2024 in 13 Posts

For this last Thursday of 2024, I present my recap of the year, sort of. I've gone through and meticulously selected 13 posts that represented my year...  Um, not really. It was more of a "oh, I remember that," or, "that was funny," kind of thing. 

This is a Thursday 13. (I started doing this recap in 2020, so now it's kind of a tradition.) And so, for my year in review: 

1. January 18th: Performance Review

Where a student thought I was a terrible sub and told me. Of course, the joke was on her as she ended up being a student in the long-term assignment I had starting in March.

2. February 8th: Locked In

This was the day the manual lock on my driver side door broke. I eventually got it fixed at school by their auto shop. (For the record, not the school where it broke.) There was drama, as when I went to pick up the part, I fell, landing on my face. And one of the students who worked on installing the new lock was in that long-term assignment I had that I mentioned just above in #1. (This was done in April. The lock is still working fine.)

3. February 16th: Day in the Life of a Sub

This one? Was a day. Not all my days are this all over the place. This one was notable. But, this is the job, and things can be this kind of all over the place.

4. March 11th: Two Months' Work 

This was my first major project of the year: a blanket. It was for a birthday. In January. But as I knit it in front of her (and she picked out the color and had veto power over the stitch pattern), it wasn't a surprise. 

5. April 20th: Ruined 

I did A to Z in April. And, as usual, I wrote what I normally post about, just fitting the title to the letter of the day. Then a funny thing happened, and "interesting" things happened, and I included them on Saturdays. This was the post about the fire in a neighboring building in my condo complex. (The missing cats were found alive. Currently the units are being rebuilt. It's slow going, but they're making decent progress.) 

In April

End of December

6. May 24th: The Wrong Johnson

An eighth grader used ChatGPT to help him with his work rather than his textbook. It gave him a wrong answer. He was all about how his teacher knew he did this and didn't care. Although, when I had him in class a week later, he sang a different tune (being very careful not to make my note to that teacher). 

7. June 7th: Not a Freshman, Not a Senior

From my long-term in March through May and then at the end of May comes this story. The boy claimed to be a senior. This was the day that was proven a lie.

8. July 1st: How to Crochet a Water Bottle Carrier

I added three videos to my YouTube channel this year. This was the post introducing the first one. The channel is still a work in progress, and I hope to post some new videos next year. (One is currently in production.) 

9. August 29th: Collapsing

I started this current school year in a seventh grade science class (long term). This post was where I talked about flailing as there were more schedule changes than usual.

10. September 6th: The Dog Ate My Homework

That seventh grade science class had a kiddo actually tell me he couldn't turn in an assignment due to doggie influence. (The dog peed on it.) 

11. October 14th: Eyeing the Sweater

My second major project of the year, this one was a crocheted sweater with a big eye in the center. It was for my niece's birthday (in June), but I finished it in October. Sigh. (I wrote about it sixteen times this past year as I worked on it.) 

12. November 15th: Caught in the Lie

An eighth grader lied to me (about not having a bathroom pass). Hopefully he learned not to lie to me again, as I write things down, and teachers follow up on these things.

13. December 6th: Unremarkable

I blogged about a few earthquakes that I experienced this year. (See "earthquake files" in my tags for the collection.) This was the last one for the year. (Last earthquake post. Not the last earthquake.)

2023 in 13 Posts

As has become my routine over the last couple years, today's Thursday 13 is a review of the year in blog posts. A not-quite best-of, if you will. (How was your 2023?)

1. January 26th: Catching Up

It's the old game of students using classmates' names. They are terrible at this, but they still make the attempt anyway.

2. February 9th: Consequences

A challenging class doesn't get the reward they were promised. They complain. Loudly.

3. March 30th: Flooded

We got a lot of rain last year. (Well, a lot of rain for our area.) The schools aren't built for that kind of rain.

4. April 27th: Wasps Nest

A student spots a wasps nest on campus, and it turns out that I'm the one who gets to figure out who to contact about it. Just in time for W day in the A to Z Challenge.

5. May 25th: This Again

It used to be a major part of a sub's job: insert video, press play. Now, with streaming and computers and big screens, it isn't so easy. I had quite a few issues playing videos for classes this year.

6. June 7th: That's All, Folks

I'd been going along quite nicely, working daily, until suddenly I wasn't working. But I got to visit some colleagues while out shopping.

7. July 10th: Leaving the Mistake

I started knitting this body pillow cover in January. I officially, completely (kind of) finished it in November. By July, blog topics were scarce, so here's one of the many posts I wrote about it.

8. August 16th: Newbies

The school district hired a bunch of new subs. Good news for the sub shortage. Bad news for subs. (Work's been harder to get this school year.)

9. August 25th: Hurriquake

Southern California got hit by a tropical storm. This is not usual for us. In fact, I can't recall a time we ever before got one. While hunkered down for that storm, in the midst of the rain, we had an earthquake. If that's not the most California response to a tropical storm, I don't know what is.

10.  September 1st: Not Quite Lunchtime

I started the school year in a 9th grade English class that did not have a teacher assigned. They hired a new teacher quickly, so I only covered the class for 3 1/2 weeks. During the first week, I got hit with the school's new block schedule (which I really should have known, but we'll blame the beginning of the school year). 

11. October 5th: Cursed 5th

With the district hiring a bunch of new subs, work has been more tricky to secure. And then there was this day where I kept attempting to book it, but the jobs kept getting cancelled. (Luckily, the 4th gig I booked stuck.)

12. November 9th: Forgeries

A group of 7th graders tried to make me think their hall passes excused their tardies. Luckily, they are really bad at faking me out.

13. December 1st: Trapped

This was the day the school went on lockdown due to a student hopping the fence and a passing motorist alerting authorities. Better safe than sorry.

Scrolling

Ever since Twitter started dying, I've been looking for social media to scroll for those moments when I just want to scroll on my phone and I don't want to do too much thinking. 

(At some point, I really need to update my online avatar. My current picture is over five years old. But I just can't bring myself to take any selfies. I'm working on it.)

I got a Threads profile working, and I was offered a code to join Bluesky, and those work pretty well. I'm still building a list of people to follow on both (you can follow me on Threads here or Bluesky here or search my username which is @ZiziRho), so it isn't quite what it was before, but it's something.

But, with all the changes, I found myself scrolling through Pinterest again. (It's ZiziRhoDesigns on Pinterest.) And I was drawn to some Christmas pins (because I won't get anything done in time for Halloween right now). 

I haven't actually done any knitting or crochet this past week. But these ideas are tempting me:

Scrap-Buster Holiday Light Garland

The pattern is a free download off of Ravelry. Since it's scrap yarn, all I have to do is go through my stash. 

Mini Christmas Stocking

This would be cute, too. Also small, so also scrap yarns. 

Ruffle Fir Trees

And then I found this pin that I'd pinned a couple years ago. I went in search of the pattern only to find that all the links in Pinterest did not work. I found a link to a link, and that link was to the actual pattern, only to lead to a 404 Website Not Found error. Sigh.

But now I was on a mission. Somehow, I stumbled on a video on YouTube. (And now I get the gist of how this is done.) There was supposedly a link to the pattern, but that gave me another 404 error. A little more Google magic, and I found the pattern! (It's the link on the picture caption.) 

Will I do any of these? Probably not. But I have the patterns printed out, so that's more than I can say for some of my ideas.

So, light garland or trees? Which one do you think I should do? 

2022 in 13 Posts

I did this for the first time in 2020, and I liked it so much I repeated it in 2021. I guess it's an annual event now.

For this week's Thursday 13, the last one of the year, I'm listing 13 posts from this year. I wouldn't call these the best posts. It's more of a retrospective of the year told in links. It's my blog year in review. In order of posting:

1. January 27th: Disappointing Via Email

My year began in Ms. S's special ed class for young adults at the adult transition center (Ms. S suddenly retired in October 2021). January was when that Covid surge hit, and our outings got canceled, which I got to communicate to Pizza via email as he was out recovering from his Covid booster.

2. February 17th: The Shrine

In February, I was back to day-to-day subbing. The 10th grade AP world history students were taking a test, and they had a ritual for test days. They set up a shrine in the classroom.

3. March 16th: The Streaker

My day-to-day subbing was short-lived as another teacher at the adult transition center decided to retire at the end of February, and I covered that class until the end of the school year. This class was decidedly more challenging, typified by this post about Doris and her bathroom issues.

4. April 14th: Leaky & April 15th: Molar, Cracked

This might be cheating, but these both happened at the same time. I just broke them down into two posts. I had to go to the dentist for another cracked tooth the day after there was a water emergency at home, so I stayed in a hotel overnight. 

5. May 26th: Paper Airplanes and the Substitute Teacher

We did have some fun in that class at the adult transition center. They had never made paper airplanes. I thought it was time they learned how.

6. June 13th: Happy Birthday, Niece

On my niece's 21st birthday, I posted pics of the tank top I knit her. (She chose it.) It seems like I didn't do too much knitting/crocheting this year, but I did manage to complete this project.

7. July 6th: Illustrating the Lesson

After a crazy busy school year, I agreed to teach a summer school class. I learned how to post gifs to Google Slides. I think I enjoyed these more than the kiddos did.

8. August 18th: The Soft Opening

And then the new school year began.

9. September 5th: And Then It Was Done

This was my big project of the year: a unicorn hat. This was the post where I showed off the finished object. 

10. September 15th: The Sandwich Incident & September 16th: The Mommy Option

Again, cheating, but again, this is one story told over two blog posts. Colton fought me on eating in class. I emailed his mother. His mother took his punishment to a whole 'nother level. (I wouldn't normally follow up like this, but I was covering the chemistry class for three weeks.) 

11. October 13th: The Visitor

After finishing in the chemistry class, I took a month covering a class called success seminar. It did not go well. Having a student who was not enrolled in the class did not help matters.

12. November 10th: About Time

The schools got nifty new clocks. The bells are synched. This should be a good thing. But, of course, the kiddos have found the bugs in the system.

13. December 2nd: Watch Out

In which a student throws chairs. Yes. Chairs. In the classroom. 

I feel like I'm leaving so much out. But this gives the gist of the year. How was your 2022?

2020 in 13 Posts

It's the last day of the year. And it's a Thursday. So, why not a retrospective of my year via a Thursday 13? Sounds like a plan. 

So, 13 blog posts from this year. I wouldn't call them the best. It's more of a snapshot of each month during this very strange year. 

1. January 10th: Another Fall Day

Wherein I tell you all about another fall I had, this one in front of a class of 7th graders. 

2. January 22nd: Powerless

Miscreants stole the battery out of my car while I was parked at school. The nerve.

3. February 27th: Dancing Fool

He said he had a headache. And then he was dancing in class. Dancing!

4. March 12th: The Screamers

A reminder of some of the horrors that I don't miss in working from home. Boys screaming in class, as if in a porno.

5. April 9th: Hello, Neighbor

Now fully into lockdown, I encountered Minions during a walk nearby.

6. May 13th: The Long Wait

Cinco de Mayo fell on Taco Tuesday, so we had to get Mexican food for dinner. Obviously. It was so obvious, everyone did the same.

7. June 1st: Stash Shark

Because I have to do a project post for this year, and this one feels like it should be it.

8. July 2nd: Modern Problems

The problem with homemade masks is threads getting in your nose while out shopping. 

9. August 26th: Teaching to an Empty Room

Because school started, but here in California it started virtually. 

10. September 23rd: Offline

Having WiFi issues during distance learning is a bad thing. 

11. October 22nd: A Very Different Evacuation

Every year we do the Great California ShakeOut. We did it this year without students. 

12. November 11th: Disruptions

It turns out kiddos can disrupt online class. It took the continuation high school to figure it out.

13. December 7th: Laws of Gravity 3000

Where I hit post #3000. I couldn't not celebrate that, now could I? 

I think this is a pretty good mix for the year. Could I add more posts? Definitely. But keeping it to the 13 was a great exercise in whittling it down.

How was your 2020? 

All Out Podcast Episode

I'm changing things up today. My SIL did a podcast...

I've mentioned her struggles before (here, here, and here). If you've got about 43 minutes, go ahead and take a listen. The episode is here.

Jellyfish Inventory

The other day (okay, it was more like a couple months ago), someone made a comment about how many jellyfish I'd made. And I realized that I had no idea what that number was. The vast majority of them have gone to other homes upon my finishing them.

But I had kept records. Could I track down the number? (And, the thought occurred, it might be a good idea to keep a list of them from now on.) So, since I really have nothing interesting to talk about today...

The initial idea came from someone at that farmers market I do from time to time. She showed me some images, and from there I was able to track down the pattern (via One Dog Woof). (This came out just about a year ago. Wow.)

And then I made my first jellyfish...

Shortly thereafter, I made two others...

And then the one that went to Betty...

The lady who bought the first one requested one in purple for herself. Then four others for her granddaughters...

I made three for others at the farmers market, two for Christmas presents, and one for someone family adjacent, none of which I remembered to get pictures of. Then MJ ordered one...

And finally, just a couple weeks ago, the one from my "neighbor" at the last farmers market I did...

That's 17. I've neglected to mention that after Christmas I got bored and made another one in orange. (The purple one in this image is from the second image. I can't recall when I made that middle blue one.)

And that's 19.

Wow. 19.

Anyway, the whole reason that this even came up was because of Anna. She's seeking donations for a Support the Troops Auction for the USO of North Carolina, and I offered to make something. She suggested a jellyfish, and I had the brilliant idea that it should be red, white, and blue.

It's not quite finished yet...

While I was working on this one, I started to wonder, again, how many of these things I'd made. And so, I decided to count them up. This one makes 20.

Oh, by the way, I also started another yellow one. Just because I had the yarn and I was bored one night. It's barely started, but it'll bring my total to 21.

I have this image in my head of my farmers market booth with a line of jellyfish. So, there are going to be more. Eventually. Probably.

One Dollar

Middle school math class, special ed. But, for a change, they had a fun activity. They were to play games on the computers. Math games.

The first one was a cashiering game called Cash Out. The second was called Garage Sale Wizard. (Click on the links if you want to try. There's a whole website with these sorts of games.)

They got started. Then one boy informed me that I owed him a dollar.

Upon closer examination, I discovered that the "prize" for winning the game was a "certificate" that they could print out with money depicted. Not real money.

When I explained this, the boy wanted to print out the certificate right away. I explained that he could save the thing to his cloud and print it out at his leisure. And keep playing.

Well, he bored with the game pretty quickly. I assume because he was having trouble.

Why do I think he was having trouble? That "dollar" he "won"? Was a low end prize. Other students won ten dollars or up to fifty dollars.

A Few Gift Ideas

Christmas is coming.

While I do the occasional plug for my Etsy shop, I don't generally make this blog all about what I have for sale. Except for today. (Well, I'm sure I'll do this again in the future, but it won't be a weekly feature or anything.)

Some of you may be starting your Christmas shopping, so I wanted to let you know what you can get that's been handmade by me.

I finally got a few of the ornaments listed. You can find them here. I have about a dozen of them, so it'll take me some time to get them all listed. (If there's a color you'd like, I do custom orders.)

Light Blue Beaded Handknitted Christmas Tree Ornament

If you're just planning on gifting gift cards, you can get a little holder to put it in. And I'll even monogram it with any initial you'd like. (Check out my A to Z posts from April to see what each letter looks like. They're at the bottom of each post. )

Handknit Monogrammed Gift Card Holder

If there's a coffee lover in your life, why not get them something to put that takeout coffee cup in? (Of course, mine is covering a smoothie, but I'm weird and a coffee avoider.)

Reusable To Go Cup Cozy

I know a few of you are also knitters and crocheters. If you are planning on making some gifts, I have some patterns available. (The links here go to my shop on Etsy, but these patterns are also available on Ravelry.)

The above crocheted cozy is explained in about 24 pages of photos. And the pattern also shows how to make the longer version with a strap that can be worn cross-body.

A Sip on the Wild Side Cozy Pattern

I'm in the process of updating my knitted phone cozy pattern. (I hope to get that done this week.) There's also a version for eReaders or mini tablets. The one in this picture is still in use, covering my Nook. I love this thing.

eReader Cozy

And then, of course is the knitted tablet holder which has instructions for all three sizes: small/smartphone, medium/eReader, and large/tablet.

Tablet Buddy (and Smartphones) Knitting Pattern

The great thing about these patterns is that they don't take all that long to make. The eReader cozy probably takes the longest, unless you make the large tablet buddy.

(If you're not a knitter or crocheter and are interested in any of the patterns' items, I can make those up for you as well.)

Tangents

The grammar topic of the day was commonly confused words.

As someone who spends time reading self-published novels, I am way too familiar with the wrong word being used. Well, even just on the internet. Blogs. You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure.

So, I dove into the topic with gusto.

When it was it's/its turn, I explained when to know when to use the contraction. And one boy wondered about labor contractions...

Then, out of nowhere (well, not to his mind), someone else wondered why we have C. I agreed that it could probably be done away with. That he wasn't the first to question it. And that other letters had been dropped from the alphabet. (I mentioned ampersand and thorn.)

It was a weird sort of lesson. You'd think that going over the difference between loose and lose wouldn't generate such questions, but then again, it was Friday.

Capital/capitol brought out why we call them uppercase and lowercase letters.

Peace/piece brought out where the peace symbol comes from.

I spend way too much time reading random articles on the internet.

Reknitting the Pyramid

Once upon a time, I knitted a pyramid pillow for my ereader. For my Nook. Because I wanted to have something to prop it against while I was reading. (Of course, the long story is that in the end, it didn't really work.)

But just because it didn't work for me didn't mean that others couldn't find a use for it. So, I took the original pattern (which was more of a muslin anyway) and created the Tablet Buddy. It had a better base and sides with a cable to give it interest.

And I sized the pattern up and down so now not only could you use it to prop up an ereader (for a Kindle or Nook or mini-tablet), but you could also use it for your smartphone (it works just fine with my iPhone 6+) or your full sized tablet (iPad or any similarly sized device).

Since the above picture was taken, I have managed to part with the small (phone) and medium (ereader) sized pillows. But the gray full-sized pyramid is still in my possession...

It's been a fixture at my farmers market outings, many times holding up the magnet board...

But since I knit that pyramid, I have made some tweaks to the pattern. Well, not to the pattern itself. I've just added putting a triangular piece of cardboard in the bottom so that the pyramid sits flat on any surface. (This was a suggestion in the comments for the muslin version's page on Ravelry.) It stabilizes the thing very nicely.

Every phone prop I now make has this added feature. (The "Knitted Desk Cell Phone Holder" is also available ready-made via Zizi Rho Designs on Etsy.) And it just occurred to me that perhaps it was time to add cardboard to the bottom of my other pyramid pillows. (By "just" I mean last week.)

First step, take the pillow apart.

So, I did this. I frogged the whole pyramid and started reworking it...

Only this time, I'm adding in the cardboard at the bottom. (I cover the cardboard in duct tape. Just because. No one's ever going to see it, but it makes me feel better.)

I'm thinking of adding in a purple stripe as well. I should have the thing remade by this time next week. I hope. If I get it done, I'll post pics.

Because, you know, instead of doing any Christmas gift knitting or ornament knitting for my various markets, I'd rather reknit something that was finished ages ago.

Fair Burn

This past Friday the Orange County Fair opened. If you arrived that first hour, you could get in free. But because everyone does this, we had to arrive early and wait in line.

The 2015 @ocfair opens with much FanFAIR #ocf125 pic.twitter.com/sX8tNwlhxy

— ocfair (@ocfair) July 17, 2015

In the sun. I'm sure you know where this is going...

Yes, I did wear sunscreen. I just didn't rub it in all the way up my arm. So, I only got burned where I missed, and that is about half of what it was 12 hours prior. (I have some great after sun gel that helps quite a bit.)

I saw where they had all the crazy food...

$125 caviar-covered, deep-fried Twinkie. Down the hatch. Only at the @ocfair!! #ocf125 pic.twitter.com/7AM4GTf1DV

— Greg Lee (@ABC7Greg) July 17, 2015

Because there are crazy people who want a caviar-covered Twinkie. Or a three-patty hamburger with a Krispie Kreme bun...

There’s fried food! @ocfair @cbsla pic.twitter.com/v44nEIXEIv

— Joy Benedict (@joybenedict) July 17, 2015

Not my sort of thing. I like to go and look at the knit and crochet entries. My favorite was a box of crocheted donuts (that I didn't take a picture of and I can't find a picture of on social media. Sorry).

I did not expect my Monday posts to turn into the how-I-got-sunburned-this-week posts. Hopefully next week I'll have no new sunburn stories.

What's on Deck

Summer's here, so it's time to kick back...
(If you want a pair of these, you can purchase them here.)

A couple things...

Last Monday, my sister-in-law Heather joined us. Thank you to everyone who shared the link and/or donated to her GoFundMe. As of this writing, her GoFundMe has passed $7000, and last Monday's post has reached the top of my views. (Which is an exciting thing, as I thought that free pattern for the crocheted water bottle carrier would never vacate the top spot.)

If you commented on that post, Heather did reply to each and every one of you. So, if you haven't gone back to check it out, make sure you do.

Also...

This is my week over at Unicorn Bell. Some very nice authors have joined me to do my work for me to ask some "What If?" questions to get those writerly brains working. We'd love it if you'd pop on by and check out some novels that may be new to you.

What have you got going this week? Any fun holiday plans? (If you're not in the U.S., any fun weekend plans?)

A Few Things...

1. It's the last week of school. Which means it's time for my end of year stuff: end of year stats and Graduation Daydream. The stats will have to hold off as I have one day scheduled next week, and assuming my alarm clock doesn't fail on me (like it did on Friday...) I may have another subbing story or two for you all.


2. Although, if this week is anything like last week, I won't have much for the blog. Silly cooperative classes. I mean, when the teacher leaves a lesson plan that says they're to work quietly, you'd think they'd fight this, wouldn't you? And when they start to talk, me telling them that I'm going to take down names shouldn't work. But it did.


3. I have done a little crochet...





A little something for ArcherGirl's 14th birthday. (ArcherGirl is my niece.) It's a cute little pattern called Spiral Crochet Flower. Follow the link for the pattern and video instructions.



4. I noticed something interesting on my sidebar. My most popular post has changed. For a long time now, it's been the pillow prop pattern, but suddenly that's dropped and now my water bottle carrier has taken over the top spot.







Followed by the EOS lip balm holders...








For those of you who are not knitters and/or crocheters, I do sell the finished items in my Etsy shop, Zizi Rho Designs. Here are the links: Water Bottle Carriers, EOS Lip Balm Holders, and Cell Phone Pillow Props. 




I've started posting quizzes on my Zizi Rho Designs Facebook page. Not quizzes made by me or anything (I wouldn't bore you with that). Some of them are actually fun. Make sure to stop by and check them out (and let me know how you did).




And finally, it's almost my week at Unicorn Bell again. If you're an author with a book to promote (or you know an author with a book to promote), let me know either here or at unicornbellsubmissions [at] gmail [dot] com (put "book tour" in the subject somewhere). I have posts open from June 29th through July 3rd.

Variegated Blues

A while ago, I introduced the regular readers of this blog to my EOS Lip Balm Holders.

I even published the pattern (for those of you who crochet).

The suggestion was made to make it in a variegated yarn. So, since today is V day, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to show you how those came out...

I think they turned out rather well.

Less than a week left. How are you keeping up with the A to Z Challenge? Ready for it to be over? Found any good blogs we should know about? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Yes, V is available for the giveaway.
Have you entered? It's open through the A to Z.