I love fireworks like a fat kid loves cake

My husband doesn't love fireworks, so I drove three hours to my grandfather's house to go to fireworks with people that love them. That my friends is dedication.

Tour de erin Day 3 (July 4)
Goals: work on socks, read Fallen Angels

goals= met (Yeah, they were easy)

Tour de erin Day 4 (July 5)
- rest day!
Yes, I realize it is too early to have a rest day, but I was in the car and had other things that I had to do so I sure did take one. I think you get two, right?

Tour de erin Day 5 (July 6)
goals: finish foot on sock
get one pattern repeat done on The Triad Scarf
get one repeat done (one owl) on Owl Baby Blanket (I'm making this up as I go.)
Finish Fallen Angels
Also, I need to get laundry done, the kitchen cleaned, and meals planned. Yup, I'm adding this to my goals for today, too. That is why it is Tour de erin. I do what I want.

I'm the smoothie master

After years of wishing I could make decent smoothies I finally found the right amount of "pour this and that in" to make it work.

This is embarrassing because I was once employed as a blender jockey. (I used to bartend at a Chi-Chi's- and that's pretty much what I did -- run blenders. Well, actually, I watched more VH1 than anything.)

Anyhow, I'm delighted that I finally get the idea of how to make a smoothie. I've had one daily for about a week now.

Tour de erin Day 2 goal:
- turn heel on flutterby sock
- rip out stupid ribbed baby blanket and instead cast on a cool baby blanket using the owl stitch pattern that is used on everything. Here's an example.

Tour de erin Day 1 goal:
- complete

I'm thinking that in order to really meet my summer goals I need to add reading in to the tour de erin. I supposed I could make reading goals on the week days, right? That way I won't have failed yet!

The Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald

It amazes me how many "classic" books there are that I never read in high school. This is one of them. I read it, for the first time 7 years ago, when I got my current teaching job. I had 2 days to read it before I started teaching. (That's a crazy story, but I think one that many teachers share.) I was also reading Great Expectations for the first time during this time period as well as rereading To Kill a Mockingbird. I had to teach all three of these books at the same time and it was fun, but stressful. Now that I have read them all I would be fine to do this, but then it was a lot of work. I didn't love Gatsby when I read it then-- imagine-- but in this second go 'round I really enjoyed it. I really like books where crazy, unexpected things happen. I also really like books where someone realizes the faults of everyone else, but doesn't feel the need to run it in their faces.

This book is basically about wealthy (or at least some that pretend to be wealthy) people that live their lives doing whatever the hell they want with little to no regard for anyone else. If that doesn't entice you to read it I don't know what will. Seriously, if I tell you any of the plot I feel like it ruins the book.

Tour de erin

Of course, the first day of Tour de erin I have decided to change things. All the rules previously set still apply, but I am adding one more caveat. Each day I will set a new, separate goal for that day.

Day 1:
Knit the entire leg of the flutterby sock. This is a super quick knit sock. I did nine repeats on the top of the first sock, and I timed myself this morning when I cast on the second sock (see. I'm following the rules I set out yesterday) for one repeat and it takes 23 minutes. *
As a side note I used to think I was a fast knitter, but watching videopodcasts and listening to audio podcasts have assured me that I am not as speedy as I thought. So, with not much on the docket for today I think I can finish this goal. Right now I have 5 repeats finished and we just put Felloship of the Ring in so I feel good about finishing the leg and even moving on to the heel.

Tour de erin might just be a success!!!

Tour de... something

If I was in to spinning I think I might get more excited about Tour de Fleece, but I don't spin. Last year I tried to make my own Tour de erin and I failed, completely. I'm going to try again this year for Tour de erin.

Tour de erin rules:
- Knit for two hours every day.
- Nothing can be cast on until something else is cast off.
- Second socks must be cast on the day that sock on is cast off.

I have a lot of things on the needles right now, and I have even MORE things that I want to knit so this makes a lot of sense to me!

The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier

I'm getting a new teaching load this upcoming fall and one of the things I am teaching is a remediation class. I am really excited about this class, and I am ever more excited because the previous teacher did a wonderful job of picking a great variety of books. This book is one of those. It is young adult fiction, but really related well to the students and has some "adult" things in it that I think they will enjoy reading about.

The Chocolate War is about a private school where the students are asked to sell chocolates to help the school raise money. (Yes, so far this sounds really lame and like a million other books, but it isn't.) There is a secret society in the school, mean teachers, students that really see what is going on, violence, talk of sex... it is an interesting read. If I told any more about the book I would give away what takes place so if you're interested in this sort of thing-- or have young adults that might be -- you should read it!

My love/hate relationship with summer

I love my job as a teacher, and I spend the second semester counting down (along with the students) to how many days there are until summer break. I love sitting outside and reading, knitting, catching up with random TV shows that I didn't know that I wanted to watch and constantly trolling facebook and plurk in the summer. I also like to try to find someone to go out to lunch with me daily which is harder than you might think.

I love it for like two weeks.

Then, I get unmotivated and bored.

Yes, I still read, knit, and catch up on things, but my motivation starts to dwindle little by little.

At the beginning of the summer I put up a giant calendar of all the things I wanted to get done and a timeline of how I wanted to finish them. Pretty much the reading and knitting is getting done. The rest of it fell the the wayside after week one.

This is the table of knitting to work on. I'm usually a one or two project person. This is insane and freaks me out.

Last week, I woke up the the idea that if I put my plans on the internet I would feel like I *had* to do them. (Knowing it is on the internet is enough for me- no one even has to read it.) So, this is my new plan. I'm going to start a crazy, hodge-podge blog with knitting stuff, book reviews, and whatever else I feel like writing or talking about. I'm sort of hoping that writing every day will give me ideas for the "zombie-teacher" novel that I want to write. Currently, the novel consists of 6 pages of exposition. That I wrote in April. Of course I wrote it in April because I was so busy I couldn't see straight. Now that I have all the time in the world? Nothing.

The Help- by Kathryn Stockett

I read this about a month ago and I liked it. The story is about African American women during the times where everyone in the south had hired help. One white woman digs into their stories and realizes her own dreams. It was interesting and felt like it could be historically accurate, but something about it keeps me from calling it fantastic. Honestly, I think I'm a little taken aback by the fact that the author of the book is white and is trying to imagine what these women went through. I suppose an African American woman that would have written this would have had to do the same research. That might not make sense, but in my head it totally does. I will, however; be seeing the movie because it stars Emma Stone and I may have a tiny girl crush on her. I want to be friends with her and go out for lunch and cocktails. She seems super fun.

there was never even a wagon to fall off

91 hours down- 9909 to go

Tour de erin was a good idea- in my head. It didn't even start to pan out though. I'm not even mad that it didn't pan out either. I wish I was closer to done on all my projects, but what can you do? If you aren't working on them they don't grow.

There are a lot of things I meant to get done this summer that I haven't. As summer draws to a close (I only have three weeks until I have to go back to work) I'm realizing that I need to get some stuff done. So, I think I'm going to have to cut out the taking of four hour naps and like do stuff. Today, I want to rearrange the cabinets in the kitchen, take down the heinous wallpaper off two kitchen walls, and an assortment of school/cross country paperwork. I'm only telling you this so that I then feel like I have to work on the stuff.

I'm already tired.

Tour de Fleece, ha ha ha

71 hours down- 9929 to go

I had plans to do tour de fleece, but day one (and two, and three) I didn't knit at all. So, that's kind of blown. Instead, I have a new plan.

Tour de erin:
-Knit on each of three projects (fish blanket, snuggie, cabled baby sweater (to be replaced with sock yarn blanket) each day from July 7-July 31.

- read SOME Jane Austen each day.

So, go me!