Dr. Plant

So over the summer I was heading out of the doctor's office with BlichMa when we spotted a very interesting plant in the big flower pots outside the doors. Upon closer inspection, one of them had little buds on the edges of its thick, fleshy leaves. I gathered three tiny plants and potted them at home as my friends laughed at me. I kept the plants in a makeshift greenhouse made of a gallon-size Ziplock bag.

And now, two months later, Dr. Plant is doing quite well. He lives on the edge of my desk and is starting to reproduce himself. He is a very pleasant little guy.

Pete the Rabbit's Project

The rabbits do keep busy, especially if you give them some tools to work with. Or at least an empty canvas upon which to start. This project started out as a solid Staples cardboard box. Good for sitting on top of, but not much more. It sat in the cage for several weeks, and fuctioned only as a perch. The bunns essentially ingnored it.

So, I cut a small hole in it, just big enough for Pete to squeeze in through. This "front door" provided the catalyst for rabbitly creativity. The box now looks like this:





Front door, quite expanded.

Side door / window combo. The structural integrity of the box is beginning to get compromised. Pete is NOT worried. Bruno SHOULD be worried. No more perching for the big boy!
(The squeegee is NOT a part of the project...)

Back window - this side butts up against the back of the cage, so these opening are not doors, they are fenestration. Unless they move relocate the project.








And last, but not least, is the skylight.

59th Annual American Mathematics Contest 12

Hello All,

The American Mathematics Contest 12 (AMC) was distributed Tuesday morning at nerd school. Much to by delight, it was an exhilarating challenge full of unusual problems with unconventional answers. I hope to take Advanced Problem Solving next trimester if I can talk the registar into moving my schedule around. While the official results are not back yet, the answers were posted on a bulletin board after the test. I scored just 2.5 points short of qualifying for the next round. One question would have made all the difference. Just wait until next year.

-c

Pancake Tip

When making pancakes, always include one ingredient that you are unsure of the origin of.

For example:

• Use up that little bag of unlabeled flour that’s been hiding in the corner of the fridge.
• “Is this wheat germ, or some kind of ground nuts in this jar?” Throw it in!
• Not sure if it’s yogurt or sour cream? Whatever…

This will help guaranty hearty, one-of-a-kind pancakes.

Beware: Sunflower seeds do go stale.

Uncle Frank Hat

Knit Picks Ambrosia, 2 balls (110 yards, 50 gr each) 20% cashmere, 80% baby alpaca
Cascade Fixation, about 10 gr
Needle—4 & 5 or size needed for gauge
Gauge—8.75 st per inch unstretched (this stitch pattern draws in a lot—very stretchy)

Provisional cast on 140 stitches on larger needle with waste yarn, crochet cotton works well.

K one row in Ambrosia to prevent Fixation from showing through at the hem joining round.

Switch to Cascade Fixation and smaller needle, K around for 11 rounds. Keep the Fixation under tension while working.

Switch to Ambrosia. K one round, then P one round for a turning ridge. Switch to larger needle and begin Beaded Rib pattern:

Work about 12 rounds until outside matches hem length when folded along purl ridge. Undo provisional cast on and place released stitches on a second circular needle, a smaller size works well. Work an outer stitch together with an inner hem stitch in pattern around to join. Continue in pattern to a total length of 5.5 inches from purl turning ridge. Place markers every 20 stitches, between stitch 2 and 3 of pattern. *Work to 2 stitches before a marker, knit 2 together, continue in pattern repeating decreases around. Work a round in pattern without decreases.* Repeat these two rounds until 70 stitches remain. Then decrease every round, maintaining pattern. When 7 stitches remain, cut yarn, draw tail though stitches twice and weave ends in.

The Holiday Letter, 2007

It’s been a while since the last family newsletter, and a lot has been happening. For one, we’ve joined the ranks of the Empty Nesters a couple years earlier than expected.

P is a sophomore down at Clemson University. He’s studying biomedical engineering, or at least that is his track so far. He has been active marching tuba in the Tiger Band, along with joining as many orchestras, big bands, and jazz combos as he can. Sounds like a minor in music to me. He does get to perform at most football games, including various Peach and Chicken bowls. He is in a great scholastic honors program that takes them on various trips under the guise of international study. Not sure how much of that happens, but they end up doing and seeing a lot of good stuff. On last summer’s England/ Ireland/ France trip, Paul apparently volunteered to be the one designated to finish everyone else’s requisite pint of Guinness. In May he will be off to Turkey for a couple of weeks and will be back in time to tour with the Carolina Crown Drum Corps for the rest of the summer. He missed last summer due to the Euro adventure. Crown has a great video up on carolinacrown.org under Happy Holidays. The tour schedule is online at dci.org in case you are interested in catching a great performance.

N has been having his own high school adventures. This fall he started attending the North Carolina School of Science and Math, a state-run residential school up in Durham, NC for juniors and seniors. He lives in this cool old hospital that has been converted to dorm rooms. The school is really competitive to get into, and is filled with other brainiacs like himself. The school sends everyone home for a long weekend each month, and N has a spot on the Unicorn Express charter bus that drops off at a local shopping area, which helps a lot with the 3-hour (each way) trip. Unicorn = school mascot. Last summer he spent a week working on a Habitat for Humanity house in rural South Carolina with the youth group from church. N and Bob rode with the NCSSM team in the New Bern MS150 bike event. Next issue: college selection.

Betsy continues her quest into the mysterious world of hard-core knitting. Gardening has been reduced to checking the yard to see which plants are losing the natural selection battle with the drought. It may be time to try desert plants here. Church teams (committees are out, teams are in) and working on R&D projects while managing capital projects are other distractions.

Bob is back to riding bicycles again, after a number of low mileage years. He and N even ventured into a few local mountain bike races. One ended abruptly for him in a fairly spectacular faceplant-style crash. He got away with a minor concussion, a handful of stitches in his chin (beards are good), a fairly scraped up face including a black eye, and a dented helmet. How does the commercial go?
Entry fee for Over 40 Men’s Rookie Category $15
Insurance CoPays for ER, Cat Scan, etc $1700
Healing fast enough to speak at your parent’s 50th Anniversary seven days later: Priceless.

Bob has been playing bass with a blues-rock trio out of Shelby, NC. The Ned Lucas Band performs 3 or 4 times a month, which is plenty. The glamorous parts: the driving around alone late at night, and the third hand smoke. And helping Ned haul around his 475 pound Hammond organ.

In Upper Peninsula news Bob’s parents moved to a more comfortable single story house in Iron Mountain just a few weeks ago. The Cass Ave classic foursquare is on the market.

Pet news: The rabbits, Bruno and Petey, seem to be surviving without their main keeper, N. When you’re a rabbit, your mood is easily improved with the occasional treat like an apple core or a handful of weeds. The bunns were not too keen on our record heat wave last summer. Too many 100-degree days in a fur coat. But they are lovin’ this cool Christmas weather. The fish, well, they all croaked.

Carb O' the Week - and a Warning

Not sure if this qualifies as a true Carb. But it does contain at least some actual Chex, so it can't be too far off, even if said Chex had a suspicious orange hue.

I purchased this bag o' snax while driving home from a "smoky dive"gig the other night. A guy just gotta munch on something if he expects to stay awake driving alone at 3:00 in the morning. Note the subtle hints like Hot 'n Spicy and The Hottest Ever!. "Yeah, right", I thought. Well, they weren't kidding this time. Not Jalapeno hot, but seriously hot nonetheless. The bag is even on fire - look at those flames!

I can say they did their job.

Fish Report

Current number of fish = zero.

The final fishy resident, Peugeot, bit the dust. He (she? it?) was spared the indignity of the Final Flush, and instead is buried in the back yard next to our most prized lawn ornament, the lifiesize cast concete brain. Or under the brain. I forget.

Domestic Activity

Grandmother W loved mothballs. She even loaded her cedar chest up with them. For decades. Eventually the cedar chest ended up with us. It was exiled to the attic for years, with the lid open through heat of summer and cold of winter. It was refinished, and sanded inside as well as outside. It was sprayed with products claiming to remove odors. The mothball outgassing has never diminished, decades after the last mothball was dropped in. So every fall the woolens get spread out on the deck rail to air out before wearing. And we remember Grandmother W.

Yesterday was also the day for round one of fig preserve making. Despite the drought we had a reasonable crop of figs this year. They all come ripe at the same time, and you don't want to eat that many fresh figs at a time--they have side effects. This year we got smart and prepped and froze the fruit until a more convenient time (like when it was less than 104F out) to make the preserves and do the canning. Batch one is complete--used this recipe. Have another load of frozen figs, but we seem to be out of half pint jars, had to press a couple of full pints into service... Guess they are all full of wild blackberry pancake topping that we thought was going to be jam. Fire up the griddle.

Fish Report

Current number of fish = 1.

Sidewinder Sock #1

Before

Here it is at the completion of knitting, before the massive grafting operation has taken place. Is it really a sock? It reminds me of the skin taken from an animal, an oddly shaped flattish piece that's not quite the shape you would think it should be. I had concerns about how it was going to fit.

After

And a miracle occurs after 140 stitches of grafting! It fits perfectly, and is comfortable. Ya never know with unconventionally designed wearables. This one's a winner. Time to cast on for #2 as my left foot is jealous.

Yarn: Opal Hundertwassers in Silver Spiral

Pattern: Sidewinders by nonaKnits

Mods: added a third small short row gusset (16-20-16) just before last row to fit my generous calves. Also used K F&B increases as my lifted increases were tight. KnitPicks Options #2 needle, 32", 7-8 wide size.

How to turn a Rabbit into a Unicorn

N's little box was held hostage at the mailroom over last weekend, but first thing Monday he cashed in the package slip and got The Hat! Seems it was a hit, we think he wore it all day at NCSSSSSSM. The school mascot is a unicorn. Custom knit by BlichMa from 100% soy yarn, "Pure". Used most of a ball in garter rib stitch. Carried a fine clear elastic thread along for the first inch as the yarn had little memory. Ears and horn Caron Simply Soft.

Newest Member of the Fam

Welcome to W, our new cousin and nephew. It's been a long wait, but he sure looks happy to be with Alice and Shawn. And seems quite proud of his first three teeth with more reported to be on the way!

Krispy Kut

N got a haircut. At Krispy Kut. 

It must be cool. The black eye and face scrapes were in full bloom when he went--he got credit for being in a fight, and when he tried to correct that assumption they thought he had a motorcycle accident instead of a mountain bike incident. It was that kind of place.

Titan Arum

The World's Largest and possibly Stinkiest flower bloomed at UNCC last Sunday. We failed to follow this phenomenon as closely as we should have, and didn't manage to get ourselves over there right away. The dead corpse aroma lasts for less than 24 hours, and was long gone by the time we arrived on Wednesday. In fact, the spike collapsed about an hour after we checked it out. Here's N with the remains of the Titan Arum, and a link to the whole story. http://gardens.uncc.edu/Titan%20Arum.htm