It's been a busy day - it was soils lab day in my ecology class, which is the most involved lab (on both my part and the students' part). But now it's complete, and next week there is no lab (because of assessment testing).
***

I guess I have to be very careful about pizza "from out" any more. I don't eat commercially-purchased pizza often; I find it cheaper (and at times, almost as fast) to make my own. But yesterday, after a rather harrowing* piano lesson, I decided to run to the new "Hot N Fast" Little Caesar's in town.

Apparently, Little Caesar's uses a seasoning that no longer agrees with me. I almost toyed with the idea of not coming in today, that was how bad my stomach felt at 4:45 when I woke up. But I soldiered through (even did my workout) and it got better over the course of the day.

(I think a boiled egg and a salad are probably best for tonight. And right now, my favorite salad is this: spinach with a few drained mandarin orange sections, some toasted walnuts, and all of it dressed with a dressing made from 4 parts walnut oil to 1 part balsamic vinegar, with maybe a teaspoon of Penzey's "creamy peppercorn" dressing seasoning added for every 5 T of oil plus vinegar).

****

*I know my teacher did not intend for it to be harrowing. I am working right now on an arrangement of "Castle in a Cloud" (from Les Miserables), and I'm just not feeling the love for it. For one thing, it has a lot of discordances: there are places where there is an F in the right hand and an E in the left and that kind of thing - a minor second, I guess? - just sounds bad to me.

I'm much more into classical or baroque music, I guess, where that kind of thing happens rarely.

At one point she had me playing a couple measures over and over and over again to try to get my hands synchronized and I just got really frustrated because I couldn't do it right. Like, almost fighting teary frustrated.

I'm too much of a wuss to petition for giving up on the song, and I suppose it has something important to teach me, but right now I'm just kind of fighting through it. Hopefully there will come a point where it will "click."

***

I've been working on a pair of Kew socks but am not very far, so no picture. I made a mistake last night and wound up having to un-knit some of it and redo it. I've been trying to work on a different project each night in the hopes of clearing the backlog of works-in-progress.

Well, a couple good things did happen yesterday (other than my clever fix of a knitting mess-up).

First of all, as I was heading home from school (I wasn't getting anything done, it was loud, and I had exams to grade) I decided to run by the local glass company. This is a long-term business, it's been here for like 50 years.

I planned on just asking the guy if he could do it, and maybe have him measure to cut the mirror (I guess I was assuming cutting mirror took a long time). Instead, he looked at the mirror, and said, "If you have about 30 minutes right now, I can do it now."

It didn't even take that. He cut a new piece of mirror, pulled out the broken pieces of the old one, glued it in, taped a couple of narrow blocks of styrofoam over the edges, and told me to leave the tape-and-styrofoam on for 24 hours.

It cost $15, which I'm guessing is about 10% of what I would have paid at the dealership.

So: broken car mirror, go to a glass company.

(The bad news is it looked like maybe they were going out of business, there was a For Sale sign up in front of the building. Or maybe they rent the building and the owner was just selling, or they were moving. I should have asked. But I get shy about stuff like that sometimes)

But, on the other side, I've partially fulfilled my 3-50 commitment for the month.

(Have you heard of this? It's kind of a grassroots thing. The idea is, each month, you spend a total of $50 (at a minimum) spread over three locally-owned businesses. As I have a quilt shop in town, and the place I like to buy cards and gifts for people is run by one of my AAUW colleagues, it's usually not too hard. The idea is, I guess, you're supporting local businesses and the $50 thing was based on a calculation that if a certain critical mass of people - not necessarily everyone in a town - did it, it would keep downtowns and locally-owned businesses alive. And I think restaurants count too.).

I also spent part of it at the locally-run grocery. I had not shopped there much, because when they first re-opened, it seemed like they didn't carry any of the brands I normally use. But maybe they've been taking patron requests, because I see they now have Daisy brand products (my favorite sour cream). And they went up GREATLY in my estimation when I found they had the Saco powdered buttermilk - nowhere else in town has it, and I don't think I've even seen it in shops in Sherman. The powdered buttermilk is a boon to have if you like to bake, and sometimes do things that require buttermilk, but don't want to have to run out and get it and then either struggle to use it up (I drink it sometimes but it's not my favorite beverage ever) or have it go bad.

(I had stopped in to buy whipped cream for the AAUW cake).

I also made a fruit sauce. I kinda-sorta followed a Mark Bittman recipe, with a couple modifications. Here are the pithy instructions:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
~4 T butter (you can use less, it's partly to make the sauce glossy)
1, 12-ounce bag frozen UNSUGARED strawberries
1, 12-ounce bag frozen UNSUGARED raspberries (These are the fruit where the whole fruit/slices are frozen "loose" and are in a bag - they are not in a syrup)

about 1 to 1 1/2 T cornstarch, mixed with water.

You mix the water and sugar and bring them to a boil over medium high heat, then melt the butter in it (turn the heat down to medium). When it has mixed and thickened a little, you dump in the fruit. Bring it back to a boil, cook and stir for maybe 5 minutes (turn the heat down after it boils). Then slowly add the cornstarch-water slurry and cook over medium to low heat until it gets thick and glossy.

It's simple and pretty good. You can keep cooking it down more to make it thicker, but remember it will set up a bit more after it cools.

(I also was reminded of my childhood, when I got in trouble for using up my mom's cornstarch. You can make a non-Newtonian fluid out of cornstarch and water, and it's tons of fun to play with. Actually, it's probably fairly cheap as toys go, I think her main annoyance was that I used it up and didn't tell her.

Also, one of my favorite Mythbusters "Taking it to the extreme" myths involved this - after the unsuccessful ninja walk-on-water, Jamie made a giant vat of the cornstarch-water mixture for Adam to run across. It was pretty impressive and looked like a lot of fun - as long as he would run across it, it would support him, but when he stopped and stood at the end, he sank into it like quicksand. ("Oh, this feels SO wrong" was his comment, as I remember).

And one last good thing - when I bent over to brush the (dry) cornstarch I had dropped on my pants leg, my nose was down near my knee, and looking at my leg from that perspective I thought, "wait, my thigh looks smaller than it used to." So I pulled out the measuring tape and, even though I was wearing slacks, measured over them. Yup, an inch and a half smaller than the last time I measured (like a year ago), and I'm definitely in that "magic category" of women who are allegedly protected from heart disease because they have larger-than-sticks but well-muscled thighs. (I will hasten to say that I'm happier about the allegedly-protected-from-heart-disease thing than the reduction; and anyway, my thighs are still bigger than what Madison Avenue or Hollywood would consider "acceptable." But hey, if I'm less likely to keel over of an exploded heart at a young age, I'll take it.)

Tuesday random:

I have the edging for the second sleeve nearly half finished (I started it last night, after an afternoon doing fieldwork). I'm excited about this sweater again, because it is fairly close to being finished - all I have left is the second sleeve, the button/buttonhole/neck band, and assembly.

After that, I think I'll pick up Honeycomb again and work hard-core on that. For some reason right now instead of flitting from project to project, I'm more interested in working a lot on one thing.

***

Who is Ed Hardy and why is he suddenly so popular? I see shirts with his name and designs on a lot of the students. And a lot of them are carrying Ed Hardy notebooks (the 2009 version of the Trapper Keeper?) I presume he is a tattoo artist, based on the style of the designs?

I feel very 40 when I look at what the students are wearing and realize I have no idea who the bands referenced on their shirts are, or who Ed Hardy is, or when I don't even get some of what are obviously jokes on their shirts.

(Still, I have to say, I'm glad the embarrassing "Big Johnson" joke-shirts went out of fashion.)

***

Whatever the problem was UPS had with my Keepsake Quilting order, it was apparently not a "We are not going to leave packages when no one is home anymore" issue. A music book I ordered from Amazon was waiting on my doorstep when I got home yesterday evening, delivered by UPS.

So I'm wondering if the Keepsake package got damaged in transit or something. I'm still waiting for them to re-send.

***

For the past not-quite-a-week, I've been keeping track, in as non-obsessive and non-self-blaming a way as I can of the amount of added sugar I've been eating.

I'm averaging somewhere around 12 teaspoons a day, and that's a liberal guess (for example, the cereal I eat regularly lists "5 grams of sugar" but I don't know if that's all added or some from the grain, so I count it as all added).

So, while I'm not "perfect" (9 teaspoons, no more) according to the AHA guidelines, when I am eating "normally" for myself, I'm not doing so badly. I think part of my little freak-out over it was that I seriously overestimated how much sugar was in what I ate. I was expecting to find I was eating upwards of 20 teaspoons a day, maybe even as much as 40 (which really was not a logical thought, given the amount of food I typically consume in a day).

And that average of 12 is even with having the occasional cookie or some sugar in my tea. So I am really not doing that badly. I think the fact that I don't really drink pop goes a long way to limiting sugar. (And I don't use many pre-prepared foods. The main one I use - a type of tomato sauce - I was pleased to see contained no added sugar).

So I've decided that I am, in fact, doing OK. That I'm not going to worry about this part of my diet, because I'm not eating nearly as unhealthfully as I had feared. The only two changes I am going to consider are (a) checking labels a bit more carefully when it's stuff that I don't expect to have added sugar (lots of things that aren't sweet do) and (b) be less inclined to "mindlessly" select pop (like on the rare occasions when I eat out, or at Youth Group on Sunday nights - it's just as easy, and better for me in the long run, to drink water. And I often do just take water at Youth Group, because some weeks they serve Crystal Light (aspartame gives me migraines) or they have only caffeinated sodas (I won't drink anything caffeinated after 4 pm or I don't sleep).)

I'm back. I did finish a couple things over break (the agonizingly-long-to-knit Faceted Rib socks being one). I'll post some pictures starting tomorrow.

Break was good, but I was struck by how much more humid it is in Central Illinois than it is here. It's hotter here, but by midafternoon, what humidity there is has generally declined...up where my parents live, humidity levels of 80% or so (with temperatures in the mid 80s) were not unusual. My body does not like humidity.

I ate a lot of sweet corn on the cob while I was up there. Few people grow it around here (I think it's probably too dry; sweet corn is a pretty water-intensive crop) and so you don't see it at farmstands the way you do in Illinois. (And grocery store corn on the cob - you can pretty much forget it. If it's been picked more than a couple days ago, I'd just as soon go with frozen or canned). There's one family - I think they're from Manito? - that bring corn to the local farmer's market up there. And it is really, really good.

Sweet corn is one of my favorite things, especially when it's really fresh like that.

I didn't do a whole lot, other than knit (and do a little sewing, as you'll see later). I guess I did go out and do "Japanese beetle duty" most days - the beetles are really bad up there this summer, and because my mother does not like to spray chemicals (and thinks that those traps-with-attractants probably actually BRING the beetles rather than merely killing them), a couple times a day someone goes out to the garden with an old coffee can with water and a bit of soap in it, and knocks all the beetles they can find into the can.

It smells really bad after it's sat for a day or so. I remember doing something similar as a kid; my mom would pay a penny per beetle (now that I think of it - did she actually dump them out to count them? Or did she go by our counts? Or did she just estimate?). (I also got paid a penny per cabbage worm I caught, or bean beetle, or potato beetle. It seemed almost a shame to kill the potato beetles; they were kind of fat and ungainly and their stripes made them almost cute).

The woodchucks - at least, one of them (I think it's one of the babies, mostly grown up) is still there, but it seems not to have gone back into the garden after it was fenced off. And there's a small rabbit, though it seems to prefer the clover in the yard to anything else, and it's cuter than the woodchuck, anyway.

I did get to see my brother - he ran down for one evening for a visit (My sister-in-law didn't get to come; apparently the DEA is pushing a lot of overtime to try to clear up some of the back caseload and it's cheaper for them to tell people to do overtime than to hire an additional person, I guess - so her hours are longer right now. Which I suppose is good money-wise for them, but having worked a few "overload" semesters myself, I know it's not fun). He brought a bunch of stuff he had found using the fancy metal detector he had gotten for his birthday, including a riale (spelling? The old Mexican coin) from the 1770s that was found at my sister-in-law's family homestead in Ohio. (How did it get there? My brother says that riales were used as currency before a settled US currency, seeing as they were silver)

He also brought his laptop with all the pictures from a trip they took - my sister in law had to go to Quantico for training (it sounds more exciting than it is) and he had some frequent-flier miles saved up, so he flew out for a few days to visit her over one of the weekends, so they saw the sights in Washington and went to Williamsburg. My brother had bought himself a digital SLR (it was one of the Canon models) and had taken some really spectacular photos of the various monuments in Washington and the buildings and gardens at Williamsburg with it. (I don't know if he's just that much better a photographer than I am, or if the quality of the camera is part of it, but now I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, I'll take some of this year's tax refund that is sitting in my savings account and put it towards one...I don't know. Part of me wants a nice little camera I can tuck in a pocket...but I would LOVE to be able to take those gorgeous, precise-focus shots of flowers or bugs or handknits or whatever). So I guess the upshot is: want new camera, but not sure what I want.

I also rediscovered my love of the Food Network as "background noise" while knitting or whatever. I tend to forget about it here - it's one of the higher-numbered channels - but it's one of the lower channels on my parents' system, and my mom likes it. I may never cook much of the stuff shown (and I still dislike the "contest" shows where people are yelling at each other and where There Will Be Tears) but there is something restful about watching people make stuff. (And I still like "Unwrapped," even if I've already seen a lot of the episodes).

I did read a couple books. I still haven't finished the huge WWI book ("The Guns of August," which is really more about the beginnings of WWI than anything) but I did read a couple of mysteries. And I re-started "Jacquard's Web," which I had started a year or more ago and then lost the thread of when I had to put it down for a while because I got involved with a project.

The first of the mysteries was John Billheimer's first Owen Allison mystery, "Contrary Blues." I had gotten the fourth book in the series free as part of a deal from the (late, lamented) A Common Reader. I started reading it and decided I wanted to read the books in order (unlike some mystery series, it seemed that certain relationships would make more sense that way). So I found used copies of the first three from Powell's and bought them.

I'm not sure how I feel about the series. This first novel is definitely gritter and rougher than the fourth (at least, as far as I had read it). There's lots of cursing, which I suppose has some verisimilitude (it's set in rural coal-mining West Virginia) but I admit I found the level of it a bit jarring. (Then again, I may be unnaturally clean-mouthed).

The other distressing - though, I suppose, perhaps also true-to-life thing - was the level of sheer corruption. Corruption in the town government, corruption in the agency that Owen worked for, corruption of his immediate predecessor (who was also one of the murder victims whose death had to be investigated). A truly detestable man who was lauded in the press (oh, more corruption there) as a "disabled rights advocate" when he was really mainly a nuisance (and likely "disability pay" cheat). There was really no one to like in the novel - not even really Owen Allison himself.

I don't know. I guess I'm a bit of a Pollyanna in that I want at least one good solid "likable" character in a novel, someone who doesn't have easily compromised ethics or who isn't inclined to be a nasty person. Again, the view Billheimer writes about may be more realistic...but I don't want it to be the "realistic" view.

I also read yet another one of the Hamish MacBeth mysteries - Death of a Celebrity. This book was more enjoyable, from the standpoint that Macbeth is fairly likable, his eventually-to-be-girlfriend Elspeth is fairly likable, there are town figures who, if a bit quirky are mostly basically good. The "detestable" figures were mostly "outsiders" - television people. (Though there were a few Highlanders with bad secrets, as it turned out).

I wonder, how many mystery novels (especially "cozies") trade on the idea that the "outsiders" are the ones that cause the harm?

Though then again - novels with a strong protagonist not averse to traveling (like Hercule Poirot) or living in a metropolitan area where a diversity of people can come to him (like Nero Wolfe) can have good, dynamic novels without either finding that everything is "rotten to the core" (like in the Billheimer novel) or that it's "those darn outsiders mucking things up" (as seems to be not too uncommon in the Hamish Macbeth novels I've read).

I will say, as enjoyable as the Macbeth novels are, they're not terribly taxing to read. I read this last one in its entirety yesterday evening on the train. (And that includes taking an hour or so out to eat dinner).

I also read about half of "Jacquard's Web," which discusses how the jacquard loom (a loom that used punched cards to allow for "picture weaving") was really a forerunner of the computer...right now it's mainly talking about Babbage and his difference engine and his (unbuilt) analytical engine, and Ada Lovelace.

I have to admit I like the idea of there being a strong link between the weaving of cloth and computing. (Though as the author points out: if it were not for Jacquard, we'd still have got computers eventually, though maybe via a different path than they took).

I did try the "crazy easy" eggroll recipe I posted about last week (go here for the recipe). They are really pretty easy and they are good (I personally think they are better with olive oil as the oil, rather than the spray stuff - I tried it both ways).

Note there is really very little detail of amounts given in the recipe. I used one of the regular-sized bags of coleslaw, and 8 ounces of raw mushrooms, and maybe an equivalent amount of bean sprouts. I put in maybe a teaspoon and a half of ginger, and cut up 2 cloves of garlic for them.

I did probably put in too much soy sauce; I find soy sauce tends to overpower things. When I make them again, I think I'm going to try a combination of rice wine vinegar and the toasted sesame oil (and very little of that) in place of the soy sauce (and that would also be lower in salt, if that's a concern.

They do cook up just fine after being kept overnight in the fridge; it remains to be seen how they are after freezing but I cannot imagine it would greatly negatively affect them.

I used plum sauce at first as a dipping sauce, then used a mild (more traditional, not that bright red syrupy stuff that some restaurants use) sweet and sour sauce later. I think I liked the sweet and sour better.

****

One of the pieces I am learning for this week is a (greatly simplified and arranged) version of the chorus from "New River Train." And I thought, I wonder if that's the New River Train that runs through the New River Gorge in West Virginia.

Apparently, it is:



It's an old bluegrass song. (I had never heard it before and from the arrangement couldn't tell if it was bluegrass or blues). I think I like it a little better knowing now that it hails from the same state that I originally do. (It's not my favorite arrangement of something ever.)

(I was born in the University hospital in Morgantown, W Va, but moved to Ohio at four months when my dad took a new teaching position).

***
I'm slowly sewing down the binding on the Monkey quilt. Even though it's hot and I'd rather not have the whole thing in my lap to work on it. But I'm motivated to finish these quilts so I don't get a bunch piled up in need of binding like I sometimes do.

***

I hope I can sleep better tonight. Last night, I don't know what it was, sometimes I think when it's hot out EVEN WITH air conditioning, I just can't get cool enough to sleep well. I was sleeping in about 2 hour shifts, then waking up and being awake for a while. (It may also have been the pajamas; I bought some really cute pajamas but they have an Empire waist which, while it looks very cute, has a seam that tends to put a bit of pressure on the rib cage and that bugged me, I think).

So tonight, I took a shower, used lavender soap (it's claimed to have soporific qualities though I've never really noticed it for me), avoided watching the news, put on a clean (and loose everywhere) nightdress, and hopefully will be able to sleep better.

I also made an effort to eat more protein today. It's funny, in the summer I find I crave protein-rich foods (or maybe it's just iron-rich; maybe I'm anaemic). That's not the case in winter when I tend to want more carbohydrates. So I bought some sliced beef and had that along with a big spinach salad for dinner.

And I also made an iced chai tea (or, "masala chai," if you want to be really correct. My sources say that "chai" is just the Hindustani (IIRC) word for "tea," so if you order "chai" in many Indian restaurants you get just plain tea, and "masala" is the spice mixture that makes what Westerners think of as "chai" into chai.)

I used a HUGE tea mug I have (I rarely use it because it is ridiculously big) and did a double-strength infusion of my favorite decaf chai: the Celestial Seasonings "Thai Coconut Pearl" (it may be called something slightly different now; they had a major redesign/renaming a month or so ago). And then I added sugar (which scandalizes a couple of my British friends: I put sugar in my tea! Well, at least in chai) and some cold milk and a bunch of ice (the reason for the double-strength infusion).

And oh, was it good. I realize now that one of the things I had been missing these hot days was my daily cup or so of tea. I really especially miss chai, which is one of my favorite things to drink, ever. But maybe as long as I have ice on hand, I can occasionally make myself one.

I finished all the dang soil samples this morning. Now if I still want to go antiquing, I can. (I don't know; it's very nearly noon, it's hot, and I do have to find time to practice today).

I'm also feeling a little unhappy because there is an interpersonal thing - with which I am tangentially involved - that is probably going to boil over into something rather unpleasant in the coming week. (Just a warning. If I don't post for a couple days it will be because I am just too distraught. Or, on the other hand, if I go into 19-posts-a-day mode, it may also be because I am distraught.) I am very bad at interpersonal stuff when it's the sort of unreasonable stuff that I anticipate happening. (Sometimes I wonder if I am part Vulcan; I do not understand humans when they get irrationally angry about minor things. I have also had the odd situation of someone I know calling me up and leaving a rambling message where he apologized if he "hurt my feelings" because of something he had said at a meeting we were at several days previously...and I couldn't even remember the thing that he feared had hurt my feelings. I always thought I was kind of thin-skinned, but maybe I've outgrown that. It actually does take quite a lot to hurt my feelings, because I tend to tell myself, "You're being unreasonable" when I feel hurt over some stupid thing someone says. I also operate on the "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity" principle).

I am getting close to finishing the first of the pansy-print pillowcases; I finished all the green outline stitch of the leaves last night and only the little "fence" or "edging" or whatever it is along the bottom remains.

I also started cutting the pieces for the quilt using the Folklore fabrics I posted about early last month. I am having to alter the pattern slightly; off-center cutting (on the part of whoever it was who originally prepared the fat quarters when I bought them) meant that one or two didn't have a square, 18" by 18" section. So I'm going down to 17" by 17" inch squares, which will only reduce the quilt 3" in width and 4" in length - not enough to worry about. I also had to sub one fabric - I had a red small check (not shown in the photos) that turned out to be a long 1/4 yard piece I had already cut into - not leaving enough, even with piecing, to get a 17 by 17 square. The good news is I found a piece of "folkloric" looking fabric (a stripe with "naive" flowers and vines) in the same colors in my stash. (That, my friends, is why you have an extensive stash.) So the only one I will need to piece will be the chunk of fabric leftover from the childhood dress - which you better believe I would not leave out of the quilt if there was any way I could get it in.

I have most of the big squares cut - this is going to be a fast quilt. (I do still have to piece that one block).

I decided to do this next/along side of the current quilt, because the yellow fabric that I want to use as sashing is a big piece, and the rest of it may well become the binding on the quilt currently in the frame, which I am drawing ever nearer (but slowly) to finishing.

Friday random:

1. Lydia: yes, I have seen Commonplace Books and have at times thought of starting my own. But inertia tends to get to me.

2. I received a piece of spam this morning from someone named "Sally eww." Heh. It was allegedly (as per the subject line) offering "Offshore printing services." (Huh? for counterfeit money? a cheap way to make books? I didn't open the spam - I never do, lest there be something bad in there - but it seems one of the odder things to offer).

3. We are fast approaching the compassion-fatigue part of the semester. I had four (at my best count) people miss an exam yesterday. One had food poisoning (and no, he wasn't playing me; he showed up at my office looking all ashen and clutching his stomach to see if he needed to take the exam at the scheduled time or if he could take it later); he will take the exam today (if he feels better) or Monday. Another called me after the exam - he had been in court (I cannot ask why and am frankly glad I cannot; this is also someone who referred to his "baby momma" earlier in the semester so I really don't want to know any further details) and the judge was late. He is also taking the exam today.

But I have two unaccounted for, and what is typical for this class is that they will call me up in a panic next week and either have a doctor's note (meaning I probably NEED to do a make up test) or not, and get belligerent when I tell them they can't make up the test.

Oh, and I also had someone show up for an exam without a writing utensil. Blows my mind.

I keep reminding myself one of the people from CAT (Center for the Advancement of Teaching) at my grad school used to say: "Professors were atypical students." Tends to keep my head from exploding.

4. It's the scarf that never ends....I thought I'd finish the Lace Ribbon scarf yesterday, based on how small the remaining part of the yarn cake was. But yarn cakes are deceiving - it seems they shrink more slowly as you get down towards the center. One of the challenges to this is that I have to watch the yarn dwindle; the pattern will really only work if you stop on row 24 (of 24) so I have to try and judge whether there's enough left for another repeat or not. (The scarf is not long enough. I sort of mis-read the pattern...it's really calling for 2, 450 yard skeins of sock yarn, and I had but one. It says that one skein will make a 60" long scarf, but I'm not there yet...)

I've pretty much beaten the cold. I don't know if it's just that I have an awesome immune system, or if the combination of zinc gluconate nose spray/lots of herbal tea/vitamin C/extra sleep did something.

I'm glad. I was really congested Tuesday and yesterday and I HATE that feeling.

Lydia, I have done the salt-water gargle in the past. I tend not to think of it unless someone nags me to do it because I don't like it. (Another thing I've tried, on others' suggestion, and just can not do: the Neti Pot. Yes, I know it's an ancient remedy. Yes, I know it works really well. The problem is, my OH NOES I'M DROWNING reflex kicks in and I wind up spitting salt water everywhere and possibly aspirating some of it.)

****
Today is a busy day, even though my classes are cancelled (it's Curriculum Contest, which is a day when high schoolers from the area come in to take a standardized test. The ones who give a (bleep) about it are in the running for a decent scholarship; the ones who don't get a day out of school and a chance to walk down to the Sonic or Braum's with friends for lunch.

(I helped out with it last year. It's pretty much a nightmare because the kids who don't give an expletive-deleted outnumber those who do. Or perhaps they're just so much more obvious).

But I have an exam to write (well, as of this point, it's half-written) and a bunch of grading to do (when I felt too ill to do it the other days). And I go over mid-morning to help advise new students into classes.

And tomorrow is the State Science Fair - I travel up to Ada for that. (I really hope the predicted bad weather - including SNOW SHOWERS - does not get as far south as Ada but they are saying "Pontotoc County" as part of the area of concern. And I also hope the bad weather doesn't keep some of the people away, or prevent them from getting home safely).

****

I'm back to hand-quilting more on the quilt again. The problem with these long-term projects is they don't have attractive, photogenic "stages" you can capture and show as pictures. (And as we all know, some people will not read a craft blog unless it's full of pictures [eye-roll]). There's also not as much to talk about in the doing - how can you come up with something to say about hand quilting that is clever and entertaining and has not been said before?

That said: I really do want to finish this sometime. I keep looking at that Provence quilt folded up in my craft closet and really want to be working on it. So I keep soldiering on with the quilt-in-the-frame (it's going on 6 1/2 years now). The change is that now I can actually envision a time when it will be finished - I do not have that many of the "full" blocks left to do, and only a few of the "half" blocks that were used for setting. (And then, of course, there's the whole border, but it's easy to ignore that fact for now).

Yes, "invigilate" sounds like you are holding a vigil; "proctoring" has that proct- root in it (which may be a false association, I don't know) so it sounds like you're sitting on your, um, prat.

Besides, "invigilate" sounds much more Harry Potter.

***

There is something a little bit wrong about it being 40* F out and it being DST. I know, I'm complaining about DST again, but I really hate the "extension" of it into times of the year where it should not occur. (And I will not get to see the sun today, looking at my schedule. Yeah, it's really 'saving' me a lot of daylight.)

On the upside, we're finally getting a bit of rain. We need considerably more.

***

The NYTimes had a story the other day on grey hair. Apparently researchers have figured out the reaction (interestingly, it involves hydrogen peroxide...hair bleaches itself from the inside. Gives one pause to think about Marilyn Monroe and the others that were often called "peroxide blondes").

I've said before, and I'll say again: personally, I think for me, getting a dye job and its subsequent touch-ups is more trouble than I'd be willing to go to. (And at any rate, it seems like at the rate which my hair is turning, it will be at least 5 more years before I need to contemplate that).

Then again...perhaps this is my tiny chance to rebel, considering that the trend seems to be for every woman between 40 and 65 to continue to strive to look like she is 30. I never rebelled as a teenager - no fuchsia hair, no half-shaved head, no piercings (though I was a teen a bit before non-ear piercings became really hot).

***

Spring break kind of sneaked up on me this year: it's next week. I need to start planning what to take with me. (I will need to take my taxes; before I could sit down to do them my mom called and said that some more investment-related paperwork came for me. We all use the same brokerage so it's just easier to have them send all the stuff to the same address. Most of these are investments I inherited from grandparents and while it's nice to know I would have an emergency source of income (well, maybe not now, the way the market's going) if I needed to sell them, still, they do tend to complicate things).

I do plan on taking the various socks and finishing them, and either the Cobblestone Pullover or the long-stalled Bird's Nest Shawl. I will still need to think about that.

***

I picked up the temporarily-stalled Little Child's Sock and worked on them last night; got midway through the heel flap. One of the things I love about the various craft stuff I do is that you can DO that - you can set something down for weeks, months, or even years, and (provided you kept reasonable notes on where you left off) pick it up again later and start back up.

You can't do that with everything. As much as I enjoyed doing the stuff with pottery in high school art, you can't stop throwing a pot midway through and put it away. And once you've fired up the kiln, you're pretty well committed to finishing the whole process.

I've also been picking at the quilt in the frame. Yeah, I missed the self-imposed "finish it before I'm 40" deadline. I've missed every self-imposed deadline on this one so I've decided to stop with the deadlines.

(courtesy of Craftzine): It's like the Snuggie, only gone very wrong.

(And here is a question for those who are happily coupled: are "smittens"* and the like - the "smitten" being apparently the most viable of these things - actually appealing, or do they seem a bit like the proverbial ball and chain? I know they would to me. And it seems entirely possible to me to hold hands while wearing gloves or mittens - true, there is not the skin-to-skin contact, but it's also practical in the sense that if you come up to a lightpost- or wind up in a crowd - you can break contact without fumbling. (Though I have ALSO had the experience of seeing couples walking hand in hand and expecting crowds to flow around them. Because, apparently, they are people around whom the universe revolves)

(*Those are those double-sized mittens so two people can hold hands inside of it. Yes, it's called a "smitten." Tonstant Weader fwowed up.)

***
No, I really didn't get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

***
I have come to the conclusion that the crazy dreams I have are NOT the result of stress on the job, but pollen. Fracking pollen. Because I've been having them this week, and the only unusual factor is that the trees are all doing what trees do in the spring.

I will say that whatever part of my reasonable mind that stays alert during these things, it does a decent job. It seems that when a dream gets too oppressive or uncomfortable, that part of my brain goes, "OK, gotta put a stop to this now" and it throws in some bizarre random thing that doesn't fit and it makes the dreaming part of my mind go, "Wait....WHAT?" and then I wake up shortly after.

Last night it was a box of Lucky Charms. In the middle of a dystopian-future dream. Magically delicious, indeed.

***

I'm still thinking about "next projects" as I continue to knit the sleeves. Here's a totally-out-of-left-field one - I have about 12 ounces of handspun (not by me; I bought it from Yarn Again a couple years ago) in Monet colors in my stash. Because I do not think well in "ounces" (being used to calculating sweater needs in yardage), I had been afraid of using it. But when looking through my Green Mountain Yarns pattern book, there is a pattern for something called the Artisan Vest (a very simple ribbed vest with moss stitch between the ribs) that seems to require 10 ounces of wool in my size.

(And yes, that it's wool is important; different fibers have different weights-to-yardage. That's why 200 grams of Sirdar Snuggly would have been enough to make 3 unicorns when the pattern claimed that 200 grams of a wool-cashmere blend would make one. And that's also why I'm not so much in love with the idea of specifying weights required rather than yardages.)

So I might wind that yarn off and do that vest next - it would be nice to use something that's been "hibernating" for a long time.

I'm also thinking about the VIP Cardigan from the Best of Interweave Knits book. I have yarn in-stash for it. (Seriously, I need to do a yarn-buying moratorium so I can use up some of the wonderful stuff I've bought first). It's a lovely honey color, purchased because I bought a set of really darling sweet buttons in the shape of little bees - they are sort of a bronzed-looking metal (they are not "cartoony" bees; they are more Napoleonic bees).

Then again, reading the instructions for the sweater make me twitch a little: "Because of differences in the row gauge, work a short row every 20 rows of the smocking pattern." Oh, I know what that means, and I can see what I'd have to do, but the level of concentration required that that implies makes me very worried for my ability to complete the sweater.

Late in the day yesterday, I found a technique that works for getting the remaining "critters" out of the soil. The bad thing is that it is enormously tedious - it takes 2+ hours to go through a sample.

But, I can deal with "enormously tedious" if I am confident it works. What I can't deal with is "slightly less tedious and I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and I feel like I may be missing stuff."

The other potentially good thing about the technique is that because of its nature, I am limited in how many samples I can do a day - because I am staring down a dissecting scope at soil which I have to illuminate rather brightly, I cannot do more than 2 samples in a day without destroying my eyes. So when I complete my 2 samples, I can be done, and not feel guilty about it - even if it is "only" noon on a Saturday.

(And at any rate - it will be just over a week and a half to finish these IF I can get 2 in a day, Sundays excepted).

****

I decided yesterday evening that I needed some time to relax. So I wound up watching (most of) a movie about Emile Zola on TCM (It's their "Oscar Month," which means they show all kinds of wonderful obscure old movies that won Oscars back in their day, but which are rarely seen now). The movie concerned the events of what I learned in French class as L'affaire Dreyfus - an innocent man was sent to Devil's Island for allegedly having been a spy, when a minor nobleman was the actual guilty party. (It was not mentioned in the movie - I suppose it would have been anachronistic to - but a point my French teacher brought up was that Dreyfus was a convenient scapegoat because Dreyfus was Jewish, and there was a tremendous amount of anti-Semitic sentiment in late 19th century France).

I mainly knew the outline of the case, plus the idea of "J'accuse" - Zola's impassioned argument that Dreyfus was innocent and he had been railroaded.

I was not aware of how the people of Paris turned against Zola for that, for the violence and nastiness of the response. That was brought out in the movie.

And also, the sad fact that Zola died shortly after Dreyfus' pardon, and (according to the movie) did not even get to shake the man's hand after he returned to French soil. (And Zola died of CO poisoning - or at least, again, according to the movie).

I have to say Paul Muni (the main actor) made an excellent Zola, in my estimation.

(Seeing the movie kind of makes me want to read something by Zola. I think I've read a few of his short stories - en Français, even, but never one of the novels).

I also worked some more on the (seemingly forever) Cobblestone Pullover. Finally, a milestone: I got up to where you put stitches on holders for the area under the arms, and started the very first sleeve.

***

And then, this morning.

I woke up a bit before the alarm (that is typical of me). Got up, thought, "Gee, it feels cold in here." On my way to the bathroom to dress for my workout, I turned up the thermostat.

Nothing.

So I went to the furnace and peered through the little window. It was flashing the "lockout 14" code, which means that at some point in the night, the furnace tried to ignite and failed. (I do not know why; sometimes I think an odd gust of wind down the flue will mess things up). So, I sighed, and went to pull the front panel off, so I could try hitting the reset switch.

I pulled on it.

It would not come off.

I looked, and saw that the last time I had the furnace checked, the guys found one lone metal screw and screwed the panel down. And the screw was one of those hex-head ones, where few homeowners (or at least few female homeowners who don't do a lot of home repair) have the right tool to remove.

The emotion I felt at that moment was perhaps best summed up by the old Schiller quotation: "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."

I went to my tool drawer, hunted around (remember: this is all happening about 4:45 this morning). Found a locking pliers, which I used to remove the offending screw. Hit the reset switch, the fan turned on (which is just what it's supposed to do in this situation), and when I released the switch, the furnace came on, just as it was supposed to.

For the rest of the time I was home (until about 7:10 when I left the house) the furnace was doing what it was supposed to do.

I changed the filter just in case, though the filter that was in had only been in for a few days past a month, and these are supposedly three-month filters (because that is the ONLY KIND I can find in the odd size my furnace requires. And yes, they are more expensive.)

I'm going to try not to worry about it today. If the furnace messes up again tonight, I'll call the furnace people first thing tomorrow and (sigh) give up the time I WAS going to spend on research tomorrow afternoon waiting on furnace guys. (I COULD go back and do the research afterwards, though the thought of being in a lab doing research at 5 pm on a Friday galls me).

I'm hoping it was some kind of odd glitch like happens once in a while - a gust of wind blowing just wrong down the flue; a bobble in the power supply right at the moment when the furnace is supposed to ignite.

I suppose the guys bolted the cover on as a safety precaution, but I tend to feel that if a furnace has an accessible-to-the-homeowner reset switch, it should continue to be accessible. Because I don't want to pay $50 for some furnace guy to come out and punch a button that I could punch myself for free. I suppose some people are JUST stupid enough to do things like test to see if the electrical contacts are "live" by licking them or something. But seriously, I am NOT that stupid; I should be able to open up my furnace and punch a silly reset switch when the furnace is being an idiot.

***

So, to sum up:

Fixed the furnace at 4:45 am
Did my hour's workout
Did a half-hour's piano practice.

I used to boast that I accomplished more before 8 am than many people did all day. I suspect that today that is true.

Why do I always forget, when I cook chicken, to take the trash with the stuff the chicken came in out to the trash can that very night? Ugh. I've got a couple of "Clean Cotton" scented candles burning and they seem to be taking care of it. Or maybe I just have a more sensitive nose than many people.

****

I think the hardest part of learning to play the piano is going to be psychological. I admit, I was disappointed when she didn't move me up to a new piece in the "performance" book - still stuck on the "bowdlerized*" Mozart. I was getting off tempo and wasn't paying enough attention to the crescendos and other markings like that.

(*Not really "bowdlerized" but that's how I think of it - a simplified version. Though given Mozart's reputed sense of humor, perhaps some of his work has been ACTUALLY bowdlerized, at least in instances where it's going to be used with children)

I am having to remind myself that I have been at this one week - less, actually, as my first lesson was on Thursday. And she seemed surprised at how proficient I had become with the scales and the finger exercises.

I once had a colleague comment that I was probably the kind of person that too many things came too easy to, because I got frustrated with myself fast when something didn't come easy. He is right.

I am not tremendously good at being patient with myself.

I will be happy when my actual piano gets here; I'm going to experiment with practicing in shorter chunks but more frequently during the day to see if that works better. I also may be able to practice earlier in the day when I'm less tired. At least some days. It probably isn't the greatest having to wait until 4 pm to practice (I don't feel comfortable doing it when there are lots of other people in the church, and it's kind of creepy going down there early early in the morning while it's still dark out.)

(I am frantically trying to stuff down the little demon in my head that is saying, "See? See? You DON'T actually have any musical talent. You can play the notes but you can't play the MUSIC. That beautiful piano will be totally wasted on you." Yes, I know it's totally irrational but I still do it to myself.)

*****

I pulled out a LONG stalled project and restarted it. Being able to "read" your knitting is a good thing. This was the (formerly) Clandestine Knitting Project. It's a pattern designed by TChem, called Suppliers of Angst to Crowned Heads for More than Four Centuries (Ravelry link where you can buy the pattern. But I test-knit so I got mine free, neener neener)

(Can I also say: I know she's busy but I wish she'd update more?)

I miss lace when I'm not working on it. This is a fairly logical pattern so it's easy to keep track of. (And to find where I was even though I had mislaid the particular row-counter I was using).

The only drawback is the the yarn I'm using is just slightly thicker than sewing thread so it takes a long time to make much headway on it. I think I just finished the fifth of nine repeats (for the first half alone, then I have a second half to make).

But patience, patience. On both this and the piano.

*****

Sometimes I wonder if Leonard Kleinrock (and others) ever fathomed that their lifetime of research would culminate in pages of cat macros?


more animals

*****

I just found out what MAY have happened a couple years back when I got the mystery package containing some stuff I didn't order.

My mom sent a package of piano practice books to me today and the person at the post office said if it was JUST books, they could be sent cheaply as "bound printed matter." But - she warned - the PO periodically will open a box to verify.

So that is very likely what happened - my Folio box and someone else's box were both being inspected at the same time, and got jumbled up. I'm just glad I got all the books I had ordered, but I suppose Folio would have made it right if one was missing.

Ayup, it's cold.

At least by Oklahoma standards. It was 19* (F) when I left the house. Fortunately there was no wind.

Ironically enough, it is 19* (C) in my office right now.

Which shouldn't feel cold, but does, by virtue of the fact that the vent over my head is once again blowing cold air on me. That kind of annoys me.

****

I have been knitting. I'm almost done with the toe-up socks: I'm reading E. C. Pielou's "After the Ice Age" in the evenings and knitting on them. A few more rows and I can do the picot top of the second sock.

(I have to remind myself that when there's crap on TV, reading-for-work is a viable option.)

And although I said when I was working on these earlier that I wasn't sure I'd ever do another pair, I pulled some less-loved Regia out of the stash to experiment on - I'm going to try doing the socks again but (a) make more gusset stitches and (b) do the "return row" of the heel flap as purl only instead of the p1, slip 1 the pattern suggests to see if that makes a less-tight heel region and a deeper flap.

Because yeah, I can see the benefit to doing toe-up sometimes - and I remembered a stitch pattern I saw in a book, loved the thought of for socks, and then realized that it was a unidirectional pattern and that I couldn't figure out how to make it work so you could knit from the top down. So I may actually be "designing" (such as it is: plugging an existing stitch pattern into a slightly-modified existing sock pattern) a pair of toe-up socks.

****

I'm also still working on the Little Child's Sock from Vintage Socks. Another blogger - maybe it was Grumperina? I don't know, I spent one sort-of not-wanting-to-work afternoon surfing lots of knit blogs - commented how "right" the vintage patterns feel to her and wondered if maybe she was an "old soul."

I feel the same rightness about the vintage patterns; I suppose it's that they're more complex than the just-plain socks I knit while reading, but not so complex you have to follow line by line. That they have a logic to them.

****

I also started a new project. I decided I needed something just fun to knit on. It's not far enough for much of a picture yet but I will note that Diann will probably be happy to see it when she does.

Charlotte: is this it?

(About the only sort of "parlor trick" I can do is find things on the internet)

****

And, regarding the Simon and Garfunkel conversation: I pretty much love a lot of the Simon and Garfunkel stuff (though partly because I played it a lot during my early college days; I've always been at least a decade and a half out of step). But yeah, some of their early work gets a little bit precious. And yet, I have to admit, I'd still rather listen to is than most "modern" pop music. I'll take a pair of singer-songwriters who reference Dickinson and Frank Lloyd Wright over bragging about conquests or brooding about how dark the world is...

I do think that when setting poems to music one has to be VERY careful. The slightest anachronism or mismatch between music style and poem is extremely jarring.

****

Last night was the AAUW Christmas party. Lots of talk of Dorothy and her absence; she was such a big part of the Christmas party.

****

My exams are all written. I have a tiny bit of grading to do this morning (and will have more after my 9 am class). But other than that, I'm essentially done until exams (which start up Monday). I think I'm going to take the weekend to relax. For one thing, I need to clean house (or at least the kitchen; the new dishwasher is supposed to arrive Monday). And I want to finish the violets quilt; my name is on the list with my mother's quilting group to have it hand-quilted. (I don't have a backing but part of the fun will be going out to one of the shops up there to pick one out). I will say I am really ready to be done with cutting the "houndstooth" bits. I have 16 more squares to do (of something like 288 originally) and cannot be done fast enough, it is very tedious. (I tested to see if I could "stack" the strips and cut more than one at once, but I don't think I safely can.)

I'm also considering cutting some more hexagons for the grandmother's flower garden quilt; I think I will take the pieces for this with me at Christmas and sew on it while on vacation. It's one way of doing some quilt piecing that is portable.

(I'm also thinking this is going to be a toy-heavy Christmas break, in terms of projects. I found a kit for some knitted and felted sea turtles I got years ago and that has been in my stash, and I also want to finally get around to doing that unicorn from the Claire Garland book).

So, the election's over, and there's a pretty clear winner. (One of my fears was that it would be some kind of thing close to a 269-269 split, and we'd be subjected to something like 2000/2004 over again, only more protracted and with increased bitter commentary).

NOW I hope the people around me can talk about something else - something non-politics related - for a change.

I will say I didn't know until this morning - remembering previous years and how aggravated I got at the talking heads, I watched Dirty Jobs instead.

I also went to bed early...I guess the one thing the time-change has done to me is that I get tired earlier in the evening.

****

I'm not feeling too well this morning. I don't know if it's the impending change in the weather (depending on how fast the front and storms move, I may have to cancel lab this afternoon) or if it's because, while running errands out yesterday, I stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a small dinner...and I got bacon for the first time in six months or so.

I like bacon but perhaps it doesn't like me any more. (One thing I have noticed, as I circle the drain of 40, is that certain fatty foods can no longer be eaten with abandon. Cheese is still OK in small amounts; vegetable fats don't seem to bother me. But fatty meats, mass quantities of eggs, and too much butter - I have to avoid.)

I will say if it is the bacon that is upsetting my stomach, it really wasn't worth it. No restaurant will cook bacon the way I really like it - cooked long enough that all the fat is rendered out, and just this side of burnt, so it's really crispy. This bacon was kind of flabby (not undercooked, just not done crisp enough). I know, I could have sent it back and maybe I should have, but since I didn't specify "I want the bacon crisp" when I ordered it, it just seemed churlish to me to complain, so I blotted the fat off as best I could.


****

I've been working on different projects but don't really have anything at a photogenic stage. I picked up a couple of semi-stalled projects (the My So-Called Scarf and a pair of socks from a Trekking yarn) and worked on them some.

I'm also working on the TARDIS as much as I can tolerate to; I'm afraid now I won't have this done before my self-imposed, "Want to take it to my parents' on Thanksgiving, finished" deadline.

****

I really need to get back into the practice of working regularly on research; I haven't done much of anything in well over a week. I need to get back to reading journal articles.

A few random things for Wednesday:

Just when I said I wanted to finish some of my many projects before starting something new, I come up with what I think is a somewhat-clever idea for a sock.

So I wrote it out and will hang onto it until I decide it's time to start something new. That will also give me a chance to decide if I want to use a solid color or something like a marled color for the sock. (It's a fairly simple knit-purl pattern that would get lost in a "busy" yarn)

****

The new Interweave Crochet came the other day. I didn't have time to look at it until last night. I have to say, I think this magazine is getting better and better - there were a lot of projects in this one that I liked. (And they stick to the "old" Interweave format of having photograph, description/introduction, and pattern all together, instead of having an "advertising spread" of all the photographs and then sticking the patterns in the back the way Interweave Knits does now. I prefer the "old" format for some reason.)

You can see most of the patterns here. I particularly like the Stepping Stones cardigan, and Pretty Little Dolman (though I'm not sure at all that one would work with my body type; still, you have to like a sweater that bases its main measurement on the "high waist" rather than the bustline or something).

And I like the Stone City Scarf - that may be where my unwanted-for-socks ball of Kureyon Socks goes to. Not that I NEED another scarf, but....

My favorite, though, is the "Road to Bruges" scarf...which is constructed to look like Bruges lace. (I think I'd do it out of a cream, though, to capture a more traditional "lace" feel). One thing that alarms me a bit is that they warn you on the pattern "don't twist the ribbon you've crocheted while putting the scarf together" which sounds a bit too much like "Don't cross the streams" for my comfort. (It would be bad.)

****

CGHill linked this the other day.

However, in light of some of the stuff I said last week, I have to observe that this is the kind of news story that makes me sort of angry. I couldn't quite explain WHY it made me angry, but I knew that lines like:

"Taking your clothes off before you eat, to make you feel self-conscious about every fattening mouthful, is one option,"

did.

Well, I figured it out last night. Any diet plan that is encouraging you to hate yourself in the service of losing weight is not psychologically healthy.

Even allowing for hyperbole on the part of the news-writer: not psychologically healthy.

What good would it be to say you had lost 20 pounds, but also your self-esteem and sense of self-love, as well. (And don't tell me you'd get it back after losing those 20 pounds. Once you start disliking the skin you're in, it's hard to stop. Trust me on this.)

****

Oh, and Aimee: I'm not apolitical. I have my opinions on things but I don't tend to share them because it seems that politics, and related topics, have become such an ugly game these days. I actually know people who broke off friendships upon learning their "friend" was voting differently from them. Which is a sad and puzzling thing, but that's how life goes.

I also tend to think that the solutions to most of our problems will be more complex than what gets promoted in the soundbite world of today, and usually simple solutions to complex problems don't work. (I think H.L. Mencken or someone like that said much the same 70 or so years ago.)

****

Back working on the Bird's Nest Shawl. I remember now why I kind of put this to one side - each row is something like 340 stitches so it takes a really long time to complete even one row. Oh well. Journey of a thousand miles an all that.

I'm also back to working on the quilt - that kind of got pushed aside when I was sick, and in the crazy-busy week last week. (This week is still busy, just less crazy.)

A couple of unrelated things:

TChem, thanks for the sweet red beans! (I kind of suspected, when you said "heavy for its size" that maybe you had bought me some.) I'm going to have to look for those Hokkaido-style bun recipes so I can make my own "Kogepan breads."

I also may try the stuff on ice cream, seeing as they show that as a "serving suggestion" on the back of the can. (I *assume* that's ice cream; I can't read the Japanese text.)

And the little bits of different wools were interesting. I think for my money I prefer the Leicester, but I can see how the Jacob would be good for an outer garment.

****
Mary Ellis, who has a quilt shop, is still doing machine quilting for people. So I'm quickly trying to get the backings for the Straits of Georgia top and the flower garden top together so I can run those down to her Friday. (She's not in on Saturdays.)

I've got the backing ready to go for the flower one - it was already washed up - but I had to wash the autumn leaf fabric for the second backing. (I might wait until tomorrow to do that one. It's just a long straight seam and then a lot of pressing.)

****

Some pictures.



This is the first of the "Go With the Flow" socks. For some reason I'm having a hard time getting very far on the second. I am glad I "sized up" the sock - these, over 72 sts, fit me just about perfectly. The original 60 sts would have been too tight.



Maybe this is why. This has been my main knitting project the past couple days. It's the Ribbon Lace Scarf. Once I did a few repeats and got the hang of how the pattern works, it got really fun to do. (I also think I'm going to make a second one; I have some CTH sockyarn in the color "Java" [dark browns like coffee] that I don't like so much for socks any more [I think I bought it very cheaply on sale] but I think it would make a nice one of these scarves.)

One last thing.



These were a gift from my father. Slippers with a sheep on them! They're Haflinger, which I guess is one of the good old German shoe brands (like Birkenstock). My father had bought a pair of slippers (but not with a sheep on them!) by this company and really liked them (they have an "anatomical footbed" in the slippers which makes them more comfortable than typical slippers). So when I was up there in early August, he asked me if I wanted a pair. At first I thought perhaps not as they're rather expensive slippers, but then I saw the ones with sheep on them.

And they're well made, so as long as I take care of them, they should last for a long time. And they are more comfortable than clomping around barefoot, especially on the hardwood and tile floors in my house.

Yes, I know the sheep looks kind of "long." (That was my dad's first remark on seeing them.) Well, maybe it's Longsheep, an ally of Longcat (which is now also available in scarf form

It's interesting but I find that instead of having a big "travelogue" of what I've done in my mind, there are small individual things that stick out and that I remember from trips.

Just some things I saw or did while traveling...

Winona, Minnesota (that's where my meetings were) is a fairly nice small city. I have to say I envy the residents there the amount of moisture they have in the summer - many of the people who lived in the area around campus (where front yards were very small, like 10' by 20') had turned their whole front yard into a flower garden. And there were lots of petunias and impatiens, neither of which I've had much luck with here (mainly because I don't like having to water constantly). I know they pay for their nice summers during the winter, but it was a real relief to be somewhere where 85* was considered unusually hot, and where it got down into the low 50s at night.

I walked around the town a lot (I didn't have a car; I went up on the train). I arrived a day too early - I was following the "standard" NAPC schedule where meetings started on Monday. So I spent Monday walking around town. I went to their three museums - they have a historical museum, a Polish heritage museum (it was an area heavily settled by people from Silesia and Kashubia), and the Watkins museum (yes, that Watkins - the vanilla people). I think my favorite was the Polish museum, even though (as I explained to the docent, a bit to her dismay I think) I don't have any Polish heritage at all.

I found the museum interesting, I think, because they had some of the "everyday" stuff - the embroidered linens the women did, photographs of the little civic baseball teams that every town seemed to once have, descriptions of how people worked and lived.

****

I crossed the Mississippi six times this trip. I think that's a new record for me. Two times over and back to visit my folks, two times over and back to Winona from Illinois, and then twice in the field trip day at the meetings.

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The town where my parents live has a small dairy operation where they make cheese (I think they started out raising Jersey cattle and branched out into the cheesemaking). I love little things like that - small businesses where the people do something they love that serves a need in the community (it is very good cheese). They have their operation set up so you can go and observe the cheese being made (and can buy it directly from them). This year they also had a small "zoo" of farm animals (I think for people who bring kids). The biggest attraction was that they had a pen of the Jersey calves that were "friendly" and would let people pet them. (They also had a turkey but the sign indicated he wasn't so friendly. And they had llamas in the barn but there was no information suggesting you were welcome to walk up to them so I didn't).

It's sort of a silly thing but it is fun to be able to scratch a calf's ears. And Jersey calves are very pretty animals, with their big dark eyes and their caramel-colored coats.

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Coming back from my meetings through Wisconsin, I saw large fields of cabbages. That was an interesting change from the corn and the soybeans you usually see in the Midwest.

A couple things for a Sunday afternoon.

First, one of my favorite short pieces of music ever (Bach's Prelude of the First Cello Suite) played on an unusual instrument:



It's a nyckelharpa, a type of keyed fiddle. I know it best as an instrument used in traditional Swedish music. (Yes, I like traditional Swedish folk music too. There are actually few forms of music I don't like...and most of the ones I don't are very highly commercial ones). I guess it's used in some other folk or folk-idiom music as well.

(Though to be totally honest, I think I'm moved more hearing it on a cello, as it usually is played.)

(One of the lovely things about YouTube? You can listen to many different artists' interpretations of a piece. Normally I don't get to do that, not having ready access to classical music radio, and as I generally prefer to have a broad rather than deep collection of CDs. I've been listening to different cellists play the above mentioned piece...have to say Pablo Casal's version [there's an old film from 1954 of him playing it] is my favorite, with Mischa Maisky a close second.

And as I am not a musicologist nor do I play the cello, I feel that I am free to be totally "wrong" and counter to the opinions on what "serious" musicologists would say on this. And I don't even feel that I have to defend my likes, not being a musicologist or such.)

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I began the Lace Ribbon Scarf:



This is the first...I think repeat and a half? It's a pretty easy pattern once you get going but that single yo is easy to forget...I wound up having to rip back a row or two because I'd forget them.

I will probably invariably think of this as my Hobbit scarf, as Hobbits famously are fond of yellow and green together.

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I'm working away on the various socks. I pulled a bunch of yarn out of the center of the skein of the Kureyon sock yarn (I'm knitting it from the center out) and found a knot. On one side of the knot the yarn was purple. On the other side it was peach.

Yeah, there was a break in the yarn and they just tied two skeins together. Way to phone it in, Noro.

So I took the skein and used my ball-winder to subtract that part of the sequence from the center of the skein (Journey to the Center of the Skein! Hah! I slay me!) until I got back around to the purple. So the stripes may be a little off, whatever. I didn't want a sharp transition right there in the sock. I just hope the progression is the same and it's not that one of the skeins goes purple-reddish purple-gray-green-peach and the other part is reversed relative to that, where it will go backwards into the yellow green I had just left. (I've heard of such things happening in the self patterning yarns, though not specifically Noro.)

Heh. Seems I've garnered a bit of fame for my comments on the new movie that may or may not be based on a Jules Verne novel.

It amuses me what people pick up on. I wonder now if I have almost as many non-knitting readers as I do knitting readers - because there are thousands of knitblogs out there (well, still thousands, I guess. A lot of them have gone defunct in the past couple years, either because the person writing them got sick of it, or they had life-changes [babies, new jobs] that prevented them from having time.) And I realize I'll never be a "knitting celebrity" (though I admit I fantasize a bit about it: how lovely it would be to have a hand-dyer name a color combination after me, or be invited on a lecture tour, or have people longing for my input on things). In reality, I'm not that creative (in the sense of coming up with fancy shiny new content, like a free online magazine or a weblog that could be parlayed into a book deal. And perhaps I lack the personality necessary for that type of fame - I've said before I'm not that good at self-promotion and I am probably overly modest about my accomplishments (if the comments of my department chair at annual evaluation time are anything to go by).

But still. It's fun to write, and especially fun when I know other people are reading and might get a laugh or a different way of thinking from what I've said.

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I really needed to get to Sherman for certain things today, including a run to Sam's Club. (Yes, I know that it's odd that I as a single person living alone has a membership, but whatever. It's sort of comforting to be able to buy a year's worth of t.p. and such at one go....knowing I won't have to do THAT kind of shopping again for a while)

And I spent part of my "stimulus check" - they had vols. 1 and 2 of the Poirot movies (the ones with David Suchet, which, IMHO, are the only Poirots worth watching) at Sam's Club, for $25 each. I dithered about it but decided that some Friday evening this fall, when I'm tired and want to be entertained and everything on the television stinks ("TV, stop being stupid!" is one of my regular comments-to-an-inanimate-object), I will be glad to have these. Because they're one of the things I find re-watchable - I love the costume design and the stylishness of the setting and the characters and the fact that nothing is crude or coarse and I especially love Poirot.

Or they'll be good for when I'm sad and I just need something absorbing and pleasant and that I love to cheer me up.

I also needed to get a new pair of khakis and a few other garment type things. (Kohl's for that. And, true to form, the three items I bought - a skirt and two pairs of slacks - were all marked with different sizes. The sizing of women's clothing is kind of nuts. My theory on it is that we're all so hung up on our actual physical size* that it would give the female populace of this nation a collective aneurysm if they started sizing clothes like they size men's jeans, in other words with actual inch measurements of how big the waist, etc., are. Of course for women you need waist, hip, bust and possibly rise or length of the waist to actually get an idea of the fit...But still. It's frustrating to pull, say, a 14 off the rack, when shopping alone, try it on, find it's too big/too small and then have to truck out to find another size. At least when I shopped with my mom I could send HER to get the correct size.

*because otherwise, why would a size 0 be presented as something to aspire for? I know there are size 0 women and while I suppose they're glad to be able to find clothes that fit...to me it just seems strange to refer to a body size as a 0. I'm not sure I'd want my body size referred to as a number used to designate nullity.)

I also went to three stores-that-sell-books-and-magazines in hopes of scoring a copy of the new KnitScene, which is supposed to be out. No luck. (I know: I should just take out a subscription and be done with it.)

And I went to Hobby Lobby. They are carrying the new Red Heart sock yarn and also apparently will be carrying Paton's Kroy.

Except they had exactly 1 50-g ball of each color they were carrying. One. That's great if you want to make socks for a tiny child (or your favorite house-elf), but for an actual adult person, 75-100 g of the yarn is necessary. And none of the single-ball combinations would have worked as pairs for striped socks or such.

I wonder if they'll not sell any, then cancel any future orders, saying, "People around here just don't knit socks."

I did, however, do something I had not planned on doing.

I bought another row-counter. So I can start the lace ribbon scarf. Because I really need something new to work on.

I also took myself out to lunch. An Olive Garden has opened in Sherman. I got some kind of shrimp and pasta dish. It was good, but I expect that garlic will probably be coming out of my pores for the rest of the weekend. I don't use such a heavy hand with garlic when I cook.

The good thing about it? I'm done shopping for a while. Doing it all as a big bolus makes sense, both gas-wise and in terms of burning me out on shopping - mid morning I was like, "I'm done. I'm ready to go home" but of course I still had other things on my list to do.