Done with that.

Today we finished all the five books for the goddamn stupid 4th graders. The boys went to get drunk but for the last one who's printing something, I'm going to eat out and then I'll be back to abuse the printer to my heart's content. And just idle here, hidden from my evernagging mother and all bad things that could encounter me.

To commemorate this event, the filling in my chipped tooth chipped. Teeth always go bad on Friday afternoon.

That's the narcissi. I took the pic more than two weeks ago and wanted to post it to demonstrate that our winter starts in March but didn't manage to. It's a pretty kitsch, though.

Just so

I got the review of my manuscript and I'm absolutely happy because it was good. There were a few mistakes but that's what's reviewing good for and the guy said that he liked the whole thing. Since I'm not a historian as such and since I'm not actually an expert in children nor teaching, it felt good. Especially after my ex-co-author declared the draft a piece of crap.
It was however a friendly review written by someone who doesn't want to nitpick nor show that he knows something, too. The unfriendly reviews are done by folks appointed by the ministry and they might have strange opinions. They often do, in fact. Some of the reviewers are plain teachers who do not need to be plain morons by definiton but many are.... so I expect comments like I think this should be done differently. Yuck. And since the textbook mentions various religions (most of history is religious wars, religious arguments, religious art and such), it has to be appointed by some organization of each bunch. The guy who reviews it for Jews is a crazy maniac who will happily want every square milimetre filled in with some Jew-related something. The Christians are normal or ignorant, meaning less work for us in the publishing. The Gypsy organization is pretty new and I hope the Muslims do not need to have it since there's a single notion of wars with Turks who do not necessarily have to be taken as Muslims because nothing of their religious inclinations (or any other inclinations, for that matter) is mentioned.
Luckily, it doesn't have to get an approval from the Union of Steam Engineers (nineteenth century is often referred to as Century of Steam), Voluntary Organization of Parchment Producers (parchment was used to write on and is discussed as such) or whatever crazy things one might invent.

Blogger doesn't want to upload pictures. Damn bastard. You are not getting any, then.

Yes, and today is the last day with shitty hair colour.

Spring has come

On Wednesday I had some errands - like, find a notary, get a certified copy of my diploma, throw it at some people at school, take pics of the whale skeleton in the National Museum, get a copy of FAZ since it's mentioned in some historic something in my book and the editor expressed a desire to add a pic of Frankfurter Allgemeine there. It's a good paper, if nothing else, and since the kids don't know German and... and anyway, even if it could be interpreted as a subliminal message, it won't do more harm than the idiotic advert made by some advertising idiot, where the Lindt chocolate names are French yet pronounced in English. Well, I was messing around Prague.
I forgot to take my allergy meds. The Prague air is very, erm, strong, so I had my first fit of cough just after getting out from the metro. I usually carry an inhaler somewhere in my bag but just that day I forgot it at home. Meaning that after every fit of cough I had to sit and concentrate on breathing because the body somehow wouldn't want. Like, really, stupidly, inhale-exhale. Inhale-exhale. Try not make that whistling sound. It worked somehow. I hate my allergies.
Although the nights are still frosty, it's sunny and nice. On Wednesday it was even snowing (the third time during this bad excuse for winter). Yet, in general, the weather is rather springy and warm. I didn't feel like wearing my winter jacket, it gives me the trickle of sweat running down my spine which I dearly hate. I fished my sample wardrobe for something warm and I fished out one of the first sweaters I made, with pretty strange design mistakes I had hard time fixing and/or ignoring, I was much less self-confident, I suppose. It's a bulletproof wool, almost, and I've been wearing it third day in a row. And... I love it. It keeps me warm, it has lace pattern so it's well aerated (I sweat a lot), it has a nice shape (will have to start using some design elements again) and it looks good. And... it's cheap superwash wool.
Some more yarn arrived. Of which there were 20 skeins of cashmere/silk/lambswool blend which is stunning to knit (softer than butter) but brown. I tried to call it earthy, hazelnut, whatever.... but it's brown. When knitted in plain stockinette, it looks like cheap sweatpants. I wonder whether I should dare and redye it. I thought I might combine it with some Aurora and Blossom and Surabu in shades of (mostly) green; made a sample and Surabu looks pretty useless as carryalong, it makes the whole thing bulky and scratchy. I'll have to think about it. And the yarn is really brown, not bluegrey as on the pic. The colourful bits is Surabu. I noticed that it has z-twist which is way unusual... and seems to me that the stitches look more symmetrical. I tried some leaves pattern but it doesn't seem the right one. And the yarn is way too beautiful to be wasted.

Feeling blue

I have some work issues which I don't want to vent here. Actually I would be only too happy to vent them here but it would be impolite. And I wouldn't use too cultivated language, I guess. I came home on Saturday night, on Sunday I bid farewell to Laura (flatmate needed again) and went shopping.
I needed some veggies (namely green peas. When I'm in bad mood, I'm in no mood to anything that has to be peeled or something and I don't really like frozen carrots) and toilet tissue. I like blue toilet tissue regardless of other factors but now, it fitted in my general feelings.
They had sales in Tesco so I grabbed some tank tops and apples and mint and chocolate bars and only at home I realized that my groceries are totally colour-coordinated. The overall effect is ruined by the red Tesco logo on the pea bags and the red Findus logo on the basil box. Even the cyclamen fits in.
And, just for the heck of it, yours truly. The pic is bleak, though. Wish the spring came and decent light for photography with it.