Annual update?

Well, hopefully updates will be more frequent than that and I will use this as a launching point to actually write regularly, but clearly I can't be held to any sort of promise. Somehow, though, I am once again taken with the idea of documenting the passing days, so I might as well run with it while I have the inclination. I'm definitely not going to try to catch up on the past 2.5 years since I started sporadically posting, or even the past 16 months (!) since my last post--that seems like a recipe for failure...and I'm obviously already a little predisposed to failure anyway.

So for now, I'll stick to present-day life as I know it, so far as my aging brain/memory can recall.

As always, everything is a mixture of chaos and unmotivation and disorganization, but one thing that has been marking my days and keeping me grounded is my No Boundaries running group that I'm doing through Fleet Feet. It's this beginners' running program that introduces you to the basics of running and trains you for a 5K. I actually did the program last spring also, but had to miss a bunch of sessions (thereby not qualifying to get the awesome training jacket that you get if you go to 15 of the 20 sessions), so I decided to do it again. And I'm really not usually so much of a group training sort of girl, but I have to say that this program has been really great for me. I'm actually enjoying running, or at least the achievement of increasing my distance and my speed, and I've actually met some people that are really fun to hang out with. Today, one of the coaches (who is convinced--falsely--that I could run the whole 2.8 miles) made me skip my walk interval and run further than I've ever run before. I shot her many dirty looks, but to no avail--she pep-talked me and paced me the whole segment and showed me that I could readily do what my mind has been telling me that I can't. So even though I cursed her name the whole way, I am actually somewhat impressed with myself because of her. Thanks, Nancy! Good thing I have that to motivate me to go back out on Thursday for an even longer distance in the 99-degree heat.

As for knitting, I have been trying to plow my way through a few seemingly interminable projects. It's all these babies being born, combined with my short attention span. Makes for some long-term relationships with pastel blankets. But I did finally finish the Basil Blanket for Julia Loraine Tsai (born June 27, 2009):And the other blanket that I am in the middle of is a second, backup blanket for Parker. I never did post the photo of his completed blanket, so here it is:

The great thing is that apparently he really loves it and has to have it to sleep with every night. The less great thing is that I have to knit him another one. I mean, it's not really a bad thing--I can't think of anything more flattering and heart-warming than people not only appreciating what I knit them in the first place but then also wanting a second one of it! It's just an awful lot of garter stitch in a boucle yarn that I'm a bit weary of. But I do love having made something that crazy-cute Parker can't do without.

In the meanwhile, I did manage to knit Parker a birthday present, although I didn't manage to finish it until he was about 1 year + 3.5 months. Oops. Got caught in a bout of procrastination brought on by logistical difficulty in the assembly phase. But I am quite pleased with it now that it's done, and Ryan was duly impressed, giving much thanks and boosting my knitterly ego. Now that I think about it, I love knitting for the Davises--they are the most appreciative recipients ever. It helps that Ryan is a big bio-geek. Did I mention that the base-pairs on this knitted oligo are in the form of the codons that would transcribe into the RNA codons that would translate into the amino acids proline and aspartate, which can be abbreviated P-D (Parker's initials)? Total geekdom, I know, but if you're gonna knit a DNA toy for someone, are you gonna knit just random sequence? I don't think so.

No time to lose (oh, and congratulations!)

Welcome to the world, Parker Riley (?) Davis! You don't know it yet, in all your 8lbs, 0.08oz of glory, all your 21 squirming inches, but you are one lucky kid. You have one of the greatest guys in the world for your daddy, so I bet you are going to grow up to be a pretty great guy too. Anyway, welcome welcome welcome. And congratulations to Mama Katie and Papa Ryan.

On the other hand...couldn't you have put it off just a few more days??? I am so almost done with your blanket (it's much more finished than in this photo, but I don't have time to take another picture because I need to finish knitting, don't I?).

I mean, I know I had a full 6 months to get it done, but you know, I really appreciate it when other people take it upon themselves to share in my lateness. I was hoping for that with you, but I guess you are your father's son. Anyway, happy 0th birthday, and I'll be seeing you soon (as soon as I cram in these last few rows, weave in the ends, and throw the thing in the washer and dryer)!

Happy Birthday to Mom!

Well, I'm generally not such an attentive daughter, but Mom's birthday deserves a post--my first post in almost a month, no less! Today, she is either 74 or 75. I'm never sure which, because she says that her dad messed up on her birth year when he did the paperwork to bring the family from mainland China to Taiwan during the cultural revolution. So whatever is on her driver's license is wrong, but I can never remember which year is the correct one (an excellent example of inattentive daughterness). Actually, today's date is also not the one on her driver's license. Her license says March 13, which was the day she was born on...but in the lunar calendar. At some point, my uncle looked up the solar date that was equivalent to the lunar date in the year that she was born (although now that I think of it, I wonder if he looked up the year that she was born in or the year that it says on her driver's license...), and it was April 18.

At any rate, here is one of the most recent pics I have of Mom, taken at Lake Tahoe last year when she was visiting us:

Happy Birthday, Mom...I'll call you before the day is over, I promise.

Catching up

Okay, it's Friday night and I'm going to actually force myself to come back to this thing and catch up. And while I haven't used my camera nearly as much as I have been meaning to (I keep forgetting that I have it with me), I'm glad that I've at least taken a few pictures to jog my memory...otherwise I'd really have no idea what I've been doing for the last couple weeks.

Let's see, after a month and a half, we finally got together with Doug for dinner. CGT and I met him and his new gf (Karen) at his apartment in Midtown and walked over to 58^o And Holding for a bit of wine before dinner. I'm afraid that I have a horrible memory for wine labels and vintages, but I do know that I found both a zinfandel and a malbec to be quite yummy. After some discussion, we then trekked over to a new-ish Vietnamese restaurant that Doug had read about in Sacramento Magazine. After a gazillion ten blocks, we arrived at Tamarind, which was not at all what I expected--it was shiny and luncheonette-ish and operated by clearly non-Vietnamese staff. Still, I was optimistic...but I would have to say that my first impression was right. You wouldn't think anyone could mess up pho, but it was some pretty untasty stuff. We finished ourselves off with a trip to Rick's Dessert Diner, though, so I couldn't be too dissatisfied...plus, on the way to Rick's was this lovely emblem painted on the sidewalk.

Had to snap a shot for Steve (and Webb), who until this moment were the only people I knew to use this lovely term.

Other momentous events:

• I got my uber exciting, absolutely perfect, slightly belated birthday present from Dani! I love the color, the fabric, the size, the pockets, the zipper pulls, everything. Here it is, isn't it lovely?

• The combination of early daylight savings time and our frighteningly global-warming-ish heat wave induced me to run out to Capital Nursery and buy all sorts of veggie and herb and flowering plants. Of course, by the time I got home, I was too wiped out to actually garden. A few plants (impatiens and alyssum for the front pots, and strawberries for the strawberry pot that has been home to dead strawberry brethren for 2 years) got planted during the week, and I'm going to hit the rest of them tomorrow.

• Our first Secret Pal exchange was yesterday. I have such a bad poker face, I don't know how long I'm going to be able to sit through the exchanges without giving myself away. My St. Patty's Day gift to my Pal consisted of some herbal bath, peppermint soap, a pouch (knitted from Soysilk Oasis) holding a 4-leaf clover charm, and stitchmarkers I made from beads from The Bead Fetish. I got four skeins of Berrocco Cotton Twist in a blue/green/brown colorway (what to make, what to make...?).

Born Yesterday

Well, I suppose it's altogether fitting that I managed to set up this blog yesterday but didn't manage to post until today. My intention was to commemorate my 35th birthday with starting this blog so that I could begin to document (and thus keep track of?) my life's thoughts, reflections, philosophies, events...but it's okay if it's a day late, right? Nevermind that my Year 35 blip of wisdom is that I need to start measuring my life more carefully so that I make sure that I can do all the things that I want to do and not keep putting them off until "later". Off to a great start here. Oh well, better late than never.

My birthday was very nice--got up late, dropped CGT off at work and I went to the gym. I'm allowed to go to the gym instead of work on my birthday, right? So maybe yesterday wasn't the most productive work day as a result: I got to work around 11am, we all went to lunch at 12:15pm (Great Wall Mongolian BBQ and Leatherby's for dessert) and didn't get back til about 3:30pm. Then I spent the rest of the day goofing around on Blogger and filling out my knitting group's Secret Pal exchange questionnaire. I think I must have done some sort of work-like activity at some point, but I think it was pretty minimal. I took off from work around 5:30pm (late) for my knitting class at My Secret Stash, had a productive little knit-in working on the blocks for S's surprise. Next week I'll return to my sock endeavor...socks were the original reason for the class, but I have been taking a break due to various glitches and my fairly petulant response to these sorts of glitches.

After class, I rushed over to Tupelo to turn in my questionnaire, but no one knitty was there. Oh well, next week I guess. With dinner reservations at 8:15pm, I had to scurry over to work to pick up CGT, but for once, I was relatively early. We made it over to Mason's in plenty of time, AND found a primo parking spot on the street. Despite the general Sacramento-trying-to-be-Manhattan ambience of The Park, dinner was amazing. I would say that it was the best service I've ever had in Sacramento, with knowledgeable waitstaff that was both inobtrusive yet genuinely friendly. The food was excellent too, although my favorite part of my meal was actually the roasted beet, avocado, and citrus salad. Yum! Of course, I ate too much and CGT had to drive us home. I promptly fell into a food coma on the couch and didn't wake up until 2am.

No photos for the blog yet, I'm afraid. My requested birthday present does not seem to have made an appearance at any time during my birthday. I'm kind of sad, because this girl does love having presents to unwrap ON her birthday (who doesn't?). But with all that CGT does for me (and forgives me for) in everyday life, I really shouldn't be a brat about it, even if it's my natural tendency. He probably wanted to discuss so that we could make sure to get what I really want anyway. Very nice of him and practical too. Something to unwrap would have killed him though? A pack of these would have made a girl pretty happy...