Excerpt from Moby Dick, chapter 3

"Can't sell his head?--What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you pretend to say, landlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around this town?"

"That's precisely it," said the landlord, "and I told him he couldn't sell it here, the market's overstocked."

"With what?" shouted I.

"With heads to be sure; ain't there too many heads in the world?"

"I tell you what it is, landlord," said I quite calmly, "you'd better stop spinning that yarn to me--I'm not green."

Yarn collection

I wholeheartedly agree!

Homemade Sunday

On Sunday, there was more food from the kitchen. Look at this beautiful homemade bread! I used the no-knead recipe and third time's a charm. This loaf is crusty on the outside, light and airy on the inside. We sliced it and ate it with cheese and soup. Yum!



For dessert, homemade ice cream. I used my new ice cream maker for the first time. The blurring in the first picture is the motion from the paddle.



I mixed 2 cups Stoneyfield Farms fat free vanilla yogurt, 1 cup heavy cream, and 1/2 cup of Bear Naked's Banana Nut granola. Delicious! Next time I'll probably use a little less granola and add a little honey for a slightly creamier and sweeter ice cream.

Waffles

This morning I made Whole Wheat Honey Waffles for breakfast. This is what mine looked like:

Toasted pecans and Canadian maple spread.

This is what Max's looked like:

Roast Beef and Black Diamond Cheddar Cheese.

Which would you prefer for breakfast?

After breakfast, we went ice skating for almost 2 hours. It was so much fun! I haven't been skating in a long time. Here's the sky picture I took on the way home:

TGIF

• 1) Routine. I like my routine of yoga twice a week, working regular 9-5 hours, knitting on the couch after dinner while watching TV, getting up around the same time, going to bed around the same time. A predictive index I took at work confirms this through and through.
  
• 2) Knitting blogs. I subscribe through Bloglines to many, many knitting blogs and it's nice to have something fun to read and pretty to look at during work when I need to take a break. So many of these knitting bloggers provide me with inspiration on what to knit, what to write, and what else is out there.
• 3) A new yoga top that shows off so much cleavage that I can only wear it at my Thursday class (which is smaller and only has two guys).
• 4) Our first snowfall on Sunday and small flurries throughout the week, pretty but virtually no accumulation - just special effects!
  
• 5) Picking out the perfect red Spanish wine for a gift for a wine aficionado, there's something so wonderful about knowing you picked the perfect gift.
  
• 6) Lunch today with a friend
• 7) Finding out that our friends Natalia and Alex are getting married in April. We're going to California!
• 8) My friend Erin is back from London! How cool is this picture?
  
• 9) Finished reading Julie & Julia. Great book! One of my co-workers is going to lend me Mastering the Art of French Cooking so I can make something from it.
  
• 10) Sending off a package to my friend Anne for her two kids that includes this hat:
  

Blue baby hat

As I mentioned, several friends of mine are either expecting or already due. This hat is for little William living in Massachusetts, who is just now a little over a week old. I used Lion Brand Woolease in denim, so it's warm and machine washable.

Using US size 6 circular needle (16"), I cast on 60 stitches, k3, p3, for three rounds (as in moss stitch, not ribbed), switched to stockingnette for a few inches, and then decreased in the manner of Swell until I had 6 stitches left, knit a little i-cord, and then bound off, pulling the tail inside the i-cord, and then wove in the extra yarn.

Cute, no?

Charlotte's Web

I didn't mention how much I loved Charlotte's Web. It was a great movie! Took me back to my childhood. I cried the first three times I read the book, and the first two times I watched the animated movie, so it was no surprise when I started crying during this movie as well. The animals were very realistic in their portrayal of E.B. White's story. The small children further down our row who were shout whispering, "Pig, pig, pig! Pig Momma!" were beyond cute. They didn't make it through the whole movie but perhaps that is for the best since they were quite young. There were some ways that the movie is different from the book but most of them were okay. I liked Julia Roberts as Charlotte.

Max and I love kid's movies... we're just kids at heart!

More red scarves

On Saturday, the red scarves were sent off to the OFA. Finished scarves by Mari, Erin, Meryl, Beth, Shirley, and the two I made were neatly folded, wrapped in their red scarf wrappers with laundry instructions attached, and tightly packed into a box for shipping. Alas there were no final pictures before the tape sealed the box. However, here are the pictures of the remaining scarves.

Finished by Meryl H.


Finished by Beth M.


Finished by me

Snow!

Today we had our first snow of the season! Max and I went to the early showing of Charlotte's Web and when we came out, it was snowing. I was so happy - just to see it snowing! Guess I was waiting to see it, just like Wilbur. There was only an inch or two but the kids on our street were outside this evening playing in it anyway.

Saturday Sky

I took this photo on Monday before Max and I left Pennsylvania. This is a view of a garden in repose.

TGIF

• 1) Sunset is later everyday... love the longer days, even when it's cloudy and cold.
  
• 2) Four day work week!
• 3) Yoga with Olivia on Tuesday and Thursday, feels good!
• 4) Dinner at Whole Foods with my friend Meryl after yoga on Thursday.
• 5) Setting up two of my friends - it's fun bringing people together!
• 6) Reading Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (lent to me by Kristina). I love it! Started reading it on Monday and I'm almost done. Makes me want to cook something French.
• 7) Reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville, via email from Daily Lit, one bit at a time. It's a book I started in university for one of my English courses but I only got through 2/3 of it before I couldn't finish. I'm hoping that by reading it by email three times a week, I'll finish it. It would just be too ironic to have Moby Dick be the one that got away. So far I've read 4 of 262.
• 8) Finished knitting a poncho for myself in this gorgeous sunshine boucle yarn. Just need to block it to wear it.
• 9) Massage with Paula on Thursday. If only I didn't have to go back to work afterwards, the relaxation would last longer.
• 10) My red scarf group. We met today at lunch for the last time, brought all our scarves together, took pictures, and they gave me this certificate. It totally made a bad day so much better!
  

Red Scarves

Progress as of last Wednesday:


Finished scarf by Mari A


Finished scarf by Erin B


There are two other finished scarves from my knitting group at work that have not been photographed. Mine is done except for weaving in the last strand. I should do that tonight. There are two others from my group that are in various states of undone. The goal is for them to be finished by this Thursday so we can take a group photo with our scarves. Then I'll pack them up and mail them this weekend. That's the plan anyway.

Pennsylvania

The long weekend went by really quickly. The drive up to Pennsylvania was slow because of the rain, but also because all the winding roads and hills in Pennsylvania were covered in fog. Kristina's parents live in the middle of the state, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Their neighborhood isn't even in our car's GPS!

We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel on the way there. We arrived at The Stone House Bed & Breakfast in Schuylkill Haven, PA on Saturday afternoon. It's such a nice place and our room was very pretty, plus the rates are pretty reasonable. Breakfast was very good both days. I had french toast the first day and blueberry pancakes with broiled bananas on the second day. If you want to make reservations, call Theresa at (570) 385-2115. She's very nice.

Kristina's Mom was still at the hospital and pretty tired out from the day's activities, so Max and I took a nap at the B&B. Later that night, Kristina, her brother Peter, Max and I went to see Night at the Museum. What a fun movie! We all really enjoyed it.

On Sunday, Kristina's Mom was ready to come home from the hospital and so Max and I went to the hospital after breakfast at the B&B to help with bringing her home. We carried some of her stuff back in our car, went with Kristina to pick up the medications at the pharmacy, went to the grocery store for some items, picked up the pizza for dinner... just a lot of helping out. That night, I helped clean up the kitchen and put the dishes away. I also showed Kristina's Mom the pictures from our Disney World trip.

Yesterday we left the B&B after breakfast, hung out with Kristina and her Mom, and then drove back. I did some knitting on the way back. I'm working on a poncho for myself. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for an early dinner. We got home before dark and it was so warm, we went for a walk just wearing a sweatshirt. It felt good to stretch our legs a bit but we were tired so it was a short walk.

Saturday Sky

TGIF

At lunch today, I read an article in Real Simple called "Get Happy" and the author wrote about ways to be more happy. One of the ways was to concentrate on the good things, so here's my list of 10 things that made me happy this week.

• 1) knitting my red scarf at lunch with my co-workers; and finishing it today! (Pictures to come)
• 2) gathering many signatures for a birthday card for a co-worker... he'll be totally overwhelmed and I can't wait to give it to him!
• 3) dinner with Max at Bertucci's on Wednesday; there was good conversation, great food, and it was a pleasant night out.
• 4) visiting Knit Happens on Wednesday; bringing home some fun stuff.
• 5) finding out that one of my many pregnant friends had her baby and that the baby is a boy (no one knew before); everyone is happy and well.
• 6) setting up a lunch with a friend in two weeks; we haven't seen each other in awhile so it will be good to catch up.
• 7) yoga with Olivia, twice this week! Twice the butt kicking!
• 8) happy hour tonight for a co-worker's birthday; seems like there will be tons of people there.
• 9) getting to see my bestfriend Kristina this weekend and hang out a bit.
• 10) finding out that my bestfriend's Mom's surgery went well and that she is okay.

In the winter, I often notice the lack of sunshine in my day. It affects my mood, how I dress, and what I feel like doing. Concentrating on the good things is not always easy but now that I've forced myself to do it, I feel better for having done it. Have a great weekend all!

Dinner and shopping

I came home this evening after work feeling sort of blah, so I asked Max if he wanted to go out for dinner. We went to Bertucci's for soup and pizza. Mmmm, Lestina. Just what I needed to lift me up a bit!

After we ate, we went to Knit Happens - perfect since they're open late on Wednesdays. There were tons of women inside knitting and chatting, the new display window looks great, and there was so much yarn on sale. I managed to restrain myself but I still came home with a set of ebony needles and a bottle of Soak. As an added bonus, I got to show off my handknit scarf and hat set. No better place to do that than a yarn store!

How Canadian Are You?

You are 97% Canuck!

 

You rock, you are an almighty Canadian through and through. You have proven your worthiness and have won the elite prize of living in a country as awesome as Canada. Yes I know other countries think they are better, but we let them have that cuz we know better than they do, eh?

How Canadian Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Pictures from Canada Day

Saturday Sky

A day for catching up and getting back on track. We went to the gym, ran some errands, and, since it was such a gorgeous day, we opened all the windows to air out the house. Max is making Morrocan marinated grilled tilapia for dinner. Yum! I can't wait.

Here's a picture of Max trying on his new hat that I knit for him (it's another Swell sans earflaps). He managed to wear it for 10 minutes before he was too hot and had to take it off. With the unbelieveably mild temperatures this winter (today it was almost 70), I'm not sure that he's actually going to get a chance to wear it but he likes it and that's what counts. And in case you're wondering, he is smiling.

Snow

I mentioned that there was snow at Magic Kingdom on Christmas Eve. Well, not real snow but real enough. And my favorite kind... looks pretty in the sky and disolves when it hits the ground. All the beauty and none of the mess. I don't mind a light dusting either, just as long as there's no shovelling.

But not 10 feet of snow - like the first winter that we moved into our first house as first-time homeowners. That is not my favorite way to enjoy snow.

Or even 3 feet of snow all at once - like when we used to live in Boston. There's the weekend that we went out of town and came back to completely clear roads and no visible path to our front door. The footprints are from us and the mailman taking the shortest route from the street to our, then, front door. It took all the next day to clear the sidewalks, the driveway, and the walk to our door.


All things in moderation.

Happy New Year!

One year anniversary of blogging. Wow. When I started this blog last year... well, much has changed. I take pictures more with an eye for posting on my blog. Instead of emailing my friends and family about my trips, I direct them to read it on my blog (or email the post to some, like my Mom). Most of all, my expectations have changed.

Review of 2006

• - knitted 1 set of handwarmers, 1 bunny, 1 poncho, 1 airhose cosy, 2 stoles, 3 unrevealed items, 3 scarves, 3 sweaters, and 11 hats (hats rock)
• - crocheted 1 lumpy freeform item and numerous edgings on knitted items
  
• - attended one reunion, 3 weddings, and went on vacation via 5 plane trips to three states and two countries
• - still in progress (UFOs)...the Viking turid sweater, the rainbow scarf, my first pair of adult socks, my first pair of baby socks, the red scarf, and two hats
• - lost 20lbs (but gained a little holiday weight)
  

Resolutions

• - use more yarn from my stash (especially the good stuff!)
• - finish one of my UFOs
  
• - use my new sewing machine
• - use my new ice cream machine (Christmas gift!)
  
• - make a good loaf of no-knead bread
• - lose my holiday weight (helps that I'll be practicing yoga twice a week starting tomorrow)

Travel (much less planned this year than last year)

• - weekend trip to visit the Hylands in PA and stay at a cute bed and breakfast
• - weekend trip to visit Max's brother at Cornell University and eat at the Moosewood Restaurant
• - weekend trip to Georgia to see Kristina defend her thesis
• - Canada for the holidays