Forty-Two

So, no posts in 25 weeks. I was trying to go for a record, but I wanted to post a recipe for some vaguely teriyaki beef I made this weekend for a barbecue. It was lovely! Except for one of the pieces I got that was made up almost entirely of gristle. Eeew. I've also been working on a new sort of potato salad. It actually went very well with the beef, so I'm posting both recipes here for, you know, posterity or summink.

( Vaguely Teriyaki Beef and New-Fangled Potato Salad )

I've learned a fair bit since the last time I blogged about tamales and I'm putting some of it into practice today.
( See how )

ZOMG... soo yummy. Through a random sequence of events, I found a few recipes online for kalua pulled pork (no, not the coffee flavoured liqueur, but a Hawaiian method of cooking that involves long, slow smoking in a pit oven... as in a luau)( ... )

Yeah, I suck. Sorry...

Had a month off for Christmas, which was lovely. I didn't go anywhere or do anything particularly, but it was nice just to be away.

Had a nice Boxing day with the ex-in-laws (Who are awesome, I just have to say) and got lots of good holiday loot. I got a nifty Piratical calendar from my secret Santa at work, and loads of books (especially the Night Watch/Day Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko and the Rachel Morgan series by Kim Harrison) and several DVDs.

I started going to the gym twice a week in September, and now that I don't feel like horking my food up all the time (Oh, you gotta love acid reflux...), I'm even managing fairly easily a 45-55 minute workout. Not that you can see any bloody results yet, but I feel better in myself. :)

No recipes for you this time, but I am working on a sweet and hot cashew chicken recipe that might turn out to be pretty good once I get the proportions right.

Mkay, I'm off to eat Chinese food now. *waves*

Just haven't had much to blog about.

I am pleased with the election results, though. I'm doubly pleased that my 'home state' of Indiana went to Barack Obama... They haven't voted democrat in over 40 years! Hurrah for Indiana!

Erm... what else.

I've actually been quite ill since June, so I've been mostly out of action when it comes to keeping in touch with people and stuff... so, it's not that I don't love you any more, it's just that mostly I was trying not to throw up for 4 months. (I'm better now! It was mostly acid reflux complicated by some ovarian cysts... that's why it took so long to diagnose, buecause the symptoms didn't fit any one thing).

Made up a new recipe the other day: ( Mushroom and Bacon Risotto )

I just finished reading a book called The Host by Stephanie Meyer. ( about the book )

I am not the grammar police and I'm just as bad as your average person about leaving my participles dangly, but I've seen this just about one too many times this weekend. Including on the XKCD forums where someone said, "s' is my pet peeve, I never use it." (FWIW, I didn't read the entire thread, so they might have been corrected. However, it was still one time too many.)

So, I give you my:

"When to use 's and when to use s': A short description"

( Grammar Lesson )

OK... I think I'm done now. :)

The thing about not watching telly is that I always learn about these things at work, on a Monday... I'm just stunned. George Carlin passed from heart trouble on Sunday afternoon. He has been an intellectual inspiration to me since I discovered him in my teens (in no small way thanks to erutara!) and I'll miss his intelligent contributions about everything from politicians to golf courses (get rid of 'em all!).

Farewell...

I went to The Rice Boat - quite possibly the second best restaurant in Cambridge (Number 1 is Peking... the best Szechuan food I've ever eaten!) - with some friends a little over a week ago. They serve Kerala-style Indian food( ... )

My eeeeeeyyyyyyeees!

Made of odd balls of acrylic yarn I had lying around. I'm gonna put it on my sofa and leave it to my nieces when I get old and senile. :D

Some days, I really do wonder!


Am-I-Dumb.com - Intelligence Test

Terrible picture, but:



I tried it on the other day before I knit the sleeves and collar and I *think* it's even going to fit and not be too big. Not positive, mind you, but I think it will. I'm doing some short rows on the bust a la Joan McGowan-Michael's Shapely Tank and after that I'll do a few more inches in the red. I'm still pretty sure I'm going to use the ribbing pattern and band from Scarlet Woman... Anyway, just thought I'd share a photo, since it seems to be turning out all right. :D

I had a pretty good haul this year! *rubs hands together gleefully* I bought myself a few things... a breadmaker (which I've been wanting for ages and which are now cheap enough and small enough to consider!), a copy of Big Girl Knits (which is a book of knitting patterns for the zaftig lady). I also bought a paint roller and tray so I can paint over the ugly stain on my ceiling where the boiler leaked, weather stripping (which didn't bloody work!) for the back door, and a letterbox cover with a brush to stop draughts (which is too long for the current set of holes, so I have to find my drill... somewhere...)!

But, I have friends who like me enough to buy me stuff, too! *dance* My secret pal at work got me a nifty colouring book full of geometric 3D designs, some giant coloured pencils and a pencil with a pirate eraser! Dazza got me a lovely red silk cushion for my sofa (though I'm actually using it for the computer chair), a book about haunted places in London and a book about digital photography (I've been wanting one of those for ages and she said this one got really good reviews - sorry, it's upstairs and I'm playing Warcraft at the moment or I'd go up and see which one it is!) The family (my UK family) got me good stuff, too. :) I got the Simpsons Movie, Series 1 & 2 of The IT Crowd, a knitting book I wanted (Victorian Lace Today, which is a selection of Victorian lace knitting patterns that have been modernised; beautiful!), some yummy bath stuff, a very cool Dragon calendar and a whoooooooooole slew of American-style organic junk food. :D Including some awesome-looking honey-mustard which I plan to bake a ham with at some point. :)

Oh, finally... My flight is done... I wish Blizzard would shorten the Wind Rider flight times a bit!

Back to my game! I'm halfway through level 60... might be able to get a level tonight if I keep killing those crazed hellboars in the outland... heh. ;)

I made risotto for supper last night and it was loooovely. So, I thought I'd chuck the recipe on here just 'cause.

( Recipe here )

For me, anyway. :)

I'm going to make myself a sweater. I've never made a sweater before... I hate seaming things, they never look right and grafting takes a ruddy long time... So, I'm going to make a top-down raglan sweater in the round 'cause that'll be much easier!

I'm using a free pattern: Bad Penny, from the Spring 2004 edition of Knitty, except-- because I'm me and I rarely *ever* follow a pattern or recipe exactly-- with a few changes. Obviously, the colours have to change, because orange just makes me look like a pumpkin. :) I'm going to make the main body a lovely dark red (cranberry) and the ribbing in black. I also *think* (depending on how much red I have... they only had 4 balls!) I'm going to knit the sleeve ribbing in red and then add a faux double layer... sort of pick up some stitches in black on the underside of the sleeve and knit a longer sleeve-- down to my elbow, I think. I'm also pretty sure I'm going to have to start the black bottom ribbing earlier than the pattern calls for, but not sure. :) I considered trying to do short rows for the bust, to help with that weird wrinkle next to the arm, but that may actually be beyond me at the moment. I have actually cast on a Shapely Tank, but I've only got about three inches of the front done, so that's no help. :)

Well, we'll see how it goes, anyway! I've cast on the neckline and I think I've worked out the gauge correctly; the yarn used in the pattern knits up at 2 more stitches to the inch than the Cygnet Aran does, so that *should* give me the extra couple of inches I need for the body.

Once I get anything of note done, I'll try to post some piccies.

Edit 2: Yergh... there's an error in the first three lines of the pattern.. heh :) I thought maybe I was just going crazy! But no... The bit that goes:

Inc round 1: K all sts.
Inc round 2: K to 1 st before marker, yo, k1, slip marker, yo

is actually physically impossible. Fortunately, I realised that it was all wrong before I got too far (I was doing k to last st, yo, k1, yo, slip marker, which just *wasn't* working out) and found the fix on her web site:

Inc round 1: K all sts.
Inc round 2: K to 1 st before marker, yo, k1, slip marker, -k1-, yo

So, two knit stitches between the YOs and the marker between the two knits.

Edit: S; if you've got this far, have a listen to this. It's from the episode of Museum of Everything I was just listening to and it made me giggle *lots*. I recorded it 'cause it might not be on the site any more by the time you get a chance to read this. ;)

Well, not REALLY, obviously... I was just looking at a new friend's livejournal and he'd done a 'Leading Man' quiz - there was a Classic Dames one, too, and I came out at Kate. :D I think she totally rocked, so I'm OK with that. Yes, I know this isn't a real post, but it's nearly 11PM and I should be going to bed, not posting here.

Anyway...
Your Score: Katharine Hepburn
You scored 14% grit, 23% wit, 52% flair, and 23% class!</p>

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

The Classic Dames Test

I'm slightly convinced there was something wrong with the statistics, though, since I apparently scored higher than 99% of all other women my age on all 4 categories tracked by the quiz (grit, wit, flair and class)... Either the statistics are off or I'm a helluva lot cooler than I thought! ;)

OK... right. Bedtime for me.

(p.s. S, if you're reading this, I hope you're feeling better! *squidge* We were worried about you today at work!)

Well...:


52%

I suppose being willing to drive 20 minutes across town to check on friends and not actually owning a gun reduce my chances quite a lot... Hmmm. *strokes chin*

And here's a real shocker:

90% Geek

Yeah, I know. You're totally stunned. *nods* Me, too!

Sooo.... Lots of stuff going on since September (er, or when was it I posted last? Maybe August...).

blackannis238 and I went to the London Film and Comic Con at the beginning of September. It was awesome. :) I hadn't been to a con in many a year (probably not since the last one I went to with walerian!)... well, unless you count Witch Fest UK a few years ago, which is similar in nature. :D

Anywho, S. got to meet Dominic Monaghan, which was way cool (she's a fan of Lost and got me interested in it, too) and also William Mapother (who played one of the others, but was killed off... awww. He might have been a good guy if he'd lived!) and we went to a Q&A session with both of them.

My cool conquests were meeting Billy West (BILLY WEST!!!!! Stimpy! Frye! Zoidberg! Farnsworth! *hyperventilates*) and Robert Rankin (who has, I think, written the book with the coolest title ever: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocolypse). AND I got both of their autographs. :D But wow... Billy West. I almost wasn't going to do it but then S. and her partner talked me into it and I'm glad I did. :) I wasn't going to because events were conspiring against me... We were given numbered tickets and my number came up while we were in the Lost Q&A; then when we got it, the actors had just gone on their lunch breaks... doh... then I was doing something else, then ... yeah. Anyway, eventually I got up there... and I have to say, he was amazing. After two days of dealing with nerds from all walks of fandom, he looked me in the eye and shook my hand and smiled and said hello before he signed my picture of Zoidberg Jesus... and HE MEANT IT. The smile was absolutely genuine. I bet I wouldn't have got the same service if I'd actually got to meet Patrick Stewart. Course, that was about as likely as Johnny Depp leaving his wife for me, considering the size of the crowd that mobbed that side of the hall... heh. :) And Robert Rankin was equally fabulous (though I didn't have the complete fangirl brain shutdown with him that I had with B.W! "Uh... wow. Hi, it's really nice to meet you! *drooly google-eyes* *sigh* heheh :) He even embellished my name very prettily when he signed my book. :D Plus, he had the coolest collection of hats ever!

Darn... I'm pretty sure some more stuff's gone on, but darned if I can remember any of it. I'll make a list and write another update soon. :)