I Think Someone Stole My Saturday

Oh, for pete's sake, it's Monday. I don't know how that happens so FAST! Here's some randomness for you and your own personal Monday . . .

1. At my Weight Watchers meeting tonight, I lost 1.2 pounds. Todd cannot understand the misery that comes with being told you have lost 1.2 pounds when you hoped for, at minimum, 2.2 pounds, which would put you into a "new" set of numbers, or, even better, 4 pounds, which would earn you another five pound gold sticker.

2. I have discovered that there is a strong inverse relationship between how hard I practice the violin and how happy I am with my playing during the week and how much I suck at my actual lesson. (Or is that a direct correlation? Anyway, if I do good during the week, I suck ass at the lesson.)

3. I have officially given up on finishing Todd's Christmas scarf this winter. Goodbye, poor beautiful, cable- and bobble-filled scarf, I will see you in the Fall and you will be ready for Christmas 2009, I swear.

4. Edgar Sawtelle never did start to suck. It was beautiful and heartbreaking right until the end. I balanced out all the heartbreak with the latest in a fabulous werecat series. Ah, trashy supernatural romance novels, how I love you.

5. In organizing some files at work this afternoon, I realized that I have been prosecuting the priest-stalker since August 2006. When I started her case, I wasn't even married yet. Sheesh, priest-stalker, can't you give me a break?

6. This Friday, the latest Joss Whedon show debuts on Fox. Who is Joss Whedon, you ask? He's ONLY the creator of the best TV show in the history of TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So I am sure you can imagine my excitement.

7. Little and I went to a "Solve the Sherlock Holmes Mystery" event thingy at the Frazier Historical Museum a few weeks ago. We failed utterly at solving it. I felt so guilty about our performance that I'm reading some Sherlock Holmes stories for the first time ever. He was a wee bit pompous, wasn't he?

8. After making fun of them mercilessly on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, I am listen to The Ting Tings incessantly. They make me want to put on my blue wig and dance.

8. I have a new dress from Old Navy that I got for $9.99, and it's totally cool. (Told you this post was going to be random.)

101 Things -- Day 300-ish

Day 300 came and went last week during The Great Ice Storm/Power Outage of Louisville 2009, so I missed blogging about it. Not that I lost power and COULDN'T blog, I just didn't. Something about being snowed in makes me feel extraordinarily lazy. I spent the days wandering around the house, watching a little TV, reading a little, playing a few notes on the violin, then taking a nap to recover from the hardship of it all.

Anyway.

So, Day 300. I haven't been the most industrious 101 Thing-er lately, but chill out, dude, I still have 701 days. Here's what I DID do:

Work on a political campaign. Okay, so I didn't sit around at some candidate's headquarters for weeks on end lettering signs and scheduling stump speeches, like in the movies. What I did do was make two days' worth of phone calls at one of the Louisville Democratic Party offices for Bruce Lunsford, John Yarmuth and Barack Obama. It wasn't much, but that, combined with my teeny little financial contribution, t-shirt wearing, and yard sign-having, made me feel like I was invested in the campaign. And what a campaign it was! For the first time in a long time, I think people were voting FOR something, rather than just AGAINST something else. And DAMN, did it feel good.

Lose 10 pounds. For fuck's sake, I've only been working on this one since, oh, THE VERY FIRST DAY OF THE 1001, but I finally accomplished it. Back in the first week of January, I posted about my New Year's Weight Watchers Ritual. Believe it or not, I have stuck to it since then. That's four whole weeks! I'm not gonna lie, often I feel like a barely sober alcoholic who's scared to walk past a liquor store, but I'm hanging on. I would love, love, love, to be able to mark off the 20 and 30 pounds lost by Day 400.

Make a fleece blanket for myself. I should probably have a picture of this, but I don't. Just take my word for it that the blanket is quite pretty, all in shades of turquoise blue and brown, very snuggly, and very warm. It was fortuitously finished just before the above-mentioned Ice Storm of 2009, and was an integral part of all those snow-day naps.

I don't know about you, but I'm already looking forward to the next 100 days!

Showing Off, A Bit

It occurred to me that I never posted any of the pictures Todd took with his fancy new camera of all the Christmas baking and sewing I did. He's been doing some really cool stuff with it.

Does this look like a food magazine, or what?


A montage, if you will, of all the yummy stuff that got sent around to various people:

Christmas sewing, for my nieces, sister, and sister-in-law (they're zippered bags for makeup and other things that need to go in zippered bags):


And while I look just hideous in this photo (I was a wee bit tired), Todd loves it so much I thought I'd post it, anyway. We like to call it, "The Dark Side of Holiday Baking":

Whew!

Whew! I was getting a little nervous, but I'm happy to report that the Christmas sewing is TOTALLY done!

I would be glad to show you some photos, but I don't trust those people on my gift list to not peek, so they'll have to wait until after the big day. I was very pleased with how everything turned out.

All of the "must-do's" have been done, so for the rest of the week I'm going to be just enjoying myself. I am going to bake some more cookies, just because I want them (oh, those peanut butter kisses, how I underestimate their power!). The poor blog has been feeling neglected, after it's November pampering, so I have to get it back on track, too.

Hope your Christmas preparations are moving along as nicely as mine are!

A Brief Holiday Update

I've got the Christmas crud. No, that's not a Scrooge-y thing, just that little tiny bit of yucky sick you get when you work too hard at being merry.

Last week nearly did me in. There was Christmas cheer every night for seven nights straight, and it was supposed to be eight, but I had to wimp out on the last one. (Sorry, Bryan!) I also wimped out on half of my work day today and spent the afternoon and evening vegged out on the couch doing absolutely NOTHING to prepare for Christmas, which is now not even ten whole days away.

I cut out the contract knitting for Santa almost entirely, but added contract sewing, and lots and lots and lots of baking. So far, the Lewis household has the following waiting to be packaged up for gift-giving:

dark chocolate and walnut toffee
German chocolate fudge
peanut butter fudge
milk chocolate walnut fudge
date balls
butterscotch bars
almond biscotti

Still to come are Ina Garten's pecan squares, chai snickerdoodles, chocolate crackle cookies, and peanut butter kisses.

Sheesh. The contract sewing won't be done until the weekend, which is cutting it mighty close. Mighty close, indeed.

Someday I'll Write a Real Post Again

Ack. Forgot to post. Here's an update:

1. Dropped off my Ky State Fair entries on Sunday, and am anxiously awaiting the results. I have high hopes for that blasted Christmas stocking.

2. Been totally captivated by the Olympics in the past few days. Seriously, is there anything cuter than that men's gymnastics team? So wholesome, so disgustingly all-American.

3. Changed my haircolor. Again. This change prompted the following conversation with one of my Sunday School students:
Him: Didn't your hair used to be black and white?
Me: Yep.
Him: Do you know that now it's black and purple?
Me: Yep.
Him: Why don't you have kids?

4. Signed up for Facebook. Apparently, I don't have any more high school and college friends than I did . . . well, when I was in high school and college.

5. Saw The Dark Knight and it was totally depressing. Heath Ledger's dead, Morgan Freeman's divorced, and Christian Bale is a DV perp. Saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with Little, and it was much happier.

6. Finally gave into the summer reading temptation of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels. And, now I'm hooked. Darn those fascinating vampires!

7. Broken things around here are multiplying at an alarming rate: Both digital cameras -- broke. Laptop -- broke. Car -- broke. Sunglasses -- broke. (Okay, so that last one I broke myself in a snit when I lost my car keys AGAIN. None of the rest are my fault.)

Monday Recommendations

Just a quickie today, as I find that Monday has worn me out so much that I am hardly coherent and have read the same page of a new library book five times and still couldn't tell you what the blazes that book is about.

1. Speaking of books, Todd and I had one of our rare occasions of reading the same book over the past few weeks. (Since he only reads books that are true, and I only read those that are the loveliest of lies, we don't converge in our reading material very often. The Testament of Gideon Mack turned out to be quite a thought-provoker, and I highly recommend it. But only if you're okay with feeling sorry for the Devil.

2. Little and I saw the new Narnia movie yesterday, and I highly recommend it, too. (See? You think reading this blog doesn't get you anything, but that's two recommendations in one post.) I totally jumped out of my skin a few times, and gasped, and covered my mouth and cried at the end. What more could a person ask for in a movie?

3. I had my first ever pedicure last weekend, and guess what? I highly recommend it. (That makes three.) Perfect for when you need to feel extra girly.

4. You know what else I recommend? Voting tomorrow, assuming you're in Kentucky. It's one of the few rights you have left.

The Great Blog Catch-Up

Holy Blogoli, Batman! It's been a while since that last post down there. Don't worry, I did not run off with Eddie Izzard (he asked, but dude, I am happily married), I've just been neglecting the poor little blog. So here's the catch-up:

1. I had a second great outing with Little, which involved a BIG breakfast at Lynn's, and a movie. I had picked out a bunch of girly movies, but Little picked the new Jackie Chan. The new Narnia movie tops our list as a must-see. Little said to me, knowingly, "I think WE like magical stuff, don't we?" Yes, Little, we do, indeed.

2. I was ordained last weekend as a Presbyterian elder, but I don't feel any different. My first meeting is next week, so I'm still holding out hope for a secret handshake. I'm almost certain that I am the first Presbyterian elder whose mother plans to buy her a diamond nose ring to celebrate the occasion. I considered a tatto proclaiming PRESBYTERIAN ELDERS DO IT HOLIER but decided to go with the nose ring, instead.

3. I took a few much-needed days off last week and did a whole lot of laying around, but also spent an ENTIRE DAY sewing. I finished my class this past Monday night (a 101 Things accomplishment), and am feeling quite in the sewing groove. Since last we spoke, I've been working on . . .

a sewing-class-vest-I'll-probably-never-wear,


a difficult-to-photograph wrap-thingy to wear with my new sleeveless black dress,


and the top and bottom of a dress I started over a year ago (a middle is forthcoming).


4. I finally made the homemade power bars I've been thinking about making for ages. We are some Clif-bar-eating fools around here, so I thought it might make economical sense. I learned, however, that homemade power bars are WAY more expensive than Clif bars; I also learned that brown rice syrup is tasty enough to eat out of the jar with a spoon, not that I've actually done that, oh, no. These were pretty good, and I'm going to try a new batch with different tasty stuff. (What is up with the focus on this photo, I do not know.)


5. I'm following up Not Attending Thunder Over Louisville with Not Attending the Steamboat Race, Not Attending the Parade, Not Attending Oaks, and will cap it all off by Working Domestic Violence Intake on Derby Day. Quite the social butterfly, aren't I?

6. Finally, in case you need an election year pick-me-up, I was reminded by NPR this morning that on this day in history, 2003, George W. Bush declared the Iraq War "Mission Accomplished." Way to go, Dubya! Dude, your mom must be so proud.

In Case You Forgot I Am A Geek

I don't know what you did with your Monday night, but me? I went to Sewing Class!

I have a friend at work over whom I suffer regular pangs of jealousy, not just because she's thin and pretty, but because she was a HOME ECONOMICS major in college. Seriously! Did you know you could major in home ec before going to law school? That you could learn how to do lots of cool stuff like knit and sew and cook and probably "put up" vegetables in the summer and that could be your DEGREE?

Well, I didn't. And I am SO having to play catch up. Hence the sewing class.

Class actually started a couple of weeks ago, and I was totally unimpressed, what with the two-hour lecture on fabric and thread that was exactly as exciting as it sounds. But tonight, we made up for it by completely sewing not one, but TWO projects.

A pillow sham:


Look how plump and lovely it looks, sitting there on the couch. It's destined to live on my bed, once I make its twin.

And a pouch-thingy:


That pouch-thingy looks all sweet and innocent, but don't let it fool you. I sewed the whole dang thing and held it up for the teacher's approval, only to discover that the dad-gumbed zipper was inside out. I took it apart, and sewed it back together, and now it zips open and shut properly, but the ducks on the back are upside down.


Todd says that the upside down ducks are what make it special. That ANYONE could have a pouch-thingy with right side up ducks, but this pouch-thingy is unique. You gotta love him, that Todd.

I'm fighting a mad urge to make a sham for every pillow in the house.

It's a Scarf, It's a Shawl . . .

. . . it's Clapotis!



Ooh, I am loving this project. It's the first thing I've done in a long time that turned out exactly as I had hoped. It took me just about a month to knit, but I skipped lots of knitting days, especially in the beginning before it got fun.

I finished it yesterday, and wore it today just tossed around my neck like a scarf. It kept me snuggly warm in my frigid conference room (actually, I got a bit warm, but if you repeat that, I'll deny it to the death), and I got lots of compliments. And I think this Spring, it will be a perfect little shawl over lighter clothes.



We celebrated the finished Clapotis tonight with the first test of a new (to me) pizza dough recipe, which I linked to over in the sidebar. Like the Clapotis, it was lots of trouble, but well worth it.

That's Not a Zit, It's a Jam Injury!

Just popping in to avoid the I-Didn't-Blog-For-Two-Weeks-And-Then-Didn't-Have-Anything-Momentous-Enough-To-Say-After-All-That-Time problem.

People, Christmas is hard work. Fun, but hard work. Yesterday afternoon, Todd went to do some shopping while I stayed home to make some jam (remember? making jam was somewhere on the list . . . where did that list go, anyway?). The cranberry jam was quite a success, but it's always a bit disconcerting to dump nine cups of cranberries into the pot and end up with four jars of jam. There will have to be at least one more big "jam session." (Get it? Jam session? Whoo, I crack me up.)

Oh, and by the way . . . Christmas is also dangerous. I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but when one is boiling sugar and cranberries, said cranberries tend to SPLURT out at odd times and attach themselves to any exposed skin they can find. This hurts. This leaves marks. I can honestly say, I don't recommend Co-Ed Naked Jam Making. (And NO, I have NOT tried it myself.)

I was so hopped up on sugar fumes that I decided to continue on with the jam-making and ended up with experimental pumpkin-banana butter. I had some of the leftover for breakfast this morning, and I can firmly pronounce it Not Bad.

So after all that jam, I made dinner (Pasta with Ricotta, Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, which wasn't terribly exciting, taste-wise, but kept up the Christmas-theme, color-wise), then moved on to chocolate-cake-baking for a party tonight. While that was baking, I did some feverish knitting on the second of the three small items of contract knitting for Santa Claus.

Do you see how I am just flying through the Christmas To-Do list? No doubt about it, I am on a roll.

So THAT's What It's Like to Finish Something

Okay, as promised yesterday, I give you . . .

The Ultra-Ugly, Loud and Obnoxious Granny Shawl!


I am "sort of" pleased with the shawl. I like that I made it up entirely, all by myself. Yes, I know granny squares have been done before, but I really "winged it" on the construction.

I also really liked how all the colors looked together. I was really trying to put squares together from my stash with colors that I thought would look hideous next to one another, but was often surprised by how interesting some of them came out.



Having said all that, I think I'm going to rip the thing out. Not the squares themselves, just the sewing them together part. When I tried it on, the look I got was less Retro Hippy Girl and more Actual Granny. When Todd tried to figure out how to use it for a Halloween costume, I decided it needed some alterations.

I'm thinking that I will replace the white seaming and border with black, use a softer yarn for that to give it better drape, and do a slightly more traditional shaping -- more triangle, but not exactly triangle. Hopefully I'll accomplish that this weekend and can post an update next week.

In literary news, (and continuing with the "finishing" theme of this post) I absolutely had to force myself to finish the book I've been reading, A Thread of Grace. For those of you who have listened to my endless lectures on how The Sparrow is The World's Best Book Ever and I Do Mean Ever, this was by the same author, and boy, did she let me down.

This one was not about interplanetary Jesuit travel, but about how Italians worked to hide Jews from the Nazis during World War II. It took me about 300 pages to get the characters straight and actually care about any of them, and by page 310, most of them were dead, dying, or being tortured. Uplifting stuff, that.

And nary an alien or spaceship in sight. Bummer.

A Shawl of Many Colors

For the past few months, I've been kind of "meh" about my various craft projects.

You heard me: MEH.

The "It" dress is too hard, quilting is WAY too hard, and knitting . . . well, knitting is hot. Plus, I had determined that the yarn stash is a bit out of control and it needed to be weaned down a bit before any new yarn purchases could be made.

But the other day, while pondering, yet again, the virtues of being a hippy versus being "mod," I was inspired. I had visions of an oh-so-cool, so-ugly-its-cute shawl made of granny squares. The kind of thing that Dharma's mom would have worn.

So, I gathered the stash, and "commenced ta grannyin!" Here's what I have so far:




The plan? Well, we're going kind of loosey-goosey on this one.
Step One: Granny until there's no stash left.
Step Two: Tie those suckers together in some sort of shawl-like shape.
Step Three: Throw it over my shoulders and embrace my inner hippy.

I'll keep you updated, but I have high hopes for this one.

Domestic Stuff

Last night I finally went to my long-anticipated (by me, anyway) quilting class. Just a one-night affair, called "machine-quilting basics." I was quite concerned that I would be the dunce of the class and probably asked to leave before I infected the real quilters with my dunceness. Thankfully, this did not occur, although it was touch and go there for awhile.

Really, who would expect to go to a quilting class, the qualifications for which were "must be able to sew a straight line" and after a brief introductory lecture, be told to START QUILTING?! I had to slap my quilt sandwich together (and yes, that IS what it's called) lickety-split and just go with it.

It turned out okay. By the end of the night, my neighbor had said to me, "My, you're really good at squiggles."

I'm good at squiggles. Huh. Who knew?

I actually did take a picture this morning of my squiggles (and my name -- I quilted my name, isn't that cool?) but unfortunately, since I was quilting with tan thread on cream muslin, the picture came out looking a lot like nothing. You'll have to just take my word for it. I'm going to do some practicing on the really pretty fabric panel I bought which we didn't actually use in the class, so I'll post that when it's done.

In lieu of a quilting picture, I thought I'd pass on this great recipe for homemade ice cream that I made this weekend. (If you don't have an ice cream maker, I highly suggest you buy one. I bought a cheapy one for $18 at Target and it's working just fine so far.) Homemade ice cream, even made in an electric maker, reminds me of being a kid and cranking that ice cream crank until I thought my arm would fall off, then getting to eat multiple bowls of drippy, smooshy yumminess. In my family, we only had three flavors: banana, strawberry or peach. I made banana on Sunday, with the scandalous addition of dark chocolate chips. I'm planning on trying some more adventurous flavors this summer, but for starters, this one's a classic. It came from my mom, who got it from HER mom, so it has a great pedigree.



Homemade Ice Cream

2 quarts Half and Half
5 eggs (Yes, it has raw eggs. It came from a grandma, it must be okay.)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
pinch of salt
3 cups of fruit

Mix together and run through a blender to chop and distribute fruit. Chill for as long as you can stand to wait. Freeze according to your ice cream freezer's directions, then put in your regular freezer for a few hours to harden further.

Best eaten outside in a lawn chair, swatting bugs and letting your favorite dog lick the bowl.

Crafting Success!

If you ever do any surfing the net for crafting/sewing stuff -- and SOME people do -- you've probably seen this turn-a-pair-of-pants-into-a-skirt trend.

If you never surf for such thing, just trust me -- it's a trend.

And since I happened to own a pair of pants which truly looked like ASS on me, I decided to try it out.

Drum roll, please . . .




It worked! I turned those crappy pants into a skirt I actually like! And, oddly enough, the things that made the pants look like ASS actually made for a pretty flattering fit in the skirt. (Sorry there are no skirt-in-action shots, I could never quite get it together when I was wearing it to have my portrait taken.)



Here's a closeup of the insert fabric, which I love (and which took a very long time to find at Baer's):















This was a really easy project; I started ripping seams on Sunday afternoon and finished the skirt on Wednesday (and I don't think I even worked on it on Monday). Keep in mind, too, that I am the world's most beginning sewer. Someone who actually had a clue could have probably done the whole thing in an afternoon.

If you're interested in doing this, I recommend looking around the net for various instructions. They will all seem pretty vague, but that's okay. Really, you just cut the pants off where you want the skirt, rip out the leg and crotch --

(man, I am truly afraid of what internet searches might bring someone to this post, given that last phrase)

-- and then kind of sew it back together however you can get it to lay flat.

Even thought it's corduroy, I have already worn it with a t-shirt and sandals. I think it will truly shine, though, if I ever do come into possession of those red cowboy boots I have been dreaming about for two years.

A girl's gotta have a dream, you know.

Christmas in May

A few posts ago, I was bemoaning the loss of the craft mojo. While I haven't made a whole lot of progress since then on . . . well, anything, really . . . I am feeling more in the spirit of things.

Here's my current favorite project:
















Yep. I'm knittin' myself a Christmas stocking. In May. After last year's Christmas knitting angst, I decided two things:

1. "I'll just make all my Christmas presents this year! Who needs shopping?" These are the words of a crazy person. If you ever hear these words from a person you care about, get thee to a pharmacy. Stat.

2. Any knitting intended for the Christmas season should be started no later than February 1 of the preceding year. No exceptions, even for scarves and dishcloths. You may think there is an exception for the "Starving Children in the Desert Who Really Need Hand-knit Mittens More than Water or Food" project, but there isn't. An exception, that is.

That said, I'm really pleased with my stocking. It's from a great sock book (there's a link over to your right) that I bought with a Christmas gift certificate from my sister-in-law, who understands about yarn.

This is my first attempt at fair isle, and I can't tell you how surprised I am that it actually looks like real live fair isle! And it's not that hard, really. I had been told by a certain experienced knitter that I know that you need to be able to "knit with both hands" to do it, but to that I say, "hooey." I've managed just fine with one hand . . . well, actually, with two . . . what the heck did she even MEAN?!

All I know is: Hey! I made stars!

It's enough to make me want to make myself a hot toddy and head for a ski lodge . . .

The Dog Ate My Blog

Whew! It's finally Friday, and oops -- I haven't posted all week. It's been a very long, angst-filled week for some reason.

Source of Angst #1:
As I mentioned last time, we went to Thunder on Saturday. It was fine, big loud fireworks, etc, (but why, oh why, can't the "theme" and the music and the fireworks actually go together in some way?) . . . then the trip home. We planned to take the bus home, thinking it would be quicker and less painful. Wrong, very wrong.

It took two and a half hours to get home. Two and a half hours of sitting on a bus listening to some young corporate type describe himself -- rather sniffily, if you know what I mean -- as a "litigator." Two and a half hours of a guy describing the "big ol' pork chop sandwich" he had at the Chow Wagon. Two and a half hours of an elderly woman earnestly advising several young Indian guys to "learn as much as possible about our culture and take it back to your homeland."

Yeah. I don't see myself going back to Thunder next year. In fact, we are planning a camping trip for Derby weekend.

Source of Angst #2:
Penny the Wonder Puppy is nearly fully recovered from her long and protracted illness. The good side of this is that she can finally act like a normal healthy puppy. The bad side? She can finally act like a normal healthy puppy.

She's a bit . . . um . . . crazy. I remember that we thought she had a "strong personality" which would help her when encountering the craziness of Sam the Best Dog Ever. This was right. Please note, however, that Sam wasn't called Sam the Best Dog Ever until we had the chance to compare his behavior to Penny's.

The barking. And the biting -- chewing, to be more exact. And the poo. Good lord, the poo. It is extremely lucky for her that she is extraordinarily cute and loveable.

Source of Angst #3:
I found an ad for a Very Exciting Job Opening in Utopia, USA (Portland, OR, for those not keeping up). I want that Very Exciting Job. Unfortunately, I very much doubt that I am In Any Way Qualified. So I'm trying to pimp Todd out for it. He is not as Excited as I am.

Source of Angst #4:
The crafting mojo is failing me. The Christmas Stocking is coming along nicely, or it was until I went to my knitting group last night and got it all jacked up. Knitting and knitting group don't always go very well together. And the It Dress is totally stalled. My velvet is, according to Claudia, "warped" and has to be stretched back into its proper position. Blech.

I'm thinking of starting a quilt. Did I mention I have a Craft Room in my house now? This means I must fill the Craft Room with various kinds of crafts in various stages of completion, lest Todd decide that it is actually an Exercise Room.

Anyway . . . it's Friday, and this is a major Angst-ender. Big plans for the weekend include buying a notebook for my Artist's Way morning pages and a timer for my 8-Minute Meditation (see sidebar of Books I am Reading). Ah . . . self-improvement.