kareina

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.

Last week Tuesday I had an adventure that I haven't posted about. As I was about to hop on my trike to leave work I was passed by a long, low, enclosed vehicle that caught my interest, so I hurried to catch up with it. It turns out to be a velomobile. It is pedal powered and has three-wheel, but the driver is quite instant that it is not a trike like mine is.

We chatted a bit and he let me try it. I rather liked it, and think it would be fantastic in rainy weather, but it can also be quite noisy in there. He was about to pedal to Kiruna (four hours away by car, driving the speed limit, so I suspect rather longer by the velomobile, even though it is WAY faster than I normally pedal. However, he wanted some coffee for the road, so I brought him back to our place where he entertained me, mom, and lord_kjar (who was home on lunch) with interesting conversation before he continued on his way.

He was nice enough to share some photos...

one of me, mom, and his velomobiel, with a bonus view of our new lada in the background:


and one of me on my beautiful commute home from work:



(He pedaled on the road as he doesn't like the noise of pedaling on a dirt/gravel bike, which gave him a nice vantage point for the photo. Thankfully, they have paved the path this week, so now it is so sweet to pedal on.)

I finally have a working trike again! The replacement wheel arrived while I was in Vienna, and I made time this afternoon to take off the old one and attach the new. Then I went out for a test-ride. Might have ridden further, but it started raining, and while I was debating going on or turning back it started hailing. I took the point, turned back, found a nice balcony to wait under till the hail passed (took very little time for that) and then pedaled home in the rain. I store the trike in my office, which is huge and has plenty of room for it. However, in order to get it here I have to drag it up some stairs. This is not a pleasant process. I need to work out a better way of navigating stairs with this thing so that I actually make use of it on a regular basis.

Today's progress report: got the initial polish of my latest experiment done, and added the second coat of epoxy to soak into the contents of the capsule and hold it all together when I do the final polish tomorrow. Made some further progress on the paper summarizing my thesis. Haven't yet done all that many hours of work today, but I'm cold sitting here in wet clothes after the ride, so will head home for a hot shower and dry clothes, and perhaps I'll come back this evening and accomplish more.

Today's progress report: tried my hand at "active" reading (see my other blog for a definition of what I mean by that, and for a summary of the first couple of sections of the paper I read thusly). So far I've spent one hour reading any typing up my paraphrased version of each paragraph in the first five pages. It will be interesting to see how long this technique takes for the entire 17 pages of the paper. It takes a fair bit longer than just reading, but I think my teacher was correct when she said that we'd get much more out of it.

This morning I went for a short rollerblade excursion, stopping at a huge grocery store on the far side of the train tracks (only 22 minutes away by skate--it is normally a 35+ minute walk) to pick up a few things (I wasn't even sure it would be open--most grocery stores in Milan are closed on Sundays). I look forward to the day when I no longer live in a city, and heading out of the house to get some exercise doesn't automatically mean combining the trip with an errand that involves spending money. It will be nice to live somewhere pretty enough that I want to head out to see it, rather than only because my body needs to move and I'm getting low on needed supplies.

This afternoon I manged to fix the problem with my trike that I mentioned a few days back. The part has now been successfully extracted, sanded down a bit (I *like* having access to a shop with a lathe!) and properly inserted into the frame. The seat has been reattached, and I even put air into the two tires which didn't get damaged in transit. As soon as the replacement wheel arrives and I get it attached in place of the broken one, it will be possible to pedal myself places too. I'm looking forward to that. (Why is is that two hours of hard work so easily reduces itself to a single paragraph?)

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to use the microprobe; I hope that the data I generate helps answer some of the questions we are trying to solve--it would be nice to have something concrete to say in the speech I'm working on for the confrence I'll be attending in a couple of weeks.

Those of you who know me would probably not be surprised to hear that I've always thought that a nomadic lifestyle sounds appealing. The thought of moving from one place to another on a daily (or weekly or monthly) basis, bringing along everything needed to make each new spot "home" sounds fablous to me. I've had a hint of that lifestyle when I've lived places where there were sufficent SCA camping events near enough to get to. I love all aspects of those weekends--from the skill required to pack everything in such a way that it will all fit into the vehicle, to the driving long hours seeing interesting scenery, to setting up my camp and arranging my things exactly where I think they should be to enjoying the event itself and all that entails right through to the skill required to get it all organized and packed up again followed by another long drive. I've occassionally had wistful thoughts about how much cooler it would have been to have been born into a nomadic lifestyle. Perhaps herding reindeer through the mountains of Scandinavia or some such. But never did I think it would be possible for anyone to get to experiance such a thing without having been born to it. Until today, when one of my friends in Alaska just sent me a link to a web page on some upcoming adventures in Asia. The author of the web page is going to get to spend two full months in Mongolia living a nomadic life. That is so cool! I don't know if I'll ever seek out such an opportunity for myself, but now that I know that it is possible...

In other news, today's progress report includes getting my fifth experiment polished--I can now analyze it (and #4 as well) on Monday the 29th when I return from the writing workshop in Zürich. I also welded shut the first end of some capsules. Tomorrow I need to fill them and weld them shut so that I can run my 6th experiment as soon as I return. The rest of the work day was spent on data processing, and time slipped by much faster than I expected it to. I looked up at one point, feeling kind of tired and ready for a break, thinking it might be 13:00 or 14:00, but it turned out to be 17:00! I wish I knew who keeps pushing the fast-forward button on me, because I'd like to ask them to stop.

After some quality time with a book I came back in (which is when I did the polishing) and finally got around to fixing the frame of my trike. As some of you may remember, the shipping company failed to actually pack it properly, and it got damaged in transit. The replacement wheel is on the way here, and the check from the shipping company to reimburse me for replacing the wheel has arrived. The other damage involved some tweaking to the frame such that the hinge to fold it in half no longer worked properly, leaving it stuck in the folded position. So tonight I went and got a mallet from the lab and gently beat the hinge until the two parts were once again lined up and they once again pivot around the pin. Having achieved that success, I decided I may as well put the seat back on, too.

( Alas, that part didn't go the way I hoped it would )

This year my birthday is The Answer. Pitty the Earth got destroyed before we discovered the question.

Spent yesterday doing more packing and moving, and today moving and scrubbing the walls. I also received the dirt tires for my trike (yay! My new house is on a dirt road, so I needed them), so as soon as I post this I'll celebrate my birthday by pedalling down the hill to my new home, and spend the evening trying to create order in the chaos there. Tomorrow: more cleaning, and (finally) packing all of my kitchen toys. Decided that part could wait till the carpet cleaners got here tomorrow so we focused on getting the carpeted rooms ready to go.

Last night clovis_t and I went out to the Tasmanian Folk federation's monthly dance. This month the band was Xenos, who are a delightful group--the dances are all traditional dances, generally done in a circle. While their web-page (and CD's) feature a variety of musicians, when they do the local dances here in Hobart it is just the two main musicians, and their two children. Their son plays a variety of drums for the dances, and their daughter sings beautiful harmonies and helps her mother teach the dances. As always, it was a very fun evening! (I've got a special fondness for Xenos--the first dance that clovis_t and I attended together was a Xenos dance nearly five years ago.)

Despite taking the time to go dancing, Uni work continues to progress--I was working right up until we went out the door, and as soon as we got home and did our daily yoga, I was right back on the computer finishing up the calculations upon which I'd been working before we left.

Today is one of those lovely early winter (late autumn? it is hard to tell when living some place that doesn't *really* get snow) days wherin there isn't a cloud in the sky, but the sun is neither hot nor overpowering, and it is a joy to go outside. Therefore I went out for a trike ride.

Back when I bought my trike, I intended it to be a commuter vehicle--at that time I didn't have a decent computer, so it was necessary to go in to Uni on a daily basis. clovis_t, being an undergraduate student, didn't want to be at uni as many hours as I needed to be there, and we have only the one car, so peddling in made sense. Living on a hill, the trip down in the morning took only 15 minutes from hopping on the trike here to wheeling it into my office there (this means it is faster than driving once you include taking time to find a place to park and then walk to the office!). I rather enjoyed the trip back up the hill at the end of each day. Sure, it took about an hour, but the view was nice, and with a trike, one can go as slow as one wants without fear of tipping over (one of the *many* ways trikes are far superior to two-wheeled bikes). My logic at the time was "if I do nothing else all day in the way of exercise, at least I'll have done that".

But then I bought my notebook computer--finally I had a tool which would permit me to undertake the complex calculations I needed to do for my project in the comfort of my own home! Strangely, I pretty much quite commuting after that. Sure, some days I still need to go down the hill--perhaps to look through the microscope at my samples. Perhaps to use the microprobe, or even to speak with my advisor in person instead of via e-mail. But I am much less likely to take the trike when I do--ever since I spoke to a friend to told me that she used to commute by bike with her notebook computer, and then wound up having to replace the computer after only one year due to damage caused from the vibrations, I have been reluctant to take mine with me on the trike. Particularly for that down-hill trip; despite riding my breaks much of the way, I still reach speeds into the mid-to high 40's (kilometres/hour) and I am able to notice the vibrations with my body, and would not wish to share them with the computer!

So now trike rides are an occasional luxury, when I have some time to spare, or need a break to enjoy a pretty day like today, and I tend to get most of my exercise going for walks with my friends. But I strongly suspect that I will be grateful I have the trike when I finish this degree and move... wherever it is that we wind up next... and we no longer have a car available for our use. (And with luck, whatever job I find will come with a computer so I won't need to bring mine in with me.)