A deadly, bookish combination

One of the truly lovely things about a job in a academic setting is the holiday break. You see, my friends, in two weeks I will be on vacation for two weeks. If it helps to calm your jealousy at all, please know that for the majority of my working life this has not been the case. When I was in college, I worked at the public library and a bakery. Because I went to college in my hometown which meant to travel home for the holidays I had to drive all of, oh, five minutes, I usually volunteered to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas so that people with further to go could head home earlier. The bakery was a great place to work around the holidays. It was bursting with activity and pies and dinner rolls and my sister and I used to con people into buying extra pies by mentioning (maybe with tears in our eyes) that we could go home to our family as soon as all the pies were sold.

Anyway, now I have a vacation. There is no downside to this, but there is the practical concern that I live alone and most of my friends will still be working. My sister is a stay at home mom, so I plan on spending some time with her and the baby, but other than that I am free as a bird. And I don't have cable. And I'm sick of all the movies and books I own. But never fear, I work in the Interlibrary Loan department meaning all of the books and movies owned by libraries are right at my finger tips!

Here's a sample of what I've ordered so far:


Holiday Themed Books:

Movies I've been meaning to watch:

Books to keep me busy:

 And, for the record, something I will not be ordering because I haven't gone completely cat-lady-insane:

If I can dream it, I can do it! (Unless I get buried in yarn.)

Last night was the first knitting class for the summer and it was great to teach again! The class went really well and I think some of the students might come back for more classes. However, as I was discussing upcoming classes I realized that knitting classes are scheduled through August. Summer is so short and it feels like if I'm not careful it will all be gone before I even know it. Thus:

SUMMER GOALS!

Spend time with my family and friends

I intend to : drink margaritas and talk about classical music and home deocrating with mom, drink beers and talk about tools and retirement with dad,  kiss my niece until she giggles, have slumber parties with my friends, have sister movie dates, go to Monday night dinners at my parents' house, visit my grandparents weekly, have wine on the porch nights with friends, and gossip at Craft Night every Tuesday. Speaking of craft night...

Start a public Craft Night

I want to organize a knitting night once a month for people outside of the private craft night circle. I know at least a few people who are already on board!

Get my crafting supplies and goals organized

This absolutely has to happen and soon. I spend way too much money on supplies that I probably already own but can't find and too much time looking for the supplies I do know I have. Plus it's terrifying to not know exactly how much yarn I own. There are three huge tubs and then various bags and loose skeins scattered throughout the house. Ok, it's potentially more terrifying to know exactly how much yarn I own. But I'll be brave!  This how-to is really inspiring.

Cook/Bake lots and lots

Use the farmers market as inspiration, update the poor lonely veggie blog, try new vegetables/fruits, expand my recipe collection and organize it. I need to do something more like a notebook where I can take notes about the recipe each time I make it. Like a food journal.  Hmm....

Sew or get off the bobbin. 

Seriously, I own two sewing machines and innumerable accessories. I have taken a quilting class. I have a book of the 101 ways to use your first sewing machine. And yet I cannot sew or at least do not sew. So this summer, I'm going to sit down with that book and make a choice: do I sew (and therefore will keep all of this stuff in my life) or do I not sew (and therefore get rid of all of this stuff to make room for more yarn).

Read many, many books.

I'm reading FOUR right now.

Brush off my language skills.

I'm going to get my Arabic books back out and refresh what I've already learned and maybe even go a little further with the second book. And a friend of mine is going to help me get my French back up to snuff. (Which is a really weird phrase if you think about it.)




That should keep me pretty busy. I also have a craft sale this July and another in September and another in October. Knitting is not really a goal as much as an assumed daily activity.