Lying Fallow

I've spent much of the last while trying to regain the normal rhythms of a regular job. Somehow, the two and a bit years of being a student messed with my programming and I have found the transition to Federal droid exhausting. The early mornings, the meals to prepare, the laundry... The small details of daily existence overwhelmed me for a while, and leached my creativity. Sure, I did some desultory knitting and quilting, but nothing epic.

Next week, I celebrate my one-year anniversary with my new job. It's been a steep learning curve, but I feel as if I'm getting into the swing of things. The one year mark also ends my probationary period; not that I'm not good at what I do, or a slacker or anything, but it's still nice to know that I'm permanent now.

My urge to create again has been rising since the fall. I have wonderful friends who enable me in every way possible, and after some adventures at CSNF,  specifically at the Farthingale's booth, Kate and I have been stewing over corsetry.  Over the winter, we've found a wonderful and skilled teacher and arranged for lessons on how to master these complex garments.  We've had our final lesson and are close to completing our first corset, but Kate and I are hopelessly hooked.  :)

I've also decided to up my sewing skills by enrolling part-time in the Fashion Design Program at Algonquin College.  Almost everything I know about sewing I've taught myself, and it's time for some more formal education.  I'm excited about the chance to learn and grow, and have updated my sewing room (new cutting table and storage) and tools (a new serger!) accordingly.

I think perhaps I will want to share more as I embark on this journey, so with this post I poke my languishing blog and wake it up.  :)

Crisis of Self

I met someone a few days ago who challenged my sense of satisfaction with my accomplishments. At roughly my age, this person has obtained a doctorate in a challenging field, published papers, taught at a university, and is an active and acknowledged contributor in a related field. When, I wonder, do they sleep?

Up until I read their bio, I felt pretty good about myself with my service to country, honours in college and shiny new career. For a short time after, though, I felt that it was a pretty pitiful pile of accomplishments. Their acts are writ large on the stage of the world, and mine are far more humble. I yearned for the kind of greatness I saw in the deeds of this person.

This little crisis of self lasted a whole day or two until I realized that although my doings were far less public and attributable, they were no less important; by participating in peacekeeping missions, I have in a small way contributed to the stability of the world in general. By serving my country, Queen and government, I have protected and defended Canada's interests in a rather direct way.

We have both made our contributions to the world, and neither is less valid than the other. Having realized this, though, I also came to the realization that academic success is still something I crave; college is by no means the end of my scholastic journey.

Looking Ahead

The end of my second work-term is coming up very quickly. It's funny how the first term seemed like it was a year long, 'cause I was kinda bored and frankly under-utilized. This second term I had a super-cool development project to work on that immersed me completely every day... it seems like I've only been there a couple of weeks but sure enough, they were both four-month terms. I leave my current employer with regret, but enough seeds have been planted that I can reasonably hope to find employment there again after graduation.

My semester this fall looks pretty dreamy... I don't have classes on Mondays or Wednesdays, I only have classes Tues and Fri morning and Thurs afternoon. Although on paper that time looks "free" I know I'll be working my tail off: this is our project semester and it might get very hairy. However, I've been hand-picked as a member of a coding "dream team", so that might soften the blow a little... having skilled coders at your side is always a plus for the project.

Aside from the project course, I have Data Communications and Networking, C++ and Advanced Database Topics. I ordered my textbooks already and can't wait to dive in. Is it wrong to love school this much?

It is my intent to take a couple of months off after grad, particularly if I nail down a job early. I'd love to take a month and rent an apartment in some warm (Mediterranean?) country, and soak in the local ambiance, eat myself silly and bask in the non-freezing weather. I'm undecided as to where I might travel, and I throw this out to my wise readers. Where might be a great place to bide a month in the middle of the brutal Canadian winter? Does anyone know anyone who has a cheap apartment/timeshare/condo somewhere warm and not American?

Take it Easy

In my first programming class, we had a prof who had been around the block a time or six. He was close to retirement; in fact, ours was the last class he taught. He had started his career as a procedural programmer, which I suppose is a redundant statement, considering that object-oriented (OO) programming wasn't the dominant programming methodology until the mid-1990's, and at a guess, I'd say this prof learned his coding skills in the 70's. Long story short, although he learned OO programming and taught it (some might say with varying success), he was still procedural at heart.

This was exemplified by his choice of development environment. He recommended that we do all of our coding in simple Notepad and execute at the command line. This made sense to us, as we had no other point of reference. This was ironic because our textbook came with a hefty book called "Eclipse Distilled" that looked so intimidating that neither us or the prof touched it (and that was just the condensed version of the book!).

A brief aside for anyone still reading that doesn't know what Eclipse is. It is to programming what MS Word is to word processing. Sure, you can type in text on a blank screen in a pinch. However, context-sensitive help, auto formatting, spell check, thesaurus and a hundred other tools make Word so much more powerful than Notepad. Same goes for programming. Eclipse is your Java on speed. It compiles, outputs, debugs, helps and offers an insane amount of power and control when coding.

It wasn't until towards the end of that first semester that some students explored Eclipse and extolled its virtues to the rest of us. I fought the steep learning curve to develop a deep fondness for Eclipse, and the more I learn about coding and Eclipse itself, the more helpful it is to me. I doubt I'll ever plumb its depths; the full documentation could be substituted for a boat anchor in a pinch.

I am not ashamed to say that I have been spoiled by the power. When given a project to complete at work, I held out until they installed Eclipse and the appropriate plug-in to allow me to use it to program in Perl. Though it is absolutely possible to program Perl in UNIX using vi and the command line... why would you want to? Why would you willingly deprive yourself of the power-tools and use a manual screwdriver and hammer?

Three things I've learned along the way: coders are lazy; laziness is a virtue, and it is the real mother of invention. To borrow an example from the O'Reilly "Learning Perl" book, the wheelbarrow was invented by someone who was too lazy to want to carry heavy loads. IDE's were invented by programmers who loath working in Notepad. Masochists need not apply.

Co-op Purgatory

I've been with my Federal Government agency for just over three weeks now, and I have to confess that I am bored stiff.

I suppose I had a bit of an epiphany at some point in time, while I was staring at my monitor, waiting for something to happen. I want a job where the next move is obvious, where the work-flow is continual. Where I don't have to sit there staring at the monitor waiting for some event to bring purpose to my life. Where I don't have to meaninglessly occupy a chair for 8 hours if the job can only be done in 2.

Granted, I don't yet have the knowledge I need to be an effective member of the team. My boss has flatly told me that it's not my job to be efficient, it's my job to learn. It's an awkward position for a Type-A OCD gal like me... do or do not, there is no try. Not being able to give my full potential is galling to me. I know I'll get there, but oooooooh, the learning curve!

It doesn't help that my current reading material is "The Four Hour Work-Week" by Timothy Ferris. He's telling me to work smarter, not harder; that advice does me no good whatsoever in co-op purgatory. I must abide.

I know by the time these four months are done, I will be Queen of my little UNIX domain and I will know enough to be able to complete most, if not all, tasks with ease. It's just the learning curve that irks me. We wants it now!

Signs of Life!

It's a week into the New Year and this is my first post in quite some time, but I won't waste time with a summary of 2009. Or perhaps I will, but it will be short and sweet: study, homework, coding and exams, repeated endlessly in any order. I worked my tail off but it's been more than worth it; finding a career that I love this much is it's own reward. Apparently I'm good at it, too, at least academically. Despite the trials of the last semester, during which I had my doubts if I could make it through intact and sane, I pulled off a high A average and managed my third consecutive semester on the Dean's List. I dream now of graduating with honours...

2010 brings two co-op terms and my final semester of college in Sept. I'm in my first week of my first coop right now, in a slick, shiny, sexy Federal agency in the heart of downtown. (I am in no way being facetious when I say "sexy" and Federal gov't in the same sentence... this place is super-hip.) I have been hired in the capacity of a UNIX system administrator; something that no doubt would cause my UNIX prof to double over in glee... while I did very well in his class, I bitch and moaned continuously through it and failed to see how it was relevant to the Real World. It appears my education is about to begin.

One thing that delights me about the vocation I have chosen is how everything is interconnected. In school, the classes are distinct... Perl, UNIX, Java, SQL, System Design. They seemed in school like separate disciplines that really didn't have many connections. Here, I am learning that I was very wrong. Everything is connected. I may administer UNIX systems but I use PHP and Perl whilst doing so, and am supporting Java development and Oracle databases in the process. The system design principles underlay the continuous upgrades and migrations of the entire IT department. It's a thing of beauty and I expect to receive practical experience in so much more than just UNIX admin in my time here.

My only complaint at this point in time is time itself... from my relaxed student hours and a period of utter hedonism over the Xmas holidays, getting up at oh-dark-thirty is an extremely painful jolt to the system. I get home, have a quick nap and am still utterly exhausted and dream of bedtime. I expect I will acclimatize shortly but right now it's all exhaustion, all the time.

The Final Push

I'm tired.

I've been in school for a full year now, no summer semester off; just a couple of weeks break between second and third. I am worn to the bone.

I am tired of always having huge assignments looming overhead. Of having the feeling that I ought to be studying even when I'm taking a break. Of waking up in the middle of the night, obsessing about coding assignment details. Of getting screwed over on team coding assignments by team members who lack the same ability/ attention to detail that I have. Of new profs who really have no idea how the system works and give ridiculous exams on material we spent 20 seconds on.

I'm tired of trying just to get assignments done and leave the understanding for later, no time for that now. I'm tired of morons in the back of the classroom who talk all through class and then interrupt the prof to ask a question that he answered two minutes ago but how would they know, because they weren't listening? I'm tired of walking that extra few hundred meters that OC Transpo added to my day when they moved Baseline Station.

Classes are done except for finals: Monday - Thurs next week. Thurs night after our final final I have invited some friends over and we shall celebrate the end of the third semester, two weeks of holidays, and the beginning of our co-op adventures in January. I wish I could be excited about my upcoming opportunity, but, well, I'm too tired to care at the moment.

9 Weeks Down, 6 To Go

I'm closer now to the end of the semester than the beginning. It's been a rough go; two profs are giving us massive assignments on the assumption that a) we know more than we do; and b) we have all the time in the world to work on them. Either one of those assignments was enough to make me weep, and trying to excel at both at the same time had me considering dropping a course. All I can say is that I'm glad the Student Success Specialist took the week off that she did, because I'd be down a course right now.

Both of the assignments are finished, one to perfection, the other a bit short of that mark, and breathing room has been gained. I think I can make it to the end now with a full course-load intact.

I also get the sneaking suspicion that this is like the punchline from that old adage "if you're not scared you're not paying attention." There's another (group) assignment on the go now, which I think will get quite nasty towards due date. We'll see.

I accepted an offer for my first co-op work term. I had originally thought that working for RIM might be my optimal co-op job, until I saw the other placement. As sexy and cool and hip as RIM is, I think this tops it (inasmuch as it is possible for a Federal Government department to be sexy, cool and hip.) I applied on Monday, was told on Tuesday that I had an interview on Thursday at 1330, and I had been offered and accepted the job by 1600 Thurs. These people waste no time.

It will be a challenging job, no doubt;I'll be doing largely UNIX based coding, which I am good at but by no means an expert. I feel that it will benefit my career arc as a whole to sharpen these skills, so I'm up for the challenge. I'm really quite excited about working there for my first term, and I think I have something else interesting nailed down for the second work term.

I usually have a lab on Wednesdays, but it's in Web Programming, and our Prof has switched to electronic assignments rather than checking them in lab. This means that I essentially have the day off... okay, not off, exactly. It means that I can do schoolwork at home in my PJ's. (yay!)

Off to make a pot of tea and plow through a few hours of coding goodness. I hope November's treating you well thus far.

I Take It Back

As compared to the first two semesters, this one started slowly. The first few weeks trickled past, and there was a little homework, but nothing to make me wish I could knit time, as happened in the first two terms. The words "This is going to be a light semester!" may have crossed my lips.

I know not what vengeful homework god I pissed off when I said that, but I'm really, really sorry and I'd like to know what I can do to make it right. You see, I only have 24 hours in the day, and by the time I get the lab and assignment and study for that little midterm in web programming, read 300 pages in that utterly bone-dry Systems Analysis textbook and study for that exam, read 100 pages of online design papers and design a coffee machine in Java (I kid you not), and finally code a massively complex (or so it seems to me now) and completely unintelligible application in C#.... well, you see, there's not a lot of time for the little pleasures in life. Like sleeping. Or enjoying a stable, balanced mind.

Which I don't have at the moment so it's just as well I have no time to enjoy it.

Anyhow. You get the point. I profusely apologize for the sin of hubris. Not that it will make much of a difference, because I can't be un-smoted... unsmitten?... but I have been properly put in my humble meek place again. Thanks for the helpful reminder.

Crisis Averted

I have a crisis of confidence every semester. I know (to the point of arrogance, perhaps) that I'm smart enough to handle anything that comes at me, yet in Week Two when we're given our first significant assignment in a new programming language, I panic. I flip wildly through textbooks, Google twenty related topics, email friends, click through menus, and generally have a little melt-down. "THIS language will do me in. I'm really not smart enough to be a programmer and this moment is proof!" moans my internal wimp.

Then I get frightened, and determined. I make a pot of coffee, fix some snacks, do a little knitting to clear my head, and sit down and tackle it again, banishing that negative voice in my head. Failure is not an option; giving up even less so. Hours pass, my shoulders and neck and wrists ache, but I have written something that, while not perfect, gives me hope.

I ask a friend in class about some issues still remaining, and he points to an innocuous line of code and says "Why is that there?". I comment it out, and suddenly my major issues are solved. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I feel as if I'm slowly climbing on top of the language.

Then in class, the prof stops by my laptop to answer a question I have, and comments that I'm doing everything right and this is what he wants to see. I know then that the panic and fear was unfounded and that this is not the language that will finish me. Yes, it will be hard. Yes, I will stay up late and code early and obsess about it, but knowledge will reward those who earnestly seek it. C# shall be mine.

PS... I'm looking for interesting co-op opportunities for the winter and summer semesters, Jan-Aug. Do you know of any companies that could use some cheap programming for the duration? Especially in the tropics? *grins*

On The Run Again

My first week of classes is over and I'm hyped about the new semester. I have four core programming courses: Object Oriented Programming II (Java), Systems Analysis and Design, Web Programming (HTML, CSS, Perl, PHP, Javascript) and Graphical User Interface Programming (C#), as well as an elective (Wine, Food and Culture... tough gig, no?) and an hour a week for Co-op prep, as our co-op work terms will begin in January. I already love all my classes and I think I have truly wonderful profs in all of them.

I finished my homework on Saturday and had the luxury of spending Sunday in the sewing room, finishing two blocks of "Storybook Farm", Room to Breeze and Wooly Good Friends. This quilt is cuteness epitomized... the tiny little quilt on the clothesline is actually a real quilt, made separately, machine quilted and then pinned on the clothesline with wee clothespins. Pics to come!

I also finished knitting a hat and scarf set in Noro. Again, pics on the way after blocking. I am working my way though my "ugh" knitting pile before I will allow myself to cast on something new... perhaps this, or maybe this? I certainly need to cast on a sock for easy school knitting.

Now that DH is all officerized, he's away on course until February, but not so far away that he can't come home on weekends. The house is rather quiet, which makes for excellent studying, but the kitties and I miss him.

It Is Finished!

Six courses, five finals, five days. Holy crap, it was a stressful week. However, it's all over now for a precious three weeks. I should know my marks next week... although I recognize it's completely arbitrary, I fought like hell to stay on the Dean's List. Time will tell. I should know that in mid to late Sept.

"Finished" not only refers to my mental state, but Mum's quilt. 3 hours in the sewing room saw the border put sewn on and down and the quilt signed and named. "Anna Karenina" will show up on the blog soon for your viewing pleasure.

And now, tomorrow comes my reward... four days, three nights at Ste. Anne's. No laptop, no coding, no stress... just good books, good music, good knitting, wine, food, pampering and relaxation. Bring it on.

See you next week!

First Thing this Morning

I walked into the Operating Systems classroom a half-hour early this morning, as is my usual habit. I greeted the prof, and then, noting that he had an assignment of mine in front of him, said "Oh. Speak of the devil!"

He looked a little puzzled, so I gestured to the open assignment. "You're marking my assignment" I prompted.

He shook his head, and said no. I tried again. "Oh. Then you're entering my marks."

Again he shook his head. "No" he said, smiling. "I'm using your assignment to mark everyone else's."

I am my own slave-driver.

We're down to the final push for this semester. Final exams are three weeks away, yet I still have three more "midterm" exams to write. Marks are trickling in and are, for the most part, encouraging. However, the first Java midterm left us all shell-shocked and bleeding from the ears and nose; the class average was 47%. Although I got 55%, that's hardly a mark to be proud of and it might prevent me from making the Dean's List this semester, even though all my other marks are high enough (so far.) I can't believe I'm holding myself to that standard, but, well, here we are. (The prof says he'll bell-curve those mid-term results. That will bring me up a bit.)

I'm tired and crabby. Schoolwork occupies 80% of my waking hours, and a good portion of my sleeping ones, too... I wake throughout the night with snippets of code in my head, working through complex coding problems in my dreams and waking with solutions in the morning. While I admire my subconscious minds' tenacity in problem solving, perhaps I would feel more rested in the morning if I could switch off for a few hours.

While I am still really enjoying the program and the fabulous new skills I am developing, I just wish it wasn't so all-consuming. Those three weeks off between semesters that I have coming up suddenly seem not nearly long enough.

The third semester will be interesting; one less course on my load but correspondingly more homework as the levels become more difficult. As well, there will be preparation for the co-op term, which starts in January and goes until my final semester in September. The co-op term will probably be more restful, except I am an over-achiever and have decided to take night classes while working. The fun class will be more garment sewing lessons; I want to get into ballroom dance costuming and need considerably more skills than I have right now.

The "grit my teeth and do it" class is... French. God help me. I freaking HATE French and hate how it's rammed down my throat and hung over my head, but in order to get my foot in the door at any primo Fed job, I need to improve my oral French skills. (And as clever husband pointed out, I never actually have to speak it on the job... just prove I can by obtaining my profile.)

le sigh. There is no-one in the world who can be as hard on me as I can.

A Little Bit Of Everything

It's been an awesome week.

• I made the Dean's List for last semester! Although I know full well how hard I worked, getting that letter in the mail brought tears to my eyes.
• I have income again. Huge relief.
• I'm booked into Ste. Anne's for three nights in August. After a little dithering I decided to splurge large. I can't wait!
• My husband and I went to Richmond Nursery and picked over 40 lbs (!) of strawberries. It's all berries, all the time now in the house... most went into the freezer but some were dehydrated and of course shortcake was consumed with copious amounts of real whipped cream.
  
• I worked like a dog the last couple of weeks to get the homework situation under control, and now can sit back (just a little!) and relax. However, midterms still continue... pardon my questioning, but doesn't "mid-term" imply that the tests should be... um... in the middle? And not continually throughout? Of course, exams are in a month, too.
• The garden is insanely fertile. The radishes have come and gone, I planted a second round of rapini, and we're eating sugar-snap peas to surfeit daily. The sweet peas are beginning to perfume the air at the front of the house.

On the "what the hell?" side of the coin is city council's decision to make students over the age of 27 pay full price for bus passes; we're no longer eligible for the student prices. This is apparently because older full-time students obviously have less need for money than the city does. I don't understand this move at all, aside from the blatant cash-grab. I've already written my city councillor.

Pictures! Yes!

Ever wonder what 40 lbs of strawberries looks like?

What else has to happen after you pick that many berries?

There was baking last weekend... cinnamon rolls with pecans and cranberries. Ooooh yum.

The cat gets everywhere...

...including, on occasion, stuck between the screen and the glass patio door.

Ummm... help? Anybody?

The Week That Was

I found out today that I should be receiving my first LTD payment next week. Even better, and I don't know why I didn't see this coming, it's retroactive from April. *huge sigh of relief*

I had two mid-terms this week. The first, in computer architecture, was two hours of joy... like sitting down on a Sunday and working through the crossword puzzle. It was all on ASCII encoding/decoding, packed decimal format, floating point number format, and some LMC encoding as well... a thoroughly amusing exam and one I know I scored well above 90% on.

Today's Java exam, by the same prof no less, was an exercise in humility. There were an uncomfortable number of questions I simply had to take an educated guess on... it was a brutally difficult exam, despite the fact that it was largely multiple choice. I think I'll be lucky to score 70% on that one.

Though I have assignments due and another midterm next week, I am giving myself the night off. I shall make tea and putter in the sewing room, concluding the evening with a soak in the tub and a glass of wine. I deserve it after this week!

I leave you with random beauty. These orange mini-roses and carnations made my heart glad to look upon them; I'm glad they're frozen in time.

In Which Things Aren't As They Seem

Two very unexpected things were revealed to me over the last couple of days. It was really a lesson in trying not to form assumptions about situations, because whatever you're thinking, it's probably wrong.

The largest issue involves DH's children. His ex is at a point where she can wrap up her career, and is married to a lawyer in Europe. Since his law training is useless in Canada, and her career is at a point where she's pensionable, I (and everyone else) assumed that she would move to be with him. Of course, the big question here would be what might happen with his children... do they go with her or stay with us? As the archetypal evil stepmother, I was very much in favour of them leaving the country... although DH would have been dinged for support, I would have been much happier with the kids out of my life. DH, of course, being the good father he is, strongly favoured the girls remaining with us permanently. There were no ideal solutions for anyone.

I learned yesterday that DH's ex's foreign husband was selling his house and moving to Ottawa. I was gobsmacked... it makes no sense for them as far as money goes, but it's by far the better solution for the people. I asked DH if maybe it means his ex actually gave a damn about the kids, and he said no, she was probably pressured into it by her parents and friends. That makes more sense. It's a good solution; the right solution... but I didn't ever think it might happen. I feel... relieved.

A minor issue has been regarding a certain friend at school. We were in each other's back pockets for the entire first semester; travelling in a pack, as it were. Then in the second semester, he became distant and even hostile, repeatedly rebuffing my attempts at resuming our friendship. This last week we've not even made eye contact, let alone talked... I missed our friendship, was hurt by his behaviour, and completely did not understand what I'd done to deserve this treatment. Because, of course, this was all about me. Right?

He's let me know since that he was suffering from severe depression over the last few weeks. I knew he had a history, and considered it to be a possibility, but I didn't think it might explain everything about his behaviour. Of all the people at school, I know him best... therefore I was the one that he felt he needed to distance himself from the most aggressively. I don't think I could have got through to him by trying harder, but it makes me feel good for trying as hard as I did to get through to him.

So, it's been an educational weekend for me and my assumptions. I doubt I've learned any lessons here... old dog, new tricks and all, but perhaps next time I'll consider the possibility that it might not be all about me.

Spring Semester, Ho!

I completely and totally rocked last semester, if I do say so myself... I even surprised myself with an A in Java, which meant I must have walked on water for that final exam. In Database I got the B that I expected... but that didn't stop the chair of our department from sending me a letter today, telling me that he thought I rocked, too. Very, very good stuff.

Second semester looks scary, and I'm only a couple of days in. However, I think I was scared for the first semester, too... every time I feel overwhelmed I'll log in and read my marks again.

I'd like to thank the anonymous smarty-pants who corrected my writing on the last post. While it's a perfectly valid point, and I did indeed mean "bated breath", rather than "baited breath" as written... dude, don't you have anything better to do than to anonymously nit-pick blogs? At least have the balls to offer your name along with your criticism.

(Had to laugh at the imagery of worms in my mouth, though. Nicely phrased, despite it all.)

Bringing Me Back To Reality

A thanks to all that sent comments remembering that today marks a significant passage for me; my last day as a serving member of the CF. I thought it would make me a little sad at the change; as good as school and my civilian life is shaping up, I loved my time of service and was so proud to be a part of something so (I think) important.

Honestly... I've had no time for emotional response. With two term tests this week (one in database, which I find very challenging), finals in another week and a beloved guest (mum Linda) coming out on Thursday, I have had absolutely no quiet time for reflection. I ran ragged all weekend, studying this, fixing that, doing practice tests, sewing, gaming... until my husband, catching sight of the fevered, frenzied gleam in my eye, ran me a hot bubble bath and gave me a massage on Sunday night "to bring me back to reality", he said.

Yes, he *is* a keeper.

Thanks as well for your comments on your favourite poets. I'll have to check them all out and see if there's not another personal "win" on the list.

A Quick Update

So we're doing an oral presentation in English, worth 30% of our total mark. My partner volunteered us to do ours a full week before everyone else... hahaha. That's okay, I had nothing better to do this week then be a slave to PowerPoint. (At least the presentation is on Guild Wars (I know... how very very geeky) so the topic will be riveting to the other presenter and I.)

Oh yeah... term tests coming up next week, just a couple of weeks before finals. (ohmygod I can't believe we're that close to the end of the semester!)

Mum Linda flies out next weekend for a quick visit... I'm so afraid I'll be swamped with schoolwork but I'll do my best to clear some time in my schedule ahead of time. Maybe it's best I'm doing the oral presentation this week.

I am finishing off the last bits of administration that I need to do before I am released from the military. My last day as a soldier is 7 April... not sure if I'll celebrate or have a little cry or both. Not that I'm not loving being a civvie and a student, but that's a huge chapter about to be closed. More thoughts on this later.

I carved a bit of free time out last weekend and actually began Mum's quilt. The top is nearly pieced; I expect to begin quilting (as-you-go) this weekend. It's spectacular already... pics soon.

Must get back to my presentation. Anyone know how to knit more time?