I am of teh bored...

So, I've been sitting around for the past few nights, trying to decide if I should get at least a part time job or something to keep me occupied just enough to keep me from going stir crazy. The wife says it's not entirely necessary, but that it'd be helpful, so I'm thinking that yeah I should. However, what the heck do I want to do? I don't want to do CNA work any more. Not even a little. I am burned out after only doing the job for four years, and have no idea how on earth people make it to ten in that career never mind thirty years! It's especially hard because you start to actually care about your residents and then are told that while you can care, you can not do things for them (like donate clothes to them...you'd be amazed at how many people do not have clothes in nursing homes)but have to wait for the families to do it themselves. It's considered "favoritism" and even "abuse" because supposedly it forces the residents to become indebted to you. Of course, that's bullshit. Total, and complete bullshit. I call it caring and they call it abuse. Oh and let's not forget the fact that if the nurse screws up, it's always the lowly CNA's fault. "Cadence, he can't have juice...you know that. Now his blood sugar's too high. He's a diabetic for Christ's sake...are you stupid?" (Yes, this was said to me. And in front of other residents and staff. Embarassing, no?) I repeat, no thank you CNA work. You can keep my certificate because I'm done.

So, that just leaves the question of what kind of job I do want. Now, please don't think poorly of me, but I have no desire to have a career. Or if I do, I quite simply do not have a single inkling as to what "I want to be when I grow up". I spent two years at college with the vague idea of being an English Major and when it occurred to me that I had no clue what I wanted to do with that degree (Be a teacher? Ugh, no way. No offense teachers, but I just don't have the kind of patience for that. Especially for the students you guys teach nowadays. You guys are saints in my book. And journalism? No thanks. I'm not nearly cutthroat enough for that job nor am I ambitious enough to be a good one.) I dropped out. The option of going back to school is there, I know, but for what? What do I want to do? Again, no clue. In the meantime, I'll just figure out some kind of job that seems like fun. Not retail...been there, done it and hated it. Maybe waitressing. I liked that, and I used to make really good tips. Or maybe I'll just go apply at a coffee shop or something. When I figure it out, I'll let y'all know. Enough with this semi-maudlin prattle and onto the good stuff.

I have been knitting! Sort of. I can't say I've been cranking out huge amounts of sweaters, or mitts, but I have been knitting small things. Mostly neckwarmers. I've recently discovered that I have a particular fondness for neckwarmers and cowls. They're attractive, simple, and can decorate any coat with panache without being too heavy underneath it. Of course, it is sad when the neckwarmers you've been knitting have all been made from the same pattern, right?




* Pattern: Tudora
* Yarn: Plymouth Colorspun Chunky for the top, and Red Heart TLC Cotton Plus for
bottom
* Needles: US9 for the top, US6 for the bottom
* Modifications for the top Tudora: I bound off an extra buttonhole stitch to make room for the extra large button!
* Modifications for the bottom Tudora: In the buttonhole row I K3,BO2,K3,BO2,K4
Then in the next row I K4,CO2,K4,CO2,K3
* Size Made: Normal Size


I really, really like this pattern as far as neck warmers go. It's quick, it's elegant and the assymetry of it is just so very appealing to me for some reason. I love the victorian feel. The top one was made for me, personally, and the bottom one (with the two buttons) was made for my Chocolate and Yarn Swap being run through the Chocolate group in Ravelry. I'm going to make a couple more, definitely, since I have all kinds of buttons and single skeins hanging around, but I'm also planning on branching out into other types of neck warmers. I think I'll knit as many as possible and give them as Christmas gifts to those that will appreciate them.

Weird, isn't it? Nobody seems to appreciate a good, handmade gift nowadays. Everybody wants the most expensive, newest things whether it's clothes or techno-toys. I don't get it. This world is turning into such a breeding ground for commercial-inspired greed, it turns my stomach. That's why this year, I took the Handmade Pledge, and I'm going to try to stick to it as much as possible! Anything to pump money back into local business! :) Especially for the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, Halloween (or Samhain for my fellow pagans out there) is just around the corner! I'm so excited, I can hardly contain it. I love Halloween. There's just something about it that thrills me. The crisp fall air filled with smoky, woodsy scents. The clearness of the night sky leaving all those stars to twinkle while you rush from house to house hoping to fill up that pillow case with as much candy as the unsuspecting folks inside can dish out while dressed up like some kind of ghoul, monster or princess. It's just fun! Naturally, I don't trick or treat myself, but my wife will drag out a sack and collect candy with the children of family and friends.

We haven't decorated or anything this year, mostly because we know no one's going to stop by our third floor apartment just to get a candy bar, but we will be carving pumpkins next week. I love carving pumpkins because I literally start to covet freshly roasted seeds around this time of year. I love roasting my own, and experimenting with various sweet/salty spice rubs to smother them in! I think this year I'll do a typical salt/pepper on some of them, a garlic/salt on some, and maybe I'll pan roast some in a mix of brown sugar,cinnamon and butter. Mmmm....and then when Halloween is over, I plan on using the pumpkin for the bake-a-long I'm running in the group Ravelrousing Housewives (if you're on Ravelry, and a bad ass Stay at home mom [SAHM],Stay at home Wife [SAHW],Stay at home Husband [SAHH] or someone who has any of the above...check it out and join us! And yes, if you work a part time job, or have to work a part time job but still spend most of your time at home, you can join us too! We're a really fun bunch of people, and we don't bite...unless you ask us too. ;) )

I have been maintaining some of the spirit of Halloween, however, by playing Mrs. B's 31 Days of Halloween. If you've never played, I suggest you pop over and take a look at it. You might think it's too late to jump in, but remember, there's still 7 whole days left, and who knows, you might win something. I did. A very sweet tarot card bracelet.


Isn't that great? I can hardly wait to get it in my hot little hands. I love the Tarot, and though my cards are probably very angry at me for not picking them up in a long time, I love them. Unconditionally in all their various forms of beauty! Each card is a piece of art to me. The colors, the meanings behind the pictures, everything. I love everything about them. If you want a bracelet like this, and don't feel like trying to win one, check out the lady who actually made it and donated it to the contest. Miss Dismissie of Dismissie's Mixed Bag! Her shop is full of neat stuff, so do yourself a favor and check it out even if you don't want to buy right away so you can keep it in mind for future gift ideas for...uhm...certain people! ;) Also, check out the contest in Mrs. B's Blog...even if you don't want to participate this year, keep it in mind for next year. It's good, clean Halloween fun!

Okay folks, that seems to be all for now! As always, thanks for reading!

Rhinebeck Rolecall!

Okay, I was going to follow that up with a silly obscenity, but not everyone is an LSG wench and therefore I just couldn't bring myself to actually do it. Still, if any of you are headed up to upstate NY this weekend for the sheep and wool festival, it'd be awesome to meet up...or at least I think so. ;) I'll be headed up there too early in the effing morning on Friday with Lickmysticks, ScottishNana, and Fussygusset, and I'm pretty sure we're actually attending the festival both days so something should be workable! Of course, we're also attending the Ravelry party Saturday night too,so if I don't see you at the festival (and you're a ravelholic like me) I'll most likely run into you there!

I'm certain that this year's experience will definitely outshine last year's. Oh, the festival itself was nice, but we took a Yarn Safari bus and we arrived late so shopping time was minimal. Also, on top of that I had to listen to some woman chatter on about her shawls (which I'm sure I would have loved if they hadn't been knit out of the scratchiest wool possible and in hideous colors)which got sickening after a while. We missed the Ravelry party, missed a lot of the stalls because we had to rush, and got home waaaaay too late because we were on a bus which had several stops to make on the way back home. Boo. So yeah, this year ought to be way better.


On the home front, everything's going well. I am currently a quite happy little housewife, thanks to my wife finally graduating from the Academy (for the Bristol County Sheriff's Department)!


Doesn't she look hot in her uniform? She graduated as class valedictorian and class treasurer with a 97.0 G.P.A., which I'm told is one of the highest G.P.A's ever to be seen in that setting. I can't begin to tell you how insanely proud I am of her. She's always wanted to do something like this and well, I have to say that I think she'll be good at it. True, right now she's at the bottom rung with the title of Corrections Officer, but I don't see her staying there for long!

We wound up going out to celebrate the Friday after her graduation, stuffing our faces at a Chinese buffet with most of the rest of her class before heading down to a local bar that just happened to have an actual mechanical bull. And yes, I rode the mechanical bull. Just about everybody did because we were all that blitzed out of our minds.



The picture is horrible, I know, but that's what happens when drunk people take pictures of drunk people. That my friends is what two shots of SoCo and lime (which I actually dislike), four lemon drop shots, and two Boston Lagers look like on the face of a lightweight. And yes, I'm hugging the stupid mechanical bull, and looking fat and awful and well, drunk! The thing of it is, I'm not a huge boozer, but once in a while I like to cut a little loose. However, mixing the beer and the hard liquors was probably the worst thing ever. I had such an icky hangover the next day that didn't actually take effect until about twelve hours after I woke up. It was weird. One minute I was feeling good, and the next I was feeling awful! Welp, guess that teaches me. Still, if I hadn't been drunk I probably would have never even thought to get on that stupid bull, and it was fun! If you haven't done it and you have an opportunity to, I suggest you try it out! Really, I do.

So, day after drinking, me,the wifey, and my SIL Pam decided to head out to go apple picking. It's a fall ritual that my family has pretty much upheld yearly, so I was naturally not going to disrupt tradition! We had a blast and it was a perfect day for it. I was a tad disappointed though, because it was so late in the season that all the good apples had been picked (or at least the ones that were low enough to grab without a ladder) so we had to kind of hunt and stalk a ladder out before we could get to the fun!



There I am, apparently finding it all to be just "too much". :) Hehehe, in reality I probably had the beginnings of a headache when Pam took that picture....



It's a good thing that DW was more than willing to climb the ladder though because neither myself nor Pam really wanted to actually climb to snag the fruit. I have a bit of a fear of heights so and I get a little bit of vertigo now and then so that piled on top of the beginnings of a belated hangover would have just made it all so much worse.

After apple picking, we grabbed some food and then I went home and felt ill the rest of the night. The rest of the weekend was pretty much pleasantly inactive.

On the knitting front: I've been trying to knit the Through the Loops Mystery Sock, but have had to keep frogging it out. First, it was because I cast on too few stitches to do the cabled version so I had to frog out both cuffs (I'm knitting one sock off of each end on two sets of the same size DPN), which sucked. Then I cast on the right amount but twisted the stitches somehow and didn't realize it until I was halfway done with the cuff. I got sick of all the frogging, and I'm starting to hate the yarn I'm knitting them in so I may just wind the yarn into a cake so it looks neater and offer it for trade and try to cast 'em on in something else! I love mystery sock KAL's because I can keep up with them damn it.

In the meantime, I cast on for a pair of Bronte's Mitts in some Artyarns Silk Rhapsody. It's like heaven. I don't even like mohair, but I love this stuff! Too bad it's so expensive otherwise I'd frickin' have a whole closet full of it! It's super soft, super squishy and just so yummy! Plus it smells like lavender because I still have a whole bunch of my lavender stuffed sachets in my knitting bag!

Other than all that, life's fine. I kind of have an unwanted pet spider that lives outside of my front corridor window. My wife insists on naming it Emily, but I would rather call it Filbert. It's an ugly sucker though, and HUGE. It's got this weird, bulgy body that goes to a point and is brown with darker stripes. Gross. I hate spiders, I really, really do, but as long as this one eats up all the icky beetles (which I hate even more than spiders) that keep trying to get inside my house, Filbert can stay.



The picture kind of stinks, because we were only able to get the spider's silhouette, but trust me, it's better this way. I've quite possibly spared you all a bunch of nightmares, preventing you guys from seeing how ugly it is and all. At least the picture does give you an idea of it's size though so you can tell what I'm dealing with. If Filbert does turn out to be an Emily, I already told DW that she has to "man up and kill the thing"!

Alright, I've pretty much run out of things to say, so, just remember, if you see me at Rhinebeck, wave and come and talk to me! I love talking! A lot. Sometimes too much according to certain parties...


Oh! Wait. There's one more thing...



Tag if you haven't seen this thing before or haven't done one yet! Here's how to do it!

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
Using only the first page, pick an image.
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the bighugelabs.com mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you wanted to be when you grew up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Add one of your own flickr images.


And I think that should be it...nope. Wait, one more thing. I have another recipe for you folks to try if you like! Once again, it's chicken (I seem to be cooking a lot of it lately), but it's equally as yummy as the last.




Terriyaki Style Chicken

By: Yours Truly and published for the first time ever, here, on this blog. Wahoo!

What you need:
Chicken parts ( I use wings because I like them better, but it comes out just as yummy if you use thighs or drumsticks!)
Soy Sauce
Honey
Minced Garlic
Hot Sauce or Cayenne Pepper
Molasses or Dark Brown Sugar (the Molasses works better for this I find)
Salt and Pepper

Sprinkle your chicken parts with salt and pepper and broil for five minutes then put in a roasting pan. Mix 2 parts Soy Sauce to 1 part Honey and add the molasses or brown sugar to taste.(If you use sugar, please, make sure it's dissolved fully in the liquid before you pour it over your chicken). Mix in at least three tbsp of minced garlic (I like to add a little more because I love garlic!), and add in hot sauce or cayenne to taste then pour over the chicken. Add a little bit of water to thin out the liquid. Lower the heat on your oven to 250 degrees (use an oven thermometer to help you figure out when the oven actually reaches that temperature) and then cover the meat with some foil and place in the oven on a rack placed in the center. Slow roast for three-four hours (chicken will get a rich, dark brown color from the liquid, and the meat will be very tender...almost to the point where it falls off the bone) and voila! Terriyaki style chicken.

This recipe is easily made for two or a whole bunch of people. Just make sure to get that chicken really coated well with the sauce before putting it in the oven! Also, if you have a crock pot, by all means, dump all the ingredients in and let cook in that, just be certain to broil the chicken first or the meat will be mush! :) Enjoy! And as always, thanks for reading!

ETA: There will be no fun Rhinebeckishness...sadly I got a sickie and was unable to go... :(

True Blood rocks my socks!

Bill: Can I ask you a personal question?
Sookie: You were just licking blood outta my head...how much more personal can you get?


God I love On Demand. I really, really do. All those nifty tv shows that I've been missing out on because of previously un-had cable...I get to play catch up during the daytime, which comes in handy because well, daytime TV basically sucks. Unless of course you're watching BBC America or Food Network, but let's face it. There's only so much BBC and Food Network that you can watch before you get sick of it. Of course, this could be bad for knitting. I'm one of those knitters that can't really knit AND watch tv unless it's something really mindless.

Okay, okay, I know that I suck for real when it comes to blogging. I just haven't had much of a chance until now. What have I been doing, you ask? Moving!!! That's right, as of August 8th, I ceased living in my MIL's house and now live in a lovely 1 1/2 bedroom apartment in Fall River, MA. It's third floor, but I really can't complain much about it. My fat ass needs the exercise, that is fo' sho'.

Seriously though, I love it here. We have a great view of the water from our living room windows, my dog has all the room to run around that she wants, and I actually don't have a galley kitchen to cook in so I've been getting lots of use out of it. I've been baking, and cooking way too much. But I'm loving it.





From the top: Banana bread and homemade chicken pot pie. Super yum! My wife complains that since moving out she's eating too well and therefore finds it hard to actually want to go to a restaurant once in a while. Of course, I'm just pleased as punch because that means that I'm finally turning into the kind of home maker that I've always wanted to be! YAY ME!

Also, for all you folks that like to cook out there, I have a recipe to share. It's one of my mother's that I've adapted a little to make it just a wee bit more flavorful! I don't have a name for it, so I can't give you that, but if you've ever got chicken breast on hand and have no idea what to make with it, you could try this. It cooks up relatively fast and is definitely no scrimp in the flavor department!



Ingredients:

Chicken Breast (I used 1 whole breast to make enough to feed two with leftovers for a crispy chicken salad the next day)
Dried Parsley
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Onion Powder
Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix
Unbleached flour (for dredging and for mixing with the pancake mix)
1 can of Campbell's cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk/light cream
2 eggs
Vegetable Oil for frying

Take about 1/2 cup of flour and put it in a large bowl. Beat the eggs with a little water until they begin to foam, making a nice light egg wash. Cut the chicken into about 1 1/2" wide strips (I did mine a bit more on the narrow side) and dip into the egg wash then dredge in the flour. Put the dredged chicken back in the eggwash and then mix about 1 - 1 1/4 cups of the pancake mix (more or less to your taste of course!) into the remnants of flour. If there's no remnants of flour in the bowl, that's okay,just add a bit more flour to the bowl. Season the pancake/flour mixture with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders, paprika, and add a generous pinch of parsley. Seasoning is done to your taste.I like to season liberally with just a pinch of the paprika so as not to turn the flour red. Whisk all these ingredients together until well-blended and then remove the chicken from the egg wash and drop into the bowl, making sure to coat ALL surfaces generously.

Heat your oil (a little tip: You can tell your oil is ready for frying by dropping a bit of plain flour into the oil. If it sizzles, it's ready) in a deep saute' pan. When it's ready for frying, place the chicken in it and fry until it's a deep golden brown. Drain on a paper-towel covered plate, and set aside

Take the soup and put in a medium sauce pan. Pour in the milk/cream, add a pinch of garlic powder, a generous pinch of pepper, salt to taste and if you want you can throw in some parsley flakes. Heat and stir until creamy and warm. Serve spooned over the chicken, and serve with white rice, and your vegetable of choice.

I hope if anybody tries it, they like it. It's not exactly the most non-fattening of meals (though I'm sure you could make it so easily), but it is delicious!


As for knitting...mneeeeh, well I haven't been. Not so much anyway. The Ravelympics was an epic fail for me simply because I never found the time to actually cast on for my Luna Moth Shawl, never mind actually knit it. So yeah, that didn't go so well. I did recently start it though and I have to admit without too much bragging that I could have easily finished it in time to not have a failure if I had bothered to take the time to do so. This is an excellent first lace project. Excellent. I even tried to take a picture of it...and I hope you all appreciate it because after this picture I will have to frog back to the lifeline and fix something funky that happened while I was trying to take the pins out. This probably aggravates me more than anyone else, but well, I'm sulking about it so give me a break! ;)



I'm using a skein of Michelle's (from the Sweet Sheep)merino fingering in the "Fields Forever" colorway and I have to say that I really, really love the way the colors pool on this shawl. I just wish I didn't have to frog. Ahem. Okay, I'm finished bitching about it. It's still looking damn good though, right? And at least I had the foresight to put a damn lifeline in it.

I've also found that a good knit for those fascinating TV shows is Meg Croft's Strawberry Sachets. Not only are they super cute,but they are super cheap to make. And when you stuff them with lavendar, they smell super yummy!



That's the first one I made. Since then, I've made roughly about ten. Be warned before you attempt this pattern! Because they are so easy to make, they are super easy to give away. I made ten but gave away three, so I'm stuck with just seven. I think I'll keep making them because whoever my next lucky swap partner is will end up with one or two of these sweet little sachets in her package!

I managed to finish the entrelac tote up a bit, though I still have to do the I-cord around the bottom. Keep in mind guys, if you do end up knitting this bag, make sure you DO put the I-cord edging around the top at least. I know, I-cord edging is a huge pain in the ass - especially on a large scale, but without it, the bag is gigantic and wider than my 7th grade English teacher's butt.



Yes, before the edging, I could fit a taller eight year old child inside it. (Thanks Zoe for being willing to snuggle up in it for the camera, and yes Pam, I will send you a copy of the picture!)It's a scary thought, I know...but never fear. It is going to be felted. I can't imagine trying to line that monstrosity, so even if it weren't meant to be felted, I would felt it anyway.

I think the next bag I knit will be this one. Something about it just calls to me. It keeps saying "Caaaaaadence...kniiiiiiit me. You luuuuuuurve meeeee...you waaaaaants meh sez I!" And it's right. I do. So I must make it. Although, I have no idea what colors I want to make it yet. Maybe something autumny.

By the way, on an almost random note, I'm vaguely disappointed in the new fall Knitty. Oh, the sockiness is wonderful, but there really aren't that many sweaters and I desperately want to knit a sweater after my Talia fiasco so that I can redeem my faith in my sweater knittiness. (Speaking of that, I did manage to snag a picture of the horrifically HUGE Talia and well, I'll post it after this paragraph so you can laugh at me). Alas, it was not meant to be. So instead, I'll just have to knit one out of the newest (or maybe this is a brand new knitting magazine...I have to confess, I have no idea) Debbie Bliss knitting magazine. She has gorgeous patterns in it, and hopefully, one's a top-down so I can try it on as I go.



Depressing isn't it. Still, my SIL thinks (and I'm thinking she may be right) that the hugeness is all in the straps so maybe if we rip them back a bit it'll be okay. Still, that means not only unbinding off but also unseaming. No fun. So, that'll have to wait for another day and it can just sit in the box that I put it in and stay out of sight until then.

On a happier note, I bought my dog a super silly tutu-dress for her to wear around the house and well, she may not like it too much, but it's definitely a keeper. She looks so cute when she jumps up and down in it (and she does jump up and down an awful lot) so whether she likes it or not, she's got a new dress. Here's proof that I actually wrestled it onto her!



I just wish she'd let me paint her nails too so she could have had pretty pink toes to match! And while I'm at it, here's a couple more pictures of doggie cuteness!





Doesn't she sort of blend in with the futon? It's a good thing she's got those reddish brown patches on her.

Aaaanyway, as much fun as this has been, I have to force myself to step away from the computer long enough to finish the dishes and make dinner (and whoopie pies) for tonight! I promise...I will blog again sooner than two months from now! Cross my heart and stick a needle in my eye or something...;)