Purls and Pugs

Merry Christmas...

... From the Angry Elf!!!

The first 10 years of the 21st Century

Today, as I was sitting in the dentist's chair, I realized that a lot can and has happened in the last 10 years. A decade is gone from the new century that we thought was going to throw us back into the stone ages! Here is a recap of what has happened to me in the last ten years:

• Graduated undergrad
• Moved to Peoria
• Got a Job
• Learned to Knit
• Got married
• Moved to Naperville
• Got Yoda
• Started a blog
• Bought a house in Plainfield
• Graduated masters program
• Got divorced
• Got a new Job
• Rented house and became temporarily homeless
• Moved to Schaumburg
• Moving to Chicago....

That's quite a bit. Who would have thought I could have accomplished so much? It's amazing how it feels like yesterday I was watching the turn of the century happening in Paris while at work at CompUSA. Has it really been that long? I wonder what the next ten years will bring?

Black Wednesday 2009

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I've been a bad blogger and knitter. I still have the tweedy jacket that needs to be finished, and some baby stuff. I'm bad. But I have been productive otherwise. I've started training with a personal trainer. He kicks my butt every time I go to the gym to see him, but it will totally be worth it when I'm looking toned and *hopefully* have a six pack. I've been working out more in general, too, since I've taken off for all the moving I've been doing lately.

My roommate and I decided to go out for Black Wednesday this year. For those of you who don't know, Black Wednesday is the night before Thanksgiving and one of the biggest party nights of the  year. We went to Rebar, JBar, and Vertigo. Our theme of the night was only Hotel bars. We threw in some dinner at Cafe Iberico, too. Then one of my coworkers convinced us to go to McDonald's (formerly known as the Rock 'n Roll McDonalds) at 2am for fries and cokes. You know what, those fries really made the difference the next morning!

The guy I met on Halloween who let me snack on him also went out with us. I've been seeing him here and there as our schedules permit. He had a flight on Thanksgiving at 7:30am and was just going to do Happy Hour...um, yeah, we'll just say his flight was a little rough. But who could blame him with all the fun girls around?

Happy Halloween 2009!

I couldn't let Halloween go by without showing off Yoda's costume of the year! This year she was a frog/turtle. I'm almost positive it's supposed to be a frog because I think that's what it said on the package. However, once I got it on her, it looked a lot like a turtle body. Eh! Whatever it was, it was cute! We also tried on Lillie's witch hat when we went to visit Auntie Becky. It was a full costume weekend for Yo-baby.

I also dressed up this year. I did the vamp thing again, but a little different direction. If you remember from last year, I was Selene from Underworld. Kind of goth, no? This year, I did vamp, but more classy. I was already getting my hair done on Oct 31, so I just asked my stylist to style it a little different than usual. She went curls. I love the curls!! I might have to try it myself sometime. I also had a makeup appointment when I was there to have my dramatic makeup done with false eyelashes. I think it turned out fantastic!

My roommate was Cleopatra. I think she did a great job on the costume and makeup, too! The two of us hit a couple parties and then a bar. For some reason, I was not thinking when I put my bag together and totally forgot my ID. Luckily, we ran into my roommate's ex-roommate and he got us in the bar. I even snacked a bit on him...a vampire needs her nourishment! 

Moving right along

Recently, my dance card has freed up, thus I have more free time on my hands, so I've been working on the Tweedy Coat. Here is the collar portion all completed. I did not do the full number of repeats as indicated in the pattern. I am a little concerned about having enough yarn to complete the sleeves, and I think if I would have done the complete repeat it would looks a little too over-sized. I like where it hits now, so I'll stick with it for now. If I decide I want to add more rows later, I can always do that!

I'm really jonesing to cast on for Corona, but I will be a good girl and wait. I need to finish the baby sweater, too...I'm working diligently on that as well.

What I knit on my vacation

If you've gotten through the San Francisco breakdown, you soon realized that I did zero knitting while there. That doesn't mean I haven't been knitting while I've been off work for 10 days (ahhh). I have been feverishly working on the Tweed Coat. I want to get this sucker done so I can start on Corona in green as my next project. How sick is that?!

As you can see I totally lied when I said I would work on the collar next. I decided to do a sleeve since it required less thinking (read: no short rows). I also realized I could break up the sleeve monotony by doing one, then the collar, then the last sleeve. Good Plan, I say!

So here it is with the first sleeve completed - even seamed up! I've also begun, with Stefanie's blog post up, the collar. I need to start thinking about buttons and a photo shoot. This will be the first shoot I'll be doing with my new photographer!

San Francisco - Day 4 & 5

Day 4

So, the last full day we were in San Fran, we decided to do a City Tour. Backwards, huh?! Well, it was a pretty good tour to round out the weekend. After not throwing our boarding pass in the trash and dumping coffee on it, we boarded the bus for a 3 hour tour Oh, my...I actually sung that "a three hour tour...three hour tour" in my head as I typed that.

There was a slightly older set of sisters that we met on the tour, so listening to them was a little humorous. Our meeting happened while we were standing in line and one of them was on the phone and the other was talking into the phone at the same time. My sister says to the one not on the phone, "are you two sisters?" And we were answered with, "How did you know?" We just started giggling. In fact, they were so much entertainment because we saw the similarities between them and ourselves. While on the tour and in the middle of a different conversation, one says to the other "you don't wear enough blush." And the sister replies, "Really? I feel like I wear too much..." And then it was back to the original conversation. Becky and I just looked at each other because that was totally something we would do! If you have a sister, I'm sure you understand all this.

Back to the tour, so we saw the Golden Gate Bridge, the sign on the Golden Gate Bridge that said not to jump and gave a helpline phone number, the Painted Ladies (hum the theme of Full House here), Chinatown, the Crookedest Street, Nob Hill, tons of famous people's houses (or so we are told. How would we know any differently?), Golden Gate Park, and all the other fun touristy places you're supposed to see. It was really worth is to get a sense of everything the city has to offer.

That night we ate at one of the Warf vendors that basically just have carts setup. Mmmmmm.....yummy clam chowder. Then we washed it all down at Ghiradelli Square with some salted caramel hot chocolate. Oh my! Sooo yummy!

The next day was our departure from San Fran, so we stayed low key and packed up that night.

Day 5

We got up, ate some crepes for breakfast and got ready for the shuttle to come get us. When we were in Napa, we bought some wine. Originally, I was going to check it on the way home since I wasn't checking a bag and we were flying the airline that allows bags to fly free. While we were waiting for the shuttle, we got a little nervous about this plan. So last minute (like 5 minutes after the time the shuttle was supposed to be there), I ran (again literally) to the World Market around the corner to buy those wine bottle travel coozie things. I literally almost died on the steps on the way down...luckily, I was an athlete that day and recovered. When I got back to the hotel, the shuttle was already there and my sister was nervously telling the driver that I'd be right back. Whew! Barely made it!

My sister had bought this huge stuffed Otter for her dog as a gift at the Aquarium, so she had to carry it on board. In the time it took us to get it to the hotel and on the plane it went from being a otter to a leemer, to a beaver, to God knows what! So we would get some giggles out of each other referring to this stuffed animal as something it was not.

Don't worry, we packed the wine into my sister's bag and they got home fine, too.

The flight back was pretty uneventful in the way of having someone snore the whole time. But the taxis we each took home were a little questionable. Becky got in hers first and left. I waited for mine. When he got there I texted her "My guy just got here...off to the skin lamp factory." And she responded, "See u there. Look for the Beaver."

And tomorrow look for knitting content!

San Francisco - Day 2 con't and Day 3

Ok, so I just realized that half of day two was cut off!

San Francisco - Day 2 con't

After watching the bellhop having a hard time hailing a cab, we managed to finally get into one. This cabbie was a little impatient. It's not like there is the same amount of traffic in San Fran as there is in Chicago. This guy was passing people, speeding around other cars, and getting generally agitated with other drivers. He was pretty funny and managed to get us to our little hidden theater.

So the musical was a four person play all about shopping. It was cute! There were some parts that seemed a little long, but overall I would recommend it.

After the play, we started on our way out to a speakeasy. On the way there, I almost bit it. I know, quite a surprise! Those are some steep streets!! I was doing really well until I stepped on a piece of paper on the ground. Then I sort of did a little surfing down the sidewalk. I managed to recover very well, if I do say so myself!

We got to the speakeasy, Bourbon and Branch, where we had to have a special password to get in. I had reserved a table for us to enjoy some of drinks by the mixologists of Bourbon and Branch. It was a really cute and we enjoyed most of the drinks. But why didn't someone tell us that Absinthe tastes like Black Licorice? Becky ordered a drink with it in it and it ended up in the toilet because neither of us could do it! 

When leaving the bar, the door guy tried to hail us a cab. Is there something about San Francisco that makes it hard for people to catch cabs? This poor guy took about 10 minutes to get us a cab. But he did. So, we tipped him for the entertainment.

Day 3

Today we went on a wine tour. Becky and I got up early, ate a fantastic breakfast at Starbucks and were the first people at the tour facility. They gave us these purple tickets and our receipt. Becky took the reciept while I hung onto the purple tickets. When we finally got in line with the other wine taster wanna-bes, they wanted our boarding pass and purple tickets. Huh?! What boarding pass...OMG! Those things that we were told were receipts? Becky had to go back to the trash and pull them out! They were covered in coffee and gross, but managed to get us on the bus. Thank goodness!

I would actually call it was more like a day of cheese. We stopped at a cheese factory on our way to all the wineries on our itinerary. Becky and I decided to get 3 different kinds of cheeses. She had never had Gouda before! Can you imagine?! Don't worry, I introduced her to the wonderful world of Gouda! We were eating cheese all day!

The first winery was actually my favorite. We had a quick tour where we learned some about wines and how to taste them. I thought it was really a great intro since I know nothing about wine. I learned that it doesn't matter what I like or taste in a wine because, ultimately, it's about me and my tastes. I can go with that.

The next two wineries were eh. The second was a little too crowded for my taste and the third was more of a budget winery. Though, we managed to eat cheese all the way through them!

That night, we ate at Boudin and had some Dungenous Crab and Clam Chowder. Mmmm...no cheese either. :-)

San Francisco - Day 2

The second day (Friday) in San Francisco brought my sister and I to spend $50 on breakfast. And let me tell you, this was one fabulous breakfast! I had a bloody mary (don't judge me! I was on vacation!) and a crab stuffed omelet covered in hollandaise sauce. My sister had Eggs Benedict, but instead of ham had halibut. We both left stuffed!! Other than some ice cream later in the day, we were pretty much full the entire day (and pretty much the rest of the trip then consisted of one meal a day). Well, we did consume about 3000 calories each...I'd hope we wouldn't want to eat any more. Sheesh!

This day, we planned on doing all our sight-seeing. What actually happened is that we didn't leave Fisherman's Warf. I had grandiose plans of us hitting China Town, Union Square, Nob Hill...yeah. That didn't happen. There is way too much to do in that city!

We visited Alcatraz for several hours. And that's one cool place! I highly recommend that if you visit San Francisco get tickets well in advance and you'll be fine. I don't recall any funny incidences here...strangely enough. Though I did listen to the German speaking people talk about shoes and the other people around us. That was quite entertaining.

We then hit Pier 39 on our way back to trying to see more of the Warf area. I'd equate Pier 39 to Navy Pier in Chicago. It has all the fun shops, food, carnival rides, etc. The highlight was visiting Harry Mason. The clerk was a little odd, "lend me your ear" in this really high pitched accent of some sort about every 30 seconds. She was funny, and so we bought some earrings there. They are really interesting! After all that excitement, it was ice cream time.

We also saw some really loud sea lions. I think they were hungry. Good thing Yoda didn't come along...she would have been a snack!

After wandering aimlessly, we headed back to the hotel and booked a city tour for Sunday with the cranky concierge. We figured we wouldn't see the cool stuff if we didn't do that. Then it was up to the room to get ready for the evening events.

We got dressed as we would here in Chicago for a night out on the town. Let me be the first to mention this was a HUGE error on our parts. First, it was freaking cold there at night! Second, we were REALLY overdressed. Or underdressed. Depends on which way you look at it, I guess. Anyway, our first stop was a WAAAAAY off Broadway show called Shopping! The Musical.

San Francisco - Day 1

My sister and I left last Thursday for San Francisco directly after work. I took the Orange Line to Midway while my mom called me about 80 times to make sure I was on the right train. I wasn't sure at first, but after I heard "This is the Orange Line to Midway" about 20 times, I realized that I was okay.

After being stopped by security and searched because there was a "9 volt battery" in my carry-on, I successfully made it to our gate and found my sister. By the by, is it illegal by TSA regulations to have a 9 volt battery? I mean, I can bring on knitting needles that, in all honesty, can poke out someone's eyes, but not a battery? hmpf!

We boarded our plane and before we even left the tarmac, I heard a sound that I thought was someone slurping loudly through a straw in a cup. When everyone in our section looked back to the guy sitting directly behind me, I realized this guy had fallen asleep. Already. And he was a loud sleeper. He gurgled, snorted, snored, and slurped the entire way to LA where we switched planes. My sister and I could only look at each other and laugh! And we giggled a lot on the way to LA. 

Then there were the attempts to use the restroom on the plane. There is this new rule that makes sense - no one can wait in line for the restroom at the front of the plane. Ok, I get it. Then no one can just go bum-rush the pilot. Totally makes sense! But for someone that has to pee so badly that it hurts at this point, it's not the best rule. Especially when this person is sitting on the window and has to climb over 2 other people. It's just not going to work in her favor!! I think the tally went something like this:

Attempts to use the restroom
Becky - 2
Amanda - 892877409209274728

The last time I tried to use the front restroom had me right on target. The guy on the aisle was being very patient with getting up that many times. I could see the prize. Then a large woman who had been sitting in the 3rd row stood up and blocked me! She blocked me!! The people watching me laughed at me as I muttered under my breath. I'm glad I could be entertaining. Then I gave up and stood in line at the back of the plane. Did you know they could run out of water on the plane? I found out as I wash washing my hands...thank goodness for hand sanitizer!

We finally made it to San Francisco that night and got to our hotel. Becky thought we were going to the skin lamp factory because the driver we had was a little creepy. Yup, I would have expected that!