Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford

@saavikford

CUNY Astro prof, AMNH research assoc, runner, astronomer, crafter, camper, gardener, mom, all opinions completely my own (she/her)

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Bluesky

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Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 3d

Aww, cmon, be like the rest of us?

2 panel meme—top is baby Yoda (Grogu), with text ‘Professor on website’.

Bottom panel is regular (ancient) Yoda with text ‘Professor in reality’.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 9d

And we’re officially out of bear country! I’ve even had a shower. Next stop: Portland, Oregon (tomorrow… tonight our only goal is to sleep in real beds). Highly recommend Glacier National Park… come visit while there are still some glaciers…

Landscape view of a lake with a corner of a dock at lower left, and a series of silhouetted mountains at successively larger distances, increasingly obscured by haze. There are some kayakers on the lake in the middle distance, and the sky is huge & blue & cloudless.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 11d

So, not quite as bad as the gif but… had to draw my bear spray today. Thanks largely to other idiot humans who kept walking towards this mama & 2 cubs, pushing them along the trail towards us, even backing away. Yelled at other humans to stop & mama figured out how to get her fam away from mine…

A mama black bear on a wooded trail, with a cub behind her, and a mass of idiot hikers behind that. 2nd cub not pictured but still intensely cute & terrifying.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 15d

I have seen bears. From inside my car. Which was good. Because they were so close I could have reached out to pet them. (Do not pet bears. Although they are friend-shaped—another complaint I have for the management… feels unfairly misleading.)

A young black bear walking across the road in front of my car, with greenery and a mountain ridge behind it.

Back of same bear foraging in some trees, taken by hubs out passenger side window. From after it ambled across the road.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 18d

Did I see an eclipse today? No. No I did not. But did I see the world’s largest buffalo? Oh yah, you betcha!

A very large sculpture of a buffalo/bison. With my 6’4” kid for scale. Kid is almost as tall as one leg.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 18d

If you’re passing thru Fargo, ND, I wanna shoutout Brewhalla, a food/beer hall, with a little bit of retail… including the dead-cute shop Unglued, that sells fun souvenir stuff AND crafty stuff. Mostly embroidery & cross-stitch, but I got some fabulous hand dyed yarn. They had a cross-stitch kit of:

Green on black Oregon Trail ‘You have died of dysentery’ graphic, but actually captioned, ‘You listened to RFK Jr.’

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· 22d

What I spent my afternoon watching:

Two people in full plate armor with swords are fighting in an outdoor ring. One is in blue & yellow, the other is just dark blue. There is a green shelter/stage behind them and some trees in the background.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jul 15

I spent this afternoon/evening working to help build a trebuchet. No. No reason. Why do you ask?

Two men standing in a field with a trebuchet mostly complete. One man dressed mostly in black is the designer & chief builder of the device. The other man (my hubs) is in t-shirt & shorts taking a picture of the device.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jul 12

My favorite shop in Dublin. Do you want to learn more? Join us!

A windowed shop front with a sign above it reading: Cult Supplies.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jun 23

TRLs mentioned in one of today’s plenaries, but no mention of how that translates to Space Unicorns! See TRL5 & TRL6… @granttremblay.com @lisacommunity.bsky.social #LISASymposium2026

NASA Technology Readiness Levels
TRL 1: What if there were Unicorns
TRL 2: We have drawn a Unicorn
TRL 3: unicorn_v8_final_final.cad
TRL 4: We have placed a horn on a horse in our lab
TRL 5: We took the horse outside
TRL 6: We're now calling the horse a Unicorn
TRL 7: We're pretty sure the Unicorn might survive if we launch it into space
TRL 8: 0mg it survived
TRL 9: Our reference design incorporates high-heritage Space Unicorns

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jun 13

Given the heat and my continuing one-leggedness, this is as close as I’m getting to knitting in public today (which is Knitting 🧶 in Public Day—yes really!):

Selfie of me sitting on my couch (with my knee scooter visible in the background), holding circular knitting needles with brown fingering weight yarn worked into the wrists of a pair of mittens (using magic loop technique); white yarn carried behind is also visible.

Also seen in background: coffee tree under artificial lights; glass/wood French doors to dining room; oil painting of a seascape in heavy weather done by my MIL.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jun 12

I have no actual idea what’s under there, beyond the fact that I could feel where the incision was and it’s small, and at my ankle… but my splint & dressing look like this

My left leg wrapped in splint, padding, and ace bandages, from knee to ankle, with stiff footpad. Leg is extended and propped on an iWalk (peg leg style) black & blue crutch. Background is NYC subway, rest of leg is covered in blue with white print dress.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jun 8

It’s here! It… helps? It’s definitely not like real walking but I can carefully go up and down stairs (I have to go down backwards)… but it means I should be able to use the subway tomorrow!!!

Photo of me in a mirror in a hallway, standing on a ‘peg leg’ style crutch.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jun 4

If I ordered a thing I really want RIGHT NOW if I keep hitting reload on the package tracker that will make it get here faster, right? Right??? It’s this thing:

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Jun 1

These were given to their recipients today (instructor & mentor for my kid in a biomedical research program) and people cried. Thanks @stonkers.bsky.social for making the patterns!!! 🧶

A knitted & stuffed stereotypical ’grey’ alien with large head, black eyes & facial features, having been dissected for an autopsy, with pink, green, blue, turquoise, orange & purple internal organs, pinned and mounted in a black shadow box. (Present for instructor in molecular biology with an interest in astrobiology!)

Knitted dissected white mouse, with pink, red, yellow, green, burgundy & blue organs, plus a pink tail, paw pads, ears, & nose. Pinned for autopsy in a black shadow box. (Present for postdoc mentor in mouse lab.)

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 16

I wish I had video of this rendition: I’ve been a bad, bad boy I’ve been careless with a delicate man

Me, dressed as Donald Trump, holding a sheet, in front of my karaoke teammates dressed as the devil, and Jeffrey Epstein, all standing in front of the gates of hell. I’m singing Fiona Apple’s Criminal.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 11

Sooo… this guy was from Baltimore?

Black & white photo of Babe Ruth in his Yankees uniform in the dugout.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 8

GOOD JOB!!! Have a special raccoon wand boop for doing the right thing!!!

Raccoon dressed in a purple cape covered in blue & yellow stars, holding a sparkly star-shaped wand. On a hardwood floor. No I have no idea how this came to be but I love it.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 8

It was deeply awesome and super fun… and WE WON!! 😂

Gold microphone shaped trophy reading:

NYC Karaoke League Team Champion

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 7

My calendar is mocking me:

A ‘day at a time’ style calendar reading:

May 7
Thursday

Just breathe

Or some shit…

Next to a bottle of red Chloraseptic sore throat medicine

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 6

Keep me from posting this to the chat in our faculty zoom meeting… please…

Should you ask a question at a faculty meeting?

Flow chart—essentially the answer is ALWAYS ‘NO’ (if someone is actively dying… you should not ask a a question but call 911…)

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· May 2

Ok in keeping with this week’s theme, here’s my hand in the fingerless/convertible mitten I made! And this is teaching me that I should really take more pics of me *wearing* my knits… #ShowMeYourKnits 🧶

My right hand in a purple ribbed mitten with 2 wooden buttons on the palm.

Same right hand but with four fingers ‘popped out’ and the top part of the mitten flipped back away from the camera, making it a little clearer that the buttons are there to hold the mitten top closed.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Apr 30

Holy shit y’all—we won! 🥳

Group of 8 ppl smiling and posing for the camera holding a certificate; one person in a dilophosaurus costume, me as Ellie, another teammate as Hammond, our co-captains in street clothes, another teammate as sexy Jeff Goldblum, and two teammates with mostly deflated and half off Trex & brontosaurus costumes.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Apr 19

I see you tweet and raise you a meme:

3 panel:
1: Well did it work for those people?
2: No, it never does. I mean, these people delude themselves into thinking it might, but…
3: …but it might work for us.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Apr 18

Ok so it’s cowl week, and I missed cables week, so I’m posting a cabled cowl! This was my answer to, ‘What should I do with this fabulous yarn I got in Anchorage?’ White is qiviut & arctic fox, blue is qiviut. More deets in alt! 🧶 #ShowMeYourKnits

Blue ribbed border with white cabled pattern and blue bobbles, with an abrupt transition to blue cabled and white bobbles. Cable pattern is from the Turbulence sweater in Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Apr 18

@stonkers.bsky.social look!!! I’m *almost* done with my alien!!! 👽 Thank you SO MUCH for making the pattern!! 🧶 #ShowMeYourKnits

A grey alien ‘autopsy’ in progress—a knitted toy meant to be pinned down like a dissection with a large elongated grey head, big black eyes, elongated limbs and fingers, and a cut open abdomen containing green, orange, pink, light blue, turquoise & dark purple organs. The organs are all trailing unfinished ends which will be used to sew them in once the body is finished blocking. A tapestry needle sits on the white cloth the alien is drying on.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Apr 17

Just realized I could screencap from the video!!!

JD singing to a giant pink inflatable uterus (played by a teammate) holding balloons representing ovaries. Two other teammates are on stage, one holding a CVS store sign, the other is tech crew who will shortly be arranging a fan to blow back JD’s hair like in a movie… 😂

A karaoke lyrics screen reads: Is this the place we used to love… and I can’t read the rest.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Apr 17

Apparently, I make a pretty good DJT, at least when I’m covering Criminal at League Karaoke?

Me in a men’s suit, white shirt, overlong red tie and blond wig, holding a microphone & a sheet tied into a noose; one of my teammates is holding a Jeffrey Epstein mask, being corralled by my other teammate in a red devil outfit with horns & a pitchfork, in front of a backdrop showing the literal gates of hell.

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Mar 28

Why was I up until 1am? Our kid kicked our asses… by reading the rule book carefully!!! The AUDACITY! And yeah, we played a 6 hour board (SETI) game with our kid for our anniversary. We are nerds. 😂

A teen boy carefully reads a rule book while I sit smiling exhaustedly around a wood table covered in a spacey looking board game, covered in tiny bits. SETI is a giant board game with BITS!!!

Saavik ‘Careful of the Ankle’ Ford@saavikford· Mar 26

Did I impersonate Kristi Noem while her dead dog sang about how he’s better off without her tonight at Karaoke League? Judge for yourself: