Domestically Challenged

Cross Your Fingers

I am the first person to admit that I don't know the first thing about how my computer works. I am confident that I can turn it on, use it to open programs to write documents/make presentations/analyze data, and to surf the web. That's it. So when I got the brilliant idea that Mr. Slave (my laptop) would run a bit faster if I stopped some of the random programs listed in the task manager window from running, I should have paused to remind myself that I don't know the first thing about how my computer works. Too late. One of the things (program/application/whatev) that I stopped from running got rid of the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. I figured that that wasn't good, so I turned the computer off hoping that everything would be restored when it rebooted. But it wouldn't reboot, would it? Instead, I got a blue screen, a blue screen that told me I had an error having something to do with an unmountable boot volume. So I shut it down again and restarted it with the same results. I tried restarting with the last known working configuration...same results. In safe mode...same results. This was especially frustrating because I had just finished writing a report for work...work that I was doing on my vacation in Halifax...work that I needed to get done in order show my boss how amazing I am. Right now Mr. Slave is with a local technician in Ottawa who I'm hoping can recover my data. In the meantime, I'm trying to be ok with the idea that I may never get any of it back and that Mr. Slave is dead. Three items in the pros column are that I now have one less thing to move to San Diego, I can get a sexy new computer in California where I suspect they are cheaper AND finally, because I was unable to work while on vacation (I'm a work-a-holic, it's what I do) I was forced to relax and be more social than I usually would have been. It also meant that I had more knitting time. I cast on these:

Of course there are many cons to losing three years of data and my main blogging/writing/communication apparatus. Please say a little prayer to the Deity of your choice that Mr. Slave will come back home safe.

The Best Thing About NYC is Sue and Me

The most commonly googled phrase to bring up my blog, aside from the title, is "cougar bar" or "cougar bar + [insert city name]". You would be amazed by how many people google "cougar bar Ottawa" and end up reading yours truly instead. Because I've been posting about my travels, people can also get here by googling things like "cougar bar + baltimore" or "cougar bar + toronto". Now they will be able to get here by searching "cougar bar + new york city".

Thursday night, I flew into NYC, my congested sinuses overshadowed by my excitement (and a hefty dose of cold meds). It was my first trip to NYC as an adult. Sue met me at the airport and we took the bus to her apartment to dump my things before finding some dinner at the Community Food and Juice. It was the best (and only) mahi mahi I've ever had. We stayed up the rest of the night chatting at sue's apartment. Sue has a very big apartment and something about it reminded me of Toronto - it could have been the backyard. Yes, sue's Manhattan apartment has a backyard. As if.

The next day we explored Columbia's campus, which is right next to sue's apartment. It was so beautiful I made a mental note to suggest that my husband try to get a professorship there when he's done his post-doc. Then we went down to Soho to explore the shops.

 

Of course, we went to Purl and Purl Patchwork. I was extremely restrained in the face of such a cute store and ironically ended up buying KPPPM, a Canadian yarn. I really love KPPPM and fondly remember a time when I had only ever used it to knit socks. Purl was KPPPM nirvana. There were so many colourways I didn't even know existed. Sue picked this one for her birthday socks. I can't wait to cast on. 

All of the yarn made us hungry so we got sandwiches at the deli and ate them in a concrete park before exploring Nolita and Little Italy. By 5, we were parched and headed to Grand Central Station for drinks at The Campbell Apartment with LL, D and his wife, J (a knitter). For anyone who follows Gossip Girl, LL told me that this was where they filmed the love scene between Serena and Nat. 

The next day held more shopping in Greenwich village and I fulfilled a female stereotype at Shoegasm. It was such an exhilarating experience to find so many beautiful shoes in one spot. I may have cried just a little. Remembering that I was trying to reduce my belongings, I exhibited tremendous strength and only bought one pair. I immediately regretted this and bought another at Jubilee. 

It was a perfect lead up to watching the S&TC movie. Sue and I had watched the entire series together, so it was only fitting that we watch the movie together and what better place to do it than in NYC?

I think that sue has always been a New Yorker, she just didn’t live there. Seeing her after living in her element for only 6 months was amazing. She was so happy and full of life. It was inspiring just being around her. She was a very gracious hostess and indulged me in much too much shopping, eating and chatting until all hours of the morning. Thank you, sue! I can't wait to come back.

I am Jack's congested sinuses

I am sick and it's a horribly dreary day outside. I (heart) pathetic fallacy. Some how it makes me feel justified in feeling like crap. Normally being sick wouldn't be such a big deal but tonight I am flying to NYC to visit sue. Definitely bad timing. I'm hoping that the afternoon I spent sleeping yesterday made a dent in the healing process. I was hoping it would make a big enough dent for me to go to my waxing appointment last night, but I was so achy and sweaty that the last thing I should have been doing was having my tender parts epilated. I felt guilty cancelling my appointment, but luckily my roommate was home to talk some sense into me. Instead of venturing out in the rain, I pulled out my needles and whipped up this cute little house warming gift for sue from the left-over dishcloth cotten in B's stash. I love the colours.

I also spent a bit of time purging and let B pull out my stash to see if there was anything she wanted before I started purging parts of it as well. I'm thinking about significantly reducing the stash before my move to California but I'm still not sure what's going to make the final cut. B also pointed out that most of the stash is made up of left-over balls and remenants. What does one do with odds and ends? It wasn't long before B called me on having new yarn in the stash. I have told myself that I shouldn't get anymore yarn before the move but it didn't prevent me from buying some Phildar Lambswool from someone on Ravelry or from picking up a skein of Indigo Moon at Three Bags Full in Vancouver (what a darling store!). Will I be able to keep my wallet closed in NYC? Stay tuned. 

 

Lazy Sunday

I must have been having some kind of spell when I decided that things would be fine if lived 5 hours by car from my husband. Maybe I rationalized that it is really only a 45 minute flight...well, that is if the plane takes off on time. There is a spectacular storm going on in Ontario right now that is not only affecting Toronto but Ottawa and Montreal as well. There are much worse places to be stuck than the Porter lounge at the Island Airport though, with its free wireless and unlimited snacks (cough. Pearson. cough). Unfortunately, they just announced that the delay would be another 1.5 hours and my sunburn isn't helping matters. I'm actually quite anal about putting on sunscreen before going outside, but something about getting all of my husband's worldly possessions onto his lawn to be sold for a mere pittance before rushing off to knit outdoors all afternoon made protection from the sun take a heady slip on the ladder of priorities.

The Yarn Harlot's birthday party was a bit surreal. I was amazed by the sheer number of knitters spilling out the front of the shop. I wasn't the only one either. In fact, the gawkers were so numerous that a knitter sitting beside me on the steps took out her camera to record the reactions of the passing pedestrians. It was nice to chat with Laura (is there anything she can't do) and Megan (yarn store proprietrice extra-ordinaire), and even had some bday cake in the VIP section before being photographed by Franklin for the 1,000 Knitters Project. He was so cute, too. I also saw a slew of knitters with blogs that I read regularly, but I was too shy to introduce myself. I always feel like a bit of a stalker when I meet bloggers for the first time. Its a little unsettling to know so much about someone who has no clue who you are. I also find it a bit silly to ask them how they are, because odds are that I read their blog that day and already know. Anyway, I hope the Harlot enjoyed herself. She seemed a bit freaked out by the attendance; but then again, if hords of people showed up to celebrate my birthday I may have needed a little lie down, too.

The flight's just been delayed another half hour. I wonder if that fridge with the complimentary refreshments has any cold beer in it. Luckily, I'm still enjoying the after effects of an afternoon spent on the porch drinking vinho verde. My husband's 3rd floor apartment in Little Italy has a glorious balcony with a nice view of the street. The Taste of Little Italy significantly increased the foot taffic by the house, so we designed a fun experiment. After going to the used bookstore to sell the reminants of our book collection C and I left a box of the rejects on the lawn for anyone to take. Surprisingly the box barely got a second glance. We wondered whether people would be more inclined to stop if we gave the books more value, so C's roommate made a sign that read, "Books $1 - honour system" and place a cup beside it with $4 already inside. Then we hid on the balcony. What would happen? Would people buy books? Steal the $4? Or ignore the sign entirely? Surprisingly, many more people noticed the box and even stopped to riffle through it after the sign went up. I had to leave for the airport before we have a large enough sample size to determine statistical significance, though.

They just announced that we aren't schedule to leave until 10:30 (3.5 hours later than originally advertised). I should have stayed on the porch and studied the effect exorbitantly priced weathered goods on consumer behaviour (I'm pretty sure no one moved the books when it started to rain).

New Hair

After my husband started calling me Root-y, I knew I needed to get my hair done. How does he know what roots are, anyway? And, more disturbing, why is it socially acceptable for blondes to have horrendous black regrowth but it's frowned up for brunettes to have even the shortest blonde roots? Ok, my roots weren't actually all that short, I'm just saying. Anyway, it was time. Tada!

Now I can be hot for my Franklin pic tomorrow at the Yarn Harlot's birthday party.

Speaking of hot. My older sister just lost a ton of weight and is smokin' hot. She was always beautiful, but now she's taking no prisoners. Watch out on the beach this summer, big sister's not so big anymore. (psst, Mary, we need to hit the gym).

(She's making a funny face in this pic because I was snapping away at her like the paparazzi.)

A Moment Alone...sort of

Finally a moment to sit and catch my breath. The conference I’m currently at just finished and I have managed to convince my office manager to let me hang out in her hotel room (I checked out of my room this morning). We’re both typing away, waiting for the big gala dinner to begin, so she isn’t paying much attention to me. It’s almost like being alone – something I haven’t been able to in while except when I’ve been asleep and even that’s not always a given. One of these times involved my roommate and our two cats (4 to a bed) but I much preferred it to sofa-city – my dad came to Ottawa for business and I promised him a cat-free environment. Speaking of cats and my roommate, B just took in a litter of healthy (vet confirmed) stray kittens and is searching for a loving home for two of them.

Aren’t they sweet? The gray one has an extra toe which I think is so darling. To learn more about these lovelies, check out their ad on petfinder: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=11010954

Memories of Seattle

Lost?

I started making these booties at the beginning of the month when I flew to Sudbury for the Sudbury Rocks half marathon. I really thought that I had finished all of the actual knitting and only needed to weave in the ends. Bree claims that when she saw them for the first time in my knitting bag (ziploc), she only counted 5 booties, wihch she thought it was strange. Did I lose a bootie or was it ever knit in the first place? Am I losing my mind? Of course, this is coming from the woman who accidentally wore her underwear inside out yesterday...

Personal Best

This weekend was another glorious running weekend. Instead of going to Sudbury to run with my sister, this time my sister (and her husband) drove to Ottawa to run the National Captial with me. Even more special was that my husband came from Toronto to run his first half-marathon with us. I was so proud of him. He finished in 2:02:22 which was 6:59 faster than my first half. Strangely, I thought I had ran that first race in 1:50:xx and had not been too shy to tell people about it. An internet search of all of my races quickly showed that that was a big lie. In fact, the only time I ran the half in under two hours (1:59:41) was the first time I ran the National Capital with sue in 2003. That is, until this weekend when I ran my personal best of 1:54:41. Imagine what it could have been if I hadn't stopped to pee!

(The pic is of sue and I finishing the National Capital half-marathon in 2003. Don't mind the clock in the background - it's displaying the gun time. I actually ran the race this weekend in that same shirt).

Jo Jo

On my walk to work yesterday, I thought that today would be a perfect day to film secret footage of me for What Not to Wear. I don't think any of my outfits nowadays would stand a chance in the 360 degree mirror. It's probably just a side effect of purging though. I can't really picture anything from my current wardrobe in my new California life. I also don't picture my hair in my new California life, but that's another story. I think I'll hold off buying new stuff until I go to NYC, though or maybe I will just wait until I am in San Diego and can assess what is in style in Cali. Could I ever use a make-over, though.

Speaking of new stuff, after a nice relaxing weekend with my husband at a B&B (it was our first anniversary), I felt ready to transform one of my WIPs into an FO. Monday night, while my husband enjoyed the Hornets' game, I weaved in all of the ends and blocked this cute, little sweater.

This is the JoJo pattern from Louisa Hardings' Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns. I only used stash yarn for this project: two skeins of Fiddlesticks Knitting Ecoknit Organic Cotton and some left-over cotton patine I've had hanging around since 2004. It was a great de-stashing success! I also really like this sweater. For some reason, it makes me think of Ernie from Sesame Street and I can really picture it as a practical everyday sweater for a cute, squirming junior. I was considering giving it away but I'm not sure I can part with it. Can I be strong in the face of such cuteness?

By the way, if you are ever in the Gatineau region, Chez Eric in Wakefield has fantastic food.