Think she likes it?

Amanda made Casey a new catnip mouse for Christmas. Think she likes it?

Happy holidays to all!

Well, I made it home and through Christmas. I have been in full hibernation mode. The little cold I started fighting off 2 weeks ago has decided that it wants to be a full blown sinus infection when it grows up (ugh - that was my thought when I once again woke up feverish this morning).

In my hibernation state, I have read much junkish reading material (my latest is a series about vampire soccer moms - likely not what an MD/grad student wants to be caught dead reading but it suits my mental state quite nicely), knitting and playing with camera (unfortunately having troubles transfering photos from my laptop to my dad's desktop so only have a few to show). I also revamped the HIV talk I"m taking to the high school in January.

I almost finished my knitted gifts (note the pair of gloves phototgraphed). Also made a hat and some gloves for my dad: I hoped to finish them Christmas day and asked to back up gift-exchange time - as dinner approached, I realized that I was running out of yarn (there is a second ball in my appartment). My dad received one glove gift-wrapped and a promise of the second glove to be finished when I return to my place for New Years. We spent the rest of the evening holding bets on which finger I would run out of yarn on (middle finger - I thought it was a very clear message to me from my yarn).

Oh, and I did find the awol gift for my mom. Now that she has received it, I can tell the story. She had asked me for socks and underwear for Christmas so I bought her sock yarn and a pack of underwear. I had my purchased gifts laid out in the middle of my kitchen table and realized while getting ready for our department Christmas party that my date was going to be there any minute and that there was a big package of underwear in the middle of my kitchen table (I keep thinking of the reference to mommy pants in Bridget Jones' Diary). I freaked out and quickly hid the underwear only to later discover that I had no idea where I would have put them (found them pulling my duffel bag out of the closet the morning I was leaving). I figured that even if I only found them later, at least I"d have a good story for my mom at Christmas...

How to royally piss off Casey...

Is this (found on Ravelry) fascinatingly awful or what?


I'm half tempted to make one but am concerned my cat may require therapy and I am much too poor to take the cat to therapy.

On vacation

First thing I did: got into my jammies. I've spent the evening playing with Ravelry (I got my invite last weekend - my project list now has pics and does not look naked anymore) and working on my dad's gift (no sign of the gift for my mom that went awol).

So tired... Going home tomorrow.

So not ready for x-mas...

Part of my mom's x-mas gift has gone awol.

Ack.

So has one of the dpns from the set I was using to make my dad's gift.

Ack. Ack.

I am down to 9.5 term papers left to grade and 1 plagerism issue to address:

Student seemed to feel that unless a direct quote was being used, one does not need to reference ideas.

Almost half of the essay consists of direct quotes.

Ack. Ack. Ack.

Though I am relieved that I am the mere TA and deciding what to do is at the discretion of the prof.

Tales of flustered guinea pigs drowning in seas of grading

And that is exactly why I have not written lately.

The sad thing is that I have a very very nice new camera (Canon Powershot S5 - woohoo!) that I have yet to play much with: hence the lack of photos in this entry.

Flustered: With my research - our Moxus has deep psychological issues and does not feel like recording data consistantly. Trials have been cancelled/lost. My mom's also had some pretty flustering news this week: she will have to go another 6 weeks of non-weight bearing on her bad leg. Very upsetting - we had all seen how much she was improving during rehab and assumed that meant the healing was going well.

Guinea pig: I am officially a research subject. Had a VO2 max and underwater weighing done earlier this week. Will spend a day in a direct calorimeter in January at some point.

Drowning in grading: 60 stats essay exams... 30 long nutrition term papers... I probably have 30 more hours of marking before I get to go home for the holidays.

Oh, yeah, and then it's the holidays... Thankfully, it'll be low key. Got a few Christmas gifts to finish up. Trying to do a bit of baking (managed a batch of pinwheel cookies and a pan of Skor shortbread so far for a potluck and cookie exchange tonight).

Snow, shoes and the attack cat

On today's edition, we see that there has been lots of snow, I bought pretty new shoes (I am not a shoe person but I do rather love them) to wear to the Christmas formal, I got a flu shot and I finished my first glove which Casey immediately started to maul.

Conversation while waiting in waiting room for flu shot:

Receptionist: "Wow! Gloves! I've never seen anyone knit gloves before. I didn't think people could knit gloves."

I explain that it's kind of like doing mitts except that you do multiple thumbholes while thinking "Um, where exactly did you think gloves came from?"

Conversation in lab following flu shot (okay, so I am rather fond of the Batman band aid and wore short sleeves to show it off - our lab tends to vary in temperature: today was a short sleeve weather day in there).

Sophie: "There's something on your arm. Is there something wrong with you?"

I have yet to figure out if she was concerned about my arm or about my mental state.

Gloves woes

I have been making a pair of gloves (Nicholas's Gloves, a free pattern from Interweave knits online). I have restarted them 3 times. I'd gauge them, start the glove, realize the hand circumference is really ridiculously large, rip it out, change needles, restart.

I finally got a gauge that seemed to work and suddenly realized: once you start the cable pattern (I'd only do the ribbing before ripping it out), there is less give and the hand circumference decreases - considerably. D'oh! It fits me. I have small hands though, and I was making it for someone with larger hands. However, I refuse to rip it out again!