Our camping vacation wasn't quite as relaxing as the above photo suggests, but we did a lot of sightseeing and soaking in onsens (Japanese hot springs) and it was overall a good time. I did some sock knitting but after about an inch my mind was spinning just trying to twist all my cables in the right places and my stomach was spinning from knitting on the windy roads, too. But it was a fun trip, even if I do need a week or two to recouperate.

We got home on Sunday night and then on Monday I headed out for a 5 mile run at my local gym (after a day at work AND a traumatic incident at the dentist). I am still patting myself on the back for actually running! I signed up for the Run-a-go-go 100 mile challenge on Ravelry this year, and I wasn't about to miss my mark by just 5 miles. Yesterday's run was hard after the loooong break, but I got the miles in and can say that I did finish my 100 miles before April 1st. I almost can't believe that I ran that far, especially because I only did 25 miles in both January and February. Now I am going to try not to spend the rest of the week zoned out on the couch, but no promises.

Posted by Molly at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The windows and doors are all being boarded up here on my blog until I can get all my recent spam attacks under control. 259 comments in one night was just too good to be true. I am planning to use Akismet but the installation instructions are Greek to me! The life of my blog is at the mercy of someone more computer savvy than, and unfortunately just as busy as, I.

I hope everyone is staying cool and making the most of your summers. Hopefully I"ll be back in action soon!

Posted by Molly at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Making..
Carole's Polish Tea Cakes: Even though I am a disaster in the kitchen and I only used a fork to mix the batter, these turned out really well. It was my first time making them, and definitely not my last!
Log cabin squares: It's starting to look like I might run out of red yarn for the center squares which, if I do, will drive me absolutely batty.
Self-introduction lesson plans at work: It's that time of year again!


Eating..
An apple with crackers and cheese for lunch EVERY DAY. It's delicious and healthy enough to justify paying nearly 2 dollars an apple.
This amazing chestnut and lentil soup that I made in mass quantities and froze for easy reheating.
Macadamia nuts
Takenoko Gohan (rice with bamboo shoots and other spring vegetables) because it's that time of year again!

Reading and Watching..
Unclutterer: Next time there's an earthquake I don't want to worry about being buried in my crap. I'm aiming for this.
Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise: This is the best book ever. It is originally written in French but the English version is really popular and easy to find too.
French Elle magazine: I just realized I can check this out of my local library and it is in much lesser demand than trashy magazines in English.
Japanese manga called "JaPAN" (pan meaning bread in Japanese) about a boy who is trying to bake a bread that will be unique to Japan.
Amazing Race All Stars: I LOVE this show. I'm desperately behind so don't tell me what happens.

Listening to..
Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me: My #1 choice for keeping up with news at home.
The new Fountains of Wayne: I love it.
Carla Bruni: She finally put out another album! Not quite what I was hoping for, but it's still good.


Wanting..
A new iPod so I don't have to worry about my little green mini running out of battery when I'm in the car (like it always does).
More sleep. I've been walking at 630 every morning but can never get to bed early enough to have an easy time getting up.
Just about all the new LeSportsac patterns. They even have a new bag called the Molly--I think it's a sign.
Anything with stripes or polka dots.

Putting off...
Posting the rest of my vacation pictures. Must do this so I can get back to blogging as usual!
Studying Japanese. Nothing new here.
Cleaning my apartment. Pretty much par for the course.

And most of all, actually doing work at work. That ends now!

Inspired by Mariko's sidebar.

Posted by Molly at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I'll be spending my night with some chocolate, knitting and then an early flop on these new pillowcases that I got from my mom this weekend. Aren't they great? The pink one is my favorite. Thanks Mum! Hope everyone has a fun day (if you care about that sort of thing)!

Finished Project Spectrum knits coming soon--this might be a real record!

Posted by Molly at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I used to have a knitting blog in this space but I haven't posted for nearly a month so maybe you were starting to forget about me. Sorry if you've emailed and I haven't written back, but really, thank you for the concern! I am still alive and well over here. Just not really knitting.

Since my last (and not even really knitting-related for that matter) post, I traveled, relaxed, celebrated, said goodbye to the old year and rang in the new, hung out with my college roommate, and played tour guide all around Japan. I partied, studied, shopped, worked, talked (a lot), slept (not enough), got sick, gave speeches, snowboarded and now I'm back at work wondering where the last month or so has gone. See where all this is going? I have a lot of knitting on my to-do list, but I'm sick of constantly thinking about my next blog post when I really don't have anything to show. So I'm taking a little blog break, probably just for a few weeks, but who knows. I'll be back when the blog posts are to keep up with what I'm knitting and not the other way around.

Oh yeah, and happy new year!

Posted by Molly at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It feels good to finally open up the old blog for something OTHER than deleting a hundred million spam comments. One of these days I'm going to get around to adding some kind of authentication scheme, so please don't let it discourage you from commenting!

It's been a while since I posted because I have been traveling like crazy around the states, visiting family and old friends. It's been a great visit! I've still had a little time for knitting but not enough to document any of my progress--maybe before I leave. One thing we did document was my first (successful!) try at making gravy last night, since my mom made a big turkey feast.

I'm at home until Thursday, when it's back to my busy life on the other side of the world. You can count on seeing a finished Trellis (#2) post soon because if I don't get this baby sweater done before I go back to Japan I am going to be steamed!

Posted by Molly at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Monday, Anjali and I had the great pleasure of meeting Mariko and Kelly of Superbuzzy fame for dinner in Nagoya. It was so fun to finally meet all of them! I thought it was kind of eerie that Mariko and I had the same print bag (Kelly had the one that i covet) and that Anjali and I had the very same lime green phone! Everyone was even more genuine and easy to get along with in real life than I had imagined. The only letdown was that my poor mom couldn't be there (next time!). They were in and out of Nagoya pretty fast, but I guess such is the life of international businesswomen. I must have had so much fun that night that for the first time, I conked out on the train ride home and had to be shaken awake by the train conductor when it got to the final stop. Thank goodness my station was the terminus or I would have been in trouble!

Even writing it doesn't make it feel very real, but believe it or not, I'll be stateside one week from now (!!!) and I have tons of non-knitting things to get done before I leave. I'm thinking that yarn store hopping combined with some domestic travel, holiday downtime and one whoooole week at home with my mom and pops will give me the time I need to relax and get back into the swing of knitting again. After all, even I have holiday gift ideas swirling in my head. Just have to finish that baby sweater first...

Posted by Molly at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

What's with all the comment spam lately!? Am I the only one that is getting totally bombarded with this stuff? Getting all these trash messages is making me really sour! I am going to need to get my blog in better shape if I ever want to get into a good routine again.

Next weekend I am going to see my Trellis #2 gift recipient so this week is the final haul to finish up. One cardigan front to go! Then my blog will be back to it's regularly scheduled programming.

On a totally unrelated note, this weekend I got a t-shirt that has a cartoon of a toaster shooting out a piece of bread and it says, "I can't stand it!" It makes me very happy.

Posted by Molly at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm surprised that not even my mom figured this one out--it's an anagram of my first and last name. Super dorks, I know. We really should have placed.

I survived the trip last weekend and actually had fun driving the biggest van I've ever seen. Now I'm getting ready to go to Hong Kong on Friday for a long weekend. Any yarn shops/crafty adventures that I can't miss? At least I'll have a chance to sit down and have a break on the ferry to the airport and the airplane. Maybe I can even make some progress on my Trellis. Here's to hoping! Really looking forward to the long, cold winter...

Posted by Molly at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This weekend was another busy one, as I worked late Friday night, all day Saturday and then headed out for a pubquiz and party straight after work that night. Then the day after the party we fit in a soccer practice (I scored twice!) and some tennis. Thank goodness I had today (Monday) off to recover. Not much time for knitting even today, but I can finally reveal my most recent endeavor.

Team shirts! We decided that our 4-person team for the pub quiz really needed to have shirts and I had been itching to try out the whole freezer paper stencil fad. Of course, I was a bit overzealous for my first ever t-shirt making, and decided to make two-sided shirts with our team logo on the front and our own personalized backs (mine is pictured, but luckily all the other ones were considerably shorter). All in all, it was not too hard, but BOY oh BOY did it take a long time to cut out all those stencils! A friend even took pity on me and worked together with me on it for about 8 hours.

The shirts came out nicely even though I didn't have real fabric paint. All I could find was normal craft paint and a "fabric safe" meduim that mixed together, made it into fabric paint. I think that it also would have turned out better if I'd ironed freezer paper on the inside of the shirt to stabilize it as well. But I don't know how to find freezer paper in Japan so I am really trying to stretch the special rush shipment that I got from my mom as far as it will go. The stencils pucked a little bit when they got wet and pulled away from the fabric so we had some small seepage problems. But all in all, they look pretty amazing and everyone was duly impressed. After all, you wouldn't want them to look TOO perfect and store-made, would you? That just wouldn't be any fun.

Needless to say, we didn't even place in the pub quiz. But we were most definitely the best-dressed and I got the team spirit award.

Just for fun, and because I doubt anyone will know, I'll send a prize to anyone who can guess why I have "My Killer Blowgun" on the back of my shirt.

Posted by Molly at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

**Calling all Montreal knit fanatics**

My good friend Becky who just left me to move back to Canada is going to Montreal soon and wants to scope out some nice yarn stores. Where are the best places to shop? Please comment with any suggestions.

It's been almost two weeks since I've knit anything, as I was busy going out with newbies in my program and then last Sunday, realized that my apartment was infested with tatami mites. Then just when I was getting tired of living at my friends' houses and I thought it couldn't get any worse, the poisonous centipedes came out of the woodwork and claimed my bedroom floor as their own. Lovely. Someone from school is coming to my place today to help me deal with it. Thank god I have been a) able to live out of my new car and b) having so much nonstop fun with my friends that it is easy to forget/not worry about the situation so much. The last 10 days are a blur of fun, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon. Still, I will be happy to sit at home and knit again when all this is done.

Posted by Molly at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I have been such a poor blogger lately. I still skim everyone else's blogs, but I rarely have a chance to comment as I'm usually scarfing my breakfast or just cooling down from a vigorous bike ride. And now I'm trying to distract from my lack of knitting content with this lovely Ise katagami that I got from a teacher's wife when I visited his house last week. It's all one piece of blue paper, with the white parts painstakingly cut out by hand. Amazing! The lame picture doesn't really do it justice, of course.

Even though I haven't been commenting, I'm still out here and I'm really impressed with how well everyone is using their summers, especially in places with extreme heat. Hi friends, stay cool!

I'm going to Tokyo again for work (fun!) for 5 days and as it will be pretty nonstop working day and night, don't get your hopes up for more knitting progress when I come back. To say that things have stalled around here lately would be an understatement. When I come back, all my friends will be gone and there will be a whole new crop of friends to be made (and probably less of a packed schedule, too, hee hee!). I am still seaming Trellis #1 and might get to start #2 on the train if I'm still alert.

*Have you noticed that I only posted on Wednesdays in July? Weird. Not actually THAT weird, though, as it's my only free weeknight and weekends have been packed to the gills.

Posted by Molly at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Things have been rather unremarkable on the knitting front around here lately. It's hard to be antisocial and stay home to knit when all my friends will be leaving in just a couple short weeks (sniff!). Camping last weekend was great! It was much more my style camping than I had realized, as we were in semi-luxury cabins that were fully airconditioned with top of the line plumbing and showers. It made my apartment look like camping! It was nice to be in the mountains, and we had toasted marshmallows, so that was about all I needed to feel like I was roughing it. We did a lot of swimming in the river though, and for some reason, it made my hands extremely sore. I think it was all the groping around on wet rocks or something.. that or I'm just a wimp. So there was a mini-knitting break.

I am back to normal now and almost finished with the sleeves for my pink Trellis! But no pictures... I just wanted to tell everyone that I am still alive, and having as much fun as possible before my #1 knitting buddy goes home to Canada. What's next on the agenda? We're going to Disneyworld!! Well, Tokyo Disney. I might even knit on the train!

Posted by Molly at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

(That's the message written on the top of my telephone table notepad. I love Japan).

It's Golden week in Japan which means a big old lineup of public holidays and a 5-day weekend. I don't have any major plans but managed to stay busy with a big Christmas dinner and concert yesterday and today with a 40k bike ride to a REAL MALL with Starbucks and The Body Shop and everything. I'm a little sore and very tired, but overall it was a fun time. Don't know if I'll actually be able to knit before passing out later tonight though. Vacation is so nice.

Oh, and am I the only person who can't access Typepad blogs? It's been almost 24 hours now, and I haven't seen anyone else mention this. It would be a VERY sad day if I suddenly couldn't connect to Typepad. Anyone?

I might go get a new camera tomorrow (I can do anything! I have no plans! This is great!), so I promise pictures soon. Thanks everyone for the input and advice! I just hope they have some good ones in stock!

Posted by Molly at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I'm usually in bed by now, but a new Survivor/24 tape and a quickly growing yoga mat bag kept me up late. (No pictures as that would take away another precious 15 or 20 minutes sleeping time). I just had to read my late night bloglines updates, and came across something great that I think everyone should read if you haven't already.* It's about what other people think about you. Sometimes I let myself believe that I don't care what other people think. But most of the time I'm very aware of it and just want to stop caring for once! I think this post really drives it home. Hopefully it will inspire some of you the way it inspired me.

And, because it's no fun to post without a picture (not that I care what you think, bien sur), here is my favorite shot from a recent trip to Kyoto. It totally reminds me of a log cabin quilt. Maybe I'll make an orange and red one one of these days. You know, in my spare time.**

*Do you know Danny Gregory? My mom brought his book with her when she visited a few months ago, and after being rather snotty and poking fun at the self-help drawing book, I perused the pages and was quickly SOLD. This guy is great, and his writing and illustrations are really entertaining and motivating without being sappy or lame. And seriously, I have high standards. Anyways, my mom ended up leaving the book for me (really, wasn't that nice of her? even after I mocked her about it) and I flip through it all the time. His blog is great too. Ok, I've got to go to bed!!

**No, I have never actually made a quilt. But I did do a fair amount of strip piecing (or something like that) in my day on the Singer kids machine. I'll get back to it sooner or later.

Posted by Molly at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

If you've wondered where Molly's been lately, she's asked me to let you all know that she's suffering from a malady known as severe blog separation anxiety and will be away indefinitely due to a computer problem. With the help of a coworker, she's been able to narrow down the diagnosis. Now her challenge is to convince the manufacturer that it is indeed covered under her extended warranty. And do that without internet access while living on the other side of the world. Although that would put her geographically much closer to the techs who man the phones at said computer company, wouldn't it?

In the meantime, Molly gave me *full creative license* to write anything I want, which would be quite tempting if it wasn't for a little thing known as blog photo blackmail. Since most of you come here to see her projects, I decided to share my favorite of Molly's in-progress pieces.

Although she's quite good about finishing things now, this little self-designed purse has been waiting patiently, needle at the ready, for about 15 years. I think it's the sweetest, funniest little piece (permit me, I'm her mom) and of all of Molly's childhood *stuff* that I have saved, I think this would be the last thing I'd part with.

Do you think there's a Japanese word for moola?

Posted by Molly at 03:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Does anyone know if there is an easy way to put my banner image and sidebar into other pages, like the single entries that Bloglines links to or the archives page? I am pretty new at this computer stuff but I'm ready to learn. If anyone can give me tips or point me in the right direction of where I can find help, I'll be very grateful.

Knit on!

Posted by Molly at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Posted by Molly at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After a day and a half of stress and worry, my computer is back up and running and the future is looking bright! In case anyone is planning on doing the same thing, make sure you have all the drivers you need on disc before reinstalling. Luckily I could download them at work so I'm back online.

When I deleted everything on my hard drive and did all the Windows business, I decided to weave in some ends on my sesame pieces (3 down, 2 to go) while I was waiting for the machine. Things degenerated into somewhat of a crisis when my computer malfunctioned, so I put it away, called it a night and knit on Trekking sock #2 to calm my nerves.

I had a revelation that being so dependent on the computer is not so great. I use my computer for music, news, DVDs.. and of course to stay in (very close) touch with family and friends at home. Not to mention blogging! Despite the initial panic ("It's gone forever! I'm all alone! I can't blog from work! I'll never be able to afford a new computer! What will I do!?") I did actually enjoy my computer-free life, short-lived as it may have been. I even worked a few rows on my long-lost Flower Basket Shawl last night and fit in an unexpected trip to the airport before getting connected today.

There is so much we can do on the internet these days that adds value and ease to our lives. But is it worth it when it really seems to have taken over? I've been thinking about this today, but then again I did still take the time to post. Hmm...

(Reinstalling all the necessary components over the next few days... hopefully photos will be back soon!!)

Posted by Molly at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I think I'm going to reinstall Windows on my computer tonight. I'm not much of a computer whiz, but I've been having lots of problems lately and supposedly this will remedy all my woes. I'm pretty sure I've backed up all my files, but I'm a little afraid I've forgotten something. Still, I guess it's better to have the choice to reinstall now rather than wait until my computer really dies and then lose all my files.

Any words of wisdom before I embark on this journey would be appreciated. Hopefully I'll be back online soon!

Posted by Molly at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)