Surveys?

I took a few... Very interesting.

YOUR REPORT CARD:
Category	Grade
Love	A+
Friends and Family	A+
Body	B
Mind	A+
Finance / Career	A+
Your Life's Average Grade: A+
'What is your Life Grade?' at QuizGalaxy.com

R?

Here is what you do. Use the 1st letter of your middle name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names,things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person you took this from had the same 1st initial.
You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. Middle name letter: R
2. Famous artist/band/musician: R. Kelly
3. 4-letter word: Road
4. U.S state: Rhode Island
5. Boy name: Roger
6. Girl name: Rachael
7. Animal: Rhino (the formal name is too hard to type up!)
8. Something in the kitchen: Rolling Pin
9. Reason for being late? Rolling Around in Cash
10. Body Part? Ribs
11. Drink? Root Beer, Red Death, Red Bull...
12. Something you shout: Rat!
13. Something you eat? Rice
14. A movie you've seen? Riding In Cars With Boys

I tag Archknist, Sunflowerfairy, and MomWifeKnitter. Tag 3 more when you are done! :)

What Have I Been Up To?

So I have dramatically slow down on blogging lately. I couldn't really justified blogging when I should be doing research. But tonight, I'm taking a little time off so I can update everyone on what I'm up to and the progress of some knitting.

Last weekend, Knelley, Acambras, Costumchick, JennM and I went over to Anphoe's house for some unofficial SnB get together. We had SO MUCH FUN! We all got there around 6pm and didn't leave till 2am!!! We all brought food as well and everything was delicious!

Even long after the get together, I would still think about all the conversation we had and laugh to myself.

On the knitting front, I started knitting Lola Curly the Pig for my Cocoa Swap swapee as her "Bust the Winter Blahs Buddy". I hope she'll like it. I used the yarn my friend who's family owns a yarn mill's yarn. She gave me the yarn when I was thinking of making my own wedding gown. Of course, I didn't end up doing it so now I have 30 balls of the yarn sitting around. It turned out to be a great yarn for this project!

Actually, I've made some more progress since this picture was taken - I have finished the body while at Suzy's last night and I made the four feet today during training.

And while we are on Schaefer, I got my Schaefer Yarn payment for the two projects I made for them:

4 skeins of Andrea - 2 in Julia Child and 2 in Margo Jones, and 1 skein of Lola in green.

Aren't the color gorgeous? I will be using them for shawls, but I haven't decided on patterns yet.

Along with the payment, I got the next model knitting project as well. And I have to say I am super excited for this project ever since I got the pattern from Laura.

It's the Undulating Waves Scarf by Laura Nelkin. It has beads in it and the whole thing is just beautiful. I can't wait to start this project.

And just to finish up this post, I have some random pictures to show you:

This is Andes Peppermint Crunch chocolate. This picture is for missburrows, all you Choconots and Frenemies out there! (it's okay if you don't know what these means... But if you do, mmm.. Chocolate!) I can't get enough of these chocolate patties :)

This picture is for Archiknist. My Peru llama/alpaca hangs out with me at work. He stands on top of my monitor and is one of the things that makes me smiles when I am stressed at work.

Stay tuned for my hot cocoa week #2 questions and some yarn from NYC!

We are NOT Doing This For Our First Dance!

This is too funny...

Seattle Time Editor's Response

I, like the Digestive Diva, also got an email back from the editor of Seattle Time, not the journalist herself, but the editor:

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the recent "Survival Guide for Holiday Hosting" story. We realize now that we should not have included "gluten-free" as an example in the "Diva" category, as a gluten-free diet often is a medically diagnosed need, not a choice. On our website, we have changed that sentence to say: “The Diva has driven us crazy with high-maintenance demands like special diets and fresh towels every day.”

In past articles, we have taken great care to address the importance of gluten-free diets, and have even printed recipes for those needing alternatives. That said, your note is a good reminder that we need to stay mindful of this issue.

Thanks again.
Colleen McBrinn
The Seattle Times
Weekend Living Editor
206/515-5655

It is the exact same letter, copied and pasted, from Digestive Diva. I am not completely happy as it still states "special diets" and sometimes special diets can still mean medical needs, but at least they recognized me and addressed the concerns. That will have to do for now.

*NOT* Your Daily Knitting Digest

Today, I want to talk about allergies.

I think most of my friends have allergies, either air born or food. Now aday, food allergies are so common that people don't actually think twice about it when someone say they are allergic to certain thing. Apparently, according to Seattle journalist, people who has special diets are "the Diva". Click here to read the article.

The article has really good intentions, but it came out all wrong. The generalization had made it an bad article, especially at the paragraph about Divas. I mean, we can all relate to that ONE person who is never satisfy about anything you do, who is always criticizing, who is always demanding, who is always ... The list goes on. However, people who has "Crazy Special Diets" doesn't always want to be the ones that has the special diets!

I first read about it from Adventure of a Digested Diva, a lady who has Celiac Disease. David is allergic to gluten so about half an year ago, I subscribed to some "gluten free" food blogs to learn about the foods and recipes.

I sent an email to our dear Seattle journalist. I doubt I'll hear from this lady ever, but at least, I gave her a piece of my mind. If you would like to give her a piece of your mind, her contact info is listed on the bottom of the article.

Good Night.

Somewhere Over the Ranbow...

Absolutely Amazing...

Computer

... is out of commission currently. I had my laptop reimaged and somehow the wireless is not working.

My parents are coming to visit tomorrow for a week! Yay!

Red Sox rule!

I'm out.

What Kind of Knitting Needles are You?

Until tomorrow, I leave you with this...



You are bamboo.Warm, cozy, and thoughtful, you take your time and enjoy how things feel, smell, and taste. You love the craft and beauty of traditional things, and you value the comfort and experience of knitting as much as the results. But while you are reveling in your warm cozies, don't get stuck. Warm is wonderful, but so is the whole wide world!
Take this quiz!

Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

As Seen On TV

Ever seen an infomercial? Ever want to try the product but don't want to risk your money and the hassle of buying it online or order via the phone? Yeah, me too.

One day few weeks ago, David and I were watching TV and one of the infomercial was on for some slicer thing for vegetables. I was busy knitting so I didn't pay attention. All of the sudden, David said, "Hun, did you see that?" Of course, we rewound it and I was actually bored with it. I said, "yeah, it looks cool, but does it really work? Plus they have similar stuff from the kitchen stores, we don't have to buy it from infomercial and it would be easier to return it if we don't like it." David then said, "Just keep watching!" hmmm... okay... a minute later - "OH MY GOD, I WANT THAT THING!" And that thing would the the "free gift" for the slicer - Tater Mitts!!! Yeah, it looked SO COOL! But of course, I wasn't gonna order it just to get the tater mitts, I figure I can probably find it at an ASOT store at the mall, if I remember then I will buy one.

Thursday night, David and I went to Target to find something and there it is, sitting on the shelf, Tater Mitts!!!! Of course, I came home with one:

So needless to say, I tried it out tonight.

The Claim: Peel a potato without getting your hands wet in 8 seconds.

The Start:

30 seconds later:

Apparently, my hands are way too small for the gloves and they are not snuggly fit to them and make it hard to peel. So I have David took over and try it:

The Verdict: The claim of 8 seconds a potato is not true - unless they use a super small potato! Even David took at least a minute to peel it. But it does peel very clean and thin, so the thinly peel part of the claim is true. The water does kinda spell onto your shirt if you are not careful. Overall I give it a 3 and half stars out of 5! It is safer so you don't get cut by the peeler - alright, maybe not everyone is as clumsy as me, but for me it is safer.

We tried out the fries cutter as well, it works very well but hard to press to begin with. It is very uniformly cut once it does go through. So the free gift gets a 3 and half stars as well.

I think I will keep it for now. We definitely had a good laugh playing with it.

On the knitting front, I am working feverishly on MS3. I am on Clue 6 (chart I) one third of it done. I am really hoping that I can finish it by next week as Secret of the Stole is starting pretty soon. I am way behind on Hanami, and I haven't started Hemlock Ring Blanket either, or the Autumn Rose... yes, I am very behind. Granted, I don't have the yarn for the two lace stoles, but I do have the yarn for Hemlock Ring and Autumn Rose, however, I promised myself that I will finish MS3 first, only then, I can cast on a new project.

Now, I am not just behind on knitting, I am even behind on my swapping! For Football-a-long, I joined the swap (it's not a secret swap) and was assigned a swapee - Robin from The Knittin' Coop! She's got an awesome blog and just had two new additions to the family, so go check it out! Anyways, so I emailed Robin and explained to her that I had a late start and she was very understanding of the whole thing. I will be sending her some awesome stuff her way very soon - all football related. Hopefully she'll like it!

Well, that's all there is to it. Time to get back to MS3 and football and baseball - Go Patriots and Red Sox! For giggles, I leave you these:

Found you!

• You signed up on July 27, 2007
• You are #21089 on the list.
• 7610 people are ahead of you in line.
• 12103 people are behind you in line.
• 40% of the list has been invited so far

David and Vanilla


My two white dogs - all 185 lbs

What kind of Sandwich are You?

Me:

You Are a Tuna Fish Sandwich

Some people just don't have a taste for you. You are highly unusual. And admit it, you've developed some pretty weird habits over the years. You may seem a bit unsavory from a distance, but anyone who gives you a chance is hooked! Your best friend: The Club Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Turkey Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

David:

You Are a Turkey Sandwich

Conservative and a bit shy, you tend to stick with what you know and trust. You are very introverted, and you prefer to blend in whenever possible. Though you may be hard to know well, anyone who does know you considers you a true friend. Your best friend: The Ham Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Tuna Fish Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Hmmmm... according to this, David and I are mortal enemies...

ps. I stole this from Anphoe
pps. Mick is doing fine and came home this afternoon. He slept a lot this afternoon and is back to himself already! :)

Rockin' Girl Blogger

I have the honor receiving an award from Anphoe:

Yup! You see that right! :) Rockin'! And now I'm suppose to select five of you that rocks... Oh... this is hard... How about this, if you are reading my blog, then you are DEFINITELY Rockin'!!! YEAH! So consider yourself had received this award and proudly display a Rockin's Girl Blogger badge and display it on your own blog! And if you are a guy? WHO CARES? You rock anyways!

When I have some time, I'll have to tell you all about my Atlanta trip for the Primerica Convention!

Rock On!

ps. I finally finished Clue 3 of MS3.
pps. I joined Hanami KAL... yeah...

Note: Just make sure you kindly save the image to your own server first then upload to your blog. Thanks!

Ravelry

Okay. So I've been thinking about this whole Ravelry thing. A lot of my SnB friends had joined and either had received their invites or on the waiting list. There are currently 17000+ people joined and about 1/3 had received the invitations.

This thing looks pretty cool - you can enter your stash, WIPs and FOs, and you can search FOs from others so you can see what other's look like. You can blog and have threads also about subjects - overall, it is very interesting. You would think I joined at once, but I have not. With so many people joined and on the waiting list, I am not sure if I should join or not. It is still on the beta version.

So my question to you, my dear readers, should I join, or should I not???

Accent?

What accent? I guess I have one from Taiwan, but to get this result...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
North Central
Boston
The South
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

And David, who is from outside of Boston, got this:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

HUH???

Aside from that, I started a Irish Hiking Scarf with Misti Alpaca. It was my airplane knit... Almost done but I have to put it down because I want to start my dad's mittens. Speaking of my dad, my parents arrived California last night and will be coming to my house for Thanksgiving next week. I can't wait :)

Happy Knitting! :)

Hugs

My friend Mer had this on her aim the other day, and I thought it was a very cool thing. We really don't stop often enough to thank the people who support you and to give support to others. Enjoy this clip.

Off to LA for couple of days... Will be back Monday night!!

Happy Knitting!

Apple Picking and Yarn Garden

Yes, I was suppose to post yesterday, but I was busy finishing this:

Cowl Neck Sweater No. 2 and that's Mick behind me trying to get into the picture!

Pattern - Cowl Neck Pullover No. 2 from VK KnitSimple Winter 2005 by Wilma Peers
Yarn Called For - 18 skeins Bunny by Tahki Yarns in Natural
Yarn Used - 7 balls of Valley Yarn Berkshire Bulky in Fuchsia
Needles - Denise size 9
Gauge - 13 sts and 23 rows = 4" in St st
Knit - September 10-ish, 2006 to October 29, 2006

Ahhh... Finally done with the sweater for my mom. I am working on one of the gift projects that's not related to Christmas. I will post more once the gift has been given.

Ok. On to what we did yesterday. Some of the SnB girls and I went apple picking yesterday morning. Well, it was a lot of fun and a lot of Golden Delicious, and a lot of WIND! It was so cold! But we got apples none the less.

Ola, Beth, Myself, and Emily

Golden Delicious from the trees on the right and Fuji from the Farm store on the left

We went to the Lyman's Farm Store afterwards and I got these:

Cinnamon apple cider donut holes, honey maple spread, and 4 honey sticks - I ate two already :)

Afterwards, we went to Yarn Garden at Meriden. I told myself that there would be no yarn purchase for me since I got a bunch at home. And I didn't. I came home with these instead:

Boathouse from Classic Elite and Book Two KFI Yarns of Ella Rae Design

I can't wait to make stuff out of them :)

That would have been the end of my post, however, when I came home tonight, there was a package waiting on the steps with these in it:

Care package from Sher!!!

In the package contained 2 skien of Lambs Pride Bulky in April Green and Aztec Turquoise, a skien and a half of Gedifra Arktis color, a bottle of Key Lime Juice, and some baby Afgan patterns. Sher is one of my future MILs and she knits as well :)

Thank you Sher! :)

Happy Knitting!

CT Pet Show!

David's mom came down from Mass for the weekend. We decided to go to the CT Pet Expo at Hartford. The rain had stopped for a bit when we got there, which was very nice, since we parked pretty far away. When we first walked in, I was overwhelmed with all the venders - leashes, collars, dog food, vacuums, dog clothes, just to name a few. They also had some vendors for humans - fudges, socks, country stores, soaps, lotions, etc. From one of the vendors, I got this:

I think the mug said it for itself.

Of course, they also had dog shows, the kind you see on TV, where they judge the best of breed, then best of group, then best of show! We saw two St. Benards, one puppy, one full grown. We didn't stay very long for the show though, cuz they didn't have any Great Pyrenese.

We walked around more, and then all of the sudden, I saw THIS:

Giant angora bunny!

AND THESE:

Spinning wheel with yarns!!!

Angora Yarn!!!

Of course, I was VERY EXCITED. I got to talk to the lady, whose name is Louise Walsh of Taunton, MA. It turned out she breeds and sells angora bunnies and she is the Creator of the Giant Angora!!! She was at Rhinebeck, booth 35, but I didn't see her though. We chatted about bunnies, fibers, spinning wheels, and which wool festival to go to. She was nice enough to pose for a picture with me:

Louise and I

I was happy.

More tomorrow. Happy Knitting!

Not a typical Monday

After work on Monday, I came home to these:

My replacements and new additons from Denise and my Rhinebeck Bingo button

The button was a little too late, oh well. But the needles are just in time! (for SnB of course!) I am almost finished with the sweater for my mom, and after that, I can concentrate on my dad's gloves and then the gift knitting I've been working on slowly.

Jenny had this picture up on her blog and I liked it so much I stole it :)

David and I at Double-O Grill after Rhinebeck

The food was awesome, and we had a blast at Rhinebeck. Even David liked it, too! Yes, he told me so!

And I leave you with my loves:

How can you not love them?

Happy Knitting!

And the winners are...

So I've been knitting frantically for MaryElla No. 2 so I can enter the Knitty Calendar Contest and here are the three pictures I selected to enter for the contest:

Photo 1 Lilly and MaryElla No.2


Photo 2 Lilly in a cup with MaryElla No.2


Photo 3 Bruno and MaryElla No.2

I don't want to brag, but I think Bruno is the cutest!!! :) Now all I have to do is to make them smaller to submit them in an email.

On the other winner selection business, Gown 1 won with 42 votes over Gown 2, 19 votes. However, I am very torn between the Arwen Gown from Rowan and Gown 1. Someone suggested to knit one gown for the ceremony, and one for the reception, which is not a bad idea, but I don't know how long that's going to take me to make!!!

Well, I guess that's all I have right now. Moving on to finishing off Pink Frosting and my first sock!

Comments, anyone?

So as most of you already saw the last post that I got engaged! :) I was so excited that I started making guest list, even though it's not going to be till sometime in the '08.

I did make one observation about the whole blog thing though: even though a lot of my friends read it, but they never made any comments so I have no clue who saw the post and who didn't. I do have to say, as a blogger, it's VERY EXCITING to see someone post a comment for certain post I made because at least for me, I feel like I'm not talking to myself! :) And that someone actually care about my posts!!! :)

Anyway, just a little observation...

By the way, my blog is best to be viewed with Mozilla, instead of IE... evil IE!!!