new haircut

I've never really loved any haircut I've gotten in my life. Instead of finding another cute haircut in a magazine only to find out it did not look so cute on me, I decided to be brave yesterday. I went in and told her to do whatever she thought would look good on me. She tried to force more info out of me, but I stood firm. I don't care about length. I don't care about bangs. Just look at it and feel it and cut it. Afterwards, I'm sure I did not give as enthusiastic of an approval as she would have hoped. But you have to get used to a new cut. You also have to go home and wash it and restyle it in a way that doesn't scream "hair salon." So I did. Today, I think I really like it. I will like it even more once my bangs get a little longer.

I also kind of think I look like my mom in this picture. But not because of the hair.

mmm food

I'm such a foodtv dork. I watch the shows a lot - more than necessary for the amount of time I actually spend cooking. It's not that I don't like cooking. Most of the time I am just either tired or really busy. Favorite shows: Iron Chef America and Good Eats. Alton Brown is actually going to be in the neighborhood Wednesday evening for a book signing, and I just have to go. I'm going to try my best to get pictures.

Tonight is one of the nights we are actually cooking. Salmon filets covered in sesame seeds and asparagus risotto. Yum.

xmas knitting

Ya, I'm finally getting around to posting these pictures. There's even one with me in it for you, Jes. :p

So we needed to get a xmas present for Tim's brother's wife. We had no idea what to get her and one of the only things we were told is that she's always cold in their big drafty house. So we decided on some wrist warmers and a headband that will cover her ears. Tim picked out the color of yarn and I knitknitknit. I modified the pattern by Bonnie Marie in Knitty to get a slightly different design for the wristwarmers. I also checked out this pattern for the general idea of how to make a headband and then substituted the same design that I used for the wristwarmers. I learned new knitting techniques too (like how to bind off in a stretchier way)!

  

Me showing off the goods before wrapping them up (with a very silly look on my face):

They were so cozy that I need to knit some up for myself too.

While I was finishing these up, Tim was joking to his family that he has a wife that knits but that he doesn't own a single handknit item. Little did he know that this nice cashmere blend scarf (from Last-Minute Knitted Giftswas waiting for him under the tree. I think it still needs a bit more blocking.

 

Last but not least, I made this cute little ipod case for Matt (which I found the pattern for here). I think I'm also going to have to make myself one of these.

I'm still knitting while not being able to walk very much. I am very, very close to finally finishing my hoodie. All I have left is to sew it all up, so expect another post soon.

a little foot, a little knitting

Still working on this healing thing. I can't believe how hard it is to walk still. I've also decided that if you have foot surgery, the doctor should really give you one of those temporary handicap parking things. I ran some errands yesterday and it was Not Fun. Which I think is why I am mostly sitting all day today because it hurts worse than it has been.

I really need to do that post with pictures of recently finished knitting projects. Maybe I will make it a goal to do that tonight. I've been working on my hoodie again. I'm a little discouraged because the tightness of my knitting seems to have changed since I was working on it last. I'm knitting looser somehow. I decided it wasn't off by enough to rip back and redo though. I just did a couple less rows in this last sleeve than i did in the other and it should work out fine. This is a good reason to finish projects faster than I have been though. All I have left is seaming it all up and adding the hood! I've also been working on a pretty metallic bronze/orangey scarf. I have yarn for a couple other projects too but don't have the right size needles yet so I need to go get those tonight. Whee.

farewell foot chunk

You know, I knew I was going to have surgery today and all. I just never stopped to think that it might mean I couldn't do anything for awhile. I'm supposed to not walk around much and keep my foot elevated for at least the next couple days. Even after that, I shouldn't walk if I can help it for two weeks, until I get the stitches out. Man, now I'm going to be even more bored than before!

But they took that chunk out of my foot. It was a dermatofibroma, which is benign but slightly painful when wearing shoes. Mine looked like the bottom one. I will spare you all the details, but I will say that the surgery wasn't painful but it felt WEIRD. And that weirdness made me feel very faint.

I think I will be watching many movies on my laptop today.
I also think the numbness is wearing off.

workin' for free

I had an interview at a possible internship placement this morning. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for and they liked me too. Now I just have to wait for my advisor to approve it. Funny how she's been looking (ya, right) for a placement for me since September and hasn't been able to find anything near my house. I started looking last week and I already have a good one. It's been a long struggle with her but hopefully it's almost over.

Oh, and a friend who I haven't seen since September came over yesterday and she asked right away if I've lost weight. Woo!

foot removal

P.S. I get a big chunk of skin from my foot taken out next Friday. Whee. I will share the gory details later. It's not really as bad as it sounds :)

holiday update

Okay, okay. I guess I should make an update.

Our Christmas trip was fun, sicky, cold, very social, warm, frustrating, fulfilling, stressful, relaxed, and many other things. We missed snow by less than a day 3 times (it snowed before we got to Virginia but then melted before we got there, same with Dallas, and it snowed right after we left Virginia...DAMMIT). Camping out on the floor at Tim's brother's house was not as bad as expected, especially after we moved into the guest house with my sister-in-law and her husband and cranked up the heat (unbeknownst to the host, but you just don't freeze your guests. You just don't.). I enjoyed spending time with Tim's sister a lot and had a great time with her and Walt. Tim's brother tried. He's just not a very social person, which isn't good when you have 7 guests for a few days. They made tons of yummy food and we all exchanged fabulous gifts. We also were only without one of our sleeping bags for one night, until the airline found it.

Dallas was more of the same but with less people and less luggage. This time the airline lost all our luggage until the next day. I remembered why I usually carry on my toiletries, especially contact solution. We went to the Dallas World Aquarium which is just FABULOUS. Really, anyone living close to Dallas really needs to check it out. Tim also was nice enough to hook up their dvd player (which they got for xmas LAST year). Well, after he hooked it up (which took awhile because their system is wack), we found out that the crappy dvd player didn't even work, so we went with my dad to buy a new one. Tim and I have been working on a dvd of wedding and honeymoon pictures to give to our parents, so we got to give them a sneak preview. Hopefully we will finish that up soon.

The saddest part of my trip was seeing my doggy. He's a dachshundt and is named Oscar Mayer. He turned 17 on December 27. Which is OLD for a dog. REALLY OLD. And it showed :/ He now: is mostly blind, is mostly deaf, has a heart murmur, has kidney stones and other kidney trouble, is missing most of his front teeth so he has trouble eating, and has arthritis so bad in his hind legs that he can barely hold himself up. My parents have to carry him out to the backyard for him to take care of business. When my parents leave the house, they often come home to find him wandering around lost because he got up and didn't know where he went. He bumped into walls, furniture, people while we were there too many times to count. He is taking pain meds so he isn't really suffering, but boy is it hard to see. That will probably be the last time I ever do see him. I sat down with him and petted him a lot and said a nice long goodbye before we left. :(

The only picture I have here is one of him opening a xmas present a few years ago:

I will have to find better ones to share. My next post will be of knitted presents, but it will be another couple days most likely.