No Turning Back Now

I just dropped off everything for the Iowa State Fair. I submitted everything that I mentioned in my previous post. Plus these three:

Division 55 - Crochet

Class 92 - Fashion Accessory
City Girl Cap

Division 56 - Hand Knitting

Class 101 - Baby Sweater or Dress

Another Striped Baby Sweater

Class 120 - Cap or hat (two or more colors)

Olympic Junkie Hat (sorry, I forgot to photograph this one before I took it)

I really don't think either of these hats will win anything, but it never hurts to try!

State Fair Bound

The deadline for state fair entries is quickly approaching. I've decided to make the most of my entry fee and try to find ten items worthy of entry. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm trying!

Here are the projects I've decided on so far. (Disclaimer: I reserve the right to edit these decisions multiple times before July 31st.)

I'm including Ravelry links, so if you aren't on ravelry yet, you either don't knit/crochet and therefore probably don't really care what I'm entering in the fair, or you do knit/crochet and you really need to get with the program!

Division 55 - Crochet

Class 90 - Sweater
Northern Dreams Pullover

Class 95 - Toy
Hep Cat

Class 96 - Ornaments (set of three)
Triple Crochet Snowflake
My Favorite Snowflake
Northern Snowflake

Division 56 - Hand Knitting

Class 114 - Lace, any item
Red Hot Mountain

Class 115 - Socks/Slippers (one color)
Monkey Socks

Class 121 - Scarf
Drop Stitch Scarf

Class 123 - Shawl (lace)
Zauberball Ishbel

I've got to come up with a few more items to reach my goal of ten. There are some that I have in mind, but I'm not quite sure what I'll choose yet. I want to help the knitting and crochet divisions make a strong showing at the fair. These arts are alive and well here in Iowa and I hope that people come visit the exhibits. We'll be on the second floor of the Varied Industries building. Maybe I'll see you there!

Our State Fair

There are some Iowans who can instantly tell you how many days are left until the start of the state fair. They are the type of people who can already smell the corndogs as soon as the snow begins to melt. I am not one of those people.

Despite the fact that Iowa may have the greatest state fair in the world (just ask Rogers and Hammerstein) I think I've only been there once in my life. I have vague memories of it from my childhood. I don't remember the animals, the exhibits, the food, or the three-hour drive to Des Moines. All I can remember is sitting on a burlap sack and flying down a giant, brightly colored slide. That might have even been some other fair.

Anyhow, my husband and I have been proud residents of Des Moines for three and a half years now. Every summer we have said that we need to make a point to attend the fair, but every summer we've found some excuse not to go. You see, as much as I might enjoy the fair, I really hate mid-August heat and massive crowds. And every time I picture us going to the fair, I see nothing but mid-August heat and massive crowds. Yuck.

But this year I've decided to get past it. I want to go to the fair. I want to see why people make such a big deal about the corn dogs. I want to "people watch" on the Midway. I want to see if that giant burlap sack slide is still there (if it ever was). I want to see the knitted and crocheted items that Iowans put on display. And I want to enter some of my handcrafted items to be judged in the fair. (I'll let you know what I've decided to enter in a later post.)

I probaby won't ever love the fair as much as some people, and I may even hate it so much that I never want to go again, but I won't really know until I just go.

My Two Jobs

Ok, so I don't actually have two jobs. But it sure feels like it sometimes. Sometimes I go to work here. I spend time doing things like writing proposals and reports, calculating laboratory test results, making phone calls, etc. Yes, that is a cooler in front of my desk, and no, it's not full of cold beverages. A couple of times a month I have to pack water samples into a cooler and ship them off to a chemistry lab. It's much easier to just leave a cooler sitting in my office than to figure out where I should store it.



Other days, I work at places like this one. Another aspect of my job involves visiting construction sites to confirm that projects are being built the way they should be. I spend my time doing some field observations, performing tests, and getting into (fortunately rare) heated discussions with contractors.

It's fun to work in a variety of different environments, and I don't always know what I'll be doing on any given day. It's also gives me an opportunity to physically see a project take shape. I can take the information that we gather in the field, design a foundation, watch the foundation be built, then see the rest of the building stack up on top of it. It's pretty cool stuff.

If you give an engineer a garden...

It will probably look something like this!



Well, perhaps not always. But if that engineer happens to be my husband, then that's what you get. Before Greg and I take all of the credit for this masterpiece, I must direct you to Mel Bartholomew's books on square foot gardening. Mel is a civil engineer who developed this efficient method of gardening in grids rather than rows. You are supposedly able to grow lots of food while conserving space, water, and labor. We'll have to see how things turn out, but so far it sure looks pretty.

The basic idea is that you build 4-foot by 4-foot raised beds (we have 6 of them) and then divide each bed into 16 square feet. Then you plant an appropriate number of plants in each square foot, depending on the spacing needs of each plant. In this photo you can see some broccoli with one plant in each square, some green beans with 4 plants in each square, and some carrots with 16 plants in each square.

Want more details? Go here.

We've harvested some spinach and radishes so far. The rest of our plants seem to be making progress as well. I'll let you know how it goes!

Sacrifices

Hello friends! I'm back. First I must confess. I actually thought I was exaggerating a bit when I said I may not be posting again until May. Well, it's late May already and I have no idea where the time has gone.

Last year I made the decision to pursue a Master's degree while staying on at my full-time job. A Master's degree has been an inevitable step in my career path for a while, and I finally decided to get it over with. All of my colleagues have one, and I assured my boss that it was part of my plan when I hired on 3 years ago.

So I took one class last fall, and started my way down the road toward a Master's of Engineering in Geotechnics. I'll admit that I've been trudging down that road and not exactly enjoying the journey. Sure, I've celebrated some accomplishments, and learned some new (questionably useful) things in my chosen field. When it's done I know that I'll have an even bigger sense of accomplishment. And I'll have earned a great deal of respect from the people I work with. Those things make me feel like a bit of sacrifice now will pay off later. Someday I'll look back and laugh at how reluctant I was to do something good for myself.

I spent the past semester devoting a ton of time to making it through two classes toward my Master's degree. It was a struggle, but now I'm finished for the summer. I wound up with good grades in both classes. By burdening myself with two classes at once, I shaved a full six months off of my expected graduation date. All in all, I think it was worth it.

In fact, I'm currently signed up to take two classes again in the fall, even though I've said that I would never do it again. I'll probably complain about the workload, again. My husband will remind me that it was my choice to do this, again. I probably won't have much time for blogging, again. But when December rolls around, I'll probably feel like it was all worth it, again. Because at that point I'll be 15 credits into my Master's program. Halfway there! And the road will be downhill the rest of the way.

Hanging in there...

As my lack of blog-posting suggests, I have been swamped lately. Even though work has been pretty slow, I've been putting in a lot of hours in an attempt to make us not-so-slow. Plus I'm taking 6 credits of online classes this semester. Perhaps I'll get a chance to post again in May...