Top Chef

Is anyone out there, other than me, watching Bravo's Top Chef? Ya know, i wasn't really planning on watching it, but when Project Runway ended, i was so used to changing over to Bravo that i got sucked right in.

Ok, so if you're watching...did you happen to notice this:

On Episode Two-"Food Of Love": i could swear that i heard Tiffany say that she was excited when she learned that the guest judge was Elizabeth Falkner, owner of Citizen Cake, a celebrated patisserie and dessert hotspot in San Francisco; because she knew of Elizabeth's reputation and had been featured with her in an article about "queer women in the kitchen"...

...and then in last night's Episode Four-"Food On The Fly": Tiffany mentioned her "boyfriend"...

Damn! She's either Anne Heche or Bi!! LOL! (crap her Bio answered it for me!! She's Bi.)

LOL!! I need to quit watching reality TV, i swear, but it's so easy to knit to!!

~Suz~

Confessions of a rabid knit-blogger

Dear Blog~

How's it going? It's been a while, huh? I know, i'm a bad blogger and i've been neglecting you while i've been off roaming around Maryland visiting Pagan shops and petting yarn in Knitting shops. I should be flogged! MmmHmmm. But anyway....

Yes, it's true. On Saturday Deb and i decided to get the hell "outta Dodge" for the day. It's notorious around here for Deb's folks to argue on Saturday's, mostly because her Mom doesn't get enough sleep or take her blood pressure medicine regularly and then likes to explode at other people, mostly her husband. Trust me, she does it all to herself!! But i digress...

So we left home around 9am, went and had our blood taken for some bloodwork and then went off to breakfast at a local favorite, Baugher's. We were going to grab some Starbuck's on our way out of town but then decided we were too full and would wait until later in the day, so off we went. Now, i'm sure i've mentioned this before, but i'm going to say it again...i rarely ever know my sense of direction here and it's driving me crazy!!! Roads are not laid out in a grid-system like in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan...ya know, places i'm used to driving around. (In fact, i don't even remember having this much trouble navigating when i lived in Massachusetts either, hrmph!!) My guess is that it's like this because of all of the hills and small mountains? It's very strange to me.

We meandered our way into Frederick specifically to visit: The Owl's Nest, As You Wish and Keep Me In Stitches. The Owl's Nest ended up being in a small shopping area with plenty of parking. The shop seemed to have a little bit of everything, which is nice. I didn't browse as long as i wanted due to needing to run over to the nearest BK but we won't go into that story! Deb's been looking for a specific item, why? because she'd like to carry my likeness around her neck, that's why! LOL! I didn't go into As You Wish because it ended up being on this really busy downtown (downtown: as in quaint - tons of shops, downtown) Frederick street where there was only a parking spot on the left side of the one-way street. So?, you say?? Well, we had borrowed Deb's Dad's truck for the day and it's high off the ground...like, "Suzie-need-a-step-ladder-high!" And i didn't think the traffic of downtown Frederick, on a Saturday, would appreciate me taking the time to drag my half-of-a-cinderblock out of the back of the truck, and placing it slightly in the road to haul my ass back into the truck?? So i just stayed in the truck while Deb went in. They didn't have her item either, but she bought some hilarious bumper stickers and found one that she wants to go back to get for tdstraightjacket.

So then on to the LYS! Keep Me In Stitches is a small LYS (local yarn shop) with smalltown charm. We met the owners, Kathy and Nancy, chatted a bit with Kathy and admired Nancy's lovely Fair Isle sweater that she's making! We were able to pet and drool over tons and tons of yarn and Ooooh & Ahhh at the sock yarn collection too! Of course i had forgotten to bring the "Adamas" shawl chart with me so i couldn't have them help me with it, oh bummer, that means i have to go back!! Sucks to be me. Heehee!!

After our shop browsing, we grabbed a local newspaper and some Starbuck's and then we hung out in the truck reading and drinking our beverage as we plotted our next move to go into Gettyburg. I'll write more about that later...

In knitting news: Yes, i am knitting. No, i do not have photos...so there!! ;) Sorry, Kat!!

~Suz~

Time for a change

I have to admit that i bore easily, hence the "Scattered Gemini". The other day i noticed that Lesa changed her blog template around and i decided it was time to do mine too. I actually did choose another template through blogger, but it was in the "rounders" family of designs so the layout is the same. I ended up searching for the hexadecimal color codes and fiddled with the colors of the different sections.

Drop me a comment and let me know what you think??

Maybe i'll gather additional moxie on another night and change the layout?? Maybe.

~Suz~

Ireland Forever

What does 'Erin go braugh' mean?

Ireland Forever

• Forever Ireland

• ireland forever or ireland eternally.

• It means Ireland Forever. It hangs in almost every bar/pub in Ireland. There are Gaelic/English dictionaries that you can look it up in if you wish.

• Éireann go Brách = Ireland Forever, Pronunciation: /Erin guh brawk

• The popular phrases "Erin go Bragh" or "Erin go Braugh" mean Ireland forever. It's the anglicised version of the Gaelic phrase which would be known to some Irish Americans (although its English spelling is quite meaningless).

• Quite literally, it means "Ireland Forever." To put it in our very incompetent English terms, "long live Ireland."

• My Grandmother who arrived here in the states in the early 1900's via Ellis Island from Ireland told me it meant "Ireland Forever". That being said she also said that for the people of her generation it really said "Green go the Irish"

You're 70% Irish

You're very Irish, and most likely from Ireland. (And if you're not, you should be!)

How Irish Are You?

And to go along with that...

Orange Hair

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

And a Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!! I managed to get my home cook meal of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes however, Deb forgot to stop and get me some beer to go along with it. It's just NOT the same without the beer!! Oh well, maybe next year!!

~Suz~

New Glasses!

Deb and i got our new glasses today! Wow, everything is much more 3D now, amazing! Darn that astigmatism.

So, we took some silly pics with our glasses, here they are...


Deb's OLD glasses


Suz's OLD glasses


Our NEW glasses


Deb being silly in her new glasses


Me trying to look innocent in my new glasses....uh, it's NOT working, i know it!! Shhhh!!!

Ok, that's all for now....dinner's here!

~Suz~

Baby Bootie

Look!! Isn't it cute?!!!

A few weeks ago Deb and i ventured to downtown Westminster and visited the CCPL for the first time and registered for library cards. One of the books i checked out was Zoë Mellor's "50 baby bootees to knit" With the second, smaller baby-cardi done to be sent to my step-sister, i'm moving on to some baby booties for another friend who's due very soon.

I really like to idea of being able to check knitting books out of the library and taking them home to browse through before i decide to purchase the book to add to my own personal library. Out of the 50 patterns, there are 21 that i would personally make, some of those are very similar patterns. What i'm finding annoying about the book is that the directions are not specific enough for me. Maybe it's because i've not yet been knitting a year and i've just not developed into an intuitive knitter?

For instance, the pattern i really wanted to make were these cute little Mary Janes...

(i took photo of the book - original photo copyright © Collins & Brown Limited 2002)

The pattern starts out with casting on the sole and working in moss(seed) stitch for the sole, with increases at both ends of the even rows. Ok, sounds simple enough, right? Well, should i use a M1 increase or Kfb or is there yet another way i don't know? And when i do either of these increases it throws the moss stitch pattern out of whack, very annoying.

Remember the adorable Bee Bootees that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot) made? I noticed that the pattern for those also had the moss stitch on the sole so i emailed her to ask how she accomplished the increases without her stitch pattern going wonky. I hope she rescues me, then maybe i will be able to figure out a few of the other patterns that i like!!

More later...

~Suz~

Tagged!

...by Nick about 10 days ago, i know, i'm slow...sorry Nick!!!

I've answered some of these recently already, but i'm going to go ahead and do them again anyway. If you're bored, just scroll on by, i won't cry!

Here goes ~

Here is the new list: For those of you who got tagged just delete number one and then bump everyone else up adding your blog to number 5. It's as simple as that.

1. Newscoma
2. Tennessee Jed
3. Blue Page Special
4. Nowhere Nick
5. The Scattered Gemini

Here are the five I am tagging. I'm NOT tagging anyone, i'm lame.


What were you doing ten years ago?
Planning my escape from a very cult-like Bible based church in Chicago.

What were you doing one year ago?
Working from our home in Indiana for our landlord.

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Cashews
2. Chips & Dip
3. Peanut Butter & Syrup on Toast

4. Nachos
5. Real, homemade popcorn with real butter.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1. Something In The Way She Moves ~ James Taylor
2. A Case of You ~ Joni Mitchell
3. Almost any song from "Godspell"
4. Blister In The Sun ~ Violent Femmes
5. Insensitive ~ Jann Arden

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Start a Scholarship Fund for children of minimum wage workers.
2. Pay off the mortgages for both of my parent's properties.
3. Build a log cabin in Western Massachusetts
4. Buy a huge, old barn and convert it into a B & B
5. Buy a brand new vehicle for the first time.

Five bad habits:
1. Procrastination
2. Start things and not finish
3. Forgetting to eat breakfast
4. Impulse Buying
5. Leaving Dishes until Tomorrow

Five things you like doing:
1. Going for drives with Deb
2. Knitting
3. Blogging
4. Camping, especially with friends!
5. Learning new things

Five things you would never wear again:
1. A skinny turquoise tie with a pink Izod
2. Jelly shoes (I'm a total Birki Babe now!)
3. A dress with leggings under it
4. My purple floral dress that i wore for 8th grade graduation, because George Suroviak said, "...my sister has a bedspread just like that..." Asshole!!
5. a banana clip

Five favorite toys:
1. My PC
2. The iPod i won from a Bud light Sweepstakes. Thanks Bud light!!
3. All of my knitting equipment
4. My digi cam
5. Can i call books "toys"?? I'm gonna!!

~Suz~

Free Book Day

In addition to having Domestic Partnership benefits through Deb's job at Random House, i cannot even express to you the amount of Free Books that Random House gives their employees. Thank you Random House!!

Deb's Mom used to work at Random House years ago and then went back to work there again in the past couple of years. There must be at least 400 cookbooks in this house (not to mention other types!). One of these days i'm going to take a picture of each and every bookcase in this house just to give you an idea, i've not even really paid any attention to the bookcases and box-loads down in the basement.

Since we've been here, Deb has brought home and we've taken to storage 2 or 3 boxes of books and here in our room are about 15-20 books that are ours too. Each month the employees are allowed to take as many books as they want that will fit in a #1 box, i think it is...now, i think these are books that have been returned to the warehouse, but they are still in great condition...and we're not talking just books either, we're talking books on tape, large print books, books in braile (if available), kids books, etc. Deb & her Mom bring home lots of different types of books on tape because Deb's BIL, Bob, is legally blind...they've also gotten at least one book in braile that i've seen and it was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and was it HUGE, i think it was in 6 or 8 "books" of braile...quite impressive.

Today was free book day, that's why i thought to write on this topic. I'm so excited! Deb says we now own the first four Harry Potter books on CD. Book one managed to escape me and got taken to storage just yesterday. Book two was brought in from the box out in the car, before Deb and her Mom left for work tonight and i'm planning to load it onto the iPod...i'm so excited!! However, it's going to be a while because i brought up iTunes while i was online, only to find out that there's an upgrade, which i am now downloading and will be downloading for the next two hours or so...freakin dial-up!! Grrrrr!! Then i will transfer the 8 CD's of book two onto the iPod!! Weeee!!

In addition to all of these free books, right before Xmas, there was a list of several pages that each employee was allowed to request 5 or 6 books off of, for Free. We choose a dictionary, some other refernce type book, a Rachel Ray cookbook, Memoires of a Geisha and i forget what else. Nice, eh? In addition to all of that, employees can purchase any brand new book at 50% off at any time. Of course, none of the knitting books that Random House publishes has ever found it's way home for free, so Deb's Mom had me make a list of ISBN's from the Random House website so that they can order them for my birthday or some other special occasion...cool!! I like that idea!!

Well, that's about all for tonight. Hope all is well. Knit On!!

~Suz~

Whadaya mean, no swift?

Yes, i know...i've not posted in a few days, i've been on a mission...

But before i go into that...the day that the Knitting Olympics concluded, the entire household became ill. Whew! Couldn't have timed that any better. I would have never finished if i'd been sick during the 16 days of the Olympics!! Deb's Mom ended up getting it the worst running a temp of 102° for two days before we took her to the Dr. She ended up with a sinus infection and possible bronchitis. A chest X-ray was done and came back clear, but she still has this annoying cough. Deb's Uncle George was next and he ran a temp for who knows how long and is still hacking and wheezing and so when he leaves we spray Lysol on everything with which he comes into contact. Deb had a temp of about 100° for one night, her sinuses are killing her and don't seem to want to be relieved. I had a temp of 99° (which is actually higher than it seems since with my slow thyroid my "normal" temp is usually 97.4°) other than that just a runny nose and sneezing and last, Deb's Dad...he's just abnormal, he didn't get anything that i know of, or if he did, he's not telling!

I've been on a hunt for a yarn swift. The Joann's here in Westminster is so piddly and disorganized, even if they had one in there (which they do not) no one could find it for the clutter. So on Friday, Deb and i went off on an adventure to Frederick, MD to the much larger, much nicer, much - MUCH cleaner Joann's there...still no swift! There i was with my 40% off coupon expiring that day, so i used it to buy this basket which had originally been $29.99 and had a tag for $19.99...i was thrilled when i was told i could indeed use my coupon and saved $8.00. WooHoo!!

Since we live mostly in one small bedroom in Deb's Mom's house, storage is at a premium and my yarn stash has been growing, it has outgrown my plastic - three drawer craft dresser(which doubles as my bedside table) so i was thrilled to add the basket, it's holding yarn and some needles. See?

I also came across this, and decided i had to have it and i LOVE it!!

This is what the inside looks like. On the left is a clear plastic tube with a zipped up lid for storing yarn and a small project, then there are slots to hold knitting needles and some crochet hooks or dpn's and then a clear pocket for holding smaller items. I like how it all rolls up and is easy to carry. Can you see two of the crochet hooks in there...they are sparkly, like the knitting needles i bought earlier. Since the needles and hooks are now on sale i went ahead and bought the set of hooks for $4.99. Yippee!!

Earlier this week my KnitPicks order arrived. Here's what was inside...

6 hanks of - Sock Memories in "Spring Prairie" for a shawl for me

3 balls of - Dancing in "Jig" for socks for me

5 balls of - Shine in 5 different colors for baby booties.

There was also a second hank of Shadow in "Sunset" for a TSP for someone...clearly i can't spill the details here!!

Needless to say, once i get this second baby cardi made for my step-sister's baby, i'll be doggon busy using up these new yarns!!

Knit on!!!

~Suz~

Non-Knitting News

I got a call from the Dr's office yesterday, 3 days prior to my scheduled visit to go over my blood test results and to see how the blood pressure medicine is doing. Do you have any idea how nerve racking it is to get a call just days before your appointment? My first thought was, "Oh shit, it's really bad news!" But i was wrong!! The results were as i already knew...

Bev: "hypothyroid - we're calling a script over to Wal*Mart for synthroid AND you're anemic so Dr will want to talk with you about that on Friday".

Me: "Is that the worst of it?"

Bev: "Yep, it sure it."

Me: "My sugar was ok?"

Bev: "Yes, looks good it's 86 and your cholesterol is just fine too."

Me: ...busts out into tears like an idiot and says, "oh good, i'm so happy!!"

The poor woman must've thought i'd lost it!!

Ok, i lied i have some knitting news...

Tonight is the first meeting of my little baby "SnB_WestminsterMD". I'm so excited!! I'll update you on that later tonight or tomorrow!!

~Suz~