Just checking in…

It’s been a couple of weeks, but since then I have finished a pair of socks for Alicia – her belated birthday present and trade for earrings that she made  (finally) but alas, I did not photograph them (sorry )  Since finishing her lovely socks – I have been in knitting project limbo – casting on, knit a few pattern repeats, frog, repeat…  either the yarn isn’t happy with what I am trying to knit with it or I am having knitters block/funk.  I finally realized I have a need to do some serious spinning.  Time to listen to my fiber gut and spin damn it.  I still have that 7 lbs. Romney Fleece to clean and card up.  I thought I was going to have to wait until spring since I have no place to dry that much soaking wet fleece, that is not until I spotted this!  You too can get one here.  It that cool or what?   And my friend Britt just happened to be taking a trip down to Ikea last weekend.  Now we just need to hook up to pick up and I’ll be in fleece washing business.  I also think I want to dye up some fleece pre-carding just for fun.   Now if  ‘they’ would just get the studio finished I could be doing all of this there instead of in my tiny kitchen.

Speaking of my kitchen…    I’ve been making more soup.  This week I made Avgolemono, otherwise known as Greek Chicken-Lemon-Rice Soup.  I checked out a bunch of different recipes but ended up just following my palette (and what I had in the fridge and pantry).  I had 4 cups of homemade Chicken Stock in the freezer so I started with that.  (as previously noted the bestest recipe for soup stock – is Bertha’s recipe from the Silver Palette Cookbook and this is what I had).  To the 4 cups of my stock I added another 2 cups of canned stock, 2/3 cup of jasmine rice (next time I will try Orzo as I hear that is good too).  Bring the stock to a boil and let the rice cook for about 15 minutes.  I then beat until frothy 3 large eggs (this made the soup very thick so next time I will cut back to 2 eggs).  To the eggs I added the zest and juice of one very juicy lemon.  Once the rice was cooked I removed the pot from the heat and ladled in 2 ladles of hot broth SLOWLY into the eggs while whisking vigorously so the eggs did not curdle.  Once the eggs were tempered I dumped it all into the stock placed it back on to the reduced heat and just let it simmer for a few minutes.  Just before serving it up I added some freshly chopped parsley.

This is just what I wanted on that very cold, snowy Wednesday.  Yummy indeed.  The soup was warm and tasty, the eggs and rice made it light but hearty and the lemon just brightened it all up.   The only thing missing was some good crusty bread.

Speaking of bread….    I keep reading about Julie’s adventures in bread making from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  This is a book I have had on my wishlist for quite awhile and voila – work gave me a kudos $25 gift certificate for Amazon.com so I knew immediately what I was going to spend it on.  Good reading so far.  I made a batch of the starter/sponge, but I am letting it ’set in the fridge’ for awhile because I really like a sourdough-ish taste and texture and the longer I wait the better it should be.  Although I have to admit waiting is hard.  I just might have to breakdown this weekend and test a loaf or two.  Especially if I make that Minestrone Soup I’ve been craving lately.

Stay tuned and I will let you know how the bread turns out.

YES WE DID! January 20th, 2009

Bush’s last day, and more importantly…

The inauguration of Barak Obama!

Words are failing me regarding the relief that Bush can no longer drag our country further down the slippery slope and the anticipation of what we can become with Barak Obama leading us up and out of this deep hole we are in.

“Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty we are free at last.”

Blog-o-versary and Birthday

Friday, January 16th – the big double digit birthday – as in “I can’t drive…”

I’m not really in birthday ‘mode’ this year. Especially after finding out that my company just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I just feel really bad for the last 1,300 people that we just laid off. Apparently the promised severance packages aren’t coming. Talk about a kick in the teeth. I guess this also means that those of us that have stuck it out aren’t going to get squat either.

I just want to make it to 62… but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen either. I guess I should just be grateful to have a job at this point. I guess it’s time to dump the rest of the stock that I own for the loss…. gee it’s a whole $0.12 per share right now.

I know I’ve been a bad blogger lately, but as you can probably tell life has been sucking me dry and I would rather be a bad blogger than a constant whiner. Trust me – you’ll be happier too.

I have been knitting quite a bit – really I have. I’ve made several Meret Berets, one for myself, one for DD and several for friends. They are a quick and fun knitting project.

I am also finally starting the felted clogs I have wanted to knit for myself for years, but just never got to it. Of course DD wants a pair too, so I will probably do a second pair.

I also have this one pair of socks that just won’t complete – mainly because they refuse to knit themselves. I finally finished the first sock and I’m about 1/4 of the way through the second one, so progress is being made.

I have been very lax on spinning lately – it’s not like I don’t have plenty of fiber to spin. I just can’t seem to find the time, although I did go to St. Distaff’s day at the Westford Museum. It was great to see friends and spend the day spinning and relaxing. I even won the door prize! Lottery Tickets! I don’t usually win anything but actually scratched $16 in winners so that was way cool. I really need to make time to spin. It’s soothing to my soul.

DD’s sleep study was tough – she got a nice comfy bed with lots of wires stuck to her head. I got a very uncomfortable pullout chair. Apparently they didn’t read her intake info so the next morning they canceled the rest of the study and sent her home. Apparently we have to do this all over again. I think I’ll take the blow up mattress next time. Neither of us was happy.

Saturday I am heading over to mom’s for a birthday celebration. My sister is making a seafood pie (sounds yummy) and I requested Lemon Meringue Pie – everyone else can have cake, because I am not sharing!

Then there is the weather. Bitter cold, snow, ice… what can I say other than, it’s winter in New England. The days are getting noticeably longer, just not fast enough.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln was so-so about the play.

Can you tell I stopped taking the happy pills?

So long 2008

2008 was not a very stellular year for me, my family, or most of my friends for that matter.  So to 2008 I say, so long and thanks for all the fish.

The death of my Dad was by far the hardest blow from this year.  Grief is an on going process so some days are better than others.   To change things up for the holidays, since this was Dad’s favorite time of year.  My sister and I sent my mom to my brother’s in New Mexico.  We thought it would be easier for her to spend time with the seven year old grandson, rather than the surly teens which is all we had to offer.  I think it was good for her, my brother, and my nephew.  So with Mom gone, my sister and her immediately family headed down to the in-laws.   This left for a very quiet day for DD and myself. A good friend came for dinner and I went all out with boneless prime rib, yorkshire puddings, baked potatoes, roasted carrots, and even bearnaise sauce.  Totally delicious and not too many left overs either!

It was a bad year for friends losing jobs due to layoffs and cutbacks, some (including myself) had major kid issues, and we all saw economic worries… the list goes on and on.  Let’s just say I am not sorry to see the end of 2008.

SO! Welcome 2009!

Granted things won’t magically get better over night, but with a new year comes hope.

Many years ago I made a New Year’s Resolution – it’s the only one I’ve ever kept and that resolution was to never make new years resolutions, and I don’t plan on breaking the cycle this year either.

Instead I am just looking forward to things changing, which could be good or bad, but at least it will be different.

I am so looking forward to Inauguration Day.  I am still in awe that we were able to elect a man of color and integrity to the white house.  I am so excited to have a president that is intelligent representing us.  The past 8 years of Hop-a-long Moron has been almost unbearable.  I won’t be sorry to see the door hit his ass for sure.  And the same goes for Darth Cheney and his evil empire.  Scary man.  I would still like to see both of them standing in front of a judge and jury for war crimes and other crimes against humanity.

I also plan on continuing to eat better.  I am not saying the D*** word.  I started choosing to eat healthier a while back and I have actually been losing weight.  I still eat cookies, chips and junk occasionally but I refuse to do the all or nothing guilt thing – it just won’t work for me.  So for now I will continue to call it choosing to eat healthier.   I still think celery and carrots are for dip transportation but by making my own dips I can chose what goes in them and how much I make.  Celery is better for conveying the dip than chips are anyway.

My daughter is leaving her high school – school has been nothing but a disaster since freshman year.  The school just doesn’t seem to get it.  They are so locked into banging the square pegs into round holes that they cannot see the forest for the trees.  The stress is just too much for the DD and myself.   So for Yule I got her the Teenagers Liberation Handbook and my permission to drop out of the high school, but only with the promise that she would get an education and become productive.  Right now I am just trying to get her off the couch.

Depression sucks for everyone.  So this year I am not going to let those around me (read Mom and Daughter) to suck me into their depression.  I will remain supportive and helpful but only within my capabilities.  I have learned to say ‘no’.

In order for me to do this I have committed myself to taking on new studio space this year at Western Avenue.  It should be ready for me to move into by the end of February.  So stay tuned for a big Open Studio party in the spring.  I need to have a place all my own, where I can go and be creative and surround by positive energy.  Otherwise the other stuff just sucks me dry.

I am also working on my super secret project.  Well it’s not so super secret at least not anymore.  So for those that don’t know…  my sister and a colleague of hers are putting together an art show for 2010 on Contemporary Kimonos and I am putting together my proposal to submit by January 30th.  Keep you fingers crossed that my design gets chosen.

I have been swatching up a storm, jotting down ideas and notes in the middle of the night and I am excited with my ideas and plan.  Now I just need to figure out how to take whats on paper and in my head and knit the vision of my kimono.  If I pull this off it will make me very happy.

I have been knitting a few little things here and there,  a couple of hats.  I knit the Meret Slouchy Beret out of some lovely grey shetland handspun.  One for me and one for my daughter.  I am so slogging through a sock – I promised a pair to a friend and just cannot seem to get them done.  No sock mojo I guess.  I also finished a quickie scarf k2 p2 rib – two rows of alternating colors.  I used some stash yarn which is always a good thing.

I still have to do my annual inventory of stash and ufos – most will be frogged at this point

For Christmas my sister got me the Knit Kimono by Vicki Square of inspiration.  Now I need to figure out which one I want to knit to compliment the one I am designing.  After all, if I do get into the show I will need something to wear at the opening right?  I may just have to frog the cashmere Oblique sweater that has been fermenting in the ufo pile and rededicate it to one of Vicki’s kimonos   oh I feel the need coming on.

So here’s to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2009!