Nothing to see here ...

Queen Susan crept along to round 80.  After I finish this round (tonight), I will be halfway through the charts for the center of the border ... 6 pages done, 6 pages to go!

The end of the school year is speeding up.  Filia finished one of her classes on Monday, which surprised me greatly since finals aren't until the week of May 7th.  Has college gotten easier in the last century?  Filius has his End of the School Year Plan, and is doing his best to wipe out one subject per day.  For his history class, he took the tests for the last 1/5th of the course without reading the accompanying workbooks, and passed with flying colors.  He knows his WWII history and geography, thank you very much. I've assigned him a research paper to work on over the summer.  Actually, I was going to assign him one -but he came across an assignment in one workbook and asked if he could do a Really Good Job on it - and since I was going to ask him to do that very thing anyways (without having seen the workbook assignment), this works out nicely.  (Hmm, Carolyn -- use parenthetical expressions and dashes much?)

The website coursera.org came up on my favorite homeschooling list, and my inner "Must Learn Everything" immediately popped out and said that Filius absolutely must take some classes there.  Recognizing the discrepancy between ME wanting to learn everything and HIM having to take classes, I asked if he would be interested.  No.  Drat.  After consulting my inner student and deciding that, despite having more than enough to do (while not working on Queen Susan), I wanted to take the class myself anyways, and indeed WOULD take the class, the question became "Does he have to take it too?'  I decided the answer was yes.  We are now happily enrolled in Computer Science 101.  Free!  Once Filius realized it was not like Scholars Online, and he didn't have to talk to people in the class, he was a happy clam. Until he realized that only the first week of lectures were up.  He is anxious for next Monday to come now.

The knitting evaluations are thick on the ground around here.  Literally.  There are two boxes at my feet, and two more to come before next week.  I ran out of white paper :( but will get more tomorrow so I can start sending the boxes back to their owners.  Asparagus is thick on the ground too, as are dill plants.  If anyone wants dill, come take a shovelful!

Today's plan is to make sympathetic noises about having to write a summary of The Importance of Being Earnest (no, not a fifty word summary.  Three hundred word minimum, please), work on a knitting evaluation until the house empties, then study chapter 2 of Revelation for my Precept class, and then KNIT.  Supper will fit in there somewhere (probably an asparagus/mushroom omelette), and probably an audiobook or two. 

Blogger has rearranged their interface.  Silly changes.

Yet another not-much-progress update

Queen Susan is now on round 73. That means I only managed about 10,000 stitches this week, or somewhere between 6-8 hours of knitting. Poky, poky, poky.

But, I did manage to move forwards. The stack of 'work before play' is much smaller, and I hope to see some real and actual progress this week. Of course, this is also the week to be cultured, and being cultured takes away from knitting time. (We will be cultured at a figure skating show and The Tempest.)

Snippets of my week:

• A new water heater!
• A new hole in the bathroom wall (best way to get the basement door unlocked)
• Green Tea Kombucha is yummy.
  
• Asparagus is leaping out of the ground. Anyone local want a half-pound or two?
• One very short knitting eval and one very long one were completed
• Taxes are done, paid, and FINISHED.
  
• I downloaded 9 free books for my Kindle ... homeschooling catalogs with fun literature selections can be dangerous.
  

And with that, I think I should go knit. And watch a statistics lecture.

The Creeping Susan

This week finds me looking at Round 67. My pace may have picked up since last week - but not by much. It's been a busy week at Lake Moobegone.

• Asparagus can get nipped by frost, just like Bleeding Heart. Mushy Asparagus, straight from the garden ... anyone?
  
• One knitting article was sent off, complete with patterns, photos, and more mittens to photo, comfortably ahead of a deadline
• Test knitting is chugging along nicely. I've figured out how I can best manage 3 strands of yarn, but still wonder why people felt a need to improve on Fair Isle's two.
  
• The enrollment of my Precept study on Revelation, Part I, exploded. We're now at 8!
• Easter was a whirl of kitchen prep, two services with and Easter breakfast sandwiched in between, and a wonderful afternoon at my mom's.
• Our hot water heater decided that 180+ was a much better temperature than 120.
• I learned how to reset a water heater so we can avoid cold showers and baths before the repairman comes. One reset a day is keeping us supplied with lukewarm to WAY TOO HOT water. (When the water heater is misbehaving, look for steam clouds before even thinking of sticking a finger in to check the temperature)
• I made ginger Kombucha. Mmmm.
  
• I've reviewed 3 knitting submissions this past week, with one new arrival on the docket for this afternoon and tomorrow
• I read Tamora Pierce's Mastiff in one sitting, but managed not to read the two earlier books in the series in the same sitting. I still like Keladry better.
  

The week held other things, but that's the bulk of them. Filia is back in school now after Easter break, Filius continues to work independently, and I am looking forward to a quiet evening so I can sit back and retrench. Not that I really need re-trenching, but after the past week, I want to take a deep breath and make sure I'm not missing something.

If anyone has some spare Spring, my asparagus wouldn't mind borrowing it.

Queen Susan - Creeping Along

Queen Susan had an interesting week. First, she got worked on in a small window of opportunity between 'mittens finished' and 'awaiting pattern clarification' on another project. This resulted in about 3 rounds getting done. Ooooh, 3 whole rounds!

Then the dog curled up next to her and used her for a pillow. 30 stitches were safely picked back up onto the needles.

Then a cup of tea got spilled in her immediate vicinity, and she caught some splash. Fortunately, it was late in the day and at least 4 pots of tea had been brewed from the tablespoon of leaves, so the tea was very light in color. I used a towel to absorb the possible 1/2t that landed on her, and will see if that was a bad idea when I wash and block her.

Queen Susan saw a tire repair shop, a dentist's office, and choir practice this week. She's becoming quite well-travelled.

In other news

• My 3rd and 4th batches of Kombucha are still brewing. Tomorrow is tasting day
• I ordered a 2.5 gallon crock for MORE Kombucha brewing. The natives are restless on their short rations and look forward to a less limited supply.
• The entire first batch of sauerkraut disappeared (into tummies) and a second batch will be ready tomorrow.
• We picked a dozen spears of asparagus yesterday and will pick at least that much today.
• No one rear-ended us this week.
  
• Tomorrow should be shoe-shopping for Filia.
• I really have no excuse not to start some sourdough starter. I have rye berries, I have water, I have a 2 qt ceramic pot...