~ summer thunder ~

Been battling a bronchial infection for a little over a week and, boy, am I tired of coughing and not having maximum lung capacity! Boo, bronchitis, boo. Sickness, for me, always seems to come with a bout of angst and depression, which I do not particularly enjoy. I'm also beginning to feel badly for the female with whom I share a wall, as I have been launching into rather violent coughing fits throughout the night - - and, as a result of a previous tenant who had babies in that apartment (who would scream and cry ALL NIGHT LONG - - the babies, not the tenant), I am well aware of how thin our shared wall is.

But I've got good news for you! Grades have come out, and I do not have to retake my horrific budgeting class. Woo! I loathed, despised, and absolutely hated that class so much that I had become rather anxious that I would have to retake it. Which was a totally dumb thing to worry about, after all, I tend to be a rather exemplary student...still. I surmise that I would have dropped out of the program rather than retake budgeting, were it to come down to it.

In other news, you are probably all aware of how 'behind the times' I am when it comes to popular culture. A general rule of thumb is that if something has come and gone, and people have totally forgotten about it, I will then 'discover' and get excited about it. On this, I could point to a number of examples, but I am confident in your mental abilities to have comprehended that which I have articulated, and so I will cease with my overly-verbose preface and will commence with the 'meat' of the matter.

A television program known as Star Trek: Enterprise which was cancelled five years ago "for poor ratings" has just made it onto my "What Jennifer Thinks Is Awesome NOW" list. Indeed, I watched my very first episode last week and, seriously people, this program is cutting edge entertainment. At first, I had a difficult time with the Scott Bakula aspect, but he's really grown on me. Also, the program has this rather motivational theme song about having faith in oneself and how you're not going to let anyone hold you back anymore, while showing visuals of humans first going into space, the landing on the moon, etc., and it gets me all choked up and teary-eyed. In addition, during the first episode, there was this completely random scene where two of the characters took off the majority of their clothing and smeared cream all over each other's bodies. I have since learned that this scene, which I felt had no relevance to the episode, is a regular feature of the program. And so I ask you, "Am I opposed to attractive people with little clothing smearing cream all over each other?" Certainly not. Of course, the primary entertainment value of the program is not the gratuitous teaser scenes, but rather the adventurous space-exploring stories.

This past weekend was a federal holiday which I celebrated by not going to work. Yay, holidays. It was VERY nice to have a three day weekend. I have been working way too much lately. Last week was almost a 60 hour work week for me and I was really exhausted from it. As I reflect back upon the weekend, there is not one particular activity that jumps out at me. I know that I did stuff, I know that I enjoyed myself, but I primarily remember the not-working aspect of the weekend. Since I am not someone who finds an incredible amount of fulfillment from working, I do not like it when I work more than I live. Of course, back to the bronchial infection and the angst and depression that have followed, I had to restrain myself a little when I began to envision quitting my job and moving to the Bahamas.

Posted by jennifer at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ Iceland...Once Upon A Time ~

**CORRECTED**

Once upon a time, this was Iceland. As a result of my inability to stick to anything that I start, however, it has morphed into something very very different. These are my pattern notes, convoluted though they seem.

First, the yarn. Patons Soy Wool Stripes… hate it. Several skeins had knots, and a few times, the yarn pulled apart because it is so flimsily held together. It's a bit on the itchy side, looks too fuzzy, and is bulkier-seeming than its worsted weight classification. Furthermore, I'm not sure how I feel about the self-striping on this particular project - - it seems like overkill on top of the stitch details.

Second, this is probably a good time to mention that I have a very great difficulty with seaming - - most of the time, I seam an item together in every possible incorrect way and have to reseam fifteen times to get it right. As such, my directions for seaming most likely make little sense. This is why I generally try to avoid seaming at all costs, but I couldn't conceptualize a seamless method for this project once I had decided how I wanted to construct it.

Third, the lace/cable pattern of Iceland is a lot of fun to work. That is, once I changed the cable to something of a twisted stitch. The pattern calls for a two-stitch cable, which I feel is a waste of time. After completing the first sleeve with the two-stitch cable, I was pretty fed up with it, and opted to transition to a twisted stitch for the duration of the project. Below is a detail of the sleeves - - one has the two-stitch cable pattern, the other has the twisted stitch. I can tell a difference, but I feel that in the grand scheme of things, the difference is negligible. At any rate, I would HIGHLY recommend employing the twisted stitch because the sweater knits up A LOT faster this way.

Measurements of finished object as follows:

Sleeves: 9" x 22" (wide x long)
Body Back: 21" x 18" (long x wide) - - 14" long to arms, then another 7" to neckline
Body Front: 14" x 10" (long x wide)

Note: part of Body Back wraps around to form the sides and a bit of the front.

Needles: 10.5US circular

Sleeves:

Buttons: I did not work buttonholes for this project as the yarn was loose and sproingy enough to allow buttons to slip right through the stitches. Were I to work buttonholes, I probably would have worked a crochet edging of some sort.

Posted by jennifer at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ away for some days ~

I'm in Grangeville this week for work. This is a place that I would love to visit for fun instead of for work - - the road biking looks like it would be amazing and it is stunningly beautiful here. Also, the cheap hotel that I'm staying in is quite nice (...hint, hint...).

I drove up here yesterday. The drive was decent, even though it took about four hours. Of course, as irony would have it, the ginormous torrential thunderstorm that swept over Idaho yesterday hit this area right as I was beginning the big ascent over the White Bird summit. It was pretty scary, the torrential thunderstorm while driving over the mountain pass. The windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the showers of rain and the wind was blowing the rain every which way. Every time a semi-truck would pass by from the other direction, a prolonged whiteout of rain-splatter would cause my visibility to become non-existent for several seconds. Also, there was so much water on the road I was concerned about hydroplaning the car. But I arrived safe and sound.

This evening, after my work obligations were done for the evening, I went on a long walk. I can't get over how beautiful it is here. Grangeville is on a prairie about 4,000 feet elevation, surrounded by mountains. Right now, the prairie is amazingly lush. All across the prairie, the long stemmed grasses are the most vivid color of green. And it's is anything but flat - - the prairie is an endless series of rolling and overlapping little mounds and hills, covered by this thick green grass. The trees on the prairie are blooming, and it is simply stunning. The mountains are covered with evergreens and there's still lots of snow.

This is a photo I took earlier in the day of the clouds as I was walking to the hotel (in the background, you can see the looming sign for the Super 8). I've been kicking myself for not bringing my camera on my walk. But from this photo, you can get a good idea of just how remarkable the sky has been today as a result of the big storm that continues to come through. The town of Grangeville is pretty cute. Obviously, since there's about 3,500 people here, there's not much to it. But last night, I had dinner with some work people at a place called Ernie's Steakhouse and it was absolutely amazing. I mean, seriously people, the food was to die for! It was also well priced for the quality of the food. Today for dinner, I discovered a Chinese restaurant and got some takeout to enjoy in my hotel room. Below is a gratuitous photo of my delicious meal.

While I've been here, I've had plenty of time in the evenings to devote to a certain knitting project. Today, I finished it. I am very excited about it. I feel that it is one of the most innovative and well-fitting items that I have knat. My plan is to snap some better photos and I will post my project notes. This project, as you may recall from long ago, started out as Iceland and has clearly morphed into something very different. All that remains of Iceland is the main stitch pattern, which of course I modified ever so slightly. Of note on this project, I don't particularly fancy the yarn (the texture is coarse, it looks fuzzy, and the self-striping effects take away from other details - - also, it is claimed that this is a worsted weight yarn, but I feel it is quite bulky) and so I'm dreaming of redoing this project in a solid color smooth merino in a more true worsted weight. That would be totally radical.

A few preliminary observations are in order. One, in the photo, you'll notice the slanted neckline...this is so cool. As you can see, I've got the buttons way over there on the side and I was struggling with how to design the neckline. The slant, I feel, helps to balance out the asymetricalness of the sweater, while also adding a unique style. Of course, I'm wearing a blue/purple striped shirt underneath the sweater in the photo - - you would probably be able to tell what's going on there better with a different undershirt. I'll keep that in mind next time I do a photo-shoot.

Here's a detail of the neckline and the underarm gusset. This is also a teaser of my main construction method - - you can see evidence of how I fashioned the sleeves to the body, which is portrayed more clearly in the following photo.

Here's a detail of the back. As you can see, the sleeves were knit straight, from the wrist to the collarbone (length) and seamed until a few inches from the top. I added a gusset that ran half the length of the remaining sleeve length and attached the sleeves, essentially, "horizontal" onto the body using the remaining portions of the sleeves as well as the gussets, and then continued knitting the back up to the neckline. In the photo, what appear to be seams are actually picked up stitches and a decrease at the beginning of each row.

Here's a provocative photo of me on the hotel bed. rowr! I've got a black shirt underneath, but it's still not quite right.

And here's a final shot in a different flash setting. Photographing certains yarns, I find quite challenging. Anyway, so project notes and better photos coming soonly.

Okay, okay! One more photo.

Posted by jennifer at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ hot weekend ~

Temperatures soared into the 90's this HOT weekend. I am now making the transition to always carrying sunscreen with me and am developing my annual summertime flip-flip calluses.

For all of you fashion-conscious, Josh has started wearing fantastic lavendar v-neck t-shirts in soft cotton. I think that he looks great in lavendar. The color goes well with his skin tone and hair, and it's a great color going into the summertime months.

In the way of mountain biking...On Friday, I was able to get off work a bit early and we went on a mounain bike ride in the hot heat. My face became very red and my head felt like it was cooking on the inside. As a result, it was decided that now's the time to start up the morning bike rides to avoid the heat.

Thus, on Sunday we met up at 8:30 and rode Hard Guy. Hard Guy is one of those higher trails which I have never seen that many other people enjoy. I think in all of the times I have ridden it, I have never seen more than five other people on the trail during a ride. On Sunday, I was floored by how many other bikers there were. For one, there appeared to be a big group ride of dudes grunting up the trail. But there were also just loads of other mountain bikers. And a few dudes on singlespeeds, which I thought was crazy. Anyhoo, it was great that we headed out on our ride so early, because we were able to beat the heat. I wish that I knew what the elevation was that we climbed. At the top, there was a significant temperature decrease as well as snow. Considering that I have not been doing all that much riding, I am not exactly in Hard Guy shape and I was exerting an extraordinary amount of energy trying to grunt to the top and I had to take more breaks than I normally do. In fact, for the rest of the day, I felt pretty exhausted and beat up from the ride. That said, boy, did I have the most amazing fun on the bonzai downhill! I would like to take a few minutes to go on and on about how much fun I had on the downhill, but there are no words to describe even the rush in my gut that I feel just remembering the fun.

After the ride, we enjoyed a morning coffee experience and I partook of some extensive knitting, without a care in the world. I am on the last stages of two knitting projects that I am very excited about. Photos coming soon!

Later in the afternoon, Josh and I went to the Botanical Gardens out by the Old Penitentary where they were having some "Museum Fair" which was free to the public (always nice!) and had exhibits from all of the different museums. These photos on this post are from that experience at the Gardens. It was a lovely afternoon. The flowers were so pretty and fragrant and I felt very relaxed. We also took a few minutes to explore the Old Prison a bit. More photos are on my flickr deal, as usual. After we left the Gardens, we went for dinner and some beers (ahh!...nothing is better than a cold beer on a hot day!) and then played smashmitten in one of my neighborhood parks.

On Saturday, I spent the day getting my life back together. I've been so busy lately, as I've mentioned on more than one occasion, that my life has fallen into complete disarray. It really took me the entire day to put everything back together - - just so much to do!

Posted by jennifer at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ mountain biking buddies! ~

Took Elizabeth on a mountain bike ride yesterday. As you can see, she had a wonderful time! After putting in a lot of thought about which trail to take her on, I decided to start on the dirt path in the Reserve Area, up the intermediate-level switchback, out and back on Shane's-the-backwards-way, and down Central Ridge. Last year, we did a couple rides on Crestline. However, in my experience, getting up and over the beginner mountain biking hump requires that one develop a true sense of joy from the experience. Crestline is okay, but it's not the most scenic trail, and is so full of runners, hikers, and dogs that one must always hold one's bonzai back a little. I have a big fondness for the Shane's / Central Ridge trails because it was on them that I truly began to LOVE mountain biking. Not only is it more scenic, but there's a lot less foot-traffic and dogs to worry about, and it's got some lovely singletrack that winds around the hills. Thus, I decided to share some of my favorite trails with Elizabeth and I think that was a good move. I made her try to ride the intermediate-level switchback uphill grunt and she successfully rode almost all of it, which I thought was very impressive. I was also impressed at how fast she was riding on the downhill - - for whatever reason, I hadn't thought of Elizabeth as a thrill-seeker, but we had a good time on the cowabunga! down Central Ridge.

Posted by jennifer at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ spaetzle ~

Oh, how glorious that it is Wednesday! Last night was officially my last class for the semester. I've been hauling all kinds of bottom trying to finish up my final project, which culminated in a presentation last night. As you all know, I absolutely love public speaking. Me, getting up in front of people, explaining my budget trend analysis of a public agency, talk about a fun time! Yea... Those of you who are not in school, you probably enjoy that aspect of your existence. Those of us who are, what suckers!

This is where I've been spending a lot of time recently. On my computer screen is the concluding slide to my PowerPoint. It reads, "Confidence...in the trend line presupposes confidence in the data." For some time, I have bombarded many of the humans in my life with tales of frustration in my data collection process. Indeed, for two of the years I was analyzing, the data was incomplete and inconsistent. Unfortunately, I did not articulate my data collection frustration to all of the humans in my life, otherwise I could have unearthed the reason and the solution much sooner. On Monday, the day before my project was due, I chose to tell my boss these frustrations, and I discovered that she used to have a connection to the public agency. It was then that I learned of the crazy misuse of public funds scandal that happened during the time frame with inaccurate data. gar! I can't begin to say how many hours I wasted trying to make sense of the budget documents from this era, when there is no sense to be made of them. At any rate, my project is done, my presentation is done (and it went very well, in fact), and I am free to enjoy life again.

Sometime after 9pm last night when I arrived home from class, I cracked open a yummy beer and went bananas making "Wolfgang's Beef Goulash." For some time, as a result of school, I have been neglecting aspects of my personal life. Food is one of them, and boy, do I love me the food! As anyone who has sampled my cooking knows, I am not exactly a gourmet. Josh deserves accolades, not only for his stomach of steel but for his good manners in saying, "Yum" whenever I force him to eat something I made. I must say, I really enjoy the process of cooking even if the end result is questionable...and now that I am reminded, let us take a little stroll down memory lane...

...When my sister and I were kids, one play activity that we regularly engaged at our Grandma's house was 'play cooking.' Doing this, we made a huge mess in the kitchen, pulling out pots and pans and cooking up some horrendous concoction of spices. Thinking back, I have a difficult time understanding why we were allowed to do this. This tradition of improvised cooking remains with me today, as I continue to defy the limits placed on me by recipes.

This is what Josh has to look forward to next. On the right, my first attempt at spaetzle, cute little dumpling-type thingies. Amazingly, I followed the recipe... almost. I had a bit of difficulty following the process to transform the spaetzle goo into dumpling things. I made a ginormous mess, splattered spaetzle goo everywhere, and it was a big freak-show. Out of desperation, I whipped out the potato masher and made do with that. On the right, the goulash with no modifications! At 11:00, the concoction was done and I sat down to enjoy my diner. Yu-MMY!

This is my sad, neglected yarn and knitting projects stash. I am so excited to delve back into this, full force! I've got several projects I'm working on, and several that I've a hankering to begin. I must say, Raverly is distracting me to no end. Recently, I discovered a network to buy and sell out of print books and magazines. I guess it's no different than ebay, but still. What glory! A few days ago, I negotiated my purchase (for $5.00) of an out of print issue of Interweave Knits that I have been lusting after for some time. I am really excited about this.

In mountain biking news, I continue to be an accomplisher! Over the weekend, Josh and I rode the Corrals loop. There were a couple of parts to the loop that I had developed some kind of horrible fear last year when I was crashing all the time. It's crazy how fear can completely distort reality. There's one section coming down Trail 4 where it's particularly choppy and sandy. Even though I've never had a problem riding it, the fear I had built up about crashing caused me to feel irrationally terrified of certain sections of trail, and this one choppy section of Trail 4 I had built up in my mind as being a total death trap. So, riding this loop and coming down Trail 4, I just had to do so that I can eliminate all of the bad feelings that I developed last year. Successfully riding Trail 4 without being terrified was the last mental hurdle in the process. So, on the ride this weekend, as I started my descent down Trail 4, I kept telling myself, "You can do this, you can do this" and taking deep breaths. I was expecting for my knees to get all wobbly on the scary part. But as I started riding the choppy section, the knees never got wobbly. And there was nothing, NOTHING scary about it. I had a great ride.

Posted by jennifer at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Spring Walking ~

This past weekend was quite lovely. On Friday, I had the opportunity to get off work early, and so I forced Joshua to go on a mountain bike ride with me. The purpose of the ride was simply to "mix it up" and ride on whatever trails we fancied. Josh led us through some of the lower Reserve area trails that we don't ride very often, up the switchback trail to Bucks, and up Shane's "backwards." We also rode up Three Bears a bit. I led the way down, taking us on a trail that I've only been on once - - a trail which had a very steep grunt uphill that allowed me to demonstrate to Josh the quick transition from hike-a-bike to jumping-back-on-the-bike that I employed during my race a month ago. After the downhill, we rode a loop of Buck's. I had an incredibly wonderful time on that particular ride. It felt so good and was so much fun.

On Saturday, we did another bike ride. Josh led us through some of the trails off Camel's Back that I've never been on before. On these, I was very proud of myself for not getting freaked out by the drop off right next to my tires. I've decided that this year, I'm going to work dilligently to not be afraid of the drop offs. I've also decided to challenge myself to ride things that I might feel inclined to hesitate on. So, in that vein, I proposed that Josh and I ride this one section of trail off of Red Sands that I tried over and over and over to ride last year, but was way too freaked out by how steeply it plummets down. Also, the downhill bit begins with a tight downward sweeping turn to the right, with the trail sloping off to the left, which combined with the steepness, makes it understandable why a person might prefer to not ride down it. The trail, however, is not all that dissimilar to a section of the Barking Spider course which I recently conquered, and so I decided that I was going to ride it. Not hesitate, unclip, and fall over to the side once I approach the downhill and see how steep it is, but ride it. As we were grunting up Red Sands before that section of trail, I was reminding myself of how terrified I was of the steep bit on Barking Spider, and how now that I've ridden it, it's no big deal - - and is lots of fun. As I came around the tight downhill swooping turn, I resisted all my urges to unclip from my pedals and bail, I kept my hands on my handlebars, and just rode it. And it was great! I rode it pretty slowly, but I had to move my butt way off the end of the saddle to to back of the bike, to keep my weight off the front of the bike. Josh exclaimed more than once that it was the steepest thing I've ever ridden, and I felt like quite the accomplisher. After that, we rode Freeway and came down Hulls. I had a blast. Then we went for beers.

Yesterday, I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to drive to Twin Falls for work. blech. Normally, it takes 2.5 hours to drive there, but as it was so early in the morning, there was absolutely no traffic and I made it in an hour 45. So, I was very early to my thing. My thing lasted all day and I worked hard for my money. Then I drove back to Boise. The traffic was horrendous and it took me 2.5 hours. By the time that I arrived at my apartment, I was totally exhausted. I fell directly onto my bed with my shoes and my jacket still on, and just laid there for an hour. Then I got up, around 8pm and walked myself downtown for a bite to eat. Once I left my apartment, I was awe-struck by how beautiful the light was on the spring-time tree blossoms. I walked one blocks and decided that it was absolutely necessary for me to turn around to get my camera. In the few minutes that it took me to walk the block to my apartment and get my camera, the light had already become less glorious. I was able to snap these lovely photos of the tree blossoms, but by the time that I had returned, the perfect light had gone behind the buildings, and I had missed them when they were at their peak gloriousness. ...sigh. I took myself to a nearby restaurant where I enjoyed a bowl of amazing clam chowder and a salad, and sat there for a time reading my book. It was very enjoyable and relaxing. Then I walked around by the river for about an hour before returning home.

Posted by jennifer at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)