Weekend Fun

- cleaned up after our legendary twice-yearly party of the department of archaeology which was strangely undervisited this year, although the weather was perfect

- persuaded a waiter at a café to serve us breakfast at half past one with two friends

- translated an old norse text at Starbuck's

Sunday:

- cleaned my apartment all day. Yay, fun!!

Maybe you could write an Old Norse text about Starbucks.

- took my son to the local carnival, ate chips and ice-cream, funded him for rides

The rest of the weekend was more work and drama than fun, but getting out in the sun makes up for an awful lot.

But how can an atheist enjoy walking in the sun? Look at you, your worldview makes no sense!!!!1!!! d-;

an Old Norse text about Starbucks

The Saga of Aulait Starbuckssen?

I googled the Agricola game, and it looks really interesting. I play Killer Bunnies with a couple of friends (fun, but kinda random)- maybe I can convince them to play Agricola.

This weekend:

- practiced polocrosse at friends' field/ranch one morning, then just rode both horses the next. The gelding can only be ridden in the sandy arena until the farrier puts one of his front shoes back on. Crappy Thoroughbred feet (and rocky terrain)!

- worked on several knitting and crochet projects, and surfed around on Ravelry

- worked in the vegetable garden and yard

Other activities, like working on two manuscripts and reading related journal articles, do not really count as "weekend fun".

Friday was Senior Race Day (the final event of the TT) here on the Isle of Man, and so a day off work. Therefore, I got up at 7 am to re-do my financial calculations of estimated startup and running costs, first year turnover, and taxes for my soon-to-be business and generally work on the details of the business plan. Finished at 2.30 pm and walked downtown to rent a couple of movies, came home and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening waiting for the Mrs to log on to Skype, which she didn't so I had a beer and read whisky stuff and scienceblogs all night.

Saturday I watched Valkyrie and Bolt, the movies I'd rented, over breakfast, which was nice. Bolt was excellent, hit all the right notes, tugged at all the right heartstrings, had me in tears 3 or 4 times along the movie. Loved it. Also got to talk to the Mrs on Saturday, and heard that our firstborn is coming along very nicely, and will likely be huge. The baby's already 1.8 kilos, and it's 10 weeks till the due date! Also returned the two movies and took out The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was rather good. This was the best Saturday in quite a while.

Sunday was quiet and cloudy, so when the sun came out in the afternoon, I headed out to a nearby hotel to try some Rosebank malts at the bar. Perfect summery drams, they were, especially the 18-year-old cask strength one by Cadenhead's. Very nice indeed.

Sorry for the wordy description, but even the Friday stuff was really mostly fun. And I just am a rather wordy person.

Aha, Owl, now I know that Ravelry is a "knit and crotchet community"!

InkRose, I take it you're visiting the Isle of Man for a boat race while the missus is at home with a big belly?

Those who are interested in social networking platforms for scientists could learn a thing or two from Ravelry. Imagine, for example, that you could download a detailed and specialized lab protocol, and then interact with the scientist who developed/optimized it, in an online forum. And this scientist would answer your questions quickly and precisely, give you encouragement, and provide feedback on your results.

Imagine further that knitters and crotcheters were funded by the National Institutes of Health and forced to come up with new designs all the time in order to keep their knitting needles and yarn supply. (-;

Interesting point, Martin - but then the scientists who are working with and optimizing protocols on a daily basis are usually not the same ones who are writing for NIH money.

And many of the designers on Ravelry are indeed forced to come up with new designs all the time, to maintain their livelihood (and to receive samples and supplies from yarn and notions producers). I don't know enough about medieval guilds to say whether the Ravelry community resembles them.

Another piece of new knowledge for me: sewing notions. Thank you!

Interesting definition of notions. I had always understood it to include the needle, thread, tape measure, small scissors, thimble, and any other small items needed to work on the particular project, not just the things you're attatching to it.

eleanora.
(Who learnt to sew before she learnt to read or write, which may or may not help in understanding terms.)

I'm not a terribly good seamstress, but I get by thanks to craft shop in school. We had woodworking and sewing every second term.

For most craftspeople, the problem is not in coming up with new designs, but in having time to execute them. I have sketches, ideas and plans for enough sewing, costuming, quilts, knitting, nalbinding, embroidery, and tablet weaving, to keep me going for the next couple of hundred years.

Martin, the TT is a motorcycle road race. The fastest, craziest people complete a ~60 km lap in under 17 minutes. Bearing in mind there's a few hairpin turns and about 500m elevation difference between lowest and highest points on the route and much of it goes through towns and villages, it's a fairly impressive feat to reach average speeds of well over 200 km/h...

And actually, I've been on the island on my own since Christmas while the missus has been back home in Finland, working in daycare and being pregnant. I've missed essentially the entire pregnancy, which means I missed not only the morning sickness, but also that I've for example never felt the baby kicking. I'm moving back home in 5 weeks, to set up my own little watchmaker's workshop and preparing for the baby. Counting the days, believe you me.