6.27.08

What a few days it has been around here. Exhausting, yes, but it's weeks like this I just LOVE working at the University. It's hard to REALLY explain the culture around here when it comes to the U's athletics and the Valley's loyalities (Lisa knows what I'm talking about!) Being in the Central Valley without a lot of other 'teams' around, residents around here (whether your are an alumni are not) love, LOVE their bulldogs.

Anyhow, I know you didn't come here to read about baseball or listen to me brag about the school I work for - but this really is an amazing story. To give you an idea:

- First team to score more than 16 runs twice (19 vs. Georgia, 17 vs. Rice)
- Tied for most runs scored in the College World Series (62)
- Had a .309 team batting average (only fourth time since 1980 that champ has finished above .300)
- Hit 14 home runs as a team, the highest total since 1998 and third all-time (seven different players homered for Fresno State)
- 20 strikeouts by Justin Wilson, led this year's CWS
- Most losses (31) by a championship team
- Lowest-seeded team to win an NCAA championship in any sport. They've said if this were the NCAA basketball tourney, we would have been seeded 89th and came back to win the whole thing.

It is truely remarkable. I love it.

So as you can imagine, I have not done much knitting at all this week. On top of the Wonderdog mania, we FINALLY bought a new car. My old car, the Suzuki, was at that turning point in the road (as I discovered while on a recent road trip) - we either needed to pour some money into her (60,000 mile service, new keyless entry, new belts, etc). Instead, we were lured by a great financing rate and bought a new one: an Acura MDX.

I. LOVE. THIS. CAR.

It talks to me (Reynaldo, as I call him), has XM radio (SWOON!) and leather/sunroof/powerEVERYTHING, and it like 10,000 times nicer than any car I've ever owned. We bought used, so it's already appropriately worn in, and DID I MENTION I LOVE THIS CAR?!?

Anyhow, I've got 4 WIPS in constant rotation so I'm not making much progress on ANY of them. Rambling Rose, Terracota Tank, Watery Cardi, and Merlot Socks have all been knit on in the last 48 hours. Really? What the hell is wrong with me sometimes.


On a closing note: a few nights ago we gave Katy a bath and finally taught her "SHAKE". Here's a little tibbit of that:

[click to wineandneedles.blogspot.com to see video]

And they said it couldn't be done

No words. I am SO happy for our boys!

PS - Yes, cried again.

2 down, 1 to go

I won't lie. I cried when our Wonderdogs won tonight!

MEMEMMEMEEEMEMEMEME

I'm really feeling like posting today, but I don't want to talk about the entire Leyburn Sock I just ripped out because it was WAY too big. So I am jumping on the current blog bandwagon with this:

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Hmmmm... June 1998. I had just graduated from High School, and was gearing up to head down to Santa Barbara for college. I had finished up my job in May, so I was probably being a total bum and spending days at the lake or laying out by the pool, drinking Coronas and doing other rebellious teenage stuff. Oh, to be 18 again.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Meet a friend for happy hour and baseball.
2. Find a dress for a wedding in August (UGH, HOT!!!!)
3. Have lunch with my dad.
4. Go and buy a box of wine (for cooking, of course!)
5. Give Katy antibiotics since another dog left some nasty teeth-marks in her jaw last night at the dog park.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
-Dark Chocolate Chips
-Pepperchinis
-Roasted Red-Pepper Hummus and Pitas
-Plain Yogurt

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire (in no particular order):
Quit my current job and start up a business revolving something that I have a passion for (something knitting or cooking related), Pay off any loan any member of my family is still holding, Establish some full-ride scholarships, Start a no-kill animal shelter, and travel around the world.

5) Places I have lived:
-Fresno, CA
-Santa Barbara, CA
-Santa Cruz, CA
-San Jose, CA
[what do you mean there are other places to live other than CA?!?]

6) Jobs I have had:
-Pop Warner Cheer Coach
-Personal Assistant (horrible memories of this one)
-Assistant Manager at a Smoothie Shop
-Grad/Student Assistant @ 3 Universities (Greek Life, New Student Orientation)
-Special Projects Assistant
-Outreach Counselor
-Communications/Systems Specialist

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Sorry for the lame post; there has actually been some cool stuff going on around here I'll get around to talking about sometime soon: the Wonderdogs are still alive, I've upgraded to a big-girl car, and well, hopefully there will be a sock on my needles in the near future. RIP Leyburn.

Wonderdogs

A couple weeks ago, the impossible happened around here:


“With the wind blowing in Sunday afternoon, and Rice's bullpen loaded with future major league millionaires, Fresno peppered seven pitchers with four homers and the most runs allowed in a CWS game in seven years.“

– Elizabeth Merrill, ESPN.com (“Fresno State's Cinderella season continues with win against Rice” 6/15/08)



Our boys are going all the way!

How Do You Measure A Year?*

2 years ago today I met the love of my life at a totally random dinner on a totally random night.



49 days later I knew I would marry him
74 days later I met my future in-laws
308 days later we bought a house
359 days later he proposed.
585 days later we said I do (we actually said it 3 times, standard in an Armenian ceremony)
730 days later I am even more in love.

Here's to many more June 13ths babe!



* Seasons of Love. Best Musical EVER.

Stripey Baby Cardi

Stripy Baby Cardi, loosely based on Super-Natural Stripes (mostly for stitch counts and basic construction.)
Size 7 needles
Blue Sky Organic Cotton, 1.5 skeins Natural & .75 skein Nut.
RAVELED



That's all I've got today.

9 Lives

My sister and I are fairly convinced our childhood cat that passed away about 3 years ago has come back:



My sister started working at the U. in the On-Campus Housing office about a month ago, and one of the maintenance workers found this little guy and his sister. They've been keeping an eye on them over in their office, and my sister is HOOKED. The weird thing is he looks EXACTLY like our old cat, Frisky. Not just the coloring, but very similar markings as well. Unfortunately the old "MOM! We found this cute little _____, can we keep him?!?" line doesn't really work when you are 26 and live at home. So Frisky-Redux has been living on her desk. If I didn't seriously think Matt would make me starting sleeping in the spare room, I'd bring him home.

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In other news, my husband is about to enter 2 weeks of testosterone-fueled sports mania:



Personally, I like the Celtics because Larry Bird was the shiznit. However, if I say that out loud in the next few days I may still be sleeping in the spare room. Hell, I should just bring the kitten home and knit a Celtics jersey for it. If I'm going out, I'm going out big.

Finished baby cardi tomorrow.

6.4.08

First off, regarding the Ballet Bashing, I pretty much know what I need to do but I am being whiny about it. The increases and decreases I did on the front are what the problem are, so I need to rip them out and re-do them with cast-off/cast on so it's cleaner when I do the single crochet. Someday, but for now:



The work continues on the baby cardi for my husbands friends.



Loving on the macro feature. Yummy, yummy Blue Sky Organic Cotton.

I also found some new yarn that looked interesting at Joann's yesterday: NaturallyCaron.Com Spa, an acrylic-bamboo blend.



I bought 8 balls for 35$. It's also more of a grey (or gray? I can never remember) color than these photos represent.



It's super-soft and has a cabled texture to it. I'm thinking maybe BPT Cardigan or the Central Park Hoodie. I'm too lazy to link those but a quick Google search should suffice.

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Finally, I only took like three photos from our SF trip this weekend, and one this is one of them:



Way to go Delia, take a photo of the scoreboard when your team is getting their as*es handed to them (it's 4-NADA if you can't see it in the photo).

Peace out and Happy Hump Day!

Me Mosaic

I saw this over at Random Snapshots and thought it would be a good Monday morning post since I'm still mentally dead from the weekend.

The Concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name? Delia
2. What is your favorite food? Sushi
3. What high school did you go to? Clovis West HS
4. What is your favorite color? Turquoise
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Johnny Depp
6. Favorite drink? Wine
7. Dream vacation? Greece
8. Favorite dessert? Dark Chocolate
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Housewife
10. What do you love most in life? Family
11. One word to describe you. Quirky
12. Your flickr name. delia_ann

The Mosaic:


1. Delia's Restaurant, Norwich, 2. Flickr Loves Sushi. Mmm., 3. DSCF0793, 4. Twister, 5. teenage daydream, 6. wine, 7. OIA, handmade houses, 8. coffee and chocolate mousse cake, 9. why isnt my baby gaining weight, 10. Snowmen family in TX, 11. High summer at the quirky cottage, 12. 08.05 Group 003 003

Back tomorrow with actual content.