28 on the 28th

Silent Library

Japanese game shows are messed up.



and more than a little bit dangerous.

(the point is they're in a library and so they can't make noise as these horribly things are being done to them)

Family Day sans family

I happily indulged myself this first Family Day with some well deserved (and well needed) R&R...

well, that was my original plan. Then I got working on my website and a few hours later realized I was hungry and half the day was gone. Oops!

Still, I managed to get my Spirit Saga story it's own web page, and I'm pretty proud of it. It's now easier to read the chapters in order! Hooray!

Anyway, the art I got was from a delightful site called JonathonArt.Com (where I steal a lot of art for website and background and such)

There are five pieces of art that I find absolutely breathtaking (maybe because most of the art on his page I consider old, and these five pieces are new and gorgeous)

So, make sure you take a look at Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Quintessence.

Okay, off to bed. Enjoy the pretty pretty pictures!

I don't get it.

Does anyone else find this ridiculous?


It's the exact same cereal turned sideways! How is this new?

It frightens me to think that somewhere someone is thinking "Wow. Diamond Shreddies. That's pure genius!"

Spring now, please?

The past two weeks have been horrible and stressful. I had hoped the worst was over, but no.

Monday I whacked my head pretty hard on something and ended up with a huge headache (duh). Yesterday, I also managed to burn my arm with the iron (see why I don't iron?) while enjoying day two of the headache. I was on desk all day at work, and while nothing horrible happened (unlike last week) being on desk all day with a major headache was not fun. I wanted to go home so badly I could cry.

So then, the end of the day came. Hooray! But it was another snowstorm. I drove my colleague to the subway station as I always do when we work the same shift, but was unable to get out of the station in the direction I wanted to go. So instead of left, I had to to turn right.

(captions: at subway "stuck for 20 minutes";
along Finch "no longer thinking straight";
at Bathurst/Finch "if I was thinking straight, I would have turned right")

To make a long and painful story short, it took me 2 hours to get home last night. I left work at 5:00, and walked in my door at 7:00. I live 20 minutes from work, and about 5 minutes from the subway where I dropped off my colleague.

I wanted to go home so badly I did cry. And if I didn't have such a busy day at work ahead of me, I'd call in sick.

And yes, I still have a headache.

In which Heather and I are bad influences

Yesterday Heather and I went to Romni Wools. They're having a 20% off sale certain weights of yarn, which happened to be the right yarns I needed for a few projects I want to start.

Project #1: Squarey
Essentially, a pillow with a striped bottom half, an embroidered face, and arms and legs. I decided to make one 14" pillow and two 10" pillows of different colours so they can all sit together on my couch (or higher up if Hamlet decides he likes them)

I bought Cascade 220 yarn in lots of fun colours (two shades of purple, blue, green, and gray) to go with the two skeins of pink that Ru and Mel graciously gave to me (I'm using stash yarn!). While watching Star Wars Episode IV and V last night with Heather and Mike, I got through a good portion of one piece of a small Squarey.

Project #2: Fuzzy Lamb
I saw this pattern on Ravelry and fell in love with how cute the little lamb was. I'd never tried making a toy before (other than the alligator I started and never finished - I wonder where he went?) and I thought this guy would be a good place to start.

So for him, I bought three balls of Debbie Bliss cashmerino astrakhan (which Heather says will cause me to swear several times while knitting it) in an oatmealy colour (x2) and a dark brown. So cute! I can't wait to start on this guy!


And since things were on sale (and we all know I'm a sucker for the word 'sale'), I also bought a nice big ball of Rowan big wool fusion in lilac to make another cable hat, and two balls of Noro Taiyo (it's a cotton/silk/wool/nylon blend - but mostly cotton! COTTON!)

Then we went a bought pillow forms for my Squareys. All in all, a satisfying and expensive day for me. But I have such pretty pretty yarns now (to add to my growing collection of pretty pretty yarns)

Pictures will follow (eventually) of the projects and yarns... and eventually I'll also add them to my stash on Ravelry. But not right now. I have to get ready for work.

Pancake Tuesday!

I found the awesomest recipe for low-carb, low-fat sugar free pancakes. And they taste *delicious*!

The only downside is that almond flour is hard to find and really expensive. Still, worth it! Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water (for puffier pancakes, you can use sparkling water)
• 2 T oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 T sweetener

PREPARATION:

Mix ingredients together and cook as you would other pancakes. I like to use a nonstick pan with a little oil. The only real difference is that they won't "bubble" on top the same way as regular pancakes.

Flip them when the underside is brown.

Yield: Six 4-inch pancakes

Nutritional Information: Each pancake has 1 gram effective carbohydrate, plus 2 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, and 155 calories.

Ski vacation - the picture edition

So, as promised, here are a few pictures from the ski weekend.

The first little while, the cottage had no heat. Man, was it cold! I was wearing loads of layers and we buried ourselves under blankets. Fortunately there were electric heaters for the bedrooms so we didn't freeze while we slept, but that doesn't mean it wasn't chilly!

Highlights of the weekend include:

Skiing at Sir Sam's

Cooking dinner after skiing (I'm making pesto for the couscous)

And playing of musical intruments

And, because I started working on my So-Called scarf, using yarn that I think looks like cooked veggies (or vegetable pasta according to Dee), here's what I have so far.

(oops. sideways picture. sorry!)

I squee every time I start knitting this. I love it so.