knitting librarian

According to the Unraveled Blog, I should be in Ravelry in about two weeks! I’m excited. I keep hearing (well, reading really!) more and more about Ravelry and I cannot wait for my invite. They’re saying they’ll invite 5000 once the official servers are set up and working. I’m about 2500 from my invite anyhow, so I was expecting to be in in two weeks regardless. The cool thing about the real servers opening it up to so many more people is that maybe my aunt and I will get in about the same time.

I guess I’d better be photographing more FOs and see whether people I’ve gifted with my knitting (and I forgot to photograph) could take some pictures for me. Off to do that now!

• You signed up on June 30, 2007


• You are #11770 on the list.


• 2450 people are ahead of you in line.


• 14740 people are behind you in line.


• 34% of the list has been invited so far

I think I read that Ravelry’s adding about 1200 people a week so I probably only have two more weeks or so to wait for my invite. I last checked on July 17th. Then there were about 5500 people behind me in line. Now there’s nearly triple that! It’s clear this is going to be hot! I cannot wait to get in there and dig around. Please send me my invite soon Jess and Casey!

Saturday Review Challenge at Semicolon

This sure looks like fun! I will take the time in the next week to figure out what I’ll read and review. I took a quick gander at the list of titles and saw plenty I’m interested in, so it’ll just be a matter of picking six to read.

and I’m both excited about the new school year and dreading it.

I’ve loved being home with Zoe so much these last four months. She’s so easygoing like her brother was as a baby. She rolls over, smiles, definitely recognizes John, AJ and me.

AJ went to school two days a week for the summer and we also had a good time when he was home. He mostly loved it—although I don’t think he liked that I made him rest most days for at least an hour. He took some naps, so I know the down time was needed. He rests at school, so it’s not like I was having him do something unfamiliar. He had some problems with the kids at school because he wasn’t there everyday. Even so, he’s survived and I expect things will go back to normal once he’s back to his normal schedule. He took swimming lessons this summer and went from hesitant to dunk his head to almost swimming. We’ll definitely continue them through the fall/winter so he doesn’t lose the comfort he’s found in the water.

John looks and feels great. He and AJ started exercising each night before bed. They start with stretches and do sit ups and pushups. It’s how they unwind before bed. AJ loves it and I’m pretty sure John does too! He’s down more than 100 pounds from his surgery last September. I’m really proud of him.

I’ve got an appointment with an endocrinologist at Hershey in September to see if there’s any better way to treat my PCOS than what we’ve been doing so far (just birth control). It used to be that the choices were BCP or metformin if you’re trying to get pregnant. I’ve heard that it may be better to continue metformin therapy, although I haven’t really heard why or seen many positive effects when I’ve taken it while trying to get pregnant, so he’ll have to convince me it’s worth it and come up with a better way for me to deal with the nasty side effects.

School should be interesting this year, we’re making a bunch of changes for the better. Although the schedule I received in the mail doesn’t show it, I’ve heard that the library will be closed every other day for a period for me to monitor in-school suspension. I am frustrated that this has to happen, but I guess that’s just the way it’ll be. They keep cutting teachers so there aren’t enough people to do this. I know that they don’t pull the librarian at Roosevelt for ISS—or at least, they haven’t in the past. The Valley librarian does lunch duty but not ISS. High school librarian gets lunch and a planning period every day.

We’ve got an independent reading period each morning this year. I’m not entirely sure how it’ll be implemented or how the principal will know that all teachers are really doing it. I hope he’s able to be more visible than his predecessors—especially first thing in the morning. It seems that the office is always slam packed with problems then, so it will be difficult. The literacy committee will be working on logistics, so hopefully we can help to monitor that and ensure it’s really happening. I really hope the principal will tell all teachers that everyone (including faculty and administrators) should be reading at that time.

According to WestEd, more than ever, high school students need an
understanding of how to read critically and fluently, translating the
meaning and purpose of text. When students reach middle and high school, the demands on their reading abilities undergo a significant shift—from primarily narrative texts to complex expository material. So how can we explain why so many students cannot crack the nonfiction code? Why do their interest and skills in reading decline precisely when the demands of literacy begin to soar? One solution is to integrate literacy throughout the curriculum and culture of schools by dramatically changing the way educators think about reading instruction. link