Everyday

It's tough posting everyday. I don't know how the professional bloggers do it. Even with fodder like birthdays, Thanksgiving and updates on my knitting progress, I found myself having to think ahead about what I was going to write - especially for the weekends. There were alot of posts that started out as one-liners, or just a photo, and then I'd hit "Save as Draft." I'd come back and edit them into something more substantial later that day or even later that week.

Here's a peek at my Christmas knitting:

Measuring The Speed of Meme

In the name of science, I am joining an experiment by graduate student Scott Eric Kaufman, "Measuring The Speed of Meme" and I ask you to do the same if you have a blog. Once you've done so, ping Technorati. Results will be announced during the "Meet the Bloggers" panel at MLA 2006.

Happy Birthday Darren!

Happy 28!

One by one, my highschool classmates are all catching up to me.

Darren and I went to school together during our senior year of highscool at The International School of Beijing and four years of university at The University of Toronto on separate campuses. I went to school downtown on St. George campus and he was out in Scarborough at Erindale. Our first year of university we talked alot, almost everyday. We were both within a local calling area, so calling each other was free. There were many conversations that started with, "You won't believe how drunk I got last night..." Whenever Max came to visit me from Boston, Darren would meet us downtown and we'd go to the movies or out for dinner.

Now that we're all working and I've moved to the US, Darren has come to visit me and Max twice - once in Boston for our wedding and once in DC last summer when it was unbelievably hot and humid. Plus we met up in Berlin for the ISB reunion. Whenever Max and I go up to Canada to visit my family we also make plans to meet up with Darren for dinner or something. Darren is a good guy - cute, funny, and single for all you ladies who are looking.

Please join me in wishing Darren a happy birthday by leaving a comment. I'll tell him to come by later and take a look.

Cosy

Here's a peek at an unconventional holiday gift for someone who I'm sure does not read this blog - a knitted airhose cosy to cover a humidifier hose and face mask. For the tube, I'll probably use double pointed needles to knit in the round the two sections. For the face mask, I'll probably make something like these tea panties, minus the base and cover. I'll be using Lion Brand Woolease yarn because it's warmth and machine washable, in a manly forest green heather. Definitely the weirdest thing I've made yet but I've heard tell it will be well received.

Sewing

I can't sew, not really. I know how, how it's supposed to be done, what I'm supposed to do... but then there's reality. One summer during college, I decided I was going to sew a dress for myself. It took 3 months! I'm totally hopeless when it comes to sewing, but... I guess because of my craftiness with knitting, my in-laws decided they wanted to buy me a sewing machine. So while Max's Dad was in town, we went to Sears and brought home the Singer 7442.


Comes with 80 stitch functions • 30 built-in stitches patterns • Electronic stitch formation • One-step buttonhole - 2 styles • Automatic optimum stitch settings • Automatic tension • LED light.

I'm totally intimidated.

Quiet house

Max's Dad and his brother, Marvin, stayed with us for Thanksgiving. We ate the big meal on Thursday, played lots of Zelda, ate leftovers, went shopping on Friday and Saturday, and went to the movies last night to see the new James Bond flick. Today really is a day of rest.

Marvin should be on his plane back to Boston, and Max is on the way to the airport to drop off his Dad. I am spent. Playing hostess and doing all the cleaning up that Max usually does, too much for me! :)

Now that Thanksgiving is over, time to start thinking about Christmas!

Saturday Sky

Went out for dim sum today with Max's family and then some. Table for 12. Yum! Lots of food. Wu gok, shu mai, dan tat, gai mei bao, dofu fa, and lots of other yummy dishes. Now, time to crash for a nap.

Kristina's hat

Although this is not the first project Kristina ever started (that was a scarf using fun fur), this is the first project that Kristina completed.

One day, there might be a pompom at the top of the hat. Until then, the hat will keep her warm and she can proudly say, "I made it!" The pattern is Knitty's Tycus and the yarn is a combination of Lion Bran Homespun and Red Heart Super Saver.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have celebrated the American Thanksgiving ever since I got married and moved down to the US. Most of our menu is made up of the dishes I ate at home for Canadian Thanksgiving (the second Monday in October) for years and years. For the most part, the only thing that changes from year to year is dessert. On this list of musts:

-roasted turkey (using Alton Brown's recipe for Good Eats Roast Turkey, it's the best!)
-gravy (using the pan drippings, wine, and the technique taught to me by my Mom)
-garlic rosemary focaccia (using the recipe from Gourmet Magazine)
-sausage chestnut stuffing (using a recipe from my Mom)
-mashed potatoes (with lumps since that's how Max likes to make it)
-holiday sweet potatoes (using a recipe from a former co-worker)
-wine

Instead of cranberry sauce, we're having fresh cranberry orange relish this year. Dessert is pecan pie. I'll be using a recipe from my Mom. In the past I've also made pumpkin pie and caramel-cranberry nut tart.

Every year, as I gather all the recipes and start making the grocery list, I always have to develop a game plan on how I'm going to get everything done, figure out what is going in the oven when. Every year I say to Max, I should create a booklet, you should help me map the process. But then every year, when Thanksgiving is over, I'm too tired to do any of that. Maybe this year will be the year. Ha. I think we'll be too busy playing Zelda on the Nintendo Wii.

Happy Thanksgiving!

p.s. Happy Birthday Justin

My new blue

On Monday, I was supposed to have friends over for dinner. I was going to make wild mushroom risotto, sauteed carrots, and garlic bread. For dessert, pears with cranberry cheese and toasted walnuts. Sounds delicious right?

So there I was, at home after work, getting dinner ready. Since there was going to be four of us, I needed to use my 2 quart glass casserole dish to make the risotto. I melted the butter, sauteed the onion, added the rice and the next step was to add the wine. The wine I had chilling in the fridge so we could drink it with dinner. Not thinking, I poured the cold liquid into the hot glass vessel.

It exploded! And the rice caught on fire!

Seriously people, talk about my worst kitchen disaster ever. I have never made something explode in the kitchen before. I was in shock. But not hurt thankfully. Max was standing by, so he was the one who turned off the stove and the oven and removed the spoon from the gas burner. I then called my friend and told her what happened.

We went out for dinner that night.

The best and worst part of this experience is that the glass casserole dish is gone. This is the dish we use for our Thanksgiving stuffing. Which we need tomorrow. So last night we went out and bought this from Williams-Sonoma:

Definitely feeling much better about the whole kitchen disaster. It is so beautiful! And it won't explode if I add cold liquid when it's hot. Love at first sight. Now... what can I break next? :)

(Just kidding, Max)

SP9 Dishcloth

My SP9 hostess, Patty, is holding another contest for her group of participants. We had to knit a dishcloth and post a picture of it by November 22. I finished this on Friday but just took a picture of it yesterday. I used the Garterlac pattern, size 7 needles, and Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn in Neptune Ombre that Harriet the Lime Dragon gave to me during SP8.

Cambridge Sweater

Here's what the sweater looked like before the weekend:



That's the inside view. Over the weekend I finished the two fronts. And then promptly set it aside to knit the Swish Poncho. It's all seaming from here... sew the fronts and back together at the shoulders, then set in the sleeves, then sew the sleeve and side seams. There's more knitting once all of that is done but I just didn't feel like doing it. Especially since Max was playing his new Zelda game and I wanted to watch - which I could do while knitting the poncho but not while sewing. At least that's what I kept telling myself! :)

I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the month but this is a super busy week so I'm not sure if that is going to happen. Tonight, we're having friends over for dinner and then I need to do some Thanksgiving prep after they leave. Tomorrow, more prep and then friends arriving late to stay the night. Wednesday, tons more prep and then family arrives simultaneously at two different airports. And then of course, Thursday is the big day. I can't wait! :)

Swish poncho

The pattern I'm using is not all that clear but on size 10 needles, it is moving along quickly and I like that. I've completed the first half already and I'm almost half done the second half.



Details:


I love working with Swish Superwash. It's a nice yarn, soft and easy to knit with. And since it's 100% wool, it should be warm too!

Saturday Sky

Yesterday morning, Max woke up to the smell of coffee... although our coffee maker has a timer, we almost never use it... and never on a weekday. Thursday night while Max was getting ready for bed, I set up the coffee to start brewing at 6:30am. In his car, I loosely tied a little bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans (that I bought in California in August but he didn't remember) to his steering wheel with a ribbon. After work, Max picked me up and we had dinner at Legal Seafoods. Everything was so yummy! While we were waiting for dessert he opened part of his birthday gift - an assortment of minty chocolates from Whole Foods. I also bought him some flowers on Thursday. The big part of his birthday present we're getting on Sunday - the new Nintendo Wii and Zelda: Twilight Princess.

After dinner, we went to the movies to see Happy Feet. Such a good movie!

In other news, Max's friends from BU, Natalia and Alex, finally got engaged! The two of them left DC on Monday for a roadtrip to LA. He proposed to her on Wednesday in Chicago. And she said yes. But then she waited until last night to tell us! We were very excited to hear the news first hand. Here's the happy couple!

28

Twenty-eight is the natural number following 27 and preceding 29.

The sum of the first five prime numbers is 28.

Twenty-eight is the number of dominoes in standard domino sets.

The atomic number of nickel is 28.

Twenty-eight is the postal code of the province of Madrid, in Spain.

The planet Saturn revolves around the Sun in approximately 28 years.

In the year 28, King Daru of Baekje succeeded the throne of Baekje in Korean peninsula.

2006 - 1978 = 28

28 is how old Max is today.

Happy Birthday Max!

Cambridge sweater update

The Cambridge Sweater is coming along. I had hoped to be done by now but with other projects calling to me and distracting me... you know how it goes.

As you know, the two sleeves and the back are finished. I'm almost done the two fronts... only a few inches left to knit. Then there will be some seaming. After that, I'll need to pick up the stitches to knit the collar. Then sew in the zipper, the dreaded zipper. Have I told you how tired I am of brown yarn? I don't think I can emphasize that enough.

This is the story of Harold Crick...

Max picked me up after work last night so we could go out to the movies. We skipped dinner, shared a large popcorn and a large Cherry Coke, and went to see Stranger Than Fiction.

Love it! There's a great cast, including Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Totally recommend it, especially if you were an English major. And unlike when we went to watch The Prestige a few weeks ago (also highly recommended), I knew what was going on before Max did. And that's always nice.

America Recycles Day

Tomorrow is America Recycles Day. What can you do? Reduce, reuse, recycle. Here's just a few ways I try to reduce my ecological footprint:

• -Metro to work
• -At home, I recycle paper, phone books, junk mail, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastic containers, glass bottles
• -At work, I recycle as much paper as I can... and every so often I bring home empty bottles to recycle at home. I have my own coffee mugs to avoid using the styrofoam ones. And sometimes when I use the plastic utensils, I bring them home to wash and reuse.
• -Reuse cardboard boxes until they are falling apart
• -Reuse gift bags and tissue paper whenever possible
• -Donate old eye glasses, unwanted books and magazines to be enjoyed elsewhere

Do you recycle? Yes, but only when someone reminds you over and over again? If you need another reason, how about this.

ISBN conversion

An ISBN is the International Standard Book Number. It is a unique identifier for books that is accompanied by a barcode and part of the book cover design of all books for sale. ISBNs were originally 10 digits long, but like telephone numbers we have started running out of numbers.

Beginning on January 1, 2007, all the 10 digit ISBNs will be converted to 13 digit ISBNs. While you can do this one at a time for free online at various websites, to convert 400 numbers all at once will cost you. Or, you could use the handy dandy formula that my friend Anthony came up with. This formula worked for me and so I wanted to share it with others who are looking for a way to convert many ISBNs all at once, for free. When I asked Anthony if I could share it, he said, "You can definitely share it with anybody. A couple things I would keep in mind:

1) I'm no expert on ISBN's and spent less than 90 minutes coming up with that. But I did consult the manual.

2) I use the prefix "978" which is also what that website uses. However, according to wikipedia it can in some cases be "979." I don't know what those cases are , but it may be worth looking into.
3) I hard-coded the locations of the hyphens, but in my reading it seems the different components are of variable length (meaning the hyphen's may be in different locations for different ISBN numbers). If I had known that when I sent it to you I would have left out the hyphens entirely, which is what you may want to do."

Anthony's formula:

Cell A3 has the ISBN number - no dashes, 10 characters long

Cell B3 has:
=CONCATENATE("978","-",MID(A3,1,1),"-",MID(A3,2,3),"-",MID(A3,5,5),"-",MOD((10-MOD(SUM(9,
21, 8, PRODUCT(MID(A3,1,1),3), MID(A3,2,1), PRODUCT(MID(A3,3,1),3),
MID(A3,4,1), PRODUCT(MID(A3,5,1),3), MID(A3,6,1),
PRODUCT(MID(A3,7,1),3), MID(A3,8,1), PRODUCT(MID(A3,9,1),3)),10)), 10))

Brookline and Erin

My pretty kitties, Brookline and Erin, are well into adulthood. They're small cats, only 8.1lbs and 9.1lbs. I always forget how small they are until I go to someone else's house. Brookline likes to snuggle with Max, she absolutely adores him. Erin is my kitty - whiny, always shedding hair, and leaving a mess everywhere.

Remembrance Day

In Canada and the UK, November 11 is Remembrance Day. We used to recite the poem by John McCrae, In Flanders Field, in school:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Great taglines

"Putting the F.U. in TOFU"
I'm not vegan but I do like tofu... and how much do you love the tag line for Herbivore Magazine?

What's my tagline? Don't have one, so you tell me.

Dooce has too many to list, so many great ones, all incorporated into her mastheads... like "Proud to be an American Wearing Imported Canadian Sportswear" and "Unemployed & Unrepentant."

November calendars

Chappysmom's birthday is in November and she's having a contest. To enter, all I had to do was take a picture of my November calendar page(s) and post it on my blog by November 15. We have several calendars in our house, and they were all free. Although I like them all, there isn't one that is my favorite.

Which one do you like best?

Revenge of the 80s

Who thought that bringing back 80s fashions would be a good idea? Was it Lindsay Lohan? And why did everyone jump on the bandwagon? I would have expected better from Victoria's Secret and United Colors of Benetton.

Election Day

I can't vote in the US. I could vote for the Canadian elections but I never know anything about anyone who is running, so I never do. Instead, I make Max vote in US elections. He never knows anything about anyone who is running, but here's why I making him vote this time:

BALLOT QUESTION NUMBER 1: Shall Article I (the Bill of Rights) of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to state: “That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.

BALLOT QUESTION NUMBER 2: Shall Section 14 of Article IV of the Constitution of Virginia be amended by deleting the provision that prohibits the incorporation of churches, a provision that was ruled to be unconstitutional and therefore now is
obsolete?

BALLOT QUESTION NUMBER 3: Shall Section 6 of Article X of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to authorize legislation to permit localities to provide a partial exemption from real property taxes for real estate

Ugh. The first one really... seriously?

Also, I found out about Opensecrets.org from my friend Ben (according to him it's "a site dedicated to providing the most accurate information pertaining to monetary donations to elected officials of Congress...in other words, it tracks where our politicians are getting their money, and then breaks it all down into a dizzying number of categories, special interest groups, individuals, and industries") .

In any case, get out there today all you Americans! Vote for something, if not for someone.

Edited to add: I love Max. He just went to vote. We may not agree completely on how he voted but I love what he did afterwards. As he was leaving, he paid $10 for a cupcake from the school bake sale so the 6th grade class could go to Colonial Williamsburg. Sometimes he does something so nice that it makes me cry.

Matching set: part 2

Here's the matching hat:



Max took the picture for me - thanks Max!

I loosely based it on the Tycus pattern, though only using one strand and casting on 22 stitches. There are about 3 triangles. When I was done I realised it was too short but since I had already ripped it out three times before deciding on this pattern, I didn't want to do it again because I was afraid I might ruin the texture of the yarn. I think 25 or 26 stitches would have been perfect. Instead, I picked up stitches around the bottom and knit a few rows of garter stitch, then cast off. It covers my ears and almost covers my eyebrows, which you might think it too long but everyone seems to think it's really cute... so for me, it's just right.

Didn't even use a whole ball of yarn! I'm saving the leftovers for part 3 - mittens.

Matching set: part 1

I started this scarf before my sister's wedding, took it with me as travel knitting, and completed it during that week I was home sick. I used size 7 needles, 3 balls of gorgeous Debbie Bliss Cashmerino astrakhan yarn in #09 moss, and knitted many, many rows of garter stitch. And there is a hat to go with it!

Also, in case you missed it, the Anti-Craft came out with issue #5.

Saturday Sky

Saturday drive along the 495 Beltway. Just about the pass the castle... that's what I call it anyway. Really it's a Mormon temple. Though you can't really tell from this picture, this year's fall foliage is the best we've had down here in years. And still, makes me miss living up north. Until it gets colder, then I'll be thankful again that we moved south.

Red Scarf lunch

Yesterday was my red scarf lunch at work. One person in our group, Shirley, finished crocheting her first scarf but I didn't have my camera when she brought it in.

Clockwise from the top: Erin B's, Meryl's, mine, and Mari's

I'll have to get a move on mine once all my Christmas knitting is done... so, after I'm done one sweater, one poncho, one scarf, three hats, and an air hose cosy. And this was supposed to be the year that I didn't knit that many presents because I was staying home!

Not so pretty in pink

Is it just me or is this pattern wrong? It says place marker... and then many times after tells you to knit until marker. And never does it say to move the marker. But then all the increases aren't in the center and one side has 19 stitches and the other side has more and more. Or is it supposed to be like this? Erin? Harriet? Damn free patterns. Never really sure if I can trust them. Does anyone have contact information for Gayle Bunn? Maybe I could ask her. Or maybe I need to start over using a different pattern.

This project will be on hold until I figure it out.

Edited to add: I think Trish is absolutely right. And such an obvious answer. MI before the marker. Why couldn't the pattern be more clear? Anyone else agree?

National Blog Posting Month

Not that I don't write post fairly frequently... but still, I like the idea as a motivational tool and the rules are easy: post every day for the month of November. Plus the prizes are cool. Thanks to Katie for signing up too!

The hardest part of NaBloPoMo will probably be getting myself to blog on the weekends, or during Thanksgiving. There will probably be a lot less photos and pictures... but I will try my best, since it's often the photos that accompany the text that is my favorite part about reading other people's blogs.

If you have a topic you'd like me to explore or a question you'd like me to answer, let me know... otherwise I might veer toward "what I had for breakfast today" or "what I watched on TV last night." On the other hand, if that won't drive you away, I don't know what will...