Knitting a womb is easy!

When I first started knitting, I happened upon this womb pattern on knitty.com and thought I would have to wait until I was far more advanced to try it. But after my mitts, I decided to embark on the womb and found it quite easy. Here is much more information on this pattern from creator MK Carroll. I was also interested in the Wombs on Washington project where they were going to shower these knitted wombs on the steps of the Supreme Court in a pro-choice movement in March 2005. I can't seem to find much info on whether this "protest" took place or not.

In other womb news, Doug finds it quite disturbing. I think it is kinda cute. The way I positioned the fallopian tubes makes it look like a doll's head with ponytails, just need to add some googly eyes. Here are all the other places it ended up during the photoshoot.

Our first day at the Magic Kingdom

Although we got the park hopper option, we ended up visiting only one park per day while we were there. We never rode the monorail because the kids kept opting to go back to the hotel and play in the pool and sand. Our first day was at the Magic Kingdom. Here are some of the attractions we did:

• Spinning tea cups - Doug sat out and took these pictures
• Ariel's grotto - We thought we were waiting in line for the new ride that we saw in the Bonus Features of the latest The Little Mermaid 2-disc DVD set (which Dova lost and I replaced with the 1999 version from eBay - the new enhanced version is definitely better in picture quality and sound). In reality there was no such ride yet in any of the parks and the line was only for autographs and pictures with this somewhat tired looking Ariel. This pleased our Ariel-loving daughter to no end, but good sport Adam was bored.
• Haunted Mansion - In an effort to have a good ride for Adam after the 50 minute wait for Ariel, we herded the kids into the Haunted Mansion which had no wait. Adam was reluctant to go into the first dark room, but we insisted that he would like it. Unfortunately, he simply started to break down because it was too dark and scary. The ride stopped twice in really dark spots and by the end he was in tears.

After lunch, Adam was still too spooked to try any rollercoasters or any other rides so we simply went back to the pool at the hotel. It was in the low 70s (degrees F), comfortable but not really pool weather in my book. Dova refused to put on the nicely supplied life vests so I had to stay in the water with her the entire time. After the pool, they took their wet bodies and played in the beautiful white sand, getting completely covered. Here is our bathing beauty, happy and carefree:

After some nice warm baths, we simply got some tasteless dinner (salmon) at the hotel food court before heading out again for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party.

Woo hoo 2nd place in a Chili contest!

In my very first entry into a food contest last November, I was extremely excited to win 2nd place. The first place winner had a heaping full crockpot with large chunks of peppers and meat, where mine was less than half full, and a bit more refined in taste and texture (and of course in my opinion better tasting). I think the smaller amount had a lot to do with my second place finish, as it was completely gone after lunch. So if I ever enter another chili contest, I'll make a huge batch. This contest took place at work with about 9 people entering and everyone voting. The pots were numbered and I was a bit shy about telling anyone which one was mine. The winner was definitely not shy, so another lesson learned. I'm not a person who likes to self-promote and that kind of behavior really turns me off although it is effective in this world. Anyway, it was fun to win something - a $25 Hannaford (grocery store) gift card. Another side note - if I actually made that huge a pot, it probably would have cost me $25 in ingredients!

Soccer pictures

With spring soccer almost upon us, I thought I would post this cool picture of Adam on his soccer ball. He only really balanced for a split second and I luckily caught this shot with perfect timing. My first attempt looked like this.

Lastly, here is his official soccer portrait for last season.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

For our first full day at Disney World I purchased tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. I didn't quite understand why they made us pay extra money to come back in the evening. Previously, the evening activities, including the now defunct electrical parade and fireworks display, used to be free. I'm also not sure how they managed to get everyone out of the park by 7pm and readmitted for the party. In the end, we found that it was worth it for the short lines, live Christmas show, free cookies and hot chocolate and fantastic fireworks. On the way to the Magic Kingdom, Dova, who hadn't napped yet, slept on the bus, in the stroller as we wheeled her in, while Adam and Grandma sparred with their new lighted Mickey swords, through the Emporium store looking for an Ariel shirt for her, through the real generated snow blowing on Main Street and finally woke up for the Christmas show.

Here are some rides activities we did that evening:

• Space Orbiter - We did have to wait a while for this ride, but taking it at night was really like flying around in outer space. 
• People mover in Future World - Adam said he loved space mountain although we tried to explain that he simply traveled through it and didn't actually take the roller coaster ride.
• Carousel of Progress was not open this evening, and we never did get back to check in the daytime as it is one of Doug's favorite rides
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Doug had wandered all the way down to the new Pirates ride to see the new Jack Sparrow character while we watched the fireworks. It was unfortunate that I missed the it because Adam just refused to go after being spooked earlier in the day by the Haunted Mansion.
• Fireworks - We sat to the right of Dumbo as suggested by a cast member and witnessed a fantastic fireworks show originating from all directions. Dova was dancing all around in circles and Adam was whopping and hollering in excitement the whole time.
• Small World - Before we left, we all piled into It's a Small World. Grandma kept telling us that when I was 5, I loved it and had to take it 3 or 4 times. Adam pretended to hate it, Doug truly hated it (he calls it a bad dream) and Dova loved it. I just took tons of pictures and put lots of flash dots into Doug's eyes. Grandma loved watching Dova take it all in. It also served to warm us all up as it was pretty chilly during the fireworks.

My first knit fingerless mittens

This was my very first attempt to knit with double pointed needles. I am forever searching for nice fingerless gloves to use on the computer, as I always suffer from freezing cold "mouse hand". The retail ones I have cover the thumb, which make it hard to use the back button on the mouse and also hard to use on a laptop. I wanted a pair that covered the fingers and thumb enough to keep them warm and make typing and mousing easy. I picked this pattern from Susan Aguirre because it looked simple and I could actually read it (after all I'm still a novice!). The first mitt had only a pouch for the thumb and really left it too chilly (hence it is hiding behind the other one in this picture), so the second mitt has a longer thumb (although still not quite right, fits Doug's thumb better than mine). After wearing these for several hours at work, I found that my fingertips were still a bit cold, but my palms were hot and sweaty. There's no satisfying this geek. Maybe I need to spring for a heated mouse (but no back button on this one!). But during the first hour, the fingerless mittens were definitely the best thing that I've used with a computer.

Here are some more pictures Adam and I took during the process:



When I look at these pictures, I think:

• Are double pointed needles just a medieval torture device?
• I must not like my new PureVision contacts as I'm always wearing glasses
• Put some lotion on those hands!

So here is my modified pattern:

1. Use Lion Brand Chenille and size 5 dpns (qty 5)
2. Cast on 32 stitches and transfer to 4 needles
3. k2p2 ribbing for 12 rows
4. knit 3 rows
5. on row 4, increase by knitting into the front and back of stitch at the beginning and halfway through the round (both side edges of the mitten).
6. repeat steps 4 and 5 four times until you have 40 stitches, even out 10 stitches per needle
7. knit 3 rows
8. k2, m1, knit around until you have 2 stitches left, m1, k2
9. knit next row
10. repeat steps 8 and 9 six times keeping the increases on the same needles (maybe here we could try 5 or 4 to make the thumb less bulky)
11. knit around until you have 8 stitches left with the increases (2 more than the number of increases)
12. transfer the 8 stitches from the last needle and the 8 stitches from the first needles onto a stitch holder
13. even remaining 36 stitches on 4 needles, 8 and 10 to a needle
14. join the body and knit 8 rows
15. k2p2 for 8 rows
16. purl wise cast off
17. for the thumb, transfer stitches to 3 needles and knit 6 rows
18. purl wise cast off

If I had seen this pattern on the web, I would've thought it was way too complicated. I guess you live and learn!

Happy Chinese New Year!

I've been saving this link for a while, check out this pork-flavored postage stamp.


In attempt to be more Chinese, I've been reading this:


I bought this book because I'm really not as Chinese as I ought to be. In fact, here's a story that proves it. In my last job, there was a group of Chinese people (10 or so) that worked there. One woman organized a Chinese New Year potluck celebration where she didn't invite me. Her boss, a friend of mine, asked why she didn't invite me and she replied, "Angela is not really Chinese". Now, she knew that I was genetically 100% Chinese, but apparently I didn't pass the "really Chinese" test. Now I'm forever labeled "not really Chinese" by my friends. Another person once told me that I had the best part of being Chinese, the looks, but not all the other baggage that comes with it (yes, they are a bunch of crazy superstitious people, but I mean that in a good way).

The book is somewhat amusing, and sometimes a bit too factual. I did learn that the number 4 is considered unlucky, and it is my favorite number!! My mom failed to tell me this. I used to explain that I like the number 4 because when I was in kindergarten, it was the smallest number of objects which I could identify without having to count them individually (of course as an adult I can easily see 5 or 6, but after that 7 breaks down into 3+4 and 8 into 4+4, etc). In reality, 4 is probably my favorite number because my birthday is January 4th. I haven't gotten through much of the book to give a fair review, but I thought I would at least mention it since it was Chinese New Year. And yes, I will attempt to cook on the table with long noodles and red candles!

A Hockey Mom?

I recently met an old colleague who told me that she needed another player for their women's hockey league. I haven't played in nearly 20 years and was planning to simply live vicariously through my son starting next season. Isn't that why we have kids? Anyway, I think I may join the pick-up games that run through the summer season. We'll see how these 40-year-old bones hold up!

P.S. Check out the cool M&M Creator site. I'm not sure what I was thinking with that blue hair!

Things Dova says

Don't let this coy face fool you! Here are some gems that Dova likes to say (even back when she was 2):

• Whatever (complete with hand flips and rolling eyes)
  
• This is my life
• Get out of my future
• Don't even think about it
• I need to settle down
• I'm getting bigger every day!

Disney's Homeland security

When we entered the Magic Kingdom on the first day of our trip, I was alarmed to see that they were using biometrics with finger scanning along with the ticket cards. Since I had gotten 10-day no expiration passes for use on another trip, this was going to foil my plan. I had three 10-day adult (age 10+) passes and one 8-day child (age 3-9) pass. Luckily for us, Dova was three weeks from turning 3 on this trip so she was free. My plan was to come back on the next trip for 5 days, after Adam was 10, where he could use Grandma's pass and Dova would use Adam's pass. Suddenly, my plan was foiled and we had to come back before Adam turned 10 to be able to use up his pass. Then we started our own biometric tests. First Grandma and I switched cards and we were admitted fine. Grandma's finger obviously has a different fingerprint was definitely wider than mine, if they were only going by dimensions. Later, Doug I and swapped cards and we flew through again. So this biometric scan is just a crock and a scare tactic to prevent transferring cards. But the next day, with everyone using their own cards, I got rejected the first time because I used my left finger at an angle. Using my right finger was fine. At the same time, Grandma's card got rejected several times and they let her through only after she signed the back of her card. She later used her card at another park without issue. So what happened there is still a bit of a mystery. In the end, I think we will bring everyone including Grandma back before Adam turns 10, so we'll all be using the same tickets and will have to get another one for Dova. They definitely have their money sucking machine working well!

2/12/07 Update - I got this information from a friend of a friend:

I had asked one of my cast member contacts about that and she had told me that they weren’t reading your fingerprint but rather the dimensions of your finger tip. Which undoubtedly has to have some variability built into it to compensate everything from swelling to weight gain. I would think the older versions of passes with your photo on it would be more secure. I like seeing myself ha ha.

To which I respond, there is no way that Doug and I could possibly have the same dimensional fingerprint. See for yourself:

My voice feedback on the Daily Breakfast

I have been way too shy to submit any voice feedback to the podcasts I listen to, but the whole Wii experience is creating a new outgoing Angela. So here is my feedback that appeared on Daily Breakfast #239 at 19:05. If you don't know me, I am not Catholic at all, but I absolutely love Father Roderick and his SQPN shows. I've even dreamt about him. My mom also loves Brother Giles from the Secrets of Harry Potter podcasts. We must have a thing for those European accents. For those of you who are not so audio inclined, here it the text of the feedback:

Hi Father Roderick,

This is Angela from Pepperell Massachusetts in the United States. I wanted to give you some feedback on your geek section, which I personally love. I believe that podcasting has not reached the mainstream public, and that probably 90% of podcast listeners are geeks. The other 10% are people that have been shown the way and setup by geeks. There are many engineers that I know, who are supposed to be geeks, but still can't figure out iTunes, let alone podcasts. So don't apologize for expounding on your computer woes and triumphs. We've all been there and love to commiserate.

I also have to say unfortunately, that you've been a ba-a-ad influence on me. I absolutely had to get a Nintendo Wii after your awesome live demonstration. Now that I have one, I have to fight for time on that TV which is also connected to our DVR. After your glowing review of the Windows Media Center Edition, I might just have to invest in a TV card and a new operating system to free up time on my regular TV so I can play on the Wii. If I tell people that all this gadget frenzy is influenced by a Catholic priest from the Netherlands, they'll think I'm totally insane. Of course, I wouldn't trade your show for anything. Keep up the great work.

He went on to discuss waiting for a Vista version. Of course, being a Windows software developer, I had my hands on the official Windows Vista release a full week before the average joe, but I didn't mention that. I will install it at some point, but I'm still on the fence about getting a TV card (would I have to rent a CableCard as well?). I find watching videos on my computer does not go well as I'm always distracted by something else. And I have no handy way of streaming video from my computer to my TV as he does with his Xbox 360. How is it that a priest has more gadgets than a software engineer?!?

My iPod - it's alive!!

Here's my outdated looking iPod Photo 30 GB, back when it was brand spanking new when I bought in on 4/15/05. Earlier this week, less than two years later, I got the dreaded sad iPod face with a bad clicking sound.

It had been acting up recently, not playing songs (or rather podcasts, playing songs is a rarity), losing its memory (or really its FAT) and complaining of low battery especially when it was cold (it doesn't like the cold regardless). Like a good doobie, I went to the Apple support site to find it was a hardware problem. After trying the few things listed, I started to put in a service request. After muddling through 5 pages, they said it would be $268 to fix it!! I could buy a new one for less! Of course I was at work and I couldn't actually browse the Apple iPod site since it was restricted, but Jenn looked it up and found that I could get a 30GB video iPod for $249. But I really wanted the next generation iPod with the cool iPhone widescreen touchscreen (I assume they will make one someday, preferrably with 32G or more flash memory). But what was I going to do in the mean time? I was so sad that my beloved iPod was dead, I almost cried. Jenn was consoling me, saying "Just think of all the pleasure it's given you." I can't even imagine life without it and I use it every time I'm in the car, on the plane, at the gym or need to shut out people jabbering at work.

I started looking on eBay to see if I could sell it for something and found that the sad iPods were selling for around $40. Hmm, are these people buying them and fixing them? Then I googled for fixing the sad iPod. I found more than 10 people say they fixed it by banging it on the table or dropping it on the floor. I had nothing to lose at that point, so I dropped it (still in its silicone sleeve) 4 feet onto the carpeted floor at work. I picked it up and reset it and low and behold, it was working perfectly again. My guess is that a drive arm got stuck and dropping it jarred it back into place.

Then I figured out that those people were buying up sad iPods, dropping them and then reselling them, for a profit of about $110. What a racket! And to imagine Apple sucking $268 from people with poor googling abilities!! I know they can't in good conscience tell people to bang their iPod to fix it, but they could at least hint strongly. Anyway, I'm so grateful that it is working again and don't have to shell out the bucks for a new one. I swore I would buy the extended warranty on a new one, but lets hope they go flash this time like the rumors say.

Chasing sunsets and sushi

The rest of my trip to San Juan Capistrano was pretty pleasant as well. After the first day I simply drove around trying to find a beach to take pictures of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. It was actually quite a daunting task as I kept getting stuck in fancy residential neighborhoods with beautiful views but high walls. Finally I found the public beach and had to run to the water to capture this series of shots. I was so focused on taking these pictures that twice the waves came up and soaked my sandals and the bottom 6 inches of my jeans. Thankfully, I took the casual dress instructions seriously and didn't have socks and shoes on.

For food, I relied heavily on the free Wi-Fi at the hotel to find restaurants. I googled for "best sushi near san juan capistrano" and had a fantastic dinner at Gen Kai sitting at the sushi bar. All the sushi chefs were drinking beer, toasting with the customers and the atmosphere was fun and festive. I ate nearly $50 of sushi, oops! I made up for it the next night and hopefully my boss read my apologetic note on my expense report.

It was nice to get away for a few days on this boondoggle, but I was happy to zip home on the red eye to see Adam skate the next day.

Rancho Capistrano Part 3 (Gone Fishing)

On day two of training, our first exercise in the morning was "Gone Fishing". We were asked to wear long pants and tennis shoes the evening before so the stage was set for some physical activity. The instructor told us he was here at 6:30 am setting up our exercise. We walked down to the scary-looking climbing tower to see our fate. Up on the pole, a long rope was tied on about 15 feet up. Another robe laid out on the ground in a concentric arc about 15 feet away, delineating the swamp. Various objects were placed inside, three stacking rings, the stacking tree, a Big Bird which topped the stacker, another stuffed bird, a toy horse, and a fish. The goal was to get all the objects out of the swamp and into a bag. The rings and the stacker were stationary, but the animals could move around and of course any bird (including Big Bird) could fly. The stacker had to be stacked with the Big Bird attached. Everyone going in had to be blindfolded. Half of the people could walk in tethered to the rope and the other half had to hang upside-down while the rest of the people pulled the roped to support them. Since people in the class knew by now that I was shutter crazy (too bad I didn't have the camera for the peanut butter river!), I had brought my camera down with us and immediately volunteered to be a hanger.

So my personal experience with hanging (I was the 3rd hanger to go, wanted to observe first) was that it was much harder than I thought. Instead of letting the harness hold my weight, I used my hands and legs to hang on for dear life. It was extremely hard to pull myself up the rope and I had to rest a few times to catch my breath. To make things worse, I bumped my stacking ring away from me so I had to go an extra three feet. I got a rope burn on my ankle and huge bruises along my calves that was inflamed and hurt for days. But heck, it was worth the pictures!

The last exercise of the day was called the Human Knot. It was a quick touchy feely exercise to end the course, as we didn't actually have to touch each other in the swamp. We all stood in a close circle and took the hand of the person across from us. With the other hand, we took the hand of another member. The instructor broke one link and asked us to untangle ourselves into a straight line. After a few twists and hops we untangled ourselves. It was really cool that it actually worked. In the end, I was dying to sign myself up for another course with this consulting group. Perhaps same place and time next year!

Kissing the kids

These pictures remind me of this post about a year and a half ago. My, how the kids have grown! This post is a draft from a full two years ago. At the time, I had a terrible illness that lasted two months and took two rounds of antibiotics to overcome. It was a combination of 3 days of high fever followed by 3 days of intense coughing followed by 3 days of high fever, etc. I made it into work only 5 days in the month of January (which made no difference since I was already laid off at that point and was only coming in 3 days a week anyway). I was paranoid about getting the kids sick so I was careful to kiss them only on the back of their heads and washed or sanitized my hands every time I blew my nose. I really missed being able to kiss them on their face and letting them be close to me.

I remember seeing another couple being extremely affectionate with their baby girl, kissing her all over, biting her nose, and letting her explore the insides of their mouths with her tiny fingers. I remember thinking, wow, they must not be concerned about germs. But then again, they are really physically close to their baby, really enjoying and loving her, and allowing her to express herself, so maybe I'm missing out on something. After I got better, I made it a point to be more physically close to the kids. I still get antsy if they poke around my nose or mouth, but it's nice to be close in that way. I'm certainly not physically distant like some parents who stick their newborn in a big crib in a separate bedroom the night they come home from the hospital. But I want to hold on to these days when they always want to be close to us, as we all know, those days are numbered.