fun stuff!

Only 1 more day till I get to see Sufjan Stevens in Philly and only 5 more days till AmandaMonkey and I head to Purl Soho! Yippee! I am eyeing Cozy so I mighy buy fancy pants yarn for it.

Such a fun week!

hmmm.

So the test is over and that is all I have to say about that.

I am working on my mom's not quite -"Valentine's Day Mittens" from SnB Nation. They are going super quickly. I am regretting my descion to just go ahead with my 10's instead of 10.5s - they are a bit snug on me. My mom has called me "Amazon Baby" since I was born so here's hoping that she has smaller hands than me. Considering I have 4 shoe sizes and 6 inches on her I think it MIGHT be ok.

I should finish all but the thumb and flip top on the right handed one tonight!

holy brain power!

Knitting news first!! I did three count 'em THREE whole rows on my moms mitten. And V caught me knitting when I was suppossed to be studying so I had to quit at 3. Luckily I did the row of increases and it is st stich for 2 inches. Hopefully they will get some attention tomorrow.

I have studied my butt off...and still need to study more. My Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy exam is in 10.5 hours and I still have 3 whole sections to cover. I learned my skull bones, I learned my cladogram, now it is on to comparing skulls, development(which I am ok with) and pictures of all the ancestors of crainates.

I also got rear-ended on my way to school. AWESOME! Luckily neither me or the other guy was hurt but my poor car needs some fixing- just some major scratches and a light out but I am not looking forward to the hassle of it all getting fixed.

Well, back to studying...

grr...

Ahh, being told I have to teach a class the night before, feeling like I know NO shark anatomy, and just general blah-ness. I think I will get a lesson together (Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium if you are interested), knit and get some sleep...


You are interchangeable.Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every
eventuality covered and every opportunity just
has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and
every day is a new beginning. You are good at
so many things, it's amazing, but you can
easily lose your place and forget to show up.
They have row counters for people like you!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by

What did one dead shark say to the other?

I might be sparce this week. Next Friday is my first shark anatomy exam. I haven't really studied since the last quiz I had so need to put in serious time this week. I am much better at theoretical things and understanding concepts than rote memorization and this course is ALL memorization. Hopefully I will find it easier now that I have my study skills pretty well intact from my qualifyers this past June. The worst part of it is the hours spent in the room with all the specimens. I smell like dead shark all day- even if I am only in the room for a short time. And no matter how many times I wash my hands I can still smell it on myself which just sucks! Anyways, enough of my bellyaching- wish me luck!

In knitting news, I finished the bottom of the cat bed (which the cat will not come anywhere near) and am postponing the rest of it. My mom had requested mittens with a flip top so you could still use your fingers and I totally forgot that there is a pattern in SnB Nation that I can handle (most other patterns for these seem too hard for me). So I got some yarn yesterday and will start them next. Only one color and no heart pattern on them though. I realized I have size 10 dpns but not 10.5's so I need to buy new needles or do some math before starting. I am most inclined to ignore that the needles are the wrong size and just stick to the pattern with it being knit a little tightly but I am afraid they will be too small in the end.

We are heading North to hike in the Poconos today so I must get going.. have a good weekend!

(almost) DONE!

The scarf that is longer than I am tall Is finished. I have about half of my ends weaved in and should finish it off tonight. The matching hat for this should be much quicker and I am not starting that yet anyways. The cat bed continues and it is always exciting to be choosing the next projects....As much as I want to go all out and tancle something big already, I know I should do some of the things I planned before (and bought the yarn for). So it looks like a pair of arm warmers, Xmas scarves and of course, that matching hat for V.


In work news, it has been a whirlwind of free lunches and dinners (a grad students best friends). An old friend of my advisors was in over the weekend and now a speaker is visiting that has worked on my (newly chosen) study species for over 30 years. I also was out collected said species of fish on Sunday and have a bunch of great looking fish just waiting to be set up in experiments. Since I haven't talked much about work here- I am starting my second year as a PhD student working on behavioral ecology of fishes with main interests being mating behavior, sexual selection, evolutionary genetics (which I am just starting to learn about). I did a masters on a really cool group of fishes and am really excited to start working on these guys. For now I am just happy to have run my first independant collecting trip and can't get over how cute these fish are.

Some things of possible interest...

So, I have little to say about the Katrina because I really don't know what to add to what is already being said by lots of folks about our government and president.
So instead I will link some things that may have been overlooked by the media or that I find interesting.

Where is Cheney?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/343969p-293688c.html

Where is Condi? From Sept. 1st.
http://www.gawker.com/news/condoleezza-rice/breaking-condi-rice-spends-salary-on-shoes-123467.php

Halliburton to the rescue...no really.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3335685

This is a great headline (1st item)
http://www.wonkette.com/politics/anderson-cooper/index.php

And Kayne West rocks for speaking out. Gotta love live TV.

And even though only 4 people know that this blog exists, the most important one...
www.redcross.org

School and lack of knitting...

So learning Comparative Anatomy is really cutting into my knitting time! I STILL have 3 more blocks on the scarf and have only progressed a few rows worth on the cat bed. I did figure out that I have 2 skiens of wool leftover from a hat that never got made (well at least not out of that yarn) and 2 stepsisters who live in cold climates. How convieniant!

Well, yesterday was dedicated to the house- finally the whole breakfast nook has paint on it! Today is dedicated to work. Planning for upcoming experiments and you know- shark anatomy won't learn itself...