Gung Hei Fat Choy!

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!

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 :)

Belated Christmas dinner photos

Nothing like doing a Christmas-related post a month late. Just thought I'd recap this past year's crazy meal:

APPETIZERS & DRINKS: baked brie w/apples and caramelized onions, wensleydale cheese, Maine pumpkin bread, honey corn bread muffins, pasta salad, rice krispy treats, sparkling apple cider, sangria

VEGGIES: Willy's stir-fried cabbage special, green & yellow beans w/mushrooms, corn niblets, Caesar salad

SIDES: homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn chowder

ENTREES: roast, turkey, ham, phyllo-wrapped salmon, Vietnamese cold noodles

DESSERTS: apple pie a la mode, ricotta cheese pie w/chocolate sauce, mini cheesecakes, mini brownies, chocolate pots

I know I'm forgetting some stuff, but you get the jist :)

My First Knitting Swatch

LOL, I finally got around to learning how to knit and this is what I created after watching a few minutes of a video I borrowed from the library. Aww, my first stockinette stitch :P

Two observations about knitting:

(1) It's super confusing that a stitch itself is called a knit stitch or a purl stitch (and as far as I can tell those are really the only two "stitches" in knitting and every pattern is based on these two basics--kinda fascinating in itself to this newbie), but the product of creating these stitches in succession is also called a "stitch," i.e. garter stitch is repeating knit or purl stitches over and over again across multiple rows and stockinette stitch is what results when you alternate rows of knit stitches with rows of purl stitches. What the heck?

(2) Knitting is more complicated to learn than crochet, IMHO. It's harder to fix mistakes, more manipulation of the yarn is required, and it's not as fast as crocheting. All that said, I'm enjoying adding it to my crafting arsenal because the final products often have a more orderly look to them than crochet and it's just cool to learn something new.

Congrats to Mommy Sabrina and Daddy Ryan!

I am so excited for my friends Sabrina & Ryan! Their baby boy Elliot arrived today, a day before his scheduled C-section, and mama, daddy, and baby are all doing well. I'm a tad bit jealous that Willy gets to meet Elliot tonight and I'm stuck in rainy (albeit 50+ degree) Boston, but I did have a chance to chat with the thrilled parents, which was nice.

I've been trying to get out to both NorCal and SoCal for months to visit with friends and their babies. Hopefully that won't be put off for too much longer.

Welcome to the world, Elliot!

Merry Day After Christmas!

We had a great time yesterday hosting 19 people at our house (including the two of us). This is the third year in a row that we've hosted and I think we've got the hang of it now (re: we've figured out how to coordinate cooking for and feeding 19 hungry mouths :)).

So many aspects of the day to cover, but this post is dedicated to the gifts I made and haven't been able to post about for the last two months. I had a goal to finish three afghans and one tote bag to give away. I started in September and actually did manage to finish all three afghans but changed the tote bag to a smaller toiletry-sized bag because I realized the tote wasn't really the recipient's style. It was really cool watching everyone open their gifts because they were so excited about the hand-made aspect; really, it was the best set of reactions a crafter could hope for!

Afghan #1 went to my aunt and uncle. This was the hardest one to do because I made it HUUUUGE (68" x 63"!) and the herringbone-style stitch had me stumped for a while. Once I figured it out though it was just a matter of sticking to it until I finished. This one took about a month to complete, and that was with nearly non-stop crocheting because I had a lot of time on my hands.

Afghan #2 went to my cousins. It was funny because this was actually the last one to get opened and before they opened it my cousin kept asking me, "Can we get in the queue for the next one?" This one worked up a lot faster (less than two weeks for a 60" x 58"), partly because it was done in a bulky yarn and partly because I understood the pattern better after having done a similar stitch in the first afghan.

And the last afghan went to another aunt & uncle. This one I wish I'd made a little bigger, but I added a border to make up for it (or at least try to make up for it--I still wish I had just made it wider to start with). It ended up at about 45" x 65" and also took about two weeks to finish.

Finally, here's the little bobble bag I made for my mom and gave to her as a stocking stuffer. I didn't do a great job of sewing the zipper on as it was the first time I've ever worked with a zipper, but it works. I want to learn how to line this with fabric, too.

That was it for Xmas '09! I'll definitely have to get around to making that tote bag as I've wanted to do it forever and now I actually have the yarn to make two of them so I'd better get on it. Who wants one? :)

Merry Christmas Eve! My fingers are about to fall off :P

Whew, it's been a whirlwind of holiday prep the last couple of days! We're hosting again this year for a crowd of somewhere between 17 and 21 people. I never did post the ginormous menu I made last year (5 entrees alone, never mind the bazillion sides, desserts, appetizers, etc.), but I think my family felt bad for me after seeing everything I made because this year they all volunteered to bring big dishes rather than just sides like they did last year. Or they just hated the food I made last year :P

Anyway, even though I'm only contributing one main dish--a phyllo-wrapped salmon--I've been prepping and cooking for the last two days. Willy has been doing a great job on errand and cleaning duty, freeing me up to focus on working in the kitchen.

I actually made my first items a few days ago, molasses sugar cookies which I gave to the neighbors (they're sooooo good!). Yesterday I made pumpkin bread and chocolate pots, and cleaned and chopped a lot of veggies in preparation for tomorrow. Today I made corn chowder, honey corn bread, stuffing, two apples pies, rice krispy treats, and sangria. Tomorrow I'll do mashed potatoes, pasta salad, baked brie (which will be served with a Wensleydale cheese too), Vietnamese cold noodles, sugar snap peas, and yu choy (had to have something traditionally Chinese for Grandpa). Oh, and the phyllo-wrapped salmon of course :)

So what's the family bringing? A roast, a ham, a turkey, mini cheesecakes, mini brownies, green & yellow beans w/mushrooms, kimchi pancakes, and probably more. Yeah, we eat a lot when we get together.

My hands are feeling the effects of constant dish and hand washing, but otherwise things have been pretty painless this year. I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow and start the celebration!

Aaaaand now it's snowing

2-4" predicted. 2 days after we had weather in the high 60s. See where the saying, "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a minute" comes from?

Ah. global warming

I don't know how anyone can argue that global warming isn't a very real phenomenon. We had temps in the high 60s today...in December...in Boston. I'll admit though that I loved every second of it :) Got to walk around with no coat on and we even took the motorcycle out to dinner. Good times!

Yankee tournaments are cursed for me

Played in my first Yankee tournament today in two years, a Women's C- so I got to ease back into things. Except for the part where I went after the bad set, the setter ran across my path, and I landed on her foot after hitting and rolled my ankle. The same ankle I rolled a few months ago and couldn't walk on for days. Sweet.

But good news! After doing the RICE thing for about 45 minutes I found that I could walk on it. So I slapped on the active ankle and played the rest of the day, slightly gimpy but better than leaving the team with a ghost for the remaining four games out of eight. And guess what? We won! Yes, I rock for playing on a rolled ankle ;) (either that or I'm just stupid--it's definitely debatable)