Could YOU be a Canadian?

I just read this article, Canada Issues a Wake-Up Call: You May Be a Citizen, and my first thought was, "How cool!"

My second thought was... why?

I did a quick search and found out that one of the main purposes of Bill C-37 is to restore Canadian citizenship to the tens of thousands of Canadians who have had their citizenship denied or unknowingly allowed it to expire because of several little-known particularities of Canada’s Citizenship Act. Moving forward, however, citizenship laws will become more restrictive for children of Canadians born abroad. For me nothing changes. Any children I might have would also be Canadian. But... not their children unless I have my child in Canada or they have their child in Canada. Whatever. There seems to be alot of outrage over grandchildren not living in Canada who want to get Canadian citizenship but, to me, if they really want to be Canadian then they should go live in Canada. Growing up somewhere else, would they really know what it's like to be Canadian anyway?

You can learn more from the Canadian Government.

The Art & Soul of Baking

I entered a contest and won!

Scott Mindeaux of Foodie in Disguise contacted me yesterday to let me know that I had won a copy of The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet and Sur La Table. My brother, a culinary management student at Niagara College, will be so jealous! :)

I can't wait to take a look at the section on pies and tarts... might need to have some friends over for dinner sometime soon. :)

A little gardening for Earth Day

I don't have a green thumb. In fact, Max does a better job taking care of plants than I do - as long as they are house plants, otherwise he can't be bothered. So most of what survives in our small garden must be able to survive and thrive on its own... strawberries, irises, our two juniper trees have done well too. But friends and family are always trying to convince us to add more, encouraging to try this or that. And everyone once in awhile I do and I'm happily surprised when they live and bloom again the following year, like our alium or chrysanthemums. On Sunday we added a new type of strawberry plant (supposed to be high yielding) and a variegated hosta.

Knitting ahead

Along with the linen towels, I'm working on a tiny gauge project. This one also hurts my hands but in a different way... this one is more about tiredness and cramping if I work on it too long. The yarn is silk, same as what I used for my Mom's shawl. I wanted to see how the different gauge would feel, and how long of a scarf it would produce. It's a Christmas present for a animal fiber sensitive friend, one who I know will appreciate all the effort that will go into making it. Visible progress takes time so you make not see this one for awhile, which is just as well... knitting with the thin silk should make for the perfect summer project.

Linen

It hurts... but everything I've read is that it relaxes once it's been washed. I keep wondering, why can't I wash it before I knit with it? Checked Ravelry and it seem that there are people out there who do that first, so next time, that's what I'm doing! (Especially since I plan to make two more towels.) Ran into one knot so far but otherwise the yarn has been good, no problems with it splitting.

U.S. National Arboretum

Last Sunday was the first time I had ever been to the U.S. National Arboretum. It was amazing and definitely my favorite of all the places we went last weekend.

In training since 1625.

My sister and my Dad

U.S. Botanic Garden

Last Saturday, Max, my parents, my sister and I spent part of the morning at the U.S. Botanic Garden. It's one of my favorite places, always lovely, usually not too crowded, and so so green (and warm - which is key when in the winter and spring). It was cold and rainy so we didn't go out to see the new (to us) garden outside.

National Do Not Mail registry

I signed up yesterday. Now it's your turn!



On another note, I'm trying to figure out if I'm fighting a cold or if I just have allergies. Max seems to think I went through this last year but we're not sure. I read through my blog posts from last April but there's no mention of not feeling well. This year I marked it on my calendar, just in case. Sadly, I think it's allergies.

My Mom and her new shawl

Here she is after dinner on Friday trying it on:



Holding it up to the light:



She really likes it... I know because my sister told me! :) Unfortunately it was the one thing that was left behind when they packed up the car. I will probably mail it to her this weekend.

Hooked on Twilight

After watching the Twilight movie a couple of weeks ago, I really wanted to read the book. The movie was good, so the book could only be better (at least that's always been my experience). And since I'd heard so many good things about the books, I decided to reserve the book at the library. I was number 15 on the waiting list! Last week I got an email that the book was in and I went that night to pick it up, reading it constantly whenever I had a minute. I was done by Friday or Saturday and totally in love with Edward Cullen. Sigh. Max just laughs at me... I always had this dumb high school girl in love look on my face when I was reading it. You'd think I was 16, not 30. But then I was sad. I didn't have the next book and although a friend at work had promised to bring them in, I wasn't going to have it over the weekend. So I started rereading it. :) At least from the part after Bella figures it out. Max just laughed some more. I finished my second read through last night. Not wanting to wait, I just ordered the whole series. Can't wait to read them all!

Exhausted

It was a very busy weekend, lots of walking to see lots of stuff. Friday we hit some of the major monuments:

1. Jefferson Memorial
2. FDR Memorial
3. Lincoln Memorial
4. Reflecting Pool
   
5. WWII Memorial
6. Washington Monument

On Saturday it was cold and rainy but still we went downtown to see:

1. US Botanic Garden
   
2. Hirshorn Museum (my Dad and sister had a great time)
   
3. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (unbelievably crowded)
4. The White House (from the outside only)
5. Dinner at Food Matters

Yesterday the weather was great. A little cool with the wind but otherwise really great. We spent the day at the National Arboretum. It was the first time for all of us and we loved it. The Bonsai garden alone is a amazing. We had a really great day, not too many people, lots of sunshine. For dinner we went to The Silver Diner on my Mom's request.

I took tons of pictures but they're still on my camera. I'll upload them as soon as I get a chance.

Family visit

My parents and my sister are visiting this weekend. They're driving down from Canada (crazy!), staying overnight in Corning, NY so they can go to the Corning Museum of Glass, and will be arriving sometime this afternoon. We're supposed to go walking around DC once they get here so I've put together tonight's dinner ahead of time.

To start, a selection of olives (for them, Max and I don't like olives) and some wine.

Then Zingy Bean Dip with baby carrots and chips.

For dinner, Mushroom Curry with pasta. This is probably the only curry recipe I like.

For dessert, Ukrainian Poppyseed Cake with Lemon Sauce (using the orange filling recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

We might finish off some dessert wine or coffee as well.

Do you think Max will notice that there's no meat? It should be a satisfying meal and good for my mom who is watching her diet.

The reveal

So I've never really blocked lace before... I'm lazy and it seemed like an extra step for nothing - how much of a difference would it really make, right? No. It makes a HUGE difference. Here's the before:



During (wet):



And after:



Just in time too! My Mom will be here tomorrow.

Scary freaky

So when the pattern for Jekyll and Hyde came out, I sent it to my bestfriend and asked if she would wear it... she said yes. Little did she know that I would make it out of the Bernat glow-in-the dark yarn that my Mom sent me for Christmas. It's freaky.





Her birthday is on Sunday but the package arrived already. And she loves it! :)

Also part of her present was this little blue scarf:



She already wore it to work!

Diet Mountain Dew

Usually we drink caffeinated diet soda with our dinner - helps us get stuff done after we've eaten instead of falling asleep on the couch. I was really psyched when I learned that the newest BuzzAgent campaign was for Diet Mountain Dew, something we drink alot anyway. The can looks like it has been slightly redesigned - they arrived in the mail last week and were immediately consumed.

Do you do the Dew?

Sewing

Our sectional couch came with three matching pillows with piping around the edges. That was over 7 years ago. The corners were fraying and the piping was starting to show, so one by one, I resewed them.

Starting last March, I took each pillows apart, one at a time, using a seam ripper to remove the thread. Then the fabric was washed, dried, and ironed. The hardest part was threading the sewing machine but after a few false starts, I did fine. I sewed three seams with the good side facing in, turned it inside out, and then stuffed the pillow in. For the fourth seam, I folded the two edges in and then sewed through the four layers to close it... all using my sewing machine. I could have hand sewed the fourth side to make it look nicer but I'm fine with the way it turned out. (A zipper would have been nice but totally outside the realm of what I'm comfortable doing by myself.)

There's still one left to do but my Mom will be here this weekend so I can get her to sew it for me - with a zipper. The couch is gone but we still have the pillows! :)

43 inches

I'm near the end of one skein of the silk yarn and look how long it is already:



How long is it?



Take a look at the detail:



Cereal Prank
Also, since today is April 1, I played a little prank on Max at breakfast today...We just bought a box of Banana Honey Nut Cheerios and this morning we tried it for the first time. Max was still getting dressed so I went downstairs quickly and squirted some yellow food colouring into the bottom of his bowl and then added the Cheerios on top, covering it up. As he came downstairs, I poured milk into my bowl and then let him pour his own milk. The milk started to turn yellow and he thought it was weird but not that unusual... until he looked at mine and the milk was white. He starts mixing my cereal to see if he can get my milk to turn yellow and I said, I think there's something wrong with yours. And he starts mixing his some more and it turns even more yellow.

Then I burst out laughing because I couldn't hold it in anymore. April Fools! :)