I was gone for a whole month, did anyone notice?

Hey there! So the month of May was a complete bust as far as blogging goes. I wish that I had kept on track for at least one post. Unfortunately finals always seem to get the best of me. Basically I would have made posts like "I only go home to sleep and brush my teeth" or "when is it going to end!!!" So I thought that it might be a good idea to just hold off on things for a little while. In May I took a number of "field trips" and I was smart enough to take my camera. I took pictures of a couple.

First I went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. If you ever find yourself in or near San Jose or you are taking an extended trip to the Bay Area I recommend taking a trip there. they have a very large collection of artifacts and replicas. It was funny because there were exhibit rooms that were sort of tucked away. So I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to be there or not. But since no one jumped out of any dark corners to usher me back to where I should be I strolled through anyway. I also went to 2009 Bay to Breakers. There were lots of variations of Swine flu costumes and floats. My favorite one is in the slideshow below. I was down by the end of the race. I think that it was a bit of a let down. I have a feeling that most of the fun people stopped way before mile 6. In May I also made a return trip to the California Academy of Sciences. Although I do have a membership there and I have even made one or two lunch time trips I still enjoy seeing all that they have to offer. I personally think that the best part is the planetarium but the aquarium is a close second.



At the very end of the month I went on a hike with two very good friends of mine. We went up to the Marin Headlands. It was a little chilly, and really gray but still beautiful. I think that I need to make my way out there again sometime during the summer.

Knitting-wise I have been pretty industrious. Not that I've done a great job finishing my work but I am working on some pretty nice projects. I am half way through with my pair if olive stripped socks. I am almost at the point where I do the ribbing on the body of my sweater. And I am working on a hat. I decided to the the Philadelphia Springtime hat. It is a nice pattern to work with. Right now it looks like I I am nowhere near done. But when I check the chart it appears that I am half way through. I think that i am just not used to working with lacy projects. I hope that it all works out when I block it.

I am not cool enough

Can someone please go to this website (MADATOMS) and tell me  what exactly it is. I know that it must be cool. It has to be... it looks like hipsters like it. I am just not cool enough to understand

. Oh wait... no... I figured it out. It actually is an ok site. Once you ge passed all the hipster glam. 

Volunteering

I believe that this passed week was National Volunteer Week. So I thought that I would help out and do a little community work. This Saturday I volunteered with a group called One Brick. One Brick is an "a volunteer organization that brings people together to help non-profits and community organizations staff their events or work on projects." That comes straight from the FAQ page of their site. I worked at Park Presidio cleaning up the park. Most people who have driven to the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco know the park as that really long divider that that has all those trees. Well I was surprised to learn that it is actually a park that has a path. Yes you can run right down the middle of most of it.

Unfortunately there are large parts of the park that are used by the local homelss for shelter. It was clear that there were people who lived in some parts of the park. There was even a tinny person sized shed (about 2 feet high and 6 feet long) in one area. I hate to be cheesey, but while we tried to take care of the park by cutting down dead leaves and striping ivy to give light to all of the plants it also exposed a serious neighborhood issue. I don't want to use the word "problem" because that just sounds too negative. One of the park managers said that he wouldn't mind the homeless if they could just keep things clean. Some of the local neighbors said that the exposure should move the homeless community out into the open and drive them away. My question is where do they go? I am not advocating that we set up a shanty town right there between 14th and Funston. But it is an real straight up honest question.

I think that this one day of volunteering really makes me want to do it more often. I want to feel like I am actually helping out. One Brick is a non-commital organization, so I can volunteer and often as my schedule allows. My goal is to start off once a month and then work my way up.

On a completely different note. My sweater is solwly comming along. Unlike some people I know, I am not a crazy fast knitter. But then again, I give myself a whole summer to finish a big project and we're still in spring so I am way ahead.

SFPL Main library hates me

So here I am at the Main Library in San Francisco. For some reason I thought that it would be pretty empty. Seeing as how its the middle of a weekday and all. But I forgot to take into account that there are kids on spring break and that there are many people who need to use the public resources that the library offers. I was surprised by the large number of people here. It's basically busteling with activity. So I tried to find the most quiet spot in the library. That meant that I had to go nearly to the top of the building. The only problem is that you can't get a clear WiFi signal up there. Arrrrg. I tried for a good half an hour (yea, I know. I wasted way too much time) trying to get online.

Finally I just decieded to go down one flight to a more noisy and crowded floor. Turned on my computer and huzzah! There it is. I have strong enough connection to watch The Office and upload pictures onto my blog. Unfortunatly I cannot do either. I have to leave soon to go to an appointment. OH! and my outlet doesn't work. The best part about this discovery was that there's a guy sitting next to me who decieded to tell me (as I am discovering that it is a difunked outlet) that he thinks it doesn't work. No sh-- .

Anyhoo. I am off. My next post will be much less on the grumpy side.

Tempura

So it has been a while since I last made a post. Things have been a little on the stressed and busy side lately. I meant to make a couple of posts but never seemed to come around to it. One thing that I have tried to do was cook. Aside from not blogging I also stopped cooking. I mean, as much as I enjoy fajitas I know that you can only eat so many. One day I decided that I really wanted to have my favorite dish of tempura and cold soba noodles. This is real compfort food for me. But I didn't want to go to my one of my favorite resturants to pick some up. So i decided to make my own. So I got to take a trip over to the Richmond New May Wah super market. It took a while to find everything that I needed but I got it all. The key ingrediant for me was to find the soup base to dip my noodles in. This stuff is like edible magic in a bottle. I also picked up some shrimp and veggies. 

It was re ally nice to finally make something by hand. Nice fresh beggies are allways good. Look at them sitting there just ready to be deep fried. 

The shrimp was the first to go in, It was my fist time so I am pretty sure that I didn't have the oil hot enough. Everything eventually cooked, but it did take a little longer than I think that it should have.  

The thing that I like most about this dish is the colors. You might not be able to tell in this shot is that there is a combination of greens, orange and white. Although most of this is fried it still gives off a nice light appearance. I think that it is a good spring dish... well I think that it is a good anytime dish really.  

Knitting Up-to-date

Alright. In the past couple of months I have been doing a lot of
knitting. i havn't really mentioned it simply because there would be a
lot of posts about the progress of work that never seems to get done.
Well I did finish one project so I guess that it is fine to post now.
Espcially since I have pictures.

First I have to say that I have finally finished my whimple, aka neck warmer . So the
pattern for the Never Wimpy Whimple did not say that it might take you
four months to complete. I can honestly say that I did not work on this
project as studiously has I should have. There were other things that
came up. Like a pair of mittens, a couple of hats, and a sock (no, not
a pair but a sock) and a graduate school application. So when I finally finished it
I could not be happier. I think that it fits just like it is supposed
to. I don't know if I will ever want to do another lace project but I
guess that I can try. Next time I am going to do open work rather than
closed. I am currently shopping around for a nice rectangular shawl. We
will see when that actually pans out into anything of substance. So far
Ravelry's free pattern look up is my friend.

This
is the start of my new sweater. Pretty right? unfortunately I lost this
one (and the whole project bag) when I was in the airport. So I had to
get all new gear this weekend. It is sad but I will hopefully finish it
by this summer and I wont even care at that point.... right?

Whooo
hooo! I finished my Whimple, aka cowl. It took me a couple of months to
finish the damned thing. But I have to say that it is pretty
impressive. You can't tell by the picture but it is all made using thin
lace yarn.

                                      


This is part of my first sock. I did it toe up which seemed to be way more productive than cuff down. I don't care what anyone says but I now and forever will have my a toe up sock knitter.

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Ho hum

Today I don't have much to blog about but I thought that I would give it a try anyway. The weather in the Bay Area has been kind of trippy the past week or so. Its sunny, there aren't any clouds but it is cold. I mean, like upper 50's low 60's. I wouldn't really complain about this if I didn't know that there are some parts of Ohio that are actually warmer than it is here. I was talking to a friend of mine and she said that the high was 78 degrees. Now, the difference in weather prediction in the Bay Area and well anywhere else is that when other people say "The high is ___ degrees" they are refering to the warmest temperature of the day. Whereas in the Bay Area it just means that it's going to be that warm in the middle of the day somewhere... but not very likely in San Francisco. So when my friend said that the high was 78 degrees I nearly fell on my backside. I guess that I shouldn't complain. At lease we don't get snow storms.