Dum Bells...

"Dum dum da dum" that is. I haven't posted in awhile because I am planning my wedding! August 12, 2007 baby. It's been crazy nuts over here, getting the major things booked and planned. Now that we have a venue, a caterer, and a baker I feel like I have time to breathe. And knit. I'm working on a Calorimetry for myself out of Paton's Rumor. Soooooooooo soft but kind of a bitch to knit with. I hope it doesn't come out ginormous. I am using relatively small needles because a lot of people I know have had trouble with the finished garment being way too big even though they got gauge. I have a huge dome, so I don't really foresee a problem, but I want it snug so it doesn't fall off. I'll probably finish it this week.

Also, I'm now working just a few hours a week as a teaching assistant for my advisor in his first level programming class. After feeling like a moron in my other classes, it's nice to show up and actually know what I'm doing. Plus the silent looks of awe and worship from the kids who are totally confused is great fodder for the ego.

School and snow hit all at once

Well, the first week of school is done. I only fell once, and thank goodness it was into soft snow. The only thing I hurt was my pride. Seeing as I fall once a winter at a minimum, I'm glad it was into snow and left me completely unbruised. We're all cozy and settled in here for the night. There is a big winter storm moving in and is supposed to snow all weekend. Good news for the skiers I guess, since this is opening weekend for the Arizona Snowbowl. I am happy too, because the weather is a valid excuse to stay inside, bake bread, and play World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade all day. I mean, I do that anyway, but y'know... nice to have a valid excuse.

Oh, and check out this boss mouse pad my grandma sent me. I seriously dig this.

Mom's Present: A Great Success

I gave my momma the hat and fingerless hand warmers I made her. She LOVES them. Wore them all day. Actually, less than 2 hours after she put them on, she had already got a compliment. She said she wants to show all her coworkers and brag about how awesome her daughter is at knitting. While I'm flattered, and extremely pleased that she loves the set, I laugh when she says I'm awesome. I'm far from awesome. In fact, half the time I MacGyver my knitting into looking presentable. But I have to say I'm really pleased how this set turned out. The hat is my own pattern, which I am going to attempt to write up very soon and post. The mitts are modified from this pattern. Whatcha think?

Holy Snowdrifts, Batman!

It's official, I have returned from my hiatus on blogging and knitting. Winter break has that kind of effect on me. Everything gets put on hold except watching TV in my pajamas and eating freakish quantities of food. But my beloved mother's birthday shocked me back out of my knitting slump. I never did finish the hat I promised her for Christmas... actually I never even started it (BAD HOBBIT!). But in a grand effort to redeem myself, I have a hat and wristlet set knitted and waiting her arrival on Monday. They're knitted in Noro Silk Garden, in my very own, very first pattern! Can you believe it? Me! I made a pattern! Well ok, the wristlets were a pattern mod from someone else, but the hat is mine. My own. My precious. I can't post photos until she actually receives, and even then it will be a challenge to capture her on film. She's one of the rare, elusive ex-Texas homecoming queens. And while aging has treated her very well and she is still gorgeous, she still dodges the camera at every possible chance.

In other news, Winter '07 officially started on January 12th. I don't count the 1st - 11th, since we had absolutely no snow. None. But a large winter storm moved our way, and dumped about a foot of snow on the 12th. I spent about 20 minutes just brushing massive quantities of snow off my car. My father eschews all things winter-y, and seemed generally amused at my irritation with the car-snow scenario. He keeps up this weird hope that, the more he pokes fun at the weather here, I'll magically realize that winter sucks and I should move back to the desert. But I have a better solution to all of this: I just need a garage. I don't mind the cold or the having to warm up the car. I just mind having to spend 20 minutes of my "could be sleeping" time brushing off a snowdrift.

Christmas in Funky Town

Despite erratic weather patterns, we had a semi-white Christmas. The snow was sad and tired (and half melted), but it was there and that's what counts. My parents came here to spend Christmas with me and The Boy. SantaDad brought the cats a whole box (I mean like a shoebox) full of packages of treats. They, as usual, seemed to ignore most of what was going on, but Tweek ripped open a whole bag of treats before we saw it coming. So now the treat bags are hiding in the pantry, away from prying little jaws. Our Christmas tree was knocked over only a couple times, which I think is an all-time low. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the general loafing around.

It was a good haul this year too. I got a new Bernette sewing machine, an immersion blender, some bento toys, a silpat, and some bread baking books. Mom also bought me The Sims 2 Pets, which has been eating up most of my time lately. I've been cultivating my own personal musk over the last few days. It is my general tendency to take showers when I leave the house, but usually when I have no where to go I just marinate. Natural oils are good for the hair, and my skin dries out easily after bathing. But mostly I blame The Sims for the current state of funkiness.

The Sickness has now settled upon The Boy. I was pretty miserable all through the holiday season, and therefore have done any knitting (or anything productive, for that matter). And then The Boy got a fever last night, so it doesn't look like knitting is on the near horizon either. Actually, I've been going through a crafting slump. There are days when all I think about is yarn or knitting, and I can't sleep because of the visions of Bearfoote dancing around my head. But then there are times like this, where I haven't knitted and for some reason I just don't want to. The slump usually lasts a couple of months. What I need is to find a project that I'm REALLY excited about, and that should get me going again.

2006 has been pretty good to me, bringing me a wonderful man and a tweaky little kitty. 2007 is shaping up to be even better, with an engagement ring, a graduation, and a wedding. As always, I'll be posting the highlights. Until then, I'm going to go soak in a tub with my new Lush products!

Holidays and Head Colds

I know I haven't posted in awhile. I really haven't gotten anything done that is note worthy. Mostly I've been trying to purge my head of mucus, which has taken almost all of my energy. I've been planning Christmas dinner too, since my parents are coming here. It's their first Christmas at my house, so I want to make it special. Mostly I've been sitting at my computer playing World of Warcrack, with tissues and decongestants handy.

Look what it did yesterday!

This...
... and this!

New springform pan!

My mom gave me this awesome-o springform pan. It's nonstick and it has a glass (glass!) base so it's really pretty. It also came with a fluted insert for making Bundt, but since I don't make Bundt, I decided to christen the pan in a new way. BUTTERMILK DINNER ROLLS!

Finally free.

For better or worse, finals are finally over. I spent the first couple post-exam days in a groggy state of binge sleeping and computer gaming. But then I was able to snap out of the stupor and finish The Boy's Christmas Gloves. They are the Unisex Gloves pattern from One Skein, and are knit in Tahki Torino in color 116. The Boy looooooves them and they passed their first test today in keeping his fingers warm as toast. I wish I could boast such success out of the hat for mom. I might end up frogging it and starting over. I dunno. Anyway here are some photos of the lovely gloves.

I know, I know

*grumble grumble* finals *grumble grumble*

I'll get a post up in the next couple days, honest.

Another day, another loaf

Well we ate the sandwich loaf pretty dang fast. I decided to make another loaf, but I didn't have any milk so I used a more basic recipe. The loaf came out looking pretty much like the red-headded step-child of my baking career. It tastes ok though. I don't think I let it rise long enough. Oh well, live and learn.

And no, I haven't done much knitting other than stuff for chistmas presents. Nothing is done yet, so I have no photos to post. Bad Hobbit.

My first sandwich loaf

I've been baking a lot lately and last night I made my first white sandwich loaf. Now, most of my breads come out all wonky shaped and not much capable of being a sandwich bread. This one came out perfect! The crumb is very nice, and the crust is a little crisp but not so crunchy you feel like you're gnawing on a piece of bark. And the color and shape is perfect too! Yay me! I'm going to make this loaf a lot. It was really really easy, and no sponge to care for or anything. I do want to make bread with a bread sponge sometime, but this is definately an easy "start in the early afternoon, and it's ready by dinnertime" bread.

Baking Results!

Mmmmm. Zucchini brownies and Linzer cookies. Both were a real success. I highly recommend them. Also, Flagstaff is still gorgeous. Snow's melted off the ground, but there's still some on the peaks. Here's a view from our living room.

Knitting progress is slow but sure

I've been working on so many non-knitting related things lately, it's been slow going on The Boy's x-mas gloves. But here is the one I finished over Thanksgiving. They really don't take long. If you knitted in a marathon, you could do it in one day. Or like me, it'll take you 3 damn weeks. They aren't made from "one" skein either. It's going to take 2 and a partial 3rd to finish. But then again, they're small balls and the book probably used a huge one (huh, the book has huge balls. y'all know, I had to say it). Anyway The Boy also has huge......... hands (tricked ya!) so that is also why the gloves are gobbling up yardage as we speak. I have the second glove cast on and half the cuff finished. This weekend I'm going to sit down and finish it completely. And none too soon, because it got COLD here in Flagstaff. Observe:

Jingle Bells, Yummy Smells, Batman laid an egg...

Well, we still haven't put the lights on the tree or anything of that nature, but I did start some beginning holiday decorations. The lovely Kim helped me wrap the front door. Thank goodness we did it right after Thanksgiving because now it is too cold. We ended up putting the cats in "daycare" (aka the bathroom) and wrapped the door while it was wide open. I think it looks good though. I wish I would have put the cross piece of ribbon higher up near the bow, but eh it's my first year to do this. Mistakes are bound to happen, and happen frequently. Actually I think the door looks pretty boss. You can't even see the peephole, but it can see you!

The further plans for actual decorations are a lighted, dinky tree and some electric candles in the window. That and many batches of x-mas cookies. I have been baking like a mad woman. I am not sure what has come over me, especially since I haven't eaten all the cookies yet. This is a rather large accomplishment. So far, Birds' Nests, Brown Eyed Susans, Spritz, Walnut Fudge, and Butter Cookie Christmas Trees are all baked and frozen, ready to be thawed closer to time. The linzers are also baked, but have yet to be filled and decorated. Still, it has filled my house with all kinds of yummy smells. And this weekend I'm adding Banana Nut Muffins and Zucchini Brownies to the baking schedule. Oh yeah.

I just realized...

I've been giving primary blogging real estate to Tweek and Frodo exclusively. Only one photo of Evie and absolutely no photos of my Mia. This will not do (Also, I'm tired of working on school projects and without any photos to post of recent craft and baking work, I'm basically going to throw photos of my cats at you).

Mia:
The girly girls (Mia and Evelyn):

Computers and cookies and Christmas

It's 2 weeks till finals and we've all been a little crazy around here. Large presentation due the yesterday, and even larger SQL project due Thursday. I've been dividing my time between homework and baking christmas cookies. I thought a little baking and a little sugar might ease my tired ol' brain. And Christmas is quickly approaching. I started the decorating (photos coming when I get time) and the X-mas knitting. And today it finally started snowing for the first time this winter, so I also spent some time prancing around outside. I have to confess, I actually did prance. I've missed my hand-knit hats and scarves. Sadly all gloves have been given away. OH NO! Excuse to make more gloves. *score* I really hope there's a white Christmas this year. We had a brown and wet one last year, and from my experience not very many good things are both brown and wet.

I'll post photos of the cookies and other stuffs after the rush of finals are over.

Ate turkey, must contemplate cookies

With much feasting and general stuffing of faces behind us, I decided to turn my attention towards Christmas cookies. When I was a child, we lived out in the country where people still brought over a fruitcake at Christmastime... only we were REALLY lucky because our neighbor pooh-poohed the fruitcake and brought over a mad plate of cookies. There must have been at least 20 different kinds (the same neighbor also baked a cake each year for grandma's birthday on Christmas... what a lovely neighbor, no?). In a fit of nostalgia, I decided I wanted to recreate the Christmas cookie plate of old. But on my scale, i.e. 8 to 10 kinds of cookies and not 20. I raided our Christmas decorations today, trying to ferret out those tacky old cookie tins so I can pass out home-baked goodness to all my friends (that and I'm a bit poor this Christmas, so cookies are about the only gifts I can afford to give). I might end up dropping some dough (HAH, I'm such a dork!) on quality disposable plates and go the Easter-basket-cellophaned route. Anyway, here is the menu this year:

• Brown Eyed Susans
• Birds' Nests
• Walnut Fudge
• Linzer Cookies
• Spritz Cookies
• Basic "I Need Comfort" Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Crackle Cookies
• Surprise!!!!!

That last cookie is not so much a surprise as a "I haven't decided on the last kind to make yet" kind of cookie. I was thinking of making peanut butter cookies for The Boy, but I really want to make some sort of pumpkin cookie. Maybe a pumpkin spice ginger snap type thing? I need to find a recipe though.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

I must go stuff my face with pie now. Otherwise I'm too incredibly full and happy to care that I am not posting regularly. Just a quick update though, I'm feeling a lot better and my back is not hurting hardly at all. So all is happy.

I hypnotize you. Feeeeeeeeeed me now. You want to feeeeeeeeed me.

Oy

Well, I have gotten almost nothing done lately. Test week from hell + wicked bad head cold + excruciating back pain = no posts. It goes like this... I had all my crafting stuff piled on the guest bed, waiting to be put away in my nice, clean bookshelves. Well, I guess I worked too hard organizing because I've been laid up lately with awful back spasms and, until a few hours ago, I couldn't get out of bed. It sucked. Thanks to my amazing mother (who drove 2 hours at 3am to come take care of me), I am now able to sit up in bed. Since I'm not able to do much of anything else, I should be getting some much needed knitting done. I've missed it. The last time I went this long without knitting was when I got frustrated and had to put away all knitting for a few months.

On a different note, I've been researching some bread baking techniques for uber-high altitudes. Now that it's getting chilly, we could use a little heat in the kitchen. Our ceramic tile floors are pretty harsh on bare feet, and I've given away all the FuzzyFeet I've knitted. Must stop doing that. Bad hobbit. Bad.

Oh yeah, and I recently had a job interview. With any luck, I'll soon be employed at the local hospital doing SQL programming. Go me!