Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July!



These are some photos I took (on my iPhone) at the fireworks display in a local suburb, back on June 24th. Here in the Detroit area, they don't all set off their fireworks on the Fourth. It's spread out over a month or so, with different towns doing it on different days, so you could see fireworks every weekend, if you wanted to. The main fireworks display isn't even on the Fourth! That's because Detroit and Windsor, Ontario team up to put on a joint display over the river that's usually about halfway between American Independence Day and Canada Day (July 1st). Sadly, we missed it this year, and missed the accompanying river festival with tall ships, but it's supposedly the biggest fireworks display in North America, so I definitely want to check it out sometime.

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Roman Bronze Coins

In other neat things happening in our house, Scott bought some uncleaned Roman and Greek coins from digs in various countries, and here he is cleaning them.

Ancient bronze coins are surprisingly inexpensive.  They're just a few dollars, especially if they haven't been cleaned.  Cleaning them yourself is not easy. Some of that dirt has nearly started to fossilize, but it makes you feel a bit like an archaeologist.  Or more accurately, how you imagined an archaeologist felt when you were a kid.  It's fun.

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Cleveland and Toledo

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Sorry for the lack of cocktail this week. Scott didn't get home from work until 11 or 12 pm on Wednesday and Thursdays nights, and then we hosted gaming on Fridays, and then this weekend, we left town. We went to Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Scott's family to celebrate his dad's birthday.



Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.



Of course, we couldn't take photos once we were inside the ticketed area, but I got some photos of the atrium.





Of course, Scott and I took the most time in the museum, but we really enjoyed it. I think my favorite part may have been the Les Paul exhibit. I knew about the Gibson Les Paul guitar, but I didn't know about the inventive man whom it was named after. It was clearly Scott's favorite part as well -- when I asked him just now, he started reading from the Les Paul Wikipedia article!

There were all kinds of cool items from the major figures of Rock & Roll, as well as the major precursors. Of course, we enjoyed looking at all the instruments and costumes, some of which were pretty amazing. Note to the wise: if some famous person had some object of theirs painted specially, keep it that way. I really enjoyed the gallery that had Janice Joplin's porche as well as costumes and instruments from bands from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top to David Bowie to Michael Jackson, including the Thriller jacket and the famous glove, which was embroidered with crystals. I ended up learning a lot of cool things from reading rather than just looking at the exhibits. One thing I left with was a lot of curiosity about Quicksilver Messenger Service, especially after seeing the amp with the horns attached. Of course, I couldn't help but see possible steampunk inspiration everywhere, like in the Van Halen drum set, with the kick drums extended by accordion pleats.

For dinner, we went to The Winking Lizard Tavern, and checked out some cool shops, including Phoenix Coffee, Big Fun and City Buddha. Scott's brother's fiancée got her law degree form Case Western and she was our tour guide around town.

Amphitheater at the Toledo Zoo

This morning, we decided that we didn't want to drive backward from the hotel to check out the art museum, natural history museum or other tempting things in the area. We ended up choosing to stop at the Toledo Zoo on the way home.

Snow Leopards at the Toledo Zoo

Bear Sloth at the Toledo Zoo

Cranes at the Toledo Zoo

Colobus Monkeys at the Toledo Zoo

Birds overhead in the aviary at the Toledo Zoo

Vultures at the Toledo Zoo

Rhinoceros Hornbill at the Toledo Zoo

Giraffes at the Toledo Zoo

The most exciting thing that happened was that the baby giraffe noticed me when I crouched by the window into its home. It came within a foot of my face and licked the glass right at my face.

After that, it was pizza at the Village Idiot, then home, glad to to rest my feet.

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2011 Round Up

In 2011, I learned a bit about sewing and fitting garments, knitted some lovely projects, spun yarn gardened, tried cooking some things that intimidated me, visited cool places in the area, lived through a sewage back up, worked on the house, and learned about mixed drinks.

How did I do on my goals for 2011?


First, my knitting and spinning the goals:

1. Finish at least 12 projects.  I finished 11 and got very close to two more, and at least half-way on a third.
2. Finish everything currently in my Ravelry queue. Two of the almost finished projects were from my queue, and there are two more projects I never got to.  I did finish the others in my queue.
3. Use up all of the remaining commercial yarn in my stash. Not so much  I have five commercial yarns left that I started the year with last year.  On the other hand, I have used the oldest yarns.
4. Spin one colorway per month. Pretty badly failed.  I only spun a little after April, as I let myself get intimidated by prepping fiber.
5. Cold sheep yarn until I run out of commercial yarn. Accomplished!  I only bought for project completion.
6. Cold sheep fiber all year. Accomplished!
7. Knit at least one item using handspun for every four projects. Not quite.  I knit two items with handspun.
8. Minimize pattern & book purchases. Very few bought.
9. Knit 1 hour a day. I did well at the beginning of the year, but tapered off.

I also want to recommit to my past goals:

1. Finish other unfinished projects not related to knitting.  I did some, including the Crepe, but not many.
2. No new hobbies. I forgot about this one.  Oops!
3. Use my craft supply stash.  Pretty successful, actually.
4. Make more bread. Sadly, not much!
5. Continue to decrease my consumption of processed food. Okay, not as good as when I was in Georgia, but still less than Scott is used to.
6. Continue to buy organic, free range meats and eggs.  Progress.
7. Continue to eat local in-season vegetables. Pretty good.
8. Continue to choose local options for cheese, wine, beer, etc.  Good!
9. More canning & freezing.  Participating in the Zymology Guild helped, but I still need to pick up some of the jars I've "banked".
10. Make any new clothing or buy from small producers/handmade or second hand.  Success, but I mostly accomplished this by getting very few new clothes.
11. Declutter.  Some progress.

Of course, the other main goal is:

1. Get a job or go back to school.  Erm... I seem to be right about the same spot as I was then.  Feels a bit like a lost year.

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Thanksgiving

I think it was the week before Thanksgiving that we were called upon to host the meal this year. There has been so much going on in the family that no one had even thought of Thanksgiving until we asked what the plan was, and Scott's aunt was quite grateful that we could take the pressure off of her by taking it over for the year.



This year, I found that Thanksgiving is at least as much about cleaning up as it is about cooking. Here's the aftermath of roasting two pumpkins and baking two pies. We got Scott's grandmother's recipe for pumpkin pie with homemade graham cracker crust, and I made two huge ones in the lovely new pans my parents sent me. Unfortunately, the pans were much bigger than the ones the recipe called for, so I was really thrown off on the baking time. I was worried about the charred edges, but everyone enjoyed the result.



Here's the result of making pickled beets, which Scott's Polish family traditionally has at the Thanksgiving table. Unfortunately, I accidentally left them in the refrigerator!

Next up was a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust which also really needed a smaller spring-form pan to make a nice high cheesecake, and which I stupidly cracked thanks to forgetting to do a water bath, and which I made look worse thanks to an attempt to be fancy on the decorating front.

Then there was a turkey that pretended to be done, with juices running clear, but was pink down near the drumsticks. Scott took over and cooked it more, cutting deeply into the turkey every time he took it out of the oven, so that by the time it came out of the oven, it was already carved. Fortunately, it was still juicy and tasty.

The end result was hectic, but everyone was pleased with how tasty everything was. And of course, the other result was piles of pots and dishes to wash. And that's not even mentioning the six hours I spent shampooing the carpet, or the rest of the house cleaning. Plus, I was trying to finish as much of the basement as possible beforehand, because I knew that the whole family would want to see our progress.

Despite the hectic preparation, I'm grateful that we could host the meal for the family. Everyone had a good time hanging out together, and I think it was ultimately a success.

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Grand Rapids

This past weekend, I went to the west side of the state for the first time. Scott's entire family spent the weekend in Grand Rapids to celebrate his mom's birthday. Now, Grand Rapids might not seem like a vacation destination, but it had more than enough going on to fill the weekend.



First, we joined in the Grand Rapids St. Patrick's Day parade.



You can see from this picture as the parade was setting up that even the snow plows got in on the action - and these plows are much bigger than what we have here, since they have lake effect to contend with. They're not fooling around!



At the end of the parade, we hung out and listened to the band for a while.





After grabbing a bite to eat, we went to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, where we saw the Bodies Revealed exhibit, which I believe is a slightly smaller version of Bodies, the Exhibition.



The permanent collection has a lot of interesting stuff as well, from this whale skeleton to an interesting living history area from the late 1800s, where we saw a very cool printing press in operation, saw mill steam engines, and the ride we took on the carousel.



That evening, we went to The B.O.B. for dinner, drinks and hanging out listening to the band at Bobarinos. B.O.B. stands for Big Old Building, and it's basically an old warehouse that has been reclaimed and made into a cool space full of restaurants, bars and clubs. It's an especially good idea for a place like Grand Rapids when it's cold because you don't need to go outside all evening.

Sunday, the big event was indoor putt-putt golf. This particular course was special because it was part of the Laugh Fest event going on in Grand Rapids all through March -- unfortunately, we were too late to buy tickets to see Bill Cosby. Anyway, each of the holes were designed and created by an artist, and they were all pretty cooky and fun.

Lastly, a stop on the way home at Pizza House for some stuffed deep dish pizza and Reeces milkshakes, and we called it a good weekend.

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Halloween Party

I was pleased the kitchen paint job done before our Halloween party last Friday. Scott always hosts a fairly large party on Halloween Friday, and this year was no exception. We even had a friend dressed as Captain America tending the bar for awhile:



I brought out my Black Cat costume from Dragon*Con:



Scott also rocked a Dragon*Con costume, because we concentrated our costume-making efforts on turning Thander into an Imperial Walker (AT-AT):



A good time was had by all, and we even had 11 people spend the night and stay for breakfast. We made "superhero breakfast", which is what Scott calls eggs-in-a-basket because of V for Vendetta. We used a star-shaped cookie-cutter to make them even more super hero themed. On Sunday, we used the leftover stars to make little french toasts:



I promise, they're bread, not murdered starfish.

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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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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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