Knitcore for Knitsters

No Reservations

2005-12-15T13:03:00.000-06:00

I have no excuses for not writing for nearly three months nor do I feel I have to come up with any, its my website afterall and I can do what I want.

That being said, I've missed the friends I've made through here though I haven't missed the stupid-ass meany pants commenters who have very little to do with their time other than make stupid-ass meany pants comments on my little blog. If you are a friend I made through here, just know that I've been reading and following along with you even though I haven't been fully occupying my own space. If you are a stupid-ass meany pants commenter, then screw you, I will not be put down!

Let's summarize my many movements in the interim:
September-October: went to lots of shows. Lots including Of Montreal, Tilly and the Wall, Architecture in Helsinki, Annie and Royksopp, Death Cab for Cutie, the Mates of State, the New Pornographers, LCD Soundsystem and the Juan MacClean, I feel like there were more but I can't remember right now.
Mid-October: Flew to Kansas City with Dan for a wedding. It was fun but I noticed my dress was a little tight, much tighter, in fact, than when I bought it 10 months earlier.
Halloween - Had the most kick-ass time ever at an awesome dance party, stayed up really late, Dan dressed like Devo.
Early November - flew to San Francisco and visited law schools/ saw a college roommate - had a blast but was exhausted after. Dry California air wreaked havoc on my skin in a mere 4 days.
Mid-November - I began a 10 month personal trainer routine where I meet with the dude every few weeks and really give my gym visits focus so I can get back into my nice work pants.
Thanksgiving - celebrated with Dan's family, much yummy and delicious food was made and consumed including the sleeper hit of the night, my lentil and bulgar wheat loaf. Who knew?
Early December - hosted the holiday party with a theme of "classy" where we made a million food items, among them homemade mini-blini with smoked salmon and creme fraiche, and expected everyone to drink wine but No! Our party guests call (loudly) for vodka! I attempt to pour my drink into a broken plastic cup, it falls all over the floor and a good time was had by all.
Mid-December - almost done with law school applications, will be done after this coming Saturday (can't come fast enough)

That leads to today. I still have presents to obtain, but the trip is booked, the dogs have slots at a kennel and I am going to visit Mom for Christmas, I couldn't be more excited. I am also frantically attempting to knit her something but seeing as I couldn't be satisfied with existing patterns, I had to try to write my own. And seeing as that pattern I decided to try to write includes cables, complicated cables at that, its going much slower than I expected. Don't worry Mom- I'll knit your hat, it just might be a New Year's hat...

And no post is complete without some pictures so here are some shots of Stymie and Nemo in their full Halloween regalia. I created and sewed these costumes myself. I'd like to introduce you to the world's first puppy sushi.

The Rumors are True

2005-09-20T23:35:00.000-05:00

I went blonde. And I did it total DIY style too without completely destroying my hair. All I can say is that Sally Beauty Supply is awesome.

A friend helped me bleach it once last Friday night. I decided that it wasn't light enough so I went back, got more bleach and did it again myself on Saturday. Then I used toner in it Saturday and then again Monday night. The tips are still a tiny bit brassy but I'm betting that in my next haircut they can get trimmed out and it will be all beautiful inside-of-a-banana-peel blonde. I love it.

What you can't really tell is that there is a huge panel on the top that's blonde, then a shelf of dark hair left and one piece hanging down from underneath by my left ear that is also blonde. There is also one last little piece near the bottom in the back on the right that is also blonde, it was impossible to get a shot of that by myself.

I was also heading out to see Annie and Royksopp, two electronica/dancey-type groups from Europe when I took these so I had consciously blown my hair dry with root-lifting mousse and spray to make it huge. I normally flat iron it down for work and its not quite so bombastic. These are from when I got home so imagine it much bigger and that was how it was when I left. Fun! Now I know how all those cool girls style their hair so crazily; its so damaged you can do practically anything with it! Not that mine is that damaged, really its not.

It really is fun being blonde on top.

Rowan Calmer Cabled Hat

2005-09-18T14:25:00.000-05:00

Wow, its been almost three weeks. In my defense I've been very busy and doing some traveling yet again.

This time I went home to visit my family in Rochester. I had a wonderful time seeing some old friends and hanging out with my Mom. The week before I left I began this lovely cabled hat. I completely underestimated the time it would take me to knit (and the amount of yarn I'd use) and I didn't finish it until a few hours before I boarded the plane to go home.

Here it is in all its cabled glory:

I used a pattern from last October's knitty breast cancer supplement for a hat called Sirdar. Its knit with one skein of Rowan Calmer for a hat that is soft and stretchy so it can be worn over a wig or on a bare head. I thought it would be nice for Mom and that she could wear it around the house in the fall and winter to keep her head warm since she lost her hair from the chemo this summer. Its all preventive therapy, they haven't come up with any remaining cancer anywhere (cross your fingers) and at least when I saw her she was looking and doing great. Preventive or not she still has no hair though you'd never know it for the beautiful wig she sports in public. I wanted her to be comfortable and feel good about herself right now so I made a hat that is not only functional but flattering.

Here is a nice closeup of the cables.

They all join up into a pretty start shape at the top. I am still amazed at the people who write these patterns. I have another skein of calmer in an ice blue and I am thinking about venturing into pattern-creating territory with my stitch book this fall because I don't want to make another hat that is exactly the same. We'll see where it all leads...

I don't know if you can tell but I ran out of yarn at the very crown of the hat with about eight rounds left to go. I couldn't just pull the stitches in together since there were still too many so I borrowed a little leftover yarn Mom had laying around in a red-orange-yellow variegated colorway and a similar weight. I decided that the crown of the hat was just special since it was different colored and that it would protect Mom's head from bad things. Kind of a special magic hat. That makes me feel good because even though I can't be there with Mom all the time, I left behind this special hat that will protect her and keep her safe.

Knitting Update!

2005-08-31T22:44:00.000-05:00

So I've been doing some knitting over the past week...

I completed my simple hat out of Noro Silk Garden yarn. I absolutely love this yarn. I don't think its itchy at all and the colors are just too beautiful to be believed. I made this out of one skein with just a few inches left over. Unfortunately my local yarn store doesn't stock Noro because the owner claims that the distributors are difficult to work with and that she doesn't like it. Now to me, not liking Noro is akin to sacrilege but to each their own. I just wish that her whimsy didn't dictate the yarn supply easily accessible to me and I wish the distributors were nice so that she would be more easily convinced. Oh well, just means that when I want more scrumptious, delish Noro I'll be forced to take by business elsewhere. I like to spread my hard earned dough among the LYS anyway, I have no hard and fast loyalties to any one place.

The hat.

Me in the Hat.

I also completed (finally) the left front panel of my still-unfinished Ribby Cardi. I am really not sure how its going to turn out when all is said and done seeing as all my stitches are completely wonky, I noticed that the back somehow stretched out while resting in my knitting bag and all of a sudden seems huge, I think I made the sleeves a touch too long and I am worried out of my skull about seaming this whole honking thing. Never mind, I am plowing furiously ahead and have already begun the left side panel. My goal is to have the entire thing finished by the time I go to visit Mom the weekend after Labor Day so she can help me seam it up. I don't know if that is a reasonable goal but hey, its a three day weekend this weekend and a girl's allowed to dream, right?

Lastly, we are going to see Of Montreal on Friday and I am so excited! I thought their last album was the bees knees and can't wait to sing along to "The Party's Crashing Us Now." (Yes I sing at shows, no I don't care if I look silly). I also think I'm going to get tickets for both Tilly and the Wall as well as the Mates of State while I am up at the Abbey Pub so that makes me double, no triple excited! (oh man, I feel so twee, its great!)

Just for kicks because I was taking pictures of the other pieces on me.

Yay I added Haloscan Comments!

2005-08-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

*Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

I was so excited when I saw the above words. I just knew that these blogger-run comments weren't cutting it because I know some people without the blogger accounts are reluctant to sign up just to comment. I have had a problem with evil comment trolls in the past (ie earlier this summer) and I think this will be ideal. Even though its seemed to wipe all my past comments out. I'm working on that though.

I'm also working on this hat in Noro Kureyon. I started a really simple, easy hat thinking that finally I'd be able to get something done from start to finish. Well, it just wasn't that easy. I was one stitch short when beginning the crown decreases and I tried to M1 (make one increase) to make up for it, unfortunately I did the wrong kind of increase that left a lovely little hole and instead of just dealing with it, I freaked, tried to unravel and re-knit, didn't like the way that the stitches in the row which I put back on the needles when I frogged was a little saggy and baggy and I ended up just ripping the whole thing out. On the bright side I discovered that I can make a nice little yarn ball all on my own. It was very fun.

So after ripping out a nice easy hat I jumped right back in and re-cast on and here I am. I am feeling into it so I am going to try to finish it tonight though I do need to go to the gym so we'll see how that goes.

Yarn!

2005-08-16T20:28:00.000-05:00

I'm back so right to the good stuff!

Finally, here is the yarn I bought while I was in New York City at the beginning of July. Wow, it seems like a lifetime ago now and to think it was just over a month ago. I went to Purl Soho, the Point (whose website I just can't find right now) and Downtown Yarns.

Three skeins of Katia Jamaica in a funky and wild colorway. I plan on making Clapotis out of it.

Three skeins of this beautiful handdyed, handspun yarn from a woman named Jamie Harmon. I just couldn't resist this and the woman at Downtown Yarnsgave me a pattern for a cozy neck warmer that I think will be perfect. I am thinking about making each of a different main color and then just knit or crochet a contrasting color around the edge for trim. I don't know if she's reading this right now but let me just say that the people at Downtown Yarns were so good to me and I had such a good time there meeting them and shopping for yarn, I'll be sure to return when I am back in NYC next!

Three skeins of Koigu in the most beautiful colorway. I really want to knit these into a really interesting pair of socks and am considering the illustrious Spearfish sock pattern.

Two skeins of Noro Kureyon in a colorway that is perfect for the Stitch and Bitch Hurry Up Spring armwarmers.

Two skeins of Noro Kochran in a blue that reminds me of the sea. I think these will make really nice short herringbone scarves for holiday gifts. Yes, I am thinking ahead, far ahead.

Not shown are two skeins of Noro Silk Garden. Well, one is shown at the bottom of the top photo but I didn't show it up close because I am knitting something with it. I'm almost done too so perhaps I can show my new item tomorrow or the next day.

Lastly, I had a really hard time there. I got a whole slew of really mean comments at the beginning of the summer and then I was extremely busy without a minute to sit down and then when I was ready to sit down we had no internet. I think the forces are conspiring against me. But perhaps the summer just naturally is a time for doing rather than blogging or even knitting as much. During the winter I never really want to do anything but sit around and knit and be a couch potato but during the summer I am up and about almost every night which just doesn't lend itself much to knitting or sewing for that matter. And I'm cool with that, I've been doing other things, keeping myself busy and having one of the best summers ever really. But it is good to be back here, I've sorely missed my internet friends and have been keeping up on all your exploits, even if I am very much on the periphery, I am still there and rooting for you.

I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore but if you do then thanks for sticking it out. If you have been reading regularly you probably have figured out that I am a pretty busy girl and personally I never let my computer get in the way of my life. If noone is reading this then oh well, I know my Mom will and that's what really counts. Not that I don't like being online but we are all allowed have our moments, right? I sure know I do...

Still no Internet

2005-08-05T15:52:00.000-05:00

But I want to give a shoutout to Kathy from Knitting In Hollywood who emailed me with what sounds like a really good solution to my dilemma. Now comes my problem, do I frog back for about the million billionth time or do I just keep at it and keep it all in mind next time.

Anyway, they said they were going to come and fix our internet yesterday during the day (whoever they are...) and obviously they hadn't done it when we arrived home yesterday to a completely dead signal. Its getting really frustrating especially considering that it worked so well for so long before.

So no new pictures. I am not feeling 100% up to snuff but I am still thinking about going to this sneaker exhibition tonight, it looks super cool. The exhibit continues tomorrow but its always more fun to go to the opening night party. I just don't know if I feel up for partying. If I do stay home I want to curl up on the couch with the puppies and my knitting so maybe I'll take another crack at those blasted purple socks.

Note: I may moan and groan and complain about my knitting difficulties but when it comes down to it would I still knit them? Yes. Of course. So don't worry your pretty little heads about me one bit, 'cause me and my knitting, we'll be just fine.

Internet Down

2005-08-04T08:53:00.000-05:00

The internet has been down in the apartment for the last week. It will seem to work for a minute and then it will stop working. Dan called the company and hopefully they will be sending someone out today to take care of the problem. As a result I haven't been able to upload any pictures recently.

Nothing too exciting has been going on anyway. I've been really frustrated with knitting recently. I feel like I have ripped out and reknit one tiny portion on my purple sock about a million times and its still not to my liking. I'm having trouble picking up the stitches around the heel placket, something I've never had trouble with before. When knitting the heel placket I slip the first stitch of each row so it creates this nice little chainey thing on the sides of the placket. Then when I go to pick up stitches I use my needle and pick them up from under the two yarns of the chainey bit. Now my problem this time around is that I picked up the stitches and nothing looked loose previously but now there are gaping holes all along the sides of the heel placket. I am just befuddles and not quite sure what to do. I knit around once in hopes that it might tighted things up a little but the holes are still there. I might post pictures in hopes that someone would be able to help me. I am also very tempted to just rip it all out to the ankle and start again though I really don't know what to do differently.

Other than that I am playing bass every night. I am not very good but I have discovered that it makes it easier to sing harmony. We tackled the Magnetic Fields last night and I think we won, if not came to a harmonious stalemate. I am really enjoying getting back into music, its been entirely too long.

I've also been getting really bizarre comments recently from people I don't know at all. As you see in the last post someone whose blogger profile says that they are the photo editor at a national publication told me I shouldn't go into photography. Yeah, uh, I never said I was going to. Ever. I just love taking pictures and I like looking at the pictures I've taken whether they are "good" or not. If someone doesn't like my pictures, I'd recommend that they stop looking at them. I like the pictures I've got and I think that's really what matters. Remember kids, if you don't have anything nice to say, just don't say anything at all!

In the Works...

2005-07-28T14:39:00.000-05:00

I think I am beginning a new chapter in my life. I have some new plans for myself that I am beginning to put into motion as of this week.

I am learning how to play the bass, teaching myself with Dan's assistance. Its been hanging there, up on the wall of the living room for so long, neglected. Dan and I keep saying how we want to have a band, we've both been in bands before (well, me band singular but still, we wrote songs, we played shows, we recorded a demo tape). I talked to my buddy Pete who was in said band with me and is now doing a music Master's at Northwestern and he is bringing his drums over in a few weeks. Nevermind the fact that we have no amps besides my little brother's tiny practice amp, or that we have no microphones or even cords. We will rehearse in the garage, we are going to have a band.

I'm going to the music store this weekend to try to figure something out. Since I started playing two nights ago, its become easier and easier. I graduated high school with extensive classical music training and I can hear chord changes and majors and minors, I can tell when a note is out of tune and I can even carry a tune, though not sing well. What I'm trying to say is that I am ready and I want to work for it to just slide into place, right where it ought to be. My fingertips still tingle from where they held down the strings last night and I can't wait to play again tonight.

It feels really good to feel that kind of passion for something again. I feel like its been missing in my life recently with how much my work is getting me down. Knitting even has been frustrating, frogging one thing after another, me feeling stagnant and stale and stuck on the same project with no time to finish and not moving forward.

It was also good to sit down and feel like Dan and I were doing something together. He had his guitar, I had the bass, we were crouched over the mac peering at Belle and Sebastian tabs, figuring it out together, correcting each other's melodies. And we can now play and sing Piazza, New York Catcher. I don't know how it will work out, how we will sound, even if I'll play bass or if I'll stick to keyboards, but I think we can do this just like we can do so many other things, together.

Sock Frogging (otherwise known as the Arcade Fire jumped on me)

2005-07-25T23:44:00.000-05:00

I have been slowly and steadily working on the purple socks I began on my camping trip a few weeks ago. I worked on them again at Intonation and as of tonight I had made it all the way down the heel placket and had turned the heel.

That is until disaster struck. Now I hate frogging as much as the next knitter but I just knew that the heel was not as tight as I wanted the stitches to be. See, it was a little saggy, a little baggy, I don't quite know what had happened but it just wasn't up to snuff and was much too loosely knit. The solution? Frogging!!!

So now I am back to this:

Oh well, what am I to do but shrug and remember that that's life when you knit.

On a more positive note, I attended both Saturday and Sunday of Lollapalooza 2005 held right here in Chicago's own Grant Park. I will sum up briefly by saying that we saw M83, ...And you will know us by the trail of dead, VHS or Beta, Blonde Redhead, the Pixies, Weezer, Tegan and Sara, Dinosaur Jr., The Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie. And yes, Win Butler of the Arcade Fire jumped into the crowd at the end of their set right on top of me. It was quite thrilling really and I am now proud to proclaim myself a fan (not just because of that, though it did elevate my heartrate sufficiently, their set was just amazing as well).

As always, a mere 80 something photos (mostly of bands) right here on flickr.

Intonation

2005-07-18T22:18:00.000-05:00

Yet again a huge monkey wrench in both blogging and knitting was this past weekend's Intonation Music Festival 2005. If you've never heard of it, it was a 2 day extravaganza of independant bands, musicians and DJ's, basically an indie rock loving hipster's wet dream, all curated by the venerable indie rock bastion of criticism and praise, Pitchfork Media.

A.C. Newman AND Andrew Bird during the A.C. Newman set Saturday morning.

We enjoyed sets by A.C. Newman, Four Tet, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene, Out Hud, Prefuse 73, Deerhoof, Death From Above 1979, Tortoise, Diplo and many more. It was amazing.

The crowd.

A dear friend from high school, John Penner, stayed with us for the weekend for the festival. It was also a prime opportunity to hang out with friends I hadn't seen in weeks and in some cases, months. The people watching in and of itself was superb and I took about a million pictures. I haven't had a chance to dump them into a set but all 140 of them are uploaded to my flickr account and tagged with the word intonation.

This week's goals: to rest, relax, recharge and get ready for Lollapalooza this weekend. The constant parade of summer fun just never ends...

Penner and I: we've known each other a really long time-something like 10 years now!

Knitting in the Woods

2005-07-12T13:45:00.000-05:00

I was on a two night camping trip this past weekend in the Tuscarora State Forest in Pennsylvania with four friends from high school and one of their fiances. We hiked about 6 miles the whole weekend but the point of the trip wasn't to hike a lot, just to hang out and have a good time. I had a really great time, it was wonderful to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a while.

Even while out camping in the wilderness I managed to squeeze in some knitting. Upon arriving to our campsite the second day, we took an immediate, hour-long break in which I worked on the socks I had started on the way. Just another pair of crew socks on two circulars.

I'm using Die Tolle Wool in this funky purple color. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to turn out since it didn't look all that exciting in the skein but its knitting up really beautifully. I worked on them more on the plane and I'm really pleased with how these are coming. I love using this pattern, Carol Anderson's Iowa Crew/Cruise Socks (the pattern is waaaay down on the page) because its so easy that after the first time, I can practically do it from memory so I don't really need to bring it with me.

Our camping trip was really fun, I had never worn a big hiking pack before and my calves were screaming by the time we were done on Sunday but it felt so good to be out in the woods, tromping around and laughing with my friends. Its also good to be back home after nearly a whole week spent out of town, now I have to get ready for the Intonation Music Festival this weekend and prepare for my friend who is coming in from out of town to stay with me for the festival. The busy summer continues...

Sorry I've been gone for so long!

2005-07-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was amazing! On a visit to my Dad, who lives in Connecticut outside New York City, I went to the beach, visited three yarn stores in New York, bought a truck load of yarn, had tea at Teany, saw Stephan Malkmus and Yo La Tengo play a free concert with a friend and watched the 4th of July fireworks from a rooftop deck in the West Village. Pretty good for three days, huh? It was a wild, whirwind tour and I am still trying to get my bearings and figure out exactly what state and what time zone I'm in but it was well worth it. I tried uploading pictures last night but my flickr uploader wasn't working and it was very late so you will have to wait another week. But when I return from camping expect lots of pictures of my yarney goodness from NYC.

Another week? Yes! I am going out of town yet again leaving tonight after barely 48 hours at home, this time for Pittsburgh where some high school friends and I are driving out to risk the wilderness and go camping. Random, I know, but we wanted to get together, Amber suggested camping and it all just fell into place. So tomorrow I shall go where I have never gone before...where there is no cell phone reception. Very scary if you ask me but I'm brave, I can take it.

So essentially my silence can be taken to indicate that I am on an extended and disjointed vacation, traipsing all over the place, raising hell and having a grand old time. But never fear, I'll be back next week with tons of new photos and fun things for you, dear readers. And perhaps this time there will even be some knitting (it has been happening, its just not out in the open yet) you'll just have to wait and see.

Fun with Vespas

2005-06-29T20:57:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday I visited a friend who lives near Oak Park to take a ride on her Vespa. I had never ridden a Vespa before in my life but I've always dreamed about doing it. I remember back to high school when I clandestinely searched ebay for used scooters and wondered what it would be like to fly down the street on the back of one, to the envy of all my friends.

Now I know exactly what it feels like to ride on a Vespa: fun, exhilirating, loud, exciting. I didn't mind one bit when it broke down when we were almost all the way around the block and we had to walk it home. I have owned cars and pets and other things that break or get sick from time to time, I know how it is. I tried to tell my friend how much fun I had had and how happy and thankful I was that I got to fulfill one of my dreams. She couldn't see because I was behind her but my grin was about a mile wide the whole time we were going.

This whole Vespa thing is dangerous though because now, I'm starting a new savings account just for a scooter. I'm going to wait until I find the perfect one for me and until I can truly afford it but when that day comes, watch out world, here comes Nadia! And she's riding a Vespa!

Sewing Star

2005-06-23T09:07:00.000-05:00

You're never going to believe this but I think I've conquered my fear of the sewing machine. Dan went out last night for a while and I got bored sitting on the couch knitting. I wanted to be up and active! Feeling ambitious and not giving myself much time to think about it, I grabbed my Mom's old Bernina that she gave me last November and put it on the table. With much help from the manual I even managed to clean out and oil the machine, install a new needle, wind up bobbin thread and thread the needle correctly. I didn't wreck anything, I didn't break it and most importantly, I didn't hurt myself.

I don't know where my irrational fear of the sewing machine originates, I'm not normally scared of things that are new and I love technology and toys with moving parts. It just seems like one of those irrational fears of the unknown that surface from time to time in all of us. Anyway, I feel like I've been saying how I'd sew (one day) for so long that I was getting really comfortable with that phrase instead of getting really comfortable actually sewing stuff. Last night, all that changed.

For my first project, I chose to reconstruct a t-shirt, something I've been dying to do. I used the tutorial over on www.ohmystars.net for the "off the shoulder #2" as a rough guide and went to work on an old Hot Water Music t-shirt I had laying around. I've never worn it much, its a size small but the neckline was too tight and the body was just a tad too big. An unflattering fit for a girl's t-shirt but perfect to reconstruct into a hot little off the shoulder number.

I think it turned out great considering its really my first sewing project I've ever done completely on my own and also my first in about 10 years. The Oh My Stars girl must be a little bigger than me because it turned out a little on the big side but I really don't want to rip it out, I'll just wear it with a camisole underneath. Next time I think I'll make the arm pieces a little smaller.

Most of all, I am so proud of myself for conquering this particular fear. I did it, I sewed something I would wear in public (and did wear to walk the dogs last night)! Its the next morning now and I'm still a little in disbelief. Better watch out though because I can tell this is going to become addictive...

Weekend Cooking

2005-06-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

Dan and I did some phenomenal cooking this past weekend. The whole time I was studying for the LSAT, we barely cooked in and when we did it was silly stuff, simple and easy. Now that's all over, we're slowly getting back into the swing of things in the kitchen. And what with the nice weather we've been having, the grill is being put through its paces on a regular basis.

Here is dinner from Saturday

You're looking at grilled salmon in a crushed fennel seed rub with orange juice and garlic braised belgian endive. On the side are a huge salad of organic mixed greens and crusty bread from the Red Hen Bakery.

Sunday Dinner was Asian-themed

Marinated grilled tofu, homemade miso pickled cucumber and sprouts, cold soba noodles with sesame dressing, fresh mint and carrots and homemade soy-orange dipping sauce.

Up close on the noodles

Up close on the tofu

I also picked up my ribby cardi so in addition to stash revelations there will be some ribby cardi updating soon.

Porch Garden

2005-06-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

Just before I took the LSAT, Daniel and I planted up a whole bunch of nice little planties out on the porch. They are all flourishing and growing like crazy! I kind of went wild buying flowers and accent plants so the pots are absolutely stuffed but I like it that way, they don't look lonely and instead look lush and full.

A big pink begonia greets visitors to the apartment.

Here are the other three pots I planted with flowers: baby begonias on the left and dahlias on the right and I can't remember what the one in the middle is at all (Edit: I remember now, they are pink Gerbera Daisies!).

The plant in front is a chocolate pepper, so named because it is a rich, deep shade of purple - almost brown. The plant behind it is a red pepper. They are currently flowering and I can't wait to see some little baby peppers growing.

Last but not least, two varieties of heirloom tomatoes. The one on the right is a White Thomas while the one on the left is a red Brandywine. Dan picked them up at the Chicago Green City Market.

Around the base of the pot are various herbs including basil, thyme, parsley, peppermint and rosemary. We tried some cilantro and some purple basil but they both croaked on us. The tomatoes were also dropping their flowers for a week or so and I got really scared but I figured out that it was probably due to the hot weather and they've since stopped doing that for the most part now that its a little cooler.

Here is a slideshow of all the garden related photos I took recently as well as some shots of our porch and backyard. We are fortunate to have a landlord who has done some really nice landscaping making the backyard a lovely place to look out over in the summer.

Overload

2005-06-16T00:28:00.000-05:00

The past week has been wild, wonderful but wild. To start, I've been going to lots of shows. The Get Up Kids last Thursday, the Futureheads last Friday and Ted Leo + Pharmacists this evening. Ted Leo was a last minute ticket purchase but I'm really glad we went. He's one of my favorite rockers and the music was better than I had ever heard him play before, live or recorded. Truly uplifting in a perfect mix of abrasive + melodic, loud + subtle, witty + straightforward, quirky +classic. The Oranges Band opened and while I like that "Fins for Our Feet" song, I decided that I absolutely loved their other stuff and desperately need to listen to our copy of their latest album, now if only I could find that CD... (our CD collection, while vast, is in a huge disarray making it impossible to find anything)

We had to take Stymie to the vet this morning. She had barfed a couple times on Monday but that's not completely unusual for dogs so we really hadn't thought much of it. Turns out that was a mistake. Dan and I woke up at 5:30AM to Stymie standing at the end of the bed heaving. After three barfs on the bed, two in her crate and three plus a diarhhea on the kitchen floor (disgusting yes I know, we are very good at disinfecting at this point, fear not for the sanitary-ness of our apartment) I called the emergency vet line. They said to withhold food or water and take her in first thing in the morning. Since our animal hospital does not pick up the phone a minute before they open at 9AM, I walked her over and was on the doorstep 5 minutes after the doors opened. We got in early and they said she looked fine, only a little bit dehydrated and they offered to monitor her there for the day since I had to go in to work. When we came to pick her up at 5, she seemed to be our normal, happy Stymie and they said she had been bouncing around all day and hadn't barfed or had diahhrea. A 5 day course of antibiotics and with any luck we will have beaten whatever made her barf this time around. Disaster narrowly averted.

What with a busy weekend, all the show-going and extraneous bodily fluid from the dogs, there has been little time to knit this week. I even have a backlog of pictures to show off! Mom requested pictures of all the flowers and veggies we have potted out on the porch and another friend-reader (Hi Sharbs!) requested pictures of the apartment which are on flickr, I just need to go in and find them. So I am planning on a big exciting picture post tomorrow night. So stay tuned for more exciting happenings in the world of knitcore!

Knitting!

2005-06-12T23:22:00.000-05:00

We had so much work to do around the house this weekend. After what felt like months of scavenging for food we finally began cooking again last week and since the apartment hadn't been cleaned in a shamefully long time, there was some serious grunge to take care of. Daniel and I swept and scrubbed and sorted and cleaned furiously to get the place back in some semblance of working order. I must say that it really looks good and it certainly feels good to have a nice clean home. Its always nice to be reminded that you are a civilized human being living in sanitary conditions. Unfortunately this cleaning blitz didn't quite encompass such peripherals as laundry, I think that will have to wait for another day.

I also did some knitting this evening:

Its just another little green ipod cozy but it was sitting in my bag unfinished and I absolutely can't stand to have unfinished projects laying around so I decided to finish it up. I was going so fast and watching tv at the same time so I accidentally forgot to leave a hole for the cord. It might just end up to be a transport-type thing as I think I am going to look for a better pattern with a window in front for day-to-day use.

I also made a Cherry-Berry Buckle for dessert tonight.

I can post the recipe if there is sufficient interest. Its a really easy cake batter with fruit mixed in that is baked in a cast iron skillet. We had leftover cherries in the fridge and black raspberries were on sale 3 cartons for $1 so how could I resist?

How your weekend was great and as productive as mine was. Now that things are a little more in order in the house, the Stash is next so expect a Stash-revealing post soon. We'll see what kinds of exciting things lie in wait to be discovered at the bottom of my stash box...

Matching

2005-06-08T23:02:00.000-05:00

One of my co-workers stopped about halfway through a meeting today and started staring at me really funny. I looked down at myself, wondering what was wrong, did I have yogurt on my shirt from breakfast? No, I matched. Like really matched, pants, shirt, shoes, everything. I really like to match.

That is actually the very same shirt (striped), pants (solid) and shoes I was wearing today. I really really matched and it was cool.

We also went back to the gym tonight for the first time in about 2 months. UGHHHHHH. That's all I have to say about that.

Its all done!!

2005-06-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

Done! Over! No more LSAT, at least until I find out my score. I feel good enough about the test. Really good on most of it, just not so good on one section. For now I am going to put it out of my mind and focus on the now. Its over and done with and I can't change the past. I know that if something went seriously wrong, I can always take it again.

But I am back and will be blogging, crafting, cooking and especially knitting with a vengeance. To start off, I'd like to share the best of the first batch of photos from my new camera. Its a Canon PowerShot A95 that Mom got me for my birthday. I love it and I still haven't had a chance to sit down and read through the manual and figure out how to really use it to its fullest advantage. That's a huge goal of mine for this summer.

Enough talk, here are some photos:

We got the doggie ladies the cutest little t-shirts last weekend. Maude is the resident pug in our favorite stationary store, Paperdoll. We noticed that they had these little doggie t-shirts that said 'Friend of Maude' the last time we went in and of course we had to get them for Stymie and Nemo, they're doggies pals with Maude!

Nemo in her little blue shirt.

Friend of Maude

The clouds were really threatening the other day.

I am so glad I am back to blogging. I was sad, missed updating frequently and most of all I missed my dear readers and online friends. But here I am, back in action and ready for summer so watch out all you crafty peoples because here I come!

T minus 4

2005-06-01T23:20:00.000-05:00

The LSAT is in 4 days. 4 days people, only 4 more days until it is done!! I find this to be absolutely unbelievable. For all this time these past two months that I have spent studying and attending classes and doing problems and taking practice tests, I always feel that I could have used twice as much time, and on the other hand, I feel like if I don't know it by now I never will.

I do think I know it. I think I am going to be able to do well on this test. Well enough so that I meet, and maybe possibly exceed my personal goals. Every night I have been visualizing my processes right before the test, I sit down, am calm and collected and take the exam with a clear head and I crush it from start to finish. At least that's the plan right now.

In other news, the cottonwood tree outside our apartment is raining its little cottonwood seed pods down on us. The piles of fluff are gathering by the porch stairs like snow except its not cold, its 70 and pleasant. The doggies are tracking the white fluff in the house as are we and its slowly spreading around, seeping into every corner and clogging every cranny like a cheerful, white gas leak. I love the little mounds the wispy seeds make and kick them like a little kid every chance I get.

I am getting more and more anxious for this test to be over. I feel that tests are always a psychological test as well as a test of your abilities and skills. Can I survive the preparation period? Can I avoid getting nervous on the test day? It takes a lot more than just knowing your stuff to crush this and I just hope I am ready. What with all the trials that have come my way recently, I sometimes wonder how could I not be. June 6th friends, as of June 6th I will be back and in full knitting force on June 6th.

Heartcore Handicrafts

2005-05-27T13:32:00.000-05:00

I discovered this a while ago on some website that I don't even remember now. I knew just from looking at the picture that this had to be awesome.

Syuntan.com: Heartcore Handicrafts from Sweden

This group, Syjunta, is a subversive craft group from Sweden that is attempting to reclaim fiber arts deemed old-fashioned and use them to foster creativity in a collaborative effort.

And check out those masks, I wish I could wear a cool mask when I knit and actually get away with it without looking silly.

Star Wars!!!!

2005-05-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

We saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Saturday night. It was awesome!! While I felt the Episode I was sub-par, and Episode II was unbearable (unbearable as in I still have never sat through the whole thing), this movie rocked out. It was just downright amazing. Yoda finally looked decent too and I am very picky when it comes to Yoda.

I think one of the only big shortcomes, and here everyone will disagree with me, is Hayden Christensen. I just think his delivery stinks and he sounds too hard like he is trying to act. His voice is also weird and kind of muted, kind of like that kid in high school who got into all the plays but who maybe wasn't entirely comfortable with his voice yet. Reminiscent of Ryan Phillipe in Cruel Intentions perhaps. At least at the end he turns into Darth Vader so I feel in some small sense, its ok to dislike him because we're supposed to dislike Darth Vader, right?

Sorry my blogging has been so bad, the LSAT is only two weeks away and while I may not be at my normal, healthy blogging volume for the next few weeks, I promise that once this test is over I will pick up once again. I feel like I am missing so much right now, knitting, blogging, Dan even planted stuff outside without me this weekend while I was in the house studying, but I know its all for a good reason and I have to get this done. It is my duty right now to study and do well and when I have accomplished that goal (at least the study-as-much-as-I-can part) then I can pay more attention to the other things. So thanks for bearing with me during the past few months, its not over yet but it will be soon (the LSAT that is, what did you think I was talking about?).

Malty Waffles

2005-05-19T00:50:00.000-05:00

I've been just a little busy recently (an understatement perhaps?) but tonight I didn't have class or any other obligation and I decided that I wanted waffles for dinner. Not just any waffles, malty waffles, that is, waffles made with that yummy malted flour that restaurants use.

We could have just as easily gone to the IHOP but being the zany cooking fools we are, Dan and I decided that it would be more fun and more cost effective to get a waffle iron and some malty waffle mix and do it ourselves. Afterall, take a girl to dinner and she'll eat for a day but give a girl a waffle iron and she'll eat for a lifetime.

Introducting the Toastmaster Cool-Touch Belgian Waffle Baker:

The beast itself:

And since we got the waffle iron (at Target of course!) we just had to go to Cost Plus and pick up the special malt flour for waffles. 'Caust that's what makes it extra good.

Those waffles, they hit the spot.

The recipe on the side of the flour canister made more than we could eat (and we can eat a lot of waffles!) so the dogs got to split a waffle.

Stymie really likes waffles.

I am also obsessed with the New Pornographers. I couldn't stop playing the music videos that are on their website today at work, especially the Laws Have Changed. Can't wait to see A.C. Newman at the Intonation Music Fest.

Speaking of which, I got the specially priced two day passes for Dan and I so Intonation here we come!!
May I also add that we are among the lucky 2,000 that got the ultra-cheap pre-sale Lollapalooza tickets too? Man, I can't wait for this summer. June 6th baby, I just have to make it to June 6th (date of the LSAT).

Baby's First Bath

2005-05-15T23:39:00.000-05:00

We finally got up the courage to give the dogs baths tonight. Not together mind you, one at a time is plenty to handle.

Here is Nemo before the water hit:

And all wet:

She did not look terribly happy all wet in the tub but both dogs were really good and didn't go nuts or try to jump out. And now they are all fluffy and soft and smell, well, at least better than they did before.

No photos yet of my lovely new accoutrements, I've been simply too busy with LSAT stuff to even begin to look at my camera or load CD's onto the ipod. Not that I'm not excited to, I really just haven't had the time. Soon though, and to answer a question: it is a 20GB ipod, not a mini, so it is white. Yeah, I know, Dan's a really nice boyfriend.

If the knitrider is reading this at all, I haven't forgotten about the book meme, I will still do it, what with all the being out of town it took me a little time to get back in the blogging swing of things!

Memememememememememememe

2005-05-13T13:54:00.000-05:00

Its my Birthday today. Friday the 13th as well. What fun!

Dan got me an ipod and I cried when I opened it because I completely did not expect it. Its got the sweetest engraving on the back too so that made me teary as well. My Mom got me a digital camera which came in the mail today. I feel absolutely showered by technology. I also have so much thanks for Dan and my Mom and my whole family for showing me a really great time complete with Wegmans cookie cake. It meant so much to me that I got to order pizza and celebrate my birthday and Mother's Day with my family. Thank you everyone, this is one of the best birthdays ever!

I also have no plans for tonight. That's right, you heard me, no plans! I decided that I didn't want my birthday happiness to be impeded by worry about others and whether they show up, are they having a good time, what else do I need to do for them...NO. Its my birthday and this year, its going to be whatever I want to do. Don't get me wrong, I love throwing parties for my friends and I've had a tremendously good time at past birthday parties (21, oh man...), but this year, I just don't want to worry about it at all. Dan, fantastic boyfriend that he is, had booked us reservations for tomorrow night just in case I did decide to have people over this evening but instead I think we are going to grab something low key to eat (sushi perhaps?) and then go bowling. Tomorrow night I'll get all glitzed up for my birthday dinner.

My coworkers surprised me with cake at 10AM this morning. How did they know I have an insatiable sweettooth and cake first thing in the morning on a Friday was one of the most fantastic things they could have done? Two cakes at that, one with chocolate and vanilla cake, white whipped cream frosting and enormous strawberries on the top, the other layers of decadent chocolate cake along with chocolate mousse, mmmmmmm. I ate so much sugar I am still not really hungry for a real lunch.

Have a good weekend and as soon as I figure out how it works, I will post tons of pictures taken with my new digital camera.

Stash Enhancement

2005-05-11T00:20:00.000-05:00

Mom gave me some fabulous yarn over the weekend, thanks Mom! I just can't wait until the LSAT is over and then I can knit all I want! Here are the latest additions to my slowly-growing yarn stash.

From the top, clockwise: two skeins of Froehlich Wolle, Die tolle Wolle in an unidentified purple (good for socks!), The Plymouth Italian Collection: Sockotta (yet again, more socks!), one skein of Jo Sharp DK weight wool in Maple #911 and one skein of Schafer yarn in Kermie.

I also knit this yesterday morning in just over an hour:

Its a little pouch either for an ipod or other electronic goody or else for something small and special, perhaps jewelry or change. I used the Kermie yarn along with a cool button from my Mom's stash. I am really pleased with how it came out and also that it took so little time. Perhaps I'll make one for Dan's ipod friend.

Down n' Dirty

2005-05-07T19:06:00.000-05:00

I'm blogging from my parents' place in Rochester, NY and it really is good to be here. Mom is doing great and we had a lovely day today spent with me slaving away for hours in the garden.

Honestly, I did. And it was fun!

I planted the above little guys. There are two Japanese Primrose at the far left of the shot, some dahlias and blue heliotrope in the middle and some pansies up front. The rose bush in the back was there when my parents moved in last August.

I also did some heavy labor amending the soil in this little corner of one of the front beds.

You are looking at two lovely delphiniums in the way back and a lot of daylilies that used to be one huge clump that I chopped at with a trowel, broke up and replanted with a little space.

Can you believe these three Christmas Cacti used to be in one pot together? It was a monster and I repotted them for Mom.

I love gardening. Oddly enough I never did much when I was younger but I always remember my Mom out in the garden, shuffling the plants here and there with our old red Radio Flyer wagon. I am getting all fired up about this whole planting thing, next weekend, I think Dan and I are going to do some planting in the big pots we got from Ikea. I realize that these shots don't look all that impressive, this is the first spring my parents have spent in this house, just wait until late summer and these will be gorgeous and full.

Last shot:

Begonias in a hanging basket.

Mexico Lindo Parte Dos

2005-05-06T00:12:00.000-05:00

As you may have figured, I do speak a little Spanish. I should hope so, after all I studied it for 7 years before I went to college and even spent part of a summer on an exchange program in Santander, Spain. If I do say so myself, languages have always been one of my strong suits, I pick them up quickly and have been complemented on my accent in both Spanish and French though for me its a continual process of falling out of practice and picking it back up when the need arises. Though I'm no where near fluent, probably just on the shy side of proficient, my Spanish speaking abilities did come in handy on this vacation.

The two main highlights of our trip, besides hanging out on the beach, were a day trip to Todos Santos and an ecological tour to Caduano (the n should have a tilde over it but I can't figure that out right now).

Church chandelier in Todos Santos

Todos Santos is a village about an hour up the Pacific Coast from Cabo San Lucas. The drive up there was a little hair raising with some hairpin turns and twists but yet again, beautiful scenery everywhere. The town was a little bit of a bust. We had read that it was supposed to be an artist colony with a large expat population but it didn't seem to be much more than some dusty streets with the same souvenir shop hawking "traditional arts and crafts" everywhere you looked. The buildings all appeared to be quite old and built in a traditional style so at least that was cool. We also found this great little restaurant, El Tamarindo, that had $5 fish tacos that were excellent. The "Hotel California" that the Eagles sing about is also allegedly in Todos Santos but even though the place was all hyped up for the tourist's benefit, we really doubted that the Eagles were singing about that exact location in its present incarnation.

We also watched these baja sport vehicles drive up the road past us right as we got into town and hopped out of the car.

The other big highlight was our eco tour. Caduano is a tiny village about an hour into the interior of the peninsula so about a total of maybe an hour and a half away from Cabo San Lucas. We were driven out first thing in the morning in a van and once at the base camp we were loaded onto this hilarious ex-military ATV type vehicle which then proceeded to jounce us all over the countryside.

We hiked around all day and saw a whole lot of fossils, a rock with pictoglyphs on it (think cave paintings), waded around in this natural stream in the mountains and learned all about the different types of cactus and desert plants.

A couple funny things happened on this trip. There was this couple with a 15 year old son on the tour with us from Alaska and the guide, Dan and I had to explain to him what cicadas were. I guess it makes sense if you live in Alaska but his parents said that they had only been there for about 8 years and had lived in California previous to Alaska. Still -cicadas??? He kept asking us how big they were and what they looked like. I don't think I've ever really seen one but to me their sound represents summer. The kid reminded Dan of Napoleon Dynamite except that he was wearing skate shoes and an Element t-shirt, way too cool to be like Napoleon Dynamite if you ask me, just annoying as all get out as most 15 year old boys are wont to be.

The other funny thing was that Dan became obsessed with capturing the cows we saw everywhere on camera and proceeded to chase this cow down that we saw in the national park area where the stream and rock drawings were. Here's a pretty good shot that I think he (and not me) finally got.

After our long morning of exploring we sat down to a delicious meal of carne asada, beans, quesadillas, roasted onions and peppers, tortillas, pico de gallo and guacamole at the base camp prepared by our lovely cook, Minerva. She was really nice and the whole van had a funny chat with her as we attempted to query her in our poor Spanish about the way she cooked the beans.

Minerva tending the grill.

Its really time for me to get to bed now, I am leaving work early tomorrow to fly to Rochester to visit my Mom. I am SO excited and I just can't wait to get there and see her. Its really fantastic to be able to spend Mother's Day together, I think it will be really special. I am not sure if I'm going to bring the camera but I definitely will be able to blog from Rochester, hooray for the internet!!

Mexico Lindo Part 1 (Parte Uno)

2005-05-05T01:05:00.000-05:00

Daniel and I were very fortunate that his Dad and Stepmom, Sidney and Karen, invited us to spend a week at their timeshare with them in Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Cabo San Lucas is a tourist town at the very tip of Baja California which is appropriate since Cabo means head or in this instance, cape, in Spanish. Though very touristy, the area was absolutely beautiful with a gorgeous beach and sunny skies without a cloud. The whole time we were there, Daniel and I couldn't get over how fantastic the timeshare resort was. Tucked away at the very end of the chain of resorts and hotels that line the main beach on the Sea of Cortez, Club Cascadas de Baja was an absolute paradise.

With only maybe twenty or so rustic (but not primitive) villas containing about a hundred or so units, the grounds are laid out and landscaped such that there are not only no direct lines of sight but that the resort truly feels very private and closed off from the outside world. We were steps from one of the two pools and our bed had this beautiful lace netting around it that was definitely for decoration since there really weren't any insects that bugged us (haha) to speak of.

On our first full day in Cabo, we shuffled between the beach and the two pools, taking in the sun, the sand and relishing our newfound relaxation. There were some tough decisions to be made, such as which tropical drink to order, a margarita or a pina colada, and which pool to jump into next, but we buckled down, grit our teeth and threw caution to the winds choosing whatever sounded good at the moment.

On Friday nights, the resort's restaurant has a huge Mexican buffet dinner, complete with Folkloric Ballet (el baile folklorico), which is Mexican traditional dance. We stuffed ourselves silly and enjoyed the dancers from our table right out on the beach.

All of the really good pictures from the trip are loaded into my flickr account so if you want to mosey on over and check out the set its located here. I have yet to label and add descriptions to the photos which might not get done until this weekend but as soon as I do I'll let you know.

Mom Update:
Upon our arrival home Tuesday night, I had an email waiting from Mom with an update post-surgery. She is doing very very well and is healing nicely so far, the Doctors said that the cancer was only minimally invasive into the wall of the uterus so it was deemed at stage 1B which means that it was caught very early. Hurray!!! She also said that the results of testing into her lymph nodes and other samples was coming up non-cancerous so that there was a VERY good chance that they got it all. I just can't say what a relief it is to know that already the signs are looking good. We are not out of the woods completely yet but I am just so happy that things are going well so far. As always, it is too early to tell but man, give my Mom some props because she is a trooper, certainly she is my biggest inspiration right now, and we are going to lick this thing yet. I'm sure I'll keep repeating this but it has really been the biggest help to know that there are so many out there supporting us and pulling for us, I just can't thank you all enough for that, both friends and strangers alike.

Stay tuned for Mexico Lindo Parte Dos coming tomorrow...

Bienvenidos a Cabo San Lucas

2005-05-03T23:18:00.000-05:00

We just spent 6 days not having touched a phone, tv or computer and it was FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC!! And man, let me tell you, when I ducked my head under in that wide, cold, cerulean ocean, it was like there was nothing in the world besides me and the deep blue sea. This trip was just what I needed.

Top ten things - Mexico (in no particular order):

10. Despite being touristy, Cabo San Lucas is beautiful
9. The water is not only drinkable but better than our water in Chicago
8. Mexica food (la comida mexicana)
7. Aqua, turqoise, cerulean, blue blue BLUE ocean
6. the beach
5. the pool
4. not a cloud in the sky the entire trip (believe it)
3. margaritas
2. actually being relaxed
1. being on vacation and not having to worry about anything!!! (until we get back)

I've got tons of pictures to share but I'm going to upload them in batches so the complete recap will start tomorrow. And even though I can't tell you how much I enjoyed our beautiful vacation in our own private paradise, I am glad to be back home!

Back on May 4th!!

2005-04-28T01:08:00.000-05:00

Don't panic - don't forget I am out of town until May3rd! We're going to Mexico so I'm sure there will be tons of beautiful pictures and hilarious stories for your amusement when we get back (we are bringing three cameras...)

Have a great weekend and don't miss me too much! If we go to an internet cafe maybe I'll blog but I am going to try to relax which might mean no blogging. No promises...

Puppies!!

2005-04-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

We are just getting all ready to leave for Mexico which means that papers and clothes and dirty dishes and dog fur and shoes are absolutely everywhere at the minute. I got most of my stuff together last night and I am going to try to tidy up just a little after I get back from class tonight, there is nothing I hate more than coming home to a messy house after a relaxing vacation.

I thought I'd share some new pictures of the doggie ladies. They are their cute, silly little selves as always, oh-so-naughty but hard to stay mad at because they are SO cute.

Nemo likes to be crafty.

They love to sleep on the sofa.

I love Nemo's expression, she's like "When will it end?"

Since they both have underbites, their lips sometimes get caught behind their teeth and they look like this. We call this a snaggle tooth and to actually be in the act of looking like this has come to be called "snaggling" as in "hey honey, bring the camera, Stymie's snaggling!"

Those cute little paws, what will they get into next??

Frozen

2005-04-24T23:28:00.000-05:00

Good news first, my Mom is the official poster-woman for recovery at her hospital! I spoke to her this morning (Sunday morning) and she was getting to go home in the afternoon, two days before it was expected. She said she had been off the IV since Saturday and was up on her feet and mobile. Definitely not playing volleyball yet but she is doing well, feeling in good spirits, not in much pain and on the road to recovery. We still have to wait for some tests to be run before we know if they got it all completely or not but this first step was bad enough and its over and she is fine. I can't tell you how thankful I am that she did great and there were no complications from the surgery, now I just can't wait until I get to go visit!!

Something weird is going on in our house though. No matter what we do, the fridge is freezing everything. I pulled this asparagus out to make it last night and the bottom, which was sitting in a container of water, was completely frozen!

Kind of cool, huh? I think the stems make a really neat pattern in the ice.

Here's another shot so you can see how big the ice block is:

I think I also keep forgetting to mention our other exciting news: Dan and I are going to Mexico for a week on vacation and we leave Thursday! Dan's Dad has a timeshare in Cabo San Lucas and he graciously invited us to accompany him and his wife for the week. We haven't taken a big vacation like this together and we are SO excited. I, especially, am looking forward to the opportunity to relax for a few days and sip some fruity tropical drinks (we are all about the fruity tropical drinks). But this also means I probably won't be blogging from this Thursday through the following Tuesday, sad I know. Just kidding, I know all you lovely, blog-reader type people will be fine without me for a few days, you'll have to be! But if anyone reading this actually knows where I live, don't get any ideas, the Bastard Dogs of Death and Destruction, Destructo-Stymie and Nemo the Terrible will be staying behind to guard our pad (with the assistance of the Mad Quark of Doom and our neighbors of course) and they won't hesitate to bite anyone's butt if they should come a knocking when they're not supposed to. You saw what they did to that scarf, trust me, you don't want to think about what they could do an intruder...

Mexico, here we come, YAY!

Bastard Dogs of Death and Destruction

2005-04-24T00:45:00.000-05:00

I love my doggies, I really do. Once in a while though, they do something so heinous that I can't help but be a little mad at them. Case in point: my Airy Scarf.

Dan was merciful and spared me from worrying by only telling me in the car on the way home from LSAT class last Thursday night that the dogs had somehow gotten ahold of my lovely little scarf and had ripped it to shreds. I just can't believe it. I don't even know how they got ahold of it! It looks like a giant just took a huge bite out of it.

We've been having some issues with the dogs getting into stuff while we are at work or out and we've been really careful about pushing the chairs into the kitchen table so they can't get up on them and not keeping anything near the edge of the table to tempt them. I wore this last week because it got a little chilly (it still is only around 40F today) but I thought I had put it well out of the reach of curious little doggies. I am becoming convinced that they can tunnel through space and time because it seriously is the only explanation for how they get into some of the things they do!

A close-up on the destruction:

It will be all right in the end because I have tons more of this yarn, enough to make two more scarves so eventually I'll do just that and replace it. Though I really loved this scarf, it was a really quick project that I was planning on replicating anyway so while I am exasperated, its nothing that can't be replaced.

On a positive note, Mom had her surgery on Friday and I spoke to her after she woke up and she sounded good, like Mom (albeit Mom with a tube up her nose). We still have to wait and see what the next step is but I am so relieved that the big, scary surgery is over with and that she is just fine. Even though it will be a long (but not too long) road to complete recovery, at least we know for sure that we have that.

G4 Fun and Excitement

2005-04-20T23:05:00.000-05:00

Exciting news in our house, Dan got a new computer today! Its an Apple G4 Power Book with a 12" screen. He had been talking about it ever since his old computer completely broke and was rendered non-functional. I mean really non-functional, it won't even turn on any more. We've known for a while that it was definitely time for something new, it was just a matter of when.

Both Dan and I have been talking about Macs for a long time. I am still a little, how shall we put this, terrified of Macs, mainly because I really haven't used them to speak of and when I have I have found them confusing and completely counterintuitive to anything I know about computers. Now don't go chastizing me, I've heard it all from all those die-hard Mac devotees that I know: its easy, its better, its fun. I'm sure, given a little quality time with the thing, that I'll come to like it, just give me my space and let me figure it out on my own.

As for me, I had decided a while ago that I am going to wait until I go back to school in 2006 to get a new computer. This old desktop is serving me well and I want to have the best possible technology when I start law school so it makes sense that I would wait. I don't really use the computer for anything more complicated than loading photos onto my website so to me, it doesn't make a huge difference as long as it still has memory and connects to the internet.

The new computer is still extremely fun and exciting and I can't wait to get a crack at it. When I finally am blogging from behind its hallowed monitor, I'll be sure to let you know about it. For now, I'll plod away on my old Dell, conscious of its flaws but comfortable knowing that at least its my own and it works.

Dan shows off the goods.

She Knits!

2005-04-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

Between the Stitch n' Bitch last night and the knitting social tonight, I had enough time blocked out that was strictly devoted to knitting that I was able to finish the back for my Ribby Cardi.

I am so pleased to have actually finished this. I honestly thought I was never ever going to get it done. I am still not getting very much knitting done these days but I have grand plans for after June 6th (LSAT day). It is my hope that this will be a very crafty summer.

Daniel made the most beautiful little dinner for us tonight while I walked the dogs. It is the "Cooking for One" recipe out of MS Everyday Food #21, April 2005: roasted salmon with new potatoes and asparagus topped off with a bell pepper vinaigrette. We only had blood oranges but the slightly sweet blood orange juice melded beautifully with the vinegar and olive oil and was exquisite with the salmon. Overall very summery and fresh feeling despite having been roasted, next time we are definitely going to grill.

Here's to spring! Even though it feels like summer already-just wait a minute and that could change, we have to savor every minute of the good weather that we have.

Shows

2005-04-18T00:17:00.000-05:00

We've been going to lots of shows recently. That is, in between LSAT study sessions and eating and sleeping. Well, the whole sleep thing is kind of getting a little neglected but I caught up a tiny bit this weekend. Baby steps, baby steps.

To begin with, I am such a devoted fan of The Shins that I had set my alarm to make sure I woke up on time the morning the tickets went on sale in the beginning of March. Sure enough, I was there at the computer in my robe at precisely 11AM anxiously clicking the "buy tickets" button. No way was I going to miss my big chance to see them live.

The show was last Thursday, April 14th, at the Congress Theater, the Brunettes opened but we only caught the last song and there is really nothing I have to say about them except just because you play band instruments doesn't mean you are automatically good and/or cool.

The Shins were amazing, fantastic, awesome and any number of other adulatory adjectives. We had a great time and ate some good Mexican food afterwards.

I recently swapped mix CDs with Jo over at Misocrafty. On her mix she had included a curious little number by a Chicago artist named Andrew Bird. The song really intrigued me despite the fact that I really had never heard anything from him before. I did know that he was local because I had seen posters advertising his gigs around town before. So it only made sense that I would proclaim to want to see him, find out his next show was on Saturday night the 16th and what was I to do but to happen to show up?

Here he is actually playing the song Jo put on my mix, "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left." I find his music so intriguing, he uses a loop effect and tapes himself playing different riffs live so that he makes his own sonic textures that he sings or plays over. Did I mention he also alternately plays violin and guitar, sings and whistles? Yeah, its totally cool.

Archer Prewitt, formerly of the Coctails and currently of the Sea and Cake, opened up.

I think Archer looks like Morrissey. Dan actually knows him because the Coctails are from Kansas City, as is Dan. He knew the bassist playing with Archer, who was also in the Coctails, better but we couldn't get his attention to wave hello.

Between these two shows, studying and hosting a Stitch n' Bitch at our place Sunday night, this was a really busy weekend. Fun, but busy, hope yours was good.

Interstella 5555

2005-04-14T13:44:00.000-05:00

The birthday presents I had ordered for Dan a while ago finally came from Amazon on Tuesday, nearly 20 days after they had originally been ordered. I know, I know, they're really late but there was good reason behind all of this. Dan had found this amazing animae movie called Interstella 5555 a while ago, downloaded it on his harddrive and we had watched it with our jaws practically on the ground the entire time. Entirely without dialogue it is set to the music of Daft Punk's 2001 album, Discovery.

"While performing 'One More Time' to an adoring crowd, four musicians are kidnapped from another galaxy by an evil record producer and his militia. Taken back to Earth, they are hypnotised, made to look like humans and forced upon the public until they reach the number one spot. Images of an interplanetary Simon Cowell spring to mind. However, they are not completely stranded; news of their abduction has reached the alien planet's superhero, who zooms down to Earth in his Flying V guitar-shaped spaceship and attempts to rescue the exploited stars." (from kamera.co.uk)

We quickly became obsessed with this, being the huge Daft Punk fans that we are, and when Dan lost everything on his hard drive when his computer died, I knew exactly what to get him for his birthday. Even though it took a few extra days to come into the warehouse and get shipped out, it was totally worth it for the look on his face when he saw this.

And would you believe that there are even these amazing little action figures (that I have a feeling might be making an appearance in our apartment around the 13th of May...)

They even have their own page on the Daft Punk website.

Thank You

2005-04-13T09:25:00.000-05:00

On behalf of my mother and myself, I want to thank everyone who reads this for their wonderful and kind comments and emails. Please know that every word of support I read here, have land in my inbox or see elsewhere makes a huge difference to both me and my Mom.

I actually started this blog for my Mom so that she would be able to keep track of my daily comings and goings and so that I would be able to share pictures and thoughts with her quicker and easier. So she is reading this (Hi Mom!) and I am so glad she can read the comments and see the support my silly little webpage can garner.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. I know I'll be writing more on this as more happens and time passes but for right now, we are being optimistic that everything is going to be fine and that we are all going to make it through. And I know we would not be able to do that alone, I am just so glad that we can rest assured that we are going into this together.

Confession

2005-04-12T00:07:00.000-05:00

I must admit that not all is as it seems over here in my little world. Sure, I received my April Sampler and did all my LSAT homework but it goes far beyond anything like that. I just hope my Mother is going to forgive me for what I am about to say but I think the friends of hers who read this already know so here goes:

My Mom was diagnosed with endometrial cancer a week ago Sunday.

I debated for a whole week whether or not to post this but I have come to realize that if we hide it and deny the facts, then it will not only eat us up physically, but mentally as well. And really, what was I going to say when I go home in a few weeks for her surgery? Just another weekend at home with the 'rents? I don't think that could be farther from the truth. Besides, this is something that is really affecting me. It scares me, it terrifies me, it impacts my life in a way so deep I can barely begin to explain it because my Mother and I are so inextricably linked. And besides, I started this blog in honor of my Mom, because she is such a cool, wonderful, interesting, caring, loving, creative lady. Even in the few scant months I have been blogging I have found in you, my dear readers, an amazing community and I feel as if I don't at least give you the chance to lend the love and support I know you have then I am doing a disservice not only to myself but to you as well.

Though it has been hard the past week what with this on top of everything else, but I am managing to keep my head above water. I am also amazed each and every single day I talk to my Mom, amazed to hear how optimistic she is and hear the strength and perseverance in her voice. I know I take so much comfort from her and feel guilty that it should be the other way around. I also know well the folly of trying to put on some facade or bottle up my emotions to appear a certain way. I refuse to do this and am fortunate to be surrounded by people who I can lean on and go to for support in this time of need. I am especially thankful right now for Daniel and all that he is to me. I don't know what I'd do without his love and comfort.

I went to knitting social tonight and then Dan and I hit the gym for a late workout. Leaving the gym parking lot, we saw that the Cold Stone Creamery right next to the gym was on fire. Well, it wasn't exactly Cold Stone but the apartment right above it, flames were just engulfing the building and shooting out of every window. I heard a woman scream, saw some people who looked like cops run across the street and I called 911 to report it just in case. Since I have already been feeling really emotional today, the fire really hit me hard. We looked for it on the 10 o'clock news but nothing was said, maybe it will be in the paper tomorrow. I just hope noone was hurt.

This whole week is going to be a long one. Since I have tickets for us to go see the The Shins on Thursday, I am taking the LSAT class on Wednesday in Evanston to make up for the missed Thursday class. That means 6-10 both Tuesday and Wednesday nights and then the show on Thursday. I really can't wait for that, I LOVE the Shins. I actually set my alarm and woke up right when the tickets went on sale on Ticketmaster a few months ago and eagerly bought my two. Its going to be busy and crazy but I just keep telling myself I can do it, I can keep my head above water and I am capable of dealing. I think one reason I can of doing this is that I know I am not alone. Together we will slay the beast, its the only way.

If you're out there in internet land, whenever you read this, please send a little thought to my Mom, trust me on this one, she deserves it. Besides, without her you would never have had me to blog for you! All in all a very deserving cause.

Thanks a lot for listening in. I really appreciate each and every single one of you taking the time to read what I put up here (especially since knitting content is on a sort-of hiatus, taking a backseat to other, more pressing issues). I appreciate your comments and your emails and most of all, just knowing that there is someone out there. Most of all, Mom, I love you more than you will ever begin to know. We will make it through this, I am here for you every step of the way, as are so many others, and we will do this together. Just remember, you are never alone.

Up Late!!

2005-04-11T00:35:00.000-05:00

I am up really late tonight and I have no idea why. Yet again, I got all my LSAT homework done and its really not going too poorly at all so far.

We went out to eat at Lula Cafe for dinner tonight and then swung by Target. I had been saying all week that I was saving for a shopping trip to H&M since I am in desperate need of some spring clothing for my work wardrobe but as I didn't get to go there this weekend, I found some good things at Target instead to quell the shopping fury: a pair of magenta pants for work (on sale!) and some really cute capri pajama pants on sale as well. Now, I'm not at all the type of girl who wears pajama pants or even sweats out in public at all but the ones at Target have such cute designs that I really wish I could wear them all the time. That would give me a good excuse to buy more...

Saturday Night Drinks

2005-04-10T01:01:00.000-05:00

Remember this from Fogo de Chao?

We decided to be fancy and make some caipirinhas ourselves at home. Dan had some cachaca and though he swore it was low grade I thought it had a delicious smoky flavor, not at all burning but definitely sure to mess you up after a couple stiff ones. Needless to say I decided not to make the drinks too strong.

Here's our home version

Looks good, huh?

We had a little scare with the dogs this morning. One of Dan's good friends from Minneapolis sent us her boyfriend to stay for the weekend while he checked out the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University up in Evanston. Neither Dan nor I even thought to ask him if he had anything in his bag that the dogs could get into, it just didn't cross our minds. When I came back from breakfast this morning before the guys (who were picking up Dan's drycleaning on the way home) I found the dogs at the door wagging their tails wildly and a chewed open pill bottle on the couch with little pink pills spread everywhere. Wild panic ensued on my part until the guys came home and we determined that a)if anything, the dogs only got 1 or 2 pills and b) it was the generic version of Zanac and not anything more potent or potentially deadly. A quick call to the vet and a check in their reference books we were assured that the dogs would just pass it out as waste, if they had even eaten any pills in the first place. I am so relieved, it gave me such a scare to think that something could have happened to our babies as a result of our obliviousness.

I love my babies.

The Country Squire

2005-04-07T00:08:00.000-05:00

A girl I knew in middle school would have called this a beaver backed grocery getter. Its a Country Squire, how distinguished sounding!

I've noticed a lot of really cool cars in the 'hood recently. In the past few weeks we've spotted a Futura, a Swinger, a really old Ford pickup, a Scout and numerous other unidentified muscle cars. I think the advent of nice weather is bringing all the car buffs out of the woodwork. Come to think of it, a friend of Dan's rents out the second garage spot in our building's garage for his vintage MG. It doesn't run at all and needs a lot of work and Dan thinks that his buddy hasn't touched it since they and some friends pushed it into place. Oh well, maybe one day I'll be able to take some pictures because though dusty, it sure is cool.

High Energy Nadia

2005-04-06T23:51:00.000-05:00

The title of this post says it all. I feel like all systems are kicking into high gear in order to deal with everything coming up in the next few months: LSAT prep-course, studying, maintaining regular gym visits, our vacation at the end of April, diagnostic tests, my birthday, knitting social, the dogs, Daniel... The list goes on and on. Life in general is going well for me right now so I feel like I have a good solid base to work off and everything seems absolutely, positively, 100% accomplishable. I've always been one to take on way too much all the time but oddly enough I feel like I have just the right amount of crushing obligation. Even those odd little monsters that pop up out of nowhere to throw all your best laid plans awry are no match for me right now, I can take them, its no biggie. Let's just hope this good mood continues.

I did my first night's worth of LSAT homework tonight. We have one book per lesson (they're thin - pictures soon) and everybody gaped at the instructor when she said we were expected to finish the whole thing by the next class. We won't be going over the homework in class and there are detailed answers in the back so I know we don't *have* to but I decided to do it anyway. The questions were mainly logical reasoning and logic games but as I went through and practiced the techniques we were given, the questions became easier and I was able to score more correctly. Yet again, this beast is slayable. (if I say it enough times I'm sure it will be true)

Since my classes are Tuesday and Thursday, I think I'm going to have a hard time posting on those nights. I am going to try to create some draft posts to make it easier on myself, mainly some cool pictures or other interesting little bits so all I have to do is press the button and go to bed, leaving you, my reader, with fresh and interesting content. Because this whole exercise is to help you combat boredom, right?

That being said I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures of Nemo. She is sitting on the back of the couch because she likes it up there.

Thai Green Curry

2005-04-04T22:58:00.000-05:00

While I cleaned up the remaining mess from the party, Daniel made us some Thai green curry for dinner. Well, he cheated and used some green curry paste from a little jar that we found in the back of the cabinet when we were cleaning and re-organizing after the new year. What? It still had the safety seal on it!

Bamboo shoots, baby corn, red and yellow bell peppers and snow peas with green curry paste, coconut milk, brown sugar and a splash of Thai fish sauce. Dee-lish with some steamed white rice.

My first real LSAT class is tomorrow. I should clarify that I am taking an LSAT prep-course through Testmasters. Since I work at a law firm and many of my Project Assistant co-workers have also taken the LSAT, I did a little research and this course was highly recommended by all those who took it. Its very intense, 6-10PM every single Tuesday and Thursday until June 6th as well as four diagnostic exams that are administered on Saturdays and then reviewed on Sundays (all except for the first one I took Sunday for which there will be no review). Even though its a daunting task, I think I'm up for some hardcore LSAT action so bring it on!

Thanks Dan, you're the best!

Was it really a weekend?

2005-04-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

Yet another crazy, hectic weekend. How long has it been since I've had a chance to even sit down and knit? Not entirely true since I knit a little tonight, but it came at long last after a busy week and what felt like an even busier weekend.

Friday night we joined Dan's mother for dinner at Cyrano's Bistro, a cute little French restaurant downtown. I had never been to Cyrano's and braced myself for the typical Americans-interpret-French-country-style-with-lots-of-roosters-and-wine-bottles and I was spot on the mark with that hunch. The roosters were out in force and decorated every inch of the restaurant along with other items deemed "typically French" such as sprays of dried flowers, empty wine bottles and oversized bistro-style posters (just about the only decoration a bistro in Paris might actually share with Cyrano's).

Ever since I actually went to France and ate in a real bistro, I've learned to just suck it up and thicken my skin when I go out to these sorts of places here in the states. Sure, it sounds snobby but really, if you want to be French then focus on the food, not how many stupid roosters you can squeeze into one restaurant! Speaking of the food, it was solid bistro fare though I did have a few issues. After being greeted with a cheerful "Bon Soir" (Good Evening) I got my hopes up that this place actually might provide a reasonable facsimile of a French dining experience but I was sadly mistaken. Butter on the table with the bread? Much less a cheese-butter sort of thing? Tres scandale!! (bread is never served with any sort of condiment, much less butter) And actually having the nerve to give me ketchup with my frites (fries)? No way!! I have a funny story about how a hoity-toity waiter nearly passed out when a buddy of mine asked for mayo (a very European way to eat your fries) for his fries at dinner once, to even think of giving out ketchup voluntarily would really put a real French waiter over the edge into cardiac arrest. Not that it wasn't good (and I do love my ketchup!), just not French.

I started out with a bistro salad which was decent, a solid little salad with some mixed greens, candied walnuts and crumbly blue cheese, but Dan's lobster bisque really stole the show in the appetizer arena.

I had moules mariniere (steamed mussels) for my main course and though not perfect they were good. My main issue with the mussels was that they didn't have any cjopped tomatos in the broth. Fortunately the meat was tender and succulent, not overcooked or gritty.

A highlight of the meal was the chocolate mousse, brought out with a sparkler for Dan's birthday. It was light and airy yet rich in taste without weighing down the tongue. A satisfying end to a Friday night dinner.

Saturday was nuts. Between shopping, cleaning and cooking to prepare for the little party we were to throw for Dan that evening (which went very well may I add), we found some time to pot up these new little planties we rescued from Home Depot in the new pots we got at Ikea.

Aren't they cute?

I also took my first LSAT Diagnostic Test today (Sunday). Seeing as we had partied for Dan's birthday the night before, even though I mainly drank cream soda, then turned the clock an hour ahead, I was not a happy camper but I dragged my butt there at 10AM none-the-less. The test was a shock to the system but nowhere near as hard as everyone had hyped it up to be. Sure, its a little unfamiliar right now but I'm sure with a little studying and this intensive course I'll be just fine. Wish me luck just in case!!

A Happy Day

2005-04-01T00:15:00.000-06:00

Let's clear one thing up: I have not so much as touched the back of my ribby cardi since I mentioned it in my last post. This would be quite bad except for the fact that I have barely sat down in my own home on my own couch in the last three days we have been so busy. We hadn't gone grocery shopping in almost two weeks so Tuesday night we ventured out (on a weeknight no less) to do some much needed grocery shopping and hit the gym. Since we only made it to one out of three or four stores we needed to hit up, we went out again this evening and yet again hit the gym afterwards. Good for us but bad for relaxatating because between Daniel and myself, grocery shopping is always a multi-hour ordeal.

But Wednesday night was special, it was Daniel's birthday. Not only was it his birthday but he also got the long awaited job offer (!!!) at about 10AM that morning. Seeing as we really had something to celebrate, I took him out for the nice dinner I had planned at Fogo de Chao, a traditional, Southern Brazilian churrascuria. Read: lots of meat on skewers everywhere. Fortunately, they had an immense and delicious salad bar (don't worry, I called before we went to check it out) and Daniel got to try an impressive 10 different cuts of meat. (Caution: Meat porn ahead)

To describe the concept of a churrascuria, you get a little paper circle that is green on one side and red on the other. When you want some meat, you turn the circle green side up and you table is mobbed by dudes dressed in gaucho pants, each of whom is carrying a different cut and type of meat, ready to carve it fresh onto your plate. When you have enough you had better make sure to turn the circle back to red or they just keep coming. The sides, fried plantains, fried polenta and mashed potatoes, were delicious and like I mentioned, there is an enormous salad bar with fresh vegetables and salad greens as well as prepared salads. I had a saladbar-only option but that suited me just fine and I left just as happy and stuffed as Daniel did.

Traditionally, gauchos (Brazilian cowboys) would cook their meat outdoors over a big fire. Since they were usually out on the pampas (roughly equivalent to the prairie in Brazil, maybe range would be a better term?) they would have to cook and eat an entire cow out of necessity and so as to not waste anything that could be used for food. Thus the concept restaurant was born. (I'm just kidding here, feel the sarcasm?) I didn't have any meat but Daniel did report that it was delicious, salted and slow grilled to perfection. There aren't even pictures here of half the things he ate but I think its enough so that you get the drift.

I made a little slide show again for your enjoyment. Relive the magic, take the magic home!

Happy Birthday Daniel and Congratulations on your new job!!! I am so proud and happy for you, I knew it was coming all along since you are a great guy and definitely deserving.

Spring has Sprung (Almost)

2005-03-28T22:30:00.001-06:00

I am really almost done with the back of my ribby cardi and it is just SO exciting but I can't show you a picture until I am all the way done. I'll lay the groundwork and then keep you hanging for just one more day (commence evil laughter).

I have been obsessed with reading blogs from Paris recently. Spring is actually beginning to spring around here (maybe? I hope so?) and all I can think of is Paris, Paris, Paris (and I most certainly do not mean Hilton!!). I spent 11 weeks in the city of light back in the fall of 2003 and though its really fall weather that makes me ache so hard for France, just seeing the beautiful flowers posted on Chocolate and Zucchini, one of my favorite food blogs, and the amazing chocolate at La Coquette really just turns on the little flame inside me that says "hang in there, spring is coming soon..." Clotilde (C&Z) even mentioned the Parc Du Montsouris a few days ago, which is right outside the dorm where I stayed and where I ran and walked nearly every day during my all too brief stay in France.

The very beginnings of what I can feel will one day become warm breezes are also helping to shake me out of my winter lethargy. I've been good, I've curled up in front of the tube with my knitting almost every night but now, I feel like there is so much more that I am capable of. Like hauling out the sewing machine and finally conquering its scaryness. And working on my quilt, and even sewing skirts! I found a really cute pattern online and I just need to see if I can find anything better at JoAnn Fabrics this week before I buy it. But all in all, I'm excited, I've got a lot of projects brewing and I think it is going to be a good spring.

Mitsuwa Japanese Marketplace

2005-03-27T22:46:00.000-06:00

Dan and I took a trip to the scary suburban wasteland that surrounds Chicago in order to visit one of our favorite places, Ikea, and a new place (at least to me) the Mitsuwa Marketplace. Mitsuwa is a Japanese "Mall" of sorts that contains a grocery store, liquor store, travel agency, bookstore, video rental, bakery, cheap-cool-Japanese-stuff stand and food court. Prime opportunity for us to go wild.

The best things I got today were these cool Japanese craft books. The one on the left is embroidery and the one on the right is knitting.

I particularly like these little pouches

The book even has sewing instructions to make the little items such as these pouches, drawstring bags, aprons and placemats that the embroidery is featured on.

We also went wild at Ikea and came home with a good haul of things we had been discussing our need for: flower pots for the porch, a new spice rack, a hanging lamp for over the table and some new bowls to replace the ones that we broke.

I particular love this fabric I picked up and I am going to look for a skirt pattern for the white fabric with the big print. Preferably a nice swingey, full skirt with a ribbon around the waist.

Since we took a lot of pictures at Mitsuwa, I made a nice little slideshow for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Spring and Summer Knitting

2005-03-24T23:29:00.000-06:00

I hadn't treated myself to any knitting paraphenalia or yarn in quite a while so I decided to go all out and splurge on the Rowan #37, spring and summer knitting magazine. There are a number of really lovely summer cardigans in it that I like as well as some lacy, romantic numbers that are just beautiful. I really want to knit the lace camisole featured on the cover so that just might be my first project.

What with one of my bosses on maternity leave at work, I have really been slammed and am dealing with a full workload as well as a full social schedule. As a result, this week has been exhausting. I feel as if I come home every night exhausted to my bones. As soon as I've eaten dinner and am settled on the couch I am practically incapable of getting up again. The worst is when I am so tired I can't even look at my hands (a requirement if I want to knit a little). I've been forcing myself to pick up the cardi back and as soon as I do I settle into a comfortable, albiet weary, routine. I've made some good progress, especially after an uninterupted hour and a half of knitting at the knitting social tonight. I am getting ready to start the arm decreases and if I get some good time to knit this weekend as I anticipate doing, I hope to have the back done and the next piece on my needles by Monday. Yes, I know I set very lofty goals for myself. I have never been one to shy away from a challenge.

Seeing as I haven't been blogging as much this week I will leave you with another adorable puppy shot.

Stymie likes to curl up into a little puppy-ball to rest on the floor.

Ribby Cardi Back Redux

2005-03-21T22:04:00.000-06:00

I am working on the back of my ribby cardi again. I think I am about 7 inches along for the second time and its going much better than the first. I think it will actually fit when I get done with it this time.

I feel bad I'm not talking as much about knitting these days but I assure you I am working frantically on this project and I knit about an hour or two each night. I have some other projects that I am planning so hopefully some more on those soon.

We made another pizza for dinner tonight with the second half of the pizza dough from yesterday. This one was even better than yesterday featuring tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and the leftover onions. Pizza is one of my all time absolute favorite foods and I am just floating in pizza heaven right now.

This picture is a little blurry (just back up from the computer a little) but I couldn't pass up this classic Nemo expression.

Pissaladiere

2005-03-20T23:35:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: Just in case you were losing confidence, I will have knitting updates tomorrow. For now there are more exciting things to attend to like Sunday dinner.

Remember all those disgusting things you wouldn't touch when you were a kid like anchovies, onions and olives? I know a lot of adults (myself included until very recently) still won't touch most of these things. Despite their bad stigma, Dan and I used a recipe out of Ina Garten's latest cookbook, Barefoot in Paris, for Pissaladiere, a Provencal style pizza with neither cheese nor red sauce that has all three of the above ingredients as toppings. Thanks Dan for getting me this cookbook as a Christmas gift! The recipe was...Tres Scandale!!

This was my first successful kitchenaid mixer dough. I've tried making dough with the recipe that came with the mixer when we first got it and it failed miserably. Ever since then I've been doing all my dough for pizza and bread by hand because I just felt it was easier, and besides, dough is very intuitive and responsive to the human touch. Sounds weird and new-agey but its true.

This recipe specifically called for using the mixer and I trust Ina, having watched many of her TV shows on the Food Network, so into the mixer it went. The mixer performed just like its supposed to and the dough came out perfectly elastic and smooth. We even have another portion in the frige for more fresh pizza tomorrow.

The pizza was fantastic. We cooked the onions for almost an hour ahead of time on very low heat so they were extremely sweet and tender but not brown. Overall the taste was salty and the flavors were strong but I prefer to think of it as a very adult pizza, sophisticated, classy and tres francais.

I might also mention that the Coppola Diamond Collection 2003 Chardonnay we tried with the pizza was delicious. I've found the Coppola wines to be consistently fantastic with the Bianco being my very favorite. The Diamond collection is on the upper price range at approximately 11 dollars a bottle but at its best the Bianco is only $6.99. If you see the Bianco anywhere for this price, my advice would be to grab a couple of bottles because while it may sound generic and you may think that wine with a celebrity's name on the label wouldn't be good at all, Francis Ford Coppola has been making wine for more than twenty years and trust me, he knows what he is doing.

The Bitter Tears

2005-03-19T21:47:00.000-06:00

Remember last week when I said I might go see that band, The Bitter Tears? Well, I did! And it was pretty good, very entertaining and definitely interesting.

Around 8PM Friday night I talked to Snow, whose boyfriend, Foster, is the drummer, and she told me she would give me a half hour's warning before she left the house. I sat down on the couch to eat some dinner and catch my breath and next thing I knew, I was fast asleep with the light on directly overhead and the dogs sprawled all over me. So fast asleep that when she called again at 10:15, I stupidly told her I didn't want to go as I was too tired. Too tired on Friday night at 10:15? What had gotten into me?? (actually, we normally stay in Friday nights because we're so tired so I don't blame myself too much for this glaring mistake) But as I rolled over and the light got in my eyes and I opened them just a little wider, I realized what I had just said and jerked awake, scattering the poor dogs who slinked away from the couch with reproach in their eyes for their abrupt wake-up call. I grabbed my cell phone and called Snow back to let her know I changed my mind and was coming and she told me to meet her at Nick's by 11.

A quick change of wardrobe to my new pink tights that cost me 49 cents at Old Navy, a dash of fresh makeup and I was out the door.

The show was at The Hideout which I thought was absolutely amazing. It's tiny, dark, uber-cool and hidden away down a side street in a slightly industrial area near a gigantic Home Depot. The cabdriver had definitely never been there before.

I thought the band was very entertaining; they're a mix of rock, honky-tonk and cabaret that is nothing but pure indie rock fun. Complete with costumes, trombone, flugel horns, slid whistle and a great pianist, The Bitter Tears rocked out and rocked my world for the 45 or so minutes they were on the stage. WIth harmonies so casually sung that they almost seem like delightful afterthoughts, a difficult feat for young bands these days, if you get a chance, go see them now because Snow swears to me that down the road they'll be famous and I don't doubt it.

Things that hold other things on the wall

2005-03-17T23:40:00.000-06:00

Remember my post just a few days ago about how I loved hooks and things that hang other things on the wall?

In lieu of knitting pictures, AGAIN, I am going to feature some other lovely household implements that help us out.

This is the knife rack that is over the sink. When I moved in, Dan had this dinky, sad little knife rack from Ikea. Problem was, it didn't work at all. Every time you went to wash some dishes or get some water, BAM! The knives would come flying off the wall straight at you. Now we have some mean looking knives so this was certainly no picnic. The tips of the knives would also get blunted from falling into the sink and that was irritating as well. Everything changed when we visited our favorite kitchen supply store to get our knives sharpened back in the fall. I fell in love with this big, industrial strength knife rack and whoops, I guess it just followed me home. Needless to say the knives stay firmly where they are supposed to, up on the wall and out of harm's way (to both us and them). In case anyone is wondering, the big knife and the paring knife with the black handle are Wustof Classic Gourmet and I have another chef's knife that has a handle (slightly nicer than the handle on the chef's knife shown) that matches the paring knife pictured here, I think it was just dirty when I took this shot. Can you tell we really love our knives?

This rack was my real stroke of genius. When I was preparing to move in, the closet in the spare bedroom was absolutely crammed full of stuff, including all the mops and brooms and ironing board etc. Since the closet was earmarked to become mine and I needed that space immediately, I suggested a rack like one I had seen in some magazine at some point (can't remember which one, probably Martha or Real Simple). All my stuff wasn't even in the apartment and Dan had already gone out to the home-improvement store, purchased this (yet again) industrial rack and mounted it on the wall behind the bathroom door. It has worked like a dream since day one and really keeps things accessible, organized and out of the way. It even manages to look interesting and provide some wall decor.

I really do talk about knitting, I swear...

2005-03-16T22:58:00.000-06:00

So hello to all the people I am getting from joining the Knitting Bloggers webring! Please take a look around, bookmark me if you want and come back often because I blog frequently. I am extremely proud and happy to be a part of this webring and a big part of that is getting to be part of a larger knitting community on the web. Very exciting!

Just to prove that I really do blog about knitting I present you with The Sock:

I knit this back in the beginning of January. It's made of grey Takhi Donegal Tweed and its for my boyfriend, Daniel. I think the reason I haven't started the second sock is that I promised some people I would make a tutorial for knitting socks on two circular needles and the second sock in this pair was going to be my example sock. I think I just put so much pressure on myself that I am a little scared to start it because I'm afraid I won't be able to explain myself clearly or take good pictures. This is ludicrous as I teach knitting so I think I am going to cast on and take some photos this weekend. If it doesn't work, I have plenty more sock yarn to illustrate the technique. Daniel deserves his sock's mate and I think I need to own up to my promise of a tutorial because I know its in me, like so many other things I just need to sit down and do it.

Another big thing that just occurred tonight is that we moved the computer. Previously I blogged from the spare bedroom, the monitor on a dresser and the keyboard on my lap. Needless to say it was very uncomfortable.

Notice how the mouse is held on a CD jewel case (Cold Cold Hearts if you're interested) and my feet are in the sock drawer to anchor the chair in place hence the sad sad look on my face.

Tonight we moved the computer onto the kitchen table. Amazingly, all our crochety wireless and DSL equipment has decided to work like a dream and it is SO comfortable to actually be able to sit at a table and use the computer like a normal human being. I am SOOO happy. So happy I'm blogging about it! Oh happy day, three cheers for comfort while blogging!

Guilt-free by Association

2005-03-15T23:20:00.000-06:00

Daniel and I are sincerely trying to do better in our working out/eating healthy regimen. The eating part isn't bad, we cook most of our own meals out of nice, fresh, healthy ingredients and typically shun most foods that come pre-packaged. We always buy lots of nice fruits and vegetables from the produce mart and we've recently been buying and eating tofu several times weekly between our regimen of silken tofu smoothies and extra-firm tofu stir-fries.

Its just the gym that's the hard part. Ever since the new year hit, our gym attendance has plummeted. We've been gym buddies since I moved in last August, I think it might have been the same day we began moving my things that we marched into the gym and signed up for a partner membership. We like to go together and motivate each other. Or enable ourselves to sit on the couch and whine about how we are tired as the case may be. I just don't understand how we could have gone from 4 gym visits a week back in August to now, March, when we need the exercise the most and we are barely making twice a week. I think its the weather. Its so hard to motivate when it is freezing cold out and gets dark so early. Its not as bad as December but still! We are trying to make it back up to three times a week as well as one yoga class (so four exercise days total) but its proving really hard.

To compensate ourselves for actually peeling our lazy butts off the couch and working out tonight, I made guilt-free brownies from MS Everyday Food Issue 19*. They are guilt free because of a reduction in the amount of eggs and butter and the addition of some surreptitious prune paste.

These were spot on, oozy and fudgy and rich, I swear you would never know the difference.

Despite our failed gym goals, Daniel did finally put up some hooks by the door for the dogs' leashes and harnesses. I had been asking for them for quite some time and we finally dragged out the toolbox over the weekend, discovered that we did in fact have molly bolts, whipped out the electric drill and put these up. I love utilitarian things that hold other things on the wall.

*Can you tell I love this magazine? I'll have to give you my whole Everyday Food spiel about uni-taste some time soon but we tend to make an average of one recipe from here a week.

One Sleeve down...

2005-03-13T22:23:00.000-06:00

...and one to go!! I can't believe I have actually finished my first sweater component ever. I actually think I got it right too. Have a look-see:

Check out the little renegade doggy tail in the lower right hand corner. How cute!

I made the sleeves a bit longer than it said on the pattern. For the second size up they recommended a 17.5 length before you begin the decreases but that seemed awefully short to me, especially since I have long, amazon-woman style arms. I was shooting for 18.5 but they are 19" and if they are a little too long I really don't mind. Besides, isn't that how all the cool kids wear their sleeves, too long? I certainly want to be cool too...

A Hard Day's Night

2005-03-12T23:13:00.000-06:00

This past week at work was brutal. Busy, hectic, confusing, and the fact that both the dogs were out of whack did not help things at all. I felt like I had gotten so little sleep that I was truly a zombie by the time Friday night rolled around.

Amazingly, after a nice refreshing walk with the dogs after work, we decided that we actually wanted to get out of the house for a change of pace. Food sounded good and a drink sounded even better. A couple of phone calls and a quick freshen-up later, we were headed out to Mas with my buddy from college, Snow.

(We were drinking caipirinhas and Dan must have been having trouble holding the camera steady, if you back up a little from the computer it looks much better.)
From the restaurant, she headed out to hear her boyfriend's band, The Bitter Tears play. I haven't seen them yet, so I can't vouch for their music, but we might see them next weekend. Dan and I stopped at the corner store on the way back and picked up some beer and disgusting-yet-delicious snack cakes for a Friday night on the couch with TiVO.

Trust me, this looks absolutely revolting and calorie laden but it hit the spot in ways I can't even begin to describe.

On Saturday we visited one of our favorite places in Old Town, The Spice House. This place is amazing, they sell every type of herb and spice imaginable in bulk for super cheap. Everything is extremely fresh and high quality and the staff are virtually walking spice encyclopedias. Back in December, during our holiday entertaining marathon, we were here practically every weekend and they are pretty much the only place on town to get citric acid in bulk (more on how we know that in another post).

We stocked up on a bunch of things we had run low on, basil, cayenne pepper, rosemary, sesame seeds and some italian seasoning. When we got home I proceeded to rearrange our spice collection in a fit of organizational madness.

You really can't begin to tell how many different spices, herbs and flavorings we really own from this picture but trust me, the number is up there.

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that we compared some new organic ketchup from Trader Joe's with the off-brand swill I think I purchased back in college.

The Country's Delight tasted like tomato flavored water compared with the lush, fruity, slightly spicey flavor of the organic ketchup. Run, don't walk, run to your local super market and buy some organic ketchup if you care at all about the fate of your hashbrowns.

What's This?

2005-03-11T00:04:00.000-06:00

After a particularly rough day at work, it was nice to go to my knitting group and just chill out and laugh some. I am almost done with the first sleeve of my cardi and I'll post pictures as soon as its ready. Very exciting!

But after knitting it was even nicer to come home to two healthy puppies, a (perpetually) grumpy birdie and a nice warm boyfriend. Especially since he had made these:

What is it? This is a delicious little dessert made in a ramekin with eggs and sugar and ground up pistacios. I think its from MSEveryday food but don't quote me on that one since Dan's the one who's made these both times they have shown up on the table. And in the inside is hidden a delicious little surprise, strawberries!!

If knitting with friends and strawberries in yummy desserts don't make you happy than I don't know if I can help you.

Spay Day

2005-03-09T23:15:00.000-06:00

Dan and I woke up very early (5:45AM - unheard of for us!) to take Stymie to PAWS to get her spayed. As was mentioned previously here, we suffered through one heat cycle and, being the responsible dog owners we are, we definitely didn't want to go through that again.

After dropping her off and chatting with the vet we left our little baby behind at the clinic. I was on tenterhooks all day, hoping that nothing bad would happen and fortunately, nothing did. When we went back to pick her up, our Stymie-puppy trotted out groggy and disoriented but on her own four paws, unassisted. That quickly ended as she pooped out after about 10 feet and I had to carry her to the car.

She was definitely not thrilled about the "Elizabethan style" collar she has to wear now.

Nemo is being such a good sister, letting Stymie lay all over her and being patient and calm.

I know I didn't mention it before but Nemo barfed a few times in the last few days so what with her tummy trouble and Stymie's recovery, we are all a little disoriented and both the dogs are eating boiled chicken and white rice per the vet's orders. Poor Stymie is so uncomfortable even without the collar (we took it off for a little while under our supervision) that she can't fall asleep and she keeps getting up to shift position. Up on the couch, back on the floor, lie on one side, roll over to the over, now on her back, now sitting up, always whining, always looking very pathetic.

I feel so bad. Poor Stymie! Don't worry darling, we love you so much and you'll heal up soon and be better than ever.

Thank You Scarf Swappers!!!!

2005-03-08T23:20:00.000-06:00

Hello to scarf swappers who might be visiting my website!!! Thank you so much!!! Please put me on your list and come back to visit often, you are always welcome here.

I was SO excited to receive my scarf in the mail from the Pretendingsanity scarf swap.

Wearing an object someone knitted or crocheted for you, especially around your neck like a scarf, is like wearing their love right there on your skin. I know its a little weird but I feel like my scarf has all these different squares from different people therefore its like wearing the love of lots of people. I am so happy. I received the package while at work and immediately opened it and wore it around the office with pride.

I also want to introduce you to someone very special in my life:
Julius

Julius came out of my stepdad's basement and was the family vacuum for quite some time. I have developed a deep attachment to Julius (names as in Caesar because he's old) since I brought him with me to Chicago to help keep my very first apartment clean back in my second year of college.
Since I have a bird (and now two furry doggies) I depend heavily on Julius to help out around the house. Despite the fact that you have to hold the tube and the cleaner head together very tightly when you vacuum and the bare floor attachment seems to have gotten stopped up somehow, Julius is in prime working condition. He is a genuine electrolux tank model from sometime in the 70's as evidenced by the lovely pea-green and silver coloring he sports. Fortunately bags are easy to find since they just make them for "Electrolux Tank Model, Post-1950."

Oh Julius! What would I do without you?

The Ribby Cardi Rises Again

2005-03-07T23:44:00.000-06:00

As I type this, Dan is scrubbing away at his ipod with a sponge and some brasso in the other room. Whether the brasso really cleans the ipod remains to be seen, judging by the myriad grunts and exclamations coming from the kitchen.

As soon as I posted my entry yesterday and walked away from the computer, I sat down and proceeded to get half of one of the arms on my ribby cardi done. It felt so satisfying to finally sit down and re-tackle this project that has been haunting me for the past two weeks. It just felt so intimidating to think that I had to frog so much of my hard work. How could I possibly come back to it with any dignity (and then proceed to blog about it as well!)? Well, I mustered what dignity I had left and bit the proverbial bullet. Frogging is a thing that all knitters deal with, no matter how "good" they are. Its kind of ridiculous that I should feel this way considering its not even the first thing I frogged!

As it is, I got this much done and I feel so much better about the project. I have a really hard time keeping my ribbing looking neat but I think this is going to be a good practice switching between knitting and purling. If I keep knitting at this rate, I'll get the sucker done in no time and I am feeling really fired up. Let's see how it goes as the week continues...

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I got out of bed early Saturday morning and bought two tickets to see The Shins right when they went on sale. I might have an LSAT class that night so we'll see if I actually go but I love them so much I just had to have the option. I'm sure they'll go like hotcakes on Craigslist if we decide against it. Excited...April 14 = Shins Concert!!!

Whirlwind Weekend

2005-03-06T14:11:00.000-06:00

I am SO sorry I haven't written in a few days, its not that I haven't wanted to (trust me, I always want to write in my blog). Its just been really busy around here.

An old friend of mine from high school emailed last Wednesday to let me know he was going to be in town this weekend to see some band called Slobberbone. They are apparently one of his favorite bands and are playing a farewell tour only through the Midwest, not going anywhere near Boston where he currently lives. We weren't doing much so I told him he could stay with Dan and I.

His name is Dan too. This is the second time in two months that we have had a houseguest named Dan, not to mention the fact that a Dan already lives here!

I met up with Dan after work on Friday only to discover that my Dan had had an old friend call to say she was in town as well. We gathered her up and all went out to the Smoke Daddy for some ribs (and BBQ smothered veggie burgers for me). Then we all split up, dropped Dan's buddy back at her hotel and dropped my HS friend Dan off at the Abbey Pub for his show. My Dan and I joined up with our buddy Jason and his roommate and the four of us went off to see The Changes at the Double Door, a quick walk from the apartment.

I took some other cool photos at the show so be sure to check out my photostream.

We got to bed so late Friday night that all I wanted to do was chill out on Saturday. We checked out a new breakfast spot in Logan Square, the Hot Spot. My Dan and I LOVE a good breakfast on the weekends, whether its out or in and the Hot Spot hit the spot after a late night spent at smoky bars. After breakfast we just tooled around and visited some cool hangouts in our hood like Rotofugi, an awesome designer toy store, and Quimby's bookstore. Saturday night a buddy of mine from college was having a Blini party (Blini are Russian buckwheat flour crepes) and we gorged on blini and good vodka while listening to bad euro-pop.

As for knitting content...well, I restarted the ribby cardi (finally!!). But I began with a sleeve and I only have a few rows done since we've been entertaining. Friend-Dan left at 4AM this morning to catch his flight and I am determined to finally sit on my butt and get some knitting done. Besides, after the last few whirlwind days I think I NEED some time to just sit and chill though the house is a wreck and eventually we will have to get up and clean.

Hope your weekend has been good as mine was!

Why is it still winter?

2005-03-02T23:25:00.000-06:00

It was really beginning to feel like spring there for a few weeks in the beginning of February. My Mom swears that spring in Chicago comes much earlier than spring in Rochester, which usually shows up sometime around the end of May, but I'm not so sure. In Rochester it may snow until my birthday but when its spring, its really spring - complete with flowers blooming, birds chirping and the whole bit. Here in Chicago, I've discovered it has the tendancy to warm up sometime in February and trick us all into shedding our heavy winter coats and experiment wearing skirts without the thick stocking we wore in the winter, if we even braved a skirt at all. But then - wait for it - BAM!! Winter will lay the smack down once again and we are plunged into below freezing weather, left to shiver it out for at least another month, or so they say on the radio.

Right now it is hovering in the 25 to 30 range and I am pissed. Pissed at the cold, pissed at the grey sky, pissed that I had a little taste of what's to come and it was stolen from me. I know I know, spring will come eventually, but it usually just goes from being freezing one day to being scalding the next. That's another problem with this place, spring doesn't come early, it really doesn't come at all. See - I am a coat person, I have a number of lovely "intermediate weather" coats that, in a perfect world, I would wear all spring and fall. Due to this crazy, cranky climate, the poor coats sit on their hangers in the closet, sad and limp, with no place to be worn because of lack of the proper intermediate weather.

I know I complain a lot, everyone around here complains a lot about the weather. It seems like no matter what its doing outside, someone has something bad to say about it. Despite the weather's inadequacies, I really do like it here. I think that complaining is our way of coping and that without that outlet, people's attitudes might be a whole lot worse. The way a girlfriend put it to me once, feeling the seasons change and experiencing the extremes of weather is one tangible way of knowing that we are alive. Its a reminder that the earth moves in cycles, just like our lives and even though things get cold and grey sometimes, the sun will always come out sooner or later. So in the dead of winter, or even the beginning of March like right now, I try to remember that I should be thankful that I am alive and remember that even if its cold and grey outside, I am grateful that we are all capable of finding sunlight and warmth in our lives year round, no matter what the weather.

So this is for all those out there who are getting the end-of-winter doldrums and are feeling a little blue, may you find the sunlight in your life and may it be accompanied by much warmth and happiness because I'm sure its out there for you and I know I am very thankful for mine.

Doggie Ladies

2005-03-01T21:56:00.000-06:00

Having dogs has really been a wonderful thing for Dan and I. We are getting out more, waking up earlier and while we do have more dog fur everywhere, I like to think that its a constant reminder of all the love in our apartment. Its almost like the dogs are our children, we kiss them, hug them, love them and fuss with them every available chance. They sleep on the bed with us and snuggle on the couch when we watch TV or are knitting. Like new parents with children we have also taken more photos of them in two weeks than we have of the two of us in 18 months.

Two days after we got her, Stymie promptly went into heat. We had planned all along to get her fixed and we figured that since dogs are only in heat twice a year, that we'd be fine until her appointment in early March. No such luck. We gamely put dark sheets on the couch and the bed and when she was really messy, I dug out an old pair of sparkley underware, cut a hole for her tale and she wore panties for a day.

The doggie ladies are incredibly cute. In fact, they are some of the cutest doggies on the planet, at least in our eyes. We love both dogs equally but Nemo is definitely the "cute" one. Here she is looking like a little goddess in her pink collar.

The reason that Nemo is the cute one is that Stymie has a worse underbite than she does. You heard correctly, both dogs have horrible underbites and it juts their jaws out funny. I had horrors of doggie orthodontia when we got them but the vet said that they were just fine as is. Its a little hard to make out in this shot because the dogs, like kids, are always moving, but the lower teeth are at least half an inch in front of their upper teeth.

Lastly, having pets, as many people well know, is a prime opportunity to come up with pet names. Since the doggie ladies are so silly, I've given them many silly names including "Stime Bag" for Stymie, in tribune to Dime Bag Darryl, and Nemo "The Bambino" as Nemo is our little "Dogfather" wannabe. Silly rhymes are also popular like Nemo-Femo, Nemo-Steamo and Nemo-bo-bimo. Once in a while we even remember to "put your styme on your money and your money on your styme."

Stymie and Nemo love to give kisses to Mommy and unlike Daddy, I don't wipe my face and complain that they are gross. Oh, I know Dan loves them and just him allowing them to kiss his face is a big step that I'm happy about. And besides, what could be better than happy doggie kisses??

Productivity

2005-02-27T23:17:00.000-06:00

There's nothing quite like a big, white, elephantine project to inspire all sorts of productivity in a knitter. Right now, my white elephant is the ribby cardi. I am going to restart it...tomorrow. Promise.

This week the cardi really pushed me to get some other projects done.
I finished the airy scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts:

And I started and finished the Angora Baby Booties, also from LMKG. But first, take a close look at this picture, its the one I put up in my sidebar Friday night:

Do you see what I see? Yep, there is a piece of yarn on the heel that is hanging off, broken!! Somehow, when I put this down at 2AM Friday night (Saturday morning) I misguidedly thought I was supposed to break that piece of yarn. I wasn't, I was supposed to be using it to pick up some stitches along the heel edges. But I just stranded in a new piece of yarn and it all turned out fine. I even managed to finish despite the fact that I bound off, broke the yarn and THEN realized my bind off row was waaay too tight to squeeze a fat little baby foot in there so I undid the bound off row and looped in a brand new piece of yarn to bind off a second time using much larger needles.

Sometimes I think this blog should be called Knitcore Nadia's Gallery of Amazing Disasters.

Tonight Karen hosted the monthly Stitch n' Bitch we have for our personal friends to come and knit. The distinction between this and the knitting social is that anyone can come to that but the SnB we have is private, invitation only and usually involves food, drinks and generally a really entertaining night. Karen and I live in the same 2 flat (2 story apartment building in Chicago-speak) so we didn't even have to go outside which is a good thing because its rainy and disgusting out.
I had a great time even though only a few people showed up and I finished the booties. I had figured out the pattern well enough that the second bootie didn't give me nearly as much trouble as the first.

I also felt a weird compulsion and baked a coconut cake for the occasion.
Here is the cake with just the frosting:

Its a meringue style frosting that I had to hand whisk over a pan of simmering water for 7 minutes. My stand mixer didn't do me any good in that situation and I nearly died of arm muscle failure. Fortunately at the end of 7 minutes I just popped the bowl on the Kitchenaid and it finished it up in no time.

Here I am gently applying the toasted coconut. I didn't realize that the coconut I had was unsweetened but I toasted it and it was really a beautiful garnish and flavor.

And the final finished product:

This weekend was supposed to be relaxing and even though we stayed in both Friday and Saturday nights, I have no idea where any of the time went. I feel like I spent the whole weekend on the go, running from one thing to the next. Ah well, at least I got a ton of knitting done, maybe next weekend there will be more time for relaxatating as Dan would say.

Gaaaah, where I am reduced to begging

2005-02-26T00:27:00.000-06:00

I have decided that I not only want an ipod, I NEED an ipod. The feeling hit me right at the end of my workday today and I was consumed with ipod fever. I began comparing prices online, checking out ebay and thinking about how I could squeeze it into the current budget. Then along came the International Herald Tribune.

The IHT is a fabulous international newspaper that you can read online. They do a really good job reporting a lot of international news that doesn't even make it into the New York Times. But today, when I googled "free ipods" it came up that there was an article in the IHT about just that topic (and another in Wired, another publication that I trust). Now I'm an extremely skeptical person, I don't pass on any sort of chain letter or silly joke email, I read and laugh at them but I am not going to put them in anyone else's inbox. I also rarely send mass emails unless I have something really important to say, like when my phone number changed, for example. Along the same lines I am extremely skeptical of deals that sound too good to be true on the internet.

Naturally I have always been skeptical of those "Get a free ipod" websites you see all the time. Of course it HAD to be a scam, I was positive. Even when people began posting on message boards that they had in fact coerced their friends to participate and they had really received a free ipod. I still wasn't 100% convinced until I saw it in the IHC. That's a publication I really respect and if they say its not a scam, then perhaps it isn't. And besides, I want an ipod so badly that at this point, I was willing to give it a try.

The article mentioned a free ipod website that they said was trustworthy. There is a reason I am not giving the actual address yet! The IHC claimed that they were legit and provided examples of people who had ipods from the website. The process is this: sign up, complete an "offer" and then get 5 friends to do the same and they send you your free ipod. Ok, I figured, how bad can it be? The answer? Not that bad at all.

If you do decide to help me out, the link is below but here is some really good advice: I didn't look at the offers too closely but the one I did is the one I think you should do. I did the offer for Complete Home (www.completehome.com). How do I know this is safe? I've done it before. See, I do this thing called MyPoints where I get emails, click on links and earn points just for clicking the link which I can eventually redeem for gift certificates. My Points is pretty cool, the friend who referred me spent several years clicking links in emails and she got a $100 gift certificate for Bloomingdale's. If you shop online, there are a lot of online sites that you can shop through the My Points website and earn points for every dollar you spend. My favorite program is where you sign your credit card up and everytime you eat out at a restaurant that participates you get points for every dollar you spend. A lot of restaurants in my area have signed on to this and its amazing how, without even thinking about it, our Friday night pizza gets me closer to free stuff. I almost forgot to add that I donated $150 dollars in points to Tsunami relief through them. They sent out an email right after the disaster and every point you donated was turned into dollars that went right to the Red Cross Disaster Relief. That was really the icing on the cake for me right there.

But I digress. Almost a year ago My Points had an offer from Complete Home that if you paid $1 dollar for a month's subscription with no obligation to continue, you got a $20 Lowe's gift certificate and a whole slew of points. I did it and made it a point to call them after 20 days to cancel out my membership so I wouldn't be charged the regular fee. I was very impressed that not only did I actually receive my gift certificate very promptly but when I called they kindly unsubscribed me and only charged me the $1 and not a cent more. I think some of the free ipod offers are similar but might not even cost any money. If you won't do this because you would have a hard time remembering to cancel before you got charged, please please email me when you sign up and I will personally call or email you to remind you to cancel your subscription. If you give me the password I will even do it myself for you.

I noticed that to get my ipod you have to stay a member of CompleteHome for 7 days and then you can cancel. I just put the date in my day planner along with the phone number and I will do it from work in 10 days. Easy as pie. Are you ready now to help a sister out? I desperately want an ipod. If you do decide to do this I can help you out if you need it, or maybe knit something for you or cook dinner if you live in town? Please, I am begging you to help me get my ipod. Let me also say I am not being paid to say any of this, I am really truly sure that this is legit because I experienced the offer first hand.

Click Here for My Referral Page!!

I am on the verge of emailing anyone and everyone I know like the pathetic beggar I am to ask them to help me out but I figured it was worth posting here. And trust me, I wouldn't do this unless I knew for certain it was legit. And I am.

For anyone who does decide to do this, thank you SO SO SO much.

And P.S. the reason I didn't put the link for MyPoints is that if you email me, I can refer you and get more points myself :) If you are interested, just email me and I'll send you the information.

Diary of a Shoe Obsessed Maniac

2005-02-23T00:08:00.000-06:00

I don't know if you've noticed but I set up a second flickr account because I am a flickr addict. I can't really afford a pro account and I always load way too many photos in because I just can't pick what I am going to need ahead of time. I ran out of space for February mid-last week so I just set up another account and up goes zeitgeist #2 in the sidebar, my new photostream can be found here.

I did a bad thing today. Every time I do this particular bad thing I call my boyfriend and tell him "Daniel, I was a bad girl." He always sighs and asks what it is this time. As usual, this time it was the shoes. I totally broke my austerity budget and I had been doing so well for so long. I guess its because I just got paid and I also got a separate check for back pay from the raise that all the PA's got for 2005. But I hadn't spent anything in so long (not entirely true but I've been trying!) that I just had to reserve a little for myself.

Now I know my Mom will understand completely, but shoes are a bit of an addiction for the women in our family. I am also the clearance rack queen, I find it almost physically impossible to not peruse a clearance rack for that hidden gem of a steal. I can't remember the last time I bought shoes that weren't on sale, I just don't do it. This time I made out like a bandit and I won't say how much these cost but I paid well under $30 for each pair so I am very proud of myself.

BCBG from Marshall Fields

Chinese Laundry from DSW

Irregular Choice from Marshall Fields

I just had to post these because I knew my Mom will appreciate this. Please don't worry, I am all budgeted out for the rest of the month. I paid all my bills already and I repaid myself the money I borrowed from my savings with my FSA reimbursement. I am also going to see a financial planner tonight who's a college friend of my officemate so I'd say I'm in pretty good shape. Wish me luck on the financial planner though, she swears he's a really nice guy but I'm still nervous about the ridiculously small amount of money I have to play with. I know that's unreasable but still, money is a tough one.

Shoes on the other hand are easy.

A few confessions

2005-02-21T23:35:00.000-06:00

I have a few confessions to make. For one, my stepdad asked me today "So you're a blogger, huh?" And, slightly taken aback since I had never actually heard anyone use that term in conjunction with my name, I had to reply that yes, yes I guess I am. But I have to thank him for outing me to myself, yes, I am a blogger. I don't just have a "website" like I tell everyone, I have a blog. A big, fat, ole' blog. And I am going to be proud of it. So big thanks to my stepdad, because he not only sounded proud of me but he made it sound like a good thing, but I am finally fully able to admit it, I am a blogger.

Second confession: I frogged the entire ribby cardi last night and am starting over. (!!) I kept looking at it and looking at it and man, it sure looked small. And then it dawned on me that I had been basing my measurements on my chest size and not my actual bust size and though I want it close, I don't want it *too* small. So I took a little break to work on something else and I am going to start fresh tomorrow. I also realized, as I was frogging, that sure enough, I had used two balls of yarn in the 12" that I had knit. I know this because I found the join and the ends hanging neatly off the edge waiting to be woven in. And to think I was panicked that I wasn't using enough yarn. Silly me, better luck next time.

Check out this amazing yarn:

Its Color Me Illusion, I think the color is "Envy." Mom traded it for something at a yarn store in Rochester and gave it to me because she couldn't think of anything to do with it. In case you can't tell, this skein is enormous, about 500 yards.
It's 90% Merino and 10% Acrylic and very fine and delicate.

I decided it was perfect for the Airy Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I also was craving an easy project that would pick me up after my deflating experience frogging the cardi. I needed something that would knit up fast, be fun and most of all, look good.
I am almost done, I am going to finish up the tail end tomorrow. The colors remind me of spring which is really welcome right about now.

Here's a closeup:

I love knitting, even when it gets me down, there is always some other project that will cheer me up.

Something about Costco

2005-02-20T21:30:00.000-06:00

What is it about Costco that turns normally sane, rational people into stark raving lunatics? When we first began dating, I laughed that Daniel was a "family of one" and he shopped at Costco but now, despite the fact that we are only a "family of two," it has become indispensible to our health and well being. What would we do without our industrial sized bottles of dishsoap and laundry detergent? Where else would offer us the buy-one-get-one-free-sale-of-the-millenium they had last summer on the extra large canisters of Electro Sol dishwashing tablets? By the way, we are still not done with the second one and we bought them last June! Amazing!

I have truly come to love Costco and all it has to offer. Last summer, Daniel and I OD'ed on big juicy peaches and plums because we would buy them by the flat only to find we would each have to consume at least two a day in order to eat them all before they went bad. So we did and it was an orgy of juicy goodness. But with winter and the onset of bad weather and the cessation of barbeques and outdoor get togethers, our Costco visits had become more and more infrequent until today when we finally used up all the dishsoap in the enormous bottle under the sink (we pour it into a cool Method container in order to get the most out of both soap and Method bottle). When that bottle finally went in the recycling we knew there was nothing we could do but make the pilgrimage to Costco and get another one.

An important thing to understand in the discussion surrounding the procurement of groceries in the Gaya-Rubinow residence is that its normal to go to at least 3 if not 4 different stores to do our weekly grocery shopping: Trader Joe's, Dominicks, Jewel and Stanley's Produce are all regular stops on out weekly journey in search of the perfect groceries (this is the subject of another post entirely). But today was different, today we went back to Costco after a long absence and I was reminded how much I love it and how much it makes me crazy with all the gigantic bags of Nestle Chocolate Chips and beautiful cookbooks priced to move. They even had Stitch n' Bitch Nation on sale -too bad I already own it (thanks Dan!)- or else I just might have purchased it. But when we finally made it out of there nearly an hour after we went in, alive and wallets intact, I thanked my lucky stars that not only was Costco there for the things we really need, but that I have the restraint to look and get excited over, but not allow myself to purchase all the beautiful things from the Donna Hay Cookbook Off the Shelf to Arabic in 10 Minutes A Day.

While we have been busy shopping the dogs have been busy chilling:

They sure do love to relax.

Friday night, Dan and I hit a cool new sushi joint up in Andersonville called Sushi Luxe. While the fish was fresh and delicious, I could tell that they had just opened and that the kitchen was still struggling to find its niche. With so many other sushi joints open in Chicago, this is not surprising. The decor was lush and the prices reasonable and they totally get points for serving this awesome green tea that came in pyramid shaped tea bags and had a very subtle flavor.

In other news, Dan's buddy Mark was in town for work this weekend and we chilled with him at the Gold Star Bar Friday night and at our place Saturday night. It was good to get out and see some people and we even scrubbed the apartment clean so it would look nice in case we had guests over. Mark, if you read this, say hey to Sharise for us!!

Marky and Danny.

And yes, this does happen to be a lovely long weekend for both of us so "Where's the knitting?" you ask? Never fear, more on that tomorrow when (hopefully) I've worked on it some more.

Am I knitting?

2005-02-18T00:03:00.000-06:00

Knitting - Yes!!! What with the dogs and all the excitement around here, I really have felt that I have barely touched my needles for a few weeks yet when I went to measure my ribby cardi today:

TADA! 12 inches - that is ONE WHOLE FOOT!!! Almost ready to begin the armhole decreasing.

You have to understand that I knit with some of the most prolific knitters I know, girls who, every single week, seem to have a different skein of beautiful new yarn and a new project. I feel that I can barely keep up sometimes as I chug away at the same silly rectangle that I swear will someday look like a sweater. Due to some financial constraints this winter (increased heating bills, new puppies, trying to pay off some minor debt etc.) I am on an austerity budget and am not allowed to buy new yarn, books, music, shoes or even look at eBay. I have a ton of yarn in a big box that needs to be used up and we have plenty of CD's. As for shoes, do we ever really have enough? I shall just have to suffer with the knowledge that soon, it will be spring and then I NEED new sandals. Hurrah!

Back to knitting. I am just about to begin the armhole shaping on the back and am thoroughly thrilled about this project. It's quick, it's easy and I'm excited to see how it will turn out.

As for my other knitting projects...well, let's just say that Daniel's left foot is just going to be cold for a little while longer while I get my act together on his second sock. I have such a problem juggling projects, once I get going on one I get so focused that I don't want to put it down so its really hard for me to find the time to have two going at once. I am working on this issue and I swear I will cast on for the second sock over the weekend. I've promised myself.

I did however accomplish a very important goal of improving my content and have added all sorts of fun things to the sidebar.Please take a minute and browse my links, check out my Chicago-centric info and peruse the pictures. I am horribly forgetful about things like websites and I figured if I put things here that I might ordinarily forget then I am already one step ahead of the game. And game stepping is a hobby of mine so let's see if I can manage to keep the sidebar updated. Its my goal to continually be changing up the pictures, updating the projects and food and adding more links. Eventually I plan on putting up more on music and maybe even a show schedule of what's playing in Chicago that I am interested in. For now, I am extremely proud of my very first foray into html so three cheers for that.

Chocolatey Goodness

2005-02-17T00:15:00.000-06:00

This whole blogging idea was actually conceived by Dan and I as a food blog since we cook and eat so many different types of food. I think we are just forgetful because when you blog about food, you have to take pictures of practically every meal you eat and who wants to see every little bite of food that goes into my mouth?
Wait, bad question, don't answer that.

Nevertheless, the idea grew and morphed into a knitting blog for me and what am I sitting here doing? I'm sure not talking about knitting, I'm talking about food.

Since everyone else posted all this sappy stuff about Valentines Day I'll start there. I had a friend over Sunday night and we cooked up batch after batch of delicious chocolate treats for our respective menfolk.

The truffles are coated in (clockwise from top) shredded coconut, unsweetened cocoa powder (traditional), chopped walnuts and chopped hazelnuts. The little stars are a cardamom infused fudge. Both recipes are from
MS Living February 2003.

Then came the piece de resistance:

If anyone gets MSLiving, these are the pistachio cookies with a mousse filling, coated in bittersweet chocolate from the February 2005 issue and man are they good. In the background you can see the beautiful roses Daniel got me from Fleur as well as the cards we exchanged.

Another food related item currently residing in our kitchen is this lovely cheese knife I presented Daniel for Valentines Day

The amusing backstory: it was Monday, Valentines Day, and I was in a panic. I had made all this chocolate and assured Dan that, since he was taking me out, I would take care of the after party, meaning the after dinner treats, of course. And the after party was getting closer and I was still without that crucial bottle of champagne. See, there is just something special about champagne for a good occasion. For Dan and I, if there is an anniversary or a reason to celebrate, we'll get some champagne and drink it on the couch. We even picked up the cutest champagne flutes from Crate & Barrel Outlet this winter and have been using them judiciously what with the holidays and New Years. Not too much mind you, we are definitely occasional drinkers, but just enough so that they have some positive associations.

So here I was on Valentines Day with no champagne. Tragedy! But wait! I work right next to a great wine resource, Bin 36. A great restaurant with a contemporary bistro feel and emphasis on wine and cheese, I remembered that Bin 36 also sold wine so I dropped by on my lunch hour. Sure enough, the nice people there had me kitted out with the perfect bottle of bubbly in no time and they even insisted that I taste some before taking it home (incidentally it was Vouvray, a French appellation from the Loire Valley, it had the most precious little bubbles and a beautiful fruity finish that wasn't overly sweet or girly).

While I was there I spied what I knew would also make a perfect V-Day gift: The Cheese Knife (see above). See, Dan and I bought a new cheese slicer from Bed, Bath and Beyond recently and I have to say that it really blows chunks. Its great for parties when you want extremely thin slices but otherwise, its impossible to get a decent slice for a sandwich with this thing and Dan was very disappointed when we took it home and it failed our expectations. So when I found The Cheese Knife I knew our troubles were over. It was beautiful, appeared functional and was from Iittala and we're modern design junkies so how can you go wrong with Iittala?

Sure enough, The Cheese Knife was a hit, as were the champagne and chocolates. I think last year we had a big fight before Valentines Day and this year, we couldn't be in a better place. Oddly enough, the ladies at Bin 36 had been kidding me about my dinner plans since Dan had kept our dinner reservation location a surprise. They asked me if I wanted them to look up if it was there and I declined, pretty confident that it would be elsewhere. But 5:15 came around and Daniel showed up at my work to escort me to dinner and sure enough, where did we go? A quick hop, skip and jump from the IBM building over the to House of Blues Hotel and...you guessed it, Bin 36.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time we have had the same strange idea at the same time. For our 1 year anniversary we bought each other the same card, each of us purchasing it over a month apart from the other (but from the same store). Weird, huh?

Well, you know what they say, great minds think alike.

Sluggedy Slug Slug

2005-02-16T09:07:00.000-06:00

Fortunately, the doggies are doing great and its eerily like having children in so many ways except noone told me we'd be this tired all the time! Daniel and I are SO not morning people, we hit the snooze button a million times before we get out of bed and can sleep really, embarrassingly late on the weekend but all of a sudden all of that has changed. Not only did we wake up at 6:30AM and 7AM on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, but we have amazingly continued to be early risers as we take the girls out for morning walks before work.

Needless to say, all the waking up early and all the extra activity (and keep in mind we go to the gym regularly, we're not totally out of shape or anything!) we have been getting has been exhausting us to the point that we come home from the late evening walk and drop into bed so exhausted we can barely speak only to wake up what seems like minutes later to do it all again.

But I have to apologize as all this activity, while great for me and the dogs, seems to have had a negative impact on my blogging. I have all these great pictures lined up and I just haven't had the time to sit down and load them all up the way I like them. I also made it a goal to add some fun content to my sidebar this past weekend and did it get done? Nooooooo.
Well, if you saw where I blogged from you would understand another hurdle to sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time as well - it sits on a dresser and I balance the keyboard on my lap and hold a CD jewel case when I want to use the mouse - oh yeah, the best way to keep the chair from moving (its on wheels) is to pull out the lowest drawer on the dresser, which fortunately is the sock drawer, and stick my feet into all the nice squishy socks - it sounds great but its truly total suckage.

So tonight, I promise I have nothing on my plate except for blog updating and if I get any little thing added to the sidebar I will be so happy and if not, believe me, I'm frustrated too, but its coming, I promise, so just keep your eyes peeled.

They are too cute for words...

2005-02-12T21:03:00.000-06:00

Ladies and gentlemen, fine denizens of the blogosphere, I would like to introduce to you the latest additions to our household: Stymie and Nemo.
::wild applause ensues::

I can't tell which one is which in this shot but I think Nemo is in front.

Stymie and Nemo are sisters and are 1 year old pug-chow mixes. A family on the North Side of Chicago had a litter of 7 a year ago when they didn't realize a dog they had taken in wasn't fixed and became pregnant the first month they had her. Dan saw a poster advertising pug-pom (they turned out to be pug-chow) mixes while he was at work a few weeks ago and called the number listed immediately. We received a call back a few days later and went out to visit the puppies a week ago, Sunday. Both of us fell in love immediately when we met Stymie and Nemo and their sisters Shadow and Lonesome. To my untrained eye the dogs were happy, healthy, not abused and very clearly well loved. We found out that one dog had already been adopted and the family was keeping two but we fell especially hard for these two little girls who were the smallest of the bunch.

On the couch.

Fortunately, both the dogs are current on their shots, I called the animal hospital and double checked this just to be safe and Nemo is fixed as well. We have vet appointments first thing next week and we are going to get Stymie spayed ASAP at Anti-Cruelty.
I can't even begin to tell you how happy we were when we took them home with us last night. We had gone out last week and absolutely binged on dog equipment. We came home with a wide array of toys and treats and chewies and food and bowls and harnesses and leashes and everything we could possibly think of to make them feel happy and comfortable in our apartment.

Before we picked them up, the woman who we were dealing with recommended we eat at the Family Palace, at Lawrence and Harlem.

It was not very good. We each had the same meal, cream of broccoli soup, salad with italian dressing on the side, a platter of fried shrimp, mac n' cheese, carrots and a piece of cake and it was only eight dollars a head. The shrimp was obviously frozen and kind of squirted out of the breading when you bit into it and the "cheese" on the mac n' cheese was so neon yellow it only wished it was velveeta. We had left the camera in the car for the meal and agreed afterward that it was definitely not worth a photo.

The separation was definitely difficult for all involved. The woman cried a little but she swore they were tears of joy that they were going to such a good home and the dogs had no idea what was going on and whined as we drove away. Our apartment was total trauma-ward last night as they huddled in a corner in the kitchen and shivered. Dan and I did all we could to hold and pet them and nearly went nuts with worry over them but ultimately decided that we should be relaxed and go about our normal business.

We went to bed with the bedroom door open should they want to come in and sleep with us but instead, we were woken up at 6:30AM (on a Saturday I may add) to the most unimaginable stench ever. Upon investigation, we found that they had done an enormous poo on the bathmat, in the bathroom of all places. We chalked it up to nerves and wacked-out-edness and distracted them while we calmly cleaned it up, threw the bathmat in the washer and took them out for an early morning walk. We decided that this was fine since it would be about their normal walk time anyway.

After one day and no more accidents, we are just so happy and have decided that these dogs are the BEST dogs in the ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!!!!

It is absolutely incredible that they are so calm and chill, the only time we have ever even heard them bark was when we went out to do some grocery shopping and they barked when we came back home. They have such little voices that Quark, the bird, is much much louder than they are. They are not jumpy at all and seem to love just laying on the floor or on the couch. My worst nightmare was that they would chew everything, and we have a lot of stuff in our apartment, and they haven't touched anything in the house besides the hooves and toys we gave them to play with. Moreoever, after being completely unfamiliar with the leash this morning (they are used to being let out in a backyard) they did so well this evening that you would think they are totally leash trained. They come up to us for pets and love all the time now and run around the apartment and are currently laying right next to my chair as I type this out. (may I add that they followed me into the spare bedroom in order to be near me when I left Dan on the couch to watch TV by himself)

One of our biggest victories today was the stairs. The stairs to our back porch, where we go in and out, are very steep and last night both the dogs had to be carried up them and wouldn't even go near them. By the third walk today they both went up and down the stairs on their own and Dan and I nearly cried we were so proud.

All in all we could not ask for better, sweeter, more well behaved dogs. We know there might be more accidents this week while they get used to us being gone during the day but we are committed to having patience, love and understanding and eventually we will do some basic training with them but they seem to learn really quickly. My only concern is that they don't seem to be eating much but they accepted treats tonight after the walk and Dan just said that Stymie ate a few mouthfuls of food, we figure they just need time and if something seems seriously wrong we will bring it up with the vet next week.

I think that one of the things I am happiest about today is Daniel's reaction to the whole thing. He has never had dogs or pets besides fish and was extremely hesitant about the whole idea at first. A few weeks ago he actually mentioned going down to the pound that weekend "just to look" and I knew something was up. When he noticed the poster and called the folks I knew it wasn't just me wanting dogs but something more; I truly felt that it was something he wanted to do. (I had also been going on and on all the time about how I wanted a pug so the fact that they had pug in them had something to do with it as well I think.)

But when Daniel looked at me last night in the car when we were all set to go home and whispered "I love them," I just melted and well, I nearly cried. He has taken everything in stride, including the stinky incident, and fusses and pets them at every opportunity.

All in all, even though we were up at 6:30AM, as Dan put it to me as we returned home from our evening walk, "Today has been a great day." I agree completely and definitely think "yes, today has been one of the best days for us ever."

I'll leave you with the cutest image of all

Daniel holds Stymie as we prepare to take the dogs home.

Knitting Thursday

2005-02-10T23:09:00.000-06:00

Almost every Thursday since September I have been a co-moderator of a knitting social held locally in Commercial Park which is a short walk from the apartment. My neighbor and friend, Karen, is the other co-moderator. We fell into this role purely by chance when we were sitting outside in late August, watching our communal garage sale, knitting and chatting. All of a sudden, this woman bounds up out of nowhere and starts exclaiming over our knitting. Turns out, not only does Karen know her, but she is on the advisory committee for Commercial Park and they have been interested in starting a knitting program and would we like to help out? A couple weeks and a couple of meetings later we were official Chicago Park District volunteers.

We call our selves moderators because we want to foster a communal atmosphere where people are comfortable helping each other out and sharing their skills but we are really mentors, teachers, moderators, facilitators and whatever else we need to be or do to get people knitting. So far we have taught more than 15 people by rough estimate, none of them knowing the least little thing about knitting at all, maybe a few more here and there even.

The funny thing is, I never would have pegged myself as a knitting teacher at all. Until this past summer, I had never purled! I was too afraid until Karen helped me out and I realized its pretty easy. I know some people love knitting right from the start but it took me a few years to really find my groove and get into it. I think between the time Mom first taught me to knit more than two years ago and the time I really started knitting seriously was almost a year and a half. Now that I am knitting regularly (almost every night) I feel like I am growing in my skills and abilities by leaps and bounds. I think that teaching knitting has helped me to develop my own knitting skills and to understand the technical aspects of the craft better. I have to have a pretty deep understanding of the techniques I deal with if I am going to teach them, how would I show someone how to purl if I couldn't explain exactly what is going on with the needles and yarn when I do it?

In honor of my growing knitting skills, I am taking on a sweater that I have been drooling over for quite a while, Bonne Marie Burns's Ribby Cardi. The pattern is embarrassingly simple, just a bunch of flat pieces for the front and back and some tubes for the arms that you just sew together at the end. So far I have started the back and it has been a breeze, I am holding my breath for the seaming because that's where I know I need some improvement.

Here is my progress thus far

This is about 7 inches of the back. I sure hope it fits when I am done with it.

Knitting question: you can't really tell in this photo but everytime I get to the last knitted stitch before the ribbing picks up again (essentially the last knit before I begin purling) after the smooth middle panel it gets all loose and wonky on me but just that one last stitch. I've had these sorts of problems before when knitting ribbing, the stitches will be all loose and weird no matter how hard I try to tighten them. Anyone have any clue what I might be doing or what I could do to correct this?

I'll leave you with this image of what Dan wrote on our freezer bag when we were preparing some lentil stew for the freezer:

If you can make it out, you know what we'll be listening to next time we thaw out some stew. Don't worry we are good kids and always date and label contents but come on, Double Platinum, Baby. Ohhhhhh yeahhhhh.

Gifties

2005-02-09T23:23:00.000-06:00

This whole winter thing is really beginning to drag me down. Everyday I wake up and glare resentfully at the sky as it spits snow or rain or cold wind back at me. There is just absolutely no motivation to even step outdoors when it is as cold and blah as it has been these past few months. Where we normally would go right to the gym after work and then enjoy the walk home, we come home first to sit on the couch for a few minutes before we get in the car and drive to the gym. Yes, we drive to the gym that is only a ten minute walk away. Is that terrible or what?

So when winter is seriously kicking my butt, what better to lift my spirits than some pretty little gifties!! I was telling Mom last week about how I was feeling a little down and blah because of the weather and little did I know she already had a fantastic package in the mail for me:

This has some fuzzy little mini-balls of yarn and one almost complete ball of the nubbly circus yarn (the big ball in the foreground). I'm going to make some nice cozy socks out of that once I finish up the socks I am knitting for Dan.

Mom gives me lots of her ends and scraps and I can't wait to use these for trim on hats or other little pretties. I love all these gorgeous bits and ends and every time I get a package with some in it I reach in and just squish them around in my hands because I love the way they feel. Knitting is such a tactile art, I love how it is a sensory experience not just for your eyes but for the hands and whatever other body parts (necks, feet etc.) come in contact with whatever it is you have created.

This week I received my Valentines Day package from Mom. In it was this gorgeous red scarf she knit. I can't at all figure out the stitch but it is beautiful and I have been wearing it ever since I received it. Here is the scarf's glamour shot:

The last little gift I would like to share is this pretty little box Dan brought back for me when he did some shopping at Target after work the other day. I was expecting paper towels and toilet paper but he also got some new puffs for the shower, this cute little box and a deck of at-home massage cards. I've been thinking about getting a book because massage is something I'd like to be better at but he beat me to it.
The Elephant Box

I just want to mention that last night we did it up for Mardi Gras, again, and had walking tacos at a friend's place. What's a walking taco? Niki is supposed to send me the pictures I took so you are just going to have to wait and see...

Time for Mardi Gras

2005-02-07T17:31:00.000-06:00

What an eventful weekend! Before quilting class on Saturday, Dan and I took our neighbors Karen and Moss to Isaacson & Stein Fish Market. They had never been there before and we wanted to get the best seafood possible for Karen's Mardi Gras themed 30th birthday we were cooking for on Sunday.
These fishheads may look gross but we have been saving our shrimp shells in the freezer every time we shell shrimp and Daniel made the most amazing seafood stock from scratch with them. Apologies to all you strict veggies out there!

Here is but a small sample of the vast selection of fresh fish and seafood available to us here in Chicago. Lucky though we may be, I know it will never come close to the freshness and quality that those on the coasts enjoy.

*in the background you can see a tiny sliver of a woman who, at one point, stood square in front of the bin of medium shrimp tossing handful after handful into a bag all while rattling on and on to an older woman who looked like her mother. I have no problem with any of this except for the fact that when I tried to get in to grab some shrimp, she shifted so that I just couldn't wedge in at all! Finally, when she seemed about done and I was poised to jump in and grab my shrimpies, she began to toss handfuls of shrimp back into the bin from the bag!!! When she finally held the bag up again for the older women's approval I crouched down in a ready position to finally get my handful of shrimp...and she began forking handfuls back into the bag all over again. I was so fed up at this point because I know she had seen me patiently waiting so I said Excuse Me very very loudly and she finally moved aside. Quit monopolizing the shrimp woman, there is plenty of room in front of the bin for more than one person!

Later Saturday evening we decided to stay in and I finally started swatching my ribby cardi.

This swatch was actually unsuccessful and because I am a slightly tighter knitter than most I ended up getting my gauge with size 8 needles.

Do you like punch? I love punch especially when its made with both dark and light rum and several different types of fruit juice. This was the drink du jour for Karen's party and is courtesy of her loving boyfriend, Moss.

I was in charge of the gumbo for the party and I am extremely proud that I successfully created my first roux. I love Louisiana cooking.

For dinner we had mac n'cheese, greens, baked beans, spicey okra, fried okra, sweet potatoes (all courtesy of Karen and Moss), a fresh vegetable salad (courtesy of Robin), cornbread (courtesy of Niki), seafood gumbo with crabmeat and shrimp, rice and deep fried mussels in a cornbread coating (courtesy of us). I don't know which we like better, cooking or eating.

Happy Mardi Gras and happy birthday Karen!!!

Guess who I met today???

2005-02-05T17:58:00.000-06:00

I am still excited because I met a celebrity today.

Let's back up a little to last night when I met Brandy from the
Chicago Craft Mafia. It's a little complicated but we're both on this mailing list for a craft group here in Chicago and she had seen from an email I sent that I am taking a class at Fun Quilts. She had emailed me a while ago asking about the class and so when I saw her email this week about a party for the "launch" of the Chicago Craft Mafia, I knew we had to drop by so I could actually meet her.

The party was held in this fabulous new gallery on Division Street only about a 10 minute walk from the apartment called the TOJO Gallery and I quickly found Brandy and her quilts and she told me that her friend, Hilary was also in my class.

So today, I walked into my class at Fun Quilts and was chatting with Hilary about how I had met Brandy the night before and she said something about her weblog when something in my head just went off and starting ringing all sorts of bells.
"Where do you live?" I questioned gently, not wanting to give away my growing excitement. When Hilary affirmed my suspicions by replying Oak Park, my synapses must have been firing so hard in my poor little brain because I could barely contain my excitement as I breathlessly gasped "and the name of your website?" When she replied "Wee Wonderfuls" it was all I could do to keep from dancing and jumping all over the room yelling "I met the Wee Wonderfuls lady!!!!" over and over and over.

I haven't even emailed her like I said I would yet but Hilary, if you're reading this, your stuff rocks and I have even taken to calling my boyfriend a "boo hoo baby" when he pouts and acts silly. If you haven't yet seen her site, Wee Wonderfuls you really should give it a visit because she's got all these fantastic inspiring crafts. I call her a celebrity because her site is one of those sites that everyone remotely crafty seems to read all the time and I find it referenced frequently among other craft weblogs.

-------------------------

After Daniel and I got home from the party and a trip to the Flying Saucer for some food afterwards with some friends we ran into, we decided to brush our teeth and get ready for bed since we were really sleepy despite it only being 11PM on a Friday night.
I'm sure you've seen that Aqua Fresh makes this new fangled kind of toothpaste called "Extreme Clean."

Here I am contemplating the two varieties of Extreme Clean found in our bathroom.
Daniel and I each have our own flavor, mine is Empowermint and his is Mint Experience. For the record, I am trying as hard as possible to look puzzled in this picture and I would like to point out that I do not normally have a double chin.

Now being silly as we are, we decided to go a taste teste in which I tasted one flavor, then the other and decided that they taste, well, the same.

Here I am shrugging at the two tubes of toothpaste. Now why would they go to all the bother to make up separate flavor names and labels if they don't taste any different? I think they just think they are clever for coming up with names like Empowermint and wanted to see how dupable consumers really are. I wonder which one is a better seller...

This is how its going to be and you had better like it

2005-02-03T22:43:00.000-06:00

So here I am to finally tell you just how this whole website thing works for me. It may work an entirely different way for someone else but in this lies the joy of the internet: it can work any way for anyone. I want to clarify that this is just how I am choosing it to work for me.

My line of logic flows something like the following: I love my Mother and she loves me, I consider us to be close but we have a hard time keeping in touch regularly sometimes. Maybe we are bad at the phone, I don't know. Whatever it is, I would like to keep in touch better with my Mom (and other friends and family) and be better able to share with her all the lovely pictures I take and thusly feel like I was sharing more intimately the mundane details of my life.

I have wanted to start a website for quite a while but just haven't wanted it to be one of these bare-it-all, soul-screaming-in-the-cold-cold-night type deals. I figure, I share things with my website that I would generally show people I know or be comfortable showing people I didn't really know. Then I would by and large avoid all that drama and concentrate on my content. One big thing I want to do is share my love of knitting and keep track of all the things I am working on. Pictures are very important to this endeavor and I have never been a huge picture person but I figure, hell, why not try to ramp up picture taking around here? Never hurt to have some extra memories caught on film.

I've covered knitting, I've covered the pictures, so what's left? Well, 2005 is going to be a big year for me. I made a lot of New Year's resolutions that I am actually sticking to. Amazing? Yes. Totally unheard of? No, but not far from it. I swore that when Mom let me take her old sewing machine home over Thanksgiving break when Dan and I had the car, that I would learn how to use it. I haven't touched it yet but I am taking a beginning quilting class (more on that in a different post) and will eventually have to touch it. Follow me on my perilous journey to the land of sewing machine competence.

A bigger issue for me in 2005, quite possibly the biggest yet, is that I am beginning my journey towards law school. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, since before undergraduate, and I am actually really excited about the whole process, freak that I am. I am already signed up to take an LSAT prep course to prepare me to take the test in June. I will then prepare and submit applications to schools in the fall for entry in 2006. You can wish me luck but then again, you could just read about it on my website.

Lastly, I have always wanted to stop being afraid of technology. If I have a website, I will be forced to interact with technology and I might learn a few things and I can only see that being a good thing.

I will leave you with some pictures

Pile O'Swatches

We saw the Turning Machine open for The Thermals last Thursday night 1/28/05 at the Open End Gallery at the Fulton Street Collective. Wait, I've been to a collective to see a band that noone's heard of, does that make me an artsy fartsy hipster geek? Don't answer that.

I'm supposed to limit my purchases but I have to buy things for the sewing machine. Surely I can buy its love... Note the size 6 knitting needles that will be used for my ribby cardi.

Sockification

2005-02-02T23:05:00.000-06:00

I have been sockified. To hear me talk one would think that I have gone absolutely mad and all I do all day long is knit socks. That's not true, I only spend part of my time knitting socks, I have to have time to knit other nice things as well now don't I?

Over Christmas break I caught the sock knitting bug with my Mother (my knitting goddess) who taught me how to knit socks on two circular needles. A lot of people think this is an esoteric, difficult to understand technique when in fact it is remarkably simple. Since Mom had shown me once over Thanksgiving break and I had nearly thrown the needles across the room in frustration, I decided to take a deep breath and give it another try. Amazingly, I got the socks casted on and had all the ankle ribbing knitted by the time I arrived in Rochester (meaning that I was extremely productive with nearly 8 hours of flight, layover and delay). With a few knitting books and patterns and some help from Mom, I had these knit almost entirely in one long weekend.

Here is another view of them not on my feet

On another note, I know I know, I haven't done a lot of explaining of myself or this blog or what I am even doing tempting fate by playing with the internet. Instead I have plunged right in feet first with socks. No pun intended. For all you pundits and naysayers, I've been having major computer trouble and I took some pictures three hours ago that were especially for use tonight and now they are locked away inaccessible and sad on the horrible turd of an external harddrive we choose to call ours. So over the next few days here are some issues I promise I will touch on:

*what in the world was I thinking when I decided to start a website and what you can expect from me and conversely me from you
*what Daniel and I did back in December that was crafty and delicious
*somehow, someway, I will retrieve those photos and shower you with more crafty goodness with Daniel's new grey sock(s), a gift for the Print Gocco gods, and modern quilting madness and mayhem not to mention the goodness that will become the Ribby Cardi

I heart ketchup

2005-01-28T00:51:00.000-06:00

I wrote this today about how much I love ketchup.

I am a ketchup lover. Now I do not put ketchup on everything. And I always taste before I add anything to my food except some items like veggie dogs and burgers which would be absolutely sacriligeous to eat without ketchup. But as for ketchup - if you rant about it you will never understand that on certain foods ketchup has transformative powers. And that those powers are strong, very very very strong.

Now I realize most people are probably ranting about ketchup extremists who dump ketchup on everything and who I do believe suffer from a lack of good taste but ketchup is one of those foods that has a very large and slightly guilty cult following of which I am a proud member. I know some of you have said you don't like it but please understand that some of us LOVE it. Its tangy goodness is just one of life's simple pleasures.

For me personally, there are some foods I will barely touch without ketchup - veggie hotdogs, veggie burgers, veggie corndogs, homefries or any member of the hash brown or homefry family, french fries, grilled cheese but especially breakfast eggs. To me, an eggy breakfast, whether it be omelette, scrambled, poached or fried is not complete without ketchup. There is just something about eggs cooked for breakfast with ketchup on top that makes me go wild. There is just something sublime about tilting the bottle and waiting for the glistening red liquid make its way sloooowly out to land on top of your eggy meal, only to be devoured moments later while the eggs are still hot and the ketchup still room temperature (yes it ought to be served at room temperature).

Now there are many foods I could choose to wax poetic about so why should I choose ketchup? Because it is plebian, down to earth and everyday. It is not a rich person's food or something that needs to be paid top dollar for. No, it is a staple found and neglected in most of our kitchens, hidden away in the refrigerator door or sitting dusty and unopened in the back of a shelf waiting for the day some errant but well meaning friend asks "Do you have any ketchup for this?" I can't explain my devotion to ketchup, I suppose that perhaps it is a matter of personal taste but to me, the items I drench in ketchup are some of the best tasting things I can think of whose pleasures are only madnified by the presence of the red stuff. They are true comfort food that I return to time and time again and I would list them up there in the ranks of my favorite dishes.

I understand that ketchup bothers many people and that such behavior as ketchup dumping* annoys many of you to no end but I just had to let you know how much I love the stuff and how good I think it can be. Like all foods, ketchup has its own time and place but within those boundaries, I feel ketchup can truly be elevated to the status of food of the gods.

*Dumping ketchup all over everything without regard as to what the food is or what it tasted like pre-ketchup.