SuperEggplant

Did you know that knitting blogger Kerstin is a bad influence? Well, she is. She just happens to mention Classic Elite Star, which is composed of 99 percent cotton and 1 percent lycra or something, on her blog, so of course I became intrigued. Well, two ebay auctions later, I am the proud owner of 9 skeins of Classic Elite Star, 4 in chartreuse and 5 in burgundy! It’s a disease.

Peter looked at the blog today, and he commented: “There are too many pictures of you on there.” Well, if it weren’t for my insane, sabotaging brother, there would not be so many photos of me and my head (nor would there be crazy scribblings about dogs eating cats and such). So there.
In knitting notes, I started the Becky Wannabe Sweater last night! I did a tubular cast-on (or, my personal interpretation of a tubular cast-on) and have knit the ribbing plus 4 rows. Hey, all sweaters have to start somewhere. It will hopefully look like this someday (though the store I ordered my yarn from didn’t have white, so I went with blue):

I’m afraid this is going to be yet another tedious and long-winded entry. Let us begin with the homemade ice cream! Yesterday I went to the grocery store for ice cream supplies, and looky what I found:

IT IS MR. SPRINKLES. Anyone who knows me knows I adore chocolate sprinkles. I even have a tiny container of them that I take to the Chinese buffet (they have a soft serve machine)! So here is the homemade ice cream with Scharffenberger chocolate sauce and Mr. Sprinkles:
Now for a slight rant: I went to Michael’s looking for bookbinding/bookmaking supplies and was told NO CIGAR. No bookmaking supplies here, lady. Hello? So I can go to Michael’s and make a crapload of memory books or what have you (no offense to those of you who make memory books), but I can’t get supplies for a traditional ART? CRAZY. So now I have to drive 30 miles away to a REAL hobby store. Hmph. One good thing, though, is that our local Michael’s has just started carrying Lion Brand Cotton Ease. Gotta look for that silver lining sometimes.
House news. Peter rented the pressure washer again and finished blasting all the crud off the house:

Doesn’t the house look horrid? Well, what can you do with a stucco box. It should look much better after it’s painted! (That’s my father-in-law in the corner there.)
And a sad note. Yesterday an acquaintance from graduate school died. She had been fighting breast cancer for a couple of years. In January she was given a clean bill of health, but less than half a year later they discovered the cancer had spread. Everywhere. That was only 6 weeks ago. She had just completed radiation for the tumors in her brain, and she was going to start chemotherapy. She began having trouble breathing, so they put her into ICU and intubated her. She died less than 24 hours later. She was only 36 years old!! Karen was a very vivacious and determined person, and her death is society’s loss. So, do what you want to do TODAY, appreciate life, and spend time with fun, caring people!
That’s it for now. I bought fabric yesterday and today for shorts, and I started on the armholes on the Throw Caution to the Wind tank, so I should be talking about crafty stuff again soon!

I finished the marshmallows!

I tried to cut them so they would fit perfectly on a graham cracker. Unfortunately, I was unable to have a s’more on the beach because I got the punes and couldn’t go. My head kind of hurt, and I took about 4 naps. Peter got some s’more assembly photos, though:
Excedrin allowed me to knit for a little while. Just another inch or so, and I can start in on the armholes of the Throw Caution to the Wind tank.

I forgot to mention that we saw some bald eagles at Lake Nacimiento yesterday. There was one big guy sitting in a tree, and we sat on the boat staring at him for a while, and then we heard some chirping further away. There were a bunch of baby eagles, and they were taking turns practicing how to fly! Very cool. And THEN the mom eagle (we’re assuming) flew over to the tree where the big guy was sitting, landed on a branch just below his, and proceeded to tear some bloody thing apart and eat it!
Here’s a snack I got at Mitsuwa Market in San Jose on Saturday. It’s called anmitsu, and it’s a Japanese dessert thing with agar agar cubes, honey, azuki bean paste, etc. I thought it would be tasty, but it was actually kind of grody. Here you can see that each portion of the dessert comes in a hermetically sealed packet:
The Throw Caution to the Wind tank is coming along, I guess. I am at the increases for the waist shaping, and soon I’ll have to figure out what to do with the neck and armholes.

Boating was enjoyed by all in our household today (well, Dede didn’t get to go boating)! Peter went sailing with his nephew, Tyler, and his nephew’s roommate (also named Peter). They had a wonderful time down in Avila.
One of the women from my exercise class invited us all out to her house (okay, it was a MANSION) at Lake Nacimiento for a potluck thing, so a handful of us ventured out there (getting lost on the way). Many people in this area go to “the lake,” but I never have. I always, perhaps snobbily, considered the lake to be a haven for beer-guzzling, sunburned undesirables. Well, it usually is, but not on Mondays! We took all our goodies (I made Rice Krispie treats with peanut butter and chocolate chips) onto the party barge and found a lovely little cove where we ate and swam (bath water temperature!). Much fun was had by all, though I think maybe I got a bit of a sunburn on my back (I couldn’t reach it to put on my SPF 45 sunscreen!)