Wind energy

Imagine having your very own wind turbine in your backyard! Apparently they are becoming more and more affordable, and homeowners are putting them in their backyards. You can even buy them at Canadian Tire, a Canadian hardware store chain that is a lot cooler than I remember it being.

Crazy. There was an article about this in the New York Times today, too.

Douglas says he can build one from a bicycle generator hub. I'll keep you posted.

yahoo!

I got an official job offer from UBC yesterday, and starting January 2 will be doing something much more up my alley - I'm positively oscillating with glee.

I handed in my resignation at the engineering company today. It was sweet. Very sweet. It was also fun to watch people's eyes get big when I told them about my new job. Hell, I didn't get a Masters degree to be a secretary, sugar.

The marketing manager, the one with the secret record producing identity, was genuinely pleased for me. He said nice things about how I'd be hard to replace (I've been doing more and more work for him lately) and offered to take me out to lunch next week. The office micromanager was happy, too, but I think she was just happy that I'm leaving so she can complain about how she has to do *everything* around the office again.

ah. 6 more days. 45 hours.

And then I get to work in the technicolor world of biology again! It'll be just like in the movies. Not that there are many movies about biologists. But you know what I mean.

Knit Nuts

With Christmas just around the corner, Douglas and I have been knitting and projecting like maniacal little elves to get all of our Christmas presents made. Luckily Douglas is a fast and adventurous knitter. He went straight from knitting a single, plain square, to making complicated felting projects that involve 4 double-pointed needles, increases, decreases, thumbs, you name it. They're turning out great, and some are in the machine felting right this second.

In the past week, we've knitted a pound and a half of yarn into half a dozen projects. That's a piece of yarn as long as 6 football fields. I wish I knew how many stitches it was...

I won't post pictures of the projects, so I don't spoil any surprises. But here's a picture of Douglas knitting:



At the yarn store, we also found out about Ravelry, a site where you can post and search thousands of knitting projects. People post yarn, yardage, pictures of the finished project, whatever. I've signed up to be a beta tester. There's a waiting list, so I don't have an account yet, but I'll post more once I have access.

I'm still in job purgatory, waiting for HR to do something with my new job description. I've written my resignation letter a thousand times in my head. Fingers crossed...