Wednesday, July 25, 2007

What? This is a knitting blog?

I've finally finished clue 3 of MS3.


I now have to decide if I want to shorten or lengthen it or just knit it at pattern length. I'm tempted to just knit it to the pattern since I just don't know what kind of length I want it to be. My decisiveness is blowing your mind, I know. Clue 4 may just have to wait a bit. I've got more than another week so hopefully I don't get too caught up on it.

I also pulled a sock out that I had started awhile ago but ended up ripping out because the 0's I was knitting it on were giving me a fabric that was too tight. Now I'm using the 2.50mm needles from my lovely new KnitPicks sock needle set. I use the Yarn Harlot's current sock needle of choice. I feel suddenly cooler.



I started it on Friday after work and knit on it while standing in line for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Borders. I went to the baseball game with a coworker and knit on it there. She also brought her crochet but we didn't sit in the Stitch and Pitch section because we used her family's season tickets. I've gotten the heel turned and decreased the gusset. Other than that long ago frog this is one of the fastest moving socks I've knit.

Ouch!

I went to the dentist today. I get to go back Tuesday. My teeth make me sad.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

And So It Ends


Reading done. Can't speak without bursting out with spoilers. They all look really pretty together, don't they?

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Shoo Bop Shoo Bop, My Baby


I'm going to see Rilo Kiley! They'll be at First Ave on 14 September and Liam and I are going. Tickets are bought and I'm so excited. They're my favorite band. We're also planning to go to They Might Be Giants on 17 September but the tickets aren't available for that yet. It's going to be a great few days. Liam will be here and we'll go to some concerts for bands we love.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Good News, Bad News

The good news?

You can now look up where you are on the Ravelry invite list.

The bad news?


Yeah, I think I should just be glad that it shouldn't take much longer before they're open to all and go distract myself with Harry Potter and MS3 instead.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Yea Harry!


I felt that this was appropriate for the next week or so. It's a LOLcats picture from a couple of weeks ago and I am now obsessed with the LOLcats, only months later than the rest of the world. I'm going to the movie tonight with some coworkers and I'm rather giddy about it.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Moving Forward?

Not much knitting news in this one. I've caught up with MS3 and that's all I've really knit on in the past week.

In other, more progressive if maybe less exciting for others, news, I have registered to take the GRE. I have a college GPA of slightly under 3.00 because I slacked a little too much sophomore and junior years so I have to take it for pretty much any grad school program I would like to apply to. I really do want to start taking classes in something and so this is the first step towards that. I'm not quite sure what I want to do yet but my two main thoughts right now are either secondary science education (mainly chemistry) or a Master's in library and information science.

While I think the need for good science teachers is huge (my sister's physics teacher was horrible at interacting with students), I'm still trying to decide if it's something I could really commit to. In a way, I think I'm being selfish about it. I think I could do it. I've worked with middle and high schoolers a lot in the past few years and have enjoyed it. On the other hand, it wouldn't pay that much. I'm probably making about teacher's wages right now. I would only need the GRE for this if I decided to enter an initial licensure graduate program where you go to school and then student teach for about a year and then you're licensed. In order to complete your education Master's you only have to come back for three months (generally over the summer) to finish it off.

If i pursued the MLIS I would probably use it to research for companies that produce chemicals, most likely pharmaceuticals or to work in a science library at a university. I would still find this fulfilling, albeit in a very different way than teaching, and the financial benefits have the potential to be much greater. I love research so much and getting to explore different scientific advances for other people seems really interesting to me.

I do know that whichever program I would pursue I would continue to work while going to school, at least at first. Between that and the fact that I could defer my student loans while I was in school, I'm pretty confident that I could be OK financially while I went to school. The problem would just be the massive amount of debt I could be under once I left school. That's why, as much as I'd like it not to be, the financial aspect does have to be a factor in my decision.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Ella, ella, ella

As a rule, I don't listen to top 40 radio. I said rule, not law, though. I usually listen to the Current or my iPod but occasionally I break down and listen to something like KDWB just so I'm not completely behind on what's on the radio. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised and hear an independent group starting to get mainstream play. Other times I hear songs like Rhianna's "Umbrella."

This "song" is on loop in my head, the annoying way that umbrella seems to be pronounced um-ba-rella and the echo-y part (ella, ella, ella eh, eh, eh). I've tried listening to Beck and Rilo Kiley, I've tried to listen to some catchy oldies, nothing works. It's one of those songs that's popular not because it's good but because it creeps under your skin and stays there and you need to hear it so you at least have a verse to go along with that grating bridge or chorus that you remember after hearing it two times. This is what I get for listening to a Clear Channel station.

ETA: Yesterday in the lab they had the radio on KDWB and sure enough there was umbrella. I didn't hear it today but Rehab by Amy Winehouse came on and one of my coworkers hates the "no, no, no" part of that song. The radio is working to drive us all insane.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

In Minnesota We Say . . .

I know that this is by no means a unique post, but at work we were coming up with a list of things that are uniquely Minnesotan. A lot of things that seem to be strictly Minnesotan are still fairly regional throughout the state or pretty generational. I don't mean the things that we as Minnesotans will make fun of themselves for saying. Take "ya betcha," for instance. These are the things that Minnesotans (or at least me) take very seriously.
  • Hotdish. You can make it in a casserole but the food itself is called a hotdish. That's all there is to it.
  • Duck Duck Gray Duck. Frankly, this game is far more interesting than Duck Duck Goose. Instead of just saying "duck, duck, duck" over and over again, you get to be a little more creative and say "red duck, chartreuse duck, blue duck, cerulean duck, magenta duck" before yelling out "gray duck". You can play tricks on a person by drawing out the "gr-" sound in something like green duck. It is clearly the superior "sit in a circle and say duck a lot" game.
  • Pop. Now, this idea seems to skip from Minnesota over a bunch of Wisconsin and shows up again in the Chicago area, for which I am grateful. I get enough crap from Liam for saying hotdish. Even I'll admit that soda is an acceptable substitute; however, the fact that the following dialog is possible disturbs me:
    • "Want a Coke?"
    • "Sure!"
    • "What kind?"
    • "Diet Pepsi."
  • The Cities. You say it, people know where you're talking about. This one gets use a little more outstate than in the Twin Cities I've found. I may have gotten laughed at for sounding a bit like a hick one day. Maybe.
  • Up North. See above. Yes, it is capitalized.
  • OK, those last two are a bit ridiculous and I get why out-of-state people think they're weird phrases.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Blonde Cordy!

So, lately I've been rewatching Buffy and Angel and I've gotten to the unfortunate portion of Angel season 3 where Cordelia is blonde. More than anything else in this season, including the whole "child of two vampires is born and then goes away and comes back as a teenager" thing, blonde Cordy disturbs me. Charisma Carpenter is seriously beautiful and can pull off many looks, but blonde is just not one of them. Granted, if I keep watching Angel in order I'm going to have to relive the fact that Connor and Cordy get together to parent Jasmine, but I still think blonde Cordy bothers me more.
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