- - http://www.drgirlfriend.com/ (everything you've come to love about kim's knitting world in a whole new place) en Copyright 2006 Sun, 16 Jul 2006 21:41:29 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Well, that was unpleasant. I opened the blog to add an entry since it has been about a month. And I couldn't connect. I just kept getting an error message. And so the only solution I could think of was to reinstall Movable Type. Oh yeah, remember how well that went a year ago? So now, three hours later, it seems to be working. Fingers crossed. ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2012/01/back_on_track.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2012/01/back_on_track.htm Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:23:44 -0500 SkyIsle? I love the tweed and the patterning at the top. I love that it is knit entirely in the round and seamless. I got a little excited about the prospect of steeking the front to make it a cardigan. This may be a passing infatuation... and I do have a half completed sweater (Liesl) that hasn't been knit on in a while. But Liesl is more Spring/Summer. I want a nice cozy winter sweater. I need to look through my rav queue and see what I have marked in there as well. Because I've got a little secret... I have a gift card to Webs from last Christmas that I haven't spent yet!!! Ack!! I'm such a bad knitter. It is funny how the end of the semester brings out my desire to tackle big knitting projects!]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/12/sweater_bug.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/12/sweater_bug.htm Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:01:58 -0500 I believe that this scarf is my first completed lace project. I've had a few other projects with purposeful holes, but nothing with lace weight yarn and lots of purposeful holes. The pattern is a very simply 10 row repeat over 41 stitches, so it was easy to memorize and easy to sleuth if I ended up with the wrong stitch count. The pattern is by Classic Elite Yarns and is called Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf (rav link). Blocking this was a pain in the butt because I don't have any tools for blocking lace patterns. After a little trial and error, I found that I could "stick" it to the carpet. Fortunately, I had just vacuumed. The scarf only took about an hour or two to dry. So light and so pretty!!! The final size was 9.5" wide and 42.5" long.]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/12/purple_and_cashmere.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/12/purple_and_cashmere.htm Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:14:01 -0500 They are primarily an egg cookie (if that makes sense)... kinda like a meringue cookie, but with yolks. They have rice crispies in them and white chocolate. So yummy!! I think that I want to try to make them again, but with coconut substituted for some or all of the rice crispies.]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/11/whalers.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/11/whalers.htm Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:38:20 -0500 And Rhinebeck!!! ]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/10/preview_-_vermont_and_rhinebec.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/10/preview_-_vermont_and_rhinebec.htm Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:16:07 -0500 Heartbreakingly Cute Pilot Cap. I found the pattern in the first Mason Dixon book. The pattern is written for Koigu or a similar light weight yarn. I used the pattern schematics to modify it for a worsted weight yarn. I hope it fits!! I didn't include the under the chin straps... I hope it will stay on their heads! The sweaters are the Harvey Kimono pattern from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. I made the 12 month size so that hopefully if my gauge was a little off it will still fit them for a while. I thought it might be a good layering piece and the sleeves can always be rolled up. Now that these are finished, I can go back to knitting Liesl. I'll try to get a picture of her soon. She's still just a long blob... haven't even made it to the armholes, although I did finish the pockets. Maybe she'll be finished by the Spring.]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/09/i_have_been_knitting.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/09/i_have_been_knitting.htm Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:06:19 -0500 The sound effect in my head as I get hypnotized by this is: mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow mmer-ow.....................................]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/09/crazy_cat_repetition.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/09/crazy_cat_repetition.htm Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:01:29 -0500 As I was sitting at the computer writing up my workout entry, I'm hearing music drift in through the windows. Unlike usual, which is some meathead in a car with a loudener blasting some horrible hip-hop, this is a nice light quiet flow of Top 40s. At first I thought I was just singing "celebrate good times, come on!" in my head. Then I thought, why am is this song in my head right now? I soon realized it was coming in from the window. Now there's a little Adele coming in. I'm not sure if it's from my downstairs neighbor's window or the guys doing construction across the street. Neither seem the type for soft rock, pop hits. ------------- My students yesterday begged for us to have class outside today. I agreed on the two conditions that 1) we meet in the classroom and decide together that the weather is nice enough for sitting outside (and see that there's an opening on the quad) and 2) that they promise to pay attention and not get distracted. I'm more worried about number 2 and number 1. Truthfully, I'm most worried about what to wear to school today that I could sit outside on the grass in. I need to still look somewhat professional, but I don't want to get all grass stained, and it has to be clothes that can sit comfortably on the ground in so can actually teach. I'll probably go with jeans... Shoes are also an issue. Definitely no heels. Can't wear flip flops. Sneakers would be ideal, but I generally try to avoid wearing sneakers to work... but my jeans are all too long and flats can be annoying. Ugh!! I can't tell the class "Sorry, we can't have class outside like I promised because my wardrobe doesn't work for sitting on the grass in a professional way." I wish the school would install more benches.... http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/09/music_on_the_wind.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/09/music_on_the_wind.htm Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:09:20 -0500 First day of classes today. I've got my favorite schedule back this semester (and I think I may have talked my way into it for next semester too... seems once the chair has you set in a schedule it can be hard to modify it, but fingers crossed). I'm don't teach on Mondays, which I've found is a million times better than having Friday off. With Mondays off, I actually get a lot of work done. When I've had Fridays off, I get nothing done because... it's Friday! I also have 2 classes back to back with an hour break before the third, and I don't start teaching until after 12:30. I like having the mornings free from teaching because like Mondays, I'm more apt to get work done in the morning than the afternoon. I've actually been doing a lot of knitting the past couple of days, and yet have taken no pictures. I promise I'll get some soon! http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/another_first_day.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/another_first_day.htm Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:36:18 -0500 Dropbox? Go on over to the site and watch the video. A colleague sent me an invite to Dropbox because one of the main ways that you get more free space is to have people accept your invites. And so I signed up to be collegial, but I didn't do anything with it or pay much attention to it for a few months. Mainly, I didn't want to be like my colleague and ask everyone I know to accept my invites so that I could have tons of free space. Fortunately I didn't have any computer malfunction scares, but hearing from a couple of people who lost everything suddenly made me nervous. We have an external hard drive that's big and holds a lot of stuff, but I never remember to sync up to it. I have to get it out, plug it in, and let the sync run. I know, not that hard for piece of mind... but the piece of mind only goes back to the last sync and when you only sync every few (or six) months... not very helpful. So I looked back at this Dropbox thing. I decided, what the hell, let's pay for the monthly upgrade. $120 a year seems like a reasonable price to be assured that all of my documents, videos, and pictures won't be destroyed should be laptop combust. As the laptop is now 4 years old, and likelihood of getting a new one from the school is uncertain, I really wanted that piece of mind. Besides, if everything is stored on the cloud, when I do eventually get a new computer, bringing over all of my important files will be no problem. My files are still stored locally on my laptop (whose hard drive is nearly full... eek!). I don't have to have an internet connection to get my files on my laptop. But what I love about Dropbox, so that Dropbox is now my "My Documents" folder. All of my work, documents, files, video clips, music, pictures, etc are saved to my Dropbox folder and are automatically synced and sent to be backed up in the cloud. If I change and resave a document, it is updated and synced automatically so long as I have an internet connection. What's even awesomer... is that I can go on any computer (or internet capable device... I have an app on my phone) and go to Dropbox.com and login and get to all of my files. If I'm at my parent's house and want to show them pictures I saved on my laptop, but my laptop is at my apartment, I can log on to Dropbox on their computer, access my pictures, and show them. In our new home office, I've been spending more time working on the desktop computer. I downloaded from Dropbox onto the desktop my old syllabi from last semester, made the changes I needed, and then uploaded them back into Dropbox. On my laptop (after a quick automatic sync), the documents are now in my Dropbox folder on my harddrive on my laptop. So if you are like me and get nervous about the possibility of all your hard work, pictures, and other files vanishing (all of those knitting patterns you've downloaded, maybe??)... I can't recommend Dropbox enough. And hey... let me know if you want an invite.... ;)]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/drop_it_in_the_box.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/drop_it_in_the_box.htm Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:13:58 -0500

Mockingjay - This is the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I read the first two books over Spring Break and didn't have time to read the third. I forced myself to wait and read it after the semester ended. As soon as I graded my last final, I tore through this book in about 2 days. The trilogy is intended for young adults, but the story is interesting and compelling. After lots of heavy academic reading, quick, easy reads are a treat!

Motley Crue: The Dirt - I read this on the recommendation of my mom's cousin who is a big metal fan. The book was really interesting and shocking. It is hard to believe all four members of the band are still alive after reading what things they did.

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star I followed The Dirt with Nikki Six's book. Wow! Again, I can't believe that he is still alive. The book is a series of diary entries with commentary so it is interesting and different reading. Having no personal experience with fame and heroin, the book almost becomes fictional as it is unbelievable that someone would be so stupid and out of control. But then you remember that this was all real and it makes you stop reading for a while to process it all. Apparently Tommy Lee and Vince Neil also have autobiographies, but goodness, I can't have it be an all Motley Crue summer.

The First Three Sookie Stackhouse Novels - After chatting with my mom about books and True Blood, she mentioned that she had purchased from Amazon the first three Sookie Stackhouse novels in a special set when it was half priced. She hadn't read them yet, but was willing to let me borrow them. So I did, and read all three books in about a week. I've heard and read mixed reviews of the books from people who are fans and aren't fans of True Blood, vampires, etc. These books, like the Hunger Games, weren't difficult reading, weren't high literature, but they were engaging and enjoyable. I think what I enjoyed the most was that the books are not the same as the TV show. You can certainly see where the TV show gets its inspiration, but the books are written entirely from Sookie's first person point of view, so anything that happens with any other character in the show when they are apart from Sookie isn't in the books. The books focus more an Sookie so you get more of her story and what's happening with her than you do on the show. I'll probably pick up the next couple of books in the series. Reviews suggest the 4th one is the best, but that they start to go downhill from there. These might be good light books for during the semester.

House of Holes: A Book of Raunch - After reading a profile on Nicholson Baker in the NY Times magazine, and a follow up piece on Slate, I was really curious to read this book. It was fast, fun, and lived up to its title and then some.

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) - And if I'm reading one set of books that inspired a favorite HBO series, why not read another. I am about 1/4 of the way through Game of Thrones (it's 600 pages!!). In this case, the TV show is quite faithful to the book. It is nice to be reliving this world and picking up on things that missed in the show. In some ways, I think reading the book after the show is helpful because I have some idea of who the characters are and how they are related (there are soooooo many). Most importantly, after watching the show, I know how to pronounce all the crazy names in my head as I read them instead of making up my own versions.

The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram - I'm over half way through this book. I started it at the beginning of summer and have been coming back to it off and on. It is fascinating to get a deeper view of the life of Milgram. I always teach about Milgram and know his studies very well, but this book adds a lot of depth, which I'll likely bring some of to my teaching.

]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/books.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/books.htm Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:30:52 -0500 Buffalo-Chicken Macaroni and Cheese I cooked it in the dutch oven because we didn't have casserole dish large enough, and I was worried that even the two that we have wouldn't be enough space. All gooey and spicy and yummy!! You can see all the melty, cheesy goodness and the nice orange tint of lots of Frank's hot sauce. The first day, fresh from the oven is always the gooiest, yummiest day. But this held up well on the second and third day. Both times it was reheated in the oven. The macaroni had soaked up some of the excess liquid, so it was less runny, but still delicious. Probably could have been reheated in the microwave, but we prefer the oven. Tonight's dinner is pasta using tomato sauce that Kevin made on Saturday/Sunday with tomatoes from our garden! ]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/extreme_mac_and_cheese.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/extreme_mac_and_cheese.htm Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:51:00 -0500 nondiastatic malt powder, which I happened to find on a random shopping trip to a kitchen store. I used a King Arthur recipe that included using an overnight starter, which I subbed my regular live-in the fridge starter for, so the bagels would have a more assertive tangy flavor. The dough was easy to bring together, let rise, and divide. My experience from that doughnut class a couple of years ago was handy for making the dough balls into shapes with central holes. The bagels started to get a bit lumpy, bumpy as they went through the bath stage. And after they finished baking, there was still a bit of unevenness to the outside look and texture. But boy, they were mighty tasty!! The real problem was that I made 12 bagels and with just the two of us eating them, they went stale pretty quick. Toasting salvaged some of them, but regretfully some had to go to the birds and squirrels. After reading tips online, I think next time I might bake half the dough and leave the rest in the fridge for a few days. I also read that more practice with technique can help to perfect the appearance of the finished product. So look for some more bagel making soon!]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/homemade_bagels.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/homemade_bagels.htm Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:48:04 -0500 The food was unbelievably good!!

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There has also been good homemade food. I was on a bit of a muffin kick and made parsnip muffins (in pic), Trader Joe's pumpkin muffins, and zucchini bread. Kevin and I also are trying to make our own homemade hot sauce with all the delicious hot peppers from our garden. We still in the first stage, which is to brine the peppers for a few weeks.

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In less awesome news, super insane rain storms caused us to wake up to this in our dining room: Which now looks like this: It's been like that for over a week now. Fun times! Roofers came out and fixed the area of the roof that seemed to be leaking, but now we have to wait for the landlord to come over and fix the hole in the ceiling. He apparently wants to wait a month for the hole to dry out! I understand concerns about mold, but a few fans blowing in the hole for a couple of days should have it dry in no time. Bah! I want my dining room (and by extension office, because that's were all the dining furniture is) back to normal!!

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Oh, and I have been knitting!! Quite productively actually. But of course, no pictures just yet. I'll post those project soon! ]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/psst_over_here.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/08/psst_over_here.htm Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:40:32 -0500 Remember when we said, girl, please don't go, and how I'd be loving you forever, taught you 'bout hangin' tough as long as you got the right stuff, didn't we, girls, ooh, didn't we, girls, aah? I just finished reading Rob Sheffield's book Talking to Girls about Duran Duran. It was a pretty good and quick read. He mixes a lot of personal stories with analysis of the best (and worst) of 80s music. Sometimes he focuses a lot of the specific songs and other times, the songs are basically irrelevant to the story. I did like best about it that it reminded me of a ton of music from the 80s that I haven't listened to in forever, and how much I loved it growing up. Near the end of the book he mentions a few songs from Tiffany and New Kids on the Block. As he mentioned them, some of the melodies popped back up in my head. So of course I had to head over to iTunes and check them out. For as much as I worshipped New Kids as a tween/teen, I was actually surprised that my extensive iTunes collection was significantly missing New Kids. The only song there was Hangin' Tough and that was from an 80s greatest hits cd. I guess in high school and then college I separated myself from New Kids to head in new musical directions. We all love and hate how easily the iTunes music store allows for impulse music purchases. And to an extent I'm annoyed that I had to rebuy albums that I owned cassette tapes of box in the late 80s/early 90s. When the album covers for Hangin' Tough and Step by Step appeared on the screen, a wave of nostalgia swept through me. When I previewed the songs, a huge smile broke out on my face as I recalled many days and nights singing along and dancing to these songs. With just a single relisten, all of the lyrics that my brain filed away popped back up. In the book, Sheffield's overarching theme is that through the 80s (when he was in his very formative years of 13-23) music taught him lessons of love, how to act, what the world was like. Finishing the book and now listening to New Kids shuffled with Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, as me wondering about when music becomes meaningful to an individual. From his book, it seems that for Sheffield started recognizing the importance of music somewhat before 13, but it was really around 13 that more personal significance was found in the music/lyrics. Here's the psychological/scientific question that a nerd like me asks (instead of just enjoying the bad music): at what cognitive/developmental stage in life does music become an important mentor/confidant/teacher? Little kids like music, but when do they switch from liking something catchy to actually internalizing the lyrics and feeling like this music is important. Sheffield's entire book is dedicated to how songs taught him about life, and less explicitly how looking back them become significant memory tags. Part of my random musings here are when do we start to take on some music genre/group/singer as our own. There's a lot of music that I like from when I wasn't born or old enough to really even be aware of it. There's a lot of that music that I've taken to since high school and college. But really at the time, what music did I like when it was popular, and like enough to love the songs that weren't the hits on the radio? If I were 10, 11, 12 years old now, would I love Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift? Listening to New Kids and Debbie Gibson, I'd have to say yes. All of the songs are about love, being in love, longing for love, trying to get love back. What does a 10 year old know about that stuff? Nothing really, but maybe it is part of preparing for teenage crushes and heartbreak. Everything in love will be fine because Jordan Knight's told me that time is the answer and time is on our side, and I'm his one true love. And that's immediately followed by Joey asking "where do I go from here" after our love's hit the rocks. By the end of the album, we're all lovey dovey or at least going to be strong enough to survive. I don't know much Bieber music, but I'm pretty sure that Taylor Swift is essentially singing the same themes (just of course from the girl's perspective like Debbie). I don't have an end to the ramble other than that I'm going to surround myself with some of the cheesiest songs of 1988-1991 and ponder the role music plays in our lives, especially the music that we earliest claim as most important to us.]]> http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/07/la_la_la_la_tonight.htm http://www.drgirlfriend.com/2011/07/la_la_la_la_tonight.htm Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:57:47 -0500