Friday Fixation
I am totally obsessed with this game Untangle It's like untangling a really bad, virtual ball of yarn. Really satisfying when you get it all untangled, and really frustrating when it just keeps getting more and more messed up. It's a major timesuck though, don't say I didn't warn you.
Fairwell my Plastic Friend
Had a little bit of a rough week, full of sad things. The least of which was the demise of my beloved and trusty plastic Royal brand ball winder. Above is the last cake of yarn it will ever make, an 880 yard skein of lovely olive green merino laceweight yarn that I purchased from the Yarn Chef for a super secret project.
Alas, when one's husband trips and knocks over the kitchen stool that the ball winder is attached to, the plastic handle may just break right off upon impact. And herein lies the greatest weakness of the plastic ballwinder. The plastic handle and the winding mechanism are all one piece. All plastic. So when the handle breaks off just where it projects from the base of the winder it is impossible to fix. We tried to epoxy it on but the amount of epoxy needed to seal it would have stopped the mechanism being able to turn. Not so handy in a ball winder.
So, I ordered another one. A wooden one, made by the Strauch company, complete with ball bearings. It's set to ship on or around the 22nd, and hopefully will arrive shortly thereafter. It's a more expensive ball winder, over twice the cost of the Royal but it's general sturdiness, better clamping abilities and the ball bearings mean it will last easily twice as long as the Royal, therefore justifying the cost. I'm buying for longevity, baby.
Speaking of buying for longevity, I should officially extend congratulations to T and Mr. T, on the impending purchase of their first home. Coming soon, a product review!
Rollin’
TheBoy and I spent Friday night at the best themed party I think I've ever been to. An eggroll party. At ViolinJodie's house. Her fiancé turned 30 on Christmas Eve and so to celebrate the house was full of very cheerful people filling and frying eggrolls. The food was great, the company was great, and I am pretty sure everyone had a fabulous time. We even had a little impromptu knitting circle, looking at various pattern books.
We were all asked to bring various fillings to the party and I was quite a hit with a crab rangoon filling and a tossed together apple pie filling. I found both to be delicious and have promised that next time we fry things I'll make sure to bring more crab. It's really hard to go wrong with cream cheese in an eggroll/wonton wrapper that's deep fried. I figured I'd share the recipe for the rangoon filling since it's crab season right now.
8 ounces cooked crab meat, flaked [you can substitute fake crab, but it's not as good]
8 ounces light cream cheese [you can use full fat, but it doesn't make much of a difference]
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
2 scallions, chopped into small pieces
1 package eggroll or wonton wrappers
Canola or peanut oil for frying
Mix everything except oil and wrappers in a bowl. Yep. That's it. Keep cold until ready to use. If making wontons, use no more than 1 tsp filling in the center of wonton, seal and fry until golden brown. If making eggrolls, a tablespoon or two of filling makes a skinny, but neat roll. Again, seal and fry until golden brown. Drain on a cooling rack, positioned on a cookie sheet [to catch any oil drips]. Serve warm with spicy chinese mustard, duck sauce or similar.
The photo above are Jodie's fiancé's favorite very spicy peppers. The frying of said peppers caused a lot of stinging eyes, so keep that in mind. The insides of eggrolls get very steamy and the capsaicin escapes all airborn-like. While extremely tasty, I dislike the burning, stinging eyes. I think my favorite eggroll combination of the night was cooked pork, cabbage, mushrooms, daikon radish, and goat cheese. Delicious.
Let’s Hope I’m Not One of Those Seven
I love xkcd.com with a slightly bridled passion. It's the perfect blend of nerdy, geeky and wonderful. And today, knitting makes an appearance. How much better can it get?
He’s the Cheese to my Macaroni
TheBoy and I saw the movie Juno on Saturday. It was brilliant. I laughed. A. Lot. And then I cried. Just a little bit. Then I laughed some more. It left me feeling really wonderful about my marriage and the relationship that I have with TheBoy [I know I'm gushy and schmoopy, but I can't help it. He's. Just. That. Great.]
The best part of the evening [for me] was what we found outside the theatre:
Snow! In Eugene! I feel like a total tourist getting giddy over the snow and taking photographs of it. I do truly miss living in a cooler climate some days, and in the winter I feel so incomplete without snow. Call me crazy, but it's in my blood. And you know, we had snow, just a little bit, and then it was all gone within 24 hours. And that's also nice.
We are getting a lot of rain. Not that that's abnormal for this time of year. My desk at work sits under a skylight so I spend the day listening to the pattering, drumming and thundering of rain on the glass. It's glorious, I really revel in the rain for the most part. It's weird, but it frequently fills a large part of the void in my life left by not seeing the ocean every day. Besides rainy, grey days are the best kinds of days to spend inside with hot cocoa and a good book.