TDF - stage 5 and Oscar

Well, today is the 5th stage of the Tour de France, but we're still on stage 3 (the time trial) on our DVR. I finally started spinning last night. I decided on some superwash merino from Tactile Fiber Arts that I bought at Bizarre Bazaar last year. Still can't find my camera cable or the card reader, so this is still a picture-less blog. Sorry! Just wanted to update on my Tour de Fleece progress.

In other news, Oscar just got back from a hike. Our regular dog walker wasn't working out because Oscar would come home and destroy stuff, so we had to find some way for him to get walked and get out some extra energy. Dog daycare doesn't work either since Oscar doesn't like other dogs and is aggresive towards him and the ones he's ok with he mostly ignores. Luckily I found a service on Craiglist that will take him on 2-3 hour hikes. For now he's going 1 day a week and I'm taking him to work 2 days a week (I only work 3 days/week). Today was his first hike and traning session (to get him to not be afraid of other dogs) and the report is that he did fabulously. He is currently hiked individually, with other handlers hiking 3 dogs at the same time and near him. Hopefully only 2 or 3 more hikes until he can join the rest of the group (which will be cheaper for us and means that he'll be better about other dogs). Yeah Oscar!!!

Tour de Fleece - stage 1

Watching the Tour de France right now on the brand new HD DVR. I have narrowed down what I want to spin to 3. But I can't start spinning it until I finish my Bath Design final project (which I am supposed to be doing now.) I have decided though that I want to knit EZ's February Baby Sweater with whatever I spin. Now I know what weight yarn to aim for (sport weight). I've spun before knowing what weight yarn I wanted, but this will be the first time I've ever spun anything with a specific project in mind.

I've been thinking that I should knit a baby sweater so that the adult-sized sweaters I make will improve. I have made several, but they're not the greatest, so hopefully working on a baby sweater with EZ's guidance I'll be able to improve my techniques.

Ok, have to work on my project. I have to present it on Monday, so after that spinning will start in earnest. In the meantime I'll be narrowing down my choices of what to spin and deciding exactly which one.

Back in the saddle again?

I've joined this year's Tour de Fleece hoping that it will jump-start this blog once again. I'll try to post every day or two on my progress.

We'll see how it goes. Looking forward to this year's Tour de France as well (we'll be watching on our new-to-us 30" HDTV!) Will there be as much scandal as last year? (Is that even possible?) Who will win since Team Astana and Tom Boonen (what an idiot) are out of the race? Should be interesting!

Anyway, the challenge for this year's Tour de Fleece is to spin from your stash. That shouldn't be a problem for me, since I buy way more than I spin. I just have to decide what to spin. I think my personal challenge is going to be to spin something from my stash that I think is really special (ie. I wanted to save until I thought I was a good spinner) and spin it into something usable. I also want to have an idea of what I am going to make out of the finished yarn. I'm looking forward to having more spinning blogs to read too!

Hopefully I'll find the cable to my camera so that I can post some pictures, otherwise this could become a very boring blog-resurrection.

See you soon!

why hello old blog

remember me? I'm still here, just busy as usual. Plus I have a job that I like that keeps me busy, so there's not a lot of time to blog. But I'm going to work on it... In the meantime, read the twitter updates on the side - that I can manage since I can send them via text.

See you soon!

And so it begins!

One of my college roommates had a baby boy over the weekend! She's the first of at least 10 people we know having a baby this year. Three more are due in the next couple of weeks. Should be an exciting year!!!

Unfortunately no one told us about the plan to have a baby in '08. Oh well!

Watch out for things picked by monkey's

Because they are very expensive. And if you've been reading the price list thinking everything was around $4 per ounce and buy 4 ounces of tea picked by monkey's, you end up with a bill of $70 at the tea store (I bought some other, more reasonably priced tea too).

earthquake

Holy moly there was just an earthquake - the first one I've really felt since we moved here. And boy did it scare the living daylights out of me. There was swaying and shaking and what did I do - um, just stood there. I'm definitely going to have to work on that... Oh, and if you're wondering, the dog is not good at predicting earthquakes.

Birthday present numero uno

Isaac's mom paid for my haircut at a fabulous salon. I love it! Thanks!

Niner

You would think that with my new fancy MacBook, I'd be writing a lot more. But I'm not. I'm going to try and be better about it though.

Anyway, tomorrow is my birthday. It's the big 2-9. The last birthday before the really big three oh. As I was brushing my teeth last night, I started thinking about my other birthdays ending in a nine.

The year I turned nine, we were living with my aunt and uncle in the 'burbs of Chicago while our house was being built. I remember that birthday quite well because my sister and I were recovering from the chicken pox (I caught them from her.) I had a small birthday (due to the contagiousness and all) with only my aunt and uncle, parents and sister. I think we have pictures of me blowing out the candles somewhere.

I don't really remember much about turning 19, except that I was at Hopkins and I went to Tamber's Nifty Fifties one night (diner food and Indian on the same menu! What more could a girl want?) to celebrate with Tom and Jose. That's when Tom informed me that 19 was the most unexciting age to celebrate. When you turn 18 you can get into R rated movies, 20 is a whole new decade and 21 means no more drinking at E-Level (only you JHU'ers will get that one - basically you can drink at a real bar). I remember that year being one of the most carefree and fun I've had.

This year, I am in major transition mode - I'm back in school, starting a whole new career that I don't know if I'll be any good at, living on a whole new coast and trying to juggle our day to day needs and commuting to Berkeley and San Francisco 3 days a week. It's certainly a different place than anywhere I've ever been, but I am definitely enjoying it! As far as I can figure, it can only get better. Right?

I have decided that this is the year I start fighting aging and treating myself well (not that I don't treat myself well now, but I'll be treating myself even better now). This includes lots of running, yoga, swimming and biking, regular haircuts, manicures, massages, waxings and all the lotions and potions I can find that I think will help. As far as I can figure, once I hit 30 things will start going downhill even faster - and if we have kids, it will probably accelerate. So, this is the year to instill all of those good habits and treat myself well.

Hopefully that doesn't sound too selfish.

Isaac is in charge of the birthday plans. I've gotten several phone calls from him tonite (I'm in Berkeley, he's in Mountain View) asking me all sorts of cryptic questions, like what I am wearing on Saturday (I have a class in the city in the morning), what I'll be taking with me to class, whether or not I have something warm to wear and where the GPS is. I am pretty sure his parents know what the plan is, but they aren't giving any hints. I can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve!

Anyway, happy birthday to me! And to Dave, if you're reading this (if you are, email me!)

Back to school

That's right folks - I'm headed back to school this fall. Not for Biostatistics though, which was the plan when we moved out here. Nope, I'm going to design school. Yesterday I signed up for Drafting, Fundamentals of AutoCAD and Introduction to Interior Design. This all started because I am working for Isaac's mom (since June) doing bookkeeping, but eventually I'm hoping to do design work.

Here goes nothing!