I can hardly wait for Thanksgiving break --but there's a lot happening between now and then. This weekend D#1 has a 3 day meet, plus I'm one of the drivers for the big dorm outing to the 10:30 p.m. showing of "Twilight" tomorrow. Then I'm in the dorm from 9-12 both Sat & Sun mornings before going back to the pool. Friends are having a housewarming party Saturday night. And I'm on duty again Sunday night. Whew.
I'm still knitting like crazy for the craft fair. It feels almost wrong to put those things up on my Ravelry project page -- I don't know if I can quite explain that one. Currently obsessing me, and NOT for the craft fair, is the skull-face scarf from Knitty. I bought my first Noro Silk Garden ever, just for this. The only thing is, I can't wrap my mind around the idea of waiting til December 8th to cast on.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Speedy Sunday synopsis
This has been a surprisingly relaxed weekend, despite the sneaker stress (more on that in a minute). We did have 2 swim practices and an end-of-season soccer party, but no Hebrew (tutor out of town) and no swim meets (next week). All four of went to do some errands together on Saturday (we made 3 separate visits to the Apple store to admire a) the iPod Touch b) the new MacBooks c) the bright pink nanos and d) the iPhone).
The major impetus for the trip was to visit the Greater Boston Running Company, one of the few local retail venues that carries Brooks Ariel sneakers in size tiny. Why, we did indeed discover this at the end of the summer when D#1 had developed thigh splints from a combination of custom orthotics and completely broken down sneakers. Some of you know that we did a lot of research and it was a terribly hot day when we went all the way to Hingham, and she tried on many sizes of the 2 orthopedist-approved varieties and we bought a lovely pair of these sneakers. No, her feet haven't grown --we were still looking for size tiny on Saturday. And we were doing this because somehow, 'twixt night and morning LAST weekend, those lovely sneakers (containing the custom orthotics, not covered by insurance) disappeared.
One of my readers will now realize with glee that the karma train has come full circle and to her I say that yes, I did indeed lose one brand new Ked on the #77 bus because I did not zip my back pack, but that Ked did NOT contain a custom orthotic and I'll bet anything that its retail price was approximately 18% of the retail price of the sneakers that my child lost. (I still remember how angry you were, though, Mom, and I'm sorry, all over again.) In a triumph of parenting, I did not kill D#1. And I am making an effort not to throw it up to her every 45 seconds. But this is a big pain, and very expensive (in money, yes, but time, as well). And, by the way, the fabulous podiatrist has office hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 8:30-3. Convenient.
Nonetheless, we had a fun excursion on Saturday. And today has been lovely as well. Three of us watched "Ratatouille" and laughed a lot, and there was lots of knitting time. Now I'm on duty, and in 20 minutes we'll all go to chapel and hear an organ recital (anyone out there ever read Cheaper by the Dozen? Not that kind of organ recital).
The major impetus for the trip was to visit the Greater Boston Running Company, one of the few local retail venues that carries Brooks Ariel sneakers in size tiny. Why, we did indeed discover this at the end of the summer when D#1 had developed thigh splints from a combination of custom orthotics and completely broken down sneakers. Some of you know that we did a lot of research and it was a terribly hot day when we went all the way to Hingham, and she tried on many sizes of the 2 orthopedist-approved varieties and we bought a lovely pair of these sneakers. No, her feet haven't grown --we were still looking for size tiny on Saturday. And we were doing this because somehow, 'twixt night and morning LAST weekend, those lovely sneakers (containing the custom orthotics, not covered by insurance) disappeared.
One of my readers will now realize with glee that the karma train has come full circle and to her I say that yes, I did indeed lose one brand new Ked on the #77 bus because I did not zip my back pack, but that Ked did NOT contain a custom orthotic and I'll bet anything that its retail price was approximately 18% of the retail price of the sneakers that my child lost. (I still remember how angry you were, though, Mom, and I'm sorry, all over again.) In a triumph of parenting, I did not kill D#1. And I am making an effort not to throw it up to her every 45 seconds. But this is a big pain, and very expensive (in money, yes, but time, as well). And, by the way, the fabulous podiatrist has office hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 8:30-3. Convenient.
Nonetheless, we had a fun excursion on Saturday. And today has been lovely as well. Three of us watched "Ratatouille" and laughed a lot, and there was lots of knitting time. Now I'm on duty, and in 20 minutes we'll all go to chapel and hear an organ recital (anyone out there ever read Cheaper by the Dozen? Not that kind of organ recital).
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
O Canada
I've always been partial to Canada. Yep, the whole country. Sounds silly, does it? Well, so be it. I used to root for the Canadiens when Ken Dryden was their goalie. I loved going to Montreal with my family when we made our field trips to Jarry Park to see my dad's favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, play the now defunct Montreal Expos. A good portion of my dissertation focuses on Canadian women writers. I have dear friends in several Canadian provinces. And as if that weren't already an embarrassment of riches, today I got a prize package all the way from British Columbia, full of the most wonderful stuff. Above, you can see the lovely washcloth and soap sack, containing cranberry sage soap. You can see 2 skeins of French blue pima cotton. You can see knitting needles (wood, which I love), and delightful glass bead stitch markers (one is already in use), and postcards of Vancouver Island, and a lovely card from (blogless) Raveler Cluxewe -- a fellow member of clan Fraser in the Outlander swap. This was a prize package, mind you, not the official swap package. Isn't that just great? A nice bunch, these Outlander fans. Now I definitely think I'll make it to Thanksgiving from here (the countdown is on--we're out for break 2 weeks from yesterday at 3:00 p.m. One of my colleagues has already opined that the school year is over.) If I didn't already think that most things Canadian are the bees' knees, I would now. Thank you, Cluxewe! You are amazing.
In other news, tonight I took my advisees out to dinner. They're nice girls and we had fun, but I have to say that I'm annoyed by texting at the dinner table, no matter how cool one's phone may be. Now I'm home, and I am done working until tomorrow.
Monday, November 10, 2008
It's Monday
Hurray! My Outlander swap package arrived the other day. Just look at all the goodies! Above, Rumpelstiltskin Happy Feet yarn ...
Celtic theme stitch markers
three gorgeous patterns, and a lovely shawl pin -- not pictured, a bag of catnip (guess who has that?), homemade shortbread (in the foil-covered box at the top of the picture, contents now consumed) and herbal tea ...
and my bag -- just LOOK at this bag
Isn't it gorgeous? I was truly fortunate in my amazing swap partner, was I not? I hope the package she received was half as good as the one she sent me.I never saw as many leaves in my life as are currently occupying our little cul de sac. Truly treacherous for the bicycle riders among us. I did try to take a picture today but there was no way my little Powershot was up to a scene of this vastness.
Today I got an e-mail from the 2009 Tour de France organizers asking me to take a survey. I thought, what the heck, it's that or grade papers, and clicked the link. They began by asking what I think of the route, which has just been released, my impressions of the efficacy of the drug testing regime (hm), and whether I'm likely to buy a Skoda because the company sponsors the Tour. I haven't seen many of these on the Southeast Expressway...
Knitting up a storm for the craft fair and to finish off the package for my swappee ....
Friday, November 7, 2008
Pumpkin Squares
These are yummy. Making them was just what I needed this afternoon.
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 c pumpkin puree (1 can is fine if you haven't got a huge jack o'lantern on your doorstep)
1 cup vegetable oil
Beat until fluffy. Add:
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
some grated nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
Bake on an ungreased jelly roll pan at 350 about 30 minutes.
When cool, frost with:
6 oz cream cheese
1 c butter
1.5 tsp vanilla
3.5 - 4 cups 10X sugar
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 c pumpkin puree (1 can is fine if you haven't got a huge jack o'lantern on your doorstep)
1 cup vegetable oil
Beat until fluffy. Add:
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
some grated nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
Bake on an ungreased jelly roll pan at 350 about 30 minutes.
When cool, frost with:
6 oz cream cheese
1 c butter
1.5 tsp vanilla
3.5 - 4 cups 10X sugar
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Saturday thoughts
It's a good thing Halloween only happens once a year. The girls love this holiday and why not? From my perspective, too much candy I shouldn't eat comes into the house, we are always in danger of having a peanut item slip by, with all its attendant allergens, and my younger daughter already needs to be extra vigilant about her teeth given pre-natal nutritional deficiences. All right, now that the spoilsport issues are on the table, let me report that my younger daughter and her friend declared this "the best Halloween ever". Last night each of them got to do what she wanted: the older one went to a friend's party in her neighborhood and then trick-or-treating, while the younger one went with friends to a party in our neighborhood and then trick or treating in a group, without her own parents. The younger one was arrayed in beautiful pink ballerina garb, complete with tiara. The older one went as Goth Girl, with handcuff earrings, a studded choker, and dressed in black down to her toenails. At 10 p.m., then, when R collected the younger one from the dorm, where she was hanging out with me awaiting his return, we had potential double melt-down from costume excitement and sugar overload in the works. Double meltdown factor multiplied by 2 very strong personalities. Let's just say that I, in my craven fashion, was glad the task of getting them to bed was in R's hands and not mine.
One of our local LYSes is having a big 25th anniversary sale this weekend. Since D#1 had no school yesterday, we sneaked down there in the middle of the day when I had a break in my classes. She bought some Louisa Harding ribbon yarn in pinks and purples which she declares she'll use for a scarf for her sister, we bought 2 different skeins of ONLine Linie Spot, which I think is also destined for scarves, I found a great yarn for the Outlander swap (I had despaired of finding this item in my partner's colors but there it was), and I was forced to buy a skein of Knit One Crochet Too sock yarn in the most amazing bird of paradise colorway. I have no idea what the colorway is called, but it practically sang to me. D#1 says I am not allowed to make it into anything other than socks for myself. Somehow we also ended up with a skein of Malabrigo worsted in gorgeous dark greens. It just leapt into our basket while I wasn't looking. Yum.
Today is another gorgeous autumn day -- we had frost earlier in the week but have now had 2 consecutive days in the 5os. My garden is kaput, but still, it's nice that we haven't vaulted right into unremitting November-ness despite the calendar. D#1's soccer team won this morning, which is a nice reward for the hysteria we had getting her off to the game (the athlete in question having left her cleats & shinguards --required for town soccer events-- at school). I left D#2 busily working on her "Star of the Week" poster (she has been so anxious to be chosen, and knew exactly what she wanted to include several weeks ago. I'm trying not to obsess over the fact that her current career goal is "waitres girl" since 4 months ago she wanted to teach swim classes and I fully expect the reality to involve high fashion).
I'm thinking about the election (who isn't) and Jocelyn's thoughtful analysis of the real issues at stake. I'm wondering about the ways tv influences voters in all constituencies (my spouse used to opine that "West Wing" viewers were the crux of the problem in 2000, as we were all living in a fantasy world with Jed Bartlet as president and failed to take the real election seriously enough that there would have been no doubt about the results). One of my most scholarly students did a presentation in class last Thursday designed to give some of the younger students a drive-by look at the history of woman suffrage in this country, because as you might expect they don't know ANYTHING, and she did a wonderful job. Her starting hook, though, was a scene from the movie "Mary Poppins." You know the one, I'm sure: Mrs. Banks comes home all fired up from a rally at which one of her co-activists chained herself to the Prime Minister's carriage and there's a rousing musical number complete with Mrs. Banks showing her bloomers. "This is how I first learned about woman suffrage," she said. You don't know it? Here you go:
Never mind that the real message here is that Mrs. Banks would be better served to pay attention to her own family. Happy Saturday. Rabbit rabbit.
One of our local LYSes is having a big 25th anniversary sale this weekend. Since D#1 had no school yesterday, we sneaked down there in the middle of the day when I had a break in my classes. She bought some Louisa Harding ribbon yarn in pinks and purples which she declares she'll use for a scarf for her sister, we bought 2 different skeins of ONLine Linie Spot, which I think is also destined for scarves, I found a great yarn for the Outlander swap (I had despaired of finding this item in my partner's colors but there it was), and I was forced to buy a skein of Knit One Crochet Too sock yarn in the most amazing bird of paradise colorway. I have no idea what the colorway is called, but it practically sang to me. D#1 says I am not allowed to make it into anything other than socks for myself. Somehow we also ended up with a skein of Malabrigo worsted in gorgeous dark greens. It just leapt into our basket while I wasn't looking. Yum.
Today is another gorgeous autumn day -- we had frost earlier in the week but have now had 2 consecutive days in the 5os. My garden is kaput, but still, it's nice that we haven't vaulted right into unremitting November-ness despite the calendar. D#1's soccer team won this morning, which is a nice reward for the hysteria we had getting her off to the game (the athlete in question having left her cleats & shinguards --required for town soccer events-- at school). I left D#2 busily working on her "Star of the Week" poster (she has been so anxious to be chosen, and knew exactly what she wanted to include several weeks ago. I'm trying not to obsess over the fact that her current career goal is "waitres girl" since 4 months ago she wanted to teach swim classes and I fully expect the reality to involve high fashion).
I'm thinking about the election (who isn't) and Jocelyn's thoughtful analysis of the real issues at stake. I'm wondering about the ways tv influences voters in all constituencies (my spouse used to opine that "West Wing" viewers were the crux of the problem in 2000, as we were all living in a fantasy world with Jed Bartlet as president and failed to take the real election seriously enough that there would have been no doubt about the results). One of my most scholarly students did a presentation in class last Thursday designed to give some of the younger students a drive-by look at the history of woman suffrage in this country, because as you might expect they don't know ANYTHING, and she did a wonderful job. Her starting hook, though, was a scene from the movie "Mary Poppins." You know the one, I'm sure: Mrs. Banks comes home all fired up from a rally at which one of her co-activists chained herself to the Prime Minister's carriage and there's a rousing musical number complete with Mrs. Banks showing her bloomers. "This is how I first learned about woman suffrage," she said. You don't know it? Here you go:
Never mind that the real message here is that Mrs. Banks would be better served to pay attention to her own family. Happy Saturday. Rabbit rabbit.
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