Simple pleasures

After a long day's work, indeed, after a long week's work, the simple pleasures of life take on new meaning. We bought strawberries for the first time this year, and had them after dinner the other night. With sweetened crème fraîche and leftover homemade chocolate sauce they became the food of gods.

Other simple things which give me joy:

• a jug of iced tea glistening in the fridge
  
• fresh flowers on my table, picked from my own garden
• newly washed sheets on my bed
• listening to the wild bird who sings "Charge!" all day
• searching for orchids while walking the dog (still haven't found them)**
• Coming downstairs in the morning to a clean kitchen

**UPDATE (June 11) Found one today! Will try and remember to bring camera next time.

I've been in a blogging mood recently. My goal is one post a week, but lately I've been exceeding that target. I hope I'm not going into overkill. It seems that just the past month or so I've been excited about blogging. And more recently, I've finished all assignments! I only have one exam looming, but I know the material and don't feel too worried about it. As for the rest, I haven't received my marks, but they're submitted and there's nothing I can do about it now, so why stress? As a result, I have about twelve or sixteen free hours a week which I haven't had since last September. It's so liberating.

The other morning I woke up about two hours earlier than normal and couldn't get to sleep. So I got up and did some gardening. Then when it got really warm and sunny that afternoon, I kicked myself for not going for a nice long walk while it was still cool. So I resolved that if I got up early again, I'd go walk the dog. The next morning, no such luck. I could barely drag myself out of bed to get to work on time. But this morning, I was much better and leapt out of bed as soon as I woke up, threw on some clothing and moisturiser, and out we went. I want to do this regularly, as I've noticed some little love handles forming; it's nothing to panic about yet, as I still fit in all my clothing and really have had a constant weight for the past several years, but I don't want them to progress. What with my recovery from surgery (I was pretty inactive for about three months or more), plus the whole constantly-stay-at-home-studying thing I've had going on, I haven't gone dog walking in ages. So this morning was great.

And finally, before this post drags on too much, I thought I'd post photographic evidence of my first gardening goal for June. I also have two single roses upstairs in vases: one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom, but I can't be bothered to go up and snap them. On my living room windowsill I have irises, orange roses, daisies, and laurel leaves; on my dining table is a heady mix of daisies, sweet peas, and mint leaves. They are both scented bouquets, but the sweet peas in the dining room are especially pungent. As soon as I walk in the room I smell them.

Remember this fluffy ball of cuteness? Last week while gardening two robins perched on the fence across from me, and one gave the softest little "peep" at its mother. That's right, Junior has left the nest. It's a good thing, too, because not long after when it rained, their whole house just flopped out of the eaves. It fell straight onto my rainbow chard, but no damage was done.


However, we are overflowing with nests at the moment. The robins built another one in the garage but we don't think they finished because we still use the garage and it disturbed them too much. There is also a sparrow nest under one of the roof tiles on the back of our house, though we can't see it. However, father makes several trips an hour from our birdfeeders to the roof and there is constant cheeping.

Partner told me he shut the shed door overnight and when he opened it the next morning, he was nearly decapitated by "a huge bird" bursting out. Anyhow, this "eagle" hasn't been back to her nest, for obvious reasons. No eggs or babies, though, so it's ok. And we're leaving it open now just to make sure.

And lastly, the final nest that I know of, right at the center of this bush. It was impossible for me to get a good picture of it, but there are actually two nestlings in it. I'm not entirely sure what kind of birds they are, but I would hazard a guess at blackbirds. All I know is that the mother is dark with a long tail.

I managed to squeeze in some gardening this weekend. My runner beans are now planted in the ground and all the bulbs from their bed have been dug up. I need to replant them still, but hopefully I can get that done within the next two or three days. We put three upright poles with netting strung between them for the beans to climb up. Last year they all had their own bamboo canes, but this year the sweet peas have monopolized them. Rather than buy new canes I improvised with some materials already at hand. Hopefully it works out. If it does work, it should be really good, seeing as we planted them at the edge of the patio, meaning they will give us a bit of shade without shading any other plants.

After I swore off growing tomatoes, Partner has gone and accepted ten free plants. I guess I give them one more chance. However, if they again disappoint, I will have to put my foot down for next year. I simply cannot waste valuable growing space on plants that do not perform.

Also pictured is my little bed of broccoli and rainbow chard with roses and a flowering currant bush behind them, and some other flowery perennial in front.

Still stressing out about my schoolwork...even though it's down to the nitty gritty with only two projects left to submit. And one exam to take.

It's the first day for at least a week in which I woke up to dry pavement outside; two hours later it's still dry. I tentatively put out my laundry on the line and even went so far as to put another load on. Because of the way washing machines work in this country, a load of laundry takes anywhere from one to two hours. I generally put a load on the last thing before I go to bed and then hang it up when I get up in the morning. Today after I hung mine out I decided to do the next load, in case we don't get another sunny day this week. On Friday, my last post, when it rained so much all day long, we were surprised to see bright sunny football games on tv from other parts of the country. Indecently bright and sunny, compared to our soggy misery. It's not like it's a big country; how come we got so much rain where 150 miles away it was all happy daisies and bunnies sunshine?

I can hardly believe May is nearly over; I have accomplished only one of my gardening goals for this month: the planting out of the broccoli. I'm almost afraid to admit how many broccoli seedlings I planted in the ground. But I will: sixty-three. And, uh...there's still about thirty more not yet planted...As far as other veg goes, I think I planted about forty rainbow chard seedlings, fifteen or so broad bean plants, and maybe twenty runner bean plants. And five squash and seven zuccini. I couldn't possibly comment on the number of carrots (pictured in last week's rain) as I have three big planters of them, one planter of lettuce, and one of beets.

Partner was trying to take a simple portrait of me for an ID. He has such patience.

Once again, for your viewing pleasure, here is a self-portrait. It is raining and I am in my garden. Incidently, I am also in my pajamas. Since it is my day off, I had hoped to do some major gardening. Alas, this is not to be. So I took a few photos instead. Our garage roof leaks in two places, and we have buckets strategically placed to catch the water. When I went out this morning, both were overflowing from the rain we had last night. I changed them both for fresh buckets (rain water comes in handy so we like to save it--maybe we should get a water barrel) and one of the buckets holds about 6 or 7 gallons. And I might add, it wasn't raining when I went to bed last night. This reflection of me is from the garage window, in case it is hard to tell what those things are in the foreground. They are various man-objects that are mysteriously attracted to garages, and like light in black holes, cannot escape. I try not to spend much time in the garage, lest I too become trapped for eternity. Partner and I have had several conversations along the lines of: P, frustrated, "Where's my screwdrivers? I can't find a screwdriver!" G, impatiently (trying to pay attention to the computer screen in order to blog), "Garage." P, one hour later, "I'm going to the hardware store; I'll be back later." G, upon P's return, "You bought a screwdriver, didn't you?" P, walking off quickly, hiding something behind his back, "None of your business."



I did pull out a few weeds while I was wandering about with my umbrella and camera. I took a photo of my last lonely tulip, and one of the cabbages. I'm beginning to think I planted them a bit too close together. Partner promised me that he was getting some free cabbage seeds in the mail from the BBC, so my gardening goal to plant more cabbage has been on hold until they arrived. Which they did, two days ago. But they weren't cabbage. So now I don't know if I should buy some seeds or just not bother. (I did plant most of the seeds that arrived, however: lettuce, beets, and squash).

I moved my geranium pots out of the cold frame today and onto the patio. And watered the runner beans still in the cold frame (with rain water, of course). That's pretty much it for my gardening plans for today, unless there's a major change in the weather.

Here I am in my kitchen, making a quick salad for dinner. I think I look moderately presentable; I combed my hair this morning--though it doesn't look much like it. We went shopping this evening, spent less than £40, and bought a pair of baby gem lettuces for £0.08. That's right, eight pence. We are pretty good at getting good bargains when shopping, though I admit we don't buy as much fresh meat and produce as we used to. Now it's mostly frozen, and while I definitely like broccoli and peas, they do start to get a bit boring. And I picked the first of the broad beans today to put in the salad. They were excellent. Eating fresh vegetables straight from the garden in early May is incredible.

I just love my red cupboard doors. Partner painted them for me last year. The walls are white and the curtains are red and white gingham. My kitchen is not exactly how I want it, but it's pretty darned cute anyhow. I was very careful not to get any of the mess in the photographs. Ok, so there are a few more pans than necessary on the stove...I hate cooking in a messy kitchen, but sometimes the mess just creeps up out of nowhere. One or the other of us tries to do dishes every evening, but you know how it is. We're both tired after work and just want to eat and sleep. The best way, I think, is to clean up during the cooking. There's always that bit where you're waiting for the rice to cook, or the lasagna's just gone in the oven, and you can just wash a few dishes and wipe down the counters while you wait.

Seven beans! And may I say, they were the best seven beans I ever ate. In other edible gardening news, we've decided the asparagus is still too young to eat and we'll have to wait till next spring. I'm so disappointed. I've been bragging to everyone about them, but now I have to eat my words instead.

While planting out some seedlings in the broad bean/cabbage bed, I heard some gentle chirping above me. I looked up into the garage eaves and saw a robin with a mouthful of food holding very very still, pretending to be a statue. The robin was perched on a bit of mossy debris, and behind it was a tiny beak just visible. I realized what it was. I rushed inside to tell Partner that I'd discovered the reason we'd been seeing robins so often in the garden. And I sent him out with the camera to see if he could photo it. I couldn't actually see any fledglings from my vantage point, so when I saw this picture, I nearly melted from the cuteness.

Also pictured is a photo from a few years back, just to show what an adult English robin looks like. They are slightly smaller than a sparrow, gray all over with a red throat and white breast. Apparently they are very territorial and only during the mating season will you see two together.



I haven't been sleeping well lately. I think it's the end of term stress. Too many assignments in too short a period. I'm working on at least one every day, but with five still to finish and submit...

Even though I work in a kitchen, I sometimes get bored with cooking. We have a new menu change twice a year but as I have absolutely no say in what goes on it, it can get old fast. I was thinking also that my home cooking has been in a rut for a while. I have a list of things I make and the list hasn't changed for a few years really. I make stir-fry, lasagna, cottage pie, spagetti, pork chops...you get the idea. Just basic cooking. I have several nice cookbooks: the best one by far is The Joy of Cooking, and it's always my first point of reference when I need to find something. It seriously has it all. Last night I made a vanilla cream pie with cookie-crumb crust and meringue topping, compliments of Joy. I was too impatient to wait the full three hours of cooling time, so we dug into it at the two-hour mark and it bled just a little of its filling, but it's so nummy; the meringue is just perfect. Actually, I couldn't believe how much meringue there was. I made a 7-inch pie with four egg yolks, so I used the leftover whites in the meringue and it ended up with more volume than the filling.

I also made a home-made tandoori curry marinade for our leftover lamb roast from Sunday. I used mostly equal parts cumin, coriander, cinnamon, fresh garlic, salt, and ginger, with a touch of chili, all mixed together in plain yogurt and vegetable oil. I marinated the chopped meat for about an hour and then just quickly cooked it on the stove. It was So Nice, and so easy. The pie also was very easy, though I used quite a few pans, bowls, and utensils. It made me remember how much I actually do love cooking.

In other cooking news: I've learned to make homemade yogurt recently, and after a few failed starts, came up with an excellent method and a superior product. It's so much cheaper to make my own than to buy it. When I buy it I don't want to waste it in cooking; it's for eating only. I've also got a brand-new sourdough starter (pictured) in my fridge--made last week. I've used it once to make bread and I'll give it another go today. Technically it's a sponge starter and all I need to do is feed it some flour and water once a week and it'll keep indefinitely.

*Partner asked me why in my last post I wished to kill every tenth weed instead of them all. I looked up "decimate" and while it does mean to kill every tenth Roman soldier, I'm relieved to confirm it also means to damage badly.

I don't think I've really done the weeds justice in my previous posts, so I thought I'd do a little segment dedicated to them. First off, my weapons in the fight against weed domination:

• gloves, leather;
  
• bucket, plastic;
  
• pillow, sturdy;
  
• fork, handheld.

It doesn't seem like much, but it's all I have, and it does the job.

Next, the enemy contrasted with the victory; in the enemy photo, all plants pictured are either a) tulips, or b) weeds. Hint: the tulips are yellow streaked with red. In the victory photo, the two plants pictured are daffodils (finished flowering) and campanula (not yet flowering). Oh, and a tiny smidgeon of fuschia (also not yet flowering).


Next,view these two photos, both taken of my new (planted last spring) asparagus bed. This bed was weeded fully about six weeks ago. Emerging aspargus spears have been highlighted. The rest: weeds. Oh, and part of a cinder block, for some reason. I can't really explain it.


Now I would like to direct your attention to my cabbage and broad bean bed. This bed backs our garage wall and faces directly south. It's perfect for vegetables because it gets full sun and is well sheltered from the wind. It is also, however, extremely attractive to weeds, as the next two photos show. This bed was weeded one week ago. Those few bits of slate amongst the cabbages are my cutting edge high-tech slug traps. Slugs cannot resist crawling under a nice, cool, shady bit of slate during the day; and I cannot resist smushing them when I turn over the slate.

Since I first began my campaign in earnest three weeks ago, the casualties have been fierce. My goal has been a bucket full of weeds pulled up every day. Since my bucket holds about two gallons, it would seem that the war ought to be over by now, but my shock and awe tactics have so far not demoralized the enemy; they still fight back with as much vigor and strength as when I first fired the opening shots. When I capture occupied territories, the enemy reinvades; I begin to think this war will never end, yet I must continue to fight, until either they or I are decimated.

Our doggy lost a tooth the other evening. We had thought we'd have to spend a fortune getting it removed, but she bit down on something hard and it was loose enough that Partner could just reach in and snatch it out before she realized. She's had very bad teeth since we got her two years ago; this one was completely covered over with plaque. I'm glad it's out.

I'm trying not to get too stressed out over my coursework, now that it's down to the home stretch. I have all my final assignments and projects due pretty much all at once; I have to fit my studies around my work schedule and try to squeeze in any gardening I can, with no time for anything else. Housework? I don't think so.

After work this evening I planted broccoli, runner beans, more carrots, and zuccini. While doing so, Partner pulled up a bucket of weeds. I have a special kit for weeding: it consists of a 2-ish gallon bucket, a big canvas-covered pillow, a pair of gloves, and a little hand fork. I don't like to sit on the ground and I don't like to crouch, so I sit or kneel on the pillow. I also don't like dirt under my fingernails, so I always wear gloves. Partner hasn't adopted my way of weeding yet, but he's getting there. He got the gloves on and filled up the bucket.

I made this bag a little while ago to hold my clothespins. I had a block of corduroy patchwork left over from ages ago, and made a very easy tote with a boxed bottom, edged with a thrift store bought ribbon, (though it's kind of difficult to see in the photo) and I had so much fun making it, I want to make a dozen more. The only thing is, I can't think of any uses for another.

The power cord on my laptop got slightly damaged at the plug; it got to the point where I had to hold it bent in a certain way for it to feed power in to my computer. I looked it up on the internet to see if it could be fixed and got all sorts of advice about it; one person suggested that a new cord should be wrapped in electrical tape immediately upon purchase so as to avoid this problem altogether (which turns out to be a very common one). Another suggested replacing the straight head with an L-shaped one, for more stability. I personally wondered why laptops are even sold with straight heads when they are obviously so flimsy. So I described to Partner all that I had learned and I left him alone with it for half an hour, and he fixed it. I now have an L-shaped head and a cord that is reinforced with several layers of electrical tape. And it required no purchases; he already had the L head laying about somewhere and with surgical precision severed the old one and grafted the new one in its place. I think anyone could have done it--even me--it was so easy.

I went for a walk in the local forest a few days ago. It is, in fact, a very small forest, but nice enough to have all sorts of little woodland flowers. My favorites were the tiny violets, but I was also happy to see the bluebells just beginning to flower. The hawthorns also were flowering in profusion: all covered in white. I have a couple of them in my back yard but mine aren't in flower yet. I got very tired on the way home, but I think it'd be nice to go back in a few weeks when the bluebells are really on a roll.

On the whole it has been a very dry April so far here. I'm actually hoping for plenty of rain for the rest of the month, so my plants get the headstart they need. Being a very rainy nation in general, I have been surprised how nonwet this spring has been. I've actually had to water my veg a few times already this month. Though I shouldn't be too surprised. For the last several years, it has been dry in the spring and wet in the summer--hence my failure at growing tomatoes: when they needed water it wasn't there, and when they needed sun they got rain. Last night we got a bit of precipitation; I can only hope it leads to more. Below are my tray of rainbow chard seedlings, and my latest batch of broad beans. I have taken to planting beans in rolled up newspaper tubes--easy and biodegradable.

Although it's long gone, I did get a picture of our lone snowdrop this year. Now the daffodils are in their peak and the tulips are just beginning. I also got about ten crocus, a big improvement on last year, though they too are now faded away.

I'm back at work though still mending; I get tired easily and frustrated that I can't do everything I'm used to. I want to go walking, want to do more than just marginal gardening, want to clean my house. But I have to sit down and rest after twenty minutes of even mild activity. I had a vet appointment today and our dog is a nervous type who can't sit still in a strange place so we paced up and down out on the street until it was our turn--for half an hour. I'm completely exhausted now.

This fall we plan on digging up a good portion of the lawn out back to make vegetable beds. This year I'm being very ambitious with my veg; I've already got an overload of broad beans planted and lots of cabbage though I want at least twice as much again. My carrots are just beginning to sprout, so it's time to plant another batch; my rainbow chard is popping out of the dirt too.

And I've got flower seeds now coming up. A friend of mine gave me several packets of seeds I've never grown before and I look forward to seeing them; a few are just coming up now. My sweet peas are in the ground and I'm expecting big results from them, and the geranium cuttings I took last fall are all perky and flowering. Of all the begonia cuttings I took, only one rooted, so I'm planning on growing it big and bushy to take cuttings for next year.

We went to Brodsworth Hall, a stately home, three weeks ago and saw the last of the snowdrops and the first of the daffodils there. I brought my sketchbook and Partner brought his camera and practiced his panoramic shots. For all Brodsworth photos, go here.

Dear friends and family,

You may or may not be aware now that I had to have emergency surgery earlier this week. It has been a very distressing time for me and my husband; I'm now in bed, trying to recover and grieving for what was lost. I will try to answer any questions if you email me, though I think I will be taking a break from blogging for a little while.

Love,

Galadriel

I asked my supervisor two weeks ago if my hours had been cut due to my performance at work. He gave me an incredulous "your hours have been cut?" and subsequently the rota for last week and this week have seen me going back to full days instead of half days. I guess my performance is still adequate and I'm glad to have the work back. Of course, with half days, I felt I could get a bit of my leisure activities in, and still have time for study. Now I do not have that luxury, but we need the money, and study is not yet too tedious for me. A bit overwhelming, perhaps, but still fulfilling.

We've had a lot of snow in the past week, considering it hardly ever snows here. Last winter we got one snowfall, and it was on Easter. Luckily (or not) the worst days were on my days off anyway, so I did not have to skip work. Partner did take one snow day because the roads were so bad. I did not want to drive and I didn't want him driving either. I think the most that we got at our house was about five or six inches. There were pictures on the news of people snowboarding down roads in between parked cars. This clip, however, did not make the news; it's just my garden.


We still have a bit of snow, but it rained a lot last night. It was good while it lasted, and maybe it'll come back again.

I was just wondering about something. Over here on the news, they pronounce the first name of the new US president bare-Rack, but when I watched the inauguration on youtube, the woman pronounced it bar-Rock. So I've gotten used to saying bare-Rack, but now I'm thinking that's just an Anglicism and it's actually bar-Rock. After all, they pronounce their A's funny sometimes: take for instance the word taco. An English person would say tack-0h. And toe-Maw-toe instead of toe-May-toe. So is it bare-Rack or bar-Rock?

We got a new washing machine several months ago because our old one leaked badly. It ruined the floor in the kitchen so that we had to strip it all off and bear with a concrete floor for about a year. Now we have a new floor and a new machine which is quieter, has lots of neat settings, and doesn't leak. Our dryer is still outdated, though, and squeaks dreadfully, but I hardly ever use it. During the summer the only thing that gets dried in it are sheets, and in the winter it's just sheets and towels. Otherwise it's on the line outside or on the drying rack inside. We have a little closet under the stairs which is our central heating central, and it's lovely and warm in there all day long, even if it's freezing everywhere else, so I can slot the rack inside there if I want. Or I can line it right up to the radiator in the kitchen for some radiation. The only downside to decreasing dryer usage is the sharp uptake in ironing consumption. Figure 1.28a illustrates my careful use of eco-laundry skills. Figure 1.28b shows my proportionate ironing pile growth.

Fig 1.28a

Fig 1.28b

Two of Partner's friends came over for the weekend to visit and play guitar. They told me I could make requests, but every request I made they either didn't know or didn't like. I gave up after about five requests were shot down. When I make requests of Partner, he usually comes up with something good, even if it's not entirely right. He actually listens to music, listens for chords and key changes and riffs, not just lyrics. Which is better than me because when I have the radio on at work I don't even listen to the lyrics...to me it's just background noise. I do concentrate a bit more when it's classical (in the general sense--that is to say, orchestral) music.

Partner's main birthday present, by the way, was a ticket to see Bob Dylan in April. His secondary presents were a dvd and a Calvin and Hobbes anthology. Unfortunately, he did not receive socks.

I can now proudly say I am completely back on track with my studies and have caught up and am exactly on schedule. I thought I might be behind for another week, but I finished my last unit last night and began my three new ones today. And my next assignment is due in two weeks and I am nearly done with it. Playing catch-up is hard. I don't think I better take any time off from school again.

Maybe part of the reason I've been able to catch up is that my hours have been reduced at work. I now come home about an hour earlier than I did this time last month. It's not just me: we now shut an hour earlier. So that's about four hours a week that I'm at home instead of work; I now have the chance to study for an hour after work in addition to my days off.

Partner's birthday is coming up soon; he knows what his main present is, and he's asked for socks as his secondary present. I am not getting him socks unless they will fit in his sock drawer. I estimate it will be several years before I get him new socks. This man has a ton of socks. I keep a crowbar in the laundry basket so I can wedge his cleans sock back in the drawer. And closing the drawer is out of the question.

This painting is one I did after we returned home from our inlaws' house at Christmas. Compare with a photograph from an earlier blog entry. It's not a proper scanned image, since I really can't be bothered to go upstairs and fiddle with the scanner, so I just took a quick snapshot of it on my laptop. It was just a little experiment with the acrylic paints. The new set I got came with a few pieces of cardboard. I figured they were for painting on, but I didn't really like the feel of it much. However, the overall result wasn't too bad, really. I was able to get a little texture action going on, and while I am much more used to watercolor, I like the effects of the colors themselves. I find it difficult to get any white space in a watercolor, unless I just don't paint the spot I want, leaving the paper itself showing through. And it's easy to miss and paint over the white spot accidently, and then it's ruined. With acrylics, I just load up some white paint on the brush and slap it back on the paper.

We went to my inlaws for New Year's but it was kind of a mistake seeing as we're both still a bit unwell and their house makes us allergic with its animals and such. In fact, I coughed so much I tore something in my ribcage and it's absolutely agony to cough now, and I can't sit up if I'm laid down. What's even worse is that Partner has done the exact same thing: when we cough we have to double over, clutching our sides. Luckily I do feel better than I was, with only a little bit of residual snottiness, and with this injury I'm desperately trying to cough less.

However, I was glad to see my inlaws and they gave me an acrylic painting set as a Christmas present. It's great. I don't have much experience with acrylics but I want to practice. We gave them a wind sock in the shape of a hot air balloon that we bought in America. A few years ago we got them a fish in a fishbowl wind sock and it was So Cute, but it got caught in high winds and lost several pieces. Hopefully this new one will fare better.



This is our dog opening up a bottle to get a drink. Sadly, once she got the lid off, there was not much drink left inside.

Still ill...and miserably so. I was meant to be working over Christmas, as my workplace doesn't ever close, but I visited the doctor again on Monday and he wrote me a note for one week off work. I thought I'd be feeling better by now. I really thought I'd be feeling better but I actually feel worse. Still, I don't have pneumonia: he told me my lungs were pretty clear. When I went to the nurse last week she didn't examine me at all. She asked me what was wrong and wrote a prescription for antibiotics. She didn't listen to my chest or take my temperature; she didn't even ask me to elaborate on my symptoms. Which by now have not changed. It feels like there's no end in sight and I'm never going to feel better.

So Christmas doesn't seem like such a big deal now either. I had a miserable coughing feverish birthday and even had to make my own birthday dinner...at least I didn't have to make the cake. I had to make my own cake for my 17th birthday when I was sick with the flu too. But my worst birthday was my 21st when I didn't get any presents or cards and there wasn't even enough dinner to go around and my friend's grandmother only made me a cake at the last minute because I began crying at her house...This birthday was nothing on that one! Except now I'm getting old enough that I don't really want to think about it any more.

Trying to end on a positive note...nope, can't think of one.

I am no longer looking forward with such great anticipation to my birthday. I have an illness of some sort which seems to just be getting worse. I thought it was just a cold, and maybe it actually is, but if so it's the worst cold I've ever had. It woke me up this morning with prolonged painful coughing. I've called in sick to work today and am visiting the doctor. Only the doctor won't see me because he's booked solid so the nurse will perform the inspection. Personally, I'm not entirely confident in her diagnostics abilities, but the receptionist told me that the nurse can prescribe, so she must know something. I told Partner I think I caught TB from the airport. Only I don't really think that because TB would really suck. Still, it is my birthday tomorrow and I don't want to be sneezing and blowing my nose into the wrapping paper, nor coughing on the cake.



We went to a party last week--the first party I've been to in ages. I only wished I had a new party dress. I did have a good time and learned some things about people I work with. For instance, I had a chat about CERN with a young man of 18. He told me he wants to do an internship there, and was amazed I knew what it was (my job doesn't require a lot of intelligence). We stayed very late at this party; Partner assures me I didn't commit any indiscretions; and I wore fabulous shoes.

I think I've adjusted back into the old time zone. I'm still staying up a bit later than I'd prefer and sleeping a bit later too, but at least I'm down to the old eight hours routine. I'm also sort of caught back up in my coursework, though I kind of skipped a lot of the stuff I was behind on. I'm mostly concentrating on my next assignments and the material I need to study for them. Once they are out of the way, I can focus on learning at a less frantic pace.

While at my parents' house, I helped my youngest sister with her pre-algebra homework. Luckily enough I had just studied the exact same thing about a month and a half ago, and I remembered it well. Then my other younger sister asked for help with her precalculus which I was happy to give--once my father explained it to me. Did I remember it? Hardly. But I understood it easily enough, so I think subconsciously I do remember it from my high school days. A lot of the mathematics I'm studying now are skipping from discipline to discipline. At the moment I'm studying matrices which I seem to remember studying when I took college algebra at age 16/17. But then when I studied pre-algebra, I was 12/13. My math history started with arithmetic, then pre-algebra, algebra I, geometry, algebra II, trigonometry and college algebra, and finally calculus. This math class I'm taking now seems to jump from each branch extremely quickly. If I had not studied all this previously, I think I might find it a lot more difficult.

And my software class, which is also an introductory course into the subject, is quite difficult. I had a very brief sojourn with HTML as a teenager, and a brush with Java. The HTML was easy to pick up. I struggled with the Java. And I'm struggling with the programming basics of this course as well. We're not studying a specific programming language but it's all so new to me I really have to concentrate to understand it. It's the course I'm taking the most time with and not skipping anything. Still, I am enjoying the challenge and I enjoy learning new things.
Just for fun, here's a video Partner took during our sojourn into the Narrows. I'm briefly visible in the shot, as is my mother. My father also pops in for a moment.

Having been home for two days now, I'm still in a state of deep jet lag. The first day home I slept twelve hours, last night I slept thirteen. Now that I'm back to my regular work schedule, I can't afford to sleep for so long. I'm just So Tired.

Yesterday we got our tree from the attic and decorated it. We have a fairy for a tree-topper, but most of the hanging decorations are glass baubles. At my parents' house, my sisters, mother and I made a tiny winter village out of cardboard. It was so sweet; I'd like to make one for me. Of course, I don't actually have the time for it. I'm behind two weeks in all my coursework and I have big assignments due at the beginning of next month so I can't really drop everything to work on frivolous projects... Speaking of which, I bought two new patterns at a thrift store at my parents', both never before been used, both for fifty cents. And I want to make them. Plus I bought some cute ribbons at another thrift store and some small double-pointed knitting needles for my sock pattern. Too many projects, not enough free time. There aren't really second-hand sewing notions available here, and new ones are so expensive. Besides, the second-hand ones are always a fun surprise. I wish I had more craft/scrapbooking type things like colored paper, rubber stamps and ink, fun scissors, glitter, rick-rack...

Just a quick one to catch up. I'll be going back home at the end of the week, and until then I'll be away from the internet. In some ways it's very relaxing being beyond the net, but I prefer to keep up with some essential things, especially my schoolwork. I never got that last assignment finished before I left, but it's done now, and within the due date.

Here's a picture of a place we went hiking last week. It's in the Grand Escalante Staircase National Monument. The best way I can describe it is the Narrows. That little stream looks tiny now, but in the spring, it fills up the narrows with water maybe twenty feet high or higher. We could see where rocks, sand, and logs had been swept up high in the cliffs. The narrows themselves were carved out of sandstone by that little stream. It was certainly awe-inspiring. I'll see if I can upload the rest of the pictures when I get home.

I've gone into Headless Chicken Mode this week in the rush up to our transcontinental visit. I have three assignments due while I'll be away so therefore I need to submit all three before we go on Friday. However, all of them are long, involved, wordy, researchy sorts of assignments, one for each class, and I'm not even due to begin studying some of the material until the end of the week. So I have to rush to get it all in and get everything else ready, which I will admit, I have procrastinated. The house is not clean. The ironing is not done. The dog is not walked. The dahlias are not dug up. And I wanted to finish a few projects in order to bring them with me.

The worst thing is, I've had an absolutely killer toothache which has kept me up for the last four nights. Attempting to study with a throbbing mouth (and jaw, ear, and neck) not to mention the five-hour-sleep shakes, well, let's just say it's difficult. I went to the dentist today and got some antibiotics and some different painkillers; I think my other ones were making me fall over. Or maybe it was the lack of sleep. Or maybe my infection affected my inner ear.



I don't have any new pictures really to show, but I just took a snapshot of a little bit of artwork I did last week for a friend. I have a built-in webcam in my new laptop and it takes itty bitty photos. My medium is crayon. I have a big box of 120 crayons with all sorts of neat-o colors like robin's egg blue and mauvelous and outer space. I like to draw and then color in my drawing. This friend and I have been working on a big picture and now it's almost done. This is my last addition to it, and it only needs one more addition from her. I hope I haven't spoiled her surprise with this posting...