COOL! Stitch n Pitch!

I want to live in Seattle! Apparently last night was "Stitch n Pitch", a knitter's night out at the ball park. HOW FREAKING COOL! Thanks to Rose Kim Knits for sharing!

Meg,, it's time to knit in public here in Albuquerque! Boldly go where no knitter has gone before!

knitting

Well no wonder!

Did you know that Starbucks makes their mochas with HALF AND HALF? No wonder they taste so rich. No wonder America is obese.

The woman behind me this morning ordered a grande half and half latte- why would anyone want to drink 14 ounces of half and half? Yikes.

WHEW!

I love it when things are busy at work. I do way better with time management when there just isn't any time to waste. Today started off a little slow but by 9 I was slammed. It's now 10:00 at night and I'm just wrapping up. Took an hour break to eat around 6 and went back to it. Tomorrow is going to be crunched, too- have some stuff due at 5:00 tomorrow and it's a long way from done.

A couple things I have learned this summer:
1. NEVER, ever represent yourself. Hire an attorney. For the love of all that is holy.
2. Don't put your loved ones in nursing homes if you can possibly avoid it.
3. Don't blow off exercise! It's the key to sanity. Especially when you've been on your kiester working for 13 hours in a single day. And eat some fresh vegetables!

law

Fabulous New Mexico Restaurants!!!

I've had some great meals recently and wanted to share with you!

We went to the ORIGINAL Range Cafe in Bernalillo the other night. The Range has recently opened restaurants in Albuquerque, but the branch locations are just plain awful. That's all there is to it. The original, however, if fanfreakingtastic. I had the spinach salad topped with chile-rubbed shrimp, jicama, and red bell peppers with apple vinaigrette. It was a great mixture of flavors and textures. Mom and C each had the fajita chicken enchiladas, which looked really good. I can't stress this enough people: avoid the in town locations and make the drive to Bernalillo- it is SO WORTH YOUR TIME.

C and I had a date on Friday and we went to the Turtle Mountain Brewing Company in Rio Rancho. Warning: they do not have air conditioning. You know what? I didn't care. It was phenomenal. Best pizza I have ever eaten. Their crust is really thin and crispy, and everything has SUCH great flavor! I had the El Capitan, which had fresh zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions. Wowza. The beer was great, too. I had the Left Coast Pale Ale, which was great. Fruity, a little bitter, really nice. We will DEFINITELY be going back out to Rio Rancho for another meal here.

Finally, the BEST sushi in Albuquerque isn't in Albuquerque at all- it's past Turtle Mountain Brewing Co at Noda's. Oh my GOSH. The fish is amazingly fresh, the preparation is both traditional and incredibly innovative, and the flavors! I should write an ode to Noda's. There is nothing I can say that will do this place justice. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Meg, when do you want to go back?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

food

Good spinning books

I ordered two books from amazon.com and they are both great resources.

Spin It: Making Yarn from Scratch is great. I've only read the first 3 pages because there is so much information there. The pictures are great and the instructions are helpful. I sometimes feel like the author is using terminology in an "insider" kind of way, but it's easy enough to figure out what she's talking about. I think this is a great intro to spinning book.

A Handspindle Treasury: Collected Works from the Save the Sheep Exhibit also looks really, really good. Again, good pictures, interesting articles, a treasure trove of information!

knitting

Knitting Book Haul

I may have mentioned that I got some knitting books recently.

I splurged on eBay and treated myself to a copy of <Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. Wow. This is going to take some time to digest. There's fabulous, fabulous material in here- history, motifs, charts, how to choose color, and several patterns. I'm so excited!!!!!

Since I'm recently obsessed with fair isle, I also bought Nanette Blanchard's book called Stranded Color Knitting. This is a great primer on how to work with more than one color. I can see myself relying on this as a quick and dirty reference as I learn more about stranded knitting. A bonus is that all proceeds go to charity- Four Corners Bunnies. How CUTE!!!!

When Mom was in Seattle a couple weeks ago, she brought me a copy of Traditional Scandinavian Knitting. This is another really dense book. It contains lots of background on the development of various knitting techniques including two-ended knitting, two color fair isle, and information about the patterns and motifs that appear in pieces from the area surrounding the Baltic. There are charts, too, which is pretty cool.

knitting

Are flowers appropriate?

My Dearest, Sweetest Helga,

I am so sorry to have slandered your name all over the internet yesterday. I have just discovered that your ailment was caused by my neglect of the level of gas in your tank. Please accept my most humble apology and rest assured that I will not be so careless in the future. In my defense, you have apparently decided recently that you will become empty when your gauge reads 1/8 tank, you gave me over 75 fewer miles than a normal tank, and I am saddened that you didn't communicate your needs by flashing an empty light.

I remain your faithful and humble servant,

Embarrassed Goofball.

(Editor's note: anybody wanna buy an apparently mechanically sound car? first $3500 takes it.)
(By the way, I am horrified at how stupid this whole thing is. I have never run out of gas before and I feel so dumb for yesterday's post. DOH!!!!!)

Major Enabling Going On

Meg and I had a yarny expedition today- we met up for Dim Sum at Ming Dynasty (pretty good, but not Amerasia!) and then headed east to Good Fibrations in the east mountains.



Since I'm a big dork, I got a picture of Meg taking the above picture from a different angle- simublogging!!!



Nice little yarn shop! Colors were a bit weird, and there just wasn't much that screamed "YOU MUST HAVE ME NOW!!!!!" Never the less, I brought home this:



Half a pound of gorgeous pima cotton slub yarn. It's soooooooooooooooooooo soft. And was only $12. Not bad.

Good thing I was somewhat frugal, because I think my Helga* is dead. I had been sticking up for her when others were critical because she had never stranded me before. But today, she turned on me. Fortunatly Meg stayed around and was able to give me a ride home. THANKS, BABE! Helga, the traitor, stalled out and just couldn't get her diesel purr back. I'd show you a picture of Helga, but she's stranded in Four Hills right now and will be visiting my mechanic tomorrow.

Helga and I have had a troubled relationship- I was, shall we say, abusive when we first met, but I tried to make it up to her by purchasing every thing she needed- over $15,000 worth of work all told (over half of that was insurance when someone rear ended Helga and pushed her in to the car in front of us). And this is how she repays me! I give, and give, and give.... I'm at the point now where, if it costs more than $500 to fix, I'm not doing it. I will say goodbye to Helga and start a new life with something more appropriate for a student- I've got my eye on Lola- a Corolla. I think we can be very happy together....

*Helga is my 1984 dark silver Mercedes turbo station wagon with only 247,000 miles. I thought "Helga" implied old, large, grey, and German- a perfect name for an (im)perfect car?

knitting

Perspectives

Had a great mojito and even better conversation with a fellow law student Wednesday night. I really respect and admire this person. It was fun to talk about our summers, that we're both excited to see that we can in fact be successful at this law stuff, and our excitement at watching our new careers unfold over the next several years. Even though neither of us is "young" in the way most law students are, we're both giddy with excitement at the possibilities. It's pretty cool.

law

SPINNING! WHEEEE!

YAY, Spinning! I am addicted!!! I spent just a few minutes tonight practicing what Meg taught me at knit night last night (check out the pictures that HedgeBlog took!)

Anyway, I'm hooked. My stuff actually kinda sorta looks like yarn! This is what I was making when I first got the spindle and roving: Crap.



And now, it's yarn... Crap on top, yarn on bottom.




Here's my colored roving. It's all wool. The blue is pencil roving that I bought from eBay seller SplitRockRanch after reading THIS post:



And I have the really good 80% llama and 20% silk, but it's over at my Mom's house. It's just off white- not very exciting to look at right now, but should make spectacular yarn. When I'm ready.

knitting spinning

Yarn Diet? HAH!

Be still my heart.... I am in love with this sock yarn. But I will resist because I am drowning in sock yarn right now. But... it's beautiful...

knitting

Desperate Times...

So. It has come to this.

Meg and I discussed the possibility of a yarn diet last night. We both acknowledge that yarn accumulation has maybe gotten a little higher recently. (Speaking of which- yesterday was a very good mail day, if you know what I mean- I promise to post pictures of everything that has arrived at my house in the last week. Hehehe. It's a wee bit obscene, actually.)

To be PERFECTLY honest, the only reason I'm considering a yarn diet is so that I can go HOG FREAKING WILD at the Taos Wool Festival in October. I'll be a broke student by then and I should save my pennies now. Fat chance, but it's a nice thought.

Meg gave me a spinning tutorial last night and I feel like I improved 10 fold in the few minutes we worked together. Now, that's not saying much at all, but I think I'm hooked. Pictures eventually, I promise.

Now, I get to spend all day trying to understand the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act. WOOHOO! Good times.

knitting

Tricky Marketing....

I bought some of the new Olay Quench for extra dry skin last night. It's ok. The scent is a little strong (C asked if I had used a new lotion because the scent was so noticeable). The annoying thing is that the lotion has lots of itty bitty irridescent flakes. I don't look shiny or anything, but they're definitely there. And I'm a little peeved. If I wanted shimmery lotion, I would have bought shimmery lotion. None of the marketing materials mention anything about shimmer or shine or any thing else that would indicate to a normal person that the product would make me all irridescent! OH well. Just a little mid-afternoon holy-cow-it's-only-4:00 rant.

YAY! Knitting!

I had some great knitting time in the car this weekend. I am *almost* done with Orangina. I would have finished it but I underestimated my knitting time and thought I'd been fine with the half a ball I had attached to the project- not so! I have about 3 inches of ribbing left to go.



Also started my SOCKAPAL2ZA SOCK! WHEEE! I really like it! The bf laughed at me because I spent the first several rows going, "something's wrong... something's wrong... it's not spiraling!!!!" Wrongo! I was expecting some kind of ribbing, but it's a very clever YO and K2Tog Combo. The yarn is thematically perfect for the mermaid sock- soothing blues and greens- but is a wee bit splitty for all the K2togs on size 1 needles. Oh well. I like the result! I hope my pal does, too!



I'm house-sitting, AGAIN. For the fabulously easy dog who lives 2 doors down from me. Poor guy had surgery to remove a growth on his chest last week and he's stuck in the dreaded cone until it's all healed. Isn't he pathetic in that oh so adorable cone head doggy kind of way???



knitting

Quiet Week!

Sorry for the silence, there hasn't been much to talk about.

Meg is back from LA! I can't wait to hear all about her trip!

I'm going to El Paso this weekend with the bf- he's refereeing the soccer game between the El Paso Patriots and the Memphis Express. Should be fun. I'll have lots of knitting time.... He's looking at a couple rental houses in Santa Fe tonight- fingers crossed!

MishMash

This is one of those random rambling posts.... Some law, some knitting, some other stuff.

My Mom just got back from Seattle, where she attended the settlement hearing for a class action law suit against Voicestream Wireless-their bad customer service and crappy billing systems cost her a lot of money and a lot of business. Anyway, she was really interested in the whole process. Her primary observation is that the underlying story is totally lost in the law- no one cares that the parties are in court because a realtor in New Mexico had to pay double or triple her contract price because Voicestream had trouble with billing.... The only thing that was raised by the lawyers was the fact that the contract included an arbitration clause. No one cares about the people, the story, or the alleged wrong- it's all technicalities.

I really want to keep the human side of my case load front and center when I'm practicing law. I know that will be difficult when I'm knee deep in technicalities with opposing counsel, but my clients should know that I care about the underlying reasons why they wanted an attorney in the first place.

Idealistic blathering, but there it is.

KNITTING! I am never going to finish Orangina. 6 inches of ribbing (approximately 54 rows), 260 stitches in each row, on size 2 needles. That's in the neighborhood of 14,400 stitches. Yeah. I might poke my eye out first.

I'm worried that the top is going to be all slouchy instead of nice and boat-necky, which is sapping my will to continue. I guess I'll keep plugging along and hopefully it will all work out.



law,knitting

Insomniac

I have not been sleeping well recently. Last night was a prime example. I laid in bed for 3 hours before giving up and sneaking in to the bathroom to read 3 chapters of Pride and Prejudice. When I finally climbed back in to bed, I STILL couldn't sleep, yet I was in an absolute coma this morning when the alarm clock went off. Go figure.

Maybe I'm the slowest person on the planet, but Bridget Jones' Diary is totally a modern Pride and Prejudice. My Jane Austen loving friend cringes every time I say this and argues that I am just plain wrong, but it's true. So there.

Managed to finish the body of Orangina yesterday- now I just have 6 inches of 3X3 ribbing on size 2 needles. Kill me now, preferably with the pointy size 2 metal circular needle that will be torturing me for weeks to come.

I finished the Koigu socks a week ago- pictures when I get my camera back (brother has it AGAIN). I thought about giving these to my SockaPalTwoZa pal, but I did a horrible job on the short row heels and totally botched the picot bind off on the second sock.

Next up? Socks for my SockaPalTwoZa! I've decided on some beautiful variegated blue and green cotton blend yarn... It's soft, wears well, is variegated and colorful without being blingingly bright... Good choice for a stranger with unknonwn color preferences! I'm planning on doing the Mermaid Socks from Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks Warm Feet. I think they look cool.

Lawyers Do Important Work!

I just came across this very important information today: Calling someone a "dumb ass" is not defamation.

Law is a very serious business indeed.

law

I'm cut off....

I have a confession to make.

I just bought more yarn.

Missa at Knit Pixie e-mailed to tell me she had more Aqua Melon Vesper Sock Yarn in stock, so I bought that AND a skien of Disco Lights by Tilly Tomas in Bluebell.

Seriously, ya'll. Take my credit card away.

knitting

Yeah, definitely obsessed....

I am completely and totally obsessed with the "one of a kind" yarns at Knit Pixie. These are fantastic yarns! Right now all I can think about is how badly I want some of the Tilly Thomas "disco lights"...

Mmmm. Yarn.

knitting

Commenting on a comment....

I got a really interesting comment to this post.

I said: "There are, of course, the clients. Ultimately, their best interests are the most important thing of all."

and the Commenter said:
No. As long as you are dealing with a competent client, and they're not seeking to do anything illegal, you are obliged to do what they want. It is unethical to do what you think is in their best interest, if that's not what they choose. Look at Rule 16-102 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.


I understand the point he's making. But what if an attorney, in zealous advocate mode, is more focused on making a point about something larger than the client's individual case than on what the client actually wants? This isn't what I saw last week, but I can see how a fantastically talented and passionate attorney might convince a client that a crusade is the correct path when all the client really wants or needs is a decent settlement, basicaly financial compensation for the wrong done.

law

Move along folks....

There's nothing to see here!

Things are kinda quiet right now. I'm busy at work, which is great. Knitting last night was fab, as usual. Every couple months I get giddy and giggle my way through the evening- Sarah was cracking me up last night and now I can't remember what that was about. It was hilarious, though.... She's designing a very cool fair-isle sweater that will be spectacular when it's finished.

I STILL haven't started my SockaPal2Za socks. I'm torn on which yarn to use. I love the Knitterly Things sock yarn, but it's really LOUD and I have no sense of whether that's ok for my pal! All I know is that she wants variegated yarn.... no color preferences or anything. I think it'll be better for me to go with a slightly more muted color palate. Neon green, aqua and bright orange isn't for everyone...

C gets back tonight- yay! I've really missed him. I think he's getting used to the idea that he'll probably be in NM until I graduate from law school, and while that's less than ideal, it's better than nothing. Perhaps the tide has turned and he'll start to see the things I like about New Mexico!

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print!

Attention Albuquerque Dwellers!

If you're not reading Duke City Fix at least occasionally, you're missing out. These folks do a great job of pulling together interesting events, restaurants, and general goings-on in this city. Check them out if you get a chance!