Uncle Leona's Day Camp

I suppose it beats riding a horse, but....

Today was my afternoon to enjoy the company of all things related to motor vehicle registration. Actually, I had slated last Tuesday for the fun, but my ancient 2003 Saab's gas cap failed Ohio's blessed E-Check.

E-Check, for those of you out there unfamiliar with the concept, is Ohio's way of stealing $19.50 from every driver registered in the Greater Cleveland area. The "E" stands for "emissions." Personally, I think it stands for "extortion," but that's just me. Basically, the state manages to gouge those of us in the "industrial" area of the state (mind you, most of the factories are dead and gone) for cash to subsidize the important matters for the rest of the state. Like painting barns in every county to honor the state's bicentennial last year instead of coming up with a way to keep people from leaving Ohio to find a decent job. Yep, this state has its priorities straight.

Anyhow, I failed the gas cap check last week. So, I had to head off to the nearest Saab dealer who fixes such things. Could that possibly be the dealer 10 minutes away? Hell, no. I had a half hour drive ahead of me! After an hour at the dealer, I got on the road again to get re-E-Checked. I managed to find an E-Check 9 minutes from the dealer--woo hoo!!!

The line was a half hour long. After another hour of fun at E-Check, which I passed with flying colors, I may add, it was off to the place everyone goes for fun, The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Thankfully, there was one just up the street from E-Check (mind you, I'm still a good half hour from home). I enter to hear them call #51. I picked #61. After about 15 or 20 minutes (they had just called #55), an angel of a worker at the BMV set up an express line for those of us who just needed their license plate sticker. I was out of there in no time.

All told, 3 1/2 hours, $109.50. But that isn't the best part...

THE LEASE IS UP ON THE CAR IN THREE MONTHS!

Kato was just happy I remembered to bring home cat food:

I did get some knitting done over the holiday weekend. My nephew decided that he needed to knit a hat, so we both managed to get something at the LYS. While my nephew was being forced to knit his hat (to quote my brother: "You keep knitting that hat, or I'm going to make you read!"), I whipped up some Cascade 220 into this:

It will eventually be a felted hat, once I get my act together (and remove Grady, of course). I also need to make a felted bag, so I may wait to do the felting until there are two projects to shrink.

Never fear, the Autumn Cardigan is still in progress. I just needed a quick project break.

Speaking of quick projects, I want to thank those of you out there who are being so helpful in my quest for a Nordic glove pattern. For those of you who didn't see my plea on Wendy's blog, I'm in the hunt for a pattern for gloves for my nephew. He has the rattiest pair of cotton Nordic/Scandinavian gloves I have ever seen. When I called him out on his fashion sense, he said, "Make me another pair!" Little did I know that the Scandinavians don't wear gloves; they wear mittens. The quest is on.

Christmas is in how many days?? The Autumn Cardigan may need to rest a little longer...

Don't you just hate it when you snag something with your nails?

So does Grady:

He hasn't quite figured out how to retract the claws yet. I wish I caught the moment on film when he tried to clean himself with one arm stuck on the chair.

He's only a bit clueless.

Of miraculous recipes and handpainted cotton

First of all, let me thank all of you for the nice comments about the Autumn Cardigan's progress. Sadly, I'm now in the process of doing the back for the third, yes, third time. I'm hopeful that this photo illustrates the problem:

Yep. We're fighting purple on the left, orange and gold on the right. It's even more dramatic a mismatch in person. So, I'm two inches into the back again, and I think we'll be in business this time (the sleeves should be no problem; I have enough left from the fronts to manage two sleeves that will match). At this rate, I'll have this thing done by next fall.

As a sanity check, I decided to put down the cotton and pick up a new Noro skein yesterday. Noro now has a wool/silk/nylon blend called Aurora, which feels a lot like Kureyon, yet has a sparkle running through it. Here's a close-up:

See the green sparkle? Really, it's there. Look close. Closer.

I combined the skein with a complementary colored handspun wool/tencel, futzed a little with a hat pattern from Knitty.com, and voila!

It's a hat to match my winter coat! Good thing, too. I had to pull out that thing this past week for the first time. Please pass the Prozac. Anyhow, I like this yarn a lot, but I'm not thrilled that it knits to a DK weight at the most. That's so un-Noro.

In addition to discovering a new yarn, I also was introduced to the most miraculous, this-can't-possibly-work, what-are-you-smoking cake recipe of all time. Don't blink as you read this; you may miss it. Here goes:

One pint GOOD ice cream (diet be damned, pass the Haagen Das)
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

Soften the ice cream for about 30 minutes at room temperature. Mix it with the flour. Pour in a greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for an hour. You're done.

That would be my Haagen Das Bailey's Irish Cream Ice Cream Cake. Yum. To be critical, it's more of a muffin texture and flavor--I figure about 1/3 cup extra of sugar would put it over the top. Personally, I was amazed at the ease of the recipe--it even shocked my Mom, who taught home ec for 25 years! The possibilities with this recipe are endless...I'm starting to theorize all sorts of options. Perhaps a little booze syrup poured over the top, too...

Yep, I'm starting to get into holiday baking mode.

And lest I forget, I received a care package from my Secret Pal yesterday loaded with all sorts of goodies:

Muchas gracias! The Udder Cream will come in extra handy now that winter is settling in! The cats really appreciated the treats, too! Well, at least Kato did. Grady isn't much of a treat cat at the moment; he prefers attacking Kato while she's trying to eat.

Despondent? No. A lazy blogless bum? Yes.

I figured I'd better throw an entry in this blog this week before someone sends the National Guard out to check on me. As for the Match.com bum, he has not resurfaced, but it's most definitely no loss. I have had a lot of laughs on account of his idiocy (my buddies on the golf board really yukked it up--I think it made them feel better about their Y-chromosomeness).

So, doofus, I thank you for the laughs. May you rot in dating hell.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging. The Autumn Cardigan has been an adventure. Of the four skeins of yarn I have, a grand total of zero match. The colors are close, but it's going to take some serious creativity to make the sweater look like it was knit from one dyelot. Ah, the hazards of hand-dyed....

The back is done, though (this is the second time...the first one was unmatchable due to lack of big pools of color):

I'll now show you the first front piece...note the serious lack of green on the front--this is the best I can do:

As I see it, no one person will see my front and back at the same time, so this should work out. The sleeves could be entertaining, though. I suppose I could use all four skeins at once on each piece, but I'm just not that anal about stuff.

Let's just refer to it as "design features" and leave it at that. I have too much yarn in the stash begging to be knitted to waste time over lack of green.

I look better in purple and pink anyhow.

There is something inherently wrong with men

I have said many times in the past that if a scientist ever wanted to isolate the "jerk gene," she would find it on the Y chromosome. That belief, once again, has been reaffirmed with the latest antics of Mr. Chemical Engineer. As you recall, I was anticipating meeting this gentleman sometime this past week, and he seemed to be wanting to meet as well.

How do I know he was interested? Basically, he had nothing but praise and adulation for the photos of me that he had seen on match.com. Nothing special; just my stock grin and bad hair. One of the photos, however, seemed to make him especially excited--the only thing that I could see that made that particular picture different from the others was that it showed off my bustline.

No cleavage, no boobs, just a bustline in a sweater. I'm a lady, by God!

Anywho, he's all "send me that picture...I have to have it!" In my mind, I'm seeing him with a tube sock enjoying my photo a little too much. However, I felt the need to tease him a little, so I told him that he'd get this photo on our first date. Seemed innocent enough, right?

Within seconds, he instant messaged back, "Good luck with your search" and disappeared.

What....a......PRICK!

So, the search continues. I'm now emailing a biomedical engineer who seemed to find my smile intriguing. I'm hoping he's an eye man....I don't need another boob man for a while.

Have you ever felt like a sponge? A wrung out sponge?

That's what my brain feels like this evening. I took my boards this afternoon--after 3 1/2 hours and 200 questions on a much too glare-filled computer screen, I couldn't tell you what color my eyes are. My mind is numb. For what it's worth, I think I did OK. At least I hope I did. I'll know soon, I guess. I just want my neurons back.

The date, sadly, has been postponed. Mr. Chemical Engineer had to make a business trip to the west coast. He tried to get back here on a Learjet, but things fell through.

Learjet? Good Lord, what kind of cabbage is this guy made from???

I did talk to him in person briefly over the phone last night. Sadly, I think I sounded like a dolt after seeing 30 kids in the office Monday. Here's hoping we can get something arranged this week before I head out to Toledo to visit my brother on Friday. Stay tuned.

No change on the Autumn Cardigan. There has been progress, albeit slow, on the feline front.

I guess this worked for post-war Berlin. Temporarily.

T-minus two days and counting....

Tuesday is beginning to loom large for me, big time. Not only is it Election Day (I love poking out them chads--I feel so democratic), but my board recertification exam is that day. I think I'm pretty well prepared.

Well, I hope I am.

Nevertheless, after the four hour block of test, I should be meeting Mr. Chemical Engineer in person for the first time. We chatted on Friday night for a good two hours online. For whatever reason, he's smitten with me already (I guess my typing skills are sexy). I've thrown every possible (good) photo his way, and he has yet to say anything negative. I've already let him know that I think he's a little too good to be true, but he told me that, too.

Go figure. Someone has finally figured out how wonderful I am. Only took 43 years.

To top it all off, the guy owns mountains. Big ones. In Texas. On his ranch (remember, he lives here in northeast Ohio). This is all his words (and photos). I have no reason to believe he's lying to me, but the skeptic in me is still ruling things. We'll know more on Tuesday--he's planning the date and letting me know what we're doing later. We'll see what happens.

Anyone out there know where I can get a pair of chaps?

Knit-wise, the latest top-down pullover is finito:

I just sat down yesterday with the goal of finishing the second sleeve, and managed to do it before the clock struck 12. I did alter the pattern to make the sleeves without the seam; it just made a lot more sense than adding that extra underarm bulk.

I also got started on a simple cardigan from the Autumn cotton:

This will wind up being a very simple v-neck cardigan with garter stitch borders. I'm using the generic pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns; nothing too fancy. I mean, look at this yarn:

It doesn't need anything extra to look special. I figure I will start work on something a little more funky once I get this sweater done. I do have one or two things in mind...

November may just be my month

Generally, when the calendar flips from October to November, I'm instantly depressed. Let's face it: November means winter, and I don't really care what the calendar says about it. November here in Cleveland came in gray, cold, and rainy. No big shock, of course. But I'm still pretty up, for quite a few reasons that may go on for the month....

#1--According to the scale this morning, I've reached the twenty pound mark on the diet!! WOO HOOOOOOO!!!! I celebrated with Burger King for lunch. I'll see that drive thru again after the next 20.

#2--The top-down may just get finished this week:

Most of the knitting this weekend was done during that Browns debacle on Sunday. Studying for boards took up most of my free time, unfortunately.

#3--I may just have a date soon! I've been corresponding with a very sweet chemical engineer that I met via Match.com for the past few days. For whatever reason, he is enamored with me, and wants to meet up. Heck, why not? Don't worry, folks, I'll be careful. Dad taught me well.

As for the cats, they're still managing to be civil. Kato is still growling, but I'm guessing that's not about to change for the next few months. Once Grady outweighs her, however, things could be different...

Until then, he needs his rest.