Happy (cold, very cold) Rabbie Burns' Day

Happy Rabbie Burns' day! While my blood is saturated with Scottish-ness, I have to admit that I've never really done anything particular on this day before.

We celebrated at work with, rather than the traditional haggis (which most people really weren't into) Scottish meat pies, chips, and mushy peas.

And to finish things off, Jen brought a very yummy trifle.

Today was also the coldest day we've had this winter in Toronto. I celebrated this early, by finishing a hat for my friend Rachel.

I love this hat, and this yarn. I may have to do something similar for myself. What a concept - knitting a hat for me... Anyway, this hat was knit in Manos del Uruguay, using the Official Kitty62 Hat pattern. Lots of fun to knit up. And there was just about exactly enough yarn.

Tonight I've started knitting for an impending baby - one of a set. Twins are great - twice as many babies to knit for! Baby number one will be getting a Baby Love blanket like the one I knit for Darren and Angie's little girl. Baby number two will be getting a blanket knit using the Fibercrack pattern from JenLa.

I feel like I'm knitting an anti-hat - starting on dpn's and working my way up to the circulars.

I like it.

Head of the Class

It only takes one day back in a classroom to feel like I'm a student again.

Of course, it helps that it's on my old campus.

I spent the day in the food science building at Guelph, learning about ingredient labelling. Woot.

We had the usual retinue of students, with some grown-up variety thrown in. We had the overeager question asker. The latecomer who asks questions about stuff we covered before she got there. The know-it-all who compared Every. Single. Regulation. to the equivalent American reg. The one who answered her cell phone with an, "Oh, that's okay - I'm just in a class." The noisy halls, the uncomfortable chairs, and the powerpoint. Oh, the powerpoint.

But it was a good course overall, and I'm headed back to Guelph tomorrow for another. I think I'll have more coffee tomorrow - I don't know how many more times I can stab myself in the leg with a pen until I start to bleed out.

Look Who's Stalking

The woman at work who decided that I am Shady continues to provide us with amusement and consternation. Her conversational skills may as well be interrogation tactics, in that they hit you like a snowball in the face, leaving you confused and directionless.

Some recent conversations: (see if you can pick out the hard left turn)

"So I went to Subway to pick up our dinner one night and ran into our pizza guy! I felt so guilty I tried to pretend I didn't see him."
"Ha! Did he recognise you?"
"Was he getting a sub?"
"What do you like on your pizzas?"

"It looks like this thing's going to go pretty late this afternoon. I think it's going to be quite busy over there."
"That's too bad - I hope things go well."
"Do you like Starbucks?"

"I live about twenty minutes away from work. The commute's not too bad."
"Yeah, that's not bad - the QEW can be brutal."
"Hm. What is your last name?"

"They're planning to repaint the walls and put down new carpet."
"Hm. Who is the most senior person here?"

We've started trying to anticipate the kinds of questions we'll get in upcoming conversations.

"We met people from Company A and they offered to help us with that problem."
"Hm. What colour were their shoes?"

We're trying to decide if this makes her a wee bit um... eccentric, or whether she is in fact gathering information about us for some nefarious scheme.

Wouldn't be the first.

Scarves Made by Bad People Still Keep You Warm

There is a woman in my workplace who has decided that I am No Good. I am Not To Be Trusted.

This evokes in me unfamiliar desires to be sneaky and devious, and maybe wear a cape, or at least a black eye mask.

She is a temporary employee, here to help one person in particular. Into her third week here, she asked this person if everyone here is ‘okay’. Further probing revealed that she was asking about me in particular. She worries that I am watching her, following her, and talking about her to other people. She asked if I am ‘threatened by’ her’.

The irony of all this is that the person she’s working with is a pretty good friend of mine, and when she was warned by this woman that I am “trying to manipulate” her, she came straight to me to share the funny, and now we are talking about this woman. Because she is crazy.

But as much as I’m keeping a sense of humour about the whole thing, (because I am not Evil and everyone here is well aware of that), it still sucks to have someone come in and decide that you are a Bad Person.

But I know how to feel better.

My very first cables. It's the Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarn, done in Patons Merino. This is part of my Christmas knitting, but I'm pretty sure this person doesn't read this blog. I hope. And, since I've started down this road, here's a completed Christmas gift for my mum.


Yes, it's (another) clapotis, in mercerized cotton. It's really more of a royal blue than an electric blue, but I couldn't get the colour to come out quite right.


I also decided that I do not have enough scarves and picked up a fun green Patons for myself.

I love the weekend.