Knitting...

Most of the weekend was spent knitting, apart from going to SoFoody with Mum, Dad and Mike to celebrate Mike's new status as a Permanent Resident. I finished my Ice Queen shawl, but haven't managed to take a photo of the finished product that I'm happy with. I also want to reblock it, as it's still a little short.

On Saturday morning, I got out some of my yarn to enter into my stash on Ravelry. I didn't get around to putting all of the yarn back in its cupboard (I know, I was lazy). So when I woke up on Sunday morning, I found that Mal had been rather busy during the night. My baby wool went from this:



To this:



Two hours later, my ball of wool has been saved, but now requires a little washing :-)

I then started my shawl on Saturday night. I'm using Alpaca instead of Mohair, and the wool is a plain colour, rather than a print or variegated, but I'm impatient and I wanted to start straight away. The Wool Inn didn't have enough skeins of variegated yarns in any nice colours, and their mohair was going to be too expensive for the number of balls I would need. So alpaca it is. It's the first pattern with a cable I've ever tried, and only the second pattern where I've followed a chart. It's knitted up quite nicely so far... Until I looked at the picture again and realised I was missing a couple of cables. After deciding that I knew Chart A off by heart (only 8 stitches - how hard can it be?) I didn't look at it again. Completely forgetting that every 6th row of Chart A is a cable... So once I got to 31 rows, I'd missed 16 cables. Not something that can be easily rectified, especially as half of them are on the edge of the row. So I "frogged" it, and I'm starting again. At least I noticed when it was only 4 inches long, and not 44 inches.


Good Cable


Bad Cable


Lastly, when I finally got around to putting away all my yarn to prevent Mal from getting to it... I knocked a remote control for a toy glider off the top of a cupboard, which fell 4 feet before hitting me in the head, At 11:30 at night, right as I was getting ready for bed. Since I couldn't focus on anything close to my face and my hands were tingly, Mike and I took a trip to the hospital, just in case. A nurse looked at me, then we waited 4 hours before giving up (if anything was going to go wrong, it would have already, right?) then went back to the GP the next day. All is good, I just have headaches on and off at the moment, and can't look at a computer screen for very long. So I've taken my first sick day already, even though I've only been working again for 2 weeks. Oh well, things happen.


The stupid heavy remote.

Still alive and kicking.

Ok, so I decided it's about time I started blogging (again). I've been working again for a week now. All seems to be going ok so far. The kids are pretty cool, the staff are pretty cool and I've managed to stay awake on the drive home. Haven't really talked much yet about work to anyone - still trying to figure out who is who, where things are, how things work. Once I've grounded myself a little, I'm sure no-one will be able to shut me up!
In other news, I've picked up my knitting again. I got really excited when I found out about Ravelry, and my invite finally arrived yesterday! This weekend will be spent taking and uploading photos, entering new projects, digging up all my knitting needles and crochet hooks, so I'll finally know exactly what I have. Plus all the bits and pieces of yarn that I have laying around...
At the moment, I'm halfway through knitting a cowl I found on Knitty.com. Since it can get pretty darn cold in Katoomba, it should come in useful over the next few weeks. I'm planning on wearing it as a scarf, and as a cowl when it gets colder. Already, the fog rolls in and out all day half the time. It's very weird.

Life and Family

This week has been very strange. Mum and Dad called into our house on Tuesday night to pass on the news that Mike's mum had died. Her husband had called their house, and left a message with my brother.

I don't understand some families. I look at mine growing up, and it all seemed normal to get along and enjoy each other's company. Us kids would do anything for each other. Then there's other families who don't get along, don't understand each other, and manipulate each other. Life's too short.

Jean and Mike didn't get along. He's not really talking about her death, except as a relief, because he doesn't have to deal with her anymore. And to be honest, I can't blame him. But what about further down the track? Will he feel guilty, sad, angry, what? Mum and I had a little talk on Wednsesday with him, and he can't remember any good memories of him and Jean. I can't comprehend that.

Long weekend

Well, I actually made it outside of the house this weekend for a change :-) I still have the cold/flu, but I'm pretty much over it now, just have a bit of a niggly sniffle. I managed to hand in my Literacy assignment with about 10 minutes to spare, after not going into school again on Friday. It was so cold with the rain - I was wearing two pairs of pants and jumpers!



Saturday I took the day off - spent most of the day in my pyjamas, playing the Sims 2, Mike was playing on his computer too. Then yesterday I managed to do some work for my Science method assignment and lesson planning for tomorrow. We've managed to move our Science due date from tomorrow to Sunday, so I'm hoping to finish it on Friday (study day), and spend the weekend working on my Pedagogies assignment, which is due the Friday after. Then no more assignments for the semester! Plus, there's only three more weeks of PE2 teaching, before 2 weeks of recovery. Phew!



We went to Trevi's for dinner last night. I've only been there once before, but the food was really good. Mike and I shared a vegetarian antipasto platter, with really yummy eggplant, for an entree. I had a pumpkin, cashew, and baby spinach risotto that I couldn't finish. The waitress offered to pack it up for us, without us asking, which I thought was cool.


Then today we bought a new bookshelf. It's 3*5 feet, with three shelves. We've put the cookbooks on the top shelf, and all our dvds on the lower shelves. It means our main bookshelf can now almost hold all our books. I must stop buying them, or give some away...

Sick...

I'm over it! I've had a cold/flu for three days now. My head is all fluffy, I'm continually blowing my nose, and today every time I talk, it's like there's an echo/crackle in my ears. This also happens whenever there's a loud noise. Not fair!

It also means I've missed two days of school - hopefully I won't need to make them up later on. I only had 4 periods to teach over these two days, and my overall schedule means I teach 4 1/3 lessons above the minimum requirement. So I think it should be ok. I'll check it out with my course coordinator on Monday.

Anyway, I've finally finished my webdilemma for one of my assignments. I think it's pretty cool, and hopefully should get a good mark. But it's only one component out of about four, so I need to start on the others. Luckily, it's not due until Friday, and the two other assignments we were supposed to hand in next week, we have been given extensions for. I love Classmates!

More news - Fiona's baby is due on Christmas Day! Mum is already planning to give it both a Christmas birthday and a July birthday, because she doesn't think it's fair to have a birthday so close to Christmas, LOL. Mike and I have been given strict instructions to plan on having kids mid-year to avoid this issue.

Mondays

Mondays are my uni days. Today I had a lecture and tutorial for Science Method, and discovered one of the best internet resources for teaching anything related to genetics. Surprisingly enough, it's run by the University of Utah. It not only contains really well thought out interactive flash animations and supporting information, but also complete lesson plans for teachers based on the website. I also found a method for extracting DNA from split peas, and how to build your own DNA gel electrophoresis chamber. I'm very excited. Why can't any of my students study genetics while I'm on prac? It's not fair I tell you!

My other subject today was Literacies for Learning, which I conveniently forgot about. I had too much fun talking to the English method half of Classmates. They're mostly Muslim females, so it was a very interesting conversation. But anyway, Literacies was interesting to begin with, and I considered going to the lecture, but the tutorials are a complete waste of time. I don't learn anything in them, they seem to involve reading our textbook and that's about it. Lesson planning was the better option. I just didn't actually make it home to do that...

So, now I need to write up three lessons for tomorrow (I know, I'm supposed to have my supervising teacher sign them off at least 24 hours in advance, but I don't think that's ever going to happen). And organise Wednesdays double period with Year 11. Should be fun. Hopefully my groceries turn up soon too (I love internet shopping!)

First post!

Well, it's my birthday today, so I thought it's the perfect opportunity to start posting. Plus, I'm procrastinating and avoiding study. Well, Mike took the day off today so that we could go for a picnic. But, when we woke up at 9:30 am, it was pouring with rain for the first time in weeks! Of course now it's a perfectly fine day, with wet grass. We had the picnic anyway - on the floor of our living room.

Mike went out and bought the food - including a teacake with "Magic" candles - they keep re-lighting when you blow them out. I suspect they also contain magnesium - bright white sparks keep shooting out every few seconds.
Plans for the rest of the day:

• Prepare lesson plans (I'm teaching 3 Year 11 Chemistry , 3 Year 7 Science, and 4 Year 10 Science lessons next week).


• Start assignments (for Science Method, Pedagogies. and Literacy)

Now to actually do it...