Epic Plans

This Wednesday! This Wednesday shall be the greatest Wednesday for knitting of the semester! This Wednesday is the wonderful, once-a-semester Stitch n' Bitch Reading Day Marathon! (*happy dance!*)

I will be in the SUB knitting from 10am to 4ish pm (or at least I promise to be there during those times, except for a break for lunch...) My finals are over on Tuesday, so Wednesday is going to be full of hard core knitting!

The next important announcement of the blog this fine day, is that Wednesdays are going to be getting a lot more exciting next semester! Why? You may be wondering. Well, I will tell you why! Stitch n' Bitch will be moving to Wednesdays next semester! (same time, same place, of course!)

Wednesdays, from now on, are going to be pretty freakin' awesome.

Meanwhile, on a pretty awesome Tuesday:

My roommate, Emma, stopped by this week, with a Squirrel! Isn't he adorable? He is. He's pretty much begging for an acorn though, so that will be happening soon, I've heard. She has since made a dachshund (which is very entertainingly, smaller than the squirrel....)

Jordan is Very Happy indeed, to be finished with the (hopefully last) set of golf club covers! They all received pom poms while we were there. There was much rejoicing afterwords, as well:

"should I shake them, or hold them still?" .... "you can shake them if you want."

Action shot! you know it's true, because the pom poms are blurry. All that happy! Now, it's finally time to get back to those awesome granny square blankets!

This Christmas, I would like to see a picture of their family Christmas tree wearing Clara's Tube as a sweater.

Clara has made a million feet of progress on that baby blanket of her grandmother's. That's going to be one toasty blanket. Madeline discussed with Clara the possibility that the blanket looked a bit like a funfetti cake. I am inclined to agree, although it is a very toned down version.

Mary has made significant progress as well, on Fred's traveling chess set. I can't wait for the little chess pieces! Fred, apparently has been inquiring on whether or not boys are allowed to come to Stitch n' Bitch. Of course they are! Aric comes to Stitch n' Bitch (when he's not busy doing physics) and so do other boys! Knitting needs more boys.

Katharine, unfortunately, has had to put her sweater on hiatus until the Christmas knitting marathon is over. Here, we have a hat for her sister. I hope we see the sweater soon! That yoke is going to be exciting. I can't wait to see it done!

Here's Megan, working on yet another new project (a new one every week! she must have all the time in the world to knit...) She never did tell us how that Halloween sweater for her dog turned out... Probably not well, if I had to guess.

Cliche caption time: "Gotta Crochet them all!"    (My apologies, I don't have anything better than that. I missed the pokemon craze- spent my childhood hanging out with Bill Nye the Science Guy instead.)

Katherine, apparently, has absolutely no homework whatsoever, as you can see from the amount of pokemon amiguri she's made between the previous two Stitch n' Bitch meetings. Plus, she's working on another one too! This girl is productive. If I was that productive, I'd have three years worth of Christmas Knitting done by now.

They should make 'pocket Potter pals', like they have Potter Puppet Pals. They could fit into Madeline's miniature sweaters!

You can't really tell from this picture, but Madeline....Madeline is making WEASLEY SWEATERS! and not only that, Madeline's Weasley sweaters are Christmas Tree ornaments! She's doing the whole family, I think, and already has a few done! That's going to be the most exciting tree in the history of ever. True story. They're even going to have little initials on them! How wonderful is that! She should make an extra pair for herself and John. I just thought of that. I would totally wear a sweater with a big 'K' on it. I might even make myself one. With bulky yarn, in a color I don't usually wear. This is sounding like a better idea the more I think about it.


There's no action shots of me this week, but my yarn is pretty exciting!

One almost-finished sock, and one now-ripped out glove. The sock is going to be getting a toe soon, and the glove is supposed to be a Christmas gift for a sister, but I had to rip it back, because the red in the checkers was going to interfere with the motif I had planned. I restarted with corrugated ribbing, but my gauge tightened up, and now the cuff is too small. I'm going to rip it out and cast on again with more stitches. This will work eventually! The sock, on the other hand, is going very smoothly.

On the bright side, I have decided that corrugated ribbing is awesome! Actually, This is the first time I've done any sort of for-real colorwork...(okay, I knit the front and one sleeve of a sweater with a rib cage on the front of it in high school, but I never finished the back, and it was acrylic and therefore does not count)....but I'm a fan. I might have plans for a fair isle sweater. Seriously though, Christmas knitting has to get finished first! There's only 17 days left! Then, it's back to knitting things for me!

In which I forget things, and in which there are exciting things.

Last week, I got distracted. I got distracted by how nice the weather was, and how cool the fog was (I didn't have to drive anywhere, so it was cool and not scary), and how I had so little homework, and could sort of relax- I got so distracted, that I convinced myself that I had already written the blog post! ...Since clearly I was so on top of things....

This week promises to be less boring.

Last week, one of my prints was selected to go on some kind of Truman thank-you cards (weird?)

I thought you guys would enjoy it, since it involves sheep. I feel like this is a weird choice for thank you cards, but recognition is recognition, I suppose.

We were joined, last week at Stitch n' Bitch, by a very distinguished guest: Mary's mother (therefore Clara's grandmother)! Here is a multi-generation picture to prove that fact:

She regaled us with stories of hurricane Sandy, and of other, happier things. She was not knitting- she had a proxy for that:

Clara diligently plugged away at a baby blanket for a baby she will probably never meet (This, Clara, is where you start lobbying for a trip to New York City)! As such, this week, we were Tube-less.

Mary is working on this AWESOME chess set for Fred's birthday: I believe the final piece will be Doctor Who themed, which makes it 11 times more fantastic! The best part is, she can knit it in front of Fred, and he's so oblivious that he's none the wiser. I wish I could knit my gifts in front of their intended recipients. I wouldn't have to spend the two months before Christmas stealth-knitting...

The coolest bit, is that there's going to be a drawstring around the outside so that the chess board is the carrying bag as well!

The look on Jordan's face pretty much sums up everyone's feelings concerning her Christmas gift for her Dad this year:

This set is Truman-spirit themed! To match a golf bag, and polo shirt. This man is going to be the most matching golfer in town!

Golf club cozies. Gotta keep those poor golf clubs warm, after all... I've been saying 'hopefully the last set' for the past four sets now, so I won't bother.

Here's Katharine, with one very exciting completed sleeve:

I know you're thinking 'gee Kat, that doesn't look much like a sleeve... Are you sure Katharine isn't knitting legwarmers for flamingos?' -But I can assure you, that it is in fact a sleeve. There are two things you should know: The most important thing is that this is a bottom-up raglan sweater, and the yoke is knitted last, attaching the body to the sleeves...so that's why the sleeve doesn't have any increases. The other, only mildly important thing you should know, is that Katharine didn't knit a gauge swatch. (Insert internal *gasp!* here)- others may not be gasping, but gauge swatches are still important. I am an advocate of those which cannot stand up for themselves in the faces of ridicule. Gauge swatches unite!

Megan has begun a hat- not that she'll need it with this balmy excuse for a December...

And Katharine has made some progress on her blanket (again, not that she'll need this either...)

Woody is making a furry scarf, which is pretty exciting, because it looks like animal print. Random tangent: I wonder if anyone's ever tried to spin the fur of the big cats, and knit with it? Wouldn't it be great if knitted cheetah-fur had spots like a cheetah? That would certainly take some doing.


A rare sighting:

It's not often there are actual pictures of me on the blog these days- Woody was kind enough to snap an action shot. Let's dissect this picture, shall we: Note the new teal iPhone case, which features a silicone grippy surface for nonslip protection, as well as a hard plastic middle layer to offer more substantial protection, and an unseen underlayer to aid in shock absorbtion. Also, a built-in screen protector, and a cutout in the back that lets everyone know I'm carrying an apple product, even if it looks like a wad of colorful bubble wrap (which it basically is). Also, note the drawing tablet, which is the homework I should have been doing at the last meeting, and the knitting in my hands, which is what I was actually doing. Jordan appears to be mildly dillusional in the background- she is smiling while working on the golf club cozies, which is something I would not be doing. (Smiling? you ask, or working on the cozies?--The answer is simple. I would be doing neither.) She is a very loving daughter, apparently.

My dad does not appreciate knitted things, so he's the only one not getting knitted things this year. Not even golf club cozies. To be fair, though, he doesn't golf...

In other news, Madeline and I were prominently featured in a Truman Index article recently, which, to my knowledge did not contain a single typo (yay, Truman Index!). it features this photo of me:

(From over the summer, when my hair was long and all this yarn was still yarn and not knitted things)

and it is very exciting indeed! It can be found here:

http://tmn.truman.edu/theindex/2012/11/28/for-the-stitch-of-it/

How famous are we! Not very, but still. I do feel like the reporter could have interviewed more knitters, but it's nice to get the word out, and get people to know how awesome it is! That's basically what Stitch n' Bitch is all about, right? We are some pretty cool people. In case you don't feel like seeing the article online, don't worry, because I grabbed 12 copies and I am hoarding them, like any self respecting person would.

Next week, we'll hopefully have our official Reading Day Knitting Day, in which we do not study, and this week, we should all be thinking about what time we would like to meet next semester! How exciting!... I'm going to work on some posters. Promise.

Thanksgiving Break Bonus Post!

Good day, folks! What follows is my attempt to make up for the lack of Stitch n' Bitch this week, by talking about all the stitching and bitching that I've been up to so far this week.

I started off the break by spinning, dyeing, and knitting a top-secret Christmas gift for my wonderful roommate, but unfortunately I did not anticipate one minor detail. The colors I chose partially make up the wardrobe of one certain well-known person, and I'm afraid this particular Christmas gift will be interpreted as an homage rather than a well-intended accident. (The following photo is from Google and is not a picture of my knitted object, but I feel as though it gets the point across)

Bob Marley, and all his best-known colors, everyone!

I do have another color in there, but I fear my efforts may not be enough. I have to finish the project first to find out, I suppose. Here are some action shots of the progress!

if by action shot, you understand that it's me taking pictures of my project, and not someone taking pictures of me working on my project...

Here's my freshly dyed and dried handspun- ready to be wound into balls,

and here it is being wound:

I had to sort of improvise with the yarn winder and swift situation. My swift is made from tinker toys, which I dug out of a box in the barn for this very purpose, and my yarn winder is from a lego robotics kit I got a few years ago. It worked alright, especially since the yardage was pretty low.

Look at all those little gears! I love legos, legos are cool. Apparently useful, too!

Here's a picture that I hope doesn't completely give away what this project is. I'm not even sure if the intended recipient reads this blog, but you know, better safe than sorry. Does this look a little too Bob Marley to anyone? There's more blue than the picture shows...maybe that will help. I have recently learned that I am absolutely awful at picking out colors (I realize how this is really a bad thing for an art student to have problems with)-I have a hard enough time deciding if my outfits match, let alone if colors do. I tend to either wear all greys and purples, or attempt to wear the entire rainbow at once.

Fast forward a few days. Happy, joyful, beginning of break was replaced with the beginning of a miniature technology apocalypse. Yes, that's what we're calling this, an apocalypse. It possesses no government, and only one law:


Murphy's law: anything that can go wrong, will- and at the worst possible time.

My beloved blackberry, whom I have loved dearly for the last 3 and a half years, finally acquired a mortal injury: Besides lacking the ability to make calls, I could no longer use the space bar, so texts were difficult as well. Some people got fed up with this, and I had to get a new phone. I'm kind of a sucker for apple tech, so I got an iphone (which I am very excited about, you should know)...it's just that I have this sort of pathological aversion to change, and I guess I just wasn't ready to see my blackberry go. I miss the notification light, and the real buttons, and how even if I turned it off, it would turn itself back on again if I set an alarm, and how there were so many ring tones to choose from. The iphone is pretty, and all the buttons work- plus it makes calls now which is a pretty sweet improvement...and the data thing will be nice in case of emergencies...But I don't like change. Give me a couple of weeks to let the emotional sting wear down. Plus, that thing slides around in my hands like a stick of butter. It just can't stay put. I ordered a case for it, but in the meantime I guess I can only handle it while sitting on the floor. Carefully. Also, I turned the autocorrect off. I've seen the internet, it's not pretty.

First, all my texts looked like this:

But I got better. At least they don't look like this:

I tried for about half an hour to find one that wasn't too awkward to post. They're quite entertaining, but I would imagine not if it happens to you. Plus there's the whole laughter-at-weird-moments thing. Nope, I'll risk extra letters in my words, rather than a miniature computer with a superiority complex trying to mess with me for fun because it has nothing better to do.

Meanwhile, my blackberry is trying to make me sad by still sounding its wake up alarm, and sitting all mournfully on my windowsill...

Aric and I also spent a few days making croissants (it's kind of a process...) but they were done perfectly in time for thanksgiving! The trick is the European butter and special flour.

Actually the real trick is probably not trying to rush the process....

This was our contribution to Thanksgiving dinner! (The cranberry sauce was my sister's)

 And, since I've already sharply digressed from the topic of knitting, here's a really old car!

This is my dad's new pet project: it's 1981 Fiat Spider, if you were curious, which makes it considerably older than me. If it is a mid-life crisis, it has to be the most well planned for mid-life crisis in history, so I'd say it's probably not. What it is, however, is a fixer upper. Besides having no anti-lock brakes (I have a thing about anti lock brakes...), no power steering, no rear view passenger side mirror, and no air conditioning, and no air bags, it also boasts a nonfunctional horn, a ripped soft-top roof, a broken radio, broken heating system, and assorted rusty bits. It is, however, a drivable vehicle. It has 'antique' license plants and everything.

This is what the inner bits look like right now- I have been told they will look different upon completion of the project.

My favorite part is that tangle of wires at the head of the center console...

Hard to believe it drives...but it does. I drove it, even despite its lack of power steering! It does a whopping 65 miles per hour. While I was driving around in the middle of nowhere on a country road, I discovered a very exciting alpaca farm! Alpacas look funny when they sit. I couldn't take pictures because I was driving, but here are some Google pictures to prove that fact:

Look at that! It's like he was just kind of absorbed into the ground. His legs have completely disappeared! His perceived lack of ears is also amusing.

To prove the first picture wasn't just a legless alpaca- another picture.

Having now actually driven a convertible, I can still say that I am not a convertible person. Sorry. Any car I end up buying for myself is definitely going to need anti-lock breaks. Also, a roll cage. Definitely a roll cage.

If you were reading this and thinking to yourself that there wasn't a whole lot of knitting for a Stitch n' Bitch blog, you should know that I agree! It's okay, though, because there's more knitting!

 This is the beginnings of another Christmas present, which is really obvious, but I'm not too worried about this person guessing what his presents are anyways, because he's too busy to think about presents right now anyways. I'm still faced with the challenge of not being able to work on it right in front of him, though. It's slow going, but it will be worth it!

This concludes our Thanksgiving holiday bonus post. May the rest of your break be full of yarn and other wonderful things!

are you guys still doing your thing? Because there's another thing going on...

First, my apologies for last week's bloglessness. I was studying for a surprise Chaucer test (one day's notice was a little scary, but it all ended up okay).

This week at Stitch n' Bitch, things got a little strange. There was another event (one which drew more of a crowd than we yarnies are used to) so we relocated our little circle to the TV lounge downstairs.

We had quite  a few new faces at Stitch n' Bitch, but of course I forgot my camera and had to take pictures with my phone-

Before we get to that, here's the all-about-Clara section!

 Look at that fabulous sweater! I'm sure you'll remember her knitting that sweater last year. Also, observe the ever-lengthening tube, here functioning as a lap blanket!

Here's a candid picture of Clara knitting while waiting for Fred at a music competition. What is she knitting? It certainly isn't the tube. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will make an appearance at Stitch N' Bitch in the coming weeks!

And now, new people!

A suggested title for this week's blog post was "a blind man could see what you did there"- courtesy of these two lovely ladies- Sharon (on the left) and Marita (on the right). They, as you can see, were quite the giggly personalities this week.

This is Woody. Despite my picture, I promise he smiles. I think he wasn't sure I was taking a picture of him. He heard about Stitch N' Bitch through his guidance counselor- I didn't know that guidance counselors knew about Stitch N' Bitch- but regardless, it results in new faces, and new faces are awesome!

Madeline is working on yet another sweater with some moderately scratchy wool yarn- but, like Noro, I bet it'll soften up when she washes it. Mary is working on trying to get her yarn to speak to her. It appears to not be ready to talk yet though.

Katharine has begun working on the sleeves of her fingering weight sweater, and we had two other new faces this week, whose names I forgot to write down. I also have no picture evidence to suggest their presence- you'll have to take my word for it. While I was going around the circle taking pictures, my phone died, in a permanent sort of way (or so I thought...) I tried to take the battery out and put it back in, which did nothing to solve the problem. As it turns out, the battery has exploded internally, and the it can't handle taking pictures any more. It sort of shocked the phone I think, and it took overnight to recover. I also can no longer make calls on my phone, and the space bar has recently stopped working. I've had the phone for longer than I've been at Truman, so I suppose it's about time for it to go. As a matter of fact, I think my dad's about to take me to the AT&T store to pick out a new phone. Field trip! We'll see how this goes.

Stay tuned for my Thanksgiving Break blog post, in which there will be many exciting things!

So- do I put it on my head with the plate still in it?

It's that time again- Blog time! Some very exciting things went on at Stitch n' Bitch this week (but then again, very exciting things happen every week...)

Today, art history was cancelled, because our professor was sick, but she didn't send out the email until about 3 minutes before class started, so I was already up. Lauren and I decided to spend the usual art history time working on our knee socks in progress instead! Knitting, I'm pretty sure, is the best use of a morning ever. Not that I wouldn't just have been knitting during class if it had happened anyways...

Lena has made some pretty considerable progress on her blanket (remember how last week it looked like a scarf? It doesn't anymore!)

apparently, Downton Abbey is a great show to make epic blanket progress during, and apparently, Lena watches a lot of Downton Abbey. (Also, my apologies for accidentally telling who died. I promise I didn't mean it, and I'm not saying it again, just in case. Maybe Lena will forget.)

Katharine is so close to starting the sleeves! At last count, she was five centimeters away- and at her current calculation of one centimeter per hour, I'd say she should be on to sleeves by next week, wouldn't you? It's beginning to look a lot like a sweater!

Mary is having problems hearing her yarn. She doesn't know what it's telling her it wants to be- it's probably screaming at her, but she can't hear it. Here's my theory, though- Since the yarn she's working with is yarn she bought in France, it's probably (no, definitely...) screaming at her in French. She's just not listening in the right language! Also, even if she was listening in french, screaming french people are really hard to understand on a good day, so imagine what screaming french yarn must be like...so right now she's just swatching.

Madeline, after a harrowing journey to find fish food, made some more progress on her baby sweater. I just love that yarn so much! That's going to be one lucky baby.

Unlike Mary's french yarn, the Tube speaks to Clara all the time. See all those color changes? That's not Clara deciding to change colors, that's the Tube telling Clara that it's time for something new. This picture doesn't show it, but the Tube has already consumed quite a bit of that eyelash yarn Madeline gave Clara a few weeks ago. I'm just waiting for the Tube to tell her that it would like some stranded colorwork sections. I wouldn't put it past the Tube.

Katherine is working on a very specifically requested purple scarf for her brother (if your brother asks you for a purple scarf, you make him a purple scarf. That rule is probably actually written down somewhere. It's a nice, wide scarf as well.)

Jordan has finished her hat! Basking in the wonder of not knitting cozies for golf clubs any longer, she went right to town on that hat, and now all it needs is a good blocking...(don't worry, Jordan, blocking isn't hard!)



It was a very entertaining conversation indeed when Madeline began explaining to Jordan the concept of putting a dinner place inside her hat, and steam blocking it using an iron (oh, Jordan doesn't have an iron..)...using the steam from a boiling pot of water(oh...Jordan doesn't have a pot either..)...using the steam from a boiling...pan.. of water. We college students have to get creative sometimes.




I am almost finished with my socks-that-are-to-be-worked-on-between-projects. These socks have been in progress for about a year and a half now, so it's high time they were finished, but on the other hand, I'm soon going to need to start another pair of socks to work on between projects. I'm going to be sitting down to do my sweater math tomorrow afternoon (it's in the calendar), so the sleeves should be back on track soon. I have a pretty strong itch to start some new projects as well- a hat for my head of significantly less hair than I'm used to, two pairs of socks, a wrap (or three...) not to mention the TARDIS blue yarn I'll be dyeing soon. We'll see what havoc I can wreak on the stash this weekend!

A much belated thing or two...

Oh, my! I got so good about blogging on Wednesday nights that I sort of assumed on Thursday morning that I'd done it, and then things got hectic! (We'll get back to that...)

This week at Stitch n' Bitch:

Madeline made an appearance with not one, but TWO completed sweaters! Check out the fabulous buttons on this one! Plus, that I-cord edging that I still haven't found a project to try out for myself! I like it. Combined with Katharine's diligent progress, It almost makes me want to knit a fingering weight sweater. Almost.

Here's the other one, with a very happy Madeline inside:

Clara is sticking her tongue out in this picture, which makes me smile. Madeline is hard at work on yet another sweater (this one, however, is baby-sized, and should move a lot quicker for that reason.)

Speaking of Clara:

Look at the size of that Tube! It grows ever so much longer. Maybe she should suspend it from the ceiling and use it as a Tube of silence. Maybe it's a sleeping Tube. Maybe it's a top down sock for a particularly tall person. It could even be a carrier for a great many cats. It could be a Tube trap for assorted mythical creatures. It's up to us to guess, I suppose.

Aaaand look what we have here, ladies and gentlemen! A sweater that surely, by now, has sleeve progress, as this picture is a few days old. Katharine is making record time on this sweater, it will definitely get some wear before too much longer!

Check out the crochet stitch pattern on Lena's blanket! I know it looks like a scarf right now, but it's not. It's a blanket- the beginnings of a blanket!

 Here's a yet-to-be-determined project and some ever -so -diligent crochet chain stitch practice (practice makes perfect! I read somewhere that it takes the average person 300 hours of doing something in order to become a master- like drawing, or playing the violin. There's no reason 300 hours of chain stitch would be any different, but I doubt I'd make it to 5 before I started second guessing the merit of mastering it.)

Here's a Halloween doggy sweater for Megan's new puppy. She seemed to be aware that most dogs do not enjoy sweaters, and seemed also not to care. We'll see if her puppy stops wiggling long enough for her to snap some pictures in costume!

Look! A foot! and Jordan's Ridiculously Organized bag of yarn for her sister's granny square blanket. I should have taken a picture of my yarn bag for comparison. Also, you can see my toes in this picture- which reminds me that this week is a very important week- Halloween on Wednesday means it's Halloween sock week! I started with toe socks featuring skulls and roses, and then today was black and white striped witchy socks! Whatever will tomorrow bring...Halloween is the best time of the year for sock shopping. But I digress...

This is what Jordan's sister's blanket will look like when it's done. I don't think the colors are quite right, judging by the yellow of the carpet. It's still really awesome though! That's one lucky sister. The good thing about granny square projects, though, is how portable they are. As soon as she fills her bag up with squares, she can just empty it out and start over until there's enough- no lugging around a big old blanket!

And then there's silly old me- as if knitting wasn't weird enough:

I'm making yarn! I know it looks like I know what I'm doing in this picture, but I promise I don't. I keep dropping the spindle because such thin yarn requires quite a lot of twist. I'm working on it, though. 300 hours, like I said. I'm still stalled on my sweater because I haven't had time to sit down in a quiet place and do the math to figure out what the appropriate increase pattern is. Math is hard. Maybe tomorrow. I have been just as hard pressed for knitting time as I have for blogging time!

And now, a story:

Aric and I visited Iowa State University over the weekend, because they were holding an event for prospective graduate engineering students. I drove. We were nearly there, when I spied a Joann Fabrics sign right next to a Michael's sign, right next to a Target sign, so I did a little happy dance and got off the highway...Bought some fabric, and something truly fabulous that I will show you all on Tuesday. When we were pulling up the ramp to get back on the highway, we were stopped in a line of cars because a police man was at the top of the ramp, stopped with his flashers on, and blocking traffic. I thought there was an accident or something, so we waited. All of the sudden, ten or so police cars drove by on the (empty, because the ramp was blocked) highway- followed by exactly two black SUVs with tinted windows, and eight white SUVs. Behind that, were two large luxury busses ( I don't know what the word for them is- the kind that look like RVs, but they're not...) The not-RVs were followed by an additional eight white SUVs, two black SUVs, and a bunch more police cars with flashing lights. Following up this parade were two more police cars, blocking traffic so that nobody could get into the caravan.

Every time they passed an on-ramp, a car from the front of the line would block it, and a then join again at the back. When we got to Ames, they exited onto a new highway (we watched all this from the bridge over said highway)- and two cars stopped traffic on that highway so that it was empty for the caravan.

Aric and I resolved to Google when we got home, to figure out who the very important person was, blocking traffic and traveling exactly at the speed limit (Gah!).

Wanna Guess? You really only have two options.

It was Mitt Romney. He made a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa, while we were visiting the Applied Mathematical Sciences lab at Iowa State.

In other news: the bell tower there played the theme song from Mario at 11:00.