Brain Child

I can't help but brag. Today a copy of my dissertation arrived in the mail, printed on archival paper and properly bound, just as it is shelved in the library.

The stats...

Pages: 403
Paragraphs: 2.186
Lines: 12.333
Words: 136.415
Characters (no spaces): 776.027
Characters (with spaces): 911.634
First day of writing: Oct 6, 2008
Last day of writing: Aug 2, 2010
Days between those two dates: 666
Number of actual writing days: 94
Activities on non-writing days, in order of frequency, from high to low: "nothing" (vacationing, knitting, socializing, working out, cooking...), teaching, feeling guilty about not writing, research related activities (reading, taking notes, thinking)
Average number of words written per writing day: 1.451
Self-imposed goal of words written per writing day: 1.500
Date of submitting the first draft: Aug 10, 2010
Date of submitting the final (pre-defense) version: Nov 1, 2010
Time spent between these two dates revising the dissertation: every waking moment not spent teaching or keeping bodily functions going
Date of defense: Nov 19, 2010
Revisions required by committee after defense: 19 typos, one factual mistake
Time it took to complete final revisions: less than an hour
Occurrence of situation in which this few revisions are required: rare (per anecdotal knowledge)
Post-defense feeling: disbelief
Feeling today: "glad it's over," pride
Estimated number of months by which finishing the dissertation was delayed because author was knitting (a hobby the author picked up in March 2009): three

Ithaca: June in a Flash

Goodness! Seriously. A blink ago it was June 6. And now it's the 4th-of-July weekend. Time swooshes by especially fast when one's busy, that's the lesson learned in June.

We traded in our Beantown residence for a summer abode in Gorges Ithaca, New York. We went to grad school here, and the Hubs was asked back to teach math camp to kids who where math superstars in their respective colleges, where math, however, wasn't taught as rigorously as perhaps it should have been. These kids are now getting ready for prestigious grad schools, and to prepare them for what will no doubt be a very different academic setting, they participate in an 8-week super-intensive math program at Cornell. And the Hubs is one of their professors. The program is very, very, very intense; the students work extremely hard and are in class between 10 am and 11 pm every day, six days a week. The Hubs is in his office by 8 am and doesn't leave till 9:30 pm.

And moi? Well. I said I went to grad school here. Truth is, I'm still in grad school. I would have been done by now if I hadn't been given the opportunity to teach last year, but since I taught and published and yadda yadda, I didn't get my dissertating act together and. Am. Not. Done. Yet. So, the Hubs' schedule suits me well: I'm also up on campus each morning at 8, go to my library carrel from which I have the most amazing view of campus, the town, and Cayuga Lake, and write like a maniac till the library closes at 9 pm. Then my brain usually is kaputt and I fall into bed and don't move a toe till the next morning.

Still. It's all very awesome. We love Ithaca and are so happy just being here (even if we don't have time to do anything, say, exciting: see any of the state parks, for instance, or bike around the lakes). I'm not complaining at all. It feels great to be productive, and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the dissertation tunnel. (One. More. Chapter.) I'm a bit panicky about finishing; I thought I'd have another semester of fellowships but then the university where I taught last year offered me a full-time lecturing position for this coming year (Yay!!! Very exciting news!). Once I start teaching in September I will have zero time to dissertate. So, the pressure is on. Pressure in Ithaca is totally fine, though. (Pressure in Boston usually ends in back pain, or so I noticed earlier this spring.)

And now, can you guess what the knitting chez Wollgut is doing? It's taking a summer snooze. It went on vacation without me. It's probably at your house. While traveling in May I managed a tiny Multnomah shawlette, but I haven't had the time to block it or to take photos of it. It's hanging out with the yarn I optimistically brought along to make three sweaters (!) this summer (!!). Ha!

And that's all, folks. You have a splendid holiday weekend (should this weekend be a holiday for you). Enjoy watching the World Cup (I'm watching the really exciting games in my carrel, on a screen split between ESPN 3 and my last chapter) (Go, Podolski! Go, Özil! Schweini! Lahm! Müller!). And if you're neither into football or July 4th festivities, make yourself a perfect weekend in whichever way pleases you!

Rabbit Hole

Into which I fell sometime earlier this week. It's the end of the semester, which usually means chaos. This time it's chaos and then some. A lot of it is work related, but in addition to the normal stuff--writing and grading exams and planning last-minute review sessions to calm down the panicked kids--I've also been busy moderating at a couple of academic events (the task of which is both nerve-racking and delightful) and interviewing for a part-time teaching position for next year (I got it!). The week went by so fast I hardly had time to plan our trip to Europe, which starts on Tuesday. In fact, I know I'll be going to Oxford, I just don't know yet how and when I get there, or where I'll stay.

Yes, Oxford. I'm very excited! Many hours of watching the brilliant British detective series Inspector Morse made us want to visit the town. Between conferencing in Berlin in early May and attending my BFF's wedding in York at the end of May, the Hubs and I will have five days of real vacation. The Berlin and York bits are planned perfectly, only the "five days of real vacation" are as of yet unorganized. I don't mind so much; the conference organizers put me up in a fancy hotel, and for the wedding we will lodge at a posh B&B. Who cares if we spend our Oxford nights on the street? Turns out, the Hubs does. Wherever we end up, I'm sure it will be lovely. And the wedding will be absolutely wonderful. It's my BFF, she's getting married--need I say more? (My tiny complaint is that I'm losing her to Great Britain. What's up with that? Wonderful as he is, why does the groom need to be a Brit?)

Once we come back from Europe we're home for exactly three days before we move to upstate New York for the summer. The Hubs teaches Nerd Camp at Cornell (aka summer math school), and I will finish my dissertation. We sublet an apartment from a friend of a friend of a friend; it's a lovely place in one of the most gorgeous Victorian villas in town, with a porch, a beautiful garden, and easy access to a great walking trail. Although we're there to work, it will feel a little bit like vacation, or so we hope.

You guessed it already: lately it's been too busy here to knit anything at all. I'm hoping to get some peace and quiet on the plane (this is mental peace and quiet) to start something small. Perhaps Multnomah. Perhaps Damson. We'll see. I'm going to wind yarn tonight and wait till inspiration hits.

In case I don't get a chance to write before I leave: I wish y'all a happy May!

* * *

The following photo sums up today's attempts at trying to deal with Boston's drinking water supply crisis (read here for info):

Water? There's none left. Every store offered the same picture: empty shelves as far as the eye can see. We started drinking diet coke. I don't know how we will wash dishes with diet coke. Brush teeth with diet coke?

Bits and Pieces

First I shout out the news about my blogiversary, then I disappear from the blog? Yes, something like that. We spent last weekend with family in New York; the occasion was a sad one, but being with family was wonderful. (Really, the Hubs has the bestest family.) Since our return I've been running to stay in place just catching up with work I had neglected because of the whole ouch-my-back-hurts situation: I realize that it couldn't have been 387 papers I graded, 174 students I saw during office hours, or 39 meetings I attended, but the numbers give you an idea of the magnitude of the 'catching up' enterprise. This week really has been a bit too much.

First, since you asked (you did, didn't you?), my back has gotten better but is still not quite right. At last I saw a doctor, a specialist in "non-surgecial orthopedics," who told me after a two-minute exam that it's probably a herniated disk, that I'll need to have an MRI done, that, if it's bad, I'll get series of epidural steroid injections and, if they don't help, I should consider surgery. Well, duh, thanks. Since I've been through this whole thing twice already, I am fully aware of the surgery option. Since twice before I got around surgery by treating and thus relaxing the areas around the disk (through acupuncture, Tui Na, TENS, lots and lots of walking and stretching, and a positive attitude), thereby giving it a better chance of healing on its own, as opposed to aggressively attacking it, I was disappointed by the doctor's approach. I'm gonna remain a Posimist (a positive optimist) and do my walking and leave to doctor be. (He did request an MRI, and I'm waiting for my insurance's OK. Last time it took six weeks to get it, and that was when I was still a student in NY with NY student insurance coverage. This time I'm also a NY student with NY student coverage, but I reside in MA. This has proven difficult expensive before, since my insurance doesn't feel entirely responsible for the bill as soon as I move a toe across the NY border.) End of today's health report.
OK, just one more detail: I'm not supposed to ride the bike yet. But since riding the bus is brutal for my poor disk, the doc prescribed a monstrous back brace that gives me the waistline of Scarlett O'Hara but literally takes my breath.

Second, weather (yupp, I'm practicing for old age by talking about health and weather). It's been glorious. After last weekend's ungodly rain storms that flooded half of NY and MA, the bus route to work, and almost all of my students' dorms, the weather has been just beautiful. It's been sunny and warm, cheering up even the grumpiest of MBTA drivers, postal workers, and campus security personnel. And it's made me incredibly happy. Finally I can wear shoes without socks! (A big bonus when unable to reach one's feet.) Today's plan is to go on a long walk through our favorite neighborhood (which, unfortunately, isn't ours). Think 8 miles or so, with my LYS, the most fabulous bakery of all times, and our local independent book seller on the way. Yay.

Third, knitting: After I used up 200 yards of sock yarn to create a loooong tube to test lace, cable, and lace-and-cable patterns, and was still worried about boring Elinor's judges to death, I scraped the idea of entering the sock design contest. Here are a few ugly results:

Today Elinor posted another blog entry, encouraging all of us design newbies to enter the contest, no matter how "dull" we thought our designs, and I find myself back at square one. I want to be part of this! I anticipate spending all of my knitting time, which currently isn't very much anyway, racking my brain about sock patterns.

And now out into the sunshine! Hope you, too, are having a sunny weekend.

My Week in Bullet Points

--I knit an iPhone cozy. That was all I could handle last week, with giving (and then grading) final exams and what not:



(While proctoring a three-hour exam it occurred to me that this could have been prime knitting time. Alas, I fear my students sometimes think I am cuckoo as is; no need to scare them further with knitting needles. BTW: my students this semester were, for the most part, terrific kids. I'll miss them.)

--Hubs ordered a hat. I immediately searched for all manly hat patterns available to me (including the beautiful Koolhaas), and once he had considered them, he picked... sound the drums please... the Navy Watch Cap. I died of boredom at the mere thought. The Hubs then said, well, maybe the Danish Earflap Cap...? Love it!, I replied. Stranded color work, fabulous! No, he said, of course without the snowflakes. Just the earflaps. Couldn't I add earflaps to the Navy Watch Cap...? I saw my last chance in color choice and asked him for his preference. Black, he said. I gasped. Fine, he compromised, how about a really dark grey? Ugh.

--And while on the hat, why not throw in a scarf for the Hubs? He's officially abandoned the Sculptured Lace Scarf I made for him last spring (my first knitting project: a labor of love. That's how I learned of yarn-overs. I-cords. Charts. Knitting code. Knitting into the back of a stitch. Really, I learned so much by knitting that scarf. And I had picked the pattern because it was designed by a man for men. Nevermind the word "lace" in the name.) So, the Hubs doesn't like the scarf. Instead, he started wearing my Clapotis. My Clapotis! For comparison:

I thought of a wicked plan to save Clapotis. I will finally block it and then convince the Hubs that it's a lace scarf...

Alternatively, I'll make him a black 2x2 ribbing Death-By-Boredom scarf to go with the hat...

--I saw the current Knitty and fell hard for Spoke.

--I went to as many holiday parties this past week as I've been to in all previous years combined. There's something about life past grad school and getting holiday party invitations: the two are connected. At one holiday party (celebrating both Christmas and Hannukah), the hostess had stayed up the entire night--not gone to bed at all!--to make eight different kinds of traditional German holiday baked goodies (Stollen, Mutzenmandeln [aka Oliebolelen], Quarkkäulchen, Zimtsterne, and Vanillekipferl among them), and I ate myself silly on Krapfen (it went well with Glühwein). She had also urged everyone who played an instrument to bring it along for a potential jam session. I counted four saxophones and several violins, and indeed, live music was on the entire night. One guest brought the rest of his jazz band; another his a cappella group. The house almost burst with the 100 guests or so present. It was way awesome.

--We ordered and received our custom holiday cards but have written none so far. Experience has taught us that we're likely to be behind with Christmas cards, so this time we opted for a Happy 2010 theme. Clever, the two of us. One can still wish a Happy New Year in February, right? (Goodness, we have 100 cards to write sign.)

--Here's Räuchermännchen next to our modest Christmas pyramid, our concession to Christmas décor:

Have I mentioned we're not having Christmas this year? In recent years we spent Christmas either with my or the Hubs' parents, but this year it'll be just the two of us. We couldn't commit to any plans because we were hoping (and are still clinging to that hope) to get invited to job interviews in December. Since we're not even sure where we'll be over Christmas we don't plan on having a tree. The few ornaments we have (a considerable number, actually, given we haven't had any need for them thus far) are keeping each other company on a baguette serving dish. It works for us!

Yankee Swap & Hobbit Feet

This morning I left home with this:

And in the afternoon I came home with that:

I went to my first Yankee Swap party! And because gift choices were limited to a five-dollar budget and because Whole Foods wasn't all that far, tasty edibles in tiny jars were the gift du jour. My fancy dipping sauce changed hands for a posh herb mix. I was asked why I hadn't knit something for my swap contribution. Well... I realized just last night that the Yankee Swap would go down today, and although that would have been plenty of time to knit an iPhone sock, I simply felt overwhelmed by the task and thus stuck with the safe choice, the dip. I have an invitation for another Yankee Swap that comes with a one-dollar challenge; perhaps I'll knit a gadget sock for that (plenty of free patterns on Ravelry...).

Speaking of gadgets. For the umpteenth time I voiced my discontent over the lighting situation in our apartment. While I didn't aim my complaints at anyone in particular but yelled at the walls more generally, the Hubs, bless his heart, suggested I use a headlamp when knitting in the evening (dark outside + black yarn + tiny needles = unhappy eyes). A headlamp? Sure thing, a camping headlamp! He then proudly produced an elastic band with a light on one end (a gadget that supposedly I myself gave him a year or so ago: I have no memory of this), plopped the thing onto my head, turned on the light, and voilà, finishing my Dad's socks was a breeze...

(The state of my desk is alarming [oink oink]. Pay no attention!).

In any event, the socks are done! They are drying right now... Since these are large men socks (for my hobbit father: not very tall but with large hairy feet) and I have but medium sock blockers, they look kinda funny... I'll have better pictures tomorrow.

Dear Reader:

I had anticipated NaBloPoMo to be a lot of fun, but for the last couple of days I've felt like I owe you, dear reader, an apology. There's neither enough knitting nor enough remotely French stuff going on here for the blog to deserve its name, however, I don't feel quite ready yet to quit NaBloPoMo. As is more universally true, things first need to get worse before they start looking up again, and I'm hereby preparing you for twitter-like blog-posts during the next few days of traveling to internet-free places. The up-side of that: I'll have time to knit! We're going on a four-hour car ride tomorrow (to NYC), and although one year ago this would have sounded like punishment for everyone involved (I'm a bad driver and a worse passenger), today this is filled with the promise of enjoyment: I'm looking forward to knitting during the ride and will do so quietly, without complaining, whining, sighing, or engaging in annoying activities. I'll be all Zen, for each and every one of the two-hundred-and-forty minutes.

And that's basically my grand plan for the rest of the week: I'll be calm and composed, and I'll enjoy everything. I graded for seven hours today before teaching for another five, and now my desk is clean, pristine, empty. Work's all done. I'm ready for this vacation. Au revoir, office!

Potato!

I realize I'm merely repeating what Stephanie has eloquently expressed on her blog: "the time change thing sucks" (that's a quote). I'm not pleased with it myself.

Today's been a gorgeous day, the fifth in a row. Perfect bicycling/jogging weather. Since I had some important stuff to do (writing an exam, getting an article in shape for submission, and preparing a talk) I gave myself an ultimatum: There would be no leaving the desk before I had checked off two of my three to-dos. I got down to business at 7 am, and by the time I was done at 5 pm, it was stinkin' dark outside. I've been fuming all evening about having missed a nice day outside. (Especially since I still don't have buttons for Heron. My LYS is a lovely twenty-minute bike-ride from here. Pfff.) I really dislike myself on days I don't get out at all.

The silver lining: dark and cold evenings call for soup, and I love both making and eating soup. Since our weekly CSA box includes an increasingly large amount of potatoes, I've been experimenting with different potato soups. Lemme tell you, tonight's "French Country Potato Soup" was super. Last week's garlic & potato and parsley & potato and potato & kale soups weren't bad, but the French soup trumped them all. (Luckily, the Hubs likes potato soup, too. We just subscribed to the winter CSA share, and I predict many potato dishes for the future.)

Off I go! (Still working on #3 of today's to do items.)