My birthday (a little late) February 7, 2013

You know you had a good time on your birthday when you don’t get to blog about it until a week later!

My day started normally enough until I got to the office where a very interesting box awaited me on my desk.  Given it’s dimensions, I was a tad apprehensive that my day was going to devolve into something Kill Bill-esque…

…until I opened it up.  It’s a beautiful tapestry that my friend Guang had his folks bring back from China for me:-)

When my friend Elise arrived, so did flowers…

doughnuts and a massive chocolate cake.

I also got another box in the mail when I went to the post office later.  It was a wrapped box…

…and it contained this.

It’s a Nexus 7 tablet.  A very kind friend sent it to me as a really big surprise.  A big surprise is certainly was!

That evening Elise and I went to Welch Ave. Station for dinner and drinks.  This is a college bar here in the Iowa State campus town that has been around FOREVER.  My free birthday drink was their Pissed off Japanese Minnow Farmer.  After that, well, things got a little interesting.

Yeah. That’s me. Putting away tequila shots like a full-on college student.  Which I guess that I am!

Believe it or not, after about 10 shots I still was able to walk out of the bar on my own two feet.  I didn’t get sick nor was I hung-over in the morning (in case you were worried).  I think the pizza, fried cheese balls, and cheesy bread that we had eaten earlier in the evening mitigated the potential for alcohol damage.  Don’t get me wrong, I was a rather cheerful Sarah leaving the bar that night, but honestly, I was walking better than Elise was and she’d not had a drink that night!

Today I received a package from my friend Tini in Germany.

In it was a sweet birthday card, 2 cutie sheep figurines, some lush spinning fiber, a bit of leftover sock yarn for my blanket and a little notebook that I am going to use to keep my spinning notes in, and a bunch of Tyvek bracelets like what you get when you go to a club or an event.  They are for marking yardage and such on skeined-up yarn that you are then going to wash.  Brilliant!

This evening I got yet another birthday present from my lovely roommate Des.  It’s the book Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis. Such a beautifully done book!

Weezy approved!

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so wonderful.  Special thanks to Elise and Guang for a fantastic night out!  If this is what 35 is like, roll on 40!

What I got January 30, 2013

So, I was asked to share what I got at Sticks and Sting this year.  I assure you it is modest in the most! 

The yellow yarn on the left is a custom dyed skein of Superwash Merino 3 ply yarn that came with my goodie bag (but that I forgot to photograph!) by Dreams in Fiber.  The middle blue and white merino/nylon superwash yarn is also by Dreams in Fiber and the colorway is “The Box”.  The bundle on the right is by Blue Ridge Yarns and it’s called Footlights in the colorway “Pansies”.

Yeah, I was that restrained.  But you see, I have this at home.

All those skeins in the plastic baggies on the top shelf? Wollmeise. The rest is an assortment of Blue Moon Fiber Arts and other various sock yarn companies.  I assure you that this isn’t all of my sock yarn, just what I’ve brought with me to Ames!

In other news, we had snow blow-in early this morning.  I fell on my arse twice in the parking lot just trying to get to Curtiss!  I was both wet and sore by the time I got to my office this morning.  Most, most annoying since I had even “prepared” by wearing my snow boots and was all decked-out for the weather. It is not supposed to happen if you prepare for it!!!! (Sarah’s Law)

 

 

 

Sticks and String 2013 January 27, 2013

Once again I went to the Sticks and String annual knitting retreat held in Des Moines, Iowa this year.  It was lovely as ever, with a wonderful marketplace and lots of friendly knitters to get to know!  These are some photos from the market place!  I only got a couple of things there (I was actually really quite restrained!).

There was also a fantastic goodie bag with the theme of “Let’s Accessorize!”.  Included in it was something that I have always wanted to get but have never really been able to justify buying.  A yardage counter!

There was also a pack of post-its, a lovely mug, a roll of highlighter tape, a little tin of stitch markers, a skein of sportweight alpaca yarn from C&M Acres, an “I love Knitting” pin from Purdy Things, a little pair of scissors, a mini skein of sock yarn from The Painted Tiger, a knitting tool, some needle keepers, a tube of Udderly Smooth cream, a hand sewn bag to keep it all in from Darnit! Sew What?, and a nice sized project bag from Lion Brand yarn.

It is still actually going on today, but alas, winter storm Luna decided to come and ice on my parade.  I got up this morning and went to let the dogs out and took a few experimental steps off our porch and nearly bit it straight away.  So, no driving to Des Moines for me today!  Does anybody know when they started naming every single storm that comes through??  I mean, I can remember a time when we just called them storms and didn’t give them Christian names.  I understand the naming of hurricanes, but blizzards? Ice storms?  Really????

The Flash Blogger January 25, 2013

I’ve been reading the ladies over at the Mason-Dixon and their lightning blog posts for the past few weeks and I’m thinking that this might be what is needed to get me back into writing here.  So, thanks Kay and Ann! (or not possibly:-))

My life here in Ames got busy in a hurry thus my abrupt departure from the blog.  School started taking up a lot more of my time what with projects and papers becoming due.  I also started getting to know my fellow grad students in my department and having this weird thing called “a life”.  Not a hugely glamorous one with red carpets and VIP lounges, but a life never the less.  Often we can be found at each other’s places eating, drinking, or just hanging-out watching Big Bang Theory.
Immediately after Thanksgiving Meara became ill.  She was diagnosed with an unusual type of anemia.  The second week of December she died.  This really took the wind out of my sails and the cheer out of my Christmas.  You should be glad that you didn’t hear from me during December as I was about as cheerful as a lump of, well, poop.

I’m hoping that this semester pulls itself out of the ditch that it’s in currently.  I have been ill, which never makes anyone cheerful.  It has the potential to be an enormously kick-ass semester.  I am taking a class called “Foods of Animal Origins” which, is basically what it sounds like.  For the lab on Wednesday, I spent about an hour in a meat locker and processing facility.  I think I will be spending a lot more time in there!  I’m also taking a class on how to do research as well as technology use in the classroom.  I’m not sure I could’ve gotten a more diverse class selection if I had tried:-)

I am also T.A.’ing an advanced agricultural communications course where I actually “teach” a section (sort of like a lab).  My first “real” teaching and so far I am enjoying it.

This weekend will be my second time at Sticks and String.  I won’t be able to spend as much time there as I have in the past as I need to get some assignments finished, but I am looking forward to it immensely.  It’s always good to be around other fiber folks!

My desk in my corner of the office now. I think I’ve moved in…

Yes, you can tell a horticulturalist resides here!

Squashed! September 25, 2012

Today I went down to the Lamoni Produce Auction.  My goal was winter squash and boy did I succeed!

I put the CD in the picture to give it scale.  Otherwise the squash looked like little ornamental gourds!  These 8 butternut squash weigh from 7.5 lbs to 8.5 lbs!  Huge!!!!

On the other end of the spectrum, I got 36 of these little baby butternuts.

They average of these little ones is about 1.5 lbs a piece.  There were also a few in the middle that were around 2.5 lbs.

I realize that I haven’t spoken about the Lamoni produce auction here before.  It’s more or less what is sounds like.  A produce auction held in Lamoni, Iowa.  The interesting thing about it is that the bulk of the sellers are Amish (read the link, it’s interesting).  Thus, much of what is done is with horse and wagon and man power.  Just seeing all the wagons and horses come through is fascinating!

The auction site itself has all the modern conveniences.  Electricity, phone, internet, but it also isn’t run by the Amish themselves.  However, they do work a lot in it and are obviously on-site during the selling.  I wanted to show how the auction is run without taking pictures of any of the Amish themselves.  You see, I’m not completely sure what this group of Amish’s beliefs are as they pertain to photos.  I couldn’t find any good way to photograph this experience without getting any of the Amish in the photos.  So, I compromised. Any Amish in the following photos have had their faces obscured if they were at all visible.  There are lots of pictures of the Amish online, but these people aren’t exactly strangers to me and I sincerely don’t want to offend them.  However I really wanted to show you all this as it’s really interesting.  It’s a tricky tightrope to walk and I hope that I have done ok with it.

You can see here that the wagons pulled by the horses go through an alley of sorts.  On one side of the alley there is the auctioneer with his motley crew of assistants that sort out what is being sold, display it, and record the sales.  On the other side of the alley are the buyers placing the bids for the produce.  It’s really a pretty slick way of doing it and reminds me strongly of the Dutch flower auctions!

In this photo you can see how the big speaker is really quite close to the horses heads.  It’s amazing how patiently they wait while all this bidding is going on!

The Lamoni Produce Auction is open to the public, if you would like to take a look.  However, if you want to bid on anything, be prepared to buy in large lots as it intended for wholesale sales.  At the auction today most of the pumpkins were sold in lots between 32 and 100.  Often, the produce is sold in groups of cases, so be prepared to eat a lot of whatever you buy!  In my case, squash!

Snapshot: My Office September 21, 2012

Here at Iowa State, much like at other US universities, graduate students often get an office in which to work.  The higher of a rank of grad student that you are the more elaborate the office usually.  In my case, I actually share an office with four other people.  Two of whom I’ve yet to see.  As you can imagine, this makes for a very utilitarian office space.

I don’t want anyone to think that I am complaining.  Far from it!  I initially didn’t think that I was going to be getting a desk at all so the fact that I have this little haven on campus is fantastic!  I’ve also seen some other graduate student offices and this one is considered spacious and positively posh by the standards of that department.  To give you an idea, it was so tight in that office that in order for one person to get out of their seat, the person behind them had to scoot all the way in under their desk.  This office by comparison has lots of space, A/C, a printer, and a little tiny fridge to stash Mountain Dews in!

My desk is right by the window which I adore.  Not only is this prime houseplant position, but it also makes it easy to work without a light on.

Anyone who knows me well would be able to identify that desk as mine.  Why?

African violets on the windowsill. Mountain Dew on the desk. And sheep on top of the computer.  The subway cup ironically is not mine exactly.  I fished it out of the garbage and use it to water the violets.

Some may ask why we get offices at all.  Well, a lot of graduate students in US universities help professors teach undergraduate classes.  It is a sort of training to become professors themselves.  As such, they are required to have office hours where students can seek them out for assistance with the class.  It would be really rather unprofessional to have students meet you at your apartment or home or some random place on campus.  This is also part of the reason why doctoral candidates get better digs than we do.  Often they are actually teaching classes entirely.  Plus they are just higher up on the food chain!

I hope to do more snapshots of my life like this.  I know that a lot of people have never gotten a good look into a modern US university and have no idea what life is like in one.  So I want to share just little snapshots of what “normal” looks like from my view!

 

Proof September 19, 2012

Here is the proof that I have promised many of you.

 

I give you… pictures of my cheerleading years!

 

 

 

And as an added bonus… My senior picture with me in my FFA uniform!

 

*The first two photos were by Kent Larson, the last was from Voss Studios.  Please forgive the quality of all of them.  They are (ahem) old and I scanned them into the computer.