Sunday, June 24, 2007

just a quick update

No photos this week - just didn't have anything new to take pictures of.

Medieval Tiles are making progress, though slowly.
No progress on King Tut (I packed him away a few weeks ago and haven taken him out since)
The package with the golden cord and the GAST threads for the two projects are on the way since last week. I hope it arrives before my vacation (it should ... normally it take 8 ~ 10 days for a package from the US). There's something in that package I need for a birthday present - the person in question had her birthday in May *sigh*. It would be nice to have everything together before I disappear on my vacation.

I did some booking for my Seattle / Alaska trip today. Hotel for one night in Seattle on the 10th (my flight to Ketchikan is on the 11st), rental car for a week in Seattle and such.

Yesterday I've had a Body Shop party at home - think Tupperware but with cosmetics. Was fun (we had foot bathes ...) and my friends bought a lot of stuff (and I got more rebates from this than I can - or want - to use)

Next weekend we'll help a friend to paint her old apartment as she's moving.

And, lo and behold, I'm still busy with Zelda - I guess I'm going to beat today, but only if I forego ironing .. well, I should have enough to wear in my wardrobe :)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Squared

Well, I still spend too much time with the Gamecube - it's just too much fun :). I'm almost through with the first game, but, alas, there are more ....
My stitching has suffered accordingly - King Tut didn't see any progress last weekend at all.

The Medieval Tiles on the other hand, got a little bit done, due to the fact that I can't take the Gamecube with me on my business trips. So an update on this one.


I'm still waiting for the GAST thread for the blue squares (the two empty squares closed to the center). Last Friday I've got the info that the package has been sent out, so there's hope (this package also includes the gold cord for King Tut)

Last Saturday (9th June) was offical Knitting in Public day. I didn't knit so much in public, but at least I did knit and there were other people around, so I guess it counts (I was visiting friends)
I'm working on the Lizard Ridge Blanket from Knitty's 2006 fall issue. So far, I've finished 3 squares.




The plan is to buy three or four skeins of a new color whenever I get some extra money (like overtime payment, bonus ...) and spread the cost for the project over a longer time. I've still got three skeins left, so there's no hurry at the moment. I need a total of 21 skeins (for 24 squares)

And, in case I'll get very bored and think I've got nothing to knit (and may I laugh out loud at that thought), I've bought a new book.


At first I was a bit awed by the patterns - wonderful stuff that would take forever to knit. But after a second (and third) look through I believe there're a few patterns I would dare to try after all.

Last Thursday, when I was driving back from Dresden I just got through a thunderstorm (one of the kind where you voluntarily slow down to 50kph) when the traffic suddenly grinded to a total halt. And didn't move for a good part of an hour (good thing I've got something to read with me). I could see that whatever happened, did happen not too far away, as I could see that there where no cars on the other side of the valley. The radio said there was a tree that blocked the road, so when it finally got moving again, I had my camera out and tried to take a pic of the accident side. Well, the tree picture wasn't something too exiting (they already cleaned up real good), but a short bit later, I saw a Golf escorted by two police cars (or one police, one fire department ... not that it really mattered) that was banged up pretty good.



I would hazard a guess and say this car was under the tree when it fell.
But, that that's what's pretty cool, it was still moving under it's own power. Good thing to know that that when my Golf should ever get under a tree, I have a good chance to get out of it alive.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Distractions

Sorry about the none-blogging of last week. I did borrow a Gamecube from a friend of mine, and now I spend far too much time with playing 'The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker '(and have loads of fun doing it too)

My stitching has suffer a little bit because of it (*gough, gough*), but at least I've still got a few pics to show from before the game hijacked me.

Latest update on King Tut
I've finshed that middle panel underneath his chin, which was all stitch with one strand of thread instead of two. I don't know why I hate to stitch single strand, but I do...
I'm still waiting for the gold cord - I've cancelled my first order, as I didn't hear anything from them for 3 weeks and they didn't reply on my first reminder, but it looks like the second order doesn't go that much better.

The two mini-kits I've did while I was in Japan:


As I've seen kiwis (admittingly only in the zoo) as well as penguins while I was in New Zealand this brought up some memories.


During my vacation I've had some visitors, so I did bake some cake (I love baking cake, but seldom have the opertunity)
The strawberry-rhubard cake before baking (I've left bit of the egg white cover off for the photo)

And after:


The original recipe is more for fall with grapes and apples, but I really like the taste of this (even though, after baking, the dough turned out to be a bit on the soggy side)