Monday, April 27, 2009

Power Up

This weekend we went to more open houses, out of the 6 + that we saw one was close to what we are looking for. It was a cape style house with a nice backyard, a seemingly nice neighborhood (if we were willing to look the other way at the collection of men across the street holding beer cans without their shirts on). The house itself was mostly updated except the kitchen was smallish and hadn't been updated, but wasn't nearly as outdated as some of the other things we've seen. I was slightly confused the by layout, they had 4 bedrooms but made the bedroom on the ground floor into a TV room, and what I would have thought of as the living room was used as a 'sitting room'.



The concerns with this house is that the basement wasn't finished, so that would be something we would have to do. It's close to a swampy area which means tons of mosquitos in summer. Also, there are plans to build a power plant within 2 miles of the house, although it looks like these plans have been stalled for some time. I started looking at zoning maps and what not last night, and what exactly it means to be that close to a power plant. Basically, it's not great but on the other hand there are so many power plants here it would be impossible to avoid the effects completely. I stumbled on one report last night that suggested that effects are felt from 10-20 miles from the power plant. I then googled to see the nearest power plant to us now and there are several in the city so I'm apparently already feeling the effects of it.



Decisions, decisions. The search continues.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Knitting Knews


Here is the finished Cap Sleeve Sweater from Fitted Knits. Clearly, I changed it quite a bit. It was supposed to have a keyhole opening by the left shoulder, and oddly enough, cap sleeves. I liked the look of the sleeves hitting at the elbow. I think this is my favorite sweater I've knit so far. I've worn it outside the house twice which is more than I can say for everything but the cardigan.



This is the beginning of the Hybrid Seamless sweater. I'm knitting it in Cascade 220, it's kind of a heathered oatmeal color. I have the body done to the armpits, now I'm working on the first sleeve. Today it is 81 degrees in my house...yet I'm still plugging away at a wool sweater. Knitters are a dedicated breed.


This is the yarn for my next sweater, I have not knit a sweater with fingering weight yarn before. I'm hoping it will give it a more polished look. I haven't found a pattern for this one yet, I think I'm going to just do another seamless sweater tailored to my measurements, then add a cowl neck at the end. Maybe I'll do flowy sleeves....not sure yet.







Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Best Host Ever

I have been a fan of Best Week Ever for some time, it passes the time on the train as I watch on my iPod and tune out the annoyances of my commute. Recently, Paul F. Tompkins became the host which kind of changed the format for the show. At first, I was skeptical. I thought what I liked about the show was various no name commentators ripping on the ridiculosity of the weeks reality programming...but Paul makes the show so much better!

I now struggle with maintaining my composure on the train....somethings he does things that are just so ridiculous that it would cause me to chuckle and guffaw at home but would not be appropriate from someone seemingly 'normal' as myself on the train.

Sum it Up

  • Green Sweater is done, I've worn it twice outside of the house and people liked it.
  • Applied for a mortgage
  • More open houses last week, two of note
  • One more class left
  • M's car dead in driveway
  • Boigie is a fave at the vet
  • Finished Northern Clemency--great writing. It's like the movies I like, not really much happens but somehow it's still really good.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Are you kidding me??

There are certain people I work with who probably haven't done a complete 40 hour work week since the beginning of the year...first of all, how hard is it to just come to work and do your job? Secondly, it's so annoying to see this go on and nothing is done about it. Also, the cut deepens when I realize that we both get the same lousy raise year in and year out.

Where's that light at the end of the tunnel again??

Monday, April 13, 2009

Spring Green Sweater

So I'm nearly done making the short sleeve keyhole tee out of Fitted Knits...it's probably got a fancier name than that but anyway, I'm almost done.



I did not do the keyhole, somehow it looked a little trashy, not to mention impractical to me. My bra strap will totally keep clogging up that keyhole. I omitted that, I also lengthened the sleeve. The pattern is for cap sleeves, but I am actually doing just past the elbow. I also ignored the pattern in terms of measurements; it's top down so I kept trying it on and made it truly fit to my shape...cutting in at the waist, back out for the hips which is where mine will hit. I did keep the picot edging which took me two attempts. Picot edging is attained by doing a row of k2tog followed by a yarn over. My error was following the books directions with the yarn over which said to move the yarn clockwise, in reality it's counter clockwise so I had to unravel it and try again. I watched a video on knittinghelp.com which shows that a yarn over is done the same way that you would move the yarn if you were actually knitting a stitch, but instead of moving a stitch from the left to right needle, you just put the yarn over the right needle to create a stitch.



I really like the yarn I choose and am in love with the color. It's a four ply yarn, 2 strands are a grass green and 2 strands are more of a kelly green which gives it a nice varied look upon close inspection. I'll try to get a nice close up pick of it. My only complaint is that there have been a few knots deep down in the skein that I've had to strategically hide on the wrong side of the garment, also one section seemed to go down to one ply, with the other three strands frayed off. Again, strategic placement was necessary to hide this foible...



I'll post pics when I'm totally done...very soon!

Anniversary #1

Well, year one of married life has come and gone. I think that technically removes the 'newlyewed' title that we've grown used to using during this year. If you are a married person, you know the number question that both married and unmarried folks ask you in your first year of marriage is..."Does it feel any different?" Answer: No.



We lived together before so not much really changed. We became more focused on savings goals and buying a house and joined some of our accounts together. That was the only change that I really noticed...M still is as thoughtful as ever, no slipping noted there.



So, you might be asking, what did you do for your first anniversary? M planned every bit of it, which was a gift in and of itself. He took me back to the place we got married and we stayed in the same suite we stayed in the night of the wedding. It was very thoughtful, he kept it a secret for months and did not give it up even as we were en route to the Inn. In keeping with our theme of playing board/card games on our honeymoon, he bought a few card games at Target to entertain us. He brought chocolate, fruit, and pound cake for us to make fondue in the suite after dinner at the Inn. He also thought to bring a speaker so that we could listen to my iPod. Initally the intent was to listen to our wedding playlist, but iTunes deleted that last week (luckily it's backed up). He brought wine and champagne. He had thought of absolutely everything and it was greatly appreciated! It reinforces that he is by far the most thoughtful person I have ever met.



Here's to year #2!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Historical Lows

Ok, so I have heard sooo many times that interest rates on mortgages were at historical lows but I didn't really do the math until I attended a homebuyer seminar yesterday at work....now I feel the sense of urgency that everyone else has been feeling. The low interest rates, home prices at 2003 levels ( in my area at least), and the 8k homebuyer credit are all making me feel like we need to get moving on this.



We have started going to open houses, mainly just to see what we can get in different communities for our dollar...but now I'm thinking, we need to get serious about this. To take advantage of the first time home buyer credit, you must close by 12/1/09...closing takes about 60 days so that's the end of September...which means we need to start looking if we are at all serious.



The cons to buying now:

Will eliminate our cash reserve in an extremely iffy market



I've got one year left of school and will need to cut my hours from 40 to 30 hours beginning in September to accommodate my school schedule



The initial plan was to wait until we had a kid so we would know what to expect for child care costs



I don't know what to expect for my salary after school, I have heard that I may need to take a pay cut if you can believe it, although my salary is stagnant in my current position and has been for the 6 years I've been here so I doubt that will be the case.



Addendum: I wrote this a few days ago and forgot to put it up. We decided to get pre approved and start looking....first, we need to have a convo with the landlords because this would mean breaking the lease agreement. Next up--get preapproved.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Happenings In Short

As usual, I have zero time to post but in short, here are the details of my life lately:

  • Laptop almost died, M saved it. Hard drive #3 and still kicking
  • Cellphone almost died, M saved it. He's not sure how
  • Open houses last weekend,cute neighborhoods but horrible commute.
  • Class today, no clinical Thursday. 3 classes left after today. Note to self: savor current and summer schedule, because Fall is going to suck the big one.
  • Got new yarn from Webs from aniversary sale for 2 new sweaters for me
  • S and A are having another boy
  • Anniversary coming up this weekend, M has something planned but don't know what.
  • New yarn came: One is camel colored, one is a burgundy/aubergine.
  • Farm pick up last Sunday. Pick up switching to Saturdays for summer.
  • Cookie taste test: Nestle if you like chocolate, Pillsbury if you don't.
  • New running shoes this weekend. They call it persimmon, I call it bright orange.

Friday, April 3, 2009

It's Tricky!

For each clinical, the course instructor comes to check out each student at each site. Ideally, they are supposed to observe the student seeing a patient, doing the patient history, doing the physical, presenting the case to the preceptor and formulating the plan. This was not possible at my location, so instead I had to present a case to my preceptor and the instructor. Of course, I wouldn't be me without having a smidge of anxiety over this, but of course, it went fine and my lovely preceptor sang my praises the whole time, making such outlandish claims like, "She actually makes me MORE productive!"



I also attempted my first pap smear today. I saw attempted because I certainly didn't do the whole thing myself. There are a lot of things to coordinate at the same time, not to mention I was a little freaked out because I know first hand how invasive and uncomfortable it is, and knowing I'm making it even worse fumbling around. Let's just say, things don't look exactly text book! Plus, we have old equipement: metal speculums with a free standing light. In class, I learned using a plastic speculum with a light attached which frees up your other hand. I was very concerned about pinching the woman trying to lock and unlock the speculum once it was in place. In addition, the cervical os was a little tricky to find. I also wasn't sure if I was going in at the right angle and was very tentative inserting the speculum, my preceptor had to give me the added push to get it firmly in place. Yowza. Well, next time I'll know all the barriers to doing a successful pap so maybe I can do the swab myself next time.