A Belated Update

Let me get the pictures out of the way first!

Socks made with the most wonderful yarn I found. It's Panda Soy and it loves me!


Shawl for Jeff's mom. I'm not as disheartened as before, it's actually getting substantially larger!


And finally, my precious baby that I would easily trade Joey for on a desperate day.


The three I have been working on diligently without too many breaks in between. I am determined to finish something by the end of the year.

Onto more serious things!

I passed my language proficiency recently. I figured I would, but I didn't know how those mistakes were going to count against me. However, the test only grades according to "pass" or "fail", and I definitely did not do bad enough to fail.

My class of zealous interest right now is the Creative Nonfiction class. There are writing exercises every week, and our topics are usually self-centered due to the nature of the course. It's like an extensive class in academic blogging but without spams in my comment section. The final at the end of the semester is quite unorthodox. Instead of a large paper, we are to send one of our papers in for publication and show the evidence to the professor. This is an exercise to "get us used to rejection." I suspect there will be lots of sniveling at home after I receive my letter.

This class has inspired me to blog more, though I have yet to act on it. Perhaps I'll start posting short essays in order to strengthen my writing for class. Perhaps.

An Update on Nothing

Now that I do not have a job with routine hours anymore, it's hard to find time to blog. Well, I take that back, it's now hard to blot out precious lounging time to blog.

It's nice to be back in the department as a full time student again, except this time I get paid for it. There's definitely something to be said about being around people who are just as divorced from reality as I am. Though I think I jumped the gun a little more and have completely alienated reality now that I have time for zombie movies again.

This semester is already coming off to a good start. I understand the readings and the subjects are quite enticing. The class I am unexpectedly looking forward to is the Creative Nonfiction class. We are to write quasi-reflective pieces that would in some way describe the human condition. I already have some ideas for my pieces, though I would definitely do some research on the genre before hand.

Once again, I'm taking a class with Dr. Farmer for a Chinese related class. The first book is already good! It's about flood myths and awesome bawdawesome. Once I'm finished, I'll have a more substantial summary. There is a girl that knits in class. I'm widely jealous yet still have too much shame to knit in such a small class. One day! One day I'll throw off these shackles of conformity and civility! And wear nothing but a burlap sack with argyle socks!

As far as crafting goes, I haven't finished anything in a long time. I started plenty of things though, but that's pretty normal. I've finally come back around to the cycle of cross stitch again. I really want to finish the Zelda cross stitch sometime this year, but I suspect it'll be harder as the semester progresses.

Let's see, other than that, life has been pretty much the same. I started working out at Crossfit Richardson after hearing Mel talk about it so much. While there are no physical results yet, I feel much more energetic and tons more talkative, much to Joey's dismay. But now that I have more energy, I feel like I can do everything with gusto. Like... bumming around... HARDCORE!

So.... lalala!

La-dee-dah!

I am starting my new job this Thursday! It'll be my first meeting with the professor whom I'll be assisting. I'm quite excited and I hope I'll do well this semester.

I attended the first part of the orientation for new TA/RAs today, and there were a lot of people. I think altogether, there were about two hundred grad students, but I definitely look the smartest.... Joey will testify!

On Saturday we went to a Greek restaurant called Kostas, and it was absolutely great! The environment was classy, the service was fantastic, and the food was absolutely fabu. I can't believe we never went in before. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was its outside image. Even though it was nice and clean, there's really not that much to suggest it's a restaurant. In fact, for years I thought it was a garage... but without mechanics hanging outside.

I also went to Woolie Ewe on Saturday and I was completely overwhelmed, in the bestest of ways, by the great service. Sue, the owner, helped me out for nearly an hour and did not gripe at all about my cluelessness. She not only helped me revise the sweater pattern I had, but also helped me pick out the yarn. I ended up making the purchase on Monday instead because the yarn I was eying was being held for another lady.

Here's what I came home with! And of course, my quality control officer was the first to arrive with some... quality control.



It's a nice bamboo and wool blend that is soft to the touch yet very durable. Perfect for my Joey. He's already seen it and knows what it's for... anniversary present come this February. A while back we got a sweater for Joey from Burlington Coats Factory. It was the most worthwhile twelve dollars he spent, and he wore that sweater to death until it finally broke from his love. I'm hoping I could replace that trooper of a sweater with something handmade.

Last week of work!

This is my last week of work at the Office of Enrollment in UTD. It's slowly sinking in, but... not quite.

Joey and I finally went to the store and bought patio stuff. We got two super size camping chairs and a little gas grill.





Guess which one is mine! We grilled a couple times during the week, and it was a lot of fun just sitting out there... until the bugs killed me. I'll wait a couple more months before sitting outside again.

So August 9th was our six month anniversary! We went to Home Depot and bought a fern together. :)



I'm going to try super hard to keep this baby alive... but I'd be lying if I said I had done any research.

Carol also gave us some cat grass. It's a mixture of barley, wheat, and oat. Her cats really like them, so I hope Maomao will like it too! But hopefully not enough to hurl it up every where in the apartment.

Here's a picture. The top left has already sprouted a little.



Finally I move on to my knitting!




The top one is my Ravelympics entry. It's coming along quite well! I had quite a hard start up with it due to not reading instructions. (Instructions are for tooooooools!) But I persevered and conquered at the end. Every now and then I worry about not having enough yarn for it, but damn it if I were ever caught measuring gauge... or even reading instructions!

The second one is more progress on the flutter scarf. I made a booboo a while back and just went on with it, hoping that no one would ever notice. But Mom made a comment about my quality control team (me and myself and me). Even though I hold to the philosophy of "all problem can be fixed by ignoring it", I eventually broke down and unraveled back to the bad part. Because even though I say it's for myself, I might gift it at the end, and I'd hate for someone to talk about the mistakes later.

On Friday I went over to Burleson to watch the Olympics opening ceremony with mom, and I brought a gift along for her. I worked on it all week! It was my ambitious "one dishcloth a day" plan, and I managed! Along with the washcloths, I also added a pretty soap and other toiletries.



The soap actually smells pretty strong, but I got used to it after a while. I have two more of that brand and am planning to use one at some point. Unfortunately, Joey doesn't like them, so I'll have to think about it carefully. While I like to use new bath products, I also like to be hugged and being close to my husband. Hmmm! Dilemmas!

Correction!

From yesterday's post... there is no Chinese word that means "kill" and "cop a feel" at the same time. I was wrong. But now I'm really confused... because I distinctively saw the word "kill" and even tripled checked the dictionary.

Hmm! Mystery abound!

He's here!

First of all, my biggest excitement from last week was when Camus arrived.




For a long time, I wrestled with the idea of getting anime figurines. I was a fangirl but have never crossed the line of actually collecting merchandise. But then I thought, who the hell cares! So on July 21st, I made the purchase on Ebay from a store in Hong Kong and was quite pleased.

He's Aquarius Camus from an old series called Saint Seiya and we plan to run away together.

Onto other stuff now! I took my language proficiency last Wednesday, and I have to admit, I haven't used my brain that much all summer. I had to translate two excerpts from Chinese to English. It was fairly easy since the language was modern and in simplified Chinese. Thank goodness I didn't have to translate hexagrams!

The first piece was an excerpt from a short story written about an event in 1917. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the naming conventions of years, and my best guess for the year was 1955.... doh! I was wondering why there were still rickshaws after the Revolution. The way they said the year was.. "in the sixth year of Ming Guo." Apparently Ming Guo (the start of new... or rather, Nationalist China) starts dating their years from 1900. So in order to get the equivlance in Gregorian calender, you have to add 11 to the number and then to 1900. I know now!

The other piece was a scholarly essay on Lu Xun's "Biography of Q." There was one word in there that could mean two things... "kill" or "cop a feel". Since the essay was so somber throughout, I went with the former since I never read the original. It turned out that the "Biography" was a satirical piece, thus it was the latter meaning... Doh! I know now!

Other than that, I think I did fine. I was able to translate everything and convey all the messages, which was the main goal of the practice. They can't be expecting something perfect because I only had two hours for each.

I am very excited about this upcoming semester. I'm going to be a Teaching Assistant with the department, and that will not only speed up my progress, but also give me invaluable experience in my field. I can't wait!

I do actually have lots of updates this time! Let me start by showing off the FINISHED stuff.





Two dishcloths and a baby blanket! I found out that one of my mom's friends in Burleson is having a baby in October, so I wrapped up this one for her. But I haven't forgotten Alyssa! I already started another one for her, and it'll definitely be done before the end of the year.

The dishcloths, well, Joann's and Michael's were having a sale on their Sugar 'n Cream stock, so that's all I have to say.

Here's some updates on the unfinished stuff:





I have quite a bit to say about the last one. It's a flutter scarf! Ever since I got the goldish yarn from the scarf exchange, I've been dreaming of a ruffle scarf, and now it has finally come true!

On Saturday afternoon at 4:30 PM, 20 minutes before we left for a movie date, I bought the pattern. It was a glorious moment and I casted on the same night. I will now proceed to make seven... one for each day of the week!

Yarn Galore!

Before I start with anything else, let me say...

Good news everyone! Quackers is almost fully grown.



Tonight will be the "release" night when Joey and I send him off at the apartment fountain where the bunnies and the dogs will... ignore him and what not.

This Wednesday will be my language proficiency test for my Master's. It will consist of four hours of translating in a small room with just me and my dictionary. I really hope they didn't choose something that's in archaic Chinese. I told them I could handle either simplified or traditional Chinese, but if it's written in ancient dialect, I'm screwed! But other test takers have said that the excerpts were always relevant to their field, and I have made it clear that my field was post-Qing dynasty. So hopefully the chosen material will be... understandable!

I came to an uncomfortable yet inevitable conclusion yesterday... I have too much yarn.

It's finally gotten to a point where the amount of yarn I have is overwhelming me. I am also no longer excited every time I look at my stash because ... it's just so damn huge! There's only two more things I want come September, but until then, I'll start destashing by working on my queue.

So here are some updates!



Well, I guess it's just one thing. It's my first attempt at socks! I tried it leg first before, but after looking at Mel's project, I was intrigued by the toe up method. I have to admit, it's a million times easier! I already started on the second sock, albeit with a different pattern, but Joey doesn't mind if his socks don't match.

Here are the new yarns I got over the weekend!



I bought this for my friend's daughter's scarf. She bought the same thing but in alternating colors for the other daughter. I'm so happy that the brand is carrying cotton yarn now! They are a lot smoother and softer than the Sugar 'n Cream brand, so it'll be more suitable for a light garment such as a scarf. The beads are so cute also!



The goldish yarn is actually from the scarf exchange. It's so soft! I've been really interested in a ruffle scarf lately, and the image of a gold ruffle scarf look the best in my head!



This! I have no idea what to do with this yet, but it was so pretty that I had to get it. At Woolie Ewe, there's a small section by the knitting tables with these caked up lace weight yarn, and it looks so delicious there. It's about 630 yards, so I think I can make a substantial shawl from it as long as it's not overly huge.

Finally!

I joined the Ravelympics yesterday with Team Woolie Ewe. This sounds so fun, I'll finally feel obligated to finish something in a set amount of time. Cast on is August 8th during the opening ceremony and I have to finish before the closing ceremony.

The project I chose is a pretty shawl intended for Jeff's mom. She baked our groom's cake for our wedding and I feel that I never thanked her properly. So now I have my chance!

The yarn I'm planning to use is this:



Maybe I'll wind it up tonight...