thank you.

Hi everyone,

I haven’t had the bandwidth to write back to your sweet notes, but please know that I appreciate them so much. It has been strange to be in our apartment this last week and a half — there’s no dog on the couch, no water bowl to fill, no need to carefully adjust my legs so that Boh can sleep exactly where he wants to in the crook of my knees.

I was back in the classroom the Monday after we said goodbye to Boh, and as much as being sad is also really exhausting, it also feels good to have a new group of students who are excited about the class to focus on. I’m holding onto that right now.

Here are a few pictures from the last week and a half.

Sunset on the day we said goodbye.

Deer in a nearby park — we went for a bike ride, and it helped.

We’ve taken some walks along the creek and through the neighborhood north of campus, slowly reclaiming the act of taking walks for us, and not just for Boh.

The peak in the early morning. The pigeons are extra brazen these days because Boh is not here to terrorize them. (I’ll confess that I scared them away, just as he would have, the first time I went out onto the patio without him.)

Today’s project. I ordered a few prints so that we could have Boh’s dopey face around, and today, as a break from my pile of grading, I went out to buy frames. I’m hoping Chefboyfriend will help me hang them when he gets home from work.

It is quieter here than it should be, I think. Boh was never a loud or super active dog, but I’m missing the sound of paws on hardwood floors and the silliness of his snoring.

We’re doing the best we can. Hope your human and animal companions are well, and happy December, friends.

very sad news about a Very Good Boy.

Dear readers of the blog and lovers of Boh,

I have some very sad news. Yesterday we said goodbye to Boh. I know it was the right decision, both because of his prognosis and because he stopped eating and mostly stopped drinking over the weekend, but I don’t think that made the choice any easier. I am grateful that I got 10.5 years of his companionship, silliness, bed-hogging, and belly-rub requests. And I’m so grateful to him for getting me through a decade of transition in my life.

I adopted Boh after moving to New Mexico, into my first solo apartment. He crossed the country with me for graduate school, and even accompanied me on several research road trips. I joke that he too, got his PhD, and also that he was very clearly always destined to be my dog because he loved to lick library books. (Don’t worry; when I figured that out, I stopped stacking the library books in places he could reach.)

He came with me on my move south, to my first full-time teaching job as a visiting assistant professor. He kept me company while I graded papers, reminded me when we both needed walks, and listened to me prepare for more job interviews. And when I got my current job, he was so happy to return to the mountain West with me in the summer of 2016. We started running together again like we had when he was a much younger dog in New Mexico, on a path not unlike that first trail along the Rio Grande and through the Bosque.

A friend said to me last night that Boh was a hard dog to get to know, but that the effort was worth it. Once he trusted you, he was always happy to see you, and he remembered old friends even after years without seeing them.

He loved Chefboyfriend immediately, and welcomed him into our lives and our home. Boh even waited with an eye on the door for him to come home from work for belly rubs and evening walks around the neighborhood. I am grateful that Boh was here to see me happy in this way, and after yesterday, I can’t imagine navigating this goodbye all by myself.

You all have been part of our journey, too. I started this blog in the fall of 2007, just a handful of months after adopting Boh. The very first post has a picture of Boh on the day I brought him home from the shelter. (It’s the first picture below.) You watched him grow as you read along with my attempts at various knitting and spinning projects, and you offered him pats and scratches in your comments over the years. Thank you for being part of his life, and part of mine. Here are the pictures I shared on Facebook in celebration and remembrance. As always, thanks for being here.

international adventures…

This week we went to Toronto for a conference, which means I did my thing (attending some panels, giving a paper), but mostly, that Chefboyfriend and I ate ALL OF THE THINGS. And they were delicious. Here’s a peek at life before, during, and after our whirlwind of a trip. (Psssssst: I brought some knitting!)

I love this pupper. (He belongs to a colleague.)

More evidence of my attempt to not wear real pants at all during my current break from teaching.

Library reading room — getting ready to work.

Airport knitting! This is a Seaman’s Cap out of handspun.

View of Toronto from our hotel room on the 24th floor.

View of a dozen dumplings from just before we ate them.

The view from the bar of Handlebar in Kensington Market.

A spectacular meal at Brothers.

The action at Kinka Izakaya.

Everything we ate there.

Mapo tofu at Anne’s Magic Kitchen.

Balaeniceps rex, my favorite bird, at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Tasty things at Momofuku.

This guy was happy to see us.

Stole one of Chefboyfriend’s hats on my way out the door yesterday.

Wove in the ends of that hat last night. (I finished the knitting on our first leg of the trip; I should’ve brought the second project I readied, and then took out of my carry-on. Lesson learned.)

This morning, since I’m feeling a little under the weather (probably just some mild version of post-conference crud), I tidied the apartment, did laundry, and made pumpkin puree with our farm pie pumpkins.

Here’s what that looked like!

And here is the newest addition to my office — a happy cactus in a beautiful ceramic planter one of my advisees made! It is officially fall break here, friends. Stay tuned for (hopefully) pictures of a mini-adventure or two before I head back into the classroom after Thanksgiving.

could it be?

Friends, I bound off the pinwheel baby blanket I started in July. I still need to block it, but I’m blogging it because it is ALMOST done, and it has been quite a long time since I finished a knitted something. Other things of note? I am doing a pretty good job of not putting on real pants during this break I have from teaching. I’m cranking through my to-do list, which is extra-long right now because we’ve got a trip to Toronto coming up. (I have a conference to attend, and Chefboyfriend has some parents [mine] to meet. We both plan to eat all of the things.) That’s the update! Here are some pictures of last week’s adventures.

THIS DOG.

A beautifully bound-off edge.

New (cassis-colored) leggings.

Writing a thing.

Reading a thing.

Closing down the coffee shop.

Thing of beauty. (Huge pot of bolognese.)

Pupper.

Chefboyfriend’s new toy — an immersion circulator.

The very tasty results.

A Sunday morning walk in our favorite local open space.

handspun! Also, a road trip and a favorite house guest.

Finished two-ply handspun. I don’t remember what this is, but it is wonderfully squishy, and will make a lovely winter hat, or maybe a pair of mitts.

The blob of this pinwheel continues to grow. I only have a few more rows until I’m at 450 stitches, but as you can imagine, these are LONG rows. Hoping to get this to the baby I began it for before said baby is a toddler…

I pickled some radishes.

And some beets.

And then I drove to New Mexico to see dear friends and pick up a favorite houseguest to bring home with me.

While in Albuquerque, we enjoyed tasty Mexican desserts.

And beer.

And I brought back a lot because Chefboyfriend couldn’t make the trip with me.

Once home, I graded in a coffee shop.

I drank beer that “tastes like wizards.”

And captured this stunning sunset.

Went for a hike. (That’s favorite houseguest on the left, and Chefboyfriend on the right.)

Admired fall yellows.

And appreciated the beauty of a bright, crisp, October afternoon.

plying after months away.

(WordPress encouraged me to change my theme because I was using something older and now unsupported, so I did that, and now I’m fiddling with image size and some other things — please bear with me.) Also, this is what happens when you sit down to ply after months of not plying: you ply in the wrong direction until you notice that something just doesn’t seem right. I even had to google “which way do you ply” to confirm that yes, I should be doing this in the opposite direction I spin singles…sigh.

Boh totally knew that I was doing it wrong.

But then I started again, and see? Pretty pretty. (I think the twist could be a smidge tighter, but these singles, spun in the spring, maybe, are really nice!)And I’m excited about the yarn, though I don’t have the label handy to tell you what it is. (My best guess is something awesome from back when I belonged to the Hello Yarn fiber club.)I did a little bit of work on the patio yesterday.And Boh kept me company.This morning he was a ham and a bed-hog.Looks like I’m going to have about 176 yards of this squishy 2-ply. It’s soaking as I type. Happy weekend, friends.

An October week in photos.

Thanks for the kind words, friends, and for still being here. It means a lot. I don’t have any new knitting to show — I’m teaching a new class right now, so the prep is pretty intense — but I do have pictures of Boh, food, and mountains to share.

In his old age, Boh now naps with a pillow.

And pants happily after runs along the creek.

I still watch for birds, and this flicker has been visiting the rooftop outside one of our apartment windows. She’s noisy, always announcing her arrival.

Leggings and boots under long skirts — we had a sharp cold snap earlier this week, and even a little bit of snow!

We got a new toy in anticipation of the immersion circulator Chefboyfriend ordered for himself. It should arrive next month…

Snow on the peak. (This is the view from our apartment patio.)

A thing of beauty, prepared for the company we had over for dinner on Tuesday night. (Chefboyfriend made duck with a maple syrup glaze. I ate mine too quickly to take a picture!)

Our favorite bakery had a donut day on Wednesday, so we made this our first stop before heading to work.

Farm share — the haul from week 19 of our CSA.

Early this morning I curled up with Boh to read for a lunchtime discussion of Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas, which I highly recommend.

anybody out there?

Hello, friends. It has sure been awhile. (So long, in fact, that the jeans that were new in the last post ripped a few weeks ago and I went on an emergency jean-buying spree.) When I last wrote to you, Boh and I lived in the South, but we were getting ready to head West for a new job, maybe even THE job. (This one’s tenure-track, and partway through year two, I’m really happy here.)

Not long after we moved, I met a dude — from here, but newly returned. We figured out that we drove across the country the same week. Let’s call him Chefboyfriend — because yep, that’s what he does. We’re going on 16 months together, and all three of us (me, Boh, Chefboyfriend) are happy.

I’m not knitting a lot, but there are some long term WIPs on the needles. And also a book in the works. And I’m wondering to myself if restarting the blog might be a good way to work on my writing practice as I begin working to find regular time for my research again alongside my pretty intensive teaching schedule. So, no promises — we’ve seen how that goes — but I have missed this space. And all of you.

Would you like to see some pictures of my life since March 2016? Here’s a handful (or seven):

New apartment.

Not long after I moved out here, I went to a dear friend’s wedding in Portland. And wore pink!

And I cast on a baby hat.

I continued working on a long overdue wedding blanket…

Boh and I explored our new home.

More of that wedding blanket. (Yes, this picture is from more than a year ago, and no, it isn’t done yet…)

I prepped for class on my patio and looked at the mountains.

Chefboyfriend took me on lots of hikes and drives. This one, to see the aspens last fall, was pretty great.

I set up (and sat down at) my wheel.

And even spun some squishy two-ply yarn.

More adventuring with Chefboyfriend.

We drove out to see my little brother and meet the animals on his farm.

We took our bikes to Canyonlands for spring break.

And there’s been lots of chef-cooked food. Cornish game hens and asparagus here, I think.

Buffalo chicken sandwiches with Anchor Bar wing sauce my parents sent us.

Grilled butternut squash and pork loin.

Scallops, enjoyed on the patio near the end of summer.

More spinning.

We bought a dresser and celebrated our adulting skills.

Boh experienced Great Sand Dune National Monument.

I baked several of these variations on the Smitten Kitchen raspberry buttermilk cake.

A colleague invited me to guest lecture at Tulane, so we went to New Orleans and ate all of the tasty things.

I got out the tent.

And we camped in Yellowstone.

And drove through the Tetons.

I baked zucchini bread and muffins — and barely put a dent in the zucchini we’ve been getting in our farm share.

Saw my first show at Red Rocks — The Avett Brothers with Shovels & Rope.

We have a new bakery in town, and it turns out the baker moved from where I went to grad school! He used to bake the bread in my bread share and work at the awesome farm I belonged to there. These galettes are happy-making. And the bakery is an easy bike ride from the apartment.

Boh remains sweet and silly.

A pinwheel blanket I cast on before our summer road trip.

A professor costume.

Sour beers in bright colors.

My office door.

Boh, with an ultrasound haircut. We had a big health scare with Boh this fall. He’s certainly getting older, but for now, he’s doing pretty well — and running along our favorite path with me again. And frolicking. Here’s one last picture from our first hike after all the scary medical stuff:

Hope you’re well, friends. And happy knitting!

before march is over…

….want to see what we’ve been up to? (Still no knitting to show.)

Those ears, though.

Professor costume. (Complete with old flares I found in the back of the closet? Apparently these are in again.)

Sweet dog.

New jeans.

Spring dress!

Another spring dress! And a new, bright red bag.

Fun with airport conveyor belts. (There were lots on my way to my most recent conference.)

Fries INSIDE the shwarma sandwich.

Clouds.

Accidental St. Patrick’s Day green.

Happy, happy dog.

A Shovels and Rope roadtrip: two hours each way and totally worth it. Happy almost April, friends!

more february.

Catching up here and everywhere in my life right now; thought you might want to see a bit more of our February — or at least the parts I happened to photograph!

An old friend sent me this gorgeous, hand-carved spoon for my birthday. He’s been wearing hats I’ve knit him for close to a decade; I love that I’m going to be stirring things on the stove with his handiwork for years to come.

Um, another one of those amazing breakfast sandwiches. I’m pretty sure I snap a picture of this each time I eat it.

My smoothie matches my pants! It needed to be documented.

Cocktails and oysters. Just because, and also because I’ve got some news to share: this summer, Boh and I are headed West. I’m going to start my dream job in the fall, and I could not be more excited. (I also could not be more tired — balancing my first year of professoring with being on the job market has been exhausting.) I’m grateful every day for the wonderfulness of my students and my colleagues at my current institution. Everyone here has been so supportive of my search for a tenure-track position (I am currently a visiting professor), and even though I am thrilled about where I’m headed, I will be sad to leave this community.

Got stuck in Newark during my interview travels, which means I got an evening with this sweet dog and her owners.

This guy is getting a bit gray in the face. Love him to pieces.

Christening a new pot with brussel sprouts!

Another professor costume.

Oh, hello, Boh. Why so worried? I keep telling him that we are going to move back to the mountains, but I don’t think he gets it. His response is always something like, “is it dinnertime?”