A Week in a Post

I meant to post mid-week last week, but things got crazy as our second weekend of competition approached.  Add to that the fact that I'm now in my last week of the semester, it's been more than a little crazy both at work and home, and keeping my to-do list from being overwhelming requires a lot of coffee, a little organization, and occasional musical theater dance breaks in the middle of my living room.
I was able to take a quick break mid-week to hang out with this lovely lady when she stopped by to say hi on Wednesday:

(Can you tell how excited Maeby is to see her?)
Val is one of my best friends, and I'm always happy to see her since she currently lives two hours away in the Twin Cities.  What do two ladies do when they get together?

Grab some coffee and plan a climbing trip!  Since I didn't get to go to the Gorge a couple weeks ago, I've been restless for a trip.  The itch has gotten even worse as I am sucked into both the school and dance world, leaving little time for climbing.  I'll be really happy when my classes conclude at the end of this week.  Finals week is next week, and since I'm not giving any finals, it's just last-minute grading, meetings, and grade entry for me!
We decided that since we've both been to the Gorge a few times, plus it's a 19-hour drive down to KY, we're going to shorten our drive by heading out west instead!  We're going to hit up Spearfish and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, which are a meer 9-10 hour drive from the cities.  On a "rest" day, we'll drive the hour over to Devil's Tower so Val can have her first Tower experience!  It'll be a welcome break from everything going on at home, and allow me to recharge my batteries a little before dance season wraps up.
Speaking of dance, we finished the last of our competition season this weekend at the Celebration Talent Dance Competition put on in Duluth!  I got barely any pictures at this competition, but my ladies still lit up the dance floor with their amazing energy and camaraderie!

(This is my Red Tap line cheering on their fellow dancers from the audience!)
A couple of my routines did exceptionally well in awards- my Beyond the Sea ladies got High Gold and 1st place in their category, and my tap soloist Taylor also got High Gold and a 1st place in her category along with a Performance Award!  My other routines got Gold but (I thought) did just as well performing- I'm especially proud that the Singing in the Rain routine went off without any hitches this time: props worked well, no bloody noses, and the girls were incredibly energetic and had good faces!  I'm a little sad they didn't at least get a costume award, but judges are always hard to predict in things like this.

I got a smidge of knitting done both in the dressing room and the audience during announcements.  I mostly worked on the Pangolin Cowl I'm knitting for Brit.  Recognize the yarn?  That's the bright pink I was using for her Narwhal mittens (replaced by Dale and not cast on again yet- that's a summer project...).  It's currently my only travel knit, which is a shame since the bigger knits are ones that have pressing deadlines!

This meant that last night when I finally got home after a long weekend of being at the DECC, I worked ferociously on the Giraffe I'm knitting for my duet student.  I finished the body (finally!) and even finished the head.  Unfortunately, I ran out of stuffing, so today I'll be stopping to get some more on my way home from my college before I continue with the limbs tonight.
I'm hoping to have this finished to give to my students in a little less than two weeks at our competition special showing, since that's the last time my solo and duet students will perform their dances.  This means I'll either be grading or knitting ferociously in the evenings for the next week and a half or so. Doable?  Yes.  Mildly pushing a deadline?  Perhaps... :)
I also decided that I'll be making the head of my studio a little Octopus as an end-of-year thank you, since our theme this year is "Under the Sea"!

(picture is from the Project page for this pattern on Ravelry)
I haven't decided yet if the main body will be pink or if I'll knit the colors as seen above, but I have a giraffe to finish first.  And papers to grade.  And final grades to submit.  And a trip to plan and go on.
Uffda.
It's going to be a busy month.