scifiknitter

What is the best thing to do on a rainy Saturday? Go to Montreal and walk in the rain. It's even better when you are visiting your daughter, and she has lined up a day's worth of stimulating experiences. We got to Montreal smoothly, although a little later than planned due to a series of shopping stops made along the way. Once there, we found that rare gift, free legal on-street parking. Almost all parking spots in Montreal are restricted to cars that have purchased parking permits, but we have found a cul-de-sac just behind Ana's apartment building that has about six unrestricted parking spots. One of them was open and waiting for us. We delivered an early Christmas gift, a rug for her bedroom, that was received with great joy. In return, Ana fed us. Also visiting was Michael, her boyfriend, who helped her install the rug. We then took off on foot, with umbrellas at the ready, and headed towards McGill University. McGill the place and McGill the man. Ana told us not to go ...

This summer, my daughter was part of a undergraduate research program in mathematics. It was a dream job - she made darn good money and got to do advanced work in applied graph theory. Now, word has come that the paper that she co-wrote with her group and the professor who headed the team has been accepted for publication! Title: "Mixing of Quantum Walks on Generalized Hypercubes," quant-ph/0808238 . Accepted to appear in International Journal of Quantum Information. Of everyone who checks into this blog, there may be one or two people who have a clue as to what this paper is about. I cheerfully confess that I don't. If you had asked me many years ago what I dreamed of for my daughter, I would have told you that I hoped she would drink deeply from a well of knowledge. It is a thrill to watch her do just that. I'm not surprised that she has taken off in a direction different from mine. And I'm happy that she respects my particular pool of knowledge. While I don...

We got home tonight after four days on Cape Cod visiting my dad and stepmother. A lovely visit, and all too short. We came home to find one of our four cats was missing. The most important cat - our daughter's cat Q, the sailing cat. Who was supposed to go to Montreal with Ana tomorrow. We searched every corner of the house. No Q. We went outside, and called and called. No Q. By this time, I was crying. I've lost enough cats in my life, and I know that to love a pet means that someday your heart will break. I also realized that I was feeling sad about the trip tomorrow. Ana is going back to school. She will stay in touch daily via chat, and come home over Canadian Thanksgiving, but she won't be home. It's been a great summer, and it's over. Then, suddenly a small noise outside. Ana was up in a flash, and out the door. It was Q, distinctly thinner. We think she snuck outside on Wednesday when we were packing up the car, and was outside the entire time we were gone. T...

It started with an idea: Ana wanted a felted hat with cat ears to wear on the bitter cold days in Montreal. She made this sketch of what she wanted: It was my job to figure out how to make this idea into something real. The first thing needed was a basic pattern for the shape. A search of different hats on Ravelry yielded Sarah Bradberry's book The Any Yarn, Any Size Hat Book . What a find! It's not a book of patterns as much as a book of formulas. You knit a gauge swatch in the yarn you have on hand to determine what size needles yield the nicest fabric, and measure how many stitches make up an inch. Then, you measure the head you are knitting for to determine the circumference. You plug this data into Bradberry's formulas, and you have a custom pattern. I downloaded the book through Ravelry, and Ana and I chose the basic shape: the Slice of Pi Pillbox. We also found an earflap hat with proportions for adding earflaps. By the way, the selection of hat templates in this boo...

Yesterday, on the thirtieth day of July, was the third event in a year of zeros for us. Earlier in the year, Robert had one of those big zero birthdays. Then, we passed the milestone of thirty years of living in this particular place in May. Yesterday our daughter turned twenty. Ana and I began the celebration with a whirlwind trip to Rochester to visit my mother. This was our birthday gift to my mom, and included a luxury lunch at Shiki, a wonderful Japanese restaurant in my mother's neighborhood. Ana had her favorite, sushi. All this for less than $11! Mom and I had bento boxes. Mine was grilled mackerel, Mom's was tempura shrimp and veggies. We also made the round of good will shops, where we found some bargains, and the One World shop, a fair trade import store where I found a cookbook that I am very excited about - Simply in Season , commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee. This book is divided by the seasons, and features recipes with relatively short ingredient l...

This week started off right. Our firewood for next winter is cut, split, and stacked in the woodshed. We got done just as the black flies started getting vicious. Now we can bask in a virtuous glow, and turn our attention to other projects around the homestead. The last couple of days have been quiet. Robert is in Albany, working on the economic development project, and Ana is home, so I have been making sure to get home at a reasonable hour, and hang out with her. I have gotten quite a bit of knitting done. The two pairs of mittens, for Robert and me, are felted and ready to put away until next winter. They are gorgeous, soft brown and very thick and fuzzy. Mine are oversized, so that I can wear them over a pair of fleece gloves. I am hopeful that I now have handwear that will actually keep my hands warm on the most bitter days. I'm also happy that Robert has handwear that will be more effective when he plows and snowblows the driveway. Which he will again, even though that seems ...