Knitting Update

So.... trying desperately not to jinx the Scottish Sweater again, but I think it's going well. I've done the body and neck-banding, so all I have left is the sleeves. And I have tried it on Mom and we like how it's fitting much better than before. So, FINGERS CROSSED, nothing messes up here as I finish it. (Yay for neck-down sweaters that need no seaming!)

I also churned out a headband for my grandmother and learned how to cable in the process (not that cabling is all that hard, I just had never done it before). The below picture is of the original design stolen from Half-Assed Knits (a great blog), not the one I made because my camera is hating life in general and me in specific [tear]. But I promise once I get it fixed, I will update all the photos of my knitting projects.

I've also cast on for the best tea cozy ever: Pink Elephant by Saltwater Purls! Woot! Why a tea cozy you may ask, well... [begin shameless plug here] In August, KnitWits is having a special event that we are calling Tea Cozies for a Cure. We are auctioning off donated tea cozies, with the proceeds going to the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The tea cozies will be on display during the first two weeks of August, and on the 15th, the auction will be finalized (the winner gets a gift certificate to the store), and there will be voting for Best in Show categories. And what is a KnitWits party without food and fun? So if you find yourself antsy for a new and different project, wanting to help out a great charity, or wanting some excitement, be sure to join our Tea Cozy extravaganza! There will also be a tea party for all those who donated a cozy after all the hoopla is over. [end plug]

I also cleaned up the yarn heap in the family room this holiday weekend (I've taken over an end of the couch, one end table, and a folding TV tray, as well as losing a battle to not take over the coffee table), and I made myself a list of all the specific projects I have in mind. That includes things I have on needle as well as projects I have already bought the yarn but not yet cast on. It was a little scary how fast my brain moves compared to my fingers! But in my defense, I am about to move from a city with 6 yarn shops to a smaller city that has only 2. So I tell myself that I am stocking up against a soon-to-be-forthcoming yarn drought. Spending money now (especially when I have an employee discount) will average out when I don't buy yarn for a while. [innocent halo]

MOVIE REVIEW: The Jane Austen Book Club

One of Mom's Netflixes that we watched the other week. Super cute! I was expecting something a little more chick-flickery (not to say that I would make my boyfriend watch it- it is pretty mushy), but was pleasantly surprised when it was a good time.

Imdb.com's summary:

Sylvia's husband dumps her for another woman, so Bernadette and Jocelyn organize a book club to distract her. They recruit Sylvia's daughter Allegra; Prudie, a young teacher whose marriage may be on the rocks; and Grigg (a/n: SO CUTE!), a sci-fi fan who joins out of attraction to Jocelyn. The six read and discuss one Austen novel per month. Jocelyn tries to interest Grigg in Sylvia; Allegra falls in love with a woman she meets skydiving; Prudie contemplates an affair with a student; Sylvia's ex keeps popping up. In the discussions, characters reveal themselves in their comments.

I think the main thing was that everything ended all happily, much like how 'Jane' would have done it herself. :P Prudie is a bit of a snobby mean-name, but by the end she sees how bad she is and turns around; characters who should get together do; and characters who should break up do so as well (I don't want to spoil any endings too badly).

You don't need to know the books really well to enjoy the movie, though I am sure it helps. Personally, I've practically memorized A&E's miniseries of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth (mmmm.... Firthy goodness as Mr Darcy...) but truth be told, I've only read Emma, and I am clueless about the other four books (Mansfield Park, Northanger Abby, Sense & Sensibility, and Persuasion). Apparently, reading Persuasion (according to the movie) heals all relationship woes. Behold, the power of Austen! :)

The best part, beside the wrap-it-all-up happy ending, was Grigg's contribution to one discussion. I forget which book they were discussion, but when directly asked to participate (he stays quiet when the women go ranting about Austen), he goes on this thesis about the "Reverse Star Wars" relationship between the main characters; that is, once made aware of the relationship between them, they more avidly continued their romantic interests in each other, instead of getting creeped out like Luke and Leia did. His diatribe lasts a few minutes, then he looks around at all the ladies and meekly asks if anyone else noticed it; they are all staring at him like he's crazy. He also bought the bound-together full works of Austen, because he thought they were all sequels, and he wanted to keep them together. He looks very confused when the ladies announce they are "starting in the middle" according to his collection. :) Grigg may be the saving point of the moving for me, but who knows, I like Steel Magnolias and there are no cute menfolk in that one. However, Grigg is supercute both in looks and his sci-fi reading geekiness.

All around score for this one would have to be at least a 4 out of 5. I wouldn't feel over-generous giving it a 5 out of 5, either. The characters are well-rounded (even snobby Prudie changes her ways), the dialogue clever, and the ending happy. What more do you need?

In Memoriam

If you read Lara's blog, then you already know that we recently suffered a death in the family, our great-uncle on Dad's side. Needless to say, he will be missed.

Uncle Bud was very special to the family. He never married (he said he grew up with three older sisters telling him what to do, why would he add a wife to that?) but he loved his nephews and niece and spoiled them, and us as well when the next generation came along. I remember he always treated us like adults and made sure to include us in what was going on, which was usually an active game of mah jong.

He loved to travel and enjoy gourmet foods, but not in a snobby way. Uncle Bud wanted to share his interests with those close to him. He took his sisters around the world, and he always had special desserts for us when we came to visit. I will always have the memory of my mother sitting at the breakfast table, reading the morning paper, eating tiramisu straight out of a huge pan. Lara and I weren't too fond of tiramisu (not that Mom would have readily shared HER tiramisu) so Uncle Bud would make a batch of chocolate Bavarian creme for us and put it in fancy glasses. The fancy glasses were key to middle school girls; that's how I knew he put in extra effort just for us.

I guess the way to sum up Uncle Bud is with a memory of my Dad's memory: Years ago, somehow we got to talking about heights of the family (Grandpa was 6ft tall, Grandma is 5ft tall, and their children range everywhere in between), and Dad said Bud was six feet tall as well. We looked at him like he was crazy, because Uncle Bud is distinctly shorter than Grandpa, yet Dad insisted that Bud was tall. He took it so far as to call his mother and ask her how tall Uncle Bud was. She replied incredulously that he was maybe 5'6" or 5'8" ... definitely NOT 6'. I don't think Dad ever believed her; in his mind, his uncle was larger than life and had to be a giant in stature as well. :)

Mom and I just got back from the burial in Florida; it was just family as Bud wanted. A sad reason for everyone to gather, but a good time reminiscing and sharing memories. We ate, we laughed, we enjoyed each other's company -- Bud would have approved. So to share what he loved, here's some of his favorite recipes (not his exact ones, because he was always "tweaking" but these are recommended):


MILK-CHOCOLATE BAVARIAN CREAM

1/2 c. sugar
1 env. unflavored gelatin
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 c. milk
4 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 c. (6 oz.) milk-chocolate pieces (reserve a few for decoration)
1 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Sweetened whipped cream for decoration

Blend sugar, gelatin, salt, milk, egg yolks and milk-chocolate pieces well in top of a double boiler. Cook over simmering water, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and chocolate pieces are completely melted and blended into the mixture. Chill until the mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon. Whip the cream and vanilla together until stiff. Fold whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Spoon into an oiled 4 cup mold. Chill several hours or overnight before serving. Decorate with sweetened whipped cream and reserved chocolate pieces.
Makes 6 servings.


TIRAMISU

1 2/3 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 1/2 pkgs cream cheese (250 g. each)
1/2 litre (about 2 cups) whipped whipping cream
2 teaspoons Kahlua
2 pkgs lady fingers
espresso
shredded chocolate (to garnish)

Mix together sugar and egg yolks. Cut cream cheese into small pieces, and whip into sugar/egg yolk mixture. Add whipped whipping cream, and Kahlua with electric mixer. Use an entire mini bottle of Kahlua (less if you prefer).

Soak lady fingers in espresso, and line the bottom of a 9x13" pan with half of them. Spread 1/2 the cream cheese mixture over the top, and repeat layers until all mixture is used up.
Cover top of cheesecake with shredded chocolate. Refrigerate 4 - 6 hours, then serve.

For lower fat, substitute angel food cake for the lady fingers, and use low fat Cool Whip. Decaf coffee may be substituted for a caffeine-free version.

The Scottish Sweater

Yes, you heard me. The Scottish Sweater... a la "Shakespeare's Scottish Play." Named such not for any reason having to deal with Scottish wool or pattern, but because of what I believe to be a fairly strong jinx upon the making of said sweater. It seems that this sweater is not meant to be made. At least not by me.



This was supposed to be a nice sweater for Mom. Basic neck-down pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple & cotton yarn from Blue Heron (not the texture of what is pictured, but that is close to the color we chose). Blue Heron is gorgeous, but uber-expensive, so Mom got the yarn for Christmas and I was to knit up the sweater by her birthday in May. Not that hard a task, right? Not that hard when you aren't jinxed, I should say!


There were warning signs that I was not meant to make this sweater from the start. First, the yarn needed to be held double, so I went ahead and wound it into one mega skein... with jacked up tension, so one strand is about three yards longer than the other at the end. Not that big a deal, I had like 100 yards extra, so I ignored that.

Then, I had to frog the start of it a couple times because I am a moron who doesn't match gauge of yarn to gauge of pattern, I just do a conversion as I knit. I fudged it up, in other words, because I measured gauge at the start and got 5 st/in. Then I kept knitting and got 6 st/in. But I was undaunted because this was back in January or February and I had only made it down to under the armpits before I had to pull it all out. I restarted with new gauge of 6 st/in, but have been distracted recently with other projects and it has sat in the corner for a while.

So I pick it up at the beginning of this week, as Mom's birthday is about two weeks away and I want to make sure it's the proper length for her liking. We try it on, only to realize that it's super huge because 1) I was rounding up in size to fit her taste, and 2) she has lost weight since January! Darn her for getting in shape and being healthy! So now I get to rip out a LOT. :( I was almost done, but I refuse to make things for people that they won't like. I will gladly sweat-shop myself for you, but you need to wear it now and again. To that end, I try to make things fit really well, so the recipient isn't stuck with something that is misshapen.

After about 50minutes of ripping out, I was ready to start over. Mom and I agreed to go with the smaller size, and I was excited because I had about two weeks to do up this sweater. Whoo, speed knitting! So for the last two days I've knit my fingers stiff, and I am back at the underarm part where the sleeves are separated and you continue on with the body... and guess what? I measure gauge again to check how big it is and I'm not really knitting 6 st/in, but more like 5.5 st/in! dammit!! Now you may wonder what the big deal is, half a stitch per inch, but over 200 stitches it makes a huge difference. Let's do the math:

37" around x 6 st/in = 222 stitches

but if you have 222 stitches and your gauge is really 5.5 st/in, you suddenly have a 40" sweater! That makes a difference when someone wants to actually wear the sweater.

So, because I know myself, I'm going to put down the infernal Scottish Sweater before I throw it out into the road and light it on fire (the yarn is too pretty and expensive). I will take a deep breath and try to salvage what I can ... starting no earlier than after dinner tonight. I think we need some time apart before I tackle this again. HOPEFULLY, one of these tries I will get it right and Momma can have her sweater (She's already chosen two more that are back-ordered).


Pray for me, dear readers, and let me get this damn sweater finished!

J is for ...

J is for John, the best boyfriend ever! ... 'Nuff said.

Us in front of the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Dec 2007

Garage Sale = Success!

I think the title says it all, but Saturday's garage sale was a rousing success. My main goal was to clear out the house of various and sundry things, and maybe get a little money for them in return. (I'm not sure what Mom was planning, but that's what I wanted to accomplish.) To this end, I set a fairly low monetary goal for us to reach to call the day a success, but to my surprise, we totally blew it out of the water. Like 2.5 times what I was expecting! And there were at least two other yard sales going on that morning in our immediate neighborhood. Whoo! Go us.

The main success, I think, or at least what made me so happy was the truck-load (literally) of stuff we took from the garage sale and donated to Goodwill. Yay! Stuff left our house en mass. And another thing in the Win column was one guy who came buy bought a bunch of the nicer 45's that we had out. He left his card with us, saying he was interested in any more records we have that were still in good condition. So yay! A place we can sell the hundreds of records we have sitting around the house & garage.

John came down for the weekend, so he helped us out be hefting a toting things outside so we could set up tables and such and organize them (Have I said how much I love him? He is so handy to have around) Then he topped it off by making a Chikafil breakfast run for us! I'm telling you, he's a perfect package, no exaggeration.

Too funny

In the vein of the lolcats, here is some lolVogue, courtesy of Saltwater Purls. I have no idea where she found it originally, but I guffawed out loud when I saw it.

What the hell, here's some others that are too funny as well:

(I thought it was Jazz Hands)

You only get green beans for dinner!

MOVIE REVIEW: China Strike Force

This recent Netflix movie was a little bit hit ... and a little bit miss. Here's the plot synopsis they give:

From ace action director Stanley Tong comes this explosive action techno-thriller starring Aaron Kwok and popular U.S. stars Mark Dacascos and Coolio. When the elite crime fighting unit Team 808 recruits top Chinese security officer Darren (Kwok) to hunt down a large international drug cartel, he is assisted by the beautiful Japanese Security Officer Noriko. Together, they take on the deadly smugglers (Dacascos & Coolio).

While I am a fan of the genre (I love bad action movies!), this fell a bit short overall. First, the dialogue was definitely a distraction. I know action movies aren't know for their witty repartee or deep conversations, this script was noticeably substandard. I had the closed-captioning on almost the whole movie because I thought it was a dubbed movie, the delivery of the dialogue was so bad! Mark Dacascos (happy happy sexy man) and Coolio are American-born, so their English was fine, but I think we imported a lot of Chinese actors who weren't so fluent for every other role. (I really did think it was a bad dub) I must say that presentation is a big part of a movie for me; while I am forgiving of many things so I can enjoy a bad action flick, I can't stand it when everyone sounds like "Me Tarzan, You Jane."

Second, the plot is nothing new, but then again, when did plot really matter in movies like this one? "Some bad guys are doing something bad and some cops have to stop them." Whoo! I just described probably 90% of all action movies everywhere. What I think was funny was the casting of two Hong Kong actors as the good guys vs. the Americans as the baddies. It was a weird juxtapose, as the bad guys seemed more coherent and realistic with their mastery of the English language. The two cops were very stilted and stereotypical.

Now on to the good. Favorite scene: Mark Dacascos and his bare bum in the bath house. whoo whoo! mmm mmm good! ...OK, now on to being rational and objective. The fight scenes and stunts were pretty bad-ass. Aaron Kwok and Mark Dacascos fight it out in the end, which was a whole lot of round-house kicks to the face. Though, being Asian, Kwok had to do a lot more jumping to reach Dacascos's head. :) The stunts where shiny, but some were also unbelievable: the final fight scene is on top of a skyscraper because the helicopter ran into it and knocked everyone out. But the whole time I was thinking, why didn't the helicopter go around the damn building when it became apparent that it couldn't go over it? Because then the characters would not have been thrown from the helicopter and thus no final fight scene on top of the building, duh. (Also, the chopper explodes for no apparent reason other than to spice up the scene. I like explosions, but I need a reason for something to burst into flames).

If you choose to while away a few hours with this bit of fluff, be sure to watch the credits long enough for the bloopers. I love bloopers for action movies! There was the usual fare of jumps landing badly and kicks missing target and not being in place for a scene, but by far my favorites were much more casual (and less death-defying, for sure). First, the police chief is lecturing the two cops in his office and he has a cup of alka-seltzer on his desk... which overflows and ruins his sense of authority and the whole moment. :) My other favorite was with Mark Dacascos trying to catch a disk thrown his way in the bath scene. He misses the thing so many times, it borders in ineptitude. One toss even goes way over his head and he lunges out of the water trying to catch it. And all the time Coolio is sitting next to him, in character, never changing expression.


Because of it's genre, I feel I have to qualify a rating of the movie. Grouped with all movies, it was pretty bad; maybe only one star max. But when compared to just action movies, I feel that it was just under average. I have definitely seen better (Die Hard) but I have also seen much worse (Street Fighter). I guess I would put it under the category, "I definitely won't own it, probably won't watch it again, but I don't feel I wasted my life by watching it."

----- SPOILER -----

Don't get attached to too many of the good guys; Hong Kong movies have no issue with killing them off... even if it's the day after they get engaged and the scene where they ramble on about wanting a big family.

Yay Us!

Mom and I were so good this weekend; I am very proud of us. We spent Saturday fixing, mending, and organizing cave gear (yes, it does take about a week to go through all the washing of gear; it's all very dirty). I finished putting the ripstop nylon patches in my new fitting coveralls, and I dropped the waist on my new long john pants (some pairs I could literally pull the waistband up over my boobs... waaaay to high for me). Then, Mom wanted me to do some mending of her gear, so I fixed her long john pants, too (too-tight ankle cuffs), and made her some fleece vests. It's always good to have a warm vest or something to put on in a cave in case you/ someone else gets chilled. The secret to speleo-temperature management is motion: active, mobile groups create lots of body heat and everyone stays warm. If you aren't exerting yourself much, you can get chilled really fast (the average North American cave temperature is 53 degrees F ... with no sunshine to warm things and cold rocks under your butt). So yes, we now are equipped with the best of fleecy vests and fitting long johns and indestructible coveralls. :) Life is good.

Then on Sunday, we attacked the front closet. grr! argh! Closet never stood a chance. This is the hall closet that everyone has where the winter coats get stashed... and the winter accessories, and the extra tablecloths, and the board games, and the misc tote bags, and the cameras, and the things brought from the grandparents' houses, and the leftover small-child toys, and all that random stuff you have no place for. Yea, THAT closet. But it was out first step towards our garage sale coming up this Saturday. We are getting rid of things! Yay! We have lived in the same house for almost 20 years, so the stuff has accumulated just a little bit. But Mom has admitted we have a problem, and isn't that the first step to solving it? So we are whittling away at the stuff and soon we will have a nicely organized house. I am excited, because then Mom will be able to find things and move about easily in her own house.

Remember: Garage sale next Saturday, May 10! Bring cash and a trailer! Records, board games, electronics, crafts, and books. Come one, come all.

Caving Spring '08

So last Thursday we rounded up the Girl Scouts and headed out to good ol' West VA for the Spring caving trip. Much fun all around. This was the first trip I was officially a solo female adult -- the last few trips I've been paired with another newer / less confident adult woman (each group tries to have both a man and a woman adult, along with a junior staff high school girl). But this trip it was just me, one of the guys, and my junior staff... and I was the driver for the group! Craziness. I'm not that old yet. :P Though I ended up recruiting another adult my age to help out with some group issues. Diffusion of personality clashes is always good. And Mom did remind to bring Garmy (my Garmin; yes, I know I am bad at naming things), so I have the schoolhouse, the showers, and two caves plotted into GPS. Take that, sucky directions! I am satellite linked! boo-yah!

You will understand my frustration at the directions we have to the caves if you have ever been out to WV. Most directions are "turn at the Uncle Sam mailbox," or "on the other side of the mountain" anyway, but when you leave town and head for the hills it gets real bad real fast. Case in point: one summer trip we were looking for the "blue building" to turn at according to the directions. Little did we know that since the directions were written, the building had faded to grey AND had been overgrown with flowering vines. We could hardly see the damn thing and drove past it like three times!! grrr....

You and the cow... that's all that's out there

ANYhoo... random anger over, I can say we had a pretty good group this trip. We are becoming strangely bottom-heavy in our experience levels among the girls. Usually, there's one or two groups of Rookies, a Second-Timer group, a Has-Been group, and a group of high schoolers who are being evaluated to be junior staff. But this time, there were two groups each of Rookies and Second Timers, and Group 5 (which is usualy pretty advanced) was only Third Timers! And the high school group was definitely not mature enough for junior staff. Good to have new people joining up, but very weird when everyone is so new and inexperienced.

Da high-schoolers

I had the smallest group, just three Second Timers, and we took then to Fox and Snedegars caves. On Friday, they were the most not-wanting-to-go-down-small-areas group I've ever had! And by "small holes," I mean anything that you can't stand fully upright in. They even tried to convince me they couldn't go down a passage... when it was the way out! They had already come up that passage that morning, but a few hours later it was too small. Goodness! So, to break them of their whining, on Saturday we shoved them down every small crawl we could find. mwahahahaha They were so tired of army crawling by lunch, but we kept at it to show them what was physically possible and what was just them being lazy. The standard rule is that if your helmet fits, you can fit, 'cuz the body is mostly squishy and bendy, but your helmet is definitely not. It's just soft tissue, girls, move it out of the way! :)

I also was excited this trip because [drumroll please] I HAVE COVERALLS THAT FIT ME!! woot! It's very exciting. All my previous coveralls were made for fat & short people (I swear, one pair is a 46Short) But now I have a 36 and a 38! Woot woot! So, now that I have fitting coveralls, what do I do but rip them... twice. :( So yesterday I went to the fabric store and got some rip-stop nylon to mend holes and reinforce knees and rump. Now that I have the proper size, I am determined to keep them in as good a condition as possible!

Both New AND Improved!

Hey guys, if you are just trolling for new posts, 1) don't be upset, I go to work tomorrow so I will write something about the recent caving trip I went on, and 2) to stave off boredom, look down the sidebar at all the cool new stuff I found! I like the word games that keep refreshing. I don't think I've played hangman since grade school, but I've already spent like 30min at it. And the spelling bee is fun too. Maybe I am just a literary dork, but I like them. :) Just a few things to keep your mind sharp and active; it's important to keep away the mad cow disease. (I'm Denny Krane!) ....But stay away from the spelling bee set on "Expert" if you want to keep feeling positive about your education. It gives you words like "proselytism," "obstreperous," "triptych" ... jeeze. :(

And I am watching you now! I have a nifty website hit counter down at the bottom now. The statistics it collects are seriously bizarre. Very CIA-tracking-your-life stuff. :/

(Though do let me know when my over-enthusiasm for neat stuff starts making my blog cluttered. That kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated.)