Monday, August 29, 2005

Do you vacuum your dog?

Not just vacuum up his/her fur- but actually vacuum your dog? After DH and I did our run I came back and decided to vacuum while DH was in the shower. Buster followed me around, walking between my legs, herding the vac, silently. After awhile I realized what he wanted. Yes, he was in his "needy" mode, pet me pet me pet me I'm cute- but he also wanted to be vacuumed. So I sat down on our fluffy clean vacuumed carpet and put his favorite nozzle on the vacuum. It's the one that's flat, sort of like a big brush without bristles. And I vacuumed him. He loved it. He just sat there enjoying the gentle suction on his fur. And his fur felt really soft and looked really shiny afterwards. And he was happy, and I finally understood what he wanted by sticking right by my side as I did my work.

Pre-felted koala head


Pre-felted koala head
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

Felted koala piece


Felted koala piece
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.
Testing out felting with my first do it yourself/teach yourself

intarsia. The koala head is my own design. Tablecloth from William

Sonoma.

We made this Friday night. It is supposed to be Indian food, but I think it looks like Italian.

Karahi chicken with mint and cilantro. First we had to go for a run to

the grocery store with Buster for some extra ingredients. Yes- we can

run to the grocery store where we live. How cool is that?!

Leaf lace sock in progress


Leaf lace sock in progress
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.
The leaves have little eyelets, too. Well, technically they are called

"yarn-overs."

Yesterday we ate authentic mexican food at Los Cabos in West Saint Paul, MN

This is molcajete- meats and seafood and that green thing is a piece of

cactus. It was really good, and it came with lots of fresh tortillas,

guacamole, beans, cheese, sour cream, etc. all in this awesome volcanic

rock pig. Can you see his piggy face on the left? And my parents in the

background?

Duluth rose garden wedding


Duluth rose garden wedding
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.
I don't think there could be a more beautiful place for a wedding than

a rose garden overlooking Lake Superior. And it was fun for my shawl to

come along for the view.

Pants of Scotland-made material in the kitchen with a corgi

They have a zipper on the side. I cannot tell you how much I worried

about sewing in the zipper. I hadn't sewn one in for years. To

alleviate my worries, I went online to find out how to do it. I was

able to use my leftover fusible hem tape from our IKEA kitchen curtains

to reinforce where the zipper would go. This made that part sturdy and

cooperative as I sewed in the zipper. Then, I was totally shocked- the

plaids lined up where the zipper was sewn in. Unbelievable. I must have

been thinking last summer when I started cutting them out- or just got

lucky. Either way, I was happy. I do still have to hem them though. I'm

tall and my pants are usually shorter than I like, so I wanted to make

sure they were super long.



Oh- please ignore my shirt. There appears to have been one load of

laundry that came out spotted. Was that the load that I did?



The pattern is from Burda. I started these last summer, then was

discouraged because I thought the plaids would not line up at the

seams. Then, I decided they will be "rockstar punk plaid pants." I

think they're great and very comfortable. Dh says they look like "store

pants."



I got my sewing machine back from getting fixed on Wednesday, along

with my puppy who was "fixed" and envisioned her laying, mellowed out,

by my side while I sewed. She, however, was not to be made mellow by

her surgery. So un-mellow in fact that on Saturday morning prior to

driving to Duluth to an afternoon wedding we had to bring her in to our

vet as she had "come undone." She was rough-housing with Buster

despite our best attempts for them to be calm together. Since I get a

bit squeamish I said, "DH check her." And sure enough, my laid-back

husband verified that we'd have to bring her in (to the vet). So we

did, and they stapled her shut. Yes, literally. She was oblivious to

the fact that she could have fallen apart due to excessive play, and

also that she had staples in her. Now, she has been quarantined to my

parent's house for a few days, away from Buster, so that she will rest

without the temptation to treat Buster as a hurdle. Of course, that

means that DH and I have to go visit her frequently as we miss her.

My first felted bag- for the TCSnB Buttonhole Bag Exchange

The felted version- felted twice

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Only one knitting corgi today

Corgimom dropped off her little poochie to get spayed this morning. I just heard back from my friendly veterinarian, and she did fine, and it all went well. She has to stay overnight, and then I will eagerly pick her up tomorrow morning sometime after 10am.

Today- I met at Dunn Bros. with my thesis advisor, Roger Ballou. It was wonderful to tie up some loose paper ends (though not as good as knitting), and to figure out what to say in my LAST SECTION! Yay! Can I express more happiness about that? Like, let's have a party?!

Now, my big self-set goal is to work on the last section and get half or all of it done by Thursday night when there is a big group thesis meeting. To those of you thinking, and asking (Kelle, this includes you) "Aren't you done yet?" I have to tell you that of all the other thesis-writing students in my group I am by far the furthest along in my paper. And boy is that great to hear! I'm almost done, I'm almost done!!!(Said in a nananabooboo-way).

Last night I was distracted from my current sock in progress when I saw the leaf lace sock. I just gotta get that pattern! I frogged what I'd done so far, and will be making another LYS trip today to purchase that pattern as a reward to myself for spending, hmmm...let's say 45 min. on my paper today. Furthermore, I embarked on "teach myself intarsia in bed" last night. I printed off some free knitter's graph paper, drew a koala head, and then proceeded to intarsiafy it. There will be pictures. I will also be felting it just to see what it does.

Last night we (DH and I) went to a neighbor lady's house to set up her new Dell computer. I brought some Teavana tea and my tea kettle of filtered water, and she shared ice cream, pizzeles (cookies), oatmeal cookies, and a bottle of chilled Cold Duck. She said it had been in her fridge waiting for us to come over since her computer arrived two days ago. So we had a little New computer install party, and I drank lots of tea, Cold Duck, and ate far too many pizzeles. We had a really nice time.

Well, I suppose it is time to earn my leaf sock pattern. They will be pink/red/green perfect for leaves I thought. I must re-embark on my thesis writing.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Back from my LYS

I just returned from Borealis Yarn, and made it out of the store without spending money. Though I found an awesome pattern for leaf lace socks. Wouldn't they look great with my leaf lace shawl? Well, it would be fun to make them, though they'd look silly with my metallic ribbon yarn shawl.


So far, it sounds like Thursday afternoon I will be meeting my first clients. Tomorrow I meet with my thesis advisor to tie up a few loose ends on my thesis. In the morning I have to drop off our little Geneweasel to get spayed. Oh how we all will miss her for the day- and night, probably, too.
t

I have been working on my Mom's sweater. The first sleeve is done, and I cast on sts for the body. The sleeve and half the body are knit in one piece- so that's a new thing for me. I started knitting on some green/orange/pink socks yesterday. They will look great with my new light green pants.
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Pre-blocking. 72 inches by 35 inches deep

Now it is better. I used my resources and e-mailed the summer of lace

knitter's yahoo group and was assisted in learning the correct way to

do this unique bind off. I just have to get all the tails woven in,

then block it. Then wear it to the wedding in Duluth on Saturday.

When I did the bind-off wrong


When I did the bind-off wrong
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.
The shawl edges curled. They were no leaf points, and I was not too

happy with the edging. This was the second time I bound off all those

stitches.

The cats like to taunt our dgos


The cats like to taunt our dgos
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.
They're not our cats- they are neighborhood roaming cats. They do,

however, like to pretend that they own our yard, and know that they are

in plain sight of our dogs. They just linger and hang out, while the

dogs bark on in futile defense.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Just look at that!


Just look at that!
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

I leave for one night, and look what happens...

Yes- that is our adult corgi drinking beer. Yup. A bunch of DH's friends decided it would be fun to introduce Buster to beer. It looks like he really likes it. Where was I when this happened? Naively knitting away at SnB in EP's Dunn Bros. We had so much fun stitchin' and bitchin' that we went across the street to Starbucks when Dunn closed. Yup- I was working on my ever-progressing shawl- which has experienced zero mistakes since the talk with Kelle. I was out there till 10:30pm- knitting away. I started my pink edging- and am now on the 5th row of 16 for the edging.



OH- I lost Genevieve in the house twice. A few days ago I grabbed something out our front coat closet. I called the pup to offer her a treat for coming when called. No response. How weird. We hollered and checked outside. No sounds, no psycho jumping pup to snatch treats away. Then, we opened the closet- and out she came. Just a few minutes ago I was wondering where she went again. I checked on the bed- she has been jumping up on there lately (against our rules). She wasn't there. Then I heard a sound from behind the guest bedroom door. I turned the handle, and there she was, chewing on a big piece of cardboard. What a little stinker. As if drinking my juice, coffee, and whatever else I drink wasn't enough!

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Today I lost 15 pounds...

In library books from my school library! Yay! That means I turned in a huge stack of books used for my thesis- and that I am getting even closer to its end. My advisor even permitted me to "drop" one of the last 2 paper sections. That means there is one part left to write, and I am meeting with my advisor next Tuesday to lay out that part.



So I bet you're wonderin' "How did her first day of work go?"



Well, it went really well, considering the fact that they (work) was expecting me at 1pm today- and I got a cell phone call at 8am regarding the time I was coming in for Thursday. At that point I casually mentioned that I was in the work parking lot. OOPS! They did find a way to use an hour for some orientation, then I met a friend at Caribou, ate my bag lunch with my sister-in-law, and returned to work. I am really excited about this job, and this workplace. I feel like I will have lots of opportunities to grow more, develop new skills, and gain lots of experience.

Monday, August 15, 2005

First day is tomorrow!

I have been trying to get everything to together for my new job. That includes getting myself together. I still don't know what to wear!? I don't want to be over or under-dressed- I want to make a good impression- but not shock anyone with my bold colored wardrobe, or "Beauty and the Geek" earrings" (the big dangly kind that look like gypsy accessories).


I start tomorrow at 8:15am. I hope I can sleep tonight. I spent time at our new Starbucks working on my paper, got a pedicure with my mom, and went to Caribou with her later for a treat and some knitting time over conversation.


Today my Grandma-in law had surgery- keep her in your thoughts. She is the one making the awesome koala quilt for us.


This past weekend we had 2 "Thai parties." On Saturday I just "had" to cook Thai food. So we did. We made crab cream cheese wontons, lemongrass salad, and shrimp fried rice with pork instead of shrimp. I also made "waikiki cocktail" from Food Network's Semi-homeade with Sandra Lee show. It was so good. I used a can of peach juice, a can of guava juice, some fresh orange juice from 1/2 an orange, a sliced up lemon, grenadine for color and sugar, and some liquid sugar, with passionfruit rum. That stuff smells like candy- I could not believe it. It was a great meal, spent with great friends.


Sunday night my parents came over, and we made Pork with Thai basil (with shrimp instead of pork) and had more wontons and salad, and some leftover waikiki cocktail.


I was craving cooking after Friday, which was spent with my Mom at Let's Dish. There we assembled 7 meals and a chocolate lava cake. We haven't eaten any of them, but I am glad we have back-up in the freezer- food on hand for full meals when I run out of time. I do plan to run out of time, too! I am going to be working full-time.


I haven't worked full-time since my sophomore year in college, when I worked for a summer as a Technical Aide at 3M in the Industrial Abrasive Systems testing sandpaper with stainless steel. It was not a good job for this girly-girl!

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Dogs and sheep

Courtesy of St. Paul's Irish Fest on Harriet Island. We saw sheepherding through the fest- the sheep just wandered around and the dogs kept everything under control. We also saw 8 of 9 of the "Native Dogs of Ireland."

Note the middle yarnover line, and silver and blue leaves

The blocked version should be something like this.

leaf lace shawl closer up


leaf lace shawl closer up
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

Leaf Lace shawl as modeled on the bed

This project was a bit of a challenge once it started growing. There was a lot of tinking, unknitting one stitch at a time, row by row. The "yarn" (it seems like a misnomer to call this stuff yarn) is very slippery, as slippery as it is shiny, and dropped stitches spell certain disaster. There were precious few of those along the way, but enough to send me into a tizzy whenever this snafu was found. Once I talked to Kelle, my knitting wizard guru friend, knitting this began to become less arduous. She asked if I could look at the pattern on the needles and recognize what came next. I have to admit my eyes spent more time looking at the chart then my knitting, and I was not fully aware and conscious of what I was actually doing. I began to become more in tune with my project, and looked at my knitting - and was able to see how the pattern worked. I felt like I had some type of knitting enlightenment moment. Now I would like to sit down for hours and just work on this- like get it done before my new job starts, Tuesday at 8:15. That would be ideal. I plan to knit while watching TIVO'ed Saturday Night Live tonight.

The big question is: I'm seeking input here- what color should I make the leaf "points" along the edge? I have a pinkish magenta of the same type of yarn, or more silver or blue? So- Pink, Silver, or Blue?

I'm a dog, I'm a workin' dog, I'm a hard workin' dog

Does anyone else remember that song from Sesame Street, or am I the only one?

With a Border Collie hot on their tails


And saw sheep roaming through crowds of people


This weekend we traveled...


This weekend we traveled...
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

Monday, August 08, 2005

I forgot to take out the trash dream...

It doesn't sound very dreamy to take the trash out- but it created some anxiety for me last night. In my dream I was working my first day at my new job. I was told to take the trash out. I was working in a big office building that had a skyway to a mall. The mall had Marshall Fields, and Target as its big "anchor" stores. I had just been downstairs in the lobby doing some task and was mildly alarmed to see 2 men snorting things up straws while looking at a flat-wall-like monument. I walked through the doorway back to my job, and found myself on the opposite side of the mall instead. I was quite panicked- I was supposed to be taking out the trash! I quickly found the shuttle to the other side where I worked. I was on the shuttle realizing that it was really slow- and it would take me all day to get back to my work. I started to give up, and realize that the trash wasn't going to get out before the office closed. I was alarmed- I was trying to make a good impression and do my best work- and then I had to be human and forget to take the trash out. Hmm...I eventually resigned myself to not taking the trash out, deciding that things would be ok, and that they'd work out. I think I went to the bar for a drink and some food at the end of the dream.

Did I mention that the day after my second interview I dreamt that I'd gotten the job- and went out with 2 co-workers to an adorable coffee shop to hang out? Somehow having the dream stirred up more stress for me about the job- as my wondering grew.

I think my subconscious is just working on me to prepare me for this next big challenge. What do you think?

Friday, August 05, 2005

Weekend update- knitting, traveling, work and school

Well- I will do the work part first. As far as I know I will be starting my new job on August 16th. Since I have a date in my head for this big part of my life, and thus will not be able to procrastinate or work slowly on my thesis anymore, I have been feeling motivated.

Part of this motivation is setting reachable goals for myself. My usual thesis writing goal is 2 pages per day I chose to work on it. I met this goal on Tuesday after working a half day, Wednesday following my favorite SnB group, and Thursday, following an always fabulous Thai lunch at St. Paul's Taste of Thailand, and then reward time at Borealis Yarns to select yarns for a buttonhole bag. Yay! Both of these two fun things eating Thai and eyeing yarns was done with our SW SnB leader of the pack, Beth.

Well- last night I was up till 1:30 am (didn't I vow never to do that for school again a long time ago?) working on my thesis. This week resulted in my writing 10 pages on it. And yes, Kelle, I'm not quite done with it yet, but the end is growing nearer and nearer. In fact once I reach the end I won't know what to do- and may not even realize the end has come.

Sum that up to 10 pages closer to the thesis' end, a new full-time job with great benefits, new yarn- and two fast new projects to work on in the car (Buttonhole bag & a prayer shawl) The latter I am making for a friend with a rare kidney disease. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers if it crosses your mind. I have been wanting to do this project for awhile, and while in IA I found the uber-cool yarn store Purls, along with the perfect shawl yarn and pattern. Pictures later.

My cute little Weasel has been so much trouble. She must have been watching those Cottonelle TP commercials- because she has gotten into our TP about 5 times this week! DH says that she needs to learn to leave it alone, but I can't sit in the bathroom all day with her saying "leave it!" So, I took the roll off, a logical step. But DH put a fresh roll back on. So I shut the door, which sometimes doesn't latch. Well, I just went to the hall and saw the toilet paper mess. What are we to do?

The traveling part- is that DH, and the dogs and I are going to visit some of of DH's college friends. The great part is that we get to see their new baby boy, their growing 2 year-old boy, and this time I get to hang out with them freed of school work! The last time they visited I was in a crabby mood all weekend since I had class the whole time they were here. This weekend will be much better, I'm looking forward to it, and I hear that there may be a massage time for us girls. :)

Monday, August 01, 2005

Interview recipient, La Nena 's Q's

A while back, I was invited to interview La Nena, owner of estacionliceu blog. Somehow the request fell off my plate, and seeing as it is dinner time, I have decided to pick up that plate again. So here we go.
1. A little bird (DH) told me that you used to pretend to be a fictitious character in a famous novel- tell us more...
2. I know you and your guy cook a lot- tell us about a time when the meal flopped- we've seen the yummy sucesses, but there must have been a time when it didn't quite work out?
3. If you were a cheese, what cheese would you be and why?
4. What is it like being someone of your profession? Share a funny or embarassing story about your work experience in your current job.
5. Did you ever get lost in Spain? What happened and how did you find your way back to where you started?
6. If you could knit anything in the world regardless of moeny or skill what would it be and why?

Tag- you're it!! Feel free to share the interview bug again...or not...