The New Year is A-Coming

8:50 am

                Let’s see, today is Friday, last day of the year. Tomorrow is the first, Saturday, then there is Sunday, and L leaves to go back to college. Then the New Year begins, and it is JTerm until the end of the month. I will teach my spinning class and spend a good chunk of time evaluating this fall’s class and getting ready for spring. So right now I have a few days of relative bliss. L and I talked about making mozzarella cheese. Tonight I go to a friend’s. Oh and we went last night to get G’s “industrial.”

no, it's not her - image from Wikipedia

She was so so so excited about it. Funny thing to get so excited about.

                A friend came over yesterday for a little bit and it was very nice. It helped my mood immensely. Also helped knowing she was coming and that I had to get a move on to get my errands done before. I zipped out and did them and felt tons better. In the afternoon I walked into town to give blood, but my iron was too low. Guess I gotta work on that. I am going to spin up some yarn for my friend and also give her instructions for making wrist warmers, and she will use the instructions and see how it goes. Except she actually figured it out on her own and made a pair that she brought yesterday, so I’m not sure why I am doing this anymore. Well, I’ll do it anyway. I spun one bobbin last night as I finally finished listening to the George Washington cd. I need to get out to the sunroom to get some grey angora to ply with it, and then I need to write up the instructions. Not sure how much of it I will do today with all the cooking that must be done. And still bunnies to do, etc. and LAUNDRY. I never did hang stuff out yesterday, and today is cloudy.

                And the other big looming thing of course is the FAFSA etc stuff. I have managed to enter checks and all that, and I even got the PIN, now I guess I better start gathering information to enter into the forms. Oh bother. And over the weekend I had better gather what I need for the spinning class, and fix that wheel. Except I need to find the drill bits. K used it for his big wood holding project that he did, and didn’t put the drill and bits back. So I guess I’d better ask him where they are. AND I have to get ready for the fair meeting which is just a week away. Auggggg as usual if I think about it all I will feel overwhelmed.

               

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Absolutely Nothing Fibrous

9 am

                Not sure what good writing Morning Pages will do me today. I am feeling rather crappy. Overwhelmed of course, as usual, though I did manage to get a good bit done yesterday in terms of going through the huge pile of papers. I think G is heading off this morning to watch a movie at a friend’s, then to work for most of the day. L and I talked briefly about the idea of going for some sort of hike. I don’t know if that will happen. We also talked about making mozzarella cheese. Don’t know if that will happen either. I guess I must stay very flexible. As for myself, I very much want to get those returns – wool pants, wool socks – taken care of.

                Right now I am cold and that makes it very much harder to think about doing anything.                It is really starting to bother me that I am doing this sleeping til 8 thing every day. I went to bed by 10:30 last night, though the truth is that I did not sleep that well. Funny, since part of why it was hard to get out of bed this morning was that it was cold, but part of why I did not sleep well is that I was hot off and on. Complicated. Another thing I had better focus on today is getting more laundry done. I really hope that when the repair man gets back from vacation, he can come over soon to look at this damn washer. And I also hope that replacing the clutch will actually solve the problem. I hope we do NOT have to get a new one. But as it is right now, I must put in a wash, then when it finishes I must give it another rinse, then when that finishes I must spin it out again with the water turned off. Truly crazy and very time consuming. It looks like today might be a day that I could hang laundry out, so perhaps I will try that.

                We went to friends’ last night for latkes. It was like “old times” and actually quite fun. I had meant to ask them about L’s Apple computer which she says has been really slow, and about getting an apple laptop for G. Well, I guess I could call them. I think I will spend a little time this morning checking a few things out on line. Like what? I’m sure I will shortly forget. Ok – how much are apples? And are there any sites where people share thoughts on my most recent 2 novels – The Ground Beneath Her Feet  Salman Rushdie, and  No More Parades,  Ford Maddox Ford. I certainly cannot find anyone in my immediate vicinity who has read these, and it would be interesting to see what others have thought.

                As I said, I managed to get a good ways through the Pile From Hell. I started to deal with insurance stuff – now I must await the itemized  bill from MDI Hospital. And await the form from the other insurance company about our ceiling before I can finish dealing with that. I managed to pay bills and enter checks and balance the account. Woo hoo. I guess I will continue to dig through and see if I can finish. And maybe come up with a better system than piling everything on the kitchen table.

                It’s 9:30, I’ve spent half an hour doing this. Time to move on (like get dressed and feed the bunnies, which , by the way, is taking an awful long time these days…..).

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Christmas Redux - Fibrous Gifts!

8:40 am

                Been a while since I wrote. The big xday is done. I got a very nice cast iron fry pan, some lendrum bobbins, a niddy-noddy, some forks. All that was very nice. And Friday, xmas eve day, I discovered a secret. That is the day to go visit people. Unfortunately I was in a royally bad mood, so I was not really spreading tons of festive cheer, but I brought truffles to several friends and they all seemed happy to get them and happy for me to stop by. It may have to become a tradition. Though I wonder if the pressure will be on next year to go to NC for Christmas.

                Fibery things: I finished the Very Simple Wrist Warmers – knit flat in garter stitch then sewn up. They came out nice and would make an excellent Really Easy kit. Now I am making the same thing but turned 90 degrees, so that one would not even have to do a gage, just cast on for the length and knit until they are the correct width around the hand. Cool. Or rather warm. I want, speaking of warm, to also make a muff lined with angora.

                Non fiber things: what the week ahead will bring. Well, L is only here for one more week, then she is off again. Oh dear. I like just having her here so I can look at her, watch her in whatever she is doing. If I think about it, I will start to cry. What else? Tomorrow I head to work to finish grades. Meaning that today I must finish the labs and exams. I am nearly done. Then comes tax/financial stuff. That has to be the big focus of the week. I must get stuff ready for the FAFSA. yuckola.  I also need to get things ready for the JTerm Spinning class. It looks like this will be the final year for JTerm, so I guess I won’t be able to teach the class again. Too bad. I need to look into teaching a LSSE class. For JTerm I must send out letters, fix the wheel, check on the new drum carder, gather materials, and haul everything over to work. I need not do the hauling til next week, but the letters should be sent soon.

                Besides all that, today’s big focus will be snow. It is snowing pretty heavily right now, and we are going to have to do some major shoveling. I am hoping the girls will do most of it. I have to do the back porch so I can get to bunnies, who, speaking of which, I need to do soon!

               

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BORING!!!!

I am rarely bored....except when grading. oh well. I like most of my job, just the grading part is not fun. And itis not so bad. If I were at home, I would take breaks and do other useful things like the laundry, but I am at work and cannot do that. Thus this little message insertion.
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X-Day

8 am

Well the big X-day fast approacheth. What a sourpuss I am, I imagine that if one did a survey of all the fiber-related blogs in the Ethernet, 99.9% would be all cheery and sappy about the season (well, except for being stressed about getting all the handmade gifts handmade). Not this one. Too bad.

Today will be of course a panic. I must go into work, in large part because I must deliver the chocolate truffles I went to the bother of making but forgot to bring in to the department party on Tues. I do have quite a bit of grading still to do, and I could do it here, but for having to bring in the truffles. And I also need to stop at the CSA farm to pick up our meat order and our veggies. AND I need to do those last minute shops. Yesterday was a big shop day that got cut decidedly short when I had to drive not once but twice to Wendell (20 miles up the road) first to get the nice local turkey, then to get my wallet that I left behind. So I didn’t get all the other stuff done. It will have to get done today. BUT and here’s another clincher – L will be taking the car to Temenos, and G took the bus to school today (I assume she got up late and missed the bus). I will get a ride to work with K this morning, stopping at Atkins along the way for a palm pastry… then G will have to come down to pick me up after school and we’ll stop at Brookfield, I’ll drop her and the meat home and do my errands. It means I will be at work for longer than I had planned, but that is fine because there is plenty to do.

And so, as usual, I had better get a move on.

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Xmas is coming...........

8 am

                Man oh man it stinks royally. Just the fact that I am so astoundingly depressed and am having a rough time with it. Snakey is not doing that well, he is not eating, and I must bring him in to the vet. I called and have an appointment for tomorrow. And I will also bring in yarn for a coworker to look at. I think I will send an email out to the whole department to see if anyone else wants to look at yarn. That’s not too bad. Ok. I can handle all that. So I won’t go in today. I will stay home and do grading. And figure out Christmas gifts, the other big yuckola. I do not want to go through the whole opening gifts routine – that being the main event. Oh brother I just hate this time of year with a passion. I did manage to get G’s gifts pretty well covered – speakers, the tshirt, the lens for the camera, and I will get her the “industrial” piercing thing. I did order 2 books for K, but the other things are not on paid postage, and besides will not arrive til after, so I might go to A2Z to see if they have them – sand timers. Well you know what, they won’t, or at any rate they won’t have the “ones” he wants, so I had better just order the damn things and be done with it.

                Well, it is better that I do not have to go into work today. I will try to spend the day GETTING THINGS DONE.     I think I will try calling a friend to see if we could get together. That might help things a little. And I think I will meditate and order those things from Amazon – too bad if they arrive late (maybe I’ll find a cheap one from Stop & Shop or somewhere as a “place marker”).

               

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Various Emergencies

9:50 am

                I did the Gma duty yesterday and day before, driving down to get her, taking her to G’s concert, bringing her home yesterday. And then I went to work and when I got home last night there were 3 messages from her on the machine. First: she had left her toiletries bag with all her medications. Then, that she had found more of most of them in her medicine cabinet, but not the crucial eye drops. Third that the doctor had called in a new prescription and that my sister was able to pick it up for her. So no longer a major emergency. I’m glad I was not home to hear it all play out until the problem had been basically solved. I still need to bring the bad to the PO to mail it to her, since it has things like her toothbrush, but at least it need not be overnight express. Oh dear.

                And next emergency – the wood. Well, my friend convinced me that I should call the firewood company since they were at least partly to blame for not having it on record that I need the 12-14 inch split wood, not the 16 inch. Or they should ask. Anyway, she convinced me and I called and felt quite good about it. But they have not called back and I have a feeling they are avoiding me like the plague. I guess I will just have to keep trying. And the washing machine: it does not spin out all the way, meaning that after every load I must turn off the water and respin it out. It just adds a step and is kind of a pain. And the guy – a local repair man who is the husband of a friend and G’s former piano teacher, has gotten the part it needs but cannot come to work on it until they get back from vacation after Christmas. So I will continue to do the extra spin. It is not a huge big deal, but K was all worked up about it. Well, he hardly does any laundry so why should he worry about it? And now – the kitchen sink. I have just had the revelation that I really should call the plumber to replace the faucet. I bought a new one, and it has been on the back burner so to speak for months. But now there are 2 other leaks that really should be looked at, neither of which I would know how to fix, so why not call the plumber to take care of all of it?

                And what I DO have to do is empty the camper bus (it’s only been 2 weeks!) and organize fiber stuff. Not to mention pluck Blizzard who really needs it, and probably Amber and clip the babies who are very tangled.

                Today I will bring the brown baby (not such a baby any more!) in to work. I have a study session and figure that would be nice.

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