MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Last post, I mentioned how my sweater-in-progress and I had hit a stalemate. Well today, I broke it! I finally (freakin' finally) figured out how to finish off the sleeves!

I had planned to finish the sleeves off with a 1/1 ribbing but I didn't like how it looked, so I frogged it. I tried a couple of other things and then gave up for a bit to noodle on it some more. Today, I had something else I wanted to try and, lo and behold, it worked!

My solution? Double knitting!

I did [Round 1: *Knit, slip* around; Round 2: *Slip, purl* around] seven times, creating two layers of fabric which I then grafted together. I love it! When it stretches out (when the sweater is put on) it creates a nice almost-ribbing look that differentiates from the stockinette sleeve but it looks a lot neater than the ribbing. It still needs a good blocking to even out the stitches, but I'm so happy that I have a solution!

One sleeve is all one and I'm half way through finishing off the cuff of the second sleeve. Then blocking, hemming, sewing in the ends and then WEARING! Whee!

Update-y Type Things

It's been a bit since I've posted, so I thought I'd do a nice update catch-all post.

First off, the reason I've been sorta MIA is that we've had internetular issues lately. The provider replaced some equipment and it took them a while to get things straight but even now we have short outages and massive slowdowns. It's super annoying and, during the worst of it, I was avoiding my computer because of the frustration it would induce. For the most part we are okay-ish now, but there is still room for improvement.

In other news, ONK (outdoor neighbor kitty) is still outdoors and still belongs to our neighbors. She really wants to live with us, though, given by the number of times she tries to sneak in an open door.

After accidentally trapping her in our garage three times (she's a sneaky thing), we've taken to leaving our garage door cracked so she can come and go at will. I had an old cat bed out there while I tried to figure out the best way to wash it and ONK has claimed it as her own. A couple of weeks ago when it got so cold, we ended up putting her claimed bed in a box and putting a windbreak around it and, later, we ended up putting our old electric blanket in it. So yeah, she's got a sweet set up in our garage. Now that our other neighbors have moved (they also had a bed for her in their garage) ONK seems to spend every night with us. And most days she's camped out on our porch. She also typically follows me to the mailbox and back. So yeah, she wants to be ours. But we've been good and haven't stolen her. Yet.

Of course, with a kitty in the garage, you can bet my car looks stellar. She likes to walk on it and it rained a bit ago, so yeah, muddy paw prints all over. Fun, yes? No. Not at all.

But less fun is this:

That's my windshield. Or it used to be. I was on the way to the chiropractor when this ping-pong-sized rock flew across the road and smashed into the middle of my windshield. The divot it made was practically quarter-sized. So now I have a new windshield. Yay! (I still have muddy paw prints, though. I need to fix that.)

In hobby news, I've hit a bit of a delay (again) with my sweater. It seems that I cannot simultaneously knit and plan what I am going to do with it. The minute my mind begins questioning, "What's the best way to do this part of it?" I find myself incapable of actually knitting until I figure out an answer. My current question is "what's the best way to finish off the arms?" I've still got an inch or two to knit before I have to do whatever it is I'm going to do (I'm thinking a half inch of 1/1 ribbing with a tubular bind off, but I'm not sold on the idea yet), but still, I've stalled with the actual knitting because I don't have a definite answer. Though before my brain popped up with this question I did manage to get most of the sleeves knit, so that's good. Which means I just have to knit a couple of inches, finish off the sleeves (tubular bind-off, hem, rolled edge, seed stitch?), block and then sew up the bottom hem and fold over a bit for a hem on the collar band (to give a cleaner finish and stop any rolling). Which sounds like a lot, but honestly, I'm so close to a wearable sweater that I can taste it! If I could just get back to knitting it! (Any thoughts from anyone as to either a 1/1 ribbing or a folded hem (the two I seem to be debating) would be more than welcome to help me end my mental stalemate.)

Dan's hobby seems to be going better than mine right now. Not his beer, one, his sound-related one. He used to be big into speakers and sound system stuff when he was younger but has sort of migrated out of it (the speakers in his car are even stock!) but he still has a love of those expensive electronics. So when our receiver started going out, Dan got the chance to express that love by buying a new one.

It's kind of insane - not only does it have awesome sound but you can even control it through a computer or phone app. No joke, this is fancy. I don't even want to think about the cost, but he got a good deal on it and it has good sound, so if I start thinking, "OMG, how much did we just spend?", I can just turn up the music and let it drown out my thoughts.

In Gidget news, we had a dental check up for her and she was given a tentative all clear. She is doing great (no pawing or air chewing) but the tentative part comes in simply because of how fast her other teeth went bad, one after the other, and the dentist is concerned that her three remaining canines will be next. So she wants a recheck in six months and, if things are good still, Gidget will be given the full okay. My fingers are crossed that Gidget gets to keep her remaining teeth, if only because having to lose them would mean she went through more pain and that's not cool. Interestingly enough, Gidget's case was so special because of how fast her healthy teeth went bad that she's been presented to dental and veterinary panels. Such a special girl.

And I think that is about it! I'm sure there have been other little things, but nothing huge (or picture-worthy) so they can be skipped. Assuming our internet cooperates, I'll try to be better about posting. Hopefully I'll have a completed sweater post to share soon!

I Disagree

There is snow on the ground outside.

Not a lot of it. But still. Boo.

Random Propaganda

It is winter here, and while Texas winters don't get that cold, they still get plenty cold for me. Normally during the winter, Dan and I use our electric blanket. It's a lovely thing that makes for a nicely warmed bed at night. But it is old and made of some sort of synthetic material that sort of creeps me out if it touches my skin. So last week we decided to order a heated mattress pad. I had heard good things about them so I wanted to try one. (Plus, we got it from Costco so we knew we could return it easily if it wasn't awesome.)

It came in on Monday and... it is awesome. I'm actually almost sad that the weather has warmed up a bit! Even on the lowest setting it makes the bed toasty warm and there are no cold spots like I'd sometimes get on the electric blanket. (Apparently in the fight of electric blanket versus my cold feet, cold feet win. Not with the heated mattress pad though!) It's just this great, cozy warmth from heat to toe. Totally fantastic.

Anyway, totally random post but the heated mattress pad really is so awesome that I had to share. So if you've been thinking about getting one, do it!

The Adventure Continues

I've been feeling all domestic these past couple of weeks. Which is good since, you know, housewife. But I've been cooking a lot more and trying new recipes, which is exciting. The increase culinary adventurousness seems to have unintentionally corresponded to the new year so it's like I've made a hidden resolution or something, but I haven't. It's simply because my shoulder is feeling like normal (finally!) so I can once again do things like use kitchen implements.

Poor Dan - for a while frozen pizza was seen much too frequently at our dinner table. But hey, it was painless to cook! Of course, now that all cooking is painless, I can get back to the fun stuff. Such a crawfish étouffée.

I don't know why Cajun food intimidates me so. Perhaps because my favorite gumbo recipe takes three plus hours to make and includes both carving a chicken and shredding it once it is cooked. Or maybe because of the roux. Anything with a roux both excites me and makes me a bit nervous. But in a good way. I love roux-making. But, for whatever reason, I had been too chicken to make my planned étouffée until just recently. As in Monday.

I used a combination of four recipes, all from the Talk About Good Cookbook. And I feel a bit dumb being intimidated by it because it ended up being fantastically easy. Which is good because it also ended up being fantastically delicious so I will be making this again.

I'm not sure what's next in my culinary fun-ness. Well, I do have plans to make Alton Brown's Good Eats meatloaf, but it's meatloaf so I don't think it is that adventurous. Plus, Dan and I (finally) inventoried our freezers so I'll be picking out some recipes to use the goodies we have in there - lots of pork and venison. Fortunately, I have a few good venison recipes that I really like (a wet hash and a barbecue dish) but I might branch out a bit. See if I can't substitute venison in some lamb or mutton recipes.

Anyway, it's nice to be back really cooking again. Yay for non-hurt shoulders!

(Of course, last week I improperly lifted something heavy so my lower back is killing me, but I'm going to ignore that for now because it's gonna go away soon. It will. I am determined. Denial is a lovely thing!)

Technical Issues are Still Tasty

Dan is dangerous to go grocery shopping with. When I go on my own, I do a strategic strike, going directly to the things on my list, grabbing them and leaving. When Dan and I go together, though, we meander through the aisle and end up with a fair number of random non-list things in our cart.

Our last Costco trip, for instance. We walked by some canned clams. Dan oohed and said he liked clam chowder. I said let's get it and I'll learn how to make chowder. So we did. And I did.

As you can see, for some reason, making clam chowder for the first time wasn't a big enough challenge. I decided I should make bread bowls, too. That didn't go as well as the chowder. The dough wasn't firm enough so the bowls-to-be kept spreading outwards, looking more like hamburger buns. Eventually, I decided to cook them like one does biscuits, setting them next to each other so they have to go up instead of out.

That worked, but it meant my bowls ended up looking more like large dinner rolls than any bread bowl I've seen. And not having the sides exposed meant they didn't form a hard crust so they weren't exactly water (or chowder) tight.

However, they certainly were tasty (as was the chowder)! Which is good because we did get the clams at Costco, which means I have another 51oz can. I'll be making this again.

We're Off to a Great Start!

Dan and I have been feeling fairly traveled out so we didn't drive my parents' house today for the traditional New Year's meal. Instead, we traveled to the (much closer) grocery store. And since we were missing the extended family traditional meal, we decided to do one of our own.

For those not blessed to be Southern, it's a common tradition to eat leafy greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day. Neither of which Dan and I had on hand, so we picked up some fresh peas and spinach (collards are more traditional, but I was in a spinach mood). Tradition, however, does not dictate an entree. Pork is common, but not required. Not feeling all that pork-inclined, I determined I would start the new year with a new culinary experience.

I decided to make fried chicken.

I've never made fried chicken. I'm still pretty darn new to the frying thing and find it somewhat intimidating still. But I whipped out my Alton Brown and followed the directions (well, as much as I can follow directions). The end result?

Numminess!

I'm so happy with how it turned out! I pan-fried it (another first) and it resulted in probably the moistest, juiciest fried chicken ever. Seriously fantastic.

There are a couple things I'd tweak next time, but it was good enough to ensure that there would be a next time. And even more of a bonus, now I know what I can do with the blocks of lard I got when Dad and I bought and split a pig!

Mmm, a New Year's dinner of chicken fried in lard. Notice on my previous post that weight loss is not one of my goals? (Okay, it probably should be. Especially if I keep frying things in lard for the rest of this year.)

Happy 2013!

You know, a month or so ago I actually caught myself writing 2010 on something as the date. But 13 has always been a good number for me so hopefully I can remember what year it is this year.

The past two years, I've made book-related goals. This year, I'm going to kind of skip that. Kinda. I still want to continue to read "real" books but I'll see how I can do without the pressure of a goal driving me and instead focus on reading some of my kitchen-related books. I've been skipping then because, while they would have counted for my "real" book goals, they weren't exactly going to be plot-driven reads or anything and some of them I want to use as a reference while doing some stocking up (because I am determined to buy more me-friendly knives this year) and that will take longer than just reading a book cover to cover.

And speaking of previous goals, Dan and I missed our 2012 savings goal by just under two grand. And that shortage can easily be explained by the unexpected (and rather expensive) dental needs Bitty and Gidget had this year. So even though it was technically another goal that we did not accomplish, I'm really pleased with what we did. We set the amount to be challenging (but not impossible) so to have gotten so close means we really did a good job. It's a nice feeling. For 2013, we won't be so hardcore - we've decreased our goal amount for savings a tad but mostly to adjust for the increased amount we can put in an IRA and to better save for future emergency issues. Thrilling, yes? Hitting that will be this year's saving's goal but honestly, it shouldn't be one we should have to work at much. (Hopefully those don't go down as famous last words.)

Other than that, I don't think I/we have any New Year's resolutions. I'd like to increase my upper body strength (never that good, horrible after all my shoulder issues) but that's something I've been working on the past month, so that's not exactly New Year related.

Oh, I'm wrong! I do have one more goal, and this one isn't as nebulous as the previous "read kitchen books" and "save money" goals. I want to knit! Specifically a pair of socks and a cabled or yoked sweater. I'm sure I'll get more than two knitting projects in over the next twelve months, but those are three things I really want to do. Socks because I have yet to knit any and I think I'll like doing them (given how much I enjoy doing gloves, mittens and the like) and a sweater because it's a big project (bigger than the sweater I'm making now even) and it's always nice to have a goal that can push you, you know?

I think that's it. Yay for goals!

Toothlessness

Cocoa has started a trend. Five years ago, she ended up having all of her teeth removed because of stomatitis. Then this summer Bitty managed to have ten bad teeth that needed removing, leaving her with just her very front teeth (and not even all of those). She's not totally toothless, but most of the teeth she does have are the tiny little front ones so her "real" teeth count is two.

This has apparently made Gidget think that all the cool kitties were going toothless. This summer she only had two teeth removed and that apparently wasn't enough for her. A few months ago, she had another tooth removed. And Friday, she had her three remaining molars removed. She now matches Bitty fairly closely - all of her remaining teeth are at the very front (though she has one more "real" tooth than Bitty does).

Yep, the dental drama has not ended. Well, hopefully it will be over in a month after her recheck appointment. When we got back from vacation, Gidget was still air-chewing and started pawing some again. I was worried it was an ear infection or something non-dental that we were missing because we were doing dental-related hunting so we went to our regular vet and nope, still tooth-al. We thought we needed to remove two teeth but turns out three had "undergone root changes".

The good news is that if something has happened that has made Gidget's teeth go bad one by one, she only had a handful left to go bad. She's got so few teeth left, if we have to do another surgery I think Gidget will be sporting the toothless look, just like Cocoa.

Oh the Drama!

It's been a while since I've done a knitting post so I thought I would remedy that.

First thing: Christmas knitting! For multiple reasons, I'm not a fan of foisting my random knitting projects on people giving handmade gifts. Last year, though, I managed to give everyone on my list something knit. (I'm still not sure how that happened!) But this year I did much better and managed to only knit one!

Meet the Christmas Birdie!

I think he's is quite charming. I'm not entirely sure why I keep finding myself attracted to Christmas ornaments when, thanks to the kitties, Dan and I don't really decorate. And yet...

I did manage to put the poor birdie's legs on slightly incorrectly but I tacked them down to make them more where they should be. Otherwise, though, it was a fun little knit - and it let me learn how to do duplicate stitch. Yay!

Slightly related to Christmas knitting, I knit something for myself over Christmas! We were traveling to visit family and my sweater project is so not a travel-able project. So I decided to make something that was portable and not too complex.

Now I officially have a pair of fingerless mitts! They are nice and toasty - I enjoy wearing them. My one complaint about these is the yarn. I used Crystal Palace's Mochi Plus and I totally adore the colorway, but ugh!, the yarn is so loosely spun that it fuzzes like mad. So while I've worn the mitts for three days (mind you, I wore them for a fair number of hours on those three days) and now they look like I've been wearing (and washing) them everyday for months. Disappointing!

The pattern, however, was super-fun. I didn't follow the directions exactly (apparently I knit like I cook - I can't follow anything exactly) and I did something completely different than called for on the thumb. Anyway, I'm really pleased with the pattern (and my changes). It makes me want to make more - but in a less fuzzy yarn.

And now the drama... my sweater. Here is where I currently am on it:

I think I'm insane. First off, I have four balls of this yarn. It's lovely yarn - not just the color but the texture and how it knits up... I love it. But almost all of the balls are different - one is more color intensive, one is pale and two are almost smack in the middle of the other two. (Gotta love hand dyed yarn.) So I've been alternating all four balls as I knit my sweater. It's been... interesting but I'm pleased with how well all of them are blending together so it is worth it.

But now I've gotten to the sleeves. And I hate keeping track of row counts. And I have a past history of making things that should be the same size noticeably different sizes (due to gauge) when I don't make them at the same time. So I'm doing the sleeves two-at-a-time. Which means that I am rotating through four balls of yarn. On each sleeve. That's right, I'm knitting on something now with eight different yarns feeding into it.

But wait, there's more!

Right before we left for Christmas, I realized that I was knitting the sleeves with the wrong size needle! I had decreased needle size when doing the ribbing on the front band and forgot to switch back. Ack! I thought about just going on with it but this afternoon I ripped out the sleeves (which I hadn't gotten too far on) and started over. Ultimately, I knew the mistake would niggle at the back of my mind forever if I didn't fix it. Plus, a larger needle should maybe make the sleeves go a tiny bit faster.

Faster is relative, though, since rotating, untangling and keeping track of eight (EIGHT!) different balls of yarn slows things down a lot. But I'm in a pretty Zen place about it now because I really think this will end up awesome.

At least, I hope so. Oh, lordy, please make it turn out awesome.

I Want My Money Back

The world still seems to be here. No pole shifts, no meteors, no massive Yellowstone volcano... This whole Mayan apocalypse is totally overrated.

I guess that means we need to go buy some Christmas presents.

The Saga Continues

Well, apparently our dental issues with Gidget aren't done. She had stopped chattering her teeth in pain and progressed to a slow air-chewing expression of discomfort. But a few days after we got back from the cruise, she started pawing again. Nothing as severe as when this all started, but still. Pawing.

We went to our regular vet (the dentist is great, but I had a nagging fear that it wasn't tooth-related and honestly, if it wasn't I didn't expect the dentist to pick up on it) but the vet confirmed that she's all healthy. She suspected that the discomfort was coming from her top two molars, the only molars she has remaining, and recommended we have them removed.

Now Gidget has a dentist appointment scheduled for after Christmas to remove those two teeth. Naturally, as soon as I made the appointment, the pawing stopped (or has seemed to, at least). The air chewing has drastically reduced, too. But reduced is not stopped so I think things are still on schedule for another extraction.

I hope 2013 will be a pain-free dental year for Gidget! You know, if the world doesn't end tomorrow and all.

Oh, the Irony

I learned something new today - I learned what a parsnip looks like!

I don't have a great familiarity with root vegetables beyond carrots and potatoes. Dan's expanded my knowledge to include beets and now I've cooked with parsnips. Yep, now I know that they look like a funny white carrot and they taste like a faintly-licorice-ish and bitter carrot (at least raw).

I made a nice, hearty venison stew with lots of lovely root vegetables. A meal that's great for winter, right? Totally!

Of course, the high today was mid-70s. I even had to turn the air conditioning on.

Oh well, at least the stew is really good, parsnips included!

Cruise Wrap-Up

It took me only a week (well, a shade over) to get all of our cruise pictures edited and culled and posted! Go me! So if the thirty-some pictures I've posted on my blog aren't enough for you, check out this slideshow of the whole not-quite-250 shots!

Alternatively, you can click here to see the pics and go through them on your own.

Ft. Lauderdale

Alrighty! I've finally finished up with pictures! As uninteresting as you might think Ft. Lauderdale might be after such exotic locations like St. Martin and Grand Turk, it was interesting enough that I managed to take lots of photographs!

We went to the Everglades, where we took an airboat ride where we saw lots of nature!

Some nature was even close enough that my zoom was not needed at all. In fact, I could have reached out and pet some of the nature.

If, you know, I wanted to ensure I came home with a nub.

After that, it was off to Flamingo Sanctuary and Wildlife Sanctuary with their super-delightful botanical garden. And, yeah, flamingos.

While I took plenty of pictures of the flamingos, the above one in particular, I did manage to drag myself away to finally fill up my SD card with some of the lovely plants and flowers at the gardens.

Of course, there were a couple other wildlife-y things I had to snap pictures of, especially since, not only did nature exist in the gardens, the place was a wildlife sanctuary, so there were lots of birds that wouldn't be able to survive in the wild.

After starting our day early enough to see sunrise, we eventually made our way to the airport to wait a few hours for our flight. Dan and I were pretty tired, so we used this time well.

Thanks to my dad for the picture!

And that's it, that's our trip! Even though I've shared a number of pictures over the last week, it's just the tip of the iceberg compared to what I took. But I managed to get the 2,097 pictures I took to a more reasonable 247 that I think (hope) are worthy of sharing. I'll post a slideshow of those next.

Grand Turk

Oops! I got a little distracted with a combo of housewife-ing and knitting and have let my picture culling slide. No more! I have Grand Turk done!

I've seen things that said Grand Turk has the best beach(es) in the world. I could easily be convinced of this. However our visit was relatively beach-free as we hit Grand Turk on one of the few rainy days in the year.

Dan and I still had a great time walking around, though. There wasn't much to downtown but once we started meandering towards the beach, things became really interesting.

Plus, wildlife! You know how I like that!

I told Dan that I was a little torn about Grand Turk. Of all the places we went, it was probably my favorite and the one I'd most like to return to (with St. Martin being second) but, at the same time, it's the only one that I didn't feel all that safe.

Still, I'd like the opportunity to go back and explore more. I mean, how can you say no to this?

Oh, and want to know how classy Grand Turk is? So classy that when Dan went in a convenience store to buy a local beer (Grand Turk Ginger Beer), the cashier put it in a paper bag, popped the cap off and handed it to Dan.

Yep, that's apparently standard operating procedure for booze and Grand Turk. (The ginger beer was pretty tasty, too.)

I think of all the places we went, Grand Turk ended up giving the prettiest pictures. It resulted in several of my favorite shots from the trip, including this one:

St. Thomas

I'm getting to these a little later than anticipated. I was downed from a migraine and then related recovery for most of Thursday and all day Friday. But I'm back to picture culling and editing and have officially made it through St. Thomas!

We went to an aquarium there, which meant I took tons of pictures and very few came out. Some worked, though!

Of course, fish weren't the only wildlife we saw on St. Thomas. Iguanas were everywhere!

No beach time on St. Thomas, though. Which was probably best so we didn't get toasted after spending so much time on the beach in St. Martin the day before.

Next up: Grand Turk and back to Ft. Lauderdale!

Sint Maarten/Saint Martin

And I have officially gotten through the St. Martin pictures!

Personally, I think they are the prettiest since they include the beach at Orient Bay. Of course, that's not saying anything about my photography but rather about the scenery. Because, seriously, it's gorgeous.

Yeah, it was tough hanging out there for the day. Of course, there was a naturalist resort just down the beach, so not quite all of the scenery was so gorgeous. (No worries, there are no pictures of that scenery.)

Hey, look! A boat!

Drip

Another tiny dribble of pics are done, these from our two days at sea.

Nothing too big here - bigger stuff is coming up next with St. Martin. Hopefully that will be tonight but it will most likely be tomorrow. I want to knit some!

One interesting thing: on our at sea days, we passed the same way (one day going south, one day going back north) and each time we hit a certain point, Google Navigation decided that we had transported to Europe.

I promise, our trip was only to the Caribbean. We didn't dash over to Italy at all.

Slowly But Surely

I'm gradually getting through my pictures! So far I've taken care of Days One and Two. The rest of the week should come soon. But until then, here's a tiny taste.

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale

Princess Cays, Eluethera, Bahamas

Princess Cays, Eluethera, Bahamas

Also, a little celebration: I've always had issues packing. In high school, I'd get so worked up, my mom would have to finish for me. As I've gotten older, Dan has discovered that I typically need alcohol to pack successfully (and without freakout). This time, however, I packed not only without alcohol, but in a carry on! I even have proof!

There was even enough room for a Happy-Doodle! (Okay, I did eventually eject Doodle so I could pack my toiletries. No kitties accompanied us on our vacation.)