Super social weekend

I had a great weekend that went way too fast. I hung out with a bunch of friends!

Friday night we had sushi and sake at Osaka's with Erin and David. It was a lot of fun, and their recommendations were fantastic. It's fun to order things a little outside your comfort zone. I would be happy with California and shrimp tempura rolls all the time, but next time I go I'm going to have trouble picking from some new favorites. Mmmm.

Afterwards we met Corey, Autumn, and Scott at our house and had a pre-blue note drink. Then we headed over to the blue note. We just barely missed the East Ash Street Band. Speakeasy played the second set, which rocked. And Madahoochi played for the third set. We danced and marveled at the lights (milkdrop with a Dylan spin). We hung out late into the night, had breakfast in the morning, and everyone went on their way. We were happy to see everyone!

Then we went to Buck and Nicki's to meet the little baby. He's cute!!! He only cried once when we were there and it was because it was time to eat. He was such a laid back baby, and he loves to cuddle.



We are very proud to be an aunt and uncle. :)

They cooked us a great dinner, and then I rushed home to meet up with Emily. She straightened my hair, we threw together some snacks, and headed over to Laura's for our holiday Christmas party.



Em's chocolate dipped pretzels were a hit! I really liked my hair too. She's awesome.

Sunday I slept late. Kyle and I went to the public library. It had been awhile since either one of us had been there, and we vow to go back. I need to read more, so I will probably make some sort of new year's resolution to that effect.

Emily and I made a quick trip to the mall to check out some shoes that we didn't buy. I got Jillian Where the Sidewalk Ends at Target. We didn't spend much time there. It was way too busy.

Talked to Mom and Dad on the phone for about an hour. We discussed roofing contractor woes and Christmas plans. My vow to not knit any Christmas gifts might be broken. Mom wants a scarf, Dad wants a hat and coozies, Jeremy wants socks. I wish they wouldn't have told me this 12 days before Christmas. Geesh.

Then I took a 1/2 hour nap. After sleeping in late this morning! Which is why I'm still up at 330am.

I watched bad reality TV with Kristin, Greg, and Karmann. I watched bad funniest home videos with Kyle. I knitted on the couch for a bit, until Miss Kitty decided that I needed to stop so she can sleep on my arm... where she still is now.

Blog abuse with dates

Thought I'd post because it's been so long. It's a good thing I don't have a long list of loyal readers. Here's some dates/data/highlights (that I can remember):

I'm married now, as of 10/24/9. :) It's pretty cool. I'm still working on changing my last name, but it's a pretty slow process.

10/28 was Kyle's birthday. I made him a cake.

I hit my goal weight on 11/24/09. Finally! I'm back to exactly where I was on 3/9/08 when I quit smoking.

11/26/9 was Thanksgiving this year, but I had to work. I was a little bummed about it, until I realized how silly I was. I got paid time and 1/2, plus got an extra 8 hours of vacation banked, and I still had Thanksgiving when I got home. Kyle made me a turkey dinner (with fixins...pretty romantic). Then we had a family celebration on 11/28/9 with the Quincy crew and the full turkey spread. Wow. I'm spoiled.

One of my best friends is a new daddy as of 12/1/9 at 4pm. We're super excited for him and his family!

L bought a Wakarusa ticket today. Woot! June can get here any time now.

And every day in between I've been struggling to not buy more yarn. But I have failed multiple times.

Can't turn my brain off

I have so many things to do. With wedding plans, knitting, invitations, etc. I am trying to figure out in my mind how it will all fit in the time frame allotted.

Tonight I looked at my bank account and realized that the local restaurant I visited with my sister on Sunday overcharged me by $100 on my debit card. Nice. And the lady knew that she screwed it up. She tried to fix it, but didn't have a clue. I tried to be patient and nice, and refrained from showing her how to use the credit card machine. Grrr.

Tomorrow involves calling them to hopefully get $100 back, knitting at Rendevous, lunch with Kyle, and then work.
I dread going to work. E called me tonight after I got home to tell me about how much B hates me and has been talking about how horrible I am as soon as I left. This woman (B) has such a miserable existence. I feel sorry for her. I even went out of my way to do extra stuff for her tonight. It is NEVER enough. I think it's impossible to please her. Whatever I did wrong will be turned into my supervisor when he walks in the door at 7am. And it's probably some mundane detail that she dug up. Good grief.

I took an ambien so that I can sleep. Otherwise it will never happen. I will be stewing all night about how to better my time management skills, while wasting precious sleep time. Stupid, I know. Getting sleepy now. Going to go curl up in my comfy bed....

from Ben to bacon sparkle

I had a grrreat day off today. I think you appreciate them more when you work really really hard during your 4 day week. After working and going to school approximately 60 hours a week and then going to 32, it's not so bad.
I slept until 12:30 (no, I'm not a bum. I worked until 1:30am the night before and didn't get to bed until 3:30am because I couldn't turn my brain off). I drank my morning coffee and ate breakfast while watching the Cardinals/Braves game. It was intense. We won 3-2 but just barely. The Braves are good this year.
At the 7th inning stretch I went to the meat lab and bought tiger tails (brats with cheddar and jalapenos), onion brats, pork chops, ham steaks, stew meat, beef jerky, meat sticks, and about 10 pounds of bacon. Guess what I paid... only $52.00. What a steal. Now... finding freezer space.
And I made it back home to see the 9th inning.

After hitting the grocery store for vegetable soup fixin's, I went to the library for the first time in years. I got a library card. I was completely. over. whelmed. and crosseyed when I left. But I will go back.
I have to, because I checked out books.
Maybe I will see how long I can go without tv. That would be good for me.

We went to Ben Folds downtown. It was a summerfest concert on 9th street. It wasn't quite raining, but it was misting and we were pretty wet. We got rasta lemonades from the jamaican jerk hut. If you haven't tried one, DO. The are my absolute favorite summer drink, with sweet leaf tea coming in at a very close second.
Anyway, he sang about how he was sorry that Memphis rained out and that he really really wanted to play. He sang about how tonight turned into a wet tshirt contest, and the man boobs were losing. He played the altoid tins with the reverb pedal. I have "Do you wanna see what's in my head?" in my head. I watched a guy get arrested while he played "Free Coffee", which made me feel bad. [I was] not the same after that.
I wish he would have talked about his university accapella smackdown, but he didn't. Overall, he seemed a little detached, but he still rocked the suburbs.

I got home and cooked up a big 'ol pot of vegetable soup. It's soooo good. I put in so many veggies that I could barely stir. I'm sure there will be plenty to share. I'm going to freeze it in small containers to take to waka. Yum!

Also... I started my infusion of bacon vodka. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and I should have started it earlier. Ultimately, I want to donate it to the bloody mary table at chopdown baconalien.

The bacon was fried.


Then it was carefully blotted, cooled, and placed in tupperware.


Then the vodka was added. Notice I used Svedka? Good stuff. Filtered 5 times.


I think I'm all ready liking the sparkle. After about an hour the bacon looks fat, bloated, and drunk. Now we wait.

Memorial Day Saint

How cool is this. My grandma was in the Quincy local news...

And then she got national press on CNN!

She was also in the Quincy newspaper. She cut out the clip to send to me. I love this picture!



She has ironed flags for as long as I can remember really, and I never thought twice about it. She does so many dozens of fantastic things! She's probably the most selfless person I know. I'm glad to see her getting some recognition. Go grandma!!!

MoKan Music Festival

Our camper, the Starmaster, had its maiden voyage to Urick, MO to the MoKan Music Festival. This festy was a short 2.5 hour jaunt, a rockin' Friday and Saturday night, and camp Swanky welcomed us with open arms. What a great way to kick off the season! I obtained a $5 MoKan tshirt, a new dye from my Vivid Earth friends, and a couple of ideas on how to make the camper P-I-M-P for waka.

On Friday night a storm rolled in...


So Sarah and I took pictures of the swirly clouds.


We hunkered down. Sort of.


The rain delayed some of the music. But we still heard every note.

The next day we strapped on our mud boots and wandered around camp and the stage area.


Dirtfoot played a fantastic set. Speakeasy rocked out. Sterling from Brothers Green stepped in on harmonica with Everybody. My other favorites included: Madahoochi, Brother Bagman, Zoogma, The Station, 56 Hope Road, Andrews Ave, Kan Eyed. I think I might of heard, but didn't see Robots vs. Dinosaurs and Opal Fly. There were many others.

Sleep. Steve made it in the door, but passed out shortly next to the bed. That crazy drunken alien.


Breakfast was served.


Who invited these guys?


Or Sketchy McSketcherton? (of Mullberry '08 fame. Yes, that's really him!)


Sadly, we packed up our camp and said our good-byes...


See ya in 2 1/2 weeks at waka!!!

Camping with the fam

We decided to try out the camper for the first time this weekend at Mark Twain State Park. Saturday was my Dad's birthday, and Mother's Day was Sunday, so we thought it appropriate to invite my parents even though we knew that they probably would not camp with us. They agreed to come, but not stay the night.

After arriving at the park, picking our spot, and registering the camp site, they rolled in... my mom, dad, and then behind them were my sister, boyfriend, and my niece. I was so surprised to see them!!!!

For Mom, I got her a new trash can. I know that's a strange thing to get your mom on mother's day, but it was what she wanted. I put a big bow on it and put it in front of our camp's number marker. She loved it. I also got my mom and my sis each a gerber daisy. My niece loves to pick them! This way they each have one at their houses. Dad got a gallon of his (and mine) favorite bbq sauce, Showme Liquid Smoke. Mmmmm! I also got him Buckingham's for dinner. So we had pulled pork sandwiches, beef briscuit sandwiches, chips and dip, or potato salad. And Jillian had a hot dog. They were thrilled.

After our dinner we went to Buzzard's Roost lookout point. It's a gorgeous site. Jillian had a ball throwing rocks in the water. Ah, to be a kid again. After we returned to camp, Kyle started a camp fire. Jillian was getting tired, so they left. Mom and Dad stayed until about 10:30, which was later than expected. They really didn't want to leave!

Now they're talking about buying a camper. :) Here are some pics from the weekend...

The girls


Dip head


Happy Birthday Pappaw!


Mark Twain Lake at Buzzard's Roost


Happy Campers

Garden!

I put in the garden today. There are supersonic tomatoes, fooled you peppers (mild jalapenos), burpless cucumbers, romaine lettuce, basil, rosemary, thyme, and cilantro. I got some begonias for the front yard, and some various flowers. The boys helped me put in the banana tree. It feels good playing in the dirt!

Tomato


Garden Boxes


Romaine Lettuce


Scarlet Begonia (Ok, ok, I'm not that cool. It's orange.)


Banana Tree


The banana tree is just a stick right now, but I'll post a picture in a month and it will be going nuts. I promise. I think I'm going to put a couple of wildflower seeds here and there as well. We will see!

Waka tickets

Wakarusa tickets are here!!! Yipee!!!!



Steve said that we should just leave now.

I hate being sick!

I got a cold or something on Thursday. Sore throat, congestion, and general body aches. Worked through it and did ok Thursday night. Friday I was a complete slug. I called in sick and posted up on the couch all day. Kyle is feeling crummy too, so he called off his KC weekend and opted for couch time with me.

Today I'm feeling just as bad, but I can't ignore this gorgeous day. I weeded the garden and then did some knitting on the back porch.



Blues L to R: my gardening gloves, my knitting, my flip-flops, and my water bottle



My house boy cleaning gutters



My neighbor's beautiful blooming dogwood tree.

I love spring.

My phat fiber box is here!

Look what the mailman brought. Yay!



Opened with care...



Lots of fun stuff... 7 yarn samples, 7 mini bats, 4 stitch markers, 2 patterns, a small project bag, some lip balm, and some "oh my aching _" salve.
But no time to play because I'm off to work! If only I could yarn full time. Sigh.

Happy 4:20

Got phish?



The tickets came today. How appropriate.

The Fox was unreal. Paul Simon was amazing. People were dressed in suits and formal gowns. Fancy. I had chills the whole time. He could have played all night.
Here's the set list (thanks to Kyle for logging it in and then typing it out when we got home):

Paul Simon
4/18/09
Fabulous Fox Theatre

Gumboots
Boy in the Bubble
Slip Sliding Away
Father and Daughter
Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard
Lincoln Duncan
Mrs. Robinson>Not Fade Away>Mrs. Robinson
Only Living Boy in New York
Graceland
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Late in the Evening

E:
Still Crazy After All These Years
The Boxer*
You Can Call Me Al
Sound of Silence*

*solo

I was wowed.

JB and MB gave Kyle a t-shirt that they bought off the lot at the Hampton Phish show....



So cool. I'm a little jealous. If I could only find a dye with bacon on it...

step one

I've been saying that I'm going to do this forever. I always have a good excuse not to. So here it goes....

I had the day off today and I could barely get off of the couch. Working four hard days in a row takes a certain amount of recovery. I did a small amount of knitting, surfing the net, watching baseball, baking a fruit pizza, and sitting on the porch. Oh yeah, Ferrick napped the whole time. She really needs to get a job or something.

I was productive in the fact that I scored a phatfiber sample box! They go on sale once a month and you can try at 8am or 8pm. I lost out at 8am, even though I had one in my checkout box but I was not logged in to paypal. Very quickly it was swiped away. So at 8pm I was ready! Woot! I can't wait for it to come in the mail.

Had some amazing seafood with T, J, and little J. They brought it back from their Florida trip and were nice enough to share. We had conch gumbo, biscuits, blackened kobia (s/p?) fillets, and asparagus. And my fruit pizza for dessert. MMM! We also played with little J's Frigits. What an awesome toy! You can set up a whole course for a marble to drop all with refridgerator magnets. I want a set, and I will probalby buy a set for my niece.