AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

[10 Tuesday] summer goals

This week's 10 for Tuesday is goals for the summer. I don't know how it is in other areas, but growing up in Old Orchard Beach summer "began" on Memorial Day weekend. It was the first big tourist weekend, so we were all pretty much either going to the beach or working at one of the various businesses (I worked at Venetias, a Greek restaurant).

Nowadays, it means usually that if I haven't gotten off my butt to plant things in my garden (I almost air quoted that too), that I'm really running out of time.

My goals are pretty modest this summer.

1. Continue being good about my sugar intake. At the beginning of May I stopped eating sugar and sugar substitutes. I dropped the fast on Saturday, because I was going on a chocolate tour with a friend, but started right back up the following day.

2. Walk more. Not necessarily a lot more, but each day I should probably get at least 2-3 miles of dog walking even if I don't do anything else. I don't need everyday to be like yesterday, when I walked Victor over 4 miles and then walked the 3 mile round trip to the grocery store (it has a great salad bar for lunches).

3. Finish things. I have a sweater that I'm making for Squam that I'm well on the way to finishing, but it is a new sweater. I need to work on some of my old sweaters that I put aside years ago. Without thinking too hard (or checking Ravelry) I can think of at least 3 that I either started this spring or years ago.

4. Sewing. I have a tote bag I want to line, and I need to cut and sew facial features and finish the accessories for the doll I made in the Design your own Stuffies class. If I want to make more stuffies, especially with the sherpa fleece, then I should get a graduated awl. Abby said it was the best tool for pulling the fleece that gets caught in the seams out, and making it fluffy again (otherwise, it looks like you have bald patches).

5. Skirt Week. I want to sign up for Skirt Week at Gather Here, but that might have to go the way of the dodo for me. I'm going to be auditioning in the next few days for Into the Woods. I don't know what the rehearsal schedule will be like at the end of July. Ooops, never mind. Skirt Week can only be done if I don't get into the show. The last week of July would be tech week.

6. Make a separate stuffy for my hubby. It was part of the requirements for taking the class, and I don't know if he likes the one I have from class to count as good enough.

7. Clean the craft room. I made a start on that this weekend, but I need to change how my sewing machine is set up and get some kind of basket or container for the larger sweater projects. I started the Ella Coat during the Knitalong, but I needed to work on it exclusively when I was home. That, in part, didn't happen, because I had too many balls of yarn that I'd need to carry back and forth.

8. Finish some gift knitting. Can't say more.

9. Take the garden planter thing I picked up a couple of weeks ago and refinish it. I took it from near someone's trash, and it has been outside this entire time. I want to sand it a bit, varnish or paint the wood, and add a fabric covered ironing board and then place it in the craft room. Part of my problem now is I don't have a safe place to iron. My ironing surfaces are all nice tables or card tables (with easily melted plastic).

10. Take more naps. I don't seem to sleep too well at night (though this morning's 3:40 a.m. wakeup was in part from my sunburn), so I pretty much need naps at least a couple times a week to stop myself from being a Grumpasaurus Rex.

I'm pretty sure I won't be getting all of these things done over the summer. I'm doing the virtual Camp Loopy again, and get to start my first project (Color Affection, which might be the only non-sock knitting I bring with me to Squam) as soon as I finish Cria. This takes up a fair amount of summer craft time, but it is a lot of fun! I also work well with deadlines.

[10 Tuesday] to do lists

Today's 10 for Tuesday is 10 items on my spring to do list. Now, I don't have to do lists like that per se, but I do have a few things that I'm trying to get done by the end of the month. It will have to do.

1. Plant the pumpkins. While I do need to plant the rest of my seedlings, the pumpkins need to take precedence. They look supremely vigorous even in a blurry cell phone (or similar) picture. This is on the list tonight, even if I have to plant them in the dark after walking Mr. Victor.

2. Finish Cria. This is the sweater I'm doing for a Loopy Ewe challenge. I'm enjoying it, and I want to be able to wear it to Squam. However, it is cotton which isn't always happy for my hands and I haven't finished the body yet. I'm going to be hard pressed to get it all done!

3. Some other knitting. I have a couple of projects, including one that I need to somehow procure scraps (I estimate about 10 grams) of sock yarn in tons of colors. I'm not sure if I can get that project done before the end of June, but it is worth a shot. There are also a few gift knitting items that I would like done.

4. Camp Loopy starts at the end of May, and I think I'm going to do Color Inflection (Affection, Infection, Affliction, etc.). I've seen tons of them, and they are almost always awesome looking and I need a bigger shawl than the one at my desk.

5. Homework! I took Abby Glassenberg's Design Your Own Stuffed Animal class yesterday, and I have homework to do before the next session. The short answer is that the class was awesome, but worthy of a more complete write up.

6. Singing. I need to prep two 32-bar selections for auditions at the end of the month. I'm still waffling, which is a bad spot to be because I would like as much time as possible to relearn the music (some of it is music from shows I've been in, though not my part). Into the Woods is one of my favorite shows, and I would love to be in it. Heck, if they are doing it like the Wellesley HS production did it, then I would even happily be the cow!

7. Clean my craft room. It looks like a yarn bomb or yarnado invaded the room and just died there. I have absolutely no space to sew, because I have a project that I haven't finished cleaning up, and there are a few other things that are questionable. Fine, just bad. This is also the room that we used for the Christmas tree. It's still up, because we don't care and it is a tiny amount of corner space. However, part of me feels uncomfortable being the room with the tree still up. It's just weird.

8. Continue not eating any sugar. My fruit for sweets diet is still working fairly well, and I'm losing a small, but significant, amount of weight each week. Part of that is increased exercise (dog walking mostly) and smaller portions over all. However, the amount of weight lost is definitely high enough that my sugar habit was definitely a contributing factor to my weight gain.

9. Go Swimming. We have a membership to the local pool and while it is very affordable for a year, I would feel better if I managed to go at least once or twice a week. That hasn't happened in a while. The adult hours are a bit inconvenient.

10. Get some kind of netting or tulle to put over my strawberries. Unlike last year, I would like to eat more berries than I donate to the local wildlife.

Oh, and one last thing... a constant thing with our large yard. Mow, mow, mow!

[10 Tuesday] Always a comedian

This is my dog, Victor. This is my dog, Victor, on glasses. Any questions?

My apologies for blurry cell phone pic, but sometimes you just need to take the pictures as they come to you. Doesn't Victor look smart in glasses?

This week's 10 for Tuesday is favorite comedies. Well, this is probably my favorite genre, barring musicals, and my tastes are, hrm, broad to say the least. What I consider a comedy is probably not a comedy to a lot of other people.

10 Comedies that others would consider Comedies

1. Addams Family Values. My favorite of the Addams Family movies.
2. First Wives Club. It's so snarky. My favorite is the daughter.
3. The Incredibles. It's adventure and comedy!
4. Never Been Kissed. Yeah, also romcom.
5. Kick-Ass. We watched this from Netflix and it was a lot of fun!
6. Despicable Me. It was cute, and I'd watch it again.
7. Tangled. Yes. I like animation. And?
8. The Princess Bride. This led to years of funny Christmases.
9. Clueless. It is completely brainless, and sometimes that's a good thing.
10. A tie between Shaun of the Dead and the Buffy movie.

Obviously there is a lot that could have gone on those lists. Pretty much all of the Monty Python movies with a special nod to Life of Brian and Holy Grail, a few more comedic animated films, Wayne's World, etc.

Then there is my special list. Like my list of holiday movies, these are comedies mostly to me and the overlap between the two lists is pretty high. Some of them are actually meant to be comedies, and the rest are just me being, well, me.

10 Comedies for Me.

1. Sweeney Todd. Hey, even before I was in it, I thought it was funny. It's about eating people. Besides, if you watch the Johnny Depp one and close your eyes, you can imagine that it is Jack Sparrow singing about eating people.
2. Delicatessen. Vegetarian vigilantes, and a sex scene involving one of those containers that you flip and it goes moo. Enough said.
3. Moulin Rouge!. Weird movies often come across as funny and this one is no exception for me.
4. March of the Penguins. I know it isn't a comedy, but when you spend the entire movie exhorting one of the penguins (we call him Bob) to get back in the circle, well, it becomes funny.
5. Avatar. I'm not sure I'd watch it again, which would normally get it the boot from the list, but USB aliens are inherently funny. Similar could be said about Watchmen, because of some cinematic choices.
6. A Clockwork Orange. It's dark and while it isn't meant to be funny, some of the horribleness goes so far that it flips briefly to the other side.
7. Boron, sorry, The Fifth Element is funny for a lot of reasons, including the black hole of evil.
8. Dorkness Rising. It's funny for gamers, and possibly friends of gamers. Not sure if it expands past that.
9. Starship Troopers. Hey, it's got Doogie Howser in it! You know, from before Dr. Horrible.
10. Being John Malkovich. You know it is something when an actor is so stereotyped as kooky that an entire movie is based on the premise. This movie is tied for me with I Heart Huckabees.

I just have to say that without either the Netflix instant queue or the genre listings at IMDb, these lists would be 3 entries long. I tend to watch the same movies over and over, and I forget titles fairly easily. And now I'm going to try to survive on super subpar sleep (and take my sleeping meds tonight).

[10 Tuesday] bulletin boards

Today's topic is 10 items pinned to your bulletin board. Now, I'm going to have to go with pinning, aka Pinterest for this one, because I don't have a bulletin board at home and the one at work, well, it is covered with work. I don't think you need my account numbers or procedures for things, and I wouldn't ever post those anyway. Just isn't going to happen.

I'm on Pinterest as qarylla (but probably also findable via my first name), and most of what I pin is food. I have boards for holidays (mostly full of food), boards for sweets, boards for dinner items, and boards for alcoholic drinks that I will probably never try.

Since sometime last year (I cannot find anything on Pinterest that gives you an idea of when you started pinning, boo!), I have been adding things in fits and spurts. So, here are 10 items from my Pinterest boards.

1. (Gluten Free) Ice Cream Cake (pin | original site). This might be the most popular repin on my boards. I pinned it when I got tired of searching for it to find it. The original recipe isn't gluten free, but it involves a cake mix so I tried it with a gf cake mix and a dairy free ice cream and it was pretty awesome. Very moist!

2. Pomegranate Vanilla Sangria (pin | original site). I made this for hanging out at game a number of months ago, and just finally threw out the fruit in the past couple of weeks (it still looked and smelled good, but was way past my comfort date). I love pretty much anything with pomegranate in it.

3. Cute bunny pic (pin | original site). I have a board for animals, both cute and funny. It is nice for when I am having a rough day to spend a minute looking at all of the adorableness.

4. Pineapple Upside Down Cake (pin | original site). I have made this cake from Smitten Kitchen at least twice this year. While I know some people have problems with her recipes (or recipes that she has modified from an original) based on the comments, I've never had any issues. This one was as delicious as I have come to expect. And well, dark rum!

5. Glitter Shoes (pin | original site). I made a pair of similar shoes a month or two ago, and while it was a fun process there are definite flaws in using the cheapest shoes from Payless to attach copious amounts of glitter paint to. Of course, I might walk around occasionally dropping a piece of glitter from my feet, but I still wear them and enjoy them.

6. Rolo Caramel Fudge Brownies (pin | original site). I made these and they were a huge hit. Super addictive and now that I'm cutting out sugar (to curb my sweets addiction) I won't be making these again for a while!

7. Lemon Cupcakes in a Lemon (pin | original site). I haven't made these yet, but I so want to!

8. Black French Manicure (pin | original site). If my nails didn't look like I worked constantly with my hands, I would do this!

9. The Traveller's Guide to the Duat (pin | original site). My friend Kiya wrote this and I couldn't be more proud of her! So, I pinned it, so I couldn't forget.

10. The Tokyo Subway Map Quilt (pin | original site). This quilt has started my quilt dreams. Now, like many of my dreams I haven't done anything with it yet (except buy some fabric). I fully expect that I won't get around to quilting until a few more of my craft ideas have run their course. Oh, and I have created a better set up for sewing or have decided to sew my quilts by hand...

My boards also have knitting, a lot of things from Craft Magazine, art, story boards for a sweater coat, etc. I know that Pinterest has its own problems, but I do enjoy it.

[10 Tuesday] laaa la la la la la la, la la la la la la laaa

Today's 10 for Tuesday is about music, specifically music that puts you into a good mood. Now, I mostly listen to vrock (jpop), metal/industrial, and musicals. I haven't picked up new music to listen to in years that wasn't part of a musical, because I'm boring. I picked up a lot more music when I was still working at Sasuga back in the day, because I could get all the Japanese imports.

So, my music selection is a bit weird...Heck, most of my favorite music is definitely the Angry Girl Rock genre.

1. Misunderstood. Dream Theater might be my favorite band. Definitely in the top 10. This is their song I've been listening to most lately, though I also have a love for Space-Dye Vest.

2. Hey You by Pink Floyd. This was the first song I tried to learn with finger picking. It is always a favorite and I finally bought it for my iPod last weekend. I've only been wanting to get it since I lost my tape copy years ago. It shouldn't be a surprise to people who know me that the first music I remember listening to included the Wall.

3. Katamari Damacy. Hey, it is a lot of la! There are just enough versions of this song (both in Japanese and English) that is hard to find the one I like best.

4. The Prelude from Sweeney Todd. I was in this musical and all of the big chord numbers make me so happy! I also have a deep abiding love for A Little Priest, because I am wrong.

 

5. Dear God by XTC. It's part of my Angry Rock. I love a lot of political and quasi-political songs.

6. Like Dear Mr. President. This is the only Pink song I own and I love it to pieces.

7. Engel. Rammstein is usually much harder than this song, which is by far their most accessible for larger more mainstream audiences. The video is an anime music video from Evangelion. The main "vocalist" in the video is Asuka, who grew up in Germany.

 

8. Sweet Dreams. I love the original song, but it works even better as done by Marilyn Manson. I hope you weren't looking for happy songs. Most of the ones that make me happy are not perky.

9. With Cat Like Tread. It is iconic. I mean, when you think of Pirates of Penzance what songs come to mind? While I love Hail Poetry, I know that isn't by far the most popular song from the musical.

10. Iolanthe Act 1 Finale (part 1 and part 2 and part 3 (Into Parliament)). The first musical I did with MIT G&S was Ruddigore, which I thought sounded hilarious with the chorus of professional bridesmaids. However, those songs were fairly insipid even by G&S standards. Iolanthe is the only musical so far that I've done twice. Being a fairy is awesome, and this is why!

Of course, this doesn't include Schadenfreude or any of the songs from Avenue Q, Wicked, Aida, L'Arc~en~ciel, Lunasea, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog or even the silly songs from Sailor Moon. It's just these were the ones that came to mind first.

[10 Tuesday] mmm, chocolate

Chocolate is probably my biggest dietary downfall. It is easy to acquire, requires nearly no effort on my part to prepare and is quick and super caloric to consume. Of course, my other downfalls are wheat thins and mashed potatoes. What can I say, I love the carbs.

My favorite chocolate treats really do run the gamut, but I am hoping to not get any chocolate this year for valentines day. Eating healthy is hard enough without a box just sitting there staring at me.

1. Peanut Butter M&Ms / Pretzel M&Ms. Now, I don't even remember if these have chocolate in them (well, the pretzel ones do), but they are like a super delicious treat. I'd buy them more often if I could resist eating the entire bag at once.

2. Rolos. These are the basis for the bachelor cookies that I love. The bachelor cookies are faux turtles. Take mini pretzels and place 1 unwrapped rolo onto each pretzel. Place in an oven at 200° Fahrenheit for like 2 minutes. Just until melty. Push a pecan half into the melting rolo. Voila. Mini turtle cookies.

3. Lindt truffles. My favorites are probably the stracciatella (cookies and cream) and the white chocolate, though I'm not sure if I've ever had one that I'd consider bad. One of my friends makes hot chocolate by adding a single truffle to hot chocolate and about a tablespoon of Godiva licqueur. It is so tasty!

4. Old fashioned hot chocolate. If you don't really like drinking milk, this is a great way to get more milk into the diet. It is good with pretty much any cocoa powder I've tried, though obviously more affordable with Hersheys. I just follow the stovetop instructions on the can and mix the sugar, salt and cocoa in a bowl first (it helps prevent lumps).

5. Chocolate pudding. Another dairy source that I really like. There is this recipe on Joy the Baker that has been on my list to try since it came out, but I haven't bought the black onyx cocoa powder. I know I could try it with a more pedestrian cocoa powder, but I really want to try the black onyx. I had some last year at Baitcon and it was good but hard to differentiate from other chocolate with all of the dairy that went into it.

6. Chocolate chips. I have these tiny sake and green tea style cups and one of my go to no work desserts is to just dump about an ounce of chocolate chips in them. I love the callebaut style dark chocolate chips or mega chunks, but I don't buy them quite as often. If they are very dark and rich then I feel the urge to eat less.

7. Neuhaus. Au Chocolat has a wide assortment of them, so I love going and picking out one. They are pricy, but that isn't so big a deal if you are only eating one or two. My favorites are Seduction (raspberry ganache surrounded by a toffee and enrobed in chocolate), Frais du bois (dark chocolate with a liquid strawberry center) and Prestige (liquid caramel center). They are all very good and the frais du bois has exceptionally good mouth feel.

8. Fudge. I used to make a ton of fudge, using variants on the never fail fudge recipe from the marshmallow fluff. One of my friends doesn't like the fluff-based recipe and so I've been trying to find a fudge recipe I like that doesn't use it. So far its an uphill battle. I make a lot of white chocolate based fudges, because they are the best for making alternative flavors like my maple fudge of space and time.

9. Chocolate Thin Mint Ice Cream, Chocolate Ice Cream with a Salted Caramel Swirl or Nutella Rocky Road. These are ice creams I've made for the ice cream party I hold in July. They are super chocolatey and have just enough of something else to make them eatable for people with a wider range of chocolate tolerances.

10. Salted Caramels. Au Chocolat has these in both bags and as individual pieces. I love that if I just want one, but more often my husband gets a box of them from Whole Foods and I then spend the next month having one a day. It's a good thing, because if I buy a bag from Au Chocolat and leave them in my desk at work then they are gone within minutes of opening the bag. So dangerous!

I really do love chocolate, but my current diet as it were restricts me to one sweet after dinner. Usually that sweet is a half serving of the salted caramels or Girl Scout cookies. Though I made cookies yesterday, and I will probably need to eat a larger dessert tonight!

[10 Tuesday] baby, it's cold outside

This week's Ten for Tuesday is all about things to do when it is too cold to go outside.

So, I was outside yesterday. I went running with one of my friends. I was wearing long johns, a short sleeve tee, a tech tee, a hoodie, a cowl, gloves, mittens, and underarmor pants. I was bundled to the nines. The only part of my body that didn't have multiple layers were my feet in their running sneakers and socks.

So, what would I rather have done?

1. Play video games. We've been doing Fortune Street. It's a lot of fun, but the computer cheats. Standard video game fare.

2. Make old fashioned hot chocolate. While I want to make these, normally I make my hot chocolate with about a cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of the best cocoa in the house mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Whisked and heated on the stove. Sometimes I add cinnamon or other spices. Yum!

3. Baking. While everyone needs to eat, almost everybody I know loves to eat cookies or cake more than they want to eat a bologna sandwich (and I'm a vegetarian, so I really would rather eat a cookie than a bologna sandwich).

4. Watch any sports or show where people are doing things in the cold when I am warm like HOCKEY (photos are from the Frozen Fenway... it might have been 50 degrees that day, but it feels cold when you are just sitting there). It is like schadenfreude with blood on the ice.

5. The treadmill. I know when it is cold that it is very easy to just stay on my butt all day, but really even a walk on the treadmill makes my body feel less like sludge.

6. Read a book. Cold days are perfect for snuggling under the best blankets and reading a trashy novel. I currently have a couple of books out from the library.

7. Surf the internet. I cannot really spend that much time on the computer/TV/etc., because I start to feel nauseous. Unfortunately word games on the internet are my downfall. I will spend a ridiculous amount of time on Words Play.

8. Knit. This is sort of, well, duh. I love to knit, but when I am inside during the weekend I spend most of my time either on the computer or in the kitchen. I really should use the slow cooker on the weekend, so I will have longer stretches of time for knitting.

9. Nap. Yup, the best thing to do is nap. Everybody should nap!

10. Snack. I know I shouldn't, but when it is cold I want to eat crackers (Wheat Thins are my personal crack). I love them, especially the cinnamon Wheat Thins. Maybe I'll go and get a snack right now.

And because hockey is cool. More pictures!

I think the mascots had the warmest clothes at the rink!

Happy Tuesday!

[10 Tuesday] dreaming big dreams

10 Things You Want to Do in 2012.

Ahem. I almost feel like it would be better to say 10 things I don't want to do in 2012 (that would be drinking, drugging, whoring, phone tech support for family, cleaning, the chicken dance, pick up dog poo, UFOs, waking up before 4 a.m. and having baking failures at the last minute). Of course, some of these are going to happen.

2012 is the year I am going to clean up some of my UFOs (which I already wrote about). So, outside of the knitting circle, here are the 10 things I'd like to do in 2012.

1. Actually maintain my Etsy store. I have ideas, but a laziness about implementation that defies gravity description. If I can just put one or  two new things in there every week, I might slowly be able to transition to the crafting as a source of income.

2. Eat healthier. As the primary cook I tend to make too much of the "looked good on the blog" food, which often is super delicious and equally often is made of more butter than I probably should allow to pass my lips. My husband and I are already back on the way the food out bandwagon, because we've gotten very slack over the past 5 years or so....

3. Exercise more regularly. As in every day. I read this post a little over a week ago, and it definitely resonated with me. If I don't make it a daily habit, it is far too easy to say I'll do it after work. After work becomes I'm too tired. Maybe when I get home, and before I know it I've had a week of nothing more strenuous than baking a batch of cookies (see #2). I have a pool membership, a gym membership, hand weights and a treadmill. There is just no excuse. Of course, because I'm a wuss, walking Victor counts.

4. Manage stress better. I am a mean person when I get stressed out, and I get easily stressed out. I'm type A, and tend to think of everything as an emergency.

5. Play more board games. My husband would like to play more games, but most of the time I don't necessarily want to do something new (or something that interferes with my knitting that much), but I should be able to make time for this. Even one day a week would be better.

6. Try new things. I am the person who goes into a restaurant and has the same thing every time. My kitchen isn't really any better. For all that I love to cook, what I eat falls under 3 or 4 fairly standard categories. Most of those could be broken down into a single category: carbs. While delicious, it isn't super nutritious.

7. Lose the damn weight. It crept on as soon as I thought that I didn't need to work out as much or as often. While this is highly related to exercise every day and eat healthier, there is a goal. That goal is to fit back into my old work pants, so I don't need to go out and buy new ones.

8. Try a new craft. This year I'm thinking of finally trying quilting. I've got quilting friends and I love seeing the beautiful quilts online. Obviously I need a new hobby that uses lots of materials and space and is easy to create WIPs for. But in all honesty, I have an idea and that idea needs to become a quilt. See also, Iron Craft.

9. Drink more water. I don't enjoy drinking water, but I don't want to fill my body with Crystal Light either. So, it is time to learn to love water. Right now I'm doing well if I get through 20 ounces of water, and 2 12-ounce containers of hot chocolate or decaf coffee.

10. I want, I want to sing! I don't think I can justify being in a show in 2012, but I would like to support my friends in their shows and just sing in general. I should look for a choir. I made a brief check in that direction a couple of years ago, but never really followed through on the entire idea.

Most of these are little dreams and some of them are probably just not feasible. Others are too vague or too specific to make really work, but I'm trying and some of them are already happening now.

[10 Tuesday] are you thankful

Thanksgiving is on Thursday. It is the cook's holiday, and I intend to make the most of my opportunities this year (I started a set of no bake cookies last night, because easy things were all I had energy for after work and rehearsal). And while the holiday is only a single day, the spirit of being thankful is supposed to last all year long. Many people I know have celebrated a month of thanks, a laudable notion, though I've been having a hard time committing to anything other than the show.

In no particular order, I'm thankful for:

1. My husband. He's put up with my constant absense for the show and it is going to get worse before it gets better. We aren't the neatest people, but the house hasn't devolved into nothing but mess in my absense either. It's good to get home and not immediately want to pull my hair out with the amount of cleaning that needs to be done.

2. Victor. Mr. Victor McBarknsniffs is our little general. (Note: that page is also my husband's fault.) Lately he's been staying in his crate to snooze in the mornings for as long as possible. I cannot completely blame him for that. I  think I will get a lot of sleep on December 2nd, because that's pretty much what I took the day off for.

3. Saru-chan. Saru-chan is my furry little monkey cat. She is soft and will cuddle next to me when I start making waking up sounds in the morning. I love petting her and getting monster purrs. (Note: that page is also my husband's fault.)

4. Warm woolies. It got cold yesterday, and my new mittens helped immensely. The same could not be said for my scarf, but it wasn't the scarf's fault. It cannot warm me if it isn't with me.

5. The internet. While I do love my cookbooks, the internet is a veritable treasure trove of tested recipes with full color (and black and white) photos. And while there are recipes from published books and magazines, the greatest ones are the people who just make things and tell us how they did it. Their own recipes from their own heads. While Smitten Kitchen is my favorite, I read a ton of food blogs and they all make this time of year easier.

6. Leftovers. Good food choices are always easier when there is good food to be had. Nom, nom, nom. Right now we're almost out of leftovers from the birthday party, which is good because how else are we going to fit the thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge otherwise?

7. The cast and crew of Sorcerer. No matter how much we are doing prayer hands or bobbing up and down, the good humor and intensity of the group makes the long hours worth it. The show has also been a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with people I haven't seen since the first show I've done.

8. The heat. Oh, natural gas, how do I love you. I wish you were more environmentally sound, but once it starts getting cold I have to admit that I stop caring about the environment as much as I ought.

9. The piles of leaves. We did some raking and there is definitely more raking in our future. Rake, rake, rake. The current piles and bags and barrels of leaves are an indication that we did work over the weekend. It might not be glamorous, but at least we are attempting to do the useful things home owners do.

10. My kitchenaid (and new island). This was a group gift from my friends and it is a near constant companion in the kitchen. The kitchen island might not be in the best spot, but it lets me interact with people in the living room while still doing useful things in the kitchen. I have about 4 more recipes that will use the kitchenaid this weekend, so thank goodness for this tool. So darn useful.

[10 Tuesday] on Thursday...

I'm stupid levels of competitive, so I've been doing this week's wisdom quest for Fitocracy in a way that seems to be eroding any actual wisdom I have. I want to get at least my share of the 20,000 points the group is accumulating, and that means heavy working out, lots of weight lifting (group weights of 100,000 pounds), tons of DDR, other dance or martial arts, and smaller exercises that I haven't tried yet like box jumps and burpees.

So, this weekend started off right. I did some awesome things.

1. Played in 2 D&D games. One of my characters leveled and has picked up her prestige class. The other character went from celebrating beer o'clock during a festival to having horrifying crap happen and now has an insanity point. Yippee!

2. Wove in ends. I finished weaving in all of the ends for the blanket on Friday. Now, I've been concentrating on Fitocracy so much that I haven't taken the time to block the remaining squares. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.

3. Biked from home to MIT and did the first "jogging" I've done in months. I'm slow and really out of shape and run much better on the treadmill.

4. Started a red scarf for the red scarf project. It is 100% baby llama in a wonderfully warm red. It is a staggered rib pattern and it will probably take 4 balls of yarn.

5. Made butternut squash linguine. This mostly resulted in the pasta having an orange color. I do not think there was enough squash in the pasta to do much to affect the flavor. It was still good. I need to make ravioli, because I made filling but did not turn any of the pasta dough into raviolis.

6. Washed Victor with both deskunking shampoo and a mix of hydrogen peroxide, water, dawn dish detergent and baking soda. Of course, I think he went back to the area where the spraying happened, because the smell isn't gone and I still have to figure out how to get it out of furniture.

7. Read a book. More like reread a book (for the umpteenth time). A passing comment has me back at the Tamora Pierce books.

8. Went to the knitters brunch and talked with a number of new people and a few regulars including a woman with the most gorgeous embroidery (she uses a water soluable fabric marker to draw out her pattern and goes from there. It is awesome).

9. Raked. My husband and I have started our annual combat the frisking leaves that fall all over the lawn. In 50 minutes, we didn't even get a third of the back yard done. Sometimes I think we have too much yard. Mostly when we are in the middle of yard work projects like this.

10. Sang. The poor people on the train have been early morning captives of my rehearsing strategy. Thankfully the train is loud and most people wear headphones. Otherwise, I'm sure someone would complain about hearing With heart and with voice over and over and over again. I did figure out how easy it was to make a playlist for my iPod on the fly, so now I'm just listening to songs that involve the men's chorus.

Randomly, theater is dangerous. When I did Sweeney Todd, some people were hurt on the slide for the barber's chair. This time around I am trying to see how much bruising I can get in a single blocking session. My record appears to be this:

We avoided cat cow during yoga yesterday, so I wouldn't need to be on the knee.

Apparently my knee is no longer used to kneeling. Stupid knee. Of course, I bruise really easily so it isn't the only bruise I have. Just the biggest.