Shark, meet SharkBean

Two weeks ago, Andrew and I were invited to his cousin's wedding reception in Monterey. We decided to make a day of it, and invited my parents along to join us during the day, and then while we attended the reception that evening, they could have a nice dinner.

It was a beautiful drive, and Monterey was perfectly overcast. Just the way I like it.

Genevieve and Grandpa Knitmore on the Wharf

We arrived around lunchtime, walked down Fisherman's Wharf, and picked a wonderful restaurant - Domenico's. They were friendly and welcoming, the food was SUPERB, and the view couldn't be beat.

Taking in the scenery

Can you see them?

Sea lions, sunning.

Sea lions! They weren't having a particularly noisy day, but Genevieve LOVED watching them. In all of the times I have been to Monterey and had a Meal With a View_TM, none of the views have come CLOSE to this one.

(Well, maybe the mating sea gulls on the other side of the window at Bubba Gumps about ten years ago, but that was awesome in an our-server-was-horrified kind of way.)

You can't see it, but we're wearing matching sweaters

Genevieve was amazing. After a long drive, she sat on our laps until the food came, and then she sat *so politely* in the high chair. We all had really excellent food, and she had delicious, perfectly prepared veggies that were SO good that she did her happy bounce with every bite. If I hadn't been busy being present in the moment, I would have filmed it to share. (Next time.)

After lunch, we made a quick stop at Happy Girl Kitchen Co to pick up some necessities for the house. And by "necessities" I mean summer apricot jam and blood orange preserves, along with a few other things that sounded delicious.

Generally speaking, I hate jam and preserves because I find them cloyingly sweet. Not so with the Happy Girl preserves. Their stuff tastes like summer, and I get uncharacteristically greedy with it.

Finally, we headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (or the Cetacean Institute, for the Star Trek fans in the audience), where we moseyed through until closing time.

Some of us didn't last that long

We packed up and went to change for the evening's festivities. The wedding reception was in the aquarium, between the jellyfish exhibit and the seahorse exhibit. There is something inherently cooler about being there after hours. Or maybe that's just my inner nerd speaking. (HA. INNER nerd. As if I'm not layer after layer of nerd.)

Dinner was the pièce de résistance; tables were set up in the open sea exhibit and we dined by soft candlelight and the light of the tank as we watched sharks, rays, and turtles (among other creatures) swimming around and doing their thing.

Personalized jellyfish for the bride and groom, courtesy of Andrew

The best part? Getting to show Genevieve all the different kinds of sharks.

All things being equal, I think she preferred the meditative properties of watching the anchovies. I think it's probably a developmental thing; like visual white noise.

White, fishy noise.

What's not to love?

I mentioned that I had a REMARKABLY stupid weekend, but I have to point out the silver lining of it all. We went to the lovely Loma Prieta Winery on Saturday with one of Andrew's co-workers, who is a member there.

This was a June Cleaver-ish thing for me to do. While you may not suspect it, with the pink hair, I perform quite a few very classic "wifely" functions- including making myself presentable, social, and pleasant at events that involve Andrew's career.

(You can imagine me vaccuming in heels and pearls, but that's the only place that is going to happen. Go ahead, take a minute.)

So, I put on my makeup, and the Poison Green Twist, and off we went.

The Loma Prieta Winery is WAAAAAY back off of Summit Rd, in the Santa Cruz mountains. It's SO far back off of Summit that the road changes names. Thrice, I believe.

I don't particularly like windy roads, or one-lane, windy, mountain roads, but I kept both my composure AND my breakfast in check. When we got there, it was totally worth it. I mean, look at the view:

Oops, the background is in soft focus. Wine will do that, won't it? From what we were told, on a clear day you could see WAAAAAY out, but I preferred it a little overcast. (I think a little fog is lovely.)

There was food, and of course, wine. Lots of wine.

(This wine wasn't my favorite, but it was the best color. White wine is boring to take pictures of, but I really enjoyed their Viognier.)

The most dangerous part was the sommalier that circulated, refilling empty glasses. It's no wonder that I dropped my driver's license!

(Which, by the way, when I called first thing the next morning, they found it and happily mailed it back to me, saving me HOURS at the DMV as well as the general frustration of pink hair on official documents.)

Other cool things about the winery include Mo, the winery dog, who fetches AROUND the vines, doing incredibly agility work, and awesome art in the restrooms.

(By the way, AFTER my license was misplaced, Andrew pointed out that next time, he'll be happy to keep my ID in his wallet. You'd think I would have been smart enough to do this, but nooo...)

All I can say is that I am SO looking forward to the Retzlaff Winery spinning day. We'll just have to put someone else in charge of my license.

I'm IT!

I was tagged by Nathalie, and, lacking any real content (because I am SWAMPED with getting ready to take time off of work).

What I’m supposed to do is find the 4th picture folder on my computer. I’m to put the 4th picture from that folder on my blog and tell 4 facts about it.

Fact 1: This is Mt Rushmore on July 3rd, 2004.
Fact 2: It started raining shortly after we took this picture, and didn't stop until July 5th, 2004.
Fact 3: Showing up early to Mt Rushmore means avoiding the crowds.
Fact 4: I told Andrew that day that I thought I would look positively fetching memorialized in stone. (Notice that there's space for me to GW's left.)

I'm tagging Chloe, Lisa, Kathy and the Undyed Vampire.

I am a mad scientist

I'll be honest: there hasn't been much knitting here. I'm five rows away from finishing a Baby Surprise Jacket, and I'm not sure that I like it. It's smart, and that's cool, but my decreases look miserable. I'll post pictures when I get to it.

I went to the California Sheep and Wool Festival with Mom. It was nice, but a letdown. I honestly expected it to be... bigger. I had a good time, but it wasn't worth the eight hours we spent in the car to get to and from the fair, and the hour round trip from the fairgrounds to our NASTY hotel.

The hotel is a story in itself. In the Boonville/Ukiah area, it seems that lodging options are limited to a $200/night B&B, or a one-star, $50/night hotel.

Given the choice between paying out the nose to a B&B and the option of staying for a little less cash (leaving more for recreation), we chose the hotel. Given that it was a one-star hotel, I packed my own sheets.

Thank God I did. You didn't need a blacklight to see the stains on the bedding (and every other flat, fabric-covered surface). Ew. Even the carpet was sticky. Grooooooooooss.

The mattress was that classic, cheap motel, squeaky mattress that was intended for illicit liaisons. Not so much for a good night's sleep, oddly enough. Given the quality of our room, we spent only the time that we slept in the room.

We ate at a couple of fabulous places, including the Ukiah Brewing Company and the Bluebird Diner, and that was awesome.

The Fiber Festival itself had some high points: the fleece judging was edifying, as was the sheep shearing. Other than that, it was a lot of chatting with the vendors. [And buying fleeces.] We won't be attending next year. Too much driving, too little fiber.

I transgressed against the Social Pressure Experiment, but I've bought absolution. Or would that be indulgences? In any case, I slipped, and now I'm even MORE committed to the cause.

Early Saturday morning, I woke up with a Migraine. A combination of Vicodin, coffee, and water helped to alleviate some of the pain.

But!

The magical thing about Vicodin is that I have the BEST ideas when I've taken it for pain relief. [NOTE: I have a prescription, for Vicodin, to me, for migraines. I use it judiciously. No need to worry, internet-friends!]

I thought of a BRILLIANT way to dye roving, so when we got home, I took a nap, and then Andrew and I set out on a course to buy the $10 worth of materials needed for my experiment.

The Goal: Day-Glo rainbow colors, in Superwash Merino [I already have this in my stash.]

I'll be honest: 3 out of 4 of my experiments worked out EXACTLY the way I wanted them to. #3 (the failure) may also not be a failure, just not what I intended. Given that they dye for #3 was clearly MUCH older than the other experiments, this may have had something to do with it. Adding a little fresher dye to the bath will resolve this, we think.

Thus far, for the day-glo, I have the "red" (which will ideally be more on the fuschia side), "green" (which is an AMAZING chartreuse), blue (turquoise with bits of navy), and yellow. This leaves: orange and purple. Pictures pending... you know, uploading them.

Snarfle

Hello, darlings. I'm sorry that I haven't been more regular about the blogging, but I've been suffering from a horrid bout of tendinitis and writer's block. Since I mostly blog about knitting, the tendinitis and writer's block might just be more connected than I realize.

This is frustrating on a number of levels, but I'm going to just let it go now. Please think good thoughts for my hands/wrists/hurty bits.

I don't want to totally rip off the Yarn Harlot, but what the hell is wrong with people on airplanes? I try to be courteous and polite most of the time, assuming that everyone around me is exactly as miserable as I am, and that I don't need to make it worse. I smile, I'm polite, and most importantly, I say "pardon me" when passing, and "thank you" frequently.

The YH has already ranted about the jerks-with-cell-phones issues (which I've now encountered twice in the last month), but on my most recent plane ride, I've seen people be rude to the flight attendants for NO REASON. Being on a plane for my job is my version of the worst kind of hell, so I have nothing but respect for these hardworking folks.

In the "people to be nice to" category, let's include every single person who works (in any and all capacities) at the airport. After close to twelve miserable, sleepless, crunched hours in airports and on uncomfortable planes, I walked to get a cup of coffee in the most unloved wing of JFK. After I sang praises to every God I could manage to dredge up in my sleep-deprived state, I had a bucket of coffee in my hand, waiting to be paid for and appropriately doctored.

Behind me in line, stood two fresh-to-the-airport people. They were clean, their clothes were pressed, and they clearly had not had the same 12 hours I had. The entire five minutes we were in line, they bitched about EVERYTHING. The man in front of me was juggling two cups of coffee and an INCREDIBLY well-behaved toddler, and yet, this couple bitched about HOW HE WAS HOLDING THE COFFEE.

Really? You want to micro-manage how people hold their coffee? I considered turning around and telling the two of them to shut the hell up (sleep deprivation brings out the best in me), but the rational side of me decided that anything I really want to do when exhausted is probably ill-advised.

I feel so naive, thinking that people should be polite whenever possible. I find that in most unpleasant situations, being polite is always more effective than being rude and obnoxious. Squeaky wheels do get oiled, but you'll get the minimum that they are required to do. Being polite bears many rewards, really, really. I think it's redundant to talk about it here. Obviously, if you read this blog, you're smarter (and decidedly more attractive) than non-Better Than Yarn readers.

After my most recent flight, I told Andrew that I am never, ever, ever, leaving the house again. Other feature of this flight included a rabid-looking hairpiece, no sleep, an open-mouth-breather, and me catching a wicked ugly flu. The world can come to me, if I never see another airplane again, it will be too soon.

The wicked ugly flu has wiped out all of my brains and energy. Before I left on the trip, I finished the body of my Not-Your-Standard-Issue-Sweatshirt, and cast on the sleeves. I estimated that the sleeves should take me about two days to complete. Not so much. I can knit about 4 rows (total), and then I'm too tired to knit.

The upside of the NYSIS is that it's on size 9 needles, which are the ONE SIZE of needle that I can knit with the tendinitis. So, it seems that once this is done, I'll be knitting all of my malabrigo up, since I can't manage the three lace shawls or any socks that I have on the needles. Essentially, if it's not on size 9's, I can't do it. Period.

I feel a little bad about this, since I promised a sample lace shawl to a friend (to be a booth sample which is returned to me), but it's on 2's, and thus, impossible to knit. Please ignore the fact that regardless of the tendinitis, I don't have enough brains left (due to the airborne influenza of death and destruction) to knit anything more complex than stockinette stitch in the round.

Oh, and "Walker, Texas Ranger" is great to sleep through. Wierd, huh?

I'm baaaa-ack!

Hi all.

I know. You're thinking, "How was the cruise, Jasmin?"

Poorly planned. I would go into the details, but that would make this post intensely negative, and frankly, boring to read. Sadly, I can not recommend going on any future Sea Socks cruises. Really.

But.

Alaska was beautiful. You should totally go.

I may have been pre-occupied with having fun to take a lot of pictures of Ketchikan. It was cold and rainy, and I LOVED it.

We stopped at the Hubbard Glacier.

It was pretty cold. Perfect time for a vanity shot!

It was also super-cold. So, to warm up:

Hot chocolate with Bailey's and my pink socks.

We went around Juneau. First to the Mendenhall Glacier:

Pretty, huh?

I met my first snowman ever.

He liked my sock.

I was hoping to see some black bears, but only saw this:

Afterwards, we went to Glacier Gardens, and got rained on in the rainforest. In person, I wax poetic about how peaceful and introspective the time I spent there was. Here, you get a picture of our very young (and sporting) tour guides:

Next, we went to the Alaskan Brewing Company. There was beer. I drank jalapeño beer. And six or seven other kinds.

Mmmmm... Foamy!

After sampling some of their brews, we went to dinner at the Twisted Fish.

I can really pull off a bib.

And we had the best waitress ever, Jennifer. (Holding the sock.)

In Victoria, there was Beehive Yarns, and the Canoe Club. Sorry, no pictures. But, I had some amazing drinks. (There may be a connection between those two.)

There were more upsides:

Meeting so many fabulous people. I really do believe that knitters are inherently interesting and good people.

Amy's husband (Phil) looks hot in his kilt. HOT!

Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. Nice people, good yarn, GREAT sherry.

Now I just have to wait for my souvenirs to show up in the mail. Mom asked me why I didn't mail my dirty laundry and pack my new yarn.

Clearly, I was having a "pretty but not smart" day. Live and learn, right?

Preparing for travel

I hate going on vacation. In my opinion, it’s almost more trouble than it’s worth. Almost.

For me, the hardest time is right before and right after I leave. In addition to having to make the lists, do the laundry, do the packing, there is all of the work stuff that needs doing.

It starts with prepping everything so that when you’re out, if something goes wrong, there is a pro-cess. Set your e-mail to ping your co-workers if they forget that you’re out and try to e-mail you. Looking forward to the time frame that you’ll be out, and getting everything set up to move seamlessly when you get back.

I can’t even begin to start thinking about when I get back- the last time I was out for 4 days over the winter holiday I spent three hours sifting through my work e-mail. Three hours. During a quiet time of year. It’s enough to give a woman hives, I tell you.

But. All work and no play make Jasmin 2008 antsy and burned out. So, part of this week’s planning includes:

• Filling out the pre-boarding paperwork for the boat
• Pre-boarding for the flight
• Packing my bags to stay within the weight guidelines, and still leave a little space for a few, circumspect, Jasmin 2008 approved purchases.
• Making phone calls to all dropping-off volunteers to remind them that we need to be at the airport early.

Are we there yet?

List-y, list-y!

You know how I love the lists. This week, I have had the opportunity to make lists. Many lists. Lists of lists, even.

Such is the joy of travel. So, for your reading pleasure, I give you…

Jasmin’s Tips for Travel Planning

Make a timeline. It should look like this:

1 Month out -> Check flights. Check luggage. If luggage won’t work, order new luggage.

3 weeks out -> Check flights again. Post a countdown timer on your blog. Brag about it. Dust off existing luggage.

2 weeks out-> Buy all of the things that you need for your trip. If it is a “trip specific” thing, put it directly into your suitcase. This would include travel-sized toiletries, travel pillows, etc.

Do laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. While doing the laundry, pull clothing intended for the trip. Fold it, put it aside. I’m putting mine directly in the suitcase, but not in the “for reals” packing way.

1 week out -> Check flights. Arrange rides to the airport. Call in favors for this, if necessary. “For reals” pack the suitcases with everything needed EXCEPT for the daily use stuff.

Start eating everything that will expire in the fridge. If necessary, eat out the last day or two.

Call the credit card company and let them know that you will be traveling.

Check any meds- make sure you have enough for the trip and the week you get home.

The night before -> Check your flights. Go over your lists. Make sure you packed underpants. Check your carry-on for stuff that will get you a cavity check. If you must knit on the plane, bring a self-addressed, postage paid envelope for that project.

Charge your iPod, make sure you have your headphones. Also, pack a book. Just in case. Put your passport/ID and flight confirmation in the bag you’re taking.

Sometimes, a little OCD can be helpful, right?

One if by land and three if by sea

If you read the Purlescence blog, you’ll see that I was swept into the Ariann knitalong. It was the allure of the Butter Peeps. I swear. A great pattern and great yarn are really a deadly combination.

I started working on it, and was thinking to myself, “You know, the ribbi cardi only needs a collar and it will be done. The yellow malabrigo sweater only needs sleeves, and the rugby sweater needs half sleeves. I could finish all three before the cruise.”

Madness, right? But totally manageable. I have short arms, and one of the malabrigo sleeves is already (around) elbow length. On a neck-down raglan, so the top ¼ of each sleeve is done. As an added bonus, I did some KILLER shaping on the Delicious Malabrigo sweater and the rugby sweater, so they’re very flattering.

Right?

Very flattering = finished faster. There is nothing like working on a garment that you know will make you look like a million dollars. Or gold bullion, in this case.

Driving Miss Gigi

Mom is arriving back from overseas today. Though no requests were made for Reuben sandwiches, her travel schedule posed a bit of a problem.

Tehran is 11 1/2 hours ahead of us. Her plane left at God-Awful-Early AM (Tehran time), which makes it a Totally Reasonable hour here. Mom's schedule is all messed up, so every time she thought to call, she realized that it was an Unreasonable Hour in California.

I'll admit to making overseas calls at 2:30 AM their time, only remember it was an Unreasonable Hour in Tehran once my very tired, confused, and angry uncle answered the phone. Ooops. I hung up, glad that star-sixty-nine doesn't work on international calls. My cowardice is LEGEND.

Back to Mom. Right.

I have her flight information. I like to keep tabs on how the travel is going (a la flight tracker), so that in case of a delay, I'm not left uninformed. Sam's flight was delayed more than eight hours. Due to my meticulous planning and flight tracking, his Reuben was delivered hot. (Or lukewarm. San Francisco is a bit of a drive, folks.)

So, standard real-time flight trackers only work for domestic flights, which is fine, unless you have someone flying internationally to get domestic. After a few minutes of hunting, I found a site that would update me on the status of her flight, but alas, with no cool, real-time graphics.

Providing everything stays on schedule, Mom should be home this afternoon. Jet-lagged like a mofo, but home.

You Say "Horrid", I say "AWESOME!"

It seems that I have an unnatural predilection for the loudest, most obnoxious [enter appropriate noun] available. Here is my luggage:

Here is an approximation of Andrew's luggage:

(Imagine all of the bags in the black camo.)

It's not bad taste; it's really a practical thing to have loud luggage. There have been so many times where I've stood there looking at the tsunami of black wheeled luggage, dreading having to fight someone for my suitcase.

(This really happened to me once. I had to wrestle my bag away from an older gentleman and show him the tag.)

This luggage says, "Look at me! I'm here, and nobody has taste like my owner!"

Goats, and Sheep and Puppies, Oh My!

I left sunny San Jose on Thursday for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival; the biggest knitting/spinning/weaving event in North America. I had my trusty work laptop with me, so that I could work from the hotel (and not be a slacker during crunch time). Yes, that's right. I *heart* the internet!

We were at the San Jose airport, and since we were flying Southwest (the Klassiest airline EVER), we had to wait in line to get our seats. That's right, kids! Stand in line! Fortune favors the prepared and patient! So, we sit in line, knit, and end up talking about Star Wars (I don't remember how). Everyone around us joins in. Everyone likes to indulge their inner geek publicly sometimes, especially if it's with people who will never see you again. We board the plane, manage by some airline miracle to be seated together, and fly to LA.

We get to L.A., stand in another line, and find that one woman from the SJ flight is going to Maryland as well. Small world. The head flight attendant on the LA to Baltimore flight was hysterical! We got to Baltimore early, got the rental car, and were off to the hotel.

I love the Residence Inn. I say this with utter sincerity. It is BY FAR my favorite hotel. I've been to nicer hotels, yes. The comforts of home (i.e. a refrigerator, microwave, etc) make longish trips so much easier, and it's not much more expensive than a regular hotel. Plus, they let you bring your pets. I'll get back to why I love the Residence Inn so deeply later.

We started off Friday, working our respective butts off, until I was struck with "Jasmin Kryptonite". That's right. The only thing that can stop the force that is Whirlwind Jasmin. A migrane. There were no drugs to be had, only lots of yarn and sheep, so I laid down under a table and slept it off. I had very vivid dreams about a woman with lips (amazing lips, not like I normally dream about women sans lips), and Cynthia and Mom dragged me back to the hotel 6ish so that I could recoup the force that is Jasmin. I slept for six hours, ate something, and slept for another six hours. Saturday, the busiest day of the show has arrived.

People were getting angry that we weren't open BEFORE OPENING. Which was ok, we sold them yarn anyway. There were a challenging people, but mostly there were competent people with brains who understand that when they want to buy things, they have to pay for them. It was BRUTAL how sunny it was, and although I was wearing sunscreen, I now resemble a very cute patchwork lobster. For those of my readers that do not know what a patchwork lobster looks like, it's a lobster that is red in some places and white in the others. [This is entirely made up by me, but wasn't my confidence convincing?]

So, Melinda wanted to spend some time with Tess, and she asked us if we would rather crash at the hotel she had been at (the Ramada Limited) or if we wanted to crash on the floor in the room that we'd been in. Since we all needed beds to sleep in, she assumed we'd take the Ramada room. She reserved a room, and said that we'd confirm by 4PM.

At 3:00 PM, I called to say "Yes, we'll take it," and magically, our reservation had disappeared. All they had was a two bed room in the smoking section. Ick. I said I'd get back to them in a few minutes.

I called the Residence Inn (so we'd be in the same hotel). All they had was a 2 bedroom suite in the smoking section, but they would go up and deodorize it for us. For about $40 more per night, we got bedrooms to ourselves, two bathrooms as well as the comforts of home. I made the executive decision to take it.

We drive there (which was terribly convenient for everyone involved), and a non-smoking 2 bedroom suite had opened up. The cute concierge had slid us in there! (He recognized me over the phone- is this a good thing? My future as a spy is looking more and more unlikely.) Oh, and when I got the bill, it cost EXACTLY THE SAME as the 1 room/ 2 beds at the Ramada. I couldn't have been happier with the service or the room. We were on the same floor, so nobody had to do any extra driving on our behalf.

The sunburn still hurts, still, but for the entertainment of my suitemates, I sang "Jasmin the Red-Nosed Admin" (because my forehead and nose took the brunt of my facial sunburn), even though I'm not an admin anymore. Cynthia and I would break out into a verse of "A Little Priest" occaisionally. Good times.

Sunday was better, Tess's boyfriend set up an awning so that we weren't further cooked, and it turned out to be a lovely, more mellow day that included a funnel cake. I LOVE FUNNEL CAKE!

My diet at the festival consisted of hot dogs and chocolate milkshakes. That's fairly balanced right? Hot dog in one hand, milkshake in the other. It was complete chaos all weekend, and I have to say that I'm thrilled to be back to my real job. I could stand to sleep for a week straight, but that's not in the cards for me.