sort of back

oh the stress. I don't think I was speaking very coherently by the end of Monday... or even yesterday, blah. As I told ervy, "This is only the beginning of application season" to which he promptly turned green and died.

or at least, he turned to evil. Yes. My boyfriend is a thief. He has trespassed on the most sacred territory. HE STOLE MY BLOG POST!!!! or at least part of it. If you go to said post, you'll see some very cute pictures of a very naughty kitty. When we discovered Nikko had gotten into our dishes and ervy was going to go wash him off, it was me who said, "WAIT! I need to take pictures for the blog." Perhaps he was confused that I meant MY blog. While I was tearing my hair out over my personal statement, he quietly posted said pictures to his own blog.

pooh! pooh I say to you, thieving boyfriend! I will better protect the digital camera... see if you can find it now!!!

ack

so the realization that the first fellowship application of the 'season' is due this upcoming Monday has sent me into a tizzy

Since I'm going to be absent from the blog until at least Tuesday night (and I can't talk about/show y'all the wonderful shetland roving I picked up a last Saturday's farmer's market or my progress on my knitting projects), I seek to appease you all by revisiting the vintage pattern of the day. The upcoming pattern pictures are from McCall's Needlework, 1961

Today's vintage knitted pattern is a couple of neat knitted dresses. I particularly like the white one on the left. I think it could be fun to play with nowadays too!

*stressed*
fellowship app due monday...
nuff said,
I'll be back in the blogging world Tuesday

whew! what a weekend!

I'm exhausted. I had a fabulous and full weekend starting off with a simply wonderful evening with Hilary and Steven on Friday.

As mentioned previously, we went to The Village Pub in Woodside, CA for dinner. The one downside of the dinner was that, although we had reservations for 8:30pm, we weren't seated until around 9pm. The maitre' d (sp?) came over (after I asked how much longer we would be waiting) and apologized profusely to us explaining that people just weren't leaving... and within 5 min we were seated in a wonderful cushy booth near the fireplace.



They gave us three different types of menus, the dinner menu, the wine menu, and the pub menu. Our waiter came over promptly and explained the menu and some of the specials of the evening. We ended up ordering both specials, which were appetizers, some fabulously rich lamb meatballs on black chard in a yummy broth and heirloom tomatoes with a delicious local extra virgin olive oil, a 25 year old oak barrel aged balsamic, water buffalo mozzarella from Spain, and some special rock salt from Australia (i think). Before we had even ordered, the sommelier came over to the table to inquire about what we might like to drink with the meal. He was relatively young, so it was actually quite fun to engage him in conversation about what it takes to be a sommelier. I also found it amusing that he would say things like, "I like to drink a lot" and "I found this wine to go great with everything, including cheerios." We ended up getting a bottle of this delicious rioja to go with our meal:

Rioja, Crianza, Sierra Cantabria 2000

The rabbit meatballs:


The heirloom tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella salad. Btw, I've had some water buffalo mozzerella, and it is indeed much much tastier than normal fresh mozzarella, but THIS mozzarella was the YUMMIEST one I have ever had the pleasure of eating.


Actually before our appetizers, they brought us each out a complimentary first plate of local sliced beets (bright orange and yummy) with asparagus which we each demolished before I remembered to take a picture.

Both Steven and I ended up ordering the pork chop dinner on the menu. How could we not order that after the waiter so deliciously described it? It is Niman Ranch Pork that had been covered in some sort of maple glaze and grilled as a huge rack before being cut up into servings. It was served over Italian butter beans and roasted figs. *drool* Ohmygodyumiwishicouldeatthateveryday



Hilary ordered the gnocchi with clams which she reported to be also quite wonderful.


ervyscurvy ordered the grilled 28-Day Dry Aged Rib Steak which he said was also amazingly tasty, although he did keep nibbling on my porkchop...but who could resist that chop?!!


Before we finished our main courses, the sommelier came over and had us try another wine to go with the last bit of our meal. It was the Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir 2000. I found it absolutely wonderful!

For dessert, each couple got one of the yummy chocolate hazelnut souffles...oh how I love a good souffle.


We were also graced with a small platter of petit something or others (yummy sweet goodness including the best macaroons ever, some chocolate bark, a truffle, and some tiny rendition of a provencial french dessert)


I highly highly recommend this place if you're in the area. I'll blog about the rest of my weekend tomorrow...

The Village Pub

I'm so excited for dinner tonight! As much as I tried to dissuade my wonderful friend Hilary from taking us out to a nice dinner, she insisted she and Steven really wanted to do this to thank us for our help with their wedding.

Anyway, she insisted I give them the name of the restaurant that ervy and I had originally planned to go to for our 3rd yr anniversary (before we bought the smoker instead).

So tonight we're heading to The Village Pub in Woodside, CA. YUM! 'pub' is a misnomer according to most accounts. It's really just a truly fancy restaurant down here on the Peninsula. The chef is Mark Sullivan who apparently turns out wonderfully tasty meals (and I hear it's not the tiny cuisine you get in most fancy restaurants...). The James Beard Foundation says, "Today, The Village Pub is the poshest pub around, with plush leather chairs, arty black-and-white photos, a mahogany bar, Lamborghinis in the parking lot, and contemporary Mediterranean-inflected food so good it earned the restaurant three and a half stars in the San Francisco Chronicle. As Chronicle critic Michael Bauer wrote, "Those who get to eat Sullivan's food regularly are privileged: he is producing some of the best food in the Bay Area. Few chefs have more talent-or restraint...Dish after dish proves Sullivan's mettle.""

oh yeah... i'm excited.

oh and here's a pic of the sky yesterday afternoon for Sandy's contest. I actually caught it a little cloudier than it had been yesterday:


In my knitting life, I'm on the 3rd set of repeats still for the FBS. I would take a picture, but I'd rather wait another couple repeats so that my progress since my last picture will be more evident. I did swing by target at the beginning of this week to see the $1 yarns. They had some novelty yarns (a furry one and a ribbony railroad type yarn). I'm not really someone who knits with a lot of novelty yarn, but I picked some up to make a shawl for a charity auction at the local preschool. I figure, people who don't knit seem to like this novelty stuff more than complicated stitch patterns anyway. So I'm knitting a big dropstitch stole on large needles for the project.

the best rating fun since netflix...

thanks to Esmerel, Evvie and I have found ratebeer.com. The rating system isn't the best (if they're going to make you comment a 75 char comment, why don't they have a character counter? and what's with the different scales... who rates 1-20???), but we at least now have a nice centralized way of reviewing the beers evvie seems to bring home from his many trips to Whole Foods. Too bad we didn't find it earlier. It's hard to remember specifics of many beers now.

I do want to mention, randomly, that I've found some of the best packaged biscotti I've ever tasted. Semifreddi's chocolate dipped almond biscotti is frelling fantastic!

on knitting
every time I get through an odd lace row of fbs, I'm pretty proud of myself for my concentration. I'm on the second set of ten on the lower fbs chart now... I'm thinking of scanning and printing out the chart in different colors to help myself visually keep track of where I am better (I don't want to write on the magazine... for some reason, that just makes me cringe...)

jayne hat, fbs progress and dumpling adventure part #1

weekend
This weekend involved alot of settlers playing, and some work and part 1 of an amazing dumpling adventure.

I did see ervy's new cube. Here's ervy at work


Sunday, instead of going to work out, Ervy and I decided to embark on a tour de dumplings. We roped fu into our journey, and although we had about 9 dumpling places to try on our list, we only got through 3 of them before being defeated by the fullness of our tummies.

Part 1 included the Taipei Stone House, A&J, and the Tong Dumpling Pot - all of which were in Cupertino.

1. Taipei Stone House:
0877 N. Wolfe Road, Cupertino, CA 95014
Cupertino Village (Ranch 99 Complex)
(408) 255-8886
This is not only a dumpling restaurant. It is a normal Chinese restaurant, and I must say, while waiting for our dumplings, we saw many other delicious looking dishes heading to other tables. Also, fu and I had much guilt about going to a full restaurant and only ordering a couple dishes of dumplings. Fu apologized before ordering (in Chinese), but the owner/waiter was nothing but polite and happy to serve us. We had an order of xiao long bao ("pork steamed buns" on the menu) and an order of fried dumplings/potstickers. The first to arrive was the xiao long bao. Our waiter brought it out in a large full size bamboo steamer (not one of the tiny ones, so the dumplings were able to rest far apart from each other, getting rid of the risk of sticking to each other and breaking, losing precious soup). He also brought us all soup spoons to eat the dumplings with and a dish of black Chinese vinegar and shredded ginger. He explained how we should eat it, and then revealed the dumplings with flourish. OMFG. They were fantastic. The wrappers were thin and perfect (not the thick chewiness you might find on others), the soup was wonderful, and intact in the dumplings due to the care in spacing as mentioned above. Wow. Afterwards, the waiter/owner man explained that they are actually famous for their xiao long bao (although I'm not sure what he means by 'famous.' articles? awards?). After finishing the first dumplings he brought out our fried potstickers (jiao zi(sp?)). These were made in an interesting way. Instead of fully enclosing the meat with the wrappers, the dumplings were wrapped more like open ended egg rolls. Very simple, but wonderfully fried and nicely flavorful. A++++... I'm going back for sure.

2. The second spot we hit was A&J also in Cupertino Village
10893 N WOLFE RD 160C CUPERTINO, CA 95014-0605
PHONE (408)873-8298
We've been here previously for other yummy taiwanese/Chinese snacks. We couldn't help ordering a non-dumpling dish of sliced pig ear in sichuan peppercorn oil. That was delicious. Unfortunately, the dumplings were not as tasty - at all. The xiao long bao were unfortunate. the wrappers were too thick and chewy at the top. Plus all the dumplings were shoved together in the smallest of steamers such that in picking one up, you'd rip the dough and lose the soup and possibly any filling. We also had some vegetarian dumplings and beef dumplings. The beef dumplings were especially average. The veggi ones were ok, but most lost filling when picked up. Also, the waiter was a bit annoyed with us for just ordering a few dumplings and pig ear. I like A&J, but I wouldn't order dumplings there ever again.

3. Lastly, we hit Tong Dumpling Pot
in cupertino, follow Wolfe Rd past the dead mall (Vallco?) as it turns into Miller. When you hit Bollinger, turn left and go into the Safeway parking lot. Go past the Chef Woo side and turn the corner. It's near the water place. Maybe 6184 Bollinger?
This place is mainly a dumpling spot, so there were no worries about just ordering dumplings. The prices were quite reasonable 12 dumplings (boiled or fried depending on your choice) for $5.50 (for lunch it's $5.50 for 12 dumplings + soup or porridge + snack). You can also buy them frozen in packs of 50 for about $12+. They have 4 choices of pork dumplings, one vegetarian choice, two lamb dumpling choices, and 3 chicken dumpling choices (i think). We ordered the pork with shrimp and chives dumplings, the vegetarian dumplings, and the lamb and squash dumplings. It's a very small shop, but since it was the middle of the afternoon, we were the only ones besides the owners who were there. They have a small counter where you can sit and watch them make the dumplings (they handmake them from the wrappers to the fillings.. yay!). Indeed, the handmade wrappers were highly praised by fu. The first set of dumplings we received were the pork/shrimp/chives. These were ok, but had an odd aftertaste that we attributed to the shrimp. Get the ones w/o the shrimp, and I'm sure they'll be good. 2nd came the lamb/squash dumplings. Fu and Ervy LOVED these. They are unique and lamby tasting. (I actually detest the taste of lamb so after one bite of half of one of those dumplings, I passed the rest of it off to ervy). The veggie ones were also good. They tasted highly of mushrooms (so if you don't like mushrooms, do NOT eat this), plus it had yummy noodle bits in them. I would go back here.


The dumpling adventure left us full and lethargic. Even tho we had tea at each place, ervy and I craved espresso. We headed off to Castro (after pulling Adam with us). Ervy and I got yummy Americanos from Red Rock, and we headed across the street to Tapioco Express so Adam and Fu could get pearl milk teas. While there, ervy and I tried to remember how to play Chinese checkers... I lost.


Jayne hat:
I bought the yarn for my hat Friday afternoon and got cracking right away... I realize that the photo I posted from Firefly doesn't show the color of Jayne's hat very well. There are some better images here. Anyway, I grabbed 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride bulky (1 in a red color, 1 in an orange color). There wasn't a yellow I liked enough in LPB, so I bought a bulky in Numero Uno by Lana Grossa. Here was the finished hat Saturday:

You might notice the colors are a bit brighter than Jayne's hat's colors are... So last night I tea dyed the hat. Unfortunately it didn't tone down the red enough... I plan to dip dye just the bottom half of the hat (the red part) in coffee this evening to darken it down a bit.

Flower Basket Shawl Progress

I stopped by Uncommon Threads on Friday to pick up some yarn for my Jayne hat, and while I was there, one of the workers... (Carolyn?) helped me figure out the lace charts on FBS. (I totally didn't realize that the first 2 and last 2 squares on the charts were stitches I was actually supposed to KNIT! (i thought they were just designating purl or knit....). That's why I wasn't ending up with the right number of stitches... duh!

Also, my sp5 Nancy is still rocking my world!!! She sent me a great link to some notes on the fbs which is perfect for right now as I'm just moving on to the lower fbs chart. The site she sent already answered my question about the repeats!

Here's where I am now (although at this point it doesn't look like much unless I stretch out the stitches (then I can see some of the first "leaf" pattern repeats). Oh and if you can see where I made my mistakes... shh! I am actually having a hard time keeping track of where I am on the charts as I often knit while watching tv... this type of knitting seems to require a little more attention than i'm used to giving.

knitting and diddy/martha

ok, yesterday's Martha was a weirdly amusing segment. Martha Stewart and Diddy (aka Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Sean "Puffy" Combs, etc) were on, and Martha was 'learning' how to rap. Diddy explained what "Cheddar," "Benjamins," "Ballin'," "Shorty," "Flossin'," meant to Martha and made her rap out his "All About the Benjamins" chorus... btw, why are the police called, "The Jake"? Fuson, do you want to field that question?

knitting
so I tried starting the fbs shawl yesterday on size 8's since my 7's are taken up... I think I need to restart this near some more experienced knitters. My lace knitting experience level is quite tiny. I'm horrid at reading charts... so when a chart reads o / o, do I yarn over then knit that stitch, then knit two other stitches together and then yarn over and knit? I seem to be confused and end up with either not enough stitches to finish what I think the chart should be, or too many stitches! poop. I won't give up, I just need to be around some other knitters while figuring this out.

So I will instead concentrate on something for Serenity (out in 14 days!!). I'm going to make the Jayne Cobb hat so that I can wear it to the movie. Here's a website with the pattern, and a nice long followup thread on Craftster.org. Gotta get the yarn....

:::YAWN:::

ok, it's official. I'm not allowed to watch the show 'Supernatural'. I couldn't fall asleep last night because I was horribly afraid of my ceiling. Still, if one of you does watch the show this season, can you tell me eventually what's with the bleeding/burning females on the ceilings? I'm going to guess they'd find that out when the season ends...

damn my curiousity... or is it damn my hyperactive imagination? bleh.

Yay new fall TV season!

I'm ecstatic my fall shows are back... or at least mostly will be soon.

I did Tivo Martha Stewart's new show "Martha" on NBC. I didn't realize it was a talk show... albeit a talk show with crafting, cooking, and gardening. I admit, I have learned a new way to fold a t-shirt since watching. I do appreciate that the show doesn't try to hide the fact that Martha was in prison for awhile. In fact, it pretty much celebrates the fact. The opening has pictures of Martha leaving prison in her famous poncho. Also, all the producers of the show wear leg bands (like she had to wear while in house arrest) so they can keep track of each other. I'll be honest, I think she did better with just her cooking shows on foodtv. Watching her try to converse with Marcia Cross was painful (desperate housewives!). I guess I just don't like her style of interviewing. Maybe it was 1st day nerves... meh we'll see.


We Tivo'd WB's Supernatural. This first episode is partly set at Stanford University in the beginning which is funny, because it doesn't look at all like Stanford, and they go to a party with an awesome bar (which is really funny)... ok, Im trying to say it's still funny, but I'm now afriad this is going to give me nightmares. I'm not allowed to watch X-files (according to evvie), because it keeps me up all night. Yikes. ok we'll see if I'll be ok with this show.

I listened to the committee hearing for John Roberts today, and I have to say I enjoyed Senator Biden's questioning the most. I found it most amusing while doing boring brain analyses. I hope my boss didn't think I was crazy laughing at my data...

sp 6 starts now!!
Hi SP6 if you're reading!!!

knitting/spinning
I have been having fun spinning the rovings that my sp5 gave me, and honestly, I've been craving a good knit. I had hoped to begin my flower basket shawl, but I realized the needles I need are taken by this boring old scarf (a 2x2 rib... so boring i can't do it for long periods of time). I think I may pick up my lace cowl from weekend knits so I can wear it now that the weather is starting to cool down again. Blah, wanting to knit being indecisive about what project makes me weary... actually that's probably all the grad app stuff. Poop. I think I'll start knitting again when I'm a bit less stressed (I know, I know, I should knit so that I BECOME less stressed)

back from illness

After being out and completely removed from the world for a week due to being sick, I am back!

While I was lying in bed with fever, evvie brought me up my last package from my absolutely FABULOUS SP5! It was an especially bright moment in my illness as I poured over the treasures that my sp5 (who I now know as Nancy of bird knits)! Wow Nancy sure knows how to spoil a girl! She sent me that neat Red Cross kit I've been eyeing so that I can knit myself (or evvie) some army socks! I do love the color olive drab - how awesome! She also sent me some creamy superwash wool and a dye kit so that I can make dye it myself to create some yummy roving! She also sent some neat woolwash and two AMAZING skeins of yarn! One of the skeins is this pretty boucle and the other is a fantastic fluffy skein of handspun which I'm drooling over just thinking about it right now! Nancy went even further with her generosity and donated $100 in my name to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina. How did I get blessed with such a wonderful and giving Secret Pal? Honestly, I feel a bit guilty getting such a great SP when I know there were quite a few people this round who had flaky sps. Nancy, you're the BEST!


closeup of handspun from sp5


Also, a quite belated thank you to Suzie of The Purly Gates. I won her blogiversary contest and she sent a wonderful package of Japanese yarn, a CUTE japanese bag, some clover pins, a new notebook (I LOVE notebooks!), and some wonderful Japanese candy!! Thanks Suzie!


Last night I met up with some high school friends and had some pie. It was good to see people.... We ate the pie before I took the picture :(


As a last note, while I was out sick last week, many people's lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Please think about giving a little to help rebuild these people's lives. Evan and I donated to the Red Cross, and I encourage y'all to give what you can to help these people. Also you might think of giving to habitat for humanity which is down there helping rebuild homes.

as much for myself to remember

Yesterday on npr, they played a bit of music from Don Juan Dracula - a band that appears from their website to not currently have distibution in the US yet....

here's a cute video with one of their songs

Evvie thinks they sound "generic" but he enjoys them too. I like 'em. It also sounds like good car riding music. There are a couple song downloads on their site tho to tide me over until the release...

Knit together

Even though I didn't make it to the knitting meetings where the campus reporters showed up (darn work for being so time consuming!), there's still a picture of some yarn I spun (now owned by Lourdes Ventura), and a small blurb about me in this article.

"Case in point: With just her two knitting needles and some yarn, Ventura made a small stuffed animal, as well as a fluffy steering wheel cover for her new car. Lori, on staff in the Psychology Department and at the Graduate School of Business's behavioral lab, made a handbag that bears an uncanny resemblance to a plate of bacon and eggs—sunny side up."

allergic...ick

I picked up about 20 skeins of yarn yesterday at st vincent de paul for $1 each. half the skeins were 50%mohair, 50%acrylic, and the other half of the lot are 100% wool.

I started knitting with them immediately, only to find I have a horrible allergic reaction to them! I think that they may just be quite dusty? or something? Will washing them help? I think when i get a chance I'm going to unwind a couple skeins and give them a good wash with some shampoo... Any other ideas would be much appreciated :)

Piggies and knitting

what's that? how bout this pic?



it's PIG RACING! Sean (evvie's bro), evvie and I went to the San Mateo County fair last Saturday! The pig racing was so cute! The little piggies raced around the track to eat an oreo at the end. I kept turning to evvie and saying, "I want one!" so cute!

The fair was also interesting in that you could go see all the different county fair entries for different things. I have to say, I should totally enter the spinning category next year. I only saw four skeins there! The baked goods and candies looked delish, and the wall of jars of pickles, preserves, and vinegars were delightful to see! There were other categories from place setting design, to plant growing. Here are a couple noteworthy cacti from the event:


We also happened to go to the fair the same day as the chili cook-off. At 3pm when the contestants sent their chili samples to the judges, you could walk around and sample all the contestants' chilis for free! Yum! My favorite was this absolutely wonderful chipotle chili. It was so smokey!


I also spotted this at the table by the San Jose Lace Museum. I've never seen lace made (besides knitting), and this looks like an utter headache to me! People must have much more patience than I was born with to be able to manage to create the pieces. Here's some lace "in progress"


knitting
Like so many others, I fell under the spell of the One Skein Wonder by glampyre. I bought the pattern and decided to move it right up to the top of my list of things to knit. I wasn't quite sure what size aran weight yarn was, so I doubled the worsted merino I had left over from handpainted yarn. Even so, I didn't hit gauge. I should have moved up to a size 9 needle I think. Oh well, the fabric is a little dense, but I like it anyway. I ran out of yarn just as I was about to move on to the cuffs of the OSW, so I bought some Lamb's Pride at Uncommon Threads in Los Altos to finish it off. Overall, I like it. Next time, I'm going to knit it on size 9's and make it long sleeves.
Front (a little bunched up in this photo, but I was too lazy tired to take another shot):


Back:


specs:
One Skein Wonder by Glampyre
2 skeins of worsted merino yarn from Handpaintedyarn.com (two strands held together)
size 8 needles and size 5 circulars

lol, btw, I think my boyf is one of the few males who doesn't wonder where "the rest of the sweater" went to...

interview by Ming

The Rules
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview Me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others asking to be interviewed comment, you will ask them 5 questions.

Interview by Ming

1) What made you decide to switch from computer science/art to psychology? Could it have been the pizza at 2am every evening (I couldn't eat pizza chicago again without bringing back THOSE memories), the back aches and bleary eyes from hunching over a computer putting my eyes too close to the screen as I tried to debug some nastiness? I think in the beginning (back in hs and early college), I really really enjoyed the challenges of writing and planning out my code and programs. Honestly tho, as I went along through my major I realized that mostly I just didn't care anymore. The fun went away, and suddenly I was faced with, "OMG, do I really want to do this for the rest of my life in some cubicle somewhere?" I plodded along for a while just feeling more and more trapped until depression completely took over my life (I remember breaking down at a gyno appt *totally wrong kind of doctor, eh* and I ended up leaving with a little bottle of paxil which I never ended up taking because I decided I'd rather change my life than take medicine). Anyhoo, I desperately tried to figure out what I could change my major to that late in the game (for those who don't know, I switched majors my senior year of college). My parents are pretty strict about what I "can be when I grow up." I always knew that I was supposed to be a doctor or an engineer (duh, I am Chinese, right?). Up until my senior year, I had only taken 1 psychology class (cognitive psychology), but I had LOVED it. I also looked around and realized that 2 of my aunts and 1 of my uncles were psychologists (most practicing clinical psych). So I figured, psychology was at least a somewhat accepted (in my family) pathway out of the whole doctor/engineer thing. So I went for broke :)


2) What's the most interesting problem/issue to you in the world of psychology at the moment?
That answer will obviously be different depending on who you ask (and you're asking little ol' me). Every psychologist probably thinks there is something in THEIR area, THEIR research that is the most important, or at least very important, otherwise they wouldn't be pursuing that line of research. Of course, I'm not really at the point where I can dictate explicitly what projects I should be working on... I obviously find racial interactions and biases fascinating, otherwise I probably wouldn't be heading in the social psych direction. I do think some of what I'm working on right now is important as it relates to biases that everyone has, (and how it affects our actions/vigilance) especially with respect to police officer training and awareness, but I don't know that that's the most important thing in psych right now for me... honestly, I'm not quite sure EXACTLY what is most important to me because there seems like there are so many "important" issues out there. sorry for that fluff answer.

3) Do you think of yourself as a queer ally? What does that mean to you?
"ally." To me, the term suggests more of a war like situation in which political/human rights are fought for (in this case). I don't know that I'm politically active enough for the community to be called "a queer ally." Back in high school, I was part of the group that started the Gay Straight Alliance. I was in the meetings with the principal of the school as we fought to have the right to have the group on campus after our initial meeting signs were torn down and members threatened. Back then, I might have thought of myself as a queer ally. Now, I suppose I would be considered a queer 'friend' since I sympathize with and agree with much of what the community might want, but I am not involved enough to help or even know the intricacies of what the community is pushing for.

4) What dish (or dishes) would you want to learn to cook perfectly every time?
that yummy salty bean curd skin and chicken dish my grandma makes. and maybe that yummy savory nian gao recipe that emi made for chinese new year. oh and that chocolate cake with yummy molten center that you get at restaurants dripping with chocolate sauce. Oh yeah and lots of tasty souffles.

5) If you could go back in time and give the 12 year old Lori some advice, what would it be?
Do not date anyone named Dan. Ever.

i wanna go home...

bleh work.

I want to thank all the people who've left me bday wishes on my bloggy blog!

Thanks also to Kae who sent me the cutest belated bday card... makes me want to be late in remembering someone's bday so i can sent it out as well! just adorable!

random
taken from sanmiguelmalo
what happens to people after they leave you? (although I've always been the one to leave in the relationship...)

1) Go to U Penn to double major in European History and Biology, minors in Hispanic studies and Film studies. Then goes on to a PhD program at Carnegie Mellon in Social and Cultural History - Modern Spain

2) Goes on to Law School at Pacific McGeorge where he becomes the ATLA (I'm not sure what this stands for) chapter president

3) Went to Stanford University and majored in English and minored in computer science. He was in a rock band called Relapse. He graduated and went to work at Google as a temp for a while. Now I have no idea where he is.

4) Changed his major to Art History, graduated and got into every selective Art History PhD program. He chose to go to Harvard.

still to come... ming's interview questions....

Friends and special occasions...

Friday afternoon, I took off work early and headed to La Belle in the Stanford shopping center to get a manicure with my friend Hilary and her bridesmaid before her wedding on Saturday. Admittedly, it was fun to be pampered a bit, although if I didn't have a gift card from my boss for the place, I probably wouldn't have spent the money on such an indulgence.

Saturday, ervy and I went to our twin couple's Hilary and Steven's wedding in Portolla Valley. It was a rather small affair, but I really enjoyed being a part of their special occasion. Hilary looked absolutely wonderful, and I almost cried as they both cried in joy at the altar.


birthday celebration
I received wonderful birthday ecard from Jennie... although that darned monkey wouldn't let me pin its tail on!! :) or maybe it was my laptop touch pad... hmmm... thanks Jennie for the thoughtful card!

I also received the wonderful resource and cookbook Local Flavors from Fuson. This book documents all the best produce you can find around the country (how to pick the best ones, and how to cook them in tasty tasty ways!). I think I'll head to my farmer's market next weekend and pick up some yummy freshness to put on a pizza.... why a pizza? Because I can now make the best pizza crust EVAH since Adam and Emi bought me an awesome new pizza stone! It was the best rated one from America's test kitchen, so you KNOW it's good! hey now, Chris Kimball wouldn't lead us astray now would he? As an extra fun bit, emi and adam also bought me In Sheep's Clothing which I'm ecstatic about! I've been such a naughty handspinner by not having it at my side! Evvie also surprised me with a fibery/crafty related gifty! He bought me a beautiful wood swift so he doesn't have to play human swift so I can wind my skeins faster!! Thank you guys! Y'all rock!

Sunday was the designated "birthday" day :). We went to go see Murderball which I highly reccommend even with the shaky camera filming. I even learned the different variations of quadriplegia. I had previously thought that quadriplegia meant you couldn't move any of your limbs, but there is a HUGE range of motion capabilities depending on where in your spine your fracture/stress occurred.

After the movie, ervy and I headed over to Passage to India's bakery shop and picked up a pretty green pistachio cake!


We then all (emi, adam, fu, minger, ervy and I) headed out to Mudai, an Ethiopian restaurant in San Jose. YUM! I can't believe it's been two years since I last had Ethiopian food... Dang it's so good... too good to space out my visits that much! If you visit Mudai, I highly reccommend the chickpea and fava bean dishes, although really everything was pretty tasty! I just wish the cuisine would become more popular so we don't have to drive to San Jose or the city to get it.

spinning
despite a packed weekend, I did manage to spin up a skein of the yummy fiber my SP5 sent me! I spun up a bit of the Rhapsodies in Candy something... from Paradise Fibers. Honestly, this might have been the most excitingly dyed fiber I've ever spun! There were SO many colors that the bobbin constantly looked different as I spun the single! there were purples ranging from light to dark to burgandy which changed to yellow and green and blue! In the end I had this beautiful skein:


although the colors are a bit closer to this (on the right):


thanks again SP5! This is some AMAZING fiber you sent over!

birthday thank yous!

Yes, today, I've officially become a year older. Honestly, I have been blessed to have good friends and family, a somewhat steady job, good health, and I only hope that the next year is just as good!

I want to especially thank Angela
for the cutest birthday ecard! I'm such a sucker for cute little animals!

And thank you also Katie
for the beautiful butterfly stitch markers and lovely birthday card! I
was super excited to get that in the mail! This is how your card arrived (it's the one on the right). I'm so very very glad you taped the ribbon to the card on the inside so that the stitch markers didn't slip out! Although I have to admit, it was pretty fun having those dangling out to tease me when I got my mail!



The card on the left is from my good friend hilary who actually thought to give me something before she took off from work early this week (she's getting married this Saturday!). I'm very impressed that with all the work going on, plus this close to her wedding, she managed to think of me!

I have to mention that I was also ecstatic to get a happy birthday email from my friend Marlow in China! I haven't seen her in ages, but not only did she remember my birthday (and get the timing down right from across the globe), but she had to actively search out my current email address to send me the message! I'm not sure if you follow my bloggy shmarlow, but if so, I just wanted to let you know I was really touched to hear from you today!

One more thank you, then I promise I'll get on to something fibery! Thanks Minger for the new Fruits book! Man, you hit me right on the money this time! I love me some Fruitsy outfits. I just need to grab some ideas from the book before I go to Target this afternoon, so I can make people think I'm crazy again! :)


me being all birthday girl with my family last weekend

spinning and carding

these are the brand new full sized wool Ashford Handcarders I picked up at Lambtown last weekend. Ervy picked me up some Tung oil to finish them in (and I nearly killed us with the toxic fumes as I sat there finishing them in front of the tv... *sorry honey!*).

Anyhoosit, I pulled out the border cheviot fleece I bought and washed months ago (it had a lot of vm, so it was insane to try to pick it all out by hand) and carded it up with a bit of corriendale I had dyed. The cards got ALOT of the vm out. I ended up with lots of bits of grass all over my pants and carpet by the end of things! *I guess that's more incentive to vacuum*!

I made a bunch of these little "nests" of fiber:

You'll notice that the fibers are not completely parallel to each other (like they are when I buy some of my more expensive processed fiber). The fiber is organized, but not parallel, which should lead to a more woollen yarn (said the nice lady who taught me how to card). The yarn itself will then be lighter and warmer!

here's a poor picture of what it's coming out like on Wally. It's a very light peachy sherbety yarn. I haven't quite decided what to do with it yet... I might make a bunch of it and make a shrug like the one skein wonder....

BookCrossing and an artist

I've known about Book Crossing for a while, but it took some organization on the part of the FiberRAOK group before I signed up.

Basically it's a site where people register books they have and would like to either 'release' into the wild for someone else to find (and then you can track a book's journey as it passes through different people's hands) or for other people to borrow.

I've started registering my books (although I must admit, I've very attached to many of my books so I wouldn't be entirely ready to give them away completely). I've even registered the ones I haven't read yet, but I'm willing to lend them out to RAOK people or my blog readers :) go take a look, I've only added a few of the ones I've got, but feel free to peruse. My book crossing ID is Lwu81.

I'm currently reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, afterwards I would LOVE to read The Tipping Point, also by Gladwell. If anyone has this book and would be willing to lend it to me or trade or whatever, send me an email :)

Arooj Aftab
My new favorite song is a cover of Hallelujah by Arooj Aftab. You can visit her site and download some of her music from her links in her sidebar.

I heard her when NPR's The World interviewed her on Friday.
The NPR Clip can be found here.

background:
She's a Pakastani artist who is trying to buck the trend of having the
musical profession be mainly male in Pakistan. Also, it's not a very
admired profession (wage earning, etc) due to country development.
She's started taking classes from US music school online, and was
recently given a scholarship to attend the school in the US

Just thought I'd share in case y'all happen to like that song. My friend Hilary absolutely adored the version by Rufus Wainright and was ecstatic that I sent her a new one to listen to. :)