Books and Learning

So I don't have much in the way of life updates this week.  Next week, I *may* forget to update, because the second book in the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson is coming out on the 4th.  It's a good day I have Tuesday off!!  If you like fantasy - particularly large ongoing fantasy universes - I highly recommend.  However, it is supposed to be a 10 book series, and he's only on book 2.  The next books shouldn't take as long to publish however (first one was in 2010, this one comes 4 years later), because he's done with the Wheel of Time series now.  If you don't like huge 1000+ page books, his other (smaller, normal sized) books are really good too. Some of those are: Elantris, The Mistborn Trilogy, and Warbreaker.  He's also got some really good novellas and young adult books (haven't read all of those yet).  Legion is a really good novella of his that I've read.  Anyway, to end that aside, if you like fantasy, you have to check out Brandon Sanderson.

Anyway, since there are times when life is just life and there's not much new to report on, I thought I'd do this.  I'm thinking about writing some posts that are like client education in a vet's office.  I thought I'd do one on puppy/kitten vaccines, vaccines in general, or maybe parasites, but is there any particular topic that you guys want to hear about?  I love answering questions; while some might be out of my realm of knowledge, I can still try!  Either way, it's just an idea on how to fill up some space.

P.S. - As a side note for taxes: if you ever have a weird situation or something you can't quite figure out how to represent on your return, and your job isn't being helpful - call the IRS!  We've had issues when the husband was a graduate student, since part of his stipend came from a W-2 and the rest the school reported as coming directly from a grant (plus he had a T-1098), because Emory liked to be *extremely* difficult like that (don't get me started on their payroll and HR department).  Then to throw a wrench in it, NIH stopped sending out grant income forms (whatever they're called, I can't remember), so Emory decided that they didn't need to either... Unfortunately, that's how they recorded most of his income, and we didn't not want to get penalized AGAIN for failing to report income.  But we called the IRS (second year now), and they were super helpful, and even said that "do it xyz way and we'll put it on record that you're trying to do this correctly, so if there's a problem in the future, we know it's not your fault."  I mean, I think they're so helpful because we're trying to be honest and do things right, which probably makes their jobs easier down the line.  Just thought I'd share - they've been really helpful with questions, since we had to pay the penalties 3 years ago due to our misunderstanding on what documents we needed for his taxes.  We even asked other "tax professionals," and they didn't quite know how to properly state his income.  I didn't think that many people know that the IRS has services like that, so just trying to spread the word!

Warmth, puppies, and alterations.

It was in the in the 50s today and glorious.  It's been so gloomy and snowy for the past month and a half, that the sun was shining in the apartment, and I was like "where's my sunglasses?!"

Anyway, so I've started getting in to the whole working out thing some more.  I've started going to zumba twice a week; I go with a bunch of people from work, so they keep me accountable.  Weirdly enough, the prospect of going to zumba later in the week makes me do my third workout at home on the weekend.  So far I haven't fallen off the wagon, so that's good.  I'm not really looking to lose weight.  As weird as this will sound, my fitness goal is to be fit enough that I would know I could beat someone up if needed.  Not necessarily actually beating anyone, just the knowledge that I could.

Other than that, Rasha has been going through a training class that one of my co-workers is doing.  She already knows a lot of the commands, but she's having fun relearning and getting a lot of attention from mom and dad.

Puppy selfie!

 Craft-wise, I've been learning how to adjust the waistline on jeans (AKA getting rid of that gap at the back that shows the world your underwear).  I think I did pretty well on this pair; you can't even really tell.

Before

After

 Thanks to my trusty huskystar!  I got it from my MIL, the bobbin casing was loose and messing up the timing, so it wasn't working and snapping needles.  She told me if I could fix it I could keep it.  It works so much better than my Singer.

Knitting helper

So, there is a knitting project that I've been working on, a knitted lace and cables blanket. Knitting a blanket is taking forever. I think part of the reason why it is taking so long is because Lily likes to help me. Here's an example of her "helping."

I just don't have the heart to move her. :-P

Smartphone!

Hello!

So I've finally joined the smartphone world.  I love it!!  I decided to go with the droid mini - I liked the features, the Android platform, and most of all, the size.  I'm going to try not to get sucked into it, but I do love it.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in central Kentucky!  It actually reached the 60s.  Unfortunately they're calling for up to 8 inches of snow tonight.  Looks like the groundhog did see his shadow today...

The husband is thinking about starting a blog explaining science things to normal people.  Like vitamin supplements and why they're not all great.  He's thinking about getting into science writing, and possibly doing outreach stuff like that, so I think it'll be good practice at least.  Any suggestions?

Not much to update right now, so I think that's about it.

<3

Edit: So the hubby was just asked to be a moderator at the conference he goes to. How exciting!

Also, I've started zumba with the girls at the clinic, and it is so much fun!