Featured!

Holy buckets, everyone!
One of my favorite knitting blogs, Knitted Bliss, decided to feature my Classy Fornicating Deer Vest on her weekly feature "Modification Monday"!  I was incredibly flattered when she sent me an email concerning a possible feature.  The blog post about it went live yesterday.
You can find it here!
I'm pretty excited that she picked that vest, and if anything, it's inspired me to branch out a little more in my knitting! :)
Tomorrow, I'm off to the north for a fun-filled Christmas with Scott's family, and hopefully fixing the Onward Shawl.
Yeah... I haven't looked at that yet.
It's still a little raw.
Just to make me feel better, here's one of the outtakes from our Christmas photo shoot.  Maeby looked a little too upset for us to use it for the actual photo.  Therefore, it's good for me to use when I'm upset at her.

Happy Holidays, everyone. :)

Just when you think it's safe...

I finished the Onward Shawl yesterday while watching my students frantically typed their finals.
I was really excited- it was gorgeous, not too crazy-huge, and I eliminated doing the extra repeat because I finished the cast-off with a nice comfortable tiny ball of yarn left, saving my extra skein for a future gift.  It couldn't have worked out better, timing-wise and yarn-wise.  It was beautiful.  It's still 7 days before Christmas.  I planned on blocking it today and getting it in the mail tomorrow, to arrive under the tree by early next week.
It was too good to be true.
I came home and happily displayed the shawl in all its glory to Scott.  He complimented the pattern, said it was really cool but not too fussy, and stated that the recipient would probably really like it.
I folded it carefully, put it on the dining room table, and we went in the kitchen to make dinner.
It only took about ten minutes.
She apparently had been lurking nearby.

I think she was waiting for the opportunity to get back at me for the (only slightly) humiliating photos I took of her for our Christmas card.
She was waiting for the perfect moment.  Plotting, planning, and being patient in a way that only a cat with limitless time can.

%@#$!!!!  Rotten little furball with no respect #%!@$#!@%@$^@$^@#$#%&*^#^$%!!!!
She is the WORST!!

She not only ate the tip of the end of the shawl, she nommed on the end of it as well, displayed in the pic above (comparing it to the good, non-nommed side).  She wasn't content with just destroying one part of it- she had to show her dominance over all knitted goods by eating two very different parts of the shawl.
Even now, as I type this, she's lazily chilling in the kitten bed, acting as if it never happened.
Just. the. worst.
She's lucky I don't put out a Craigslist ad for her right now.
::sigh::
Guess I'll rip back the last two sections and reknit them.  I suppose it could have been worse.  This also gives me a chance to add another repeat on to the shawl if I wanted to make it bigger.  Not that I wanted to in the first place.
::grumblegrumblegrowl::
Stupid cat.

Finals Week

I'm halfway done with my finals push.

I've drank about a pot of coffee a day, graded enough 8-page papers to make me go mildly cross-eyed, and I just collected even more final papers to go through over the next couple of days.  Tomorrow will be my last day with this semester's students- two 2-hour exams, where I'll be alternating between walking around to make sure students aren't cheating and working on the Onward shawl.  It's probably the first long-term knitting time I've had since Thanksgiving.
In the craziness of grading and finishing the semester, I have managed to have a little bit of fun!
I went to the bridal shower for Celeste, one of my best friends from Grad School.  She's going to become a Mrs. in a little over two weeks, so it was time to celebrate!

I'm throwing her Bachelorette party on Friday evening, and I'm excited for a little more time to hang out.  She works at another one of the colleges in the area, so between our schedules, it's hard to find time to hang out.
We also had the Christmas program for my dance studio last Sunday!

I had all of my tap dancers up on stage for a rousing number of the "Shim Sham Shimmy", my yearly tradition.  I have to admit, I'm a big fan of getting a giant group of like 40 tap dancers up on stage all dancing together.  It looks (and sounds!) pretty cool. :)
Oh, and this fell off my truck:
while I was driving.

It's a chunk of the exhaust system.
...yeah.
Besides that, Scott and I are also trying to work on this:

Moving day is approaching.
No wonder my knitting has been on standstill for a bit.
Good thing I can update soon on some of that... :)

Back from a Break!

After posting about the Deer Vest, I decided to take a little hiatus from the internet.  Between the end of the semester nearing (and grading ramping up), choreographing in the days and teaching dance several nights a week, and an upcoming move (which I'll get into in a moment), I needed to just take a break.  I hope you all understand. :)
Even now, I'm completely ignoring the pile of papers to grade that I should have handed back to my students last week.  The only reason I get a pass is because it was just conference week, and the students were stressed out enough about meeting with me to pitch their last paper that every last one of them conveniently forgot that I have yet to hand these back.

End-of-semester time is just as bad for teachers as it is for students, especially when it's the holiday season.  This semester seems especially difficult- I've had a surprisingly high number of frantic students that need extra credit, want to make up tests and papers, and are questioning their grade online vs. their "real" grade.

I really do love being a teacher, but from Thanksgiving onward, it's a 10-hours-a-day 7-day-a-week job between grading, planning, students, and more grading.  This week is our last full week of classes, then the amazing fun of finals week begins!  I'm hoping that this year, there will be no tears or students swearing under their breath during the test.
Besides school being crazy, to make this year extra fun, Scott and I took the leap and decided to change our address before January first.
Yep, we're moving across town and into a real house!
We're not buying (yet), mainly because my teacher salary can't afford it and Scott's probably heading back for a Master's degree in the fall, but also because buying a house feels a little more permanent.  We still talk about the possibility of taking a full year off from jobs (after saving like crazy) to live out of a van and travel from climbing place to climbing place.

(Photo courtesy of Gear Junkie of a converted van- the climber home of choice!)
Both of us still want to do it while we're kid-free and young, and that would be the kind of trip that we would never regret taking.  I know of a lot of people that say, "some day" when it comes to ideas like this, but I would love to just take the plunge and DO IT.  Luckily, I'm with a fairly like-minded guy!  :)
Back to the moving- while I finish up finals, I have to help pack up our household and move it across town.  Our new landlord is marrying one of my best friends, so we're slowly moving our stuff over there in the next couple of weeks.  Right before Christmas (and after all the grading), we'll probably do the last few things in the "big day" move, so when we come back from spending Christmas with Scott's family, we'll have the new place ready to go!
Hopefully. :)
The knitting has mildly been at a standstill, but hopefully I'll get progress updates on here.  I'm hoping also to post a list (yes, like everyone else) of What to Get Your Climbing/Outdoor Friend for your Holiday of Choice, as well as our incredibly awesome Christmas card.  Yes, the cats are involved.  Yes, they're going to be dressed up.  Yes, I do expect them to murder me in my sleep some day from all the abuse I've put them through.

Maeby loves that she got to wear her Christmas sweater from last year!
Hahaha... aaaah too much fun. :)