December 28, 2014

I believe I forgot to mention it but the other day Beau definitely sang along with a country song. The dogs always bark and howl for about a minute after they are put in their room, where they have to go when we leave the house for an extended period of time to prevent Tanner from peeing on something. During this minute of barking and howling, some country song came on the radio (which we turn on as background noise) and in the song there is a bit where the dude sings a long note. Beau matched it perfectly with his howl. It was ephemerally amazing.

Today went by fairly fast. This morning I watched DVRed stuff and started knitting the headband for my favorite substitute teacher, using the materials in the gift she gave me. I've got a long way to go but I finished twenty or so rows, including to cables. I'll get there eventually.

This afternoon I came over to the old house but didn't make much progress. I started sorting stuff in my room. Keep it, toss it, send it to Goodwill. There is way too much in the keep it category. I would really like to just throw everything out. Absolutely everything. But I know I'd regret that in the future. So I'll continue to sort. I came back over after dinner and started going through the desk that has always been in my room but I've only ever used it to stack stuff on or shove stuff in the drawers. It's a pretty crappy desk but it is good at holding things. I came across a whole bunch of buttons I made years ago and it really made me want to start putting buttons on my jackets again. That might have to become a thing.

For dinner I made one of the bags of pasta I got from my dad and step-mom yesterday. It came with a bag of seasoning that you add water to and then reduce down. Everything turned out well, and I really liked the pasta, but the seasoning was a bit too hot for me. Probably should have tasted it before mixing the pasta in. My whole tongue was burning and I ended up having to eat a baby carrot with dill dip in between bites of the pasta to try and reduce the burning. I still have a lot of pasta left over but I need to find a way to make it not so spicy because I can only eat so many baby carrots.

Tomorrow will involve more work at the old house. My room is a mess and I need to fix that. Still so tempting to just get rid of all the things.

December 27, 2014

It's almost 2:30AM so I'll try and make this quick.

I briefly slept in my closet this morning because Tanner was outside barking and I wasn't going to go out and have him try and attack me while he was all worked up about the neighbor dog. I run a fan at night for the noise and I keep the fan in my closet. I grabbed a couple pillows and a blanket and laid down next to the fan so it would block all the barking. It worked pretty well and I was able to get another half hour or so of sleep.

I worked a full shift again today. I played Fantasy Life and continued to read the new PostSecret book. I also started reading What If?: Serieous Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe, who writes one of my favorite webcomics, XKCD. I had to fix a few things throughout the day but other than that it was all pretty boring.

After work I went over to my dad's house for Christmas. We had dinner and then opened presents. My dad really liked his books and my brother really liked his books and poster. We sat around and talked for awhile and then I went downstairs with my brother to play the anniversary edition of Halo 2. I haven't played Halo 2 in years. Probably not since it originally came out. It looks amazing now. It's ridiculous. We kind of lost track of time and played until 1:45AM.

Maybe tomorrow I'll start writing this early enough in the day that I will have time to think a little more. Although tomorrow I plan on going back over to the old house to go through stuff so I won't really have much to write about. Oh well. Now it is after three o'clock and I have finished watching Jingle All The Way, so I'm going to bed.

December 26, 2014

Today we headed back over to the old house. We had started separating stuff into piles, one for Goodwill, one for the dump, and one to keep. I started moving the stuff I want to keep upstairs and I lost count of how many trips I made up and down the stairs. So many heavy boxes. I'm worried I'm going to feel it in the morning. Slowly but surely we are making progress. There is the pressure to make significant progress in the near future because my mom wants to sell the house and when I start the next semester of school my motivation and time is going to disappear. That means I need to pick up the pace.

Tonight at work I cleaned the first set and then spent the rest of the night reading the latest PostSecret book and playing Fantasy Life. I need to dig out the other PostSecret books and read through those again. I read the website every week and the entire project still fascinates me. It's just such a simple idea yet so great at the same time.

In Fantasy Life I continued on the path of becoming a master angler. I progressed quite a bit tonight, unlocking the ability to buy my first house and opening up a few different areas, allowing me to engage in a bit of combat. I am now continuing to fish while exploring the world and saving up for a house by the water. There is a cheaper house in the middle of the beginning city in the artisan district but I thought it would make more sense as an angler to live by the water, even if the house is twice as expensive.

I had a brief conversation with my friend after cleaning shows because he is in town and came to the theater with his family to watch Unbroken. He wanted me to have lunch tomorrow with our other friend's mother but I'm going to be working. He managed to find the two days of the week I work. I'm not sure when he is leaving town but hopefully we'll get a chance to hang out before that happens.

Thanks to the holiday traffic at the theater I actually got to work a full shift, for the first time in awhile. Would have been nice with my friend in town if that wasn't the case, but it is nice being able to put a little bit more money on my paycheck.

I just got distracted watching a show about Bing Crosby on PBS and it is now just after 2:30AM. That is going to make waking up in the morning for work suck a little bit more than it would have if I made it to bed an hour ago but I can't do anything about that now. Maybe I'll get sent home early and I can take a nap. Tomorrow night we're going over to my dad's house for Christmas. A nap in between would be okay with me.

December 22, 2014

Today seemed to go by really fast. This morning I got my 24-hour collection sample ready to ship. I forgot about the need to send a photocopy of my insurance card but luckily I had my printer/scanner at the new house. Unluckily, the scanner wasn't working. Normally I use it wirelessly, but we don't have the internet so I plugged it in and it didn't like that. Instead, I took pictures with my phone, plugged my phone into my computer to transfer the pictures, edited them in Gimp, put the in a Word document, and printed them out. Thankfully, the printer worked. Weird that it would and the scanner wouldn't but I guess there are different drivers involved. Or something. Either way, I got it done.

After lunch I dropped that package off at FedEx and then headed over to the old house to meet my mom and sister to start going through stuff in the basement. We did that for several hours and I think we made decent progress. There were several breaks for walks down memory lane.

We had Chinese food for dinner. I always get fries and tonight there was a surprise because instead of the usual crinkle ones they gave me curly fries. Yum. I also had curly fries yesterday for dinner. I can't remember the last time I had curly fries, it's probably been years, and now I've had them twice in the last two days. Weird.

Tonight I came back to the old house to do internet things. I downloaded a few different programs to render maps in Minecraft. I couldn't get the first couple to work but the third one, which is a slightly updated version of the program I used years ago, finally came through. My island really doesn't feel as isolated when viewed in one big map. Yesterday when I was playing I upped the view distance to the highest setting and now I can see a couple of the small islands nearby, which also helped make me feel less cut off.

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow. Probably very worthwhile, intriguing things.

December 25, 2014

My right kidney has been randomly flaring all day. That is concerning. I'm cool with not having another kidney stone. Totally cool with that. But just now the flaring kind of turned into a pulsing. Doesn't seem like the best sign.

This morning I woke up a little after seven o'clock and watched recording Christmas specials for The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and The Smurfs. Then I took a little nap before getting up for real and taking a shower.

My sister and her husband got here sometime after ten o'clock and we eventually got around to opening presents. We did it down in the basement because there was more room to spread out, and I brought my TV out so we could listen to the XM Holly channel. My mom and sister both really liked the stuff I got them and I really liked the stuff they got me. One of the coolest things I got was a book embosser from my sister that says “Library of [my name]” with a book in the center. I don't believe I had ever mentioned it to anyone but I have been thinking about getting one of those for years. My grandpa used one on some of his books and I thought that was pretty cool. Mine came with several silver stickers that I could use the embosser on and then put those in my books but I could also use the embosser directly on a page in the books. Very cool. I like the sticker idea but I'm going to need several hundred so directly on a page in the book would be more practical.

We had a small lunch of random things and for me it included homemade pitas and hummus that my sister made, and homemade apple butter and biscuits, also from my sister. It was her first attempt at apple butter and she knocked it out of the park. Way better than the stuff I get at the store.

I spent the rest of my afternoon watching Christmas movies and playing Fantasy Life on my 3DS. I have wanted the game since it came out but I was busy with school stuff so I thought it would make a good Christmas present. And it did. In the game you start by picking the life path you want to take (like a wizard, tailor, mercenary, cook, tailor, etc.) I went with angler because I always like fishing in video games. It is one of my favorite parts of Animal Crossing and I spent hours fishing in the small pond in Ocarina of Time. In the time I spent with Fantasy Life I didn't make it very far but I did manage to earn a pet and I chose a cat because I thought that would go well with a fisherman.

Like last year, we made pizzas for dinner. My sister made the dough for the crust and got all the ingredients together. Also like last year, I went with fake hamburger, artichoke hearts, tater tots, green peppers, and a few mushrooms, all on a creamy garlic sauce. Delicious. We also had deviled eggs that my mom made and garlic knot rolls that my sister made. I ate way too much because that is what I do.

After dinner I watched Transporter 2, because I wanted a break from Christmas movies, and read The Secret Service: Kingsman. The trailer for the upcoming movie looks really cool so I asked for the graphic novel for Christmas. I liked it and I am still looking forward to the movie. When Transporter 2 was over I went back to Christmas things but now it is one o'clock in the morning so I'm going to go to bed. I think tomorrow we're going to go back over to the old house to sort through stuff before I go to work. With the holiday we should be busy enough for me to work a full shift but who knows. Time will tell.

December 24, 2014

I spent over four hours wrapping presents today. The final count was twenty-two presents, each with multiple layers of newspaper. My hands were almost completely black by the end of it. The whole process was made easier thanks to one of my desktops. I tried bringing in the table I already put together but it won't fit through the door. Which means it probably won't fit through the door to the other room either so I'll have to take it apart, which sucks. Because of that, I took the table top from one of the other desks and put that on my bed. The underside was facing up because I was worried the newspaper might leave marks, and it did, so that was a smart move on my part. Next year I need to cut back to just one handmade gift for everyone. Save myself some wrapping.

I watched all three Santa Clause movies today. Or maybe I watched the first one yesterday, but I think I saved it for today. I can't remember. I missed the ending of the third movie because the recording stopped for some reason. Kind of annoying. I also watched Arthur Christmas for the first time. I remember when we had it at the theater but I only saw parts of it. It was pretty good.

Tonight I watched a radio version of A Christmas Carol on PBS. It was done like an old radio show but all the actors were dressed up and standing in front of a painted set with fake snow on the ground. It was pretty cool seeing the actors doing the different voices and the foley people making the sound effects.

While watching things I played a bit of Minecraft and I tried out OlliOlli. The latter is a fun game but also incredibly frustrating. Not like Super Meat Boy or Bit.Trip Runner frustrating, but it's close.

By virtue of today being Christmas Eve, tomorrow is Christmas. It doesn't really feel like it. Even with all the present wrapping and Christmas-themed movies and TV shows. I miss being a kid. Back then my sole focus was on Christmas and the presents I was going to get. Now there is just so many other things on my mind. It is hard to get into the spirit. I try to force it but it doesn't really work. I used to really love this time of year but I'm fairly certain after my grandpa died I kind of lost interest in the holiday. Hopefully someday I'll get back into the spirit. I fear I'll need my own kids for that to happen and it is going to take awhile for that to happen. Probably more than awhile.

Before going to bed I'm going to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas specials. I kind of feel like Charlie Brown.   

December 23, 2014

This morning I figured out how to change the light bulb in our bathroom fans and I used some WD-40 on my bedroom door handle so it would stop squeaking. So it was a pretty productive morning.

This afternoon I went over to the old house. I did internet things and I looked through stuff in the basement. I found old letters my family wrote me when I was at scout camp and by far the best ones are from my grandpa. Maybe tomorrow when it isn't so late I'll transcribe them here. They are great.

Before heading back to the new house I stopped at Target to get stocking stuffer stuff for my mom. It was fairly crowded but they had almost all of the registers open so I probably got out of there faster than I normally do.

After dinner my sister came over and we all drove around town for a couple hours looking at Christmas lights. There were some pretty cool looking houses and neighborhoods but there were also a lot of dark houses. Christmas lights should be mandatory. Or just festive lights. We don't need to label them Christmas lights. They should be up all year.

When we got home I talked to my friend on the phone for awhile and then played Minecraft. I made my garden a lot bigger and I think I got everything planted that I found on my earlier adventure. I still need to make and plant all of the fruit and nut trees that I found but I did expand my island quite a bit so I would have room for them. Everything is coming along nicely

I went through the guide on the TV today and recorded pretty much every Christmas movie and show that will be playing. So for the next several days that is probably all I will be watching. And I'm going to become completely burnt out and will end up deleting a bunch of stuff without watching it. But until that happens, I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

Tomorrow my only real goal is to wrap presents. A worthy goal I would say. I have to much crap to wrap. I'm not looking forward to it.

December 21, 2014

Today was super exciting. I played video games and watched Christmas movies. I played a lot of Minecraft. I set out on an adventure. Originally I started digging out small island near mine because I want to put my portal to the Nether there. I got that finished but don't have any obsidian and wasn't in the mood to go searching for it so I built a boat and went searching for more crops for my garden. In a previous version of the farming mod I use you got seeds by hitting grass and they would randomly drop. I learned after a lot of grass breaking and no seed drops that something must have changed. Now you get the various food from breaking small gardens in the form of plants. I found numerous small islands and collected a bunch of dirt to expand my island before stumbling across real land, not just small islands. I spent forever just wandering around, occasionally building more boats (because they're brittle as crap and kept breaking) to get to other bits of land. I collected a whole bunch of new food, including a lot of fruits and nuts from trees. I almost did it entirely without cheating. Before setting off I built another backpack but two ended up not being enough. I can still only make small ones because the larger ones are very complicated. I ended up finding so much stuff and didn't bring any extra leather with me so I decided to cheat in a new backpack. And then a second one. I probably should have just cheated in a large backpack but I didn't want to be that cheaty, if that even makes sense. Once I get everything out of them I'll toss them into the ocean.

I finally finished Tomb Raider and I enjoyed it. The gameplay was a tad repetitive but the graphics were really nice and it was just fun to play. I managed an 83% completion rate, which I would say is pretty good considering it took me awhile to figure out there were side things I should be looking out for. There were also areas that weren't accessible in the early stages because they required upgraded weapons that weren't available until later in the game. I could have fast traveled back to those areas but I didn't feel like it.

Tonight I started playing Thomas Was Alone. I have wanted to play it for quite awhile because of the narration and at some point I bought it but never got around to playing it. So far I am not disappointed. The British narration is very amusing. It reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Onto the Christmas movies. I watched a couple of the old classic, stop-motion ones and then I watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I had seen parts of it before but this was the first time I watched the whole thing. It might need to go into my yearly Christmas movie rotation. I should have suspected but I didn't realize how funny it would be. A lot of adult humor as well. I liked it. There is also a good message to it about being accepting of other people.

I was interrupted by dinner but I then watched the last half of Home Alone. I haven't seen the movie since I was a kid but I have no memory of the kid talking to the scary old neighbor in the church. Another movie with a good message about not judging people based on their appearance or what you may have heard about them. The last of the Christmas movies for the night was The Polar Express. Always good.

Right now I'm watching National Treasure. Several days ago I watched the second one, which I vaguely remembered. I also only vaguely remember the first one. I'm a fan of Nicolas Cage and treasure hunt movies are good times. Speaking of Cage, yesterday I watched The Rock, which featured Ed Harris, who played the bad guy in the second National Treasure movie. Small world.

December 20, 2014

I kind of worked today. I didn't get a text telling me not to come in so I got ready and went to the theater. That lasted for about two and a half hours. I swept the stairs leading up to projection, got all the movies going for the first set, played a little bit of Tomb Raider, ate lunch, and watched some Yogscast videos. Would have been nice to continue doing all of that stuff while getting paid for my full shift.

When I got home I started my laundry and did a test of the polyurethane I got for my desks. I used one of the side pieces and put a coat on it because I wanted to make sure it was going to work. I read several reviews that mentioned yellowing, and the can itself mentions that possibility, but it came out looking just like I expected. So sometime, maybe tomorrow if the weather is decent I can get started on that project.

I spent most of my day playing Minecraft and watching movies on TV. I made a lot of progress on the tower I started and the only thing I really have left is cosmetic stuff. I'd also like to build a portal so I can go to the Nether and get glowstone for the very top of the tower. When I was done working on the tower I started making my island bigger with dirt. I made the garden side much bigger so I'll be ready for more plants when I find them. I also added more land to the forest area so I can expand that. I'm interested to see how big the island will actually get.

For dinner I had Jimmy John's. Apparently all the students haven't left town yet because it took me awhile to find a parking spot. It has been so long since I've ordered a sandwich for myself that I forgot to ask for no cheese. I stopped getting cheese when I cut it out of my diet and it turns out the veggie sandwich is actually better without cheese. I'm not sure what kind of white cheese they use (provolone, maybe?) but it doesn't really add anything to the sandwich. I'll have to try and remember next time.

It is almost one o'clock in the morning and I have been up since eight o'clock this morning, so I'm going to bed. Who knows what will be on my agenda for tomorrow. I do know I'll be doing the 24-hour collection thing for my urologist, which means I won't be spending a lot of time away from the house. Hopefully I find the motivation to start the desk project. I'll probably end up just playing video games.

December 19, 2014

It is late and I am tired. It's not as late as last night but I am more tired because of last night. I should have gone to bed at least an hour ago.

The Santa hat ended up being a pretty non-event. I only ended up wearing it for about an hour during the school sing-along, the lights were off most of the time, and the few teachers that noticed it didn't have a clue about Minecraft. One of the second grade teachers earlier in the day noticed my hat and got the joke, so it wasn't all a waste of time. And I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Overall, today was pretty boring. I helped figure out the sound for a movie in the SPED room (by plugging in a cord) and figured out a laptop connection issue (by turning on the wi-fi) but that was about the only productive things I did. Most of my day was just spent watching YouTube videos and looking at old cross stitch books. I really didn't need to be at work today.

After work I went home because my grandma, aunt, and uncle were going to stop by, which they did. My mom gave them the tour and we sat around and talked for about an hour before they had to head out of town. My mom had up a lot of the Santas my grandma and grandpa made and she was worried that she should take them down so they wouldn't upset my grandma. But she really liked it. My sister said my grandma also really liked the picture of my Christmas tree that I sent her. I am glad to hear that.

When they left I ate dinner and then headed to work. It was another two-hour shift. I had enough time to read a few chapters in my book and fix several issues with various projectors. So it was a productive two hours at least. I then spent the rest of my night watching YouTube videos and clicking around the internet, spending a lot of time looking at cross stitch patterns. That has definitely been a theme lately.

But now I'm going to head back to the new house and go to bed. There is a strong chance I won't be working tomorrow, which I won't mind, other than the fact that I won't be making any money. I'm definitely in the mood to just lounge around the house.

December 18, 2014

Well, it's almost 1:30AM and it definitely feels like it.

We got our first real snow of the season last night. Or more like really early this morning probably. We didn't get a snow day, however, which was disappointing but ended up being the right call.

This morning I helped out with kindergarten literacy centers, watched sixth graders practice their typing, had a good conversation with one of the first grade teachers, and looked at really old crochet and cross stitch patterns online. Maybe some other stuff but that was a long time ago now.

This afternoon there wasn't a lot going on. Minus the two kindergarten classes and one of the third grade classes coming to the lab. Throughout the day, I worked on making a somewhat elaborate flower pattern from one of the old cross stitch books, into one of my patterns. One easier to read. Who knows if I'll ever get around to making it but it would look pretty cool.

After work I stopped by Hobby Lobby again to but picture frames. I ordered three signed posters for Doraleous and Associates, one for my sister, brother, and myself. The posters are 11x17, which turns out to be an odd size because I was only able to find one option. There were maybe six of them and only one of them wasn't dinged up in some way. Hobby Lobby is pretty notorious for having dinged up frames. I sorted through and picked out the least dinged ones, figuring I could touch them up with some paint, and started back toward the front. And then I found quick frames, or something like that, and they had an 11x17 size. They were also wrapped up so I didn't have to worry about dings. So I grabbed those. They were also quite a bit cheaper.

I renewed my XM radio today via calling to cancel my subscription. Once again getting the lower price. Someday I'll go all the way through with canceling it to see how low they will actually go. I always give in around five dollars a month.

I actually had a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight. The first in a really long time. It was a bit of an adventure because he and his grandparents moved to a new hotel. It has a name but I guess they are transitioning because the sign is currently blank, which made it a tad hard to find. I drove by it once, and through the parking lot twice before getting enough clarification that it was actually the one I was looking for.

As for the visit, it last an hour and we covered a lot of stuff. Tomorrow is his birthday and it is also his last day of high school. He's technically graduating but graduation isn't until May. He said he's got a job lined up but he wasn't able to start until he turned 18. So we'll see if something comes of that. He still has no interest in going to a university and his desire to go to a vo-tech for welding also seems to be lessening. His new job would be working the third shift, so midnight to seven o'clock in the morning, I think, and he'd have to go from there to school, which would be hard. We'll see what happens. Or we won't, because after tomorrow he'll be out of the system and won't have any obligations to hang out with me. The present I got him for his birthday/graduation should be here tomorrow so I told him he'd at least have to see me one more time.

When I got home I worked on finishing the stuff for my Santa hat. That is why I'm up so late. I had to do the entire “SSSSANTA CREEPER” part, including the border which takes forever, and then had to sew it on the hat. I've never really sewed anything onto something before, and sewing something onto and oddly shaped hat isn't the best introduction to the task, but I think I managed it alright and I think it looks pretty decent. Overall, I'm happy with my design. The Creeper looks really cool sporting a Santa hat and the candy canes replacing the two R's in “Creeper” actually look like candy canes, so I'm happy. I would have been happier if the idea had come to me sooner so I wasn't writing this at almost two o'clock in the morning, but oh well.

December 17, 2014

Today a second grader was holding the door for his class and none of the other kids said “thank you” but the boy holding the door said “You're welcome” to each and every one of them. It was pretty funny.

I had a fairly boring day at work. A good portion of it was spent writing potential cross stitch quotes in Gimp, while listening to YouTube videos in the background. My favorite quote was from John Green from his speech at Kenyon College which I had running in the background as I worked on other quotes. The quote was: “Leaving a mark is something dogs do to fire hydrants, not something humans do to the universe.”

On Monday I helped one of the second grade classes with a yarn project. They put yarn around cut pieces of toilet paper tubes, tied the ends together, trimmed it a bit, and it looks like a tiny stocking cap. I helped with the same project last year in the other second grade class. This morning the teacher from the other class had a whole bunch of yarn and she asked if I wanted to help her cut it. I suggested wrapping it around a book that was half as wide as the final length of yarn she wanted, that way we could just cut along one edge and get a whole bunch of cut yarn at once. I believe I saw the idea years ago on a much smaller scale for making the pom-pom top for a stocking cap. It ended up working brilliantly and we were able to get all four colors of yarn cut while her class was in the lab. It wasn't an exact science but the yarn didn't have to be perfect, just in the ballpark.

There was a band concert this afternoon that I wasn't aware of until halfway through. I heard mention of it after lunch when I was helping someone in the resource room but I thought they were referring to regular band, not an actual concert. But it kept bugging me so I decided to go to the bathroom and then go check in the gym. That is when I heard the muted sound of applause and continued on down to the gym. And yep, there was a concert. I missed the beginning orchestra kids but caught the end of the sixth grade orchestra kids (all two of them) and all of the band kids. I'm pretty sure I can still play all of those songs on the trumpet.

After work I got Chipotle and a Powerball ticket before heading to the old house to check internet things and get yarn. I grabbed the blanket I've been working on forever along with three giant bags of yarn. I need to stop buying yarn.

Dinner was alright and after I got back to work on my Santa Creeper. I had to start over because I started too close to the edge last night so the hat wouldn't have fit. And I changed up my stitching halfway through the black yarn so it kind of looked weird. Tonight's version turned out way better. Like, surprisingly good. When I was done with the main bit I cut it out and used black to go around the edges. That took forever and I had to backtrack a few times to make adjustments. But I finally freaking finished it and, ignoring the couple things I would like to change, I really like it. Tomorrow I will need to do the words. I also did those last night but realized I need to change the design of the 'r' and the colors I used. I should have plenty of time to finish that up tomorrow night and then somehow sew it to my Santa hat.

And now it is once again nearing midnight and I should have been in bed a long time ago. I am really looking forward to being able to sleep in soon.

December 16, 2014

It is creeping up on midnight and I've got a headache so I am going to try to make this quick.

When I first got to work one of the second grade teachers asked me to take a picture of the vending machine and print it out. She had a few kids in her class up to $400 in the class currency and she was running out of things for them to buy so she decided she'd let them pick something out of the vending machine and she'd pay for it. She wanted the picture so the kids could spend time deciding what they wanted without having to take them all into the teachers' lounge and stand around while they made their decision. It was definitely one of my most interesting side projects.

This morning I helped with literacy centers in both kindergarten classes. My groups listened to The Gingerbread Man and then had to draw characters from the story. The goal was to get three characters drawn and labeled but no one quite managed that. There were kids that were close and kids that barely had one character. But they were all well behaved so I was fine with it.

I spent most of my day reading about books and Christmas shopping. I'm so tired of spending money. Hopefully I remember this feeling next year so I can go the homemade route. Start early and make everyone something. It'll cost me more in terms of time but I will save a lot of money.

Speaking of, I could put that money into my Roth IRA. That comes to mind because today I got an email from the company I have my Roth IRA through saying the post office had informed them that my address had changed. I had completely forgot about updating it. So I got on the website and did that. I also looked around because I haven't checked in awhile, and my average return has been 12.1%. Not bad. Not long after I first opened the account I lost almost $900 but since then it has been trending upward. Now I just need to stop spending money on Christmas so I have money to invest next year.

After work I went to Hobby Lobby to get yarn and then headed to the old house to check out things on the internet. After dinner I washed my latest cross stitch, along with all the other ones I have made but never got around to washing. Now I just need to have my mom iron them. When that is done, I can give the latest one to the para at work and finally go get the book one I made for the librarian over the summer framed and give it to her.

When I was done with that I got started on decorating my Santa hat for work. Although I didn't actually put anything on the hat yet. I'm in the needlework phase. At work today I came up with a Creeper face wearing a Santa hat and the writing “SSSSanta Creeper”. I forgot my red yarn at the old house so I couldn't do that hat, and I figured some things out while working on the Creeper face so that turned into a practice one. The writing also turned into a practice one because I didn't like the color scheme or how the 'R' turned out when I added the fill color. It looked broken so instead I'm going to go with a lowercase 'r' and possibly make it look like a candy cane. I should be able to get it all sorted out and finished tomorrow night. Hopefully.

December 15, 2014

It wasn't all-consuming, but it felt like my entire day was spent updating laptops. By taking them down to the lab in groups of four to ten at a time to hard wire them I was able to finish the third grade and second grade laptop carts. I thought I was going to get out of the second grade cart because the teacher put in a trouble ticket a month ago because several of the laptop power cords were frayed an no longer working. But the teacher and I both discovered today that the cords had been replaced. A tech guy came in a few days after we put the ticket in and realized it wasn't something he could fix and left. He would have known that before he showed up but I'm convinced these guys don't actually read the explanation that we write on the ticket. And then they get annoyed. Anyway, the teacher never heard anything else about it and just assumed nothing had been done. Normally you get at least two emails after a problem is fixed telling you what actions were taken and that the ticket is closed. The teacher got none of those but the problem was obviously solved. Who the hell knows when. That meant I got to update the cart. There were still a couple charging issues but I messed with stuff and I think everything is good now. At least for the time being.

As I was working on the last laptop in the second grade room the teacher got a district-wide email from one of the tech guys telling everyone to suspend the updating process because there were some issues with it that they wanted to resolve. That would have been nice to know thirty desktops and over thirty laptops ago. I just hope that what I have done so far is good and I don't have to go back to redo everything. That would be a pain in the butt.

I had second grade reading groups this morning and we read a story about an old man named Mr. Putter who wanted to write a mystery novel. He would get all set to write and then he's need to make lunch or breakfast or take a nap or whatever else. Instead of the novel he ended up just writing a list about things he liked. That story pretty much explains my process when it comes to homework or any other project I need to do. I become very easily distracted.

Last week sometime that second grade teacher asked what was on my Christmas list, in a sort of offhanded way. I mentioned the calendar so I could write down my homework assignments and stuff like that. Well, today she had a present for me and it was a nice sized wall calendar. Very cool. I am fairly certain I am going to get a big desk one for Christmas so I don't know if I want to keep the wall one at work, because I spent a lot of time this semester working on school stuff at work, or if I want to keep it in my room and leave the desk one in the other room, on my desk, when I finally get it finished.

At the end of the day I went down to the library to show the librarian how to add printers on laptops so every user of the laptop can access them. We put printers on all the first grade laptops a few months ago but apparently they were only accessible to us. I think it was my first year working there that I spent weeks figuring out how to add printers using a hundred-step process (roughly) so that everyone could access them. I wanted to avoid that this time so my first effort was to add the printer using the regular device manager approach but add it using the IP address rather than searching for it in the list. Thankfully, this appears to have worked. It saved both of us a lot of time and grief.

After work I found my book cross stitch, along with all my other finished projects. I wasn't in the mood to wash my latest cross stitch tonight, and I'm mildly worried one of the colors will bleed, so I'm putting it off until tomorrow. And I'll probably test some of the string first to see if it will bleed.

Instead of cross stitch stuff, I put up a small Christmas tree in the basement, decorating it with all the ornaments I got from my grandma's house (most of the homemade by my grandma and grandpa) and I put the five light up ceramic house I also got from my grandma's house. It looks really cool. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be spending a lot of time just sitting across from it in the recliner and staring at it in the dark.

I also played more Tomb Raider tonight. I don't know how long the game is but I feel like I'm getting close to the end. It is still a fun game. Tonight I was able to upgrade my bow to a competition bow and I got a thing so I can use it to pull heavier objects as well as climb ropes faster. It is a badass bow. I also found enough pieces to upgrade my shotgun and handgun. I'm deadly.

And now, it is almost midnight so I'm going to bed. I had plans to start working on the fourth grade laptop cart tomorrow but if the updating suspension is still in effect I don't think I'm going to go to the effort. Who knows what I will be doing instead.

December 14, 2014

Today was very much reminiscent of yesterday but far less productive. I played a whole lot of Tomb Raider and a little bit of Goat Simulator. I bought that one the other day because it was on sale for four dollars. It was actually on sale for five dollars but there was also a voucher that knocked another dollar off. It turns out that goats live a pretty interesting, at least according to a simulator.

I crocheted a little bit but then ended up having to pull most of it out because I noticed something I didn't like. So despite the time I put in I really only added two lines I think. Not very impressive. I also searched for my missing book cross stitch that I made over the summer. It was in the same place, next to my mouse at the old house, for months and then I decided to move it to a safer spot. So safe I have forgotten. Now I believe I moved it to the cross stitch alphabet book I have where I keep all my other cross stitch projects. The problem is that I don't know where that book is at the moment. I know that it is somewhere, so that's a start.

When I wasn't playing video games, I watched several episodes of Key & Peele, the latest episode of The Librarian's, and National Treasure: Book Of Secrets.

And I ended my night with some Minecraft. I last left myself deep in a cave system looking for dirt. I continued my hunt, finding several stacks, and ended up finding my way back to my original cave on my island. Purely accidental but I'll take it. I then began building a tower onto my house. I'm still in the stair phase, building my way up. I'm not entirely sure how high I'm going or what I'll do once I get there. I'll save that for another day.

December 13, 2014

I got a text in the middle of the night last night informing me that my services would not be needed at the theater today. Annoying because I want the money but not annoying because I prefer not to be there.

I was productive with my day off. Semi-productive. This morning I finally put up the curtain rod (and curtain) in the second room downstairs. It went smoothly other than the fact that the curtain rod was for a single window, not a double. The solution ended up being swapping it out with one of the ones in my mom's room, because she has to single windows but each has a curtain rod for a double window. We actually had two single window curtain rods so I replaced both of my mom's with those, leaving us with one extra double window curtain rod.

I also finally moved the old writing desk from my grandma's house and my grandpa's old kitchen chair down into that room. Tomorrow, if I am not feeling super lazy, I might start putting polyurethane on the two desks I bought. That has also been a long time coming. I'm still not in too much of a hurry because we don't have the internet so my desktop isn't over there yet. And even if we did have the internet, my desktop is still out of commission so I don't really need a computer desk at the moment. But eventually we will have the internet and my desktop will be fixed and I will need my desks, so I need to get them ready.

With most of the rest of my day I did laundry and played Tomb Raider. The latest one. Although I have several of the games, maybe all of them because they were bundled together, this was my first time playing any of them. And for the most part I am liking it. The camera is a little weird and it would be nice if they weren't going for the “realistic” wobbly feel. It's a third-person camera but it reminds me of when a first-person game wants it to feel realistic so they make the screen sway or move around a bunch as you're walking. Other than being super annoying, it is also pointless, because when you are walking around in the real world your brain compensates for all the moving you're doing and your vision isn't bumping around or swaying. At least when you're walking. But video game developers don't seem to get that. They make it so it is similar to when you physically jostle your eyeglasses around and your vision does move all over the place. Anyway, I'm liking the game so far and I am intrigued by the story. I want to know what is happening on this mysterious island.

Tomorrow, who really knows. There are so many things that I want to do and I'll probably end up doing very few of them. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

December 12, 2014

 It had been several days without a siting but the baby spider total has grown to fifty-five. I found four this morning and one this evening. It is definitely less stressful than it was in the beginning when they were all over the place.

Yesterday everyone in the district was supposed to turn off their computers at the end of the day because the anti-virus or firewall or whatever software was being moved to a new server or something. I obviously paid attention. This morning, before logging into the computers like we normally due, we had to do a special login that would reinstall the program. No one was surprised that is was a less than successful endeavor.

It went perfectly fine in the lab so I didn't think much of it until I started hearing about everyone else's experiences. I was soon up in the resource room and then down in the third grade rooms, and worked on the librarian's and one of the second grade teacher's laptops. I was all over the place and it still feels like I didn't get much accomplished, mainly because it takes so freaking long to update one computer. At the very least it takes about five minutes, often longer because I had to try it multiple times, and the laptops had to be plugged into the network because it wasn't working over the wireless. It was a super pain in the butt and it will remain one for quite awhile because there are several laptop carts to go through and it doesn't always work. We got four or five emails today from the tech guys trying to clarify different things so I expect those will continue to come next week. A good way to end the semester.

And that was pretty much my day at work. I had second grade reading groups this morning and a few classes in the lab, but it felt like I spent my entire day trying to update laptops.

Tonight I worked at the theater. Kind of. It was another slow night so I ended up getting sent home after only two hours. I had a productive two hours though. I read a chapter in my book, started cross stitching the flowers on my current project, and watched some YouTube videos.

When I got home I watched Modern Family and finished my cross stitch. It took me forever to decide on the color for the flowers but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Tomorrow I open at the theater. Who knows for how long. I plan on reading, watching YouTube videos, crocheting, and maybe play a little Minecraft. Or maybe just eat lunch and then be sent home. The staff Christmas party for the school is tomorrow night but I don't plan on going. I'm just not a party person. I always end up just off on the edge somewhere, quietly waiting to leave. Also, I'm barely passable at smalltalk when it is people I know and these parties include the significant others of my coworkers so that is just another layer. I've gone the last two years but this year I think I'm going to pass. Maybe stay home and play video games or work on a crafty thing.

December 11, 2014

This morning I know I did something to fill my time but it is slipping my mind. I was once again unneeded for kindergarten literacy centers. I went down, moved tables back, and then headed back to the lab. Awhile later first grade came down. I watched the class while the teacher pulled a few out at a time to go back to the room and make hand print mold things. I think everyone makes those at some point in their childhood and today was the day for this class of first graders.

This afternoon one of the kindergarten classes carpet bombed the computer lab. That is like crop dusting but when several people do it. I don't know if that is a thing but it is now. Anyway, there is at least one kindergartener every time that farts. Today there was one kid that let one rip and apologized for it but there had to be at least half the class silently going at it because it was verging on a visible haze in the lab. After they left I had to prop one of the doors open to air the place out. It was ridiculous.

I got an email from one of my professors today. Yesterday the overall group grade was posted and that brought my unofficial final grade to a 95.5, which according to the website is an 'A-'. That seemed a little high for an 'A-' but when I looked at the syllabus I learned that a 90-95 is an 'A-' and 96-100 is an 'A'. Still seems a little high to me but whatever. Back to the email, he said that as he was going through final grades he noticed that there were a few people who dropped from an 'A' to an 'A-' after the overall group grade was added and he didn't think it was fair when it was due to someone else's lower score on their portion of the project. So he is going to give me an extra point to bump me back up to an 'A'. Basic math should have kept me in the 'A' range but I really appreciate my professor for doing that because he certainly didn't have to.

This year's Project For Awesome starts soon but the perks are available now. While looking back at least year I realized I didn't get one of the perks I donated for. Or maybe I did but I couldn't find any record of it so I emailed them. They got back to me less than a half an hour later and attached the PDF of a sample of John Green's writing and the first story he every came up with when he was five or six. I wasn't expecting such a fast response so that was pretty cool. I also donated for this year to get the commemorative coin because I got one last year, too.

And I donated to the Yogscast livestream. I don't really want any of the games but I donated last year, maybe the year before that, I can't remember, but ultimately, it is for charity.

My mom returned the space heater today because it was missing the remote. They opened the box at the store to make sure the new one had a remote and it did, along with an instruction manual, which the first didn't have either. When I opened it I immediately noticed that the plastic wrap around the top looked a little rough and beneath it there was a huge crack in the top of the heater. So she ended up returning that one tonight and we're going to hope the third time is the charm. I haven't seen it yet but my fingers are crossed.

Tonight I was going to finish my cross stitch but I can't decide what color I want the flowers to be. I need to think about it some more. Right now I'm leaning toward using the two colors I used for the words.

Instead of cross stitching, I came back over to the old house and watched the Neebs livestream. Always entertaining. I didn't have a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight but I did actually get a response from him for the first time in awhile. Tonight he was working on finals. He turns 18 and graduates next Friday and then he is released from care on the 22^nd. That seems exciting and terrifying all at the same time. He's got a job lined up after he turns 18 but still hasn't figured out college yet. I'm hoping he does though because he is too smart not to continue his education.

I feel like I'm forgetting at least several things but nothing is coming to me. It's after 10:30PM and I'm distracted by the livestream, which is coming to an end so I am going to end this so I can head back to the new house and go to bed.

December 10, 2014

This morning I had a good random conversation with the fifth grade teacher while her class was in the lab. And I ended the morning with both second grade classes. I feel like there was something else in there too but it isn't coming to me.

Also in the morning, the cook came down to see if I could help fix the Christmas labels she was making. They were small and all over the place on the page in Publisher so I worked on that off and on throughout the morning and finished it right after lunch. It looked way better when I got done.

Another off and on project throughout the day was working on my Christmas list. The only thing I really want is a big desk calendar so I can write down school stuff next semester. I also included a 3DS game, a small workbench thing, and even though I don't need any more books and won't have time to read them when school starts again, I ended up with several books on the list.

Today was an early release day but I didn't do anything productive with my time. I just went to the old house and messed around on the internet. I watched a lot of YouTube videos. I also looked at the Project For Awesome perks because that has started up. Last year I think I just got the commemorative coin and I'll probably do the same this year just to keep that going. I also want to donate to the Yogscast livestream. Throughout the year I'll buy the random Humble Bundle and give all the money to charity. And then at the end of the year I give to the Project For Awesome and the Yogscast livestream. Tis the season.

Tonight was Chipotle night and on my way to pick that up I stopped and bought a Powerball ticket. My first in quite awhile. It was a lot easier to do that on a weekly basis when I lived much closer to the one gas station in town that sells the tickets. Ever since the move, that gas station has been way out of my way and it just isn't convenient anymore. But I would like to get it back into my routine. I want the vice and it would still be nice to win, although no one really plays the lottery to win.

Chipotle was good. I didn't get sofritas this week because I wanted a break from the taste. It is good but not great and not something I want to eat week after week. After dinner I went down to my room and set my the space heater my mom got me as an early Christmas present. My room is warm and my hands and nose aren't freezing for the first time this winter. It's really nice. The only problem is that it was supposed to come with a remote and it didn't. Not really a big deal but I think my mom is going to check into it.

I watched Guardians of the Galaxy today, finishing it up tonight, and it lived up to all of the hype. I was a little worried but turns out I didn't need to be. I really liked it. It is hard to pick because I liked all the characters but I've gotta go with Groot for my favorite. He was very much the loyal, gentle giant that you don't want to mess with because then he turns into a badass. Also, Karen Gillan makes a pretty hot bald blue villain.

I worked on my cross stitch tonight and finished all the wording. Now I just need to finish the two small flowers and I'll be done. Minus washing and ironing it. I might finish the flowers tomorrow but I probably won't get around to the washing and ironing until this weekend. But after that I can start on the knitting project I want to try. And relearn the afghan crochet stitch so I can finish that project. And play Minecraft.

December 9, 2014

I've had a headache since this afternoon so we'll see how much effort I put into this.

I helped with literacy centers in both kindergarten classes this morning. Both went relatively well. In my second group I had the kid who is ridiculously good at drawing. Earlier in the year he drew a picture of me and nailed it. Today he drew an accurately shaped duck and a pretty good cow. He drew the duck without even looking at the picture in the book. I just hope he keeps drawing. He has genuine talent.

I finished the channel guide for my mom and printed that out today. I noticed a few formatting things after I printed it, and I fixed them, but I wasn't going to print it again. Despite the formatting things, it came out pretty well. And my mom ended up liking it so that's what matters.

This afternoon I figured out how to print on note cards. One of the printers in the lab wouldn't make a custom paper size small enough but thankfully the other one would. I then made cards in Publisher for each of the kindergarteners with their name and lunch number and printed them out. These will be used by them to log themselves into Compass Learning. My plan is to get them started on that after winter break.

After work I got gas, went to Home Depot to finally get polyurethane for my desks, and then I stopped by Target. I got Honey Nut Cheerios. I haven't had them since at least middle school, maybe even grade school, and they are as good as I remember.

Tonight I watched TV and cross stitched. I made it through the first 'g' in 'disgusting'. And that took me over two hours. I have reached the inevitable point of any craft project where I just want it to be done. I still really like it but I'm ready to move onto something else. I still have things I want to knit and crochet. And I want to play Minecraft.

And now I want to go to bed so I'm going to do that.

December 8, 2014

Today was pretty boring.

This morning during second grade reading groups, one of my groups read about Christmas in Holland. We were working on summarizing so after each paragraph I'd ask them about what they just read and then did the same when we were done. The one thing that stuck with all of them was that they don't have a naughty list in Holland. Instead, the bad kids are either hit with a stick or put in a bag and taken back to Spain. I prefer the naughty list and getting a piece of coal.

This afternoon I had both groups of second graders for Khan Academy. The first group came in and got to work pretty quick, especially the kid I sent back to the room last week. The second group was a slightly different matter. They were much noisy and took longer to calm down. Especially one kid in particular who didn't have a username or password for Khan. I asked him if he had a card with his information on it and he didn't so I told him to go ask his teacher to see if she had one and he didn't want to do that. I told him his only other option was to get on Compass Learning. He started crying so I presented the first option again of going to see his teacher. More crying. Back to Compass Learning, continued crying. Then I told him several times to go back to the room and he just pouted and ignored me. It wasn't worth my effort so I just ignored him for the five more minutes they were in the lab and then emailed the teacher about it.

Most of my day was spent reading about books. I came across a really interesting blog about books and authors and things so I've been working my way through it. This has led to several books being added to my Amazon cart. All to be saved for later, most likely, but added nonetheless. Someday I'll learn to read faster so I can get through all the books I want to read. There are just too many and I don't spend nearly enough time reading.

After work I went and got my hair cut and then stopped by the old house to use the internet. After dinner I watched things and cross stitched. I finished the last hour of Red, which is an enjoyable movie. I like stories where the old, traditional-types beat the newfangled-types. Then I watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. I think I've only seen it once before but I like it. Thirdly, was the latest episode of Sonic Highways. I only just learned about the series Dave Grohl was making and I think this episode, New York, was the last one. The only other one I saw was Seattle. At some point I will need to catch the other episodes because it is a really interesting series. Music is one of my first loves. I ended my night with the last part of a new episode of The Transporter series. Still cheesy.

I made progress on my cross stitch. I added three words in the smaller font and only have the last word to finish in the bigger font. That word being “disgusting”, so that might take me awhile. A couple hours at least. The finishing touch will be the two flowers. I am still liking how it looks.

Hopefully tomorrow at work will be a little more eventful. I need to send out an email again seeing if anyone has some side projects I can work on. As much as I enjoy sitting and staring at a computer screen all day reading about books, I wouldn't mind feeling a tad more productive at work.

December 7, 2014

I got to sleep in again this morning, which was nice, and then I put up the Christmas lights on the house. It was a bit chilly and the breeze sucked but I survived. My mom got little clips that go on the gutter and the lights clip onto them. This meant I didn't have to worry about doing anything permanent, like putting in nails or hooks. At least on the bit of the house above the garage. I also put lights on the two posts by the front door and the area between them. That involved hammering in a few tiny nails. But I got it done and I think it took me less than two hours. Not bad. We'll see how my legs are feeling in the morning after all of the up and down with the ladder.

I spent the rest of my day watching TV and cross stitching. That is a pretty good way to spend a Sunday. The series premiere of The Librarians was on today so this afternoon they played the three Librarian movies. I'm a fan. Even before I was seriously considering becoming a librarian. The movies didn't influence my decision in any way, because although all the magic stuff would be cool, being an Indiana Jones-type adventurer is not appealing.

Tonight, I watched The Librarians (twice because they replayed it after the first showing) and cross stitched. With the work I put in yesterday and several hours today, I'm about halfway done. I am liking how it looks so far. Depending on my level of motivation, I might be able to finish it this week. I am interested to see how much the para I'm making it for is willing to pay for it. The problem with crafty things is that their true monetary worth is far greater than most people are willing to pay. I certainly won't be getting a minimum wage out of it. I would say that is the reason most people on Etsy sell patterns rather than actual finished cross stitches or knitted things. Anyway, I generally don't get paid for the things I make so any amount of money would beat nothing. Also, I liked coming up with the pattern and it is fun to be cross stitching again.

With the watching of TV and the making of the crafty things, along with doing laundry, I didn't go over to the old house tonight to do internet things. It gets really annoying having to drive back and forth every night to use the internet. Not doing that might become a thing. The internet is such a time-sink and I can be way more productive with things I want to do without the distraction of the internet. I've got access to it all day at work during the week, and I will probably still go over after work, but maybe I won't go over after dinner. Unless there is a livestream or something I want to watch. We'll see.

December 5, 2014

This morning I unintentionally slept in. I woke up to turn my alarm off and then woke up again around 7:20PM. I do this most mornings but I usually don't fall back to sleep for so long. I ended up leaving the house at pretty much the same time I always do so everything worked out.

My morning at work was uneventful. I watched three different groups of second graders make Kwanzaa banners during reading groups. I then had both second grade classes and one of the third grade classes in the lab before lunch. After lunch I had the other third grade class, a small group of second graders working on Khan Academy, and finally one of the fourth grade classes.

I spent all my in-between times reading over and editing my reflective journal. I made all the changes that my favorite substitute marked yesterday, made several more on the pages she didn't get to, and then read over the whole thing again, making a couple more changes. I finished just in time to submit it before I left work. I am officially done with my first semester of grad school. Now I just have to wait for the final grades. I'm not sure when those will be posted. Relatively soon, I hope.

After work I stopped by the old house and then headed home to eat the second half of my Chipotle burrito before getting ready for work and then heading to the theater. It was a very truncated evening. I read my book and few saved internet articles during the first set and then I was sent home a little before eight o'clock because we were so slow. That was kind of annoying because I was just getting ready to start cross stitching.

Instead of going home I came over to the old house to watch YouTube videos. I also spent some time looking at cross stitch fonts and I think I'm going to throw together a different design for the cross stitch I was going to start tonight and see how I like it. Maybe I'll get to work my full shift tomorrow and I'll have time to at least finish the new pattern and maybe even start cross stitching.

December 4, 2014

This morning I was supposed to have a meeting with the principal about Compass Learning but she got distracted by other stuff so we had to bump it back. An hour later it was time for me to go down and help with literacy centers in kindergarten but the college kids were there so I wasn't needed. I headed back across the building and ended up running into the principal outside the computer lab so we had our meeting. She wants to set up a competition over winter break so whichever grade level has the most assignments completed in Compass Learning over break gets a pajama day. My job will be running the report and doing the math to figure out who wins.

My favorite substitute stopped by the lab this morning while her class was in PE. She wanted to know what I was up to and I ended up giving her the hard copy of my reflective journal so she sat down and started reading it. I handed her a pencil and told her to act like a teacher and tear it apart. She read it off and on throughout the day and managed to get about halfway through and had a lot of good edits. I feel good about that but it also makes me a little worried for the second half that she didn't get to.

This afternoon we had an assembly for the school choir. It was alright. There was some fun choreography. I would write more about it but it is almost eleven o'clock and I am tired. I have been lacking in sleep this entire week.

After the assembly I talked with the librarian for awhile before heading back to the lab. The schedule this afternoon got switched around a bit because of the assembly so third grade came in early and they were followed by one of the kindergarten classes. The kindergarten teacher left me in the lab with the kids so he could go back and help the other kindergarten teacher with the foster family Christmas gifts. It is normal practice for me to be in charge of his class when he's out of the lab doing stuff but today was mildly exhausting. It felt like I never got a chance to stand still because I was constantly going from one kid to the next putting out small fires.

After work I went down to the mall to get my mom a gift card for her birthday and I also got one for Christmas to save me a trip. Then I went to Target to get her a card and a clock. She wanted a small clock by the TV because the old DVR used to have one and she got used to being able to see the time there. She bought a small alarm clock the other day because it looked like it was illuminated but it turned out that you have to hold down a button for it to illuminate. And when it isn't illuminated you can't really see the time. So I got here a bigger one (although the smallest one they had) that has light-up numbers, not an illuminated background.

When I got home I wrapped everything and when my sister got there we all went for my mom's birthday dinner at the Chinese buffet. Delicious as always. Dinner ended up lasting about two hours and then we headed back to the house for cake and ice cream and presents. I actually had a little bit of ice cream and it was delicious. I miss ice cream. The books and gift card weren't really a surprise but she liked the clock. It ended up fitting in pretty well with the TV and everything. I was afraid it would be too big but I think we're good.

When we done with that, I headed over to the old house so I could make the edits on my reflective journal. I was going to submit it tonight but I couldn't come up with a way to reword one of the things so I am going to think about it some more. I also want to read over everything one last time. I should have plenty of time to do that tomorrow at work and get it submitted before I clock out. If if I run out of time I can still submit it as it is now and should be able to get a decent grade.

December 3, 2014

The total climbs to forty-five baby spiders.

This morning I had one of the fifth grade classes in the lab. I talked with the teacher most of the time about random stuff. Mostly crafts and hobbies. And her tiny hands. I think that came up while talking about typing. I had never looked at her hands before but there were surprisingly small.

While we were talking one of her students kept asking to get a drink. She was doing it in a overly nice voice with a smile on her face and it was really creepy. At one point she mentioned the fact that she was using her nice voice and not yelling or angry, which made it even creepier. At the moment, this girl isn't allowed to go to the bathroom or get a drink or go anywhere else in the school without an adult with her because of some accusations regarding one of the kindergarteners that the police are currently investigating. It is sad, partly because it is obvious things happened to this fifth grader, but it is even more sad that she did these things to the kindergartener and the kindergartener's younger sister, because the kindergartener is so sweet and innocent. While the fifth grader is big and mean.

Both second grade classes came in next and nothing eventful happened. The first class had three student teachers and they always spend their time wandering around the lab, like sharks unable to stop. So I just stand back.

When I wasn't doing work things I worked on school things. I read through and made comments on my group member's paper for our group project. I learned that Word has a comment feature where you can highlight stuff in the document, click on “add comment” or whatever it says, and then a column pops up to the right of the document, with a line to the highlighted bit, and you can write a comment. That is pretty handy. Shortly after finishing that I learned that we don't have a discussion post this week for that class. So I'm technically done. That would have been nice to know before I read those chapters last night but learning knew things is good for the brain I suppose.

This afternoon I filled out four surveys, one for each of my professors, one about the program in general, and a short one regarding my group members. I also went through my reflective journal and made the edits my mom pointed out. I could turn that in now but I want to read over it one more time. As soon as it is turned in then I will be done with everything for the semester. I feel relieved. Unless something horrible happens in the next couple of days, I will have successfully completed my first semester of graduate school.

I also had the other fifth grade class in the lab and I spent the whole time talking to that teacher about random stuff, mostly food related. We talked about how strange it is that the thought of having ice cream made from human milk is really gross, yet people readily eat products made from cow's milk. And drink cow's milk. Along with milk from other cows. I'm in the same boat where milk from an animal sounds way more appealing that a human's milk, even though I don't drink either, but that is so strange. Very backwards.

Tonight was Chipotle night and my burrito was again huge this week. It was also good but not great. The rice was way too salty. That happens occasionally with the white rice but this is the first time I have experienced it with the brown rice.

I texted the new volunteer kid to see if he could hang out tonight because tomorrow night is my mom's birthday but I never heard back from him. No surprise there. He turns eighteen the Friday after next and then I think he'll officially be out of the system and my responsibilities will be over. Or maybe that whole process takes awhile. He's only my second kid and the first to age out of the system. It will be a learning experience. It usually takes awhile to get another case but I don't think I'm going to start another one if it is offered because the beginning of a case is always time consuming. Going around and meeting everyone and reading through the file and getting to know the kid. With one day off a week from work and schoolwork on top of that, I don't feel like I could give a new case the kind of attention it needs. We'll see how I'm feeling though. Maybe if it is a younger kid. I'm kind of over teenagers. Especially ones that I can't get to talk to me.

After dinner I started going through the channels on the TV that we actually get so I can match them up with the ones I got online. That is going to be a long process. It took me forever going through the seventy-eight Sirius XM channels. So much typing. But I'm getting there. Maybe in another week or three.

I emailed my grandma back tonight about the Brussels sprouts. I didn't mention anything about the house auction that my sister told me about tonight. She apparently made less the $300 which is absolutely ridiculous. One of the couches, which was dated but was practically brand new because it was treated really well, sold for $8. And the really nice dressers were well under $100 each. My grandma feels sick about it all, my sister feels bad, and I feel bad. It all comes down to miscommunication and most of that is due to my aunt intentionally interfering with things because she didn't want my grandma to bring more stuff down to her house. Or so we assume. My grandma said had she known that we wanted more of the furniture she would have let us have it. And we didn't say anything about it because we wanted her to get more money in the auction. It was all of our faults for thinking the auction was going to be a legitimate thing. There should have been minimum prices on things but it seems like they started the bidding at pennies and worked their way up. On top of all of that my grandma got three bills for the adds the auction company placed. One was for $700. So my grandma basically got robbed and is having to pay the thief. I'm just glad we got out all of the stuff she and my grandpa made. That is the important stuff.

December 2, 2014

We're up to 38 baby spiders caught in my bathroom. This includes the drowned one I found in my bathtub. There was one tiny puddle of water in my tub and that stupid spider managed to find it.

This morning I parallel parked at work. I eventually made it, so we can say I was successful, but getting there was a bit rough. I ended up really far away from the curb on my first attempt and end up going back and for, slowing inching my closer and closer to the curb. It was ridiculous. My main problem is having to real idea where my bumpers are. I always think I'm super close to something and in reality I'm several feet away. I need to get the poles on the edge of my bumpers that some trucks have so I now exactly how close I am to something. It would look very much out of place but I'd be able to parallel park like nobody's business.

I helped out with literacy centers for both kindergarten classes today. There isn't really a writing component to the listening center this week, the kids are just listening to several books. There is only one copy of the last two so my main reason for being there, other than changing CDs, is to hold up the book for the kids during the last two stories. I was glad to be there.

When the sixth graders came down to type this morning one of them was complaining to the teacher about typing and it eventually got to the point where he determined she wasn't doing it right and hadn't learned anything from the previous levels in Type To Learn (and she was being unnecessarily argumentative) so he had me delete her progress. The next time they come in she will have to start over from the beginning. The potential good news for her is that it will start with the pre-test, so if she has actually learned something, the pre-test should put her on the correct level and not make her go through all the beginning levels again. Fingers crossed for her.

I had time to edit my reflective journal today. I caught a few things and made corrections. I had my mom read over it tonight and she caught some more stuff, which I will change tomorrow. I'll probably read over the whole thing one more time before I turn it in on Friday, just to be safe.

While watching the Yogscast livestream I continued work on my channel guide for my mom. It is looking good so far. I still need to have some time to go through all the channels we actually get so I know the list I am making is accurate with the correct channel number. I made significant progress today, though, and when I showed my mom the preview, she liked it.

This afternoon one of the third grade classes came to the lab. One of the students was working through an activity about angles with the teacher and at the end of it there was something on the screen about how even Michelangelo would be proud. The teacher commented to the student “And you probably think that's a turtle.” There was a pause of several seconds and then the student replied, with a somewhat confused look on her face, “He is a turtle.” It was pretty funny.

Tonight I did the reading for the discussion post for this week. The last day of class is on Friday, so rather than the post being due on Sunday, like always, it will be due on Friday, as far as I know. The problem at the moment is that the professor hasn't posted the video lecture for the week or the discussion questions. It would be nice if he could get that done during the day tomorrow so I can get that over with. I work at the theater on Friday night so that really doesn't leave any time to post on Friday. It'll all work out.

December 1, 2014

The last month of the year has begun and I can't tell yet if the year has gone by fast or slow. I'll give it a few more weeks and see how I feel around the new year.

I was up late last night watching Impractical Jokers and that made getting up this morning a little rough but I managed. This morning I had second grade reading groups. It didn't go that bad. The first group worked on a packet of winter-themed things. The second group (which was also the first group) read a story about baby animals in the rainforest. That was a little rough because kids get bored quite easily when it isn't their turn to read. And the third group did dictionary worksheets so there wasn't a lot for me to do. It also lasted less than ten minutes which made it even easier for me.

Later in the lab I had both second grade classes and a third grade class. Nothing eventful happened. During lunch I started watching the Yogscast livestream because that started today. It will go all month long and I will miss a lot of it because I will either be busy at work or in a house without the internet, but I will watch it when I can. Also, all the past broadcasts are saved on Twitch and I believe they will be uploading them to one of their YouTube channels so I'll be able to catch up on the things I miss.

When I wasn't busy with work stuff, I briefly started editing my reflective journal and making a channel guide for my mom. The dish installer didn't give us one. He said they didn't have any but on their website you can download PDFs of the different packages, which is better than nothing. I'm making my own that will include all the local channels. It might take me a little while.

After work I went to the old house for a little while to watch the livestream but I headed back early because I wanted to make more Brussels sprouts for dinner. Only after arriving did I remember that I needed to rinse and cut them in advance so that they have time to dry out before baking. So I scrapped that plan. Instead, I opened up and put together my TV, which arrived today. I was expecting tomorrow so today was a nice surprise. After dinner I got it all set up and I was able to get it and my monitor side-by-side on my dresser. It will be nice to have my laptop up on the monitor and still be able to watch TV. Eventually we'll get the internet over, and I'll get a new motherboard for my desktop, so the monitor will go in the other room, but for the time being I will enjoy it. For the moment I am assuming the TV has a good picture but I can't really tell because I started watching a recording of Speed. I haven't seen that movie in forever and it used to be one of my favorites.

I have now caught twenty-four tiny baby spiders in my bathroom. I would like to think that is all of them. I read that large house spiders can lay between forty and fifty eggs. Hopefully these babies were not from a large house spider. There were a few more babies this morning I think and then I caught six more tonight. One of them was floating down in the middle of the bathroom at about head level. Every now and then I'll walk in and think I feel a cobweb or something on my head, which makes me wonder how many of these tiny dudes I have inadvertently harbored. Creeps me out more than a little.

Tomorrow I need to finish editing my journal and start reading the chapters for my discussion post this week. Maybe even read all the chapters. Previous chapters were fairly short but I haven't looked at the four we're supposed to read for this week. Hopefully the author didn't become suddenly verbose near the end of the book.