Another weekend down

Seems like time is going so fast and then when you're waiting for something, it doesn't move at all!  I'm waiting to go to my dad's in four weeks and it seems like the time is dragging!  But then at the same time, the time is flying along and it's almost the end of February!  The weather here is balmy and gorgeous and the sun has been shining every day!  The cherry trees are in full bloom, the green mist is on it's way out on the trees, there are rose bushes and hydrangea everywhere you look.  Bummer that it's also the home of the 2010 winter olympics and I'm sure the outdoor athletes (skiing, boarding etc...) are cooking in their winter gear and wishing they brought their sunglasses and speedos!

I've dropped my Ravelympics knitting project (which is now going to be called my 'Commemorative Knitting Anniversary' project) in order to knit and design my very own Sock Monkey hat.  You see I bought a sock monkey hat downtown on Monday when Pat and I went to see the Olympic Hubub, and decided that I wanted to knit it and write the pattern for my friends who also wanted to knit it.  I had one massive fail of a start and now am well on my way with a good portion of hat done, including ear flaps!  I've sort of tossed it aside also, because I'm bored with it and instead picked up my RedTones Multnomah that I'm all of a sudden more interested in.  I have a bit of 'Knitting ADD' at the moment, but no big deal... I'll evenutally get far enough on any one of these projects that I'll want to just hunker down and finish... I suspect it will be either the Knitting Anniversary shawl, which actually has to be done by March 23, or the Multnomah, because it's mostly garter and I can take it places with me.
Today the Multnomah went to the mall and had a starbucks, and went to Mr. Lube and had an oil change!  Big day for the shawl!

Have also decided as of tomorrow when I send off my last package, that I am not swapping ANYMORE!  I will only be 'trading' with people I either know, or that I know through conversation on Ravelry, but no more of this 'thread swapping' baloney that only results in angst.  It never ceases to amaze me how many selfish people there are in the world and how much they think that everything is set up in order to be a charity for one...

This week I did have a very nice 'informal' swap with a new friend in California... And in that swap, were two (well more than two, but I'm only telling you about two) very amazing things.  One was a chocolate bacon bar!~  or a bacon chocolate bar... I don't know which way it's supposed to be said, but it was delish!  In my opinion it didn't taste enough like bacon... it was nice and salty and a nice dark chocolate, but I think it would have been nicer had it actually tasted (or even smelled, since smell is a big part of taste) like bacon!  I'm now thinking of going to the farm, getting our favorite organic farm fresh bacon, cooking it up and then coating it in chocolate to see what that tastes like... No kidding, it's pretty yummy!  The other amazing thing that I recieved in this package was a skein of o so beautiful hand dyed yarn.  It's called Wildfire Skies and it's gorgeous!  When I finish the three knitting angst pieces mentioned above, and perhaps finally finish the round shawl I've been working on since August (I'm just going to get to the next repeat in order to put the border on, throw the friggen border on and cast the MFer off!  So sick of knitting it, dying to see what it looks like finished!), then I'm going to take this very special skein of yarn and make something wonderful with it.  To me it looks like the perfect 'worn in' spring/fall colors.  I prefer skeins that aren't the really harsh jewel tones to knit with.  I love the look of them in the skein, all saturated and striking, but I find they're hard to make into something lovely.  This skein that my friend sent me has gorgeous saturated colors, but they're slightly muted in a way that makes me think of my favorite pair of jeans - oh who am I kidding, my favorite pair of Lululemon pants and a cozy sweater.

Speaking of food, since we were before the yarn talk... we had Chinese Family Dinner on Thursday in order to celebrate Chinese New Year.  And in that dinner I had something that I'd never tried before, which by now, is sort of hard to do because I've had a LOT of rather different things... such as chicken knees and jellyfish... So anyway, one of the dishes was warmed lettuce (love warm lettuce) with mushrooms, dried/rehydrated oysters (that was weird and not in a good way) and pig tongue.  Actually, it wasn't bad.  I only had one piece, because it was a bit over cooked, which made it sort of mushy for a meat item.  But the taste was fine and I would totally eat it again if presented with it.  The only thing I've ever turned down to try (well two things) was pork hock (because it's the actual foot sliced thin... bone?  No thanks!) and Goose webs, which are the feet of geese.  I guess you're supposed to stick the thing in your mouth and suck off the web part... I couldn't wouldn't won't... but tongue... not a big deal!

Okay.. time for bed.  I was planning on checking myself into the ER this afternoon due to my cramping, but ended up being able to cure myself with a concotion of advil, robax and my hotwater bottle and bed... I thought for sure that my uterus was going to come shooting out the small of my back and I nearly lost my footing in the mall a couple times as the pain came stabbing through my mid section and whisked my breath away... So I'm tired and a bit on shaky ground... hopefully it will be better tomorrow.... I see Dr. Ed on Friday, so I hope I live till then!

That's all
D

P.s.  I'll post pics of downtown adventures and knitting adventures tomorrow.

Identity Crisis... Part Deux

Okay, talk about an identity crisis. So I have decided (with some input also) that I don't like Sugarcube...it doesn't make any sense and I don't want to be an inanimate object, so for the time being I'm changing my name back.

So if you're interested, throw out some possible nicknames... or I'll just switch back to the shortened version of Princess, which is P'cess and reads like 'pieces'.
Now, on to some advice for the woman that spoke to me in Starbucks last night and that thinks it's okay to come and interrupt someone while they're knitting, because AFTER ALL, I'm doing something odd in a public place.It is not okay to march up behind someone and poke your head over their shoulder and demand in a loud voice right in their ear 'what are you making?!?'. Perhaps it would be more socially acceptable for you to start a conversation by standing IN FRONT of the person, not behind them like some kind of crazy stalker!
When the response to your question is 'a shawl' please don't look like you don't understand the language. I didn't know what more detail you wanted? I was working without a pattern, so there was no picture to show you... I doubt very much I am inclined to describe in vivid detail what it's going to look like in the end, but your dumbfounded look made me think that in fact that is what you were expecting.
When you state that you 'want to learn', don't look at me like I'm going to hand over my needles and let you 'practice' on my shawl... my suggestion was and always will be, 'take a class. I learned to knit at XXX shop and they're great'. When you hear that, you should probably disguise the disgust in your voice when you ask how much THAT costs. If you can't afford the class, then you likely (not necessarily, but likely) won't be able to afford the actual hobby of knitting. Yes, it can be done on the cheap, but you seemed fairly smitten with my yarn and it was $30/ball.
Also, please try not to insult me while I'm taking time out of my 'quiet time' to talk to you. When you saw my sock monkey on the chair beside me, you were kinda rude! No I didn't knit it for my child. No, it's not really any of your business if I even HAVE children. And no, they didn't teach me to 'knit that thing' in my class. I chose to knit it. And I chose to bring it with me to show my friend. Don't touch it... he doesn't like people and he might bite you!
Had a nice visit with a friend last night. Very enjoyable! Started out a bit bumpy when we went to different starbucks and waited for eachother... both thinking the other person was 30 min late... LOL... totally my fault!


That is all
D

I'm sorry, who's calling??

I am apparently having an identity crisis.... I used to be a PRINCESS for crying outloud!  PrincessD!  What the hell! 

Well, 'the hell' is that I have now decided that I don't like that nickname.  Which is okay because I gave it to myself about ten years ago.  Not that I mind when my friends call me that, because I don't, but I don't want my identity on my blog to be 'princess' anymore.  So I've changed it... to the only thing I could think of... Sugarcube... you like?  I'm turning over a new leaf and since I have some 'entrapreneur' stuff in my future, I would like it to be with the new name... 

Have now taken the needles OFF my blankie and started something entirely different.  Something that I would like to be done by March 23 as that is my one year knit-iversary, but I think that's asking a lot of me... I may have to take it everywhere, but it's a lace pattern, so that might be difficult...

Going knitting with a friend after work tomorrow.  


And now noticed the time and must get my sugarry ass to bed, as I have another early morning in the 'month of carpooling'.


That is all!

No, you can not duct tape the overflow drain on the bathtub!

Okay, I haven't actually done that but I really really want to! I PROMISE not to let the water over flow! Still no? Boo!

So I've invested quite a bit of free time in the last two weeks making my sock monkey... and now that he's done, I have a vacant hole and can't decide what to do with my knitting time... so I watch questionable TV and stalk Rubberneckers for drama! What a loser! I'm patiently waiting until Friday when I can cast on my new shawl (for the Knitting Olympics for those not in the know), but until then what should I d.... WAIT! The blankie! The big cuddly loveable beautiful lace sunflower blankie! Good thinking! I also offered to knit the last four inches of ribbing on my friend's kneesocks... not sure if she's going to take me up on it, but I'm good at knitting in the round and I'd like to help her get her mojo back!

I was reading through posts on my old blog today and realized that I had a lot of fun blogging back then... I think I went for three years of posting almost daily...and then three or so years of squat! I laughed out loud at some of the titles of my old blog posts... 'One More Banana till the Weekend' was my favorite! Perhaps I should start buying bananas again so I have something to gauge the week's progression with?

The one thing I noticed on my old blogs was that there was NO whitespace... as in I wrote in long and rambling paragraphs with no actual paragraph formatting... Its a wonder that people used to read them... altho I was getting about 20 comments a post, so I guess people were reading them.

Pat made the best dinner tonight... chinese white bread (perfectly square and crust-less for those not in the know) with cheddar cheese and onions. Only the onions were sauteed for an hour in ponzu sauce and mirin... My description of this grilled cheese sandwich from heaven
'Hon, this is like the best part of French Onion soup, in a sandwich with melty cheese'. Sounds good, no?

Yesterday I got leftovers out of the freezer (yes, me and leftovers... oh how things have changed) and texted Pat to tell him that we were having 'chicken stew with rice' for dinner. I was really excited about it because it was a concoction from the crockpot a few months back and it was really yummy. And then Pat got home and mentioned that what I was thawing in the pot was actually my ground beef and mushroom pasta sauce... :( What kind of a dummy can't tell the difference between chicken and beef? Well I wasn't LOOKING, okay? I just thought that was what was in the container and went with it... so then I had to go out and buy pasta. Burn!

Okay, without further ado, here is a picture of Smungkee Bean... taken on my blackberry, so be kind!

That is all!
D