the only one more bored than the students

i'm a computer lab teacher today, hence the post. yay for jobs that let you do what you want (sometimes). i finally got over my cold, which was more of a cough. and, typically, yesterday chuck got a sore throat and started coughing today. so i guess he's going to be coughing for a week now like i was. :( bummer for him.

dance class was fun yesterday. we started east coast swing, and learned a turn in the foxtrot. i don't think we did anything with the waltz. we did get a practice CD with music for all 3 dances, so we can practice at home. hoo-ra. practice would help. we don't do too bad, surprisingly. those folk dance classes must have helped my coordination and gracefulness more than i thought because it's been easy to pick up steps. i almost feel like a good dancer. but most of all it's fun. we're lucky to have a big deck we can dance on, otherwise we wouldn't have enough space inside to dance.

i finished the mystery yarn socks. . . well except for grafting the toes. what can i say, it's not the funnest thing in the world, and i don't have to do it yet. i'm starting the foot on the second hedera sock. in the process of doing the heel, i realized why the heel on the first sock looked so short. because it was. i did half the number of heel rows i should have. duh. but of course the sock is done now, so the internal dilemma is whether or not to take out the whole beautifully finished foot (including grafted toes) to lengthen the heel, or to just leave it becuase, hey who's going to see the heel but me? the perfectionist side might win out, but then again the lazy side might. we'll have to see.

the sides and back for the fjörgyn sweater are all done, so i just have to bind off the shoulders together and i'll be ready for the hood. i'm so almost done with that sweater that it's killing me. if only it were smaller, i'd take it to school and be done with it already.

the snow is finally all gone from our backyard. it did leave a small, mosquito breeding pool in its place though. the first mosquitos are so big, it's like i forget from year to year how big they are. luckily they're also very slow, which means i can kill more of them. the smaller ones are faster. but back to the yard, obviously dwayne never raked leaves. we've got our rakes and we're working on plans for gardens and flowers and things. we bought crocus bulbs, a wonderful mass of them, that i had hoped to plant before spring so i could see them peeping out of the snow. that's one of my favorite memories from sweden, crocuses in spring. but alas, not only did dwayne never rake, he never put real grass or topsoil in. he scraped off the moss to (sort of) level out the yard but there's just loess open for weeds and rosehips, the nastiest spiny thorny plant around. i like the rosehips and the flowers, but not so much the spikes. i still have some in my work clothes from last year. so we're going to have to do a real make over before we get to our garden or flowers or herbs. *sigh* i found this fascinating book in anchorage last week called, lasagna gardening, where you layer natural materials and end up with good topsoil. sounds way better than the traditional way, and more like nature's way. i'm thinking of trying it, but besides waiting for the mosquito swamp to dry out, dwayne still has a huge truck he has to drive out through the back yard. it just wouldn't do to go through all the effort of fixing a garden spot to have it run over by dwayne later. so we're still waiting on that.

tonight the most important improvement to our house is finally being made. we're putting in our new hot water tank. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can finally wash my hair in hot water and maybe have enough warm water to shave my legs! i'm excited. nothing can be better than a hot shower.

Kurt Vonnegut

i did happen to see that Kurt Vonnegut died today. what a bummer. he wrote the wackiest books. i can never remember the story lines, because that wasn't the point of the book. the point was always something about our society and culture that made no sense. i loved his books, his sarcasm and honesty. one of his last books i read was about these near death experiences, and what the entrance to heaven was like (the character could never go any further cuz he wasn't dead). i wonder what kurt thought when he got there.

förkyld

yesterday and today i was (am) Swedish. got a sore throat from someone and i haven't done a single useful thing. not even dishes. although i did get the mail yesterday and will once i take a shower today. my butt is sore from sitting on the couch. i've been trying to figure out how to add some cool things onto my page here, but am not having much luck. lots of research, few results. i want to put more of my knitting stuff on here, pics of finished projects etc. since i can't wear them all, i have to show them off somehow

this week chuck and i started a dance class, waltz foxtrot and east coast swing (which is magically different from west coast swing but we have no idea how). the first class was fun, even if chuck did bounce counting his steps. it was cute.

and i was going to write emails today, to all the poor people i've dissed for so long, but hotmail wasn't letting me sign in until an hour ago when i got distracted by looking for cool things, and now of course, my motivation is gone. so you'll have to wait another day. but i figured posting something might be an acceptable substitute, since i hardly ever post here. i do have pics somewhere to post, but i'm trying to figure out what my limit is and if i should delete some stuff first. we've been trying to print out our digital pics, and there's TONS of them. and we have to go through them first, and upload them (takes AGES). but i might get some in order and up here in the next little while. like in a year or so.

we finally have had plus degrees for 2 weeks, and the snow is almost all gone. there's some roads that are totally clear. gets me twitchy for spring and getting out on a bike again. still no leaves though. they say spring comes and is gone in a week, so i'm keeping and eye out so i don't miss it.

tonight i'm having some church ladies over for a knitting group. it's new and out first meeting had only 1 person show up i was sad. but excited about tonight, when 2 other people are coming. it's an improvement, right? i can knit alone, obviously, but it's more fun to have other people to talk with and trade ideas, see what they're doing. and a few of the people signed up for this group are just learning, which is even more exciting to me. get them all hooked on knitting socks in church. hehehe.

one thing i was super excited about last week was i finally made a swedish easter decoration. i've wanted to since i was there on my mission. it sounds so ugly when you describe a bunch of twigs with feathers tied on and little eggs hanging from them, but the look grows on you. and i actually have a pic, so i'll attach it right now. tanya, are you impressed? the light in the living room is hard on pics, but this one looks ok. the idea with the branches is to use willow i think, with pussywillows. you set it up the week before easter, palm sunday, and by easter the leaves whould be budding! i think it's a cool symbol of the resurrection and renewed life and all that. so i'm waiting for the leaves to show on mine. it's a week today since i set 'em up though (using birch branches too, no willow to be had up here) and they don't look like they want to cooperate. *sigh* oh well. i still like the look of them.

and the knitting.........right now i'm in the middle of a couple projects and starting to get bored with them. not a good sign. the too many socks syndrome has attacked again recently - i have 3 sets on needles. so i stopped and made a lace headband, loosely based on some other patterns but with my own math. it ended up much looser than expected. still wearable, but not as snug as a headband should be to keep the hair out of my face. so i'll probably rip it out and reduce it a bit, but didn't have the courage to do it all at once and went back to the socks. one pair i'm using mystery cotton yarn from the bargin bin with a pattern that i knew wanted to be made with that yarn, but i wasn't sure the thickness of the yarn would work out. but after a few rows it seems to be doing nicely. yay!! and they're anklets, so i'm even hoping to get them done quicker. wouldn't that be nice.

my fjörgyn sweater jacket (from viking patterns for knitting by elsebeth lavold), with the cool viking braids on it, is too big to take anywhere now so work has slowed down considerably. the worst is finishing it in the spring, when it's getting warm and i won't wear it till next year *sigh* but who knows with the alaskan weather, right? that other turtle neck i started is still at the bottom of my basket, waiting patiently for me to finish the sleeves and sew it up. sometimes i wish i could get paid to knit (but only what i want to knit) because i have so many ideas but not all the time to figure them out and knit them. and lots of people have cool designs i want to knit, which are easier to start becasue, hey, they've already done the math. that's the only disappointment i have in knitting. i feel tricked. who knew i'd have to use math to make scarves and blankets and headbands? maybe in heaven knitting won't need math so much.