What I got for Christmas

...none of it was knitting. None of it. But that doesn't mean that I won't be getting something knitting-related for myself... sometime.

The breakdown:

• Prime lens and bracket for my 10d (hurrah!)
• kitchen goodies- pyrex refrigerator dishes, silicone spatulas, wooden spoons, a stainless frying pan, an 8-quart pot, and an old-fashioned popcorn popper
• Deadwood, season 3, The Simpsons, season 5, and Carnivale, season 2 (and the lost episodes of Ren and Stimpy)
• his and hers Nalgene bottles
• a 4.0 (that one I snuck under the tree for myself- I'm not grade-driven, but I like to look good on paper)
  
• a super-comfy robe (that doesn't have pockets that the puppies chewed to bits, might I add)
• a fine blend of gift cards
• my grandmother's Christmas tree- this was her favorite time of year, and the tree gave her so much delight that she put it up before Halloween (no joke). This is the tree my baby will see at its first Christmas, and the thought of it brings tears to my eyes- the bittersweet kind.

All in all, a pretty good haul. We spent a lot of time with family, and that is its own gift. Our trip to Chicago is canceled (or rather, postponed indefinitely), so Dan and I are going to enjoy each other's company as we rip out linoleum and berber instead. Happy holidays.

Next up: New Year's. A most dreaded holiday for the former party girl turned pregnant lady. Our solution: we're staying in. It's veggie sushi and a Lord of the Rings marathon. Not everyone's cup of tea, but we will enjoy it.

Woah

I got 100% on my acoustics final. Seriously. Apparently I guessed right on everything. And there was a lot of guessing.

Go me. Let's just see if I can repeat that performance tonight on the Syntax final. Yeesh.

Back on knitting!

Hurrah! And even a little crochet, too.

I had the itch really badly this weekend when I should have been working on a final project for school (damn you, acoustics), so I made myself one of these neat headband things that everyone on crafster called a panta. I used up the Kureyon I had left over from when I made the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers. Like, two years ago (sheesh). Well, at least now I have a matching set, and an insatiable lust for Noro that can't be satisfied on the current (baby/school) budget. Yarn philanthropists: email me and I'll send you my address!

Then I started to crochet a Totoro for the baby, and when I looked around my disaster of a craft room, I realized that I had a lot of acrylic everywhere, and that I could make a lot of toys (really, what else is it good for?). After I finish this crochet project, I promised Dan I'd make a bunch of Katamari cousins for Little Mutie.

Then I started an elephant.

Dan's painting the front bedroom, eradicating the floor-to-ceiling royal blue in favor of a light, lemony yellow for the new and improved craft/guest room. Then it's on to the living room, and then the nursery (and then new flooring- yikes!). But I can't help him, and although I'm relieved for not having to labor with a brush, I feel bad for feeling so lazy, and I really want to be a part of improving our house. Oh, well. I'll sew some curtains or something. I am tired and nauseous, and although I am showing a little, I don't feel pregnant, and it frustrates me to not be able to do some things that I would be able to do normally.

There are tradeoffs, though. Last night, for example, I think I felt the baby move. It was a fluttering feeling, not like gas (of which there is a lot!) but... unique to my experience. Maybe it was Mutie, practicing its dance moves.

Baby's first picture

Here's the Little Mutey (mutant). Dan and I have been calling the baby that the whole time, and since we've got proof that it's a little alien, we're sticking with it. We don't want to know the gender, and unlike some folks, I have no problem calling the baby "it" for now.


It was not the most comfortable procedure, but the technician was a pro, and we even got to see the baby wave its arms and legs. The still images don't really capture the experience. Dan even teared up a little when we saw Mutey's heart beating. With a little luck (and the power of positive thinking), we'll be having a summer solstice baby.

I emerged from NaNoWriMo victorious, although the same can't be said for everyone who started the month with me. I have one more gigantic paper to write and a couple of tests, and then the semester. is. FINISHED.

Still no knitting, sadly. But I've been less nauseous lately, so who knows? Maybe a baby bonnet is in my future.

Happy Thanksgiving; moving on...

We're vegetarians. So Thanksgiving isn't our most favoritest holiday. So we get through it.

We drove 4 hours today (I say we, but it was Dan behind the wheel) and visited both of our families. We worked out the plans for Christmas, which is always a pain in the butt to get nailed down, and we made vegetarian stuffing. All in all, it was a success.

I will probably go out tomorrow to get a pecan pie, if there are any left in the stores. I didn't get any pecan pie this year.

So we got through it, and we're moving on.

It must be the hormones, but I have been singing Christmas carols for weeks, and the tree has been up since the beginning of November. I guess this year is going to be a good old-fashioned Griswold family Christmas (I've already watched that movie a couple times!).

Here's the yarn, secret pal. Sorry it took so long to get a picture of it! I am feeling a little better, but still not knitterly.

wee tiny knits

Well, I haven't been knitting lately. Not even a little bit. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of it soon, but when I do, it probably won't be for me. I'm thinking things that are a little bit smaller. Like way smaller. Like baby-sized. Although I don't know why I should knit for a baby that's been giving me morning/evening/all day sickness that is so bad I can't knit because I can't focus on things that close to my face.

Oh, well. The baby's due in late spring, and that means that it won't need too many hand knits right off the bat. Even if I make it to the end of the pregnancy without having knit a stitch (heaven forbid!) at least I will have a couple of months before cool Michigan weather sets in.

Thanks, Secret Pal, for the yarn. As soon as there's a little more light outside, I'll take a few pictures. :)

Ugh.

I am feeling a little out of it lately. The worst thing about it is that the thought of focusing on knitting, something so close to my face, is a little nauseating. I have put those projects on hold for a moment, and I have been working on something a little easier on the eyes (and tummy).

If you've never heard of NaNoWriMo*, there's still time to join (I didn't get going till the 5th last year and I still pulled it off). The race is on to produce 50,000 words toward a novel before the clock runs out on November 30th. It's a lot of fun, and stress, and this year I roped both my husband and my sister into it with me.

Happy noveling!

*The website is a little overloaded at the beginning of November, so if it doesn't load, it's not because I made this up.

Fall fall fall- hooray!

It's here! It's here! Let me shout it from the rooftops!

Check the shoes- they have little foxes on them. Adorable! (and yes, my feet are this big- it's not a trick of the lens)

This yarn is even squishier than it looks on the screen. It's the tiniest bit splitty, but I'm generally not a yarn splitter anyway, so I haven't noticed. Bamboo and cotton are a match made in heaven.

Goodbye Jaywalkers, Hello, Monkeys

Yep. I did it. I finished the seemingly endless Jaywalkers. I'll have a photo soon. I haven't felt like pulling out the camera. I haven't felt like doing much of anything except sleeping and eating lately. And sleeping. Miraculously, Vandal has been quite a friendly puppy lately, and has been snuggling up to me on the couch in the evening. I sometimes wake up because her insulatory (um, is that a word? poof-it is now) powers have set my feet on fire! She has also been accepting belly rubs, something I thought I'd never see from my little alpha.

It was almost 80 degreed today. What gives? Are we ever actually going to have sweater weather?

If I thought it was funny, this title would be a joke

So my dear, dear husband parked his manual transmission car on a hill today. This car has no parking break, mind you, because it is very, very old (but compact and fuel efficient, you see).

He just called to say that when he saw that it was missing that he knew that it probably had rolled down a hill.

HE KNEW WHEN IT WAS GONE THAT IT HAD PROBABLY ROLLED DOWN A HILL
HE KNEW WHEN IT WAS GONE THAT IT HAD PROBABLY ROLLED DOWN A HILL
HE KNEW WHEN IT WAS GONE THAT IT HAD PROBABLY ROLLED DOWN A HILL

Why oh why would anyone park their car when they knew that it was probably going to flee the scene? Is it really worth being a minute early to work rather than five minutes late? Let's do the math on this:

How much is it going to cost to get it out of the tow yard and pay the minor traffic offense? THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

That's THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS that 1. we don't have and 2. I can't believe he's three bills worth of airheaded. We're broke college kids, people!

Let this be a lesson to all: please, learn from his mistakes. Don't let your car get away!

It just keeps coming

The weather is still pretty warm this week, but it doesn't seem to have stopped fall from trucking along.

I am almost done with the Jaywalkers, which is good, because I am ready to get started on a new sock project. It's almost the kind of weather where I would wear socks, and so far I only have one finished pair!

And for my secret pal: here's the lovely circular case, with some honest-to-goodness Michigan apples. Love it!

Fall!

The weather is starting to turn a little in Michigan. Acorns are falling out of trees onto the pavement like machine-gun fire, it rains in the evening, and the leaves are just beginning to turn. Tracy and I went to the Renaissance Festival last Sunday (another sign of fall), and I took a few pictures:

I've almost turned the second Jaywalker heel, and I'm making slow but steady progress on Petal. I have finally broached the knitting-in-class idea, and so far my profs don't seem to mind. I am still participating, I'm just doing something with my hands (that isn't doodling, playing with my hair, checking my email, or texting). In fact, my acoustics instructor walked past me as I was pulling out my bag and remarked, "Huh. Another knitting linguist." Who'd have thought?

Brian and Beth get married tomorrow, and I am taking my (big bad) camera along. I bought a new (and jeebus! expensive) flash and I can't wait to try it out- the man at the shop (Eric) assures me it's fully auto. That'll be good till I get the hang of it.

Hey, Secret Pal, here's a shot of the soap- the body wash ran out this morning so I am looking forward to giving a full review.

Heartbroken, and other emotions

This weekend was bad. Grandma Mae passed away on Friday, while I was at work. I really wanted to go visit her recently, and I have been thinking about her a lot, but I let stupid things like work and doing dumb stuff on the computer prevent me from driving the whole mile and a half to see her. I suppose it's a wake up call- I only have so much life to do what I want and to spend with the people I care about, and I am not going to live anymore in the service of anyone but me and the ones I love. I am sad because she is gone, but she had a long life and was surrounded by her family. She was the last of her generation in our family, even though she wasn't the youngest. She was a stubborn woman (a stubbornness that granted her ten years of life after beating aggressive breast cancer), so if she thought it was time to go, I believe her. The family has planned a fitting tribute- we're going to rent a hall, eat till we burst, cram some dessert in on top of that, and sit around, looking at pictures and laughing about that time she made grilled cheese sandwiches with the plastic still on the cheese. (But seriously, she was a really good cook, by Midwestern standards. Her magic bars were better than your grandma's.)

So that was tough, and I was already feeling pretty low on Saturday when my sister called to tell me that the dog died. The family dog, my childhood pet, called it quits after sixteen years. She was a good dog, and old. When I look at my puppies (or, rather, when I am being pinned to the ground and kissed by my puppies), I am reminded of the boundless energy she had as a pup. When we adopted her, the previous owners had said that she needed more room to run than they had for her. She was never a particularly athletic dog, but she loved to bound up and down the fence until she was pooped, and then she liked to sleep under the ping pong table in the garage. She never lost her puppy fur, and even as a big old smelly dog, she was still bunny soft, and she loved to be patted on the head. At the end, even my father, who used to joke about giving Angel her "monthly pet" would sit with her and stroke her fur. She was gentle, friendly, and patient. I loved my fuzzhead. I am glad that she lived a long life, but I'm sad to see her go- it's like watching the end of my childhood pass me by.

Secret Pal: I owe you some glamour shots of the soap you sent (I think my husband is going to steal it- he is a soap connoisseur). I've got some progress to show on the Jaywalkers and Petal, but it will wait till I feel like knitting again. Right now I just want to sit around and watch baseball with my family (yes, you heard me- I have watched a number of collegiate and professional sporting events on television. Alert the authorities- I've gone mad!).

Plugging along

The first week of school is ovah! I met some of the other grad students. They seem pretty nice, although they tried to scare me a little about the syntax class I'm taking. It's not going to be hard. I have had syntax before. Minimalist syntax. With a guy who wrote his dissertation on noun phrases.

I'll be okay.

I've been taking the bus when I can to and from work. Dan really wants to fix the Impala's break lights on his own, so I'm letting him fiddle. The Detroit bus system is kinda crappy, but the route I take comes reasonably close to my house and to work. I hate the stigma that the bus is only for the poor and those who have lost their licenses to irresponsibility, but I guess I have to ask myself: will I continue to ride the bus when I have my car back? On one hand, it's damn convenient to drive. But on the other, gas is expensive, and standing at sketchy bus stops at quarter till midnight makes me feel like a badass.

Nevertheless, commute=commuter knitting!

I'm a little sad that the green only appeared near the heel and toe. I think that means there'll be a lot more in the second sock, which will make them similar but not matchy.



This is too much to lug on the bus now. You can see Stefanie's trademark raglan increases, which I really like. I'm almost to the part where I join the body, and let me say, I am not loving the purl rows right now. I think I will ultimately make the sleeves longer than called for in the pattern because I am using a wool blend, but we'll see. Dan and I have been watching the second season of Twin Peaks, and this makes for great mindless knitting.

Blogging from school

Surrounded by kids who think the world is their playground and that their behavior is so adult... and for the most part it is. I don't believe for a second that the lack of restraint is something that fades from most people as they age from just-old-enough-to-drive to office-lackey to middle-management; rather, you have it or you don't, and even if you have it, it's an effort every day to use it. I will say, however, that I prefer the bravado and the boisterous performance of the student union to the weird, silent in-grouping in my speech acoustics class.

But hey: free wifi. We've come a long way since undergrad. I, for one, can't wait to be high enough on the food chain to get an office.

Chicago Anniversary

Dan and I love going to Chicago. It's not so far away, and even after all the trips we've made, there's still a lot of fun touristy stuff we can do. We loved this trip so much we would hope that anyone going to the city would at least check out some of the things we did. You won't be disappointed!

This trip we took the bus, which, despite small setbacks, was a wise choice (and cheap!). I love love loved not having to drive or park in the city. I am a major proponent of mass transit, and I hope that someday Detroit will have something worth riding (but I'm not holding my breath).

We saw the CIA and the Museum of Contemporary Art (free on Tuesday) this time around. I preferred the art institute- the works there are a little more tried-and-true, by my tastes. I really liked the Jeff Wall exhibit, but unfortunately there were no photos allowed. His is the kind of art I would pay to have a real live piece of it in my home. Insightful and disturbing.

We ate at some really tasty restaurants that even our Chicagoan friends hadn't tried. For our anniversary, we got (veggie) fondue at Geja's Cafe- they have half off bottles of wine on Monday. Dan loved the ambiance. Some folks might find the candlelight and cave-like walls cheesy, but we had a blast. Service was lovely (and that means something, coming from a fine-dining server!). We also ate at Cafe Iberico, which had some mighty fine tapas (I didn't dig the paella- but we got the veggie version) and pitchers of sangria. I recommend taking friends here, and be prepared to wait- we stood outside for 30 minutes on a Tuesday. The real gem of our dining experience was Irazu. It was a hole-in-the-wall place in a neighborhood a tourist would probably never go, but I encourage everyone to hop on the blue line and get there! The potato tacos sounded absurd, but I ordered them (and laughed when they came with rice AND plantains- starchy!). They were delicious, delicately spiced morsels, and they were accompanied by a knockout mole and a cabbage and cilantro slaw. Order a plate of potato tacos to share (they're a lot on your own), and on the way out the door, grab an oatmeal shake to go. It's like a liquid cookie and it was the perfect thing to sip as we walked around. And hey- it's got fiber to boot.

And, as in all knitting blogs, here's the obligatory action shot, courtesy of my husband, from the lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Building at sunset:

All the yarn I buy in Chicago I get from Loopy Yarns. This time they were way understocked, but I still managed to drop a little cash. They send out birthday coupons for folks on their mailing lists, and they let my use mine two months late. Thanks!


Happy anniversary, babycakes.

Back from Chicago!

And we had a great time. I'll upload photos eventually- they're almost finished. What I do have to show, however, is the cute gift my Secret Pal sent me while I was gone:

Gorgeous! Thanks a lot, pal!

More on this later:

Well, now there's too many

I have cast on too many projects. It happened so fast! I found a ball of red Wool-ease and realized I promised my sister I would make her a devil hat. So I knit the hat, but I need to put on the horns. My friend saw me knitting the hat, and somehow I agreed to knit some children's hats for the women's shelter in Ann Arbor. Then I agreed to test knit Stefanie Japel's new pattern. And my poor Jaywalkers might as well be in that bin with all the sweaters that need their ends woven in.

It's bad. Damn you, Ravelry. I blame Ravelry. Yeah... Ravelry.

Behind the times

No, the blog is up to date, but my taste in projects is way, way behind.

Observe:

I'm taking today for me, so I might just have a finished sock by the end of the weekend!

Finally Raveling

Here. Stop by if you want to- I really want to know who reads the blog!