Geekery

Last night, I played Scrabble with my neighbor, Matt, and won, due to a lucky 7 letter Scrabble word, “rations”, which also made the word “darts” and which also covered the coveted “triple word score”.  After you play Scrabble, do you go through the play-by-play and figure out exactly which word clinched the victory?  I do.  In Matt’s defense, I did put down the word “retuft”, which, if my spell checker is correct, is not actually a word.  But there was no challenge due to my Balderdash definition, so the win stands. 

 
Here’s the final board.  In addition to identifying the winning word, I like to take a moment at the end of the game to admire the way the words covered the board and to congratulate the players on making such good use of it.

For dinner last night I purchased a baguette, a few lumpy heirloom tomatoes and some mozzarella cheese and made myself a caprese sandwich with my “garden” basil and a little balsamic vinaigrette.  David didn’t make it home for dinner, so I ended up eating the whole thing. I felt quite disgusted with myself, but all that bread made me a very happy girl. 

On an unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot about how much my new bike reminds me of that scene in The Sound of Music where they are singing the do re mi song and riding bikes down a lovely Austrian street.  That Brigitta really sings the ti note with a lot of passion. Good for her.  

 

This morning, Maxwell was moving a bit slowly.  In his defense, being awake for 2 hours every single day can be exhausting.  Very stressful, indeed.

I will not be a slave to Christmas this year!

Since last Christmas was such a headache due to my own procrastination and over extending, I’m starting on gift making now. Actually, I started on gift making last week and already have a finished object to show off. To preserve the surprise, I’m withholding information about specific recipients, but do you know what I will not withhold? Artful Pictures of me trying on the awesome presents.

 

These are Susan’s Reading Mitts (free pattern on Ravelry) in Malabrigo Merino Worsted. This is my most favorite yarn in the entire galaxy and beyond. I love the colors (this is in the Vetiver colorway, which is greens and grays that lean toward pink in a very subtle, but warm and cozy, way). It is also so very soft and smushy. I want the whole world to be knitted from Malabrigo Merino Worsted yarn.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, the mitts. So these fingerless gloves (a concept to which I was whole-heartedly opposed until very recently, for reasons which I cannot recall) also feature a picot edge, which is freakin’ adorable. I was unsure of it while I was knitting because it looks sloppy until you hem it down, and then it looks neat as a pin, very old-timey and charming. So these are a huge success and really only took about 2/3 of the skein, so I have quite a bit left over to play around with (you can refer to the previous paragraph if you’re not sure about how that makes me feel).

I have also been dipping my pinky toe into bike riding. David and I have been going on short bike rides around the block fairly frequently lately, but last weekend, I rode my bike to the pool, which is a couple miles away, and also to the yarn shop to pick up the Malabrigo. I felt really good about myself for these accomplishments and David very helpfully and encouragingly told me he was impressed and that I did a great job. I am now in need of my own bike, as I have been borrowing a friend’s for awhile now. Luckily, my neighbor, Matt, works at Pedal Power in Lexington and is hooking me up with one of their old frames, all souped up a la Greased Lightning.

In a couple weeks, I will be the proud owner of an orange schwinn bicycle with a working headlight that runs from power generated from the wheels. I am not sure if I’m excited about the whole bike, or just the headlight, but either way, maybe I’ll get in better shape (although I already feel extremely healthy) and also help to save the Earth (which is not extremely healthy).

David went over to the bike shop to help Matt get started and took pictures of their progress for me, since I was far away on a business trip to Baltimore that I’m purposely avoiding writing about due to how tired I STILL AM, even though I got back on Friday *going to my happy place*. So here is my orange beauty, all shiny and with an awesome light:

I just love it! 

More Christmas gifts are in the works (I am sort of lying…I haven’t actually started anything else, but I do have the patterns queued up in Ravelry and I just need to buy the yarn) and I will post pics as they come.

Spring

How many ways can we eat asparagus? So far we have had it raw, roasted, sautéed, in scrambled eggs, in pasta, on pizza, with rice, with garlic, with onions, with goat cheese… the list goes on, and yet we get a fresh bundle with every CSA box. I have to say, though, that every spring, we eat ourselves silly on asparagus, which is just as well, since we don’t have it out of season very often. We need to be sick of it when it stops coming-to be able to breath a sigh of relief that the madness is finally over-so that we don’t miss it all year long. We’ll be ready for it when it comes back next spring.

On Saturday night, David sautéed onions, asparagus and garlic, made a buttery alfredo sauce, and poured it over fettuccini.

We are not quite sick of it yet!

Yesterday, we went over to Ashland (Henry Clay’s Estate), sat on a blanket and enjoyed the beautiful day. I’m taking a break from the never-ending stockinette stitch of the buttercup sweater on the advice of the owner of Stone’s Throw. She told me that if I started something new, I’d be able to go back to buttercup when I got tired of the new thing. Good thinking, so I bought two hanks of Araucania Ranco sock yarn and started a shawl, which is interesting knitting and going pretty fast. I’m not sure if I’m really a shawl kind of girl-I may feel like an old lady with it-but we shall see.

I’ve never really used variegated yarns before, but I am digging the way the little stitches look on the needles.

It’s like a spectrum or like of those things in chemistry where they find out what a chemical is by its color…hang on, let me google…ah, chromatography. Yes, it looks just like that.

Between looking down at that and looking up at this, it was pretty much a perfect afternoon.

Summer Reading

This summer, I plan to read more.  Lately, instead of reading, I’ve been knitting while listening to Selected Shorts, episodes of This American Life, and Librivox audio book recordings.  That will be changing soon, though, because the new house is very close to a small library branch that I plan to ride my bike to throughout the summer.  However, my life is a series of broken commitments, so in the spirit of this lazy season, I accept that I may not actually make it to the library until August.  Or not at all. But wouldn’t that be a waste?  So hopefully, I’ll get there this weekend or something. 

So here are the books I’m planning to read, one at a time, with a generous smattering of knitting breaks so that David doesn’t worry that I’ve lost the ability to speak aloud.

I’ve recently discovered a love for Latin American novels.  There’s this magical element that is incorporated without warning and in a totally normal way, as if it happens all the time.  My first experience with this was on a trip to Boston, where I read Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (now one of my all time favorite books) and I thought that the mystical events in that book were specific to her particular style of writing.  A few years later, I read 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, both by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and realized that the flowery and romantic magic of Like Water for Chocolate was not just one author’s trait, but an entire genre!  Score! I’m excited to read more from other Latin American authors this summer–my top three picks are:

 

 

The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

 

 

 

 

 

And one Indian author to round out my list: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently, I’m reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the first time and am pretty much enthralled.  I borrowed it from Raven and she told me I’d like it.  She was right. 

So that’s my summer reading list! 

Hot Pink Surprise

Spring is going by way too quickly.  Our little yard is covered in honeysuckle bushes everywhere and smells syrupy sweet, but to be honest, I don’t really like the way honeysuckle bushes look–even when they are flowering.  A bit too scrappy for me.  Last week, things improved considerably when a smattering of hot pink roses opened up right in the middle of the large honeysuckle. A couple days later, the beauties were taking over the entire bush and are so incredibly and brazenly PINK, it just doesn’t seem natural.  All this time, I thought that color was invented by the ’80’s, but really, it had been there all along.  I cut some and put them in a vase on the table and everyone who came through the house commented on their loveliness.  I’m going to cut new ones today. 

 And, yes, the re-introduction of pictures in this blog does, in fact mean that my phone magically came back to life after 3 days of submersion in a bowl of dry rice (thanks MIL!) I will now call it iLazarus.

CSA #1

Our first CSA box came yesterday and I, for one, was super excited about it.  We got a huge bag of spinach, a bunch of asparagus, some parsnips and a big chunk of horseradish!  Horseradish!! Can y0u believe that?  Well, I’m going to grate it up, I guess.  David and I don’t eat much beef, which I hear is often served with horseradish sauce, but I am a huge fan of horseradish with potatoes–mashed, twice baked, latkes…yum.  And there’s always bloody mary’s and shrimp cocktails, neither of which I have ANY PROBLEM WITH WHATSOEVER. 

When I got home from work yesterday, I didn’t know what veggies we received yet, so I figured I’d make some pizza dough and whatever we got could top it.  I made a herbed pizza dough and we topped it with leftover spaghetti sauce, tons of grated parm, goat cheese rounds and the CSA cut up asparagus.  It was insanely good.  Here’s how I did it:

I used the herbed pizza dough recipe from this book, or you could use one of the thousands of pizza crust recipes on the internet and add 1/2 tsp each of dried oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary and marjoram. 

• One cup of freshly grated hard, sharp cheese (provolone, parmeggiano-reggiano, romano)
• 6 rounds of plain or herbed goat cheese (about 1/4-1/2 inch thick)
• 1 cup of asparagus, cut into bitesize pieces
• 3/4 cup of marinara sauce
• Olive oil
• garlic powder
• salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 450 and put your pizza pan or stone or whatever inside to preheat along with the oven.  Coat the bottom of a pan in olive oil on the stove.  Sautee your asparagus over medium heat with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste until it turns bright green, but still has some bite to it.

Brush the top of your pizza crust with olive oil and pierce the center with a fork to keep it from bubbling up.  Put it in the oven to pre-bake for about 5-7 minutes or until it is stiff, but not yet brown. 

Remove pizza from oven, top with sauce, grated cheese, asparagus and goat cheese and bake until crust is golden and cheese is melted. 

Lick your fingers, because you know you just used them to smush around that goat cheese.

Spread melty goat cheese around pizza and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Eat.

 

You may be interested in the lack of pictures in this post.  That is because last night, I dropped my iphone into the toilet and peed on it.  For some reason, it’s not working anymore.  Go figure.

One Finished Project AND Things I want III: Etsy Edition

I finished this!

and gave it to my coworker for her wedding.  Blurry picture, I know, but hey, it was finished AND BLOCKED on time!  Be impressed with my time management skills, everyone.

I’ve been spending some time on Etsy lately and have compiled another list of needs/wants that I would give to others if I had any money at all, because I am sometimes philanthropic.  Isn’t it awesome that this comes out directly AFTER Mother’s Day, when all other gift guides came out like two weeks ago?  I thought so, too.  My mom would tell you that sounds about right for me, since she probably received her card today and has yet to get the tomato plants I sent her for the garden.  Now that my sister has a baby, she and mom can share in the head shaking and eye rolling when I call on Mother’s Day to tell them about the gifts that will eventually be delivered to their doorstep.  I guess I could say I’m philanthropic, but in a late sort of way. 

Anyway, On to the MERCHANDISE!!

To start this list, this particular item is one I’ve been wanting to get for my niece for a long time.  This one is a no sew diy pattern and has just the right amount of fluffiness–meaning a whole freaking lot of fluffiness.  It is the only way.  And to those of you who feel that this boxes the baby into a gender stereotype, I would argue that ALL babies should wear tutu’s, regardless of gender.  ALL BABIES.  Because, look:

Secondly,  There needs to be more comfy long skirtage in the lives of me and my close girlfriends.  Elastic waistbands ensure shareability between a wide spectrum of sizes, so nobody ever has to have that moment of realizing that it’s just not gonna make it past the hips, not that I know what that feels like…ahem.

Over the weekend, David had a brief flicker of an urge to have an old fashioned clock.  While I’m sure that particular want is now hanging out with other outdated desires in some cobwebby area of his consciousness (with the fleeting Merrell obsession of 2005, no doubt), I found these and thought of him.  So charming:

And, well, maybe this one would be for me.  I may or may not have an unhealthy level of fascination with under sea weirdness and have often watched the oceanic discovery channel specials with open-mouthed wonder.  Thanks to these deep sea freakshows, I REALLY feel for the octopus, with her big giant brain, but not enough time to use it to take over the world because she’s mercilessly quartered (or eighthed?) by evil, spinning barracudas.  Also I’m unable to avoid panic attacks while snorkeling and have actually vomited into the ocean out of utter terror.  I guess that’s where it tips into unhealthy-land, no?

Barracudas would not mess with this octopus, though.  She is not to be trifled with. 

And, finally, because David and the neighbor have been splitting wood lately for the winter months that seem so far away, this:

 

So there you have it.  Things I want.  To give.

Summary: I remain gas-less and I’m a lazy knitter.

I know, I know, it’s been a week. In my defense, we were moving and I am proud to report that we are completely 100% out of the fancy loft and into the beautiful new duplex, which we love. Do you know what is not in the new duplex, though? Gas. Gas is not in the duplex. The gas man came last Thursday, after making us wait through 4 days of freezing cold unheated misery, and told me he could not turn on the gas because the meters are located in our neighbor’s basement and he wasn’t home to let us in. He also red-tagged the furnace and the hot water heater and kindly informed me that he wouldn’t charge me for coming out. WELL THANKS SO MUCH, GASMAN.

Maxwell had the right idea--It was SO COLD!

Now that it’s warmer out, I have regained my will to live, but it was touch and go for a minute or two there. The only real inconvenience that comes with having no gas in the summer time is the hot water issue. We’ve been showering at our friends’ house four doors down and we can’t really run the dishwasher. This is about as close to camping as I have gotten in four years. 

So I was under way too much mental duress last week to be able to formulate a decent blog entry.

I also have not been cooking, so nothing there, really. We’ve been mostly eating cereal or spaghetti and jar-sauce (my mom probably just dry heaved at the mere MENTION of the words jar- sauce. Sorry Mom).

Knitting-wise, I scrapped the frowzy teal lacey scarf in favor of a cowl, since I found out my mom did not actually lose the ugly brown scarf in the first place. I used the Sunday Market Wrap pattern and just seamed it closed in a loop. It is the most fun pattern I’ve ever knit in my entire life. You just use worsted weight yarn and big needles (I used 10.5) and knit regular stockinette stitch until you run out (for the cowl, I used 170 yds.), and then you drop every third stitch before you bind off. With a little coersion, those dropped stitches make runs that look like little ladders between columns of stitches. I knitted it up in one night and seamed it the next. Highly recommended pattern.

I am also working on a Moose Lace wrap for a friend who is getting married this weekend (I know, I have to hurry). I’m using that same teal mohairy merino wool that I talked about before and striping it with a self-striping yarn every six rows. Moose Lace is a tricky way of saying that I’m knitting lace-weight yarn on size 15 needles, so it is an extremely fast project. I expect to finish out my yarns tonight and hope it’s long enough to be a nice wrap for the bride. If not, I got her a few other small gifts as well, so I wouldn’t feel all that guilty if I end up buying more yarn and keeping it for myself. I really hope to have pictures of these projects at some point, but I keep forgetting my phone at home—maybe tomorrow I’ll just add pictures to this post and act like they were here all along…

Fantastic Four

Last night, David and I celebrated our 4^th wedding anniversary.  In honor of this Event, we neither packed nor moved boxes from one house to another.  Instead, we went out to eat at the Black Tulip in Midway, KY. 

 

The Black Tulip was okay.  The menu only had red meat and fish and, since we don’t really do the red meat thing so much (although I will make an occasional exception for lamb chops–mmm), we both got fish, which was was pretty seriously overcooked.  However, there was one thing at this particular restaurant that I would go back for.

 

 

David felt a wedding ring should be included in the shot for the occasion.

 

Beignets. The key to happiness.  I have spoken with my boss today to see if they can start paying me in beignets instead of dollars.

 

On the way home from dinner, we decided that we would go home to watch a movie.  We stopped for some wine on the way and bought two bottles of Our Daily Red (our favorite red wine ever), but I felt that something more celebratory was in order and insisted on the $5 bottle of Asti Spumanti sparkling wine.  We got home and discovered that we have already packed and moved all four of our corkscrews to the new house, so it was very lucky indeed that I insisted on the wine with the plastic pop-top.  Then we settled in to watch our movie, but that proved to be equally difficult due to the gaping hole under the tv where the dvd player should have been.  Already packed as well.  *sigh* So we ended up sharing our bubbly and watching The Office and 30 Rock instead.  It was lovely anyway. 

 

Also of note were our homemade gifts to each other (due to The Move/Poverty).  David made me my other favorite dessert—lemon bars from a box mix. 

 

 

 

I made David a card out of office supplies (inside out envelope, paperclips, cardstock and post-it notes).

 

 

So happy anniversary, David.  I love you more than ever, overcooked fish, cheap wine, antennae TV and all. 

There’s an App for That…

Shortly after one o’clock this morning, I was roused from my REM cycle to hear David wail, “No, Maxwell, don’t pee!”  Needless to say, it was too late.  You know how people will sometimes have a dream where they are using the bathroom on one of those fancy Japanese toilets, only to wake up to find that they are actually peeing on, say, a laundry hamper or a dining room chair (this has never happened to me, but I’ve heard of such things happening to others…)?  Well, I think that’s what happened to Maxwell last night.  So, anyway, I cleaned up the mess while David took the dog outside (just in case).  After that, I could not for the life of me get back to sleep.  First, I was fixating on the smell of the carpet cleaner, which was making me feel sick to my stomach, then I worried about The Move, then I worried about work that doesn’t need to be done until next Monday.  Then it was 2:45am, so I decided to play my new favorite game on my iPhone (scramble) and then it was 3:15 and I was browsing the App store for “sleep”.  Such is my level of iPhone dependence, folks.  I was unable to sleep on my own, so I downloaded an application to help me.  And the scary thing was that there were dozens of sleep aid apps available.  Even scarier is that the one I downloaded (white noise with binaural beats or something) actually got me to sleep finally. 

 

In other news, I finished my sister’s cardigan, but it still needs to be blocked and have some buttons sewn on, so no sense in showing pics now, but know that the knitting part is done and I am supremely satisfied with myself for finally completing a garment for an adult. 

 

Don’t worry, though, I’ve already got something else on the needles.  I’m knitting something for my mom, whose birthday is coming up.  About six years ago, I knitted her a hideously ugly swampy looking garter stitch brown boucle scarf on size 13 needles (I had just learned to knit and I was really in to giant needles at the time..).  She really (inexplicably) loved this particular scarf.  She now talks about it as if it were the best scarf ever conceived. She lost it a couple of years ago, so I’ve been meaning to make her a new scarf.  The problem is that I really hate knitting scarves.  As all knitters probably know, they can be boring and repetitive and so freaking long.  Ugh.  Well, I’m finally biting the bullet and making one from a teal mohair-ish merino yarn that I recently bought.  I really like how it’s coming out, but this yarn is kind of a pain.  The lady at the yarn shop assured me that I could do it and, while I’m grateful for her confidence in my patience/knitting abilities, the hairiness of this yarn is making me a little crazy.  Ah well, now I’m committed, so what can you do?  Here’s the start.  If you find the huge mistake I’ve made, please ignore it. 

 

 

I have 3 more balls of mohairy yarn in my ever-growing stash and I’m thinking about using it to make a doggie sweater for our late-night tinkler, Maxwell.  It will not be the most masculine sweater ever, but we are all about breaking gender stereotypes around my house, so I’m okay with that.