Purlene’s Corner

And thank goodness, too.  I’m officially out of things to say on this here blog.

*  Saw “Hairspray”.  Zac Efron – whatever, maybe he’s more interesting in High School Musical, but he wasn’t that impressive in this.  Brittany Snow – perfect.  Nikki Blonski – good, kind of shrill, but high energy.  Sang every song exactly the same.  I liked her well enough.  John Travolta – awwww.  Queen Latifah – pwned, as usual. Man, I love her.  Christopher Walken – managed not to be creepy!  Thumbs up, Chris!  Amanda Bynes – still my favorite young actress.  Michelle Pfeiffer will CUT YOU if you don’t do as she says.  All in all, very enjoyable.

*  Saw “Fingersmith”.  Excellent, although I got confused in the second part.  I should probably read the book.

*  Am reading The Billionaire’s Vinegar, about the world’s most expensive bottle of wine.  Good stuff!

*  Am writing a story that is a secret for the Yuletide fanfiction exchange. Am also writing a boring article for work, blah. Haven’t written on either of them for four days, argh.

And there you have it! One month of posts from ames and aya. \o/

(ames)

My friend Cat invited Chara and me to her building’s travelling Thanksgiving Dinner last night (yes, the day after).  Her building is something like six or eight apartments, tiny cute little studios, some with balconies, some with sunrooms and fake fireplaces.  It was fantastic to see how the tenants had made their apartments their own, with painted walls, .  Everyone kind of congregated in Cat’s place for wine and chat while the first station got ready, we started with the wine, and the party was on.  It was great – the conversation flowed easily, and the food was excellent all around.  Cucumbers with an artichoke and parmesan dipping sauce, homemade miso soup, a pomegranite salad, and then Cat’s tour de force meal of a rolled turkey breast, a brussel sprout salad, potatoes with figs, shredded sweet potatoes in ginger, cranberry sauce, I don’t even remember what else.  We ended the evening next door where we had french pressed coffee and pie, and a brief story hour.  The party broke up then, and Cat, Chara, one of the neighbors and I spent many hours around Cat’s dining room table talking and finishing off the many many bottles of wine.  It was a wonderful evening and night, and I feel very lucky to have been asked to be a part of it. <3

And yippee, one more day of weekend still to go!  I met Ana this morning for a light coffee-and-croissant meal where we got caught up after not having seen each other in months (“your hair is so LONG!” – generally a clue that too much times has passed), made tentative plans for next Friday, and I have spent the past few hours doing boring work-related reading, watching tv, and cuddling with the kitty cats.  This has been an EXCELLENT Thanksgiving.

(ames. you are sick of me, I know. Also, apologies to those reading this on my other journal and getting it twice, haha. I got laaaazy.)

Bah.  My thanksgiving nap didn’t happen until this morning, and I slept almost the entire morning away.  I hate it when I do that, especially when I have plans for the afternoon.  Well.  I will just have to rearrange my plans for the rest of the weekend to accomodate losing basically four hours this morning.  Haha, I’m whining about four hours in a four day weekend.  I’m such a princess.

Today!  Hanging out with celli for a bit in about half an hour, then home to shower and change clothes and go to Thanksgiving Diner Redux at my friend Cat’s place.  Rock.  Her apartment building is doing one of those travelling dinners, where you hit up one apartment for turkey, a couple others for the sides, and then a final one for dessert.  Chara and I are getting there an hour early with wine, and we’re going to start the party then, woo.  Cat is – I don’t know to describe Cat, haha.  She’s great, one of those exuberant larger-than-life people who envelops her friends into her life, who wears brightly patterned bras under sheer white shirts, completely fluent in French, and I like her immensely.  Sadly, she’s planning to go study art history in Paris, and thus will be leaving me.  WOE.  But if I can cobble together airfare, I have a couch to sleep on in her student’s hovel. :D  After dinner, I need to write *that darn article for work, I am meeting Ana for coffee Saturday around 11:00, and that is IT.  No more plans for the weekend other than homework and other homework.

* re: the article.  It was originally a 900-word drop-in for a client newsletter.  Then LawyerM decided to make it a 5-page article on the most boring subject ever for a magazine.  And he did this on the week that I had no time for him OF COURSE.  Sigh.  It is ok.

(Hi. I wrote this and then forgot to post until many hours later.  Hanging out with celli was fun, and I am now showered and trying to decide which of my five outfits is suitable for a Thanksgiving dinner party.  I need more clothes. :/)

(ames)

First, there was preparation:

Then there was a feast!

Then there was a nap.

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans. This is my most favorite holiday of them all. I was happy to share it with good friends, good food, and good health. (and now I’m going to have seconds of the apple crisp Celli brought for dessert, mmmmm.)

(fyi: not me sleeping. :D  Celli!)

(ames for the second second SECOND day in a row! \o/)

You know how it is when you haven’t had something for a while, like a vital nutrient or whatever, and your body starts demanding it, and next thing you know, you’re drinking milk straight from the jug, or inhaling a steak without even tasting it?  I think I’m not getting enough Vitamin C.  It’s a good thing I live alone, because I’m pretty sure my devouring of that naval orange was bordering on the indecent.

I’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year!  I’m very excited – I haven’t made a Thanksgiving dinner in ages, it seems, and I’m ready to dive in.  In fact, I got a nice head start and made homemade cranberry sauce. I’ve never even eaten cranberry sauce! Of course, I documented the whole thing.

One package of cranberries that I scrounged from the very very back of the shelf at the Jewel. Who knew they were so popular? Apparently everyone but me. Rinsed and looking oh so pretty.

Dumped in a cup of sugar and water that I boiled until the sugar melted. I think I have a fast stove, or gas cooking is quicker than range. I don’t know. Everything seemed to zip zip zip. And, as the alt-tag says, I’d forgotten that cranberries floated. Such a cute food.

I did not know what “cook until the cranberries pop” meant, until I saw it happen. Much less violent than popcorn, but somewhat disturbing with the fleshy inside all exposed. :x I kept anthropomorphizing the berries until I had to walk away.

Almost done! It’s simmered for around ten minutes, probably less than that (it felt like it was getting mushy). I tossed it a few orange peel bits and some allspice right at the end. Probably too much allspice, to be honest; I was a little surprised at how much comes out of a little shake.

It is hard to see this picture, because of the steam, but the cranberry sauce is done and cooling on the counter. Once it gets to room temperature, I’ll cover it and chill it overnight. Or I could just leave it out, it’s so cold in my apartment. Brr.

Phase One of Thanksgiving. . . DONE. Ta-da! And yes, I tasted a bit of the sauce and holy omg it was tasty.

ames here, and it’s time for Fun Dying with Kool-Aid! And it isn’t even real Kool-Aid, it’s that knockoff brand Flavr-aid, or however it’s spelled. Basically, I was procrastinating last night and decided that instead of writing the five-page article my boss wants done by Monday, I would wad up a skein of superwash roving and dunk it in a pot of kool-aid. Witness the horror:

The white spots are partially intentional, in that I put the fake kool-aid in after the wool, so it didn’t distribute evenly to begin with, and then I didn’t bother moving the wool around at all. I wanted to see what would happen – how much would the color soak in by itself, if there would be any bits of pure white left. And there are! It’s kind of amazing.

Also, I don’t know about all these tutorials that say it takes thirty minutes for the color to soak into the yarn. I’ve always done mine with a squirt of dish soap in the first soak, and the wool sucks up the color within five, ten minutes.

Just think. aya’s away for the week. You get this ALL WEEK LONG. \o/ You’re so lucky.

(fa la aya fa la aya la la la)

I was planning on posting a pic of the newest WIP, but the camera battery didn’t want to cooperate, seeing as it was dead and all.

Instead, picture this yarn on size 3 needles, cast-on 60, alternating a straight knit row with a knit two slip two row. This is preventing the yarn from pooling, and it is actually sort of striping. In a ribby sort of way. I’m liking it.

In other news, I finished up day #15 straight of working. Another day and a half, and I’m outta here. Home for a four and a half day weekend, woo!  I can’t wait – I haven’t been home since 10/01. It’s been way too long since my last trip. I get to eat yummy turkey and my mother’s fabulous stuffing, and see my family. And some of my friends are coming by Friday night to hang out. So it should be a wonderful weekend, overall.

Well, off to check on Ollie, who is running around willy nilly in my bedroom, then wait for roomie #2 to get home so we can watch the season finale of True Blood.

toodles.

ames, writing on the day she’s actually supposed to! Aya’s Foliage gorgeousness inspired me, last night.  Plus, I had pretty new yarn that was demanding that I knit with it.

I couldn’t resist.  The beautiful Lion & Lamb was calling my name.  I mean, just look at it:

Can you resist that? The gorgeous colors, the sheen from the silk, the way you can tell just by looking at it that it’s the softest stuff in the world – this is not stash yarn, my friends. This is yarn to be USED.

It’s even pretty all caked up! Actually, it may be prettier, as you can see how the colors look next to each other in a way that the skein doesn’t always show.

A few minutes on the internet looking for a pattern, four episodes of Stargate Atlantis, and a few hours of blissful blissful knitting later, and we have a big circle! Ha, ok, it’s a beret/tam type hat, but it’s blocking on a dinner plate so it can get that nice defined edge. Look at that gorgeous color. It’s Lorna’s, so it pooled (not all their multi colorways do, but enough of them that you just learn to expect it), but I actually like how it ended up. Just a little bit right at the center, enough to almost be called a design element. He.

A GIRL AND HER TAM. ♥
Last Minute Purled Beret by Knit and Tonic
half a skein of Lorna’s Laces Lion & Lamb, Sand Ridge colorway
US8 DPNs.
Lots of Rodney McKay.
Snuggly couch, purring cats, slight chill in the air, warm blankets.
♥Autumn♥

Hello! I have a FO!

The stripes were sort of a surprise when I downloaded this photo. It doesn’t look so stripy sitting right here on my head.

Or maybe it does/ At least the ribbed edging.

So – Foliage. I love the pattern, though I kept losing stitches. my own fault, not the pattern’s. I would add one more repeat on – another 12 rows, if I knit it again. That way it would cover my ears a bit more. This is for the prezzie pile, though, and the recipient’s head isn’t as big as mine, so it’ll work out well.

The next version will be in Malabrigo as well. This one’s called Bergamota. And I’m keeping it for myself.

I have a bunch of yarn leftover from the hat. Not enough for mittens, but I’m wondering if I could pull off some wristlets. Or a really skinny scarf. Thoughts? I don’t think I’d gift them together – too matchy matchy, but I’d like to find a good use for the leftovers, because it was so scrumptious to knit with.

So, yesterday was an ames day, huh?  I completely forgot.  This is a good day to post for me, however, as it was Lorna’s Laces factory sale day!  I spent the least I’ve ever spent – $28.  ::applause::  No pictures, as it’s not really worth getting pictures of, but I walked away with a big bag of fiber and a skein of Lion & Lamb.  Good grief, that’s nice yarn.  Sand Ridge colorway, if you have an interest, and it may be a Foliage hat of my own.  Can’t let aya have all the fun, right?

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  It got cold here, and I started nesting, which means glasses and plates in every room, yarn and books everywhere, and where did all this DIRT come from?   It’s not like I run around in dirt, or have animals that ever go outside, and yet – dirt.  Ugh.  My friend celli came over to ensure that I did not slack off.  She’s a good person.  Of course, I’m returning the favor tomorrow at her place.  Ha.

OK, penance done.  I have movies to watch and yarn to pet and whatnot.  Catch you all later!