My Short Stay in Hawaii

Flew out Sunday morning, returned on the red-eye flight Friday night (landed Saturday at 0600). But - good times were had!

I was really just glad to get to see Daniel. I also met his friend, Pete, who is also stationed at Yokosuka. And some really awesome sailors from the Australian Navy!

My pictures seem to have loaded backwards - here is a shot of me on Waikiki, on Friday before I flew home. (This is where I got a sunburn! Yow!!)


Here is a shot of the beach at the North Shore, where all those famous surfers come. Supposedly the waves further out can reach 40-60 ft! Crazy! We played in the waves closer to shore, and I got buffeted by Nature's Own neti pot. But my sinuses were clean after that!


And here is a shot of us, out at Duke's in Waikiki. This was one of the few nights in my life where I haven't paid for any food or drinks for myself. Between Daniel and the other guys, I had free drinks flowing all night. Lord! The boys got me a Blue Hawaii(an?) at Duke's, and I could only stomach half of it before the overt sweetness was grossing me out. (Daniel's holding a virgin something - he was driving that night).


I had a great time, except for, ya know, having a monster cold that left me coughing like an emphysema patient and sounding like Harvey Fierstein. And the fact that I worked Mon-Thurs while Daniel was at his planning conference... But other than that, I can't complain! :) It was 80 deg outside pretty much every day we were there, and Daniel managed to get me to the beach at least twice before he left, then I spent some time on Waikiki on Friday before I had to fly out.

I can't wait to go back...except I stipulated we both need to be on vacation, and we should hit a different island. :) Oahu is nice, but I think the other islands have better sand, etc.

Hawaii And Etcetera

I leave for Hawaii on Sunday morning! Yeah! Daniel gets in about 2 hours ahead of me, so he said he could fetch me.

***

Random news - I just bought my friend Priscila's wedding present. I was going to get her the set of knives they wanted (Henckels; nice choice!) but I have a memory from my mom (or maybe grandma) telling me that knives are bad luck to receive as wedding presents. Kind of like some silver roosters my mom has. Don't ask why she has silver roosters. They are beautiful, though. She tried to sell them to someone who dealt with Christie's Auction House in NYC once, but I forget why it didn't go through.

***

I checked out the Seattle Yarn Gallery, over in West Seattle, today. It was neat! They definitely have the vibe of "you're playing in someone's crowded stash" going on. I almost bought some cushy laceweight merino, but I left with empty hands! (For the third LYS trip in a ROW, I might add!) I think I want to try taking a lace project to Hawaii with me; if I receive Kim's yarns from Stitches today or tomorrow, I might take them and just work a Pi Shawl, but I also printed off Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail shawl pattern. Dawn's looked so great, I think I want to make one now.

***

I think I have a cold, but I am really hoping it's just post-nasal drip and some sort of weird allergy. Ugh!

***

OK, I'm going to go work on my sister's Porom hat. I might finish it today; I am working Chart B, which has all the decreases for the top. Yay!

Back on Ravelry!

I got a nice email from Amy Detjen telling me we're back on Ravelry! :) YAY!

And I got a very nice (bulk, I'm sure) email from Casey on Rav apologizing for it...

Fleeing

I bought my ticket to Hawaii for next week! As in, today is the 17th and I am flying there on the 22nd!

Yes, I'm crazy. In Love!!!....*buuuurn*. Daniel is helping me pay for the ticket; he doesn't really have to, but I appreciate it because they are PRICEY right now. Man!!!

I had to get out of the house today after work, so I took a trip to Fusion Beads. I spent a very enjoyable time poring over all their beads, without friends there anxiously awaiting your shopping completion. I *almost* bought two charms that mysteriously resembled 747's (well, they were airplanes with 4 engines. But you name how many other commercial airplanes have 4 engines. Two. The Antonov and the A380, that I know of...), but since I didn't have any immediate use for them, it seemed a little silly to pay $4.50 for each of them.

I did, however, buy supplies to make a big set of stitch markers. Something, I imagine, for either a sweater or a big lace project. I'll post a picture when I finish! Yay!

After the bead store, I went over to Weaving Works and milled around there for a while. I didn't even buy anything; I am so proud. :)

Then I went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on tasty foods - some prepped salads, avocados, refried beans, and I bought a 2 pack of their prepped, frozen oatmeal. Nom!

Now I'm home, relaxing and eyeing the bathtub.

Ravelry Problem, Part Tres

While waiting for an answer to a question I have here at work *ahem*, I decided to do some dete-ka-tive work, and Googled "Ravelry Problem".

*OK, so I was pleased that my original blog post came up first on Google*. :)

Beyond that, I read some of the snarkiest blog posts I have ever seen.

Conservatives bashing "liberal sluts". Liberals bashing "conservative a**holes". Everyone, all around, blaming the Ravelry People for banning them from their beloved site.

People! Get a hobby! (Oh wait...) I mean, go work out at a gym or play rugby and get your anger worked out in a constructive manner, and improve your self-respect so you don't feel the need to go foaming at the mouth online. I guess a lot of people feel that the Internet is a great cloak and they can finally be the jerks they've always wanted to be, but man it makes searching for useful information much more difficult, and much more angering!

I sometimes feel that politics often lies under a large umbrella of subjects that are not meant for conversation except as objective, educated discussions, with perhaps only those you know well. Politics, like any other controversial topic, is going to have people on many different sides, arguing many different points. And a lot of people have grown up believing that the "correct" way to argue is to start taking others' opinions a) personally, and b) as fact from the "0ther-side's-media", which obviously means they are lies because they simply do not agree with your point of view, and then this miasma of deceit makes these offended parties feel cornered, so they lash out and make personal attacks, or perhaps worse, start perpetuating stereotypes about others' points of view. (I am ignoring a big part c) - many folks do not take the time nor trouble to become educated about topics of interest... this spawns ridiculousness like Creationist Museums, where Neolithic Man hangs out with Brachiosaurus, and T-Rex and his giant woodlice-isopod pals come over for afternoon tea.)

Also, there are people that apparently feel that their opinion is fact, and have trouble distinguishing between the two. Wouldn't it be great if all your opinions were facts?! Wow, life would rule because you'd always be right about everything!

***

Anyway, what this boils down to is:

- Opinions are subjective, while facts are objective. Let's all learn the difference! :)

- If you can't say something constructive, don't say anything at all. This just makes people mad and doesn't help anything.

- Politics, like race, religion, abortion, science, music and anything else that has more than one viewpoint, can potentially be a stinkbomb waiting to explode in your face. Treat it as such. Unless you're out getting drunk with good friends. Then, ya know... go nuts. As long as there is no written or videotaped recording of your conversation. :)


...Come back to me, Ravelry!!!!

What Happens When You're Laid-Up

...is that you do a metric ton of knitting.


FO 1: Handspun hat. Yarn was spun during my time spent at the Pluckyfluff workshop. It's just a single crochet all the way around, with a size M(?) hook. Giant-ass hook + big yarn make project FLY. I finished this hat in an hour. I swear.



FO 2: Insane Handspun Hat. More Pluckyfluff-workshop yarn. I used my Aura-style mohair cloud yarn for the brim, then I held two handspun singles together ( a thick / thin green wrapped in turquoise thread that I spun from Kim's "Fiber Play" gift + a purplish one). Again, super simple single crochets...


It's INSANE! And very fluffy around my ears. They shall be warm. Here is the hat on the floor.
It's a bit darker in real life, I think... maybe that is just the dark green mesh still surrounding my building...



Here is today's progress on my sister's Porom hat. I just wound up the second skein of yarn for it.



And finally, here is a picture at the parking lot of Crystal Mountain ski resort. I kept forgetting to get actual pictures while I was up skiing! (And hurting myself!)

Food Diary

While emailing Fran (my primary Crossfit trainer and friend) today, she asked me if I would be willing to keep a food diary for a week, to assist her with a nutrition class she is currently taking. I agreed, thinking it would be an interesting experiment, as well as getting me back into remembering what food portions are supposed to look like.


My first stop was to measure out 4 oz of red wine. 4 oz is often quoted as "a glass", but in America, Land of Out-of-Control 1 lb hamburgers and drink glasses that can easily hold 500 mL of wine, many people vastly underestimate their portion sizes, and balk when you suggest that the portion of protein on their plate should roughly equal the volume of their palm.

This is exactly 1/2 cup, or 4 liquid ounces, of red wine. I took a picture of it next to a standard 750 mL bottle of wine, for reference.




The next step was to measure out how much volume one of my eating bowls holds. Turns out one of my bowls holds 2 cups of liquid, with about 1/2" of clearance to the top of the bowl. A mighty portion!

With that knowledge, I began assembling my food diary. Then I went to the store and bought some corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage. (Side note- did you know that "beeves" is the plural of "beef"? Strange but true.)

Here is my corned beef, cooking away slowly in my Salvation Army Crock-Pot.



...Onward...