One Foot at a Time

I've been learning to ice skate. It's been a real slog. I am the first to admit that I'm a craptastically bad skater. It took weeks and weeks before I could cross the (short!) side of the rink without having a major psychological meltdown. I normally shun all unnecessary physical activities, particularly risky ones. Oh, and did I mention my feet are always either completely frozen or in total agony?

So my choice of activity doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even with all that though, for whatever reason, I really like skating. Let's see, what are its good points...It's cold, and I really like the cold. There's a rink near my house, at least in the winter time. I get to watch them Zamboni by moonlight at the Sculpture Garden Ice Rink.
Well, I guess I could watch that even if I weren't skating. But then I'd probably miss out on the Santa-driven zamboni at the indoor rink.

Maybe it's a process thing, all the little steps and the repetition. It's like knitting, only way, way, way more painful. There's a lot less falling down and getting up with knitting. As I mentioned last post, the first knee high is done, and I'm none the worse for wear for it. Here's a more complete photo, to show its ginormousness:
Sorry for the Weldon's-like fold. I couldn't get it to fit in the shot neatly and still have some detail left in the picture. The second no purl monkey is also half done.
One bruised foot at a time.

Over the River

We went to Jersey for Christmas. It had snowed there a few days earlier, so it was a white one.
There was the usual endless amount of food and lots of presents. The Filipino way is to open them at midnight, which meant we were pretty much done by Christmas morning. So we decided to be really ecumenical and go to the movies (Tale of Despereaux - not worth it, I'd say read the book instead) and order Chinese food. There was also the second annual Sock Reunion Photo.
This year, I had at least half a pair of socks to wear. Hooray for one warm foot!

Mixed Messages

I was glad to finally see one of the controversial atheist posters on the metro the other day. I completely agree with the message. However, the ad itself looked a bit cheesy. The slogan is good. It's a new twist on a popular tune, but I was really hoping for a cleverer, slicker presentation. Come on, a shrugging santa and snowflakes? I just know they could have come up with a more coherent overall look. Where's Don Draper when you need him? It's a great product. It just needs the right sales pitch.

I went to Union Station for the Norwegian Christmas festivities. I got to see Jinann, proud member of the Sons of Norway (I dare you to ask her about Leif Ericson) and head viking at the sweater table at the Norwegian Bazaar. I got to see the Christmas tree from Norway:
They grow a fine tree in Norway, don't you think? There are US and Norwegian flags strung from top to bottom all the way around, like a Maypole, only it's cold outside. Apparently, there's also a toy train setup somewhere there - it is a train station after all - just for the holidays, but unfortunately, I missed it.

I finished the first green no purl monkey and started on its mate. The Heart & Sole sock is coming along too.
There have been no color mishaps thus far, but these are knee-highs (hence its general enormousness) which I'm guessing will require 2 balls of yarn per sock, so there will be plenty of opportunities for disappointment and self-recrimination. Stay tuned for more frustrated rantings.

Hoya Knitsa

I went to the Georgetown/American game on Saturday, thanks to some free tickets from work. They were certainly much better seats than I could have gotten on my own (not that I'm much of a hoops person, but if I had been looking for tickets, I'd have probably ended up in the lower stratosphere).This is the 1x1 ribbing of a st st sock I started just for the occasion. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I'm using more of the much disparaged Heart & Sole. I'm thinking it was temporary insanity that made me use it, or maybe it was just what I had lying around when I needed to start an easy sock.

I met the mascot (the human version - there's a real dog version too).
The student cheering sections were impressively well organized, and pretty full too, considering it's exam time.
Apparently, there's a dress code (gray shirts mandatory, wigs and face paint optional), synchronized polyphonic chanting, and arm movements, clapping and hopping. It was exhausting just watching them.

Thank You SP!

A very big THANK YOU!!! to my Secret Pal, who sent me this:Isn't this the cutest box ever? And inside were all these wonderful goodies:
I *heart* knit picks yarn! It's their bare yarn, ready to be hand-dyed. My pal also sent Kool-Aid for dyeing, and Reeses for snacking (ok, that last one isn't really yarn related, but still essential for the holidays!)

Thanks again, SP!

Out of the Oven

The crazy baking session is done. Here are the results:
It was exhausting, as always, but in the end, there were 14 kinds, as planned. Starting at the top row, going from left to right:

1. chocolate chip cookies
2. fudge with pecans
3. cinnamon apple struedel bars
4. no-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies
5. caramel heavenlies
6. lemon bars
7. wedding cookies
8. apple mini-muffins
9. marble brownies
10. dulce de leche bars
11. white chocolate fudge
12. pecan pie bars
13. apricot crescents
14. peanut butter cookies
    

We did have one mishap.
The doggie + one pan of hot lemon bars = one big mess. Oh well, once the little one's singed paws were cleaned up, he was a little shaken, but otherwise ok (he fared much better than the lemon bars, as you can see).