eat light:

How about this for a throwback thursday, huh? This is an old thing I used to do on Fridays, only now it seems appropriate to move it to Thursdays.

Reading: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (for teaching); and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. I just started the latter last night so I can't say much about how I like it. I'm really enjoying the former--more so than I did the first time I read it, I think. It's particularly interesting to me, in the context of my utopian literature class.

Wearing: Currently: a jean skirt, a gray v-neck t-shirt with an owl on the front, and brown sandals. I'm a little bit worried because I forgot to bring a jacket to campus today, and it's starting to cloud up. I have to teach 3:30-5:30, so I'm hoping it doesn't cool off too much before I head home.

Watching: Uh...not much, actually. I did watch the season finale of The Blacklist yesterday, and really liked it. I'm glad that show got renewed for next year. I think it's good. I'm kind of a dope for James Spader, though, so YMMV.

Planning: I have a meeting tomorrow, so I have to be on campus in the afternoon. No real plans for after that. Saturday I'm going to the U-District Street Fair. Saturday night I'm going solo to the Seattle Pro Musica performance of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem. Looking forward to that! It's at St. James' Cathedral downtown.

Knitting: I've been working on a self-designed pullover in a color that is highly unusual for me. It's like a purple-y fuchsia color. Way closer to pink than I usually (like...ever) wear.

Other: My running has been going really well lately. I ran my first 5k in a long time last weekend, and I had a great run this morning.

I'm moving this feature to Saturday mornings, so it corresponds to the end of my running week. I think of Saturday as the last day of the week anyway--I guess this is residue from my Catholic upbringing. So here goes...

READING: This week I've been reading short fiction: "Birth Days" by Geoff Ryman, which was recommended to me by one of my committee members. It took me about a month and a half to procure a copy--I had to do an inter-library loan request for The Year's Best Science Fiction, volume 21, which is apparently very hard to come by. I searched new and used bookstores around town, and managed to find volumes 18, 19, 20, 22, and so on, but no volume 21. So I put in the ILL request, and it took them a month to fill it--the copy that finally arrived was from a public library somewhere. I had the book in my possession for a grand total of a half hour--just long enough for me to photocopy the story and put the book into the returns drop box. Sheesh! At least the story was worth it. In addition to that, I've also been making my way through Brain Stableford's Designer Genes (a short story collection), which is perhaps a little too "rah-rah" about biotechnology for my taste, but the stories are nicely weird, well-written and interesting.

WEARING: At the moment I'm still in my running clothes. Oh wait, I changed the W to...
WATCHING: Chris and I continue to make progress through our various Star Trek watch-a-thons. We finished season 3 of TNG, and just watched the movies VI (The Undiscovered Country, one of my favorites) and VII (Generations); plus I watched V (The Final Frontier) by myself, because Chris hatezes it. I think that's about it for the W's.

PLANNING: A rollicking good weekend! Today I'm going to finish up my laundry, which at this point merely entails folding the clean laundry and putting all the sheets back on my bed (I washed the mattress pad and pillow slip covers in addition to the "regular" sheets). Tonight at midnight I'm going to see the Nazi Zombies SIFF movie at the Egyptian, with a couple of knitting friends. Before then I'm going out for drinks with Chris and a couple of other friends. Tomorrow it's brunch followed by an afternoon at Folk Life. Monday...I don't know yet what I'm doing during the day; in the evening I'll be at Purlygirls. Next week/weekend Chris and I are flying (separately--he's leaving Tuesday, I'm leaving Thursday morning) to Philadelphia for a wedding. We both get back on Monday 6/1.

KNITTING: I'm almost done with "Viridis," a.k.a. "The Big Green Box (Stitch)," the sweater I'm making for Chris. I'm hoping to finish that this weekend--I have joined the sleeves and started the yoke. I don't know what I'm going to knit next. I definitely want to cast on for something before I leave, or at least have something ready to start so that I can do some knitting on the plane.

RUNNING: I finished up Week 7 of the Runner's World "First Steps" program today--this morning, in fact. This week's formula for each run was 3[9(r) + 1(w)]. Next week, which starts tomorrow, it'll be 2[13(r) + 2(w)]. Where: r = running, w = walking, and the units = minutes. Heee! It's fun to build mathematical expressions! I'm looking forward to next week because fewer repeats and longer intervals spent running equals less time checking my watch. Today's run was really good. I enjoyed it right from the beginning. I figured out another way that running helps me spiritually, too: I find it easier to do that visualization thing--you know, "see yourself accomplishing your goals!"--when I'm actually in the act of accomplishing one. I also re-affirmed my preference for running in the morning. These two things are related: it's good to start the day with an accomplishment, especially one that makes me feel strong and capable of committing to the small steps required to reach a big goal. It is, perhaps, a little sad that I still need to be reminded of this, at my age (where is that wisdom and self-knowledge, that "my own" I'm supposed to "come into" as I get older?), but I guess it's good that reminding myself still works.

READING: I finally finished that Cloud's End by Sean Stewart. It's one of his earlier novels, and it shows. The writing is uneven, and the plot is both cluttered and anticlimactic. Where Stewart weaves in cliffhangers, they just aren't effective. It's such a contrast to his later novels, which I loved: Mockingbird and especially Perfect Circle, which are simpler yet richer tales. Still, this novel was a decent enough read. The characters are interesting and round, for the most part, and the dialog is about 70% believable. My main complaint about the book is that it just never seemed to be taking me anywhere. Anyway, I finished that yesterday morning right before I headed downtown to pick up my coat. Yay! The buttons--and the cosmic order--have been restored. Last night before I fell asleep I started reading The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen. I've never read him before, and I have to say...the first few pages are really great, full of the kind of rich detail and interesting character development (already!) that I look for in a novel. I haven't read enough to get a sense of the plot yet. This book was recommended--and, in fact, given--to me by Amelia, a friend from my knitting group. I was talking about my dad at knitting one night--I think we may have been talking about good vs. sappy film depictions of dementia--and she said this book offers a realistic depiction of an elderly character suffering from Parkinson's-related dementia, and of how his wife responds, avoids seeing/knowing the truth, and covers for him. Only a few pages in, and already I agree with Amelia's assessment. I hope it maintains the tone and momentum it has already established.

WATCHING: Last night glaucon, rrspike, and I watched I Don't Know Jack, a somewhat low-fi biographical documentary that David Lynch did [ETA: glaucon just informed me that Lynch was just one of the producers on this film.] about Jack Nance, who starred in Eraserhead and had bit parts in other Lynch movies (among other things). He's the guy who uttered that famous line in Twin Peaks, "She's wrapped in plastic." The film was really good, even though it kind of followed a predictable path for a biomentary: here's where he started; here's a bunch of people saying what a great guy he was, telling specific stories to illustrate his good qualities and to show you how quirky and loved he was; here's those same people talking about his tragic flaw (alcoholism), telling stories about how awful he could be and how tragic it all was; and here's some other people telling what they know about his last year, how he died, the mysteries and unanswered questions surrounding his death, etc. And yet...I really enjoyed it. I pretty much knew where it was going the whole time, but Nance really was a charismatic and weird and sympathetic person, and the film presents its material in a compelling way, so I found it fascinating.

PLANNING: I have dinner plans tonight, which will be followed by some kind of pinball outing. Tomorrow I'm planning to take boxes of crap that I'm getting rid of around to various destinations (Red Light, Buffalo Exchange, Value Village, etc.). I spent a few hours last weekend going through my closet, and have been tripping over my "discard" piles all week. I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff. Costumes...it's just time. I haven't worn any of them for several years. Other clothing...same deal. And OMG shoes! I have cut my shoe collection drastically--by over half. Unfortunately what's left consists mainly of specialized shoes (running shoes, hiking boots, sandals, dress shoes to wear with skirts, etc.), and the basic, wear all the time shoes I held onto are pretty trashed. (If you know me IRL...those black mary janes I always wear...for example.) So after all this culling, I went out and bought 3 new pairs of basic shoes yesterday: a pair of cordovan clogs, another pair of the same damned black mary janes (because I love them, they are being discontinued, and they were thus marked down), and a pair of blue Simple sneakers (which surprisingly fit me--they are usually too wide). So anyway, this weekend is housecleaning weekend. Once I get all this crap out of my room I'm going to put everything back together while also vacuuming under and around everything. On Sunday I'll have some grading to do in addition to the omnipresent dissertation work. Things are finally moving on that front again--by which I mean officially moving, with my committee and stuff. I have a full committee meeting to prep for......sometime by the end of January, hopefully. ETA: I forgot to mention that glaucon and I also have dinner plans for tomorrow (Saturday) evening, and are going to see that new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino, afterward.

KNITTING: Still working on my Cardigan for Arwen. I am currently re-knitting the first cuff for the THIRD time. My idea about grafting the cable together to make a nice cuff is proving very problematic. I'm going to try it one more time before resorting to the 3-needle bindoff. Once it's done I have to decide whether to start right in on the stockinette portion of the sleeve, or to knit the other cuff and then do both sleeves. I'm leaning toward the latter. Also, I finished one of the 2 scarves I've had on the needles for awhile: my Noro Striped Scarf. I washed it yesterday, and it's drying now. I'm leaving it unblocked because the 1x1 rib is squishiest and warmest if you let it do its accordion pleat thing. Today I'm going to steam block my mom's cardigan to "kill" the acrylic. ("Killing" acrylic permanently sets the stitches. I'm hoping this works OK with an acrylic-wool blend. I think it will. I'm concerned that the lace skirt on the sweater will bunch all up the first time my mom throws it in the wash.)

That's it for this week, kids. Hopefully next week I'll have a new "R" to add to the semi-weekly update. More on that later.

One might even call this entry "out of order," since it's not Friday. I prefer "special," as in: just in time for Seattle's Holiday on Ice!

READING: Still with the Cloud's End by Sean Stewart, yadda yadda. It's an engaging story, just slow going for me since I only really read it right before I fall asleep at night. It materializes that whole "nightstand reading" trope.

WATCHING: Doctor Who, just barely digging into Series 3. No more Rose. :::sniff:::

WEARING: OK, this bit makes a brief reappearance. Jeans, green long-sleeved tee, black cardigan what I knitted, and green scarf what also I knitted.

PLANNING: Tomorrow is the 4th annual Crest theater extravaganza for glaucon and me. Weird mix of movies this year (in order): The Secret Life of Bees, Body of Lies, High School Musical III (which should be interesting, since we've never seen the first two), and finally Tell No One. They actually have 6 movies playing this year, so there's no way we can see all of them unfortunately.

KNITTING: I finished the knitting on my mom's cardigan. Just need to wash it, block it, and sew on some kind of closure (either pewter clasps or snaps, since I didn't make button holes), which I also have to go select and purchase. Monday night at Purlygirls I cast on for my first NaKniSweMoDo sweater: a heavily modified rendition of A Cardigan for Arwen (scroll down--it's the second project listed). I'm calling it "A Cardigan for St. Patrick" because I'm knitting it with some Cascade 220 Wool, the colorway of which is called "Ireland." My modifications will include knitting it seamless (Elizabeth Zimmerman style), changing the arm and shoulder construction, lengthening the body, and losing the hood. I'm giving it a wide collar instead, which will still show off the awesomeness of that ingenious reversible cable.

HAIR & SKIN REPORT: I'm back on the baking soda & vinegar regimen, but I'm doing it a bit differently. Instead of mixing the baking soda into a cup of water in the shower, I'm pouring about half of it into my hand and making a paste instead, using the rest only if I feel like a certain spot needs more. This gives me more control over where it goes, so I can apply it just to my roots (it seemed to be drying out my ends, before). Also, I'm using white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. It leaves less of a smell in my hair, to my nose. I follow that with a small shot of conditioner--still using Bumble & Bumble thickening conditioner, but I think I might switch to this Kiehl's conditioner as soon as I can procure a bottle--and a final rinse with cold water. (Sorry for that truly ugly sentence.) I'm still using the oil cleansing method for my face, with an occasional baking soda scrub or pore cleansing mask, and I'm still loving the results. My skin doesn't miss soap or foaming cleansers at all. Oh, I also started using Strivectin as my moisturizer, twice per day. I tried this stuff once before, but I was only using it once per day and wasn't particularly impressed. This time it is really helping my skin--apparently twice per day is the charm. My skin feels much softer and smoother to the touch, and it looks a little bit more evenly toned to me too...though I doubt that it looks any different to anyone else.

That's it for today. Happy holidays!

READING: Still working on Cloud's End by Sean Stewart. That's the only extra-curricular reading I'm doing right now.

WATCHING: Watched the end of Doctor Who, season 1 last night. I really liked the chemistry between Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, so I'm somewhat sad about David Tennant taking over. And of course I already know that he's leaving the series shortly, so I'll probably get used to him and come to like him and then he'll leave too. And so it goes. I like that about the Doctor, though; it's a cool conceit, to have a character that doesn't die but instead becomes someone else.

PLANNING: I guess I'm going to the CI this evening. I'm going to Bothell this afternoon to pick up the last batch of student portfolios. Other than that, it will be a weekend of grading.

KNITTING: Still working on the red cardigan for my mom. The first sleeve is done now. Yesterday I spent some time going through and cataloging my yarn stash, photographing it, and uploading pics to my Flickr site and to my Ravelry stash pages. I still have a little bit more to do, but my I can't seem to find my camera battery charger anywhere. I can't for the life of me remember where I put it. Oh, and I joined a group on Ravelry called NaKniSweMoDo--National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon--which means that I am setting a goal of knitting one adult-sized sweater per month this year. That's a lot of knitting. It will help me with my New Year's resolution, though, which is to knit down my yarn stash! Yeah. I have enough yarn to knit 10 sweaters, plus several pairs of socks. (Actually, I technically have yarn for another couple of sweaters but it's yarn that I hate knitting with and plan to get rid of--mercerized cotton, which knits up pretty but is hell on my hands; and cotton chenille which is also hell on my hands but knits up for crap, thus has no redeeming value.) So that's what I'm going to be knitting this year: sweaters and socks. I'll be working on the sweaters primarily at home and at Purlygirls, and the socks will be my new bus knitting projects as soon as I finish up the two scarves I'm working on. (One is almost done. The other is only about 2 feet long right now.)

READING: Sean Stewart's Galveston. So far I like this one as much as I've liked anything else I've ever read by Stewart. I guess that doesn't really tell you anything so I'll add...I keep reading him because his books are interesting and beautifully written. This one included. It's set in Galveston, oddly enough; it's magical realist conceit: ever since the "flood" (of magic, not water) that happened during Mardi Gras 2004, there have been two Galvestons separated by a magical border. In one, ruled over by the god Momus, it is always Mardi Gras 2004. In the other, magic is not allowed, and a post-apocalyptic state exists. The main character, Sloane, travels between the two Galveston's with the aid of a personality-altering mask.

WEARING: At the moment, green cords that are too short for me and a light blue polar fleece top with a white t-shirt underneath.

PLANNING: Nothing on the agenda for today except putting the house back in order after yesterday's big Thanksgiving day feast, and some grading. I'm still fighting off the last dregs of the ick I posted about a week and a half ago. Still with the rattly cough and the snotty nose, but it's almost almost almost gone. Physically I feel fine--energy levels back up to 100%.

KNITTING: Working on a cardigan for my mother, of my own design. It has a lace pattern at the bottom, and will be plain stockinette at the top. I'm making pretty good progress--I'm almost done with the body (worked seamlessly in one piece) to the armholes. Next I'll knit the sleeves and then join them to the body and knit the yoke. I'm still debating whether to make them plain or to echo the lace pattern somehow. I'm leaning toward plain, with picot trim at the cuffs.

HAIR AND SKIN REPORT: All is well. Back to the baking soda and apple cider vinegar routine, followed by some conditioner. So far so good. I've been using Cetaphil (the original formula, not the one made for normal to oily skin because it has a very unpleasant fragrance in it for some bizarre reason) instead of doing the oil cleansing method. I don't know why, I just got a wild hair to give it a try, and I actually really like it. It seems to work very well on my skin. I'm planning to give it another week, and then decide whether or not I like it better than the OCM.

READING: I finished reading Farthing, the book by Jo Walton I posted about in a previous RWPK. About a third of the way through the book, I was completely hooked and had to know what happened. After I finished it, I immediately wanted to buy the sequel, Ha'Penny. Last weekend I was in Portland, and found it at Powell's, along with a third book that I didn't even realize existed (though in retrospect, I think I must have seen it at Third Place Books up in Lake Forest Park, which is where I got Farthing on my friend Sarah's recommendation). That one is called Half a Crown. So of course, since last weekend I have now completed both Ha'Penny and Half a Crown. I am also still working on the Stegner (Spectator Bird) and a book my brother encouraged me to take from our parents' house: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' The Hidden Life of Dogs. It's a fascinating account of Thomas' observations of dogs, in her quest to answer the question of what dogs "want." She's shamelessly anthropomorphic in her observations and in her analysis, but I find it interesting all the same. It sheds new light on dog behavior.

WEARING: At the moment I'm decked out in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I'm working at home today and just wanted to be comfy when I got up this morning. The sweatshirt was given to me by my sister, Jan. I think I may have posted about it before. It bears words in Latin: "Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes," which apparently means (with confirmation from glaucon) "If you can read this, you have too much education."

PLANNING: This weekend will be nowhere near as exciting as last weekend was. How do you top a trip to Portland, a fun housewarming party, and a Fleet Foxes show at the Moore? Tonight I'm going to the College Inn for beer and nachos with friends. I don't know what will happen after that. Tomorrow I'm going to be home doing some work, though I might decide to take an epic walk. Tomorrow evening I want to stop in at my friend Edward's birthday party, which is happening at the Rendezvous. Sunday I have no plans as yet.

KNITTING: I'm almost afraid to blog about my knitting anymore, after this story about that Carnation woman who was starving her stepdaughter to death. Apparently she was "preoccupied with knitting" and kept an "obscure blog about her obsession with knitting." Creepy. And I feel compelled to say that yes, I am a somewhat obsessive knitter. I knit almost every day, usually to pass time on the bus or to keep my hands occupied while hanging out with my roommates. I also blog about my knitting, and post pictures of my knitting on that--one might say "obscure"--blog and on my Ravelry project pages. I participate in knitting discussion forums on Ravelry, and I read a bunch of other knitting blogs (you can see a list of the blogs I keep track of on my blogspot blog). I daydream about future projects, and I have a large yarn stash (though not so large that I couldn't list everything in it, without peeking, if I had to). But I'm a nice person who wouldn't hurt a fly, and I believe the same to be true about the other knitters and knit bloggers I know.

Yeah, I know, it's silly to feel like I have to defend myself and this craft that I love just because some other knitter did this horrific thing. The knitting community, like any other community, has its share of bad apples, and in fact I expect that the percentage of bad apples in the knitting community is substantially similar to the percentage in the population at large. It's a weird impulse, and I can't fully explain where it comes from except to say that there's something about belonging to a smaller community that makes one feel protective of it. Sort of like how, when I was a teenager, I was "allowed" to complain about my mom to my friends, or to talk about how weird my family was; but if anyone else dared to breathe a critical syllable, I turned into an overprotective pitbull. In this case, of course, it is not Rebecca Long that I want to protect, it is knitting, knitters, and the knitting community, especially that group of knitters who knew her IRL or on Ravelry, or read her blog, yet never guessed that she was capable of anything like this.

On a Saturday...better late than never, I guess. I was sick yesterday so I slept right through my Friday feature which is only semi-regular at best anyway. Hope nobody was on the verge of mental collapse yesterday, waiting for me to post this.

READING: Just to clarify--I am no longer going to discuss stuff I'm reading for "work" purposes here, i.e. for class or for my dissertation. From now on, this space is reserved for nightstand reading only. So. Right now the only book I have going is Wallace Stegner's The Spectator Bird. I enjoyed Angle of Repose so much when I read it several years ago, that I have always been meaning to pick up more of his stuff. Now I have. This is a short little book about an old guy and his wife reliving a time in their lives that...I'm not sure yet. The guy has been reading aloud to his wife from his journals of that time period, journals she didn't know he had kept. So they are "sharing" the experiences anew. The journals are from when they traveled together to Denmark, from where the man's ancestors come; they ended up letting half an apartment from a noblewoman who has fallen from grace because of her husband's apparent collaboration with the Nazis during the War. Clearly, something life- and marriage-altering happened with this woman, Astrid, but I haven't figured out what yet. I'm guessing it was an affair...and that the husband thinks the wife doesn't know about it, but she does. I'll let you know whether or not I was right about that.

WEARING: jeans, black t-shirt, black socks, shoes, and the burgundy sweater I knit for myself somewhat recently. (It's the Strawberry Lace Cardigan from Veronik Avery's Knitting Classic Style, and I finished it like 3 weeks ago.)

PLANNING: tonight, going to a wine party at my friend L's house. Tomorrow I'm going to finish cleaning my room and moving my office to the basement, plus I have some work that I'm going to try to actually do in my new office-y space. My bedroom was getting way too crowded and driving me insane, hence the move.

KNITTING: I'm knitting on several projects somewhat half-assedly. I'm not on an especial mission to finish any of them. On one set of needles, I have my first pair of socks. The first sock is done, and I'm about 3" into the cuff of the second sock (they are top-down). For bus knitting, I'm working on my second rendition of the Lace Ribbon Scarf (from last Spring's Knitty), which I'm knitting with the yarn specified in the pattern this time. And last but not least, I have a rendition of Jess's Gansey (from Interweave Knits) going. It's at a small gauge, so it's going very slowly. It's the project that is destined to go on and off the back burner for the next several months, because I have a couple of projects to knit for other people during that time. I'm hoping to start the first of those, a cardigan for my mother, sometime next week, and possibly tomorrow.

Hey, I got a new userpic via www.faceyourmanga.com.

What do you think?

My one annoyance is that, while they have eyebrow, cheek, and lip piercings in their library of stuff you can put in your avatar, they have no nose rings. WTF? What is the most common facial piercing again? Oh, right. The nose ring! I tried adding an eyebrow piercing and using the little up/down arrows to move it, but it won't move all the way down to the nose. Nor will it move up to the nose from the lip. :::le sigh:::

Also, they don't have my hairstyle. This was about as close as I could get.

OK, back to more pressing matters...

READING: Not really anything. On my bedstand I have Naked on the Page by Jane Ganahl, which is a silly book by a woman who does an "older, single woman navigating the dating scene" for the SF Chronicle. Or did. I have no idea whether or not her column still runs. So I guess I'm reading that, but only as I fall asleep at night.

WEARING: At the moment, gray sweats, a green tank top and a black zip-up hoodie.

PLANNING: Going to the CI tonight. Possibly to a thing in Cap Hill later on tonight (I'm up for it, not sure about the rest of the gang). Tomorrow I'm hoping to stop by maeveh and pigbark's housewarming shindig. I might spend some time during the day going through my shit--it's time to purge some dead weight. Sunday is blissfully open. Also, there will be yoga this weekend. I bought the super duper 2-month unlimited pass, only $99 for new students at the Yoga Tree in Fremont. Woo-hoo! I love yoga.

KNITTING: Still working on my Strawberry Lace Cardigan, from Veronik Avery's Knitting Classic Style. Did I blog about that before? I'm going to knit another one as soon as I'm done with this one. This one's for me. The second one will be for my mom.

I didn't do my RWPK thing on Friday, so I'm going to do it today instead. This coming Friday I will be traveling--glaucon and I are going East for the better part of 12 days (including the travel days on each end--we leave on 8/1 and return on 8/12). Other things in my life are making me feel really sad...in need of cheering up. I don't feel inclined to talk about it here. So here goes:

READING: Still savoring Adrienne Rich's On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. The essays are excellent--interesting and thoughtful. There's really nothing like reading cultural criticism and feminist theory written by a poet. Wordage: she haz it. I also just just just started Sheri Teppper's The Gate to Women's Country. I've been meaning to read this for awhile, and people keep telling me it's awesome. I've been on kind of a second-wave feminism and feminist SF kick lately. I've been reading everything from that ilk and era that I can get my hands on. Hmmm. Maybe I should teach a class on feminist SF...? That would be super cool, actually. I think I'll write it up, even if I have noone to whom I can really pitch it.

WEARING: Today I'm wearing jeans, a black tank top with a tan "tattoo" swallow (the bird) design on the front (it's made by Sailor Jerry, if that means anything to you). My usual silver doggie necklace, leafy ring, and black strappy slip on shoes, inside of which my feet are bare.

PLANNING: Mad phat grading, yo. I'm going to the Seattle Purlygirls knit night this evening, and will be grading furiously all damned day tomorrow. Just made plans for tomorrow with wondrousbeauty, to have lunch followed by a work date. I'm very much looking forward to that. Additionally, I'll be dog sitting for superannuated1l for a couple of days...then leaving for points East on Friday.

KNITTING: Last night I finished the body of my February Lady Sweater--it's turning out really nicely. Today I started a sleeve--took the held stitches off their scrap yarn and knit a couple of lace repeats. It's a little tight on a 16" circ needle, but I really don't want to use DPN's. (For the non-knitters, "DPN" stands for double-pointed needles. If you've ever seen someone knit socks and it looked like they were juggling a bunch of stabby sticks in an impossible configuration, you were witnessing someone using DPN's. My DPN's are especially stabby looking because they are super shiny nickel-plated brass with extra-sharp tips. Most people use bamboo or wood DPN's. I would, but I find them too sticky, and they mess up my gauge.) I'm hoping to finish this sweater before I leave on Friday, which should be do-able. Sleeves are pretty quick to knit. I want to knit the cardigan I'm planning for my mother during the upcoming trip. It should keep me plenty busy. When I finish that, I might start in on the knockoff of the Dude's sweater that I'm planning to make--by request--for glaucon. Or...I might do something else quicker and smaller first. I have so many projects on the drawing board!