Familiar Faces on the Web

We found out that you can buy dissertations on Amazon! It was so neat to search for David's name and see his title and abstract. Check it out here.

Some day mine will be there too, but in the meantime, take a look at the treasury list I created on Etsy. It's a selection of my favorite picks from the website, and it will be up on Etsy for two days. All the lists have themes, and mine is the Roman god Janus.

Back to Work

Today marks the end of my last work week in 2006! And the beginning of a few days in which I will not have to wear these rubber fingers. (While I'm at work, I wear one on each hand all day long, every day!)

Scenes from Christmas, part two

If I had any stress in the weeks before Christmas, I forgot about it on Christmas morning. My Christmas this year was wonderful! I got to be together with almost my entire extended family (with more visits to come next month!). We breakfasted on Nola's tiny frittatas, Mimi's champagne, Mom's French toast, and a batch of potatoes that were something of a group effort. Then we all sat around the Christmas tree, where many presents and much hilarity ensued.

My favorite part was watching everyone open their gifts.

There were frog gifts ...

... cephalapodan gifts ...

... feline gifts ...

... vulpine and lupine gifts ...

... piratical gifts ...

... and so many perfect gifts!

One gift drew everyone's attention.

It was a tiny, palm-sized, bug-like, remote-controlled flying thing that Will and Amanda gave to Granddad!

I think everyone had a good Christmas, even Socks and Millie.

Scenes from Christmas, part one

At my parents' Christmas Eve party, the table is ready for the arrival of the famous hot artichoke dip.

We were lucky to have my friend Matt here for Christmas.

And it was very nice of him to take so many Christmas pictures, including these shots of the jam cookies, napoleons, fruit jellies, and candied starfruit.

Here are Nola, Mickey, and Mom, a little surprised to be on film, but having a good time.

The Arrival of Santa

Sonnet on Christmas

With footstep slow, in furry pall clad,
His brows enwreath'd with holly never-sear,
Old Christmas comes, to close the waned year;
And ay the Shepherd's heart to make right glad;
Who, when his teeming flocks are homeward had,
To blazing hearth repairs, and nut-brown beer,
And views, well-pleas'd, the ruddy prattlers dear
Hug the grey mongrel; meanwhile maid and lad
Squabble for roasted crabs.--Thee, Sire, we hail,
Whether thine aged limbs thou dost enshroud,
In vest of snowy white, and hoary veil,
Or wrap'st thy visage in a sable cloud;
Thee we proclaim with mirth and cheer, nor fail
To greet thee well with many a carol loud.

-- John Codrington Bampfylde

Welcome, Christmas!

It's time to welcome in Christmas, and I have been getting my apartment ready. The packages are wrapped ...

...and the bookcases are decked with boxwood and ivy.

Familiar characters make their annual appearance ...

... and my collection of little vases has a moment in the spotlight.

I haven't managed to decorate my tree yet, but, like Emmet Otter, I did put up a Christmas branch. It includes one ornament made by David and one made by me.

Welcome, Christmas! Bring your cheer!

Happy Solstice

It was a dark, damp, dreary day -- the perfect weather for the year's shortest day and longest night. I celebrated the winter solstice by having lunch with my friend Mimi, and by making this little button wreath, which I think looks vaguely celestial. Happy Solstice, everyone!

Christmas at the Dunns'

Monday night was Mike and Sally Dunn's annual Christmas party. It's always a particularly beautiful event: you walk down a long garden path lit with twinkly lights, and you enter a lovely house full of people enjoying themselves. Also, there is always a table of delicious cakes.

We used the nighttime setting on our camera, though, and all our pictures turned out sort of strange. Here are David and John re-staging their conversation so I can get a picture.
The nighttime setting made the light of the lamp and the Christmas tree blaze behind John, Jennifer, Jon, and Erin.

Bacterial Beauty

Today it was back to work, where everyone seems to be fighting off some kind of minor illness. It's possible that, as all my co-workers down their antibiotic pills, something that looks like this is taking place:








These fantastic images are bacteria in petri dishes! The color is added, but the snowflake-like patterns are actual pictures of the colonies as they struggle against antibiotics and other harsh conditions.














I found these at this website, where you can see many more beautiful images. They come from a collaboration between UCSD's National Science Foundation Frontier Center for Theoretical Biological Physics and Tel-Aviv University: two scientists (one from each institution) are studying adaptation strategies in bacteria. According to the website, each image shows tens of billions of bacteria!

I have been washing my hands today at work. A lot.

A Shopping Trip

Yesterday Mom, Amanda, and I went on a very thorough and comprehensive shopping expedition in Indianapolis. We got so much Christmas shopping done! In fact, I had to crop most of this picture out, because both Amanda and Mom have their arms full of things that some of you might be getting for Christmas.

Afterward, my brother Will joined us for a hilarious dinner. We had an eccentric waiter who wouldn't let Amanda order the dish she wanted, because it was too simple. In the end we all had an elaborate and delicious meal, and as a crowning Christmasy touch our waiter brought us a snowman made of rice with a vegetable face.

So Many Cookies ...

Saturday was my day of party-hopping, as I went to not one, but two cookie parties. First David and I got to spend some time with (from left to right) Fox, Tammy Jo, Emilie, and Derek (not pictured, because he was busy hosting) at Derek and Emilie's cookie party. It was a party with great conversation and a wonderful array of cookies.

And then I continued my cookie experience at Erin's cookie party, where we all decorated cookies with lots of different icings and sprinkles. Can you have a day with too many cookies? I don't think it is possible.

The Storytellers' Guild Christmas Party

Last night David and I crashed the Bloomington Storytellers' Guild party hosted by Temporary Librarian. The storytellers were so friendly and fun, and the house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The tree this year is spectacular!

My contribution to the party was a clementine-almond cake. I tried out this recipe, and I loved it. It includes whole boiled clementines, skin and all, and no flour. It's also the perfect cake for multi-tasking, because it takes three hours of cooking time, but only about fifteen minutes of actual work.

Sparkly!

Check out some of the new things I have been working on over at Beading and Time! And I have more sparkly things that I'm going to list tomorrow.

Shopping for a Tree

We finally got a Christmas tree!
This is me (or at least my head) picking out a tree at Bloomingfoods. We always get our tree there, because they have so many great locally-grown pines. Also, I picked up some tofu and yogurt, so it was very efficient.



If you look closely at this picture, you can see David (or at least his head). He has just tied the tree onto the top of the car.

Under the Weather

XXXV.

All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going
Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water's
Monotone.
The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.

-- James Joyce, from Chamber Music

Reindeer Games

On Sunday we went to the annual Christmas party at the home of our friends (from right to left) Tom, TammyJo, and Fox. Every year I look forward to seeing everyone at their warm and welcoming house, and playing all of the fun Christmas games that they have devised.

This is David's winning Bingo card! We also hunted for the Christmas pickle ornament, competed in a magnetic poetry contest, and played many rounds of grueling (but fascinating) Christmas trivia.

One Potato

I've been experimenting with potato stamps for our wrapping paper this year. I thought the little round shapes would look sort of like Greek or Roman coins. Sadly, all of the portrait heads I tried to carve looked really scary, but animals seemed to work well. I made this octopus stamp ...

... which made this paper ...

... and here is a snake ...


... and I'm not sure you can tell, but this is supposed to look like an Athenian coin with an owl and a little olive branch. I can't believe I have a present wrapped already!