There's the new pattern - My Vampire Boyfriend by the wonderful Kate Atherley.

Well, my parents and sister came to visit yesterday, and we found out!

Yeah, No excuse. I'm going to blog more often. I swear!

I have been neglecting the blog terribly. You would think that being away from my family, friends, boyfriend, kitties, and yarn stash would give me lots of time for blogging, but the truth is... grad school keeps you busy. Somehow I forgot this over the summer.

So. I've been here for a week now. School officially started yesterday, and I've already got a paper and presentation due Friday, and another paper due Monday. *sigh.* Grad school is hard.

I am moving three days. THREE!

I am moving to Rochester in nine days.

I've wanted to knit this hat for awhile. But I couldn't find glittery metallic yarn (Romni is good for things like that BTW.)

I was watching True Blood tonight, (arrgh... so addictive) and there's the scene where the mayor gives Bill a photograph of his family in, like, 1867, and I thought as I heard this aw, crap, another TV historical photograph FAIL. But, actually, I was pleasantly surprised. The mayor gave him a tintype, in a case, and whoever made it did their research. There was period-specific mats, and overmats, and there was even a photographers inscription on the brass. It was cool! And, it even looked like a tintype. And, best of all, Tintypes are the proper photographic medium for the time, and location. I was impressed!

On the other hand, there's this episode of Torchwood, when they end up back in WWII, and Tosh needs to leave a message for the team in the future, and so she's trying to find something that will last through time, and they imply this is a big challenge. So, they find a Polaroid camera, and take a photo of the piece of paper that they need to last, and then put that Polaroid in a metal box OUTSIDE exposed to the elements, and it's miraculously there in 2008.
Now, this is really stupid. 1. because it's only 50-odd years in the future. Plain old paper and ink can last that long, no problem. 2. Because, really? putting a photograph in a box outside will make it fade fifty million times faster then in a stable environment. and 3. because Polaroid is one of the LEAST stable photo materials, ESPECIALLY in the 1940's. If Tosh is supposed to be such a tech genius, she'd know that.

grrr. do your research people.

(and yes. I'm nitpicking about photographic historical accuracy in TV shows that include time travel, aliens, and vampires. So what? I have an imagination, but I'm a smart girl too.)

I am beginning to realize I will be a US resident soon. I have a bank account, and an apartment:



The whole second floor of the beautiful, huge Colonial house.



with yard, and parking, and laundry, and TWO bathrooms! (one for each of us.)
Oh, and the grocery store? Across the street!

I think I love it.

D'Arcy and I went to Rochester yesterday to check out that apartment. it sucked. Also, we failed at getting any other places to look at. Therefore, we are going BACK tomorrow. Because 6+ hours in the car a day is fun!

Tomorrow, we've got three places lined up, and dammit, we will take one of them!

Did'ya see the better photos I took of my Liesl?





...see, knitting content. It's getting regular again! Just in time for September, and grad school hell to start again!

In weird news for today: last night I had a dream that I was at a house party with some vampires from Buffy, and suddenly, the Cullens walked in, and the Buffy vampires all scoffed, and were like, "meh, we're outta here." it was bizarre.

More car time tomorrow. weee! can't wait.

Today was my last day @ the ROM!
I had a great time at my internship, but I've got so much freaking things to do this month, that I'm happy it's over.
Well, I'm going back on Wednesday to have lunch with my supervisors, but that's it.

On Sunday, my roomie D'Arcy and I are going to Rochester to check out an apartment. It's furnished, reasonably priced, and close to Eastman House. Fingers crossed!

Now, A short list of things I need to do in the next month. (to make me keep my ass in gear!)
1. Figure out what the hell I'm doing with my Canadian cell phone plan.
2. Make sure that there will be no problems bringing Sirius across the border.
3. Find out how to get my OSAP early, since I'll be in Rochester by Sept.
4. All the visa crap (paying the fee, dropping it off @ Eastman House, whatever else comes up.)
5. Apply for the library position @ Eastman House, so hopefully I can make a little money this year.
6. Figure out what the hell I'm bringing with me.
7. Pack.

I'm sure there's ten billion things more, but that's all I got right now.

And lastly, I finished a hat.



Details here.
Oh how glad am I that hats fit me again. This is one of many coming up!

Work tomorrow and Saturday, Rochester on Sunday, then I've got Monday and Tuesday OFF! Bliss.

I got my mac back!!!!!!



It works great, and I couldn't be happier! (well, i'd be a little happier if it hadn't wiped out some of my iTunes purchases, and my Adobe licenses.) Hopefully, this is the end of my bad technology luck. fingers crossed.

In other news, I finished Liesl today:



Better photos when it's actually daylight out.

This knit up in six days! out of three balls of Cascade 220! Honestly, those two facts alone make it an awesome sweater, but I love it, and I think it looks great! I just need a few cool brooches to wear with it now. Time to go shopping!

One more week at the internship. I've had a good time, but I'm ready for it to be done. I need to find an apartment still, and figure out what i'm bringing with me. Also, I need some time off before the hell that is Grad school starts again.

So....
We get dave's computer back, and when I looked at the repair sheet, I found out that they had replaced the whole logic board.
Dave and I have the same computer. Bought on the same day, same make, model, everything. If his computer had a faulty logic board, chances are good mine did too... right?
So I took off to the Apple Store, again, to see what they thought. The guy at the genius bar agreed that both computers failing within a week of each other was pretty sketchy. So he ran the graphics card test on my computer, which of course, didn't work, because with a fried logic board, it won't even start up. He gave me the number of Apple customer relations, and told me to give them a call and explain my case, since, without the record that my computer failed the graphics test, he couldn't authorize a replacement of the part.
So I called. I explained my case to the guy, and he said he'd look into it for me.
Yesterday, I got a call back from Apple, telling me that since the test on my Macbook was inconclusive, they were going to AUTHORIZE A REPAIR FOR FREE!!!
I took it in today. It'll be ready in a few days. I'm thrilled! I just saved myself 2,000 dollars by doing some research, and standing up for myself.

Apple has amazing customer service. Even if they didn't replace my part, i would have been satisfied with the service I got. The genius bar people are always friendly, honest, and helpful, even though they must see many pain in the ass people. The guy on the phone actually listened to my issue, which is rare for customer service people. Then, once they OK'd the repair, they arranged it all for me. I am so impressed. Not that I was EVER planning on switching to PC, but this experience has just left me feeling even better about Macs in general.

A few more days... then I'll have a computer again. Just like a real person. Dave will be very relieved!

So, I got home on Tuesday evening, and Dave tells me that his computer isn't working. It's not. I couldn't get it to work. It was starting up, but the display wasn't coming on. Apparently, I'm a technology jinx, or the gods are punishing me for not buying applecare, but Dave's computer wasn't working.
Off he goes to the Apple Store on Wednesday after work. The verdict : some faulty graphics card on the logic board thingy. Luckily, this is a manufacturers defect, so it's getting fixed FREE! (which is all we can afford right now.)

So, we're 3-5 days without a computer. This is day five actually, and it has been TORTURE. we're not sure if weekends count in this, so it could still be two more days. IT IS HELL.

I'm blogging right now, courtesy of my dear, darling, amazing, wonderful sister, who lent me her computer for the night, since she saw how desperate I was getting. as we speak I'm downloading Torchwood - which it's been KILLING ME not to watch all this week! But i've got to give it back to her tomorrow night.

Today was my Dad's fiftieth birthday party. I finished the sweater in time, and it fit, which is the most important part:



Terrible photo, but you get the point!

Anyways, more in 3-5 days, when we get Dave's computer back!