And the needles

I've started some socks.
I've been weaving in a million little ends from my Dale of Norway sweater I started five years ago.
I finished the first sleeve of my denim cardigan.
I've spun a bunch of fiber.

That about sums up June.

Socks

I made a decision to enhance my sock skills.

Whenever I tour a new Yarn Store, I buy a ball of sock yarn.

It's perfect. The project is small. There is only one ball to buy. And it's a great souvinier.

I'm already working on a pair that I got in Estes Park a couple weekends ago and I have another ball waiting for me that I got in Denver.

Now I need to start wearing socks.

Maybe I'll just develop a socks as art theme in some desolate part of my house.

SparkPeople

Have you heard of Sparkpeople?

It is very similar to other online diet tools I know of, but it is free.

Seems this guy made a mint selling his business to ebay and decided he wanted to help people lose weight as a service.

It seems to be a great site.

Anyway, I joined obviously, and part of the membership includes a blog, which I simply use to refer people to here.

So welcome all you SparkPeople.

Ugh...a weather rant

I don't know if I'm homesick for Washington, or if I'm just a pessimist, but I have come to a conclusion that worries me.

I do not like Colorado's climate.

Washington is rainy 8-9 months of the year. The rain is more like a heavy mist and has this amazing ability to suck all color, or at least the memory thereof, out of everything (which I'm sure is why Starbucks was started in Seattle). The standard Winter low is 40 degrees and any Summer temp over 80 is newsworthy. It is surprisingly not a humid climate, though it certainly isn't the dessert clime of the Southwest.

I loved it. I am not a sun-worshiper. I don't enjoy being hot. I wear sunscreen religiously. I hate sweating without physical exertion. I feel like I'm melting when the temp is over 79.

I know I am in the minority. I know the vast majority of Americans would think "you think 80 is hot!!!"

Yes I do.

The Anticipation

My new computer comes today.

Yea!

The printer arrived about a week ago. It's this tiny little thing. I wanted a laserjet because I don't print very often and in this climate the inkjet cartidges dry out too quickly. At first I was thrilled to have my new printer until I realized I needed to have a CDRom drive to install it. The printing will have to wait for tonight, after I spend the usual hour-plus setting up and registering all the other new computer stuff.

Oooh. I can't wait!

June is Busting Out All Over!

I cannot believe it's already June. Yikes.

It's Saturday morning and I've snuck away from breakast with the kids and cartoons. I'm hoping to find a larger chunk of time this weekend because:

I finally got a camera! Which means I need to upload some photos of my projects.

Also on the new list: I have a new computer on the way. I broke down and started assembling a beefy little monster notebook from Dell. Then realized I could get even beefier and about $500.00 cheaper if I went back to a desktop. So, my stellar little desktop is arriving sometime next week. With the strongest processor I could get and a better hardrive and extra memory. And it's all mine! I'll be able to upload CD's and Software, watch YouTube, order iTunes, burn things. And it still has XP.

Sigh, I am very excited.

The Party

I'm planning a birthday party.

My ThYO will soon be my FYO and we will be having a party.

There is a rule of thumb-Only invite as many kids as there are years. In our case four. I love this rule. It keeps the party simple and easy.

However, each child has two parents (with the exception of the twins) and there are siblings. And now we live close to family.

Don't get me wrong, there are huge benefits living close to family, like thay can be here for occasions like this.

But my guest list has 24 people on it, including ourselves.

What have I gotten myself into?

Proof of my Existence

When I was in highschool, I had a friend who refused to be in pictures. When asked she would say, jokingly, "I don't want proof of my existence." Though I also hate having my picture taken, it's for different reasons.

First, I hate posed pictures. Look, here's the two of us staring at a camera in front of Disneyland. And here's the two of us standing on a trail. Oh and here's the two of us standing at the beach, you're on the left side there.

Ugh!

I am all for candids. And shots where no one is looking at the camera. They appeal to me.

And alas, my camera has been broken for a few months. Not a big deal, we are not picture taking people, but it hit me today that we have no proof of our baby's last three months. That's a sixth of his life!

So the shopping for a camera has begun. I would go into a store, tell the clerk what I want, listen to the sales pitch, filter through the commission-raising lingo and buy. DH has clipped all the camera ads from the paper, looked online at side by side comparisons, and researched all possible features. He will do the research and buy a camera that fits our every need.

And in two years the complaints will start: It's too slow, it's an old person's camera (???), it won't keep a charge (okay, he was right about that), blah, blah, blah.

And it will start over. I know it's smart to research, but I really don't feel his research will save money and it certainly won't save time.

But it's his time. And maybe soon I will post some pictures of my recent projects.

Costuming

I would love to get into some aspect of costuming. Not likely to happen in Fort Collins, but the dream is pleasant.

I mentioned before that I watch many movies simply for the costumes. Here is a list of ones I particularly enjoy.

• The Count of Monte Cristo--His burgendy robe when he comes out of the hot air balloon especially
• The Mask of Zorro-Just about every dress she wears, and the clothes he doesn't.
• Dangerous Beauty-!!!
• Dangerous Liasons-Swoon
• Valmont-Same story as above, slightly different costume interpretation
• Narnia-That gorgeous dress of chain mail.
• Pirates of the Carribean- No, women in England don't breathe. I would consider giving up oxygen to spend the day in that dress and her wedding dress in II.

There are more, but these are the ones I admit to renting repeatedly. My husband knows that these movies are the way to really turn on the romance.

Oh yeah, Knitting

My sticks have been moving. It's just been at the slow, languid pace that heat brings on. I miss Washington. If it hit 80 in Seattle, it was worth comment. Seattle was much more condusive to year 'round knitting.

So I'll list the projects I remember working on this month:

The mitered cardigan (Vogue Winter 2003 #21) in a Tiara Silk boucle that I got at my LYS Spring Sale.

A linen eylet tunic from the newest Vogue Knitting. I have had this linen yarn for years--since Minnesota--and this Summer I finally found not one, but two tops I can knit with it.

I haven't touched anything else. Heat is not condusive to knitting with wool.

I have been sewing. The Hancock Fabrics in my town is going out of business and the sales are great. I've made:

An oriental brocade peplum jacket
A simple Bias-cut sleeveless top
A peasant blouse with a gorgeous embroidered concoction
A blue and beige "June Cleaver meets Gap" dress that I may wear on Mother's day.
A Corset. !?! or two !?! Okay, it's not what it sounds like. The fact is, I love costumes. I watch many movies just for the dresses and historic is my favorite. I have always wanted to make a corset and when the fabric plus notions (14 yards of boning for $3.00!!) was less than ten bucks...

I have no camera. I'm sorry. I know it would be so much better to have pictures, but the camera is broken.

On Molting

Those of you familiar with Hermit Crabs will understand.

I just had my first molt.

It was Tom. He is now a pale, soft-shell version of his former self.
Granted, we aren't out of the fire yet, but he is still alive and eating his exoskeleton. As all good hermit crabs do.

I'm so proud.

Who were these crabs for again?

I Have Crabs

Hermit crabs. You know...pets.

And they are so cute!

I'd done my research when last I wrote. I had decided to set up a tank to make sure we could regulate the climate and when DH came home he said "what's the point of having an empty tank?"

So we got our friends: Tom, Jerry and Louis. They are all buried in their crabitat "destressing."

They could be there for a month.

Then I saw a petstore today and stopped in "just to look"...and came home with three more: Thomas, Pinchy and Vladimir.

But, unless I get a bigger tank, I am done now.

By the way, there are a couple great websites out there with tons of info on Hermit Crabs:
www.hermit-crabs.com This is where to go to learn great basics--better than the slip of paper the petstores give you.
www.hermitcrabassociation.com This is the forum where you can ask questions. I've had a ton and they have been great vats of knowledge. Check out the vivariums. These crabitats are amazing!

To Crab or Crab not

There is a four year old birthday coming to our house soon.

After some discussion, I thought it might be fun to get a small pet, something easy to care for, but not a fish or a rodent. Definately not a snake.

Enter the hermit crab. I took my son to two pet stores and we looked at the various displays. We got two books about hermit crabs and I have done lots of research online. It seems, there is more to hermit crab care than I thought, but it's pretty much making sure your set-up is adequate. After that it's seems easy.

The first hurdle: you should have more than one. Easily leapt. ThYO gets two and I get one (hey, come on, who is really going to provide care?)

Second hurdle: The stuff--10 gallon tank, humidity guage, temp guage, heating device, marine salt, substrate, lid, toys, food, etc. We can leap this too.

So right now, we have a "Crabitat" set up in ThYO's room. I found temp and humidity guages that are color coded so I can teach him how to tell if the climate is okay (needles should be pointing to yellow, not red or blue. We have gone through all our meals with quizzes about what crabs can eat (surpisingly a lot, they're scavengers). He has even named them (though the names change each day). He looks through his books and seems very excited. I even started a journal for him.

In about a month, there should be three new additions to our family.

Pasta, Pizza and Polenta

My foray to Italy has been quite fun. I'm getting better at making pasta. We are all enjoying polenta. And I have come across a recipe for manicotti that is sooo good!

I've made carbonara so well that it has been decided as a family to keep it on the permanent menu rotation (the same could not be said of my stuffed frittata). I'm not sure when the menu rotation will be back into our house. Farmers market season is coming and we might be traveling to South and Central America soon, sfter stopping in Greece of course.

One thing that surprises me is that I have been reading so many cookbooks these past weeks, yet none is so outstanding that I want to buy it. My favorite is Ciao Italia by Maryann Espozito (already owned).

The other weird thing is my husband (okay so maybe the fact that he is weird is actually normal). The standard at our house is that if dinner isn't at least prepped when he gets home, he can step in. Historically this is about once a week. What has shocked me is that those days he gets to choose the meal, he has been choosing...Pizza.

I have been making pizza--the dough from scratch. We've had margarita, pizza bianco, focaccia, and good ole pepperoni. The family has vetoed anchovies and I am the only one who will eat asparagus now (it made an awesome focaccia!). So it is very confusing why my husband wants pizza.

Come on honey! How about tacos, or stir-fry?

Ciao

We are living in Italy this month.

The inspiration:
Have you heard about the blogger that decided to make every recipe from Julia Child's French cookbook over the course of a year? This person now has a book deal (I'm not in the market for a book deal).
I was listening to my Splendid Table Podcast and a caller was talking about how he wanted to spend a year cooking one cuisine. He had several regions in a hat and he was preparing to pull a name and live with it for the next year.

What a fun idea!

So I told my husband we were going to Italy.

Why Italy? The kids like pasta. I already have most of the ingredients. I have Ciao Italia by Maryann Esposito. And above all, I would love to really eat my way through Italy.

So, I have reserved every Italian cookbook at my library, stocked up on various Italian ingredients and we are underway. Rissoto, pasta, polenta, fish, eggplant, zucchini, here we come.

Did you know that Italians eat biscotti for breakfast? Cookies...for breakfast.

I'm brilliant.

I Have Met My Match

I will admit that I have some natural artistic talent with knitting and most other fiber and fabric crafts. My mathematical mind is a surprising asset for most of these and I have always viewed my hands as my best feature.

Therefore, when I started spinning on my drop spindle, I was not completely surprised to find that it took me less a week (less than an hour?) to master it. My yarn is smooth and even. The twist is regular and there haven't been any breakage issues while knitting it.

Then I went to my Tuesday night SnB at the yarn shop. Being curious, I asked the owner to show me how to use a spinning wheel. She willingly obliged (how else would she make a sale?) and I had my first spinning wheel lesson.

I must admit, I knew I should have expected the resulting yarn that I produced: Thick as robe, fine as floss, slubby, fuzzy, extra twist here, no twist there. It was the saddest yarn I had ever seen. This was what my usually capable hands produced? Ugh!

There was this part of me that hoped, no, expected to have beautiful handspun coming from the spindle. Just call me Rapunzel. But no, it seems I am only an average spinner.

Not a prodegy, not even a savant. Only average.

I must find a way to change this.

In Vino Veritas

In case you haven't noticed, I've been waxing sentimental. It happens. I pop in to Classmates.com. I poke through the photo albums. I eat the last box of girl scout cookies.

I like Colorado, but I loved Seattle.

So I must write about one other thing I miss.

You could buy decent wine in the grocery store. Heck you could buy it in the 7-11.

I'm not saying there isn't access to wine here, you just have to go to a liquor store to get it. But, there is definitely a difference between buying your weekly staples: milk (skim and whole), eggs, bread, diapers, WINE and taking your kids into a dusty liquor store with the cigarettes prominently displayed and the signage telling you that you too could have a bikini clad model. It just feels shadier.

But go I must. Our supply of Washington wines is dwindling and Summer evenings are coming. If there is one asset our new house has (besides my closet), it is our deck. The perfect place to sit and watch the kids at the playground and sip a glass of wine.

Ode to Trader Joes

Oh, Trader Joes, how I miss you. Yes I have found a reasonable repacement, but I am still planning that road trip to Sante Fe just so I can walk your aisles again. What will I get? How have you changed since I left? I must get a case of the Three Buck Chuck everyone outside of Colorado is raving about (Two Buck Chuck in California). I hope you still have your chocolate clouds. My 3YO loves your clouds. I would indulge in your macadamia delices. Do you still have the ginger lemonade? How about those unsweetened banana chips? And your frozen entrees? Do you still have that fabulous Greek salad? Or the chocolate tea. I'm on my last box of tea and I'm afraid to open it.

Oh how I miss you. Please come to Colorado for a visit. You'll like it here. Maybe you can settle down and have a couple branches. I would willingly sacrifice my husband's hard earned cash if you would just do that for me.

The Twilight Years

My computer is sick. It is a fairly inexpensive laptop that I have had for almost three years. It has served me faithfully but I will need a new model sooner than later.

For one thing, I dropped it on our Pergo (I refuse to call it hardwood) and the CD Rom popped right out. This is the only disc drive which means I can't back-up, install new software, or import music.

It's getting sluggish. In a drastic moment I went through the install/uninstall command to see if there was any software I didn't need anymore. This is when I doscovered that RealTek is not photoshop software like DH suggested, but all audio and video controls. There is no speaker or video functionality. No YouTube, no music, no iTunes preview before I buy, no free movie watching from netflix...

And I can't reinstall, because I have no CD Rom.

And it's soooo sluggish.

So should I break the budget and buy a new one before the final death throes so I can back-up all necessary info? Do I buy a cheap CD Rom for now, knowing I will still need a new computer sometime in the next year or so? Do I sit and do nothing?

What to do? What to do?

It's Raining It's Pouring

It's raining!

Most people would look at this day as a huge downer, but I love it!

Granted I spent six of my favorite years in Seattle, but I don't remember enjoying the rain. I know I didn't really mind it (until months eight and nine). But I am thouroughly enjoying this.

I am a natural homebody and I like the idea of being forced to stay in the house with my family. There are no obligations and we might even be able to get things done around the house.

Well, I do have one obligation. A friend of ours has published a magazine and I offered to help canvas a neighborhood, but this is Colorado and I fully expect to get a call to postpone. Coloradoans are not rain loving creatures and it really wouldn't make sense to drop off magazines on soggy doorsteps. Seattle, on the otherhand, cannot afford the luxery of cancelling due to rain. Were this the Pacific Northwest, the magazines would be printed and wrapped in plastic.

But I ramble. It's raining and we get to stay home and work on the honey-do list. And maybe go to Starbucks for old time's sake.