Neat stuff!

So a little while ago Emily was looking for test knitters for her itty bitty birdies (fancy).  Now I have never test knit anything, but it sounds fun, so I told her I would do it.  I told her that I had never test knitted before, and that I had never knit with beads before, and that I had never knit with double pointed needles before, and so would probably convert the pattern to use two circular needles, but if all of that was all right with her, I'm in!  So she sent over the pattern, and a couple of days (four or five hours of knitting time) I had this:

Isn't he cute?  I had a great time making him, and he knit up quick.  It helped that the pattern made sense and all.

For my birthday yesterday, James took me to w00tstock.  It was awesome!  It went over by nearly two hours, so I didn't get to bed until almost 2am, but it was totally worth it.  Afterwards I got all the autographs I could, and Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage were kind enough to pose with my sock-in progress!  Adam Savage didn't seem to know what to do with it, but Wil Wheaton was totally into it.  Several of the autographers (including Paul and Storm and Wil Wheaton) said how cool it was.  Awesome event all around, and James' eyes didn't even pop out from rolling too far back in his head!

Wil Wheaton!

Paul and Storm!

Adam Savage!

COLD!!!

So the baseball game was cold.  And also, they lost.  How do you sweep Detroit (pretty good team) and then immediately turn around and lose to Baltimore (pretty bad team)?!  The new stadium is really nice though, and the food we had was good.  By the end of the game we were both pretty cold.  But we stayed dry 'cause our seats were under an overhang, so that was nice. 
Tomorrow's ride will probably be pretty cold too.  It looks like it won't get all the way to 50 degrees until after we are done.  I am trying to work out how much to bundle up while riding.  Shedding layers would be a little tricky, so I am thinking zip up sweatshirt over a long-sleeve tee.  That way I can unzip and roll up my sleeves if I actually warm up.  I should also find some sort of gloves to wear.  Regular cycling gloves won't work because it's my fingers I'm worried about.  I'm sure it will all work out fine.  I'll let you know.

So much going on!

Hi there!  I figured I should post since Claudia was so kind as to link to my little blog.  (Thanks Claudia!)  So the big news is that I am doing the Bike MS Twin Cities ride on SATURDAY (yes the day after tomorrow)  I will be doing the 60 mile route, and hoping not to freeze to death along the way (the high is forcast for 57 degrees.  Farenheit.)  If you would like to donate, you can do that here.  I reached my original goal of $300, so decided to set a new one of $500 and see what happens.  It's for a really good cause after all. 
In knitting news, I have finished my very first pair of Rockin' Socks (from the Rockin' Sock club) and started on the second pair.  I plan on working on them at the Twins game tonight.  This will be my first game since 1988 I think.  I am super excited to see the new stadium, and a cold night game seems oddly appropriate for my first outdoor baseball game. 

I told you I would have pictures...

I have knitted things:

Two pairs of socks for me and one for the co-worker giving me fitness advice. The rest are iPod/phone cozies. If you want one, leave a comment. Most of the sock yarn I have ever used is available, so let me know what color you would like, as well as the size of your iPod/phone and if you want a sweater or just a slip on cozie. They are pretty quick knits, but it will probably still take a couple of months for me to get one to you. I have lots of knitting projects going now, but am totally happy to add more.

Tonight, the Wild are killing the Detroit Red Wings and I am loving it! Hopefully they will do as well tomorrow.

Oh, Hai! (Completely Random stuff)

Shortly I shall show you what I have been doing with my time. But not now. I am at work (on lunch) and while the photos I wish to share are online, I have had bad luck with links and would rather upload from home. Yes, there is knitting. And an offer to knit for you if you like. I plan to show you these things this weekend, but I suggest that you not hold your breath, because my weekend plans and goals are ever-changing.
Aside from the knitting I have been watching football (and will do so again this weekend in the hopes that the Vikings will win.) Also hockey (they are getting better!) I have also been reading quite a bit it feels like. We both got Kindles for Christmas, and I LOVE it! Excellent to read on, easy to use. Oddly, the wireless occasionally makes my clock-radio chirp (if I am holding the k to close to the c-r and the k is trying to communicate with Amazon.) It makes the same noise as my heart rate monitor when I am uploading info. Obviously this is the sound of digital communication. I don't mind it, but I don't think I would want to listen to it for long periods of time.
One day I should write a post about Facebook and other such sites. It is only half-formed in my brain right now; I will wait until it is more coherent.
Happy Friday Everybody!

Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster Batman!

The Irish government just may have gone to far.
http://blasphemy.ie/2010/01/01/atheist-ireland-publishes-25-blasphemous-quotes/
I thought everyone should know.

Successful Organ Transplant!

My Summer Vacation

Hi there. Let's see if this photo thing will work this time. We had a good time at the cabin in late July. James tried to get hummingbird pictures. He got a few good ones, but I got these, which I am really fond of.

And here are the socks that I finished while we were there.
The color in this photo (and all of the photos I took of them) is a bit off. The name of the colorway is Blackberry, and it is a bit darker and a little more purple-y. I think the pattern shows up pretty well on it (again, the photo isn't that great), I am looking forward to wearing them this winter.

Then a couple of weeks after visiting the cabin, we went to the Boundary Waters. It was the first trip that we made on our own, and it went remarkably well. Yes, we made fire and ate dinner in the dark the first night, but the second day we moved to a campsite on an island and didn't leave it until it was time to go home. There were tons of berries on the island, mostly blue, but some red as well.
I forgot to bring my berry book, so I only sampled a couple of blueberries, because I was confident that they would taste good and not kill me. This turned out to be well placed confidence, and my prudence was rewarded as I looked up the other four kinds of berries that we saw when we got home, and at least one of them is indeed harmful. One or two of the others are ok, but apparently don't taste that good. So only eating the little blue ones was a good move. We also saw some mooses. If you look really close, you will see three dots in the lake. These are a mama moose and her two little meese. We watched them swim across the lake and go into the woods pretty much straight across from us. It was pretty neat, and the binoculars got a good workout.

To round out the summer, we went to my cousin Liz's wedding in Duluth! I finally got to meet Scott (groom in said wedding) as well as Margaret's intended, Ugur (the g is silent if you are not sure how to pronounce his name) and Fred's girlfriend Bri. It would seem that all of my cousins have picked quite nice partners. We like the nice in this family. It is so strange to see all of my cousins as parts of couples! Anyway, the whole weekend was terrific. The wedding was wonderful (yes, I cried, I do that). Margaret looked like a 1950's movie star. The dress and the hair were just perfect; she was beautiful (not that she isn't always, but I don't usually see her all dressed up and such). And Liz was positively radiant in her Grandmother's wedding dress (which her mother, and I think another relative have also worn). I loved the hairpiece that held her veil, and the hairdo with the baby's breath. It was obvious that she was spectacularly happy. I wish her and Scott many years of spectacular happiness. It was also great to meet some of their friends. They all seem like they are really fun and fun to hang around with people. I know I sound all gushy, but it was a great happy time, and I am so happy for Liz and Scott. I like to see my favorite peeps having a good thing. Anyway, it was generally a ridiculously happy weekend, so there.

They had a photo scavenger hunt (you can see my entry here), which was fun to complete. And I gave them this as a gift. And they liked it! Woo Hoo!

And just so you know, I still can't drag and drop the photos like I think I should be able to, but I used my incredibly limited HTML skillz to find a work around. I know this has been a crazy long post, but I had a lot swirling around in my head for quite awhile and just now finally managed to sit down get it all typed out and photo-ed up, and if I don't do it all at once, some of it will get lost, and I didn't want that. I wanted to share. Hockey season is getting underway and I get to go to a pre-season game on Sunday. The first regular season game is October 3. I am really excited for this season, and I'll probably want to share about that too.

What we have done to our house.

This summer (June) we painted our house,

made pizza on the grill,

and put a fire ring in the back yard (July).

Then we spent a few days at the cabin, where I finished a pair of socks which will have to be shown in another post because for whatever reason I cannot move pictures within a post anymore.

Start of short rant: I am now angry at blogger. I should not have to upload all the pictures in the correct order and then add text. I do not know why I cannot drag and drop pictures within the post like I used to. Blogger's help section is not helping me with this. Poo on blogger. End of rant. I feel a little better now.

Photos from Cabin and BWCA in the next (hopefully rant-less) post.

Smash/Up

So the weekend before last we had a nice Saturday outing. We went to the new Smashburger that opened near us. Tasty burgers and good shakes. The fries were ok, nothing spectacular, but good. We will definitely have to go back. It is a lot closer than Lion's Tap, and almost as good. After lunch we went and saw the movie Up in 3D. Excellent movie. I cried through some parts (if you've seen it, you know which parts, if you haven't, I won't spoil it for you). The extra money for 3D wasn't really worth it, but its good to try it out once in a while.

Last weekend was interesting. It started early with my Great Aunt's funeral on Thursday. It was a great service. The only time any of us will see a 21 gun salute to a paisley handbag. (Her ashes were buried in a Talbot's handbag wrapped in a Talbot's gift box. The national cemetery was perfectly fine with this.) We had a wonderful day with family, catching up and discussing the upcoming festivities in September. Friday we took it easy, did some light cleaning and grocery shopping. Saturday my aunt from Cali came over. She had never seen our house and wanted to, so I gave her the grand tour while James mowed the lawn. We didn't stay up too late or go see fireworks, just had a nice day at home enjoying the American dream. Sunday we got out our bikes for the first time this year (well first time for me anyway). We did a 6 1/2 mile ride at Baker Park reserve (near lake Independence). It was really nice, the hills were pretty small and not too bad. Hopefully we will get out much more the rest of the summer. Overall a great and pretty relaxing weekend.

Only two full weeks of work than I get a short week and a trip to the cabin. I can't wait! Also exciting, I finally get a haircut on Saturday. It has probably been six months since I had that done, and I really need it.

Next time, updates on the house and yard!

What about the knitting?? I can't talk about that, it would ruin the surprise. The other knitting? That's a sock (second of a pair) that I only knit on my lunch break so is coming along very slowly and is not worth talking about just yet.

I am nothing if not out of shape

I got a new work out dvd today, Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred, and I do feel shredded. I have not gotten that much out of 20 minutes ever. I will not worry about whether or not I can do it again tomorrow as tomorrow is soup night so I will not have the chance. Speaking of, I forgot to make the desert. I will have to look at the recipe and see if I can do it there. Probably, I do tend to get there a bit early.

Work continues to be craptastic as we hurdle into the abyss of store openings. Socks and bags and afghans are being knitted upon and I shall hopefully get back to the sweater soon. Here are my latest two socks. The multicolor one does actually have a pattern, it is just very hard to see. They are both pretty comfy.

What have I been doing?

making these...

The orange socks are for my MIL for Christmas, the bag is for SIL for Christmas, and the green/purples socks are for me to wear. Next I make Jacobean socks out of Noro and try to get the lace pattern on my February Lady sweater right for two repeats in a row. I want the sweater done by Christmas so I can start the afghan in January.

In other news, we put up the Christmas tree today. I will now try the bread recipe that Liz linked to on Thursday.

My life in haiku

I sniffle all day

My poor nose is red and sore

Day-Quil is my friend.

..........

My eyes water lakes

I can't see my screen at work

Day-Quil is my friend.

...........

Yep, I have a head cold. It sucks. At least yesterday was better than Monday. Today was about the same as yesterday. I will stay up and knit while I watch the debate tonight. Then I will crash into my bed and stay there until the alarm goes off tomorrow.

Things everyone should see

Thing one: Dr. Horrible's Sing a long Blog. Made by Joss Whedon (he who created Buffy, Angel and Firefly among other awesomeness) during the writer's strike. Good stuff here. Love it! I can't wait to see his next project. I think it may be arriving on Fox sometime in the next year. It involves Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy) and I can't really remember any details right now, but it sounded intriguing last time I read something about it.

Thing two: www.stuffonmycat.com. This site cracks me up nearly daily.

Now go, laugh, enjoy! Support creativity in all it's happy forms! (While I find creative ciminals fascinating, it is a morbid fascination and not something I endorse anyone pursuing as a hobby.)

It's Oh So Quiet

You'd think that not writing a darned thing for two months would mean I've been extremely busy having a wild and interesting summer, right? Not so much. Really I'm just kinda lazy and the chatty comes in spurts. Anyhoo, what have I really been up to you ask? Well, July was uneventful. In August we went to Milwaukee and Chicago for a wedding and a vacation. The wedding was nice, the bride was gorgeous and the groom was very tall. (He's like 6'-7" or something). My sources tell me that the afghan was a hit with the happy couple. No picture as I have not quite figured out how to photograph the color red. I suppose I should start thinking about the next cousin getting married gift. Liz, let me know if you really don't want an afghan and I won't make you one. Otherwise, let me know your preferred color(s). While we were waiting for the in-laws to collect us at the hotel I was working on a new sock and Karen said that she wants a pair of socks. So I when we got home, I ordered some yarn and started making her socks. I know have more projects going than ever before. Two relatively easy scarves and two pairs of socks. It's kinda nice; if I get bored with one, I can do something else for a while. I hope they all still get finished in a somewhat timely manner. (by Thanksgiving would be great)
Chicago was great. They had a really cool glass exhibit complete with glass blowing demos at the Science and Industry Museum. As James said, they blew the guys at the Renaissance Festival out of the water. It was very cool. Also we saw the U-505 U-boat. I think that was James' favorite part of the whole trip. We went to Buddy Guy's Legends for dinner and awesome music. I wish we had a really great blues (or rock for that matter) scene/club here. If you know of bands or a good place to hang out to maybe see good local stuff, let me know. I love that stuff. I would go to Buddy Guy's all the time if I could. The other great restaurant that we ate at was Frontera. It would appear from the dates at the top that the menu changes monthly, but since there wasn't a single bite of anything other than great in the whole meal, I would bet that all of their menus are worth going for. Again, I would go there more if it was closer. The art museum was a bit disappointing for a couple of reasons. First, they were undergoing construction of a new wing as well as renovations of existing galleries. This meant that much of the impressionist work that we were hoping to see was not on view. We did see Sunday in the Park (Seurat) and a couple of Degas', but not at all the extensive collection the guidebook from the hotel lobby said they have. Second, their print selection is awful. They had maybe 30 prints available, but none of the things we were hoping for. Only one each for Degas and O'Keeffe, and these not the best from the collection. We were thinking that they would have something more along the lines of Milwaukee's print collection, which is quite extensive and has contributed greatly to the decoration of the walls of our home.
Well, I am getting sleepy, so I think I will go find a new book to read.

Good Long Weekend

Well, I see it's been a while since I posted. Since the great Monkey post of May, I have finished knitting another pair of socks and an afghan. I have started a scarf that will be donated, most likely to the Goodwill and continued a lace wrap for myself. Knitting update over.

This weekend was really fun. On the fourth, we went to the Minnesota Zoo and saw their new "Russia's Grizzly Coast" exhibit. It was really pretty good. We mostly saw the sea otters. I think it was a bit warm for the bears, and the leopards are still getting used to the habitat and trying their best to stay hidden. Although a keeper told us where to stand to see one of them in their hididng place. It was pretty neat. We had dinner at the 'rents and then stopped at Fox's to return canoe straps and a paddle. By the time we were driving home, all the suburbs were starting up their fireworks. So we saw bits of fireworks displays all the way home in the dusk. That was very cool. I think fireworks look better at dusk than in pitch black. Something about dusk just seems to make lights stand out more than in total darkness. I can't explain it, but it is neat.

On Saturday we went to the Lyndale Rose Garden. We managed to hit it just right, as pretty much all of the roses were in full bloom and hardly any had started to wilt. It was warm, but not too bad. A nice day to be outside. Once we got home from grocery shopping I continued to enjoy the great outdoors in my hammock. Today was vegging and laundry. All in all an excellent weekend.

I'm a Monkey!!!

Quick, name that tune. (no really, I am curious to see who knows their lyrics)

I finished my red monkey socks! Yeah!

I am really pleased with the way they turned out. I used Claudia Hand painted yarn in the lipstick colorway, and I think it may have surpassed the Dream in Color Smooshy as my favorite sock yarn. It is soft and cuddly and super fun to knit with. The yardage was perfect too.

At the end, I only had this much yarn left over. I think that is the least amount of yarn I have ever had left.

This weekend I will work on the wedding afghan and start my next pair of socks. They will by my 6th and final pair for SAM5. I don't think I will do SAM6, not because its not fun and motivating, but because I want to work on some other projects for a little while. I will go back to socks in a couple of months, after I have done a few other things.

In other news, I got a laptop. It is a green Dell and I love it. It is so nice to not have to be downstairs to be online. And it came with Vista, so I get to play the new and improved games.

If it is nice out this weekend I hope to get out somewhere to take some pictures of neat stuff. I have film that may be going bad, so I need to use it up. Yes, I said film. I miss using my film camera. Don't get me wrong, my digital point and shoot is great, but there is just something about a big (relatively) camera that just feels good. And my SLR is film. James can use the outing to get re-acquainted with his digital SLR (which he graciously used to take the above picture of my socks). I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Things

Well, I did it. I finished the April socks. And here they are.

I actually managed to finish them on the 29th. I secretly like the sock on the right better. I like the stripe placement better. You can't see the pattern very well, but I like it and may one day make it for myself, however the next pair I make will be Monkey Socks by Cookie A. I am pretty confident that these will fit Sharon, and hey, with the weather we've been having she may even get to wear them yet this spring.

Other happy news: I just found out that my cousin Liz is getting married! Congratulations Liz and Scott! I thought it was strange when I got married and the family was down to only one Elizabeth S, does this mean that we'll have two Elizabeths but no S?

Even more happy news: On Monday I will be able to take a shower upstairs! Yes folks, it only took 41/2 months to repair the tile damage from having the window replaced.

Oh and also we took a TON of clothes to Goodwill today. We both have so much more closet space! I need bottoms for summer and maybe one or two tops, but luckily dresses and shirts aren't really what I am shrinking out of. They just fit a little better. And most of my dresses have a fair amount of adjustability to them.

New fun!

So having set aside the socks, I started working on what should turn out to be a shawl. Here is my test swatch.

When blocked, this should come out to about 12" wide and 7" tall. To make it into a shawl/wrap I will make it twice as wide and go until I run out of yarn. I have two skeins of baby alpaca from Shibui that I couldn't resist. My really grand plan is to make this and then find a nice summer dress to wear with it and then wear to Janet's wedding. The yarn is super soft and so pretty! I love the subtle variegation. Anyhoo. Off to bed. Maybe next time I'll write about something other than knitting. Maybe not.

Dissappointment

Yes, I am let down. By myself? I think so. I started the sock of the month socks from March unsure of the colorway, but Wonder Cousin saved me by saying how much she liked the colors. I asked her if she would like the socks, and she said "Sure!" So on I went to knit socks. Two weeks later I was halfway down the first foot and got her to try them on at Soup Night. "Eli, I can't get it on." So that night I ripped it out and started over. Double checked my gauge. I am still worried that they won't fit, even though my gauge is now theoretically correct. I have the leg of the first sock done, but won't continue until I know she can get it onto her leg. I am supremely bummed that I will not have socks for April on SAM5. Maybe on SAM6 I will be able to get a pair done all six months. Poodles.