Monday, July 26, 2010

Ten on Tuesday: 10 things to do instead of watching TV

Well, given that I limit myself to about 10 hours a week of TV (except when I'm sick or injured), I have lots of things for this list!

1) Knit
2) Read a book
3) Cook
4) Bake
5) Clean the house
6) Grade some homework
7) Prep for the next days' classes
8) Sort the mail
9) Play with my children
10) Practice violin and piano

Oh, wait! You probably meant things I do TO RELAX instead of watching TV. OK, I can handle this:

1) Knit something more complex than stockinette, because I could have been doing that in front of the TV.
2) Read a book
3) Crochet, because I can't do it without looking.
4) Cook
5) Bake
6) Play piano
7) Go for a walk
8) Play with my children
9) Dream about next summer's garden
10) Take a hot bath (although I suddenly had an image of a tiny TV mounted over my bathtub... that would be SWEET!)

Friday, July 23, 2010

Moth! (the good kind)



All credit goes to DH for taking this lovely photo of the moth. It wasn't anywhere near my yarn so I didn't panic. (Just realized this photo is actually from LAST summer, but the creature is still beautiful and it's been far too long since I posted any pictures on this blog.)

Anyone know what kind of moth this actually is?

Monday, July 19, 2010

Ten on Tuesday: 10 things to take camping

Umm... excuse me? I don't go camping! (At least I haven't in the past 8 years, and I'm perfectly happy with that.)

When I was in graduate school, I went camping perhaps six times. It was fun, but I never fell in love with it. After getting married and having a baby, I had the perfect excuse to quit, and I did.

However, I will exercise my imagination and say

1) tent
2) bug-spray
3) thermo-rest
4) sleeping bag
5) comfy pillow (none of this "use your burr-laden sweatshirt as your pillow substitute" nonsense!)
6) easy knitting
7) fellow camper with guitar or fiddle
8) pinecones to put in the campfire (they make the flames turn cool colors)
9) marshmallows for toasting
10) my family (because if I'm camping, they should be out there, too.)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

What I wish my town had

Having recently done a post about all the reasons to love my town, a few... lacks... occurred to me. I really do love living here! These are just a few suggestions about the next business that should open up in town.

1) a florist, because I like to give flowers to people and I haven't done it in years because it's such a pain to drive to the florist.

2) a bookstore, because I'm into instant gratification when I want a new novel.

3) a used bookstore, so I could browse whenever I felt like it.

4) a movie theater, preferably a second-run or art-house movie theater. Watching movies in the basement of our public library really doesn't fill this gap.

5) a coffee shop. We used to have a lovely one just down from the public library but it went out of business a couple years ago when the rent went up. Dunkin Donuts, while it has a place in my heart, doesn't fill this particular need for me.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My week in Niantic

The real reason I haven't been posting any picture is that I was on vacation in Niantic and forgot my camera cable. Duh! Since we plan to return next summer, I made detailed notes about all the places we ate. Just in case anybody else is curious, I'm sharing my thoughts here:

Saturday: lunch at the Main Street Grille (no website), which was OK. Just OK. The kids loved the grilled cheese. My cobb salad was unexpected (no bleu cheese) but otherwise tasty. Mom and DH were disappointed in their entrees.
Dinner was carry-out from Ilianti's. The pizza was pleasantly un-greasy and not-salty and the service was great. The salads were varied and delicious. I would definitely order from them again.

Sunday: dinner was at The Black Sheep Public House. While the vegetarian options were extremely limited, they were delicious! The rest of us had salmon and crabcakes, both of which were very good. We're planning to eat here again later in the week.

Monday: drove up to Groton to eat at Thai Sawasdee. The food was yummy but a bit salty, and the service was slow (only one guy in the front, poor thing!)

Tuesday: dinner was carry-out from the two local Chinese restaurants, Diamond and Great Wall (neither seems to have its own website). Both would get middling reviews from me. The mu shu vegetable from Great Wall was quite tasty. The General Tso's Tofu from Diamond was also good. All the other dishes were disappointing.

Wednesday: dinner at La Belle Aurore Bistro which was fantastic! Yummy vegetables and fantastic seafood. The vegetarian options were good, too. I wouldn't eat there every day - the butter and olive oil would kill my arteries - but for a treat, this was the place to go.

Thursday: back to The Black Sheep Public House for dinner, because they'd changed their menu and the kids said they made the best grilled cheese. Dinner was fantastic for all of us. They altered the salmon entree just for me because I can't eat shellfish and were really nice about it.

Friday: we got lost on our way to a Japanese restaurant in Old Saybrook, and ended up at a wonderful Thai restaurant instead! Som Siam East Thai (no website) was kid-friendly and served absolutely marvelous food. The service was very good when we got there, but slowed down badly as more customers arrived.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Ten on Tuesday: 10 things I like about where I live

I live in a small town in northern Connecticut. Finding ten things I like about it was easy!

1) Walking to everything: library, drug store, market, pizza place, even my dentist is within walking range. In poor weather, I do "cheat" and drive, but I try to make a point of walking when the weather is nice and I don't have to carry 20+ pounds of groceries.

2) The public library is fantastic!

3) The K-2 public school is also fantastic! (The 3-5 school is pretty good... less said about the Middle School, the better.)

4) We have a wonderful day care and pre-school just around the corner.

5) I really love my job, which is what brought me to this town in the first place. I also like my coworkers, almost all of whom live in this town, too.

6) There's a huge shopping complex within a 15 minute drive: Barnes and Noble, Target, Rave Cinemas, CostCo, Sears, and great Japanese and Mexican restaurants.

7) The train stops less than 20 miles away.

8) The airport is less than 30 miles away.

9) There's a farmer's market on The Green every Saturday in the summer and fall.

10) I'm less than an hour away from WEBS.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Knitty, continued

Jewels (a short-sleeved raglan cardigan with no fastenings) - I'm so glad the author showed the version in commercial bulky yarn, 'cause I really like it!

Trout River: I really like the vest without the button-in sleeves.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Drooling over the latest Knitty

in which, as always, I admire the various patterns and make no serious plans to knit any of them.

Note: I couldn't load some of the patterns that are cross-listed with KnittySpin, so I haven't reviewed them here.

Iced: a simple cardigan with no seaming and no buttonholes? Sign me up!

Victoria: another cardigan, this one elegant and refined. I love it but I'll never knit it - all that moss stitch...

Lamina: an elegant and eye-catching scarf. It also has the huge advantage of requiring no grafting. This one looks gorgeous on the model but I'm not sure it would work for me.

Coquille: a shawlette designed for self-striping yarn, but the photo that really caught my eye was the version knit in pure blue. I'm going to wait for the Ravelry updates to see how it looks in more solids before I commit to this one.

Lanesplitter: I will never in my life have the ass to wear a knitted skirt like this one, but I think it's pure genius. Probably my favorite pattern from the whole issue!

Coralie: knitted earrings? Wow... but also useless to me, since I don't have pierced ears.

Plaid: love the socks, hate the intarsia.

Flo the Elephant: love love LOVE it! And hey, I actually do know how to crochet, so the feet shouldn't be a problem for me.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Ten on Tuesday: 10 ways to enjoy summer

I'm currently at the beach and enjoying summer very much, so this should be an easy one!

1) Ocean, lake, pond, or river - get yourself to some water and jump in when the sun is hot!
2) Watermelon
3) Popsicles
4) Reading in the shade
5) Fireworks!
6) Fresh lemonade or limeade
7) Catching up on my favorite TV shows (I love reruns and DVDs)
8) Ice cream in the middle of the afternoon
9) Cold soups
10) Getting up to see the sunrise, then going to back to bed for an hour or two

Friday, July 2, 2010

Sock, lost in action

Somewhere between finishing the first knee sock for Elder Son and trying to locate the camera to photograph it, I lost the sock.

Yup, it's white-gold-green-pink-purple self-striping yarn and it somehow wandered off my bed and got itself tangled up with the clean laundry. Or into a book bag. I'm just praying it didn't end up in the recycling... I did check the trash bins, just in case.