Food, but no picture.

Earlier this week Nico made a very impressive dinner that he had never made before: linguine with red clam sauce. Ohh la la! I didn't take any pictures but it smelled and tasted great: spicy garlicky seafood and pasta. Very good.

Since I'm the one commuting now, Nico has a little more time and energy and so he's going to start doing more of the cooking. This is great and I'm really pleased. He's been saying that he wants to increase his cooking repertoire which I can totally understand. I've been wanting to increase my repertoire too, since the kinds of things I used to make pretty often (beans and rice, salsa, onion soup, etc) are either a little too 'single vegetarian' or a little too oniony (he's got that onion allergy after all).

So last weekend I bought a new cookbook: Express Lane Meals by Rachel Ray. And you know, I felt a little bit like I was giving up on being a good, or at least diy, cook. Like, here I am, believing myself to be so into cooking and then as soon as I get a little tired I give up and buy the cookbook aimed at the lowest common denominator - whatever's easiest.

But I guess I was just being a snob. Again. And I really should give Ms Ray her due. She does have good recipes that aren't overly complex or time consuming. The cookbook is well-organized, and most importantly, Nico was interested in actually using the recipes in it. The linguine with red clam sauce was awesome. And I did base my good roasted salsa recipe off something she made.

Tonight it's my turn to make something from the cookbook. I'm doing warm chopped chicken piccata spinach salad. Nutrition assured.

Moved?

Yes we are. In the new place in Oly! And internet finally just got hooked back up today. Slowly unpacking. Bought some generic chile plants and planted them in the rocky dirt next to the back door. They will probably die. Everyone at work keeps asking about my commute, but it's really quite nice. Last night took a walk down by Capital Lake. Ahhh. This is more like what I imagined living in the Pacific NW would be like. For the first time since leaving Tucson life feels normal and comfortable again. Now if only we had a bed.

Pictures will happen as soon as we make the place into something other than a mess of boxes. It could be a while.

Engagement Ring

My engagement ring came on Monday. Squeeee! OK. Ahem.

There are stories that go with getting this ring. When Nico and I got engaged in February we went to one of those jewelry stores in the mall to get our fingers sized and to see if maybe, just maybe, there was anything good. Of course there wasn't. The first store we went into didn't have anything I liked, and they couldn't size Nico's finger because they only sized up to a 15. And the one thing they had that he might've liked couldn't be made in whatever size he was. So we went to another jewelry store in the mall, where a gaggle of tiny jewelry store clerks all told us that it would be next to impossible to find something in Nico's size. At the time we guessed that he might be a 17. A 17! The store clerks' eyes practically bulged out of their heads. And as we were leaving the store they actually laughed at us. Yeah. Nice.

So I began looking on Etsy, and there were some great rings but the one I really liked was made only in titanium. I thought that would be fine, until I found out that titanium cannot be resized. Not really. OK. But I had an idea for a design, and we decided to go to ye olde jewelers here in town. Buy local, support your community, yadda yadda.

So we go in to this place, and I'm trying to describe what I'm thinking of to the sales-lady, trying to bounce some ideas off her, that kind of thing. Her response to pretty much everything I said was, "No, you can't do that, no, no, I've never heard of that." She managed to find a plastic ring-sizer and estimated that Nico's finger is a size 19. And then she showed us an ugly pre-made band that she thought she could slap a diamond on and sell us for a thousand. Um. No. This is my engagement ring. I want to wear it forever. I don't want to hear "can't do," I want "can do!" Can do!

So we went home, I wrote up a description of what I wanted and we posted it on Etsy's Alchemy page. We got several bids and we got to pick and choose among them. We went with a ring and jewelry maker in the UK, Nico paid, and several weeks later we got the ring in the mail. So now I have a ring I designed, we supported an independent artisan (though not local) and I get to laugh at all those jewelry store clerks because I got exactly what I want for a hell of a lot less than they would've charged. CAN DO!



This is the best I could do with the camera. It's a white gold band with a tiny 2mm ruby drop-set, and an even tinier diamond also drop-set. I love it! I think it looks very modern and slightly minimalist. We're going to add other tiny stones to it for special occasions and anniversaries.

Oh yes. The seller we went with on Etsy is Fluid By Design. She's got some pretty stuff, you should check her out.

T-minus 4 days until we move to Olympia!

No Joy in Sweaterville

After some soul searching, and perusing the pictures of other people's finished Wicked sweaters on Ravelry, I have come to the conclusion that my sweater is just too damn big. I will be ripping it back to those shoulder increases and re-knitting it from there. Sigh.

Stoopit sweater.

Progress in Sweaterville

There has been some progress in Sweaterville. I am speaking of that sweater I began back in January, my very first sweater ever, that took forever with the shoulder increases and where I thought I was going to run out of yarn. That sweater. Well, it's coming along. I'm not crazy about the way the yarn is knitting up, and it's just a bit too big on me, and I think I should've done fewer of those shoulder increases because the neckline doesn't fall where I'd like it to. Ahem.

Here's the sweater from over a month ago:



And here's the sweater where it stands today:



Sexy, no? Bleah! But it'll look better when it's done. I hope. And if it doesn't, well, it's my very first sweater and it's allowed to be a little sucky. I can always just wear it at home. I already know a few things I'll do differently if I knit the pattern again.

I also went out and bought the yarn for my next sweater, which I'm thinking will be a sort of cropped cardigan. I love the color of this yarn, although it will look awful with my coloring. Oh well. Acid green cardigan, you're next!



And let's not forget that there's also been some progress in Sock Town:



This is an upside-down version of the Monkey pattern done in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the Tropical Storm colorway. Upside-down Blue Monkey.

Also, next month Nico and I are moving to Olympia (I will still commute to work every day). Also we're engaged. Hot cha!

Spring? Sucker!

So for a while there it seemed like spring was in the air, what with all the daffodils and sunshine we were getting. I took these pics a little over a week ago in our side yard on a bright Saturday morning:







Daffodils, somethin' pink, and more daffodils. Really the damn things are everywhere. I'm more of a tulip girl, myself.

So then what happens? A week of nasty, windy, snowy-rainy-sleet-and-hail hellish weather. At the end of March. Ick.

Is it over yet? I'm afraid to look. Yesterday it was nice, but cold and a little breezy. Today it looks nice too: sun, blue sky. But it's April Fools Day. It could be snowing by noon.

I've got some finished socks to show off. First are the Red Whale socks I made from Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Rosehips colorway. The pattern is Azure from the winter issue of Knitty.



Next are the socks I made from some self-striping DK weight yarn I bought from Lovesticks Sock Yarn, a seller on Etsy. It's just plain stockinette stitch with a toe-up heel flap. The colorway is called Green Tea, and it was a lot of fun to knit with.



Other than that I've started another pair of socks and made some progress on my sweater. More on that soon.

The library is twisting my perceptions.

So this past week was a busy one at my library. I'll skip the big patron-related news in favor of the small but weird incident that happened on Thursday.

Lady comes in, wants to get a library card and also wants to get on the internet. I hand her an application and tell her that I can get her on a computer immediately, before she gets her card. So I hop out from behind the desk, lead her over to an open computer, and... she's not there. She's still filling out an application at the desk. OK. That's fine, she can get her card first. I'm just so used to people NOT getting a card first. Whatever.

So then she comes back after getting her card, wants help getting on the internet, and then tells me she needs someone to help her cancel an email account. I tell her that I can help her sign on to the computer, help her navigate to a page, but from there she needs to do it herself, she can just follow the instructions on the website. So she sits down at the computer and I'm trying to help her sign on. I tell her to enter her card number in the little box, and she just kind of sits there, gazing up at the ceiling. Um. OK.

Long story short, this woman is just not all there. She called me over for help several times, even though simply reading the instructions on the screen would've gotten her where she needed faster. Whatever. Not everyone understands how to use the internet; the digital divide is a bitch.

So then finally it looks like she's on her way out of the library. Except that instead of walking out the front door she walks back into the staff area, with my boss running after her to stop her. And then she goes into the staff bathroom. How did she even know it was there? So finally when she comes back out my boss tells her that this is the staff area and she isn't allowed to come back there and she's not allowed to use that bathroom. Her response? "Oh, it's so nice to relieve myself." Eeeeuuugghhh!!!!

Now, I will admit that I am an elitist. The reason that I like the staff bathroom is because the patrons are *not allowed to use it!* Damn it. So I used the staff bathroom upstairs for the rest of the day. It was pretty funny, but I felt pretty protective of that staff bathroom.

So that's a new patron. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of her.

And that night Nico and I went out to this little Italian place. It was... actually very nice. The people there weren't yelling or harassing anyone. None of them smelled. The food was excellent. It was almost like being out for dinner on a normal night in Tucson. That's when I realized that my entire perception of this town has shrunk down to the size of the library. My perceptions of this town's people has been twisted by the behaviors of the worst of our library patrons. There are, in fact, nice places here. There are normal people. Most of the people are probably normal, but I work in the library and I don't get out much. I'm feeling pretty stunted right about now. I wonder if I chose the right career.

Brigid in Cyberspace

Today is St. Brigid's Day, and that means you will find poetry posted on blogs all over the place. There's more information here.

So here's this poem I wrote quite a while ago about my mother's cancer:

Forty-nine syllables all for you, mother.
The years of your life run-
ning ragged down this page. Too many
fears creeping into your body
and hardening.
What saints
appeared to you then,
speaking your name?

Our First Cordial

cor-dial -noun
a strong, sweetened, aromatic alcoholic liquor; liqueur.

Last November Nico and I started our first cordial. We went to a cordial-making class that some sca people were having in Olympia and were told that we could use any clear liquor as our base. We used vodka, figuring that it was generic enough and probably wouldn't taste too badly, even though neither of us are really all that into vodka. And to flavor it we decided to use pomegranate and orange.

So the seeds of four pomegranates and the flesh and zest of two oranges went into the jug, followed by one regular and one smaller-sized bottle of Stoli. Cap on tight, shake shake shake, and wait. The vodka began to take on the pomegranates' color almost right away and deepened over time to a beautiful dark red. We let it steep for about 2 months, giving the jug a good hard shake just about every day.

After two months Nico did the hard part of straining out the by now extremely unappetizing pomegranate seeds and orange bits. All in all he strained it 6 times with butter muslin folded over again and again. Then it sat for another two weeks, and during that time quite a bit of sediment settled on the bottom of the jug.

Today I poured the cordial into a pot and threw out the sediment. I put the cordial over low heat and added about a cup of sugar. I kept stirring and as soon as the sugar was dissolved I took it off the heat and poured it into a clean jug.

Here's what it looks like now:



The flavor is pretty good; Nico claims he can taste the pomegranate and the orange separately but to me it just tastes bright and sweet. It's smooth and waaaaay better than plain vodka. I think we did well. I wish it was a little deeper red, though.

Next we might try just a straight-on orange cordial, sweetened with honey. I think that would be good to start now while citrus is still in season. Yum.

The Wages of Knitting Is...

Bowls!



Yes, these are the bowls I received in exchange for the knee-high stripey socks I knit. They came in the mail today and they are very lovely to behold. And my very cool partner sent 5 bowls, when the swap was only supposed to be for 4! I'm getting swap-spoiled all over the place, here.

Check them out. There's this beautiful bluesy-greensy one:



There are these two lighter blue ones, each alike in dignity:





There's this checked one that I absolutely adore:



But my absolute favorite is this one. I think the glazing on this is really sort of stunning:



So there you have it. Who's a lucky knitter? I am.

Minor Whiplash

Aside from being a bad band with a Myspace page, minor whiplash is what I get for daydreaming about Minnesota while driving in the snowy parking lot of the post office yesterday. I backed up into a telephone pole. In my defense, the pole really is in a bad place, and judging from the protective plastic shell wrapped around its base I'm not the only one who's done it. I wasn't going very fast and there was no damage to my car. It just gave me a jolt. And a headache followed by a stomachache, yesterday. And a little more of the same along with a sore neck today. So I'm staying home from the library and making with the heat and ice therapy.

Also, I have updated my blogroll on the right. Fewer knitting blogs, more other blogs, updated names and links and all that good stuff. Enjoy.

Aaaaaaaaand.... today is Delete Your Myspace Day. So I'm gonna do that later.

Here's a snow picture for you, although what we had yesterday was thicker and wetter. Also, it kept hailing.

Best Swap Package Evah!

So I was in this yarn swap where we were supposed to swap some silver or gray yarn. Pretty simple, yes? Well, my swap partner outdid herself. It was her very first swap and she was amazing!!! First off, everything came all wrapped up pretty like a present:



Now, keep in mind that all she really signed up to send was some yarn...

But what she actually did send, aside from the yarn, was this:



Clockwise from top left, European instant cappuccino, some sea-themed stickers, a little notebook, 3 chocolate bars from Belarus (where she currently lives), a sticker she had made for me concerning my love of certain mollusks, 3 Imp's Ears samples from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (squeal!), one of those German Kinder Eggs, and a set of hand-made glass stitch markers for knitting shaped like octopuses (octopodes?)! How fantastic is that? This lady really did her homework and picked out goodies that she knew I would specifically like. And how much harder was this for her, living as she does in Belarus? Amazing.

And then there's the yarn she sent. Oh yes. The yarn.



This beautiful, luxurious yarn is 50% merino wool, 50% silk. 400 yards of it, which is enough for socks even for my big feet. And the colorway is called "Summer Storm." Fan-freaking-tastic.

How lucky am I? Very lucky.

Making it with needles and string

So this is what I've been knitting.

First off we have the finished socks that I knit for my grandma out of Lorna's Laces yarn and gave her for Christmas. She says they fit great, and that her friends admire my knitting skillz. That's right, farm ladies think I knit well. That's probably the best compliment I've ever had...



And then I finished the beaded lace scarf that I was making for Bev. Finally. This sucker took me a year to knit. The yarn is a blend of baby alpaca and silk; very soft, a little fuzzy, lightweight anchored down a little by the beads. I sent it to her for Christmas. She cried. I hope she wears it.



Let's look at that from another angle, shall we?



And then I knit a pair of black alpaca wristies for Nico. He needed something to keep him warm at work, and this is some of the alpaca yarn I got last year from Estrella. I thought it would take all 4 skeins to complete, but they only took 2.



Next I had agreed to do a 1-on-1 swap with someone on Swap-Bot. She would make me a set of 4 pottery bowls if I would knit her a pair of stripey knee-high socks. So here's what I came up with, no pattern:



And after getting all of that done I decided I could finally concentrate on knitting for myself again, for a while. So the first thing I did was whip up a pair of socks. This yarn is from A Swell Yarn Shop and the colorway is Midnight Romance, although to me it looks more like a berry smoothie. Yum. They are warm and soooo soft. These are my new favorite socks.



I'm working on a second pair of socks which are from a very pretty pattern and which have faux cabling. This is the Azure pattern from the most recent issue of Knitty, and the yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Rosehips colorway. This yarn is 25% mohair which makes it extremely soft and fuzzy. At first I worried it would be too fuzzy to show the stitch definition well, but I think it does OK. I'm past the heel on the first sock and it fits perfectly.



And a close-up if you please:



And then I finally got the guts to start my very first sweater. I'm making Wicked out of Artyarns Supermerino in blues and greens. I'm not very far yet, but you know what? This type of sweater is way easier than making socks. It's totally simple, and there's no seaming. It's truly less complicated than a sock! I just can't seem to get over this fact. I'm not very far yet, but the Artyarns Supermerino is much softer than I expected. I can't wait to wear it. Mab approves.



And for anyone who remembers the bright green knee-high socks I was working on last spring... well I did finish them, a while back. I just never took pictures. So, here ya go.

Int'l Delete Your Myspace Day

...is this coming Wednesday, Jan 30th. You can read about it here: http://bloggasm.com/january-30th-is-international-delete-your-myspace-account-day

I'm going to delete my Myspace that day. But of course, my reasons are different from his reasons. I've had my profile set to private for a while now, and so I don't get many new annoying fem-bot messages or anything like that. And I don't have a Facebook account, so this isn't about thinking Facebook is better... although I do have a Ravelry account, so if you knit or crochet you should sign up for that.

So, why would I want to remove myself from the world's largest social networking site? Exactly. It's the world's fucking largest social networking site. Despite the fact that there are many awesome people on Myspace, it still appeals to the lowest common denominator. I see it every day at the library. People are addicted to their Myspace, and I feel a tiny shudder of horror whenever I'm faced with that at work. I throw up in my mouth a little every time someone comes to tell me that "there's something wrong with the computer" because their stupid Myspace won't load. I know that deleting my Myspace won't cause a dent in anyone else's, and it certainly won't give those people a much-needed brain transplant, but it will make me feel just a teensy bit better.

So, no judgement on anyone who doesn't delete their Myspace. I'm doing this primarily because of what I see at work

Shouty Drunk Guy

Tonight there was a shouty drunk guy in the library. I was helping him and I was even doing all my Professional Librarian Reference Effectiveness Behaviors ("Is that your complete question?") when he confessed to me that he was drunk. I mean, I could smell it on him, but when you just up and confess? Come on! Only in Aberdeen would you confess your drunkenness to a public servant with the expectation that this knowledge will make them more patient and lenient and will explain away all your bad behavior. "Oh, you mean you're only shouting and repeating yourself because you're drunk? Well, that's alright then."

So as soon as he said this I turned my head to look at our cop, who was standing maybe 12 feet away. And Shouty Drunk Guy turned his head and noticed the cop too, for the first time. OOPS! I guess he didn't expect that he'd be a Shouty Drunk Guy in front of a COP! He started begging me not to do anything, but I mercilessly got the cop's attention anyway. And then the cop escorted him out. When our cop returned, he remarked, "At first I just thought he was loud and different." Indeed no.

And then about 10 or 15 minutes later Shouty Drunk Guy came back inside. This time V. kept him at bay while the rest of us went looking for the cop, who again escorted him outside and again 'supervised' him for a little while. Then by all reports, Shouty Drunk Guy got on his bicycle and rode away. And for a minute there I thought I was back in Tucson.


So. Some of you may heave heard about OUR BIG FUCKING STORM. Yes. It was a wind-storm. The weird weather started Sat. Dec. 1st, when there was SNOW. And snow by itself isn't all that weird this time of year in WA, and it had been pretty cold recently. Nico even bought us some ice scrapers. I haven't owned an ice scraper since I was 20.

And then on Sunday the wind storm started. At first it wasn't much different from any other windy-type storm that we get here, but then it escalated. We were having sustained winds of up to 70 mph, with gusts over 100 mph. The power went off on Sunday night.

On Monday morning I got a call that the library would be closed because the power was out. There was still hot water for showers, and Nico didn't have to work that day. The wind was still blowing; it was only the middle of the storm. Nico and I went driving around to see if anyone had power, but it didn't look like it. There were trees down (big ones) everywhere. We have a gas fireplace and gas stove top, so we were alright on heat and food. We took naps. In the afternoon I got another call saying that the library would be closed the next day too. And then I lost reception. We were effectively cut off, so we didn't know how bad it was.

The next day Nico went to work, where he heard about the flooding, the road closures, and the governor declaring a state of emergency. But I still didn't know how bad it was. The weather had calmed down and still no one had power, so I thought I'd just drive in to Olympia, buy some supplies, eat at a restaurant. But I couldn't get out of town, because the highway was closed. Would probably be closed, I was informed by a worker, for a couple of days. I was trapped! I couldn't leave. The stress began to get worse.

Well, we finally got our power back on Wednesday evening. The library was open on Wed. as well. We weathered the storm; the worst one this area's seen since the 60's. All in all we were pretty lucky. No trees fell on us. We had heat and food. Our power's back on. Our drinking water wasn't contaminated. Nico didn't have to miss any work, and I'm still paid for the days the library was closed.

Welcome to the Harbor, suckers!

Swap 2

I'm hosting another swap on Swap-Bot. This one is the "Cover Me mix CD" swap, and as you might have guessed it's a swap for mix CDs of covers. You can see it at http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/9108

The last day to sign up is Nov. 24, so don't be shy! Go join my swap! Swap-Bot accounts are free, and if you're new to it all I ask is that you fill in your profile. Pretty easy.

If enough people sign up it should be pretty fun. Oh come on. Don't you want to have fun?

I finished it!

I finally finished the lace scarf that I've been working on for nearly a year! It's done! Pictures later.

Not Socks

Today we take a break from sock yarn. This is another yarn from Hand Spun and Dyed Too, and indeed it is handspun and hand-dyed. I bought this off eBay a couple of years ago shortly after my yarn mania truly set in. I fell in love with the colors and when it came I enjoyed the texture as I wound it into its little ball.... and that's as far as it ever went. There's less than 100 yards here, and I have no clue what I could make with it. It would felt beautifully if I wanted to felt it, but it would become even smaller then, and I don't know what I could make.

I've thought about just leaving it as a ball forever. I might do that. Every once in a while I'll just take it out, hold it and look at it for a while, and then pack it away again. Therapy yarn.

Cloudy Yarn and the Toe Butcher

I am full of excuses for why there was no yarn yesterday.

But there is yarn today:



Yes, more sock yarn. This yarn was sent by lovely Jenny as part of a Twin Cities-themed birthday package. The yarn was hand-dyed in St. Paul. Jenny said it reminded her of clouds, and as such it is completely appropriate to my new home. It does have a nice, soft cloudy look to it. This yarn will make sweet feminine socks that will be a pleasure to behold and a relief to wear. This yarn will make socks that will renew my spirit and my faith in humanity. This yarn is like wooly tea and sympathy. The yarn tells me so.

Now.

Yesterday I went to the podiatrist to have a two (or three?) week old infected ingrown toenail removed. Oh man. What you need to understand is that I am one of the most stubborn people I know when it comes to medical care. Who else would allow themselves to languish under the shadow of the lung butter (nasty resperatory infection, for the uninitiated) for a full month before finally seeking medical attention? Who else would allow their infected toe to fester into messy, bright-red hamburger (that's the podiatrist's term, by the way. Hamburger. It's an established clinical term, I'm sure) under the delusion that it "might get better"? Yes, if it weren't for modern medicine I'd be dead from some stupid infection three times over by now.

So after much butting-in and insistence from my very nice and mothering coworkers (and that's the other thing: when I do seek medical attention it's usually the product of outside intervention) I went to the specialist to tell him my sad toe-tale. He injected my full of drugs (and due to a faulty needle I actually got some extra!) and on his way out I heard him tell the nurse that I had "the works." Truly, I am a bad-ass.

He removed the rogue sliver of toenail as well as the scar tissue (hamburger) that had formed. The whole thing took less than ten minutes. I didn't feel a thing. He cut off a chunk of my toe and I didn't feel a thing! He's sending the pus off to the lab and I'm going back next week for a follow-up.

Of course, as soon as the anaesthetic wore off I had to go home from work with a swollen throbbing foot. And this morning I had to soak the bandage off. That was pleasant. You know how sometimes in bad horror movies someone will get cut open and their blood will kind of spray out in regular spurts, as if in time with their heartbeat? Well, that actually happens.

Enough said.

It's Pumpkininny!

Yarn I want to eat:



This is one skein of Pumpkin Pie sock yarn from Hand Spun and Dyed Too, which has a shop on eBay as well as etsy. I bought this yarn on etsy just last month in a fit of pumpkin-lust. I will have pumpkin pie socks! I will. This yarn looks like it should both smell and taste of pumpkin pie. But do not be fooled; it is just wool.

Library Adventurama~
My favorite reference question of the day came from a patron who had joined a Double Day book club and wanted me to tell her when her first batch of books would arrive in the mail. Did she want the email address I found as the only way of contacting this alleged book club? No, she did not. She simply wanted me to tell her when her books would arrive. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a computer, not a crystal ball.

I have begun to notice an unpleasant side effect of doing reference work, and it is that as soon as I leave the library I hate, just hate, being asked questions. While I am in the library I am paid to answer (or at least, try to answer) as many random-ass questions as the public can throw at me. I am paid to find things for them and to fetch books, various media, and sundry information. And because of this I now feel like I'm being taken advantage of whenever a stranger stops me on the sidewalk to ask me for the time, a cigarette, or directions to the post office. I'm sure that I'm not alone in this. In fact I'm willing to bet that this feeling is so widespread that if might qualify as a syndrome. Now. What shall we call our hating-work-like tasks-when-one-is-off-the-clock syndrome? Suggestions welcome.