Reentry

Man, what a bad blogger I have been for the past three months. Between my vacations and my subsequent Kindle obsession, I've really been out of blogging commission. And my camera has been groaning at the ever growing volume of photos to be downloaded!

So ordinarily, I would post about all my adventures and upload the photos about the trips. But since I have a whole metric assload of photos to discuss, I'm so not going to torment y'all with a ginormous post. Though I will show a few things, because a blog post without photos is no bueno.

So I went to Vegas first with my husband and a few of our friends for Vegas Fantasy Football drafts that the boys were entering. I neglected to really take photos of our traveling companions, though I did get some nice photos of the Flamingo Hotel's birds and fish they have in the center of the hotel. (My Vegas photo set is here) I did manage to have some quiet time in Vegas, enough that I made another chicken potholder:

So once we were back from Vegas (the day before Labor Day), we had 4 days to cool our jets before we hopped on a jet for Minneapolis to go to my cousin Angela's wedding. On my way to Minnesota, I started another chicken potholder to go along with the one I finished in Vegas that I could give to my cousin as a wedding present. This was the partner to the Vegas chicken:

And here's the two chickens together:

They were LOVED by my cousin and her new husband. (To date, these are still the only chickens I've actually managed to give away. They all have destinations, they just haven't reached their destinations yet.)

Speaking of the bride and groom, here they are in all their glory.


So flipping cute they are. The set of photos from my Minnesota trip is here.

Besides finishing the chicken there, I managed to knit a garterlac dishcloth. I've wanted to do an actual entrelac project since I first learned the concept of entrelac (it was at a chaotic class at Knitting Arts. I apparently grasped enough of the concept to get the pattern but I barely escaped that session with my sanity.) This ended up being gifted to one of my coworkers:

So we got back from Minnesota on Monday the 8th of September and again we were home for a whopping 4 days and took off again on Saturday the 13th for Orlando for a trip with two of our friends to go to Disneyworld! My Mickey loving self was so very excited. At least this trip was longer than 4 days, we were in Orlando until Sunday the 21st. And since we were there such a long time, not only did we manage to use our entire 5 day Disneyworld pass, I also got to get my mom up to Orlando from Lantana that Friday and Saturday (her days off work). One of our friends that moved from San Francisco to Orlando caught up with us on Friday with his mom who used to work for Disneyworld and got both our friend in free and my mom in free, so my mom finally got to see a Disney property at the grand age of 78! Here we are in front of the castle:
It was so nice to see her.

We managed to get to all the properties at Disneyworld, which was hecka fun. The coolest thing we did though while we were at Disneyworld though? We got to ride in the front of the tram into the Magic Kingdom!


(I have a co-pilot's license but I failed at taking a picture of it. Maybe soon. Maybe not.)

Now this was my maiden voyage on my Kindle. Oh yes, Orlando is where the madness began. I managed to read the entire Twilight Saga twice while I was there. Somehow, I also managed to knit a ballband dishcloth (well, most of it anyways, I finished it after I got home) though it took me until last weekend to actually weave in the stinking ends:


So sunny! So easy too, I may very well be like Hakucho and make some appliance covers. The ballband pattern is simple and fast. Making covers would be a good use of my plentiful dishcloth cotton stash. (No, I'm not going to fess up to how much I have still. I'm sure there are people out there that have more, but dudes I have a LOT of dishcloth cotton. A lot.)

Anyways, my Florida photo set is here.

So what have I done since then? Not a whole lot, though I have managed to crank out a few things...

Three chickens...



I cranked out a Turn a Square hat for my Secret Santa partner:

And, no, the world hasn't stopped turning. Yes, I have cast on a sweater for me. I'm knitting the February Lady Sweater. Holy hell are there a lot of stitches and I'm only halfway through the main increases:


I went to the Commuknity closing sale and scored these fab buttons that are EXACTLY what I wanted for this sweater.


Lovely, aren't they?

I also finished a pair of Poseidon Socks which I made out of some yummy Sundara sock yarn in the Deliphinium colorway.

(Not a perfect representation of the colors but close enough. It's gorgeous.) I appear to be unable to get it together enough to take a picture of them, but trust me, they're gorgeous. And the Sundara yarn is very nice. These are some seriously comfortable socks.

Oh, I never did talk about the Twilight movie did I? Well, I have to say I was entertained by it. I think it does a good job of staying true to the story though with there being SO MUCH content that they put into the movie, I didn't feel as sucked into Bella and Edward's love story. You don't really get the depth of their relationship. RPattz is definitely hot. I like the casting they did for the most part (though Rosalie isn't near beautiful enough). I laughed a lot, every time Jasper came on screen and had a deer in headlights expression I cracked up (he's one of several actors in the movie that went blonde for their role and let me just say he is SO MUCH HOTTER with brown hair), flipping Rosalie at the baseball game "That's my monkey man!", umm I'm sure there's more that is escaping me at this early hour. And HOLY HELL ARE THE BELLA/EDWARD KISSES HOT. The kiss on the bed where Bella's in her underpants is sexy as hell but dear god does the prom kiss set me on fire. Rawr. Oh, and here's a cute Edward necklace I picked up on Etsy:


Seriously cute, isn't it?? I did get some Twilight gear from my Secret Santa this year, though I haven't taken pics of it yet. I'll do that soon. It's hilarious stuff.

So if anyone is still reading this, I hope y'all had a great holiday season and I wish you all a very happy New Year. Here's to a great 2009!

Yes I need to blog about Twilight but omg did this make me giggle

OME 48 HOURS TO GO!!!

Dudes. 48 hours to go. I have my ticket. I am SO EXCITED.

56 Books in 63 Days

Wow. I just quantified how many books I've read since I received my Kindle on September 9th.

I've read:

The Twilight Saga (4 books - all books 5 times)
The Southern Vampire Mysteries (8 books - all books 2 times)
The Anita Blake Series by Laurell K Hamilton(16 books)
The Merry Gentry Series also by Laurell K Hamilton (I'm on book 4)

That's 20 + 16 + 16 + 4 = 56.

Plus I read the partial draft of Midnight Sun twice. So that might count as a book in total.

I think I'm in love!!

Hook 'em Horns!!

My boys did it! Woohoo! Yeah baby, my burnt orange blood is SO EXCITED.

Now to just live through the next three weekends!! >.<

*NEW* Official Twilight Trailer

I have died and gone to heaven. Freaking awesome. Is it November 21st yet?!

Which Cullen Heroine Are You?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Hi, my name is Teenuh and I am a Twilight addict

I need help. I really do.

Twilight: 5 readings
New Moon: 4 readings
Eclipse: 4 readings
Breaking Dawn: 5 readings
Midnight Sun: 2 readings

I purposely left my Kindle at home today to try to stop the insanity (though I finished my 5th reading of Twilight this morning before work..). I even brought an actual book to read (The Yarn Harlot's latest book, Free Range Knitter).

I've not been Twilight free however. I've been reading the Outtakes/Extras from Stephenie Meyer's site. Sadly, it doesn't totally stop my desire to read the books again. Just sort of stokes the fire.

But hey, I have a date for November 21st... the ebil friend that introduced the Twilight Saga to hubby & me asked if we were going with him since he knew no one else would go with him. Hubby hopes to read Twilight by then, but he's gonna borrow Mr Ebil's copy of the books since he'll have to pry the Kindle from my cold, dead hands before he can read my copy!!

(Busted widget got deleted. Damnable thing.)

9 books in 13 days

Yes, my Kindle is everything I hoped for and more. It kept me occupied during my trip to Orlando in our non-park hours.

I've now read nine books in the past 13 days.

"What nine books?", you might ask.

"The Twilight series", I might reply.

"But there are only four books in the series."

"Very true, but it's nine books if you read books one, two and three twice and book four three times that adds up to nine."

Also, this is a conversation that I just had with my hubby:

[16:52] me: I finished book 4 again
[16:53] hubby: Ah good
[16:54] hubby: Are you sated or do you need another lance?
[16:54] me: I might have read the first couple of pages of book 1...
[16:58] hubby: PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPE!

I might need an intervention before long. I have a benchmark though! Our friend that introduced us to the series sent me this email after I sent him one complaining to him that I blamed him for my need to read the series multiple times:

I've read the entire series three times.

Please burn this email after reading.

As if I'd burn it!! I've only read book 4 three times...

Yes a car can run for four hours without running out of gas

Hey, next time any of you see/talk to Lisa, be sure to ask her if she has her car keys.

'Cause she might not have them...

Wish you were here

So much to say, so little time to say it in!

I had a fantastic time in Minnesota last weekend. My cousin's wedding was wonderful and she looked so beautiful. I have bunches of pictures from the day but I haven't had the time this week to upload them.

I also finished a metric assload of projects, another chicken, a garterlac cloth, a miniature sweater, a baby blanket... but I haven't had a chance to sit down and write anything about them.

I delivered the baby blanket this morning, that is another post to write as well!

The Kindle is fantastic. Again, I haven't had bunches of time to spend poking around it, but I sent myself some preview chapters (you can download chapter 1 of any Kindle book for free to see if you want to buy the whole book) and I actually managed to read a couple of them. I might actually buy one full book tonight so that I have more than just one chapter to read during the long ass flight(s) between San Jose and Orlando.

Yes, I'm off into the wild blue yonder again. Next stop Mickey and my Mom! (Hubby and I and two friends are going to cavort with Mickey for 5 days and then I have 2 days with my mom, hooray). I'm likely going to be paying for internet access while I'm in Florida but I make no guarantees I'll be posting until I'm back from VACATION.

Be good, internets. I'll miss you.

It's here!!

Happy chickens to you!

On the Road Again...

I'm off in 8 hours again to Minneapolis, Minnesota (that's when my flight leaves SFO, so no, I'm not getting much sleep tonight). I'm going to attend my cousin's wedding there, so I will get to see the bunches of relatives I have living in the Twin Cities area. I'm renting a car, and I have hopes of being able to show hubby my bumpkin roots in rural Wisconsin but I'm not sure when I would wheedle that in. It's about a 90 minute drive from Minneapolis, but I think it would be kind of fun to see the area after so many years. We'll see what we can see!

Anyways, I'm off to pack and sleep. Hopefully with more sleeping than packing. I'm back on Monday night when I'll hopefully have my Kindle I ordered today (that shipped today too!) waiting for me.

Yes, the chicken pattern is going with me. The bride is getting two (she'll get the Vegas chicken plus the new one in progress) as a side gift, her real wedding present is going to be a Best Buy gift card.

Toodles~!

What happens in Vegas...

Ravthlete

What a fun way to spend the Olympics this year, knitting along to the amazing athletic feats that were going on. I had so much fun watching the different events, and thank god for DVR technology to power through the odd events.

Today BobicusMaximus bestowed the official Ravatar boquet:


And my medal for completing an FO in the WIPs Wrestling event

I had considered whipping up another chicken or cranking out my first ballband dishcloth for the Olympics, but I just didn't have the time. And I thought I should wait to finish another UFO until I start another chicken. Hopefully I can do that before I head to Vegas this Thursday! I may say to hell with it and take chicken material for the plane ride from SJ to Vegas.

Not that anyone has been losing sleep over my "missing" needles, but I re-looked in my Loopy's Red Canvas Sock Bag and this time my mystery shawl decided to let me find my needles this time. So if I don't get time this week to cast on, I should be able to do so on my way to Vegas.

I've got quite the Olympic hangover, I'm currently watching the closing ceremonies from last night's broadcast with hubby. It feels really odd to not have any new events to watch! At least I won't be tempted to stay up until 1am yelling at the TV "WHO WON THE GOLD OMG!!!!!!!11!11!"

Ok, time for bed. Happy knitting!!

Crossing the Finish Line

Huzzah! I made it! These poor poor beautiful Hederas are FINALLY done!! Of all the projects I entered into the Ravelympics, these are definitely the ones that deserved to cross the finish line. I have no idea why I mercilessly have shoved these to the back of the bus these past 4 months and 23 days (yes dudes, your math is correct. I cast the first sock on April 1, and that's no April Fool's joke).

Clearly I did not knit these as written. Basically the lace pattern for Hedera fit perfectly into my basic sock pattern, so that's what I did. These were done toe up with a short row heel. The yarn is Lorna's Laces in the Devon colorway, which while it did pool in the legs mostly, I will forgive. The colorway is simply enchanting and I love it with all my heart.

I can't wait to wear these socks!!

Stay back ladies, he's all mine!!

So I nearly died from laughing when I opened my email the other night and found this picture from my hubby. He's wearing a hat from his boss that she got him on her vacation to Mexico and he was bringing it home from the office because they're about to move to a new location. For whatever reason, he was motivated to send this picture to me!

I am attempting to finish one project for the Ravelympics. Sadly, my Vesper striped socks will probably not be one of them, I'm trying to figure out where the needles went. I may finish my Hedera socks, I have just a couple of repeats left. Ok, so I've had those couple of repeats left for like a month but I could finish them. Really, I could.

I got my Bobicus Ravelympics pin last night. Omg it is cute. I want to tack it on the front of my Ravelry bag with my other pins, but it is so much larger than my other ones I'm afraid it's going to get snagged on something and fall off. I'll have to see what I can rig up with it. I'd hate to lose it.

I'm possibly heading to Sonoma today for a birthday party so I'd better get going! Happy knitting everyone.

Let the games begin!

Last night I had the good fortune of getting to watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics with several of the lovely ladies of BobaKnit (Jeni, Juls, Julia, Jill, (popular J name night!) Lisa, Linda, Sheetal, and Margit) at the Firehouse Grill in Sunnyvale.

We had such a good time watching the dazzling opening ceremonies followed by the parade of nations.

Lisa, Jill and Linda knitting away

Sheetal, Julia and Jeni

As well as watching Lisa enjoy her Cosmopolitans

Lisa and Cosmo #2

Or Jeni fixing her increases/decreases on her baby surprise jacket. Or Lisa's cup of cream with a little bit of coffee.

Our waiter had a great sense of humor.

Me? I was able to cast on my new project for the Ravelympics, a pair of basic socks out of my Vesper sock yarn in the Aqua Melon colorway. Pretty bright stuff, but I think they'll be gorgeous. I've made really good progress on them, I'm hoping to be to the heel by the time I go to sleep (I had a reaaaally long nap this afternoon, the price I pay for getting up early this morning to head to the Scrapbook Expo by 9am).

Current state of my Olympic sock.

I keep imagining a chevron type pattern being really good for this yarn, but I figured there was really no way I was going to have time to do the WIP wrestling I need to do and bust out a pair of socks in anything but a vanilla sock pattern. Hell, I've been knitting my flipping Hedera socks since April 1st but I've been putting them aside quite frequently for new and shiny things, like my Froot Loop socks (damn, still need to blog about them), chicken potholders (dudes it's been 4 days and no more chickens, be proud of my will power), baptism gift (did I blog this? I doubt it. Another thing to toss on the to-do pile), Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl (I'm finally over halfway through with clue 3. I should put it on a bigger needle/two circulars so that I can take a progress photo of it. I have yet to take any photos of this project. I think it would be a great motivation for myself to keep going, because right now it feels like a black hole of lace. I kind of want to finish this for my cousin's wedding, but that's September 6th and I'm already WIP wrestling another project(s) that I need to finish soon. Damn work getting in the way of crafting time.)... I love the Hedera pattern though, it's simple and damn gorgeous. And I love the Devon colorway from Lorna's Laces. But I had to limit my goals for the Olympics knowing how much I work.

Ah well, it was a fun evening and I'm making progress. Go team USA! Go team BobaKnit!

Knit on!

I think I might be the crazy chicken lady now

I might have finished another chicken potholder.

So stinking cute. My favorite color of variegated Sugar n Cream yarn.

I might have finished two.

I forgot the loop in the middle of the back. Oops.

I swear there are no more of them on the hook.

You try and resist their allure.

Yet.

How can you say no to those eyes?!

The chicken potholder book is at Michaels

I couldn't stop myself I swear...

Somebody Stop Me!!!

Dude. These are fast, easy and ridonkulously cute! Halp!

Hi, I'm little yellow chicken. I'm cuter than whitey, but don't tell her!

Hopefully I'll have the fortitude to get these in the mail!

Hallo. We are cute.

I'm still knitting, don't worry. I'm just being distracted by the cute.

A Quickie Chickie

It occurred to me over the weekend that my sister's birthday was coming up next weekend (August 2nd to be precise). So I realized I should probably do something fast to crank something out for her for a gift! I was enlightened on what to make when I found some booklets I'd purchased a few months ago when I had found a cute pattern on Ravelry.

I made this chicken potholder from the Annie's Attic book "Ultimate Book of Pot Holders" #873151. It isn't available on the Annie's Attic site that I could see, but I was able to find it on another site. Cute stuff in it, but I think this is the cutest pattern. I might be biased though.

The first of many more to come

I am really pleased with how this turned out. I was a crocheter when I was a kid, but I don't think that I ever did very well with making things from patterns. I think I tended to end up free forming the stuff I made for the most part, because I sure don't remember coming up with something as cute as this potholder. I love how cute this turned out, I know that I am totally going to be making this again, possibly even a second one for my sister's birthday, though it won't be a white one. I think one is enough of the white.

The thing that is amusing me a great deal about this pattern is that as the day has gone on and the beak and the wattle have rubbed against the surfaces in my purse, they've curled up off the face a little more which is making this look even more fab.

At least I'm easily amused.

Happy 9th Anniversary!

What a wonderful day my wedding was. It's still wonderful after 9 years, I hope it never stops being wonderful.

Batter Batter Batter Swiiiiing Batter!

So thanks to the lovely Lisa, I was able to attend the Giants game last night against the Nationals (Yes, the previous photo was blogged from my iPhone). It happened to be the Stitch n Pitch game, but we were in the club level seats thanks to season tickets from Lisa's employer.

The adventure began when Lisa and I hopped on the train in Mountain View (yes, we made the train we intended on making. There was drama, including racing down Evelyn to the Mt View train station and me doing a face plant hurting my knee something awful), Karol joined us in Palo Alto and we rode up to SF where we met Jill at the Willie Mays statue outside the park.

Lisa and Karol on the train

We got our garlic fries and first drinks and took our seats.

Lisa is VERY happy to have her beer

Our seats had a fab view of the bay and the ballpark. Really though, there isn't a bad seat in the house. I love PacBell AT&T Park. It's gorgeous.

A beautiful night for baseball

So the game started, Barry Zito was pitching.

The $126 million dollar man

The weather was actually decent for a night game. It wasn't freezing amazingly enough considering it wasn't very warm at all during the day. I had come prepared however. I knit a Calorimetry head wrap thingy the night before.

Malabrigo is sex in the form of yarn. It really is.

(I was just looking for a good excuse to knit with my Malabrigo yarn in July.) So it did get cool enough to wear it. I made my Calorimetry with the 120 stitches the pattern calls for, I probably should have knit it in a slightly tighter gauge and possibly fewer stitches (this would have made it even faster to knit!). As it is though, it fits my ginormous head and will be very nice for cooler weather.

We were amused by Aaron Rowand's batting stance. He looks like a crab!

*skitter* *skitter*

There were a couple of relief pitchers that were put in, but it was Brian Wilson that brought us home.

The *hot* beach boy!

In the end, the Giants won!

The water cannons are so neat when they go off.

It was a fun filled evening to say the least. I even have my own photographic evidence I was in attendance and my Calorimetry got worn!

Me and my knee are so ready to get the heck out of there!

It was neat to get to go to the Stitch n Pitch game even if we weren't in the SnP section, we got to ride the same train up with the Purlescence crew and after the game we ran into Mary (Spinnity) and her hubby and mom. Still, it was nice to be heading home.

Hooray for escalators!

We caught the first train out of there and were back in Mountain View just after 11pm. It was a long day but very fun filled.

I tried capturing my owchie knee but apparently the sight of my blazing white fat leg scared my camera into taking a clear photo, but you get the idea here. It's puffy. It's got what looks like rug burn. And damn if it doesn't hurt.

Ouchie.

At least I got a decent amount of knitting done. I'm on the last row of the main part of the first Fetching mitt I cast on during the train ride to SF. Just have to cast off and knit up the thumb. Yippee.

Thanks for the ticket, Lisa. And thanks to all three ladies for the wonderful company. I had a great time!!