Skating and music and knitting, oh my!

Yesterday out on the ice, I sucked! I got better, but the first time through practicing my program I was downright awful! I think it was the lack of warming up, plus I wanted to do well so of course I was bad. My coach commented that she knew I could do these things and that I just needed to relax.

Saturday I went and got my dress. I had looked at dresses online and noticed how crazy expensive they were. I figured I would look locally and see what I could get and then order online if I couldn't find anything. So my coach and classmates suggested that I go to a local store in Framingham. I did, and here's my dress. Except I got it in black. I had thought about getting one in a simmery black velvet, but they didn't have a style that I liked in that color.

But holy expensive, Batman! This was more than the ones I saw online. Well, more than the cheap ones I was considering. However, I know this fits and it was comfortable, so I guess it was worth the price. Now I just need to pick up some tights. And I think next week I'll start practicing in it.

Saturday while driving around I was flipping through radio stations and found a fun one. And Chris and I have now discovered a new favorite song. :) Ladybug, Ladybug, Ladybu-u-ug. Yes, it's a kids song. No, we don't care.

And in knitting news, I'm still working on a secret project, but it is almost done. However, I've taken a break and started on some legwarmers. I figure they could be good for skating. I just started them last night, so we'll see if I can finish them by the weekend or not. If I do, chances of me getting burned out are high. Last weekend I finished up my eggplant, pictured here. The pattern book used the alternate word, aubergine, which I love. I also love the word courgette.

Fun times

So last night as Chris was driving home, a cop pulled out behind him. And the cop was behind him for about a half mile or so, following him through lights and turns, etc. Then, two houses away from being home, the cop turns his lights on and pulls Chris over.

Cop: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Chris: Actually, I have no idea.
Cop: Your inspection sticker has expired.
Chris: I just got it inspected last week!
Cop: Oh, well my computer says it's expired. Maybe the records just didn't get updated yet.

The cop even got out his flashlight and looked at the sticker. Luckily not too closely as he did, indeed, have an expired sticker. However, Chris did bring it in for service a week ago and he paid for an inspection. He just never received that inspection. Fun times.

Competition Time

For probably about a year now, my skating teacher and other classmates have been saying that I should learn a program. Learning a program is no fun by itself, so this means having a place to perform said program. And on Saturday my teacher told me about a competition the second weekend in March. So I said ok, I'll do it. When do you want me for a private lesson? How about tomorrow at 11? Ok. So yesterday I had my first private lesson. And today I hurt. It wasn't really anything new, but it was the intensity. By the end I couldn't do it anymore. My legs weren't supporting me. Only six weeks to get ready. Hope I can do this!

And I'm very quickly realizing why I put this off so long. It's expensive! $40 registration fee for the competition. Not too bad. But then there's the costume. No clue how much that will end up being, but they're not cheap. $15 for ice time for practice, plus another $30 for each private lesson. And I don't know if I'll need those weekly or if I can spread them out a bit. I also should probably try to find some mid-week time to practice, as it doesn't really make much sense to just skate on Saturdays and Sundays.

What's amazing to me about all of this is how much I've learned and improved in the two years that I've been skating. I remember in my second class I started crying because I was so stressed and frustrated and feeling as if I couldn't do anything. I just hope I don't suck too horribly come competition day.

(The photo is from January 2008, about a month or two after I started lessons.)

Spring, Hurry up and get here. Please.

Earlier this week we had a "warm" spell. It was in the 40s. Glorious! The warmer temperatures, combined with some rain, and the foot or so of snow on the ground mostly all melted away. I knew it was too good to last.

As I write this, snow is starting to fall outside my window. There are a number of things that I'd like to get done outside at home, but it's always dark, too cold, or everything is covered in snow. Blech. And I continue to have spring fever.

Even though I know it won't truly warm up for 3-4 more months I've started to plan my garden. I've run into issues in the past where I've put it off and things I've wanted to order have been sold out. So over the past couple of weeks (inspired by some emails I've received) I planned out my garden and placed a number of orders. We still have work to do prepping the ground (building beds, etc) but all of the plants and seeds have been ordered. And according to UPS tracking, the seeds should be coming to my house today.

I've ordered tomato, asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberry plants and lots of seeds-
Petunias
Nasturtium
Cosmos
Four o'clocks (never heard of these before, but they looked pretty)
Cilantro
Basil
Parsley
Mesclun mix
Broccoli
Sweet peppers
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Beans
Scallions
Carrots
Corn

Wow, that's a lot of stuff! And most of it will go into 4 4x4 foot beds. The asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb will be going into a larger bed along the porch. And the flowers- haven't really decided. A few here, a few there. And maybe some of the herbs will end up in pots as well. All I know if I've got my work cut out for me with seed starting. Hopefully I'll have better luck than I've had in the past.

Thoughts on a Thursday

Today's post is all about knitting. As many of them have been lately. I don't really understand why I'm so much into knitting all of a sudden, but it all started right after Christmas when I saw a knitting calendar with a pattern for cookies. Then that led to the penguin hat also in the calendar. And I wanted to make something to give along with the hat, which led to the monster booties (and another secret project). And along the way there were vegetables and fingerless gloves. And my latest internet addiction- Ravelry. This led to elf slippers and the desire to order lots and lots of yarn. Yup. I have a problem.

My scrapping, however, has been sorely neglected. I still have a couple of layouts to do for my 2008 album. Plus their are the 2008 vacation (Acadia) and Christmas albums. For 2009, I think I've only done 2 or 3 layouts. So not only is there the normal album, but there's also the England album. And although I did start it, I never did finish the 2009 Cookie Baking cookbook. Yup. I'm rather behind. With little chance of being caught up. Blech.

We have company coming on Saturday which means that the rest of the week needs to be spent cleaning and getting ready for that. But all I want to do is go home and finish knitting an eggplant.

Busy weekend

This weekend's knitting projects included these elf slippers, making cases for my double pointed needles, and starting to make a bunch of grapes.

I found the pattern for the slippers on Ravelry on Friday, bought the yarn on Saturday, and finished them up Sunday evening. Kind of funny because earlier in the week I had been discussing slippers with someone at work and we mentioned elf slippers. So I think these will have to go in to work when they are done. And there was some leftover yarn that I figured was grape colored, so I started to make some fruit.

I went with a pattern that I had for Halloween eyeballs and used that for my first grape. It turned out a bit large, so I left out an increase and a few extra rows and I think the smaller size will be fine. Then I made the stem out of some yarn leftover from Tucker. I have 7 more grapes to make for this bunch, but I think it may be part of an even larger bunch of grapes. That will have to wait to see.

And for the knitting needle cases, I started them a few weeks ago. Actually, the project is even older than that. I think it was last spring when I decided that I wanted to make the cases. But this afternoon I finished them up. Sorry, no picture to share of those.

Hello, Pink.

Finished up my fingerless gloves over the weekend. I think I should have made them a size smaller. they seem a little baggy. However, they also fit well over bulky clothes, so maybe it was the right size. Maybe it's just a yarn without a lot of elasticity. The photo of my left hand looks a little wonky, but that's just because of my sweatshirt sleeve and my watch underneath the glove.

And they are working. My finger tips are sometimes still a little chilly, but in general I am feeling that they are a lot warmer. And my hands are ALWAYS cold!

Someone at work saw them today and commented that it they weren't pink they might look somewhat Austen-ish. Or maybe he said Dickensian. Either way, they kind of fit into those periods.

Blech

I need to learn to read knitting patterns better. I have a project I'm currently working on, and I keep messing up. My most recent mistake was following the directions for a Medium size, when, in fact, I'm making a large. No wonder it seemed wrong. Guess tonight I'll have to rip out a section and get that fixed. And this isn't the first time I've made a similar mistake. At least I'm getting practice with picking up a row of stitches.

Weekend recap

Chris and I went to the Museum of Science on Saturday. We went for the Harry Potter exhibit. I didn't think I would be that impressed by it, but I loved seeing all of the costumes and seeing the details of them.

We also looked around the rest of the museum. Well, not all of the museum, because it's huge. And I saw this sign. Obviously it humored me, since I pulled out my camera in the ladies room.

In knitting news, I finished up my fingerless gloves. Need to get a picture of them. Not really all that special, but useful since my hands get chilly.

I also put a number of my past projects up on Ravelry.

Derby Planning, already?

I'm not entirely sure why, but today I seem to have the Pinewood Derby on my brain. I guess it started out when I was browsing a baking website and I started to look at their chocolate molds to find car designs. And then I started thinking about decorations so I went to Oriental Trading. And then since I was looking at all this other Derby stuff, I may as well go ahead and order the trophies.

So we don't even have a date for the Derby, but the trophies are ordered. (I went with a slightly different design this year. Sent 2 pics to Chris and let him choose.) For now, I resisted ordering other things. But I've found that if I wait too long the racecar stuff will sell out at Oriental Trading.

Back before Christmas the Georgia family members were asking us when the Derby would be. We don't know. We still don't know. I understand their reasoning for asking- they want to come up to visit and need to request time off at work and they want to come for the Derby. I think that's great that they want to be here for the Derby, but our brains can't plan a party like this 6-8 months in advance! Even picking a date 3-4 months in advance seems super early to me.

But for those who must know, I'm kind of leaning towards early August. Or possibly late June. Two very different times, but that's what's going through my brain these days.

Took a break from a longer knitting project last night to start another. Initially I was just planning to look at what yarns I would need to buy for a couple of projects. But then I remembered one that I had already that I thought might work fora project. So I started knitting fingerless gloves. This is key because my hands get really cold. Especially in my craft room where my only source of warmth is a space heater, which doesn't get turned on until I get home from work. If I'm lucky, they'll knit up quickly.

Also got a couple of gifts boxed up and ready to mail. I had meant to take better pictures of them, but I forgot. I guess I'll have to ask the recipient to do that for me. At least that way they can be modeled, which is even better.

Yum

Over the weekend we were in Target and I tried out Burt's Bees Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme. since it was so cold out, when we left, I put my gloves on. Now, whenever I put my gloves on, I smell honey. Love that!

House decorating

Back in either late November or early December I decided that I wanted to make a gingerbread house. I figured this would be a fun activity to share with our friends. Well due to scheduling, we couldn't get together until this past Saturday. So we decorated houses and then had a re-gift Yankee Swap.

It's funny, because when we had the supplies on our counter in the kitchen it didn't look like we had all that much. So we asked people to bring some candy to share. Wow, when it all was on the table, it was apparent that we had more than enough!

To allow time for the houses to set up before decorating, Chris and I made the basic house shape in advance. And we used graham crackers since I figured it would be easier than baking enough gingerbread to make 17 houses. So we started putting them together on Friday night. And we soon discovered that two boxes of graham crackers weren't enough, so we finished them up on Saturday morning after a trip to the grocery store. And in the end, 2 people were unable to make it, which was probably a good thing as the house was pretty full with 15 people (6 of them being kids).

We started off the evening with dinner. I think in Chris' and my minds we were thinking we would start with decorating and people could eat whenever, but as it turned out, we ate and then decorated. Back at the end of December I had come across this recipe for mini ham and cheese sandwiches. I thought they sounded good, but was also somewhat skeptical. But we gave them a try, and they were delicious! A little greasy/buttery, but very good. We knew those wouldn't be enough, so we also had salad and pizza. We recently discovered the BEST pizza ever. Papa John's BBQ Chicken with Bacon. Amazing! Normally it comes with onions, but we have a number of non-onion people, so we got it without. Still very good. That pizza went quickly.

For one family, this was their first time coming to one of our game nights. They commented that they found it amusing that we essentially hosted a kids' party when we don't have kids. Hey, we like to do fun "kids" activities. :) Besides, I've found that sometimes it's better to include the kids if not having them there would mean that the parents are unable to come due to lack of babysitters, etc. So the kids come and they run around the house, play games, watch movies, etc.

And it's not like we ignore the kids. Kristin was the first of the adults to finish decorating her house. Probably because she wasn't busy helping the kids with theirs. So when she was done she started playing with the kids. It seems their game was to all hold onto her legs as she tried to walk.

We rounded out the evening with a Yankee Swap. For the most part it was a re-gift Yankee Swap, but I think there were a couple of items purchased especially for the event. I think one of the "best" gifts was a small glass plate etched with an image of The Last Supper. But the best part of it was when Caitlyn referred to it as "Thanksgiving". Her mom then responded that she thought they needed to get to church a little more often.

So to wrap this up, here are some more pictures of the houses.

A little of this, a little of that

I guess I'm just not meant to blog all that frequently. I'd like to get back into it, but I seem to lack topics to blog about. And this post is all over the place as I play catch-up with everything.

I took some vacation days and was off of work from Christmas Eve until yesterday. It's a bit of a shock to the system to get back into things. While I was off I did a whole lot of nothing. And I loved it!

I watched a lot of movies and some TV shows. Serenity, A Knight's Tale, (yes, we started with an Alan Tudyk theme) Troy, There Will be Blood, Four Christmases, Nobel Son, Surviving Christmas, Lost in Austen, Dangerous Beauty, Picture Perfect, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Harry Potter 1-6, the final episode from season one and the pilot of Dollhouse, and Buffy, season one and 15 episodes of season two. Plus we went out and saw Sherlock Holmes. Our Netflix account definitely got a workout!!!

I knit. And I knit some more. (Basically I spent my time knitting and watching movies.) This included 2 chocolate chip cookies, an oreo, a sugar cookie, and a peanut blossom, all on a plate and with a matching mug of milk. To combat that sugar, I made 2 sugar snap peas- one with a closed pod and the other pod open with 3 peas in it. (Not sure why the pattern for the open pod is about half the size of the closed pod.) Then for clothes I made a quick black and white hat and then have started a couple of other projects.

I bought new ice skates and Chris even humored me and went to the rink with me one day. Although he won't readily admit it, I think he had fun. He didn't fall and was actually skating away from the wall for a while. If only they actually sharpened rental skates, he might have done even better.

Had a scrap night with Kelly. I had grand ambitions of working on my Acadia album from when we were there in 2008. Instead I spent the night helping Kelly with her album. And we got 12 pages done, finishing up DJ's first year of life!

In other Christmas relatedness....

I was a little late getting the decorations up, but about halfway through the month things finally got spruced up. Due to various other scheduling I imagine decorations will be up through the end of January.

We had survived Cookie Baking. We cut back the number of recipes and stretched it over the weekend. We also did gifts over the weekend, thus eliminating the need to schedule another event. I still need to finish making the cookbook.

On Christmas Day, Mom came over and we had a nice meal, gifts, etc. Then that evening we went and saw Sherlock Holmes.

Coming up... on Saturday we're having friends over to make gingerbread houses and do a re-gift Yankee Swap.

Coming up.... Jan 30th getting together with my mom's extended family for our "Christmas" gathering. A turducken is in my future...

Other December activities included a Lost and Found concert. Hard to believe that I've been following them around for 16 years now! Michael (frizzy hair on my right) and his wife had a baby recently so I gave him a little sweater that I had knit. When George had his girls they got dresses, so it was only fair. Plus it was a sweater I had originally planned for a baby boy I know, but it ended up looking too girly.

We shoveled snow a couple of times. And then when we came back from Cookie Baking to 8 inches of snow in the driveway, our next door neighbor asked us if we wanted the number of his plow guy. Um, yes, please. He's now saved in my phone as "plow guy". :) While waiting for the plow guy I looked out the window and saw this fabulous sunset. (The snow picture is from our commute in to work earlier in December.)

In other news, I got new glasses. Not very exciting, but in mid-December I realized I had about $400 left in my FSA. Since it's a use it or loose it kind of thing, I figured since I hated my old glasses, this would be a good way to use up the money. Hopefully these will stay on my head better than my old glasses.
What was weird though, is when I went in to pick out my frames, the saleswoman remembered my name. I hadn't been there since the summer! She said she remembered the fun colors of my hair.

And at the beginning of December Chris once again had a table at Good Shepherd's Craft Faire. Pictured here is only about half of his inventory. He's done really well this year, especially with his Etsy store.

Halloween Festivities

So there's this blog that I follow called Cake Wrecks. And on this blog, they feature things like this cookie creation. We had a Halloween Party at work (more on that later) and someone brought in this cookie for the party. As soon as I saw the inscription, I immediately thought of Cake Wrecks. It's not too wrecky, but the Wreckorator does need a spelling lesson.


On the home front, the ApotheSCARY is back in action, this time in our front hall. Many of the bottles still haven't gotten labels. Guess people will just need to use their imagination to decide what's in them.



Also at home I had my glass pumpkins and some candles set out on the bookcases in the "library/office" area. It's really just this odd space between the front entry and the rest of the house where we've got a few bookcases and Chris has his computer desk. Anyway, I thought it was a good space for this display, although it is a little crowded.

The final area to decorate was the windowsill in the dining room. I had thought about putting things out on the sideboard like I normally do, but thought this was a more visible spot. It has my ghosts, a few more candles, and some items that I got from a swap last year. I had my witch mobile hanging from the ceiling fan in the dining room.


Since I had the ApotheSCARY set up at home, I wasn't sure what to bring to decorate at work. And did I even want to decorate at work? It was kind of expected of me since I still had the brick wall set up from last year's display, but what should I bring in? In the end, I brought in a large skeleton and some fake gravestones and had those set up. Not too exciting, but it also didn't take a lot of effort or creative thought (which I was lacking).


So more about work.... We had a Halloween party again this year, which I planned. We decided not to have a cube decorating contest again since so few people had participated last year. This actually was good for me since I was out of ideas.

Instead, we just had a costume contest. However, we did add a new category this year. For individual costumes we had winners for Best, Scariest, Funniest, and Most Original. And we added the new category of Best Group Costume. I was wondering how many groups would get into this and was happy to see that 3 groups participated (ranging from 3, and 4 participants, to a 12 person group).

The party itself was pretty easy to plan. Put together some invitations and posters, send out calendar invites, contact the cafe for food... Then on Friday run to Costco for beer and a few other food items, set up, and Party!





I actually ended up with two costumes. I wanted to wear my Ren Faire dress for the party and I wanted to wear a costume all day. However, I knew it wasn't practical to wear it all day. But then I decided to wear a costume for skating on Saturday, so got a cat costume. Perfect to wear for work! So I started off in a cat costume, and then changed just before the party. I had thought about just wearing the ears and tail with normal clothes, but then decided to go with the leotard, tights, and dance skirt. And jacket. A "must" since the leotard was a little skimpy.


The winners for costumes were: Me for Best, Jeremy as Dracula for Scariest, Chris as a Spelling Bee for Funniest, and Linda as "Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain". I don't have a picture of her costume, but it was a blue shirt with cotton ball clouds and she walked around with a squirt bottle spraying "rain".



The Best Group Costume was the Legal department as The Wizard of Oz.

Another fun costume was "Smarty Pants". And I got a shot of everyone from Marketing who was in costume- Flavor Flav, me, a cop, an escaped convict, and a hotdog.

As to Halloween itself, as I mentioned, since it was Saturday and I had skating, I dressed in a cat costume. I then wore my costume for various errands. But then in the afternoon I was exhausted I lay down for a nap. I ended up sleeping for 4 hours and woke up at 8:30. Chris hadn't turned on the outside light, so we never did get any kids at our house. :( How disappointing that I slept through Halloween!