Marching for Cake-

Somewhere in a photo album, I have a picture of my older brother sitting in front of an Easter cake that looked like this. I was thrilled to learn that the makers of that pan, the Nordic Ware Company, teams ups with charities for fundraisers.

Atascosa County
Relay For Life

Dear Friends and Family,

Xi Omega Iota is raising funds for the Atascosa County Relay for Life, which offers financial support to further cancer research and programs. Funds we raise will be used in Atascosa County.

Here is the fun part! You can help us reach our goal by simply ordering kitchenware from Nordic Ware at www.nordicware.com. We will earn 40% from all purchases made during March 2009. Here’s how it works:


Place your Nordic Ware Special Events Fundraiser order by clicking the Fundraising tab at www.nordicware.com. Then click Browse to see the store. Be sure to use Fundraiser Code: TXN0301 during checkout (step3) before entering your credit card number.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

We receive credit for all orders containing the following Fundraising Code: TXN0301
That’s all there is to it!

If you prefer, you can request a product catalog and place your order by phone or mail. Simply use this toll free number: 1-877-466-7342 and be sure to give them the above Fundraiser Code with your order.

Nordic Ware is a family-owned American manufacturer of about 400 quality consumer products, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1946, the company has gained recognition for its innovative stovetop cookware, bakeware, barbecue and microwave products, ranging from everyday essentials to gourmet ware. You may have seen Nordic Ware products in retail stores such as Williams Sonoma; Target; Bed, Bath and Beyond and many more. They are best known for developing the original and well-loved Bundt Pan.

Note: Place your order the first 24 hours of our fundraiser starting date and
receive a small gift with your order! 

Shipping is free on all orders of 50.00 or more!


Thank you so much for helping us reach our goal!

Mail Call!

I've been celebrating Betsuary in fine style.  When I got back from Fat Camp, I was sensorily deprived.  I didn't miss food, I missed flavor.  When I got home, I cozied up with my Penzey's catalog.

I got a big box yesterday.  I ordered a lot of oddball for me things like black cardamon.  I put a pod in my mouth yesterday to satisfy my curiosity.  Hmmm, smokey, wood chippy, barbeque rub---mmmm-I spat it out.  There's something overtly medicinal about it, like a visit to the dentist's office.  I should learn more about that spice.

I bought Penzey's new cookbook.  I adore Penzey's, this cookbook, not so much.  It seems to be a rehash of their magazine, which is enjoyable, but the format is identical to the magazine.  In a magazine, you can easily feature "everyone named Bob, but stack 12 similarly arbitrary subjects in one book, and it's not clearly organized.   The jury is still out, but right now, it feels like more of a coffee table cookbook.

Did you notice the little tiny blue slip of fanmail under the catalog?  Squeee!  It's still a mystery, but a very exciting one!!!

So the economy is flat, you say?

It's not my fault.  I went out and tried to buy things yesterday.  I left the house with a mental list of what I wanted.

Whadda waste of time.  I went to the bigboxbookstore to find this book on Jimmy Carter.  A few weeks ago, I heard an interview from an author that believes that Jimmy Carter jacked up foreign policy so badly that we are still paying.  Hmmm.  I didn't know anything about that...but I am interested in what this guy has to say.  It wasn't available, but they can order.  I don't understand why that's a service.  I can order it myself.

Oh well. 

I went across the parking lot and over to the mega housewares store.  

I want help making sushi.  I have no joint rolling skills, and I make a mess every time I cozy up to nori and rice.  I've tried the bamboo mat.  No dice.  My mom used to do that with a dish towel.  I didn't inherit her dexterity.  My older brother, aka the whitest hapa I know, has both a rice cooker and a sushi maker.  His sushi comes out fine.  He uses this.  

I was on a mission.  

I also wanted a rack so I can line dry some clothes.  It may be green, and all that, or maybe it would just save time-I could do multiple loads back to back, and pop them on the back porch.  God knows it gets hot enough.

The product assortment at the big box home store is kind of comical.  I can get a Ped Egg, a DiscoHitsofthe'90s Cd, and gummi bears, as well as a pink KitchenAid coffee grinder.  (that was tempting)  But I couldn't find anything related to sushi.  "We have plates," the clerk volunteered.  Ummm, no.

And that drying rack?  I wanted something fairly substantial-I do a lot of laundry.  Something like this would have been ok, but all I found was a behemouth, over engineered system that included three laundry bins which required a lot of floor space.  I looked at it, and tried to envision how I would use it.  And couldn't.  Who drives a cart like that from room to room collecting laundry?  When I sort mine, I throw it on the floor.  Hell, it's already dirty.

I went out yesterday with good intentions, and didn't get the things I wanted.  I ordered stuff from Amazon last night, but if you know where I can get a good heavy duty folding laundry rack, let me know!

We rounded Cape Fear

21 Balls of Needful Yarns Arte x 97 yards=2037 yards, started Dec 07, finished today.

Updates

I am still feeling a little bit festive, as you can see!  Marta asked when I will travel to Colorado, and I am looking to see when there are fiber fests (REALLY!) and such.  I have a reunion thing to go to this summer, and it would make sense to go when I can save DD some $$ on daycare.  

Welcome, Jack!

Look at that good looking boy that joined my family on Tuesday.  I can't wait to meet this grandson.  Look at that cutie face!!!

@#%!%^& Cape!

When the main portion is finished, there are live stitches on the left front (on a holder) and the right front, (on a holder). Then you knit the hem. Then, you come back and knit the button band and the buttonhole band. That’s one red flag spot… on the button hole band, you pick up five on the hem, then the 100 stitches from the holder. On the button band, you have 105 on the holder (yes, you are on a holder by row 2. So how dumb is that-why don’t you just work the 100, and pick up the other 5 when you go to add the button band LIKE YOU DO ON THE OTHER SIDE. Jeeez, how stupid is THAT?? (see photo). Let’s mess that up right from the get go for no good reason!!

I see one other structural flaw….this is knit edge to edge. I slipped the first stitch in each row. This created a more stable edge. Then, I picked up and added a ribbed collar. So the heavy cape argues with the stretchy collar, and it will stretch out of shape really quickly.


Oh dammit. How aggravating.

What seems to be working-I did a row of SC, crocheting every other stitch together. Then I came back and did a second row, SCing every stitch together. Now I have to tack it down and sew tape/ribbon over it, give it a bath, and sew on buttons.

Thai work crew

One of the things that we got to eat at fat camp was green coconut milk.  It was delicious.  My brother said that normally, it was "eh", but since we weren't eating,  it tasted a million times better!

We were in a cab leaving when we pulled up to a stop light.  In the bed of a dark green mini pickup next to us, we saw a coconut crew-two men and a monkey!  The cabbie explained that the monkey got to climb up trees and pick coconuts!

Tattle tale!

A few minutes ago, DH yelled "Sug's on your knitting!"  I called back "Well, coax her off!"  He said "No, you gotta come see this."

She looks really snuggly, with good reason.  This is actually a pretty big project-at least 12 balls of yarn are already knit up.  I am nearing the end of the body...just 50 more rows, then it's on to the hem, button bands and collar.  This IS a never-ending gobstopper of a project!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I meant to send fun cards to everyone on Ravelry, but got sidetracked.

This is nice, tho-

Valentine's Day

We had Valentine's Day early in East Cupcake.  DH was proactive-he knew there was a gun show Saturday, and there have been such ammo shortages in the area, he planned to go early.  He also knew that restaurants and florists will be crowded and unpleasant.  So he came home last night and told me we were having Valentine's early.

We went metal detectin'.  I bought a detector a few months ago, but hadn't tried it out.  We hopped into the car, and drove to the coast.  We went to the state beach, paid our admission, then found out that it wasn't legal to scan on state beaches.  Sigh.  So we left and went to a public beach---where I promptly found 1 Skoal can, a nail, and 4 beer cans.

Later, we moved onto a national seashore.  Guess what?  It was clean, so clean that the detector didn't beep.  I wasn't sure what was better-beeping on trash or SILENCE.

As it turns out, it wasn't legal to scan that beach either.  I was careful to look at ALL the signs going into the park.  Nothing.  Wish they would make it clearer and just post it.

Mark knows from experience that park rangers don't have a sense of humor.  He got a traffic ticket from one a few years back.  So we left.

It was weird-it took quite a while to get onto that beach-but just seconds to get back.  I looked at him, thinking did we lose time?  Did  aliens abduct us?  DH looked at me and said "Does your butt hurt?  Mine doesn't, so I don't think we got implants."  We laughed.

Since metal detecting was total bust, I grabbed DH's phone and looked up yarn stores in the area.  There is one, so I looked up the address and away we went.  It was The Knotty Girl in Corpus Christi.  DH was still being a good sport, so I popped in for a few minutes.  (Mind you, I will be attending a gun show Saturday morning.)

The big pink sign on her door announced yarn sales.  I found Adriafil Matisse in a range of pink, denim, sage and tobacco on sale, so I snagged it, a cheapo ONLINE magazine, and the latest Debbie Bliss.  On the way home, I looked at the Debbie.  Meh.  A lot of them look like things I have seen.   

We had a good time on the way home listening to old stuff on Sirius.  Van Halen with David Lee Roth or Sammy?  David Lee Roth

38 Special or Loverboy?  (What a scathing look I got there!)  38 Special.

What's the biggest bullshit lyric of the early 1980s?  Lights, by Journey.  "Whoa ohh, my my mah mah mah mah.  Whoa, oh, ohhha."   

What 4 albums did you NEED to own in the 1970s?  Dark Side of the Moon, Rumors, Tapestry, and something by Led Zepplin.  (Oh, and possibly Deep Purple.)

We had a fun day out.

LSG

Ravelry!

 LSG!

 Conservative!!!!

Just checking to see if you're twittering!!!

heh

Seriously, I spent 20 years in the military so you guys could have freedom of speech.  No one said I had to love what you were saying.

lessee, Portland, Boston, NYC, Worcester, Melbourne, Ontario, Reston, Hotlanta, Muskogee, Ocean Springs, Embarq?? in Flemington, Laurel, Libertyville-no shit, my grandma's house is on Lake Street, STELLA!!! Maple Ridge, etc, etc.

Love ya.

The good, bad, and ugly, February 2009

I'm getting settled back in, but still not sleeping right because of jetlag.  Stories will follow, don't worry.

I have a few goods to talk about this morning:  Heart, the lucky Japanese ox.  Heart is really cute, and he is indeed very lucky to be born in the Year of the Ox.  And he will never be yakitori, either.

Stella McCartney for LeSportsac bags caught my eye last year, but I choked on the prices.  The Fall 2008 styles and colors are now half off at LeSportsac, and that makes them pricey, but not insanely so.  

I've spend the past month doing swatches for a well-known designer's upcoming book.  I probably won't do that again.  Multiple swatches just aren't that much fun.  I knit enough that I could have made an entire sweater instead.   And they were solid colored yarns, so you know I was crying from boredom.  I am claiming 800 yards (8 12x12 swatches) on my yardage counts for 2009.

My little brother has Thailand photos, and I am trying to get him to send me some!  In the mean time, I sat on a beach that looked like this, knitting up yarn that matched the sky.  I also lost half of an Options pair.  It's probably bobbing back to China by now.

I followed the budget clamorings this week.  I am distressed that there seems to be a lot of spending that might not stimulate the economy, which might not work (and that seems to be ok), and that my DGD has to pay for it.  I feel like we sent our kids to the grocery with $1,000.00 and no grocery list.  They can spend it all, but we might not have anything for dinner next Friday night.

A medical system tagged along hidden in those 700 pages, and now we will be treated by trend.  I did that already in the Air Force....3 months of physical therapy to help my leg pain, and I must have been a terrible patient, because I did the exercises with no relief.  As it turns out, I had a tumor on my sciatic nerve.  No amount of physical therapy would have fixed it.  

Lastly, Casey shut down one of the conservative message boards on Ravelry.  This really shocked me, because I learned amazing swears on Ravelry.  Every story has two sides, I know, I know;  I learned terms like "Twat-waffle" on Ravelry from the LSG.  LSG puzzles me because they talk to each other like pimps beating their whores, and they find it pretty funny.  I can't figure that one out, because I know that in their heart of hearts, men talk about us like that anyhow....and we earn .85 to a guy's dollar.  The joke must be on me, I guess, stupid woman that I am, because LSG lives on, but the political conservatives were silenced.

Sigh.

ETA:  Someone came by and told me that "before you bash Ravelry, you should be clear about why the group was closed...not because of the views, but because the mods couldn't follow the rules."

HMMM-I am pretty sure that my post reflected confusion and disappointment, but I didn't feel I was bashing Rav.  Still don't.  And I sign my work.

Books in Singapore

I found Kinokuniya in Singapore.  It was fabulous, but a little tricky.  Everything was shrinkwrapped, and I can't read Japanese.  I managed to muddle thru.  I made mistakes. 

 That white lace book with red lettering?  It has a picture of the knitting princess they featured in Knitter's a few years back (#82).    I was really disappointed to get back to my hotel room and find it was a "how to knit" primer.  Blah.

When I told my brother I went there, he said you could get the staff to show you the books.  But he just opens them himself and makes a mess.  That sounds about right.

They also had a great Borders that had a new British knitting magazine I hadn't seen before!

I love Japanese magazines because the projects are just so wearable.  Seriously, look at this!

Poo in Phuket

Oh dear God.

Months ago, my little brother called me up and asked me if I wanted to go to Fat Camp in Phuket. Figuring, "When the hell ELSE am I going to go to Thailand?" I said OK. Fool.

I've been in Phuket since last Sunday. Last Sunday, I had a breakfast openface toast (like a mini-pizza), a salad, and nothing until this morning.

That's right, from Sunday at 8 p.m. until 10:00 this morning, I ate nothing. And my period showed up.

It sucked.

But I weigh 5.1 kilos LESS. And that is significant.

We bailed from fat camp a day early and checked into the nearest (brand new) Marriot about 3 hours ago. We've had lunch already, and it was delicious, but we can't eat as much. Which is kind of the point, I guess, isn't it?

Photos and details to follow later.

XO, wish you were here, and sure you didn't want to be where I was yesterday!