From Road Apples to Love Apples - Part 1

As if there will be a part 2 or 3. I'm not exactly staying up on the blogging in a reliable fashion lately. However, I have a new love. No, I haven't replaced Sweet Babboo - in fact, I married him and we moved to a new house with a big backyard. A lot can happen in three years it seems.

So, I am now a gardener. At least I will be when I pick the seeds out and get them in the dirt.

We have prepped two beds for this year and I am hoping to increase it, but I was trying to be realistic for my first try at veggie gardening. My dad did this when I was a kid - it can't be that hard - right?

First step was tearing out a rotten bed and remaking it. Then the free dirt from one friend and FREE POOP from the nearby stables. Nothing tells me how boring I've become like the way I get excited over FREE POOP. We're gonna have good dirt though. I'll try to get a photo of the finished poop deck in soon. Like before the veggies are taking over. Really, I'm gonna try.

Thanks to the only friend who will probably ever read this for her fabulous free dirt. Air kisses to you. I'm loving my dirt.

Sweet Babboo Goes To The Emmy's!

And takes me with him! WAY back in May, Sweet Babboo and I got to take a little trip to the Big Apple so he could attend the Sport's Emmy's due to his nomination. His crew didn't win this time, but they now have their sights set on next year. Instead of being by his side (no tickets for the wives or Babboo-ee's) I went shopping in the garment district and found all sorts of cool material and trims.

The next day we took in the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting Exhibit at one of the galleries (I can't remember which at the moment) and we did some shopping Babboo style. He likes Barney's. It would seem that I am a lucky woman, no? Unfortunately, I too have my moments of style (when I'm not wearing REI gear or jeans) and fall in love with things like a $5000 Thierry Mugler trenchcoat. Sadly, this is too rich even for the Babboo's budget and I must pass my days dreaming of it's exquisite stitch detailing and it's fabulous construction and how it makes even me look like I am 5'8" and 110 pounds (too far? OK, maybe just the last part...). Instead, I am turning into my mother (not that it's a bad thing, mind you) and poking at seams and details all while saying things like, " $700! For this! (turns garment inside out and sticks head up the skirt, blouse etc - the garment on the hanger, not the one I'm wearing - we're only a little weird) I can do this for $20 and a better job at that. hmmph". So back we go to the garment district and pick out all sort of things to modify SB's clothes and do a few of my own - I've been in a design-y mood lately. He can actually be fun to drag around in fabric stores once I can get him to visualize what I'm doing (and it involves at least some of his clothes. Turns out I am lucky after all.

Oh yeah - that side of beef on my plate up there? Old Homestead Steakhouse in the meatpacking district. The food is great, but what makes this place for us? Brian the waiter. We met him on a trip two years ago to NYC and he is quite possibly the best waiter on the planet. Really. Don't even bother to order - just ask him what to eat - he'll make sure you leave with at least your top pants button undone and happier for the whole deal (and believe me - I'm not usually happy when that happens!). He's still there - ask for him by name! Next time we'll get a photo of him too!

Mom's Monkey Socks

Those are my mom's feet in her first ever custom-fit hand-made socks. And her super hot legs - I am lucky in the calf gene pool. I have to admit that I tricked her; she claimed she didn't want any wool socks, that they would be too scratchy - "even the nice expensive wool?", I asked. "Even that." So I found this cute pattern ("monkey" on Knitty) and made them but didn't graft the toes until she got here. Once she put them on though, do you think she wanted to give them back? Interestingly enough - she kept them and saved them just for the plane ride home. I hope the TSA agent admired them properly.

The best part of the story is that not just her legs came to visit me! We got to go out to eat and shop and argue about who loads the dishwasher best and cook together and just hang out. Of course, now that she's gone, it's finally sunny out here instead of the gloomy fog we had all last week. Wouldn't you know it? It's probably good that she's gone now or I'd be catching it for posting the second photo - Olivia loves her grandma, there she is guarding her. She's no fool, she knows who will toss a ball for her.

Back from the Runways of Milan....

Aunt Purl has her cats - Dooce has Chuck - Stuff has Livi in Knitwear.....
The scarf I made for our friends' (who used to live near us but up and moved away so they could have a quieter life and put their girls in good schools - go figure) daughter....











...and the hat I made for her sister. Luckily they think it's funny when I send the photos of Livi as gift tags. I'm not sure everyone would be as amused. Luckily THOSE people aren't my friends.

It's Dusty In Here

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted and I've considered taking the site down because it's not very interesting to visit the same entries over and over again. However, I've decided to keep it because I like the idea of posting my progress and the goings on in my life in a forum that doesn't include work. I think that shorter entries may be a key to me keeping up with this a little better - but that could be a challenge with me and my wordiness.

I have much to show for all of my knitting work in the past few months - hopefully I can get some photos up to prove it.

It Lives! or Four Things About Me

I've been REALLY busy with work and home lately and wanting to catch up here so I don't disappoint my two or three loyal readers, but the business took over. I am sort of copping out here - but I decided to answer Crazy Aunt Purl's four things meme tag. In general, I hate chain mail of any kind - I'd rather risk a failing love life and "something bad" over the collective hate of friend's who've been tagged. Purl did it the right way - passing it on to whomever wanted to do it - very clever of her. In that spirit and because I loathe the threats, if you want to do the meme - I'd love to hear it, but I promise that any doom that comes to you from failure to complete the chain will not come from me. Onwards.....

Four jobs I have held:

*Polyester wearing, meat stirring, drive-thru working Taco Bell employee. Hey - it was the first job I ever got all on my own (without help from Dad knowing someone or just hiring me himself). After that I gladly used my father's associations to get jobs - nepotism rules.
*Animal feeding, cage cleaning, bathroom cleaning park services employee. After having to clean up after the animals and the people - I would pick animals any day. People are pigs.
*Bartender. In Flint, Michigan. Do not f*** with my tips or I will throw a drink in your face. Not a very classy joint.
*Photographer's assistant. I got to see cars when they were just lifesize models and drive around the neighborhood in ones with the tops cut off (it's been a while - I can't remember what we called them) in Highland Park. I also learned to change tires, my oil and other useful facts about cars while waiting for film to come back from the lab. Yes, film.
*Just for fun - a fifth one. Landlord. See the part about the park employee.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

*Antonia's Line - a Dutch foreign film - but fabulously funny and sad all at the same time
*The Jerk
*I am at a total loss on this one - which, if you knew me, is pretty funny because I LOVE watching movies - but there's really not enough time to see all the ones I'd like to, so I don't usually watch many of them over and over. However, one that I've seen recently that I really liked was : The Sea Inside

Four Places I Have Lived:

*Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
*Grand Rapids, Michigan
*Detroit, Michigan
*San Francisco, California

Four TV Shows I Watch:

*Nip/Tuck - trashy TV at it's finest
*CSI - all of them - but especially Miami
*Law and Order - SVU would be the priority
*Without a Trace - OK - I have a thing for the morbid - Jerry Bruckheimer is getting rich off of me

Four Places I Have Vacationed:

*Paris
*Tokyo
*Morocco
*Amsterdam - I love to travel

Four Favorite Dishes:

*My Mom's Lasagna
*My Mom's Jello Salad with the cream cheese and black cherries - laugh all you want, I'll eat your serving
*My Dad's Grilling - anything really, but that man can char up a slab of beef like no one's business
*My Mom's Apple Pie

Four Website's I Visit (almost) Daily:

*A Chance to Knit
*Crazy Aunt Purl
*Dooce
*Go Fug Yourself

Four Places I'd Rather Be:

*On the pontoon boat at my Dad's house in Michigan
*At the cottage that used to be my grandparent's on Green Lake (Michigan)
*Snowboarding on Mount Tahoe
*On a balcony overlooking the sea in Italy, sipping cappucino and eating something good

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging:

No tagging, I promised. Send me your four favorite anythings though - if you want....

Surgery Successful, Patient May Expect Full Recovery

So, no photos this time - icarus is a present you know, and besides, it's lace, so at this point it just looks like a pile of mush anyway. But, may it be said that the patient lived and is recovering nicely. Hopefully the last of the stretchy parts along the edges of the repair will fall into line easily during blocking and no one will ever know about all that surgery. Except all of you, that is.

Have a fun weekend and wear your sunscreen! I'll get more photos up soon.

Chez Stuff or Craptastic!

I fully intend on finishing my summer vacation saga - but a few things have taken over my attention. Such as the fact that getting to my underwear drawer in the morning requires major excavation. Please refer to the left - a few examples of the rooms in my house since Sweet Babboo and his twenty five foot truck full of things arrived permanently. It's not all bad - SB has many lovely man-type accessories with buttons and flashing lights that will make life easier or at the very least, more entertaining. For example, his TV is much nicer than mine, and I think his toaster is too - it matches my kitchen better anyways - that Black and Decker I got for college is still going strong, but it's not quite so aesthetically appealing as SB's fancy chrome one. BUT - there's a lot of other "stuff". My boy is a collector of the finest kind and it would be easy to get rid of if it were all junk - but it's not, it's nice stuff - just WAY too much of it. So I am slowly weeding out some of the obvious stuff in this batch. We'll have to go back and get rid of more later, but I figure if we take it in steps it will be less painful (and yes, I am getting rid of my stuff too - just in case you all were wondering if I was playing fair). So, when I am more or less dug out from the pile, I'll be sure to be more interesting - what with photos of orchids and all that...

In between boxes, I've been trying to work on the Icarus. I was so excited because I felt like I was getting in a groove and then I noticed this. Crap! Crap! CRAP! So, I am too damn lazy to pull all those rows out and decided to try and fix just the section.

So far, this is where I'm at. All I can say is - blame it on all those knitting blogs I read, because I sure wouldn't be nutty enough to try this without reading them.

OK, I think I can , I think I can, I think I can.

I'll get back to you on this one.