I'll call him George*

I'm at the wonderful point in Wisp where I can wear it while knitting. If I could stay off the computer for 2 seconds I might actually have a shot at finishing it tonight.

Short post tonight. I'll leave you with a couple of photos, unrelated to the post's topic.

Our super-awesome new spoon rest.
Bought in Portland, ME on a weekend getaway.

Enjoying the chilly weekend in Portland.

*Qiviut/Silk: I shall hug him and squeeze him and call him George.

Home Stretch

I'm going to go ahead and shock knitters reading this: I think I'll probably finish my Wisp early! Yes, I realize the deep jink-potential in that statement. I'm embracing it in fact. I know I should know better than to make such a hubristic pronouncement (I am an avid reader of the Yarn Harlot after all). Oh well!

Good luck to all the other knitting olympians out there who have been staying up too late and contemplating calling in sick to work.

Last Olympic Appearance

While working the first few rows of Wisp during the opening ceremonies, I had a flashback to my last olympic project. It's both humbling and amusing to remember that at the time (2006), a pair of mittens was chosen as a challenging enough project for the endeavor. Looking back, I wouldn't exactly say that such a basic mitten pattern was that difficult for me. But because I'd never done socks, mittens, or gloves at that point nor did I have much of a record of finishing any project in a short time-frame, the idea of completing something in a new category under a deadline was enough to challenge me.

This year's project also doesn't strike me as particularly challenging, to be honest. But knowing how my work schedule has been these last few weeks, I think completing ANYTHING beyond a hat will be difficult. The primary challenge was, of course, finally using the qiviut. Second to that is working with lace-weight yarn. And third, finishing on time.

Current stats: 13.75" (35 cm). Satisfying squishiness and bunniness. A few set-backs when I k3tog by accident (it's tough to tell sometimes because the previous row's yo-k2tog make for 2 seemingly-overlapped stitches on the next row. And the tinking that resulted from those couple of hiccups was enough to convince me that I'd better get my act together - undoing this yarn is obnoxious. Tonight: Pairs free skate!

Wispy

What does it say about me that my first post in five months is because of the knitting olympics?

Actually, that line of thinking might not be too productive to spend any time on.

For now, this is just a placeholder until I get around to waxing poetic about my chosen project: Cheryl Niamath's Wisp using the infamous Qiviut yarn that Passionknitly gave me in 2006. I'd say the biggest challenge for me in this project is not so much the pattern, but the prospect of just using this yarn after being paralyzed by indecision for so long.

Happy knitting! And good luck to all the athletes.

Food of the moment

You know how you sometimes go through these food obsessions or phases where certain recipes are in constant rotation (maybe even despite protests from others in your household)? I didn't realize I did that much until I recently noted that I was whipping up the 3rd batch of white bean dip in 10 days. If you've been following this blog for awhile, you might remember a previous obsession: roasted chick peas. In fact, that post also refers to another previous obsession: sweet potato, sausage, and kale soup. I'm definitely looking forward to filling the freezer full of that soup very soon.

So here are my most recent food-fads:

• White bean dip: great northern or cannellini beans, roasted red pepper, lemon juice, minced garlic, salt, olive oil, crushed red pepper, and Moroccan spice blend (totally not essential, but I made some a few months ago and felt like it needed to be used up. Garam masala would work well too).
• Mushroom casserole: found the recipe here. My modifications: ~1/2 lb. ground turkey, 1 package cremini mushrooms, lowfat cream cheese, light sour cream, toasted pine nuts, mixture of wild rice, wheatberries, and brown rice, omitted tarragon, added 2 t. mustard powder, cheese is usually a mix of lowfat italian blend and shredded parm. I think I've made this 3 times since mid-August - the third time was so we could freeze single portions.
• Cole Slaw: I totally don't remember what sparked this. 1 package cole slaw mix, 2-3 grated carrots, rice wine vinegar, mayo (much less than most recipes call for)...and the key is toasted pumpkin seeds. These almost deserve to be their own bullet point. The only way I can eat these guilt-free is to sprinkle them liberally on the cole slaw. It's escaping me at the moment, but I think I'm missing one more ingredient on the slaw.

So there you have it. It won't be long before I'll have a new list of food obsessions to share with you.

5 Shows

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  I cannot wait for the next season to start. Not that we can actually watch a show when it's actually on. But FX.com works for me. And we're only a tiny bit ashamed that this show provides us so much enjoyment. Despite the questionable themes, as recently described by PrincessSara. Our favorite episode is Manhunter.
• Flight of the Conchords
  We got into this later than many others, but not that late so we still feel like we're part of a semi-exclusive club. Sometimes the musical interludes bore me, but not often and I like that they do things differently. I'll admit that the idea for even watching this show came from a coworker during a conference call who implied that some of our weekly calls sound a bit like the Flight of the Conchords band-meeting roll call.
• Weeds
  I think we discovered this show back when we had Showtime for free. That happened more than once in DC. Sometimes it gets a bit much with the constant stress, drugs, crime, etc. But there's always Kevin Nealon and the Andy character to keep it loose.
• Arrested Development
  I think I've mentioned before that this was a show that I essentially resisted for a very long time. I had watched one or two episodes and wasn't bowled over. Until enough friends said that it should be watched in order. So at some point, I finally did. And I saw the light. And we had a good run there for awhile, thanks to Hulu. What a blow when we realized there weren't anymore episodes left.
• Dead Like Me
  I've only been watching this show for a week (again, via hulu) thanks to a random update from a friend on facebook. I was looking for a show that would be easy to watch during erich's long evenings in the hospital. Only, it turns out he likes it too so it's now turned into a show we watch together. Damn our compatibility that results in overlapping tastes! Mandy Patinkin is quite good and the stories are amusing.
• Big Love
  I'm allowed to have a 6th here because Arrested Development isn't actually on anymore. And I haven't watched Big Love forever. It was another show discovered when we had HBO for free. It started because friends of ours who were into the Sopranos (3-4 yrs ago?) but didn't have HBO would watch it at our place on Sunday evenings. We hadn't been fans of the show beforehand, but we were fans of these friends so Sopranos was an excuse to see them. Then Big Love aired before Sopranos. I ended up liking it more and kept watching it via Netflix after our HBO free-ride ended. It's not really surprising how much I enjoy it given my attachment to TLC programs about families with lots of children or other 'strange' ways of living.

De-lurking on my own blog

I was just telling a friend that for the past few months, I've had a tough time aligning both motivation and time for this ole blog. The moments when motivation is high are usually extremely inconvenient - just as I'm drifting off to sleep, or in the middle of a bike ride for a series of errands, etc. Then when I have time, blogging isn't how I want to spend it.

I'm not sure if this is a phase or if, after 5 years of on and off posting (first on livejournal), I'm just no longer in need of this medium for expressing myself.

I'll just dabble with a few posts and see how it feels.

Things that make me happy these days:

My new city. Well, "cities" really. Living in Cambridge, working in Boston. I'm trying to make it a point to take little excursions whenever I can to quickly get acquainted with the area. Its working great so far, and it definitely distracts me from the fact that I don't have a regular network of friends up here.

• The candy factory in my neighborhood - I pass by it every morning and it smells delectable. Sometimes it smells like Thin Mints, though after reading about this division of Tootsie Roll Inc., I bet its probably Junior Mints I'm smelling.
• Knitting groups - on Tuesdays I hang out with a group right in my neighborhood who quickly made me feel at home. Less often, I join a group in JP who are equally welcome but are less conveniently located for me. Just like when I moved to DC 5 years ago, I'm enjoying the instant cameraderie that comes from joining a knitting group in a new city. I certainly miss my DC group though. Thankfully, I have to travel back there for work every so often so they haven't gotten rid of me completely yet.
• The MFA - well, I haven't actually been yet. But tonight is pay-what-you can night and the idea of that makes me happy. I was spoiled by all the free museums in DC, but with a little planning it seems like I won't go broke trying to visit the best of Boston's museums.

Water - let me count the ways.

• My commute involves riding over the Charles twice a day - gorgeous.
• We joined Community Boating to learn to sail and use their kayaks. I love grabbing a 1/2 hour or more after work in the kayak - such a relaxing stop off on my way home.

• Boston Harbor Islands - I took my first trip over to 2 of them last Sat. I checked out Spectacle and George's. It was such a wonderful solo field trip. All I did was enjoy the sun, walk all over the islands, and read my book. I'm hoping we can work in a camping trip to Bumpkin or Lovell islands soon.

• Esplanade - I love that my commute home involves several minutes along the Charles River Esplanade. (my to & from routes are different because of some one-way roads that make getting back to the Longfellow bridge too much of a challenge). Sometimes, I stop off at 'my dock' as soon as I cross Storrow and land on the Esplanade. I just park my bike and sit looking at the boats and clouds, musing over how lucky I am that I get to do just that. One of these days I'm hoping to stop off at the Hatch Shell for an evening concert or movie.

• And of course, the Ocean State. Living closer to family means I can pop down and join them on the boat every other weekend (when its not raining of course). E* can't join me in all these adventures sadly because his schedule is that of a typical intern - miserable.