R.I.P., Magic Chef Bread Machine

You served me well - through the



Pumpkin bread I used to make french toast to



the Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Rolls to



the Pumpkin Breakfast rolls to the pizza dough to the dinner rolls - you have made so much for me in the last 12 years. And it is amazing to have an appliance last for that long now - most things seem to peter out long before then. I didn't use you for baking, only mixing and rising my dough - but you always did so with beautiful results.

Now to get another - I'm not even sure Magic Chef makes them anymore. We bought ours at Walmart back in 1998, and it only cost $40 then (the technology must have exploded or something, because I am not finding much online for under double that). I'm leaning toward having one with a horizontal loaf in case I ever do want to bake in it - but I guess I will have to see what I can find. And yes, I know I can mix bread dough without a machine, but I *like* having a machine do the work for me. Does anyone have a particular brand or style they like? Please let me know!

Some Days You've Got Nothing

And this is one of those days.

I slept in as far as my bladder would let me and woke up when it was light out for a change. Andrew washed dishes and made pancakes and coffee. I finished up the baby sweater, hat, and bootie set for my co-worker Cheryl (pictures to come after I have sewn the buttons on and washed the set). I went out and bought a waterproof mattress pad (because Andrew is afraid my water will break in the middle of the night) and braved the manic pre-Turkey Day crowds at Trader Joe's to pick up some stuff to make pizza for dinner tonight. Came home, had leftovers for lunch, then headed out to SnB with my friend, Denise. Went to Brew Ha Ha, caught up with Denise... and started yawning part way through.

Trust me, it had nothing to do with the company - but it was 1:30pm and my energy level was shot for the day. Came home and slept for the next 90 minutes. Probably could have slept much longer, but I needed to get the pizza dough started.

Whew. Where has my energy gone? I have the next week off, and right now I just foresee myself sleeping through great chunks of it.

Wordless Weekend

Yarn Pron Friday (and a bonus Sprog picture!)

So... I haven't started any of my holiday knitting yet. Earlier this year I had grand inspirations of finishing one Christmas present each month, but I will pre-empt my year end recap here and say that just didn't happen. I still have hopes of knocking out one or two things before Christmas rolls around, and this yarn below will be part of that:



Ooh! Pretty, right? It's a single skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino in the 'Archangel' colourway. I'm not normally a pink person, but I love how the different shades of pink in this skein play against the yellow. The person the gift is intended for is a pink person, so this will work well for her.



What is this skein destined to become? A pair of fingerless mittens. I have sort of half-heartedly picked out a pattern - but I hope to find a pattern I like better toute de suite. I have all next week off and plan to get some serious knitting project catch up done.



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I had another ultrasound yesterday afternoon, so here is an updated picture of Sprog:



For the record (and I'm only stating this because people have asked), Sprog will not be the baby's ultimate name. When I was pregnant with Willow, we called her Sprout in an attempt to keep her gender neutral for those people who didn't want to know whether the baby was a boy or a girl.

Victoria Recap (At Long Last!)

You didn't think I had forgotten, did you?

Part of the problem with vacation posts is that sometimes they get so picture heavy, you just don't know how you are going to do the trip justice. Last summer, Andrew's main request of our summer vacation was that we get to spend a day in Victoria, which I had absolutely no problem with at all. I spent five years in Victoria studying at the University of Victoria, and it is one of my favourite cities in the world.

We rented a car in Duncan, and drove into city, parking in the downtown area so we would have easy access to the touristy places and shopping. This is the view of the Parliament Buildings in the Inner Harbour. It's amazing to think that you look straight ahead and see this:



Then turn your head slightly to left and see this building: the Fairmont Empress Hotel (although, when I lived there it was just called the Empress Hotel):



Willow had never been on a horse and carriage ride before, so we decided to take a tour of the James Bay area - one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Victoria. I'm not sure why the photographer decided to cut the horse out of the picture...



Because he was a very nice horse, and stood very nicely while we all petted him.



I noticed this statue when we finished the carriage ride, so I had to go check it out - it's very interesting how she looks like she is standing on the rocks. I thought at first she was supposed to be a First Nations historical figure -



But it turns out I didn't have it quite right. Below is the plaque that was placed at her feet:



I'm still not entirely sure who she is supposed to represent, but the statue is to commemorate the Canadian volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939.

Behind the Spanish Civil War statue was a large fountain that was surrounded by the Canadian coat of arms:



Did you know the unicorn represents Scotland? I learned that recently whilst watching the Monarchy television series on Netflix on demand. I'm not sure I understand the connection between the unicorn and Scotland - but there you have it.

Here is Willow in front of British Columbia's coat of arms:



Some random petunias. I don't normally like petunias, but the colours of these were lovely:



Another thing I love about Vancouver Island - random totem poles. It's odd, when you grow up seeing them everywhere, you don't pay them much attention. I find that I appreciate them much more now that I live far away from them.



We walked from the downtown core up to Chinatown to have lunch. We had wanted to have lunch at the Fan Tan Cafe, but there was a line up of people and a 50 minute wait for that one, so we walked around the corner to a nondescript Japanese restaurant, where we had a delicious lunch - and didn't have to wait for it. I had cold soba noodles - something I don't think I have eaten since I lived in Japan, and had forgotten how much I liked it.



Some more aboriginal art (I have to say, Victoria has a lot of fountains):



Oh! I had to make a specific stop for this... now, my friend Tara may be the only person who reads this blog who knows what this pastry is...



It's called a honeybun, and you get them at Chinese bakeries. The pastry itself sort of looks like a hot dog bun with sesame seeds on top, but it is a sweet dough and it is filled with a buttery-coconut filling. I shared this with Andrew and Willow, neither who was all that enthused. Next time I won't share and will eat it all myself!

After this, we walked back to the car and drove the Dallas Road scenic route into Oak Bay, where I took this pretty picture of Willow:



Yes, my child likes to pose.

We drove through Uplands (a ritzy, old neighbourhood where they filmed the Winona Rider "Little Women" movie), and ended up in Cadboro Bay, where Willow conquered the resident sea monster:



And I will finish with a peaceful shot of Cadboro Bay:



This bay is just down the hill from the University of Victoria dormitories, and I used to walk down here frequently to spend time on the beach. I wish I had thought to remember to take a picture of the hill back up to the university - you would have thought I was a masochist for walking down so often!

WiP It Wednesday: The Willow Version

Willow asked if she could do the WiP it Wednesday this week, so here goes:





Hi!!!!!! Willow here! I got this idea from my B.F(B est F riend) Amanda.The first one is something  I  like to
call strip-a-dooddle.  Number two is a mix of one and "Chinese Staircase."  They are bracelets - I hope you like them.  Bye!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

If you could change one thing about your appearance, what would it be? Or would you change anything at all?

Honestly, not a whole lot. I've somewhat made peace with my size, and I know if I put effort into it I slim down and firm up easily enough - and I do feel much better when I do so. I would love to be taller - I never quite made it to five feet, and I find my lack of height to be much more of a physical detriment than being overweight. I'm cute, I've never had skin problems or needed braces, and the only plastic surgery I've really considered is breast reduction surgery - but that is more for my continued good back health as I age than any real need to look better.

Laziest Blog Post Ever

I'm so exhausted, so had to go look for a blog prompt for today - and found one here.

Name 5 Things In My Freezer

1) An apple pie I made yesterday - intended for Thanksgiving.
2) Beef and Barley stew - intended for a day I don't have time to cook.
3) Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (Willow's)
4) Blue Bunny fudgicles (Mine!)
5) Sirloin hamburger patties from Halda's Butcher Shop

Good night - I'm going to sleep now.

Wordless Weekend

Happy Birthday To Me!

Look what I woke up to! A set of blocking boards (there are 9 puzzle pieces altogether), 2 sets of size 1 Harmony needles for socks, a set of sizes 0 through 3 Harmony dpns, T-pins, and a skein of Stroll sock yarn in 'Treefort.' Thank you Andrew and Willow!

It's been a great day - went out for ramen at Takumi for lunch, had a massage in the afternoon, my mother-in-law made salmon for dinner, and Andrew and Willow ordered a cake just how I wanted (yellow cake, white buttercream icing, lemon filling, and yellow and orange flowers on top). I'm on a bit of a sugar high right now, but am looking forward to watching a movie and snuggling with Andrew on the sofa.

Yarn Pron Friday - The Canadian Edition

Whenever I travel, I like to pick up some 'souvenir' yarn, and if it comes (whether spun or dyed) from the place I am visiting, so much the better. Now, I know I am stretching this concept a bit with this yarn - but then again, Canada is a pretty big country! Fleece Artist hails from Mineville, Nova Scotia - and I bought this skein from the Beehive Yarn Shop in Victoria, BC - about as far as you can get away from Nova Scotia and still be in the same country.



The yarn? Fleece Artist Trail Socks in the 'Fatrails' colourway.



It's a very skooshy feeling - and machine washable (probably my favourite trait in sock yarn)! It's mostly light and dark teal, but where the colours transition from one to the other there are hints of a purple. What shall I make with it...?

Only 82 days to go...

Until we get to meet this beauty:



This scan looks so much like Willow when she was a newborn! The real life print out is better than this, but it is hard to get a scan of a scan.

WiP It Wednesday

I had hoped to have better pictures taken in daylight to show off the current WiPs, but unfortunately, with the time change, I didn't get home until it was dark out. I think I need to set up one of those light boxes I have seen on some people's blogs to take better lit pictures.

WiP #1: Willow's Mi Escuelita sweater



The only things I have left to finish here is the shawl collar on the sweater, sew up the underarms, and sew on the buttons. If you look closely, you can probably see how the two sleeves are fraternal. Let's not tell Willow about that...

WiP #2: Autumn Socks



I have to say - I haven't liked these socks from the start. I started them when I was going away on a business trip - I needed some mindless plain jane socks to knit on the airplane, so I pulled out the first skein I could find in the stash that was already wound. I'll finish the socks - it's always good to have a fallback mindless knitting project - but I will definitely be giving these ones to charity.

WiP #3: Cheryl's Baby Sweater



I'll be finishing knitting this sweater tonight - the only thing left to finish is 12 rows of 2x2 ribbing on the sleeve. I still need to get some buttons, but I won't be able to get to Hayes until Friday at the earliest. Cheryl is a co-worker of mine whose baby girl is due 12/30, so I've made some good time here. I have plenty of yarn left over, so I think I should be able to come up with matching hat and booties as well.

Favourite Song

Today's Prompt:

What was your favorite song this year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Twenty?

I'm just going to cover the beginning of this prompt - because in all honesty, I have no clue what was my favourite song 5, 10, or 20 years ago. I can hazard to guess that 20 years ago it may have been something from Phantom of the Opera or by Sinead O'Connor... but that is as close as an answer as I could get.

My music tastes are somewhat warped by the time that Andrew and I lived in Japan - not that our music tastes run heavily to JPop, although there is some of that in our music collection - it is more of an absence from knowledge of North American pop/rock from 1995 - 1998. We came back from Japan with absolutely no understanding of anything on the radio, and as a result, tended to look at alternate sources of music. And, because of that, we have a large assortment of movie soundtracks in our music collection. And what is a common element in many movie soundtracks? Covers!

One of my favourite songs right now is Pearl Jam's cover of The Who's 'Love Reign O'er Me' - and you can hear the song here at Yahoo Music. Not being terribly familiar with The Who, I didn't know the original - but I love the epic nature of the song - and the emotional wailing. I will admit to being very confused over the lyrics to begin with; I wanted to put the song on my MP3 player and kept looking for 'Love *Rain* O'er Me' - the lyrics may help explain it a bit:

Only love,
Can make it rain,
The way the beach is kissed by the sea.
Only love,
Can make it rain,
Like the sweat of lovers laying in the fields.


Love, Reign o'er me.
Love, Reign o'er me, Reign o'er me, Reign o'er me.

I ended up finding the song in a Rhapsody playlist called 'Pearl Jam Has You Covered,' and promptly added the whole playlist to my player.

What is your favourite song right now?

Dream Home

Today's Prompt: What would your dream home/apartment/condo/yurt look like? Where would it be? Who'd live in it with you?

Oh my - that last question is a loaded one depending on who I have been dealing with.

I've posted this picture before, but the house is so pretty it is worth posting again:



This house overlooks the beach in Rehoboth, DE - the only problem is that I would only want to live here in the off-season. I've seen pictures of what Rehoboth looks like in season and I don't want to be anywhere that many people. Mind you, I've never seen the inside of this house and probably never will, but I love all the windows that face the ocean and the natural light they let in.

What would my dream home have? A large kitchen with plenty of cabinet and counter space. Hidey-holes for all my appliances so that the counters are clear. A double sink! More than one bathroom! (Maybe you are correctly guessing here that some of these wants are directly connected to my complaints with my current home...) I would love to have a sitting room off my bedroom so I could read in peace. A library would be wonderful - or even just built in bookshelves! A fireplace...

Oh my. What do you want in your dream home?

Something I Miss From Being A Kid

Big slides...

The picture above is from the Arden Fair earlier this year - and as big as this slide is, it pales in comparison to some of the big slides I remember at the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) or Playland as a child. I did a search on Flickr for other people's slide pictures from PNE, and I found this one:



It isn't the one I remember - the one I remember had multiple slides going across and was all metal. And maybe it was just because I was seeing it from a child's reference point, but it seemed so much taller. I remember going down so fast that I was nearly airborne at times - a heady amount of adrenaline for a six year old.

Wordless Weekend

The Idiocy and Kindness of Strangers

What a strange day it has been. I had promised to get Willow this book she wanted to read, but she had to finish her school project first. The project was finished and handed in this week, so armed with my 33% off coupon for Borders, we headed out and bought the book.

Then we came back out to the car. No, no - don't worry - the car itself was fine. The problem was in the fact that some blind miscreant had parked his black Sienna minivan so close to mine that there was no way I could even get Willow in on the driver's side of the car. And what is even more assinine was that this is a good parking lot - there is a 8" wide double-lined no mans' land between the spots, so plenty of room to go around - but this idiot was parked about 3/4 in his spot, and 1/4 onto mine! Normally I would have just crawled over from the passenger side, but our console comes up between the two front seats - and there was no way I was going to be able to do this with the belly.

So... Willow and I went back into Borders, and they asked over the PA for the customer driving the black Sienna minivan with DE plates to come to the front desk. No one came forward. So, we went to the pizza place next door - same thing - no one came forward. The only other store it could have feasibly been was a toy store - but once again, no one came forward. I didn't know what I was going to do - until this twit moved, there didn't seem to be a way for me to get into the car.

Then this very nice woman in the toy store said if I was okay with it, she would manuever into my car and pull it out of the parking spot so I could drive. She came out with me and Willow to the car and did just that. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And to think - just yesterday I was trying to explain to Willow what 'pay it forward' meant. Now I have a prime example. Thank you!

It's a Little Ironic, Don'tcha Think?

Sigh...

Do you ever go in and check out your blog's statistics? I think it is interesting to see who is coming to my blog and from where - and perhaps the most amusing of all, the searches that bring people to my blog. You know - the person who googles 'turkey baster happiness' and ends up on my blog is going to be awfully disappointed.

Anyhow - I looked at my statistics recently and came up with this graph:



Look at that banner day far to the left at the beginning of October - I was so shocked - I had to go to that day's blogpost to see what I had written about that day that had drawn in so many people. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that was the day I wrote about not being able to go to Rhinebeck. It wasn't me at all drawing people in...

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DMV Postscript -

I have my new license! My father-in-law took me in at lunch today, and there were nowhere near the lines of the night before. I was only gone from the office for about 90 minutes, and we had no problems getting my documents checked or finding a place to sit. And a big thank you to David, the DMV guy who created my license! He was filling in my information, and asked if my height and weight had changed. I said, "My height, no - but I'm 7 months pregnant right now." He replied without a hitch that they would just continue to use the weight that was on my previous driver's license. Thank goodness for thoughtful DMV people!

Holy DMV Misadventures, Batman.

Well.

I had hoped to have a funnier story for you, but the gist of it is:

• I need to renew my driver's license
• Delaware has new document requirements for licenses (passports, birth certificates, green cards, etc.)
• Wednesday is the only day of the week they are open past the time I get off work
• We got lost on our way to the DMV (not horrendously lost, but got there later than we planned)
• We arrived 90 minutes before they closed
• My ticket number was 183
• They were serving 50
• No one was particularly interested in giving a 7 month pregnant woman a seat
• We gave up 15 minutes before they closed... because there was still 83 people ahead of me in line.

Gah!  No one is happy right now.  Andrew was stressing because I couldn't sit down for a long while, and he had a headache.  So many people who didn't understand the new document requirements were clogging up the lines, only to be turned away when they got up there.  It looks like I am going to have to take time off work to get my new license - I'm not terribly pleased with that - but I only have little more than a week before my license expires.