It was a really nice weekend. I experimented a bit on my oatmeal bar recipe with good results and made two fabulous appetizers which are new to my repertoire. I got to play with a yeast dough (always fun) then turned it into a tasty pizza with extra dough stashed in the freezer. Josh and I saw Kung Fu Panda, which was excellent. I bought an iPod Shuffle (because the price of an armband for my iPod Nano is almost as much), went on a run, and got some knitting and crocheting done.

I also stepped on a weird piece of plastic which ended up embedded in the ball of my left foot near my big toe about half an inch while I was trying to go out onto my balcony to take a picture of the nasty looking wall cloud. I then made a bloody mess on my kitchen floor while I yelled for Josh that I was getting blood all over the floor. At least I think it was plastic because Josh broke it and threw it away before I could examine it more closely. My foot feels bruised and tender and still oozes a bit. Lovely, I know. I am a bit worried about it getting infected since the piece of mystery plastic was on the floor and made it quite a ways into my foot (not that our floor is dirty it's just a floor). It kinda ruins my workout plans for the next few days due to it's location. I am surprised I have gotten any running in with my sore knee, chest cold with cough, pulled hamstring and now puncture wound to bottom of foot which prohibits even normal walking. I am trying to get into a running routine, but it's not going so well.

ETA: This sounds like a really neat way to power your home using solar panels.

Definitely make these if you aren't near a campfire.

I came home from tae kwon do with all sorts of goodies last night. I got a sweatshirt for $10, my new uniform, a blister the size of a dime on my right big toe and a blister slightly smaller than a dime on my left big toe. I also have a few sore arm muscles.

Now for some pictures. First is the pizza I mentioned in a previous post. It turned out rather well, except for the thin crust I was going for didn't really happen. The not-so-thin crust is topped with some light alfredo sauce I made, mozzarella, green peppers and chicken. The sauce seemed to be absorbed by the crust during baking. I will have to work on that.


Next up is the first sock of SKP2008. It now has an owner yet still needs a partner.


Third is the first of the Ribbed Tofutsie socks. About one more inch then the toe!


Last but not least is my favorite breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal with dried cranberries, Greek yogurt, pecans and honey.


I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I haven't had ideal light conditions at an opportune time when a picture needs to be taken, and I refuse to use the flash because it ruins pictures for the most part.

Oh sock, how I dislike you. The color is blah; the pattern is blah. But, I signed up for this challenge, and I am going to complete it. I thought these might be good socks for my granny, but I don't think they will fit her, and since I am supposed to follow the pattern I won't be changing things. At least they go fast, so if I decide to frog at the end of this I won't be too upset. Maybe Josh's mom or my small-footed co-worker will like them. This picture nicely shows my crappy short-row heel too! I hate short-row heels for some reason. Oh! I did change one thing, I knit this top-down instead of toe-up, but since the amount of stitches is the same either way, the lovely folks at SKP2008 are allowing this. I still think my grandma needs a pair of socks though. Sorry for the whining.

Since Granny won't be getting any socks, I am going to make her a birthday treat. My mom and I are visiting her Saturday so I am going to bring Snickery Squares because she loves Snickers. I think I will bake the cookie base tomorrow night and assemble Saturday morning before I leave.

I finally slept well last night and I can definitely tell a difference. I awakened easily and am not trying to nap at my desk! I didn't wake up due to coughing at all during the night. We skipped tae kwon do so we could rest and get to bed early because neither of us were feeling well and it was a good decision. I also got to make enchiladas last night which was a nice change from our usual Wednesday night salad. The salad has been pushed to tonight since they are easy to throw together after three hours of teaching tae kwon do. Though, we are changing it up and making it a taco salad rather than the usual salad with chicken. I saved a little ground turkey from the enchiladas to tacoize tonight for the salads.

I am feeling better than I was most of this weekend. The sinus headaches are gone for the most part, and I was able to sleep most of last night without waking myself up with coughing. I call that improvement!

Saturday was exhausting. I didn't sleep much the night before and we had 8 people coming over to watch another UFC fight. We fondued again but added a chocolate fondue for dessert. We made rice krispie treats, cheesecake and pound cake to slather with chocolate and also had marshmallows and strawberries to dip in it. Everything went well until we tried to melt the chocolate. I have made ganache in the past without a problem and assumed this would be the same. I was wrong. The chocolate separated and got rather chunky and not good for dipping. We tossed it and I melted some more chocolate with cream on the stove top, but the same thing happened. I am guessing it was because I used chocolate chips rather than a bar. Extra stuff is added to chocolate chips that isn't usually in bar chocolate. I am guessing this was the problem, but I will have to do some more experimentation. I have most likely used bar chocolate for ganache in the past.

I started my first SKP2008 sock. I am not a fan of the pattern so I picked yarn accordingly. The color is not really to my liking so I thought it and a pattern I don't like well either would go quite well together. At least the sock is a fast knit. I finished most of the leg Sunday morning and started turning the heel last night. I can hopefully finish them rather quickly. I am not going to place very high, but I didn't figure I would no matter what the pattern. Several people were done the day the pattern was released!

Crap! I think I have a cold. It started last night during the youth tae kwon do tournament our club hosts on a yearly basis. I was judging forms and really wished I had my water bottle with me because my throat was scratchy and dry. I was fine during the subsequent tournament shortened class we had, probably due to all my concentration being used to make my limbs do the combinations of kicks. After class my throat got progressively scratchier, and I started coughing. It's no better today, and I doubt teaching three tae kwon do classes tonight is going to help. Actually I don't usually do much for the third class since Josh likes to take that one.

I wish I could sit at home tonight with a mug of tea in front of the TV and knit. I have joined a couple knitting related groups the Sock Knitter's Pentathalon 2008 and Sock Wars III. Luckily they don't happen at the same time.