Another couple of years, another blog, this time, over at Wordpress. It's time I graduated anyways, now that I'm done with my Ph.D. Specifically, I want to blog more about science, so that's the main focus over at http://wedgewonderswhy.wordpress.com/ ... enjoy!

things

Things I am rocking on.
- science! I have craptons of data. I am slowly sifting through it all. I have been accepted for a poster presentation for the conference my lab always attends in June.
- ceramics! I am almost done with my second ceramics class, and have thus far created:
- set of small bowls (8) with pretty brown/white glaze
- set of serving bowl and platter with pretty brown/white glaze that I gave as a wedding gift
- set of white serving bowl and platter with light pink flowers
- 3 pairs of bowls with various colorings of the blue varieties
- set of medium bowls (8) with dark blue and brown coloring
- garlic jar with a yellow smiley face and black hat (lid)
- 2 double handled mugs for J
- large soup bowl with drippy green and brown coloring
- a set of 4 bowls with 'Mommy' 'Daddy' 'Brother' and 'Sister' on them for my college friends and their kids
- currently, I have an adorable teapot (my first) in the works, as well as a set of mugs for my labmates/friends who just moved to boston
- last but not least, Julian! My lord, he is a happy, affectionate, wonderful child. His latest feat of wonder is that he knows all the capital letters and numbers 1-10 already, and he's not even 21 months. I won't claim he is a genius, as he clearly doesn't know what they signify. But he shouts out letters and numbers when he sees them in his surroundings now.

Things I am working on
- car. Next month, we'll be entering a nannyshare arrangement with a family we met through daycare (J's bestest friend, actually... and we happen to get along well with the parents which is AWESOME). We'll be saving a bunch, so we can afford a 2nd car (which we'll need with this new arrangement). So we are on the hunt.
- friendships. I have gotten woefully out of touch with some of my friends. Facebook is helping a lot with getting back in touch with some of my high school friends. I need to start talking to my college friends more.

Things I am slacking on
- photography... I am only occasionally busting out the SLR.
- Julian's photos and website are months months months behind.

Committee meeting? Check. Whew. Lots of activity following it, on several fronts, so it's all encouraging.

Ceramics? SO MUCH FUN. It's humbling to be in the studio and see people throw huge pots that could encase an entire infant in it. It'll be a long time before I can do that, but one has to start somewhere. I've made:
- 2 mugs with double handles, specially for J.
- 2 pairs of small rice bowls, one set with ridges
- 1 larger bowl, maybe useful for cereal?
- 1 small plate with a spiral in the inside, green slip used.
- 1 LARGE serving bowl with flowers (a wedding gift)
- 2 LARGE square serving platters (both to be gifted)

I would like to make more small bowls and small dishes for my brother in law and his girlfriend, and more small bowls for us to use as well.

Sewing? slowly getting back into it. Made the base for 2 more hats, one will be a dino hat to put up on etsy, the other will be a croc head.

I've been getting a lot of spam on some of my old old posts about why one should go to Caltech, and how to get in. Which reminded me that a few random people have also commented on those posts, asking for advice. In case those people are still poking around, and for future potential commenters, if the answer to your question is contained in the post, I probably won't reply. And if you're asking if I think you can get in, I also probably won't reply... after all, I am not on the admissions committee, and I can't give you a good answer.

accomplished

I've had two practice committee meeting talks, thought a LOT about my projects, and have been neck deep in my powerpoint slides all weekend. I'm feeling pretty confident about this coming up Wednesday.

But the best thing of the weekend? Julian turned to me and said 'Mama' today. Unprompted. For the first time.

/pumps fist

derailed!

Amazing how getting the (possibly H1N1) flu can throw plans and good intentions up in the air and scatter them to the wind.

/cough hack cough

nothing to do but plow on through to my committee meeting. That's in a week and a half. We've got all kinds of plans for afterwards, including:

- Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with my brother, his girlfriend, and J's friend from school (and his parents)
- Robin's week off (scheduled work shut down)
- long weekend in Tahoe

and, of course, catching up on my sewing, and J pictures.

All after my meeting. Starting to get nervous now.

mental prep for the week

Today, Robin ran some errands while I stayed home with the napping baby. And, bless his heart, not only was he willing to go into Joanne's to look through the scrap bin for me, but he even argued with the cashier because she was an idiot and ringing it up wrong. That is even more heroic than pawing through Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale underwear bins.

Dressmaking got stalled a bit, but I do finally have more thread of the right color. By the end of the week, I hope to have finished the blue pinafore, altered the pattern, and at least cut out the pieces for Rae's dress. I also plan to cut out the pieces for another dino hat, that perhaps I shall list on my new etsy page. (Link coming up when it's actually got stuff there.)

Turns out throwing pots IS a bit like riding a bike; a certain amount does come back to you. I managed to throw two cups on my first time back at the wheel last week. I'll probably cut one in half to look at the profile, and then add 2 handles to the other to make J his first hand made mug. I'll start in on bowl making this week.

J's page continues to be woefully neglected. I uploaded new videos tonight, and will have to link them over the next few days to the blog.

My initial pilot experiments at work have done well, so the goal for this week is to shift gears a bit, do some reading on B cell subsets, and hoe in on a separate line of experiments.

various items

Over lunch, I attended a seminar on love and logic parenting. It was not an unfamiliar concept; I'd read some very similar strategies in the happiest toddler on the block. The basic concept is to get on the kid's side by immediately empathizing with him when he makes a mistake or misbehaves, and helping him to own his choices and mistakes without any anger on the parent's part. What really strikes me is how applicable the strategy is in dealing with anyone, really, no matter the age, no matter the context.

After lunch, I attended a safety training so that I could become a member of the Stanford Ceramics Studio. I now have a key to the studio, a designated shelf space, and will be taking evening class there twice a week. I am SO SO SO excited about this. I learned how to throw pots in college, and did 2 semesters worth of ceramics at MIT as well. My goals for the quarter are:

- remember how to throw a pot. I imagine I'll end up with lots of funny looking mugs that I'll give away as gifts.
- make a set of rice bowls for home
- make a set of bowls and maybe plates for my brother in law and his girlfriend
- make a teapot and teacups
- make something for a wedding present (another teapot? sushi plates? vase? a pretty serving bowl? a pitcher? I dunno. Maybe I'll ask the couple what they would like most.)

progress

School:
- a major chunk of my data from the past 2 years is now in presentable form.
- need to incorporate the fall's ICC data into my summary as well, but that's less formidable of a task.
- there will likely be movement on three different interesting fronts, so it's looking good for having preliminary data for new projects for my February committee meeting.

so school = good.

hobbies:
- First attempt at pinafore is almost complete: I ran out of one color thread, went to the store and procured it, then promptly ran out of the other color thread and stuff got busy with lab data crunch... so there are 5 more inches of hemming to do and it's done.
- to keep myself from sinking tons of money into this sewing thing, I am only getting fabric scraps (which are a small fraction of the original cost). So most of my projects are pending until I get the requisite colors.
- got into the ceramics class with one of my friends, and that starts Monday. So. Excited.
- updated J's photos up to November. God I am so behind on that.

so hobbies = potentially good, but stalled. Gee, sleep and school are taking priority? I would never have guessed.