...or did spring break somehow pass me by?  seriously, it's thursday already?  and what about all that work i intended to complete?  shiiiiiiiiiit.

anyway, the break's nearly over.  i spent the preceding weekend out in the pouring rain running errands (a truly awful day, believe you me) and trying to motivate myself to do homework.  after that, everything's been a blur of attempted work, goofing off, sleeping late, and pining for a bit of true relaxation.  y'know, the kind without a crapload of homework looming over one's head.

while i may have only managed to complete three things on my master to-do list (although a few others are started), i did get a lot of side projects done.  for instance, i bolstered the ranks of the imperial crab army by two infantrymen.  that was good.  i FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY finished the soul eater mitts!  oh thank god!  i cast those damn things on in late december or early january (ravelry says jan) and just bound off the second mitt march 16.  that's over three months of knitting, losing my pattern and chart, putting it off, getting caught up by other projects/work, finally making the time to recreate said pattern, and getting down to knitting it.  i have four ends to weave in and blocking to complete, but i'm callin' 'em done.  the tragic thing is that, y'know, spring is more or less here (i doubt we have a day under 40 until next fall/winter).  guess i won't be wearing them for a while...but oh well.  i finished them and they are pretty awesome (my first attempt at intarsia, and in the round, no less!).  hopefully i can make my dream of sending a photo to yen+ as fanart come true.  by the time i get around to THAT they should be working on the october issue, right?  not that soul eater really has a direct connection to halloween, but it still seems to fit right in the spooks and such.  (speaking of, when's the april issue going to arrive?  we've paid to renew in january and got the march issue in february just fine...)  but gods has this been a long time coming...

in other crafting news, i'm still plugging away on a robin egg blue hat for myself, which i may pair with some cute matching fetchings (or other mitts).  again, not very seasonal now, but whatevs.  and those socks for dad...  oh the horror!  i haven't knit a stitch of those in weeks.  seriously, gings.  get your shit together and finish those off!  not only is it rude to be lazy about a thank you gift, but soon it will be too hot for wool socks back home, too.  guess that'll be the next thing i work on, but i've got other projects to consider, as well.  for instance, some garter stripe beanies.  i was going to make one for t's kid just to bust stash, which i probably will still do.  but if that falls through, i COULD always create some for charity.  i hate how shitty some people's charity work looks...so i'd like to donate some quality products.  aaaaaand (as far as i know) we still have grapefruits around to try the baby-sized hats out on.  that'd make a great rav photo...  not to mention how desperate i am to use up the fall-colored wool!  there are honestly only so many woolen things one person can own, and i feel that i'm well stocked in that department...  until next winter.  so add baby hats to my agenda, along with one toddler hat.

oh the stress!  not just the pressure of papers and presentations, but knitting projects!  yarn stash!  the urge to use up yardage!  i'm going to have to make the very most of what free time i have before the summer term begins.

a quick roundup of good things that have happened since my last post:

* got a haircut.  not quite how i'd like it, but good for now
* completed mom's birthday and mother's day gifts
* got an a+ on a paper i felt was weak from an instructor i don't always agree with
* learned of a few more people who knit/craft
* martha's living (april) arrived!
* WANDERING SON HAS BEEN PICKED UP BY FANTAGRAPHICS!  i love them for it!  and matt thorn!  it's going to be wonderful!
* temps in the upper fifties, with sunshine
* m bought me a caramello bar, the best candy ever...
* busted more stash
* spring break is next week
* daylight savings is coming up!

not a whole lot of goodness, but better than the gloom of previously!

growing up in a rural area, the sky was always part of my day.  sounds painfully obvious, but i'm referring to the heavenly bodies and events that take place in the sky: sun rises (oh the early hours of middle and high school mornings), sun sets, star movements, moon phases, cloud formations, etc.  most comet orbits would warrant a late-night stargazing session with dad's scope, and meteorite showers meant a night of lying in the lawn, eyes skyward.  exciting times in the sticks. 

but even with all this, i had never seen the moon set.  that is, not until yesterday morning.  our apartment is situated so that we have an open view of the northwestern-ish sky, clear of the treetops and most other buildings.  excellent for watching the sun/moon set.  while tidying up around midnight i had noticed the half-moon hanging low in the sky, a pale yellow in color.  i decided to keep an eye on it, and later observed its warm amber hue.  never seen that before.  and just before 1:30 am, it was a blazing red-orange.  even though i have seen the moon "glow" yellow before and am aware of the wavelengths of visible light that make the phenomenon possible, i never thought that the moon would become increasingly red as it continued to set.  it makes perfect sense, but i never knew.  i'd never seen.  but now i have.  it was surprisingly beautiful, and would probably have been even more so if we were in a rural area with less light pollution.  i wish i would have taken a picture, but i doubt it would have shown up well on a digital camera.  still, it's definitely worth trying to catch a glimpse of if you happen to have a good view of the open sky.

putting aside celestial movements, there's been some significant knitting progress lately.  i've begun the thank you socks for dad in return for the laptop, which are progressing steadily, if slowly.  i've got about four or five inches of one leg, which should reach its heel flap by the weekend.  aside from obligation gifts, i've been swept up by thoughts of spring, which has led to the knitting of easter-themed items.  so far i've got two little bunnies (with plans for more in the works) and two easter eggs, which look lovely in their bright variegated cotton.  at present that's all i have on my plate, though i really do need to get back to work on the soul eater gloves (the pattern i created for these was lost when the computer crashed).  also, i need to bang out a pair of fetchings for myself, if only to use up some of the wool i've got lying about.  there is far too much patons classic wool in this house!  it will probably stop spring from getting here or something.  yarn's all evil and plotting like that.

speaking of yarn, i'm about to have a sudden windfall of the stuff--the birthday's coming up and there looks to be about 16 skeins/hanks/balls wrapped up by the entertainment center.  m really stocked up at knit picks' clearance sales back in july (yes, he shops early and cost-effectively), to say the least.  he spent nearly $100 (or so he claims.  it may be more), which is ridiculous, but i'm sure i'll be thrilled with it...it's just a matter of where i'm going to keep it.  or what i'm going to knit with it.  i've really got to figure these things out quickly, since i do have only one stashbox and absolutely refuse to buy another.  i already have more yarn that i can manage, more projects planned than i can fit into my schedule, and more hand knits than i can wear in a season...  but i'm still really excited to see what colors and textures are hidden under the wrapping paper...

and now for something totally different.  summer movies.  m and i are not huge movie-goers (we went to three back in 2009: coraline, up, and harry potter and the half-blood prince), but we generally see movies based on other properties we like (harry potter, for example), or animated films that interest us (anything pixar, coraline, and so on).  we had briefly considered going to the percy jackson movie, but lost interest after seeing the trailers.  dunno...it just didn't seem...right.  i haven't heard much raving about it, either, so i guess it was relatively meh.  howeeeeeeever, there's a little film called the last airbender (basedonananimatedtelevisionseriesyoumighthaveheardmerave aboutin2008) coming up that has all the signs of sucking in the way only a "based on" film can that i totally know i'm going to see.  and hate.  but see anyway.

what is it about fandom that makes us do things we know we'll end up regretting?  just watching the one minute, fifty-seven second trailer caused me to cringe at times (seriously, how awkward is it that two of the main characters are white when they shouldn't be?  ...let's hear it for minorities in the acting biz!  thanks, hollywood), but I. KNOW. I'M. GOING. TO. SEE. IT.  and get all super-excited at the prospect of having a glimmer of the series i love so much return on the big screen, only to be monumentally disappointed (which could have been avoided if i A.) didn't let myself set my expectations so impossibly high, or B.) kept myself away from a movie that will only let me down).  there is simply no explaining this.  but i def expect to be trolling for fluffy kataang fics on or around july 2, trying to cheer myself up after a colossal upset.  also, i have an insane urge to search for or create element-based knit coasters.  gods help me.

something that will prove much less serious is my plan to see the third toy story movie.  i don't understand how andy could possibly be entering college already (and be entering college with so many of his kid toys.  he must never have had friends over to hang out in high school), but i do think it will be a fun view.  too bad this state doesn't have room for drive-in theaters, because this would be the perfect movie for it.  the comfort of your own vehicle, the summer breeze through the cracked windows, the ridiculous amount of snacks and sodas, and the inevitable boredom while waiting for the sun to set and the show to begin...

and with the mention of the setting sun and impending night sky, i've come full circle.  perfect

okay, so we have a functioning computer again.  what we don't have is any security that it won't freakin' crash again.

yeek.

but at least i can do my homework at home...whenever i start to feel like doing anything remotely related to schoolwork.

to do:
edit/print 516 observation paper
research/draft/edit/upload/print 553 assignment #4
draft/edit/print 548 paper
re-conduct 516 research (entirely wiped off hard drive)
check for assignments in emailed 522 notes...

having class canceled today (thank you, blizzard of 2010) has done nothing to encourage me to think about school.

hmmm...things haven't proved as promising as i'd hoped, though things haven't been obscenely terrible, either.  perhaps feburary will be a stalemate for good and bad luck?  i can certainly live with that, provided future months tip toward the "good luck" side of the scale.

classes rushed by in the way that this schedule encourages them to, and i'm faced with four homework assignments.  only one is due next week, but three others must be started on if i want to keep ahead of the inevitable schoolwork tsunami that looms on the horizon.  in fact, i should be editing a paper as i type, but i lost my interest about a page ago.  i'll get it done, i swear, but it's not easy.  not easy at all.

there are a lot of lingering loose ends i should deal with this weekend, too, but i can't promise i'll manage it.  things like emailing people who contacted me over winter break (did that month REALLY happen?  feels like an eternity ago), scheduling payments for upcoming bills, and making up for the fact that it's m and my anniversary AND I HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE HIM.  nothing.  not a card, not a gift, not anything.  i just haven't had the time to drop three hours in making a hand-crafted card, despite having ideas for it.  i hope he didn't find the time to make anything, either.  then we could be "casual" (aka, lazy) about it together; i don't want to suffer under the weight of my guilt if he did make a cute card or come up with any other gift-like offerings.

and before i drag myself back to the homework, some crafting news.  i completed the pair of adorable catci, which need photographed and uploaded to ravelry.  they're super-cute, and will cheer up this dull desk nicely.  absolutely NO progress has been made on the soul eater gloves, since it will require time and concentration that i simply don't have.  perhaps i'll crank them out mid-march, over spring break (dream on, child.  you know you'll be drowning in homework that week...).  the good luck cowl is at a standstill, but should resume once i've got the abovementioned paper edited and some other important tasks taken care of.  *sigh*  spirit and flesh battling it out once again...

maybe i'll be back to triumphantly post my weekend successes around sunday or so.  ...that is, provided i AM successful and that our power doesn't go on us as a result of the 8-12" of snow the weather service has predicted for this area.  damn groundhog...