There's a backlog of things that are being held up now by the rechargable batteries for our camera being completely non-rechargable after being used for a year.

After having done pretty much no spinning since I moved, now I have two completely finished projects.

There were also two gorgeous bentos last night, but unlike craft projects, lovely food can't just wait around forever. You'll just have to trust me that they came out nice.

There are several Christmas presents, but they're hiding for the next 6 months. I do want to take pictures, though.

Oh! And scarf pattern is all done, I just need to get a couple of nice pictures of it in good light.

While I've been busy not taking pictures, I did post two more patterns to Ravelry, the Swirly Hat, and the Brain Slug (pdfs ahoy). They were already available here, but I spent a few nights on each clarifying wording, formatting them nicely, and adding a few bits here and there (like a chart for the brain slug eye). So if you were planning on making either, you might like the Rav version.

The other ones will get done too, eventually. I think some people like pdfs, and some people on Ravelry like using patterns that are right on there (it's a search option on the site). The ones I've put up there seem to get a steady stream of interest. So, it works.

It's good for marriages to maintain a bit of mystery. It means you learn more things about a person as time goes on.

For example, last night J learned that I can recite almost all the dialog of Karate Kid II along with the movie, even though I haven't seen it in about 15 years.

Do I know all the words to Karate Kid I or III? It's mysteries like this that add spice to a relationship.

I burned my finger on a stack of silicon oxide discs that had been fused together and burned through by an electron beam about 5 minutes prior. (silicon oxide melts around 1700 degrees C).

I know all about the thermal properties of ceramics and knew damn well the thing must still be hot.

I couldn't help it. It was *pretty*.

Uh-oh, J is fiber-arts blogging. I feel the sudden need to post an anime clip. Except I won't imbed it, because for some reason I don't like to do that.

The theme song from the most recent Naruto Shippuden ending has been wandering around my head for a while, and it charms me with the fan-art-iness of putting ninjas in personality-appropriate suits. And it even includes Shikamaru (top-of-head ponytail guy with green background), who's a pretty minor character that I really like. See, he's incredibly lazy, but is smart enough to get away with it anyhow. I wonder why I identify. Anyways, I've been making J play the whole ending rather than switching to something else as soon as the show is over. It's a small concession considering the ridonkulous amount of anime playing in the house in any given 24 hour period.

But actually, it's interesting: most of the Shippuden endings so far have either looked a lot like fanart, or have actually included fanart (the G-rated stuff, anyhow.) Different shows deal with the blazing intensity of Internet fandom in vastly different ways--some shows obviously find it really uncomfortable. Some shows, like Mythbusters, try to direct all that energy into actually doing stuff that helps out the show (they do a fair number of fan-submitted myths, and fan-focused episodes). It looks like the people working on Naruto have tried to accept it and are even allowing in some bits of fanservice involving long, meaningful looks between the two male leads. (J and I, whenever Sasuke and Naruto are in the same frame: "Jesus, just KISS the guy already instead of talking him to death!")

J and I went to a local strawberry-picking place yesterday. I've had a hankering for good jam for about 3 1/2 years now, but while going strawberry picking with J has been on my list of things to do, I just never got around to it in Wisconsin. Eleven-plus pounds of strawberries doesn't look like much, when you take a picture:



But it does seem more impressive when I list out what they got turned into by this morning:

6 jars of freezer jam (for us, mostly)

12 jars of real jam (for presents, mostly)

6 baggies-full of halved, frozen berries (for pancakes, and for mid-winter depression over the crummy greenhouse tastes-like-refrigerant produce)

And then a small mixing bowl full of fresh berries, to eat now. And that doesn't include the somewhat ridiculous volume of strawberries that made their way into our stomachs while their friends got processed. A true embarrassment of riches.

It was a fun day yesterday. The canning part was pretty easy; Grisamore Farms has a farm store just up the road from the strawberry field that has all kinds of canning supplies, so we were able to get all the pectin and jars right there, and with a much better selection than they have at the big grocery store. (They also had yarn--soft, wooly, inexpensive, and being sold about 20 yards from the sheep who were lolling in the shade. I bought a skein.)

I'd been in the house when J canned pickles and raspberries before, so I roughly knew what was involved, but I was surprised at how straightforward everything was. The most complicated bit was getting hot sugary strawberry goo into equally-hot jars without dripping too much. The most stressful bit was realizing at the point-of-no-return that I was wearing a white shirt. But it all worked out well (and I only got one teeny pink drop on the shirt). And when I was done, I enjoyed watching Charles' Law in action--as the jars cool off after being boiled, the air above the jam contracts, and the sealed lids make an amusing popping noise as the lid-poppy-thing inverts.

Actually, I was thinking a lot about the chemistry of what I was doing. I've spent a lot of time crosslinking things in the lab, particularly in my undergraduate research. Crosslinking is the process that turns a liquid into a gel or elastic--short chains of molecules that could slide by each other get stuck together, which prevents them from moving around as freely, and any fibers, water, or fruit that gets stuck between the chains end up suspended.

So after I did all my in-kitchen synthesizing, I went and looked up about pectin, which ended up making me wish that the boxes I used included more information about side-chain composition and calcium concentration.

I'm a nerd. Did you know that?

Anyways, it was a really fun day. I'm thinking about going back with J later this summer for blueberries, or maybe cherries. The strawberry patch was right next to the orchard, so we saw all the unripe cherries sitting there. Looks like a good crop. On the other hand, blueberry-peach pie is calling to me. Mmm. Famous couples.

Working-class couples.

Couples with children.

Couples who have been together for 40 years.

Entirely unremarkable couples.

High school sweethearts.

They all got married as soon as they could.

Which happened to be last week.

Weddings don't typically tear me up, but reading all these stories did. Because dammit, these glowingly happy couples shouldn't have had to wait until last week to sign a paper which legally recognizes the relationship they've had for months, years, or decades. That legal recognition is important in a million small ways--I figured this out within a week or two of my own wedding, when I was able to sign J up for health insurance.

My marriage was strengthened today by looking at so many happy newlyweds.

The pictures are beautiful, the stories are beautiful. Go read.

The Station of the Cross, proving the Catholics do actually have a sense of humor.

Their studio sits on a corner in Buffalo that we often end up waiting at when we visit J's family. I laugh every time.

Food:


Another oldish bento, but one that was nice enough to take a picture of. The main dish is rice with a tofu/veggie/ginger/garlic stir fry. The snacky bits include Yogurt with chocolate chip, dried apricots, bananas, strawberries, chocolate chips, cheese, crackers, and almonds. I really liked the variety in this one; two bites of a bunch of different things is more satisfying than one big bowl of undifferentiated stuff.

The more bento stuff I do, the more I find myself applying the general principles to decidedly non-bentoish lunches. I bought a couple of square Lock and Lock boxes at the grocery store recently, because I wanted something reusable to hold a sandwich. One of the boxes is a little too big for just a sandwich. Time was I'd probably just make do with a sandwich that got banged around a bit, but the little extra space is perfect for some crackers or veggies or fruit. Result? Better lunch, unmolested sandwich (because it's held in place with the extra stuff in there), less inclination to go downstairs and buy a cookie because I can put a little sweet thing right in there. And it's nicer to look at; one of my coworkers was saying that my lunches are always so tasty looking (The Lock and Lock boxes are clear, so you can see what's inside.)

First-time auntie, huzzah! Love and well-wishes to my stepbrother, his wife, and their new boy. They were the ones I knit the Baby Surprise Jacket for, but now that he's here, clearly he needs lots of knitting-love. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see them all when I go home for a bit at the end of the summer.

J and I had a lovely weekend. We went upstate to visit his parents, which involved a long bike ride and about 8 million calories. Even J, of the star core-like metabolism, only got hungry for dinner around 7 tonight, after a 10am breakfast and nothing after that.

As usually happens when the weather warms up, I've been spending less time knitting and more time doing things that don't involve sitting around with a sweater on one's lap--spinning, sewing, crossword puzzles, video games, cycling. There's some spinning that's been sitting around half-done for a long time that I'm finally taking care of, which feels good (pictures soon: I finally finished the singles but still need to ply). I haven't touched my wheel in ages but I have this one tiny fluff of fiber left of the yarn I was spinning up for Madam, that I really ought to finish up and pass along to her for some color-fastness testing.

I'm the clumsiest video game player in the world. Maybe because I didn't have a Nintendo growing up, or maybe because I have the reflexes of someone 40 years older (seriously, I've tested). Or maybe I just don't qualify as that sub-type of geek. The end result is the same: my little sisters have been able to whoop me at every game they had since before they could read.

Except, I like playing video games. Like with capoeira, it's something that is fun, but where I start off too far behind to even bother with frustration. I play games designed for little kids and whoop with joy when I get through levels.

J bought some kind of Playstation about halfway through my graduate career. Everything went to crap for about 3 weeks while I did nothing but play Harry Potter, failing 50 times for every success, seeing secret passages and bouncing spells in my sleep, not showing up much to work. And then there was Harvest Moon, which involved not so much failing but a whole lot of time anyhow.

It was at that point that I realized that video games were bad for me in the open-ended job context of grad school, and refused to touch a controller until I'd finished*.

This means I'm about 3 years behind on fun-looking games. Which means that after a few years of waiting I've finally been able to play Katamari Damacy, and it was totally worth the wait. Because I do better in a structured environment where the people at my job expect to see me at a certain time, I've actually been getting all my work done during the day, too, in spite of seeing items to roll into everywhere I go. On the other hand, J hasn't seen much of me, unless I run into the computer room crowing about the sumo wrestler I just added to my collection.

Katamari is the best of all worlds. It's a game where even failing is entertaining, where there are constant tiny goals to achieve, where the graphic style is so crack-tacular and fun that you play just to look around and see what happens next.

What kind of crack-tacularity is this? The intro sequence will give you an idea (no, it doesn't make any more sense after playing the game). Big shiny guy is the King of the Universe, who gives instruction and insults to you, describing many exciting sights on Earth that he will not bother to show you. You're the tiny green dude, the Prince, who has to reconstruct the stars from little bits of things left behind by some *incredibly* messy humans.

And when you collect enough little bits, you start to be able to pick up the humans as well. Then sumo wrestlers, cows, and humans dressed up as rabbits. Then parade floats and jungle gyms. Then rainbows and islands and Godzilla.

It's that sort of game.

Anyways, highly recommended, particularly if you had a rough week and a healthy escape is needed.

* Uh, except for Dance Dance Revolution. First, you get tired playing it, so you can't do it for hours on end. Second, I seriously would have had some kind of breakdown if I hadn't been able to jump around for an hour when I was sitting in front of the computer for 18 hours a day re-organizing data and writing until words lost all meaning. I very nearly thanked the creators of DDR in the acknowledgements section of my thesis, that's how important it was.

I'm back, I think. I have many foolish things built up to say, in any case.

#1: Don't believe the hype. Barley tea=brown pasta water.

(We'd discussed writing amusing point-counterpoint entries on the subject, but he outmaneuvered me by leading with some negatives. Clever man.)

#2: Lord of the Rings trailer, reimagined as a 70's hobbit-sploitation film. I can't stop watching the bit from about 1:05 to 1:10.

#3: Another video, also pleasing, though with less irony. It's just fun to watch happy people enjoying themselves.