It's Not Safe Out There

My virtual neighbors are a strange lot. I've never hit that "next blog" button at the top of the page, and I was curious. I pushed that button twice, and I'm not sure that I want to try a third time. My first attempt to find some new blog reading resulted in a host of pop-ups coming from a blog titled Office Sex. *sigh* I quickly closed that one down, lest some cyber cooties cross over to my blog. Still, we all know the internet was made for porn so I was willing to let bygones be bygones. I mean it's reasonable to assume that any link you click might result in something at least mildly NSFW. I tried again to see what would happen, is it random or will I always be "next to" this human resource nightmare? I suppose it's random because this time I came across a normal blog. The thing is the latest post was lamenting the fact they forgot their camera on chicken butchering day. I caught a reference to 44 broilers and decided that I didn't want to hear about that much chicken chopping. From the title and their description of themself they seemed okay, but obviously we have much different tastes.

Have any of you other blogger bloggers tried out that button? Who do you live next to at any moment in time?

Nothing to See Here

So my hair appointment had to be rescheduled. Apparently they were in the process of demolishing a building behind where the salon is located when they knocked down a power line and killed a transformer. Well, maybe not killed, but Giacomo said there were two explosions and I imagine that's enough to at least severely maim the works. They'd been without power for a couple of hours when he called this afternoon and rescheduled for me to come by tomorrow after work instead. Hopefully the power will be back on and everything will be great. I'd like to have my new hair cut before the party. I'm starting to get quite shaggy, and I'm sick of my bangs being long enough to creep into my nose holes.

It's Going to be Hard

I have indeed had to rip back the sock I'm knitting for Iza... two or three times actually. I finally decided on 56 sts around sometime after I got home for the day. I slid out my needles, and then re-inserted them into the knitting back at the toe where I only had 56 sts. This is the first time that the operation went off without a hitch. For the final time I ripped out ... rows. I refuse to contemplate how many.

Since that time I have eaten dinner and knitted away while watching Hannibal Rising. I've done the foot and finished the heel. This is my stopping point for the night. On a normal day I'd probably be able to finish up the leg tomorrow night, but tomorrow isn't normal. I'm getting my hair done, cut and highlights, and that's going to eat up precious knitting time.

I am so in love with this yarn. I really wish that I was keeping these socks, and my only solace is that I may still be able to squeeze out another pair from this skein. The second pair would likely have to be shorter in the leg portion, but if I knit them toe up, and two at a time at least I won't run short for the second sock or not be able to finish.

Yarn details: Trekking XXL (Zitron, 75% superwash wool & 25% nylon) The color number is 154, and it's got these great blues and greens with yellow, and I don't even like yellow, and these white and blue spots that are like clouds. I really can't wait to show you, but the camera batteries are dead (and charging). It may not be a colorway for everyone, but they are Iza's favorites and I only pray that they fit well, because I know that she'll adore them every much as I will.

Oh, and Hannibal Rising was good. I liked it anyway. Jeff was disappointed because the character wasn't as polished as Anthony Hopkins version. We discussed it, but I think he was hoping for a different movie. I'd seen enough trailers and teasers that I pretty much knew what it was going to be. I found it interesting and gross, which was everything that I had hoped for. Still, I do kind of wish that I hadn't chosen it to go with a spaghetti dinner.

Fancy Feet

I finished Potatomaus last night, and they're on my little feets right now. They are comfortable and quite stylish. I wish that I could walk around in my sock feet at work so that more people could see them, but even if it were allowed the ground is no where near clean enough for that. I think that this pair took just over two weeks. I don't really have great pics of them yet though, so maybe later I'll post them.

I've started a new knitting first. Iza asked me for a pair of hiking socks, and she's in Brazil right now. That means that I am knitting a sock for someone, and I can't have them try it on as I go. I'm not quite knitting blind though, I did measure her foot the last time we were in Dallas. Hopefully I'll do well. I'm planning on trying to error just on the loose side with ribbing to snug it up. I'll put almost a half inch of negative ease into the foot and hope for the best. It's a shame that her feet aren't the same size as mine, because that would make life easier. Her feet are thinner and longer than mine. On the plus side I can certainly make sure that they aren't huge. My first line of defense is the ruler, but as I am ruler challenged I also have a second line of defense, and that is my foot. IF this sock is too big around for my foot then I have done something horrible and I will have to rip it back.

In other news my dad asked for detailed specs on my new machine, and might tot off to the store to build himself one over the holiday weekend. He was quite impressed at the reasonable cost. I think that he really wants the new iMac, but he's just too frugal to spend the $3000 that he wants when he can get a good functional machine for much less. He already has a really nice monitor that he uses to make his laptop screen more livable when he's home.

I can't believe that August is almost over. It's just about time to start the Christmas knitting. I certainly don't want to have to go into knitting overtime like I did last year. I figure I'll knit these socks for Iza, and then alternate between trying to finish the Hell Socks, my jackety thing, and various gifts. I've had requests for socks from some people, and purses from others, and Jean wanted a felted hat. I've got a fair amount of the yarn already stashed, I just have to get it knit up.

Why So Blue Panda Bear?

Sometimes I wish that I had done something that made me famous. I'm pretty sure that they do not let "normal" people hold baby pandas even if they are wearing smocks, gloves, and feeding the nice panda fresh bamboo. But it'd be a lot cooler if they did....

You can see more photos over at Neil's blog.

It's Kind of Hot Outside

Once again Jeff and I made the trek out for the hot sauce festival. This year was the 17th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. We've been a couple of times, and there have been good years and bad years. One year it seemed like everyone had brought a peach pico salsa, and nothing had any heat. This was a well balanced year I think, and there was a lot of nice pepper heat. (The sun heat I could have done without, but it's August so what can you do?)

We almost missed out this year, because although I'd been wondering when the festival was going to happen I hadn't heard any press about it. Luckily I got an email from Matt's El Rancho that they would be there and that tipped me off. Still, I'm a bit of a homebody and finding out about an even the night before usually means that I don't go. I think the little bat mascot won us over. I mean, he's so cute and he's got a flaming pepper. It was worth the trouble.

In case you're interested, here's what we bought today. As always we enjoyed the Winston's Hot Pepper Sauce (hot), so we picked up another bottle. I'm pretty sure that the last time we got mild, but Jeff called me a pussy or something, so we got the hot this time. This stuff has tons of uses, Jeff likes it on hot wings, and I like it in deviled eggs. A new one for us was Big Daddy's Amplified Heat Mean Smokin' Green Hot Sauce. This Houston company has the slogan of "Hell Goin' In, Hell Goin' Out"and quite the interesting art to depict it. The green sauce has a nice smokey jalapeno flavor and makes me wish more green salsas in restaurants were made with smoked jalapeno instead of nasty little tomatillos. Our third purchase was from Austin Slow Burn. We settled on Habanero Jelly because I had tasted so many good jams and jellies that I needed at least one. This was the one that Jeff and I liked best of the ones with heat. I tasted lots of sweet stuff from other vendors, but I was determined only to purchase spicy stuff today.

I really didn't taste any salsas that I thought were very good this year. There were a few that we okay, or interesting, but nothing that really stood out. I think I'm just really really particular about salsa, so it's hard for anyone to compete.

Other places that we stopped at and found tasty enough to grab a card from: The Peruvian Hot Pepper Sauce from Rancho Bravo. It had a nice spice, but just didn't place high enough on our taste trip to be purchased today. Then there was the Crazy Cranberry from Beanie's Home Made Salsa. There was a nice cinnamon in with the cranberry, it was a liquid kind of sauce, but I just wasn't sure what to do with it so we passed. We had fun eating some salt over at the Spiceburst table. I don't know that I'll ever actually buy any of their salt mixtures, but they are good. It always a nice palate cleanser at the hot sauce event to get a bit of salt on some cucumber. Then I almost lost my resolve at Meier Ranch Foods. I know I vowed only to purchase spicy foods, but the Amaretto Peach Pecan jelly/jam whatever was AWESOME. I swear I could have just eaten that stuff with a spoon. I may end up ordering some online, we'll just have to see.

Wii Are Excited

I wish I had a video or audio recording of Jeff when he realized that there was a copy of the new Wii Metroid game sitting on our doorstop as we got home yesterday. His reaction went from "what's that on the doorstep" to "is that a Wii game" to "OMGITSMETROID". Of course the next step was to call and thank Brandon who had to be our mysterious benefactor. Due to the inordinate amount of time that it takes to get a new pc up and running the game has been opened but not turned on yet, but I can't wait. I'm not sure how much I'll be allowed to play, but even watching it will be fun. The added bonus of Wii games is that there is always a chance that his arms will get tired and then I'll get a turn.