The Whimsicalities of a Traveling Panda

creativity

2012-01-16T23:09:00.005-05:00

I've been making earrings.
Those are green and blue wire braids, if you can't tell.

And other earrings.
And more earrings.

And, frankly, four pairs of earrings in the past two days.

Fudge results

2012-01-02T15:05:00.002-05:00

I haven't gotten the contacts off my phone, but I'm going to the Verizon store later this week. They don't get fudge because you don't give fudge to strangers.

Therefore, I am awarding the fudge in a four-way split between my brother, my uncle P and his wife, my uncle G, and my uncle D. Their advices were useful, although not ultimately productive.

Also, I made this today.

2011-12-30T22:16:00.001-05:00

Eventually, with more practice it'll be a set of earrings. Sorry for no scale indication. It's on a cutting board if that helps. And is less than the length of the last digit of my little finger.

what.

2011-12-30T22:00:00.003-05:00

Yesterday
Head: (in a whisper) Uhm... I think... maybe... ow?
Me: Nope, not possible.
Head: Uh... I think... yes.
Me: Nope, the new migraine meds are being taken daily as prescribed. There is no hurting any more.
Head: Oh. Uhm... okay, then.

Today, earlier
Head: Yeah... maybe that ow thing again?
Me: What did I tell you before?
Head: No more hurting.
Me: Exactly.
Belly: Oh! A headache? Can I get in on this?
Me: Head, what did I say?
Head: (to Belly) No more headaches, on account of the meds.
Belly: Really? Okay.

Today, now
Head: Yeah, sorry. OW.
Belly: ICKY FEEELINGZ!
Me: No.
Head: Yeah. OWWW.
Belly: Haha! ICKY!
Head: OWOWOW.
Eyes: What the--? Too bright?
Wall: THUNK (note: the wall just... does that sometimes...)
Ears: WHAT?
Head: OWW.
Me: No. Just... no. Bedtime, everybody.
Head: Okay. Drink water?
Me: I will.
Belly: Okay. Water?
Me: Yes, yes.
Eyes: Okay, see you in the morning.
Ears: Okay, hear you in the morning.
Wall: THUNK.

No fudge, yet

2011-12-22T22:18:00.002-05:00

The solution I thought I had a lead on didn't work, so I'm pursuing other options.

I had a Palm Profile, but I don't know that I can retrieve the contacts through that since I don't have another Palm device with which to attempt it.

I believe I have made my decision about what phone to go with next. The HTC Rhyme. It's not the topiest notch phone out there, but I don't use my phone for superfast processing/gaming, so I'm not concerned, plus, not being topiest notch, it comes with nontopiest notch pricing. Also, it comes bundled with some nice accessories. And, yes, it's purple.

Having made my decision, I'm going to call customer service tomorrow to see if they can let me move up my upgrade date by 12 days. Later tonight, I'm going to chat with Palm support to see if they have a way to retrieve the contacts.

In answer to technical questions, I can't actually access the database which contains the contacts. According to the internet, that info isn't accessible when in USB mode, and the only tool I've found so far which would allow me to get the file needs to also be installed on the phone, which I can't do.

Things I've learned...

2011-12-22T17:15:00.003-05:00

1. My cell phone is what makes me feel connected to the world.
2. If you need something, offer fudge as the reward.
3. Beeeeeeeef jerrrrrrrrky........

We have a tentative winner on the phone contact problem, which will be tested later this evening.

Also, I've turned into a bit of a beef jerky zombie lately. Just... yeah...

calling all technowizards

2011-12-21T23:48:00.005-05:00

The cell phone of wonder, my darling communication device, has left this earthly realm for better things.

I have managed to get all the data off it that is possible. The touchscreen is what's gone.

The question is, how do I turn technobabble into contacts info?

It's a PalmPre Plus, running webOS, and I believe at one point there was a developer app thing...

I really, really, really need/want/need those contacts.

Any brilliance from the readers?

PS: I am also taking input on my new phone decision. I'm going to wait until January 4th, when I'm up for renewal pricing, so there's some time.

PPS: There's totally fudge of your choice (mint, plain, nutty, toffee, etc) in it for the person who recovers the contacts.

Shopping and long day

2011-12-18T22:31:00.002-05:00

I just got done with shopping, both Christmas and grocery. (Well, to be fair, I still need tracing paper for Christmas, but that's another story.)

I bought all the things: all the frozen things, all the macacheese things, all the party things. Okay, again, probably not, because I'll need chocolate to make the hot chocolate for the party on Saturday.

Also, I discovered that it's really hard to find sunscreen in the winter. I got SPFed moisturizer, so we'll hope that works. (The goal being, of course, to not get windburned.)

The Christmas pageant was today. It was a script that I worked on with a friend from college, and we're hoping to submit it to a publishing company to see if they like it. The premise is the four Gospel writers arguing about how to put on the pageant. We had to tweak it a bit, due to the unreliability of our Sunday school kids (and one legitimate case of stomach virus). The adjustments caused on kid, who had practiced his original lines, to get a little upset at being reassigned, but one of the dads really came through with "Oh, you're John now, that's so cool! John's the best..." and did it in a way that didn't seem patronizing. Thank you, Sunday School dad.

Then I preached. Eh. Sometimes, when fighting stress of pageant, stress of stomach upset, and stress of a billion migraines, you just have to say "hey, there's a sermon. Good luck, Holy Spirit, making it work." (Also, Angel Gabriel this morning couldn't pronounce "holy," so it was the "Holly Spirit" that came upon Mary.)

Then I helped put up the Christmas tree. We use a fake tree, and as the one with the thinner and spaghettier arms, I was the one sticking my hand into its angry innards and plugging the strung lights together. No surprise, the tree bit me, right on the underside of the upper arm, where the shirt hem hits.

Then the Easton Municipal Band had it's holiday concert. A few parishioners came, and PS was there. (Actually, she was my ride.) A good time was had by all. There was one moment where the director had to cut us off, give us the number, and bring us in. We were so lost. (It was a bigger stage than where we practice, and the rows were arranged differently. For example, normally the trombones are next to the trumpets, in front of the baritones, and at the performance we were in the last row, behind the baritones, next to the percussion.) Fortunately, because we were all confused, we were watching the director closely, and the time spent cut off was minimal. The best part was that people (at least the ones I talked to) were so impressed by his ability to get (have) our attention, stop us, and get us on track again with minimal confusion and no real full "stop" that the confusion (or, rather, the ensuing solution) actually made them more impressed with the band.

Then nap, then shopping, then dinner, now blogging.

And now sleeping.

I didn't asplode.

2011-12-07T16:32:00.002-05:00

I didn't blow up the MRI or myself. Yay.
The tech was very nice and even though I was all "this is probably a ridiculous question," he said, "No, it is a VERY powerful magnet." But we decided I probably hadn't swallowed enough/any. He gave me a thing to squeeze that would send a message to stop the machine if I felt anything, but I didn't.

Many meetings, many busy things.

Happy Advent.

magnets

2011-12-05T22:39:00.003-05:00

So... for a certain Christmas present I'm working on I have to touch magnets. These magnets have black dust on them. The black dust gets on my fingers. I then picked up a hard candy and popped it in my mouth. I then grabbed a paper towel, spit out the hard candy, and all other spit-able things (spit), and called my sister. After I described the situation, and my fear that I may have swallowed some magnet dust, her reaction was "the dust isn't going to bind to itself in your small intestine..." until she heard the real reason for my fear.

I'm having an MRI tomorrow.

Apparently I ask her the weirdest medical questions. I'm hoping to have a nongrumpy tech tomorrow. I imagine the conversation going like this:

Tech: Do you have any other metal in your body?

Me: So... you know how on House the MRI is always exploding?

Tech: Yeah... do you have other metal?

Me: Well, last night I was using craft magnets...

Tech: You swallowed magnets the night before an MRI?

Me: No... The magnets had this black dust on them, and I had it on my hands, and started to eat something...

Tech: ...

Me: I spit it back out. I'm pretty sure I swallowed, like, none of it.

Then the conversation can go one of two ways.

Option one: Tech: Yeaaah... you're gonna explode and explode our MRI if we MRI you today. Let's reschedule.

Option two: Tech: *laughing* You'll be fine.

I need a cat.

2011-12-01T19:39:00.004-05:00

I've been sort of sick the past few days. (By which I mean that I feel icky every time I eat and I fall asleep for a few hours after I get home each afterneevening.) But I have learned something important during this time.

I am powerless against a nap when something warm, heavy, and "breathing" is on my chest.

Currently, that "something" has been my laptop, as I lay on the sofa, but there's no reason to assume a cat would not take upon herself the same responsibility.

Someday.

knocking things down

2011-11-15T21:12:00.002-05:00

They're knocking down the building behind (and across a parking lot from) mine. It's AWESOME!

Today we watched the giant stuffed animal grabber (GASG) knocking down walls, and plucking giant air conditioning units off the roof and tossing them in the air.

When I first saw them doing it, I grabbed N, one of our secretaries who I know loves this stuff, and said, "N, they're taking Perkins." (It used to be a Perkins.) So we stood at the window gazing.

My favorite moment? We're watching, and the GSAG had a mouthful, went aside, put it down, and then spun around 180degrees. N sighed, and said, "It's like a pretty little ballerina." (Note: I pointed out that the GASG was bigger than any ballerina I'd ever met.)

Every time. Every. Time.

2011-11-08T20:04:00.002-05:00

First, I hear the whirr. My subconscious identifies the whirr as "airplane." The whirr doesn't doppler like it should. My subconscious brings this sound to my conscious attention. I reassure myself, "airplane." The sound lasts too long and really isn't dopplering like it should. I think, "What? Aaaiirplane?? Why are you making those noiises??" Finally (FINALLY!), my brain goes, "Train."

And yes, this happens Every Single Night.

too tired to sleep

2011-11-01T21:19:00.002-04:00

My day has been... well, there aren't any words to adequately describe the busy-ness of my day, which when combined with being on dayquil and then not on dayquil because I ran out (couldn't tell you which was worse) was beyond exhausting. I'll tell a story, because that sentence didn't make sense.

I have a young cousin, W. W is awesome, but he tends to get overstimulated (only when overstimulation is called for, of course). He gets all kinds of tired (as infant bodies do), but sometimes there is also so much Stuff going on that he can't sleep. Such combination of tiredness and interestingness leads to tears. And yelling. This is probably because he is only 6(ish?) months old.

I am having one of those moments. I'm so totally tired. But I'm not wanting to sleep for some perverse reason. So really, I want to cry and scream and be rocked and carried around the room until I fall asleep against a lullaby-ing surface. Instead, I'm going to drink this here orange juice of immunopower and then go to bed. Because tomorrow is also a day when I have to be a grownup.

a morning in the life (Monday edition)

2011-10-31T11:40:00.003-04:00

7:30 Wake up, use bathroom, etc.
7:45 Return to bedroom. Think "I'll lie down while I check the weather on my phone to see what I should wear to day."
8:45 Wake up.
9:00 Should've been at work. Instead: showering, getting dressed, brushing teeth, blowdrying hair, etc.
9:40 Get to work, thinking "As soon as my new winter coat arrives in the mail, I'm going for coffee"
9:43 Mailguy comes in with package. Sign for package, try on new (awesome) coat.
9:45 Begin to go for coffee.
9:45:02 Phone rings.
10:00 Begin to go for coffee.
10:00:03 Person needs to talk to me.
10:13 Begin to go for coffee.
10:13:04 Person needs to talk to me.
10:25 "Does anyone else need anything before I get my coffee?" (said in not the calmest voice)
10:30 Arrive coffee place. Long line.
10:40 Get the coffee from the nice guy at the coffee place. Also get a toasted bagel with veggie cream cheese (they make it themselves, chopping veggies and mixing it with the regular cream cheese). I get a cafe au lait with a shot of chocolate (a cafe cocoa). Today it was one of the good guys doing the drinks, so he handed me the chocolated cup and the little thing of steamed milk and said "Take these to the coffee and you will be greatly rewarded." And I was. (It's always better when I get to mix it myself, 'cause I like to pick the coffee and do more milk than coffee.)
10:50 Return to office. Get some work done.

an evening in the life

2011-10-27T21:10:00.003-04:00

5pm
body arrives home
Me: Do you want dinner?
Belly: No.
Head: Ow.
Me: What.
Head: Owowowowowow.
Me: But do you want dinner? It's dinner time?
Belly: Seriously, no.
Head: Owwwwwww.
Me: I'll lie down.
Sofa: (squeek)
Ears: WHAT WAS THAT?
Me: Chill. The sofa squeeked.
Eyes: Turn. Off. The. Light.
Feet: I dun wanna.
Me: gets up and turns off light.
Ears: Why are they jackhammering outside?
Me: It's rain.
Head: But it hurts me.
Me: realizes what's happening, gets an excedrin and chocolate milk, returns to sofa
Body: So sleeeepy....

cut to 7pm
Head: All better! Wake up!
Me: Okay. Do you want dinner?
Belly: Stop asking me that, you're being annoying.
Me: Whatever.

cut to 9pm
Belly: FEEED ME!
Me: Dude, it's too close to bed time.
Belly: Feeeeeed me foooood!
Me: I have green beans. You want green beans?
Belly: I want steak and mushrooms and garlic bread.
Me: I have pasta. You want pasta?
Belly: I want fillet mignon wrapped in bacon and cheesy mashatatoes and chocolate cake.
Me: I have pumpkin pie. You want pumpkin pie?
Belly: You are not listening to me.
Me: It's 9pm. It's nearly bedtime. Even if I had that food, if I gave it to you, you would kill me in my sleep.
Belly: Yes. Yes, I would.
Me: *blink*
Belly: I want steak and cheesy mashatatoes.

end scene

just a note

2011-10-24T14:41:00.001-04:00

It's 62 days until Christmas. Do have your knitting planned?

Sermon

2011-10-17T10:11:00.001-04:00

New Musings sermon. Link.

feeding an addiction

2011-10-04T15:29:00.001-04:00

That's right... How It's Made (my favorite factory explanation show) is available on Netflix streaming. Awwww man... Seriously, why does anyone need actual cable? (Other than for NCIS.)

If I get enough done on Monday, can I skip Tuesday?

2011-10-03T16:22:00.005-04:00

Today, I...

emailed the local college chaplain a flyer about an upcoming event
changed all my calendars to October and filled in some missing events
finished the Christmas pageant
inspired the local coffee shop's daily special by my drink order (white chocolate raspberry cafe au lait)
sorted through all of the papers in my desk and in my inboxes (my actual inboxes, not my email inbox) My recycling bin is nearly full.
got my fire extinguisher re-certified
learned how to turn on the heat
figured out how to make double sided copies
jammed the copier
unjammed the copier
realized my last 20 minutes of copier fighting resulted in A and C on the same page instead of A and B
jammed the copier
unjammed the copier
declared myself copier queen. That's right copier, I rank higher than you in the office. You must obey me!
unjammed the copier once more
answered the phone for the secretaries because I was closest ("I got it! I got it!") and was greet by PS with, "Why did you answer the phone?" and "I wanted to tell the staff..." so I turned the phone over to its rightful answerer.
prepped for next Sunday's adult forum class (I'm leading through October)
read through the sermon response forms from yesterday
prepped for tomorrow's internship committee meeting
wrote my council report for this month (which reviews last month)
cleaned the kitchen and ran the dishwasher

And now I'm chillaxing before closing up the building and going to a fundraiser for the local assistance group.

long day and getting longer

2011-10-01T18:40:00.002-04:00

First... I tried to bike to PS's house for the tailgate party before the football game (this is a yearly church thing that this church does). Really, I took my bike on a walk, because apparently I forgot that That Hill is really, really, really long and tall.

Then, once I got there, we had food, and then we walked over to the football game.

Then the children decided I'm fun to play with. Which included taking them for their second trip to the bouncy things, which also included one child just going into tears and "I want to go hoooommmmeeee!!!" Before I had taken them down, PS said she'd be watching, and to make a signal (my hand out from my forehead, I believe) if I "felt stupid and needed help." I said, "What do I do if I feel smart but need help?" So, once we're there, child starts crying, I try to talk to him, find out what's wrong, etc, and finally look up to the stands, put my hands in the air, then make the "I'm stupid, help me" signal. I couldn't see our group, but then I saw PS moving (quickly) down out of the stands. She get there, gets the kid calmed down, all is well. (Hint: child is also PS's grandkid.)

Then, after the game is done and we have lost, we walk back. Two kids (PS's grandkids) and I play ball in the front yard. I'm not allowed to sit down, but also never given a turn with the ball. Okay, I can rest standing up. Then there's tea, there's chocolate, there's rain, there's running an errand, back to the house, putting the bike in PS's car, and back home...

... where my sermon, council report, and lesson for adult Sunday School are all waiting expectantly for me to finish them.

Danish Cucumbers

2011-09-30T21:01:00.003-04:00

First you take the cucumber, make it nekked, and slice it reeeal thin.

Then, you layer the slices, dashing salt between each layer.

Squoosh the slices, using a bowl and a heavy item (the container of brown sugar is one possibility).

Eat some mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Pour out the liquid that has accumulated.

Drink some chocolate milk and watch an episode of Star Trek: Next Gen.

Pour out the liquid again.

Mix some sugar and some vinegar, almost equal parts (more sugar). Dash some dill on in there, and pour the whole kittenkabbodle (not made of actual kittens) over the slices. You will of course, have removed the brown sugar and the bowl.

Refrigerate. Wait. Keep waiting. Wait, like, forever. In order to make sure you wait long enough, you should make it in the evening, and make yourself wait until the next day. When you're craving the cucumbers of dilly deliciousness, the waiting is the most difficult part.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

More knitting

2011-09-22T20:10:00.004-04:00

After the blue bag, I made a bacon scarf:

Then I used the leftover yarn to make a hat for the L College game the youth group is going to:

Here it is with the logo, which I haven't yet attached. I don't think that ironing-on is going to work, so I need to stitch it on, which is going to be tricky. The fabric is too thick to pierce, and I'm worried about just wrapping it.

Then I had more leftover, and made fingerless mitts:

Blue Bag

2011-09-22T19:58:00.006-04:00

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately. Here you can see the blue bag I made. (Via Diagonale on Knitty) It had icord straps, magnetic snaps, plastic support lining, and fabric lining. Below you can begin to see the type of fabric that I used.

Yes, those are killer whales. No one steals from the killer whale purse. No one.
Below you can see the inner pockets I made for it.

socks

2011-09-21T08:38:00.001-04:00

Psst... do you feel that? It's not just almost time, it's really truly time.

Yes, yes, the weather is getting chiller, the toes are getting colder...

I hereby declare Handknit Sock Season!!!! Wear a pair today!

All in a day's work...

2011-09-08T15:09:00.002-04:00

Today's ministry mashup, sponsored in part by the letter P, included:

Prayer group
Prayer group potluck
Calling a church I worked at several years ago to borrow some youth group resources
Playing "where does this key go?" in the big box o' keys. I found three copies of a key I had been told we had no copies of.
Doing paperwork at the prison to get my ID. Also took a tour of the prison, including the old, 18something part, build by the Quakers. Lots to say about that, just not just yet.
Spent waaay too long figuring out how to change the worship time on the website, including calls to my brother (whose phone was off), my sister (who doesn't do that kind of science), and my awesome uncle (who helped me decipher the code's nonhtml html). In the end, since it was all I could do, I rewrote the html. It's going to be a pain when we figure out the real way to do it, since I basically screwed up the program's system.

PS was stung by a bee during a home visit we were on yesterday, and had to go to the doctor today. She's fine, but I didn't realize ministry could be so dangerous.

Now I'm going to do a little more "what key is this" before I go home and figure out dinner. My options, since tomorrow is grocery day, seem to be pasta, pasta with chicken on top, or plain pasta. I'm thinking pasta.

Hurricane time

2011-08-27T21:31:00.002-04:00

Well. Hurricane time. It's raining.

It's been awhile since I've posted, and I had all sorts of good intentions to update at least every Thursday with weekly updates. Then my computer had to go in to the shop, my backup computer decided that enough moving was enough, and now we're in hurricane preparedness time.

So some bullet points as a method of recap:

Farmers' Market: Wow. Went for the first time today. Bought amazing sourdough bread, apples and peaches, and a bottle of wine. (Then had to borrow a corkscrew from my supervisor.)

Prison Ministry: Went with PS. Loved it. It's hard to describe why I loved it. PS teaches a class called For a Better You, which covers a variety of topics. Right now we're doing anger management. I think I like it because it's pure, real ministry. There's no politickying or dealing with finicky parishioners. It's a class, it's people, children of God... it's ministry. My only complaint was that it was really cold, but I'll wear a sweater next time. (Which, since I love sweaters, will make it no longer a complaint.)

Today I made Hawaiian Chicken in the crockpot. So for dinner I had that (basically chicken + crushed pineapple + bbq sauce + heat) over rice. Then for snack I had dadmade strawberry jam on famers' market sourdough with a glass of wine.

My 'puter is in the shop, but I was able to borrow a laptop from PS, which is how I'm now updating.

It has started raining (off and on all day, but I think on for real now), but we will for sure have church tomorrow. I don't know if anyone will show up, but I'll be here.

Week 4: Exhaustion sets in

2011-08-04T21:30:00.003-04:00

You know how little little kids will cry when they're tired? And you're like, "dude, you're a kid, go sleep" but they don't? I actually cried from tiredness a few minutes ago. But I'm finishing my milk, so I'm updating before I go sleep.

"Proper 13A, Pentecost 7" is not, unfortunately, soccer scores. Although that would be awesome. It's the marking for which week of the lectionary we're in. The A means Year A. We're on a three year lectionary cycle, so there are years A, B, and C. We'll be in B starting this upcoming Advent. Pentecost is the current season we're in, and the number is the Sunday after. So really, it's the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. In Advent you have four Sundays, so Advent 1, Advent 2, etc.
"Proper" is the confusing part, and it has to do with Easter moving. There are available all possible Sundays for the earliest Easter, but we don't use them all. Some are available for the time between Christmas and Lent, or between Lent and Advent. So you may hear a reading in February one A cycle, and June the next. That's why for Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, there usually aren't proper numbers, but in Epiphany and Pentecost (or, really, the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost), there are.

We're doing VBS next week. We're parking cars all weekend because the Lebanese church across the corner is having their annual Lebanese festival. Council meeting Sunday night. Family Fun Fest next Friday. I have to finish writing my learning contract to send in to the seminary next week, but I have to finish before Sunday because I need the chair of the intern committee to sign it. Which means, even though tomorrow's my day off, I really ought to go in to finish this contract.

And I keep picturing my parents, camping, relaxing in hammocks and drinking iced tea, napping and doing puzzles and relaxing by waterfalls... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Proper 13A, Pentecost 7

2011-08-01T09:51:00.001-04:00

My sermon from yesterday is posted on Musings.

Do you know what "Proper 13A, Pentecost 7" means? Answers revealed next time I post!

First times

2011-07-31T15:09:00.002-04:00

Today was my first time preaching here at my internship church. It was also my first time leading worship in the sanctuary. It was also my first time leading worship all by my lonesome. We had one of the retired pastors do communion, but he sat in the congregation until that part of the service. Other than my mic really not wanting to go behind the altar, it went well. I think people could tell that I was nervous, but since it was the non-air-conditioned sanctuary, the difference between looking hot and looking nervous was unnoticeable.

Then we had our fifth-week healing service. (Meaning, when there's a fifth Sunday in a month, we do a healing service.) That was in the chapel, and I had no idea what I was doing. I figured it out, and it seemed to work, but I don't really know if it worked the way people were expecting, or needing. Buh.

Then, after various conversations and whatnot (including one that ended up with the other person saying, "you should do it this way," when that way is really, really, not what I want), I came home and took an epic, two-and-a-half hour post-liturgical nap. A turkey sammich, a lap full of knitting, and I'm chillaxing it out.

Visitors

2011-07-30T21:15:00.002-04:00

I had visitors today! One of them liked to make sure my stuffed animals were having a good time:

Along with the human visitors, who left again after a tour of the apartment, the church, lunch, and preparation of iced tea concentrate (Remember, visitors, it's full caf!), came two Ailuropoda melanoleucan visitors, who apparently began a seance with my squirrel:

Either that, or Dietrich is explaining the house rules.

There were other activities around the apartment, but they cannot be posted. A certain panda of mine decided to play with a certain gift for a certain brother of mine's birthday. And, since that birthday is a bit of a ways away yet, I won't be posting those photos.
Instead, have a picture of a panda break-dancing:

Week 3: The benefits of supervision

2011-07-28T13:26:00.002-04:00

Not to sound like a three-year-old stuck at day-care for an extra fifteen minutes, but... "I want my supervisor!!!"

There are benefits to having a boss around.

You aren't reliant on your own yellow sheet of to-do list.
You have someone you can go to with questions.
People don't look at you like you have the answers.
You have someone you can go to and say "you want me to huh what?"

Also, since this is Internship, the supervisor isn't just a boss, she's a mentor, a guide in discernment, a sounding board for sermon-writing, and so on. That's why, as part of the learning contract (oh man! I have to write that! *scribbles on the yellow sheet*), weekly supervision is to be listed. This isn't time for supervision in the sense that I'm being told what to do, but supervision like on CPE. In CPE we talked about cases and staff/group relations. On internship, we talk about... uh... well... I guess we'll talk about discernment and cases and staff relations and so on. PS has learned that when I say, "Tell me about so-and-so," that I'm looking for background because I've had an interesting interaction, and that I will tell her about the interaction, after the background is given. I like it that way, because then the background I get is neutral and not trying to explain, excuse, or blame the interaction.

Anyway, last week PS was on a mission trip. She was back for Sunday worship, we chatted some on the way to/from lunch with her family, (at a local diner... hint hint... come visit me, we have diners!), and then she left on vacation. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about vacations and relaxing. And it's good in some ways because I have had a lot of office-based stuff to do to get ready for preaching this weekend and for VBS coming up in a few weeks. (If I keep saying "a few weeks" will it always be a day away?) But, I'm going to be very glad when she's back and I'm not the pastoral authority in residence anymore.

Of course, two days after VBS gets done, she'll be leaving for churchwide assembly. I'm glad I'm not at one of those scary internship sites with an off-site supervisor. (Meaning, as the intern you're it at that church, and you get permission to do communion and all, and you meet with your supervisor occasionally, but not every day as part of the life of the congregation.)

Also, people confuse me.

Also, I may have volunteer myself for something that I should have volunteered PS for, only that wouldn't've been right, either.

Also, how do you stay awake at 1:30?

I'm very sorry...

2011-07-27T19:41:00.002-04:00

I'm very sorry, but I made all the delicious foods recently. I'm sorry if this means that you have no delicious foods.

Yesterday, I made bean dip. Instead of two cans of black beans, I did one of black and one of garbanzo. Garbanzo beans roll when they fall out of the pita. And I have, unfortunately, very flimsy pitas. (Pitae? Pitai? Pitaim?) But still... delicious. And enough protein to get me through the afternoon. Although I did hit the 1:30 exhaustion wall, but I got through it. :P

For dinner, I wanted a family classic with a lengthy name: bow-ties, broccoli, chicken alfredo. Only, I didn't have bow-ties, so I used rotinis. (Rotinii?) And I didn't have alfredo, so I found a recipe calling for half&half (usually it's heavy cream, or half&half and whole milk, but I only had half&half, but it's less fat that way), and made it. I put the precooked chicken in the alfredo after it was done, to heat the chicken, microwaved some frozen broccoli, and stirred it all together. It made enough to have a serving of leftovers.

I love being a grown-up. But I am sorry for cooking all of the delicious food.

Many things

2011-07-26T19:34:00.003-04:00

Today, I did many things.

I organized our VBS materials, worked on the suggested readings for funerals list, and coordinated with our church musician about Sunday's worship. Working in the office is fun. Our two secretaries are great, and my office is a good working space. Well, it was until I started getting overwhelmed by VBS. VBS, too, shall pass.

I did my first successful hospital visit. How can a hospital visit be unsuccessful? One guy was discharged between when I checked he was there and when I got there. Another woman was away for tests when I got there. Today I took communion to a woman, and her two daughters. She was there, awake and alert, and it went really well. I love doing hospital visits.

I got a whole bunch of VBS stuff from a nearby congregation. They got decorating stuff from another church, so some of the stuff will be going through it's third week of Pandamania. We're really fortunate to be getting this stuff. The van is full of giant cardboard tubes wrapped in mottled green fabric and tied in threes, various jungle/sky/water colored vinyl backdrops, and large panda cut-outs. Tomorrow I will bring it all into my office (the current "staging area") and start sorting it all out.

I made bean dip. And destroyed my favorite (read: only) cutting board. I don't know if it's because the board isn't designed for use with knives, or with that wonderful rocking movement, or if it's because the knife I was using (read: the only knife in the kitchen) was also slightly serrated. Now I'm waiting out the cilantro smell on my hands before I start knitting again. I'm working on the Via Diagonale bag from Knitty, in blue and black. Only I'm running out of black. And my hands smell like cilantro.

Also recently, I finished unpacking/organizing my bedroom, typed up the history of the congregation (when there was a school next door, and the teacher was sometimes paid in kind, and got a cow, the pastor let it graze in the cemetery), and planned the knit "where's Waldo" outfit for Bear's stuffed Higgs Boson.

I was wrong...

2011-07-22T09:47:00.002-04:00

I thought... I thought if I went grocery shopping before lunch... that it wouldn't be all that hot yet. I thought... that it would cool off over night. But.. but they say it's already 91F out there, and feels like 103F. And the high will be 102F. The heat index now is already higher than the predicted high.

*does quick inventory of the kitchen, checks grocery store hours*

They're open 24 hours. I'm going at 5 am tomorrow. It doesn't take long enough to get there for the van to cool off, and I'm not bringing milk home in a bazillion degrees, even WITH my hot/cold bag. Plus, you know, I'm just not going out there if it's already that hot. Besides, I haven't had the pleasure of driving here in the dark yet, and maybe at night not so many roads will be closed.

Week 2: wait, what?

2011-07-21T11:06:00.004-04:00

I'm finishing my second week already? Huh? Where did the time go? What did I do? Oh yeah... all the stuff crossed off my to-do list. Sweet.

In other news, last night I discovered a truly wonderful secret: it's not that hard to make the dinners I thought it was hard to make. I made Welsh pasties. They weren't the best, probably due to not enough time in the oven (not fully crispy) and off-brand cream-of soup. But it only took, like 10 minutes, plus 10 minutes in the oven. No one told me it was that easy! I'm now all about cooking for myself. Seriously. It was easier than making pasta, 'cause of the not waiting for the water to boil. (Hush, anyone who has an induction cooktop.)

Tonight, I made Old Bay hamburgers. Seriously. Why did no one tell me it was that easy to make food?

We conclude tonight's broadcast with a review of the local ice cream joint, the Purple Cow. I went last week, before the council meeting. I've been wanting to go again, but it's too hot. Yes, too hot for ice cream. Heat indexes over 100F means that ice cream melts before you get to fully enjoy its iciness. You just get... cream.
Anywho. I had the purple cow ice cream, which is black raspberry ice cream with fudge ripple and mini raspberry truffles. Not a completely unfamiliar flavor combination. And, as I expected, amazingly delicious and wonderful and yum. Very creamy, not too frozen solid, but also not too melty. I encourage you all to make a visit. (I hear that during garlic festival they have garlic flavored ice cream, but since the whole city smells and tastes of garlic, you can't really taste it in the ice cream by the time you get there, since you've been eating garlic all day. The previous intern, poor chap, apparently was allergic to garlic.)

Week one: Fireworks and Funerals

2011-07-13T16:27:00.005-04:00

I've been here at internship for a week now, and have learned many things. I can tell just in this short, busy, exhausting, lengthy week that I'm going to love internship. Sure, bad days happen, and even just yesterday I was sick and not having the best time. But, at least so far, I'm enjoying what I'm doing, even if I am tired.

I posted on FB that I wanted to be adjusted to internship so I could have energy in the evenings to do stuff. (Read: I'm not done unpacking and I want to have energy to make dinner.) Comments poured in from those who have finished internship, and the advice uniformly read, "give yourself time, be gentle to yourself, internship is exhausting." It's good to know that it's not just me. I am giving myself time, and my supervisor is great about comp days and "hey, you worked 13 hours on Sunday with a half hour break, and 13 on Monday with a 4 hour, and 9 on Tuesday... don't come in until 10 on Wednesday, and take some extra on Thursday, too." Or, "Hey, there's a funeral on Friday. You are welcome to come, but then take an extra day off next week." ('Cause Fridays are my day off.)

This morning we did a graveside service for a gentleman who passed away. There was an honor guard. So PS (my supervisor) and I did our part: prayers, readings, blessing, etc, and move to the side. The funeral director says, "Please stand for the playing of 'Taps.'" And they stand. And we're standing. And we're standing. There are two guards standing at attention (the whole time, actually. Wow.) and one off away with the "trumpet." So he puts it up, and nothing happens. He reaches around and fiddles with the "mute." Nothing. A few times, "trumpet" up, down, fiddle with "mute," and back, all in snappy motions, 'cause of being at attention. Eventually, he tucks it under his arm, salutes, and the guard by us, seeing this, goes on to the flag part. Apparently, they use a recording, and that's what he was fiddling with, not a mute. PS guessed the batteries were dead, and that someone's head would be rolling. I'm thinking, give me the trumpet and I'll play taps.

Yesterday, I had just sat down to my lunch when a meeting came in the door, which lasted at least an hour and a half, then I finished lunch over a meeting with PS, then the 3'oClk came in at 2:30 (while we were in the middle of prepping/eating lunch/catching up) and went for.ever. Then we went and visited a guy at the hospital. So today, knowing we had a funeral at 11, I had a chicken Caesar salad at 9:30 before going in to the office, just in case. Rule of ministry: eat when you can, because there might be a crisis between you and your next meal. It turned out okay; PS and I went to Wawa and had lunch together. Only the Wa was out of meatballs and I was all on the spot to pick something different and all I could think was, "No chicken. Please. Just... no chicken." So we met and got semi-caught up and then went back to the funeral home to meet the relative for Friday's funeral.

Also, I'm out of pasta. Which means I can't have chicken parm for the third night in a row. (Meaning, I had it the last two nights, and can't have it a third.) I froze the ground beef, so I can't make hamburgers. Plus I don't know how to make hamburgers. I'm in a place where EVERYTHING tastes too salty, so there goes soup. There's frozen stir-fry mix, but I have no rice. There's tuna helper, but the milk is bad. There's the last box of 3cheese macacheese, but, again, the milk is wrong. ("Last" because I brought it from home, and the local Giant doesn't sell 3cheese. Lame.) I'mma take a nap and then figure out dinner.

Why people should come visit me

2011-07-11T16:42:00.003-04:00

I have a pull-out couch, AND pastor offered to lend me her inflatable mattress if I needed it.
I like to cook.
The Sigal Museum, just around the corner, has history stuff, old musical instrument stuff, a Martin Guitar display, a candy section (about Just Born, the peeps people, including peeps diorama contest displays)
The Crayola Factory has tours.
Martin Guitars, also a nearby place, gives factory tours, and are rated as one of the best tours of the kind. Also, I have it on good account that the current CF Martin sometimes likes to give the tours himself.
Purple Cow Creamery. I was told many times yesterday that it was the place to go, and, weather and feet permitting, I'm going to pop over myself before my evening meeting.
I'm here!

Snapshots

2011-06-22T15:58:00.003-04:00

I don't have the energy or wordsource for writing a whole blog, so here are snapshots from yesterday and today:

Threw a "breakfast for dinner" dinner. Feta-basil-tomato scrambled eggs, two kinds of muffins, tea, and juice.
Went to Ikea and lunch with my awesome aunt today. (A different awesome aunt than the one who gave me the previously blogged yarn.)
Found out my awesome aunt indexed a book I was assigned in class this semester. Not the edition we used, but the newer one. I find this to be totally way awesome.
Got a box of yarn. 8 skeins for a baby blanket, one for me.
Figured out that either I have to move that obnoxious unfinished project to a holder *again* or I have to finish it before I can start the baby blanket. I won't have more than one active project on the same size needles. We have to stop the tide of UnFinished Objects somewhere. (This is a loose rule. Really, I just don't have two circular size sevens. *cough*mom,doyou*cough*)
My hands got all swelly and itchy and burny at Ikea (which they sometimes randomly do... it's just... a thing), and that's over, but the one is still a little swollen, so I'm going to stop typing now.

Knitting

2011-06-17T14:12:00.000-04:00

This yarn... this hat... can't... stop... knitting...
And yet, I want to knit as slowly as possible, so that I don't ever have to stop knitting.
But then I won't get to wear the hat.
But it's June, so, really, I won't get to wear that hat for a few months any way.

Today is about looking

2011-06-17T10:24:00.003-04:00

Look at this yarn:
You can't even begin to imagine the awesome colors in this, my yarn. (Note: when I said yesterday that it was a gift from my awesome aunt, there may have been some confusion, as I have many awesome aunts. This particular aunt has two awesome kiddlets, one of whom has a new sailboat blankie.)

There are other things about today which involve looking:
Looking at books, to do more organization.
Looking for spiders while I do laundry.
Going to the ophthalmologist.

Squirrel Swift

2011-06-16T14:33:00.003-04:00

This is Dietrich. Dietrich Squirreldehude.
He's a giant knit squirrel. Of Awesome. He'd like me to tell you that he's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He doesn't mean to look like a punk gangsta squirrel, but he's very serious about his new job:

The awesome yarn that he is holding was a gift from my awesome aunt from several Christmases ago. It will soon be my new favorite skiing hat. Because when it's June, raining, and you have a sore throat, nothing is better than knitting for skiing.

Today is a numbers day

2011-06-16T12:48:00.003-04:00

Here at noon o'clock, the statistics are:
2 cups of tea
2 doses of dayquil (I love dayquil!)
2 projects ordered yarn for
1 new knitting project started
1 A-, 2 B+, and 3 Bs for the past semester (don't get me started on how the fact that two of those are for half credit classes made my GPA a C for the semester. I'll be emailing the registrar once I can formulate sentences with verbs correctly. Taking half-credit classes shouldn't lower your GPA.)
1 rain shower
0 energy
1 dishwasher loaded and running
1 bowl of super-delicious cilantro chicken salad (which was dinner last night)
1 nap (going on 2, as soon as I publish this post)

Update:
As of 2:30, we've added a cup of tea, a rain shower, and one glimpse of the younger brother.

organizing

2011-06-15T10:00:00.002-04:00

Apparently I'm in a super-organizational mood. I've been slimming down my Facebook friends list, I just reorganized my Ravelry queue, and I've been databasing all my boxes of books. I guess it's the "getting ready to move" state of mind or something.

Next up: laundry and making dinner.

Special modifications: complete

2011-06-10T19:14:00.001-04:00

'Tis finished. It's very cartoon-like, which is okay, but not how I originally pictured it. But it does work well as a pillow, as it is "well stuffed."

On to the next knitting challenge!

My own modifications

2011-06-09T19:22:00.004-04:00

I've been working on my sister's next spaceship. I paused to make another one, a smaller one:

And now I'm at the final stuffing stage of the bigger one. It's about pillow-sized, and is pretty awesome. Pictures once it's finished.

I get to see all kinds of awesome people this weekend.

And now I'm going to have some white chocolate raspberry cheeesecake.

"I've made a lot of special modifications myself."

2011-06-03T15:33:00.002-04:00

That's right, I'm casting on (or will be once I'm done telling you about it) a Millennium Falcon for my sister. Apparently I'm knitting her a whole fleet of starships. She's got a Firefly-class, now it's time to jump universii and knit this. Unfortunately, there are no patterns for such a project, so I'm making it up myself. I've done the research, marked the plans, and have done preliminary pattern writing. Today I acquired the yarn (thanks, mom!), and, as soon as I figure out what size needles to use, we'll be good to go.

Why packing is tiring, part I

2011-05-24T11:42:00.001-04:00

10 boxes of books. 45 minutes. 2 shelves + misc music left, not including if any random books are yet still hiding around the room. (I'm looking at you, Tolkien.)

After lunch: more books, kitchen, last of the clothes.

Buh.

Packing break

2011-05-23T14:06:00.001-04:00

My packing break today consisted of going to Infusion (the local coffee shop) and getting a jasmine mint milkshake. Yes, that's a thing, and yes, it was even more awesome than you are now imagining.

Now to sleep off the milkshake, and then back to packing.

Also, in other news... I'm in the mood to set up craft projects, to pull out and do when I'm lonely in my new apartment. Unfortunately, with craft projects, you have to do something with them after. So as part of prep, I'm making sure I'm not just making a thousand random Things with no where to put them. So you may randomly see me ask if people have a need for random things.

Anyone need customized coasters?

fin

2011-05-20T19:57:00.002-04:00

Al...most... there...

2011-05-19T09:20:00.001-04:00

The sun'll come out tomorrow
Bet your final paper
That tomorrow
I'll be done!

Just thinkin' about tomorrow
Clears away the brain freeze,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So I gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I'll be done, tomorrow!
It's only a day away.

end of field ed

2011-05-15T20:42:00.003-04:00

Today was my last Sunday at my field education site.

I preached, which was fun, and the sermon is over on Musings.

I also did the children's sermon. After giving fair warning before the church service, at the time for the children's sermon, I called for three adult choir members to be sheep. The children (there were two) were the shepherds. The shepherds had to keep the sheep in a specific area. The sheep were tasked to be, well, sheep. And they were wonderful. As soon as one was back another wandered off. And they just wandered, looking around, baaing nicely. One got lost in the pews and had to be carefully herded back. It was great. (The lesson, of course, being that God is our shepherd and herds us back no matter how often we stray.)

Ethics paper time. The end is near! (And then: packing.)

A lesson on the goodness of God's creation

2011-05-11T14:02:00.001-04:00

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless and tasteless void and darkness covered the face of the deep and there was nothing cool to drink. […] Then God separated the waters, and called the dry land Earth, and the waters Seas, and the ice caps, Ice. […] Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees, and berries." And it was so, and plants, trees, and berry shrubs covered the earth. […] Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle, beefcows and moocows, and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. […] Then God created the blender, and taking the Ice, the berries, and the milk from the moocows, and God created the smoothie. And God saw that it was good. Then God created the straw, and God tasted that the smoothie was good.
Here ends the lesson.

Bits & Pieces

2011-05-03T21:06:00.002-04:00

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson's comments on the recent news can be read in the article here.

One should not, after six weeks off the organ/piano, do what I did. A sensible person would have played a few scales and a few hymns and walked away. I played a few scales and a few hymns... and some Keveren, and some Debussy, and some Chopin. Ow.

I got to see an old friend today, and even though we didn't have long to catch up, it was good to connect.

I slept wrong last night (and I've been practicing for so long, too), and can't actually use my neck today. I'm going to try again tonight and see if I do it right this time.

Later!

A day in the life of a whimsical Panda

2011-04-27T20:17:00.003-04:00

Breakfast: 7:30. Scrambled eggs, bacon, 'tato of the day, caffeine (liquid)
Wake up: 7:32, after consuming caffeine
Shower, dress, work on project: figure out new search terms that may help find books
Library: 2 of four books don't actually have anything to do with project. 1 is out, but apparently the library can recall a book if it's been out more than two weeks.
Work on project.
Chapel: singing in choir, communion assisting.
Battlefield promotion awarded to George, as I was shaking, having a hard time talking, and my hands were whiter than my polyester death trap of a choir robe. (Meaning: after I communed George his wine, I handed him the cup, raced outside, shed the robe faster than humanly possible, and sat in the breeze with my head down for awhile.)
Lunch, taking my time to get hydrated and rebloodsugared, and reassuring the professor who had communed before George that he was right in being worried about my incredibly shaky hands and paleness, but that I was better now. (He asked what happened. I said, "My choir robe is what happened." He said, "Oh. I thought you were having a Luther moment." Me: "No, the problem was humidity, not piety." (When Luther was a young priest, he tended to freak-massive-out about the importance of the elements and not spilling and OMG-it's-Jesus! and all that.))
Fight with copier for handouts for presentation.
Present. (Went really well, actually.)
Listen to other people present.
Smile inside every time an important (but previously unexplored) dichotomy that I mentioned in my presentation ends up applying to other people's projects.
Dinner. (Yes, class is 3.5 hours long and goes from lunch to dinner.)
Call mom. (A day when you almost pass out AND have an important presentation that you're worried about is not complete until you've called your mom and felt better.)
Research on student body constitution.
Student body meeting, including my own presentation because, apparently, I'm the chair of the elections committee. SB meeting last 1.5 hours.
Home, PJs, free hair (still wet) from bun, deep breath.
Blog.

Now to write an ethics reading response paper, post responses to two ethics drafts of classmates, adjust my bedding from "Zaaah! It's so humid!!!" to "Zaah!! The AC is on and it WORKS!" and then bed time for sleepy pandas.

Bun covers!

2011-04-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

I didn't make the beaded one, but I included it so you could get the feel. Normally I get the ends to stick in better, but I was trading them on and off quickly so mom could take the pictures.

an educational break

2011-04-20T07:48:00.003-04:00

Things I have learned since waking up this morning:

There is nothing for curing insomnia like sleeping in your own bed, wrapped in your orange marshmallow (comforter). Doing so may even make you literally (in this case meaning: it happened) wake up with "The Candyman Can" stuck in your head.
7 days of break. 7 Narnia books. Coincidence? I think not
If you wake up at 7:30, the coffee in the pot downstairs will still be warm enough.
When you get downstairs, if you are in a particular(ly awesome) family, your mother will have left you books. 7 books. 7 days of break. Now I have 14 books to read. The task has become a bit daunting, but I have a plan: Narnia with breakfast. Classwork until midafternoon. Other book until bedtime.
Falling in love with a paper you are writing makes you want to work on other papers all the more. In this case, my ethics paper. If I haven't mentioned it before, it's a methodological take on ethics, in the frame of an extended metaphor of knitting a sock.

Elapsed time: 18 minutes.

publishing specialities?

2011-04-18T09:57:00.003-04:00

So I'm working on this paper, and as I take notes from my resources, I'm typing up my bibliography at the same time. And I notice something... interesting.

3 out of 5 sources come from the same publisher. And this is a rather narrow topic, so it's not as if this publisher could be specializing on this one subject. And the three books span a decade in publishing dates. It's... odd.

Bun covers, no bread

2011-04-15T18:07:00.003-04:00

For the past several years, the pattern has been thus: Grow hair over summer, get it cut in October, usually to something in the chin-to-shoulder range. To many this may seem backwards, but it keeps the hair down and warm in the winter (and away from ponytail hat bumps) but lets it be long enough in the spring and summer that I can pull it up.

This year, I missed the October cut. I did start to get a hankering for a trimming, but it never happened, and I wasn't that worried about it.

Now, my hair is getting long. So long, in fact, that it won't even stay in a messy bun. But at the same time, I'm not really looking for a trim, because I like it long.

Enter: bun covers. Unfortunately, I am not talented enough to take pictures of the back of my head, and they look silly without hair in them, so pictures will have wait until later.

I use spin pins in an X shape to put up the bun (sometimes with a ponytail base, sometimes not), then put the cover on and BAM! hair is up, hair is contained, no bobby pins involved, and I have finally perfected the process to where I can tell instantly if I've done it in a way that will induce a headache.

(What's a spin pin? It's a... well... a double helix... two spiral pieces of metal that are joined on one end and open on the other. You screw them into your hair to hold it up, unscrew to remove. If I don't use a bun cover, my ends pop out like crazy, and I have to use a bunch of tiny butterfly clips to hold them in. It's probably a flaw in my bun-creating technique, but the covers work great.)

I have one beaded bun cover (used to have a hair stick with it) that I've been using that's all brown and gold and matches my hair. I wanted to have some fun colored ones to use on slouchier, t-shirt days. I now have a bright blue, an orange (of course), and a soft gray. I hope to make a black tomorrow.

So comfy!!

Big Words

2011-04-14T13:25:00.004-04:00

(Sermon for Lent 5A on Musings. Never really felt good about the ending. Good cadenza, weak final cadence.)

((Wouldn't Kadence be a great boy's name?))
(((And his twin sister could be Kadenza!)))
((((With K's 'kause K's are kooler.))))

Sometimes, when I'm writing academic things, I feel so smart. Certain sentences just contain such a word:character ratio that I'm amazed at my vocabulary and prosiness. (proz-ee-ness. The "ness" form of "to prose")
For example: "I have only recently come back to appreciating his work, after a time of frustration with what I see as an oversimplification of his work for the sake of devotional spirituality."

Man, and you should(n't) get me started on the influence of hegemony in the cultural production of evil. But don't ask me about "bifurcation." I had to walk out of class, go to the computer lab (this class doesn't allow computers), pull up a dictionary site and search on it, after the professor used it in 3 out of 4 paragraphs in the first forty-five minutes of class. ("To bifurcate" means "to divide in two parts," if you were wondering.)

There a website (here) which does this, too, only more randomly. The site is called "Write your own academic sentence" and you pick from the drop down lists, hit "write me" and it writes you a fancy sentence.

And now I'm going to rest my brilliant brain in a bumbling blessed slumbersome state of sleep. (Alliteration for the win!)

Later, you can hear about my new new knitting obsession. Yesterday it was baby blankets. (I've got 3 in line, once I get the yarn.) Today, it's hairbun covers.

Librarians, indexers, and English teachers

2011-04-08T13:59:00.003-04:00

Zomg. (Pronounced Zoh-em-gee, emphasis on the first syllable.)

I'm doing a project in my Catechisms of Luther class in which I am comparing Luther's catechetical hymns and their take on his theology to current Lutheran hymnody, as well as non-hymnal based musical resources. (Confirmation materials mostly.)

And a particular resource was recommended to me by a classmate, and I found it online, but it *gasp* wasn't a book. It's a software thing, so you pay them and then you get the PDF download for the music book and script (yes: a 50minute rock musical on the catechisms). But I didn't want to pay $30 for this just for the project, and figured I must be able to interlibrary loan (best invention ever!) it.

Alas, they couldn't get it through interlibrary loan.

"We couldn't get it on interlibrary loan, so I talked to [the head librarian] and he agreed we should just buy it. So we just printed it and as soon as we get it bound you can come over and take it out."

!!!!

In case you ever need to know, the people who will serve you best in research papers, and all forms of learning, and therefore the people you should treat the best, are, in no particular order:
1. Librarians
2. Indexers (Seriously, ever tried to do research with books that were all apparently published before the invention of the index?)
3. English teachers
The world would not be the same without these fine folks.
Hug one today.

Not surprised at all

2011-04-05T21:06:00.003-04:00

You won't be surprised, will you, that, since I had to download the Kindle edition of the book of the previous post in order to find the quote, that I then began to read it?
And you won't be surprised at all, I imagine, that I didn't stop, except once to make tea and once to answer the phone?

Two thoughts occur to me:
1. Now I know where I get my letter-writing style.
2. It's just not fair to guys these days, for girls these days to have been brought up on such books as Daddy Long Legs, Jane Eyre, and so on.

And now, to homework, and then, to bed.

Blue Wednesday

2011-04-05T18:06:00.002-04:00

The trustees are here. As the president of the seminary said on Monday, when announcing the upcoming visit, it's "the one time of year he asks us to behave." It doesn't really particularly change anything for us students. More random people in the halls than usual, breakfast buffet, nicer food. But some how I got talked into being the assisting minister at Wednesday's midweek Eucharist. Not a job I don't like, but I've a lot going on this week anyway. (Besides showing up for chapel, I have to write the prayers before hand, and do some other prep work for it.)

Anyway, bonus points for the person who can figure out what the title of this post has to do with the post itself. And if you win and are in the right time zone (sorry), maybe there'll be a baking-related prize. Maybe.

Being a grown up

2011-04-02T15:18:00.002-04:00

I'm making dinner for friends tonight. Honey Chicken Stir-Fry. They're bringing the rice and the skillet, I'm making the stir-fry, and providing the iced tea and the butterscotch pudding pie.

All of this means two things: I had to go grocery shopping, and I had to buy a knife.

I now own three! knives (two paring and one chef's) and a cutting board. I also now own salt AND pepper, and minced garlic. I've decided that instead of trying to figure out what spices I might like to "have on hand" and buying randomly, that I'll just buy as my recipes call for them, and eventually I'll have a spice collection.

It's hard to buy (much less plan and cook) when just one person, and when just eating at home on the weekends. The refectory serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday through Thursday, and breakfast and lunch on Friday. So I'm only on my own for the weekends. Means whatever I cook, unless I cook in small quantities, I eat for the whole weekend. but cooking for friends is fun, and means socializing AND getting to cook a normal meal. On internship I'll have more fridge space and more meal eating, so leftovers will be easier to deal with.

So any way, the pie is chilling, the tea is steeping, and the chicken is awaiting its stir-frying fate.

And I... I am taking a rest to read my new Church and State: Lutheran Perspectives book from the library. I try not to go to the library often, and never without a list, but sometimes... I peruse. And that leads to reading, which leads to learning, which leads to wondering, which leads me back to the library. I wonder if my professors would be more likely to understand procrastination on the readings for their classes if they knew that I was procrastinating by reading other random books.

That would be why

2011-03-28T13:57:00.002-04:00

Allow me a moment, if you will, to answer a question with a question. You say... these socks are NOT the same size. Yet you also say, "I made them the same." So I ask you to look at the socks closely. At the depth of the stitches themselves and ask yourself...

... are you sure you knit them on the same size needles?

I don't understand

2011-03-28T07:17:00.001-04:00

I made this pair of socks. I put the socks on today, for the first time, to wear them. I was REALLY DILIGENT in making sure I did them exactly the same. So here's the question:

Why is one longer than the other?

Brief post

2011-03-09T10:32:00.003-05:00

I'm told I don't update enough. I'm pretty sure that's true. A brief sketch of my recent doings, then a present for you loyal, though mistreated, readers:

Went to Nebraska. Decided not to do that again.
Went to Easton, PA. Decided totally to do that again. (More details on the job there once it is truly set.)
Caught a cold from my sister and dad. Thanks, mom, for teaching us all to share.
I'm taking an ethics class.
And a sociology class.
And OT2
And a class on Luther's Catechisms.
I'm a bit bogged down by academics right now.
And I started reading Lord of the Rings, because apparently I have no sense of time management.

And now, a gift. Though (sorry) probably not starting today, I am planning a Lenten Devotional posting series, over in the Musings. I'll let you know here when that starts up. (So... mostly Lenten.) I'm hoping it will be a full-blown devotional deal, but some days it may be just a question to ponder or a single verse or some such. Stay tuned!

Bread, part II

2011-01-25T15:19:00.007-05:00

3:15: Checked on the bread. Exact thought: "Zah! It's bigger!"

3:25: Hee. It's getting bigger.

3:45: Punching time.

3:45:30: Skabooosh!

3:45:35: Fwoosh.

3:46: Re-form (Sticky!). Re-cover. Let it rise again. (If desired, put on CD playing "We will run and not grow weary, for our God will be our strength, and we will fly like an eagle, we will rise again" to encourage the dough not to feel beaten down by recent actions taken against it.)

4:25: Punching time. Skabooosh! Fwoosh.

4:27: Form into rolls, place on trays, recover. (Take a moment to freak out about how big the 24 are, and they're going to double again, and there aren't enough trays... Maybe I didn't punch enough...Oh dear...)

4:35: Why do I hear 24-part humming of David Haas in the kitchen?

5:00: Dad gets home, helps reshape/resquoosh the rolls.

5:30: First batch in the oven. Ice on the pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Pfzzzzzzz.

5:35: Is it done yet?

5:40: Is it done yet?

5:55: Switch! Roll out, take temp, pan out, pan in, ice in. Pfzzzzzzz.

6:00: Can we eat them now? (Dad: "No, we have to wait until they don't burn when you pick them up.")

I'm going to end coverage of BreadMania 1.0, because, though I have yet to eat, I'm worried that if I talk about the eating, or how good it smells right now, you'll be jealous, kidnap me, and force me to bake more.

Bread

2011-01-25T15:00:00.002-05:00

1:30 pm: Began the bread.

2:00 pm: Realized the instant yeast's water instructions were written ambiguously and that's why there's all flour and no water in the bowl.

2:05: added water, added flour, mixture looks disgusting.

2:07: whatever, who needs bread any way.

2:08: can you put bread dough down the drain?

2:09: maybe if I add the rest of the flour...

2:10 stirring, stirring...

2:12: Kneading time! (Yes, mom, I washed my hands again.)

2:13: ZOMG!!! It's STICKY!!! AAAAaaaahhhh!!!!

2:14: added flour to hands.

2:15: Kneading, kneading...

2:45: Dough and bowl oiled, damp cloth on top, in "warm" place.

3:04: Posting to blog while waiting to see if the dough will rise. Resisting the urge to stand over it and watch it rise (or not rise, as the case may be).

My apologies

2011-01-17T15:12:00.002-05:00

I was told "you should blog," so I did. In that last post there. Also in this post, here, but in a less obnoxious way. My apologies for being a bit of a wise donkey.

I'm in that delightful stage of "might be possibly getting sick" where I felt a little off this morning, felt worlds better after a shower, and now, after my after lunch nap, I have a bit of a headache and sore throat, but I'm sooooo comfy and tired, I'm not really dedicated to the idea of getting up to make tea. Drinking tea, that I'm on board with. Getting up to make the tea... going to have to wait until some power compels me. But I left my knitting upstairs, so that may do.

I have a potential internship site for next year, in Nebraska. It looks fantastically awesome, and hopefully some time in the next few weeks, I'll go out to visit. (The visit is a requirement of the seminary, and they'll pay me mom back for the travel expenses. It's actually a pretty good idea, if you think about it. The site gets to meet me, I get to meet the site and the housing and such, and no one can say, two months into the internship, "But I thought Alex* was a boy's name!" as a way of getting rid of the intern. Or vise versa.)

The power of needing to knit compels me.

*Alex = not my name

I'm Blogging

2011-01-17T15:00:00.003-05:00

The Blog of Bloggipenblog:

Blog, in the blog of bloggy blog, it blog bloggety for one blog to blog the blogetical blogs which have blogged them with a blog and to blog among the blogs of the blog, the blog and bloggy blog to which the Blog of Blog and of Blog's Glob blog them, a blog blog to the blogness of blogkind blogs that they shoud blog the blogs which blog them to the blog.

Blog blog these blog to be self-blogital, that all blogs are blogged equal, that they are blogged by their bloggers with bloggy undebloggable Blogs, that among these are Blog, Bloggery, and the blog of Blogginess. That to blog these blog, blogs are instituted among bloggers, deriving their blog powers from the blogs of the blogged. That whenever any Blog of Bloggitude becomes destructive of these blogs, it is the Blog of the Bloggers to blog or to not-blog it, and to blog new Blogs, blogging its bloggation on such bloggiples and blogging its blogs in such blog, as to them shall blog most blog-like to blog thier Bloggety and Blogginess.

I can see!

2011-01-03T22:15:00.002-05:00

I have new glasses.

I have a pair of reading glasses (the black and purple ones, modeled in the middle two pictures), and a pair of distance glasses (the silvery ones with a blue dot on each side, modeled in the first and last pictures).

I do even have a way of stacking the two together to form a panda-licious bifocal, for when I'm on my computer and watching TV. I do not do this in class, although it would probably help the knitting.

I did not love the distance ones when I got them. I was freaked by how they changed the way my face looks. I'm getting use to them. I'm still not in love, but I'm no longer so angsty about it. I may love them tomorrow. Yes, I'm pretty sure I will, actually.

I do love the black and purple ones. Mom isn't as excited about them, but I think they're funky and cool. But they slide down my nose (the glasses adjuster guy and I agreed that he should leave the earpieces looser, so I can slide them down to look over them, so they slide on purpose, but they have no nose grippers, so they are quite slidey), so they wouldn't really be good for all-the-time-wear anyway. I am a bit concerned that the prescription might not be right in the reading glasses. Fortunately, ForEyes has a 90 Day "Did your prescription change?" dealio, where if your prescription changes in the first 90 days, they'll replaces the lenses for free. So I have a while yet to decide if I need to have Dr You'reWonderful double-check the reading.

The distance ones slide down my nose as well (as you can obviously see in the pictures), but that can be fixed by adjusting the nose grippers.

That's all for now. Knitting pictures and blogging coming probably tomorrow at some point. (That's pictures and blogging about knitting, not actual pictures being knit.) Don't forget you can click on the pictures to see the larger versions.

And many thanks to the beautiful model.

Christmas Success

2010-12-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

Gifts have been given, and received. The knitting was received well; the socks fit! (Thanks to all who assisted in the sock-sizing getting.)

I preached this morning. Text is over on Musings.

Time for a post-liturgical/post-Christmas/post-finals/post-skiing nap.

Skiing

2010-12-24T09:18:00.002-05:00

I went skiing last night.

It was awesome.

I woke up this morning at 3:30 (3 hours after going to bed), in excruciating pain. Sore-ing muscles +dehydration = muscles that can't get the lactic acid out. It was... excruciating. I moved downstairs and drank water. Lots of water, a little more sleep, and a solid breakfast (followed by more water and sleep), and I am no longer sore. If I move, I am. But no longer in pain just sitting here.

Okay. Now sleep, then. Wait, no. I was supposed to type "Okay, now church, lunch, party, church." But I wrote sleep instead. My hands have a mind of their own. They are also sore.

Also, I love skiing with all the passion of awesomeness.

2010-12-23T09:21:00.002-05:00

Okay, so yes technically I'm finishing this paper right now. And no, I really don't want questions or glares or whatever. I'm freaking in love with this paper and we're still within due time, so whatever.

But what I want to know is: why can I not say "OMG! This is freaking absolutely fascinating!!" in an academic paper.

The form which is translated "In the beginning" in Genesis 1:1 only also appears in the Hebrew Bible in Jeremiah. It appears four times there and is always (!!!!!!!!!) in conjunction with "the reign of..."

What now!

Okay, back to finishing so y'all'll get off my back.

another song

2010-12-22T08:46:00.002-05:00

Here-in my apartment are papers done.
I write and write and write them all.
Now I am done, the semester's over!
I'm soon headed home for Christmas joys.
Print print print, Have enough ink?
Print print print, I'm going home!
Here-in the apartment the paper's done!
Now I can nap, relax, and knit!

(to the tune of "Up on the Housetop")

(No, it doesn't rhyme. Rhyming is for people who didn't miscalculate their caffeine intake last night and got more than three hours of sleep.)

(Yeah, I know, "done" is what happens to turkeys, students are "finished." See the previous point re:I'm tired.)

(Note: what?)

(Note: the previous note should be discarded. I'm sleeeepy. This is what happens. I kind of keep talking (except now I'm typing) when really I should've stopped a looong time ago. I'm going to go pack now.)

Don't try this at home

2010-12-17T18:00:00.003-05:00

Normally, one should not do what I am about to do. One should not post, in so public a place as a blog, about an item one wants for Christmas. But in this case, I don't care if I get one tied to every gift I get, and then a whole extra bag full. This is a useful item, one that one could have many of.

I have tried to be a good grad student. I have used spoons to eek out the smoothie from the bottom of the blender. I have used a spoon to stir my mac&cheese. I have done these good things.

But you have not experienced ingenuity until you have tried to figure out how to scrape the fudge from the pot into the tray without a spatula.

Dear Santa,
I would like spatulae for Christmas. Size, color, shape... doesn't matter.
Yours truly,
Me

Finals week

2010-12-14T16:35:00.003-05:00

How many tests must one student take,
before the semester is over?
How many papers must that student write,
before she sleeps in her bed?
How many times must the spellcheck be run,
Before the paper is done?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years must one girl study,
Before it she is given a diploma?
How many papers must one person write
Before she's allowed to be free
How many times can the sleep turn its head
And pretend that he just doesn't see
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many words must a girl look up
Before she can see the sky?
How many words must one man have
Before the paper can be printed?
How many pages will take 'til she knows
That too many trees have died
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Knitmas list

2010-12-06T21:26:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again, folks. The time when I look at the to-do list, I look at the time remaining, and I decide I can add more too it. No, not exam season, although, yeah... that... uh... right... that, too.

Yes, it's knitmas season. Just today, I made the decision to knit ____ for ____. Crazy, right? Then there's the ____ for _____, which is/are nearly done. And the ____ for ____, which is/are only about half done. Then... you get the picture. (Well, you don't, but trust me, there's a lot of yarn laying around this apartment.)

Oh, knitmas. How I love thee. And dread thee. And feel a delightful sense of anticipation and urgency. (As opposed to finals, which fill me with anticipation and urgency, but more of the "upset stomach" or "heart attack" type than the "freshly baking cookies in the oven" type.)

Smoothie problems

2010-12-02T09:49:00.003-05:00

Don't EVER just say "let's see what's in the freezer, and throw it in the smoothie." Just... don't do that.

On the bright side, though my smoothie tastes like soap (in its defense, everything tastes like soap to me right now), there is turkey tetrazzini in my future. What is turkey tetrazzini, you may ask? Well, first you take the turkey, but you don't eat it! (Yet.) Then you take five zinis. (Five zinis shall you take. You shall not stop at four zinis, nor shall you proceed to six. Five is the number of zinis, and five zinis shall you take.) Then you take the zinis and the turkey and put them over nooodles. Then you EAT IT!

Yum.

PS: I stopped drinking the smoothie and it has now... separated... I'm wondering if one of the frozen fruits... interacted... with the milk.

That was... not completely unfun...

2010-11-22T17:27:00.003-05:00

So I had a root canal today. Well, part two of a three part miniseries known as root canal.

(Note: apparently these things cost, like, as much as a real canal.)

I had to go to a specialist (hence the cliff hangers), and I was a little nervous.

However, I realized that all would be well when, after the initial x-ray, the assistant put a squooshy pillow under my neck/head and said, "He'll be in to talk to you of course, but he likes his patients to be as comfortable as possible, so here's the movie list." That's right, a list of over 100 movies to choose from. I chose Luther, since I knew the ending, and it was not comical, but not scary/dramatic/serious. (Seriously, there was a TV hanging from the ceiling.)

Then, as he's administering the novocaine, he starts telling rabbi/minister jokes. And not just because he found out I'm in seminary. Judging by the assistant's eye rolls and comments, he tells these same jokes every time. (So I'm in the market for some new ones for him. Bonus points if they are also about dentistry.)

He and the assistant (and I, when I wasn't absorbed in the movie) joked and teased and chatted the whole time. It made quite the difference. And, he was able to (and did) stop talking and get serious when necessary. But if the guy working on you is comfortable enough to relax, then you relax. It was nice.

And, I made him laugh Out Loud when, after telling him that my twin is studying astrophysics, that we both study the heavens. Then he tried to set one of us up with his daughter's friend Ryan, who is working on his PhD in robotics.

Now Dietrich and I are going to nap. Or have a milkshake. Or knit. Or something. (Hint: no milkshake and no current knitting projects here. And lots of sleepiness.)

What I learn, I share with you

2010-11-08T07:10:00.003-05:00

Me: "Maybe I shouldn't read this before bed?"

Me2: "But the plot slowed down, so it's not like it's scary right now."

Me: "But, it might get that way."

Me2: "Then I'll stop."

Ha. Right. Like that happened. Two hours passed when I was only going to read for a half of one.

Note: Don't go reading Dracula if you want to not have creepy dreams. Also don't read it if you like your authors to treat women like they have actual working brains. "Ohh, I had a dream about mist and now I feel weak, but it's probably just my nerves. I'm sure it's not the vampire, who can turn into mist, killing me, like he did my BFF, who was weak like this before she died/became UnDead."

Oh, my

2010-11-05T14:08:00.001-04:00

I'm going on a Francis Hodgson Burnett binge.

I'll be back later.

...

Probably much later.

PS

2010-11-04T23:06:00.002-04:00

Of course it would be far sillier to actually start reading a book so close to bedtime. I was only going to read a little, but then... and now it's waay past bedtime.

Goodnight, world. See you in the morning.

I should not have done that

2010-11-04T21:45:00.003-04:00

I think that I have done what I should not have done.

I had some extra time is all. Well, not really extra time. More like, I had the usual amount of time and found myself taking some of that time to relax and go a-internetin' and, well, one thing led to another, and I remembered that I had downloaded Kindle for PC when I first got this computer, and so I stopped by the site to see what the free ebook selection looked like.

And then I thought, well, this one isn't too long, so I'll read it in little bits between my homeworking. Heh. Right.

Note: If you read The Secret Garden in the falling leaf time of Ocvember, don't be confused when you go outside and it isn't spring.

I can't stop clicking "next page." I have all these books. It's like, now that I have no time to read nonschool books, I have this crazy desire to read ALL THE BOOKS.

Now, there is some legitimacy. Of course I had to pick most of the fairy tale collections, because the children I babysit know all the ones I know because they've been movie-ified. So of course the various Welsh, English, American, and Norse stories for children had to be downloaded. And then one simply cannot ignore the colorfairy books as a good source of reference for bedtime stories. (Although of course the actual books would be much more suited for actually reading to a child.)

And then the notebooks of DaVinci, of course. Then swiftly followed The Velveteen Rabbit, because I'm willing to bet that's the only possible format of that book I have that my twin doesn't. And then Faust and Dracula and... oh dear.

I should not have done that.

I should really stop doing this.

Maybe I'll just browse... one page more... after the next one, of course.

Things not to do

2010-10-14T20:08:00.003-04:00

There are certain things that one should not do:

One should not knit with new yellow yarn when wearing black, unless one wants to be wearing black with yellow fuzz.

One should not double-knit with different thicknesses of yarn. Both yarns may seem to be worsted, but unless they are truly the same, there will be... complications.

One should not knit with new black yarn when wearing white (or khaki), unless one wants to be wearing white/khaki with black fuzz.

One should not go hat crazy with homework to do.

One should not write notes to oneself with Greek letters during Hebrew class.

One should not drink two smoothies in one day and not expect to have an increased restroom visit count.

One should not forget to rinse the violet-watering-baster after using said baster to put coffee into ice cube trays.*

One should not expect meetings to happen at their appointed date or time until the meeting has actually begun at said date or time.

One should not stare at the awesome beehive during Hebrew class.

One should not forget that yogurt that freezes is frozen yogurt.**

One should not forget to update one's blog.

*This one didn't actually happen, but nearly did.
**This is awesome.

Daily fruit intake

2010-10-01T21:02:00.002-04:00

I have a new toy: (feel free to click on any of the pictures for better views)

It's a one-serving blender. I like to call it "the smoothie machine," although I do recognize that it can make other things besides smoothies. For example, tomorrow it's going to make a frappuccino.

This is how you set it up. (You can't quite see it in the picture, but the intention of the contraption is that the lid is a travel lid and you can take the whole blending cup and lid with you on the go. I find that the bottom is a little too small compared to the top for me to feel comfortable in its balance, but that's okay.)

Then you add the ingredients. Tonight I'm having mixed berries (black-, rasp-, blue-, and straw-berries) which are frozen, strawberry yogurt for some protein and texture, milk (the necessary liquid for blending to work) and ice cubes.

Mixing.

Almost done! (The chopstick is because I don't have a rubber spatula. Okay, I don't have any spatulae, nor do I have knives. My cooking life is very limited. But the chopstick works for encouraging ice cubes and fruit down where they should go. Note: Do NOT attempt to operate blender without lid, or with anything besides preselected ingredients in the blender. Otherwise you will either end up with a countersmoothie, or undesired ingredients. Haven't done this, not going to.)

Don't forget to clean up before enjoying the joy!

Now, some people, on a Friday night after a long week at seminary may add a little choco powder (in this case, hot chocolate mix) to their smoothie. I am one of these people. I didn't add much, it's not a prevalent flavor, but it does fit. I am also discovering that one of the berries in the mix (I'm guessing the rasp) has waaay too hard seeds that are distracting from the experience, but I'll get over it, and maybe next time just get frozen strawberries.

I wrote a poem about the smoothie machine, to be sung to the tune of "Music Machine":

Smoothie machine, smoothie machine,
The greatest contraption that you’ve ever seen.
Whatever you’re feeling down about,
Put froz’stuff in it and a smoothie comes out!

Hebrew Homework

2010-09-26T22:49:00.002-04:00

This is how Hebrew homework happens:

Okay, Hebrew time.
Um, okay, that's... I'm sure that's a word...
That word. That word has waay too many letters in it.
That word. That word does not have nearly enough letters in it.
WHAT? You can't do that! You can't... That's just.. Tha-Oh, wait. Oh, I see. I see what you did there.
This is awesome! (The half-way point.)
Wait. That word. Way too many letters.
Screw it, I'm going to just write the word-for-word and go back later and make it make sense.
You can't do that. You can't just... Oh, maybe you can.
That word. Why does it have so many letters?
DONE!

look, I'm learning!

2010-09-20T15:05:00.002-04:00

Things I have had to teach myself today:

Don't ask "why" in Hebrew class.
Don't start the really awesome Christmas project you just invented, when there is a baby blanket still to be finished. Little boy needs his blanket.
Take out the trash beFORE it decides to apply to be the next Glade plug-in scent.
Don't. Ask. Why. (in Hebrew class)
Sometimes a well-placed nap can kick the migraine. This doesn't mean one should decide not to take something after the nap.
Asking why in Hebrew class might cause migraines.

Anyway. Mondays are busy, so I have to go take out the trash and then go to class, dinner, choir, babysitting. And some Hebrew homework.

This is not a post

2010-09-13T22:06:00.002-04:00

I want to tell you about my fabulous Old Testament class discussion from today. But I'm not. I'm going to sleep because this was my day:

7:00: Study for Hebrew quiz
7:30: Breakfast
8:15-10:15: Hebrew
10:30-11:30: Old Testament discussion section
Noon: Chapel
Noon:30: Lunch (during which I had a meeting)
1:00: leave lunch meeting to go practice
2:00-3:00: meeting with my advisor
3:30-4:30: spiritual formation class
5:00: dinner
5:30-7:00: Choir
6:30: Babysitting
8:15: Home(work)

Note how babysitting and choir neatly overlap. :P

You'll hear tomorrow how Genesis 1 tells us that we shouldn't build giant underwater cities. I promise.

Today... is a beautiful day.

2010-09-09T12:06:00.002-04:00

Today is the most beautiful day in the history of days that are today. In this moment, THIS moment is the most beautiful moment there is. And while this could very easily turn into a discourse on living in the moment and life is beautiful blah blah blah, I'm actually going to make the rest of this post all about me. Here is why my day is beautiful:

There are 7 branches on campus that have changed colors.
It is 75 degrees outside with a beautiful fall breeze. (Yes, my windows are open.)
I'm drinking orange juice.
My body has decided that throwing a fit does not get it what it wants. It is maturing. (Aka: the cramps have stopped and I have energy again.)
My homiletics professor is not only willing to let me knit in class, but has herself a child who has ADHD and so is downright enthusiastic that I have found such a technique to keep myself focused.
I changed one of my class sections (from day to night, which involves a professor change) and am super excited about the new class. (And in exchanging books, regained approximately $120.)
Tomorrow night I get to see my family and cook for my parents. (____, ____, and ____ stuffed chicken.)
Mint brownie ice cream. In my freezer. Will be in my belly tonight. Bwahahaha!

can I have a lecture, please?

2010-08-16T09:13:00.002-04:00

I've added about a million things to my Ravelry queue. Can you tell it's time for school to start?

I shouldn't even have been on Ravelry. I should be packing. But I got a box in the mail, a kinderegg from my friend L who went to Germany in May. I knit things for people who send me food. So I'm trying to find a pattern for the knit item she wants. Problem is, she wants a black version of the thing I knit her before, with a few other modifications. Big problem is, I made up that pattern. I took some blue yarn and did a this and a that, then I took some thinner white yarn and did a thing and a thang. I made notes on a piece of loose leaf, then I made the second of the pair, then I lost the loose leaf.

So I'm trying to find a new pattern until I get the yarn and can experiment. Seriously, I need a good 3 hour lecture class to go through these things on the queue.

A Traumatic Story

2010-08-14T21:08:00.003-04:00

For those of you who don't know me, I don't like having sticky fingers/hands. This is not just a little "oh that's unpleasant" sort of feeling, but a Full Blown OMGSTICKINESSGETITOFFGETITOFFI'MGOINGTODIE!!!! sort of feeling.

The story begins innocently enough, at a waterfall. A beautiful waterfall, whose water falls in a way as to look like buttermilk. It was a warm day, so I moved into the shade to sit on a rock. This rock had some pine needles on it. Everything at this waterfall has pine needles on it. I scootched further back on the rock to get comfy, and sat there a while.

Then it was time to stand up and I did so and I brushed the pine needles off my pants. Swoosh, swoosh, pine needles removed from one side, swoosh, swoostick... eeewwww. I had sat full on in pine goop and then swooshed my hand straight into it. "Sap" I believe it is called. "EW EW EW STICKY" is what I call it until it has been made into maple sugar candy or syrup or some such. When it is on my hand it is goop. And on my hand it was. Not just like, oh I have a drop of sap on my hand, but full on, across the palm side of the knuckles, pooling up goop. And it wouldn't come off in the waterfall. And I wasn't going to be able to go home and wash or change (despite my cries of "but I can feel it seeping through my pants!!").

So I learned that triple antibiotic ointment (specifically the oil in it) removes sap. Thanks to dad, I was able to function. Although I did nearly end up in tears before we found the solution. (Hint: Purell doesn't work it spreads the sticky all over your hands. Fortunately, I just did my palms, so the backs were clear.)

You'd think the problem would have passed. And for a few blissful hours, I began recovering from the trauma. My hands were cleaned (again, for extra measure) and I changed my pants. All was well. Until I discovered that my initial statement of "ahh, I can feel it seeping through my pants" was correct. To put it bluntly, my underwear was stuck to my butt. With no tripleA ointment in the cabin, I resorted to Vaseline, which also does the trick, but then you have Vaseline covering your butt and have to use a soapy washcloth and then you have soap on your butt so you use a wet washcloth and about this point you really wish the cabin had a full length mirror because you can't see what you're doing because you had TREE BLOOD stuck to your BUTT!

I'm recovering well now, fully sap-free and planning to stay that way, at least until I go back into the nature and it tricks me into rocky comfort again.

Warning: Technical knitting ahead

2010-08-10T10:28:00.003-04:00

So I totally just invented a new knitting thing. I totally just found the easy solution to grafting ribbing, kitchner-style.

So, as you may know, in regular kitchner grafting you perform as follows:
Front Needle: Insert yarn needle as if to knit and take off the stitch; insert needle (into next stitch) as if to purl, and leave it on.
Back Needle: Insert yarn needle as if to purl and take off the stitch; insert needle (into next stitch) as if to knit, and leave it on.

So you've got two pieces of knitting, with outsides and insides. Warp your thinking thusly: You have two pieces of knitting, with sides facing you (an outside and an inside) and sides facing away from you (an inside and an outside).

Kitchner stitch is worked in pairs. The first one you slip off, the second you leave on, then you go to the other needle. Off and on; off and on; off and on. See?

SO! And here's the awesome. Stop thinking "as if to this; as if to that" and look at your stitches. When you're working the front needle, you've got an outside facing you and your stitches LOOK like knit stitches. So you go as if to KNIT and off, then PURL and on. When you're on the back, you've got an inside facing you and your stitches LOOK like purl stitches. so you go as if to PURL and off, and as if to KNIT and on.

Off and on; off and on.

So! If you're offing a stitch you do what it looks like and if you're leaving it on, you do the opposite. KNIT and off, PURL and on, or vise versa.

Thus, in ribbing, you'll get purl stitches toward you on the front and knit stitches toward you in the back. So you:
Front needle: PURL and off; KNIT and on.
Back needle: KNIT and off; PURL and on.

But, wait, what about the switch in between? So, say my next pair is a knit then a purl. (Toward me, so the back needle is a purl then a knit.) Do this:
Front needle: KNIT and off; KNIT and on.
Back needle: PURL and off; PURL and on.

The reverse happens when going from purl to knit:
FN: PURL and off; PURL and on.
BN: KNIT and off; KNIT and on.

Kitchner ribbed grafting. Rock on.

PS: Mom totally helped.

Look, I update!

2010-06-27T12:26:00.002-04:00

New Musings, my sermon from today.

Life is busy with CPE. More posting when I'm more free. Like, August. (The CPE post talks about being a fulltime chaplain. Yeah... that's probably not the plan anymore. But again, more in August.)

Cooking Experiment Success

2010-05-30T19:54:00.002-04:00

I have wanted for awhile now to make my own iced tea. It's just too much hassle and not quite right to make it using a powder or syrup. There's always... too much sweet or not enough, or too much bite, or some other something wrong.

So I decided to try to make my own. Found a recipe, followed it... sort of. And boom! Iced tea.

The main recipe. My set up:

6 tea bags: 2 English Breakfast, 1 Irish Breakfast, 2 Peppermint, 1 Orange (herbal, not pekoe)
2 cups boiling water. Put the bags in the water. Add the SECRET INGREDIENT.
Wait 15 minutes. Remove tea bags.
Add sweetening. Recipe called for 3/4 c sugar. I did slightly less than 1/2 c sugar and slightly less than 1/4 c honey. Next time I'll minus some of each... it was a little too sweet, but not too too sweet. Stir until all is dissolved.
Add this fabulously concentrated mix to 6 cups cool water. I did the concentrated stuff in a 2 cup measuring cup and put the cool water in the pitcher, then the pitcher in the fridge while the stuff steeped. Pour the concentration in the cool while stirring gently (a few good spins will keep the water moving and will do most of the work for you) in a slow but steady stream.
Put pitcher in fridge, clean up mess, pour iced tea over ice, enjoy.

And now I bet you're wondering about the SECRET INGREDIENT. A pinch (little pinch) of baking soda. You ask, "why?" Well, I'll tell you. It does battle with the acidic biting stuff in the tea, so that the end result is a strong, but smooth tea.

Terrwyn

2010-05-29T08:17:00.002-04:00

This is Terrwyn:

She's a duckling. She's very young, so she can't say "quack." She hasn't learned the "k" sound, so she just does a little "qua." Her name, from Welsh, means "brave fair one." She likes adventures and taking pictures of her adventures. She's hanging out with me for the summer, having adventures.

Thus far she has learned to knit:

She has met some fellow wildlife:

She has been appropriately sympathetic for my having to have blood drawn:

She has rocked out to music:

She has been jealous of those of us who have opening mouths and digestive tracts: (That's chocolate mousse WITH a dollop of FROZEN mousse.)

And she has traveled with me around the house. (Here pictured headed to the movies, although once we got there she hid in my purse.)

Sweater Update

2010-05-13T10:41:00.000-04:00

(pictures will come later)

Sleeves. Sleeves, sleeves, SLEEVES!

TWO sleeves!!

A story

2010-05-06T18:54:00.003-04:00

So I've begun an experiment. I have a twitter account now, and instead of not posting and just following, I have begun posting. Once a day (sometimes less often) I post a single post. Day by day, slowly and carefully, I am writing a story.

http://twitter.com/TheAllegorist

You can read it even if you don't have a twitter account. You can also add it to a feed reader to get the updates when they happen, as you would with a blog.

Once a month (or so), I'll post in Musings the past month (or so)'s lines, in paragraph form.

Note: If you're going to read on the Twitter site, make sure to start at the bottom of the page and read up, so you're reading the story in order. The first 10 or so posts appear to have been written within seconds of each other, because I started with a different twitter account and decided to use that one for conversation and following, and created this one for the story.

Also, I have armholes in my sweater. For my arms to go through.

Dear finals

2010-05-06T06:51:00.003-04:00

Dear Finals Season,
I would like for you to take a chill pill.
Thank you,
Me

In other news, I have a new (working) phone. And since I haven't had the time to move my previous phone's caller ID pictures to the new phone, I went online (yes, it's that kind of phone) and downloaded some pictures of people. Which means that a certain smallish cousin of mine (although not as small as the last time I saw her) features prominently in nine of my 14 contacts with pictures. Because she is the cuteness. Especially now that she sits up and holds up her own head. Not that she wasn't cute before, but she has more visible personality-cuteness than her previous look-at-me-I'm-small-cuteness. (Note: in only one of those pictures is she the only person in the picture.)

Also, I am half-way through skein two of seven on my sweater. I know people are awaiting the completion of the bag so that they can test-knit, but seriously... sweater. Sweater joy, sweater love. I've made waist shaping and by the end of class today I ought to be doing neck and armhole shaping. And, bonus, no buttons or button holes, yet it's still a cardigan. :D