It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

OK, not really. But it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas knitting projects, as I have completed two scarves and a hat already, and started on scarf #3 last night. So far, I have:

1 Woodland shawl (except really, it's a scarf - see photo)
1 Woodland hat (my adaptation; there's no real pattern for this, I just wanted to use up the leftover wool on a matching hat)
1 River Rocks scarf (modified to make it less bead-heavy)
The beginnings of 1 Braided Cable Scarf

The Braided Cable Scarf was a little difficult to get started with, because I totally could not understand what the designer was trying to do with the cables and it's written kind of ambiguously. Once I figured out that "purl the middle stitch from the cable needle" really meant "purl that first stitch on the cable needle since you already knitted 2 of the 5 stitches in this cable group" it made a lot more sense. At first I was stupidly trying to purl the middle stitch on the cable needle, which would have meant: slip 3 to CN, k2, slip first stitch on CN to left needle, slip second stitch on CN to left needle, p1, k1 on left needle, k last stitch on CN. Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and twists the poor yarn up like crazy.

Anyhoo, it's looking very nice now, although the yarn (KnitPicks Andean Treasure in "midnight" colorway) is superdark navy blue, so it's a little difficult to see the pattern emerging. I've completed two pattern repeats (16 rows) so far. I'm not sure if I like this yarn or not - it's alpaca, so it's hairy as all get-out, but it is also super, super soft.

Once I'm done with this scarf I need to get back to Mr Wonderful's Bad-Ass Cabled Hoodie. That poor thing has been languishing for months - since shortly after Christmas, actually. I need to finish it up so that he can have it in time for our belated honeymoon in October. :) We're going to North Lake Tahoe & staying at a lovely timeshare, courtesy of my mom & stepdad. It should be fairly chilly - at least at night - so I want to be sure he's got his cozy cabled sweater.

Wedding photos!

Just wanted to drop in real quick to give y'all a link to the wedding photos. I keep getting more in, so there may be more added to the Flickr set , but I wanted to get something up fast for those who couldn't make it to the party.

Also, you might want to watch our first dance. :)

Enjoy!

Bearing fruit

You may recall, a few years ago I spent a full autumn day planting over 250 spring bulbs, in the hopes that I'd wind up with a garden full of my favorite flowers to cheer me up during the high hay fever season. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time that gophers LOVE tulip bulbs, and not only that, but they can easily get into my planter boxes. I ended up with a few hyacinths and daffodils, but only ONE lone tulip escaped the gopher feast.

This past fall, Mr Wonderful cleared out my designated "cutting garden" planter box (we have several huge boxes), laid down plastic netting, and filled it back in with fresh, happy dirt that was left over from our new lawn project. Then I spent a day planting spring bulbs again, hoping that this year, they'd escape devastation.

Obviously, from the picture on the right, you can see that they did, and our labors are bearing fruit at last...dozens and dozens of tulips and daffodils, and scores of grape hyacinths (the little purple flowers in the mid-ground here, also known as muscari) and crocuses. This is the garden I hoped for.

Click the photo to go to my flickr feed, where I have another shot of the planter box, showing off pretty much the entire thing, and a picture of our beautiful lilac bush as well.

Testing, testing...1...2...3...

This weekend I did some cupcake trials. I bought a couple of mini cupcake tins, some liners, and a few boxes of cake mix (because I am lazy and don't want to make everything from scratch).

First I made a batch of lemon cupcakes - I added lemon zest to the plain yellow cake mix, threw in some lemon juice in place of some of the water, and then made a simple glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar. The mini cupcakes turned out great - they cook in 13 minutes at 350, and cool in about 5-10 minutes, so they're ready to frost quickly. Unfortunately the frosting didn't hold up very well; it kind of melted into the cupcakes by the second day, so they looked all patchy and odd. I think I may have to switch to a buttercream frosting (ugh), but if I do that I'm hoping to find some passionfruit puree to use as flavoring. Mr Wonderful & I went to a catering/wedding fair event a while back that had a lemon/passionfruit cake sample we both loved, and I'd like to be able to reproduce it. It would require a bit more work though, as I'd have to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes.

I also tried making chocolate mini cupcakes. I used a Devil's Food flavor of cake mix and when I made the "plain" chocolate cupcakes, they tasted like nothing much. Even the kids didn't like them. However, I did also spice up some of the batter towards the end of the batch, with cinnamon, orange liqueur, and a bit of chili powder. The cinnamon flavor came through, but the orange and chili powder were completely lost. I think I may need to use cayenne instead of chili powder and only use the orange liqueur in the ganache. The ganache was a whole other story - my first try (with half the chocolate chips) turned out grainy & gross; I used Barefoot Contessa's method of melting the chocolate & cream in a double boiler. The second try turned out perfectly; in this instance, I heated the cream just until it boiled, then poured that over the chocolate chips and let it sit for a couple of minutes before whisking together. The cupcakes were super easy to frost with the ganache, too - you just dip them in and swirl a bit, then pull them out and the frosting is beautiful and glossy and smooth. Even better - they still look beautiful the next day. :)

A couple other updates: I found the perfect shoes on sale at Kohl's, ordered my bouquet & Mr Wonderful's boutonniere from a local florist (yay, white tulips!), and we figured out the music situation. Tomboy has a boombox that is battery-operated, has detachable speakers, and has an auxiliary input that accommodates an iPod. We tested it out last night, with batteries & everything, and it worked beautifully.

Wedding dress shopping

This past weekend I took Tomboy and went shopping for my wedding dress. I tried on lots of different styles - strapless, a-line, princess, mermaid, trumpet, lace, plain, embroidered, beaded, silk, satin, taffeta, blah blah blah. My favorite one was this very simple taffeta dress with tip-of-the-shoulder straps, some very flattering ruching along the bodice, a lace-up back, and a moderate train (yes, this is moderate!). Bear in mind that this dress, being the shop's sample, is two sizes too big for me, so mine will be significantly more snug. And the color is ivory, although the camera's flash makes it look like it's white in the picture.

Click the photo for more wedding dress pictures (this one and others I tried on).

White trash

I have a confession to make: I love super-tacky Christmas decor. I like colored lights instead of plain white (the blinkier the better), multicolored and multi-themed ornaments, gold instead of silver, Grinch dolls next to nutcrackers and fake poinsettias, Bass-Rankin and Peanuts Christmas specials, Bing Crosby on the radio, and I love, love, love that loose tinsel that they don't sell anymore (anyone know where I can find some?). My Christmas tree this year has three different multi-colored strands of lights on it, only one of which blinks (for extra tackiness!). There are homemade ornaments next to mirrored disco balls, resin cartoon characters next to plastic crystals, glittery snowflakes next to colored glass balls.

I wasn't always this way. I have a very traditional and classy gold & white angel at the top of the tree, because in my early adulthood I decided that I would only have gold and white ornaments on my tree and white lights. That lasted for one year. The following year I added red ornaments to the mix, and the year after THAT...well, the tacky urge came on strong, and I wound up with about three dozen more ornaments, all in different colors. Now I long for the glitter-bedecked homemade star we had on the tree when I was growing up. It was the star that topped my fairy princess wand one year at Halloween, and it had ribbon streamers and was super awesome. I wish I could find something that cool for the top of my tree, but I have been unable to find anything suitable in stores, and for some reason my attempts to make a replica have all fallen short of ideal.

So when I came home from my trip up to Portland earlier this month and saw that Mr Wonderful had decorated the entryway to the house with three different types of outdoor Christmas lights (blinky multi-color, white "icicle", and blue LED's) it was the just about coolest thing he could have possibly done.

Almost as cool as the porn-star mustache he's growing for me. Yes, apparently the fondness for super-tacky stuff has spilled over into my "real" life. I blame Swingtown. It was a television show that ran this past summer (and was sadly cancelled after just the one season), set in the 70s and glorfying that decade beyond all belief. Even if I wasn't born in the early 70s, I would have fond memories of that decade after watching this show. And one of the main characters, Tom (played by Grant Show, of Melrose Place fame), had a luxurious, incredible porn 'stache. Mr Wonderful and I looked forward to watching the show each week, so when I asked him to grow a mustache for me, he agreed.

This man must love me like crazy, because on Thanksgiving night, when I came downstairs after taking a shower and saw his new facial adornment, I just lost it. I laughed for about five solid minutes. He threatened to shave it off, so I pulled it together. And I'm so glad I did -- this porn 'stache is awesome. It makes people smile, if not outright laugh. It brightens my day every time I look at it. And once again, I am so grateful that I have a man in my life who doesn't take himself too seriously, and is willing to do crazy things for me just because I ask him to. I can't wait to marry this guy, y'all.

(All this and he does dishes too!)

Finito!

The two-tone ribbed shrug for Tomboy is finished! I can't believe how fast that knitted up -- I had it done in less than two weeks! I love the colors, and the cotton is gorgeous - soft and warm, with the yarn held double.

New Project!

Two-Tone Shrug
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

I've started on Tomboy's shrug. I bought the yarn for this several months ago, but couldn't bring myself to start the project until I'd finally finished the Spider-Man Sweater. Now that the SMS is off my needles (yay!) I'm able to start some new projects.

I cast on for the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug (from Fitted Knits) on Monday night, and quickly realized that I'd need to finish off my Dashings (the fingerless gloves) before I could get very far, because I needed my row counter and it was currently in use for the gloves-in-progress. So on Tuesday evening I finished off the Dashings, and last night I worked for a while on the shrug again. I must say, I've made excellent progress. :) I'm really loving the yarn too - it's a solar-dyed fingering weight organic cotton by Ceallach Dyes. I'm knitting with two strands held together to make it a heavier weight & so I can get gauge. This yarn is so soft and yummy - the colors range from bright apple green to a lovely faded denim color, so it's got some visual interest (the ribbing will be all blue; I have a different skein of yarn for that). And it's going to match very well with the track suit I got Tomboy for Christmas. It will be SO cute with the pants & a white t-shirt or tank top underneath, or with jeans. And it'll be a great summer-weight layer, to keep her warm in the evenings when it gets a little chilly.

Sweater is DONE!

Finally. Finally, finally, finally, the damn sweater is off my needles.

Saturday I frantically knitted up the ribbing on the neckline, after completely screwing it up Friday night (beer + knitting apparently equals forgetting how to do knit-one-purl-one ribbing. *sigh*). We took the kids to a free church-sponsored Easter event in the next town over, and I have to say, that was the most AMAZING thing I'd ever seen. There were more than 20 bounce houses (I think they must have rented every single one in the area), a laser tag game, a rock climbing wall, easter egg hunt, hotdogs and drinks and people driving around in golf carts throwing out candy...and the whole thing was free. Every single bit of it. They must have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on this shindig. Anyway, while Rugrat was waiting in line for the laser tag, I knitted the neckline. Afterwards, we went to Tomboy's piano recital, where I finished the sweater by weaving in all the ends. And Saturday night I washed and blocked the sweater. Sunday morning it was dry and ready to go, and I achieved my goal (well, my latest goal) of finishing the sweater in time for Easter.

As you can see, the sweater is a *bit* big. The neckline in particular is huge, but the sleeves are also a little too long and the shoulders are definitely too wide. That's OK. Turns out I'm fine with that, because now he'll be able to wear it for a couple of years, probably. And he is incredibly proud and excited - he kept telling everybody we saw that his mom made the sweater just for him, and he's the only person in the world who has a sweater like that. He wore it all day on Easter and put it on over a t-shirt to wear to school today, as well. And you know what? That's just fine with me. :)

Snow trip!

We took the kids to the snow this weekend. I'd been promising Rugrat that we'd go up to the snow, and when our plans to visit Mr Wonderful's sister this past weekend fell through, we decided to head up for an impromptu Tahoe trip instead.

This trip was all about the kids. We drove up Saturday morning without any real plan (where to stay, what exactly to do) other than "play in the snow." We found a cheap hotel room right after we got into town, and then headed out immediately to find a good hill to slide down on the orange disk we'd brought. Instead, we ended up going to Hansen's Tube & Saucer park, where for $20, Mr Wonderful and the kids slid down a couple of exciting snow slides (much like waterslides) in innertubes. Afterwards, we went out for pizza at Lake Tahoe Pizza Co., which was right across the street from our hotel. The food was great - their combo pizza had a layer of sauteed mushrooms underneath the cheese that was really fantastic.

After dinner, we went to Harrah's and I got $20 in tokens and let the kids play in the arcade for about an hour and a half. Finally, we went back to the hotel and crashed out. I can't really recommend the hotel (Apex) as Mr Wonderful and I were freezing all night, having decided to sleep with our respective kids in order to keep the peace, but at least the kids slept well.

The next morning we went to the Red Hut Waffle House and OMG. BEST. BREAKFAST. EVER! Really, all four of us thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Even the coffee was good. If you ever stay the night in South Lake Tahoe, be sure to check it out. It's on the lake side of the main drag, an unassuming little hole in the wall, and there will probably be a wait (we waited about 20 mins) but the wait is WORTH IT. They specialize in waffles (which Rugrat & Mr Wonderful both had) but we also had fantastic biscuits & gravy, perfectly cooked eggs (and I'm darn picky about my eggs) and the best bacon I've ever had in a restaurant. It was cooked slowly until perfectly crisp, and they were nice thick slices.

After that "righteous gut-packing" (™ Mr Wonderful), we headed back home, stopping for an hour in Strawberry, where the kids got to make good use of the orange disk, as well as the pink disk and the tie-dye sled we bought at KMart in Tahoe. I even went down the hill once! Everyone had a blast here, even Rugrat (who didn't much like sliding down the big hills, but made a fabulous snowchicken; kind of like a snowman, except...it's a chicken). More pictures are up on Flickr, of course. On our way home we stopped at the Silverfork Cafe. We'd stopped there on our way up, to grab some lunch and hit the bathroom, and their food was fantastic. Mr Wonderful and I split a steak taco (very large, with "two" tacos in the order that actually stretched to more like FOUR) on the way to Tahoe, and on the way home we decided to try the shrimp version. It was heavenly, and that tiny little cafe will be our official pitstop every time we hit Tahoe now.

25 things

I could write a wrap-up of the Stitches West conference I went to on Saturday, but I can sum it up in one word: Malabrigo. Malabrigo Silky (half silk, half merino, in lustrous Burgundy), Malabrigo Merino Worsted (a sweater's worth in Olive!), Malabrigo Lace (lovely cobwebby baby-soft dark blue/green Vaa), and best of all, a FREE skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn, not yet released for public purchase (or even mentioned on their official website!), in the most amazing blue/green/purple colorway. I am so drooling over this stuff, y'all. I went to the Malabrigo booth and asked the vendor when the sock yarn was going to be released, and when I mentioned that I was a member of the Malabrigo Junkies group on Ravelry, he pulled out a FREE skein, all for me! Big enough for a pair of socks! Superwash merino! The colorway doesn't even have a name yet, it's just called "Test Sample" but ooooooh, all the glorious jade, turquoise, sapphire, and amethyst colors....

Anyhoo, that's not what I wanted to write about. What I really wanted to write about is a meme I saw on Keckler's blog, The Grub Report, which is really just a list: 25 things I never get tired of.

So, without further ado, here's my 25, in no particular order:

1. Spring bulbs, pushing up through the cold gray days
2. The smell of the earth when it rains for the first time after a long dry spell
3. Fresh salty sea breeze on my face
4. Cowgirl Creamery cheese
5. Mr Wonderful's whistling. He is a master whistler. He whistles along with songs, or just when he's walking or driving or whatever, and can do these amazing Disney-animated-bird trilling noises.
6. Throwing a bunch of stuff together randomly and coming up with a great new meal that everyone in the family enjoys
7. The smell of lilacs
8. Rugrat, falling asleep while leaning up against me, going all boneless and limp, and drooling just a little bit
   
9. The "aha!" moment, when a puzzling programming issue at work suddenly becomes clear
10. A buttery, melt-in-your-mouth filet mignon from Ruth's Chris Steak House
11. That moment when you just finish a wonderful book
12. The smell of a wood fire, especially when you're camping
13. Right after the cleaning ladies leave, when the house is perfectly clean (before the kids get here and mess it all up again...)
14. Hot buttered popcorn at the movie theater; I can't seem to watch a movie in the theater without it
15. Climbing into bed every night with Mr Wonderful
16. Exploring a new city, especially if it's somewhere that requires the use of a passport
    
17. Walking through the redwoods
18. Finishing a knitting project
19. Heirloom tomatoes, still warm from the sun, with fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, sea salt and cracked black pepper
20. Road trip!
21. Dancing with friends at a club until we're exhausted and dripping sweat
22. Hearing a great new song on the radio
    
23. Sleeping until I wake up naturally, without an alarm clock
24. Getting a pedicure: it's a fairly cheap indulgence, and it lasts for a month!
    
25. Kisses
    

A sleeve is done!

Finally! I finally finished one sleeve. Rugrat saw a kid wearing a sweater that had little holes for the kid's thumbs to poke through, and of course he had to have that for HIS sweater, so I made a buttonhole after carefully marking where his thumb would be.

So now all I have to do is one more sleeve, the collar, and weave in all those pesky yarn ends...and we'll have a sweater!

Dyeing wool yarn

Last weekend we made a trip to Michael's, to get some glitter and food coloring for the kids (they were making snow globes). I figured since I was there I'd pick up a skein of cheap white wool yarn and try dyeing some myself, since I'd read up on it earlier in the week and it seemed pretty simple. I grabbed some Wilton's paste food coloring in forest green, brown, burgundy and teal, and a skein of Patons Classic Wool Merino in winter white.

When we got home, I pulled out some Pyrex dishes - casserole-type things - and preheated the oven to about 225. All my regular pots & pans are hard-anodized aluminum, and I wasn't willing to possibly ruin my expensive cookware on a test ball of yarn (you can't use aluminum because it is "reactive" - and I'm not sure what exactly happens, but I wasn't about to find out). I don't have any stainless still pots, so I figured I'd do it in the glass dishes in the oven instead of on the stove. I transferred the ball of yarn into a hank by wrapping it around the back of two dining room chairs (back to back) and then tied it in four places with some acrylic crap yarn to keep it in one big hank. I soaked the hank in plain hot water for about half an hour, until the yarn was fully soaked, then I drained the water from the sink and kind of pushed/squeezed the excess water out. I put 1/4 cup of white vinegar in each of the three casserole dishes, then filled each one with 4 cups (1 quart) of hot water. Then came the fun part - adding the dye. It's kind of a trial-and-error sort of thing; the more dye you add, the more saturated the color will be. I just scooped some out of the little jar with a wooden chopstick and swirled it around in the water/vinegar until it dissolved completely. I used the green, brown and burgundy for this trial (Rugrat wanted me to use the teal but I figured three colors was PLENTY to start out with). I carefully put the dishes in the oven (not real easy to make all three fit on one shelf, let me tell you!) and draped the damp skein of white yarn in the dishes, with brown on one end, burgundy on the other, and the green in the middle. I checked it often, poking it with chopsticks to make sure it was submerged all the way, and turned it over once to make sure the color saturated the top as well as the bottom of the yarn.

Finally I removed the yarn and let it cool in the sink, dumped out the remaining dye water, and rinsed the yarn. And rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed. The burgundy bled like crazy. When it finally let up some, I took a long, critical look at the skein and decided the colors were too bright and unharmonious, so I ended up re-dyeing the entire skein in brown dye. When I rinsed it out after overdyeing with brown, there was no bleeding, and the colors were much more muted - as I had originally intended. I ended up with a lovely autumn-y variegated skein, with coppery brown, camel, olive green, and cranberry colors. As you can see from the picture above, I'm turning it into My So Called Scarf, and the pattern shows off the color gradations beautifully.

Spider-Man Logo

Spider-Man Sweater
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

The Spider-Man logo I used for Rugrat's "Weasley Sweater" in place of an initial.

Chart (Excel format) can be found here.

Blue belt!

Blue belt!
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

Rugrat got his blue belt in karate class yesterday. This is kind of a big deal; it's the last of the "beginner" belts. It's probably also the last belt he'll get for a while, as we haven't figured out if we're going to enroll him in karate out in WC yet or not, and if we are, where we'll take him.

New Car!

20070427_newCar
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

Guess what I did yesterday?

After five years of lusting heavily after the Toyota Highlander, I finally bought one. It has LEATHER SEATS and a premium sound system and a moon roof and a roof rack and it fucking kicks ASS. Remote keyless entry with some fancy-shmancy ignition disabling security system. V6, so my baby's got some getup and go. Power every-fucking-thing. And I got a fantastic price, it's only a year old, and it has less than 20K miles on it.

Sweeeeeeet!

Mohawk!

Mohawk!
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

Guess who got a haircut this weekend?

Disney photos

Here they are!

This first photo was taken during breakfast on Monday morning, at the Storyteller's Cafe in the Grand Californian hotel (where we stayed during this trip). Really nice hotel. Really bad food at this restaurant though.



This next photo was taken in New Orleans Square.


Look at all the gorgeous decorations up for the holidays!


Here's Rugrat with his favorite character (albeit just a statue) - Jack Skellington.


Look how beautiful Sleeping Beauty's castle is! They repainted it and added lots of gold accents, including the five lovely crowns, representing the five decades of Disneyland. (This photo was taken during our Early Entry morning - the park wasn't always this deserted! LOL)


And here's the Haunted Mansion, all decked out in its Nightmare Before Christmas finery. I tried taking some flash-free photos inside but they didn't turn out well at all. :-( You really can't get a feel for how amazing it is without seeing all the fantastic changes they made inside. It was just incredible. My favorite part was the singing jack-o-lanterns.

Jack Skellington

My little monster-child, prior to trick-or-treatiing downtown on the Saturday before Halloween. (Click for a bigger photo.)

"Spring" cleaning

Today I spent three hours weeding in the backyard and planting spring bulbs. Almost 250 spring bulbs, actually. I planted:

• 90 crocuses
  
• 88 tulips
• 36 daffodils
• 22 hyacinths

I'm exhausted. And I didn't even do what I was REALLY supposed to do, which is to grout the tile in the entryway. Why didn't I do it? Because my friggin' drill doesn't fit the whirlygig mixer-thingy I got to mix up the grout. How is that possible? Aren't they a standard size? I dunno, but Babydaddy said I would need a corded (as opposed to cordless) drill anyway, because you have to mix the stuff for five minutes. Yeeeaaahhh.

So, no grout yet. But I will have an abundance of spring flowers this year. :-)