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By Kate, 27 July 2009 8:34 pm

Because I’m not ready to post my pictures of our closer-to-finished bedroom yet, I figured I’d talk about some other good stuff.

First of all, the ginger beer. It’s ready! It’s fizzy! And quite good. After drinking two pints the other night, I have concluded that one pint a day (and probably even just half) is all I need. Not because of the alcohol content (it’s only about 3%), but because of the amount of sugar and fizz involved. I don’t usually drink soda, and I rarely even drink lager or other fizzy beers (I’m a real ale girl, as you may well know), so I’m not used to that amount of bubblage, nor is my gut. Enough said. But at this rate, the stuff will last for ages, as we started with 40 pints. And next time, I’m going to try making it properly from scratch. The Coopers kit is good, but it involves some artificial sweeteners, which I’m not really down with.

Next up, courtesy of my friend Mali and Jezebel, Sister Salad Thinks Yo Comments Are Wack. In which two smart ladies, using Sir Mix-A-Lot as their muse, berate the moronic commenting hordes plaguing YouTube (not to mention plenty of other sites open to comment by the public). Part of what makes it so great is that they are taking their message fairly seriously, but not themselves, so plenty of bad dancing ensues. And costume changes! I approve.

Good thing the third: french toast. I made some this Sunday morning. This follows on from the previous good thing because french toast is something I love more than any other breakfast food, and Mali’s family makes THE BEST french toast I have ever had (sorry, Dad). It doesn’t so much have to do with the toast-making technique as it does the myriad of accompaniments served alongside. French toast at Mali’s house means all sorts of fresh fruit, yoghurt, syrup, and anything you could possibly imagine wanting with your french toast. Unfortunately it has been far too long since I have experienced the breakfast of breakfasts at the Royer household, but when I do manage to make some of my own, it always gives me happy thoughts of the event (and a happy stomach).

Yet another happy thing on the list is my parents and their buying of a house in Bethany Beach. It’s another place I haven’t been in too long a time, but we went there nearly every summer for a while, and my parents have continued to go back regularly. It’s a good beach, and now we’ve got a more permanent place there. While I may not be able to take advantage of that from my current overseas position, it’s good to know it’s available to me when I manage to be around. I’m already planning it into my Dan-and-Kathleen’s-wedding-going trip for next year.

Last but certainly not least, I get paid tomorrow. I definitely like the reinflating of my bank account. However brief and minor it may be, it still buys me groceries.

And soon enough, I will show you my newly painted bedroom, which is also something I like, this week and beyond.

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By Kate, 18 July 2009 7:06 pm

Last week, I discovered that my favorite bar is closing. Or rather, reopening under new ownership. Or something like that. Either way, the Andy’s I know and love will be no more after tonight, and it’s much too far away for me to stop by for a last night in a place I’ve missed since I left Chestertown.

Andy’s was where I had my first legal American drink. (And second. And eighth…) It quickly became my favorite place to go with friends for dinner or drinks or both. Andy’s had the best burgers in C-town and some killer specials every single night. It’s where I discovered that a stout float could actually work, and taste awesome. It’s where I learned that a good bartender is worth their weight in gold (and rum). It’s where I tried my first Dark and Stormy and had some of the best Mojitos a girl could ask for. Plus they had Dogfish Head on tap. Really, what more could you want?

Andy’s is where I celebrated my thesis production with so many friends and family (and champagne!). It’s where I celebrated a lot of things actually, and self-medicated for probably just as many. It’s where I went for dinner when I found ants in my peanut butter and couldn’t face any of the other food in my cabinet. It’s where my friend Melissa had her first date with her husband. It’s where I went to say goodbye to friends before moving across the pond. It’s where I’ve looked forward to going back when I finally get back to Chestertown this winter. But now, that’s not going to happen.

Behind the bar at Andy's.

I’ll miss the drinks and the food and the free popcorn. I’ll miss the comfy, squashy chairs and the big fireplace in winter. I’ll miss squeezing as many people as possible around a table and talking about nothing til closing time. I’ll miss taking other people to Andy’s for their own first legal drinks. I’ll miss walking in and feeling home.

I hold every bar I walk into up to Andy’s example. And I still will.

I know Andy’s last night will be a huge party, I only wish I could be there to rock it out in style with all the other people who come to say goodbye. C-town is losing part of what makes it such a great place to be. I’ll be having a Dark and Stormy in Andy’s honor.

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By Kate, 16 July 2009 9:31 am

First of all, spoilers, beware all ye who enter here, etc. If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to know, don’t read this.

Second of all, can I just say that the whole 3D thing tacked on to the IMAX was a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME? The only scene in 3D was the first one. NOTHING. ELSE. They could have done the Quidditch (which: hooray for keeping in the Quidditch!), they DEFINITELY could have done the cave (all that fire in 3D would have = awesome). But no. Nothing else. Just the beginning. Waste. Of. Time.

Anyway, I try to go into these movies and look at them from the perspective of a non-rabid fan such as myself, because it’s not actually fair to judge them too closely as someone with a lot of emotion invested in the canon. I’ve not been fully satisfied with one of the movies since Azkaban (which I still think is the best and I still wish Cuaron would come back and direct another one. My only major gripe about it was no explanation of the marauders, but you can’t have everything.) Since then, I’ve had to tell myself that I can’t expect them to keep everything in the movies, because I can’t. I find myself analyzing the changes they make in order to fit the books into movies, and ususally I can understand why they do things the way they do.

But that doesn’t always mean I agree.

With Half-Blood Prince, some things I was annoyed by:

Using the end of the last movie as the beginning of this one. We don’t need the wizard paparazzi. We know what happened. You could have just showed the newspaper and that would have been set up fine.

Dumbledore pretty much playing dumb about Horcruxes. I can see why they modified that ‘fake’ memory even more than in the book so that you don’t get the horcrux til the end, but really, Dumbledore knew, he was just looking for confirmation. Don’t dumb the greatest wizard in the world down. It’s just not right.

No Dobby, no Minister for Magic, very little Hagrid and Neville, and casting Fenrir Greyback but then not even making reference to who he is and why he’s so terrible. You see his name on a wanted poster, but that’s it.

Also, what’s up with that scene at the Burrow? Was that JUST there to make me cry?

I think they spent a little too much time on the hormonal/relationship stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, it needs to be there, it’s a big part of the story, and it adds good character development, but we saw more Lavender Brown then we saw Snape, which, for this movie especially, isn’t right.

No Gaunts at all and only a mention of Snape’s mother. Also, what was up with that ring? Where was the crest? Eh?

No funeral. I see why they did what they did instead, but that just felt wrong. Also, not sure how I feel about the whole Hallows symbol being cast over the dark mark in the sky.

Also, why no battle going on when Harry and Dumbledore get back? What the hell?

Things that I did like:

Dan Radcliffe’s acting when Harry is on the Felix. Classic.

In fact, the acting of all the trio (plus Ginny. I love Ginny!) was pretty good. They do get better every time.

The setup of Voldemort kidnapping Ollivander.

We got to see Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes! Only for a few seconds, but still! Too bad they didn’t have to U NO POO posters. They missed a comic gold opportunity there.

Snape, when you did see him, was fantastic. I only wish they did more. It’s practically his movie after all.

We got some Luna!

So glad we got the Quidditch. Too bad there was no ‘Weasley is our king’, but really happy about one last bit of Quidditch. It looked awesome too.

There wasn’t a whole lot of action, but I did like that a lot of this was talking/character and plot development more than flashy stuff. I think the movies needed a bit of that, even if it wasn’t done perfectly. And I like that we saw more of Dumbledore before he goes.

Draco did an awesome job.

Overall, I know I’m missing things out, both good and bad, but in general, it wasn’t a bad movie and, to me at least, it didn’t feel long for 2.5 hours. But I also don’t think it was a great movie. At this point, anyone seeing the movies without having read the books is probably rare, but that doesn’t mean they should count on that to carry them through the plot. With this, I felt like they had a lot of scenes they felt they needed to get into the film but no good line to connect them. It was very piece-y and jumped around too much, and would have been hard to follow if you didn’t already know the story. This is how I felt about Goblet of Fire as well. When I look at the whole thing, it just doesn’t hang together as a movie rather than a movie of a book. And it’s too bad really, because I think they had a lot of room to do better. It was a decent setup to the last two movies, and I hope they use that well and do an awesome job on the last chapter, especially since they’ll have nearly 5 hours of screen time to do so.

It’s worth seeing and I’m sure I’ll watch it again. Hell, I’m sure I’ll buy it. But I’m afraid that after Azkaban, the movies continue to let me down. Especially when it’s been 2 years since any new HP! I guess now I can only wish that they do Hallows justice, because it would be a real shame if that ends up being a let-down as well.

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By Kate, 12 July 2009 11:43 am

At the request of a few people, I’m going to post directions for making a tshirt blanket, prefaced by the disclaimer that I actually make these quite sloppily without doing things like ironing seams and making exact measurements. I have about 4 of them now, and I usually want to get them done quickly, because they’re more for lounging around or picnicking than they are for decoration. In other words, this can be as fuss-free of a project as you want it to be as long as the desired result for you is just something to snuggle up on the couch with.

First of all, gather up all the shirts you were about to give to goodwill and grab a pair of fabric scissors. In general, it’s best to use only shirts that are regular cotton or cotton/poly. Stretchy stuff will throw off the design and make the sewing bit more fiddly.

Find the smallest shirt in your pile and cut off the bottom hem, the sleeves, and the collar and top seams. Cut the biggest square/rectangle you can get out of the front and back of the shirt. Try to cut square to the grain of the shirt. This can be a little tricky on some older shirts that have been twisted and stretched from years of wear and washing, but just do your best. This first square you cut is your template for all the others. You can either just use it to trace around, or you can make a cardboard template the same size and use that.

Now cut off the bottom hems, sleeves, collars, and top hems of all your other shirts and cut squares out of the fronts and backs of all of them using your template piece as a guide. You can trace around it with a pencil or fabric chalk or whathaveyou, or you can just lay the first fabric square you cut on top of each shirt piece and cut around it. Like I said, I don’t get too specific with this project, so be as fussy as you think you need to be.

Now you’ve got a stack of fabric squares that are roughly the same size, you get to decide the size of your blanket. You can make it as small or large as you want. It mostly depends on how many tshirts you end up with. My biggest one is 6 rows of 5. It’s also my favorite, partially because it’s got the most nostalgia attached to it (There are a lot of favorite shirts in that blanket, particularly the Ben Folds Five one that I literally wore til it was falling to pieces. I still mourn the loss of that shirt.) and partially because since most of the shirts were well-worn before I cut them, they’re extremely soft, and thus perfect for a blanket.

My favorite. It's enormous! I couldn't even fit it all in one picture. Poor BF5 shirt, I wish you were still wearable.

In any case, clear a big space on the floor and start laying out your blanket. Once you perfect your pattern of tshirt pieces, you’re ready to start sewing. It’s easiest to sew each row together first. So starting with the top row, take your first two squares (from left to right) and lay them right sides together. You can pin down the side where the seam will be (recommended if you don’t sew often) or you can be a bad example like me and not bother. Sew down the side with a seam allowance of about half an inch (or whatever you’re comfortable with, you can always cut off the excess later if you feel you need more space). Open up the squares, take the next square in the row and lay it right sides together with the square to the right of your first seam, pin if you like, then sew down the right side again. Keep doing this til you get to the end of the row, then repeat with each row of your layout.

You should now have your sewn-together rows of tshirt squares laid out on the floor. Sewing the rows together involves slightly longer seams, so I do actually pin when I’m doing this bit because it’s easier to keep it all together. Starting with your top two rows, flip the second row up and lay it face down on top of the top row (so that the bottom edge of the top row is matched up with the top edge of the second row). Smooth out and try to match up the seams between the squares in each row if you can, then pin about every 2 inches (on the bottom edge of top row/top edge of second row side). Sew this the same way you sewed between each individual square. Now open these rows up, flip the third row up and lay it facedown on the second row, and repeat the same process. Do the same for each following row in your blanket until you’ve sewed the entire front of your blanket together.

For the back of the blanket, I always use tshirt sheets. I don’t generally use the flat sheet when I make my bed, so I would just go to Target and buy a set of tshirt sheets, use the fitted one and save the flat one for projects like this. My favorite tshirt blanket uses two twin sized sheets sewn together on the back because it’s so big, but if you can find a flat sheet the same size as your finished front, that’s the easiest. You don’t even have to use a tshirt sheet, you can use a regular one you’ve got lying around. It really just depends on how you want the thing to feel in the end. Make sure you wash and dry the flat sheet before you start sewing it. Especially if it’s a new one. I didn’t do this once and ended up with a slightly deformed tshirt blanket because the back shrunk in the wash when it was already sewn together. Not a huge deal, but it can be easily avoided.

The back is not nearly as exciting.

Lay your flat sheet out on the floor and lay the completed front of your blanket facedown on top of it. Make sure it’s as flat and smoothed out as you can get it, then trim any extra off the flat sheet. Pin around the outside about once every two inches, pick the whole thing up, and pick a corner to start sewing from. Make sure you backstitch on the first corner. Give yourself at least a half inch seam allowance and sew down each side of the blanket until you get about half a tshirt square length from the corner where you started, then backstitch again. (Don’t get excited and sew the thing all the way shut, because then you’ll just have an inside out blanket.) Now pull the blanket rightside out through the hole you’ve left, tuck in the extra seam, and topstitch it closed, backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam.

You could get fancy and topstitch around the entire edge of the blanket, or you could even put binding on if you want to take it further, but this is the point at which I say ‘finished!’ and wrap myself up in my new blanket.

These make great guest blankets, picnic blankets, throws, and are great for dorm rooms. Best of all, they’re a valid rescue for your most loved shirts that either don’t fit anymore or are threatening to disintegrate from over-wear.

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By Kate, 9 July 2009 7:11 pm

What's goin' on over in this pen?

Over the past two weekends, we’ve seen a lot of animals. Two weeks ago, we went to the Royal Highland Show, where there were a lot of large, happy cows, curious goats, fluffy sheep, and gigantic Clydesdales, one of which tried to read Scott’s map, and another of which was hoping a lick of the grass design on my shirt would produce the taste of the real thing. Poor guy. I did give him a pat on the nose, but I don’t think it was any consolation.

Do you have an apple?

I also got to make a fool of myself as a volunteer in a demonstration called Quack Commandos, in which the awesomeness of sheepdogs is displayed by getting one of them to herd some Indian Running Ducks in all sorts of directions and then getting 6 humans to try and do the same job. Needless to say, the dog kind of kicked our asses. But how many people can say they’ve herded Indian Running Ducks? I bet you can’t.

Sheepdog: takin' care of bidness.

Humans: not so much.

In addition to the animals, there was a crapload of free food sampling going on, some scrumptious strawberries and cream, and various other snacking. I also saw a guy scale a 40 foot pole in 17 seconds. And Scott drooled over big boy toys like combine harvesters and tractors, forgetting completely that we don’t have any fields to mow and a combine harvester is about one and a half times the size of our flat.

Regardless of this, walking around looking at animals all day just makes me want a farm full of them even more. I could make a lot of cheese and ice cream.

We can't carry that home.

Ok, I realise this is actually quite important stuff in animal husbandry and all, but it's still funny.

Puffin proof.

More recently, this weekend, we headed out to South Queensferry far too early in the morning for a Sunday to catch an RSPB seabird cruise. There were seals! And puffins! And cormorants! And about ten billion different kinds of gulls! It was pretty good, and it only rained for about 15 minutes of the 3 hours. My camera was no match for some of the telephoto lenses on that boat, but I got a few decent pictures of the seals, and I managed to get some pictures that at least prove we saw puffins. They’re really small!

Seals!

After the boat trip was over, naturally, the sun came out in full and we walked around South Queensferry for a bit, had a mediocre sunday roast in one pub and a pint in another before heading home. Lovely way to spend a day.

Sunny South Queensferry.

Somewhere in between these animal excursions, I went shopping for clothes, which I desperately need. Unfortunately, after failing to find anything I liked or deemed appropriate, I gave up and instead came home with three new CDs (M.I.A., Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Coldplay. Hooray new music!), a bottle of Cava (It was hot and I wanted something cold and fizzy.), and a new Tefal Jamie Oliver Professional Series stainless steel 30cm nonstick omlette pan. YES.

Retired (but still pretty hot).

Sex-ehhhhh.

To put this in perspective, I used this pan’s predecessor, a similar one, hard anodized instead of stainless steel,  just about every day for two and a half years. I don’t drive anymore because I live in a city, but I do cook all the time. So this is kind of like the equivalent of buying a new car. It will be used and used well. And DAMN it is nice. I like when cookware goes on sale.

Unfortunately, I still need clothes. This ‘no clothes, so let’s buy food/something for the kitchen’ thing is all too common of an occurance. I blame the fashion industry. But that’s another post.

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By Kate, 6 July 2009 8:14 pm

For hands-free luggin' around.

Although I tend to feel like I’m being too lazy all the time, I’ve got a few things that I’ve finished recently, and some other things I’ve started.

The first project is top secret for now, so I can’t post pictures for a few months, but I tried a new skill and did not suck at it, so I’m proud of myself.

Project 2, a yoga mat bag. I got tired of carrying my mat in my hand after one class. I have to bring it to work with me and then bring it most of the way back towards home before I even get to class, so that’s 3 miles before I even unroll it. I made use of some scrap IKEA fabric I had from my sister’s christmas present and whipped this up in about 3 hours. I’m pretty happy with it. The bottom was sort of fiddly, and the stitiching on the top of the strap is kind of crap, but overall, a good result.

Third on the list is a pair of pajama pants, which I don’t actually have a picture of. I’m not too big a fan of the waist, mostly because it relies solely on a drawstring rather than a drawstring plus elastic, but they’ve got super wide legs, and since I made them myself, I was able to make them long enough for my legs, so they’re cozy. The fabric is maroon cotton with little cartoon elephants, giraffes, lions, pineapples, and palm trees. Awesome!

nomnomnom

Next! So I make a lot of cake. I get used to having it around. When it’s not, I can get a little stroppy. Because dammit, I like cake! I don’t want a chocolate bar, I don’t want a lollypop, I might want a cookie depending on what it is, but really, I just want some cake. So I raided my cabinets and my recipe books and decided to make chocolate cupcakes with some raspberries on the top. (I had frozen ones. If I had fresh ones, I would have just eaten them on their own. Scottish raspberries in season are THE BEST IN THE WORLD.) I used Rachel Allen’s chocolate cake recipe for the first time. It’s all right, but it would probably do better with frosting instead of raspberries. For the record, every other cake I’ve made from her book, Bake, so far has been absolutely freaking incredible, so it’s a good book to have. Anyway, that put some cake in my house, and by some miracle, it’s still not gone. Mission accomplished.

I’ve also started a few longer-term things. The first being a batch of homebrewed ginger beer. Scott’s been doing a lot of beer with mixed success rates, but I hadn’t tried anything myself yet. Then I saw our homebrew shop had a ginger beer kit from Coopers, so I jumped on it. It was even easier to brew than a beer kit. I decided it had to be refrigerated for the best result, so this was our first foray into bottling (we’ve just kegged everything else). It seems to have gone well. It tasted pretty good before it went into the bottles, and now we just have to wait 3 weeks til it’s done conditioning. It’s supposed to be about 3.5%ABV, so I’ m looking forward to having properly alcoholic ginger beer around whenever I want it. We’ve got 40 pints of it. I think it will last a while. I might even try making a cake with it.

Soon, there shall be tomatoes.

Last on the list are some tomato plants I started about 3 weeks ago. It was a little late in the season, but they’re coming along nicely. I need to put them in bigger pots soon and hope they do well enough in the window to give me a bunch of tasty tomatoes in a month or two.