My knitting projects

I haven't really posted much on my knitting, so here are a couple of finished projects. This first one is a hat and scarf that I made for my friend Jeff. It's made from wonderfully soft baby alpaca. It was my first cable knit too - I was really excited!

and a little closer look at the scarf:

and the hat:


Okay, enough! I'll post a pic of my blanket later...

The Quest Pt 3

I'll probably not go to a diner today as I went last Thursday. I even felt a little guilty that I was going too soon, but I was on lunch and was bored. We get a full hour for lunch... what do ya do?!?
I went to an old restaurant called Sweet Waters. I was able to get everything I wanted, which is a plus. Surprisingly, the coffee wasn't too horrible. Most restaurant coffee comes from a big 5 gallon tin can I think, and tastes like it. This one wasn't quite so horrible.
The waitress and the person who seated me were both very nice and pleasant. They even seemed to enjoy their jobs! *gasp!*
The portions were pretty big... I got the 6oz top sirloin in lieu of the bigger ground sirloin. There were tons of hashbrowns and they put the grilled onions on top of them. The eggs were absolutely perfect: Yolks runny, whites cooked. They even put a couple of onion rings on my steak! Check it out:



(I couldn't use a flash in there... I was trying not to let people realize that I was taking a picture of the food. It just seems weird.)

If I remember correctly, the price was $9.95 for the meal, $1.25 for the coffee, and extra $.25 for the side of cream cheese (not whipped... too bad!) and of course a tip... I give Sweet Waters a grade of B+ in total. The food was pretty darn good, although the steak wasn't the best ever. It wasn't overcooked or anything, but it could have been a little more flavorful. But so far, S.W. is in the lead!... uh, if there were a race.

The Color I Hate

I hope this picture comes out. They changed the display a little and toned it down before I could get a good picture (and this isn't the best - sorry), but you'll get the drift when you see it. Whenever I work in Corvallis, I walk by a little store and see this:



Now, I realize there are some who like this and I have no problem with that. It's just the color... It's my color-enemy. If I ever went to hell, that's what I would be wearing.





On the other hand, very close to that store there is something very sweet and nostalgic I think. You don't see many of these anymore:

That's old school!

The Quest Continues

I was told about a place to go for steak-n-eggs, so I went downtown to find it. I ended up having to call the person who told me about Wyatt's which is a restaurant and brewery or something. He told me the wrong street, and said it was near the post office... It was about three blocks from the post office, but whatever.

I went in and grabbed a menu and waited by the sign that said, "Please Wait To Be Seated". It was a cheerful, clean and pleasant atmosphere. There were a few people there playing Keno or something in the bar section.

I saw nothing in the menu about steak and eggs. I saw hamburgers that cost $10 and nice dinners that were more. No steak and eggs. Nobody to seat me either. So I left. It seemed like a nice enough place though.
(an alley I passed on the Quest)

I then went down the street a half a block on the other side to a place called Olde Towne Cafe. It should have been called Old Smelly Cafe. But ya never know - it might have great food! When I walked in, I noticed that it was a very long, skinny cafe. On the left was the kitchen - kind of open. I could see the supplies, the lady cooking and etc. On the right side they had two tables by the window, then booths going all the way back, and finally long tables in the very back where the staff (I use the term loosely) seemed to sit.

The cashier/waitress stared at me for a second. She looked puzzled and asked, "Do you want a menu?" offering the suggested item very hesitantly. I said sure and asked if I could sit anywhere. She said yes and explained that the coffee/tea was self serve. At first, I could figure out if that was unique or just lazy. After a couple more minutes of Olde Towne bliss, I decided it was lazy... And yet probably better for the customer. I found the coffee and tea in the middle while I walked to the back. When I got to the long tables in the back and the area that didn't seem to be for customers, I turned around and went to the front. I sat at a small table for two in the very front near the window. It was the most cheerful spot with the most lighting.

All of the other booths were connected to a wall that had what looked like two-way mirrors. Why would I want to sit by a large mirror while I ate?!? And who's on the other side?!?

After looking at the menu, I noticed it didn't have steak and eggs either. It had country fried steak, but that was the closest. So when the waitress came to take my order I explained that I didn't see it on the menu, but I was wondering if they had it. She again looked confused and said, "Steak? We have country fried steak." I told her with an apologetic smile that I was really wanting some steak and eggs, but thanks anyway and got my coat on. She tried to sell me the country fried steak again and I politely declined, thanking her anyway.

She then turned right around and went to the cook(/owner?/her mother?) and said, "She wanted steak. We don't have steak." The cook said, "Country Fried Steak." I left.

I then went to a place called Loafers which had a sign outside boasting of their steak. I went inside and found myself in a deli/cafe type of place. I walked around the corner and found the restaurant, which was obviously not open. I asked the clerk just in case... No steak and eggs. "Just, like, bacon and stuff."

I walked down the street, now determined to find a place downtown. I walked in the rain a few blocks away and started to pass a restaurant/bar called JP's... I think. I thought, "Well, it looks more like a bar than a restaurant, but I'll try it." When I walked in and passed the pool tables, I knew my deduction was correct.

A pool player greeted me (only a couple of teeth missing, I wonder if he's single?) and I said hi back. I walked to the back and wondered where the restaurant was. The bartender greeted me and I asked him if I could get steak and eggs there. He moved his head in a way that could be yes or no and said, "Yup." I was so used to hearing no that I asked if he knew where I could get some. He replied, "Right here." I said, "OH! You said yes!"

He was a decent waiter, for being a bartender. He wasn't too good about keeping my coffee cup full, but I didn't really expect much from him. I made myself at home in the middle in a well-lit section. The music sucked. With lyrics like, "... you left a stain on every one of my good days...", I thought if I liked this place I was going to have to bring a lot of quarters for the jukebox. And maybe an iron lung afar the secondhand smoke ate mine.

He didn't have any onions (he ran out) for the hashbrowns, but he did have cream cheese for the english muffin! I was surprised! The eggs were done perfectly. The hashbrowns were a little greasy, but not bad at all. I think the salt shakers in bars have bigger holes so you can have more salt on your pretzels or whatever, because it really came out! But it was fine.

Unfortunately, the steak was not so great. It was small and overcooked. It was pretty dry and didn't bleed at all when I cut it up. And my jaw actually got tired of chewing at one point. The meal was $6.75 and the coffee was $1.25, plus a $2 tip for a total of $10. Not too bad. But I give them a C- for the total grade because of the bad music, bad lighting, smoke and crusty old regulars who were drinking at 2pm. I was leaving just as one of them started getting very racial.

I had to pee, but there was no way I was going to use the bathroom there - that would have been a post of it's own!

Well, there's always next Saturday. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go Febreeze my coat.

My Cats

My eyes were opened, thanks to Faythe who reminded me that I haven't shown pictures of my cats! I can't believe it! So here they are...

Meet Grace. The light is shining in her eyes so they look a little weird, but she's my sweetie. She loves to lay belly-up in my lap and drool on my pants.


And then there's Buddy. He's just a show off. But here he's sleeping in the sun, soaking up what he can on the couch.

Flooding

Well, I didn't get any pictures because I would have had to drive a little too far away - I'm working in town today, so I didn't want to drive all the way there. Anyway, I think I was able to download the front page picture from the Albany Democrat-Herald. It's not the best picture, but you can kind of see the bridge toward the top and then the Willamette River just kind of consumes the road. The white part of the water on the right isn't the paint on the road, it's where the water is cascading off the road into the field/lake/river.



If you go to the website and download the front page, there's a really clear picture in Adobe Acrobat. Of course, it won't be the front page tomorrow...

On a funny note, the very mean and arrogant pharmacist that I work with (who says that she can't stand stupid people) said this today: "... yeah, and they drownded!"

Drownded? And she has the degree.

Nothing to say really...

Since I just posted last night, I don't have much to say. But I will say this: Last night I was posting, listening to music and downloading from my computer all at the same time! AND drinking water! But the water was far away.

I'm having breakfast (bacon and eggs), but after this I'll hit the road before going to work and see if I can get a couple of pictures of water. Yay!

But until then, here's a random picture... because I can!

Oh yeah, welcome to my pics!... I mean, blog.

So I can't find the card reader (thanks Rayleen, I couldn't remember what it was called) for my camera, but one of my co-workers told me that she found out she could just insert her card directly into her computer. Unfortunately, mine doesn't do that. Fortunately, I have the USB cable that goes to the card reader and it has a little attachment that hooks up to my camera and then to the computer!!! Voila!!!

Now, when I was turning on the computer for the first time, it asked me to name my computer. Such as "Dave's Home Computer". So I named her Josie.

Hi Josie!


And here's her printer:


Ahhh, it feels great to be able to post with pictures when I want! And recent pictures at that!!! Hey, I'll have to show you guys my blanket that I just finished!!! But before that, let me tell you about my commute today.

What normally takes 30 minutes took 3 hours today. The road was flooded. It was night, but I still wish I had my camera! When I got to drive through the water, I almost felt sorry for people in regular cars. My Roger is so cool. Seriously. And the way the water was illuminated by my headlights - it was beautiful!

BUT 3 HOURS?!? COME ON PEOPLE!!! I calculated it out while sitting in Roger: I watched one light change from red to green 210 times. It changes every 25 seconds and I got to watch that one particular light for about 90 minutes. Do the math. Really, do the math because arithmetic has never been my strong suit.

The fields around here are now lakes. I hope to get some pictures, but this work thing is really getting in the way. Luckily, I'm able to take pictures with my digital camera and download them!!!
Woooooo-Hoooo!!!!

I got my Dell!!!!

So I got my new Dell and suddenly I'm looking for a piece of hardware that I haven't used in months... The picture downloader thing. You know, the thing that I plug my card into and it downloads my pictures. Well, I can't remember where I put it! And I took pictures of the computer!!! Dang it, where could it be?!?
Oh, this is so frustrating.
Well anyway, this computer is so much faster, and it doesn't say,
"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..." Unless I want it to! Hooray!!!
I actually called in sick to make sure I would be home when it arrived.
I know it's a lie and I feel bad about that, but I thought the computer would arrive earlier than it did and therefore I would have more time to print out my resume and stuff. I can't remember if I've given a job update...
Basically, the pharmacist was stressed (and she absolutely cannot handle stress) and started getting snappy with people. She took the mouse from one of the other techs who was trying to do something and the tech said, "I'm working on it!". She said, "Obviously not very well." and took over. She got snappy with me and I had enough and got snappy back. So we've been glaring at each other for the past few days.
It takes a while to get to this point, but when she starts treating everybody horribly like this, I can only take so much! I passed my limit. If she's going to be rude to me, I'm not going to be walked over. So I've applied to two different companies so far and can't wait to hear from them! I've been given an application package by one, but that's it so far.
Should I call the other company and be persistant?

(I love this computer... I may never log off.)

My Quest for the Perfect Breakfast

My favorite meal is this:

Steak, medium-rare
Eggs, over-medium
Hashbrowns with onions
English Muffin with cream cheese.

It's quite simply the best meal ever! So I'm looking for a local restaurant who will cook it to my liking. I've decided once a week (most likely on Saturdays, but it's an open schedule) I will go to a new place and try out their steak-n-eggs. And then I'll write a review. I went to Elmer's first, but I want to talk about the one I went to today since it's fresh on my mind.

I stopped at a mom & pop diner just off the freeway called "Tom Tom's". I don't know why it's called that, but they have a banner that says, "Pray for our troops", and I like that. It looks very truck-stopish and yet family oriented as well. But somewhere in the back there's a lounge. There are two entrance doors, one was blocked with a little sign that you can't read until you walk up to the door. It says, "Please use other door".

You seat yourself and there were enough choices for me to choose from, even though the entire left side of the place was closed off. There were enough people eating there that I wasn't afraid of the food though. I sat in a booth near the main window in front which still has holiday paintings on it.

The waitress was awesome. She was really nice and called me "hon" or something like that. Apparently she wasn't even my real waitress, but she kept helping me because mine was otherwise detained. She gave me coffee and I was polite and looked at the menu even though I knew was I was going to get. It's good to know the price anyway.

She brought my creamer, took my order without writing it down, and I entertained myself with the classifieds, comics and crossword puzzle. Some weird flashback from the 80's came in with an older fella. The 80's guy had feathered hair and a style that said "Duran Duran Rocks!"... and the sunglasses (in rain) topped off the look. (I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can...)

The coffee was typical diner sucky-fied java. It was bitter and old. I tried to make it better with sugar and cream, but to no avail. The silverware was very thin. When I got my meal, I think my fork flexed when I mashed up my eggs into the hashbrowns.

The english muffin was fine, but how do you mess that up? The cream cheese was not whipped, which I prefer. You get less, but you don't need much and it's much more spreadable. And they put butter on the muffin. That's okay, I can deal with it.

The hashbrowns were fine. But no onions. That's why you should write it down! But they weren't greasy or anything. In fact, they were a little on the dry side.

The steak didn't look very good. It looked small (it was only 6 ounces) and appeared to have been cut with a dull knife. It almost looked like hamburger on the surface. The inside was okay. It wasn't special by any means, but it wasn't totally horrible.

The meal was $9.25, the coffee $1.50 and the cream cheese was an extra $0.50... a total of $13.25 with tip included.

All in all, I give them a C+. Pretty good service, not so great food and too expensive for what I got.

I cooked again

During one of my shopping excursions at WinCo, I went a little crazy in the bulk section and got a 13-bean mixture. It's just beans, no seasoning. I've had it for a couple of months when I finally remembered to soak it overnight and ended up soaking the beans for about a day and a half.

I poured the beans into the crockpot with 4 cups of water and thought, "Hm. Now what?" So I turned it on the high setting and called Rayleen and Apollo. They had some excellent suggestions!!! Here's what I ended up adding:

a can of chicken broth
cilantro
a bell pepper
bacon

When I was searching for bacon, I found "bacon ends and pieces". It was about a third of the price of "good" bacon and it had big chunks of meat in it. I am lucky enough not to be bothered by the fat on meat, so I had no problem throwing it all in.

While I would never post a picture of the 13 Bean Soup of which I am so proud (it's just not pretty), I will say that I had a very full crockpot last Saturday and now there's only one serving left after my dinner tonight.

As a sidebar, I wanna give props to my local Safeway. I've been in there a couple of times and I've had awesome experiences each time. They are friendly and helpful and well as seemingly sincere! I'm not going back to Fred Meyer. And they had Deschutes beer as low as where I work (known for reasonably low alcohol prices).

Oh, and apparently I'm not immune to the gas that beans produce... and now a song:

"Beans, beans, the magical fruit,
the more you eat, the more you toot,
the more you toot, the better you feel,
so it's beans, beans for every meal!"

Making cheese at the pharmacy (not cutting)

So I'm working in the pharmacy and the phone rings...

Me: Thanks for calling Blah Blah pharmacy, this is Aimee, how can I help you?

Cell phone guy: Yeah, do you guys still make cheese there?

Me: (pause...) Um, cheese?

Cell phone guy: Yeah, cheese. You guys used to make cheese there. Do you still?

Me: Uh, I don't think so. But hey, let me ask.

I looked at the pharmacist and another technician...

Me: Hey, do we make cheese here? (making an incredulous face)

Pharmacist: Cheese?!? Oh, do you mean...

KEYS???

Me: (laughing almost hysterically) (to the cell phone guy) Did you say KEYS?!?

Cell phone guy: Yeah, keys... what did you think I said, cheese?

Me: YES!!! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!

Cell phone guy: Hahaha! So do you have keys?

Me: Just a minute... (I had to put the phone down for a second because I was laughing so hard)... yes we do.

Cell phone guy: Okay, thanks. Bye.

Me: (Hanging up...) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... (continued for a lengthy time)

Yeah baby, what's your need? Vicodin? Valium? Viagra? Cheddar? Colby Jack?

Oh I almost forgot... have I shown you my backyard? I can't remember which pics I've posted anymore and I'm too lazy to look. So here's my backyard!



I'm thinking about getting those cool tiki torches this summer... It's big enough to have a little party. Not that I would have one. A person needs friends to have a party. :) But seriously, isn't it big?!? Maybe I've just been in apartments for such a long time.

New Year's Day... part 2

Well, I remembered I had a couple of pictures that would be a little more appropriate for New Year's Day... even if it is a couple of days late.



Oh by the way, this is at Disneyland... And it's one of the few that I have without annoying people's heads in the way. Dang annoying people!!! Don't stand in front of the short girl!!!

And a Happy New Year to you!

Well, I hope you've all made your resolutions and whatnot! I'm making a list. I figure the more stuff I put on it, the better chance I have of actually keeping one. I think I've got about 9 or 10 things listed so far, but the day's not over yet!
I wish everybody a very happy 2006 - may it be even better than 2005 was!

Here's a Happy New Year from me and Roger... Yeah, I know it's not very "festive", but dang it, I like the picture!