futility

    Some days I am just too stupid to pay attention to all the lessons the Universe has been trying to teach me for the past forty-something years. Today was one of them.     In order to avoid the outrageous prices of textbooks (don't kid yourselves, it ain't about education,it's about M-O-N-E-Y!!), I purchased some of my books off of half.com and eBay. I'm still waiting to find one of them that I'm willing to buy, and for another one of them to arrive. However, in the class for the book which hasn't arrived, we have two papers to write from a choice of four topics, and rather than two due dates, there is a due date for each subject. So if you write on topic #1, it is due first; if you write on topic #4, it is due last. I am willing to do any of them except topic #2 (involves watching cartoons and counting acts of aggression [shudder]), and the first one (on prenatal development) is due Friday.     One of my son's friends is also in my class, so I asked if I could borrow his book to review the chapter which covers this topic (paper is to be written about personal experience but related back to the material within the text). So, since he planned to be using the book last night, I made arrangements to drive back to campus this morning. I also planned to assist other son in setting up his wireless network adapter if he needed it. He did... but....     phew.... this is going to get really long if I don't cut to the chase.... short of it is, I got a parking ticket and almost towed away for parking in a no parking zone of one of the lots. How the hell I missed seeing ALL the frickin' signs is beyond me! The parking fine is $50! But worse than that they are going to make me pay the towing fee because they 'already called it in' -- another $70!!! Can we all say 'stressed'? So much for trying to save $40 on a textbook.     I just should have stayed home in bed and hoped my book arrived, or that friend would loan it to me Wednesday night. Oh, no..... I had to plan ahead (for a change, since I nag the boys about waiting until the last minute and have to set a good example, right?). Who knows what might happen between now and Thursday night when I would need to finish the paper (this is a short little paper, y'all --- nothing to get all worked up about in the first place).     Why does this sh!t happen?? And one of the young woman on the ticketing staff had the gall to say, "why can't they all be like her" because I was calmly dealing with the situation and not fighting them about it. Heck no, the hell-raisers or those who can tell a big whopping lie, or name-drop someone important, they'll get their fines removed. Not me. Heavens no. And what makes it worse is that they probably don't believe I didn't realize what I was doing because I was so calm, therefore, fully cognizant of what I was doing and that I've been 'caught.' Right?     Wrong. Wrong. I just had a STUPID attack!     What really makes me sad is that this will basically cost me ALL the money I've saved by carefully shopping for books on sale -- which helped out those people who sold them to me -- and also, I sold two of my summer session books and a bunch of beads and a bunch of beading magazine, just so that the money for my books would NOT come out of our bill-paying money. It's really no wonder people get to a point where they just don't give a damn any more.     Ya know... I've always sort of had this superstition, that you didn't speak certain things aloud. You don't 'tempt fate' or the devil or whatever one wants to name "it." Yesterday on my drive home from classes, I was THINKING about how happy I was, how well things had turned out. Not perfect, and there was hard work ahead, but I was pretty happy. S M A C K ! ! ! !     Do I feel like writing the *&%^*@ paper now?? Oh yeah. Sure. LC

searching/finding/searching/finding

    Why is it that you -- okay, maybe not you, but ME -- always seem to find things you were looking for last week when you are looking for something totally different today? Know what I mean??     For instance, I have wanted to try continental style knitting for a while, and decided now was a good time. I remember seeing an article in one of the knitting magazines that I set aside for reading later, so last night I went looking for it. Meanwhile, I found a small illustration on the upper right corner of one page of IK's Spring 2004 issue for a K2TOG Bind-off. I decided to see if it would work for my baby sweater sleeves. It did. So, I'll learn tubular cast-off some other time -- perhaps in person with my knitting friend, Melody.     I also found the pattern for a dog sweater I wanted to make for my step-daughter for Christmas. She has a Scottie whom she adores. Back in May, I made an attempt to trade a Fiber Trends pattern. One of the patterns on my trade list was their dog sweater. This one will do fine though, and I've already paid for it.     Now, to get back to looking for the continental instructions. No telling what else I may find while looking, like all those sweaters I'd love to make but don't knit fast enough to finish them, nor can afford the 'luxury' yarns. LC

5HBS still unfinished

I'm still struggling with these 5-hour baby sweaters -- tho' I'm about to rename it the 5-headache baby sweater! I can not seem to get the tubular cast-off right, so the three sweaters are sitting there with only the sleeves to be bound off to be finished! I asked about it on StricktlyKnitting, so I hope someone can help. Both the book-sets I bought off of eBay have arrived: Statistics, and Spanish, paid for by the beads and beading magazines I have sold so far! I was fortunate to find great buys on both. I'm really looking forward to classes beginning on Monday. Tomorrow I take Son#2 to check-in at the dorm; we'll do some other 'business' while on campus: his ID card, buy books, get parking permits. I need to pick up papers/tests from my summer classes, and stop by financial aid. That seems to be working out, thank goodness! I finished reading Deception Point over the weekend. It was pretty good; the subject wasn't as interesting to me as his other two weeks. Ah, which reminds me to renew the MZB book tonight. Not much else to say, except the weather here is unseasonably cool, and just wonderful. Enjoying the Olympics, but not getting to really watch a lot. So, off to putter with myriad things, y'all. LC

did ya know it's friday the thirteenth?

    I should be leaving right now for my therapeutic massage, but she called to say she was sick with stomach-bug -- boy, am I glad I didn't go last night! Last thing I need it more stomach trouble. Need to do laundry yesterday. And hope to get some more beads sorted and listed for sale -- so hard to part with them.     I'm really just popping in to whine:     I'm now working on my fourth 5-hour baby sweater, and I've decided I must be the slowest (or worst) knitter alive! Does anyone really get this little jewel finished in five hours??     (At least I didn't start it on Friday --and the 13th, to boot!-- Momma always said never start anything on Friday you can't finish on that day. She never 'cut' any garment on Friday she couldn't finish on that same day.)     I started a pink one last night about 10:00pm. The thread was finer than worsted, so I used a double strand. It's coming out a bit bigger than the others, but that's okay, since babies grow. duh. The thread is some Patons Carolina (acrylic/cotton/polyester) a friend gave me. A BIG change from the Debbie Bliss Merino Aran I've been using on these! I went to bed after 3:00am, and I still have one sleeve and the body to finish! Now this morning, I've got quite an irritation across my right index finger, where the thread rubbed. It's not pretty, but at least the sweater is.     Usually, I get all messed up with the increase rows of the yoke, and have to tink and re-knit a lot... on this pink one, I only had to do that once, and still it seemed to take me forever.     Okay. Enough. It is a beautiful day here; all the hurricane weather went way east of us this time (my thoughts and prayers for those of you in the path), and I'm going to finish this little piece of torture asap. Right after I eat something. LC

omg!

I did it! I made an A in each of my summer classes!! Can I gloat a bit?? Can I be proud of myself?? Can I do a little happy-dance?? Well, good -- because I'm doing all three! It's probably the ONLY time in my whole educational career that I've carried a 4.0 GPA. Now, if we could just get the financial aid part worked out -- it is a mess, and I don't understand what is going on. How is it that we can be at 'poverty level' and still be expected to contribute over $4K ??? I'll just Scarlett O'Hara that though (i.e., think about it tomorrow) cause today I'm going to be happy about my success. Hugs and thanks again to all of you who are out there sending me good wishes, prayers and positive energies! LC

relaxing & productive

    That's what my last couple days have, pleasantly, been. I almost finished the baby sweater, but have taken a break. Turns out I didn't make the increases the same on the second sweater as I did the first, and I want them to match. So I'll be starting another one and keeping this one for the next baby boy born.     One of the things I was looking forward to doing during the break between terms was reading Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. Hubby read it last week while I studied for finals. I finshed it last night. What a great read! I really like his writing and look forward to his next 'Robert Langdon' tale next year. We read Angels & Demons first, and picked up Digital Fortress from the libray today.     While hubby reads that, I've started Zandru's Forge, the second Darkover book published since Marion Zimmer Bradley's -- co-written by Deborah J. Ross. I'm reading it more just because; I wasn't really impressed by the other books cowritten with Marion in her last couple of years(Fall of Neskaya nor Priestess of Avalon -- cowritten with Diana Paxson. Now I see there is yet another Avalon book written by Paxson, as well as third Darkover book coming out this month. Being as compulsive as I am about these kinds of things, I'll probably read them both, too.     Found a great deal on eBay for my Spanish textbooks for fall! And my Comparative Religion book I'll get at half.com. The psych books I'll get locally, because I may have to drop one of the classes and want to be able to return the book for full price.     12 days of vacation remaining, and 9 til my baby moves out. LC

another 'commercial'

I picked up a bunch of silk ribbon on sale a few months ago... I was going to knit with it, just have some fun. Thought I'd offer it to anyone interested... 75¢ a card: LC

de-stashing

Not yarn (yet), but beads - - and great beads, my personal stash of Delicas. I uploaded a photo and a price list. BUT, the colors are off in the photo -- not too bad for most, but the ones on the top two rows, the last on the right are totally off... one is grey (772) and the other is blue (628). I tried to find a happy medium between the FMG's cheap prices and other bead sources. (Add 10¢ to the price of each if you want the fliptop container.) If you want all (or most, or a lot, LOL), I'll be willing to discount the total price, or pick up the shipping -- something like that. I also have some bead magazines for sale. Bead & Button (a surprising number of back issues are still available from B&B, but for $6 a piece): full years (6 issues @ $3.00 each)

• $12 - 1996, #13-16 (only four issues published in 1996)
• $18 - 1999, #29-34 (only #31 & 34 are available from B&B)
• $18 - 2000, #35-40 (only #37 & 39 are available from B&B)
• $18 - 2001, #41-46
• $18 - 2002, #47-52
• $18 - 2003, #53-58

single issues @ $3.00 each

• #45, October 2001
• #46, December 2001
• #53, February 2003

Beadwork (only 18 issues available from Interweave Press, and for $5 a piece):

full years (6 issues @ $3.00 each)

• $12 - 1998, Vol. 1, #1-4
• $12 - 1999, Vol. 2, #1-4
• $18 - 2000, Vol. 3, #1-6
• $18 - 2001, Vol. 4, #1-6*

incomplete years (5 issues @$3.00 each)

• $18 - 2002, Vol. 5, #2-6
• $18 - 2003, Vol. 6, #1-4, & #6

single issues @ $3.00 each

• Fall 1997, Special Issue
• Feb/Mar 2004, V.7,#2

Jewelry Crafts --$2.00 each

• August 1995
• July/August 1997
• April 1999
• August 2001

Lapidary Journal's Bead Issue -- $3.00 each

• October 2000
• October 2001

Leave me a comment if you're interested... my book fund will thank you!

LC

and now they are too!

I am SO glad my finals are finished. Probably did all right on the psych, but not too sure about worldciv. Probably did fine and hopefully well enough to keep my A, but still I worry. Of course, out of five possible essay questions I got one of the two for which I was least prepared, and absolutely no questions on the material I worked on so hard to catch up (Western Europe) -- I should have known. It's the professor's least favorite topic. Ah, well. What really shocked me was people leaving after 30 minutes for the worldciv exam! Were they really that fast or didn't they know the material?? I pretty much wrote constantly for an hour and a half! Enough of that! Now to look forward to Statistics, Social AND Developmental Psychology, Spanish and Comparative Religions in two and one-half weeks. Til then, I'll be reading DaVinci Code, catching up online, sorting out beads to sell, and knitting. My cousin's twin baby boys were born on Monday --- just one week shy of 20 years after my own twin boys were born! How cool! One 5HBS is finished, and I hope to cast on for the second tonight. They are both less than 6.5 pounds, so perhaps they won't have outgrown the sweaters by the time it gets cold here. Hugs to ALL of you who continue to be SO supportive of my return to college. You all mean SO much to me... I always know you are there thinking about me and I FEEL it. LC