I just booked our room for the trip to Montreal. I had my first encounter with a french speaking person over the phone and boy, was it ever nerve racking! Not because the man wasn’t polite and all that. He was very friendly, but I almost froze up and didn’t say anything when they answered the phone with a ‘bonjour-hello’. I had read that it is polite to always start off in french no matter if you don’t know the language or not. It’s the polite thing to do, but I just couldn’t make myself say bonjour! I’m much more nervous about going off to Montreal now. I know I’ll only have to start off in French for a few words before they realize ‘hey, she has a really horrible accent, I think she’s an American…let’s continue in english for her sake’, but oh, the idea of speaking a language which I have absolutely no schooling in is downright scary. How terribly can I mess up their language without offending them? Will I mispronounce a word so incorrectly that I end up asking the waiter for a monkey instead of the menu?

I suppose all we can do is try our darndest to not mess up the pronunciation and be extremely polite and avoid being ‘those loud and obnoxious Americans’. Actually, Joe and I are really quiet people, so we’ve been tagged as Canadians during our travels without even trying to hide the fact that we are from the U.S., but I doubt we can actually fool French Canadians so much.

That reminds me of waiting in customs to enter England. We saw a group of college age guys covered head to toe in Canadian colors with the Canadian flag patches everywhere. It looked ridiculous. They acted and talked like they were from the U.S. to me. Sure enough, I see one of them pull out a U.S. passport. They weren’t fooling anyone!

For now I’m off to practice a very important phrase…

Je ne parle pas français…..

jhuh ne parl pah frahn-say…

juh nay parl pah fraun-say…

ugh!

&

So glad fall has come, and especially happy that the cool breezy weeks are still peppered with days in the low 80’s. I wish we always had a nice mix of light rain, cool breezes and warm sun. I know this lovely weather won’t last long, so quickly do the best seasons leave us!

I’ve been assigned my garden plot last week and spent a perfect day breaking up the compacted clay and refreshing the soil with horse manure. I haven’t had a chance to plant anything yet. It’s getting so late so I need to do that this weekend, luckily the weather is going to be perfect for that.

Mostly though I’ve been knitting away. The blanket is still not complete. I’m at the half way mark. I’m definitely not progressing as quickly as I was hoping. A whole blanket of seed stitch gets ridiculously boring, so I decided to start a couple of quicker projects to work on when I need a break from the blanket. I’ve almost got my first Saartje’s Booty complete! I just need to knit the button straps and seam them up. I’ve hit a speed bump though and have a problem with casting on for the straps. I just can’t figure it out and apparently I’m not the only one with this problem, but the explanations in the help forums aren’t helping me! I hate being so close to complete and not being able to finish!

I’ve also been thinking up quick knitted christmas gifts to start now…a silk lace scarf, a pair of fetching wrist warmers, a scarflette are all possibilities. Can’t wait. I just love sitting with a warm blanket, a warm drink and something to knit.

In other news, Joe and I are going on vacation AGAIN! I know, that’s a lot of plane rides for us this year! This time I’m taking Joe to Montreal for his birthday (this month). Anybody have any suggestions for good food, things to see and do, that would be great. Just drop me an email or comment here. I’m assuming a hockey game is in order (Joe’s favorite hockey team during his youth was Montreal) and of course the botanical gardens, but what else? We are just staying for the weekend.

Oh yeah, to the local knitters:
I heard about a free alpaca farm tour on Sunday. I’ll probably be going so if anyone wants to come along, drop me a line.

Hopefully I’ll post soon with a completed pair of baby booties and a baby blanket! Have a good day all!

It’s been so long since my last post and I didn’t even write that I was leaving for a whole week to Portland (again!). But I’m back now.

Joe attended OSCON (which he didn’t really enjoy, the talks were, unfortunately, just too basic for him) while I got to run around the city for a week on my own. This time around was much nicer, the hotel was right in the city center instead of near the convention, so I was able to explore Portland a bit more than our last trip. I went back to Saint Cupcake and also discovered another cupcake joint called Cupcake Jones. Both are very good. I also found a brewery named The Old Lompoc (the name of my hometown). Needless to say, I had to eat there. They have very good food and good stout.

There was a special Rembrandt exhibit (featuring Rembrandt as well as other Dutch artists from that time period) at the art museum that I went to. Beautiful! But I spent most of my time in Powells and sitting in parks reading. I read a lot! I managed to read all of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as well as getting exactly half way through Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant and This Organic Life. Just as Renee fortold, I am now eager to try my hand at making my own cheese, expanding my garden and finding more local food sources.

I quite enjoyed our trip to Portland and would go again and again in a heartbeat. I’ve never had a chance to live in a city, and honestly, I don’t think I have the energy to do so, but a week here and there is perfect.

I didn’t get to eat at many good restaurants in England, but we did manage to find a very traditonal tea place in Shrewsbury to have breakfast. I had scrambled eggs on toast with tea and Joe had scones and toast. The eggs were rich and creamy and the toast was quality wheat bread. It was perfect.

So now that I am home I have been on an English food kick. I made scrambled eggs on toast, but they didn’t measure up to what I had experienced in Shrewsbury. While my scrambled eggs are very good, they weren’t curd-like enough. They weren’t milky enough. I’m not really sure how to make them the way that they were.

Today I tried my hand at baking scones and this time I think I was right on. I was just so sad that no one was home to enjoy the pure zen-like experience of the first bite. I laughed at myself because I banged my hand on the table. I had to stop myself from moaning. Seriously. I had always laughed at Daisy Martinez of Daisy Cooks! because of the ridiculous display she makes after the first bite of the meal, but I think I understand now. It can’t be avoided.

I made lemon cream scones from Beth Hensperger’s book, The Bread Bible. I substituted half of the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour and made sure to use very high quality cream. The scones were topped with crème fraîche and lemon curd and I can’t stress this enough, use those two toppings! It’s so perfect that way!

My computer is mysteriously shutting itself down at random. I had written an account of our recent trip to England last night, it was just about finished. I am slightly annoyed at losing the post, because it took me a while to write, but to tell you the truth, it wasn’t very good. So in that sense, I’m not sorry to see it go.

The trip itself was both good and bad. I was expecting the weather to be less than wonderful, but it didn’t really hit me until we had to wander around trying to find our hotel in the rain. I breathed a sigh of relief as we stood in front of the hotel clerk, ready to check in. Only then did the rain begin to really beat down in a manner that is just mind boggling to a California native. It’s July people, the middle of summer and it’s cold, grey and pouring. I couldn’t wrap my brain around it.

We also couldn’t manage to get used to the streets running in the opposite direction. I was completely thankful for the big white painted letters on the crosswalks telling the pedestrian to look right or look left, because I swear I looked the wrong way every time.

Our first night we thought the British were completely mad. Our toilet in the first hotel we stayed in would not flush! It would gurgle for a bit and then give up. We tried holding the lever for a while. We tried pushing the lever down quickly…nothing. Joe reasoned that “well, we are in Europe and they tend to conserve more than we do. Maybe it’s just a hyper low-flow toilet”. But we both couldn’t manage to believe that.

Our shower also had about 30 seconds worth of heated water and had only one glass door when it should of had two. Again, we reasoned that we Americans are just used to wasting hot water and proceeded to make record time with the hair washing.

Luckily, it turned out that we weren’t crazy and the Brits weren’t mad (well, not that much…but who isn’t a little bonkers?). We finally figured out that the toilet lever took a very precise amount of pressure to flush correctly. It took skill.

And the shower problem came down to the fact that we failed to read their information on water temp. and didn’t turn up the water heater.

The half glass door in the shower, on the other hand, was meant to be that way. I guess it was just an attempt to be modern and cool, but really it just left me cold and the bathroom floor wet.

One thing that was very strange was that I had a very hard time talking like an American there. I’d keep popping out words with a slight British accent. I had to really pay attention to the way I spoke, so I wouldn’t embarrass myself with a half American/ half battered British accent. It wouldn’t take living there long at all for me to develop an accent. Funny how that works, and even funnier that Joe has no idea why I had such a hard time with that. I don’t really know either.

We didn’t really get to do much of anything. Most of our time was swallowed up at the airport, train station, finding a hotel, finding food or sleeping (never did get over that time difference). The LUGRadio conference was a blast though. It was a mass of geeks and nerds from all over the world. We even made friends with a few wonderful people.

All in all, the trip had many crappy aspects, no denying that, but of course it had some good moments and those will be the ones that I’ll remember most.

We’ll be staying the night in San Francisco tonight and flying to Manchester in the morning. On Friday I went with Cher to Knitique (fantastic place btw!) and picked out a knitted baby blanket pattern to work on for the long flight over. If all goes well (it’s a super easy pattern, so I’m sure it will) it will be gifted to S & J who are expecting a little girl.

Oh and look what I bought this week! Look! Look!

It’s the new Electra Amsterdam Classic (in the men’s style). Joe almost had a heart attack when he saw the price, but it looks so darn classy, I couldn’t help myself. It’s waiting on hold at the bike shop and will be picked up when we return from England. I wish there was some way I could bring it with me. It is begging to taken for a spin through the english countryside, wearing a billowy skirt and a cardigan or something.

Anyways, I just wanted to give the heads up that there will probably be a week long blogging break for me. I may post a few photos on my Flickr account, depending on what sort of internet access I have while there. See you all in a week!

Just a quick post to touch bases!

Joe and I had a good weekend. There were two nice dinners spent with friends. I finally made pancakes that I am proud of this morning! The weather is now officially summer weather and it’s only going to get hotter from here on out! Plane tickets were also purchased! We’ll be leaving for Manchester, UK on July 3 and have a week before flying home. We’ll be attending LUGradio Live during that weekend in Wolverhampton (which is a Linux geek event). I have absolutely no clue what we will be doing other than that. We tried to look up information on Manchester last night, but it seems to be pretty dull tourist-wise. We’ll be too far away from London, so we were thinking of doing a more scenic vacation through the Lake District. But really, who knows. We have a month to figure that all out.

I just watched two of the PBS Craft in America shows tonight and I highly recommend watching them. There weren’t many featured crafters that I’d call my style, but it’s still amazing to watch the creation of their pieces. I especially enjoyed the ceramic artist, Richard Notkin’s work. His artwork has strong political themes. Skulls, mushroom clouds, dice, ears, anatomical hearts and destroyed buildings are quite common throughout his work. He has amazing skill and I wish I would have heard of him sooner, now that I know he is a featured artist at the Portland Museum of Art (another site I missed!).

Aside from how interesting it was to watch the sheer amount of skill most of these artists who were featured on Craft in America had, it was nice to see all sorts of people who were doing exactly what they wanted to do with their lives. I want to be like that.

We arrived home Monday afternoon and I wish we could have had a bit longer to explore Portland. There was so much to see! So much yet to be seen.

I didn’t get to do everything on my list, one really big one was the Japanese garden. I really regret missing this, but I keep telling myself I will be back. I’ll just put it first on my list next time.

I did, however, get to see what was on the top of my list this time: the Classical Chinese Gardens. They did not disappoint either. It was just stunning and the weather could not have been have been better. I did a thorough once around, just taking it all in and writing down the names of unfamiliar plants that caught my interest. I took a break and enjoyed a cup of green tea in the tea room and wow. I’m glad I sat by the window.

Then I milled around a second time taking pictures. I’m happy I chose to do it that way, because I tend to forget to experience the moment and get caught up with the camera. This time I fully enjoyed the moment.

To view more of the pictures I took of the garden, click here.

They played amazing music there, music with a distinctly Chinese flavor, you know, erhus and bamboo flutes and stuff. It sounded familiar, and then I remembered that when I was playing Guild Wars (online mmorpg), the soundtrack music had the same sound. I had always meant to look up more information about it, but simply forgot. So I decided to do a bit of googling and came up with this:

Sun Huang

I think can now add one more item to my “learn to do” list:

1. whip up a decent buttercream frosting.
2. prepare a whole chicken (yep, I don’t know how to do it…well, I probably could, I just have never tried!)
3. play the drums.
4. play the erhu.