Seeing Stars

Its been a full week.
I've been spending a lot of time at the pub, my time there is not completely spent drinking - I socialize with friends and also use it as some valuable knitting time. I also run into other bloggers, like Tanya (on the right) and her friend, Janet.


This week I decided that I wanted to make Beth's Little Star Afghan. Its a pattern that I've wanted to make for a while, just was awaiting the occaision, and that occaision would be my cute little niece.
I showed the pattern to my cousin Erin, and she had a BRILLIANT idea... make it look like a starfish. So, I doubled up the yarn and did the center with orange and white and the outside with blue and green.
Here is the finished product:

Thats Erin on the right. She doesn't consider herself to be a crafty person, but she had a great idea, don't you think?
Since I doubled up the yarn, this workerd up INCREDIBLY quickly. I started the starfish section (the orange and white) at the pub Thursday evening, and finished the orange section the same evening while still at the pub. The blue and green I started when I got home that evening - I worked on it a little bit that night, a little more Friday night, and finished it Sunday morning. In total, I would say that the whole project took somewhere between 8 and 10 hours.
This is definitely a pattern I will be using again and seeing how many different ways it can be adapted.
Melissa did a beautiful version of it here with some adorable matching pillows that I know I will tackle one day, once I get my "to do" list whittled down some.
The weekend was a blast,
Saturday afternoon/early evening I attended the birthday party of my friend Megan. her birthdays always have themes and this year it was the letter "M". People were dressed as Mary Katherine Gallagher, Memoir of a Geisha, Marlboro Man, a madam, I was Martha Stewart - I wore regular clothes and brought my craft projects with me - but, I think the best was my friend Phil. He threw on a mariachi hat with his regular clothes and claimed to be a mariachi man. We all thought that did not display any tremendous effort in costume until THE MARIACHI BAND HE'D HIRED SHOWED UP! Do you think I'm kidding? I'm not.



Phil is not one who could ever be accused of doing something half assed.
In fact, he went way further above and beyond that evening and got on stage at a concert to propose to his girlfriend of 3 years, Celeste.
She said yes.
My love and congratulations to the happy couple.

Plaid Baby Afghan & Knit Newborn Caps

When starting this project, I knew that the final steps of weaving the various color yarns through the body of the afghan would be a fairly tedious job - I just didnt realize HOW tedious it would be. It was tedious. As tedious as organizing an entire library according to the dewey decimal system from scratch. I started weaving the pieces through, and half an hour later I only had a few rows completed. I honestly thought that this part would go much much quicker than this - it is just weaving yarn through a mesh blanket after all. YAWN, this project got really boring very quickly. I made it more interesting by taking it down to the pub with me. A couple pints of ale + conversation with some friends made it much more pleasant.
However, I do like the overall effect and the end results:





I'm sure that if I were to actually make the afghan again I'd think of a couple ways to modify it to make it simpler. I'm half tempted to write out my pattern, but I know that its inspired by a pattern that I saw in a book somewhere almost 10 years ago and not knowing how much like the original pattern it is, I dont want to risk infringing upon anyones copyright.

Also, I made a knit cap for my little niece.


It looks SO SMALL. I didnt follow a written pattern, just swatched the yarn, then Googled the average head circumference of a newborn (14" by the way) and went from there. I'm hoping it fits. In the past, I've been notorious for making hats that were too "short" for most adults - mainly myself, I have a HUGE head - but fit on kids. I'm worried about this one because I wasn't following a written pattern, I was just eyeballing it. I had a gnawing feeling that the hat was not going to fit the kids head. So, I've started to make a back up just a little bit bigger.


The Sideways Shell Afghan turned out well. I just love love love this pattern.



The Winnie the Pooh quilt is still in progress, and will be for a while. Really, with everything else that I'm working on, my goal is to have it done by the kids first birthday. If its done anytime before then, then I'm ahead of the game.

I have a feeling that baby/child patterns are going to be my focus for a while.

Happy Saturday!

Earlier this week I was looking forward to the weekend, thinking that I would have both days to myself. I was so happy at the thought of sleeping in and just lounging around the house doing NOTHING. Yesterday I realized that I would actually have a pretty full Saturday.
I did get out last night, went down to the pub and hung out with some friends. Perused the newest issue of Interweave Knits with a fellow knitter and had a few beers.
This morning I got up, went to visit my perfect little niece - she and my sister came home yesterday - and got to hold her and examine her mop of hair, perfect little lips, adorable little finger nails, and most of all.... the cheeks! I just love those round chubby pudgy little cheeks!
Afterwards I took my car in for an oil change and tire rotation. I suppose I could have sat in the waiting room for the hour and a half and worked on the crochet plaid afghan during that time - I had the feeling that the cashier was a knitter or crocheter (just got that vibe) so she would have appreciated it. Instead, I saw the Big Lots across the street and thought I'd just browse for that hour and half. Can you ever "just browse" in a Big Lots?? I think not. $50 later I walk out with 3 bags of stuff I really don't need. Sure, I got a couple of cute stuffed animals and onesies for Kylee, something for an upcoming birthday gift, a steering wheel cover, and some shampoo and conditioner.
Then, it was a fmaily dinner at Outback to celebrate my baby brothers 18th birthday. My sister and niece joined us, and Kylee was perfect the entire time - slept most of the time and only woke up twice, took a look around, then went back to sleep. She could sense when it was time to eat though. As soon as her mothers food was served, Kylee wanted her dinner as well. I offered to feed her so that my sister could eat her dinner while it was still hot, but she had it covered.

Other than that one feeding, Kylee slept through all of the noise of an Outback restaurant on a Saturday night.


By the way - that cute lavendar afghan? Thats the Sideways Shell afghan I crocheted for her. I gave it to her before I photographed it, so this photo will have to suffice.

Tomorrow, I am knitting. Thats it. Well, and most likely having a pint or two down at the pub.

Vital Stats

I forgot to include Kylees stats in last nights post.. I was out of it from lack of sleep.

Kylee Rose
May 15, 2007 5:31 am
7 lbs 4 oz
18.5 inches long
cheek diameter - Pi (theres no end, they just keep going and going)

Astrological stats:
Sun - Taurus
Moon - Taurus
Ascendant - Taurus
Venus in Cancer
I'm not sure what all of this means, my moms into astrology and immediately ran Kylee's chart the first chance she had.

Introducing

Kylee Rose
Have you ever seen a more perfect pair of cheeks? I think the cheeks alone make up half of her total body mass.

I am a very proud auntie.

My week in review

Last weeks baby shower went over fantastically. The food was very well received. I intended to take photos of the food and all of the festivities, but I was in the kitchen cooking for almost the entire time. Everything was going so quickly that I missed out on most of the party. I think the favorite dish by far was this Pesto Turkey Baguette. The original recipe called for prosciutto, but with how many people were going to be there I substituted turkey because that much prosciutto would get very pricey very quickly.
It is a great sandwich, very very tasty. I didn't get one at the shower last week, so I made another batch today for our Mothers Day family dinner. This time I used both turkey and a small amount of prosciutto.

Other than that, my week was rather uneventful. Nothing exciting or exceptional. I'm itching to get out of town for something, I'm just not sure what. I'm thinking a day trip to the coast will be coming up soon.

A Little Q & A Session....

Shananigans asks five questions...

1. You are quite crafty. What was your first craft obsession, and what was the best item you created ever?

Hmmm... this one is tougher than I'd thought it would be.
I think I was about 6, maybe 7, when my great-grandmother first taught me how to crochet. I wasn't that great at it and it didn't really offer much in the ways of instant gratification so it didn't hold my interest for too terribly long. Around the same age I had a brief obsession with beads and would make these friendship pin things with small seed beads and safety pins - my dad kept his on his corduroy blazer for a LONG time (hey, it was the 80's - give him a break about the corduroy blazer already. Geesh!)
I don't recall the little safety pin friendship beads obsession lasting too terribly long though.
After that it was cross stitch. It started with me wanting to make something for my grandmother in Oregon when I was about 10 or 11 and my mom got me to cross stitch some tea towels for her new kitchen. I THINK I made a set of 7, one for each day of the week. Last year, after my grandmother passed away, my family was going through some of mer memento boxes looking for photos to have up at the services and reception afterwards and I found this piece of one of the tea towels I'd made her nearly 20 years earlier

My grandpa said that she'd been wanting to have the piece matted and framed to hang in the house.
It was so touching to see that she'd kept this faded, tattered and worn piece of cross stitch that I'd made as a child. We found a lot of things that I'd made her over the years - hats, scarves, afghans, photographs, drawings, lots of things, but this piece touched me the most.

2. What are looking forward to most about becoming an auntie?

SO MUCH! Theyre mainly all selfish reasons though, like the benefits of essentially having a child vicariously through someone else. Watching her little personality develop, from the first time she coos to her learning to say my name, subverting her mothers authority (hehe!). When she's old enough I look forward to taking her for the day and going to the zoo or the park, her thinking I'm the coolest auntie ever, feeding her a huge sundae untile she's wired on the sugar and then handing her back over to her mother. All of this without having to push a human being out of my va-jay-jay.
Also, I have 2 aunts myself - Gloria was incredibly cool, more like an older sister. I could talk to her about ANYTHING while I was growing up - like boys, kissing, stuff like that. She was only 14 years older than me, so I grew up thinking that she was incredibly cool and hip. While she was in high school and immediately afterwards, she used me as a litmus test for the guys she was dating. If they thought nothing of taking me to the park as their afternoon date, they were okay as far as she was concerned. If they found it annoying to be hauling around a 3 year old on their date, they failed and she dumped them.
My other aunt, my cousin Erins mother, Marla, is more cultured and would take me to the symphony, ballet and opera. She is a high school french teacher and would take students on European tours every other summer, bring me back little souvenirs from everywhere she went and teaching me about the various cultures. When I was 6, and they'd returned from the first tour that Erin was allowed to go on (she was 7) she helped Erin teach me about the french cafe culture, setting up coffee service on their patio table and allowed me to have a teeny tiny glass of redn wine with a french dinner that she'd cooked. I thought it was amazing that she allowed me to participate in such adult activities and that it made me so elegant. She taught me french phrases and I would have to use those during the french dinner or cafe time.
Neither or my aunts ever treated me like a child, never spoke down to me, and always expected me to treat them with respect and they gave me the same in return.
Basically I want to do the same for my little niece that my aunts did for me. Share the cultures that I encounter, and introduce her to the whole world.

3. You’ve got the travel bug. I know you’ve traveled in Europe and have another trip to Italy coming up. Are there any off the beaten path trips you really want to take, like Antarctica or something?

One of my goals in life is to visit 6 of the 7 continents - all except Antartica. There is some controversy on the issue of Antartica though. My father says that I should visit Antartica, that he's heard how beautiful it is and that I should go just for the ability to say that I've seen all 7 continents. That is tempting but I'm not too sure. First of all, COLD COLD COLD! I don't care for the cold. Two - I read something lately where a person had done a cruise down to the Antartic and how beautiful it was and that in a sense they were tempted to tell all of their friends to go, but at the same time hesitant because it is the one continent that has had very little human influence and the more people see it the more you see evidence of that human influence. I feel as though I shouldn't contribute to the degradation of that environment.
There are some other trips I want to take though - after Italy, I'm hoping to make my way to a continent other than Europe. I would LOVE to go to South America, I just have a hard time deciding where. Argentina? Chile? Brazil? I would like to learn to tango in Buenos Aires. Climb to Macchu Picchu (sp?) to see the ruins. Stand at the foot of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil and feel small, even though I'm not overtly religious.
I would also like to go to Asia, but again can't decide where. Japan? China? Hong Kong? Laos? I would like to see the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Walk along the Great Wall of China. See the Cantonese Opera perform, then do a little shopping, and finish the day by watching the sunset over Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. Go to Laos and feel at peace in a Buddhist Temple.
There are so many places I want to experience.

4. If you could quit your job and make up your own career (threat of financial instability notwithstanding) what would it be?

This one is easy - travel writer and photographer. If I could market myself as the female version of Rick Steves I would do it in a heartbeat. Offering travel guides and tips for the independent woman would make my soul sing.

5. You, like me, are a pub dweller on occasion. What’s your favorite from the tap?

That depends upon where I am.
Here in Sacramento my favorite is Newcastle Brown Ale. When I can find it I do prefer Amber Bock, but thats not easy to come by on tap.
In Ireland - Guinness, hands down. The flavor of Guinness over there is completely different than here, it has a sweeter, almost chocolate, taste to it.
In Germany, it would be Kolsch. I'd never heard of it before going there, and it is much much lighter than what I normally prefer but it was great. I've heard that Curve Ball by Pyramid Brewing Company is highly comparable to the Kolsch of Cologne Germany, where I had it, and we have a Pyramid Brewery here in Sacramento so I may be going there to try it soon.
In France, I only drank wine so I'm not really in the position to suggest anything from there.


If anyone else wants to answer 5 questions, let me know - the first 10 to respond will get 5 customized questions from ME!

Preparations

Saturday is my sisters baby shower and I have a lot of prep work to do. A lot. Theres going to be up to 40 people there and my sister wants the menu theme to be "miniatures". So, I'll be making finger sandwiches, hors d'ouerves, cupcakes, and petit-fours.

To start with, I have about 65 recipes to go through and narrow down the menu for the occaision. Today, Friday, after work I have to do all of the grocery shopping and at least make the cupcakes and petit-fours so that I dont have to do EVERYTHING Saturday morning.

Tonight, I start with narrowing down the menu...

I'm Sick

I've been sick for most of this week.
I finally called the doctor this morning and talked with the advice nurse - he thinks it sounds like I could have strep throat. GREAT. So, I went in today to be gagged with the giant Q-Tip. I should have the test results tomorrow morning.
In the haze of my sickness I've been drinking plenty of Hot Toddies - I firmly believe that enough brandy, lemon, tea, and honey will cure anything that ails you. Or at least it makes the illness a bit fuzzy around the edges.

Sis is out of the hospital and back home on bed rest for the duration of her pregnancy. I've been crafting away. I've finished the body of the "plaid afghan" and just need to weave through the colors now. I've started knitting a cap for when she's born, it should be finished tonight. Sis asked that I make one for the newborn photos that will be taken at the hospital. I've also started a new afghan - its a great pattern I got off the Project Linus website - I'm doing the Sideways Shell Baby Afghan. It works up fairly quickly, has great texture, and I've used it countless times.

I've found another pattern that I'm going to make for the kid, this cute little pony! The baby's room is being decorated in a fairy tale wizard like theme, so I'm thinking that with a couple of minor adaptations, this cute little pony could easily be a cute little unicorn to better match the theme of the room.

I'll post pics of all completed items as they're finished.

On the Flip Side...

This week we found out that my sister is having a girl. Wednesday night she was admitted to the High Risk Maternity Ward for mild toxemia and contractions. Everything is being brought under control and the docs dont think its anything life threatening for either one of them, but they do want to keep her in for a couple more days and are thinking my little niece will most likely come a couple of weeks early.
Last week I had not started a single project for the kid, but now I am overflowing with them. I've been crocheting the plaid afghan I mentioned last week and am over half way through the body of it - next I just have to decide what colors to weave through. I also have a crib quilt started - I went with Winnie the Pooh, its a classic and gender neutral - I'd picked it out before we found out that the baby is a girl.
Yesterday was when I went a little nuts.
A yarn shop down the street is closing so everything is on sale. I picked up some yarn.
Then a fabric shop is closing as well so everything theres on sale too. I got even more yarn, and some cross stitched bib kits, and then some yarn. At this point, I'll still be knitting and crocheting for the kid when she has her own kids.
This afternoon Sis called from the hospital bored to death and begging me to bring her something to do. I took her the cross stitch bib kits, hung out at the hospital with her for a bit, and then came home to watch The Amazing Race. I've been in since, working on the plaid baby afghan, only taking a brek to paint my nails, and write this entry. I am going to be hauling these projects everywhere for the next couple of weeks, I've got a lot to do in very short order.

Being an auntie is going to be SO FLIPPING COOL!

I am SO getting THIS for my pending niece or nephew.

Where o where have I been?

Pretty much nowhere, really.
Since I haven't posted in three weeks you may have thought I'd taken off for someplace exotic or was on some adventure somewhere. So not true.
I did go somewhere though - two weeks ago I went to Redding for the 2nd birthday of a friends son. Other than that, I havent been up to a whole heck of a lot.
I did get my nose pierced though, see:

Yes, it did hurt. If anyone ever tells you that it doesn't, theyre full of crap. It wasn't too bad though, but it was tender for a few days afterwards. If you're ever inclined to have your nose pierced and are in the greater Sacramento area, I highly recommend Elton at American Graffiti - he was great!
In other news, Ive been planning my trip to Italy for November. What started out as a group of three of us, myself and two coworkers, has now grown to EIGHT! Myself, the two coworkers, my friend Shauna and her husband Jesse, my lovely cousin Erin, and our friends Sheena and Laura. It is going to be a blast!
My sister is still pregnant, and you would think that with a little niece or nephew on the way I would be busy with knitting and crocheting and stuff like that. You would be wrong. i haven't started a single thing, which is so unlike me. I have looked at plenty of patterns and thought of varous things I can make for the little one, but have yet to start a single project or even gotten the supplies for one. I suppose part of the reason that I haven't started anything yet is that we're not yet positive of the gender. Whenever an ultrasound has been done, the technician says that they don't see evidence of any "boy parts" but because of the angle they can't be 100% positive that its a girl. Evidently the little bugger is modest.
I do talk to the belly from time to time, saying things like "I'm your cool auntie. When your mom gets on your nerves, and it will happen, you'll come hang out with me. I'm the cool one who travels all over the place and will bring you toys from all over the world".
I am looking forward to being an auntie, a little scared at the thought of my sister as a mother though. If you knew her, you'd understand.
Given all of this, I am going to start crocheting an afghan today. It will be based upon a pattern I found a number of years ago that the body of the afghan was crocheted so that there were holes every other stitch, then lengths of yarn were woven through the holes, creating a pretty plaid like affect. I figure that I'll crochet the body in white and then can finish it when the little tyke is born, weaving in either pink or blue at that time. This way, at least I'm starting something that will be quick and easy to finish once the baby is born. I just wish I could find the original pattern - if I remember correctly it was a book of numerous afghan patters published by Red Heart and had some really pretty afghans, and some spectacularly tacky ones as well, I just have absolutely no idea what the title of the book was or what the cover even looked like.
In other big news, I'm no longer drinking beer. Not that this is some noble attempt to quit drinking or anything like that, I've just switched to wine is all. I have heart issues on both sides of my family, so red wine will help with any genetic factors I may have inherited. Plus, I'm trying to lose some weight before Italy and am cutting back on carbs which means, no beer. sigh. It hasn't been hard or anything like that - a glass of red wine at the end of the day is nice.

Operation Debt Reduction: Possibly Delayed.

But only by a little.

I returned from my last trip to Europe and did start on my previous resolution to pay down my debt with all "extra" money that I had.
Then I got a travel special email. I think you know where this is going.
Another deal that was too good to pass up... I'm going to Italy in November!
Two of my coworkers and I will be spending a week in Venice and Florence. We are SO excited. Both Venice and Florence are on the list of cities that I want to go to, I just haven't been able to find reasonable airfare to Italy so far.
I am going to ride in a gondola, see The Birth of Venus and David. I just can't wait. November seems so far away now.

Heres a few more of the photos I love from Germany and Paris...

Germany

We arrived in Cologne Germany on a Saturday.
Finding our hostel was NOT easy, so by the time we got checked in we were already tired and grumpy, but still wanted to get out and see a little bit of the city.
First stop, a beer garden for a late lunch/early dinner and then walked to the city center from there. Without a very good map, all we had to use as a point of reference was the peaks of the cathedral.

The Dom Cathedral is beautiful, with incredibly unique architecture, and absolutely massive.
Its as beautiful at night as it is in the day time

We spent Saturday through Tuesday in Cologne and a neighboring town, Aachen.
Tuesday night we went to Paris.
There is not enough I can say about Paris. Its beautiful, and the people are wonderful. That old stereotype that the Parisiens are rude? Completely unfounded from what I experienced. Seriously, I didn't encounter anything like that at all.
I absolutely loved the city and want to go back to visit again and again and again.
I think this is my favorite photo of the entire trip.

I'm home, and...

I'm going to be an auntie

And, I'm Off....

My flight leaves in just a little under 5 hours, so I'll be leaving my house in about 3-1/2 hours. My laundry is done, my toiletries are all together, I just have to throw them all in my bag still, do a couple little chores, and take a shower.
I am excited beyond belief, but its also completely surreal as though I'm not REALLY going to be in NYC tomorrow visiting an old high school friend. I'm not REALLY going to be in Germany on Saturday morning. I'm not REALLY going to be in Paris on Tuesday night. None of this is REALLY happening. But, I can't wait for it to actually happen, to see Germany and Paris and NYC.

I'll take LOTS and LOTS of pics and share some of my favorites when I return.

Au Revoir!!!

Debt and Travels

For over a year now I’ve been saying that I wanted to get my debt paid off.
I guess what started that was when I paid off my old car last January, and how liberating it was to have that big monthly payment go away.
I didn’t immediately set about paying down the debt. First, I went to Ireland.
It was an amazing trip, and well worth the money. Traveling is something that I’ve always wanted to do but something had always held me back. I’m not sure if it was fear, thinking I couldn’t afford it, or what. Something just always held me back.
Last year I decided that I was just going to do it, so I booked my trip to Ireland. Some people thought I was crazy for going by myself, but I think it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.
When I got back I did work more towards paying down my debt, for a while. Then crap happened. I had to make a last minute flight up to Portland, which was rather pricey and threw the budget WAY off track, and I never fully got back on track. Then, I had to buy a new car. Then, I found the airfare special to Germany, which was quickly followed by Christmas. Yes, I could have been more fiscally responsible and passed on the vacation and put that money towards my debts, but I couldn’t. The price was so low that I just could NOT let the opportunity pass. I NEED TO TRAVEL. I LOVE to travel.
On last years trip I had such a wonderful time. It was wonderful to throw myself into another culture, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Hell, I am doing it again tomorrow night.
So, yes the budget has derailed. It has crashed and burned like you would not believe. Not only have I not finished paying it off, but I’ve ran it up even more. Aside from my car loan, I believe I’ve added more than $1,000 to my credit card debt. Yes, things could be worse, but when i was so close to having it all paid off its frustrating to see it climb back up like that.
So, once I return from my trip I’m putting a budget back in place. I want to be debt free by the time Christmas rolls around. I want to get all of that extra weight off my shoulders. There really is no reason for me to be carrying this debt around in the first place. I make enough money and my expenses are low enough that I shouldn’t have any credit card debt. It truly is just irresponsible spending on my part..
So, once I return I’ll be paying off the credit card debt. I should be able to comfortably pay it all of by Halloween, Thanksgiving at the latest. Then I’ll celebrate with a short vacation somewhere. Maybe a long weekend to Canada, or perhaps to visit my birth father in Boston. Returning from that, I’ll take the money that had been going towards the credit card payments, and put it towards the car payment so that I can pay it off that much sooner.
I just want to be debt free.

So, I’m off on vacation. Tomorrow night Erin and I leave for New York where we’ll spend the day Friday before flying out to Germany that evening. We’ll spend a few days in Germany, then a few days in Paris before coming home. I’m so excited, but it’s also so surreal.
Its currently midnight. My plan was to come home after work, do my laundry and pack.
As I'm sure you can guess, that did not happen. I came home from work, and got an email from Erin that a few of our friends were getting together at the pub to see us before we leave tomorrow. I just got home. Still, no laundry is done. Not a thing packed. I'm going to be up all night. I won't have time to get much done tomorrow either considering that I am going in to work for a half day. I was planning on leaving at noon until I found out from a coworker that theres a "suprise" Bon Voyage pot luck for me tomorrow at noon so I'll be sticking around for that and probably won't get home until around 2 pm, then have to leave for the airport around 630. I can't imagine that I'll have much of a problem sleeping on the planes.

Procrastination

I did finally get out of the house Saturday and made it to Walmart and got a good portion of the stuff that I needed, and then made it over to Mervyns where I was able to get some good deals. Once I got home, I got nothing else accomplished.
Sunday I did get out and met Erin, my travel buddy, at Old Navy and Ross where we picked up a couple of tees and sweaters. Once I got home, I got nothing else accomplished.
My plan for yesterday was to stop at Target on my way home to pick up the last few items I need and then to come home and start doing laundry and packing. That plan went down the drain when my dad called and invited me to come over for dinner with him and his girlfriend after work. I didnt get home until 10pm, so once again I got nothing else accomplished.
Tonight I did go to the bank after work to put a travel alert on my account and then stopped off at Target, ULTA, and Walgreens to pick up the last few items on my list. Now, I'm sitting here watching Law & Order.
This is all that is left on my "To Do" list:
1 - cash in my jar of change at that machine in the grocery store
2 - finish some projects at work & set up the "Out of Office" on my email (that will be done thursday morning)
3 - laundry
4 - pack
5 - change the outgoing message on my cell phone so people don't expect a call back anytime soon "Hi, this is Vanessa and I'm in EUROPE!!"
6 - put batteries in the camera, travel alarm clock, cd player, all that stuff
7 - burn a couple of mix cd's for the trip. I'm wanting one with calmer music and one more upbeat. any song suggestions?
8 - finish photoshopping the last of those photos from the wedding I photographed 2 weeks ago
9 - put the photos on cd's and get them to the happy couple
10 - clean my bathroom
11 - return dvd's
12 - I know I'm forgetting something

Right now, I'm TIRED. I still need to take the trash out and get tonights purchases out of my car, but I'm considering just going to bed now and tackling it all tomorrow night and Thursday afternoon. I'm working a full day tomorrow but am leaving work at noon Thursday so that I'll have time to take care of any last minute details before leaving for the airport. My flight leaves at 815 pm, which means I need to be at the airport by 715 so I should leave my house somewhere around 630. Between now and then I have to do all of the above.
I am going to finish photoshopping the wedding photos and copy them to a cd before I go to bed so that I can at the very least cross those things off my list.

I just cant believe that I'm leaving in less than 2 days. Friday we have a VERY long layover in Manhattan, about 9 hours, so we'll be meeting up with an old friend from high school. After that, its on to Koln Germany and Paris France. YIPPEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

NO Motivation Whatsoever

Last night I went over to some friends house for some wine and to hang out with the girls. It was fun, we talked, drank wine, played Cranium. After a while though, the cats got to my allergies so I took a Claritin that my friends had in their bathroom. Wine and Claritin do not mix well for me. It wasn't very long afterwards until I was saying "I really need to sleep. NOW".
I stayed the night, got a decent amount of sleep, came home and thought it was great to be up early on a Saturday and that there was a lot I would be able to get done. I need to go to the store and get some items for my trip - little things like travel sized toiletries - and I'd like to find a sweater at Mervyns with a gift card I got back at Christmas. Part of the errands I wanted to run was to upload some photos I'd taken to Walmart.com so that I could pick them up in store at the 1 hour photo when I went there for the toiletries that I need to get. After uploading them I sat down to watch an hour of crappy Saturday morning TV, and promptly fell back asleep. For 3 hours. Its now 4:30 and I still havent done a single thing that I need to get done. Well, I did take a shower, but I'm still just sitting here not doing any of the following....
laundry
getting a white foam core board for photographing my jewelry
going to Walmart
going to Mervyns
putting gas in my car
packing
cleaning the bathroom

I leave in only FIVE days so I do need to get all of this done this weekend.
I am DETERMINED to not be running around like an idiot Thursday afternoon in the last couple of hours before my flight leaves.

I also have a couple of jewelry projects to complete before Thursday. One is for my mother, she'd found this watch on eBay that she wanted that was a regular watch face with a beaded gemstone band. Its really pretty. So, she bought it, paid for it, and waited for it to show up. And waited, and waited, and waited. The seller hasn't responded to any attempts to communication, and hasn't responded to the complaints that my mom has made directly through eBay. So, she calls me up to make her a replica of it. I think it will turn out nicely, I have some similar gemstones to what the woman used, but not identical. i'll post a photo of it when I'm done. Considering my lack of motivation, I should be able to get it done tonight while I sit watching movies and not doing the chores that I need to get done.

Amazing!

I LOVE The Amazing Race.
Considering how much I love to travel and how much of the world I want to see, it is the perfect show for me - 28 days of racing around the world.
My lovely cousin Erin is a fan of the show as well, and for the past year or two she and I have jokingly said that we thought we'd make a great team. I'm a bit more practical, can navigate well, find the cheapest and quickest routes between locations, stuff like that. Erin is the one who would handle the cultural issues better, she's GREAT with languages, speaks German, a bit of French, and a smidge of Arabic. We would balance each other out fairly well.
We've been saying that we'd be this great team purely in jest, never with any intentions of ACTUALLY auditioning for it. I have my job, and she has school, it really would take some fancy footwork to coordinate our lives to match the filming schedule and all.
Tonight we were at the pub, talking about our trip to Germany and Paris next week.
Out of nowhere 3 or 4 of our friends say that they think we'd be a great team for The Amazing Race. I take this as a sign that we need to apply.
So, I just have to find out when the next round of auditions are - if the auditions are in person or via videotape.
Sooooo, any suggestions on how to make an audition that grabs the attention of the casting directors?

Erin and I on my 30th birthday... I think we'd make a killer team.

10 days and counting

yep, only 10 days until the big Germany/Paris trip.
Just like last year with my trip to Ireland, the closer it gets the less real it seems.

The past week my Grandpa from Oregon has been in town visiting. Its been a good visit. Wednesday night we went to the Pub for a pint, some shepards pie and bangers and mash. It was fun, he got to meet some of my friends and understands why I like to hang out there. Then Friday night we had dinner at my cousins other grandparents house, and then Saturday night I hosted a big family dinner at my moms house. I made a great chicken and pasta dish. I'd seen two recipes online recently that I liked, but of course I couldn't find them when I needed them. So, I did the next best thing and threw together what I could remember from the two. I started out by cooking bacon, onion, garlic, and chicken in a sauce pan, then removed all of that and used the remaining bacon grease to make a roux, and thinned it out with some milk, marsala wine, and threw in a bunch of mozzarella cheese. Definitely not the healthiest dish, but damn it was good. To add some bit of nutrition to it, when I was cooking the pasta I tossed in some broccoli florets for the last minute or so.

Since he leaves early Monday morning, we got together for a family brunch this morning in Folsom and I was able to get some pictures of the family together. Looking at these photos this afternoon it struck me that he is my last surviving grandfather. Even though I'm sure that we'll have countless opportunities for more photos like this, I'm going to treasure these photos forever. The last few years have been very hard for him, starting with my grandmother being diagnosed with lung cancer and then watching him care for her while she was sick, and seeing how sad he was during those 2 years, and how devastated he was when she passed away last year, its so good to see him smiling like this again, and looking genuinely happy.

Me and Grandpa

Me, Grandpa, and my little brother, Ryan

Ryan, me, Dad, Grandpa

Grandpa

As it turns out, I'm alive and well after all

I am well on the road to recovery. Today was the first day in over a week that I've felt like an actual human being for the entire day. Even after a full day at work, I felt well enough to stop off at the pub for a while.
Saturday, I started out feeling fairly normal. Then I photographed the wedding and by the end of the ceremony I just wanted to crawl back into bed, but still had the ceremony to go. After a seven and a half hour day I stopped at a friends house on the way home so I could relax for a bit. It was great, we visited for a few hours, had a couple glasses of wine, and snuggled her puppy before I continued on home.
Sunday I was supposed to go pick my grandpa up from the airport along with my dad, brother and sister. I was so completely and utterly exhausted that I completely slept through it and ended up spending almost the entire day back in bed.
But, now that I'm back amongst the living I'll be taking Grandpa down to the pub one night this week for a pasty and a pinto and to meet all of my friends.

I'm Dieing

I used to look forward to sick days. In high school I actually liked it when I was sick and could spend the day on the couch, watching TV, taking long bubble baths, and sleeping.
Now, I hate it.
I have some nasty version of the flu and have been lingering somewhere between wellness and death for the past 3 days. During the night, I'm freezing cold and can't get enough blankets on me, but during the day I'm sweating hot. Each day the symptoms are fewer, yet I feel worse. I left work early Wednesday, stayed home today and will most likely be staying home tomorrow. This is not good news. I have to get better. I have to try on bridesmaid dresses tomorrow evening, photograph a wedding Saturday afternoon, and pick my Grandpa up from the airport Sunday morning then go to breakfast with him and the siblings, then on to my dad & his girlfriends Superbowl party.
I've been taking Airborne and its not helping one bit. It did help at first before this flu really set in, but now it does nothing.
I've finally resorted to my Grandmas old remedy. Hot Toddies. Hot tea, lemon, honey, and a fair amount of brandy. I don't know if its working, but it does seem to be helping with the headache a little bit.


On a completely different note, does anyone have any recommendations for good walking shoes?
Its only 3 weeks until my trip and I'd like to find a good pair of walking shoes that don't look completely dorky and won't tear my feet up (most shoes cut into the back of my ankles).

And to go even more off topic, I can't decide what to do with my hair.
My hair is a medium to dark brown, and back in October I had some blond streaks done.
Its time to do something more with my hair and I can't decide between putting more blond in, going back to brown, or red. Opinions?

I'm Home

I'm home. The trip was great. Very relaxing, and of course it was wonderful to see Grandpa and all of my relatives.
The scenery at my Grandfathers is absolutely amazing. From his deck there is a gorgeous view of Mt. Hood...


and you wake up to things like a herd of 25 elk in the driveway



and theres all kinds of old crap to take cool pictures of.
This is the windmill on my Grandpas deck

This is the wheel on an old 1919 tractor on the farm where my uncle rents a garage for his welding business

and this is said uncle, busy at work


I'm glad to be home, have bridesmaid duties this week, a wedding to photograph Saturday, and my Grandpa (yes, the same one I just got back from visiting) is flying in on Sunday.

Only 23 days until the big trip.

A Little Late to the Game

I'm supposed to be at the airport in about 4 hours, and I'm just now about to put my clothes in the wash. I have yet to pack a single thing. I always do this - wait until the very last minute to pack for my trips. I'm going up to visit my Grandpa and Uncle, only a short trip - a 4 day weekend. I'll be back Monday night so I don't need to pack (or wash) much.



Its only 4 weeks until my trip to Germany. Its coming up so fast that I almost can't believe that I'm actually going. Last night I went shoe shopping for the trip, figuring that I need a decent pair of boots for the trip. I went to Marshalls and they had a pair that looked like they would be perfect - ankle height, brown leather, Nikes with that little air cushion thingy in the heel, and they were on clearance for only $25!! HOWEVER, they didn't have them in my size. None of the 3 Marshalls I went to had them in my size. I'm hoping that the Marshalls in Oregon will have them.
While at Marshalls I spied some Converse on clearance for only $10. Now, this may come as a shock to most of you, but I have never owned a pair of Converse before.
Sorry, didn't mean to make you fall out of your seats like that, hope you're not hurt too bad.
Its true, I've never owned a pair of Converse. Even though they've been around for decades and were extremely popular when I was in elementary school and junior high, I've never even tried them on - I was raised on cheap-o Payless/K-Mart/Walmart shoes. If I'm going to spend $40 on a pair of shoes they'd better be pretty cute, and Converse never looked that cute for $40. But, since they were only $10, I tried some on. OH, the comfort! It was almost as though I had slipped my feet into a stick of butter. I grabbed 2 pairs. Because I was getting what was left of the clearance rack pickings, there wasn't a whole lot. I ended up with a grass green pair and these. They almost look like a faux Burberry plaid, don'tcha think? I don't know that these would be ideal for walking all over Germany and Paris, but I am now an official fan. Theyre definitely worth the $40, but I'll still be on the lookout for deals at Marshalls of course.

Just a bit of a repeat from my last post - be on the lookout for the announcement of the grand opening of my ETSY store. If you're not familiar with ETSY, head on over to WWW.ETSY.COM, "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade". I'll be launching the site soon, beginning with my jewelry and hopefully will get some of my photography on there as well. I've been busy making items to post and so far I have:
2 cell phone charms
5 zipper pulls
15 sets of knitting stitch markers
90 pairs of earrings
50 necklaces
1 bracelet (I should probably make a few more of these)
1 eye glass chain (only a little dorky)

Yes, there are 164 items for me to post. I won't post them all at once - that would take me FOREVER. Once I have the first 20 or so items uploaded, I'll announce the grand opening - my goal is to launch by Monday, February 5th. Be on alert.

Numbers..... and some rambling.

Days since last post - 18
Days until trip to Oregon - 7
Days until trip to NYC/Germany/Paris - 34
Skeins of yarn purchased since new "budget" was declared - 2
Knitting projects completed - 0
Beads purchased - about eleventy bazillion and one, give or take.
Pairs of earrings made - 77
Sets of stitch markers made - 5
Cell phone charms made - 3
Bookmarks made - 1
Necklaces made - 39
Bracelets made - 1
Number of all of these beaded projects that I've uploaded to ETSY - 0
Cameras purchased - 1
Pounds lost since 01/03/07 - 14.08
Rolling duffel/backpack purchased - 1
Hours of overtime I will have worked at the end of this pay period - 10
Times I've been asked to be a bridesmaid - 1

I haven't been up to a whole lot since the New Year.
I have started a new health plan, not a diet per se since I'm not doing Weight Watchers or Atkins or anything prescripted like that. I'm just trying to make logical changes in my eating habits - no fast food, more fruits and veggies, less carbs and more whole grains. Really just the logical more healthy choices, and so far its working. I've lost 14.8 lbs since January 3rd. Ideally, I would like to lose another 15 lbs before I leave for Germany, which is only 5 weeks away so it really shouldn't be that far out of reach.
I am really looking forward to the trips coming up. Next Friday morning I'll be going up to Portland to visit my Grandpa and Uncle. I'm not going for too long, just a 4 day weekend, so I'll be home Monday night. I'm really looking forward to the trip. Its so quiet and relaxing up there. I'm also dreading it a little. It will be my first trip up there since Grandma passed away last July and I'm not looking forward to seeing how different it is without her there.

The real countdown begins. The trip to Europe. Erin and I are too excited for words and we have a great itinerary in the works. We'll be leaving Sacramento on a Thursday evening and taking the red eye in to La Guardia Friday morning where we will spend the first part of the day. We're hoping to meet up with an old high school friend of mine for lunch, however she just had her book published so she may be off doing fabulously exciting (and well deserved) publicity appearances. Friday afternoon we'll head on over to Newark where we will depart for Cologne Germany and arrive Saturday morning.
We're thinking that we'll spend 4 days in Germany then 3 days in Paris before coming back home the following Saturday.

I'm so excited about my trip that I bought a new bag. I stopped off at Ross this evening with the intentions of looking for a coat. I was there New Years Eve weekend and they had a fabulous red wool peacoat for only $40 that I didnt get because I was trying to be budget conscious but its been in the back of my mind ever since. I was hoping that it would still be there, but of course it was gone. However, I wandered over to the luggage section. I really don't need another suitcase, but I've never really loved the one that I have. I was able to find a bag that seems like it will be near perfect. Its a rolling duffle that also fits well as a backpack. Yes, I did try it on as a backpack in the middle of Ross. Bonus? It was only $30.

I also got a new digital camera this evening. Theres one I've had my eye on for a couple of months, and was thinking of doing some comparison shopping before my Germany trip, went to Best Buys website and it was on sale for $110 off the normal price. SCORE. I should have it by next Thursday at the latest, so I'll have it in time for the Oregon trip as well. YAY!!

Last Sunday my oldest friend Caren called. Caren and I have been friends since 7th grade and aside from my cousin Erin, she is my closest friend. The type that you know you can call at any time for anything. When my Grandpa died I called her and all I said was "Its Grandpa. Can you meet me at Kaiser?". She raced straight over and I didn't even process until well after the fact that she was in the shower when I called and still had her hair in a towel when she pulled up to the Emergency Room. She is a beautiful person all of the way through and I am so grateful to have her as a friend.
Anyways, she calls Sunday morning and asks me to meet her at Cal Expo for the bridal fair because her and her boyfriend are engaged, and would I mind being a bridesmaid this August? Of course my crafty side kicked in as we're walking around the fair. We're looking at invitations, centerpieces, and as she's cringing over the prices of everything I'm reminding her just how crafty I am so it appears as though I may be making the centerpieces, favors, invitations, bridal party jewelry, and if the wedding is in San Francisco I may be doing the flowers as well. Also, the part I'm really looking forward to... I'll be taking their engagement photos. YAY! Maybe Dad will let me borrow his Nikon D100 again....

The ETSY site... ugh. I have been making quite a bit of product to post on the site, but am in need of a camera to get some decent photos to upload. Problem solved. Perhaps I'll take my jewelry up to Oregon with me and will be able to get the photos taken while I'm there. I'm aiming to have the site launched by the first Monday in February.

Greetings 2007

New Years Eve was a blast. I went out with Erin, Kelly & Stephanie for dinner at Tapa the World where we shared some tapas and had a couple rounds of Mojitos. Afterwards we adjourned to our favorite pub, Bonn Lair, where we rang in the new year. It was great, many drinks were consumed, and we all had a great time.

Now, some resolutions. first, I'd like to review my resolutions from last year:
1. QUIT SMOKING
Well, that didn't exactly work out. Back in early September I did give it a shot, but there was only one completely smoke free day.
2. LOSE WEIGHT
Yeah, didn't get that one done either.
3. COMPLETE THE AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION TOUR DE CURE BIKE RIDE
I'm 0 for 3 so far.
4. BLOG MORE FREQUENTLY
I did accomplish this one. I went from blogging once a week to about twice a week on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less (like the past couple of weeks).
5. TAKE A FABULOUS VACATION
Check! Ireland this past May was amazing. It was definitely one of the best things I've ever done and has inspired me to make travel a higher priority in my life.
6. START A ROTH IRA
Nope. Didn't do that either. Thankfully I do have other retirement investments.
7. PAY OFF MY DEBTS
I came so incredibly close. I was down to about $200 total debt when I bought my new car.
8. GET ORGANIZED
Nope.
9. BE MORE ACTIVE
Nope again.
10. GO SOMEPLACE I'VE NEVER BEEN BEFORE
Yep. Ireland, baby!
11. WORK ON MY "100 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE" LIST.
I crossed out an item or two, but am not sure whether or not I added anything to it.
12. KNIT SOMETHING OTHER THAN A SCARF.
Done. I've made more than a few purses, a couple of ponchos, a top for Janae, some hats, and I am still working on my Viveka sweater.
13. DATE.
Nope.
14. READ MORE.
I did read more in 2006 than in 2005, but still not as much as I would have liked.

So, I was only able to complete 6 out of 14 items. Not good. I'm hoping to do better in 2007....

1. BECOME MORE FINANCIALLY AWARE.
I will be the first to admit that I don't know where the hell most of my money goes. I know that I have a considerable amount taken out of each check for my 401k and other investments, but even after that my take home pay seems to disappear way too quickly. I should be able to account for it in some way, but I generally can't.
2. LOSE SOME WEIGHT
I'd like to lose 20 lbs before my trip to Germany.
3. TAKE A FABULOUS VACATION
I'm thinking this will be an annual resolution.
4. GET OUT MORE
Its so easy for me to stay in and be a homebody.
5. GET ORGANIZED
I need to give this one another shot.

In addition to these, I think I may have to implement some weekly and/or monthly goals.
My goal for this week, to launch my ETSY site.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I hope all of you are enjoying your holdiays with those that mean the most to you.

One thing about the holidays is that you often see family members that you don't have the pleasure of visiting with during other times of the year.

Last night I celebrated Christmas with my birth fathers side of the family. I only get to see some of these relatives once or twice a year. That can be a good thing. I had the following conversation with my aunt "C" (the wife of my youngest uncle) last night.

C: So, Vanessa, how old are you now?

Me: I just turned 30 this past August.

C: Ohhhhhhhhh. Thats not young.

The Countdown is ON!

Ideally, I'd like to have all of my Christmas shopping done by the 22nd. That only gives me 9 days.
I choose this date because I am of a unique family situation (mom, step-dad I grew up with thinking was my father, and a birth father). Anytime you have a family situation where some family members are here, some are there, and some are way the heck over there. My birth fathers family (grandma, her husband, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc - but not the birth father, he's on the other coast) all celebrate Christmas on the 23rd so I have to have all of their shopping done by then and if I'm going to have that half of the family done, I may as well have it all done so that I don't have to run around like an idiot dealing with the masses on the 24th.

At this point, I have less than half of my shopping done.

And NONE of my holiday crafts completed.

On the shopping list:
Grandma
Mom
Dad
Father (since he lives in Boston, I'd like to get his gift shipped off by this Friday to avoid paying FedEx prices)
Lindsay (21 y.o. sister)
Ryan (17 y.o. brother)
Erin (cousin)
Jeremy (cousins husband)
6 cousins (ages range from 8 to 17)

On the craft list:
Janae's afghan (6 y.o. cousin) - thankfully, this is about 1/2 way done and shouldn't take long once I actually sit down to work on it.
And there are a handful of friends and coworkers that I will be making or baking token gifts for.

I'm sure I'll get everything done in time, it's just going to be a bit of a challenge.

I do this every year. About a week or two before Thanksgiving I start thinking "I should start working on my Christmas shopping NOW so that I don't have it all to do at the last minute" I never actually start.

There is one slight reprieve though. I'll have Friday afternoon off from work, possibly the whole day if I can get my work done ahead of time.

In other countdown news, only 22 days until Erin and I leave for GERMANY AND PARIS!!!

Dear Santa,

I've been good this year. Really, I have.
Many great things have happened this year. I went to Ireland, I was able to go visit my grandmother a few times before she passed and was able to be with her during her last days, I managed to sell some of my jewelry (and one of these days, hopefully very soon, I will launch my ETSY site), I got a new position at work, I saw friends marry, my cousin Erin and her husband Jeremy moved back to Sacramento, I was able to test knit a pattern for Stefanie Japel, and I got a new car. I am generally happy with my life. On top of all of that, a friends mother who has had breast cancer for the past 5 years has gone into remission - something the doctors have been saying would never happen. I am very grateful for all of this.

However, I've also had to deal with a lot of crap this year. I got rear ended. THREE TIMES. My mom had to have angioplasty for the 2nd time in 3 years. My iPod was stolen. My youngest aunt and her 3 kids (ages 15, 14, and 6) were living with us for the past 3+ months (they just moved out last weekend. Thank God). My father increased the frequency of the "when are you giving me grandkids?" pressure. My knee problems seem to have increased in both pain and frequency. And, I've managed to break my digital camera.

Apparently I've dropped it a time too many and now the picture is slightly off from what is seen through the viewfinder. To get the picture I want, I have to go up and to the left a bit from my intended subject. Fun.
So, Santa, I really wouldn't mind it if you left a digital camera under the tree for me this year. Really, I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. I'm not asking for the Nikon D100 of my dreams. Something with 6 megapixels or higher, video capability, decent zoom, and macro settings would be GREAT! Something I can carry in my tote bag to Europe with me and take pretty pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Cologne Cathedral, and Notre Dame.

Something like this:



Its the Kodak EasyShare Z612 and it has everything I'm looking for. 6.1 megapixels, 12x optical/4.2x digita/50x total zoom, equivalent to a 35-420mm lens focal length, 32 MB internal memory, rechargable battery and pictbridge compatible if I later decide to get a photo printer.
If thats not enough, it can take macro shots like this:



Thats a user photo from Amazon.com. Customer reviews on Amazon give it 4-1/2 out of 5 stars.
So, Santa, do you think theres room in your bag for something like this?

Mwah!
Love,
Ness

Something to look forward to...

I was having a rough week at work, and decided to distract myself with looking at possible vacations for next year.
I asked to two guys that I work with if they had any suggestions on where I should go. Their responses??
"Iraq" and, "North Korea".
When I told them that I would prefer to go someplace that was more hospitable to both Americans AND women, they said:
"Well, now you're just being difficult."
I looked at airfare to my top choice of destinations - Italy was ranging about $1,200 and up. Paris was about $800 or more.
Then I got the weekly Top 20 travel deals email from TravelZoo.com and one special caught my eye - Newark NJ to Cologne Germany for $198 roundtrip.
While Germany may not have been my top 2 or 3 choices, it is definitely on the list of places I'd like to visit eventually and at that price, there is no way I could pass it up. There are a couple of drawbacks:
1. I had to purchase the tickets by 12/12 so this does cut into my holiday budget ever so slightly.
2. I now have to find cheap airfare from Sacramento to Newark
3. I have to go the last week of February, so it will be COLD.

However, none of these are enough to stop me from going.

One of the best parts? My lovely cousin Erin will be going with me. This is going to be GREAT! As close as Erin and I are, we've never traveled together other than day trips around Northern California. What will be especially helpful is that she speaks some German.
Our flight will leave Newark at 7 pm, so we're considering taking a red eye into New York the night before so that we can spend the day in Manhattan prior to leaving for Germany.

We are SO SO SO excited!

update....

I'm still here, haven't disappeared or anything.

Thanksgiving was great.
I got up early and made my caramel apple pie. It was.... okay. Just okay. I didn't buy the brown sugar until Wednesday evening, so all that was left was dark brown so it had a bit more of a molasses type flavor, and I think I put too much brown sugar in the pie. It's definitely a recipe I'd like to work on perfecting.
Dinner at my aunts house was great. After dinner I was able to prevent myself from lapsing into food coma by knitting while watching the first season of Desparate Housewives with Erin & Jeremy.
The rest of my weekend, i did NOTHING. I was the perfect example of laziness. I just laid around and knit and watched television and movies. I was a sloth and it was great.

I may be planning my next international travel, nothing definite yet... I'm undecided.
For now, I'll just say Auf Wiedersehen

A Short Week.

I got my Vibe last Thursday, and I'm loving it!
I'll take a pic sometime soon and post more about it later this week.

This is also a short week for me, and I am very much looking forward to it.
I'll be working a half day on Wednesday and am off Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday afternoon I'll be baking desserts to take to my aunts house for Thanksgiving dinner.
One of my favorite pies is the Caramel Pippin Apple at Z-Pies, a GREAT gourmet pot pie shop in Placerville.
For Thanksgiving dinner, I'll be attempting my own version of a Caramel Apple Pie, complete with homemade caramel sauce. I'm thinking I'll be using a variety of apples. I went to Whole Foods this evening and picked up some Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala, and Pink Lady apples for the filling. Whole Foods didnt have any Pippin apples so I may stop by the Co-Op tomorrow night. I'd also like to try putting some Honeycrisps in it, but Whole Foods didn't have any Honeycrisps and I'm not sure where else I would be able to find them. Thats the only grocery store I can recall ever seeing them at. I considered grabbing an asian pear while I was at Whole Foods and mixing that in with the apples for the filling, but had second thoughts. What do you think? Should I mix one or two asian pears in with the apples? Any other suggestions?
I will be cheating by using a store bought pastry though. I'm not up to making the crust from scratch.

So, other than baking a pie Wednesday evening and dinner with the family on Thursday, I have no plans for my extra long weekend. I do know that I will go no where near a mall, Walmart, Kmart or Target on Friday though. I've never liked the "Black Friday" shopping sprees. I did it once when I was 18, and that was enough for me.
Hopefully, I'll get a lot of knitting done. I'm still working on my sweater, but am no where near as far along as I would like to me. I'm only about 90% done with the back portion - then theres still the front and the arms, then the blocking and the seaming..... and I'm supposed to have this finished by the end of the month.

Aaaaaaannnnnnnnnd, I'm dumb.

Saturday I went and test drove the Pontiac Vibe. I really like it, I think I could love it.
I'll be picking it up tomorrow, provided everything goes through with the financing.

I'm very excited, but still a little nervous. I've never bought a BRAND NEW car before.
Granted, I would have never given a Pontiac a second glance before. But, after researching it and finding out that it has a Toyota engine and transmission, I'm confident that it will be reliable and will last me a while. Provided that the curse of being rear ended has expired.

The test drive went well, I was surprised at how much "pep" the thing has considering that it has a four cylinder engine.
With the four cylinder Toyota Corolla engine, I'm looking forward to how much money I'll be saving on gas. My old Explorer gets about 14-15 mpg in the city and I can get 17-18 mpg highway. With the Vibe I should get about 30 mpg city and 36 mpg highway. Fantastic!!!
Sooo.... Saturday evening I'm test driving the Vibe with the sales woman, Barb. As we pull back in to the dealership I'm looking over the console and the lay out and asking questions. Like this...

Me: Whats this "18"? Is that the gas mileage? Because I thought that with the Corolla engine it was supposed to get something like 30 mpg.
Barb, in the most kindergarten teacher voice I've heard since, well, kindergarten: Honey, thats how many miles are ON the car.

Aaaaannnnnnnd, I'm dumb.
I mean, I KNOW that this is a new car but I'm just having a hard time comprehending that there can be that few miles on a car.

Rain

I always love the first few rains of the season. Lying here, listening to it fall on the large, heavy leaves of the magnolia tree outside my window. It always gives me the sense that everything can just be washed clean and made fresh.
I'm sure that by February I'll be cursing the rain, but for now, its comforting.

Friday Night Lights

Last night was my brothers last high school football game.
Unfortunately, they lost. Their heart just wasn't in it.
Earlier this week the team found out that although they had qualified for the playoffs, they wouldn't be able to play because of the incompetency of the schools athletic director. Twice during this season they had had new students tranfer in who were on the football team. The coaches all thought everything was good to put these new players in games. Afterwards they found out that the athletic director had failed to turn in paperwork to the league offices which made the players ineligible to go out on to the field. As a result, the team had to forfeit 2 preseason games and 2 season games. Even though the team was 7-2 on the field, they were 3-6 on paper making them ineligible for the playoffs.
The team they played against last night was undefeated for the season, and my brothers team started out strong, keeping the score even for the first quarter, but after a couple of 15 yard penalties for players dropping the "f-bomb" on the field (even though it was in their own huddles and not directed at anyone) they got discouraged and let the other team stomp all over them. The end score was 40 to 8.

In other news, I got my car back from the auto body shop last week and finally took it in to have the transmission looked at.
My mechanic came back with very bad news, more than I had anticipated. Not only do I need a new transmission, but something called the hub bearings is busted. I still don't understand exactly what that is, but if not fixed my right front wheel could fly off while driving down the road. Not good. Just to get the car up to where it would be safely operable would be about $3,500 (thats at my mechanics cost - he'd be cutting me a pretty sweet deal). To fix EVERYTHING thats wrong with it (including a leaking sunroof, the electrical to the antennae, and a few other minor things) would be another $1,000. Considering its a 1995 with over 172,000 miles, my mechanic doesn't think it would be a very good idea to put that kind of money into it. So, I'm going to test drive a new car tonight. I'd been looking at a used Toyota Matrix, but realized that the Pontiac Vibe is the exact same car (its a joint venture between Pontiac & Toyota) and a brand new Pontiac is actually a little less than a 2 year old Toyota, plus through my work I qualify for GM supplier discount pricing with Pontiac. This is what I'm test driving tonight...

Does it look too soccer-mom-station-wagon-ish??
I wanted to keep some of the roominess of an SUV, but quite so big and better gas mileage. So far, this seems to be the best to meet all of those criteria.
I swear, I am not driving a new car home tonight. I still have to clean out my Explorer so that I can trade it in and move some money around to make the funds available for my down payment.

P.S. Kimananda, I have an Apple iBook G4 and I LOVE it. I would like to get one of the new MacBooks though.

So... Tired.... Can't... Knit....

I was able to cast on Viveka last night and I got about 5 or 6 rows of the back done. But, thats where I stopped.

Tonight, I went to my brothers football game. His team (Valley Christian Academy) won, 48 to 13, and they're now guaranteed to be in the playoffs.

Soooo, for any of you here in the Sacramento area, next Fridays game is supposed to be HUGE. Its the last game before the playoffs and theyre playing against an undefeated team from Vallejo (my brothers school is a smaller division private school so the teams they play against aren't all local). The game is next Friday night, 7 pm at Oakmont High School in Roseville. if you can, wear burgundy. Its his team color. Tickets are only $6, and as an incentive there is a "50/50" raffle. Raffle tickets are $1 each and the winner gets half of the funds generated by the sale of tickets, the other half goes to pay for the teams use of Oakmonts field (again, small school... they dont have a field of their own). Tonights draw was for $114.

Seriously, come to the game next Saturday. Root for #88. Thats my baby brother. I'll have some assortment of noisemakers with me, I'm sure.

I did get a little knitting done during the game. I started "The Printers Scarf", its a simple 2x2 rib with some striping at the ends. So far, I'm not too sure about it. With the striping and the ribbing... well....... it looks a bit like an athletic sock. I may be ripping it out and starting over. Maybe a basketweave? I'm not sure.
Anyways, with all of the yelling and stomping and jumping during the game, I am TIRED tonight. I wanted to knit more on Viveka, but am just going to crash to sleep. I hope to get a lot done tomorrow, I'm supposed to have this bad girl done by the end of the month.

Also, the power charger for my laptop is fritzing out. As I was sitting here in my bed, it started sparking on me and damn near caught my quilt on fire. The cord near the doo-hickey that plugs into my laptop is melted and wires are exposed. I toyed with the idea of wrapping some electrical tape around it, but when I hold the melted parts together, it starts sparking pretty good. I guess I'll be going to Fryes or Best Buy tomorrow. Hopefully theres a non-Apple replacement. I just checked Apples website and a new charger is $80 AND all of the use reviews that are showing from the past week ALL say that theyre fire hazards and people are having to replace them after about 9 months. I guess I'm lucky that this one has lasted for well over 2 years.

I currently only have 50% battery power, so if I don't find a reasonable priced replacement tomorrow you may not hear from me for a while.

November

It's hard to believe that its only 52 days until Christmas.
Despite having so much to do between now and then, I was toying with the idea of participating in NaNoWriMo. Even though its only 2 days into the month, I was already stressing because I hadn't started writing yet - I was going to be doing that tonight. I have the general concept of my storyline down - it's an idea I've been working with for a few years now. I've even started a few times and have the various beginnings on my hard drive.
However, I quickly abandoned my notebook and pencil when I found out that November is also NaKniSweMo.
Back in September I decided that I wanted to knit myself a sweater, and decided on Viveka. I even ordered the yarn - Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather as the main color and Evergreen for the contrasting trim. I've been putting it off starting it though. I couldn't justify knitting something for myself when I have a number of items that are currently in progress or need to be done for someone else:
1. The socks. Those socks that I started back in September? I powered through that first one and got it finished in a reasonable amount of time. The second one? Not so much. I've started it, but have put it down so so so many times. I'm not even to the heel yet.
2. Shawls. I have two shawls that are in the works. Both are for myself - the ones that I started and didnt finish for B&K's wedding last week. I'm going to have a few holiday parties to go to in early December and would like to have at least the one made from the Bernat Boa finished to wear to the parties.
3. Janaes afghan. In the summer I started an afghan for my youngest cousin and planned on having it finished by now so that I could put it for part of her Christmas present. Again, I've been focusing so much on other projects, that not much progress has been done on this one, although I have gotten a little bit done this past week. I WILL finish this by Christmas.
4. "Neopolitan Handbag". I've had an idea for another felted handbag in mind for a few months now and wanted to use pink, brown and cream - like neopolitan candies - but, I couldnt find the right shades for the pink and the brown. While in South Lake Tahoe for a bachelorette party 2 weeks ago, a few of us went to the ONE yarn shop in SLT where they had the PERFECT pink, brown and cream. Naturally, I bought them and have them sitting here. I have yet to start the bag.
5. "The Printers Scarf". In preparation for the launching of my ETSY shop, my friend S, who is a graphic artist, designed some business cards for me. She was also able to get them printed at no cost in exchange for a knit scarf. I bought the yarn - Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Worsted - now I just need to figure out the pattern. Find a pattern that would be appropriate for a man who is very stylish, or design something of my own? I'm thinking that with everything I have on my plate as it is I should stick with an established pattern.
6. Purple and Grey Felted Bag. I started this MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS ago. I got the body completed and am working on the straps. Then, its just a matter of throwing the thing in the washer. Hopefully I'll have this finished by Christmas and will be able to gift it to someone.
So, with the enormous list of WIP's staring at me blankly, I'm going to ignore it all and start on my own sweater. i even stopped and bought myself a pair of Addi Turbos for the special occaision.

Let the knitting begin!!