Last night Ben came over after work and we decided to head to Cold Spring Tavern, in order to use the gift certificate that I have. Ben’s been there many times, though mainly for breakfast, and I had never dined there at all, unless you count the tri-tip sandwiches we had with my sister when she came to visit.

We got steaks, and I actually wound up sending mine back, because I asked for it medium, and it came out well-done with no trace of pink. It wasn’t charcoal or anything, and I’ll pretty much eat it any way as long as it’s not burnt or still mooing, but Ben’s was a little over-cooked too (though not nearly as much as mine), so he mentioned that maybe the cook should be told that he’s being a little overzealous. The server chick kept saying that they could get me a new one super fast and whatnot, so I decided to get a new one after all, which was indeed better than the first one.

So we ate our steaks and got a bottle of wine and also ended with the apple cobbler. All in all it was a nice dinner, sitting in the room with less random foot traffic and near the fire place. I wasn’t upset about the steak or anything, so that didn’t really ruin it for me. After dinner we headed downtown to check out a guy that Ben wanted to see. Turned out that the dude cancelled or something, because they had another act in his place. Doh. We still stayed for a little while before heading back to my place.

Posted at 5:45 PM | (3)

Today my mom and I headed out around 11am to go shoe shopping. I wasn’t looking forward to it too much, since I was anticipating crowds and the same level of success (read: none) that I had at my previous attempts.

BUT, it turns out that that was not the case today. Our first stop was Target, where I tried on two pairs of shoes—one was actually in brown, the other was black, but I knew from looking at their website that they also came in brown. The brown pair seemed to be a little wide, whereas the black pair was slimmer, and despite the much higher heel, seemed like they might actually be comfortable. So, while I left the store empty-handed, I ordered them online immediately upon arriving back home.

I’m glad that I finally found some brown, dressy shoes. I had no idea it would be so difficult. I would also like to add that I love Target. I wish they would finally let them build one in SB. Or maybe kick out the Kmart and stick it there? Something! Though, as long as a Walmart doesn’t somehow get built first (or instead) I won’t complain too much.

Posted at 2:32 PM | (4)

Happy Black Friday. I, for one, stayed far, far away from the insanity that is going shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. I would much rather pay an extra $10 than deal with the angry mobs so determined to get that “must-have” item that they rip your arm off. I find both of my arms to be pretty useful, thankyouverymuch.

So, I stayed in. Listened to some Christmas music. Knitted. That’s about it.

My Thanksgiving was good—it was at my aunt’s house as usual. It was a smaller gathering this year, but it was still loud at times, thanks to all the little kids. I had a headache for most of it, and was also tired (maybe it was the fact that I got up early and drove in from SB that morning?), so I crashed as soon as we got home, which I think was before 11pm even. That’s way early for me.

Tomorrow, however, I will be braving the shopping crowds. I need to find some brown, dressy shoes. You wouldn’t believe how hard this is. When my sister came to visit, we went into every place I knew of that sold shoes, and had no luck. So now I’m trying my luck here down south. If I don’t find any down this time, I guess I’ll just have to resign myself to the fact that such shoes so not exist, and perhaps go barefoot when I wear them with the dress for which they are intended. Or wear flip flops—in my opinion, they do go with everything. Hmmm…. ;)

Posted at 6:35 PM | (1)

I finally finished the sweater for that knitalong I mentioned a couple months ago. I wanted to wait until I had blocked the sweater to get rid of the stitch unevenness before I blogged about it here, so that I could show the final results.

I think the sweater came out beautifully. The unevenness of my colorwork went away in blocking, so that’s awesome. I added an extra 1” in the bodice before the steeks, and I almost think I could’ve done a little more! The only thing I’m concerned about is the fact that it seems to bulge a bit at the point where the ribbing ends and the colorwork begins. It did it pre-blocking as well, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. Maybe it’s not so bad though, we’ll see.

It took like 2 days to dry, but the bodice is finally ready for modeling! Here I am in my sweater—don’t mind the serious expression—it was taken early in the morning (why yes, those ARE pajama pants!) :)

Pattern: Mirepoix Bodice by Mary Jane Mucklestone
Magazine: Interweave Knits, Fall 2007
Size: Smallest (35”)
Yarn: Louet Gems Sport—3 skeins Fern Green, 1 skein Willow, 1 skein Ginger, 1 skein Mustard, 1 skein Pink Panther, 1 skein Terra Cotta, 1 skein Crab Apple
Started: August 2007
Completed November 2007

Posted at 4:57 PM | (3)

Last night I met up with Ben at a party in the nearby hills over by the mission. It was SOOOO foggy last night, so it was probably not the greatest time to be driving to an unfamiliar place up a windy, hilly road. But, I got there without incident and had a nice time, as it turned out there were a few people there that I knew.

I did however get talked to by some guy I didn’t know who was probably in his 40s. I got a little bit of a creepy vibe from him—I had already told him that I was there because of my boyfriend, but he said some things which were mildly, though not overly inappropriate. Just inappropriate enough to find him a bit creepy, but not enough to be sure if he meant anything by his remarks. I can’t even remember what exactly he said, I guess because it wasn’t super out there. But I did have to lie to him, because he had mentioned a Ventura company so I politely asked if he lived out there, and he said no, downtown. And then volunteered the street name and what block.

Holy crap, the info he gave was MY street name and block.

Yea, I don’t really want this guy to be my new neighborhood best friend, so I fudged my location a bit when he asked what my cross streets were. Lucky me he wasn’t satisfied with an answer of just “downtown”. He did, however, mention that he doesn’t have a computer, so I’m going to hope that he isn’t secretly reading my blog and thus now knows I lied.

Great though, I just know now that the next time I walk out the front door and down the street, I’m going to run into this guy. It will be just my luck. I will hope that maybe he won’t recognize me since the party was at night and it was kind of foggy out. I hope…

Other than that it was a nice time. We closed down the party basically—listened to a couple guys play guitar while sitting around a fire, that sort of thing. Good stuff. :)

Posted at 6:48 PM | (4)

Whoa weird, like 5 minutes ago there was just an earthquake here.

My apartment building shook, which it does sometimes anyway if the wind blows hard, someone slams a door, runs down the hall, moves furniture, whatever. But it shook a little harder and longer than just walking down the hall and I didn’t hear anyone moving about, so I looked online and sure enough, I found this quake report.

Only a 3.4, which isn’t THAT big or anything, and probably the only reason I felt it is because it was only 3 miles from downtown and I live in an old building.

Anyway I just thought that was exciting news for the night—it’s rare that I feel anything here—I think the last time I felt one I was still working at the library.

Posted at 6:52 PM | (3)

Does anyone else find it absurd that it’s still a week until Thanksgiving and already tons of stores are playing Christmas music? Every store that was playing music on Monday when I shopped with my sister was busting out the holiday tunes, and I even recall hearing some at a store when I went shopping with my mom when I was home for my birthday—the first weekend in November!

Madness.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOOOOOOVE Christmas songs, but I don’t want to get sick of them before the season even officially starts! What’s wrong with waiting until after Thanksgiving, anyway?

Posted at 8:50 AM | (2)

Yesterday morning my sister came up to visit me. This is cool because she hasn’t been up to see me in like 3 years—not since I first moved into this apartment.

We went to Cajun Kitchen for breakfast, and then headed over to Ben’s, where he accompanied us into wine country. My sister had never been to that area and wanted to do some wine tasting, so off we went. We hit up 3 wineries, and while the weather was a little chilly and overcast, at least it wasn’t raining—the weather report the previous day called for a 50-60% chance of showers.

After the tastings we stopped for some tri-tip sandwiches at Cold Spring Tavern, then back to Ben’s for a little bit before heading out for some happy hour drinks and chips and salsa at Chili’s.

Even though we got back to my place by like 10:45, we were pretty tired. Since it gets dark earlier now, it had seemed much later. We had been out and about all day though, so I suppose that accounts for it.

Today we slept in for a bit, then got a quick lunch before going shopping. It was a really nice day out—decently warm, blue sky. We spent the whole day out and about and while my sister found some shoes, I didn’t find anything. We then went to go pay Ben a visit at work, and afterward my sister headed back for home. The timing of it all worked out pretty well, because in order to avoid LA traffic, you really have to wait until evening to leave (if you don’t leave before noon, that is).

It was nice having her up here, and hopefully she had a nice visit. Even though it was a 3-day weekend for me (I didn’t have the day off and had to just take it off), it seems that this weekend went by pretty quickly.

Posted at 9:04 PM | (1)

On my birthday, Ben came over after work with some pink and red roses and a present for me, and we drank some white wine that I had and hung out at my place for a bit before walking downtown to go out to eat. We had some dinner and drinks (I had margaritas) and basically hung out there until closing, because we knew the bartender and we were sitting at the bar. After getting a birthday dessert, we headed back to my place.

All in all, it was a nice way to spend my birthday, with the exception of this now sage piece of advice that I can offer you. Do not mix wine and margaritas. Or perhaps you should make sure you have eaten enough for 5 people or something before you attempt it. I had some wine before I ate and 2 margaritas during dinner and it made me sick later. Twice in fact, which is pretty impressive, considering I don’t think that’s happened to me before. Once maybe, but not twice.

So the end of the day might not have gone so well, but everything else about it was nice. I got birthday phone calls and text messages from my family in the morning and got to spend the evening with Ben, so that was cool. Yesterday I was invited to celebrate my birthday with some friends downtown at a bar, but um yea, I passed on that one. I wasn’t feeling so great until maybe like 7pm or something, and even though I suppose I would’ve felt all right enough to go, the idea of possibly repeating the night before didn’t seem to appealing so I passed. Maybe another night.

Posted at 9:23 AM | (1)

Today I am 28. Thanks to everyone who already posted Happy Birthday comments! :)

Jeez, can you believe that in 2 years I’ll be 30??

Posted at 8:08 AM | (4)

This weekend I went home to celebrate my birthday a little early, since it falls mid-week this year. I went home on Friday, and on Saturday my mom and I went shopping for like 5 hours! That’s a lot of shopping for me, but I did get some new clothes like shirts and dresses and jeans and stuff, which was cool. I hardly ever go shopping, so it’s nice to get some new stuff. Later that evening we visited my sister at work.

Today I didn’t do too much except go out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory for my birthday meal. Since my sister wanted to come along (and as I just mentioned, worked yesterday evening), we waited until she got off work this afternoon, and then headed to the restaurant around 4-ish. After dinner, we stopped at my aunt’s house really quick to say hi to my grandma, and then I headed back up to SB.

All in all it was a good weekend—hung out with my family, got food, and presents, and the weather (on Saturday when I was out shopping, at least) was nice and warm. Now I suppose I am off to bed so that I can begin another work week.

Posted at 11:34 PM | (5)

After work I headed over to Ben’s and quickly cleaned out and carved my pumpkin. Since I was pressed for time, I didn’t do my intricate Happy Halloween with Ghosts, but instead just did an angry face pattern.

Once I finished, I changed into my costume (I went as a little kid, complete with stuffed animal-print pajamas, pigtails, freckled cheeks, and carrying a stuffed teddy bear) and we headed out to the part of downtown that goes all out with the decorating and candy-giving to hopefully meet up with some friends of Ben’s.

There was a house that carved dozens and dozens of pumpkins, and rows of houses that decorated with skulls, spiders, tombstones, smoke, cobwebs, the whole bit. There were so many kids in the area that there were actually lines at some houses to get candy. That’s pretty crazy. There were a lot of cute costumes though, and I’m not sure if there were more little kids or teenage trick-or-treaters.

One really cool house had a whole table setup with different types of cookies and coffee and water, so adults could get something for themselves. Another house had a few people who started a drum circle in front of it. Crazy. After going down a few of the streets, we headed back and changed out of costume, before getting a late dinner.

In case one ever had doubt as to whether or not I’m a dork though (as if having a pair of stuffed animal print pajamas isn’t proof enough), when we left the trick or treating madness, I managed to shut the door on a tree branch. I didn’t notice and as we drove off, I heard what I thought was the brushing of branches on the roof of the car, since we parked under a tree. It was only as we drove a little down the street that I saw a branch in the door and heard a whoosing sound since the door wasn’t all the way shut. So I guess it turns out the brushing sound was actually us ripping a branch off a tree. Woops. I opened my door to let the branch fall off, and actually got honked at for like holding up traffic or something!

It was cool to see all the houses that actually get into the holiday spirit—if only more houses did that, people wouldn’t have to drive from all over town to this one spot. I also really love to see the little kids in costume and saying “Trick or Treat”—is there anything cuter?

Oh and as for pumpkin pictures, I’m afraid I didn’t get any. I carved my pumpkin when it was still too light to take a picture, and when I left Ben’s, the candle was already blown out, and since we wanted to get dinner before the restaurant closed, I didn’t try to go in and relight it to take a picture. But, in case you are interested, it looks exactly like the following:

Posted at 7:54 PM | (0)