The good and the bad

After a conversation with a couple of friends tonight, I discovered they had blogs and I always love to find new reading material! But it reminded me that I have been remiss. Sometimes I think my life is really just not interesting to other people. Then I remember the only people that read this blog are my friends who are far away and my mundane day to day is interesting to them. So I thought I'd give an update. Things are kind of busy at school this week. I have a couple of out of town visitors/collaborators to keep track of. Which is good, because I might make progress on two more papers talking face to face instead of over email, but is bad because it's chaotic to have them both here at the same time. I'm training a new grad student on the lidar. Which is good and bad, once he knows everything it will take some pressure off of me, but it means that I'll have less field work to do myself and I like the field work. I got my last two rejection letters this week, which is good and bad, it means we aren't moving far away, but it means that I'm not moving forward in my career either. There's a lot I can expound on that subject, but I think there are some things better kept personal and not in the public sphere of the internet. I've been thinking alot about moving this blog to an anonymous title and therefore being a little more free to blog with less self censorship. I will email those of you who read this blog when I do. (A link would kind of defeat the purpose).

I've been reading a new blog lately, that I find inspiring and it makes me laugh out loud in that way that things really aren't funny because they are too real, but still just make you laugh. It's pretty specific to me but someone might find it interesting.

Lest we forget I'm a knitter:

I don't want to leave you hanging. I finished my modified convertible. I LOVE IT! I've worn it in public twice already and I'm very happy with it. Not too happy with Hub's photography though so you'll have to wait a) to see it live or b) for me to try the self timer on my new camera.

I've started two new projects in addition to the 5 ongoing pairs of socks (current count is 3 of 10 socks complete-still no matching pair!) The first is a gift, so you can only see a closeup of the stich pattern and yarn:
I'm making it out of Lang Venezia Colors that I got at the Webs tent sale last weekend. They still have some available. It's a mohair/acrylic blend and usually I'm pretty anti-acrylic, but this I like, it's working up well and the color blending is goregous. I'm working it on size 8s so it's a pretty airy stitch and thus far I'm pretty happy.


Project number 2: Knitter's may or may not recognize. It's the start of a Prairie Tunic from the Spring 2006 Interweave. Well, a modified one at least. My continential style of knitting has produced a different lace then intended, but I've decided to go with it since it's less holey and see-thruish then the original pattern. We'll see how it goes. The yarn is the Jaeger Siena the pattern calls for, but a different color. It's the last of my purchases from last year's tent sale!

Oh and I'm trying out a new template. What do you think?

New Beginnings and Good Memories

Friday morning I drove away looking at this:
And I drove home looking at this:

Yup, you guessed it. I bought a new car. I should say we bought a new car, since this is our first car purchase post permanent coupledom. (Hubby bought his car while we were dating, but I lived in another state). My old car is one of the few things I've had longer then I've known him. I'm very very very excited about my new car. It's a Volkswagen Rabbit and it's blue and it's cute and it's FAST! I love it. As sure I was I wanted a new car, as happy as I was to get it, there was a saddness too. My old car and I had been through a lot. I still get misty thinking about it. A trip to Texas with my dad, and of course the trip back too. All those trips to PA. The three replacement hubcaps (one stolen from the parking lot at school...who steals hubcaps from a corrolla I'll never know, one from the time that truck almost ran me off the road and one from ???). The two replacement bumpers. For the record neither was my fault, and in fact, I wasn't even in the state for one of them. I bought that car when I was 19, yes 19. That car and I have been through a lot. This is the first time I said goodbye to a car and it was really interesting to see what accumulates in almost a decade.

It doesn't rival 13 umbrella's, but it was still quite a haul. As opposed to the new car:



Ahh, a clean slate!


On another note, we also did this thing this weekend:

The competency of the world

So....I know it's been many months since I received my new title but they only do the hooding ceremony once a year. So this Saturday I will get hooded. My advisor bought me my hood in August as my graduation present, and It was a present I so very much loved. It seems silly I know, but that hood means a lot of things to me, a lot of my life, a lot of growing...just a lot of things. So I hung it in the closet so I would be able to use it, all nice and safe for every ceremony I might need to attend in the future. Several months ago it was time to get the tickets and the rest of the outfit. Well, the "souvenir" robes just looked so cheap next to my beautiful velvet lined hood. I decided I would spend the money on a nice robe. That way, I would have it, and not have to rent it should I need to attend future ceremonies, should I somehow manage to obtain a real job and actually successfully graduate some students of my own. (I recognize that there are many optimistic/non-concrete words in that statement, but hey, I'm an optimist.) Plus when my dear hubby finishes his degree, he can use the robe, tam and yes even the hood for his ceremony since we're about the same height (please refrain from midget children jokes!).

So, long story short, we went and ordered the gown. Discovered that they had sent my advisor the wrong colored hood (for no apparent reason since the order form was correct). Gave the old hood back and accepted a receipt for the order of a new one. This was 7 weeks ago to the day. The new hood arrived last week. As graduation is three days away I was worried about the gown, finally broke down and called and was assured that it shipped over the weekend, and finally it was on my doorstep when I came home today. One of the main selling features is that the gowns are monogrammed. I will leave you with this:


I'm thinking my parents really meant to name me....Christmas after my mother's birthday instead of my fathers. Make the Lish looking thing a J for Jones and that would make me a really hot scientist

I sew too!

Well, I didn't quite keep up last week. A variety of things kept me busy and away from the computer, mostly friends, which is always a good thing. Plus I had pictures to show and didn't have a chance to dig out the camera cable. Still no official word from the interview. It's a non-standard situation so it might take a few more months for the wheels to make they're way to a final decision, so for now we are here.

Last weekend I had major crafty time. First, I will update you on the LL Vera that was giving me so much trouble. I decided to make a Convertible, to me this is a much more useful version of a shawl. One that won't slip off! I'm not coordinated or sophisticated enough for a regular one. But, I have no idea what gauge yarn that is and I really wanted to use my sock yarn, since I had more then I needed for one pair of socks and I already have three no make that four other pairs of socks on the needles. So I just decided to do some math with my own gauge, pick a lace pattern from my book and go for it. Well, that plan went mostly ok. One false start with the tracery pattern that I couldn't master:That big hole between my fingers shouldn't be there...and every row was just wrong! So I ripped back and went with the little arrowhead lace. Much easier to master and memorize so this went from a total concentration project to one I could do in front of the TV:
So, it grows, my goal is to have it done before the end of the month, but I'm not sure I'm that fast.

The bigger craftiness however, was my new bag. I started this pattern a while ago and just never got all the way through. It's the original ScrapBags pattern. And I love it.


A couple of notes on the pattern and my fabric choices. I used 45" home dec fabric from jo-ann's, so it's a little thicker than the quilt scraps the pattern is designed for. I'm tough on my totes so I wanted it to be more durable. BUT, the extra bulk was too thick for the machine, (three needles later) so I ended up with small holes in all the bottom corners that I had to stitch by hand. If I were to do it again, I would either eliminate the batting in the gussets, pockets and/or bottom, or use a lighter weight lining fabric to eliminate some of the bulk. I have one of the bottoms that the pattern calls for, but I haven't installed it, I like the slouchier look! The bag holds everything and fits very well over my shoulder so I consider it a success! What do you think?

Ok, I've stayed out of the sun enough for this beautiful day. I'm headed back out to the garden!

Clapotis is not for me

Look at this, two posts in as many weeks. I'm on blogging fire. I've been thinking alot about blogging lately. I feel guilty about my orphan blog, but at the same time, don't know if I really want to post. I mean, it's like putting your whole life up there on the internet for anyone to see. But at the same time, the technology geek in me loves that I can keep my friends and family all over the country up to date on the goings on in my life...I find myself in a bit of a quandary about the whole thing. So, for a while at least, I'm going to try to keep posting...mostly to avoid the guilt, but my posts may be not too personal, yet still tidbits of what's happening in my world.

So today I give you some knitting. You may remember in my last post that I mentioned I had started a clapotis. If you google it you will find that it is a VERY popular pattern, which I had never really considered knitting...probably because I feel similar to grumperina (whose blog I find very informative). But then I saw one on display at Webs and I decided that I wanted one. A smaller version in lighter yarn. AHHH, an excuse to use some more Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock that was not a sock!

So why is she still talking you might say? Well I'll sum it up in pictures. Now you see it:
and Now you don't:

It was coming out a little too camo-ish (the colorway is Vera by the way) for my liking, so I frogged it, and it has already been reborn into a new project...which I will blog about next week! This of course was all before I came across this post, (can you tell I've been surfing the knitting scientists webring) which shows the color pooling changes drastically after you drop the stitches...maybe I will revisit the clapotis at a later date...

and...

Warning: image intensive post. (read: mom you can't see this on your dialup)

So, it's been a month and a half. Those of you who know me know that that's not a long time for me to drop off the face of the earth. What have I been doing you might ask. Knitting. ALOT. Now is the time in the post were there should be pictures, but words will have to suffice. I finished Mark's sweater, it was the Cambridge Jacket from Interweave last year sometime. He loves it and wears it often. The pictures are all blurry though. I made a sweater for myself, with yarn that was intended to be a Rogue but I couldn't get the gauge right so it became a sweater from the fall 2000 issue of Vogue Knitting, which was a stocking stuffer from my mom in yes you guessed it. 2000. I'm a bit of a pack rat. I'm also in love with my sweater, but I think all the pictures we took make me look fat so you can only see it on the blocking board:
After the two sweaters I launched into a bit of knitting ADD and indecision. I now have on the needles: three pairs of socks (none of which are for me), a Clapotis, and endpaper mitts which I will show you a picture of because my first attempt at fair-isle is going quite well if I do say so myself:
I think the calming properties of knitting are helping me handle the lack of control existing elsewhere in my life. I did have one job interview, it went well, but I still wait for an answer.

My biggest accomplishment this year, however, has not been on the knitting front. I pulled my very own "while you were out" on Mark yesterday. In 12 short hours, I turned our pantry from this:
Ugly white super-warped being held up by pennies, yet charming space to this:

Nice warm yellow, with lovely level wood shelves, hooks for every pot, and an brand new retro light fixture.

I can't take all the credit, I had an accomplice to help me decide on sturdy wood, run the table saw (but I did the router!), and help stain an polyurethane the shelves, all in three nights without Mark's knowledge (I'm super sneaky). I have lots of pictures of the whole process including the destruction it set on the rest of the house, but I got it done and all put back together before Mark got home last night. He was impressed. And I'm pooped.

My blog is boring...so read others

I really do have some blog posts planned about my actual life. Some pictures of what I've been knitting and what not, but for some reason, the camera, the cable to connect the camera and the computer are never in the same room and I'm lazy. So, I stumbled across Monkey Disaster
after being pointed there by Not Martha. Apparently they are in some kind of blog contest, she wanted us to vote for him, but ended up pulling WAY ahead. Anyways, I digress, her glowing review of his blog made me curious so off I clicked. I found this post extremely entertaining (and a self-confirmation of how I shouldn't be allowed to raise children), so I thought I'd share a good thing :)

The definition of irony

My parents lovingly have purchased me very nice frames for all of my diploma's. You know, the ones with the mats tha have the university seals and all that jazz. Earlier this week, I went to their house to pick up the final (yippee final) frame in my series.

Yesterday we were having company for dinner and I decided that the box with the frame was not nearly as pretty as the frame, so I got out the diploma, framed it, cursed because is was crooked in the mat, reframed it, and hung it up. I decided while I was at I would dust the other two. So I took them down, dusted them and put them back on the shelf. Being very careful of course. I mean on some level, these peices of paper represent the last decade of my life. That's right a decade. Well, somehow, one fell. Very dramictally. 6 feet. Behind a bookshelf. So we moved the bookshelf to retreive it. It's not pretty. Broken glass, bent frame, ugh. The diploma and mat are fine. So the frame actually did it's job, but it has seen better days.

Oh well, those two years in Pennsylvania are just a distant memory anyways...

New website is live...boring but live

http://web.mac.com/aprilhiscox/

how many of me?

Well only one I hope, or else I have some serious identity issues...but I came across this on the web today. www.howmanyofme.com

And there's only one of me. A surprising large number of April's however. And yes, Shelly, there are two of you...blame mom and dad. :)

ahhh...texas part 2.

First let me start off by saying:
64 degree average my butt! Those are icicles people. ICICLES! The whole city has gone into a seige. Yesterday, all of the restaurants near the hotel closed at 4pm yes, that's right 4pm. Most of the interstates...yes the INTERSTATES, where shut down for more than 24 hours. They are just starting to reopen, but there are still concerns that they might become dangerous overnight. When it did start to warm up for a little bit, the icicles and ice sheets started to fly off roofs and hit people and things. As far as I can tell, the local NBC station has been broadcasting nothing but weather and weather related news for 48hrs straight. We did get a couple of hours of primetime tv last night, but that was it. As of noon only 6 flights had taken off and I'm thinking there is little hope of me getting home in a timely manner.

Now you might be thinking, oh my poor April, what terrible weather. Well, don't. It's really not that bad, It's cold, but I'm fine with a scarf, no gloves and a winterish coat. The kind of coat we typically start to wear in November when it starts to get "cold" but it's really mild and we're not used to winter yet (remember that's the weather I thought I was coming to). I have not had any perilous slips or falls as would be typical of an ice storm back home. Not even a little oops I should be careful. I walked around in heels today for God's sake, me clutz of the century in heels in an ice storm? Other then the icicles mentioned above, I've seen very little evidence of this "Arctic Blast" that has caused this city to come to a screeching halt.

I've come to one of two conclusions. 1. I live in a invisible bubble were I experience my own, cold wet not ice version of San Antonio, 2. Texans are crazy and think that a slick road qualifies as a state of disaster.

Since I've never experienced this bubble effect before I'm leaning towards number 2, and I'm really thinking I would love to see these people if a real storm hit.

Ahhh....Texas.

ahh...texas

Some of you may already know how I feel about the great state of Texas. I do believe that I have blogged about it before. It's not that I have anything against Texas or Texans. I have friends who live here, some great colleagues who are Texans through and through, even a relative or three who would bleed longhorn blood. The state is pretty pleasant, and except for one awful bout with a 120+ heat wave, not a bad place to spend time. It's just that...it's not me. I don't feel so bad about this fact given that there has been a book written about this exact subject!

But...as you probably guessed by now, here I am. There was a lidar symposium and I really needed to come and give a talk. San Antonio is a nice city, cool river walk, etc. Such a nice place the AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY decided to have it's giant annual meeting here because, I quote, "We’re here because we know good weather when we see it in the data: San Antonio’s average January high is a comfy 62°F. But San Antonio climatology is not just good, it’s nearly perfect. The city is one of those well-behaved locations in which the first and last frost (averages: 1 December and 25 February) are almost a perfect fit with the standard climatological winter." So why is it that the weather forecast looks like this:
Yes, that is SNOW on Tuesday. SNOW! It hasn't even snowed at home yet! Maybe it's not just me who has bad weather luck. Maybe it's anybody who studies the weather.

So, the conference started today and I took the lidar short course, which was pretty interesting. When I could pay attention that is. I was rather distracted by the carpet in the convention center:

yes, it is a giant (~8 foot tall) Spanish dancer. Flying skirts and all. All over the carpet!

Ahhh....Texas.

Mid-Holiday recovery

Well...I "should" be at work. I planned to take the day after Christmas to recover from all of the events (party at our house on Friday, family party on Saturday, mom's birthday/annual nutbread baking/visit with Mary Ellen and Taryn on Sunday, and of course the triple house visits on Christmas day). So I went after Christmas shopping and sufficiently recovered. But...I woke up this morning and realized that I have a hair appointment at 3 and some job applications to do and that driving to school was really a waste of time so I would just work from home. The plan was to have the application ready to submit by 2. I'm still in my robe. To be fair I did update the CV portion, make a nice checklist, and print out my statement of research and teaching for proofreading and changes. Now I just have to read it a million times... maybe I'll submit it after the haircut.

cat poop

Damn cats! I'm mostly ok with that way they know that I'm allergic to them, which means they immediately run up to me and rub all over me. I'm mostly ok with them spending alot of time under our porch, or in the garage when it got cold. I'm mostly ok with them hanging out on the porch on a nice sunny afternoon, it's a pretty pleasant place to be. I even let peeing on the mustang cover slide by...but know we have reached the final straw. Pooping all over our yard is just not polite. We don't shoo them away, call the humane society or impinge on they're life in any way. But this is the final straw! One poop I might excuse, but in the course of two hours, I stepped in cat poop twice! I had to spend the rest of the day wearing two different shoes! Anyone know how to keep unwanted cats from your yard? Maybe a big mean dog will do the trick...

the post with no name...

Well, it seems I've been blogging remiss. I did post not too long ago saying that I was thinking about leaving the blogging world for a while...or switching to a new blog because blogger eats my posts and taking nominations for a new blog title....but ironically the post got eaten.

Honestly though the last 2 months have been crazy, so there has not been much time for blogging anyways. We went to 4 weddings in 6 weeks. So here's my shout out congratulations to Shelly and Rich, Ellen and Ronn, Junior and Karen and Matt and Kristen! I have pictures of all of the above still trapped on the camera, so they may be posted someday soon. So that accounts for half of the weekend activity in my blog free time...the other half was well...consumed by life I guess. Not in a bad way, in a good way. I like to keep busy, I like to be active. We only live once so we might as well make the best of it right?

The weeks themselves have been busy as well. Mark is fencing and got a ribbon at the last competition. I've decided to get fit and lose the pounds of stress that grad school put on so I joined a gym and I'm taking cardio kick boxing and pilates a few nights a week. I'm also teaching a group of folks how to quilt one night a week and trying to keep up with my real job too. Mark's research is well underway and still on track for finishing this spring. My job search is also well underway with applications out to seven different schools in every region of the country.


random interruption...is it normal for your car service place to both send a "thank you for your service" card in the mail and call to make sure that everything was enjoyable? I mean the car runs. The bill for the new brakes wasn't exactly "enjoyable"... but ?


Well, I guess that's about all for now. Comment some thoughts on a new blog name please....

My New Title

April Lynn Hiscox, PhD...or Dr. Hiscox if you prefer!

Yup, it's done...finally!

Well since I've been getting crap for not posting here is a random update from my trip to Portland.

By 8:29 am Monday, I had paid $16.00 for a train pass that I didn't need because the train ride is free...and had begged a stranger for a band aid to cover the blister from my new shoes: very cute and comfy flats bought expressly for avoiding the blisters that my normal conference heels give me!

By 6:00pm Tuesday: 2 buttons had randomly just fell off my jacket. and I mean literally just fell off. The strap of my bag broke while I was in the MIDDLE of crossing the street and it was only by the use of my catlike reflexes that I avoiding the contents from spilling all over, A bizarre stain appeared on my skirt, It was not there when I sat down and and a very ladylike manner placed a napkin on my lap, when I finished dinner and picked up napkin, the stain , resembling something I had no recollection of eating, was revealed underneath. The napkin itself was spotless.

Yes, I am the calamity Jane of the ASABE.

30 days

Check it out, I got a star for 30 days with no purchase. While the depletion is going slowly, mostly because I'm the world's slowest knitter, at least the stash is not growing.


In other news...well there isn't other news, just writing and writing, and analyzing and writing.

I'm planning on starting a deadline countdown soon, but I'm not quite ready to make the reality sink in yet. I've been in school for nine years, the thought of not being in school is a bit intimidating. Oh well, we'll tackle that hurdle next week!

sock done

Well, I finished the first one, now onto the second one. For those of you interested, the pattern in Child's first sock from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks

Other random thoughts for this week.

Never sew your finger through a sewing machine. It hurts.
I seem to very easily pick up speech patterns from others around me. Seriously.

Nothing else creative to say, thought everyone would like to know I was still alive!

socks in the round

1 new year's resolution almost accomplished. I've been knitting in the round for awhile now, but this is my first attempt with the tiny needles and the tiny sock yarn. So far, I'm pretty impressed. The colors of the yarn are fun, although not as fun as the colors a lightbulb makes in the microwave :), and I'm enjoying the pattern very much. I'm turning the heel now, so I'll let you know how it goes!