New Project + Camping

Last summer my friend, Kelli, offered to give me her old motorcycle. It's an '82 Suzuki gs650. It has not been started/ridden in five years. So it is kind of rough shape. I did not work on it last year. I intended to get it moved to Fairmont so I could work on it in my mom's garage. That never happened, so this summer I asked if I could just work on it in the storage garage where it is currently at. Last week I started on it.

I removed the battery and spark plugs, took off the gas tank, and took off the carbs. I will need to get rid of the old gas and try to change the oil. That might be challenging. I have not checked the oil, but it's probably a thick sludge that will be hard to drain. I am currently trying to clean up the carbs. I have not gotten too far into it. I need to get a special screwdriver to help remove some of the jets.  I have also encountered a pin that I can't seem to get out which holds the float in place and I'd really like to get that figured out so I can clean the whole thing a bit better. There are 4 carbs. So far I've only looked at the one. I am hoping the rest do not have the same issue. We shall see.

I also went camping last weekend and the this one. Over memorial day, I went to Minneopa where I met a really fun couple who gave me and my friend a cribbage board, a ton of food, and fire wood. Yesterday I went to Rapidan. It poured rain which got under my tent. It was so bad that it felt like I was on a water bed. The friends I was with and I all ended up bailing and going back home. I had to go back today to get my soggy gear. It was fun before that part though. I am hoping to get a lot of camping in the year.

Mmmmmmotor Vehicle.

I'm quite tardy in posting this, so most people already know: About a month ago, I bought a new car.

My old car was getting a bit rough. There was a lot of work that was going to need to be done eventually to keep it drivable. So it was either sink money into that, or use the money towards something newer. I opted for the latter. I also never mentioned that my old car was hit when it was parked at work one day this winter. The person left a card, and I was able to get an estimate and get some money out of the situation. I never bothered getting the car fixed. It wasn't worth it, so I used the money towards the new car.

I didn't want to take too many pictures because some weird guy was outside smoking and looking at me funny. But this photos give you the gist of it. It's a 2012 Mazda 6.

I have named it Ben. So far, he has been treating me very nicely. I traded my old car in. They gave me a little more than I was expecting, so that was nice. The morning before I left to buy the new car, I caught a mouse that I had discovered was hiding out somewhere in the front end. I am also pretty sure the mouse chewed through some wiring while he was in there. My battery light kept coming on. When I took the car in to get it tested, they could not find anything wrong. The light would come on randomly and go off randomly, so I think the wiring was chewed through enough that it would lose connection a bit from time when things got jostled while driving. I feel a little evil for having not mentioned that when I traded it in, but I figured they are making bank on the whole deal anyway, so I only feel just a teeny bit bad.

In other news, I am still making booties. Though I keep only half making them. I have several unfinished sets. I did sell one pair on Ebay, but didn't make much. I have another pair listed too because, hey, why not? Anyone want to buy some booties?

Ch Ch Changes....

I rearranged my living room because I got bored. It basically turned back in to the same room I had when I first moved in to this apartment. I like it though. And I got a shelf at good will for $5 that put up to display some stuff.It's a good thing the shelf is large, because it took three nail holes to get the shelf to stay level, but the big shelf coves all the holes I made. I don't have a real leveling tool so maybe that made it more difficult...

I moved my television, so I decided to move the wall decorations that I made to the little nook above my sewing area. I think I actually like them there better anyway, so that really worked out. 

I also got a new piece of furniture for my bedroom. My friend Ryan who made the dresser in the previous post made me a chest/night stand with the spare wood he had. I really like it a lot. It is taller than my old one and a little wider as well, so all my extra blankets fit in there and it is more convenient for holding all of my nightly needed items like the alarm clock and water bottle. I will hang on to my old one for extra storage, but the new one is really great.

I made some new booties for fun. I listed them on Ebay, but I don't think they will sell for much. But it's not really a bid deal since I made them for fun anyway.
 I did some fishing this weekend. I had a really nice time, but I did not catch anything. My friend caught a nice sized crappie. Hopefully I will be able to make it out a bit more this season than I have the past couple years.

Booties

A friend from work asked me to make her some baby booties for a shower gift. She gave me a few pictures for reference, and I found a pattern online that was similar to what she wanted. I ended up thinking they were so cute and fun to make that I decided to make a couple pair for fun. She is also raising money for the March of Dimes, so I made an extra pair for her to sell and keep the money as a donation. I took a picture of one on a dollar bill for a size comparison. They are super small. I was thinking of making some to try to sell, and also thought I could make some along with a bib and burp rag as a little gift basket to donate to a silent auction. The only auction I am currently aware of though isn't until September, so I have a little time. I've been making a lot of bibs and burp rags for a coworker who is leaving to start home day care. I am not quite finished with everything, but when I'm done she will have 12 bibs and 9 burp rags. I will post pictures of those when they are completed. If someone walked into my apartment right now, they'd think I have baby fever will all the baby stuff I've been making.

Catching Up

I haven't blogged in awhile. I'm going to do a bulleted list with photos of the goings on in my life of late:

- I went on a quilt retreat. It was a lot of fun. I made this:

 

 It's just the top, but I hope to finish it someday soon. 

- I also made this for my friend Donna's daughter. It's a dress up doctor jacket thing:

 

- I also finished this crocheted blanket (not at the retreat):

 

- I got this cool, hand carved owl statue in Mexico. It was my souvenir. Dan wanted to see it:

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 - My awesome and handy friend Ryan suprised me with this custom made dresser. It is amazingly nice.  He designed it himself.

 

- I've been making a lot of pizzas lately. My new things are barbeque chicken pizza and single serve frozen pizzas

- My best friend in Mankato is moving to Australia in three weeks. I will miss her.

Mmmmmmmexico

I'm not doing so well on keeping up with the two-post-a-month thing. Oops. If you cared, you'd comment.

Feb 1st I left for my first big girl vacation. I traveled to Mazatlan, Mexico with a friend I used to work with and two of her friends. We stayed at the El Cid Resort. It was an all-inclusive stay, so I stuffed my face the entire time I was there. I honestly gained 3 pounds that week.

We spent a ton of time on the beach. We also went to the Marina a few different time for food, sunsets, and the bringing in of the fish. We took a city tour that talked about the history of the city and showed some historic statutes, churches, and famous shops. On Wednesday we went to the Mexican Fiesta in which there was a whole variety show style supper with a huge variety of food, historical cultural dances, mariachi bands, games, and auction, and horse dancing. And lastly, we spent some time at the market down town where the locals do their day-to-day shopping, and at another small, touristy one near the resort.

I had a really awesome time there. I miss getting to use Spanish. I've forgotten basically everything I learned in high school which is sad.

Our room was amazing. It was bigger than my apartment. Two bedrooms. Three bathrooms with three full showers. Plus an extra shower room with sauna. Jacuzzi on the balcony. Murphy bed in the living room. We didn't have to spend too much time in there though, because the weather was AMAZING the whole time we were there. Sunny and 85 everyday. I really lucked out. 

In the photos below: 1 - view from the resort balcony. 2. The group I went with on the beach 3. Sunset at the marina 4. Sunrise from the balcony at the front side of our hotel room 5. pig heads at the market
 

Saying Goodbye. And Beer

My friend Erin is dating a girl from Australia, Catalina. They met when Cat was vising friends in the US and fell in love in a storybook-like way. Erin was able to visit Cat in Australia for a few weeks this summer, and in October, Cat was able to come to the US for three months. During this time I was able to get to know her, and we became friends. She had to go back to Australia last week. It was sad to see her go. Erin plans to move to Australia as soon as her house sells. It will be hard to say goodbye to Erin when the time comes. But their story is an amazing one, and they belong together. As a bonus though, I now have good incentive to visit another continent. Someday in the hopefully not too distant future, I hope to visit them both. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the time I have with Erin while she is here and help her pass the time until she's able to reunite with Cat.

In other news I went to the Craft Beer Expo in Mankato this weekend with Court. I am not really a craft beer lover. Court is, so I bought tickets for his birthday figuring it would be a good way to experience more types of beer. I usually have to stick to lite beers in order to find things I like, but I had a fun time sampling all the varieties out there. There were over 50 vendors. Most stations had 2-3 samples each. I kept track on the little map in the brochure they handed out of which stations has beer I liked. Most were no-gos but there were a couple that I enjoyed. By the end however, basically everything was tasting about the same - pretty awful. I think I've had my fill of craft beers for awhile. I plan on sticking to my miller and bud lites for the next few months. If I go again next year though, I plan on taking a leaf from the books of the experienced expo-goers. They made necklaces with pretzels on them to snack on between samples. They provided two benefits: Palate cleanser, and sobering agent. I definitely could have use both of those.

Homemade Xmas Goodies

I had a few request for gifts again this year. Annette wanted some more pillows. I made her a few in high school and some more last year. She like the fabric on them, so she wanted some more.She didn't give me any instructions on fabric colors, so she wound up with this.  I think they are kind of gaudy, but hopefully she won't. I blame my odd color selection on being at Joann Fabrics at 7am on a Saturday taking advantage of their holiday discounts. The third pillow (the one in the solo picture) is a little more toned down. I think the plaid fabric just got to be a bit too much.

The second request was for several pairs of slippers. I made a few in my normal way, which essentially just ends up looking like a big crocheted sock. But then I decided to try using a patter for ones I made for my grandma. I think they look kind of silly too, but as long as they fit an are warm I suppose they are doing their job.

Quilt Club Xmas Swap

This year at quilt club I participated in the x-mas gift swap. I was not able to do it last year because I missed the meeting where they discussed the plan, and so I had no idea what was going on. This year I was prepared. I made sure to figure things out in time to get involved. The way it works is everyone who wants to participate brings three fat quarters in a paper bag. They all get set on a table. Then you randomly take someone's bag. You have to make some soft of gift out of the fabric that you get in the bag you picked. It can be anything at all that you want to make for the person. There was a wide variety of things that people made: bags, wall hangings, oven mitts, aprons, wine bottle covers.

 The bag I picked was for Robyn. I don't know her really well, but I at least knew who she was (which sometimes is a feat in itself considering there are 100+ members in the guild) My blog is still being stupid and rotating picture when I tell it not too. So I apologize for making you need to see the chiropractor. I wasn't sure when I was going to do with the panels. Since it was such a weird number to work with, I abandoned my original wall hanging plan and made the pot holders.

I received this really cool "book club bag. It's got a zipper pocket on the inside and place for a cell phone and a pen. And it's a great size for a book....hence the name. The lady that made it for me (Sandy) made it with another lady from guild, so another person got the same bag in different colors. I like mine better :)

I also was on the snack committee for this month and brought in some yummy cookies and pop for punch. It was a nice little meeting. Now I have to get working on an idea for the challenge fabric. We reveal in February I think, so after I make something I"ll write a post with a photo of what I cam up with.

The Uggo Xmas Sweater

My mom's side of the family does a drawing each year to see who will buy for whom for xmas. Back in August my cousin Orry told me that he was going to rig the drawing so that I got his name. His special request was going to be that I crochet him an ugly xmas sweater. He wanted it to look like the sweater from the live version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/13062/13226707_1.jpg?v=8CF201495BE22F0

After several months of working on and off, I finally finished the sweater. It's not quite the same. I am really not sure how well it will fit since I didn't have a decent size reference or pattern, but hopefully it works well enough for his purposes.My computer was being stupid and rotated the picture. I didn't feel like figuring out how to fix it, so please turn your head.

I plan on giving him the sweater at Thanksgiving so he can wear it before the actual holiday for any ugly sweater parties he might have. I'll try to get a picture of him in the sweater once I've given it to him.

Runless

I've been training to run the half marathon on Oct. 20th since August. I had made it up to 12.75 miles. (A half is 13.1) Then on Sep 29th, I did a long run in the morning. In the evening my foot started to hurt. A lot. I went to urgent care the next day for an x-ray. It didn't show anything, but I have been unable to even walk without discomfort since then, up until the last couple days, when the pain finally started to ease off.

I tried running today. I only went a mile. It wasn't awful, but I am definitely not better. And the pain was worse afterwards just walking. If I am even able to run at all, I will have to downgrade to the 10k. It is kind of disappointing. I was so confident that I could do it, and proud of what I had accomplished. I guess I will have to settle for achieving last year's desire to run the 10k. Maybe next year I can do the half. I'd rather be able to run some rather than not at all, so I am not going to push myself.

I've been using the stationary bike at the gym. It definitely does not give me the same results or gratification, but it doesn't hurt my foot and it's better than nothing. And I can work my brain doing crossword puzzles or reading, so I guess it's not a total loss.

Lord, I was Born a Traveling (wo) Man

I checked my mail today, and my passport had arrived. On Feb 1st I will be traveling to Mazatlan with my friend Jill and two of her friends. I will be staying in a super sweet resort with a wrist band that gets me free drinks and meals. I don't have to pay a dime for all of this. All I have to pay is the ticket to get there and any souvenirs that I might want. I also had to get my passport, but I have ten years to make that $132 worth my time.

This will be the first time that I am leaving the country. Really the first time I've ever done anything more adventurous than going to NY and NJ which I did in 2005. I think it will be amazing, and I'm very much looking forward to it!

The New Job

I started my new job on Wednesday. So far I am feeling pretty good about it all. My new desk is super far tucked away in a little nook in the basement of the hospital. It's kind of creepy getting to it. There are also a bunch of unused hospital beds right outside the door. A couple of them have full-sized practice dolls on them, so every time I walk out of the bathroom and see them out of the corner of my eye, I jump a little thinking there is a dead patient laying there. I showed Donna where I am at. She likened the area to scenes from The Stand and The Walking Dead. That didn't to much to make the area seem less creepy, but it is fun to day dream about it when I'm down there.

The work is ok so far. It is definitely going to keep me busy. There are lots of phone calls that interrupt work, so I have to work on that balance of finding good stopping places and prioritizing. I think I will like it a lot once I get faster and more efficient, and more comfortable with all the programs I will be using.

A couple of nurses at work got me a very nice bouquet of flowers and a balloon as a going away present. It was partially a joke because the balloon had a huge smiley face on it and flowers are so girly. At work I'm pretty well known as a cynical and dry humored person who is not super smiley. However, the gesture made me smile a lot, so it was kind of ironic and very nice of them. :)

New Stuff

Today I played in the First (Annual she said hopefully) Farrow Family Golf Fest. A good-sized group of the Farrow clan got together at the golf course in Elmore. We played a fun best shot, 9 hole tournament. The weather wasn't the most cooperative, but we got most of the holes in without rain. We ended up stopping on hole 8, but I think it was still good. Afterwards we had supper and delicious ice cream cake and good conversation. I really hope that we do this every year.

On another note, I got a new job. I will start on Aug 28th. I am staying within the Mayo system, but now I will be working in the Release of Information department. My title is "release of information technician." Basically I will be completing records requests that are submitted by patients for personal use, to be transferred to other clinics, or sent to insurance/employers/etc. I am excited to start. I have been needing a change of pace for a long time now. I am not sure what exactly to expect from it, but I think that it will be a good switch for me.

Pizza and Aprons

I made another delicious pizza tonight. The crust is made from a white whole wheat crust. The sauce is a mixture or ricotta cheese, milk, grated Parmesan and, and a spicy hot saucy. I mixed up some chicken with chiles and a bit of the abode sauce, spread it over the top with some Italian blend cheese and some sliced grape tomatoes. All in all, the pizza was very much to my liking.

In the crafty realm, I recently made a silly maid apron. I have a little running joke with a PA at work. To bug me, he will rearrange things on my desk. I told him the least he could do would be to dust under stuff if he is going to insist on moving it and told him I’d even get him a duster and a maid uniform. So one day I got to work to find my desk completely messed up with a feather duster sitting on top of it. I decided to make the apron as a follow through on my threat. Tonight I snuck into his office and left the apron and duster on his desk. I am really hoping that he will randomly walk by someday wearing the apron.

Lastly, I finally got a picture of me on my new motorcycle. I’m getting used to its size and got a new front tire for it since the old one was getting pretty bald.

Filling the White Space

Quite a few months ago I decided to rearrange my living room. I ended up liking it a lot better, but it left one wall completely open and bare. Ever since then, I've intended to find something to put up, but I had not been able to think of what to do. Then, a girl at work gave me an idea when she was talking about something she saw on pintrist. I got a wild hair recently and decided to tackle the project. This was the end result.

I think it is kind of fun. But it also might be a but small for the space. Oh well. At least there is something on the wall now. I included a wider shot to show how it looks with the re-arranged room. The colors go well with the rest of the living room.
The pieces are just shoe box lids covered with fabric that I appliqued squared onto.

When I got home from the Leech Lake vacation I was struck by how bare and white my apartment was since none of the walls are painted. That was when I really decided I needed to get in gear and add more color. However I have not done much else to add color. The only other thing I did was repaint the frames of my kitchen chairs. That was something else I had intended to do for a long time and never got around to. I just made them an almond color instead of plain white. It looks good with the re-covered, brown seats, but  it didn't really do much to spice up the color in the room. Oh well. I will just have to keep thinking of little projects.

The Cabin

I went on the annual cabin vacation during the first part of the month. I left Mankato on Saturday the 8th and left the cabin mid afternoon on the 14th. It was probably one of the best vacations I've ever been on weather-wise up there. It rained all day on Sunday, but every other day was gorgeous.

The fishing was not amazing. We got the typical outrageous number of pan fish, but nothing impressive for larger fish. I ate probably the most amount of fish I ever have on this vacation. I have been thinking that I might fish a bit morehere and keep what I catch to experiment with recipes.

I went on a few early morning runs while I was up there and enjoyed the amazing scenery. A couple of the resort dogs even went on some of the runs with me. On nearly every run. I saw four or five eagles flying together, a deer, and a fox. It was awesome to see that much wildlife.

It was also nice to spend some extra time bonding with the family. I haven't been down to Fairmont much lately, so this was the most I've seen of them in quite awhile.It actually took a bit of adjusting to to get used to being back in by apartment by myself after nearly a solid week with people always around. Don't worry. I'm used to it again.

Revisiting and Old Friend

The bonus of selling my old motorcycle to someone I work with is that I can get status updates on how the bike is doing. The guy that owns it now has done quite a bit of work on it. He’s repainted it, changed the handlebars, changed the mirrors, cut off the exhaust pipes, and done a few other mechanical things. I got to see the bike today because he rode it to the hospital. It turns out he’s a Star Wars nerd, so he redid the bike with  a Boba Fett theme. If I pretend the decals aren’t on there I think it looks pretty cool. The nurse who bought it for the guy sent me a few pictures of how it looks now, so I thought I would share with a before and after shot. 

On a different topic, I joined a softball team with one of my friends. They play on Monday nights. The season was already almost half over, so I will only be playing 5 games, plus playoffs. My first game was this past Monday. It wasn’t even scheduled to start until 9:15 and then didn’t actually start until after 9:30 because the games before had run late. I didn’t ever even have an opportunity to field a ball, but I was up to bat three times. I got two singles, and grounded out. Overall I’m ok with that since I haven’t played a real game of softball since high school gym class. 

Lastly, the song from the last video [that no one even tried to guess (jerks)] was Tuolumne.

Filling the Quota

I don't really have a whole lot to talk about in this post, but as the title says, I'm filling my quota.

Last time I blogged about my amazing pizza. This time I will talk about my new craze: guacamole chicken salad sandwiches. I have been making a modified version of guacamole. I use lemon juice instead of lime because it seems like the avocado lasts longer this way. I think it might be the same concept as keeping sliced apples from turning brown by keeping them in water/lemon juice mixture. I also puree some squash and cucumber and maybe radish and asparagus in with the guac. I mix a couple table spoons of that in with a couple ounces of chicken. Add the bread, a slice or provolone, some slices of green pepper and some slices of squash or cumber and viola! It's delicious.

I recently watched Into the Wild. The soundtrack was all done by the same dude. I'm being vague so as not to completely give the answer away to this name that tune. I decided to try to learn one of the songs. I only have the first little bit learned, and I am playing it quite a bit slower than the real version. Your challenge is to tell me who the artist is and which song this is. Hint: the song is all instrumental....no vocals.... aaaaaannnnddd GO

The most amazing pizza

Today I made probably the best homemade pizza I've ever had. The crust was some that I had made a long time ago and pulled out of the freezer. It was a whole wheat dough with cornmeal and chopped almonds.

For the sauce I made a slightly modified guacamole dip. Avocado, lemon juice, a few slices of cucumber, a couple spears of asparagus, a couple slices of jalapeno, garlic, and black pepper. Then I sprinkled about 1/2 a cup of mozzarella on top of that. Next came some slices of red pepper, asparagus, a diced radish, slices of cucumber, a roma tomato, a bit of coriander, and basil. It was amazing.