Whew...

This month? It's been busy. I'm finally settled in my new apartment, and as soon as I can be home around noon when the light is really nice and have nothing to do for an hour (HA!) I'll take and upload some pictures! Oh, but it's great, comfy and relaxing.

So what have I been up to?



Now that I have a continually clean kitchen and can cook without fear of strange creatures rising up on their pseudo pods to attack me, I've been baking, cooking, and eating way more fulfilling meals at home. Most recently it was a (much less gringo than usual) version of Chicken Curry, using a free-range organic and tasty whole chicken from Trader Joe's. Combine that with fresh naan cooked in a 500 degree oven on a cast iron skillet, yummy raita, and rice cooked with saffron and sliced almonds, and you have a fucking meal. YUM. I'm anticipating future curries but I need to know a bit more about the spices and quantities; this was pretty successful but I think I'll have to add more onion in the future. A couple weeks earlier, I had a friend over to help me make fresh spaghetti in my Atlas pasta maker, found by my mother at the ever popular Urban Ore. I still have leftover family-recipe tomato sauce in my freezer, and most of a focaccia slab that's now waiting to be turned into breadcrumbs. Oh yeah, Italian sausage and mushrooms were also consumed.

Look - it's pasta drying on my dish rack!



About the recent conversion to carnivorous behavior: Back in November I decided that it was OK to occasionally eat meat if I knew it was ethically treated, i.e. free range / organic and all that good stuff. I was already eating dairy, eggs, and fish on a daily to weekly basis along with vegetarian fare. I know it doesn't really mean a lot now as organic standardization is not really up to snuff, and there are a lot of food manufacturers slapping a big "O" on packaging nowadays, but I can tell when it tastes better. Ethically treated animals are indeed tasty - I think my major reason for going vegetarian years ago (outside of health) was that meat just didn't taste good to me anymore. Lately, tasty critters have been infiltrating my diet, and I've noticed some interesting things happening:

• My stomach is tolerating meat products very well. No stomach aches, *ahem* flatulence (which I'm kind of known for in many circles), or feeling like I'm going to pass out after eating meals.


• My sugar cravings and pint of ice cream or two per week habit have gone away completely. I've been able to turn down sweets - shocking!


• I've lost weight and have more energy, but this is probably a product of slightly increased exercise, and a decrease in carb and sugar consumption. I also don't feel as hungry or want to snack all the time, and smaller meals fill me up.

I discussed this with a friend who is the same blood type, similar age, and also a recent carnivore convert - and she had the exact same conclusions. Since she's in a program studying Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and is generally very aware of health and her body, I trust her opinion. I've been a vegetarian off and on for the last 10 years, with varying degrees of strictness, and I finally feel now that I will not go back as it's not necessarily the most healthy option. Now, this does not mean that burgers and fries are going to be staple in my diet. On the contrary, this allows me more freedom in the kitchen, and when I occasionally go out to eat I don't always have to choose the vegetarian option, which is most of the time not vegetarian at all! Right now, for my body, I feel it's OK to eat animal protein 2-3 times a week. Other days, vegetarian is the best option. I've heard it many times before, now to beat a dead horse: It's all about moderation, people.

Other than food and nesting, I've been playing with the bands 2x a week, and we're gearing up for recording and a couple of gigs lined up. Exciting! I feel like I have my rhythm and energy back after the last 4 lackluster months. There is also small progress on the photography front - for the first time in months, I've been shooting at least a few days a week, and shot another wedding a few weeks ago which I still have to finish editing and send off to the lucky couple. I hope to do another bit of a shoot this weekend at my Cousin's place, where she's helping shoot a student Zombie film. We'll see if I can shoot without getting too much gore on my camera, as theoretically I'll be in the film too.

One thing I've not been doing much of? Unfortunately, knitting. It's for the best though, as it's now approaching summer (not that we really have one in the bay area), and I need to take a quick break to work on other projects. However, I have been working on a few knitting patterns, and eventually I'll finish the garments, write up patterns, and distribute for testing.

'Till then, Ciao!

Netflix withdrawl

I would like to express my utter frustration and rage at the Netflix site outage. I'm sure they are losing a lot of business as it's been down all freaking day! I just discovered the wonders of Netflix last night (well, I know about it, but had not signed up or explored until yesterday) and was totally thrilled, adding tons of movies and shows to my queue. That is, until this morning, when I checked the site to add a few things, and it was down. "Ok, it will be back soon," I mused. 7 hours later it's still down! GRAWRRR! This had better not effect the delivery of LOST season 3 to my mailbox tomorrow. And when the site is up, I had better be able to add MST3K to my queue, dammit. I just want to watch some movies while I knit!

In other news, I finally signed up for cable internet, so hopefully I'll have a modem by Saturday so they can install it. Soon I will have connectivity at home...Wheee! I did get to play around with an EVDO WiFi router this weekend thanks to work, and it's pretty neat. Unfortunately I can't keep it all week as we need it for testing. This would be a great device for traveling - anywhere Sprint Network goes, you can have WiFi and net access. You could probably even use it in the car with an AC converter. Sweetness. It's amazing what technology can do these days, and how swiftly one can become frustrated and angry due to lack of said technology.

No offense to knitting blondes...

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!

Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, “PULL OVER!”

“NO!” the blonde yelled back, “IT’S A SCARF!”

Sanctuary

I finally spent a night in my new casa last night! It feels great to be in my own space. I realized after not staying in my old house for over a week that it was making me sick - coughing, sneezing, wheezing, feeling miserable. I've been really ill off and on with respiratory distress for the past 4 months. I still don't feel 100% better but am about 95% there, with no more wheezing and haven't used any allergy medication in 2-3 days. Woo hoo, now I don't feel so decrepit! I've warned my ex roommates about the possibility that there is toxic mold in the house, but we'll see if they do anything about it. I'm powerless, as I was not on the lease.

Anyway...that's all over now! I have a huge studio to live in! Despite my exhaustion from moving all day Saturday, I manage to get my kitchen unpacked and the beginning of my workspace setup. I'm hoping to section off the bed and my workspace so it's not immediately visible as I walk in the door - I think a clean living area will help keep the feeling of sanctuary and inspiration. Since my yarn was already packed in clear totes, it was easy to find, and I've already started swatching for a new sweater now that my first one is already done...

In any case it's a relief to be done, and know that I have much more room for creativity and sanctuary.

Countdown

2 days 'till I get keys to my new place! Yup, I'm finally moving into a large studio on my own. No more roommates, no more fighting with roommates about being too loud or not cleaning up after themselves, no more ridiculous energy wasting resulting in exorbitantly high electricity bills...more nesting and being comfortable. The last 2-3 months at my current residence have been far from peaceful, to the point where I am so done with living there that I'm staying at the SO's place this week until I can move into my new place. I can hardly wait any longer. I will have more space to breathe, and space to cook, make art, knit, build things, and might even have the ability to use the space as a photography studio from time to time due to the fact that there's a lot of space and high ceilings. I'm also excited about having concrete floors - I will be able to use my tools indoors! I've already been dreaming up layouts for the apartment, looking at IKEA for things I can't really afford right now, and dreaming of all the creative things I'll now have space (and peace and quiet) for.

In knitting land...I now only have to knit sleeves for my sweater, and have finally finished some socks, minus the leg hem and blocking. New project for new space: Dye some yarn!

I also have an idea for a rug - I really like the cheap flokati rugs from IKEA, but I'm not too keen on owning a white one. Since it's wool, theoretically I could dye it...but would it be too much of a pain in the ass? I think I'm going to try, maybe for deep reds or earthy greens...

Braiiins

Wow, I had a great and productive weekend! Friday night I stayed over at Harvey's house, knitting up a storm and watching Lost. I got a good 5" or so done on my sweater, up to the bust shaping at least. Saturday morning was spent knitting a bit more, then a visit to ImagiKnit in San Francisco. I can't believe I've never been to this shop before! Amazing fibers, and so well organized. The first huge room is for yarns of 50% or more animal fiber, while the second huge room is for 50% or less animal fiber. And the colors! I couldn't resist buying a huge squishy hunk of Schaefer hand dyed, in colorway Elena Piscopia, from their collection of yarns inspired by memorable women. At 600 yards, it will make a nice vest or shrug, or an immense claptois. I also bought some Noro cotton and rayon cord, which is gorgeous crocheted! I think I'll have to go back there and purchase a couple more skeins for my mother who will probably crochet something much more amazing than I ever could.


Around 2, I met Matt downtown for a Brain Machines build. It's bascially a set of goggles with LEDs that pulse or blink patterns in conjunction with tones. The patterns correspond with brainwave sequences to bring you into a relaxed meditative state. The patterns are stored in a firmware which can be edited to make them longer or shorter. The build was pretty easy, we each purchased a kit which included all LEDs, caps, resistors, and a chip which runs the firmware. I pretty much finished mine, but still have to make it pretty with fake fur - I'm envisioning a helmet sort of thing. I did try it out for a bit, and can say for a fact that it relaxed me and got rid of my headache. I'm going to go through the full sequence when I have a spare 10 minutes or so.




Sunday we left at 8 am (grrr) to drive up to Sacramento to visit Two Rivers Cidery. Normally I don't drink at all before early afternoon, but Vincent, the owner and brewer, is truly an artisan. Everything we sampled was amazing - Pear, Pomegranate, a wonderful blend called Seiser of apples and honey, and my favorite, Gravenstein apple cider. Oh, I've missed Gravensteins! I was born in Graton, an unincorporated part of Sebastepol, and growing up in the North Bay has led to a real appreciation of this wonderful fruit. Gravensteins are classified as an heirloom fruit, as they are not grown anywhere else in the country. Sadly, land owners in Sebastepol and Santa Rosa are favoring vineyards over orchards these days, so gravensteins have been falling off the radar as of late.



Though this was a hectic weekend, I did manage to get some knitting done, and even crocheting! I made a bowl with the wonderful cotton cord and am going to make a belt with the second skein. Yay!

Bit of a break

So, I've been voraciously knitting lately, and have many plans for future knits - a mohair skirt, cabled cardigan, top-down simple raglan on the needles, more socks. It seems as if my creative brain has the inertia of a locomotive these days. I finished 2.5 projects on wednesday - scarf like things that are late xmas presents for family! I've also been rehearsing a lot, or at least the 2x weekly rehearsals with my bands have been extremely energetic. Also being on the computer for 10-12 hours a day combined with a bit of stress due to searching for a new apartment = body pain! Ugh. I think I'm getting a little tendonitis in my wrists, and my shoulders are constantly sore. I never though sitting or resting would be so painful to the body. I really need to take some yoga classes after I get settled in my new (pending) place.

So, I've unintentionally taken a couple day's break from knitting. I forgot my needles on Thursday, even though I had yarn! A day and a half off of knitting hasn't helped a ton with my wrists, which aren't really all that bad, but has made me realize that I can afford to take breaks from time to time. I'm planning on trying to finish the projects I'm outlining in my nice graph-lined moleskine, and not buy any more yarn until next fall.

Theoretically, a knitting break is possible - I have so many more projects to be done!