I’m returning to blogging. Back in a mo…

Thinking about blogging again. Will get back to you!

Guess who made an appearance on Dog Art Today last week?

Something from Aubrey.

The rules:

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: post a comment on Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanous
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (maybe- that horrendous French cheese Eileen got last summer was unlabelled)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (both, but not at the same time)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/€80/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips (unfortunately)
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (accidentally)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears, and funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (does plain ol’bunny rabbit count?)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (it was estate, even)
100. Snake

Not too shabby…

I do have more baby stuff to show off, since I never finished the week o’junk, but, eh, I’ll get around to it.

Week of knitting fun is on hold for one day.  Following about 24 hours of sad doggy drama, poor little Toaster was admitted to the “hospital” with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis.  It was sad and scary and gross, and our sweet, obnoxious fur baby will probably be in veterinary custody until Thursday.  It’s very quiet here without him.

Twitter’s been about all I can handle lately.  Within the last two weeks (in order of occurence), we had the living room, dining room, and hallway painted, the front door lock broke, my step-grandfather passed away, Toaster had to spend the day at the vet in case he had a reaction to his rabies shot (as he has in the past) while I spent the day with my Gramma, we attended the viewing, we missed Matt’s Aunt and Uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary, we started attending birth classes, our AC stopped working so we had to pack up Toaster and spend the night next door, we attended the funeral, I flew to Minneapolis for work for 5 days, the replacement front door lock broke, the AC got fixed, I flew home, we swapped cars because I can’t get in and out of the MINI anymore, we had a prenatal appointment with the practice’s new midwife (she’s cool, even if she does crochet), and last night hosted a committee meeting that ended up going until 11 pm.

Despite all that, we seem to be doing fine.  A little tired, but fine.  Also, there was plenty of coping-through-yarn, so maybe later this week I’ll manage to show you what got finished.

As ever, I am at the forefront of internet innovations.  You can now follow my mundane exploits via Twitter.  You also can see my latest entries in the sidebar to the right.  Yeah.  Now I’m gonna go get depressed over the use of child slaves in chocolate production.

So, we went (quite a while ago) and got stuff:

I went with a pocket full of money and someone to carry stuff for me…I ended up with what you see here.  While there was much to see, there was very little I wanted to buy.  Very little actual wool yarn.  Lots of sock yarns and lots of pretty wool blends, but hardly any plain old wool.  I was pretty interested in the organic merino from Greenwood Hill Farm, but didn’t get any.  I think I’ll be ordering some through their website.  It was beautiful stuff.

Since the festival was such a bust, I’ve started looking for DK and Sport weight wool yarns online.  They’re surprisingly hard to find.

The scarf up there is a basic feather and fan pattern, using some “WV Wool/Mohair” handspun.  It’s very pretty, almost silver in appearance.

It was so hot yesterday, we went to the movies.  Before the movie started, the theater toilet flushed before I stood up.  It was not particularly pleasant.  Just in case you wanted to know.

The movie was good.  Not great, but good.  The two major problems, in our minds, were: (1) the script, and (2) the CG effects.

The script was teribble.  It was like they plotted out the action sequences and then played connect-the-dots to make a full script.  They tried to add a bunch of emotional crap, and it all came out totally lame-o because there was no development.

The CG was just…wrong.  The more practical effects were pretty good, like the car/motorcycle chase scene at the university.  That scene gets 1 puke bucket out of 4, by the way.  The almost entirely CGed car chase scene in the jungle was awful.  I missed most of that, though, because I was looking away, trying not to puke.  CG was just really out of place in an Indiana Jones movie, and felt like they just did it because they could.  Seriously, does an Indiana Jones movie really need CG prairie dogs?

So, overall puke rating of 2 buckets.  I missed a few scenes, but nothing vital to the plot (was any of it vital to the plot?), and recovered quickly between “episodes.”

 

So, this whole nesting thing is both fun and furiating.  While shopping for products to ensure that the baby will not be naked nor starved nor murdered in its sleep by the dog, it has become obvious that we are parents-to-be of rare and expensive tastes.

• 97.3% of all baby clothing, bed linens, and accessories are only manufactured in pastel colors printed with teddy bears and clouds.  This is where the bargains are.
• 2.1% come in drab “mod” colors: dull aqua, dirty orange, and brown. 
• .5% come in white.
• .1% come in nice primary colors or other festive “gender neutral” colors and prints.

Those of you who know us well know that we mostly go for the last category.  What’s wrong with a little turqoise?  Lime green?  Why must all yellows be pastel?  Why does black only come with “punk” or “alternative” adornments, like screen-printed anarchy symbols?  And what about a nice grass green?  Solid colors aside, what about a nice geometric pattern?  Though I don’t entirely agree with the sentiment, this is a cute shirt.

I do understand that the baby will not care what color he or she is wearing or sleeping on, but I don’t want to buy things that are ugly.  Thank goodness for loaners and hand-me-downs!  Right now, free and used are my favorite colors.

Another lesson learned is that many Amazon reviewers are not too bright.  Sample reviews below are paraphrased:

• In a review for a mini-gym thing, in which a baby lies on its back and bats at little toys hanging from an arch:  My 1-week old daughter was not interested in this AT ALL.  It’s supposed to entertain her but she just went to sleep!!!  I RETURNED IT!!!
• In a review for some baby spoons:  My 6-week old spits up everything we try to feed him with this spoon,  DO NOT BUY!!!
• In reviews for many, many products:  We do not own this product, and have neither used it nor seen it in person, but it is terrible!!!
• Also in reviews for many, many products:  I do not have children, but I bought this for a friend whose baby is due in three months.  She hasn’t even taken it out of the box yet, but it is super cute and durable, and will last the baby forever!!!
• In a review for a baby swing:  I only gave it one star because zero stars is not an option!!!  We ordered this for our fussy baby upon the recommendation of a friend, and it took FOUR DAYS to arrive!!!  We’d already purchased a swing locally by then, and so we returned this unopened!!! DO NOT BUY!!!
• In a review for a small (but seriously, not that small) fabric/plastic toy that clips onto a stroller or whatever:  WARNING!!!  My son shoved this hard and jammed it way into his mouth and made a gagging sound!!! This product is DANGEROUS!!! DO NOT BUY!!!  

Sigh.

You might be happy to know that a post about knitting and yarn is pending, as is some more stuff from my house.