In which I feel inadequate in many ways.

I feel like I have done nothing useful for ages and ages.

Two Fridays ago, I stayed very very late at the lab and got lots of things done, and made my advisor happy. Then (Sat. night) Tejas and I took off for Michigan for a family reunion. I went back the lab last Thursday & Friday, and didn't get a whole lot done. Then I got sick. I'm still home sick today.

I am so antsy, it's unbelievable. I need to work, people! I have to get some stuff done!

In the meantime, as I sit here hacking and coughing and blowing my nose, let me tell you about my weekend. Tejas' mom came from India last Thursday and visited us on Saturday. We were ready:
(Tejas calls his mom and dad Aai and Papa. I am never sure what to call them since that's how they sign cards to me, but Tejas tells me I should call them Kaku and Kaka (Auntie and Uncle) until we're married. At least I only have another three weeks to be worried by this problem.)

We were hoping it would make the place look homey--other than this, we only have a couple of calendars (one lunar, one western) on the wall. Tejas' mom is loads of fun, even when they're talking in Marathi so I only understand a fraction of what they're saying, so we had a good time. We fed her chicken curry (she hasn't had meat in something like 15 years, but recently decided she needed better nutrition so is willing to give up the veg diet) with tons of spices that she brought for us, and we all chatted for hours.

She also brought all the stuff for our wedding: Tejas' clothes, my sari, the marriage necklace girls wear instead of wedding rings, beaded headdress things Tejas and I evidently have to wear for a little while (supposed to be like ox-horns), henna powder, green plastic bangles (for fertility), traditionalish sorts of jewelry like a thingy that hangs down over your forehead and something that hooks off the waist of your sari, matching necklaces and earrings for Tejas' sis-in-law and me, fancy hairpins for Trace-trace and me.... I'm not sure what Tejas was thinking as she unfolded all this, but I think I'm going to be afraid to move on the day of! What with the six yards of fancy fabric and the entire contents of a jewelry store heaped around me. She is really sweet, though, to go to all the trouble of trying to make a proper fancy wedding for us, and I'll do my level best not to step on the sari hem and go sprawling and spoil it. (Feeling kind of guilty here since I'm pretty sure the bride's family is supposed to be paying for a lot of the wedding expenses and doing a lot of the arrangements. Sorry!! I'll try to be a good daughter-in-law!)

Between our visitor and being sick and the reunion, I haven't gotten a whole lot of knitting done. I did finish a pair of socks:

Aren't they sweet and girly? I like the colors a lot. (The yarn was a present from Trace-trace.)

I also finished the baby bobble sweater, which only needs a button at the base of the hood before heading off to its new home (admire the tassled I-cord on the hood!):
Hurray!