Waiting for Glue to Dry…

Always wear gloves to trim bougainvillea. I have three infected bits in my hand that probably have boug parts in them that need to be dug out. I never learn.
You know you are overwhelmed/tired/done when the email from Chewy that mistakenly tells you that you need to upload the vet authorization elicits an actual surge of anger. I mean, really. It’s not that big a deal. They do already have it. Maybe don’t bite their heads off. Which is something I need to remember for school today. If I can.

I wasn’t planning on trimming the boug. I was going to do the backyard. That’s my reasoning there. The other? I AM done. Mentally. I’m trying not to be, but some of the kids are also done, which is understandable, but if they could just chill out, like most of them are, waiting for glue to dry, instead of trying to put glue all over each other and/or poke each other and/or break the rulers? Yeah. Even in 8th grade, it’s the boys and they can’t just chill. So then I have to babysit stupid behaviors and I don’t have the fucking spoons for that. Seven more days. Two of those are different, not academic, probably easier because of that. IDK what stupid games we’ll be playing on the last day with 8th grade, but I also need to get my room cleaned and locked up, so I’d appreciate more just chilling than I got yesterday.

They’re building toothpick bridges. Hopefully we’ll be testing the first of them tomorrow and then finishing Monday, maybe Tuesday. Friday is a field trip. So it sounds fine, survivable. Until I get to three or four groups of boys.

Some are further along than others…

I’ve always taught sex ed at the end of the year, which keeps kids’ attention pretty well, but my (dumbass) school board limited what we could do this year, so 8th grade needed something interesting that wasn’t hard. More hands-on than brainiac. So this is a good choice, but there are still kids who are messing around. Not a lot. Just enough to drive a tired teacher bonkers.

And y’all, IDK how this bridge is even going to stand up, but that’s not MY problem.

Anyway. So today I’m giving them a short quiz (because I’m a bitch, that’s why…no, because there are actually forces in bridges and I taught them and hopefully this is an easy question…I mean, I think it is, but who the fuck knows what they will do with it) and then they need to get their bridges glued together so we can test some of them tomorrow. I also copied a bunch of mazes to hand kids who are goofing off (if you get a maze, it is because you are not chilling). Meanwhile, all of 7th grade will see an actual childbirth (on video; hard to get guest visitors to do that) and then move on to STDs. Scaring them into abstinence, as one of the teachers said. They weren’t chill yesterday either, but they had a sub in an earlier class and that shit makes them lose their fucking minds.

Yeah. So. I’m done. So done. I need to sleep for like a week straight. And it’s only Wednesday, so it feels like a vast expanse of the week is left.

Pros: It is the middle of the week. The boychild is home so he had the dog in HIS bed last night so I slept five hours straight without waking up. I have lots of Wonder Under to be cutting out, so I can just sit and watch a movie and not think too hard (except I picked a sci fi movie and spent most of it picking apart the science mentally, even though I don’t know enough about space to really do that).

Here’s the Wonder Under once I finished tracing…

Three yards and a bit. Not bad. Normally I can do a yard in an evening, depending on how complicated it is. Lots of big swoopy pieces and a ton of smaller pieces between them. I started cutting on Monday night…didn’t get far.

Last night, I finished the first yard and did the little piece as well…

I read a bunch last night, plus had a late pilates class, and then after I had eaten, while we were still watching our show, I worked on this background…

Of another Sue Spargo quilt, because I will never finish all of them, and that’s OK. This is brainless applique and I should have been cutting out Wonder Under, but my brain was too beleaguered to remember to do that, so this is what I did.

Tonight is a union meeting and book club, though, so IDK what I will get done. Probably more Wonder Under. And the last 23 minutes of that movie I was watching. Trying to decide who’s gonna die. Probably the older guy, even though he’s married, because his algae is all dead, so he can’t do the research anyway. The young woman has too much empathy; plus, she’s the doctor and they’re gonna need her.

Easier to think about that shit than anything else. I’m at 85% in my book too, but I don’t have time to read today. Sigh.

This cat, Nova, came out and sat on everyone yesterday because there were no dogs.

It was sweet. She asks nicely. Puts her paw out with one claw pulling at your shirt or pants. Can I please sit there? Yes. You may.

There was a baby bunny in the yard yesterday. I realize I have three to five barn owls on my property at the moment, so who knows if the baby bunny will survive that…

Certainly my indoor predators were offended by its existence.

Yup. Here’s where I’m at.

It’s not even stress right now. I don’t need to lesson plan, I’m mostly done with grading, I just need kids to not be assholes. Chill the fuck out. Put your head down if you can’t handle it (except don’t fall asleep during the pregnancy video, dammit). Ugh. I started planning next year’s calendar and I’m noting the issues. Not that there are solutions to the end of the year. Ever.

OK. Bridge building, testing, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections or diseases or whatever. Union meeting. Book club. Maybe water and/or do knee exercises in between that, if there’s time. Also need to pick up cat meds and go to Home Depot and maybe my quilt will be ready for pick up sometime soon? Who knows. I do need to go to school though. Like now. It’s my job.

Doozy…

This is the last full week of school. It’s a doozy, of course. Nothing like next week, but still a ton of stuff going on, both at school and in the evenings. Fewer kids turning in late work this trimester. A blessing for me; maybe not so much for their grades. No more lesson planning really though. That’s a plus. Spent so many hours over the last school year trying to do that. Desperately doing that. Can’t teach if you don’t know what you’re teaching. Glad that’s done. Mostly. Yeah. This week is pregnancy and STIs, plus bridge building and maybe breaking, plus a field trip, but coming back and teaching afterwards. Ugh. It’ll be fine. Right? It will? It will be something.

I did get some significant progress done on the new quilt…traced a chunk of time on Saturday…

Before a hike and after dinner. Made it more than halfway.

Then last night, I was going to grade another thing (I graded all afternoon), but then a kid, two kids really, cheated in a truly annoying assholular way, so I quit. Did not have the mental stamina to continue. So I traced instead, which may always be the healthier option.

There’s only 60 pieces left for tonight, and then I can start cutting.

Simba curled up on the couch. Yeah, I had hoped to be done with the tracing yesterday, but I did other things instead. Got a lot of things crossed off the to-do list, which is good. Feels less overwhelming at the moment.

The next goal is to be totally cut out this week and ironing to fabric by the weekend. Hopefully. Gotta put a lot of stuff away in the studio for that to happen, and I’m not sure I have a background fabric that will work. We’ll see.

I drew a little at dinner…

I don’t know if I posted this one, from the last two weeks of dinners…

Some places serve food super fast and I don’t have time to really finish a drawing. This sketchbook is almost finished. It’s a perfect size to fit in my purse. I probably have another one in my stash that will fit.

I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this. The never-to-be-finished scarf.

Almost got the body done. Still need to do the face and then decide what else I’m doing. I’m not covering all the black. I think.

We also hiked the dogs…mostly trying to tire out the puppy.

We tired the old man (the dog, not the Man) out pretty quickly…

But Annie was still zooming around at the end of 3 miles.

She was pretty good…a few moments of chewing stuff and she peed and pooped in the house in the first hour, but then figured out how to tell us she needed to go out. Good thing; she’ll be back in two weeks when the ex helps drive the girlchild across country. I’ll be off school, though, so hopefully that will help. Or not! Who knows.

Lots of blooming going on in the yard…

Lots of my chipping away at weeds, cleaning up the yard, trying to make it nicer. A little bit at a time. It probably needs more than a little bit, but that’s what I have time for. That and reading and making art. Lots of reading to do…looking forward to more of that. I do have a school training I have to do in July, and I really should plan things (but not sure how that goes…probably need to meet with my 8th-grade team at some point, but one is a newbie to our school and the other one is as burnt out as I am). Hmm. Not worrying about that right now. Maybe later this week.

Annie meets Kitten. Pretty sure I have scratches from this meeting.

9 days y’all. I might actually survive this school year…it felt pretty desperate last November…but I seem to have managed it. Not sure how. OK. Monday. Go to school.

I Read My Book Instead…

I’m so off on my blog writing. It’s OK. I should have done it yesterday, but I read my book instead. In fact, there’s a lot of things lately where I think, “I should have done it…, but I read my book instead.” It’s OK. It’s a coping mechanism. It doesn’t make the right eye twitch less at this point. A week of sleep might, but that’s unlikely. Anyway, two weeks of school left. Some field trips, some promotion practice, some bridge building, some reproductive learning. It is easier. I still have stuff to grade, though. Brought a bunch of it home but have felt not at all like looking at it. Not a surprise really. Already mentally on break? Can’t really be there already. Next weekend will be a crazy batch of grading. This weekend, we are puppysitting. I did start tracing the new quilt though…people are always amazed that I go right into the next one without a break, but this one has been drawing itself in my head for almost 8 months. It needs to come out. I don’t like sitting down after school on the couch and NOT thinking about artmaking. My brain is on overdrive, often three or four quilts out, what’s next? Appease the art brain.

Anyway, I started tracing on Thursday night…

The first background pieces are large, long, and swoopy, so I didn’t get far. Last night, I finished those up and started on the sun.

Annie (Anwen) was trying to help by climbing up on the light table (the cats do it; why can’t I?). Not helpful. But I did get a goodly chunk of stuff traced last night; hopefully more today. I wanted to be done with tracing by Sunday night. Not sure I can pull that off. I do have a meeting today and we need to walk the dogs, tire the puppy out at least. And I do have things to do that are house-related instead of school-related. We’ll see how it goes.

So far, she’s peed on one couch, which led me to find a bra belonging to the girlchild (she hasn’t been here since December) and pooped on a rug. And scared herself with the cats. Both the Man and I are sporting claw marks (somehow we got in the way of the cats killing the dog). But in general, she’s fine. Sweet. Just puppylike.

Simba is not a fan.

But he gets the love from us anyway.

The good news is that I have two days off to semi-relax, maybe get a little bit more sleep than I have been during the week. I have plenty of books to read, possibly too many (is that a thing?), my meeting is in a quilt store, and school is almost out for the summer. It’s all good.

I’m Somewhere…

Ah the blur of midweek. Feels significant, but really, there are three full days of kids and seemingly coercing them to continue to work even though Spring has infected their brains. Or something has. Insects maybe. Not sure. Certainly the last two academic assignments I’ve graded seem to be affected by something. Not sure the excessive rain helps. Excessive for us, anyway. Over an inch yesterday. Ah well. Moving on.

I had an opening last night…exhausting day/time for those, but it’s at Grossmont College and the college receptions are always during the week for obvious reasons. I have a really hard time with the Thursday night ones, but Tuesday seemed doable. I made it an hour! Impressive, eh? OK, just under an hour. It’s a good show! You should go see it. It’s at the Hyde Art Gallery on the Grossmont College campus. Walk-ins from 10-4 Mon-Thur. I know! Hours I can’t actually go see the show, so there we are. Sigh.

This is all work by Feminist Image Group artists. It’s very colorful and varied in style and material.

I have two pieces in the show, ironically the same two that were at Liberty Station last year. I had dropped off 5 quilts (he wanted to choose) and had even made a new one for the show. Here’s Beyond the Concrete…

Which was made for a show it didn’t get into, and then went to Quilt National.

And You Pollute Me, which has been all over.

It’s OK; I have a show for the other piece. Well, I’ll enter it anyway. It probably won’t get in because it has a dead (Earth) baby and that’s a library show. Sigh. Ah well. And that’s the show I’m currently making a piece for anyway. Probably neither will get in, but they will eventually get in somewhere.

I do have pieces that never get in anywhere. This is one of them…

Connected at the Hips. No one ever accepts it. Ah well. And it has aged out of most entries, I think. I finished it right before COVID hit. That shit happens (the never getting into shows part; not the pandemic part…although that DID happen).

I’ve been good about grading at night AND getting art done. Brain is back to tired but functional instead of tired and NOT functional.

Sunday night, while not sleeping, I decided the main figure should not be flesh-colored because she was like a protective Earth Mother and the people she’s holding need to stand out, so if they’re all flesh-colored and she’s NOT, then that will happen. So I made her light blue. Like you do. I picked out all the fabrics and then spent most of the hour plus on Monday night trying to find all the pieces that were her flesh. Started at 37 and went up into the 300s, I think.

I ironed the first set and then went to bed…and then last night, I ironed the rest of them…plus a bit more.

So I’m somewhere…well, IDK how far I am, because I’m still in the under 100s on some things. All the little figures and then all the stuff on the main figure that wasn’t flesh: heart, lungs, hair, arteries, etc. So more of that tonight. I’m honestly hoping to be done by the weekend. I have goals in my head: finish this one as quickly as possible during Spring Break, finish quilting the Sue Spargo bird quilt that’s been under my machine since January (is that for real?), then start ironing the cyber/bio punk piece together. It’s waiting patiently. Then I have one more big one to finish by mid-July. Insane much? Yeah well. Fuck work. It’s hard. I need the art to keep me sane. Plus I know I’ll be gone for about 6 days in April (camping and hiking, if my body can handle that) and then about 10 days in June/July (Seattle, baby!). So I need to be efficient or something. Back to my old healthyish self. Being sick like that sucks. I feel like I lost three-plus weeks.

In other news, I’m way ahead in my Goodreads reading challenge for the year. I planned for 60 books this year and I’ve already read 20. I’m not sure how I’m being so efficient in reading, but I’m powering through books like a crazy woman. Sign of the year. Need the fantasy worlds to get me through. I stayed home a little later yesterday to finish another one. Also I’m now in TWO book clubs (crazy, right?), so that is motivating me. Also I love to read. So there’s that. My goal for next week? Add the gym back into the mix. I’ve been doing pilates and not a lot else. Body needs more. But the blood sugar issues from the meds they gave me for the scarlet fever have been part of the problem, and the numbers are finally getting better. Which is why I’m feeling better. All good.

I started a new cross stitch from June Bug and Darlin during book club…

Nice and easy. Appreciate that.

Also, here’s a drowned ~~rat~~ er dog.

Not sure why the boychild took him out during the worst of the rain. Certainly Simba also probably wonders that. It was raining so hard yesterday that at the end of one of the classes, they came on the intercom at school and told us to hold kids for a few minutes until it calmed the fuck down. OK, not the words they used, but certainly the sentiment.

OK. Parent meeting today that I think will not go well (not the parent’s fault…the kid…who knows, he might step up). Then forcing one group to write and the other group to think and then write. Labs and simulations tomorrow. Then field trip on Friday (ugh…this one is not my favorite and I have to come back and teach the other group). Looking forward to the weekend, even though the number one thing on my to-do list is my taxes. Hoping to tip the numbers the other way or panic greatly. I could use a check from a piece that sold two years ago any day now. That would be nice (it’s not happening for a while, unfortunately). Ah well. Maybe something else will sell soon. Or my taxes will miraculously figure their shit out. I guess that’s my job. Sigh. Hurts my brain.

Pilates after school, then cook an easy dinner (Wednesday self thanks Sunday self for that plan…although I have nothing for lunch tomorrow and tomorrow night’s dinner is a challenge…a tasty one, but still…). Then maybe grade more stuff and definitely iron more stuff. Get through the pile of little peoples. That’s the plan.

A Solid Start…

You know, I have two alarms that go off to get me up in the morning. Not because I’m a deep sleeper; I’m totally not, but because sometimes one or the other doesn’t go off, and if both of them didn’t go off (it happened once, power outage plus phone hiccup), I wouldn’t make it to school on time, because this is too early for my body to naturally want to wake up. Truth. This morning, the one that is more likely to wake me up didn’t go off, and then I had slept so badly in the early parts of the night that I didn’t wake up for the second one. I would have eventually, but it’s not meant to be the main alarm, so it’s quieter and easier to ignore. So my third alarm went off. The Man going “hey”. Well there we are. THREE alarms. Ugh. I could do without this inability to sleep unless I’m exhausted crap. Normal people fall asleep within a reasonable time after they get in bed and then stay asleep. At least, I think they do. It seems to work for a variety of people I know. Not me.

So the pro is that I got a lot of art done this weekend, because I refused to work on Saturday and I didn’t work ALL of Sunday (just most of it). Did I finish it all? Nope. Never will, so there’s no point in freaking out about it. I graded 4 assignments for both grades. I have a lot to go. Ah well. Never changes really.

Friday night, I graded 3 of those assignments…but then I traced some more…

I didn’t quite finish, but I did stay up way too late. Sigh. I really am a night owl by nature.

On Saturday morning, I got up and finished tracing (I really only had about 30 minutes more to go), and then my quilt guild had a sew-in at my local library, so I figured if I went there, I wouldn’t feel like I had to grade or do yard work or clean house, so I would get the cutting part done.

Here’s all the pieces…told you it was a relatively small piece.

That’s a little over 5 1/2 hours of tracing.

Then I spent a few hours talking to one person and cutting stuff out. Then came home and cut the rest out after dinner, and then sorted it.

I also napped after doing some yardwork (man, I’m still out of shape)…so did the Man.

He’s recovering from a bad cold. We had all the cats at some point…

Then last night, I started ironing to fabric…

Have to lay all the pieces out first…then pick fabrics…

Solid start. Slow but that’s OK.

Simba is no help with any of it, school or art.

But he is good for couch cuddles.

These two are friends again. Sort of.

Because it’s cold, I think.

Ugh. I am so not ready for school. Mentally or physically. I’m trying to plan lessons I can mentally handle. Which isn’t much at the moment. Everyone is about to leave the house, for work or jury duty. Poor puppy to be left alone all day (or at least until someone gets released from jury duty…it’s not me!). Then home tonight to work some more on school stuff, but also to iron some more, which is all good. Oh wait, I also have book club. They moved it to Mondays and I’m still confused about it (it’s been months). So yeah. I’ll need to be semi-awake for that. I’m feeling a nap at the moment. A serious one. A girl can dream.

Green Friday

Oh hello Green Friday. It’s Friday, hallelujah, finally, and I work in a middle school, decidedly not Irish in any way, shape, or form, on St. Patrick’s Day, so I must wear green no matter what. Yesterday was pajama day and everyone (almost) followed THAT decree; today’s is just as crucial. Do NOT show the middle schoolers any weakness, no chance for them to pinch you (you think they won’t? Oh my. Yes they do. You can’t just wear green socks. They’ll pinch, then look.).My wardrobe this entire week was written out for me…although I had nothing for “dress to impress” and my “culture day” t-shirt arrived late from Amazon, so there we are. I did “decades day”, although I could stand in for the 80s or the 90s. Didn’t really care. Their 90s is what I wore in the 80s. Next week, I’ll go back to just wearing what’s next in the pile in the laundry basket. Nothing ever makes it into the closet or a drawer. Just piles and a basket. I have a plan for the closet, but have not implemented it yet. No time! Which is my existence at the moment. I do the crucial stuff: school, art, food, sleep. Occasional meeting. Fuck the rest.

Yeah. It’s not the best plan. It’s just the plan I have right now. Like last night…oh yeah! I needed a rubric for TODAY. It’s been on my (slightly faulty) mental list all week, but finally was crucial. So I did that. And then edited a video, but decided it sucks, so I’ll need to find another one.

Artwise, I’m finally making progress on something, even if it’s not the one I meant to be making progress on. I’m still salty as shit toward this curator demanding “Last Year” of work to a theme, with very little notice. Ah well. I will just drill nails into them with my eyeballs if I actually get IN to the show. It’ll be fine.

So tracing the new one…

I found about 5 pieces that were numbered the same as 5 other pieces. Minor issue. Add “a” to one set. But it means this really has over 600 pieces. Ah well.

Last night, I traced while on a Zoom meeting with other stitchy people.

Nova assist. Also precarious position of my NEW school computer. Yes, I moved it. I traced for about 90 minutes, got off the meeting, ate dinner late (second night in a row), worked on school stuff for a bit, and then traced a little more. The pro is that I’m at about piece 350, so 250 to go. Probably not going to get ALL of that done tonight? But it would be cool if I did. The current plan is to go hang out with my stitching guild at the library tomorrow and cut a bunch of these pieces out. I don’t have to be done tracing to do that, but it would be nice if I were.

Also probably need to grade five thousand things and lesson plan because I don’t know if I have everything set up for next week for 8th grade, and I certainly don’t have anything PAST next week planned. Minor issue. Two more weeks until Spring Break. I can see it, taste it, and feel it, and although there will still be a shitload of work to do, I won’t have to do it in the classroom chaos.

I’m on the second yard of Wonder Under.

Just have the doc and the random medical hands to do.

OK. Well. I finished a book yesterday morning instead of going in early to grade things, so I’m making choices that are assisting in my sanity.

I think I’m ready for today, but only because I panicked yesterday and ran around and did some crazy shit so I’d be ready. I’d prefer to be ready in a slow and steady way, an organized and logical way, but that is NOT this year. This year is fucking chaos.

But it IS Friday, and I AM wearing two different greens, so I’m ready for it all. Well, except for the stuff I don’t know about yet, which will overwhelm me and make me want to nap more than I already do.

May the weekend be calm and restful and full of artmaking and plenty of sleep. For someone.

Somebody’s Tape…

Hello world. Yesterday afternoon, I managed to function without a nap. It was a miracle. Only 19 days after getting sick. Ah well. Much of it has been a daze. But I have finally also been able to get some school work done in the evening…I realize that to some, this is NOT a plus, which I understand, but at some point, I have to be able to do more work than I was doing. I graded nothing last week, nothing at all, and the previous week, I barely got everything done for report cards. So it was getting a bit ugly in the to-be-graded pile. Still is, but I got through one big assignment. One. Yup. I’m feeling good about that. There’s only 78 to go. Not really. Just feels that way.

In other news, I also managed to stand and trace stuff last night, which is good, because no matter what, the next step in either quilt required standing. Sunday night, I didn’t. I just finished cutting out the first in-progress quilt, the one I’ve been working on since…um…January? Right? Sheesh. January 1. Yeah. Sounds right. And it’s March 15 now? And it’s still just a pile of stuff. Irritating. It took almost 17 hours to cut it all out.

It’s a healthy pile of tiny pieces. Next step is to sort them (have to stand to do that), but if I do that, they’ll be sitting in boxes that I’m going to need for IDK how long. However long it takes me to make this much smaller (is it though?), less complicated (much less than half the pieces anyway) piece. Which has to be done in 50 days. Ha! Fuck me.

I just need to be more efficient than I have been. I am writing that as my body is feeling a level of exhaustion that I haven’t really been able to beat. Yeah. Maybe I’ll put grading off (oh that’s funny).

Anyway, last night, after working on school stuff for about 3 hours, I traced for almost an hour on the new quilt…

88 pieces in 57 minutes. Progress though! I have pilates and book club (on Zoom, thank goodness) tonight, so I’m not sure I will have any energy for anything at all after that. Have faith in my body? Possibly. Still sitting a lot at work. Taking the elevator. Stairs aren’t necessary. Yet. I’m getting there.

Yesterday’s sunrise was pretty.

This morning, it is gray and rainy. Again. We have had lots of rain this year. I’m kind of done with it, even though I know we always need it. Certainly nothing is getting done in the yard because it’s always too wet. Or I’m sick. Some combination of both. We go camping in April…hoping Arizona is dryish by then. But who knows? It’s a short trip, anyway.

I have some pieces in this upcoming show, opening next Tuesday…

I don’t actually know how many pieces I’ll have in this show yet. I dropped off 5, and there will be at least 3. We’ll see next Tuesday, I guess.

So progress, always progress. 13 days of school until Spring Break. One complicated thing this week got less complicated (always good). I’m sure something else will be more complicated; I just don’t know about it yet. Someone delivered a roll of blue tape to my room; I don’t know why. I could email and find out I don’t deserve the roll of blue tape (and the thank you that came with it), or I could just accept it as a gift from the goddess of science classrooms. Yeah, I’ll probably email. Just because I know it’s SOMEBODY’S tape. I don’t think it’s mine, so I don’t think it’s fair to keep it.

Green Instead of Brown…

I’m semi-awake this morning. That’s interesting. I must have slept better last night. Some nights are better than others. I was definitely exhausted. Not sure why.

I didn’t bring my work computer home last night. I had a long day and I knew I wanted to go to the gym after all of it (which I did, dragging myself by the hair), so what’s the point? I have some time to grade/plan in class today for once (someone is giving a presentation), so I can give myself a night off. I also had an art show to enter and some other paperwork to do, plus something I forgot to bring home (oh well). So I did all the things I could and then started ironing a little earlier than usual. Which is nice.

Monday night, I straightened up the studio and put away the fabrics from the last quilt, which was the little one with the Christmas lights. So that didn’t take long. Then I set up for the new quilt, hanging the drawing up so I can see it…

Laid out the first 100 pieces…

They’re in piles of 10, numerical order. And laid out the detached Wonder Under bits…

Plus one unnumbered piece and one piece that was a line on the Wonder Under but had no number and pieces inside it, so I’m not sure how I fucked that up, but it will probably eventually become apparent. Probably I forgot to number it and I can use this to trace a new one without a hole in the middle. So yes, I’m somewhat of a hoarder, but there are reasons for it. Yes, I know they all say that.

I didn’t get many pieces ironed the first night…just some dirt and rocks…

Last night, I managed the right corner, mostly dirt and lava…there’s some ironed lava right there with Kitten.

Tonight I get to decide what color an iron snail would be in the future…

But before that, I have yet another early parent meeting (rescheduled from Monday afternoon), a day of 3/5 grading/not teaching and 2/5 teaching. Plus some dumbassery from yesterday that is still pissing me off. But whatever.

The boychild always tries to get Simba and Kitten to be friends, but Kitten has sharp bits and gets annoyed.

And Simba knows it.

Luna asking for pets…

And Kitten in her fabric/batting hidey hole up high…

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. Gonna pack my lunch, make more tea, take meds, shove everything in a bag, and go back to school. So I can come home and iron some snails and more dirt, or maybe I’ll make it into the grassy knoll tonight. Green instead of brown. That would be good.

On the Thrifty Side…

It’s raining again. Sort of. Pushed off to tonight mostly…oh yeah, and my drive time (which is remarkably short and only notable because one must get TO the car and OUT of the car). Rain is good for California…I’m just kinda done with it. I’ve got some yard stuff to do. That said, the sprinklers have been off for a good long time now, and that’s a plus. A slightly smaller water bill will not cover the heating bill, but it will help. A little.

Here’s a teacher thing…two of us on my team were checking our account balances yesterday to see if we would bounce with the groceries. I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be like that. It’s been an expensive few months. I have some extra in this paycheck though (backpay on our new raise), so I’m putting that aside for travel. I’ve got some stuff lined up and some other stuff I’d like to do, if I can afford it. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I spent a good chunk of the weekend grading (and not planning, unfortunately). I’m not done. I’m never done. I was hoping to be done with the roller coaster drawings, but I needed another hour and a half I lost to an art meeting or buying dog food or trying to find leeks. Fun stuff. I did work on cutting out the Wonder Under though…

Simba was not helpful. I finished cutting Saturday night.

And then sorted it last night, which took over an hour…

Some of the Wonder Under I was using was from the end of a bolt, and I am incapable of just throwing it out, even when it’s releasing the fusible from the paper, which gives me a bunch of weird pieces like this…

Which I will lay out on a colored lid (so I can see them all) and every time I find a piece with no fusible, I’ll try to match it up to one of these, which is a little (perhaps more than a little) insane. If I can’t match it up, I’ll retrace it. Sigh. I hate it when this happens. I could have prevented it by tossing out the last few yards, but I’m a little on the thrifty side, I guess. Perhaps a little too much.

The good news is that I get to start ironing to fabric tonight. I love that part. I bought the background fabric yesterday (the dark blue) and some others…

Hanging out mostly in the batik ranges these days.

No hike this weekend, not much of anything but grading and a 2-hour art meeting at the Mingei, which required parking a mile away. Not a bad walk for a Saturday though. Good news, though…we have an upcoming show at the downtown library gallery. More shows that need new work! At first, they said a year old, but we petitioned for longer (like how long do they think work takes to make? Plus I’m already buried in this one. Sigh. I don’t work fast enough). We’ll see what they come back with. I have so much out right now that I think I’d have to make something, perhaps something smaller. This one is not particularly small. I think finished it will be about 46″ wide by 72″ high. OK. That’s not small at all.

Saturday night’s drawing…

Actually took two Saturday nights. The Man can’t eat certain things right now as his jaw is healing, so our places to eat dinner are fairly limited. Ah well. They serve fast. Not enough time to do a whole drawing, unfortunately.

Well let’s hope I am efficient today and get lots done, and the rain holds off until I get home, and the demonstration in 7th grade goes OK, and someone else is cooking dinner. Oh wait. That’s me. Ugh. OK. Well. The rest can still happen, right? And I need to grade a lot and plan a lot. As always. We are officially past halfway and I can start considering that I might survive this school year. Like the last three.

Some Definition of Done

Oh lordy. ‘Tis early. I know not for some, but I am truly not a morning person, and it is still dark. I lost my temporary crown earlier this week, and although I’d love to ignore it until my appointment for the permanent crown, that area is sensitive to cold liquids…or even regular tap-water temperature…enough to give me a rancid ache from jaw to eyeball every time I drink something cooler than hot tea. So I made the only appointment I could, at freakin’ 7 AM. So I can guarantee getting to school on time, and also guarantee a difficult mood for me all day. Not sure I can drink enough tea to make up for that.

My brain was already fuzzy on how to do the things. I unplugged my computer at work last night, ready to put it in the bag so I could grade more roller coasters. Brought all the roller coaster drawings home. Left the computer at school. Damn. OK. Guess I’ll be grading those this weekend instead. Ah well.

I’m now sitting in the parking lot at the dentist because they aren’t open yet. It’s a delightful 37 degrees out there. Someday I’ll remember to put a real jacket on for school. This winter has been much colder than usual.

Anyway, I’ve been cutting stuff out every night, in between three Zooms on Wednesday and three on Thursday. Everything hit this week apparently.

Never looks like much. At least you can see the piles getting bigger.

Or can you…

After last night, I had passed the halfway mark. This is just short of three yards. Mostly I got that far because I forgot the school computer or I would’ve done some grading. If I don’t grade constantly, I get really far behind. This week has sucked for feeling caught up.

I did finish the first tattoo block, so that was cool.

Found the next drawing…need to trace it onto freezer paper and pick some fabrics.

Got 18 roller coasters in progress in class…mostly chaos.

Another week and they’ll be done. For some definition of done. Well the dentist was fast and hopefully, I’ll wake up in time to teach. And remember my computer this weekend. Can’t say I’m feeling up to teaching at the moment. Drink the tea. Make more.