sister of the bride II

I should start with my sister's shower/bachelorette, except we're watched the new Casino Royale, which is excellent. And now White Chicks is on, and I've never seen the whole thing.

The shower was good and went off without a hitch. The Old Colony house is a lovely place to have an event, service was great, the food was good. It was wonderful to see people, and Kate will need to re-register.

The kids' birthday party was hectic, going from one event to another, but Tak did fine going solo while I was still doing best-woman duties. I went & picked them up, and brought Owen & gifts to my parents' house. Then back home to party. Tak went off to meet the boys, and I left to meet the girls.

1st stop: Flash's for dinner. Started the night out right with Dark & Stormies. Food was great and we were there for 3 hours. They were very nice and let us have our Sweet n'Nasty cupcakes, which went over very well.
Oh, yeah, and it snowed.
2nd stop: Limelight for karaoke. I opted for the "private" studio, which was fun because we could be as cheesey as we wanted to be and not have to worry about Emaerson students. The drinks were big and strong, but our waiter kept opening & closing the door instead of bringing them all in on a tray. The singing was so much fun I'm just getting my voice back.
3rd & last stop: JJ Foley's. There isn't a better place to end a long night of drinking than at Foley's.
2:15AM: time to go home. Katie, Meredith & I hailed me a cab, miraculously on Beacon Hill. I hadn't been out that late in a looong time, and was shocked to see so many people out trying to get cabs. It was surreal.

Tak beat me home: he was back at 11:30, but the grooms' men started at noon. Their party included tequila shots. The next morning/afternoon we didn't recover until 12:30-1pm, when my parents brought back Owen. Needless to say, I've gone to bed early most nights this week. And "Heaven is a Place on Earth" has been jumping into my head at random times this week.

nature shock

Tonight at my parents' house, a big fox came trotting through the yard, and across the field next door. It was sudden, and had just caught something. Sometimes I forget how closely these creatures live to us. When it snowed Monday night, I saw--maybe it was even this same fox--animal prints close to the house before the tracks went towards the woods. All of us just watched the fox in the twilight.

On an odd note, I have weird memories from childhood--I must have been 5ish--of checking books out of the library where we lived in upstate NJ that had color photos of teddy bears doing stuff outside. Although I might be getting them mixed up with the Leo Lionni books, I feel like some of them may have been mice in the (real) grass.

Owen has been asking for his own library card, but I have to find out what the minimum age is. We are currently reading George & Martha, and he loves them.
I am reading Stolen by Kelley Armstrong, the follow-up to Bitten. Since I'm on my parents' computer, I don't want to download anything that I won't be able to figure out how to delete later. It's amazing how much I've forgotten about using PCs since I've been back on a Mac for the last few years. It was bad enough that I had to explain to my mom what a blog was and that I had to tell her I had one.

We're in the home stretch for my sister's wedding. The shower & bachelorette are this weekend. Should be a treat!

jolly good show

We're finally watching Bridge on the River Kwai. It's fantastic...and long. What motivated us to watch it was Sessue Hayakawa, one of the first Japanese actors to break into Hollywood--in 1915.

Happy Evacuation Day and St. Patrick's Day. We've been invited to a friend's family home in Southie to watch the parade on Sunday. Again, something I've never done in all my years of living in Boston. Maybe it's the insanity of dealing with the yahoos who come in, like on First Night. But this year will be fun, and Owen's first big Irish parade.

Also on Sunday is a new Boston Comic Con, at the Back Bay Events Center. Something to do before or instead of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. People I know who'll be there: Paul Gould, Hannibal King, Mark Poutenis, and Frankie B. Washington

In other comic book geekery, my friend Pete does a fun improv show in NYC called the Comic Book Club at the PIT. Congrats on the show, the website, and interviewing the editor of Captain America. Keep up the good work.

Just finished: Gene Yang's American Born Chinese. It got a lot of hype as being part of the graphic novel wave, and deservedly so. Quick read and superbly done.

Owen and his jingly hippo have stumbled into the room, so it's time to get in the big bed. Good night!

Knits in the Dig

Here's the photo used in the Dig of the mini hat & scarf I knit for the photo shoot. (It'll open in a new window.) The little blue hat & bag came out better. Big props to the design team who made the whole set from scratch.

Owen's been using the gift bag I made to carry his nice stones/rocks in. Guess I'll have to make another.

cold snap

Crivens! Winter isn't done yet. It's still ridiculously cold. Finished Wintersmith, though, and liked it better than Hat Full of Sky. It's just a really enjoyable series. Love those Mac Nac Feegles.

Knitted a smaller version of the gift bag on the cover of Last Minute Gifts, but in Malabrigio yarn. It came out really nice, especially as my first time doing yarn overs. Now I just have to figure out what to put in it! Next I'll have to do the gift bag in the yummy Blue Sky Alpaca yarn like in the book.

Finally saw the Departed. Holy smokes. It's amazing. There are very recognizable scenes from Infernal Affairs, but it's also its own film--as it should be. And the language is outrageous. The extras are worth it for the second disc. We also got to check out Letters from Iwo Jima, which was also incredible.

Oh, and remember how I didn't think I'd need another circular knitting needle? I need a 24" size 15 for my next projects, a felted handbag and the Diotoma shell from Webs. Oops. Of course, Michael's didn't have one in 24" (or 32"), but in 29". At least I can return it.

aw, shucks

Thanks, you guys for being so supportive. Really, I wasn't fishing for compliments. I know I am not a bad knitter, and I wish I just had more time to practice.

Where I failed in Police tickets (so far), I succeeded in Loreena McKennit tickets. I'm taking my mom. So psyched.

I did end up finding the Departed at Borders--a couple days after it came out. Everyone probably bum-rushed the stores in case we got a ton of snow. (We didn't, but it was cold and messy.) We still haven't watched it yet. I know, I know... Infernal Affairs is great, so it's not like I don't know what happens. We are going to the movies on Sunday, and it's still playing in Boston. Or we might see Children of Men (thanks Bob!). Or Letters from Iwo Jima. We'll see.

Taking a break with Terry Pratchett (thanks Liz!), and reading a vaguely trashy British mom lit called Yummy Mummy by Polly Williams. It's awful and totally engaging, like the Shopaholic books. What's even funnier is that I know a Polly Williams, and this is so not her.

Tak is doing a talk tomorrow at UMD, so what did I do? Shop for yarn like an imbecile. Like I need more? Actually, I've been seriously coveting this Lexie B. bag in Baja, and was debating whether to buy it from WEBS or kpixie. I'm hoping kpixie has a store front so I can go look at it, because I am NOT going to Webs (yet). Now I'm just waiting for Owen to wake up to come in the big bed.

Note: links will open in a separate window. Hope that's OK. I lost my sticky note with the code so links do not open in a new window, and I'm too lazy to hunt through blogger's help menu. thanks!

will knit (poorly) for Police tickets

I had it in my head to call this post Driven to Tears, but I have better things to talk about than being one of the many to not get Police tickets. But still...I've seen Sting live on his first solo tour, and Stewart Copeland with Animal Logic at the Living Room in Providence (with Bob), so it would be nice to see them all together with Andy Summers. And ticketmaster is being stingy (sorry, it's a really appropriate word) with tickets. The shows aren't sold out, but tickets are not available now. oops, I'm kvetching. Onward & upward...

Coke & Nestle have come out with a new line of calorie-burning drinks called Enviga. I tried the green tea one, and it was OK at first but very quickly went bad. Blech. Maybe it's a calorie burner because it upsets your tummy so you don't want to eat anything else. And it has enough caffeine in it that now I'm wide awake.

Tak asked me to knit some little hats & scarves for an upcoming photo shoot for the Dig, which was a ton of fun. I got to test drive my Valley Yarns from Webs & my new ebony Lantern moon needles.

Since I've been knitting for a whole year, I've come to realize that although I like it, I'm not very good. Not that I let my ineptitude stop me. And I'm still trying to learn more new things--like cables, which are still not so easy for me--and continental style.

No knitting tonight, though. Work has left me feeling achey in the mouse-arm and leg joints, so I'm going to try to sleep. Thin Mints didn't help the achiness, but they did help my upset tummy. And yay! to Edy's ice cream for not only making Girl Scout cookie ice cream, but using "Samoas" instead of "Caramel deLites." They will always be Samoas to me.

How do I love thee?

Happy V-day everyone! I know I should probably do something gushy, but... I'm at work. Here's the best news, though, that I can finally sort-of broadcast since it's been leaked via Angry Asian Man: Tak's comic is in the process of going daily.

Just finished Terry Prachett's Wee Free Men, and I'm hooked. Good Omens is one of my all-time favorite books, and this is my first (and successful) foray into Prachett's Discworld.

The Departed came out yesterday on DVD, and it seems to be sold out everywhere in Boston. What a shocker!

Yet another reason to love Google: Its weather is currently describing the weather here as "light ice pellets," which is the most accurate one I've seen today.

Enjoy!

NO... Sleep...for Cranky

We watch quite a bit of Thomas the Tank engine at our house. The other day I got out a DVD from the library with the story about Cranky. It doesn't even matter now what it's really called, because once we sang the title to the tune of "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn," that's what it'll be known as now. Owen ran around the other night yelling "NO... SLEEP...for CRANKY," and he hasn't even heard the song yet.

leopardmonster

I was going to wait until Wiley's birthday, when he and his sister Cloud turn 12! If you want to see more photos of Wiles, click on the flickr button, and he has his own public tag. But I found this link in an old email, and it's too funny not to pass on. It's the site for a Swedish Bengal breeder, who translated something...into leopardmonster and leopardkatten. Now, I don't speak Swedish, but I can guess that this means leopard cat.
www.bengaler.com/jungle_cats.htm

Here's the original text, which has since been taken down. (It looks like German, but I did a lookup on the country code for the breeder, and it's in Sweden.) Bengalen är resultatet av en korsning mellan den Asiatiska leopardkatten och tamkatten. Det utmärkande för Bengalen är att den har en ultramjuk päls med leopardmönster i form av rosettliknande spottar eller tvåfärgade spottar och ljust färgade magar.

They've since updated the site to include English text, but the FAQs are just funny. The photos are beautiful. Ja!

yay librarians!

Well, actually, yay to the supervisor at the circulation desk. I was a dummy and left this photo in the copy of Children of Men when I returned it to the library. After one call to ask them to look for it, and another call to see if they had found it, I was told that it had already gone back. If I wanted to find out more I should come in ask for a supervisor. So I did. Luckily, the really nice circulation desk person got me the supervisor on duty, who was AWESOME, and after looking in several places and checking the computer, came back with it. I think he was going to offer some marriage advice, but was called back to duty. Thank you! Thank you, BPL circulation desk supervisor, for finding a photo of me as a blond and Tak with a mohawk from Halloween '93.

Children of Men was a good read. Took awhile to get into it, but it was very satisfying. I'll see the movie eventually, which I've heard takes some liberties (as most movie versions do). Also saw A Scanner Darkly, and I was surprised how true to the book it was. The animation made it better, too; although I'd be curious to watch the live action footage that was used for the animation. We got a babysitter to check out Pan's Labyrinth, which was amazing. The fairy tale part had the otherworldly quality needed, and the "real life" is gritty. The effects & makeup are incredible.

Yesterday's brouhaha over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force stunt in Boston is all over the news--and I haven't read/watched much of it. Luckily it didn't snarl my commute, but I can't imagine the gigantic inconvenience to those whose day was wrecked.

On a closing note & back to yay! librarians, Lydia, who's a librarian, used to write for the Dig in the early days. Check out her site renegade librarian, which has lots of cool links. She's got a Bengal kitty, too!

bardot? or bettie page?

I took the "which pinup are you" quizilla from Leslie's myspace page, and depending mostly on where I'd like to vacation and what did I with my date's hand at the movies, I was either Brigitte Bardot or Bettie Page.

Speaking of which, a bunch of us met at Match for drinks & I got to see Leslie & Erin, which was great. Match, as Marcie put it, was very New York. But not even really good New York. The slider/mini burger was greasy but good; combined with the massive onion rings it was still yummy. Yet, even worse than Chinese food, I was hungry and hour later and I felt like I'd eaten a package of hot dogs. At least the pricey martini drinks packed a punch, but it was still kind of...eh. The company was the best part of the night! And happy birthday Nicole! ^_^

Took my first morning commute from the South Shore yesterday in the 'van, and it was only 45 minutes. Not too shabby, but definitely not something I'd like to do everyday. I also found that a tape cassette adapter is how I can listen to my iPod over the radio, and the speakers are still in good shape. Not too shabby.

Currently reading: Thanks to William Gibson's blog, I found this neat book about George Appo. He was a famous Chinese/Irish pickpocket in New York in the late 19th century. Of course, the same day I bought it, my request for Children of Men came in for the library. So I hustled through the rest of Blood & Chocolate (easy & fun read, not too sure about the movie).

OK, now I have to figure out what is going on with Battlestar Galactica. I've seen the same episode from different parts, and it's kind of confusing.

catching up

We've been so sleepy lately. Maybe it's the cold finally come to bite us. Maybe it's staying up too late finishing Christmas gifts. Owen doesn't want to get out of bed and is super clingy.

I finally made myself a pom & vanilla vodka & it was just what I needed tonight...
Owen wanted one too, and laughed when I called it a cocktail. Of course it's funny. So I just gave him just the juice, and he liked it better than when we gave it to him the other day. 'Cause it's better when mom's drinking with you, too.

My girlfriend Ilona always gives us fun liquor from her travels, and christmas was no exception. She sent us a nip of Cuandole Marzipan Sahneliqueur from Germany. Yes, it's yummy. How can almond flavored liqueur not be sweet & delicious? Even when it's mixed with coffee liquer. I'm almost embarrassed to say all I could find in the house is the Starbucks liqueur, which is surprisingly good--and also a Christmas gift last year from my future brother-in-law.

Speaking of weddings, we found a bridesmaid dress. Angie, Jason's sister, liked the dress that Katie, my mom & I liked. So we're doing the same dress, different colors (Wtoo, #352). Mine will be "midnight" (dark blue), and Angie's will be powder blue. Now we need to figure out all the shower stuff. Wish me luck.

Currently reading: Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block.

maiden voyage

Ok, not the greatest photo of our new wheels, but there it is. I got the plates & insurance Tuesday, my dad took it to get a sticker Wednesday, and yesterday dad & mom drove it in before they left for FL. It did shockingly well on emissions for a 1994 Caravan that's 16.9 mpg. For its maiden voyage I drove it to...South Bay Center. That's right: Target, Stop & Shop, Old Navy, etc. Not very exciting, but it was great not having to wait for the shuttle & get on the train when it takes 10 minutes to drive. Owen loves riding in it too. Of course, Zipcar now has Subaru Outbacks in its fleet, and I won't be giving up my membership just in case. But this'll give us an idea of how often we'd really use a car now that we have one at our disposal and don't have to rush to return it by a certain time.

On a separate note, I love having a Google account for a reason I'd never thought: two of my favorite authors' blogs--Neil Gaiman & William Gibson--on my front page. The quick link to post on my blog is nice too, but I'd much rather read about how the movie version of Coraline is coming or see Gibson's Xmas gift from Thomas Pynchon.

comic geeks rejoice!

My friend Pete LePage just got a mention in the NYTimes today for the "Comic Book Club" production he & his friends put on at the PIT in NYC. Yay Pete!

happy birthday to me

We just got back from the weekend in NYC and it was great. We hung out with Tak's, and got to see our pals in Brooklyn (always fun). Thanks to the grandparents, we were able to go out New Year's t0 Dan & Sarah's, which was so awesome we were still a little out of it New Year's Day. Came home this morning afternoon, with the delightful bum smell still on my jeans from the subway this morning. Now I'm off to go food shopping & clean out the fridge. Woo-hoo.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 41 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

the day after

Christmas was really fun this year. It was all about owen and his trains. We went & saw Santa at the mall, who offered the O-man some good advice about being nice vs. naughty. Owen was pretty good when my parents had people over both Christmas eve and Christmas night, except that the noise from the grown-ups talking got to him after awhile. My cousin's daughter Zoe pushed him around and grabbed his trains, but he took that pretty well. The hightlight for him was a shiny electric train that went in circles and sputtered real smoke. It was hard to tear him away from that for long, and he's spent the last two days mostly in his jammies. Pretty mellow.

My Christmas was spent mostly knitting, which was just what I wanted to do. I finished a "capped" mitten (a fingerless glove with a hat for your fingers=mittten), and am almost done with Owen's other mitten. I hardly "got" anything from anyone, which for once I'm OK with. It seems like so many people had a hard time figuring out gifts. I did get the dustbuster I asked for, and K & J got me an iTrip for our "new" car. That's right: I am almost in possession of a vehicle, a 1994 Dodge Caravan. The funny thing is that my dad has been having fun driving it in the last few days that I'm not sure I'll get it. ^_^

Wiley's pretty happy to see us after the last few days, although we're going to NYC this weekend and he'll be PO'd all over again. He did break a Mexican tablet that my mother-in-law got us that gashed our floor, but at least he didn't throw up. Tomorrow is back to work for all of 2 days. Have myself a nice little work week...

Merry Merry!

I think we may be almost ready for Santa. Tomorrow we head to my parents' house, and the O-man will get a haircut, write his letter in time to get to the North Pole, and go to the local mall to see Santa. Should be fun.

Here's what the cat thinks. Enjoy the holiday!

getting in the spirit

Finally! The craft fair is done, I sold a few wine charms and reinvested the cash into my co-workers pockets I got a cute pair of citrine earrings and a sachet that the cat decided to take over.

Last night I worked super-late to get stuff done, and then I crashed out. I absolutely refused to start the various Christmas gifts I have on my plate. The other night I joked to my girlfriend that people would be getting swatches wrapped up! I've also decided to knit sweaters, one for the boy and one for me, after the holidays. I had a coupon from the Knit Out for free shipping at Webs that had to get used. And because I live in Massachusetts, it arrived within a week. More yarn! Yay!

I still need to do the bulk of Christmas shopping, and find the hanger for the wreath on the front door. We're still torn whether to get a real tree, or if the fiber-optic disco tree will come home from the Dig office. At least we have the Christmas cards, and those will go out over the weekend.

Tonight was the Dig party/benefit at the Cyclorama/BCA. Fun to see people & meet new ones. Weird to say that I used to work at the Dig, weirder to define myself as so-and-so's wife. Oh well. We missed ice cream from JP Licks, but the open bar was good, and the music was manageable. At least you could have a conversation without shouting for very long.

One of my new favorite things are the CVS knockoffs of the Ponds' Cucumber exfoliating facial cleaning wipes. One side is bumpy for exfoliating, the other is smooth to take off all traces of caked on glitter eyeliner and mascara. They smell nice, don't leave a greasy residue, and are $4.99 for a pack of 30. They are probably packed with unpronoucable chemicals, but the tiny Trader Joe's I go to hasn't been carrying the Comodynes Oatmeal ones. I think they're $2.99 for 20, but I don't like the oily feel on my face & hands, although they're the right price and I don't go to bed wearing my makeup. Now if I just had a box of the On-the-Go disposable toothbrush finger condoms, I'd be all set.

domestic goddess

Last weekend I had a bit of a yarn attack at Michael's craft store, and managed to gobble up a bunch of $2 novelty yarns. All for a good cause though, because they're going towards stuff for the craft fair. We'll see if I can get enough knit in time! I'm starting to freak out about it. Hence, no blogging lately.

Let the bake sales begin! I baked 3 bowlfuls (several oven batches) of strawberry or lemon cookies. The recipe came out of my company's Employee Cookbook, so I can't take credit.
Lemon Cookies by Adele Carew
1 box lemon cake mix (or strawberry cake mix)
1 8oz tub of Cool Whip
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until they make a big sticky ball. Use a tablespoon (or small melon-ball/ice cream scoop) to drop doughballs onto a greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper). Bake 10-12 minutes, or until golden. Dust with confectioner's sugar.

Now, you can use Fat Free Cool Whip, and the cookies come out fluffier and the batter was more liquidy. Disgusting fake nasty stuff, yes, but the cookies taste yummy. But Extra Creamy Cool Whip mixed very quickly. It took several trips in the oven for a bowl to be emptied because I wanted the cookies to be nice and round, spaced far apart on the cookie sheet, and not bake into one big cookie. I also have a new appreciation for parchment paper!

I'm off to bed to knit & watch something other than guys beat the stuffing out of each other on UFC.