Pre-Enroll

After a disgustingly early morning, I am now tentatively enrolled in classes for next semester.  I am signed up for an English seminar called "the great Cornell author," which will include works by Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, and my current creative writing professor J. Robert Lennon.  I'm also taking a cognitive studies course called "the psychology of language," a French seminar, a linguistics class on the history of the English language, and biology lab course.

Lynah Faithful

After both Hillary and I weren't able to make the annual camp out in line for season hockey tickets, we were ecstatic to get an email saying they had a few remaining unclaimed season tickets.  We rushed to the ticket office, landed first in line at the window, and managed to buy the next-to-last season tickets.

This makes us officially "Lynah Faithful," the dedicated fans of Cornell hockey that frequent Lynah rink.  Our first game was against Dartmouth (who we whomped 5-1), and our second was the legendary Cornell-Harvard match up, our biggest rivalry.  Tickets for this game are nearly impossible to get, unless you happen to have season tickets, of course.

Hillary and I with our Lynah Faithful shirts (free with tickets), and our fish.

Fish, you say??  One of the weirdest hockey traditions is throwing fish on the ice at the Harvard game.  The history behind it is that Harvard once threw a dead chicken on the ice to make fun of Cornell's agriculture school.  The next year, we threw dead fish to mock the fishing industry in Boston (not sure why that deserves to be made fun of, but I'll go with it).  After that, Harvard tied a live chicken to the Cornell goal, but they (obviously) got in huge trouble, where as we have been throwing fish ever since.  Security is intense on the way in, patting people down for dead fish.  Most people now use swedish fish, gold fish, or paper fish as a more symbolic gesture.

A giant fish head thrown on the ice after the 2nd period-- like the fish thrown at the beginning of the game, it was picked up by designated fish-picker-upers with garbage bags.  Fun job.

The line up at the Cornell-Harvard game

The zamboni man, who is now retired but makes special appearances, always dresses up in some crazy costume.  I believe he is a Chinese emperor here.

In case you care (that's a rhetorical question, OF COURSE you care), we stomped Harvard, 6 to 3, in a very high energy game that stayed neck and neck right up to the third period.

The Knitting Craze

Come on, everybody's doing it!

Hillary knitting a scarf outside on a lovely day

Melissa knitting in some awesome footie pajamas.  This is her first practice swatch, she's now moved on to a scarf using the needles I gave her for her birthday.

Hillary starting a baby hat for her cousin's baby, and Illika working on a swatch she started last winter when she learned to knit

Hillary and I with our dueling mittens.  Her mittens are Pittsburgh Penguins mittens for a friend, mine will be flip-top mittens.

Here's the finished product for mine.  I added a cable down the center to make them go with a hat for a gift for Laura.  The project's on Ravelry.

Here's the full set.  I LOVE the hat pattern-- it's molded after Hermione's hat in the 5th Harry Potter movie.  You can find it online here as a free Ravelry download.  I used a bamboo yarn, but the yarn suggested by the pattern is heavenly.

What can I say, I'm a trend setter.  And, knitting makes a great low-stress, high-productivity break from homework.

Murder at the Speakeasy

Friday, October 30th, 2009

362 Becker House, Ithaca, NY

For halloween, our suite decided to throw a murder mystery party.  We bought a kit online for a 1920's themed mystery to take place in a speakeasy, and raided some local thrift stores for supplies to cobble our costumes together.

Hilary, playing tailor for Melissa.  A lot of our costumes were basic dresses that we decked out with fringe and other 1920's accessories.

Illika, stitching fringe to her dress.  But of course, it couldn't be just normal fringe, because that would be boring.  She went with purple.

Setting up the suite.  We stacked our coffee table on our end tables to make a bar, complete with mini-fridge hid underneath and stocked with juice, soda, and energy drinks for mixing.  What's a speakeasy without a bar, right?

The final product of our costume efforts: fringe, fun headbands, and pearls.  Hillary was Dina Diva, the singer, Tahra was Molly Moll, the prima donna, I was Rosie Marie, owner of the speakeasy, Illika was Cindy Butt, the gossipy cigarette girl, and Melissa was Kitty Cocktail, the waitress.

We had a blast, and in the final vote 3 people correctly guessed the murderer.  It was the police chief, can you believe it?

Insomnia Hat

October 29th, 2009

I call my most recent knitting accomplishment my insomnia hat.  After some difficulty falling asleep, I decided to knit a couple rows on this hat every night before going to bed.  It helped a lot, and now I have an awesome hat.  I picked the yarn to match my favorite scarf-- a plaid cashmere that my grandma gave me for Christmas.  I also modified the pattern to add a button flap on the side.  Find the super-simple pattern here, and my project on Ravelry.