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!

A little show and tell

For today's version of the photo blog, I give you the following:

My dad put up 2 levels of stair railings ready for my mom's first home visit last week. He and I spent much of Friday night/Saturday morning making the lower level living quarters look nice for my mom's arrival (figuring she would not see the rest of the house until a further weekend visit). You should have seen him blanch when after lunch she announced that the first level of stairs had gone so well, she wanted to do the second set so that we could all eat dinner in the kitchen.

Those are cranberry streusel muffins so see (they're from Bonnie Stern's Lighthearted Cooking cookbook so I am maintaining my belief that they are healthy). They came to a potluck brunch with me.

The Snowbeast (big white thing has a name) is continually growing: 14 inches long at the last measurement! And I completed my grey fuzzy hat. It's a gift but oh, so tempting to keep (see how good it looks on my head?).

Talkin' 'bout my generation

So there's this phenomenon I've noticed when talking to people my age (or maybe just the geeks I hang out with). Any situation or discussion topic seems to lead to "You know this is just like that episode of the Simpsons (some show offs will add the season here) when..."

I've been resisting. I watch the occasional Simpsons' rerun but am hardly a Simpsons efficionado. However, I caught myself comparing my parents' situation to what would happen to Homer if Marge were incapacitated for a month - hey, wait! That's just like the episode where Marge got arrested for shop-lifting!

I must be showing my age (and my geekiness).

Ile Bizard hike

You say tomato, I say bwahh

I have been described as a mother with a 19 year old frosh son (my dad). I have spent much of the afternoon discovering moldy tomato surprises throughout the house (somehow, feeling very much like a frosh mom...).

My dad did a great job clearing tomatoes out of the garden pre-frost. However, they have just sort of sat whereever he set them down (table tops, counters, on top of his papers...) several weeks ago.

I think I'm off tomatoes...