My First Socks

My First Socks
Originally uploaded by nanodudek

Knitting is an expensive hobby.

I could have purchased a fine pair of wool socks for about $9 and worn them instantly, but instead I spent the last 3.5 months knitting my own pair. I was foolish enough to spend nearly $20 on the wool for these socks. I had to rip apart the first sock twice due to mistakes and my wrists were tingling as I finished the second sock. I guess if you figure in all the time I spent on the project, my hobby ends up costing about $1.75 a week. That's much cheaper than a cocaine hobby, so I shouldn't complain.

I have so say this project was worth the hard work and tedious agony, as I now have a deep appreciation for women in the olden days . I can't imagine having to knit socks for the entire family and repair socks as they wore out.

I consider my socks precious and don't dare to wash them in the machine, for fear of losing one!

Sit Back and Relax

OMG Hotel!

I write to you today from my VERY. OWN. DELUXE. SUITE. at the Delta Hotel in Vancouver!

My previous employer liked me enough to invite me to serve on a panel at a conference in my very own town. As a result, I get to hear fascinating seminars about Cesarean section, stay in a cushy hotel, eat free food, and enjoy all this excitement without getting on an airplane.

I LOVE cushy hotels, and I have never had the luxury of staying at a prime hotel by myself. Every conference I have ever been to was at a dumpy hotel and convention center. Typically, I shared costs with other poor graduate students and we all and piled into the room together and skimped on the amenities. And because we were colleagues traveling together, we treated the room kindly and were on our best behavior.

When I stay in a hotel, I want to use a million towels. And leave the bed unmade. And use up all the sample soaps and lotions. And flip thru all the magazines. And surf the channels until my head spins. And here I am , alone, in a luxe room with the heater cranked up to a sweltering 25C (I like it warm...can't stand the cold chill of hotel air!) writing in my blog with my complimentary high speed internet access.

Today I am loving life!

13 Weeks

The Christmas tree in the lobby of my workplace finally came down today, January 18th.

Canadian Thanksgiving was on October 8th, 2007.

That makes my 2007/08 Christmas season a whopping 13 weeks long.

Who could possibly argue that there is a war on Christmas when 25% of my year is spent surrounded by Christmas regalia?

Sign Language

I have had great success teaching my old dog new tricks with the use of hand signals. After only four months in a new home, she can sit, lie down, come, and I even have a hand signal for the last walk of the day. She responds to every single one of these commands by hand signal alone, there is no need to even utter a single word.

The new challenge between me and my dog is getting her off the couch. She doesn't respond to a verbal "off"command, so I decided to learn a new hand signal. I googled "ASL dictionary" and found this brilliant website called ASLPro.com.

You can search for whatever word you are interested in and watch an instructional clip demonstrating the word in American Sign Language. Brilliant!

There was no entry for the word 'samosa' but I am sure that there is a version of Hindi Sign Language that communicates the word 'samosa'!

Courageous or Outrageous?

I am proud to announce that I am now a member of the Polar Bear Club!

Every year nutty people around the world don their bathing suits on January 1st and jump into the local frigid body of water. This afternoon I joined 2,000 Vancouverites as they dunked themselves in English Bay.

The weather was Polar Bear- friendly at a balmy 6C (43F) and the water was almost the same, although a bit cooler. While the freezing swim was a shock, the hardest part of the event was wearing a bathing suit in public. Everybody had a digital camera, cameraphone, or video recorder AND the local and national press were there today.

I don't want to know how many times I was inadvertently recorded in the background of someone's shot and uploaded onto the world wide web. This idea leaves me shivering and chattering more than the feeling of my wet ponytail dripping down my neck on the ride home.

Happy New Year, everyone and best wishes in 2008.