In-progress knitting

First off: I am NOT saying "Today has to be better than yesterday" because I think the world would take that as a challenge to show me that that's not necessarily so. 

I took these photos Sunday night; the first sleeve of the sweater is now done, and I just began the second one. (This is the invigilating-knitting that got the yogurt on it. I plan to finish this this week and then wet-block it with a bit of wool-wash, in case I didn't get all the yogurt out.)



It's Boxed Raglan from the Fall 2012....I forget what it's called, but it's an Interweave publication of mostly-simple knits. Norah Gaughan design. I actually used the yarn called for (I usually substitute heavily) but in a different colorway than the one in the magazine.

And this is Hitchhiker. I'm within 10 "points" of finishing:



I think some of my distress of the past few days is related to the fact that everything seems to be "in progress" and nothing is getting "finished."

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One more task: on my dad's advice, I'm going to my bank and see if any kind of protection can be put on my account just in case someone less-than-honest happens to find the errant water-bill check. (Well, he suggested setting up all-new accounts with new account numbers, and moving all but the money I needed to pay outstanding charges into them, but I think that's a little much).

But, gah. What a pain.

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Also: we're supposed to have a heat index of 110 degrees today.

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One small piece of good news: our anatomist/physiologist is retiring summer 2014. We've been back and forth with trying to get a tenure-track position to replace her. (At one point they were ACTUALLY saying, "Can't you just hire an adjunct?" REALLY?!?! REALLY!?!? Pay someone $1500 a semester with no benefits (and thus, they are limited to working 29 hours a week) to teach gross anatomy? You really think we'll find someone willing to do that?)

Anyway, they just yesterday approved a tenure-track position. Which is very, VERY, very good - both for us as a department and also as a precedent. (There were people in other departments, departments that need more full-time faculty, saying, "If Biology doesn't get this, it's all over..." meaning our ability to hire decent people....)

Also, we ought to be able to get someone good, seeing as how lousy the job market is. I mean, that's not a very nice reason, but....It'll be hard to replace Judy but this will make it a lot easier to get someone who is at least reliable and who has the skill-set we need.

(How glad I am that it was about 15 years ago - before some of the unsettling current changes in higher et- that I did the job search. I wouldn't want to do it today.)