Quarters & Breakfast

Josh and I have for the last few months putting all of our change into two respective containers, one for quarters and one for everything else. A couple of days ago I rolled up the quarters because that jar pretty much got full, and I’d already rolled the other change recently, giving us about $18. What was our take, from the quarters? $124. I know, it’s sweet. We’re kind of just thinking about sticking it in the bank for grocery money, but I have wild dreams about taking it with me to the fiber expo (it was my idea, and I did roll up all of the coins, after all), so that I can go on a mini-rampage.

I doubt it, but it’s a nice dream.

Oh, and I got Josh watching The L Word that’s on our computer. So far it’s been a fun show.

Oh yeah, and the breakfast part?  My dad and I are going to go have breakfast together again this Friday.  Mmm… I’m already getting hungry.

That’s enough for me for my mid-morning posting spree. I’ll probably come up with other things to talk about later today.

April 13th-15th

What could possibly be going on during April that would have me so excited?

Well, it has to be related to something I’m into these days, right?  It’s too long for any kind of concert, and it isn’t the time of year for most festivals here in Seattle.  What is it then?

The Knitting & Fiber Expo

Oh yes, that’s right.  At the Marriott in Sea-Tac, by the airport.  Lots of vendors will be there from all over the pacific northwest (well, I inferred as much due to the fact that some were coming from Oregon, I didn’t look up everybody).

I feel quite lucky that we here in Seattle get to have something as cool as this… the only other cool expo that I usually want to go to is PAX.  Which actually will suck a bit more this year, because it used to be at the Meydenbauer Center right here in Bellevue, two blocks from our apartment, at least until last year, when they realized that they were finally too big for that venue, and moved it to the Washington Convention Center in downtown Seattle for ’07.  Way to make things difficult, guys.  -grin-

Okay, enough about PAX.

Other snippets that I’ve read about knitting expos in other parts of the country say that there’s a lot of swag to collect… sometimes you get free needles, or samples of new yarns, etc., although I’m skeptical for this one because I think the vendors are yarn shops, not yarn manufacturers, so new product won’t actually be theirs.  Who knows, it should still be lots of fun.  I’m going to have to save some cash for it though.

Man am I excited.  Woo!

Bubble Tea>Watermelon

I’m debating making a Bubble Tea category, because, well, I drink it often enough. -grin- Allison says that if/when she comes back for the summer we’re going to go down to Korea Town in Tacoma and get some great Korean food, and some great Bubble Tea.

But why talk about Bubble Tea now you might (but probably won’t) ask? Because whilst Josh and I were out yarn shopping we took the opportunity to stop by our favorite asian grocery market, Uwajimaya. (No, I didn’t spell that off of the top of my head… I had to look it up. -hangs head-) While there we picked up our usuals:

-Yakisoba noodles (at $2.50 a bag and 4-6 servings per, you just have to get 3 or 4 and freeze them)
-Teriyaki sauce
-Coconut, Lychee, and Guava juice
-A roll of salmon sushi
-Bubble Tea from the deli

Man is that stuff good. Today our flavor of choice was Watermelon. It was much better than expected.

Can one really write that much about knitting?

Why yes you can!

I spent a good chunk of today organizing my yarn and UFOs, but I also spent a good chunk of time calling various yarn stores trying to find Crystal Palace Yarns’ Bunny Hop in either Soft Aqua or Teal Lake.

At first I was calling fine establishments in Seattle that I either haven’t been to, or want to go to again, mostly as an excuse to visit this week. But of course neither Fiber Gallery nor Weaving Works had what I was looking for, so I had to go to other sources.

I lucked out on my next call, because I found what I was looking for at Pacific Fabrics & Crafts. Well, I called the Bellevue location and the Northgate location and both of them only carried one of the two colors I was after: Soft Aqua.

Soon afterwards Josh arrived home and we were off! (zoom)

Once we’d arrived I was fairly sure that the aqua color was going to be the way to go.  I had a bit of a chat about it with Josh, and we decided that with all the heat during the summer it would just be better that way.  The yarn came to a total of about $50, which my mom says she’ll help cover, which will be nice.

As far as needles go, I did have to buy a new set of those.  29″ size 8 circulars.  I’d forgotten to print out the pattern and bring it with me (which would have been the smart thing to do), so I went and looked at the gauge for the right needle size.  I knew that all of the circs that I already owned were more for making felted items, thus having too large of a needle size.

In the end the pattern actually said I needed size 9 circs, but I’m not going to worry about it, because I already have a nice set of size 9 Addi Turbo circulars sitting in my UFO box… with an UFO on them.  Heh.  Seems silly to buy two of the same needle, and at the very least it will just be more encouragement to finish what I’ve already started, should it turn out that I just have to use the size 9s.

The yarn does feel really nice though.  It isn’t quite as soft as I would have thought it would be, but the reviews online say it will bloom a bit post-wash.  And the color is really nice.

Oh!  And I found the most awesome thing while I was there.  The Holiday 2006 VOGUEknitting issue!  I saw a FO posted in a LiveJournal community the other day that was a woven scarf pattern taken from that magazine, and I totally fell in love.  Whilst explaining how the construction worked for the scarf to the many admirers, the knitter had unwittingly given me just enough information that I might have been able to re-create it myself, but actually finding this issue myself and being able to buy it will be much easier.  I’m quite happy with myself that I thought to ask if they had any back issues.  It turns out that after a certain date, the stores selling it are required to rip off the cover and send them back to the company if they don’t sell them all, something I’m quite glad they didn’t do.

I am definitely making this scarf right after I finish my linen stitch scarf, baby blanket, and lace scarf respectively.  Maybe I’ll even get the linen stitch scarf done tonight!  /sarcasm

Organizational Skills? No way!

Who would have thought that I’d actually be able to organize all of my yarn… and in one day!  I spent this morning separating out all the yarn I want from the yarn I don’t want, and putting it away accordingly.  Josh and I have some plastic tubs that we got from his parents that used to have books in them, but we’ve managed to get some other plastic drawers to put them in, so they’ve been empty for a few days.

Deciding which yarn I wanted to keep and which I wanted to go wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be… there’s just so much of it that I have no plans for that has been sitting in my knitting basket for upwards of a year now.

So all of my partially used yarn balls (which are already individually bagged) went into the new plastic bin, along with my UFOs, my Knifty Knitter loom knitting set, and all of the yarn I’ve put up for swapping (all bagged as well). I kept yarn I still plan on using that’s in full skeins in my fun woven knitting basket, and of course the needles are still in their knitting case, and the notions are still in the tupperware container.

Knitting awaits!

Airplane!

I forgot… Josh and I watched this last night.  The DVD was on sale some time ago at Fred Meyer or something.  I always forget how much I love that movie.  I need to watch it more often.  -makes a note-

300

Saw that movie last night with Josh. It was quite a fun night actually… I walked down to the sushi place on 10th and got some mango bubble tea, then off to the post office, then off to see the movie. Afterwards Josh and I went for pizza… mmm! We still have leftovers.

As far as the movie is concerned, I liked it. It should be apparent to anyone with a brain that it isn’t the movie to go to if you have trouble with gore, but because it was so stylized I certainly didn’t mind it. I think the style they were going for was the “Sin City” comic book style, staying over the top. Josh was trying to explain to me that they were trying to take the real-life story and turn it into a mythological one, which is the opposite of the way things are usually done.

I have to say that as a representative of the female persuasion I certainly didn’t mind the Spartan outfits, although I hear that those aren’t even close to historically accurate. If you want to see a bunch of men running around in leather “war speedos” (as Josh calls them) with pecks that will poke your eyes out, this movie is for you. Seriously, their stomachs looked so hard that the Terminator himself would go “Ow!” if he tried to punch them. Keep in mind that there’s a lot of killing though, so you’ll have to close your eyes during 75% of the movie. -grin-

Overall, I think I’d actually give it an 8 or 9.

Baby Blanket?

As some of you who talk to me on a regular basis already know, my cousin Kristen just had her baby, Evan. Well, when I say “just” I mean on February 7th of this year. Why this idea didn’t occur to me earlier (say, when she was pregnant?) is anybody’s guess, but I’ve decided to knit her a baby blanket.

I’ll admit, I know little about the construction of baby blankets, but I have a few things in mind:

1.) It has to be large – My mom tells me that her pet peeve when I was little was the fact that her baby blankets were too small to really wrap me up in… in order to get them to really cover me she’d have to tuck in all the corners in some crafty way and hope they didn’t pop out.

2.) It can’t have holes in it (aka, no lace) – Obviously we can’t have his little fingers getting caught in it.

3.) It can’t be too dense/heavy – I’m kind of guessing on this one, but I’m assuming a lighter-weight blanket would do better in California, especially considering that we’re coming up on summer, and it’s going to be big anyway.

Anyway, keeping those points in mind I’ve picked this free pattern, and I’m going to use the suggested yarn in either Soft Aqua or Teal Lake. It should be pretty. Tomorrow I’m off to call the Fiber Gallery in Seattle to see if they carry those two colors… hopefully I’ll get a chance to look at them and feel (read: fondle) them before I make my final color decision. That, and I haven’t been to the Fiber Gallery yet, but my mom (who’s been there twice) says it’s really fun. Here’s to knitting baby blankets!

Applebee's?

It seems that I’ve been eating there a lot lately.  I say “a lot,” and really mean “at all,” because I don’t usually go there.  But Josh’s grandparents got back from their Florida trip last night and are going out for dinner with his parents, and of course we were invited to go along.  The free food should be fun at least.

Although, I just read an article today about a woman (I’m not sure where) who found a grasshopper leg (a large one) in her salad.  By crunching down on it.  Oof.  That’s more grasshopper than I’d like to deal with thank you.  I was telling Josh online a few minutes ago that it’s not exactly the best type of article to read right before going to the aforementioned restaurant, but hey, like I said: free food.

So that’s the plan for tonight.  Friday my dad wants to get together for breakfast again, which should include a decent amount of yummy.

Oh, and I had coffee with my mom this morning.  I called her at about 7:30am because I couldn’t get back to sleep after Josh left for work, and she thought it’d be a good idea.  It was fun to talk, although Laura & Gordon seem to be having some “issues” with their daughter Nikki, which is amusing enough for me.  I don’t think I’ll talk about it here though.

The 90's!

Does anyone else think that 90’s music sounds so “old school” these days? Right now I’m listening to the “Top 200 Hits of the 90’s”, which is quite fun, but at the same time odd. I know most of the songs since I used to be a big radio listener during that period… this is one of those playlists that evokes memories when listening to it. Of course, some of the songs are either R&B or Rap, which I don’t have much knowledge about. But I certainly know who The Verve, the Spice Girls, and Natalie Imbruglia, and Savage Garden are.

Speaking of Ms. Imbruglia, I’m sure you’ve all seen these two (1, 2) videos roaming around the internet, right? If you know her song, it’s hilarious stuff. Well, even if you don’t know it well. First video is just David Armand himself, and the second is a different performance, but this time he’s not alone. Both are great… I’d suggest checking out the first link, well, first, if only because you can see the performance a bit better.  I have way too much fun with this.