The busy-ness......

The last couple of weeks have been manic - I sometimes take on way too much for commitments and end up paying the price later.

I volunteer (and have volunteered for several years) with some of my favorite people - they're all lovely, but the work that I do sometimes takes a lot of time. And I'm in the middle of it at the moment. But it will be over soon.

At that point, I'm hoping to be able to get back to stitching. At least a little bit. And maybe making some beads.

In other news - tonight's hockey game rocked! Woohoo! The Flames actually scored (and on the power play, double yeah!).

The beginning of a new week

There are days that I wish Sunday would extend on forever - mostly because it goes by way too quickly, and the onset of Monday means that I have to go back to my day to day life.

I managed a quick visit to the zoo in town today - nothing really new, and none of the super-cute baby animals that happen in the spring, but nice to get out all the same.

The rest of the day was spent on a project that has to be done on Thursday. I think my part is almost done, but you never know. I've got the kind of day tomorrow where I honestly don't know where I'll find time for dinner, so I'd better not get too many questions on it. Either that or I'll hide. Actually, hiding doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

In other news, my winning streak seems to be continuing. Of course, now that I've written that down, I will not have a snowball's chance in heck of winning anything for the next millenium. But I did win a gift card at work on Friday - it was an off-site fun afternoon, and there were door prizes, and through some unknown miracle, they pulled my name.

A real post

It's been a crazy, insane week, but the insanity has to be done by Thursday, so I'm almost there.

I saw this on Christine and Patti's blog, and so I've shamelessly ripped it off.

1. FIRST NAME? Karin
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Not that I know of.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? I can't remember - I usually cry at airports, but I haven't really had to leave anyone lately.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Roast Beef
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I think so - although I know I don't appeal to everyone.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Not a paper one, just this blog
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I'd only jump in New Zealand - I told myself I would if I ever make it back there.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cracklin' Oat Bran (which is not available in Canada)
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Not usually, although I don't have very many pairs that tie.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I think so - somedays it takes a lot just to make it through
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chocolate Mint Chip
14. SHOE SIZE? 6
15. RED OR PINK? Dark Pink
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I think I have huge thighs
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I miss my old babysitter.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Not if they didn't want to.
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? I have a red tank top and blue and white pj pants on - they don't really match, but they are Pj's.
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? A really awesome german dinner with duck breast. I met friends for dinner.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The sound of Pirates of the Caribbean from the other room and the dishwasher
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Midnight blue
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Coconut
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My mom
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Their chin
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON YOU STOLE THIS FROM? Yes!
27. FAVORITE DRINK? Red wind
28. FAVORITE SPORT? Are there other sports besides Hockey?
29. EYE COLOR? Grey-blue
30. HAT SIZE? Um? Small?
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes - sometimes glasses
32. FAVORITE FOOD? roast chicken
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings
(Where'd #34 go?)
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer!!
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Sticky Toffee Pudding
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Not sure
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Not sure on that too
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? A Thousand Barrels a Second (Peter Tzerkian)
41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? One of the statues at Abu Simbel, Egypt
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? I don't remember
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? The purr of my kitties, the laughter of friends.
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? The Beatles
45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? I think it's Alice Springs, Australia
46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I'm completely boring and have none.
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? About 5 minutes from where I live now
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I borrowed it from Christine and Patti

I'm still here...

And exhausted.

Off to bed.

I thought of you today

I did a personality test at work a while back, and it said that I was the kind of person that needed to think about things for a while before I acted on them. I suspect that this is where this post is coming from...

I thought about a friend of mine today - I was in his favorite city - the one he cheers for in hockey, and a city he loves. He and I haven't been close lately, but we used to be, and I thought about him yesterday as I was in the arena, and as I was in his favorite city. He's had a hard road, but I wish he knew how much I admired him for taking the hard road, the one not travelled. Actually, I wish he knew how much all of us admired him. So for you, D - cheers - from all of your friends.....

I'm back....

I've successfully been to Edmonton and back this weekend - a couple of friends and I saw Delirium by Cirque Du Soleil this weekend. It was their first show mounted for arenas, and it was quite good. All of their other shows have been in stand-alone theatres (i.e. Vegas) or have been under the big top, so it was neat to see the adaptations that they had made to the show to mount it in a sports arena.

It was sprinkling rain this morning, which didn't make the drive back any more fun. I at least got to stop in at the mall, to make sure that I wasn't missing anything new and exciting in the city 3 hours north. There's rumours of an H&M store opening in Alberta sometime in late 2006 or early 2007, and I'll be *all* over that. H&M is by far my favorite store, and considering the nearest store is several thousand miles away from me, it makes up an alarmingly high percentage of my wardrobe. But it's cute, and cheap, and I've been fortunate to buy the clothes in cities that are several seasons ahead of where I live now, so that the clothes are reasonably in style for a while. What more could a girl ask for?

I hadn't actually driven to Edmonton for ages, as I used to fly up when I went regularly. It think the last time I drove myself there was in 1997 for the U2 concert, and I forgot what a terribly boring drive it was. The problem was that the more bored I was, the faster I went, which wasn't really a helpful situation. Fortunatley the highway is mostly straight, and wasn't terribly crowded this weekend, so I could get away with doing that. (And the cops were no where to be seen, which also helped)

I leave on vacation in 4 weeks. It's scary, as I have a large number of things to sort out, and my calendar is hugely packed between now and then. I need advice in a bad way. I've been fortunate enough to have many friends and co-workers that have passed on their photo albums and such, but it's still a very daunting task.

Cheers,
Karin

It's Friday!

And I'm so glad! It's been a short week at work, but even then, it's felt way too long.

I hit the local food and wine festival tonight after work with some friends. We tried a couple of new liquers - a chai tea one, and a pomegranite one. Both were very good. The chai tea liquer was especially good - it's supposed to be out in the stores here shortly, but I guess it hasn't hit the shelves yet. I'll be on the look out for it when it does.

I got a bit of stitching in the other night, and I'm planning on stitching a bit before bed tonight too - Alhambra Garden is getting there slowly... very slowly!

It's almost the weekend.....

This week has been a busy one - I am still trying to recover from my cold of last week, plus I've had something almost everynight this week. Fortunatley, most of the stuff has been fun - I had tickets to the ballet tonight, and I have tickets to Cirque De Soleil on Saturday, which I'm very much looking forward to.

Tonight's ballet was wonderful - the ballet here gives tickets away to younger patrons to get them interested, and so I got tonight's performance for free! (Yeah for free!) It was a wonderful collection of short ballets, and I really enjoyed it.

Stitching Blogger's Question

It's been forever since I answered one of these, but I thought since I remembered this week, I would give it a go:


As we all know, stitching in the winter can really be rough on the hands. What do you do to treat your hands well in the cold winter months? Do you have any suggestions for creams or soaps? Or perhaps a special regimen that you would like to share?

I don't do anything special, but if I notice that my hands are getting really rough, I'll take a teaspoon of sugar and rub it into my hands with a little oil. I learned about this from a friend at university - mostly because you could get little packets of sugar at the cafeteria, and that would be enough to do this type of hand treatment. It was pretty much free and easy - the perfect thing for university students!

Alhambra Update

I realized I hadn't posted an Alhambra update in *forever*, so here it is. This weekend has been terrible for stitching, so I didn't get a lot done.

Good News

I've managed to get a nasty, awful cold over the last couple of days, and it's not making my life happy at the moment. It's a busy time at work, and I've had some volunteer commitments to take care of, so having a nasty head cold in the middle of it hasn't been much fun.

I did manage to get out to the Flames game on Saturday. I took a friend who had given me a pre-season ticket to the game. We had dinner at a restaurant near the arena before hand, and on the way out, we dropped our names in a bucket for a draw for a couple of tickets.

The restaurant called today, and I won the tickets! I have two tickets to a game two weeks from tonight. They're awesome seats - lower bowl and in the middle of the arena. I'm very excited about the whole thing. I can't even remember the last time I won something like this.

I also got taken to lunch today. Last week we had a big push on at work to collect money and items for a major charity in town. One of the contests was to collect the most goods for the drop-in centre. Our group managed to collect quite a number of items, and so the whole group got taken to lunch.

So its been a good day - free lunch and free tickets!

Thanksgiving - round 1

I'm starting out with new beadies, because that's been the most postive part of my day. They're a new colour combination that I was playing with, and I quite like it. I should be working on a scissor fob for a stitching exchange, and I'd like to incorporate some beads, but haven't quite decided how to do it yet - if I put the stitched part first, then beads then a tassle or if I put beads and the stitched part in place of a tassle.

In other news, I've attempted to make a pie crust twice this morning, and am about to give up and go on to pumpkin creme caramel, which doesn't require any crust. I'm a pretty decent baker, and have had good luck with pie crust before, so I wasn't that put out by making one.

The attempt at making pie crusts were a disaster, to put it mildly. I trust Cook's Illstrated implicitly, and pulled out "The Best Recipe" this morning to find a recipe for pie crust. I even had all of the right ingredients - unsalted butter, vegitable shortening, etc. The recipe called for 4-5 tablespoons of cold water, but by the time I'd put about 4 tablespoons in the food processor, it was clear that the crust was going to be glue. I can't even describe what this resembled - it was sticky, gooey, and it was clear that the mass of dough that I had was never going to be pie crust.

So I started again. This time I got about 1 tablespoon of water in before the dough became a ball, so I stopped. I refrigerated the dough, rolled it out, and somehow got it in the pan. It was soft, but at least the dough resembled pie crust. I chilled it again (as per the recipe) and started to bake it. The finished result was somewhere near shortbread, only not quite so nice. Most of it stuck to the foil which was supposed to be shielding it from the baking process. Needless to say, all of it is now in the garbage.

I think I will switch to pumpkin creme caramel. I love the recipe, and so does my Dad, who will also be at dinner tonight. It's easier, and most importantly, there's no crust.

All I have to say is

Go Flames Go!!!

The home opener was fantastic! Way to go Flames!

(if you haven't noticed by now - the Calgary Flames are my favourite hockey team - and they won tonight 2-1 over the Edmonton Oilers!)

I think I owe an explanation...

For my last post.

I take two dance classes on Mondays - back to back. The second one is particularly aerobic, and I've gulped most of the litre of water I bring with me by the time I hit the car on the way home.

So I get in the car on Monday, and start to drive, hitting the a major road in downtown Calgary - one that runs along the south end of downtown. And I see some one in the window of one of the apartments. He's moving rather oddly, and as I get closer, I realized he's got Dance, Dance Revolution on his home TV. And he's really giving it - not gracefully, but he's there nonetheless.

I have to pass by the same route on Tuesdays - about the same time. I notice that the same apartment now has two sheets tacked on to the windows - so Dance, Dance Revolution is no longer visible.....

Thought for the day.

If you *are* going to practice Dance,Dance,Revolution in the comfort of your own home, it would be best not to leave the blinds open in your second floor apartment, especially if it's on a major street.