A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (so why did I write so much?)

This past Christmas might have been my craftiest yet. I didn't quite realize that until after we were back in DC after our exotic stay in rhode island. While I didn't knit nearly as much as some of my friends, I managed to make a good number of the gifts. Unfortunately, I'm a bad blogger and didn't photograph all of the items so this, and the subsequent post in this series might be a little lame for those of you who only want to see pictures and don't like all the 'reading'.

But you're in luck, because first up, we have the photographic gifts. Having had such success last April when I gave my gram a framed shot of her favorite cherry blossoms, I decided to try my luck again by giving my dad a trio of monument photos for his home office. Because that room is my former bedroom, it suffers from a lack of masculinity and so far, no amount of techy gadgets and action DVDs seems to butch it up enough. I woke up extra early the last weekday before we flew home and spent an hour with my camera, the sunrise, and some humbling monuments. I have never seen the Vietnam Memorial or the Lincoln Memorial so empty. I wasn't there to photograph the Lincoln, but I rode by it on my bike on my way to the Korean War Memorial.
Here are the results, arranged the way they were hung on the wall.

It was particularly cute when, on Christmas Eve as Erich and I were assembling his mother's homemade gift, my dad remarked how nice it was that we were making it and how he is always so touched by homemade gifts. Score. He was indeed touched the next day when he opened his gift. Especially a few minutes later when Erich astutely realized something about my dad's reaction and told him that I had taken the pictures myself. Apparently my dad originally thought I had just purchased some interesting shots of the monuments and framed those as a gift.

Speaking of the gift for Erich's mom...
One of the things we gave her was a small album of mostly architectural shots of DC for inspiration for her pottery. She has a kiln and potter's wheel right in her house and spends many evenings throwing gorgeous bowls and assorted dishes. She asked several months ago if we might take some pictures of interesting architectural motifs in the city that could bring some outside inspiration to her pottery. That's easier said than done however since we don't usually have our cameras on us during commutes to work and errand-running. I therefore started jotting down building names and addresses whenever something caught my eye and lucky for me, the weekend before we flew to RI was gorgeous, blue-sky weather. I did a little bike tour of the city starting by Trader Joes at Foggy Bottom and ending up in Adams Morgan at an entrance to Rock Creek Park.



Finally, I also gave Erich a gift involveing photography, but in this case, it was his own. He took HUNDREDS of photos in Peru and never got around to printing them out or putting them in an album. He loves the album he put together a couple years ago of his service trip to Nicaragua. So I secretly orderd prints of the ~200 best Peru photos and tracked down a brown leather & suede album (it's hard to find manly looking photo albums!) in which to mount them, scrapbook style. I didn't include any captions because I really have no idea what the names of any of the sacred trail points are. But most of the challenge lay in trying to keep the whole thing a secret from him. Apparently I was successful because he seemed very surprised on Christmas morning. It's still a bit of a work in progress because the 2nd set of insert sleeves for the cardstock don't quite match the 1st set even though they're from the same brand and had identical labels on the packaging. So the 2nd half of the album sticks out a little more. Also, it would look better if a handful of the best photos were enlarged to 5 x 7 so he's going to pick some out and insert those pages later.

Still to come in this 2-part series: Knitting and Co.
Also, here's a tip on how to get out of Federal Jury Duty: make sure you work for an organization that fights for the same rights that are being contested in the case you're called to be a juror for. The opposing side usually doesn't like that too much and will probably make sure you're not selected so you can't brainwash the other jurors.

Grounds for a Rant

Ho hum. So much time has passed and as more and more people remind me that it's been ages since I posted, I get more and more intimidated by the prospect of trying to lump all of last month's news into a succinct post. But I refuse to let blogger intimidate me. I am not its slave - it is supposed to serve ME!
- end rant -

I was also reminded recently that I've only posted one entry in the Things-That-Annoy-Me Series. So here's another for you...

Travel Coffee Mugs
My 3 main complaints are:
1. they're hard to find
2. when I find them, they often are too large to fit in the car cup-holder thing
3. and they ALL seem to have metal pieces that make them unsafe for the microwave.

WTF!? I mean, I am slowly learning that my family is a little non-traditional in their obsession with the plastic travel coffee mug. I grew up thinking that everyone had at least 4 of these at home, that they were all microwave safe, and that they were the natural vessel for having coffee on the go. Regarding that last point, I regret to admit that the Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts/styrafoam throw-away coffee cup is probably the vessel of choice for most people who drink Joe on the go. Grr. However, wouldn't you agree that IF you are the type of person that prefers to brew your own and store it in a travel coffee mug, that you would ALSO need to be able to reheat the coffee in a microwave? Next time you're in the kitchen section of Target, take a look at their selection of travel coffee mugs - 90% have metal pieces!!!! This drives me nuts and Erich is sick of hearing me bitch about the lack of suitable mugs on the market. So I'm making you all suffer instead.
ugh! these have metal AND their base is too large for a car cup-holder. Double trouble.

And I know some of you might want to point out such stupid things as "well they're metal so that they insulate the coffee and keep it warmer longer" or "they have large bases so they don't tip over" - shove it! This is my soapbox and there's only room for one of us.

Oh, and Happy New Year! I'll go back to being warm and fuzzy shortly - then you can read all about our fabulous Christmas-in-Rhode-Island adventures. Here's a teaser: it included a chick from France, duckpin bowling, and karaoke.

The Count ... down*

1. Number of ankles I've sprained in the last 3 weeks. Having never broken or sprained anything before, I was really intrigued by the injury that whole week as evidenced by the numerous pictures I took to document the ever-changing bruising and swelling patterns. I will spare you those photos. Luckily I wasn't really ever in any pain. It's still a little swollen now but I've been told that's normal. And the trooper that I am, I hobbled to work after sustaining the injury (falling down the stairs in our building) simply because I had a job interview that afternoon...which I limped to in low heels.
   
   
2. People from my high school days came to visit in November. They took the Chinatown bus from Philly. It was an awesome weekend! Thankfully they'd already seen most of the monuments and good museums so we were free to find other interesting things to do like having falafel in Adams Morgan (yay Amsterdam), meeting up with 2 other friends from Philly who happened to be in DC as well, hanging out at our favorite bar: Adams Mill followed by a nostalgic visit to Milly & Al's (where we ran into ANOTHER person from our high school), and of course, brunch at Asylum.
   
   
3. is one of my favorite numbers (the other being 7).
   
   
4. days i spent in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving. For once it wasn't too hectic. This is my niece Rosaline. She stole the show from the turkey (who acted very bitter about the whole thing).
5. socks I've knit in a row. 2 pairs plus 1 that ended up being too big and had to be ripped out.
   
   
6. days since my most recent (and bestest) job interview. I don't kiss & tell about work stuff here, but I will say that it was for a research position with a nonprofit. It felt really good to finally walk out of an interview and not have any regrets about what I said (or forgot to say...).
   
   
7. types of beer that were featured in our informal beer tasting held the weekend that the Philly-friends were in town. Erich worked hard behind the scenes buying the right size glasses, researching the various types and the best examples of each beer-type, and even calling the American Homebrewer's Association to get some pointers. The Beer Tasting was supposed to go along w/ brewing a batch of Chocolate Cherry Porter, but once we realized how many people were coming and how much work it is to keep everyone's glass filled w/ the correct beer while explaining the intricacies of that style, the brewing had to be postponed to the following weekend.
   
   
8. (+5) people we crammed into our living room for the beer tasting. It was hot and crowded - perfect for beer drinking! That's a total of 13. I couldn't think of anything to go with 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12.

* MadameBovary reminded me that this is a count up not a count down. But seriously,who says "Count up"? And I refuse the change the order of the items to make it a count down. So there.

Autumn Overdue

I started this post almost 2 weeks ago. I'm so lazy I'm not even going to edit it before posting.
---------------------------

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?