Knitting: Update

Ugh. I can't even remember the last time I updated this blog. I'm sorry its taken so long. I'm sure some of you are tired of only seeing the last post. Well here I am ready to update. Since it was a very hot, very busy summer, I didn't do much knitting. But here are all of the projects I've completed since the last time I talked about knitting. (not pictured is another blanket like this one and a mini one like it for traveling)

A meat head hat for the Professor.

Mermaid fingerless gloves for a gift exchange

A hat for my baby sis (my mom added a pom pom since this picture was taken)

More meathead hats (dude they are just so easy to make!)

Did I mention that they look great with little baby booties?

Take another look and see what I mean...

This lady at my church has three grandbabies due at the same time..so I made these

Here get a closer look.

Holy crap they are SOOO CUTE!!!! (I've made 2 pairs in this baby girl pink yarn!)

A scrubby pad made out of antibacterial acrylic yarn (I actually made 2). I was commissioned at church to make easy knitting projects for our stake's super saturday.

A washcloth to go with the scrubby pad(made 2 of these too!)

A hat to trade with my friend for a cool camping pan.

Soooo coool huh!?

More meathead hats! Although with this one I forgot to knit inbetween every decrease row so it turned out a little stumpy.

So if I counted correctly, I think that's brought the total up to 30 completed projects this year. Oh wait, I just remembered I made a pumpkin hat for one of my other friend's nephews. That would be 31 then. On the needles currently (or inline to be knit) are 2 skull and crossbones hats, 3 of the wavy hats, one more booty and mermaid fingerless gloves. There is simply not enough time in the day!

Insomnia it's Not

Just a fair warning, this post may veer into PG-13 territory. Also, my cousins might give me the ol' sideways glance the next time I see them. (A few read this blog)

In this age of WebMD self-diagnosis I feel pretty comfortable saying that I am a sexsomniac. "A sexsomniac?", you say. Yes, a sexsomniac. This doesn't mean I'm addicted to a rare form of Japanese porn featuring narcoleptics. It's a sleep disorder akin sleepwalking, but instead of walking, friskiness occurs in bed with no recollection of said friskiness in the morning, or ever. I'm just thankful that thus fair only a very mild, somewhat infrequent, and abortive version of this condition has manifested itself in my sleeping behavior. (For instance, check out this Newsweek story filed this year. Bruised genitalia from furious masturbating while sleeping? Sexual assault allegations? Lacerations and bruising from the rough sleepsex? Apparently the sex is usually much rougher during sleepsex. I've had none of that happen.) Vesper came across the name of this condition, sexsomnia, 5 or 6 months ago and I've been thinking about it ever since.

Take for instance two nights ago. (This is Vesper's recollection. Couldn't very well be mine, could it?) It's been VERY warm here in Seattle this week so we've been sleeping with the ceiling fan on. A few hours after we fell asleep Vesper sat up to adjust the fan. While she was fumbling with the chain I bolted upright, quickly and assertively removed some of her sleeping clothes (along with mine) and began to be quite frisky. Then, a few minutes later I mumbled, "You too tired for this aren't you?" and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning while I was making our lunches she came into the kitchen and started talking about the incident. I had no idea what she was talking about. I still don't. I've been (a)roused from a fit of sexsomnia while in the midst of the beginning stages of friskiness, but I still can't remember instigating anything. It's like I've been dropped into the middle of a scene in a movie or play that I haven't seen or been part of the beginning of. It's a very VERY odd sensation. (For both of us I suppose.)

To our combined recollections I've never fully lived up to the intercourse part of the sexsomnia. Sexual acts, not sex itself, has been our experience. It happens fairly infrequently as well. Maybe every month or two. Sometimes I've gone half a year with any sort of incident that either of us can remember. All I know, is that every once in a while I wake up in the morning with no clothes on, or in a very intimate embrace with my wife and I have no idea what the hell is going on.

Embarassment (You)

For those of you looking for an explanation for this atrocity, I've explained myself here. Also, if you want to laugh some more you can go here.

Um, if any of the negative 5 people that read this blog have enjoyed laughing in the past, sorry I've completely forgotten about this. I promise to update silly, nasally delivered, songs more often in the future.

This song was more a result of my liking my keyboard rather than having a song. Sorry again for the compressed sound, but these are back from my 4 track days, and I really didn't know what I was doing. It's funny to look back at these songs and remember how much I enjoyed doing this.

Have your cake and eat it too!

I'm a doer.

I like doing things for other people.

Its just in my nature. 

Unfortunately sometimes I get busy doing and agree to do to much.

Case and point: This weekend.

Gawain's coworker was taking donations for an auction this weekend.  I agreed to bake a cake for it.  Its an auction right?  It has to be fancy! (um that was my stipulation, not the coworkers).

Yes, you are correct!  I did in fact make a triple layer keylime coconut cake with key lime frosting in between the layers and swiss meringue buttercream frosting on the outside with sprinkled toasted coconut  and a key lime on top. (yes those are the key limes I got from Lee's Market)

Yummy right?

We were so sad to see that go out the door.  We couldn't really eat it anyway with our competition going on.

Froggy's best friend was also having his birthday this weekend.  His mommy asked if I could make the cake, to which I promptly agreed and also offered to make cupcakes for.

Again, a doer.  

All of this wouldn't have been such a big deal if they weren't all needed on the same day (Saturday) and if I didn't have some weird ear infection/cold/sinus infection with which I was feeling more like dying over and not so much like baking.

As you can see it turned out ok in the end.

(I guess I actually just really like baking when it comes down to it, and since we can't have any good stuff with this competition, I haven't been able to bake as much as I'd like)

Thank you for my cake, but seriously, do I have to wear this stupid hat!?!?!?

The price is right!

In an effort to help us Gawain win the Biggest Loser competition , I have been trying to buy more veggies and fruits. Just 5 servings is an easy one point. Actually we really like veggies and fruits any way, and tried to eat plenty before the competition. I'm sure you know that they aren't exactly cheap.

Enter Lee's Market.

A couple of months ago we were at a party and some friends told us about this market where all of the produce is really, really cheap. Like they had bought 2 avocados for like a dollar. Dude! I had just bought one avocado that day for like 2 dollars! They said that it was in White Center and I should check it out.

Ok, I have a confession to make. I am TOTALLY TERRIFIED of White Center.

Yes, it is basically only 2 blocks from my house, but seriously, it is like one of the ghettos of Seattle. You only have to say "White Center" and people you are talking to are like "Ohhh...." like "Oh dear I can't believe you are still alive." Like seriously, in the first couple of months that we lived here, our car was broken into 3 times, the second time, the stereo and speakers were stolen and the third time the starter was destroyed in an effort to start and steal the car. The main drag of white center has at least 3 porno shops, which like to display the nativity scene at Christmas time and there is just overall general seedy-ness. I hate to stereotype, but, there you go.

ANYWAY, I decided since times are tough and money is tight I would overcome my fear and go to this Lee's market and check out the produce.

Pictured below is a typical trip to the market. Please guess how much I spent.

Go on, guess!

Can you believe everything pictured above (except the dog) was only $9.10???? I'm serious! I can barely believe it myself!

It works like so:

Already bagged things are $1.25. Anything not bagged is either 3 for a $1 or 2 for $1 or some insanely cheap amount per lb. In fact, I go in there so often, sometimes the nice lady behind the counter just lets me have stuff for free (like a single jalapeno pepper or a tiny little thing of ginger). There is a catch, in that they don't always have the same things (like for a while they had a giant bag of romaine hearts for $1.25, haven't seen that in a while) but if you aren't picky they have lots of stuff to enjoy. The best thing we've found twice now is a bag of about 50 key limes for $1.25. at the store 1 lb (about 30 limes) is 4.99, and it takes 22 limes to make our favorite dessert. The quality is actually suprisingly good for the price you are paying. I see them outside pulling off the bad bits of lettuce and bok choy and just putting the good stuff in bags. They may be smoking while they are doing it, but hey, I wash it all of when I get home anyway, right?

Here's to hoping you have something as equally awesome in a ghetto neighborhood close to you!

Spring at last

So I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, inspired by my friend Caboose's blog when she did a similar post.  Enjoy the first signs of spring (from like a month ago actually....)

Tiny daffodils under our douglas fir in our front yard

A cluster of crocuses...croci?....anyone, the plural please?

Umm...you'd have to ask Gawain...I'm not sure but they're pretty!

Spring: new life bursting forth from the dirt...sure is something, isn't it?

Happy Spring!

rBiggest Loser (not Really) Week 1 Report

  Well, week 1 of the Biggest Loser (not really) contest has come to its conclusion.  Here are the rankings:



  Those who have zero points (miles) are those who haven't reported their totals yet.  Hopefully they'll report in to Vesper sometime soon so we can update the chart.  An abnormal Monday has apparently put me barely in the lead after 1 week.  The perfect storm of perfect weather enabled me to run further than I usually do, to go on a long walk with Vesper and the Professor, AND to help terrace the backyard of our friends the Alls.  It was a points orgy through and through.  Since I am addicted to charts and spreadsheets and tend to be an utter nerd I've gone a bit nuts with my tracking spreadsheet here.  (Make sure you check out all of the links at the top to get the full effect.  And you better believe that if I think of any more ways to slice and dice the data I will.)  
  The biggest disappointment of the week for me was that I did not successfully complete the weekly challenge of no chocolate and 10 minutes of stretching a day.  In an unthinking moment on Friday night about 11 o'clock I ate 3 Oreo's.  After I had realized what I had done it took a LOT of effort not to scream vulgarities at the top of my lungs.  I would have been at peace if it had been a conscious decision to eat chocolate...but I was just looking for something sweet.  It was damnable to say the least.  Vesper and I are dead set on this weeks challenge of 30 minutes of exercise per day and no caffeine.
  All in all it was a pretty good start for the both of us.  Only 11 weeks to go and a Private to destroy on my end.  The first place prize would look nice on us.

It's Not Really the Biggest Loser

   

  So last year Vesper's work had a "Biggest Loser" competition but they tweaked it.  Since none of the participants were morbidly obese or had serious health problems, they created a point system based on healthy habits and activities.  (If you really care to know the rules you may view them here.)  The participants keep track of their points (miles) on a spreadsheet and check in at the end of every week.  Well, it was such a smashing success everyone decided to go for a second go round.  I thought it would be fun to track Vesper and my progress as we go through the 12 week collabatition.  (You know...collaboration and competition)  We'll post individual results, as well as results in context.  So, look forward to a weekly post of charts and lists or, well, maybe nothing you remotely care about.

  Also, the thought just occured to me that if any of you out in the wilderness of the world wide web would care to join in on the fun, just email us.  The competition just started today and we could tack a day (or two) on the end of your spreadsheets (provided by the Biggest Loser, Not Really committee of Vesper) to make all things fair.  Don't be bashful, the more the merrier.  If you have any questions, just email us. 

Happy Birthday The King!

Today is Isabel's husband's birthday. She is doing an interweb-wide happy birthday for him. So here it goes since The King is our friend too!

Keep it going! Post on your blog today a pic of yourself, your hubby, your significant other, your baby, your dog, your cat, and/or yourfriend with a fake moustache , a real moustache, a fingerstache any kind of stache!

Knitting projects 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11

So as you can tell, I've been a busy little bee knitting. There has been an onslaught of babys, and requests for things, so unfortunately the Professor and Gawain have been keeping eachother busy while I've been knitting as fast as I can. Here are the finished products:

A meathead hat for a precious baby boy, embellished with a cool wooden button



Another meathead hat for another precious baby, not embellished this time



Meathead hat #3 for a baby girl, embellished with a crocheted pink flower



A luxurious baby blanket for the above button baby boy



My attempt to make my 25 year old sister a skull and crossbones hat like the Professor's.....



Obviously size 6 needles were perfect for a new hat for the Professor, not so perfect for a hat for my sister....



There, size 8 needles worked much better.....

In which I geek out on you

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Gawain announcing that there was a raffle at work to go see the Battlestar Galactica series finale at the Science Fiction Museum!  Holy crap!  So awesome!!  We love Battlestar Galactica!  I emailed back as quick as I could type to enter right away.  He said he already had and our chances were pretty good since he was pretty sure there weren't many other awesome people (read: geeks) interested in such things.

A couple of days later, I got another email from Gawain:

CONGRATULATIONS!! 

The following employees will be placed on the VIP list for the season finale viewing of Battlestar Galactica on Friday, March 20 in the JBL Theater at the Science Fiction Museum:

Loi Nguyen
Gawain
Walt Glass
Bill Davis
Gemma Mercado

No tickets are necessary.  Your names will be on a VIP list at the Museum.

Oh my gosh!  So awesome!  We are on a VIP list?  We get to watch it on a big screen!  We may win fabulous prizes!  We are very excited to get to go.  Now, the only thing to decide is to dress up as characters, or just make a t-shirt and what should go on that t-shirt....(make sure to click on the pictures so you can get the full effect and make an educated vote)

Should we go as Apollo and Starbuck?

President Roslin and Admiral Adama?

or Gaius Baltar and Caprica 6?

Or what is your fabulous idea for a t-shirt?  We are getting excited! (also because Gawain's parents are going to let the Professor spend the night at their house...yippiee we get to sleep in!)

The story of a boy and a girl

******WARNING!: THIS IS A BONAFIED OOEY GOOEY MUSHY LOVEY DOVEY POST! IF SUCH THINGS MAKE YOUR STOMACH TURN PLEASE LEAVE, I DO NOT LIKE CLEANING UP VOMIT!**********

Boy meets girl



Girl becomes crazy stalker-like obsessed over boy



Boy leaves on 2 year mission



Girl tries to forget boy, but just can't



Boy comes home to find girl engaged to someone else (hey, he told me not to wait!)



Girl and "other man" break up(Not because of boy, but it could have been....)



Boy woos girl



Girl didn't really need to be wooed, but is wooed right away



Boy proposes to girl



Girl is estatic! All her dreams are coming true!



Boy and girl are married(married!)



Boy and girl live happily ever after.....



The end!(or the beginning?)



Happy fifth wedding anniversary Gawain!
I hate to say it this way, but you are my dream come true
I love you!
(Hey, I said at the beginning, if you didn't like the mush, then head for the hills!)

*note: Our anniversary was actually Feb 21...sorry Gawain...I couldn't find all of the pictures I wanted!