Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Dumb blog Design

Let's talk about how dumb my blog looks right now. Real dumb. Real, real dumb. For some reason I remember there being so many more blog designs to choose from on blogspot, but there aren't. Don't get me wrong. I'm ever so grateful for the simplicity offered by blogspot. Not like I know how to design a webpage and besides it's budget friendly! But doesn't anyone else think it's time to update the background options. There are like two that allow for full screen photos like I posted yesterday or whenever that was. And they are dumb. So for now I will pout.

Now this is what I call summer!

From Summer2009

Sunday, June 21, 2009

My Day In Pictures

Shouldn't take long to figure out that I had an AWESOME day with my friend Dana and her parents!

From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler


From Fiddler

Friday, June 19, 2009

A day in the life of a nerd

Today I was up to my ears in data. Well, actually this morning I wasn't. We had training on doing doubly labeled water studies. I won't bore you with the details, but like most of my research...it involves diet records and urine collection. I really have it good! I felt like a dork though because i started day dreaming about other mini-studies we could do during the big study. It's sad to think that only one year into this PhD think I'm already starting to see how much data we can milk out of a study. About 2 weeks ago I was at a conference in DC and was inspired to look into portion size estimation a lot more. To make a long story short, we know people can't estimate how much they eat but we don't know why. Today I thought of an easy study that could give some insight on that.

It was really the afternoon that I was up to my ears in data. We kind of designed our own cheeseburger and it doesn't have a food code. Everything MUST have a food code. So now I have to do tons of math...er uh...arithmetic to figure out how to deal with it compared to existing food codes. I'm not a fan of math and was easily distracted by Pioneer Woman. Everything she does is disgustingly exquisite. So that made me think of all my pretty dishes. And...since I'm getting to be a wiz kid with databases I thought to myself...I should catalog my dishes in a giant database! Sadly I don't use my dishes right now, so I thought I could put the catalog on my blog and when people need massive amounts of awesome dishes for a dinner or a party they can kind of rent them from me.

Knitting is still going. I'll probably just keep knitting and catalog dishes in another life time. I don't feel like taking a picture right now, so sorry for the photoless post.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Queen of Kitchener

I finally got up the nerve to do the tubular bind off on the collar part of my sweater. It's basically kitchener stitch, but crazier because there are about 300 stitches. I'm cheating a little bit. You're supposed to do 2 rows of double knitting (it's in the video). I pretty much just started slipping the knit stitches onto one really long double pointed needle and the purl stitches on another. So here's the picture...You can see my double pointed needles, the rediculously long piece of yarn on the darning needle, the circular needle I used to knit the dang thing and about 20 stitches cast off. Since taking the picture I have 80 stitches bound off and it's looking much nicer. I actually think doing it more like kitchener is easier than trying to follow the instructions for the tubular bind off. Theoretically I'm getting the same effect. It's really stretchy and looks nice! Although it's tempting to stay up and knit, I have to get some sleep. I'm way too tired lately.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Ha! I beat Annie!

After yoga today I had way too much fun chatting and laughing with my friend Sarah. We're both too scatter brained and into school stuff to hang out very often which turns out to be perfect. We were supposed to have lunch today, but we both forgot. I saw her old roommates over by stone hall when I was on my way home to let the dogs out which is what tipped me off that I had forgotten. Crap! So I called Sarah and left a message hoping she had forgotten too. She called me a little while later to apologize for forgetting. It was really funny. So we had coffee instead. Laughing with a friend is the best kind of workout.

Annie is awesome and gave me a friendship bread start. I hope I don't ruin it! I've never been the best at making bread, but I'll sure give it a try! The thing is, when I got to her house there was an odd van that said "Mobile Command Unit" on the front. There was even a camera on the dashboard. We watched it for a while and tried to figure out why it was parked there. I figured they had a bugged informant in a house nearby and the police were going to get some big drug bust. Annie seemed to think something along the same lines. Just as I was about to leave, an old man in a suit came up to the van and opened it and out hopped a little dog! What?!?!? Annie and I nearly died. Here we had imagined up some drama and it was just an old man and his camper van. He asked me where the nearest Wal-Mart is and explained that he's allowed to stay in Wal-Mart parking lots. He figures "Mobile Command Unit" sounds better than "Little Old Man With Cash." What a character! It looked for all the world like a police detective van. Well, except that it wasn't too subtle. Guess the joke is on us!

For the record I beat Annie to posting that storie. She'll probably tell it better though! Please tell your version of the story Annie!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Conundrum

It's Tuesday, so that means knitting night at Barnes and Nobles. 7-9 PM. Sad plug, but come on. It's the best entertainment in town on a Tuesday night! I'm having problems with the sweater I'm knitting. There is a chance that when it's all done, it's going to be huge. Other people on Ravelry have had this problem. Makes me nervous. My biggest problem right now is the bindoff around the neckline. There are about 300 stitches or so and I can't decide if I want to do the tubular bindoff or the normal one. Decisions, decisions. On the bright side, I think I convinced a girl to knit herself a sweater. She's in highschool and makes an impressive number of blankets for the Linus project. Yay for her! I am still admittedly a not-so-charitable knitter. Hopefully I can convince her that sweaters are the best thing to knit!

Seriously, i will post pictures soon.

Monday, June 15, 2009

My Big Fat Greek Windex


Last summer I spent hours upon hours on my hands and knees scrubbing the silt off the wood floors in the recovering river house with a stif bristle brush. For anyone who has experienced a flood, the silty dirt residue does NOT come off with water. When wet, it becomes clay and just smears around. So the other day mom accidentally found out that Windex miraculously makes silt cling to the cleaning object of choice! I don't know what the accident was, but let me tell ya...it's a lot easier with a bottle of Windex! Maye it really is the cure for everything!
Before Windex After Windex




Saturday, June 13, 2009

maybe i will try again

I suppose I could try to blog again. Some days it seems like life is too busy and not interesting enough to blog. It's summer now and that brings a new air of optimism for starting anew. I don't really know why we make new year's resolutions in January. Seems like spring or summer would be a much better time. This is a way better time to start exercising, being more environmentally friendly, blogging, etc. Not that I'm doing those things very well, but this would be the time! I did sign up for PiYo at the co-rec. Monday we mostly do pilates and Wednesday we mostly do yoga. Either way I can barely walk the next morning. The co-rec charges for classes like PiYo, so I feel obliged to go. It's not that big a deal since I enjoy it, but it's nice to be half-forced to go. Although I've embraced the fact that I don't enjoy running I'm running anyway. If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to buy cute Nike running shorts! I ran with Baxter yesterday. It's more like interval training than endurance training. Maybe sprinting from tree to tree will make me a stonger runner! Who knows!

Today had wasn't such a bad Saturday. Slept in for the first time in ages. Can't complain about that! Did some laundry...not so exciting. Went to TJ Maxx for the irst time in ages and bought some cute Nike running shorst and a Father's day gift for John. Props to me for getting a Father's day gift a week early! And it's not even related to golf! This afternoon I got to hang out with my niece for a while. She's pretty hilarious. Her songs are the best. Well actually, her fashion sense is the best. Annie has pictures on her blog that will keep you amused for a while. Plus stories to humor you for a while! Mostly Anja wanted to read books and shout at squirrells. I tried to help teach her to jump on the couch, but that was only mildly successful. I also tried to get her to say Auntie, but that didn't really work either. She just pointed to me and laughed every time I said "auntie." Little bug! We had fun though and that's all that really matters! It will be more fun when we can fingerpaint!

I'm trying to get 2 sweaters done. Well, actually I'm trying to get one sweater done and then I'll try to get the other done. I've been working on one since last week. There were a lot of meetings during that time, so it's just one sleeve short of being done. The other sweater is a sleeve and a collar and a lot of piecing together away from being done. If I weren't so lazy I'd get off my lazy bum and take some pictures. Maybe later. Hopefully the summer sweater will be done in the next day or two so I can wear it on cool summer nights!