After I Broke the Senior Project System

OK, maybe *I* wasn't the person who broke it, but many hours and much cursing later the tech wizards in the dungeon across the street from the Building In Which I Climb 73 Stairs Every Time I Want to Get Something off my Desk have agreed that the thing is indeed broken. Well, duh, every time I edit a project title, students' names disappear as if wiped away with a sponge. Maybe they will be able to fix it this weekend while I write my comments ... or maybe not. But at least they're no longer implying that I'm an idiot for not being able to get the database to do what I want.


D#2's amaryllis has bloomed and looks spectacular (see above), which is very nice because we are still entombed in ice around here (see below).


A visual poem by my spouse, above. And below, finally, pictures of the River Rapids Socks, knit on Knitpicks size 2 dpns, in Yarnpig Petunia, in the fabulous Mountain Majesty colorway (thanks again, Bea, for saving this for me. I adore it, and the rest is going to be a neckwarmer!). . This yarn is soft and squishy, delightful to work with, and a combination of colors that make me extremely happy. May I say that I love everything about these socks --especially and most deeply the yarn --except the fit? It turns out that I am exceptionally picky about how tightly or loosely a sock grabs my foot, and these are just too darn loose. Bummer.

Snow Day!

I was ready for school today, truly I was -- all my exams were graded by 10 p.m. last night and I had submitted my grades and everything. But still, it was great to have the phone ring at 5:20 a.m. and hear my colleague say "It's a snow day!"

I've been really productive today, too, although unfortunately that means I haven't touched ANY knitting. My pals in the Red Sox International Traveling Scarf Group are going to think I've set out to keep all of the scarves (insert evil laugh here).

What exactly have I accomplished if I haven't been knitting, you ask? I've gotten through the grindingly boring part of dealing with the glitches in the senior project database (if they don't fix it by the time I need to get reports out to project supervisors I'm going to be seriously annoyed) -- and I think I have made all the off-system corrections the kids e-mailed to me. (That was six hours' worth of work, by the way.) I tutored for an hour. I responded to a number of e-mails and did some course planning with a colleague. I spent some time with my own personal children. I located several of last semester's papers (their authors are in my current class), beefed up the comments thereon, and put them in my Other School Bag for tomorrow night's class. If I can work for another hour and a half or so, then all my after dinner time can be knitting. (Please note: the word "dinner" is used to denote timing rather than anything I'm actually going to be doing. The only non-saltine food I've had since Saturday is 1 slice of apple and half a bowl of excellent fish chowder. While others have shaken off this stomach bug fairly quickly, it seems to like me.)

Post-Exam Grading Monday

Happy Australia Day. Here it's 19 degrees (F), and the snow is shining off the snow in absolutely blinding sparkles.

I was on duty last night and this morning -- bad timing, as I've finally fallen prey to the stomach bug that's been making the rounds of my acquaintance. Also bad timing to spend the weekend at a meet. That's how it is. Usually this long weekend is a nice lull in the frenetic pace of life at two institutions but not this year.

My advisees made my grandmother's cheesecake recipe last night.
Cheese Cake (from Nana)

Preheat 375

4 8 oz cream cheese at room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 lemon's rind gratings
1 lemon''s juice
1 cup sour cream

Beat cheeses together until creamy, gradually beat in sugar

Beat in sour cream and vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, well.

Add lemon juice and rind.

Pour into springform lined with graham cracker crust (baked).

Bake 1 hour at 375.

Cool in oven 1 hour.

Cool on rack 1 hour

Refrigerate until serving (best when refrigerated overnight). Do not release springform until fully chilled.

It was all good except that someone shut off the oven in the middle, and when we discovered this and turned the oven back on, we weren't sure how much longer it needed. So ... it's a little brown on top. But still good!

A Good Tuesday

I've told Jocelyn and my dad this story already, but:

I was watching the inauguration with about a dozen girls today --they hail from Seoul, Hong Kong, New York City, Seekonk MA, Bethesda MD ... in short, from our global village. As the former presidents were walking in, one girl asked (of Jimmy Carter), "Who's that?" I identified him (she did know, at least, that Jimmy Carter was a former president), and she said, "Well, they all look the same," and I thought, that's exactly right --until today.

As you might expect, D#2 liked the pomp and circumstance, and the songs -- and she pronounced the speeches "excellent",. Who knew -- I thought I would hear about the hats and outfits. D#1's response was also fairly typical of her worldview: she thought Obama's speech was too long but interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless: "He's a smart man and knows a lot about history. He started out by complimenting George Bush and then criticized everything he and his administration did. I wonder how it felt to sit there and listen to all of that criticism." Her homework tonight was to write the president a letter. She told him she hoped she would treasure the memory of this day AND remember how hopeful she felt today for the rest of her life.

For the rest of the month, when I'm not engaged in the traveling scarf project (the next one is on its way across the pond, Tekgirl), I'm going to try to finish up some old UFOs and use up some stash yarn. Currently at bat and moving along fast (pun intended), the River Rapids socks.
I'll rave in detail about the Yarnpig Mountain Majesty colorway and the softness & squishiness of the fiber when I can show you pictures of TWO complete socks.

It was a rare Tuesday night dinner at home for me. We had raspberry/chocolate chip pancakes and bacon.

A Little Warmer

and a lot more hopeful. I did think it might all turn out to be a dream ...



(Thanks for forwarding the link, TG Brother)


edited to add: they're done! Snow on Cedars Mitts, from knitspot, on 2.75 mm needles, in Sunshine Yarns Trek (bits from 2 different skeins --note the interesting color variation -- & the intended recipient loves them!). Modeled by D#1 with Sirius in the background. These were taken pre-blocking and the pattern does show up better now, although (unsurprisingly) I think it would pop more with a lighter colorway). Still, I love the finished product AND the pattern, and will definitely make these again.

54 degrees this morning

Yes, 54 degrees Fahrenheit! The unfortunate news, though, is that that was the temperature INSIDE the house when I arose this morning. We are embarked, I think, on an adventure much like the saga of Sir Washie. Last night, after we returned from a fabulous dinner at the Elephant Walk, we discovered that our children's contention that the house was cold was in fact true, and not simply whinging. The furnace doctor arrived on our doorstep this morning and expressed his opinion that this particular furnace has bravely given its all --he got it going again but who knows for how long... and I have no idea how they're going to get the old furnace out and a new unit in. The inside stairwell is barely the width of a laundry basket. It's a little warmer outside than it has been, however, 24 degrees (F), and snowing.

We had an exciting event in the fish tank this week --see those little barley-like things in the photo(s) below? Baby snails!!


A couple of belated FO pics follow. Here's the Noro leftovers hat, co-opted by D#1 as perfect post-swim wear.



And these are the Bella mittens, modeled by Fleur.

I am well along on the second Snow on Cedars mitt. I love the pattern! And Dani's Trek colorway is just yummy. It is a little more chocolate-y than this photo would indicate (grabbed from the Sunshine Yarns website ....

I found a nice motif for my section of the current piece of the Red Sox traveling scarf in my possession and ought to be able to mail it across the pond Tuesday. And by then I'll be starting to think about grades and comments, and my syllabus for the evening class (begins Thursday).

One more week

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. I can only plead that I lost three days to an absolutely consuming swim meet (2 sessions per day) and then spent yesterday in such a delirium of exhaustion that anything I'd posted would have been gibberish. Of course, even today that may still be true but I am fractionally less tired.

At school we're in the lull of exam review, which does give me time to contemplate knitting projects, the final week of the Bush presidency, and other important matters. I may even be able to get caught up on blog reading, and get my Ravelry fix ... The weather reports are predicting both an "Arctic blast" and snow on Thursday; better this week than next! Exam week is the only time when I most emphatically do not want a snow day.

My Bella's mittens are done, and I'm reasonably pleased with them -- if I make them again I need to find a better way to increase for the thumb gusset, as this particular combination of yarn and M1s left me with a sort of swiss cheesy connection that need repair before hte mittens could be functional. I'm still jumping about amongst three projects -- the traveling scarf (I have received scarf #2), the Luna Moth shawl, and a pair of Snow on Cedar mitts (these are definitely NOT tv knitting).

Dream Songs

Today is the anniversary of John Berryman's death. So this afternoon we were all (in some sort of miracle) home, and R asked us to choose numbers and then he read us that Dream Song ... D#2 chose #1, which is actually one of my favorites. Bur R also exploded a myth in which I'd long believed (W.H. Auden's assertion that a note was found on Berryman's body which read "Your move. Cal"), so I'm bitter about that.

Dream Song 1: Huffy Henry hid the day

Huffy Henry hid the day,
unappeasable Henry sulked.
I see his point,—a trying to put things over.
It was the thought that they thought
they could do it made Henry wicked & away.
But he should have come out and talked.

All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry's side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don't see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived.

What he has now to say is a long
wonder the world can bear & be.
Once in a sycamore I was glad
all at the top, and I sang.
Hard on the land wears the strong sea
and empty grows every bed.

Snapshot Saturday

Above, my version of Bella's Mittens --mods --I'm not making them as bulky, so I'm using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and size 6 dpns (rather than size 8 magic loop). I'm up to the thumb gusset for mitten #1 although I did have to rip about 20 rows after I got too involved in a conversation at practice and crossed a cable the wrong way. Arg.

Below -- proof that I've made it through chart 1 and chart 2 of the Luna Moth shawl successfully. Now I just need to pay attention through 5 1/2 more repeats of chart 2!

And a herd of Korknisse ...

Bits

I have started the Luna Moth Shawl for my friend, but have already had to frog back to row 15 three times--I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I've ended up 4 stitches short between rows 15 and 21 each time. This next time I won't talk to anyone until I've gotten through the first repeat of chart 2. I like the idea of a shawl in heavier weight yarn and am using a VERY bright colorway. We shall see (both about the colorway and my ability to read/count properly).

My parents gave me a gift card to a local independent bookstore, so today I used part of it to purchase Luxury Yarns One-Skein Wonders. This ought to be a much used volume, given that my luxury yarn purchases do indeed tend to be in one skein increments. For example, I have some Habu cashmere and Neighborhood Fiber Co cashmere and merino blend (exactly like this but unpictured in my own stash) looking for good patterns.

In a truly vacation-y bit of planning, today I went with my mother to see Milk. It was fabulous. Here's the trailer, in case you missed it:



This might be Sean Penn's best performance ever.

Alas, my vacation is sputtering to an end. Tonight, with R and D#2 away, D#1 and I are eating mango shrimp and beef teriyaki from a local Chinese restaurant and watching the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We have our regular routine of swim practice, laundry, swim practice, supermarket, & Hebrew tutor this weekend, along with a gathering for my nephew's birthday -- I have a book review to write (on a wonderful book, Baseball Love, by George Bowering), and then with Monday's dawn comes a professional day on creativity in teaching. Although in my usual surly way I'd rather have the day to myself, this program promises to be different enough that it might actually by interesting. In any case, they pay me, and these days, that's nothing to sneeze at ...

Resolution Achieved, and Other Matters

Yes, it snowed. It was very pretty but a big pain in which to drive, and yesterday I had a lot of driving to do. And this morning our venerable furnace was blowing cold air. But eventually one of the facilities men came over and, with the expensive plumbing and heating man consulting by phone, he was able to determine that the filter was clogged. Now it is toasty warm -- a good thing, since it is about 13 degrees F outside.


This is one of the many juncos that comes to sample the bounty of "bird beans," as D#2 names them, provided by my spouse.
The figure going off the diving board above is D#1 having her very first lesson on the 1 meter board. She can't take this up for real right now, her knees won't stand it, but a friend of ours is a diving coach and offered to show her the ropes once.

Below is the only item we had a chance to photograph from our festive holiday meal last night. The girls loved the chocolate cake we had at the Bubble Room in Captiva, so we tried to replicate it. I made the Decadent Chocolate Cake from the first Silver Palate cookbook and we filled it with whipped cream and strawberries.

It was good.

Behold the feet of D#2 in her knockout new boots from my parents. The pink fringe on the right is from her new scarf -- it isn't part of the boots, which are plenty spectacular as is. Please note the careful placement of Dobby's pink catnip mouse. And no, our kitchen floor isn't really filthy dirty, that's its actual color.

These are some of the singles I spun this summer. I now think that I am going to ply them -- I think the colors will be more interesting in a more variegated scenario.


This is my first ever Noro two row stripe scarf, on 10s (I think), using colorways 40 (2 skeins), 180, and 163 (1 skein each). What fun. Now I see why people make these over and over. There was enough left over to make a hat for the swimmer (K2P2 rib, no photo yet available) and several Korknisser (photo to come, the camera battery is charging).

And as for my New Year's resolution? My one resolution was to teach a friend to knit. It qualifies as a resolution because twenty years ago she was expelled from a knitting class at a LYS near my current home. She is an intelligent, lovely woman, and the folks at this LYS are known to be crabby, and I felt it my duty to rescue my friend from knitting exile. So today at practice I finished a project (that has to remain unpictured for a short time yet) -- and had a small ball of the yarn left over and a set of straight bamboo 10s in my bag, so without further ado I cast on 10 stitches and put the needles in her hands. By the time practice was over, she had knitted a small swatch, and I have sent her home with instructions to practice and practice. On Tuesday, this friend and I made a purchase at Sunshine Yarns and by the time the gorgeousness shows up, she should be ready!

So there. My resolution is accomplished. I am free to experience the year as it comes. The only other thing I have in mind is to try to follow my mother's advice to say no more often. I tried it this morning, declining an invitation in order to stay in my bathrobe until lunchtime, and I am not quite sure how I feel about having done so. Maybe this is the kind of thing that takes practice?

Happy 2009 to all!