Random… uh, Monday? August 31, 2009

I felt the need to post, but really have nothing to say, so here is Random Monday for you.

• I’ve started playing World of Warcraft again. Yeah yeah I know, slippery slope, goodbye social life, blah blah blah. Spare me the lecture. It’s fun, and it gives me some people to hang out with while Cory is at work.
• Oh yeah, by the way, Cory got a job. It’s just foodservice, but it’s something.
• I posted my second Examiner.com article today. It’s my chili recipe, which I’ve posted here before, but you can look anyway if you want. (also, if anyone wants to become an examiner, let me know… we get great referral bonuses.)
• I’ve hardly been knitting at all lately. This has very little to do with my playing WoW. My projects are just not inspiring me, and I’ve had little downtime at work.
• I finally found that black, hoodless, open front, long sleeved, under $25 cardigan I’ve been searching for. I’m wearing it now, and it is nice.
• Unfortunately my hands are freezing and those leafy mitts I made are itchy. I think I need to make some malabrigo ones. It’s so COLD at work!
• I’m going to the State Fair on Wednesday, to see Storyhill. They’re playing for FREE! I am excited.
• For anyone with digestive issues: don’t bother with Activia. Eat Kashi Vive. Tastes like meh, works like magic.

Yay, Pennies! August 30, 2009

Well, I’m now officially the Minneapolis Budget Meals Examiner. Hooray!

What does this mean? Well, it means I basically have a second blog, only it’s more like a tri-weekly newspaper article, and it pays me (sort of). I mean, I get some pennies, which is better than nothing.

In any case, my page is here. I’d appreciate it very much if you’d click and read, and even more if you’d subscribe.

Also if any of you get the urge to become an Examiner, let me know. We get sweet bonuses for referring people.

Update August 26, 2009

Thanks for the comments and support, everyone. I really appreciate it.

After talking the issue over with a few people, I’ve come to a semi-decision- or at least come up with a plan I’m happy with. I’ll say no more about it, as I’m sure it’ll be very apparent as it unfolds (not any time soon, but whatevs). Suffice to say, I’m a lot less afraid, at least for the time being.

Thanks again.

What do YOU want to be when you grow up? August 26, 2009

Hello Blog.

I know I’ve been neglecting you of late, and I apologise. I made a commitment to post every day and I haven’t held up my end of the bargain. I’ve been dealing with some really complicated, confusing life stuff and I just haven’t had the headspace to knit, let alone blog about knitting.

Blog, when you were just a little website, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? Did you know from an early age that you would become a blog?

See, I’m a grown up already. I’m married, I have cats and bills and responsibilities and a real job and a degree. You can’t really get much more grown up (well, learning to drive would help, but I have my reasons on that front) without having kids and you know THAT isn’t gonna happen. But I still don’t know what I want to be, or even if that’s the right question to ask.

It all seems so clear when you’re little. You’ll go along, growing up and going to school, and one day something will click and you’ll suddenly say “this is it. this feels right. this is what I want to do for the rest of my life”. So I spent my high school and college years just sort of waiting for that to happen, for the clouds to part and heavenly light to shine down upon… something. Some career track that would be just perfect and I’d love it and be happy working for the rest of my life.

It’s a lie, blog. None of that is true for me. It never happened, and I’m starting to feel like it never will.

Everything I’ve done up til now has been just because it was the easy way. I went to college because I had help and support in doing that, and it seemed like it was expected. It seemed like what I was supposed to do, so I did. I got my helpdesk job because it was offered to me, not because I wanted it. I majored in Anthropology because it was just what I had taken classes in, so I wouldn’t have to struggle to graduate on time (much). I got my current job because it is, again, what was offered to me. No education or career choices I’ve made in the last, oh, five years have been because I really, really wanted whatever it was. It was just… easy. I don’t want to live the rest of my life like that.

But then, blog, maybe I’m just not a “career” person, you know? Maybe I’m destined to switch jobs every few years, try different things, and never settle on just one path. But that is neither lucrative nor fulfilling… or it doesn’t seem like it would be, anyway.

This is keeping me up at night, blog. It’s bothering me more an more with every day that I don’t get off my butt and choose. Unfortunately, though I’ve come up with 5 or 6 options that I could probably handle and most likely enjoy, not one of them really screams “This is it! I am your perfect career track! I will make you happy long-term!” I just don’t know what to do, at this point. I keep wishing there was someone who would take me aside and say “look, I’ve thought it over, and this is what you should do.” but no one can make that kind of decision about my life but me. That’s the trouble with being a grown-up, blog… it’s all up to me.

And that’s terrifying.

Rediscovery August 23, 2009

Yesterday, Cory and I went up to Taylor’s Falls for the day. I’d been there  before, several times, but not in a decade or so. I remembered the large potholes, drilled by whirlpools in ancient riverbeds, and doing some climbing around on boulders near the visitor center, but not much else.  Seeing it as an adult was like seeing it for the first time. While we were there, we hiked nearly every inch of trail marked on the map.  I’m quite sure I’ve never been up Sandstone Bluffs Trail before– incredible views, but so many stairs!

I’m really, really glad we went. Particularly if we do end up moving out of state, I want to take advantage of as much of Minnesota as we can while the weather’s still nice.  We’re thinking about going down to one of the caves next weekend, or finding someone with a canoe and heading to a lake.

Not quite widowed August 20, 2009

See this waterfall? That’s chasm falls, a 30 foot waterfall in Rocky Mountain National Park. My crazy husband, my dad, and I were climbing around by the falls, and said husband decided to cross the stream and climb up the other side.

At the top, there wasn’t really a way across… but nor was there an easy way down. I told him to cross on these logs.

He decided, though, that it would be faster to cross on the rocks, so he jumped…

…onto a slippery rock, and fell in. He stumbled, but caught himself on the very last rock before the 30 foot drop, which you can see in the lower left.

In the long run, no lasting harm done, but MAN was it scary. He, of course, thought it was SO COOL.

In any case, we’re home now. I bought lots of yarn, we climbed lots of rocks and trails and mountains, I have a wicked bruise on my leg from one of those rocks, and our apartment was NOT torn to shreds by the tornado that hit our neighborhood while we were waiting in the Denver airport for hours (our plane was 2.5 hours late, we got home around 1am).

Here are some more photos. If you want to see all 436, they’re here.

Another World August 15, 2009

We landed in Colorado last night around 8:40 or so, Mountain Time. We couldn’t see any of the landscape here- the sun sets early, behind the Rockies- but the landscapes we saw from the plane were absolutely breathtaking. At one point as we sat gaping out the window, Cory turned to me and said “that is where the Wild Things are.”

The Saga of the Mug-Cozies August 12, 2009

Monday night, I was thinking over the details of our trip this coming Friday. I am bringing knitted gifts for everyone that we’re visiting, for one reason or another, and it had occurred to me a few times that it would be in profoundly bad taste to bring something for everyone except my step-mother.

Now, I’m not especially close with my step-mother– my dad married her when I was already a teenager, and I’ve only visited them three times since they got together. She’s a nice lady, but I really don’t know much about her at all. I decided to make something for both her and my dad as a “thanks for letting us stay in your house” present, sort of a thing, and since they both drink tea, I chose a nice, fast tea-mug-cozy pattern.

Little did I know how much trouble I was in for.

I cast on Tuesday evening as soon as I got home, and settled in with a dvd of looney tunes cartoons to entertain me. I increased, got to the body, and chose the “plain” eyelet pattern for Martha’s (using a nice heathered dark purple wool). I knit, and I knit, and I knit, all the while checking and rechecking the pattern. “Ten inches from the increases?” I thought. “Are you sure, pattern? That seems large, for a mug, but ok, I’ll trust you.” At ten inches I did the decreases (noticing that I’d accidentally doubled the increase rows at the beginning by doing only two per row rather than four), the final tab, and bound off. Satisfied, I blocked it and reached for some heathered dark green wool to start my dad’s cozy.

I did the increases correctly this time, and chose to do the nice square check pattern. I carefully read the pattern errata, noting that the numbers had been incorrect– it said to increase to 23 stitches, but the square check pattern required 24, so I ought to increase one more stitch in the middle. I dutifully followed these instructions, began the pattern, and… had the wrong number of stitches.

It didn’t match up at all. I read and reread the errata, getting frustrated, when I finally decided to read the first line of the repeat again.

k2, *p8, k2, repeat from * once.

That’s 22 stitches.

22. Twenty- TWO. Not 23, and certainly not 24. Sighing, I tinked back and this time decreased one stitch, rather than increasing. I continued on with no further problems, until I realized that I had done the recommended four pattern repeats… and I only had about 6 inches of fabric past the increases. Hadn’t the other version said to knit ten inches? I checked again… yes, ten inches. Well, that had seemed sort of large, so I’ll just knit up to 9 or so inches and see how that works. I did six repeats, decreased, knit the tab, and blocked the thing. It was exactly 11pm– bedtime!– so off I went to bed.

This morning, I got up and was delighted to find both cozies dry and ready to get buttons sewn on. I picked up the purple one… and it immediately struck me how HUGE it really was. I got out a smallish mug, and tried the thing on. It was… big, but it was supposed to be an adjustable cozy, right? I could just put the farthest button there! Yeah! So I tried it on a medium mug. Hmm, still big, but maybe…. ok, how about a big mug? Hooray, it sort of fits! …loosely! Um. Oh, oh wait. It was also so tall that trying to drink out of the mug would give you a mouthful of wool.

Well dang.

So I cursed, picked up my purple wool and needles, and went to work. While at work I started knitting a new one for Martha, in the square check pattern this time since it didn’t curl and I’d already figured out how to fix the number problem. I won’t deny there was a lot of grumbling and sighing, but I knit on. As I knit, I occasionally tried it on the medium mug that I have at work for tea. I got to three repeats; definitely not enough. Four; well, closer, but not quite. Five; …oh dear.

Five fit perfectly, with just enough leeway that I could add a third button to snugly fit a larger mug. Remember how dad’s cozy had six repeats? Remember how the 10 inch first cozy had been WAY WAY too big and the second one had only been an inch smaller? All I wanted was a lousy host/ess gift for my dad and step-mom! I just didn’t want Martha to feel left out! HOW COULD A ^(*&%%^&%^ MUG COZY BE THIS DIFFICULT?!?!

After noting my quickly developing eye-twitch, I finished the second purple cozy and resolved to fix the green one when I got home. Honestly, the fix took 10 minutes– tear out the old bindoff to the fifth decrease, re-knit the decreases and tab– but after three other times knitting this stupid pattern, it was agony.

They’re both done now. A testament to perseverance and stubbornness that the recipients will most definitely not recognize, but at least their tea will be hot and Martha will have her knitted gift.

They might notice the twitch, though.

Sorry for the awful background. They’re blocking on a placemat. If the buttons give me any guff, I may burn the things and pick up some iced tea mix for Martha. In any case, the pattern’s listed above, and they’re both knit in cascade 220 heathers.

Too hot to hoot August 10, 2009

^ one of my favorite palindromes, but also an apt description of a. my apartment and b. the temperature my new Thermos mug keeps my tea, though in that case it’s more “too hot to drink”, but that isn’t a palindrome, now is it. Ever used a proper Thermos brand mug? The outside feels consistently cool to the touch, but it kept my tea FAR too hot to drink, uncovered (!) for over an hour this morning. It also kept the ice in my ice water whole for a long time. I’m pretty sure it’s alien technology.

Incidentally, if any of you like tea, download the latest episode of the podcast and listen to the song at the end. Skip to it if you have to- it is hilarious. I’m going to be humming it for days.

If you haven’t yet, check out Translation Party. It is too much fun.

“Snug” August 9, 2009

So, I finished the first of my endpaper mitts. I like the colors a lot, it’s very pretty, but… seriously, Eunny? When you say “snug”, do you mean “snug” or do you mean “a bit like wearing a wrist brace only a lot harder to get on”? Because I did the size that matches my measurement, I had gauge, and yet putting this thing on makes me wonder if I should butter my hand beforehand! Looks fine on, but gosh it’s a bear to put on.