Einstein was right!

Time IS relative. As I get older, the hours get shorter. How else could I explain not blogging for nearly a WEEK! My only excuse is it's PMS time, and who wants to read my apostrophe peeves?

Tonight was parent/teacher conference with Fry's 6-7 teachers. Everyone loves her. Nice to know my bias is reality based. She's sweet, sensitive, social, and is a happy child. I personally think she's my greatest achievement, even though all I did was carry her around for nine months.

It was fun seeing her locker and the cute boy posters she has in there. Her Communication Arts (English) teacher and I commiserated the stupid comma rule allowing this, that and the other as proper. To us, it should be this, that, and the other. Never mind the horrible and public misuse of apostrophes. Even the newspapers don't get that it's equals it is and you're equals you are. Gah! Fry's Comm Arts teacher said they're just now adding more minutes to the class and even then aren't emphasising grammar. I didn't mention that I used to LOVE diagramming sentences. No need to fan the "She's a weirdo" fires, right?

In everything she does, Fry excels, except... Science and math. Toppa, my beloved younger sister said today that I could help Fry, me being a brainiac. Isn't that sweet? I always thought she was the smart one. Yeah, I could take tests and ace them, but it does no good to do so when I couldn't remember what name to put at the top. I've had to work hard to have a decent memory, and even then, it's pretty spotty. Toppa also has these mad athletic skills. She can, get this, walk AND chew bubble gum at the same time. I know, a miracle. She could probably write a check and talk at the same time, too, because I can't do that.

I'm much better at tangents, too.

Yeah, me being the one most likely to die in a lab coat, was horrified when Fry came home from school one day saying "I hate science." I asked, "Do you know what science IS?" She explained it was the measuring kicking her brain, not the science part. So, on our parental to-do list is getting down measuring in metric and factors of prime numbers. If I can teach knitting to the masses, I can teach this to the Fry.

Speaking of teaching, I'm having a bit of a break this week. Nice, because it's...Socktober! I'd thought to start this on the first, which I did, but didn't blog about. It's all socks, all the time. I've started on a lovely one in Bernat's Camouflage. The sock is a standard one from Ann Budd's Book of Patterns, done for the Hubs. Never mind that while they match his ACU's, he's so retired he should never wear the uniform again. Maybe if/when they throw an official retirement party in January for him and a host of other oldies. :D (Good thing he doesn't read this.) One of his Knights of Columbus cronies called, wondering why he wasn't home. I had to explain that Army Reserve retired is different from civilian retired. Hubs is only almost 48, a far cry from 65. Not only that, most of his coworkers think he's a good ten years younger. Even the Army Reserve kicks them out after a good twenty plus years. Old and wise means too smart to blindly follow the leader, I suppose.

Another tangent.

So anyway, after spending all day last Friday on Ravelry, I burned out. There's no way I'm putting in all my stash. It's 15 pages on a Word document, I'm not redoing and taking pictures of every bit. I'll do the projects as I get them, the yarn as I get it, but that's all. There's this thing people keep dragging me into called, "A Life" and they expect me to live it. For the Socktober festival that probably only I am doing, there's tons of sock planned. Embossed Leaves, Simply Lovely Lace Socks, and a bunch of plain ones are on my list. Also the beloved Jaywalker in all of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes' colors. I'll have to buckle down and take tons of pictures, just because a blog is more fun with lots of pics. Otherwise, it's a bunch of dreary, navel-gazing words.

Speaking of navel-gazing, I'm actually losing weight. I know! Weird, huh? Are there massive amounts of workouts involved, starvation, lobbing off of excess body parts?

Nope! I found "How the Rich Get Thin" by Jana Klauer, M.D. on sale at Barnes & Noble last Saturday. Thinking "What the heck?", I bought it and started the diet yesterday. Even with massive amounts of cheating, my calorie count is staying at or on 1000 calories a day. This is usually a painfully low count for me, but it's not been bad. The cravings, too have been for good food, not so much the sugars. She recommends an hour of aerobic activity six days of the week, a pretty good idea if you're motivated. I currently do about 30 minutes seven days a week and call it good. For now.

There's a couple of caveats about the book. A middle-class person has to look past the "If you have to ask you can't afford it" mentality. Caviar is never going to sound good to me, no matter my income. Plus, not a lot of us live next to Manhattan's Central Park, recommending walks there does me no good. I'm also very suspicious of the dairy overload she seems to push. Calcium is ggreat, but I'm leery of any study in favor of the industry financing it. There's too many lactose intolerant people in the world for me to be comfy with the Got Milk campaign. Having low fat cheese once a day is fine since I love cheese.

Essentially, the diet is very similar to the South Beach, and a more low fat version of Atkins. More fruit is allowed than on Atkins, but not as much as South Beach. It also includes a lot of green tea, also ok with me. Gets me away from the diet soda. We'll see how it goes after a few more days. A week is as long as I can stay on any diet, even with allowing Saturday cheat days.