various things

With the end of today, another summer is over.  Classes start tomorrow, and I officially go into seclusion due to the amount of reading and writing that I will be responsible for between now and the beginning of December.


Despite having been a worthless bum for the majority of my summer, I did some fun things here and there: my first trip to Comerica Park,

some time at the beach (which included some pretty intense sunburn),

a random trip to Texas, 

and most recently a completely irresponsible weekend up north with (most of) my college roommates.  It was a fantastic weekend, lots of swimming, lots of boating, some beach volleyball, a healthy amount of Euchre... there should practically be a Kid Rock song written about it. :)

Picturesque, no?

As part of this weekend of fun, Saturday night was a sort of pot luck for dinner, everyone brought a dish to pass.  Now there are approximately 2 things that I can make with any sort of distinction (carrot cake is not one of them).  One of these is lasagna, which I haven't made since I got back to Michigan because my mom lives here and she makes it better.  The other is calzone bread:

We'll call this the before

During

After...aka just prior to speedy consumption

It's magically delicious and so easy to make I'm not going to give you any clues beyond these pictures because then you'd be way less impressed with my skills, and I'm not really interested in things that would result in people being less impressed with me.  It seemed to go over well, the two loaves I took up north were eaten in all kinds of haste.  It relieves my soul-crushing fear that people will spit out the food I make them and throw it at me when there's no more left after 10 minutes.


Aside from my impressive culinary abilities, I also completed a baby blanket for some awesome friends who just had an equally awesome baby girl.

"Little Johnny's Patchwork Plankie" in Patons Shetland Chunky

It stubbornly refused to remain rectangular when not pinned, so this is the picture you get.  I fell in love with these colors, and I hope my friends get lots of use out of it!


And now I must prepare myself to return to the life of endless reading and schoolwork, not to be confused with endless reading for fun, which was pretty much my job this summer.  After an unsettling phone call I placed on Friday in which the financial aid office informed me no financial aid package had been awarded to me yet and I feared I would not actually be able to take classes this semester, I'm happy to report that everything is fixed now, and to ask everyone not to be upset if you don't see or hear from me much for the next three months or so.  It's because of these:

I'm pretty sure I'll be reading all of these in the next 16 weeks

everybody likes pie

I have this sort of love/hate relationship with knitting.  When things are finished and they're pretty, I love it.  When there are 12,000 ends to weave in before that happens, I hate it.  When it helps me relax while I'm watching a movie or reading, I love it.  When it's seaming reverse stockinette in dark purple, it makes me want to stab my eyeballs.

Enter lace, which at various times encompasses most of what I both love and hate about the hand crafts.

I started this shawl (the Pie Shawl from Weekend Knitting) in January of 2007 to take with me on my various plane trips back and forth between Michigan and Massachusetts (so long ago I don't remember what the yarn is or where I got it or anything.  Of course I didn't write it down, why do you ask?).  If you know me and you're thinking to yourself that it's ridiculous for me to make a shawl because I would never ever wear one, you're not wrong.  But if memory serves it was an easy enough pattern that it didn't make me want to pull out my hair (unlike this one).  Anyway, I finished knitting it fairly quickly, completely shut out the fact that it would require weaving ends into LACE (aka disguising ends of yarn in holes), and looked at the pattern to read about the edging, for which I had really pretty ribbon.


It called for a crocheted edging (and this is where reading ahead would have been beneficial).  Here's what I know about crocheting:                (big empty void of nothingness)


So it went into a bag and sat there for almost three years.


This summer I pulled it out and was feeling particularly ambitious (or more likely I was putting off doing something else unpleasant) so I tackled said edging.  It's not pretty, it's probably not actually even real crochet, except that I used a crochet hook and it's not coming off.  So I'll take it.

Luckily the ribbon more or less conceals the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.

When it was all finished and the ends were woven (weaved?) in, I set it down to photograph it, and it looked like this:

I'm Batman!

Yep, basically a giant Rorschach test.  Really attractive.  But then, through the magic of about 200 pins, a big cardboard blocking board and copious amounts of water, now it looks like this:

A pie shawl that actually looks like a pie!  It's a miracle!

Natural light, how I love you

Notice how it lays pretty flat now?  Not bad, eh?

I still have no idea what I'm going to do with it.  At least it's finished and it's pretty and it's inspired me to do more lace, which is nice because I was ready to give up the whole endeavor completely (not really).

On the Road

So, after being a shameless, useless bum all summer, last week I was suddenly called into action to fly to Houston and then drive back to Michigan with my friend and her dog and her cat and a car filled to the brim with belongings.  Since I don't exactly have a lot going on, I was more than happy to step in and help out. :)

Here's my trip breakdown, by state:

TEXAS:

Texas is very big.  The things in Texas are very big.  The highways, the restaurants, the trucks, the portions, the margaritas:

These margaritas are made with everclear.

You don't realize how intense that is until part way through the second one,

and then it's already too late!  The fabulously talented Katie took this picture, which I then appropriated :)

We did what you're supposed to do in Houston (according to the people that live there).  We ate and we shopped.  :)  Sunday night we went to dinner at the Houston Aquarium, where we ate many delicious things, including the mini shark attack:

I'm ashamed to admit I almost wasn't going to order this.

We can all agree that would have been a huge mistake.

So totally magical, and I can in fact verify that this is the mini version - another table ordered the regular version and it was about twice as big!

Ferris wheel outside the Aquarium

I enjoyed my first visit to the Lone Star state!  Monday morning we were on the road bright and early on our way to Michigan, a trip of which I have very few pictures because I was mostly behind the wheel and that's just not safe :)  Did you know that Texas highways have a different speed limit at night than they do during the day?  So weird.

LOUISIANA:

I liked Louisiana, much time was spent driving on a highway elevated from the water (but not so elevated I would call it a 'bridge').  

See what I mean about the elevated road?   I'm not sure why I like this so much

I'm pretty sure this state was the location of scary bridge #1 of 5 (I HATE bridges) and it's definitely where we crossed the Mississippi River for the first time.  I'm also convinced I really, really annoyed Jen as we approached Baton Rouge and I kept saying "Batohn Rouggggeee" as though I were French, but she handled it well (she also accommodated me by taking countless pictures of signs at my request - I love pictures of signs).  After several hours in Louisiana we headed north on US55 and eventually hit

MISSISSIPPI:

Which may be the most boring state to drive through.  The scenery never changes, it's just trees followed by more trees.  I like trees and everything, but some variety would be nice.  I was minimally excited to drive through Jackson, but that's just because I'm a True Blood fan :)  We finished our first day in

TENNESSEE:

I never realized before that Memphis is barely in Tennessee.  If we had not slept there I think we would have spent less than 45 minutes total in the state.  As it was we stayed at the Residence Inn downtown, which was very nice:

The view from our hotel room in Memphis

The cat was extremely vocal about being put in his carrier and unceremoniously hauled into the hotel and I spent a good portion of the night with a golden retriever laying next to me and/or on top of me, she was very sneaky and I was just too tired to do anything about it.  We didn't get too far from the hotel, but we did manage to see a few trolleys and some horse-drawn carriages.  The trip back to the highway was very pretty, along Riverside Drive.  Again, about 5 minutes after getting on the highway, we hit

ARKANSAS:

I'm not a fan.

MISSOURI:

Jen doesn't actually remember going through Missouri because she was sleeping the whole time.  At this point in the trip, there was really very little to distinguish it from every other part of the trip, but nothing stands out as being terrible :)  And we crossed the Mississippi River for the second time, on our way to

ILLINOIS:

Our time in southern Illinois can best be described by a stop at a gas station about halfway through the state.  It was a combined gas station, food mart, clothing store, video game room, restaurant situation.  As I walked in, a customer went up to the counter and asked if the fax he was waiting on had shown up yet.  I walked into the restroom behind a lady having a very loud cell phone conversation which did not let up the entire time she used the bathroom (I have a thing about that.  Phones should not be used in the bathroom.  Especially not a public bathroom.  It's gross.  I've always felt this way).  Already in the bathroom was a possibly younger girl (hard to tell what with the intense bleaching of her hair and the shocking amount of makeup she was wearing so I'm going off what she was wearing) using a hair straightener and constantly checking herself out in the mirror.  Based on the way she was preening I can only guess that her date was picking her up FROM the gas station.  It was a pretty great experience!

After a slight 26 mile detour when I failed to follow the GPS instructions because I had accidentally turned off the volume, we made it to US70 headed toward 

INDIANA:

Of course we hit Indianapolis right at rush hour, which was glorious (except not).  We did drive right by Lucas Oil Stadium, which was ENORMOUS.  Indy has changed since I was there 7 years ago in college for an accounting conference (yes, I am a huge nerd, thanks for asking).  Indiana was a pretty good drive, with the exception of a stretch on 69 right before we hit Michigan in which the highway was down to one lane and 45 mph for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON THAT I CAN TELL.  There was no equipment on the road, no work had been started that I could see, it was like Indiana just wanted to punish me for driving through it on my way to Michigan.  Not cool, Indiana.  Not cool.  But finally we hit

MICHIGAN:

We both perked right back up as soon as we hit the Michigan border, because the end was in sight!  By this point the dog was so upset about the unholy length of this car ride that she sat with her back to us and her face in the seat as her only means of expressing her displeasure.  The cat took it more calmly, only meowing every once in awhile to remind us he didn't love being in the car.

Eventually we made it back home, and today I am completely useless. :)

I'm just going to distract you with pictures

I should be studying for finals.  I have one left.  It's going to be crappy.  Instead I'm going to update my blog with pictures of hand crafted things that I've made since the last time I posted.  

The first of 3 pairs of socks I made for my mom this winter...this s some Berroco sock yarn (which I bought at Stitch in Time in Howell).

And again...this is Punta Yarns, my new favorite.  I got it at Woven Art in EL.

More Punta Yarn from Woven Art...the pattern is from the Vogue Ultimate Sock Book but I knit it from the toe up and therefore it's backwards. The pattern is Leaf Lace Socks.

Socks for my aunt, STR in Little Bunny Foo Foo

A cute little bag, for a cute little girl's birthday :)

The hat that nearly killed me take 1, in which I grossly underestimate the size of my head and am incapable of following directions.

The hat that nearly killed me take 2, in which my head is still too big and I run out of yarn, but I follow directions correctly.

The hat that nearly killed me take 3, in which it finally (almost) fits my head but I ran out of yarn again so the top is a slightly different color gray (you can't see it in the photo)

And that's what I do with my free time, when I'm not reading or writing papers.  I'm working on some pretty cute stuff right now, so pictures will be coming at some point!

baby stuff is cute

I think I'm pretty much over the sinking carrot cake.  I still feel a little twinge every time I look at it, but then I eat a piece and it's tasty and I feel better.

Plus, I constantly reassure myself that there are some things I do reasonably well. :)

Onward and upward! 

Last month, some friends of mine welcomed their first child into the world, a baby girl.  For those of you who don't know me, I have three nephews, so baby girls are almost completely unfamiliar to me.  I got really excited to knit baby girl stuff (of course, I don't actually knit things for my nephews so it's not like I was overloaded on boy stuff either.  Basically, I wanted an excuse to make a little dress.  Also, I should confess that I pretty much only made socks when I lived in Boston so baby girls born during that time got shafted.  I'm not proud). 

While out and about a few weeks ago in Howell I purchased a magazine with an adorable baby dress pattern and some fantastic cranberry yarn (yes, I'm saying cranberry instead of hot pink.  Cranberry is for babies, hot pink is for flamingos.  Don't try to understand my thought processes).

This is the dress in the magazine (sized for a 2 year old):

a photo of a photo, hence the glare.  The magazine is

debbie bliss spring/summer 2010 and the dress is

"Sun Dress"

This is the dress I made (sized for a 6 month old):

I know, the top looks teeny tiny, but I followed the directions 

and I swear that's what it's meant to look like.

Also, the color is much better in person. A photographer I'm not.

Clearly, I didn't completely follow the directions:  I knit the thing in the round (as sewing is for suckers), I obviously used different yarn that what was called for (I used Berroco Comfort DK) and I added a little ribbon to the pocket because I thought it gave it a little something extra.  

For the record: any dress with a pocket is automatically 24% cuter than a dress without one.  It's science, and you can't argue with science.

well, I tried

Tomorrow marks the occasion of my mother's 60th birthday (I'm pretty sure she won't be upset about me calling her out like that).  Her favorite kind of cake is carrot cake, and I thought I'd try my hand at making it.  Her best friend (my godmother) makes a DELICIOUS carrot cake, and I got the recipe from her daughter.  I figured, I can read and generally follow directions, I should be able to handle this!

Well.


Yea.

The first part of the process was to prepare the 'carrot' part of the carrot cake.  Turns out this is not a task for the faint of heart.  My hands will never be the same:

My biggest achievement for the day.

Of course, when my mom got home and was asking me about it she said "did you use the food processor?"  Well, of course not.  The recipe said GRATED, so I grated it!  With an antique vegetable peeler.  Is a food processor an option here?  If it is, please feel free to lie to me to make me feel like I didn't waste 45 minutes of my day grating 2 cups of carrots.

Once I got the carrot shavings taken care of, it came time to mix the ingredients.  That went reasonably well until it started to get thick and I ended up with carrot cake batter all over the kitchen.  Oops.  Anyway, into the oven it went for an hour.  At 45 minutes it was looking beautiful and perfect, and at one hour it looked like this:

I choose to blame the birthday girl for this, she opened the oven door while it was baking. :)

Yep, it sank in the middle.  This made me very sad.  The issue is that I haven't quite learned my parents' oven yet, so I'm still a little off on the times.  I should have taken it out of the oven at about 50 minutes or so.  Foiled again!

I consoled myself with making the cream cheese frosting.  It's hard to feel bad when you're making the most delicious kind of frosting there is.  Mostly because you get to taste test while you're stirring:

 Cream cheese + powdered sugar, butter & vanilla = heavenly

I managed to fudge the final product a little bit by covering the hole with frosting and pecans, so here's the end product:

I forgot to mix the pecans INTO the frosting, so instead I used them to TOP the frosting.

It tasted ok, but the edges were pretty crispy.  Alas.  My hands were also orange for the greater part of my day.
 

The moral of the story is: I tip my cap to you, carrot cake makers of the world!  I'm not sure I'd do it again.  At least, not until I find an easier way to grate carrots.  

Not a total slacker.

Just to prove that I don't sit around doing NOTHING all the time. I mean, I'm not exactly out living the high life, but I do stuff:

scarves I made for some friends over the holidays

no pattern, just seed stitch

stockings for some friends who got married this year (a late wedding gift)

Pattern: Diamonds in the Rough Argyle Stocking from Christmas Stockings: 18 Treasures to Knit

a sweater for my mother, which taught me that I'm never knitting a reverse-stockinette sweater with lots of seams in dark purple again.  EVER.

Pattern: Holly Jacket from Interweave Knits Spring 2008

a sweater for Grace.  It'll be a miracle if she wears it, it's kind of hairy.

pattern: Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 2007

a chemo cap made for the friend of a friend.  The only requirement was that it include his nickname.  I did not make that up.

Pattern: I pretty much made it up as I went along, with reference to Kim's Hats from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

I also went to New Mexico this month, to visit Grace.  I took lots of pictures of mountains:

on the way to Bandelier (near Los Alamos)

I think this is at Bandelier

Passing the other tram on the way down Sandia Mountain

And that's that! See you in February! (maybe)

Yo

You'll note the change in blog address. I suddenly decided that it was not the best idea ever to have my full name in the title of the blog. Call me crazy. :)

Holy crap Izzie got fired.  Well, I guess now we know why she's taking a 5 episode break!  I kind of can't believe she would leave Alex without a face to face confrontation, but I guess she needs something to do when she comes back for one to two episodes maximum later on.  It seems unlikely that she would ever get hired back given her history.  I feel for her that she had to go out that way after all the other shenanigans she's pulled and that Mercy West guy was a total douche, but losing a woman her kidney is no joke.  (I have to say this again...PLEASE tell me the doctor who accidentally cut off a BABY'S ARM last week got fired.  Seriously)

Who I feel really bad for in this situation is Alex.  Bummer for him to finally open up and let someone in and then almost lose her to cancer and then have her get better and take off.  Then again, that does assure him of good angsty storylines for the next few seasons.  And how can she really just TAKE OFF after a half finished comment by the chief?!?  She doesn't even know what he was actually going to say!  I do want to know what that note said, they better tell us next week. 


I'm sure I've said it before, but any episode that has Christina experiencing an emotional breakdown is automatically a good episode.  No one cries quite like Sandra Oh.  She made me want to go out and hire a new cardio god so she can have something to do.  She and Meredith are super cute together, as always.  Here's a thing I know:  Without the two of them and their dynamic this show really doesn't work for me.  In addition to the Christina meltdown, episodes that have good Meredith/Christina scenes are also always very good. 



Now clearly this is the intention, but I really don't like any of the new Mercy West people.  Douchy McSurgicalBitch, CubbyStealing DoeEyes, SelfHelp NoseJob and Football ERZones are not cool and I want for them all to get their comeuppance in a bad, possibly unhealthy way.  Especially CSDE.  She is pretty much just a completely unpleasant person and I don't think much of her doctoring skills.  What I did like was the sound tongue lashing she and Alex got from Luke's sister (Gilmore Girls reference)...you know, not that it stopped them from being petty and immature.


Ah Callie.  Callie and her dad.  Callie and Arizona, who I have a new level of respect for after getting the background story on her name.  I like that she's a good man in a storm.  I like that Callie's dad finally came around and realized that even though she's a lesbian now she's still traditional enough to want a big white wedding and kids.  I have to wonder what the priest's take on the whole situation was, given the fact that he was never able to get a word in edgewise.  The scene in the conference room where they were screaming Bible verses back and forth at each other was one of my favorites.


I also just finished watching Private Practice and it's entirely possible that I could be reading things into this, but Sam used to be a heart surgeon, the preview for next week has him suddenly getting back into heart surgery against Addison's wishes....could he be getting primed to get a job up at Seattle Grace as the new cardio guy?  Possibly?  'Cause I gotta say, I wouldn't hate that.

Liver & Jewels

Last night was a quality episode, I called it that Meredith gave her dad part of her liver (but seriously, who didn't call that?).  I'm glad that it was as a result of Lexie's super emotional speech about knowing that Thatcher isn't her dad, but he is Lexie's and could Meredith please give Lexie her dad back?  Loved it.

I did think it was laying things on a little thick when Mark gave his impassioned speech to the penis patient's children and got all misty about how some children would do anything for their parents to give a little back blah blah blah.  I mean, I'm glad the old guy got his implant, don't get me wrong.  Although my favorite part of that was when the guys tricked Christina into being on the surgery.

Poor Christina.  Good for her telling the chief to cut her because she needs to be able to use her talent and if he can't give that to her she needs to be able to leave.  Obviously I hope she doesn't go (and I'm pretty sure she won't), and it did seem to give the chief his much needed wake-up call.  Finally he seems to have remembered that his job is to staff and manage a world-class hospital with the best surgeons possible, and not to be whiny and complainy about being an old guy.

Callie has her job back!  Now there was a shocker.  I couldn't get too into that storyline, but I liked Arizona's reality check about how she didn't have her favorite scrub nurse anymore blah blah blah.

What I'm waiting for now is this whole deal I keep hearing about that will lead to Izzie being absent for five episodes...here's what I've heard:  Something happens.  It's shocking.  Izzie disappears for awhile.  Alex has to deal with it.  Very descriptive, I know.  I'm sure the patient from this week's episode will have ended up setting a chain of events in motion that will lead to said absence... but until then we have bears and ticks to entertain us.

I didn't get to watch the episode until today so I didn't see a preview for next week's episode, I think that's about it for this week!

who's out?

Well, while not nearly as intense as last week's episode (thank goodness), this week's Grey's Anatomy still had its tense moments.  

I hate it when the Chief and Derek are fighting with each other.  Last season it was over Meredith and the proposal, this season it's over the merger.  I'm not entirely sure why Derek thinks he's entitled to hear what the Chief is planning (outside of how it relates to his department, I guess) but I also think Richard is being a little unreasonable about Derek's part in his career at this point.  Whether he likes it or not, he'd be out on is a** without D's tip about the board.  I'm pretty sure he needs to get over himself and stop being such a jerk.  Yes, you're aging and you're not as smooth as you one were.  Yes, you had to throw a hail mary to keep your job.  But I do agree with Derek when he told Richard to start acting like the chief of surgery.  Step it up, pal!


Maybe this is weird, but I find that I really don't like hearing Mark call Lexie by her name.  I liked it better when he was calling her 'little Grey'.  I'm sure exactly why this is a problem, it doesn't bother me when anyone else says it.  I do hope Mark gets a nice beefy storyline this season, what with some of the absences we have coming later in the season with pregnancies and movies and the like.  I like Lexie and her neuroses about whether she was going to get to keep her job or not.  They make her seem more like Meredith but also different because (if this makes sense) these are the well-adjusted sort of neuroses Mer would show if she'd had a normal childhood.  Lexie is like Meredith: Version 2.0 - the happy childhood.  I also liked when she told Christina that she was amazing and pretty, causing Christina to give her the last of the chocolate pudding.


OK, so I read ahead of time that the first cuts from the merger were going to be last night and that someone we had known from the first season was going to be a part of the cut, but that it would not be a main character.  My mind immediately jumped to Olivia, but I was thrown for a minute during the baby arm situation because I could be making this up but I thought the doctor who accidentally cut off the baby's arm was the same one who Meredith went toe to toe with about the baby who couldn't breathe in the first season.  I could be reaching.  But seriously, how did she not get fired for CUTTING OFF THE ARM OF A BABY!?!??!  Are you telling me that Mercy West doesn't have a big enough staff that they have people who deliver babies without cutting off limbs?  Yikes.  And seriously, this is why you're ranked 12th.  How are you gonna cut too deep and SLICE OFF AN ARM.  I was sad to see Olivia go, even though she really hasn't had a lot to do since she spread syphilis around the hospital and slept with Alex when he was supposed to be dating Izzie.  Alas.  Farewell.

Also farewell to pregnant intern who I didn't immediately remember, but then it came back to me that there was an intern love triangle last season and there was some blood and some punching and I think she was the girl in the middle of it.  So I guess we're sorry to see her go?  I don't really care enough about the new interns (except for Lexie) to care whether they stay or go, so I couldn't get too worked up when Megan's husband looked all distressed about her getting cut, except as it related to making Lexie feel like a jerk because she was going on and on and she didn't know.

Callie is so not moving to Portland (regardless of Arizona having told her she wasn't allowed to).  I foresee a make-up with the Chief coming very soon.  Once he gets off his high horse about the older doctors still being relevant and able to do their jobs and sees that it comes down to saving money and having the best people available, Callie will return triumphantly.  And then maybe Christina will have a specialty (other than peds) to latch onto without a cardio-god there to mentor her.

Speaking of Christina and peds, I'm a little surprised Arizona fell for that one.  If we're supposed to believe that she's been working at Seattle Grace for at least as long as everyone else (and probably longer, because she's an attending) shouldn't she have heard of Christina?  And her girlfriend is Christina's roommate!  Which implies they've met before!  She was very easily swayed when Christina said she liked kids, and it took more convincing than I thought necessary for Callie to convince her she was being used.  I mean, there's naive and then there's child-like (and not in a good way).  I was glad to see Owen stand up to Christina about going to the Chief.  Even though he's now a bona fide member of Crazytown, he still has his moral center and I'm hoping that it doesn't slip for awhile.  There has to be at least one grounded character, and I like that even though he's got all kinds of baggage and he did accidentally choke his girlfriend, it's him.

When Izzie was sweating all through surgery and then finally asked someone to take her wig off for her, it made me think of Sex and the City when Samantha was sweating all over her couture because of her wig.  Anyone else?  No?  ok.  Alex was cute as ever, first for taking care of her and then letting her know that he's not her nurse so it's time for her to take care of herself.

I don't have much to say about Meredith this week, but next week looks SUPER intense with the dad and the health issues and the begging and the drama.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that Mer ends up deciding to give Thatcher her kidney, in order to explain why she'll be gone for awhile (because Ellen Pompeo is starting to look like a normal sized person, which must mean that baby is ready to come out!).