Male knitters

Kyle Williams is conducting a survey about knitters who happen to be men. He wants to learn more about men who knit and about women’s attitudes toward male knitters. I just took the survey.

Will you?

Erin at rest

After a long week...

Canada loves Obama

I got this email from my Mom yesterday:

"Just wanted you to know that your President had a successful trip to Ottawa. They have gone Obama crazy after he left. On his return to the airport, he went to Byward Market into the [Moulin de Provence] bakery that we usually go to. He bought cookies for his daughters. Big maple leaf cookies, with red icing and Canada on it. The baker refused to let him pay for them when he found out it was for his daughters. The rest of the day and the next week, those cookies were all sold out. Some secret service man went to look for snow globes which he collect. They found out he bought one with mounties in it and they are all sold out, including the keychain with a moose and maple leaf on it. Comedians are now doing skits on "Obama touched it", a store that sells the light switch from his hotel room, a mold of the snow where he stepped it, etc. Its been funny and good."

Want your own cookie? (I know I do!) Here's the story.

Pink

Not that I want to encourage you to buy more, but if it means using less plastic bags at the grocery store...

Purple

In honor of Mardi Gras! Here's some photos I found on Flickr:







Food Matters is putting on a special dinner menu today for Mardi Gras including Boudin, Gumbo, Etouffee, Sazeracs, Milk Punch, and Hurricanes! For dessert they're making King Cake from scratch.

Violet

I finished these up two weeks ago and I've been meaning to give them to my massage therapist, Paula Goldman but I keep forgetting to bring them in every time I have an appointment. Hopefully I'll remember this week!

Blue

From my own knitting...



And I'm working on something new:

Green

Take a gander at some organic green yarn I found for sale online:



Also, on Monday, Harriet the Lime Dragon nominated me for a Kreativ award; thanks!

As a new nominee, you are encouraged to:

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 8 other bloggers.
4. Link to those on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

Here are my nominations, in alphabetical order:

• Ashletta who is working on an aran blanket
• Limedragon, my first secret pal I ever had
  
• Mega(k)nits made the cutest heart soaps with her daughter
  
• Orion713art who paints fabulous tiny paintings
  
• The Rimes Times details the life of an art teacher who crafts and knits
  
• Wovenflame knits, crochets, spins, weaves, cross-stiches, and bakes
  

Yellow

Orange

2nd Annual Rainbow Week

Last year there were a lot of people who enjoyed the rainbow week so I thought I'd do it again this year.

Starting with red of course!

Shopaholic

Last night I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic with two friends, a movie based on a book by Sophie Kinsella. We all really liked it and had a really good time and, ironically, left with the urge to go shopping.

The movie was light and funny. There was tons of amazing shoes and clothes, and many well known and familiar actors including Joan Cusack, John Goodman, John Lithgow, Krysten Ritter, Wendie Malick and Fred Armisen. Hugh Dancy was gorgeous and Isla Fisher was so cute. Their romance was a little unbelievable but overall that's probably my only complaint.

Now that I've seen the movie, I definitely want to read the book.

Food Matters

As many of you know, I'm quite the foodie and both Max and I like to eat good food. One of our favorite restaurants is Food Matters. We are frequent diners and like to bring friends whenever we can. It's also where we got out CSA allotments each week during the summer, which was just an extension of the ingredients they use in their menu - fresh, local, and in season. Their beef comes from cows in Maryland. Their chickens are raised in Pennsylvania Amish farms, which is also where their eggs come from. It's amazing and makes me feel good about the food I eat there.

And the food is good. Whenever I crave a hamburger now, it's theirs I want most. Same goes for Max and their buffalo wings. He also likes their deviled eggs and will eat the entire plate himself. The french fries are fantastic and so are the homefries. For brunch I usually go for the brioche french toast but the quiche is always a good choice too. Max likes the grilled pork chop and I must say, it always looks so juicy and flavorful. My friend Laura has chosen the make-your-own omelet, and even though it is ginormous, she always cleans her plate. And they have this red dessert wine from Uragyuay that smells like vanilla that I just love.

Is it any wonder that it's one of our favorite places? I hope you'll check it out sometime soon.

Location: 4906 Brenman Park Drive, Alexandria, VA 22304

New Hours!
Tuesday-Thursday 5:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m
Friday 5:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.
Saturday 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Still not convinced?
More reviews are posted on Yelp.

Aviator hat

It's it cute? Made it from the leftover yarn from Blair's hat. I finished knitting it in January but finally added the button on Saturday.



I took a bunch of other pictures from different angles but wouldn't you know it? They were all blurry!

1998 Great Wall Dragon’s Eye

Max and I came back from Beijing with various souvenirs for friends and family. For our friend and wine expert, Bob Nichols, we brought back a bottle of 1998 Great Wall Dragon’s Eye. As my confidence level in Chinese wine was pretty low, the intent was for it to be mainly a souvenir but Bob is brave and not only opened it but did so at a wine tasting last week. Here's what he had to say:

On Thursday evening, I served the wine you gave me. It was one among a set of mystery reds. I told the group there was one in the set that would probably be the only time in our lives that we would have one like it. Needless to say, no one in the group guessed what it was.

I placed the wine in a tough crowd of other wines. The other two were in the book 1001 Wines You Must Taste before You Die, and those wines were very good indeed. Nevertheless, the 1998 Great Wall Dragon’s Eye showed well, and, as I had hoped, it fit with the style of the other wines. The wine had a nice, rich, open nose that because of some pleasant vegetative character was reminiscent of a good Cabernet Sauvignon from Monterey, California. It was fruity, rich, had a full mouth-feel, was well balanced, fairly well knit, and almost silky in texture, had good character, also reminiscent of Monterey, and had a medium to long aftertaste. The tannins were light, soft, and partly integrated. Because we had no prior experience with the grape, the fruit flavors were somewhat unusual, somewhat like eating a tangerine when all prior experience was with oranges.

The wine was sufficiently mature to show how it was developing, but it would have lasted several years more, if I had waited to open it. It might even have gotten better with time, but since I had only one bottle, I didn’t want it to take the chance that it would go bad if I waited a few years.

All in all, just as I had hoped, the wine made for an interesting, tasty, educational experience for all of us in the group. I was glad to be able to share it with them.

Updated to add: Wine was decanted two hours before tasting.