Mom's Gloves Steps 1-3

1 - Cast on 64 and join in circle, knitting 2x2 rib for the cuff


2 - Knit in 2x2 rib for 3 inches.


3 - Set-up row: Knit 32, place marker, make 1, place marker, knit to end of row

In between the markers will grow the thumb gusset. More to come soon!

D is for...

D is for delicious food!

No, you are not seeing double. I just have only a certain amount of room in my brain to store stuff, and right now I've got the Briar Patch weekend on the mind. Besides, it was REALLY good food!

REVIEW: The Testament of Dr Mabuse

Netflix plot summary:
Seasoned criminal Doctor Mabuse (Rudolf Klein Rogge) has been locked in an asylum for the past 10 years, straddling the line between life and death. One of his last projects involves a mysterious manifesto that sets in place a crime-filled future. Discovering that the creepy article's text seems to predict disturbing events, detective Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) tries to put together the pieces of this mind-bending case.

Admittedly, I am very hit or miss about old movies. I mean, I like certain ones (Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, Maltese Falcon), but others that are supposedly “classics” drive me crazy (Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane). And others took awhile to grow on me (Four Feathers). And it’s even more tentative with old foreign movies. The last old foreign movie I think I saw was something for a college class by Engmar Bergman and it was supposed to reflect a mythological story… and it didn’t, and it sucked. So I was a little trepidatious when Netflix recommended Testament of Dr Mabuse to me because 1933 German movies are not a part of my “all-time favorites” list. But I was intrigued by the mystery investigation part of the plot.

It took a bit to get into it, but was really enjoyable. I don’t want to give too much away (it IS a whodunit, after all), but it had much the same elements as many modern investigative movies / shows: a tough chief inspector, photographs taken of the crime scene, ballistic comparison evidence, a high-speed car chase / shoot out, and crime syndicate rings run by mentally unstable geniuses. There was also the required young couple who was being torn apart because the criminals were not releasing him from the gang, insane asylum patients who may or may not be faking it, explosions (that pre-date computer effects!), and a resolution that didn’t fully end the story (like how horror movies always have one last shot of the killer, or Law & Order episodes never resolve TOTALLY happily). So, though it was black and white and in German, it felt very much like any other crime thriller. One review I found calls is the "prototype thriller... back when they weren't cliches."

Overall, I’d rate it “highly enjoyable and a good candidate to own if I happened to run across it in stores.”

New Couch! 2

As promised, new couch pictures. John's mom's reaction when the couch was delivered, "Goodness, that is a big couch!"

Now for those of you who don't remember our little old couch, here's a picture to remind you. Notice how John doesn't even have the option of stretching out.


When we went shopping, the salesperson asked if we had anything in mind, and I responded, "We need extra-long because he's extra-tall." Well, as you can see below, he delivered us extra-long! John even has about 8 inches more to grow if he wants!

John's happy, I-love-our-new-couch face

Our other requirement for the new couch was that it was two-people wide. I always get the outside spot when we snuggle (as I am smaller), and on the old couch, the nasty metal frame would dig into my leg. So we wanted the new couch to be wider so that I could be on the cushion fully and not on the frame. Again, the salesperson delivered!

This shot took a while to set up, as I am balancing my camera on top of the fridge, setting the timer, then running into position. The trick was getting the skinny camera to tip forward to get the couch in frame. (You can see the glare from the flash a little on the left as it reflects off the magnet that was propping it up.)

Close-up of the fabric. The other option of extra-long couch was a greenish color. We like the brown better... Even if it did come with like fifty pillows!

Briar Patch 2

Now that I've explained why we were out in Middleburg, VA... on to the fun stuff!

They took their "Briar Patch" theme very seriously. There were little bunnies hidden all about the b&b and the yard. I took this picture for Lara because of the little one on the end cleaning his ear.

We stayed in the "Hyacinth" room, all done up in blues and purples. John liked it because there was an external heater that you could stick your shoes under for toasty warm toes. On the right there is the view from our room, looking out over the front drive.

John was not made for a cerca-1805 built house. The people then were much shorter.

The manager warned us to take the signage seriously, not just laugh and then hit our heads as we went into the bathroom. (Yes, that is the wall slanting out into the doorway.)

Beware the ghost light! The owners had put a journal in each room and the first entry was them telling us a little bit about our room. Our room was haunted! Most of the sightings were things being knocked off tables and such, so it was an amiable enough spook. We laughed at first, but then had a few incidences with the ghost light and were made believers.

As any good b&b would have, there was a plethora of friendly animals. These guys were less concerned with strange people than they were with staying warm as it was a bit chilly.

However, my favorite kitty was this guy, who I called "Little Hitler." His mustache just cracks me up!

Did I mention that the outlets had a William Sonoma store? There was a lot of linens and tableware, but over in the super-sale section was the best cake-form ever! The cupcake is 7 x 6 inches! ... The only problem is that John will inevitably say, "But I only ate one cupcake!"

And have you ever seen a million dollar house before? NoVA is being built up like crazy and all the houses are waaaay overpriced (250k for a townhouse!) but this one neigborhood in development caught our eye and we took a drive through it: "Starting in the 900s" eek! (Oh, buy the way, this big-ass house had a separate 2-story, 3-car garage / shop.)

Briar Patch Weekend Part 1

For Christmas, John's Mom got us a weekend trip up to a bed & breakfast called the Briar Patch (outside of Middleburg, VA). During their off-season, they host a "cooking weekend" with their chef and a local vineyard-owner... I guess to have something to do when they are not hosting weddings every weekend from April until October. It sounded like a lot of fun, at least it would be a lot of good food, so John and I were excited. We both got off work early last Friday, so the drive up wasn't too bad at all. And it got us there in time for the appetizers and wine-tasting!

Now, I know those of you who know me are like, "Wine!? Anne?" but I like to try anything before I pass final judgment. And when it comes with yummy snacks, I am definitely not gonna turn it down! So, wine-tasting results:
1- You have to be crazy / rich to open a winery because they are an ass-load of work! The owner of Notaviva Winery is a tell-it-like-it-is guy and he gave us the inside scoop. Fun fact about Notaviva, he and his wife are both music technology majors (ie - music producers, sound techs with bands, and media consultants) so they pair their wines with recommended music choices. How cool is that?! Yes, I asked, and he recommended a Cabernet Sauvignon to go with brass and french horns. Apparently, there are massive grants going to research about music/ taste relations. They strap you down, make you drink wine and listen to music... where do I sign up?
2- I don't like red wines. Period. I think it's the tannins in the reds that gets me, because it's not the alcohol content (all our wines were the same) and it's not a certain type of red (we tried two). However, I do like Chardonneys and Viognier ("vee-in-yay" ... stupid french names; it's written "viognier" why can't it be "vee-og-ni-er"?) The viognier gave me the reaction, "hmmm... this one doesn't make me gag! it's even good!" ... and I LOVE dessert wines. We tried a port. It was yummy. :)
3- Wine tastings are good for the snacks! We had sliders with garlic aioli instead of ketchup/mayonnaise, stuffed mushrooms, roasted carrot mash & chips, chicken salad in filo cups, and brownie bites.... soooooo good!

Sadly, we didn't have time to get John fully fed before we got there, so he needed dinner after the wine tasting. We took the road straight into Leesburg, thinking only of not getting lost. Sadly, downtown Leesburg is kind of like downtown Williamsburg... but deader. I mean, there was NObody out at 9:oo pm on a Friday! We finally found a Wendy's like an oasis in the desert. (We later learned that every chain business sits just outside of Leesburg on the bypass. Oops.)

On to Saturday: SUPER yummy b'fast prepared by Chef Jeff (no kidding, that's his name). Quiche and fresh muffins and yogurt and good teas. Saturday we were on our own until dinner, so John and I went out to a local outlet mall and browsed / walked (knowing dinner would be very bad for you and exercise is good). It was really nice. I think I dragged him into every shoe store there, trying to find a replacement for my knee-boots. (Why do I love him? After about three stores, he started pointing them out to me so I wouldn't miss any.)


Ok, on to dinner. John and I laughed that there should be a name-change for the weekend, as it wasn't much of a cooking "class." It was more like being a live audience for a cooking show on TV: Chef explained how everything was done, pointed out tips of the trade, answered any questions we had... but we the guests didn't really "cook." John got to cut the meat, I plated a few items, one guy grated some cheese, but that was about the extent of what we did. Most of the food was fixed ahead of time, and it would have taken us all day to actually make it ourselves. So while it wasn't a "class" it was more than you'd get going into a restaurant and ordering those dishes.

Chef laughed that if we wanted to cut something, we needed to do it on the first course, as she wouldn't let us handle knives after a few glasses of wine!

1st Course: Rare Beef with Crustini (garlic toast) and creamed leeks (they look gross but are GOOD!)

2nd Course: Salad w/ beets, shallots, and goat cheese (which is surprisingly tasty)

3rd Course: French Onion Soup... so good there is no picture of it :(

Main: Chicken Roulade (roll-up) with green beans and mashed potatoes & carrots (So-so, nothing really stood out like the other courses did)

The mash was put into a piping bag and swirled onto the plates. On of the guys at our table said it looks like soft-serve ice cream. I think that's why we were a little disappointed in this dish because we all were expecting orange creamsicle ice cream and we got mashed potatoes and carrots. Not exactly the same thing. :(

Dessert: THE BEST BREAD PUDDING EVER! with strawberries, blueberries, white chocolate, and a amaretto / cream sauce.... yummmmmmmmy!

Sunday was just breakfast then heading home. We rolled on kind of early after breakfast (fritatas and eggs and oatmeal) as it was starting to snow a bit and we didn't want to get into any difficulty. I think we also had the longest drive out of everybody there (most were local, northern-VA people). It was so nice just to have a weekend of being in a new place, eating good food, and not having to worry about anything! Very relaxing.

NEW COUCH!

We have finally gotten rid of the very old, very well-loved couch in our apartment! Yay! You might not understand until you think about “That Couch” in your first apartment that was most likely owned by someone else before you… you know, the one with the saggy cushion; the one with the painful metal frame under the saggy cushion; the one that’s too short for your over-tall boyfriend and too small to hold two people comfortably… yeah, that couch. So we went and found a new, fluffy, extra-long couch last week, and it’s being delivered today. The irony of it all is that John & I are going out of town this weekend and we won’t get to see it! His parents are going to supervise the delivery and arrangement in the apartment for us (So nice!).

Needless to say, the cats were freaking out this morning. First, we start moving all the furniture in the apartment yesterday. Then we remove the couch, Citadel of the Kitties. THEN, we start packing bags and that is never a good thing for the kitties. Harvey and Grey were unanimous in their disapproval this morning as I was getting ready for work. It was almost funny because they never agree on ANYthing, and there they were banding against me.

Yes, I will be sure to get some pictures as soon as I can when we get back in town.

Icky Sleet Day!

Yay for icky sleet! Freezing rain? Is there a difference? I don’t know; I grew up on the beach. Anything that isn’t rain falling from the sky is snow (and it means school is closed, but that’s another topic altogether). Apparently out here in the mountains, you still go to school when it’s cold and gross outside.

More Pets

I know, I know. I am a crazy cat lady. But like I said a while back, I've got nothing else to take pictures of besides the fuzzies. So either skip the post or deal with it! :P

Grey Momma's new chin rest. Why do cats do that? They always need something to prop their chin up when they are resting.

Harvey's new nickname is the upside-down kitty. He does this a lot...

Handsome got that bush! Hyah!

Kitty say: You shall neither read nor watch tv until you love on me!

Random Event

So, as I was perusing Facebook (not that I am endorsing that site, because it can suck all your free time if you let it) to catch up on what is happening to all my college friends, I came across a weird little way to amuse yourself:

GOOGLE BIOGRAPHY: RULES: Go to Google and type in your first name and the following phrases. Copy and paste the first sentence/phrase you get that makes sense.

Now, this caught my eye because it's a little like MadLibs... for people who don't know how to come up with a noun, verb, or adjective on their own. :P But, as I have been remiss in my blogging for a while, I thought that I could give it a shot. It's almost as much fun as Googling yourself and finding that you are some professor of biochemistry /biology at a college you've never heard of... or a real estate agent.



Q: Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search.
A: The elephant Anne needs to retire.

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Q: Type in "[your name] looks like" in Google search.
A: Anne looks like a million dollars, before taxes
(Runner up was "Anne looks like Alvin the chipmunk")

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Q: Type in "[your name] says" in Google search.
A: Anne says her prayer (Anne of Green Gables)

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Q: Type in "[your name] wants" in Google search.
A: Did you know Anne wants snow tires more than a gold watch?

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Q: Type in "[your name] hates" in Google search.
A: Anne hates you.

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Q: Type in "[your name] asks" in Google search.
A: Anne asks, "Did the blue Santa come from Akron?" (... I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!)

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Q: Type in "[your name] goes" in Google search.
A: Queen Anne goes to the kitchen.

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Q: Type in "[your name] likes " in Google search.
A: WHAT anne LIKES (...apparently it's a rock band)

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Q: Type in "[your name] eats " in Google search.
A: Anne eats ghosts!

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Q: Type in "[your name] wears " in Google search.
A: Princess Anne wears the same outfit in the same town three years later.

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Q: Type in "[your name] was arrested for" in Google Search.
A: Cleveland High School theater teacher and Student Council sponsor Laurie Anne Lewis was arrested on Tuesday on charges of prostitution in downtown Houston.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Though I have never been big on the whole Valentine’s Day celebration, I truly wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day. I have been cynical for far too long, so to spare you the standard rants, I will sum up: blah blah blah, Hallmark just wants your money, blah blah blah, what about the single people, blah blah blah, gonna hijack a truck full of chocolates and eat myself stupid.

There, done.

However, I do have a fairly fresh (I think) rant about Valentine’s Day: Why do you need one specific day to say that you love someone? If you truly care about a person, you should sound like a crazy stalker and tell them every chance you get that you love them and that they are important to you. Disregarding the fact that I work with high school kids who weren’t hugged enough as children, you should never delay telling someone that you care. You don’t know who will be hit by a bus tomorrow (not to sound morbid, but it’s true). You don’t know who is going through a depressed time right now, and your little “you are special to me” could mean the world to them. You just don’t know how much you matter to someone else, so start the trend and tell them how much they matter to you.

So don’t delay or make excuses. Just tell someone you love them. Hell, tell them you appreciate them or whatever verb you want to use, if you are commitment-phobic. Just tell them.

(And if you must know, John and I are planning to be lazy this Saturday. He says: can my Valentine’s present be playing games all day? So I gave the boy what he asked for.)

Mom's Shamrock Gloves

Mother so nicely reminded me that the Shamrock Race is coming up shortly, and that I promised her and her running buddy each a green hat and gloves set. Now, I finished one set last year, but could not get the other churned out... which was sort of okay, as it wasn't too cold last year while they were running. However, this year is starting out a bit chillier and Mother can be quite subtle when she wants to be. SO! Here I am now, preparing to knit my fingers to the bone (bony fingers!) to get a pair of gloves and a headband finished before St Patrick's Day. (Yes, I said headband. Mom's running buddy likes bands rather than full hats. I guess I should be happy, as headbands are much faster to finish than hats are!)

I shall be posting the work in progress, as gloves are fairly easy, but look so very challenging. I personally use the pattern from the Not Just Socks book because it is super basic and creates interchangeable gloves (no need to distinguish between right and left hands!). I'm using Scarlet Fleece's sock yarn, a really pretty green variegated color. (Sadly, I can't find a picture online, so you'll just have to wait until I can get some pictures from my stash.)

A-knitting we will go!

C is for...

C is for cutting board! (Maybe all those years is karate were a bad thing for us.)

Set-up: last time we were out shopping, I declared that we needed some more cutting boards as we have two and they always seem to be dirty (John to me... a lot: "Stop using the raw chicken board!"). So we picked up a multi-pack of these little bamboo boards that match our large bamboo cutting boards.

And what would happen the first time we use it? John's inner ninja comes out full force. He was prepping some garlic for dinner and went to smash it, and split the NEW cutting board right down a seam! I'm on the couch (what? you think I can cook?) and I hear, ... "Oh snap! ... Honey, come look at this!"

John's first reaction: darnit, I broke the cutting board

John's next reaction: whoa, cool, I broke the cutting board! Where's Sensei's phone number?

Job Musings

You must allow me to wallow a bit in depressed self-pity today; I had a pretty rough day at work. (Don’t ask. Long story short is that I have decided to never again try to be proactive or do more than I am told to do because it only gets me in trouble.) At what point do you decide that a job just sucks? Does “bad job” mean that everyday has to drain your will to live? Or does a job that is just mediocre most days, but can suddenly turn viciously bad qualify as bad? What about a job that is just mediocre? Do you have to be out saving the world and self-actualizing every day of your life? And what kind of person are you if you “settle”? Does that mean you are responsible and have accepted the fact that a job does not define who you are (even though psychological research says that in our society, we are defined by our job) and that you need a paycheck of any kind to pay your bills? Or does it mean that you have no aspirations for something better for yourself, something that could make you truly happy?

I will see you when I am feeling better about life and my position in the world.