In Memoriam

Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, a life-long resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, succumbed Sunday evening to an unknown illness. He was 14 months.

A Betta fish, Jarrod is survived by his human mother, Lauren Poulter, human step-father Ryan Glanzer, and roommate-family Sarah Domenichetti, Roscoe Domenichetti and Nick Sandbulte.

Jarrod was known by all to be a kind and scholarly fish. His brief life was punctuated by some excitement; at age 3 months he was nearly murdered by a cat. His happiest moments were when he was fed and when he was given fresh water to swim around in.

A memorial service is planned for 8:30 pm on Monday evening, December 8th in the downstairs bathroom of his Minneapolis home. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Poulter-Glanzer Fish Memorial Fund.

The editorial staff would like to make note that Jarrod Saltalamacchia is alive, well, and training for the 2009 baseball season in the Palm Beach, Florida area.

Holy crap!

We're really doin' it, guys, we're really doing it.

We have a date.

October 10th, 2009.

We have a location: the Profile Event Center.

I've been excited to marry Ryan since, well, before he proposed to me, but now... it's so real. We're going to put down a deposit and apply for a marriage license and pay for flowers and catering and liquor and a pretty white dress and ten people will stand up there with us (still an insane number of attendants if you ask me...but of course I love all of them!) and we will get MARRIED. Holy crap.

So, save the date, y'all.

Gimme Gimme Gimme!

I kid, of course. But I have seen quite a few Christmas wish-lists popping up on blogs that I read lately, so I thought I might as well jot down a few ideas for gifts:

- Anything from the ol' wedding registry. Many lovely items to choose from there!

- A knitting machine. I love to give scarf, hat and mitten sets as gifts but I hate knitting scarves. Hate hate hate HATE. I would love to have a tool that I could use to make scarves and other square things.

- Any one of these classic knitting books.

- The Options Interchangeable Circular Knitting Needle Set. Droooool.

- New iPod. The ancient 512mb Shuffle just isn't cutting it anymore!

- Some kind of basket for knitting/sewing notions.

- Scrubs: Season Seven
- Dexter: Season Two

- Hockey tickets!

- Please, no yarn. I have too much of it and I want to get through as much of it as I can before I accumulate more! However, gift certificates to Joann, KnitPicks, Needlework Unlimited, or Linden Hills Yarn would be lovely.

- Cookbooks. I don't have anything specific in mind, but anything that's well-reviewed in the vein of eating healthy, local, and for busy people would be wonderful.

All in all, though, I really don't need anything. I'm sure I don't need to mention the economy, but it's relevant and I would sincerely appreciate someone teaching me a skill (like crocheting or a refresher course on using my SLR) rather than spending money on things I that I do not need. I would also love handmade things. Preferably not baked goods, as I'm hoping to reduce the level of tummy paunch before I don an expensive white dress, not increase it! But any other sort of handmade gift would be lovely and greatly appreciated.

More engagement shots!

Ryan's sister Jordan did an engagement session with us a few weeks ago during a trip back to the farm... and here are the results!!

Some of them are hilarious and awkward, showcasing Ryan in his full bootylicious form. And my hair looks completely crazy in about 85% of them. But we're both quite happy with the results regardless! Many thanks, Jordan!

We'll have a disc with the proofs in high-res so that all you out there who want an 8x10 (or 16x20!) of Ryan and I in our full glory can have one, or many!

(Upon review of my archives I noticed that I never posted the link to the original engagement proofs... interested parties can find them here!)

Remembrance

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae, 1915

Things That I Hate

- Wedding planning. It sucks and I don't like it. Vendors don't respond in the timeline that I think is appropriate (I'm talking 3-5 business days for a major, well-established catering company/hotel chain). I'm talking about giving these people thousands and thousands of dollars and they can't be bothered to email me back to tell me what they charge and if they can accommodate me?! UGH!

- Norm Coleman. What an ass. Regardless of one's political persuasion, I think that we can all agree that Minnesota deserves a Senator that respects the rule of law. Not one that says, with a fluid 400-ish vote lead, that he won unequivocally and that his opponent should resign himself to that fact and call off the recount of the popular vote that is mandated by state law. Fuck off, Norm. Your record is shameful. You were the Democratic mayor of St Paul until you realized that it was easier to get elected as a Republican. So you switched. You then lost a race for governor to Jesse Ventura, almost lost to Paul Wellstone (RIP, to the most passionate representative the State of Minnesota has ever had in Washington) and may well lose to Al Franken. Hardly a popular mandate, sir, and THREE TIMES now, you have failed to carry your former city in an election! Comments like those he made on Wednesday disgust me. I hope the manual recount of votes prove Al Franken to be the winner in a blow-out.

- Working, but not having any work to do. Say what you will, but when I'm at work I like to be busy. I hate just sitting around, watching the clock tick. Nothing makes the time go faster than wading in thigh-high to a complicated report and making sense out of it. That makes me sound like a huge loser, but it's true. I hate just sitting around at work.

- Getting up every morning for work. I am not a morning person and I DO NOT LIKE being at work before 8am.

- Overly-sweetend things. It's true. I love things that are mostly unsweetened. When I drink juice, it's usually a 25% juice to 75% water ratio--also good for keeping the blood sugar level ... level. I don't really like chocolate, unless it's quite dark or in a flourless-type cake, or with mint. I prefer fruit desserts. Today one of the girls from the Cookie and Cracker desk at work came around with a giant cart full of samples, and I grabbed a box of "Stella D'Oro" 100-calorie packs. They are the most delicious, barely-sweetened cookies ever and I love them. They are, however, billed as "breakfast cookies", which I find odd.

- Baseball being over. For serious! I miss baseball.

- My car. Anyone want to buy a '96 Probe? At this point, I should just get rid of the damn thing. I'm not driving it at all, and by the time I might need a separate car from Ryan, I could save the money I would have spent on gas/insurance/maintenance on a down payment for a newer car. Seriously, if anyone is interested, let me know--I'll consider all offers. It's a cute little car and it's been quite the workhorse for me. I actually sort of love the thing, if it weren't for how teeny-tiny it is, and how not-teeny-tiny my dear Ryan is. Ah well.

This is something of a weekend of milestones for me, as one year ago today I was in Toronto for my lovely friend Paula's wedding! I miss her--and all my Torontonians--dearly. I can't believe it has been a year already! Also (and I thought of this a bit ago and told Ryan, which he was a bit put off by) today marks what would have been the sixth anniversary with university boyfriend Tim. Yowzahs. Sunday, of course, marks both the one year anniversary of Paula's wedding, and the two year anniversary of Tim's and my breakup. I have to say, on the whole, I'm pretty okay with how things have turned out ;)

Weeping may endure for a night...

But joy comes with the morning.

It's easier to be proud of my country today.

However, my state is troubling me. Michele Bachmann very well may get re-elected -- a statement that the St Cloud area is as nut-jobby as she is, perhaps.

That Norm Coleman may get re-elected makes me angry and upset. I think that he is the worst sort of politician, a carpetbagging, perfectly-veneered, Noo Yawk opportunist. The results that are coming in keep getting worse; the only bit of information that gives me some hope is that only 40% of Minneapolis precincts have reported their results, and in the results, Al Franken was bitch-slapping Norm Coleman to the tune of 114,012 against 84,798. (Also in St Louis county--Duluth area--with 18% returning, the margin is 53% Franken to 34% Coleman. Those precise numbers are a lot smaller than Hennepin county, but still.)

It slaughters me how unpopular Norm Coleman is and has been in the metro areas of Minnesota. He's a former mayor of St Paul who can't even carry his former city--not in his ill-fated run for governor and not in either of his Senate campaigns. I wish that message would carry to the outlying regions of Minnesota!: Those of us who know him, loathe him.

It was really something, truly, to witness what happened tonight. I'm only sad that Ryan fell asleep before the election was called for Mr Obama. Luckily I DVR'ed his speech so Ryan can watch it later!

update 12:22 am: Holy mother of crap, Hennepin county just jumped to 78% reporting and closed the margin from about 60,000 votes overall to about 4,000. This thing ain't dead yet. The count is now 250, 414 to 169,631 in the county; 954,661 (Coleman, 42%) to 950,952 (Franken, 42%) in the state overall. No, this race is certainly still up in the air. St Louis county is still at 18% reporting.

update 12:30 am: Watching Wolf Blitzer attempt to explain Minnesota politics, how Dean Barkley was briefly named a senator by Jesse Ventura when Paul Wellstone died, was freakin' hi-larious. The margin is now about 10, 000 votes in Coleman's favor. Bah.

Oh, jeez, I'm going to bed.

Once more unto the breach!

Ah, another Sunday night, looking towards the beginning of the work week. It's funny easily you become comfortable with a lifestyle: When I was first laid off, I freaked out with all of the time that I had at home, doing nothing, watching daytime television, etc. I quickly got used to it. Now, going to work feels so very strange.

I think we are starting to get down to brass tacks on wedding things. We've gone to look at a number of places: Blaisdell Manor, Van Dusen Mansion, Bayview Event Center, and the American Swedish Institute. Some of those we liked, some of those we didn't like, but all of them were oh-so-expensive! Well, they weren't actually that expensive in terms of wedding costs, but the scale of wedding costs as opposed to normal, everyday costs is extraordinary! I suppose, as my sister's very wise friend said, that this kind of thing is why people work hard and save money on the everyday things--it's for stuff like vacations, houses and weddings and if you work hard and save up the money, there is no reason to feel bad about spending money on a wedding.

Or perhaps the wedding industry is getting their message to sink in to my subconsious! I very much want both things: a simple, basic wedding that costs no money, and a lovely grand affair with all of our friends and family present. I want to keep my last name as a symbol to the world that I am my own woman and that I don't need to follow anyone's traditions, and I want to take Ryan's name because I love him and it seems romantic and that some parts of me really wants to have the "team name". Mostly, I just want to have a date, and a site picked out and set. I want that big thing done so that we can find a person to marry us, and a person to do the flowers and to make us a cake, etc etc etc.... I am almost beyond caring about the cost, just to find a place that will convince me that they have things on their end handled.

I am excited and nervous, nervous, nervous about the election on Tuesday. As a liberal person it's been easy, the past 10 years, to get excited about an election that looks like it'll go well for "our side" and then have it all fall apart. So nothing's for sure, nothing's a given. I want Norm Coleman out of office. I loathe him. Keith Ellison is pretty much a lock for re-election; good on 'im.

Do I really have to go to work every day?

I jest, I jest. But it has been quite an adjustment to getting up every day between 6:15 and 6:30 and heading in to work. I'm enjoying working at SUPERVALU pretty well, I've been in a lot of training thus far and have done only a bit of what I imagine will be my eventual "work". Some of the training is quite interesting, like research on consumer segmentation. Some of the training is deadly dull, like some of the internals which involve sitting in a windowless conference room for several hours, watching an instructor use a website or program.

In other news, I don't have much to report. We had a lovely weekend in Carpenter--we took Ann out for the big 21st bithday, we went to church, and Jordan took some engagement photos of us (hopefully some of them turned out well! And I mean that not in a technical sense, but in a I-hope-I-think-I-look-good way, of course. Jordan is a very talented photographer!) and, true to form, I forgot my coat at the Glanzer farm house. I think that if I were to drop off the face of the earth today, the Glanzers would remember me best as "the girl who left things at our house". I didn't need the jacket and it could have stayed in South Dakota until we went back, but before I even knew it, it was in the mail!

Tomorrow, Jason is scheduled to come over to watch Game 1 of the World Series. I'm very excited that the match-up is Rays-Phillies. Nothing could have made the baseball season end on a lower note than if the Red Sox were in the Fall Classic. This weekend, I am trying to schedule tours of potential wedding sites so that we can hopefully pin down a date soon!

Nervous

I start my new job tomorrow, and I'm nervous! What if no one likes me? What if I have to eat lunch in the cafeteria by myself? I'm not going to have any friends!!!

It really feels like the first day of school to me. I'm so nervous. I don't know what it's going to be like! My first day at HTA was similarly stressful and that was SUCH a small company. This is a huge company!!!

Sad as it is--although all the unemployment time made me a little crazy and bored, I really got used to having the free time. I would wake up around 9, bum around on the internet, apply for jobs, check the mail, make lunch, maybe hang out with a friend, apply for a few more jobs, watch TV and knit, and then wait for Ryan to get home and make dinner.

Not anymore, my friends! I am going to have to get back into the swing of things of waking up at 6:30, being at work by 8am, working working working, lunch, working, working, working, and then coming home. So weird! So normal! So.... profitable!

It's been a pretty good weekend of baseball, football, drinking, Indian food, snuggling, and knitting. Satisfactory, but I'm so weirded out that I have to put on dressy clothes tomorrow and go to a JOB! It'll be good though. Ryan and I need money to pay for our wedding!

Oh, man, wedding stuff. I have been having some pretty intense wedding dreams lately. A week ago I had a dream where it was a week before the wedding and we hadn't planned ANYTHING. Not a reception hall, or a ceremony site, or a caterer, or a DJ, or anything! And I would tell people about my problems and they would say, "Sorry, dear! You should have planned this earlier!"

On Thursday night I had a dream where Ryan and I were at a wedding expo, and there was a huuuuuuuuge line of caterers that had samples of chicken, fish and beef. You had to try EVERY dish before you could move on, and a lot of the caterers were doing things, so you could only get some samples....and it was so stressful! I had to go back and forth and back and forth to try to get every sample from every caterer so that I could move one to different caterers!

On Friday night I dreamt that I ordered ORANGE bridesmaid dresses! In the dream, this salesgirl convinced me that orange dresses would go really well with purple, green and blue everything else (clearly my subconsious is insane) and I believed it. Then, in the dream, Sarah and I went to meet the salesgirl to pick up the dresses and Sarah FLIPPED OUT at me. She was so mad over the orange dresses! I told her about the dream on Saturday morning and she said, "You better believe that I'd be mad over orange bridesmaid dresses!!"

So, obviously, my subconsious is VERY upset at me that I haven't been very "on" about wedding planning and my inner self thinks that I am dropping the ball on the whole thing!

To counter my subconscious, I HAVE been wedding planning! I went to a meeting at the Blaisdell Manor and if was very pretty and pretty ridiculously expensive! Ryan and I are still trying to figure out what we think is an "acceptable" amount to spend on our wedding, but it sure would be nice if either the Glanzers or the Poulters stumbled upon a previously-unknown fortune and paying for everything, no questions asked.

Alas.

Wish me luck on my first day tomorrow!

A job, a blog, and a gift registry

• Yes, it's true! On Monday, I start a one-year contract for Supervalu Corporation. They own Cub Foods and many other supermarket chains, as well as produce their own generic-brand grocery products. My title is something incredibly generic like "Business Specialist" but the important part is that I'll be doing your general exciting office stuff, and making more money than I did at HTA.

I'll be working in the building that used to house Best Buy's corporate headquarters, and it's really cool! Very bold colors, there's a test kitchen where they perform consumer marketing panels, and it's a huge building. It'll be a very different environment from the teeny little office that HTA was in. With any luck, I will have coworkers who are around my age!

• I've been posting at Babes Love Baseball for a week or two now, and I'm having a blast! Most days there are lots of emails that go back-and-forth between myself and other cool, baseball-loving girls. It's awesome and I'm having a great time!

• Yesterday, Ryan and I went to Target at the Quarry to start our gift registry (which you can view here). It was exhausting! I thought it would be such a fun, lovely time for us as a couple. It was, for the most part: we picked out a sweet tv (someone buy it for us! ;)) and a DVD-VHS combo player, and sheets, and a duvet, and towels and bath mats and place mats....

...and somewhere in there I became overwhelmed by all of the choices! How many of each thing ought we register for? What colors (apparently that's blues and greens)? Should we go for mix-and-match colors or all the same? HOW DO WE DO THIS?????

Now that I'm thinking about it while sitting on the couch, it doesn't seem so hard. But in the moment, after having been there for an hour discussing the benefits of registering or not for luggage and tool sets, it seemed like mission impossible.

The real difficulty here is that Ryan and I don't know where we'll be living in six months, never mind six years from now! So things like shelves and storage which we may or may not want and find useful in our new place, we don't know if we will have room for them, if they'll be useful in our home, etc. I think we'll be living in an apartment for a few years before we can buy any kind of house.

Ryan did a great job of trying to keep me calm and keep us on track, but I understand that he doesn't really care about all this stuff. I don't know that I care all that much about it, either. But I know that I want place mats and dishes and a nice rug and all that stuff, I just haven't figured out quite what I want. There are too many choices! Usually when I shop for "big ticket"-type things, I research and research and find reviews and opinions until my eyes bleed. But I can't possibly do that for every little item we'll be registering for or I'll go insane!

Seriously, buy us the TV. Or a kegerator! That would be awesome.

Big News

I feel like the coolest girl in the room.

I'm a Babes Love Baseball blogger.

Today? BEST DAY EVER.

Setting a Date, Oy!

It's all so political.

What I would like, throwing out all concerns about other peoples' schedules (insert "I'M THE BRIDE! IT'S MY DAY!" expressions here), I would really like a fall wedding. I like the smell of fall. I like the colors. Autumn is probably my favorite season.

But when you throw in all the people who are expected to attend (and attend in an important fashion, no less!), summer makes SO much more sense. My sister won't be teaching, my brother won't be in school, other family members, both mine and Ryan's, won't have to deal with skipping out of school early.

But, think of the sweating! My poor darling sweats enough as it is, so unless we hold our reception in a meat locker, an August wedding would be so cruel to him!

Earlier in the summer would be nice, too. Perhaps not so hot. But if you say the words "May 2009" to me, that sounds REALLY soon. Too soon. I don't want to stress that much, and we need time to make money to pay for this shindig!

My darling friend Paula lucked out with her wedding last November 8th. It was one of those beautiful crispy fall days in Toronto, sunny and clear and just a little bit brisk. Best wedding ever.

November could be scary, though, weather-wise. Minnesota is so wildly unpredictable. It was stunningly beautiful yesterday, and the day before yesterday was pissing rain. Today, again, it is pissing rain.

I think we are going to have to go with my original plan and just let the venue we pick determine the date of our wedding. I am not a good decision maker (that should make this whole process interesting). Someone just pick a date for me!!!!!

In other news: I went to a bridal shop today. I looked at and touched wedding gowns. This is a big step for me, as just last week the gown part terrified me!

The Questions Begin

Since we got engaged, Ryan and I have been peppered with questions about our wedding plans. These inquiries only get stronger by the day! I'm beginning to wonder if we're abnormal, that we got engaged without any definitive plans of when and where and how we will wed.

If I recall correctly, Jaime and Christian had their wedding date and venues mostly decided on at least a month before they got engaged! Crazy!

Things we have decided:

• That we will get married.
• Generally, our attendants. We haven't asked all of them, and there are issues with numbers...Ryan has too many friends, basically!
• It'll be in the fall...ish. It'd be more convenient for a lot of people if we married before school starts, but I think a fall wedding would be really nice! I am keeping it open because I'd rather pick a date based on what dates are available at venues that we like!
• Colors: deep purple, sage green, cornflower blue, and ivory. I just decided them myself because I don't think Ryan cares. (If you do, honey, speak up!)
• The bridesmaid dresses: deep purple, and they'll have to be floor length.
• Our reception will be this crazy mix of South Dakotans, Canadians, and Minnesotans which will hopefully make for an awesome party.

That's all we know so far! Only about 7,832 questions left to answer...

showing off the bling

The F word, part 2

The end of an email I got today:

What shall we do tonight? I say we blow off the Twins game and go for a walk and eat something moderately healthy. Today is Jason's day off... wonder if he'll play tennis with Nick and come over?

Love,
your fiance Ryan Glanzer

In Which I Deal With Being Someone's Fiancée

What a weird word that is--I'm not sure if I like it. For now I'm trying to use it, but in that way where I emphasize something--Ryan pointed this out to me a while back and I didn't realize that I was doing it. When I am making a dramatic point, I will over-enunciate and stretch one of the words out ennnnddddllleeesssllllyyyy. So right now I am saying things like, "I really ought to send an email to my fiiiiiaaaaaaannnnncé."

Of course, I'm still unemployed, so I'm home by myself most of the day. So I end up saying these things to myself.

I'm struck by how much Friday's events have changed things. Not between Ryan and I, although I now look at him with a little more amazement and excitement for this new step in our lives, and I do find myself saying "we" more often than I used to. WE don't have any plans tonight. WE want to see that movie. But yet, the wedding is MINE. MY wedding will be on a Saturday. MY ceremony will be outdoors.

I'm struck by how many people seem to think that I have lots of plans made already (and bear in mind that I encounter very few people on a day-to-day basis). Detailed stuff that I can't even comprehend at this point. Band or DJ? Limo? Makeup done professionally? Dollar dance? (DJ. I dunno. I dunno. Absolutely not.)

And then there's the wedding-industrial complex (with apologies to Gen Eisenhower) that instructs me that WE ought to register for gifts right away, in case any of our associates would like to express their joy to us by buying a blender or a panini press, they have insights into our preferences. Holy shit! I've been engaged to my fiiiiiaaaaaaannnnncé for only a few days, but already WE are supposed to know what china pattern WE would like to eat from for the rest of our natural lives?

The registry thing terrifies me. WE don't know where we'll move next, but we won't be buying a house anytime soon, I can guarantee that! So what do we ask for? Stuff that will fit in an apartment, and when the day comes to buy a house we buy all new stuff? I don't want it to be like Kate and Tim, who stored a cache of wedding gifts at my parents' house for two whole years until they bought a house.

Though, with the registry thing, it would be nice to get a queen-sized down comforter. And I'm sure Ryan will celebrate on the day that our sheets are no longer pink with white polka dots. I kid you not.

I think on some level I must have been under the impression that when I got engaged, I would be imbued with some mystical bridal knowledge passed down from women before me. It didn't happen. I'm still clueless.

Rainy Weekend Made Bright and Sparkly by Pretty Ring

Pretty quiet weekend so far; Ryan is off DJing a dance at the Wabasha Street Caves (silly man thought they were in Wabasha, MN, when in reality they are on Wabasha Street in St Paul!) and I am indulging in my favorite rainy day activity: snuggling up on the couch under a blanket, drinking cocoa, and watching a little baseball! I am considering ordering pizza from Davanni's for dinner.

Yep, yep, just a normal day.... except for the big shiny thing that sits on the third finger of my left hand!

Yes, as most (all?) people surmised, Ryan's big surprise was proposing to me! And I said yes!

I'm going to write as much of it down as I can, so that I have a record of it! Bear with me, as it will surely get long-winded.

Ryan instructed me to bag an overnight bag, to be dressed slightly fancy, and to be ready to go around 5pm on Friday. I was nervous as nervous gets! I was pacing the floors and cleaning and doing anything I could think of to distract myself. Finally Ryan arrived, he changed clothing and we hopped in the car.

I had assumed that we would be going downtown for our little adventure, and I was right. Ryan drove through the rush hour traffic, all the while giving me little hints about where we were going. He told me that in truth he hadn't been at work all day, he had taken a half-day of vacation and spent the whole afternoon planning and running errands and getting the "destination" all ready for me! That trickster!

When we were on 5th St, approaching Washington Ave, I saw the tower of the Depot Hotel, where Ryan's friend Luke works. Luke's given us free drinks and appetizers on a few occasions, so I immediately guessed that Ryan and Luke were in cahoots. I was right! Luke managed to snag an amazing deal on a very impressive three-room hotel suite that had a jacuzzi tub!

Ryan made me wait outside the hotel room, though, while he poked in to make sure everything was right. He led me into the room, rose petals scattered everywhere, and showed me around our impressive digs--apparently "the Governator" was the last guest to use that particular suite! I wandered around for a few minutes until Ryan asked me to come sit on the couch by him.

I knew something was amiss because he started acting weird. He sat on the edge of the couch and told me that while he'd said he was working late last night, in reality he left at normal time and went to the Poulter family home, where my father and step-mom were quite touched that he asked their permission to ask me to marry him.

I think he said some more things, but I'm not quite sure--it's fuzzy already! Then he dropped down onto one knee and, with shaky hands, held up a ring and asked me to marry him! And, of course, I smiled REALLY WIDELY and said yes! And he put that sparkly ring on my finger (which fits perfectly and was chosen with the help of my sister--so much secrecy lately!)! We popped open some champagne, and set to work calling and texting everyone we know.

We called a lot of family and friends. I think the best reactions were my brother who asked "Are you pregnant?" when I told him that I had big news, and Ryan's friend Chris' wife, who heard Chris say "Congratulations!" and started screaming.

The rest of the night went by quickly. We went to Wasabi for a delicious sushi dinner, were given a tempura ice cream dessert for free by the restaurant, met up with Jason, Jaime, and Christian for a celebratory drink at the hotel bar, used the awesome jacuzzi in the bathroom.

This morning, Luke brought a delicious breakfast up to our room and was SHOCKED when Jason opened the door! Ryan and I were not aware of it (since the bed is in a whole different room! Best hotel ever!) but Jason didn't think it wise to drive home after drinking with us. A+ for safety! We ate delicious eggs, bacon and hash browns with toast and orange juice in the big stately bed. Awesome.

I was just a little sad that Ryan didn't have a speech prepared or anything. I guess I imagined that he would. Might be best, though, because if he had waxed on about his love for me I would have surely cried a lot (which he AND my parents thought I would!). And I think I wish he wouldn't have told me that he asked my parents before he actually proposed, because I knew it was coming! But those are silly small things, and the important part is that we are engaged! To be married!

This is totally uncharted waters for little old Lauren Poulter; being engaged feels sort of weird right now! I almost feel like it's pretend, or something. I don't feel like I'm old enough to get married, either! Who, me, a grown up? Already? Are you SURE? Getting engaged and married is something that other people do! I always thought I would, of course, but the reality of it hasn't quite set in yet.

I really do look lovely in diamonds, though!

Tomorrow night

Last night after Sarah and I got back from the yarn store (bad Lauren! Bad!) Ryan says to me, "On Friday, I need you to pack a little overnight bag, because I have a surprise for you!"

I love surprises, but this one is killing me!! He has to DJ on Saturday night, so we are obviously not going far. Where are we going? What are we doing??? AAAAGH! I want to know NOW!

Knitting, and other things

I am fully engorged in Christmas gift knitting! It's getting a little intense, but at least I'm starting it before November (unlike two years ago, when I had the ridiculous idea that it would only take me only two weeks to knit matching scarf, hat, and mittens sets for my ENTIRE family!) Thank goodness last year us "kids" drew names for our Christmas gifts... hopefully we will do that again this year!

Yesterday was my step-mom's 60th birthday! I don't know if she and my dad did anything special, but there are rumors of a big birthday party sometime soon (have to keep the cards pretty close to the vest, never know who is reading this thing!)

Chances are, if you're reading this, I have a plan for a knitted gift for you this Christmas, though! Unless you're a boy. It's pretty much impossible to knit for males that are older than 12 years old, unless it's a scarf or a hat. And I HATE knitting scarves. Maybe I'll make a bajillion afghans. Or I'll put Ryan in charge of boy gifts!

I am getting super excited to make some of these gifts, though. If they are anything like what I imagine they will be, they are going to look awesome!

And if you all out there who read this end up NOT liking something I've made for you, you should lie and say that you love it! ;)

An ode to salsa fresca

I think I could eat salsa fresca until I literally exploded into a big mess of tomato, onion, pepper and intestines.

It's become my Monday ritual after picking up the CSA veggies, and it's one of the only ways that I will eat raw tomatoes! I think most people are aware of my particular feelings about tomatoes... I hate the insides! They're so smushy and yucky, and I like my vegetables to be crunchy!

I'm going to be very sad when the tomato season is up and I can no longer make my delicious salsa fresca. I'm considering going out and buying a bunch of veggies, making a huge bunch of salsa and freezing it! But I'm not sure if it would be as yummy as it is when it's fresh. I think I may have become a fresh salsa fanatic, I'm a snob who can no longer stomach store-bought salsa!

Lauren's Salsa Fresca
2T olive oil
2T lemon or lime juice
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
Freshly ground pepper
Salt
Hot sauce
4 or 5 tomatoes
1/2 green pepper
1/2 onion
1 sweet banana pepper
1 Jalapeno pepper

1. Put the oil, juice, and spices in a medium bowl (I use a tupperware container that can go right in the fridge).

2. Dice vegetables. Put them in the bowl with the oil and spices and stir. Add hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

I love the State Fair

Seriously. Where else can you not only purchase, but be acceptable to society walking around with a 1/3 lb slice of bacon, fried, caramelized with maple syrup, on a stick?

I won't be buying one of those today. I will be buying cheese curds though! And, perhaps for old times' sake, Jaime and I will buy the giant pail of Sweet Martha's cookies and go to the "All The Milk You Can Drink For $1" booth and have ourselves a good time!

Oh, memories of being 17 years old, and having the metabolism that let me get away with eating 30 chocolate chip cookies in one day! Wow.

Nomenclature

I've been thinking a lot lately about name changing. I don't know how I feel about this.

I want to emphasize now to Ryan: no pressure, no pressure. Seriously! I'm perfectly happy with the way that things are.

My mother didn't take Poulter as her name, which lead to myself (and my sister and brother) being given two last names--or, two middle names, which is how it functionally operates: though my full legal name is Lauren Ann Buchele Poulter, I use L.A.P. as my "full" name.

I have a few friends (Paula, Elise) who kept their birth names completely intact at marriage. I have one friend that hyphenated her last name with her husband's. I have unknown number of friends and associates who just plain old took their husband's last name at marriage.

And, of course, there's my sister; she and her husband both changed their last names to his maternal grandfather's traditional Norwegian name.

The thing is, though, that she didn't like Poulter. I actually like Poulter. It's who I am. I've had it for 24-plus-and-counting years. I always imagined that at marriage, I would go with "Lauren Poulter His-Last-Name", for all professional and personal purposes (I call this "going HRC" for the recent near-Democratic nominee for president.) There's just no easy answer for me. Ryan has not taken kindly to suggestions that he might change his last name to Poulter!

What is more interesting, perhaps, is women that I've encountered who married, took their husband's name in some capacity or another, and then were divorced, yet kept their married name. How peculiar! I would think that would be such a masochistic choice!

Of course, there's a story behind all this: I remember very, very vividly, when I was in the third grade, my mother instructing me that I ought never to hyphenate my name when I got married. Yet, when I was 16 and she re-married, what did she do? Hyphenate her name! (If you're keeping score at home, that marriage lasted only three years.)

I think, at the end of the day, I might be too stubborn to just take a new name, regardless of whether or not I like it.

To all readers (yeah, both of you. Ha!): if married, did you (your wife) change your (her) name? What was the motivation? I find this subject intruiging.

Ryan Birthday Recap

It began officially with Ryan waking me up, saying "I swear I'm not gay. PLEASE don't be mad at me!"

Apparently Ryan had a dream where a certain friend named Collin decided he was gay, put the moves on Ryan and I walked in on the situation and became very angry. So to clarify, no, sweetie, I don't think that you are gay! And if it turned out that you were, I would be more hurt than I would be mad.

The rest of the birthday was much less silly. Jason and Brad Gausman showed up early, tapping the keg of Grain Belt Premium (The beer of exceptional quality!) while I cooked Ryan his favorite breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy, with eggs over easy (gross) on the side. Drinking commenced.

Patrick, Steve, and Liz showed up. We watched the Twins game, there was Goofy Golf to be played.

In addition to all the friends that were in attendance, my parents, my sister and her husband, my step-brother, his wife and my niece Abby, and my other step-brother Nate showed up. Quite the crowd, I must say! I had purchased 20 (!) bratwursts in expectation of half of them being eaten but they were ALL polished off in good fashion.

Drinking of Grain Belt continued.

I must say, both Ryan and I were a little disappointed that no Glanzers showed up at the party! Ryan had a phone call with his mum that was very detail-filled, leading him to believe that perhaps they would surprise him with a visit! (I don't want to embarrass him, but he's a bit jealous that they pop in on his sister for visits and have only visited him a few times! Plus, Glanzers, all the Poulters were in attendance! You were showed up! :) )

Never the less, a successful birthday party, if I do say so myself. Happy birthday, sweetie! Hope work on Monday isn't too painful! :)

The negative: I got so caught up in socializing with my family and friends that I forgot to grill the cabbage or the sweet corn!
But luckily, my darling friend Jaime showed up later in the evening and after preaching the wonders of the CSA program to her, I was able to pass along the a few sweet corn, a green pepper and the 4lb CABBAGE! Thank god for wonderful friends!

shrugging

Big River Farms and the CSA

I've been yammering on about the CSA for a few weeks now, so I thought I might share some information about what a CSA is and why Ryan and I are supporting it.

I found out about Community Supported Agriculture through my sister, Kate, last summer. It was her first year doing a CSA and she and her husband split a share with another couple. The only thing I really remember her mentioning is beets, lots and lots of beets (see my previous post for my non-love of beets).

This spring she asked if Ryan and I would be interested in splitting a share with them. It was pretty reasonable, at the time: About $450 for a full share, so about $115 each for Ryan and I. I definitely think we're getting our money's worth!

Another really appealing aspect is the locality of it. Big River Farms/MN Food Association is located in Marine on St Croix, about 40 minutes outside of the Twin Cities. So, we're "eating local", such as it were. MFA just got organic certification, so it's there's that feel-good aspect.

I think the best part about BRF is that one of the purposes of their farms is to train new immigrants to Minnesota how to farm in this climate. A lot of them were farmers in their home country--true to recent immigration patterns, largely they are Hmong and Hispanic. I'm a total softie for things like that, so I like that the big box o' veggies I pick up each week is also helping to strengthen the rural Midwestern economy, keeping the small-farm tradition alive and letting hard-working people earn a living off the land, all while treating the earth nicely.

Any hope of my becoming a farmer myself surely died with my 4-H career at age 9 or so, but nonetheless I like to think that Grandad Wes would be proud that I'm doing this very small part to help small farms!

More info: Big River Farms/MN Food Association

(More) Vegetables

Got more CSA veggies yesterday (this was week 8 of ... 12? 16? How long is the growing season? ETA: CSA deliveries continue until Oct 27th... 18 weeks!) More corn, more onions, lots more tomatoes, more summer squash and basil and green peppers. And more beets.

Beets are weird. Today I tried a pretty well-reviewed recipe from All Recipes for roasted beets with sautéed beet greens. The beet greens were pretty tasty, with toasted sesame oil (best oil EVER, fyi), garlic and pepper. The beets were a different story. They were roasted... but they were still beets. Beets are so weird! They are bright red and they're so sweet, but they're a root vegetable! But I threw some salt and pepper and some fancy vinegar from the Asian grocery store down the street (I LOVE the Asian grocery store! So cheap and so Asian!) and they were tolerable. I think Ryan liked them. Not that either of us are going to run out and buy more beets at the market.

So, the current veggie stock:
• 1 3lb cabbage
• 4 green peppers
• decent amount of green beans
• 1 red onion
• 1 summer squash
• 1 tomato (would have put it in the fresh salsa I made today, but it didn't look quite ripe)
• 4 cucumbers
• 7 ears of sweet corn
• Basil

The upside of this is that Ryan's big birthday barbecue is this Sunday, so I will make up grilled cabbage, boil the sweet corn and chop up some of the green pepper and cucumber for a crudité plate!

Hosting a party = forcing friends and family to eat my vegetables before they go bad. I love it.

A few thoughts

• Every time the summer Olympics comes around, I realize that I've forgotten how much I love volleyball! Men's, women's, indoor or beach, I just love volleyball. It's such an precise, beautiful sport.

• The tv show Bridezillas is fantastically addicting and entertaining. I'm not even shamed by watching it anymore; I really love watching these ridiculous girls get so beast-like over a wedding. Funny stuff! And best of all, Ryan likes it too.

• I've been missing Toronto really intensely the last few days. I really wish it would have worked out to take a trip there over Labor Day. There's been talk of doing a road trip to the Black Hills over the holiday weekend instead.

• I miss blogging about baseball, but I don't have nearly the time it takes to keep up a decent blog. You'd think it'd be easy-ish, blogging with someone, but I haven't really talked to or seen Nicky in, what, a month?

• Ryan's birthday party has been changed to Sunday, Aug 24th. I hope many people come for bbq and beer and to eat lots of our vegetables.

• My computer was attacked by some bizarre spyware last night. It somehow is spyware that tries to tell me that I have lots of infections and should download and pay for a spyware removal program. It's taken over my desktop and I'm trying to keep it from taking over MSIE. Which means I'm running Firefox for the time being. I know that so many people love Firefox, blah blah blah, but I don't care for it. I never had any problems with IE and never saw the need to change, especially as there are plenty of things that won't run on Firefox.

• We still have lots and lots of veggies. A cabbage, 2 green peppers, 4 sweet corn, 2 beets, 2 cucumbers, a zucchini and some herbs. And I haven't yet picked up today's delivery (which I will go do as soon as I finish this blog post!).

• I hate Friday weddings. I hate the idea of them, and I hate the hassle that is involved in going to them. No offense to anyone who will have/is having/has had a Friday wedding, of course. Is it a money-saving tactic, or is it something that people do because the wedding site they wanted was already booked on all acceptable Saturdays? Even having a wedding on a Sunday is far, far better than having one on a Friday. Friday weddings, from the guest perspective, says "I'm the bride and I don't really care that 90% of my guests have to work Mondays-Fridays, I think they should take vacation time for ME!" This is, of course, more directed at weddings that start prior to 6pm or so on Fridays, but even so. My personal opinion is that if it is indeed a money-saving strategy, then you should reconsider your idea of a wedding. If you can't afford a gangbusters affair then you should downsize your guestlist, your menu, whatever. If you can't afford an open bar? Don't have a bar! Have a keg or just beer and wine or no booze at all! Yes, in my opinion asking people to take time off of work to attend your wedding is about as crappy as asking them to pay for their own drinks at a wedding. This may all be simply my idea of being an good host, of course, that if you are indeed throwing a party for your nearest and dearest, that you should make that party as easy and fun as possible for them. It shouldn't involve taking vacation time, fighting rush hour traffic, or paying for their own drinks.

It's safe to say that when I do get married (touch wood), it will not be on a Friday.

I realize the last bit probably comes off rather screed-like, but it's just rambling about weddings generally and I'd hate for any person, be they friend or random passerby at my blog, to take it personally. For the record, my best friend had a wedding that began at 5:30pm on the Friday before Christmas, and I Maid of Honor-ed it happily.

Worried 'bout my baby

My Ryan went to the doctor this morning and returned with a diagnosis of very high blood pressure. Not good!

In the end it may turn out okay: he was instructed to drink less and exercise more. In addition, there are basic dietary things that should help--obvious things like less sodium, more fruits and veggies, fewer sweets, less meat, etc.

My family has a history of hypertension in addition, so it's a good idea for both of us to do these things. Plus, we could both stand do lose a pound or two!

Lauren's Super Healthy Zucchini Bread

Lauren's Super Healthy Zucchini Bread
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce (I like the Mott's All Natural kind, no sugar added)
3 cups grated zucchini (or zucchini and carrot mix)
1 or 2 handfuls choclate chips (optional, but awesome)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease bundt pan.

2. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in medium bowl.

3. In large bowl, beat eggs. Mix in sugar, extract, oil, applesauce and grated zucchini. Add dry ingredients, mixing only until flour is absorbed. Lightly stir in chololate chunks, if desired.

4. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes, or until a knife insterted comes out clean. Serve warm or cold.

Vegetables Pt 2

Got another huge delivery of vegetables today!

Ryan's and my half:

4 ears of corn
2 red onions
3 tomatoes
2 green peppers
8 carrots
2 beets
2 zucchini
2 summer squash
Green beans
Cilantro
Basil

The fridge is jammed with vegetables... it's craziness!

So help me God, we will eat these vegetables!

I want to document this week's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) delivery for posterity.

Keep in mind that this is a HALF share of a CSA!

One green pepper
Two onions
One large bunch (probably 15 leaves) collard greens
Four carrots
Two random summer squash
One zucchini
One very large cucumber
One broccoli
One HUGE (it weighs like five pounds!) cabbage
A lot of green beans
Four turnips rutabaga
Bunch of dill
Bunch of mint

I REALLY want to eat all of the vegetables before they go bad. We get a new delivery tomorrow!! I prepped a stew with some Glanzer beef, the broccoli, the carrots, about half of the collard greens, the summer squash, and one of the onions. I'm going to mash the rutabaga up with potatoes (from last week's CSA) for some carb action there. Put curry-style spice in it, hope it turns out tasty-like.

The other onion and the green pepper will go towards a fajita dinner sometime this week.

The dill will go with a lovely piece of salmon I bought last week.

The green beans and the rest of the collard greens will have to go in a stir fry some time soon.

The zucchini will go in zucchini bread (which, with other fruits/veggies, whole wheat flour, and a handful of chocolate chips, baked in a Bundt pan, is an AWESOME breakfast cake. So healthy and yummy. Just replace most of the oil in whatever recipe you use for applesauce and you're golden.)

Now. What on earth will I do with all that cabbage?

love in this club

Great-Uncle Luther

I received an email this evening informing me that my maternal grandfather's twin brother had died.

Apparently he and my grandad Wes (they were named Wesley and Luther...my family isn't Norwegian or anything, ha!) were in a car accident and, while Grandad only suffered a couple bruises and such, Luther wasn't so lucky and, long story made short, was removed from life support once the immediate family had gathered.

Due to strained relations with my mother's family, I only met him a handful of times. The last time I saw them was probably when I was 6 or 7 years old.

What I do remember is that when I graduated high school, he and his wife Joan sent me a check and a lovely letter, reminding me that the University of Toledo was only an hour or so from their home in Ann Arbor, MI, and that I would be invited to dinner the first week I was settled at school!

I, of course, was obliged to write a polite, if slightly awkward, letter back to them informing them that they were misinformed--I was to be attending the University of Toronto in the fall. But thanks regardless!

dj rg

rail station cutie

Liveblogging St Cloud, MN

I am, somewhat surprisingly to even myself, attention-shy a lot of the time. It's probably not surprising to anyone that I'm shy, generally (I don't think I spoke directly to Ryan's parents until my second or third time meeting them!)

So it's giving me fair amount of anxiety that Ryan's DJ table is perched atop a stage at this restaurant/venue we're at for tonight's gig. Apparently, the normal setup is for the bridal party to be atop the stage, but this bride has a whopping 12 people in her party, which is more than the stage can hold. So the DJ equipment is on the stage, and I sit looking down upon (very!) cramped seating for 150+. I can't wait for dinner to start, so that they can all watch me as I attempt to not spill Italian food on my suit.

The benefit of going to all these wedding receptions is that I do get lots of ideas and first-hand experience that I can use when I plan my eventual wedding (which I tell Ryan, of course, and he starts sweating a little more than normal) In any event, though, it's a free meal and usually a free drink or two. Which is nothing to complain about, even if I am on display!

watch out for those metrodome steps

The invite came...

I'm on Ravelry!

My boyfriend

Imagine life from my vantage point:

Sitting on the couch, while silly Ryan is in the kitchen. He's wearing a headband because he's sweating up a storm doing the dishes. Roscoe, Sarah's fat beagle, is watching him intently in case any food drops to the ground. Ryan hasn't shaved in about a week and a half.

I'm sitting here, on the couch, and I look over and think, "What a cute, nice boyfriend I have! He's doing the dishes!" and then ma cher blond burst out singing, "TRADITIOOOOOOOOOOON! TRADITION!" from "Fiddler on the Roof". He actually sings a couple lines from the musical, but the refrain is all I catch.

(Maybe "Fiddler on the Roof" is one of the things that Ryan and my sister Kate talk about in their mysterious emails! They were both a part of said musical.)

So, yeah. Life is funny. But good. And my boyfriend still rocks :)

farewell, captain safety planet

Free pattern: Maple Leaf chart

This chart was designed for a gauge of 24 stitches and 28 rows in stockinette = 4" square.

It was designed after the logo of the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club, although it is almost identical to the maple leaf design of the Canadian flag. In this pattern "MC" is obviously navy blue, and "CC" is white, although it would work equally well with red and white as in the Canadian flag!

Directions are given from the bottom (the stem) up to the top of the leaf, and will make a rectangle of 40 sts wide by 44 rows tall (about 6 2/3" x 6 1/4). It can be inserted into patterns for sweaters, hats, scarves, etc, with ease!

I designed it for a "hockey sweater" for my niece--you can see it in action here.



Row 1: K 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 2: P 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 3: K 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 4: P 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 5: K 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 6: P 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 7: K 6 in MC, 28 in CC, 6 in MC
Row 8: P 7 in MC, 26 in CC, 7 in MC
Row 9: K 7 in MC, 26 in CC, 7 in MC
Row 10: P 8 in MC, 24 in CC, 8 in MC
Row 11: K 9 in MC, 22 in CC, 9 in MC
Row 12: P 9 in MC, 22 in CC, 9 in MC
Row 13: K 8 in MC, 24 in CC, 8 in MC
Row 14: P 7 in MC, 26 in CC, 7 in MC
Row 15: K 6 in MC, 28 in CC, 6 in MC
Row 16: P 5 in MC, 30 in CC, 5 in MC
Row 17: K 4 in MC, 32 in CC, 4 in MC
Row 18: P 5 in MC, 30 in CC, 5 in MC
Row 19: K 7 in MC, 26 in CC, 7 in MC
Row 20: P 6 in MC, 28 in CC, 6 in MC
Row 21: K 5 in MC, 30 in CC, 5 in MC
Row 22: P 5 in MC, 30 in CC, 5 in MC
Row 23: K 4 in MC, 32 in CC, 4 in MC
Row 24: P 3 in MC, 34 in CC, 3 in MC
Row 25: K 3 in MC, 34 in CC, 3 in MC
Row 26: P 2 in MC, 36 in CC, 2 in MC
Row 27: K 1 in MC, 38 in CC, 1 in MC
Row 28: P 11 in CC, 2 in MC, 14 in CC, 2 in MC, 11 in CC
Row 29: K 1 in MC, 9 in CC, 3 in MC, 14 in CC, 3 in MC, 9 in CC, 1 in MC
Row 30: P 4 in MC, 4 in CC, 4 in MC, 14 in CC, 4 in MC, 4 in CC, 4 in MC
Row 31: K 13 in MC, 14 in CC, 13 in MC
Row 32: P 12 in MC, 16 in CC, 12 in MC
Row 33: K 12 in MC, 16 in CC, 12 in MC
Row 34: P 11 in MC, 18 in CC, 11 in MC
Row 35: K 11 in MC, 18 in CC, 11 in MC
Row 36: P 10 in MC, 20 in CC, 10 in MC
Row 37: K 11 in MC, 18 in CC, 11 in MC
Row 38: P 13 in MC, 14 in CC, 13 in MC
Row 39: K 14 in MC, 12 in CC, 14 in MC
Row 40: P 15 in MC, 10 in CC, 15 in MC
Row 41: K 16 in MC, 8 in CC, 16 in MC
Row 42: P 17 in MC, 6 in CC, 17 in MC
Row 43: K 18 in MC, 4 in CC, 18 in MC
Row 44: P 19 in MC, 2 in CC, 19 in MC

Happy knitting!

updated 7/24

country bar 2

country bar 1

metrodome cutie

On knitting

One of the things that I find most interesting about knitting is that different yarns have different personalities. Some yarns have too much going on in them to be articles of clothing with long stretches of stockinette stitch. Other yarns have great definition but aren't interesting enough to be scarves.

But the best of all is when you find a pattern that fits with a yarn that you have. This happened to me on Thursday. I've had these three skeins of forest green acrylic yarn since fall of 2003. This wasn't long after I'd learned to knit, and I'd picked it back up with a few other girls in the sorority. (I totally have to credit my amazing sister-daughter, Ashley, for getting me back into knitting. I adore Ashley like I adore few people in this world!) I went to this funny little store in one of the underground tunnel stores in Toronto (I think it was near Yonge-Bloor) and bought a bulk package of this green acrylic, and some varigated pastel acrylic.

I set to work on what became my first gifted knitting project ever, which was a pathetic garter stitch scarf for college boyfriend Tim. It was, well, not pretty, but he was nice and wore it with pride until it fell apart. There was a point where I was planning on knitting him a hat and mittens, perhaps, out of the remainder of the yarn, but that never materialized. I think that's why I've felt so off about this particular yarn--almost as if knitting with it made me unfaithful to Ryan! Obviously, that's a ridiculous idea, but I think because knitting is so personal, so painstaking, that it's hard not to associate certain yarns or a certain pattern with people or times in your life.

Actually, it's impossible not to!

I look at my white acrylic bouclé and think of Annaliza, who knit a scarf out of the same yarn but then gave it to me, because she made it too long for her 5'2" frame. The variegated pastel makes me think of Chelsea, because I made her a hat and mittens out of it, but haven't spoken to her in a long time (I really must call her!) Yarns that were store-bought items of clothing that got frogged obviously have memories, because I wore them! I prefer them the way they are, but the lavender potholders and hand towel that I finished not long ago will always remind me of shopping with Grandma at American Eagle. The camel bouclé will make me think of the shawl I wore occasionally to my shifts at Barnes & Noble.

So, I've devised a pattern that really made me want to knit up the green acrylic that I've felt so weird about knitting. And that's the way it should be. I devised a pattern for a bag that's seed stitch, with a Celtic knot cable up the middle. I've only done practice items in cable work, I've never done a project, so I'm really throwing myself into the deep end on this one. But I'm loving working on it right now! That makes me feel so happy, that I have a project that really works for this particular yarn... it's almost that I've figured out the yarn's personality. It's itchy and not very nice against the skin, so it's not meant to be any type of clothing. It's very sturdy, though, so I think that it will hold up nicely as a handbag, and the cable looks really great on it so far. I feel really good about it, like it's the reason that I moved this yarn back and forth between Minnesota and Toronto several times, and throughout Minneapolis up until now.

maple leaves

The Maple Leaf sweater is done!

The whole sweater


The back. Number 13!


Flower buttons, 'cause she's a girl!


Maple Leaf detail

(For reference, here is a randomly selected exemplar Maple Leaf logo for comparison)

(technical details: Caron Super Soft acrylic yarn in Dark Country Blue and White, on US #5 needles)

potd make-up: photos from camping in welch on a found camera

Just a handful of snaps from Welch. Taken on my "new" Canon SD1000. I found the guy at the Metrodome, sitting in a cupholder, after a loss to Detroit. I turned it in to Lost and Found, giving them my name and number in case it wasn't claimed. It wasn't! While it's not an amazing camera, it's a major upgrade from the Kodak EasyShare that was stolen when our house was robbed. (Its list price is $300, over the EasyShare's $150)

Depending on your belief system: The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; or: I'm Even Steven!

I'm waiting for an extra battery pack and charger that I bought off of Ebay, so I only have taken a handful of shots on it.

Ryan reading the baseball novel I bought him.




View of the campsite.


Aww, he's such a cutie when he is tired!


Nick reads.


Master of the charcoal grill.


Ryan is also master of eating.

hong thong, indeed

Funemployment

I forgot to mention yesterday that Sarah had two equally wonderful quotes when I told her that I was laid off:

"You'll have so much time to knit now!"

"Oh! Now's the perfect time to have a BABY!"

I'll let you guess which one is not happening.

Unemployment

I love irony, I really do. But it's almost too much irony to handle, that the day I make this post, the day after I really commit myself to "HTA Education", I get laid off.

I should love it! I mean, the reason I went into my boss' office was to ask him if he could spend some time with me teaching me a few things, there were a few topics I had pertinent questions on. Instead: "I don't think that's going to work out. Have a seat."

Oh.

I'm not sad, really, but I might still be in shock. I was not loving my job there, and the lay-off part wasn't exactly a shock to me; I knew that the work was not coming in like it had been (due mostly to the salesperson for our team leaving the company earlier this year) and I was concerned about working enough to keep my health insurance.

I am angry, I think, because there was this discussion of communication. Or the lack of communication, from my end. This boggled my mind in my firing-meeting and I'm still upset about it, to teh extent that I let myself be. Because I was meeting with my team members at least once per week and emailing them of every pertinent update to projects. And THEY weren't informing ME of pertinent things. On my third-to-last day of work I had a really frustrating exchange with a coworker:

Her: Lauren, did you do the research for X and Y accounts?
Me: I didn't know that there was anything new on those accounts. So, no, I haven't.
Her: [dramatic sigh] I emailed you about it last week.
Me: [searching through Outlook] I don't remember any emails about that. Do you remember what day you sent it?
Her: Not really... Wednesday, maybe?
Me: I can't find anything about that in my email. Are you sure you sent it to me?
Her: Oh, well, I guess I didn't send it.
Me: Okay, send it to me now and I'll get going on it.

So, my senior coworkers can't remember what work they have and have NOT communicated to me and I get shitcanned? I'm the one who was not communicative? That seems fair.

When I really think about it, I'm glad to be out of that environment. I appreciate all of the opportunities HTA gave me, I do, but the organization is crumbling from within. I had a verbally abusive coworker, an absentee boss (who also, in a stunning example of organizational inefficiency, also functioned as HR) and a host of coworkers who seemed to think that I was either lazy or stupid, and some of them probably thought both.

I'm still sort of shell-shocked that I have to go through the whole job searching process again--it's exhausting! But I think it will be for the best. I just have to keep my spirits up.

unemployed life, in one picture

Clockwise from top:
Bowl and cup from bran cereal and grapefruit juice, 9 am.
Arrested Development, Season 2.
Fat Tire Amber Ale.
Purple wool scarf, in progress.
Cell phone that desperately needs replacing.
Purple wool hat, in progress.
Economist magazine.
DVD and TV remotes.
Monster.com.

chicago hates me

go cubs go

wrigley = awesome

yosh kawano day

my kitchen will always be in bright colors

(technical details: Lily Sugar 'n Cream in Key Lime, 2 strands together on #10 needles)

a vision of lavender

(technical details: frogged 100% cotton in lavender, size US #7 and #10 bamboo needles)

pt 2 of a bridal shower gift, 7 months late

(technical details: Lion Brand 100% cotton in Poppy Red, 2 strands together on #10 needles)

Adventures in Telecom

From one of the books I'm reading for work. Too funny not to share!

"The microprocessor is the processing component of the small, but powerful microcomputer. The fact that microcomputers are relatively inexpensive has made it possible for individuals and small businesses to own them. Microcomputers, also called personal computers (PCs) or micros, may be used as standalone computers or linked to a network via telecommunications lines.

"The smallest of all computers, microcomputers are now more numerous than all other computers. They are being used for every kind of task imaginable--from keeping records to preparing mathematical models of automobiles, from playing games to plotting the geographic levels of the earth for oil exploration. Their future applications are probably beyond our wildest imaginiations."

- Telecommunications: Concepts, Development and Management. 2nd ed, 1990

good god, i am stunningly attractive

why, why, why?

for some reason, i really liked this lion

behaving badly

not a budweiser to be found

free baseball

out of control

DFA! DFA! DFA!

My favorite punching bag has been designated for assignment to a minor league team. I am not sad to see him go!

He's said publicly that he would refuse the assignment (as major leaguers who have more than 5 years of service time can) and become a free agent.

Hmm. Lew Ford tried that last year. He's playing for a minor league team in Japan. Jason Tyner also refused a Twins minor league assignment and is playing for one of Cleveland's farm teams.

Seriously! Where is this idea coming from that being a free agent would be better than going down to a farm team, working on fundamentals, gaining confidence? I can only assume that Mr Rincon wishes to pitch again, but who but the most self-destructive of MLB clubs would pick up an RHP with this 2008 line?

J RINCON: 2-2/28.0 IP/33 H/21 R/19 ER/5 HR/16 BB/20 SO/2 HBP/3 WP/1.750 WHIP
His 2008 ERA in those 28 little innings pitched? 6.11!

Of course, we can't forget little-used but interesting statistic of Inherited Runners Scoring: 7/7. 100%!

It doesn't matter, though, because he's not the Twins' problem anymore! I feel as if a great weight has been lifted from Twins Territory.

omg little baby hand

grandpa's lap

Contemplating going car-less

As most people who are acquainted with me are aware, I'm in the market for a newer car. My dear workhorse, 1996 Ford Probe, is rapidly nearing its demise and I am very determined to trade it in or sell it before it completely dies.

Our recent-ish move to a block off of Nicollet (bus route heaven) and skyrocketing gasoline costs revives the ghost of an idea that I daydream about frequently: going car-less.

Financially, it's almost a no-brainer. At this point, filling up my gas tank runs just over $60. The Probe gets fairly poor gas mileage for its size (just over 20mpg). The bare-bones insurance costs about $100 per month. And then there's maintenance...

The cars I'm shopping are your average Civics and Camrys. They'll get better gas mileage than the Probe, but insurance will cost a lot more and I'll be making payments of around $200 per month for an indeterminate number of years. Getting a newer car will likely cost me just under $500 per month.

So assuming a bus pass would cost me about $100 per month, why don't I just go car-less?

FEAR.

I've never really not had a car in Minnesota. There were plenty of times that I shared a car, and I didn't have my own car for the first five months after I moved back from Canada. But at that point, I wasn't really working full time.

It should be so easy! If I didn't have my own car, I would surely walk, bike, and rollerblade more, leading to a healthier and more svelte Lauren. I would save a pile of money. I would, to use that vomit-inducing phrase, "reduce my carbon footprint". Running errands would be more challenging, though, and I'd spend more money on taxis and would probably irritate my car-having friends with ride requests.

Maybe this isn't the time to go car-less. I'd like to, though--isn't it funny? Whenever I don't have a car I wish I did. When I do, I wish I could get rid of it. I probably could do it, if I was committed, but Ryan would have to be on board with sharing his car some of the time, and I'm not sure I'm yet comfortable asking him to make that sacrifice.

My dream really is that a few years down the line, we'll have our cute little house near a light rail station, at least one of us will work downtown and we'll have one car that sits in the garage most of the time.

pet the cows