love/ hate

The problem is, I can sit here and wish everyone had a happy Christmas, but I know that someone I really love had an awful one. Of the "could only be worse if someone died" variety of awful. Life-crushingly, screamingly horrid.

So now I'm grappling with 2 of the great mysteries of life: Why do bad things happen to good people? and How can human beings be so cruel? That second one is something I ponder often, as I'm completely unable to wrap my brain around the idea of the horrid, greedy, hateful, destructive, mean things people do; but in this case it has the added twist of, "how can people be horrifically cruel to those they claim to love?"

And it bothers me that I hate someone now. I disliked him before- had no respect for him, thought he was not a good person, knew he was selfish and manipulative and didn't treat people the way someone who purports himself as a "good, God-fearing Christian" ought to (he is of the type who make "Christian" a bad word). But now I hate him. I really hope Karma exists, because he's got a lot to make up for (and my friend surely must have a lot of good times due, they've been due for a while now). And I really hate that he made her feel it was all her fault, that he took away her strength, that he tried to destroy who she is and replace her with who he wanted, and that there is nothing I can do or say to make things better for her.

Why are people evil? What kind of person chooses cruelty over love?

Alfie the Christmas Tree

When I was young, one Christmas tradition my family upheld without fail was to listen to John Denver and The Muppets, A Christmas Together. One track that always spoke to me wasn't even a song, it was a poem written and spoken by Denver himself. Here it is, my Christmas sentiments for you:

Did you ever hear the story of the Christmas tree
Who just didn't want to change the show?
He liked living in the woods and playing with squirrels
He liked icicles and snow.

He liked wolves, and eagles, and grizzly bears
And critters and creatures that crawled
Why, bugs were some of his very best friends;
Spiders and ants and all.

Now that's not to say that he ever looked down
On a vision of twinkling lights
Or on mirrored bubbles and peppermint canes
And a thousand other delights.

And he often had dreams of tiny reindeer
And a jolly old man in a sleigh
Full of toys, and presents, and wonderful things
And the story of Christmas day.

Oh, Alfie believed in Christmas, alright
He was full of Christmas cheer
All of each and every day
And all throughout the year.

To him it was more than a special time,
Much more than a special day
It was more than a special story,
It was a special kind of way.

You see, some folks have never heard a jingle bell ring
And they've never heard of Santa Claus
They've never heard the story of the son of God.
That made Alfie pause;

Did that mean that they'd never know of peace on Earth
Or the brotherhood of man?
Or know how to love? Or know how to give?
If they can't- no one can.

You see, life is a very special kind of thing
Not just for a chosen few;
But for each and every living, breathing thing
Not just me and you.

So in your Christmas prayers this year
Alfie asked me if I'd ask you-
Say a prayer for the wind, and the water, and the wood
And those who live there, too.

Bad weather sucks

Well, this was supposed to be Family Christmas Weekend at my Mom's but due to freezing conditions and snow in the valley, we're staying put. This means there will be no family time at all this Christmas, and it will be another year of Christmas at home, only distinguishable from any other day by the opening of our presents (at this point, to my knowledge, we have 2). Oh, and prime rib and cheesecake for dinner, which admittedly is quite abnormal. And fatty.

But also not having family time means I can just mail any unfinished gifts after Christmas instead of rushing to finish them. You might be wondering how I can have unfinished gifts (besides the Pretty Blanket Which Will Take Forever for my Mom), since I started knitting them months and months ago? Well the answer is LAST MINUTE REQUESTS. Hooray for people who neglect to tell you until the week before Christmas what they want- and it includes handknit items! This is forgivable of the 8 yr old with slacker parents (he wants fingerless gloves- easy peasy), but less so in the 20-something knitter. In her defense though, she said no problem if it wasn't done by Christmas. Oddly enough, it probably will be, but it sure isn't making it to Seattle by mail in 5 days, especially since I'm currently waiting for my newly-dyed yarn to dry so I can start knitting.

That's right- simply knitting is not enough for me, I've taken one more step into the woolly and wonderful world of fiber arts by taking up hand-dyeing! It's actually really easy and fun (though similarly to knitting it's much less fun when it's not turning out properly). I'm using food coloring and Wilton's frosting paste with citric acid, so I can do it in our crock pot, no worries. It's so cool to blend colors, dump the dye onto white yarn and turn on the crock pot, only to come back later to colored yarn in clear water. Thus far I have dyed 2 skeins of fingering weight silk & merino yarn light greens & blues for my Aunt's shawl (she's doing well, but hasn't started chemo yet) and now some bright green aran wool/ cashmere for the last-minute gift, a slouchy cabled beret which I hope will well-received, even if it is late.

Other than the dyeing and blanket, I'm also working on a cardigan for myself. I was supposed to sub once this week, but it too got canceled due to nasty weather in the valley- school here was in session, but sporting events in other towns that required teachers to miss school were canceled. Last weekend I made panforte, a Tuscan Christmas dessert we enjoyed in Siena (tons of ground nuts and chopped homemade candied citrus peel- it took FOREVER). Thursday I attended R's office holiday party, did a lot of running around, and made applesauce cinnamon cake for craft night, which we hosted. I also read Yarn Harlot (much of it out loud to R, because it was so funny). I'm definitely a very different type of knitter, but I did thoroughly enjoy the book.

I guess it's time to make Christmas cookies now, eh? Maybe glazed sugar cookies, which are one of my favorites, though labor-intensive. And heating up the oven helps keep the house warm; you can really see why things like casseroles and baked dishes are traditionally winter foods- not only do they warm you, the also warm your house! It must have been important in the days before central heating. Speaking of toasty warmth- I'm going to go help put up my birthday hammock in the garage to enjoy the glowing fire. So as a jolly old man once said- Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Of mats & maps

Last night was my final class of gymnastics, though apparently I can continue going to open gym any time I want for a small fee. The guys convinced us to try wall flips, since it was our last day. That's the kind of "run up the wall, jump off backwards, and flip around to land on your feet" kind of thing you see on TV. The guys spotted us, helping us flip the first few tries, and then I did it without any help at all! It was pretty cool, certainly an adrenaline rush. I wish I had a highlight reel of my time in the gym, showing some of my cool accomplishments and funny accidents (flying off a spring board and not flipping at all so I belly flopped onto the mat, etc).

The dogs are getting their hair cut today, we're trying a new groomer in hopes that they won't come back shaved. I know it doesn't get cold here compared to a lot of other places, but it's stupid to cut a dog's hair to 1/2 inch when it's 50 degrees out, especially when we asked them not to. We'll see how they turn out. It's supposed to be very wintery this weekend, with some wind and even snow. I just hope the power stays on- but at least we have a wood stove now if it does go out for another 20+ hours.

And randomly, here are the countries and states to which I have traveled.

visited 8 countries (3.55%)

(I’m not counting layovers in either countries or states, unfortunately- It would add New Zealand, and Texas, New Jersey, & Minnesota. Also, it’s possible we drove through Nevada when I was a kid, I’m not sure.)

visited 11 states (22%)
Create your own map
The silliest part is that our next trip will be returning to Germany & Italy; though I’ll finally be able to add Switzerland as well, so at least there will be one more red blotch on my map. ;) Too bad we didn't end up able to finally go to Mexico this Christmas.

The holidays are upon us.

Well, we have a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house in Medford with my Mom and the Dogs (my Aunt's poor cat was under house-arrest in her room all weekend). We successfully avoided the mall on the worst shopping day of the year, though we did buy two things, of which i am not proud. But I got the yarn I wanted to make myself a cardigan (whenever I finally finish my endless gift knitting) and we finally got a frame for our print of a watercolor of the Ponte Vecchio R got in Florence while he was in College. It went up in the bathroom, and looks nearly perfect! Sorry to anyone who had hoped we might be in Portland for the weekend. We are still arguing over whether or not we will be up for the weekend before Christmas for an early family celebration before my Mom and Aunt leave for Cabo (flights didn't go down enough for us to go, regardless of swiftly dropping fuel prices).

I worked every day last week (though 2 were training for Head start substitutes, which pays half my regular rate), and am working the first 2 days of this week (science, yay! lots of time to knit during videos). So I've been pretty busy, and on top of that, I've now got a nasty cold, of the yucky nasal & chest variety. It's made me feel weak at gymnastics, which is sad, because this is the last week. I've got the round-off, back-handpring combination on the floor fairly well, along with front handsprings. Now I'm learning "fly handsprings" where you jump into it, not step into it. I still can't properly land front tuck flips, but that might be due to the 6 inches of mat, which would be 6 extra inches to stand up if I could brave doing them on the floor itself.

Dispite my being sick, this weekend was a whirlwind of productive home-improvements for R. He finished sealing the concrete at the base of the outer garage walls, put up a frame to hold the laundry sink in place, and got the garage organized. I hope this truly is the last time we have to move that giant shelf. Then he put a small light over the shower, which made a world of difference, wired our potrack light, and put up the track lights in the kitchen we have been wanting for 3 years now. Now we'll never need to turn on the hideous humming flourescent tube lights again, hooray! I made double-ginger cookies and lasagna, and started my Mom's Christmas present blanket, which is going to take forever. It will be a really cool pattern, but not one I can memorize and do quickly.

I don't know why, but apparently even though I have blogger set so that anyone should be able to comment, no one can. But I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and that you have a peaceful, reflective early holiday season. I miss you all!

Knitting

I've decided I'm somewhat of an odd knitter. I like simple things to do while watching a movie, but acres of garter stitch or 1x1 ribbing ennui kills me. I try to pick projects that will teach me new things, but I'm not willing to knit something that has no practical function just to knit it. It doesn't often get cold enough here to warrant knitted hats or mittens, and when it IS cold enough, it's also wet.

I haven't tried socks yet, but feel that in general, they wouldn't be the best use of my time & yarn money, since you can buy perfectly nice smartwools for the same price and not have to struggle against ladders or figure out how to turn the heel (and when I've got a ton of other things I want to make, socks seem like they'd just be holding up projects for which I'm more excited). I don't have much need for scarves, already owning a nice goes-with-everything-and-looks-classy-too charcoal ribbed one that was a gift purchased at a Florentine market. Similarly, I'd never wear lacy shawls. Yeah, maybe everybody and their dog loves the Clapotis, but what the heck would I do with it?

A lot of what I have knit so far is gifts, which can be tricky. R doesn't wear knitted goods beyond the occasional beanie, and I've already made scarves/hats for basically everyone in my immediate family (plus a few close friends who I know would appreciate the gift AND respect the amount of time that went in to making it).

That's one problem with knitting (and other arts & crafts)- non-knitters have no idea how much work can actually go into a gift. People tend to assess the value of many knitted objects at $10-30 because they can buy them for that at any store (machine mass-produced in China with crap yarn). Thus the perceived value is much lower than the actual worth, especially when made with high-quality materials. The scarf I knit for the fundraiser auction got exactly 2 bids- the winner being my mother, taking pity on me and buying the scarf herself for just over the price of the yarn. If I calculate how many hours I spent knitting ($8/hr), the final cost of a simple striped wool & silk scarf would be well over $100, probably over $200. But of course nobody would pay that. People don't value hand-crafted goods at anywhere near their actual worth. I just hope the people for whom I spend weeks knitting gifts actually like and use the things I create, and don't just throw them in a closet. I know Eli & WeEli love & wear their gifts because they tell me so, and I love them for it and knit more for them.

Sometimes I wish I could just fast forward through projects in order to be able to knit other things. My latest sweater was both fun and fast. Right now I'm toiling on a blanket for my brother's baby. I have decided blankets are evil, though I will knit one for my Mom, since that's what she really wants. I made sure to find an interesting and pretty pattern and will seek out nice yarn for it though; not the BOOOORING garter-stitch and horrid fuzzy acrylic Sisyphean labor I'm currently only halfway through.

Basically, I want to knit myself a zillion sweaters- hoodies, cardigans, pullovers, turtlenecks- and some skirts. I want to get to the point where I can make up my own patterns- one thing I do love about knitting is that (if you know how) you can alter the pattern to suit yourself. I dislike that in most patterns, the smallest size is typically a few inches too big and I have to do weird maths to figure out how to make it fit. Sometimes it's as easy as picking a slightly thinner yarn, but it can get complicated.

As in everything I do, I am cheap, and feel that spending more than $50 for a sweater is ridiculous. I wouldn't buy one in the store for that much (unless it was cashmere, and even then still probably not); and yes, the knitting (unless it's a boring or frustrating pattern) will bring relaxation and pleasure, but spending $150 on yarn is insane. I hate that the yarn companies give fancy yarns to the designers, because then I have to spend a lot of time figuring out a cheaper alternative. And while I appreciate a nice, inexpensive skein, I don't want to buy cheap & crappy yarn (this baby blanket makes me want to forever avoid pure synthetics). Besides, natural fibers are better for the planet and typically feel nicer as well. Finding the right yarn (at the right price) seems to be an addiction, a compulsion. Most knitters seem to think you can never have enough yarn, to the dismay of the people who share their living spaces!

I'd love to learn to spin, turning a bag of animal hairs into a usable garment is an amazing skill and art. If I got good, I could make exactly the yarns I needed in exactly the color I wanted. I could even use my pets' fur, making use of a soft & pretty-colored fiber that would otherwise be thrown away! It will take years to learn, and even more years to become proficient, but I did put a homemade drop spindle and dye pot on my Christmas list (along with tons of yarn). Maybe someday you can read this blog and see a picture of me in a sweater I made from scratch- how cool would that be?

Autumn sunshine

Well I finally finished my Buttony Sweater- buttons, blocking, and THREE DAYS to dry all that heavy, wet wool but here she is, and my new haircut too!
I have so many projects I want to do, it will take me years to get through my queue. Good thing I started knitting before I'm 30, eh?

R was out of town for work this week, so Thursday I was girly and got a haircut (it's shorter than I've ever had it before, but it's cute) & splurged at the yarn shop. I bought 2 knitting magazines I've been wanting for a while (which added about 7 patterns to the to-knit list) and the yarn to make a snuggly winter dress. I've got a few gift knits to get through first though, even though I already finished the 3 older nephews' presents.

The rain took a break this weekend (it's gorgeous, but cold at night), so we worked in the garden, finally pulling up the tomatoes and other plants that won't overwinter. Now I have to figure out what to do with multiple pounds worth of green tomatoes. Some will ripen fine, but there are enough of them that I'll have to use some as they are- and we don't do fried green tomatoes.

I worked at North Bend HS on Friday, the first time I've been called there this year, and only the 2nd time ever. It's odd, I've become so comfortable at Marshfield (I'm there 3 days next week- field biology, hooray!), and I recognize/am recognized by a lot of students there, it seems strange to work at a new school. I did see several people from the gymnastics center though; I've only run into 2 at MHS (besides the cheerleaders who leave just as we're getting there).

I fixed my front tuck flip, by the way. The teacher says I need to work on my shoulder flexibility, as it's detrimental to my back bends and things. I've never had great flexibility there though- I can touch my shoulder blades, but rotationally- not so good. Kathryn (a dear friend who is a physical therapist) thinks my first 2 ribs are abnormally high, which could be part of it. I can't lie on the floor and stretch my arms out straight past my ears along the floor- they hover half an inch or more and won't go down flat.

My Mom drove down to California to visit my Aunt this weekend, they both seem to be doing fairly well. As of now, they don't think the cancer has spread beyond my Aunt's colon, so hooray! I'll keep sending positive thoughts to her; if you have the inclination, please do the same, and consider yourself in my happy thoughts as well. :)

Gray and blue

Well, I was feeling decently happy this weekend, after the country-wide excitement of election night, with Obama's rousing speech, not to mention the cessation of stupid campaign commercials. (It makes me MAD to think of all the millions spent on stupid, negative ads to sway voters, and what all that money could have been used for to actually do good.)

Sure it's been gray and dumping inches of rain, but I finished my sweater (except the hunt for buttons has thus far been completely fruitless, and I can't block it until I have buttons). Gymnastics has been going well; I can now do two back handsprings in a row on the trampoline-track, though my front tuck flip needs work (I'm doing weird, twiddly arm circles like I'm trying to swim myself through the air). We were going to take the dogs out to the woods again this morning, but the weather didn't cooperate.

So we're just sitting at home, having a cozy weekend. I made spinach/ feta/ phyllo pie (like spanikopita, but without all the folding) and baklava last night, and we are having ribs tonight. We've got a nice fire going in the garage stove, and R is slow-baking some ribs for dinner tonight. I'm putting together a knitting binder to keep my information in one place and dreaming about all the yarn I covet.

Then I learn my aunt has fairly advanced colon cancer. Good feelings gone.

Happy All Soul's Day

Halloween was fun; happily we got a decent amount of people at the party- saw some friends we haven't seen in a while, and met a few new people. The food was tasty, the costumes amusing, and I think a good time was had by all. Here's my costume (don't be offended, I was in character): I have learned that eyeliner is nearly impossible to wash off, and that colored hairspray washes out easily enough, but stains the tub.

The fact that it is now November means it's now rainy, which works out well for me, since I'm trying to knit a sweater for NaKniSweMo. I think I've got a pretty good start on it so far The yarn is a perfect color, a tweedy grayish tan, with flecks of red, purple, and turquoise. It's really scratchy; I knew it would be when I chose the strands at Yarnia, but it's a cardigan, so it should be ok. I hope I can keep up this pace!

Indian Summer

This was a lovely, summery weekend, despite the fact that it's late October. We took the dogs hiking yesterday in the forest for the first time. Stitch was hesitant at the beginning, and very apprehensive regarding trailing blackberry vines, but Lilo absolutely loved leaping through the underbrush. She seems to be equally crazy about the beach and forest, so I guess we'll have to go more often.

It was a beautiful drive up the river; the fall colors are beautiful, even if they aren't as amazing as those in the NE, mostly golds and oranges, with the few red splashes of vine maple thrown in. It is certainly striking to see bright pumpkin slashes in the deep green of the hillsides. This time of the year smells wonderful as well, the evergreen duff underfoot sweet and fragrant, woodsmoke on the breeze, and the occasional spicy whiff of myrtle leaves.

The evergreen huckleberry bushes were still chock full of berries, so we picked a bunch and had this for breakfast, which was excellent. Highly recommended!

I am getting antsy with my knitting now, NaSweKniMo starts in a week, so I can't do any big projects. I finished the wave-patterned hat for one of my nephew's for Christmas (I had to rip out & re-knit the top-- it was waaay too short), along with a stuffed snowman (decoration) and a hackey sack for R. Now I guess I should pick up my hibernating projects until I can start on my new sweater. I post pics of all my projects up on Ravelry, but any non-ravelers can see them here. And by the way, if you knit or crochet (or want to), you should join Ravelry, it's a great site!

Memories

It's a strange, quiet time of year right now. Perhaps the shortening days start to make people introspective? I've been thinking a bit the past few days about relationships, and how easy it can be for people to slip out of your life accidentally. I left my old blog because it felt weird to be there anymore, but that cut me off from some very cool people, and I've been missing them lately. So in memory of LJ, I'm going to do something I haven't done here before, a meme! This was taken from Ken , originally from here
1) Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (Does alligator count? I'm counting it.)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (I should get Brandy's recipe and make some, I've got beets in the garden)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (including homemade, too)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (homegrown, even)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (I totally want to try it though)
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whiskey from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (does lamprey count? I've eaten traditional Nat. American lamprey)--- Oh yeah, and sushi.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin (I've held over a dozen, but not yet eaten their gonads....)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (I think I had some in Hawaii)
53. Abalone (I want to- I've heard it's amazing, even if it is a giant snail)
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (NOPE!!)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (also homemade)
59. Poutine (OMG, WANT TO TRY)
60. Carob chips (Yuck)
61. S’mores (YUM!)
62. Sweetbreads (Super yuck!!)
63. Kaolin (uh, like the clay?)
64. currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (MMMM)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (just caviar, it was gross)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost (also want to try: fudge-cheese!)
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (when I was wee & didn't know better)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (very smokey)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a Michelin three star restaurant. (I'm not rich!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (Zucchini blossoms)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate (At least I think it was- from Bastimentos)
91. Spam (Gross)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

She's Crafty

Argh, trying to do a Halloween costume without a sewing machine is frustrating. It does make you come up with creative alternatives though. I was planning on using a costume I had previously created (for the 7th HP book release), but then I realized that the only of my local friends who might recognize Luna Lovegood is the one who can't host the party because she'll either be in labor or busy with a newborn/ being overly pregnant, so that's a bust. So instead, we are hosting the Halloween party, and I am going to be an obnoxious pseudo-punk teenager. I am thinking I might have to make the waistband of my gross red pleather skirt out of electrical tape. I just have to say, I dislike pleating fabric- it's tedious.

I've also been working on the dogs' costumes. Normally we don't dress them up, viewing that as a bit, uh, freakish, but since the party is at our house they will be SuperStitch and LiloBug. I'm sure there will be photos at some point. I've also been busy making bats & ghosts & things out of felt, and knitting black widows & eyeballs. I refuse to buy cheap plastic crap to bring out of the closet once a year as decorations. We've got lots of little pumpkins from our garden (and natural spider webs, ick) and I have felt & crappy yarn I bought previously to use a tiny bit for trim on a knitted item, so I'm making do with what I have. It's not exactly simple living, but it's better than going to Wallmart & buying junk.

On the food front, I made some blondies with dulce de leche for craft night tomorrow, but they came out way too gooey, so I'll make chocolate chip cookies instead (or something). Tonight we made chipotle chicken in the crockpot, which we ate as tacos with homemade tortillas (really, the only way to go, they are SO much better) and salsa (not always better, but it was this time), along with avocado & cilantro, very tasty. We're using the crockpot more often now, it's pretty handy.

Off to tape red pleather....

Maybe my blog should be called the beauty of doing something....

Ah fall, such a great time for baking delicious foods! In the past week or so I've made a blackberry and concord grape rustic tart (picked the berries, and got local grapes from a great produce stand by my Mom's house), a crock pot imitation chile relleno, an eggplant ricotta bake, an apple cake (with apples from our tree) and last night I made red cabbage to go with our beer-simmered bratwurst & onions. Yum! I really like food. We always have a list of things to make on the fridge.

I feel like I've gotten a lot of knitting done lately too, mostly because I'm doing small, fast projects, like these hats you see sprinkled throughout.
We'll see how I feel in Nov when I'm trying to knit a whole cardigan in 30 days. Or if my Mom decides she wants an afghan for Christmas- I already need to pick back up on the baby blanket for Jessie. But I've gotten 2 of my gifts made already, pretty good since it's only October! Right now I'm working on a few Halloween spiders and a Christmas snowman, an interesting combination.

Did I mention I can now do front handsprings in gymnastics (onto a big poufy mat, but still- I could never really do them before). I wish I could go tonight, but I've been looking forward to this book discussion for months now, so I HAVE to go to book club! I really enjoyed this book (Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love), even though it's another one of those travel novels that makes you want to scream "Why won't someone pay ME to go eat in Italy?!" Admittedly she went through a horrible soul-crushing period leading up to her year abroad (Italy, India, Indonesia to learn pleasure, devotion, and balance, respectively), but honestly, someone should pay me to go to amazing places! Sometimes reading travel articles in Sunset magazine make me so mad, they are CRAP, yet they get funded & published. (One that particularly steamed me was about a trip to the Olympic Forest, and all it said of "substance" was that 2 year old boys like slugs, and 4 yer old girls like swimming pools better than cold lakes, what the hell?) But then again, I haven't written anything in quite a while (besides here, which itself is very infrequently, I admit). Maybe some year I'll have to do NaNoWriMo, but not simultaneously with NaSweKniMo!

A lot of not much

Well, we got through the busy weekend. It was nice to see our families (including my brother, sans entourage) even if it was really for only a few hours each. My Mom’s fundraiser went fairly well (this was the last year) and she bought my scarf. R’s Aunt was very pleasantly surprised when we walked in to the restaurant (the train was an hour late- we were supposed to be sitting there with her daughter [who also came from out of town] to astonish Auntie when she walked in), and the reception in honor of her ordination was very fascinating- we had no idea she was so groundbreaking, one of the first women pastors in the Lutheran church, and quite inspiring.

Family time was great, but being up there for such a short while is always frustrating. I wish we could spend more time with them, and I really wish we didn’t live so far away. The meeting with the girls was somewhat frustrating too, we came to the conclusion that we need to start the planning over, because this Feb/Mar/Apr now isn’t working. We need to find a better time-- probably next fall, which may remove Puerto Rico from our options (hurricanes). It also makes me more wary about spending money on a week-long girlfriend trip, since I want to go to Europe for several weeks about a year later. I wouldn’t mind doing a wine country & Catalina Island trip this fall and saving PR for a later girls’ trip. We’ll see what happens.

Gymnastics is going well, I am the only girl who can make it around the bar, and I managed to do a few front handsprings. I feel like we aren’t really building though, I thought that each day would serve as a foundation for skills needed in later classes, but so far only handstands and round-offs have, thing I could already do on my own. We’ve only been on the bars 1 day out of 6, which worries me that we’re going to newly rip our hands each time, since we aren’t building calluses. I think sometimes our teacher forgets from day to day what he wanted us to do and just makes it up. But there are still 16 more classes, so I’m sure we’ll get to do a lot, though I am missing next Wed to go to book club and discuss a book I really enjoy, Eat Pray, Love. Next semester R & I might take rock climbing together! I didn’t suggest it this term because I didn’t think he liked climbing, but apparently top-roped indoor walls are ok.

Also, we love The Office! We were excited to watch the new episodes this season, but then we realized that we still have another season of DVDs. I think we never got into it before partially due to poor TV reception, but mostly because the first few episodes are awkward and strange, but once you get to know the characters, it becomes hilarious!

It’s certainly fall around here now, crisp & sunny days punctuated with occasional bursts of rain. It’s nice to sit inside and watch a movie and knit during the rain, though I’ve gotten less done than I had hoped, especially since I end up doing extra projects that weren’t previously on my list- a starfish bib for my friend’s baby shower, and a hat supposed to be a Christmas gift for one of my nephews was commandeered by R (meaning I need to knit a new one for Isaac). I’m going to try to do NaKniSweMo, Buttony sweater, here I come! This weather is doing interesting things to the garden as well, the larger tomatoes are finally ripening; I hope they don’t split from all the moisture. We are getting a lot of sugar pumpkins, beans, and broccoli. I need to pull up some more beets to make salad: boil the beets until tender, throwing in the leaves for the last few minutes. Peel, slice, and throw the beets & tops together with gorgonzola, torn lettuce or spinach, & nuts, and dress it all with sweet vinaigrette, yum! You can also add fresh beans or whatever else sounds good.

I know this is already too long, but the weirdest thing happened yesterday, and must be mentioned. The dogs started freaking out at the window, as always if a cat or dog goes by. But then I heard shouting; there was a police car across the intersection, and several neighbors were standing in their yards watching two big black pit bulls. The pit bulls didn’t seem particularly aggressive at first glance, but apparently they had been roving the neighborhood for a while, harassing people and threatening dogs (luckily all were all safely inside houses or fenced yards). The cop was keeping his car between the dogs and himself, but at one point he crossed the street, and the dogs came at him. I couldn’t hear, so I don’t know the whole situation, but he waved his baton at the dogs and they kept coming, and he pulled out his gun. He was yelling at them, but they continued to advance, there was a big POP and he shot one of them! It fell down and crawled a bit, and then got up, bleeding from the mouth, and they both trotted off down the street. So. Bizarre.

Oh, and the internet is still being ridiculous and NOT WORKING during the day. Grr.

Sore is good, right?

Well, it turns out that the first weekend of autumn was basically the nicest weekend all summer! It was gorgeous and warm (over 80!), and we got a lot done outside. We picked the apples from our own ancient tree, and now have to figure out what to do with them, besides the few batches of sweetened dried apples we've made. Our path is officially finished now, as is the garage painting. I wrestled a trowel to dig in the hard clay (I'm lousy at digging in even normal dirt) around our vernal pond, which is currently the ugliest part of our yard, being a dirt hole. Eventually it will be a pretty stream/ small water garden filled with things that like the constant spring wetness that drains from our gutters.

I finished my noro stripe scarf today, except for blocking & weaving in the ends, which I will do tomorrow. I also started hats for 2 of my nephews' Christmas gifts, though I think I won't knit anymore today because my forearms are sore! I just started a gymnastics class, which is going to be really fun, and help me get back in shape. I should also start going to yoga regularly just to work out the kinks from gymnastics!

I subbed half a day of science this morning (I wore my new sweater), and then I have half a day of Spanish on Friday, before we begin our super-crazy-busy weekend. It will be really good to see everyone again. My Mom said my Bro & his wife are coming & bringing the new baby, but I won't count on it. They've been frustrating me a lot lately because I feel they are taking horrible advantage of Mom and being really unfair, as well as basically cutting us out of their lives (except, of course, when they need money). Brothers, what can you do with them?

Hello, Autumn

Well, it’s been a while, but since I wrote last I’ve done a few things, here’s a summary: I FINALLY finished my sweater and started the striped scarf for the charity auction (for my father’s memorial scholarship). I brushed sand into the cracks between the new pathway’s pavers, did fall maintenance on the flower garden, and painted the bits of garage that still needed it. We harvested many tomatoes, lettuce, beets, basil beans, peas, and a pumpkin from our garden, and pears, apples & plums from a friend’s orchard.

On the Martha Stewart-ey front, I made batches of applesauce and one of oriental plum sauce (we ate some with homemade dim sum last night, it’s tasty), which we canned, and apple crisp. I'm currently working on pepper relish. We tried ratatouille (it’s excellent with chevre & fresh bread) from farmer’s market veg and found it to be an easy, hearty summer produce meal. Oh, and here’s my no-fail bruschetta- chop up fresh tomatoes & basil (from your garden or farmer’s market- too weak with store-bought), add cracked pepper, crushed garlic, olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar, grated pecorino or parmesan, and sea salt. Serve on bread slathered with garlic butter & toasted (preferably grilled), mmm.

The evening before my last day, Kris and I went berry picking (was supposed to be mushrooms, but we didn’t get any) and attended Steph’s evening program for fun. The next day we had tea together as our afternoon break with huckleberry-topped cheesecake & Steph’s fancy china! Then I had one day off and the next I subbed for one of my favorite classes, and in the evening Kris & Steph & I went crabbing (we caught mostly red rocks, so we made sushi). R & I went to a bluegrass concert in the park with friends from his work. Just before Kris left town (sad) we did yoga, I really need to go more often. I’m also thinking of signing up for a gymnastics class. R went out on fire again last week, so the dogs and I tried to be productive, but mostly failed. I read a lot though.

I’m still looking for flights to Cabo for Christmas, but currently it’s prohibitively expensive (~$700 per person!). I’d really love to do an Espiritu Santo kayak/ snorkel/ camp trip too, but that would add a lot more to the trip total without changing flight costs, unfortunately. But at least there’s Puerto Rico- one of the many, many things I need to do on our weekend in Portland/Seattle in Oct is sit with the SMA girls and plan our trip, yay! It will be good just to see them again, I never see them anymore.

Anyway, our internet is being a bit fussy- there was a week or so there when I couldn’t really get on at all, so I’ll try to update more often now. With luck I should have more time for fall projects and other things to crow about. ;)

día de los muertos (tiburón y pájaro)

Yeah that's right, I got to dissect a shark at work today (bird was a gift/threat from our campground cat, but the shark washed up on S. Cove). It was a little baby salmon shark, probably 2.5-3 feet long. There were no obvious injuries, and it had fish vertebrae in its stomach, so we don't know why it died. It was cool though, sharks are amazing!

This weekend we worked on the concrete path around the garage in the back yard. We used a mixer & poured cement into a mold which made it into individual bricks. I had the job of packing & smoothing the bricks, and I also did my share of lugging sand & gravel to the mixer. The bricks are a wide variety of shades, unfortunately, and we ran completely out of red coloring by the end, so I'm switching a few around every day to try to make it a bit more blended. I'll put up a picture soon. I know I promised that about my knitting too, so here you go, my 2 anemones (w/ and w/o crab)

and the latest progress on my super-slow sweater:


Tomorrow is my last program of the summer, I'm trying out my new animal tracks (CSI- creature sign investigation) program, but I kind of hope nobody shows up. We've been having pretty bad attendance since the holiday- school started again, and there are no kids at all in camp. Even our all-ages programs have been getting nearly no one, I had one lady on my last tidepool walk. It's sad that it's the end of the summer already, our volunteers have already taken off. Oh well, at least I'm already getting sub work lined up here & there for the next couple months.

The garden is doing well, still putting out occasional peas & lettuce, but now the tomatoes are ripening as well! I'm going to make a savory tart with some of the cherry tomatoes. I'll have to figure out something good to do with the pumpkins.

The tea party last week was awesome. I'll get photos from my coworker & write more about it later. Eh, I had a lot more to write, but I need to go to bed now!

Solitary Sunday

E was here all week until yesterday, and R is still gone, so I spent today just me and the dogs. It was fun having E around, but I felt bad for having to work (and also that out of nowhere we had 3 days of seriously wintery weather, but it was beautiful again by the last few days of his vacation); and having time to myself today was nice, I certainly needed the rest- I'm sick. My throat started feeling sore on Friday, and I just assumed I hadn't gotten enough sleep, since E is a night owl and I worked early several days this week, but then I started developing a head cold too, and by the end of work yesterday I was completely exhausted. I think I only made it through the day because of daytime cold medicine, honestly.

So last night and today I relaxed- got to work on my sweater again (I have the sleeves attached and am working the raglan decreases & puff sleeves now) finally (after seeing Kris' birthday anemone, E has requested one for his birthday next year!), talked to my Mom & Victoria (I talked to my good friend Kathryn about a week ago as well, we haven't seen each other in forever and I miss her!), watched movies, read, and ate some of the many leftovers from this week of good food. I haven't been really hungry though, plus they do say "starve a cold & feed a fever" anyway.

Tomorrow I need to make cookies, minty brownies, and my "famous" zucchini banana bread, because the Very Merry Un-birthday Mad Tea Party is Wednesday. I didn't let the house get too messy, but I'll have to spiff up the back yard a bit and make sure everything inside is presentable. It should be really fun, and I love theme/costume parties!

I played around on the new automatic substitute scheduler website, I don't know what to think. I need to return my paper saying what my specialties are (science, duh, and apparently Spanish as well?) but they didn't say where to return it, and there was no option at all for science as a specialty. It's so strange that I only have two weeks of work at the park remaining! I did my sea otter program for the second time this Thursday, I think it is improved a bit. I am scheduled to do my animal tracks program for the first time the Thursday before Labor day, we'll see how that goes.

I'll put up pictures of my anemones and sweater tomorrow, I hope.

lightning round

Well, last night we had our first real rain of several months, accompanied by electrical storms. We were woken up last night by immense booms of thunder, which made us very happy that we aborted our plans to go camping in the redwoods with Eli. Instead we took a day trip today down to Port Orford, similar to the trip I took with Steph a month or so ago. It's unfortunate that we missed out on the southern tip of the state and the Redwoods, but I'm glad we were sleeping in our house when the rainstorm hit.

The lightning started several fires in the eastern part of the state, and R left around 11pm tonight to go work at a fire in Sisters. Poor Eli, not only are we working all week, but then R leaves just 2 days into the 8 day visit. Plus it's supposed to be rainy the next couple days, when E wanted to come out to see the tidepools with me. He did get to come see me at the Seafood Fest, though he echoed a very common complaint-- that there is very little seafood present.

I really need to work on my knitting, I've been neglecting it terribly. Some people participate in "knitlympics" where you pick a project to complete during the span of the olympics- I don't think I could ever do that. I'm so slow at finishing projects, it's sad. But I realized I can pick up the stitches for the I-cord tentacles on Kris' anemone, so they are better attached (one fell off Steph's). Maybe one of these days I'll actually be able to get something done on my sweater again.

So it's August now.

I feel like the summer is just flying by, and I don't know where the time is going. I've hardly knitted at all, and I rarely feel like cooking or doing much when I get home from work. Granted I'm really busy at work, and not getting home until 6pm makes the night come a lot faster, but still. My sweater is currently on hold while I made 2 knitted green anemones as birthday gifts for my coworkers (I'll work on it at craft night this Thursday). They apparently felt bad that they are never around for my birthday, so we are holding an un-birthday Wonderland mad-tea-party in a couple weeks. That should be really cool, and it gives me another reason to wear my Alice costume. R is hoping he'll be called out on fire to escape, the party pooper.

I just hope he doesn't get called out on fire before the 23rd. Eli is coming to visit next week, which was kind of unexpected but very welcome. I wish people would come visit more often! He's going to come distract me while I work at the seafood festival this weekend, I hope. Then we're all going to the redwoods for camping. Our "Home Improvement with Eli" Project this summer is going to be a cement brick pathway around the garage.

I've been doing some research on traveling (as usual), this time it's a girls' trip! V suggested that all our high school friends get together for a fun grilfriend vacation in 2009, since we're turning 30. Best idea ever, is what I have to say. Now we have to find a place we can afford! Everyone wants to go somewhere beachy, we're thinking Puerto Rico or Hawaii or something like that. I'm currently reading Tales of a Female Nomad, a very good book, similar to Eat, Pray, Love. Travel is so great, and I hope some day I can experience another culture for a longer term, like these women did. But for now, I'm happy with short visits to new places, and am extremely excited about the idea of finally going with friends!

How does your garden grow?

Well, I forgot to put up pictures the other day, so I will put them up now. Apparently the only things I have taken photos of this summer are the gardens, so that's what you get. :)
First we have our leafy greens: There is some kale & parsley in with a couple kinds of lettuce as well as beets & a few huge zucchini leaves. Our salad greens are by far the most successful thing we grow- thy don't ever get big like the ones in the store, but they are abundant, happy & tasty.

Next we have cherries! We planted the little tree 2 or 3 years ago, and this is the first year we'd gotten anything from it (as expected). We only got 5 cherries, but they were delicious! Also, I just really liked this photo.

Here is a photo of our entire veggie garden ( and Stitch). You can see the hops growing up the garage in the background. (The electrical inspector came by today & passed us for this preliminary wiring stage, so R is doing a good job so far, even if it frustrates him most of the time.) I always manage to take photos at the worst time for light- it's too bright, oh well.

Our front yard is also doing well now that it's finally summer: We have foxglove, lilies, California poppies, lavender, lamb's ear, and dusty miller in bloom visible in this photo. Our flower garden is finally starting to look lush & vibrant! I wish our lilacs & hydrangeas would grow though.

The last picture is a small bit of harvested veg, thinnings & some artichokes, but I thought it was a really neat composition photo.

Time to go pick things before they bolt, I hope all of you are doing well!

Summer time, and the livin's easy

Actually things are busy, as summers always are, but good. Work is going well, though I'm having to re-do my Sea Otter program entirely- it's just too long & not focused enough. It's good to be out on the beaches and trails again, though honestly I feel like as soon as I get back in the swing of things, my time will be up. At first our program numbers seemed low, but now I don't believe any fewer people are camping than before, high gas prices be damned.

It always feels like the weekends are never long enough, I want time to relax as well as do all the necessary chores, and do things like make jam or bread or cookies. I did make some tasty banana-zucchini bread though. I dislike working from 9-5:30-- it's not enough of a sleep-in to make a difference, and if I get up with R I don't have enough time to do much that is productive, plus my evenings seem so much shorter now. R is always working on so many big projects (shed, garage wiring, etc) I feel lazy. Often I don't even want to cook, garden, or knit when I get home, sit in the sun & drink beer or do nothing.

Today we re-did our little stream, which drains our gutters into what will eventually be a water garden. It was hot & dusty work, I hope the finished product eventually looks good. The whole N side of our back yard needs so much work, it's hard to even come up with ideas. I want a fire pit though! I'd like to make a little shady nook, since the fruit trees we planted 3 years ago section that area off, but we still need to replace the ever-more tilting wooden retaining wall with stone, so it's hard to plant trees there at this point. I wish I knew more about landscaping, we have a lovely blank slate to work with.

Since I really enjoyed Emilie's recent photos, tomorrow I'll share some of my own, but here is a picture of my Brother's family:

A busy week

Last weekend we drove up to Portland, somehow managing to accomplish pretty much all our goals: we hung out with Eli, Fred & Melissa; attended the Organic Brewer's Festival & ate hotwings at Fire on the Mtn; had breakfast with Brandy & Evan at Petite Provence; met Mindy for lunch; went to Trader Joes & Costco as well as the brew store & Yarnia. We got to see Tina & Patrick; have brunch with my Mom & Aunt & 2 uncles; hang out with my Brother's whole family including holding the tiny new baby; and visit my Mom's new house. I also cast on for my new sweater on the ride up. It was very hot and very busy, but a good trip!

This Tuesday I had paperwork/orientation for my Park's job, which should be all naturalist work, thankfully, but is unfortunately only about 9 weeks long this year. Bummer. It's been good to get back to the park though, and I jumped in feet first with a tidepool tour and my first attempt at my Sea Otter presentation on Thursday. I have to come up with a good idea for a program, and I'd like to do one that doesn't involve powerpoint, so send any ideas my way-- what kind of Ranger program would interest you if you went camping on the Oregon Coast??

Anyway, it was a long week, and yesterday had both vastly disappointing (losing the top half of the octopus beak we had just spent 20 minutes removing from a carcass on the beach while stupidly trying to rinse it in the waves) and some very exciting events (seeing the first whales of the summer -breaching!!- and a pod of harbor porpoises), so I'm glad it's the weekend.

Today I took it easy, sleeping in (it's really nice to have a day off with R during the summer, typically I get random weekdays), working in the garden, knitting, making mint oreo ice cream & banana zucchini bread, talking to Victoria. Tomorrow Steph and I are playing tourist, we're going to take a road trip a bit south and stop at every roadside stand and cheesy gift shop from here to south of Bandon, it should be fun.

Welcome, Jessie John!

A baby, a baby! Dee had preeclampsia, so they induced labor yesterday at around 11, and 7 hours later, a new nephew for me. Congratulations to my brother & family! I hope we will get to see them this weekend; from what I understand, everyone is doing well. I've nearly finished the baby outfit, just need to complete the crotch flap & add buttons, though it's far too big for a newborn anyway. He's only 5 lbs 6oz, apparently, which is 6 oz bigger than I was at birth. Wow.

We've been surprisingly social this week, which is part of why it took me so long to finish my knitting. Last night we had dinner at Wendy's house (I nannied for her kids one winter & occasionally babysit) to hang out with her & the kids & her new husband. The night before Kris came over and we made fritatta and watched the 3rd (new) Star Wars movie, which neither of us had yet seen, being disappointed by the 2nd. Both nights I made fresh bread (it's a good recipe, if anyone is interested, very easy) and salad from the garden.

I've got a lot to do today though, need to finish painting the shed walls so it can be put back up soon. We managed to move the pieces enough yesterday to put up the screen door, so finally we will be fly-free on nice afternoons!

R got called to work on a wildfire in Cali a few days ago, but reluctantly turned it down, this being our last weekend to do anything this summer. As usual we have far too much to do in not enough time in Portland, and so many people we want to see. I need to talk to people tonight!

Picture post!

First of all- I got my phone back. I was really worried because the battery was low, and the guy didn't call back that evening. I even called the phone just so I knew it hadn't gone dead. Then the guy called (at 7:30) the next morning, and we had our phone by noon! The first thing he said (after introducing himself) was "Don't leave your phone laying around, people will do things to it!" Sure enough! He found the gem just before he spotted my phone, so figured it was fate & glued it on. Then he added some leather around the antenna (because the dogs had chewed it). It's Pimp my Phone, I suppose. But it was very awesome of him to pick it up and get it back to me. So send good thoughts to Bruce!

Next up, we have Stitch & Lilo, before and after the haircuts which were the cause of the whole lost phone debacle. We love it when they are so fluffy and furry, but they probably appreciate having shorter hair in the summer, especially since they hate being brushed, and their hair tends to mat when it's so long.
So now they have quite short hair, but they are so soft!

Now, gardeny goodness! This is a shot of all 3 beds, and in the background you can see the hops on the garage. The green water walls hold peppers, eggplants & basil, the red ones are all tomatoes. The mini-bed holds tomatoes, a pepper, a zucchini, and 2 hills of pumpkins, which I just planted. The big bed adjacent to it is mostly still small sprouts and salad greens as well as zucchinis, and peas & tomatoes on either end, carrots interspersed w/ the tomatoes. The big bed further on still needs to be pulled, bolting celery, onions & parsley from last year. It also has a lot of salad-type sprouts, broccoli, some baby cucumbers, and just-planted beans & spinach & beets. I also planted some potatoes today in trash bags, we'll see how they do. Dinner last night was a salad made of garden lettuce & arugula & strawberries (and non-garden pecans, blue cheese, & vinagrette), yum!

And last, and certainly least, we have my latest craft project- The "It's 11pm and I Suck at Sewing, So Let's Make a Skirt" Skirt! I patterned this after another drawstring skirt I have that fits very well (on the loose side) but I must not have allowed enough for the seaming, because the end result is fairly tight. Unfortunately, I also forgot the "wash the material before you use it" rule, and it is flannel, so likely to shrink even more. Perhaps this should be my inspiration to get back in shape- exercise every day until the skirt fits better!

Lousy morning!

I am having a bad morning. I took the dogs to the groomers at 8:15, which I had scheduled so I could take R to work. This turned out to be unnecessary, since he didn't need a ride to work this morning, so I could have slept in a little. But that doesn't make the morning bad. Just wait. When I got there, I told them I would be doing errands, so to call me on the cell phone when the dogs were ready. I even checked to ensure that they had the correct number.

I left the car by the groomers & started walking to the Co-op for some groceries. On the way, I was nearly run over. I arrived at the intersection before the car did & knew the driver saw me, plus we were parallel and he didn't have a blinker on, so I turned, verified that no cars were coming the other way, and started across the street, only to hear an engine rev and then stop suddenly as the guy breaks a couple feet shy of ramming me (turning with no signal, THANKS). And here's the worst part- he's a parking inspector driving a city vehicle! He doesn't even apologize or anything, just gives me a look like, "What are you doing in the intersection, little girl? cars drive here! Damn kids these days!" and drives off around me.

I shake my head and continue on the next few blocks to the food store, only to find it closed. So I keep going around the block to the local coffee house- also closed. Apparently even though they open at 7 every other day, we are all supposed to sleep in on Fridays & Saturdays, so no breakfast for me. Everything is closed for at least another 45 minutes! Completely frustrated at this point, and realizing I had left my package to mail back at home, I gave up & drove home.

I had some tea, grabbed the package & my sewing machine, and headed back to the other side of town yet again. I finally did my shopping (though I forgot spinach) and mailed my package and was waiting & waiting for a call. I killed time in a bookstore, though I was too cheap to buy the book I wanted (no used copies). Finally I check the phone one more time, and head back to the groomers, figuring they MUST be done, it's been over 2.5 hours! Sure enough, they had called my home phone, so I was wandering around North Bend wasting time for no reason.

The puppies are so soft now, but their hair is short, and they look like completely different animals. It always makes us sad when they have to get a haircut. Also the lady suggested we bring them in every month or so- "You don't have to get them cut, we can trim their toenails & wash them..." as though we don't give our dogs baths regularly? Arms full of bags & dragged by dogs, I make my way back to the car, finally. On the way home I stopped at the electric hospital with my sewing machine, where they tell me "We can't work on this, it's a Pfaff computerized, you have to go to a dealer and there aren't any in this area."

Finally, the bitter cherry on top of this stupid morning- just after I get home I receive a phone call, "Yeah, I picked up this cell phone by the Fire Station in North Bend & called the number marked 'home,' so I guess I have your cell phone if you want to come get it." Sigh. Thank goodness the guy picked it up though, too bad he lives way on the other side of the bay.

I hope this afternoon turns out better than the morning.

books & missing mornings

Book club was last night; I always really enjoy reading the books (often ones I wouldn't have found on my own) and the group discussions are great. (Emilie, you really should start coming!) We do a good job of discussing the book, but it also always leads to discussing our lives and other things. It's just really great to have a fun & interesting group of women to talk to, even if it's only once a month, and I don't really know them all that well. I guess I need more of that in my life, and I miss it, so I really appreciate book club & craft night.

Today kind of disappeared- I got back late last night(construction slowed my return trip quite a bit, I got home after 10:30) and wasn't feeling well (I need to remember to bring lactaid wherever I go, or learn to turn down ice cream, even if it does have fresh strawberries on top), so I slept in this morning. The rest of the day has just vanished. I need to get started painting the shed walls so they can be put back up this weekend (there goes our lovely sun deck in the back corner), but I have fuzzy, clean dogs at my feet here, so I'm comfy. At least I already did the laundry & started the sponge to (attempt to) make fresh Pugliese bread tonight. We have fresh spinach pasta left over from the rotolo, so I'm going to make a simple sauce with butter & wine & garlic & things to toss with crab & the noodles.

Here's Eli's birthday hat: I hope it fits; I'll give it to him in a little over a week. I need to write back to Brandy & call Tina & talk to Mindy so we can try to see everyone when we're up in Portland in a couple weeks. We never have enough time! We just need to take a full week up there, but it won't happen soon. We already have a whole list of things we need to do in the 3 days we'll be there, which doesn't yet include all the people we want to hang out with!

Maybe little pinch?

R & R caught a bunch of crabs Sunday morning, so I spend part of today cracking some tasty Dungeness. It's a pretty gross job, all things considered, but I'm happier to pull the guts out of a crab than handle raw meat. It does take forever though, I only got through 2 before I gave up. Your hands are constantly wet, so you have to stop before your skin becomes too soft to deal with the hard shells. But tonight we'll have sushi, yum! I invented a tasty form of ceviche sushi- crab, avocado, salsa, & lime juice, highly recommended!

I've been reading a book of travel essays on Tuscany & Steinbeck's "Travels with Charlie", so I've got traveling on the brain. I've wasted a bit of time today researching Tuscany trips. You might not know this, but I'm obsessed with researching vacations. We aren't even planning to go to Italy for another 2 years, and only then if the Euro/dollar exchange isn't abysmal, but I want to go so badly it's like a hunger. I've been thinking about a bike trip, though certainly we'd have to train for it, the Chianti hills would be murder on our lazy butts. I read trip reports and see TV shows where people spend a lazy week or month staying in gorgeous towns & traveling around sampling countless wines, cheeses, meats, and meals- a gastronomic paradise. Visit ancient oak barrels full of fermenting grapes, watch olives be pressed to oil, taste the terroir in everything, and learn how to cook, speak, and live Italian. I wish I could afford it. Maybe it sounds selfish, since I've already spent 2 weeks in Tuscany, but we didn't have a vehicle, so we couldn't ever travel to the hilltowns or small farms or vineyards; go taste unique local foods. I saw amazing art in Florence & got hay fever in the wheat fields south of Siena, but I didn't get to explore rural Tuscany in all its splendor. I hope I get to in the future.

This may sound morbid, but hear me out: when I die, I want my wake to be held somewhere really cool so that my loved ones get to experience someplace new and wonderful. They can remember me while seeing new things & they can be joyful about my life instead of depressed about my death. Yeah, travel!

I learned that the temporary Spanish position at the HS has been filled, so I guess I'll just be doing regular subbing next fall, which is ok. I don't think I was ready for it anyway.
Must go work on my stupid Brother's baby gift #2 now, I am determined to finish it before I can start my new sweater for myself.

** Dog cookies:
4 Cups spent grain (after brewing)
4 cups flour
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
mix well. Spread on cookie sheet with sides and roll out to approx 1/4 in thick.
Bake @ 350F for 30 minutes
Score into sizable cookies
bake at 225F for the next 6-12 hours until they are completely dried out.
(feel free to experiment, use bullion powder, gravy, tomato paste, etc. You might need to adjust ingredients slightly depending on how wet your grain is.)

For those without a garden, I apologize in advance for the jealousy-inducing photo....

Today was gorgeous, though windy, which meant R's crabbing expedition didn't happen. So instead we went for a nice walk through the neighborhood and then down on the marsh trail along the dike, with lovely views over the bay. The dogs were very happy, until afterwards when we had to spend 30 min puling burrs out of their fur.

Since then, I made the grapefruit/lemon sorbet, set up a pea trellis, planted some basil & cosmos & puttered around. OH, and picked strawberries! Both our June-bearing & ever-bearing varieties are fruiting like crazy lately. Those pictured here are just from today's picking, with tomatoes for reference (tomatoes not from the garden- yet!).

Anyway, found out 2 new bits of information today:
1) The baby shower was today. I wasn't even notified out of courtesy. Granted I wouldn't have been able to go, but they didn't even invite my MOM! I guess my brother has always been attracted to dysfunction, and now that he finally has it, he doesn't need us 'normies' around anymore.
2) I'm starting at the park July 1, scheduled to work Tu-Sat 9-5:30, crappy hours, since we only have one car, but it's amazing I got Sunday off. I strongly suspect I won't be doing much naturalist work at all though, likely all cleaning bathrooms/fee booth/pulling weeds type stuff. Hooray, glad I have 2 bachelor's degrees.

Hyooge hats & endless scarves, or Knitted Gifts

Heh, I finished Eli's apple hat the other day, except for the leaves, but I'm worried it's too big. I actually accosted 2 of Ryan's friends when they came over for beer last night & made them try it on. One of them is the same hat size as E-ster, and it actually appeared a bit big, damn. I will try shrinking it in the dryer, it's mostly cotton.

Other than the hat & the baby onesie, I haven't been doing too much knitting, though I FINALLY finished the fringe on the Gryffindor scarf tonight at an excellent Crafty Night. I gave up on organizing those a while back because sometimes it felt like twisting arms to get people to agree to a date & actually show up, but I enjoy them so much, I might have to work harder now to make them happen. It was so fun! I brought coconut bar cookies, an improvised recipe with a shortbread crust, toasted-coconut carmel middle, and chocolate coating. They were delicious, but quite sweet. It's funny how some people bring the same things over and over again, and some of us choose a different recipe each time. And it was so cute to see Doris pregnant!

School is officially out now, so I'm done with subbing for the year. I still don't know exactly when I'm starting at the Parks, nor do I know if I'll be long-term subbing next fall. Oh well, not as though I have plans that would be ruined either way! Sometimes being flexible is very nice. I'm actually glad we are starting late this summer anyway, because we are going up to Portland the last weekend of the month. Eli is having a birthday party using a murder-mystery game I got for Christmas, and we're going to the Organic Brewer's Festival, and my Mom should be moving into her new house that weekend, and my brother might have a son by then! Very exciting stuff!

I don't have much else to say, except I keep getting these weird dizzy spells. It happened for the first time about a year ago, and it's been happening more and more frequently lately. It literally feels like someone smacks me upside the head, my brain does that slow-motion swirl thing, it's pretty weird. I asked my Dr about it and she wasn't concerned (and I've since had an MRI of my brain for other reasons which didn't show anything other than a tiny benign growth which makes me basically infertile without meds [not that I was trying], but probably isn't making me dizzy). But she's kind of a crappy doctor, and I know it's not normal to occasionally feel like someone flushed your brain down the toilet. Maybe it's an inner ear thing? Ugh.

Hey, June.

I'd like to take a moment to thank my peeps and homies, all you fabulous people who read this blog & even leave comments, I love you! And I love that I can keep connected to my friends through here, that you take the time to read even though my life can be boooring, and I don't do myspace or facebook. ;) HUGS TO YOU! I talked to my buddy Lee on the phone the other night for the first time in probably 2 years, which is ridiculous. I don't mean to loose contact, I'm sorry you guys!

I finished knitting Victoria's hat and the baby apple hat. I'll take pictures of the pompom hat later; here's a basically identical apple hat that I knitted a year ago. I've started doing a similar apple hat for Eli's birthday, but adult-sized and green with ribbing rather than a rolled brim. I bought yarn to make the Global Warming sweater, a wool-cotton blend from a brand that uses Peruvian fibers & donates money back to their community. I also started a baby onesie, based roughly on a Lion Brand pattern, but in ribbing and in some old hand-me-down acrylic I need to get rid of. It's the same blue variegated stuff I made the cabled coffee sleeve out of, so it should be good for a baby boy. (It's so weird that my bro is having a baby, and that he's got 3 stepsons! One or 2 of them might come visit me this summer for a bit while the household is adjusting to the new member).

I worked 4 days last week, (2 of the days were teaching Spanish, and 2 more this week) but still managed to get stuff done besides knitting and reading another 2 books. We planted more tomatoes (we have 19 plants now, insanity!) and did some other things around the yard. Now if only the weather can stop being schizophrenic and decide to be summer for real....
R peeled lemons to make limoncello (we threw in 2 grapefruits for fun) and I used the juice to make a pie, key-lime style. We also have the ice cream maker ready for some citrus sorbet/gelato, but it's too cold out for ice cream! I felted a sweater I bought years ago that has always been too big, it turned out really well. I also finally made my candied grapefruit peel (it took ridiculously excessive amounts of sugar), which will be great for making panforte and lebkuchen/ pfefferkuchen (I should get Vicky's recipe). We made a Thai-style roast chicken, which was really tasty, but the flavor didn't penetrate much into the meat, which was sad. Oh and we washed the car, woo.

We went out to dinner for our anniversary to the best restaurant in the area, Porta in N. Bend. It is authentically Italian (meaning not Olive-Garden-ey Italian, the chef used to work at Genoa in Portland) which inspired R to make up some fresh pasta later in the week. We had a butter-pepper-garlic sauce with pecorino, fresh basil, and prosciutto, YUM. Last night I made a bacon-shallot-cream sauce with peas, also YUM, and I made a loaf of French bread to go with it. This week we are going to try to reproduce the dish I had at Porta, a spinach & ricotta rotolo, one of the best things I've ever eaten. I was looking for inspiration for our fresh pasta and found the recipe for rotolo in my pasta book, it was meant to be!!

R brewed an Oktoberfest last night, he's only done pseudo-Oktoberfests before, because the beer is a lager & needs to be at a certain temperature, but I think he's going to put this one in the keg fridge to make a real lager. I need to go make some dog cookies with the spent grain now and get the kitchen cleaned up. The fun never stops here! And honestly, I think I sound a lot more productive than I really am!

Productivity

I feel like I've been lazy lately, but it turns out I've actually gotten a lot done. I finished Victoria's beanie (except for the pompom, which I am still waiting to hear back from her on poof size) and started an apple hat for my bro's soon-to-be-born baby (and a blanket too, but it might be a Christmas present instead, since it's very warm and fuzzy). I made mango chutney, canned a couple jars of it, and then made chicken curry samosa things to eat with it, super-yum! I also worked a few days, found out more about both my summer job at the parks (only July & Aug this year, unfortunately) and the potential Spanish teaching gig (looking quite possible).

I went through my closet and pulled out a bunch of clothes I don't wear anymore to give to Goodwill. I planted chives and cosmos in the front, and we put some new peppers & eggplants in wall-o-waters in the back. One cool thing was making my own knitting needles from a pair of chopsticks, and a double pointed set made from a dowel. Both sets size 7s, made using several gauges of sandpaper to create tips and smooth the wood/bamboo, and then rubbed with mineral oil (while I was at it, I also oiled all the bamboo cutting boards and cooking utensils). There were more useful things (besides the everyday stuff) but I can't remember them now.

I also finished reading the book club book for June, Three Cups of Tea, which was very good and inspiring. Though it's very disheartening that a man so brave, doing so much good in the world by trying to educate poor children in rural areas of Pakistan & Afghanistan gets hate mail from ignorant jingoistic bastards in the US. Bah.
I love reading; I don't know if I've mentioned it before. I tend to go through book voraciously, often finishing in a day or 2. Between reading and knitting, I guess I spend a lot of time sitting- but at least I'm not watching stupid things on tv. I guess I should be sure to go to yoga tomorrow and take the dogs out more often, I'm sure they would appreciate that.

I still have a lot to do though, I wanted to make grapefruit sorbet with the grapefruits our friend gave us (grown on his family's property in California) and make candied peels from the ones we've already eaten. We need to buy some everclear to mix with vodka & make limoncello. I also need to get big Eli's apple hat started (birthday present) and find yarn to make myself another sweater.

So hooray for getting things done!

Bay City Weekend

Not to be confused with the Bay City Rollers; we spent the long weekend north of Tillamook at Eli's cabin with Eli, Fred & Melissa (who soon will be moving to Illinois for grad school, sadly for us), secret special guest Matt (laying over from a work trip in Arizona), and 2 of Eli's friends from work (for 1 night). Much alcohol (not nearly as much as in years past, we are getting old or possibly just smarter) and very good food was consumed. We hit the beach twice, though the second time was a misguided & unsuccessful attempt to see tidepools, and we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the Blue Heron. We went crabbing, played board games and cards and rocked out, generally having a very good time. It was great to see Matt, he has mellowed out since college and is a really great guy. I managed to create a tasty carrot cake for the hubby's b-day without a real recipe (it was more like bread than cake, but still good).

On the way home we stopped at the outlet malls so I could search for a pair of work pants, only to find that they have been practicing size inflation. I know I certainly haven't lost any weight, so there is no reason that a size 0 should be huge on me. I hate shopping, and this makes me dislike it even more, when brands I used to be able to count on for decent clothes that fit (as much as I disliked supporting their corporation & 3rd-world labor) are now at least 2 sizes too big. Why should I suffer because someone wants to pretend they are a size 6 when they should really be a size 10? What's so horrible about being a size 10 anyway? The day was partially redeemed when we stopped at the Rogue Brewery for dinner and learned that the Hubby got a free beer & t shirt for his birthday, but then I got an itchy rash of hives or something afterwards which was quite unpleasant.

As for my knitting, I finished the Gryffindor scarf (just need to close the ends and do fringe)and am about half-way through with Victoria's very late birthday present. I should find some good yarn to do a summery sweater now, since working on thick scarves and beanies is silly.

dodging

Sometimes subbing is great, like yesterday (I got paid to watch Happy Feet, granted it was twice in a row, but I knitted during, and saw some of the members of my "fan club"); sometimes it is not so great, like today, 6 periods of dodgeball for 14 yr olds. It very quickly devolved into the boys (and some girls) throwing the nerf balls at one another's heads regardless of team affiliation or game rules or, you know, trivial things like doing bodily harm. Dodge ball is controlled chaos at the best of times, and this was *not* the best of times. It wasn't bad, just insane.
(Which reminds me of a place we occasionally used to go in college called the B&I mall, which we decided stood for "Bad & Insane" because it was like a flea market on crack- they used to have a live gorilla caged there, but that was before our time.)

At least the weather is back to being fairly spring-like again, so we can plant our starts without too much worry. We missed an awesome plant sale this weekend though, held by the master gardeners. We didn't go because it was advertised as a tomato sale, and we have no need of more tomatoes. Why advertise it thusly if you are selling all sorts of veggie plants for the very reasonable price of .50-$1 each? We could have gotten so many great things! The hubby's boss apparently went both days, but didn't think to call us and say "you have to go!" I even considered going on Sunday anyway to check it out just in case they had anything other than tomatoes, but we never do things I randomly suggest. Sigh. We did go to the beach that day, but it was cool and foggy there. Another instance of glorious and warm in town, cloudy at the beach.


But to include some good news, I finished my sweater and actually wore it to work the other day. I decided to leave off the eyelets and ribbon, so it's a square-necked sweater with cap sleeves now. I actually would have knit the neckline and sleeves longer, but I ran out of yarn. Oh well, it looks good as is, though I have to keep tugging on the sleeves to hide my tank top straps.