Knitting and good food.

Is there any more to life than a good hobby and great food? I think not. Well, a good book is essential, however, I must forgo that this day as I was unable to get the one I wanted from the Library.
(Not to digress, but, I want to mention that the libraries in the UK are under attack. The local governments are closing down LOADS of libraries. You can read about it here. I am outraged and would LOVE to do something, but have no ducks in a row yet, as my father would say. I have been reading about this in Private Eye Magazine. Will keep you posted.)
So, today was my last knitting class which is sad, but I will simply change my day to visit the shop to Wednesdays when they have open knitting time. YAY!
Well, at the last class Ping asked me to bring in the bread machine recipe we use since her machine didn't have a book with it. So I did, and I took some samples, Steve gets props for that, it was his idea. I also had to take my lunch with me, as I was too busy before class to eat. I also had to go see a man about a piano (another blog for another time.)
There we were, eating bread, butternut squash soup and talking about knitting, bread machines and the crazy snow storm we had Sunday.
Ahhhh, what a lovely day.
It's days like these that make me so happy to manage a movie theater and work nights.
The newest knitting project will be socks. I got some lovely purple yarn, it's soft too, and will be knitting the cabled designed socks this week.
While knitting away, I think we will have to coconut-pad thai shrimp again. Mmmmmm, sounds good.
Now, I need a kindle. :)
The scarf I knitted for Natalie:

Okay, out of the Ravens coma I come

Ok. So we didn't go all the way. Sigh.
Steve is still not over it. My whole ZEN EXPERIMENT thingy is working as I am ok about it all, not going to watch the superbowl however, since I don't give a fig about the teams. (Tho secretly I am saying GO GIANTS as I LOATHE the Patriots)
The weather is blah. I am itching to get on the bike but have to wait. Ugh it's even going to snow this weekend possibly. (Just checked out the weather)
HOWEVER, on the bright side (Monty Pythons Life of Brian)I received my digital recorder, so I will be able to speak my chapters into it while I am doing all the things that never allowed me to stop and write it all down before! WOOOO!
Also, I finished Natty's scarf for her birthday and sent that off. It looks SOOOOO good. I did not, unfortunately, take a picture as the batteries in the camera were dead. LOL. I need to buy batteries.
Interesting, shouldn't we be on some kind of solar-perpetual power or something like all the sci-fi movies told us we would be by now? Hmmmm.
I am already thinking about the vegetable garden. I am getting quite excited about that. I want all sorts of veggies. I will be doing the two sides of the garden area and I might even be doing the back area, if I can get all those crazy weeds out of there. LOL!
If you see me walking around like Death with a sythe don't worry, it's just for the yard! LOL!
I have a new hat pattern that I will begin knitting today. Yay. I am totally hooked on the real material yarns.
I still would like to have a sheep one day, but I must learn to spin my own wool first. :)
Oh, and if anyone needs a good laugh, I know this is late for all the UK friends of mine, but I only just looked this up: Fenton the dog.

RAVENS!!!!!

YEAH! Baltimore Ravens!!!!
Let's go boys! YEAH!!!!!

Torrey Smith is MY MAN! He's AWESOME!!!!
Let's go ALL THE WAY Bawlmer!!!!!!!!

This is just fantastic! It's nice to be still into Football this time of year.

WOOOOOOO!!!

Shoveling update!

LOL! As Steve says "nothing cheers me up as much as other peoples misfortunes." AND boy howdy, are there misfortunes, LOL!
The neighbors are shoveling "THEIR HALF" and they are huffing and puffing and moving slowly and I might add, having to BOTH get out there and do it.
Now, some might say (Oasis) two doing the work of one makes things easier.
I say, smoke another cig and drink a beer, mate!
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!
If they had only.... well, we know how I feel about that.
I think the next snowfall I will do the WHOLE driveway and see what happens!
I think this is my new favourite game!

Icy snowy Saturday

I've been awake for two hours now and I am ready to go back to bed.
The sleet was coming down last night as I left work and it made a lovely blanket of crap on the ground for this morning. So, Steve went off to work and I shoveled our half of the shared driveway.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not that kind of person. When you are already shoveling a driveway that isn't that wide, then why not do the whole thing. That was my idea (as well as Steve's) when we shoveled the last three times. One of those times I even shoveled their parking pad that is no where near our half of the area. Why not, I said to myself (probably out loud as I tend to talk to myself all the time.) They were at work and I thought it would be nice for them to have the place where they park their cars to be shoveled. It snowed a bit over it, but for the most part it was obvious that someone had shoveled all that area.
Then it snowed again and they shoveled... their half of the driveway only. Then after I shoveled the whole drive again on the next snow, they followed up on the following snow by doing... DUN DUN DUN, their half only again.
SOOOOOOOOOO! The other snows have been those fluffy, easily moved light snows. This snow is the snow of the dead. It's heavy, it's covered in ice and it doesn't want to let the shovel even break the surface.
I shoveled our half. ONLY.
I would have gladly done the whole thing but HEY, fuck em! I noticed after I came in she was peeking around the side of her house to see what I had done. That just proves that they KNEW I DID IT BEFORE.
Ugh. I have to put up with watching him in the hot tub with his fat gut and gold chains, a little reciprocation on the shoveling would be nice.
(Please let them put up some lattice or something this hot tub season!!!)
I am not even asking for a thank you, I don't need it. Just a sharing of the snow removal.
Now, this may sound like I am being silly or feud-ish but I am not unfounded here. When we moved in we were friendly and talked to the new neighbors. She told me that the previous owners were assholes about everything. I could see that as they were complete morons about selling the house and what they were supposed to do. We had to settle a week late due to their incompetance. So I asked how they deal with the winters. She said they used to shovel and the previous owners put out the salt. I explained that I worked at night, so I wouldn't be shoveling in the morning but that I would be shoveling in the afternoon and that the driveway would be cleared of daytime snow when they got home from work. We could work it that way.
Hmmmm, seems they don't want to work it at all. That's fine. While they smoke their cigarettes and drink their beers, I am breathing my fresh air and eating my vegetarian fare, who will be in better shape to shovel.... ME that's who.
(And I could have been doing the whole driveway if they had simply been kind.)

Oh, for those of you who are reading me, yes, I am vindictive sometimes. I am working on my book and mostly it is about cycling, but it is also about becoming calm and centered and I am not blind to the fact that this rant is as far from calm and centered as you get, although, I am pretty calm, just off center! LOL!
All I can say there is OLD HABITS DIE HARD!

WOOOO RAVENS!

YES! The Ravens won! Next stop New England Patriots. This is AWESOME!!!!!

Want a win in NE then we can kick butt in the Superbowl. That would be awesome.
First Superbowl in the new house would be great to be the Ravens!

Procrastination.... (that's what Carly should have sang.)

I have given myself a deadline of the 31st of January to finish the Autumn section of my book. I have a little bit already written, but as you may or may not be able to tell, I have done everything BUT write lately.
It seems that I end up thinking about what I want to say when I am in the most unusual places... like the restroom at work! GAH!
I recently talked to Devann about this and she said that they have those little recorders at Wal-Mart and I think that I need to invest.
That way, when I am thinking (and when I have no paper the BEST lines are in my head) I can record it and transcribe it later on when I am awake at 3am and the rest of the house is silent and asleep.
I know how I want the Autumn section to pan out. I have even set up the photos that I took in the order (or close to it) as I want to put them in the book.
I AM JUST SO LAZY!!!!!!!!
Well, maybe I shouldn't call myself LAZY. I mean, after all, I am biking all over the place for this book. I am getting out on the trail in the craziest of weather, snow blowing and icicles... icicling? However, when it comes time to sit and type all those ideas out on virtual paper, I find a million other things to do.
I am almost halfway through this month, I really need to get with it.
So, if you see a woman walking around looking like she is avoiding something just yell out to me "GET TO WORK!!!!"

Real fibers found in nature (or how much I want to own a sheep)

So I took my first knitting class at Millicent Yarns in Cumberland. WOW! Is what I have to say about the shop. It's amazing! There are so many yarns there to choose from and so many colors, you could spend all day in there! The ladies are also SUPER NICE and very helpful.
So, even tho I am not new to knitting as I have already made a cardigan for Steve, a sweater for me and Mom and a mini shopping tote, I decided to take the intro class so learn things "properly."
I have learned 2 things already.
1. Real fibers are far superior than man-made fibers. I am using a mix of 85% lambs wool and 15% Mohair. It's making my stitches so even and lovely.
2. I learned a new way to cast on. And it's easy and even!
My sweater and Steve's cardigan were made from man-made fibers. They are funky and not in that Wild Cherry way. They pill up and get all frayed.
I made that tote out of recycled cotton and I noticed a difference then too, as it was smoother to use. This lambs wool is AWESOME!!!!!
I am very excited to make a sweater from a natural fiber. I will finish this scarf and then I will work on a sweater. WOOO!
The lady teaching the class is fabulous. She is also a cyclist! WOOOO!
I am very excited to be able to ride my bike down there this spring. They have 2 days a week that you can just come in and knit with the other women during an open knitting time. I didn't realise we had anything like this at all in Allgany County! It's so nifty!
I read about a shop like this in one of my mystery novels. When I was reading it I thought, "Geez, I wish we had something like this around" and we do!
Sometimes my powers scare me. LOL!
The teacher of the class, whom I shall call J, asked if we were animal lovers. (we being me and the other lady in the class.) She said that she has found most people who knit also have animals. I told them my little dream of self-sufficency where I grow all my own veggies, ride my bike everywhere, we have solar panels, a wind turbine and a sheep. Then the sheep eats the grass, so I don't have to cut it ever again, and then I get wool from her. I spin the wool every year and make sweaters to keep warm all winter. WOOOOOO!
Yes, I am the modern answer of a Hippy. :)

Ahhh, what a dream.

World Book Night

On April 23rd I will HOPEFULLY be giving away a bunch of books. World Book Night started in the UK last year where volunteers gave away books to people who aren't avid readers. This year it will be held on April 23rd. You can apply online at: World Book Night and share the joy of reading. There are 30 books chosen for the give away and they are GREAT ones!
Fingers crossed I get picked to be a GIVER!

KEEP ON READING!

It's CLLLLEEEAAANNNNN!

As I laid in bed (laid? Lied, no laid) this morning I thought that today would be the day for cleaning the basement. There are three spaces that I did not touch when we moved in. The Basement, the room off the bathroom upstairs and the garage. I made plans to clean these spaces after the holidays and into the spring. Then, this morning, as I woke at an earlier time than normal (10am) I figured that today would be perfect as being winter with snow still on the ground, there should be none (or at least just a few) spiders in the cellar to jump out and attack me.
Oh, I know what you are saying, PA-LEEZE Karen, spiders don't attack people! Well, I beg to differ. When spiders see me they think LUNCH! LOL!
So I got out of bed, put on my sweats, grabbed my head scarf and headed down to the cellar with broom, dustpan and trash bags in hand.
It actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. Armed with my MP3 player and Jesus Christ Superstar blasting in my ears I tackled the basement with zeal!
Three trash bags and a large box filled with empty and half empty paint cans later the cellar was swept and no longer scary. AND I only saw three spiders. One I let live, my generous gift to the arachnid world but one just looked scary and poisonous so that one got stepped on. The other one I thought was dust that fell off the air conditioning unit and only saw it was running like hell as my rag whipped it and the rest of the dirt off the table onto the floor. Oops.
Other than that, I saw a cricket type thing that freaked out when I moved the large flattened box from beside the furnace. It didn't know where to hop to so I gave it a little help by slapping the broom behind it, moving it towards the back of the furnace, but nothing else. Yay.
I was able to clean off the table that sits down there and empty the crap from the drawers and refill them with items that the previous owners left behind that I find valuable. I also found left over wall-paper that is in the house. Which is FABULOUS as there is a small area in our bedroom that has ripped paper and needs fixed! (Our bedroom being the ONLY wall-paper in the house that I like)
So I am posting pics of the basement. I am sooooo happy.
I did, however, feel like I was channeling Zelda Rubinstein from Poltergeist when she says THIS HOUSE IS CLEAR. Now, THIS HOUSE IS CLEAN!
(Those of you that know me personally, know that I have a LOT of problems with music lyrics and such, so for YEARS I thought Zelda was saying THIS HOUSE IS CLEAN - thus that is why I think of her now.)
Either way, I am one step closer to having all of the house be completely ours! YAY! There is one area in the back part of the basement that is truly a cellar. It has dirt floors with pallets and boards down to walk on. There are a few things in there that need tossed out, but I will clean that area later on. Then I will be able to use it for all the amazing canned items that I will be canning this summer from the awesome bounty of my garden, but that is getting slightly ahead of myself.
YAY me... for now. :)

Sony Streaming Device

OMG! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! (giddy school girl scream) I am sooooooo excited, happy and yes, giddy! I got us a Sony Streaming Device at the end of December and it arrived yesterday. I let it get to room temperature overnight and then today I have hooked it up. AAAAAHHHHHHHH! (yes another giddy scream)
No, Elvis, Fabian nor Justin Bieber have enter the room, I am just so giddy because as I type this out I am listening to the Streaming NPR radio program Car Talk!
I adore this show. It comes on NPR on Saturdays at 10am. I know that a lot of people are awake at that time and up and able to listen without issue. I, however, work nights at the theater, so I am still in bed, ususally, at 10am. I set the alarm and lie there some saturdays just to listen to the show. The problem in my lovely home (which I am completely in love with) I have CRAP signal strength for my cell phone and all radio signals that aren't the country music station that is located here in Frostburg. So, Since my radio alarm clock DOES manage to get NPR, I should add here it gets it now that I have rearranged the furniture so my radio alram clock is VERY close to the window, I am able to listen to these guys (Car Talk) as long as I am in bed.
NOW! With the Sony Streaming Player, I can get NPR on my TV!
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!
I can hear you guys now.... WTF? you are saying. This technology has been around for a while... what is she so giddy about?
Well, in this household, when new technology arrives on the scene, my wonderful husband says "OOH look a new product. (Insert name here) sounds really cool. Let's wait a rediculous amount of time for all the kinks to be worked out then we will get it."
Well, I may be taking a liberty there, as Steve doesn't really say a rediculous amount of time. But, it's the gist. Case in point, we do not own a Kindle or its ilk yet, as Steve says they do not transcribe all the books properly.
I want a kindle.
Badly.
I've almost ordered one secretly two times, but I held back and didn't.
The old style Kindle is $79 now on Amazon. I will not be able to hold back for long. hahahha.
I digress, however. The Sony Streamer is AWESOME!!!!!!
There are so many cool features on this thing too, I might not be available for days! hahaha

The Great Allegheny Passage in Winter

For those of you who know, I am currently writing a book about the Great Allegheny Passage. This is the bike trail that is almost in my front yard. I have biked my way from Cumberland, MD to Myersdale, PA this past Autumn and have LOADS of pictures that I took along the way. The book will encompass all four seasons on the trail and hopefully help me achieve the subtitle to the book (Biking my way to Health, Happiness and Serenity.)
Today was quite a serene scene on the trail. The silence was so absolute that it pressed into my ears with unrelenting strength. It was really nice, until the texts started.
Oh yes, I take my phone, just in case, you know how it is, I may feel one with the universe but my feet sometimes have other ideas and I don't quite fancy lying in the snow with a twisted ankle and no phone to call for help. So, there I am having a zen experience with the woods and Steve starts texting me.
Is it busy?
Is there a lot of wildlife?
Are you having a nice time?
Is it serene?
OMG! No, no, yes and no! You are driving me insane! LOL.
Don't get me wrong... I don't mind texts from him usually. However, when the snow is on the ground and I am bundled up to my eye teeth, reading texts is a pain in the neck. I have to stop, remove my glove, get my phone out of my ski pants (I like to be warm) and read it. Answer it, if needed, put it back in my pocket, un-velcro my sleeve, put the glove back on, re-velcro the sleeve around the glove and start off again.
Other than that, it was quite lovely out on the trail today and I did get a lot of nice pics.

These are just a few of the pics. It really is lovely out there. ALSO I was able to ascertain that there was enough snow out there for me to use skis if I like. WOOOO! That is exciting. Now, let's hope we get more snow!

Iowa Caucus

Hmmmm. Interesting. It's 11:45pm on Jan 3, 2012 and Rick Santorum is ahead. But not by much. Romney is in a close second place. The most amazing thing to me is Jon Huntsman being in last place. Now, don't get me wrong. I completely support Obama. I think he is AWESOME and if we could get a few more Democrats in office Obama could get some real things going. However, Jon Huntsman getting LESS than 1000 votes. 1% of the vote. Really? This poor guy. He is the one candidate they have who is ACTUALLY qualified to be President.
The man has served under 4 Presidents (Reagan, Bush the 1st and 2nd, to name the Repubs) and was Ambassador to Singapore in 1992-1993.
He was Governor of Utah in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008 with 78% of the vote. He resigned as Governor in 2009 to accept Obama's offer that he be Ambassador to China. He only resigned from that to run for President himself.
He identifies himself as a center-right Republican.
He signed an inititive as Governor to lower Utah's Greenhouse gases. (That means he understands the science and doesn't throw stones at it like um, all the other candidates!)
His foreign policy makes more sense than the others, as he understands diplomacy and the need to use it in Asia and the Middle East.
He has seven kids, which you would think would make the GOP-ers happy.
But, oh yea, he is a Mormon... that pesky cult that doesn't sit well with the fringe fanatics on the far right.
Well then, forget all that other stuff, if the GOP are going to elect a Mormon just go with Romney then. He's a business man after all, and that is what this country needs, a real CEO that can straighten out Washington.... blah blah blah.

Poor Jon Huntsman. I can imagine how he feel this evening. Wondering where the America of Reagan went. Psst, Jon, it went down the toilet with the choice of Sarah "lipstick pig hockey mom" Palin.
That flushing sound is your hopes and dreams GOP!
Good Luck.
HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA!

It's the New Year, now what...

So you've rung in the New Year, managed NOT to have a hang over but DID have loads of fun. You watched the Ravens KICK BUTT on New Years day! YAY! You saw the English Premier League have upset after upset in the results. YAY! You woke up January 2nd and it was snowing (at least where I am) so you say NOW WHAT?
Well, for those of you who make resolutions, my advice is to make REALISTIC resolutions. Don't promise to lose a specific amount of weight, instead, do a little bit of excerise every day. Put on some tunes and dance around your living room. Or use a step stool and a cloth and clean your walls. Up the step stool wipe from ceiling to floor, on the next bit over, use the other arm, then keep switching it up as you go around the room. Do one room a day. When that's done, do your windows, insides only since it's so brrrrr outside. This will give you some excerise AND clean the house.
After all that cleaning, you will be hungry, so feel free to choose a recipe from the ones I have blogged on Yahoo Shine () or you can choose one from here.
Eating healthy is much easier than you think. It's also fast as well. The lie Americans have been fed for years is that you need a microwave and frozen foods to make quick and easy meals for you and your family. The problem with this is that you have to think about what you are going to eat for dinner that morning, so you can defrost it. Of course, you can use the microwave to defrost but that adds time as well.
Eating fresh and healthy allows you to have a craving on the way home from work (if you work a 9 to 5) and with a quick stop off at the grocers or with staples you keep in your fridge/pantry you can whip up a GREAT meal in minutes.
FOR EXAMPLE:
THAI INSPIRED PASTA
(Depending on the number of people you are cooking for adjust your ingredients. I am making this for 2)
Whole Wheat Penne Pasta
Can of Coconut Milk (if you don't have this, you can use milk in your fridge)
3 medium vine ripened tomatoes diced
(You can use a can of tomatoes if you like but fresh is best.)
2 teaspoons Thai Chili paste
Olive Oil
Any kind of pepper (orange, red, yellow or even green)
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves of garlic diced or crushed (good size cloves)
frozen peas (about a cup)
frozen corn (about half a cup)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon Rice Wine Vinegar
salt & pepper
Kidney beans (if canned, rinsed thoroughly - if dry, soak overnight and boil til soft.)

Get the water boiling and add the pasta.
In a large skillet, sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add the coconut milk and 2 teaspoons of the Thai Chili paste. Stir until the paste is disolved. Add the peas, corn and peppers to pan and bring to a boil. Add kidney beans. Boil until the frozen veg are warmed through and the peppers are softened. Reduce heat to low. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg and rice wine vinegar. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Add the tomatoes. Drain cooked pasta and return to pot, adding the pan ingredients to the pot. (I find it easier to mix everything in the pot than in the pan.)
Stir together and serve.
You will be eating a lovely, healthy and easy meal in no time at all.
You have controlled the salt content and the fat content. Skipping meat and dairy helps keep your cholesterol in check.
Keep checking here for more recipes and ways to make your life easier and healthier.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!