A near fight over fiber choice on the red line

Characters:
YS=yarn snob, woman next to me on train
Me=me

Scene: Mid-morning train.

Enter Me (wearing a lovely spring dress) sit down next to YS, pull out knitting.



YS: What kind of yarn is that?
Me: (Thinking she is not a knitter, like 99% of the people who ask me knitting questions on the train) It's wool
YS: Oh, like just merino? Is it Koigu?
Me: (Oh, she is a knitter. whoops) No, it's Knit Picks
YS: (Appears ill, recoils) ohhhhh.
Awkward pause
YS: You know, if you like lace knitting, you should try my favorite yarn (insert favorite yarn, it's cashmere). It's $45 for a skein but you get 400 yards! So really it's a bargain.
Me: (Hm. This Knit Picks has 440 yards and it cost $2.50. (Ok it's not cashmere, but it's merino and it's $2.50!!!) Don't mention this, might start a fight) Yes, that's one great thing I've noticed about lace knitting, you get a lot of yardage for your money.
YS: [Lists things you can make with 400 yards of cashmere laceweight, mainly hat, baby sweater]
Me: (Why does a baby need a cashmere laceweight sweater?? Aren't they just going to spit up on it? I have no babies, what do I know, hold tongue) Usually I like to buy nicer yarn, but I thought I would try this one because I'm going to make a whole lace shawl for less than $10!
YS: (Does not appear swayed by this argument. Recoils further) Well if I'm going to spend so much time with lace yarn on small needles, I just like to be good to myself, because my hands cramp up.
Me: what?
YS: yeah, I get cramps because the needles are so small
Me: (WTF do hand cramps have to do with fiber choice? smile, nod, ignore)

Implanon removal

I had the implanon removed this morning, they actually let me take pictures (one of the doctors/nurses even did it for me!), and it was no big thing. Nothing at all like this. Without further ado...


So that's my arm, surrounded by a white towel thing, and two pairs of doctor hands, and some scarry looking pliers. Guess how many doctors/nurses it takes to remove an implanon? 4. Well, some of them were just watching. It was cool though, because I got to ask them lots of hard questions about birth control.


And there's the little bugger coming out. Doesn't it look like the pliers are grabbing onto a nipple? Fortunately for me, that was not the case.


And the aftermath. The whole thing, including cleaning and numbing, probably took 10 minutes, and I hardly felt a thing.

Pics at the doc?

I'm about to go to PP on Monday to get an implanon removed. Do you think they'll let me take pics to put on the blog? I don't think so, but I'll ask. That would be a sweet post.

(Before anyone gets too excited there, the implanon goes in your arm. woo-woo)

A month of science, the Southwest, and stitches

Hi there. It's been a month. Well I've been busy. I was working like mad to get ready for a meeting. Exciting times at our apartment.


But then I got to go to Santa Fe.

Isn't it cute? That above is the plaza. In the plaza we saw a medicine man.


Ok so it's not the best picture. But there was a guy in the plaza dressed head to toe in fur, and people kept calling him "doc". I was taking a covert camera phone shot, so this is the best I could do. Also it snowed.


And my hotel had really good rocks in the shower.


And I got to eat some migas.


Also I've been knitting after a brief hiatus.
I finished Bartholomew's socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. You all need this book, by the way.


Then I started Veli of Leaves, from the same book.

And I even made 1.5 Noro scarves!













Also I decided that my position on Iraq is that we should leave ASAP. So ignore that previous post.

Whew!

GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

I scored a goal in soccer today!!!! It was my first goal ever in an organized game. I am so pumped. We lost 2-14 or so, but who cares. I scored half of our team's points. And it was a really good goal too; it wasn't even sloppy or an accident or anything. And their keeper was really good. I'm so pumped. If you recall, this was my New Year's resolution. Funny, I really thought I was going to solve the ladder problem first. The ladders are improving, but not totally fixed. Goal scoring, however, is definitively achieved.

(In case you don't know, I play soccer but I am no good. I'm convinced the team lets me play because I am part of a 2 person set, and the other person is a superstar who more than makes up for my complete lack of skill. But today I feel legitimate.)

Red Line Graffiti

Here are some interesting things I've found on the Red Line. First, the train interior, for reference.


Because I know some of you have never seen a train before. Yeah well I'm short on content, ok? Here's the graffiti that inspired me to start taking pictures of this stuff.


Looks like someone is against the T's plans to put cell phone reception throughout the tunnels. And, on that topic, the T is broker than broke, how are they going to pay for that? Anyway. Moving on.


The first graffiti was in a nice bold sharpie, but this one is harder to see in regular ballpoint pen. Let's try to gimp it. (Gimp = free photoshop-like program, if you are interested. Yay linux.)


This one is a little bit fascinating. The numbers are Texas area codes. 210=San Antonio, 409=Galveston, 713=Houston, 281=Houston suburbs. So why write down four Texas area codes on the T? I should have added some. Dang hindsight. And Lone Starter state? Starter? What is that? Only Mr. Cholo knows. What is that thing at the bottom? SA, TX for San Antonio? SAM TX? Who is Sam? Sam Houston? Sam Cholo? Or is it SA TX with a treasure map in the middle? Fascinating, I tell you. The texans are everywhere. They're drawing treasure maps and noting area codes on the Boston T. Maybe in case they lose there way on the treasure hunt, they can call home. Or at least they can call an unknown person from their town of 2.5 million+ people.

(I have had phone numbers that began with 3 of the 4 graffitied area codes, in case some random internet people are reading this. I began life with a 713 and when I was a kid they switched us to a 281. I went to college in a 210. I spent a lot of time sunning myself in the 409. Explains my fascination.)

I'll be on the lookout for any more interesting T graffiti. Any good installments from other public transit systems?

Thoughts on Iraq

I'm becoming a republican apparently. For anyone that doesn't personally know me, I'm a young white well-educated professional (scientist, no less) female living in Massachusetts. Not only that, but I left Texas because I wanted to live somewhere like Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal. I'm not gay, I just like being part of a community that is capable of rational thought. When it's time for my yearly female appointment with the doc, I go to Planned Parenthood and wade through the protesters and wait in the waiting room for 2 hours because I think they are an invaluable institution for women's health and rights, and I want to support them with my fully-paying good health insurance. My point is that I should be a die-hard democrat. My Texan roots must be showing, because lately, I am trending towards fiscal conservatism and maybe not leaving Iraq right this very minute. (My social views are still firmly liberal, in case you were wondering.)

So the Iraq war. I am very confused about it. I'm reverting to the bulleted list system. My inner scientist demands it.

- It's obvious we shouldn't have started the whole thing. Remember, back in 2003 was it?, remember how the ENTIRE WORLD said, "It's easy to topple the Iraq government, but rebuilding the country is going to be really really hard and it's going to take forever. Bad idea, don't go there." That should have been our first clue. The whole entire world, as I rememeber.
- But we did. And we bombed their whole country and toppled their government and with it their way of life. Maybe they hated their way of life and they're glad this happened. That is something I don't know about.
- So it was probably a bad idea. But it happened and the United States is responsible. Next step: rebuild.
- We try to rebuild and just as the entire world said, it is really hard and taking forever. And now we say, that was a bad idea, we shouldn't have gone there.
- So now we're talking about leaving Iraq. This is good for our troops (Number of US deaths in Iraq: 3,974. US wounded: 29,320)
- But is it good for Iraq? (estimated Number of Iraqi deaths due to US invasion: 655,000) I do not know the answer to this question. Is our leaving good or bad for them? If you know the answer to this, leave a comment. Please.

We bombed their whole country. Do we owe it to them to stick it out for a really long time and help them rebuild? What do you owe a people in a situation like this, vs what you owe your own soldiers? I don't know. But imagine, if someone successfully invaded the United States, overthrew the government, and bombed everything. They did this in the name of liberating you from the oppressive evil regime of George W. Bush, and now they're going to help you rebuild with this new kind of government that is better. Well ok. But it's rough going because all the roads and buildings and the place you used to work are bombed and there are outlaws running around all over the place killing people. So then, after a few years, the invading government has a scheduled regime change, and the new regime says, that was a bad idea, we shouldn't have gone there, sorry but we're leaving your country in ruin. Have fun rebuilding yourself with no funds and no idea what you're doing.

Can you imagine how pissed you would be? I might be pissed enough to become a suicide bomber.

I don't know the answer. I don't even know if our presence in Iraq is helping or hurting. What do you think?