Boring Blogger

That's me. I know I haven't posted anything exciting in weeks! First there was the creative slump, followed by carpal tunnel pain, resulting in nothing interesting on the blog.

I had planned on filling the time with playing with my embroidery machine, but that only led to frustration. I was able to get it working and it works ok with the stock patterns on the machine, although it does tend to leave gaps. When I tried to use a self-made pattern, the machine couldn't sew it properly and after breaking 3 needles I gave up in frustration. I'm not sure if it's my inexperience or of it's the machine. Either way it killed my desire to sew.

Thankfully, my hands & wrists are feeling much better from the rest and I'm thinking of busting out the needles today and knitting up some of this:
Gorgeous Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn that I received as a thank you gift from a fabulous MTS participant. Not yet sure what pattern I'll use, may wing it, but I've been itching to knit this ever since it arrived... soooo purty!

I'm also going to get in gear and get the Bittersweet Heart pattern written up for test knitting. So, hopefully the blog will be back on track with knitted goodness soon. :)

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a bit of puppy cuteness.

Diatribe

I've a bit of a diatribe welling in me. Last night my hubby and I went out for a lovely dinner. After eating, the waiter offered us coffee, cappuccino, etc. and I ordered a hot tea.

Honey got a lovely cup of cappuccino, with a side tray filled with shaved chocolate, cinnamon sticks & whipped cream that could be used enhance his coffee drinking experience. They brought me a tea pot and a selection of bagged teas... all of which were either flavored black tea, flavored green tea or herbal!

This is far from the first time this has happened, and it got me thinking. Restaurant owners would never DREAM of only offering flavored coffee. They just wouldn't. So why do they think it's acceptable to only offer flavored tea?

I'm not asking for much here. While I'm a bit of a tea snob at home, I don't expect that type of quality when I go out. Hell, I would settle for a bag of Lipton. Many times the only black tea they offer is Earl Grey, which they seem to think is not flavored for some reason. Well, it is and I cannot stand the taste of bergamont.

And I have to say I've noticed this phenomenon far more in upscale restaurants. They even have special humidors to display their pricey tea bags that are full of fruit & herbs. I'm sure this is really impressive to those who are drinking tea on a lark, but to serious tea drinkers this is really depressing. I mean I can go into any coney island or fast food joint, order a hot tea and get a black tea bag, no fuss. They may ask if I want decaff, but that's it.

Also, people who are going to drink their tea with their meal don't want some fruity concoction messing with the taste of their food. They are not like wine which, when paired correctly, can take your entree to new heights. These teas aren't designed to enhance the meal, they are meant as after-dinner, on their own kind of drinks.

Is it really too much to ask for the restaurant owners of the world to stock 1 plain black and/or green tea? Really?

end diatribe. :)

Grumble, Grumble

Cough, Cough... stupid michigan weather! At least this made me feel a bit better:



Corrina also made me smile. In the midst of a full on hack attack, I looked out the window to see her doing her "freight train". This is what we call it when she runs full tilt around the back yard in ever decreasing circles. She ended this bout by dropping to the ground, rolling over & rubbing her back in the snow. Crazy puppy! :)

Discworld Swap

I participated in a Discworld Themed swap on Ravelry and just got my amazing package.
Apron, knitted string bag, Pursenality Plus book, 85% Cocoa Lindt bar, Candy, Fiber Pieces Alpaca/Merino yarn, J. Knits 100% Alpaca yarn (the purple), and a phone charm! Oh, and there's a lovely shawl pin stuck in the green skein, but it's a bit hard to make out in the photo.

Close-up of the hand painted apron.

Charm for the goddess Anoia, which now is hanging
on my computer monitor.
She even drew boot-soles on the bottom of the box!

She really went above & beyond! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

The Great Unravel

This weekend we headed off to Philly for the Circus' cd release show. I was enlisted to run the background videos. I have to say I was pretty nerve-racked on the way down. I've never done any kind of video production before and I was really nervous I was going to screw it up. However, everything seem to come off well and I got a lot of compliments from the audience. Most importantly, the band was happy so I guess I didn't suck! You can see a bit of my work in this shaky cam video of Tink that someone made at the show. :) Watching it you can hardly tell that poor Joziah had a nasty respiratory infection and couldn't really talk for 2 days before the show!

I have to say I really love the new cd, The Great Unravel. There really isn't a bad song on the album! I was going to link to it, but it seems it isn't up for sale on their website or cdbaby yet. Kris thinks it won't be available online for another month, so it looks like the only way to get it is to attend a show.

In other news, I want to thank everyone for all the well-wishes! The antibiotics did the trick and I am once again healthy! Yippie! Unfortunately my carpal tunnel has picked now to flare back up, so it looks like my knitting hiatus will have to last a little longer. I think this is a good time to finally figure out my embroidery machine and do a bit of sewing. :)