Fuzzyfeet1 

At long last- landscaping project 

Sweater in progress 

Smallville and Dr. Phil all in one night!

Yikes. What we will do we wondered, as we realized that both the new Smallville and Dr. Phil's Primetime Special are both on the same night, and the time overlaps! My husband and I both pondered and worried over this question. Our Tivo can only do one thing at once, and we have a one tv household. Then- my parents bought a Tivo. Enamored with our discussions of the ease of programming and multi-skilled system it was time for them to get one too. My Mom wanted it in time for the New season of Dr. Phil- last week, but it came on Saturday instead. Well, it helped us solve our dilemma- as Troy logged in remotely online to my parents' Tivo- to tivo the Dr. Phil special. Now I have to decide whether or not I can convince Beth to watch it on their mondo tv- or if we will just do something else entirely different.

You are all probably wondering how the sweater that was chai'd is coming. I keep taking pics of it in progress- but then don't remember to post thme on my blog. Now I'm wondering if I should just take a most recent pic- and post it here. Oh! I'm also supposed to post a pic of the landscaping project so you can see the cement 15lb. blocks I laid that one day long ago.
I think I'll go grab the digital camera and have a go at it.

Working on the sweater and fall fun

Troy and I had an awesome day of surprises that I arranged. We began the day with a Farmer's Market Tour with Supatra from Sawatdee, then we had a cooking class with her at the restaurant with our fresh newly purchased produce. I would really suggest taking a class with her if you like Thai food. We made catfish with bitter melon and red coconut curry, lettuce wraps with scallops, beef, and shrimp that we cooked ourselves on the griddle, tamarind sauce, and ate some tapioca pearls with sweet corn and coconut milk. We also learned a lot, and I drank two thai coffees. I love thai coffee!

After that we went to Sponsel's Apple Orchard in Jordan, MN. There we rode a hay wagon to apple trees, picked apples, and discovered the U of M bred apple, MN 1606. It's the best, and I've been eating lots of them lately. They are really firm and tangy.

Then...we went to Margarita's Pizza in Oakdale and had sun-dried tomato pizza with artichokes, cheese bread, and fried ice cream on a double date with some of our friends. Following the meal we saw the movie Wimbledon. It was funny, and sweet, and had suspenseful tennis match scenes. I'd recommend it.

I have also been knitting a lot on Troy's sweater. His b-day's coming up so I am very motivated to keep working. Plus it's fun to see the different colors of the stripes knit. Tonight I get to work on it at Stitch n' Bitch. Speaking of which, their new book "Stitch n' Bitch Nation" is coming out in October. I pre-ordered it at Bound to be Read and hope it comes out soon!

Last night was class, and I've been slow in blogging as of late since I was writing a paper from last month's long weekend class, Psychodyanmics of Psychopathology part I, from an Adlerian perspective. Whew. Is it nice to be done with my paper of the month- for now. Until the next two are due for this class.

I e-mailed Dr. Phil

With a pleading for Troy and I to meet him and Robin. That would be the coolest, and a dream come true.

I dreamt about Dr. Phil last night

He was taping at the Target Center in MPLS, and there was a Mississippi River cruise with him before the show. Beware- this is all a dream!

I'm fairly certain that I have reached the point where I will be e-mailing Dr. Phil with a lengthy letter pleading to meet him and Robin. I'm supposed to get to see him next fall or so, and sit in the audience, in 2005 when I GRADUATE! but I don't know if I can wait till then. I just seem to sit in my classes at the Alfred Adler Graduate School, and think....hmmm... that what Dr. Phil says. As far as the field of psychology goes, I always wonder who will be this generation's Freud or Jung, and would love to predict who that would be. But as for now, I satisfy myself with trying to submerge myself in current psychological theory, and in our pop culture world, it really seems like the Dr. Phil messages are timely and appropriate, relevant yet practical to our busy hectic lives.

In my dream though, (and this was a let-down) Dr. Phil and I were introduced and he responded with an *underwhelming (*frequent Dr. Phil word) response. He was courteous but seemed too busy for me. I told him I was studying Marriage and Family therapy, and he was like, "oh, That's nice. " Just like the response a friend might give when they are too busy for you but want to "appear" to be listening. I have heard that "oh. That's nice." stuff enough to distinguish it from authentic responses. As I should in the ultra-observative field in which I am pursuing my studies.

I for sure have to meet him so he can redeem his character from that which was expressed by my unconscious last night.

I also had a dream that I went to get my long hair trimmed, and the stylist "accidentally" cut my hair to my shoulders instead. OOpps. Now I will have to wait to get over that pseudo-trauma before trimming up the split ends.

Plus- I had class last night, and made it through with no problems. Despite doing a large landscaping project for 2 hours by myself after taking the dog on an hour and a half long walk, I was determined to prettify the yard, and get closer to completing this task.

Knitting 911

A big bad thing happened today to my first sweater project. It was chai'd. Yes, I was riding in a friend's car, and there was a cup in there that had outgrown its built-in cupholder. I didn't think anything of it, since I nearly always drink all of whatever beverage I have. There was leftover chai in this cup, and it tipped, watering my leg, my book, and gasp! my knitting. In fact, I later realized that it had come to pool in the bottom of the bag which held 3 skeins of yarn, and the sweater in progress. I didn't want to make a huge deal out of it then, but knew that I had work to do ASAP- once back at home.

I called Abby at Borealis Yarns, and soon was busied with the task of washing tea out of the sweater-to-be, and it looked quite good with the preliminary "blocking". Now it is drying along with the two re-skeined yarns- that left their ball stage to pursue emergency help. That means that I have to wait for it to dry before I can knit more. And I'm at my parents' house today, and the other knitting projects are at my home.

Meanwhile, I was thinking, I should be so upset now- but I didn't cry, I was motivated to action to do whatever it took to not have to spend another 30 dollars on the sweater. We'll have to see what happens with the light blue color, I can't see anymore chai in it, but if it remains it won't be the end of the world to have to buy a replacement skein.

In contrast to last month's weekend class, I am not experiencing an intellectual hangover. That's a really good thing though, since I have the previous' class paper to complete, soon. And class happens again on Monday night. Tomorrow. Then I might have an intellectual hangover. Maybe it was the appletini (apple martini) that prevented my brain from school overload this time.

we're gonna' take a walk outside today

Gonna see what we can find today, Some favorite lines from a treasured children's movie about a curious cat and a pug-nosed pup-- Milo and Otis. Buster and I took an hour long walk today, complete with a run through a parking lot to the post office. He's finally tired.

Yesterday I was putting on my tennis shoes to do an indoor fitness video and he got all excited like it was walk time. I didn't want to break his little furry heart so I gave in and we went on a walk instead. I think I'll have to blindfold the dog if I want to try to do my fitness videos!

Last night was class one of five, of Psychodynamics of Psychopathology Part Two. It was nice though, because it felt like mostly a review of the multiaxial assessment style of the DSM IV, and compared it with Adler's holistic assessments of psychopathology. Adler assesses things like level of social interest, life tasks and the degree to which they are met by an individual, Early Recollections, and a broad Lifestyle Analyis. If you want to learn more you can either join my Grad school- or ask me about them, as I have training in Adlerian theory.

Tonight, I will have a much lighter night including a visit to Borealis Yarns, and Diamonds Coffeehouse, both of which have given prominent posting on my blog. It should be a good time for my friend Elzbieta and I.

Suffering from a naughty computer

It's been misbehaving lately, thus the slowness of the posting of new material. Plus, I was still recovering from the education overload I not so fondly call, "intellectual hangover".

But yesterday Troy and I went to the fair and watched a calf being born. The vets had to pull it out with chains, I watched it while I was eating the rest of my pineapple malt from the Empire Commons building. yummy.

We visited a funky coffeehouse friday night, called "Diamonds". Now I'm a girl who likes shiny things, like platinum and silver, sparkles, and of course diamonds. It has a retro atmosphere with lava lamps, and aqua blue diamond shapes on the walls. We'd recommend this place, as it's open till midnight on the weekends, non-smoking, and I had a creme brulee mocha- mmm!

The fuzzyfeet have been given a break to allow others to join the fuzzyfeet knit along, once we have more join, and I let my knitting blogging friend, Chele get her poor Hello Kitty Saturn to the friendly yarn store- Borealis Yarns, I shall give them attention again.

Yesterday- I bought yarn to make my first sweater. It's a gift to my husband, and I wanted him to know in advance so I can knit it in public, and keep measuring him as I make it so it'll fit. It's using the SnB pattern, the "Very Manly Sweater" and yarns Cascade 220 that are various shades of blues. We went to my new favorite yarn store where *so far* the staff has been nice and helpful. It's called Borealis Yarns, and I suggest that you go there, if anything just to hold their yarns outside on the street corner and watch the gawkers stare as the real colors of the yarn show through in natural light. Come to think of it, why is it so important to look at the colors in natural light anyway, once it's cold enough to wear a sweater people'll be inside where the flourescent lights preside over sunlight. Hmm...something to ponder...