Hyperbolic Math + Crochet

You know, I’d crochet every day just for the experience, but sometimes it’s great to discover that your hobby has an amazing application…

Margaret Wertheim encourages us to do more of our thinking in physical ways through the Institute of Figuring.

Now go crochet some math!

Still in Canada, land of ice and snow…

… at least for now. I’m experiencing the weird occurrence of being at home at my mom and dad’s with the baby sans husband.
For those who don’t know, all of us were due to fly home this week after a ‘pass the baby around’ visit to the home country when Lucy contracted RSV and was hospitalised for four days. In most people, the virus passes as a cold, but it’s particularly dangerous in small babies where it can lead to bronchitis and pneumonia. Lucy had a truly terrible cough, and on the second trip to the emergency room (at a different hospital this time) we were admitted and properly checked over. (If you are ever ill in southern Alberta, Brooks Health Centre is the place to go – seriously.) Lucy had oxygen, as well as Ventolin and epinephren nebuliser treatments, and was well enough to come out of hospital on Thursday, after three nights. She was prescribed Ventolin, but so far hasn’t needed any today – an excellent sign!
So, now we have the extremely hard task of putting up with being pampered endlessly, cuddled enormously and fed large amounts of food for the next week. Seriously though, it is lovely that mom and dad have this extra time with Lucy, even if the reason isn’t fab. And for me, it’s odd to be here without Richard, but very familiar as well – and someone has to teach a certain person about their Canadian heritage!

Things to do on a plane

1. Watch films, if baby is quiet, feeding or asleep.
2. Play games on iPhone. Curse accelerometer every time you hit turbulence.
3. Sleep, taking care not to drop the baby.
4. Amuse yourself by using Pano app to take panoramic shots of the cabin.
5. Play Poke-the-Nose with baby.
6. Feed baby. Repeat.
7. Play about with electric seats.
8. Read books, e- or otherwise. Realize you no longer have an analytical brain as you just can’t see why the hell ‘The Metamorphosis’ is such a big deal. He turns into a cockroach, stays that way, and then dies. Point???
9. Look at the fluffy pink clouds outside the window. I have not been binging on the free wine; they really are pink!
10. Blog of course! (silly!)

The thing about small noses …

is that they can produce big boogers. And likewise, small bums can produce – well, I think you can work that one out. And small mouths can produce a big noise, just like small people can produce the biggest love.

Told ya I’d get soppy…

Haikurious

Twitter guy (or gal)
has great concept for tweeting -
Where is your output?

So, it’s been a while…

Looking at the dates, it’s been a while since I posted. That may be because I’ve spent the last year being pregnant and giving birth and learning how to look after a small person who takes up a lot of time and space. (And much of my heart – I’m sure to get very soppy about it at times…) It may also be because it’s true that pregnancy hormones rot your brain – for someone who has read 50 novels in a year on top of a full time teaching job, I was unable to focus on a plot more complex than ’see spot run’ until just recently. The 2 am feeds may also have something to do with that, but since I have now regained the ability to string a sentence together and embraced the sleep deprivation, maybe my brain can revert to something approximating normal. And perhaps I can start blogging again.

Can I point out that blogging would not be possible at all right now if it weren’t for my loverly iPhone – currently I’m in bed with a sleeping child on my chest, which does make weilding a laptop difficult without complicated machinery and muscle strain – but the wonders of the iPhone allow me to blog, shop, check my email and Facebook from wherever I am… Ain’t technology grand?? Thank you to hubby for buying me one! I do think it is a sign of a well designed piece of tech to think one day ‘how did I ever live without ____’. I get down to the office to use the Mac about once a week now – all regular visits to www land are made via the iPhone these days.

So, possible new topics for future posts: babies and small children, breastfeeding, how hormones mess with your head and how having the cat try to sit on your head while you’re blogging doesn’t really help the concentration… This is of course on top of regular topics like poetry, Canadiana and anything else that may pop into my head.

Which, since things are still a little scrambled, may be even more surreal than usual, sorry…

i heart ping fm!

Canadian Chickens, eh?

More wacky Canadian humour… 

 

See more at Savage Chickens!

 

Nostalgia

It’s odd sometimes, how a chance comment can bring it all back to you…

Our friend Meli called this week, and a chance comment by Richard about horse-drawn school buses drew a hoot of laughter from her. ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ she said. ‘There’s no such thing!’ she said.

I beg to differ. At my first teaching job, the school was in an isolated community in northern Alberta, and to provide as many jobs as possible, they had a system of picking up the kids in horse-drawn wagons, which were converted to sleighs in the winter, and bringing them to school. In order to prove this, I dug out my photos this morning, scanned them in, and uploaded them to Flickr for all to see.

But weird things happen when you open old photo albums – old boyfriends, forgotten colleagues, missed pets, long-ago parties and out-of-date hairstyles all come tumbling out. And sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s best forgotten – much of it is bittersweet. There were a few tears amongst the laughter this morning, and a couple of searches on Facebook that turned up nothing, but mostly, few regrets – if I had to do it again, I’d choose to do it all over.

And that’s a good thing.

What KInd of Art are You?

**You Are Impressionism***

You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways.
You tend to focus on color and movement in art.
For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail.
You can find inspiration anywhere… especially from nature.

What Art Movement Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatartmovementareyouquiz/