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.

PI Day 2013

It is pi day today and the SciFi/Fantasy club on campus is celebrating by having pie with their movie tonight. I celebrated by having some pie, also wishing people happy pi day.

Courtesy of my brother

I finished the hat I was making myself, most of the knitting time I had was during class time. Knitting during class helps me concentrate so that I learn better as well as being less distracting with all of my fidgeting.

Beyond that, the last horse show I was in I got to try reining, and it was fun. I had no idea how to do some of the stuff, other things I only knew the theory. It was fun, and I did ok, the class wasn't a serious class, so it was really fun to watch all of us go. The class that I actually competed in I did alright in, and the horse I was on was wonderful. This past weekend I went to regionals to watch and cheer on my teammates who qualified, it was fun, we had two people who qualified for semi-finals in California for there classes as individuals. The team will be sending a full team as well as we won the region. Once again I have no pictures.

Because it is my neighbor's birthday today, I leave you with this:

Knitting and Horses

I have been busy with classes, western riding team, and some knitting. Classes have been going well with the occasional lack of sleep but that is life. Beowulf is interesting as I am slowly learning Old English.

My computer has decided that now is the time to start a slow slide to death. This makes doing some of my homework a little interesting as the speakers have decided that they don't always want to work.

The riding team is fun. I will post some pictures eventually.

The team, jumping off a wall.

Progress continues on the hat, I am on my second chart about half way through it. A friend let me borrow her hand cards so I am working on processing some of my raw alpaca fiber.

The hat

M was in a play called "Summer at Yasnaya Polyana" it was a student directed and created work. The play was about Tolstoy, his wife and a piano player. M was the piano player and she had a beard.

It was worth going to and seeing, I do not feel bad for skipping the other two plays as I had a free ticket due to being a student.
The weather has turned and now there is mud everywhere.
ON that note, the Doctor is coming and with him comes soufflé girl.

On a positive note Kilgharrah(my bike) now has lights, not just the reflectors. And yes that requires a dancing Ood.

Back at college

 I have returned to college and thus my time is consumed by attending classes and doing homework. Also I joined the Western Riding team at the college, which is fun even when I can't feel my toes from the cold.

In knitting news, I started a new pair of socks for me, they are Lothlorien socks in a green yarn, it is looking like they will be absolutely amazing. Beyond that I have not done as much knitting as I would like, but I did finish a Weeping Angel I was making for a friend.

My angel, my roommate's angel and Doctor, and our xmas presents to each other.
Alternatively, the angels have the phone boxes.

During the last major snowstorm I spun enough yarn for a hat, the hat will be me.

The snowstorm dropped about 2 feet of snow on the college and shut it down for 2.5 days, however we never lost power or anything, just had a large amount of snow.

That black rail thing is a bike rack in front of one of the dorms

The rest of college life is about normal, lots of work, not enough sleep.

Just because it is Valentines Day, here is  a selection of valentines I found using Google.

My roommate gave me this one

Slow internet, and life

In the past few days I have started and completed my Dad's hat, bought some new tea, and a new tea cup. Beyond that life and the internet have both been rather slow.

My new tea cup

Dad's hat was a fairly quick work up, the pattern was nice (Turn-a-square hat) and I liked the yarn that I spun myself. The only thing I did not like was that my bamboo circular that I was using started to splinter. Pictures of the hat will come when I get back to school and can use my computer again. 

Snow, Snow and more snow

One week, two snow storms. The first one was named Euclid, on Thursday. Euclid gave us about a foot of snow and closed the library early. When I went to work that morning there was snow on the road and the roads weren't plowed in my town, by the afternoon the roads were plowed but people had started to have accidents  There was one in the center of my town, no one was hurt apparently  but the car was upside down in the ditch. On Friday we had some time so Dad had me clear the deck with the electric snow blower, I prefer the shovel and the giant snow mountain that results.

Freyr was the second storm, there has been at least another foot of snow from it. The major part of the snow came down in the night so beyond waking up and realizing that there is tons of snow again life is good.

In knitting, I have decided what pattern to use for Dad's birthday present and just have to wind the yarn to start it. Pictures of the yarn and project will be coming soon.

Grandma is enjoying her xmas present that I made her.

I watched the Christmas special for Doctor Who, and that was so not fair is all I have to say about it. Well and Strax is hilarious with his grenades. I had been attempting to get into watching Supernatural, but have given it up as I find it rather blah.
My cat decided one day as I was making tiramisu that she interested in the espresso.

On another note, Star Trek:

Christmas or I need to sleep

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, happy holiday of choice to others and happy non-holiday if there is no holiday celebrations that you have. 

All of the gift knitting was finished in time for xmas this year, however it was finished on xmas day in the morning before I went to sleep. One would think I would have learned my lesson already and not do this and wait for the last minute. This year was a bit worse then others as I had to finish Dad's gift, my brother's and wrap all three presents. My brother's gift required the most work as I went on the great button hunt on xmas eve. I visited 3 stores and managed to find decent or good parking at all of them. My brother got a fish hat with button eyes. Dad got a pair of fingerless gloves to replace his old pair that I made him way back when I was just starting to knit. Mom got her scarf.

Dad's gloves were a modification that someone else had made to the pattern to make it worked in the round, I then modified the modification to be a little longer to that Dad would get better had coverage.

Mom's scarf is thinner then the pattern usually makes but I modified it so that the scarf would be long enough.

My major xmas gifts were a bottle of sake and my spinning wheel, I really wasn't expecting anything beyond the spinning wheel.

My parents have gone even further with the tradition of decorating the tree with birds, they purchased flamingo lights for it.

Other xmas traditions that we seem to have now are going to the xmas service at the Unitarian Universalist Church and my knitting during the service. Instead of the fish dinner we had hors d'oeuvres, they were tasty.

After dinner I commenced finishing the xmas gifts while watching movies. The first movie I watched was Warhorse and that is a movie I will never ever watch again. Then I watched Thor and finished all required prep for giving the gifts.