Hello World!
Oh my, it really has been forever since I've had a chance to blog. Well over a month! As you already know, when my blog goes quiet, I am in frantic work mode.
On the research front, my robot arm has just been so temperamental. I had a meeting with my occupational therapist to make sure that the robot was doing when they expected. The meeting overall was very successful. Still, I walked away with a seemingly small list of to-dos. One of my action items required creating one additional module, which really was 3 separate things (on top of the >18 other things already going). In the process, I managed to make my robot RAM INTO THE BOOKSHELF REPEATEDLY. I scrapped those changes! Then trying a different way, my robot started doing this hypnotic circling thing and a stutter thing as well. In any case, that's mostly resolved. I still have a few things left, but there will always be room for improvement.
On the social side of the world, Mark and I have been hosting a bed and breakfast, I swear! Our friends K & K came to visit us from the mid- and west-coasts at the beginning of June. After a delicious dinner at
Rendezvous in Central Square (in the people's republic of Cambridge, MA), we had second dessert at
Tosci's (where another one of my friend's used to work). I had a mini-sundae and I have to say that the hot fudge topping was the best part. I love how the mini-sundae is just the right size for me (just a tasting).
Coming back from Boston, we needed to find a 24-hour Super
Evilmart (
Walmart) to get a blow-up mattress (ours is in DC currently). The nearest Super
Evilmart is in Salem, NH which was well over 1.5 hours from where we were. We got to there at 12:01 am only to find out that Super
Evilmarts are now open only 18 hours (6am - 12 midnight). Well,
ok, so I had a lot of water to drink with dinner, so I really needed to use the little girl's room. I used my powers of cute Asian-
ness to lure them to open the doors (that and the universal pee-pee dance). While inside, Mark calls my cell and says, "You're in! You had to get the mattress now!" So I run through
Evilmart to Sporting Goods (which is in the furthest point from the store from where I am) in my 3-inch high heels. Hey, I'd just come back from a fancy dinner in Boston! I grabbed an air mattress and pump and scooted in line. I wasn't even the last person out. Meanwhile, Mark, K, & K are waiting for me in the parking lot which had a lot of very angry people in it!
The next day, we saw Up! in 3D. I totally recommend 3D for this movie; the next weekend we saw it with Mark's parents (who came up to visit) in 2D and it wasn't quite as nice. In the evening, K and I had an awesome Asian cook-fest. She made
us jap-
chae (Korean style lo-
mein kinda with thin rice noodles) and spring rolls. I made banana
wontons (bananas cooked in rum and sugar) topped with honey and sesame seeds. Yum! I totally hoarded the left-overs. :)
The following weekend, Mark's parents came up to visit us from FL. It was fun because Mark and I got to be tourists in Boston. I figure this is probably our last summer together here in Lowell, so we might as well take in all the sights. We did the
Museum of Science (I still love it there), the Duck Tours, and
Blueman at the Charles Playhouse. We also hung around the house and caught up.
On the gardening front, the
UML Community Garden has really taken off. We have a 40 foot x 70 foot gardening space that we've tilled and planted. About half of the garden is for communal plants, which means that all
members will get an equal share. The popular plants such as tomatoes, cucumber, yellow squash,
zucchini, peas, and herbs were planted in the front half of the garden. So far we've had 2 work days. On the first day, we laid out the garden and planted the communal plants. On our second day, we installed the trellis supports and mesh trellises. I finally just planted my seedlings this past Saturday. I know it's really late! You can imagine just how busy I've been. Today I planted my cherry tomato plant (remember the one I started in the
Aerogarden in January?) in a self-watering hanging basket and hung it outside my window. I got 5 little tomatoes from it today. I was very excited and made them into my dinner. :)
On the crafting front, I had a blitz last Thursday and Friday. My friend D is having a baby boy. She and her husband J are decorating in the Super Mario Brothers theme. So I decided to knit them a
Goomba hat. And then I realized that I didn't have enough dark brown yarn. So I
frogged that and learned how to 1) purl and 2) interchange colors. I solved the brown issue by making a blue background. I found a website that converts images into patterns, but they didn't let me say how big the piece was supposed to be. I'd intended to make a folded rectangle hat, but then the
Goomba just got too big. Then I decided it was going to be a pillow. I've just realized that I didn't take ANY pictures of it (Update 8/9/09: Debbie posted a picture on Facebook, so I've put it below). SIGH, that makes me really sad because I was really proud of it. I used 5 colors!!! That was a lot of thread management (
ahahahah; sorry that was a CS joke). I have D the present at her shower on Saturday and she loved it :)
My honey was wonderful this past weekend and switched desks with me. Now I have a large horizontal surface on which to craft. And by craft I mostly mean sew. I'm dying to make some skirts and dresses! I'm in the process of
repurposing t-shirts. I'm working on an XL men's t-shirt (from my first
Defcon) and turning it into a Trinity
inspired (I think anyways) ladies shirt. I promise; this time I'll take pictures.
Ok, that's it for now. I will try to post to my blog more. For more of my daily stuff, follow me on Twitter (
katemtsui).