Stuff I Love

So, I was going to post on the chaos that is my house lately, complete with horrifying "before" pictures that I took yesterday. I thought I would save that post, though, for when I actually have the "after" photos as well, or else it will just be depressing.

Instead, I've decided to make a list of stuff that I use a lot, that makes my life easier or more fun, or that I really REALLY want...

1. The Eggamuffin Maker that Debbie gave me for Christmas last year. I only started using this about 6 weeks ago. Until then, it languished in my basement in its box because I stupidly thought, "why would I need a whole new appliance to do what I can easily do with a frying pan/microwave/toaster?" After bringing it up to the kitchen, I can't imagine what I've done without it for so long! Not only does it do all by itself what it used to take 3 things to do, but my sleep-deprived brain doesn't have to do any of the thinking when it comes to timing things, like when to flip the egg, when to start microwaving the veggie sausage, or how long I actually have to toast the pita. The eggamuff maker does it all for me! I put the egg in the egg thing, the pita in the toast thing and the morningstar sausage on the sausage tray, push a button, and magically, it's all finished at once, leaving me time to make coffee and pack lunch - brilliant!! FYI - my favorite eggamuff components are as follows: Trader Joe's Mini Apocryphal Pitas (which, without fail, prompt me to sing "A.po.cry.phal piiiita" to the tune of "detachable penis" every morning while I'm making breakfast), 1 omega-egg scrambled with old bay and 1T 2% milk, a morningstar farms veggie breakfast patty and half a slice of pepperjack cheese. Yum!

2. My New Bag that I bought immediately after it was blogged about on A Dress a Day She bought it green, mine is dark red, and now it's only available in black. For a while now, I've been trying to find a way to comfortably carry my MacBook around since my TImbuk2 messenger bag is just too sporty and not "me." I've never spent $100 on a purse before, but it has proven to be well worth the money. I like the cross-body strap with a big round buckle on it, I love all the pockets and pen holders that make it easy for me to stash magazines, a knitting pattern, a knitting project and my computer, and still allow me to easily find my cellphone when it's ringing. Plus, it's fun to have something cool enough that friends and strangers offer to buy it from me outright.

3. Fun Fitnezz - Hampden's neighborhood gym. Last year, from October to January, I gained 25 pounds and put myself into a sugar depression. Between January and February, I lost what I'd gained, but I'd rather not go through all that this year. I joined FF a couple of weeks ago, not to lose weight (for now) but to maintain through the bingefest of the holiday season. It helps that I have a bunch of friends who go there regularly, and that it is literally around the corner. I also love that it's so "Hampden." At my old gym, Gold's downtown, there were little tvs built in to each of the cardio machines. At Fun Fitnezz, there is a little 9" tv set up on a shelf at eye level in front of each of the cardio machines. Also, I don't feel out of place or uncomfortable sporting my favorite leopard-print leggings in the weight room. Plus, it's cheap, and, unlike those fuckers at Gold's, they won't charge me $150 if I decide I want to stop going.

4. Wegman's - They have everything I want to eat, unlike Stupid Fresh and the vaGiant, are cheaper than Whole Foods, and have more stuff than Trader Joe's. Yay.

Stuff I'm Working On

1. My first lace project - a shawl for my mom for Christmas, or possibly her birthday in January.

I saw the pretty pretty Malabrigo Lace yarn in the store, and one of the colors, sealing wax, is my mom's favorite color - sort of a pinky orange. I got a pattern out of Victorian Lace Today (thanks Lynda!) that was labeled "intermediate lace," so we'll see how it turns out. So far I've only had to tink one row out of 15, which was annoying, but I guess it could have been worse. I've learned one thing since starting this project, however, and that is that lace knitting and football do NOT mix. Like a dumbass, I brought the shawl to a monday night football viewing party, and kind of effed it up, so today, I'll be doing damage control on that. As sort of an aside, VLT is the most beautiful book. I'm not a shawl wearer, but looking at all those gorgeous lace shawls draped on things and people all around England made me almost want to be one.

2. Blue and Grey Sweater - another attempt at knitting something that I will actually wear.

This is as much as I have of the bodice. The pattern had it all in stockinette, but it looked boxy on the model, so would have looked like a tent on me. I decided to do 1x1 ribbing to the bustline, and then do stockinette for the rest, possibly with short rows to shape a bit.


I'm not sure why these photos are so blurry. It's probably because I don't know how to use my camera. These are the sleeves and a closeup of the eyelet pattern on the sleeves.

3. I got the yarn in the mail today for my entry into the craftster knitting fall challenge. It will involve some preliminary work like doing a bunch of math and creating a chart, but I anticipate the knitting itself will be pretty fast. If it works out, it will be WAY COOL!

So, there it is. Another day, another blog. I'm off to the Funniest Guy in Baltimore finals - Go Jim!!

First Blog Post

So, since MySpace is a cesspool of child-whores and the pedophiles who love them, I've decided to start a blog. I've felt out of the loop lately, especially since everyone and her grandmother has a knitting blog. In addition to knitting, I'll probably discuss things that piss me off, things I love, favorite words, favorite cats, people who are awesome, makeup, roller derby, life in Baltimore without a car and other exciting things...To get started, here is a picture of my favorite sunglasses. I searched all last summer and part of this past summer to find the perfect pair. I had them for maybe a week or 2 and then left them at WorkChurch. I looked for them every time I went back, and never found them, but this past Sunday, there they were, on top of the coat rack. I can only assume that someone else recognized the summertime perfection of huge white sunglasses, and decided to borrow them until the weather got more autumnal. I'll also assume that said borrower has now moved on to more seasonally appropriate tortoiseshell-rimmed shades, which is why they were returned. I, however, thumb my nose at "Fall Fashion" edicts, and wore the white sunglasses all day today, even though it was 50 degrees out.

Today I set out on an excursion to Trader Joe's in Towson. Usually, this trip would take about 15 minutes in a car with Monday afternoon traffic. On this particular Monday, however, I decided to forgo bumming a ride or borrowing a car, and try to get there on my own. It took me 3 buses and about 4 hours total to get my grocery shopping done today, but I arrived home unscathed, with all sorts of yummy food for the coming week, 4 more inches finished on my sweater (Yes, I am a public knitter!) and it only cost $3. Next time, however, I'll make sure to look up the timetable for the MTA, since I waited almost an hour for the first bus out of Hampden.

Hooray for Monday Night Football! Hooray for HDTV! I feel a little bad about skipping derby practice to watch the Ravens/Steelers game. Oh well.