Driving in Michigan

This:




Plus


this:




equals approximately $5,000 in damage.

It happened on the way into work on Monday morning. Sassy was in the car and didn't see a thing, but heard the horrific noise. She was pretty shaken up and cried a bit, leading me to think she hit her head or something. Once I figured out she was fine, it was all okay. No airbags went off, but the left front quarter of the brand-new-only-made-one-payment-on-it vehicle is toast. Thank the goddess for decent insurance.

It's no secret

that when I get interested in something that it becomes almost an obsession. For some reason, I've been checking in on the Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam several times a day. I'm in the Eastern time zone, so when I get into work the vocano cam is pretty much black - sort of like this:



Does this stop me from checking every morning? No. The camera updates every 5 minutes, so it's several hours before I can actually see anything, but I continue to look anyway. For some reason, this whole eruption thing fascinates me.


I'll share one more obsession this morning - Tyler Hamilton. I can't believe that after everything he's gone through to reach the pinnacle of racing success that he would knowingly jeopardize his career and his life. I hope these allegations are cleared up quickly and he can get back to the business at hand. I'm looking forward to an epic race at the Tour next year.

Send me good vibes this evening. What's the probability that I'll forget everything I've studied in the last 2 weeks and fail my statistics exam?

Reports of My Death

are greatly exaggerated. I'm not dead - just exhausted. Every September, I brace myself for the chaos that is "back to school." This year, I had the outlay of cash well in hand, but couldn't get myself into schedule mode. We have ballet, ice hockey, homework, various social groups, etc (you know it doesn't look like so much when it's written down...). I also have taken the plunge and am taking a Statistics course to ramp up to graduate school. I want to transfer the grade, so I'm being extra special anal about doing all the homework and being teacher's pet. I'm quite sure everyone in the class hates me - do I care? (okay, maybe a little) Anyway, there are dirty dishes all over the house, the laundry isn't done, and the dust bunnies are very threatening. Go check out Curlypurl - she's done a few entries that could have been written by me (if I were that together).

As a result of the chaos, I haven't been working on much. I do have a finished sweater! Okay, it's a baby sweater that I started back in May - but it's progress.



It's for my newest friend Bobby (here's where I would insert the picture of a very cute baby, but my e-mail's down right now - maybe you'll get to see him later).


I also dyed the silk fabric I got for my Lance handbag.





The fabric on the right was dyed with weld and those on the left were done with Osage orange. I love the clarity of the weld, but the Osage has such depth. I think that will be the inside fabric of the bag. Now, I need to get busy and re-work the top of the bag to fit in the handle I bought. Will it be done before the next Tour de France? Stay tuned.