That might be okay for laughing person

Okay, so I wrote a long post, it was great, but I kinda didn't save it and then lost it. So this will be a pared down version of the same thing. I have been back from Melbourne for just over a week. It was an excellent weekend away. There was the mad dash to get myself some shoes for the wedding, after I realised the shoes that were 'in my old wardrobe at mum and dad's' weren't. There was the pre-wedding overview of my MC duties with the groom, which included watching Father Ted and drinking vodka. There was the delight at seeing this
at the wedding. It's my brother with his scary and funny handlebar moustache. With only this moustache, a pair of sunglasses and a beanie, he managed to make sure that no-one sat next to him on the train a couple of weeks ago. Go tiger go!
There was the reaction of the family to 'the dress'. My cousins and I used to dress up for the grown-ups when we were kids and perform. We'd make up skits and then act them out. I can't remember content, but I can remember that my cousin Keiran (now a married father of two) always used to wear an old ballgown of my grandmother's. I found the dress at my aunts and after some adjustment to my less-than-ample bosom, we had a dress that fitted. Everyone was most impressed and recognised the dress. Well, those of us who were old enough to remember. Keiran didn't seem too upset that I'd stolen his dress. Here is a photo of me in the dress, standing next to the previous owner/wearer, Grandma.

I, unfortunately, do not have any better photos of the dress (with me in it) at the moment, so this'll have to do. I'm banking on someone else at the wedding having taken a better shot at some stage. I certainly remember posing for one or two.

I had a good time MCing and didn't swear once, if you don't count bugger as a swear word. I think it all went pretty well and the food was excellent.

I had the good fortune to be able to catch up with some friends over the course of the weekend. MF and her beautiful son Jack came over for lunch and we had some yummy bagels while Jack scared Sheddy the local cat who likes to come and visit. Sheddy evidently doesn't like babies, actually, I don't think any cats like babies. He decided against joining us for lunch.
We had dinner, the same night, with newly married couple EE and ME and with good friend VE. It was Mekong for mains, noodle soup all around and Max Brenner's for dessert. EE ordered a choc/orange hot chocolate that looked like this: VE made a comment about it's appearance. Apparently, it looks like a vagina. We giggled to ourselves about this. But were laughing very much out loud when EE's husband took a sip and said 'that tastes familiar'. We, according to the boy, laughed so loud that the entire restaurant was looking at us. I think EE was a bit put out by that, so apologies mate, it wasn't directed at you. We just have dirty minds.

In other news, I have knitted a fair few pair of socks in the last couple of weeks. JJF finally got his red socks:
which are slightly different reds. I ran out of the first lot of wool without finishing the first sock. So I made them kinda similar, with the body of the sock being one colour and the toe being the other colour. I think I'd forgotten that dye lots could vary so much and that JJF has really big feet. But it's all fine, he's colour blind so probably can't really tell the difference between them anyway. I have promised to teach him and my housemate SKW to knit in the near future. I think we'll be starting with scarves and beanies.
I've also started on a sock knitting project. I have a group of really good friends, who are currently dispersed all over the countryside. I am making us all pairs of socks that have red toes (the linking factor) so we can remember that group of friends, even when we are a long way away. It's a bit daggy I know, but I want to do something to make these people remember me! So, I have just received foot size from RU, finished the socks for MB (who's birthday it was this week) and started on the socks for VE. Once I work out how big size 7 is in European sizes, I can get started on EE's socks too. Here are the completed and semi-completed socks.


Next time I'll tell you a tale of mountain climbing and shoulder repair.

I'm sick, so photos!

Here are my gorgeous, 1920s style T-bar shoes. I got these at a bargain price and they were perfect to go with my 1920s style dress that I wore to a wedding in Tassie. The next photo is of the shoes that I bought recently to make myself feel better, but on the feet of the bride from the wedding in Tassie, if that makes sense.

pretty, yes?
Next up, my brother and I, see he's the tall one, I'm the short one. But I'm older, I promise.

From the same night, but a different perspective, my dogs. Hamish first then Macbeth. Hamish certainly does love feet and Mac loves snuggling. Which do you think is cuter? I know which one is smellier (mac).


And finally, I'm looking forward to meeting again the person for whom this quilt was made. Jack Peter Forbes. I've been friends with his mum for quite a number of years and we're catching up on my next trip to Melbourne. Apparently, he loves searching for the cat, the dog and the car. This was so much fun to make. Lots of squares, lots of handsewing (I hand pieced this quilt) and a mad search for some nice flanelette for the back. Enjoy! Fingers crossed my brain will be once again functional next week and I can produce more than photos.

there were going to be photos. . . . .

I had intended to post a whole bunch of cool photos today that i'd found of craft projects, my brother (he's quite the silly and tall) and my dogs. But flickr is having a massage or some shite, so I'm stuck with words yet again.
Today's theme is my immediate family. They are great. Really great.
MUM -IK
My mum is a worry-wart, but I know it's only because she cares. She has the same passion for Pride and Prejudice as I do, and the same passion for knitting and sewing. I guess it's hardly surprising, perhaps it would be more correct to say that I have the same passion for those things as her. In any case, we can craft shop until the cows come home, and then we can sit at home with our purchases and watch Colin Firth for hours too.
DAD -CK
My Dad doesn't necessarily look after himself as well as I would like sometimes, but he certainly keeps a keen eye out for me. I can rely on Dad to give me sensible advice and to consider all sides of the story before coming to a conclusion. Again, he has the same passion for science that I do, or rather I share his passion for science. We studied pretty much the same areas of study during our respective BSc's but mine was just 30 years later. His former lecturer runs the lab next door, and gave me a chocolate today. Dad would always let me stay up past my bedtime to watch Quantum with him on a Wednesday night.
BROTHER- PK
My brother can bug me like no-one else and has some 'interesting' ideas. But he completely understands my sense of humour and the ridiculous. He and I share a delight in jazz and rhythm, I as a swing dancer, he as a drummer. We, obviously, have a shared history and as such can understand each other better than a lot of other people. Friends of mine have often been surprised at how well the two of us get along. We, at least from my perspective, have a really good sibling relationship and are pretty close.
Recently, I've been reminded of how good my immediate family are. Dad has been calling (now that he's employed again) from work and updating me on Grandma's position and advising me on various issues. Mum has called from home to let me know similar things, but from her perspective. PK has also called to get my advice for his girlfriend, A, on attire for the upcoming wedding and to discuss sneakiness (more on this later). Mum flew from Melbourne to Canberra as soon as she could to look after me, after my accident. Dad followed shortly afterwards. I'm very lucky to have such a nice family, very lucky. So, thanks Mum and Dad for looking after me and PK so well and creating a pretty kick-arse group of adults (and pet dogs).

Next post. . . . . . . . .pictures of the dogs and the craft and the brother and the other stuff that is interesting and cool and not so sappy as this crap.

Sunday evening musings

This weekend has got me pretty tired. I've been on a mission to get black velvet ribbon, about 4 cm wide. Does Lincraft have any? No. Does Spotlight have any? No. Do any other fabric shops in Canberra have any? No. It's ridiculous. I think I'm going to have to get the boy to go and get me some from his local Spotlight (assuming they have some in Melbourne). But the other thing that is making me tired, is my late night last night and the walk up Mount Taylor this morning. Seeing as they are in chronological order in that sentence, they will be in the following description.
Last night was an excellent night. Just enough of a mix of some excellent, and sometimes scary, dances and the social element that I love. I had some wonderful chats with my fellow swing dancers. Topics ranged from comparison of poor vision to our mutual delight of the dance known as Balboa. My vision isn't nearly as crap as I thought, but I'm about the only one with crap vision who actually wears glasses. The rest of them are contacts people. I'm far too lazy for contacts, but was wishing Saturday morning that I had some. (couldn't find my glasses because I wasn't wearing them, which is the evil paradox of poor vision) I had a few really nice Bal dances with DC from Sydney and also with JJF and some regular lindy hop dances with A and J. Lots of fun. I was given a Lincraft voucher (they know my heart well) to thank me for my time on the committee, which I recently quit. And to top the evening off, some students from my Monday night class that I teach with CP turned up and had a good time. YAY! Excellent night.
Unfortunately, an excellent night is quite often a late night. So after about 6 hours sleep, I woke up to get myself ready for the walk up Mt Taylor. After a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and crispy bacon, JJF, myself, UW and SKW made the trek up the STAIRS OF DOOM and looked down over the cold wintery, windy Canberra we had this morning. I don't think my thighs will be thanking me tomorrow, I think they will be trying to find ways to cripple me, so I will never do that to them again. Next time we go up those stairs I'm getting a photo to prove how evil they are.
So I'm now just sitting in the lab waiting for a few things to get sorted out before it's off home to sleep until next week. I will probably dream about stairs that say they lead to black velvet ribbon but actually lead me to more stairs and more stairs.

random shite

I went to a dancing thing last night, it was a 'masters class' and then social dance with Dax Hock. Admittedly, I decided against doing the class, I was worn out and Dax isn't exactly my cup of tea. He's a fabulous dancer and the like, but doesn't really inspire me. Instead I was door bitch extraordinair and ended up having an hour long chat with another dancer about this and that. It was a good night, especially because I didn't have to ride the scooter and I also got a couple of really fun social dances. Yay social dancing.
So today, the plan goes as follows:
-dissect gential discs from 3rd instar larvae
-fix said discs
-go to spotlight for velvet ribbon and some goldy-greeny thread (for 'the' dress)
-hang out and knit/handsew with JJF
-head off to the dancing birthday party

So, in the land of crafting projects I have a few on the go, alas no photos, maybe one day. I have the socks for JJF, one is already completed and has been confirmed as a sock that fits. I have the petticoat to wear under 'the' dress, all it needs now is a hem. I have 'the' dress alterations to allow for my lack of bosom. And I'm desperate to make a moebius scarf and have found some yarn that would be fabulous for it here after reading about it on this man's blog. I'm totally stealing his idea/project, but the yarn sounds fantastic and too good an opportunity to miss out on. Hooray for the internet and purchasing thing via it's international goodness.

Something else I've wanted to get onto is stenciling, as seen around the place, using freezer paper. Alas, Australia is somewhat lacking in freezer paper, unless you count the stuff that they charge exorbitant prices for in craft stores. I'll have to wait until I'm next in Melbourne to steal some from my Mum, who got some from a friend on their way back from the states. It will happen, I'm sure of it. Then I can make a t-shirt for my cousin that says 'phwheat' and another that says 'muscle beach is cheese'. He'll love both of them I'm sure, well at least the first one.

the good and the bad

So I had this post all sorted, all was well with the world and I was all systems go. Unfortunately, a couple of days go past and everything changes, of course. So here, at the start is the good stuff that's been going on, and it has been quite good. The bad stuff follows it and has kinda been clouding my view of the good stuff. Enjoy

My brain has been working in the last little while. That excites me.
People have been really nice to me in the last week or so, that is also exciting. I knew I loved autumn for a reason. So today, here are some reasons why I'm happy and feeling great:
1. my birthday was a resounding sucess, I turned 26 at 4.32pm on Monday 15th May. My sneaky mother got me a scarf that she bought while visiting me in Canberra. She took it all the way back to Melbourne and then posted it to me for my birthday. My brother sent me an excellent DVD for my entertainment. The boy bought me some 'kateporn' which consists of TV series that I love, including things like, in this case, press gang. But also includes series such as kath and kim, little britain, hamish macbeth, pride and prejudice and coupling. He also wrote the sweetest birthday card I've ever received. This was all topped off by the fact that I was able to wake up next to him. Mmmmm, yum.
2. My midterm review that I've been stressing over and spending inordinate amounts of time on has come and gone. It went well, they're letting me continue with the PhD, I will get a floppy hat eventually.
3. The physio doesn't want to see me for two weeks! How good is that? Much as I adore the amount of evil pain that man inflicts on me once a week, every week. The fact that he doesn't want to see me can only mean my shoulder is getting better. Albeit slowly, but it is getting better. Give me another month and maybe it'll be good again. Here's fingers crossed.
4.I was a replacement dancing teacher on Tuesday a little while ago. One of the students came up to me at the end of class and told me that I was the reason they started dancing. I inspired them. That was pretty cool, I have to admit. Sometimes it's nice to have someone recognise something you do creatively as being rather good.
5. The birthday note I received from my grandma was fabulous, as was the present. She wrote how proud my grandfather would have been of me and how proud she was of me. Really means alot.
6. I'm going to be MC at my cousins wedding on the 17th June. Quite looking forward to it. Especially as I'm going to be wearing 'the' dress. More details on that one later, don't want to spoil the surprise, but photos when it's finished and gorgeous.
7. I heard from lots of friends for my birthday, with cards and phone calls and the like. They've inspired me to do a sock inspired crafty friendship thing, more details on this later too.

I really have a lot to be grateful for, and it's delightful that I have all this goodness around me. However, after seeing my grandma the weekend before last, I've been a bit down. She was having difficulty breathing and was coughing a lot. After examination by the doctor on Monday, she was sent to hospital. Long story short, it's about 99% likely that she has lung cancer. It sucks because I really don't want her to die, but it seems that she might do so sooner than I thought. While it is really sad, I have to look at the bright side. 6 kids, 13 grandkids (at my most recent calculation) and 5 great grandkids. She was married for 55 years to a fabulous man. Grandma is an exceptionally intelligent woman and I'll miss her. But she's given me a lot of memories and skills.

So, to finish up, life is both looking up and down at the moment. I have a lot of things in my life that are great and fabulous, but one thing that is sad. But I'm determined to keep reminding myself of the good stuff. Good friends, good family, good food.

Dogs and knitting

Last night I got home a little later than usual, working in the lab until about 8pm. My housemate LJS had some friends over for a baked potato dinner. I was invited to join them and may I say, she makes an excellent baked potato. So, two other friendly type dogs were in the backyard with our favourite Tikka, Casper and Torren (Tikka's brother). Tikka and Torren are both husky/kelpie crosses and I think Cas is a dalmation/kelpie cross. Those dogs love playing with a ball, I managed to snaffle a couple of photos of them, all excited by the prospect of being able to chase a ball around our quite dark backyard.

so from left to right you can see Casper, Tikka and Torren. They are quite attentive when they need to be.


Here's my famous action shot. The tiny soccer ball is able to hold their attention like nothing else. They ended up all covered in each others dog spit, except Casper, who managed to avoid all the slobbering.
All in all last night was quite the girls night. My other housemate SKW, got back from a date with the biggest grin on her face. We all sat around and chatted until it was quite late for we 'early to bed' types. We were momentarily distracted by the TV when the subject of persistent arousal syndrome was raised. Apparently some women (not sure about men) are in a reasonably constant state of arousal, and it's a physiological condition. The only solution is orgasm. One woman broke up with her husband because she couldn't talk to him about it. Another one was quite aggressive in a sexual way with her husband, somewhat. . . .demanding? We were all intrigued, but unfortunately didn't really get much more information out of it as we ended up being distracted again by the dogs.

Onto other things, I finished writing up my mid-term review today and felt reasonably good about it. But now I'm mentally drained and ready for more sleep. I think I'll head to the gym though and get rid of some of my tension. I've booked myself in for a massage on Monday to work out the kinks in my shoulder. I figure it should be worth a go, just to help with the healing process. Can't hurt anyway, or in other words will probably hurt like buggery (assuming I knew what that was like) but may be ultimately beneficial.

If time permits tonight and the brain function returns, I might continue working on my lace scarf that I started many months ago and abandoned in despair. Who knew knitting on small needles with mohair would be difficult? And making that lace pattern, difficult? Certainly not me, it actually requires concentration and counting, hmmmm, maybe not tonight. But here are some pictures I took of it this morning in the rather glorious sunshine that Canberra is blessed with. Pity the temperatures aren't as nice as the sunshine.





And while I think about it, I really have to get some more Ray Charles music. I watched the movie Ray again on the weekend and loved it the second time as much as the first. That man was awesome. I've been using 'Hallelujah, I love her so' and 'Hit the road, jack' for my swing classes and they are fabulous for dancing to. Oh, and 'let the good times roll' that has some great breaks in it. Got it on my iTunes at the moment while I type this up, awesome. The copies of these songs I have though are from a really crappy compilation CD with poorly recorded live songs. I'm determined to get myself a CD of decent quality recordings soon.

Right, off to the gym now to move those muscles for the first time in a while, then home to collapse into sleep.

back in the saddle

This week I braved the scooter once again. I even braved the 'round-a-bout of doom' yesterday. It's going pretty well and it's nice to be independent again. It's something I really missed, being able to get where I wanted without the bus or asking for a lift somewhere. But no worries now, I'm mobile and enjoying it.
So, what else is new you ask? I'm rapidly approaching my 26th birthday and my mid-term review. I spent a good chunk of this morning writing my mid term out. It's been scary and informative. I actually realised that I've done a fair bit of work since I last spoke to the committee and I'm actually getting somewhere. Albeit slowly at times, but I'm getting there.
Let's see, last weekend was spent in Melbourne with the family and the boy. I'm waiting on Mum to send me photos of the inagural keilor harvest festival. On Sunday we all got together out the back of my grandparents block (5 acres) to celebrate the harvest. The harvest was of grapes mostly. My Dad and my uncle G have been making their own wine for the last couple of years and this year I think they've actually done quite well. They turned the old stable out the back into their winery and they have two enormous food-grade stainless steel milk vats to ferment the wine in. This year they are making (I'm pretty sure anyway) cabernet, merlot, shiraz, chardonnay and maybe reisling again. Last years reisling was awful and is now being made into grappa. So yeah, we were celebrating the harvest. My brothers band the black swan of trespass played for us all. All the family was invited and also friends of the family were invited. It was a big afternoon. My Dad went out early to get the spit organised and to set up all the tables and chairs and wine tasting area. We had so much food, there was a whole lamb on the spit and there was some pork and I think there must have been about 100+ potatoes that were cooked in the spit as well. Mary, the next door neighbour, an elderly Italian woman made the best vegetable burger thingies I think I've tasted in a long time as well as homemade bread. Dad and G had also made up labels for their wine. It's going to be called Ganga's Garage, after my grandfather who passed away in 2003. He was called Ganga by all of his many grandkids and also used to make his own wine (but perhaps without the strictest sterility) from grapes and plums. The garage I believe is because Grange might get a bit upset at the use of their name, should the wine ever go into commercial production.
Anyway, the day was fun but sad too. I really didn't want to fly back to Canberra and the cloudy, grey, rainy weather was making me homesick and I hadn't even left yet. Fortunately for me the flight home was amusing enough to make me temporarily forget my woes and giggle like a mad thing. Our cabin crew were hilarious, or more correctly the guy on the microphone was hilarious. John has a serious career with virgin blue I'm sure. I was seated in 1A and had a full view of his antics. They began with him welcoming us on board and telling us that they were here to make our flight to Christchurch as memorable as possible. When questioned about Christchurch he told us we could vote. All in favour of Canberra? (no-one as far as I could tell) All in favour of Christchurch? (everyone raises their hands) Christchurch it is, however the next option was going to be Tahiti. Every announcement from then on contained a little gem. He told us all about meeting his childhood crush that day on a flight (Sigrid Thornton) and how he got to hold her hand and then continued to tell us that no other airline would hire him but thank goodness virgin did. Most amusing.
So, since being back, I've been at work, the physio and at home catching up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm currently up to series 3. Having only ever seen from series 5 onwards, it's nice to be catching up on the back story. Fabulous to be living with a sci-fi nerd, fabulous. Oooh I've also taught some more dancing and found that sexual innuendo works well with first year university students. Who would have thunk it? Not me, that's for sure. ;-)
Tonight, if I get a chance, I'll get back into knitting myself some socks with the famous german sockenwolle and maybe also the socks I promised to JJF a million years ago. Then comes the weekend when I will endeavour to finish the bag for my housemate LJS, from Xmas when I got all excited about making a bag, with a printed silk pattern on the front with a peacock theme. It only halted because I was unsure of how to attach the very thin silk to the denim of the bag. It took my Mum to mention quilting it on to get me enthused enough to even attempt it again. I am determined to have it done by the end of the month.
Really, I will.
Other crafting news, I've finished my stitch n' bitch hoodie that I started sometime in November (the sewing up took a while) and am now faced with my first ever attempt at blocking. I tried once and failed but hope that this time I'll get it right. The hem tends to roll up and the edges of the hood also roll up. But otherwise I'm very impressed with it. I made it from some Jo Sharp silk road aran and it's delightfully soft. 85% wool, 10% silk and 5% cashmere. Man I love cashmere as JJF (the sock man) will attest. He's in big trouble when wearing either one of his two cashmere jumpers, so soft, so nice. I may have to steal them.

RE-SULT!

So, I'm having a little bit of a downer this morning. Writing up my mid-term review, an interesting event for PhD students in my department. We have to write up everything we've done in the last 18 months or two years (in my case) in 10 pages (double spaced) and make it sound like we've achieved something so we can continue with our studies. So, anyway, writing up my report ready for next week. I was kinda concerned that the result I thought I had might not actually be right. I could write several paragraphs in my nerd phase, telling you all about what I was doing and why I thought it might not be right and why it needed to be right for me to continue at all with the project, but that could be quite boring. So let's just say, I needed this result to be what I thought it was. I've had a difficult time confirming it, it has been a shit of a process. PCR is evil and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Today, I ran a gel of a PCR I did yesterday with a polymerase used by the lab next door for difficult or long PCRs. It actually worked!!! Not all of it, but one of the PCRs that can't work unless my result is real, worked! I have a result! It's real! I can continue with that project and know that life is worth living and the sun will rise tomorrow. I'm most excited.





So you can see the left most lane is a ladder, with different sized bands on it, the brightest one in the middle is 3kb (3000 base pairs of DNA) then there is a lane with a few bands in it (this is the PCR I have to repeat) and then in the next lane at just over 3kb, is the band that proves that science doesn't hate me. It's the band that tells me that I really do have a result.

In other exciting news, I baked bread over the weekend while my mum was visiting. It was half rye bread and half white bread. It has what I think looks like a bit of a flock of seagulls haircut. See what you think, I'm off to find some champagne!!



Just also to add, I'm going home tomorrow, which means I get to see MB for the first time since March, huzzah!

torren and tikka

torren and tikka
Originally uploaded by scientician_kate.

Just to prove to myself that I can post photos, here is a photo of Tikka and her brother Torren. He's the big burly fellow on the left and Tikka is the sweetheart on the right. It took forever to get them to sit like this, I used liver treats to get the adoring look in their eyes. If you notice, both their right eyes are the same colour, a dark brown, the left is lighter, in Tikka's case blue, in Torren's light brown. Tikka recently received her own 'bling' collar that has her name in diamantes on it, L hopes that it will stop people calling her 'tigger' as she is most commonly called by the misinformed. Tikka decided to wake me this morning, by coming into my room and looming over my bed (I have a futon, it's very low) and staring at me. Fortunately, she saved her licking me for my foot which was hanging out from under the covers. I can't imagine having to wake to a dog licking your face, I shudder to think about it. Morning breath is bad enough, but dog morning breath, ew! Okay, here goes, blogging photo, wish me luck.

first post

Hello to all who are interested,

Starting a blog because it's the thing to do and I read so many I feel like I should give back a little and share the delights and boredom that accompany my PhD as well as all the fun of my crafy type projects and all the fun I'm having with my scooter and teaching people to dance.
This week has been pretty crap. Last Tuesday, I fell off my scooter. It wasn't fun, my left elbow is delightfully bruised and my shoulder is quite sore. The best bit is that it was as a result of someone else failing to give way, so at least I should be able to get her insurance to pay for my scooter repairs and my physiotherapy. The bad bit, is seeing as she didn't hit me, she may feel less than obliged to help me out with those payments, or at least her insurance company may not be too keen. So I'm currently in limbo land, waiting for her details (wasn't able to get them because of my insertion into an ambulance) and waiting for the insurance company to send me the correct forms. No doubt it will be a fun experience. However, I did have a little victory in beaurocracy (spelling?) land today. Telstra are going to be giving our household a significant credit to our account, huzzah! So evidently complaining in a nice way is actually effective.
So enough whinging, what else is new? I bought fabulous sparkly shoes on the weekend to make me feel better, an absolute bargain at $30, will post photos when I work out how. My mum is coming to visit this weekend and look after me and it looks as though my housemate L and I will be doing something lovely for lunch on ANZAC day. She's working until 7am that morning, so I'm guessing she'll be not actually conscious until lunchtime at the earliest, no dawn service for me this year. I helped L overcome her fear of piercings today and went with her to the salon where she got her belly button pierced. It wasn't nearly as scary as she thought it would be and all is actually well with her. Let's hope it doesn't get infected.
anywho, I'm feeling lazy and we're about to have afternoon tea for one of the reception type people, she's leaving us for the physics department and a full time job.