I got my ring!!

Sorry for the blurry camera phone pictures, but I can't seem to find our real camera. It is exactly the size and shape and color and everything that I wanted. Pretty darn classy if I do say so myself.The camera really refused to play well for the side view, but you should get the general idea. From here you can see the cathedral setting. Faintly visible through the blur is the circular diamond set directly under the base of the princess cut stone. There is another one on the opposite side of the ring. Such a nice subtle detail, which makes this ring pretty unique. I am super happy with it and it was well worth the wait. Thanks Captain!!

Oh phooey

I have not knit a thing in a week. Today during lunch I decided to work on my scarf from my first WoolGirl club shipment. I am really behind on this project and the next yarn ships in 3 weeks- oh no! Much to my chagrin, I pulled the needles out of my new knitting bag and one of the tips was gone. Now these are interchangeable needles, but the tip did not come unscrewed- the screw was still there, but the bamboo part was separate from the screw. Luckily we had some epoxy at work and it is reassembled and drying for now, but I am really sad about these needles. I may have to start slowly buying the Harmony interchangeables to replace the defective ones. I wish the new Addi clicks came in wood or bamboo because I would buy those in a heartbeat. For now I shall just have to make due with frankenneedles.

Love conquers all

I would just like to send out a word of thanks to the states of Vermont and Iowa who have boldly chosen to join the ranks of Connecticut and Massachusetts to legalize gay marriage. I know that there may be amendments and the like that crop up (though that seems unlikely in Iowa at the moment) but I hope they can stay strong. We are up to 4 out of 50 now- can we go for 5?

I believe that our world and our time needs as much love as we can get. Since my wedding is coming up soon, I am glad that some of my friends are one step closer to being allowed to say I do themselves. C'mon Illinois- I know you can do it.

The Cheerio Story

So for those who have asked, here is the Cheerio Story. The Captain and I spent some much needed vacation time in the Bahamas. I thought we were vacationing to A) avoid the frigid Chicago transition from winter to spring and B) to celebrate my 30th birthday. That is a big milestone you know and a trip to the beach sounded like a good way to celebrate.

We packed our bags and headed to the airport at an ungodly hour (3:30 am to be exact). Unfortunately at 3:30am it seems like a good idea to put most of your stuff into the big duffel bag to check. Carry on is always easier, if possible, but those pesky bottles of sunscreen were foiling our attempts to fly without baggage (ba-dum-cha!) Anyways... the fog was thick flying into Charlotte, North Carolina. We circled the airport for about an hour before our pilot made the wise decision to land in Greensboro instead and refuel (fuel is good). By the time we got more fuel, waited for the airport to open up again from the fog closure, and headed on our way back to Charlotte we had only 15 minutes to run from our current gate to the departure gate.

Needless to say, our bag did not make it to Freeport, Grand Bahama. I spent the first night and the better part of the second day wearing a sweater, khaki pants and flip flops. I looked quite out of place in a beach resort, but the people in town were still happy to have me shop and everyone commented on my hat, which I got from the Captain's Maman when she was in Argentina.

By Friday, we finally had our stuff and we were off to the beach. I think my new bathing togs are quite retro looking- just what I wanted! We spent the next few days relaxing on the beach (when the sun was out) and chilling in the hot tub (when the sun hid behind a cloud). As Saturday drew to a close, we knew that Sunday was our last full day to do fun stuff. The Captain suggested that we get up super early to watch the sunrise on the beach. Heaven knows I love my beauty rest, but since the Captain was so nice to take me on this trip, I thought the least I could do was wake up early one day.

Sunday morning we woke before the sun, grabbed various and sundry towel like items, and headed for the shore. We wrapped ourselves in warmth and tried to surmise where the sun would actually rise. We picked a spot and eagerly waited for the sky to brighten. The clouds were heavy and low, so as the sky grew bluer, we still were waiting for the glowing orb to arrive. The Captain started getting up, so I figured that maybe we missed the sun and we were going back in. But then he stopped by my chair and started fishing in his pocket- what on earth was he doing? Then he said, (I paraphrase of course) 'I tried to go to like 7 jewelry stores, but they didn't have anything in a size 3.5, so for now you get a Cheerio. Will you marry me?' Folks, I was shocked! I just sat there looking like a Cod. I asked 'are you serious?, is this for real?' I was so surprised. I sat there in shock for about 5 minutes. I was so happy I couldn't even go back to sleep. Of course once I got over the initial excitement, we looked over to see the sun blazing in it's glory right where we thought it would be.

I now present to you the future Dr. Captain. Nothing says love like whole grain. We have now gone to an impeccable local jeweler, Stanley Brown Jewelist and picked out a cheerio replacement. This store has been in business since 1912 and I highly recommend it to anyone in the Chicago area. I will post picks once it gets back from sizing and assembly.

The Cav

The Captain and I sold the Cavalier last night. It was a good car- the first one I ever bought actually. It got me through grad school safe and sound. It was in remarkably good shape considering where it has been and how many miles were on it (over 140K I do believe). I felt a bit weird having to call the insurance company to cancel the policy since I have been with them for so long. Now I need to get transferred to the Captain's policy. Now if we could just work it so we could get rid of the Toyota as well. It is super reliable, mind you, but maybe one day...

I am happy that the dream of being car free just got one step closer to coming true.

Hallelujiah

I should really know better than to look up guitar tab for songs I love that happen to be sad songs. All this is going to lead to is hours and hours of learning beautifully sad songs so I can then spend hours and hours playing them for myself and singing through my tears. The song Hallelujiah by Leonard Cohen. Go check it out here (don't worry... I will wait). I love the cover by Rufus Wainwright; even better than the Jeff Buckley version, though that one is damn good. Rufus is just so visceral.

For those who don't know the song references a bunch of relationships in the Bible- Bathsheba, Sampson, King David. It is about broken and messy love still being a Hallelujiah. It is about the struggle between the romantic and the spiritual. About the crazy things that you will do for love. About how you can love someone so much it hurts.

I decided that I really want this CD. Then it occurred to me. (sorry I am listening to it on repeat.) Since everyone had a really hard time thinking of what to get me for my 30th b-day and since I am terrible with coming up with a list on short notice, I am posting a list on my side column. That way I am still surprised and everyone is happy :-)

Honey in Italy

My honey is in Italy skiing the Alps this week. The week after he gets back we get to go to the Bahamas- yeah! Luckily that leaves me some time to practice my new guitar and try to get into some sort of shape before I put on a bathing suit. I am adding weight training to my weekly yoga schedule to tone up a bit. I know it is probably a lost cause, but I am at least trying. I did crunches, curls, squats, and leg lifts with 4 lb weights while listening to a stand-up routine by Russel Brand. I can't tell if he is trying to channel Eddie Izzard or not. Tony is always really fascinated when I work out. Downward facing dog makes him really excited. I think he can't figure out why I am holding myself upside down, lowering myself to the floor, and going upside down again. He runs from my feet to my head and sometimes tries to jump on me or crawl under my yoga mat. He is crazy.

As for the guitar. I wish I could post a photo, but I didn't get around to taking one before the camera flew to the Alps, so you will have to wait. For now here is an official photo from the Cordoba site. It is a Cordoba Dolce and I love it. It is a nylon string guitar, which works great for me since after 15 years of trying to play properly I am just not a strummer. I love to fingerpick and nothing sounds better fingerpicked than a nylon string. I have also busted out my old classical guitar textbook, found an online metronome, and have started working on my technique. The technique practice is boring, but I think it is important. The fretboard is rosewood, which gives it a really comfortable grip and warm tone. The color of the guitar is almost copper. Warm and shiny. It even came with its own case. It is a soft case, but not a gig bag- i.e., it has backpack straps, but is heavily padded not just 'a bag'. This turns out to be not only great financially, but sanity-wise as well because I have no idea how I would find a normal case for a 7/8 size guitar. Oh yeah- this guitar is petite just like me. Hopefully in a few months I will get some tunes up here so you can take a listen at how good it sounds.

I also got my first ever sock club package, but that post is for another day.

Zelda Marie

I have finally managed to figure out how to get photos from my Windows-based phone onto my Mac computer. This photo is old, but adorable. This is Zelda Marie my new Boxer puppy (which lives with my parents). She is about two months old in this photo and I am sure she has grown a ton since then. I will have to have my mom send some new photos soon.

Bahamas, bikes, and chicken feet

In 25 days the Captain and I will be jetting off to the Bahamas for my 30th birthday (belated). I can't wait. I could really use some beach weather after the months of freezing Chicago weather. This weekend I am going to get a new summer haircut and hopefully some new bathing togs. I want to see if I can find some vintage or vintage like duds. Something Bettie Page would have worn.
It was a bit warmer here the past few days than it has been. I was hoping to start training for the 25 mile bike ride we are going on this summer. I have new bike shoes (courtesy of the Captain) that I need to learn how to use. 17 miles is my longest ride ever, so I have to add quite a bit to that. I have a new saddle which should help. I also got some panniers from the folks that I need to try out. Maybe a trip to the farmer's market is in store.
As to the chicken feet. We went to dim sum on Sunday with a bunch of friends. Dim Sum is quite and experience in and of itself. Luckily we had a girl with us who spoke the correct language. I have no idea what we would have done without her. We got one order of chicken feet just to try. They were not bad... The sauce was very nice and the flavor was good. The feet are squishy- not crispy or tough like I had imagined. The biggest annoyance was the number of little tiny bones. I felt like it took me 10 minutes to get all of the bones out of my mouth. So, I wouldn't order them again, but if I was served them at a dinner for some reason I would probably eat them. It doesn't hurt to try it once.

Sock Club Ahoy!

My my. This has been an exciting week. The weather keeps flirting with the idea that 8 degrees F is not an acceptable temperature and maybe, just maybe it likes the idea of spring coming soon. We are still mired in 20-30 degree weather now, but I will take any temperature increase I can get.
Since the weather was a bit better, we ventured out this morning instead of hibernating indoors. The winter farmer's market in our neighborhood was quaint (in the 'it was small' sense of the word). We got some mango salsa, dried chantrelle mushrooms, ground beef, and some yummy cheese. I was hoping to get there by bike instead of car (since I wanted to use my new panniers), but the Captain had un torticolli (that is your french word of the day) and therefore could not turn his head well enough to check for cars, so we drove. From there we sauntered over to Chix with Stix to get buttons for my new hat. I really like this hat. It is the Robin's Egg Blue Hat knitted in Noro Iro. This was done in just 2 days and the wool/silk blend is really luxurious. If you want to knit this hat, I suggest adding two stitches before you do the decreases. That way you will have 70 stitches to go around and thus will get an even number of decrease divisions starting with K8, k2tog all the way around. (And yes, those are Christmas decorations still up. We got rid of the tree, but it seems me always leave at least something up until my birthday every year.)
The biggest news of the week though was a double whammy. I got a raise at work (yeah!) and the Captain suggested that I use the first month's raise amount to get myself something nice. I thought that this was an excellent idea, so I started poking around the interwebs for ideas. It did not take me long to decide on the Woolgirl sock club. I am so excited! I have always wanted to join a sock club, but since the up front cost is steep I had always just had it in the back of my mind as a 'someday' thing to do. But now someday is today! I can't wait 'till February for my first shipment. Of course, this means that I need to get the singleton sock (which is currently hogging my most precious ebony sock stix) and his mate finished before my new sock yarn arrives.

Pretty in Pink

I have been working on my Scheherazade stole for almost a year now. It is a beautiful pattern and I have been remiss to keep it in an unfinished state for so long. This stole has been to Texas, New York, Tennessee, and Poland. You would think that a stole this well traveled would have something more than '1/3 of the way done' to show for itself. I hope that the picture here shows up well enough on your monitor to demonstrate its beauty. I promise to finish this by 2009. I must.

I did manage to quickly knit a pair of fingerless mitts for the winter season. These took me only a couple of days, but have been worn 5 times already. They are the wine and roses mitts from the winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I love this issue. I have already knit the Equestrian Blazer from this issue and plan to one day make the Nantucket Jacket for my mom.

New Year, New President, New Blog Layout

I hope y'all like the sassy new blog layout. I felt it was time for a fresh start. Let me know what you think.

Today we usher in the 44th president of the United States. I found the moment inspiring and uplifting. I believe that American's can rise above our troubles, that we can pull ourselves out of the mire of economic depressions, surmount people who do not want peace, and embrace our fellow humans to bring about a better tomorrow. I am hopeful for what we can become and where we can go. I know that it will not be perfect. I know that every choice which is made may not be something I agree with. But I have to think that hope and love are the greatest things of all.

I would also like to say a few words about our 43rd president, George Bush. I voted for him the first time. It was my first election. I was new and naive. I didn't research as much as I should have. Four years later I realized that he was not the choice for me and I voted for the loosing party. I have not agreed with him much over the past eight years, but he was our president. I respect him for the office he held and I respect him as a person. I genuinely believe he did what he thought was best with the information presented to him. Though I think he was wrong on many accounts, I don't think he is a bad man.

So, good luck to you President Bush wherever your life takes you. And good luck to our new President Obama. This is the first election I have truly been an active participant in. I hope for the environment, I hope for a bright future for science, and I hope for the longevity of our great nation. I also send hope to our troops that they may be the best they can be until they return safely home. Thank you to the veterans and the volunteers; to the teachers and the parents. Our message going forward has changed from 'yes we can' to

YES WE WILL!

Fitness

My resolution for 2009 (not a strict resolution, more like guidelines) is to get into shape. The Captain is taking me to Nicaragua for my 30th birthday, so I want to actually be beach ready for one time in my life. I have my google calendar all set up to track my fitness. I got a late start this month because of the flood and sinus infection resulting from said flood. Apparently your body does not like it when you stand in freezing water for an hour (Oy!) Last night (against protestations from my rear that likes to stay firmly seated on the couch) I did 30 min of yoga. Tony finds yoga highly amusing. If I move to the right- he follows me. He sniffs my feet and hands. Then I move left and he runs to the other side to investigate. He has still not learned the asana sequence which transitions from downward facing dog to upward facing dog. He runs under me during down dog and then has to high-tail it when I start the transition to my belly. Of course as soon as I am back to down dog he is right under me again. I suppose I get an extra work out holding poses mid air to avoid a ferret collision.

Since the wonderful city of Chicago has found it in its heart to bestow us with a high of 5 today, I am frantically reknitting the fingerless gloves that I started at the beginning of the year. Lusciousluka got me some lovely yarn for Christmas. I started knitting a certain lovely pattern from a certain company that will not be named. The pattern looked lovely. I started knitting it however to only find that the right mitt is actually a left mitt and some of the decreases were wrong. I just went along with it, finished the right mitt and started the left. That one is also a left mitt!!! With the amount of errors in the first one and the fact that I would have to rework everything to get a stinking right mitt I decided to frogg the whole thing and find a new pattern. It is super cold outside. I need mitts!

Now, the pattern is free, so I can't complain to much. C'est la vie. I just find it amusing that errata has already been published for the pattern. They caught the error on the ring finger but not the fact that you get 2 left mitts. I am trying to decide how best to tell the company about this so that a) they don't get offended that I am complaining about a free pattern and b) no one else has to deal with this. I am experienced enough to know that the pattern has errors, but some other knitter might get so frustrated thinking that they are the ones that are reading the pattern wrong.

2009 Begins

Happy 2009 everybody! I know I have been slacking with the blog, but I hope to change that in 2009. We had a super awesome time visiting our families. I think my dad should get the hero of the holidays award. He was sick all week and had to handle some super crisis at work. He still managed to make it to our new years eve bash- go dad!

This years resolutions are:

1) Make at least weekly entries on the blog
2) Get into a better yoga routine (It comes to mind that last year's routine of working out twice a month is not going to cut it)
3) Knit through more of my sock yarn stash. I have not a terrible amount of sock yarn, but I have a pathetic amount of actual finished socks. Considering that I am a pretty decent knitter and my goal is to have mostly hand knit socks at some point... the fact that I currently own a mere 4 pairs is silly. So my friends, I hope to show you more socks in the future.

Knitting and resolutions were put on hold for a while due to the small flood that was in our apartment last week. I shall not go into details here, but suffice to say I almost have the house back to normal.

Blah Tuesday

Today is blah Tuesday. It is cold and rainy and grey. Winter stinks, but at least I can wear my nice knitted items. It is now 16 days till thanksgiving. I need to get my menu together and order my turkey. I tried to order it yesterday, but they were not yet set up. I shall have to go back.

I had a good weekend before blah Tuesday though. We got to go to a housewarming party, which was fun, and we watched 'Zach and Miri make a porno'. It was hilarious. I thought it was just going to be funny, but I almost fell out of my chair a few times. I highly recommend it. Though, if you are squeamish about naughty bits, you may want to sit this one out. I got more of the Full Monty than I was expecting, but it fit with the story.

In knitting news, I have casted on for the Manon cardigan. The yarn I am using has more of a halo, so the stitch definition will not be as great. I love the yarn though- so squishy.

The Bachelor

When left to my own devices I turn into a bachelor. Not socially, but in terms of cuisine. I am home sick from work. I am mostly lying on the couch watching bad tv and sleeping. I wake up to mainline tea and alka seltzer cold. Now I have been told by the Captain that I am not allowed to not eat when I am sick. I have maintained the HFCS challenge through the haze, thankfully. So far today I have eaten:

Breakfast
3 wasa crackers with plain cream cheese

Snack
a persimmon

Lunch
a cup of tomato soup

Snack
a can of ranch style beans with a slice of cheese on it

Not at all the lovely meal I would normally fix for the Captain and I. At least I have been trained to keep more than vodka and mustard in the fridge.

Pot Roast

Today I had the afternoon off from work to go to the dentist (what fun). I got home and started putting a pot roast in the crock pot. This is my first ever crock pot meal, but it looks great so far. The recipe follows, but before that I want to clarify some things in the HFCS 30-day challenge. Birthday cake is certainly exempt as is food you get at a restaurant or party. Basically anything you buy or have stored in your pantry that has a label you can read is what we are focusing on here. Luckily I have a head start on the pot roast. No way we can eat 3 pounds of meat in a week, so I plan on freezing half of this bad boy for the first week in November. And now back to the recipe :-)



Crock Pot Roast
(in progress photo)

3 lbs of beef round
0.5 lbs of oxtail
4 turnips
2 parsnips
1 white onion
1 shallot
3 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 potatoes
a few cups of vegetable stock

spices: flour, bay leaves, sage, coriander, salt, pepper, olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic.

Take the 3 lbs of round and coat with a light layer of flour, a bit of salt and pepper. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in an iron skillet over medium heat. Mince one garlic clove and the shallot and put in hot oil. Sear the meat on all sides so that it is a bit brown, but not cooked. Put the meat on a plate to rest and throw out the now very brown garlic and shallot bits. Chop and peel the rest of the veggies. we want big chunks here and ballpark to have stuff roughly the same size (impossible with the carrots and celery, just break these into thirds). Add a few more drizzles of olive oil to the pan and saute the veggies and oxtails just till they are a bit caramelized. Again, don't cook, we just want color.

Add meat to the crock pot fat side up (this will help the fat melt downwards and yield juicier meat). Add the veggies and oxtails, 2 bay leaves, 2 dashes each of coriander and sage. Add the remaining garlic clove whole. Fill the crock pot about an inch or so deep with the vegetable stock. Set on high for about 5 hours.

HFCS 30 day challenge

I am using this blog post to instigate a HFCS 30 day challenge. If you can, read the whole post before deciding I am a nutter. Please feel free to use the comments section to comment on the challenge and how you are doing on it should you choose to accept. But first, a bit of background.

High fructose corn syrup is the go to sweetener in the US because of ridiculously high tariffs on imported cane sugar (which makes our sugar cost more than sugar globally) and subsidized corn production (which makes corn much cheaper). HFCS is also not processed in your body the same way as cane or beet sugar. The jury is still out on whether HFCS is the root of all evil, so I am not indicting the entire industry here. HFCS has only been around since the 70s, so it is not like you grew up eating it (well my generation maybe has, but then again my mom cooked for us a lot so I may be exempt). HFCS has become so pervasive as a cheap sweetener that it has found its way into food that has no business having sugar in it. Check a can of regular old non-organic sweet corn and look for the sugar. Why does sweet corn need sugar added? Well because HFCS is also and excellent preservative.

There is no doubt that this stuff is not good for us. The corn lobby has started a ridiculous ad campaign which may indicate that sales are suffering due to consumer awareness. They may be correct that it is fine in moderation, but since it is in everything it takes some effort to only get it in moderation. I know that many of you reading this blog think that the organic hippie in me is a bit over the top. But, I think if you take this challenge with me, you may learn a thing or two.

The Challenge (if you choose to accept it).

Starting November 1st you will not eat or drink anything containing HFCS until November 30. Restaurant meals are excepted because you can never be too sure and I don't want to spoil a birthday or something. This should give you a week to alter your menus and get your pantry prepared. Then just start reading labels. Don't buy or eat anything with HFCS in it. You have to check every label- even bread can be hiding some. You don't have to go all organic, but you may have to change brands on some things.

There are plenty of soda companies still making cane sugar sodas (Jones, Blue Sky, Dublin Dr. Pepper). I am not a big fan of splenda or sweet and low (for other health reasons), but for the purposes of this challenge, you can drink diet soda if you like.

I will be taking this challenge as well. I have been trying to rid myself of HFCS for some time, but sometimes the snack attack gets to me. I just have to be smarter about my choices. More Pirate Booty cheese puffs for me!

I hope this challenge goes well. My goal is to get people reading labels and trying to get people to eat additives in moderation. You don't have to give up coke for your entire life, but you may just find that a splash of OJ in seltzer water tastes much better.

Bike extravaganza

Yesterday I went on my biggest bike ride yet. My rockstar bike was in the shop, so I borrowed the green monster from luscious luka. Lauriebee and the Captain were also there to round out the pack. We biked to the lake and then tried to locate some grub. My chain got jammed while trying to cross a large road. I hoped off and ran across the street. Luckily the Captain was really prepared- first aid kit (which was thankfully not needed), bike pump, and chain repair tools. We were back on the road in no time. We ate, said goodbye to the Captain, and then biked up town to our Sunday knitting group. There were a bunch of new people there- great to have so many friendly faces. We only got to stay for an hour and a half because we still had to bike back across town. On the way, Lauriebee and I were accosted by a very large dog that was trying to jump out of the car next to us and eat us. The dog was barking, we were screaming, Luka had no idea what was going on because she was ahead of us and the Captain had already headed home way before. Well I don't care if the driver of the car was laughing, we just walked our bikes across the street and got out of his way. My legs were tired, but I am not sore. That is either because a) I am super hard core, or b) Luka made us eat magnesium. Ok, so it is probably b.

All told we rode 17 miles. The seat on the green monster was so much better than my too big squishy one on the rockstar, so I need a new saddle. My new tat is also holding up well. No puffyness, no itching, no oozing. That could all change later, but right now all is well.