Epic But Not Legendary

There's this famous line of Mandy Patinkin's in The Princess Bride that talks about how difficult it is to explain everything, and instead one should just simply sum up. You probably know it. And hence, you probably already anticipate what I'm about to do.

Tomorrow is my last final. It's not going to be tough because my professor is going to Iran on the 27th and doesn't wish to grade any essays, so we get slide ID's instead. I love this. I can cram for slide ID's like my brain was made for it. Therefore, in my head, I'm pretty much done with this semester, and it looks like I'll only need 2 more classes to get a BA. TWO. After twelve years of college, fiddy-billion credits and not a few false starts in majors for which I am clearly ill-suited, I'm going to be done. Done, done done!!

Give me 5 years in the real world and I'll be begging to get back into academics.

Since the middle of November, lots of things have been going on. I direct your attention to my San Diego Trip * and also the joint Birthday Party that Chloe and I had at the Cal Academy. Missing is the Mexico Trip because the photos are all on my laptop and I'll have to upload them later. There were pelicans, baby lions and tigers, pelicans, family, and lots of long-exposure night shots. It's awesome, and apparently I have a thing for Mexican pelicans. Weird.

My Salina sweater is a double fail. It's still sitting in the bag; I've finished up to the armpits and half-way up the top of the back, but good lord that much stockinette is mind-numbing. Also I had to work on an as-yet unphotographed embroidery piece for my Islamic Art class, which cut into my knitting time by quite a bit. However, I still intend to finish it; I'm taking it to Mom's for Christmas holiday knitting. Here's what I have finished recently:

Socks for Gabe in Regia 4-ply (Man Yarn!)

One of 2 Elder R-N Socks - leftover Opal from Natalie's BSJ

A beanie for Alexander - leftover Classy from umpteen baby projects

Seriously, I think I have a hob goblin of some sort in my Dream in Color stash. I've been knitting with this Classy for a year, inserting it here and there, and it's still not gone. I thought for sure this hat would finish at least one of the 2 colors off, but no. Hopefully the addition of a huge pompon on the top will help. Anyone know where I can get a giant pompon maker?

These projects bring me close to completion of my Christmas Knitting. Of the 4 households I intended to give knitted gifts to, I have one completed (minus the pompon...) and nearly wrapped and ready to ship up to Alaska. I'm not finished with Household #2 because my mother called me and announced that my grandmother, aunt, and 2 cousins are coming for Christmas, so I added Aunt C and Grandma M to the list. (Maybe I won't be knitting on my Salina after all...). Household 3 celebrates on January 6, so I'm ok to start late for them - which is good, because I just ordered the yarn for their Christmas gifts yesterday. Hats and Scarves for all on that one. This is one of those times when I bemoan my inability to knit with chunky yarns! The 4th household is the Relatively-Normals, and while I may not get their gifts finished in time, I can give them knits any time. Maybe I'll buy them a board game instead - perhaps Settlers of Catan.

So the count stands at:

Household 1: 4/4 (pompon!)
Household 2: 2/4
Household 3: 0/4
Household 4: .5/2

Sigh. And I thought I was doing so well! Tika 2009 is going to be all about reasonable expectations, I swear. But more on that later - Tika 2008 needs to feverishly finish her Christmas knitting.

* Complete with Adorable BabyBean pictures! Laurie, I set it so they're not downloadable, but if you want'em I'll email them. Malia, same for you.