Fun with technology...and other good stuff

So I was all set to post on Monday about how I'm going to try to discipline myself to blog every Monday. I figure if I set up a schedule, like I have with laundry, picking up CSA veggies (which I manage to do almost every week) and making sure Sydney gets to school with her library book on Thursdays, I might be less likely to neglect this poor blog.

What happens Monday? I spill a teensy little bit of juice on my laptop's touch pad, it seeps down around the buttons and shorts the #*$&@#( thing out. It's dead as a doornail. So, no blogging, and even better, no access to any of my work files. Usually if I'm going to be without a computer, it's better planned. Nope - I had two ad deadlines, an order to print and send, and various other things (including online shopping for Bob Dylan's new Christmas album which was reviewed on Fresh Air the other day and immediately went to the top of my list of things I must have). Sheesh!

As of this moment, I'm typing on my brand new shiny laptop. I wasn't prepared enough to make the switch to Mac in crisis mode, so I'm still in pc land. I just installed the Adobe Creative Suite so we'll see if I can actually have Illustrator and Photoshop open at the same time (the guys at the pc shop swore up and down that it would be no problem - they also had good things to say about Windows 7, which immediately put them under suspicion in my book...). So far so good, other than the fact that I still have to go through the backup I just restored and make sure things are pretty well in order. I'm so glad that I heeded the advice of other folks who have had computer disasters over the past year and got my backups in order. It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when" as far as needing a good backup (or two - I have both an external hard drive and an online backup service).

So instead of hearing all about my lovely chocolate chip cookies (I found a great recipe in the book Cooking With Whole Grains that uses whole Buckwheat groats instead of nuts to add crunch to the cookies, and my kids actually love them! Score!) and adventures in stocking applique, you get stories of computer woe. I'll spare you too much detail - I've got to get back to making the head for Sydney's Halloween costume. I promised it would be ready for her to try on tomorrow morning when she got up. Photos will be coming - don't you worry!

In other news, if you're going to be in Port Townsend, WA, this weekend for the retreat at Fort Worden, be sure to pop into town and check out the Toe-Up! trunk show that's going to be spending the weekend at the Twisted Ewe. Kristine Brooks, who owns Curious Creek Fibers, is going to be hanging out in the shop with her lovely yarns (she's the dyer who did up the lovely red yarn featured on the cover of Toe-Up! - good stuff). I was supposed to go up and teach some classes and do a book signing, but alas, only a couple people signed up for one of the classes so we ended up canceling. Stupid economy! However, Suzanne has plenty of signed books, the socks and several of my best-selling Gardiner Yarn Works patterns in the shop so you won't even miss me. I'll be there in spirit!

Happy Halloween to all, and check back on Monday when, barring further disaster (like the house burning down or me breaking all my fingers) I will have another blog post. Discipline, you are mine!

Oh, hello! I have a blog!

I am so sorry to be so neglectful. I think about you nearly every day, but the longer I go between postings, the more I feel like I have to come up with something profound to make it worthwhile to the masses who have been waiting with bated breath for my return. Okay, not really, but I do feel bad about never updating this blog. If it makes you feel better, dear blog, I've been ignoring Twitter and Facebook as well.

It's been one of those months, where we've been hit with one thing after another. My father-in-law just got out of the hospital, where he landed for a week with a subdural hematoma after passing out and hitting his head (at least, the doctors think the hematoma was caused by the fall and not the other way around - they don't know for sure). My mother-in-law was semi-stranded in upstate New York where she was visiting her parents and so us kids were on duty until she was able to get home. We were really thankful for our flexible schedules, but it was a stressful week to be sure.

I'm also suffering from my usual fall malaise. I haven't picked up my knitting for a good two weeks now, and I hate to say, it's pretty darn nice. That's what happens when one works 10-hours a day, 7 days a week - eventually, something's gotta give. I am thinking about knitting - I just don't feel like doing it right at the moment. I'll give myself until November, when I'll realize that TNNA is just around the corner and I've got to get my butt in gear if I want to have any new designs. I'm also receiving new yarn in the mail at a rapid pace for the next book, which is eventually going to inspire me to knit something.

In the meantime, I'm chilling out by doing lots of yoga and lots of cooking. A few weeks ago, I went with my knitting group to see Julie & Julia (fabulous movie, BTW), and it totally inspired me to increase my daring in the kitchen. It helps that our CSA is bursting with new and interesting things each week this time of year. I was slightly tempted to recreate the Julie & Julia experiment until I looked through the actual recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to be eating anything involving calf's brains. Bill probably would, but I don't see the point of learning to cook something that doesn't at least have the potential of being added to our family's menu.

On the other hand, I do have a few cookbooks I'd love to use to branch out a bit on our regular food routines. Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food is definitely a cookbook I'd like to make my way through. I've started to dabble, and haven't found a loser yet. I made the most incredible strawberry ice cream this summer using her recipe, and her buttermilk pancakes are to die for. I'm also rarely (if ever) disappointed in my all-time favorite cookbook, Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. There are plenty of recipes in both these fabulous books to keep me busy for a very long time. My goal is to try something new from each of these cookbooks once a week.

Next up on my list? Making a sourdough starter. I just bought a book on traditional European breads that includes instructions for making a starter with "air yeast" (yeasts and microbes floating on the breeze). I'll let you know how it goes!

And now it's time to go to my in-laws' for sourdough pancakes. The kids haven't seen their grammy in two weeks, and boy are they anxious. I've got a couple other little projects that I'm working on, so I'll try to get back here with some photos before November rolls around. Promise!