Happy Last Day of 2008

My year in recap:

January: I got married, and my last name went from 1 syllable to 4.

February: We celebrated my mom's 55th Birthday Do-Over by hiking down a giant mountain, since she was in the hospital last year and I'm thankful that she's all healthy and recovered since then.

March: I turned 28, and DH took me to see LOVE in Vegas, which has been on my wishlist since it opened a few years ago.

April: I knit a sweater for DH, just in time for the weather to shoot up into the 80's.

May: We successfully staged a crab-feed in my mom's backyard for my sister's 26th birthday (this was a big year for b-days, apparently).

June: My beloved Bulldogs won the College World Series. I cried. Bought a new car.

July: Visited Chicago for the first time, and got to see my dear friend K who moved away from CA 3 years ago.

August: Knit a sweater in 14 days. Made my DH watch copious amounts of Olympic coverage.

September: Helped plan/host my 10-year HS reunion. Yep, definitely not doing that again for the 20-year.

October: FINALLY got my wedding photos. Watched my Bulldog football team slide into a depressing losing streak.

November: Hosted Thanksgiving for the first time. Doing piles of dishes for 2 days was TOTALLY worth it to not have to leave the house!

December: Met the governor of CA. But most of all (well, not really, but pretend so for dramatic effect), I finished this freaking sweater:


Thermal, from Knitty. Ravelry deats here.

It only took 1.5 years! (Casted on in July 2007).


I freaking love it. Seriously. Probably my favorite FO to date. I have no idea why I waited so long to finish it! At least it's only January and I can still get some usage it this year.

---

All and all, a pretty solid year. Looking forwards to many new firsts in 2009 - we are headed to Europe, and may possibly be expanding the family (wink wink).

To ring in 2009, we are headed to a fancy-schmancy 4-course dinner tonight at a local restaurant. Nothing says 2009 like Smoked Swordfish Carpaccio and Pancetta & Radicchio Wrapped Scallops.

CHEERS to a safe and happy New Years Eve. See you all in 2009!

Absinthe, Take One

Saturday night we had our night in with the wormwood, AKA the Absinthe. I made some lobster tails (to DIE for Ginger sauce, btw), grilled some steaks, invited a few friends over, and away we went.



Matt got so creative, that he was actually mixing cocktails with it, courtesy of their website, by the end of the night. I opted for the "Red Fairy"

Mix in shaker:
* 1oz Le Tourment Vert
* 1/2 oz Grenadine (optional)
* 1/2 oz Red Bull
Shake well and strain into a rocks glass or shot glass



Anyhow... I didn't do a dance with any faeries that night like I was secretly hoping for, but it was definitely a different buzz that I have experience before. I'm interested in trying a few more of the recipes and experimenting a bit further.

---

And just so this can still qualify as a knitting blog, I will show you how tantalizingly close I am to finishing Thermal:



I just started the cap shaping on my final sleeve - which is all the knitting I have left on this thing. Even with some casual knitting over the next few days, I should have this seamed up and on my body by the 25th. Only a year in the making!

Also, more kiddie stuff:


Heart Sachet from a back issue of Interweave. I needed to make this fast so I made some size mods to accommodate for the larger gauge. Basically, I started on row 5 of each chart, instead of row 1, and modified the number of picked-up stitches to accommodate.

Everyone around me is having kids. Seriously. At least these things go quick!

More Soup

I made another yummy, YUMMY soup tonight:


Smokey Tomato Soup (modified from a recipe I found in Rachel Ray's Magazine)

Chop 1 small white onion and cook in olive oil over med-high heat with 3 cloves smashed garlic and 1 T. Thyme leaves. Chop 1 Chipotle Chili in Adobo sauce and add to onions, along with 2 T. of the Adobo sauce. Stir in 2 cans of whole roasted tomatos (14.5 oz) and 3/4 can of chicken broth (or Veggie broth to make it Vegan) and 1/4 cup white wine. Simmer for 15 minutes, then puree in a blender.

Serve with Guyere Toasts (top sliced sourdough bread with cooking spray and shredded Guyere cheese, then broil until cheese bubbles).

Super-simple, and worthy of serving to guests.

In the meantime, I finished the body of Thermal in between planning and executing Matt's 30th Birthday (here we are practicing for the wedding!) this past weekend and writing like 90 thank you notes from my showers:



I hate it right now, because it makes me look WAY too boobalious, but everyone says the blocking wortks wonders so I am keeping my fingers crossed (also: rockin my favorite BEATLES tee-shirt here)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....


Insert witty ending to post here.

Lazy Like Sunday Morning

I was too tired to make it to church at 10am (lazy, I know), so I am home drinking coffee and knitting while Matt is being Holy for the both of us. I'm also at a loss of actual words and all my mental energy is going towards figuring out what the weird teenagers are doing in front of the apartment. Thus I will just show you photos.

Here's a long-overdue FO:



Daisy from Knitty.com
Crystal Palace Cotton Flamme / Olive / 3 hanks
size 6 needle
Ravelry Page

I'm not sure why I knit this, but I really like it. I bought the yarn on a whim from Little Knits and needed something to do with it. Now I need to think of what to do with the full bag of Rose-colored Flamme.

Thermal's progress:


God this is taking forever. I really hope the sleeves go faster.

---

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekened, I'm trying to catch up on sleep while still having a social life. We had a football game on Friday, a wedding last night, and are heading to a BBQ tonight. Plus is it still like 108 degrees outside and HUMID and OH MY GOD how do you Southerners deal with this all summer!!! It's totally draining.


Matt and Viva enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon. He might tell you differently, but she loves her daddy :)

Milestones

It's sort of like reaching the top of a mountain only to realize an entire range still lies in front of you.

Weekend Roundup

I have lots and lots to talk about today! First up, the wedding. Ah Santa Barbara, how do I love thee. My friend's wedding was AWESOME, the weather was GORGEOUS, and it was great to see so many old friends.

We may have done tequila shots by this point!

I also found out my friend Mitch (well actually it's Michelle, but we all called her Mitch. And they called me Peter. Don't ask.) is a knitter as well. She saw a couple photos I had on MySpace and was delighted that our post-college days had both led us to the needles. Her husband and Matt didn't think it was entertaining as we did.

The wedding was on Friday, so Saturday we headed to downtown SB and walked around, then had lunch at one of my favorite places from college. We then went and drove around Isla Vista, saw the old sorority house, and stopped at Robert Hall Winery.

Perhaps the best stop on the trek home was at a place called BB Knits I had heard about, and when I went to their website I found out that the owner was retiring and everything in the store was 50% off. Uh, AWESOME!


~ 4 balls Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky for matching Cal/UC Davis Hats for Dad & I (a long overdue gift I have been promising for like 2 years )
~ 4 balls RYC Luxery Cotton for the latest bun in a friend's oven (which is a delicious yarn, and the cardi has already been started here)
~ 4 hanks Inca Alpaca in a Dark Green for Matt's next pair of socks (I'm thinking Log Cabin Socks)

I bought the yummy yarn for Matt as a thank you for this:


He built me a swift so he didn't have to listen to me cussing up a storm everytime I got my yarn in knots trying to hand crank it. Of course, his yarn was the first to take a spin and it works perfectly.

---

I knit up almost one whole ball of Gloss this weekend, between the drive to SB and trying to work out the wedding guest list on Sunday - people aren't kidding when they say that it is the worst part of planning a wedding (we have a hall that only holds so many people and our current list greatly exceeds that number). Let the good times roll.

Ninja Cat

In case it was keeping you awake at night, this what one ball of Gloss knits into for Thermal:



1 down, 7 to go! Also, more stuff I want to knit:


Nan, from Rowan's Big Just Got Bigger, and

Design 27-10 from Garnstudio Drops Designs.
I've got the Chunky Print for Nan but no pattern, and the pattern fot the latter and no yarn (ideas, anyone? The recommend yarn is Garnstudio Silkee Tweed & Alpaca. I'd like this to function like a fleece vest for cooler days. I'd also like to knit it by July 28th so no long waiting periods). This also puts me out somewhere into 2010 with my knitting queue over at Ravelry.com.

How about a picture of Viva to top off the randomity? You got it.


Ninja Cat - so fast, you'll never know she's there

Idle

Want to see how much knitting I've done since Thursday?



Wait for it.....





Pretty sad.