Making Progress and Other Thoughts

I am slowly - but indeed surely - making progress on my dissertation. In fact, just yesterday I plotted out a tentative schedule that should, if all the stars align, actually have me graduating in December. I've got my fingers crossed. But I've also got the fairly realistic expectation of needing the spring semester in order for my final various approvals (because my schedule has me turning in my final dissertation 13 days before the end of the semester, and while I'd like to believe they could turn it around quickly...we all know that there's still a pretty high probability that he's going to read it and turn it back to me telling me that he's not sure there's a study in there. Or something.)

I am also making progress (again slow but sure) on the various baby blankets that need to get made. I probably am not going to get one done in time, but maybe if I really hustle I can still manage it. Of course, the big problem with it is that I'm trying a new pattern that is really pretty in the picture, but you can't convince me that the picture actually corresponds to the pattern they printed. That and even though my gauge is dead on, the blanket is turning out to be sized roughly correct if either a) the baby is a doll or b) it's really a washcloth and not a blanket. So. I'm probably going to have to improvise something to make it a reasonable sized thing (cause at this point I've put too much work into it to rip it apart and do a different pattern). Thus it will likely be late to the show. Ah well.

The blankets have put the thing I'm making for my mom on hold a bit. Her birthday is in May and my idea is that this'll be for that - though she keeps sending me ideas of what she'd like for her birthday, so I may save it (since it's taking longer than I expected anyway) and give it to her later. Or just keep it for myself as she wasn't super thrilled with the idea when I told her about it in the first place. (Not from the not wanting something I made aspect but from the "when would I use it" aspect - which is fine. I will use it. And getting to back burner it for a bit is helpful as well.)

In the "other thoughts" category, we almost got a puppy this last week. There was a sign just outside our church for Sheltie puppies and honestly, I thought it might have been a Sign sign, not just a sign. So after much hemming and hawing I called and the breeder sounds lovely and the puppies sound perfect...and so we put our name down to be notified about her next litter (which will likely be in about 2 years as she's giving the dog a break for a bit since she's had two litters in a row). Because at the end of the day we decided now probably isn't the best time for a new puppy that needs housebreaking and all the things new puppies need. But in twoish years, well, that might be just about perfect. But we'll see what we see when we get there. I'm just stoked to have found a breeder nearby who breeds the colors I love whose puppies aren't crazy expensive.