School - accepted.

My son has been accepted at the alternative school near me. What a huge weight that was, worrying about where he was going to go... worrying about this when I have enough on my plate to worry about. Anyway.... he's got a school to go to, and I'm quite happy about it. He went on a 'student shadowing', and said it looked interesting, and that everyone seemed nice, and that it was much more 'hands on' and the students were treated with alot more one-on-one. They have a swimming program also, so he's quite happy about that as well. :)

School problems

My son is in a Junior school. This means that it only goes up to grade six. We've applied him to the nearest neighbourhood school, but recently found out that he is number 18 on the waiting list. We are literally 3 houses away from the cut off making that school his home school. Our 'home' school is 18 blocks away! This one is 5.

So, this weekend I had my son working on 2 projects so that we could apply to an 'alternate' school in my area. Why an 'alternate' school? Because the only schools in my 'neighbourhood' are horrendous! One is 1 block away from a mental institution, and the other closest one is in an area that is in the news on a monthly basis due to gang violence, shootings and drugs. Don't get me wrong, I do realize that our world is a dangerous place to be, but that doesn't mean I want my children to be put in harm's way. He's only 11 years old. I don't even go to these neighbourhoods! And I'm supposed to send my son to them on a daily basis? Also, since neither are his neighbourhoods, he hasn't grown up around the problems that are part of those neighbourhoods.

Anyway, please cross your fingers that he gets into this alternative school. Because if he doesn't, I dont' know what we're going to do.

blurb

I'm depressed. So, I've been sitting here in my favorite chair in my livingroom. Knitting, reading and watching tv. I did go out to the library yesterday as some of my knitting books came in (all Debbie Bliss), but otherwise, I don't feel like doing anything.

My 11 yr old son is away this week on a school related excursion. So it's just my youngest daughter and hubby here at home. Daughter and I have been reading the Brambly Hedge books as I'm knitting her one of the families from the story and thought she should have some of the background on them. Which reminds me, I really should finish Dusty Dogwood up. He's about 95% complete. I just need to put him together.

I've also picked up my Cable Luxe again. I ripped back to the pick up row on the body and figured out how to pick up enough sts (by picking one up in each space, as well as in every 2nd row space as required - so picking up over 2 rows, instead of just over the first row). It's coming along nicely.

Plus I've started some baby stuff for a friend of mine who is expecting in August. I bought some Bernat Handicrafter cotton, and am working on a bib in 'KeyLimePie', plus I'll do some booties and scratch mitts. I've also picked out an outfit to knit, just looking for the yarn now. :)

I've also been working on a sweater coat. It has some of the most beautiful cables at the back! But it will probably not be done until the fall, it's such a big project.

Also, I've got the cabled purse that I started a couple months ago.... I have to work on that again....

Well, I've got the time now...

Two Weeks Notice

I'm working on a one year contract, assisting 2 Vice Presidents in a very large company, taking over for a Maternity leave. I started in October, so I'm 6 months into it.

There is another lady who was hired as well to cover a Maternity leave last April. She could not pull her weight looking after the 3 Reps she was hired for, and so they had to hire again to cover one of the Reps. Anyway, everyone of the other assistants in the office was happy that her year long contract was supposed to be up this month when the fulltimer comes back, as she's quite difficult to get along with.

But, guess what? My boss called me in on Monday to advise me that they were going to cut my contract short! He told me it had nothing to do with me, that they were very happy with my work and everything, but that once the maternity leave returns, there will be too many girls and not enough work. So, I'm done.

Unbelievable, I'm so pissed. Why are they keeping the other contract who has problems with all the girls?? It's because she is a kiss-ass to two of the Reps and for some reason they are completely blind to her antics.

Uggg...

The Big Read meme

This meme is originally from the Big Read. Apparently they reckon most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Change the color of those you intend to read. (I'm putting a ** because I don't know how to change the color - and I'm also going to ** those I saw as a movie)
3) Italicise the books you LOVE.
4) Post your list so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.



1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. ** Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell**
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens S
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy S
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. ** Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll **
30. ** The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame **
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy S
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. ** The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown **
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. ** The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood **
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. ** Atonement - Ian McEwan **
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert S
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov S
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville S
71. ** Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens **
72. ** Dracula - Bram Stoker **
73. ** The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett **
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce S
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. ** A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens **
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert S
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So there you go - more than you ever wanted to know about my reading habits. If you like the look of it - consider yourself tagged!

Lifestyle Change needed, badly

I’ve decided to lose 25 pounds by the summertime – the end of June to be exact.

I think I can do this, but only if I stop drinking which I’ve been doing a lot of lately. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t drink to get drunk, but I do have a beer or two after work, then I’ll have a drink of Amaretto (or two) in the evening after dinner while knitting or watching tv or whatever.

Ah, amaretto…. How I love thee…. such a beautiful amber color, sitting in my little wine glass… swirling around before I take a sip...a nice warm fire going down my throat, to warm my belly. Ah.

25 pounds… such a small number, yet so big in the context of weight. I’m not obese, but I’m no spring chicken anymore either and I should get started on getting healthier again.

So, I’ve started on healthier living for the past couple weeks, while cutting my Amaretto intake down. From 2 drinks down to one and a half, down to one, down to my bottle is finished and I’m not going to buy another until I lose 25 pounds. (Well, maybe a small bottle to treat myself at the 10 pound lost mark – I’ve got to give myself something to look forward to don’t I?)

I’ve started to walk to and from work on a daily basis. It’s 45 minutes each way. Plus, I take the stairs whenever possible (and have 3 sets of them in my home so it seems that I’m always going up and down them). I’ve been eating smaller portions at mealtimes, and I’ve been eating healthier foods as well. I’ve cut out the junk food from my diet, not that it was ever a problem for me. I’ve also cut my caffeine intake down to one coffee in the morning (instead of 2 morning coffees, and then one in the early afternoon). I’ve started drinking peppermint tea with a little splash of honey to take my coffee craving away (does it work? Some days it does, some days I really want that second coffee but stay away from it – it’s not the coffee so much as the 2 sugars and ¼ cup of half and half I put into it.

I’ll still have the occasional ‘lite’ beer or glass of white zinfandel, and as long as I’m eating healthier and exercising, I should be able to meet my goal.

Today I also signed up on a ‘food diary’ site. OMG, it takes longer to find the bloody stuff your eating in their database than it takes to eat it!  But, I want to get an idea of the calories in and burned and this seems to be a good way to do that. Wish me luck.

Brambly Hedge characters

My youngest daughter asked me to knit her the Mother mouse from Brambly Hedge. The mouses' name is Poppy Eyebright and I started her on Feb 14th...



Even though it wasn't requested, I am now working on her Husband, Dusty.

I've already knitted all the pieces for their 3 children, but am going to wait until 'daddy' is finished before putting life to the babies. :)