Rusten

The delphiniums are just past their prime, but still a spectacular blast of color in the yard:

 

We've been trying to adjust to vacation mode, which in our family always seems to entail a few temper tantrums (from all) before we can settle down and relax. We have no plans to travel, and are just going to try to regroup and catch up on everything that needs doing around here. First on the list is staining the garage. We got started yesterday on the primer, but ran out of the stuff (we started with 10 liters!) before we could finish the upper part:

It looks kind of nice with just the primer on, actually. It looks a little like the whitewash on the interior walls of our house. Unfortunately we can't do any work outside today because it's raining on and off. I think we're all a little stir crazy, trying to fill the time.

The other day I bought a liter of kefir for no good reason, and as it had already expired, I decided I really needed to make something out of it before it's too late. After poking around a bit I came up on this recipe for "Fluffy Kefir Pancakes" on a blog. Boy were they yummy!

With vacation time, I'm finally getting back into knitting. I had been plugging away on a cabled pullover in a charcoal gray alpaca yarn, but the color was just too dark to do credit to the cables, and the hard work just didn't seem to be paying off. So in typical fashion, I decided to rip out the two almost finished sleeves...

... and start over with something new. What I decided upon is the very popular "Still Light Tunic" designed by Veera Välimäki. It has a lot of features I like, in particular the fact that it has a top down raglan construction. I must be incredibly rusty, though, because I have had the darndest time making it through the yoke. I have already started twice, and have had to count and count and count, and rip and rip and rip. Here's what the back of my pattern looks like:

 That's never a good sign. Here are the two attempts. It's painful to see how far I got on the first one (on the left) before I stopped to count stitches:

It really shouldn't be that hard! I did notice that for the numbers to add up, the back part has to have two stitches fewer than the front part. I think that may have been the source of my initial confusion, since it isn't mentioned in the pattern.

I never did seem to get around to posting a picture of my iPad and wireless keyboard set up. Here's what it looks like:

 

I'm really happy with it, especially the keyboard. It makes a huge difference in how useable the iPad is. I've already started trying to scroll with my finger on the screen of my laptop after just a few weeks of iPad use! Unfortunately, I found out that there was a big game sale online, and Sims 3, which I've been thinking I wanted to try for ages, was on sale for a buck. Needless to say, I've become totally addicted in only a few days. Here's hoping I get over it fairly quickly (the iPad version is a lot more limited than the full game, apparently). 

Trosbekjennelse

I took the belief-o-matic quiz and got the following results:
 

 

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.
Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1.	Secular Humanism (100%)
2.	Unitarian Universalism (96%)
3.	Theravada Buddhism (92%)
4.	Liberal Quakers (84%)
5.	Nontheist (79%)
6.	Taoism (72%)
7.	Neo-Pagan (60%)
8.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (59%)
9.	Mahayana Buddhism (57%)
10.	Orthodox Quaker (49%)
11.	Jainism (48%)
12.	New Age (43%)
13.	Sikhism (37%)
14.	Hinduism (36%)
15.	Reform Judaism (35%)
16.	Baha'i Faith (30%)
17.	Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
18.	Scientology (21%)
19.	New Thought (20%)
20.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (17%)
21.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (15%)
22.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (13%)
23.	Eastern Orthodox (10%)
24.	Islam (10%)
25.	Orthodox Judaism (10%)
26.	Roman Catholic (10%)
27.	Jehovah's Witness (7%)

As far as I'm concerned, every thing after number six is pure conincidence or a factor of living in the same general culture.

Småting

Just coming up for air after a major article revision that took me way too long to finish. Sometimes my work really flows, other times not at all. All my knitting has stalled, and I don't want to start yet another project for fear that will stall too. I did do a little easy knitting on the trip to New Mexico to use up my left over Noro Silk Garden, though:

I used up all the black that I cut out of the Noro raglan pullover that I made earlier this spring. There wasn't all that much, so the scarf is pretty short. And, as you can probably see, I have yet to darn in all the (many!) ends.
We've been having really muggy weather, alternating between sun and rain. The garden is blooming and cherries and berries are ripening. I love this time of the year. Unfortunately, E is still suffering from a lingering stomach virus, though today he seemed to perk up for the first time in over a week. I think he may be over the worst of it.

Otherwise, we're anxiously awaiting word on various job applications, and I'm engaging in big time escapist fantasy. Even though I love living here, I can't help but dream intensely of living some other life in some other place. Will that ever stop?

Oh, at work today I had an amusing little cultural exchange that reminded me that I'm an American in Norway. One of the administrators came to my office and said "Dette er ikke en purring men, jeg ville bare høre hvordan det går med den karakterbegrunnelsen..." (this is not a reminder, but I just wanted to hear how it's going with that grade report...). Hello, that totally IS a reminder! Norwegians are so indirect...

Fetisjobjekt

So the iPad I ordered back in May finally arrived yesterday, and I have been fussing around with it ever since. Yesterday evening I was a little frustrated and disappointed, mainly because of how difficult the on screen keyboard made the interface. But while we were in the US I purchased a Logitech Zaggmate wireless keyboard, which I decided to test out this morning. What a huge difference it makes! Suddenly using the iPad works like a dream. I'm a pretty writing-intensive user, and I really can't imagine using the iPad without it, after only a day.

So far I've purchased two apps: an enhanced ebook (Jack Kerouac's On the Road as it happens) and GoodReader, for PDF annotation. I have also downloaded a couple of free apps, like KindleReader, iBooks, the British Library Collection, StoryKit, and the demo version of a game called Drawn. Didn't find the game very engaging. The verdict is still out on the two ebook libraries. Not sure I'll do much with StoryKit either, but the British Library Collection is a fabulous resource for electronic versions of 19th century British books. For example, there are enough travelogues on Norway in it to make the start of a research project.

Lime

Just back from a short trip to the US to visit family. Very tired. But I did quite randomly just notice that my part of the hallway is shockingly color coordinated:

I know this looks staged, but it totally wasn't. When he was washing the floor KE hung up my fancy new Tom Bihn bag with the flap open for some reason.

USA

E and I are off to the US today for a quick trip to visit my dad, his wife, and to celebrate my Grannie's 95th birthday. I'm a little nervous, but excited for the trip.

I just got an email from my alma mater explaining that my favorite professor is retiring after having taught for 49 years. I think he almost single-handedly saved me from dropping out of college. He's such a great teacher...

Heklekant

Crochet sure is weirdly impressive. It really has the capacity to go just about any where, whereas knitting is much more controlled. I'm thinking about these differences because today is a holiday and so I took the opportunity to dig out one of my languishing projects and work on it a little on the patio in the sun this afternoon. It's the short jacket made out of the crazy variegated mohair yarn that a friend of mine in Eugene gave me last year. All the pieces were finished, so I sewed it together and started working on the crocheted ruffle edging:

Anyone who knows my tastes will know that I find this astoundingly ugly, but it's in fact so ugly that I might actually wear it (if I ever find the right thing to go with it, that is). I think the contrasting ruffle edging is either going to make or break it, but either way, it's amazing how much putting on even a little of the edging changes the look of the garment. Here's a close up:

This is crocheting three "dobbeltstaver" into each stitch of the first row of single crochet. The pattern calls for one more row (this time crocheting two into each stitch) to create the full ruffle. It's very easy and fun, really. I'm hooked (har har).