oh, where have I been?

hhmm... Well, certainly not here. So what's been going on?

• We went to both Berkeley and Chicago last month (pictures forthcoming from Chicago, but we didn't take the camera to Berkeley. and by forthcoming I mean just like those pictures from Europe... - hey 'whaddya know? I put them up already!) A lovely time was had at both places. My parents' new place is really great. The rats in the ceiling at their current favorite dim sum place not so great though.
  

• Speaking of Chicago, please sign this petition. I realize that it really doesn't matter too much since Macy's already owns Marshall Field's, but please sign anyway. And I won't be shopping at Macy's or Hecht's ever again.
  

• We finished our taxes early (by a week!) I will be buying this with some of our return (yeah! watch out, non-stop sewing and serging will be occuring soon). Don't worry, Isaac will be buying himself a new toy too. We are an equal opportunity family after all.
  

• One of Isaac's groomsmen and his wife just had their first baby (a boy!). The craziest part though is that I had a dream Friday night/Saturday morning that they had the baby, but never told us. Turns out that the baby was born on Saturday afternoon, but they went to the hospital at around 5:30 on Saturday morning. We got the call yesterday (Monday) that they had the baby. Crazy, no? Maybe only to me and Isaac...
  

• Spring is definitely my favorite time of year and it makes me love DC a lot. If it was like this all year round, we might never leave. But fortunately it's not, so we will probably eventually move to another city. Anyway, all the cherry blossoms are already gone though (we were in Berkeley on the peak weekend), but many other trees are in bloom and the weather is pretty darn great. Now if only all the tourists and protesters would go home so we could enjoy the city to ourselves...

An example of how pretty DC can be when the trees are in bloom. This one is a random tree on my way to work - I mostly added it so this post had some pictures.

• We finally got to see the baby panda! A month or 2 ago, I had finally scored some tickets to see him and we invited some friends along. The crazy thing though is that since the weather was nice, he was outside and we didn't need the tickets to see him after all! He is quite cute. He fell (sort of) out of a tree while we were there. Did I mention he is cute? (pictures also 'forthcoming')

(Skip the rest of the bullets if you don't really care about what I've been doing craft-wise)

• I have started multiple knitting projects and managed to finish none. Here's a run down of current projects:

• Sitcom chic (aka my olympic knitting) - (pattern from knitty - I'm too lazy to link)- on hold because it was hurting my thumbs to work on it with the sleeves on and stuff. But the sleeves are on and I'm definitely more than half-way done. I should finish this soon since it will be perfect for summer...
• Turtleneck shrug (from the Scarf Style book) - I have finished the first sleeve and am over a quarter, but less than half way done with the second sleeve. I'm still working on this, but it's sort of monotonous.
  
• Clapotis (from knitty too) - I have finally joined the clapotis craze. I am modifying it though to be a scarf (with help from here) since I am using 1 skein of Springwater merino sport (it's purple and pretty though). I have done 2 repeats of the dropped stitches, but I am not sure that I like it. I may frog the whole thing and start again on smaller needles. We'll see.
  

• I am trying really hard to not buy any knitting or sewing supplies for the month of April (sort of in the theme of "Use What You Have Month"). I have done quite well (except that I bought a zipper yesterday for a shoe bag that I need to make since Isaac stole mine - but I do have immediate plans for it at least).

• I made a felt cupcake while I was in Chicago and left it with my sister. I am going to try and make more. I have a picture of that too, somewhere... Here it is enjoying a view of Navy Pier. What do you think? Seriously, let me know.
  

• Uh, that's really about it craft-wise. As always, there are lots of good ideas floating around, but a lack of time and implementation know-how to bring them all to life.
  

• Wait! I forgot that I signed up for back tack III yesterday. I'm looking forward to it and really hoping I don't get screwed again like I did last time. I have some ideas in the works already (fabric, stuffie pattern, etc.), but I want to wait to see who I get matched up with first and figure out what they might like best.
  

Spring cleaning this Good Friday for me. I am actually looking forward to it!