Saturday, August 16, 2008

Tesie-cat

It has been a long time since I last updated. Its been pretty busy here...since we are at the culmination of the summer semester, everything has been snowballing (as it always does). Trying to keep up with research and progressively moving forward with that (which means late nights in the lab), I spent all week trying to catch up on grading only to have three lab reports and notebooks turned in yesterday afternoon (and one of those experiments is at least an 8 page discussion that has to be graded along with postlab, prelab and data writeups for that experiment). All these things which I must have graded by monday morning to submit my grades to the lab coordinator so that he can write up the final grades. I'm also taking a class this summer (though late nights in the lab make it really hard to get up for 8am lectures) and we had a test on Wednesday that I hardly studied for (somehow I made an A on it though, thank God) and we have our final today. I am not expecting it to be too difficult, just another thing on my very full plate.
And as if that wasn't enough, I came home one day to find that Tesia had pretty much scratched her neck off. I noticed she has been itching herself more lately (but its not fleas since she is a 150% indoor cat) but this week was it. I've treated her with spray from the pet store, but to no avail. The poor girl's neck was scratched completely raw. I only hope that her hair will grow back. I took her to the vet today, and it turns out its a food allergy. So...they sent us home with an antibacterial shot (so I don't have to fight her everyday for two weeks to get a pill down her throat, not a very fun thing to do with her) a steroid shot to help with the itch, special non-allergen food, and a nice little vet bill (they had to do blood work to make sure she didn't have some sort of infection, and that it would be ok to give her the steroid shot). I hope she feels better soon! my poor little baby. I brought a blanket with us so she could hide in it (she is the epitome of "scaredy-cat") and she did pretty good at the vet, especially considering how many times she got pricked today.

Well thats my update! Hope everyone has a great weekend...I know I will be keeping busy!
Hopefully I will be able to fit a nap, lots of crochet and run in somewhere. <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://commitment.es/mba2008/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/duck-busy.jpg">

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Anticipation

I know that I really should focus on my current project...the bliss blanket, especially as it has been going slow, but I can't help myself (especially when I see people like Lisa who are doing all kinds of different projects!) And I know I have a deadline for this one, but doing square after square is getting a bit monotonous.
So....I ordered some new books today. The first one is called Kyuuto! The title is a spinoff of "cute" and "Kyoto", the beautiful Japanese city. This book has alot of patterns for everyday things that you can make and use. really practical. and they are pretty stylish with a bit of Asian flair, which I really like. I am hoping that I can find a somewhat beginner type of project, make a prototype, and then host a crochet party for some of the girls here in the dept. (all they would need to bring is their hook and a ball of yarn!) Since its an easier project, the new girls won't be working on something totally out-of-reach and utterly frustrating, and the advances girls can pick it up easy and help out the newbies. I think that would be alot of fun! And, maybe I can get other people hooked (haha) on my new hobbie! Plus, the projects in this are small, so they it would not be too daunting and are a fun little distraction for here and there when I need one.
The next one is called Uncommon Crochet. This book also has some really great, fashionable patterns (at least from what I saw in the excerpts) but you play with alot of natural fibers and different textures, so this one also looked pretty fun.
The next one I am really excited about. Its an afghan book. Some of the blankets in here just looked amazing, its one of those ones where I am hoping to find lots of inspiration for when it comes time to make those really special gifts. Of course, they are blankets so they will be time consuming projects, but I know they will be totally worth it.
I got them off of Amazon, because they were so stinking cheap. Ideally, I would have gone to barnes and noble or joann's (does anyone know of another place to get craft books for cheap?) so that I could see everything that was inside, but I like how amazon has the "see inside" option so you have some idea of what you're getting. Even with the shipping, I still beat the retail price. yay!
can't wait until they get in!
Progress update: Work on the blanket has been SLOW. Chemistry has made me have to kick things into high gear on the lab front, so I have been staying late and not getting to work on my blanket as much. *tear* BUT, I have committed to myself to get home early tonight, MAKE dinner for once (geez), go for a run, and snuggle with my Tesie-cat while I work on a square or two.
Have a great day!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

tranquility

I was walking by the turtle pond at school and saw that there were all these beautiful flowers! The turtle pond here is actually a pond with multiple tiers. The first tier is more shaded and has tons of flowers like the ones pictured above in it. The next tier is all waterlilies and I have seen some koi in there too, and the lowest tier has all the cute turtles in it. Well....I had never noticed these big, pink flowers before so I did a search on them. These are LOTUS flowers! I had never known what lotus flowers looked like, and I remember reading about them in Greek mythology back in like 8th grade. I LOVE these flowers! Each one looks so solitary, like its fighting to make its way up out of the leaves and water, but when you look closer at them, they look so elegant and delicate. They are symbols of spiritual growth and divine beauty in Asian and Indian cultures.
They look so peaceful...I could spend a whole day outside by the bond reading a book and just taking a break from it all. I think that one day, I will have a pond in my garden, and it must have these gorgeous flowers in it!!