Happy Hanukkah!

:)  I hope it’s been nice!

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ketchup time

So it’s been a month.  Finals got the better of me, sucking up loads of time, stressing me out, and driving me insane.  I can now officially say that my first semester of grad school is over and done with!  I’m ready to work my ass off and be a real grad student now.  I’m excited to get some stuff done and learn a lot.  Whoo!

After finals, the rest of December whizzed by.  I flew out to Tucson for Dave’s graduation (we made a glorious, impromptu, blasphemous [maybe?] beer bottle menorah), we drove up to Phoenix for Christmas, and then we packed up Dave’s car and moved him out here, stopping for a few days to visit my family in Albuquerque.  So not only have I survived my first semester of graduate school, but I’ve also survived the long six months alone up here!

I made some Christmas presents.  Dave got socks, Mom got a scarf, and Brian got a hacky sack.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the hacky sack, but the socks and scarf turned out beautifully!  (Links are to patterns!)

Since we’ve gotten back, I’ve done a little bit of work and a little bit of knitting.  We’re getting this ridiculous snowstorm that’s all over the Midwest right now, so that’s been exciting.  Fortunately, I also finished my thrummed mittens a few days ago!  They’ve come in handy.  (No pun intended.)

I hope the rest of the world has been doing well!  Apparently, going out of town means completely neglecting the computer for me.

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night 8

Hanukkah was fun, but now it is over. At least I only have my statistics final to worry about, and then I’m free! :o) Speaking of which, I should really get to bed.

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night 7

So, having had two difficult (well, at least one of them was) finals today, I felt the need to relax a lot this evening. Mia baked some yummy peanut butter cookies, and I sat around making things. I finally got the chance to start on my second sock!

I have finished the toe, and I really can’t wait until I have a finished pair. The only thing is that the two skeins I have are the same dye lot, but I think the pattern starts in different places for each, so they’re not going to match very well. But, honestly, when was the last time I cared about my socks matching?

I have a huge number of things I want to make, and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. Through my adventures on Ebay, I have acquired 3 new pairs of socks to be (read: sock yarn). I still really want to make myself a sweater vest, and recently, I’ve felt the urge to make an afghan. Of course, this doesn’t even take into account the 2-3 (at least) Christmas gifts that I need to work on hardcore. However, I’m hoping that my first week at home and a few long flights will give me ample time for this.

I’m really relieved that finals are almost over. Studying is certainly not my best talent. In fact, this week has just felt like an overly-long apathyfest. At least it’s fairly stress-free! :o)

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night 6

I can’t believe that it’s the 6th night of Hanukkah already! This weekend has been a lot of not studying, though it should have been a lot of intense studying. I guess we’ll see how prepared I am tomorrow, and then with only one more final on Wednesday, I should have a lot more free time! ..or at least a lot more free time not tainted by guilt about being unproductive.

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night 5

Somehow, for now, this is becoming more about my life than my craftiness, but that should hopefully end when finals are over!

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night 4

Tonight was the fourth night of Hanukkah, but it was also the night of our Sinterklaas gift exchange! So everyone came over and we had a lot of fun. [Sinterklaas is a Dutch holiday that falls on the 5th of December. Roughly translated, it’s St. Nicholas Day, and it’s kind of similar to American Christmas in some ways. When you do your gift exchange, though, it’s more of a Secret Santa type thing (I don’t know if it necessarily has to be), and everyone is supposed to write a little rhyming poem about what the gift is and who it’s for, so everyone can guess and pull them out of the pile for the right person. Wikipedia’s entry isn’t entirely helpful, but I don’t know how to explain it without rambling on and on.] It was a lot of fun! ..even though I had figured out who was exchanging with whom last weekend. :o) Lindsay was buying for me (a great cup for loose tea and some tea, yum!), and she wrote me basically the best poem ever..so, obviously, I must share:

There once was a girl
Who thought she was real cool
She liked to knit and crochet
And studied plants in school

We met in the dorm bathroom
Our freshman year
And is basically the reason why
I know almost everyone here

Sometimes we can sit
In the tea house for hours
Just studying and talking
About Ron Paul’s OB powers

So here is a gift
From the girl they call “Teet”
For when you’re knitting or studying
Or making suama to eat

I think you’ll enjoy it
I know that I would
And I hope you have a good Christmas
Just as a Jew like you should

So Bianca made this amazing dinner (essentially kale + potatoes + cheese + sausage..add your own mustard). I don’t remember what it’s called, but it was delicious. She also made Taai Taai, a chewy cookie/bread thing flavored with anise, and Lindsay brought this awesome soup and cookies! Good times. I must become Dutch.

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night 3

I have spent an inordinate amount of time working on this tonight, so all I will say is that the third night of Hanukkah has been good. :o)

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night 2

Yesterday was the last day of classes, and last night was the second night of Hanukkah! Delicious. Literally. Dave’s sister came over for dinner, and I made latkes and chicken.

Don’t they look great? I had some really great fresh grape and mini plum tomatoes from the greenhouse to accompany the meal, too. :o)

Though our house (still) smells like oil, I didn’t burn it down, which is a plus. The chicken was really simple, and I found the recipe for the latkes here. I hope this picture shows up vertically like it’s supposed to, because if it doesn’t, I’m not changing it. That stupid picture was my inspiration for getting on Flickr, moving from Blogger to (beloved) LJ, and in the process, downloading a new browser because Safari doesn’t support LJ’s RTF. I have no idea why I decided to go with Blogger in the first place, but it’s taken me 3+ hours to move everything. It’s been..painstaking. However, I can’t say I’m unsatisfied! ..although I really should be studying or working or something.

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happy hanukkah!

Not only did I have essentially the best day ever, but tonight was the first night of Hanukkah! I probably wouldn’t be lighting up and everything, but yesterday, I managed to obtain a free menorah and candles from the people at Hillel (it’s the Jewish center on campus), so we celebrated! Tomorrow night, I think I’ll make some homemade latkes, mmm. I’m also thoroughly convinced that this is the best picture I’ve taken yet. I guess I could be improving, but I also took about ten to get this one, so judge as you will.

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