It's Kanye time, ya'll.

TIME Magazine Cover: Hip-Hop's Class Act - Aug. 29, 2005 - Singers - Entertainment - music

Can you say Ye?

Much to my dear, sweet husband's dismay... I have Kanye. Pre-ordered it on iTunes and got it this morning. Care to join me, Disey? (<--My college roomie and fellow Kanye fan. Dan sometimes jokingly refers to her as the "other wife"). I personally enjoy "Gold Digger" because it smacks of his first album, but am getting used to the rest of the new album bit by bit. Old Kanye was good times. Di went with me to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress last summer and we totally terrorized Northwest Indiana with "Workout Plan" when it came on Power 92. I think carloads of soccer moms and elderly people were waiting in horror for my Jeep to lift up off the ground and bounce like a hoop-dee or something we had it up so loud. Ah, youth... ;)

ALSO, today is BlogDay. Go ahead, try it yourself!
Here are FOUR of my FIVE recommendations:

Go see Lee Anne at Stampin' Along! She's also a recently-wed fiber artist and is an all-around sweet gal. (More on Lee Anne later this week!)

Visit Dioramarama and their Modern Quilt Along. They got me hooked on the new book and it's a must for hip quilters everywhere.

Check out the enterprising 8-year-old Delaney, who is decorating old horseshoes and selling them to save up money to buy her very own horse. Now that's a little girl who's determined to get a pony! If only I'd thought of that when I was her age, man. I wouldn't be trying to figure out ways to use my student loan money for one... tee hee.

Horse Hate isn't really a blog, but it cracks me up. Reminds me of Joy's horse, Foxy... crotchety, but loveable all the same (please don't ban me from the barn for that, Joy!).

And I'll think of another one later... too tired!

Now back to the regularly scheduled reading for enviro chem. Who knew toxicology would be so much fun?

Choppy Waters Ahead

So IU's back in full swing and we all survived our first day of classes. Today I had an intro GIS course and enviro chem. The GIS course is up in the air... I might drop it. It's taught by a PhD student who "forgot" to bring the syllabus and the first assignment to class, so he mumbled at us for an hour and then told us there was no point into coming to the labs, so just show up on Thursday nights and do all of our labwork on our own time. What the heck is that? My tuition pays your tuition, pal. TEACH or SOMETHING! Sorry, that's my only rant of the day, I swear. Enviro chem was cool. The lady who teaches it got her MSES back when my mom was in the program (mid '70s), so she's kind of earthy and a nerdy hippy ;)

In crafting news:
Starting a quilt or two from the Modern Quilting Workshop book soon! Got all of my fabrics together. Just need to prewash, iron, and cut the pieces. Then I'll be well on my way to sewing bliss on Friday morning. No classes, so it's gonna be crafting day every Friday. Well, that and cleaning day. Oh, also have 4 1/2 repeats of Gina's Vintage Velvet done and I've started on ball #2 of that soft and lovely yarn she sent for SYNO.

And last, but not least -- my gal pal CJ down in Baton Rouge. CJ, I hope you're ok! I'll be calling you shortly to make sure you and the kitty didn't float away. Hopefully all is well with Di, Sarah, my Secret Pals and everybody else in that area also. Love you girls!

Bloody Finger

So I pulled an "Ison" today at work. That's what we affectionately call chopping off part of your hand on my mom's side of the family. My grandma chopped off part of her fingertip making dinner once, then my uncle stuck his hand in the snowblower and got part of his finger whacked off... and this morning I Ison'd myself a new flap on the pad of my thumb :( Uck. Valuable lesson learned: Never try to make masks for small children and use scissors to punch holes for eyes. Anyhow, I went to the Med-Point thing right down the highway and they glued me back together with DermaBond. And they gave me a tetanus shot. And the university picked up the bill!!!! Woo hoo! That totally cancels out the thumb chopping, right? FREE thumb chopping care. ;)

Cable Gal

Vintage Velvet after 2 repeats.

Check out the bottom inch... no matter how many times I redid my own Vintage Velvet, the bottom looked like this too. It looks slightly off kilter. Like maybe the first cable pulled the sides in too far. I use my row counter, count all my stitches, etc... any suggestions? Did anybody run into this or am I just a screwy cabler?

Vintage Velvet + Calculus = Square Root of All Evil

So I'm dilligently working away on repeat #2 of Gina's Vintage Velvet scarf for SYNO. Never knew that Muench Touch Me yarn was so darn soft and pretty! I've been buying my chenille by the cone for about 4 years now because it's cheaper that way if you weave it, but this Muench yarn totally blows cone chenille out of the water. I think I'll be hoarding this stuff once I get some more money.

On a less fuzzy and happy note, I got my textbook for the Mathematics for Environmental Science class in the mail today...


Yes, it's CALCULUS! Oh, woe is me. Thankfully my husband has a degree in mathematics and doesn't mind me asking him TONS of questions. I never would have made it throught my first semester of statistics last year if he'd gone ahead with that art major, that's for sure!

Dear Kirsten:

I’m pleased to announce that the MSES committee has agreed to admit you to their program. A formal letter will be sent to your Bloomington address soon.

Congratulations!

Andrea ****

Coordinator, Admissions and Financial Aid

Indiana University

School of Public & Environmental Affairs
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Woo hoo! I made it into the joint degree program! Thank goodness. I was getting worried that perhaps they weren't going to let me in. I didn't have much math or traditional science as an undergrad. But now I'll start working on my Master of the Science of Environmental Sciences in a couple of weeks, finish the last couple classes I need for my MPA concentration, and eventually be out of school someday. And maybe I'll even get a cool job :) Cross your fingers for me... I'll need it to get thru enviro chem and calculus this semester!

Sweet!

So this weekend I got some faboo things from my wonderful Secret Pal. Lotions and lip gloss, an ample supply of Twizzlers, beautiful Fiesta yarn, three awesome new knitting books, a yummy smelling candle, a photo album, knitting notecards, an eye mask, and assorted bathtime pampering goodies. Whoa, nelly... that's a HUGE list! Man, I really lucked out. This person is so thoughtful and very cool! Pix up soon once I get a chance to get them off the camera. THANKS AGAIN, SP!!!! You're the best.

(Incase you're wondering about all this Secret Pal business, go here: http://secretpal5.blogspot.com/ Once upon a time I had a button, but haven't had time to replace it since I switched templates... oops!)

I've also joined up with Stitch Ya Neck Out, which is doing a swap based on the patterns from my favorite book of all time, Scarf Style. It's going to be fun! I'm getting one of those curly noodle scarves made by a lovely knitter lurking somewhere in the continental U.S.. That's all I'm allowed to say, though I totally wanted to post a link to her blog so she gets the credit she deserves for being my scarf buddy... but once the swap is over, I'll reveal who he/she is!

Well, that's all for now -- gotta do some heavy duty cleaning and errand running on my day off tomorrow. The in-laws are coming for the weekend and we've still got a couple small boxes of "junk" to unpack and stuff someplace. Pray to the domestic goddesses for me!