Adventurous, that's me.

My mother-in-law is really very nice and very tactful. Instead of, say, describing me as "certifiable" or "totally delusional" or "a few bats short of a belfry"...she just says that I'm "adventurous." I make stuff from Indian cookbooks in the wild hope that I won't ruin it! I come home from the lab at all hours of the night, or stay the whole night even! I knit fourteen useless complicated things at a time! And if you say it's all in the spirit of adventure, rather than insanity, it all sounds so worthwhile and desirable! Some politician should hire Aai as a spin doctor, I swear.

One adventure I had this weekend was dyeing my hair with henna (left over from the Hindu ceremony). Tejas egged me into this one. I've never dyed my hair before, so I was kind of looking forward to it...unfortunately the color didn't change much, though my hair does feel nice (Aai says henna is a natural conditioner). The henna was kind of old, and it was pure henna without chemical darkeners, and my hair is brown with kind of reddish undertones anyhow...sigh. I'll try again later. It'll give me an excuse to go to the Indian grocery store, which I love to distraction. Spices! Crazy contorted veggies! Icky-sounding sauces and pickles that actually taste really good! Forty kinds of lentils! It makes grocery shopping into an adventure, and me and adventure...well.

I also finished knitting the Yellowstone vest! It's blocking on the futon right now in the hopes that the edges will quit curling (stupid stockinette stitch, I should NEVER EVER trust patterns with St st and crocheted edging. They never work). Now I just have to sew up the shoulder seams, crochet all around the edges, and sew on the buttons. Woohoo! I'm hoping to get at least one more sweater or vest done, in a smaller size, before the due date in October. But my REAL goal for the end of August is to finish the horrible interminable melon shawl. I WILL PREVAIL! Then it will be time to start on Christmas presents!

My exciting agenda for today: work in lab, go to gym, go home and scrub tub (which briefly looked like an ax murderer had come to visit--thanks, henna--but now is just soap scummy), crochet border, write thank-you notes, attempt to manage tango club business, bundle up knitting and blankets for all-nighter in the lab tomorrow. It's going to be my first lab all-nighter without Tejas here with me...usually he comes and sleeps on the couch, but he's going to stay home with Aai. Waaaah!

(On the other hand, Tejas accepted the job offer with Big Prestigious Company today! And his advisor says he should be able to defend by the end of October! Hurray for my hard-working husband!!)