It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

It's about time for a real post about the life of Liz. I've posted about movies and food and musicals and concerts, but nothing really about me... well, I guess in the long run those posts ARE about me, but there are other things going on in our lives that might need to be recorded for future posterity.. ha ha. Whatever. Lets see what I can come up with.

 

I finished the blanket I had been making for Rachel's baby. He is due July first, and his name will be Cooper. this blanket took way longer to make then it needed too. I made the afghan mostly of yarn that formerly belonged to John's Grandma Evans. Mother Evans has a stash of it in her basement. Green, White, Brown and Variegated. I did have to buy the orange yarn because I needed just one more color that wasn't in the stash.

 

 

It took me about 3 months to finish. The pattern wasn't terribly difficult, just tedious... but I think that's true about most crochet projects. Tedium just comes with the hobby I suppose. And though it wasn't difficult it was extremely frustrating. It's two rounds of 24 lines each alternating colors. This may have been a little more than I was ready for as my second crochet project ever, but the book listed it as "Easy" so I thought I could handle it...

Well, it started out okay. Then suddenly I noticed that the "seam" where the colors changed was getting really crooked. Next, I was weaving in tails when I snipped a string in the pattern and had to unravel half of my completed work (setting me back about a month) ... Oaky, now that I have to basically start again I tried straightening the seam. That was good... but then I noticed that I had cut some of the tails too short and I worry that it will unravel with use. Then there was this problem and that problem an before I knew it I hated this blanket. the center rings appear to be too tight so they bulge strangely, but after talking to a friend who crochets a lot it appears that this is a common issue with this type of pattern. But in the end it turned out okay and I handed it off to Rachel and it's not my problem any more. I did tell her though that if it fell apart then I would make Cooper a new one. I may make Cooper a new one anyway.  

 

Now I am working on a new blanket for Arianne and Scott's baby. He's due in August.. This blanket has been much easier and much less frustrating.... well a little less frustrating then the last one. It's made up of several strips of different colors (I'm making it in St. Lewis Cardinals colors for Scott) that are attached together by a zig-zag stitch that I still need to figure out. I have it mostly done and could probably have it all done if it weren't for one strip of red that was driving me crazy. I had to unravel it about nine times because I kept missing a stitch somewhere in the pattern and I didn't realize it until the end of line 5 where it should have matched up, but it didn't I was anywhere between 2 to 4 stitches off... finally on one round where I ended up only one stitch off I said to heck with it and just added the extra stitch and kept going. I guess that will be the end strip that doesn't need to match up with anything. But like my mom says "A blind man would be happy to see it." and she's probably right. Except that I'm not giving it to a blind man. Thanks to advice from my sister Jessica I have now invested in some Stitch Markers that have helped a lot and hopefully I'll have this one done sooner than later. I do like the pattern though and think I'll try it again. I'll post more about it when I'm finished.

 

I have also decided that my brain only functions on one creative level at a time. I feel like since I have picked up crocheting I haven't really written anything. It's like I'm so focused on finishing the project I'm working on that all of my creative fuel is used up so I sit down in front of an open Word document and I have nothing to write down. That's sad. I hope that maybe I'm just suffering from a case of writers block and not the fact that I no longer have the words to feed my imagination. I guess it's time for me to sit down and pound out a story about Unicorns to prove to myself that I can still do it.....

Someday I'll continue with my choose your own adventure story. However I think the poll up in the corner of my blog is kind of funny showing that the majority chooses "Kill Yourself" - I'm sure that if anyone is new to the blog they may be taken aback and confused by the question... maybe they even think I'm a bit suicidal. Who knows. It's just funny to me now.

 

We've spent some time with friends the past few weeks:

Of course there are game nights with John & Angie, and Megan. They're totally awesome and have introduced us to a lot of new board games, and card games we've never heard of before that we now love. We had dinner with Becky & Jacob, and their kids, a few weeks ago. It was fun to see them. We don't see them often enough. We introduced them to a fun new card game called Pirate Fluxx. We all had a fabulous time. Bryce & Jennie, and Owen are in Utah for the summer, and they also came down from Logan to have dinner with the Shapiro's. It's always fun seeing them. We miss them when they're so far away.

Everyone's kids are getting so big. It's starting to make me feel old while I watch them grow up.

 

Before going to dinner at the Shapiro's house John and I had some time to kill in Salt Lake because we didn't want to drive all the way home just to turn around and drive all the way back to their house... So we stopped at the Church History Museum to see the new exhibit called "Seek his Face" the paintings were nice to look at. There were some really strange ones and some really nice ones but they were all the artist's interpretations of Christ. I love going to see the displays at the museum. It's not a large place, but it's always interesting. 

 

Then there was the U2 Concert, and Les Miserables and it seemed like nothing else really happened in between. I guess there was Memorial Day. We spent the weekend with family, and also dog-sitting Frodo and Lilo for Norm & Becca while they went to Las Vegas. And then there was my dad's 76th birthday. John and I stopped at a British store (or two) and bought him some candy, and also some Pasties for dinner that night.

 

I think that's about it for now. I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Eating with Liz 2011 - Almond Chicken

We haven't really eaten at our own house for the last two weeks so I haven't made too many new foods to eat. We have either eaten out, or been invited to someone else's house for food. (Which is sooo nice.) Anyway, here is one recipe that has been tried with in the last two weeks that we did like.

Almond Rice Chicken

 

½ c green onion, chopped fine

20 oz boneless chicken tenders

2 T olive oil

1 T parsley

1 c long-grain rice

¼ t salt

14 oz can chicken broth

2 oz pkg slivered almonds, lightly toasted

 

Sauté onion in 1 T oil. Stir in, parsley, rice, salt and broth. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 min. Meanwhile, heat 1 T oil in another skillet. Sauté chicken for 3 min on each side, until done. Combine all together w/ almonds.

 

Cheesy Broccoli

½ bag fresh broccoli florets

¼ c shredded cheddar

Steam broccoli; drain. Add cheese and re-cover to melt.

We had this with a green salad, instead of broccoli. Also, I cooked my rice separately from the chicken mixture. Regular rice never seems to work for me in these types of recipes, it always turns out too under-done and crunchy. Yuck. I cooked the rice with the chicken broth in our rice cooker (that always manages to burn things to the bottom) and then tossed it into the chicken stuff at the end. It worked out well, and it all tasted just fine. Even though John is not an almond fan, he has admitted that he'll eat them when they're in something like this.

Final thoughts on this dish: It was pretty good. I suppose we could eat this again. I think it needed "something" else in the flavor department. Maybe more pepper.

Les Miserables 5.31.2011

Last Tuesday we had the opportunity to go see Les Miserables in Salt Lake City with our season tickets we have to Capitol Theatre. I love this musical. This may in fact be my favorite musical. I think I have only seen it live three times now, but I have heard it, or seen it on PBS a bout a million other times. I know all the music and have sung along to it a thousand times… any yes, each time I get a little teary eyed (all through the second act) when I hear the music.

Before the show John and I went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Let me just say… I wasn’t impressed. Sure the menu is like 40 pages long, and the portion size is on the side of  ridiculous. It was so over priced. I really don’t think I should have to pay $15 for a salad. Granted, the tostada salad I had was pretty good (and fed me for two days,) but it wasn’t THAT good. Oh, and it was totally full of Cilantro. I hate Cilantro, I just don’t see why everything has to be covered in it recently. Yuck. John had the Sheppard’s Pie and that really wasn’t that great. The cheesecake was good though. We tried the Apple Strudel Cheesecake. It was pretty good. Not as great as I expected it to be. Will I ever eat there again? I doubt it unless someone insists that we go with them… besides, that’s way out of our way to go there.

On to the show:

I love the Capitol Theatre. I love going to the theatre. There is just something so fancy about it that even though I’m in my nice clothes I feel underdressed and find myself looking down my nose at those that show up in their shorts and work grubbies. I think that going to the theatre should be a special occasion that demands a little bit of formality.

We of course arrived early, as good manners dictate and while we waited for the doors to open my cute husband bought me a souvenir shirt that has “24601” across the front (it’s awesome.) and a magnet for our fridge. Usually I don’t think we need to buy the over priced souvenirs in the lobby, but this time he convinced me that I needed something.

And then I really just have to complain about the people that have their season tickets behind us. Wow they are annoying. First of all, it seems like they know everyone that walks by and then they talk about their holidays in Spain and their weekends in Kittybunkport, and their yacht and blah blah blah… Okay, not really, but they might as well be. That’s about the same idea. Basically they’re rich obnoxious people that we just want to turn around and smack. We like to mock them in our spare time. They were especially annoying that night. What with the loud candy wrappers and talking. I did turn around and give the father (of all people to be so disrespectful of others) a nasty look that stopped his candy wrappers for the rest of the show.

Okay, now I’ll tell you about the production…

This performance was… mediocre. The voices of the performers were weak and not very memorable. The only person in the production was the adult Eponine. She was a very lovely African-American woman with such a beautiful voice and she just belted out the tunes the way they were meant to be sung. Too bad she had such a short amount of stage time. I wanted more from Little Gavroche, and Cosette but I was disappointed there too. I will say that this Marius was a million times better then that Jonas brother that played him in the recent “Dream a Dream” Production on PBS. (That production, by the way, it totally worth watching.)   

One neat thing about this production was that this touring season they have redone all the sets to more closely resemble the original drawings by Victor Hugo that were made for the book. Everything is grittier, and darker. I loved how the projections on the rear curtain would move to give the illusion of marching through the streets or slumming through the sewers. That impressed me.

There were some sound problems with the microphone’s and the heads of the people in front of me were annoying, yet over all, I suppose the production was just fine, but I have seen better.

Movies: Two This Week

Wild Target (2010) - This movie was totally funny. I loved every minute of it. It made us laugh. We are fans of Bill Nighy, and he was superb in this. also, it was nice to see Rupert Grint in something other than Harry Potter. I would definitely say this is a movie to watch for us older people. Not kid friendly, but we don't have kids so that's not something we worry about too often.

 

X-Men: First Class (2011) - I loved this movie. John had some qualms about it, but in the end he'll admit that he liked it too. It was fun seeing the X-Men from the younger angle. I liked James McAvoy as Professor X he was good. There was some action and the plot was laid out pretty good. There was one little part that I really liked, but was disappointed with at the same time. If you see the movie you can probably guess what that was. But over all we really liked it and enjoyed watching it.

Star Tours

The new Star Tours opened in Disneyland this weekend. I can't wait to go ride it. Until I do though there is this awesome video to keep me smiling until I get there. :)