Spring Break 2013

Last week was my spring break. M came up and visited home with me, after she had some auditions in Boston for theater. Her auditions went well. She got into the bus station on Monday with me right behind the bus to pick her up. We spent Tuesday watching the snow and Lord of the Rings with one of the dogs.

M and Jazz

Me and Jazz

There was a flurry just about everyday that we were there. We got some work done and watched some movies. We are both officially caught up with Doctor Who, just in time for it to start up again. There was also some cooking as we made three dinners for my family.

On wednesday we went to Acadia and found out that it is not open.
Later in the week we went to Deer Isle, which was pretty and cold, the trip was so that M could see the ocean.

shells in snow

M with articulated clam shell

Lobster claw

In other news, I have started on Mom's xmas present, it is a shawl called Roxbury Pond. Mom picked out the yarn with me helping, the color choice was entirely up to her with the restriction that she could not have neon pink yarn.

In random youtube videos: we have the avengers as seen using Merlin characters:

It should be noted that I did not make this video and I do not want to hear anything about season 5 as I have not watched it yet.

In which there is yarn and life

Sorry about disappearing for a little bit. Life got a little busy for a bit, there was thanksgiving, school work and life in general getting in the way, especially finals. I survived finals without going totally over the edge, by that I mean that I continued to shower. Home now, had a interesting drive as the weather wasn't the best.

For Thanksgiving my family continued the tradition of cooking food the entire day, there was stuffing, turkey, potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, two pies, and I made popovers.  Popovers are a wonderful food.

After I got back to school, M and I decorated for xmas. We hung lights in both of our rooms and in the hallway, M then put up a small advent calendar. The lights in the hallway looked really good.

Since the semester is over I will be getting off of the caffeine  that means I will now be drinking no coffee or any tea with caffeine in it for an entire week. Life is much less enjoyable with caffeine withdrawal.

In knitting news, I finished Grandma's present and mailed it to her, Mom's scarf has had all the ends finally sewn in, the blanket thing I am making is in the second skien. Merlin and I have be producing some decent yarns, I have a project in mind for them. I have started on Dad's present, and will hopefully finish it in time for xmas. My brother's present can resume progress no that I have gotten more yarn for it. Mom's birthday present is already taken care of.

Bus Rides, Broken Heating, and Maine

Yesterday I took a series of buses home. I started the bus rides at 11:50 and reached where my Dad picked me up a little after 21:00, didn't actually reach home until about 22:00. I hate riding on buses, I always end up sitting next to people, and there are never any good movies. My highlights of the trip are as follows: the first bus being late, sitting next to people, sitting next to the guy with spikes in the shoulders of his shirt, sitting next to the guy wearing suspenders and a T-shirt, having a coughing fit on a bus, having to listen to others cell phone conversation. So much fun, really not worth it.

Currently my house is a bit chilly as the heating isn't working properly, my room is down right cold at times. Also I have the internet working for me, for now at least.

First thing I do when I am at home is go to the library, I now have lots of pleasure reading books. Borrowed on spinning book and one book of tea cozy patterns. 

In good news, I have more yarn for the fish hat. Merlin came home and my cat still likes me(mostly). Did a burn test on some of my yarn in the driveway, rather fun, the results were that one yarn was wool, the other was acrylic.

Also tea is yummy, currently drinking Ginger Peach which is a nice black tea. 

Maine: land of darkness in the fall, it isn't even 16:30 as I type this and it is getting dark already. Beyond that the weather today was nice and so was sleep.

Packing For Thanksgiving break

Tuesday(Today/Tomorrow) I leave for home, for the Thanksgiving Break. Packing is complete except for the last minute things that go in later. I have started another baby blanket for the mindless knitting that it gives. It is a nice sage green color and has cotton in the yarn. 

Fall is one of the best times to take pictures at my college, the foliage is bright and the college is mostly pretty anyhow. 

One of the denizens of Lower Lake besides the beaver, has surfaced and been photographed on my phone.

The not Beaver

The Beaver with small tree

Not looking forward to the bus ride to Maine. Merlin will be traveling with me so that the rest of the family can meet my spinning wheel. 

November Day 7 or Winter is Coming

SNOW, ok, just had to get that out of my system. Yes it is snowing, and then the weather people say that it is going to rain which will not be so fun. Mostly just sitting in my room watching the snow fall, enjoying the heating, not so much the view because that is grey.

There's snow there, I promise

In really good news, Obama won! And Maine has marriage equality (hopefully to stay).

Apparently instead of stress eating I now stress spin since I got Merlin. I ended up making 3 small skeins of yarn while listening to election results and learned to Andean ply. Andean plying is kind of amusing to do, I do need to work on my technique a little bit so that I have better control of my yarn.

Drying 

Hanks sitting on my bed

Much work has been done on Grandma's hat, more to go.

It will be a hat, I swear it will be.

I won a $25 gift certificate to Amazon for completing a survey, buying fiber with it. We shall see how this goes.

Just because I can, and I am banned from xmas carols before Thanksgiving.

Beyond that, nothing interesting at all.

November Day 6 or Election Day

For all of my readers in the US if you have not voted already go do so ASAP. Personally I voted a while ago, absentee ballot, just because this is when I get a say in who run things in the national level and the local level. Also why are human rights up for the vote, just legalize same-gender marriage already Maine. Seriously you would think that this would be legal, it was for a while but there was a citizens veto. I am probably stay up way to late tonight due to watching the results come in. On a more amusing election note, my college has lots of geeks.

Sorry, can't vote for him, wrong side of the ocean.

Me and my Star Wars shirt

My parents sent me my fiber stuff so Merlin is actually spinning things now! Also included in the package was tea, chocolate and other assorted goodies.

Goodies, and backpack

In other news, I hate humanity less right now. The weather looks really nice out but it is cold outside.  Also there have been some sightings of the fighter jets flying overhead. In some really good news, my heat is on and working, my room no longer requires layers to function in! Don't know why it took so long.

November Day 3 Or I bought a spinning wheel!

Today I went to the Fiber Fest as the Big E and it was so wonderful. There was so much yarn and fiber and things made from yarn and animals and stuff. I went with M's girlfriend and we walked around the whole thing and cooed at things, we looked at drop spindles and I coveted the spinning wheels. One of the best animals that we saw where the babydoll sheep.

Then we walked around some more, I got permission from my parents to buy a spinning wheel as my xmas present! I bought a HitchHiker from The Merlin Tree. It is a single treadle and is wonderful and lovely and it is named Merlin.

Of course I have none of my fiber with me at college, so my parents will hopefully be sending some to me. 

In other things, because we need really cool movies with strong women characters I give you the trailer for Hua Mulan, the live action Chinese movie about Mulan.

Ending one month, beginning another

Ending October is a bittersweet experience. October had its good and bad points. For the good points: we had mountain day, the changing leaves were beautiful, I went to Rocky Horror picture show for the first time, knit, took lots of photos the heron that hangs out at my college.

Let's not go into the bad points as they are kind of sucky, suffice to say that parts of October were horrible.

In happier news, I have been making progress on my brother's hat, except I am now running out of yarn (pretty sure that I have more at home).

Yes, I have Star Wars sheets

It really doesn't look like a fish yet.

I went to a Halloween concert and there was someone dressed as Loki from the Avengers, so I got him to hold the hat! Not sure why all my friends weren't really impressed that I managed to get a boy to hold my knitting (I go to a women's college, not many men).

Other then that I have started on a hat that I will give as a xmas gift (Grandma) and I have started to make dishcloths.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was fun and rather amusing. I did wear a mini-skirt however it was accompanied by leggings as it was a little cold to be wearing just a mini-skirt. M wore a red dress I have (I don't really wear it) and her really big boots, which are beyond awesome.

When Hurricane Sandy came through thankfully all we had was some wind and rain, the college kept power the entire time and we had a day off. Of course a portion of the day was used to text back and forth with my family to make sure everyone was ok. My only prep for the storm was setting up contact plans in case of no power, making coffee, and bringing my bike in. My bike lived the entirety of Sandy in my closet, I have also finally named my bike it is now officially known as Kilgharrah, the dragon from Merlin.

I have also on occasion been attempting to drink obscene amounts of teas, in some very interesting combos. Trying to remember to drink non-caffeinated things before bed can be a little hard when you have black teas that you like.

Next up, November, the month of Thanksgiving and the bus ride to home and the cat (dogs too). In November I will be trying to blog every day for the entire month.

Also if you haven't seen this you should watch it now!