Finally, Owls!

It's now officially cold enough to start wearing wool again. It was freezing at bells on Tuesday. I'd forgotten how cold it gets in churches when you're just standing around.

I wanted to wear my Owls sweater last weekend, but when I tried it on, John and I agreed that it smelled a little...er...sheep-y. It's untreated wool, so it's not really surprising. I soaked and blocked it, and it's ready to go. Thanks to John for the pictures (and Andrew for the camera).

It's strange - I was looking for the tag when I was putting it on, and then remembered that there isn't one. Mostly because I started out with some wool and ended up with a sweater. WOOT.

It was one of the fastest projects I've done, considering how cool the outcome is. I'm tempted to make the same sweater again in a different color, possibly without the owls. There are some others on Ravelry that are pretty tempting, though.

Now we just have to figure out how to get me to STOP wearing it - it's warm and cosy and I'm obsessed with it.

Other things I'm obsessed with at the moment:

- Cooking with apples. Going to try this recipe with the sm. boy for the inlaws (coming for coffee tomorrow)
- Eragon. I'm on the third one and am gutted that there aren't any more (yet).
- Trying to find a tv cabinet that I don't hate. They're all either ugly, too big, too expensive, or just plain wrong. I've come close with this one, though. I think it might still be a bit big. One day I'll find it.

Lost again

I know it's a busy week when I get behind on my rss feeds. And when it took me nearly a full day to notice that the Yankees had won the World Series.

We rented Lost (season 5) last Sunday, and have been watching it in our spare time, which has been surprisingly infrequent. It's definitely a good way to decompress from work, though. You can't think about the Lost plot and have room in your brain for anything else!

I think it's quite entertaining that when I took an improv class in college, one of the first rules they taught us was "Never put yourself on a desert island. You immediately eliminate most of your dialogue and prop options." Apparently not, if you're JJ Abrams.


-- Posted from my iPhone

New Scarf

I can't remember who pointed me to the link, but I'm really psyched to have started in on the Palindrome scarf by Kristin at Silver's Place. I'm knitting it using the leftover skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca that I bought in Rhode Island two years ago. (I finished the sweater and decided it was too big for me, so my mom has it as a dog-walking sweater.)

I'm still trying to pick a pattern for my next sweater project, and there are a few on Ravelry that are strong contenders, but in the meantime, it's knitting season! I think this is going to be really good on the chilly days at work - it'll look great with a white shirt.

I started it while watching Coraline with the boys last night - it was spooky, a little trippy, and quite close to the book. We all really liked it.

Oink?

Um, yeah. Since I wasn't busy at work or anything, I caught Swine Flu. Too much time spent licking pigs?

I've never had flu before - it was exceedingly unpleasant. The only upside is that I didn't eat for nearly a week, so my skinny jeans fit. Back to eating now, though, and still feeling pretty tired. I'm thrilled not to have a fever anymore, too.

A few weeks ago, John's brother gave us a new digital camera (Christmas/Birthday presents for the next...um...forever? Thanks, Andrew!) This is from the inaugural photo shoot, the night before I got sick. John thinks I look great, I think I look...tired. Nice camera, though! And lots more pictures to come once I leave the house, at some point in the next few days.

Aaand she's back!

Work has been a zoo. All I've wanted to do after getting home every day is collapse in a heap on the couch with a cup if tea and a book.

As a result, I've been doing quite a bit of reading. I finished Wuthering Heights, and while I didn't enjoy it, I'm glad to have read it.

I struggled through The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, a pseudo-biography of a slave boy in revolutionary Boston. It was interesting and well-written, but not my cup of tea.

Next up, The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's latest caper. It was a birthday present from my brother, and I enjoyed every breathless minute of it. All very silly, though. I think the NYTimes reviewer had it when the said it was hackneyed, mellodramatic, and overwrought, but that she loved every minute.

In other birthday news, John and I have new couches, from SofaSofa. We've had them for about 3 weeks and sofa-sogood. They are beige, which makes the whole living room seem a hundred times lighter. But they were crying out for some color.

As my super awesome parents gave me a new sewing machine for my birthday, I had to get sewing.

Result:


Woot!

Rrufus' last ball

My parents' dog died two weeks ago - I've been avoiding this post because it wrecks me if I think about it too much.

His favorite things (in order):
1. my parents
2. balls (preferably squeaky)
3. butter
4. walks
5. sleeping on my parents' bed (with his paws in the air, mouth open, snoring)
6. car rides
7. swimming
8. his best buddies Fred (human) and Abigail (canine)
9. my brother and me
10. snow


Rrufus looking dignified:

And slightly less so:

I'm a Junior Foodie

First foodie credential: Sylvia Schur, who died last week (the link is to her obit in the NYT), lived across the street and gave my parents a high chair when I was born. Her second husband (before they were married) gave me and my brother a set of wind-up sushi toys.

Second foodie credential: I've been 'putting up' food in the last few weeks. Plum jam a few weeks ago and oven-dried tomatoes last week (which we're going to finish eating long before winter). The tomatoes were from the garden and were quite tasty before they were roasted. But after? With some salt and olive oil in the oven at 80 degrees C for 3 1/2 hours? Really awesome.

Third foodie credential: John and I have been watching the Hairy Bikers quite a bit lately, and in one of the recent recipes they made a meat pie. It looked REALLY tasty, and John has been demanding Pork Pie since then. So we asked the Good Food website what to do, and it told us to make Gordon Ramsay's Pork & Ham Pie. From scratch. With pork mince, sausagemeat, ham, sage, eggs, and pastry made with lard. Yes, lard. Gordon's picture:

And our picture:

 

We don't know what it looks like inside yet (or how it tastes), but it sure smells good. We will be taking it to the choir picnic today and thoroughly tasting it. From this angle, you can't see the decorations on the top very well, but they are an "H", and a pig, made out of pastry. Swoon.

Junior Foodie credentials: complete. Please proceed to next level. Involving foams.

Maybe I'll blog more...

In the hopes of blogging more than once a week, I've downloaded a blogging app for my iPhone. Which I'm still obsessed with, by the way, even though I've had it for almost a year.

Both bells and choir are back in full swing, and the September rush is definitely on at work. As a result my downtime has mostly consisted of watching The Hairy Bikers' Tour of Britain with John on iPlayer, and then going to bed early. The HBs are very entertaining, and our favorite episode so far is Kent. Mostly because of their hilarious antics in the kitchen with an extremely skillful chef. We liked the Suffolk episode, too, of course, but mostly for the "we've been there!" aspect of it. Yum.

-- Posted from my iPhone