March 24, 2009

Tea

Ok, so this post is completely and totally about me . . .


I love Tea. I mean I really really really love tea. Right now, at 11:40 PM I am working on my third cup of Earl Grey. For some reason, I want to share that love with you.

Foglie de Tea, Earl Grey.
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I love the smell of Earl Grey.

Seriously, you should smell this.
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I would take a picture of myself but
a) that would involve getting out the tripod;
b) you do not want to see what I am wearing; and
c) I need to wipe the drool.

This is my Tea strainer. 99 cents at IKEA. Simple and functional. I'm making tea, not launching a space ship.
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So, let's see....Boil the water, then measure one level teaspoon of loose tea into the strainer.
Tea008 Tea011
Oh, yeah, this is going to be good....


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This is after two minutes of steeping....This smells so good.

Now, in the eternal debate of milk first or last, I am solidly on the fence. Sometimes I put the milk in first, sometimes it goes in last. Sometimes it's half-and-half, sometimes it's 2% milk, sometimes it's Heavy Whipping Cream (most of the time it's heavy whipping cream. American milk tastes nothing like the milk you can get in the UK). No matter what, 1 teaspoon of sugar is a definite.
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Ouch...I just scalded my tongue. Oh well.

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Now, I need some scones.

Spring has Sprung, but the Break is over

Last week was Spring Break at the college. I took off back to Georgia.


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Sometimes I still can't believe I used to make that 5 hour drive every other weekend... here's a quick run down of the week:

Friday: Watched the first part of the Battlestar Galactica Finale with Sue Ann. Tried not to cry.
Saturday: Slept in. Was rudely awakened at 8:30 by parents who assumed I had hit the road at 5 AM and were anxious for me to arrive (I'm still a bit concerned about that.... I never see 5AM unless I have been awake all night.) Went back to sleep. Hit the road ~4PM. Hit Albany around 9:30-10PM. Met up with Andrea and hit Waffle House. Full of sugar, I easily stayed up until 4AM.
Sunday: Slept in. Watched as parents tried desperately not to sit underfoot. Man, they missed me.
Monday: Mommy left around 5AM to go to work in Columbus. Sat around house with Daddy all day. Drove to Columbus to take Mommy out for her birthday and celebrate their anniversary. Drove back to Albany.
Tuesday: Sat around house all day. Snoozed on couch. Slept in bed. Very exciting day.
Wednesday: Daddy cut work to spend the day with me. So, we spent the day together just like we used to: he worked in the yard while I slept in every conceivable room in the house, including the kitchen.
Thursday: Daddy had to go to work today. Thank God. I went to Thomasville to visit the Grandparents. They were overjoyed when I arrived [Sidenote: Why did everyone feel the need to warn me that the cops were watching the road? I KNOW!!!! I'm not speeding (that much...)] and in their determination to spend as much time with me as possible, they stayed up until 3AM!!! Come on people, can't I get some alone time....?
Friday: Woke up with every intention of going back to Albany. Granny had different plans. She hid my keys, then put on the "sad-sack" face. I stayed another day, but warned them I was running out of clean undies. . .she did my laundry while I took a nap. Watched the BSG Finale. Cried for hours....I'm still not ready for the show to be over, but it is over.
Saturday: My keys returned, I set off to return to Albany. Met up with parents for breakfast, then a little mall crawl. However, my plans were rudely interrupted when some random teacher friend of my mother's showed up and started yapping her mouth. DAMN! I've been ditched. So I ditched her when Andrea swung by. I hit WalMart for the first time all trip (good looking out!), then a few more stores. Stephanie called me because my sorority was having an intake soon and the new DP and Pres didn't know what to do, so would I come by ~6PM to help them plan, since I had been the pres during one of our more infamous lines. Sure, so I split from Dree (her sister's on the line, so she didn't need to know anything going on) and headed home to get a few things. Wouldn't you know, Mommy's home and she's cooked. So, seafood night at the parents, then over to Steph's. She's cooked (I'm feeling the fat settle on) so a small plate of Spaghetti and let's start planning. I'm finally free at 3AM.
Sunday
: Mommy wants to try our girl's day out again. Great, but all the rest of my clothes are in the wash. So she ditches me again, (how rude!) then calls me back 1.5 hours later to meet her at the nail shop. At that point, I'm ticked, but I go. She pays. My toes are hot pink.


NOTE: I had no interest in alone time. I have quite enough of that in Florida.


When conscious, I spent my time in GA looking at plant catalogs and dreaming about Square Foot Gardening (the price of tomatoes is simply ridiculous!) . . . I feel rather confident that I can pull it off this year. I also looked at acquiring a few houseplants.


<--Like Dieffenbachia I grew up with this plant. Lost quite a few stupid dogs to it too (the leaves are poisonious).


Pothos: I grew up with this plant and it's also poisonous....What were my grandparents trying to do to us?





<--Philodendron: I grew up with this plant and it's also poisonous....I'm beginning to see a pattern.



Arrowhead Vine: My mother had this plant.....I'm seeing a disturbing trend here.


<--Cast-Iron Plant: Finally, a plant that isn't poisonous.


Well, I live by myself and I don't have a dog. I think I can manage not to chew on the plants.




I've stalked the Pioneer Woman's Gardening site for information on how she built her raised beds (not difficult at all) and I am almost living at Mel Bartholomew's site, but I may have a problem finding vermiculite. . . apparently it's tough to lay hands on.

While at home I had a great time finishing projects that have been on the back burner for a while:

I now have a pair of Pomatomus Socks and they are gorgeous! I am in love with them. A little blocking and they'll be ready for wearing.
PomatomusPair001

A Koolhaas hat in Cream: Daddy claimed the hat, then Mommy stole the hat, then Grandy decided she wanted the hat (but in Blue) and PawPaw wanted the same hat but in a different blue from Granny. Let the Christmas 2009 Knitting BEGIN!
Koolhaas001

March 13, 2009

The Big Books List

I have stolen this list from another blog, The Crazy Ranter. Anyhow, The Big Read thinks that the average adult has only read 6 of the books on this 100 list.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strikethrough the ones you hate.

  1. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)- love love love love love. I have at least three copies of this book in my house. . .and the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version is the classic movie version!
  2. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien) - Well, I made it through The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. I made it partially through The Two Towers, but I haven't gotten anywhere near The Return of the King.
  3. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
  4. Harry Potter series (JK Rowling) - I have the paperbacks, the hardbacks, and I'm trying to get the British versions. Does that explain???
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - I have a copy of this somewhere also.
  6. The Bible - I grew up Pentecostal. I think it's mandatory.
  7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
  8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
  9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
  10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
  11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
  12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (Partially read)
  13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
  14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - Jeez, that will take forever! Do you have any idea how many poems he wrote?
  15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - I've seen the movie...does that count?
  16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - So, I guess this didn't count for the earlier Lord of the Rings listing, huh...?
  17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
  18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
  19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
  20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
  21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell--I'm southern. I think this book is mandatory.
  22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
  23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
  24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - Someday...
  25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
  26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - This is pathetic. I received a free copy via LibraryThing and I still haven't read it. It keeps putting me to sleep.
  27. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Thus began my love affair with Russian authors.
  28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
  29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
  30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
  31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
  32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
  33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis--YES!!!
  34. Emma - Jane Austen - Not as good as Pride and Prejudice, but it will do in a pinch.
  35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
  36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis - HEY, why is the first book broken out from the rest of the series....???
  37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
  38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
  39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
  40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne- Yeah, but I like Curious George more.
  41. Animal Farm - George Orwell - Loved it.
  42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
  43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
  45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
  46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
  47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
  48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
  49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
  50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
  51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel - I own it, I just haven't read it yet.
  52. Dune - Frank Herbert
  53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
  54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
  55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
  56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
  58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
  59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - My copy is somewhere in the house.
  60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I Tried
  61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - I think I've read this...
  62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
  63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
  64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
  65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Revenge really is a dish best served cold.
  66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
  67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
  68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
  69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
  70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
  71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
  72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
  73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
  74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
  75. Ulysses - James Joyce
  76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
  77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
  78. Germinal - Emile Zola
  79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
  80. Possession - AS Byatt
  81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Who hasn't read this?
  82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
  83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker - I watched the movie numerous times as a child, but I didn't read it until my teens and didn't pick up on the lesbian bits until college....man, I was sheltered. I went to an HBCU; being able to quote this movie was mandatory!
  84. The Remains of the Day- Kazuo Ishiguro - Easily ranks as the most boring book I EVER read. I still don't get it (and I'm no literary slouch)
  85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
  86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
  87. Charlotte's Web - EB White - I cry every time.
  88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - I read this entire book in 30 minutes in Target....
  89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
  91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
  92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - I'm pretty sure I read this.
  93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
  94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
  95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
  96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
  97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
  98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare - By the end, I was ready for him to die.
  99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
  100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - Does Rent Count?
Total Count:
Read: 38
Intend to Read: 38
Loved: 12
Hated: 1

March 11, 2009

Hmm...this portends well...

I woke up this morning so dizzy I could barely stand up, so I stayed home. I'm still trying to make my way through Ballykissangel.

So what did I accomplish today...

I finished sock one of Pomatomus today.
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My god, isn't it gorgeous?!?! The best part?

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I know that twisted stitches eat up yarn, but I only used 1/4 of a skein to make the first sock (and I followed the directions to a T). If I play my cards right, I might get a full pair of socks and maybe some footies out of one skein....

Off to cast on the Second Sock!

March 10, 2009

New Home Project

Like so many Americans, I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out ways to cut back on my spending. I didn't do badly last year, but I want to bulk up my 401(k). So after getting a body blow from Quicken (I really spent $1200 on my CELL PHONE last year!!! Are you kidding me???), I decided to go outside.

I spent about 20 minutes in my backyard trying to decide where to put my square foot garden . . . I don't have a large backyard and every time I've attempted to grow something it has been a dismal disaster, but I'm going to try again.

Then I walked around to the front yard.
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That tree has got to go.

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The Palm tree might live to see another day, but that yellow grass thingy . . . I hated it the moment I saw the house.

Thankfully my neighbor Linda was on hand to help me figure out a plan.

    Me: Well, I was thinking I would hire a tree service to get rid of that tree and the grass thing because I hate them both

    Linda: Honey there's no need to to that! Get yourself a pair of ....umm...long clippers or a saw and saw that thing down. (Grabs branch and twists) Matter of fact, this thing is half-dead anyway so it should come down easy.

    Me: Umm...I don't have a green thumb, so I don't know if I should do this.

    Linda: Well, in this case, you're the perfect person for it. You're trying to kill the tree and if you're as bad as you say, this is right up your alley.

    Me: You have a point. . .and I have a hacksaw. . .

    Linda: Ring my doorbell if you need anything.
Yup, I do like my neighbors.
So here's what I accomplished in one hour:
Beginning: See Above

30 minute Mark:
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Done (45 Minute Mark):
FrontYard011

I left three weeds and a stump, but I'll get rid of those before the trash get here in the morning.

Now I'm pricing the garden . . . This is soooo much fun!

March 6, 2009

Back to the Knitting

I looked at my site today and realized that my blog is all over the place. That's not fair to my readers, all 3 of them (seriously, I have no idea how many. I just pretend that no one is watching and keep it moving).

So I promise that I'm going to get on the ball with the posting. My only issue with posting is that normally, you want a post with pictures. Everyone needs visual stimulation, otherwise this gets boring.

My camera is at home and I'm so anal about my pictures that I will only release them after they've had a nice liberal dosing of Photoshop to make them look better.

I will do better. So, what's on deck?





Pomatomus Socks

Yes, these socks are famous and rightly so; they are brilliant. However, the first time I attempted to make these, it was a complete disaster.

However, I now have the perfect yarn for them. . .
NFC_WardCircle001

"Ward Circle" by Neighborhood Fiber Company, which is turning into. . .

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Umm....yummmy. I'm in love....

You would not believe how fast I'm knitting these . . . Above is the end of night one.
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This is now . . . If I keep this up, I'll be done with the pair in a week.