A few of my favourite things

I have stuff. Quite a lot of stuff, as it happens. Most of it is well... just stuff. But some of it is more than just stuff. Some of it is fantastic and every time I use it I'm really really glad I have it.

And I'm going to share that stuff with you.

Because I'm lazy, I'm not going to take photos. I shall simply link to a picture on the internet. You can click on it to go to the website if you decide you must also partake of its wonderfulness.

So, in reverse order of acquisition, newest to oldest, more or less, as far as I can remember, here are my top five favourite bits of stuff.

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1. My new sou'wester
It arrived in time for me to wear in the rain the next morning. I love it because when I turn my head, I can actually see something other than the inside of my raincoat hood. This is very useful when crossing a main road in the dark. It looks like this.

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2. My winter cycling fleece
Wind-proof in the front, not wind-proof in the back and therefore breathable and not too hot. Perfect for winter riding. It looks like this.

I also like my windproof gloves, but not enough to go looking for a picture of them.

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3. My PVR
For a long time I thought PVRs were a bit of a gimmick. Not sure why I bought one, but I'm really glad I did. Maybe it was for the HD channels - who knows?

My PVR connects to the internet, and I have a subscription to IceTV, which is an internet-based TV guide thingy. It hooks into my PVR, and tells it what to record. The fabulous thing about it is I can tell IceTV to record a particular show whenever it's on, and it will, even if the channels start moving shows around and pulling them on and off, as is their wont. I don't need to check every week to see what day/time my shows are on - because IceTV just updates my PVR for me. And I can change my recordings via the internet.

Now I don't bother seeing what's on TV, I go look at what I've recorded. I love it!

Couldn't find a good picture of it, but it's one of these.

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4. My merino beanie

I was so excited when I found my first one - it's thin and light, so it keeps me warm but I don't get too hot. My dog also liked it and ate it.

I'm all excited again because I found another one, and it remains, so far, not even a little bit eaten.

It looks like this.

It's not necessary to make that face whilst wearing it.

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5. My bike
It looks weird - it's a folder, so it fits behind my front door with the handlebars folded down, and it fits in the hatch of my car all folded up (well, not so much now I've put a new and sexy rack on, but anyway). It has a low cross-bar, so it's easy to step over, the wheels are small and very manoeuverable, the tyres fat and comfy. It came with racks, lights and mud-guards. You take the seat out and there's a foot-pump in the post.

It got bashed around at the shop before I bought it, so I got a nice discount on the price - and as my friends pointed out, it was pre-scratched, so I didn't have to worry about inflicting the first blemish.

Apart from the new and sexy rack, I've changed the seat, tried a gazillion different funky lights and things until I've got it all working exactly the way I want it. It halves my travel time to work, without the stress of public transport. And it rocks!

It looks like this (except without the new and sexy rack, new seat, lights and things).

Though I have to say, I wouldn't mind one of these.

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And that's my top five favourite bits of stuff. For the moment.

Maybe one day I will list my five most stupid and pointless things.

There might be more than five.

Lazy, lazy, lazy

Too lazy to write in this blog... yet not too lazy to write here...

second breakfast blog

I guess time will tell.

Wool ya or woon't ya?

I've been knitting. I finished this hat last night.



I love this hat. It's all soft and snuggly and alpaca-y/silky/woolly. The yarn has no ply, and it goes from very thin to very thick, so the hat is all rustic-looking. Did I mention soft and snuggly?

I have the wool for the gauntlets (sigh - stoopid name). I only used two skeins of wool for the hat instead of three, so now I can make three gauntlets.



But I've decided to make a scarf first - not that I don't already have a zillion of them. In the olden days I used to make complicated things like Fair Isle and Aran sweaters. Now I make hats and scarfs.

Well. I start stuff. Socks, for example.



I'll get around to finishing them eventually.

I did make a very nice blanket a while back. Mohair, 20mm monster needles. Took a while - the actual knitting didn't take long, but if I got busy for a few weeks, then it was put aside, and then it would be summer and too darn hot to knit a blanket. I love this blanket - it's very light and very warm. And tasty, according to my dog. So we're resting it this year, now she has free access to the bedroom.



I also crocheted this throw for the lounge room. It's also being temporarily rested, due to it's extreme tastiness.



When I was looking for a crochet hook to finish off the hat, I discovered that I had about eight bags of left-over or not-yet-used wool, several half-started/finished projects, and a plethora of needles.

The problem with this system is that whenever I buy wool, I always buy the needles as well because I don't know what I have at home. I mean, I'm usually pretty sure I have that size, but no idea where they are. I recently bought a set of bamboo needles, so now I know I have the normal sizes to hand.

So today I bought a needle case to put my spare needles into. It's not as full as I thought it would be. Either I have carefully stashed all those sneaky needles away somewhere safe, or they didn't make the cut when I decluttered last year. I suspect it's a combination of the two.

Happily, I know where the needles are that I know about - in their new case. Assuming I know where that is.



Note the extravagant number of double-pointed needles all of the same size - and I have more in that size, they are with my optimistic sock projects. I need the extra ones in case I decide to start more sock projects.

I also spent an exorbitant amount of money on a circular needle kit - it's a set of tips, with different lengths of cable that you can attach. Look how funky the wooden needles are!



My wool has finally (and probably temporarily) been consolidated. Now I have one bag of left-over and I-bought-it-because-I-liked-it-and-I'm-sure-I'll-find-something-to-do-with-it wool. And a giant bag of wool which is destined to be a redo of a sweater I made years ago and loved but lost track of - I found the pattern again recently.



I also have a bag of destined-to-be-gauntlets wool, and a bag containing enough wool to keep me in socks for years if only I could get around to finishing them.



Anyway, here's the wool I'm going to be using for my scarf - stay tuned to see what happens (bearing in mind that "nothing" is a realistic "what").

Not OCD

Nachos con ... tortillas!

No pictures for this post, because... well... I ate it all before I thought of taking photos. Twice.

I've always been a big fan of nachos. I love their eat-with-your-hands-dammit-I-should-have-worn-a-bib nature. They are easy to make and very comforting to eat. And evil... oh, so evil...

Well. Not that evil. For years, now, I've been using plain yoghurt instead of sour cream - mainly due to laziness (I usually have yoghurt in the fridge, and who can be bothered going out just for some sour cream?) - but I like the flavour and it's w-a-a-a-y low in fat. I also use refried beans or at least a bean salsa, which boosts the protein content.

When I'm feeling particularly virtuous - which does happen from time to time, believe it or not - I grab a packet of tortillas (I prefer corn, but flour also does ok) - slice a couple of them up with a pizza slicer and chuck them in the oven on a low heat for a while (hopefully remembering they are in there before they go all black and smokey). Then I make the nachos with those instead of corn chips.

So then the only truly evil part of the nachos is cheese, and hey, cheese is good for you... isn't it?

Tonight I used wholemeal tortillas, so dinner was practically a health food!

Huevos rancheros sin tortillas, goddammit!

The other day I tried to make Smitten Kitchen's Huevos Rancheros.

Coz I love Mexican food, but I'm not sure I ever got as far as the huevos rancheros when I was in Mexico - I got stuck on the huevos mexicanos... (kind of like when I was in Thailand and ended up eating only pad thai everywhere I went - because it was completely different and fabulous every time.)

I had accidentally discovered a mega-packet of tortillas in the cupboard - with six months still on them! And I had made a vat of black beans in preparation for a Black Bean and Citrus Salad (from the Moosewood Restaurant Farm Fresh Meals Deck). And I had loads of eggs, and - wonder of wonders - fresh coriander.

So I got all excited. Prepared the salsa (even remembering to put on gloves to chop up the chilli) - it was great. Defrosted a handful of grated cheese. Sprayed oil on the frypan. Got the tortillas out... OMG! They were mouldy! A giant mega-pack of tortillas, with six months to go on the use-by date - and they were mouldy! Arg!

Sigh. I was already committed, so I did the best I could - though, sadly, it was a pale reflection of what could have been. Fortunately the black beans mooshed nicely in the frypan to become somewhat refried, and the salsa rocked. With the judicious application of some yoghurt (why use sour cream when you can use a good, tart, plain yoghurt?), this is what I ended up with:

Turning over a new leaf

I have had a maidenhair fern in my bathroom for the past few years. I call it Sideshow Bob, because it went completely nuts and ended up looking like Sideshow Bob's hair.

Until a few weeks ago, that is (well, possibly a few months ago), when we had some unseasonally hot weather and it mostly shrivelled up. It shrivelled up more than it's ever shrivelled up before.

And the thing about maidenhairs is that they shrivel easily and never really recover.

This is what it looked like after the Great Shrivel.



I waited to see if it would recover (though I knew it wouldn't really). Today I decided to get rid of the shrivelled bits. This is what's left.



I'm hoping the remaining tendrils will rediscover Sideshow's former glory.

Stay tuned.