Crafty Doppelganger

My awesome sister-in-law and I had a great time at our family xmas party. She's also a knitter and spinner, and we had a crazy time drinking wine and fiber geeking. We have a lot in common, to the point that when I saw her nailpolish I had to rip my sock off to show I had the exact same color on my toes.We also share a happily similar taste in knitting projects and yarns. The first time I met her she was knitting socks with kool-aid dyed yarn. I grinned and pulled out my own kool-aid socks project. It seems every time we visit it ends in pattern swaps for what the other person is knitting. She's also incredibly enthusiastic, moreso even than me if you can believe it. It rubs off when we're together, which is yet another reason I wish we lived closer together. I might actually get some projects finished with her encouragement.

For a good part of the evening we sat together on the couch knitting and talking. I told her to knit on my 2-row Noro scarf (no it's not Noro yarn) a bit - a touchy thing since most knitters have subtle variations in knitting styles. So now when I look at my scarf I can see the inch she knit, too subtle of a difference for anyone else to notice, but a happy reminder of the evening. Things got a bit silly later in the evening, including some dangerous online shopping, and hilarity over my inability to match dye lots. Hey! When you dye your own yarn without measuring these things happen. Cool sock pattern, though. On a slightly unrelated note, I think yarn shops would be well served to hold wine tastings in the store. My local shop had a book signing party w/ wine one night and I think the owner made a killing off of tipsy yarn purchases. It's only extreme self control that keeps us all from going bonkers in yarn shops. A glass or 2 of wine destroys that, as my splurge on the current scarf yarn shows. She (and my brother) are coming for a visit in a couple weeks as a result of the online shopping that night. I can't wait to geek out with her again.

Finally, some cookie baking

About 3 years ago (must be that long ago, my hair was still too short to do anything with) my friend Jan & I got together to bake xmas cookies. We had a fantastic time, learned that 2 people adding ingredients to 1 recipe is a recipe for disaster, ended up with far too many cookies, and agreed to do it next year. Since then every time we plan to make cookies some crisis occurs that makes us cancel. Serious crises like detached retinas. But every year we make the plans. It's become a bit of a running joke. So we were a bit shocked and excited that we successfully got together to make cookies this year. Her son was home from college and agreed to help us. It was all going smoothly until we started cutting out the eggnog rollout cookies. There was a gingerbread man cutter and her son & I had a terrific time producing mangled and mutated cookies. Every dismemberment was accented with red sugar sprinkles. I remember doing the same type of thing as a kid, with the same reaction from the "mom" - quiet laughter and head shaking. Here's the final batch of freak men cooling. Can you find: Siamese twins, Tiny Tim, the one with Gangrene, the amputee, Antennapedia man (gotta love the drosophila genetics), the one with IBD, the vampire victim, The one who's boggling at the horror of it all, and the Frenchman? Brilliant!

Time on my hands is worth 2 in the bush.

Somehow I saved up enough leave time I have to take this week off work. We can only carry over so much time and any excess is "use it or lose it". We had last week off for the holidays, but most of that was taken up traveling so I didn't get anything done around the house. But now I have a whole long week of nothing staring me in the face. Ooh, how best to use this rare delightful thing?

I want to clean the house (really really clean). Bathrooms & Kitchen - ugh. Tidying my craft room, which currently has so many things piled up I can't just sit down and craft on anything. I need to finish repairing all the dog-chewed holes in our bedquilt. There's one decent hole left and a number of smaller ones to patch. Thankfully it seems to have stopped, because soon our quilt will be more patches than original material. I can see 6 patches in this photo and the offending dog. See that pretty tumbling blocks one she's nosing, and the watercolor one by her foot? Those pieces of the quilt were completely gone - batting, backing, all eaten.
I have a cute purple & white polka dot skirt that just needs a waistband sewn in. I have a cast iron bake kettle that needs seasoning. I have a dog that wants to go hiking. I have neverending laundry. I need to go to the gym. I need to work on a bellydance choreography, or at least pick out a song for it. I need to figure out how to use WinAmp to control my ipod because itunes has farked up my laptop. I need to read some articles about infectious diarrhea in patients who have chronic diarrhea. I need to mail my mom a bra to borrow for her birthday dress. I need to scan in photos. I need to paint my toenails blue. I need to eat breakfast.

I want to go shopping. I want to watch the Sex & the City movie I borrowed. I want to hang out with my friend spinning & watching more episodes of Crash. I want to make grapefruit marmalade. I want to sleep late (yeah right that's not going to happen). I don't want to waste any of my time this week.

I know there's enough time for all those things. I also know how easily time slips away. For instance, it's noon, I'm still in my PJs, and have only had a glass of grapefruit juice this morning. Well, better go fold that load of laundry that just buzzed, eat some brunch, and ... and... and...

Woolgathering & Rooing

Ok, this post is only halfway about fiber. Read on.

I know woolgathering as collecting fluff from bushes & fences where animals shed. According to the dictionary the main definition is fanciful daydreaming. Whatever. I know rooing as the long echoing howl our hound makes - aaarrrooorooroo, but knew deep down it has some fibery connotation as well. It's the gathering of fiber by plucking the shed parts from an animal directly.

I always gathered Katie's undercoat for spinning. It's so soft it rivals cashmere and is jet black. I spun the fiber and knit D. a hat and scarf from it. That is our special bow that has been reused on every present we give to each other for years. I still have a small bag of gathered fur to be spun. She was shedding a lot from a recent bath, and the house is currently drenched in dog fur. Normally I'd just vacuum it up and be happy with the clear carpet for a day. But I can't get any more fiber, all we have left is what's on the ground and furniture. So now I'm woolgathering. I'm using a comb and gleaning as much as I can from everywhere I see it. Every tuft is a few more inches of yarn. No, this isn't crazy, it's resourceful.

Year in review - blog style

An idea taken from a friend -- Post the first line from the first post of each month for the past year. Seemed a silly idea, but actually sums up the year pretty well. I made a mistake at first and was clipping the topmost post, which is actually the last from each month. I knew it was going to be good when it started out:

Are you effin' kidding me?

"Applewood smoked bacon, Alder wood smoked salt, 41% cacao".

Then I realized my mistake and started over with the correct posts. Too bad, it was on a good track in my opinion. Here's the corrected version:

What a tumultuous year.

What? Two political-based entries in a row?

Tonight is the first official night of "Man this would be a great night to be out camping" season.

I just flipped through my regular online life -- the series of email accounts, facebook, and friends' blogs that I normally stay current with.

Five years ago while I was in chemo, my oncology nurse suggested I try walking the Huckleberry Trail with the dog for some exercise.

I got my autumn leaf tattoo finished last night.

The wild berries are ripe--I think they're black raspberries, although they're a bit smaller like wineberries

For the locals - does Steppin Out seem a bit disappointing this year compared to prior years?

I know we all agree on the ridiculous nature of gasoline pricing.

I was flying back from a conference and killing time in the airport shops.

Living in a small town really has its advantages.

The weather has been most unusual lately.

See? Isn't that great? Oh sure some important things aren't mentioned, but overall my feeling is "Yep, that was 2008 for me".

Our Beautiful Katie

You know our sweet baby Katie. She just turned 9, and was looking forward to all the treats and present-opening on xmas. (She loved her pearl necklace and the extra attention it garnered). She'd been a little tired this weekend, but nothing concerning. On Wed. morning she didn't feel well, didn't want to eat or really get up. She was worse when I got home and we took her to the vet. She was so lethargic she barely lifted her head. They found splenic cancer with metastases to her liver and possibly lungs. Sitting there seeing the blood counts and xrays, hearing the options was horrifying - too close to home. Clinging to a hope she might be ok like I was.
Coming to terms that it wasn't an option. We spent 8 hours at the emergency vet, and left without our Katie. There really wasn't any hope to even extend her life without suffering. OMG I can't believe this happened. Until the day before she was perfectly healthy and happy. Chasing Windy and loving life. Once we decided, I went home to get Windy, and stopped to get some french fries, Katie's favorite. She ate a couple, then lay back down. Darin snuggled against her, the vet gave her the injection and Darin pet her and whispered in her ear until her last breath. It was really beautiful, she was so happy and peaceful and content. We should all be so lucky. It was so sudden and unexpected. One lousy day took away our Katie, when we should have had so many more with her. We love her so much, and always will.

I love this hotel

More photos from my recent trip. The sun started to rise while waiting at the gate to board on my way there. This picture is special for more than just the sunrise. For those of you who fly out of the same airport -- Look! A jetway! Can you believe it? Made me feel all high-dollar not having to go out on the tarmac to board. I always do an extensive yoga routine at the gate before boarding. It helps get the blood flowing and keep limber during many hours of sitting. I really wanted to get a photo in Warrior II (my fav. pose) at the gate but just couldn't bring myself to ask a stranger to take a pic. Esp. since most of them were staring at me surreptitiously over the rim of their coffee cups that early in the morning. Even knowing that no amount of embarrassment is worse than regret/failure, I still couldn't get the nerve to ask. Maybe next time.

The hotel is famous for its "View from the tub". It has plantation shutters that you can open to see into the room, and since my room overlooked the ocean it was possible to sit in the tub and see the water. Very cool, and I made sure to take a bath one day to experience it. Actually, the shutters were a great feature. I kept them open the whole time, and it made the room feel really big, plus kept the bathroom from steaming up. It was easy to keep my iPod dock on the ledge separating the rooms and access my music wherever I was.

Stepping out onto the balcony, this was the view:The rectangular pool bridged the lower one with waterfalls sheeting down on each side into the bottom pool. The "hole" in the middle is actually glass, so you could see people swimming in the other pool. It was fun to be in the bottom pool and have someone swim down to the glass from the top. The ocean was great too, warm enough so long as you stayed in the water. No waves though, which was disappointing. And the water wasn't nearly as salty as I had expected (my last ocean experience was the Pacific, which was really salty tasting). So many people went from the ocean to the heated hotel pools that the pool water was slightly salty instead of chlorine-tasting.

Stepping back into the room, you had to step over this 5" lip on the door frame. I don't know why it was so high, it's not like the floor had a flood hazard that high up. Now, given you knowledge of me, why do you think I'm including this in my post? Could it be that I tripped so mightily over the lip the first few min. in my room that I went almost 10 ft. before landing? See where the bed and my shoes are? That's where my shoulders impacted. I hoped the scuffs on the carpet from my fall would show in the photo, but alas they don't. And I neglected to take a photo of my carpet burned, bruised, slightly bloody knees. Though I'm sure they looked great the rest of the week with my skirts.

One final thing that was a nice touch. The in-room coffee maker was pretty neat. No steamed milk or froth, but far better than the dreck one normally gets as in-room coffee. Until next time...

Tasty foods from travels

I took all sorts of random photos from my trip to Southern FL. I figured it's the odd ones that make you smile later. Going through them when I got home, I apparently took a lot of photos of food. You already saw the steak pic, and I thought I'd share some others.

This Gingerbread house was actually the coffee shop in the lobby of the hotel. It was made out of real gingerbread and icing, and there was a continual parade of people mugging for the camera pretending to eat pieces. I probably would've done it too, but alas was by myself and too embarrassed to ask a stranger to take a picture of me doing it.They were giving out these juice drinks along with the sodas and water, and I picked up a couple to try. They are basically just pressed fruits and juice with no added ingredients, thick like a smoothie but not pulpy. Mixed really nicely with fizzy water. Very tasty and filling, made me wish I'd grabbed a couple more. Great to take the morning hunger edge off before getting down to the conference and your real breakfast.And for the piece de resistance - the scariest piece of sushi you'll ever eat. Sorry for the bad image quality, I took the pic with my phone. I'd never had a spider roll before, and wondered if there would really be legs hanging out. Boy it did not disappoint. It looked disturbingly like the face suckers from the Aliens movies, and I made it scrabble across the plate while making scary noises. I played with it for several minutes before getting up the courage to eat it. I bit the sushi part off, and was left with the legs, which I planted in a wad of wasabi at the prow of the serving boat. There was one other piece with slightly less scary legs, and later in the evening I ate it in one bite, feet first. It was damn tasty, and next time I'm at a good sushi restaurant I'm going to order it again. Although after doing a GIS for spider rolls, I think mine might be one of the scariest presentations I've seen. Hope I'm not disappointed in the future ones.

The terrorists won - here's proof

Just returned from a trip that included several airports. I've grown to accept the 3 oz. toiletries in their magic ziploc bag. Having to take off my shoes and go barefoot through security. The inability to bring a drink through. I do appreciate the airports that have the segregated lines for "black diamond" travelers who know what their doing. And being allowed to carry scissors and knitting needles again. Overall these "security measures" are pretty ridiculous and certainly don't make us any safer.

But having dinner during a layover I encountered the final straw. I ordered a steak at TGIFridays. I somehow never eat red meat on business trips, and usually by the end really crave it. See, I'm not really a vegetarian, I just play one on TV. A lot of meals are sponsored and usually chicken or veg., and we always seem to eat sushi as our late night supper. Anyway, I get my steak and silverware. Instead of the normal big steak knife I'm used to seeing, I get this instead:A cheap plastic picnic knife. Not even a high duty one, just the crap that would come with a fast food salad. It was a pretty thick steak cooked medium-rare. I almost called the server over about it, but then realized I was already through security and could have stolen my steak knife and done nefarious things with it on the plane. No point in complaining. I started cutting my steak. No, I started sawing at it, shredding the meat. Each stroke of the "knife" got through about a millimeter of it, and it made a horrid sound of muscle fibers tearing. It took almost a minute LITERALLY to cut off a couple pieces. I kept at it, rapidly losing my appetite and thinking this is the type of meal that makes me lean towards going veg. It wasn't long before my knife broke and I gave up.

So now, 7 years later, the response to the terror attacks are still far-reaching. The point of terrorists is to cause terror and disrupt normal life. And they've succeeded. They prevented a tired American traveler from enjoying a grilled steak as her last meal before heading home. And made her worry about using buzzwords like 'terrorist' in an innocuous blog post. Really, I have a slight nervous feeling, like the PATRIOT police are gonna come get me. Tsk tsk.

Lipstick on a pig

I'd never heard the phrase "lipstick on a pig" until the media furor over Obama's use of it after Palin's convention speech. Since then I've wondered how often it really gets used in daily conversation. I'm glad (sort of) to finally have a use for it. Last week I stayed at a hotel near the airport for an early am flight. Based on the chain name and online photos I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by the quality and accomodations. Instead I arrive to find out it's a renovated Holiday Inn. No, wait, it's in the process of being renovated. Sure the bedding was updated (thank god no synthetic spongy under blankets) and the toiletries very nice, but underneath it was still a Holiday Inn. I was playing with the unstable bathroom faucet and thinking - you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig. Even with a high dollar veneer, I'm still stuck at a rickety holiday inn. Leaving the next morning clinched it for me, when I tripped rolling my luggage into the elevator because it had stopped several inches above the level of the floor.

Wormies

The weather has been most unusual lately. We've had a surprising number of snows already, though none last through the next day. The other day I let the dogs out and was pleased with the warm wet wind blowing instead of the biting cold dry wind we've had lately. The cars were covered in rainy dewdrops, and when I ran my fingers across the windshield I was shocked to discover it was ice. I swear it felt like it was in the 40s, and here I have to scrape my car. When I went back inside for the ice scraper, I looked down at the front stoop and was horrified to find countless tiny worms slowly dehydrating and freezing to death in front of my door. A few waved their little heads (or butts - never can tell), but most were stuck down to the cement. The dogs didn't like it, and took running leaps to get inside without getting worms in their toes. I looked at the neighbors and we're the only house graced by the wormie goodness. Blech.