It's a block party!

I know, I have been AWAL for a little while. I have not be delingintly posting progress on my November goals like some people. I'm going to blame it on the interview. It sucked up 3 days last week, plus the time to prepare and then the time to recover. I had planned to catch up on my internet life in the evenings while I was there. In my past experience interviews of this nature are an exhausting experience and planning to do brain work in the evenings is a bad bad bad idea. It is, however, the perfect time to sit in front of a TV and catch up on blogging, blog reading and emails to all the friends that you want to write real emails to (not the "hey how are you I'm great life's busy hope to see you soon" kind). A grand master plan foiled by staying in a 1960's era home with GASP! NO INTERNET!

The interview:

I think it went well. My talk seemed to be well received and the people were nice. I don't think that it's the job for me though. I'm not ready to activate plan B quite yet. The house was the highlight. This was the first time I have seen teal and avocado paisley print wallpaper complete with matching curtains. The place was a hoot.

The paper:

I am half way through the data analysis. This is a bit behind where I wanted to be. I have been slowed by a couple of factors. First, the interview. Second, %#&@ing Windows. I had a very bad day yesterday. It seems that an 80 gig hard-drive shouldn't really ever hold 80 gigs unless they are stored under multiple windows profiles or some other BS like that. I came into the office yesterday morning all prepared to be in an environment where I could get a lot of work done. Total paper focus. Turns out I had a corrupt windows profile, which took ~5 hours for the IT guy to kindof fix. None of the data is lost, it's just in the wrong place. I'm an anal backup person, so I'm not worried about anything that might be lost. It's just that I really need the damn computer to function. Multiple phone calls and 2 hours or so with the IT guy did not jive well with total paper focus, so very little got done.

Random rant:

Am I getting old, or are those IT guys getting young? I mean seriously, when this kid, who looked like he was about 12 and had some kind of metal bar sticking out through his eyebrow, started telling me that I shouldn't have 30 gigs of data stored on this computer because blah blah blah, I almost blew a gasket. Where exactly would you like me to store the data? This is the computer it's analyzed on, therefore it needs to be on this computer, would you like to come rewrite the 70,000 or so lines of Pascal code that collects this data to see if you can compress it in some way the 4 or 5 other computer experts that wrote the code were somehow unable to figure out. Don't tell me that my desktop shouldn't have any files on it, "it's just like a messy desk you can't get any work done". Here's a hint, you don't like messy, comb your hair! Man it's a good thing I keep that internal monologue internal I might have made this kid cry. I'm getting old. No doubt about it.

The knitting:

The sweater is done and blocking. I pretty much had the exact same experience as the yarn harlot last night. Lot's of seaming, but I was too lazy to rip back the inch I should have on the arms so it's just going to stay that way. I even watched last weeks bionic women on the web, it's weird to read an almost exact count of your own evening written by a famous person. (I didn't have wine and had some dinner with friends)

The fit is good, and the moving mud closure Mom bought for me at Rhinebeck is the perfect color. I'll try to post pictures from Thanksgiving so you can get the full effect. This sweater is a brilliant pattern to knit. Kate Gilbert is truly genius. Many have said this before so I won't expound further than that. The yarn is Primo by Filatura Di Crosa. I bought it at Webs summer sale in June. I have 6 balls leftover, I don't know what to do with it. It's nice to work with, except it's one of those yarns that the ends don't really stay under after they are woven in. It comes in small balls so there are alot of ends. I LOVE the color. This is my best "for me" knit yet.

Since I had to drag the blocking board out, I finally got around to blocking the pea pod sweater that I knit over the summer as well. It's a Kate Gilbert Block party right here in my living room:

funny story

So, I finally got up the courage to admit defeat and tell you all how crappy the phone interview was, and my good mental attitude about it and blah blah...

Next day, phone rings, "we'd like to invite you to campus for the next phase of interviewing".

Ha, funny, right?

We interupt this blog for a PSA

Go Vote.

I know what you are saying: Vote? It's election day? We're supposed to vote? For what?

Yes, it's election day. Those little flags on people's lawns with other people's names on them are campaign signs for local positions. It varies by town, state, county, etc., exactly what you are voting for, but you should vote. It is what makes America America. Election days like these are often neglected, but in my opinion they are some of the most important. These are the people who make the decisions that actually affect your lives. They control your local taxes, your schools, your roads, your water, your trash, whether or not a Walgreen's will be built in your backyard, whether or not you're allowed to have a backyard, etc.

These elections matter.

And...go find out about the candidates. Don't just vote the party line. Party lines can be fuzzy at this level, especially in smaller communities. I know this from actual experience, as my own father is an elected Republican official. A true oddity in my very Democratic world.

Personally, we have to vote for town board of directors and the board of education. I have a nice list of candidates, from both parties, that I think make up the board of directors and the board of education I'd be happy with. No, I don't have any children in the schools, and I most likely never will. The school in my town will most likely not impact my life directly in anyway...other than the fact that the education of the next generation will change the face of the future of the entire planet. So yea, I care enough to go vote.

Plus if you live in my state you get to use the fancy new machines this time.

We will now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

I'm knitting a blanket!

So we talked about the startitis last time, so I thought I'd fess up a little bit about all the projects that have jumped on the needles as of late. This is part two of my "I'm knitting" series. I don't know how many parts there will be.

So as you know, my sister is having a baby. A baby boy. There was a flourish of baby knitting when the news was announced, which then tapered some in the last two months. I knit a blanket, a hat and two sweaters. Well, the week before last I stayed home on a Friday because I had a phone interview. (Yes, I'm sneaking important life progress in with knitting content). This was a preliminary interview for a small school and it's mostly a teaching position. Not my number one job choice, I'd prefer a 50/50, and this is more like a 80/20. But there are days when just teaching seems like a dream. I like to teach, I think I'm fairly good at it, it's always there to do, and you are not at the whims of granting agencies/political funding climates, etc. So it's an academic position, a small department, fairly close to home, a step forward. Last year I focused my search to more traditional jobs only, but this year, upon much reflection, I'm applying to a lot of things, expanding my options one might say. Plan B we call it around here. (Plan C is returning to engineering and pretending that the last 6, no 7 years of academic pursuits were just for fun, it hasn't been activated yet). Anyways, this interview was a first cut. 10 phone interviews, then they will select 3 candidates for on campus interviews. So, my office has become work study central and not really a cohesive environment for a nerve racking phone interview. It's two Friday's ago and I'm home and the phone rings (15 minutes late).

I could recap the rather amusing interview story here (complete with wrong numbers and wrong names, and odd interplay among the three interviewers), but let's just abbreviate it and say I sucked. In retrospect, I probably did ok, but there were some big gaps and some questions I just wasn't prepared to answer. Questions I'm not sure I could have been prepared to answer, so therefore questions non of the other candidates could really have been prepared to answer either, so I've upgraded my complete disaster to average. I'm ok with the whole thing, it just wasn't the job for me. But, hanging up the phone l had a severe case of the blah's. All those fears came rushing in (the ones where I have to activate Plan C, or that we end up homeless on the streets or something), and I just had the blahs. That's the thing about the "post-doc", I know that I could be successful, I just need to find the job, and it seems that finding the job is 50% how good you are and 50% how lucky you are and well...I've never really been all that lucky, so that unsettled state of being is just so....well...unsettling.

So I'm home, it's a friday afternoon and I have the blah's. I didn't want to knit anything engrossing, I was just going to sit and knit a few rows to shake it off and then get back to work. But what could I knit? Without any real plan I picked up some big needles and some yarn from my stash and cast on, one stitch. Then I hit Ravelry, which brought me here and which led to here then I ended up here, and then I ended up with a square, and then another cast on, and then the phone rang again and I spent several hours talking to my best friend, who is also in an unsettled life situation, and then oops it was Friday night and time for dinner with friends.


It's much prettier than blogger let's the picture show. [flicker link here] The pattern is oddly addicting, and I'm completely compelled to cast on that one stitch as soon as I bind off the one at the other corner. I am now completely sympathetic to the mitered square a thon. Although I will not knit that many squares because I only had four balls of this blue in my stash, enough to make four 10x10 inch squares and four 5x5 inch squares. I decided to make a blanket for the baby out of it. The plan now is for four of the squares to be the center and then a border in a lighter shade of blue.

So, there you have it. I'm knitting a blanket. For those of you who are upset that I have not posted my November progress as diligently as some., Here you go:

The left front of the sunrise circle is done. I'm well on track for Thanksgiving wear.
I have completely analyzed one of the five nights of data that form the basis for the paper I'm writing, so we're cruising along there too. :)

I'm knitting a shawl!

And a sweater. And a scarf. And a blanket. And oh yea, let' not forget those three pairs of socks. What a shawl? a scarf? a blanket? You say? Those weren't on the list of things to finish before starting something new. Yes, I'm coming clean. I had a bit of startitis last week. What was the cause you may ask? After all, I was doing so well, finish a sweater, finish a sock. The cause, was the downfall of knitters and fiber heads everywhere. RHINEBECK.

I had a fabulous time at Rhinebeck, this was my first time and now I know what all the fuss is about. Oh boy, is it worth the fuss. Yarn, beads, yarn. It was like craft heaven. My purchases were pretty restrained, a couple of skeins of socks that rock, (I'm a STR virgin so I'm pretty excited about that), some good basic worsted weight wool at a price I couldn't resist (enough to make a sweater for hub and enough to make a sweater for me), and two skeins of sock yarn from Oak Grove Studio, and the pattern to make a scarf they had on display and I just fell in love with.

But, the real fabulousness of Rhinebeck was spending time with my mom. We went just me an her it was really nice. My mom and I haven't spent alot of time just me and her in a while, not really sisnce we made my wedding dress together, which was a whole three years ago now. It's not that we don't spend time together, it's just been all family time, and it was nice. We talked alot and had a great time.

But ironically, I haven't starting knitting on any of the Rhinebeck projects. While we were there, we were admiring a lot of shawls and mom expressed interest in having one. I have been thinking about knitting one, but I don't think I'm an elegant enough lady to wear a shawl. But, mom, she's classy and quite elegant, a totally shawl like gal. So I kind of became a little obsessed with the shawl thing. We didn't find the right yarn/pattern combo while we were there, but we did see one that she liked. So I did some digging, and the yarn was $85 a skein! Mom, don't have a heart attack, while you are worth it, my lace knitting skills are worthy of that fancy yarn quite yet. Then I came across a new pattern from the same designer, available in a preorder kit for a reasonable price and it's beautiful. So I "preordered" it, without really paying attention to when it would arrive. In my head it was a far off time. Like last Monday when it was on my porch. But I'm so excited about this project I had to cast on. So why, am I telling you this, knowing that mom is a regular reader and the surprise is spoiled. Well a couple of reasons. 1) I'm really excited about the project and can't keep it in. 2) Mom already know that I'm not doing Christmas knitting this year and since her b-day is xmas eve, that means no birthday knitting either. 3) This is a long term project, we'll all have forgotten it, remembered it, and forgotten it again by the time it's done. 4) My mom is cool and deserves a shawl and some non event based knitting.

So there you go, I'm knitting a shawl.

In other worlds, if you are a blog reader of any kind, you must be aware that we all have decided that november is the month to get things done. Renee is participating in an altered (read normal persons) version of the novel writing thing. Many knitters are knitting a sweater. And many bloggers are committing to blogging every day this month. Well, I've never been much of a joiner, and I have no illusions of my own abilities. My secret desires to write a novel are definitely not planning to manifest anytime soon (I'm reserving that for my mid-life crisis), I cannot knit fast enough to knit an entire sweater in a month, and my life is definitely not interesting enough to blog about something everyday. So I've decided to put my own November goals at reachable, feel good levels. One personal and one professional:

I will finish my sunrise circle jacket by Thanksgiving
I will write and submit a single journal article by the end of the month.