SuperEggplant

Made it to Portland! Already things are off to a pretty productive start. This morning I went out for a run on my favorite running path, and at one point I thought, hmm, wouldn’t it be funny if I ran into Melissa? I then ran around the corner, and there was Melissa running up the hill!!!! I kid you not (and no, I’m not psychic, but once in a while I get these little premonitions). I forced her to stop and chat, and then we ran down the hill together.
Other things accomplished:
– got a hair cut (yup, on a Sunday!)
– bought new running shoes
– called all my Portland homies (heh, I can’t believe I used that term)
– visited the fancy new French bakery in the neighborhood
– bought and sampled a Slitti Lattenero chocolate bar (most chocolate purists go for dark chocolate, but I confess to preferring milk chocolate. Good chocolatiers are now starting to make milk chocolate bars, and the Slitti is a highly rated one. It is quite good, but hello, $6.79 for a chocolate bar? I think I do need to try the 51% bar, though, for comparison’s sake … )

And that, dear readers, is probably WAY more than you wanted to know. Hope everyone had a good, springy weekend.

Thanks for all your kind comments regarding the peppermint candy sweater. I decided to be brave and tried it on this morning. I made monkey arms, but other than that, the body seems to fit okay. I am impatient so I ordered a zipper from zipperstop, and it will be delivered to my parents’ address in Portland. I have to mention how much I love zipperstop. They are so helpful there! I asked about getting the zipper shortened then told him I needed a zipper that is 16.25″ long. Long pause. He said, “Can’t you make a 16″ zipper work? It’s only a tooth or two difference.” I could tell he was trying not to laugh. Yeah, this is what happens when I try to be precise and detail oriented!

Anyway, Portland should be fun, even though the reason I am going is to “spend time” with (hello, euphemism for BABYSIT) my father. I am still planning some fun excursions, though. Action Hero Melissa and I might even venture out to Woodland Woolworks! And, I will continue to blog, so there’s just no getting rid of me! Mwahahahaha!

I used the new daisy chain method I learned from the proprietor of the bead shop, and though I still need oodles more practice, I did manage to produce this:

I’m not really very good at crafting little tiny, detailed things, so I don’t know why I’ve decided to tackle seed beads, but oh well!
Is there anyone out there in Kansas? Have you tried a Valomilk? They did a piece on them on the Food Network, and boy, do they look good! Chocolate with ooey gooey marshmallow inside. Does it get any better than that?

I cruised the toy aisle at Target the other day, and lo and behold, here is the glorious Peeps Maker! It was a bit distracting, because there was also an Icee machine, a McFlurry machine, and some other food-related items, including the Easy Bake Oven (oh, how I yearned for one of these when I was a kid!!!). While I personally think these contraptions are great (I love Icees), I wonder if they send the wrong message to the youth of today? Eh, whatever. Oh, I did not purchase the Peeps Maker, though I fondled the box for a few minutes.
Thanks for all the feedback on the bag instructions! I will try to figure out an easy way for people to link to it. Maybe I will have a separate patterns section? I’ve been meaning to develop a pattern for a Japanese apron, so if I ever get around to doing that, I could have a whole TWO patterns!
On a sad note, Jennifer of moving hands has decided to go on blog hiatus! We will miss her!!! BUT, maybe we can get some hints of what she is up to from Rae or Kat, two other fabulous Tokyo knitters. I have a funny story about Rae. We attended the same college for a while, and we had Japanese class together. We talked during class, but we didn’t hang out together. Imagine my surprise, then, when I got an e-mail from her a couple of months ago asking if I was the same Mariko. She stumbled upon my blog through the vast maze of knitting blogs! Crazy, huh? So yes, Joanna, sometimes it really IS a small world (see Joanna’s blog for an explanation).

Saturday the entire day was spent pulling weeds, shoveling dirt, and moving rocks from one pile to another. The tips of my fingers became so sore that it hurt to type.
Sunday I spent the entire day trying to do our taxes with Turbo Tax. I messed up a couple of times and had to START OVER. This took ALL day, and I still have to do our state taxes.
I also accidentally went to the bead store again. At least I got a one-on-one tutorial on how to make daisy chains. Now if I could only find the time to practice …
Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Well, I attempted to make a seed bead necklace yesterday, and I think I may have been a bit too ambitious. I tried to make little daisies (I think it’s called a daisy chain in beading parlance), and I clearly used the wrong kind of beading wire (Soft Flex) because the daisies will not lie flat and look all mangled. It’s not that noticeable if I’m wearing it, so I might just be lazy and keep it as is:

Peter saw it and asked, “Is that a muffin?” Um, hello, but if I had the choice between a muffin and a cupcake, WHICH do you suppose I would choose?
Thanks to everyone for telling me about the Peeps-making machine. When I first heard about it, I had to exercise extreme will power to keep from dashing out to the store right then. I do need to go to Target soon, though, so if I accidentally find myself in the toy section, I might just have to get one!

Super eggplant was down all day because my brother was upgrading his DSL (and super eggplant lives on his server). I’ll be able to bop him on the head in person in a week, since I will be heading to Portland then! Please enjoy the lovely photo of the lovely Silvia in yesterday’s post.

It was a perfectly lovely day today! I went to the post office and then I accidentally went to the bead store, where I accidentally spent way more money than I intended. I don’t know how to bead, and I do NOT need another hobby. NO!!! But accidents happen, right? And the owner was kind enough to demonstrate several beading techniques, PLUS I got a free neck and shoulder massage from some customer (she was giving the owner one when I walked in, and then she gave me one, and it was incredible! She worked out the big knots in my shoulders).
Later in the afternoon the one and only flame-haired Silvia dropped by on her journey from southern California to northern California. And though it is HER birthday in a couple of days, she brought me a gift of tea and tea candies from our beloved Peet’s. We walked down to the French bakery/cafe and feasted on some treats:

(And yes, I ate that entire Napoleon). It was really nice to sit and gab with her. She has done so many interesting things in her life! I got to see all her recent knitting projects, too, which she has safely tucked away in her trunk in a clear plastic container (Peter commented, “Gee, that looks familiar”).
Okay, so after I wrote my post yesterday about TV, I thought, “Nobody is going to comment on this.” I guess I was wrong! It seems there are two camps: the TV camp and the non-TV camp. Reading all the comments has led me to the sad realization that I am a TV person, at least at this stage of my life. I will take some of the suggestions, though, and finally try out a book on tape. And re: Netflix. We are members of greencine, so we always have DVDs to watch, but we are really bad at watching them. Peter goes to bed a lot earlier than I do, so we can never coordinate movie watching during the week! Oh, and after I wrote complaining about getting channels pulled, I turned on the TV and still had access to CBS. Whoops. I am slightly sad about not having Comedy Central, though, since I JUST discovered the Jon Stewart Show (I know, talk about being late to the game) and now love him (but not as much as Silvia loves him).