Archive: May, 2009

I finally went out and got some flowers and planted them around the lightpost in the front yard. The vacant lot look is definitely gone, replaced by some yellow marigolds, some red dahlias, and petunias. Next task - mulch!

Even Basement Cats need wooly things!!

Ever since learning the fair isle technique (knitting with 2 colors of yarns simultaneously), I've been obsessed with it even though I haven't knit as much in the last few months. I just love the way that the pattern comes together and the yarns interweave to make one cohesive piece. I only learned the technique in September, but I found and kept this snowflake sweater pattern over a year ago. I knew that someday I'd want to try and make this.

It's only written for one size (toddler) and since I only know of one adorable little girl who is anywhere near toddler age, this has Nina's name all over it. :)

Oliver wanted to help provide scale and got in this last picture.

Jeff and I went to Cedar Point for opening day. We didn't really get to ride anything, unless you count Paddlewheel Excursions to escape the rain and Power Tower. That's it. Two rides the entire day. Mind you, our day was broken up by leaving the park to go see a movie to give the weather a chance to clear up, which it did. But the lines were just too long. Oh well. There will be other trips.

But here is my gripe: they changed the name tags this year and have removed the hometown where each worker lives and just have the years of service listed. This REALLY bothered me! I always look to see where the various workers are from and now you can't tell. I especially liked seeing when someone was from overseas and think "wow, that person's from Croatia..." or wherever.

That really bums me out.

I used to drink coffee when I started college, but soon after switched to tea. My reasons were two-fold: I was becoming hyper-sensitive to the caffeine in coffee and living in England opened my eyes to a whole host of tea varieties. Since then, I've always been a bit of a tea snob and prefer loose tea if given the choice. My tea tins had been getting dangerously low so I decided to make a run to the Westside Market to restock my tea stash. The City Roast Coffee stand has a great variety of loose teas, ranging in price from $1.00-$2.50 an ounce. My favorites are the Russian Caravan (fruity) and their special Christmas Blend which they only offer seasonally. They share a vendor stand with Crepes De Luxe. It was too much of a temptation so for lunch I had the classic crepe filled with nutella, bananas, and powdered sugar. A savory crepe would have made more sense for lunch, but I have a serious weakness for nutella. Next time, I'll force myself to try the savory Capri crepe which is filled with mozzarella, tomato, basil and olive oil. Yum!!!

Hello, my name is Diana and I am a closet Trekkie. Always have been. I grew up watching the original tv show and even knew the names of various episodes. For those of you who recently saw the new J.J. Abrams movie that is out, you may remember the character Christopher Pike from the Menagerie episodes in the first season.

I remember watching Star Trek every Saturday (by that time, they were already in re-runs) when I was about 7 years old. When the various spin-offs came out, I watched them too. Was always a fan of Next Generation and Voyager but never liked DS9, and despite liking the actor Scott Bakula could never get into Enterprise.

Even so, I am a Trekkie - knowing all of the classic series (which you can watch online for free (http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/) and being able to quote the movies with the original cast.

Live long and prosper...

Someone REALLY needs to take a look at the figures again for Forbes to rank Cleveland as the 8th most overpriced city to live in, beating out San Diego, San Francisco and Boston! This just doesn't make sense to me.

My body is in full rebellion mode today. Over the weekend, I worked on the island flower bed that is in the middle of the front yard. I essentially removed the top 6 inches of debris (old mulch, overgrown weeds, and horrific landscape fabric). I then added 4 bags of topsoil and planted a peony bush. Monday evening I played tennis for the first time in 5+ months. Last night, I finished "gutting" the flower bed around our gas lamp post. Kudos to Jeff who helped greatly by digging out a majority of the ornamental grass the day before. It is now ready for some topsoil and plants.

If you are within a 1 mile radius of me and listen carefully, you can probably hear the obscenities that my body is screaming at me for the torture that I've recently put it through.

Now that I'm married and I wear both my engagement diamond and my wedding band at the same time, I'm considering having them soldered together. It bothers me if they aren't aligned properly and brings out the OCD in me.

I've had one person warn me against it though, citing that once I have a baby I won't want to wear the diamond for fear of scratching him/her. So now I'm not as sure, but the OCD thing really bothers me.

Thoughts from any of you that are married with children? Two rings or one?

Nothing like opening up your email and seeing the following subject:

"Laptop Upgrade: has been ordered"

It's about time I get a laptop for work... :)