nashville.

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Boh and I spent the weekend before the last full week of research on my road trip in Nashville with brokeknits. I mostly snapped photos of the food we ate, but I can assure you that both the conversation and the scenery were fantastic.

The Parthenon. Or rather, a scaled replica first made in temporary form for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, and later re-made in concrete. Of course, we had to see Gilded Athena.

Yup. What’s sort of crazy is that this is not unrelated to my work. I mean, Athena is not in my dissertation, but the ideas surrounding things like Centennial Park and the Exposition are certainly part of it.

We honored our trip to see Athena with tater tots. (Mine are covered by an incredibly tasty scramble of eggs and veggies.) We ate them in a lovely vine-covered patio area.

And then we walked by this meter, flashing FAIL. I could do so much with that, but I’ll hold off, as I’m sipping my coffee before heading to campus for the first meeting of the class I’m teaching.

Oh, right. And then this happened. We went to eat Jeni’s Ice Cream. (I didn’t realize there was one in Nashville.) It was amazing. I think ate something that had berries and lavender, something that had almond brittle in it, and something that was mostly pecans and whiskey. All in a waffle cone. It was amazing.

Cheers! A waffle cone toast to friendships that start on the interwebs and transition to real life!

And now, off to campus. Happy first day of school!

is this thing on?

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I hope so. Thanks for sticking around through my absence from the blogosphere. I’ve got several posts worth of pictures from the month-long research road trip Boh and I returned from yesterday. Here’s a sampling of the whole thing, minus our weekend adventure with brokeknits — I’ve got enough pictures to turn that into its very own post!

First up? A self-portrait at Forest Park’s Grand Basin in St. Louis. Funny how temperatures rising to 106 degrees meant that I had the place to myself…

Boh loves hotels.

Walking dogs in the bosque.

Boh and I stick our paws/toes in the Rio Grande.

A morning walk in the foothills of the Sandias, on Albuquerque’s eastern side. Boh totally remembered the desert.

A view of the Sandias from the top of one of the volcanos on the west side.

Mount Allegra, the mountain in the backyard of the folks I call my New Mexico family.

Driving west on I-40 into a summer storm. (When all the big rigs pulled over, so did I. About half an hour of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning, and things began to brighten.)

There was a lasso in my room in Camp Verde, Arizona.

More bosque walking with Boh.

Flowers among the cottonwoods.

An awkward self portrait, mid-stroll.

My makeshift office on the back porch of my best friend’s house outside DC.

The Rock Creek Trail offered Boh and I a bit of shade and a nice break from working. It reminded me of home.

Amidst all the driving and outdoor frolicking, I also managed to get quite a bit of research done. (You know what else I did? Eat! I’ve got a whole series of food pictures I promise I’ll share soon.) Boh and I had a wonderful trip, but a month is a long time to be on the road, and I think we’re both very happy to be home.

oh, hi!

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See this? It’s my new bone. Amy ordered it for me to replace the one I’ve been slowly sharpening into a weapon. I think she thought it would be just like the old one, but oh boy oh boy, this one is about three times the size. She’s been busy this week.

The other day she made zucchini fritters with her farm veggies.

They looked (and smelled) delicious. And none of them fell apart. She thinks it is because she actually took the time to squeeze the excess moisture from the veggies before mixing them with the eggs and flour and spices.

She also pitched our tent in the front yard! I think this means we’re going on a trip. She even scrubbed the fly, laid it to dry in the sun, and then patched the hole that was forming on the side you can’t see in this picture. I think I’m going to get to sleep in this soon. (I like our tent.)

I haven’t seen her knitting this week, but I know she has plans to cast on another project for the road. (And I know she’d really love to finish that super cool beret she’s test knitting before we leave!)

Okay, time for a nap.

first tomato of the summer.

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I broiled half of it on toast with cheese and basil, and I ate the other half with my hands. Hooray for the first tomato of summer!

Also, hooray for whisper! I’m starting to think I might need another. I absolutely love the neckline, and I’d love a longer version…

Here’s another knit in action: my very first wedding pinwheel blanket. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this particular knit in all kinds of use — as a lap blanket, as a spot for a catnap, as a baby blanket, and last night, as a pillow for my favorite greyhound. The Cascade 220 I knit it out of seems to be holding up quite well, as I knit this during the summer of 2008.

Here’s another sleepy dog. I bet he wishes he had a pinwheel blanket for a pillow. Someday, Boh. Someday.

I’m gearing up for a research road trip, so yesterday I began the process of cleaning out my car. I don’t think I’ve ever actually emptied my car of cds. (I normally stick to clearing out the back, not all of the little compartments.) Anyway, it was fun to see just how many mixes I’ve received from friends since I bought my car six years ago. I spent some time trying out and then labeling all of the unmarked cds, ditching and re-burning the scratched ones, and putting them into books and cases. (I’m super glad that I import mixes I get in the mail to my computer before playing them over and over and over again. That way I don’t worry about breaking the cd!) That is the fun part of research road trip prep.

Lots more to do this week before I hit the road: finalize what I want to look at, confirm travel/housing plans, buy more dog food, pack…and grade the term papers from the summer course! Happy weekend to you!

on a joyride.

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I’m a couple of repeats into Joyride, this fabulous testknit beret by foxflat. I was initially worried that the colors would be a little bit too busy for the pattern, but so far I like the way it looks! The lace repeat holds my interest without requiring my undivided attention, which is just what I need this week! (All of my knitting seems to be taking place during lecture.)

And then there’s this guy. I rolled over this morning after my alarm went off, and this is what I encountered: Boh, fast asleep, his head on the pillow. Sweetness.

FO: another wedding pinwheel!

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Pretty soon I’m going to have to make one of these for myself. I’ve actually lost count of how many pinwheel blankets I’ve knit. And I’m fine with that. I’m looking forward to putting this in the mail and sending it off to dear friends/newlyweds. Hooray!

This is what has been happening around here. Boh sleeps, I comment on papers. I’m into the last week of my summer TAing. Almost there.

Here’s where I ate my lunch yesterday. Isn’t it lovely?

Today I wore my whisper cardigan. It was cool this morning, so I wore it to the bus stop. And then I took it off, and thought to myself that I’d just been looking for an excuse to wear handknits, and that I didn’t really need it. And then it was extra cool in the air-conditioned library atrium, and I was happy to have it. (I realize none of that is really necessary information. Still, we all have those days where we  wear handknits because we want to, even if the temperature isn’t quite right. The chill in the library made me happy today because I had just the thing to put on!)

One more picture: A blurry self-portrait that I snapped because I wanted to text a friend to show her that I was wearing the earrings she gave me several years ago and thinking of her. Now that I look at this picture, I realized I’ve captured my favorite element of my whisper cardigan: the neck/collar section!

Okay…back to commenting on paper drafts! Happy Tuesday to you.

buttercup update (and other stuff, too).

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It is time to increase a little bit so that the top is a little bit swingy. (Due to yarn concerns, I omitted the body increases earlier in the pattern, but I think I’ve got enough to start adding a few more stitches.)

I made some potato salad last week. And then I took it with me to campus, and enjoyed it with last week’s New Yorker.

Raspberries from the farm. Yum.

This is how I dealt with Saturday night’s power outage. Not a bad way to keep cool. (I was worried that this chardonnay was going to warm in my slightly-less-cool-by-the-second non-electrified fridge.) The power was out for about three hours, and I was able to get some grading done as the sun set.

I snapped this while dashing down my steps to get to campus on time. So lovely, and I almost missed it.

Somebody was afraid of the fireworks on Monday night. Poor Boh.

Remember these socks? I turned the heel in class on Tuesday. Thus concludes today’s installment of show and tell. More soon!

knitting in class.

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I was knitting on my Buttercup when I took this picture. (And we were on a break. Don’t worry; I don’t play with my phone during class.)

And here I am today, also knitting in our lecture hall. (Also on a break.)

And here’s the gin and tonic I made on Monday night. I’ve got a great bunch of students in the intensive summer session for rising high school seniors I’m TAing, but the schedule is exhausting. Yoga, a drink, and a front-row seat for sunset was exactly what I needed last night.

Look at my pretty swatch! It’s for a testknit for foxflat — a summer-weight, super sweet beret called Joyride. The yarn is a merino-tencel blend from back when I was a member of the Yarn Pirate Booty Club, with a bit of shine and lovely colors. In a sock pattern, it would be stripey, but in a slightly larger project, the first few rows are suggesting to me that it might look a bit colorblocked. I need to knit a little bit more to see what I think. If it’s too busy for the lacework, I’ve got a solid yarn that I think would be lovely in this pattern. More soon!

saturday night whisper.

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As an afterthought, I slipped my whisper on and snapped a few photos before meeting some friends for drinks at my favorite neighborhood bar. This needs a better blocking, and if I were knitting it again, I’d make it a bit longer. I put this cardigan on fairly often, but rarely do I wear it out of the house. Not so last night. This is my favorite way to wear whisper so far — and it was exactly the amount of warmth I needed to sit outside late into the evening.

Ignore whatever face I’m making there.

Something else I enjoyed on Saturday night? This kale salad. There are versions of this salad everywhere on the internet, and the key is to massage the kale. I’m not kidding. My friend M. made this for me on Friday with her farm veggies, and it was so good that I decided to make it with mine. I ate it from the porch while the sun set, which is why I needed the flash. A good day.

Happy weekend!

boh and buttercup.

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Pretty straightforward stuff here today. Boh and buttercup. Together.

I’m done with the feather and fan neckline, and I’m working on the body. Here’s a picture I snapped when I was trying it on to decide whether to do the A-line body increases or not. (I decided not, for fit as well as yarn quantity reasons.)

A stripey apron that I adore. (It came from my friend T.’s kitchen.)

And we’re back to Boh and buttercup. So sweet. Happy Friday, everyone!