Normally, I get “off” work about two weeks after the teachers.  (The teachers are “done” the day after the students’ last day, though “done” is about as accurate as describing my summers as “free” or “off”.)  During that two weeks, I’m expected to pack up and organize the contents of two labs and help the admin team “finish off” everything for the previous year and prepare for the next.

After that, I’m “free” to do what I want.  For me, that usually means spending time getting my house back in order. (Who has time to clean during the month of May? Hardly anyone working in MY school!)  I also try to take training classes from the district.  It’s not required for my job classification, but I love learning.  Plus, I really hate hearing someone in the school talk about something computer-related that I don’t already know.  (I hate feeling dumb!)

However, this hasn’t been a typical year.  Thanks to the taxpayers and the blessed bond that was passed months ago, we are finally getting new equipment to replace our 11 year old lab equipment.  (Sad as it sounds, we had students who were younger than the equipment that they were using to learn about computers!)  Because it’s such a big undertaking, the district decided that they wanted to swap the equipment over the summer.  So I spent extra time rounding up the worst computers in the building and swapping the lab computers for them.  Then I helped set up the new equipment, which included reimaging the hard drives so that they had the “latest and greatest” software load from the district.

The district allocated a whopping 7 hours for me to do this job.  After a little math, I found that there was no way technically possible to get everything done in that amount of time.

But I’m a school employee, and just like everyone else in our school, I do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Also on my agenda this summer is a project that I’m doing for one of our Special Ed teachers.  Every school has some sort of book room that’s separate from the library.  The book room has books that the special ed teachers use with students who are behind in reading.  In our school, the book room has been split for years.  Some of the books are in one room.  Some are in another.  Others are in a corner of the library.  This teacher was put in charge of unifying and organizing everything.  It took her about 5 seconds to realize that she needed some computer-based way of keeping track of the books.  It took about another couple of weeks of visiting schools throughout the district to see how they are dealing with the issue.  Without exception, she found the solutions that were being used were either clunky, inadequate, or downright useless.  So we got together and came up with some requirements for a whole new system.  My summer project, which I rather took on myself, is to create a web-based application for her and our teachers to use.

What can I say?  I’m a masochist!  Besides, it will keep my programming skills fresh.  And hopefully, it will help the teachers and children in the end. I’m a sucker for the kids and the teachers!

So I’m busy, even though I “have the summer off.”

This is not to say that there’s been no time for fun and relaxation.  I’ll be back in a couple days to share what I’ve been up to in the way of relaxing.

I’ve still found some time to squeeze in some knitting projects.

I finished the hip bag that was supposed to be a birthday present for my art teacher pal.  I used the hand-dyed yellow that I talked about weeks ago and a couple other colors from my stash.  I tried two new techniques with this bag.

First, I did needle felting for the first time.  I’d had the supplies for ages, but didn’t get around to using them until now.  I don’t know why I haven’t tried it before, because it’s dead easy!  Just put the fiber down and poke, poke, poke, poke to your heart’s content!  I found it to be quite therapeutic.  On the day that I made the big needle-felted flower on the flap of the bag, I had a very frustrating day, and it felt very good to stab the bejeesus out of something!

I also did kumihimo weaving for the first time.  I’d seen a class of people doing it at the Shabby Sheep retreat, and I thought that it would be an awesome thing to do for a handle of a bag.  I ordered the supplies online and then set up the loom.  Much to my surprise, Little Grump grabbed the loom almost the second I put it down and started working on it.  So we ended up sharing the work on the 51″ handle!  The result was not quite as bright and “happy” as I really wanted, but I really wanted my friend to have the bag.  I figure that I can go back and make another handle for the bag later on, when I have a bit more time to offer.

I also worked on a baby blanket for one of my co-workers.  I tried Cascade 220 Superwash for the first time, and I like it!  After washing, the blanket is soft and has just the slightest bit of a halo.

The pattern came from Jared Flood.  His patterns are always well written, and this one was no exception.  I would make one change if I do this pattern again, though.   The last stitch of the row is a kfb, which means that it’s not all that easy to smoothly pick up the stitches along the edge.  I didn’t do too great of a job because the end stitches were just oo tight.  While I don’t know if a non-knitter would notice, I do.

Still, the blanket is pretty, and I’m sure that the recipient will love it.  I’m relieved to have finished it before the baby is born and before the teacher has a chance to depart for the summer.  (I still haven’t been able to give the Equal Parts blanket to its intended recipient!)

There’s only a few more days of school, but I have a couple more weeks before I start summer break.  I’ll likely work beyond then though.  Little Grump needs to take some summer school, and I’ll go stir crazy after a few days of everyone being gone during the day.  Or not.  Maybe I’ll sit and knit and watch chick flicks all day!

I had no idea what I’d get or when I’d get it, but I was in no hurry.  Imagine my surprise when Micki brought me two of the loveliest skeins of handspun that I could ever imagine!

That was… gulp… two years ago!  Since then, I’d squirreled my lovely yarn away waiting for “the right pattern”.  I didn’t think I’d ever have a chance to get such special yarn again, and I didn’t want to waste it on any old pattern.  Every now and then, I’d pull it out and stroke it, but the only person who ever got to enjoy its beauty was me.

Every now and then, Micki would quip about how long it had been since I’d received the yarn.  I explained that I was waiting.  She would look at me with a rather exasperated expression and say, “It’s yarn!”

So I made a New Year’s resolution.  I swore that I would use the yarn this year.  And I did!

When I spotted Ilga Leja’s Earth Maiden pattern on Ravelry, I knew that I’d found the right pattern.  It had really long rows, so I knew that it would show off the handspun really, really well.  I flinched a bit at the cost of the pattern.  (At $12, it was way more expensive than just about any other single pattern I’ve ever purchased.)  I mulled it over for about a week and then purchased the pattern.

I have to say that this pattern was worth it.  The pattern was so well written and had absolutely no errors or confusing bits!  I can’t remember the last time that happened.

I started the project with 870 yards (231 grams) of light fingering weight yarn.  Since the original pattern was written for a heavier yarn, I wasn’t sure if I would have enough to knit the pattern as written.  I ran some calculations after the first complete run through of the first chart and decided that I wouldn’t have enough, so I only did two repeats of Chart A at the beginning.  When I got to the end, I realized that I would have had enough, so I went ahead and added a repeat at the end.  The result is more symmetrical than specified by the pattern, but those who have never seen the pattern would never know.

The project was enjoyable in a “I just want to relax!” kind of way.  Each row was 343 stitches long and took between 30 and 45 minutes to knit.  Fortunately, no ripping back was ever needed, although I did have to dink back a half row at one point.  I worked on it while Mr. Grump watched NASCAR, so I could watch too without getting too freaked out if my attention was distracted when wrecks occurred.  (The fact that I had a stitch marker about every ten stitches really helped.  Thank goodness that I have lots of stitchmarkers!)

And the yarn?  Oh the yarn!  It reminded me of the reason why I enjoy knitting.  It was so soft and evenly spun.  While this was one of Micki’s earlier efforts, you can’t tell!  The yarn was soft and spun just tightly enough to avoid splitting but still loosely enough that it’s soft.  I took the project to knitting and on a retreat with me, and everyone who saw it in progress marveled over it!

When I finished it, I was rather concerned about how rough it looked around the edges.  (I’m not exactly the queen of consistency in the land of gauge!)  However, I know from experience that blocking can cure a multitude of knitting sins, and this project was no exception.

The result is a shawl that makes me SO proud that I want to show it to everyone.  I’ve taken it to school to show it off, and everyone loves it.  I even had one offer to pay me to make another one.  I doubt that will happen.  Though I really enjoyed knitting the project, I don’t think any subsequent knitting of the pattern will be as enjoyable as the first.  Life is way too short to be spent knitting projects that aren’t enjoyable, even if I could earn enough to pay for my yarn budget for the year!

As I joined in on the first round of this year’s Sock Madness, I couldn’t help but think about “American Idol”.  The first pattern is called “Simple Side to Side Socks”, and like the singers, the designer seemed to want to show just how much certain things could be used in one pattern.

Now, I know the idea of the first round of Sock Madness is to eliminate the weak and uncommitted.  It’s supposed to work like the basketball tournament.  The weak must GO!  I get that.  But I think it’s kind of silly when designers go to insane lengths to create patterns to drive the knitters nuts!

Think I’m exaggerating?  Let’s do a little math, shall we?

The pattern starts with an 80 stitch provisional cast-on, which means that, at some point, the knitter has to recover those 80 stitches and put them on the needles.

The pattern then requires that the knitter pick up 68 stitches for the cuff, another 68 for the toes, and another 68 for the heels.

Altogether, that comes to 284 stitches picked up for each sock!  That’s a whole bunch of stitches.

Then there’s the grafts.  There’s one the width of the cast-on (80*2 stitches), 24 stitches for the toe, 24 for the heel, and, because the tubular bind-off is used, another 68 stitches on the cuff.  That’s 276 grafted stitches for each sock!

Crazy.  Just crazy!

Still, I signed up for Sock Madness, so I gave it the old college try.  My progress was hampered by work projects and other life stuff, so I didn’t make it into the second round.  I finished the socks though, so I consider it a moral victory, if nothing else.

For this project, I chose Urban Gypz’s Harajuku Girl colorway that I’d stashed a while back.  It is a bit bright (understatement of the year!), but the colors are fabulous!  From the second Little Grump saw the colors, she claimed the socks as hers.  It was a good thing, because the socks wouldn’t fit onto my big fat feet!

Little Grump loves them though.

She loves them so much that she wanted to wear them to school the next day.  Alas, it’s now 80 degrees, and wool, no matter how brightly colored, does not work in 80 degree weather!

I don’t know how many people will knit this pattern after Sock Madness.  Most people that I know are more like Elizabeth Zimmerman, who went out of her way to avoid seams if possible.  Besides, the sideways knitting doesn’t make for an especially stretchy sock.  Most of the people who knitted this pattern complained that it was REALLY tight (or wouldn’t fit at all).  Because of all of the grafts, there are multiple weak points that are just ideal for failure, especially in a sock where one must do some convincing to get the sock to go on at all.  Life is way too short and there are too many other patterns out there to chance knitting a sock that won’t fit or might develop holes in short order.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it.  I know that I won’t be knitting these again soon!

The retreat was held at Our House in Milford.  We went there last fall for the “Christmas in July” retreat and had a blast.  Angie, the owner, and her mother, Ann, are absolute dears.  They cook and clean for us and generally make us feel like we’re at home.  The place is decorated with handmade quilts.  Kitty sent them a new addition… Some hand-stitched needlepoint pictures!

People ask me where this place is, and the truth is that I’m geographically impaired enough to not know for sure.  Kitty always drives, which leaves me the luxury of chatting and staring out the window.  So the best I can do is “Go South until you pass the big inflatable bugs, then go two exits past the exit with the Starship Enterprise.  Not very exact directions, but they work for Kitty!

To tell the truth, Our House in Milford is out in the middle of nowhere.  The first time we went there, everyone in our car was absolutely sure that we’d taken a wrong turn because we went into a little town with a stop sign and then crossed the road and meandered past some plastic covered houses, a cornfield, and a few cows before we saw the sign for the retreat.

But once you get there?  It’s a treat!

Rhonda from the Shabby Sheep was already there as were several other people.  We claimed a couple tables as our own and dropped our bags in our bedroom.  Then we kicked back our heels and relaxed for the rest of the weekend.  Everyone ooh-ed and ah-ed over the progress that I’d made on the Earth Maiden Shawl with Micki’s handspun.

A little later, my friend Angela showed up.  I was really happy about this as I knew that Kitty and Angela would hit it off fabulously!  We laughed and talked and knitted the rest of the night, and it was SO relaxing!

I’m an early riser, and Saturday morning was no exception.  The advantage of early mornings is the wonder of sights like this:

A sixteen year-old girl named Alanna was there for the retreat, and she’s an early riser too.  (She blames tutoring.  I blame brilliance!)  We watched the sun rise together.  One of the dogs from the farm down the road came up, and we petted the dog for a bit before going back inside.

At around ten, I started my first weaving class!  We used a little Cricket loom.  I used some yarn that I’d purchased years ago from the Woolie Ewe but had never used because, despite the fact that they all claimed to be from the same dye lot, they were vastly different in color.

Ten hours (and two fabulous meals and more visiting with everyone else), I had completed my first weaving project!  The edges are a bit wobbly, and the weave isn’t 100% even, but it’s mine!  I used the lighter of the yarn for the warp and the darker of the skeins for the weft.  The result is a really nice plaid.  Interestingly enough, the ends of the scarf look like stripes.  I don’t know how it happened… It just did!  (I gave the left-over yarn to Kitty, who was sure she could make something cool from it.)

I think I’m smitten by the weaving bug!  I didn’t buy the Cricket loom though.  It didn’t make much sense to buy a loom that I’d likely quickly out-grow.

Sunday started out well, but quickly went downhill.  As I was photographing Kitty’s fabulous cabled coat, I somehow managed to drop my expensive camera.  I was (and still am) inconsolable about that.  It pretty much ruined my mood.

However, it did not stop me from signing up for the summer/fall retreat.  In fact, Kitty signed me up for an extra day!  So we will be returning to Our House in Milford in a few months!

Apparently, she was given a password to an online area where she could sign up for classes for the following school year, and the students were supposed to finish their selections by Friday.

I asked her what she had already.  She laid it out:

• 1 credit (two semesters) pre-AP Calculus
• 1 credit (two semesters) Environmental Science (What the…???  In high school?!?)
• Orchestra (double blocked for both semesters for 1 credit)
• 1 credit AP English
• 1 credit pre-AP US History

She was still trying to figure out how to add in the rest of these in the last two years of high school:

• Latin III and IV (She thinks that she might want to be a linguist so she wants to take all four years of Latin.  Plus she needs three Latin credits to earn the “Distinguished Achievement” diploma.)
• Phys Ed (she has to have 1.5 credit hours to graduate)
• Health (she has to have .5 credit hours to graduate, and the Nutrition class that she took for some reason doesn’t count as a Health course even though they measured her body fat and required her to keep a food diary for an entire semester.)
• Technology (1 credit hour to graduate)

Basically, the only way to do it is if she bows out of things that she loves in her Senior year (like Latin IV) and/or only have Orchestra every other day and/or goes to summer school.  Or she can can help prove the theory that “Distinguished Achievement” really means “Neener! Neener!  I have a time-turner and you don’t!”

She’s not amused.  She’s freaking.  And I’m totally helpless.

Well, maybe not totally helpless.  I can do two things:

1.  Send a message to her counselor asking for help figuring it out.

2.  Vent.

I’ve done the first.  Now I’m going to do the second.

This morning, I had a talk with one of my co-workers while I was fixing her computer.  The topic was state standardized testing and how ALL students are expected to be competent in the same things in order to graduate or move on in school.

I know I work in a school, and it’s pretty un-PC to say, but WHY do legislators think that ALL students have to be capable of doing the same things at the same time?  What ever happened to appreciating people for who they are?    Why is it so bad that little Jimmy or Jenny is not a great book learner but a brilliant artist, muscian, or athlete?     In my daughter’s case, why does she have to give up things that she loves and will likely use in her future (orchestra, art, and Latin) so that she can take classes that don’t interest her and will likely be forgotten and never used again after she finishes with the classes?

Why are kids who are already proficient in an area forced to sit through the same things because it says on a list of requirements somewhere that they HAVE to take the class?  My daughter can handle technology better than most adults that I know, and she has been able to do so for years.  The lack of a technology class isn’t going to turn her into a mental midget when it comes to computers, but neither will taking an additional course necessarily make her better.  So instead of taking things that will interest her and help her grow intellectually, she has to sit through a course that will in all likelihood make her resent the subject more.

It’s just stupid!  We’re churning out cookie cutter kids reduced to the lowest common denominator and calling it “success”!

–  Deep breath –

I’ve vented enough. Nothing has changed.  I’m just disgusted, and I can’t help but sympathize with my daughter when she says, “No!  High school does NOT prepare you for real life!  In real life, you have a choice whether to stay in a situation that stinks!”

I’ve sent a message off to her counselor.  Hopefully she’ll have some advice.

I have a feeling that nothing she says will make my daughter happy.  Requirements are what they are, even if they do stink!

My friend Annie is an AWESOME teacher!  She’s kind, considerate, intelligent, creative, and believes that teaching should include more than the things that can be learned from a book.  She challenges her students to be “knights”… respectful, brave, honest, kind,  The fact that she brings me Starbucks once a week is just icing on the cake!

So when I drew her name from the Secret Valentine Pal basket, I was thrilled.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her.  And, with an unexpected snow day and a school holiday, I had enough time to finish it.

The pattern is from Alan Dart’s “Tales of Yore” series that appeared in Simply Knitting magazine.  I’d been wanting to make this little guy since I first saw the picture in the magazine.  I knew he’d be perfect for Annie, and I was right.

He’s made completely from scraps from my stash.  I used mainly Paton’s Classic Merino, which is heavier than the recommended yarn, but worked well anyway.

I knitted the pattern pretty much as written.  There were three exceptions:

1.  I embroidered the “K” on the tunic instead of using duplicate stitch.  (Annie’s last name starts with ‘K’.)  I tried duplicate stitch, but it looked like crap.

2.  The pattern said to glue on the nose piece for the helmet.  I don’t glue things on my stuffies unless there’s no way to sew it.  In this case, it was easy to sew.

3.  This is the big one… The pattern says to stuff the body with the bumpy side out, and the head and arms are supposed to be knit so that the upper arm and back of the head are bumpy.  I somehow missed the difference in the knitting of the arms and head until I sewed the body up with the smooth side out.  As I was contemplating re-knitting the body (when I hide my seaming, I hide it well!), I noticed that I hadn’t done the arms and head correctly.  So I said, “Whatever!” and finished it off with the pieces that I had already knit.  The end result is that my knight doesn’t look like he’s wearing chain mail.

Annie says it doesn’t matter!  She loves him!  She says that she will have to fight her daughters to keep them from stealing him.

I’m pleased with him too, even though the assembly took me the better part of a day to finish.  Each of the pieces is knit flat and then seamed, so it’s a bit fiddly.  Still, the results are SO worth it!  Mr. Grump now wants me to knit the whole set!

Little Grump and I talked about it for something like two minutes and then said, “Oh yeah!  You can count on us!”   So we signed up to go to the facility on Sunday mornings to work a four hour shift.

Unlike the local shelter, this facility is about a half hour away.  So we woke up early and left our house at about 7:15.  (We had to allow for a quick zoom through the Starbucks drivethrough!)

When we got there, the attendant asked if we were afraid of any particular animals.  He said some people hated insects and arachnids.  I knew that we didn’t.  (Neither one of us squash spiders or crickets.  No… We carefully pick them up and set them outside.)  He asked about snakes or slimy things.  Nope… not that either.  (Little Bear has been the resident gecko rangler since we moved to Texas.  Those little guys are quick, but Little Grump is quicker!)  Since we didn’t seem to be afraid of anything, he put us to work with the reptiles.

Now, we’ve handled some reptiles before, but we’ve never seen such an array as we did today… Lizards, water dragons, turtles in all shapes and sizes, and more.  We even saw a large slug, which had just had babies.  (Did you know slugs were asexual?  I didn’t!)

Our first job was to go through and change water, feed animals, and “check for deads.”  We had to go through the reptiles and find any ones that might have perished.

In one cage, I was sure I found one that was dead.  It’s legs were all splayed out and it looked flatter than a pancake.  It wasn’t until Little Grump reached for it and it took off like a shot that we realized that… whoops!  It was still alive.

Which is just proof of the what we learned today… It’s not always easy to see if a reptile is alive or just comfy!

We also found a toad that chirped like a cricket instead of croaked.  We saw that turtles actually use their claws to arrange their food while they eat.  And we saw a long tailed lizard that looked like a tiny snake with four feet.

It was a very cool experience, and we plan on going back next week.  Little Grump hopes to be able to help with the small mammals next week because she wants to learn about more animals.  (Besides, she though she saw a lemur!)

I’d be happy with the reptiles and amphibians again.  They’re actually rather cute and calming!

Let’s forget for a second that some of their features were lifted right off Mac OS X features. Let’s forget that Windows 7 is still slow.

Instead, let’s talk about which yo-yo was responsible for the massively intelligent decision to make it so changing one’s desktop background is not a feature for the Windows 7 Starter Edition.

I kid you not!

My friend Kitty stopped by for a visit this weekend with her new HP Mini. Kitty is a genius in many things but she’s at the point in her life where she’d rather have a geek that enjoys playing with new toys deal with the issues associated with a brand new computer. So Kitty handed me the Mini and gave me a short list of the things that she wanted.

Windows 7 is similar enough to Windows XP that I had no problems with accessing the Internet, changing her home page, changing her default search engine and browser, etc.

Then I tried to change the desktop background. I went to IE, found an image that she loved, and selected “Change Desktop Background”. I minimized the windows to look at the background.

Instead of seeing her pretty picture, I saw the same boring Microsoft logo that was there before.

I did it again. Same thing.

I right-clicked on the desktop to get to the Desktop Properties. Alas, Microsoft has spirited those away and replaced them with “Gadgets”.

I searched the help in Windows 7. There wasn’t even a mention of changing backgrounds.

So I went to Google and quickly found the answer to the problem.

The Windows 7 Starter Edition does not allow the user to change the desktop background. In order to get that, you either have to upgrade to a higher version of Windows 7 or install an extra program. Not only that, Microsoft doesn’t even provide any alternatives to the boring logo. It won’t even allow selection of the pretty HP wallpaper that HP puts on the Mini.

So I want to know… Who made that particular feature? Who thought it was a great idea to nickel and dime people for a feature as simple as making one’s desktop pretty?

All I know is that I’m more happy than ever that I bought a Mac!

Out of all of the episodes, one of my favorites is “Blink”.  In this episode, a young woman named Sally Sparrow goes into an old house to just explore and, after peeling back some old wallpaper, finds a note warning her not to blink.   It’s spine-tingling and has that wonderful twisting of time that makes me think of paradoxes and other, as the Doctor calls it, “wibbly wobbly time-y whimey stuff.”

At one point, Sally explains to a friend why she likes to explore old houses.

Kathy Nightingale: What did you come here for anyway?

Sally Sparrow: I love old things. They make me feel sad.

Kathy Nightingale: What’s good about sad?

Sally Sparrow: It’s happy for deep people.

I can really understand what Sally means.  It’s sad to see once beautiful buildings fallen into ruins.  However, with the passing of one thing, there’s always the birth of something else.  All of houses that have been abandoned have a history, and it’s kind of fun sometimes to think about days gone by and think about the things that happened there.  And sometimes, it’s good to feel sad about things that aren’t so personal.  (It’s been a really emotionally trying time lately for quite a few of my friends, so it’s good to find something a bit more distant as a target for the sadness.)

When I saw the site The Ruins of Detroit, I couldn’t help but think about Sally Sparrow.  The site is a collection of sad yet beautiful pictures of scenes in modern day Detroit.  The pictures are heart-breaking in some respects, but they’re awesome too.  Check it out!