Personal: December 2004 Archives

All that was seamed is in pieces again. The addition of a single-crochet edging didn't do Margot any favors in the armhole department, so I took her completely apart and re-bound off the tops of the sleeve caps using the 15 mm needle held together with another large diameter needle in order to get a looser bound off edge. I've gotten one side of the sweater re-seamed, and the seaming looks neater than before, so at least I am making progress in the right direction.

Today was a milestone day for me -- not only did I get a haircut after about 2 years of "letting it grow out" (read: too lazy to make a hair appointment, not satisfied with any hair stylist I could find and in denial about my hair and what I was willing to spend time doing to it) but I think I have finally found a hair dresser that I can live with. This appointment got rid of the shaggy tendrils in the back. The next appointment will include not only a re-shaping but (gasp) highlighting. If you want to see the "new look" you can click here. (Whether I can re-create it on a day-to-day basis is anyone's guess).

So, since this was one of those "all about me" days, I'll close with a few more additions to my "100 things" list.

11. I was raised Catholic, but don't practice anything in particular now if I can avoid it. I do feel I have strong values, however. I believe in treating people with respect and trying to do my best to make the planet a better place
12. I am definitely in my middle-thirties, but often regarded to be in my twenties. I consider this a mixed blessing.
13. Unlike most women, I am congenitally incapable of using a blow drier or a curling iron in any effective manner. This could be laziness or a lack of co-ordination or both.
14. I was introduced to knitting by a dear friend during graduate school. She believed that anyone could knit anything. She taught me to knit Continental and my first completed sweater was Grapevine from Alice Starmore's "Stillwater".
15. I currently have three cats, all boys. The first two were littermates that I adopted just before I met John. One of them, Sydney, got his name because of an Internet "penpal" I had who was from Australia.
16. I played my fair share of Dungeons and Dragons in grade school. I have a continuing love-affair with computer roll playing games. When given the opportunity to choose, I almost always play a magic user.
17. I learned to read when I was three years old and I haven't stopped reading since. My favorite genre used to be science fiction or fantasy (lots and lots of fantasy), but now I find myself drawn more to the history of science and mysteries/suspense/thrillers. And knitting books.
18. Yes, I am well aware of the fact that I am very much a geek girl.
19. All the men in my immediate family are engineers, and they are all different flavors: my father is an aerospace/automotive engineer, my brother is a chemical engineer, my husband is a software engineer and my brother-in-law is a mechanical engineer.
20. I consider my career in biology, computers and management to be the natural result of crossing an engineer with a speech, literature and drama major.

I don't have time to get through 100 things tonight, but here's the first 10:

1. I was born in the last year that the Beatles were still together. All while I was in grade school I can remember my parents playing the Abbey Road and Hey Jude albums. At one point in time I could sing most of the songs from these albums from memory.
2. When I was 6 months old, my parents got me up out of bed early so that I could watch Niel Armstrong walk on the moon. They knew I wouldn't remember it, but they thought I should be there to watch it.
3. When I was growing up I wanted to be a lawyer, an astronomer and finally a biologist. I got hooked by immunology during my senior year in high school when I read a National Geographic article "The Wars Within" which described the role of the immune system in HIV infection.
4. I only spent one year in public school -- kindergarden. All the rest of my schooling has been in private institutions.
5. I've only lived in four different places in my life: Buffalo, NY, Ann Arbor, MI, San Antonio, TX and Chicago,IL. But while in Chicago, I've moved 5 times. Three of those moves were within Hyde Park.
6. I currently live in a house I don't want to leave -- a 4 bedroom house in the city. I love my house. Even though it's not new to us any more, I will still walk around my house and tell my husband how much I love it.
7. I almost married the wrong man. But that experience helped me recognize when I met the right one.
8. My husband and I met through an Internet personals site. For a long time I thought he was too good to be true.
9. I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing in an obsessive compulsive manner.
10. I was introduced to computers by my father who bought an Apple II+ when I was 12. I have been infatuated with them ever since.