You can donate money to the Red Cross, Unicef, or one of several other organizations, if you haven't already, to help the tsunami-devastated areas. (Those are the Canadian links.)

Merry Christmas!

To those celebrating Christmas, have an excellent one. To everyone else, have a great day. Me, I'll be eagerly anticipating Xmas dinner and my yearly dousing-of-the-vegetables with non-veg gravy -- it's been several years since I last boarded the holiday gravy train, so I'm extra excited. Then, of course, dinner will be followed by the traditional unbuttoning of the pants and moaning. It's a great holiday, isn't it? Crass commercialism, overeating, and jigsaw puzzles. What could be better?

5 minutes later... Hmm. That was a bit snarky, wasn't it? I really do love Christmas, actually. And I'm really happy to be here with my family this year after being away the last three. This is, however, the first Xmas I've spent without Bill since 1993, and I wish he were here (and Bea, too). This is just one of those times when I can't have it all. But Bill just couldn't come with me, and what I do have is pretty good: my knitting aunt is impressed with my knitting (and my ability to wind yarn into a centre-pull ball); my brother is actually wearing the tuque I knit for him last year; my dad dug carrots out of his garden the other day (and they were delicious); my mom is making sure I eat Mandarin oranges and drink milk as well as stuffing myself with tarts and squares and cookies; my family had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of pizza delivery (and not a kernel of canned corn to be found); I hung out with my pal Allison (2L) this afternoon and we have a lunch date next week (finally resuming an Xmas tradition, at the best-ever Greek restaurant); my friend Rose and her son Sam baked the letters of my name in gingerbread for me; I have plans to see other friends and relatives; and unlike Bill and Bea, I'm not snowed in. From the bottom of my warm and wooly heart, I wish you a merry Christmas. Enjoy yourself, and enjoy your friends and family. And your gravy.

Ho ho home!

Thanks for your support! What an insane couple of days, but I did manage to grade all the exams and buy a car before flying out to my parents' place yesterday. Whew! As always, I knit on a sock during the flight. Now I'm on the second Opal sock and flying through it, since it's just stockinette. I'm also trying to finish my Peace Fleece cabled pullover tonight. I knit for ages today! I didn't do any work! How wonderful.

Also wonderful is that the socks I knit for the swap fit my secret swap-ee's feet! Those would be Joanna's feet. You may recognize them (the socks, not the feet): they are the Waving Lace socks from the Spring 2004 IK. Sadly, no swappy socks arrived for me before I left, but it's fun to know I'll have a pair of handknit socks waiting for me when I get home in nine days.

It was so cold when I left Ontario, and it's very mild here. A little snow would be nice, but I can live without. It's nice to be here. My parents' house is surrounded by orchards and overlooks the lake. Today was sunny and lovely. A huge male pheasant came to one of my dad's feeders, and a horde of finches fought over another one. My mom made buttertarts. All is well in the world.

Will I miss my sanity when it's completely gone?

Here's the biggest danger of moving to a town where you don't know anyone in particular: there is no one to tell you that you are insane when you decide it's a good idea to find a car to buy and a new place to live in the same weekend. Not just any weekend, mind you, but the weekend before Christmas when you also have fifty-plus exams to grade and enough editing work to do that your boss will stop sending "Where are you?" e-mails. You know -- the weekend before you are flying out of Toronto at 7:30 Tuesday morning to visit your family on the other side of the country.

Oh, wait -- that's why I have a blog! But now I'm aware of the insanity, so please just wish us luck...

I really should have known...
Part 1: Striking gold!

The gold wool arrived yesterday, shortly after I'd posted about it. And the colour was perfectly Billy-approved gold! Nicely wound on a cone, and nearly the same colour as my snowglobe cat:



Excellent! Anyway, off we went to a hotel, and since Bill hasn't yet chosen a pattern for his gold scarf, I took a sock to knit. It was a lovely evening that went too fast; we went out for dinner and stuffed ourselves so full of Indian food that I didn't even have a gulab jamun for dessert! We watched TV in the hotel room until the wee hours of the morning. I knitted -- I'm just past the short-row heel on my first Opal sock, and heading for the toe. Of course we slept too late this morning to claim our free breakfast, but I did bring the free newspaper home, because I do try to snag all the free swag I can get at any given time. Then we headed back home.

Part 2: The cat strikes!

Bea was waiting for us at the door, of course, having been left alone all night with just a big bowl of food and an open toilet for comfort. The first thing I saw was a pile of shredded pink tissue paper on the floor. Oh, how cute: Bea must have had a fun night. Dum de dum... uh, dear? Didn't I leave the new cone of gold yarn on the shelf by the window? 'Cause it's not there now.

In fact, the cone of gold yarn was no longer even on the main floor of the apartment. As I went down the stairs, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I saw it. Well, part of it. That's when I knew this was a case for CCSI: Craft-Crime Scene Investigation. The trail of evidence began in the living room. I followed the single strand of wool across the room, through the door, down the hall, and into the bedroom; the victim lay motionless behind the bed, and people, it was not a pretty sight. It was obvious that a major trauma had taken place on the scene. Shall we revisit the original photo, then, which shall now be known simply as "Before"?



I know, it's shocking. But we can't just pretend that this kind of violence isn't happening! We have to face the truth, the awful truth. There was insult as well as injury, too; take a closer look at the cat in the snowglobe. That's right: the snowglobe was found on the floor, snow-cat dislodged from its position. Did the whole destructive assault begin as an attempt to free the snow-cat before spiralling out of control and involving the cone of wool? We'll never know for sure. The perpetrator isn't talking.

Anyway, the good news is that the wool didn't break. This wool will be untangled and knit into the sturdiest scarf this side of Sturdyville. It survived this attack; it will laugh in the face of snow and cold weather. Ha! The gold wool will not be defeated!

Beans, spilling

Suddenly, secret sock swaps have been popping up in blogland! Have you seen them? There are some here, and here, and here, too. Oh, and here, too! I can't keep up. Anyway, I confess: I too am swapping socks. Secret's out. They are safely in the mail, en route to-- no way! I won't tell! But stay tuned...

It's a swap, of course, meaning that some lovely knitter made a pair of socks just for me, too. I wonder if they'll arrive before I leave for my Christmas holiday? I'm leaving soon, actually: December 21. In less than a week. I'm going to stay with my parents in the Okanagan for a whole eight days, and I'm totally excited about it. The last time I spent Xmas with my parents was in 2000. The downside is that Billy's not coming with me, and we've spent every Christmas together for the last ten years. I'll be back here for New Year's Eve, though.

I handed in my last paper last night, so my first grad-school term is officially over. I feel so relieved! It wasn't easy, and honestly, I didn't produce the best work that I could have. Next semester will be better. But I made it! Now I have loads of "real" work to catch up on -- you know, like, for money. Knitting beckons, too, of course. I'm nearly finished the violet Peace Fleece cabled pullover, a project that has been fun anyway but was pumped up to superfun levels with the addition of wee sushi stitchmarkers from amyville! (Oh, like you don't shop for yourself during the holiday season...) I've started a pair of socks for myself, too, with the purple Opal yarn that Mia sent (hi, Mia!). Plus, yarn for a scarf for Bill is on its way in the mail. He recently declared that he'd like a handknit scarf, you see. OK, no problem! What colour? Gold. Wha--? Yes, really: he wants a gold wool scarf. No, not sparkly gold lamé gold, but still. And gold wool is not that easy to find, let me tell you. But because I am a resourceful knitter and a rad girlfriend, I found some. Or at least, I think I found some; colours in eBay photos are pretty accurate, right? Hmm...

OK, enough rambling. I feel like I used up nearly every last brain cell to finish that paper last night, and I'm just running on... brain-cell fumes today. Bill's been working hard, too. We're off soon to treat ourselves to a night in a hotel -- a coping mechanism we picked up in Taipei. Sometimes (especially when you work at home, and when your apartment is... less than ideal) you just need to get away from it all for a night. Oh, I just realized that a hotel will have television! Yeehaw!

Oh, and can you believe my shameless cat (see last post)? She's such an exhibitionist! She says thanks to all the knitters' kitties who left messages and, uh, propositions for her. :) Don't forget, though: she's not always sweetness... ouch!

Oh, hello!



Alison's too busy to come to the blog right now -- heck, she hasn't even unpacked all her boxes, and when did she move here? September? Anyway, she's working on her last paper, so she'll be back soon. Till then, feast your eyes on my adorableness. And send tuna.

xo Bea

A few of my favourite things

I'm so impressed with the latest issue of Knitty! My favourite (i.e., most likely to be knit by me) patterns are the Mariah hoodie (cables + P Clizzy? definitely!), the Leftovers vest, the Wavy scarf, the Very Tall Socks, the Cathode sweater, and the MaryElla beaded cuff.

And you, stylish reader?

Lights out! Poke, poke, poke your eyes out!



This is my favourite thing in my university's library. It's the first time I've seen it -- does your library have this? There are overhead lights in the aisles, but the stacks are dark. On the end of every third set of shelves, there a "Light" button. When you're looking for a particular call number, you press the button to light up two particular rows of stacks for (I think) 30 minutes. The purpose, of course, is to conserve energy. Brilliant, isn't it?

Classes are finished now, and I just (ha!) have one more paper to write and then a stack of final exams to grade. I've booked my flight to B.C. for the holidays. I'm looking forward to the five-hour flight! That's more knitting time than I've had in months. Speaking of knitting, I have a box of yarn from our marathon-runner, Rachael, waiting to be knit into a sleeve and then sent on to the Divine Ms. Em. Seven different colours, and the striping of them is up to me -- wheee! I won't get to that for at least a week, though. Must think "cultural materialism," not "knitting materials"...

Added: So thanks a lot, Amy, for torturing me with a new Knitty. Yep, thanks a lot.

Dear Santa Claws,

Please do something to make Alison forget that I scratched her eyelid this morning, and also please bring her an early gift of motivation so she will finish writing the two papers she needs to do, so she will have time to knit me something wicked like THIS! Thank you and I will try to be good but sometimes she gets too close when I'm not ready and something comes over me and I want to scratch and bite.

With sniffs and meows,
Beatrix

Do not forget

It has been fifteen years since the Montreal massacre, and we have a duty to think about it and talk about it today. When our own lives are comfortable, we need to remember that women everywhere are being targeted as victims of violence. If we are being victimized, we need to have somewhere to turn for help. We need to not shy away from calling ourselves feminists, whatever reaction it may draw from others. We need to keep in mind that saying "I'm a feminist" is meaningless if we don't do anything about it.

Remember, but don't feel hopeless or powerless. By all means, do feel sad, bitter, and outraged.

Grey Saturday

I'm not quite ready to do any schoolwork yet today. I need a bit more coffee, but we're out of cream, so I'm working up the energy to go to the corner store. I'm sitting at my computer, Bill is sitting a few feet away at his computer, and Bea is curled up on her glamorous carpeted pedestal behind me. It's nice.

I'm actually writing my Xmas form letter. Do you write a holiday form letter? Does anyone send you holiday form letters? I've done it for a few years, partly because it's kind of a funny, grown-up thing to do, but also because my relatives and friends are far flung and it's the easiest way to keep everyone up to speed. For the last few years I've sent a photo with every letter, but I don't have time to deal with that this year. (Last year's photo was great: it was a self-portrait of Bill and I in a cable car in Singapore. A poster advertising Butterfly Park was behind us, but our heads were unintentionally blocking part of it, so it read Butt Park. Hee hee.) Anyway, it's good to force myself to sort out the year that is coming to an end. What did I do? It feels a bit like it's been two years in one. I'm so immersed right now in being a grad student here in Ontario, yet it was just four months ago that I was scuba diving in Malaysia, and a month before that that I was working in Taipei. Hey, by the way, I haven't forgotten that I promised to share Malaysia photos. Since I have a presentation to prepare for and a paper to write this weekend, I'll probably get those photos ready. :)

Look what I found yesterday, via a link from Susan and then some poking around: the Alison charm bracelet! Isn't it sweet? Dear Santa, I've been a very good girl this year...

Mariko shared some links this week to handmade goodies -- does she know about the Donut Hoes? Hey, Mariko, check out the yummy donut earmuffs!

Shere Hite writes on gender-specific toys in today's Independent: "Think about those toys you are buying."

Apparently the Miss World competition is taking place tonight in China, begging the question "Who cares?" Or, as this headline phrases it, "Have the days of beauty queens and world peace faded from their polished former glory forever?"

Here are a couple of language links:

A new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations has been published along with the results of a poll that shows the ten most popular quotes in Britain. I must confess, I'd never heard the number one quote, which is "It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph" ("Burke tops poll of favorite quotes"). Timely, though, isn't it?

"Blog" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year, as its definition was requested more than any other word's from M-W's online dictionary ("'Blog' tops words of the year").

It's been ages since I did a quiz:


Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray. You are a
horror novel from the world of dandies, rich
pretty boys, art and aesthetics, and
intellectual debates between ethical people and
decadent pleasure-seekers. You value beauty and
pleasure but realize their dangers, as well.

Which literature classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Have a great weekend! If you do nothing else, go to Cari's blog for her current post: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Clapotis. Go now. Thank me later.

A day off

I slept till noon today and then felt sooo tired when I got up. I felt the way I expect to feel at the very end of the term, once everything is done (that is, deeply exhausted and muddle-headed), but the problem was that I don't have time to feel that way yet! Because I still have a presentation, a project, and two papers to do between now and December 15. I felt like my head was full of rocks. I did some half-assed research on the Internet and then Bill rescued me and forced me to go for a walk with him. We went out (boy, it's cold today!) and ended up at the Tim Horton's at a nearby corner (or Horny Tim's, as he calls it), where we read the Globe and Mail and ate doughnuts and had hot chocolate. And here's what my horoscope read:

Give your brain a rest today because you have been working it hard lately and it is beginning to show signs of wear and tear. Your mind, like your body, needs to be treated with respect, so switch off from all the serious things you have been dealing with and focus on something that does not require you to think too deeply.

I read that, and the guilt lifted! I realized it's OK to write off one day. So then we went bowling. :)