Taking Inventory

It seems that I only post up when I have an excessive number of items of my to do list. I mean, here it is, Sunday morning, with several hours of marking in front of me, multiple lessons to prep, and interim reports due tomorrow and here I am, writing a new blog entry. Oh, and lets not forget the fact that I have class tomorrow and have not touched my readings yet. And my housework...lets not go there.

So where have I been for the last month plus? Well, quite honestly, I've been hermiting, and doing very little. Lets take inventory:
1) Knitting: finished 2 sweaters (for me, yay!), and various other small projects

2) Reading: finished 15-20 books in the last 2 months, including Phillip Pullman's entire Dark Materials Trilogy (incl. the Golden Compass which is for my book club) over Friday and Saturday

3) Housework: managed to catch up on laundry and ironing for a lovely 2 weeks. Other wise,...still not going there.

4) Work: had a wonderful 2 weeks off mid-December, and managed to start the year refreshed, but since then have been bogged down by various and sundry. Spend the last day and a half interviewing candidates for a program next year and was pleasantly surprised by my substitute teacher - she did a great job and got everything done as I'd asked. I'm looking forward to my first "business-trip" in February. As a teacher, I don't get to travel for work very often but a group of us are going to Calgary for a day to check out an arts based school and try to learn new ways to incorporate arts into our teaching methods, for the Athena Arts program.

5) Family - managed to squeeze in 4 family dinners in as many days and then again spent time with family at New Years.

7) Going out - have been to the VSO twice, seen a few movies, went out to the Christmas panto at the Metro Theatre (a 5 minute walk from the house) and another play called "The Last Night at Ballyhoo". Went to TLN@B on Friday all by my lonesome, inspired by Sarah Jessica Parker. I saw a bit of a SITCity episode in which she described a perfect New York night for a single in which she saw a show on her own. I have such a hard time getting the Hubby out to theatre, and he was out with the "work boys" on Friday night getting liquored up, so I decided that rather than watching the schmaltzy Friday-night TV lineup to support our local theatre cooperative. I have mixed feelings about that adventure - I don't do as much by myself as I should, and am therefore proud that I went, but the play itself was lacking panache. Perhaps a 2008 resolution should be to continue to go out on my own as time allows. Anyhow, The Hubby and I also managed to make it out to the Vancouver Aquarium, (though perhaps I should put this into the "work" category as I went in preparation for a field trip) and to a Vancouver wanna-be Yaletownie restaurant-come-lounge called UnWine'd for "DineOut Vancouver". In one word, it was "meh." If friends wanted to go, I woudn't say no but I have no need to go back. I wasn't overly impressed with the wine list, nor the food. I ordered the sesame-seed encrusted, seared ahi tuna which I've had in other restaurants on several other occaisions. When its seared, it should be rare in the centre, but the outer 1/2 cm should be cooked. There were spots on my tuna which hadn't even hit the pan. Now, if I'd ordered tuna sashimi I'd be thrilled, because I do like me a good tuna sashimi, but I wan't in the mood. And I don't often send things back but I had to that night. My desert was overgarnished to compensate for the lack of flavor - a lime cheesecake should at least have a hint of citrus, and most certainly should not be less flavorful then the splashes of mango and raspberry coulis drizzled all over the plate.


Well, perhaps it hasn't been that uneventful. But I still have "miles to go before I sleep" and therefore must needs nip this in the bud. One more thing to cross off the list - first blog entry of 2008.

Visions of Sugar Plums

OK, for all those who've been harassing, er...requesting persistently, us for our Christmas wish lists, here's mine. (Ahem, Laurie. And Shirley. And mom!) And I won't read the comments for this post, so you can discuss who's taking care of what.

Petra’s Christmas Wish-list/Gift Ideas – 2007
1) CD’s by Feist
2) Pink Grapefruit scented or Satsuma scented shower gel from the Body Shop
3) Gift Certificates – Urban Yarns (on 4421 W10th Avenue, www.urbanyarns.ca) or Three Bags Full (Main St, Vancouver, http://www.threebagsfull.ca )
4) Gift Certificates – Mexx, Gap, Bay, Old Navy
5) Gift Certificates – BC liquor stores (for wine) or Starbucks (for coffee)
6)Sock yarn
7)Books
a.Gift certificates for Chapters OR
b. The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Caroline Reid
c. Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
d. Red, White, and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean
e. A Left-Handed History of the World by Ed Wright
f. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
g. Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr
h. Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter by Alison Hansel
i. Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardniner
j. Knitting Circle by Ann Hood
k. Knitting: A Novel by Anne Bartlett
l. Any novel my Mary Kruger (mystery author)
m. Any book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
n. Novels (chick lit) by Meg Cabot:
i. Size 12 is Not Fat
ii. Size 14 is Not Fat Either
iii. Queen of Babble
iv. Big Boned
8) Magazine: subscription to Interweave Knits (a knitting magazine)
9) 15.4” Rain Design iLap Ergonomic Laptop Stand
10) Calendar
a. Anything with vintage movie posters, esp. Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn
b. Victorian Botanicals
c. Cartoon related
d. Classic kid-related (ex, Dr. Suess, Paddington Bear, etc)
11) Perfume :
-“Vera Wang” by Vera Wang
-“Burberry,” “Burberry Touch,” or “Burberry Weekend” by Burberry
12) A hair straightener with wide ceramic paddles.
13) A memory-foam pillow
14) A SMALL cross-cut paper shredder
15) A cordless phone
16) A 2G USB jump drive
17) Stickers
18) A paper cutter (like those used for scrapbooking)
19) A Dyson Vacuum or even better, a Roomba and a Scooba
20) A sewing machine
21) An Aerobed (Raised Premier)
22) A KitchenAid stand mixer (5 qut) in black or silver
23) A motorcycle
24) Tranquilizer darts for the cats

Ramblings

Its been a busy week, but a good one. If this jumbled reminiscence confuses you, that's okay, because I'm fully under the impression that no one reads this blog except for me, anyhow. My own mom has no interest in checking out my inane ramblings, so why should anyone else? Lets start with today. I completed all my marking for the week - a rather nasty slog - leaving me an entire day to get some more lessons re-worked, and get caught up on my course work. Oh, and celebrate Hubby's birthday too! I then managed to get a few rows done on a Calorimetry which may or may not go for some one's Christmas gift before we headed out to the first of our 6 concert series at the VSO. It was a pops concert, with the theme of "Fabulous 40's." OMG, what a fantastic show! In spite of our late arrival and seats in the middle of what felt like an ocean of retirement home, I had a truly great time! The show started with In the Mood, then two Duke Ellington songs (I'm Beginning to See the Light and Don't Get Around Much Anymore) featuring a jazz soloist, Robin McKelle. Amazing pipes, and don't you know I just had to get the CD at intermission. This was followed by a piece by Aaron Copland of "Fanfare for the common man" fame, (Hoe Down from Rodeo) followed by a trilogy from Oklahoma featuring a baritone with amazing richness (though his pitch was a little off a few times). The first half finished with a suite from Casablanca (Max Steiner's work) and finally Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

After intermission (in which I also managed to sneak in a few more rows of Calorimetry amidst amused looks from the woman on my left, we heard One O'Clock Jump (Cole Porter), Times Square (from On The Town by Bernstein), Some Enchanted Evening (more Rodgers & Hammerstein), Begin the Beguine (Cole Porter), St. Louis Blues March (Handy), Night & Day (Porter), String of Pearls (ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVOURITES, Jerry Gray), and finally Come Rain or Come Shine (Arlen). I am still humming.

Friday was marked by my Bi 11 kids first exam (holy crap, did they do poorly on the written component), and then a knit night / campy TV watching binge with my cousin. I haven't had time with her in months, so it was a fantastic evening. Oh, and all you can eat Indian Buffet for $10 is a nice way to start off a weekend!



Friday FO #1 - it seems to have spiraled on me. Huh.



Friday FO #2 - pretty cables!

Thursday was remarkable only in that I managed to finish my readings for the week. Gah - what a slog. Oh, and we had our second fire of the year, so out on the field we went, fire trucks coming for the SECOND DAY IN A ROW. And so it begins. I mentioned to a student teacher that we hadn't had a fire drill since I've been at my school (for 4 years now) and she looked concerned until I said, "No, its not that we're ignoring safety. We just have the actual smoke detectors or fire pulls activate for real often enough so that we don't need to do drills."

My Halloween was the least remarkable I've had in the last well...since I can remember. We had a meeting at 5:30 with a Direct Buy representative and shopped for light fixtures until 7, then went home, ate dinner, and did our normal thing (which entails me knitting and/or marking and Aaron in the office on his computer).

Before that, it gets a wee bit fuzzy. Its been a busy week for me, full, but satisfying somehow. Hubby came home from Mexico, I finished various Christmas gifts and, and have kept up most of my obligations. And its only 7 weeks until Christmas break! Whoo hoo!