If you can

My brother, Eric, (not the one who just got married, a different one) is doing a charity walk for NAMI, an organization dedicated to helping people with mental illness. From their website:

NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness and their families. Founded in 1979, NAMI has become the nation’s voice on mental illness, a national organization including NAMI organizations in every state and in over 1100 local communities across the country who join together to meet the NAMI mission through advocacy, research, support, and education.

He is looking for donations for this. Here is his fundraising page.

We all have causes and organizations that are important to us in some special way for one reason or another and this is one of those for me. I have mentioned on occasion (I think) that I suffer from mental illness. I talk a bit more about it here (this post was part of a web-ring called the ABC-along which I unfortunately flaked out on less than halfway through).

Please donate if you can. Thanks!

Not even interesting to my husband

What does it say when your husband doesn't read your blog? I set up this other blog for lab stuff because he wanted to know what was going on in lab and if I'm making progress and it's too hard for me to talk about. But he hasn't said much, just mentioned my first post. And you know how, if nobody ever comments, you start to feel like maybe you're talking to yourself? (That was NOT a hint for comments, btw) Here's how the conversation went:

Me: So, having you been reading my blog?
J: Well, I read that first post about your paper, did you put more on it?
Me: Yes! Lots more!*
J: I didn't realize you were going to post so frequently
Me: It said right there on the blog that I was going to post frequently!!**
J: Oh, I wish I had known, I was bored up there on the mountain sometimes, it would've been nice to have something to read***
Me: Well, I thought you would just check it to see if I had posted anything new!
J: I never think to check things like that.
Me: I had a cold! I got a cold, had the cold, and now I'm mostly over the cold and it was all there on the blog and you never even knew!!****
J: Sorry.
Me: You said you wanted to know how things were going and here I am telling you and you're not even reading it!
J: I'm sorry, I'll read it more often now.
Me: You need a newsreader.
J: (silence)
Me: (accusingly) It has an RSS feed!
J: Oh.

Carrol, if you're reading this, I know you're sitting there shaking your head and thinking, "That's John." Or laughing your ass off. Or both.

ANYway, the point is, now that I have the blog, it's like it's one more way for him to not pay attention to what I'm saying. I mean, I can't force the man to read it. I'd give the whole thing up except that now I enjoy writing it. *sigh*

*There are now fifteen posts there
** From my first post, "I'm hoping to post daily or every other day about what it is I'm doing in lab. " My first post was on the 6th.
***He's been in Hawaii the past week for an observing run (astronomer, remember?) and the telescope is at the top of the mountain
****We don't talk on the phone much when he's observing because of the time difference and because he's either at the summit doing work, or sleeping

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In knitting news, I'm going to see the Yarn Harlot at her book signing this Sat. in LA! I missed her when she was in the Chicago area because it was out in the burbs and lab and all that, but I'm heading to LA tomorrow (to visit my husband who doesn't listen to me) and there's no way I'm going to miss her twice.

Speaking of going to LA, I have the vacation knitting dilemma. You know how it goes, you want to make sure you have enough projects to work on while you are away. This number is not necessarily the number of projects you think you'll finish plus one but more like the number of projects you need in case you get bored with one or more of the ones you are working on. And then there is the knitting on the plane. It's quite a long plane ride (plus time at the airport) so you don't want to run out of stuff. But, it needs to be easy to work on while crammed into a small space. Decisions, decisions.

Great.

Little knitting

Some socks for Benjamin. The pen was included for scale. No real pattern just general sock shaping--a 2x2 rib in the cuff and stockinette for the foot. Short row heel because that's the way I roll.

I've started Christmas knitting but I can't tell you what it is in case my family reads this blog. :)

In other news, I've started a lab blog over at livejournal. It's mostly for my family, to keep them updated on my progress because it's too hard for me to talk about how long it will take me to finish this damn PhD. But, if you're interested in what it is I do all day, feel free to wander over. I'm trying to make it as friendly to lay people as I possibly can (except for the first post in which I outline my paper/thesis, but I said it probably wouldn't be understandable at the beginning of the entry). I decided to try out livejournal on a whim and I can't decide if I like it or not. You can't upload pictures unless you have a paid account, but you can upload them to photobucket and embed them that way. It's a little roundabout, but not too bad. It's not for people who are sensitive about their lack of friends, though. My homepage says: You have only made 0 friends. Thanks. Anyhow, I've posted a pic of my lab bench in its natural state for those who wonder what it really looks like in a research lab.