Mt. High

Sunday was snowboarding day!! We were on top on things and left the house by 7am. No lie! With the kids and everything. I packed their clothes and put them in the car in their PJs and robes. We picked up Sherri and headed on over to drop the kids at Becky's place. Traffic was light but gusty winds hit us on the 15. Yikes. We arrived at Mt. High east where Hector managed to score a primo parking spot in the second row in front of the lodge. He has awesome parking karma.

We got Sherri strapped in and she began to slide around, getting the feel of the snowboard before we got on the lift. The only snag is that her binding buckles would not cooperate and we could not get them undone. Sherri cut her thumb and we broke some nails. Hector took the board to look at it while she used mine for a bit. He sorta fixed it but they would act up so we just worked around it.

By the end of the day, Sherri was mastering her turns and coming down the hill with only a few falls. She was so excited that she wanted to keep going when I was ready to quit at 3:30pm. I had some hot chocolate because the winds were blowing and the sun was going down.

Overall, Sherri did really well for her very first time and we will try to find another day to go before the season ends.

more socks

I don't think I posted the other pair of sock that I finished the other week but here they are. They came out a bit small so I had Tyler try them on and they fit perfectly! He said he really liked the socks but I don't think they are practical for him. The yarn I used is hand wash only which will not work at all for him. I will find a washable yarn that will be more kid friendly and colorful for the future. The good news that the socks also fit my mom so she gets these pretty autumn, rust socks.

These are the fabulous sock yarns that Hector picked up for me at Lake Tahoe. I can't wait to get started on these. I started the Ditto yarn and am barely knitting the cuffs. The darker colors are better for winter or guys but I'm curious to see how the self striping comes out.

These next 2 yarns are the same brand which is a little pricey than what I'm used to. $17.20 a ball which will be enough for a pair for socks. More self striping yarn so they are on my list for future projects.

Because I knit 2 socks at the same time I have to divide the yarn into 2 balls (one for each sock). To wind the yarn I bought a yarn ball winder from Joanns.com which arrived yesterday. It was a snap although the yarn was tangled up which took me more time to untangle than to wind it up.

Here is the Kings hat that I knit for Josh.

Braided Hat

I'm getting all my blogging done today since I found some free time... I finished an adorable cable hat in a dusty rose color which is destined for my mom. I had to add the pompom tonight but it is too cute.

This one came out great considering I didn't use a cable needle. I've used cable needles before but they are too long or just get in the way (tangled) so I saw links on how to get around that. Lo, and behold it worked perfectly for me. Yay! Here is the link for the pattern.

Burritos, Tortas and Tacos

Hector decided to take pictures of some of the food they sampled in Tahoe. Normally I wouldn't post these because I didn't eat the food myself but it does look tasty.

It's funny how that we (at least Hector and I) remember all the places we travelled to by the memorable food we ate there. Bouillabaisse, pizza and profiteroles in Nice and dooner kabob (sp) in Berlin. I would travel back there again just for that specific item.

So it was funny that Hector was talking to his bro C about his upcoming visit with us next week and C requested that I make a rib roast in my handy dandy George Foreman rotisserie Jr. Hmm, that got me thinking of when the last time I made a rib roast. I don't think that I made one since his last visit which was at Christmas. Well, I had to put a stop to that and went to the store to pick one up. I made bleu cheese mashed potatoes, mushrooms and vegetables to go along with it and it was a masterpiece!!

So C, here is a picture of my roast and dinner from last night which you will enjoy next week!! :)

Time Out

After a few weeks of dreary and rainy weather, we had a nice warm spell yesterday so we packed up the bike, trailer and inline skates along with Sherri and Amber and headed to the beach. What a gorgeous day! We started at the end of Torrance beach and rode up to the pier. Yikes, it was struggle for me who hasn't exercised for like forever but I finally made it to the pier where I had a nice cold rootbeer. Hector rode the bike and towed the 2 kids who sang songs all the way. Hector said he got many comments on the way, praising his daddy time with the kids. It was nice for Sherri and me to relax and skate while not having to worry or chase after them. The skate back to the car was much easier and I had a really good time. Hector was exhausted after his bike ride plus he was pulling 90 lbs. more. It was fun to enjoy the sunshine and ocean so we'll definitely do this again soon!

Tahoe Trip part 2

T after the collision with a 'crazy' skier who ruined his vacation. It wasn't a total loss, I heard that T was attracting a lot of female attention in the bar. :) The rest of the dudes...

Hector's Tahoe Trip Part 1

I finally uploaded the pictures that Hector took on his trip. Here is the mangled car from the accident where the guys stopped to help. They were able to pull the 2 people out who appeared to be okay. Here is their cabin for the week.

Here is the group photo before T's accident.

Weekly Wind Up

Another week has come to an end and we're excited that Hector will be coming home tonight. Miraculously, I survived with both kids thanks to a couple of mini-breaks provided by my mom. Tyler has a cold with the usual stuffy nose, hoarse voice and cough. It doesn't seem to slow him down any and I'm trying to convince him if he stopped talking his voice will get better. ;)

Today is another hockey game and this time Josh will come with me. I even found one of Tyler's Kings jerseys so he is set. I also managed to whip up a black and purple beanie for him. Maybe he will get to see himself on the jumbotron. Look for us at 1pm.

On Sunday I'm planning to take my friend Sherri up to Mt. High to teach her how to snowboard. She has taken the initiative and got a couple of books from the library on how to learn the basics. I approved one book that explained in detail and with pictures on the basics. A couple of days later she came over to try on some boots and strap on a snowboard to slide around on and get some pointers. It was nice for her to be able to understand the book by working with the real thing so she should be totally ready tomorrow. I predict that she'll master the beginner slope in record time unlike another "beginner" I know.

I asked Hector to pick up some cool yarn for me in Tahoe and of course, he did. I am really trying to get going on socks so I asked for sock yarn. He bought several for me which he was told that it is not carried in LA so I'm very curious. It'll be my first step into more upscale yarn.

Ouch

Yesterday Hector called me from Lake Tahoe around noon telling me their latest adventures. They were at Kirkwood and M's friend T was blindsided by another skier that whizzed onto the trail from somewhere in the trees. The stupid skier crashed into T with his helmeted head and broke T's collarbone! Of course M was furious at this lame-o who stopped to make sure T was okay and told the skier to get lost. I think M was thinking about hurting the dude because his good friend was injured so naturally he took off...when a 6'7" 240 lb man tells you to get lost...you do. Then M thinks later that wasn't a good idea to let the responsible person go since he was at fault. So M looks for him but that dude is long gone.

So T's ski vacation is over on the very first day which is a total bummer. Today is holed up in the cabin but is well stocked with food and DVDs. He might have to go to the hospital to get it splinted so I'm waiting for the update.

Meanwhile the forecast for the rest of the week is rain in SoCal and snow in Tahoe.

more snow pictures

Home Alone

I'm a single mom this week...Hector left for Tahoe this morning with M and A. I already miss him but he deserves his time off too. Last night we were scrambling trying to get things ready for his trip while finishing up things at home too. Stuff like the ski racks for the truck had to be retrieved from the storage space, oh and helmets. Clean out the truck to make room for everything. Sort through mounds of all our snow gear and put away or packed in the appropriate bag. Playing in the snow and winter sports are so much fun but man, all that gear takes up so much room.

Then a little past noon, Hector returned my phone call ( I assumed they had stopped for lunch). He said there was a big accident on the 5 (past the Grapevine)where a car lost control and flipped over about 3 or 4 times in the center area between the lanes. They stopped to help the passengers and Hector dragged a woman out of the car. I don't have any more info but the CHP arrived and the people were not seriously injured that we know of. Pretty scary.

Well, the guys arrived safe and sound while I've been hanging out with the boys. Kat and her cousin Heather came over to have a girls Guitar Hero day. I planned to make a Shepherd's Pie that I got from Rachel Ray and her 30 minute meals. It came out pretty good. What really made it yummy was all the bleu cheese in the mashed potatoes. Heather made a delicious apple pie for dessert. Those two went at Guitar Hero all day and it was lots of fun. I was an onlooker this time since my wrist was feeling up to it. That reminds me that Kat has been on the lookout for a Wii and even Heather joined in helping in hunting for the hard-to-find Wii. Well, yesterday we happened to be in Cucamonga visiting Hector's mom and sisters. After lunch, Hector asks if I want to go to Longs to do some errands so I agree. We finished that and stopped by Loop's place to say hi. Hector mentions we were going to Best Buy to replace a DVD player at his mom's so L goes with us. Once we get there, L and I go and check out Bluetooth headsets because in July we're gonna need them in the car so I pick one out. We find Hector in the video game section and he mentions casually that this store has Wiis. WHAT?

Yeah, they're in the case so I get one for Kat while Hector got the other one for a co-worker. We couldn't believe it! We found not 1 but 2 Wiis. I called Kat right away and told her the good news. Talk about screaming and squealing...she was thrilled. So that was a nice surprise to add to her visit. I mean, she bought Guitar Hero for the Wii about a week ago, before she could find the Wii to play it on! Goofy girl.

Anyway, the kids have Monday off so I am really hoping to sleep in. Tyler needs to finish a school project then he and I have a mom-son date tomorrow night at the Kings game. Oh man, I'll have to bring my big camera since Hector took mine on his trip. Tyler will probably get bored but I hope he'll have fun.

Takin Care of Business

You better sit down for my news....I finished that dreaded 2nd sock! Yahoooo! I enjoy the process now that I went through it and think the 2 socks at a time on 2 circulars are the way to go for me. I understand the anatomy of the sock and the mystery of how they are constructed so I will give socks so more chances. I do have another pair in the foot stage (endless knitting) so of course I started yet another pair. Why do I do this? I have no idea. I guess it gives me more options because some days I feel like knitting something a bit more challenging while other days I like mindless knitting. Anyway I'm just glad that Hector doesn't give me grief about my hobby. He just looks at me as I show him my latest project. ;P It's been a year since I started my obsession; I've taken over several drawers in the extra bedroom for yarn and an entire bookshelf row with my knitting books and patterns.



We didn't have any special plans for Valentine's Day like we last year. First of all, Tyler had Little League practice and Hector didn't know how long he would be stuck at work. Then yesterday morning we woke up to unexpected rain and quite a bit of it so that cancelled baseball practice. Then Hector showed up at the park when I was there to pick up Tyler from school. He showed up with 2 cards for me which had my 2 favorite breeds of dogs, a French bulldog and Boston terrier. Inside one card, Hector listed his Top 10 Reasons Why He Loves Me. Awww, he put a lot of time into writing it and it was perfect. It made me teary eyed and it was better than any present in the world. Okay, back to our day. Since Hector is leaving Sunday for his Tahoe trip, he really wanted to replace my mom's water heater. This heater was way overdue to be replaced; Hector estimated it was installed around 1994. My mom was starting to get no water flow in her bathroom sinks, then the kitchen and washing mahine. Hector found calcium buildup and cleared them out which he showed my mom how to do but the problem just kept getting worse and more frequent. He finally figured that the water heater was the culprit and needed to be replaced. So that's what he did last night. I went to KFC to pick up dinner for all of us and we had a nice meal at my mom's place.

I think the lower sock is the most recent. The problem I had was keeping the socks uniform...you can see the difference in sizing.

This is the pair where I'm knitting 2 at a time. The socks are much more alike since I knit them at the same time so I'm being consistent.

Here is the very beginnings of the pair I cast on today. I decided to use Marine Heather Palette because of the pretty blue, green and purple. Well see how it goes and maybe I'll keep this pair for myself.

Happy Valentine's Day

Some recent pictures of our day in the snow at Wrightwood.

Doggie Shrug

I don't restrict my knitting to humans so this project is devoted to the dogs. I found a free pattern that I will reference later and added some modifications. The first one I made was way too small for Kat's Pomerainian who was extra puffy with all her fur, the sleeves were too long and narrow and the edging didn't appeal to me. So my 2nd attempt came out much better. I found some purple yarn in my stash and changed the edging to a simple rib and left the edging off the sleeves.

Doesnt' Cece look adorable? She wasn't very cooperative in modelling it but I managed to get these decent pics. Kat was very pleased and now Carol (Kat's mom) wants one for her Rottie/Shepherd mix Bobbie. Uhhhhh, I'm not too sure about knitting a human size sweater for a dog but we'll see. Meanwhile, Josh had loads of fun with Bobbie...here he is pretending she is a horse.

***Update: here is the pattern.

Mohawk Hat

I'll start at the beginning of this really challenging (for me) project. I found this cool book called Domiknitrix and the mohawk hat caught my eye. I know the right guy for this hat and I was determined to have this done before the guys' snow trip.

Here is the actual hat. I was surprised that the hat only took me 2 days to knit once I deciphered the gusset directions. It was a bit tricky and I had some obvious holes but I was able to weave in more yarn to close those up nicely. Now it was on to adding the fringe/hair to the hat and I found some really bright neon green yarn that would look awesome with the black but that yarn was too flimsy and didn't lay straight so I used some leftover yarn (a greenish blend & pinkish purple blend) that gave the desired effect. I think the fringe took longer to complete than the hat! After adding and subtracting yarn for 4 days, my mohawk hat resembles a small pony. Still it looks pretty darn cool.

Here is the end result with my handsome model Tyler. I did decide to add some I-cords as straps so the user can wear this hat safely on the ski slopes or in his hot rod.

Innernet Problems

Ugh, during the long weekend I notice that our computers were having problems staying connected. Our cable modem is over 6 years old and over the last year or so we get periods of no service which last for a day and then it's fine. It has become annoying but it doesn't last so long that we get really fed up because the connection will kick in and we're happy. Well, this weekend I couldn't get the modem to reboot at all so into our 2nd day of 'no innernet' Hector gives the cable company a call. He tells them our problem and makes sure we're all paid up on our bill. The person tells H to reboot etc. Yes, we've done that and it still doesn't work. Okay, the cable company finally declares that the modem is no good and they will send someone out on Wednesday. Well, that's no good either....okay the alternative is to pick up a modem so that is what I did today. Hector got the address for me and it was in Torrance but hello? It's a little more challenging when I can't use mapquest.com to locate them. And a Thomas guide? Who knows where that is? Hector told me he's seen it somewhere in Old Torrance so I spend about 10 minutes driving in that area and yeah, I find it.

The man was pretty nice but for some reason all the customer service workers are behind a plexiglass barrier almost like the bank. I had to open a door to put in the old modem so the man could retrieve it from his side. Weird...I didn't think that the cable company had to be so secure. I was so happy that I tried to hook up the modem but for the life of me couldn't screw the cable in with the little pin. I tried for about 15 minutes and spoke to Hector on the phone to see if I was doing it correctly but no go. Much later when Hector came home and looked at it...the pin was too long so the screwy part couldn't reach the thready part. Huh...okay.

Well, I have much to catch up on but I am exhausted so maybe tomorrow. Thank goodness I had my Blackberry to read my email during our brief innernet crisis. I now realize how much I use the computer while Hector just uses it to surf porn. :)

****Update: Okay, I stand corrected. Hector does pay our bills online too. Coughart!!!!

Quickies

I'm still here...just busy doing other things like:

1. Trolling the Salvation Army for ugly sweaters with nice yarn so I can unravel, recycle and knit into cool items. I picked up 2 sweaters for $3.99 each. I am saving those up for the days when I can devote the entire day to it which is relaxing in its monotony.
2. Playing around with my new Blackberry Curve (red) which is my Valentine's present from Hector. Because I am the gadget queen.
3. Shooting BB guns. Yes, Hector is gradually getting me into guns and I like shooting at targets. Somehow in a week period, we have acquired 2 BB rifles and an air pistol (mine...another Valentine's day gift).
4. I started knitting a mohawk hat for M which has frustrated me several times but it is done and I am about halfway through attaching the hair. It reminds me of the childhood horse/pony on a stick because the mane-like effect. Pictures to follow at a later date.
5. Getting geared up for our Legoland trip/belated birthday party for Josh. Our last scheduled date was rained out but we're heading out tomorrow with Sherri's family.
6. Playing Game Party on the Wii with everyone. Hector and I played darts and it was really fun. Safer than the real thing too.
7. Trying to get rid of the kink in my left shoulder. I need to figure out how to convince Hector that we need a jacuzzi in our backyard. Costco has a 7 person spa with JBL stereo, internal speakers and delivered for $4000. Just something to think about. :)

New Challenges

It's not totally official since Hector hasn't notified his boss but he will be going to Kaiser. He feels bad about leaving the group in a tight spot but he need to think of his family and job security/future. The good news is that Kaiser is only about 4 miles from our house and eventually when he is offered a full time position, he'll receive all sorts of benefits.



Yesterday was a fun yet tiring day... I'm not sure why I stay up so late when the kids are off school the next day especially when I have to wake up at my normal time anyway. I started off okay energy-wise but starting feeling the effects later on. The kids and I met up with Sherri and her family for some serious playtime at Kids Concepts. They played nonstop for 2 1/2 hours running and climbing etc.



Then I had the chance to meet up with T for an adult meal at Joe's Crab Shack for some yummy crab legs. They were soooooo good. Yum. After that we found the closest Sephora store where I got to browse (kid free) and I bought a Bare Esscentuals kit to do my face in 5 minutes. So I try it out this morning and the eye shadow is missing! Grrr...so I went back today to exchange it and this kit has all the right items inside.

When I arrived home yesterday, Hector had finished taking all our Christmas lights down and the pickup was packed with stuff that needed to go to storage and the secondhand store. Hector convinced me to go along with him although I was dead tired. We drove down to Long Beach to Out Of The Closet to drop off one of Tyler's old bikes and some CD racks. Then we decided to check out the store and maybe we can find some turtles (my MIL collect thems). Hector did find one and I happened upon a Ralph Lauren light gray sweater (men's XL) that is 100% wool for $8. Hmmm, I remember reading how to unravel a thrift store sweater that can be recycled into another knit project. Heck, for $8 I'll give it a shot! It will a valuable learning tool and maybe it'll be fun. I can see it now that I'll be trolling all the neighborhood thrift stores and garage sales for cheap sweaters. :)