You Are Very Competitive

Competition is in your blood. You love to compete, and more importantly, you love to win. You only feel excited if something is at stake. If you're not in it for a prize, you're bored quickly. You compete at work and at sports, and it's likely that you even compete with your friends too. You can't help it! You're probably even happy to get this quiz result, seeing that you're competitive about everything... including taking quizzes.

Are You Competitive?

Blogthings: Cheaper Than a Therapist

       

Another challenge answered!

For NERDWARS, one of the challenges, under the technical category, was bonding.  Just like 2 elements bond together to make another substance, two different fibers needed to be joined together for this project.  And as with all the challenges if you can somehow relate it back to your team's theme you can earn up to 3 bonus points.

My inspiration for my project is Sheldon's sick/Bozite hat:


The pattern I used called for the cable twist every 10 rows which I did for the earflaps, but after thatn I changed it to every 5.








I used Blue sky alpaca's sport 100% baby alpaca (red yarn) and Elan's Incense - 50%wool, 25% silk 25% bamboo (black yarn)  this  actually makes for a more wearable hat as alpaca yarn is warm, very, very bake your brains, warm.  The bamboo and silk are very breathable, so by blending the two you get a hat that would work on the coldest winter day as well as the milder winter days.
 

Our Anniversary

Curt and I celebrated our Anniversary today.  Curt actually woke up with me ;p!  I must sadly admit- we finally took down the rest of the Christmas stuff...exciting life I lead....

For a late lunch we  went to Hot Rods ( a serious BBQ/Cajun restaurant with a Hot Rod car theme) this time of year they do a Mardi Gras theme - of course Curt was allergic to most of the Mardi Gras specials but I ordered the etouffee.  He ordered ribs.  For dessert we had chocolate cups filled with mousse.  He started laughing weirdly at the waitress - apparently when she said chocolate mousse, he pictured Bullwinkle dipped in chocolate in a bowl!!  He had orange creme mousse, I had malted milkshake mousse,  Very yummy.

Then of course it being saturday nite - he went bowling. 

I got a blog award!

I got a blog award on Wednesday from Grace at Lovin Comfort Knits.  

I really have no idea why she gave it to me.  Check out her blog though - It has a background for every month!  And talk about prolific finished items!

So I have to tell you 7 things you don't already know about me.. that's tough, I have no verbal filter - it just pops from my head to my mouth and out to you most of the time.  SO  here goes:

1.  I was a very shy, introverted kid when I was young.

2.  I still enjoy being alone.

3.  I'm not into the Twilight kind of vampires, but I did have a major crush on Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows when I was younger.

4.  If Angie was a boy, I wanted to name him Gunther.  Curtis did not.

5.  Sometimes I cheat and use frozen veggies when I cook,

6.  I have the patience of an angry yellow jacket.

7.  I have a serious fear of heights, especially using a ladder to get there.  I am much better if I can climb up somewhere than take a ladder up,  but since I work with a lot of sexist stoopid boys, most of the time I suck it up and just go up.  (Sometimes I do the big round eyes and get one of them to go up for me)

I know some people get annoyed at awards etc.  So if you are a reader of my blog and I read yours, and you don't mind awards - this is for you.

 

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

Click here for info and background on this weekly event!

The basics:
Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

This week’s theme is: Elation

 

 Daytona on Sat.

Three wide to the checkered flag

Tony wins again!

 

 

 

NERD WARS

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I had submitted a dissertation proposal for the three month NERDWARS tournament.  Finishing in three months may be a bit of a challenge, especially since I didn't submit my proposal until 02.14.  I am going to try to knit HEY, Teach!

The challenge is on a few fronts.  1. It's a fairly large (gotta fit me!) project and I have a tendency to get bored and wander off.  2. It's a sweater and there are at least 6 seams involved.  I am not a big fan of seaming.  3.  Adaptions must be made because I cannot get both row and stitch guage.  I went with stitch guage - but as the shaping for the armholes are in the lace section, I will need to be careful to not get weird armholes.  4. It must be done by April 30th - and I am only 95% sure I have enough yarn.  

I do have a plan however!  1.  I am also participating in a couple of the monthly challenges, I have to get a St Patricks day swap item done, so by mixing projects I am hoping to alleviate some of the boredom.  Also the only stockinette stitch (yawn) is in the bottom 8 inches.  2.  At some point I am going to have to learn to seam.  I do have a finishing techniques book and I am going to put on my big girl pants and go for it!  3.  I made a section twice as high as the lace pattern to help me figure out armhole placement.  4.  From when I cast on, there were 11 weeks and 4 days until the deadline. The project uses 10 skeins of yarn.  So the plan is 0ne skein per week leaves me 11 days to block and seam.  As of right now I am on target.



I don't know if you can see, but the yarn is red, like pure red.



My swatch - the lower third was done on the recommended needles but was clearly not working out, so I did a garter border and went up a size.  That got me stitch guage but not row guage.  The top third is 2 repeats of the 12 row lace pattern in the larger needles.  I did not steam block because I am pretty sure I will need about 1/2 of the yarn in this skein (I'm not sure but if you look at the top I didn't cut the yarn from the skein)



My current progress 8in + 8 rows of rib.

Swaps

Meet the cleric, Jeye. Fast, deadly taking on monsters, helping the needy in the name of his goddess Ashtur Arrambi.   Often in his battles, he is joined by the amazon warrior Zara.  When Zara is almost killed in a battle outside the village Rime, they realize their love.  Unfortunately any marriage Jeye wishes to enter into be approved by the high priestess/ goddess's daughter Liesel who believes that the goddess can be better served without distractions.  As an amazon Zara is sworn to remain unmarried or be banished by her tribe.  They decide they must go forward anyway, and a priest they travel with , Abitar agrees that his god Reeve Partel would definitely approve of the union and agrees to marry them.



Total swap - coffee for the reception, mitts to keep warm in the cold forest and a pattern for mitts.

After receiving my package a call was sent out for swap "angels".  Angels are people willing to step in when someone flakes out and does not send their swap package out and leaves someone hanging... Since this swap was for 2 creepies, 2 angels worked together.  I volunteered (last spring I got flaked on by 3 different swaps- it totally sucked)  and my angel partner and I decided that I would make a devil and she would do a cleric ( we wanted to choose creepies we could bang out quickly - basically ruling out any with hair) We decided that they met on E-Cacophony and their first date would be at our spoilee's house.  As for why it was forbidden come on - the devil and a cleric??

Swaps

I did another Creepy Cute Crochet Swap.  This one was to open before Valentine's Day.  The theme was "Forbidden Love"  This is the couple I sent to my spoilee ( it was a secret swap and the person you sent to was not the person sending to you) A lot of people were discussing on the board creating story lines behind their couples, so I used a real life story as an inspiration for mine.

Meet the Amazon princess (her hair and outfit are actually a brighter pink than the picture shows and the dark streaks in her hair are actually purple)  She's a wild child, pretty rebellious, and enjoys giving people a good thrashing now and again. Like most Amazons she was a tomboy and enjoyed taking on the boys in games.  Drinking was her favorite game along with parties and fun.



Meet the computer zombie.  A true nerd/geek, he bowled, played video games and played with his computer.  Quiet and somewhat shy by nature, he was literally knocked over the day he met the Princess.  He was smitten.  It did not matter that all the naysayers warned him away.  They were from different cultures, different religions. He loved computers and majored in electrical engineering, she wanted to see how things worked and loved cars, their engines and racing them - she majored in Mechanical Engineering.  And the worst sign- no matter how hard she tried she just could not remember his name.  

Several years after, they met again and this time sparks flew on both sides.  Their families were set against them - a zombie and an amazon can never work out for the long haul they said.  There is no common ground they said.  They were wrong.  The forbidden love blossomed and they loved creepily ever after.

Tomorrow I'll show you what I got!

Bad blogger

I realize I have been neglecting my blog lately.  Other than the haiku's on Wednesdays and the occasional post of a quiz, I haven't had many actual posts.
I'm not promising that I'm going to post more, at least not for the next month.  I've got a lot of balls in the air and this blog seems to be what gets dropped.

I'm going to tell you about last weekend.  My friend, Min, lives in Philadelphia, and invited me down for a board game party she was having.  Since I live about 2 hours away, I drove down on Friday night after work.  Of course, since I had travel plans my carpet truck was late- just over an hour late grrr.  I passed Angie's exit in north Philly at 4:45pm.  I got to where I was to get off the highway at 5pm.  I made the 500 feet of the exit at 5:50!!  I got to Min's house (the stoopid navigator kept telling me 11 minutes as I was literally parked) just after 6pm.

I was starving so soon after we got all my stuff (seriously I do not travel light and I usually have my sherpa, I mean husband with me to lug everything) settled in her apartment and I said my hellos to Fe- I'm not sure he doesn't think that I drive down to visit HIM, we went to The Vietnam Cafe .  I had never had Vietnamese food before, so was looking forward to it.  They have a seriously flirty waiter - who is kind of Asian eye candy, and I would never guess that Min frequents the place a lot... sarcasm.  At his suggestion, I think I had Bun Dac Biet.  Basically a sampling of various meats over vermicelli with a dipping sauce.  Min's flirty Asian boy toy suggested it.  Min had some kind of  Lime chicken, I sampled a bite, really crispy and quite yummy.  After the meal we split a black eyed pea rice pudding with coconut milk.  Sounds weird , tasted yummy.

The next morning we ran out to do some shopping, having breakfast at IKEAs cafe while we were there.  Sad thing, we were people watching (yeah needed mocking fodder)  There was a couple that came in (this was before the store part opened mind you, we were waiting to shop) had breakfast, and then left. We watched them through the window, get in their car and leave.  Ok, IKEAs breakfast isn't bad, especially for the $4 I spent, but not "honey lets get in the car and drive to IKEA for breakfast" good.  Speaking of my $4 breakfast.  I wanted Swedish pancakes with bacon and eggs on the side.  How hard is that?  Apparently no one has ever wanted this, and definitely no one has ever asked the woman behind the counter for this.  As I am trying to get this, I look behind AND A LINE HAS FORMED!!  Like 12 or 13 people long!! SO it turns out, I could order Swedish pancakes for like 1.99, and an order of bacon for 1.69 and an order of eggs for 1.69.  Or I could order bacon and eggs which had potatoes and french toast sticks for 1.99 and get a half order of Swedish pancakes for 1.69.  But I mostly wanted the pancakes!! So I ordered a bacon and egg breakfast and a swedish pancake breakfast (figuring I just wouldn't eat the potatoes or french toast  sticks) but she didn't give me the ligonberries!!  Seriously!! Why would I go through all that trouble if I didn't want the ligonberries!! 

After we got back to Min's her friend Naomi came over and while they sorted through Min's WIPs (knitting works in progress) and her stash - trying to match yarn up with patterns, I sorted through a bunch of orphan afghan squares and donated yarn to create "starter packs" for afghans for Victory Junction Camp.  Then another friend(see if I had written this blog post earlier in the week I would remember her name) came over bringing the yummiest lemon poppy seed muffins.  We played a bunch of games I had never played before.  Nodwick?  i think? is cool it's a seriously chaotic card game where you must build a minion.  And a tile game where you build roads and towns and have farmland and abby's.  I was pretty confused though 85% of the game.   And Scattergories.  I think we even have that, but I personally never played it.  

As we were hanging out, I was kinda trying to figure out how Min and I are friends.  I mean put Min's friends (the ones I have met anyway) in a lineup and I would seriously stick out like a sore thumb.  Her friends are NICE.  They are GREEN, they are co-op grocery, organic, trader joe's.  I bring chocolate dipped peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, they bring carrots and seaweed crispy things.  I'm a loud, obnoxious, beer drinking red neck Republican.  They are not.  And lest you think NASCAR is our common ground.  We pretty much can't stand each other's  drivers.  I guess there is the mocking of Jr, there is always that.  But sometimes he just makes it TOO easy.  I mean today's race.. first NNS race of the year - Jr misses is pit stall. Just too easy!  Maybe it is Fe who keeps getting me invited after all :P

We had discussed earlier, how we were going to gently ease everyone out so we could watch the race.  They took care of it by having to leave early.  We ordered pizza and watched the race.

Sunday Morning we went to The White Dog Cafe for brunch.  I had crab and spinach benedict.  Min had quiche, I believe it was crab also, but I'm not 100% sure.  My breakfast was amazingly good.  We had also split the bread basket.  That was ok. not up to the par of the other food we had.

On my way back home, I stopped in north Philly (only took about 10 minutes this time of day) and met the Angie.  I had brought down 3 cases of water and a few other things.  And yes - her room was clean!! we talked a while, she wanted lunch (groan)  so we took the subway to center city, and wandered around for a while.  Angie told me a lot about what was going on in her life and about her classes and friends.  She really didn't know where she wanted to eat, and eventually we wandered into Marathon Grill.  I had a salmon nicoise salad, and she had a grilled veggie salad with lemon grilled chicken.  Way too much eating (it had been about 3 1/2 hours since i sat down for brunch - and let's face it crab and hollandaise doesn't go away quickly) but also very good.  We took the subway back to her dorm and I drove home.

If you made it all the way down here to the bottom of this post, all I can say is "thank You"  and " slow Saturday night?"  

You Are an iPad

You love to read, but sometimes reading is just not interactive enough for you. You are very curious about the world. You've got to be able to surf the web, play games, and chat with your friends. You need a device that can do everything! You tend to be an early adopter of new technologies, especially gadgets that are slick and well designed. You don't mind spending a little extra to buy a device that you'll love - and that will be the envy of your friends!

Are You An iPad or a Kindle?

Blogthings: We're Not Shrinks, But We Play Them On the Internet

      

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Sensational Haiku Wednesday
Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”
Click here for info and background on this weekly event!

The basics:

Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)
This week’s theme is: Freestyle

Engines are roaring

Back to life caged all winter

New season is here.

Hours of hard work,

mechanics and engineers

Off season labor.

Rules change everyday

Simulations and testing

Make for the best car.

New sponsors and rides

Drivers play for media

Just want to go race.

Fans buy new race gear

Their colors are obvious

Support their driver.

Sunday the wait ends

Green flag and season starts

Cars come back to life. 

You Have Your PhD in Men

You understand men almost better than anyone. You accept that guys are very different, and you read signals well. Work what you know about men, and your relationships will be blissful.

How Well Do You Understand Men?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones

      

You Are Extremely Bold

When you want something in life, you'll just go for it. You're never afraid of taking the plunge, even if there's risk involved. You don't shy away from speaking up or speaking your mind. You live life as it should be lived: with total enthusiasm and no fear.

Are You Bold?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

       

Breaking news!

I was told I did not properly inform the world of an important change in my personal preferencex. Orange has been replaced as my favorite color by RED. GO TONY!!

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Posted on February 9th, 2011 by Jenn

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

Click here for info and background on this weekly event!

The basics:
Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

This week’s theme is: Habits

 

Call them penguin suits,

I could never give up men,

Why become a nun?

 

 

I play with my hair,

Tap my fingers, chew my lip

signs that I am stressed.

 

Easy to fall in

the same routine as before

breaking out is hard.   

You Are Energetic

You are bright and motivated. You have a lot you want to do and the drive to get it all done. You may or may not be successful in the traditional sense, but you measure up to your own ideas of success. You have trouble getting along with people who are boring or lazy. You want to be where the action is. You connect best with other high achieving types. You like to be around people who aren't just talk.

The Paint Daub Test

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

       

First Challenge

As many of you know I am on a site called Ravelry for fiber arts.  There are, at any given time, different competition groups on the site.  NERDWARS, is one such competition.  There are 14 teams based on various nerdy pursuits.  I am on Team Bazinga- fans of the tv show The Big Bang Theory.  Since it is a show about nerds, there are many different facets  to our team.  The guys on the show love physics, astronnomy, engineering, sci-fi, video games, super heroes & comic books.  So we have, I think the most well rounded team.  

There are three rounds to the competition.  Each round is a month long.  Within each round there are 6 categories, and a challenge is issued within that category.  Using one of the crafts of Ravelry, each team member choses the challenge or challenges they wish to answer, knit their project and then it is judges for points.  There are also dissertations- in which a competitor can propose a project that will take the full three months to complete, and can be tied in to one of the six categories.  My dissertation proposal is going in this weekend.  More on that if it is approved.


I did choose to do a quick project to answer to one of the challenges to get myself moving.  I answered the Scientific challenge, which was to create a project inspired by Nebulae.  Several people have chosen to use multicolored yarn that resembles the colors of a nebula, others are creating swirly harts and shawls that resemble swirly nebulae.  As usual, I wandered off in a different direction.  




I thought about my favorite nebulae (yes I have favorite nebulae) The Madonna, The Horsehead, Orion, The Crab.  I decided to use the Crab.  It was a special nebula in my childhood, what can I say I had a bizarre childhood.  The weather in north Jersey, has been rather a challenge in and of itself this week.  So I had to find a way to use The Crab with yarn I already owned - which did not include swirly colored yarn.  I also had to find a way to tie it into my team's inspiration The Big Bang Theory.




Leonard's mom is a cold fish.  She would seem to be better suited as Sheldon's mom not Leonard.  I think, some time on the sunny beaches of California might thaw her out a little bit, but evenings on the beach, when the wind starts to blow, can be chilly.  I am already "working" (the project has been an UFO - unfinished object since two springs ago) on a cotton beach throw. One of my goals for 2011 is to finish or frog(undo - when you unravel knitting it goes "rip-it, rip-it" much like a frog) 12 projects.  So this would help both things.  I found a pattern for a dishcloth square with a crab on it.  A slight modification made it fit the size needed for my throw.

An Irish Country Courtship

When I returned my library books a couple weeks ago, I looked around the new release section for a book to read.  (There was nothing I hadn't read in my current favorite authors, and I didn't really want to hit the 1001 books list, I wanted something light and fun)  Those of you who have known me for any length of time know I do have a weakness for Irish things.  Books that take place in Ireland as well.  After looking at several possibilities, this book caught my eye, so I checked it out.


It was a great light read, nothing heavy in the storyline.  Great descriptions of Ireland, and although there was a glossary at the end, it was easy enough reading the conversations and I didn't look at it until a quick perusal at the end.  I did want to smack Barry upside the head a few times for being  whiny.  I loved Fingal the older doctor, Kitty his new girlfriend from his past, and Kinky the housekeeper was great.


I liked it enough that I requested a copy of An Irish Country Doctor to be sent over from another library. 

Two more mini socks

Murphy learns to fly a broom and play Quidditch.  But when he tries to chase the snitch through the hoops....




he finds his arse is just a tad bit too large.




Meggie in a tizzy creates a tornado vortex with her activity!








Editing because one commentor and two IRL friends who read this were confused:

Quick backstory on the socks. Meagheen is a remarkably talented Irish woman who has sheep in Ireland and is a pediatric surgeon in NYS. Her younger brother is Murphy. They use dye bags on their rams to know the father of a lamb. Meagheens are green, Murphy’s are pink and she won’t trade. She designs these cute little socks, and rags on a sheep named after her brother to tease him. The proceeds of the deisgns go to charity.

They both love Harry Potter, and quidditch is a game played in the book, where the teams need to catch a flying ball- the snitch- and go through a hoop. So she had Murphy get stuck in the hoop.

Meggie in a tizzy was actually designed by her sister because Meggie is so busy she’s like a human tornado.

Sensational Haiku Wednesday

Welcome to “Sensational Haiku Wednesday!”

Click here for info and background on this weekly event!

The basics:
Haiku is simple! It is 3 non-rhyming lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively (a great way to use your fingers!)

This week’s theme is: Disclosure

When I say drive safe

It means you are important

Need you in my life.

A take on a top ten

My newest acquisition in funky saying signs.  You can't tell but the wall it is on is painted light blue, so the blue in the pot goes well. Sorry it is a tad blurry, it's over the kitchen doorway,  and I was too lazy to get a chair.

I'm feeling kind of obnoxious today, so I decided for my blog post to do a take on my friend Grace's  blog.

Her topic was 10 things I need to have on hand in case of snow.

1.  Yarns, needles & a pattern - I have more than 5 projects going at any given time do this is never a problem.  And if I get snowed in somewhere else - i generally have one  or two projects in the car- so no problem.

2.  coffee is way more necessary to my survival on a 3-4 hour time frame than tea- but I like to have a "cuppa" in the late afternoon.

3.  Bottled water. Again not a problem- there is a gallon in the fridge - 2 more gallons for when we drink that, an almost full case of 1.5 liter Poland Springs that Curt takes bowling with him, and 2 cases of 20ish ounce Poland Spring. so making coffee won't be a problem :P

4.  Books - I am slogging ever so slowly with War and Peace- the fact that it is on my laptop which never moves is probably slowing that down.  I also have an Irish Country Courtship I'm about halfway through and I just got Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton from good reviews from several of my knitting friends.

5.  The Wii remote.  I have netflix on my Wii - so I thimk a movie would suit on a snowed in day.

6.  Blankets- hmm on a stand by the couch I have..6 Tony Stewart fleece throws, one #14 Snuggie, 2 plain throws. On the back of the couch there is a hand woven Equadoran blanket, and a Noro throw.  But i think I'd end up at some point in bed with my quilt for a nap.

7.  Unless the snow day is Thursday night into Friday, I'm good.  Shopping day is usually Friday so if that were the case I may need a run, but I can survive on staples in my cabinets and freezer for a few days, and in NJ it seriously won't be longer than a day or so.

8.  I go with Excedrin - sometimes the low barometric pressure brings on a headache.

9.  My cell phone.  texts, Ims , Twitters and in a bind it does create it's own mobile wi=fi hotspot so if cable goes out I can still use my laptop to connect to the internet.

10. chocolate. duh.