knitting blog templates?

So I'd really like a knitting blog template that would just take care of all the code for me, to put in a place for FOs with image and pattern links, etc etc, because otherwise the old engineer in me will decide to spend "valuable" studying and thesis-writing time on figuring it out myself. And now if I don't shut up about it, I might do it, and that would be bad.

I don't want to take any more *#&$(*@&#ing tests!

I am very tired of tests. Very. I'm taking Step II CK on friday. I am not amused. I figure I should study, but all I can do is anything BUT study. I've knit way more than I should. I've surfed for useless Ebay items excessively. I've even brushed and combed the kitten (a serious undertaking, unlike brushing Ferris, who loves it). I can't even look forward to the damn test being over, because after that I somehow have to pull a thesis out of my @ss in 2 or 3 weeks, and as much as I hate taking tests, I think I'd rather do that than write a thesis, especially one based on total ****. I should shut up, for fear that someone important to my career/future ends up reading this....

How have I not mentioned BITEY, the kitten?!?

BITEY!!!

We have acquired another kitten, to soothe the frightening emerging cat-lady in me, and to keep Ferris company. We call her Bitey. (See the Simpson's monorail episode, anyone? "I call the big one Bitey!") She's not that Bitey anymore, most of the time, but it's really amusing to watch the vet tech come out to the waiting room and call her name....



She is a very meowy kitten. Cat really. She's about 7+ months old now, or so we estimate. She has some of the most expressive, warbling, variable pitch meows I've ever heard. And she sucks on the couch pillows' fringe, in full-out suckle mode, kneading the pillow and purring like crazy. She'll do it until she falls asleep, then if you pet her she awakens and picks up where she left off, the fringe still anchored in her mouth. And she has these whacky tufts of fur coming out between the pads of her paws. She slides all around the floor because of them. Actually, today we saw some Nature show on PBS about the "Land of the Falling Lakes" in Croatia, and they showed "wild forest cats" which looked almost EXACTLY like Bitey. Maybe she escaped from Croatia and is a refugee forest cat. She's going to eat us in our sleep. We've always suspected that.... Cats are evil, but they can't help it. And probably wouldn't, if they could. I need to sleep; I sound crazier than usual!

it lives!

Behold. I am alive. Not that anyone would notice here, I think. But that's ok. I just need a place to babble now and then.

I have some stressful cr@p hanging over my head -- as usual, but more than usual. A thesis to pull out of you-know-where by February, Step II CS in Houston in, oh, 3 days (@!*$^!*&#!!!), Step II CK on Dec 22, and oh, I will *hopefully* find out that I got a Navy internship on Dec 13. Otherwise, I will be in one foul and panicked mood that day.

So, with so many things to do and worry about and study for, I have, of course, knit way too much, and bought wayyyyy too much yarn and notions, and naturally, have developed a new obsession on Ebay. It started with me just trying to find a nice, simple, antique red bottle for my boyfriend's mother, who has a bunch of beautiful Avon bottles on her windowsil, and has often lamented the absence of a red one. So then I start seeing all the wonder of this thing called the "Cape Cod" collection of ruby red Avon tablewear. I'd probably think it was hideous if I saw it in some crazy old aunt's parlor, but now I'm obsessed with it's freakish vintage beauty. And in my quest for Avon bottles for not-at-all-mother-in-law, I won wayyy too many auctions. So she has presents for a few years coming, and I get to keep a few myself. But still I can't stop looking at that damn Cape Cod collection on Ebay. I am horribly fixated on a pedestaled cake stand. Now what the F(*& am *I* going to have time to do with a CAKE STAND as I attempt to graduate medical school and then move on to my first Navy post?!!? I don't know, but I want that damn cake stand so bad I'm reconsidering making that pain in the @ss Martha Stewart Snowflake covered fondant packaged fruitcake I slaved over last year. I've reawakened my obsession with snowflake cookie cutters because of this. I have snowflake cookie cutters in wishlists left and right. Did you know Ebay has this thing called Ebay Express, and it lets you make wishlists? Now, wtf Ebay Express is supposed to offer you I don't know. I just know their pages were loading @ss slow all night yet I still sat here and waited to see the avon glass, the tackle binders I now want to hold my knitting needles, and the 4000 cookie cutters....

My god man, you couldn't possibly be reading this, right?

Anyway, right, back to the knitting.
I finished Sophie in Kureyon, but she still needs a shave:


And a Silk Garden fishtail lace scarf:




And half a pair of fingerless mitts:


(pattern/yarn documentation is on my flickr pages, and I'm too lazy to put it in here at the moment -- sorry)

I'm tired

I'm tired.
Medical school is no longer much fun.
I JUST WANT A GARDEN, SOME GOATS, A DOG, MAYBE A NICE BIRD, AND A LOT OF WALTZING!!! Oh. And a man who loves me madly and deeply and finds me central to his life.
Sigh.

3rd year of medical school continues to suck the life out of me

So. Three months of surgery came and went. And, surprise surprise, I didn't have much time to post a darn thing. In fact, I don't really even remember posting the Swedish Chef'erized message below. Barely, maybe.

I thought surgery would suck @ss, to put it mildly, and that I would be much more pleased during my medicine rotation. I figured I'd hate the shallow-minded hurried nature of surgery, and also that I'd get "pimped"/harassed relentlessly with crazy-picky questions, and have not a moment to myself. Let's just say that it turns out that my current medicine rotation makes surgery look like a vacation.

I don't expect to be writing much for awhile. Actually, I shouldn't even be writing this. I don't mean to whine, but really, do you REALIZE that interns work ALL THE FREAKING TIME?!?!?! At least, as a student, I'm not actually counted on to DO much, but they sure are, and they never get a moment to themselves. They're lucky if they get one day a week off, and I mean that. Now think about it, honestly -- wouldn't you start to lose it if you maybe got one day a week to sleep more than a few hours, do all your laundry, grocery shopping, misc errands, etc? And forget doing things like getting a haircut, going to the dentist, or Mule-forbid, getting to a doctor's appointment to actually take care of yourself. Doesn't this seem STUPID -- BEYOND STUPID -- to anyone else? It's not like there's a shortage of college students fighting tooth and nail to get into medical school! It's not like there's a shortage of people who want to be doctors -- although there WILL be, if they ever realize what their lives will be like, before it's too late and they're already up to their asses in loans or military commitments! But of course it comes down to money. It costs more to hire more house staff. And then we could discuss the continuity of care issues involved, but I need to eat and sleep on this strange day when I'm actually HOME.