My Kick in the Pants

It's no secret that making magazines or newspapers is not exactly the most lucrative business to be in right now.

Nearly every industry in the U.S. economy is taking a hard hit, so it makes sense that less necessary items such as magazines, periodicals and trade journals are having one hell of a time maintaining their usual pace. In fact, many of them aren't. People just aren't spending the few bucks they used to picking up magazines. And clients don't have the cash to cough up for ads, either. As my friend Christine put it, "Now is a bad time to be whip cream, you know what I'm sayin'?"

So there are dozens of publications folding or struggling, and the one I work for is no exception. Effective this month, all my coworkers and I are enduring a wage reduction. The powers that be say it will last six months at most, but I have my doubts and believe it will likely go on much longer.

However, I'm trying to spin this as good and telling myself that this is just the sort of shove I needed to start approaching freelancing opportunities with more conviction. More determination. More desperation! ("The time has come," the Walrus said... to write of many, many things...)

And as always, I will be reporting my successes and failures here. Stay tuned. It'll change your life.

I'm Like Some Kind of Magician Now

I suppose I should confess that I did not, in fact, have time to make my double fudge chocolate cake in the slow cooker last weekend, hence I am photo-less. I know, believe me, I'm disappointed, too. Would it help, though, if I said that I did manage to make lasagna? No, of course not, because lasagna never photographs well, does it? I'll spare you.

But it certainly was delicious. (The lasagna.) The recipe was from Natalie Haughton's cookbook Slow & Easy: Fast-Fix Recipes for Your Electric Slow Cooker.

If you're new to slow cooking, I highly recommend this cookbook. The instructions are well written, Haughton also provides helpful side notes and tips for most recipes, and the ingredients are nothing too exotic or bizarre -- I usually already have everything on hand, or if I don't, I know I can find it without going to a specialty grocer.

God I love my slow cooker. It makes free time magically appear out of nowhere.

Time for a Change

I'm improving the look and style of things here. Could take a few days, so check back after I tidy up.

To Be Added to the List of Things That Make You Go: "Mmm...kaaaay..."

8 Weird (and Somehow Cool) Things from Reclaimed Puma Trainers, served up via Treehugger.com.

While the blender makes me think "wtf?" the flower pots actually got a brief "aww," even if it was inaudible.

Clapotis Update -- Nearly Finished

Am getting... so close... to the... end...

This is a photo of my updated progress on the Clapotis. The good news: Hooray! -- It's nearly finished; I just have a handful more decrease rows to go. The bad news: Boo! -- The pattern goes on for-ev-er. Additionally, as a result, the thing is freakin' huge. Look at the size of it. (See my highlighter to the right of it for scale.)

The pattern does describe the finished product as a type of hybrid scarf/shawl thing, but now that I've actually knitted it, the Clapotis seems impractically large for a person my size. (I'm 5'3".) I wrapped it around my neck and felt a little like I was about to be eaten by a boa constrictor.

Also, the fact that I live in Arizona, where there are really only something like four days a year that are cold enough to warrant the wearing of a scarf/shawl, makes this even more impractical. (I'm not sure what I was thinking, except that apparently I really failed to conceptualize how big it would end up being before I began.)

Yet, having said all that, I do plan on making another one, just slightly different. The pattern includes instructions for adaptation, so my next attempt will be narrower. I really love the drape and the accordion-like folds that the ladders of dropped stitches create, making the garment feel very thick and warm. I'll probably always leave this pattern unblocked (i.e., I won't steam it flat), so as to keep that crimped effect.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this thing after it's finished. Will I have a change of heart and decide that maybe it doesn't swamp me as badly as I originally thought? Will I unravel it and use the yarn for something else? (Hell no. Ahem, I mean... Probably not.) Maybe I can stash it somewhere in my apartment until I can gift it. (Preferably to a person who I'm sure does not read this blog, and has not read this post.)

More photos of knitted goodness to come!

I Would Have Been Making Gourmet Meals in My Dorm Room

Oh thank goodness the weekend is nearly here. Work has been slow every single day; there's always a calm before the storm each month, and this was it. But I expect things to change come Monday.

Admittedly, at the office I have spent most of my free time (and again, there has been a lot of it) reading through cookbooks, culling recipes for the slow cooker my mom gave me for Christmas.

I had asked for one, because I felt like, with my schedule, it would make life easier. And I could have had no idea how right that feeling was. As it turns out, this little magical cooking pot has revolutionized my life.

Cooking in this thing is so ridiculously easy that I'm almost embarrassed to use the term 'cooking'. So far it's meant the least amount of work I've ever done in the kitchen for the best meals I've ever made: slow-cooked chili, corned beef and cabbage, thai-style beef with peanut sauce, barbecue chicken, pot roast and so on.

And so, this week I've been perusing the internet and my newly purchased cookbook for more recipes in which all I have to do is chop, pot and run. Why, oh why, did I not catch on to this while I was in college?

Today I'm making beef stew with yams and a base of barbecue sauce and apricot preserves, and this weekend I want to try spareribs, another soup and particularly, a chocolate fudge cake. Can you believe you can make cakes in a crockpot?! If you're more cooking-savvy than I, you probably did, but let's just let me enjoy my little discovery. I'll post about how my fudge-a-rific "experiment" turns out this weekend.

Say It Ain't So

Tomorrow it's back to the ol' grindstone. But it was such a nice holiday while it lasted.

What I Did On New Year's Eve

I asked for season one of The Office on DVD for Christmas, and my parents were kind enough to present me with it. That was a week and a half ago.

Since then, my boyfriend and I have bought seasons two, three and four, and been consuming episodes at an average rate of eight per day. Are we ashamed? No. We're on holiday. To hell with productivity.

It shouldn't really come as a surprise, then, that come New Year's Eve, we were feeling more like homebodies than partygoers.

I'm not entirely sure where the idea came from (actually, yes I am), but... in an effort to not end up feeling totally lazy, we somehow ended up buying perler beads and boards from Michael's, staying in, watching a LOT of The Office and making these, which shall be magnets:

Four are Nintendo-related, and the other two were because we just couldn't stop. And you can bet there'll be more. Just as soon as we get our hands on more black perler beads.

Now if you'll excuse me, Dunder Mifflin calls.

Photo by Sway Sovay

Man Scarf

Last week I presented my boyfriend with this scarf, which I knit for him as an anniversary present. The yarn is the Brown Sheep Company's "Lamb's Pride Superwash" in grey heather, and I knit it on #10 needles in German rib stitch.

The scarf remains unblocked, actually, mainly due to the fact that I couldn't decide which way it looked better -- blocked or unblocked. But seeing as how my boyfriend lacks an opinion one way or the other, and also, because to block it would require extra effort on my part, it will probably remain as you see it here.

Classically plain and simple, it's the Man Scarf.

Photos by Sway Sovay

Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year!

So it's 2009. Man, so much can (and does) happen in one year. I guess the biggest life changes for me in 2008 were: 1.) My parents moved here from Oklahoma, 2.) I changed career paths and 3.) my boyfriend and I moved in together.

What radical changes will this new year bring?

A few of my resolutions are: to not stress out about the small stuff so much, (which kind of ties in to...) to not be such a perfectionist, to finish more books, to do a better job of staying in touch with old friends, (which kind of ties in to...) to be a better penpal, to publish more articles than I did last year, to find a better apartment and to be more organized. Hopefully, when I read this post again in December of this year, I'll be able to say that I did a pretty good job.

I hope that whoever you are, wherever you are, you've had a pleasant holiday. All the best in the new year!

Photo by Sway Sovay