Tennessee sucks, in the summer

Memphis is under a heat advisory for several days. When I got into my car at lunch yesterday the temperature gauge said this:  

       

This is why Tennessee sucks in the summer (not sure if that's what Ryan Adams meant though).

My co-worker and I were all alone in the office (our bosses were out of town) so I went over to YoLo after lunch and got frozen yogurt for us. Mine was white chocolate with strawberries, chocolate granola & mochi.

I'm currently obsessed with this song. I especially like to turn it up really loud in my car.

I think we're going to the beach in three weeks, which means I'll be using up some of my precious vacation time but it might be worth it to spend a week doing almost nothing. 

 Doug and I have become addicted to Buffy (the tv series). One Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago we got caught up in a marathon of it and couldn't stop watching. Luckily my friend Kenan has let us borrow seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. Yesterday we watched five episodes.

We bought a Kindle and I'm trying to get used to it. I bought Bossypants, A Visit from the Goon Squad and Under the Banner of Heaven on it but I find it a little harder to sit down and use. Part of that could be my reluctance to put down my knitting. 

I got a really short haircut. I used to have short hair. The first time I cut my hair short was junior/senior year of high school. It was not quite cutting edge and more suburban mom than high school student. Eventually I grew it out. The second time I cut my hair short was about a year into dating Doug. I kept it short for several years and started growing it out after we got married. Over the last year I've been hemming and hawing about cutting it again but couldn't decide. Then the other week I got tired of blow-drying and frizzy hairs so I made an appointment and got it all snipped off on Saturday. I love it so much. There are no frizzy hairs and the blow-dryer is put away for a bit. Plus since it's 104 degrees outside there's no hair sticking to the back of my neck. I'm hoping the new 'do doesn't make me look too much older.  

We've been everywhere

We survived the Western Megatrip with no fights, no breakdowns (emotional or car-wise), no bad weather and no illnesses. We saw so much, I can't even remember it all. I will say this, cheesy or not, America is really beautiful. I really enjoyed watching the landscape change and I found that despite seeing more of this country I am still completely enamored with the Pacific Northwest. Besides seeing the country we also got to see family and friends, which was an added bonus. It was a long trip and there were times when we were so exhausted from driving we thought we'd never get to the hotel. We also ate some crappy food and some delicious food and sometimes we ate fast food. The complete photo set is on Flickr but here are a few :

Lincoln Highway in outside of Laramie,Wyoming

Salt Lake City Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah

Oregon Scenic Highway, somewhere in Oregon

Astoria, Oregon

Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota

Crazy Horse Monument outside Custer, South Dakota

Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota

Places we stopped:

• Springfield, Missouri (had lunch at some brewery-type place downtown)
• Lincoln, Nebraska (spent the night & wandered around near the university)
• Cheyenne, Wyoming (stopped for lunch)
• Salt Lake City, Utah (saw family, Temple Square, beautiful mountains, had dinner at Silver Fork Lodge & breakfast at Finn's)
• Twin Falls, Idaho (saw Snake River Canyon & Shoshone Falls)
• Boise, Idaho (had delicious lunch at Salt Tears)
• Portland, Oregon (spent the night & went to The Meadow, FlavourSpot, Grilled Cheese Grill, a comic shop on Mississippi & Close Knit)
• Seaside, Oregon (saw the end of the Lewis & Clark trail)
• Astoria, Oregon (saw the house from Goonies!, the Oregon Film Museum & Astoria Column)
• Seattle, Washington (saw our Seattle friends, including two sweet babies!! Ate at Oddfellows, Spud's & Ivar's & got cupcake from Cupcake Royale)
• Roslyn, Washington (the "Northern Exposure" town, Doug insisted)
• Missoula, Montana (spent the night & had dinner at Biga Pizza)
• Crow Agency, Montana (saw the Little Big Horn National Battlefield & Monument) 
• Spearfish, South Dakota (spent the night)
• Keystone, South Dakota (saw Mt. Rushmore & the Crazy Horse Monument)
• Deadwood, South Dakota (saw the town, which is less like the HBO series & more like Gatlinburg with gambling. Also saw the graves of Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane)
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota (stopped for lunch at Culver's where I swear I saw someone from Teen Mom)
• Mitchell, South Dakota (visited the Corn Palace)
• Sioux City, Iowa (saw lots of Missouri River flooding)
• Lawrence, Kansas (visited family, saw another cute baby, had some super-delicious ice cream at Sylas & Maddy's, shopped at Astrokitty Comics, the Yarn Barn & Au Marche)

Phew.

We did miss our cats a lot and the hotel sleeping/road food eating did get a little tiring but I am so glad we did it. You just can't see all of America (the good and the bad) from an airplane window.

Knitting until my hand stops working

Being a smart (lazy) person, I did not attempt to knit any holiday gifts for people. It's just too much pressure (on me, by me) and I can never remember to start early enough. Maybe next year? I have been furiously knitting though. The MKM has been selling items at Republic Coffee, our weekly hangout, to raise funds to help me pay for this. I can't thank my MKM friends enough for giving up their precious knitting time to make items to sell. They are made of awesome. These are some of the things I've been knitting recently (with stash yarn!)

Neckwarmer in an alpaca/wool blend

Ribbed man hat

Chunky button hat

Queen Anne's lace hat (I made this in October but forget to post a picture)

 Apple/pear baby hats 

Also in progress, baby sweaters for my very dear friends who are expecting twins in February. The green one needs to be blocked, have the sleeves seamed and buttons sewn on. The blueish/gray one is still being worked on. Both are knit in Madelinetosh sock, one in Thyme and one in Celadon. The sweater pattern is Maile and is free on Ravelry. I'm desperately trying to finish them in the next week or so, I wanted to finish them by Friday but that is so not going to happen.

I also have some new yarn porn to show. In order to save funds for the baby-making, I limited myself to  buying just two skeins of yarn in Seattle. This is Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Rosemary Rocks. I bought it at Churchmouse Yarn and Teas on Bainbridge Island.

This is Madelinetosh Vintage in Colbalt and I bought it at Little Knits in West Seattle.

Since I had already signed up for the Madelinetosh yarn club and couldn't cancel, I've gotten two shipments of it. Although I did sell some stashed yarn on Ravelry. This was the first installment, the colorway is Laurent and it's 80/20/10. It's very soft and springy and the color is so pretty in real life. I'm planning on using it to make a set of Snapdragon mittens and a tam.

This was the second shipment, it's Tosh DK and the colorway is Geode. I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it but I really like the color.

My poor hands have really felt the burn lately, I've been knitting so much my hands are stiff. I think I need to start wearing one of those hideous braces, at least at home.

What I accomplished this weekend

Taught my 7.5 year old niece to knit (I hope it sticks!)

My favorite thing was when my brother came to pick her up and we were getting her things together I asked her if she wanted to put her knitting in her bag and she said "No I'm going to knit in the car." A child after my own heart.

Made the same niece a little elastic waist skirt with fabric she picked out. 

Finished the increase portion of my Damson shawl. The yarn is Malabrigo sock and the color reminds me of honey.

Wound one skein of yarn and made a giant mess with two other skeins after my swift fell apart.

Got Golden India takeout for dinner Saturday.

Went to the movies with Doug (saw this)

Read some of this Mary Gaitskill book.

Drank several glasses of iced Vanilla Chai from Memphis-based Ugly Mug while watching Lucas on the Indie Channel. Noted while watching said movie, Jeremy Piven in 1986 looks pretty much just like Jeremy Piven in 2010, but Charlie Sheen was way hotter in 1986.

Roasted okra from my garden (just a little olive oil, salt and pepper - yum!) 

New hair, new book

I did plenty of things this weekend that warranted taking pictures, but did I take any? Nooooo. Bad blogger.

Friday afternoon I got a haircut with bangs! I have a big round face and across the forehead bangs make my head look even rounder but side bangs seem to work.

Friday night I volunteered to stuff envelopes for a few hours at WEVL and then planned to go to dinner. Unfortunately (and due to my own stupidity), I had only eaten an energy bar and a fruit smoothie over the course of the entire day so by 7:30pm I developed a mammoth headache. So Doug and I aborted our dinner plans, he brought me food and I curled up in a ball in bed until Saturday morning.

Saturday we had breakfast at Blue Plate and then did a little shopping. I caught the end of an interview on NPR with the author of this book. It peaked my curiosity because the author teaches at the University of Memphis. After Doug finished buying fly fishing supplies we drove over to Davis-Kidd and I picked up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I'm halfway through it right now and it's a really engaging story. Especially considering my recent interest in cytology and microbiology. The chapters alternate between telling the story of Henrietta Lacks and the story of an immortal cell line taken from Mrs. Lack's (without her consent). I haven't been reading as much as I have in the past, it's harder when your hands want to knit instead of hold a book and audio-books just aren't the same.

Saturday night we saw the Memphis Roller Derby double-header with friends, Sunday morning we slept later than we meant to (stupid Daylight Savings Time) I had brunch with friends at the Hi-Tone (really good), went on a trip to Super Target and then had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner. The Memphis weather was a little less than spring-like but I'm enjoying the cool weather while it lasts.

Our anniversary & a resolution crossed off

On Saturday the Mister and I celebrated six years of marriage. We wanted to take a trip somewhere but Doug is currently heading up a big project and didn't think it was a good time to ask for vacation. So instead we decided to do something neither one of us has ever done - go to Graceland. I have lived in Memphis for 9 years, before that I lived my entire life 45 minutes from Memphis, Doug is also a life-long Memphian, yet we had never managed to go see the King's house. Plus going to Graceland was on my list of things to do in 2010.

We began the day with breakfast at Blue Plate in East Memphis, we've been having breakfast there since we started dating. After breakfast we headed to Graceland. It wasn't too crowded for a Saturday morning. There's a shuttle that drives you from the ticket/shops/restaurant complex to the mansion across the road. The house is actually pretty small, at least the part they let you see and everything's original too. The photo highligts are below, all the rest of the pictures on my Flickr account.

The front room

Kitchen
Monkey!The infamous Jungle Room
The former racquetball court Outside the mansion
Inside the Lisa Marie

After the Graceland visit we had lunch downtown at the Majestic Grille and then went to Stax, where we got married all those years ago (well not *that* many years ago). We hadn't been back since we got married so it was very sweet to visit again.

After our foray into local tourism we had dinner at Woodlands Indian restaurant (which had some amazing Chicken Madras). It was a really nice little way to spend our anniversary.

Red Velvet

I have my friend Christiana to thank for this one. We were at Republic Coffee last Tuesday and she wanted a piece of Red Velvet cake but they were out. To which I said "I should make a Red Velvet cake" and she said "Why haven't you?!" So I did. I think I vaguely remember making a RVC once before but it was probably waaay back. For this one I made cupcakes, using the RVC recipe from the Sweet Melissa book, but halved. The cupcakes came out well, the last batch got left in the oven a little bit long though and developed an extra crunchy top. I fixed that problem by sawing off the hard top and covering it up with the cream cheese icing. I liked these but I still think they were missing something. I was pondering melting a little semi-sweet chocolate to add, but I don't know how badly that would throw off the red color.

Daytrip

Saturday we drove up to Nashville to spend the day, just to do something different.

We had lunch at Silly Goose, a little place in East Nashville. I had a couscous dish with olives, bleu cheese, red peppers, basil and balsamic. Highly recommend it.Visited the Sweet 16th Bakery and picked up a couple of things before they closed.

Went vintage clothing shopping at the Hip Zipper.Got slightly freaked out by the huge Billy Graham statue downtown, at least I think it's Billy Graham.Saw an exhibit at the Frist Center. (no pics allowed inside so this is us outside looking dorky)Had a mocha at Crema, which is supposed to be the best in the city.Found two books from one of my favorite authors at Bookman/Bookwoman.Ate biscuits and country fried steak after waiting an hour at the Loveless Cafe.Then we drove home, or rather I drove for about an hour before Doug decided I should not drive as it was raining steadily and I was making him nervous because the 18 wheelers kept passing me and splashing water all over the window shield causing me to freak out.