Just a quick word to those of you who plan on creating babies.... BREED NOW! I have been around too many people lately who have miscarried or have had genetic problems with their children. It isn't always an age factor, but it sucks to see someone have such difficulties. SO, Breed early and often... and I'll knit baby blankets....

Now.... to those of you who can't raise respectful children... DON'T BREED! I currently have no telephone in my classroom... why? Because someone stole it while I had a substitute yesterday. They also removed stuff from my cupboard, stole my good overhead pens (that I purchased myself), threw away homework papers, made a roll of paper towels disappear... among other things. Little shits. The sub will not be working at our school again. I haven't gotten the whole story yet but apparently she has a habit of LEAVING the classroom, so my little darlings (read: shits) may have been unattended for some time. I feel violated.

On the upside, apparently I'm the 'good' calculus teacher, because I'm actually keeping the correct pacing and assignments while the Junior College teacher fill-in for the other calculus class is 2 days behind, isn't giving the correct assignments and is a bit scatterbrained. I've had a couple of his students come in to ask about being behind and what they might be missing... much fun.

I finished my homework.

Strange day. I taught two algebra 2 classes back to back, which is an awesome schedule, it went well, didn't loose anyone (I don't think, but I always talk/teach on the fast side) then left my Algebra 1 to a substitute so I could go to a dentist appointment (with K too!). I brought home the Algebra 2 homework which was to write a 2 page "Math-ography" I read 70 of them tonight, then did 30 problems of calculus homework (the assignment the students will get tomorrow). I'm tired, and I really hope my Algebra 1 class didn't abuse the sub.

The strangest part of this calculus thing is the feeling that I'm back in high school, not when I'm at school, but when I'm at home working on planning or homework. K and I started dating when I was a senior in high school (taking Calculus). So, "Go AWAY, I'm doing my Calculus homework!" Is really a flashback phrase for us 12 years later. Granted, the big difference is that I get to drink beer while I do my homework, and I don't have to be home by 10pm...

In minor knitting news: I got half a baby hat done while getting my teeth cleaned (K2P2 is harder to do w/o looking than just plain knit, I would have finished if it was just knit...)

I bought a stitch counter.

Well, I thought I bought a TI-89, very powerful, extra complicated, calculator (so I wouldn't look silly still using my TI-85 from 12 years ago) but it turns out that the first feature I have used on it is the Sum notation and it was to calculate when I'll be halfway done with the Bunny Hop baby blanket I've started knitting.

Now, normal rectangular knitting is EASY to calculate, Rows/2 gets you haw many rows in order to be halfway done, if you do rows/2*stitches per row you get the # of stitches you'll have knitted. No fancy calculator needed, but I have yet again started a giant mitered square. This time I have cast on 484 stitches and I'll be decreasing 2 stitches on each corner every other row (this time I allowed for a corner stitch in each corner), meaning my stitches per row are constantly changing and I'll be halfway done with the total stitches long before I am halfway done with the rows. Enter new calculator:

60
E (8x-8)*2 = 28272
x=2

(sorry, blogger won't deal with a Sigma symbol for some reason...)
I'll have 120 rows, but since each row is repeated (the *2) I'm just looking at 60 (which is also the starting # of stitches between each marker) for this count. Remember, I'll still have 4 stitches left in the end because I added those corners.
So 28272 stitches for the whole thing... with some playing around I found I'll be halfway done when I'm down to 43 stitches in each part, or
about 34 rows in.

Nerd out.
I need to get back to the calculus now....