More fan and bleah, cleaning

The worst part of cleaning isn't the actual scrubbing and stuff. It's figuring out what to do with the little bits and pieces of things--papers, key chains, mugs, baskets, plates--stuff that you don't want to throw away, but you don't know where to put them.

I have seven boxes of that stuff to go through. Ugh.

So far, the kids' bedrooms and the dining room are done. Of course, that means that most of the stuff I don't know what to do with has ended up in the living room, sunporch, and my bedroom. Argh. I guess I'd better get at it, time's a-wastin'.

Youngest Daughter comes in tonight around 11:30 on the dedicated bus from her uni. Eldest Daughter comes in tomorrow afternoon, and Son's plane lands at 5:30 tomorrow night. Can't wait!

In the meantime--I've been anxious to get to the silver part of the fan work, so I've spent more time than usual working on the silk embroidery part. Here's an update--1 pansy finished, two padded, one not touched yet. When the pansies are done, then I have to do the satin stitching on the top of the fan, in ecru. THEN I can start putting the silver on. Fun!

Fanning

Okay, here is where I am right now, sort of. I have one pansy finished except for its green leaves and yellow center. You can really see how shiny the silk is.

What I did was split stitch around the pansy leaves, and padded with long stitches inside the leaf perpendicular to the direction I was planning to satin stitch. Then I satin-stitched over the padding. In this photo, I've only finished the satin stitch on the bottom leaves, and the top leaves show the padding.

Things I wonder about

• Why is it that the furnace starts blowing just as I begin to put my contacts in? The air flows right in front of the medicine cabinet door.
• Why is it that when I am in a hurry to get dressed, there's inevitably a piece of lint on one of my contacts?
• Why is it that when I walk past people who are partially blocking a hall or aisle, the one with his back to me moves toward me, so I have to dodge him or put out my hand to stop him from backing into me?
• Why is it that the local Jehovah's Witness people try to open my front door instead of knocking when they stop by on Saturday afternoons to proselytize?
• Why is it that Kitty Son walks in front of me just slow enough that I am nearly stepping on him?
• Why is it that the local Russian Orthodox church always has their bazaar when I am between paychecks and have no money to spend?

I'll take two!

Even if I don't like shrimp...

Fan progress

I'm getting along fairly well on the silk fan; had to re-baste the backing fabric and the silk moire together last night, though. Many years ago I bought a Kenmore sewing machine and Best Friend taught me how to sew. I made lots of clothes for the kids, some Christmas presents, and some shirts for myself on it (and pants for A).

When I started engineering school I just didn't have time to sew any more, so in a fit of generosity I gave the machine to my sister-in-law. She had an old Singer that was temperamental and didn't have a free-arm. She loves the Kenmore, which is great. But, after a while I realized---I needed a sewing machine to fix stuff. Duh! So I bought a HuskyStar, which wasn't as nice as the Kenmore.

The HuskyStar hasn't been used much, and I've lost the manual (duh, again). The big problem is that the bobbin tension is WAY off and I can't seem to get it adjusted. So when I used it to baste the backing fabric and moire, it just didn't work. It held together for a little while, but last night the basting was nearly all pulled out. Pewp. So, I basted it together by hand using some DMC floss (couldn't find any regular thread!). Once I get everything cleaned up and in its proper place in the sunporch, which is where my sewing center is, I'll take the machine apart and adjust it properly.

But, in the meantime, here's the fan so far. I finished one lavendar panel yesterday as a break from cleaning and reorganizing the long kitchen cupboard.The project is the first one I've worked in silk, and now the regular floss feels thick and coarse in comparison. Oh, and working through a backing fabric--I think I should have used a thimble, because I have a messed up finger now from poking the needle through two layers of fabric.

Student follies, again, and work stuff.

My little mutiny was short-lived, once they saw the multitude of comments and corrections on their presentation. They actually apologized. Wonders never cease!

Then, Thursday night I gave a final in my graduate level class. Stanley Snowflake, who was already in deep doo-doo, walked in a few minutes late and, after looking at the exam, called me over to tell me he forgot his book in the car (it's an open-book, open-notes exam). I told him he had to just use his notes then.

Fifteen minutes later, he got up and pulled out his phone, then walked out of the room. I went to the door and looked up and down the hall but he was already out of sight. About 3-4 minutes later, he strolls back in carrying a cup of coffee. He sat down, picked up his pencil, and then looked around on his desk. Where was his test? Hmmmmm.

So, now he is saying that he has always been able to go out and go to the bathroom during tests, and he doesn't understand what happened, and what is he supposed to do now--drop out of school--and he has no clue what I thought he was doing....yah, dude.

On the advice of a colleague, I pre-emptively e-mailed his department chair and let him know about the situation. I await the other shoe.

And here's some good news--I got appointed to a highly visible board where I am the ONLY junior faculty (ooh, scary!). The dean says he wants to move me into positions with more responsibility. Coolness!

We had the Army ROTC guys come talk to our class on sieges Wednesday night, and they were fabulous. The sobering thing was the map of Baghdad, with huge swaths of Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods but this little tiny rectangle representing the single Christian area in that city of 6-8 million people.

With profound thanks for your service: Veteran's Day, 2009

Andddddddd

A little mutiny, wot?

One of my adult snowflakes has posted a question on his team discussion board, and I don't think he's forgotten that I can read it too:

"How does everyone feel about the grade?"

What I would love to post in return: "Well, shucks, bucko, I am guessing you don't like it, and are trying to -- exactly what ARE you trying to do?"

The team got a 17 out of 20 for their presentation; they lost points (earning 1 of a possible 3) for the lack of consistent format and many grammar errors, including at least one incomplete sentence that just hung out there in plain sight. They lost the other point only because I couldn't figure out what they meant by one of their recommendations. So if they look just at the points awarded for content, they got 16 out of 17, which is pretty darned good.

Sigh.

The Berlin Wall

Congrats to the City of Berlin and the German people on the 2oth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It's a shame my professor, Herr Lentze, didn't live to see that day; when he spoke of the Wall, he always had tears in his eyes.

Thank God for Ronald Reagan and his steadfast faith in freedom and democracy.

Today's tasks--in no particular order

• Grade essays from class
• Read U's proposal
• Work on grant
• Write out a timeline for responding to reviewers
• Go to the bank
• Pack up extra kitchen stuff and dishes, and take them downstairs
• Scan book for Dad
• Do laundry
• Find books for winter class, since the original book I wanted was out of print
• Clean out stuff in front of the built-in bookcase, and move the rocker there.

We'll see how much of that I actually get done!

R.I.P. the US Constitution and freedom of choice

Pelosi(Lugosi)-Care has passed, and with it goes our economy, our freedom, and our future.

Nice of Congress to criminalize those who might decide they have other pressing bills (like the monstrous taxes we will now be paying, taxes that will stifle our businesses and ruin us for generations) to pay, and forego buying the public plan that we will all be forced onto--they will be subject to a huge fine and up to five years in prison.

Nice of Congress to set up more bureaucracy, more regulations, more taxes....and exempt themselves from any of it.

To those who think this was a good idea--have you EVER seen government do ANYTHING efficiently, and for less money than the private sector? I haven't.

Now, since Obama's bowed to a Saudi king, apologized for all America's sins real and imagined, installed a shadow government that does not have to answer even to Congress, and wrecked our economy and our future, all that's left is for him to cede our sovereignty. Word is that's coming in the next few months, or even weeks. The first post-American president will dissolve the republic in favor of a world government. You just watch.

PS to the President, who scornfully and insultingly referred to those of us who disagree that this malformed bill is the way to make our health care system better as "teabaggers"---that's beneath the office of the President, sir. But you've shown repeatedly that you have no idea what it means to be the President of the United States, so I am not surprised.

Shoes, phones, and revise-and-resubmits

So. I bought new shoes on the Internet. Usually a risky thing to do, but so far I have had decent luck with them. I hate shopping, and especially shoe shopping, so I thought I'd try these Easy Spirit shoes that looked like they would be okay.

They felt fine this morning; just the right amount of support and looked a good deal more feminine than the boots I usually wear.

Then I walked from my truck to my office in them, and I thought I was going to die. They are the Shoes From Hell. So, I checked my office mail, got the stuff I needed for the meetings I had on the other side of campus, and walked back to my truck to change into my old boots. I thought I was going to do the last 50 yards in my stocking feet, it hurt so bad. So these new cute brown shoes are now Sunday-go-to-meeting shoes; wearable when I don't have to walk all over creation, at least until they stretch out a bit. I am back to my black boots with the crack in the right shoe, just over my big toe. Good thing I brought black socks with me to the parental homestead.

Then, after the second meeting of the day, I was walking down the stairs to the 2nd floor where I would have yet another meeting. Took my phone out of my pocket and went to push the button to read my e-mails---and the phone flipped right out of my hand, landing face down on the third step from where I was standing. The CONCRETE step. The back of the phone popped off and no amount of CPR would revive the poor thing. Since I had an hour until the next meeting, I raced off to the Verizon store to see if I could get a replacement. Well, I could, after I paid for this month's phone bill (which included another nasty surprise, an extra $50 in charges for a certain daughter who called overseas last month) and waited two days for the new one to be shipped to me. The guy at Verizon was going to ship the phone to the HomeCity address and I said "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" which startled him a bit....but that would be ALL I needed, to have the phone ripped off by my lovely neighbors.

It's being shipped, instead, to the parental home which works out fine since I will be here anyway Thursday.

And then there was the decision on an article I submitted last July--major revisions. Reviewer #2 was very nice, oddly enough (Reviewers #2 being generally, as my friend Lisa says, "a$$hats") but #3 was weirdly nasty and #1 wants substantially more work. My PhD adviser, who is a co-author, thinks we can pull this one out so I will defer to his judgment and work my tail off to make the changes. Bleah.

Oh blast. My System Administrator just sent me an e-mail saying my inbox is over its size limit. Students here are on Gmail now and they get 100 times the storage that faculty and staff do. Something is wrong with that picture.

Supposed to be working on a grant, but..

here is what I am embroidering when I can steal a few minutes. It's a fan worked on moire with silk floss and silver thread. I've just started it, so I'm not terribly far along, but it's going to be pretty when it's done, I think. The filling is done in chain stitch, not my favorite, but it is going faster than when I first started. The other panels of the fan are lavender chain stitch and trellis work with beading and silver pearl purl. Silk floss is slippery and tangles easily which drives me a little bonkers. When it is finally done, I'll mount and frame it.