Seattle Knitting Expo

Yay, it's April 30th, and I'm off to the Seattle Knitting Expo in a few hours!
Things've been great around here these past few days, except for some rain, but hey, it's Seattle, whaddayaexpect!
In my next post I will share with you some pics of my new "nook" on the deck; we bought this set of Ikea garden furniture and I'm all psyched that I managed to put everything together in an hour and a half. (Hey man, chicks with power tools rule! We shall conveniently disregard the fact that I put one of the chairs' backs on inside-out, shall we?)

Furthermore, there are some great Before and After pics of the bedroom coming up! Yeah, I've been quite the little Martha Stewart here...

Hmm, I kinda missed the big Queen's Day celebration. I cooked some kick-ass Flemish fries and ate them with mayonnaise, drank a Grolsch beer, and I also heated a stroopwafel, but it's still not quite the same.. I didn't even have any orange clothing to wear!

Do have some fun news tho: next Saturday, we are taking off to Salt Lake City. Dave will be talking to some customers there and we're also meeting up with his folks. It should be a lot of fun! I only met them once before, but they were very cool.
I'm reading Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven right now, so I'm really focused on taking in as much as I can of the whole Mormon thing while I'm over there. See the big temple and all that good stuff. Get your hands on that book, it's quite a shocking read!

As for the previous book I talked about, the Kite Runner.... Man, it was too painful, I had to stop reading. (That has never happened to me before, by the way.) By the time I was halfway through, I was sobbing like a little girl, and at the book club meeting, it had other girls crying too. It's a very intense and powerful book, but I can't deal with reading about injustice and violence to such an extent. Ugh...
The book we're reading for next month is King Dork, more of a young adult high school kinda book, or so I've heard. We ordered it from Amazon, and tossed in two Dutch courses with audio cassettes while we were at it! Woohoo, sweetie's gonna learn Dutch!
It should make for a very educational trip to Utah!! ;)

See ya tomorrow!

Loving the weather!

Hello, I'm back! ;o)
I'm sorry, but staying indoors behind a computer screen is the last thing I want to do when the weather is as awesome as it's been in the past few weeks! Things are still going great, and I'm really starting to get settled in.
I needed that.
So. We spent the weekend planting all kinds of veggies in the garden and I've made a few great pots for on the deck. One with fuchsias and one with various herbs, like basil, oregano and my alltime favorite, CILANTRO!

On the Weight Watchers front: I've lost over 4 pounds so far, but dammit, I really need to stick to it more. And that's hard 'cause there's a gazillion things here that I've never seen before.. And don't even get me started about the portion sizes!!!
(I read in some magazine that American portion sizes can be about eight (!) times bigger than recommended. The only thing I like about the whole thing is that I'm not really a "big" girl here. Let's just say the asses match the portion sizes. ;o)

So, you might ask, if you're not in front of a monitor, and not even watching TV, what are you up to, girl? Well, just enjoying our time together. We've been out to dinner a few times, and I also went out with Dave's neighbor Jessie and her girlfriends last week. I was not really in the mood at first, but by 2 AM, acouple Heinekens, and a few karaoke-runs later, I was having a ball!
This Saturday, Dave and I went to a show in Seattle with a couple of friends, called the ButtRock Suites. Based on 80's "butt rock", like Bon Jovi and the Scorpions, these modern dancers make some hilarious performances with even more hilarious outfits. Afterwards, we went out for a giant pizza, and were joined by the entire cast later on, which was pretty cool.
The next morning, we hear there's been more shootings in downtown Seattle. Eek! What's up with all that?!

On the knitting front, there's not a whole lot to mention, really. I was invited by Neighbor Jessie to join her book club, and they're meeting up this Wednesday. As I'm really trying to meet new people here, I jumped at the opportunity. Sooooooo, that means I have to now speed-read my way through The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a book about Afghanistan in the 70s and now. I'll let you know how that turned out!
I may just go to the Stitch 'n' Bitch in Federal Way tomorrow, but only if I'm up for it. Since I do not have a license, I have to rely on Dave to drive me all over the place, and that can get a little awkward. He doesn't mind at all, but I do...

Oh, I did manage to crank out this funky alien dishcloth one afternoon when I was teaching Jessie to knit:

I mean, if you're going to be knitting a damn dish cloth, it might as well be a cool one!

Ok, I'm signing off and going to take a walk outside. It's going to be 70/21 degrees here today! April doet wat 'ie wil! ;o)

Monkey Sox!

The Charlie socks made it to Chicago and they look soooo cool on the Monkey:

From the looks of it, they're even a little big.
I hope he likes 'em.
Alright, gotta run! I've actually sworn an oath -to m'self, don't worry- to vacuum the house. But first, some more coffee. Damn, this house is big!

P.s. cat and baby = cute. Hehe.

Mmmmmmm, beer!

Missed me? ;)
We had a great time at the beach, at a little place called Ocean Shores to be exact. I even got to drive the bus for a while. (For those of you who didn't know yet: I do not, I repeat, do NOT have a driver's licence.... Not extremely weird for a Dutchie, but almost impossible for an American!)
We drove up the beach on Saturday evening and camped there for the night. It was very sunny and nice the next day, totally contrary to what the weather report had claimed.

Here's a sampler of piccies for you:
Me knitting on the Hippy Sock:

Said sock enjoying its mega beer:

Great view from the bus:

Great view of the bus:

A beautiful day, a beautiful Pacific:


Thank you, see you soon! :)

MJ in da USAiii

Wow, can't believe it's been a week already! I promise I'll keep you guys updated. ;)
I can tell you the trip was a horror story, and I would probably never do it again. Poor lil Mingus was howling the entire trip and had a little accident on the way to Washington Dulles. (Could've been the turbulence that finally did him in.) It. was. not. cool.
We did arrive safely though, and the boys are starting to get reacquainted. They seem to have at least one similar interest:
Zee Post-Lunch Nap!


The relationship between Mingus and Dave's cat Stinkers is still experiencing some difficulties, often resulting in Spaghetti Western-style Staring Contests [Cue Ennio Morricone]:

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself here, doing some house and yardwork -no real job on a tourist visa!- and I also got some knitting time in. Finally gave up on the Jaywalkers; I couldn't get the right amount of stitches that would work without the sock getting too tight, AND that would have a snug cuff at the same time. Meh.
So after some consultation with the prospective owner, I decided on going plain old rib. For his pleasure. :)

See the start of a cute little Eye of Partidge heel there?
These hippy socks are going to kick some serious ass!

So. We're planning to drive to the Pacific coast tomorrow for some quality time and sightseeing. Maybe go hiking on Sunday.
We're taking the short bus, which is fully geared for camping trips, so we'll have a great time!

Enjoy your weekend and happy knittin y'all! ;)
Love, Taffy Turner, inside America, so you don't have to be.