shades of disappointment

first this:

and, today, i finally resigned myself to ripping out my entire tree jacket that i've been knitting since october. it's 2 sizes too big and despite the two months of denial that i could make it work, i just don't know how else to make it fit (the yarn's not feltworthy, i'm afraid) besides ripping out. half a sleeve, the entire body. all that's left will be a neck from which to start...

but, i'll have plenty of time to rip out this saturday when i host my first garage sale. multi family sale, in no'po. come on by! i'll be the one with the pile of debbie bliss next to me.

sasquatch

Michael Stipe
Originally uploaded by beckyengel

and, to bring the blog quasi-current, here is a photo from last weekend, when mickey and i went to sasquatch music festival in the gorge, washington. REM rocked the house, but then of course, i'm biased. it was by far the best of their shows, mostly because the band sounded amazing, michael's voice was gorgeous and strong, and they played a bunch of new stuff, by far their best album in years. i could go on and on, but for a more comprehensive record of the weekend, visit the flickr roll.

this weekend we're chilling at the house, working on the yard and generally trying to avoid the allergy funk. oh, and also the greshamites who have invaided portland for the annual rose festival. god help us all.

April doings

Sandozie reunion
Originally uploaded by beckyengel

in april i went to vegas with some dear friends from sandoz, where we were RAs at university of nebraska-lincoln. 12 years later, here we are, at the venetian, looking lovely as ever!

brain waves

last night i got home from work around 7:15 and was telling mickey how much i'd love to go get a massage this weekend. it's the first time i've mentioned it, since the idea only struck me moments before i said anything.

5 minutes later he came downstairs with a bag from dosha salon spa with a gift certificate he'd bought me that day over his lunch hour -- for an hour long massage.

hurray for being on the same page, even after 8.5 years of marriage!

cautiously optimistic: mariners 08

oh happy day. please let this work out. i'm not sad to see jones go, will kinda miss sherrill, but if the loss comes with the prospect of actually having a decent pitching lineup, i'll take it. oh, and we also picked up mel stottlemyere as pitching coach. that has to help, too, doesn't it?

indulge on behalf of the rat

my friend kim told me that on the lunar new year, one must behave the way they want the rest of the year to be: be happy, positive, no fighting, indulge in good food, be with friends and family, etc. if there's still time left, be sure to treat this new years day the way you want your year of the rat to be!

speaking of indulging, i've just started two for the road by jane and michael stern. i was only a paragraph into the book before i was hooked. here's why:

'our first date was over a white clam pizza at pepe's pizzeria on wooster square in new haven, connnecticut, and it was instantly apparent as we gazed into each other's eyes across the thin-crusted neapolitan pie, speckled with tiny, tender clams and frosted with olive oil, that we shared a passion for garlic. our initial lust for each other was fueled by an orgy of lobster rolls, split hot dogs, yankee doodle double dandy doodle burger cheeseburgers, calzones, and cannolis.'

if that's not the best first paragraph of a book, i don't know what is.

update: sorry for all the typos. i am a poor proofreader at night apparently.

craft day

mickey and i deemed saturday craft day. his craft was to brew a batch of beer, and mine was to paint on canvas a picture i've been meaning to create since returning from NZ last year.

at 5pm last night, mickey put all the ingredients in the big stock pot and started heating the grains and water for the first step. 5 gallons of water takes a long time to heat on our stove, so at about 6:30, we finally reached 180 degrees. at this point he removed the thermometer from the pot, so we could continue to steep the grain. to our horror, the thermometer had a crack in it. all that beer was now contaminated with either mercury or some other metallic substance that was in the thermometer. what a waste.

my craft day was mildly more successful

"manapouri electrical station"

three favorite pix

these are three favorite photos from the past month. nothing like catching mountain snow and beautiful beaches in one month. travel is such a miraculous thing.

new year's resolutions

so far, this is what has been running through my head:

1. lose 20 pounds (and if i lose 10 in january, my reward is booking a trip to mexico...hey, it's an incentive)
2. be more motivated around the house, and not just go to bed at 9pm every night like i love to do
3. work hard and take advantage of a great professional opportunity that has presented itself to me
4. see friends more
5. read more
6. blog more

so far:

1. lost 4 pounds since new years, am exercising during the week (not saying how often, but at least it's something), drinking less, eating less, cooking at home, and eating sensibly when out
2. took one entire carload of crap to goodwill, organized boxes that hadn't seen the light of day since we moved to this house in 04 (and found stuff i thought i lost), hung pictures in the dining room that had been sitting in a pile since we moved
3. working more, but feel very positive and in a good mood about it, plus not panicked like i have been prone to be in the past
4. went to dinner with a friend the other night, have plans with a couple more for later this month, and am planning a girls getaway with college friends for april or so
5. started reading a great little book on account services to help me do my job better
6. (insert debbie downer sound here)

it's not that i haven't had things to say, i just have been doing all those other things so have not had time on lappy to catch up. i have pix from christmas to upload and share, photos of the tree jacket's progress, a recipe for the most delicious marinara sauce i've ever had (thanks to step-sis monica), and other bits and bits to share.

stay tuned for all of this....i have done so well on all the other things on my list that i am sure i'll finally catch up on ye olde bloge.

happy new year all -- may your 2008 be propserous and full of adventure!

flying to the wild, wild west is not as easy as taking a wagon train, i suspect

greetings and happy holidays from wyo! we've had a delightful stay in my hometown these past few days. there are 12 of us here at one time, all in my mom's house, and despite the occasional sniping and snapping, we're all getting along well. spending christmas with my fabulous nephew has been fabulous. he's such a great kid and even though i called him a frog today, he's cute as can be. plus, we had a white christmas, and even though the weather was frigid, it's been gorgeous.

the only drawback to this entire trip has been our flights. we had used free tix to get here, and i think that our travel karma from last christmas's travels has worn off. we missed our flight to riv last saturday, due to a late flight from PDX that caused us to miss our connection. we spent the night in south denver (aka colo. springs) at the radisson, on horrid sleep number beds with no luggage, and therefore no deodorant, toothbrushes or fresh clothes. 29 hours after leaving PDX, we arrived in riv.

today, when we got to the airport to fly home, we were bumped because our puddle jumper plane had weight restrictions and they chose us because we paid nothing for our tix. we supposedly will fly out tomorrow, but i don't have a lot of confidence in great lakes aviation (aka great waste aviation), especially after seeing how poorly they manage their ticketing, flight schedules and passenger lists. it's a long story, but suffice to say that the people at reservations and at the ticketing counter are not on the same page as the people who actually board the planes, so just because one person says you are confirmed on a flight, the people boarding the plane may think otherwise. note to self: never fly them again. they are AWFUL.

when i'm home, or perhaps at the airport tomorrow, i'll upload some photos of our trip. stay tuned, and in the meantime, happy new year! my new years' resolution is to blog more, eat and drink less, and be more motivated.

since it's that shopping time of the year

i've been cruising etsy.com for the past few weeks trying to get inspiration for christmas gifts. there are so many great ideas, and honestly, the challenge i have is that i want to buy a lot of stuff for myself instead of other people (eek -- that's a selfish statement!). nonetheless, there are such great ideas on here, and if you need a late xmas gift, you should go on here, even if all you do is print out a picture of what you bought someone, since it probably won't ship on time.

i'm headed to riv for the week, and can't wait to join the millions of other travelers tomorrow flying through pdx and dia. gag.

sorry i've been delinquent with my musings lately. i've not given up on the ol' blog. i don't really have a good excuse for not blogging, except that i haven't had anything of note to bring up. my new year's resolution is to be on here more often, if nothing else than to give myself a continued writing exercise that doesn't consist of marketing jargon and other drone-ish terms.

have a very happy christmas, and enjoy time with your loved ones or yourself. kiss someone under the mistletoe. drink spiked nog on the coutch. stay up late and get up late. watch "love actually" a dozen times between now and the 25th. i know i'll be doing all of the above.

xo

delinquent...

where did november go? i just realized i've not posted in weeks. it doesn't seem that long. i've not been that busy. i guess i just forgot to.

we're in AZ this week for the thanksgiving holiday, and what i love is that the most difficult decision i'll make today is whether i'll go to the pool before lunch, or afterward. wait, scratch that. i also have to find a proper recipe for mojitos to go with the green chili i want to make for dinner.

i'm making much headway on the tree jacket, and have started a new book. i'm getting to bed before 11 every night, and the only negative thing that's happened is that toots and i got yelled at by a retiree for walking on the golf course cart path because it was private property. never mind that it was before 8AM yesterday before anyone was golfing, and that it was on the part of the course where our house is, and that she was letting her two dogs run rampant on the perfectly maincured greens. i can't wait until the time in my life when the only worrisome issue i have on a day to day basis is protecting my 55+ golf course from 30-something and a baby stroller.

lots o knitting

the common cold is only good for one thing: knitting time. for the past three days i've watched a lot of tv (including the world series -- dare i say, i'm glad that's over) and knitted in between nose blowing and tea drinking. i can't say i've ever been this stuffed up in all my life. blech.

the silver lining is that i have made good progress on the eggplant scarf, which was on hiatus until i received some more yarn in the mail, and have also got a few rows in on the tree jacket. in other knitting news, i got my invite to ravelry -- yahoo! check me out!

f.o.: li'l green

newest f.o., this one for two of my favorite nebraska cornhuskers who are expecting a li'l red of their own anytime now....

bambino blanket

the deets:

pattern: made up completely -- wicked easy, good ol' standby garter stitch for the blanket (great for knitting up during the many rugby and baseball games i've been watching lately) with a made-up crochet stitch for the edge. the crochet pattern i guess might have a real name, but i don't know what it is since i made this up
yarn: lion's brand homespun in green and cream

needles: u.s. size 10.5

started: approx. 8/1/07

finished: 9/14/07

the pud likes the blanket, too. to the future owners, please excuse any fuzzy spots in the yarn. ena liked to sit on it when i wasn't working on it.

my cat won't stay in one place long enough to take her photo.
yet she was very interested in being in the photo. probably
because she wants to show off her pink camo collar.

props to the rocks

good job rockies! i'm so excited to watch your luck carry through the world series. for the first time in a long time, i'm going to root for the NL. shh, don't tell....

restoring world order

you bet your ass they are the best team, mr. laporte. at least we've got that straight.

saturday night out

we ate dinner at a new-to-us restaurant last night called olea. it's in the pearl district, and serves a great menu of mediterranean/pacific nw cuisine. we enjoyed a very leisurely meal that started with prosciutto wrapped dates (with a vanilla oil -- yum) and cornmeal fried sardines with caper aioli, joined with two glasses of brut rose. mickey had steak frites, and i had wild mushroom and rapini buccatini, both of which paired great with a bottle of jigsaw pinot from the willamette valley. we were stuffed from dinner, so no dessert, which was unfortunate because they had delicious options. the restaurant was in an impressive building, with great lighting (i'm very picky). and, the service was perfect. i'm definitely going back.

we also saw cabaret, starring wade mccollum and storm large (of rockstar: supernova fame). it was pretty good -- not as good as the dinner, but enjoyable enough. mickey and i agreed it didn't take the themes far enough. i felt like the acting was a little flat and storm's gestures were forced. wade was delightful as always, but i feel like they could have let him be a little more tawdry, like in hedwig. overall, i felt like it had a lot of potential, but the director played it safe and stifled two actors who have so much potential to capture the raw, sexual, racy side of the show.

then, i came home and fell asleep on the couch and missed the 11 inning win from the indians. sounded amazing.

go rockies!

weekend score

we started the weekend on a high note with the chili cookoff: 33 chilis, about 60 people, a few rain sprinkles, and all around a good time. we are so grateful for our friends and colleagues who came to the party.

we're ending on a low note: new zealand lost to france in the rugby world cup. as a sky tv broadcaster once said: we are drinking from the slough of despondency. i'm stunned. disgusted. o new zealand, you broke my heart today.

it's october and it's raining

damn you, weather gods. i said no rain until after the chili cookoff. i have 60+ people coming to my house this weekend, and i need to be able to plug in 30 crockpots in another location besides my small kitchen.

but, since it's raining, i'll take the opportunity to knit, watch the playoffs and catch a few rugby matches in between.

is that a rain cloud with a silver lining? this i ponder...

and so, the season comes to an end....

it's only fitting that today, the last day of the regular season, it's raining and gross and i feel a bit gloomy and wistful. rooting for the mariners this season was quite a ride. there was a stretch there in august where it really looked like we could make the playoffs. september came and went, and i have to admit i didn't watch most of those games, mostly because i couldn't experience a heartbreak every other night.

this texas series gave me a chance to see some new guys in action, giving me hope for next season, not to mention some stand-out performance from that little bowl-haircutted jamie burke. at the same time, i dread the decisions that will occur this winter to determine the line-up for next year.

i beg of the front office in seattle: please don't trade yuni or beltre. i'm fine if you get rid of sexon. i actually encourage it. seriously.

despite the ups and downs, it was a sweet, sweet summer of baseball. until next year, my favorite mariners...

PS: go rockies.