Halloween!!!

OK, so, I'm finally going to catch up on Blogstalking (or more like pick up again. I'm so far behind, I'm not even going to get anywhere near caught up). Here we have my cousin Beth (the clown) and me (the teddy bear) on our very first Halloween. I was 5 weeks old, and I had a costume. I'm pretty sure I haven't missed a year since. :D And here, we have my most current - Saturday at Johnny Mac's Halloween party. Speaking of said party, we had a complete blast. And by "we", I mean me, Kris, Turtlegirl (who drove up for the weekend) and Roxy and her hubby. It was a very Knitty party. Costume highlights: Annemarie as Troy Polamalu: Her hubby John as Dr. C. Harry Beaver (The "C" stands for Clifford. Cristi asked.): Cristi as a black and white movie (with me): David as a MySpace page: Drew as Ozzy Osbourne: John administering "medication" to Greg the weightlifter: Justin and Hannah, as Greenbelt Road and a Stoplight: Their parents, Scott and Dawn, as Sick and Tired: Ed (yes, as in EdFest) as a sewer worker: Our host, Johnny Mac (left) and Duk (right) with the best shot of Ed ever: Annemarie, again. I can't even caption this one: And the boys playing poker. That would be my hubby with the scarf on his head: There are a couple of pictures I can't get to work right now, but I'll try to add them later. I had an awesome, awesome weekend with Cristi - she is a total blast. She taught me to make her famous pattern-row counters, and I took her to Ikea. We are both very dedicated enablers. And on Sunday, we had lunch with Annemarie and Alice, which was a complete hoot. I can't wait until she comes back for another visit! (*plots evilly to find Cristi a job up here so she can move for good*)

Blogstalking - Movies

OK, you've had the opportunity to mock my Science Fiction book collection, now you can mock my movie collection. Do you see how much I love my Knitty friends? You've seen them in this form, courtesy of the Macro Shot Challenge: Now, you get to see what is INSIDE the boxes (Kassett boxes from IKEA, if anyone is interested. I love 'em.) Some personal faves from the collection: Seasons one and two of the BEST SHOW ON TV: Seasons one and two of Fraggle Rock, and season one of The Muppet Show (as I wait impatiently for season two): Three, count 'em THREE different editions of The Wizard of Oz (possibly all of which were Christmas presents from my brother at different times): Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of Broadway's Lost Treasures - performances from past Tony Awards. LOVE these: And the Broadway shows I own (not movie versions like Chicago - actual stage productions): And yes, that is The Hoff in Jekyll and Hyde. And I even like him in it. Sweeney Todd is without a doubt the favorite, though. Hmm... and I just realized that I must have missed Passion when I pulled those out... So, those are my (our) movies. Let the mocking begin. :D (Oh, and I would post pics of our videotapes, but we JUST packed them up, and I'm not digging them out just for this. So deal. :P

Blogstalking - Library!

So, I ran around the house taking pictures of our bookshelves, and although my first inclination was to post pictures of each individual shelf, I realized that it would be a LOT of pictures, so I cut back a little. As it is, this is going to be a long post. Click 'em if you want to see bigger versions. Bookshelf #1 (the tall one) - On the top we have two pop-up books: The Wizard of Oz, which Kris gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago, and Love Bugs, which I gave him for Valentine's Day a while back. And the only plant I have kept alive for more than a month since I was a kid. Top shelf: Gregory Maguire, Neal Stephenson (although Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon are currently lent to a friend, so there is a gap there), Orson Scott Card (I LOVE the Ender series), plus The Princess Bride, The Silent Gondoliers (also by William Goldman), and The Neverending Story (Although not as cool as the copy I took out of the library as a kid - the real world was in red text, Fantasia was in green. Or maybe vice versa...) Second shelf: Kris's SciFi collection - Asimov, Greg Bear, Arthur C. Clarke, Gregory Benford, plus The Darwin Awards II and George Carlin's Napalm and Silly Putty. And stuck on top are Good Omens (GREAT book. SO funny!) and Julie and Julia. In front is Walking through Virginia's Vineyards, written by a guy Kris used to work with. Third Shelf: More SciFi, although this is more of my stuff. Includes Holly Black's Tithe and Valiant (Which reminds me... I should see when Ironside is coming out. Crud. Not until spring.), Alice Borchardt's Wolf trilogy, two of the George R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire series, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which took me forever to read, but I adored. Fourth Shelf: Geek books! High Tech Heretic, A Brief History of Time, The Tao of Physics (all Kris's), Brian Greene's An Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos (both mine - made my brain hurt, but I loved them anyway), Kris's Michael Crichton books, a few Jonathan Lethem titles, more random SciFi, and the Clan of the Cave Bear books. (Anyone else read these? I loved the first three, tolerated The Plains of Passage, and forced myself to finish The Shelters of Stone. Ugh. It felt totally forced.) Bottom shelf: Music books and some random coffee table books. Bookshelf #2 (the short one): On top, most of our Discworld books. We love these books. I had to make Kris reading them at night, though, because he would start laughing out loud, which either distracted my from what I was reading or woke me up. Next shelf: More SciFi and fantasy (sensing a theme?), plus my Wrinkle in Time books and some classics (Les Mis, Sense and Sensibility, etc.) Next shelf: random mishmash, including some of the info we picked up when we were first looking into adoption several years ago (obviously, we didn't make any progress on that) OK, yes, first of all, that is a picture of me at age one on the wall. It used to hang in my parents' house when I was a kid (talk about embarassing for a high-schooler), and when Mom gave it to us, Kris made me hang it up. Anyway, Bookshelf #3 has the remainder of the Discworld books on the top, comic strip collections on the next shelf, more random SciFi and some sign language books on the third shelf, and TONS of DragonLance books on the bottom. (We both read some, but I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of them that never even were cracked open) Bookshelf #4 has Kris's James Bond books on the top (some of which were originally my paternal grandmother's and my dad's), Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (Love, love, LOVE this series), Apprentice Adept, and Geodyssey series on the first shelf, his Xanth series on the second, and an assortment of New Age books (Astrology, aromatherapy, dream interpretation and such) on the bottom. Oh, and a blurry Rowena running away, because that's what she does. :D Two bookshelves full of further proof of our immense geekiness. On the left, Spongebob sits on my Douglas Adams books, accompanied by a Beanie Baby dragon and pterodactyl. Top shelf: My Shel Silverstein books, and the Brian Jacques Redwall books. Next shelf, my kids book collection - some funny picture books, including some very funny John Scieszka books, Little Women, Little Men, and Heidi and a few others (all from my own childhood), and the Spiderwick Chronicles. Next shelf: Random fiction, includes The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the Tales of the City books (except Sure of You, which I just re-reading finished last night and haven't brought back down yet), and the Dan Brown books. Third shelf: Theatre books. Some old texbooks from acting classes, scripts, monologue books, and one-act anthologies. Bottom shelf: Kris's home and auto repair/maintenance books and my yearbooks. On the right bookshelf, the top three shelves are all Lord of the Rings stuff (Obsessed? Us? Noooooo!) The next two shelves are my Arthurian Legend books - The Mists of Avalon et. al., the Pendragon Chronicles, T.H. White's The Once and Future King, and some non-Arthurian fantasy, like Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy, and James Alan Gardner's Explorer Corps series. The bottom shelf holds Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (technically, Kris's Mom's... I should probably see if she would like those back), and some great alternative history stuff by Harry Turtledove. My Stephen King books. As in, everything he has written, with the exception of On Writing, Cycle of the Werewolf, and The Colorado Kid. For several years when we were kids, Tom would give me the latest Stephen King book in hardcover for Christmas. I think he bought me from The Dark Half through Desperation and The Regulators. Eventually, I started buying them myself, because I was too impatient. Plus, I was working at Barnes and Noble the year Bag of Bones came out. No WAY was I going to be able to resist when it was right there AND I had a discount. Oh, and that framed picture? Yep - that's an autographed photo of Stephen King. My senior year in high school, I did my final paper for English class on the appeal of his books, and my dad mailed him a copy of it. He sent me the picture in return. I had no idea Dad was sending it, so it was a total shock to me when it arrived. My Dad is pretty cool. (Even though he NEVER updates his blog) And now we get to the cookbooks. I love to cook, and I collect cookbooks. They once filled one shelf. Now they live in the kitchen on our biggest bookcase PLUS a shelf of my baker's rack. My "I watch these people on TV" books - America's Test Kitchen, Wayne Harley Brachman, Alton Brown (*swoon* I adore him...), Shirley Corriher, Tyler Florence, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson (cannot WAIT for her new show on Food Network!), Jamie Oliver, and Rachael Ray - my go-to girl for just about any meal. She's a little overly perky for me to watch regularly anymore, but her recipes still kick butt. Left half of the big-ass oak bookcase: chocolate cookbooks, ice cream cookbooks, ethnic cookbooks (Thai, Chinese, and Korean, specifically), plus a bunch of fun ones like the Sopranos Family Cookbook, Cooking with Friends (Yes, the tv show. It has the best lasagna recipe EVER.), and a cookbook from Ukrop's, our old grocery store in Richmond. Plus a big accordion file of recipes from Food Network. Next shelf down is mostly baking and appliance cooking - pressure cooker, Crock Pot, and bread machine (which I don't even own anymore... can anyone use this?), plus a few more Food Network folks, like Emeril, Bobby Flay, and Ming Tsai (Hey, the shelf got full. Someone had to move) The bottom shelf has some cookbooks from our year as vegetarians, and a bunch of random cookbooks that are mostly compilations of recipes from food companies. (One of those holds the best turkey chili in the world. And it's about that time of year again...) And the right half of the big bookcase: mostly random cookbooks, including some fundraiser ones like the million-year-old Three Rivers Cookbook (My Mom used to make stuff out of this when I was a kid, although I think this might actually be my Grandmother's copy) and "A Taste of Caring", which my former neighbor in Richmond gave me (she worked at the hospital that was selling it), our bartender's guides and wine books, two different ancient copies of the Betty Crocker Cookbook, and a new version of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Plus two notebooks of Food Network printouts and a recipe file of more stuff from their website. And finally, my knitting books. (No, I'm not taking a picture of all of Kris's computer books, so you don't get to see those.) One notebook of articles from various issues of Knitty, three notebooks of patterns from Knitty and elsewhere, and one notebook of everything I might want to know about socks, including patterns. And a ridiculous number of knitting books for one person to own. I have a lot of difficulty walking away from a new knitting book, as you can no doubt see. Pretty soon, I'm going to have to ask Kris to build me another shelf for them.

Blogstalking - Celebrities

OK - I'm going to post these today to try to get myself at least slightly more on-schedule for this, especially since I'm going to need a buttload of pics for my bookshelves... Some of you may be aware that I went to a small college in Pennsylvania. Specifically, Westminster College (Go Titans!). It is a beautiful campus, and I loved it there. One of the neat things (which I believe has since changed) that Westminster had was a 4-1-4 schedule. Fall and Spring were typical semesters, where you took 4 classes. January was a separate term, and you only took one class. For education majors and minors, one of these J-Terms would be field experience (observing a class for the month), and a lot of people took at least one J-Term as a travel class. My cousin spent January travelling around Europe one year. My freshman year, the Theatre Department used January to rehearse and stage a production of "The Man of La Mancha". Once the show was up, we had classes for about a week and a half on the history of the American Musical. It was awesome. Anyway, my sophomore year J-Term (January 1993), they offered a class called "Literature on Broadway". We spent three weeks in class, reading "Phantom of the Opera", a really crappy abridged version of "Les Miserables", some Damon Runyon short stories, and watched "Madama Butterfly". Then we went to NYC for a week. While there, we saw Phantom, Les Mis, Guys and Dolls, and Miss Saigon. (Let me mention once again that this was FOR CREDIT.) We also got to tour Radio City Music Hall and some other touristy stuff. The nice thing about being there as college students was that we were much less chaperoned than on, say, a high school trip, so we were allowed to go to shows and things on our own. Three friends and I bought tickets in advance to see Falsettos and then went to Sardi's for dinner one night. Another group of us went to a matinee of Jelly's Last Jam starring the amazing Gregory Hines and a young kid named Savion Glover (This was back when most people who knew him watched "Sesame Street"). Just an awesome week. So, anyway, my pictures: The girls with one of the Radio City Rockettes. Shockingly, the 4 guys in the class opted not to pose with us... Can you find me? I apologize right now for the tight-rolled jeans. Again - 1993. I stuck with it longer than I should have because when combined with slouchy socks, it was a good way to camoflage too-short jeans, which was an issue back then. "Tall" jeans were hard to find. It's not the best picture, but the woman in the velvet hat is the amazing Faith Prince, who was playing Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at that point. And my goodness, my hair was shiny... (The guy in the back is my friend James Geogehan, who I haven't seen since he graduated that spring and who will probably be completely freaked if he Googles his name and finds this. :D ) And the amazingly sweet and friendly Tom Wopat. Yes, folks, I met LUKE FREAKIN' DUKE! I was always a Luke girl back in the day when everyone was crushing on Bo/John Schneider, so this was particularly delicious to me. He was so nice to all of us, signing autographs and posing for pictures. He left shortly after, and a few of us stuck around (I think everyone was going to the Empire State Building, which we skipped) to catch Faith Prince. A few minutes later, he walked back up the other side of the street carrying a 6-pack and stopped to wave at us. Soo cool... Oh, and thank you for the comments on my "Friendship" post. Like I said, I'm not going into details here (if you REALLY need to know, PM me on the Knittyboards, or read my post on this page, and that will give you a pretty good idea of what has been going on), but I will say that I am honestly doing fine, and that this was more than a simple case of friend growing apart. This was flat-out betrayal in the worst possible way. Which has made me appreciate true friends that much more.

Blogstalking! And another recipe!

This week in blogstalking... tools. Clearly, I opted for knitting tools. I thought about shooting Kris's woodworking tools, but they are big. And I could have done cooking tools, but I have WAY too many, and it would be embarassing to show that. =) So, knitting tools it is. In the front are my straight needles, flanked by the 2 Knit Picks cases holding my Options Circs in one and my Classic Circs and DPNs in the other. On the top of the footstool are my swift and winder, along with my DPNs, and the array of tools I carry with me: scissors, ruler, tape measure, pencils, erasers, TONS of stitch markers, cable needles, point protectors, stitch holders, and Chibi with a variety of yarn needles. I'm a tool junkie, I guess. Ok, so y'all remember the Oreo Truffle recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago? Well, my Mom has done it again. We were in PA this weekend to see my folks (Sunday was Dad's birthday), as well as some other family (including both of the baby girls I made the quilts and Boleros for). When we got there, Mom told me about these cookies that a friend of hers from work told her about. Tell me that is not the funniest thing EVER? It looks like a little cheeseburger! (That's a saucer it is sitting on, just for the size comparison). The "buns" are Nilla Wafers, the "burger" is a Keebler Fudge Shoppe Filled Caramel cookie, the "cheese" (or mustard, depending on your preference) is vanilla frosting tinted yellow, and the "lettuce" is coconut tinted green. To assemble them, put a little frosting on a Nilla wafer, stick the caramel cookie on it, spread a layer of frosting on the caramel cookie, and dip it in the coconut. Top it with the other Nilla wafer (you may need another dab of frosting). They are really yummy, in addition to being hilarious to look at. Not surprisingly, they were a big hit with all the kids (big and small) at my Aunt & Uncle's house on Saturday. We're having some people over for the Penn State-Notre Dame game this weekend, and I think I have to make some. You might notice that there is a new progress bar in the sidebar. Um... yeah. I cast on for the Shamrock Henley pullover for Kris last Thursday night (before meeting the absolutely adorable Margaret9 in DC for coffee and a crochet lesson), and then proceeded to keep working on it in the car to and from PA and while we were there. So much for sticking to my holiday projects. I suppose I could make Kris wait unti Christmas to actually have it, but that just seems mean. I am enjoying it - it's a nice stitch pattern and goes fairly quickly. I definitely like the yarn a lot. I'll probably make something for myself in it at some point. I'll take pictures once it is more than just a big old tube. =)

I Blame the Knittyboards

For what, you ask? This: Seriously - if it weren't for the Knittyboard, I would not have known that Smiley's had discontinued Cotton-Ease for $1.99 a skein. OK, I guess I also have to blame Kris, because when I said something to him about a discontinued yarn that I like being available for about 60% off what it went for retail, he told me that I should stock up. So I did. Hee. That would be 20 skeins each of the 7 colors that Smiley's has. Yes - 140 skeins of Cotton-Ease. That should last me for a while. I figure once I decide what I am doing with all of it, I'll eventually swap some of what I am not going to use. In other news, I totally missed last week's "Does It Float" assignment for Blogstalking. The week just sort of got away from me. So, I am being better this week. Bezzie's son Chunky declared that this week, we should take pictures of our feet. So, here are mine, complete with fresh polish! Feet are strange. I find that people have very unique relationships with their feet. I've spent most of my life wearing cheap shoes from Payless et. al, and not thinking twice about it. I have a friend who has problems with her feet, so she tries to be careful about what shoes she wears (not that she doesn't wear cute shoes - she just buys ones that are better-constructed as a rule). Lately, I have become addicted to my Birkenstocks. I have three pair (brown Bostons, taupe Arizonas, and black Rios), and I have worn them almost exclusively since I got them. When I was born, my feet were misshapen. They turned in. I don't mean they turned at the heel and I was pigeon-toed, I mean that my feet actually bent about halfway between my heels and toes. So, for a while, I wore a brace on them. I don't remember it, obviously, but I think that there have been some long-term consquences from the brace. Most people, when they stand, put their weight on the pads of their toes. My big toes curl upward, so I actually stand on the knuckles of my toes. You can see what I mean in the picture to the right - I am not curling my toes. They just do that. Almost every pair of shoes I have has a little spot above the toes where my big toenail rubs against it. Plus, it is murder on pantyhose. (Yet another excuse not to wear them. Hee.) I have noticed, though, that the way my Birks fit seems to have lessened how much they curl. I'll be interested to see if that continues as I keep wearing them. Random thing from last weekend that has been bugging me. Thursday night, we went to see our friend Hillary in a dinner-theatre show. She is understudying at a production of "Beehive" at the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre south of DC, and she was guaranteed a certain number of performances. Thursday was her first, so we of course wanted to be there. If you aren't familiar with "Beehive", it is a revue-type show that focuses on female singers and groups from the 1960's. Through the show, each of the women in the cast takes on a variety of different roles. Toward the very end of the show, Hillary does a bit as Janis Joplin. Not an easy person to replicate, realistically, and Hill did a great job. After the show, we waited to say hello to her, and right before she got over to us, two women stopped her and said something. She looked a little puzzled, and when she told us what one of the women had said, we knew why. This woman (who didn't know Hillary from Adam), took the time to stop her to compliment her on the show, and then felt the need to add "Janis wasn't my favorite, though." WTF?!?! If you want to deliberately stop a performer to compliment them on a show, why the hell would you feel the need to criticize a portion of it? Honestly, I did community theatre for years, so I know that not everyone is going to enjoy every show. I'm ok with that. But really, unless you are an actual critic, why the hell would you feel it necessary to say something like that to someone who has just worked her tail off to entertain you? Grr. Other than that, still making progress on the Christmas knitting, along with a project for my CASP. None of which I can show here, of course. *Sigh*

Contest Results!

But first, a small announcement. Since my "Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks" pattern got found (and apparently is kinda popular. Who knew?) I've gone way over my GeoCities bandwidth limit. Luckily, I am married to a wonderful man who already had some webspace set up, and now my patterns are there, just waiting to be discovered. I've updated the links in my sidebar to go to the new space. Anyone know a good way to get the word out to the free pattern sites? I know it is linked from a couple of them, and I don't want to prevent anyone from making fun pirate-y socks. =) And now, the part you have all been waiting for - the great Macro Reveal. Picture #1 was... our dvd boxes, which zknitter and wily jeneric both correctly identified as being from Ikea, as is the shelf they sit on. =) We're kinda movie geeks. Not movie snobs, by any means - we have lots of animation (like Disney and WB, not so much anime), and silly comedies. Picture #2 was... A ceramic mask, which a lot of people identified. I was a theatre major in college and collected quite a few of these. I used to have them all on display, but they haven't made it back up in this house yet, except for a couple. Picture #3 was... Yes, the crokinole board. This game is present at every EdFest, so it has some good memories attached to it. Plus, this one was an anniversary gift I gave to Kris. Picture #4 was... A Steeler flag (or as Kirsten said, a "Stiller" flag). I haven't lived there since I graduated from college, but Pittsburgh will always be home. Picture #5 was... Apparently the stumper of the bunch! Only ONE person got it. This is my copper-bottom Calphalon skillet that Kris gave me for my birthday. Yes, he is allowed to give me cooking stuff as gifts, because I love to cook. It's not a chore - it's a hobby. (And yes, I know it is in desparate need of polishing) And Picture #6 was... Part of our collection of glasses from DuClaw(there is one more shelf above those)! We like beer (you may have picked up on that, already), and DuClaw is a local brewpub. They have 5 regular beers (always available) and every month a different "seasonal" beer comes out. If you are on the mailing list, you get a coupon to print out and bring to the release night to get a freebie. It's either a glass or a t-shirt, so we have amassed a nice collection of both. =) So, without further ado, the winner, the first with 5 correct, is zknitter! I have your address from before, so I'll get something in the mail to you. And just because I am a sucker, I am going to send something to all 5 people who got 5 correct - Kirsten (yeah... I have your address), wily jeneric, merry, and stiticher mom. If you could email me your addresses, I will get something out to you within the next week or so. And wily - I subscribed to World for YEARS! I had forgotten about the "What in the World?" back covers until you mentioned them, though. That magazine was actually how I learned the sign language alphabet. They had a fold-out thing in one issue that I saved for a very, very long time so that I didn't forget it. Thanks to all of you for playing. This was fun - I'll have to do another contest at some point. =)

Blogstalking - Macro Guessing Game

This week in Knittyboard Blogstalking, we are supposed to post a macro shot of something in our home, and let people guess what it really is. Later in the week, we post the full shot of the item. I decided to let hubby loose with his camera for this one. He couldn't decide on just one thing, and when I looked at what he had taken, I had an idea. I am posting 6 shots of different items, and we're going to make it a little contest. The shots are numbered 1 through 6. Leave a comment with your guesses as to what the real item is, and the first person who gets the most correct (or close enough to correct, at my discrection =) ) will get a prize of some sort of yarny goodness from my stash. (I have no idea what that will be, but I'll come up with something. I do own a few bits of yarn, you know.) Macro Shot #1: Macro Shot #2: Macro Shot #3: Macro Shot #4: Macro Shot #5: Macro Shot #6: A small hint (for those of you who are really into winning) - item #3 has been in at least one picture on my blog before, and I did mention it. =) Also, they all relate to something important to me. (You know, other than knitting.) And no, the filenames will not help you. Deadline for guesses will be midnight (my time - EDT) Thursday (August 17), and I'll announce the winner and post the full-size shots on Friday. (I'm hoping this goes well - this is the first time I've actually attempted a contest here...) ETA - One guess per customer, so if you re-think your guesses after you comment... no do-overs!

Blogstalking - Dinner preparation

So, since I was planning to make one of my favorite recipes anyway, I decided to make it my blogstalking post for the week. So, without further ado, Alton Brown's Fried Chicken, a photo essay. Two chickens, dismantled. A buttermilk bath. A coating of spices. A dredging of flour. A rest. A hot oil bath. Halfway to heaven. Golden brown and delicious.