The Real Baby Beth

I've moved!

2009-08-04T16:29:00.000-04:00

Not literally. But yeah.

Misery

2009-05-23T15:38:00.005-04:00

I've been in really high spirits lately and can't wait for the summer to get into full swing. Come June, I will be super busy and I cannot wait. I'll be in Philly a couple weekends, will be seeing Jason Mraz in concert 2 times and am trying to score tickets to see Rain, a Beatles tribute band. I'm hoping to hit up Cape Cod with some friends too. Of course, my housework will suffer do to all my weekend trips but I'll do what I have to do.

Speaking of housework, I should be doing it now but I needed to take a break from folding clothes and just vent.

It's no secret that I really dislike my roommate's girlfriend. I'm very vocal about it and he knows how I feel. I'm cordial to her, for Matthew's sake, but wish she never spoke or even came over. Matt must have spoken to her about using an "inside voice" when in the apartment and it's wonderful to be able to sleep and not we woken up by her horrible, wretched voice. What is not wonderful is realizing that she goes through my medicine cabinet. I've noticed it before but just figured I was in a rush that morning and didn't put everything back the way I like it. (As an aside, I'm VERY particular with the way things are in my medicine cabinet and am this way to make getting ready in the morning as easy a task as possible--this includes having my various bottles of expensive body products facing certain directions, in a precise order, and just far enough from the other products that I don't knock shit over when reaching for 1 item.) Yesterday things were moved so completely that there was no denying she was touching my stuff.

Quickly, to go back a month or so...I use Tom's of Maine products for oral care. I like it and it isn't the cheapest stuff around. The mouthwash I use is on the up side of 5 bucks depending on where I buy it. So I bought a bottle a couple months ago and used it a handful of times until one day, when knitting in my hovel, I hear her voice talking about she's having an issue with a tooth of hers and "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go mouthwash." Umm, yeah. Mine is the only mouthwash in the house. Now, she could have brought her own but I can't bring myself to give her the benefit of the doubt as much as I have tried so I stopped using poor Tom since that day. Currently, my mouthwash bottle is half empty. Yup. She's been using it. Matt doesn't use any of my stuff--he thinks I'm a huge weirdo for using all natural products and would rather just stick to his sugary Crest. Gross. Whatever, she can have my mouthwash. I honestly never use mouthwash that often but I like to rinse sometimes before running out of the house just to refresh up, you know? I can no longer do that. She has robbed me. It gets worse...

Back to yesterday. I got up, took a shower, got ready for work and she came over in the morning. She and Matt went into The City for the day and she was in the way. I can't deal with her in the morning so I just ignored her and ran around the house to get all my stuff together and get out the door. After work, I came home and went into the bathroom and nothing was out of place. I'm such a frustrated detective that I really do notice if something of mine was moved a mere centimeter. I did not, however have a need to open my beloved, orderly, medicine cabinet. My friend, Scott, picked me up and we went out to dinner and watched a movie. Fast forward to around 1 in the morning when I sauntered into my house, go to the bathroom and WOAH! What the fuck!? My makeup had been moved around. Brushes and all. I push it back to where it all should have been and open the cabinet to grab my toothbrush and be hygienically sound. The disarray I saw actually pained me. I don't use cheap products by any means. My makeup is Bare Escentuals and we all know how expensive they are. I use jojoba oil and for a small little bottle, I spend around 8 bucks. Tea tree oil solution, 12. Organic face toner, 15. Everything was moved--facing wrong directions, labels facing forward, not equidistant between each other. The works. I was fuming at this point. Who does that? You are taught by 5 years of age that you do not touch what is not yours. How hard is that? It's one thing if she and I were friends but I can't stand the bitch. And even friends ask before they use stuff. I would NEVER go into Noddie's house, and she's the closest girl friend I have, and start using her face stuff. Even when I need to wash my face I ask her what I can use. So I vented to Scott via text, he calmed me down and I went to bed.

Good morning! Go to the bathroom, things are still out of order and it still bothers me. I leave it. I will yell at Matt about it later...I go back to my room and just lounge for a couple hours. She and Matt get up, make breakfast and whatever else they do...They left about an hour ago. I just walked back into my bathroom since I'm getting ready to clean it and BLAMO! My makeup is moved AGAIN! Not only was it moved, my eyelash curler is in a different spot and there is makeup powder on my containers and in the caps of the containers when I opened them. I always wipe away any makeup that gets on the outside of my makeup and I NEVER leave powder in the caps. She used my fuckin' makeup! What do you say to that? To me, that's like going through someone's underwear drawer. I really don't want to have to tell Matt that she isn't welcome here since he does pay half of all the bills for the place but if she can't keep her grubby, sloppy, two-timing hands to herself, she is not welcome here. If he doesn't like it, he will need to move. The blush she used is a limited edition color that came in a kit and I cannot buy again! The mineral veil was on my top shelf and it's now on the bottom shelf, powder everywhere. There was also an eyeshadow that appears to be used.

Here is a tally of the stuff I know she has used:
Blush--$18
Mineral Veil--$19
Eyeshadow (also limited edition color)--$13
Flawless Application Brush--$22
Tom's of Maine Mouthwash--$6.19
Kiss My Face Organics Balancing Act Toner--$15.40
Tea Tree Oil Solution (not positive she used it but I'm 98% sure)--$12.45
fx Curl Booster (the only non-natural stuff I use--not sure she used it but it's among the shit that was moved)--$7.39

Anyone doing the math here? It doesn't seem she used my foundation but perhaps because she is so fuckin' white, she thought the mineral veil would suit her instead. I'm debating to add the foundation onto the list. Am I wrong to ask her to replace my makeup and brush? Thank goodness the rest of my makeup was in my bedroom. Does she use my washcloth too when she showers here? My bar of soap? My 8 fuckin' dollar conditioner? Can you tell that I'm pissed?

I don't know what to do...I invite any and all comments.

2009-05-04T13:09:00.006-04:00

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone for their kind words regarding my search for a new job. Your tweets, e-mails and IMs meant a lot to me. I'll figure it all out soon, I'm sure. There's always the option of taking a week of from work to farm somewhere in the US as a way to get started and see if it's something I will eventually want to commit to.

I wish I had pictures for this post but I don't since I'm at work and my camera is still MIA. Wait, I have the most important one already on Flickr!

Knitting has been a little slow lately but I'm trucking along nicely on the Garter Stitch Swingy Sweater. I'll be able to bind the body off soon and get started on the sleeves. The sleeve situation is scaring me a little but it'll just have to be done 1 stitch at a time and with confidence. I will love this sweater no matter what and if the sleeves end up being wonky because of the picked up stitches and decreases, it'll be worn around the house in all it's angora/wool glory.

What do you think so far? Gale said that it looks cute the way the sleeves are currently and I have to agree. Sorry for the color in the photo, it's obviously taken with Igor 2.0 (my new iPhone) and the lighting in my bedroom is terrible. I'm hoping to remedy that in the near future. The sweater is definitely a mossy-er green and the tank top I was wearing is an eggplant-ish purple. Webs is having a tent sale on the 16th and 17th and I'm hoping to score a nice cotton/bamboo blend to make another cardigan with. Good idea?

There is a Harry Potter KAL going on in the Harry Potter Crafters group on Ravelry and I joined blind. This means that I did not bother to see what pattern they decided on for the month of May. They are knitting socks (Flickr pic of someone's FO). Uhhh....crap? There is an alternate sock pattern that is MUCH simpler than the Fawkes pattern chosen as the main KAL but I don't have house colors so jumping in, head first, is what will happen. I could have started on the 1st, but this weekend was a little crazy and I didn't get a chance to do any knitting. How hard can it really be to knit socks? I've knit lace patterns in the round before and Knucks were my first DPN project, if I recall correctly. I'll try my hardest to finish in May but if now, at least I'll have started...I hope. No swatch has been done and I don't even think I have the right size DPNs. There might be a size 3 or 4 in my stash which should work since I'm a tight knitter... Anyone have DPNs I can borrow? :D

Along with scoring some new yarn for another cardigan, I was thinking of getting some yarn for this Mirabilis pattern I've been coveting. It's a knit baby blanket and after working on the Pinwheel blanket for Freddy's niece I realized how much I like knitting baby items. Any suggestions on what yarn to get? Something washable, and easy on the wallet, please.

Another project I want to tackle is my Piece of Scrap blanket. I want to work through my stash and crochet a blanket for the house out of the scraps I have. It will be hideous and I will love it. I was thinking of making it just a regular granny square blanket but Karen suggested a ripple. I haven't made a ripple blanket and I think that's the route to go. It might actually turn out pretty neat, you know? I have a lot of Woolease that I would like to use so the blanket will be mostly made out of that but there are also random scraps of various Cascade yarns that I love.

Oh boy, there seems to be a lot on my fibery plate right now. I better go knit (oh how I wish I wasn't at work).

It's time for a change.

2009-04-29T22:34:00.003-04:00

If you've been following my blog at all, or know me IRL (haha I never use that acronym), you know that I've slowly been "going green," as they say. This green path has led me to using hand towels instead of paper towels or napkins, making my own powdered laundry detergent and a really amazing body scrub. I'm also recycling more and bringing reusable bags to the grocery store or just say that no bag is needed because there is usually a large purse on my shoulder. Once I figure out what's the closest farmer's market to me, I will be hitting that up on weekends to get my produce and other locally sourced items. I don't use any harsh chemicals to clean my house either and just deal with Matthew John thinking I'm crazy. It is strange that I feel better about myself now that I've such a positive change in my life? I walked aimlessly around my town the weekend before last with a friend. I've never done that before in my life--there has always been a destination in mind. And while I kind of pushed for a destination, we never REALLY had one except when we went to scope out the local Thrift Store. It was nice.

In keeping with the positive theme going on in my life right now, I need to start thinking about a real life change. A new career, of sorts. Tonight at SnB Karen, Gale, Mike (Irish Ann's husband who does not knit but hangs out with us--WE MISS YOU, ANN!!!!) and I were discussing how I need a career change. I sit in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. It's a boring job and one that a monkey with swine flu could do with his eyes closed while eating a banana. No lie. Yes, there are tough days where I want to pull my hair out but it's mostly because of the people I work with. I read blogs all day, for the most part. Last week, I read the blue blog starting from January 2009 and was caught up in no time. How bad is that? I've done that with a couple famous blogs. When I'm not reading blogs, I'm catching up on the CTRG board with practice, merch and PR info. I probably work a solid 3-4 hours a day. I know, I know....some of you are thinking, "You should be grateful you have a job!" I am. Believe me, I am. But being grateful I have a job does not mean I have to like it. ::sigh::

Among the ideas for jobs were: Lead in a Broadway musical (my absolute dream job provided I would sing in public), some sort of transcriber (transcriptionist?), a sheep shearer--Gale, send me that info, and an organic farmer. What else is there? The only thing in life I really get joy out of doing in reading and crafting. Frankly, I can't make a living out of either. The organic farming is something I have seriously considered before. The love of a huge chunk of my life, Ahron, has WWOOFed before and I was beyond jealous and wanted to do it as well. The reason I didn't do it: money. While the lovely Ahron has his parents to fall back on for financial support, I'm not as fortunate. I would love to take a month or two off from the "real world" but what do I when I get back? I have bills that need to be paid and I will basically working for my food during the WWOOFing time. There are WWOOFing opportunities all over the globe and traveling is something that I want very much to do. I feel like I'm at a crossroads and need to make a serious decision for once in my life...

A Plethera of Projects

2009-04-15T21:40:00.002-04:00

...and yes, there will be pictures in this post!

I don't even know what I want to start with...maybe the beret for the swap in my Stitch n Kvetch group? Yes, I think so.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to knit for Sara and being my first swap, I was really nervous that she would hate whatever it was that I chose and tell all of Ravelry of my failure. I read her posts within the group as to what she was looking for and then stalked her a bit more by reading the posts she wrote in other groups that she was swapping in. Sara likes hats but said she feels like she can't pull them off because she has "chipmunk cheeks." I kid you not, she said that. Of course I had to knit hat that would work for her big cheeks and what's better than a beret? I've only recently become a fan of berets, after making one for myself, but I truly feel it's a look that anyone can pull off. The one I knit for Sara had very little slouch and a rolled brim. A ribbed brim would be too tight fitting and only accentuate the cheeks and a picture of her shows that she has short hair...it might be longer at this point but I used what I could as points of reference. Raspberry Beret pattern was the clear winning in the search for beret patterns and it was knit in some Cascade 220 Heather that Emily had given me before she moved back to NY. It's a really nice purple color--Sara likes purple.

What a speedy knit, too. I did most of it during a snow storm and since it's a simple pinwheel, it was easy to memorize and be able to read my knitting to know where to yarn over. There's a 4 row section of lace right before the rolled brim. I actually want to make this same hat for myself. :) Sara says she likes it and thinks that she can pull of the look. I have every bit of confidence in her.

Recently, I've been reading more and more knit blogs and I stumbled upon Glampyre Knits and her Reclamation Scarf. I posted about the scarf previously but here's a better picture:

This next project threatened to give me serious carpal tunnel. Fred mentioned that his brother was having a daughter and something in me decided that I needed to knit for this new baby (Jessica) and start queueing up a whole slew of baby items. Oy. I knit the blanket in about a week (again, only counting days that I actually knit the thing). I had some Ella Rae Madison in orange from two years ago when I first found out that my sister was pregnant and I didn't know if she was having a boy or girl. It's been sitting in my stash since then. I only had two skeins and quickly finished them and needed to find more. I didn't particularly care if the dye lot was different so I got three more skeins a week or so after I started the blanket and knit for a day straight to finish it in time for Fred to fly to California by way of Texas, New Mexico, and who knows where else.

Finally, soap sweaters. I've attempted this one other time and it didn't go as well as one would hope. I still have the wool top that Emily gave me and I just ordered two pounds of handmade soap off of etsy (yep, 2 lbs..I know I'm crazy but I love soap). The first one I made tonight did not come out that great and I might actually cut the soap out and try again. I realized after I did the first one that I need to pull the wool apart a little and make it wispy like I've seen Heidi (and others) do when spinning. So, after watching some youtube videos and reading some online tutorials, I tried my hand at it again. I burned myself numerous times, as I forgot to buy gloves when I was at the supermarket today, but it worked! I think I need to felt the wool a little more but I'll keep it the way it is for now and let it felt itself with use. YAY! Obviously, the soap on the left is my first go at soap felting...pitiful.

And now I've working on the Garter Stitch Swingy Sweater. I did swatch but I did not block my swatch and I've having a bit of anxiety over whether the yarn will stretch a lot. I'm using Classic Elite Lush--anyone use it before? I'm not that far along with the cardigan yet so I could always soak what I have and see how it stretches, right? Or should I just do a separate swatch and soak that? I want to be able to wear the first sweater I make and love it more than anything in the world. Garter stitch doesn't stretch as much as stockinette, right...? Anyone? I'm worried.

ETA: Sorry for the ginormous pictures. I'll use the small ones from flickr for subsequent posts. :D

Why is knitting sexy?

2009-04-07T17:37:00.002-04:00

If you've been reading my blog at all, you know I did my first "swap" ever this past month. I was spoiled very well by the moderator of the Stitch and Kvetch group but I will have another post regarding the swap (with pictures) at a later date. I just wanted to talk a little about a mini article of sorts in the first issue of knit 1 magazine that Mindy sent to me.

The article was written by Ian Kerner, Ph.D. He's a sex therapist and an author--as if there was any other combination of the two. Sex therapists always seem to be authors. But that's not the point. His article is titled (entitled?) "Why knitting is sexy" and in it he says,

"In an age of extreme makeovers, cosmetic surgery and Hollywood romance, the sight of a woman knitting is simultaneously reassuring and alluring. The "Knitting Woman" is a potent reminder of all the sexiness of everyday life. She's real and complex, at once sexual, caring, creative and intelligent. Her mittens, scarves and sweaters are palpable reminders of the sensuality and eroticism that's interwoven into the fabric of life. Each click of her needles is elusive and fleeting, a tiny poem, an ephemeral moment that leaves a man longing."

I find that so interesting. I'm not sure if I find knitting to be sexy or any of those things Ian describes. Does a scarf truly remind you of all the eroticism there is in the world? It doesn't for me. The only time I think of knitting as being sexy is when I see patterns for bikinis, pasties, thongs and other overtly sexual items, like the knit penis. I think his name is Mr. Peen or something like that.

He has such an interesting perspective on the female knitting community that he does say is in part to being present at his mother's knitting group at their house where her friends would undress to try their wares on with him there. They were mostly single mothers, like his own, and he had the hots for one of them big time.

Is it that people see knitting as an age old craft and think back to when sexual things were repressed and not spoken about? Maybe it's the form-fitting sweaters of the 50's that people associate with knitting? They were, and still are, awfully sexy for covering so much skin.

It also seems that Ian thinks a woman who knits is not into the "Hollywood scene" of plastic surgery and botox. Almost like you cannot be one and the other at the same time, as if a non-knitting woman isn't sentimental and romantic, but extremely vain and ready to "hit it and quit it." Am I the only one getting that vibe?

I think I really keep going back to the idea that Ian puts it out there as knitters to be neurotic, repressed housewives that just need to get some, but he doesn't say it in a negative way. It's kind of like how people think the stereotypical librarian is sexy in her pencil skirt, hair pulled back in a bun, with her glasses on, nose stuck in a book.

Don't get me wrong, I liked reading his article and thought it was neat that some people see knitting as being sexy and as a way to show your sexual side without being in your face, but I just don't get it. Maybe knitters give off additional pheromones when "in the act" and he's the only one to pick up on it? Case study, anyone?

What do you think?

Reclamation

2009-03-26T12:43:00.001-04:00

Here's a pretty crappy iPhone pic of my Reclamations scarf. It's just barely blocking on the top of my fridge. I say just barely because the scarf is a little too long for the fridge so I didn't get to stretch it like I would have liked.

I used Artyarns Ultramerino 8 and size 10 needles. Two hanks of the yarn was bought a couple years ago and I made my first Foliage hat with it and have just been saving the other hank for something pretty. I can't wait to weave in my two ends and wear this beauty. It was so simple and quick and now that I think about it, I should have just used the leftover yarn from the other hank to make it bigger, but that's okay. Maybe that extra yarn will be worked into a blanket of some kind in the future.

There is still one lone skein of silk that I got on sale two superbowl sales ago. Maybe another scarf is in order...?

Blogged from my iPhone--sorry for any typos. :)

eta: The rest of my post that got lost during transit. WTF?

C is for....

2009-03-11T21:12:00.008-04:00

Cookies and CTRG.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been thinking about doing it but I didn't have any pictures to post and frankly, reading posts without pictures can be quite boring....especially my posts. :D

Let's start, shall we? On Monday I was told that I am now an official league member!!! Hooray for me! I'm not currently skating right now, though, do to a grocery accident involving a steep step and no lights. I sprained my ankle--this was a couple weeks ago now, and I'm going to try skating on it tomorrow during endurance practice. I will, of course, be taking it slow while wearing an ankle brace/support something-or-other. I have also chosen my derby name, with a little help from my friends. teehee....you'll get why I'm giggling in a second. I chose Rink O' Starr. Get it? Ringo Starr, With a Little Help From My Friends? My number will be 64. I was hoping for Fab4 but we have a C4 so technically, 4 is already taken. I'm excited.

In other CTRG news, a bunch of us participated in WPLR's Shamrock & Roll 5k road race. We walked it and our goal was to come in last. Because if you don't win it, you lose it, so why not lose in style? We flyered while walking and talked to people who were cheering loved ones on. A couple of the girls even danced with one of the bands. We did come in last though the trophy for last place was given to some dude who did NOT finish after us according to the electronic walker thingamajig. We did win best group costume, beating out the women's Rugby team that was there. We were also on the news! NBC 30 did a quick interview with Miz but didn't really show anything good from what we heard. But check this out:

Marla posted that pic on me (#76) via Twitter just as another girl got a text from a friend telling her that she was seen on TV. And yeah, we are wearing green tulle tutus. It was awesome. Outlaw made em for us and I will be sporting mine again on Sunday for the New Haven St. Patty's Day Parade. Will you be there? Come out and support us. Buy one of the girls (or refs) a drink!

Now on to the cookies! I moved (almost a month ago now, did I post about that?) and I baked my first batch of cookies a couple weeks ago. I baked from a package! *gasp* I never do that but it was my team lead's birthday and I promised to bring something in and I was lazy. I bought a bag of peanut butter cookie mix and some caramel-filled kisses. Here's what resulted:

The kisses melted! They looked so silly but were sooooo good. I think that if I had a cooling rack, they wouldn't have melted as badly because the cookies would've cooled quicker. I also blame the fact that these kisses are not solid chocolate on their quick-melt capabilities. Makes sense, right? Let me tell you, though...Best combination of flavors EVER! I think I'll make peanut butter cookies from scratch next time I want these. Matt loved em and wants me to bake every day. haha

Monday I tried my hand at sugar cookies off the back of the flour bag. They turned out great, except that they grew to extreme proportions. I tried to make hamentashen with the recipe and without chilling the dough and that didn't work. Here's what happened:

They flattened out and didn't keep their triangle shape. I only took the time to make a couple hamentashen in case it didn't work. Good thing. The cookies were spectabular, though. Maybe I'll make thumbprint type cookies with this dough...hmm...I need to add that to my "to-bake" list.

Sorry for all the iPhone pictures, BTW. I don't know where I left my camera at the moment (or any of my hooks, save my trusty H) so the phone is all I have. Any really, it's quicker.

Toninght I made Honey-Sweetened Thumb(pinky)print Cookies. The site I got it off of has so many great recipes and I think I'm ready to continue my cooking classes and try some of her healthy, tasty looking, dishes. If you choose to make these, understand this: These are not sweet cookies. They are a little bland, but I like em. But really, there is no sugar in it. Honey is the sweetner. I might make them again and if I do, I might sprinkle a little brown sugar on top of the cookie. Matt does not like them and he said, "Cookies are supposed to be sweet." I argued that the Italian wedding cookies are not sweet. Mister Italian had nothing to say about that. hehe I showed him. So here are the pictures of the cookies during the process. Here's the batter:

You can clearly see the rolled oats and come to think of it, I could use less oats and I think the recipe will still work...Maybe then they wouldn't be as dry. The recipe lady did mention they dry out quickly so be careful not to overcook them. Here is a snapshot of them right before I put them in the oven:

And here is the final product...I think next time I will use a raspberry preserve so that the entire cookie isn't in the gold family. I think a deep red would be a nice contract and make the cookie more pleasing to look at. hehe Oh, and the recipe yeilded roughly 4 dozen bite-sized cookies. I ate a bunch (Matt only ate 1) so I lost count at 40.

Enjoy!

New place.

2009-02-16T10:59:00.002-05:00

I moved yesterday. I will be living alone for a week or so until my new roommie moves his butt in. It was time I left Greg...I couldn't very well live with him forever and his place just didn't feel like "home" to me. I was comfortable there, but not like a home should feel, you know? My original plan was to buy a place of my own and have Matthew John move in with me (I usually always call him by his full name, yes...always have. Don't know why.), but frankly, I was nervous that I couldn't afford it and I get anxiety about such things very easily. I like to know that I can pay for everything, in full, when due, and not have to worry about it again. Buying my own place would not leave much room for feeling secure, in my eyes. So my friend Jay helped me find a couple places, Ani came to check out the place I'm living in now, and the others I saw where complete shitholes. All in all, it was a group effort to find me a place. haha Sadly, moving was not much of a group effort. Matthew John came through, like promised, and he and I were able to fit my queen bed, mattress and dresser all in my dad's SUV. Awesome! I don't know how it all fit. It was kind of like a clown car in my head, except there was still room for stuff in there. We packed up Matthew John's car as well and went on our way. Thankfully, my landlord helped bring the dresser and mattress up to our third floor apartment. I really don't know how much help I would have been. hehe I took the bed completely apart so getting it upstairs was simple and it's oddly light. Go IKEA! Rent was paid, keys were given and I was shown how to use the really old school heat. Awesome! I had it on "low" all night and I was comfy. It was a little chilly this morning but I need to get some rugs and black-out curtains to help remedy that. I might even knit and felt (*gasp*) a pair of slippers. I think there was a cute pair in one of the Stich n Bitch books I have... I found some good curtains on overstock.com and I figured on lunch today I would see how much Target has them for (if at all) and compare prices. Apparently overstock.com has $1 shipping...? Could that be correct? My other place to check is Bed Bath & Beyond and you KNOW I have coupons so they might even be cheaper there. I guess we'll see. I need to get stuff from there anyway. I'm all out of shampoo and almost out of conditioner. Uh oh. No worries, though. I'm clean and don't even shampoo my hair everyday anymore. ;)

The apartment is really quiet. I'm not sure how much I like that. Like, eerie quiet. Maybe it's just because I'm by myself right now? Who wants to have a sleepover in my almost completely unfurnished place? :D I have a queen size bed and nothing else. No couch, no kitchen table, nada. Matthew John has all the furniture. What would I do without that boy? And can we talk about him for a minute? We met forever ago. I must have been in 6th or 7th grade and he's a year older. I'm thinking we met at my elementary school, though he didn't go there. He's been BFF with Jay since before dinosaurs were on this earth and he came around with him one day. I do recall my dear Matthew John throwing a roll of tape at me...and not scotch tape. And by "at me" I mean at my face. I caught it, somehow. I had cat-like reflexes that one time in my life and never again. Odd. He and I butted heads for years after that. I couldn't even tell you when we were finally were okay with each other enough to have a real conversation but I love that boy now and would do anything for him. We kept losing touch for a year here, few months there, but we always find each other again. And there's something to be said about his helping me yesterday. He was the only person who could make time to help me. No one else could. No one else even offered. Oh wait, that's kind of a lie. Freddy P (my derby husband of sorts, a ref) offered but he went to PA on Sunday so he offered his services for the weekdays if I still need to bring stuff over...which I do. Mandy and Abby (fresh meat) offered to help too but Mandy would have to drive over an hour and that's just silly and Abby had somewhere to be most of Sunday. But anyway, it's been quite some time since Matthew John and I even spoke (maybe a year or so...?) and he totally came through for me. Let's be honest, I'm helping him too as he doesn't have a roommate right now and hates where he lives. It'll be a good match. I really can't wait. Can you tell?

I'm going to try and take some pictures of my lovely, completely empty place tonight and add pictures but I'm stealing interwebs until I can figure out what would be the most economical solution for me so the posting might not happen. I only get two bars from the ONLY person in my area who doesn't have a secure network (don't people trust others anymore?!) and it's barely enough for me to listen to Pandora without it cutting out every other song.

Moving has made me realize just how much craft related supplies I have. I have WAY more yarn than I thought I did and my goal is to still to stash bust. My sweater yarn from the Super Bowl sale (crap, I never blogged about that...tomorrow, maybe) and the yarn for Patrick's scarf are the last of purchases unless absolutely necessary--and I'm going to try not to make it a necessity to buy more. I have a lot of single skeins and one of the One Skein Wonders books so I'm hoping to really utilize the book over the next few months. I already know I want to make some lace scarf that I saw Irish Ann knitting the other night. It's beautiful already and it isn't even blocked. I also have some knitting for my swap to do. I need to buckle down and find a project so that I can meet the deadline. I've been zipping through projects lately, so I'm not really worried. I'll probably decide on something tonight since I have no TV or working intertubes to distract me. My swapee might read my blog and although (s)he doesn't know I will be doing the spoiling, I don't want to ruin the surprise at all so only my SnB girlies will know and see what I'm working on. Oh the suspense! I already bought some other items to throw in the package and I'm super excited about it all. I hope it all comes together nicely and (s)he loves it all. And yup, there is are men involved in the swap as well hence the "(s)he". I really don't want to give ANYTHING away. eek! Excited!!

Derby is going well too, and thank you to everyone who's been asking about it and encouraging me. I got new skates a couple weeks ago and my feet are almost used to them. I need to get some insole things that a couple of the girls and refs told me about and somehow break the leather in--it's killing my Achilles heel. But I'm making progress, getting some gnarly bruises and am really enjoying the time I spend with everyone on and off the track. It really is a huge commitment but for this time in my life, it's perfect and I'm learning to manage my time better and am working on getting into a routine with everything. Now if I can stick to eating right--I fell off the wagon big time. hehe It's been a stressful couple weeks.

Again, I hope to post some pictures of my apartment, knitting and derby soon. Be patient. I know my posts have been lackluster in the eye-candy department. I'm working on it. :D

Happy Monday.

Swapping!

2009-02-03T12:28:00.002-05:00

I decided it was time I do a swap with my Yids on Ravelry. This is my first swap and I'm nervous I will send the crappiest box ever. Please help me...Jenn...? I need some good ideas. E-mail or PM me some ideas so my Pal doesn't see it...just in case!

Now, just so you know, this will be a Passover swap so if I'm going to send any type of food, it needs to be small enough so my Pal can finish it before Passover starts. It must be kosher too, but I can handle that all on my own. :) The same goes for any body-type products I send...unless my Pal will just "sell" it with the rest of her stuff that isn't kosher for Passover...Hmm...I should ask the moderators what we are doing about that kind of stuff. It might be better not to send something like that after all. ARG!

Instead of writing a Megillah in the thread of the group I'm doing the swap with, I figured I would write about my likes and dislikes here.

Hello Super Secret Swappy Pal!! (I need to find a synonym for Pal that starts with an S....) HockeyRachel (and others) had some additional questions that she posted in the official swap thread that she would like everyone to answer. Here it goes...along with a bunch of other information. Hope I don't overwhelm you with all the bullets. I love lists.

Coffee: I do not drink coffee that often. I try to avoid it at all costs for various reasons. When I do drink it, we have a Keurig machine at work (the only place I drink coffee) and it pains me that the coffee we get isn't fair trade. I fight with myself about whether I should really be drinking the coffee they provide to us for free. I drink French Vanilla, and only French Vanilla unless I'm getting coffee at Starbucks. Then I get whatever has the most calories and other good for you things like fat and sugar. It's always some blended. I'm a gluten, it's true.
Tea: I'm more of a tea drinker. Mostly minty type things but green tea is high on my list. Black tea hates me and I hate it back. We had a falling out a couple years ago and I said, "Good riddance." I like loose tea but need a better contraption to put the leaves it.
Chocolate: I'm supposed to stay away from chocolate, but I do love me some hot chocolate. The Land o' Lakes white chocolate stuff is awesome and I love Hugs.
Looks or function: I'm in the process of "going green" as they say. I'm all about functionality because of this. My goal is to not buy sponges and just use only dishcloths. I want to cut down on my paper towel usage too. Make me dishcloths. Any colors, any pattern--I don't mind and I actually really like the eclectic look/feel.
Bags: I'm a pro at making market bags but I could use sturdy (webbed), wide ribbon for the handles.
Knitwear:I'm a huge fan of hats! I just made a slouchy beret and while I love the striping the yarn did and the overall look of the beret, I have no clue how to wear the damn thing. It's only slightly slouchy, as I wasn't sure if I could handle something crazy.
More knitwear:I work in an insanely cold office building and could use fingerless mitts--I have small, boney hands and type all day long while singing to myself.
Color preferences: For whatever reason, everything in my wardrobe is slowly becoming green. I have numerous green sweaters and just bought a sweater's worth of green yarn at a Super Bowl sale (50% angora, 50% wool!!!!!!!). I have 2 hats, 1 scarf, 1 cowl and 2 market bags that are all green. Please don't send me green yarn. I still have a ton of green to use.
Patterns: I have a bright red coat and want to make Urchin....I'm thinking a blueish/purplish chunky yarn would be perfect for it and will look great with said, red Paddington Bear looking coat. I'm also a fan of the Montero hat pattern that Brooklyntweed blogged about recently.
Books: I made the decision to forgo shopping at Barnes and Noble (and other large book retailers) for the entire year if it can be helped. I love used books and can't understand why someone would be offended if they got a used book as a present! If you are going to throw a book or twelve into the mix, get me a used one.
More books: I love Agatha Christie and am working my way through the Poirot series in order. I'm up to the Mystery of the Blue Train and it's a good one. I eventually want to read the Harley Quinn series in order as well but don't own any of those.
Cooking: I'm teaching myself to cook and eat healthier and am all about the easy. I love my crock-pot and want to learn to make more in it.
Sports: I just started playing roller derby and am having a love affair with it. Did you know there are pattern books specifically geared towards derby items?!
Homemade: With the whole "going green" thing, I want to make my own cleaning and bath products. I've already made my own body scrub and love it but I could use recipes for other items that are nontoxic and safe for the environment. I know there's a lot I can do with vinegar and lemon juice. Help me out!
NERD ALERT: I'm a Harry Potter nerd (Ron, Neville and Luna are the greatest) and have recently "read" Eragon and loved it. I'm an audiobook kind of girl with larger books--it gives me something to do at work and while I knit and crochet (that's right, Pal...I'm bi-craftual). I'm also a Twilight geek.
Notions: I need stitch markers for knitting and crochet. I like the snag-free ones and usually knit things on size 8 needles. I have a couple different ones faved on Etsy. I fave things in my free time.
Other crafts: Scrapbooking=love. I have so many ideas of various books I want to make and right now I'm just working on the main one but I want to make one of just pictures I've taken with my iPhone and another that is themed off of the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music and have the book filled with things that I love and that make me smile. I'm thinking both will be smaller, notebook sized maybe, and it'll help me get more creative since there's less space and I want it to be rockin' with all sorts of mixed media popping out at you. And actually, I can incorporate the two books into one....that would work out really nicely now that I think about it. I have nothing to start the new book. Acid free items are always welcome in my scrapbook stash. :D
All natural: Yep, I'm a hippie at heart and my bath products are all natural...everything! Shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste...even my makeup. No chemicals here.
Roving & soap: I still want to make soap sweaters using roving and homemade, natural soaps.

Okay, so I think that's way more info that you need but this way you have a ton to choose from and you don't have to wait for Mindy or Rachel to get in touch with me if you have more questions.

The inauguration...

2009-01-20T13:43:00.002-05:00

I got to watch it at work today. I fully planned on streaming it at my desk, just ignoring my work for an hour and a half, whether my bosses were ok with it or not but work did not fail me! We received an e-mail from facilities telling us they were going to be watching the inauguration in a couple different places so I told my boss that I was gonna go watch.

I barely have words for it all. I chuckled when Obama stumbled over the oath but ABC news said the guy giving the oath switched words around a little, hence the confusion. Who knows if that's true...I don't really feel like looking up the words of the oath. I was also so completely engulfed by Obama's speech and as terrible as some of you might think this is to say, I thought to myself that the way I felt was probably how all the German's felt when Hitler would speak. He would captivate people and that's how I felt today. I'm in no way saying Obama is like Hitler in any way other than his speech giving abilities, but it was truly mesmerizing.

Overall everything was wonderful, poem excluded, but something that's really bothering me is all the parties and money that is going into all the parties/balls tonight. Obama is going to be attending 10 inauguration parties. 10! Considering his whole campaign was about our economic crisis and the change that is needed to turn our country around, don't you think they could have cancelled a couple parties? I mean, I'm sure he personally didn't plan them but he could have been like "Hey guys, that's nice of you to want to celebrate but maybe we should lessen the number of events..." Put that money to better use. These things are no small house parties either. They are large and extravagant and I personally would have liked to see less of them. There's no need for them.

Hopes are high for this presidency and it would be such a blow to everyone, not just the American people, if Obama failed to deliver. There's a lot he promises to change and let's be real, can it all be accomplished in 4 small years? Time will tell...

Come out to Woodbridge tonight!

2009-01-17T12:52:00.006-05:00

Are you looking for something to do tonight? Then come out to the CT Sports Center, in Woodbridge, tonight to watch a Roller Derby bout.

Doors open at 6 and the bout starts at 7. Buy tickets in advance for $10 or pay at the door for $12. Kids under 12 get in for free with a paying adult. What’s better than that?

There are chair available to rent and the venue does sell beer. Bring your knitting and crochet to work on during halftime.

I hope to see you all there!

2 down!

2009-01-14T13:07:00.005-05:00

Practices, that is. Phew. My first derby practice was Thursday and I figured it would be pretty low energy since we're all new. We went over all the league stuff, dues, insurance requirements, attendance, etc. Then we skated a little bit. It was good. I was a little sore on Friday but nothing too bad, thankfully. Last night was my second practice and I thought I was gonna die throughout most of it. My endurance is in the crapper!! How do you fix that? OMG, we were doing suicides in skates but instead of just reaching your point, turning and skating back, we needed to reach the end, FALL, skate back, fall, skate to the next point, fall...you get the point. I finished but it was tough, I'm not gonna lie. I did get a "good job" and "nice fall" on one of the falls I did. It might have been a baseball slide (we'll say it was done on purpose...) but I was so out of it at that point, who knows. It was freakin' awesome. It felt good to get through that drill but I'm not looking forward to doing more of those. haha

What else did we do? Oh! We skated in a pack! That was a nice surprise last night...I didn't think they would have us skate with the girls yet. It was awesome. Whoever was skating in back needed to get to the front, so there was constant movement. Then at one point the Noobs were told to try and not let the other girls and refs pass them. Somewhere in all the hustle I fell on my ass I kinda just laughed for a second and then was like "FUCK, I gotta get up!" so I did, raced up to the rest of the pack, and started to work my way to the front again. I gotta tell you, it was so freakin' fun! Fall and all!! What was NOT fun was an exercise we did at the beginning of the regular practice (the noobies were there an hour early to get in some extra time). So you stand on your toe stops, which I'm having a lot of trouble with, and you do squats. 3 positions. 1=neutral, just standing on the stops, knees bent. 2=squat 3=deep squat Squats are tough alone, but throw in needing to keep your balance when your feet aren't planted on the floor, and holding position....man, killer. I was shaking so bad--must work on those. Ugh, I have so much I need to work on. I feel like I'm never going to advance...and I know that's silly to say seeing as I've only had 2 practices but it is what it is. I was able to do T stops last night, though. I didn't even think about it, just did it. That's a problem of mine, and I know it. I think about things too much but then I wasn't thinking towards the end of practice and I didn't stop at all. I just went right into the wall. Not like, face into the wall, but my skates hit the wall and I stopped that way. That's no good! *sigh*

We learned a bunch more last night but let's discuss knitting for a fraction of a second here. I made a scarf to match my Foliage last year, kind of blocked it (I lack blocking space and know-how), and almost never wear it. I don't like it. I hate that it curls in on itself. Now the search is on for a new scarf to match my hat. I think the Faux-liage scarf will be frogged and reinvented. Perhaps My So Called Scarf? But it seems a little involved with purling back into a p2tog and such. I'll forget and lose track. I could always just do another Drop Stitch Scarf. BTW, that scarf was for my sister and I don't know if she reads my blog or not. But apparently the yarn is a little itchy for her. It's mohair awesomeness!...with some wool. I'm sad that she doesn't love the scarf itself but she does love the color. That's something, right? Maybe a cowl? I'm a little overwhelmed right now. My goal is to knock out a bunch of smaller projects so that I get my stash down in order to buy yarn for a sweater. I really want to knit a sweater. It's about time...and I should just jump in and do it. If it comes out horrible, I can always frog it and stick to hats, right?

Lunch is almost over, adios.

Hug o' War

2009-01-09T18:22:00.002-05:00

...by Shel Silverstein. I love this poem, so I thought I would share.

I will not play at tug o' war

I'd rather play at hug o' war,

Where everyone hugs

Instead of tugs

Where everyone giggles

And rolls on the rug,

Where everyone kisses

And everyone grins

And everyone cuddles

And everyone wins.

I bought my nephew Where the Sidewalks Ends for Chanuka. It's a 25 year anniversary edition, maybe 20 year, and with it comes a CD of Shel Silverstein playing the guitar and singing some of his prose. I was actually thinking of getting another copy for myself.

Here's The Giving Tree:

I remember we put this book on as a play when I was in 7th or 8th grade. We did it in Hebrew, at the old folks home. It's kind of a sad story, and I don't know why we chose to do it but I think it was for Tu B'shvat, which is basically Jewish Arbor Day. Mmm! I used to love Tu B'shvat when I was in school. We would eat awesome fruit all day (dates, figs, pomegranates, grapes) and have carob and cookies and crackers. YUM! We would eat at least one of each of the seven species of Israel. We also used to count the seeds in pomegranates to see if there really were 613 in them. It's also a custom to plant a tree in Israel and is considered an honor if you do in memory of someone or for a special occasion like a wedding, birth or bar mitzvah. I want carob this year! I will find it.

Really, all I wanted to go was share the Hug o' War poem with you though...so I bid you farewell.

I love quickies!

2009-01-05T22:56:00.005-05:00

...and here's a quickie post about a super quickie project. And I have pictures of it! I actually need some help--hence the post when I should be sleeping.

I'm still on my hat kick and Justin deserved another hand knit from me since I love him and he puts up with my swooning all over the place. haha <3

Since I enjoyed knitting Thorpe a week or so ago and an earflap hat was requested, I decided to cast on another one yesterday evening. I'm using Wool-Ease (so hand washing is not needed) in a bright blue and a milk chocolate-like brown held together that looks marbled when knit. I love the effect, and Justin claims to.

My problem lies at the beginning of my rounds where I did the garter stitch border. The edge is a little jagged and I tried to pull the yarn a little tighter at the beginning but I guess I didn't do a very good job. I'll show you a picture of what I mean:

See where my hair is? Now follow right up to the border. Can you see the loose stitches there? It's killing me! Help me fix it. I don't want Justin wearing the hat with it like that. Now I will show you the other side where I will need to attach yarn to finish the second earflap. Notice the pretty stitches, all even like (sort of):

Sorry for the creepy pictures. That's what happens when using your iPhone and a mirror to snap pics of yourself. Man, I look tired. But anyway, yeah...what should I do? Maybe blocking would help? I might want to block it to stretch the top out but I'm wearing Marbled (what I named the hat) right now and my dome stretched it out just fine.

I leave you all with this pic I e-mailed to show the progress I made earlier in the evening:

Yeah, I realize I look like a crazy person. I'm okay with that. Notice my Ravelry sweatshirt? Nerd alert!

Cooking and experimenting!

2009-01-01T16:33:00.009-05:00

For those who celebrate: Happy New Year! 2009 should be a good year. I'm going to do everything in my power to make it such. What did you do to celebrate? I was in good company and fell asleep (nodded off multiple times) probably around 10:30 or so. :)

Let's get started:

I've come to the realization that Greg does not eat any of the food I make. He will be polite and eat it when I first make it but will not have any of the leftovers...and seeing as I'm cooking in the crockpot, leftovers are in abundance. With this realization also came the revelation that I can make lunch/dinner for myself for a week straight and spend less that 10 bucks. This means that I need to hope the food comes out good and I will need to remember to pack my lunch. I'm really watching my spending. It's getting out of hand. With that being said, last week (Christmas Eve, actually) I decided I wanted to make a whole chicken in the crockpot. I decided to use The Crockpot Lady's Rotisserie-Style Chicken recipe and got to work. I recall not having a couple of the spices but I didn't really care at the time. Use whatever spices you want. I wouldn't say it came out like the rotisserie chicken you get at the supermarket (I've never had them, actually...) but I liked it. The chicken was SUPER moist that it was a little difficult at first to cut it into pieces. I got the legs, thighs and wings cut but when it came to getting the rest of it cut..........uhh, good god, I need to learn basic kitchen skills. I mangled that poor chicken. I highly recommend that recipe but would advice you throw in some veggies or something. Or at least be smarter than I and cook some for your side, maybe some rice too. Yum. I wasn't really thinking when I went to the supermarket (when am I ever?) and didn't get any veggies. And then by the time the chicken was done (I cooked mine on high), I had already decided I couldn't wait for it to be done and made myself some Mac & Cheese instead. :D

Today I wanted something warm and filling for dinner. Beef and barley soup it is! I found a million recipes online and they were all the same.

1 lb stew meat
2 pieces celery--chopped
2 carrots--diced
1 med onion
3/4 cup barley
1 bay leaf
6 cups beef broth
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the crockpot and cook on high for 4-5 hours. I have 2 and half hours to go. I'm starving. I hope this comes out good.

I was thinking of making cholent (I love this recipe and usually add a little more honey and ketchup to my own bowl of it) but I'll probably do that next week since I now have a bag of barley to use up. Mmm...food.

And speaking of food, I was given a "cookbook" of sorts last week. There's 300+ Raw recipes plus tips and things about eating raw and the benefits of doing so. No, I'm not a raw foodist. I think that's clear from the soup I'm making tonight alone. BUT! I keep getting yelled at about the baked goods I make and how they are made with ingredients that are terrible for you--white sugar and flour, mainly. I'm open to trying new things and seeing what all the hype is about. In doing so, I've been to Catch a Health Habit Cafe in West Haven a couple of times and Glen hasn't disappointed me yet. I mean, I've only had some tea, a raw cacao smoothie thing and some raw chocolate shaped like a tree. Oh! And honey still on the comb. That was weird, but oddly good. What did Glen say? "It's nature's chewing gum." I also decided to buy a Larabar today to see how they were. YUM! Wanna know what's in the Chocolate coconut something or other bar I bought? Dates, walnuts, almonds, cocoa powder and coconut. That's it. Nothing else. It was really good. I wanna make my own seeing as I spent a buck 25 on one small ass bar! I need a food processor, though. So if you love me, buy me one. I'm broke. ;) I might give this raw eating thing a try, if only slightly. I barely started today but I'm gonna try and make it through an enormously crazy day of work tomorrow (I hate year end--don't work in accounting, people) eating fruits, veggies and some cashews I bought today. I wish I liked almonds without chocolate engulfing it. I did get some crackers and granola bars for my snack drawer in case I can't handle just fruits and stuff. I hope tomorrow goes well....Wish me luck!

In other "good for you" news, I was talking to Andrew today and remembered that he wanted to take his honey business (which is raw, BTW) to the next level, as they say. He mentioned to me months and months ago that he wanted to try out making some beauty products. Apparently honey is really good for your skin, is an antiseptic and a cleanser and who knows what else! So we got to talking a little and I brought it up. He said that he doesn't have the time or man power to jump into such a project with his business right now with all the other things going on in his life. I mentioned making a simple sugar or salt scrub would be a good, small way to start. This got me thinking. I actually just finished up the Dead Sea Salt scrub that I've been using and need something else to exfoliate. Why am I gonna go out and buy another jar that'll cost me an arm and a leg? I decided to look for recipes online and make my own. There are so many recipes online and I noticed a couple people used mineral/baby oil. Do not do this, people. It's not good for your skin! In the end it'll just dry it out more, not to mention clog your pores. Ugh.

So here's my recipe: (Umm, I used an actual teaspoon while making this, not a measuring spoon so the measurements are iffy...also, do the conversions yourself. ;)

1/2 cup sugar (I've read brown sugar is really good but that you basically need to double it...)
4 teaspoons local honey
8 teaspoons jojoba oil
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Throw it all in a bowl and mix it up. I started out with 6 teaspoons of jojoba oil but it wasn't the right consistency so I added two more and then decided on some olive oil for good measure. I might try using a little less sugar next time but we'll see after I really try it out. When cleaning up, I made sure to leave a little in the mixing bowl and washed my hands with it. Let's just get it out there that I have terribly dry skin in the winter. I've tried drinking more water but in addition to making my bladder hate me for it, I don't really see a different in the moisture levels in my skin because of it. This makes me sad. Maybe it's a myth? Maybe I'm just a freak of nature...Either way, I used some of the scrub for my hands and LOVED it so far. I might just add a little more jojoba oil in my next batch. Jojoba oil has been helping my skin out in all sorts of ways. I use it to take my makeup off at night and since I started doing that, my skin has really started to clear up. NICE! I also use it as a general moisturizer. Sometimes I don't feel like using my $20 Kiss My Face face cream so I just warm a little oil in my hands and use that instead. A little goes a long way, folks.

But back to the scrub: You can use salt instead but be forewarned, do not use it on your face as it (the granules) might be too harsh for it. I dunno about the sugar one on your face...try it and let me know. I'm not brave enough. Also, don't use a salt scrub if you've just shaved or if you have any sorts of cuts on your person. It'll sting and it won't be fun. You can also substitute the vanilla extract for an essential oil or another type of fragrance; experiment a little. Just remember that if you have sensitive skin, you might wanna skip the fragrance all together. I like the scent of vanilla and it's what we had in the house. You can barely smell it. I might up it to 2 teaspoons so it lingers a little. If you do use an essential oil, keep in mind that they are extremely concentrated so be careful when adding it--don't overdo it.

That's all, folks. I hope you all had as productive of a day as I did so far. I'm also doing laundry as I type. Wahoo!

Hat hair!

2008-12-22T20:19:00.005-05:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I love hats! I've had a love affair with them since I was little....with one problem. I have curly hair. Again, those who know me, know my crazy curls. I love them wild and slightly unruly but I also like having a warm head in the winter. Here lies my problem: I could slightly blow-dry my hair so that it's not the dripping wet mess I usually leave it so it'll curl it's own way but then end up with slightly wavy, if not horrible hair. I could also leave it the dripping wet mess and have it freeze slightly. My hair needs to be perfect (well, what I deem perfect, at any rate) or I fuss with it all day and it drives me mad. Am I vain? Yeah...I'm a girl, so sue me. My other option is to completely blow-dry it and straighten it, lest I have "I stuck my finger into the outlet" hair. What's a girl to do?

I have an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow after work. I haven't gotten it cut since right before Halloween. EEK! I usually get it cut once a month so skipping November is huge! I've picked out two possible cuts to get...if I could find them online I'll post em. Maybe I'll check right now. BRB Oh well, couldn't find them. I'm leaning more towards one but now I don't know what to do about my hat situation.

Green Foliage is my go-to hat. I love it with a passion and I love how it pops off my red coat. When I bought the coat before winter started this year, I was nervous I would look too Christmas-y. Ani assured me I would not and boy was she right. Look:

I took the picture on Friday, after I got home from work. My neighbors probably think I'm a complete wacko...more on that after the hat-crisis discussion is over.

You'll notice in the picture that my hair comes out at the sides. It's almost shoulder length in the front at this point and it's visible in the back too but once I cut my hair, it won't be any longer and Foliage will look silly. **sad face** I've noticed berets have been really in for the past couple seasons and I don't really see them going anywhere for a while. I like them a lot but how do you keep them from sliding off your head? Is that a weird question to ask? And I only ask it because when I wear headband type things like Calorimetry, they slide and I'm constantly fixing them. I suppose I could use bobby pins but I don't want them to show.

Decisions, decisions. Any one have any good hat suggestions? I might knit Layla-Classic Knit Tam, (Rav link) but who knows.

Cowls are also very big this season and I've recently fallen in love with KristinKnits' Thermis. The pattern's only $2.50 and she says it's unisex...I could see it, but I wonder if any guy I know would actually wear it. Dear any man in my life, if you would wear Thermis, I will love you forever. Ooh, look what I found! (Rav link again--sorry non-knitters) Looks like men can wear it and look debonaire!

Back to my neighbors thinking I'm crazy. I left work at 12:30 on Friday. I had already planned on taking the time off and frankly, I wasn't going to wait until they announced they were going to close the office. Good thing I didn't, they closed at 1:45 and even at 12:30, it took me almost an hour to get home. Boo to winter weather. Why am I still living in New England? Whatever, that's not the point...point is: When I got home, I ran upstairs, grabbed my camera and my original, blue Foliage hat to snap some pictures of them in action.

There I am, standing on my porch with my camera and first, I took video of it snowing and me talking to my camera for Henk. After the quick video, I turned to face the house and started snapping pictures. I missed a couple times but no one REALLY needed to know that. I shot Green Foliage first since that's what I was wearing on my drive home from work...I then went back inside (Greg has a mirror right inside the front door) and switched hats. Outside I went again and started all over again, holding the camera at all different angles to get the best possible shots. Doesn't the snow look great in the background? That's what I was going for--I'm not a photographer by any means, mind you. I kind of wish that I had some other hats to photog to keep up the charade of going inside, swithing hats and going back out.

I did start on Thorpe (as seen on Brooklyntweed's blog, **swoon**, who coincidently has a nice cowl project too, only it's slightly too simple for my taste right now) but I only had worsted weight yarn so I had to alter the pattern a little. I increased until I had 102 stitches and my gauge is 5 st/in so that'll give me a hat of roughly 20 inches, right? It's wool and no one likes wool hats too tight that they inch their forehead and from the two men I surveyed, it seems that a 22 inch head is average for guys. I think that's how big my head is too. But since I adjusted the overall stitch number, I need to figure out the placement for the earflaps. I figured I would test it on my brother tomorrrow at work. I forgot to do it today. It's a little big on me when my hair is straight, and it's a little difficult to mark spots on my own head, so I need another test subject. I'll try to get a picture of the WIP when trying it on Joey and marking the earflap placement.

I think that's it for knitting news. Justin came up with Mary Tyler Gore for my Derby name. Good? I actually really like it. I've had numerous people tell me I'm "Suzy Home-maker" since I like to bake, knit and crochet and having such a name would just play into that side of me that people seem to see when they first meet me. Maybe that's why I want to knit berets all of a sudden? hehe I did mention to Justin that if I do go with MTG, I should have a beret to throw in the air when they announce me...but then I thought only the older crowd would get why I did that. Oh well.

Happy Monday!

Knitmare?

2008-12-18T21:53:00.003-05:00

Delta Force Dawn? Babe Basher? People, I need a derby name!

Tuesday night were the tryouts to become a CT RollerGirl. I've wanted to go to tryouts ever since I found out there was a league here. I LOVE to roller skate. My mom had my siblings and I in skates basically from the moment we could walk. We used to go to the local rink every Thursday night when they would have free skate. I loved it. There was always this REALLY tall guy (and he wasn't just tall bc I was young and short...I saw him a couple years ago and he's still roughly 20 feet tall) who was amazing to watch on skates. He was effortless, turning and gliding, switching feet and going forwards and backwards. He was simply beautiful, Fred Estaire-like...slightly eccentric, though; he used to talk to his danish and coffee all the time. My mom would sometimes skate with him. Man, I miss going to free skate and doing the Alleycat skated at the end of the night. Those were some good times.

But back to tryouts. I was super nervous about it and I totally thought I would chicken out and skip on going. People have told me before, when I've mentioned that I wanted to be a RollerGirl, that I couldn't hack it and that I'm too much of a baby to be able to deal with the abuse the girls take. I used to agree, I still kinf od do but I've finally said "Fuck it" with regards to people saying these things to me and after a slight workout after work, I drove my ass to Waterbury to skate my heart out.

All the girls were super nice and helpful. Some of the refs were there too and I was, suprisingly, very comfortable with everyone once I got over my initial shock of "What the hell am I getting myself into?" It was weird though, I always root for the Elm City Bone Crushers...they're my team! So when I had a girl from an opposing team come teach me stuff my initial reaction was, "I hate you, you're not on my team." So silly. She was wonderful and explained how to fall and what "derby stance" is and how to do T-stops really well. She broke things down to me in ways I understood. It was great. T-stops will take me a while to get the hang of; oh, how they frustrated me. So after I was taught some basic things, I went over to Pearl Jammer with another girl who was trying out for something of an evalution. I guess to see how easily we picked up the moves and how well we skate and such. I can't tell you guys how nervous I was throughout the night. It's weird to have people watching you skate when you know they're disecting everything you do. I'm not used to skating in the squating position but man, did I try.

So Pearl had us go around the rink falling, jumping, stopping, etc. She then showed us whips (grabbing a girl by the waist and using her to project yourself forward) and pushes. I really liked doing whips. I felt really powerful. haha I was so beat at this point...it's been probably close to two years since I've skated. Then we were told we needed to do 5 laps "at your own pace". I knew that it was do or die at this point. She wanted to see what we could do. I needed to really push myself and go as fast and as seamless as I could. I did it. I did well. I was proud of myself and if you know me, I'm my own worst critic. I really felt so good after tryouts. I think had they hated me, I still would have felt amazing for even going out there.

Right...because I was nervous, and not even sure I would go tryout, I told almost no one about it. I told a couple people I work out with bc at that point in the night my mind was made up to go no matter what. The guys laughed and thought I was crazy. They still do, but they wished me luck anyway. I got some really good encouragement from one friend and I love him for it. I needed the positivity. A bunch of people I work with said they wanna know when my first bout is bc they wanna come and see what derby is like. I'm hoping to have my own cheering section for my first bout. I'm sure it's a long time away, but I'm planning ahead. haha

Now my mind is racing with all sorts of questions regarding gear and dress and such. Thank god for the Hard-Hitting Knitters group on Ravelry. I got some awesome encouragement from the girls on there as well and I'm thinking they will be a good resource in addition to the chicas in the CT league. Can you tell I'm excited?

I kinda wanna have the fiber arts in my name somehow...

The Holiday Season...

2008-12-11T13:27:00.002-05:00

...I'm not a fan of it. That's no real secret. I mean, I love that everyone is in the holiday spirit but that usually lasts for about 20 seconds. Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving and Chanuka/Christmas but really I only love it because I have off from work.

These holidays seem to be the "obligatory family holidays" and I just don't like that obligatory and family are in the same sentence. At all. I enjoy spending time with my family but I like it when there's no pressure. No pressure of who's cooking what, where are we going to get together, who's giving presents to whom. I hate all that chaos. I don't want to think about any of it. Tell me where to show up, and I will, with desserts in tow.

I can't really complain about this holiday season, as of yet. I had Thanksgiving at Noddie's house and Noddie, Lucy (her aunt) and Co. always provide good food and company. I'm never disappointed when I'm told to be at Lucy's for a shindig. Thanksgiving was no exception. Homemade everything! Cranberry sauce, hummus, tahini, grape leaves (though I don't eat them), some tarte thing with cream cheese and turnips (I think) that I forgot to try, amazing stuffing, the best green beans I've ever had, and soooo much more. Lucy needs to cater. But it's not all about the food. I really just love being at their house. I get good vibes in that place. Lots of love. It was packed that day with tons of family I've never met before and I liked how everyone said their hellos and gave their kisses and broke off into their groups. It was like an unspoken thing there--no need to chit chat with people you'd rather avoid, but say hi and be polite and then eat! You could hardly hear yourself think, the place was so packed. People yelling over each other so they could be heard, it was wonderful. That is what I want Thanksgiving to be like in my house. I wasn't able to stay for dessert but I know those were first-rate as well. Sadly I missed Lucy's annual Christmas get together. Boo.

I did go to Ann and Mike's for an Olde England Seasonal Celebration and what a freakin' blast that was. Again, I loved that it was friends getting together not so much because it's Christmas and there should be goodwill towards people and crap like that, but rather because we all wanted to spend time together and this was the perfect excuse. The best part of the evening, in my opinion, was leaving and seeing a light dusting of snow on the ground. Our first actual snow of the year. It was beautiful and pristine. Untouched, unmarred snow in New Haven--minus the cars. I love it. Ann made some awesome mince pies that I could not get enough of. She was sweet enough to give me the recipe and I hope to try it soon. I always thought mince pies were meat but it's fruit! Who knew!?! I made Figgy Pudding (because it's British and I wanted to keep with the theme) and Gale brought some of her spectacular homemade bread.

These celebrations are really what I want when I get my own place. Family is nice and all but when you're forced to spend time with them, are you ever truly happy with it? I have a lot of friends who don't have much, if any, family around so it would be great to have meals together and be our own family-type unit. Everyone would contribute too, even if it's just with some extra chairs or whatever. I have it all planned already. And why wait until the holidays to get people together? I want dinner parties year round! Who's coming?

:D

Bah Humbug!

2008-12-04T19:58:00.003-05:00

hehe I love this time of year for one reason and one reason alone: I can say "Bah humbug!" and it's appropriate. :D

I stole this survey thing from Sunflowerfairy, as promised and have made changes to it.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? They don't call me cheap and easy for nothin', folks. I'm all about gift bags. I'm so last minute it's usually all I have time for. I used to be a wrapping paper kind of girl but those days are long gone.

2. Real tree or Artificial? So for those that haven't realized, I'm Jewish. I don't "do" trees. BUT! My lovely sister and her husband celebrate Christmas and when I lived with them they had a real tree the first year...maybe the first two years? Ugh! I hated the smell and we found the damned needles months later! They were hibernating everywhere possible. It was terrible. They now do artificial and I'm glad for that...even though I don't live with them any longer.

3. When do you put up the tree? I think most people put it up Thanksgiving weekend, right? I think Shell (sister--have I ever used her name before?) would have but she had her husband's family and me over that weekend and with BenBen being almost 2 (!!!!) I'm sure it's a little difficult for her to take the time to put it up.

4. When do you take the tree down? After the New Year? I can't remember.

5. Do you like eggnog? I've never tried it. I have, however, tried eggnog ice cream and I wanted to die after 1 spoonful. Thinking about it makes me want to rake the tastebuds off my tongue. No lie.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Umm...is it sad that I can't think of one? Joey always used to ruin my gifts for me. I don't think he did it intentionally but he would always say things like, "Why are you getting excited? You know it's just another purse." And sure enough...it was a purse. hahaha

7. Hardest person to buy for? Shelley. She's always been the hardest to buy for. Thankfully, for the past couple years we've been picking names out of a hat and we buy for that one person and the person we live with and I seem to always get either Joey or Ola. But yeah, she doesn't have any hobbies--though I know she wants to get into quilting, and she and Jer buy whatever they want for themselves.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Joey. He's such a geek, I love it. Anything computer/science related and he loves it. If I'm really having trouble, I give him money bc there's always some computer something or other that he's itching to get to modify his pc.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? I never understood the nativity scene. Why have it? Well, why have a tree? Maybe that's the real question.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I don't do either. I'm bad with holiday cards. Maybe one year...just not this year. :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmm...Again, I can't really think of one that I was like "WTF?!?" over. Thankfully.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I LOVE A Christmas Story!!!! I always watch it Christmas day since I have nothing better to do and they play it ALL day. hehe I can pick up anywhere and still see the whole movie! What's better than that?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? 2 weeks before? *shrug* Depends on who I'm buying for and how excited I am about the process.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Gramma (Jer's grandmother, that is--everyone calls her Gramma) makes the best cookies ever. I loved when Shell would come home on Christmas with an entire tray of cookies that Gramma made. She was an army cook and she still cooks/bakes like she's feeding the US Army. It's great. No one's cookies compare to hers. And she makes the BEST rugelach!

16. Lights on the tree? I think Shell has lights build in now. I love lights on the trees. Oh! The first year Shell and Jer had their tree, they bought blue and silver ornaments so that I wouldn't feel so alienated in their house. How sweet is that? She was like, "Look, Bethie. Blue and silver ornaments. I got em for you..." If I had emotions those many years ago, I would have cried. Seriously.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I hate Christmas songs. I hate them the minute I hear them. I can tolerate ones that have no words...just a nice simple melody. BUT! Actually, there is one Christmas song I do love. It's the Snoopy one!! I could listen to that one year round. And maybe the George Michael one. I have a soft spot for him. haha

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I go to my parent's house for Chanuka every year. We exchange gifts there.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Let's see. Donner, Blitzen, Cupid ???, Rudolph, Dasher, Vixen, Comit....That's all I got. How'd I do?

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? I would Jer his Christmas present on Christmas Day.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Christmas music, people feeling the need to spend oodles of money, increased crime...?

22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I just saw this awesome tree display in Owego, NY when I was at my sister's. It was a peacock themed trees. All greens, blues and purples. It was the most beautiful tree I've ever seen. It had awesome fabrige egg type ornaments and faux peacock feathers. Amazing. I want it.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? A house of my own. Or a really good cookbook that will magically teach me to cook. :D Oh wait...Or this new blanket from brooklyntweed. **SWOON**

24. Angel on the tree top or a star? I personally like the star look.

25. Favorite Christmas dinner? Uhh...latkes?

That was fun.

Movie Review Monday! No spoilers.

2008-11-24T13:24:00.003-05:00

I didn't want to go see Twilight on opening weekend. I said that again and again. I could have seen it with Marla on Saturday but I forgot and was not in the area at the time she was going. Doh! I'm an idiot--sorry again, Marla. When I missed seeing it then, that cemented me not wanting to see it just yet. Maybe I just wasn't ready and fate was telling me to hold out. Plus, I thought it would be an awesome date movie. hehe

Well, I did go on a date last night. Dinner and a movie. I've been on plenty dates with this person before and they are always fun and put me in the best moods ever. Noddie, you rock. And yes, it was a chick date. Who cares?! It still counts as a date. Noddie even bought Twizzlers to share since I drove from dinner to the movie. We're a caring/giving couple. :D Right, so back to the reason I saw Twilight opening weekend. Noddie called me and said she really wanted to go and hell, I wasn't doing anything so we agreed to meet in North Haven (half-way point for us) and get some dinner. Our friend Jeremiah was gonna come out with us too but he was moving people all weekend and couldn't make it. His loss.

The movie was great! I will not spoil it for anyone. I hate when people spoil movies for me. I will say that I'm still unsure if I liked movie Bella. I don't really like Bella to begin with; I think she's a moron. Dude, you have such a good thing and you go ahead and act like an idiot!? Edward is amazing! Jerk! Ugh. Anyway.

So yeah, the acting was not Oscar worthy at all. I knew it wouldn't be. Noddie made a good point and she said that she felt the actors acted the way the book was written. I suppose she's right. They are dumb teenagers (well, can you really consider Edward a teen?) who are falling in love and don't really know what to do with that so they act all disjointed and kind of harsh, in a way. I just felt that movie Bella was too forceful in everything she said. They did change things from the book, and that's expected, but I thought they did a really good job of keeping to the storyline overall and making sure that everything flowed and made sense. Kudos to whoever adapted the book. I don't care to look it up right now...

As for the characters: Again, the jury is still out on Bella. I will need to see the movie again to really decide on her. I thought Edward was just alright. He was better as Cedric in Harry Potter. I thought he really did capture just how pained Edward was but I guess he's just not what I pictured Edward to look like. That's really my only problem with the movie...it'll never be what I pictured while reading the book. It's cool though, they didn't ask my opinion so I don't expect it to be what I thought up, you know? Alice rocked, I thought. She was so cute and pixie-like. Perfect. As was Emmett. I thought he should have been a little beefier but I thought the actor was great and so much fun. Rosalie was a bitch and wonderful. "She was a little thicker than I thought she would have been" was Noddie's remarks but she said it was okay and the actress was great and pretty. Jasper was a slight disappointment for me. I can't explain what it was all too well but he was almost a little Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka to me. I don't really know. Maybe he'll grow on me. Esme was so cute, I wanted to hug her. I didn't really have such a clear picture in my head of her so movie Esme won me over. Carlisle: HELLO! Isn't he Jason from General Hospital? I still haven't looked it up, but I'm basically 100% sure he is. Charlie was great too. Totally what I thought he would be! Renee--ehh. That's all I have to say about her. But she didn't really have the hugest part ever so she might be okay.

The other vampires were pretty awesome, I thought. Laurent was Big Love on House so how can I not love him? James is hot and freakin' creepy as all hell. Victoria should have had redder hair, but I liked her otherwise. The kids from Forks High through me off guard completely. I pictured every single one of them completely differently. Oh wait, that's a lie. Jessica was spot on--I wanted to punch her. Jacob was beautiful and marvelous! I think he was perfect.

Ack! Lunch is over.

Okay, overall: Loved the movie and I will definitely own it. They did a great job adapting it and the cast, overall, was just how I wanted them to be. I can't wait for the other movies...they are doing all of them, right?!?

Dating 101...

2008-11-23T13:12:00.006-05:00

So I've recently realized that it's been roughly 5 years since I've dated. That's a long freakin' time! I was 19 then. Such a baby! I mean, I'm still a baby...but to me, 19 to 24 is a huge difference in age, not to mention maturity level. I've also realized that there is still a big difference between my maturity level and that of most men in my immediate age range.

It seems that guys my age are still all about drinking, getting drunk and acting like complete idiots. Now don't get me wrong, I do drink on the rare occasion, I have gotten drunk and I act like an idiot on a daily basis but I don't go out of my way to do all three all the time and all at once. Well, I would need to drink to get drunk but whatever. I just don't get it. I don't really see the point of throwing my money away on alcohol and then not being able to remember my night or possibly remembering it by analyzing what comes up from my stomach. And it's definitely not something I could do every weekend. I really only drink on my birthday (and it seems I only do that every two years) and whenever there's a game night (and I drink every other game night or so). Am I an old curmudgeon already?

I feel lame and just blah with regards to dating. I was talking to Greg about it last night (it was nice to have a real conversation with him again...it's been a while since we've really hung out and talked) and I said that it's just weird and I don't know what to do with myself since it's been so long since I've dated. He agreed, as he's kind of in the same boat. He said that it's kinda strange to think about that if he's been out with a girl 5 or 6 times and nothing has happened between them (I asked for clarification at this point and he said even just kissing) then he knows it's never going to go anywhere and why bother. I argued that while no one seems to court any longer, it's kind of nice to date without having any expectations of messing around and having sex. It's kind of sweet. Maybe I'm just being a girl about it all and wishing for the whole fairytale? But really, I've rushed into relationships before and look where it's gotten me...countless romances until a serious one at 19, engaged at 21, single at 23, and just starting to date again now. I was practically married and people joke that when Miguel and I split it was like a divorce. I suppose that it basically was.

Here's my deal now: How does someone date multiple people at once? How do you not get emotionally vested in the people? I've never done it. I guess that as long as everyone knows that I'm going on dates with different people, it's okay but I still feel weird about that whole thing. Oh please, and who am I kidding? I'm not even dating multiple people for this to be a real issue right now. I need to meet some guys first.

And where does someone even meet a potential romantic interest? Not at a bar! Through friends? That can be tricky and lead to bad situations if things don't work out. I do think this is the best way, though. At least you know that someone you trust can vouch for the person, right? At work? Well, most of you know how well that worked for me....religion can be tricky. haha At SnB? Only women there. A little help, please? You always see people meeting in bookstores and shit like that in the movies. That's never happened to me. Or at a coffeeshop. Again, never has that happened. Grocery store? Don't make me laugh, so not likely at the one I shop in.

I'm so out of the whole dating scene that I don't even know when a guy is flirting with me! How sad is that? Are there classes for things like this? I went out to dinner with a guy recently and he mentioned that he didn't realize something that happened one night when we were hanging out with a bunch of people because he was too busy flirting with me. I clearly remember thinking in my head, and saying to Noddie later, that I had no clue he was even interested in me...that night or when we were out to dinner. This might have been the second or third time we went out to eat when he told me about the flirting incident. How thick can a person be? Well, really, by the third time we went out I figured he must be interested but the first couple times I thought he was just being a good friend as he knew I was going through a rough patch and wanted to keep my mind off of it all.

Ugh. Seriously, I just need someone I want to hug. You know what I mean? Someone that puts me at ease and calms me. I'm such the constant worrier a planner to a fault that I need someone to balance that out a little...someone mellow. I want to be courted, I don't want to do all the work and chase the guy. Someone I can go out and do stuff with...walks, see a show, go to a museum, and the like. And then once I find this perfect guy and go on a couple dates with him, then what?

Dating 101...yup, I think I need it.

Crazy Cooking Classes II

2008-11-18T19:50:00.009-05:00

Two posts in one day. Woot! Don't expect this all the time.

I cooked dinner again! I actually cooked dinner one day last week too. I'm slightly on a role with cooking once a week. I think I missed a week or two after I decided I wanted to try my hand at this cooking thing. Okay, recipe time.

Again, I asked people for suggestions on what to cook for dinner. And by people, I mean Galen since no one else was online while I was at work and we were already conversing. His suggestion this time: Sloppy Joe's! Amazing idea. I couldn't tell you the last time I had Sloppy Joe's. I was probably 10 or something. Just so happens that Galen also had a special recipe for his Sloppy Joe's. He cannot take credit for it, nor did he. It's his Gramma's recipe and it's genius! Here is what you need:

1 lb beef (I used a 12oz package of MorningStar Farm's Crumbles)
1 can Campbell's Alphabet Soup (now under the name Vegetarian Vegetable)
ketchup
mustard

Yup. That's it. Nothing else!

Now make sure you take copious notes here. Here's what you do.

Cook the meat. In my case, I just needed to throw the crumbles into a pan and wait until they got hot. This was a lot quicker than I realized it would have been and I did not take cooking time into account when I got started. I didn't bother to have my cooking coincide with the arrival of Greg. Not that it matters, it's 8:26 and he still isn't home. Doesn't he realize that tonight is House night?! Thank god we DVR it. Back to the recipe.

Cook the meat, drain any fat...obligatory blurry picture to follow:

Once you have cooked your crumbles or meat, add the soup. No water, no nothing. JUST THE SOUP. Mix it up. Oh yeah, I added some salt and pepper to the crumbles. You can do the same if you want. I would suggest other spices but trust me, you won't need them. Did you add the soup yet?

Lookin' good! Here comes the hardest part in preparing these Sloppy Joe's which I will now call Sloppy Galen's: Add some ketchup and mustard. I, of course, forgot to take a picture of this. I have to forget a picture of at least one step every time I cook...whatever. Sue me. How much ketchup and mustard? I don't really now. I made a swirly design with both like I was a Starbucks barrista topping a macchiato off with caramel. I then mixed it, and tested. HEAVEN. You're dinner is done. Side dishes? What are side dishes? Oh, and I had some left over burrito wraps from dinner last week so I used those instead of hamburger buns.

Check out that nice manicure I got!

You can use either...or neither. The Sloppy Galen's were just as good being eaten straight from the pan. Do what you want. I didn't even sit to eat. I was gonna wait for Greg to come home but I was starving and I'm just not that considerate, I guess. Again, good thing I didn't wait...I'm about to watch House without him. Yeah, I said it.

See how clean my plate is? I was ALMOST able to keep it that clean. Then disaster struck:

No crumbles were wasted in the eating of the Sloppy Galen's.

Seriously, amazingly simple and tasty. What ridiculously simple recipes do you guys have? I need more like this one. The lasagna was a lot to tackle last time, the burritos I made were simpler and this meal just takes the cake. Give me simple people!

I'll write about my burritos another night. I also made soup a day or two after I made the lasagna. I did chronicle that and need to write up my review. I did NOT chronicle the burritos but the pictures would be just as boring as the ones in this post. Nothing fancy, just colorful. House time!

Clean bill of health...?

2008-11-18T13:08:00.007-05:00

I think so!!

I had my final Dr's appointment with regards to the girls...for now. I had another quick ultrasound today (totaling 3) and I was groped again. I've lost count with that one. Now I just have to sit and wait until February, get another ultrasound done on the tatas and have a follow up appointment with the Breast Surgeon. I'm an emotional reck, of course, but everything looks good. The tumors/growths (yep, 1 in each boob-not only do I like things to be symetrical, so does my body apparently) are small; or what they consider small--to me they feel massive and intrusive. Right. So now I just wait it out, reduce my caffeine intake (this includes chocolate........are they nuts!?), keep feeling myself up and hope for the best. Wahoo! I think I might buy myself something for the trouble and emotional tumult I've been going through. Of course I make myself crazy over these things but how could I not?

Interestingly enough, the breast surgeon said that me not having a medical history on my mom's side isn't really as big an issue as people make it out to be. She said that most people who end getting breast cancer have no history of it at all in their family. I mean, that doesn't help me much since I don't think there's any breast cancer on my dad's side either but she was trying to ease my worrying. Good luck with that! I'm a constant worrier.

Oh well, I'm okay and I feel a lot better about everything, finally even though the Dr's still don't have any conclusive answers for me just yet. We'll see come February. Until then....KNITTING!

I keep meaning to take pictures of my Super Secret Woolen Project (SSWP) but I'm a mess and forget. It's coming along great. I'm definitely going to finish within my 2 week deadline, which was originally 1 week and then I realized that I'm a crazy person and couldn't finish it in such a short amount of time. Now I need a place to block it. The drape right now is AMAZING and I love the SSWP. I hope the recipient does too. But either way, I don't have any place at home where I can block. I can use my bed but I'm on it most of the time so that's not really feasible. Also, Greg's cats would be all over the SSWP if I block it anywhere else I think. I could use the attic but where do I find blocking boards or something else I can use to put the SSWP on? I can't really just lay it out on the floor of the attic, you know? And another question: how should I block it? Should I spray it down, soak it, steam it (I wouldn't even know how to steam it and I have nothing to steam it with), what? I don't need a really heavy blocking, I don't think. I just need to stretch it out lengthwise. And BOY does it stretch. It's awesome! This project could almost be a no-block project and if it was going to stay with me, I wouldn't bother. Decisions, decisions.

Okay, I'm off to knit a little more while it's still lunch time. I got a lot of knitting done waiting for the Dr today. Appt at 10, didn't get into the room until 10:30/45, didn't see the Dr until around 11. Ugh...at least I wasn't at work. :D

ETA: Here is the slighly stretched SSWP. Below it, is it unstretched. People at work must think I'm a weirdo...oh, and the color in person is a MUCH deeper copper color. It's beautiful.

E(again)TA: Where the hell did my pictures go? Here are two news one I took. The first one has the flash and you can see the slight change in color in the yarn. I love it. My jeans are in the pic as well to add some contrast and in hopes of keeping the copper color true.

Whoops!

2008-11-11T13:16:00.002-05:00

So when working up my super secret coppery woolen project, I started out using size 9 needles. I thought that I didn't like the drape of the knitted article (this is tough to talk about without giving away what I'm knitting) and wanted to switch to size 7's. Normally I'm a SUPER tight knitter so I figured the larger needles would just be smarted but my gauge is totally off with this one....or so I thought! I got out my size 7's, ripped out the project on the 9's, starting knitting on what I thought were the 7's and then realized when getting ready for bed that I started knitting again on the 9's like an idiot! Funny thing is, my gauge is different than it was when I first started knitting it. It's a little tighter and I like the fabric it's creating so much more now! So I'm sticking with the 9's. Once I get pictures taken (hopefully today?) you can check it out. For the time being, it's picture-free on my Rav projects page--Dropping Copper. I would link you all, but the link name says what the pattern is. I can't be sure the recipient reads my blog or would even think it's for them, but you can never be too careful. :D

Another whoops to speak of...When I did my Crazy Cooking Class, Justin linked me on his website and generated some traffic for me. He got a kick out of the fact that I'm teaching myself to cook and always encourages me. He taught me how to make egg salad. Is it sad that I needed to be taught how to boil eggs properly? I feel so silly. So my whoops is that I should have linked back to Justin. It's just the right thing to do. So go check him out at aarvmag.com and tell your friends! He's very witty and he has some good writers on the magazine as well. Def read the article about IKEA. I think that's my favorite.

I think that's all the "whoops" I have for today...It's lunch time and I have some knitting to do.

I might just cook tonight....

Super secret woolen projects.

2008-11-09T20:26:00.003-05:00

I've started one today and I can say is that it's in a really beautiful copper color of Mountain Colors' Mountain Goat yarn that will compliment the skin tone of the recipient. I'm giving myself a deadline of two weeks for this project but I'm hoping to finish it sooner. I'm going to be working on it every day at lunch no matter what. That's my goal...I'm gonna make it. I did the Ravelympics after all!

The second only semi-secret woolen project I'm starting soon is a hat (sorry, Rav-link) for Henk's girlfriend, Karen. Crazy Karen asked that whatever Henk was getting her be white so...I'm forced to do it in no color whatsoever. :( I tried convincing him otherwise but she would not be swayed. She has more than one winter coat and they are all in neutral colors so I wanted to do something colorful and beautiful like she is--she's got a great complexion and has awesome curly hair. Again, nope. She put the kaibosh on that one. But the hat will be great and will be loved and worn well. For payment, Henk needs to send me something awesomely Dutch, as they live in The Netherlands. I need to look into how long it'll take to ship something to him (since my postcard took two weeks) so I can be sure to have it done, mailed and received before Christmas.

Now I need some help. I have a lot of yarn that I need to do things with. I have oodles of Cascade 220 from Emily. They are mostly dark colors but she gave me a really pretty dark purple one (I think it's color 9345 in the Heathers) that is telling me to knit a hat with it. Here is where the help comes in. I'm trying to find a nice top down hat patterns that isn't too plain. Any suggestions? I've knit Foliage twice and I love the pattern. It's super easy to knit and to memorize, but will that color look good in that pattern? I have trouble visualizing things.

I will also be going through my stash over the course of the week and will be destashing. I know right now that I will be selling/trading my cone of Zephyr (sorry for the blurry stash pic). I've tried knitting with it a couple times and I couldn't get used to the yarn being so thin and light. No ultra-thin shawls for me. Oh well. I really need to organize everything and put all my needles and hooks in one place with my yarn. I have goals I want to meet before the holiday season and for next year with regards to my knitting. I did not meet the goals I set for this year but it's okay.

Oh, and speaking of hooks, I lost my favorite H hook at Jury Duty on Friday. *sigh* I'm mad. I was making such good progress on the Starphgan! I think I only have two hanks of the Argentinian lana left!!!! But I was thinking while crocheting on Friday...when I wash it, where the hell am I gonna dry it? It's gonna be large, in the shape of a five pointed star and November (I hope to finish it before the end of the month, in between my other projects, since it crochets quickly). I really don't know what I'm going to do. I could use my mom's line in her basement to line dry it but then it'll smell like cigarette smoke and kinda defeat part of the purpose of washing it. Such dilemmas!

Sorry this post is picture-less. Next one, I promise!

Would it be wrong...

2008-11-05T21:38:00.003-05:00

...if I wanted this mug to be my new office mug? I <3 Cafe Press!

Crazy Cooking Classes

2008-10-21T17:21:00.010-04:00

Ok, I'm not taking a class. I guess you could say I'm teaching myself to cook. And by teaching myself, I mean getting ideas on what to cook from friends and then bugging Justin to help me out and give me encouragement. Greg is my guinea pig...and sometimes my own worse critic. :) He feels the need to tell me all the time that recipes are just suggestions without taking into account that I don't cook so recipes are law to me at this point...and I don't break the law. Either way, he tells me whether what I make is good or not and frankly, that's all I care about right now.

On Monday afternoon I decided that I wanted to cook dinner. Galen suggested lasagna and I ran with it. Since I do not mix dairy with meat, I decided on a simple veggie lasagna. At first I asked Ani for the recipe her chef friend had given her but being a chef, Amy doesn't use measurements. So Ani and Amy weren't much help this time around. Damn you people who know how to cook! I looked to epicurious.com to help me out, instead. They did not fail me! I found an awesome sounding and simple recipe that I decided I could probably pull off. I went to the supermarket to get my needed items and got to work.

While I was at the store, Greg was nice enough to grate some parmesan cheese for me since he has a huge block of it and I can't really stand the smell of the stinky cheese until it's all melty and yummy. The recipe told me to mix the goat cheese (I used feta instead--what the heck is goat cheese?!?) with some herbs and olives. I did so and thought that I would not have nearly enough cheese for an entire lasagna...

The recipe calls for 7 oz of cheesy goodness. Umm, yeah. Go for more. A lot more! I would double it and then some next time. Seriously, I should have read the reviews/suggestions on the site before I went to the store but being new to this whole cooking thing, I didn't really think to look at them...and truth be told, I didn't even realize there were reviews until after I finished cooking. I'm an idiot.

After the cheese fiasco, I had to dice up some squash. Here is where I tell you that I do not cut vegetables. I'm not very handy with knives and I'm scared that I will cut my finger off one day. I tried to buy frozen squash so all I would have to do it defrost and go but my local, ghetto supermarket does not carry frozen squash. What's that about?!? I ended up getting fresh ones (as you can see in the picture above) and used the mandolin to first slice and then I cut the slices into little cube type shapes. It was quicker that I thought it would be and I still have all my fingers. Awesome!

So far so good! I then started to assemble said lasagna. Make sure you have two jars of sauce, if you don't make your own. I only had 1 and it wasn't quiet enough. Also, if you are going to add the roasted red peppers like I did, get the BIG jar. I only used peppers in 1 layer which is actually ok by me since cooked peppers give me heartburn. BUT, I know Greg likes a little spice and flavor in his food so I threw them into the mix. You're welcome.

I, of course, forgot to take pictures during the layering process but I assure you it looked messy and like there wasn't enough sauce or cheese. Again, 2 jars of sauce and double the cheese. Oh yeah, we didn't have any salvageable garlic in the house (that has NEVER happened before, I swear) and I didn't get Greg's text to pick some up until it was too late so I used garlic powder instead of minced garlic. I put a lot. I didn't even measure. We love garlic. You should do the same....just keep adding more.

After all the layering was done, and I sprinkled the parm cheese on top (I would double that as well...maybe don't even measure. Just keep sprinkling until you think you have enough on top), I covered my food with foil. Be careful not to have the foil touch the food. I wasn't so careful and everything was almost ruined when I took the foil off after baking for 40 minutes. Disaster was averted but I think I had a mini heart attack when the foil lifted some of the pasta up.

Sorry for the blurry picture. I always have to have at least 1... So yeah, after the 45 minutes or so of baking, I took the lasagna out of the oven and I was starving from the smell. It smelling good was definitely a good sign to me. How bad could it be? I let it cool while picking at it a little to try it. I loved it! The feta gave a salty taste to it that was amazing! And as a side note, I only like melted feta. Really the only thing I would change is the amount of the ingredients. I might even throw in some additional veggies next time. Who knows?!? The finished product wasn't pretty, though...I was actually a little sad about that but if I had enough sauce, I think it would have looked better and frankly, I was so hungry I didn't care too much.

You can't even tell that there was parmesan cheese on top! And yeah, there was some pasta that was still a little hard and uncooked...I think I should have smooshed everything down a little to ensure it all stayed together. It fell apart when I cut it but maybe more cheese would remedy that?

Yay! It was really yummy in my opinion and I think I did a good job. Greg did say I could make it again and agreed with me that more cheese is needed. So I would give this recipe a B as is. Once I fix it up a bit, I hope it'll be an A dish that I would be willing to share with someone other than Greg. haha

Anxious

2008-10-19T16:41:00.005-04:00

I've been really anxious/nervous lately. Work has been really busy for me since I've been taking so much time off for the Jewish holidays and I try to get a lot more done than usual on the days I'm there so I don't leave my department to pick up the slack. It doesn't always work out that way, though. I'm not gonna lie.

I haven't really been knitting too much either. I started on a an 8-pointed star afghan with the wool-blend yarn my mom brought back for me from Argentina and kinda messed up the first couple rounds. It's coming along nicely though. I think I'm going to keep going on it until I run out of the yarn since I can't think of anything else to do with it.

The hat I made for my friend, Galen, fits him and he gets compliments on it every time he wears it. It makes me feel so good when he tells me about someone liking it. I still need to get a picture of him wearing it. The pattern is Turn a Square by Jared Flood (brooklyntweed) and I'm going to be using this pattern again. I didn't follow his striping pattern because I couldn't concentrate and I liked having uneven striping going on. It kind of reminds me of the House Hats from Charmed Knits. I really like the decreasing (apparently it's a raglan decrease) and I learned how to do a jogless color change! This was actually the first time I did a color change in knit. With crochet, I'm a pro at it. You can kind of see where my color changes are (left side of the picture, in a slightly diagnal line moving down to the right) but I don't know if that was because I held the yarn too tight or what. I know a non-knitter can't see it but I can and it actually bothers me a little.

I don't have a picture of my afghan yet but I'm going to be working on it some more today. I'm hoping to finish the second cake of yarn today and I need to wind the 2 hanks I have left. I'm not really looking forward to that but it's easy to do while watching TV, I suppose. Mindless.

I haven't been sleeping lately either. I had my yearly gyno appointment on Tuesday. I hate going to the doctor. No matter what, I go in there thinking he's going to find something wrong with me that will change my life forever and that I could possibly die from. It's terrible and no matter what doctor I go to, I feel the same way every single time. I'm in good health too, so I don't know what's wrong with me mentally. haha Either way, I now have to go have an ultrasound done on my left breast this Tuesday. I'm really not looking forward to it and my doctor actually made me really nervous about it all. He did the routine breast check, asked if I check myself, and then when he got to the lump on my left breast his face changed and he was like "Does that hurt?" I told him that it does but I've had it checkout out before and I was told it was nothing to worry about. Yes, that was 4 years ago and things can change but it's never bothered me since I originally found it, and the doctors weren't concerned with it so I put it out of my mind. Now everything in my mind has changed. We had a quick discussion about it and about how I already got an ultrasound done and blah blah blah but he wants me to go back and have it checked again. I think my worrying about the ultrasound is why I can't sleep. I keep trying to tell myself that he is just being cautious and that there's nothing wrong but he also seemed really concerned about it when I reminded him that I don't know the medical history on my mother's side but that there is cancer on my father's. Then came the typical Dr questions: Why don't you know your medical history? What kind of cancer on your father's side? Who had it? How is your mother's health? Your father's? I know I shouldn't worry...what happens, happens and this too shall pass but I can't help it. It was just his manner in asking me everything and telling me he wanted me to go get it checked out again. I can't help but feel a sense of foreboding. He also set everything up and the hospital called me last week to set that appointment up for this week. It's so quick. I mean, it's better sooner than later considering I'm making myself crazy but still...I'm much more irritable lately too. :( Send some positive thoughts my way, please. I need all the positive energy I can get right now.

On a positive note, though: I got my summons for Jury Duty!!! Yes, I'm excited about it. I've been waiting since the day I turned 18 for this. I think it's important to serve on a jury. It's part of my civic duty. I need to mail in my form tomorrow and then wait. If I get chosen, you know I'll be hearing the Law & Order "dun dun" in my head during the trial. So silly....

Oh, and here's the latest picture of beautiful BenBen! He's almost 2, I can't believe it. January is around the corner!

Wow, sorry...

2008-10-01T17:41:00.009-04:00

It's been too long since I've updated. Seems I just can't get into the groove...whatever. I'll keep trying.

At the beginning of August, I went to Philadelphia with my friend Justin. We went to see a Jack Johnson concert that was in Camden, New Jersey and decided to make a long weekend out of the trip. We had a freakin' blast! The concert was on the 7th so I went into NY on Wednesday after work and we started our mini road trip on Thursday afternoon. Philadelphia is beautiful! There is so much that I know we didn't see and I feel like I really need to go back. There is so much history there and we really only checked out the major sites. And a yarn store. :) I got a ton of really good suggestions on places to eat and see from the City of Knitterly Love group on Ravelry and without them, our trip would have been crappy, most likely. haha

Jack Johnson put on such a great show and the band that opened for him, Rouge Wave was pretty darn good too. I need to download some of their stuff.

We also checked out Ben Franklin's grave. People threw money on it. I don't really know why. but I didn't like it. Especially since they threw pennies on it. Dude, Frankling isn't even on the penny! The graveyard was really old and to be honest, I felt a little uneasy being in it. It was strange. What else....? We saw the extremely small Liberty Bell, Love Park (which was awesome BTW, but the LOVE sculpture is also miniscule), the Eastern State Penitentiary, Mutter Museum (so awesome--a little gross)...Oh! We saw some demonstration of martial arts on the 8th in China Town as a way to commemorate the starting of the Olympics. It was pretty cool. I also had my first Bubble Tea ever that day. It was good. I had a green tea one. Does anyone know where I can get bubble tea around here? I need some....RIGHT NOW.

If you're ever in Philly, check out Mugshots CoffeHouse & Cafe. It's across the street from the Penitentiary and they are all about buying local produce and fair trade coffee and such. They are independant and you should support them. I got the Jailhouse Rock sandwich which is organic peanut butter with sliced bananas and local honey. OMG, I was in heaven for a little. It was soooo good. On multi grain bread. I want to go back just for that sammich. I also got a smoothie that was to die for as well. But anyway, the place is really cute and small and their food is punny. They have sammiches called The Capone, The Slammer, Bonnie & Clyde, The Scapegoat, Philly Five-O and more. 100% of their electricity is supplied by wind power. They really are awesome. They are also the founding member of Independents Coffee Cooperative.

Also, check out Bike Lane, on Arch between 9th and 10th. The guys there were really helpful and we were able to rent bikes for 25 bucks a day. Apparently that's the cheapest around as some places charge 10 bucks an hour! We found the place around 10 am on Friday, I would say, and went back around 1 by the time we dropped the car off at the hotel and figured out the public transportation system to get back to China Town to rent the bikes. We kept them until Saturday around 5 pm when the shop closed. All for 25 bucks! Seriously, best deal ever. We even got helmets and bike locks. We biked our little asses all over Philly. Literally. It was such a great workout and I really want to buy a bike now. I wish we got a picture on the bikes. Next time, I guess.

On Friday we ate at a Burmese restaurant. I wish I could remember the name or where it was but it was amazing. The thousand layer bread, I don't have words for. It's almost like naan but I don't even know. So good!

And yes, Justin does look evil in this picture but he was just really excited to try the chicken dish he ordered. I had an eggplant dish. It was sooooo good. I need to eat Burmese food again. Oh! And they had this mango juice drink thing that was amazing. I should have posted RIGHT after we went so I would know what everything was called. SOOOOO GOOD!

Justin ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art ala Rocky Balboa while I video taped it. I know, we're nerds. The view from the top of the steps is beautiful. Really, I need to go back. We didn't even go into the museum because it was Saturday and we were leaving that day and such. It was a jam packed day. We also checked out the Reading Terminal Market. That place was packed. It was like one of the State Houses at the Big E but crazier. And bigger.

We really had such a great time. I can't wait to finally be able to scrapbook the weekend.

What else happened since the Olympics....?

The same weekend we came back from Philly, my cousin had a party for his birthday. Matias, his mother and I were all born on the same day and since his mom and sister came to visit from Argentina, they decided to have a small shindig. It was so nice to meet some more of my family. I meant to take pictures but I only got one of Matias looking like a little kid in his birthday hat.

Isn't he handsome? He's married so buzz off. :) haha

The weekend of the 16th I had a housewarming party for a co-worker. It was a fun day of swimming and eating. And a homemade slip n slide that should be illegal. haha It was great. I wish I took pictures.

The 23rd was the End of Summer Luau at my girl, Noddie's house. Her parties are always filled with good people and good food. She never disappoints me. I'm pissed that I couldn't go to the Cape with her this summer. Oh well, next year.

I worked on my birthday...boo but that weekend I had a little bash in Fairfield and so many people came! I was so surprised and I had an amazing time. Everyone mingled with each other at least a little bit since no one really knew one another and it was awesome.

Thanks again to everyone who made the trip down to celebrate with me. Next year will be better and I plan on having my bash in a more centrally located spot.

My weekends in September were filled with spending time with Noddie & Co. And this weekend is game night up in her next of the woods. I can't wait! She and I are gonna WRECK people in Taboo. Watch out!

So today is Rosh Hashana and I took it off of work. Shana Tova to all my Yids! I took yesterday off as well since it was the First day of the New Year. I didn't really do much, it was a nice chill day...I hung out with Ani helping her plan her Living Green House Party. More on that after this weekend. Today I went for a walk down to St. Mary's. I didn't quite make it. I stopped a little before and sat on a bench near where all the boats are docked. It was so nice out. Unseasonably warm and worth the little 5 minute walk in so many ways. I needed to get out of the house. I took my knitting with me and met two older ladies who came to sit with me to see what I was making. I was working on a hat for a friend of mine and I finished it a few hours ago when I came home because I realized I forgot to bring my DPNs with me to the water...I'm an idiot.

I also did a little walking tour of the water and my neighborhood for my boy, Henk, who lives across the way in Holland. I wanted to show him the huge house and stuff right on the water. He loved it and I expect some videos of his neighborhood in the near future. I can't wait, really. I've never really thought of visiting Holland since I don't know much about it, but who knows...if he shows me some nice spots, I just might look into flying on over. I would make he and his girlfriend be my tour guides of course. haha His English is impecable, for the record. Mostly from watching movies. Amazing.

Alrighty, so this is definitely the longest post of my life and I will end it here. I'll leave you with a picture of Ola, my fave cousin Dario and myself at my Big Birthday Bash.

Acceptance Speech

2008-08-24T11:25:00.002-04:00

I medaled all 5 times in the Bag-n-tote Backstroke. Wow.

What can I say? I thank God everyday for giving me the gift of knit and crochet. Thanks to my team, Team New Haven, for all their support and enabling. Thanks to Justin for going to a yarn store with me, listening to me get excited about the Ravelympics, and ignoring him for most of the ride home from Philly due to the competition. Thanks to Greg too for putting up with me in general regarding the fiber arts and leaving yarn and hooks all over the house. Wow. I can't believe I did it. I didn't train because I was nervous I would develop an injury and I thought I did after the finishing of the third bag, the Elisa Nest Tote, but I remembered my team and all their hard work and I pulled through. I wasn't about to let them down. I had some really late nights and early mornings but it was definitely worth it. I finished just under the wire--with an hour and 15 minutes left. Crazy. Special thanks to my team captain, Captain Suzy for her words of encouragement, her fave-ing Ravelympic items and enabling me to buy some hemp yarn. You rock. My main incentive, besides helping my team, was the prize of buying myself stitch markers for finishing. I told myself if I was able to medal 5 times, my goal, I would buy myself some beautiful stitch markers off of Etsy. I think I broke 2 during the events so I deserve them and desperately need a new set. So yeah, wow, thanks everyone! See you for the London 2012 games! GO TEAM NEW HAVEN!

:)

Summer Ravelympics 2008

2008-07-27T19:48:00.005-04:00

I'm very excited to do my first knit/crochet-a-long. After Suzy asked if anyone was interested in starting a Team New Haven for the Ravelympics, I jumped at the chance to be in the Bag-n-Tote Backstroke event in my effort to be more green. But, there are so many tote patterns to crochet, I'm having a hard time deciding which one to use. My hope is to make each bag in two days tops and I will be in Philadelphia on the 8th, when the Olympics start and we are allowed to cast on...Justin might kill me. I might even try to knit a bag as well but I want to get as much bang for my buck that I'll probably just stick to crochet for this event. I still have two and a quarter skeins left of the Little Barn Cotton and Ecospun I bought at the MDSW Festival as well as a bunch of ball of Peaches and Cream cotton that I can mix and match as needed to reach the size of bag that I want. I also bought some nylon webbing handles from Joann's a few weeks ago when out with Ola and I might pick up another pair or two. Depending on which bag I do, I can use 1 handle for each but I don't really know if I'll do that. I'm a two handle kinda gal, I think. Oooh, I almost forgot about some really beautiful mercerized cotton that Suzy gave me forever ago at a yarn swap we had...

Oh, and is anyone doing the Lacework Javelin event? I've decided to trade my Zephyr...I've tried knitting with it about 5 times now and I just can't do it. It's too thin for me, makes my hands hurt and I drop stitches like it's my job. I will trade for something thicker and equally pretty. I don't care about the cost of the yarn and such crap because honestly, I don't remember what I paid for the Zephyr in the first place. I still would like to do a lace stole....again, just with a thicker gauge yarn. Maybe if someone has some yarn that I could use for more bags/totes, I'll trade for that as well. Whatever. Someone trade me and use the yarn I have!!!

Okay, so here are the bags I'm thinking of making. I need input/suggestions. The first links are non-Ravelry links...

BYOB--though it is knit and I'm a slow knitter and would like to stay away...
Fantasy Naturale Market Bag--again, another knit one but it seems like it would be super quick to work...
Elisa Nest Tote--essentially the Fantasy bag just knit flat, folded in half and crocheted together but it appeals to me more than the other...
Beginner Crochet Market Bag--Simple enough.
"Market" Tote Bag--this one doesn't seem like it stretches all that much but I could be wrong...
Krystal's Grocery Bag--it has it's own nifty pocket to fold the bag into itself!
Go Green Market Bag--again, simple enough pattern that would take me no time to finish.

So that's all. Now help me choose! I want to go gold and am slightly competitive in nature. :) I don't even know how they determine who gets what medal...are they even doing that? I need to read up some more about these games....

My new favorite website...

2008-07-21T23:02:00.003-04:00

Who needs LOL cats when you have:

http://failblog.org

Get ready to laugh your ass off!

Very early birthday present!!!

2008-07-19T17:21:00.005-04:00

Look what came in the mail today!

I ordered myself a set of 16" bamboo circular needles off off eBay. I think I paid $20 in total and shipping was free! The seller had beyond amazing feedback so I figured I would give them a shot. It was so worth it. The cords are thick but unaturally flexible and the joins seem fine to me. I can't wait to try them out.

I know that I've decided to knit a sweater before and nothing ever came of it...but I think I'm finally ready for the challenge. I'm going to buy the pattern for Green Gable and I have some pretty green yarn that I bought a while back when I originally had this sweater knitting idea. It's Baruffa Merino Sei and the only thing I'm concerned about is that it's DK weight, the pattern calls for worsted, and it seems that I'm a wicked tight knitter. I WILL do a gauge swatch and I will keep doing one until I get it right. I just don't want to have to buy yarn for the pattern since I have enough already.

And speaking of having enough yarn, before Emily moved back home (miss you, btw) she purged herself of a ton of yarn. It found a new home in my place and is anxiously awaiting to be used for a project. She gave me bundles of Cascade and I was originally going to make myself a granny square blanket since the last one I made is currently residing with my ex. Well, I started it but I'm not feeling it so I will hop on the bandwagon and do a ripple afghan! I kinda can't wait.

I think my knitting mojo is back. Let's just hope that I don't start too many projects and that I finish a couple. :)

New pic of my nephew

2008-07-14T23:23:00.001-04:00

How cute is my nephew? :)

My day. Part II

2008-07-13T22:57:00.002-04:00

So I forgot to mention the start to my day! I woke up at a decent hour for once on a Sunday (even though I went to bed uber late last night) and I made some banana muffins since my bananas almost kicked the bucket. I found a really simple recipe online this morning and got to work first thing. They came out great! Wanna see?

I have 1 banana left over but I think he'll be dead tomorrow. :( I should have made another batch but Stop and Shop didn't have anything ripe enough. But see how two muffins are missing? I ate 1 and a half of em. Greg ate the other and the rest of the small batch is coming with me to work so I can give some to Ola and the people in her department. Anyway, the recipe was perfect and the muffins were so moist that they ended up sticking just slightly to my silicone baking cups but not so bad that they didn't pop out without any fuss. I will definitely use this recipe again and the woman who posted it has some modifications to it that I might try as well. I love pumpkin baked goods so we'll see what I try next. I have some Gala apples that I need to do something with before they go bad....maybe an apple crisp is in order? Talk about another SUPER easy dessert.

And to end my wonderful day, I went kayaking with Greg. I have to admit, I didn't think I would make it as far as I did and I was really scared that I would capsize...the water was pretty choppy but I held my own and Greg pointed out what I was doing wrong and what might help me so I think I'll go out with him again. I have a feeling I will be really sore tomorrow though. We went to the lighthouse closest to us and that was a 1/2 mile away so I did a mile kayaking today and the last time I kayaked (not to mention worked out) was in the Bahamas with Noddie (tandem) and then before that, in 2005 in California, also tandem. All in all, I'm VERY proud of myself and I think it was a nice end to the day.

Oh yeah, and I ended up getting a manicure too. I couldn't pass it up, it was cheap and the lady who did my nails was nice enough to put up with me blogging while she touched my gross feet. haha I did a light color on my nails though...I might go dark next time I get a manicure.

Good night!

My day.

2008-07-13T17:24:00.004-04:00

Right now I'm getting a much needed pedicure. Thank god. And this past week has been so crazy with work, I deserve this pamper session. I'm trying a new place in Stratford that a girl my brother works with goes to...maybe I'll stick with this place. It's pretty in here and they are open pretty late given that today is Sunday.

I also went to a new ice cream shoppe in my neighborhood. Helados Vasquez. Their sorbet is outta this world! I've been waiting for them to open since I moved in with Greg in December and now that they are and I've been there once, I will keep going back. I got the mango sorbet that the owner just finished making, but I was also given samples (without even asking for them) of their pink grapefruit sorbet and their pineapple sorbet. Sooo good!

The grapefruit one was a little strong for me but I can still recognize that it was beyond delicious. Greg ended up getting cappuccino gelato and was given a sample of the tiramisu one. The shoppe itself was beautiful and the owners had an album out of what the place looked like before--what a huge difference! The amount of trash that was in the store before was disgusting. To say that it could have probably reached my waist might be an exaggeration, but just barely. I took some pictures while there but I will add them later. I dunno how to add a picture to an already started email. I'll have to look into that.

Okay, I'm off to really enjoy my pedicure.

ETA pictures.

Woah!

2008-07-12T16:57:00.002-04:00

I'm blogging from my new iPhone 3g! Can you believe it? Joey and I
went to the AT&T store yesterday morning before work just in time to
get the 8gb one. There were 16gb available but I was cool with just
the 8. I've been messing around with the damn phone all day and love
it! It was so worth the money. I ended up being two hours late for
work but since my boss loves me, it was a non-issue. Yay!

In other news, I haven't knit in two weeks. Nothing is calling to me
except blankets and it's been too hot to even think about knitting or
crocheting one. I need some inspiration, people! Maybe I'll start on
the Luna Lace scarf from Gale's book. I have zephyr or some tess lace
that I could use and I've been dying to due a lace shawl since forever.

Okay, off I go to continue chilling with Joe and Ola and play with my
phone!

Cooking? What's that?

2008-06-29T00:15:00.003-04:00

Apparently I still haven't figured it out. I made another shitty, shitty dinner tonight. Wonderful. Emily gave me a crock pot that she wasn't going to lug back home (thanks so much!!!!) and I was super excited to start using it. I went to Barnes and Noble today to find a recipe book for my new appliance but nothing really wowed me. I did find a neat little recipe card tin thing from Rival that has a few adaptable recipes. Everything mixes meat and dairy so I'll have to figure out ways to tweak it...or I might return it. I haven't decided yet. Either way, I tried my hand at baked ziti tonight and it flopped in the worst way possible. It was so dry and crunchy. I don't know if I cooked it for too long, if I should have added more water....what did I do wrong? Greg wasn't very helpful or encouraging either so that didn't help. Ugh. I hate failing. The entire dinner went in the disposal. What a waste of food. I feel like crap.

Anyone have a good recipe to try in the crock pot?

My love don't give me presents....

2008-05-28T23:14:00.002-04:00

but Jenn tagged me for a meme that I haven't done before so here goes...and I should so be sleeping. I didn't sleep well last night.

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago?
I was 14. I was graduating 8th grade and somehow constantly getting grounded. I wasn't even a bad kid. I once got grounded because I called my mom to tell her that I would be at my friend Julie's house after going to school on Sunday to work on my State Science Fair project...and only because she forgot. What a year.

2) Five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
Well, my day is basically over but:
Go to SnB
Order roving (didn't happen)
Cook (also didn't happen b/c of SnB)
Block my Faux-liage scarf
Sleep

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Reese's pieces, craisins, pita and hummus/babaganoush....uhhhh....good bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic. YUM!

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Do I already own a house as this point or are we talking about RIGHT now? I would buy a nice house. Nothing extravagant, except for the library in it and maybe a craft room. :) I would donate a lot of it. Invest some.

5) Places I have lived:
Bridgeport, Meriden, New Haven and now Bridgeport again. I'm boring.

6) Jobs I have had:
I've done basically every job at Stop and Shop when I worked there but I was also a camp counselor, a "librarian" (I helped catalog books in my grammar school's "library"), a payroll clerk and now a Cash Unit Tech. When I was the librarian and camp counselor, I wasn't really old enough to work.

7) Peeps I want to know more about:
Brenda, Ola and anyone else that reads my blog...even if you don't have a blog--leave your answers in my comments. :)

Good night.

I think I'll go for a walk outside...

2008-05-27T20:11:00.005-04:00

Except it's raining out...but I took a walk to Captain's Cove yesterday with my friend Justin. He took the train in for a few hours to chill. I was pretty beat after driving for 4 hours so I wasn't so entertaining.

This weekend was entertaining though. I saw this fat little boy:

Ben loves cameras and got really excited when he realized that I was snapping pics of him. He's the cutest baby in the world. And yes, that's a fact. You can look it up on Wikipedia....now if only I knew how to add "fact" onto Wikipedia...

Anyway, I did a lot of knitting while I was in NY visiting the family. I started on another Multi-directional scarf for no one in particular.

I've found that if I decide to knit anything for a person, I never finish it or it takes me a year or two to get it done. I'm almost done with the 1 skein of Cascade that I have. I might just have to buy another....I think I have no choice but to visit the yarn store in the very near future.

In other news, I cooked today! I made breaded chicken cutlets. They were yummy and I would have liked to make more but I didn't know how to cut the cutlets a little thinner without killing myself. I also bought some cauliflower to fry up but didn't get around to doing it. Maybe on Thursday since tomorrow night is SnB. I made spaghetti and meatballs last Monday but I think it came out like crap. But after talking to my sister's husband's cousin's wife (haha, I love dragging relations out instead of just saying "my brother-in-law's cousin") we decided that since I can make a mean meatloaf, I could use the same basic recipe but then just make it into meatballs and bake them in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes. I was hoping to try it tonight but Stop and Shop didn't have kosher ground turkey. Jerks.

That's all I have to talk about for now. I leave you with another picture of my little Ben-Ben.

A game....

2008-05-19T13:22:00.005-04:00

I was reading Phoebe's blog while on lunch today and I liked this little game thing. I love to repeat lines from movies and half the time no one ever knows what movie it's from...or that I was even quoting something. I usually just get a quizzical look and an "uh huh...".

Rules:

I. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.

II. Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie--who needs IMDB when I'm Rain Man? :)

III. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.

IV. Bold it when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie title.

V. Cheaters never prosper so don't bother. It's not like you are winning anything here. ;)

1. Dear me, what is that unpleasant aroma? I fear the sewer may have backed up during the night...

2. Daddy...I got cider in my ear!

3. Man 1: Is there any reason you shouldn't be in this man's Army?

Man 2: I'm a cross-dressing homosexual pacifist with a spot on my lung.

Man 1: As long as you don't have flat feet.

4. I wonder what grass tastes like.

5. Man 1: You know, times are changing. Ladies can do stuff now...and you're going to learn how to deal with it.

Man 2: What? Were you saying something? Look...I don't speak Spanish.

6. Alright everyone, go back to your knitting! This is gonna be uncomfortable enough without all you nosey sods listening in.

7. Hope you got a big trunk because I'm putting my bike in it! Ola guessed 40-year-old Virgin. Good job.

8. Girl: Call me by my real name.
Guy: uhh....
Girl: Betty...Betty. Grease--I'm so glad Heidi knew this one. Not many people know Rizzo's real name (in the movie) is Betty.

9. Woman: What she's done? I'm all but lame from the bite on my leg!
Man: You mean she bit you?
Woman: No. Her dog.
Man: Oh, she bit her dog, eh? Heidi guessed this one as The Wizard of Oz. So smart, woman!

10. Now the snarfblatt dates back to prehysterical times when humans used to sit around and stare at each other all day. It was very boring.

Okay...so good luck and remember: NO CHEATING! :)

I have confidence in me...

2008-05-15T21:59:00.003-04:00

I tried to make a felted soap just now. I think I failed slightly....:( But it's okay! I'm being optimistic and I'm going to use my soap in the morning when I shower and maybe it'll felt more. I have hope. I also don't know what kind of roving Emily gave me and maybe that has something to do with it. I'll just blame the roving. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. I'm too lazy to do it right now and I should go move the yarn that was in a photo shoot earlier today from Greg's desk.

I've photographed a lot of my yarn since Monday. I would like to get my entire stash in Ravelry soon. I really don't know what I have and I need to really buckle down and work on my projects more diligently. I'm in a creative mood lately....almost a mania, I would say--but I'm not quite there yet...

Did anyone notice that I've been blogging more? Anyone?

So back to the felted soap thing...I used the chocolate buttercream truffle bar that I bought at the CT Sheep and Wool Festival from Sleepy Moon Soaps. I want to eat it. It smells so good, but it does lather into a creamy, very pale brown color. Good thing Sami warned me...I might have thought it was the roving or something. Maybe the soap has something to do with the lack of felting? Maybe I'm just obsessing because I'm bored.

I should go to bed. Sorry this post lacked a certain something for those of you reading. Leave me comments or something!

Woman, please get some sleep...

2008-05-12T23:20:00.003-04:00

So I'm waiting on Flickr to finish uploading some of my stash pictures that I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I'll have to add pics to this post later since it's being stupid.

Maryland was great, in case you were wondering. I drove down Friday after work with Sami, Karen and Brenda. We had a nice semi-uneventful drive down listening to 80's music, knitting and talking. I learned how donated organs get to people in hospitals.

The festival itself was so overwhelming. I've never seen so many people in one place before. I felt like there was about 5 times the amount of people that go to the Big E at any given time. And the yarn! My gosh, I didn't know where to start. I took Sami's and Karen's advice and started at Tess' Designer Yarns. Wow! I loved their stuff. I bought two hanks each of microfiber ribbon and some superwash lace weight merino. I just made one of my merino hanks into a cake at Ola's and it felt so soft in my hands. I really cannot weight to start on Juno with it. I got a nice purple color way. It's a royal color and since Juno is a goddess, it all fits together. I have to admit, I thought of that correlation after the fact...the purple just really caught my eye while standing in line to pay for the ribbon I got. I bought a baby sweater pattern to go with the ribbon but then only realized once I got in the car to go back to the hotel that night that it doesn't have gauge (not like I check it, but still) or finished measurements. They did have a test knit and it was definitely too small to fit my fat, but oh so handsome, nephew so I bought the two hanks instead of one. The pattern is supposed to be a one skeiner. I suppose I should write to them and see if they can be most precise.

I got 5 small skeins of some Koigu mill ends in various blue colorways. I'm thinking of making some generic fingerless mitts with them since none are the same dye lot. They will stripey and wonderful and I hope to get started and be done with them by the winter. I don't know if I will have enough time though. How sad is that?

Ooh, I also got 1 skein of Socks that Rock medium weight superwash merino sock yarn in 24 Karat. It's such a nice gold color. It was yet another impulse buy because the color caught my eye. I'm trying to rely on what stimulates my eyeballs more so than just going for the blues and greens. I have too much blue yarn and I've noticed I've been moving more towards the green family lately. I need to branch out. And speaking of my stash, Ola just mentioned to me tonight about shooting my pictures in macro setting (it was like she was speaking Arabic to me) so I switched the setting (I don't know how I figured that out either) and my yarn looks so much more photogenic! I'm going to be going through my stash this weekend and have a photo shoot outside. Greg also said he would photograph some of my projects for me. YAY!

Uh oh, low battery. I'll have to write more (and add those pictures) tomorrow.

Good night!

Help! I need somebody!

2008-04-29T18:13:00.003-04:00

I didn't bother to check my gauge on Crusoe..yeah, I started the pattern last night. I figured that since I have the correct size needles (purchased at CT Sheep and Wool--more on that later) and I have the Koigu the pattern calls for, who needs gauge? What's that? But I was wrong. I did the cuff and two pattern repeats and I think it will be a child sized sock. I will wait to frog it until I can ask Rebecca at SnB tomorrow and see if I'm correct. The cuff is pretty stretchy right now but I can barely get it over my toes so I'm fairly certain (and by fairly I mean practically absolutely certain) it won't fit me. I read through the pattern and everything seems to make sense to me but I think I'll need help with picking up stitches. I've only picked up one other time and it was hell for me. I guess it just takes practice, right?

Okay, more later. Laundry is calling. :(

Oh yeah, I'm on Facebook--just shoot me.

Is there anybody going to listen to my story...

2008-04-22T18:18:00.003-04:00

So I decided to redo my blog. I've deleted all posts from before January and will really attempt to blog more often.

I haven't been doing much knitting or crocheting but I have been scrapbooking a lot lately. If I can figure out how to take some good pictures of my pages without getting a glare from the protectors they are in, I'll do it and post some. I'm definitely getting better at scraping. You can tell which pages I started out on...they look like crap, I think. But whatever. It's all part of the process and I'm okay with it. I ordered a bunch of pictures from Snapfish this past week and I was hoping they would be here already but they haven't come in. Once they get here I'll be able to scrap (from 2004) Hawaii/my sister's wedding, the Marine's Ball; 2005 Elena's birthday, a trip to NYC; 2007 Halloween and from this year, Ola's bachelorette party and wedding, as well as the Bahamas in general. I can't wait. Pictures of my nephew were also ordered, of course. It seems that an order from Snapfish isn't complete until there are pictures of Ben-Ben in there. He's so beautiful, I can't help myself. :) I might just end up doing a separate book of Ben.

So I was tagged who knows how long ago by Meira for a random meme thing. I should complete it...here goes...7 random things about myself. I think I've done this before but who really cares?

1. I used to be a hard ass and never cried during sad/sweet movies or while reading books.
2. I learned how to make egg salad yesterday...but I feel like everyone in the world was born knowing how to make it, except me.
3. When I speak Spanish, my brains starts thinking in Hebrew and vice versa. It's annoying really and I end up combining the two languages.
4. I'm SLOWLY learning to control my temper and forgive people.
5. I'm thinking of taking a quilting class at Joann's.
6. It's hard for me not to sing...but I don't like singing in front of people.
7. I want to make my own skirts since it's hard for me to find ones that fit well and are below my knees.

Everyone should do this meme. :)

I'll write later about the Bahamas...but know that it was amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat. Ola looked beautiful on her wedding day and my brother looked quite dapper, if not slightly uncomfortable, in his suit. I have pictures up but I need to organize them and get rid of the doubles that are crappy. It's a work in progress.

If you wanna find all the cops, they're hanging out in the donut shop!

2008-01-17T19:37:00.001-05:00

Saturday is Ben's birthday party!!! I can't wait! My nephew is arguably the cutest 1 year old around.Tonight I'm test baking some recipes that my Jews from Ravelry pointed me in the direction of. Ben has a dairy allergy so my sister entrusted me to make a non-dairy (parve) cake for him. I was all set to make my famous chocolate cake and use rice milk (since babies shouldn't have soy) to make it parve but then my sister said Ben can't have chocolate until he's 2. I don't know if that's just a precaution because of his allergies or babies just shouldn't have chocolate too early in life. Anyone?

So I'm making Dump Cake. You literally just take the ingredients and dump them into a 9x13 ungreased pan. How awesome is that? No fuss baking at it's best. I'm hoping it will come out good and I will most likely make Greg (roomie) take the cake to the Tattoo Shop tomorrow to have everyone there test it. It's completely parve and looks really yummy. I left out the coconut for this one--I don't really enjoy coconut all the time and I didn't know if I would like the recipe, so why buy a whole bag of coconut if I wouldn't use it again? You know? I'm also going to try a Pumpkin Patch cake. That's on the agenda for tomorrow. Which ever I like better and my sister thinks would be a hit, will be the winner. I'm still going to make my chocolate cake, but Ben won't have any. I will still make is parve, I think. I am also going to be making oatmeal raisin bars. Can you tell I love to bake? And Greg bought me an awesome timer so I can "set it and forget it"!

On the knitting front--I'm still working on Justin's scarf but I'm trucking along and I end up doing 5 repeats a night--when I work on it. And that's been often so it'll be done in no time. I was thinking for going to see his Sunday/Monday since it's MLK Jr. Day and I have off from work but I didn't mention it to him to see if he was free or even has off of work himself. I should probably do that, huh? But either way, the scarf won't be done by then and if it is, it won't be blocked by then and it NEEDS a good blocking. It's curling! But if I go, and it's done, I'll block it at his apartment. Why not? After the scarf is done I'm going to cast on Crusoe or Linea.

Crochet--I'm making a yoga mat bag that I was hoping to get done by tomorrow but I can left some of my crappy acrylic at my old apartment so I didn't work on it for a few days. Tomorrow is my class and I'm excited--except that it's during lunch. Ola and I are taking it together and we will be fit and zen. After the bag is done, I think I think I will cast on for a Newsboy cap I found on Ravelry. But first I think I will PM some chick that modded the pattern and made it look eleventy-billion times nicer to see what she did. Scratch that--just read her pattern notes. She just didn't make the brim as wide as the pattern wanted it to be. I can figure that out on my own. If not, then I will harass her.

Ahh! The cake is smelling so yummy. Gotta go.

It's always better when we're together.

2008-01-04T18:48:00.001-05:00

Happy 2008!

I've been MIA. I know I often go off the radar but it's a new year and I'm a new Baby Beth. I decided that this is the year to be a fearless person. I'm mean this in regards to my knitting/crocheting and other crafts as well as in everything else in my life.

What did I do in 2007? Bullets, anyone? Barely any of these are craft related--sorry.

I became an aunt.
Saw Mary Poppins opening week on Broadway...and paid dearly for those tickets.
Drove to New York to see my sister's new house and my first nephew! Both beautiful.
Went to Argentina for two weeks with my mom, dad, brother, Ola and Miguel. I got to meet my dad's family for the first time that I can remember. My Spanish even improved slightly if only for a night or two at my Tio Miguel's house.
Gambled in an Argentine Casino.
Made a friend in someone I can barely communicate with without the help of a dictionary--and it's great.
Learned to crochet while waiting to board my plane to Argentina and got a good chunk of my granny square blanket knocked out on the flight there. How long was the flight? 12 hours or something?
Quit Stop and Shop in April.
Found my cousins who live in CT and got to know them and the people they have considered family for 20 years.
Went to the Botanical Gardens when the Cherry Blossoms were in bloom.
Quit a horrible job in July and landed my current gig--thanks Ola!
Baked like there was no tomorrow--oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, all kinda of (sometimes failed) fudge, donuts, chocolate chip cherry bars, sugar cookies
Finished Joey's Knucks after trying to figure out how to embroider and giving up for a year...until I found the most perfect letters for the knuckles.
Knit Foliage--first lace, top down, chart read pattern! (pic not up yet but check back soon!)
Come to terms with where things in my life stand.
Worked on my relationship with my mother.
Started helping Ola plan her wedding.
Knit a slew of scarves.
Knit a Christmas ornament for work.
Knit a bird/ornament for Maria.
Made a dent in my main scrapbook and got about halfway through my Israel 2004 scrapbook.
Helped out some friends in need when I didn't think I would have the strength.
Realized it's the little things that count the most.
Moved on.

That was quite a list. And the best things in 2007? Becoming an aunt and seeing my sister move into the mother role and going to Argentina and having my brother and Ola get engaged there. It was a good, and tough, year.

2008, I can't wait to see what you have in store for me. This is my year and I hope it'll be a good one filled with (mostly craft related) wonderful things:

Disney with Noddie and her cousin Ani.
A wonderful wedding in the Bahamas!!!! (Is it April yet?!?!)
Crusoe
Scoop Neck Vest
Very Cropped Top Hoodie
Linea (in Argentine cotton???)
A lace stole I have yet to pick out...but Hanami seems to be calling my name.
Improved cooking skills.
Improved fudge making skills since my roomie (more on that another time, perhaps...) bought me a thermometer!!
Less procrastination.
More FO.
Phone calls back to the people who call me.
Answer my phone. :)
Build stronger relationships with the people currently in my life and those who used to be in it more.
Let go of painful situations.
An enhanced wardrobe!
Dyed hair
Maybe another new 'do after Ola's wedding?
Go back to school--even if just one class at a time.
Learn to play the guitar.
Make a blanket for myself--crochet or maybe even quilted?
Be stronger--physically and emotionally.
Spend more time with the people who make me a better person and who keep me sane. (Special thanks to Nodsicle and SnB NH)
Speak more Spanish.

Ahh..there's a lot I want to do but what it comes down to is that it's my year and it's going to be a good one because I'm going to make it that way. I've made some tough, life changing decisions in 2007 and they can only be for the best. Sappy, I know...

Happy New Year. I'll try to post more too. :)