh

It's been a really long week, yet it flew by so quickly. So tired. Love my kids, but wow. TIRED. They're not even high maintenance.

So, I've decided I'm going to take a first aid course. There's a story behind it...ask me in person.

Random Mishmash

My hands are insanely dry. I'm slathering on the lotion and it still feels like I've poured SuperGlue all over them. (FYI, I did not pour SuperGlue all over them)

I think I saw Ashley panhandling near my apartment. :( I can't stop thinking about her.

I'm more sore from kids karate than from my own karate, I think. This is due to the massive amount of push ups and sit ups I did. Ow. Three months off = sore shoulders and abs. (FYI, it wasn't really that many [maybe 50 sit ups and 20 push ups {and my form was really shite for most of the pushups...}], but hey...three months off.)

I really like tofu when it's fried in a little olive oil until it's crispy. It was supposed to go in my stir fry, but a lot of it wound up as a snack while I waited for the rice to finish cooking.

While I was teaching discus yesterday, a kid's throw smashed into the ground where a group of the class had been standing mere seconds before. I sounded like this: "Everyone behind the line! I shouldn't have to tell...LOOK OUT!!!" *thwack* Gave me six consecutive heart attacks, I tell ya.

Only a month until final term report cards. Holy crap. I'm still dealing with the aftermath of the previous report cards!!!!

Take THAT Odds!!

Awwww, yeah. I went to karate tonight. I enjoyed it way more than I had been just before I took my break. I really needed to think about it and DECIDE...yes, this is something I want to do, rather than feeling like I needed to be doing it. I'm very happy.

And I'm gonna be one sore puppy tomorrow. Ow.

Haha...also, I get to start helping to teach kids karate again. I'm totally going to be the "K" teacher at my school. Karate, knitting club...yeah. Hee.

(thanks to Sensei for the kick in the butt/dare disguised as a comment on a previous entry)

Bah.

My kids are driving me bat shit today. They're not actually being that bad...what the hell? THEY'RE SO AGGRAVATING!!!

Oh. Right. PMS. Stupid month.

(ETA, you'd think I'd learn...every 28 days for the last...what? 12+ years or so? Sheesh. You'd think that running out of pills for the month would give me a frickin' clue.)

Out in the Aether

While I was in the produce section today, I noticed a woman kneeling/crouching beside a display, her shoulders shaking. I picked up a mango, then looked back. No one was helping her...they were sort of staring and then avoiding her. Normally, I'd do the same thing; I think most people would. It's hard to get involved with someone who is in the middle of whatever private hell they've got going on. For some reason, I didn't.

Her name is Ashley. Snuggled into the hood of her puffy jacket, she told me that she had lost her shopping list, which also contained the directions for how to get to the apartment of her friend, from which she had just come. She couldn't remember if she was in Safeway or Save-On, or which direction to go after she left the store. I helped her get her groceries and pay for them, while another shopper, a man, trailed us at a discreet distance, obviously concerned for my safety. He and I exchanged glances a couple of times, him worried about me, me worried about her. She kept thanking me, obviously embarassed, teary, scared. While we got her items, she told me that she had had a brain haemorrage.

After I got her through the checkout, I finished my shopping and left the store. It had been at least 15 minutes since Ashley had gone out, and she was out by a bench in front of the store. This is a shout out to everyone...if you could think safe thoughts at her, and hope she made it to where she was going to make her French toast.

Spring!!

Spring is probably my favourite or second favourite season. Summer can be a bit of a bitch if it gets insanely hot, and spring can be annoyingly unpredictable...but it's amazing how awesome the sun feels after the rain (and SNOW...WTF???) we'd been getting the last few months.

To me, one of the best parts of spring/summer is all the fresh fruit and vegetables that are cheap and taste SO much better than during the winter. Everything tastes so much more alive than when it's cold out. I love my carrots, potatoes and yams (boy do I love them), but it's so refreshing to get away from the starchy roots and get some juicy veggies and fruit that isn't just apples. I've been rejoicing in grapes the last few days, eating them plain, with fruit salad, on green salad with raspberry vinegarette dressing...awwwww yeahhh... I made a fruit salad yesterday with a mango, an orange, a banana and the aforementioned grapes...it was like being in Mexico. I'd planned on eating it over a couple days, but wound up devouring it in two sittings. Heh.

I'm trying to cut back on the meat I eat as well. I don't necessarily want to become a vegetarian, but I'm doing some research, and I think that it's healthier, more economical and more ecological to eat less meat. I'm also trying to make healthier choices about meat: chicken or fish instead of beef or pork (easy, since I don't like pork much).

I still like meat (a lot) and knowing that I can't have something makes me crave it like crazy. (I should tell myself I'm forbidden to eat healthy food...) It's weird. Since I've started tracking my food, I'm more aware of how much I eat and I'm less likely to crave sugar and fatty food. I'll notice that I haven't eaten much, so I'll say I can have a treat of a cookie or whatever...but I don't want any! It's like giving myself permission takes away the forbidden-ness and thus the craving. It's totally bizarre.

We bought some awesome whole grain bread at Save On called "Granary" or something. It's really good. I've been eating tomato, cucumber and tzatziki sandwiches for lunch today and yesterday. Yesterday, I had a bit of chicken on it as well, but couldn't taste it, so didn't bother today.

I'm really happy today. We looked at bikes yesterday (but we're not getting one yet...HOW DOES ONE KEEP A BIKE IN AN APARTMENT!!! SOMEONE HELP!!), the sun is shining, I got a crapload of marking done (OMG, giant pile...I marked some stuff today that the kids gave me on FEBRUARY 12th!!!), I'm more in love with Dave than ever, I'm eating all this wholesome food which gives me energy (woke up early [for me] today and yesterday...unheard of on a weekend!!) and I'm exercising, which probably is helping with all of that.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

"At Least You're Adorable"

Apparently my night time routine is more ingrained than I thought, or else I'm more tired than I thought. Normally, I clean my ears out with a Q-tip (yes, bad, I know...nothing smaller than your elbow should go in there) while getting out the other stuff to get ready for bed. Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, makeup remover (if applicable that day), pills, whatever.

I decided to skip the ears, put toothpaste on my toothbrush and only the fact that I was looking in the mirror at the time stopped me from sticking it into my ear. I was about 3 inches away.

I know it's not about the numbers...

...but yesterday I hit the lowest weight in the three months I've been tracking it with our awesome scale of doom. It is totally FitDay.com which has been doing it. Dude.

Two nights ago, I ran for a whole mile in a row, plus walked for a mile (split between 5 min before the run and 12 min after the run). I'm so freaking proud of myself. Last time I did that was junior high.

Yesterday, I walked to the store to buy brown rice, wild rice and salad dressing. It's just under a mile round trip, and it's a little hilly, but not too bad. I love it.

Knitting club is so cool. I've gotten rid of so much yarn that I'll never, ever use and I've been inspired to start knitting more myself. :D I've got eight year olds now in the club, and some even younger kids want to join. A brother of one of my students wants to join...I'm tempted. He's six, but he already knows how to knit. It'd be a hoot watching him, and he'd probably be able to teach some of the kids.

Feeds

Does anyone know how to send my LiveJournal posts to here or vice versa? Feed or syndication or something? Bonus points if someone tells me a simple way how to do it that even someone who's pretty stupid with computers can do. Thanks in advance!

Mrrrph.

My short whiny post disappeared. I hate Mondays. Tutoring sucks. I'm sick of it. Good bye cruel world...I'm off to ESL-ing. Staff meeting's finished. TIIIIIIRED.

Oh yeah...

So much for putting it out in public in order to shame myself into going. I didn't make it to karate on Saturday...I spent most of it and Sunday sleeping. I think I'm fighting off a cold or something because I'm totally freaking exhausted.

Today MUST be Monday...

I never could get the hang of Mondays*.

I work today from 900-300, then I have a staff meeting that will run from 315-515, then I tutor from 545 to 845.

This morning I was in the elevator with Dave when he noticed that there was milk dripping out of my lunch bag. The milk for the cereal I was going to have for breakfast this morning at work.

I left my marking at home this weekend, so I didn't get any of that done, so I figured I'd do it between work and tutoring.

Oh, right. Staff meeting.

My grapes are mushy.

It's raining.

At least I didn't do what I did on Friday...book knitting club at lunch, while forgetting that I had to do supervision at recess, allowing me 20 whole minutes to eat my lunch and have a break. Woo.

Yeah, it's Monday, all right.

*Apologies to...Douglas Adams? I think? If it wasn't Monday, I'd probably remember...although I think the original quote was about Thursdays.

Hi.

I've been visiting this page basically every day, since all my links are here. I haven't been writing for lots of reasons...mostly busy-ness and stuff like that.

(it's not because I couldn't remember my password. Psssht...as if. Shut up.)

Things have changed a lot, but some stuff is still the same. I'm still living in the awesome condo of awesomeness with my awesome boyfriend of awesomeness. :) I'm learning how to do stuff like cook, and clean up after myself (I can make ROAST BEEF! WHO AM I??).

I got a temporary contract to teach an amazing 4/5 class of students in the district that I grew up in. Full time work is *thumbs up!* I started a knitting club with the grade 3, 4 and 5s, and have about 40 students. It's totally insane. I love it. My mom comes and helps out at lunchtime with them...some of the kids are way better at knitting than I was when I started. They're teaching each other now! It's so cool!!! One of the boys found some knitting videos on YouTube and learned how to cast on (start the knitting) and he's taught a bunch of kids in the club, and me too! (ETA: By this, I mean he taught me a new way to cast on, since I already know one of the ways.)

I took a break from karate for two months because of insane amounts of work. My gi is ready for me to iron and step back up on that horse. Many, many people don't come back from a hiatus, but I'm wanting to totally buck the odds. SO THERE! HA!! I'm excited to go back. I've missed it.

What else? I started going to the gym a bit more often, starting in the new year. (a bit more often...considering I didn't go at all the first two months we were here....yeah....) I ran for nearly a mile at 5 mph a couple weeks ago. I haven't done THAT since junior high! Of course, I haven't done it since, due to back issues and general pain and meh. I've opened up my fitday.com account again and am tracking all my eating and some of my exercise.

Dave and I play Wii a lot...not so much this week, but over spring break we played a lot and before that. I've become addicted to Resident Evil 4 and we each played through the main game twice, and I played through both mini extra games. Dave's been playing a different extra game.

So, yeah! Now that I remember my password have a little more time, maybe I'll post here often enough that I don't have the posts on the front page completely memorised from when I come here to check blogs and webcomics.

Bwah?

hey, the internet's still here! Weird!

My computer's fubar'd apparently...it'll cost about a thousand bucks to fix, which is what we paid for it originally...so unless we can play with it a bit ourselves, I'm going to be getting a laptop or something.

Or maybe not. I've been mostly unplugged from computers for the last two months, and it's actually a pretty good feeling. I check email once in a while on Dave's computer or at my parents' place, but I'm not glued to a computer like I used to be.

I even did some writing (about 1800 words) last night, long hand. If it wasn't for the fact that I could use a computer to write on, I might not even bother. I guess I'll see when I go computer shopping in the next little while.

Hooked up and Ready to Go

WHEEE!!! We FINALLY have internet. I'm typing this on the floor of our "office" aka The Box Room on Dave's laptop. We also have wireless, so this means that the Wii will be hooked into the world!

About freaking time, is what I say.

We moved the Wii and a TV over last night. Now suddenly I've gone from nothing electronic except a cell phone and a battery powered radio to internet, landlines, cable and my Wii, including Dance Dance Revolution which Dave got me for my birthday. I'm slightly drunk with the possibilities.

I really should have gotten that cleaning finished before all the time eaters entered the apartment...

We're in!

Two nights down, and still love the new place.

We moved some of my clothes, a tonne of kitchen stuff and some bathroom stuff. We also bought an air bed that looks like it's real with all the sheets on it, and three chairs for our breakfast bar thingie. Two are now put together. Last night we had a Bring Your Own Chair party for our immediate families.

Other than that, nothing's moved. We have a box room (so named because of the vast quantities of empty and mostly empty cardboard boxes currently residing there), which will eventually be the office (but no internet yet, thus no computers or desks), two chairs and an air bed. Dressers, desks, bookshelves...etc...will probably be moved or purchased next week or the week after. Not really in a hurry for couches or other things...it's fun doing karate in a giant empty space!

Today's the Day!

We get our keys tonight! Yay!!

I've got several boxes packed with essentials (some clothes, bathroom stuff, kitchen stuff) since we're doing a staggered move-in. Big, giant advantage to moving out of the parents's house on good terms with them...not everything needs to move at once. We won't have internet until probably next Friday (GASP! THE HORRORS!) which means I might actually get my marking for tutoring finished this week.

Tonight we're on an air mattress which we're borrowing from some friends, we're looking at beds (Costco sells EVERYTHING btw) and we'll see what we need as we go. Since my parents moved me when I was eight months old and we haven't moved since, I've got a crap-tonne of stuff that I'm going to be getting rid of. I estimate that in the last few months I've taken out about 200 books or so. The scary thing is that unless you REALLY know where to look, there's no dent in the ginormity of books that I possess.

In other, related news, I highly recommend ChoreWars (link via Liz). It's a fabulously geeky game designed to help groups of people do the chores needed to keep a business/household/whatever running smoothly. It's set up like a role playing game and you can earn experience points, gold and items. It's really flexible and a lot of fun.

Haha, with all the other stuff I wanted to write about, I completely forgot to mention that I'm sick again. I'm finally admitting that the sniffling I've been doing for the last week has been a burgeoning cold, not allergies (although seriously, the dust allergies while I've been packing? omg. FTL.).

Argh!

My car got broken into last night. It wasn't until this evening that I realized that my karate gear was all stolen. Sparring gear, uniform, a pair of sai and a nunchaku. Grrrr...

They couldn't wait ONE LOUSY WEEK?? One week and I'd be moved and in a secure underground lot. Bloody hell.

Claritin FTL

So, after my minor bout with drug induced panic last night, I managed to hold it together through tutoring and calmed down a lot, although I was still jittery and my heart was still racing a bit. (or at least it felt that way) I even managed to get to sleep not too late (about midnight, I figure). However...I then woke up at 0400, dry mouth, nauseated, heart racing, head racing...lovely. I tried for an hour to get to sleep again. FAIL! So I got up and did some organizing for the move for an hour or two, then went to bed and read for a bit, finally falling asleep again around eight, waking up again at about 1030. AWESOME. I have a feeling that I'll be napping today.

In other news, I appear to be computer poison. My desktop is refusing to turn on, I couldn't do most of the stuff I needed to on my parents' Mac and so now I'm on their PC. With any luck this computer won't explode when I hit "Publish". *taps the mouse with a ten foot pole*

Awe and Panic and Drug Reactions

I keep looking at the pictures of what will very shortly be my home in awe.

Then I look around the reality of how much stuff I have to do before I move, and I am panicked.

Then I realize that I took the wrong anti-histamine because of my dust allergies and that the panic reaction I'm feeling is a purely physical reaction to the anti-histamine that's causing my heart to race and slight dizzy-ness and dry mouth...all valid panic reactions. I hate that my mind gets that I've got these physical reactions and then decides to give them the "fear" label. *snarl* Let's turn this into something positive, brain...hokay? Hokay.

Now I have to go tutor to go pay for my half of what will shortly be my home.

New Era

Well, holy crap. I posted. And for such a wicked cool occasion, too. :D

Dave and I have rented a place together. We're moving out for October 1st...two weeks from now.

Holy crap.

Pictures can be found at http://www.davidcowley.ca/condo

Sweet.

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Brain?

Speaking of purple, I received a wicked purple trophy this weekend, after placing second at the BC Provincial Disc Golf Championships! (scroll down for my division's results) There were originally two amateur women's divisions, but there weren't enough players to fill the two divisions, so we were melded together. I was registered for amateur intermediate, while the woman who won was in amateur advanced, sooooooooo I kind of got first place in amateur intermediate. ;) I'm pretty freaking impressed with myself regardless.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I played. I was on a brand new (gorgeous) course that I'd never played before, but my first round was amazing. I wound up with only 6 over par, and managed to par the front nine holes. At hole two, I was shooting for par, threw too high right into a sapling, which then dumped my disc into the basket. I could do no wrong in that round. If I'd decided to shoot the wrong way, I firmly believe that a large bird would have swooped down, grabbed my disc and dropped it in a place where I would be able to save par. (a raven, maybe. I heard a couple there. Maybe an eagle. Discs are kind of heavy.)

My second round...lacked. I was one behind the leader and completely choked. The first hole (hole 15), I par'd when she bogey'd, which put us tied. Then...wow. I got a six, an EIGHT, a six and two fives. This is for holes that should have been threes and fours. It was terrible. The other women in my group talked me back from my ledge and the rest of the round went decently. Argh, though. It wasn't a good situation.

Third round, I wound up shooting the same as the first round, but I didn't even realize it until the end. I didn't have the same "do no wrong" feeling. I think it was because my shots were more solid this time around and I didn't have to sink those spectacular putts, or make up for all the fours and fives with twos. It was a much more technique-driven round rather than relying on luck.

Overall, it was a really great weekend. Dave and my brother Rob were out too, so we hung out quite a bit. I learned that playing 36 holes of disc golf plus a slight sunburn plus a glass of beer will knock me out at seven o'clock in the evening.

Good times.

Logan Lake

Heading up to Logan Lake (near Kamloops) today to play in the Provincial Disc Golf tournament. I'm excited. :)

I still have to pack some stuff up...and as demonstrated on previous occasions, I really, really hate packing. (I didn't mention hating packing for Pender, but I'm sure I thought it.)

Alsoplus, happy birthday Chris! You get to be older than me until October. :)

"That is a rare photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore."

I'm way too happy about this result.

Which Springfield Resident Are You?
	You are Comic Book Guy. Who said there's anything wrong with being a nerd? Certainly not you! You may be obsessed with things no one else cares about, but your passionate about what you do, so who cares what anyone else thinks?
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

I'm such a liar!

Ok, fine. A post. I KNEW posting the "WHIIIIINE!!! I'm not going to POOOOOOST anymore!!" entry would get me writing. Hehe.

Today my brother and I played 45 holes of disc golf in four hours. This is after I went around a different course 6 times yesterday. Today though? I par'd one of the rounds...27 shots for nine holes. WOO!!!

I started playing my guitar again yesterday. LOVE it. I'm trying to find chords for Death Cab songs and have one that I can...sort of...play. Ish. Very very ish.

Hmph.

I'm feeling very un-writerly. I'm still around, checking other people's sites, but I haven't wanted to do anything here. I've been looking back over some of my older stuff and it feels pretentious and boring. Also, the longer I go for, the more intimidating this page looks. In real life, I'm doing really well...but most of the stuff I've been doing isn't very exciting to read about.

So anyway, I might vanish again for a while. Or not. I haven't decided. :) Maybe this will be the breaking of the dam.

Oh, by the way...

I'm back from my trip. Heh...like...a week ago now. I'll do a big post later at some point. It was amazing.

Edmonton-Day Three

After arriving in Calgary Thursday night, I met up with my Oma, aunt, uncle, three cousins and eight second cousins (cousins once removed? My cousins' kids...whatever that definition is). It was really a neat coincidence because one of my cousins lives in the States and only comes up every so often with her kids. The last time I saw her in Calgary, I was watching her pack up her stuff to go to college in Kansas. That must have been twelve or more years ago.

After visiting for a bit, I went down to Vulcan, Alberta. I admit it, I was suckered in by some of the souveniers. Hee.

My Oma lives in Edmonton, and since she was coming up here at about the same time that I was, she came up with me. We stopped briefly in Red Deer to say hi to another aunt and uncle, then continued up to Edmonton. We arrived about 1130 and I crashed pretty hard.

Waking up this morning, I was still pretty tired, and I'm ready for a nap. Not really surprising, since I've done about 20 hours of driving in the last 48. Since the last time I was here was 2000 (!!!!) I'm going to stay another two nights and leave Monday morning. This has nothing to do with the fact that there's a giant mall a couple blocks away...nooooooo... ;) Plans today include visiting with my youngest cousins (6 and 10 years old), resting up and, of course, visiting the Giant Mall of Ultimate DOOM!

Hokay.

Excellent. I can post again.

Anyway, after 12 hours on the road, I'm in Calgary. And exhausted, yet wired. This is going to be fuuuuun!

I'm in ur street, stealing ur internetz

Time stamp: 10:30...off I go!

Crack of dawn, my butt. Crack of ten, more likely.

The Worst Part

I loathe packing. I think I've got pretty much everything packed up now except clothes, the laptop (what I'm typing on right now) and some snack type stuff in a cooler. The plan for tomorrow: get started really, really early and drive basically to Calgary. Yup, I'm nuts. Beyond that? Not really sure. I want to hit Edmonton for the mall, then the choice is north to try and get to the Territories, or east to Saskachewan to surprise Sarah. Hee. Hmmmm...that might only work if I ask her what her address is. Tonic water all around! Maybe both. How many days do I get to do this?

See you all on the flipside. I plan on blogging/posting pics/being in general contact with people.

*SPECIAL LOVE to everyone for being so supportive of this trip*

*grumble*

I'm really crabby and have been for the last little while, on and off. I dunno, man. I think it's the heat. I'm having trouble sleeping and staying on schedule. :P

So, I'm planning a crazy, solo road trip. I've got eight days or so, so I'm planning on hitting Calgary and Edmonton for sure, then maybe swinging north to see if I can hit the Territories. I doubt it, but who knows? Stranger things have happened. I'm looking for a laptop. It'd be really nice to have WiFi, be able to blog (since I do that SO often, heh) email and get articles published at Crafty Crafty. I've found a bunch of places that sell used laptops for really cheap and I'll be wandering over to a few of them tomorrow to see what's going on with them.

PTTTHHHHBTT!

After the news that I'm far more feminine than masculine, I had the need to change my template from pink to blue. (They didn't ask ANYTHING about action movies or hobbies or intolerance for drama! WTF?)

Actually, that's not completely true. I was looking at the old template and decided I needed something that looked cooler...not like "ZOMG!! SO COOL N AWESUM!!!" but temperature-wise.

Huh.

Your Score: Feminine

You scored 46 masculinity and 60 femininity!

You scored high on femininity and low on masculinity. You have a traditionally feminine personality.

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Ow.

o/~ I hurt myself...today.
To see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real. o/~
--"Hurt" Johnny Cash (9 Inch Nails cover)

I love the above song. For serious. Ok, so it's not totally accurate...whatev'. I'm actually hurting from Friday. My brother, his girlfriend and I did the Grouse Grind and I managed to get double cramps in my legs at about the 3/4 mark. This was less than awesome, since I couldn't point my toes without agonizing pain shooting through them. That also meant there was no way I could go down. We did it in 2:34, which is about an hour better than my previous time six or seven years ago.

Right now, I'm having trouble putting my feet flat on the ground. Argh!

I honestly thought I was in better shape than I am...but at least I did it! Pics are forthcoming. I wasn't the one carrying the camera...boy am I glad about that. Yeesh.

Hmmm

I am morose. I've been filling out a "Where have you been" map thingumajiggy on Facebook and I haven't really been very many places. I need to do some traveling.

I wonder how much flights to Asia cost...

Two things...

My suburb of Vancouver? It has a Kwik-E-Mart. WTF? Vancouver, I could see, but out here? Weiiiiird, yet totally awesome.

I have acquired a Wii. I believe my productivity is about to drop to roughly zero percent.

Late happy Canada Day!

Busy, so a list!

I've been crazy busy the last while...and just plain crazy too. Anyway, I've become obsessed with music since I bought my iPod. I think I'm plugged into it for too long...the earbuds are going to fuse with me if I'm not careful.

List of Artists I Love Listening To In The Order They Show Up On The Artist List On My iPod. (Links forthcoming for the more obscure ones, or google them when I don't have time)
-Amy Winehouse
-Artemis
-Beldam Bards
-Carrie Underwood (Before He Cheats)
-Dandy Warhols (We Used To Be Friends: Veronica Mars theme)
-Death Cab for Cutie (thanks Matt!)
-Decemberists
-Feist
-Gretchen Wilson
-Green Day (Boulevard of Broken Dreams)
-Johnny Cash
-Jonathon Coulton (He sings about emo giant squids. Or at least one of them. If there are more.)
-Kelly Clarkson (GAAAH!!! I know! Because Of You is such a good song though!)
-Kenny Wayne Shepherd
-Lily Allen
-Lisa DeBenedictis
-Maren Ord
-My Chemical Romance
-Nick Cave
-Panic! At the Disco
-Ramones
-Scissor Sisters
-S-x Gang Children (gah, on the google search for this one.)
-S-x with Strangers (thanks Lindsay!)
-Taylor Swift
-Tracy Chapman
-Victor Scott (my cousin)

PS: Watch Veronica Mars. Seasons one and two are on DVD now. SO GOOD.

Three Days a Week...

If I'm subbing and doing my two tutoring gigs, this is what my day looks like:

(if I didn't get a call the night before, I often get one at 530 am. This is most unamusing.)
730: wake up (again, if I'd gotten a call at 530) and hope like hell that I got enough sleep last night.
731: realize that I didn't.
732: unnnnghhhhhh...drag myself out of bed to make lunch and get ready for the day.
800: leave the house
900-300: teach in a class that doesn't know me, that I don't know with rules that I'm unaware of and problem students that try my patience on purpose. Grrr...
400-500: tutor a girl I've been tutoring for three or four years now. :) She's a sweetie.
515-550: get some food.
600-900: tutor for another three hours.
930: get on the computer and try to do some writing/other work. Last night I made puppets for Crafty Crafty!

I'm very tired right now. I have a couple of articles I've been writing for CC, but I'm exhausted and anything I write will make very little sense. Especially this post.

*blink*

Hey. What's up? I've been busy working (subbing pretty much every day, tutoring 12 hours a week, writing [for Crafty Crafty, and a little outlining for a story/novel/epic series]) mostly although I've managed to squeeze in a bout of stomach flu, what felt like it could be pneumonia again (but seems to be clearing up), karate, beginning a running program (does it count if I only do it once on Monday before the stomach flu felled me? I'm planning on continuing!), visiting Dave on occasion, finally reading the alleged Greatest Science Fiction Series of All Time (The Dune Chronicles. Yeah, despite being a geek of close to the highest order, I've never read all of Dune. Or Lord of the Rings. That's on the list. Anyway, I'm on the second book [of Dune] right now, and I'm really hating it. The first one was good though.), watching Veronica Mars with Dave, knitting, wondering how I managed to hurt my elbow by stretching and filling up my 4g iPod Nano (in silver...I was tempted by the wiles of the pink Nano, but decided that I could bling it up with more flexibility if I stuck with silver).

The above paragraph contains only three sentences. Huh. Time for bed again. Yes, it's only 8:30 am, but I'm still not totally well. I managed to sleep about 20 hours yesterday, but I'm kind of sleepy now. :P

It's up!

My first entry is up at Crafty Crafty! All you ever wanted to know about my crafting history in...not very many words. Or less!

Spinning Wheel
Originally uploaded by Random Synapses.

Uh oh...now I'm in trouble. I'm lusting over this $800 Ashford Elizabeth spinning wheel.

This picture has been tentatively chosen as my bio picture for a craft blog that I've been asked to write for! I'll pimp myself post more info here as I get it. In the meantime, go visit Crafty Crafty while you wait for my introduction/inaugeral post.

Stolen from Bimkins

Fun! I'd thought I'd be a plain old fighter, but this rocks my socks.

(watch this space for some exciting news)

Your Score: Spellsword

66% Combativeness, 26% Sneakiness, 67% Intellect, 27% Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Fingerless Gloves FO

(for my own reference)

Needle size-5mm/US 8 straight needles
Yarn-Paton's Decor in "Hunt Club"
Cast on-36
Pattern-K2P2 ribbing for 45 rows, cast off. Stitch up 30, skip 10, stitch last five

Final dimensions-7" long, very stretchy around

Oh, Internet...

I'm so sick. I'm sleeping 18 hours a day in four hour stretches. My throat and neck feel like they're going to explode. My ears are plugged with an ominous almost-ache that I'm nervously monitoring. I have virtually no voice. My chest and nose are clogged with stuff I don't really want to contemplate, but the lack of breathing forces me to. I've been sick since Wednesday or so, run down before then and I don't really feel any better than I did when I first dropped from this.

On the plus side, I do have fantastic wool socks that I finally finished knitting. They're so cozy. I love them beyond anything I've ever knit before.

But I'd almost trade them for being well. Almost.

I do believe I'll be calling in sick tomorrow, and possibly for a few other days.

Uh oh.

At 0604 this morning I was awakened by a feeling...a familiar feeling. Ohhhh crap. REALLY sore throat. Scratch in my nasal cavity/sinus area... NOOOOO!!!!

Rational Self: Ok, stay calm. You're probably not going to get a subbing call today since you worked most of this week already.

Irrational Self: *curled up under the blankets* *sniff* *cough* Hey, we've got Neo-Citrin upstairs! WHEE!!! *starts to get out of bed*

RS: WAIT! We might still get a call! We can't be drugged up if you get a call. What if it's our Favourite School in the District? It'll be SO easy. Not to mention that we've worked four days in a row, so we get paid on scale! We shouldn't give that up if we don't have to.

IS: I'm pretty positive we've got other cold drugs too! WHEE!!! I'll get to sleep ALLLLLL DAY!!! I'm going to call in and book the day off. *continues over to the phone*

RS: *hauls IS back into bed* NO! Think about this. Why don't we wait to see if we get a call from our FSitD, fall back asleep, then at 8:00 we can take some medicine and have the whole day guilt free if we don't get a call.

IS: But...but...instant gratification! *slyly* Alsoplus, we have a runny nose and the tissues are by the phone.

RS: So we do. Leave the phone alone though.

IS: Oh, Rational Self...feel how cold the air is? How warm our bed is? I bet that whatever classroom we go to will have broken air conditioning. YIKES! We're freezing. *bounds back to bed, carrying tissue box*

RS: Since we're back here anyway, let's debate...

*TELEPHONE RINGS WITH DISPATCH INFORMATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH*

IS and RS: Crap.

*accepts dispatch*

RS: Excellent. Now we know which type of cold medication we should take today. Non-drowsy it is!

IS: I hate you and will kill you while we sleep.

RS: You realize that means that you'll die too since we inhabit the same...

IS: Shut up.

RS: But...

IS: LA LA LA LA!! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!! Also, I blame our dad for this...just YESTERDAY he mentioned that it's been a long time since we got sick. Grrrrr...

********************************************************************************

So anyway, the book binge list will be delayed due to work and illness.

When Socks Attack

I'm about twenty rows away from the end of knitting my first pair of socks. This is about the same place that I screwed up on the previous sock, causing much cursing and ripping back of knitting and reknitting and oh GOD, I wasted three hours fixing my tantrum that I took out on the cursed, evil gentle, misunderstood sock. Basically, I can't wait to be finished these so that I've got them off my WIP (work in progress) list. Oh, and to wear them, because they're pretty awesome.

To motivate me (I only did two rows during the hockey game last night. TWO. ROWS. I should've finished them) I've got this page open on my desktop. Because I've very sick of green. And plain knitting. And I have some beautiful purple sock yarn that can't wait to be cabled and laced. Ahhhhh... :)

The Canucks Prayer

(received from J, an ardent Canucks fan from my Education program)

Our Father, who art in GM Place
Hockey be thy name.
Thy will be done, the cup be won
On ice, as well as in the stands.
Give us this day, our hockey sticks,
And forgive us our penalties,
As we forgive those who cross-check against us,
Lead us not into elimination,
But deliver us to victory.
In the name of the fans, Lord Stanley, and the Canucks
Amen.

GO CANUCKS GO!

(psst...I just got a tutoring gig, most likely. Whee!!! I've also been subbing pretty much every day for the last few weeks. Double WHEE!!)

Game Seven

Canucks jersey on? Check.
Lime diet coke ready? Check.
Game on? Check.
White towel at the ready? *runs off quickly* Check.
Ready to watch the Canucks play? CHECK.
READY TO WATCH THE CANUCKS MOVE ON TO THE NEXT LEVEL??? CHECK!!!!

BELEEEEEEIVE!!!!!

To Do

1) organize and burn karate photos to DVD
2) organize and burn wedding celebration photos for cousin (ummm...from the December 30th party. Ouch.)
3) several loads of laundry
4) get completely ready for karate (see #3)
5) get ready for Kamloops this weekend (pack, and see #3.)
6) acquire and consume far too many Skittles (regular flavour) (again)
7) Tell people on the internet that Facebook has eaten my brain and to come see me. (I'm under my first name and last name. IM me if you don't know them.)
8) Decide on a metric crap-tonne of stuff that needs to leave my room.
9) Actually get it out of my room
10) Have a panic attack at the thought of having stuff leave and bring most of it back in
11) Finish off two unfinished objects of knitting.
12) Clean the bathroom.
13) And kitchen.
14) And my room.
15) And vacuum (vaacum? vaccum? sucker upper?)
16) Surf the internet.
17) And clean my desk.
18) And put away that laundry that should've been done in #3. Why isn't #3 finished??? Oh, right. #16.
19) Ride my exercise bike. (I've got a half finished episode of Buffy that I started MONTHS ago.)
20) Realize I've gotten to twenty items and that it's hopeless and that I should take everything I own and just set it on fire to save time.

EDIT: 12:42
21) Upload pics of the Poke's birthday onto my computer so I can have the memory cards clear for Kamloops.
22) Realize CRAP I'm going away for the weekend. I loathe packing.

EDIT: 12:56
23) Take pictures of finished objects and stash for the Yarn Diet community.

Ahhh...

It's the start of a new pay period tomorrow (today, technically. Monday.) and I've already been requested for a full day in my favourite classroom, and I should be getting requested Tuesday as well, in the same school. Maybe the same class, maybe not. Ahhhhh...this feels good. Considering that last pay period I got a grand total of 2 days over the two weeks...and the one before I got half a day? This is very much awesome.

Conversation: last night

(no, this isn't exactly right, but it's pretty close. I didn't have the tape recorder going.)

Me: "My room is freaking ridiculous. I've got enough stuff here for a two bedroom apartment."

Dave: "What would make the most difference?"

Me: (wailing) "I don't KNOOOOWWWW!!!"

Dave: "What about your exercise bike? Do you ever use it?"

Me: (in my head) HOLY CRAP! I've got an exercise bike in my room! I'd forgotten about that! (out loud) "Not lately. Eventually I will again, I'm sure."

(more talk about cleaning and organizing etc.)

Tonight? Twenty minutes on the bike. Good thing someone pointed it out to me.

psst...new photos up on flickr

Time eater!

Seal generator found at http://www.says-it.com/seal/index1.php

(the Latin is "Deeds not words")

(edit: since it wasn't obvious, I picked out the stuff and designed the seal myself. Go me!)

BOOK BINGE: The Salmon of Doubt: Douglas Adams (short story and essays...first twenty pages read before April started), A Bird in the House: Margaret Laurence (short stories), Legends (short stories), The Sleeping Dragon: Joel Rosenberg (book one: Guardians of the Flame)

Spring Holiday

Happy Easter/Ostara everyone! I hope you're enjoying the day according to your personal belief system. For me, that means visiting with family, eating chocolate, wearing white, admiring the flowers and the turn of the earth to be SPRING AGAIN!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! and getting a spring haircut (with streaks).

Meme

Stolen from Lora

Okay so here's the deal: You get to ask me *THREE QUESTIONS* No matter how crazy, inappropriate, or random they are I will answer 100% truthfully.
That's the truth part. The dare is for you to put this in your journal to see what other people ask about you! (addendum by me... I have family who read this so I might email you the answers if they're too naughty. :) )

Early Day in the Life

This isn't an official "Day in the Life" post...but I just wanted to share what substitute teachers do when they don't get called.

1200: wake up. (I went to bed at 830 last night and slept for fifteen hours. I think the cold that has been trying to explode for the last few days has failed. This pleases me.)

1215: squeal over the gorgeously dyed unspun wool that arrived from Mielke's Farm in Wisconsin for me to spin. EEEEE!! Pics of what I bought HERE. It looks just like that, except that the colours are more beautiful and rich and gorgeous in person. I'm SO excited. :D :D :D :D But I can't spin any of it yet, because I'm on my way to ....

150: go to a matinee movie with my mom. For her birthday, I gave her a voucher to see Blades of Glory and get some movie food. So, we're probably going to go today. :) Review will be posted after.

After movie? Not sure. Maybe spin some of my red mottled Perendale fleece (soooo soft. Mmmm) or my white merio fleece (OMG, even softer...it will become laceweight and become a shawl.) or my brand new bag of candy (Corriedale, so not super crazy soft...but not bad. It will become...um...many things.) but probably not because I have to decide what projects I'm going to make with it first. Maybe I'll work on my cursed sock (don't even ask. This deserves a whole post of its own), or cursed fingerless gloves (some of the stitches fell off the needle yesterday. Grr. But then I worked on it at lunch and got a bunch done.) Maybe I'll do some sewing? Or reading? Ahhhhh...so much choice.

Despite all this, I'm really annoyed I didn't get called. Hopefully I'll have a decent paycheque this time. *sigh*

BOOK BINGE: The Salmon of Doubt: Douglas Adams (short story and essays), A Bird in the House: Margaret Laurence (short stories)

OH THE HUMANITY!

They changed the layout of Desktop Defense! And added a new tower! And a new enemy! GAHHH!!!

Feeling better again

I've been in sort of a weird headspace for the last few weeks. Hopefully most people haven't noticed, except for the ones I whine to, "I'm miserable!!" etc. So thanks to those people for putting up with me on MSN and IRL. Thanks also to Dave for talking with me tonight. It's amazing how if there's a problem...and you TALK about it...suddenly the problem seems so much smaller. I tend to build stuff up in my head and then it blows up and it's a big messy brain boom teary issue. I managed to talk about what I felt was a problem (with me) before it got to the BMBBTI stage and he helped me figure some stuff out.

Anyway.

Hopefully I'll get called in to teach tomorrow. This is going to be a lean paycheque. With spring break last week and only being called in for half a day, I'm going to wind up with a $100 payday. Woo.

In the spirit of the book binge, I thought I ought to do a literary meme.


Take the list below, paste it into your own blog, and mark them as follows:
READ for those you’ve read;
WANT TO next to those you are interested in;
AGAIN & AGAIN next to those you’ve read and loved, over and over;
REPEAT for those you’ve read more than once, without necessarily loving them;
MEH for stuff you read and weren’t impressed by;
STARTED for those that just never got finished;
and leave blank those you don’t care to read.

My own addition: ON THE LIST for those I plan to read in April.


1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) MEH. I read it after watching the movie. It's better than the movie. But that's kind of like saying that a beating with baseball bats is better than a beating with lead pipes.

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) ON THE LIST

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) READ

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) READ (on a weekend camp in Victoria during Girl Guides.)

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) MEH
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) STARTED-ON THE LIST
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) ON THE LIST I really must finish these books, or else turn in my geek card.

8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) AGAIN AND AGAIN

9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) READ and loooooved.

10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) READ (twice? maybe?)

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) NONONONONONONONO!

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling) READ

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) WANT TO (loved "World According to Garp")

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) WANT TO, ON THE LIST

16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling) READ

17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald) READ

18. The Stand (Stephen King) READ (twice?)

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling) READ

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) WANT TO (I've never read any of the Bronte books or Austen. And I'm an English major. Sheesh.)

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) READ (twice, I think)

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) AGAIN AND AGAIN (I reread stuff I've got around. I had it around in high school)

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) READ

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) STARTED

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) AGAIN AND AGAIN

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) WANT TO

28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) AGAIN AND AGAIN

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) WANT TO

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

31. Dune (Frank Herbert) READ (must reread...didn't get it in grade six...wonder why.)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) READ (I liked this book a lot)

33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) STARTED, WANT TO, ON THE LIST

34. 1984 (Orwell) READ (online...I love project Gutenberg!)

35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) AGAIN AND AGAIN

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)

38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)

40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) AGAIN AND AGAIN in junior/senior high(there are some NAUGHTY bits!!) Couldn't get into the most recent one.

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)

45. The Bible READ, (parts over and over)

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) STARTED

47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) STARTED

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) STARTED, ON THE LIST

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) WANT TO

50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) STARTED

53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) AGAIN AND AGAIN (If you haven't read it...GO READ IT!!!!)

54. Great Expectations (Dickens)

55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) Meh

56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence) WANT TO

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling) READ IT

58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)

59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) AGAIN AND AGAIN

60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)

64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) AGAIN AND AGAIN

65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) AGAIN AND AGAIN

67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)

68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

69. Les Miserables (Hugo) STARTED

70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding) MEH

72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)

73. Shogun (James Clavell) READ

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)

75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) AGAIN AND AGAIN

76. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay) WANT TO

77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn READ I think

78. The World According To Garp (Irving) READ (loved!)

79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence) READ (SO GOOD!!)

80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) AGAIN AND AGAIN

81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) READ

83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) AGAIN AND AGAIN

84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind) READ (great series!)

85. Emma (Jane Austen)

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams) READ

87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) WANT TO

89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)

90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) READ

91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)

92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) AGAIN AND AGAIN (again with the reading of things on hand.)

93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) WANT TO

94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) WANT TO

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) READ

96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) READ

97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)

98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)

99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Since I read anyway...

I'm part of the April "Book Binge". Rules can be found at Mary P.'s site "It's Not All Mary Poppins". I'm excited. :D

Randomness

-I'm feeling better now...gotta cut back on the caffeine though. Yikes.

-I'm spinning yarn on my little drop spindle that I made all by myself. I'm currently working on a bunch of smaller than lace weight. Ummmmm...yeah. It's kind of taking forever. Another name for that is "cobweb". I think I may just keep what I've got and make a doll scarf or something. I'm getting impatient.

-New pics up on Flickr!

-Yesterday was only my second day in two months that I hadn't been called to teach. It was nice to have a relaxed day (aka...going out to MISSION to do a store...) and it was my mom's bday!

-Related to the Mission thing, I have the opportunity to go out to Mission/Abbotsford every so often. When I'm driving on the #1, I almost always get the urge to just keep on driving. Just follow the mountains and keep on going. I don't really want to live anywhere else but BC, but sometimes I just want the adventure and anonymity that starting over in a small prairie town would bring. I think I've been watching too much Corner Gas...

I don't feel good...

I'm all jittery and dizzy, like I'm having a panic attack, minus the panic. My heart is racing and my stomach is upset. I think I'm having a bad reaction to the Sixbucks Frappacino I had today. I asked for decaf, but there wasn't any. Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh...

*SNEEZE*

Whoa. *waves hands frantically in front of face* Lookit all the DUST here. GYEAHH!!! Spiderwebs! *scrubs at face and bats at the air* Yeechhh...

Hi. Here's been my last few weeks in a nutshell (hee hee...look at me, I'm in a nutshell! Help, help, won't someone let me out of this nutshell? /austinpowers)...

-subbing
-tutoring
-knitting
-semi-retail job
-Spring break, so reverse the order of the previous three
-playing THIS STUPID GAME THAT I CAN'T STOP PLAYING WITH (srsly, don't click the link if you have anything important to do. But if you do and you want to join our high score championship run, Dave created "wellipsis" no quotation marks if you play. Or if you know...you want to check out my high score in the normal difficulty. And Dave's [hard difficulty], but it's gonna be mine soon.)
-reading blogs and LJ
-knitting (more)
-karate (twice a week now, and I'm learning the last kata that I need to test for my next level!)
-weekly dizzy spells that last a few days (stupid Menieres)
-catching up on 24, Simpsons, Corner Gas and Robson Arms episodes that my computer kindly has been recording for me.

So, I've been here, I just haven't been posting here. I've been here since this is my portal to all my blogs that I read. So if you blog, I've been keeping up with you, even if I haven't been

I want to dedicate a full post to knitting and fibre arts and my new mascot (ZOMG!! SO CUTE!!!!!11!!ELEVEN!!) but my mom and I are on our way into Vancouver so that I can get some wool that has not yet been spun into yarn so that I can spin it into yarn myself. *SQUEE* (Anyone who thinks I was born in the wrong century, please raise your hands. Although, I really like the resources from the internet. So maybe not.)

Finally, my mom pointed me in the direction of this cartoon. I <3 it. I immediately printed it out and it's sitting on my stack of CD spindles waiting for me to find the tape. I think I'll probably be posting more of these as time goes on.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

PS: I got paid for teaching today again. I must say that I enjoy a job which pays me in two weeks what used to take me six to get. Yes. Yes I do.

I thought knitting was supposed to be RELAXING!

My sock...the one I am SO CLOSE to finishing? I fscked it up. Now I'm ripping it back a bunch and cursing the whole time. *SNARL*

...so...tired...

I've worked at least half a day every day I've been able to, except two. One day I didn't get called and one I called in sick. This is insane, but lovely. I'm also still doing a semi-retail job and tutoring. Oh, and doing karate twice a week. So...if I haven't seen you in a while, I haven't seen anyone in a while. My alleged best friend and I haven't seen each other since Christmas Eve! I wouldn't be surprised if she's since found another best friend...one who can like...be in the same room with her. :P

I don't have my notebook of what I've done for teaching, so some of this is approximate.

Subbing days/eligible days: aprox 20/28
Longest stretch of time in a classroom: 5 days
Different schools: 14ish (gotta look it up)
Different classes: 30ish
Most students: 29 (high school)
Fewest students: 1 (resource)
Grades: K, 1, 1/2, 2/3, 3, 3/4, 4, 4/5, PE 10, Science 10, CAPP 10, English 10, English 11,

The Teacher and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Today was the worst day of teaching I've ever had. I'm not going to go into much detail, since there's a lot of it...but I'll leave you with the final part of the theoretical post I'll be writing about it.

The girls held their ice packs to the various parts that had been hurt.

Then, we had a fire drill.

Best part? I'm back in that classroom tomorrow.

"You didn't die. No one died. There wasn't even a small fire." --Mantra I'm repeating to self tonight.