Finally, finished stuff!

Am I excited about my trip in a few days? Da! Am I ready? Ne! I still have to prepare the lecture that I'll be presenting there, and get a few stray term papers and exams graded, and pack, and.... At least I have mastered two important words in Croatian. I bought a phrasebook. Way back in college I took 3 years of Russian. I still remember a little, which may come in handy, as it looks like the two languages have a lot of similarities (although Croatian is written in the Roman alphabet rather than Cyrillic).

In the meantime, here are some actual FOs!

This knitted and felted purse isn't actually quite an FO--I still need to add a closure of some kind. But it's at least nearly done. I would've preferred a longer strap, but I ran out of brown. It's a fun pattern to make, other than requiring a zillion rows of 6-stitch i-cord.

These are all candleholders. The one in the middle is an experiment--the idea is that the flame will make shadows through that hole. Haven't tried it yet. The one on the right even has a title: Keep(er) of My Heart. See the little heart inside? The one on the left is intended for someone specific.

The bowl on the left is funky, but it turned out better than I had expected, anyway. I'm not usually into green, but I like this green. The other two things are supposed to be yarn bells. I haven't tried them yet either, so don't know whether they work. I can say I love the glaze on the one in the middle, and of course I have no recollection of which glazes I used.

This is just a bowl. Sadly, the edges cracked a bit during the bisque firing, but it's still usable. I like the red.

And here are top and side views of my favorite things I've made so far. We did a raku firing on the last day of class, and just look how pretty it turned out! Each bowl has just a single glaze on it, and, as you can see, I left the outside of the bowls unglazed, other than the rim on the right one. I don't think the pictures really do the colors justices. I love raku!

Blah, and stuff

• Today is our third day in a row in triple digits. Yesterday it hit 106. Hot weather isn't unusual here, but for goodness sake, it's only mid-May!
• Thanks, all, for the Croatian yarn tips. It looks like I may have a free day while I'm there, and I will hunt down some fiber if I can. The rest of my time will be spent working. I have to give a lecture, which will apparently be translated into Croatian. I've never had a lecture translated before--should be interesting. I'll also be visiting a prison or two, which I'm actually looking forward to. Some of us make eccentric tourists, I guess.
• Since we finally finished Buffy a couple weeks ago, I've now started in on Angel. I'd watched quite a bit of Buffy when it originally aired, but only an episode or two of Angel. I'm keeping track of the percentage of episodes that show David Boreanaz bare-chested. So far, we're 3/7, although one of those 3 did have 2 separate bare-chested scenes, so maybe that counts twice. I haven't watched any network tv since the writers' strike began, and I don't miss it at all.
• My ceramics class ended this week. I made a few nice things--I'll try to get some pix up soon. We did raku on the last night, which is really fun and produces some pretty results.
• I am so ready for the semester to end! Finals begin this coming week. I'm buried in term papers. And I have 2 different book deadlines and that lecture to prepare, all by May 30. Ick. Who needs a life?

Swimmin' Lizards!

I fished this little guy (girl?) out of the pool yesterday. He is sceloporous occidentalis biseriatus--the San Joaquin Fenze Lizard. Pretty little thing. I didn't get a good shot of his back, but his belly is his best feature anyway. He was cold and tired, but I put him in a nice sunny spot, and after 30 minutes or so he was looking much perkier. So I put him back in the garden. Hopefully, he'll forego more swimming.

Croatian Yarn?

So, I have my tickets to Zagreb. I have an 8 hour layover in Paris, which is probably not long enough for it to be worthwhile to leave the airport. Oh well. I have a tight connection in Paris on the way home--maybe I'll miss it and tragically find myself stuck there an extra day. Anyone know of any yarn stores in Zagreb? Anybody at least know how to say "yarn" in Croatian?

Eastward, ho. Wait, that doesn't sound right....

It's official--I'm going to Zagreb in a few weeks. I'll probably stay for a week. Now I need to make my travel plans, which involve important questions such as: Do I want a 22-hour layover in Paris? and Which knitting project shall I take along for the trip? and Can I squeeze in a side trip to Trieste? and What do I need to do to get the household shipshape for my absence? and What kind of compensation is Hubby likely to demand in exchange for abandoning him with the Things and pets during his busiest month at work? and Are there any yarn stores in Zagreb?

We finished Buffy last weekend. I'm going to miss it. No more shirtless vampires. Of course, we now have 5 seasons of Angel to watch, and since I never watched that series during its original run, that'll be fun.

Croatia

Looks like my trip to Zagreb next month is a go. Life is so hectic now that 12+ hours stuck on an airplane almost sounds good. I won't know details about the trip until next week, and it will, of course, be a business trip, but I'm still excited. I can add a new passport stamp to my Central Europe collection. :-)