kareina

Today, despite going to bed after 01:00, I still woke up early enough to shovel a little snow before I really had to head to work (and only managed that because I opted to take the bus). Today was the first lab day of a PhD student who wanted to know which phases in her sample contain vanadium, so we did tiny maps of her samples. This process was complicated by a repeated weird error, where the laser would drive the sample stage to the new location, and then just sit there for a while, doing nothing, and then display a notice explaining that it had timed out while waiting for the stage to move. Of course, when it does this in the middle of an experiment then the ICP-MS sits there waiting for the laser to fire, which it isn't going to do, because of the error, which means that I needed to stop the experiment each time (though now, many hours later, and much too late, I can't help but wonder, what would have happened if I had just manually fired the laser, would the ICP-MS would have been happy and then gone on to do the next step?), which then triggered another problem we have always had--if one stops the ICP-MS experiment in the middle, and then tries to resume it, the ICP-MS will send a signal to the laser to move to the next spot, which the laser will do, and then the ICP-MS will flash an error message complaining that it couldn't move the laser and it will then shut down the experiment. I know from experience that the only way to get the ICP-MS out of this loop is to re-start the computer. These issues combined in such a way that we spent a total of 7.5 hours in the lab, running three maps, each of which would have taken only 25 minutes if everything had gone smoothly.

By the time I was done I was DONE, and just wanted to go home, but it was only a bit more than 1.5 hours till Phrie practice was meant to start, so I decided to just relax in my office and look at mail for a bit, and then I was inspired to take the time to write up notes about how the experiment had gone, before I forgot, which meant that I wound up arriving at practice about 3 minutes late. At first it looked like it would be a quiet day, since there were only three of us at that point, but as I was finishing warming up a new girl arrived who asked about the Aerial Silks. Villiam volunteered to go get them from storage, and while he was gone she and I started doing Acroyoga. She had tried a little Acroyoga years ago, but claimed to not remember much. However, she has done lots of climbing and Aerial silks, which means that she has the core strength and flexibility needed, and she had no problems flying or basing anything we tried. Then she showed me some stuff on the silks. I need to train for them more. There was one thing, where one crosses the fabric behind one's back and then wedges one's upper body between them which I know is possible, as I saw her do it, but I couldn't get to work--I could get my head into that space, but I didn't have the strength (or the trick of it) to get my arms through so I could get my shoulders through. Oh well, next time!

I was having so much fun at practice I nearly forgot that I was supposed to leave early so I could get to Herskapsdans. Luckily I remembered at just the right time, so was able to head out the door and go pick up David's car from the apartment and drive out to Gammelstad, where I arrived just as we were starting to dance. I really love that dance style--dances from the 1700's. The ones we are doing are from a handwritten dance manual that was written by a man who lived here in Luleå and took the time to write both the sheet music and the dance steps for a number of dances. That manual was found back in the 1990's in a dumpster outside of a house that was being demolished, and it was rescued and, eventually, gotten to dancers who were able to use knowledge of other dances to work out what the descriptions were meant to convey.

While dancing tonight I realised (probably again) part of why I am so fond of the style--it reminds me of Hole in the Wall, which was the dance we did at my first ever real SCA event, in 1982. The recording they had at that event was a long one, which meant that those of us who had never done it before had time to figure it out and get it working, and I fell in love with dancing then and there (I had never really done any dancing before then). It was years later than I found out that Hole in the Wall is actually from the late 1600's (nearly 1700's) and that is why it is so different from all of the other dances we do in the SCA. However, I still love the dance, and if anyone at an event requests it, and the musicians are willing to play it, I will still teach it, but I do specify that it is NOT period. I am willing to do some out of period things at events, but only if it is made clear that while it is taking place at the event, that doesn't mean it is medieval.

I shouldn't be surprised that they day was so busy, life just is. Tuesday was leave the house at 07:30, work till time for Phire training, then acroyoga and juggling, followed by choir, and finally home at nearly 21:00, where we discovered that there had been a long enough power failure during the day to use up the UPS that is attached to the server, which had then shut down, but not long enough to drain the UPS attached to my computer (which was still on). I hung out will David till after 22:00, then checked email and spent more than an hour finishing up an application for some travel funding to attend a couple of conferences in the spring.

Monday I had the car at the house, which meant I had time to do a half an hour workout before work. At work I had an email from the technician who had been here, and who sent me the replacement parts to install on Friday, who gave me a suggestion for one more thing to try, and IT WORKED! Helium now flows through the line again, and I can use the laser to run experiments. In celebration I ran a couple of maps that my boss wanted me to do for her. They didn't finish till 18:00, at which point I walked home and spent the evening doing useful things, like updating my finances and paying for SCA events I have registered for, and working out how I will get to Crown (car pool with a friend from Skellefteå).

The weekend was delightful. Linda L. was in town, so she came over on Saturday and spent the night and went back to her partner's parent's house on Sunday. It was so good to see her. We hung out and talked and cuddled. We traded massage, I curled up with a book while she and David worked out some old issues and got themselves back to being friends again. I read out loud to her (hrj's short stories Hoywverch and Hyddwen, which, even after several readings, some out loud to others, I still feel are two of the best short stories I have ever read. (Note: the link to podcastle.com on the above link for Hoywverch will actually take you directly to the published version of the story, but on the above link for Hyddwen, if you click on the podcastle.com link it takes you to the most recent podcast they have done, and you need to copy-paste (or re-type if you prefer) the name of the story to search for it there.)

On Sunday I finally finished reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I very much enjoyed. I did notice one thing which felt to me like a dropped thread (stop reading here if you haven't read the book and don't like spoilers). The story states that Strange's mother had died three days after going out walking in bad weather, just like his wife. However, it turns out that his wife had actually been replaced with a chunk of black oak, which died and got buried in her stead while she went off to Lost Hope to spend her life dancing at endless balls. When Strange arrived at Lost Hope he winds up talking to a woman who seemed familiar to him, and who complained that she had been there dancing, etc. for "four thousand years" (at which point we are treated to a footnote explaining that in the fairy culture that phrase means only " a very long time", and that they mostly don't actually measure time at all). I am very convinced that this woman is Strange's mother, and I was rather disappointed that this thread wasn't cleared up by the end of the book, but we are left dangling, with no way to confirm or deny this assumption. What do the rest of you think?

I normally work from home on Fridays (and not at all on LTU stuff). When I went to bed last night I was already up over 23 hours for LTU work this week, so I didn’t need to do any more LTU stuff for me. However, one of our PhD students was doing her defense today, so, of course, I went in for that. Two weeks ago I had been asked by a colleague in one of the other divisions of our department if I would present the laser lab to some visitors today at 10:00, to which I replied that A. had her defense at that time, to which he replied that, of course, he meant to go to the defense himself, so how about 12:00 instead, and I agreed. Some days later he wrote back to say that plans had changed, and he would be taking the visitors to a variety of labs starting at 13:00 instead, and so could be at my lab between then and 13:30, and was that ok? I forgot to change the calendar entry.

This meant that today I came in at 08:30 and had time to send two emails before the defence started at 9:00 (it having been pushed an hour earlier), during which I made some good progress on my viking coat in progress (nearly done with the second pass of sewing on the seams, leaving just cutting the neck and sewing on the tablet weaving and the decorative (and reinforcing) seam embroidery). After she finished speaking I and a colleague spent perhaps half an hour more chatting to one another about work, and then I returned to my office, where I worked on data reduction for the initial test soapstone analyses I had done some week back but haven’t had a chance to look at. Just before 12:00 I went downstairs, taking the computer with me, and opened an old power point presentation introducing the lab, then returned to the data reduction in progress while I waited. A bit after 12:00 I opened email on my phone (my computer doesn’t seem to know my password for the uni wifi network, even though my phone does, and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it, since I normally have a wire, but the lab doesn’t have a spare wire) and saw the message saying 13:00 instead of 12:00.

I didn’t feel like carrying the computer back upstairs, so I kept working where I was, ignoring the sound of the lab machines. About 13:27 my colleague called to say that since they had gone over time on some of the lab visits that they were going to have to miss mine, so I went back to my office and got in a tiny bit more data processing till the 14:00 gathering in the ficka room, where they announced that she had passed her defence and we ate cake (I had a larger piece than I should have, because cream! So much cream on that cake that I called it 45% dairy in my food log.) After spending the better part of an hour chatting with colleagues I returned to my office and got a bit more work done with the data reduction, till my alarm went off to tell me to head to Phire practice, where Johan and I would do acroyoga. (I am now at 6 hours of Durham work, and 26 of LTU work for the week. With luck I will be able to bring Durham up to a more reasonable hour before the weekend is over.)

Acroyoga, as always, was much fun. In the past 7 weeks we have seen some serious improvement. His flexibility has improved so much that he is now able to reach his toes in a seated forward bend (at least when I am sitting with my foot pressed against his, and we hold hands and pull one another into the stretch) and the shaking in his legs when he bases is mostly gone, but his arms still shake when doing head stands (but he can now hold a headstand, and is starting to manage handstands). Today we tried doing the roll over during the Jedi box for the first time. It is much harder than it looks to actually sit back up after turning over like that. I don’t think we can claim to have managed that part yet. On the other hand, without the rolling over it is getting pretty easy, even for me to base, so long as he remembers not to bend his arms or legs (which results in collapse). After an hour of acroyoga we set up the aerial silks and played with them. Since we were already well warmed up I was able to climb to the top on my first try. I am also pleased to report that the ankle that I twisted on May 16 is now so much recovered that I was able to climb the silks without it hurting, and it didn’t bother me at all during acroyoga.

After our session I realized that I really should have thought a bit before promising Ellinor, who dropped off the silks at the start of practice, but then went on to study for tomorrow’s exam, that I would take the silks home and return them to her tomorrow when we picked her up for the music session. This meant that I had with me my work computer (since I want to finish that data reduction this weekend), my viking coat in progress (which is enough to fill the basket on my trike all by itself), the rolling suitcase the silks live in, my lunch bag, and my glasses case. I managed to get it to fit onto the trike by putting the coat into the basket, the lunch bag into the suitcase, the suitcase balanced across the top of the basket and tied into place with my bike lock. Then I sat down on the trike and put the computer on my lap and started heading home. I quickly realised that it would be a very unpleasant journey that way, so instead of heading home I went to Caroline’s apartment and left the silks and their suitcase there, which meant that there was room for both the computer and the sewing project in my basket, and the ride home was much nicer. This means that David and Caroline will bring the silks with them tomorrow.

He plans on coming here in the morning to work on the sun shade modifications, and when Ellinor is out of her exam we will pick her up and head to Birger and Siv’s house for their annual “spelträff” (folk music gathering) for a couple of hours. We usually spend the whole afternoon, but this year we don’t feel like we can spare that much time, given what all we want done before we head to Cudgel War next month.

After we got home I was inspired to bake some oven pancakes, as I am running low of the last batch in the freezer, and I had bought milk for it last weekend, so it seemed like a good time to use it. Normally when I bake Swedish Oven Pancakes I forget to write down (or even notice) how much flour I use; I just keep adding it till there is “enough”. But today I paid attention:

1 litre of milk
6 eggs (medium)
a dash of salt
1 cup almond meal
2 cups oat flour
3 cups wheat flour

Whisk together the milk, eggs, and salt. Add the flours, one cup at a time, and whisk well after each addition. Pour into a well-buttered large shallow baking pan (mine measures 35 x 42 cm) and bake at 150 C (fan on) for 25 to 35 minutes (I prefer it to be just starting to turn golden when I rescue it from the oven, but David likes it actually crossing over to a light brown).

There is a huge variety of proportions that works for these. It can be done with fewer (or more) eggs, even only one egg if you prefer (you could probably even leave out the egg and it would still work). One can use more varieties of flour, or only one type. Since it isn’t meant to rise one can be quite flexible with which type of flour(s) one uses. I have done them gluten-free by using rice flour. I have done them dairy-free by using almond milk (ok, the one time I did it, it was both gluten-free and dairy-free, but I was generous with the eggs). One can make the batter fairly runny or fairly thick; it only changes how long it takes to solidify in the oven and modifies the flavour a bit as one or another ingredient becomes dominant. They are good if one mixes into the batter a bunch of grated carrot, or other vegetables, or minced or chopped meat, or chopped nuts, or saffron, or really anything you like tossed in. The traditional Swedish version is just wheat flour, lots of milk, and some egg (+ salt), baked and served with butter and lingon jam (or raspberry jam, especially if saffron was included in the pancake). The freeze well, and make excellent road food, since they are good eaten cold, and they are solid enough to handle travel.

My friend has already processed the film from the photos he took at yesterday's Phire practice. He summarized them into 3 different blog posts: one roll from the first part of the evening, including a cute photo of me and E., my acroyoga partner, talking, one from the fire practice outside, and a third from after he came back into the building, including one of me standing in the aerial silks, and a cool one of E. in the middle of a drop from the silks.

This morning started with meeting a friend at the gym to do the "day one" workout my physical trainer has given me--complete with pushups and lots of shoulder exercises. Then, in the early afternoon, I got a message from another friend asking if I would like to meet her at the gym to do some aerial silks training this evening. Of course I would! And no other conflicts, either.

Luckily, lord_kjar had driven in to work this morning (I rode with him), which meant that after I finished work (at 14:00, since I started later than usual due to the workout) I could walk to his office, head home and take a quick nap, eat dinner, and grab the rolling suitcase full of the aerial silks, which I have had at my place for some weeks now, since the girl who used to have it was going to be out of town during our practice session, and hasn't gotten them back yet. Then I drove back, left the car at his office, and got to the gym before 17:00 (as an university employee, I can get into the gym for free, but only during business hours), so that I could get in the door. Once inside, of course, I was permitted to stay as long as I wanted.

Just as with last time I tried this, I had trouble climbing the fabric when first I tried. Eventually I remembered that with my small hands it really does work better to have one length of fabric in each hand, rather than trying to hold them both together, even though I still wrap them both around my feet for the climbing. We spent nearly two hours climbing, trying interesting poses in the air, and, occasionally, practicing hand-stands as a "rest". Now my hands are a bit sore, and I am so looking forward to doing it again on Friday!

Yesterday we couldn't do aerial silks, as that practice room doesn't have a place to hang them from, so we just did some acroyoga poses, which are just as much fun, just as hard to do, but doesn't hurt one's hands and feet in the same way.

Choir yesterday after Phire practice was also much fun. We have a good group this year.