Friday, February 01, 2008

The Maroon Scarf of Fuzzy DOOM!

As many of you are doubtless aware, I must either do something with my hands or fall asleep. I do not handle sitting still and doing nothing very well.* The end result is that I usually have multiple knit/crochet/embroidery/quilt/doodle/novel projects going at once.

One such project, pictured here, is the Maroon Scarf of Fuzzy DOOM! It started with the discovery of not one, not two, but three skeins of maroon chenille yarn in the stash of truly random yarn which appeared, seemingly by spontaneous generation, in one corner of the office closet, right in front of the fusebox. Eager for a fast and simple project, I cast on and declared it my Sitting-in-front-of-the- computer-reading-the-10-page-pdfs-that-my-professors-are-so-fond-of project. The picture shows the scarf after one skein was used, but before I added the second. As you can see, when I cast on I dramatically underestimated just how big 31 stitches with a thick yarn and size 13 needles really are. For those of you playing at home, the answer is as wide as a large pizza box, and a bit longer. As I type this, I am half-way through the second skein, and the Maroon Scarf of Fuzzy DOOM reaches from the floor to mid-thigh. If this thing does not eat me when I finish it, it will at least be warm, which is good, as all the schools which have caught my eye seem to be in the Frozen North.

This morning I got an uncomfortable brush with the Uncomfortably Chilly South, as I emerged from my den woke up early so I could participate in one of the more beloved Groundhog's Day** Traditions: Mimosas on the Mall. Estimates on the actual temperature outside vary according to who's computer you want to listen to, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 Degrees when I joined Nick and Treco for the drive across the street to campus.***

I should include a bit of information about Nick's car at this point. It is a little Toyota, which is amusing because both of the guys are over 6 feet tall. Needless to say, there is no leg room in the back seat, on account of both the driver and passenger side chairs being pushed all the way back. So anyone in the back seat (i.e. me) must sort of stretch their legs over all three seats in the back to be kind of comfortable, in much the same way that I must shoehorn potential passengers into the back of my Civic. We drive to the parking lot closest to the science building only to discover that all the parking places are, alas, all taken, except for one guy who was parked in two spaces.

Against both Treco's protestations and mine, that he will probably loose one or both wing mirrors if he tries it, Nick was able to squeeze his narrow little car between the offending van and the SUV to its left, blocking the offender's driver side door almost completely. The three of us however, still had enough space to get out**** of our vehicle, and Nick was actually entirely within the lines of his newly claimed space. Satisfied that a suitably obnoxious counter-maneuver had been executed, we continued to the Mall, where the traditional Groundhog Day Mimosas were waiting for us.

Now we did not spend a lot of time waiting for the Groundhog***** to emerge from the tower and tell us if we will have another 6 weeks of psudo-winter, because soon after we satisfied the CSO guy at the drinks table that we were over 21, and therefore allowed champaign in our orange juice, it was announced that the breakfast buffet was open.+ No alcohol being allowed inside, the mimosas were consumed rather quickly before heading in to the nice warm building to get food that I was only eating because it was free, and beggars can't be choosers.

If I don't kill my loud, party going neighbors*, I'll post again soon.

-Yami




*Because I tend to zone out, and fifteen minutes later I have no idea what line of the poem the rest of the class is examining, or even if I'm looking at the right poem.

**The most beloved holiday in UD's calender, for reasons that are not entirely clear to anyone, but we have been celebrating for several decades, so it's a tradition and we can't change it now, now can we?

***Of course we drove. It was cold out and, as seniors, we are nothing if not lazy.

****Although the door I used was actually the hatchback: it was just easier that way.

*****Dr. O in a Groundhog Suit.

+I do not like ending a sentence with a preposition like that, but it has already gone on long enough, and I do not feel like reformulating the whole sentence just to avoid that construction, especially since I think that 'open' is being used as an adjective, not a preposition, in this sentence. Debate?

*I.e. Everyone in the apartment complex except for me, or at least that's what it seems like some days.

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