Happy Times

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Another fantastic pair of holidays looms on the horizon. To welcome them, Adam and I have set up a shrine in our front room. It's our first tree together- the first tree either of us have had outside our parents' houses. Kind of feels like "baby's first Christmas". Carried it the eight blocks home. Got a cute little squat thing and so far all we've done is drap it with white lights. Am hoping to get popcorn and cranberry chains up after this weekend. Going for a nice red/white theme to match the front room- decorating is fun!


Good times! Good times! Wrapped up the vacation weekend with more socializing. In the middle of it I wrapped up a tiny bottle cap monster from... yikes... started probably a year ago. Made some use of all those white feathers I got for the Halloween costume. Golly gee, but don't those teeth look fantastic on the little fellow? His throat extends quite a way- he lives at work now and has a quarter shoved down in there and you can't even tell.



Also- I've discovered a great new video game! It's called Amazon Mechanical Turk! Instead of earning points, you earn pennies! About as worthless as any video game out there. I've been picking up a couple tasks here and there as sort of mental cigarett breaks. About on par with playing Spider Solitaire, but with worse graphics. I like the tagging mini games the best. Adam doesn't really approve of it, but really, he hates all the computer games I play. This evening had a good quote from him:

I'm playing a game similar to your game. It has a bit higher stakes. It's called "Peer to peer lending".

... oh! And now I hear crab season is finally on! Sweet!
p.s. - in other "happy times" news, we decided to spend New Years in Paris. So there's that to look forward to...

Venn Diagram Pie & 2.6 pounds

I saw a picture on the Internet a while back. It was of a pie that looked like a Venn Diagram. Not sure where I came across it (probably Reader, may it rest in peace), but it struck me. It was a striking combination of:
* delicious looking
* nerd humor
* engineering challenge

Therefor, I knew several weeks ago what I would be bringing to Thanksgiving. I had idly thought about it off and on so when Thanksgiving morning rolled around and I still had not lifted a finger to start on this project, I was not worried. (Adam was)

All I had was (the memory of) a photo, Adam's book How To Cook Everything, and the experience of having cooked one apple pie several Thanksgivings ago under my mother's watchful eye.
The order of actions went thus- pie crust, shopping, apple half internals, pie tin, berry half internals, curst into tin, filling of pie. BAM! Done! You throw that sucker in the oven and you get out the tastiest damn pie ever. I've no doubt I'll make this again.

Given that all the edible stuff came directly from the above mentioned book, I'll not dwell on it. The pie tin aspect was surprisingly easy and fun. I traced it on paper, picked the degree of overlap, and marked the intersection point on both tins. And then... and then... I used the Dremel! Definitely improves the cooking experience- to go from screeching aluminum and safety glasses to the soft thump-thump of a rolling pin and the smell of butter. Contrast- the spice of life.

I cut the edge of the pie between the intersection points and then along the bottom edge up to the points. Being fantastic cheap pie tins, I was easily able to clean up the ragged edges with a pair of scissors afterwards. I would not recommend scissors for the whole thing even though it is possible due to the... twist? torque? scissors put on the material when you're making initial cuts into something. The tin was easy to deform and I did not want it so.
Afterwards I wove it together- the pie whose bottom is on top wraps its edges along the outside and the bottom tin's edges wrap along inside. Used clothespins to hold them in place while I wrapped the whole thing in tin foil (an initial layer wrapping from the bottom up, a second layer laying on top wrapping over the edges and down)

The actual pie assembling was fun, if rather brief. Apples and blackberries. Fantastic combination. The lattice top was fun- makes me think I would enjoy making challah bread...

Turns out apple slices you prepare for pie are super tasty when eaten straight up! All that sugar and... sugar.... Had enough left-over pie crust (the whole thing being just a single serving of the "Pie Shell for a Two-Crust Pie" recipe) that I managed to make use of my new little silicone baking cups which made me happy. Haven't cooked them yet, but I've faith it'll work out.




After all this we went to the GWS House for Thanksgiving. It was fantastic. Looked great, tasted great, had a great time. It may be hard to believe, but everything was made from scratch! _{(well, except for the gravy)} Don't think that there was some sort of pre-event announcement dictating it must be so. That's just the type of awesome folks I hang out with. Everyone had pride in what they brought.


After a brisk walk in the cold, we circled back for dessert. A rough estimating exercise suggested that there were 10+ sticks of butter in total put into all the combined desserts. Yummie!

Afterwards people hung out. Adam got me a hookah for my birthday and there was a pleasant social inaugural smoking of it once the sweets were consumed. Then I took a nap while Adam played Starcraft late into the night.

It was a good day. I am thankful for the great life I live.

Grumpy Times

Super achy and ill for Halloween (actually the day before, but it carried over). Post about costumes made will be forth coming once I get photos back of them.

While pouting on the couch on Sunday, there was some up-sides to things. Reading indie books on my Kindle! I finished book 2 and started into book 3 of the Jenny Pox series. I would recommend them, but I feel the same hesitation that I read in the review that made me read them. It reads like a YA book but there are definitely some non-YA parts to it (sex, violence). In my opinion, the mix is probably the reason I liked them. Also, it was *perfect* Halloween reading material. And timed well with the recently released Contagion movie.

I also played some Triple Town, which is really really fun right up until the point that you run out of moves and need to wait for them to replenish. Then it really sucks. I however put the waiting time to good use :


Not sure if I've got the patience to keep playing though. Alas. Waiting makes me grumpy.

Making things more awesome

I have a craft room. This is an awesome fact. The best part of the craft room is that I can do things in there to organize my crafting process. I love to pour over decorating blogs, especially ones geared towards people with craft rooms. There's something divine in a well put together room that has been especially tailored to optimizing the crafting experience.

My room however has far to go. But today! Today I take one step forward in the "This is going to be awesome" direction. I've always had an idea about how my "current" fabric should be organized and dude! It totally looked something like this in my head:

Except, get this- it's not in my head any more! It's there! In the room! Bam!

Walking home from Dr. Sketchy's tonight (which was aaaaaawesome) I spotted the halves of a futon frame next to the public trash bit on our street corner. This half the frame was perfect and I didn't feel that bad about taking only part of it because the legs were no-where in sight. So it was trash. But I made (part of it) into something sweet and useful! How indy craft girl of me!

Along the topic of making things more awesome- I totally took some seeds a while ago and put them in the dirt. Then I managed to not neglect what came out of the dirt too much. Now I've got this!

I'm not certain you can see it so let me point it out to you. There's a god damn cherry tomato growing on that (root bound, very sad) tomato plan! I've not picked it yet... not actually, you know, sure when too... but soon! And there are more on the other plants coming along (no other one actually red yet though). Also note the actually-kinda'-healthy catnip next to it. That's growing (from seed!) too and continues to meet Duck's approval every time I give him a fresh leaf from it.

Thrashing and Agile crafting

Am totally thrashing on crafting now. I've got intense urges to draw (with reasonable results), perhaps in feverish anticipation of the Inkling I plan to buy the second they go on sale. I've also got a half-skinned Zergling plush to finish, a Frankenturret plush to rev, a Frankenturret model to do final touches on, a Settlers of Catan quilt to limp along with, and a Halloween costume to plan. ... So instead I've found myself playing Mass Effect the last couple nights to chill. And any time I do pick up a craft, all I can think of is the other things I should be working on (or worse yet the nigglings of new ideas).

Despite this, I have been making minor progress. The weekends have been clobbered recently with socializing (parents in town! friends hanging out!) which leaves me only the evenings to squeeze in an hour or two of something (given how often Adam and I eat out and how much time that takes up... who would have guessed hanging out with your S.O. would consume so much time!)

I dislike the concept of Agile software development as I've actually encountered it so far. I think the ideas are nice and reasonable enough, but the way it has evolved at work is very displeasing... But! Let that not sully the entire Agile idea. I feel my recent (ongoing & diverse) Portal 2 projects sort of embody some of the basic ideas... Recently I was under the impression I could make a cute Frankenturret plushie that met the following requirements :

low complexity

machine sewable

durable

no non-snuggable parts

cute

small-ish

These are all things I'm bad at and need practice with. Which means it shouldn't be surprising that the first results look like shit:

The scale is too small to be reasonably machine sewable... I've no experience with fleece (though I must say it is awesome!) and I've stared too long at frankenturret details to easily abbreviate it. So much failure... But the point is iteration! I can't just expect it to be perfect on the first go. I've got to rev my designs, put forward due diligence to get each rev as close to the "done" state as possible, but not obsessively dwell or grind to a halt if it doesn't turn out the way I like it. Try again! Am giving up on the machine sewable portion rule (at least for the head) but hope to hold onto my other goals. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be very open to them!! The 'less is more' design concept for 'cute' is a struggle I seem never to be able to win.

At least I have my stalwart Catan quilt to stand by. It lives on the empty stereo box now and is mainly Duck's perch in the den. I'm down to 5 tiles to edge and then it's playable!!


The darkening days has it's pros to counter the obvious cons. The season of coding approaches. I'm excited to be getting back to the Tichu project soon. Coding while the sun is up is ridiculous... but now it's well into dark by the time I get home... which means my time will have yet another contender. Along those lines, I was at work until 10-something tonight. Working on a KnockoutJS demo for our project as it shifts into the wondrous realm of JavaScript. Holy poop- Knockout is flipping awesome. Seriously! I've no doubt I'll be doing the Tichu client with it.

Minor addition to last post...

Trying to remember how to draw better... hence the lack of exciting craft posts. (The weather is too nice to code- that's a winter sport) Am super psyched for the Wacom Inkling pen...

I forgot! I had taken pictures at the start of the month of my one cucumber and never posted them... I cut up and ate a portion (though sadly not the whole thing) of this poor little cucumber after it showed no sign of change for several days... There was almost a seed inside it... almost... very tough little bugger... it did *not* give me a tummy ache, luckly


Also, not everything from my garden was a complete failure. The peas did quite fine and the basil was actually used several times in cooking.


I would also like to note that we are now in the awesome period of San Francisco. Remember- if you ever wish to visit, only do so in the spring or fall. This last weekend was icky, but during the week the days have been absolutely fabulous. Here's the Adam lounging on our sweet deck chair. Note the awesome vintage parasal he's using to protect himself from the sun- his mother got that for me last Christmas- haven't had a chance to use it yet, but will find one soon!

General bland update

Too many projects all plodding along at the same time, with nothing finishing... Also, distracted with work and life and travel. All good things.

In the good news, progress was made at last weekend's very pleasant craft day. Settlers of Catan quilt base is finished binding. Most the hex titles are done. Now for the tedious task for snap sewing... the results so far are very promising!


Played Starcraft 2 this last weekend. Placed into Gold league with Vince and Adam, which is pleasing. Instantly turned around and started making a zergling plush... having never finished the hydralisk one of course. Am taking good photo-documentation notes however, and making progress. Am about... halfway done? Am "skinning" it currently... will post pictures next week. Main take away from that project though: Dude! Coins make perfect weights!!

I was hoping to finish it in one weekend, but was distracted by Adam and his continuing quest to make our front room awesome. Previous weekends it was shuffling around furniture and rotating shelves. This weekend it was hooking up the record player and sound system.

Was also distracted by going to see the movie Drive. A touch too graphically violent for my tastes. Adam and I both agreed we couldn't quite tell... what the director was trying to say with the film. Why was it made? The first half was pretty great though. No complaints about anything (acting, dialog, cinematography, music)... just... why? Best thing from it though? The soundtrack! Purchased from Amazon for $8, which seems very reasonable. Suggested tracks : Nightcall, Tick of the Clock, Wrong Floor, and After the Chase.

In closing, sad, news... the garden experiment is coming to an end. Lessons have been learned. Notes have been taken. I haven't given up entirely- there's still the catnip and the plants in the front room, and a couple tomatoe plans outside. I hope to put out some snow peas, but that's probably it. Next year- no lettuce! More pruning! More climbing! Watering.... still confuses me. To wrap up the garden experiment, may I present the tiny rewards I have reaped...