Feeling Better

I am finally back to about 99% health today. Last Friday, I was feeling pretty good, but after staying up late gaming, and spending all day Saturday at the Michigan Renaissance Festival, by Saturday night, I was feeling bad again.

I have been feeling kind of sorry for myself about being sick, and not really doing the things I need to do, which hasn't helped me feel better mentally. I have done some things, like laundry and cleaning up, and getting my driver's license, but not as much as I should have done. Today, I'm going to make a point of accomplishing some things. Hopefully, I'll be off to a good start for tomorrow.

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Sock Hop

Sadly, I am feeling too sick to go to knit night tonight, but I did see that there were some photos posted from last week's sock hop.



Some of those are people's first pairs of socks thanks to a recent workshop.

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Craft Shows

Given that my readers are all in the Atlanta or Detroit areas, I would like to share a schedule of upcoming nearby crafty goings-on you may be interested in:

American Sewing Expo
Novi, MI
Friday, Sept. 24 - Sunday, Sept. 26

Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa
Athens, GA
Saturday, Nov. 13

Indie Craft Experience
Atlanta, GA
Saturday, Nov. 20 - Sunday, Nov. 21

4th Annual Flint Handmade Holiday Craft Market
Flint, MI
Saturday, Nov. 27

Detroit Urban Craft Faire
Detroit, MI
Saturday, Dec. 4 - Sunday, Dec. 5

I have purchased many of my holiday gifts at the Indie Craft Experience for the last few years. It's always fabulous.

ETA: Apparently, last weekend I missed a DIY street fair in Ferndale. Bummer. I guess I had better subscribe to Handmade Detroit.

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Bread and Onion Soup

After my nap this morning and some cough drops, I felt considerably better, but still under the weather enough to want soup for dinner. I baked a loaf of bread, to which I added a bit too much water, so it's a little chewy and wouldn't hold it's shape well, but still tasted fairly good.

I also dealt with the paperwork for my Cobra and 401(k) rollover, plus I confirmed my renter's insurance after receiving confusing paperwork.

Then I made French onion soup from scratch, using Julia Child's recipe -- except that I couldn't find any cognac in the house so I used calvados instead. Scott was even ok with the soup, plus more bread, for dinner. This surprised me because last week, when I made Gazpacho, it became clear that soup with no meat in it only constitutes an appetizer for him. Also, he's not a big fan of onions, or onion soup, for that matter. He was a good sport to try it, and even though it still isn't his favorite thing, I think he was pleasantly surprised.

Right now, he is installing the new gas dryer. In July or August, his washer broke. He tried to fix it, but was forced to buy a new one. Then, just a few weeks later, his dryer broke. It would still tumble on air dry, but it wouldn't heat, and once again he was forced to purchase a new one. I've been doing a load or two a day for the last little while, and I fear that running the dryer on air dry for hours will not have been kind to the electricity bill. In the good news department, the delivery man said that he also owned the brand (LG) that we bought, and it is the most reliable and long-lasting. Here's hoping this pair earns that reputation.

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Lazy Sick Days

Yesterday, I toasted the salted sunflowers, and I think they came out well. I ended up having to put them in the oven for 30 minutes to get them dry though. Maybe my recipe wasn't expecting them to come straight out of the brine.

I also updated my resume with my references and finally started to work on the job search. It still feels kind of surreal, though. Almost like I must be on vacation because I have spent so many of my vacations here.

Scott came home early because he was feeling sick, and so was I, though in a different way, so I spent most of the evening sitting around drinking tea with honey and knitting on my Pomatomus socks. I got all the way to the heel flap on the first sock.



Today, I'm still feeling bad. I was up for the delivery of our new dryer, but after that I took a big nap, and now I'm feeling considerably better. I can breathe and I don't have a headache. I'm not going to push myself to do much today, though. I'm just concentrating on recovery.

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Welcome party and sunflower seeds

My progress toward official residency continues.



As I mentioned in my last post, on Saturday, we hosted a party welcoming me to Michigan. We made it a local theme, with veggies from the garden and the farmers market, Dearborn Sausages, Faygo soda, and Michigan beers, including Bells, Founders Brewing, Atwater Block Brewery, Detroit Beer Company, and Arbor Brewing Company. With Scott's friends and family that showed up, we had a headcount of 41 adults and 2 babies. Everyone seemed to have a good time hanging out and chatting, then playing board games and Rock Band (the video game) into the night. Scott's family also ensured that I am now stocked with University of Michigan gear, local products, maps, and even an indoor plant, which I was sadly lacking since my last one was eaten my my friends' cat (who, fortunately, showed no ill effects).

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Kitchen Unpacked & Knit Night

Yesterday, I finished incorporating my things into the kitchen. I also finally managed to get a few before pictures.

I took this stuff that I brought with me:



Plus a little bit more stuff...

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Unpacking update

So, over the last few days, I have been busy taking care of things like car insurance, a new bank account, my new car tag, etc. I have also been unpacking and reorganizing things so that I can unpack. Unfortunately, the old adage "If you have all day, you'll take all day." is proving to be true in my case. Why is it that it's taking me all day to take care of things I feel like I would normally be able to accomplish after work? Still, progress has been made.

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The Weekend

On Friday, our friend Dave came over and helped unload my shipping containers. I made chicken enchiladas for everyone using some of the tomatoes and peppers from the garden. Then this weekend, we arranged the furniture and unpacked a lot of my things.

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Shipping Containers, Tomatoes and a Mouse

This morning, my things arrived, including my camera.  I am looking forward to showing you some of the things I have been talking about.

First, I must say how happy I am with my experience with ABF's U-pack moving service.  Thanks to them, I was able to move my things across the country at about the price of renting a truck, without having to drive the truck myself or tow my car behind.  Given that I am now unemployed, I couldn't justify getting movers or the extra cost of certain similar services, but I have been really pleased with ABF.  Everything seems to be just the way it was when Scott and his friends wedged it in there back in Georgia.  I have unloaded a lot of the lighter stuff, and we'll deal with the rest this evening.

After some time unloading, I made myself the lovely lunch you see above, a tomato millefeuille.  In the background, you can see what is left of the tomatoes I harvested Wednesday -- a lot, I know.  One of the things I did as I made my meal plan was try to figure out how I could use those tomatoes up.  The first thing I did was turn to a search on Food Gawker, which is a fabulous site that conglomerates many food blogs, giving a quick peek into each one.  My lunch photo may not be quite as lovely as that taken by the recipe poster, but it turned out quite tasty.  My next step, I think, is to make a lot of tomato sauce before the rest go bad.

Here's a peek at the garden they came from:





After I came inside from taking these photos, I saw the cat, Hoser, rooting around in a bag on the dining room floor. He picked up something in his mouth and ran off with it. I thought it was a bag of trash, and I went after him to collect whatever had struck his fancy. When I found him, I discovered that he had trapped a tiny grey mouse. I picked it up and took it outside. I have no idea how the mouse got in the house, but if it gets back in, I know Hoser is a diligent guard.

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Fall in Michigan

It is strange to me to think of early September as fall weather, but fall has most assuredly arrived here in Michigan.  Right now, the temperature is in the high sixties, and the low tonight is 51ºF.  In my opinion, it was quite nice in Atlanta last week, and I think the lows were where the highs here are.  The biggest reason that this is an issue for me is that all of my stuff is still with the shipping company, and I wasn't anticipating weather like this.  I only have an extra-small roll-aboard suitcase, and it is mostly full of short sleeved shirts.  Yesterday, I wore a skirt and a t-shirt because I had spilled Vitamin Water on my jeans during the drive.  By the time the evening came around, I was positively chilly, shivering a little even.  We closed the windows, and Scott made a fire.  The first fire of the season -- definitely fall.

On the other hand, the summer harvest of tomatoes is still going strong.  Scott planted a garden this spring, and I harvested three large mixing bowls full of veggies from it yesterday.  He redesigned the garden this year, creating four 4'x4' raised beds surrounded by wide mulch paths.  In the garden, he used a combination of techniques from Guide to Michigan Vegetable Gardening and Great Garden Companions.  The garden has been incredibly abundant.  Much more so than the garden that my friends and I had in Atlanta.  Just a couple of weeks ago when I visited for his brother's wedding, he had a harvest nearly as large sitting on the counter when I arrived, and he said that he had already given pounds of beans and tomatoes away to his neighbor and his colleagues.  Last week, before coming to Georgia, he gave more pounds to the people at his office, yet the first day here, I harvested dozens of tomatoes and handfulls of  beans, along with some peppers and cucumbers.  He says that he has done almost nothing but watering and the occasional weeding.  I can tell that something is attracting the right bugs, because I saw a preying mantis hiding among the string beans and sunflowers.  I will be taking over responsibility for the garden.  I suppose I had best find out where the spigot is.

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I have arrived

Last night, around 11:00, with myself a the wheel for the first time, I pulled into my boyfriend's house, or -- I suppose I should say -- our house.  I am moving to Michigan, otherwise known as "the frozen north", from Georgia, otherwise known as "Hotlanta".  I have decided to write a blog to document this major change in my life, as well as the many projects I plan to accomplish.  I was working at a fabulous architecture firm in Atlanta, which I left in order to move here and pursue my relationship.  Being out of work is scary, but I will be searching for a position here, and also applying to graduate schools to further my career and officially become an architect.  I will also be selling some of the projects that I make on Etsy.  I hope to make this blog an interesting place to visit for anyone, not just my friends and family.  I will show our progress on transforming his home into our home, projects I am working on for myself and those close to me, projects I am working on for sale, tutorials and resources, my explorations of the area, and the things I learn as I hone my photography skills.  I hope you will join me for the adventure.

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