Recently I was craving ice cream but it was pretty much the first thing I had to quit eating when I discovered I was lactose intolerant. I mean, I didn't have to stop eating it, but my stomach felt better when I did. Anyway, I was craving ice cream and decided to try a few soy ice creams. And once I started, I couldn't stop. I bought 5 different types of ice cream sandwiches - all in the name of science of course. Here are the results of the study, just so you can be spared a few of the products.
Soy delicious chocolate chip cookie sandwich with vanilla ice cream: I thought it was really bad. Chris said he agreed with that assessment and then ate the entire thing before I had a chance to ask for a second bite. Nevertheless, I think my first opinion stands.
Rice dream vanilla and oatmeal cookie sandwich, dipped in carob: too disgusting. Even Chris threw this one away without eating the rest.
Soy Delicious, Soy Dream, and Tofutti Cutie ice cream sandwiches (all the type with the soggy chocolate cookies on the outside and various types of ice cream in the middle): All of these were pretty much as good as your typical milk based ice cream sandwich. Good thing I got a lot of these types and very few of the first two.
So now we know.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sock yarn purchased
So I bought this yarn for my sock pal socks. She said she preferred "crazy" socks, but multiple shades of bright pink is about as crazy as I can stand to get. 
Now that I have the yarn I have two questions for the knitting community.
First, is all fingering weight yarn created equal? I asked a lady at my LYS about getting some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn because a lot of the patterns in my IK sock book use that yarn and it seems to have a much tighter gauge than most other yarns. She told me that it was just another fingering weight yarn and I just needed to knit on smaller needles to make it work for me. The yarn in this picture says it knits 6-7 stitches per inch on size 1 needles. Could dropping down in needle size really get me to the 9 stitches per inch listed as gauge for Shepherd Sock in my IK book (as, for example, in the Waving Lace Socks pattern)? (I could just try swatching, but I'm never excited about that prospect...)
The second question is, is there some trick to making sure you don't run out of yarn? I really don't want to buy another skein of this pricey yarn and all my patterns are listed as ankle down and I'm not always clear on how to switch them to toe up patterns. I tend to shorten the ankles of socks just to be on the safe side and then I always end up with leftover yarn. Is there some trick that you sock knitters know that I'm not aware of? I do check the yardage on balls of yarn and that the patterns call for, but given that gauge varies so much, how reliable can these yardage estimates be??
In other knitting news, while I try to figure out my sock pattern/yarn quandries I've been knitting on my Telemark Ski Sweater. See how pretty?
Now that I have the yarn I have two questions for the knitting community. First, is all fingering weight yarn created equal? I asked a lady at my LYS about getting some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn because a lot of the patterns in my IK sock book use that yarn and it seems to have a much tighter gauge than most other yarns. She told me that it was just another fingering weight yarn and I just needed to knit on smaller needles to make it work for me. The yarn in this picture says it knits 6-7 stitches per inch on size 1 needles. Could dropping down in needle size really get me to the 9 stitches per inch listed as gauge for Shepherd Sock in my IK book (as, for example, in the Waving Lace Socks pattern)? (I could just try swatching, but I'm never excited about that prospect...)
The second question is, is there some trick to making sure you don't run out of yarn? I really don't want to buy another skein of this pricey yarn and all my patterns are listed as ankle down and I'm not always clear on how to switch them to toe up patterns. I tend to shorten the ankles of socks just to be on the safe side and then I always end up with leftover yarn. Is there some trick that you sock knitters know that I'm not aware of? I do check the yardage on balls of yarn and that the patterns call for, but given that gauge varies so much, how reliable can these yardage estimates be??
In other knitting news, while I try to figure out my sock pattern/yarn quandries I've been knitting on my Telemark Ski Sweater. See how pretty?
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Lots of biking
Observant readers may have noticed the miles accumulating in the bar at right. I've been trying to put in 60 or so miles a week (not including commute) as training for my bike ride across Iowa in July. I love love love the new bike. I should get Chris to take a photo of me riding it... the only thing I wish is that the seat were slightly more comfortable. It's mesh supported by metal bars and if I don't have the seat just right or if I ride too long the bars kind of dig into me. Actually, I need to try laying the seat back more to see if that helps.
I've been trying to go on a long ride on the weekend and then a shorter ride mid-week to make the miles. Today I went 47 miles by myself (because Chris had a paper to work on) so I had a lot of time to think about biking. Actually though, mostly what I thought about was how dang long it takes to bike 47 miles. I'm a slow biker so it took me just over 4 hours. I mean, how many things can you stand to do for 4 hours in a row? One nice thing about biking that far is that I can basically eat anything I want. In fact, I've been back on the diet for the last month or so and have been eating a lot more than previous rounds and am still losing weight quite quickly. Funny how exercise works that way.
That ride was really the only thing I had planned for the weekend. I don't know what I'll do tomorrow. I'm bored but I kind of like it.
I've been trying to go on a long ride on the weekend and then a shorter ride mid-week to make the miles. Today I went 47 miles by myself (because Chris had a paper to work on) so I had a lot of time to think about biking. Actually though, mostly what I thought about was how dang long it takes to bike 47 miles. I'm a slow biker so it took me just over 4 hours. I mean, how many things can you stand to do for 4 hours in a row? One nice thing about biking that far is that I can basically eat anything I want. In fact, I've been back on the diet for the last month or so and have been eating a lot more than previous rounds and am still losing weight quite quickly. Funny how exercise works that way.
That ride was really the only thing I had planned for the weekend. I don't know what I'll do tomorrow. I'm bored but I kind of like it.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Drug experimentation
I think Chris is generally appalled when I talk about health problems on my blog. I don't know, I've never been embarrassed ever since I revealed all while in chemo treatment 10 years ago. So here's health talk.
I started getting tension headaches 10 years ago. I was under the close watch of many doctors at the time so I got a thorough diagnosis. After an MRI, among other things, a neurologist decided that I was having tension headaches because of "all the shitty stuff that's happened." (His words exactly.) Anyway, since then I've had tension headaches. Usually more in the spring, often for about a week. Well, for more than two weeks now I have had a headache. Not a huge one, just enough that when trying to concentrate about all I can think about is how my head hurts. It feels a little like a made up hurt because I don't notice it when I'm doing something fun that I want to be doing and I feel it most of all when I'm doing something not fun, like trying to write my thesis. Last week I read online that sometimes anti-depressants can help with tension headaches so I made an appointment with the doctor to see what he thought about it.
I have a great doctor here - perhaps what I like best about him is that he lets me do a lot of stuff by e-mail. I need frequent blood tests (my thyroid doesn't function anymore, in case you were wondering) to check my medication dosages and whenever I feel like I need another one, I just send him an e-mail and he sends orders to the lab. It's nice, because with other doctors I've had to make an appointment to come in and all they do is write the orders and we've both wasted our times. Anyway... Yeah, so this doctor looked in my eyes and poked me a little bit and agreed with my own diagnosis, that I was having tension headaches and it was not surprising given all the stress in my life at the moment. So after jokingly suggesting that I write thesis while on an exercise bicycle (biking relieves the headaches) he wrote me some prescriptions for muscle relaxers and anti-depressants. Basically, I'm going to take the tiniest dose of both that is possible and increase the dosage until the headaches go away or the side effects get too annoying. Chris seems kind of scared by the drugs - I have to confess the labeling is on the intimidating side. These drugs have tons of potential side effects. I'm so sick of the headaches though. Doing nothing was having no effect, so I want to try something.
I'll try to remember to report back on the results. So far all I've found is that whatever the muscle relaxer is, it would probably be an effective horse tranquilizer. I slept until noon today and didn't really get perky until after dinner. I'm only taking half a pill tonight. Whew.
I started getting tension headaches 10 years ago. I was under the close watch of many doctors at the time so I got a thorough diagnosis. After an MRI, among other things, a neurologist decided that I was having tension headaches because of "all the shitty stuff that's happened." (His words exactly.) Anyway, since then I've had tension headaches. Usually more in the spring, often for about a week. Well, for more than two weeks now I have had a headache. Not a huge one, just enough that when trying to concentrate about all I can think about is how my head hurts. It feels a little like a made up hurt because I don't notice it when I'm doing something fun that I want to be doing and I feel it most of all when I'm doing something not fun, like trying to write my thesis. Last week I read online that sometimes anti-depressants can help with tension headaches so I made an appointment with the doctor to see what he thought about it.
I have a great doctor here - perhaps what I like best about him is that he lets me do a lot of stuff by e-mail. I need frequent blood tests (my thyroid doesn't function anymore, in case you were wondering) to check my medication dosages and whenever I feel like I need another one, I just send him an e-mail and he sends orders to the lab. It's nice, because with other doctors I've had to make an appointment to come in and all they do is write the orders and we've both wasted our times. Anyway... Yeah, so this doctor looked in my eyes and poked me a little bit and agreed with my own diagnosis, that I was having tension headaches and it was not surprising given all the stress in my life at the moment. So after jokingly suggesting that I write thesis while on an exercise bicycle (biking relieves the headaches) he wrote me some prescriptions for muscle relaxers and anti-depressants. Basically, I'm going to take the tiniest dose of both that is possible and increase the dosage until the headaches go away or the side effects get too annoying. Chris seems kind of scared by the drugs - I have to confess the labeling is on the intimidating side. These drugs have tons of potential side effects. I'm so sick of the headaches though. Doing nothing was having no effect, so I want to try something.
I'll try to remember to report back on the results. So far all I've found is that whatever the muscle relaxer is, it would probably be an effective horse tranquilizer. I slept until noon today and didn't really get perky until after dinner. I'm only taking half a pill tonight. Whew.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Company B
Well, I was pretty shocked, but Company B made me a job offer! And it was a pretty good one so I think I'm going to take it. I have to say I'm really amazed about how much money you get paid right out of grad school. I guess only if you choose to go into certain professions. But I'm already thinking about ways to spend the money. He he... like on a house near work (buy? rent? probably rent. But I know Chris would prefer a house instead of a condo). Or an iPod shuffle (big spender here).
Work is going amazingly well actually. I made this video of the Capuchin robot on Friday.
If you've ever wondered what I do, here it is: before I came along this robot just sat on the table. It could twitch its arms around but not really do anything too coordinated. Then I came along and wrote code to run it and now it does that video. And it's really climbing too.
Above is the overall setup. That's a pretty steep wall! My advisor and co-advisor (who owns the robot) are both elated. My co-advisor made this crack yesterday after seeing the video: "Now you just need to work on the lighting and film quality." I replied, "Oh, I just made that video with my tiny digital camera!" He started laughing, "That was supposed to be a complement! That there's no way to make the controller better, you just have to improve the video!" Anyway. I'm pretty giddy about the whole thing. Maybe even more than the job offer.
Regardless, I've been having more tension headaches. I wish I understood what caused them. Tension headaches are annoying because you feel like if you were just less tense they would stop. But I'm not sure it works that way.
Work is going amazingly well actually. I made this video of the Capuchin robot on Friday.
If you've ever wondered what I do, here it is: before I came along this robot just sat on the table. It could twitch its arms around but not really do anything too coordinated. Then I came along and wrote code to run it and now it does that video. And it's really climbing too.
Above is the overall setup. That's a pretty steep wall! My advisor and co-advisor (who owns the robot) are both elated. My co-advisor made this crack yesterday after seeing the video: "Now you just need to work on the lighting and film quality." I replied, "Oh, I just made that video with my tiny digital camera!" He started laughing, "That was supposed to be a complement! That there's no way to make the controller better, you just have to improve the video!" Anyway. I'm pretty giddy about the whole thing. Maybe even more than the job offer.
Regardless, I've been having more tension headaches. I wish I understood what caused them. Tension headaches are annoying because you feel like if you were just less tense they would stop. But I'm not sure it works that way.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Finished Hat
I finished that hat I was making for my sister/Grant and it's now listed in the FOs album. Here's a photo of it before I finished weaving in the ends though. It kinda looked like the inside of the hat was barfing.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Wedding weekend
This weekend (well, Thursday through Saturday anyway) Chris and I went to the DC area to visit my family and see my Uncle Jack get married. We had a great time - it was an awesome party and all the family was visiting so I got to really talk with everyone. We saw Jack's new house (mansion really) and ate lots of good food and flew business class so the flying part wasn't all that painful. We did end up driving around quite a bit, which is always my least favorite part about visiting DC. Somehow we always manage to spend just hours in the car.
Some highlights from the visit include:
Watching the groomsmen drive away in Jack's new/old Caddy. They were playing this great 50s/60s music and it was such beautiful weather. The car is pretty cool too - Chris and I were enlisted to drive it home but ended up leaving it in the parking lot because it was bleeding brake fluid. Sad.
Jack's story about one summer when he was a teen and was goofing off at the local pool. They kicked him out and his rebellion on leaving was to burn rubber in the parking lot while leaving. When he got home Nana met him at the door saying he needed to go right back to the pool and replace what he had taken. He was puzzled and she told him that the pool had called and said that he peeled rubber from the pool and he had to go right back and replace it. We laughed so hard.
Aunt Sharon's story about finding a huge bug on her arm in the ladies room. Her quote: "It was like two inches long! It looked like an alligator!" We busted up at that one too.
Eating the shortcake at the brunch on Saturday was a highlight for me. That stuff was so good. I wanted to sit down and eat the entire pan.
Riding in the Yukon. Friday afternoon we drove to get a tie for Troy and we were having a tough time navigating the DC area. As Chris put it, there were 6 of us in the car and 7 navigators, with Troy's new GPS shouting instructions too. It's amazing we got home at all. I thought Chris's commentary was going to make his popularity nosedive - mostly this exchange:
Troy: Ok Rose, make the next left here.
Ma: Oh, you mean here? [She swerves into the suicide lane a ways before a light - kind of a turn for a parking lot]
Troy: Oh, no. At the light.
Chris: Although if I designed the road systems I would totally make Route 97 start in the parking lot behind the Home Depot.
My mom took it in stride, but I had to laugh like crazy at him for being so smart ass to my mom. Maybe she didn't hear his comment before... hmm... Ma, if you're reading this, erase his commentary from your memory. He he...
Anyway, it was all quite fun. My whole family just makes me laugh like crazy. Oh, another highlight was getting to feel my sister's baby belly. I didn't get to feel the baby kick, but you could tell there was one in there. So yeah, very fun, I'm very glad I went, and everyone should enjoy the rest of the photos.
Some highlights from the visit include:
Watching the groomsmen drive away in Jack's new/old Caddy. They were playing this great 50s/60s music and it was such beautiful weather. The car is pretty cool too - Chris and I were enlisted to drive it home but ended up leaving it in the parking lot because it was bleeding brake fluid. Sad.
Jack's story about one summer when he was a teen and was goofing off at the local pool. They kicked him out and his rebellion on leaving was to burn rubber in the parking lot while leaving. When he got home Nana met him at the door saying he needed to go right back to the pool and replace what he had taken. He was puzzled and she told him that the pool had called and said that he peeled rubber from the pool and he had to go right back and replace it. We laughed so hard.
Aunt Sharon's story about finding a huge bug on her arm in the ladies room. Her quote: "It was like two inches long! It looked like an alligator!" We busted up at that one too.
Eating the shortcake at the brunch on Saturday was a highlight for me. That stuff was so good. I wanted to sit down and eat the entire pan.
Riding in the Yukon. Friday afternoon we drove to get a tie for Troy and we were having a tough time navigating the DC area. As Chris put it, there were 6 of us in the car and 7 navigators, with Troy's new GPS shouting instructions too. It's amazing we got home at all. I thought Chris's commentary was going to make his popularity nosedive - mostly this exchange:
Troy: Ok Rose, make the next left here.
Ma: Oh, you mean here? [She swerves into the suicide lane a ways before a light - kind of a turn for a parking lot]
Troy: Oh, no. At the light.
Chris: Although if I designed the road systems I would totally make Route 97 start in the parking lot behind the Home Depot.
My mom took it in stride, but I had to laugh like crazy at him for being so smart ass to my mom. Maybe she didn't hear his comment before... hmm... Ma, if you're reading this, erase his commentary from your memory. He he...
Anyway, it was all quite fun. My whole family just makes me laugh like crazy. Oh, another highlight was getting to feel my sister's baby belly. I didn't get to feel the baby kick, but you could tell there was one in there. So yeah, very fun, I'm very glad I went, and everyone should enjoy the rest of the photos.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
FOs
I am just loving this thing I discovered, Picasa Web Albums. I may never publish an album on my own page again because this is so much easier with the way it plays nicely with iPhoto and the result is so much nicer. At the moment I'm using it to show my FOs - a knitting-blogger acronym for Finished Objects. I like having somewhere that I can see all the things I knitted. Oh yeah, here's the link. It's in my sidebar too now for easy reference.
And for no particular reason, and because we're channeling High Fidelity tonight:
Top 5 All Time Favorite Cheeses
My list:
Sharp cheddar
Goat cheese (the soft kind)
Gorgonzola
Cambazola
Fresh Mozzerella
Chris's List
Sharp cheddar from Herkimer, NY
Gorgonzola
Jarlsburg
Brie
Goat cheese (the soft kind)
And for no particular reason, and because we're channeling High Fidelity tonight:
Top 5 All Time Favorite Cheeses
My list:
Sharp cheddar
Goat cheese (the soft kind)
Gorgonzola
Cambazola
Fresh Mozzerella
Chris's List
Sharp cheddar from Herkimer, NY
Gorgonzola
Jarlsburg
Brie
Goat cheese (the soft kind)
A bad interview
So I had an interview last Friday that I don't think went very well. I'm not very good at answering questions on the fly or even really remembering things. I'm much better at learning things and looking things up to remember them. So when someone asks me how a motor works my first instinct is to whip out a textbook. In an interview though, that's not an option and I'm forced to flounder it away on my own. Sigh. They asked me so many questions about relatively simple things that I don't remember because I don't work with them every day. So I probably came off as a bit of a doofus. And then I had a discussion with the hiring manager today where he was careful to point out that this was a very competitive position and multiple people were applying for it and blah blah blah. Chris says they tell that to everyone, but still. It doesn't give me that much confidence. Oh well. If I don't get this job there will be another.
Last weekend was fine. We did some spring cleaning, biked to Los Gatos, bought a robot cat feeder for Isaac so we could leave him home alone for longer than a day. I got these amazing strawberries at the farmer's market. Small things. It was all very relaxing. I finished that crazy hat from the last blog and am already about halfway through knitting a baby sweater (it's going so fast!). We leave for DC and Uncle Jack's wedding on Thursday. Time flies.
Last weekend was fine. We did some spring cleaning, biked to Los Gatos, bought a robot cat feeder for Isaac so we could leave him home alone for longer than a day. I got these amazing strawberries at the farmer's market. Small things. It was all very relaxing. I finished that crazy hat from the last blog and am already about halfway through knitting a baby sweater (it's going so fast!). We leave for DC and Uncle Jack's wedding on Thursday. Time flies.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Sockapalooza
So I've been entered in this great sock exchange thing online. Someone is going to secretly knit a sock for me while I'm secretly knitting a sock for another person. I'm already a little nervous because the person who I'm knitting for has asked for a "crazy" sock. What does that mean exactly? I just don't know...
Here's some stuff I've been working on recently. First, some socks that I just love. They're a wonderful yarn - wool/silk blend, and the pattern is so beautiful.
Next I'm working on a hat for baby Grant. My sister bought me the stuff to make it and it's my first colorwork (multi color knitting). I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn colorwork before I start on these other crazy sweater projects that I have in the queue. It's a good thing I tried something small first because it's hard stuff. You can't really see in this first picture, but in the very bottom part of the hat the stranding is really uneven and so the texture of the fabric isn't that nice. I improved a lot as the hat goes up though.
This uneven tension is even more obvious on the back side of the hat. Notice the bottom of the hat in this picture where the yarns are all in a snarl. Now, as the hat goes up, notice that the yarn stranded across the back of the hat is kinda evenly spaced. Still not something you want to look at particularly, but definitely an improvement. Stranding problems are especially tough on this hat because the yarn is cotton and therefore doesn't stick to itself at all. Anyway.
Oh, also, about this hat, notice I made my first bobbles! I thought I wouldn't like bobbles, and guess what, I don't! They're annoying to make and make me think of little polyps. But the net effect of the hat is cute. I'm totally going to talk my sister into sewing a lining into this hat. I can't stand to look at all those strings. It'll be more comfortable that way too.
Here's some stuff I've been working on recently. First, some socks that I just love. They're a wonderful yarn - wool/silk blend, and the pattern is so beautiful.
Next I'm working on a hat for baby Grant. My sister bought me the stuff to make it and it's my first colorwork (multi color knitting). I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn colorwork before I start on these other crazy sweater projects that I have in the queue. It's a good thing I tried something small first because it's hard stuff. You can't really see in this first picture, but in the very bottom part of the hat the stranding is really uneven and so the texture of the fabric isn't that nice. I improved a lot as the hat goes up though.
This uneven tension is even more obvious on the back side of the hat. Notice the bottom of the hat in this picture where the yarns are all in a snarl. Now, as the hat goes up, notice that the yarn stranded across the back of the hat is kinda evenly spaced. Still not something you want to look at particularly, but definitely an improvement. Stranding problems are especially tough on this hat because the yarn is cotton and therefore doesn't stick to itself at all. Anyway.
Oh, also, about this hat, notice I made my first bobbles! I thought I wouldn't like bobbles, and guess what, I don't! They're annoying to make and make me think of little polyps. But the net effect of the hat is cute. I'm totally going to talk my sister into sewing a lining into this hat. I can't stand to look at all those strings. It'll be more comfortable that way too.
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