Speaking of the hand problem, I saw a hand doctor last week. He took x-rays and didn’t see anything broken, so that’s good. He says it’s a joint that’s prone to injury and sometimes he sees people who have the same problem as me just because of writing. So basically, the writing I do all day aggravates it. He prescribed a thumb spica (basically a thumb immobilizer) for while I sleep. Trouble is finding one. I think I have to go to a surgical supply store for it.

Fortunately, I’m on spring break right now, so I have some spare time. I had forgotten the joys of spring break as a student. Sure, I still have to work, but no classes and almost no homework? It’s brilliant. I say almost because I still have to come up with a first draft of the major assignment in my research class – a twenty page paper. I’ll need to get plugging on the researching again this week, but I basically took the weekend off for mental health. Went shopping with Lori, bought little bento supplies (because bento is my new obsession – I think it will help me with portion control and not getting bored with the lunches I pack), went into several Asian food markets…I should have had my camera with me, the picture opportunities were something else. Maybe I’ll go back next weekend on photo safari and pick up some ingredients.

There’s some more to tell, but I’m waiting a little bit to get more details. In the meantime, I’m going to wrap my hand with an ace wrap and get working.

I feel like I should write one of those “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” essays for all of you. Let’s see, what did I do? I missed Joe, of course. And then I found a little guy who needed my help because his owner was abusive. So we welcomed him into our home:

His first rescuer named him Nutmeg, then his foster family called him Shoyu, but I thought he was more of a Charlie, so that’s his new name. He had a little bit of an adjustment settling in, but every day he’s more at ease with us and torments Freddie a fraction of a millimeter less. But when I see Charlie harassing Freddie, I realize Joe probably sent him to us as revenge on Freddie. And I’m okay with that.

My office also moved to a new building, and there has been a hell of a lot of adjustment from that, let me tell you. We’re finally settling in, but it will be nice when the new building is finally finished. Which, at the rate they’re going will probably be in ten years.

And then last week I started classes for an MA in history. I’m struggling a bit with getting back in the academic groove (I’ve been working on what should have been a simple one page article summary for a couple of hours now because I’m not used to formal writing anymore), especially while living with Rick. Relationships didn’t phase my first two degrees at all (because for large portions of both degrees I wasn’t in one), but it’s interesting trying to figure out time to study and write without neglecting Rick. Of course, he’s got his own adjustment going on because he started a new day job last week, and that’s been quite a change for him. We’ll work through everything, I’m sure, but in the meantime it’s still a little strange. But also in the meantime, I’ve got this stupid summary to write, so I’m going to get back to that. Hope you all are well, and thanks for the emails prodding me back into blogging!

Especially when it includes entertainment like this. Watch as Mayor Mike almost gets his hand taken off because he was stupid enough to take food away from a groundhog. Go get him, Staten Island Chuck! Show that motherfucker it doesn’t matter how rich you are, you do not take food from a rodent whose hibernation was interrupted to forecast weather!

Do you see all the thought I have expended on this? Do you? If I would take this much time to think through my finances, I wouldn’t have credit card debt. If I would think this hard about world peace, we might have it by now. But no. I waste this brain power on vampire love stories in the Pacific Northwest. And I know at least two teenage girls who have done the same. Fear for America, people. We are the future.

Colds 1.0 and 2.0 have really diminished my multi-tasking abilities, which irritates the hell out of me. I used to be able to come to work, look productive, blog, play on Ravelry, and actually get shit done all at the same time. Perhaps that was like my superpower, pathetic as that may be. Wicked multitasking skills and the ability to goof off at work! But Colds 1.0 and 2.0 are like multitasking Kryptonite. I can no longer keep my mind on several different and totally unrelated tasks at once. I can barely keep my mind on one task. And it sucks, people. I don’t think the comic books accurately portrayed how pissed Superman probably was when he lost his powers. My superpower is lame compared to his, and I’m bitching like a fiend. He lost the ability to *fly*, and in the comics, he was not bitching.

On second thought, I think that’s because Superman was lacking my other superpower: Raging PMS. I could stop a Mac truck with these snarky hormones, baby! Wait, is rambling incoherently also a superpower? Because I seem to have tremendous aptitude for it today.

A story about how my cell phone was lost and found at the Ravelry party and details about the spinning class I took at Rhinebeck will come when my latent superpowers go away with Aunt Flo. Couldn’t get them out today to save my life. Sorry.

ITLAPD is more popular than a hangin’ this year. On Plurk, me mateys be changin’ their user names to *pirate* names for the day. Me pirate name be Bootstrap Julz, because the damnable system wouldn’t let me use “Dread Pirate Evil Julie.” Too many characters or suchlike nonsense.

On Ravelry, our undead-codemonkey Casey made it so if you posted in a thread with “pirate” in the title, yer words would be instantly translated into pirate-speak. By Davy Jones’s locker, a good idea. And if ye had a Ravatar with “pirate” in the filename, ye got a parrot for it. Here be mine:

Parrots don’t taste like rum, mates. But when the rum is gone, ye get desperate.

I leave ye with the best responses I’ve gotten to ITLAPD via text:

Rick: “Arrr, gimme yer booty.”

Jordana: “The wee one and I are in Maryland, lookin’ ta storm the Kennedy Center.”

Mom: “Are you f’in kidding me?”

(I come by me ability to talk like a sailor naturally, if not me ability to talk like a pirate.) Drink up, me hearties, and to celebrate ITLAPD, might ye consider stoppin’ by Savvy Brooklyn and pickin’ up a bauble fer yerself or yer second-in-command?

So instead I give you a fun waste of time: What your birthday says about you.  Mine says this:

Your personal ruling planets are Venus and Jupiter.

You have pure and generous aspirations – thanks to the influence of Jupiter. Being spiritual by nature you don’t see success in the material world as the be all and end all.

Your mind is firm and your heart magnanimous. Things don’t ordinarily get you down too much and so you are capable of handling large affairs, Corporate business and projects that others may cringe at! You have healing powers and make people and animals feel at ease in your presence.

Spend some time at the theatre or develop an interest in drama. It will soothe your soul. 30th year on proves lucky.

Your lucky colours are yellow, lemon and sandy shades.

Your lucky gems are yellow sapphire, citrine quartz and golden topaz.

Your lucky days of the week Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday.

Your lucky numbers and years of important change are 3, 12, 21, 30, 39, 48, 57 , 66, 75.

Famous people born on your birthday include Lester Maddox, Deborah Kerr, Truman Capote, Fran Drescher, Martina Hingis and Jenna Elfman.

I particularly like the “30th year on proves lucky.” I am 30 now. That means I am lucky for the rest of my life, people! YES! Perhaps not so lucky to share a birthday with The Nanny, Fran Drescher, but the rest of it will be good! What do your birthdays say about you?

Since I spent a large part of yesterday manually updating Word Press to 2.6 (*rude finger gesture at hackers*), and my Flickr Photo Album plugin works again, I can now show you pictures! Without having to link to my photosets! Woohoo! Pics behind the cut.

Sometimes I actually get my act together and spin. Like this!

That is Cloverleaf Farms Blue Faced Leicester (or Biffle, as I like to call it) in the “Sapphires” colorway. Look, ma, I actually made a semi-balanced heavy worsted weight yarn!

And then I finally started playing with the Woollee Winder Mom gave me for Christmas. I took this:

And turned it into this:

After the WW learning curve that involved sending one of those singles back through the wheel to remove some twist, I have an almost-balanced worsted weight! Yay! C*EYE*BER Fibers superwash merino in “Fire.” I call it “Flames.” And I know an orange-loving teenager that will be getting this knit up into some form or another for Christmas. Still have to set the twist on both of these, but that will involve scouring the bathroom sink and tub (I am not letting my happy yarn get soap scum on it), so it’s going to wait a little bit.

Oh, and I still knit, too. I finished a pair of these for Rick’s mom, who loved her Christmas socks:

(Go, Obama! Sorry, for some reason the plugin isn’t letting me put in a picture of the pair. Weird.)

And right now I’m working on a pair of Primavera socks for myself in Dream in Color Smooshy yarn, “Some Summer Sky” colorway:

Yeah, that was taken with my camera phone on a lunch break to show Plurk what I was up to…sorry for the quality. That reminds me, I need to pick up a cardboard box for the lightbox I want to build.

Sometime soon, pictures of my goddaughter hanging from monkey bars. Because she is just that strong. This concludes your fiber content for the day.

I went through everything in the inbox and shredded all bills over a year old. I got rid of crap that I didn’t need. I went through my filing cabinet and did the same (which meant I got rid of virtually everything since I hadn’t filed anything in there in four years), got rid of all the stuff left over from grad school that I didn’t need anymore, and generally reclaimed the space. The shredder broke halfway through this (it was old and sad and had done well in its time), so I manually shredded for three hours. But it is effectively done – all that’s left is the filing of things from the past year (a very small pile), and cleaning out the cart beside my desk that houses all my old computer programs. Now I want to buy some organizational stuff and a replacement shredder (tax write-offs, my accountant tells me), and the office will be an actual office instead of just “that paper-strewn place over in the corner where I play on the internet.” Yay!

Now I just have to call the artistic director at the theater and talk to her about the grant writing. Cross your fingers, people.