The White Trash of Crafty

So, I'm all signed up and ready to go with the crochet-along on Maybe Matilda's site. There are over 100 people signed up, ready to crochet along together. Many of them have listed their websites & blogs, so I clicked on a few. Big mistake. It is very intimidatingly clear that I'm the poor white trash in-law of this super woman group. Holy Cow! These women sew, can, garden, knit, crochet, craft, and cook... while nursing their babies in one arm and feeding their toddlers organic grape juice they've stomped themselves with the other. I, on the other hand, don't have a single curtain up in my house, would rather throw a dish away than be forced to wash it, and haven't seen the entire floor of my garage since I moved into my house (although I can currently see HALF now, and that's a world of improvement... I WILL park in my garage this winter!). How do these women do it? Do they have jobs? Do they have husbands? Do they sleep? Do they plan on continuing to wickedly toy with us before they take us back to their cyborg colony, 12 galaxies over?

It's enough to give a girl a complex. Sheesh.

Crocheting Along with Maybe Matilda

I'm crocheting along!

There certainly is a blog for everything, and I recently found this blog called Maybe Matilda... tons of crocheting! I'm going to crochet along with her & her readers for this project. It's such a fun idea! I'm not really a cowl person (at ALL), but maybe I'll end up loving it... who knows? Otherwise, it will be a good Christmas present. Beware, friends & family! LOL

Anyway, I can't wait to get started. Stay tuned for updates!

Okonomiyaki and Other Hmmm's

Andrew's Holly is off on an adventure for a few days, but before she left, she made us a week's supply of Okonomiyaki, Osaka style. Oh my stars, it is delicious. She has made us Hiroshima style in the past, but that's harder to make ahead of time. My quest today was to find out how many freaking Weight Watcher points there are in Okonomiyaki. I found so many different recipes, it was unbelievable. The conclusion I came to is this: every culture has a few dishes that are "garbage" dishes, where you can throw in a little of whatever you have on hand. Filipino cuisine has pancit, which is one of my favorites. In high school, my friend Ricco's mom Alita would make us pancit and Filipino eggrolls, and we thought we were in Heaven!

What do you think is the American equivalent of this "garbage" dish? I was thinking omelettes, but those aren't really American. Maybe the sandwich? Hm. Something to ponder.

And in case you were wondering (humor me, and pretend like you care), I think the point value for the version I ate is 9.

First Hawkeye Game of the Season

It was great to be back with the Mornin' Crew this morning. We rolled in a little after 7:00, and it was a little piece of tailgating heaven. Rain was in the forecast, and it threatened all morning, but we managed to only have a few sprinkles out at the Hawkeye Commuter Lot.

On the way to the game, the rain started. We (most of us) broke out the ponchos, ready to tough out the weather. I can say that, hands down, this was the single rainiest game I've ever been to. We had a small break for about 45 minutes or so, but the crowd at Kinnick was a sea of ponchos and water-logged fans.

The team looked good. There are still kinks to work out, and everyone was devastated by the injury of true freshman running back Mika'il McCall. He looked great out there, and now he's done for the season. But a lot of good things happened on the field, and the Hawks came away with the win.

The rain was something else. It got so bad that the hood blew and eventually ripped clear off my poncho. My whole poncho was blowing around like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. I rescued the hood and just tied it on like a bonnet (classy, eh?), and by that time, we (the few of us Mornin' Crew faithful who stuck it out) were just laughing hysterically. The ponchos were completely useless at that time, and we were soaked completely through. They called a rain delay (no one ever remembers that happening at Kinnick every before), and that's when we decided to leave.

The theme for food this week with the Mornin' Crew was sliders. I was skeptical, but it turned out to be inspired. Sliders are small, so you can sample quite a few. Andrew and I brought barbecue pork & coleslaw sliders (inspired by this recipe). We also ate potsticker sliders with Asian slaw, pizza sliders, pulled creamed chicken sliders with bacon, chicken breast wrapped in bacon sliders, and I think there were others too that I didn't even get to try. There were even dessert sliders... yellow cupcakes split in half to form the "bun" with a round brownie in the middle. They were decorated with frosting to look like different condiments. SO CUTE! I also, for the first time, had two bites of something I've always wanted to try... the Krispy Kreme slider. This is a burger with a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut as the bun. I could have eaten ten of them. It was the perfect combination of savory and sweet. Delicious. Unfortunately, I'm currently on Weight Watchers, and I've lost 9 pounds in two weeks, so I didn't go too crazy. I did eat more than I should have, but I was very restrained compared to how I've tailgated in the past.

After filling our bellies, Heather, Andrew, & I put our water-logged selves in the van and headed home. Not ideal conditions, but still a great first weekend of Iowa Football at Historic Kinnick Stadium!

A New Understanding

Now I can understand everything my boyfriend says. I have found the perfect translation site: The Septic's Companion: A British Slang Dictionary with Audio Pronunciations. Andrew and I had fun last night looking at all the different terms. I had heard a lot of them before, but now when I hear them, I can look them up and see what they really mean instead of nodding and smiling politely. Plus, it's just an entertaining site. Can't beat that!

Settlers of Catan

I like to keep up on board games, but I'd never heard of Settlers of Catan until recently. It's FUN!!! Andrew, Holly, and I have played twice this week, and I'm getting addicted. It's great because, unlike a lot of games, the board changes every time. Every game is new. There is skill involved, but there is a lot of luck too. Sometimes the dice have a lot to do with the game. You can build settlements and cities, you can barter for resources, you can claim ports... it's a blast. I feel there has to be a curriculum connection somewhere. I need to run it past the social studies teachers and see what they think. I think the GOAL kids would love it!

My Current Obsession

For some reason, I am currently addicted to Ching Dow's Moo Shu Vegetables. I think I could eat them for every single meal. Forever.