The FUSS Supressed Desires and Just Deserts Cabaret

Knitting News

The Good News
The back of my Central Park Hoodie is done and I've already finished the ribbing on the fronts (I'm knitting them both on the same needle).

The Bad News
After looking at the pattern for the left front, I realized that after the ribbing, you're supposed to change to the larger needles. Of course, I forgot to do this and of course, it makes perfect sense so I can't even explain myself properly without seeming totally dumb.
So, I ripped out the entire thing.

(btw, the colors are so wonky in this shot)
Mom says I was pretty brave to do that, but I just sat down, turned on the John Adams HBO mini-series and ripped for a few minutes. It was pretty sad, looking at that huge pile of crimped up yarn (it was about a ball's worth of yarn by my calculations).

The Good News
I'm thinking (hoping) that it will go faster the second time around. I already know how to do the pattren and I'll be knitting on larger needles so that should be the case but...

The Bad News
...I still have to knit the entire thing again! Adios.

Easter Eggs

We dyed most of our eggs Friday night (the ones in the blue cartons) but mom bought another dozen eggs and some more food coloring on Saturday (the pink carton). The dyes we used on Friday were much more muted (we called purple the "color-killer"). The dying was really fun, we used rubber-cement on the eggs where we didn't want the dye to go on (that's how we got the multi-colored ones) and most of our experiments were somewhat successful.


Then this morning, I was one of the "bunnies" for the church's easter egg-hunt. We had tons of those plastic eggs hidden around the back yard, all filled with candy. It was very cute, watching all of them find the eggs. I wish I had thought to bring my camera.


Finally. mom and I hid our dyed eggs around the downstairs for mi hermanito and his friend to find. Some of them were really easy (they are nine) but some of them were trickier. Then, they hid the eggs for dad and I to find, I'm pretty sure one is still missing! Oh well. Happy easter to all. Adios!

How I Spent My Vernal Equinox

I had planned on doing a pretty low-key post last night. Something along the lines of "spring is coming, blah blah blah" but the weather had other plans for that. It was (is) very windy outside and thus, not very warm and springy outside. The school-day went on normally (aside from Mr. S, my science teacher, who's always more enthusiastic about science on a solstice or equinox and incidentally, who is responsible for the sign shown above). Crew however, was pretty eventful. We did our first 2Ks of the season, my time was ok (I got the best time out of the freshman girls, but a minute after I finished, I thought, "I wanna' do another one, I could do better"). Faye is a very strong girl. I guess I was never really aware of this, but looking at her time, it was really good for her first 2K ever. Her technique, not so good but she's new to the team so she has time to learn and improve. Then I got home, showered and went down to eat dinner. As we're eating, we hear this sound that I can only describe in one, very crass sounding way, it sounded long a very long, rumbly fart.
Turns out, it was the sound of us losing power. The rest of the night (until 8:40 at least, when the power came back on) was spent with all of us (Elmo included) sitting in the living-room with lots of candles. Ah, family time. Adios!

The Substitute Saga

Friday was interesting, to put it mildly. It started out normally – we watched a video on tornadoes in science and we played some games in Spanish – it started getting weird in Bel Canto. That's where I met our substitute for the day. I was aware that we would have a sub for our choirs, but we had been told that it would be a music teacher for our district. Instead, we got a retired elementary school teacher with a recorder (an instrument I can't stand) on a lanyard around her neck. She then told us her name and said that she had taught piano for 30 years. I feel bad for any of her students because she couldn't handle playing our parts. When we told her that we usually sing a capella, she just kept on playing that piano anyway. Luckily, we managed to convince her to let us leave class a few minutes earlier than we should have.
It continued in Chorale. LOTS of people skipped class to avoid her (I didn't). We went through a few songs. When the boys did their song Lambscapes (watch of video of them performing at our concert here) she walks over to the piano, and starts playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on her recorder! HILARIOUS! Then, she let us go a mod early (thankfully). Adios!

OMG

In case you can't tell from the size of the picture, that is my photo of my Chevron Scarf on the pattern's page on Ravelry. I read the message asking for permission to use it just a few minutes ago and it's already there! I feel so special! I hope this means more hits and more favorites!

No hay tarea y el polo acuático

(there is no homework and water polo)

After many days of extremely stressful homework load, I have absolutely no homework to do tonight. I actually used my study halls to do homework today so everything is done. It's a nice feeling to have actual free-time. Especially since I'm so wiped out from dry-land training for crew. Today we rowed five ten-minute pieces with one minute breaks in between and then we played water-polo for a while. I'm a pretty aggressive water-polo player (I'm all for aggression), but I'm nothing to Liana. She would just swim around and tackle/strangle/sink people. She probably broke the rules of water-polo about 30 times (not counting all the times she held the ball under-water). That girl is a little scary.
Anyway, I have concerts Wednesday and Thursday nights. I'm hoping that my parents will tape us, I like hearing how we did. Maybe I will be able to post a video of Concert Chorale or Bel Canto. Adiós!

"Stop mentally fist-fighting!"

Holy guacamole it's been a while! I didn't intend to go this long without posting, but other things continue to get in the way.

1. Crew- First, the good news, I have been declared mono-free (or at least mono-free enough to participate in sports) by my doctor which means I can start training for crew again. The bad news, I'm still feeling the fatigue and I'm pretty out of shape so training is harder for me than it would normally be. But still, it's good to be back. It feels good to be able to row really hard, I haven't done that in a long time. And you know what? My scores were nowhere near as bad as I had expected.

2. School- I have had so much schoolwork this week. I had a science lab and a 1,000 word creative writing piece on Lord of the Flies (which I only finished because in the span of one study hall and half of my lunch in the computer lab, I managed to write nearly 500 words) plus other normal homework. In addition to that, I have a multi-part project on Lord of the Flies due Tuesday, a math project due Monday, and a group social studies project on the Medieval Christian Church with the due date drawing ever closer. Luckily, we got one day of rest when the schools power went out on Wednesday and we all got to go home after about an hour of school.

3. Knitting- I'm really enjoying knitting the Central Park Hoodie. Unfortunately, the light is really awful now, so the pictures I took are not good. Oh well. I'm almost ready to start the armhole shaping but due to the massive amounts of homework for the weekend, I'm not looking at a lot of time to knit.

4. Misc. -

Project Runway - I really wanted Jillian to win, her collection was so cool. But of course, Christian won with his weird, over designed clothing. Hmph.

NYSSSA - I'M A HIGH ALTERNATE TO NYSSSA! Yay!

The Beginnings of a Sweater

Sometimes, I'm surprised by Elmo. This was one of those times. However surprised I was that he let me do this, mom got a really great picture out of it. I bought the yarn for my Central Park Hoodie (Cascade 220 Tweed) on Sunday at Saratoga Needle Arts. It was pretty cheap and I love the color of the yarn. After a few swatches (I had to go down two needle sizes!) I finally got to start my sweater.

I really like how it looks knitted up and it's pretty quick too, considering how frazzled I've ben this week! Going back to school with mono is hard and I've had to do it twice now (after Regents week and after February break). I feel better now but I still don't feel perfectly well so I'm worried about starting crew next week. Will I even be able to? I hope to find out (and to get the ok to practice) when I go to the doctor's office Monday afternoon. Adios!