Nature Mill update

I'm a little lazy when it comes to adding to the compost, not usually breaking up pieces into smaller bits like I should so I often find myself having to attend to the red "jammed" button. Max finds it bothersome, even though he never touches it and I'm the only one who ever fixes it. Even with the wood chips and baking soda, it's still smelly so we keep ours outside. I don't mind though... for the little gardening that I do, taking care of my Nature Mill feels like tilling the land. Our BBQ meat fork has been repurposed as a garden fork to move all the dried bits from the corners to keep the contents moving at an arm's length.

I feel like it reduces the amount of garbage we throw out but Max only thinks that it has reduced the number of times we empty our garbage because all the smelly stuff is in the compost instead. Whatever. It works for us.

Date night

Dinner and a movie.

Boston eats

Since we were staying at a hotel, eating out every night was inevitable so I made reservations ahead of time using Open Table to ensure that we got to eat at our favorite restaurants and also try out some new ones.

In order of preference:

Elephant Walk
This is one of our favorite restaurants, only a few blocks away from two apartments that Max rented for 3 years while he lived in Boston. I had the Crêpe de Canard aux Poires - Savory crêpe filled with braised duck, pear, scallion and crème fraiche - and the Crevettes Amrita - Natural shrimp sautéed in a lightly sweet Cambodian satay sauce with coriander, cumin, cardamom, galangal, cinnamon, ginger, peanuts, star anise and lemongrass; with button mushroom, onion and scallion. Both were very good.



Max had, as always, the Loc Lac - Sautéed, cubed beef tenderloin, lightly caramelized in black pepper, garlic and mushroom soy; served over shredded lettuce with a lime and black pepper dipping sauce. We shared dessert, the Crêpe au Calvados aux Pommes - Calvados-flavored crêpe filled with caramelized cinnamon apples, garnished with vanilla bean ice cream and crème Anglaise. Also delicious.



Legal Seafoods
I had the clam chowder to start - it's my favorite. For dinner I had the grilled shrimp with snap peas and onion fries. For dessert I had the bananas fosters... no picture though because I had to eat it before the ice cream melted! :)



Upstairs on the Square
It's fun and funky like Harvard Square where it is located. I have always wanted to go there and what decided it for me this time was that there was a vegetarian menu for Max's Mom. Turns out the vegetarian menu is not offered every day, which was a disappointment but there were some vegetarian options on the regular menu for her to choose from. I had the garlic soup to start; it was good - flavorful but not too garlicky. For dinner I had the chicken and fiddlehead ferns. Delicious! And cooked just right. With the bread though, it was alot of food and Max ended up finishing it for me.



LTK (Legal Test Kitchen)
It's different than Legal Seafoods, their attempt to create something hip and trendy. The food was good but only that. Not worth going back. I had the Red Salad (radicchio, crumbled gorgonzola, candied pecans, dried cherries and balsamic vinaigrette) with grilled shrimp. Max had the clam chowder and lobster mac and cheese.



On Friday during our walk, Max and I stopped at Mike's Pastry during one of our walks to get a cannoli and an apple strudel. Yum! There's only a picture of the box because we ate the pastries before I thought about taking a picture.

Boston

On Friday, Max and I flew up to Boston to spend Memorial Day weekend in the city with his parents and his brother. Since the main artery was removed and a system of parks installed, the city is much more open and much improved since I was there last.



We did alot of walking around the city - it's a very walkable city and we had pretty great weather for the most part.



On Saturday we went whale watching. It was fun but we were all freezing cold - I would definitely bring a sweater and a knitted hat if I went again!



There was also alot of eating... but I'll save that for tomorrow!

More than 19 inches

A tall drink of water

Purse stitch

On US size 10 needles using sport weight yarn.



I imagine it will look better once it's blocked. At least that's what I hope!

Simple rib scarf

It's a little skinny so I also made it long. Although I didn't measure it, from this photo I would guess it's at least 35" long.



No recipient in mind yet, though I'm thinking I might have enough yarn left for a matching hat and fingerless mitts.

Orange bamboo

Some crazy friend of mine keeps joking that she's going to have a baby so that I will knit something for her... she's not serious about getting pregnant but she definitely wants me to knit something for her. That's cool. Her birthday is around the corner so I thought I would make something light and summery for her. I wound up two skeins of Alchemy bamboo the other night, that's about 276 yards. The stitch pattern I picked out is called purse stitch. Using a US size 10 needle is creating a very open fabric, which should be the right weight and also stretch out the yardage.

Yum

A little indulgence.

Twilight obsession

Saw the movie, read the books. And now I'm rereading the books! Definitely hooked. :) And although I do not like Sweethearts candy, I couldn't help but be excited about the Twilight Sweethearts. Messages include "bite me", "soul mate"and "live 4 ever."

Green hat

Another cutie hat... because I like knitting in the round. No recipient in mind yet, just enjoy the act of doing it.



Look familiar? I've made several before in yellow, brown, and blue.

Airshow

Although Angela thought the airshow on Andrews Air Force Base was a bust, I had a good time and plan B (lunch at Delia's followed by Angels & Demons and shopping) made for a really great day.

Space... the final frontier

Last night Max picked me up after work and we went to see the new Star Trek movie. I'm a bit of a Trekkie so of the two of us, I was much more excited to see the movie - though Max definitely wanted to go.

It was exciting! I loved seeing each character as they were introduced - especially the USS Enterprise... and the music too, it was all so familiar and new, all at the same time. I love the new crew. They're young and brilliant, fitting into the Star Trek mythology really well. The story is told well so that if you don't know much, you're not lost at all.

Some of the smaller parts were played by some easily recognizable actors... Jennifer Morrison from House played Kirk's mother and Winona Ryder played Spock's mother - something we didn't realize until we watched the credits. Guess there's something to be said for that! :)

There's nothing extra at the end but we waited just in case. I loved the movie, as you can probably tell. Max did too - he liked it even more than Wolverine. And we both thought that was a good movie.

Go see it. Definitely go see it.

We're going again on Sunday!

The upside of lots of rain

Surprisingly (for me), my front garden is doing well. The hostas seem happy and compared to when we first planted them three weeks ago, it looks like they belong there.



The strawberries are also doing well, though the new plant does not seem to be fitting in... still, I think it will survive, which is ultimately my goal.



These guys thrive on their own, almost without any help from me. Thankfully! The irises are my favorite.

New yarn

It's alpaca! I picked it up at the West End Farmer's Market on Sunday from a small stand from Sumerduck Farm that was also selling wool yarn and soaps. They'll be there tomorrow from 9am-1pm if you want to stop by and check it out yourself.

6 day baby blanket

Final measurements are 26"x18"



Took me 6 days. More details are on Ravelry. Started last Saturday, finished today.

Helped that I stayed home sick and sat in front of the TV most of the day. Max has been sick since Tuesday... started out with a sore throat and then he got really tired. Ugh. When I woke up this morning with a sore throat, I didn't want to chance it. Can't afford to get sick right now. Too much to do at work. Better to take today off when so many people were going to be out anyway and try to recover over the weekend. Drinking lots of tea with honey and ginsend, had soup for dinner and plan to go to bed early.

A new project

This makes three in my in-progress basket right now, which isn't bad, just more than I've had in awhile. There's a shower for one of my co-workers next Friday and I just saw the invite last week. Got started right away, worsted weight on size 8 needles to make it go fast. It will be a garter stitch blanket with a seed stitch border, both in cream colour, and then a pink crochet edging to tie it all together. Simple and quick!