Have I mentioned...

that it's application season for academic jobs starting August 2010? I have the distinct feeling that that's all I've been talking about for months now, but maybe I haven't brought it up here. Both the Hubs and I are in the midst of putting together our dossiers, a project that this week has turned into a full-time occupation taking up each and every evening, often late into the night or even early into the morning. I'll be sending stuff off after this weekend; the Hubs has another week. Do wish us luck! His postdoc is soon over, I'm graduating in May, and we really need to find a new home for ourselves to start the next phase in our lives.

Speaking of that next phase (and all its promises: a career, a permanent place to live, a house with a garden filled with happy dogs, and... and... and maybe little people): my previous two posts created quite a stir at the Hubs' childhood home. My MIL returned from her trip to France and, jet-lagged as she was, checked the blog, saw baby cardigans, read the word "bumpy," and immediately drew the wrong conclusions. :) (My mom, too, finds my baby-knitting highly suspicious.) No no no. Rest assured, you'll not learn that kind of news through the internet. (Although I'm sure plenty of people nowadays make announcement of that sort using twitter and facebook. [I facebooked three minutes before walking down the aisle that I'd be walking down the aisle. But all of our close friends and family were present, so no one dear to us had to learn the news through fb.])

In knitting news: Sean's LYS in Cambridge is closing its doors. I wasn't much of a frequent shopper there, but it nevertheless saddens me to see Sean go.

Despite little time this week, there has been some knitting. Heron is a very quick knit; I (almost) completed the main body:

Looks funny, doesn't it? But once it's folded over, it does actually resemble a wearable piece:

Of course, the cardigan is missing its pemplums (I had to look up the plural of "pemplum," and apparently, this is it) and sleeves. I will have to make the pemplums longer to adjust for my height. Since I'm substituting Cascade Eco Wool for Berroco Peruvia Quick and need to account for the difference in gauge, I'm making the cardigan one size larger than needed and hope for the best!

Look, it snowed here last weekend:

Yesterday it was in the 70s again. Tomorrow there will be icy rain. Perfect weather for staying home, sipping tea, and knitting working on my dossier.

The Hubs, who's been falling behind keeping his own blog (on cultural stuff) updated, wants me to tell you that we went to a reading by Jonatham Lethem last night (our one-hour diversion), and that it was awesome, and that the Hubs loves Jonathan Lethem. In fact, he loves him so much we even waited in line to get our copy of Chronic City autographed (the Hubs isn't much for waiting in lines and getting things autographed, so this is news). Lethem came to our favorite neighborhood, Brookline, reading at the fantastic Coolidge Theatre:

To my utter shame I must confess that I fell asleep during the reading; I had had 4 hours of sleep the night before and was exhausted, and sitting in a warm theater listening to a lovely voice telling stories... well, it did me in.

Today I feel much better and ready to roll... dossier, here I come!