Monday, July 05, 2004

Note: this entry contains several references to the consumption of alcohol!

Okay, the sneaking occurred and the area was blissfully police-free.

However, there was some kind of mix-up about that listing of when the fireworks would be, since the area also turned out to be fireworks-free. On the other hand, it was a beautiful warm night with a huge golden full moon rising through the willows and over the geese-silhouette-filled lake. The only thing missing was a nice bottle of merlot. (Perhaps one of my new favorites, either Fat Bastard or 47-Pound Rooster.)

Several colleague and non-colleague friends were involved. Before we left, a good deal of my Bombay Sapphire gin was consumed, as well as most of a fruit plate, and even (gasp) a lot of my little container of Marmite, initially brought out more or less as a curiosity.

Other than that, I spent the entire weekend indoors. I felt like I might possibly be in the pre-initial proto-stages of getting sick. Or else just being very sick of schoolwork and needing a serious break before I had a nervous breakdown, after all this back-and-forthing with my thesis defense, which now will definitely not be occurring before September.

I compulsively knitted nearly an entire sweater during nine hours on Saturday. It's only the second one I've ever made, and the last one was 18 years ago. Seems that the process still works, however.

I also took apart a bookshelf, reassembled it with different shelving locations (doubtless to the chagrin of my poor downstairs neighbor, I tend to do things that require hammering between 9-11pm), then painted it white, put it where my library cart used to be, moved all the binders (from 3 years of grad school) from the library cart onto the shelves, then moved my dresser out of my closet, painted it white and placed it into my bedroom, then squeezed the library cart into the place in the closet where the dresser had previously been. I also swept and dusted, hand-swept the hair and grime out of my rugs, got a bunch of melty lipstick marks off one rug using rubbing alcohol, got rid of quite a few extraneous possessions by placing them in the foyer of my apartment building, and watched/listened to positively hours and hours of PBS and NPR.

However, I did not wash my dishes.


12 comments:

argotnaut said...

Drat! I could have used your burst of industriousness! I need to bring you out here to help me build my cat coop.

I can't wait to move into a place with a dishwasher!

I didn't know you knew how to knit. You probably got your recent fit because I finally took my needles out the other day -- haven't had them out since we moved here in -- what, February?

There's a new knitting/coffee shop here that I must try soon.

Mark said...

Bah... dishes... I'd clean the toilet rather than do the dishes... (ok, I can't back that one up but it's definately up there near the top of the list of worst chores that have to be done around the house.)

Don't you eat Marmite in the US or is it just that you prefer Bovril?

mmmm... Marmite & cheese on toast... I'm off to find something to eat (that dosen't generate a lot of dirty dishes).

liz said...

1. Industriousness: it was more a rebellion against the specific *kind* of industriousness I should (continue to) be engaging in, namely, school stuff. I felt terribly lazy the entire time I was doing all that stuff.

2. Cat Coop! My next band name. Although it has lots of bad name-calling potential...

3. I learned to knit in Norway. I knit freestyle--none o' that countin' stitches business for me! Currently making fuzzy pink jumper (gak!) with a zipper down the front.

4. Perhaps people's preference for cleaning toilets accounts for the recent finding that toilets are typically a lot more germ-free than kitchens!

5. Marmite is not eaten here except by a few weirdo xenophiles and/or expatriates. I have to go to the imports section of the largest grocery store around to find it.

Actually, I started out by eating Vegemite, having been introduced to it by my Kiwi/Aussie friends in Norway. Didn't try Marmite until recent acquisition of English BF. This week all my friends keep proudly referring to having tried it!

liz said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
liz said...

Oops---slowness of Blogger server caused me to double-post that last comment. It's not censorship--really.

argotnaut said...

I figured it must have been Norway. But the most important question: Continental or English-style?

I'm guessing Continental, since most of the work is really done with the left hand.

Gwen said...

You have a library cart in your home?! Are you SURE you're not a squirrel..?

liz said...

Yes, Continental style, but *reversed* because I'm left-handed. So, about as non-standard for a North American knitter as possible.

The library cart was one of the many wonderful objects I acquired when they cleared out some storage spaces on the Psyc floor. (I pushed it home through the streets, spray-painted it white in the back yard, and then single-handedly got it up 3-1/2 flights of stairs to my apartment!)

I also got a genuine "shocker" (used in certain experiments, but I mainly like it because it says "shocker" right on the front), a working TRS-80 *with ancient floppy disk*, and 2 antique oscilloscopes with intact vacuum tubes.

I was very sad because there were a couple of big awesome stainless-steel polygraph machines that I couldn't take. (Nowhere to put them in my 1-bedroom.)

Mark said...

...oh the fun that can be had with a polygraph and shocker...

argotnaut said...

Funny, I was just gazing at an oscilloscope in a store window here the other day. I told Andrew about helping you bring those home from your school. He found it hilarious because -- well, who else would do that, and have it be a perfectly routine thing? "Hey, can you help me bring a couple of oscilliscopes home?"

liz said...

Doe sno one else find it ironic that at my Independence Day celebration, gin and Marmite were featured prominently?

At least I wasn't wearing (one of) my Union Jack shirt(s), which could have gotten me shot--if Americans could be bothered to remember what event all the fireworks, drinking, and barbecuing are actually for. Heh.

liz said...

Dammit, "does no"!

"Doe sno"--fer Pete's sake.

(Hate when I see a typo exactly as I hit "publish".)