summer's end

Summertime done come and gone, my oh my... it is a rainy night (the first in a looong time) and I am lounging here in bed with my Faithful Shadow, which of course, is Cricket's title. I guess Ella's would be The Cutest Thing Ever or The CEO and Board of Directors. After my last installment, which involved the ecstatic news that I would be working at the Salt Mines full time, I proceeded to enjoy the last two weeks of my summer. A little bit of work, but really, I avoided it for the most part. Hung out with some pagan friends, hiked and swam at the pool a little bit, continued my seasonal cooking and farmer's market shopping, evidence of which is shown here:
I think I post a picture of caprese salad every summer. I know i take one every summer. My latest, greatest farmer's market find, however, is the lemon cucumber. I'd show you a pic, but I've eaten them all, and the market's tomorrow. Little roundish cutiecumbers, yellow in color and lemon-sized. Cut them open and find that they are green inside. Very exciting, and the basis of many a satisfying lunch this week.

Oh yeah, and I turned 50. Is that not mind-blowing? Here's to the next 50 years. My birthday was low key, which is how I like it, a welcome change after the past few birthdays, all of which seemed entirely too eventful in unexpected ways. This year's merely involved some hanging out, reading, and movie going, to see the tense, beautiful-but-ugly Winter's Bone, which was terrific.

After a summer of the complete and utter lack of knitting mojo, I took a little break from the insurmountable pile of UFO's that were whining at me and making me feel guilty, and yielded to the understated, lead-by-example peer pressure of my knitting group, and cast on for Citron, that viral shawl, in a warm orange yellow merino from my stash.

I'm making good progress on it, and the color is cheering. I love this yarn; Knitting Notions Classic Merino Laceweight; it's soft, though not as soft as Malabrigo. It is the yarn I knit Icarus from, and I think it wears very well and stands up to daily use. I'm feeling a fascination with lace knitting, at the moment, and am trying to decide what shawl to do next. I like Citron's simplicity, I wouldn't exactly call it lace knitting. But lace takes concentration, and I'm worried about my undivided attention over the next few months.

The new job has kinda sorta begun. I am not teaching yet; I've been busy working at school, registering students, reading data, setting up the math lab, which I share with another specialist, a hilarious woman I'll call Fish. My teachers are very nice, and the administrator is strict; a real velvet hammer type. I like her, though, and think we will work well together. I cannot say the same for the district level admin. This district is a big freaking mess, full of nepotism, corruption and smokescreens. My plan is to do my job, lay low, and enjoy the kids and the math. On the topic of math... I've heard so many teachers remark in passing, how they dislike math. It surprises me, and I realize that while I may have been a kid who was not a good math student, I am an adult who loves teaching it, and enjoys its rhythms and beauty. When did this happen?

This job promises to be much more data-driven than other teaching jobs I've had; I will spend a fair amount of time testing kids, reporting and analyzing progress and recordkeeping. I can't decide if this is a disaster waiting to happen, or a chance to hone my techie kungfu skills.

Acornbud sent me a care package.

From left to right: A slipper floor cleaner; you wear it as a slipper and scrub the floor - very clever, that. Cupcake card, handmade. Mac nuts, which have been consumed already, and a lovely skein of fingering weight yarn from The Lavender Sheep, colorway "Cascades." Delightful things that made me totally homesick for my friend, and the Land of Aloha.

A question for Acornbud: Isn't it time for a Totoro Census?