Happy Chinese New Year! Technically it started yesterday, but we've been running around doing family stuff for the holiday, as usual. Once again we waited until the last minute to prep, too, so Willy and I are both a little exhausted.
We got back late Wednesday night from a trip to Arizona to visit Willy's mom. Then on Thursday I had an interview that I spent most of the day prepping for. Friday I had to go into work and do a different phone interview, and then realized I had a LOT to do by Saturday night. See, the Chinese are very superstitious and the house is supposed to be spotless for a clean start to the new year, only you aren't allowed to do any real cleaning once the new year starts, which was Sunday. So, long story short, after leaving work on Friday I had to go to the bank to get lai see money; buy oranges, clementines, and snacks; and start doing as full a scrub of the house as possible. After dusting, sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, vaccuuming, and scrubbing the floors on hands & knees, we went to bed at 4am Saturday morning. Poor Willy, dealing with my Chinese guilt and customs :P
Saturday night we had an awesome end-of-the-year meal with a bunch of family. Lobster, conch, abalone with shitake mushrooms/sea cucumbers/napa cabbage, pheasant, chicken, stuffed fish, yu choy, a Chinese-style celery "burrito", two kinds of soup...I think I'm forgettng some stuff, but can I just say YUM?! Do you see why this is one of my favorite holidays ever? :)
Yesterday we ran around doing the traditional home visits. First stop was back to my parents' house for a vegetarian lunch, followed by the handing out of lai see (red envelopes with money). Then the entire family descended on my grandpa's room at the nursing home; it's a good thing he doesn't currently have a roommate, would have been tough to fit 16 people in just half that room. Finally, my immediate family came over to our house. We ended the day with 4 hours of volleyball :P
Today we're headed to my parents' place again, for a New Year's opening meal (yes, it's all about the food, as usual). The celebration continues into next weekend when we do the family visit at my aunt & uncle's house--and have more yummy Chinese New Year food, haha!
If you wanna see your Chinese horoscopes for the year, this link seems good. My horoscope seems pretty positive overall, especially in the area of work, so I have high hopes!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
My First Knitting Project
I promise this blog isn't going to turn into a kindergarten "My First..." series :)
That said, here's my first knitting project. Yeah, I'm a crappy photographer but try to ignore that for a second. This was a good first project because it let me try a bunch of different types of patterns, which is probably why they named it the Sampler Scarf. I did have to frog (i.e. rip apart--rip it, rip it, get it? :)) a few times because I'm still learning, but learning how to frog knitting was actually a lesson in itself. Like everything else with knitting, it's harder to do than in crochet. I can see now why my friend Sabrina says crocheting produces faster results. So if crochet is easier and faster, why am I pursuing knitting? Because it's fun to learn something new and knitting also produces a cleaner and different look than crochet. Plus I just want to be able to say I know how to do it :)
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