Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Mysterious Disappearances

I think the evil blogging gnomes have taken upon themselves to clean up around here. I posted last week before I left for the weekend and even checked to make sure it posted and it did. Then I came back and I have no bio or description and 2 blog posts are missing. Surely gnomes are to blame. Any insight?

Nothing new going on here. Still looking for a job. Still working on the giant Ugly ghan and the argyle sock. Hope to have new pics soon.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Portland Pics

Finally, here are some of the pics from our amazing Portland Trip over Memorial Day Weekend.

We flew into Portland and went that day to the Japanese Gardens and the Rose Garden.
We stayed in Portland then started our way up the Coast. We started out at Tillamook then worked our way up.

This is one of the cool rock formations on the coast. I don't remember the name of it but it was beautiful.



We found this cool winery, Nehalam Bay Winery, on the way and stopped for a tasting. It was quirky and fun and we had a great time. Tasting wine. It was maybe not noon yet. But the coolest wineries are on the side of highways in the most random places. Like the one we found on the way to Durango last year.




On to Seaside, where I discovered Coastal Yarns and got some delicious STR.
We walked out onto the beach and had a great view of Haystack Rock (the one that was in the Goonies).



Saw this cool sideways tree at the edge of a cliff at Ecola State Park near Seaside.
The park was in The Goonies too, where the Fratelli's place was.



Another coast shot from Ecola:



And we finally made it to Astoria, where we stayed Saturday night.
Most of The Goonies was filmed there. Here's the Goonies House:



Astoria was great. It was scenic and beautiful and had a very small town feel.
We stayed at the amazing Cannery Pier hotel, built at the base of a huge bridge over the Columbia River. It is one of the coolest places I have ever stayed.
We also got to make it to their Sunday Farmer's Market - about 3 blocks of artisans and little food booths. We had some amazing steamer clams with garlic butter and some huge barbequed oysters and some delicious quesadillas. I also got a cool pottery mug and some great soap. It was great fun although it was about 3 degrees and spitting rain.



We were driving around Sunday and couldn't decide where to go - we drove to Mt. St. Helen's but they said there was a very limited view so we turned around and decided to head up to Seattle since we were just a few hours away.

They have by far the coolest outdoor market. We didn't have long, since it was Sunday things closed shortly after we got there but we had about 30 minutes to look around.



And there was a beautiful rainbow on the way back from Seattle.



We headed back to Portland and stayed Sunday night and had a great lunch Monday at this delicious Cuban resturaunt. I would highly recommend it.



It was such a great trip. I forgot how beautiful the Pac NW is. Can't wait to go back!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

7 Random Things

I was tagged by Yasmin for this fun Meme. Always obliging to spill more quirky facts about myself, here goes...

1. I hate for my food to touch. I don't like the tastes to blend. I also eat things one at a time in order of which tastes worst cold.
2. When eating candies with different flavors (like Skittles or Starburst), I separate the colors and eat all of one color at a time.
3. I can't go to sleep with socks on.
4. I have never been stung by a bee or had a reaction to Poison Ivy.
5. I have this keen ability to memorize song lyrics. I can hear a song (occasionally an album) just a few times and remember all the words forever.
6. I love movies and quote random lines all the time. Sometimes people catch the references and think I'm witty and clever. Sometimes I just get odd stares.
7. I hate being early for things. I am chronically late. Partially to avoid that really awkward time when you get somewhere and then have 10 minutes to sit there pretending to be busy while waiting for something to start. My ideal time is right on the dot.

Okay, there you have it...7 more weird things about me. Because they just don't come out often enough.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

On the Versatility of Sheep...

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Off for the Weekend

Just a quick post to say I'm off to the Kerrville Music Festival down by San Antonio, TX. Yeah, I'm so excited. Today was my last day at work so the Battle of the Wills is over and I'm on my way. Things ended amicably and I hate to move on but I know I need to.
We fly out tonight (a friend from work and her good friend) and get to stay until late Monday. We are camping out and I really can't wait for a nice relaxing weekend.
Hope everyone else has a great weekend too!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Flower Shots

We had a chance to visit the Japanese Gardens/ Rose Garden in Portland. Most of the roses hadn't bloomed out yet but the ones that had were amazing.



The ferns there were so gorgeous. I won't bore you with the countless fern pictures I took but I just think they are so amazing and tiny and beautiful.
I can't believe the plants they can grow there. We saw numerous rhododendrons that were huge and gorgeous.
These calla lilies were growing in someone's yard in Cannon Beach. There were a ton of them and they were all huge.


These poppies were also in Cannon Beach growing along the sidewalk. They were even prettier in person.

Quick Update and Finger Quiz

Just a quick post to say I don't have much to report...
Things have been pretty boring around here. I went home last weekend for Father's Day and had a great time with my family. I met up with a friend from High School who I haven't seen in about 7 years. It was so great to see her again.
Not getting much knitting done, just mostly trying to catch up on stuff around the house.
Still looking for a job, I don't even have any great prospects but hopefully something will come up.
Hopefully I'll have something fun to report soon!

Oh, I did find a cool site for bookworms: www.librarything.com
You can create a searchable catalog of the books you own, get recommendations based on your tastes, and chat with others who read the same stuff. I've had a lot of fun with it.

Here's a cute quiz I found somewhere - Is there any better finger to be, really?

You Are the Middle Finger

A bit fragile and dependent on your friends, you're not nearly as hostile as you seem.
You are balanced, easy to get along with, and quite serious.
However, you can get angry and fed up with those around you. And you aren't afraid to show it!

You get along well with: The Index Finger

Socks and Trip Goods

I got some quality knitting time on the trip and thought I'd finally start Knit Pick's Almost Argyle Socks. I'm using Knit Picks Gloss - 70% Merino, 30% Silk and it is amazing. I love working with it. And the fit of the socks is spot on. I'm almost finished with the first one.

And there was even time on the Oregon trip for a little yarn shopping.
We stopped at Yarn Garden in Portland - a really cool yarn store about 3 store fronts wide in an old downtown section of Portland. And there's the cutest little tea bar/ snack place connected to it. This is the first time I have seen Koigu in real life and I thought I'd indulge.


When we were in Cannon Beach on Saturday, we stopped at Coastal Yarns and I got a skein of Socks that Rock. That was my first time to see that stuff in real life too. It's so soft and squishy! They also had some really great pieces made up and I found this great lace scarf pattern made with Kidsilk. If I make it through the current lace pattern I might give it a shot.

And the shot of the other goods:
We found this cool winery, Nehalam Bay, on the way up the Orgeon Coast. They had mostly fruit wines and I was sure they would be dreadful and syrupy sweet but they were all really great.
The mug and soap we got at this awesome Farmer's Market in Astoria. It was about three blocks wide and there were all kinds of artists and food booths. We had a ton of fresh seafood and other delicious goodness.

We also squeezed in a trip to Trader Joe's in Portland but the pics of those goods weren't too interesting. I got a bunch of snap pea crisps and some cool bathroom stuff. Oh, and Mexican Hot Chocolate.
It's definitely the best grocery store ever. I really hope our state will change it's stupid liquor laws soon (we don't allow wine in our grocery stores) so we can get cool stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Trip to the Mountains

Here are the pictures from our recent camping trip to the Wichita Mountains in Southern OK. It is so beautiful there. We really enjoyed the time away.





The wildflowers were blooming and gorgeous:



And there was some great wildlife. We saw all kinds of stuff.
We don't have many lizards like this around here, we usually just see the tiny skinny ones.
We did see (kind of, it was at night at the campground) a tarantula.



This rattlesnake was sunning on a rock almost right on the trail. He was extremely docile, didn't even rattle. So cool! I haven't seen one outside of the zoo before.

It was a great trip. They have Longhorns, Buffalo, a little Prarie Dog town (those things freak me out, they carry Monkey Pox you know) and lots of deer.

It was so great to get away and spend time in nature.

Yes, There is Knitting

Just a little bit though...

After organizing all my yarn and realizing I own more acrylic yarn that one girl should ever have, I embarked on a stash busting mission. The random stripy blanket.



Not my best work ever but I'm getting rid of a lot of stash. And it's kinda growing on me.

And I've been trying my hand at lace but not having the greatest results.
It's the Lace Leaf Shawl from Fiber Trends (love this pattern!).



Bad picture, the yarn is a deep cranberry.

I think I just need to rip it out and start over with a bigger needle. I can't hardly see the lace pattern at all. I don't do much lace work but I'm assuming you should be able to see the holes a little bit before blocking?

Have a trip coming up this weekend and I really hope to get some knitting time in.

Haven't had much time lately what with all the drama at work and all. It's not getting much better and I'm about to give up. I'm in this field to help people and make a difference and I refuse to have to fight a coworker to do so. End of soapbox. Everyone in authority knows how I feel so it will resolve soon one way or the other.