Goodbye fun joiny thing!

Ah Socktoberfest. I hardly knew ya! I DID start the first ever sock I've knit but I have been so busy I have knit the heel flap and haven't even turned the heel yet. Too much fun social happy times this past weekend to have turned it. The proposal still underway, proctoring/grading an exam tomorow, a poster symposium coming up this week (luckily that will be finished tonight!) AND then we had our first crime/vandalism here in ghettoville (nothing too serious but a few hundred bucks and a serious annoyance) so I couldn't even Stich n Bitch on Sunday. Anyways, Sock Knitting will have to continue for me through November. I am enjoying it thus far and the short rows of the heel weren't a problem. dddddddd kitty officially takes over the keyboard. Means I need to get back to work!

Happy Halloween

We hope you and your masses have a great halloween.

Love, Fidel and Kim

Sleeping is givin in...

I usually try to get to school between 9-10. Ocassionally I'll let myself get invloved in a Dawson's Creek rerun and do all my morning computer work from home instead of school but not often. Those days I get in by 10:30 (I have a 20-30 minute commute).
It is 10:45. I am at my desk and already this morning got gas, picked up cat food, went for a run, showered, read an abstract and have finished all my student emailing for the morning. I hope the rest of the day is as productive as the first 3 hours.

The sky is blue almost everyday

So in my short absence there I actualyl got as lot of work done. I was trying to institute a no blogging rule till I turned in my first draft of the proposal. I did turn it in, although there are a few sections that remained outlined instead of fully written. Despite the entire subject matter, rationale, experiments and most of the intro being written with only the intro partially outlined- my advisor looked at it and toldm e he wants to see it complete and won't give me comments until then. Not even on the experiments or rationale or order of the outlined parts? Nope. Part of why I left unfinished topics is because I am not sure where they should go! Why spend time making things flow and transition smoothly if you think it should be in chater 3 instead of the intro?? Argd.
Luckily I got a bit of a break since 3 hours after I turned in the draft, I started my weekend of playing host to a visiting grad student who gave a talk yesterday. Her talk was great and she is a super scientist! She is a year ahead of me and we have known each other from conferences for about 3 years in additon to having advisors in common once removed (my MS advisor is her outside committee member and her PhD advisor was my MS advisors PhD advisor- I love the interrelatedness of science!). Anyways, it was nice to visit and hopefully a good trip for her as well.
Must get back to the proposal!
But first...An update on the Pinwheel! I sent it off to the happy family who was scheduled for a C-section on Monday. I haven't heard anything official but figure a new baby could cut into email time.

Whew!!

Bears are 6-0 baby!

holy cow!

3 minutes left, Bears are up by 1.

Just when they (at least the commentators) thought it was too late...

Between the swearing and the celebrating, it is a good thing we don't have neighbors...

Two minute warning...

wtf?

Seriously. The Bears are sucking it up big time tonight. Of course, on nationally televised Monday night football. I think the intramural team I played on over the summer could play at least this well. And we were a Softball team.
It doesn't help that I dislike the quarterback of Arizona because he is from USC, who played UT in big games the past few years.

The dog just left the room, he must be unable to watch the horrors of this game anymore.

Ok.
In the writing of this post, the scored a touchdown. There is still hope, but it'll be tough with one quater left and being down by 13. We'll see, and if they don't win, even the '85 Bears lost one game.

First Sock!

I started my first sock! You can't really tell it is a sock as oppossed to, say, a mitten or something. But it is a Sock! And I am knitting a Sock! Yea!

Spare a Square

I finished my first square for Grandmother Purl. It is simple but I wanted to highlight the variation in color of the yarn. I am scouring my Stichionary for a good pattern for the second square...

I'm done!

At the SnB on Sunday, I finished all but the binding off of the Pinwheel Baby Blanket! After the Bears (woo hoo!) game, it was finished.

Pattern: Pinwheel (link above)
Start date: July 23rd, 2006
End date: Oct. 8th, 2006
Yarn: Red Heart Soft (it is acrylic but soft enough and washable!)
Final dimensions: BIG! It is 33 inches across. It rolls on the ends but since it is acrylic, blocking won't do much to help.

It got monotonous towards the end but I think part of that is having started it and knit a lot before frogging and starting over. I LOVE the pattern and will use the striping again on other stuff, like a scarf. This is the 3rd baby blanket this year though and I need a break from the big projects. Good thing it is Socktober fest!

A deadline.

As you may have read, I am currently writing my dissertation proposal. I now have a deadline on Next Friday for the first draft of the completed proposal. I have read a lot of literature and books but have a long way to go. Switching the mindset back to research paper writing rather than manuscript writing is challenging me a bit. It is nice to go in depth about something without thinking of how I can cut it down into one sentance with a citation though.

Unrelated, V and I went for a GREAT run yesterday. We have a nice park near our house with a 1.3 mile loop. Usually I don't want to overdo it for our sporadic running lately and end up only running one loop with some walking. Yesterday we ran 2 full loops and I didn't stop to walk once. Plus, we ran fast. Faster than I remember running in a long time. I bet we were close to what I consider my 'good' 5K pace when I train properly for a race (I'm slow, good for me is 10 min/mile). I don't know if it was the weather, the stress of the deadline or what but it felt great. I wanted to go again today but my mom is coming in tomorrow so cleaning is most important!

Choose your own adventure posts....

I have written and erased 3 posts now in the span of one episode of "Best Week Ever". One about 'How Will I Get Everything Done?!?! ' One on 'Holy Cow!! I Need to pick a Committee Member, Batman!' (can Batman be my committe member? that would rock). And one on 'Scared of Socks- First Pattern Blues...'

I think I'll just continue with my animal photo shoot (soo cute!) and do more knitting. I have found a local sock mentor and we are meeting at a SnB on Sunday (maybe pics from that too!).

"How would you like to go and spend a pleasent summer somewhere else?"

So I am not a cow puncher (see Johnny Cash song ) and it is going to be more than a summer but I am going to the desert.

To put it another way....WE GOT OUR FUNDING! I can do the projects I REALLY REALLY want to do for my Dissertation work! They are challenging and exciting and put me right where I want to be at an intersection of theory and field work and getting my feet wet in a new subfield for the future. There are a lot of details and planning to be done but I am very excited and I am working on that pesky Proposal with renewed vigor.

We are dealing rather well this far with the leaving aspect of this new development. At least we KNOW what we are dealing with. I think the unknown was harder. This isn't that long, isn't that far and we will still be getting married so we have that great event to look forward too!
Sabertooth Seymour isn't very happy though....

(really he is yawning....I swear!)

I love October...

Big blanket

I have 12 rows left! 12 rows till freedom for smaller projects, my first socks, Xmas presents and all things FO!
I really love the pattern I copied from the Pinwheel Gallery. I like this blanket and think I will do it again but 3 blankets this year is a lot for my not-advanced-knitting status. Of course, I will also not start it 3 times and will start it well before whatever baby I am knitting it for is due.