And coincidences happen in threes ...

Yesterday I mentioned that two people I met on my trip to New Jersey over a year ago were people I met again this time.  This morning it was the limo driver.  A very nice guy who could have given lessons to James Joyce on stream of consciousness.  But fun to listen to.  He really just need the occasional, "I hear what you are saying" from me to keep the fires burning.

I felt like a comparatively relaxed flier on the plane today (and I am so not a relaxed flier).  There was an unusual guy to one side behind me talking to himself most of the takeoff and landing.  During the rest of the flight I was listening to Q on my iPod but he seemed to fidget most of the way.  Right behind me was a very nice lady praying on the landing.  I wondered if she knew something I didn't but we got here ok.

And I saw another knitter waiting to catch the flight.  She was knitting something blue on circulars.  I didn't seek her out and she didn't seek me out which was fine.  See above comment on not being a relaxed flier.

It's raining in Jersey

I've been in New Jersey for the last few days for work and some fun. Dinners with colleagues that were enjoyable and an evening spent with my oldest friend tonight. In a strange combination of coincidences, the taxi driver who drove me from the hotel to the local mall remembered me from the last time I was here (over a year ago) and the waiter at the restaurant my friend and I went to again (bonefish grill because we liked it so much the last time) was the same too. Strange indeed. 

It has been raining steadily all day and we spent most of the evening drying off but we had a good time.  I've even managed to get a little shopping done. 

On the knitting front, this sock is going really well. It is from the Knitter's Book of Socks and is a Cat B pattern (don't remember how to spell her last name and am not sure if I flip to the Internet to look up the spelling whether I'll lose this post so I'm not going to check. I'll be knitting it in public tomorrow and hoping that my flight gets out ok. 

Wavy

I just finished the crochet surround on the Lizard Ridge blanket last night while watching Monte Carlo on Netflix.

This project was largely completed in the car (when in the passenger seat, of course).  On the way to curling, driving around to stores, touring vineyards, or whatever.  As a result, it took a lot longer to finish than it should have so has been hanging over my head as something that needed to be done.  That means it was probably not as enjoyable as it might have been had I worked on it in a more concentrated way.  It looks pretty neat though.  I used 2 Noro colour ways in Silk Garden (from shash!) and love the way the long strands of Noro colour create the contrasting waves.

As for the movie, the IMDB 3 star rating is about right.  Had some cute moments, highly predictable but watchable.  A perfect knitting movie, actually.

I think it might be rhubarb

When someone asks me what my favourite fruit is, I have difficulty answering.  Sometimes I think it is wild blueberries.  More often I am certain it is peaches.  But I think it might actually be rhubarb.  Although, I don't think rhubarb is actually a fruit but rather a vegetable.  So it might actually be peaches and then I throw rhubarb into the ... what is your favourite vegetable? ... conversation.  Actually, the question is probably easier to answer there.  While I like all sorts of vegetables, rhubarb would win that contest with very little effort.

Anyway, it is rhubarb season ... yay!  And I plucked some from my garden tonight for a crisp.  The crop isn't too plentiful yet so I mixed in some strawberries I bought at the grocery store from California or some other non local source.  I usually like rhubarb straight up but with strawberries find that I don't need to add much sugar.  Regardless, it was excellent.  And I have lots left over for breakfasts this week!  What?  It's fruit (or even better, a vegetable) mixed with oatmeal.  Health food!

First Impression ... Yummy

We're having fava beans for dinner.  It is rare that I see them for sale anywhere around here.  I saw them at one farmers' market one time a few years ago so this is the second time I've eaten them.  I liked them the first time but they were cooked a lot and pureed into a spread with a lot of other flavours so I don't think I got a very good sense of their taste.

For today's recipe, I took them out of their shells, boiled them for about 8 minutes to remove the outer skin since they were quite large and tasted a couple.  Yummy.  Just before eating, I'll warm them up in a pan with a bit of cream and herbs.  Can't wait.

Small projects can really make you feel productive

It is a bit of a false economy, I suppose.  You feel like you are making such a big dent when in reality the yarn used for 3 projects probably amounts to less than a full ball.  But it doesn't matter.  I'm getting rid of those odd bits of yarn that I keep just in case and never use.  First up, two dish cloths from the book Yarnplay at Home.  The first one I quite like.  It ended up looking sort of woven.

The second, I like the pattern but I think it is just a little bit large and puffy for a dish cloth.  Hard to imagine using it to wash a glass.  I ran out of white so used up the last of the blue and a bit of pink.  I thought it might look strange but have decided that I like it.  And at the end of the day, it is a dishcloth.  Not exactly something that is going to look pristine beyond 5 minutes.

Next, I made a coffee cozy.  Or a hand cooler, I guess.  My favourite coffee shop no longer automatically puts a sleeve on the coffee so I've been thinking I should whip up one of these for a while now.  I'll throw it in my purse and hope I remember it's there!  This pattern is from Ann Budd's Knitted Gifts.

All nice patterns and very quick (obviously) to knit.

Cupcakes

Despite the cupcake craze sweeping the country, I've never really eaten a lot of cupcakes.  No particular reason although I do find the ones that are commercially available at cupcake bakeries tend to be bigger than what I would eat if I cut myself a piece of cake.  On the weekend we celebrated a birthday in our house and I wanted chocolate cake.  Since I'm trying to behave myself, I didn't really want to eat cake for a week so I made cupcakes.

The cupcake recipe was from Flour and the icing was my standard butter icing ... butter, icing sugar, cocoa, milk and kahlua in this case for flavouring.  Simple and pretty much my favourite.  These were really tasty, perfect for a birthday treat and I stuck the leftovers in the freezer for lunches.