Autumn Overdue

I started this post almost 2 weeks ago. I'm so lazy I'm not even going to edit it before posting.
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Last weekend got off to a great start when PassionKnitly jumped on a Chinatown bus in NYC to visit us. While the bus company did its best to try to keep her from us (leaving over an hour late, backing up on an off ramp on 95, leaving the engine running while filling up at the gas station), she was victorious and we made up for lost time by staying up WAY past our bedtime talking.
On Saturday we caravanned (caravaned?) in 2 cars out to Homestead Farm where we had planned a day of apple picking and picknicking. We had gorgeous weather, some of learned to juggle, and E* and I picked 14 lbs. of apples. Yes, you read that right, 14 lbs. Since then, I've devoted a few minutes each day to looking up various apple-intensive recipes including apple pie, apple brown betty, pork & apple, apple crisp...etc. I have yet to start making a dent in our gi-normous pile of apples. Maybe I'll pawn some off on the group tonight because I'm hosting stitch-n-bitch. Apple slices and nutella anyone?

Is that a gourd in your pocket....


But the day didn't end with our lazy picknick on the farm (after which we all passed out in the grass from apple-picking exhaustion). Saturday night was a bowling birthday party at Strike - the swankiest bowling alley I've ever seen. Thankfully, they don't have a dress code unlike some pretenious establishments.

This is the hottest rooster I've ever seen:

Fall, Food, and Friends

That was quite possibly the best 3 day weekend I've had in a long time. It consisted of (here we go with another list):

• 2 roast chicken dinners (made by Erich and me)
• Sunday brunch at Asylum w/ our neighbor friends (who were victims of Chicken Dinner #1 the night before)
  
• a loaf of zucchini bread w/ some muffins thrown in for good measure - a surprise for Erich since he had class on Monday.
  
• a free rental at Blockbuster: Wag the Dog (inspired by this 'blunder' Fox made last week)
  
• my weekly bike-ride-to-Trade-Joes exercise routine
• and a started and finished finished Food & Friends scarf (my first one cuz I'm lame and apparently pretty stingy with my yarn)

EDIT: Just found this gem on You Tube: MSNBC coverage of Fox's completely accidental mistake

Part I in the "Things that Annoy Me" Series

This is the first installment in a new series that will serve as my soapbox for various neurotic tendencies I might have.
I'm going to begin by railing on a piece of our society that I particularly loathe:
The Mobile Billboard.



Have you seen this phenomenon? It's disgusting! I can handle an advertisement on the side of a truck that is actually transporting goods. But these mobile billboards are such a senseless waste of fuel!
There are people out there spending more than they want to on cars because they feel a hybrid is better for the environment. Others ride bikes to work, or take public transportation. Some people become recycling and composting gurus or participate in annual buy nothing day.
So how could the advertising executives who came up with the mobile billboard be proud of the contribution they're making to society? I'm not against the advertising industry per se (and I'll admit that there might be a few flaws in my argument) but when fuel costs are spiking and we have so much damning evidence about the negative impact of carbon emissions on the environment - how can a team of people pitch this kind of idea and then go home at night satisfied with their place in the world?

Am I being too harsh? Maybe I should mull this over a bit more.

*Off to turn on the AC because of this freak heat wave, but I'll have to leave the windows open for the breeze.

;)

A post to replace the last one

I should begin by saying that this I'm posting this now ONLY because E* complained that he's sick of looking at the other post every time he checks the blog. So if this post is less than stellar, I blame him because I wasn't really in the blogging mood just yet.

On to crafty business.

This past Sunday was the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair in Adams Morgan (my 'hood). I almost forgot about it until some thoughtful friends checked to see if I'd be meeting up with them. The theme of this year's festival seemed to be T-shirts - mainly silk screened with quirky sayings and an abundance of animal characters. While most of the wares were really stunning, a lot was out of my price range and/or items I'm not allowed to buy for awhile (bags and t-shirts). These kinds of fairs also tend to spark this kind of monologue in me: "Ooohh, pretty. I could totally make that! So I shouldn't buy it, cuz it'd be SO much cheaper if I made it. But....am I really going to find the time or patience to actually make it? Probably not. Argh." My cheapskate inner-self usually ends up beating my practical/pessimistic inner-self and I walk away from the booth hoping I'll remember the interesting technique that artist used so I can reproduce it later. Apparently, other people were much more excited about everything going on that day - so much so that they simply fell asleep, exhausted by the effort of haggling over handmade bibs and then bragging about it to their friends:


(this kid was out like a light. I didn't want to point the camera in his face and disturb the peace his mom was probably enjoying. hope no one called that phone and woke him up!)

2nd crafty note: I finished the Falling Leaves socks tonight! Most of my progress on the final sock happened at SnB yesterday after the Crafty Bastar-noon. The stretchy bind-off I experimented with for sock 1 worked again (switched to size 7 needles for the bind-off row) and aside from the HORRIBLY mis-matched toes, I'm pretty happy w/ these suckers.
BUT, I just saw that the pictures of the socks came out like crap, so instead you get to see this crazy bug that hung out on our window last week for a few hours. Hey, bug friends - is this a cicada?