Awake for the Journey

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder.

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news.

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉 

I have not done a whole lot of really speculative, sci-fi questions as of late. So, let's change that.

In a certain subset of sci-fi, there's an idea of colonizing other worlds. But those worlds are far away, so the humans are put to sleep for the trip. The idea is that on the other end, the people will wake up without having aged. But...

What if cryogenic sleep doesn't work? What if the people on a colony ship from Earth would age normally during the journey (which could take a whole lot of years)?

A School Crochet Project

I made some progress on the scarf, mostly because I took it to school with me to work on when I had the odd moment and needed something to do with my hands. 

Just to compare, this is where it was last week:

So, progress. 

Because the question came up in the comments, I looked for a video to explain what a Möbius strip is. I found one by Neil deGrasse Tyson. It's a bit long-winded, but it really explains the shape:

The fact that one can crochet (or knit) something in that shape satisfies the math geek in me. (There are a couple ways one can introduce that half twist.) What's really cool is that because the shape has one edge, I'm just working around and around and around, and it grows from the center out.

I need to make a video showing off how the thing works in crochet. Maybe one of these days...

Kicking Him Out

Friday. Snack time. 

(Snack is a ten minute pause between the first and second classes of the day.)

All the students filed out of the room, except for one. He was still on his computer, playing a game...

I gave him a minute or so. Then I headed over.

"Time to go."

"Just a couple more minutes? If I exit the game now, I lose points..."

Now, besides the fact that he should have spent class time on, oh, I don't know, maybe his math assignment rather than a video game, I wasn't about to grant him the time as it was my break time.

Because of the way the block schedule is set up at this school, after snack, I have a long two classes to get through before lunch. This is a little more than three hours. That's a little more than three hours until I can once again leave the room and use the restroom.

I told him I needed the restroom, so he had to leave. He stalled.

"I'll close the door when I'm done."

I had been warned not to let the students near the teacher's stuff as she had experienced some thefts. I was no way no how leaving a student in the classroom unattended. 

Apparently his game finished, and he logged off his computer, grabbed his stuff, and left. 

I still had enough time to make it to the restroom and back before the next class. 

But I mean, seriously? He knew when the period ended. I gave a clean up warning minutes before that bell rang. He couldn't have figured out that he didn't have time for another round of his game? 

Catching Up

Eighth grade English. Fifth period. And I was confused. 

Class had barely started when a student asked me for a restroom pass. I checked the seating chart to get a name. "Evan?" I asked. He confirmed.

But, just before the bell had rung, another student had asked for a different hall pass. He needed to retrieve belongings from the PE locker room. Before I let him go, I asked his name so I wouldn't mark him absent when I went to take roll. He said his name was Evan. 

There were not two Evans on the roster. 

Getting roll taken takes a couple minutes. I was squaring away who had asked for hall passes (a girl had asked to go to the health office) and making sure I noted who was out of the room (the office had called for another boy) while checking for empty seats against the seating chart. I hadn't quite gotten my feet under me. 

Then the Evan who went to the locker room returned and sat in Evan's seat.

And now I knew what the problem was. Restroom Evan was not Evan. He was only pretending to be Evan.

Ah yes. A name swap. This I'm familiar with. 

Restroom Evan returned to greetings of, "Hello, Jose." 

Jose's seat was occupied. Jose attempted to sit in Evan's seat, not noticing that Evan was sitting there, all the while saying, "My name is Evan." 

Uh huh. Dude, the jig's up. 

Caught, Jose went back to his seat. The boy in that seat protested that Jose had told him to sit there and pretend to be him. (Considering his behavior up to this point, I'm more likely to believe that he was a willing participant.) 

A couple minutes later, and the boys were all back where they were supposed to be. A couple minutes after that, and the class settled. 

And then I had some time to write this all out for their teacher. I can't be the only one to "enjoy" their antics.

Getting in the Door

First period had ended. I had been asked to cover a second period elsewhere as second period was the teacher's conference period. I called the office to send someone to open the door to the other room, and I headed out.

I didn't have far to go. Some of the kiddos had arrived, and they were waiting patiently outside. (Period subbing is so common that the kiddos know to just wait and we'll be inside shortly.) 

Lately, when I call for security, they come fairly quickly, so I was getting a little concerned as the passing period wore on. (Passing period is six minutes.) But, the period hadn't started yet, so I remained patient. 

And then I spied a golf cart making its way towards me. With the crowds, it was slow going. We'd be late to start class, but only by a few seconds. No biggie. 

Then, a woman behind me asked if I needed to get in the room. I hadn't seen her approach. I said that I did, and she unlocked the door. 

As the kiddos filed in, the golf cart made its way to us. And the guy driving was not happy. 

Apparently, the woman had seen me waiting and came to let me in. But when I called the office, they had radioed security. He explained that he had made his way from the other side of campus, through the crowds, and if someone else was going to unlock the door, she should have radioed that she was there. 

I stayed out of this conversation. It wasn't really my concern. 

I appreciate someone coming to unlock the door. I definitely don't want them ignoring those calls, because I have had days where we wait and wait and wait (minutes into the period), and things can get loud. Then getting the kiddos settled once we get into class can be an issue. 

Usually, the drama I witness is teen-based. This was a rare instance where I got to witness some adult drama.

By comparison, the seventh grade English class was dull. (They were looking at Utopian societies. I'm not sure how this connected to whatever they're studying, but that wasn't my concern.)

Late Morning

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder.

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news.

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉 

What if the sun didn't rise at the expected time? (I'm not talking about it being a stormy day and you just don't see the sun behind the clouds. This would be there's no sun when it should be there.) 

A Redo

Last week I showed off some yarn for a project I'm planning. I did swatch and figure out what pattern stitch I wanted to use, but I didn't get much further than that. 

Instead, I pulled out another project I've been contemplating for a while.

A few years ago, I was gifted some birthday yarn, and I knew I had to make something for me from it. I decided to make a Möbius, and I cast on. 

It was slow going. And I didn't really like it. (Hence, why it was slow going. When a project bores me, I don't pick it up too much, so it doesn't grow very fast.) 

So, back in September, I ripped the whole thing out. It took a while as the yarn kept breaking.

The plan was to restart it with a different pattern. I picked something called Cobweb. 

Now I've finally gotten it started.

Because the yarn was all breaky when I ripped the last thing out, I have a lot of odds and ends that I want to use. Those will get wound in at some point. I think I'll wait to see if I enjoy making this before I commit to that. 

It's kind of hard to see the stitch pattern in the photo. The yarn is very fine. But it's not hard going, and it's growing way quicker than the other iteration was.

Maybe I'll have progress to show next week. We'll see. At least it's something more than I have been doing of late.

Lunch To Go

Does anyone know someone who works as a food delivery driver (DoorDash or Grubhub or any others)? I've got some questions for them...

Friday. Fourth period. The class was "intro to business", although I don't think the students were much of a business mindset. (I covered this class once in December, and they didn't do a whole lot of work then.) 

Fourth period is right before lunch. 

Maeve started right in talking about Raising Cane's. How far away it was. (It's about a mile or so from the adult transition center. Walking distance. We walked it a few times. But from this school it's a bit farther out.) 

But then she got a hankering for In-n-Out. 

Maeve was discussing with her neighbor Nate about what food she wanted to order. 

I pointed out that the office isn't happy with students ordering food in to be delivered. (And this is where being at multiple schools is an issue. A different school has forbidden students to order food, and there is signage to that effect at the door to the main office. But I can't recall if this school has put its figurative foot down on this yet.) Maeve informed me that other students do it all the time.

Very deep sigh. 

Upon further reflection, Maeve decided that she was in the mood for McDonald's. 

Which McDonald's was closest? She logged into her account. Nate was surprised all the info was populated, to which Maeve replied that she was logged into her account. Then there was a debate as to if she could tell the delivery person when to arrive. And finally she had to decide on what she wanted to order. (She settled on Chicken McNuggets.) 

I pointed out that she had an actual assignment to do. She had wasted more than twenty minutes on all these decisions. 

Although, when she wanted the address of the school and Nate suggested she Google it, I pointed out that the address was written up on the wall. (It was on something that the teacher had pinned to his bulletin board.) 

Eventually, the order was completed. Maeve could focus on her assignment now, right? Nope. Now she was watching the progress of her food via the app. 

Then it arrived early. 

Maeve freaked out. Her boyfriend was going to retrieve it for her, but he was going to get out of class five minutes later. She didn't want to go.

Nate suggested she ask for a restroom pass. Um, I heard the entire conversation, which is what they realized. (I suppose I should have told her she couldn't go, but at this point I wasn't going to fight that battle.) 

Maeve did not want to go by herself. (Why? I have no idea.) She begged that Nate go with her. Reluctantly, he agreed. 

Maeve and Nate were not gone that long. But she seemed to think it took forever as they had a hard time getting the bag through the fence that surrounds the school. (At this point Maeve realized that perhaps she should have tipped her driver. I had previously said that one should always tip in these situations.) 

We had less than ten minutes remaining in the period. Maeve was happy her fries were still warm. Nate requested a chicken nugget as payment for accompanying her. She gave him one.

And I noted this in the note to the teacher. 

I really need to hear from delivery drivers about this. Do they frequently deliver to schools? Just in my experience, it's becoming a thing. Do the drivers like delivering to schools? I would imagine the teens are cheap and not very grateful. I'm sure they have some stories.

Downtime

Thursday. Fourth period. 

As is usual, I was asked to cover another teacher on the conference period. It was an easy enough assignment, as I was covering the special ed co-teacher for a class I had covered before. With the general ed teacher there, all I had to do was sit at the teacher's desk. 

(Well, my job technically is to assist the students. But, the general ed teacher was giving direct instruction. As the class was well-behaved, meaning I didn't need to jump in to help with classroom control, I could just chill and watch the lesson.) 

And then the special ed teacher returned. 

Normally, this is happy news. I get to go back to an empty classroom and take a break. Alas, "my" classroom wasn't empty. 

(It's a long story as to the whys and wherefores. Suffice it to say that another teacher uses that classroom during the conference period. I didn't want to walk in to disturb them.) 

Where to go? I had a little over a half hour until the end of the period. The teacher's lounge was on the other side of campus. (Very long walk.) 

I decided that I'd sit outside. (Well, first I had to wait until the end of lunch for the half of the students who were on lunch at that time. But once they had gone into their fourth periods, then the campus was peaceful.) 

I don't know if you've heard about all the rain we've been getting. Things have been a mess. And it's been pretty cold for us. But this Thursday was actually a nice day. Dry. And fairly warm. 

Even while in class, the campus is generally busy. Security drove by in their golf carts. Students were going to and from places. But it was fairly quiet. 

But then a student stopped by the bench I had claimed. He had been in my third period. He asked if he had left something in the classroom, a small box. He had. I told him the classroom was open with a class in there, so he could go and retrieve it.

I saw him a bit later walking by with the small box. 

It was nice to get a bit of sun. We're due another storm the following weekend, and the weather app on my phone shows rain for the next week or so. (We'll see. The app always predicts more rain than materializes.) 

Starting Off

On our return from winter break, I caught a two-day assignment in a U.S. Government class. (Read: seniors.) 

Realizing the opportunity, I greeted each class with, "Welcome to the last semester of your high school career." 

I got a whole lot of "Thank God," and not as much, "Wait, what?" as I expected. 

Many seniors turn 18 during their senior year, so the teacher takes advantage of the opportunity. On his wall: 

The classes were pretty mellow. They seemed to be working, but then I caught a student playing chess on his computer. I heard some discussions of some of the questions on their assignment on the first day, but not so much on the second.

This year I have taken to sending the teachers an email about the day I covered. As an extra added bonus, most teachers reply to my email. 

Mr. G's comment was that he had started grading their work, and it appeared that mentally the students were still on vacation. 

Deep sigh. I see the senioritis has set in early this year. 

Painful

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder.

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news.

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉 

What if you had a pain that pain medication didn't help at all? (I know, this is actually a thing for some.)

New Project?

I'm thinking. And plotting. And planning.

I pulled out some yarn.

I consulted my stitch dictionary. 

We'll see if I get any further than this. 

End of Semester

The last day before winter break was chaos. But, I was expecting chaos, so I wasn't surprised.

The school is on a block schedule, so all eight periods don't meet on the same day. Except for this day. On this day, they all met.

We were supposed to have a fire drill, but it got cancelled. 

The students were all already hopped up on sugar. Cookies. Candy. 

And the teachers planned nothing for the day. I mean, why would they? The classes weren't really long enough to do anything, and grades were due in the afternoon, so nothing they did was going to count anyway.

Mrs. G gave her class Oreos. Mr. S boiled water so his classes could make hot chocolate. (As a co-teacher, I had one period with Mrs. G and three with Mr. S.) 

And then there was the parade. The school has started doing a holiday parade around the school. We all got out of class to watch other students walk by. (Sadly, the band was in the parade, but they didn't play anything.) 

Some of the parade participants threw candy at the crowd. (More sugar.) At least the cheerleaders danced. 

I had two periods in the learning center. But unlike on finals days, it was dead in the room. We had two students. One was busily trying to make things up and get them in to pass his classes. And one played on his phone.

It was about what I expected. Weird day. But I got paid to be there.

Avoiding the Final

For the last two days of the semester, I was covering a special ed co-teacher. She was going out of town for the holidays. Way out of town. Africa. So, not even on the same continent. 

For the first two finals of the day, I sat in the back of the room and watched them work. But for the third final, Mr. S had something for me to do. 

One accommodation that special ed students get for tests is to take the test in a different room. It helps some of them concentrate better. When there is a co-teacher, that teacher will take the students to that other room and remain. (And if there's a co-teacher, about 1/3rd of the class is designated special ed.)

Mr. S knew one of his students would want to test in the separate room. And, he decided that it would be better for all concerned if Lou was removed during the final as well. 

As I am well-acquainted with Lou, I saw the wisdom in that decision.

We went to the learning center. It's the room the special ed students can go to to get extra help on assignments. But, it was finals day, so anticipating a large number of students, the teachers in charge of the learning center that period sent us to the overflow room. (This was just a different classroom where the teacher didn't have class that period.) 

Once in the overflow room, I parked myself next to Lou. And... Well, he logged in. (The test was online.) He looked at the test. But he didn't touch it. Sigh.

I prodded. It was time to start. He didn't have that much time to work. He should get started.

(The other student with me worked well on her own on the other side of the room. I kept an eye on her, but she was fine.) 

Lou needed to "step out". (Technically it was a restroom break.) Hoping he'd come back ready to work, I allowed it.

But then he was gone for a long time. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting. 

Finally, he returned. He had a story about a member of the security staff "hassling" him. She told him to get back to class. I don't know why he didn't tell her that he was in the overflow learning center room. Instead, he tried to lose her, hid from her, and once he lost the tail, he returned.

At that point, there was maybe fifteen minutes left of class. I hoped rather than expected it would be enough time for Lou to finish. 

It turned out it was. But that's only because Lou quickly marked random answers on the test rather than actually doing it.

Five minutes later, Lou wanted to return to class. But that was a hard no. I asked Mr. S before we left, and he thought it would be better if Lou wasn't in class to disturb the other students.

Considering how Lou behaved during testing time, that was a wise choice.

(Lou was beyond caring. He said that he had an F in the class and that the final wasn't going to make a difference.)

Not Attempted

As is my custom, during the break I did my "summer schedule". I saved the subbing stories from before the break to post them when school resumed, as it did this week. The week before the break was finals week...

Tuesday of finals week I caught a math class. The teacher had caught Covid. But, she hadn't planned on giving finals, so the students could either work on any missing assignments, or if they were completely caught up they could work on some extra credit assignments. 

I was very familiar with this classroom. It's the room I used when I taught that summer school class in June.

However, a few students had missed the chapter 4 test the prior week, and Ms. C left those tests so they could make them up. 

First thing at the start of the period, I passed out the tests to the few who needed them. (Ms. C left me a list.) And as the room was fairly quiet, they had great testing conditions to complete their makeup.

For the first class of the day, only one student was still working at the end of the period. Everyone else had turned theirs in way before that.

In case you're wondering how a teacher can grade tests taken on paper when she won't be back in the classroom, I have that answer for you. The kiddos were to take a picture of their tests. Then, they attached those images to the test assignment posted in their Google Classrooms. 

I found it curious, during the second class of the day, that only two students turned in their tests. I mean, only four were taking it, but two of them were still working at the end of the period? I wondered if I was going to have to figure out a way to give them extra time.

I went to the first student who still had a test. He handed me back a blank page. He didn't do it, he shrugged. 

I... uh... 

I found the other student who was to take it. The test wasn't visible on her desk. When I asked for it, she pulled it out from where she hid it. She didn't bother to attempt the test either. 

I mean... The test was open note. They knew this. I told them when I handed them the test. They couldn't pull out their notes and make a go of it? 

So, I wasn't terribly surprised when three students in the third class did (or rather didn't do) the same thing.

This has become a thing, by the way. There are students who just don't do anything. They don't attempt assignments. It's always happened, but of late it seems to happen more often. If they deem the assignment (or test) too hard, they just don't even attempt it. They don't start. 

In the end, I just listed their names and informed Ms. C that they had had the opportunity to take the test, but they didn't. They "earned" those zeroes. 

Human Lie Detector

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder.

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news.

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉 

What if you could always tell if someone was lying to you?

After the Covid Pause

The last time I talked about the Calash scarf, I said I was so close to finished that by the next Monday, it would be finished. Of course that jinxed it, and I came down with the dread plague. Sigh.

I'm not sure if I got the "mild Covid" or all of my shots did the trick or if it was a combination of the two. I felt like I had a cold. Sore throat to start. That gave way to a stuffy and drippy nose. 

I rested. I watched TV. I read blogs. I didn't go anywhere. 

And on Thursday the 5th I tested negative for Covid. Yay!

That evening, I pulled out the Calash scarf and knit the last little bit. 

On Friday, I ripped out what I had done and redid the last couple rows. A couple times. And then I sewed up the back of the hood and finished the thing. 

Now it's all done. Yay!

Winter break is now over. This week's posts will recount the last week before the break. And next week's will be about this week, assuming that I work. We'll see. As of the writing of this, I have nothing scheduled. (And every time I say out loud, "Maybe won't get called and I'll get a couple days off," the days magically get filled.)

What am I going to knit next?

Slate News Quiz, 2022 Year in Review

I know, I know, we're fully into January now, so why am I doing another 2022 year in review quiz? Because it popped up in my FB feed.

Slate News Quiz, 2022 Year in Review

Last year I looked and looked for year-in-review quizzes but could not find them. This year...

This one is shorter than last week's. Again, it's US-centric, so feel free to skip if you're not US based. 

I got 7 out of 12 correct with a score of 306 points. Meh. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. But I'll blame the Covid. 

If you try it, let me know how you did. Next week school starts back up, so I'll post my stories from before the break.

The Threat

School doesn't start back up until next week. But like with last Wednesday, I have a story that didn't make the blog when it happened. (Arguably, this is the more interesting story, but as I planned out the blogs for that week, I thought this might fit in during the break better.) 

I was in the social studies class at the continuation high school. (The students are getting credits in geography, history, or government, depending upon what they are deficient in.) Sixth period. 

As is usual, some of the students were having "deep" and "meaningful" conversations rather than doing the classwork. And also as is usual, I sat and listened as they considered me part of the decorations.

Mostly, the conversation was between Harmony and Isaiah. They talked about Isaiah's job (he works in a bakery making donuts), and then somehow that segued into them talking about their stealing techniques. (Isaiah was more a smash and grab.) Vaping and pot smoking came up. Harmony talked about the cooking she does. (Food. It sounds like she knows her way around a kitchen.) 

Teenage conversations (well, conversations in general) meander around like that normally. And while I wasn't too pleased at the illegalities of some of what they discussed, I wasn't taking notes. 

But then Harmony brought up a topic that got my attention.

She talked about an instructional assistant who "walks with a stick". 

Harmony said that a friend of hers had dared Harmony to trip her. Harmony was going to do it, but luckily another staff member was there. "And she looked at me as if she knew exactly what I was planning, so I walked away." Okay, then.

Only, Harmony told Isaiah that she was still planning to trip the aide the next time she saw her. 

And, I couldn't let that one slide. 

I've met this particular IA. I've worked in classes with her. Ms. E has been with the district a long time. 

It was time for me to check out for the day. Only, now Harmony was in the main office, talking to the office staff. But I couldn't leave without giving them a heads-up. If Ms. E was going to be around, I would have told her directly, but that didn't seem likely.

I quietly told the secretary that I had something I had to tell her, but it was about Harmony. I hit the restroom, hoping Harmony would leave so I could talk.

Nope. When I got out, she was still there. 

Loudly, the secretary informed me and the office staff that the counselor needed to talk to me before I left. I knew there was no reason the counselor would need to talk to me, but I played along because this was the perfect excuse to get out of the office without Harmony being any the wiser.

I explained what had happened. Sadly, this did not surprise either the secretary or the counselor. But it was something they were going to follow up on, so I filled out a report for them.

It's the end of the semester, so Ms. E won't be on campus for a while. Harmony might have been talking big for her friends. This may never come to pass. But there's no way I'm going to hear about someone plotting to injure someone else and not report it. 

Freevee

As we are on vacation from school, this week I'm on my "summer schedule", which means it's What to Watch Wednesday.

While I was plotting out my posts for my two weeks of winter break, I did a mental inventory of what I've been watching of late. And I couldn't think of one show to recommend. It's not that I haven't been watching anything, but nothing sticks out as something that I really want to write about. 

But while thinking through what I've been watching, I realized that there's a streaming channel that keeps pulling my attention. And just in case you haven't heard of it, I thought I'd bring it to your attention.

Freevee is a free streaming channel that is allied with Amazon Prime Video. At least, that's what brought it to my attention. Well, that and the fact that it was the streaming channel that had the reboot of Leverage. (Did anyone watch Leverage back in the day? Mostly the same cast and the same type of show.) 

Once I started looking, I found all sorts of TV movies from the '90s that I remembered. A quick perusal of shows includes Columbo, Dallas, Perry Mason, Night Court, Bewitched, and The Waltons. There were plenty of newer-ish shows, too, but I thought I'd hit more classic TV for that list.

The downside is because it's free, there are commercials. And I don't think there's a paid tier that will let you skip them. But with all the paid streaming channels out there, it's nice to find one that you don't have to pay for.

Have you found Freevee? Any shows you care to recommend?

Agony of Defeat

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder.

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news.

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉 

What if your mistake caused your team to lose?

Covid Update

Currently it is almost 1 PM on January 1st. As is my habit, I write my blog posts ahead and schedule them for the upcoming week. 

Before winter break, I put together the blog posts for last week, this week, and next week, leaving Mondays open for whatever I happened to knit or crochet. As last Sunday was Christmas, I wrote my Monday post on Friday, and I showed off my Calash scarf that was so close to complete I just knew it would be done by today. 

And then Christmas Day I tested positive for Covid. 

Deep sigh.

As of right now, I am still Covid positive. I felt terrible for a couple days. I felt pretty normal for a couple days. Today, my sinuses are a bit stuffed up. But school doesn't start up for over a week, so I should be back to normal by then. Hopefully. 

I haven't really been of a mood to knit the last week, so no progress on the scarf. When I do pull it out again (today? tomorrow? this week? next week?), it'll probably be a sitting or two to complete. It's that close. 

Until then, I figured I should give the illness update. 

I did get some goodies for Christmas: 

These are some great little yarn-y accessories. The cassette tape thingie is a needle gauge. The other is a keychain with small crochet hooks on it. It's the perfect size to bring along for projects as if one drops a stitch, those crochet hooks come in handy. (They wouldn't be great for a project, but they're perfect in a pinch.) 

And the rest are stitch markers. You can never have too many stitch markers.

I've been around the blogosphere. I will be again this week. I mean, I do have a full week's worth of posts already scheduled, so it's just the visiting. I'm not so sick that I can't sit up and read and type on the computer. 

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Take care. And may you avoid the dread plague. I'll see you around.