Yay

My pal got her package finally and she liked it :) Yay :)

The preceding post was brought to you by the letters P, M and S :)

Grumpified

I sent my Secret Pal 12 Pal's package a bit late due to some extenuating circumnstances that I kept her in the loop on. Because of this, I sent a MASSIVE huge awesome package for July and August all together. I sent it Fed Ex so she would get it ASAP. and she hasn't received it yet. I keep checking the tracking every day. I even emailed her and told her it was in her town, she just needed to either be home to get it or go over to FedEx at night and pick it up. And yet, I check tracking again this morning and for the third morning, it wasn't delivered, it is still in FedEx custody. I don't know how many times they will attempt delivery before sending it back to me. I'm frustrated and impatient and I want my pal to get her DANG package!

This hasn't been the best swap for me, so far. Ah well.

*grumble grumble grumble grumble*

How to knit dissapointment

I have been knitting like the wind on my circle cardigan the last few days. I finished the body (per the instructions) and started in on one sleeve. In my excitement, I tried it on with just the one sleeve hole opened up and I am pretty much 100% sure it isn't going to fit in any way.

But I followed the directions exactly! and they are based on my own measurements, so how the HELL can it be wrong? I think the error comes in with the fact that you're supposed to knit the front portion the same size as the back. Well, I have a lot more of me on the front than the back...you know, these breastual things...so I think I should have knit a LOT more on the front. As it is, the sides of the cardigan, when pulled taught, don't even come to my nipples :

I also think I made an error. The directions had me making a circle the diameter of my back plus 1"(which I did) and then knit in some waste yarn for the armholes, which would be done later. Well, the directions for where to put the arm holes were VERY sketchy and just didn't make any sense and, rather than email the pattern designer to clarify, I just assumed I knew where they should go and put them there. Now, the cardigan isn't right. You're supposed to wear it one way for a longer back and shorter shawl part and then you can flip it to make a shorter body and larger shawl part. Well, my arms are in the middle, so it's just...even and floppy.

As much as I wanted to have this cardigan, I think I am going to unravel the arm that I've knit thus far, kitchener up the arm holes and then call it a throw blanket and send it to my sister for her birthday.

*grump grump grump*

When can't I ever seem to knit clothing correctly? *feeling really down on myself today*

Jam fan

Saturday, someone gave me a whole flat of raspberries! I LOVE raspberries, but I knew I wouldn't be able to eat them before they went bad. So, what did I do? I decided to make freezer jam for the first time in my life. I threw in one container of blackberries, just for the heck of it, but otherwise, it's amazing, delicious, fantastic raspberry jam! YUM!!!!!!

The whole time I was making it, I was remembering the Friend's episode where Monica makes Jam and Joey sits there and eats it with a spoon. Having only ever had store-bought jam and jelly before, I couldn't understand why he would do that. Yuck. Well, licking the spoon on my freezer jam while I was cleaning up, I now know why. Hot dayun, that's some AMAZING stuff! I almost wished some of it didn't set so I could pour it over vanilla ice cream :D Delish :)

Yay for jam :) My son even asked for a jam and peanut butter sandwich for lunch today, instead of the usual peanut butter and banana sandiwch :D

It's so different than jam in the store. It's slightly creamy, but firm and not too sweet and tastes like real raspberries with a tiny hint of blackberries at the back of your throat. God, it's good. I need to invent things to eat it with :)

Anniversary presents

Yesterday was my partner and my third anniversary :) We went out to dinner at our traditional anniversary restaurant in Berkeley and had a wonderful time! Why am I telling you this? Because guess what I got for my anniversary present?

A swift!!!



And you know what is even cooler? My partner MADE it for me...like, from scratch! He's been taking wood working classes on the weekend as a hobby and he wanted the first real thing he ever made to be something for me and this is it :D :D :D

It is so pretty and wonderful and special and spiffy and I LOVE it almost as much as I love him :D

Yay for anniversaries and love :)

New Specs

Guess I need to change my icon up there because I have new specs! The sweetie and I were joking last night that, what with my new eyeballs and a hands-free phone thingie in my ear, I'm turning into a cyborg! Oh no! I wonder what will be next.

I took some pictures (of course) to show off my new specs (of course). I LOVE them :) I can see so well and everything's so shiny and clear and I still get a kick out of the fact that the lenses are hydrophobic :P I want it to rain now, so I can see the water not stick :P

The pretty pose:


The non-smiling pose:


The cheezy grin, black and white artsy pose:


The Grrrrrrr, growly face grumpy pretend pose:


And the driving in the car and you can see the transition lenses working but it's early in the morning and my hair is still wet pose:


Also, I wanted to share two new additions to my bike :)





Adding these to my already schnazzy bike makes me a happy fraggle!

culinarily creative

I know, I've been a bad blogger and SP 12 participant. It's just that I usually blog at work and the last week and a half has been RIDICULOUS! I was working till 8PM many nights, planning for a big company functioning I was throwing. And now it's over! yay! I am knitting away on my circular jacket, it just rocks :)

But I don't have much else to share that's crafty, except....

cooking!

I decided to get brave and make the boy some gluten free/casien free mac n cheese for lunch today. It used to be his favorite food and I know he's been missing it a lot since we started him on the GF/CF diet several weeks ago.

So, I started by cooking some brown rice pasta (Trader Joe's). Then, I melted some casien-free butter type stuff (Earth Balance) in a pan, added some gluten free multi-purpose flour (From Bob's Red Mill) and made a roux. I cooked it for a bit, then added a bunch of soy milk. Cooked it for awhile more, till boiling and slightly thick, then added pepper and a wad of casien-free grated cheddar cheese type product (Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet). I whisked vigorously while the cheese-type stuff melted (takes a little longer than real cheese, but it DOES melt) and it lightly boiled and thickened. Then, I poured some over the pasta and set it in front of the boy.

Two bites got a "MmmmMmmMM!" and a thumbs up. When asked if he liked it, he smiled, gave me nod and rubbed his belly. He ate the whole bowl :)I'm just thrilled :)

Now, I had a LOT of sauce left over, so I poured it into a container and put it in the fridge. I think it will solidify a la velveeta and I can cut some off, re-melt in a pan and have cheese sauce whenever he wants mac n cheese or cheese sauce on brocolli, etc :)

I'm just SOOOOO happy this worked really well and he loved it :) Yay for me!