Penguin Girl

sign

penny — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:24:01 +0000

This joy of discovery brightens my day, I find the winter worries fade and my spring excitement warms.

pear

penny — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:37:41 +0000

While prepping tacos the other night, I lamented to the cat that I had no guacamole to serve. He responded by jumping up, by way of a sprint up my leg, to the top of the refrigerator. He cared not that the sole traditional ingredient I possessed to make this dish was the star.

*sigh* Cats.

Craving set in and neglecting everything, I pulled down several cookbooks and skimmed the internet to see what was traditional. I returned to my refrigerator and pantry to take stock and see if I could satisfy my green slime desire.

Upon close examination, I decided that I did have a few pieces of usable tomato; February in New York not being prime tomato season. I braved the elements and made it to the back of the fridge where I found the emergency lime juice. It’s the green squeeze bulb kind. Why I’m convinced I need to keep some for a lime emergency I’m not sure, but I do know that I am unable to keep fresh limes around for when I need them. Garlic exists in this house in various forms: natural, jarred, powder. It was the difficult ingredient for our household that stumped me. No, not mushrooms. Onion.

Right. I didn’t have red onion, and I wasn’t about to chop up some of the yellow ones I keep in the pantry and toss them in raw. While they might work, I knew the taste would be completely off and E wouldn’t touch the dish. I debated using onion powder but rejected that plan as with only six small pathetic pieces of tomato to balance the avocado, I needed something with some oomph and texture to round out the dip.

Shadow jumped down off the fridge and began to explore the counter, taking full advantage of my reverie and that I didn’t notice he was disobeying house rules. He began to bat around a small packet and I absentmindedly picked up and tossed the packet of fried onion into one of the boxes that I’ve yet to unpack. “Meow?” He challenged as he realized I not only took his play toy but I was not going to give it back.

“Oh!”

Yes. Quite nontraditional, but to my limited, non-researched, and in this case extremely unsophisticated palette, it worked.

Penny’s But all I have is the Avocado Guacamole
Please use common sense and refer to other recipes for proportions. This recipe comes with no guarantee of success nor will assistance be provided to find out why yours doesn’t taste good.
Combine the following into a bowl and mix.
Avocado, ripe, cubed and slightly smashed.
Lime Juice. I used the bottled stuff. Not ideal. Not terrible.
Tomato, chopped. I quartered six tiny grape tomato. I’d prefer more, but that was all that was edible.
Garlic, chopped. I used the jarred stuff. I ran out of good local garlic three weeks ago. *sniff*
Fried onion. I had a packet of Osem.

I found it tastier the next morning for breakfast.

I ask you:
What traditional dish did you remake into a tasty repast when key ingredients were missing?

oh.

penny — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:57:08 +0000

My week. One not-kitten. One very very tired Penny. He’s great for my housekeeping skills teaching us all the places I neglect to keep tidy: top of the range hood, top of the refrigerator, under cabinets, the laundry room. We won’t talk about the state of my office, but I think we’ve finally met who will ensure I keep my things tidy if I don’t want them destroyed. His name? Shadow Ninja.

Schedule Shift Notice:
Until April 12th I will try a revised schedule to hopefully improve writing and free up a bit of time for my back-logged Work and for pesach preparation. Who knows, I might even get a chance to finally redesign and relaunch my website. The schedule is as follows:
The posts will be split over two weeks, with a kitten post every Friday.
Week one: Monday books, Wednesday fibre, Friday kitten.
Week two: Tuesday cooking, Thursday words (house, garden, travel, &c), Friday kitten.
repeat until April 12th at which point I’ll decide if I’m going to continue this revised schedule or return to daily posting.

a good month

penny — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:25:20 +0000

I was very pleased and mildly surprised when I reviewed my spinning notebook and discovered that, yes, February had been a good month despite being sick for most of it.

Last month I spun for a just over 3.5 hours. It resulted in my finally finishing 2¾ ounces of alpaca I acquired at Maryland last year. Somewhere along the way I lost an ounce but gained 126.0 yards of a fingering weight yarn. Sir Shadow stole quite a bit, he makes my alpaca obsession look pale by comparison.

In any case, while I also spindled a good deal, my spinning time was mostly spent on notSqueaky.

I learned a lot last month. I’m hoping to sneak 5 minutes in (either at the wheel or spindle) today. It would be a first for the month and would make me really happy.

My spinning is still very much that of a beginner.

I no longer stress about which way the wheel or spindle should go. I’ve finally gotten it down to muscle memory. Please don’t ask me which way is left or right. I just do it. I’ve never been good with L/R things.

I did finally learn the need for different drafting techniques. Alpaca isn’t merino or BFL, two fibres I have the most experience spinning. My singles often felt like rope while I was going.

It softened up and came out pretty but I definitely need to work on drafting techniques. I think it is time for me to stop trying to figure it out on my own and acquire a copy of the amazing Abby’s new DVD, Drafting: The Long And Short Of It. How do I draft now? Probably as most beginning spinners draft: whatever works. After reviewing a few articles in recent issues of Spin-Off, I think I drafted the alpaca with an American sliding, supported long draw (“Seven Drafting Techniques” by Jeannie Bakriges. Spin·Off, winter 2009).

I leave you with this screenshot out of iPhoto of what happened when I attempted to take photos. I have new scratches because he did not want to give up the alpaca. I don’t question his taste, I know he’s young, but he definitely needs to learn to share!

Schedule Shift Notice:
Until April 12th I will try a revised schedule to hopefully improve writing and free up a bit of time for my back-logged Work and for pesach preparation. Who knows, I might even get a chance to finally redesign and relaunch my website. The schedule is as follows:
The posts will be split over two weeks, with a kitten post every Friday.
Week one: Monday books, Wednesday fibre, Friday kitten.
Week two: Tuesday cooking, Thursday words (house, garden, travel, &c), Friday kitten.
repeat until April 12th at which point I’ll decide if I’m going to continue this revised schedule or return to daily posting.

surprised and schedule shift

penny — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:41:18 +0000

Warning: This post was written and edited after another pain-free dentist appointment. It is more rambling than usual. Yes, that is possible.

While listening to a recent episode (#159) of Craftlit, Heather mentioned a fascinating quote from The Economist, which really struck home to me and highlights how the books for today feel out of place. Unfortunately I seem unable to track down the quote and due to time, am also unable to re-listen to the start of that episode to capture it for you. In summary the quote was to the effect of: If someone read only one book last year, it was most likely a certain book by a certain author (which I will not name). They thought it was a good book. If someone read many books last year, they were most likely not all the most popular books bought at a mega-mart bookstore, nor were they books that are made into movies. I’m not going to rant on this right now, however, it did cause me to pause and ponder. I try to find publishers I’m not too familiar with and authors who are unknown. I try. I don’t always (often?) succeed. But it is a goal.

Sometimes, however, my curiosity gets the better of me and after a period of avoidance I break down and pick up the once super popular book. I finished one of those this past week and also have completed another which I’ll also add into the popular category.

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
by Julie Powell

Style Statement
by Carrie McCarthy

Right. What would a semi-health conscious, mostly vegetarian, and kosher keeping individual find useful about a Julia Child project? Why did I avoid this only to succumb last week? Not for what was cooked, I can tell you that, but for the popularity of the project, the book, the movie and the associated connotations most bloggers receive après such.

Sure, I read a few of the more popular blogs, but I’ve always felt that most people assume that I’m doing this to get a book deal. Honestly I’m not sure why I write here, or more importantly why I continue to do so. Yes, I believe that it’s helped my writing and my on-the-spot communication skills, but I don’t see myself becoming rich or famous. Yes, I’d love my name on the byline of a book but it’s not a huge goal in my life. My convoluted point is, I feared if I read the book or acknowledged the project it would be assumed I wanted to be like Julie.

Whatever.

Yet I stayed away.

When the movie came out last year I heard good things, from just about everyone I knew. That nudged my curiosity. But I still couldn’t do it. I was embarrassed to check the book out from the library. It’s not my type! I don’t read this sort of thing I claimed (I have nothing against those that do and please don’t go through my reading list and point out all the times I do read this sort of thing, I happily live in my world of ignorance). Upon purchasing my ebook reader I discovered an unexpected feature. I could check out books from home. The cover is also akin to a brown paper cover.. trust me, everyone reads over shoulders in the NYC subway system. MetroNorth is more refined, but I do have some fun (other people) book/writing on the subway stories. I’m not hiding racy novels or the Kama Sutra, but I don’t always want to have conversations about what I’m reading with strangers (please then, explain to me why I’m writing here).

But I digress, again.

So I figured, what the heck, adding an ebook to my reader doesn’t increase the weight, so I don’t have to schlep around anything extra if it turned out to be a book I detest [ooh! let's mix tense!]. A stranger can’t make a passing judgment on me at the library or on the train about the book in my hand (because I’m weird like that, though who cares what they think about the ebook reader). In my eyes, I had very little to loose by electronically borrowing this book.

Then I read it. I have this to say: I enjoyed it. The writing style is a bit odd, but I think I enjoyed it more from a platonic voyeuristic stance. I know! I know! E and I aren’t normal New Yorkers, or normal by any yardstick. Yes, my wardrobe is mostly grey and black, but that’s about where I stop. We rarely go to bars, eat out, see movies, plays, etc. Yet we’re curious what others do both for employment and pleasure. I should also note that at age 25 we were categorized as boring in the eyes of our parents. At 30? Yeah….

I think that’s why I enjoyed it. I got to see a life painting that seemed common yet foreign to me. Right. I should disclose I’ve never seen Sex in the City. (I can’t wait for the google results on _this_ post). But that’s about it. I don’t think it’s a high work of literature. That it’s a highly innovative project, except that she was blogging early on and that is about it. I’m happy to see her move from something she hated to something that perhaps gives meaning and happiness to her life.

In other books…

Style Statement was borrowed and subsequently acquired as an attempt change my tune from blah to something more positive. I’m not sure if it was turning 30, being more busy than before (I’m not complaining but I’d love a nap or for that busy to translate into billions), being sick a few times this winter, or that it was a pretty rough winter, but I’ve been very blah and unpleasant to be around. I’ve still not finalized my own style statement, but I found the worksheets nice to give me guidance to direct my thoughts. An unintended benefit is that I found the whole format quite fascinating as I begin to revisit the Project from grad school and decide if any of it should be kept from the trash/recycling bin.

(An aside and a hint: if you want me to be carnivorous, schedule the meal for after a dental appointment. For some reason I seem to crave meat after each one. Tonight, however, we made pizza because I did not feel like buying and cooking meat. Or, since I wrote about red meat in my post on this date last year, perhaps it’s an end-of-winter thing. I’m not sure, but if you want to take advantage of me, go for it. E got real burgers twice in the past month!)

Schedule Shift Notice:
Until April 12th I will try a revised schedule to hopefully improve writing and free up a bit of time for my back-logged Work and for pesach preparation. Who knows, I might even get a chance to finally redesign and relaunch my website. The schedule is as follows:
The posts will be split over two weeks, with a kitten post every Friday.
Week one: Monday books, Wednesday fibre, Friday kitten.
Week two: Tuesday cooking, Thursday words (house, garden, travel, &c), Friday kitten.
repeat until April 12th at which point I’ll decide if I’m going to continue this revised schedule or return to daily posting.

growing up

penny — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:07:15 +0000

In putting together the small collage for the 365 photo project, I was really struck by how Shadow has grown in the past few months. Sure, I know he’s heavier, bigger, and explores more (he discovered the top of the fridge this week), but wow.

Since he was about seven months old at adoption, I guess he’s about a year now and that means
a) I have to choose a birthday for him. Since it’s almost March we’ve already missed it. Ooops.
b) I no longer have a kitten.

*sniff* They grow up so fast.

Here’s the little squirt the other afternoon. Today I had to throw him out of my office because every time I put a tissue into the bin, he retrieved it and played with it. Also, I wanted my chair back. He’s very playful and cuddly today since E is home too because of the snow.

two hundred eighty

penny — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:42:55 +0000

A year ago, I took up a challenge with a friend, a 365 day challenge to photograph something daily. I knew off the bat (thanks to three-day yontifs) that I would not be able to take a photo each and every day. But I would try.

My goals were pretty simple. Try to stick to the schedule. Try to learn about composition, lighting, and my camera. Try not to fall into the trap of thinking I needed an SLR to take decent photographs for the web. Most importantly I wanted to have fun.

I also never expected to buy a house and be adopted by a cat during this project.

It was hard, but I learned a lot: about how I see the world through the lens and about my preferred method for photography. I also learned where I need to improve.

I prefer macro photography, highlighting details and textures. If I can’t have natural lightly I prefer black and white or sepia tones. I like simple backgrounds. I need to work on photographing food so as not to turn stomachs.

This coming year will be different. I still plan to challenge myself when I attempt to photograph something or someone. I’m not going to force myself to publish the results daily. I am going to try to take better photos of food. Most importantly, in my eyes, I’m going to work on the composition of each and every shot, to the best of my ability. Some days during this project I was burnt out and just photographed something so I could check it off the list. I now have the muscle memory. I no longer have to go for quantity for improvement, but can now start to focus on quality.

Additionally, I am weaning myself off of flickr and transferring photos to another home. While I will loose some features flickr provides I think this will ease my management of the photos. Perhaps it will give me an incentive to do some coding to implement the features I miss most since E is quite busy.

My favourite photographs from this project include:

1. 365.001 … 20090220F, 2. 365.069 … 20090429W, 3. 365.124 … 20090623T, 4. 365.125 … 20090624W, 5. 365.024 … 20090315S, 6. 365.214 … 20090921M, 7. 365.259 … 20091105R, 8. 365.295 … 20091211F, 9. 365.294 … 20091210R

For now, the full set can be seen here.

I ask you, out of this set for the 365 project, which one is your favourite? Why?

Note: according to my records I took 280 photos, but the flickr set is showing fewer photos. I’m working on figuring out why and which ones I may have neglected to upload.

simple

penny — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:34:06 +0000

I’m on a Ysolda bender. I want to knit everything she’s designed while I await (with extreme impatience) Miriam’s design book.

I finished these mitts a month ago, right after Shanna’s were completed. I wore them for about two weeks until one afternoon Shadow decided to ~~steal~~ borrow one from my office. I found it Sunday evening and have finally taken a photo or two and decided it was time to write them up.

Garter Stitch Mitts
by Ysolda Teague
freely available at ysolda.com or via ravelry
Yarn: less than one skein Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mist (grey)
Needles: 3.75 mm (US 5)
Duration: January 16-19, 2010
Ravelry Project Page: jan 2010 mitts
Mods: none!

Thoughts: I purposely knitted these because I hate seaming. I avoid it whenever possible and I need to be better at it for the few times I do it. The first mitt, the left one, is terrible. I was lazy and rushed and figured it was just for me, so what did I care. Then I was knitting the second one at the Dentist office. They all loved them and thought me insanely clever (even though I tried to explain Ysolda is the brilliant one), and I realized that if I were to show these off to anyone at all I needed to seam them properly. So the second one is. I keep meaning to go back and reseam the first, but the yarn has slightly felted and I don’t give a darn. I will knit more of these in the future. They go quickly and beyond the seaming practice I found it good garter stitch reading practice. Why yes, it’s true. I have a hard time reading garter. I don’t know why. For added fun bonus I love the short row shaping and enjoy the magic when the bizarre looking object becomes a functional and comfy hand warmer.

interesting

penny — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:11:35 +0000

I found the comments, buzzes*, and words you wrote on last week’s post interesting. Thank you. I’ve turned to look deeper into my own methods and was surprised to discover that my reality isn’t quite the online-only picture I may have painted last week.

I’m going to ponder this a bit more before I devote more rushed words to the concept.

Now, please excuse me. I have a date with an avocado, a lime, some friend onions, a traditional recipe with a few other ingredients, and an index card. Will it turn out or will it turn stomachs?

* I have some thoughts on buzzes and other comments too, however, that discussion is for another time.