Catching up

My high school history/government teacher said that we use the word "up" too much, that it is redundant in most cases. I don't think a post titled "Catching" would make much sense, though.

Over a month has gone by since my last post. It's been a busy time. The Olympic knitting project was a fail. [But Afghans for Afghans is doing a part 2 for their youth campaign, with an early May deadline. Maybe I can get the sweater done by then.] Progress to date:

The February KAL for the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling was also a fail. This is as far as I got. And there's a mistake in it -- I'm missing a stitch on the top of the foot, all the way up. So I'll either have to repeat the mistake on the 2nd sock or rip this out and have a do-over.

Not that either of those incomplete projects has kept me from starting at least one more. In this case, it's the March KAL for Spring Fling: a Jared Flood (brooklyntweed) pattern. I chose the Tweed Baby Blanket. The center is all garter stitch, done on the diagonal. Really not too bad. I'm on the more mindless decreasing part, so I don't even have to count stitches anymore.

A week ago, we got home from a week-long ski trip in Winter Park, CO. My husband and I hadn't skied in about 20 years, and the kids had never skied. We had lessons for a couple of days, then took a day off, then skied the next 3 days. I spent most of my time following the 17-year-old (boy child) down the mountain as fast as he could go. Practicing his turns, of course, but no stopping to rest until we got back to the bottom of the chair lift. Legs burning. Whew. It was a great week. I think when I grow up, I want to move to Colorado and be a ski instructor. What? It could happen. Our instructor was retired from something like 30 years as an accountant. I'd need to stock up on sunscreen, though. Here's the whole gang, day 2: me, my husband, his brother, the kids.

School is in upheaval again. For the second year in a row, we have lost or gotten rid of the high school principal. This one intended to at least finish out the year, but something happened while I was in Colorado, and he left. My son, who is a senior this year, has had a different principal every year he's been in high school. Last year's mess could be counted as 3 principals in one year: the new one who started the year, the one who filled in after he left, and the one who was hired at the end of March to finish the year, who moved to the elementary school to be the principal there this year. Now he's having to do double-duty with the middle-school principal and a third administrator to cover the high school for the remainder of the year. Fortunately, all 3 schools are on the same campus, within easy walking distance.

[Just to clarify: our ski vacation was scheduled for Spring Break. Unfortunately, Mother Nature provided us with snow days that had to be made up, so Spring Break turned into make-up days. So school was in session and my poor students had to muddle along without me, with a "mean" sub who made them work all week.]

Grades were due last Monday by the end of the school day. I did take stuff with me to Colorado, and did some work, but it was an intense couple of days getting grades in. No time for frivolities like knitting or reading email. So I'm also catching up on my ridiculous amount of unread email. As well as planning lessons, writing curriculum.... oh, and I should get started on the taxes, too, I suppose. :-(