Knit Geek Life

After something like four months, the LaLa Mittens, a pattern by the wonderful Gina is finally complete.

While I adored the pattern and yarn, I'm not 100% thrilled with the way they turned out. My gauge changed from the first one to the second one, likely due to the fact that in the course of the past four months I've shifted from using DPNs to using 2 circs for most of my smaller in the round projects. It's not largely noticeable, but the right one is a wee bit looser than the left.

I use WordPress to power one of my other blogs, and since I had some free time today I decided now might be a good time to upgrade to 2.5... and then I remembered one of the most irritating differences between WordPress and Drupal.... How the distribution of plugins/modules is handled within the community.

In Drupal, all available contributed modules have a home on drupal.org. It may not be the best laid out section of the site, and it might not exactly tell you want the best modules are for what you want to do, but two things hold true... One, if a module is abandoned, the code is on drupal.org and thus available. Two, the modules section is extremely clear about what version of the module to use for the version of Drupal you're running. Also, with Drupal... usually every release has major changes to the Drupal API, which usually insures that a module for 5 isn't going to work for 6 without changes. This, at least to me, seems to be an area where Drupal is pretty clear cut.

WordPress, on the other hand, hasn't historically been so organized. It used to be that WordPress modules were mostly hosted on personal websites of people and linked to from the Codex. Though, recently, they seem to have moved to a plugin directory where code is hosted in a centralized spot... which is definately a move in the right direction, but there's one problem.... It's still remarkably unclear what versions of WordPress any of these modules run under. Granted, I have the knowledge with WordPress that generally there aren't the sort of large changes from version to version in the plugin API that there are in Drupal... so most of the time, plugins tend to work when you change versions... but I'm a paranoid sort and the fact that I'm not being explictly told that this module has been tested and works with 2.5, it means I have to take the extra time to test it... and that makes my whole upgrading process a whole lot more painful than I'd like it to be... Well, actually, to amend that statement... SOME of the plugins list what they're compatible with... but many haven't been updated recently so it's hard to know if they actually are compatible with 2.5 or not.

These are the scrapbook pages I've done with pictures of cousins Willa and Wyatt on our trips to visit them.

Credits: Aja Abney - My Wish For You
Shabby Princess - Express Yourself

Credits: Scrap-shop.fr - Little Flowers: Addon Lilas - Photo borders
Scrap-shop.fr - Little Flowers: Copain (I think?) - brown bg.
Go Digital Scrapbooking - Welcome Kit - Love
Background - Unknown

Lauren Bavin - Bottle Cap Alpha
Valeri Brumfield - Sweet Page Kit

Lauren Bavin - Gold Page Pebble
Marcee Duggar - Give Thanks Freebie
Frames are form iScrapbookWorld (I think?)

Credits: Scrap-shop.fr - Magical Harmony
iScrapbookWorld - Red Letter Vellum (alpha)

Digitreats - Skip
Leah Riordan - Blog Freebie Kit
Amy W Designs - Touch of Love

Digitreats - Skip
Leah Riordan - Blog Freebie Kit
Amy W Designs - Touch of Love

I have a confession to make. My husband and I are notoriously bad grocery shoppers. Horribly, notoriously, bad grocery shoppers. To the point where I'm not entirely sure how long it actually has been since we last went to an actual grocery store because it seems to be THE chore we avoid the most.

The thing about effective grocery shopping is it involves planning. Planning being that tedious thing that ADHD type folks generally tend to avoid doing... It probably wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for a few details...

I'm a miserable cook myself and Matt does about 90% of the cooking... meaning, I don't have a lot of knowledge or interest in food.. which makes even the most generalized of meal planning difficult because I find it to be about as enthralling as watching paint dry... Logic would say, since he cooks and finds that sort of thing interesting, why doesn't he plan the meals?

Weeeeeell... The problem with that is I'm an adult picky eater. My husband is not. Whenever we've tried to meal plan where I'm not the one picking out the recipes for the week, I tend to veto every single idea he brings forth, thus he gets frustrated and doesn't want to do it.

So.. we're stuck. I don't want to make the grocery list because I don't cook and don't know what we need. He doesn't want to make the grocery list because anything he wants to make I won't eat.

This means we tend to eat out more than we eat at home because he can eat the things he likes without having to concede to my taste buds like he would at home, and I get to eat what I want.

It also means "grocery shopping" tends to be picking up odds and ends that happen to be in the Target grocery section (which is minimal, since it isn't a Super Target).

It's just a horribly frusterating situation on a lot of levels though... I've been trying to do some research on the picky eating front... I guess there's something called Selective Eating Disorder, It's not something that's in the DSM-IV or ICD-10 (though might fall under the heading of EDNOS - Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) and seems to be something that's been more recognized in the UK (most of the few resources and information I've been able to find are UK based). At any rate, apparently I'm not alone... and apparently my situation could be a lot worse, many of the people I've read about have much narrower tastes than I do and are much more phobic about trying new things than I am... but that doesn't change the fact that there are lots of perfectly normal things that most people like that I can't even muster up the courage to try a tiny bite of.

I have the biggest problems with fruit and vegetables.

With fruit... I like apples, but don't like apple juice or apple cider. With citrus fruit, I generally like the juice but can't stomach the fruit itself. I don't like any kind of berry or cherry, grapes I will eat.. but only if I'm very very very desperate. All of these fruits I can eat candy versions of (like hard candy or things like Skittles), though I tend to like the candy versions of citrus fruits and apple the best. Berries, cherry, and grape are just tolerable. Fruits that I absolutely cannot deal with in ANY form are pears, bananas and watermelon. Just the smell of any of these will trigger a gag reflex.

With vegetables, for the longest time all I could eat was celery and green peppers raw. I've managed to expand that out to lettuce, onions, spinach, and carrots. I can tolerate cauliflower and radishes (the little red ones). Cooked or steamed, none of these things are appealing and I fear they will trigger a gag reflex if I try to eat them. I avoid any cooked veg side dish like plague. I've learned to like lentils in soup... but the jury is still out on beans. Afraid to try those as well. Tomatoes (yes, I know those are technically a fruit.. but the world treats them like veg) I cannot eat alone. I can eat them in a seasoned context... like salsa or spaghetti sauce. Sometimes I can sneak in other cooked veggies like peas or cooked onions in something that has tomato sauce.

Unfortunately though, the tends to be a lot of anxiety around all this... I've looked at ways to try to eat healthier, only to be reduced to tears and extremely discouraged because that tends to involve more veggies... and dishes that involve cooked veg... which to my tastes, is very very scary. Now, I realize that I don't have to like everything, but the fact that I'm so picky does discourage me...

Because I really haven't done much in the way of posting my scrapbook pages, I figured I'd take some time out tonight to do that... Because they're just kinda fun and all.

To note, when I first started digital scrapbooking I didn't always keep the best record of where I got papers and elements from, so there are some with unidentified stuff in them. I apologize, I'm trying to do better... so if any of the scrapbook folk out there know where things came from when I don't please speak up so I can credit people properly.

These pages are of photos of my niece, Addison.

Credits: AmelieScrap - Fresh
Herald - My Valentine

Credits: Shaun at Quick Page Love - Whimsical Wonderland

Credits: Scrap-shop.fr - Little Flower: Eclat

Credits: ???

Credits: Beth Nixon - A New Day
Beth Nixon - Faith, Hope and Love
Shabby Princess - Seasonal Sampler

Credits: Shaun at Quick Page Love - Whimsical Wonderland

Credits: Shaun at Quick Page Love - Whimsical Wonderland

If you didn't already know, Concord,NH has a rather thriving downtown... Mostly locally owned shops, a few locally owned chains, and very few national chain stores.... and every time I go down there when the shops are open, I end up spending more money than intended (I suppose that's usually why I only go there when the only thing open is restaurants). The original plan was to go to Dos Amigos Burritos for lunch (it's fast food Mexican... I guess I'd say it's the better locally owned alternative to Taco Bell) and then to Things Are Cooking to see if they had any foaming soap dispensers.... (Sadly no, I guess I'm going to have to look for one online).

From there, we decided to walk down to the The Elegant Ewe, because they were having a sale... which led us by Real Green Goods which I'd been meaning to stop at... The shop has a rather eclectic mix of green products... from clothing, to baby stuff, to shower nozzles, to green laundry detergent... We ended up picking up a new shower nozzle, an aluminum water bottle, and a set of GladRags. Then, on to The Elegant Ewe, where I surprisingly bought no yarn.

We wandered back the other direction to see if the new bra store, Zoe & Company had opened... and it had, so I got an appointment for a fitting at 3, we got some ice cream at Cool Moose Creamery and I went back for my appointment. Apparently, my size has changed yet again due to losing 6 pounds recently... not that I'm terribly upset about that, but with my boobs being the size they are, losing weight means rebuying the bra collection which ends up being quite spendy... Mind you, I think it's totally worth it because I look better and feel better in the right size bra... but I wasn't exactly expecting to spend over $200 on bras... especially when I'd only done that 4 months ago. Sigh. If you're in the general Concord, NH area, I do recommend going there and getting a proper fitting (or going to Lady Grace in Salem, NH.. or one of their other locations).

Service wise, I thought Zoe & Company was right about on par with Lady Grace... though, I did have to wait longer at Zoe & Company... but that's likely because I didn't have an appointment and it was a Saturday, hence busy... When I went to Lady Grace, I think it was something like a Tuesday. Zoe & Company does recommend you call ahead and make an appointment, especially on the weekend. I can only speak from the smaller band size, larger cup size end of the spectrum, but Zoe & Company stocked more in my size than Lady Grace did... However, in the styles that both chains stock the same... Zoe & Company appears to be several dollars more expensive.

I'd recommend either store, though. Just because I think getting measured and fitted with the right size is extremely important, no matter what your size is.... and chains like Victoria Secret and department stores do a shitty job.

So, apparently our dining room table is an absolutely fabulous place to take a picture of yarn... I took a picture of the latest Yarn Pirate Booty Club swag and it came out so beautifully, I just have to share...

Since Matt was out of town and I had nothing better to do with my Wednesday evening, I decided to head down to Boston for the Drupal meetup. It certainly wasn't a bad experience or anything, but unfortunately I doubt I'll go again because the hassle of going kinda exceeds it's usefulness to me. Which makes me sad because I like meetups.

I refuse to drive to Boston. I have a hard enough time getting up the nerve to drive around Manchester... Driving to Boston is not an option for me.. which unfortunately, puts me at the whims of the bus. 90% of the time when I go to Boston, I'm perfectly okay with that. I like taking the bus. The problem is you have a damper put on your evening when you have to be mindful of the fact that you need to be back at South Station for the 10:15 bus.

My evening went a little like this... I caught the 5:30 out of Manchester, got to South Station at 6:30. Walked over to the Red Line, and caught the T at about 6:40. Got to Harvard Square at 6:50. Got lost trying to find the Berkman Center and by the time I found it, it was 7:30. Meetup started at 7. Sat and listened to the mini-presentations, fidgeting most of the time because I was afraid I was going to forget to leave on time. Left at 9 before meetup was over. Got to South Station at 9:30 or so, and waited for the bus.

So, I was late and left early and didn't get to say "Hi" to anyone socially... which was a bummer. It's not that going was a waste of time... It wasn't... but I feel like the whole transportation thing overshadowed my evening... So sadly, I don't think I'll be hitting up the Boston meetup again for awhile.

I suppose I need to go poke Seth again about seeing if we could actually have a New Hampshire one.

If there's one thing I seriously don't get about myself, it's the fact that I'm so utterly inconsistent.

Why is it that some weeks I'm overly productive? Able churn out tons of work efficiently whilst still being able to keep on top of the blogs I read and boards I post on and keeping a handle on the basic household chores like laundry and dishes.

Then on other weeks I can spend every day sitting in front of the machine staring at it, accomplishing ABSOLUTELY nothing. Not getting work done. Not really reading or posting on blogs and message boards. Not really talking to anybody. Not getting any work around the house done. Not even really sure how on earth I wasted 12 hours sitting in front of the box with absolutely nothing to show for it.

I know the medication has helped... Some. There were far far more weeks where I sat staring at the computer and doing nothing than there were productive ones... but still, it's not perfect.

I guess this seems to happen when I'm not sure exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing... if I don't have a clear direction... I just seem to cease to do anything because I can't decide what sort of nothingness I'm supposed to be doing.

I forced myself to clean this evening. The apartment turned into a pigsty, but I'm not sure how.. I only really noticed and was bothered when I ran out of drinking glasses and looked over to find every single one of them sitting in and around the sink and wondered why it hadn't occurred to me before to put a load of dishes in the dishwasher. I gathered up the remaining dirty clothes to be washed tomorrow, and I decluttered the living room. Then emptied the Roomba of the last round of dust and have now sent it on a vacuuming mission.

Tomorrow, I'll try to straighten up the kitchen, I think. And do the laundry.

I guess it's time to get back on track again.

While I was waiting for my husband to come home from work so I could take him to the airport, I ended up caving and casting on the Feather and Fan scarf. Thus far it seems to be knitting up nicely...

The yarn is Malabrigo worsted in Curacao.

It was a completely impulse buy when we stopped at Kaleidoscope Yarns in Essex Junction, VT over the weekend... but a good one I think. I love the way it's knitting up.