Wednesday, October 29, 2008

This is AWESOME! I got it in my email-don't know who the original author is, but it speaks for itself. Too bad I'm in a red state...

Dear Red States:

If you manage to steal this election too we’ve decided we’re leaving.
We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States
with us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California , Hawaii , Oregon ,
Washington , Minnesota , Wisconsin , Michigan , Illinois and all the Northeast.
We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to
the people of the new country of New California.


To sum up briefly: You get Texas , Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of
Liberty . You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.
We get 85% of America ’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay
their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian
Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single
moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and
we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need
people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently
willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don’t care if you
don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you
success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up,but we’re not willing to
spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the
country’s fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce,92%of the
nation’s fresh fruit, 95% of America ’s quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90%
of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa !), most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all
the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford , Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88% of
all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92%of all U.S.
mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all
Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob
Jones University , Clemson and the University of Georgia .


We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you.


Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually
swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the
war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory,
53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe
you are people with higher morals then we lefties.



Finally, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they
grow in Mexico .



Peace out,
Blue States

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Here are some tutorials that I think are really interesting....

a very pretty scarf

a simple handbag

a can cover, I know, sounds weird

a little apron, cause I cook so often ;)

Button flowers

Tissue holder

a baby bunting

a flower

a little tote bag

a very cool jacket

And this store is killing me... It's in Ventura!

It's too bad I have to go do that work thing every day. I could definitely entertain myself for quite a while with all this stuff...


Here's Tristan doing his favorite thing and Reese-also doing his favorite thing. :)

Monday, October 27, 2008

Little One

It's been a while since I looked at Tea's puppy pictures. She's been following me around all evening because she knows she can have all the tails of my red swedish fish as I eat them. It's been a long time since the days when she ate my cell phone and speed dialed my friends while she was doing it. Now she's a big dog! I can't wait to go swimming with her in the ocean again...

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Felted Ruffled Neck Cozy

Here is a brief tutorial for this little guy. Let me know if you have trouble making it and I can try to help you out. I used Pattons Classic wool Merino and a 6.0 mm (J) hook. The buttons are "La Mode" vintage reproduction buttons from Jo-ann's fabric store. Yes, I did swatch this since I had no idea how much it would felt.

Chained to make 29 inch chain. HDC for 9 rows.
In ruffle, HDC and chain 1 in each stitch for one row. Then HDC and chain 1, HDC and chain 1 in each stitch for one row. (this took me forever!)



Felted by running through my top loader washer on regular cycle, small load, hot. Removed from washer when first spin began, rinsed in cool water and rolled in a dry towel to remove water. Felted dimensions are 26 inches by 3 inches including ruffle. Arranged the ruffle so each “ruffle’ was a similar size and allowed to dry.

Cut buttonholes (not too big!!) and sewed on buttons. I overestimated the amount of shrinkage in the length, so probably would make it much shorter on a second attempt. Ready for Kansas cold!


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Crocheting

I've been playing around with some crochet this weekend...
I started with this sock pattern from Ravelry. (anyone on ravelry, my username is vanessascatvet)



It came out a little bulky and loose at the ankle, but it is very soft. I will use some higher quality yarn next time because this yarn was no fun to crochet with. Zoe approves of the yarn though!



I also wanted to make a neck cozy to keep that gap between my vneck shirts and the cold metal of my ski jacket zipper from getting me down. This is a picture of the finished project before I felted it.



And this is after felting. It is SO much softer now that it is felted. I'm really glad I felted it, but I was nervous before hand since that ruffle took me a good hour and I didn't want to ruin it.



Here is an action shot of the completed project!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Visit Home

I went to California last weekend to visit my parents and some friends. It was really nice to be home and I'm starting to feel like it won't be too long before we go back for good. Only 8 months left!

I got to see a friend of mine who was my teacher in vet school and has since moved out to California and gotten a tan. I miss her!! We went for a hike at this park but couldn't visit their nature center because a TV show was being filmed. Quintessential California!



I also saw my parents new weekend house. I was so interested in looking at the house that I neglected to take any pictures, but here is the view from the park directly behind their house.




The house has a little ocean view as well, I just didn't take any pictures. Afterward we went for a walk to the Ventura pier and enjoyed the sunny day. Ah, California!


The fires started on the day I left and were visible from the freeway as we drove to the airport. Hey, there has to be some kind of trade-off for perfect weather, ocean and mountainside property and fabulous food all in one state!

Dinner with the Guys

We often go out to dinner with Tristan's buddies at least once a week. Kevin is absent from this soiree since he's on Anesthesia right now. The only trouble with taking pictures of these guys is it's near impossible for them to behave on camera.





Oh well, here they are in all their glory. I tried to get Danny to smile but after waiting an hour for a table, there was no persuading him...



Actually, to be fair, I look kind of insane in this picture as well. Oh well!

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Pie. The world needs more pie.

One of my friends at work had a very fruitful apple tree this year and brought me a bucket of apples. They are delicious and have some indefinable orchard quality I can't lay my finger on- a dry, not overly sweet quality that says, hey man, we grew up outside with no chemicals and we're not perfect, but we taste good! Great, now I think apples have an emotional life...




As much as I enjoy them, there is no way we can eat that many. Our little dog likes them too, so she gets the odd wedge. I also decided I would make a foray into pie-baking. Mind you, I've never baked an apple pie in my life, so I went looking for pie recipes that were marked as easy at allrecipes.com. The pie was really easy and turned out very well.



Then, since I was already baking I made some Baklava which I have made before. I also ate almost the entire pan of baklava by myself as my darling husband finds it too sweet.



Finally, I made a lemon pie per DH's request which he decided he didn't like either. Honestly, who doesn't like pie?! Half of this one went to my Master's advisor, so thankfully I won't be "forced" to eat the whole thing myself. I think I'm all baked out for a while now!