~ bruised apple ~

I finished my first pair of mittens this weekend. They are the "Yellow Harvest" mittens from the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting. The yarn is Noro Silk Garden (the same yarn from a scarf I knat a few months ago, which I ended up not liking very much...so I harvested the yarn to knit up my "Noro Harvest" mittens). As far as a pattern for first-mittens goes, this is a good one - - well written with several nice details that are fun to work. Morning temperatures have recently dipped into the chilly zone for my walk to work, and so I have had the opportunity to wear these mittens both yesterday and today and have found them lovely.

In mountain biking news, I have been getting in a lot of riding now that the weather is cooling off. Last Friday, Josh and I rode a most awesome foothills 'loop' - - up Bogus Basin, up Corralls, up Scott's , down Scott's, down Trail 4, and down Crestline/Kestrel. The ride was somewhat monumental for me, signifying that I am overcoming my fears about steep drop-offs. I don't believe I wrote about this, but last year when I had the bike with the grabby breaks that exacerbated many of my fears about steepness, heights, and drop-offs, Josh and I went on a ride on Scott's Trail and I experienced something of a total panic attack about the drop-off along a steeper part of the trail. As this year is a different year, with a different bike, and a different attitude, I have been feeling very accomplished at overcoming my fears and anxieties - - which is particularly significant because so much of mountain biking is about mental attitude. I've been riding trails which I had become rather wimpy about, and challenging myself on much more technical terrain, discovering that most of the time, things just LOOK hard, and that when I relax and pedal/roll over something, I find that it is much easier than expected. So anyway, Scott's trail was the final test to myself that I am totally OVER the crashes and negative mental attitudes that got me down last year. To clarify, there's nothing about Scott's that is really hard (it's a nice intermediate trail) but a few sections of trail had qualities that would freak me out. Anyway, so on Friday when we were doing our awesome loop, I was mentally preparing myself to ride down Scott's. I kept giving myself all kinds of encouragement, reminding myself that I've ridden much more difficult trails, and that this was nothing, NOTHING to get a panic attack about. And as I was descending, I told myself to focus on the trail, relax, breath...and I kept thinking that the scary sections of the trail must be around the next turn, so I stayed relaxed, breathed, and focused on the trail in front of me. I was still expecting the scary section of the trail to be around the next turn when I realized that I had made it to the bottom. HUH? The trail on which I had experienced a panic attack, I had now ridden without a single hesitation. I am serious when I argue that mountain biking is primarily about mental attitude, and secondarily about fitness. After descending Scott's, there was still a LOT of downhill left, and I had a blast bonzaiing down the mountains.

On Saturday, we returned to the Owyhees and tried to ride from 'our parking space' to Succor Creek. The previous weekend when we went out there, we encountered a couple on an ATV picking up litter, and had a conversation about how some of the roads we were riding would take a person out to Succor Creek. And so this weekend, we tried to do just that. Of course, I had gotten all complacent in the cooler temperatures and convinced Josh that it would be okay if we left in the afternoon, rather than bright and early in the morning. BAD MOVE. Aside from being a bit on the hot side, I found the roads a tad sandier than I prefer. It was still very ridable, just took a bit more effort to plow through. Before I would feel comfortable giving it an official review, however, I think I need to ride it again. I realize that my being kinda too hot was detrimental to my fully appreciating the ride - - also, I now realize that I did not consume many calories during the lengthy ride, and so I possibly lacked energy that I might have had if I had been more responsible with my caloric intake.

So, it takes about an hour to drive out to 'our parking spot' in the Owyhees. Since joining the modern era with the acquisition of my iPod, I have placed all of my compact discs into a compact disc book-holder-deal, which I have placed in my car (for, you know, road trips). Despite the plethora of music available during this particular road trip, Josh and I opted to listen to the Flight of the Conchords cd THREE TIMES IN A ROW. Needless to say, we have since had the catchy tunes stuck in our heads. In fact, I am pretty much in a constant state of mentally huming the tunes to myself, both awake and asleep, and it is kind of annoying.

Posted by jennifer at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ inattentive schoolperson ~

School starts today. I've been a good schoolperson by knocking off a chunk of the reading in advance. I'm looking forward to this semester's classes - - and so far the reading's been good. One problem...no wait... two problems...er...three.

Problem One: Way back in June, when I went bananas at a local yarn shop during the mini-vacation to Seattle, I bought a bunch of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed, with no specific pattern. I had been planning on improvising my own design, which has been undergoing various revisions within the confines of my mind, but I got distracted with other projects and this precious yarn has been collecting dust. As you all know, one of the most exciting parts of knitting is the dreaming stage, when you consult your stash, consider a multitude of patterns, peruse online yarn stores, compare yarns and guages, and Ravel somewhat obsessively. Well, I seem to exist in this 'dreaming stage' constantly and even though I've got projects in the works, I derive great joy from the infinite knitting possibilities.

Recently, I've gone back to this Jo Sharp yarn, which exists as tweedy awesomeness, and I've devoted some attention to attaching a pattern to it. I had pretty much resolved on the Rambling Rose cardigan from Interweave Knits, but then I noticed that something I've been lusting after on Ravelry has made its way into a pdf pattern download. If that is not a sign from God, than I don't know what would be.

And so, problem number one, is Baby Cables and Big Ones Too which will be knat in two colors of tweed, with the contrasting color comprising the garter stitch yolk and lower half of the arms. Part of what makes me drool all over this design is its similarity to the Cobblestone, but with feminine shaping and...sigh...diminishing cables.

Problem Two: I'm sure you have all been axiously awaiting my cast on for those Druid Mittens I mentioned two posts ago. Well, step one, acquire the pattern. My excitement for mittens has taken an expected-for-me turn - - that 'dreaming stage' I articulated above....yeah. Mittens.

Now, let's take a step back and discuss one of my life-long loves: fashion. By 'fashion,' I do not necessarily refer to trendy or high-end, but rather my own particular take which usually includes a good dose of fug, lots of contrasts (or, as some people call it, failure to match), and stuff that is interesting. Sometimes there is trendy, and rarely is there high-end (but only for financial reasons). As you can imagine, knitting has been integrated with my fashion tastes, and together they have 'fueled the fire' of that dreaming stage I keep mentioning.

In my mind, I have seen the glory of pairing modern knitted items (such as that diminishing cables pullover above) and traditional knitted accessories. For some time, I have been a great admirer of the traditional knitting and have only recently discovered what I expect to be my outlet. Mittens. And so, Selbuvotter (I highly recommend checking out the projects) and Latvian Mittens (again, check out the projects) will soon enable me to fulfill a great fashion dream. One of the reasons why mittens excite me is the notion that I will not go to jail and be executed if I fail to make matching mitts. In the past, I have considered my failure to maintain attention on a project, and have wondered if I would be able to make two of something (ie, a matching pair). But seriously, who's going to shoot me if I am spotted wearing a Latvian mitten with a Norweigan mitten? I didn't think so.

In other news, and possibly Problem Three, the temperature is cooling off. Which means more opportunities for me to have fun in the outside! This summer, when it was over 95 degrees, I opted to stay indoors...which proved to be much of the time. I have previously described my person's poor temperature regulation, and I have decided to 'live with' this condition rather than fight it. Anyhootily, last night it was in the low 70s, and I went on a fun mountain bike ride with the Josh. We didn't have much time before the sun set, but we meandered around some fun trails for about 45 minutes, which is sufficient for both cardiovascular health and mental health.

Posted by jennifer at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ late sleeping ~

It's always really hard to get up on time on Monday. I'm sure you can all relate, but the prospect of getting out of bed so that I can spend the whole day at work is not very appealing. It's too bad that work can't begin with some awesome activity to facilitate the getting-out-of-bed. Weekends are totally different. This past Sunday, I had my alarm set for 7:00 a.m., and instead of hitting the snooze button over and over like I do on Mondays, I jumped out of bed and excitedly got ready for a bike ride. I hit the pedals by 7:45 and proceeded to do my Floating Feather Loop which is about 32 miles.

Incidentally, my Floating Feather Loop is one of my 'in town' favorites. It covers mostly flat roads, and I could see how someone might find it boring, but I enjoy spinning my legs and riding at a faster pace. Also, I find great joy in my cyclecomputer. I play different games with myself during a ride, for example, where I'll get going at a certain speed and try to maintain the speed for a certain distance, or I'll slow down and see how fast I can speed back up. I've also been working on my downhill skillz, and it's fun to climb one of the foothill neighborhood roads and then speed down. After which, I like to see what my top speed was. Anyway...

School will be starting soon. I'm taking two classes that I am rather excited about - - public land policy and state and local policy. The first, public lands, it should be evident that I am all about the public lands. And state & local, I've become more interested in local policy in recent years. Also, I have heard excellent things about the profs for these classes, which should be a nice refreshing change. I've started working through the readings and I do wish that we could skip the basic theory and dive into the topic. I realize that not everyone in the program has a political science BA, but still, we always spend the first few classes on basic theory refresher and I wish that (a) we didn't have to repeat curriculum, and (b) that basic theory be a prerequisite that if people don't get, they learn about on their own time.

In knitting knews, I have finished my Inishfern, which you may or may not recall my writing about previously. I don't have photos yet, but hopefully soon. This weekend, I had a bit of a button-fiasco - - my original plan for fastening the cardigan together was to employe hook & eye's, but quickly discovered that one should not use 'hooks' with a knitted fabric, especially one knitted at a looser guage. After throwing the hook & eye idea out the window, I had to consider buttons, and thus, buttonholes. Even though I claim to be of the anti-planning persuasion, I admit the utility of planning certain things in advance...for example, buttonholes. As I had not planned for buttonholes and the knitting on my Inishfern was complete, my options were to rip out the edging and rework with buttonholes or fashion buttonholes onto the already knitted edging. I opted for the lattter. By using my crochet hook and the rudimentary crochet skillz I learned from "the crochet edging" of my Nantucket Jacket, I clumsily crocheted some buttonholes for Inishfern. Amazingly, it worked out. Though, I have such little understanding of crochet that I don't even know what I'm looking at when I see it - - I always think to myself "Oh, that looks weird...it must be crochet" - - and so I am certain that my crochet buttonholes are really really bad crochet, but I have no idea. They are functional as buttonholes and they are rather invisible (handy, considering the bad crochet), so it works.

I also ripped out my garden scarf because the center cable panel was coming out particularly disjointed-looking and I hated it. Nothing worse than disjointed cables. I rewrote the cable chart to align with my sensibilities and began anew. I also added two more cable panels to the sides, as I decided that I wanted a wide scarf. These additional cable panels are of the celtic-style cabling, of which I am very fond. Also, bobbles! The yarn for this project I am not sure about. It is Ella Rae Bamboo Silk which I procured almost 50% off at a big yarn sale last weekend - - and just during the knitting process I am noticing a tendency for it to shed. Aside from that, it is quite glorious.

Posted by jennifer at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ drawing the line ~

Last night, I watched the film Trekkies, something of a documentary about Star Trek conventions and fanatics. While I may have, at various points in my past, indicated that I was a 'trekkie' - - after viewing the film, I would like to formally recind that self-description. Some of you may be aware that there is currently a Star Trek convention taking place right at this very moment in Las Vegas - - some of you also may be aware that I was giving careful consideration to going, and that I had contacted the two people I know who may possibly have 'trekkie' sympathies to see if anyone would like to go to the convention with me. After all, I was feeling a bit odd about going to a Star Trek convention by myself - - which is why I also gave careful consideration to meeting someone's sister (who I have never met) in Las Vegas. This solo-vacation that I was thinking about taking would have been intended to coincide with visiting Star Trek: The Experience before it closes forever.

Interestingly, several weeks ago, I bumped into an acquaintance who asked me if I would dog-sit for her during this week in August. It was with joy that I was able to honestly say that I didn't think I would be available because I was planning on attending a Star Trek convention during the exact time of her vacation. Has that ever before been used as an excuse to get out of doing something???....after watching Trekkies, I believe it has.

Anyway, I've been deliberating whether to go to the convention over and over in my head, and my inability to make a decision on the matter proved to make the decision for me...as the convention is currently in progress and I am not there. But, after seeing that film last night, I feel as though it enabled me to vicariously experience the convention without having to actually go and spend the moolah. And, I feel satiated with my vicarious convention experience.

If you haven't seen the film, it provides a glimpse into the convention experience and follows several really odd crazy Star Trek fans. For me, it was embarrassing and painful to watch. There was the lady who insists that she is a real Star Trek Commander and doesn't acknowledge anything said to her unless people call her "Commander" and she doesn't go anywhere without her toy communicator, phaser, and tricorder. Then there's the lady who was disturbingly obsessed with Brent Spiner, and every moment of the film with her made me feel really uncomfortable. Oh, and the crazy libertarian commando female who's obsession with Star Trek came out of an obsession with Conan the Barbarian and homemade armor. The dentist and is family who surround their professional dental practice in all things Star Trek and who have become so accustomed to wearing their Star Trek uniforms all of the time (they even force their children to wear the uniforms) that they seem to have no clue why that is odd. The other guy who wears his Star Trek uniform at all times and who, if he had the money, would get plastic surgery to have pointed Vulcan ears, because he feels much more like a Vulcan than a human. The guy whose house is completely filled with Star Trek items and whose life goal is to build a shelf to display his glory. The guy who spends all of his free time trying to build the various gadgets from Star Trek and goes to Radio Shak to talk to the 'experts' about what components would work well for a Romulan cloaking device. ...Of course, my favorite was the male teenager whose obsession with Star Trek is simply behind explanation. And this is not to mention the sheer quantity of money that the fans spend on their obsession - - there was a scene of an auction and someone bought a Klingon forehead piece for $1,400, which I thought was utter craziness. These people, none of them appeared to be at all affluent, yet they seemed to be spending their entire livelihood on Star Trek junk. Not that I am anyone to judge, but SERIOUSLY...

So, after viewing the film, I have decided that I am undoubtedly not a trekkie in any shape or form. I enjoy watching the program, but the fanaticism...yeah, no. In conclusion, I would like to say that I greatly enjoyed Wil Wheaton's account of some convention details. I will enjoy from afar, very very afar.

Posted by jennifer at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ rashes and lots of fun ~

I had a mostly perfect weekend. Here's a detailed synopsis of the mostly perfection...

On Friday, right after I got off work, Josh and Jennifer did some hill climbs on our road bikes. We rode up to the Crestline Ridge area and I got to practice going fast in my drop bars. I also saw my Dad's motorcycle up there and I spent a bit of time wondering where the Dad was, but I now believe that it was my uncle who had taken the motorcycle, as I have seen him wandering around up there on previous occasions. At any rate, it was a decent 'quickie' bike ride.

We had just enough time to shower and get our booties on over to a birthday party. Per my usual, I didn't bother to confirm the location of the party before leaving, and so I took advantage of my cellular phone to contact Elizabeth about where I ought to have been going. I hypothesize that Joshua really loves this aspect of my personality. What is nice is the non-judgementalness that I receive from Elizabeth when I contact her because I was irresponsible - - Elizabeth herself had not actually looked at the location of the party and had to get online and look it up - - so we both benefitted from my irresponsibleness. Anyway, I had a really good time at the party. Josh and I brought ingredients for calimotxos, and I took the opportunity to sit back and enjoy several. There was homemade guacamole and salsa available, and so I actually hung out right next to the food table for the duration of the party. Fortunately, most everyone that I was interested in talking to were also interested in standing adjacent to the food table. It worked out quite well - - the talking and the eating. Later, they brought out entree-style food items - - such as grilled fish and enchilladas with mole sauce (Laura and Tom made the mole and it was very yummy). Beyond the mole, I'm not entirely certain of who made what, but it was all delicious. I spent some time over by the grill area in awe of the cooking action - - they had two or three grills fired up and were doing all kinds of exciting things with dutch ovens. The experience really made me want a backyard of my very own.

On Saturday, I got up early to plan out the cable action on one of my current knitting projects. For some time, I've been wanting to make a modernly fashionable fisherman guernsey-style of sweater. I've taken a cotton/angora blend of yarn that I harvested from a $2.50 thrift store sweater and am fashioning it into something that I am calling "Inishfern" - - a nod to Alice Starmore. Though, I am hesitant to associate my Inishfern with the term guernsey or with Starmore, for fear of offending the traditionalists. I plan for Inishfern to be the polar opposite of traditional. The construction is Barbara Walker's top down raglan cardigan and I'm just at about the bustal region. I'm very pleased with how this project is coming along.

In another knitting digression, yesterday I harvested an XXXL sized thrift store sweater for a lovely cotton/wool blend of yarn. It is a fantastic red color and is the same weight as the cotton/angora for Inishfern, so I'm plotting a two-color ribbing with this new yarn. /end knitting digressions.

Back to Saturday morning...

Josh and I took advantage of the morning coolness to venture out on a road ride. We did the "Jennifer Loop" - - which is also known as the "Floating Feather Loop" - - a pleasant 32 miles. The ride's goal was to work on cadence. Josh and I would take turns leading - - during the higher cadence intervals, depending on the road's grade, I was leading us at 19-24 mph which I felt good about. We both consumed about four Gu's throughout the ride and I never felt overheated (thank you, windchill factor!) - - though, at one point when we were stopped at a traffic light, I was aware the it was pretty hot. I ended the ride feeling very healthy and physically fit. It was a great ride.

That afternoon, we wandered downtown and spectatored at the Twilight Criterium. There is a new course this year and I found it more pleasant for spectators than the previous course. We found a nice grassy knoll upon which to relax. We saw a bit of the kids race, which is always super entertaining. Then we saw the "4s and 5s" race - - several of Josh's coworkers and ex-coworkers were in this race and it was interesting watching them.

After that race, we took a bit of a siesta and splashed around in the pool where Josh lives. I have since developed a horrible rash either from an allergic reaction to the chlorine or to a fungus on the pool lounging chair. Either way, the vast majority of my person itches so badly that I want to scratch it off and I'm not finding my anti-itch cream very soothing. I am also treating a mild case of athlete's foot which is adding to the overal itchiness of my present.

After the siesta, we returned downtown to watch the men's pro race. I had wanted to see the women's pro race, but time did not allow for this. By the time that we returned, there were a lot of other spectators and we found a variety of locations from which to spectate. The final location was atop a parking garage which offered a good view of an exciting turn in the course as well as the finish line. Personally, I found the beginning of the race more interesting than the end - - as there was a three-person breakaway right at the beginning which was able to 'lap' the peloton in about five laps. In this breakaway, there were two Toyota-United racers, and the rest of that team got to the front of the peloton to slow it down (possibly facilitating the breakaway's 'lapping' of the peloton). After the race, we went to Gernika for some wine and beer.

My Sunday was also nice. Well, sorta nice. It was god-aweful hot and I spent the majority of the day feeling overheated and sluggish. Sundays are also my 'errand-days' so I spent most of the day on errands. But I rather enjoy doing errands - - makes me feel like a grown-up. One of my errands included going to a hardware store to buy some clamps. Now, finding what I am looking for at a hardware store is not my forte, and I was unable to locate a customer service representative, so I spent a good amount of time wandering around. Once I found the clamp section, I stood in front of them, pondering my MANY options, for some time. In case you are wondering, I needed a clamp for my new knitting yarn swift, as the clamp it was manufactured with is insufficent for my clamping requirements. I located an affordable clamp, purchased two just in case, and have since been successful at using my swift with a greatly improved camp system.

Posted by jennifer at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ off topic ~

I overslept this morning. This, after (re)commiting to a morning workout routine involving squats. Resolving to perform squats in the morning, every morning, after not doing a single squat since you were in capoiera five years ago, can be a somewhat traumatizing experience. Even if you think that your legs are strong and fit and in-shape, squats will make them really hurt and will make you have great difficulty walking with ease. So, this morning when my alarm woke me for my morning workout, I opted for the snooze button. I overslept significantly, prepared some scrambled eggs, and hobbled to the coffee shop.

Incidentally, I make fantastic scrambled eggs.

In the way of food preparation, I've been making some delicious items. Last week, I made this pinapple-mustard glaze which was WONDERFUL. Initially, I made it for a seared ahi tuna steak, but found that I made a sufficient amount of glaze to continue to use with multiple food items. Josh had the opportunity to enjoy it with some free range chicken. I still have about two cups worth that I'm plotting to use somehow this week. This weekend, I made a mushroom-apple curry over basmati rice, which was a tastey summer meal. Josh enjoyed multiple servings. For dessert, I made a peach pie, which I continue to enjoy at the end of the day, over an episode of Voyager.

In knitting knews, I've become greatly irritated by the price of natural fiber yarn. I will spare you the titillating details behind this, but would like to direct your attention to my new plot (which is new to me, not new to the world) of recycling used sweaters from thrift stores for the yarn. Over the weekend, I purchased three sweaters of various natural fibers for about $3 each at a thrift store. I have been perusing a number of online tutorials, such as this one to guide me in this process. And I am about to begin. Several tutorials mentioned washing the yarn AFTER it is unravelled, but I greatly loathe the chemically-perfume they spritz over thrift store sweaters, so I chose to wash the sweaters first. They are currently drying and I estimate that tonight or tomorrow I will be able to begin taking them apart. Which is very exciting. As a result of my tendency to go totally bananas at the oddest intervals, I even purchased a yarn winder and swift (which was something of an investment) because, even though I've never done this before, I've decided that recycling used sweaters for yarn is something that I will be doing for the duration of my existence, so I'm really SAVING money by investing in expensive tools. See how that works? Anyway, it should be arriving in the mail today. Which is exciting. And because of my love of online shopping, I couldn't stop there! While I was at the whole 'yarn winder and swift purchasing', I decided to throw in a copy of Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top which I figure I must have if I am to call myself a knitter.

So, I've got loads of stories to share about all of the fun I've been having. Bike rides, a pool party, hiking...but I'm not feeling it right at this very moment. Sorry to disappoint, maybe later.

Posted by jennifer at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ 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)

~ 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)

~ 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)

~ planning a trip ~

Not to be a negative nelly, but it's easy to lose the motivation for blogging when I get no love for my amazing posts. Honestly, people, where's the love?!?

What's news in my world?

Some of you may know about Josh's major dental procedure last week. Poor guy, hasn't been feeling well (for various reasons) for almost a month, and he tops it off with teeth extractions and a root canal. *shudder* At any rate, we've been watching a lot of movies lately. Last week we saw Forbidden Kingdom which I would not recommend, mainly because of the awkward teenager cast to play the awkward teenager. blech. Then we saw Jumper at the dollar theater which was decently entertaining but I would not necessarily give a thumbs up.

In the way of school, praise the little baby jesus that this semester's almost over. I've been spending some time at the library working on a final project which I couldn't care less about. This entire semester has been a complete waste of time and I could be bitter about the BS that I've subjected myself to, but instead I've decided to abandon all feeling on the matter and just get through it.

Since you all have expressed such an abundance of interest in my knitting projects, my update there is that I'm almost finished with another project. I've been a busy bee working on something that I'm hoping to get a lot of use from this summer. I'd tell you all what it is, but I think I'll keep you on pins and needles of anticipation before unveiling my amazing creation.

In the way of cycling activities, they have been taking place mostly at the gym instead of outside. The weather has not been cooperating in the way that I would like it, so poop on that! This weekend, I did go on a lovely mountain bike ride and enjoyed the wind in my face and my heart racing. I found myself musing once again at how much I like my new bike, and what a perfect fit for me it is. I've been looking at the schedules for upcoming mountain bike races pretty regularly, trying to decide which one to enter next.

As you all know, my birthday is coming up in about a month and I've decided to take myself on a trip to celebrate. What's mildly amusing is that, because plane ticket prices are a little on the expensive end these days, I've been doing an extensive search of ticket prices to various cities in the region. Yesterday, during my daily internet browsing, I discovered that Dooce will give a reading of her book in Salt Lake City on my birthday! And for a moment, I actually considered going down there for the reading and to get a signed copy of the book. Obviously, I discarded that thought almost before I had it - - after all, toasting one's birthday should involve celebratory libations, which is facilitated by being somewhere that does not have odd liquor laws. As of this writing, I'm pretty close to confirming my plane ticket and hotel. The purpose of the trip is not so much a 'vacation' but rather to live it up and have a crap ton of fun. I'm hoping to spend my trip walking around, having good coffee, shopping, hiking, going to musical concerts, dipping my toes in the ocean, and eating seafood.

Posted by jennifer at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

~ iron loaf ~

One of the many virtues of the internet is its facilitation for an individual (someone with absolutely no medical training or expertise) to engage in self-diagnosis of one illness or another. Such was the case this weekend, when I diagnosed myself with anemia, though it's possible that I simply was pooped after my bike race. At any rate, I had been feeling fine and good until about last Thursday when I suddenly, and rather inexplicably, bonked. It was so bad that I actually had to take off Friday afternoon from work - - my symptoms included total loss of appetite (which for me means that something must be REALLY wrong) and extreme fatigue and lethargy (not just, "oh, I don't have a lot of energy," but "oh lord, just sitting here doing nothing is so taxing that I think I may have to fall onto the floor because it's not possible for me to hold up my own weight"). It pretty much ruined my entire weekend because even though the sun was shining and I was spending the time relaxing and doing things that would normally give me a lot of joy (ie, having coffee and treats with Josh, watching a movie, and knitting), there was no joy in mudville because all of these activities involved me sitting in an upright position, and I didn't have the strength for sitting.

At sometime during Saturday afternoon, I diagnosed myself with anemia and determined that the best treatment regimen would be to eat a lot of red meat. For dinner, I had a large portion of grass fed organic beef and it seemed to be exactly what the "doctor" ordered (at least, despite having no appetite, I was able to wolf it down).

My main difficulty with meat, however, is that I don't know much about how to cook it. Growing up, my exposure to meat was enough to make me give up eating it altogether. Not only did I not approve of the American Meat Industry, but it was always prepared in a manner that either tasted flavorless or really grossed me out. Since being adult enough to prepare my own meals, I have relied heavily on the Moosewood style of vegetarian cooking. Yum! In the past few years, however, I have slowly rediscovered my carnivorous side - - not only for nutrition but also for taste, and have begun pumping my dollars into the local organic ranchers. The only problem with becoming a carnivore (or rather, an omnivore) after years of vegetarianism is that my plethora of vegetarian cookbooks offer no insight into the preparation of meat. Hence, there have been disappointments.

On Saturday, the process of wolfing down a large quantity of red meat took place at Josh's residence while watching an action film. When I arrived, Josh and Eric were enjoying Iron Chef, which I proceeded to enjoy with them while the food was cooking. And, like so many before me, I found it inspiring. And so, I decided right then and there that it was high time for me to develop some meat-preparation skillz. The timing was ripe, as I happened to have a gift card to the ginormous book store, to which I took my person on Sunday to select my very first non-vegetarian cookbook. I spent over an hour on Sunday spilling over cookbooks and I finally chose this one because it contained recipes for meat, meat, poultry, seafood, and more meat. And, it has lots of photos! I've always wanted to be a good person and feel satisfied by all of my veggie cookbooks that are completely devoid of photos, but at the end of the day, I'm a visual person and photos of amazing looking dishes inspire me to make those dishes.

I don't know if this hunk-o-meat looks appetizing to anyone, but it resembles the photo remarkably well! I'm calling it "Iron Loaf" - - not only because it's an Iron Chef recipe, but also because it's full of iron (which is essential for someone like me, suffering from anemia!). I made two modifications to the recipe: (1) utilized buffalo instead of beef, and (2) subsituted brie for one of the cheeses that I was unable to find at any of the three stores that I went to. Yet, this is unlike any meatloaf I have ever before sampled. It contains the following ingredients: buffalo, pork, eggs, bread crumbs, rosemary, salt, pepper, spinach, carrots, brie, romano, and prosciutto. It is delicious! And, as I can attest right at this very moment, it reheats very well.

Incidentally, I woke up this morning with my anemia completely cured! I was able to get up on time, I feel awake and energized - - I feel absolutely wonderful, in fact. Someone had actually suggested that, rather than suffering from anemia, I was suffering from post-bike race bonk. This person, a runner racer, said that the post-race bonk usually hits six days after the race. Whatever it was, it's gone and my Iron Loaf leftovers are great.

Posted by jennifer at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ September 2nd - 4th !!! a long weekend ~

Josh and I have taken up smoking. Or, we might as well, considering the air quality. I have avoided going outside to do such things like mountain biking, which inclines me to inhale and exhale heavily. I am prone to inactivity depression so I've decided to screw my lungs and go outside to have some fun. On Saturday, Josh and I drove up to Bogus to do some mountain biking. We thought that we might be able to get above the smoke, but the air seemed much more toxic. The trail we found was a lot of fun. It started out with a series of tight switchbacks and then turned into a woodland rollercoastery fast riding experience. After a time, we caught up with Ridge Road and rode up and up. It was a this point when I was paricularly aware of the fact that I might as well have been smoking, the air was burning my lungs so. After riding up and up, we connected with the Mores Mountain Trail, which is a trail that I rode fairly early in my mountain biking career with Josh and Eric. It was beautiful. We snapped a few photographs of the experience, but I look ugly in them, so I will not be posting those photos onto the internet.

That evening, we went to the Stagecoach Theater to see a play called "Pizza Man". The theater is located in the Hillcrest Shopping Mall, which is one of those malls that had some action during the late '80's and early '90's but now everything has closed, and it's full of vacant shops and dust. The Hillcrest mall used to be home to a certain dollar theater that, upon getting my driver's liscense, my sister and I saw many dollar movies at. The mall is also home to one "Mike's Diner" which is a piece of Jennifer history: having gone there since I was very young, regularly with my grandma and sister. Mike's is the only vestige of the olden days that is still in existence. Before the play, Josh and I went to Mike's (which I haven't been to for about ten years), for dinner. Talk about a blast from the past. The place has not changed one bit.

The play was entertaining. It was somewhat sick and twisted, as it was a "comedy about rape" but there were some redeeming qualities. What I was most entertained by, however, were the inadvertent features of the production. For example, one of the actors had a particularly cute face and she was always making the cutest entertaining expressions. I could have sat there for an hour being totally entertained by her cuteness. Also, at some point, one of the actors had a humorous wardrobe malfunction that none of the actors noticed which looked quite silly. Additionally, it was interesting when the male in the play made his entrance and he was some guy I went to high school with. The play was about how he was going to be raped by these two distraught females, and it was strange for me to see this person I knew as a totally nerdy dorky shy guy in high school, being taken advantage of on stage.

On Sunday, I persuaded Josh to take me on the "Dump Loop." The Dump Loop has been this mysterious road biking loop which I have wanted to ride ever since I first got my road bike, but Josh has made a big point of instilling in me the fear of God with regard to this ride that I have felt sheepish about trying it. Yet again, I was reminded of Josh's proclivity towards exaggeration when he convinces me of the insurmountability of a particular bike ride. The loop was great. Josh and I rode with great speed out Hill Road and connected with the turnoff to "the Dump". We rode up and over the overpass dealie, down through Hidden Springs, and around Dry Creek Road. Part of what is supposed to be so incredibly difficult about this ride is a climb called "The Wall". There is a female at work who is a passionate cyclist and one day she was telling me about "The Dump Loop" and she said that the first time she rode "the Wall" that she almost cried. This female appears to be no faint-of-heart cyclist, so I gathered that this really is a challenging hill. As we approached "the Wall", Josh was providing me with all kinds of tips, such as keeping my speed up to avoid tipping over (it is apparently "that" steep). I literally gasped when we came around the bend and I beheld "the Wall" in front of me. Imagine, if you will, a wall roughly 100 feet high with the length around 800 feet. It was by no means a long climb, but the steepness was crazy. As we approached, I got into my climbing zone and focused my eyes on the road right in front of me. I refused to look far enough ahead of me so that I could tell how steep the road was or how much farther I had to ride to get over it, as those tend to be self-defeating activities on challenging climbs. I was breathing very hard and was well into the red zone. Then I realized that I had made it to the top and didn't feel that it was all that bad. I then proceeded to brag about how it wasn't all THAT hard and how everyone has been exaggerating their descriptions of the wall.

That evening, we had drinks and shared a plate of food at Bittercreek. Josh was an active listener while I decribed my strategy towards magazines in depth. Later, he said that I was beautiful and I responded that we are human. It was one of those silly moments in which we were talking about totally different things.

Today, the plan is to enjoy some Labor Day sales and ride our road bikes up Bogus.

Posted by jennifer at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ On Matching...or, At 26, I Still Cannot Dress Myself ~

An excuse that I find myself articulating on a rather frequent basis points to the fact that I do not own a full length mirror. Indeed, I own but one mirror and it is barely large enough to encompass my face. On most days, I play this self-deceit game in which I balance myself on the edge of my bathtub in an effort to glimpse a reflection of my appearance in my small mirror mounted to the wall adjacent the bathtub. The other method that I utilize to evaluate my appearance before entering into the public sphere is to look downwards. Combined, these two methods fail to allow me to understand my appearance in the way that others perceive it. Frequently, I find myself looking into the large mirror in the bathroom at work, wondering what was in possession of my reason when I dressed myself. Last week, for example, the morning before a Board meeting, I realized that I was wearing a silk floral patterned skirt with a horizontally striped cotton pollo shirt. The outfit was similar, but not at all the same as this outfit which I posted onto the internet as myself having worn. At least in that latter outfit, the material for the floral patterned skirt is the same sort of cottonish material as the diagonally striped cottonish shirt. In a sense, I was matching in the way of fabric texture, though not the pattern of the fabric. In the former outfit, however, the fabric texture clashed, the fabric pattern clashed, the colors clashed, and even the degree of formal / informal clashed.

Which brings me to my friend Amy who would probably prefer that I not discuss her tendency to match at all times, but I am far too busy to consider such things as her feelings. So Amy, in stark contrast to myself, has a knack for color coordinated outfits. Several times a week, we find ourselves standing side-by-side at the coffee bar or water cooler, and this reveals very prominently our divergent matchingness. Over things such as coffee and wine, we have discussed the concept of matching. I have indicated a desire to improve upon my matching, thereby matching more. Amy has indicated a desire to alter her matchingness, and match less.

I have started small. In the way of my professional outfits, I have endeavored to roughly correlate the color of my shoes with that of my jacket. From all that I understand about matching, this creates a balanced effect that is pleasing to the eye. At some point in my misunderstanding of coordinated outfits, when I was very young and wee, a fellow classmate disclosed her secret to matching: socks must always be the same color of one's shirt. I found this matching objective unachievable because I was one of those children with silly-patterned socks (for example, pink zebras on a green background). Therefore I have abandoned this piece of advice. Presently, I am unsure about the wisdom of the sock / shirt linkage, and I defer to the expertise of Amy. Part of my hesitance about matching my socks with my shirt centers around the fact that when I do wear socks, I usually wear them in a manner that they cannot be seen, either in the form of super low ankle socks hidden behind my shoes or underneath the legs of my pants.

I feel that I have lived my entire life under the premise that if I own cool clothes, the outfit will come. By and large, this has been true for my personal life, but has proved inappropriate for my professional life. Which is something of a shame, if you consider the drawbacks to having two entirely separate wardrobes and you live in a small apartment with nary a closet space.

Posted by jennifer at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

~ The Heat is On ~

It must be two hundred degrees. The heat kept me awake last night, gave me heat exhaustion this weekend, and is preventing me from doing that which I want to do. On Saturday, I had had plans to go on a road ride with my new friend with whom I share a given name, but she seemed to think that it was too hot to ride. So I went alone. I was about seven miles out when I realized that my front tire was not adequately pressurized. I was unable to determine the cause of the lack of pressure, so I pumped it up and continued to ride. A few miles later, I realized it was low again. I rode until I located a shady area to sit and change tubes. This process was tiring for me, as I barely have the strength in my arms to utilize my portable bike pump to inflate a tube to 80psi. But I completed the task and continued my loop. By the time that I had hit the halfway point, at which I turn back, I was surprisingly worn out and ready to be done. Which was handy, because I had a good fifteen miles to ride home. I was miserable. It was so hot that I felt that I would collapse and I drank all of my two water bottles well before I was done. But I made it home after what seemed like a forever amount of time and survived.

Anyway, I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time all by my lonesome. For my birthday, I bought myself two knitting books which have been providing me with inspiration for the act of knitting. I am over halfway through with a pair of appendage warmers that I am knitting in a cheap Red Heart variegated yarn. With them, I intend to warm my arms in a fugly sort of wooly way. And by "wooly", I mean "acrylic".

Last night, I spent a good hour and a half reading celebrity magazines at my own personal library. I flipped through about four magazines, fascinated. By the end of my intellectual experience, however, I determined that it wasn't the best use of my time. I surmised this based on the fact that in each of the magazines, I found the exact same photographs and gossip of celebrities. Which means that each time that I cracked open a magazine, hoping for new information, it was merely the same old same old. Pity. Granted, the focus in some of the "articles" was different..for example, in one magazine, I read a detailed comparison and contrast of celebrity tanning techniques. And in another, I perused an article about attractive bikini beach posture. You know, cutting edge information that I need to know.

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

~ Mind on Marriage ~

Despite the Vision that I have for my blog, I have decided to spend some time articulating summaries of conversations and thoughts that I've been having about marriage for the past few weeks. The individuals with whom (or about) I have had discussions, and those discussions in and of themselves, span a variation that provides interesting blog fodder outside of my own commentary. ...

I have never been on of "those people" who has ever wanted to get married. I haven't always been particularly opposed to marriage, but never once have I dreamed of walking down the aisle or living happily ever after. My apathy towards marriage may have roots in the fact that I wasn't raised with a glorified perspective on marriage. My parents were married at City Hall with two witnesses and, as far as my knowledge goes, had no pomp and ceremony, not even the snapping of a photograph. I have spent the majority of my life not giving the concept of marriage much thought. And never in my entire life, when I envisioned my future, did that "future" contain a wedding ring, not even as an afterthought.

So then there's me being thrown into the concept that I am an adult. And while I have embraced all of my adultish responsibilities with joy and pride, I still choke on my cereal when my peers announce their engagement. My initial reaction being, "But you're so young...you've got the rest of your life ahead of you." That's me...noncommittal. As I was discussing with Exhibit B, I guess there is some logic to marriage if you have no intention of dumping your partner and you want to get some nifty financial discounts...you know, playing the system. But my gut still rejects the idea of being legally bound to another person.

Which brings me to my lengthy discussion yesterday with Exhibit C who detailed all of the ways in which she was completely screwed over in her divorce. Unknown to her until the divorce, her ex-husband had over $44,000 in credit card debt (the monthly interest alone was over $1,200) and because they were married, she was responsible for that debt, which she paid off by liquidating her retirement funds. She reminded me of the necessity to always take care of oneself...numero uno. Which is obvious, but under the guise of a relationship, it is possible to loose sight of that.

So, money. It seems to be an important ingredient in marriage and also factors into all relationships outside of marriage. Exhibit B wanting to get married to save money, Exhibit C losing all of her money because she was married. And me...even though I have no legal ties with my boyfriend, Exhibit E, I regularly have anxiety when I worry about his financial woes. But as he indicated, it really isn't my business. Several months ago, my Unnamed Friend Amy provided me with some wisdom that I would like to share: "Money seems to be one of the things that couples tend to argue about the most." Let us pause to reflect in the sagacity of that thought...

So, money. Aside from the wanting to have a nuclear family thing, the wanting to visit your partner in the hospital thing, and stuff of that nature, marriage seems to be very much a financial arrangement between two people and the State. With it there are financial perks and responsibilities. Even if a couple has seperate bank accounts, the financial link is present. I know couples who launch into horrible arguments about whether to buy organic tomatoes versus their cheaper non-organic counterpart. If that kind of argument can arise from such a "small" matter, what's going to happen when something big comes up?

This is not to say that I don't tear up every time that I attend a friend's wedding or that I don't think it would be nice to "have someone to come home to". The fact of the matter is that my Unnamed Boyfriend's point about the need for independence is right. Presently, I feel it is essential to maintain my own identity with the advent of what has become known as "Joshifer." Are you aware, for example, that when we receive invitations to parties, that those invitations frequently inventory us as one unit? While it is true that we spend a good amount of time together, that we are connected in more ways than one (most publicly evidenced with the tandem bicycle), and that we are users of the term "we", I feel that if there was some piece of paper that legally bound us my claustrophobia would rear its ugly head.

Then there are all of my happily married friends who, aside from their nice piece of jewelry and their use of the term "spouse", haven't warped into these married monsters who try to kill each other for the insurance money. This forces me to wonder why I'm having such a cow about this.

Last night I stayed up late filling out the forms to begin investing for my retirement. While I have never had dreams of my wedding day, I have certainly always envisioned a future ending with a nice retirement. Until that time when I make more money, my 403(b) is going to short me about $65 a month. This is $65 which might otherwise go towards "Joshifer" fun, but considering the importance of numero uno and how my parents instilled in me the importance of financial responsibility, I felt good and independent getting this done.

Posted by jennifer at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

~ Friday Night Paparazzi ~

With the acquisition of my camera, I have become a pesky paparazzi. The other day, I was snapping photos of my dog Chancy, despite his pleas, as evidenced by his low-positioned ears, to stop. I haven't had much spare time to devote to blathering about my adventures. It seems that I prefer to spend my time having the adventures rather than writing about them. Below are some brief descriptions of things that I have done which involved the taking of pictures. Please find the corresponding flickr sets linked to the photos. Besides these three items, which are really not all that fascinating, I have been reading a lot of old science fiction short stories, have refound my desire to knit (currently, am knitting a pair of schwanky arm warmers), and have been doing a lot of wandering around enjoying being alive.

Several weekends ago, I went miniature golfing with Sara, Kelly, and Josh. It was on one of those weekends, actually a Monday, which was a holiday and all of the establishments which I normally hang out at were closed. Rather than sitting around being bored off my rocker, I joined the mini golfing fun. Hoot hoot! We went out to Boondocks which I had never been to before, and probably will never again. It was pretty much what I had expected, all these years of driving by the place adjacent to the freeway....tons and tons of suburban families with way too many children running amuck. Near the end of our first round of 18-holes, we skipped the 18th hole and had a second round for free. Just us sticking it to the man, you know. On our illegitimate round of 18 holes, we were accosted by a man who takes the sport of miniature golfing way too seriously, who commanded us to putt-putt at a faster rate. Since I am such a spong and absorb everything around me, this affected me greatly and pretty much ruined my ability to have fun. I spent the duration of the minigolfing experience fantasizing about actually verballizing my retort to his assholishness.

Then there was the night of my birthday, a few weeks ago, when I gathered with some friends, a sibling, and our lovers for an exchange of tasteful greeting cards and alcoholic beverages. You know that the evening was quality based upon the lengthy conversation about Star Trek: the Next Generation that we all participated in with an excess of passion. It's funny when you think that you're a crazed trekkie and then you discover a friend and sibling who beats your trekkienitude 10:1. People were buying me drinks left and right and I got drunketty-drunk. Ahh...duck farts.

Last night, I went to see the film Nacho Libre at a locally owned theater. I left before it was over due to the eighteen pre-teen boys sitting directly behind me having all kinds of conversations while kicking the back of my seat. Because of them, I was unable to even begin to imerse myself into the film, however, I was able to determine that the film was not the greatest cup of tea. I mean, I laughed at the very first fart joke, but the four others I didn't find so funny. Then there was the smearing poo across a character's face that kinda grossed me out. Then there was the fact that an hour and a half into the film, I was still wondering when the plot was going to develop. Afterwards, Josh and I decided to wander around town and play paparazzi. We wandered into some shops, walked down by the river, pretended to be celebrities who didn't want their photos taken, and then rode the elevator to the top of a parking garage to watch the sun set. Afterwards, we went to the Neurolux and intoxicated ourselves with friends Laura, Alisha, Devlyn, and Kyle. I sat with the ladies and we discussed pregnancy and single motherhood, while Josh sat with his partner in male gender and had all kinds of philosophical discussions.

Posted by jennifer at 10:10 AM | Permalink

~ Fifteenth Monthiversary ~

At some point on Friday, while I was at my place of employment, I was proofing an email to verify that it contained none of the snarking attitudes that I was articulating in my head, when the coworkers I share a corner with became excited about the presence of someone in our corner. Given that I inhabit the far corner of our modest corner, my back was to the excitment and I had no clue what was happening behind me. Then I heard something about "pumping our tires" and I turned around to see what was up. It was Josh! At my place of employment! With a bike pump??? The very social coworker seemed to be monopolizing his time (something about making jokes about pumping our tires) and it took me a while to even have an opportunity to inquire about his presence. H