15 Milliseconds of Fame

I may be shallow, but I squealed with glee when I was finally able to definitively spot one of my squares on the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog. :)

I gotta make me one of those cute owls too. Thankfully, Kay linked to the pattern on the next post. :) (I could have approximated the shapes of the pieces from the tutorial, but I never did. Now I'm one fictional step closer to never actually making one.)

Found on Flickr

Cookie Monster day dreaming

I love it!

Contest Alert!

Have I told you about the contest at The Sweet Sheep blog? (Do I want to? Not really... I want to win that gift certificate for myself!!!)

Murphy doesn't like me.

I did manage to get the new plates, arriving with a printed photo of a signed letter about eight minutes before they closed. The lady was already bundled up in many layers (have I mentioned the windchill is around -40 today?), but she stayed to process me. Yay!

Then I caught good connections on the way home... I caught the super-express bus to downtown, and then the bus that gets me closest was only moments behind. (It was close enough that I thought I might miss it.) Double yay!

When I got home, I managed to see enough through my frosted glasses in the dark that I was able to screw the licence plates in. (Whee. Brrrrrr!)

However, even though I got the plates, I decided not to go to the art club after all. I think I'm coming down with something. I have a bit of a sore throat, tender lymph nodes in my neck, hot flashes and a drippy nose. Plus that general "ugh" feeling. I almost went anyway, but then decided that I should save my energy for office hours tomorrow. (Sigh.)

I'm thinking perhaps the students coming to visit me may have taken to heart the saying "all I need to know I learned in Kindergarten"... they may be fuzzy on their long division (that came after kindergarten), but *someone* shared their germs with me.

On a brighter note, the Celtic Knot Sweater has my back:

I thought this was going to be a set-in sleeve from my first glance through at the pattern, but it turns out to be modified drop shoulder. It sure is nice and warm laying on my lap. :)

Grumpy

MPI is being annoying, and I need a letter from Bob before I can get the plates replaced. (I dealt with both an in-person agent and a phone call to the actual MPI.)

Then I phoned to deal with a $60 charge on my phone/internet account that shouldn't be there. They had already billed my credit card, so that charge is now a credit which will pay for the next month and a half of service. (Kind of annoying, but I'm really not in the mood to try to get them to put the money back where it should be.)

Now I need to fill out a long form for the power company. However, the student I'm tutoring should be showing up any minute, so that'll probably have to wait until later.

H is nice. She gave me chocolate.

Tonight Required Chocolate

...Luckily I had some. Can someone stop the roller coaster? I'd like to get off, please.

Today started off with a late morning, since H wasn't in. The afternoon was *busy*, with student after student needing help. (Which is good, because I feel useful, but a bit exhausting.) Everyone kept saying I had helped them, which really made me feel good.

Stepping off the bus, I realized I forgot to bring the extra chairs in from the hall. Whoops!

I felt tired, but I thought I should go to the art club anyway.

When I got home, there was a message on the answering machine. It was a police officer... he had recovered my parent's licence plate. I went out, and sure enough, the plate on the back of the car didn't match the plate on the front. I had noticed it was loose on Saturday when I was grocery shopping, but I hadn't actually looked at the number. (Not that I'm that familiar with it anyway, since it's not even mine.) Well, a long story short, I get to make a trip to MPI to get new plates. Whee.

What with all the phone calls and not having both licence plates, I decided not to go to the art club tonight. I ate chocolate instead.

The question now: is there a way I can get the new plates before art club tomorrow night? Hmmm... I wonder if there is an MPI place at the university? (That would save me having to make a trip in the morning, which I don't really have time for with the tutoring I have scheduled in the morning.)

Ugh

I just went to take a sip of water, and noticed there were some floaties. At first I thought they were dust, so I went to catch them with my finger. Not dust... or at least, not harmless, bit of fluff from the air dust... it is gunk from my whiteboard! (I've been helping lots of students today!)

Note to self: don't put mug on desk next to whiteboard.

Off to clean mug...

Found on Flickr

Cactus Pincushions

Cactus pincushions with the pins being the spines? *Way* cool! She even sells them for quite a reasonable price... although I'm not sure what overseas shipping would add.

Contest Alert!

Tell Tami I sent you. ;)

Lovely Weekend

I had an absolutely lovely weekend. Saturday I slept late, went grocery shopping, then visited with my grandma S for a bit. Today I slept late again, then spun and knit for a while, then visited with my uncle and aunt who couldn't stay for dinner due to a storm forecast. I still cooked dinner for my dad and his girlfriend, my brother, and E from next door. We had a wonderful time, and were stuffed from all the good food! (My uncle left a bean salad, my dad's girlfriend brought cheesecake, and E brought cookies. I cooked pasta like J taught me, and broccoli.) To finish off a wonderful day, I watched Mansfield Park on PBS. :)

It's Like A Birthday Present!!!

I wasn't going to blog the opening of my package from The Sweet Sheep (just the contents), but when I discovered the pink tissue paper, I just had to rush off to get my camera:

Squeee! *bounce* *bounce* *bounce*

It *is* like candy for my stash!!!

(There's a heart shaped lollypop too!) I had the strongest urge to roll around in it. Instead, I just sat and stared at it for... um... we won't go into that.

It sure was nice for the government to buy me an early birthday present. :)

Found on Flickr

shoes2

I found these on Flickr quite a while ago, but I don't think I ever blogged them. They're neat! I wonder how durable they've turned out to be? They probably don't take too long to make once you know the pattern, and you wouldn't have to worry about getting them dirty... just throw them in the wash. :)

Silly Quiz

Okay, it's not a quiz, but I categorize it the same. I got one of those "thou shalt forward this or get bad luck spams", and found that the description of me by my sign is pretty accurate, in my opinion.

AQUARIUS - The Sweetheart( Jan 20 - Feb 18):
Optimistic and honest. Sweet personality. Very independent. Inventive and intelligent. Friendly and loyal. Can seem unemotional. Can be a bit rebellious. Very stubborn, but original and unique. Attractive on the inside and out. Eccentric personality. 11 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

The only thing I would dispute is the 11 years of bad luck for not forwarding spam. If anything, *forwarding* spam should bring bad luck!

Found on Flickr

birthdaycard

Adorable! (Pssst: My birthday is coming up in February in case anyone wants to send me a card like this! ;) )

Found on Flickr

Pink Kitty Quilt

Another wonderful quilt! It's a good thing I realize that I'm really not a quilter (not that I wouldn't like to be, just that I never spend time with my sewing machine), or otherwise I'd be tempted to go out and buy fabric for all the wonderful quilts I see on flickr!

Doing My Part

The other day I logged into my bank account so that I could pay my credit card bill. (Silly credit cards, always asking for money.) While I was there I had a look at the deposits and withdrawals, and discovered that the government put some free money (GST rebate) into my account. Yay! I like free money. :) They had put some in back in October too.

Since there's a lot of talk about slowing economies, volatile stock markets, and recessions stemming from stupid mortgage stuff in the US, I thought I'd do my civic duty and try to stimulate the economy some. So I donated my free money to The Sweet Sheep, which, to thank me, is sending me three skeins of sock yarn (two skeins of LoveSticks, and one of Dream in Color Smooshy) and two braids of roving (both by Pigeonroof Studios). How nice! Isn't that nice?

I used my PayPal account at The Sweet Sheep, since I had a bit of money sitting in there. However, the PayPal money was in US funds, so it didn't get used for the Canadian transaction. How annoying! Well, I need a bit of white roving for the thrummed mittens I'm planning (I want white "hearts" on a red background), so I found a nice Etsy seller in the US who could help me out with both issues (the PayPal money and the roving) for nearly the exact right amount. Don't you just love when things work out?

Update: To help out the *local* local economy, I just signed up for the "Spinning Exotics 2" course given by Francine of Rovings at Wolseley Wardrobe. :) Wow, I'm sure getting to be a wild spender! This having an income thing sure is nice. ;)

Engineers + Beer = Noise

I'm not sure what specific event the engineers are celebrating, but it involves beer and loud music in the atrium, which then get funneled into the office in which I am running the help desk. (And into other offices in the building, to a greater or lesser degree, so I'm not the only one suffering.)

Disturbing: drunk engineers singing along to music.

Update (1:45): Egad, now the engineering band is making racket! At least they sound like they've actually practiced their instruments...

Found on Flickr

pride

Stunning!

NaSpiMoMo

Zeneedle decided to declare a NaSpiMoMo... "National Spin More Month" for the month of January, and way back in November or December when she was thinking about it, I said I'd join. Given that it's the 20th of January, perhaps it's time to dust off my spinning wheel? ;)

Tonight I wound off the first half of my Piece of Vermont "Grotto" singles:

Then predrafted and started spinning the second half:

Okay, so I didn't get very far... but at least I've started! Part of what slowed me down tonight was the generation (and cleaning up of) the mess in the kitchen:

Bread, dinner, and chocolate chip banana muffins... I've been busy! (No, I have no idea where all this unexpected productivity is coming from. Perhaps my antidepressants are at the right level?)

Although I didn't work on it tonight, here's how the back of the Celtic Knot sweater is looking:


Have you had a good evening?

Contest Alert!

Another contest. I would try to be clever or witty, but my mind is numb. I have no customers at the help desk so far today. There are no new forum posts to read. I read one new assignment, and then refreshed my knowledge of twos complement until my brain went numb.

(Ironically, right after typing this, but before I hit publish, I got a stream of customers.)

Found on Flickr

Hedgie with Hearts

So sweet. :)

Silly Quiz

Take the Quiz here!

Contest Alert!

Go tell Rhonda your favourite things. :) (I've been sitting on this one for a while... that whole "behind on blogging" thing... but it runs until the end of January.)

You Know It's Cold When...

... the compacted snow under your feet makes scrinchy sounds like styrofoam.

I moved like molasses this morning, and was late getting out of the house.

Found on Flickr

DSCN0509

Pretty!!!

You Know It's Cold When...

... a damp washcloth freezes solid during the walk from my apartment to my mom's house. It's *not* that long a walk. (I was bringing it back to wash it. The wall unit now has all the garage dust cleaned off of it. Yay! Now I just need to bring over the glass for the "china cabinet" section, but that will have to wait until my ribs feel better.)

In other news, all this dry, cold weather has my nose bleeding again. So far one yesterday, and one today. Either that, or I'm coming down with a cold. (I hope it's the weather.)

Found on Flickr

IMG_7942

I love these. :)

A is for Apartment

When I'm busy and can't keep up with blogging, what do I do? Join the ABC-Along. Although I joined a week or two ago, and I've known since then what my "A" post would be... I'm only just making it under the wire (by start time, although not by end time) for my "A" post. Given that it's what's putting me behind, it's only appropriate that my "A" is apartment. It's my big change... in living quarters, and possibly in life. I've shown you the outside before:

And it's about time I give you a feeble tour of the inside. (To supplement the two hallway photos, and the photo of me manhandling (prior to rib-busting) a coffee table.) Since this is also something I've been meaning to post about for ages, perhaps joining the ABC-Along wasn't that bad of an idea.

Here's my kitchen, looking nice and roomy:

This view makes me absurdly happy:

(Yes, that's my fuse panel, with a whole two fuses, in my kitchen cupboard.)

However, the roomy, spacious feeling disappeared with the appearance of a table that grew three sizes when I placed it in the room, and then the kitchen shrunk even more when I pulled out all the drawers in preparation for washing:

(I wonder if I can get the rest of the drawers lined and put away tomorrow?)

Here's my bathroom, which never did look roomy:

(The duckie curtain was left by the previous tenant... the caretaker was not impressed, but left it anyway.)


Although I have my living room tidied up, I don't seem to have taken any photos of it that way... so the semi-disaster state will have to do:

(I took the couch cushion covers off to wash them.)

There is currently absolutely nothing (besides a dish of vinegar with a shrivelled half onion) in the master bedroom, so I have no interesting photos of it. Just imagine a large-ish room with a closet, old windows, and baseboard heaters. Here's the second bedroom, with a crappy temporary desk and all of the non-kitchen boxes that have been moved as of when the photo was taken:


Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of the window I managed to break already:

Yep, not even a month after moving in, and I've already broken something. If you can't tell, I've pulled the bottom of the frame off of the sliding window pane. Whoops. Talking to my neighbour across the hall (the lady with the two kids), she did the same thing. So it's not me. It's the age of the windows. I still feel guilty.

Perfect!

Pajamas

For some reason, my winter pajamas, although made from a nice, warm, thick jersey, were too short. For my short legs. Who makes winter pajama bottoms too short?!? (They were meant to be winter pajamas... they have snowmen and dogs with scarves on them, after all.)

One old, holey t-shirt, scissors, and a sewing machine later... and they're the perfect length!

I've been meaning to do this for *ages*. For some reason, though, I rarely get around to using the sewing machine.

I'm glad I have these done now... it's nippy outside (currently -42 with windchill), so having proper winter pajamas (and a fire and hot chocolate) are important.

Socks

Happy feet!

I put these in the wash before wearing them, because the Nature's Palette "odd duck" colourway had some dye crusties on the surface in places. Plus I finished them yesterday, and today was laundry day, so it didn't add much of a wait. They're pretty. :) I could have made the foot a bit shorter and narrower, but they'll be fine. I look forward to wearing them.

Since the next colour I felt like using for me wasn't balled yet, I started another pair for H:

This pair is made from Lorna's Laces, my first time trying this yarn. I was rather disappointed that one of the skeins had several knots in it. I didn't try returning it because we bought it a while ago, so I figured I wouldn't be able to get the same dyelot. It should be fine.

Celtic Knot Sweater WIP

Celtic Knot Sweater WIP

Mmmm. :) Enjoyable, and no thought required. Perfect for watching TV. In this photo, I've finished the first ball and knit one row with the second. (I'm now about an inch or so further along.)

The Frog Prince

The Frog Prince

Tonight I went to see Mamet's "The Frog Prince". Bizarre. Enjoyable. :) It reminded me of going to off-off-Broadway shows in New York. (To people who say there's nothing to do in Winnipeg, I say "Pah! You haven't looked!")

The wheels on the bus go round and round

I was standing at the bus stop downtown when one of the new, hybrid buses pulled up! It wasn't the one I wanted, but I got on for a few stops just for fun. :) I even took a few photos for Bob:

This is the first time I've ever experienced "new bus smell". (It smells just like a new car.)

Found on Flickr

Matt's The Fog Sweater

Oooo... I need to make this sweater. It's so classic and comfortable looking. Thanks for sharing the pattern, Tiennie!!!

(Yet another reason to finish a couple sweaters... so I can buy yarn to make this one! ...and Cobblestone... and...)

Found on Flickr

Buttons by Anat Dvir

What awesome buttons! They look like kiln-fired clay, but are actually polymer clay. They're machine washable! I need to figure out how to make ones that look this good. :) (I think I have a pretty good idea for most of it, I just don't know what paints work with polymer clay. I can probably google that...)

Found on Flickr

bowl of knitted easter eggs

How adorable and perfect. Although normally I prefer to work round things in the round, I was absurdly relieved to see that these are worked flat according to the pattern. Of course, getting an invisible seam is probably just as tricky as avoiding ladders... but seams can always be hidden at the back. ("No one touch the eggs!!!" ;) )

Feeling Better Today

Not "100%, what fall?" better, but back to how I felt two days ago. I'm taking it easy, and didn't carry my laptop or any other non-essential items in to school this afternoon. (Wah! I miss my laptop.)

The reason I don't want codeine is that it makes me violently ill, yet does nothing for the pain. I do *not* want to be dry-heaving with a cracked rib.

I took ibuprofin last night when I got home, and again before I went to bed. I didn't take any this morning for several reasons: too much and I go loopy in the head, and also the pain is fairly minimal... I felt it was best to leave what was there so that I could tell what things I shouldn't be doing. (If it hurts, it's probably aggravating whatever is wrong.)

Found on Flickr

pinkbell red berry stitchmarkers

How lovely!

Yesterday's Sunrise

Sunrise

And Things Went Downhill...

After the last post, the pain got worse. Much worse. First I made an appointment with my family doctor, but then, as the pain progressed, I let H take me to the hospital. Of course, I managed to start feeling better on my way there... not "better" better, but not as bad, at least. It was a loooooooooooong day. H stuck with me for as much of it as she could, from 11 am to after 3 or 4 pm. (I think... I didn't look at the clock. She did stay much longer than I thought she would be able to.) I eventually got x-rays, but the doctor couldn't see anything on them. Apparently cracked ribs are really hard to spot... so they could be cracked, or it could be just muscle damage and stuff. She did say that my lung hadn't collapsed. (I could have told her that. Not that I've actually experienced that, but my lungs didn't feel weird, I just couldn't take more than shallow breaths without experiencing excruciating pain.) The verdict: take over the counter pain medications (she would have prescribed codeine if I wasn't strongly against it) and go easy on myself. After much twiddling of thumbs on his part, dad finally got to take me home sometime around 6:30 pm, and I was home shortly after 7.

I lied, and told my grandma S that I had a normal day. I don't want her worrying, especially with mom and Bob away at the moment. Luckily I didn't have to pause for breath after every few words at that point, so I was actually pretty convincing. ;)

It sucks that this happened my first week I'm gainfully employed. (Yeah, I haven't mentioned that... I have a 20 hour/week job in the department this term that should let me pay my bills, plus lets me continue working on my dissertation.) Whether or not I go in tomorrow will depend on how I feel in the morning... I'm considering just going in for my office hours, because then I wouldn't *need* my laptop. (Less to carry, and thus less to strain my ribs. Not having my laptop during that time would just mean have less to do when no one needs help.)

On the upside, dad bought me some get-well chocolate:

(I checked, and can't find any bugs!)

Owies

It appears that we have changeable weather at the moment. I can tell for two reasons:

1. Yesterday there were strong winds (50-70 kph), and the temperature rose dramatically.

2. My knees, elbow, and *ribs* HURT last night, and my ribs continue to be in *pain* today. (They feel as bad today as they did the day after the fall, or even perhaps as much as they did the evening of my fall.)

I'm beginning to think I either got a bone bruise or a cracked rib. Doing some googling, the pain tends to be variable depending on the type of break, doctors can diagnose it (with an x-ray or MRI) but the treatment is just pain killers and icing, and it'll take 1-2 months to heal. Joy. Why couldn't I get this in the summer (yeah, because there's no ice in the summer, that's why) when I at least have fewer problems with my joints telling me the weather?

Update: Now both my ribs an my shoulder on that side *hurt*. My knee is still wonky too, but my ribs and shoulder are distracting me from it.

Drawing Class

I took a drawing class on Saturday. It was called "lifely drawing", and we were drawing a live (clothed) model. We started out with "gesture drawing", which is where we try to get some representation down while the model moved around (in a rather ADHD way). My drawings from this part are rather crappy. At one point, we had to draw while she moved around a lot, *and* we weren't allowed to look at the paper. Uh... a good exercise? Perhaps. The results? Not recognizable one bit:

(You're going to have to click through to the biggest size in order to see much at all with these photos... sorry.) I didn't even have a clue what to attempt to draw for this exercise. :(

When the model did a repetitive motion and we were allowed to look, I got something in which you could potentially pick out a figure:

(She was dressed up with a hula skirt and lei at this point.) Occasionally the instructor would ask the model to hold a position and allow us to draw:


This exercise was called slinky figures:

(named after the toy.)

Finally we finished off with contour drawings, which were all done with a (fidgety) still model. At first we weren't allowed to look, and I got the typical Picasso-like results:

When I could look, it got better, but the model wasn't actually this ugly:

I actually kind of like this one, although I had to rush to finish, and so the legs are a bit off:


This last one I call "Can't the #$^&* model hold her head and hands still?!?!? I quit... where's my crochet?":