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.

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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.

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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!

Cal-E-Forn-E-Ah

I just met our governator.



Working at a University can be so fun, where else do you get emails that say "Governor Schwarzenegger will be on campus from 10:15 – 10:45 a.m. today".

Cool.