Who, me?

Hi! Remember me? I didn’t forget about you, I have just been busy lately. Expect a lot of posts in the upcoming week because I have a lot to tell you. This post is mostly to let you know that I am still alive. It will not contain any knitting or crafting content, as I plan to play along with the ‘Seven Things’ meme. Many of you may wish to tune out now. Come back tomorrow for crafty fun!

The idea of this tag is to tell seven random things about yourself, and I have been tagged by both Arachne and Elizabeth. I have previously played along (partially) with the 6 weird things meme which you might be interested in if you are still reading.
I usually don’t actually tag anyone with these, but we’ll see how I feel when I get to the end of it.

1. State Science Fair As a gradeschooler, I achieved a truly nerdly goal of going to the state science fair. On the way there, my project (“Can a plant grow upside down?”) spilled in the car. Then I arrived to find out that you were supposed to bring your own table and chair. While I hid, dying of embarrassment, at my friend Kelli’s project (something about taste and locations on the tongue that I am pretty sure has since been debunked) my mom raced home to get a table. Meanwhile, the large cardboard barrel that was the main housing of my upside-down-plant-apparatus was being used by strangers as a garbage can. I returned to find it filled with many doritos bags and pop cans. One contributor was the little bitch with the oscilloscope (clearly her dads) in the space next to mine. If I remembered her name, she would be my scientific rival. Anyhow, I managed to not die of shame, and nervously present my project. I got a superior, but did not advance to the national science fair (kinda like getting all excellents on your NSF proposal, but still not getting it funded). I was inspired to tell you this after reading about the bad start to mediatinker’s day, but things worked out okay for her, too.

2. Adult Science Fair Several years into grad school, I was to present my work at a conference in Denmark. In true ‘adult science fair’ fashion, I had to make a poster of certain dimensions. The requirements were cryptic to me even though they specified some size (A10?, B10?) but I managed to get a bit of info from some that had attended before and made the poster. After I dragged the freaking poster tube all the way across the Atlantic, my poster was located in the back corner of a tent outside the venue – a little discouraging. Then I unravelled my poster and noticed it was a really tight fit in the space given, but was grateful that they provided the pins and the bulletin board to hang it on, preventing a flashback to number 1. When I returned later, and all the other posters were hung, I realized that I had printed mine with the long dimension horizontal, and the correct way was with the long dimension vertical (I landscaped when it should have been portrait). I was rudely covering up my neighbors. Flashback to number 1.

3. Peanuts I am allergic to peanuts. When my “friends” offer them to me, I remind them that they just tried to kill me.

4. California Cuisine I have a theory that whenever anything is called “California-style” it just contains avocados, tofu, or both.

5. Worms My only pets are worms. Not really surprising I guess, since I used to catch nightcrawlers as a kid. I like cats, but never know when I am going to move, so I can only commit to a composting container of worms that live on my fire escape. My dad and I used to admire worm composting systems on display at the home and Garden show, but ever since my pet snake escaped, my mom put the smack down on new pets. Would you like to know more about worm composting bins? I am proud of my apartment sized one and was thinking of telling you how I made it.

6. Blythe I have a Blythe doll. You have never seen her because she is not ready for photographs. I blame Crafty Ginger.

7. Contest I am going to have a contest. stay tuned.

Edit: I added a photo so this wasn’t too dreary. Behold! Recent Fllickr faves: