My Quarterly Post

So... if I post here every three to four months, it probably doesn't really count as a blog, huh? Sigh. It's kind of like writing emails-- the longer it takes you to reply to someone, the greater the pressure to write something worthwhile, so the long wait seems somehow more worth it. Perhaps I should have lots of pictures to make this long post more tolerable?

dachshund-lobster hybrid from the divas unleashed parade in october

Mostly I've been quiet because I've been feeling a lot like Daisy looks in that picture over to the right. A little beaten and bedraggled. The fall wasn't so bad-- I was getting all ready for winter, the holiday shopping season, Christmas gifts, etc., ahead of the game even-- and then things just started to happen. Without going into too much detail, mr. d's dad got really, really sick; risky operation sick, and it was a rough Thanksgiving in the family. Christmas was very emotional too. Um, and New Year's. Needless to say, a lot of things fell to the wayside and we spent a lot of time driving north and back. Thankfully, though, things turned out amazingly well, and though mr.d-in-law had to endure quite a bit of bedrest (not easy for him!), it was practically a miracle how things turned out in the end.

mr. d @ man's world in north adams, mass. thanks again for the trip, mr. & mrs. s-v!

On top of mr. d's family stuff, in November my grandmother took a turn for the worse healthwise. Again, without too much detail, a visit that I expected would be me sitting around helping with pills and other 24 hour care stuff actually turned into a week of sleeping in the hospital overnight (my mom and I stayed 10pm to 10am and my aunt & uncle had the opposite). She finally got moved out of the ICU on the last day I was in California and plans were to move her from there directly to an assisted living center. The highlights of this trip were that I got a lot of knitting done at ridiculous hours of the night, and the fact that this was my rental car:

If you love the PT Cruiser, you may want to skip this paragraph. Basically, this car sucked. It didn't accelerate quickly enough and felt clunky. LA traffic sucks as it is!! This car didn't help. Plus mr. d & I (well, mr. d especially) have in the past spent a lot of time mocking this particular vehicle and the frustrating people that often drive it. Sorry if you are normal & decent driver but we seem to have run across a lot of morons who can't drive and choose to own this vehicle. I will say that it is nice and shiny & they made the dashboard very retro-like and cute. However, I never found an interior light in the car, and that is VERY inconvenient when you are looking for things in the dark in a car. PS, I reserved an ECONOMY car and this is what they gave me. sweet people-dressed-up-as-abraham-lincoln piece at MassMOCA!

Ok, where was I? Right. Late November, Thanksgiving in Maine. December we did Renegade Holiday Show in Chicago so we got to visit with ms. h again! Hi ms. h, hope you're not studying too hard! I don't think I took a single picture on that trip. Wait, let me check. Nope, I only took them on my cell phone and I can't deal with that right now.

ms. daisy on one of our many (crowded car) drives.

Christmas in The County, Maine, and here at home. New Year's in Maine, and then a week in & out of the hospital visiting mr. d-in-law. Right after he got released from the hospital, we headed back out to LA to visit the care center my grandma is in. I was bracing myself for the worst but I wanted to make sure I felt ok with where she was staying, and miracle of all miracles, she looked WAY better than she had in November. Her memory is not so good but I felt a little better knowing she was in a clean facility and that she seems fairly content. I still want to get back out there to spend more time with her. Here we are in her room:

If I look like hell in this photo, it's because I did. Exhausted and flying late at night and being worried about my grandmother did not improve my normal not-particularly-photogenic-ness. Basically, I have been feeling behind and like a not-efficient businessperson since November, so that is always in the back of my mind, and seeing pictures of myself made me realize that I LOOK like it most of the time. Awesome.

Here is another shot of me looking equally crappy with the still-considered-a-newlywed mrs. c. No mr. s though, he had to stay home in Hawaii and work on their new house (!)

Visting with mrs. c was really the only social thing we did while in LA this trip. Mostly we went to the care center and then to pick stuff up for my grandma's room. They advise you not to leave really nice things there, so (sadly) we couldn't give her anything really expensive or nice. Instead I'm going to make her a blanket (yes, I'm going to sew!) that has photos of us and other family members on it because no one would "misplace" a blanket that has pictures of another person's family on it, right?

Oh, I DID get to finally take mr. d to in-n-out, and it was a FANCY one! It was packed with scary teenagers so we went through the drive through. Speaking of driving, here is some solid proof on karma for you. When I went in November, I flew into Ontario instead of LAX. That's where I got the PT Cruiser. This time, we flew into Ontario again, and lo and behold, after all the mocking that mr. d did of the car when I got home and gave him the details about the rental in November, guess which car we got this time?

This photo is from the November trip, but I honestly think that it was the EXACT same vehicle. Our punishment for making fun of it the first time around. Instant Karma's gonna get you...

Ok, was that enough of an update for now? Are we sort of caught up? I'll work on being back more often. #1 has been & will be visiting again, so I'll actually have something non-work/website related to talk about!

ugh.

I don't really have anything to say today. Not sure why I'm feeling all blah, but I've been moving slowly and feeling generally cranky all day. I think I may have the beginnings of a cold, and I am mid-major-renovation on my workroom. Hard to get anything done when everything you would use is all over the place. I'd post a picture but I think it would scare people, even those who know just how much stuff I have.

Instead, I'm going to post a picture of two of my friends who live furthest away from me. I miss college, and having lots of friends all living within mere meters from you. Who might provide support when you are knee-deep in fiber, fabric and beads. Sigh. Hi numbers 3 & 1! #3, I hope you are getting lots of rest at home. Sorry I am too slow and lame to get to you while you're on our side of the planet. I will try to make it up to you by sending the email I owe you that is about four months overdue.

Bedtime.

In which I am, once again, very impressed by the great ability of small Japanese people.

Since I have a hard time remembering what I do with my time, I am going to write about a more recent event in what I've been up to, hoping that this will jog my memory a bit. Watch out, this is a picture-heavy post.

Last weekend was the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival on Lansdowne St., over by Fenway. It was insane. Our friends w and j came down from Portland, 'cause they're foodies like us. Here they are on the T:

We got there just after 11, when it was supposed to start. Just before the entrance, there was this guy handing out flyers. In a manner unusual to me, I took it. Guess who was on it? Takeru Kobayashi! Did you see his segment on MTV's true life? Compelling stuff. I wanted to see him in person. Here's another article, 'cause he's fascinating.

But once we got in, there was a lot of food. There were a lot of people, but you basically got your food at one booth, then ate it while in line for the next booth. I'd show you pictures of us eating, but we were too busy eating. We ate our way down the street, working through chowder, pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, taffy, rasta pasta, fudge, subs, ice cream cupcakes! and started to get full just as we got to this:
Mmm, soda, being drafted out of the side of a van. Cool. We decided that Eli's must be affiliated with Shipyard, 'cause all the taps said Shipyard on them. It was still cool, and the soda was pretty good too. At this point it was probably almost noon, and we were getting full. So, we headed in to see Kobayashi! First we had to watch five sad folks try to break the world record for grilled cheese eating, which was 47 sandwiches in 10 minutes. The winner would've gotten $100,000 if they'd broken the record. Except, that wasn't going to happen. One guy stopped eating after about a sandwich and a half, and I think the winner ate 11. They gave him $500. They dragged it out a bit setting up, and then... Kobayashi time!

Note how small and adorable he is. They had him there to set the world record in competitive eating for the most lobster rolls in 10 minutes. They had Jasper White make 'em and everything, and they were big lobster rolls. If anyone doesn't know what a lobster roll is, it's basically lobster salad with big chunks of real lobster and mayo in a large, soft roll. They make little finger roll ones too, but these were the big ones. They had a team of four amateur eaters against Kobayashi, and if they beat him combined, they would split the cash prize, which was $10,000. I don't think anyone thought those four poor souls stood a chance, but it was cool watching the whole thing. Here's Kobayashi-san setting up, placing his water properly on his stand (he tested the temperature too).

Here he is eating with great speed and concentration. He totally did the Kobayashi shake too!

Kobayashi-san remained focused despite the distractions of the crowd and an annoying dancing lobster:

And, of course, was in the end victorious. Here he is showing his distended stomach off for just a second. Some shmuck got in the way of my shot but you can sort of see it:

So do you want to know how many lobster rolls he ate in 10 minutes? FORTY-ONE. Ugh. I actually like lobster rolls, despite generally disliking mayonnaise, but right now the thought of lobster rolls is kind of unbearable. He looked totally unfazed at the end too, smiling for pictures and signing autographs. (Want more pics? there are a ridiculous number of pictures of the whole event here.) And yes, I so got his autograph, even though I've NEVER asked anyone for their autograph before, EVER. Not in 28 years.

Anyway, when we got outside, well, it was REALLY crowded. Uncomfortably crowded. So we got the rest of what we had missed on the way in, and headed out. We weren't ready for much walking yet, so we went across the street to Beerworks. Obviously what we needed after several hours of eating unhealthy food was beer, and...

fried pickles and sweet potato fries. I had a salad too, that contained something that looked suspiciously like spinach, but I'm pretty sure by now that I don't have E.coli. PS...

hello? is anybody out there?

Um, so I guess I took a blogging hiatus, for about, oh, five months. Yikes.

I realized recently that I never was much of a diary-writing kind of girl. I always thought the journals were too nice to ruin with my inconsistent handwriting, and I guess I am generally too wrapped up in whatever I am doing on any given day to stop and write about it. Which is sort of a shame, because when I do stop, even just to jot down a few notes like "dinner with mr. x" or "return from maine" I appreciate being able to recall what I was doing when I look back on things. So, I am making a more concerted effort to get here regularly.

'Cause honestly, when I do, I enjoy it. Just means that I have to spend fewer minutes reading other peoples' blogs. Hmm...

And finally, a little gratuituous Daisy, 'cause you haven't seen her in months, right?

i heart traveling and rhinos

Wow, there is much blog catching-up to be done. I think it'll have to be done in several parts. Obviously, I'm back. And boy was it a whirlwind.

Let's see... I left March 27th and found myself in San Francisco, visiting ms. mnt. She was soooo nice and fed me (yum, Mel's diner) and stocked her fridge with carbs and let me play office in her apartment while she was doing important lawyer work. I was quite enamored with ms. mnt's place, so nice and sunny when it wasn't raining. Here's the view out the back:
Next, I hopped a plane to Hawaii. First stop, Honolulu. I stayed with ms. f, ever-fab Taiwan roommate, and her super-fun super-cute married friends j & k and their cutey son a. j's sister j-also came and got me at the airport, bearing an yummy edible candy lei, and then drove me around and fed me. Mmm, teriyaki crepes at Mocha Java... thanks, j-also! Unfortunately, it POURED for much of my stay in Honolulu. As in, the continuation of record rain for Oahu. Crazy. Flooding, etc. Yuck. However, it did stop raining long enough for me to get to the Honolulu Academy (one of the nicest museums I've been to in a while, by the way), where ms. f. works, and to go on the AMAZING tour of Shangri-La.

Shangri-La is one of those unbelieveable places that you just have to go and see to believe. Pictures don't do even do it justice (and you can't take photos inside, so go check the link above!) but here are a few:

And yes, that is Diamond Head in the background. That building is her "play house". Can you say WOW? I'm not sure that if I was the richest woman in the world, I would have built a house and filled it floor-to-ceiling with Islamic Art, but I'd probably get a house in Hawaii. As a side note, the rain was so bad that Diamond Head was inaccessible due to landslides while I was there. Not that I wanted to go hiking in the rain anyway.

I must've been pretty jet-lagged, 'cause I really just did not take many pictures while I was in Honolulu. I didn't even get a shot of me and ms. f!! I will have to make up for it by borrowing some shots from other sites so you don't get too bored. I have to mention, though I enjoyed the Life in the Pacific show and the Asian galleries (esp. ms. f's show, holla), I LOVED David Kuraoka's ceramics & bronzes. Link to the show. Organic and beautiful. A couple of shots, not taken by me:

Quick Honolulu food round up:

The Pavilion Cafe at the Academy. I had the Nicoise salad with seared ahi, yum. I would've gone for the mahi-mahi soba noodle salad, but ms. f got it and I thought after two years of ordering the same dish while we were abroad together it might be nice to branch out a bit.

Big City Diner. Um, kimchee fried rice, salad, and garlic fries. And holy crap, those garlic fries. As in awesome fries drizzled all over with garlic oil and chopped roasted garlic. Garlic fries... Here's a shot, courtesy of my new fave food blog, 'Ono Kine Grindz... I have a feeling I may be borrowing a couple more shots from this blog... and reading it compulsively...

Goma Tei Ramen Restaurant, at the Ward Centre. Gyoza and spicy cold noodles. Yum. And of course, the brilliant 'onokinegrindz has got me covered here too:
Kaka'ako Kitchen, the previously-mentioned Mocha Java Cafe, and the best meal of all, at the u house (parents of j and j-also, grandparents of a)... I'm so going back just to eat there again. With the rain and whatnot, we did a bit of shopping and a lot of hanging out. I haven't taken pictures of my shopping loot yet, but I'll get to that later. Mostly I was psyched to meet ms. f's surrogate hawai'i family, and to visit. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU again to everyone that put me up and fed me!

The last food stop I was "required" to make was to Leonard's- on the way to the airport, no less. Not real fancy-like, that Leonard's, but holy malasadas. I couldn't even take my own pictures, I was too hypnotized by the warm fried-dough-like pastries... one last thanks to 'onokinegrindz for these pictures, and a description and recipe too!:

I'm going to close out this entry with a shot of the gross gross brown water that we didn't go in once the rain finally stopped on my last day on Oahu. Ew, run-off. AND an adorable shot of k sleeping (sorry, k) while a and j play in the sand. a wouldn't walk on the sand but he looked awfully cute in his little surf shorts and he did get into scooping the sand up and dumping it over his shoulder (right onto sleeping daddy, of course)...

Next stop, the Big Island, turtles, and even fattier food. Yummy yummy yummy...

A shameless plug before getting down to business...

This is my "auction of the week" at ebay, and it has no bids. Sad. Want to go bid on it? Please?

Oy, if at all possible, the days have been going by even faster than the last time I posted, which was ALMOST TWO WEEKS AGO. Thank you again for all the kind words about my grandmother. They are now considering moving her out of the ICU, but she is still unable to recognize anyone. My folks will arrive back stateside in a few days. The last month has honestly been a total BLUR. I'm hoping that lots of R & R, sunshine, and low-stress visiting with friends will help.

In the meantime, I've been trying to get caught up/ahead as frantically as possible. It's kind of neat that I can at least go into my flickr account and sort of see by the pictures what I've been doing. Now if only I could write more regularly... Anyway, I see from my pictures that I've been getting set for shows, and subsequently trying out some new types of stuff to offer... Voila, one of the recycled sweater cuff prototypes:
Some sort-of organic pod-like necklaces:And of course, there is always the never-ending spinning thing...
Also, though I've made minis of these up in the past as samples, I never got around to making them "full-sized" until recently... they're called "yarn melanges" ('cause I'm all fancy, you know) and they're basically these great mixes of all these yarns that I've been stashing that I want to see all blended together. I'm working on knitting something up with some different ones, but here're some little pictures... (these are available at the rhino etsy shop, by the way- wink, wink): In more personal news, we have not been cooking anything particularly new or exciting, nor have we been doing much eating out, for that matter. We DID get yummy Japanese food at our perennial favorite Ittyo (Porter Sq. Exchange) after a nice paper browsing trip at Paper Source, where of course I did not control myself and came home with (duh) paper, including this yummy sheet (amongst others):

We also did manage to get out to brunch with mr. aw & ms. kk at the noisy but soooo good B-Side Lounge. Check out the brunch menu. And yes, I had the breakfast fajitas AND bacon. And I seriously considered having the sweet potato biscuits too. I couldn't convince mr. d to stop at Petsi Pies on the way home for chicken pot pie, but it ended up being okay 'cause they were closed anyway.

Finally, lest you think I forgot about St. Patrick's Day, I did not. There was no green beer or parading, but I didn't let the chance to dress ms. daisy up pass me by. Here she is, finally tolerating something on her head. Awww.

spin spin spin spin spin...

that's pretty much all I've been doing... well, that and being sick for most of the latter part of last week. so besides the spinning, I updated traveling rhinos with the yarn that was spun. very exciting (and self-promoting), no? you have to admit, it is kinda pretty...
and I honestly have nothing else to say right now. mom & dad rhino leave for asia in about four hours, so I'm going to go nap for a bit. go buy some yarn, why don't you?

Hang in there, folks, it's going to be a long one...

Sorry for the long silence... a lot has been going on so I hope you'll bear with me... I'll try to include lots of pictures so you don't get too bored :)

It's been over two weeks, so where were we...V-Day was nice. mr. d & I went to yummy yummy Fugakyu (we hit up the Sudbury one) and ate crazy maki rolls 'til we were stuffed. Then we had ice cream. And fell asleep.

Here's a yarn I spun from wool dyed by the lovely Heather. Nothing to do with V-Day but I spun it between then and now. Looks super 80s to me :), we will see if I can let go of it or not...

It was also vacation for mr. d last week so we went up to Maine for a few days to visit with zay and mom d. While in The County, we hid this:

One of two received from the uber-talented Josh Simpson's Infinity Project. Go submit a proposal!!! Besides being a really cool idea, you get a second one of these AMAZING planets to keep for yourself! 'Cause chances are his bigger stuff is not in your price range. If it is, please pick one up for me while you're shopping, 'cause you can afford to :)

Here's the one I kept for me:

You can't tell from the pics, but this one is actually quite a bit smaller than the first one. Here's a shot of me freezing my behind off during the "hiding"...

And actually, now that I think about it, if you know where this is, there's a pretty good chance you could go and get that planet for yourself because I don't imagine anyone else is dumb enough to go out there until it gets warmer.

Speaking of warmer, I am planning on a super-fun (and long-awaited) trip to SF & Hawaii to visit ms. c, ms soon to be mrs. c, ms. f and #1! I'll get to mooch off my friends and eat yummy food, and be WARM! Finally, a use for my thirty-five bathing suits. This news accompanied by a photo of the cool lights in the trees at LLBean.

Finally: if you've read this far, thanks. I have to explain to those who care enough to read this much that I tend to disappear from email (and blogging) when I get overwhelmed. Personal hiding reaction to stress. In this case, when mr. d and I got back from Maine, we found out that my grandmother had fallen into a coma. She is now conscious but recovering very slowly. She can't speak or walk yet, nor is recovery certain, and my parents are getting ready to fly to Taiwan to see her. Depending on what happens during their visit, I will probably go myself sooner or later. It's hard not to feel helpless and stressed, especially when you're over 9,000 miles away. Day to day on this, but I am working on not withdrawing so much when things get crazy. Thanks for bearing with me. xoxo, #2