Gallery: Seen and herd

Some of us have been very busy--becoming famous--this summer.

Check out this link to see a Free Press article link that features some famous people in my household:

Gallery: Seen and herd: From the safety of a tour bus, visitors to FortWhyte Alive can spend a summer afternoon getting up close to the centre’s bison and learning about how North America’s largest land mammal shaped Canada’s history.
FortWhyte offers the bison safari four times a week until the end of August, then once a week in September.

On another day, some friends came in from Brandon to play with our twins.  When a big girl offers to hold your hand when you cross the street?  It's magic.  Especially when you are having sushi with her for lunch!

Meanwhile, my article ran here, while I was cutting up snack, walking dogs, visiting with guests...

It hurts and it ain't at all fair

This might be where I admit that I'm looking forward to the start of school and "quieter" times. :)

late nights

I have been trying to post a bunch of photos of a month now. This isn't all the gifts and since I am typing one handed at 11 at night while a baby feeds,I suspect this post won't have any fancy links or anything, either.

I spend a lot of time like this in the middle of the night. These twins eat every two to three hours, day and night. I am awake and seeing 1AM through 5 AM more often since becoming pregnant and having twins than I ever did while in college or grad school. Babies sure do know how to make a noise in the middle of the night. It makes a frat party seem quiet.

OK, back to posting about knitting. Check out all these amazing handknits and handsewn flannel blankies! All sizes, tasteful colors and designs -my friends have good taste!

So far, we've been managing here with a hodgepodge of helpers. A few hours of paid help here and there. (not much, we can't afford a nanny or housekeeper although heaven knows one would be helpful about now) The professor has only been working a very little bit on school stuff. Instead, we've been working flat out on baby stuff and barely keeping up. A team of kind and thoughtful friends have brought over food, held babies, run errands and generally been so supportive. I can't believe how many people have helped fold our laundry, for instance. If you're one of those people...thank you.

The dogs are continuing to adjust well and do a lot to protect and support their babies. More on that another time, I guess.

In the daytime, the babies can both look very active, bright eyed and alert. I try to remember this when there is a lot of fussing. (and since one of the guys has problems with his digestion just now and is on medication, there is a lot of fussing...) That's the update for now! I hope thisfinds you well...I'll try to tell you more stories someday soon when I am not giving up sleep to do so. :)

The underappreciated

While most of those around us are concentrating on a seriously big holiday, for us, this is generally a quiet time since it isn't our holiday. The professor took me out to lunch today and we watched everyone else rushing around. It's actually a relief not to have to engage in the hoopla of Christmas...so many people appear very stressed by it. (We do, after all, have our own hoopla several times a year--for instance, getting ready for Passover each spring or the High Holy Days in the Fall)

Early this evening, we may go out to a movie with some friends. Tomorrow we might go to services at synagogue since it's a Saturday. Anyhow, this time when things slow down for us makes me think about how people perceive "value."

The professor and I value quality time--with friends, with family, and with each other. A really stellar evening is one where we have a good meal with friends. Another kind of fantastic time is just a week night, where we sit on the couch, each busy near one another with his/her own task. The professor is often working on research or answering student email. I am often knitting. We take time to pet dogs.

All this means that we don't necessarily value big expensive things. Rather, we tend to value ideas, handmade things, and special experiences like travel. As a result, I save money elsewhere. I often buy things as a 'good deal'- for instance, yarn that others consider discards or leftovers.
Last summer, when I was teaching a lot and we had our resident student living with us, (she's a knitter, btw), we saw that there was an amazing deal online. A yarn company had some yarn they considered a mistake. They called it "overspun yarn." They sold this wool sport weight yarn online in big bags of 10 skeins for a dollar a skein and said it knit up at 6 stitches to an inch.. I could barely contain my excitement.

This first photo is only a small portion of the yarn I bought. (It got a bit out of hand...) I've since used some of this yarn for weaving a scarf. Lately I've been knitting a skein of it into a sock. It turns out that I LOVE to knit with this yarn. The yarn's hand is firm and the resulting fabric (at 7 stitches to an inch) is a delight. I cannot wait to see how it will wear over time...but so far, I see no fear of biasing or other problems that were predicted. Sometimes, a handspinner's knowledge of yarn construction is a valuable thing! If the socks wear well, I can imagine knitting whole sweaters out of this yarn sometime in the future, either at this fingering weight or doubling it for a firm textured thicker yarn.

This is what it looks like up close in the skein.

When I encounter yarns like this, I can only use them for my own personal projects. Since these "deal" yarns are a one time offer, discontinued, unavailable, or otherwise hard to find, I can't really sell a knitting pattern using this yarn since other knitters will want to knit the pattern in the same yarn as I used. Instead, I find I brainstorm ideas. Sometimes I reknit a whole project for a design in a more widely available yarn later, but the first project usually gets worn at home instead.

I'm also including Sally the dog in my post about the "underappreciated." Sally sometimes scares people who come to visit us because she immediately does an alarm bark and tries to protect me. She is a nervous, high strung kind of girl. Some of that is the Pointer in her. She's definitely a mixed breed dog, but if you look at her body and her behaviors, she might also have some coonhound in her...which wouldn't be a surprise since we got her from the pound in Kentucky, where there are a lot of hunting dogs.

She is a fast runner and an amazing hunter...even though we really don't hunt. (need a rabbit, squirrel or snake? Just ask Sally!) Sally is also very intelligent and practically trains herself to do all sorts of things. She taught herself to retrieve by watching Harry do it--and it took a while to teach Harry this skill! She is a wonderful nursemaid and will spend hours with me in bed if I am not feeling well. She brings me lots of squeaky dog toys and makes a nest for us!

Sally can sense if a new person is nervous around her. She doesn't like loud voices or quick movements. That said, once Sally makes a friend, you're really part of her pack for life. Certain friends and relatives who are either very calm or dog people have been rewarded with Sally's love. It is truly delicious, but not everyone has the patience or the right kind of calm nature to see it.

The professor is finishing up grading his final exam. He sits on the couch and either Harry or Sally "helps" him. Here is Sally, dropping by for a visit. She will paw at one of us gently until we pet her the way she likes. She knows that if she paws me twice, she gets 2 "pets!" Three times? Three pets...she is clever.
I think we all have a tendency to fall for the dog who is immediately affectionate (Harry comes to mind, if you've met him!), the super soft knitting yarn, or the things that are easy and/or expensive. Sometimes, it is a discarded yarn, an abandoned and skittish dog, or a conversation with a friend that can be really valuable in the longterm. I am counting up the things I value--and sometimes, it can be more work to see how truly incredible that overspun yarn, that anxious dog, or a complicated friendship can be. For me, this effort is truly worthwhile. Sally, and the lessons she teaches, are really blessings.

If you celebrate a holiday around now, I hope it is a joyous and meaningful one! If you don't, please come by (via the comments?) and visit with us over here on the couch...

knowing smart people

Last year, the professor wandered across the university campus to meet with a Biomedical Engineering professor to talk about a collaborative grant proposal. They hit it off and became friends. This friend invited us to his house for a Sunday night discussion group. Originally, we based our discussions on college courses on DVD. We'd watch a lecture and then we'd discuss it. Invariably, one of us knew more than the introductory lecture. Others learned the material for the first time. This was all pretty interesting.

As time passed, we found we didn't need to start with someone else's lecture. Someone would come in with a short video clip or an idea, and we'd be off to the races, thick in discussion. Since then, things have blossomed. We make world-cuisine potluck meals (bring whatever you feel like, while respecting people's dietary issues) and we enjoy hanging out. In the summer time, we rotated houses and went to outdoor concerts. In the fall, a few folks went off to watch the bird migrations together.

Although most of us have some academic affiliation, we try not to get bogged down in "shop" talk. We are so different in some ways that conversation is inevitable. Our ages range from the mid-30s to mid-60s. The people in the group were born all over the world: Iran, Australia, Egypt, Canada, US, etc. Our religious backgrounds are really different, too. This all makes for rich conversation.

The tendency, as we get older, is to get comfortable in our peer groups. Maybe people hang out with family, friends with common interests, or people from their religious community. These habits tend to keep us from meeting amazing people who might not be just like us. For some, it's just hard to get up off the couch to try something new. The chance for intellectual growth is so great when we push ourselves to reach beyond those usual circles.

Today I was proud to know some of these people. This article about their important Alzheimer's research came out in the local paper. The researchers (my friends) were interviewed on TV news as well. In big ways, some of our friends are making a difference in the world. In small ways, we're helping each other move furniture, cope with job issues, or sharing recipes.

I don't think I could underestimate how it feels to know such clever, intellectually curious people. It's amazing...and, although I often bring my knitting on Sunday nights, sometimes I am just too immersed in stimulating conversation to knit as well. Now, that's saying something.

So, did you know that intellectual growth and activities (like knitting) help prevent Alzheimer's? What are you doing to keep mentally active?

A winner!

Congratulations to StephCat, who just won the gift certificate contest! Thanks to everybody for participating. I am slowly (very slowly) going through everyone's comments, visiting your blogs or dropping you emails, and enjoying all your thoughts. Thank you so much for saying hello. Some of you are old friends--for instance, we spun together in a guild in North Carolina 8 years ago...and others are new acquaintances I am meeting via the internet. It has been delightful to hear from everyone. Please keep it up when you might have something to say via comment. I love hearing back when I post.

The professor took this photo of our house in the snow as he was out shovelling. It's supposed to snow again tomorrow, so there will be more white stuff to come!

You may wonder how I chose the winner for the blog comment contest. Well, the truth is that this time, I had the professor do it with the Random integer program online. I used to do it myself, but well, it's a funny story. When you add my looney toons, anti-histamine addled brain into the mix, well, I set it up (1-21=the total number of comments, 1=winner), and then it chose a number. Wow, I said! That was fun. Then I did it again. I chose another number. And again. Then, by the time I had 3 numbers, I realized I no longer had one winner...and if I did, the one winner wouldn't be random. I would have chosen 1 out of 3. In fact, I had forgotten the first number by the time I'd gotten to the third. This seemed funny, but then I realized, uhh, this is how come I'm not driving when I'm on this medicine... so I had my lovely husband do the hard work of being objective.

Luckily, the doctor has suggested I can reduce my dosage and stop taking this medicine in December, if all is well. That is probably good. In the meanwhile, I might go back to entertaining myself with random numbers. Apparently that's all it takes. :) (yes, I'm easily affected by medicines...)

Whew!

It's finally gotten a little cooler here...our streak of very hot temperatures seems to have passed. That has been a relief!

In the box count sweepstakes, we're now up to 233 boxes, so I expect those of you with the higher numbers might be more in the ball park. Things are looking remarkably, well, boxy around here...packing's going well. I'll keep you updated on the box guessing sweepstakes, although by the time someone has "won", I'll have nothing left to send off as a reward!

Although I had a really busy weekend, I got a chance to email or comment on nearly everyone's blog. That was fun! I appreciated some of the exchanges we had. I learned a few things...Nancy and I have often exchanged blog comments, but for some reason I wasn't able to post there...I'm sorry, Nancy! I'm sure it's some sort of cyberspace blip. Another realization...Cathy, thanks so much for clarifying that there are two Cathys out there commenting! I was confused until you pointed out that my friend Cathy, who designed those marvelous crocheted socks in Fiber Gathering is that other Cathy! :)

Things are indeed gathering momentum now that the move to Winnipeg is upon us...less than 2 weeks until moving day. We had guests over for dinner both Friday and Saturday nights. I visited my friend, the farmer on Saturday afternoon. He is now home from the hospital and recuperating. Another friend came over to spin with me on Sunday. It was a busy time, but I've really enjoyed these social intermissions from the packing. I will miss these local friends.

One last, comment related realization...according to Alison, it turns out I have quite a high percentage of blog readers who comment! Thank you for all those positive things you bring to my corner of the world. I see my blog a lot like my cyber living room...it's a familiar concept in blogland--certainly not unique to mine.

For instance, for the first 6 months I lived in Kentucky, I hosted a spinning and knitting group once a month in my real living room. I loved having folks introduce themselves to each other and I welcomed them in. I liked hearing all the conversations buzzing together at once! After a bit, it became difficult to manage hosting this, as we also hosted the professor's lab parties and other events...but my temptation is always to try to welcome folks into my home and my life. As a result, for a long while, I left the "anonymous" option open on my blog comments, and it resulted in some wonderful contributions for quite a while.

In thinking about it, I've realized that I'd like my blog/cyber living room to be as kind and honestly compassionate a place as my real living room is--so I've switched off that anonymous comment possibility. I still welcome all your comments with an open heart so I can respond to you...and I hope this switch won't inhibit your comments. I like listening to what folks have to say! However, for me, reading blogs (and writing them) is about expressing oneself in a thoughtful and caring way--about making friends and sharing ideas and connections. People can be very different in their beliefs or ideas but still treat each other with respect and acceptance. Anything you might want to comment on here should be something you can say with your name attached to it, just as if you were visiting me in my real living room. Anonymity shouldn't necessary here! I want to continue to foster that openness to others and that respect, that positive tone while I move across the prairie spaces to my new home.

Oh, and Kristy, I can't wait to meet you and spin with you in Manitoba! Soyun, thanks for dropping by--you do beautiful work...I hope my other blog readers will check it out!
Now, back to those boxes...