I wove

What a fun weekend. On Saturday, our house was all clean, which was a nice change of pace, Abe... Anyways, we had a nice relaxed morning with tea and stuff. Then we went to the Cartoonist NW meeting. The information was OK, about SEO, but I don't know if we will use it. We'll see. Perhaps we will start a couple of twitter accounts since people seem to like those so much. But at the meeting, we talked to the president of the group and decided we would really join and include some of our work in the art show they are having in July in Ballard. More details to follow. We even talked to some of the people in the group instead of just running out of the room. I we showed someone who is working on a new syndicated comic (or getting ready to submit it?) our Bus Stop story. He seemed to like it. I couldn't really tell. His comic was funny. Shrub - keep an eye out for it.

The mom and Jim came over for dinner. They spent the afternoon with one of Jim's professors. Turns out that professor is the dad of one of the ladies I sort of work with. So that was funny. We had a really good time. We were supposed to get a picture of mom's scarf I wove for her for mother's day, but we didn't get a chance. She sent me this "bad" picture. (haha - better than the ones I take.) She didn't want me to post it, but I have to post something. It is just too exciting.

We had some steak and corn and pink mashed potatoes. Cute. And some beer. We tried a white seasonal ale from Pike Brewery, but I don't think anyone particularly cared for it. Then we all moved on to Smithwick's, which has taken its place as my favorite. The dogs behaved OK. Mom was sitting in a chair and Nisa leapt into her lap, but mom seemed to think it was funny. She also got to try on her nearly finished Girl Friday sweater and we bought some buttons for it that should be delivered soon. I hope by the end of the week. I only have 1.5 inches of 1x1 rib left to knit and a couple ends to weave in. Then I can finish blocking it and sew on the buttons. I finally did the thing where you wrap the wet knitting all up in a towel and step on it, then block it. Wow does that make a difference. I will never look back. That is a forever thing for me now. This way it can block over night instead of waiting 3 days to a week for the dratted thing to dry. Thanks, Yarn Harlot!

Before they left, we showed them Super Rub-A-Dub, which they simply did not appreciate, and the demo of Fairy Tale Fights where you play Little Red Riding Hood in a white room and massacre other fairy tale characters. Very funny. That demo cracks me up. It is nothing like the game, so I am wary of buying the game, but we'll see.

In The Jerks news, I am now able to do the two pencils for each week's comics in one evening. If I don't wait to long to get started. I think the upcoming ones are just getting better. At least in regards to my drawing if not in hilarity. And next time I post, I will have an actual non The Jerks drawing to post. I just have to Photoshop it together since the stupid scanner is an inch too small to scan the whole thing.

Update: I posted an image at the Ten Ton Studio sketch challenge. Go check it out. :) It's not super amazing, but it has a lot of background and I really need to work on backgrounds.

Abe's my etsy fiend.

So Abe is posting needles on Etsy for me because I can't be bothered. I am so busy doing other things that I don't have the 30 to 45 minutes or so it takes to do the photo shoot and all the data entry. Buh. Today he posted these funny spades needles.

We got our second comment on the comic, but it seems to have been spam. :'( After next week, I am not sure if I will continue to post comic updates on my Facebook page because I don't think anyone cares. We'll see. Maybe I can annoy them all into looking. It is weird to send the notice out to people who I haven't seen since high school, but whatever. I hear about their nights out drinking or their days out running.

I started posting The Jerks comics to DeviantArt. Though I will just post the previous week's comics there on Tuesday instead of the same day.

The porkchop dinner didn't turn out as well the second night light it does with the Cream of Mushroom soup. Oh well. It was still good. Surprise surprise, the french cook book food doesn't lend itself well to the microwave.

This weekend, I watched Delgo. I liked it more than Abe. It was a nice-to-look-at movie, for sure. Not the best, but interesting enough. It was just a plain classic story, but it was also a Family PG movie, so I didn't expect much. Actually, the concept art they showed throughout the credits was far more amazing than the art in the movie. I wish the movie had been done in the style of the concept art, which was gorgeous. From the concept art, it looks like there could have been more interesting detail in the movie, too, but for a Family movie, they have to keep it short. Weird voice cast, though. Freddie Prince Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eric Idol, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, many other weird ones.

I got an email from Amazon today about a book that comes out June 29, Knitting MochiMochi by Anna Hrachovec. Wow. I must admit I am excited for that book. Cute Cute stuff. On Ravelry, she has a bunch of cute patterns, like bats whose wings close shut with a button so you can hang them from the ceiling, baby alligators, pigeons that can actually perch on things, a resistor and a capacitor, "dust bunnies," a bath tub with bubbles, a toilet paper roll, and so much more. She also did woodins ("a tiny apparition that lives in fallen trees and is characterized by its asymmetrical ears and leaf tail"), which is a cute pattern from Knitty.

Monday madness

So on Friday night we went to the Phinney farmers market and got some locally grown organic pork chops among other things. On Saturday the pork was thawed but it was too hot to cook. On Sunday I spent most of the day cooking. First I made some bread. Nothing fancy, just the fast white bread recipe from the joy of cooking. I used the SAF Red Instant Yeast that I ordered from King Arthur Flour last week. The bread was awesome, like always, but the yeast made it rise almost double what the old Fleischmann's yeast I used to use did.

Check it out:

Then, for dinner I fried the pork chops:

Made some white sauce with fried mushrooms and onions:

Put it all on rice and served it with some fresh corn:

It was an awesome meal :-)

I caught Nisa being a real jerk on Sunday too. The litter box is in the bathroom for two reasons, first to keep the dogs from trapping the cat in there and second to keep them from eating the kitty-roca. Nisa still finds ways to be a jerk though.

No way to know for sure how long that'd been going on when I caught her but it's entirely possible that the cat had been stuck in the bathroom for a half hour or more.

New comic posted at http://the-jerks.com/ tomorrow morning! Be sure to look for it.

--Abe

Phinney market and sewing

We had a pretty good weekend. On Friday we went to the Phinney Farmer's Market, which was the first one this year. It is very small, but has some good stuff. Not much in the way of vegetables yet, unless you like thumb-sized asparagus or salad (which I hate). But we did find a place that sold local, grass-fed, organic, free-range meat (of the 4-legged variety). We got a huge piece of top sirloin that will make three meals for each of us. Holy cow. (haha)

We also got some potatoes from them -- Purple Majesty. Made into mashed potatoes, they looked like Play-doh. But they tasted like normal potatoes. The meat tasted amazing, though. A little pricey, and you had to buy whatever size they had, but Abe just cut it into three pieces and then he cooks that and cuts it in half. I am drooling just in writing this. We also had some organic corn on the cob with it. Man that is a good meal. Anyways, they also sell bratwurst, so next Friday, we will go again and get maybe some pork chops and some bratwurst. Hopefully there will be more vegetables soon.Isn't that just the best looking dinner. The meat really does taste different than the other meat we have gotten. I cannot wait to try those bratwursts.

Then we went to good will. Or was that Saturday. Anyways, Abe got some shorts and a shirt, and I got some comfy corduroy pants and a cool black and white hounds tooth purse with red trim. Then I went to the mall and got a new wallet because mine was pissing me off. Every time I opened it the stupid cards would all fall out. So I went to Fuego and got an Angry Little Girls wallet. It is really cute. I almost wish I had gotten the vampire one, but this one is great and now I am not one of THOSE people. Turns out I LOVE that store. It is similar to hot topic, but funnier.

I also drew some more for the upcoming web comic, including a header image. So we are getting there. Arthur and Georgie are fun to draw. Actually, there are two new characters who are also way fun to draw. I will draw away and then stop to look at it as a whole and laugh every single time.

Yesterday, I wanted to go get some zippers for the cloth I bought to make skirts from. So when I got home, I made a skirt. I also got another zipper to fix a skirt that had a broken zipper. So now I have two skirts to wear. The skirt I made myself looks great. I had to make some darts and mess those up, but I think my shirts will cover it, and if not, I can always go back and fix it. I should have read the instructions in my Skirt book on how to make darts. Anyways, the book is Sew What: Skirts and it is awesome. The one I made yesterday was A-Line. I also plan to make a straight skirt with some green and cream hounds tooth, and a pleated skirt with some green and brown plaid. While I got the zippers, I also bought some clearance fabric because it as 30% off, so I got some cute red fabric that I will use as a layer over some black fabric for a skirt. I think that will be really cute. And I got some yellow fabric with pink dots that I will make into bloomers for which I will tat some lace to attach at the bottom of each leg. Nice, yeah? (FYI, I was totally spacing out every time Abe took a picture of me in this skirt.)

I have plans. I have too many plans. This is on top of all the knitting I have to do, including the new Rockin' Sock Club kit that should be coming in the next couple weeks (so far I am two for two - received two kits and both are already knit up) and the sweater I am knitting for my mom. Another Girl Friday, but in evergreen. It is coming right along. I have the left front, back, and one sleeve done. I started the second sleeve yesterday, but I only got about an inch in. I also have the Raven Swirl (rav) Rockin' Sock Club socks on the needles. I am almost half way done with the first sock. I love this pattern and can't wait for them to be done. Speaking of plans, I also got a free coat rack and I plan to sand and paint it this summer...There is a chance I might have more to do than can possibly be done...

One day when I was working on something at work, I looked out the window at the rain and had a bit of an epiphany on how to tell my water lady story. It was very satisfying. So that is my next big comics project.

Vacation is fun. Now I remember.

So I guess I never posted about my vacation. Here goes.

We started out packing my mom's VW bug (new version) with tons of art supplies and promptly driving south to go to Lake Quinalt. And promtply taking the wrong highway and going on a huge detour to Hoodsport, if that means anything to you. But once we got back on track all was well and we got to the Lochaerie Resort without any further problems. We did stop at a gas station so my mom could make sure she was going the right way, but we were.

View Larger Map

The Cabin was very nice, though we had to make about 5 trips down two or three flights of very steep, uneven stairs to get all our stuff down to the cabin. I like the stairs when we weren't carrying all our stuff. And I thought to myself, "Well, I would rather be carrying all this down than up and Abe and Jim will be here to carry it all back up..." The Cabin itself was nice. Small, but nice. And I thought to myself, "Abe might have a hard time here since it all seems to be size for mom and myself." My mom and me are within a quarter inch of each other in height. Abe is almost a foot taller than me. The bedrooms all look out on the lake. The porch faced the trees, but we did sit out there and drink cocoa one evening. That was fun. Mom got some great pictures of some birds. Yellow Thrush? She got pictures of a loon swimming in the lake and some common merganzers taking off from the lake. In the morning, the hills around the lake were covered in fog. Absolutely gorgeous.

We spent our evenings in front of the fire place (they give you firewood for each night) doing crossword puzzles mom had brought with her from the newspaper. We wanted to get more because we were running out, but not a single store in teh lake quinalt area carried them. Doh.

During the day, we intended to do a lot of art. I apparently don't know how to do that yet. It is hard to switch from a cubicle for work to a couch. :) Anyways, we didn't do much because on the first day, mom had heard mice in the walls; and on the second day, we found mouse poop; and on the third day, a mouse came tearing ass out from behind the fireplace. So we spent a lot of time trying to work out that problem.

In addition to the "pets" we had not requested, mom forgot her watercolor paper block, so we called Abe and him look up the nearest art store, which was in Forks. So we spent a few hours and drove to Forks. Oh, and for the first few days, mom had a very sore back. She thinks it was from the stress of actually taking a working vacation, which I tend to agree. So in Forks, we found the art store pretty easily. Small town, so it was not the most varied art store. Mom ended up getting some cheap watercolor paper in sheets because they didn't even sell watercolor blocks. When we went up to the counter, I noticed a bunch of Twilight fan art and twilight merch, like notepads and pins. I giggled to myself. When my mom asked the art store lady where we could go for lunch, she mentioned the Twilight restaurant. And then a Mexican restaurant, which is where we went. We did drive past the Twilight restaurant, and I giggled again. The window displays were a bunch of stuff from the book covers. Anyways, the mexican restaurant was a converted gas station. The food tasted ok, but made me a bit sick.

Then we went grocery shopping. The grocery store had a section devoted to twilight with rain boots and hoodies and bumper stickers. Things like "The rain and the vampires both suck in Forks, WA." Yikes. I ended up getting some corn that was cookable in the microwave because that is all they had. And it was really gross. Tasted like chemicals.

On the way back from Forks, we stopped by a beach. We would have walked more, but mom's back hurt too much. We grabbed a cool looking bottle that had little things that had grown on it, like clams or something. Cleaning up the beach.

Anyways, the cabin was fun, but what with mice pooping in our dishes (so unsanitary), we decided to leave and ended up spending the rest of vacation at my moms. We ended up having to lug everything back up, including about 7 days worth of food, without the aid of our men. While we were at the cabin, I had started a painting for Abe, "Home Sweet Homo Erectus," and a pencil of Arthur and Georgie.

On the way back home, we stopped by our apartment so I could say hi to Abe and the dogs. And grab some things, like more crossword puzzles. We spent the entire drive up to bellingham doing the crossword puzzles.

In Bellingham, we also didn't get much done because we had all this money and I wanted to spend it! (Refund) I got an Ashford 16" rigid heddle loom from NW Handspun Yarns. And then I made mom a scarf (with her help). It was super fun. I can't wait to make another, but it has been SO HOT. It is cooler today, so I guess that is what I will do. Yay for rain. The loom came needing to be put together. It is a good thing I didn't wait to do that until I got back home because it was so hard to get the screws in we ended up having to use mom's drill as an electric screw driver. A few comments on the directions. The two pieces that are both marked H are not identical, they are the exact opposite, so they should have different letters. The pieces are not labeled, so you have to figure it out. The tools that are optional, like wood glue, should be marked optional in the tool list, not just in the instruction steps. There was something else, but I have forgotten now. And with about an hours time, we had the whole thing put together and were starting the scarf.

Anyways, we also went to Goodwill, where I got some shoes for $7 that I had been eyeing at Fred Meyer's for $35. I also got an awesome green cardigan (smaller guage than I can do with awesome buttons and a great color), a herringbone sweatshirt (no hood! Yay!), a white button-up shirt (which turned out to be too big, but I will see what I can do to fix it), and a box with drawers (black and painted with moon and stars). I went back with Abe later and got a 99 cent green v-neck t-shirt and an awesome green goblet. Abe hates it (the 70s goblet).

In all, I had a great time. Abe came up Friday to pick me up. That is when we went to Goodwill. That was the day we did my birthday celebration with my family.

For my birthday, Isaac gave me a bone large-eye blunt needle that he had made with the information he learned in the Bone Carving class that was his birthday present from mom, jim, abe, and me. The bone came from a porkchop he'd had for dinner. Haha. And mom bought me some books at Hendersons: Weaving things you can use, The joy of hand weaving (though mine was printed in 1950), How to draw and sell comic strips, How to draw and sell comics (which I just realized is the by the same guy who did the previous book...), and Aubrey Beardsley: Sixty selected drawings. The Aubrey Beardsley one might be my favorite. Turns out one of his drawings was used as the cover on one of my favorite books, The Einstein Intersection.

For my birthday and Mother's day, we had a GREAT dinner on Friday. Jim made polenta, which I could never complain about and nearly have to force him to make everytime. Man that stuff is good. We also had the Brussel Sprouts Braised in Butter from the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And from the same book, we had chicken breasts in mushrooms and onions. That might just be the best chicken I have ever had or will have in my life. Holy cow. The whole chicken thing took about half an hour. The sauce (butter, mushrooms, green onions, vermouth, chicken stock, and cream) was amazing. It was good on the polenta and brussel sprouts, too. I am drooling just thinking of this meal. For dessert we had some delicious pistachio/almond ice cream with chocolate syrup. Yummy.

I had such a great time for a week and a half hanging out with my mom. She apparently spends a lot of her time saying mixed metaphors. About every other time she said something was a mixed metaphor. And it was contagious. I couldn't get a metaphor right by the end of the trip. Her studio was awesome, so we had a great time working our butts off there, even if we could only really agree on Frank Sinatra for music. No complaints here. I love Sinatra. I hope to do it again sometime. I could see mom and Jim running an art-themed bed and breakfast. :)

On Sunday, it turns out I had left all my birthday books at my mom's so we met her at my grandma's for tea and scones with my aunts. Before that, we went to Fluevog and I finished buying the shoes I had on layaway. They are comfortable and awesome. These are great shoes. We also went to Third Place Books in Lake City. I got the first two volumes of Walking Dead for Abe. I haven't read them yet, so no comment there. I also got myself Amphigorey and Amphigorey Also, and a book on Gothic Art. The Gothic Art book is just for reference. I might read a bit, but probably not much. I got it for the pictures. Gorey is amazing. I think these books will be a much-used reference.

After all this, I still had Monday to recup and Abe and I played Borderlands, which I really enjoy. I am playing Mordecai, the hunter, and I have to say, I am loving the snipers. I can kill a Rakk (flying thing) from halfway across the map or so. If I can see it, I can kill it. Totally awesome.

On Wednesday, we went to Outback for dinner and Abe gave me the two CDs previously mentioned. They are really good. I knew I would like Regina, but I really like The Reverend Horton Heat. That is some upbeat music. Great for a sunny car ride home with the stereo and A/C blasting. The first song has a start that reminds me or reggae, which gets my hackles up, but it only lasts a few seconds and then she starts to sing and I am comforted.

Anyways, back to the near present. This last Saturday, we went to the NW Cartoonists group and Abe told everyone I was shy and I put a comic of Arthur up for voting for Best of teh NW. It was pretty funny. If I can, I will get a copy or something and post it here. It was just Arthur being scared in a way slightly inspired by anime/manga. The guy who was supposed to come talk never showed up, but we did watch a video of Scott McCloud on TEDtalk. That was still fun. At least one person voted for Arthur for Best of the NW. And it wasn't me or Abe. (I think part of the rules involves not voting for yourself.)

So next time I post, I will put up the Home Sweet Homo Erectus. And this image makes me laugh every time I see it. The whole thing is great, but that one is the best. Haha. Adam West.

What the hell day of the week is it anyway?

It's wednesday or thursday I'm sure of it. Here's a very cool drawing of The Rocketeer that Angela did recently. I like it.

I spent most of yesterday upgrading her desktop to Windows 7. I've got all of her hardware working, including the print/scanner/copier. And I've got most of her programs installed and set up the way that she likes them.

I spent most of today playing my bass and working on the pdf for my apple, stilton, and apricot bread. I re-resized the pictures because I'd screwed up the scaling last time and they all looked like crap. I also tried to make the pages have a more artistic layout. Angela looked at my last draft and said "It is so obvious that a man made this." So, I'm trying to gussy it up a bit. The pictures look way better anyway and they are all a uniform size now as well.

Once the recipe pdf is done, I'm going to list it on etsy and see if I can get a few bucks rolling in. Once this one is done, I'm moving on to a cook book who's contents are a secret for now. A delicious secret.

Of course, I also did the requisite laundry and dishes today too. I'm a regular house wife again.

--Abe

Cooking has begun!

It has been a tiring week because our schedule is all out of wack. We will try to get the comics for next week done this week. But we have been having some delicious food. Yummy yummy. This first one is our chicken dinner from last night (Wednesday). I chopped up some green onions (or scallions if you are Abe) and mixed it with some garlic powder and some olive oil. Maybe a table spoon or two of oil. At the grocery store, Abe swore up and down that we had garlic at home. I told him I got to beat him up if he was wrong. And of course when we get home, no garlic. Well, there was some garlic that Abe had forgotten about but it was so old it had nearly turned to dust. Anyways, I washed and dried the chicken. Then I covered the chicken in the oil mix and set it on a broiling rack and sprinkled a little bit of salt over them (two chicken thighs with skin and bone). Then broiled it for 15 minutes. Flipped it and put more oil (and green onions) on top and a little salt and broiled for another 15 minutes. Delish. Plus some mashed baby red potatoes with sour cream and butter and salt and green onions. And broccoli. I want to try this recipe again with chicken breast and fresh garlic instead of powdered.

Then tonight (Thursday), we had hamburgers. I mixed fresh garlic and green onions and a little salt in just under a pound of hamburger and made giant patties. But we used 9% fat hamburger and they turned out too dry (to me). The Joy of Cooking suggests about 20% to be juicy but not too fatty. And I think broiling will help get rid of the fat (let it drip out). We also broiled some tater tots with the burgers. And had some delicious avocado. Abe had tomato, too, but I don't like tomatoes.

So here is the china cabinet we got from my aunt. Not bad, yeah? So we are painting it black and yellow and green. I think it will look pretty sweet. It is already full of tea and yarn dyeing supplies and some water color supplies. And a few random kitchen things. Once the shelf is in, it will hold the stuff across all the cook books, which is bowls and I think some cups. Seriously, all those books are cook books. And on the right are some cooking magazines. A couple years worth of Bon Appetite from the late 90s. I read somewhere that the average person has 7 -8 cookbooks. Abe and I blow that out of the water. Really, I blow that out of the water because most of those are mine.

It was missing the shelf, which Abe thinks was glass. So we got this board at Home Depot and had it cut to size. It is a skitch too short, but it will still work. We will make it safe by adding some dowels on either side to keep it from slipping and falling. They were really nice. We also got a drop cloth, the paint, and paint brushes. We already had the necessary sand paper, so we are good to go and now the weather just needs to cooperate.

Last Saturday is when we bought it and the temp was fine to start painting the bottom black. Essentially, our guideline is that vertical surfaces will be black, horizontal surfaces will be yellow, and the trim will be green. Eventually we will get a tiny bit of a reddish color to add to the trim in tiny doses. I think I might also paint some ferns or creatures on it, but I will get the whole thing painted first. So here it is with the first couple coats of black paint, then sanded and waiting to put on the last coat of black.

Last week I also finally finished my slippers! The pattern is from Knit 2 Together. I totally forgot what the yarn is. They are quite comfy and quite covered in dog hair in this picture because I have been wearing them all over the unvaccumed carpet. Neither of us wants to clean in our little bit of free time. I really like the colors, but I messed up when grabbing the stitches. I grabbed to far over on one. The one with more grey on the side looks better to me. And I really like the "argyle" look. I was considering putting a button or two on, but I haven't seen any I like.

Next up, New Shirts!! We went to Jinx! because they were having a sale. A bunch of shirts were $10 each. So I got these two. Terror Bot, which I will wear to the big corporate meeting tomorrow. Don't worry, I think it is pre-recorded. :) And the other is a great green shirt that say Math is FUNctional! Yea! That one fits great. I like the neck line actually, which is a lot loser than a regular crewneck. It is an actual ladies T.

And here is Abe's shirt. He only got one. Loser. Actually the ones he liked were sold out in his size, so I guess I lot of people liked the same ones as him. I wanted him to get one that said "Stop laughing! Computers are cool now." Anyways, this one "African or European" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I watched when I went home early because I was sick the other Friday. So this is the swallow carrying the coconut. Very funny. I like it.

--Angela

Crepes are awesome

So now that Abe is working, I am taking turns cooking dinner. We have a little more money for food, so we get to be a little more creative. A while ago we got quick recipe Weight Watchers book and a delicious recipe for chicken, spinach, and mushroom crepes. So I decided to make that. But it calls for prepared crepes and I couldn't find any so I decided to try to make them. Last night I looked up the recipe for crepes in Joy of Cooking and made the mix. But then in needs to sit for 30 minutes up to 2 days, so I let it sit until today.

Anyways, then today, we made the dinner. Abe made the filling. Here's the mushrooms frying up in the cast iron pan. They turned out perfectly. He followed the recipe...

He had already cooked the chicken the night before while I was making the crepe batter (and the Irish Stew was reheating). So after the mushrooms cooked up, he added the chicken, the lightly cooked spinach, and fat free cream cheese. After tasting it, he said it needed salt (it did).

So while all that was going on, I was making crepes. They were surprisingly easy, though I didn't let the pan heat up enough for the first one, so it was a bit undercooked. This first pic is of the crepe after I flipped it.

This second crepe is before I flipped it.The pan is smaller than it was supposed to be, but I think it turned out better that way.














And here is the final crepe that I totally screwed up. So I finished cooking it and Abe and I split it. Actually quite yummy. The only difference between these savory crepes and the sweet crepes is 1.5 tablespoons of sugar.







And here they are all made up! They were so good, though I am still hungry. Next time, I think 4 each. These were pretty little. The recipe is for a crepe with 3/4 cup of the filling and should make 4 servings. But this seemed about that much filling and it appears there is more than a cup and a half left.







So the crepes were really easy to make. I watched Baking with Julia the other day and did what they did with the shaking the batter all over the pan. Actually that is how I made the bad one. I shook too much and it had already started to set so it flew off. The only problem is a bit too much butter because I think there is a teaspoon of butter to cook every crepe. Next time I want to try olive oil in a spray bottle (which we already have one of those pump sprayers).

In dog news, we have two jerks for certain. They are still randomly fighting. Tonight, Ernie went over to Nisa's bowl while she was still eating and tried to get a toy and of course Nisa went to defend her food. We got them apart pretty quick but Nisa got Ernie pretty bad. I pulled him away from Nisa after Abe had picked her up and he was wincing his eye. I wiped at it and there was a fair amount of blood on the palm of my hand. Yikes. I couldn't see where it was coming from because around his eye is all black and watery and the lighting was awful. So Abe took a look and we salined it and dabbed at it with a napkin. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly. We took them out for a walk and could get a good look at his eye to see what happened because the light was so much better (even though it was totally overcast and trying to rain). Looks like he has a rip in his lower eyelid almost 1/4 of an inch. Yikes. I think he will be okay. Perhaps we will continue putting saline in his eye. Though probably not unless it looks like it needs it. This is the second time he has had an injury on his eyelid.

And in knitting news, I am working on the second Lorna's lace knee-high sock. I also spun up half a Blue Moon thing of fiber. Lovely. Absolutely loverly. I can't decide what to make from it. Perhaps a cowl or something. Anyways, the sock is working out quite well. I have one done and it is pretty nice. I can't wait to wear it this winter. When I am done with the sock, I will knit some yellow fingerless gloves. I found the pattern for the Fingerless Glove group on Ravelry for the September KAL (knit along). Then I will make the Girl Friday sweater!! I am super excited. I plan to use Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Cobblestone Heather. I also want to get this Tidings of Joy Holiday kit and Corrie Fair Isle Bold Vest Kit. They look like so much fun. I am absolutely dying to get them. The Tidings of Joy Holiday kit is ornaments. That is less than a dollar each! And very redoable.

Edit: Just FYI, but I really tried to format this with the pics and it just refused to work. So much for a good WYSIWYG.

Fillings suck, Fluevogs rock

I got a filling today and my jaw hurts. Abe says it looks a little swollen. It took 1 hr and 45 min. I took a half day off afterwards, and I am really glad I did. I was pretty out of it for a while. And now it just hurts. And I am so tired. This was a bigger one than the others I have had. And they had to redo one that I had a few years ago. Blegh. I have such a headache.

I have read more of the Comics and Sequential Art book by Will Eisner. I am really enjoying it. I also started drawing out a rough rough sketch of a comic from the Office Cowboy story. The problem is, I think I need to leave in almost all of the narration to complete the analogy.

On the knitting front, I have just about finished the first of the 4th Rockin' Sock Club kit. This is definitely my least favorite sock so far, both on color and pattern. Ah well. A lot of the other people in the club love it. I am also working on what I hope will be a great little black and dark green cropped cardigan. And I have turned the heel and started the foot (still in the gusset) of the Viper Pilots socks (which I LOVE).

Next weekend I am going up to Bellingham to do a garage sale with my friend Rijl. So Abe and I have been running through our stuff trying to find what to get rid of. We already have two boxes. Some movies and video games and clothes. Even a stick of RAM. LOL. We are finding some neat stuff. Like some of my old books on drawing comics that Abe can refer to. And the 1965 Lord of the Rings paperback trilogy that belonged to my dad that my mom read when she was pregnant with me. (I was not born in 65...) And a giant sudoku book , whichi s great for when I am watching TV. I also found an old black angora sweater, that I just need to watch. I just need to hand wash it.

Last saturday was our anniversary, so we went downtown and had piroshkies. Yummy. Abe's was essentially a Russian corn dog! Man I would have been sick if that had been my lunch. Then we went to the comic shop in Pike Place, which has a ton of graphic novels, but we didn't actually get anything. I almost got the second volume of Fables, but I will wait. I even got to peak in the Fluevog place on the way to Pike Place. Boy oh boy, those shoes make me drool. They are/were having a huge sale.

Heres the conversation Abe and I had about the sale. I showed him the shoes I want.

(12:44:09 PM) Abe: hey lady
(12:44:12 PM) Angela (gmail): hey
(12:44:16 PM) Angela (gmail): i want these!
(12:44:17 PM) Angela (gmail): http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w=fresh&p=3&pp=1&view=detail&colourID=2585 (Friends|Sharon|Green)
(12:44:35 PM) Abe: those're pretty awesome
(12:44:49 PM) Angela (gmail): and these:
(12:44:50 PM) Angela (gmail): http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w=fresh&p=6&pp=1&view=detail&colourID=2579 (Minis|Dollface|Blue)
(12:45:01 PM) Abe: wow
(12:45:12 PM) Angela (gmail): OMG. And these:
(12:45:13 PM) Angela (gmail): http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w=fresh&p=14&pp=1&view=detail&colourID=2557 (Bellevues|Libby Smith|Olive & Gray)
(12:45:25 PM) Angela (gmail): (any of the colors on that one)
(12:45:28 PM) Abe: those are my least favorite so far
(12:45:40 PM) Abe: the black and red is cool though
(12:46:19 PM) Abe: http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w=fresh&p=6&pp=1&view=detail&colourID=2578 (Minis|Dollface|Red)
(12:46:23 PM) Abe: those are awesome as hell
(12:46:36 PM) Angela (gmail): http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w=sale&pp=1&view=detail&p=8&colourID=2497 (Blind Faiths Hi|Sigourney|Black)
(12:46:48 PM) Angela (gmail): I love the blues ones you linked
(12:46:58 PM) Angela (gmail): 'http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w=sale&pp=1&view=detail&p=10&colourID=2498 (Pin ups|Miss April|Black and White, or Turquoise, Gray & Black)
(12:47:01 PM) Angela (gmail): in blue or black
(12:47:19 PM) Abe: wow I can;t decide
(12:47:25 PM) Abe: I *think* the black
(12:48:00 PM) Angela (gmail): I freakin' love fluevogs!!
(12:48:14 PM) Angela (gmail): just not the orange on those last ones
(12:48:17 PM) Angela (gmail): I am not a hooker
(12:48:21 PM) Abe: HAHAHAHA
(12:48:24 PM) Angela (gmail): but if I were, I would probably get those
(12:48:49 PM) Abe: they're the same color as the cones construction guys use
(12:48:56 PM) Angela (gmail): yeah
(12:49:26 PM) Angela (gmail): some of their sale shoes are more than 60% off right now
(12:50:58 PM) Angela (gmail): sigh. some of them are so lovely
(12:51:08 PM) Abe: ok
(12:51:16 PM) Abe: yes they really are awesoem shoes
(12:52:56 PM) Angela (gmail): I just hope that they aren't trying to get rid of their stock on all those shoes
(12:53:00 PM) Angela (gmail): that they will keep making them
(12:53:26 PM) Abe: yeah
(12:53:29 PM) Abe: that would blow
(12:53:39 PM) Abe: those were some of the coolest of their shoes that you've ever showed me

Dude in mud

This is that little guy I draw rolling in the mud. I kind of doodled this at work. He is awfully fun to draw. I am thinking of doing the 24-hr comic in September when I am taking a week off. I am thinking I might use this guy as a character. Though technically you are not supposed to do any prep work. But I have been drawing this guy for years. I first made up a much more stylized version of him in 9th or 10th grade in art class.

So Abe made some cookie dough the other day from the recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. They are pretty dang good. The funny thing is he is 34 and that is the first time he has ever made chocolate chip cookies. I baked that stuff all the time when I was in high school. Well, it cracked me up anyways.

I am almost done with the second Fraggle Squiggle Sock. I have started the toe and I think I have messed it up, but I am too lazy to rip back and fix it. It is just the toe and it will work out fine in the end.

This weekend, I am starting my Figure Drawing class with Nils Osmar. I am really excited. In the next month that I am taking the class, I will practice drawing the characters of a graphic novel I want to draw and write out the script. I have the very basic script, so I know the outline of the scenes I need to write, but I need to write the specifics. I am really excited because I think this class will give me the little push I need to start drawing people again. And probably better. I was never that great at drawing people. I have the Blues Lady painting for sale as a card on arachknits, and it is pretty good, but I think I can do better,

What are these things you call car keys?

What a fun weekend. Friday we went up to mom's for lunch for Independence Day. We hung out for a bit. Then for lunch we had too much food. Abe made delicious Yankee cornbread from Abe's bread cookbook. Yummy. Mom made a Gigantic batch of potato salad (she makes great potato salad). She made even more for the five of us (Isaac was there too) than I made for the whole potluck at work on Thursday. She uses potatoes, mayonnaise, dill, eggs, salt, bacon. Maybe something else, but I can't remember. Sometimes vinegar. She also made corn on the cob (so Abe and I have been eating that for dinner lately, too - well, with dinner). And Jim made BBQ chicken thighs (yummy, but to fatty and they made me sick), and salmon. The BBQ was just Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, which is some of the yummiest BBQ sauce. The salmon was marinated in some homemade sauce of Jim's with garlic and brown sugar and something wet, but I have no idea what. Very delicious. And he made grilled zucchini. I had a bit of everything. I was so full I couldn't even eat dinner. Isaac was so hot (haha, they don't know the meaning of hot - it was perfect out after the heat of Seattle), he could hardly eat anything. Well, for him. He still ate more than I did.

Then we went to the pond to look for the muskrats. But we only saw one and just barely, so we went and look at the pics mom had taken of them before. Pretty dang cute. We also spent some time looking at LOLCats. Pretty funny. Then, of course, we played Boggle. Isaac took a nap, and Jim gussied up before his poetry reading.

And the it was time to go off to the poetry reading. I had ripped a knitting needle out of my project, so I needed to stay, but I didn't know where we were going. So Jim and Abe drove in and mom waited for me. I was going to drive us in in our car so that Abe and I could just head home. After a few minutes, Mom and I were nearly ready to go and then I remembered I hadn't brought my keys. Turns out those are necessary to drive the car. So instead of calling Abe (who didn't have his cell phone on him anyways), mom just drove us in in her truck and I would have to drive it back after the poetry reading and art walk.

Anyways, we got to the poetry reading and it was as much fun as a poetry reading could be. My favorite reader was an older gentleman named Malcolm. He had a big deep voice. And Jim's second poem was my favorite poem. The poems were all from a poetry thing where they gathered together and took turns writing lines on poems. They were in a neat bone exhibit at Mindport.

Then we went on the art walk. I think the Blue Horse Gallery was the first place we went. There is a comic book shop above it, but they were closed. Perhaps some other time. The Blue Horse Gallery had some fun stuff. They host a bunch of international trips. I would love to go on the one to Egypt. Or Ireland. There were some beautiful prints, though I don't remember the artist. On the way out, we ran into George Jartos. My mom has an old unfinished painting of his that I used to like to look at when I was little. It was weird meeting him after knowing that painting for so long. He seems like a nice fella. Pretty near exact what I had pictured. Then we went the the Wild Buffalo, a bar. I got carded. And there we looked at more paintings by George. They are amazing. I really like his art. So detailed and weird. Abe was not as big a fan, but it is just the kind of thing I like. I could look at it for hours it feels like. After that, we went to a couple other places, but I don't remember being as impressed. Abe liked a more modern one.

And then it was off to the Temple bar where we waited. We were meeting Jim and other poets and artists there. Well, mom and Jim were and Abe and I just happened to be there too. The service was awful. It is always awful when we go there. The food is pretty good when you can get it though. Mom and I were going to split a sundae, but it after 20 minutes I canceled the order. Abe did get his salad though. He said it was delicious. He made mom's night by giving her the tomatoes with mozzarella.

OK. So then we went home. And of course got home around midnight. Kind of sucked because first we had to drive back to mom's in the old truck, but we got to say good night to the very tired Isaac who had stayed at mom's to sleep before his 12 hours of work the next day.
Saturday was awesome and laid back. I don't even remember what we did.

On Sunday, I went to my cousin Jenai's baby shower. Best shower ever because she wouldn't let them plan all those horrible baby shower games. I gave her a cute little handknit baby cardigan in light green. Got a lot of 'ahs.' But then when another cousin and aunt asked me to move my car so they could get out, turns out I had locked my keys in my car!! So my super nice cousin Jenny very kindly drove me home to get the keys from Abe, who came back with us and drove home. It was really nice to hang out with Jenny. We had a good ride back. I just gotta get off my butt (or have less to do) and go hang out with her sometime. Hopefully, Isaac will get a hold of me so that for the 25th, when we go to see Harry Potter, we can also take some time to see Jenny. Maybe have some tea at the Village Yarn and Tea shop.

Also, the new AntiCraft is out. I actually like this one. The last one was all merkins, which I am not so into. But this one is all embroidery and I like a lot of it. In particular, I really like the Cthulu and veggies one and the rose on the apron. I think I might be making both of those.

Stank Breath

So as a pre-reward for cleaning the fridge, I am going to make Abe an acid green tawashi that is a skull and cross bones that will be designated for cleaning the fridge. I will have to make this one up, but I might write down the pattern. I am not as good at crochet, but I think I can do it.
I have another comic ready for tomorrow (we'll see if we can get on a M-W-F schedule, haha). Abe is sketching them and then I get draw them. The last one I used pen on tracing paper over the pencil drawing I did from Abe's tiny drawing. The next one (for tomorrow) I did using the pad thing that Abe's friend Cliff has loaned to me. So, it won't look as nice, but I should get better with practice and as long as Abe keeps doing the sketches and scanning them in for me, I will continue using the pad thing and practicing. I totally can't remember what it is called now. We thought of at least three more comics to draw last night and I nearly laughed myself to sleep last night thinking about it.
Anyways, I am working on the quilt. All the stripes for the back are ready, so I am sewing them together. I have almost three stripes sewn together. I started with the smallest stripe, so this could be pure torture. So far I have the black sewn to the snowflakes on blue and the green is almost sewn to the black. Then I have 3 more stripes to go.
So in other non-news, the dogs have the worst breath. Like from three feet away, when Nisa breaths in our direction, she can clear the room. Amazing.

Okay, I was done writing, but I went to put on the Thursday night shows. The Info says it is How I Met Your Mother, but it is NCIS. A little disconcerting when you think the beginning of a TV Crime series is a sitcom. Ew.
-Angela

FOs and pictures - what you gonna do

Well, I have stuff to show off. But first, this last weekend, we went up to my mom's. I brought Star Trek scrabble and Abe, Isaac, mom, and I played. Jim was on dictionary duty. Mom won, I placed second. It was a fun game. We all play pretty nice, less cut throat. Especially since I don't know when the last time Isaac played was, if ever. Before that we played Boggle. Jim has gotten better. He had at least 8 by the time we quit.
For dinner we went to Cafe Akatori, a Greek restaurant in Bellingham. Delicious. Mom and I split the lamb shanks at rare to medium-rare. It came with potatoes and rice. Both also very good. For an appetizer, we had some cheese thing and fried zucchini. The cheese thing had brandy and the waitress put it on fire when she brought it. I didn't like the first bite, but every bite got much better until I wanted more by the last bite.
I finally took a bunch of picture and uploaded them and now I can load them to Blogger in Firefox, so pictures coming from now on.















Here are the Rogue Roses socks from the second Socks that Rock kit. I love it. I usually not a pink fan, but this color with the weird green is awesome. I wish the picture were better.



















I also made this kerchief from the remaining sock yarn following the stitch pattern from the socks. It turned out okay. I definitely plan to try to make more of these from the other socks kits.














Here is the Spring purse pattern from the 2008 LYS tour. I finished it just in time to take it on our LYS Tour 2009. I needle felted mushrooms instead of the flowers that the pattern used in the store. I got a bone button the looks really great with it at Weaving Works. The needle felting was fun. I plan to needle felt a fern around one of the edges from the back onto the front.


















Here is some yarn I spun. I bought the roving at Weaving Works. It was a blast to spin up. It was soft and luscious. The color actually looks better than the picture shows. It is a three ply using the Navajo ply, which is really the only one I use because I am lazy and the only one I know how to do, really. It is, I think, an aran weight. I have no idea what I am going to make out of it. Perhaps I will use it as an accent on an empire waste sweater. Or a cowl.


















Here is the skull skirt I made. I love it. It is a skitch longer the I wanted. I used a zig zag stitch to sew the stripes of black and patterned pieces together. There is so much sewing in this skirt that I used at least one complete spool of thread and blunted a sewing machine needle. Impressive. There is a second layer of white muslin on the inside. I used one of my existing skirts to cut out a pattern using the cardboard type roll of paper I have. It was pretty easy, actually. I got the courage after I bought the Sew What: Skirts book. Before actually making a skirt in the book.
















Here is the mushroom skirt I made. I bought the fabric a long time ago (a month or so) to make this skirt but kept chickening out. But I recently bought more fabric to make a couple dresses so I figured I better just make this skirt already. This one is from the Sew What: Skirts book. I really like it. It is a simple skirt with two pleats in the back and two in the front. I need to find a ribbon to put around the top where the pleats start. That is part of the pattern, but it would look really cute. I just haven't been able to find any that match yet. It is weird 60s/70s colors.


















I also finally finished the Plug n' Play shawl that I started at the Fall Fiber Arts Retreat in Calgary. It is not shawl sized, but it makes a great head shawl. I actually like it a lot like that. I haven't blocked it yet because I really don't have a place to do it. It is too big to do on the ironing board, which is what I usually use. And I can't use the bed because it has a memory foam cover. But it even looks pretty good as a head shawl without the blocking. Very retro. Abe said I looked like Audrey Hepburn. The someone else who I hadn't heard of.



















Yesterday I finished the butterfly bag that I got from Let it Rain Yarn during the LYS Tour 2008. That shop is closed now. I used some beads I think I got from the Queen of Beads socks, the first kit from Rockin' Sock Club 2009. It is super cute and I got a great fabric to line it with. Plenty left over, so I get to use it in the quilt I am starting.














It has birds and flowers. I can't believe how good they look together. Like they were made for eachother. I need to put a zipper in, but I am not sure how and I would have to find one. It is about 6.5 inches and I don't think zippers come in that length.














Here is some yarn I got on the LYS Tour 2009 at Bad Woman Yarns. Not sure what I am going to do withit, but I love the colors. Their pattern was a crochet shawl, but I wasn't a big fan. I was thinking of making another shrug like last years from the pattern I got on the tour at a shop in Edmonds just north of here. Cute shop and really close to the Edmond's Farmers Market.

















I got this lace weight yarn on sale at the Queen Anne Hilltop yarn store. Beautiful shop, but so hard to get to. We drove around the block like 5 times looking for a spot. This skein was only 6.50. pretty sweet. Plus I got 5% off because I had been there before and I am on their mailing list or something. They had two great patterns, a button scarf (knit) and some crocheted mittens.














I got this Manos yarn at Beach Basket Yarn and Gifts in Birch Bay, which is much farther north than I thought. I thought it was the north side of Bellingham, but it is farther north than Ferndale. It is just so cute. Green and brown and the like. Their pattern was a nice cowl out of mohair boucle, but it was $40 a skein so screw that. I might try to get the skein later.














And finally, here is the skein I got from Fiber Gallery. First skein I bought on the tour this year. Now I have two or three skeins of this. I should probably use one... It is just so soft and luscious.
I had also started working on the Stochastic Blanket again. I may need to get some longer needles. I am knitting it from the center and increasing out. Trying to use up all my left over skeins of Lionbrand Homespun.
As for the quilt, I am pretty close to the right number of squares. I need to save some cool cloth for strips on the back. I think I am going to use a ti-dyed square in the middle of the back and mitered stripes around it. I hope I am not being too ambitious.
Uh, I think I am out...