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kareinaOr perhaps it is the computer issues. Or perhaps having lots of work to do and job applications to complete. Whatever it is, I have not been posting as often as I once did.
So, what have I been up to? My mother arrived on Saturday afternoon. I took the bus out to the airport to meet her, and we took the train to the city center and then the Metro home from there. That gave me enough time to finally complete both my three-fingered gloves and my fingerless gloves that had been nearly done since returning from the Textile Forum. Our entertainment of the evening was cooking dinner (I had the foresight to leave bread dough rising so that it was ready to bake when we got home) and a short stroll around the neighbourhood.
Sunday morning we did a bit of sight-seeing in the city center before we went to a bbq hosted by the other SCA family in Milan. They had some non-SCA other guests, and a very pleasant time was had by all. Having finished my two nålbinding projects in progress the day before, I started a new one from the beautiful dark blue baby llama wool that followed me home from Vienna. The highlight of our morning sightseeing, for me, was heading up to the roof of the cathedral to admire the view of the Alps. Since it had rained heavily on Friday and Saturday the air was clear, and the full range was very visible. Mom choose to relax and people-watch on a bench while I went up the roof; she isn't fond of heights. She commented "even seeing those people up there gives me vertigo". Then she pointed to the roof, and I realized that we could, in fact, see people up there--much to my surprise, since we were standing on the far side of the cathedral than the part of the roof I have normally visited. Accordingly, when I reached the roof this time, instead of ignoring the short side-passage with the sign pointing to the lift (elevator for the Americans in my audience) I decided to walk down it. Much to my surprise, the passage went further than I'd guessed, and led not only to the lift, but to the whole other half of the roof. So I wound spending a good 30 minutes up there exploring the parts I'd not yet seen, as well as returning to my favorite part (the highest part they will let us access) and admiring the view). Luckily mom enjoyed her people-watching, though, perhaps, not as much as I enjoyed my time "up".
Monday and Tuesday I worked during the day, with slightly longer than usual lunch breaks to spend with her, and in the evenings we worked on my CV and cover letter for one of my job applications. Today I submitted that application--it wasn't actually due till Friday, but I don't like leaving such things to the last day, and I am scheduled to use the microprobe tomorrow. Then I looked at the calender, and saw that two others are due on Monday. Since we are planing on heading out of town on adventures this weekend, I decided that I may as well apply for them today, too. Now that I've done the major revisions of the application packets for the one I submitted last week, and the one I did early today, it was a fairly easy matter to assemble relevant paragraphs and edit the job-specific info to make two new application packets. Perhaps if the other two were in as desirable a location as the first I would have taken a bit more time with them. But at least all three sound like fun jobs. This brings my total to 12 positions applied to since 30 June, and 8 more with due-dates between 15 Oct and 10 Dec. It will be interesting to see how many lead to interviews. I'm not as hopeful for the ones summited earlier, but I feel that the recent packets were quite good, and I would be surprised if none of them make interview stage. Then again--it matters just as much who else is applying, so anything is possible.
My progress report for the week: Welded shut a capsule for my next experiment on my first try, and it felt easy. Temperature really does matter. Don't bother trying to do this in the summer--wait till it cools off, the stress of failure isn't worth it, and you won't get one to work, anyway. Still need to do one more, but then again, we already decided that we wouldn't run the next experiment till we see the results from the last, and I'm not scheduled for more microprobe time till tomorrow. I guess this means that I had better do more welding on Friday morning before mom and I pick up our rental car and head to the Schnals Valley (where I lived for a week during the Textile Forum).
We decided not to go to Cairo--my cousin there is doing a lot of travel for work just now, so wouldn't have been available to properly host us, and the temperatures there are, he reports, still around 95 F. However, the following weekend we are flying to Finland to visit family--descendants of her grandfather's brother, who remained in Finland when her grandfather moved to the US. She's met one of them before (with whom we've made the arrangements), but this will be my first time to meet any of them.
So, what have I been up to? My mother arrived on Saturday afternoon. I took the bus out to the airport to meet her, and we took the train to the city center and then the Metro home from there. That gave me enough time to finally complete both my three-fingered gloves and my fingerless gloves that had been nearly done since returning from the Textile Forum. Our entertainment of the evening was cooking dinner (I had the foresight to leave bread dough rising so that it was ready to bake when we got home) and a short stroll around the neighbourhood.
Sunday morning we did a bit of sight-seeing in the city center before we went to a bbq hosted by the other SCA family in Milan. They had some non-SCA other guests, and a very pleasant time was had by all. Having finished my two nålbinding projects in progress the day before, I started a new one from the beautiful dark blue baby llama wool that followed me home from Vienna. The highlight of our morning sightseeing, for me, was heading up to the roof of the cathedral to admire the view of the Alps. Since it had rained heavily on Friday and Saturday the air was clear, and the full range was very visible. Mom choose to relax and people-watch on a bench while I went up the roof; she isn't fond of heights. She commented "even seeing those people up there gives me vertigo". Then she pointed to the roof, and I realized that we could, in fact, see people up there--much to my surprise, since we were standing on the far side of the cathedral than the part of the roof I have normally visited. Accordingly, when I reached the roof this time, instead of ignoring the short side-passage with the sign pointing to the lift (elevator for the Americans in my audience) I decided to walk down it. Much to my surprise, the passage went further than I'd guessed, and led not only to the lift, but to the whole other half of the roof. So I wound spending a good 30 minutes up there exploring the parts I'd not yet seen, as well as returning to my favorite part (the highest part they will let us access) and admiring the view). Luckily mom enjoyed her people-watching, though, perhaps, not as much as I enjoyed my time "up".
Monday and Tuesday I worked during the day, with slightly longer than usual lunch breaks to spend with her, and in the evenings we worked on my CV and cover letter for one of my job applications. Today I submitted that application--it wasn't actually due till Friday, but I don't like leaving such things to the last day, and I am scheduled to use the microprobe tomorrow. Then I looked at the calender, and saw that two others are due on Monday. Since we are planing on heading out of town on adventures this weekend, I decided that I may as well apply for them today, too. Now that I've done the major revisions of the application packets for the one I submitted last week, and the one I did early today, it was a fairly easy matter to assemble relevant paragraphs and edit the job-specific info to make two new application packets. Perhaps if the other two were in as desirable a location as the first I would have taken a bit more time with them. But at least all three sound like fun jobs. This brings my total to 12 positions applied to since 30 June, and 8 more with due-dates between 15 Oct and 10 Dec. It will be interesting to see how many lead to interviews. I'm not as hopeful for the ones summited earlier, but I feel that the recent packets were quite good, and I would be surprised if none of them make interview stage. Then again--it matters just as much who else is applying, so anything is possible.
My progress report for the week: Welded shut a capsule for my next experiment on my first try, and it felt easy. Temperature really does matter. Don't bother trying to do this in the summer--wait till it cools off, the stress of failure isn't worth it, and you won't get one to work, anyway. Still need to do one more, but then again, we already decided that we wouldn't run the next experiment till we see the results from the last, and I'm not scheduled for more microprobe time till tomorrow. I guess this means that I had better do more welding on Friday morning before mom and I pick up our rental car and head to the Schnals Valley (where I lived for a week during the Textile Forum).
We decided not to go to Cairo--my cousin there is doing a lot of travel for work just now, so wouldn't have been available to properly host us, and the temperatures there are, he reports, still around 95 F. However, the following weekend we are flying to Finland to visit family--descendants of her grandfather's brother, who remained in Finland when her grandfather moved to the US. She's met one of them before (with whom we've made the arrangements), but this will be my first time to meet any of them.
