daffodils and norowalkers

1. Well, the presentation is over, over, over. And you know, I've done better presentations. But it's over, and I don't have to worry about any more undergraduate presentations ever. It's a great feeling. I still have a moderately huge mound of work to do, but it's nothing I haven't handled eleven times before, not counting high school. Papers, catch up assignments, whatevs. They're not presentations and I love them for it.
Sean is currently stressing pretty hard over his mound of work, but I'm helping as much as I can.

2. Also, the weather? Spring has officially arrived in Fredericton. All week it's been quietly melting in the afternoons and not really freezing at night, and we've had honest to goodness rainy days, which I will take over freezing rain days off any day of the week. This week coming up is supposed to hover around ten whole degrees above freezing, so with one good rainstorm (to wash away grit that ruins bearings), I could see Sean zipping around on his longboard very soon.

3. So, this week. It's hazy, but I remember helping to plan a mid-exam anthropology pub crawl, and watching fair amounts of Futurama, and cooking some glorious pork chops and also some truly awesome broccoli salad (so awesome I'm making it again tonight). Sean brought me some spring flowers, and so the house is full of little vases of daffodils and little lilies.
Kitty went home midweek when Gail and Mert came back - it's so weird scooping up a cat and locking them into a cage without needing a team and oven mitts to fend off the panic and claws. Apparently Kitty likes the carrier because she often goes to the cottage in it. They also brought us presents - shirts, a bottle of wine for Sean, and a bottle of vanilla syrup and a knitting magazine for me, which has no fewer than three sock patterns that I need to get into.
Speaking of, I've been reading a lot of Terry Pratchett to keep stress levels manageable, and knitting some socks - Jaywalkers again, but knit from Noro Sock. Noro is a yarn company with famously beautiful colours and infamously tough yarn - like knitting rainbows made of hay. I was dismayed when I started knitting them - the colours seemed a little too random to make up for the tactile nastiness of the yarn (like knitting bailing twine!) - lavender, indigo, teal, orange-brown? But somehow I finished the first one this morning and you know, it really worked. It used almost exactly one full colour repeat of the socks, so the same colour doesn't appear twice, and the whole picture makes for some pretty socks. And the tough yarn makes for socks like armour - honest-feeling wool socks. I gather it softens up a bit upon washing, but I'm pleased with it already.

4. Coming up... Danielle is coming over tonight, and we're going to try for real vegan supper this time - roasted red peppers stuffed with vegan risotto, with roasted sweet potatoes and a reprise of the broccoli salad. It should be an adventure :)