3rd Level

Everyone in my family has been sick. And now it looks like we are going for round 2. My littlest one (not so little really, she's 11) has a sore throat and fever. Kind of like what she had a week or so ago, only more sore, not as hot. What?!? I am the mother of 3, I kind of thought I had this whole sickness thing down. Sore throat, fever that doesn't wane = strep. But I don't know what to do with this whole coming and going fever thing. And the one thing I hate about up here, is that there are no pediatricians. And the clinic we go to only has walk in hours for sick people. So I get to take my 11 yr. old, unvaccinated against the flu daughter and go sit in a waiting room full of coughing, sneezing, germy people and wait for someone to look at her. I know because I did it last week with my other daughter. Fortunately child #1 has asthma and has been vaccinated against h1n1. Fun.

I found my camera. I just need to look for the cord, I know where it is, I've just not had time to look for it. But I took a picture of my latest spinning. I love it! It's merino/tencel - it's sooooo soft, and it's turquoise/grey and a weensy bit of brown. I'm plying-on-the-fly and I think it's about fingering weight, so I think it will become a special pair of socks, for me.

I also ditched the Pinko the Wave. It's back in the closet. I started the fountain pen shawl from the fall Interweave knits. It's turning out ok, but I'm using a variegated yarn and I really don't like variegated for lace. I wish I had known this before I bought a bunch of it.

Also going to start working on hats and cowls for 3rd Level Alpena. It's a group that works with homeless teens, hopefully to find them food and shelter, especially for the winter. It's sad what's happening up here, around the whole state I'm sure. But what's going on up here is that people who have lost their jobs downstate, are coming back to live with their families, many of whom have probably lost jobs themselves. We have one shelter up here, it has nine families in it right now and I'm not sure how many single adults. There are 100 homeless kids in the public schools, some living out of their cars. I'm going through my closests today, I know I have coats and such to donate. I complain about my kids getting sick, but I am so fortunate that my family has a warm place to live, food, insurance. I really think these things should be a right for everyone, not a luxury.

Why Do I Keep Knitting It?

I pulled my Print o' the Wave stole out from the back of my closet. You remember, the one the ZPDK's were doing as a KAL oh, about a year ago? The one that as far as I can remember only Jaxypants and Spinny actually finished? Well mine was well under way. I was finished with the border and was knitting the never-ending-edging. (Ask Spinny and Jax.) I'm actually on the fourth side, when I put it down for a snuggle with the pups. It's cold up here and those dogs produce a lot of heat! I looked down, under my tiny little eight pound pup sitting snuggled up to my leg and just about had a coronary. Underneath the little shit, I saw my stole, all the border stitches on one needle of the circs, and where the 18 edging stitches were supposed to be on the other needle? Nothing. 18 little tiny loops of stitches sitting underneath a raspy dog paw. I moved him as gently as I could (not worried about him, worried about the stitches) but it was no use. Those suckers were dropping faster than anything I've ever seen in my life. I picked up what I thought might have been the 18 stitches, but turned out not to be. I dropped a few and found a few more, knitted the next nine rows of edging and what resulted is something I'm glad I don't have a camera to take a picture of.

Now I'm torn. I put a lot of work into this thing. I absolutely refuse to frog it. Refuse. Won't be happening. But now I wonder, should I shove it back in the closet for another year, since looking at it makes me want to cry? Or should I suck it up and finish and go back and try to make the crappy dropped stitch part look acceptable? Let me add, there are already many, many mistakes in this thing, but mistakes that a non knitter might not notice. This is not one of those mistakes.

What's a knitter to do? Anyone?

Really?

It's been a month since I posted? Woah. That's bad. I think it's mostly because I have no camera, but blogs aren't just about pictures. It's about the words man. The words!

Words are awesome. Words in English are especially awesome. Thinking about writing 30 pages worth of words in French is boggling my mind. Thinking about reading all the words in French that will enable me to spit out 30 pages en francais is even more mind boggling. I'm into avoidance at this point and that means staying away from the computer, where most of my communication with Kalamazoo happens. I must push forward . . . .

Knitting? I'm stuck here. I'm suffering from a major bout of SSS. I've got two complicated socks half done and I just want to knit stockinette. It's all the television that is on. What with House, Heroes, America's Next Top Model, Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Project Runway, Flash Forward, and The Amazing Race I just can't look away from the tv to make sure I'm following a pattern!

Right now I'm working on a turban for my mil. The dreaded "C" word has struck my family again. She will be undergoing chemo and I thought she needed something snazzy yet comfortable to keep her head warm this winter. I plan on co-opting my daughter's camera (she lost the cable that connects it to the computer, so I figure if I buy one she'll have to let me use it) and posting pics soon of my knits, although as you may have deduced, the knits might be a little on the boring side in picture form.

Gotta jet, Heroes is waiting for me on the dvr!

Reference Desk at the Alpena Co. Library, Can You Help Me Find an Accredited Online University?

Well, I've moved up. It is definitely a busier place and a tad more interesting than circulation. I'm doing more of what I used to do back in Clawson. But dudes, I still miss Clawson. The library, the city, the people, everything. So does Joe I think. I think we are what you might call homesick. The "glamour" (?!?) of Alpena has worn off, and it's just not feeling like home yet. I'm not giving up on it, and I've made some nice friends who go out of their way to make me feel welcome. I don't know.

On the flip side of that negativity, Kalamazoo College says all I have to do is take a few upper level French courses from an accredited university, take a few gym classes and attend a few lectures and shazzam! - they will award me with a degree! Now I just have to find an online university because as you know, an actual brick and mortar place doesn't really exist within reasonable driving distance of my fair city, and come up with some cold hard cash. It's doable.

My camera still eludes me. I want a new one, for I fear mine must have met it's maker in the move. But that would require me telling Joe that I lost a $200 camera and want a new one. That's a little scary. He gets mad at the kids when they do stuff like that, I can't imagine how he might react to it coming from me! Just jokes, he's a pretty mellow dude. But I've finished a pair of socks, have two SSS's (single sock sydrome socks) hibernating (although one of them's other half has been cast on) and am almost finished with my Rivulet scarf. I need documentation or people will quit believing that I'm actually knitting!

Things Are Looking Up

I've been promoted! I'm movin' on up, literally! I'm going to work at the reference desk at the library, which is on the second floor (I work on the first floor at circ right now) - I forget the title, I think it's something like "Assistant Information Services Librarian", even though I'm not a librarian - yet! I'll take the title. It's more hours, more work that involves some thought, and I believe it will provide me with some interesting conversational fodder. We'll see.;)

Also, today I am going to meet with the Director of Northwood University, the only bachelor's degree program in Alpena. I'm going to finish my degree! I've been accepted and the director wants to discuss my transcripts. Fun. My degree will be in some sort of management, versus French (quite the leap!) but I'll have the piece of paper that apparently is like some kind of magic parchment that opens many doors.

Someone I work with said she had read in some paper or something, that people should stop getting bachelor's degrees, because it makes it harder for them to get jobs! What?!? It was funny because the director was in on this conversation and promptly said no and quoted a statistic - something like 90 percent of bachelor's degree holders obtain employment - I don't know the numbers but I was happy he said that. Life for me, would have been a fair bit easier had I finished college within the normal four year span. For my children, not getting a bachelor's degree isn't even something we talk about. When we talk about school, it's 16 years and then you can decide what you want to do, not 12. I've seen people do it differently and it's an easy out for a not so motivated kid. Sure some kids will pursue higher education no matter what, but not all of them. Some need a bit of a prod. I'm prodding mine.

On the down side, poor Sophie returned from camp with a sore throat. I'm hoping she wakes up feeling better. If not, we'll be spending the day at the doctor's office. Send good thoughts!

OMG

I've turned into one of those people who never blogs.

I have many excuses. My camera is still missing. I live an essentially boring life. I wrote a really long blog entry dissing one of my daughter's friend's mother's but am afraid to post it, even though I didn't mention names because Alpena is one of those towns where if you say something about someone, someone else will see it and figure out who you are talking about. Really. Doctor's can't even share interesting case histories with anonymous names because someone will know. It takes some getting used to. I've stuck my foot in my mouth countless times so far.

I've been reading and knitting. It's hot. We are moved into our house, the garage is still full of crap. (My camera is probably out there somewhere, along with four missing library books and my college transcripts but the thought of searching through the hot garagae makes me hotter than I already am.)

So really, it's summer and I've not done anything worth writing about. School starts soon. When it cools off I'll look for the camera.

Shell

Everything is out of our old house. We turned in the keys and passed a final inspection. Yay! Now all the assloads of stuff in the old house are resting peacefully in the garage. I don't like to look in there. Although I suppose I will have to get serious when the weather people start talking snow.

I'm back to work and knitting. I finished the back half of a shell, called Martina. It's pretty. Of course I can't show you because I still can't find the camera. I know it's in this house (or garage *eep*) because I saw it here, I know I did. But I can't remember where. And I'm too busy knitting to do an all out search.

I am also spinning and plying on the fly! I love it. I went to the Castle Farms Fiber Fest in East Jordan Michigan and bought some awesome roving. I'll give you the deets later, but when I got home I plunked down in front of the computer, googled me some ply on the fly lessons and taught myself a new trick! Instant yarn! It's nifty.

Well, that pretty celery green caron country yarn of which the shell is made is calling my name so I gotta go.